LIFE ON MUSCOVY POND

The Muscovy duck pair had another bunch of ducklings a couple of weeks ago. Eight at first, then seven, then a single baby left. This morning, the mom was in the yard multiple times, and made a noise that is sort of like “quacking” but not quite, they are known as “mute” ducks.

She was calling for her baby. Then across the lake she would fly. Then swim back; fly over; fly back.

She wasn’t looking for food, she was seeking her last baby. Sadly, gone.

Life on Muscovy Pond is sometimes cruel.

ANOTHER DESPOT BITES THE DUST

The dictator of Algeria has stepped down after months of demonstrations.

The world cheers another victory inspired by the "Arab Spring."

Take a look at the results, though. For instance, the Egyptian government is now so dysfunctional that the historically precious sites have been left unguarded. Looting is unchecked, and that history will soon be lost to future generations.

Go Arab Spring!

Maybe the solution isn't as good as the current situation?

Nebraska News

I went 80 stories deep on Yahoo! and found all kinds of drivel, but not a word about the floods in Nebraska. Flyover, ya ain’t nothin’.

I looked at the first 82 stories on ABC news, and found that there was a story about weather in Syria, but nothing on the floods in Nebraska.

On CBS News, there was a story out of Fond du Lac Wisconsin, about flooding, but no mention of Nebraska. Close enough, I guess.

CNN…well, you have to wade through stuff about how brilliant AOC is, and how Ilhan Omar is the best thing since canned beer…but you guessed it. No mention of the flooding in Nebraska. Whoops, there is a mention but not a lead. Below the story on who Cory Booker is dating.

They all carried lead stories on how gun laws need to change.

They all carried lead stories about the 737-MAX-8…which were all fundamentally wrong, you will see.

And we wonder why we should doubt these news sources??

Fox was no better.

If you haven't heard, the who eastern part of Nebraska is under water. The Union Pacific main line is stopped, bridges washed out. Roads are gone, bridges gone. Billions of dollars of damage, one would think. Then talk about the calves that perished, it is right at the beginning of calving season.

Let’s talk about the 737-MAX-8. Notice that the accidents were with third world airlines? Why, you ask? Well, the First Officer in the Ethiopian Airlines crash had about 200 hours. I have more hours than that, and I am not qualified to deal with an emergency on any airplane, let alone a sophisticated one like the MAX. My prediction, supported by some, is that they will figure out that all they had to do was turn off the autopilot. We can get into the anti-stall prevention software, but turn the auto pilot off and fly the airplane, guys. Save a lot of lives.

But the media says Boeing is at fault. We’ll see.

AWWWW, SHOOT...or worse

Just read that Bobby Knight is in declining health. Then the story intimated that he may have some form of dementia. Knight is 78, not much older than I am. Hits home.

I admit that, while I've not lost my marbles, the bag holding them has a hole and they are leaking away.

Crap.

I don't want another celeb to fade away.

NORTH KOREA

Our friend, Kim Joohoon, tried to bring me up to speed on facts about both Koreas, bless his heart. We hear so little truth about North Korea that it was an eye-opener for me.

North Korea was “richer” than South Korea until 1970. From the early days of the Japanese occupation that started around 1900 (I don’t remember the exact dates), the Japanese recognized the natural wealth of the North. That is where the rivers are, the minerals, coal, farms, the stuff that feeds a civilization. Grand sums of capital were invested in the North during the occupation which ended, of course, as WWII ended. Meanwhile, the South was mountains and a small strip along the coast with fishing villages.

President Trump said there was no need to continue the summit as Chairman Kim Jong Un wanted too much. There was no common ground. This is, in my experience, how negotiations go. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.

In the press conference, President Trump spoke of his regret that there was no way to proceed. He said that North Korea had so much potential and he would like nothing better than to lift the sanctions. Now if Kerry and Obama were in charge, would we proceed to get some sort of thing like the Iran Deal? It is difficult to get information, though, as the press is more interested in Cohen and AOC.

Speaking of the Japanese occupation, read about the Rape of Nanking to discover what kind of brutality the Japanese dumped on their subjects. Koreans alive today have parents and grandparents that were slaves. It ended within my life time…barely, but still within my life.

Another factoid that I think we have talked about on this forum is the way the US helped South Korea leap out of the disaster that was the Korean War. We needed help on the ground in Viet Nam, and paid South Korea significant sums to provide troops and goods. In most emerging economies, from Eastern Europe to Africa, wave some cash and the rulers start opening up Swiss bank accounts. Park Chung Hee was undoubtedly a dictator although we prefer to call him “an experienced president,” but he took the money and invested it in heavy industry, ship building, automobiles and the like. Outfits like Samsung, Hyundai and others are the result. Admirable.

Don’t count Trump out. This shines a brutal spotlight on the idiocy of Chairman Kim. Even China is getting a bit impatient with his petulance. We’ll see.

DRUG PRICING

Everybody is bashing the drug companies, about the only time we have heard House Democrats, Senate Republicans and Donald Trump agree on anything.

https://eresearch.fidelity.com/eresearch/goto/evaluate/news/basicNewsStory.jhtml?symbols=ABBV&storyid=201902261145RTRSNEWSCOMBINED_L1N20L117_1

Any kind of medication is anathema to me—my preference would be to never take medicine again. That is not a reasonable strategy, however, if you want to prolong your life and have good quality to it. For example, my friend has rheumatoid arthritis, and when he took Humira for 6 years, he found himself to be “normal.” Humira quit working eventually, the RA attacked his lungs, he had a transplant and is now on anti-rejection meds that will prolong his life further. He has a tremendous brain, it is not only good for him and his family, but for society that his life has been prolonged.

My dad died of the complications of multiple myeloma. They treated him with steroids and he lasted about 6 years from diagnosis to death. Another friend was diagnosed with MM 30 years later, and he perished 14 years after diagnosis. Another eight years due to a drug that was roundly condemned by EVERYONE, and rightfully so—thalidomide. Well, he called it “Son of Thalidomide” as it is a slight variation, but many of us will remember the checkered past of that drug. For those of you who don’t know:

·         Invented by German company in 1961

·         Marketed as sleep aid for pregnant women (seemed to treat morning sickness, too?)

·         Caused thousands of babies to be born with tragically deformed limbs

·         A horror show

Now, over a half-century later, with another drug, it is used for leprosy and for MM. My friend said that the precautions warned that women who may become pregnant should not even TOUCH one of the pills.

The drug companies claim they spend billions of dollars on research and development, and the process of getting a drug tested and ready for market is made more complicated, expensive and difficult because of the tragedy of thalidomide and others. Congress, the President and damned near everybody else wants the drugs to be nearly free, despite the obvious impediments.

I know this is leaning into the wind, but a lot of this looks like political theater. None of those politicians want one of their loved ones to be denied medications that work. But we would prefer that they just materialize out of thin air.

Again a discussion where I have little or no background and should just be quiet, but that hasn’t stopped me yet. Wonder how much those folks would pay to find a cure for ALS and MS? Hope a couple of my correspondents who do have background in medicine/pharmacy enlighten me.

OPPY

The little Mars rover, Opportunity, designed to operate for about 90 days, continued through skill and determination on the part of the operators and the engineering built into her for nearly 15 years.

But a dust storm evidently got her. Her last words, “My battery is low and it is getting dark.”

Remarkable work.

As the years pass by, those words apply to some of us.

POST SCRIPT, August 2020: I just discovered that Snopes labeled this communication from Oppy as "False." Seems that it came through the space from the planet Mars as a bunch of pluses and minuses and was then translated into a bunch of data. The little lady didn't actually speak in a voice and say those exact words, instead the words are the human interpretation of her data. Did anyone actually think she spoke those exact words? Snopes can be pretty dense sometimes.