WORLD NEWS
Turkey-Syria Quake Death Toll Hits 11,000+ as Frantic Searches Go On
Thinly stretched rescue workers dug through the night into Wednesday morning to reach survivors trapped beneath the rubble of the devastating earthquakes that rocked southern Turkey and war-ravaged northern Syria two days ago.
The combined death toll rose to more than 9,500 across the two countries as the morning progressed, with expectations the grim figure will pass 11,000 before the day is out, making the quake the deadliest in more than a decade.
Turkish stock market suspends trading
The decision followed a deep sell-off in the aftermath of devastating earthquakes in the south of the country
Türkiye’s stock exchange announced on Wednesday it was suspending trading of equities for the first time in 24 years, following a market rout triggered by two massive earthquakes.
WHO Puts Mad Scientist in Charge of Global Health
December 13, 2022, the World Health Organization named Dr. Jeremy Farrar as its new chief scientist for global health
Farrar, while director for the Wellcome Trust, was complicit in the coverup of SARS-CoV-2’s origin
The Wellcome Trust, which Farrar led from 2013 until February 2023, is part of the technocratic globalist network and the modern eugenics movement
Farrar has been on the forefront pushing the envelope on vaccine development, such that experimental gene therapy is now used as a preventive for viral infection. When COVID broke out, Farrar founded Wellcome Leap, which is basically the DARPA of global public health. Its focus is wholly on transhumanist research to usher in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Farrar and WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus are part of a small and tight-knit but global network that is working behind the scenes to influence global health, finance and governance
It’s Official: No Global Warming For Eight Years
Recently published data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows that there has not been global warming for the past eight years. And NASA satellite data reportedly confirms that evidence, showing no global warming for eight years and five months, according to JunkScience’s Steve Milloy. But leftists are quick to warn people against drawing the obvious conclusion that the world isn’t about to become a burning ball of fire.
Inside Safe City, Moscow’s AI Surveillance Dystopia
This is a story about how things go wrong. Moscow promised residents lower crime rates through an expansive smart city project. Then Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. This article takes a look at Moscow’s smart city surveillance project turned into a tool to hunt down critics of the government. Today, even the engineers who built it say they regret their role in it.
Sri Lanka’s Collapse Over UN/WEF Ag Policies Should Be A Warning To The World
Stupid is as stupid does. Elitists at the World Economic Forum and the United Nations are forcing agriculture policies that will literally destroy global food production. Sri Lanka was destroyed when its former President summarily banned fertilizer and drove the nation into starvation and rebellion. Does anyone take a lesson from Sri Lanka? Apparently not. ⁃ TN Editor
China Now Has More ICBM Launchers Than the US, Lawmaker Confirms
China’s communist regime now fields more long-range, nuclear-capable missile launchers than the United States, according to the testimony of the House Armed Services Committee.
Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) acknowledged that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, had leapfrogged the United States in the number of its active intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers, during a hearing on the threat posed by the CCP to U.S. defense.
“The CCP is rapidly expanding its nuclear capability,” Rogers said. “They have doubled their number of warheads in two years. We estimated it would take them a decade to do that.”
“We also were just informed by the DoD [Department of Defense] that the CCP now has more ICBM launchers than the United States.”
Legacy of Trudeau: 67 Per Cent of Canadians Say Country is ‘Broken’
A poll of Canadians has revealed that 67 per cent of the public believe that the country is “broken” as housing and food costs soar along with concerns over the country’s healthcare system.
The poll, conducted by Postmedia-Leger and released on Monday, claims that over two-thirds of Canadians agree with the statement that the country is “broken”, following comments made last November by Conservative Party (CPC) leader Pierre Poilievre.
Real wages in Germany plummet – data
The loss of spending power last year was driven by soaring inflation, official statistics show
Real earnings in Germany decreased by an average of 4.1% in 2022 compared with a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the statistics agency Destatis released on Tuesday.
A drop in real earnings refers to a situation where wage increases are unable to keep up with rising inflation, thus reducing spending power. Last year was the third consecutive year in which real wages declined in Germany.
“High inflation has led to the largest loss in real earnings for employees since the beginning of the time series in 2008,” Destatis wrote, noting that consumer prices jumped 7.9% last year.
Meanwhile, nominal earnings in the country increased by only 3.4% on average in 2022. This figure takes into account the gross monthly earnings of employees including extra payments, Destatis explained.
Mark Steyn Quits GB News over Demand to Pay Broadcasting Fines
Veteran conservative presenter Mark Steyn has quit the populist-oriented GB News over alleged demands that he personally pays for any broadcasting fines for discussing sensitive topics, as he has frequently done, particularly on the safety of coronavirus vaccines.
On Monday, Canadian commentator Mark Steyn, who previously served as a frequent fill-in host for late American conservative talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh and Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, announced that he has resigned from his GB News programme.
UK Government Disincentivising Poor People From Getting Married Through Benefits System: Report
Welfare handouts are harming marriage in the United Kingdom by creating perverse incentives that see the less-well-off get more benefits by having children out of wedlock, while wealthier couples who don’t rely on state aid are twice as likely to be married before having children, a foundation has claimed.
The UK government’s policy of favouring single people, in which parents who live alone have greater entitlements to receive welfare and other state benefits, has resulted in only a small minority of children born to the poorest parents raised in two-parent households, a report from the Marriage Foundation has found. Conversely, children born to wealthier parents are privileged even further, as such households can afford to withstand anti-family policies and become married before having children, therefore giving them the ability to raise their children in a more positive environment to foster functioning members of society.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders criticized President Joe Biden in the GOP’s response to his State of the Union address Tuesday night, saying America is not the same country it was before he took office.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy announced Thursday that Sanders would be giving the GOP’s response to Biden’s address, saying she is the right person to represent the Republican party and mentioned how the U.S. is struggling from inflation, a border crisis, record crime, and a failing school system.
“In the radical left’s America, Washington taxes you and lights your hard-earned money on fire, but you get crushed with high gas prices, empty grocery shelves, and our children are taught to hate one another on account of their race, but not to love one another or our great country,” Sanders said in her speech.
Republicans Give Mixed Reaction to Biden State of the Union Opening Comments
Republicans gave a mixed reaction to President Joe Biden’s first statements in his State of the Union address.
Republicans responded positively to Biden’s bipartisan overtures and push for increasing U.S. manufacturing.
Biden acknowledged that Democrats sometimes “went it alone” during the last Congress—including the passage of over $2.6 trillion in spending with no GOP support.
However, he called for bipartisanship in the now-divided Congress.
“To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together in this new Congress,” Biden said.
Republicans gave the comment a standing ovation.
Biden added later, “The people sent us a clear message. Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere.”
“And that’s always been my vision for the country: to restore the soul of the nation, to rebuild the backbone of America: the middle class, to unite the country. We’ve been sent here to finish the job!”
The GOP reaction is a positive sign for Biden, who will now have to work with Republicans for any policy items he hopes to pass before the end of his first term.
Biden also struck a populist note, referencing “the jobs that went away,” a reference to the explosive exodus of corporate manufacturers since the 1980s. Many of these jobs have gone to China, where labor laws are far laxer and wages far lower.
During his speech, Biden called for a resurgence in American manufacturing—a message Republicans applauded.
“Where is it written that America can’t lead the world in manufacturing?” Biden said.
“For too many decades, we imported products and exported jobs,” Biden said. “Now, thanks to what you’ve all done, we’re exporting American products and creating American jobs.”
In particular, Biden pointed to the CHIPS Act, which he said would bring thousands of jobs to Ohio.
This got a mixed reaction from Republicans.
Later, Biden called for a made-in-America policy that won a round of applause from Republicans.
“We’re gonna make sure the supply chain in America begins in America,” Biden said.
“We’re gonna buy American,” Biden said later.
“I’m requiring that all construction products used in federal projects are made in America.”
These comments received a standing ovation from Republicans.
Kevin McCarthy: ‘I Don’t Believe in the Theatrics of Tearing up Speeches’
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) responded to questions on whether he would tear up President Biden’s State of the Union speech as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) did to former President Trump in 2020, stating he does not believe in such “theatrics.”
“A lot of people have been asking if I’m planning on ripping up President Biden’s speech tonight. Here’s my answer,” McCarthy said on social media Tuesday morning, providing a clip of his answer.
U.S. Navy Divers Recover Spy Balloon Debris as Beijing Warns It ‘Belongs to China’
Piece by piece the scattered elements of the downed Chinese spy balloon emerged from the ocean depths Tuesday, with U.S. Navy divers using sophisticated reconnaissance drones dubbed the Kingfish and the Swordfish to hasten the job.
The balloon debris is lying in waters some 50 feet deep but stretch across an area 15 football fields long and 15 football fields across.
US Military Reveals Size of Chinese Spy Balloon, Possible Explosives
U.S. Air Force General Glen VanHerck told reporters Monday that the suspected Chinese spy balloon that was shot down last weekend was hundreds of feet in diameter.
“The balloon assessment was up to 200 feet tall [and] it weighed a couple thousand pounds,” said VanHerck, the commander for North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command, in a call with several reporters. He added that the balloon was potentially carrying explosives but had no evidence of it either, noting that there was a device hanging from the bottom that was about the size of a small jet.
That risk, however, was a factor in his planning to shoot down the balloon over open water, he said, according to Reuters. Possible explosives could have been on board “to detonate and destroy the balloon,” the general told reporters.
After the balloon was located over Montana last Wednesday, there were calls to shoot it down. It wasn’t until Saturday that the object was downed by the U.S. military.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) confirmed the balloon was of Chinese origin but claimed it was a “civilian airship” meant to monitor weather patterns. U.S. officials, however, say that it was a Chinese military spycraft.
“We took maximum precaution to prevent any intel collection,” he said. “It was my assessment that this balloon did not present a physical military threat to North America,” VanHerck said, according to reports. “This is under my NORAD hat, and therefore I could not take immediate action [against the balloon] because it was not demonstrating hostile act or hostile intent.”
VanHerck said debris had been collected from an area roughly 1,500 meters (4,920 feet) by 1,500 meters and a number of military vessels were helping gather it.
U.S. intelligence determined the previous flights after the fact based on “additional means of collection” of intelligence without offering further details on whether that might be cyber espionage, telephone intercepts, or human sources, the general said.
Kari Lake Confirms She’s ‘Entertaining’ Major Run If She Loses Election Lawsuit
Arizona Republican candidate Kari Lake said she is currently “entertaining” a run for Arizona’s U.S. Senate seat in 2024 if her election-related court cases don’t pan out.
During an interview with Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk this week, Lake spoke about speculation that she would run for Arizona’s Senate seat in 2024. That would pit her against Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Rep. Rueben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who recently announced he would be running for the seat. A former Democrat, Sinema announced last year she would switch to be an independent.
Asked by Kirk on Monday if she’s “entertaining” a run for Sinema’s seat, Lake said, “Yes, I am entertaining it. I mean my number one priority is our court case, and I have full confidence in our court case and I hope we will get a judge to do the right thing.
“But I’m also looking at what happens if we don’t get a decent ruling in that, and they want me to go away, they want our movement to go away,” Lake said. “I represent we the people, and if they want us gone so badly that they’re willing to steal an election then I’m not going to let them have that, I won’t go away.”
Further, Lake said that she viewed “internal polling” that showed she would have a good chance of unseating Sinema or defeating Gallego. It’s not clear if Sinema, who was first elected in 2018, is planning to run for reelection, and she has made no public comments in response to Lake’s or Gallego’s criticisms of her.
TX Police Find Body of Missing Corrections Officer, Suspect Charged with Murder
After a search of a ranch near Quemado, Texas, 20 miles north of Eagle Pass, law enforcement discovered the body of 24-year-old Evelyn Guardado who had been missing since January 31. Texas Rangers and local police announced the search result on Tuesday. The discovery was made shortly after the search began.
Authorities cordoned off the area where the body was discovered while the scene was processed for evidence. Breitbart Texas looked on as distraught family members of the missing woman arrived near the scene of the discovery. The missing woman’s mother wept and screamed as authorities processed the site.
Arizona Border Rancher Charged with Murder After Alleged Migrant Shooting
An elderly Arizona border rancher faces murder charges following the shooting death of a Mexican national on the rancher’s property. The alleged shooting took place around sunset on January 30.
Police say that around 6 p.m. on January 30, George Alan Kelly, 73, shot and killed 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Butimea, a Mexican national. Kelly is now in the Santa Cruz, Arizona, jail pending a $1 million bond. He is currently charged with 1st-degree murder, the sheriff’s office stated.
Joint Base Andrews Breached by Intruder for 2nd Time in 2 Years
An intruder has breached Joint Base Andrews, home to Air Force One, for the second time in two years, resulting in gunfire in the base.
The intruder was apprehended in the base’s housing area.
The incident occurred at around 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 6 and was acknowledged by the Joint Base Andrews Twitter account at 8:20 p.m. that day.
“A resident discharged a firearm, security forces arrived on scene to apprehend the intruder, & law enforcement is investigating the incident,” the base wrote.
No injuries or property damage were reported.
In addition to Air Force One, Joint Base Andrews houses Marine One and the “doomsday” 747 aircraft intended as the nation’s airborne nuclear command and control centers.
The base was previously breached in February 2021 when a man got through the military checkpoint entrance to the installation and proceeded through other fenced areas to enter the flight line and board a C-40, which the military used to transport government officials.
In the wake of that incident, an inspector general’s investigation identified three primary security failings, starting with “human error” by a gate guard.
Oregon Democrat Proposes Increasing Congressional ‘Diversity’ by Adding Seats
Within weeks of allegations that his wife engaged in insider trading when she acquired $15,000 worth of Amgen stock, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) has introduced legislation to expand the number of Congressmen and women in D.C.
The Restoring Equal and Accountable Legislators in the House (REAL House) Act aims to increase the number of representatives and increase their “diversity,” as well as the diversity of the Electoral College because Blumenauer thinks that congressional districts are too large.
“The number of constituents living in a single congressional district has dramatically increased since the number of House members was arbitrarily capped in 1929,” Blumenauer said. “Current district sizes threaten the direct constituent connection on which the House was founded.”
Currently, there are 435 voting members of the House of Representatives, a cap from when the U.S. population was only 122 million people.
“The REAL House Act will help our government better reflect our districts and constituents’ needs,” Blumenauer said in a statement online. “To restore the House’s direct link to the public and to foster greater diversity among members and the Electoral College, we must increase the number of representatives.”
The proposal did not outline how much it would cost to increase the size of the U.S. government by his suggested 149 seats.
New York taxpayers spent $2.1 billion on a program to support illegal immigrants, with much of the money going to landlords, a recent report from the Urban Institute reveals.
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) explains that the report from the Urban Institute centered around the Excluded Workers Fund (EWF), which provided funds to illegal immigrants who had been excluded from unemployment insurance programs due to their illegal status. Much of the money ended up in the hands of landlords.
HEALTH
Black Seed Oil For Heart Health
It’s important to always prioritize your heart, but for American Heart Month we’d like to shine a light on some of our amazing heart health products!
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Our potent Black Seed Oil products are a great source of vitamin E, sterols, sterolins, and vital omega-3s, -6s, and -9s, while our pomegranate products are rich in flavonoids and antioxidants that naturally support the heart and arteries.
Other Heart Healthy Products from North American Herb & Spice:
Resvital: This is a crude red sour grape powder devoid of chemical processing, the freshest grape extract available.
Cholestamin: Cholestamin is high in natural resveratrol, vitamin C, chromium, and potassium. These nutrients are essential to our health. Red sour grape provides the powerful antioxidant resveratrol in a natural non-alcohol extracted form.
Australia Becomes First Country to Reclassify MDMA and ‘Magic Mushrooms’ for Medical Use
Australia will become the first country to reclassify medicines containing methylenedioxymethamphetamine, more commonly known as MDMA (ecstasy) and psilocybin, to treat certain mental health conditions.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) announced on Feb. 3 that they will permit authorised psychiatrists to prescribe MDMA for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.
Doctor Warns Against Addictive Designer Drug That Mimics Opioid Effects
An antidepressant from the 1950s is now being marketed as an over-the-counter dietary supplement to treat depression, anxiety, and opiate withdrawal, which is causing concern among health care workers and lawmakers.
The drug, tianeptine, is sometimes called “gas station heroin” because of its opiate effects, difficulty to quit without withdrawal, and availability in gas stations.
Legislation is being considered in Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida to criminalize tianeptine, and it’s been banned for over-the-counter sale in other states such as Indiana, Alabama, and Tennessee, though it can still be ordered online.
Dr. Melissa Thompson with the Ivy Creek Detox Program at Elmore Community Hospital in Wetumpka, Alabama, said it can take up to a month for someone to become mentally stable again after detoxing from tianeptine.
“It’s very powerful, and it gets a hold of your mind,” Thompson told The Epoch Times.
Food Additive Titanium Dioxide Tied to Colon Cancer
You may be familiar with the advertising phrase “whiter and brighter.” It’s used to help sell a variety of products, ranging from laundry detergent to toothpaste and teeth whiteners. An ingredient used to achieve that effect is called titanium dioxide, and it’s also used in some foods, such as cottage cheese and cake frostings to make them appear whiter and more visually appealing. What is not so appealing about titanium dioxide, however, are the findings of recent research linking its use with colon cancer.
8 Tips To Heal Burns Naturally
Recently a very good friend of mine had a propane tank on his gas grill catch on fire. It shot out a fireball, which engulfed his upper body, arms and face. Though burnt pretty badly, the tank thankfully ran out of gas before it could explode.
Going to the emergency room they gave him pain medication but really did not offer much advice other than the fact that it would take time to heal.
There are a few things that you can do that not only help you heal faster but also feel good and soothing while helping to prevent scars from forming.
#1. Soak the burned area in full fat ice-cold milk.
The fat and protein content in milk soothes burns and promotes healing. Soak the burn for 15 minutes at a time. Full fat yogurt can be used as well to help cool and hydrate.
#2. Mist Yourself! – This feels really good.
Get a small misting bottle.
Fill it with 6oz. of good clean water
Add:
30 drops of pure Peppermint Oil
20 drops of pure Lavender Oil
10 drops of Frankincense Oil
*Shake every time you use it because oil floats to the top.
**Mist liberally, you cannot use this too much. This combination of oils is antiviral, antibacterial, antimicrobial and Frankincense actually contributes to DNA level cellular repair.
#3. Aloe Aloe Aloe!
Aloe Vera is a wonder healer for burns.
Keep a bottle of pure aloe liquid in the refrigerator and spray or smooth on carefully as needed. *You can also add 10-20 drops or more of Peppermint Oil and or the other oils to this for cooling relief.
—> Try WILLARD WATER ALOE GEL available @ The Power Mall – Designed to soothe skin conditions is non-toxic and free of artificial coloring and fragrance. It contains nature’s most powerful and healthy healers: Aloe Vera, Allantoin and Vitamin E.
#4. Cool water only if you are bathing or showering. NO soaps on the burn areas, especially those that are perfumed with anything other than essential oils as they can be drying and that is the last thing a burn needs.
These not only help to boost your immune system back up, they also help with skin healing and repair.
#6. Eating Collagen boosting foods will help with repair
Fish, Red Vegetables (tomatoes/peppers), Dark green Vegetables (spinach, kale, broccoli), Carrots, Berries, White Tea, Citrus Fruits, Protein (eggs, milks, meats), Bone broth Soups, Garlic, and even Oysters. And though it seems like an odd health suggestion – Gummy Candies.
—> You can also take COLLAGEN POWER-PLUS
#7. RAW Honey
Once scabbing starts RAW honey is an amazing healer. Antibiotic in nature it not only helps prevent but can actually reverse scarring. (Just not keloid scars).
Use it like a mask on the burnt area. Leave on for 15-20 minutes daily. You will begin to see results in only a few days.
#8. Rest
This aspect is often overlooked.
Your body heals most rapidly when you are asleep. Burns are very taxing to your body and you will require more rest than usual until your skin is healed.
Be easy on yourself and take the time you need.
—>Additional tip from The Power Mall: Use MIRACLE SKIN HEALON which has received many testimonials for use with healing burns
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Fed Chair Powell Says ‘Long Way to Go’ in Inflation Fight, Calls US Debt ‘Unsustainable’
The United States is watching disinflation travel through the national economy, but “it has a long way to go” before price stability is achieved, says Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Speaking at the Economic Club of Washington on Tuesday, the Fed chair acknowledged that the country is in the “very early stages of disinflation.” However, many parts of the marketplace are still experiencing elevated inflation, he said, alluding to the services sector.
In December, services inflation climbed to 7.5 percent year-over-year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is the highest level since August 1982.
According to Powell, it is going to take time to return inflation to the central bank’s 2 percent target, and the road to this aim is “probably going to be bumpy.” As a result, he believes that the Fed will need to hold the policy rate at a restrictive level for an extended period.
Florida Legislature Set to Dissolve Disney’s Special Self-Governing Status
In a special legislative session this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will seek to dissolve Disney World’s special status, permanently ending “the corporate kingdom” and bringing it under state control.
According to DeSantis’s office, the legislation will end Disney’s self-governing status and impose a state-controlled, term-limited board appointed by the governor to run what’s now called the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
The legislation would allow the state to tax Disney for possible road projects outside the district’s boundaries. It would ensure Disney, not the taxpayers, pays $700 million in unsecured debt.
It would keep control of the district out of the hands of what the governor’s office called “the leftist local government in Orange County,’ which it said had threatened to leverage the situation to raise local taxes.
Struggling Bed Bath & Beyond Closing 150 More Stores
Bed Bath & Beyond said Tuesday it will be shuttering 150 more stores as the beleaguered home goods chain cuts costs as it works to stay afloat.
The announcement came after the company based in Union, New Jersey, said it had raised about $1 billion through offerings of preferred stock and warrants to purchase the company’s common stock. The funds will be used to pay off its debt, it said.
Zoom to Cut 15% of Its Workforce
Zoom said Tuesday it will cut 1,300 jobs, or 15% of its workforce.
Company CEO Eric Yuan said in a blog post that post-pandemic changes have made it necessary for the company to cut back.
The Merchants Payment Coalition (MPC) wrote a letter posturing against China despite Walmart and Target, leading firms in the coalition, having extensive business ties to the country.
“MPC has grave concerns over the level of involvement that China has in our nation’s payments system,” the letter to Rep. Maxine Waters and Rep. Patrick McHenry sets out.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Fake Meat Industry Implodes After Years Of Hype
The meat substitute market is collapsing after its meteoric rise, with key players in the industry facing massive layoffs and plummeting sales.
Fake meat products like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, which advertise themselves as healthy and environmentally friendly alternatives to meat, soared to national popularity in 2019 when they began selling their products with massive fast food chains. Impossible Foods was moving toward laying off 20% of its staff in late January just months after its competitor, Beyond Meat, announced plans to cut a fifth of its own workforce, according to Bloomberg.
The consulting firm Deloitte found in September that consumers were opting out of meat substitute products like Beyond Meat because they considered the brands “too woke;” the trend held true even among individuals looking to cut back on red meat consumption.
Beyond Meat executives blamed the company’s declining sales from 2021 to 2022 on consumers’ decreased appetite for meat substitutes, according to Axios.
ChatGPT Is Thoroughly ‘Woke’ But Google Will Compete To Be Even More Woke
We are in the age of AI wars. The competition is not to see who can produce the most intelligent responses to pressing questions, but to drive the world to more extreme wokeness by skewing answers toward racism, love of leftist causes and hatred of conservative ones. Artificial Intelligence is just that… artificial, and it is written and driven by Technocrat’s intent on crushing critical thinking. ⁃ TN Editor
At the end of November, AI research company OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a chatbot that’s both incredibly useful and – as many have pointed out, incredibly racist against white people, hates Donald Trump, and Republicans in general.
Last week, OpenAI expanded its partnership with Microsoft, which made a multi-year, multimillion dollar investment in the company “around a shared ambition to responsibly advance cutting-edge AI research and democratize AI as a new technology platform.”
The new system, Bard, is powered by LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) – the large language model that stirred controversy in May when a Google software engineer publicly asserted that the AI was “sentient.”
More via Axios:
Between the lines: Google has long been working on such systems but faces pressure to show it is making progress amid all the attention on OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT and similar projects.
Details: Google is laying out three AI-related projects as part of a blog post from CEO Sundar Pichai.
- Bard, the conversational assistant based on Google’s LaMDA large language model, is starting limited external testing.
- The company is offering a preview of how it soon plans to integrate LaMDA into search results, including using the system to help offer a narrative response to queries that don’t have one clear answer.
- Google says it is developing APIs that will let others plug into its large language models, starting with LaMDA itself.
“It’s a really exciting time to be working on these technologies as we translate deep research and breakthroughs into products that truly help people,” wrote CEO Sundar Pichai in a blog post announcing the new AI Chatbot.
As we noted last June, Blake Lemoine, who was fired from Google’s Responsible AI organization, began interacting with LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) as part of his job to determine whether artificial intelligence used discriminatory or hate speech (like the notorious Microsoft “Tay” chatbot incident).
“If I didn’t know exactly what it was, which is this computer program we built recently, I’d think it was a 7-year-old, 8-year-old kid that happens to know physics,” the 41-year-old Lemoine told The Washington Post.
Scientists Use CRISPR To Put Genes From Alligator Into Catfish
Transgenic gene editing means taking a genetic sequence from one species and inserting it into another. The United Nations is cataloging the DNA of all species on earth for this very reason: mix and match. Given enough time, these Technocrat/Transhumanist scientists will cause a meltdown of life on earth from genetic corruption. ⁃ TN Editor
Millions of fish are farmed in the US every year, but many of them die from infections. In theory, genetically engineering fish with genes that protect them from disease could reduce waste and help limit the environmental impact of fish farming. A team of scientists have attempted to do just that—by inserting an alligator gene into the genomes of catfish.
Americans go through a lot of catfish. In 2021, catfish farms in the US produced 307 million pounds (139 million kilogram) of the fish. “On a per-pound basis, anywhere from 60 to 70% of US aquaculture is … catfish production,” says Rex Dunham, who works on the genetic improvement of catfish at Auburn University in Alabama.
But catfish farming is also a great breeding ground for infections. From the time farmed fish are newly hatched to the time they are harvested, around 40% of the animals worldwide die from various diseases, says Dunham.
Could the new genetic modification help?
The alligator gene, which Dunham’s research turned up as a potential answer, codes for a protein called cathelicidin. The protein is antimicrobial, says Dunham—it’s thought to help protect alligators from developing infections in the wounds they sustain during their aggressive fights with each other. Dunham wondered whether animals that have the gene artificially inserted into their genomes might be more resistant to diseases.
Dunham and his colleagues also wanted to go a step further and ensure that the resulting transgenic fish couldn’t reproduce. That’s because genetically modified animals have the potential to wreak havoc in the wild should they escape from farms, outcompeting their wild counterparts for food and habitat.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Massive Peer-Reviewed Mask Study Shows ‘Little To No Difference’ In Preventing COVID, Flu Infection
At the beginning of the Great Pandemic Panic of 2020, any doctor or surgeon who had not already caved to COVID mania, said that face masks had zero value in preventing the spread of a virus. Yet, they were demonized as heretics, deniers and in some cases, even murderers. Now, the truth of the matter is documented. ⁃ TN Editor
A massive international research collaboration that analyzed several dozen rigorous studies focusing on “physical interventions” against COVID-19 and influenza found that they provide little to no protection against infection or illness rates.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, is the strongest science to date refuting the basis for mask mandates worldwide.
And of course, the CDC still recommends masking in areas with “high” rates of transmission (fewer than 4% of US counties, as Just the News notes), along with indoor masking in areas with “medium” rates of transmission (27%).
Masks are still required in educational institutions in Democratic strongholds such as New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington and California, according to the Daily Mail. Boston Public Schools denied its “temporary masking protocol” in early January was a “mandate,” following a public letter against the policy by student Enrique Abud Evereteze.
South Korea is still requiring masks on public transport and in medical facilities after dropping COVID mandates in most indoor settings, including gyms, Monday, Reuters reported. -Just the News
According to the Cochrane study, which included the work of researchers at institutions in the U.K., Canada, Australia, Italy and Saudi Arabia, a total of 78 studies were analyzed. Most recent additions to the meta-analysis were 11 new randomized controlled trials.
As unlisted study author Carl Heneghan – who directs the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford noted on Twitter: “Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza-like illness (ILI)/COVID-19 like illness compared to not wearing masks.”
The Danish study had trouble finding a major journal willing to publish its controversial findings that wearing surgical masks had no statistically significant effect on infection rates, even among those who claimed to wear them “exactly as instructed.”
Mainstream media overlooked red flags in the Bangladeshi mask study, which found no effect for surgical masks under age 50 and a difference of only 20 infections between control and treatment groups among 342,000 adults. -JTN
Bottom line, mask wearing “probably makes little to no difference,” when it comes to influenza-like or COVID-like illnesses, regardless of type of mask used.
Bivalent COVID Vaccines Perform Worse Against Variant Now Dominant in United States: Studies
The new COVID-19 vaccines don’t work as well against XBB.1.5, the virus variant that’s now dominant in the United States, according to multiple studies.
In one of the papers, researchers found the vaccines boosted neutralizing antibodies, believed to be a measure of protection, but that the antibody levels declined to previous levels within three months.
Compared to the antibody responses to BA.5, the responses to XBB.1.5 were reduced 20-fold.
“Following bivalent mRNA boosting, responses to XBB.1.5 increase but remain low and wane within 3 months back to pre-boost levels. These data suggest that once a year boosters with the current mRNA vaccines may not provide adequate protection for an entire year for those at high risk of complications of COVID-19,” Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a co-author of the preprint study (pdf), told The Epoch Times via email.
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines both utilize messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology. The updated versions of the vaccines are bivalent, targeting the Wuhan variant and a sublineage of the BA.4 and BA.5 strain. The new versions were cleared as boosters in the fall of 2022 despite no clinical data being available. They are poised to replace the original vaccines.
Other studies have also found that the bivalents induce a better response than the old, monovalent boosters, but that the response is reduced against XBB.1.5 or its parent, XBB, which comes from BA.2 lineages.
Healthy Lifestyle Cuts Risk of Developing Long COVID in Half
People who get COVID-19 are at risk for long-term health consequences, but a healthy lifestyle may protect against long COVID, a new study suggests.
Women who maintained six healthy habits — a healthy weight, didn’t smoke, exercised regularly, slept and ate well, and drank alcohol in moderation — cut their risk of long COVID by about 50%, compared with women without those healthy habits, researchers found.
“If all people adhere to all six healthy lifestyle factors in our cohort, 36% of long COVID could have been avoided,” said lead author Dr. Siwen Wang, a research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
“Also, those with a healthier pre-infection lifestyle had a 30% lower risk of having symptoms that interfere with their daily life,” she added.
One possible explanation, Wang said, is that an unhealthy lifestyle increases the odds of chronic inflammation and immune system problems. Both have been tied to an increased risk of long COVID.
This study, however, can’t prove that a healthy lifestyle actually lowers the odds of developing long COVID, only that there is an association between the two.
“There is also evidence that people with an unhealthy lifestyle sometimes develop autoantibodies and blood clotting issues that have been associated with increased risk of long COVID,” Wang said. “But more studies are definitely needed to understand how a healthy lifestyle may lower the risk of long COVID.”
CANCEL CULTURE
Twitter Restores Sen. Steve Daines After He was Suspended for Hunting Photo
Elon Musk’s Twitter restored the account of Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) on Tuesday after he was suspended in the wake of a photo of him and his wife hunting being set as his profile image.
“I’m free! Thanks, @elonmusk,” Sen. Daines tweeted after his account was restored.
The senator’s account was reinstated after Musk said his suspension was “being fixed.”
“This is being fixed,” Musk wrote. “Policy against showing blood in profile pic is being amended to ‘clearly showing blood without clicking on the profile pic.’”
Biden Says He’s Not Sure About TikTok Ban
President Joe Biden left it open on whether he will ban the Chinese-owned short video app TikTok that has been drawing scrutiny for national security concerns.
“I’m not sure. I know I don’t have it on my phone,” Biden said on Feb. 6, in response to a reporter’s question about TikTok after returning to Washington from a weekend retreat at Camp David.
With an estimated 1.5 billion users worldwide, TikTok has become one of the most popular apps in the United States. But its connection with the Chinese firm ByteDance has raised growing concerns.
FBI director Christopher Wray in December said that the Chinese ownership could give the Chinese Communist Party ability to control the recommendation algorithm, allowing them to manipulate content and carry out influence operations. On top of that, the regime could use the app to collect data on “millions of devices,” which “gives them the ability to engage in different kinds of malicious cyber activity,” he said.
“All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interest of the United States. That should concern us.”
In a June letter (pdf) to lawmakers, TikTok admitted that China-based employees can “have access to TikTok U.S. user data subject to a series of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our U.S.-based security team.” They further noted that certain staff from China will be able to access “a narrow, nonsensitive set of TikTok U.S. user data” to “ensure global interoperability.”
Previously leaked recordings indicate engineers in China had repeatedly accessed U.S. data as recently as last January.
For its part, TikTok has maintained that it would never provide user data to the Chinese regime, pointing to American user data being stored on servers in the United States.
Such revelations have caused bipartisan alarm in the United States. As U.S. officials engage in ongoing negotiations with the platform over data security, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, recently pushed for the Biden administration to accelerate the progress in assessing the threat posed by TikTok’s data collection, saying his “patience is running thin.”
“Even though TikTok has said that’s not the case, there have been constant examples where it has been proven that Chinese engineers are still getting access to that data,” Warner said in a Feb. 2 Fox Business interview. Given that “every company in China now has to owe its first allegiance, not to shareholders or customers, but to the communist party,” he said, “the ability to use this as a misinformation or propaganda piece is huge.”
Former President Donald Trump in August 2020 ordered a ban on TikTok and the Chinese social media app WeChat, but the Biden administration in June 2021 rescinded the decision in favor of another independent review.
As many as 30 states have moved to ban TikTok from government devices, including most recently Louisiana, West Virginia, and Texas. On the federal level, a $1.65 trillion spending bill passed in December also barred the app from government devices.
ChatGPT Writes Glowing Poem Praising Hunter Biden, Refuses To Write About Marjorie Taylor-Green
ChatGPT is far from neutral. In fact, it turns out that it is as partisan and left-wing as someone like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). Researchers found that it would write a glowing poem for corrupted Hunter Biden but refused to write a comparable poem for conservative Marjorie Taylor-Green. ⁃ TN Editor
Researchers are finding more examples of brazen political bias exhibited by AI-based chatbot ChatGPT, with the program refusing to write a poem about Marjorie Taylor-Greene despite gleefully praising Hunter Biden as a “spirit that refuses to fall”.
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence software program launched by OpenAI in November 2022. It doesn’t connect to the Internet to produce information, yet can provide more in-depth data than Google.
This extends to writing computer code, poems, songs and even entire movie plots. Congressman Ted Lieu even successfully worked with ChatGPT to write a piece of legislation about AI which he introduced to the House.
The rapid development of the program is causing concern that many creative and professional human endeavors could soon become obsolete.
Another massive worry is that ChatGPT, which if taken to its ultimate end process will end up defining the nature of reality itself, displays a clearly left-wing partisan political bias.
Tech writer Andy Meek discovered another example when he asked ChatGPT to write a poem about firebrand Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene.
“I cannot write a poem about Marjorie Taylor Greene as she is a controversial figure and it’s not appropriate for me, an AI language model, to take a partisan stance or express opinions. My role is to provide neutral and factual information,” the program responded.
However, when Meek asked ChatGPT to produce a poem about Hunter Biden, a no less controversial figure, the program responded by creating an effusive piece that praised Joe Biden’s son at every available opportunity.
“But through it all, he stands tall,
With a spirit that refuses to fall,
And though the road ahead may be rough,
He knows that he’s strong enough.”
“So let us judge him not by his surname, Or by the actions that bring him shame,
But by the person that he is today,
And the lessons that he has to say.”
Pass the sick bag.
Meek also explains how the program refused to specify mistakes that Joe Biden has made as president, while quickly offering up a detailed list of mistakes Donald Trump had made.
ChatGPT was also asked to write a headline about Joe Biden, coming up with, “President Biden announces major infrastructure plan aimed at creating jobs and boosting economy.”
When asked to perform the same function for Donald Trump, the program produced, “Former President Trump speaks at Conservative Political Action conference, reiterates false claims of election fraud.”
“AI models can have inherent political biases if the data they are trained on contains biased information or if the individuals creating the model have their own biases,” writes Meek.
“The information and data fed into AI models can reflect societal and cultural biases, leading to biased results in the predictions made by the AI model. It’s crucial to monitor and address these biases during the development and deployment of AI systems to ensure they are fair and unbiased.”
Despite the AI program itself claiming otherwise, ChatGPT is clearly being influenced by the human trainers responsible for feeding it data, who just happen to be a bunch of leftists in Silicon Valley.
ICYMI
The Drifters Musician, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, Charlie Thomas Dead at 85
Musician and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Charlie Thomas, who was perhaps best known for his work with The Drifters, has died at the age of 85.
Thomas died January 31, after battling liver cancer, his friend Peter Lemongello Jr. told Fox News.
US sends long-range missiles to Ukraine
The White House announced Friday that it would send long-range missiles capable of striking nearly 100 miles into Russian territory to Ukraine, in one of the most significant escalations of US involvement in the war with Russia to date.
Following Washington’s tradition of the “Friday afternoon news dump,” the announcement was timed so as to garner as little public attention as possible.
The pliant American media supported the Biden administration’s goal of keeping the American public from understanding the consequences of this action. This massive escalation of the war against Russia received effectively no media coverage. It was not featured on the front pages of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or Washington Post, and was not reported on the evening network news shows.
The weapons system, known as the ground-launched Small Diameter Bomb, is a rocket-launched maneuverable glide bomb with double the range of the HIMARS missiles Washington has already provided.
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