ON NYC CRIME WAVE AND STOP AND FRISK

 ON SURGING VIOLENCE IN NYC AND STOP AND FRISK

Stop and Frisk, racial profiling or criminal profiling? 

The fact is, hypocritical progressives welcome and adamantly support actual racial profiling, as used by Harvard, Yale and USC to open academic opportunities for minorities, but they fiercely oppose any profiling policy when it is used by the police to protect innocent civilians.

So sad for the new “tough on crime-talking” NY mayoral candidate Eric Adams who has been in office only a few weeks,  and now actually has to do something about out of control violence in New York City.  Adams has been faced with a wave of violence in his first few weeks in office.  Violence on the subways ( slashing, rapes, murder,  riders being pushed  in front of on coming trains), and on the streets and busy avenues where random daytime shootings, stray bullets kill children and adults,  and most recently the purposeful targeting of police with deadly ambushes. Violence has gone off the charts.   

Adam’s response has been a lot of campaign style rhetoric including a new “blue print” to attack gun violence.  But as an initial supporter, I’m not convinced yet he has the moxie to get the job done.  So I’m  sad to find Adams, only a few weeks into the job, emanating those faint but troubling signs that he may be  out of his depth. His “doing something” has been mostly  pie in the sky plans, blaming guns not perpetrators for crime, asking “help” from DC, and more campaign style rhetoric (although it’s polished and uplifting for the moment) but will do little to actually get the gun toting perps off the street.  But we all do know what should be done.

Like the Democrat’s  failed response to the southern border immigrant surge—-we all know how to fix the problem—but the “progressive” ideologues in powerful places prefer other outcomes. Adams who was a cop himself..knows this too.  But can he overcome their opposition?

Then too the problem today (after Deblasio) is bigger and more entrenched now than it was in the past. Even the illegal armament facing Adams’ police force are no longer simple  “six guns” or “Saturday Night Specials” but literal machine guns (such as the Glock .22/.45 cal with illegal rotary magazine)  that can spew forty lead rounds in as many seconds,  as well as military style assault weapons, like the AK47.  The former “tommy” gun weapon was what was used to kill rookie NYPD cop,  22 year old Jason Rivera, and critically wound officer Wilbert Mora. 

But even though these permissive circumstances have been left to fester over the last eight years by the previous  mayor,  the solutions are well known.  Hizzoner must  get his new administration to abandon the “no bail” policy, charge juveniles who carry weapons as if they were adults, and encourage elected AGs to actually prosecute crimes as laid out by the state legislature. They must go after “out of control” street gangs and the “smash and grab” mobs as well.  These policies—so far unmentioned by the Mayor—would go a long way to solve the problem.  But sadly  (like the effective southern border wall) these ideas are all adamantly opposed by the powerful entrenched ideologues of the left.   Then there is Stop and Frisk.

Stop and Frisk, is a proven way to gets the guns off the streets and lock up those thousands of gang members, mentally disturbed, street predators and thugs that illegally carry weapons and are likely to commit crime. Stop and Frisk saves lives but is most effective in the minority communities where the guns are. It saves young black lives where this violence is rife.  

But the powerful and many of the Mayor’s Democrat supporters characterize this workable and practical policy as evil “racial profiling”.  Even though candidate Adams actually supported the policy,  we now hear little of it in his plans.  While most police professionals and those in favor of practical and effective solutions support it as a means of reducing violent crime, saving lives, and characterize it only as a form of  “criminal” profiling, with no racial element.  

Stop and Frisk if implemented, can be one of the factors that saves the City from decline and a future as a Chicago-like dystopia.  

The fact is that so called  “progressives” welcome and adamantly support actual racial profiling as used used by Harvard, Yale and USC to open academic opportunities for minorities, but they fiercely oppose it when it is used by the police to protect innocent civilians (and yes heroic cops who put their lives on the line when they go to work each day). 

UKRAINE CRISIS: ANOTHER BIDEN -OBAMA DISASTER

 In 2014 the Obama Administration destabilized and “politically invaded” the  Ukraine. The dummies responsible for that foolish foreign policy imbroglio and ongoing disaster are still in office and are responsible for today’s “Ukraine Crisis: Jake Sullivan, Victoria Nuland ( of “F….k the EU” fame) and “atta boy”  Joe Biden are still at it.  Let’s not let them forget that they caused this mess. 

Rather than being punished for their stupidity, the  USA incompetents, who in 2014 undermined and unseated a pro-Russian, legitimately elected  Ukrainian President and installed their “own man” at Russia’s doorstep, are still in government.  What was the result of that failed disaster?  Vladimir Putin  took over Crimea, and carved out and destabilized  the Donbas region of Ukraine where the majority of citizens are either of Russian extraction or are sympathetic to Russia.  The on going conflict there has caused  tens of thousands  of deaths that are attributable to the above cited characters. 

Since then, rather than attempting to deescalate and solve  that problem, the “wizards” of Foggy Bottom and the White House have managed to create another Afghanistan-like disaster by continuing to press for expansion of NATO into the East, and antagonizing the Russians, for no conceivable good reason. What is the advantage to the USA?  No one can answer that.

While the rest of the world watched, in disbelief,  the formerly powerful USA, under the Biden Administration,  morphed into a flabby giant, more concerned with picking fuzz from its belly button than maintaining national vigor and strength.  While other nations and our national enemies elected strong virile leadership, we turned to the old and infirm. Our present leadership  is deeply immersed in issues like undermining  our energy sector so as to turn our nation “green”.  They are focused on the skin color, gender and sex preferences of our leadership, rather than their competence. They have inflated our currency, opened our borders to increase “diversity”,  defunded the police, emptied  the prisons, politicized education, instituted  “woke” policies, CRT, an BLM, while they generally weaken, destabilize, and  pauperize their own homeland in the name of “science” and socialist progressivism.  The emphasis and focus on  “belly button fuzz” issues in DC have not gone unnoticed in Beijing and Moscow, and in Europe too.  DC’s immersion on “belly fuzz” issues have clearly emboldened our enemies and frightened our allies. 

In regard to the Ukraine crisis the same impotent, incompetent characters are stumbling about with their fingers buried in a dark place of their anatomy wondering how to respond to the unfolding Ukraine crisis that they themselves created. 

Let’s not let them forget that they generated this unfolding fiasco….and impending disaster. 

COVID DEATHS or MORTALITY: LOWER IN ASIAN NATIONS

 COVID MORTALITY ALMOST 20 TIMES  HIGHER IN WEST 

 USA HIGHEST MORTALITY, WHY?   

On January 24, 2022 there were almost 5,000 deaths world wide from Covid 19 and it’s  variants. Presently  we have recorded a total of about 5.6 million deaths worldwide, or @ 5.6 million/7.9 billion population or (0.000709) or @ 709 deaths per million population.  Western nations in this appraisal appear to have rates three times* the world average, while Far Eastern nations report rates of only one seventh *(14%) of the world rate, or about 20*times less than technically comparable western nations.  Knowing if these data  are valid and if so, why? could save many lives. (*See added data and revised conclusions in Addendum of January 30 below) 

Based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, (2022) there seem to be wide variations in the mortality rate per unit population of Far Eastern nations and those of the west which analysis suggests as two distinct populations.   Far Eastern Asian nations appear to have low mortality per unit population, or close to an average of 100 deaths per million population attributed to Covid, or about 1/7 of the world average.  While western advanced nations ( in this compilation) reveal a Covid 19 mortality per unit population of close to 2000 per million, or almost three times the world average and nearly twenty times higher than selected Far Eastern  Asian nations.* When graphed, the frequency distribution curve is skewed  to the right (positive) indicating high value outliers in the distribution. 

Also significant is that  at first glance China appears to have an extraordinarily low rate (3.5/mil) which might suggest its methods of compiling data are radically different than those of most of the rest of the world.  However, on  closer examination Chinese data falls well within  the normal distribution for other Far East Asian nations. This disparity in mortality rates for China must be found elsewhere. 

Data 

I examined seven (7) Far Eastern  Asian nations and their Covid deaths reported per million population  as of January 22, 2022. These were: China (3.5 deaths per million); Taiwan 34.4, Laos 70, Cameroon 72, South Korea125, Japan 146, Vietnam: 373 deaths per million.  

Data: Mean= 117.7, Median =72, Range= 370, Std Dev s= 113.6.  

I evaluated 17 Western advanced nations for the same data on the same date. These were: Germany, 1396 deaths per million, Sweden 1560, Austria 1570, France 1800, Portugal 1887, Spain 1938, Greece 2071, Russia 2189, UK  2274, Italy 2352, Belgium 2487, USA 2590 mortality per million population. 

Data:  Mean:=2009.5, Median= 2004.5, Range =1194, Std Dev s= 367.9.

Comment

Asian nations excerpted here have an average mortality of about 117.7 /million population. While the  mortality per unit population (million) in modern western nations is 2009.5 per million population.  In comparison to world mortality per unit population in millions (709 per million) selected Far Eastern Asian nations (117.7 per million) suffer from (117.7/709 =0.166) 17% or only 1/6 of the deaths in the world as a whole.  While western nations suffered from almost three times more deaths (2009.5/799= 2.8) than the world average. The 17 western nations  in this comparison (2009.5/117.7= 17) experienced  seventeen times more deaths per unit population than Eastern Asian nations did. 

What might be the cause of such a huge variation in mortality?  Far Eastern Asian nations are more genetically homogeneous, more structured and more compliant to regulations than we typically find in the west. With their dense population centers and regular outbreaks of viral infections —they have become inured to wearing masks, avoiding interpersonal contact, rigorously tracking contacts of infectious individuals and perhaps  have simply been more adept at avoiding infection. Then too are they younger and have fewer comorbidities?  All these would tend to lower infection rates and mortality, but would they be enough to skew the figures so widely?  It seems possible some other factor may be operating here.

Could it be that Asian populations (particularly the Chinese) have some unrecognized  genetic factor or perhaps higher levels of specific antibodies  derived from previous exposure to common corona viruses such  SARS  and MERS and the most recent Covid 19  “bat” virus?  In fact,  the “source” virus of  this most recent pandemic , the SARS Covid 19 virus,  is endemic in Asian bat populations, and perhaps mild infections from this source were circulating in these populations  more commonly than known or reported.

Closer examination of the mortality rate in western nations also raises some questions. The USA has the highest overall mortality, with well over 800,000 deaths, as well as  the highest mortality per unit population with over 2590 per million.  Other nations such as Germany, Austria and France report  considerably lower rates per million: 1396, 1570, 1800 respectfully…Why?  

Why should there be are nearly 2 deaths from Covid 19  in the USA ( 2590/1396 = 1.9) for every one in Germany. Or why does Germany have nearly half of the Covid  mortality of the USA?

Can this be related to the age structure of the population, or prevalence of comorbidities?  Or might this be the result of the slow response of the Biden Administration to more wider testing, availability of masks, and availability of  therapeutics, and other Covid response difficulties?  

Though this analysis is by no means a through evaluation or an advanced analysis of these data (that must be left to others) these passing observations are of interest and deserve further more rigorous evaluation.  Answers to these inquiries may save lives. 

*ADDENDUM…January 30, 2022  further evaluation of Covid mortality data. More Asian and western nations evaluated. 

REVISED ASIAN NATION COVID MORTALITY 

Revised Data: ( Mortality/Million population) 1-Myanmar =0.44 mortality per million (m/mil),  2-China = 3.4 m/mil, 3-Hong Kong = 28 m/mil,  4- Taiwan =36, 5-Cameroon =69, 6-Laos =72, 7-East Timor= 90, 8-South Korea =127, 9-Japan =149, 10-Singapore =156, 11-Cambodia =181, 12-Brunei =223, 13-Thailand =315, 14-Vietnam =384, 15-Indonesia =529. [Mean =157 deaths per unit (mil)population, Median =127, Mode= none, Range= 528, and Std Dev. s =151.]

The resulting histogram (frequency distribution graph) revealed data  skewed to the right, with eleven out of the fifteen data points (or 73% of values falling within  0-210 covid deaths per million population.  While three (3) nations fell between 210- 520 , and one (1) 420 to 630.   Analysis of the frequency distribution statistics  revealed that 68.3% of the data points fell between 6.5 to 309 covid deaths per million, while at the 95.5% confidence level between  -144 to 459 covid deaths per million.  From this, it is apparent that China and Myanmar’s low rates fall just beyond the 68% confidence level and well within the 95.5% level of a standard distribution. 

REVISED WESTERN NATION COVID MORTALITY

Data (Mortality/million) 1-USA =2590 m/mil, 2-Belgium =2578, 3-Italy =2352, 4-UK =2274, 5-Russia =2189, 6-Greece =2071, 7-Spain =1938, 8-Portugal =1887, 9-France =1800, 10-Austria= 1570, 11-Sweden =1560, 12-Germany =1369, 14-Switzerland =1482, 15-Denmark = 633, 16-Netherlands =1217, 17 Norway =266.  New calculations: Mean  of 1768, Median 1800, Mode none, Range 2324 and Std.Dev.s 660. 

The  new data reveals that  68.3% of the data entries fall between 1108 m/mil to 2428 m/ mil, while 95.5% of data points fall between 448 and 3088 m/mil.  The  histogram indicates that eight (8) out of the seventeen (17) data points or 47% fell into the frequency group: 1166 to 2066, while 6 nations or 35% fell within the grouping:  2066 to 2966 . 

The histogram or frequency distribution graph for the Western nations was nearly  symmetric with a mild skew to the left. 

Revised Introductory summary. 

On January 24, 2022 there were almost 5,000 deaths world wide from Covid 19 and it’s  variants. Presently  we have recorded a total of about 5.6 million deaths worldwide, or @ 5.6 million/7.9 billion population or (0.000709) or @ 709 deaths per million population.  Western nations,   with this addendum and revised appraisal (Mean=1768 m/mil) appear to have rates (1768/709= 2.5) two and one-half times the world average, while Far Eastern nations report revised rates  (Mean = 157 deaths /mil)  of (709/157= 0.22) or about one fifth ( actually 22%) of the world rate. In comparison,  western nations (1768/157 = 11.26 ) suffer from more than 11 times those of Asian nations with comparable medical technology.  For every Asian death to Covid there are more than eleven covid deaths in comparable western nations.  Knowing if these data  are valid and if so, why could save many lives.   

Thus after a more inclusive evaluation of both Western and Asian nations the results appear to continue to support the contention that Western nations have a so far unexplained, more than ten times higher rate of covid mortality than those of advanced western nations. 

A further analysis of the data (Feb2,2022) included vaccination data (% of population with a least one shot) reveals no correlation (or a very low correlation (P =0.14)) with the mortality rate per million.   

 

ON RACISM: CHECKING THE AP FACT CHECKERS

 

Associated Press Mission: “to advance the power of facts”

Today I read with  loathing..”AP Fact Check: Trump seeds racial animus with Covid falsehood,” by Calvin Woodward and David Klepper. January 16, 2022.  This “fact check” blithely ignores the AP mission and sorely needs fact checking itself. 

It is a widespread problem and truly sad situation when one has to check the truthfulness and journalistic ethics of the “fact checkers”. And to make matters even more dire, this case involves the “fact checkers” of one of our premier news journals: the AP or Associated Press!  

The Associated Press whose mission statement is “to advance the power of facts”, is one of our oldest and most venerated news organization. It was founded in 1846! AP hires more than three thousand employees and has revenue of half a billion dollars. Its writers all belong to the professional Newspaper Guild.   I used to believe its mission statement…and trusted  the AP as a valued and relatively fact based  news source.  But that was then. 

It seems  the pernicious “anti-journalism 101” endemic which has infected the so called “main stream press” has apparently also seeped into the offices of the AP at 200 Liberty Street in NYC.  

The piece above, makes a serous charge against former President Trump…that he was race baiting or “seeding race animus” by claiming  that New York State is distributing covid therapeutics based on race…and discriminating against whites in the process. 

That fact needs no checking.  What was the AP editor that passed on this story thinking?   It’s true. New York State physicians, when attempting to prescribe scarce Covid therapeutics LIKE MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES are required to indicate the RACE OF THE PATIENT when filling out a prescription for a sick patient. They are directed “ to consider race and ethnicity, and give preference to black, indigenous, and people of color”.  That is not a claim made by former President Trump at his Arizona rally, but simply an actual quote from New York City’s Department of Health directives. (Heath Advisory #39).  

The authors actually do provide facts—but twisted and tortured them into biased conclusions. Yes they do state that: New York does require the distribution of scarce covid therapeutics to be administered in a racially biased way to a favored race…as one of “several risk” factors.  But any insertion of race as a factor means that for no reason  other than skin color one person is offered a life saving therapeutic and the other is denied.  That is a racist decision.  Following the logic here, this means that my mother who is elderly, white and has diabetes, would be denied treatment in favor of an elderly black woman who is of the same age and comorbidity. That IS inserting race into making, perhaps life saving, medical decisions.   I and all of us would want  their respective physicians to make medical decisions with only the best practices and welfare of their patients in mind. No racial factor should ever come into play!  

Then too, how can it be a “falsehood” for Trump to restate facts published by the NY Health Department?  The problem here for our fact checkers is that this  NY “medical” directive is so embarrassing to the far left progressives that it must somehow be suppressed and undermined as “misinformation”.   It is sad to see the AP descend to such depths of politicization of “the facts”.  Perhaps instead of attacking Trump, the fact checkers of AP should have examined those who actually authored the NY State Health Department directives. It seems they, rather than Trump are the culprits “seeding racial animus”. 

Perhaps the fact checkers should have also checked the veracity of those in the Health Department who assured them that “ they do not use the race information to deny treatment”.  Then why do they insist information on race?   Why must a physician  identify the in the race of a patient  if that information is not going to be used, to permit or deny the filling of a life saving prescription? 

These so called “health” directives are an insidious and very slippery slope into dangerous ugly racism. 

NYC (VOTING) SUFFRAGE FOR NON-CITIZEN IMMIGRANTS: BAD MOVE

NYC Suffrage Bill Good for 800,000 Immigrants, Bad for City. 

“Our City ‘Others’ Vote Law”

The recent legislation (Our City Our Vote)  signed by Mayor Adam’s gives non-citizens living in NYC for a mere thirty days the right to vote in municipal elections.  This type of legislation seems to appeal to the “do gooders”, Ivy League ideologues, the left fringe, so called  progressives, as well as the biased media, but the tough, practical, hard nosed, and sometimes impolite NYC citizens have their doubts.  First of all.  these New Yorkers  have already noted that the name of the bill is a misnomer—“Our City Our Vote”—should be: “Our City Others Vote”.  

The (formerly) macho-talking candidate Mayor Adams once sounded NY tough on this bill too.  But as he tells it, he has had “conversations” with certain  elements in the City who have apparently turned his head.  That does not bode well for those who believed  candidate Adams. And it makes one wonder.  Is Mayor Eric pulling a “Joe Biden, type “bait and switch” on the long suffering, tax paying, hard working New Yorkers who in the end pay everyone’s salary—even the Mayor’s. .  

No one in the media or the “yea sayers” around the Mayor, seem to ever  mention the fact that the bill gives the serious duty of voting to nearly a million immigrants who have lived (or will live) in the City a mere four weeks prior to voting.   The right to vote is a civic responsibility and honor that should be restricted to those who are reasonably stable residents ( a year?) and who are at leaf conversant with city issues and who can make meaningful decisions about city government.  How could the vast majority of these nearly one million new voters, actually fulfill that duty when many of them are unable to read or speak the local language (English or Spanish) and who may be residents for a mere thirty days?  How  could they  possibly even have time get to know the basics of their new city before casting a ballot? How could they have a meaningful grasp of issues or pending  legislation, or any notion regarding the ability of those  who would govern the city?  For these very reasons the “Our City Our Vote” (OCOV) bill was always a non-starter.  Even far-left Mayor De Blasio did not have the courage to sign this legislation,  which he left (a booby trap?) on the mayor’s desk for his replacement to deal with. 

Then too the OCOV bill “devalues” the votes of actual long term citizens.  In a city at the nadir of its economic, social and cultural life, every established, tax-paying, devoted, knowledgeable, long term citizen is needed to work for the city’s survival, to help turn the tide against the drastic effects of the Covid pandemic, of looming  economic decline, increasing crime, street violence, middle class flight and incompetent leadership.  New York is crying out for leadership that will spark  communal action to turn the city around.   That goal can only be accomplished with the help and cooperative enthusiasm of the working and middle class voters —- black, brown, Asian and white.     

But what has Mayor Adam’s done?  He has slapped these hard working, tax paying folks in the face, by actions that indicate  (to many who are themselves recent American citizens), that  going through the effort and difficulties of becoming an actual legal American citizen is a waste of time and effort.  Why bother when Mayor Adam’s will give you the right to vote— with no personal effort?  For this reason the  OCOV bill is a sure prescription to devalue citizenship, as well as the duty to vote. As any economist will tell you, just give anything away free and it immediately becomes worthless.     

Then, to add to this insult, Adams follows with actual injury.  For by handing out suffrage to the near one million non-citizens and temporary denizens of the city he has thoughtlessly diluted the vote of formal  NY City citizens who would be critical allies and elements  in any plan for the survival and prosperity of the metropolis.  With the stroke of a pen Adams has reduced the value of the vote of these actual citizens by ten percent, adding to the voter,rolls of 8 million with nearly a million new non- citizen voters. 

By pandering to the fringe far left, Adam’s has diluted the voting power of the very people who he needs as allies and who have proved their staying power, their economic stability, hard work, and their long term investment in the viability and prosperity of the city.  The new voters on the other hand often have no deep, financial or long term stake in the City and as such make them less more likely to suffer indifference, and to move on to new homes elsewhere more easily.

This is simply not the “tough New Yorker’s ” way to start the difficult job of a new administration, an administration that will have a very steep uphill climb to simply keep this vital city —the nation’s emotional heart and center of business, banking and culture—functional. 

Mayor Adams seems like a decent, smart, and well meaning politician, but he needs to be “New York Tough” for this crowd. I really hope and pray he is up to the job.  If he fails we get dystopia.  

ON LIGHTNING, PANDEMICS AND POLLUTION

 On a winter walk with my grandson yesterday, I pointed out the long narrow scar of a lightning strike on a black locust  tree in our wood lot. The tree must have been hit several years ago, mid way up its trunk about fifteen feet from the ground.  A  prominent six inch wide scar, descending all the way to the ground exposed the now weathered wood. A well healed thickened rim of bark had grown on either side of the long scar.  The tree survived.  The scar elicited a nice conversation regarding lightning and the particular dangers of cloud to ground strikes.  

Coincidentally today,  I came across an article (“Why was there less lightning during Covid lockdowns? by Will Sullivan, “Inside Science”, 1/9/22 ) on the interesting fact that during the pandemic and it’s lockdowns there were fewer lightning strokes , than in “normal” non-lockdown years. 

The difference was significant….during the pandemic lockdown there was almost 20% fewer lighting strokes! That is quite a large difference. 

The story of pandemics and lightning  revolves around a common culprit, pollution!  During the pandemic, the whole of humanity simply did less—- and polluted less.  There were fewer cars on the road, fewer or no airplanes overhead, less burning of fossil fuels and thus less pollution.  Our nasty acts against the purity of our atmosphere are the result of our penchant for using the pure air as a cheap way to dispose of our combustion wastes.  These nasty acts happen less when we are lockdown. 

Combustion (in our auto engines, home furnaces , factories and airplanes) produces tiny solid particles  (or often droplets) called aerosols.  These tiny particles enter the air and remain suspended, often causing the lack of transparency and clarity we can observe over cities and other centers of human activity.  

Recent studies (by Prof E Williams at MIT) reported at a conference of the American Geophysical Union, that fewer aerosols in the air are correlated with fewer lightning discharges! 

What is the connection?  Aerosols act as sites which attract water and water droplets in clouds.   The more aerosols there are in the air the smaller the cloud water droplets, (many aerosols must spread the available water around)   and conversely with fewer aerosols (there are fewer sites for water to condense) the water droplets are larger.  Larger droplets tend to grow faster and to fall to earth more readily as precipitation.  

However, when there are many aerosols in the air the resulting water or cloud droplets are smaller and more numerous.  These tend to stay suspended.  And  in larger clouds (thunderheads) they can be lofted up to great heights where they freeze and form ice crystals.  

These very large (billowing storm)  clouds develop strong internal currents (updrafts and downdrafts)  which carry these now solid icy particles ( snow, ice pellets, graupel) into violent internal patterns of movement which can cause them to strike each other as they move within the clouds. These collisions (billions of them ) are effective generators of static electricity. As they strike each other  they may pull off electrons (negatively charged) particles and carry them away, and leave the “collision particle” behind with a resulting positive charge. 

Just as electric charges (static electricity) can be separated when a plastic rod is rubbed with a silk cloth., or you, wearing a woolen overcoat, slide across your auto’s plastic seat cover and charge your body with excess electrons, which jump across the gap when you touch the metal door handle.  In the same way, static electricity in a cloud is produced when ice crystals strike each other in their violent movements within the cloud.  

But an interesting fact is that in a cloud, the particles bearing a positive charge, tend to accumulate near the top of the cloud (perhaps because they are lighter) , while particles with a negative charge accumulate in the lower or middle, parts of the cloud.  When the differences in charge are great enough, or the insulating air between charged zones is somehow reduced,  a discharge inside the cloud may occur.  These are called an “inter cloud” lightning strike.  Viewing these, we may see the whole cloud light up from within. 

Of course, discharges occur between clouds,  or between the ground and cloud (the typical lightning stroke)  as well.  All for the same reason.  

And according to Professor Williams of MIT these discharges are about 19% less frequent during pandemics, when humans are forced into lockdowns and produce fewer aerosols!!!    So one upside of a pandemic is there is a near 20% lower  chance of being struck by lightening during a pandemic! Well that is something positive about pandemics …. but not much. 

Now getting back to that tree in our wood lot which was hit by a cloud to ground discharge.  How did that happen? 

As in the above explanation, recall that the base of a thunderhead cloud has developed a strong  negative charge as a result of the separation of charged particles in the cloud.   As the cloud moves over the earth’s surface it induces a positive charged “shadow” in the ground just below it.  

This induced charge happens because loose electrons within matter —like trees, metal fence lines and even the earth—can move in response to the positive cloud in the cloud base.  As these electrons “sense” the strong negative charge just above them they are repelled away. 

This repulsion of elections on the ground directly below the cloud base cause  these substances to become strongly positively charged.  

The negatively  charged cloud base can then discharge its electrons to the “induced” positively charged object —a church steeple, ships mast or a tall tree—on earth in a cloud to ground discharge 

That tree top in our wood lot became strongly positive, as the negatively charged cloud base moved overhead.  The loose electrons in the tree’s tissues moved through it toward the ground. The top of the tree became more highly positive charged as so many electrons were repelled.  The  cloud base then may have discharged its static electric electrons to that tree….and caused  that awful scar. 

So such places are to be strictly  avoided in thunderstorms.  

 

ON DOGS: THEY ARE MORE COGNIZANT THAN WE THINK!

 I’m writing here as an confessed and inveterate dog lover,  whose relationship with canines began at a very early age.  “Queenie” was the first of a long line of canine companions I have cherished through my life.  There were many: Jeeves, Scrubby, Blackie, Martha, Molly, Kim, Whitey, Goliath, Milo and Phineus.  I remember them all, learned from them, about them, how “knowing” they were and loved them all.

So when I read the heart warming story of “Tinsley”, in the local news about a dog who led two state teoopers to the site of her master’s truck crash, I was so touched. The story reminded me of the emotional and thought complexity of all of the dogs I had known and loved. I had to write this note on how canids think….and how Tinsely must have thought. For indeed they do think.

Tinsely is a female Alsatian or German Shepard from up in Lebanon NH, who led two NH State Troopers,  over the state line to the truck crash-site of her master.  The two NH troopers did report noticing Tinsely who appeared seemingly out of no where, on an isolated stretch of Interstate 91 near Lebanon, NH.   The troopers  assumed the dog who crept up on them was a stray or simply abandoned and was looking for a food handout.  But she ignored the left over doughnuts proffered  by the police officers.  

An attempt to rescue her failed for as the men approached she retreated.   But then she would return, to make herself seen again, only then to retreat again as the troopers approached.  When they came closer she seemed to encourage them to follow.  One of the troopers, perhaps with a little more canine experience,  concluded that the dog was trying to encourage them to follow her.  They did.  

She quickly led them several hundred yards across the near-by state line into Vermont and along  the highway to a site where a metal crash rail had been hit and twisted off it’s footings. Damaged, bark skinned trees as well and ripped up vegetation indicated a crash site.  There, down a steep embankment the troopers could clearly  see the wreck of a truck…which would have been impossible to find had they not been directed there by Tinsely.  In the cab two men lay comatose and exposed to freezing temperature.  The occupants  were eventually rescued and transported to hospital where they were successfully treated. One of them was Tinsely’s master. 

Tinsley’s story is a tribute to our canine companions.  Who can not speak but have complex brains that understand, and can foresee a potential problem and even solve them.  Tinsely must have escaped from the wreck without injury.  She was aware that her human companions were injured and needed help. She actually found help, and without the benefit of speech understood how she could convey the idea that help was needed elsewhere, and then actually led that help to where it was needed.  Now that is evidence of a pretty complex thinking processes. So let’s not underestimate our lovable canines!  

Or for that matter all other animals….

NY AG LETITIA JAMES: PRIORITY, PRIORITY, PRIORITY. GONE ASTRAY

Our New York Attorney General, Letitia James has her priorities in disarray.  She is presently serving personal political objectives, not the people of New York State.   With NY state suffering from economic decline, a surge in violence, demoralization of our police forces, random killings, drive by shootings, gang violence, drug sales,  ambush attacks on police, smash and grab robberies, and a pervasive viral pandemic with no end in sight…our state’s chief officer of justice is focused on self serving politics. 

Apparently with higher office in her sights (she schemed and manipulated  to get  rid of Andrew Cuomo almost singlehandedly to vacate the governor’s  seat she seems to hunger for) while continuing  to spend the people’s tax dollars and her official time on high visibility,  politically-motivated investigations which profit no one and lead no where—all while the State is rocked by crime and corruption that rise to levels which threaten our very existence and cry out to be addressed, investigated and prosecuted. 

One glaring example.  The AGs well publicized investigation into the Trump organization.  An investigation concerning the charge that some of the NY, Trump properties were evaluated above their actual value when seeking out bank loans and below their actual value when evaluated for taxes.  Were this charge actually able to be effectively prosecuted  —and not subject to a wide variation of subjective evaluations that are almost impossible to prove or disprove —the first of millions of culprits would be the denizens of Wall Street and every other business in the state.   If there was ever a  patent waste of time, a fishing expedition, and a “witch hunt” promoted for media attention and political motives…this is one great example. 

 If Ms James really wants  to get the attention of NY voters— of all parties—she must get off the out dated and Clintonesque  “Trump attack train”  and get to work returning our great state to a safe place to go for a walk, to go shopping and do business.  Then perhaps we might look at her as a real possibility for Governor. 

WE MUST DEFUND GAIN OF FUNCTION RESEARCH

What is “gain of function” research ?

According to the National Institute of Health: “Gain of Function (GOF) research is focused on the enhancement and increased pathogenicity and/or transmissibility as well as expanding the host range of potential pandemic pathogens so as to better understand their threat.”.  (Meaning:  GOF  seeks to modify germs to increase the potential to cause more severe, more deadly disease and increase the potential for them to spread to more animal and human hosts.) 

Anyone, even non-scientists can understand how dangerous such research could be. 

A deadly virus pathogen modified by GOF study could accidentally infect a lab-worker, who might  pass the virus on to others outside of the lab, and initiate a world-altering deadly pandemic which could kill millions upon millions of people.  

That scenario above was in fact the very one described almost word for word by Dr Anthony Fauci in 2014 when, after a series of disastrous lab accidents in China and elsewhere the USA Obama government discontinued funding such research.

Then in 2017 during the Trump Administration the same Dr Fauci who appeared to support defunding GOF funding three years earlier because it was so dangerous …..worked to refund GOF research in China  (not openly and  directly but) by funding an intermediary organization which passed USA funds on to the  labs.  The fact that the virology  lab he supported in Wuhan in 2017 was located at the very source of the Covid 19  pandemic in China only adds to the suspicion that Fauci’s 2014 warning was a prescient one. 

After suffering through two years of this horrible  Covid 19 pandemic, (most likely generated just as Dr. Fauci himself warned)  and now entering our third year of unimaginable pain, death, suffering, psychological decline, and massive social and economic disruptions—— one would think we would have “wised up” and abandoned “gain of function” research to avoid future man made pandemics.

Well, you would be wrong.   For the USA government  continues to this day in 2022 to fund this extremely dangerous form of biological experimentation which seeks to create new, more deadly disease germs which can infect more diverse animal hosts and potentially escape to generate a new pandemic.  

Well, we now know very well what a horrible threat they do pose.  Are we all so stupid?  We should be calling our representatives and demand that our government  defund such research, particularly in foreign labs where levels of technical expertise are less robust and where oversight and control is limited.