Miscellaneous Observations

>...I have been reading a new book called ‘Stalin’s War” by author Sean McMeekin, which relies on unclassified Russian documents released after 1990 that challenge long accepted popular histories of World War 2. Conventional histories of that war focus on Hitler’s atrocities; this book details the absolute butchery and corruption of Mr. Stalin. It details the atrocities of the Russians-the executions and expulsions to labor camps-of conquered Polish, Lithuanian and anyone else deemed “enemies” of Communism in Stalin's mind. It details the groveling…yes, that seems to be an accurate description…of then President Roosevelt's efforts to please Mr. Stalin with what was called a “Lend-Lease” policy by which millions of dollars ( billions in today's equivalent) of military and civilian materials, from tanks to butter to uranium to secret patents, were given to the Russians at no formal cost and with no formal agreements of being repaid. There were numerous Russian spies in the US government influencing policy to the point that Roosevelt sometimes favored Stalin over Churchill and America when deciding what and where war materials were sent and what battle plans would be implemented. All the while Mr. Stalin proffered lies and refused to accommodate American requests to the point of imprisoning American pilots who were forced down in Russian territory-despite American pilots risking and sometimes losing their lives to help deliver all the aforementioned materials to Russia. The reasons for Mr. Roosevelt’s years-long catering to Russian demands are not fully clear to me…He seems to have been naive to Stalin's true nature-despite people advising him-people who were replaced as not being loyal enough to his desires. His primary enabler was a Soviet friendly adviser named Harry Hopkins. The end result was the spread of Communism over much of eastern Europe and into China. It must be noted that Mr.McMeekin is a 'contrarian' historian to some other historians, and a man who argues from a succinctly anti-communist perpective. The main conclusion I learned was the utter depravity and disregard for human life that Mr. Stalin possessed, and which has been an unfortunate aspect of the Russian culture to this day. The parallels to Mr. Putin and the complicity of Mr. Trump to Russia seem obvious to me; the Russian disregard for human life in Ukraine(Putins soldiers are forced forward to be slaughtered or risk being shot by their own ‘officers’ if they refuse) and Trump's total lack of moral clarity in resisting him are similar. What really is disturbing is the depths of the infiltration of Russian influence in the 1940s and the modern day campaign of misinformation by Russia made even easier by the internet. Fortunately, the Europeans remember the destruction of the last century and are resisting the attempt by Mr. Putin to expand his empire. > ...I also just learned about algorithmic pricing that has enabled corporations to maximize profits through online Apps. by charging the most that a specific consumer will bear based on the gigabytes of data they have amassed on them over the past 20 years. They simply charge different customers-unknown to those customers- different prices for the same item when using Instacart or another app, which maximizes profit individually on each person... Capitalism at its most legally insidious…Probably explains why Walmart does not have to charge ‘pick up’ customers for the service; by charging one customer more than another they assure themselves that their service will be profitable. No doubt a profitable 'average' is applied to in-store pricing. This helps explain some of the "inflation" blamed on Co-Vid, Biden, tariffs and other excuses people use to describe simple greed. It also helps define the continuing transfer of wealth from the average Joe to the rich. Meanwhile many workers at these companies need government welfare like SNAP to survive...

Winter

I walked this road near Pittsfield, PA earlier, 1 and 1/2 miles along which a bridge has been detoured for nearly two years. The detour only affects about a dozen homes, so the priority for its replacement is low, and reflects funding, light road use and other factors that rural areas struggle with. The original bridge was a stone and concrete arch scarcely more than one car width, and the new one likely will be a concrete structure typical of modern construction. The house across the river is the dwelling most affected, although because of the nearest town's location, the occupants would rarely approach from the direction I walked. The detour is an inconvenience only when one has to travel directly south, which requires a 4 or 5 mile looping circle…It will be interesting to see how long construction takes, considering that the I-95 bridge in Philadelphia that was destroyed in June 2023 was replaced permanently by May of 2024, with a temporary bridge functioning within 12 days. The urban necessity of high volume traffic showed how efficient modern workers can be when not constrained by bureaucracy and other factors-which to me was gratifying after observing how slow the wheels usually turn....As for the pigeons, my eye naturally went to the rebel on the left who decided to turn the other way

Pin Oak

Five years ago this Pin oak started as an acorn that Beth found in the garden, probably dropped there by birds from mature oaks growing about 3 blocks away....We put it into the small pot and set in on a rain barrel where unfortunately, it was eaten to a stick twice by deer. Both times it regrew its leaves, so its tenacity to survive encouraged us to plant it into the yard in 2023, where it has thrived to its present height. Insects, particularly Japanese beetles, have been its main antagonist,but we set out beetle traps which minimize that threat. Pin oaks are native Pennsylvania and live between 80 and 120 years,growing to an average height of 70 feet, more if conditions are favorable. This particular individual seems to possess remarkable genes and an unstoppable will to live, so we expect it to easily outlive us.

The Cost Of Ignorance

Although we have all heard of people dying of co-vid, or more recently, measles, while uttering in disbelief that “it’s a hoax”, that kind of thinking is nothing new. In addition to witch trials and other horrific injustices of history, here is how religious dogma killed people before more rational, scientific ideas appeared during the enlightenment... “Most religious people of the early and mid-eighteenth century feared lightning as a terrifying demonstration of God’s wrath or the devil's punishment…The faithful rang church bells during storms to invoke the almighty's protection and ward off discharges. One study found that lightning in the mid-eighteenth century struck more than 386 churches in Germany and electrocuted 102 sextons. (...while ringing the bells). Other adherents stored gunpowder within churches, believing holy structures offered a divine shield. In a village in northern Italy in 1769, lightning struck a religious building holding hundreds of tons of explosives, killing more than three thousand people and destroying much of that city”-from the book “Ingenious’, about Benjamin Franklin, by Richard Munson. ...So while I admire the altruistic work of some religions through food banks and other humanitarian efforts, and I understand why adults could be allowed to refuse vaccination, their claims of being the “only path” and their subsequent imposition of their beliefs onto others is abhorrent to me. Now that anti-science men are in power, and research into fundamental science is being curtailed by funding cuts, Americans risk believing in conspiracies and superstition even more than they currently do. When critical, fact based thinking is suppressed, civilizations decline and the ignorant drag everyone down with them... … “Even science, much to Franklin’s dismay, was becoming politicized. Since Benjamin(...an American) favored pointed lightning rods, King George 3rd ordered blunt ones for British buildings.” ...the irony-but still a tribute to the openmindedness of science- is that in the coming decades blunt rods were found to be more effective than Franklins pointed iron rods-a fact he would have gladly embraced.

Some Good Science News

With all the gloom and doom in the news-and sometimes in this blog-there is also a lot of research being done with positive, hopefully scalable results that will help the world. This kind of news is available by a few Google clicks if one ignores social media and mainstream gossip. >>> University of Nottingham ...Researchers have created a bioinspired gel that can regenerate tooth enamel by mimicking natural growth processes. The fluoride-free material forms a mineral-rich layer that restores enamel’s strength and structure while preventing decay. It can even repair exposed dentine and reduce sensitivity. Early testing shows it performs like natural enamel, with potential for rapid clinical use. >>> Northwestern University ...A Northwestern team transformed a common chemotherapy drug into a powerful, targeted cancer therapy using spherical nucleic acids. The redesign dramatically boosted drug absorption and cancer-killing power while avoiding side effects. This innovation may usher in a new era of precision nanomedicine for cancer and beyond. >>> University of Warwick ...A team of scientists discovered a hidden antibiotic 100 times stronger than existing drugs against deadly superbugs like MRSA. The molecule had been overlooked for decades in a familiar bacterium. It shows no signs of resistance so far, offering hope in the fight against drug-resistant infections and paving the way for new approaches to antibiotic discovery. >>>King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) …Beneath the ocean’s surface, bacteria have evolved specialized enzymes that can digest PET plastic, the material used in bottles and clothes. Researchers at KAUST discovered that a unique molecular signature distinguishes enzymes capable of efficiently breaking down plastic. Found in nearly 80% of ocean samples, these PETase variants show nature’s growing adaptation to human pollution.

15 year Olds In Power

Last week I was sitting in the car parked at the curb near a store in Jamestown while Beth was inside shopping. As I perused a road atlas a black woman walked on the sidewalk nearby with a white teenager on a bicycle, the boy about 15 years old in my estimate. As the woman stood near the store, looking away, the boy approached the car and motioned for my attention. As the engine was turned off and the power window was inoperable, I cracked the door open a few inches and asked him his business. He replied,“I have something for you” as he reached into his jacket and withdrew his middle finger. He smirked as I impulsively said, “you are a stupid shit and don’t even know it”, then closed the door. He continued to provoke me, saying he wanted to fight or some such words. I opened the door and exited as he backpedaled down the sidewalk, telling him to come back, that “here I am”. The always silent black woman continued to walk away as I reentered the car, telling the boy to “get out of here punk” as I also called to the woman, “ and you hang around with this guy”? As I returned to the atlas, the boy returned to the opposite side of the car trying to provoke me further. I shook my head and continued reading, and he left. ...Now we have a president who uploads crude videos of himself dumping 'sludge' on protesters, and a vice president who excuses the vile, hateful comments of adults as “boys will be boys”, and a speaker of the house who does his best to delay the release of pedophile files. Yes, boys will be boys and grown men who have no moral compass will do all they can to justify and perpetuate their juvenile, corrupt behavior. What is particularly disturbing is the legions of supporters who refuse to acknowledge the character flaws-assuming that the good things the administration is attempting, such as peace in the mideast- justify all the other lapses. Bill Maher stated recently that “not all Republicans are racist, but if a person is a racist, odds are that that person is a Republican.” ...I have lived long enough and read enough history to know that human nature is a complicated beast and that civilizations come and go as despots and less selfish people fight for dominance. Mr. Putin has sacrificed a million men on his delusion of empire, never fighting on the frontline nor recognizing that humanity is one species floating on an island in space- and that national borders are an unfortunate fiction. History is full of such violent, egotistical men and their enablers forging humanitys violent history. When there is no recourse but for tolerant, peaceful people to fight-as I was provoked-the reasons they fight are wholly different from the people whom they oppose. Good versus Evil we say, each side defining the terms as they see them. So there is something inevitable about the present polarization among Americans and among many people around the world; human nature repeats itself. Jane Goodall even hypothesized that warfare may have been instrumental in the development of our brains, requiring cooperation to annihilate all competing species.But when people endorse all manner of oppression and violence in the name of God or some other chosen reason, better people must resist. ...Readers of this blog have heard me say that humanity is a very immature species, and I define maturity as recognizing the unity of all of Creation and the intrinsic loving, tolerant nature of what we call ‘God’. Anything other than acceptance and reverence for the tremendous diversity of Nature and all organisms and people removes us from the ideal that represents that spiritual, loving ‘Godhead’. I look around and see many people, even good people so far as they are able to see, show their blindness and inability to embrace ideas larger than their immediate world. Propaganda and peer pressure direct them.Religion directs them. Fear and predjudice direct them. Subconscious influences direct them. So genetics, culture, childhood and all of the above make us toddlers to teens to adults. This awareness, or lack thereof reveals the profound responsibility we have to save or destroy ourselves and the planet; as the current divisions show, I am not convinced we are up to that challenge...UPDATE 11/10/25- Mr. Trump has pardoned more people associated with the 2020 attempt to overthrow our election. Here is my email to my state senators: >"President Trump has pardoned dozens of people who allegedly tried to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, including those who were named as alternative state electors to certify the results."...so the USA sinks into 3rd world status where every conviction by an independent jury can be negated by a single man-even a corrupt, partisan man uninterested in truth and genuine justice. And You, Mr, McCormick,along with the supreme court, have been complicit in this continuing decline of our constitutional process.<

Autumn

The landscape is acquiring its late autumn cloak as the rain and wind have dropped many leaves,although a few trees and entire hillsides still show the rusty, golden bronze of the season. Fleabane and clover are some of the few blossoms remaining, but the cooler air will likely kill any insects that could utilize the nectar within them. I had to wear a heavier jacket while walking today-the first time since spring. The coming of winter is welcomed by Beth, although I am not so enamored of the season, so we compromise by waiting until January to head south. The first snowfall in Warren is usually by the middle of November.