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Monthly Archives: March 2021
‘Bachelor’ Matt James confronts Rachael Kirkconnell over the racial ignorance that ended their relationship – Yahoo Entertainment
Posted: March 20, 2021 at 3:12 am
Monday was a wild night for Bachelor Nation as the finale of The Bachelor did not end in an engagement. The episode started with Matt James having second thoughts about proposing to either Michelle Young or Rachael Kirkconnell. Matt ended up telling Michelle that he was having doubts and that he didn't think he "could get there" with her. Matt left Michelle upset and in tears in her room. "My objective tonight wasn't to hurt Michelle," Matt said, "It's to be honest with her, and I owe her that."
Matt was immediately blasted on Twitter for his decision.
Matt continued to struggle with the idea of proposing to someone at the end. So even though he picked out a ring with Neil Lane, he didn't get down on one knee in front of Rachael. Standing together, holding hands, Matt told her, "I can't propose to you today. But that doesn't mean I want to lose you." So the season ended with the two in a seemingly happy relationship and fans were definitely not excited about Matt choosing Rachael.
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However, during The Bachelor: After the Final Rose, hosted by Emmanuel Acho due to Chris Harrisons departure over racially insensitive comments made while defending Rachael, we learned that things had changed.
Matt revealed he ended the relationship after photos emerged of Rachael attending an Antebellum-themed party in 2018. Matt explained that, at first, he tried to ignore it. "I dismissed them as rumors, because that's what they were to me," Matt told Emmanuel. "You hear things that are heartbreaking ... and you just pray they're not true. And then, when you find out that they are ... it just makes you question everything."
Matt was then able to confront Rachael and explain why he ended their relationship.
When I questioned our relationship, it was in the context of you not fully understanding my blackness and what it means to be a Black man in America, Matt told Rachael. It broke my heart, because this is the last conversation I thought we'd be having. I didn't sign up to have this conversation.
Rachael was contrite throughout the special and claimed she was trying to become more racially aware. She also admitted that her errors came from a place of ignorance not maliciousness. When asked about her photos from the party, Rachael said, I see someone who was living in this ignorance without even, like, thinking about who it would be hurting.
While Rachael said she is committed to educating herself, Matt insisted that this was something she was going to have to do on her own.
I had to take a step back for you to put in that work that you outlined that you needed to do, and that's something that you gotta do on your own, and that's why we can't be in a relationship, said Matt. I don't want to be emotionally responsible for those tears, 'cause it's like, the work and the reconciliation that needs to be done is work that I can't do for you.
Needless to say, Bachelor Nation had some thoughts on this conversation as well.
But the real star of the show seemed to be Acho. The former NFL linebacker was well received by viewers on social media, and may possibly find a more permanent hosting role in the franchise.
The Bachelor aired Monday night at 8 p.m. on ABC.
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Russian hockey player Timur Faizutdinov dies at 19 after being hit in the head by a puck – Yahoo Sports
Posted: at 3:12 am
Russian junior hockey player Timur Faizutdinov died on Tuesday at age 19 after being struck in head by a puck during a game. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Russian junior hockey player Timur Faizutdinov has died after being hit in the head by a puck during a game. He was 19.
According to the Associated Press, the hit happened on Friday when Faizutdinov, a defenseman for Dynamo St. Petersburg's junior team, was on the ice during a playoff game against Loko Yaroslavl. An opposing player struck the puck, and Faizutdinov strayed into its path. He immediately began clutching his head.
Faizutdinov collapsed on the ice, where the team doctor and several paramedics treated him. He was then taken to a hospital in the city of Yaroslavl.
Via the Associated Press, the Junior Hockey League said that "doctors fought for Timur's life over the course of three days," but were unable to save him. He died on Tuesday.
For the rest of the month, Junior Hockey League and Kontinental Hockey League games will begin with a moment of silence to honor Faizutdinov, who had been named captain of Dynamo at the start of the season. Dynamo and Loko, the other team involved in Friday's game, started their most recent game by honoring their fallen teammate.
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Poll: 50% of unvaccinated Trump voters say they will ‘never’ get inoculated for COVID. How Biden hopes to change their minds. – Yahoo News
Posted: at 3:12 am
Last week, all the living former U.S. presidents, Democratic and Republican, joined together for an ad campaign touting the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines except Donald Trump.
At the same time, a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that a full 50 percent of unvaccinated 2020 Trump voters now say they will never get vaccinated for COVID-19, up 6 percent from last month.
According to the survey of 1,629 U.S. adults, which was conducted March 4-8, no other unvaccinated group is nearly as likely to say they will never get inoculated: not Biden supporters (8 percent), not Black Americans (33 percent) and not Hispanic Americans (22 percent), all of whom have moved in the opposite direction and become less hesitant over time.
Asked Monday if President Biden want[s] to see President Trump who is also the only president who chose to keep his own vaccination private help persuade his supporters by getting involved in this messaging, White House press secretary Jen Psaki did not mince words.
Well, if former President Trump woke up tomorrow and wanted to be more vocal about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, certainly wed support that, Psaki said. Every other living former president ... has participated in public campaigns. They did not need an engraved invitation to do so.
The growing concerns about Trumps lack of involvement in Americas vaccination campaign underscore a looming challenge for the Biden administration: how to ensure that vaccines dont become the latest public-health precaution to fall prey to partisanship and polarization, much like masks before them.
In recent days, the White House has begun to publicly acknowledge that it might have trouble reaching conservatives, who could become even more hesitant the harder Democrats push. We recognize as a Democratic administration with a Democratic president that we may not be the most effective messenger to communicate with hard-core supporters of the former president, Psaki said at Fridays press briefing when Yahoo News asked about the administrations plans. We have to be clear-eyed about that.
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But according to a source familiar with the White Houses plans to address vaccine hesitancy among conservatives, who was granted anonymity to discuss strategy, Team Biden is still finalizing plans on who to enlist in that effort.
By nearly every measure, Americas COVID-19 vaccine rollout is rapidly improving. All of the available data from clinical trials and real-world studies has shown the approved vaccines are safe and extremely effective. The U.S. is now administering an average of 2.4 million doses each day, up from 900,000 a day when Biden took office; 21 percent of the population has received at least one shot, which ranks among the highest rates in the world. All told, the U.S. has administered more than 107 million doses to date, nearly a third of the global total given so far. By May, Biden announced last week, providers will have enough supply to vaccinate every adult in America.
But theres a problem, or there will be soon: Not every adult in America plans to get vaccinated particularly the adults who identify as Republicans. In order to end the pandemic and resume normal life, experts say, the U.S. needs to maximize the number of people it inoculates. Yet while vaccine acceptance in general is rising as the rollout gains steam, hesitancy among Republicans is actually hardening. In fact, demand for the vaccines may already be waning in conservative states such as Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana.
According to the Yahoo News/YouGov poll, most Americans (54 percent) say theyve either gotten vaccinated (22 percent) or plan to get vaccinated in the future (32 percent). Nearly three-quarters of Democrats (74 percent) say the same. But even though Democrats (28 percent) and Republicans (26 percent) say theyve already gotten jabbed in roughly equal numbers, the share of Republicans who are currently unvaccinated and plan to remain that way (35 percent) is three times as large as the corresponding share of Democrats (just 12 percent).
A nurse gives the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to a man in Seattle on Saturday. (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images)
The combined number of Americans who plan to forgo vaccination means that tens of millions of citizens may be helping to undermine U.S. progress toward herd immunity, lengthening the pandemic and leaving the country vulnerable to future outbreaks. Thats why convincing the skeptics to do otherwise is so important.
Over the weekend, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert, said it would be a game changer if Trump used his incredible influence among Republicans to help reach a demographic that Biden may not be able to reach alone.
If he came out and said, Go and get vaccinated. Its really important for your health, the health of your family and the health of the country, it seems absolutely inevitable that the vast majority of people who are his close followers would listen to him, Fauci told Fox News Sunday.
So far, Trump has limited his promotion of COVID-19 vaccines to a single public quip.
So everybody, go get your shot, Trump said during his Feb. 28 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
John Bridgeland, co-founder of the Covid Collaborative, a coronavirus education initiative that co-created the recently released presidential PSA, agreed in an interview with Yahoo News that Trump could help much more than that.
If President Trump were to convey to his supporters that the vaccine is safe and effective, that he played a key role and his administration played a key role in moving this vaccine in record time, and that trials showed safety and efficacy, and that he himself and the first lady got the vaccine, that will help improve the larger context in which people are making their individual decisions as to whether to get vaccinated, said Bridgeland, who served as domestic policy chief under former President George W. Bush.
Yet Bridgeland added that engaging with local leaders is just as important as nurturing national atmospherics when trying to persuade hesitant communities.
At one level, creating the atmospherics, the larger context, thats an environment that is more conducive to people getting the shot, Bridgeland explained. Then [we have to get] extremely local with doctors, nurses, pharmacists, faith-based leaders places that have direct trusted influence on these millions of Americans that are going to make an individual choice that will help us get to herd immunity or not.
Its unclear if the White House has reached out directly to Trumps team; Psaki dodged a question on the subject at Fridays briefing, and the current administration has been reluctant to credit or communicate with Bidens predecessor. Equally unclear is whether the norm-busting Trump would even agree to participate in such a campaign.
Yet Trump probably shouldnt expect an engraved invitation anytime soon. The White House source told Yahoo News that officials there are basing their strategy in part on findings by veteran Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who recently published data in the Washington Post showing that hesitant conservatives trust local health officials far more than national politicians, Trump included. Likewise, the Biden administration has been working with outside groups such as Bridgelands to identify leaders who might sway conservatives.
According to the Post, the 19 participants in Luntzs focus group blamed their hesitation on factors like the unknown long-term effects of new vaccines and accused politicians and government scientists of repeatedly misleading them this past year often echoing Trumps charges that Democrats used the virus as an election-year weapon and overhyped its dangers.
The participants rejected direct efforts by prominent Republican politicians (including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy) to persuade them, adding they would trust their spouse or doctor more than Trump. Instead, the group responded positively to apolitical, data-driven pitches from Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under President Barack Obama, who emphasized that it took two decades of research to develop the vaccine and that nearly every doctor who has been offered a dose has accepted it.
Asked Monday how he planned to reach reluctant Republicans, Biden sounded as if hed been briefed on Luntzs findings. I discussed it with my team, and they say the thing that has more impact than anything Trump would say to MAGA folks is what the local doctor, what the local preacher, what the local people in the community say, Biden explained. I urge all local docs and ministers and priests to talk about why it is important to get that vaccine.
Initially Psaki seemed to be caught off guard when asked Friday about hesitancy among Republicans, redirecting her response toward nonwhite communities hard-hit by the virus and neglecting to reveal specifics about conservative outreach.
Asked again Monday afternoon, however, Psaki offered up a more substantive framework a sign that Bidens effort to reach conservatives is finally ramping up.
The new focus on hesitant Republicans comes as the West Wing becomes increasingly confident in its vaccine rollout. To help deliver an accurate message about vaccine safety and efficacy to conservative communities, the White House has already partnered with groups such as the National Rural Health Association, the National Farmers Union, NTCA - the Rural Broadband Association, the Country Music Association Awards and NASCAR.
Former President Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando on Feb. 28. (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Bridgelands group which has met weekly with Biden staffers since the transition began in December and works closely with key members of the White House COVID team is co-chaired by several bipartisan bigwigs, such as former George W. Bush administration staffer and Idaho Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, Democratic presidential candidate Deval Patrick, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Trump ally.
Christies vaccine advocacy was particularly effective with Luntzs focus group not chiefly because of his proximity to the former president but rather because of his personal experience attending a superspreader event at the White House and subsequently spending a week in an intensive care unit with COVID-19.
We really shouldnt be all marching in lockstep like lemmings to go and do what the government tells us to do, the former two-term governor told Luntzs focus group, according to the Post. Theyve screwed up too many times for us to do that. But I really do believe the facts that Ive learned, and the experiences Ive had, should make at least everybody ... think hard about getting vaccinated.
According to Bridgeland, stories like Christies are so critical to get. In the coming weeks, Psaki said Monday, Americans should expect earned media partnerships with trusted messengers as part of a big public campaign run out of HHS with funding from Bidens recently passed $1.9 trillion stimulus package.
According to the White House source familiar with operations, Bidens team sees Dr. Francis Collins, the geneticist and devout Christian who leads the National Institutes of Health, as a significant asset. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Collins a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and he frequently appears on faith-based outlets such as the Christian Broadcasting Network. On Tuesday, Collins and Fauci will meet with evangelical leaders at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
President Biden in the State Dining Room of the White House on Monday. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The same source adds that the White Houses health equity task force is intimately engaged with vaccine-hesitant communities and is developing specific plans to reach religious and rural Americans.
With vaccine eligibility and availability set to skyrocket in the weeks ahead, one of Bidens biggest challenges will be ensuring that the pace of vaccination particularly on the right keeps up.
The presidents goal is to vaccinate all Americans, not just those who voted for him, Psaki said Monday. Right now, the phase were in is that demand for the vaccine still outstrips supply. We wont be in that phase forever.
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‘Dont want to play’: Tennis world on alert over looming crisis – Yahoo Sport Australia
Posted: at 3:12 am
Denis Shapovalov (pictured) has hit out at the prize money on the ATP Tour as Covid-19 continues to impact tennis. (Getty Images)
Denis Shapovalov has spoken out about a looming tennis crisis after pointing out the prize money for ATP 250 and 500 events has hit a critical low.
The ATP and WTA were hit hard during the coronavirus pandemic as tournaments were called off and revenue dipped as many players opted to travel only for Grand Slams.
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Canadian Shapovalov attempted to address the issue at the Dubai Open after a big announcement this week.
Following his quarter-final win over Jeremy Chardy at the Dubai Open, where he hasn't dropped a game on serve, the in-form World No.12 talked about the whopping drop in prize money.
The Miami Masters just announced a huge 66 per cent (approximately) reduction in the prize pool for the up-coming tournament.
The Miami Open winner will take home $310,000 in prize money in 2020, compared to in 2019 when Roger Federer took home roughly $1.35 million.
Prize money isn't the only issue, with big names such as Rafael Nadal, Federer, Nick Kyrgios and Dominic Thiem all absent for various reasons.
Shapovalov said if prize money remains low, players may opt to just play Grand Slams due to the hassle and risk of travelling.
"I definitely think there's going to be a lot of withdrawals and a lot of people not going to tournaments," Shapovalov said.
"I do agree the prize money is low, and it's not motivating to play every week, and play all the big tournaments. There's not really a lot in it for us other than the Slams at this point, that are paying just as much or better."
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The Canadian said he hoped the ATP take action so players have more incentive to attend tournaments outside the majors.
"Hopefully the ATP or someone can do something to improve the prize money and bring it back to what it was," he added.
"But it is what it is right now, you know. So we have other obligations from sponsors, contracts that obligate us to play as well.
Denis Shapovalov celebrates a point in his Quarter-Final singles match against Jeremy Chardy of France during Day Twelve of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships at Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium on March 18, 2021 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)
"So for sure, that's definitely one reason why a lot of players are still playing, because otherwise, I feel like a lot of players just dont want to play at all."
This isn't the only issue raised as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to hurt tennis.
Recently, Mexican Open tournament director Raul Zurutuza claimed Federer had a deal with Dubai - which means he has never played in Accapulco - and hoped more of its kind would 'never repeated' so big name players can visit multiple events.
Furthermore, Zurutuza admitted the tournament didn't have the money to pay Nadal his appearance fee, despite the Spaniard being defending champion.
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Oil Falls By Most in 6 Months as Recovery Falters – Yahoo Finance
Posted: at 3:12 am
(Bloomberg) --
Oil plunged by 7%, the most since September, as vaccination efforts in some parts of the world stalled, casting uncertainty over the speed of an economic recovery and a full rebound in global oil demand.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined for a fifth session, the longest stretch of daily losses in more than a year. China lifting less crude and U.S. Gulf Coast refineries still recovering from a cold blast last month have put short-term pressure on physical oil demand. Meanwhile, some efforts to distribute Covid-19 vaccines have faltered and a stronger dollar is reducing the appeal of commodities priced in the currency.
The collapse in prices has wiped out more than two weeks of gains for the U.S. benchmark crude and represents a setback for a market that has otherwise staged a remarkable recovery since the depths of the pandemic. Oil futures are still up well over 20% since the start of the year with the worlds largest oil producers reining in supply and travel around the world recovering post-lockdowns.
Short-term supply and demand considerations are temporarily casting a shadow over the bright future that is likely to arrive in the third quarter of the year, said Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates Ltd.
Global benchmark Brent also notched considerable losses, falling by the most since June on Thursday. Oils move lower may also be linked to some unwinding of long positions by commodity trading advisors as daily price gains or losses of more than 3% can often trigger funds to quickly unload. This is a risk-off moment with some of the cyclical trades, said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
Beyond headline prices, crudes closest timespreads are signaling that, despite the outlook for a longer-term recovery, near-term demand remains fragile. WTIs front-month contract is trading at a discount again to the following month, while Brents backwardation -- a bullish structure signaling tighter supplies -- is weakening.
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The plunge is all about the demand outlook, said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp. This will be a temporary retreat, but the concern is that we dont have any strong signs that Europe is about to turn the corner here.
The global recovery from the pandemic remains uneven. In Brazil, Covid-19 cases are expanding by record numbers and crimping activity, while in the U.K., delayed shipments of AstraZeneca Plcs vaccine will cut supply this month.
Demand hasnt gotten as far back to normal as we expected, with the vaccine news out of Europe definitely concerning in terms of short-term demand, said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. Thats making people think that the time for $70 Brent has not yet come.
(An earlier version corrected the lead to say oils decline was the biggest since September.)
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‘Never repeated’: Roger Federer caught in tennis tug-of-war – Yahoo Sport Australia
Posted: at 3:12 am
The tournament director at the Mexican Open has hit out at contracts like Roger Federer's (pictured), which ties him to the Dubai Open. (Getty Images)
The tournament director of the Mexican Open has hit out Roger Federer and his involvement with the Dubai Open after never appearing at the Acapulco event.
Federer has always played the Dubai Open when he is available, never appearing in Mexico.
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This means the 20-time Grand Slam champ can't appear at Acapulco due to the tournaments occurring at the same time of year.
Not being able to draw the biggest names obviously impacts the marketability of ATP 250 and 500 events.
The Swiss maestro has won the Dubai tournament eight times - missing it six times - but will be unavailable this year.
Despite Rafael Nadal often visiting the Mexican event and boosting its prestige, Federer withdrew from Dubai after resting following his return to the ATP Tour in Doha.
Tournament director Raul Zurutuza claimed Federer had a deal with Dubai and hoped more of its kind would 'never repeated' so big name players can visit multiple events.
There are many players that one as a manager would like to have, the truth is we talk a lot with their representative, Zurutuza said at a pre-event press conference.
Roger Federer poses with the winners trophy after victory during day fourteen of the Dubai Duty Free Championships at Tennis Stadium on March 02, 2019 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)
I have seen him (Stefanos Tsitsipas) happy, I received him at the airport, he is a super relaxed guy. I hope he falls in love with Mexico and stays with all due respect to Dubai.
That story of Roger (Federer) who never came to Mexico because of the Dubai issue, I hope it will never be repeated with another player.
It is important that each player can be in as many tournaments as possible.
Tsitsipas arrived well, he trained and it is interesting, I think we will have good things with him.
Nadal announced that he had pulled out of the Rotterdam Open due to the back injury, which has troubled the 20-time grand slam this year.
But early reports suggested Nadal had also withdrawn from Acapulco, where he is the defending champion, with speculation the competition was unable to match his appearance fee.
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Tournament director Raul Zurutuza has confirmed the competition didn't have the money to attract the Spaniard.
But Zurutuza said the tournament would go on without the Spaniard, despite him being missed, and other big names such as Tsitsipas gave the tournament weight.
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The future is fragmented: How streaming will change NFL viewing – Yahoo Sports
Posted: at 3:12 am
There was coincidental symmetry in the NFL announcing a new, streaming-enhanced broadcast package on the same day the NCAA mens tournament began. Why? Because where the NCAA tournament is now, the NFL will be soon.
The early rounds of the tourney are famous (or infuriating, depending on your point of view) for the mad, nationwide scramble to figure out where the hell TruTV is. Its a case of careful-what-you-wish-for. Yes, its great to have the opportunity to see every single game live if you want to, but the tradeoff is that you have to navigate through a thicket of broadcast options and, before long, subscription streaming services.
The NFLs new 11-year, $100 billion-with-a-B broadcast rights package is a reaffirmation of the standing order and a complete break with tradition. Yes, all your favorite stalwarts Fox, NBC, CBS, ESPN will continue to broadcast the most valuable property on television. Beyond that, a new player Amazon has entered the chat, and the role of streaming services in bringing games to you is going to only increase. Football on your phone was a cute gimmick when the Brothers Manning rapped it back in 2013 but by 2030, its going to be the norm.
(That video still rules, though it appears DirecTV is out of the NFL market under this new deal.)
This new broadcast arrangement isnt aimed at anyone who remembers Howard Cosell. This is meant to capture the people who know Madden only as the name of a video game franchise, not as a broadcaster or coach. The days of knowing exactly where every game will be shown, every week, are coming to a close.
The NFL would undoubtedly prefer to have all its fans watch games only on over-the-air channels. Thats where tradition lies "Monday Night Football" on ABC/ESPN, NFC games on Fox, AFC games on CBS but its also where the most money lies at the moment. Streaming services draw in only a fraction of the eyeballs (and, hence, revenue) of broadcast TV. NFL games regularly dominate ratings, both seasonally and historically. Twenty-nine of the top 30 broadcasts of all time are Super Bowls the "M*A*S*H" finale is still hanging in there and Sunday Night Football has been the top series on TV for the past 10 years running.
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In the NFL, tradition lasts only as long as its profitable. The league began playing football on Monday nights in the 1960s as a way to edge the NFL into competition with scripted TV. Monday Night Football launched in September 1970 and immediately became a broadcast institution appointment television decades before that term was invented.
MNFs ratings suffered in the 2000s, and the franchise moved from ABC onto ESPN to start the 2006 season. That year also marked the debut of Thursday Night Football, as the league expanded its weekly reach further. Its tough to remember now, but the games move to ESPN was met with howls of protest from fans complaining they wouldnt be able to watch games on cable.
Less than a decade later, the league broadcast its first game entirely on the web a Jaguars-Bills London game streamed right here on Yahoo Sports. (It was a fascinating story; heres an in-depth breakdown of how it all came together.) Again, the idea of watching a football game only on the phone or laptop was met with condescension, if not outright derision. Fast-forward to this years Super Bowl, where CBS reported that an average of 5.7 million fans per minute streamed the game, a record by a large margin.
So the future of the NFL is digital, but you already knew that. Thursdays news made it clear, however, that for many games, the future will be only digital. Amazon acquired the exclusive rights to "Thursday Night Football," marking the leagues first all-streaming package. And tucked into the news release was the tidbit that Peacock, NBCs streaming service, will deliver an exclusive feed of a select number of NFL games over the course of the agreement.
What this all means for you, the consumer, is that youre going to need to start signing up for more streaming services and remembering more passwords. Amazon, ESPN+, Paramount+, Peacock, and Tubi all will carry games, some matching the broadcast, some exclusively and if you dont know a Peacock from a Tubi, well, youre going to have to figure it out.
What it also means is that the entire broadcast format of the NFL could change, perhaps slightly, perhaps dramatically. The NFL has already experimented with multiple broadcast teams on a single game. Now imagine a range of Amazon feeds with widely varying broadcasters, from former players to semi-retired broadcasting legends to Gen Z influencers to completely announcer-free booths. Imagine if the concept of a commercial break no longer had any meaning, since broadcasters' revenue would be coming from subscription fees. Imagine a Nickelodeon-style feed, where the game itself is only one part of the total package. Streaming opens up broadcast opportunities that network and cable cant touch, and thats a net benefit for fans.
Big questions loom for the NFL and its many broadcasters: how far down the streaming rabbit hole will fans chase the league? How many fans will sign up for streaming services or, lets be honest, borrow passwords so they can watch a Week 7 Packers-Bears game? Will the weekly challenge of wheres-the-damn-game drive away casual fans, or will it become an endearing scavenger hunt like in the NCAA tournament?
Getting fans trained to jump from service to channel to service is a challenge for 2023 and beyond. For now, lets see if we can figure out where the Gonzaga game is playing.
Football and your phone, made in America. (Photo Illustration by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.
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Dr. Carrie Madej: COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are transhumanism …
Posted: at 3:10 am
Antivaccine conspiracy theorists blame vaccines for many things, such as autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, autoimmune diseases of all kinds including fake ones, childhood obesity, this generation of children supposedly being the sickest generation, infertility due to primary ovarian insufficiency, and even death, as in death by sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Basically, whatever the health issue, to antivaxxers, it is, first and foremost, always about the vaccines. Always. No mater how implausible and lacking in evidence the link between vaccines and a given disease or health condition is, antivaxxers will find a way to blame it on vaccines. Indeed, even now, in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, theyve found ways to blame the influenza vaccine for COVID-19, particularly now that flu season is here. However, one of the wildest claims Ive ever seen about vaccines is that they are transhumanism, a claim being made by ber-quack Dr. Joe Mercola in an article on The Vaccine Reaction, the house blog of Barbara Loe Fishers antivaccine group the Orwellian-named National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), entitled Will New COVID Vaccine Make You Transhuman?, an article based on a video by one Dr. Carrie Madej:
Two years ago, in October 2018, Forbes contributor Neil Sahota, a United Nations artificial intelligence adviser and UC Irvine professor, warned that transhumanism is fast approachinglikely faster than you think.1 In the past few years, there has been considerable discussion around the idea we are slowly merging with our technology, that we are becoming transhuman, with updated abilities, including enhanced intelligence, strength, and awareness, Sahota writes.
The goal of the transhumanist movement, or Human 2.0, is to transcend biology into technology. Or, as Dr. Carrie Madej explains in the video above, to meld human biology with technology and artificial intelligence.
Two visible proponents of transhumanism are Ray Kurzweil (director of engineering at Google since 2012) and Elon Musk (founder of SpaceX, Tesla and Neuralink).
Well get to the video in a minute, because it is truly beyond the pale. I had never heard of Carrie Madej, DO before (or, if I had, I didnt remember her). The website featuring her video, Stop World Control, describes her thusly:
Dr Carrie Madej directed two large medical clinics in the state of Georgia, USA. Since her twenties she has been fascinated by vaccines and studied them ever since. Her in depth research led her to discover what the proposed technologies are for the new COVID-19 vaccines. What she is revealing is alarming.
This video is an in depth documentary that shows how these new vaccines can alter our DNA, turning us into hybrids. The plans are to connect humans to artificial intelligence and global control networks. This is the start of transhumanism, turning us into HUMANS 2.0.
Study. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. Seriously, I bet that Dr. Madej studies vaccines in the same way that Mike Adams does, her being a physician notwithstanding.
In any event, I found out a bit more. Dr. Madej is an internist in McDonough, Georgia. Shes Medical Director of Phoenix Medical Group of Georgia, where she has a full time practice in Internal Medicine. Her Twitter feed is a wretched hive of scum, quackery, and conspiracy theories. Unsurprisingly, she is an antimasker, seems to buy into every major conspiracy theory about COVID-19 out there, and has appeared on The Alex Jones Show, antivaxxer Sherri Tenpennys show, and on Mike Adams show. She also gave a virtual speech to the gathering of antimaskers and COVID-19 lockdown protesters at Trafalgar Square last month. Its odd that I havent heard of her before.
So what is transhumanism? However, I describe it, Im sure someone will object, but here goes anyway. Basically, it is a social, scientific, and philosophical movement devoted to the idea that humans can be enhanced by technology, be it biological, computer-based, or physical. The idea is that such technologies would augment or increase human perception, physical abilities, intelligence, and cognition, and also radically improve human health and extend human life spans. Unsurprisingly, the movements adherents tend to be employed in technology, biotech, and academia, and there is a strong link between libertarianism and transhumanism. The ultimate outcome is thought to be the singularity, a time when computers become so advanced that artificial intelligence transcends human intelligence, potentially erasing the boundary between humanity and computers, even leading to the merging of humans and computers. Personally, Ive always looked a bit askance at transhumanism, because there is certainly a lot of woo in the movement. Moreover, transhumanists do tend to assume that the coming singularity will necessarily be a good thing. Science fiction, however, provides many potential counterexamples, SkyNet in the Terminator movies and the Borg in Star Trek being two of the most famous of them.
Nonetheless, I am not opposed on general principle to human-enhancing technologies. After all, what is medicine but an effort over many millennia to overcome the inherent biological weaknesses and defects in humans in order to enhance and extend lifespans by preventing at least premature death from infirmity and external disease? True, there is a philosophical argument to be had over how much modification might be too much, but thats not what Mercola and his antivax cranks are about. Rather, just as antivaxxers have used the COVID-19 pandemic and President Trumps Operation Warp Speed program to stoke fear that any new COVID-19 vaccine will be unsafe, having been rushed to approval too quickly with inadequate safety testing, and thereby to cast doubt on all vaccines, here antivaxxers are painting COVID-19 vaccines as incipient transhumanism in order toyou guessed it!spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt about all vaccines. Naturally, theyre focusing on mRNA vaccines, such as the COVID-19 vaccine candidates from Moderna, BioNTech, Fosun Pharma, and Pfizer:
Many of the COVID-19 vaccines currently being fast-tracked are not conventional vaccines. Their design is aimed at manipulating your very biology, and therefore have the potential to alter the biology of the entire human race.
Conventional vaccines train your body to recognize and respond to the proteins of a particular virus by injecting a small amount of the actual viral protein into your body, thereby triggering an immune response and the development of antibodies.
This is not what happens with an mRNA vaccine. The theory behind these vaccines is that when you inject the mRNA into your cells, it will stimulate your cells to manufacture their own viral protein. The mRNA COVID-19 vaccine will be the first of its kind. No mRNA vaccine has ever been licensed before. And, to add insult to injury, theyre forgoing all animal safety testing.
First of all, this is a bit silly. If theres one thing about mRNA, its that (1) it doesnt integrate into the genome of the cells that it enters, meaning that it cant permanently reprogram a cell and (2) its a remarkably unstable molecule, which is why RNA vaccines currently have to be stored at -90C and why theres been concern about the mass distribution of such vaccines, given that few doctors offices and clinics have the capability of storing doses at that cold a temperature and there would be concern about keeping the vaccines sufficiently cold during transport. (Its also why Moderna is working to make its vaccines more stable, now claiming that they can be stored at -20C and will be stable for about a week at 2 to 8C, and other companies making mRNA vaccines are frantically working to make the required storage conditions less frigid.) Indeed, some of these logistical issues are why Ive always been a bit skeptical of RNA vaccines. Im not skeptical that they can work. Im sure they can. The problem is that Im not convinced that whatever advantages they might have outweigh the many disadvantages in terms of their storage and distribution, slick videos by companies like Moderna notwithstanding:
So how do RNA vaccines work? The idea is that the mRNA (messenger RNA) gets into the human cells and does its thing, providing the template that the cells ribosomes use to translate the genetic code in the mRNA into protein, in this case the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, which is secreted and generates an immune response. I was quite amused by how impressed Mercola was by Dr. Carrie Madejs claims. First:
Madej goes on to discuss how this mRNA vaccine is going to be administered. Rather than a conventional injection, the vaccine will be administered using a microneedle platform. Not only can it be mass produced quickly, but it can also be administered by anyone. Its as simple at attaching an adhesive bandage to your arm.
The adhesive side of the bandage has rows of tiny microneedles and a hydrogel base that contains luciferase enzyme and the vaccine itself. Because of their tiny size, the microneedles are said to be nearly painless when pressed into the skin. The idea is that the microneedles will puncture the skin, delivering the modified synthetic RNA into the nucleus of your cells. RNA is essentially coding material that your body uses. In this case, as mentioned, the instructions are to produce the SARS-CoV-2 viral protein.
The part of Dr. Madejs video where she describes this couldnt be more obvious. While explaining the microneedle platform, the video flashes an image of a viper and its long fangs, ready to strike. Shes also conflating technology being developed with the actual Moderna vaccine and other RNA vaccines. Right now, they are not going to be delivered using microneedle bandages. Thats a technology thats still being tested. Dr. Madej is getting ahead of herself here. After all, the current form of the Moderna vaccine doesnt use microneedles. Its a standard vaccine thats injected, two shots given a month apart, and is intended to work as described in the video above.
I also laughed out loud reading the above passage. The nucleus of your cells? Nonsense! Thats not how protein synthesis works! mRNA is translated to protein in the cytoplasm (the part of the cell outside the nucleus but within the cell membrane). After DNA in the nucleus is transcribed to mRNA by an enzyme called RNA polymerase, the mRNA thus produced is transported out of the nucleus into the cytoplasm, where ribosomes use it as the template to make proteins. Sure, the system is more complicated than that, but I dont need to go into how some mRNAs start out as longer precursors that are spliced into the final mRNA before being used in translation. The basic outline above is enough for a lay person to understand why Dr. Madej is full of you-know-what. Heres a handy-dandy image from Wikipedia:
Seriously, Drs. Mercola and Madej need to pick up a Biology 101 textbook. No, really. This stuff is in the early chapters about cell biology. Its really, really basic. It gets worse, though:
Dr. Madej says this is not true. Well whoop-de-doo and la-dee-da! No, seriously. This is not a DNA vaccine. It is not possible for the RNA to become stable and be taken up into the genome. (Indeed, RNA viruses that can integrate into the genome rely on first being reverse transcribed into DNA.) Again, this is not even Molecular Biology 101. Its high school Biology 101. As for transfection, all that is is a technique to introduce RNA or DNA into cells. Most commonly its used to introduce plasmids (circular lengths of DNA containing genes of interest) into cells. Methods range from really old school methods that I used in graduate school 30 years ago, such as calcium phosphate precipitation (which is horrendously inefficient) to various liposome-based methods. (Liposomes are small spheres of lipid, which can bind to the cell membrane and fuse with it, thus delivering plasmid into the cytoplasm.) While, it is true that the introduction of mRNA into a cell will produce a temporary change, namely the cells ribosomes using the mRNA to make the desired protein, that temporary change is just that. It has nothing to do with altering the cell permanently, and as soon as the mRNA degrades naturally the cell will go back to normal. Seriously, Dr. Madej, molecular biologists are laughing at you.
Dr. Madej is also apparently all worked up about a protein called luciferase. Luciferase is an enzyme that is commonly used in molecular biology because it produces bioluminescence. (More specifically, it acts on a compound called luciferin.) Most commonly, its used as a reporter gene. The idea is that you insert the gene for luciferase into a plasmid after various DNA sequences that regulate gene expression (how much mRNA and protein the gene makes). These sequences are known as promoter or enhancer regions. You then transfect cells with the plasmid. By measuring changes in light emission of the cells, either by harvesting them and extracting the proteins and measuring how much bioluminescence is produced when substrate and appropriate cofactors are added, or by looking at them under an appropriate microscope, you can see how various manipulations of the cells (e.g., drugs, changes in the media, changes in expression of other genes) communicate with the reporter/enhancer sequences to increase or decrease the activity of the reporter gene luciferase.
So whats the obsession with luciferase, other than that some cranks (Im looking at you, Mike Adams) have latched onto its name to associate it with the Devil? Lets see:
Another part of the delivery system that raises its own set of questions is the use of the enzyme luciferase, which has bioluminescent qualities. While invisible under normal conditions, using a cellphone app or special device, you will be able to see a glowing vaccination mark.
As described in the journal RSC Advances7 in 2015, luciferase gene-loaded quantum dots can efficiently deliver genes into cells. The abstract discusses their use as self-illuminating probes for hepatoma imaging, but the fact that quantum dots can deliver genetic material is interesting in itself.
The hydrogel, meanwhile, is a DARPA invention that involves nanotechnology and nanobots. This bioelectronic interface is part of how the vaccination mark will be able to connect to your smartphone, Madej says, providing information about blood sugar, heart rate and any number of other biological data.
It has the potential to see almost anything that goes on in your body, Madej says. This will have immediate ramifications for our privacy, yet no one has yet addressed where this information will be going. Who will collect and have access to all this data? Who will be responsible for protecting it? How will it be used?
Again, this is not how the Moderna and other mRNA vaccines are going to be administered, at least not now. Also, the reference she cites merely describes using luciferase vectors as a way to image liver cancers. As for the luciferase, as its just there to show where the vaccine was injected and to demonstrate that cells did take up whatever was on the microneedles. Im also amused how Dr. Madej apparently doesnt know how to pronounce luciferase. I laughed out loud when she first mispronounced it, although she started pronouncing it closer to the correct pronunciation as time went on. Moreover, luciferase is an enzyme, and, unless the vector used to introduce it into human skin cells truly did integrate with the nucleus, any luminescence from luciferase would be temporary. The enzyme would degrade, over time, as would the plasmid that makes it.
As for the marking, Ive discussed that before. Shes appears to be referring to quantum dot tags, basically copper-based quantum dots embedded in biocompatible, micron-scale capsules. Theyre tagged with a near-infrared dye thats invisible, but the pattern they set can be read and interpreted by a customized smartphone. Even these are not permanent, as the currently estimated time during which they can be read is five years.
None of this stops Dr. Madej from going full conspiracy crank:
Were gonna be branded. Each person will have their own ID. This reminds me of World War II. You know, its something to think about, being branded like a product in the storeSo well be branded. What can that be used for. There are lots of technologies out there, and thats something we need to be concerned about.
Gee, that reference to World War II and branding wouldnt be a reference to the Nazis tattooing prisoner identification numbers on the inmates in their concentration camps, would it?
Theres so much more in this video that I might have to do a second post at some point. (The segment on Hydrogel make me chuckle and groan in equal measure) However, this post is about COVID-19 vaccines and the claim that they will us transhuman. Whats depressing is that there are real issues to consider when it comes to using technology like quantum dots to mark us, but the paranoid conspiracy mongering, coupled with the ignorance of basic biology, used by cranks like Mercola and Madej obscures any legitimate concerns, subsuming them into full blown QAnon-like conspiracy:
Getting back to the mRNA vaccines, time will tell just how hazardous they end up being. Clearly, if the changes end up being permanent, the chance of long-term side effects is much greater than if they end up being temporary.
In a worst-case scenario, whatever changes occur could even be generational. The problem is these issues wont be readily apparent any time soon. In my view, this vaccine could easily turn into a global catastrophe the likes of which weve never experienced before.
We really should not be quick to dismiss the idea that these vaccines may cause permanent genetic changes, because we now have proof that even conventional vaccines have the ability to do that, and they dont involve the insertion of synthetic RNA.
No, we do not, and the example cited doesnt show what Mercola thinks it does:
After the H1N1 swine flu of 2009, the ASO3-adjuvanted swine flu vaccine Pandemrix (a fast-tracked vaccine used in Europe but not in the U.S. during 2009-2010) was causally linked9 to childhood narcolepsy, which abruptly skyrocketed in several countries.
Children and teens in Finland, the U.K. and Sweden were among the hardest hit. Further analyses discerned a rise in narcolepsy among adults who received the vaccine as well, although the link wasnt as obvious as that in children and adolescents.
A 2019 study16 reported finding a novel association between Pandemrix-associated narcolepsy and the non-coding RNA gene GDNF-AS1a gene thought to regulate the production of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor or GDNF, a protein that plays an important role in neuronal survival.
They also confirmed a strong association between vaccine-induced narcolepsy and a certain haplotype, suggesting variation in genes related to immunity and neuronal survival may interact to increase the susceptibility to Pandemrix-induced narcolepsy in certain individuals.
Steve Novella has discussed the issue of whether Pandemrix caused a spike in the incidence of narcolepsy in these countries. Its important to note that this is a strange case. The association was only observed in specific countries and not in others (including the US) in which the vaccine does not appear to be a consistent or unique risk factor for narcolepsy in these populations. Overall, it was a confusing set of data to derive any clear picture of whether the H1N1 vaccine was a true risk factor. On the other hand, there are data suggesting that Pandemrix might trigger the production of antibodies that can also bind to a receptor in brain cells that help regulate sleepiness in genetically susceptible people. Basically, the whole situation is confusing, and its not clear if any of the H1N1 vaccines truly caused narcolepsy.
Also, the study cited by Mercola does not show that the H1N1 vaccine caused permanent genetic changes. The investigators did a genome-wide association study (GWAS), a type of study that frequently finds associations that do not hold up to scrutiny but can nonetheless be useful for hypothesis generation. What this study shows is an association between the haplotype and vaccine-induced narcolepsy, not that the H1N1 vaccine produced permanent genetic changes. Mercola is either grossly ignorant of basic biology, or hes lying, knowing that his audience doesnt know the difference. Take your pick.
The bottom line is that Mercola and Madej are doing nothing more than putting a COVID-19-based spin on an old antivaccine trope, one that I first saw eight years ago, when Sayer Ji claimed that vaccines are transhumanism in the service of subverting evolution by interfering with how we have co-evolved with pathogens. A few years later, antivaxxer Sherri Tenpenny was making the same sort of nonsensical argument, but by then antivaxxers had started pointing to DNA vaccines as a hopelessly unnatural corruption of our genes that reminds me a lot of the claim that trace amounts of contaminating DNA from the cell lines used to grow viral antigens for some vaccines can somehow get into the brain, express non-self proteins, and trigger an autoimmune response causing autism. (Truly, to antivaxxers, DNA and RNA are magic!) Again, its all an appeal to nature as being somehow always superior to anything humans can do. They view vaccines as unnatural to the point of altering what human beings are.
Of course, just because something is natural does not make it good, benign, or even just neutral. Nature is harsh, and the battle for survival brutal, and its completely natural for all manner of animals to be eaten by bigger, faster, and hungrier animals, and its just as natural for humans do die horrible deaths from infectious diseases. Yet the mindset behind so much of alternative medicine and antivaccine views is that natural is always good and that anything synthetic should be viewed with extreme suspicion. Its silly, because even natural nutrients and medicines are just as much chemicals as any synthetic nutrient or chemical. We have to judge whether such chemicals are harmful based on science and where the evidence leads us, not based on whether the chemical is natural or not.
In the end, theres so much antivaccine and COVID-19 pseudoscience coming from Madej that I suspect this will not be the last time I write about her. She really is an up-and-coming crank, and now that Mercola has amplified her message I expect, alas, to see a lot more of her. Shes an all-purpose conspiracy theorist.
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Dr. Carrie Madej: COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are transhumanism ...
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Agenda 21 How Would You Like to be Forced into a Human …
Posted: at 3:10 am
Agenda 21 is the blueprint for a global communist dictatorship, tying together many aspects of the NWO: depopulation, smart meters, surveillance, transhumanism and microchipping.
Communism is coming to America and the world, this time cloaked in green, not red. Private property is under attack. Land is being grabbed by stealth. The US Federal Government is claiming control over more and more land, and kicking rightful owners off their property through the use of Eminent Domain, a law letting the Government take land anywhere (and usually by undercompensating the owners too). The Government (through its numerous agencies like the EPA) is also laying claim to all waterways (including small streams) in America. Cunningly, all of this is being sugar-coated and done in the name of sustainability, saving the environment and with the use of other nice-sounding PR terms like smart growth. Thats right; the United Nations communist Agenda 21 has arrived, and green is the new red.
So what is Agenda 21? It is the global scheme being implemented in America and elsewhere to place concentrated power in the hands of a few central planners, who will then decide in a top-down fashion where everyone will live, where they can go and where they will be forbidden from entering. It plans to create non-human zones where ordinary people will never be allowed to set foot (but there will be one rule for the masses and another rule for the elite). Around these non-human zones will be placed buffer zones. Then, in the little bit of land left, there will be a dozen or so mega-regions human habitats with incredibly high population density. These will become smart cities, with mass transit (instead of cars), high rises and people stacked up on top of each other in tiny box-sized apartments. You will be asked to need less and accept living in a cardboard box, all for the supposed sake of the Earth while the elite administrators live in their mansions out of sight in another sector. Agenda 21 even contains plans for the Government to decide whether you own a car, whether you can grow your own food and what materials your dwelling will be made of!
But thats not all: Agenda 21 is the master plan behind the smart deception. In planned smart cities, smart meters will be prevalent, cameras will be everywhere and everyone will be under constant surveillance 24/7. Eventually the plan is to link all machines, appliances and devices to a smart chip or microchip which the elite want you to have embedded under your skin. This chip will be necessary for you to access money, food, transport, entry to your dwelling and buildings, etc., but it will also be subject to remote control from authorities. Humans will become mere automatons, nodes on a massive smart grid, thus fulfilling the ambitions of the transhumanism agenda.
This isnt conspiracy theory; its conspiracy fact. Recently a Colorado woman lost custody of her son for speaking out against Agenda 21. This tyrannical plan is being carried out as we speak.
Agenda 21 came onto the world stage at the 1992 Rio Earth Conference, and has its origins at the Club of Rome, one of the Round Table think tanks and secret societies that run the world, alongside the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations), the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Group. The Club of Rome decided the best way to achieve world government would be to devise a grand global threat with which to scare the whole of humanity, and it came up with the idea that mankind itself was that threat. This quote is from their 1991 report, The First Global Revolution: In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like, would fit the bill. In their totality and their interactions these phenomena do constitute a common threat which must be confronted by everyone together all these dangers are caused by human intervention in natural processes, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then is humanity itself.
Of course, this kind of thinking is utterly insane. There is nothing wrong with human beings living on Earth. The real problem is the deluded mindset which is in all of us, but which runs the show in the minds of our possessed leaders; the same mindset whose greed has no limits and which is utterly without compassion or empathy. However, the elite instead pretend the mass of humanity is the problem, spouting their propaganda that we should feel guilty just for breathing out carbon dioxide. As the Club of Rome admitted, the idea of man-made global warming was contrived to control humanity and is part of the junk science of Agenda 21. More than 1,000 dissenting scientists from around the globe have now challenged the man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and have busted its credibility.
Agenda 21 is the blueprint for a global communist dictatorship, tying together many aspects of the NWO: depopulation, smart meters, surveillance, transhumanism and microchipping.
The insidious thing about Agenda 21 is that its very cleverly hidden. At first glance, who would object to the idea of cleaning up the planet, living in better harmony with Nature and living more smartly and sustainably? Yet, as with many aspects of the global conspiracy, you only get the truth if you look past the veneer and dig beneath the surface. It turns out that the elite have their own meaning for each of their key terms. They state in their documents that sustainable does not mean self-sufficient, and they explicitly define things they deem not sustainable: ski runs, grazing of livestock, plowing of soil, building of fences, industry, single family homes, paved and tarred roads, logging activities, dams and power line construction. These are all targeted to be banned, and yet life without some of them would mean a return to the Stone Age!
The whole foundation of sustainable development according to Agenda 21 is a world without private property. This is the 1st plank of the Communist Manifesto. Using a mixture of half-truths, it claims in its documents that land cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principle instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth, therefore, contributes to social injustice.
While its true that our current society is full of wealth and power inequalities, getting rid of the ability to own your own land, and putting all land on Earth into the hands of elite bureaucrats to distribute as they see fit, is definitely not the answer. Thats a recipe for tyranny, and once again, whether its Obamacare, gun control or Agenda 21, it all boils down to the same distorted idea: collectivism.
To revisit, collectivism is the idea that the group is superior to the individual, and that the abstract needs of the group should come ahead of the concrete needs of the individual. It sounds all fine and dandy in theory, and to some degree an individual must sacrifice some of his desires to work harmoniously in a team or live harmoniously in a community, but thats not what this is all about. Whenever collectivism is applied to politics, it becomes Marxism, Socialism or Communism, and horrible results ensue. The individual becomes nothing. The State becomes everything. Power gets concentrated in a tiny percentage of hands (like a Central Committee) who become the new ruling elite. They claim to represent everyone and manage affairs and wealth distribution for the good of all, but in reality they become unaccountable tyrants who force their will on anyone who stands in their way.
Agenda 21 is entirely and utterly collectivist. Its a global communist scheme aiming to create a hierarchical One World Government (Global Governance or the New World Order) with the power to control everyones behaviors, habits and lives. It goes against everything in the Constitution relating to individual rights and freedoms. It goes against the Declaration of Independence and everything Americans fought for in the late 1700s to become a free republic.
An important thing to note is that Agenda 21 is not a treaty. It was never ratified by the US Senate. Therefore, it is not the law of the land. Agenda 21 is soft law or policy which covertly influences a countrys legislation at all levels, national, state and local. Not only does it give the appearance of being green, but it also gives the appearance of being local, when in fact it is being orchestrated globally through ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives), as exposed by Rosa Koire.
In conclusion, Agenda 21 is a grave threat to humanity, and a very dangerous one because it is so well hidden. It ties together so many aspects of the global conspiracy, including depopulation, smart meters, surveillance, transhumanism and microchipping, all wrapped up in a global communist dictatorship. However, despite all this, it can be stopped.
The situation were facing now is reminiscent of what it must have been like for the Native American Indians when white man arrived. Those who escaped being killed were forced off their land into reservations. Try substituting the New World Order elite for white man, the mass of ordinary Americans for the Indians and human habitats for Indian reservations, and you may get a clearer glimpse of the predicament were in. Its time to stand up, be strong and take action before this scheme gets too far advanced.
The solution is to look beyond the nice-sounding environmental language and realize that the green movement has been hijacked. We need to reject the calls, coming from a rich elite, that we must live on less while they secretly plot to take all the good property and houses on the planet and leave the masses squashed in shoebox apartments in smart cities. Take action locally, e.g. by ensuring your local council is not being fooled by ICLEI Agenda 21 policy. Use the resources at ToolsForFreedom to educate yourself (e.g. the Agenda 21 Land Grab Package), and then tell everyone you know about the threat to our sovereignty. Call us and we will provide free catalogs to anyone. Raising widespread awareness is a big part of halting Agenda 21.
The truth is that we can find a way to better live in harmony with the planet without enslaving ourselves and losing our individual rights, freedom and form of government in the process. Freedom requires constant vigilance and determined action to uphold it. The time for that action is now.
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Quantum computing is finally having something of a moment – World Finance
Posted: at 3:08 am
Author: David Orrell, Author and Economist
March 16, 2021
In 2019, Google announced that they had achieved quantum supremacy by showing they could run a particular task much faster on their quantum device than on any classical computer. Research teams around the world are competing to find the first real-world applications and finance is at the very top of this list.
However, quantum computing may do more than change the way that quantitative analysts run their algorithms. It may also profoundly alter our perception of the financial system, and the economy in general. The reason for this is that classical and quantum computers handle probability in a different way.
The quantum coinIn classical probability, a statement can be either true or false, but not both at the same time. In mathematics-speak, the rule for determining the size of some quantity is called the norm. In classical probability, the norm, denoted the 1-norm, is just the magnitude. If the probability is 0.5, then that is the size.
The next-simplest norm, known as the 2-norm, works for a pair of numbers, and is the square root of the sum of squares. The 2-norm therefore corresponds to the distance between two points on a 2-dimensional plane, instead of a 1-dimensional line, hence the name. Since mathematicians love to extend a theory, a natural question to ask is what rules for probability would look like if they were based on this 2-norm.
It is only in the final step, when we take the magnitude into account, that negative probabilities are forced to become positive
For one thing, we could denote the state of something like a coin toss by a 2-D diagonal ray of length 1. The probability of heads is given by the square of the horizontal extent, while the probability of tails is given by the square of the vertical extent. By the Pythagorean theorem, the sum of these two numbers equals 1, as expected for a probability. If the coin is perfectly balanced, then the line should be at 45 degrees, so the chances of getting a heads or tails are identical. When we toss the coin and observe the outcome, the ambiguous state collapses to either heads or tails.
Because the norm of a quantum probability depends on the square, one could also imagine cases where the probabilities were negative. In classical probability, negative probabilities dont make sense: if a forecaster announced a negative 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow, we would think they were crazy. However, in a 2-norm, there is nothing to prevent negative probabilities occurring. It is only in the final step, when we take the magnitude into account, that negative probabilities are forced to become positive. If were going to allow negative numbers, then for mathematical consistency we should also permit complex numbers, which involve the square root of negative one. Now its possible well end up with a complex number for a probability; however the 2-norm of a complex number is a positive number (or zero). To summarise, classical probability is the simplest kind of probability, which is based on the 1-norm and involves positive numbers. The next-simplest kind of probability uses the 2-norm, and includes complex numbers. This kind of probability is called quantum probability.
Quantum logicIn a classical computer, a bit can take the value of 0 or 1. In a quantum computer, the state is represented by a qubit, which in mathematical terms describes a ray of length 1. Only when the qubit is measured does it give a 0 or 1. But prior to measurement, a quantum computer can work in the superposed state, which is what makes them so powerful.
So what does this have to do with finance? Well, it turns out that quantum algorithms behave in a very different way from their classical counterparts. For example, many of the algorithms used by quantitative analysts are based on the concept of a random walk. This assumes that the price of an asset such as a stock varies in a random way, taking a random step up or down at each time step. It turns out that the magnitude of the expected change increases with the square-root of time.
Quantum computing has its own version of the random walk, which is known as the quantum walk. One difference is the expected magnitude of change, which grows much faster (linearly with time). This feature matches the way that most people think about financial markets. After all, if we think a stock will go up by eight percent in a year then we will probably extend that into the future as well, so the next year it will grow by another eight percent. We dont think in square-roots.
This is just one way in which quantum models seem a better fit to human thought processes than classical ones. The field of quantum cognition shows that many of what behavioural economists call paradoxes of human decision-making actually make perfect sense when we switch to quantum probability. Once quantum computers become established in finance, expect quantum algorithms to get more attention, not for their ability to improve processing times, but because they are a better match for human behaviour.
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Quantum computing is finally having something of a moment - World Finance
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