Ominous observations...

---

"Some things are indisputable. Death is one of them." 

If you don’t want your children to grow up in a miserable, fascist state or worse still die in it, I suggest you start paying more attention to the data and less to the propaganda on the television. The government is not your friend and does not have your best interests at heart. 

I could end the post there but there's more. The above paragraph is how Joel Smalley ends his latest plea for you to 'Challenge the Narrative'. The COVID "cure" is worse than the disease. [LINK] "Analysis of life-years lost in England shows a 76% increase in 2021 over 2020 because younger people are dying at much higher relative rates.". 

Joel paraphrases from Wikipedia's Quality-Adjusted Life Year definition because in the graphs in his post showing increased deaths in 2021 compared to 2020 (amazing in itself) he had not adjusted for 'quality of life', it represents. he has done all-cause mortality for each age group (see article).  

The Quality Adjusted Life year measurement is 'a generic measure of quantity of life lived'. 

It is used in economic evaluation to assess the value of medical interventions

Look at the other graphs and read the article, "The only age group not to show a substantial increase in deaths in 2021 compared to 2020 is the over 80s (Figure 13)."

"The cure is already worse than the disease."

The bad cat recently said the same about other Northern European countries: "Covid deaths are way down, but overall deaths are up considerably. this is a puzzle that warrants attention."

Ominous observations...

---

"Some things are indisputable. Death is one of them." 

If you don’t want your children to grow up in a miserable, fascist state or worse still die in it, I suggest you start paying more attention to the data and less to the propaganda on the television. The government is not your friend and does not have your best interests at heart. 

I could end the post there but there's more. The above paragraph is how Joel Smalley ends his latest plea for you to 'Challenge the Narrative'. The COVID "cure" is worse than the disease. [LINK] "Analysis of life-years lost in England shows a 76% increase in 2021 over 2020 because younger people are dying at much higher relative rates.". 

Joel paraphrases from Wikipedia's Quality-Adjusted Life Year definition because in the graphs in his post showing increased deaths in 2021 compared to 2020 (amazing in itself) he had not adjusted for 'quality of life', it represents. he has done all-cause mortality for each age group (see article).  

The Quality Adjusted Life year measurement is 'a generic measure of quantity of life lived'. 

It is used in economic evaluation to assess the value of medical interventions

Look at the other graphs and read the article, "The only age group not to show a substantial increase in deaths in 2021 compared to 2020 is the over 80s (Figure 13)."

"The cure is already worse than the disease."

The bad cat recently said the same about other Northern European countries: "Covid deaths are way down, but overall deaths are up considerably. this is a puzzle that warrants attention."

Obambulation on ocean organisms...

---

Having time on your hands can be a good or bad thing but the Devil can wait. Reading about viruses leads me to a load of info that had passed me by about the contents of the world's oceans. The obambulation is that this blog post wanders around and has no real point: just a bunch of stuff...but in reality that is all any of my blog-posts are, a reference to look back on.



First point, is a virus an orgaism at all? Well that is debatable...and debated: "From single-celled organisms to human populations, viruses affect all life on earth", "Although viruses challenge our concept of what "living" means, they are vital members of the web of life" and even an impact on evolution?

There are about ten x as many viruses in the oceans as there are bacteria [UW last week...that's the most recent link] and there is A LOT of bacteria. The viruses are numerous but they weigh almost nothing (relatively) and make up about 5% of the ocenas 'organisms'. Bacteria, [LINK] though ten times less numerous, weigh twenty x an average virus and the bacteria make up more than 90% of ocean biomass [PDF] so

"95% to 98% of the biomass in the ocean is in microbes, which produce about half of the oxygen on the planet."

There are more than 1030 viruses on Earth and the oceans are...er, An Ocean of Viruses. "The sheer number of viruses and their intimate relationship with microbial life suggest that viruses play a critical role in the planet’s biosphere."

"Ocean viruses may turn over as much as 150 gigatons of carbon per year... "

"This recycling of carbon and other nutrients suggests that viruses need to be considered in quantitative, dynamic models of global change."



Aha, maybe there was a point after all.

 



Image info:  The viruses, colored orange, attached to a membrane vesicle from the
SAR11 marine bacteria, colored gray, that was the subject of this study.Morris et al./Nature Microbiology

Obambulation on ocean organisms...

---

Having time on your hands can be a good or bad thing but the Devil can wait. Reading about viruses leads me to a load of info that had passed me by about the contents of the world's oceans. The obambulation is that this blog post wanders around and has no real point: just a bunch of stuff...but in reality that is all any of my blog-posts are, a reference to look back on.

First point, is a virus an orgaism at all? Well that is debatable...and debated: "From single-celled organisms to human populations, viruses affect all life on earth", "Although viruses challenge our concept of what "living" means, they are vital members of the web of life" and even an impact on evolution? There are about ten x as many viruses in the oceans as there are bacteria [UW last week...that's the most recent link] and there is A LOT of bacteria. The viruses are numerous but they weigh almost nothing (relatively) and make up about 5% of the ocenas 'organisms'. Bacteria, [LINK] though ten times less numerous, weigh twenty x an average virus and the bacteria make up more than 90% of ocean biomass [PDF] so

"95% to 98% of the biomass in the ocean is in microbes, which produce about half of the oxygen on the planet."

There are more than 1030 viruses on Earth and the oceans are...er, An Ocean of Viruses. "The sheer number of viruses and their intimate relationship with microbial life suggest that viruses play a critical role in the planet’s biosphere."

"Ocean viruses may turn over as much as 150 gigatons of carbon per year... "

"This recycling of carbon and other nutrients suggests that viruses need to be considered in quantitative, dynamic models of global change."

Aha, maybe there was a point after all.  

Image info:  The viruses, colored orange, attached to a membrane vesicle from the SAR11 marine bacteria, colored gray, that was the subject of this study.Morris et al./Nature Microbiology

Options on our own organs; opt-out only...

---

Not for the first time: ten years ago we discussed the opt-out option. Now a new way to increase the level of organ donantion; Jo Swinson (remember her?) wasn't that happy back then: "An opt-out scheme would create a presumption that the state, in this case the NHS, owns you on death, unless you remember to declare otherwise, and have some system to prove you have done so, either a card, medical records, or a national database."



Well that day is now upon us, or more accurately in less than two weeks. There are exclusions (UK Gov overview) but otherwise you're living in an England with a system of deemed consent for organ donation.

So, 'compulsory donation' you say; also not new, and (over 14 years ago) even theft. This still goes on and as with the Chinese COVID numbers being suspiciously 'calculated', so with organ "donation": "A new report has concluded that figures disclosed by the Chinese Government conform almost precisely to a mathematical formula."‘systematic falsification and manipulation of official organ transplant datasets.’ [LINK]. One way or another they'll get the organs they need. Could that 'solution' be repeated...closer to home?



Monty Python springs to mind: The Meaning of Life (Part V) Live Organ Transplants, don't do it Mrs. Brown.

Options on our own organs; opt-out only...

---

Not for the first time: ten years ago we discussed the opt-out option. Now a new way to increase the level of organ donantion; Jo Swinson (remember her?) wasn't that happy back then: "An opt-out scheme would create a presumption that the state, in this case the NHS, owns you on death, unless you remember to declare otherwise, and have some system to prove you have done so, either a card, medical records, or a national database."

Well that day is now upon us, or more accurately in less than two weeks. There are exclusions (UK Gov overview) but otherwise you're living in an England with a system of deemed consent for organ donation. So, 'compulsory donation' you say; also not new, and (over 14 years ago) even theft. This still goes on and as with the Chinese COVID numbers being suspiciously 'calculated', so with organ "donation": "A new report has concluded that figures disclosed by the Chinese Government conform almost precisely to a mathematical formula."‘systematic falsification and manipulation of official organ transplant datasets.’ [LINK]. One way or another they'll get the organs they need. Could that 'solution' be repeated...closer to home?

Monty Python springs to mind: The Meaning of Life (Part V) Live Organ Transplants, don't do it Mrs. Brown.

Oggi, oggi, oggi...

---

Happy St. George's Day...and isn't it a fine one! A day when, for centuries, the English celebrated as 'a major feast and national holiday...on a par with Christmas'.  With the forming of the Union this began to fade; celebrations were non existent or subdued but recently - with state recognition and self-determination being the flavour of the moment - are more numerous and growing.  Today is also a good day to live and die; no, I'm not getting all Dharmic or Druid, it's just 23rd April has become a symbolic date for world literature with so many authors, writers, poets etc dying or born on this day (or both in the Bard's case); certainly a touch of Osiris or an Ouroboros about it. Be good; dragon beware...

Oggi, oggi, oggi...

---

Happy St. George's Day...and isn't it a fine one! A day when, for centuries, the English celebrated as 'a major feast and national holiday...on a par with Christmas'.  With the forming of the Union this began to fade; celebrations were non existent or subdued but recently - with state recognition and self-determination being the flavour of the moment - are more numerous and growing.  Today is also a good day to live and die; no, I'm not getting all Dharmic or Druid, it's just 23rd April has become a symbolic date for world literature with so many authors, writers, poets etc dying or born on this day (or both in the Bard's case); certainly a touch of Osiris or an Ouroboros about it. Be good; dragon beware...