Heap o' Links Sat Sep 25, 2021

…in a not-so-tiny nation called Spain, a nursing home had a nasty virus get into it. … March of 2020. …Covid-19. And this nursing home, like so many others all over the world, was full of elderly, morbid people. The mean age of residents was 85 and 48% were over 80 years old. It was a killing field, like so many others… Within three months 100% of the residents had caught the virus. Not presumed to have -- proved to have.… Many of them died, right? … No. Not only did nearly none die none went to the hospital either because they rapidly figured out how to stop the virus from killing people — and did exactly that.… So what did these few nursing homes do that nobody has done since and nobody reported out at the time?

“Had Maricopa County chosen to cooperate with the audit, the majority of these obstacles would have easily been overcome. By the County withholding subpoena items, their unwillingness to answer questions as is normal between auditor and auditee, and in some cases actively interfering with audit research, the County prevented a complete audit,” the executive summary concluded.

Paul Ratje's photos were framed by some Democrats and liberal media members as showing agents using "whips" to corral Haitians trying to cross the border. But critics pushed back and said they were clearly holding reins as they confronted them, and Ratje backed them up.

"I’ve never seen them whip anyone," Ratje told KTSM, an NBC affiliate in El Paso, Texas. "He was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture."

I believe that automatic face recognition in public places, including commercial spaces such as shopping malls that are open to the public, should be outlawed. The dangers outweigh the benefits. The necessary laws will not be passed, however, without overwhelming pressure of public opinion and organizing. To that end, this article presents the arguments against automatic face recognition in public places, followed by responses to the most common arguments in favor.

Maps of Atlantic Tsunami Travel Times…
Although the incidence of Atlantic tsunamis is low, the threat should be taken seriously because millions of people live in low-elevation locations around the rim of the Atlantic basin. The travel time maps below show that once a tsunami is generated, the response time for mass evacuation can be uncomfortably short.