Category Archives: News

The official DoD response to Ebola FAQ

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The Good news: The Department of Defense posted an official “response” to Ebola and how it ties into the Military Health System for all service members about to be deployed to Africa.

The Bad News: Pretty much everything else.

In an article posted on the official health.mil site the DoD starts off by saying there’s no plan “for U.S. military personnel to provide direct patient care”, but in the very next sentence they say “in the event there is a requirement for U.S. military personnel to work in areas where there is a risk of contracting Ebola, U.S. military personnel will follow the protection guidelines issued by the CDC, and will be issued appropriate personal protective equipment.”

So if there’s no plan, why is there a set of personal protective equipment at the ready?

The last two Q and A sections in the FAQ are what is going to give the media ulcers. BOLD sections are my prediction on next week’s talking points…

 

Q: Will service members be screened and quarantined if symtpmatic (sic)

A: Once deployed, all personnel will be evaluated by their unit twice each day for temperature and their exposure to risks. We will have a tiered model for risks based on both symptoms and / or risk exposures. Anyone who is identified as having symptoms will be quickly evaluated by medical personnel.  Medical authorities will make the decision based on a structured set of criteria as to whether the service member can return to duty or should be medically evacuated back to the U.S. Personnel, if determined to have an exposure that represents more than a minimal risk, will be evacuated back to the United States for observation and treatment if required. If someone at risk is moved back to the U.S., they will be quarantined for 21 days at a DoD designated facility to monitor for signs and symptoms of the disease.

Q: How will the Department monitor individuals coming back from deployment?


A: Once individuals are back in the US after their deployment, monitoring will continue for 21 days. There will be face-to-face interviews, twice a day, to review for symptoms and perform a temperature check.  Anyone who is not showing any symptoms will be allowed to return to work, and resume daily activities with their families. Individuals will not be authorized leave or temporary duty outside of their local area during these 21 days so we can assure continued face to face monitoring.
So even after returning home, the DoD isn’t taking any chances with infections under their 21-day rule. The question is what the “local area” will be defined as.


I also think the “fly home for treatment if you’re infected” part is what’s really going to upset a lot of people, especially if there’s a DoD Ebola-Guantanamo thing prepped. Yes, the US is the best place for Ebola treatment, but if this disease spreads into the hundreds, you can bet your paycheck there’s going to be LOUD calls for an end to all flights to the US.

Why McAllen might have been overlooked for emergency immigration funds

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There’s some surprising news that the city of McAllen was completely overlooked in President Obama’s recent Federal emergency immigration fund.

As it stands now, not one single penny from the $3.7 billion requested by President Obama in emergency funds to help stem the sudden immigration crisis will go to the city right at ground zero.

Of course, the mayor of McAllen had a few words about this for NBC.

What’s especially odd is that while President Obama is in Texas, he isn’t going to visit McAllen or any city in the Texas valley.

This really is an ongoing crisis. McAllen is literally pitching tents to help the flood of incoming immigrants coming across the border.

McAllen Tents

McAllen Tents

I took that photo yesterday. Me. That’s the church my wife and I got married at in the background. I can testify, firsthand, what is being reported in the news about the immigration flood really is happening.

So, back to the $3.7 billion dollar question. Why was McAllen given the red-headed-stepchild treatment?

This is thin. Real thin. Probably don’t mean anything. But it might have something to do with the fact that the Rio Grande Valley is a massive Clinton fundraising center.

Bear with me for a second.

An article in the Washington Post perfectly summarizes the valley fundraising juggernaut. Way back in 2007, Hillary raised $640,000 in the Texas valley region alone. Compare that with President Obama’s $2,086 total for the Texas valley region during that same time. That’s a difference of $637,914.

Jump ahead to 2013. $587,566 was raised for the Clintons, and again, in this region alone.

The not-so-big secret about all this money coming in for the Clintons is really the result of one very secretive man. Alonzo Cantu.

The local Brownsville Herald newspaper has a great article on Alonzo Cantu and confirms the 2013 fundraising number I mentioned above.

USA today has an additional article on him, saying back in 2008 he pulled in around $1 million cash for the Clintons, again, in the Texas valley region alone.

Consistently pulling in around $1 million a year? That’s a super powerful friend to have on your side.

The Clinton valley fundraising juggernaut is still going full steam. Hilary Clinton was “just” down here in March at a fundraiser not even 10 minutes North of downtown McAllen.

Let me change channels real quick to a second observation. The Texas valley is solid blue Democrat [NPR link].

Take a look at the last presidential election result. Everything below (and including) San Antonio is solid blue.

So, how do the Clintons getting major bank and the area being hardcore Democrat both tie to an emergency aid “oversight”?

Like I said, this is thin. Real thin. Probably don’t mean anything.

But maybe it has something to do with President Obama promising Senator Elizabeth Warren he would back her for president.

Not Hilary Clinton.

I seriously hope I’m just being a paranoid old fart. That none of these things tie in together and I just need to up my dosage.

I mean absolutely no disrespect to President Obama. I’m sure there’s a solid reason not to give McAllen any help despite the fact that every major news outlet reports on the crisis from McAllen and despite the fact the mainstream media is practically camping out down here and keeps writing story after story after story about it.

I’m also very sure things are going to get a lot worse if something isn’t done soon.

UPDATE 7/11/14 : From today’s New York Times G.O.P. Pushes Back on Approving Border Funds article : “Jeh Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, told the committee that “we can and we will stem this recent tide of illegal migration into the Rio Grande Valley sector.””   Again – it’s all focusing in McAllen.

Courting a disaster with open-door immigration

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I saw an article in the New York Times titled “Migrants Flow, As Do Rumors, In South Texas” (see the article scan following my rant).

I don’t think anyone has mentioned a massive problem with how this is playing out right now.

Since there is “no specific plan to monitor compliance” for those illegally crossing over the border, what is to stop an Al-Qaeda, ISIS or other terrorist agent with intent to harm the US from crossing into the US completely undetected and dispersing into America once they are released with their free “bus ticket to travel where they have relatives in the country”?

Humanitarian care must be provided for those that need it, and the current immigration policy desperately needs streamlining, but there must also be an accounting for every individual who crosses over during this de-facto open-door immigration policy.

Failure to do so is courting a national security disaster.

 

Migrants Flow NYT article

Migrants Flow NYT article

 

EDIT: Corrected ISS to ISIS

GM seems to be racing toward something else

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So if I understood everything correctly from the article in the 6/12 Wall Street Journal titled “Lawyers Race GM to find black boxes“…

* GM executives ordered their engineers to secretly change a core vehicle component for new vehicles after they discovered its’ critical failure rate, but did not disclose this critical failure rate on existing vehicles to the public or to the NHTSA.

* GM executives are currently ordering their employees and persons in their employ to search and recover evidence (“black boxes”) from multiple mortal accidents, but apparently are not returning this evidence to the accident victims or to the NHTSA.

* GM executives refused to allow the full disclosure of the data content of those “black boxes” involved in mortal accidents to the NHTSA until February of this year.

An organized activity sanctioned by upper management to obscure and withhold evidence? Evidence that could potentially tie the multiple deaths of individuals to the permissive knowledge that upper managers have?

Has GM ever heard of RICO?

CDC article about a new virus spread by camels

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When I see that the CDC has expedited an article for publication and it goes out “ahead of print”, I get the feeling they found something they’re not ready to yell “run for your lives” yet, but they’re filing it under the ominous “you might want to stand back a little” category.

The CDC just posted they are watching a new Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) that first popped up back in 2012.

This virus is pretty nasty. It spreads from camels to humans and results in a serious respiratory tract illness which leads to pneumonia.

In the article, it says that in “187 laboratory-confirmed human cases… 97 were fatal.”

Um… that’s a 52% mortality rate. A better than 50/50 chance if you get this virus, you’re gonna die.

The CDC article is full of solid medical terminology that goes into how they’re trying to nail down this bug, but the short version of what they know so far is that young camels are infected more often than older ones, and since the first half of each year is when most young camels are born due to local breeding patterns, that’s when they expect an upturn in this disease.

Unfortunately, they’re still not 100% on if it completely comes from camels and there’s still a big unknown on what causes the young camels to become sick in the first place. (“Phylogenetic analyses supported the conclusion that transmission occurred between camel and patient, but no direction was implied (e.g, camel to human vs. human to camel)”).

It is still limited to the countries in the Arabian Peninsula, but like every educational disaster movie has shown, it only takes one sick person on a plane to New York to bring civilization to its’ knees.

OK, that’s not really going to happen, but this is still not good.

Link to the CDC article is here.

NASA’s official response to that “we’re all gonna dieeee” study

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NASA had a quick but pointed response today to the “Sustainability Study” that’s making the rounds on the internet.

Apparently some university poozers slid a report under the door of NASA’s main office that says the world is gonna end and we’re all gonna die if we use plastic bags, keep the lights on when we’re not in the room, and all kinds of evil-bastard stuff like that.

NASA came down on Professor Chicken Little and his band of merry mother cluckers by saying “we didn’t touch that report, didn’t ask for that report, and we don’t even know who the University of Maryland’s mascot is. So nyaaa.”

Ok, maybe not literally, but I still don’t think it’s wise to tick off scientists who make giant explodey cylinders for a living.

Full press release follows…

——-

NASA Statement on Sustainability Study

The following is a statement from NASA regarding erroneous media reports crediting the agency with an academic paper on population and societal impacts.

“A soon-to-be published research paper ‘Human and Nature Dynamics (HANDY): Modeling Inequality and Use of Resources in the Collapse or Sustainability of Societies’ by University of Maryland researchers Safa Motesharrei and Eugenia Kalnay, and University of Minnesota’s Jorge Rivas was not solicited, directed or reviewed by NASA. It is an independent study by the university researchers utilizing research tools developed for a separate NASA activity.

“As is the case with all independent research, the views and conclusions in the paper are those of the authors alone. NASA does not endorse the paper or its conclusions.”

-end-

Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
allard.beutel@nasa.gov

Ed Campion
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-0697
edward.s.campion@nasa.gov

Disney is closing down their Movies Online service on Dec. 31st

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Disney just announced in a press release they are closing their entire stream-and-watch digital service on December 31st.

If you made any purchases directly with the online streaming store you can get a refund (according to the FAQ) by sending an email “by February 28, 2013 to support@disneymoviesonline.com with “Refund Needed” in the subject line. Be sure to include your name, mailing address, and phone number … and we will mail you a check. No additional action is necessary on your part.”

This doesn’t have anything to do with the Disney Combo packs with a “Digital Copy” sticker that are still in stores. You can still download those from either iTunes or Windows Media Player on your computer (according to the FAQ) like this…

  • Transfer to Mac:
    • Insert the Disney Digital Copy disc into your Mac’s DVD drive, launch the application, click on the “Activate” button from the main menu and follow the on-screen instructions.
    • The iTunes application will open and guide you through the transfer.
    • When prompted by iTunes, enter the unique code found on the insert located in your DVD or Blu-ray package to activate your Disney Digital Copy.
    • After the transfer completes, the movie can be watched on your Mac and transferred to your iTunes compatible device.
  • Transfer to PC:
    • Insert the Disney Digital Copy disc into your PC’s DVD drive, launch the application, click on the “Activate” button from the main menu and follow the on-screen instructions.
    • Choose either iTunes or Windows Media for your Disney Digital Copy.
    • If you choose iTunes, the iTunes window will automatically open and guide you through the transfer:
      • Input the unique code found on the insert located in your DVD or Blu-ray package to activate the Disney Digital Copy
      • After the transfer completes, the movie can be watched on your PC or transferred to your iTunes compatible device.
    • If you choose Windows Media, follow the steps below:
      • When prompted, input the unique code found on the insert located in your DVD or Blu-ray package to activate the Disney Digital Copy and follow the on-screen instructions.
      • After the transfer completes, the movie can be watched on your PC and transferred to your PlaysForSure compatible portable device.

 

The Disney-streaming-movies was brilliant while it lasted. After logging in to the service and keying in a unique code for every Disney movie,  you could watch that movie anytime from any web browser! That was a stroke of genius! Why not watch the movie when you want where you want if you own the original copy!?  Unfortunately, some dopey-grumpy-greedy dwarf must have found out about this brilliant idea, and that was that. I bet there will probably be a “monetized” version of this service in mid-2013.

Dailybooth is shutting down. Download your photos before December 31st.

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If you haven’t heard by now, Dailybooth is shutting down.

If you are a Dailybooth user, you can still download your photos by going to http://dailybooth.com/export and signing up for an archived download of all your photos.

Here’s a copy of the email sent to all users…

“Dear *|USERNAME|*,

A picture a day, every day. DailyBooth was launched based on that simple idea. We never could have imagined what it would become more than three years later.

The community each one of you helped create is truly one of a kind. There have been many unforgettable memories created amongst us and none of this would have been possible without you. For that, we’re truly grateful for what you’ve helped DailyBooth become.

Regrettably, this email comes with unfortunate news. DailyBooth is shutting down. Keeping the website running is no longer feasible.

On Wednesday, November 14th, the website will no longer allow you to add new content. Shortly thereafter, the website will be changed allowing you to only be able to download your photos. You’ll be able to download your photos until December 31st, 2012. After this date all content will be permanently deleted.

We can’t thank you enough for everything.”

Recall on NESQUIK Chocolate Powder

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Nestlé is recalling their NESQUIK Chocolate Powder drink mix (that magically delicious powder that changes regular chankla-flavored milk to chocolate milk) because they might be infected with Salmonella.

According to the press release from the FDA…

“To ensure the safety of consumers, Nestlé is recalling selected NESQUIK Chocolate Powder. The recall is limited to the following sizes, UPC and production codes of NESQUIK Chocolate Powder:

Size UPC Code Production Codes
40.7 oz. Chocolate (72 servings) 0 28000 68230 9 2282574810
2282574820
21.8 oz. Chocolate (38 servings) 0 28000 68090 9 2278574810
2278574820
2279574810
2279574820
2284574820
2284574830
2285574810
2285574820
2287574820
2289574810
2289574820
10.9 oz. Chocolate (19 servings) 0 28000 67990 3 2278574810

The affected NESQUIK Chocolate Powder was produced during early October, 2012. To locate the production code, consumers should look on the bottom of the canister, adjacent to the consumer expiration date. All affected products have an expiration date of BEST BEFORE Oct 2014.

Consumers who may have purchased the affected NESQUIK Chocolate Powder should not consume it, but instead should return it to the place of purchase for a full refund or contact Nestlé Consumer Services at (800) 628-7679.”