Sunday, August 5, 2018

Live Long And Perspire

Final Frontiersmen (and gals),

Moon of Alabama has the Syrian war update. The southwest of Syria, to the Golan Heights and Jordan is liberated from white-helmets et. al. The battle moves north to Idlib. Syrian Kurds have made peace with the central government, though all details are not yet public. "Moderate rebels" got an offer to switch sides and fight with the Syrian army against Isis. A "moderate" number of them have accepted that offer. Turkey is going to have to get out of the north of Syria, along with local proxy-beheaders. The US will have to save face, declare victory, get out, and so on. No "Assad-must-go" conditions will be imposed...

Rumor has it that the Chinese army is going to help get terrorists/freedom-fighters/rebels/mercenaries out of Idlib. You may recall the extreme dystopia that Han Chinese have created for Uyghur people in what used to be their home, before they became second class Chinese. Here is a chance for the Chinese army to get used to killing them on the battlefield, while getting trained by very experienced Russian, Syrian, Iranian and Lebanese forces. 
"Asked about the possibility that China would participate in some way in the Idlib [military] operation, the attaché said: 'The military cooperation between the Syrian and Chinese armies is ongoing. We have good relations and we maintain this cooperation in order to serve the security, integrity and stability of our countries. We – China and its military – wish to develop our relations with the Syrian army. As for participating in the Idlib operation, it requires a political decision.' He denied that there were military advisors or special Chinese forces in Syria today."

​The top Russian general and top american general have a private communication channel to help prevent awkward misunderstandings and unfortunate occurrences. The Americans are leaking again. The Russians "extended the hand of cooperation in Syria", without getting rid of the elected president there. This must be prevented by somebody with high level security clearance. Oh well, there's no way of determining who leaked, is there? The Russians are ruffled by the leak, but confirm it's veracity.

Having been repeatedly thwarted, the Saudi military coalition is redoubling it's efforts to cut the one lifeline that gets food and medicine into North Yemen, and to starve everybody to death and decisively win.

Jada sends this article, which bears a lot of resemblance to his own analysis, and even quirky title:

​I​f humanity is successfully weaned from fossil fuels, the economy as a whole will necessarily become intimately dependent on more diffuse energy sources and on ecospheric processes. In other words, all economic production will necessarily become tightly bound by the same limitations that farmers, especially pre-fossil-fuel farmers have always faced.
This message has not gotten through to the mainstream environmental movement, which aims to reverse realty, expecting agriculture (along with forestry and range management) to work the entropic miracle of cleaning up after the industrial sector so the latter can go on transgressing limits.
In this magical world, lunch is on the house; green plants will be asked not only to double their output of marketable product but also to produce enough combustible biomass to displace a large share of fossil fuels and sequester in the soil a large portion of the carbon emitted by fossil fuels. Meanwhile, production of food is to be moved into cities or just outside the city limits, to reduce transportation emissions (already a tiny portion of the industrial food system’s emissions) and to let people feel good about eating locally.

​Ilargi writes about the barrage of unfounded accusations, which is now the standard in American media, and how there is no need for proof in the court of public opinion, just repetition.​
Because no matter how you may twist it, Julian Assange is braver than any of you, and braver than all of you put together too. But no, he’s not free. He gave up his freedom so you would know what it means to be free. Free from manipulation, free from people making up your minds for you, free from indoctrination, free from the forces that take more of your freedom away every day.
You see, Julian Assange is not free. But neither are you. He’s a prisoner of the very people who are taking your freedom away, day by day, step by step. That’s why you should stand up for him. And of course, it’s not just your freedom that’s at stake, it’s your humanity, it’s the very essence of what makes you human, the difference between a life worth living and a life wasted by complacency and cowardice.

​Paige Brown Jarreau presents some details about how to reduce your zombification as you age, by exercising, fasting intermittently (at least 12 hrs/night) and maybe taking slow release metformin.

Here is a compilation of human clinical trial data on vitamin-D and cardiovascular risk. The doses used are mostly low, as judged by my usual goal of getting people's vitamin-D level up into the normal range of 30-100. I have found that most people will eventually get up into the normal range on 5000 units per day of vitamin D-3. Nobody gets a high level on that dose, the highest over-the-counter dose. It's what I take.
​There is actually a lot of good information on using metformin to extend the healthy years of your middle age and senescence. More is on the way, but will take some years. 

Vitamin-K ("koagulation" in German) has been known to aid blood clotting since chickens on a low fat diet started bleeding to death around 1930, leading to the discovery of this fat soluble vitamin. Vitamin-K is actually a whole slew of related compounds. K-1 aids the formation of clotting factors in the liver, as do the various forms of K-2. K-2 consists of chains of a subunit, designated by the number of chained subunits. MK-7 seems to be the most active in humans, being well absorbed and persisting a bit longer in the body. MK-4 appears in commercial products, and also works. Research shows quite good cardiovascular benefit from 180 microgram daily dose. Other research showed benefit at 10 micrograms, that increased with every 10 mcg. dose  increase (endpoint unclear). The benefits are related to control of calcification in the body, both good and bad calcification. Vitamin-D is also critical in these processes. Both of these are low in almost all Americans and Europeans, though minimally-clad Japanese pearl-divers, who eat "Natto", are likely to have plenty of both.
Good calcification happens in bones, reducing fracture risk. Bad calcification happens in arteries that feed the heart, brain and kidneys. I include a link to an article that compiles scientific study data, and links to the best prices on what looked like the best supplement products I could find. (Placing order now...)

Dr. "Spock"

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