Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/14/2023

A man named Harry May — who may possibly be my cousin — pleaded guilty to throwing an egg at King Charles III in December of last year. The king was visiting Luton and walking among his subjects when Mr. May hurled his projectile at his sovereign.

In other news, Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, called for an end to mass “vaccination” against COVID for anyone who is not in an at-risk group.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Dean, DV, JW, Reader from Chicago, Roger, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» The UK Considers a Digital Pound
 
USA
» 7-Eleven Stores in Texas, California, New York Use Classical Music to Shoo Homeless People
» Anti-Violence Worker Found in Chicago Home Naked With Gun, Suspected Narcotics and $50K Cash: Prosecutors
» Biden Stored Additional Classified Documents at Delaware Home, Lawyer Reveals
» Boston Sculpture Honoring MLK, Coretta Scott King Gets Mixed Reviews
» Chicago Schools Audit Reports Widespread Fraud With Free Lunch Program
» COVID Expert Warns Hospitals May be Overcounting Coronavirus Deaths
» Delaware Faces Federal Lawsuit Over Large Capacity Magazine Ban
» FDA Vaccine Committee Member Calls for End to Mass COVID Vaccination
» George Soros-Funded Group Played Key Role in Suppressing the Hunter Biden Story Before 2020 US Elections: Reveal Twitter Files Documents
» House Democrats Introduce Measure to Lower Voting Age to 16
» Hunter Biden Asks Court to Stop Love Child From Taking His Sullied Surname
» Judge Acquits Jan. 6 Capitol Rioter of Obstruction Charge for First Time
» Keyword Warrants Are Challenged in Colorado
» LAPD Chief Bans ‘Thin Blue Line’ Flag, Citing ‘Extremism’
» Man Arrested in LaGrange After Telling Officers He Stabbed His Wife, Police Say
» Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert Say All Jan 6 Footage Will be Released by GOP House: “Speaker McCarthy Says He’ll be Releasing All the Footage From January 6th”
» Mickey Mouse and Uncle Sam: Lawsuit Claims Disney Was a “State Actor” With COVID Vaccine Mandate
» Nancy Pelosi Reports Stock Trades, Loses $2.5 Million According to Financial Disclosure Forms
» Rep. Jim Jordan Probe to Zero in on FBI Communications With Twitter
» Rep. Ken Buck Says Google is the “Greatest Threat to Speech in the Market”
» SF Judge Overrules Ungrateful Ex-Twitter Employees, Sides With Elon Musk and Forces Workers to Drop Class Action Lawsuit for Arbitration
» Texas, Florida, Carolinas Among Most Moved to States in 2022 Data Shows
» Yosemite National Park Reinstating Indoor Mask Mandate Amid ‘High COVID-19 Community Level’
 
Canada
» The Alberta Roundup
 
Europe and the EU
» Greta Thunberg Joins Protests Against Coal Mine in Germany
» New Gas Boilers Should be Banned Within 10 Years, Demands UK Govt Report
» Romanian Authorities Seize Several Luxury Cars From Andrew Tate
» Turks Say They Will Likely Block Sweden, Finland From Joining NATO Until at Least June
» UK Confirms Transfer of Challenger 2 Tanks to Ukraine, First Western Heavy Armour Commitment
» UK: BBC Host Jennie Gow Suffers ‘Serious Stroke’ At 45
» UK: Euston Shooting: Three Women and Girl Injured Near Church
» UK: King Charles III: Man Pleads Guilty to Throwing an Egg at Monarch
 
Middle East
» Key Figure in Push for Probe of Beirut Port Blast is Arrested, Let Go After Protests
» On Erdogan’s Initiative, First New Church Built in Turkey Since 1923
 
Russia
» Explosions Heard in Three Ukrainian Regions — Publication
» First Missile Strike on Kyiv Since New Year’s, Infrastructure Hit
 
Far East
» Japan’s Experts Baffled by High ‘COVID’ Deaths From Heart Problems Despite High Vaccination Rate
 
Latin America
» Brazil’s Former Justice Minister Anderson Torres Arrested for Collusion With Rioters
» Brazilian Prosecutors Investigate Major Broadcaster, Pro-Bolsonaro Journalists Fired, Passports Seized
» Politicians and Commentators Are Blocked Online in Brazil After Censorship Order Targets Bolsonaro Support
 
Immigration
» Group Launches Private Prosecution Against Trudeau Over Illegal Border Crossings
» Hill Republicans Seek to Overturn Bill Allowing Non-Citizens to Vote in Washington, D.C. Elections
» New Democrat Governor in Arizona Proposes Defunding Border Strike Force, Universal School Choice
» NYC Mayor Eric Adams Says the City is at ‘Breaking Point’ As 400 Asylum Seekers Arrive Each Day — and Submits an Emergency Aid Request to Gov. Kathy Hochul to Help Shelter Hundreds of Migrants
» Tunisian Arrested After Attacking and Injuring Two French Police
» UK Taxpayers Picked Up £4,000 Bills for Luxury Hotel Stays Abroad for Migrants Who Were Deported During COVID
» UK: Channel Migrants: Most People Claiming to be Modern Slavery Victims Are Albanian
 
Culture Wars
» 17-Year-Old Scolded for Crying Over Transgender Woman’s Penis at YMCA
» Breaking: Antifa Clashes With Gays Against Groomers Group Outside of Canadian All-Ages Drag Queen Story Hour
» NHL Backpedals on Racist Minority-Only Job Fair After Notice From Ron DeSantis
» Populist-Led Spanish Region to Introduce Pro-Life Policies to Reduce Abortions
» Trans Activists Shutting Down Seminar Was “Horribly Anti-Democratic, “ Speaker Says
 

The UK Considers a Digital Pound

The economic secretary to the Treasury, Andrew Griffith, has told the Treasury Select Committee that the government was considering introducing a “digital pound.”

Griffith noted that the UK was committed to being a world crypto hub and that the government was well into the research on ways “to establish a regime for the wholesale use, for payment purposes, of stablecoins.”

Griffith said that public consultation on the attributes of a digital pound would begin in the coming weeks.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

7-Eleven Stores in Texas, California, New York Use Classical Music to Shoo Homeless People

Some 7-Eleven convenience stores around the country, including in Texas and California have started using roaring classical and opera music as a tactic to deter homeless people from camping out in front of their storefronts.

One Texas 7-Eleven owner says the goal is to deter homeless individuals from being there and harassing customers. Some customers say they’re all for the music, while others are annoyed by it.

The store owner, Jagat Patel, says no one from the Austin Police Department has shown up, despite officials receiving multiple noise complaints from blasting classical tunes. He doesn’t know whether the actual decibel level falls within city ordinance, but told FOX 7 that he is planning on lowering volume.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Anti-Violence Worker Found in Chicago Home Naked With Gun, Suspected Narcotics and $50K Cash: Prosecutors

Chicago police officers who were executing a search warrant reportedly discovered a man who works as a violence interrupter naked under a bed with cash, drugs, and a gun in the home.

Jerel Taylor, 30, was charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, possession of heroin and possession of a controlled substance after police raided an apartment in the Humboldt Park area of Chicago and found a loaded pistol on the kitchen window ledge along with bags of suspected crack cocaine, according to CWB Chicago.

Taylor was reportedly hiding under the bed and police saw his feet sticking out from beneath the bed after a woman told them there was no one in the house.

Police say they found $50,000 cash on the floor and that they also found heroin on the floor next to Taylor’s pants when they asked him where his clothes were.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Biden Stored Additional Classified Documents at Delaware Home, Lawyer Reveals

Five more pages of classified documents were discovered in President Biden’s Delaware home this week, the White House admitted Saturday — adding further fuel to the furor surrounding his careless and “alarming” handling of government secrets.

The additional pages were found Thursday — hours after the White House acknowledged a single page of classified material had been found in Biden’s personal library, near the garage where he had stored other restricted documents dating from his time as vice president.

With the new discovery, a total of six classified pages have emerged from Biden’s Wilmington home — while the total number of sensitive documents found in the home’s garage and in the office of his DC think tank remains unknown.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Boston Sculpture Honoring MLK, Coretta Scott King Gets Mixed Reviews

A bronze sculpture honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King that was unveiled in Boston this week is already getting ripped by online critics.

The piece, titled “The Embrace,” was crafted by the conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, TMZ reported. It depicts a famous hug that the iconic civil rights leaders gave each other after King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, which was memorialized in an iconic photo.

The piece has received some praise since its crowded unveiling in the Boston Common on Friday, with members of the King family in attendance.

Many others, however, especially those online, didn’t wait long to bash the artwork as a poorly designed eyesore.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Chicago Schools Audit Reports Widespread Fraud With Free Lunch Program

The Chicago Public School District is faced with “persistent and widespread fraud” by highly-paid employees taking advantage of food stamp and state-subsidized health care benefits by underreporting their income, according to a 2022 annual report from the district’s Office of Inspector General.

The report provides multiple instances where CPS staff fraudulently underreported their income and received SNAP benefits while making their children eligible for free-and-reduced lunches at their schools. The examples cited in the report occurred from 2016 through 2020.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

COVID Expert Warns Hospitals May be Overcounting Coronavirus Deaths

A noted COVID expert is warning that hospitals may be overcounting COVID deaths, potentially misleading the public and undermining the perception of coronavirus vaccines.

Leana Wen, a physician and professor at the George Washington University who has been a regular commentator on COVID over the past three years, wrote in the Washington Post this week of the “crucial” need to determine which Americans are “dying from covid” versus dying “with covid.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Delaware Faces Federal Lawsuit Over Large Capacity Magazine Ban

Delaware is facing a legal challenge over its ban on large capacity magazines from a group which claims it violates the constitutional right to bear arms.

A lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court by the Second Amendment Foundation on behalf of two gun owners, alleges the state’s new gun restrictions violate the Second and Fourteenth Amendments by preventing them from “exercising their fundamental right to keep and bear arms.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to grant preliminary and permanent injunctions preventing the state from enforcing the restrictions on large capacity magazines.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

FDA Vaccine Committee Member Calls for End to Mass COVID Vaccination

Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the U.S. FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, has written in the New England Journal of Medicine, the world’s top medical journal, calling for an end to the mass vaccination of anyone at low risk from the virus.

In an op-ed titled “Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccines — A Cautionary Tale”, Dr. Offit writes that Covid boosters are “probably best reserved for the people most likely to need protection against severe disease”.

“I believe we should stop trying to prevent all symptomatic infections in healthy, young people by boosting them with vaccines containing mRNA from strains that might disappear a few months later,” he writes.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

George Soros-Funded Group Played Key Role in Suppressing the Hunter Biden Story Before 2020 US Elections: Reveal Twitter Files Documents

By now it has been well established how the left-liberal ecosystem had come together to bury the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the US presidential elections in 2020. Major left-wing media houses had decided not to publish the explosive stories revealed after Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden had left his laptop at a repair shop. And when New York Post published the reports, Twitter and Facebook had censored the story. Now it has been revealed that left-wing billionaire George Soros was also behind the conspiracy to bury the story to help Biden win the election.

The revelation was made in Twitter Files, the initiative by new Twitter owner Elon Musk to expose how the social media platform under previous management had suppressed right-wing voices. In Twitter Files 7 released by author Michael Shellenberger on December 7, it was revealed how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) paid a whopping $3.4 million to Twitter between October 2019 and February 2021 and coerced top Twitter executives into gutting the ‘Hunter Biden story’ of the New York Post.

According to the expose, the FBI was actively involved in Twitter affairs so much so that they created their own “private Slack channel and a crib sheet to onboard new FBI arrivals.” During that time, Twitter Safety Head Yoel Roth participated in a September 2020 “tabletop exercise” by Aspen Institute, a left-wing group run by elite liberals, on a potential “Hack-and-Dump” operation pertaining to the New York Post story on Hunter Biden.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

House Democrats Introduce Measure to Lower Voting Age to 16

Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced a measure this week to lower the federal voting age to 16, a change that has drawn support from top party leaders in the past.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Hunter Biden Asks Court to Stop Love Child From Taking His Sullied Surname

He doesn’t want to give her his bad name.

Hunter Biden asked a judge to deny his 4-year-old daughter from taking his surname — claiming it’s a lightning rod for criticism and would rob the child of a “peaceful existence.”

The first son’s request on Jan. 6 came amid an ongoing paternity case against him in Independence, Ark., where Biden is fighting to lower his child-support payments to baby mama Lunden Roberts for their love child, Navy Joan Roberts.

Roberts, 31, asked Circuit Court Judge Holly Meyer on Dec. 27 to allow their daughter to take the Biden name, claiming it would benefit their daughter because it is “now synonymous with being well educated, successful, financially acute and politically powerful.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Judge Acquits Jan. 6 Capitol Rioter of Obstruction Charge for First Time

A Jan. 6 Capitol rioter who stormed the Senate floor was acquitted of obstruction charges Friday, reportedly marking a first such acquittal in the sprawling Justice Department prosecutions of the riot.

Joshua Black managed to avoid obstruction charges for his actions, but was convicted of multiple misdemeanor and felony charges for trespassing in a restricted building while wielding a weapon. Sentencing is slated for May 5.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Keyword Warrants Are Challenged in Colorado

Lawyers in Colorado are questioning the legality of keyword-search warrants. According to a newly filed motion, after failing to find any leads in an arson case in Colorado in 2020, the police served Google a warrant demanding information on anyone that had searched the address of the location of the fire.

Google refused to comply with the first two warrants but complied with the third, helping the police find suspects. As a result, three teenagers were charged with murder.

However, the keyword-search warrant has been legally challenged by the lawyers of one of the defendants, Gavin Seymour. They describe these warrants as “a digital dragnet of immense proportions.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

LAPD Chief Bans ‘Thin Blue Line’ Flag, Citing ‘Extremism’

The “Thin Blue Line” flag has been banned from Los Angeles Police Department lobbies along with all other public areas on police property following a complaint from one person who thought it signified support for “extremist” ideologies such as “those espoused by the Proud Boys,” according to the chief.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore sent an email to department personnel on Friday making the announcement to remove the flags, blaming “extremist groups” who have “hijacked the use” of the Thin Blue Line.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Man Arrested in LaGrange After Telling Officers He Stabbed His Wife, Police Say

LAGRANGE, Ga. — Police in LaGrange said a man involved in a car crash was detained and later arrested for murder after he admitted to stabbing his wife on Friday afternoon.

Investigators said Timothy Mobley was booked in Troup County Jail for murdering his wife, Miranda Mobley.

LaGrange police said officers initially went to Lukken Industrial Drive at around 4:54 p.m. and found Timothy Mobley, who was driving one of the cars involved in the wreck. He told police he had just stabbed his wife at their home on Troup Street.

Police detained him and officers went to the home to check on the victim. She was dead when police got there.

Police didn’t explain the motive for the stabbing.

           — Hat tip: Roger [Return to headlines]
 

Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert Say All Jan 6 Footage Will be Released by GOP House: “Speaker McCarthy Says He’ll be Releasing All the Footage From January 6th”

U.S. House Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL) appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show last night and said the GOP-controlled House will release all the Jan. 6 footage. Matt said he is unsure what the footage will show but it was important to make it all public.

Matt said: “The American people deserve to know the truth about what happened on January 6th. We have demanded to see all the footage. Transparency is coming.

Every time from the JFK files, to 9/11, to now January 6th. It’s our own government, our own Department of Justice that seems to stand in the way of transparency.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Mickey Mouse and Uncle Sam: Lawsuit Claims Disney Was a “State Actor” With COVID Vaccine Mandate

In issuing employees an ultimatum to either receive the Covid jab or be fired, Disney acted as an arm of the Biden administration and violated employees’ privacy and religious rights, according to lawsuits filed by former Disney employees.

As of this writing, at least seven former employees have filed lawsuits against Disney over being terminated for not complying with mandatory Covid vaccines. Two of those employees — Beth Faber and Allison Williams — were fired from ESPN (which is owned by Disney and enforced Disney’s vaccine policy). In their lawsuit, Faber and Williams claim that Disney played the role of a “state actor,” and as such is subject to the Constitution’s “equal protection clause.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Nancy Pelosi Reports Stock Trades, Loses $2.5 Million According to Financial Disclosure Forms

Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul suffered massive losses in the stock market according to federal disclosure forms. Pelosi’s stock trades have been widely criticized and started a bipartisan movement to ban stock trades by members of Congress and their spouses.

Pelosi has made tens of millions of dollars in well-timed stock trades during the past few years congressional records show. But the Pelosi’s had a bad stretch and reported losing over $2.5 million in the final weeks of 2022.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Rep. Jim Jordan Probe to Zero in on FBI Communications With Twitter

Rep. Jim Jordan’s looming investigation into the “weaponization” of the Department of Justice will zero in on a trove of documents sent by the FBI to Twitter just hours before The Post published bombshell revelations about Hunter Biden, the lawmaker told The Post in an exclusive interview.

The 10 documents were fired off by Special Agent Elvis Chan to Twitter head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth on Oct. 13, 2020 via a one-way communications channel, Teleporter.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Rep. Ken Buck Says Google is the “Greatest Threat to Speech in the Market”

Speaking at an event organized by the conservative organization the Heritage Foundation, Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) criticized Big Tech for abusing its power through censorship and anti-competitive practices. He singled out Google as the “greatest threat to speech in the market.”

To highlight Big Tech’s anti-competitive practices, Buck recalled what happened to the social media platform Parler after the Jan 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. Apple and Google booted the app from their app stores following allegations that it allowed Trump supporters to mobilize to organize the riots. Amazon took the platform offline by withdrawing its hosting services.

“They were able to take Parler down in a matter of a few days,” Buck said, as reported by Epoch. “Twitter was being used at the Capitol on January 6th. Facebook was being used…Parler was a competitor and January 6th provided the perfect excuse to wipe it out.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

SF Judge Overrules Ungrateful Ex-Twitter Employees, Sides With Elon Musk and Forces Workers to Drop Class Action Lawsuit for Arbitration

U.S. District Judge James Donato overruled disgruntled ex-Twitter employees and sided with Twitter CEO Elon Musk ordering the ex-employees to drop their class action lawsuit and pursue their claims through individual arbitration.

The employees accused Twitter of not giving them adequate notice before firing them after Musk bought the company. This is a significant win for Musk as class action lawsuits, especially public ones where Musk would be portrayed as a villain, can get expensive.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Texas, Florida, Carolinas Among Most Moved to States in 2022 Data Shows

It’s a trend that’s continued since the pandemic; many Americans are moving to a different state. Moving companies say some hot spots are Texas, Florida, and the Carolinas.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Yosemite National Park Reinstating Indoor Mask Mandate Amid ‘High COVID-19 Community Level’

Yosemite National Park in California is reinstating its indoor mask mandate, citing an increased level of COVID-19 spread.

The national park made the announcement on Friday, stating that masking is required for individuals entering federal buildings or public transportation within Yosemite National Park.

“Due to the high COVID-19 community level, mask wearing is now required for all people when entering federal buildings and public transportation in Yosemite National Park, regardless of vaccination status,” an Instagram post by Yosemite National Park states.

According to the Instagram post, the masking requirement applies to vaccinated individuals as well.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

The Alberta Roundup

Smith says Trudeau appealing to ‘extreme base’

This week on the Alberta Roundup with Rachel Emmanuel, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seeking to appeal to an “extreme base” with the government’s “just transition” proposal.

Also on the show, Rachel discusses the Federal Court’s move to grant Alberta intervenor status in six ongoing lawsuits against the Liberal government’s firearms ban.

And an unvaccinated woman who was removed from the top of the organ transplant list is asking the Supreme Court to hear her case.

Tune into the Alberta Roundup now!

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Greta Thunberg Joins Protests Against Coal Mine in Germany

Climate activist Greta Thunberg joined an estimated 6,000 protesters in Germany who marched through rain and mud to voice their opposition against the expansion of a coal mine on Saturday.

The demonstrators walked to the village of Luetzerath, about 90 minutes outside Dusseldorf.

The village is slated to be destroyed to make way for the coal mine — a move activists say symbolizes Berlin’s failing climate policy.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

New Gas Boilers Should be Banned Within 10 Years, Demands UK Govt Report

A report on net zero goals commissioned by the British government has said that all new gas-powered boilers should be banned within the next ten years — a move that would cost average households thousands.

The Independent Review of Net Zero, written by Conservative (Tory) MP Chris Skidmore — the man who first introduced Net Zero targets in Parliament — has called for a radical transformation of homes in Britain, arguing that the sale of new gas boilers should be completely phased out within a decade and for legacy heaters to be replaced by allegedly more environmentally friendly heat pumps.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Romanian Authorities Seize Several Luxury Cars From Andrew Tate

Romanian authorities seized luxury cars Saturday from accused rapist and sex trafficker Andrew Tate’s compound.

A Rolls-Royce, BMW and Mercedes-Benz along with other cars were seen being taken from the property on the outskirts of the capital, Bucharest, Reuters reported.

Romanian police Thursday raided seven homes as part of their investigation into Tate, a social media influencer and self-proclaimed misogynist. The raid came a day after Tate lost a bid to get back assets previously seized, including his cars.

The U.S.-born Tate, 36, remains in custody facing a slew of serious sex-crime charges after his Dec. 29 arrest. He was arrested with his brother and two Romanian women. They have denied wrongdoing.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Turks Say They Will Likely Block Sweden, Finland From Joining NATO Until at Least June

ISTANBUL (AP) — Sweden and Finland are unlikely to be able to join NATO before June, a senior Turkish official said Saturday.

The Nordic states applied to join the Western military alliance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but their membership must be approved by all 30 NATO states. Only Turkey and Hungary have yet to approve the deal, with Ankara linking accession to stricter counterterrorism measures.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK Confirms Transfer of Challenger 2 Tanks to Ukraine, First Western Heavy Armour Commitment

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has confirmed Britain will send Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, becoming the first country to pledge Western heavy armour to Kyiv.

The British confirmed the move to send heavy tanks to Ukraine on Saturday, with 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s official residence, providing a readout of a call between Sunak and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky describing how they “reflected on the current state of Russia’s war in Ukraine, with successive Ukrainian victories pushing Russian troops back and compounding their military and morale issues” and the “need to seize on this moment with an acceleration of global military and diplomatic support to Ukraine.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: BBC Host Jennie Gow Suffers ‘Serious Stroke’ At 45

45-year-old BBC host Jennie Gow has suffered a “serious stroke.”

In a post on her social media channels, Gow revealed that it has left her struggling to speak and even write.

Gow, who presents Formula One racing for the British public broadcaster and also appears regularly on the popular Netflix series Drive To Survive, disclosed on Instagram and Twitter that she suffered the stroke two weeks ago.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Euston Shooting: Three Women and Girl Injured Near Church

Three women and a seven-year-old girl have been injured in a shooting close to a church in central London.

The women, aged 54, 48 and 41, are being treated in hospital after the attack which happened during a funeral at St Aloysius R.C. Church in Phoenix Road, in Euston, at about 13:30 GMT.

The 48-year-old potentially suffered life-changing injuries, while the two other women’s conditions are not life-threatening, the Met Police said.

The girl’s condition is not yet known.

           — Hat tip: DV [Return to headlines]
 

UK: King Charles III: Man Pleads Guilty to Throwing an Egg at Monarch

A man has pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court to throwing an egg towards King Charles III.

Harry May, 21, from Moreton Road South, threw an egg at the King during a walkabout in December 2022 that took place in Luton.

During the incident the King was temporarily steered away from crowds at Luton Town Hall by security staff.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Key Figure in Push for Probe of Beirut Port Blast is Arrested, Let Go After Protests

William Noun, whose brother died in 2020 explosion, detained after making remarks critical of government, as Hezbollah terror group blocks investigation of the disaster

Beirut, Lebanon. (AP/Hussein Malla)

AFP — A key figure among the families of Beirut’s 2020 port explosion victims was released Saturday after his arrest a day earlier sparked protests in the Lebanese capital.

William Noun — whose brother, a fireman, was killed in the devastating August 4, 2020 port blast — was arrested Friday over remarks made during a television program, a judiciary source told AFP.

Noun is among those who have been urging the continuation of a probe — on hold for more than a year due to political pressure — into the explosion, which killed more than 215 people, injured thousands and decimated vast areas of the capital.

“We just want the full truth, and that justice be served,” Noun told journalists upon his release on Saturday afternoon.

Known for his outspokenness, Noun had threatened during televised remarks Thursday to “blow up the palace of justice” to protest moves to replace the judge investigating the blast.

           — Hat tip: JW [Return to headlines]
 

On Erdogan’s Initiative, First New Church Built in Turkey Since 1923

The first new building for a Christian church since the founding of the republic in 1923 is about to open there. The Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Ephrem in Istanbul’s Bakirkoy district is scheduled to be completed within the next two months.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Explosions Heard in Three Ukrainian Regions — Publication

The explosions are reported to have rocked the Vinnitsa, Nikolayev and Odessa regions

KIEV, January 14. /TASS/. Explosions have been heard in three southern Ukrainian regions, the Ukrainian publication Strana said on Saturday.

The explosions are reported to have rocked the Vinnitsa, Nikolayev and Odessa regions. According to the publication, the operation of air defenses cannot be ruled out.

Air raid warnings have been issued across Ukraine.

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

First Missile Strike on Kyiv Since New Year’s, Infrastructure Hit

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A series of explosions rocked Kyiv on Saturday morning and minutes later air raid sirens started to wail as an apparent missile attack on the Ukrainian capital was underway.

Deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram that critical infrastructure in Kyiv was targeted.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Japan’s Experts Baffled by High ‘COVID’ Deaths From Heart Problems Despite High Vaccination Rate

After three booster campaigns in 2022, the Japanese are now in a league of their own among mRNA consuming countries, administering far more boosters than countries that had far more coercive vaccination campaigns.

Japanese over-65s have done their best to reduce Japan’s 612-million-dose stockpile of mRNA jabs, with third, fourth and fifth jab rates of 91%, 82.5%, and 56%, respectively. But unfortunately, Japan has started 2023 by reporting its highest ever daily Covid death tolls. During the booster era starting in early 2022, each wave has been noticeably higher than the last.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Brazil’s Former Justice Minister Anderson Torres Arrested for Collusion With Rioters

Brazil’s federal police arrested the country’s former head of public security Saturday on accusations that he colluded with rioters that stormed the presidential palace, Supreme Court, and Congress on Jan. 8.

Anderson Torres, who was in charge of security for the capital city at the time of the riots, was taken into custody at the Brasilia Airport, according to a statement by Brazil’s federal police.

The police nabbed Torres after Brazil’s Supreme Court issued a warrant for his arrest last week, accusing him of failing to act in his role as security chief.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Brazilian Prosecutors Investigate Major Broadcaster, Pro-Bolsonaro Journalists Fired, Passports Seized

Federal prosecutors in Brazil have launched a civil investigation into the media group Jovem Pan, a media group with one of the largest audiences in Brazil and has one of the largest radio stations in the world, as well as a cable news channel. It is often referred to as Brazil’s Fox News.

Jovem Pan’s commentary often support former President Jair Bolsonaro and his brand of politics and has been accused of spreading “misinformation.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Politicians and Commentators Are Blocked Online in Brazil After Censorship Order Targets Bolsonaro Support

Brazil is facing a wave of censorship, targeted towards politicians and commentators that have shown support for President Jair Bolsonaro.

Several targets have had their social media accounts censored in Brazil following a censorship court order from Alexandre de Moraes, president of the Superior Electoral Court and justice of the Supreme Federal Court. De Moraes is known for a string of such censorship orders and for pressuring social media platforms to block politicians and commentators.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Group Launches Private Prosecution Against Trudeau Over Illegal Border Crossings

A group of people in the Canadian French-speaking province of Quebec have initiated a private criminal prosecution against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over illegal border crossings.

Frédéric Bastien, president of Justice pour le Quebec, an activist group that aims to defend the rights of Quebecers, has alleged that Prime Minister Trudeau has, through his own words, encouraged illegal immigrants to cross into Canada along the border with the United States in southern Quebec.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Hill Republicans Seek to Overturn Bill Allowing Non-Citizens to Vote in Washington, D.C. Elections

Two congressional Republicans are trying to overturn a bill that would allows non-citizens to vote in Washington, D.C., elections.

Kentucky Rep. James Comer and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton said this week that they would introduce legislation opposing a bill passed in the Democrat-led D.C. Council that would allow illegal immigrants to vote in elections.

“Allowing illegal immigrants to vote is an insult to every voter in America,” Cotton said.

The races in which the non-citizens could vote include those for the District’s mayor, city council, attorney general, board of education and any initiative, referendum recall or charter referendum. However, it would not give them access to voting in federal elections.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

New Democrat Governor in Arizona Proposes Defunding Border Strike Force, Universal School Choice

If the reaction from Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs’ first budget proposal is any indication, she and lawmakers are likely in for a long spring.

Hobbs announced her $17.1 billion spending proposal Friday afternoon, saying it lowers costs, invests in public education, secures the state’s water future and addresses the affordable housing crisis.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

NYC Mayor Eric Adams Says the City is at ‘Breaking Point’ As 400 Asylum Seekers Arrive Each Day — and Submits an Emergency Aid Request to Gov. Kathy Hochul to Help Shelter Hundreds of Migrants

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the city has reached its ‘breaking point’ as 400 asylum seekers arrive at the Big Apple every day.

Adams has submitted an emergency mutual aid request to the state and Gov. Kathy Hochul asking for immediate help over the weekend to house the incoming migrants.

‘We are at our breaking point,’ Adams said. ‘Based off our projections, we anticipate being unable to continue sheltering arriving asylum seekers on our own.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisian Arrested After Attacking and Injuring Two French Police

A 21-year-old Tunisian suspected of drug dealing was arrested this week in the city of Toulon after attacking French police officers, injuring two.

The incident took place at a known drug dealing area in Toulon last Saturday during the evening after a pair of officers belonging to the Specialized Field Brigades (BST) went to the area to watch for drug dealing activity.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK Taxpayers Picked Up £4,000 Bills for Luxury Hotel Stays Abroad for Migrants Who Were Deported During COVID

Taxpayers paid thousands of pounds for luxury hotel stays abroad for migrants kicked out of the UK during the pandemic.

Most were put up in four-star accommodation, with the most lavish costing more than £4,000 for a room in a five-star hotel with sweeping ocean views.

When they were sent back, the UK picked up the bill for migrants who had to be put up in hotels, to comply with quarantine restrictions in their home nations.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Channel Migrants: Most People Claiming to be Modern Slavery Victims Are Albanian

Home Office data was obtained from Migration Watch under freedom of information laws.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

17-Year-Old Scolded for Crying Over Transgender Woman’s Penis at YMCA

A California teen cried as she recalled seeing “a naked man” in her local YMCA, telling the city council in her San Diego suburb she’d been traumatized by the experience with the person she described as a trans woman.

Rebecca Philips, 17, said she was changing after swimming one day last month at the Santee YMCA when she spotted a naked trans woman in the changing rooms.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Breaking: Antifa Clashes With Gays Against Groomers Group Outside of Canadian All-Ages Drag Queen Story Hour

Protests at an “all-ages” Drag Queen Story Hour event Saturday morning at Coquitlam Public Library’s City Centre in British Columbia escalated when a group of Antifa activists appeared to attack members of the Gays Against Groomers group who were standing with signs at the event.

In footage captured by The Post Millennial’s Amy Hamm, the Gays Against Groomers group can be heard chanting “Do no harm,” while the Drag Queen Story Hour defenders shouted back; “There is no harm!”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

NHL Backpedals on Racist Minority-Only Job Fair After Notice From Ron DeSantis

The National Hockey League has opened up their “Pathway to Hockey Summit” to anyone over 18 years of age after the office of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis put the organization on notice for discrimination by originally limiting their summit only to people who “identify as female, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and/or a person with a disability.”

Florida’s Voice reports the change came after DeSantis’ press secretary, Bryan Griffin, said in a press release of the original NHL post, “Discrimination of any sort is not welcome in the state of Florida, and we do not abide by the woke notion that discrimination should be overlooked if applied in a politically popular manner or against a politically unpopular demographic. We are fighting all discrimination in our schools and our workplaces, and we will fight it in publicly accessible places of meeting or activity.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Populist-Led Spanish Region to Introduce Pro-Life Policies to Reduce Abortions

The populist vice president of the Spanish region of Castille and León has announced pro-life measures designed to help women avoid seeking abortions.

Juan Garcia-Gallardo, vice president of the government of Castille and León, a member of the populist party VOX, announced the new pro-life measures aimed at expectant mothers in order to reduce the likelihood they will seek an abortion.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Trans Activists Shutting Down Seminar Was “Horribly Anti-Democratic, “ Speaker Says

King’s College London human rights law professor Robert Wintemute says the shutting down of his seminar at Montreal’s McGill University last Tuesday by trans activists was “horribly anti-democratic.”

The scholar also told True North that he is worried about the future of debate in academia amid a disregard for free speech by left-wing students and universities.

Wintemute was set to give a talk at McGill titled The Sex vs. Gender (Identity) Debate In the United Kingdom and the Divorce of LGB from T last Tuesday. The event was hosted by McGill’s Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

11 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/14/2023

  1. .
    .
    Danish press describes Sweden as a tragedy

    13/1-23 snaphanen.dk

    “Sweden has already come to be seen as a failed state in the Danish debate in some quarters”

    Journalist Gunnar Sandelin writes today about the editorial in Jyllands Posten on 10.1.2023:
    “Sweden has been transformed from one of the world’s safest societies to an obvious tragedy, but also about several recent German newspaper articles about Sweden.
    Some commentators are now saying that only a real systemic collapse remains..”

    Already in 2007 – 16 years ago – Gertrud Galster, who had lived in Småland for 50 years, wrote a book entitled Sweden’s tragedy, but that’s how realisations can move in parallel with each other.

    The image of Sweden, as it is so beautifully called, is currently in serious decline in the reporting of our neighbouring countries.

    Recently, one could read how Germany’s most read tabloid, Bild, described Sweden as paralysed by fear of escalating gang violence with 63 shootings and 90 explosions last year.

    The paper noted that while deadly violence was declining in other European countries, only Sweden was being brutalised in this way.

    Here are some other headlines from the German-speaking world, just in the last month:

    – Sweden. Criminal gangs and the law of the street prevail (nationwide German public service channel ZDF).

    – Gang crime in Sweden. Violence in the pioneer country (regional public service channel SWR).

    – End of the idyll. The Prime Minister speaks of the gravity of the situation. What’s really going on in Sweden (Switzerland’s most read tabloid Blick).

    – Gang crime in Sweden. Sweden holds its breath. How did it get this far? (National Austrian public service channel ORF).

    Like the German media, the Danes have now slowed down their reporting on the violent decay in Sweden.

    One of their biggest newspapers Jyllands-Posten (JP) rhetorically asks how it is that deadly violence with firearms in Sweden is six times more common than in the rest of the Nordic countries – combined.

    The same newspaper recently ran an editorial describing Sweden as “an obvious self-inflicted tragedy” (behind paywall). They note that Swedish “foreign policy is in ruins” and that Denmark has now become a role model for Swedish politicians, but ten years behind our neighbour when it comes to “totally failed migration policy”.

  2. .
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    MEN AND MICE

    Evolutionary mismatch
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    picture

    https://morklaggning.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/eat.jpg

    Evolutionär missanpassning

    Posted on 15 January, 2023 by I&M

    not linguistically redacted

    Part 1

    The concept of evolutionary mismatch was introduced in 1993 by neurologist Jack E. Riggs and spread rather quickly. A good popular science overview came five years ago with Ronald Giphart and Mark van Vugt’s book “Mismatch: How our stone age brain deceives us every day and what we can do about it”.

    While the concept points to something ominous that could lead to a species’ demise, evolutionary mismatch is a normal state, with the addition that it can be minor or major. Arguably, ethnic Swedes do not have as great a maladaptation to the Swedish habitat as the Africans and Muslims from the Middle East who immigrate here.

    An example of maladjustment: the industrial revolution turned rural outdoorsmen into urban indoorsmen and factory indoorsmen. This led to the spread of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera and typhoid on an unprecedented scale. We are not biologically adapted to an indoor life.

    Another example: modern workplaces often consist of large, complex and hierarchical office landscapes where employees spend a lot of time interacting with strangers in conditions very different from those of our ancestors’ past. Hunters and gatherers did not separate work from their private lives, they had no bosses to answer to, no deadlines to meet. Basic instincts often go awry in the modern workplace, causing stress, conflict, burnout, work alienation and poor management practices.

    For some time I have been testing the approach in a few different contexts but before I try to show the way in which maladaptation can explain behaviours exhibited by both animals and humans, I want to highlight that humans, like no other animal, can use willpower to ignore or silence the ancient inner voice that tells us what to do. We are alone in being able to go against that inner voice on the basis of ideological conviction. As suicide bombers do, or when Catholic priests decide to live celibately.

    Obesity is the poster child for evolutionary maladjustment. We are genetically “ordered” to eat when food is available, because food is always a scarce resource. We have learned this during our long existence as gatherers and hunters. In a society where there is an abundance of food, obesity spreads. This evolutionary maladjustment risks leading to the metabolic syndrome: obesity, type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol, which in turn sets the stage for Alzheimer’s disease.

    Although many people eat themselves into great suffering, not all do. Not everyone obeys that inner voice. It is possible to take command of your diet. Some do so with such determination that they end up with mirror-image maladjustment (anorexia).

    Higher mammals and birds can learn to resist the genetic instruction to some extent, as when dogs are trained not to touch food that is on display and horses stay within a certain area, after they have gone against an electric fence and learned.

    This learning ability does not apply to the insects that swarm around a lamp. For millions of years, they have been navigating by light. It is also true of sea turtles, which, after hatching, crawl from the sandy beach towards the sea using the water’s reflections. If they have a city of twinkling lights behind them, they are likely to crawl in the wrong direction.

    By far the biggest misfit is man alone. It is our difficulty in distinguishing between reality and various narratives about reality. When we repeatedly see people on television and like these celebrities, our brains react as if they were our friends, which they are not. Same with influencers online. Our brains find it hard to comprehend that we are not actually interacting with these people. Another example is pornography. We know it’s not real, yet our bodies react. Of course, the confusion applies even more to the virtual reality that invites us as actors. There it is even more difficult for the brain to understand that it is not real. Ask those who get caught up in computer games.

    It is precisely this mismatch that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg wants to take to a new level with his metaverse: a single universal and immersive virtual reality where the line between real and virtual reality has been blurred. With just your virtual glasses or headset, you can live a fantastic life with all the things you desire. When you play a game with your friends, you are not alone with your computer, you are in a room where you have eye contact with the others. You are there “for real”.

  3. .
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    Part 2

    There is a special term for the pathological condition of living your life entirely in your head: floating head syndrome. With that concept, the Metaverse appears not as an enticing but a terrifying future. The concept reminds us that it is important not to lose touch with one’s body but to walk, exercise, take the dog for a walk, etc. Somewhere on the Internet I see the hypothesis that sex has become so important in our time precisely because it is a bodily activity. That may be so, but it probably applies even more to the physical exercise that takes place in the gym with all its various machines. Almost every hotel, housing association and leisure centre now offers a well-equipped gym. Nobody thinks it’s strange anymore to sit on an exercise bike, run on a treadmill, walk on a stair machine or row on a rowing machine. It’s not a virtual reality, but it is an alternative one.

    A completely different example is when women make themselves attractive with make-up, cosmetic surgery, loose hair, etc. They feel more beautiful, but they haven’t really become beautiful at all. And the men who are attracted are “evolutionarily deceived” because they see the women who appear to be genetically more successful than they are. A line from a show I heard as a child:

    On my wedding night I saw
    What I never saw before
    There she lay, thin and flat
    And on a chair letters
    The golden halo of her hair
    The swaying wave of her hip
    This bosom somewhat large
    As if made for amor …

    Men’s desire to like beautiful women is also a genetic instruction, as is, of course, the fact that women are turned on by handsome men. Beauty, symmetry and beautiful bodies signal good genes!

    Many examples can be given of both maladjustment and the consequences of maladjustment. Here I limit myself to highlighting two risks. The first is that when the evolutionary gap between the habitat (society) and humans becomes too large, people become unhappy.

    Everyone can see that very many people in Sweden and other welfare countries are not very happy despite the fact that we live in the most amazing society that man has ever fashioned for himself, in terms of affirming people’s different needs and desires. The reason is that we are genetically created not for an easy life but for hard conditions. Studies show that Londoners found the Blitz to be the happiest time of their lives. They really felt that there was a meaningful purpose and strong emotions that bound them together. This was despite the fact that explosions were going off all around them, houses were being bombed to rubble and hundreds of thousands of people were dying. It is for the same reason that people do not commit suicide when they have to endure extremely difficult conditions. In the GULAG Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn wrote that people did not kill themselves in Stalin’s Siberian prison camps. When strong external danger threatens, people band together and focus on survival. Life becomes meaningful and then people don’t commit suicide.

    The second risk I want to point out is that people build such a complex society that they lose control of it, because they themselves cannot build up their skills as quickly. A measure of the enormity of the Swedish welfare society was given by SCB when it announced in September 2022 that the total cost of health, education and care in 2020 was 1 227 billion. In other words, the Swedish welfare society is a gigantic construction. We humans should be able to manage this with our brains adapted to Stone Age societies. It may even be that we have become dumber since the Stone Age. Stone Age people had bigger brains than we do. This is also true of other animals when they are domesticated. Dogs have smaller brains than wolves.

    Considering that Sweden is always among the five countries in the world with the highest taxes, the welfare machine should be running smoothly. As we know, it does not. The lack of resources is a recurring theme in the political debate, as is what the money is spent on. A third of all new recruits in the health sector over the last 14 years have not been doctors and nurses but bureaucrats – administrators and managers. According to the Swedish National Audit Office, 20 billion is paid out in incorrect subsidies every year. Half of it goes to crime. Or take the explosive growth in crime. Sweden has 35,000 police officers. Only 8,000 of them are on external service.

  4. .
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    Part 3

    The closure and mismanagement of our nuclear power plants is a paradox, but there are any number of examples of this evolutionary mismatch. The Transport Agency, which is supposed to synchronise the timetables of the country’s 57 train companies is in huge trouble, that’s news as of this writing. But really it is not news but a normal state of affairs, just a little worse than usual. Trafikverket also has a system of “quality charges” to improve punctuality. According to the National Audit Office, it is completely useless. But it is expensive, a quarter of a billion a year, money taken from the authority’s operations and maintenance budget. Year after year, because those who spend other people’s money can always afford it.

    Most of the tax evasion is, of course, both outrageous and sad, but poking around in it is also fun for those who like gallows humour. How about Gothenburg’s investment in benches with signs encouraging people to talk to each other, or using tax money to paint streets in rainbow colours?

    The maladjustment hypothesis is that we have built a society that is so complex that it exceeds our ability to manage and use it.

    The maladjustment hypothesis is that we have built a society so complex that it exceeds our capacity to manage and use it. The growing dysfunctionality of the welfare society is a normal state that if allowed to continue has only one end, collapse. Not so cheerful exactly, but there is actually something we can do, namely what the man in the picture in the introduction can do. It is possible to shrink this society to a size we can manage. And how will we do that? Now there’s a question that politicians could tackle, instead of fighting for power over this precious, troublesome and malfunctioning society.

    I also try the concept of evolutionary maladjustment as an explanation for the suicide that Western civilization is in the process of committing. Could it possibly be that the gap between the reality we humans were created to live in and the reality we actually live in has become so great that it is time to throw in the towel? Not for all people, far from it. But it is for Western globalised and urbanised man. We don’t understand it, but we have too little of our natural habitat left. As a species, we don’t want to be there anymore. I’m not saying that’s the case, but what if … Here’s the background:

    John B. Calhoun (1917 – 95) was the name of an American ethologist who conducted a number of overpopulation experiments with mice in the 1960s and 1970s. Most famously, in 1972 he released four mice into a specially constructed habitat with a floor area of 2.7 square metres. The height was 140 cm. The temperature was kept constant at 20 degrees Celsius and there were a number of tunnels where all the mice always had access to food and water without having to compete with each other. There was also an abundance of ideal nesting sites where the mice could feel safe. There were no predators or other threats. The habitat was kept very clean and veterinarians constantly watched over the animals to ensure that no diseases were spread. It was not unlike the way many people live their urban lives today, where everything they need is constantly available and threats have been largely eradicated.

    The population doubled every fifty-five days. The last mice to survive were born on day 600, at which point the mouse population reached its maximum, 2,200 individuals. However, this was not the upper limit of the habitat; there were nesting sites for 3,840 mice.

    From day 315 until day 600, there was a breakdown in social structure and normal behaviour. For the actual turn from normal to destructive behaviour, Calhoun coined the term behavioral sink. Females abandoned the young before they were mature enough to fend for themselves, increased homosexuality, older mice bit and injured younger mice, females became more aggressive and males the opposite, not aggressive enough to want to defend their territories. After day 600, no more mice were born.

  5. .
    .
    Part 4

    Calhoun was interested in what overpopulation led to. When I read about the experiment, I’m more interested in what it meant that the mice didn’t have to fight for their survival at all. Calhoun divided the experiment into four phases. The last one he called the D phase (death phase). Now something happens to the males that makes Calhoun call them the beautiful ones. They got the name because they had no injuries from defending their territories, as well as from fighting other males for a female’s favour. They didn’t care about the females and only cared about themselves. They ate, drank and preened their coats and did not relate to other mice at all. Calhoun believed that the complex “rat behaviour” had been simplified. The abundance of food and water, the absence of predators made life simple. And it became even simpler when males no longer had to go to the trouble of courting females, reproducing, protecting territory and participating in hierarchical social groupings. The mouse became a very simple animal and I can’t help thinking that this may have happened to many people in our own time. Their lives have been simplified and they have adapted by becoming simple themselves. Calhoun called this “the first death” and drew parallels to many modern men, capable only of the most routine, everyday activities to sustain physiological life. The spirit was already dead.

    Calhoun attempted to transfer a number of females and beautiful males to their own environment without overcrowding. The hope was that they would then begin to mate again, but they did not. Narcissistic and autistic males and disinterested females. There were no more pregnancies and the mice lived until they were old and died – their second death.

    Karl-Olov Arnstberg

    https://morklaggning.wordpress.com/2023/01/15/evolutionar-
    missanpassning/

    ———————————
    (KOA) Karl-Olov Arnstberg
    is a Swedish writer, ethnologist, and retired university professor.

    Previous essays by Karl-Olov Arnstberg:
    “We Need Not Celebrate Our Own Disintegration”
    What I Understand About Ukraine
    Talking to the Elephants
    Socialism is the Loser of History
    TheClever and the Stupid

    • No, the best I can offer is the RSS feed. I have no newsletter or email notification setup.

    • Elena: You may not be aware, but, the congresswoman who introduced the “anti-white supremacy bill” likes to wear silly looking little hats while appearing in public.

      This might provide you with some insight into the thinking behind this newly proposed bill.

    • Well, Charles is not so liked or respected as his late Mother. He may turn out to be our last monarch, which, although I’m theoretically a republican, could be a mixed blessing; having a head of state who is (mostly) above, or outside politics, could be a unifying force in these polarised times.

      However, the disestablishment of the Church of England is well overdue, especially the anachronism of having Bishops in the House of Lords*; the only other country which has clergy in its parliament by right is Iran, and that’s not a club we should belong to!

      *Having an appointed Upper House is not so crazy, so long as they can be overruled by the Commons; they can express their opinions without worrying about the Party whip or the next election; but the hereditary peers should go along with the bishops.

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