mRNA Cancer Vaccines

Five years ago, politicians and bureaucrats went berserk and pointlessly ravaged Americans’ freedom. The Covid-19 pandemic taught that in the long run, people have more to fear from politicians than from viruses.--Boyard

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In the last 18 months, there have been 250 attacks by Houthis on international shipping.

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The government added $838 billion to the national debt in the first four months of fiscal 2025 (October through January).

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Oliver Stone is back with a new JFK routine.

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We are no longer subjected to incremental amaturism in politics; with tariffs, Trump has us fully committed.

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mRNA Cancer Vaccines

With the help of mRNA technology proven effective during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers are now closer than ever to creating viable cancer vaccines.

In an interview with Wired, Lennard Lee, an oncologist with the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) working on mRNA cancer vaccines, says he believes the groundbreaking research may prove to be a "silver lining" in the brutal COVID-19 pandemic.

Before COVID, as Lee told the magazine, "cancer vaccines weren’t a proper field of research."

"Pretty much every clinical trial had failed," the NHS oncologist said. "With the pandemic, however, we proved that mRNA vaccines were possible."

As with mRNA COVID vaccines, the logistics of these potential new cancer inoculations work by "giving the body instructions" to fight troublesome cells, as Lee detailed, ultimately providing the immune system with a how-to manual on fighting cancer.

"Going from mRNA Covid vaccines to mRNA cancer vaccines is straightforward," he told Wired. "Same fridges, same protocol, same drug, just a different patient."

Instead of the one-size-fits-all approach taken with the widespread usage of mRNA COVID jabs, however, these new cancer vaccines will be personalized for each individual cancer patient.

"In the current trials," Lee elucidated, "we do a biopsy of the patient, sequence the tissue, send it to the pharmaceutical company, and they design a personalized vaccine that’s bespoke to that patient’s cancer."

"That vaccine is not suitable for anyone else," he recounted to the magazine. "It’s like science fiction."

According to Lee, breakthrough cancer vaccine innovation came on the heels of the UK's rapid infrastructure-building during the COVID pandemic, which saw the country "open and deliver clinical trials" much faster than anyone would have expected.

England and Reading

Gerrit Cole had TJ in Los Angeles by orthopedist Neal ElAttrache. It is the first major surgery of Cole's 13-year career. The Yankees are also without AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil, who is out indefinitely with a high-grade lat strain.

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A sign at Columbia University's demonstration shows that "student workers" are back.

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England and Reading

In the last year, the median Briton has only read or listened to three books, with 40% of the public not reading or listening to a single book in that time.

A quarter of Britons (23%) say they have read or listened to between one and five books in the last year, with a further 10% reading or listening to between six and ten, and an extra 10% consuming between 11 and 20 books. There are a small number of mega-readers, with 4% saying they have read more than 50 books, i.e. roughly one or more books a week on average.

While two-thirds of women (66%) say they have read or listened to a book in the last year, just over half of men (53%) say they have.

Older Britons are also more likely to be readers, with 65% of over 65s and 63% of 50-64 year olds having read at least one book or listened to one audiobook in the last year, compared to 57% of 25-49 year olds and 53% of 18-24 year olds.

Half of Britons (50%) say they read or listen to books at least once a week, including 37% who say they read at least most days, and 20% of the public professing to read every day. Just 15% of Britons say they ‘never’ read or listen to books at all.

Women are roughly twice as likely to be daily readers, with 27% of women reading every day, compared to 13% of men.

Calumny as News and Education

Norway’s entrepreneurs are disappearing. In the past two years alone, 100 of Norway’s top 400 taxpayers, representing about 50 percent of that group’s wealth, have fled the country to protect their businesses.

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Community water fluoridation has been named one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century for its role in improving dental health. Fluoride has large negative effects at high doses, clear benefits at low levels, and an unclear optimal dosage level. I leverage county-level variation in the timing of fluoride adoption, combined with restricted U.S. Census data that link over 29 million individuals to their county of birth, to estimate the causal effects of childhood fluoride exposure. Children exposed to community water fluoridation from age zero to five are worse off as adults on indices of economic self-sufficiency (−1.9% of a SD) and physical ability and health (−1.2% of a SD). They are also significantly less likely to graduate high school (−1.5 percentage points) or serve in the military (−1.0 percentage points). These findings challenge existing conclusions about safe levels of fluoride exposure.--Roberts, from Journal of Health Economic

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Calumny as News and Education

April Fool's Day, once an opportunity for annoying dim-wits, has become a national holy day of obligation. The silliest frauds are presented as accurate with the straightest of faces. Social lies are routine.

The lead singer behind the New York Times’ lauded 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, is on record calling the white race “the biggest murderer, rapist, pillager, and thief in the modern world.” Despite this, the 1619 educational curriculum—much of which conveys basically the same point of view—is one of the more popular educational supplements in American schools. Major magazines and journals, at the level of Salon, quite regularly run articles with titles like “White Men Must Be Stopped–the Future of Mankind Depends on It.”

It may be that the victims of this kind of calumny are simply too afflicted with a Victorian politeness to object but it appears that, eventually, they have had their revenge. The outrageous waterfall of hyperbolic accusations did not fall on deaf ears, only dumb mouths. They had their day on election day. And the NYT has had a revision--like shooting the editorial staff is a revision.

So there seem to be parallel cultures in the U.S., one that is shouted from the rooftop, and one that is lived.

 

Fossil Fuel and Shakespeare

I am now, officially, worried about Trump.

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15% of Canadians use pronouns in their email signatures.

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Our findings indicate that the shale gas boom reduced average U.S. annual greenhouse gas emissions per capita by 7.5%.--Lindequist

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The former Pittsburgh anesthesiologist who was arrested for trying to kill his wife in Hawaii had previously been married to sex worker Jessica Patella; The two married when they were both just 20 and stayed married for over 15 years, sharing two children.
One of their children, a trans man who goes by Kieren, shared details from his difficult childhood in an essay published online and written in the second person.

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Fossil Fuel and Shakespeare

A recent article by Mills argues that energy sources are rarely replaced; they are augmented.

Michael Cembalest, J. P. Morgan’s chairman of market and investment strategy, notes, “After $9 trillion globally over the last decade spent on wind, solar, electric vehicles, energy storage, electrified heat and power grids, the renewable transition is still a linear one; the renewable share of final energy consumption is slowly advancing at 0.3%–0.6% per year.” Cembalest’s bottom line: “Growth in fossil fuel consumption is slowing but no clear sign of a peak on a global basis.” That is to say, no “energy transition” is in sight.

So, what's the story? Are we not trying hard enough? Not spending enough? Not distorting our economies enough?

Humanity has used the same six primary energy sources for millennia:  grains, animal fats, wood, water, wind, and fossil fuels. The world today uses more of all of these categories than ever before. But “energy transition” means more than a different emphasis, it means replacement and elimination. Is that happening?

Civilization hasn’t even transitioned away from slavery, at least not in the case of African mining, as documented in the book Cobalt Red. If the Global Slavery Index is correct, more humans are mired in forced labor now than at any time in history. Read that again. More humans are mired in forced labor now than at any time in history. Likewise, the world today uses more “working animals” than ever—some 200 million, fueled by grain, even in the U.S. with its weird grain-to-ethanol cult.

Mill's recent City Journal article pointed out a single example of replacement of an energy source: whaling. Today, global biofuel production (biodiesel) is about 1,000 times greater than two centuries ago. While that production is now dominated by plant oils (especially soybean and Jatropha), roughly 100 times more animal fats are used today for fuel than during the peak whale-harvesting era. Abandoning whale oil is history’s one clear exception to the no-energy-transitions rule.

Whales were not saved by esthetics but by advances in chemical science and the invention, circa 1840, of coal-to-kerosene synthesis; one ton of coal could yield as much oil as harvesting three tons of whales. The value of harvesting whales simply collapsed.

Wood? Overall, burning wood supplies the world with twice as much energy as all the world’s solar and wind machines combined. Even in the U.S., the use of wood for fuel is greater now than a century ago. 

The use of watermills for the industrial grinding of grains dates back to ancient Greece. It soared during the Middle Ages when an estimated 500,000 watermills operated in Europe. But that was hardly peak waterpower. Global hydro dams today produce roughly 500 times more energy. Global wind turbines harvest at least fifty-fold more wind energy than ever in history.

And, presumably, nuclear power will eventually overcome prejudice and become a factor.

No energy source is thrown away unless, like whale oil, it becomes economically impractical. Of course, no energy has been vilified and placed on the Index before, but religious suppression, however strange and fanciful, never works for long. It becomes something we learn to live with, like shingles. Even Shakespeare suppression is having an ignoble--if laughable-- revival.

But once we get past the pitchforks-in-the-street phase, things will work out. Why they're even burning electric cars!

Sunday/Prodigal

"As long as they're born faster than we can make them hate us, we're in business."--airline employee quoted in the New York Times Sunday Magazine

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Would witholding federal money from universities be reasonable if the government did not like, for example, the school's content in the science department's global warming programs?

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There are rumors that several Republican seats in the House that are up for vote in the next several weeks are at risk. The margin the House is tight, so tight they are keeping Stephanik in the House and canceling her UN appointment for fear of losing their majority. If the Democrats take the House, do you think they will impeach Trump again? 

(In one of the Florida races, the Republicans have spent $100 million, the Dems almost one billion dollars.)

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Sunday/Prodigal

In the Old Testament reading, Moses argues with God, who plans retribution against the 'depraved' Israelites, and wins. 

The New Testament Gospel has three parables: one of a shepherd going after a lost sheep, one of a fussy woman who has lost a coin, and the last a doting father who is thrilled with the return of his prodigal son. A responsible loner in the mountains, an obsessive cleaner/collector, and the father in love-- nothing like the fierce and vengeful God depicted in the Old Testament reading--all devoted to he lost, the separated, the failed. All are the victims of chance or, in the case of the Prodigal, free will. Only the righteously offended older brother of the Prodigal comes off badly because he cannot forgive; he is blinded by justice. He is, in a sense, a strange reflection of the Old Testament God in the first reading.

These parables have emerged recently as a defense of the current culture's obsession with the culture's outliers.

SatStats

"Yeah, I mean, they’ve been to a lot of games over the years, and they’ve sacrificed so much and been so supportive. So, to have them here for a moment like this is really special, and, you know, it’s the least I can do."--Sidney Crosby on breaking Gretzky's record in front of his family. "The least I could do."!!!

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A proposition is said to be tautological if its constituent terms repeat themselves or if they can be reduced to terms that do, so that the proposition is of the form “a = a” (“a is identical to a”). Such propositions convey no information about the world, and, accordingly, they are said to be trivial, or empty of cognitive import. A proposition is said to be significant if its constituent terms are such that the proposition does provide new information about the world.

In the so-called ontological argument for the existence of God, St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033/34–1109) attempted to derive the significant conclusion that God exists from the tautological premise that God is the only perfect being together with the premise that no being can be perfect unless it exists. As Hume and Kant pointed out, however, it is fallacious to derive a proposition with existential import from a tautology, and it is now generally agreed that from a tautology alone, it is impossible to derive any significant proposition.

Or, in English, circular reasoning.

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SatStats

The government added $838 billion to the national debt in just the first four months of fiscal 2025 (October through January).

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In this fiscal year’s first five months, beginning Oct. 1, the government borrowed $1.1 trillion — almost $8 billion a day. In February, the first full month of Musk’s government-pruning “revolution,” borrowing was $308 billion because spending was $40 billion more — a 7 percent increase — over February 2024.

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Since 1965, between shorter workweeks and longer vacations, the average American gained 300 leisure hours per year – but the poorest Americans have gained twice that. Meanwhile, the quality of that leisure time has improved considerably...--landsburg

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2024 (Q4), the average U.S. household’s real net worth was:

– 232% higher than it was in 1975
– 140% higher than it was in 1994
– 78% higher than it was in 2001.

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The Pittsburgh tech ecosystem saw a total of $999 million in venture capital funding in 2024, up from $644 million in 2023.

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Park Avenue’s office vacancy rate, 8.9%, is its lowest since the end of 2018, according to data firm CoStar. Manhattan and U.S. office vacancy overall sits at 16.1%.

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Although Alphabet’s Waymo has a big lead in the industry, with its driverless taxis operational in several U.S. cities, Amazon-owned Zoox is now competing against Elon Musk’s Tesla for the No. 2 spot.

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Notes from DOGE:

     HHS has 27 Science Centers, 27 CEOs and 700 IT systems

     65% of HHS grants go to scientists, 35% ti the university.

     40% of incoming calls to SS involve attempts at fraud that will deprive the SS recipient.

     Debt interest > Defense budget

     Treasury pays 580 separate agency bills without any verification.

     There are about 85 billion dollars in improper Entitlement payments

     From 2019 to 2025 there was a rise in U.S. population of 2.2% with rise in the budget of 55%.

Keystone

Private equity funds—which pool money from a few exclusive investors to purchase privately held companies with “little to no public reporting”—may not be a good fit for the relative safety that workers expect from 401(k) plans that typically invest in public companies whose performance is routinely reported and measured.--Hopkins study

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“We are seeing institutions worldwide blend public and private markets, and in many cases, it’s been a great investment,” said Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock at a summit on retirement that the company sponsored last week. More than half of the $11.6 trillion in assets under management at BlackRock are in retirement products.

Fink and other proponents say a key reason for including private assets in the $12.5 trillion workplace retirement plan market is the need for greater portfolio diversification.

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A stabbing rampage has occurred in Amsterdam, leaving five victims wounded at the famed Dam Square, including two Americans.

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Musk and some of his outriders were interviewed by Baier yesterday and said some remarkable things about the government. It is a mistake not to have him explain what they are doing. One little nugget: when HHS gives research grant money, only 65% goes to the scientist. The rest goes to the university.

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Keystone

Keystone XL is a 2,000-mile tar sands pipeline that would stretch from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

The pipeline is designed for one thing—to send oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf coast, and from there to overseas markets.

Its owner is TransCanada, a Canadian oil company.

The original petition for permit was denied on January 18, 2012 due to environmental concerns. Specifically, the original pipeline route would have passed through an environmentally sensitive area of Nebraska known as the Sand Hills region. This area has highly porous soil and shallow groundwater. The Ogallala aquifer is also in this region and the pipeline would have posed a potential threat to the drinking water. A revised permit was resubmitted in May 2012 which contained an alternate route. It was denied.

The Keystone Pipeline already exists. In fact, the Keystone Mainline is 1,353 miles of 30" pipe which extends from Hardisty, Alberta to refineries in Wood River and Peoria, Illinois. This segment has been in service since June 2010. The Cushing Extension is 298 miles of 36" pipe which runs from Steele City, Nebraska to crude oil terminals and tank farms in Cushing, Oklahoma. This portion has been flowing since February 2011.

The Keystone XL Pipeline consists of two parts. The first is the Gulf Coast Project. This portion would transport oil over 435 miles through 36" pipe running from Cushing, Oklahoma to Port Arthur, Texas. The second segment, called the Keystone XL, would run 1,179 miles from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska.

Although the argument against the pipeline centers on environmental concerns, the real reason may have to do with the disdain for fossil fuels felt by environmental groups and others. Keystone XL is a relatively small issue compared to the entirety of the existing U.S. pipeline system. Hence, opponents of this project have taken a well-anticipated route, claiming that it will harm the environment. The question is, if the thousands of miles of existing pipeline has been in use and the environment seems to be unaffected, why should Keystone XL suddenly be the project that ruins the planet?

The project’s corporate backer—the Canadian energy infrastructure company TC Energy—officially abandoned the project in June 2021 following President Joe Biden’s denial of a key permit on his first day in office.

The latest twist is President Donald Trump’s 2025 rescission of Biden’s executive order that revoked the pipeline’s permit—despite a lack of interest from the would-be developer.

And another question. Since this is a Canadian project in which the U.S. contributes only access and convenience, and since it is a sizable project with some military implications to an embattled Europe, and since it is obviously arbitrary--why weren't the Canadians filled with wild-eyed indignation as they have been with the equally obnoxious tariffs?