Decline and Falls

Something non-political, for a change…

… via a poster at FreeRepublic.com.

Marmore, the Highest and Oldest Artificial Waterfall in Europe, Created by the Romans
Arkeonews | March 4, 2024 | Leman Altuntas

Approximately eight kilometers away from the town of Terni in Umbria, Italy, there is a waterfall that is one of the highest waterfalls in Europe: Cascata delle Marmore or the Marmore’s Falls.

In reality, this waterfall is not natural. The waterfall is the world’s tallest man-made waterfall, standing 541 feet tall (165 meters). Its towering presence is a 2,000-year-old testament to human engineering.

Romans created in 271 BC the former hydraulic system and the shape of the waterfall. During the Roman era, the River Velino had become vastly enlarged and had created a vast swathe of swamp-like, stagnant water. This unhealthy wetland brought disease to residents and caused a threat to the city of Rieti.

To fix the issue, Manlius Carius Dentatus, the Roman consul, ordered workers to construct a canal that would send the water soaring over a nearby cliff and down into the Nera River, which flowed through the valley below.

The stagnant water then fell into the Nera River but that unfortunately created another problem. When the Velino River overflowed, its water moved through the Nera and towards the city of Terni and threatened the safety of the residents.

The Roman senate was forced to step in over the escalating tensions over water management between the lowland and highland residents in 54 BC, despite the fact that their intervention ultimately achieved nothing.

For centuries, little was done to address the problem, which caused contention. It took two attempts to build new canals to address the problem of overflowing stagnant water, but it wasn’t until 1787 that Pope Pius VI gave Andrea Vici, a prominent French-Italian architectural dynasty, the order to alter the canal, giving it the lofty, cascading appearance it has today and solving the issue at last.

But what have the Romans ever really done for us?

Babesleaga Group Y : Week 3 : Sally Fields vs Suzanne Pleshette

Good afternoon.

Sally Fields vs Suzanne Pleshette

Sally Fields (0-2-0 Pts. 131 Avg. 65.50)

  • Lost to Tina Louise 72-113
  • Lost to Angie Dickinson 59-163

VS

Suzanne Pleshette (2-0-0 Pts. 229 Avg. 114.50)

  • Defeated Elizabeth Montgomery 99-81
  • Defeated Dawn Wells 130-109

This poll is no longer accepting votes

Who do you prefer?
184 votes · 184 answers

Babesleaga Group Y : Week 3 : Dawn Wells vs Barbara Eden

Good morning.

Dawn Wells vs Barbara Eden

Dawn Wells (1-1-0 Pts. 217 Avg. 108.50)

  • Defeated Linda Evans 108-76
  • Lost to Suzanne Pleshette 109-130

VS

Barbara Eden (2-0-0 Pts. 311 Avg. 155.50)

  • Defeated Angie Dickinson 148-20
  • Defeated Linda Evans 163-61

This poll is no longer accepting votes

Who do you prefer?
191 votes · 191 answers

Babesleaga Group Y : Week 2 : Results and Standings.

Bad day on Gilligan’s Island. Here are the results and current standings. Nice rise in voting. I hope if you came for the Babes you will stay and join the lively banter and contribute to the overall silliness.

Results

This poll is no longer accepting votes

Who do you prefer?
228 votes · 228 answers

This poll is no longer accepting votes

Who do you prefer?
222 votes · 222 answers

This poll is no longer accepting votes

Who do you prefer?
239 votes · 239 answers

This poll is no longer accepting votes

Who do you prefer?
224 votes · 224 answers

Standings

ContestantRecordPointsAveragePoints AgainstAverage Score
Barbara Eden2 – 0 – 0311155.5081155.50-40.50
Suzanne Pleshette2 – 0 – 0229114.50190114.50-96.00
Elizabeth Montgomery1 – 1 – 0262131.00146131.00-73.00
Dawn Wells1 – 1 – 0217108.50206108.50-103.00
Angie Dickinson1 – 1 – 018391.5020791.50-103.50
Tina Louise1 – 1 – 016080.0025380.00-126.50
Linda Evans0 – 2 – 013768.5027168.50-135.50
Sally Fields0 – 2 – 013165.5027665.50-138.00

  • 10:00 am Dawn Wells vs Barbara Eden
  • 2:00 pm Sally Fields vs Suzanne Pleshette
  • 6:00 pm Tina Louise vs Andie Dickinson
  • 8:00 pm Linda Evans vs Elizabeth Montgomery

Well, OK, Four More Covid Jabs From Fauci

It Has Been a Year Since Anthony Fauci Confessed That Covid Vaccines Could Never Have Worked and It Is Still Being Ignored
expose-news.com | March 5, 2024 | Rhoda Wilson


More than a year ago, Anthony Fauci co-authored a paper that admitted the covid vaccines didn’t work as claimed.  A fact that was previously dismissed as misinformation.

…

Anthony Fauci served as the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (“NIAID”) from 1984 to 2022 and was the chief medical advisor to the President from 2021 to 2022.  Britannica succinctly summarizes the key role Fauci played during the covid era.

In 2021 Joe Biden was sworn in as president and Fauci became his chief medical adviser. At Fauci’s first press briefing, he alluded to his difficulties with President Donald Trump, noting that it was “liberating” to be able to talk freely about science. Fauci subsequently helped develop the Biden administration’s plan for the nationwide rollout of the vaccine and made numerous public appearances to dispel any safety concerns about the medicine. In 2022 Fauci retired as Biden’s chief medical adviser and as director of the NIAID.

In August 2022, Fauci announced he would be stepping down from the positions of Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation, as well as the position of Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden and would be leaving these positions in December 2022.

On 11 January 2023, a paper titled ‘Rethinking next-generation vaccines for coronaviruses, influenzaviruses, and other respiratory viruses’ was published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe. Fauci was one of its three authors.

The following month, the Health Recovery & Advisory Team (“HART”) highlighted some points made in the paper which show Fauci admitting that covid “vaccines” could never have worked as claimed.  Although the HART Group’s article is more than a year old, it is worth reminding ourselves of Fauci’s confession.


Fauci Confesses that Covid Vaccines Could Never Have Worked as Claimed

Facts previously dismissed as misinformation now admitted.

By HART Group, published on 15 February 2023

Fauci is generally regarded as one of the key architects of the USA’s – and therefore the world’s – response to the pandemic, including pushing for the emergency authorization and rollout of the covid vaccines, and the formulation of policies which exerted huge pressure on citizens in nearly all countries to be injected with these products or else face sanctions, ranging from social ostracisation via the use of “vaccine passport” schemes, through to job losses, and even fines merely for being unvaccinated.

Fauci made some bold claims about the covid vaccines in order to justify such coercive policies, including that they would prevent infections and limit transmission of the virus to others. These claims were then picked up by political leaders worldwide and used to justify their own policies, even when – from early data – it became obvious that the vaccines did not prevent infections or reduce the viral load of those infected.

This latest article [published in Cell Host & Microbe], [of which Fauci is co-author] therefore, has quite rightly raised some eyebrows because of the astonishing concessions it contains, amongst which are the following:

1. Of the influenza vaccines, the authors note:

As of 2022, after more than 60 years of experience with influenza vaccines, very little improvement in vaccine prevention of infection has been noted. As pointed out decades ago, and still true today, the rates of effectiveness of our best approved influenza vaccines would be inadequate for licensure for most other vaccine-preventable diseases.

The authors then draw parallels between the vaccines for covid and those for influenza:

The vaccines for these two very different viruses [covid-19 and influenza] have common characteristics: they elicit incomplete and short-lived protection against evolving virus variants that escape population immunity.

2. They propose that the reason why vaccines against covid and influenza are ineffective compared to those against mumps, measles, rubella and smallpox and varicella zoster (chickenpox) is that the former replicate predominantly in local mucosal tissue, without causing viremia.

They posit that the finding by PCR testing of the circulation of viral SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the bloodstream, is an “RNAemia” (as is seen with most mucosal respiratory virus infections), as distinct from viremia, in which infectious viruses can be cultured from the blood.

This statement is rather glossed over, but it actually has huge significance, in that it is essentially saying that the finding by PCR testing of tissues in people with mucosal respiratory virus infections like covid may simply represent the presence of RNA, not culturable whole virus.

However, much has been made of these PCR findings, leading to statements that covid is “highly unusual, attacking all tissues” and “covid isn’t just a respiratory disease but a circulatory one,” notions which the authors of this paper seem not to share, the tone of the article being very much that SARS-CoV-2 sits within the broad category of mucosal respiratory viruses.

(Having said that, one point the authors did not make is that even in the absence of circulating whole virus, it could be that circulating spike protein leads to the clots and other vascular pathology seen both in infection and after vaccination, although this seems a likely potential mechanism only in more severe disease.)

3. They then state that antigenic drift is the reason why we can expect people to be infected multiply both with influenza and SARS-CoV-2.

4. Tying these all together, they conclude that:

It is not surprising that none of the predominantly mucosal respiratory viruses [of which influenza and SARS-Cov-2 are examples] have ever been effectively controlled by vaccines.

They then write that:

This observation raises a question of fundamental importance: if natural mucosal respiratory virus infections do not elicit complete and long-term protective immunity against reinfection, how can we expect vaccines, especially systemically administered non-replicating vaccines, to do so?

How indeed?  This is one of the points that those who questioned the design of the covid vaccines have been making repeatedly.

“That’s Our Joe!”

{Sad Trombone}

Biden Blames ‘Eavesdropping’ Media After Netanyahu Needs ‘Come to Jesus’ Moment Hot-Mic Snafu
NY Post | 3/8/2024 | Steven Nelson

WASHINGTON — President Biden was caught saying on a hot mic Thursday evening that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needed a “come to Jesus” talk about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

The president, 81, made the awkward comment about the Jewish state’s head of government while mingling with lawmakers following his State of the Union address — asking Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) to keep what he said confidential.

“I told him, ‘Bibi’ — and don’t repeat this, but ‘You and I are going to have a come to Jesus—’,” Biden began as an aide rushed over to stop him from saying more, exclaiming “Sir!” and whispering in his ear.

“I’m on a hot mic here,” Biden said out loud after the aide conveyed his message, adding sarcastically, “Good. That was good.”

Straight Line of the Day: What Sort of Cable Shows Would Houthis Watch?

Yeah, I know the loss of data cables will affect their supercomputing and aluminum siding replacement offers; but I got to wondering what sort of news they have cut off to spite their feces?

To Air Is Yemen

Three Underwater Data Cables Through the Red Sea Are Cut Amid Houthi Rebel Attacks in the Area
AP News | March 4, 2024 | Jon Gambrell

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An incident in the Red Sea has cut three underwater sea cables providing internet and telecommunications around the world as the waterway remains a target of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, officials said Monday.

A statement by Hong Kong-based HGC Global Communications acknowledged the cuts but did not say what caused the lines to be severed. There has been concern about the cables being targeted in the Houthi campaign, which the rebels describe as an effort to pressure Israel to end its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis have denied attacking the lines, however.

Friday Night Open Thread: Thank You, Sir, May I Have Another?

Just to throw it out there for discussion — I never pledged a fraternity in college, because cost/benefit-wise, I could not justify undergoing hazing.

It’s a good guess that half of the people reading this joined fraternities/sororities (got any pictures of pillow fights in the latter?), and half didn’t. So there’s no point in advocating for either — I just thought I’d throw the subject out there to see if anyone had any thoughts on hazing. (Not on frats in general.)

This all came from a comment to a news story:

“The black fraternities at UF in the 70s were far worse than anything we did. Omega Phi Psi, a black fraternity, actually branded their pledges, an Omega symbol was branded onto their arms.

One of the things I did when I was a pledge was to get naked while the brothers dumped trash on top of us from the 2nd floor.”