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Best propagators ranked by quality and price (November 2020 Updated Review)
Propagators enhance an avid gardeners ability to produce wonderful flowers and vegetables, taking full advantage of the short Spring and Summer seasons. Propagators should control humidity well, ideally be transparent for maximum light and a peak at what’s going on with the seedlings, gently heated to encourage germination, and a manageable size as we often place them in doors. What sets a good propagator apart from the best propagator is the ease in which we can transplant our seedlings with a little trowel and fork set. This is vital to reduce stress on the seedling so I’ve reviewed the best propagators to help you.
1. Stewart Essentials Heated Electric Propagator
- This is a 52 centimetre long propagator from Stewart Essentials
- The propagator runs on electricity and the heater used here is a 22 Watt heater
- Propagator’s dome is transparent so that you can see the status of the seedlings.
- The thermoform lid also allows the sunlight to enter for photosynthesis.
- This electric propagator is not thermostatic.
- There are two ventilation valves on top of the dome to help the propagation of the seeds. The ventilation panels adjust the temperature and humidity inside the propagator.
- Stewart propagator can be controlled easily using an on-off switch.
- The sealing around the unit retains the heat within to control the humidity, I normally use a water bottle to assist with humidity.
- Any combination of seed trays and pots can be kept inside this to provide favourable conditions to different seeds.
- Made of plastic, this product’s dimensions are 52 x 42.5 x 28 cm and weighs just 2.3 KGs.
- Simple and easy to port system to provide perfect conditions for your seedlings to grow out of the seed.
2. Garland Super7 electric heated windowsill propagator - G51
- An electric propagator that can be kept at your window sill to initiate photosynthesis faster.
- Running on electricity this is a set of 7 mini propagators. These propagator cells are made of shatter resistant material and are designed to provide adequate ventilation for the seedlings.
- The dimensions of this electric propagator are 76 x 18.5 x 15 cm. The width is lesser so that it can be kept on most of the windowsills.
- The G51 propagator weighs just 2 KGs.
- Made of plastic this comes in green colour
- It is compact and is a complete nursery for your seedlings. No need of a greenhouse set up.
- The heating system is equipped with a 13 W system and the heating element used here is made of carbon fibre.
- Unlike other products, this propagator gives you the opportunity to germinate different plants.
3. EarlyGrow MPL50034/P heated electric propagator
- An electric windowsill propagator that comes with three bays.
- The bottom tray has the connection to electricity and gives needed heat to the three bays.
- The propagator is made of injection moulded plastic that is robust and durable.
- You can cultivate cuttings as well as seeds.
- The propagator keeps the temperature in between 16 to 19 degrees so that soil will not be too hot for the seeds.
- The air flow and the humidity inside the trays are maintained by the adjustable ventilation valve on top of the transparent lid.
- The shatter proof lid keeps the bays protected from bumps or drops.
- Three separate bays give you the option to cultivate three different plants.
- The dimensions are 54.5 x 21.5 x 14.5 cm and weighs just 1.2 KGs.
4. Nutley's 40-cell no holes seed propagator set
- A Britain made seed propagator that does not need electricity.
- The full sized seed trays can be placed on the main tray.
- You get 40 cells to cultivate seeds in one tray giving you the option to germinate 120 plants with this package.
- The lid on top of the propagator is transparent and has inserts for each cavity in the seed tray.
- All seed tray inserts have holes for drainage however there are no holes for the trays.
- This is the natural way to germinate vegetable and flower plant seeds.
- The propagator set is made of recyclable plastic that is lightweight. Even though it just weighs around 500 grams the tray is strong and durable.
- The cavity inserts are softer than the tray so that you can remove the seedlings without damaging them.
- For many seasons to come you will be using this propagator.
- Washing and cleaning of this propagator is not a big deal.
- The dimensions of this product are 38cm x 24cm x 15cm.
5. Garland Fab 4 electric heated propagator
- An electric propagator that is simple and is suitable for beginners who are just starting with commercial germination.
- As mentioned in the name this set comes with four mini propagators.
- The ventilation adjuster on the top of the transparent lids can be used to control the temperature and humidity inside.
- There is no need to worry much since the propagator itself maintains a particular temperature.
- The propagator is made of injection moulded plastic and the bottom tray is a sealed one.
- This ideal entry-lever propagator has a base that is made of the carbon-fibre element to distribute the heat evenly.
- The dome has a height of 15.5 centimetres which enables the gardener to let his/her seedling grow a little bit before planting it to the bare soil.
- The overall measurements of this propagator are 38.5 cm x 24 cm x 15.5 cm (LxWxH) and the weight is 1.3 KGs. Each propagator is 14cm long, 11.5 cm high and 9cm wide.
- The shatter resistant lids let the sunlight through to the unit.
- This is a low energy consumption unit just needing 10W.
- Not a thermostatically controlled unit and the temperature can be increased by around 8°.
6. Sankey Gowarm 100 propagator kit
- A two tray propagator that has all the necessary items to start the work – tray that has the heating element sealed, capillary mat, and instruction manual.
- There are 2 seed trays that can be used for propagation. Each tray is 21 centimetres long.
- An electric heated propagator that can be used to grow your own vegetable garden or flower garden.
- The base is heated with controlled temperature and this speeds up the germination process.
- Made in the UK this propagator allows you to sprout two types of plants. This is the best choice for a small household.
- Just like other propagators in the market, this also has a transparent lid with the ventilation adjuster. This facility keeps the temperature and moisture in check.
- The lid has three oval shaped openings on top to let the air get inside and facilitate the sprouting.

domain: agronomy


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domain: chemistry


Hurricanes strike the Texas coast, but the impact is statewide. That's a fact that Texas inland residents have a difficult time understanding when skies are clear. But the point becomes clearer when fuel supplies become scarce because coastal refineries have been knocked out of commission by a storm. Or when economies far from the coast are thrown for a loop because Texas ports are brought to a standstill because of a hurricane.
The rest of the state is at risk if the Texas coast doesn't have the means to recover quickly from a storm, which is why it's imperative that a House bill, HB 2960, now moving through the Senate, that would bolster the reserves of the insurer of last resort for coastal properties, recognize that hurricanes are not just a coastal problem.
The Texas Windstorm Insurance pool was created by the Legislature to provide windstorm insurance in the state's 14 coastal counties if private insurers won't write a policy.
About 46 percent of all Nueces County residences are covered by the pool.
As the number of windstorm policy holders has increased in recent years, the potential exposure loss, estimated overall at $9 billion in Nueces County, has far exceeded the pool's reserves. If a Katrina-size hurricane hit the Texas coast, the potential exposure for windstorm losses could overwhelm the pool's reserves. The pool has been buying reinsurance to back up the reserves, but the increasing high cost is likely to drive up the price of premiums. Those reserves must be backed up with deeper pockets.
House Bill 2960, which is likely to be in the hands of a House-Senate conference committee this week, spreads that risk out over insurance policy holders across the state, by setting up pre-event and post-event bonds that would be used to pay damages in the event of a major hurricane. But the original version put too much of that exposure risk on coastal policy holders, by setting too high the line at which point statewide policy holders would be asked to help pay off the bonds after a storm hit. The Senate has improved the bill by recognizing that a major hurricane has ramifications for all Texans, even those far from a beach. Legislative conferees who will hammer out a final version should stick to the Senate's guidelines.
The measure also mandates that a majority of the board that governs the windstorm pool live along the coast. But the main thrust of the bill is to put the windstorm pool on a firmer financial footing.
The worst alternative would be to continue the status quo, simply trusting to luck. As coastal residents understand, when it comes to hurricanes that could be an expensive roll of the dice.
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The new Arthurville Primary School on the island of Wakenaam in the Essequibo River was commissioned earlier today by President Dr Irfaan Ali and Education Minister Priya Manickchand.
Back in May 2022, the Education Minister visited the island to meet with parents of learners attending the school to address their concerns about the deteriorating building.
At the time, Minister Manickchand told the parents that a new and modern structure would be built at the same location. In February of this year, a contract for the sum of $84M was awarded to rebuild the school.
According to Manickchand, the idea is to equip people across the country with opportunities to allow them to thrive and utilize their full potential.
The new building has eight classrooms, a reading room, an IT laboratory, a kitchen, a staff room and a sick bay. Each classroom is also equipped with a smart screen.
The school now accommodates some 62 students in a comfortable environment.
At the commissioning ceremony, President Ali emphasised that the government will continue to invest in Guyanese to improve their lives in all areas and produce significant results. He also highlighted the critical role of education in building the Guyana of the future.
“This is where we give the children the hope of a brighter tomorrow. We are going to build the best possible future for you. We are going to build a prosperous future. One in which you will be better off today. One in which you will fully accomplish your aspirations. One in which your country will not be found wanting to deliver to you the best possible country we can deliver to you,” the president said.
As the government continues to work assiduously to transform Guyana, Dr Ali explained that every citizen has benefitted from the budget within the last three years.
“Since we came into government, every single citizen of Wakenaam, we have invested almost $4.5 million per resident. When we look at what we have spent on healthcare, roads, social infrastructure, children, schools, D&I, sea defence and the new solar farm that we will complete next year…What does it bring to you? It brings a better school for your children,” the Head of State noted.
The government has expended some $51 million through the education cash grant to children in the last three years. President Ali also spoke about the massive water treatment plant project costing more than $850 million to provide potable water to many households, which is scheduled to commence next year.
By 2025, the government will be spending some $6 million or more on each resident in Wakenaam and other communities. The community will also benefit from other developments, such as a $2.5 million project to upgrade the Arthurville Community Ground.
In 2023, more than 20 teachers’ living quarters have been constructed and expanded throughout the country.
Meanwhile, Minister Manickchand underscored that the President Ali-led government remains keen on providing the necessary investments to strengthen the education sector for Guyanese to thrive and compete in the world.
“Once we promise it, we will deliver it, not only in schools but regarding your healthcare, livelihood and physical infrastructure in the country… That is how we serve. We see educational advancements all across the region,” she pointed out.
The education minister also highlighted that the school performed extremely well at this year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).
Regional Chairman, Ayube Inshan, Assistant Chief Education Officer (Primary), Rabindra Singh, and Headteacher of Arthurville Primary, Gita Dudnath-Romotar also delivered brief remarks. (Extracted and Modified from DPI)


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The lab leak theory of COVID-19 origins is a conspiracy theory. Science has spoken, the virus jumped to humans from a frozen fish in the Huanan wet market, if we faithfully pray enough, the evidence for that will eventually manifest. DRASTIC sleuths are not entitled to find the evidence of gain-of-function experiments with bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) which they found without permission, so it must be disregarded. Alina Chan is, we are warned, an anti-Chinese bigot and anyway, just a little jumped-up foreign postdoc, how dares she contradict esteemed American professors.
This in the nutshell is the take by proper science journalists and prominent scientists on the book Viral by geneticist Alina Chan and journalist Matt Ridley which I review here.
I previously blogged about the Lab Leak Theory, and was of course tremendously curious to finally read this book. I was not disappointed, Viral was even better than I expected.
The book is chock-full with scientific evidence. Not for the lab leak as such, there is indeed no direct proof. But there is oodles of circumstantial evidence to treat the lab leak theory at least just as seriously as we treat the standard zoonotic theory, where the virus jumped to humans from bats without human intervention.
In this regard, it is important to stress that claims of SARS-CoV2 being a bioweapon are indeed a baseless conspiracy theory. But it is very different for the possibility that the pandemic coronavirus accidentally escaped a Wuhan lab in which it was studied. It may have been as simple as bats infecting WIV researchers who sampled them in Yunnan and then returned to Wuhan, carrying the virus in them. The sampled bat virus may also have been cultured in some BSL-3 or even BSL-2 labs in Wuhan (perfectly legal for coronaviruses), and a leakage from a BSL-2 lab is a piece of cake even for a much less infectious pathogen. Finally, SARS-CoV2 may have been engineered on the basis of the sampled bat virus, genetically optimised to target humans using a traceless modern gene editing technology, or via serial passaging in human cell lines and humanised mice (those expressing human ACE2 receptor). WIV most certainly had all the tools and experience for that, in fact they published all the relevant papers and even announced to do exactly that kind of experiments in an earlier grant proposal.
As the book most definitely proves without any doubt, just between 2013 and 2015 WIV found at least nine potentially dangerous SARS-like viruses in the bats of an abandoned mine in Mojiang in the Yunnan province, and brought these viruses to Wuhan. Those viruses are the closest known natural matches to SARS-CoV2, they or their relatives killed 3 out of 6 people who shovelled bat guano in that Mojiang mine in 2013, these are facts also. And WIV scientists eventually admitted these facts, and yet, and yet, the scientific community and science journalists would rather not talk about that. Anything, but Mojiang. The mine itself is off-limits for journalists.
The obvious scientific question is how one of these Mojiang bat viruses managed to mutate, reach Wuhan, and start there a global pandemic, killing millions and stalling the global economy and society. But instead, Chinese authorities and their loyal scientists and journalists in the West demand for the search for COVID-19 origins to continue everywhere BUT the Mojiang mine, preferably abroad, Laos, Thailand, or preferably a BSL-4 lab in USA. This is the intellectual level we are at.
We can safely assume that the precursors of SARS-CoV2 exist in Yunnan bats. But we don’t know where the virus adapted before it popped up in Wuhan. Fact is that no intermediate animal host, not even a convincing suspect, was found so far, despite all that search for almost 2 years, despite all the technology available, and despite all the past successes that same WIV previously had (without today’s technology!) in establishing in detail the bat origins of the 2003/2003 human pandemic pathogen SARS and the 2016/2017 pig disease SADS.
Lacking even a shred of evidence for that elusive animal transmission, including a total zilch for the entire Huanan seafood market which is still being pushed as the epicentre of the pandemic, all we have is bad science of wishful thinking in badly peer-reviewed papers in elite journals on a political mission to “defend science” and to please the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), each time religiously hailed by journalists as the breakthrough we all prayed for.
Like that wretched pangolin theory in Nature (Xiao et al 2020) and 3 other journals, which Alina Chan exposed to trace back to the same miserable tortured animals, instead of 4 independent samples (Chan & Zhan bioRxiv 2020). The same bag of dying pangolins in the Guangdong market, infected with a (distantly!) related coronavirus. In this regard, Viral reminds us that pangolins are actually not at all suitable hosts for respiratory pathogens like coronaviruses, by being solitary creatures who only ever meet to mate, thus the polar opposite of bats, humans and the animals humans keep on industrial farms. To propose a pangolin as a natural coronavirus reservoir goes against basic biology of these animals. The Guangdong pangolins in whom that infection was found and then published as “independent” quadruplicate, got most likely infected by other miserable victims of animal trafficking in that market.
Guess if those pangolin papers were retracted? Nope, the authors were instead invited to pull out more “evidence” out of their backsides because the world urgently relies on the zoonotic theory of COVID-19 origins. Chan’s preprint was rejected by all respectable journals, because they didn’t like Chan’s debunking of the dogma and her disrespectful behaviour on Twitter.
Let us also not forget that unlike the SARS virus, SARS-CoV2 was barely mutating in the first months of the pandemic, indicating that it was already perfectly adapted to humans, which was also discovered by Chan (Zhan et al 2020).
Since all our mighty science was so far unable to convincingly determine that intermediate host, where did the bat virus mutate and how did it reach Wuhan? Dictatorships and totalitarian religions love to test their subjects’ loyalty by serving them some particularly ridiculous and stupid dogma and expect them to believe it. This happened with the Popsicle Origins, as Alina Chan calls the official theory that SARS-CoV2, unbeknownst to anyone in the world, stealthily travelled from a secret place to Wuhan’s Huanan market on some frozen animal product (like fish) to explode into a pandemic. This troll theory namely become the only officially accepted alternative to the direct zoonotic transmission, science has spoken. Yet even the WHO-appointed scientist Peter Ben Embarek who himself postulated this Popsicle Origins during a press conference of his WHO-China commission on COVID-19 origins, eventually admitted it to be bullshit, merely put forward to please CCP.
Yes, this is the intellectual level we are at.
While science elites were busy publishing peer-reviewed papers in Nature and Lancet denouncing all talk of lab leak as “conspiracy theories”, blocking or attacking everyone on Twitter who disagreed, others did a great job finding evidence. Viral duly acknowledges the work of DRASTIC (Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19). Some of these sleuths are scientists, others are concerned citizens with IT skills, men and women, named and anonymous, several of them are introduced in the book with their real names for the first time, like The Seeker, real name Prasenjit “Jeet” Ray. Some DRASTIC sleuths may be less helpful than others, some misinterpret the evidence, but most do a great job finding evidence, and all of them are hated by the scientific community for finding things they were not allowed to find.
Thing is, no matter what you may think of DRASTIC and its individual members, the material they found speaks for itself. Nobody, even the worst critics of lab leak theory, ever suggested that the evidence DRASTIC found may be fake, mistranslated or misattributed. The argument being: the evidence must be disregarded because it was found and discussed by the wrong people.
Imagine the same thing happening in palaeontology. Imagine, say, hominid fossils being trashed because they were found by amateurs instead of professorial academicals certified with excavation permits and research grants. This is what currently is going on in the COVID-19 origins debate.
Take for example the story of the furin cleavage site (FCS), a special sequence at the SARS-CoV2 spike protein which allows it to infect human cells particularly efficiently. Sure, such sequence exists in distantly related coronaviruses. But not in this family of betacoronaviruses. And the COVID-19 virus uses the genetic codon CGG for the amino acid arginine in the FCS sequence, which is unusual under the circumstances, as the book explains in detail. While reminding that WIV scientists previously published papers on FCS genetic editing, and even announced in a grant proposal to Pentagon to manipulate bat coronaviruses by gene-engineering exactly such a FCS as part of gain-of-function research.
The gene-editing technology which leaves no traces of lab manipulation was well established at WIV for many years, from Shi’s collaboration with US virologist Ralph Baric (who later called for the lab leak theory of COVID-19 to be investigated, Bloom et al 2021). Viral dedicates a chapter discussing viral gene editing research and the political implications it had, a moratorium imposed, lifted, and how the newly imposed rules were being circumvented.
Sure, that specific grant proposal was not approved, but this is a non-argument. First of all, WIV had enough money even without that smallish grant they didn’t get, and second, it’s an open secret that scientists often misrepresent their already existing lab results as future research plans in grant proposals, so when it will be faster and easier for them to report success later on.
WIV became in the years before the pandemic the world’s top authority on the coronaviruses. After the SARS scare in 2002/2003, WHO assembled a sampling mission to be prepared when a bat virus jumps to humans again. The mission was led by Linfa Wang and Shi Zhengli, who got nicknamed Batman and Batwoman, respectively. The duo teamed up with Peter Daszak, the US-based zoologist working for a wildlife conservation charity which was founded by the late naturalist Gerald Durrell. Daszak eventually became the boss of the US branch and renamed it into EcoHealth Alliance.
The purpose of EcoHealth Alliance was basically to channel money from NIH and Pentagon (in 2018 $17 million a year) to collaborators like WIV for the studies of emerging pathogens. It paid off: Shi and her colleagues soon localised the bat reservoir in Yunnan harbouring the direct relatives of the 2002/2003 SARS coronavirus. But now, when Shi and her Chinese peers have a much more advanced technology to their disposal: nothing. The closest match to SARS-CoV2 is a virus they sampled in 2013 in the Mojiang mine and stored at WIV since. And we also have Daszak boasting in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic began, about all the amazing gain-of-function experiments and genetic engineering they did at WIV with the many bat coronaviruses they sampled.
Finally, how strange is it that when Shi and her WIV team described their analysis of SARS-CoV2 in Nature on 3 February 2020 (Zhou et al Nature 2020), they talked about all possible features of that virus except about its most prominent feature, the furin cleavage site. Even the presentation of the spike protein sequence stops just short of the spot where the FCS code appears. As the book says, this FCS feature sticks out like a sore thumb.
How weird is that Shi not noticing it, despite the fact that FCS was her own research specialty, as certified by her earlier published research on MERS? It would be equivalent to a world-famous anthropologist reporting a new fossil find, describing all the animal bones, diligently recording all the species, while completely ignoring the intact hominid skull clearly visible in the photograph of the fund site.
And then you find out that anthropologist has been hiding unpublished hominid fossils in a cupboard which would revolutionise the prevailing model of human origins. Imagine all other anthropologists remaining silent, or claiming those fossils are rumours, and otherwise best to be destroyed as not to feed dangerous conspiracy theories. Crazy, but it could happen in a society ruled by religious orthodoxy.
There is another bit of information Shi forgot to mention in her 2020 Nature paper. She forgot to mention that the allegedly unpublished virus RaTG13 (which SARS-CoV2 proved to be 96% genetically identical to) is the same bat coronavirus she herself published about before (Ge et al 2016), but under a different name, BtCoV/4991. Dr Shi also completely forgot to mention in either of these papers where she had this virus from, namely the Mojiang mine where 3 people died of a mysterious pneumonia. It was apparently not important.
As DRASTIC sleuths uncovered, it was not just the RaTG13 virus, which WIV scientists brought back from Mojiang and which they sequenced and studied in the Wuhan labs. RaTG13 stands for horseshoe bat Rhinolophus affinis (Ra) virus found in Tongguan (TG) in Mojiang county in 2013 (13). 2012/2013 was when the 6 men sent to shovel bat guano in the Mojiang mine fell ill, 3 of them died from a mysterious pneumonia. We know about that incident from PhD theses from graduates in Wuhan, one of which was even supervised by Shi, and another by China’s CDC director George Gao (the Beijing-based CDC also has labs in Wuhan). You can imagine that WIV, which specialised on merging coronavirus pathogens, was sampling like crazy, and indeed, the DRASTIC sleuth found 8 more viruses hidden in WIV records, sampled between 2013 and 2015, all from Rhinolophus affinis, all likely from same Mojiang mine, and even Shi admitted to their existence in her online seminars.
How likely is it that WIV scientists did gain-of-function experiments with these (at least 9) bat coronaviruses they brought from the Mojiang area? It would be extremely unlikely if they they did not study those, an act of scientific self-sabotage even. WIV’s whole reason for existence is to study emerging pathogens, it specialises on coronaviruses since their successes tracing down the causes of SARS and SADS. To find a novel bat coronavirus which already killed humans in 2012, and then demonstrate its pandemic dangers via genetic experiments would be truly a groundbreaking paper in Nature, strike it, series of papers in Nature, followed by massive grant money showers from Chinese science foundations, military and from USA, and very possibly, even a Nobel Prize.
Noteworthy is that when these 8 virus reads were partially uploaded in November 2019, together with a bunch of other viral sequences, to accompany a paper by Shi and Daszak (Latinne et al 2020, submitted in October 2019 but published only in August 2020), the authors never bothered to discuss their obvious similarity to SARS-CoV2. They didn’t even mention those were SARS-like. A strange omission again.
Also, WIV had probably world’s biggest collection of wildlife virus pathogens. That is a fact. The corresponding online database, which had around 20k specimens and a section accessible only to WIV researchers, completely disappeared on 12 September 2019 and remains a state secret ever since, which is a fact also. Nobody has access to it, and those who do, refuse to say what’s inside. Shi’s long-term collaborator Daszak did however reassure the world that there was nothing interesting in this database, trust him, which is also why the WHO-China commission which he was part of never asked to see that database.
In my view, and I felt reassured by reading the evidence in Viral, it is perfectly possible that SARS-CoV2 was a bioengineered Nature paper which its authors lost control of.
Pathogens escape labs all the time when lab personnel makes mistakes or acts carelessly, infecting themselves or others by accident. It doesn’t matter how safe and secure WIV’s new BSL-4 lab is, because it is well known that coronavirus research is done in BSL-3 or even in BSL-2 labs, the latter virtually without any protection. A leak can stem from lab waste inappropriately disposed, or, a Chinese speciality apparently, lab animals sold to market vendors, some people make a lot of money this way the book mentioned.
SARS, which originally arose zoonotically by jumping from bats to civets which were poached or farmed for human consumption, and from there to civet butchers, later on escaped from the virology labs in China several times, as Viral reminds. The world was lucky back then, despite all the travels infected scientists unknowingly undertook, because the SARS virus only becomes infectious when its victims develop symptoms.
But the COVID-19 coronavirus is a particularly stealthy one. If it escaped from a lab, it would have spread undetected far and wide, infecting hundreds long before anyone noticed the first symptoms, which they probably would mistake for a cold anyway. The US secret services claim that three WIV employees fell ill in November 2019 with COVID-19 symptoms, allegedly even the wife of one of them died. Heck, in early 2020 a Beijing scientist infected himself with SARS-CoV2 which he was studying in the lab, this is a fact documented by US Right to Know. Oh, and in 2003 there was a hantavirus lab leak in Kunming, where some scientists caught the virus from rodents they experimented on. Why it’s important? The expert who investigated the affair and officially established a lab leak as the source of the hantavirus outbreak was Dr Shi Zhengli of WIV.
At all times, Shi has been belatedly revealing only what the DRASTIC team already discovered, and nothing else. An addendum was issued to her 2020 Nature paper, admitting the Mojiang mine accident and the existence of the 9 viruses, but even then the WIV authors falsely claimed to have found no traces of coronavirus infection in the patients’ samples. That cannot be true, two dissertations defended at WIV previously reported antibodies to SARS-like viruses in those same patients’ blood. So why are we to believe Shi et al that they “confirmed that these patients were not infected by SARS-CoV-2” if the WIV lab refuses to allow independent verification? In any case, of course these patients of 2012 were not infected by SARS-CoV2, technically speaking. The virus did not exist in this form yet.
WIV is not your pedestrian research lab. It even kept live bats, something DRASTIC sleuth were able to prove and what Daszak used to vehemently deny. The institute’s new BSL-4 facility was built in 2018 using French technology while keeping the French out. That was because WIV is a dual-use institute: its pathogen research serves both civilian and military purposes. Which must not necessarily mean WIV works on developing bioweapons (although they might!), but most certainly they work with military-grade pathogens for the purposes of national defence (just like their US counterparts do). A BSL-4 lab is needed to contain such most dangerous pathogens, which kill swiftly and lack cures, like Ebola, Lassa or Marburg viruses.
A potentially pandemic novel SARS-like virus is surely something of interest, both in civilian and military sense. Yet coronaviruses like SARS are handled in BSL-3 labs, and occasionally even in BSL-2. Now imagine a bat coronavirus from Mojiang mine, which killed people before, being upgraded in the lab with a furin cleavage site and passaged though human tissue cultures and humanised mice. It would have been extremely difficult to contain that monster and prevent it from escaping while you prepare all these many fancy experiments for you upcoming Nature paper.
Viral also briefly discusses the possibility if COVID-19 may have been a result of a botched vaccine experiments, as in happened in the case of Russian Flu of 1977. After all, the main argument behind all that gain-of-function research with SARS-like coronaviruses was to develop a universal vaccine for all emerging pathogens of this kind. But then again, it doesn’t seem that much vaccine research actually took place at WIV, and in any case, SARS-CoV 2 does not look genetically like an attenuated vaccine virus which reverted to its virulence.
Whistleblowers hold a prominent place in this book. Like the Chinese doctors who broke the Communist Party’s gag orders and informed their colleagues about the pneumonia cases flooding the Wuhan hospitals paid for this with their careers, health and even their lives. It is possible that sooner or later someone holding the information of what really went on at WIV and Wuhan’s CDC branch will blow the whistle also. For all we now, maybe they already did, but no scientific peer or journalist was prepared to listen to those conspiracy theories, and then Chinese authorities, maybe even alarmed by those the whistleblower tried to contact, swiftly arrived to plug the leak in their own special way.
Did our focus on the zoonotic origin of COVID-19 achieve anything? Surely the Chinese government at least finally did ban the wildlife trade, that’s a great step both to prevent future pandemics and to protect the wildlife, right? Well, as Viral explains, not even that. Because the wildlife trade for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is exempt, and TCM, promoted politically from the very top by Xi Jinping, is actually the main reason why animals like pangolins are being hunted to extinction all over the world. Also Chan and Ridley are confused why China protects its gigantic TCM wildlife trade if they are so convinced the pandemic virus emerged from exactly same animals trafficked for TCM.
It is very likely that all those top virologists, epidemiologists and other experts who publicly reject a lab leak as unlikely or even as a conspiracy theory know very well that this theory is in fact at least as probable as a zoonotic origin. They are surely themselves shocked by the massive cover-up in China. Some of them are protecting their friends and close collaborators in Wuhan. Others are afraid of a moratorium and of losing funding for gain-of-function research, a worst-case nightmare scenario in academic ivory tower, much worse than a theoretical danger of yet another lab-generated pandemic.
But truth always comes out, and the longer science covers it up, the bigger the loss of trust and angrier the public will be when it does come out.
What next? Maybe we need to wait for the end of the pandemic and for things to clam down before finding out where it came from. There is hope. Viral mentions that a 1889-1890 flu pandemic may have been actually caused by a coronavirus which eventually mutated into a harmless common cold strain termed OC43. Let’s wait for this SARS-CoV2 to finish mutating.
Until then, it’s important to read Viral. The book collects the evidence for both the zoonotic origins and the Lab Leak Theory case, even sums it up at the end in a court-room fashion. We don’t know a lot, but what we know already is definitely more than enough to ask questions of the Chinese researchers and their collaborators and sponsors in USA and elsewhere, and to demand a proper investigation instead of the WHO-China Popsicle Origins farce in early 2021.
Disclaimer: As usual, I received no payment or incentive to write this review, but I did receive the books gratis from the publisher upon contacting the authors
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It might be time to reclaim the reviled term of “conspiracy theory”. The lab leak theory does involve the hypothesis of a conspiracy, for which there is now plenty of evidence: a conspiracy of silence.
China, as an authoritative state, is paranoiac and act to cover up even if there is nothing to cover up. Hence, we don’t even need to invoke a conspiracy. If you were a Chinese Wuhan virologist, would you feel at ease speaking? Knowing just taking pics of the city has lead journalists to prison.
Agreed. But you can still say that the suppression of information from higher levels had to be organized (like the removal of a database from internet). Moreover, China is not the only culprit in that story, if I understand well. My point is that after all, there are such things as conspiracies, in the broad sense, and that many people in this story seem to have “conspired” to withold information after the disaster.
“…. it is perfectly possible that SARS-CoV2 was a bioengineered Nature paper which its authors lost control of.”
Chinese culture has been described as copy-cat by some authors (eg, “China in ten words”). As I recall, a paper that recreated the pathogenicity of the 1918 flu virus by gain-of-function research from some European lab got into some kind of big shot journal (Science, Nature ?). The Chinese research culture may have seen that as inspiration.
Most scientists will abandon morals and common science when the possibility of grant money and fame is there. I think it is possible that Fauci may have been beyond that, but his trust of the scientific method and collaboration made him naive about a Chinese collaboration. If anything good comes out of this, it will hopefully be that there is no public funding support for gain of function research. Although I don’t think the Chinese will ever let that one go…or hypersonic ballistic missles. I think the end of humanity is near, and watch scientists leading the way.
I have followed Chan’s work for quite some time and find many of the arguments she has collated/advanced compelling. However, when this book was announced I found myself unable to get past the inclusion of Matt Ridley as a co-author. I do try to separate the argument and its quality from the speaker as much as possible. But I must say if I wanted to make the case that lab-leak should be considered separate from the politics that have poisoned its early discussion, I probably wouldn’t write a book with a member of the British House of Lords who has spent the last two decades promoting and arguing politically motivated climate denial. Bizarre choice. I can think of few people who I would suspect more of having ulterior motives.
The problem that all the caviar communists among science writers hate Alina and wouldn’t mind her to disappear in a Chinese prison. I am not exaggerating.
You will have noticed that it’s only the right-wing media which covers lab leak, while the Guardian prints articles by Daszak.
Btw, I only got a review copy of that book after I wrote to Ridley. Until then, the publisher ignored all my emails. If it wasn’t for him, you wouldn’t be reading my book review.
I don’t have access to all but it seems Carl Zimmer treats the lab leak as a real possibility and at least cover the dangerous sars experiments https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/science/bats-covid-lab-leak-nih.amp.html
His style of writing is more “between the lines”
“Some scientists have argued that it’s possible SARS-CoV-2 was the result of genetic engineering experiments or simply escaped from a lab in an accident. But direct evidence for those theories has yet to emerge. Others have deemed those scenarios unlikely, pointing instead to many lines of evidence suggesting that people acquired the coronavirus in a natural spillover from bats or an intermediate mammal host.”
The article ends with:
“The analysis, Dr. Tabak wrote in his letter, “confirms that the bat coronaviruses studied under the EcoHealth Alliance grant could not have been the source of SARS-CoV-2 and the Covid-19 pandemic.””
To me it reads like Carl Zimmer debunks that conspiracy theory once again, but leaves a tiny backdoor just in case. This is professional science journalism 😉
A priori rejection of a such a large body of evidence would be against all that science stands for. Whether or not one believes in the lab leak theory at this point, it’s quite obvious that China has consistently blocked access to information. Even worse, it turns out that lot of scientist in high positions have taken a one sided view at the whole thing. It’s about damn time to sit down and re-examine the evidence without bias.
Most so called skeptic are lazy idiots who believe everything until they have proof of the opposite. For them, that China is an authoritarian state committing right now a genocide is not a reason to doubt them. As I have been told there is no scientific proof China is lying. Perfectly trustable partner by default.
Why don’t you do science a real favor and review Dr. Fleming’s (Dr. who?) book. /s
As every publisher knows, negative reviews can be financially just as rewarding as positive ones.
We are injecting billions of people with some rushed up never tested in animals thing incorrectly called “vaccine” and you are still wondering if this was deliberate? Come on!
It’s just a flu, which however can only be cured with HCQ, IVM, Vit D, Zinc and cold fusion.
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Zimmer is a smart guy, I am pretty sure he understands very well the controversy. His wording I find incredible accurate, so that it will be impossible to say he spread misinformation. I am not being ironic, I think it takes great skill.
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Here is what I wrote on the subject.
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Thanks Daniel, actually I would also add this to your comment: should we keep doing science with an authoritarian and genocidal state? I think you are French, here is an old Liberation paper about the DGSI warning scientists about Chinese collaborators. It seems more and more to me that American scientists brought big fundings and then the Chinese did whatever they wanted with it, including crazy experiments, including keeping live animals, which the American people of EcoHealth alliance did not even seem to know about…
Pingback: 'The lab leak is slightly more probable': New book traces the origins of COVID-19 - The Hub

domain: biology


I’ve spend the last two days in bed and had plenty of time to knit on the socks:
One sock is finished and the other is nearing the cuff detail.
The first sock had a figure 8 cast on of 2 times 14. Increasings were made every third round, +4 per incr. round. This made the toe too pointy for me:
For the second sock I did a cast on of 2 times 18 and increased 4 stitches every other round until I reached 2 times 31 stitches:


text:
New Delhi: In a big allegation against the Union government, Congress national spokesperson Pawan Khera on Wednesday said the Modi government has dealt to buy Predator drones from General Atomics at a price 4 times higher than the other countries paid.
Alleging that, the Congress leader said PM Modi signed Rafel’s like deal to buy the drones at the rate of Rs 880 crore per drone, ‘which means India would pay 25 thousand crore rupees for 31 drones.’
Addressing a press conference at party headquarters in Delhi, Pawan Khera accused Prime Minister of signing the deal without having a cabinet meeting on the same.
“PM Modi again indulged in his costly hobby without meeting the CCS (Cabinet Committee on Security). You ask Nadda Ji what is going on in the country. And when you are giving India’s money to foreign countries, then you don’t even know for how much the whole world is buying this drone?,” said Pawan Khera.
The Congress spokesperson alleged that the Centre first gave 1786 crore rupees to DRDO for ‘Rustom’ and ‘Ghatak’ drone development, then it signed a deal worth 25 thousand crores to America as well.
While these drones of America are of outdated technology and will be available without the transfer of technology. That means you are buying junk at an expensive price instead of cheap, Khera said further.
US, Britain, Germany bought it cheap
Meanwhile, in a press release, Congress alleged that several countries have brought these MQ-9B Predator Drones or very similar variants at a lower price than India.
US Air Force bought MQ-9 drone (superior quality version) at US$ 56.5 million per drone, UK Air Force bought MQ-9B drone at US$ 12.5 million per MQ-9B drone in 2016, said the press release
Spain, Taiwan, Italy, Netherlands, and Germany also bought it at a low price, But, Modi Govt is making India pay US$110 million per drone – the most expensive buy for any country, alleged Congress.
Congress asks 5 questions
Taking a dig at PM Modi, Khera said, “We all are aware of expensive hobbies of Prime Minister like costly clothes, cars, jets, spects etc. But, now these big-budget hobbies are casting nation.
At the end of the briefing, Pawan Khera asked five questions to the Central government.
1. Why was there no meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) to clear the drone deal?
2. Why is India paying more for drones than other countries?
3. When the Air Force had objections to the skyrocketing prices of these drones, what was the hurry to strike a deal? While the Air Force demanded only 18 drones and they are being given 31 drones.
3.What happened to Make in India and self-reliant India in the defense sector?
4. Why have we agreed on only 8-9% technology transfer?
5. What is the relationship of the CEO of General Atomics with the current rulers and influential personalities?
Also Read: AAP supports Centre’s proposal of UCC but with ‘wide consultation’

domain: news


text:
Ryan Cooper, who starred at Piedmont Hills a decade ago and coached at Del Mar and most recently Oak Grove, is the new boys basketball coach at Valley Christian.
Cooper takes over a program that reached a Central Coast Section final last season but won one game in the powerful West Catholic Athletic League. He replaces Marcus Martinez.
“A lot of people from the outside looking in don’t understand there is a really solid foundation here already,” Cooper said Tuesday. “There is a lot to work with at Valley Christian, and there are a lot of positives.
“We had the 2014 freshmen win the WCAL title. That’s a great class of young talent, and then we have a lot of returners coming back with a lot of skill. Marcus did a great job of building a foundation here in his years. Competing won’t be a problem. It’s just getting our youth up to speed and building on what’s already been built here.”
Cooper led Oak Grove to a Blossom Valley Athletic League tournament championship last season, his only one at the school. Under Cooper, a first-team All-Mercury News player in 2004, Oak Grove went 16-12 overall, 9-5 in the BVAL Mount Hamilton Division.
A year earlier, Cooper led Del Mar to a BVAL West Valley Division championship with a 14-0 league record. The Dons went 21-5 overall.
Asked about the challenges of coaching in the WCAL, Cooper said, “Night in and night out, it’s a grind. There are no nights off.”
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text:
Times are changing in how, where, and when we watch movies. VOD has become a major force and platform in the release strategy for independent films, and streaming is quickly becoming a major hub for cinema too. Netflix of course is leading the charge, not only producing but acquiring new content, while Amazon and other players are also getting into the game. Frankly, they are filling a niche that many of the major studios have become more selective about about lately, and when it emerged earlier this week that Netflix was dropping a staggering $12 million to pick up Cary Fukunaga‘s child soldier drama “Beasts Of No Nation” — already seen as a potential 2016 Best Picture contender — it felt like the kind of big money buy Harvey Weinstein would’ve made in the ’90s. But even people like Harvey aren’t spending that kind of money anymore (for comparison sake, the starrier “The Imitation Game” was acquired for $7 million last year), but for filmmakers and movie buffs, having players like Netflix, Amazon, and others stepping up is good news. However, there is one group threatened by this changing of the guard.
Major theater chains — Regal, AMC and Cinemark — will not screen “Beasts Of No Nation.” Why? Because the movie will debut on the same day in select theaters in the U.S. and worldwide on Netflix in all territories simultaneously. And the chains are not in the business of competing with the streaming service for an audience.
And yet, it shows that theater owners have a fundamental misunderstanding of their business — they provide a cinematic, big screen experience that even the convenience of Netflix and their like can’t match. There will always be those that will want to see the drama on a big screen if they are given the option. Clutching to the old model that movies must bow theatrically first for a pre-determined amount of time before they get released elsewhere will find theaters increasingly becoming the home solely of major blockbusters. And certainly, that’s what theater owners want because that’s where the big bucks will be over the next few years. But that will last only so far as audience taste for it does, and refusing to acknowledge the changing climate and diverse array of movies that people watch will make it harder to shift gears when ticket buyers decide they don’t want to see Marvel Movie #72.
But hey, this is great news for independent movie houses, who will now have an Oscar contender all for themselves. And at the end of the day, those are the places that we’d rather support anyway. [THR]

domain: entertainment


text:
“You Had Me At Hello! Day 1 in France “
The door one enters when arriving at your destination in Le Vieux Couvent, Freyssinet. Set way out in the countryside, there is a peacefulness and quietness that envelopes you as soon as you enter the gate. A slice of fresh lemon cake, ice water laced with lemons, and hot tea are waiting in the courtyard. And…Read more
“A Day Unlike Any Other Day”
I will only be the me that I am Today. Tomorrow’s me, which will only exist when it arrives, will be a different me. One who has experienced another day of life divine. The wind that passes this way today, that has blown over from a nearby field of clover, will only blow this way, at…Read more
Paris Studio Makeover Part I/The Inside Scoop
A studio in Paris. The things dreams are made of…. A studio in Kentucky. Brings to mind the importance of being very specific in your dreams:)))….Kidding! I love my Paris, KY home:) My Paris studio is petite, with sloped ceilings and a west facing window. Over the course of the years I have called many places…Read more
“Paintings Allow You to….”
See the creation of beauty found in the artist’s heart to hope to be free to love with abandon…. to be thankful for the memories! to not realize time and be swept up in a dream… TO BE YOURSELF AND ENJOY WHAT YOU DO…. Let go and be…. to be taken to a place where…Read more
Really good if no one knows where but you:)) The door’s ajar…as if expecting you. When you step through, it’s like the secret garden. You get to decide what’s in it. Fill it with only the things/people/pets you love and remember It’s a magical place so even those who have taken the A train before you can…Read more
“Don’t Think Outside the Box”
As we grow, our boxes stay with us, but usually don’t grow. Eddie demonstrates the big thing in a little box problem I don’t know about you, but my thinking becomes constrained in this box style of living. I keep trying to make ideas work inside the box that I have been living (and…Read more
Thank you (For loving the unlovable in me) Thank you (For seeing me) Thank you (For hearing me) Thank you (For caring) Thank you (For making a difference) Thank you (For calming my fears) Thank you (My strength is renewed) There is so much good, unspoken, in just two words So much good unleashed, in…Read more
“Love You to the Moon and Back”
“Love You to the Moon and Back” 8 x 8in oil on museum quality panel SOLD Wet sand Frosted sea glass Three day old sandwich and a glass of wine Laughter with new friends All by the light of the moon Dogs kickin’ up their heels Crisp breeze blowin’ Hearts made warm All by the light…Read more
Tales from the Cat Side
You gotta have dreams.
Even Eddie says so.
I got Ed at the pound. When he moved in with me I was living in a house 2 blocks from the beach in California–talk about movin’ up!
Ed had a dream….
“Viva, Eddie, Snow, and Jamaica”
“Snow, snow, and did I say….SNOW???” “Eddie’s Failed Attempt to Mail Himself to Jamaica” Cabin fever has officially hit. Not that I live in a cabin. Or have a fever for that matter. But somehow, home-in-the-suburbs-if-I-don’t-get-some-sunshine-and-warm-weather-soon-I-am-gonna-scream, doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. So we’re going with cabin fever. I have caught Eddie online,…Read more

domain: artistic


text:
When it comes to budgeting for travel, every penny counts.
So often I find articles that promise to teach you “how to travel the world for free!” and while I don’t doubt that it is completely possible, it’s also a little unrealistic. Is the average family that wants to travel a couple times a year going to couchsurf or work on a farm for room and board? Ehhh…probably not.
So instead, I’ve put together a list of realistic ways that we routinely cut our expenses every time we travel. 100% approved by a normal family.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links for products and services we love and recommend. If you make a purchase through these links, we may receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you). Thanks for supporting the blog in this way!
1. Sign up for a travel rewards credit card (and every frequent flyer program out there).
This may be the single most effective way to cut travel expenses (regularly). If you only do one thing on this list, go right now and sign up for a credit card that rewards you with travel points. Why? Because it is so easy to rack up points to use towards flights (and hotels, among other things) just by spending money that you’re already spending anyway! Now, I’m not advovating going into debt for travel. Not at all. You should only use a rewards credit card if you have the time to review your expenses and pay the card off each week. But with discipline, it’s 100% worth it.
The Points Guy is a fantastic resource for comparing different travel rewards cards, but by far one of the very best bang’s for your buck is going to be the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card, which gives you 1 point for every dollar spent, 3 points for every dollar spent on travel and dining, and a host of other benefits. Do your own research and see which card is best for you.
Likewise, any time you take a flight on a new airline, sign up for their frequent flyer program. Many rewards credit cards partner with airlines’ frequent flyer programs, so even if you don’t have enough points through the airline itself, you can combine them with points from your rewards card to maximize your earnings.
Read More: How We Flew for (Almost) Free in 2016!
2. Get a ride to the airport.
Leaving your car in the airport’s long-term parking can add up, especially if you live in a big city where the cost can be $15+ a day. Instead, have a friend or family member drive you to the airport and pick you up when you return. Don’t feel comfortable asking? Offer to pay them $20 for the inconvenience…it will still save you in the long run over a week’s worth of parking or even a long round-trip cab ride.
3. Use public transportation, or better yet, walk!
Renting a car is sure convenient, but if you’re not pressed for time, public transportation is a cheap way to get around and also a great way to observe locals in thier daily routines. I try to plan activities for a specific day by location. That way, once you get to the neighborhood you’ll be exploring, you can spend the rest of the day walking in between sights.
4. Stay farther outside the city center in a private rental.
I’m usually all about location, location, location, but if your budget doesn’t allow it, you can still visit some pretty fantastic cities on the cheap if you’re willing to stay a little farther away from the city center. We tend to try and avoid touristy areas anyway, and instead look for neighborhoods that are home to students, artists, and immigrants. You’ll find some of the best deals on Airbnb homes in these off-beat neighborhoods. (and if you use this referral link, you’ll get a $35 travel credit when you book your first Airbnb stay!)
5. Plan a few picnic lunches or “home”-cooked dinners.
I get it, I love to eat out when we travel too, but occasionally it’s also nice to plan in a meal that feels more homey. Visit the local grocery store, pick up foods from a nearby market, and plan a night in to relax after a busy day.
On that same note, parks are a great place for families to relax during the day, with kids getting to play while parents can take a load off. Pick up some meats, cheeses and fruits from a local market and make yourselves a picnic lunch. You’ll feel like a local in no time.
6. Check your credit cards for travel insurance perks.
Having extra insurance when you travel is always a good thing, but you might already be covered for more than you know. Take the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, for example. The card covers you against trip cancellations, reimbursement of costs due to a flight delays, additional insurance for rental cars, lost luggage reimbursement, and partial coverage of emergency medical costs. And that’s just to start!
7. Travel carry on only.
Baggage fees may not seem like much at first, but add $25 each way for two people, and you’ve suddenly blown $100 of your travel budget. There’s good reason frequent travelers are so adamant about traveling minimally. Aside from the costs, having less stuff willl mean less stress. And if Evelyn and I can share a carry on, anyone can do it!
8. Avoid impulse buys and unnecessary souvenirs.
We used to feel obligated to buy souvenirs for friends or family when traveling, and now I realize that was just so silly. Instead, we pick one thing we want to collect from each place we visit (for us, it’s usually a children’s book and a small momento for our home office). Of course, if we see something else we absolutely love, we go for it, because there’s nothing better than having a special reminder of your trip at home. But generally speaking, keeping a shopping budget low will greatly help keep your travel expenses in check.
9. Be patient and do your research before booking.
I can’t emphasize this enough, do your research early, but wait to book. Check multiple home sharing and hotel sites for the best deal. Check to see if the hotel will offer a discount for booking with them directly. Research airfares using a search tool like Skyscanner or AirfareWatchdog, and browse after cookies have been deleted (there’s a good article on that here). Set up price alerts with AirfareWatchdog and track price changes. Bottom line: being patient and persistent and having flexible travel dates could save you hundred of dollars in the long run (or even thousands, if you’re booking for a big family!)
10. Skip the tourist traps.
There are some places you just have to be a tourist, and that’s ok. If that’s the case, consider buying a cityPASS so you can see all of a city’s popular sites at a bundled (aka. seriously discounted!) price.
But that said, sometimes the best sites are seen from afar. If you’re not into museums, you can still visit the Louvre and take a picture in front of the iconic pyramid without paying to go inside. You should never feel like you have to do something just because it’s on a “must-see” list. After all, hidden gems are what really make a trip memorable, aren’t they?
What are some of your favorite tips for cutting travel expenses??

domain: travel


text:
Time to make some big decisions.
They need to be looking over their shoulder
A closer look at the performances of England's players at the SCG.
Broad fully expects England to beat Australia on home soil
Australia are battling back in Sydney
A closer look at England's performance in Melbourne.


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On his website, David Parmley, founder of the Bluegrass Cardinals and co-founder of Continental Divide, explains that his latest release (his first since returning to the bluegrass circuit last year after a lengthy hiatus) is a direct response to the overwhelming reception his fans gave to the songs on his 2008 CD, Church House Hymns (Volume I).
When he resumed touring in late 2010, Parmley also reconfigured Continental Divide. The band now includes long-time collaborator and fellow Bluegrass Cardinals veteran Randy Graham (mandolin) and fellow Continental Divide veteran Steve Day (fiddle), along with Josh Hymer on banjo and guitar and Matt Wallace on bass.
Recording in his new home studio in Monticello, Ky., Parmley shaped these gifted players into a formidable bluegrass gospel ensemble. The band infuses these traditional gospel favorites with high-spirited contemporary bluegrass pickin’ and singin’ that re-energizes them without detracting from their reverence.
A couple of standouts in this rock-solid collection of 12 gospel chestnuts are “Power In The Blood” and “The Heavenly Light,” which are both jaunty celebrations and affirmations of faith. Equally moving is the lovely, soulful reprise of “Because He Lives.” An added sweet touch here is the cover photo of the Parnell Church of God in Wayne County, Kentucky, which was founded in 1931 by Parmley’s great-grandfather and is still a vital house of worship today. (David Parmley, P.O. Box 668, Monticello, KY 42633, www.davidparmleyandcontinentaldivide.net.) BA


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Throughout its history, Warzone has had a hard time combatting the problem of cheaters in the battle royale. Despite the best efforts of Raven Software and Activision, players are still encountering cheaters when dropping into Verdansk and Rebirth Island even with shadowbans attempting to stop cheaters.
As Season 3 continues, and with over 500,000 cheaters falling victim to the ban hammer, some players are being hit with shadowbans alongside more permanent bans that even include the cheaters being unable to play Warzone from their PC.
The shadowbans issued by Activision and Raven Software have bene met with a mixed reception, with some players that have never cheated being issued one, much to their annoyance.
But what exactly is a shadowban and how does it impact the player base?
What Is A Warzone Shadowban?
Shadowbans prevent players suspected of cheating from entering regular matches but instead of banning them completely, the ban puts them against other players that have received a shadowban.
While the system has managed to catch players using cheats to gain an unfair advantage, it has impacted those that are completely innocent of any wrongdoing.
For those not cheating and playing matches against other shadowbanned players, it's certainly an interesting experience.
Games are often filled with cheaters clearly using some kind of software to gain the upper hand on the opposition.
How To Reverse A Warzone Shadowban
While several users claim to have found some kind of workaround to get back into public Warzone lobbies with the vast majority of the player base, the best way to reverse a shadowban is incredibly simple.
Simply wait for Activision and Raven Software to complete their investigations and the shadowban will be lifted.
Investigations usually take around six to eight days to complete and once they're done, you'll be able to drop back into normal lobbies.
Explore new topics and discover content that's right for you!Call of Duty Warzone

domain: hobby


text:
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Dining Room Dimensions with regard to House


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Earn points toward Free Pizza with Piece of the Pie Rewards
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When your stomach grumbles for a slice of meaty, veggie-loaded, cheesy goodness, we know you're not craving any old pizza near Kahalu'u. You're looking for a delectable pizza with freshly made tomato sauce, generous heaps of mozzarella and asiago, expertly diced pepperoni, and a golden crust that's simultaneously chewy and crispy. You want a pizza that makes your dinner dreams come true. You want Domino's.
At Domino's near Kahalu'u, we make it fast and easy to get the fresh pizza you're craving. Visit your nearest Domino's location to place a carryout order, give us a call, or order your pizza online!
First, start by selecting from one of our handmade crusts, like our hand-tossed crust that's packed with buttery flavor, a pan crust featuring two huge layers of cheese, a crispy thin crust, or a gluten-free pizza crust! Then, choose your sauce and your favorite pizza toppings. Pick as many as you want! Whether you're all about the veggies like green peppers, spinach, and onions, or you prefer the sweet and savory combination of ham and pineapple, your nearest Domino's has it all!
There are over 34 million ways to craft a single Domino's pizza. That means you can be sure we've got a slice for whatever your hunger demands! Build your own pizza from scratch or choose from one of our specialty pizzas, like the popular MeatZZa™, Honolulu Hawaiian, or Memphis BBQ Chicken, and have it delivered to your door today, fast!
When Hunger Calls, Order Pizza Delivery Near Kahalu'u
Here at Domino's near Kahalu'u, we're serious about pizza delivery. In fact, we guarantee your pizza will arrive hot and fresh, right from our oven to your door. Can't wait for your pie to arrive? Use our patented Pizza TrackerⓇ system and follow your pizza order as it's prepped, baked, and headed out the door for delivery... and try not to drool on your keyboard while you wait.
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We may be fast when it comes to delivering pizzas, but we're super fast when it comes to pizza takeout near Kahalu'u. Feel free to order a delectable pie from our pizza menu or take home something completely different. Make your tastebuds happy with an order of stuffed cheesy bread, an oven-baked sandwich, flavorful salad, or satisfying pasta, and a dangerously sweet helping of dessert. You can't go wrong with an order of Domino's Marbled Cookie Brownie™, Cinna StixⓇ, or Chocolate Lava Crunch Cake.
We have over 12,000 stores in more than 80 countries, which means we know quality and customer service. It's our goal to be the best pizza delivery company in the world, not only in Hawaii, and everything from our money-saving pizza coupons to our considerate delivery drivers reflects this commitment. Call your local Domino's restaurant near Kahalu'u, use our free smartphone app, or place your order online for fast pizza delivery and carryout today! We aren't any old pizza restaurant. We're your go-to pizza place near Kahalu'u!

domain: food


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Uruguay’s president says he has lung cancer
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez announced Tuesday that he has cancer and will have a more complete diagnosis in coming days.
“In a tomographic study, a right pulmonary nodule was found, with very clear characteristics that it could be malignant,” Vázquez said.
The president said he feels good and has not felt any symptoms related to the disease. He expects to have a broader picture of his prospects and possible treatments after undergoing additional exams.
Vázquez, 79, is set to be in office until March 2020. He is an oncologist.
On several occasions, he has said he chose the profession after his parents and a sister died from cancer.
In 2011, he wrote a book entitled “Chronicle of a Bad Friend,” which included reflections on his experiences fighting cancer and testimonies from his patients.
During his first presidential term from 2005 to 2010, Vázquez championed some of the strictest tobacco regulations in the world.
His wife, María Auxiliadora Delgado, died three weeks ago. Local media said the cause was a heart attack.

domain: medical


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We now have a full picture of the Fall 2012 TV season.
With NBC, FOX, CBS, and The CW having already made their premiere date announcements, ABC rounded things out today with its own roster of openers.
A few changes to note: The network has moved Suburgatory to after Modern Family, placing the new half-hour comedy The Neighbors before the sitcom juggernaut instead. As promised, Revenge will now air on Sundays.
September can’t come fast enough! Seriously. We don’t know if we can make it.
Friday, September 14
8:00-9:00 p.m. Shark Tank
9:00-10:00 p.m. What Would You Do?
10:00-11:00 p.m. 20/20
Monday, September 24
8:00-10:00 p.m. Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars
10:00-11:00 p.m. Castle
Tuesday, September 25
8:00-10:00 p.m. Dancing with the Stars: Results Show
10:00-11:00 p.m. Private Practice
Wednesday, September 26
8:00-9:00 p.m. The Middle (special one-hour premiere)
9:00-9:30 p.m. Modern Family
9:30-10:00 p.m. The Neighbors (series premiere)
Thursday, September 27
8:00-9:00 p.m. Last Resort
9:00-10:00 p.m. Grey’s Anatomy
10:00-11:00 p.m. Scandal
Sunday, September 30
8:00-9:00 p.m. Once Upon a Time
9:00-10:00 p.m. Revenge
10:00-11:00 p.m. 666 Park Avenue
Wednesday, October 3
8:30-9:00 p.m. The Neighbors (regular time period premiere)
Sunday, October 7
7:00-8:00 p.m. America’s Funniest Home Videos
Wednesday, October 10
10:00-11:00 p.m. Nashville
Wednesday, October 17
9:30-10:00 p.m. Suburgatory
Tuesday, October 23
9:00-9:30 p.m. Happy Endings
9:30-10:00 p.m. Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23
Friday, November 2
8:00-8:30 p.m. Last Man Standing
8:30-9:00 p.m. Malibu Country
9:00-10:00 p.m. Shark Tank (new time period premiere)


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The comparative study based on spectroscopic analysis of the materials used to produce four sixteenth-century Manueline Charters (the Charters of Alcochete, Terena, Alandroal and Évora) was performed following a systematic analytical approach. SEM–EDS, μ-Raman and μ-FTIR analysis highlighted interesting features between them, namely the use of different pigments and colourants (such as different green and yellow pigments), the presence of pigments alterations and the use of a non-expected extemporaneous material (with the presence of titanium white in the Charter of Alcochete). Principal component analysis restricted to the C–H absorption region (3000–2840 cm−1) was applied to 36 infrared spectra of blue historical samples from the Charters of Alcochete, Terena, Alandroal and Évora, suggesting the use of a mixture of a triglyceride and polysaccharide as binder.
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J.M. Branco, M.M. Lina, C. Miguel, C. Dias, L. Dias, and A. Candeias, Forais Manuelinos. Juromenha-Alandroal-Terena (1512–1516) (Edições Colibri, Lisboa, 2015)
J.M. Garcia, Os Forais Novos do reinado de D (Lisboa, Manuel I (Colecção do Banco de Portugal, 2009)
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A. Candeias, A. Claro, A. Fialho, C. Dias, S. Valadas, T. Ferreira, and J. Oliveira (coord.), O Foral Manuelino de Marvão—contexto, leitura e estudo material (IBN—Revista Cultural do Conselho de Marvão, Marvão, 2012)
M.J.M.M Brigote Chorão, C. Candeias, A Lousã e os seus forais (Câmara Municipal da Lousã, Lousã, 2013)
M. Manso, A. Le Gac, S. Longelin, S. Pessanha, J.C. Frade, M. Guerra, A. Candeias, M.L. Carvalho, Spectrochim. Acta Part A 105, 288–296 (2013)
A. Le Gac, S. Pessanha, S. Longelin, M. Guerra, J.C. Frade, F. Lourenço, M.C. Serrano, M. Manso, M.L. Carvalho, Appl. Radiat. Isot. 82, 242–257 (2013)
C. Miguel, C. Dias, L. Dias, M. Beltrame, and A. Candeias, in Foral de Alcochete e Aldeia Galega—17 de Janeiro de 1515, coord. By Museu Municipal de Alcochete (Museu Municipal de Alcochete, Alcochete, 2015)
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This work was financially supported by UID/Multi/04449/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007649) project. Catarina Miguel thanks the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia for financial support under grant SFRH/BPD/92865/2013. The authors would like to acknowledge Ana Manhita from HERCULES Lab for the preliminary Py-GC/MS results and to Câmara Municipal de Alcochete, Câmara Municipal do Alandroal and Câmara Municipal de Évora for the study of the Charters.
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Miguel, C., Barrocas-Dias, C., Ferreira, T. et al. The comparative study of four Portuguese sixteenth-century illuminated Manueline Charters based on spectroscopy and chemometrics analysis. Appl. Phys. A 123, 72 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-016-0659-6
- Blue Paint
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- Methyl Indole

domain: literature


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Cllr Ian Lewis is the Leader of the Conservative Group on Wirral Council.
Sadly, it has taken a global pandemic to achieve, in a matter of weeks, what has eluded us for years – namely, safe and secure accommodation for around 15,000 homeless and rough sleepers.
This article is an observation about how these 15,000 people, and others, have, until now, been failed by society – politicians, councils, agencies, and housing associations.
Here in Wirral, a metropolitan borough facing Liverpool across the Mersey, more than 120 homeless people and rough sleepers were, within days, found accommodation following the Government’s “Everyone In” directive.
The staff at Wirral Council, like many others, worked tirelessly with local organisations, such as Wirral YMCA, to find accommodation, often permanent for people who had been left behind.
Whatever the reason for people being homeless – whether it is addiction, mental health, relationship breakdown, or domestic violence – it is the responsibility of all of us, and yes, including Government, ANY Government, to support and help them.
Too often, we forget that it is also the responsibility of those organisations that receive substantial government (i.e. taxpayer) money – housing associations or, as they like to be called nowadays “registered social landlords”. As an observer, and with one or two notable exceptions locally, housing associations have become part of the problem instead of their original purpose, part of the solution.
Housing Associations exist in that shadowy grey area of being neither public nor private, thus avoiding scrutiny from the taxpayer or shareholder. Yes, there are regulators but ensuring compliance is not the same as ensuring value for money or a “positive outcome”.
Glossy annual reports with carefully selected smiling tenants and littered with awards and logos are of little protection if you are sleeping in a doorway in winter.
Not only are housing associations boosted by capital grants from the Government, but their revenue is supported, almost without question, by Housing Benefit or Local Housing Allowance.
In 2005 (under a Labour Government), Wirral’s 13,100 council homes were transferred to a newly established housing association that pledged to be “tenant-led”. We did this because the Council could not afford to bring these properties up to the Decent Homes Standard that was first set out in 2000.
20 years later, and some tenants are still waiting for the most basic improvements – to bathrooms, kitchens or, in the case of flats, communal areas. At the same time, valuable sites now owned by Associations in “up market areas” have been flogged off and tenants removed. Others have used the term “social cleansing”.
Trying to obtain factual, unspun information is almost impossible. In spite of relying on taxpayer support, the Freedom of Information Act does not apply. Nor does the requirement to publish all monthly spending over £500, as we require of councils.
Meanwhile, the most vulnerable are left to get on with it – either on the streets, sofa surfing, or in Houses in Multiple Occupation.
These are the very people which housing associations were established to serve but “too difficult to help or not financially viable”, they say.
Sometimes the big housing associations can be a bit too picky about who they will accommodate –the current Covid 19 situation has possibly forced their hand to be a little more flexible but they do seem to struggle accommodating the highly chaotic tenants we often find have to be temporarily housed, adding to their chaotic situation of disrupted schools, social services, medical support, or family links.
The other key element of the bigger homelessness picture is of course mental health and people being able to access quick interventions and treatments.
Some are waiting years for assessments and endure a lifestyle struggling with their conditions while those around them have to cope with their increasingly chaotic and at times problematic behaviour, left on a waiting list that the Council manages, but cannot tackle, without the goodwill of housing associations and landlords.
So, what’s the answer?
More regulation? Unlikely, and will surely just lead to more or bigger quangos, with yet more trendy logos and topflight salaries for the senior management team.
More Government grants? Probably. But questions should be asked about what the money prior to the pandemic achieved and how it was used.
Ultimately, this is about a roof over their head, with the support services needed to help with poor mental health, addiction, or money management.
Why shouldn’t councils build the homes that are needed? More council homes mean a healthy competition with the housing associations as to who can house the most people, most quickly.
Here in Wirral, the Conservative Group wants the council to re-enter the housing market, using low costs of capital to borrow to build housing – in a way that cuts out the middleman.
This isn’t radical – more new council homes have been built since 2010 than during the previous Labour Government. Why on earth would any Government, let alone a Conservative Government committed to “levelling up”, not embrace that?

domain: sociology


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More abuse of taxpayer money ?
DAWN News: Govt will pay Rs45bn to ease energy crisis
Saturday, 13 Mar, 2010
Prime Minister Gilani has asked the ministry of petroleum and natural resources to present the Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project to the cabinet on Wednesday. –Photo by APP
ISLAMABAD: The government decided on Friday to immediately release Rs45 billion to Pakistan State Oil, power companies and refineries to scale down rising circular debt which was causing an oil, gas and electricity crisis in the country.
The decision was taken at a special meeting called by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to ward off an imminent default in foreign payments against oil supplies.
The prime minister asked the ministry of petroleum and natural resources to present the Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project to the cabinet on Wednesday.
An official said the finance ministry had been ordered to release Rs2 billion to PSO on Saturday, followed by Rs9 billion on April 2 and another Rs34 billion before April 30 through different sources, including issuance of Rs15 billion term finance certificates (TFCs) to the banking sector.
(1) More abuse, continued abuse of taxpayer money ?
(2) What's going on ?
(3) For how long will this go on ?
(4) For how long will this be tolerated ?
junaid last edited by
aik tau yeh samujh nahi ata kai tax laitay kiyon hain jubh kuch bhi nahi kartay siwaee loot maar kai.
jubh tak musharaf kai baqiaat ki hakomat rahay gi yahee hoga.
I think this money was owed by electricity distribution company (which are state entities) and since these comapnies are not able to generate enough revenue as well as govt is subsidizing the electricity prices, thats why the govt has released this money to private IPPs and oil suplliers.
I don't see any prolbem in that. In fact, govt should clear this circular debt but due to fiscal constraints ,its not able to do so.
I think there around 2-3 million govt employees which are paid salaires apart from govt schools and hospitals and all the infrastructue work thats going on. On top of that , for the ego satisfaction of religous fanats , we have to feed 'ROUGE ARMY' which sucks the major chunk of our taxes.
O! great!. First Govt. officials will do full! scale corruption in state owned companies. Then they'll shove taxpayer money into the fray.
..and then we have some people tell us, that since the company subsidized a lot it couldn't make ends meat.
How charming. Now subsidies are the reason why we are having this problem.
I can't stop laughing.
u can do whatever u want but doesn't change the facts.
beenai last edited by
when the nation has been awarded a President called Mr 10% .
it should forgot about its tax money forever .
Time and again, it came to my attention that Mr. 10% has been extorting money from businesses in Pakistan. Gourmet chain, Ufone and other mobile operators, etc etc.
That is also why their rates of service have increased in these last 2 years.
khan_sahib last edited by
And now the load shedding hours are increased again! Well done!
These B A S T AR D Ministers have been claiming to end load shedding for past year but nothing has been done so far except new dead lines!
Beenai & Harris
Do u know that what circular debt problem is at all ?
Before bashing zardari or present governemnt, please have a look at the following link as well.
shriq last edited by
"aik tau yeh samujh nahi ata kai tax laitay kiyon hain jubh kuch bhi nahi kartay siwaee loot maar kai."
Lo itni mehnat sai assemply main kiyoon ayai. Yar ye tax ham aur aap se laikar swiss accounts ko bharna hai bhai.
There is only one use of our tax money.
@RajputPuttar: Don't give me this BS! of excuses. Keep! them. You'll need them for yourself.
I know better.
Q:awam kay nmainday kion chunaye jatay hain?
A:Takay awam khud select karaein kay unka pasia kon khaye ga?
This is what there is no answre is avalable.
What do u know ? Do u deny this newsitem ?
Aur abb mein sakht jawab doon gaa . Pata naahhi kaaisaey kaaisey loog yaahan par aa jatey haain. --- kaa pata nahi aur baatain karain gaaey ?
@RajputPuttar: There are answers. I could write books on them.
Its just that I'm not putting up details of the answer here.
That is why you have this opportunity to speak. If I put up the answer, there will be no place where you can hide your face from the shame, that will become your fate.
If u had anything , u would have done so far.
Keep this BS crap with yourself.
Circular debt is your only argument, right ?
Previous Govt. of Pakistan says, we cleared circular debt when we were going out.
So, what happened since then ? What happened in these last two years that is making circular debt pile up ?
IF u can't read then what i can do.
According to above news item , the circular debt in June 2008 was around 200B.
Who said that previous govt.had cleared the circular debt ? CAn u plz quote the newsitem ?
jab piayar kiya tou darna kiya ?
jab ZARDARI aya tou Tax money ka sochna kiya ?:):):)
@choosy: Agar aap ne fikar nahi karni, sochna nahi hai, to phir is dunya main kya karne ae ho ?
Wapas! jao ALLAH ke paas, shab-baash!
@Haris bhai ,
mein tou jub bulawa aya chala jayon ga .
aap batayein .apkay kiya plans hain?
no2..soch soch kay aap ne abtak kiya kiya ????

domain: politics