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bandizoi · 2 years

Text

Long post warning.

I’ve put off writing this here for a long time but this was one of my first large social media audiences and you all have been so kind and involved in my journey. I am writing about it here because everyone who is looking at getting a borzoi should be aware of this.

TW: pet death

On April 18th, exactly one year after I brought Selkie home from Texas, I found her dead in my yard, what we call “sudden death”. 13 days prior, her sire passed away from sudden death as well. He was nearing 6 years of age. Selkie was 14 months old. I don’t have it in me to write it all out, all over again, but I did make a blog post about it on my website here.

Sudden death is something that can affect different breeds but looks different from one breed to the next. In borzoi, we are looking at fatal cardiac arrhythmias. One moment they are with us and then, just as the name describes, they are suddenly gone. Because this is an electrical issue in the heart, necropsies often look completely normal. A normal necropsy is the hallmark of borzoi sudden death. Selkie and her sire’s necropsies looked normal.

Unfortunately we don’t have a way to differentiate the arrhythmias that borzoi can survive, from the ones that are fatal. We know this is genetic, but we don’t have a genetic test for it. We can do 24 hour holter monitors to see a snap shot in that moment of whether a dog is having arrhythmias or not. But, a dog can have 0 abnormalities during that 24 hours and then several in the next day, weeks, months, years. There are dogs that have hundreds of arrhythmias in 24 hours and live normal lives. There are dogs that have 1 or 2 and then drop dead the next day. It sucks. It’s horribly traumatic for everyone who loves the dog. The silver lining is that it is a very quick way for them to go. There are anti arrhythmic drugs that can reduce arrhythmias and that’s something that can be discussed with a cardiologist.

Holter tests aren’t part of the required CHIC testing for the breed, but I strongly encourage anyone who is thinking about getting a borzoi to ask every breeder:

How many holters has the breeding pair had (I personally will be doing at least 3 before making breeding decisions).

Ask the breeder to SEE the results. An absolutely ideal holter has zero singles, pairs, runs, complexities. Anything over 10 VPCs makes me squirm. Over 50 is considered abnormal per the large breed guidelines.

Where has sudden death occurred in the pedigree

Prospective borzoi owners asking this of their breeders is likely the best possible way to encourage more breeders to do this.

If you own a borzoi and you want to holter test them, there are a few reduced cost options. Members of the Borzoi Club of America can rent a holter— info here. Any borzoi owner can rent a holter from the Borzoi Health and Welfare Foundation— info here. If you want to purchase your own holter monitor, you can do so through alba medical.

We have 3 cardiac studies in the works to try to somehow get a handle on this thing. The borzoi club of america has a holter study. Texas A&M University has an echocardiogram study. And Dr. Kelly at Penn State is studying the hearts of dogs who had sudden death. Because we now have a direct line from sire to daughter of sudden death submitted to the study, including lung samples for gene sequencing, we may be a bit closer to getting a handle on the genetics behind this.

And as I mentioned in my linked blog post above this is not yet so prevalent that owners should expect their dogs to die of sudden death. Which is why it’s so important for the community to be proactive, now. Before it becomes unavoidable. I’m writing all of this not to scare people out of the breed, and I truly hope I don’t. But I do want everyone to be aware of this if they are considering a borzoi. I would be in a much darker place if I didn’t know what I was looking at when I found Selkie in my yard.

#TW: pet death #pet death #dog death #Selkie #sudden death #borzoi

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tinyshe · 3 years

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Story at-a-glance

In October 2019, mere months before the pandemic was announced, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-hosted Event 201, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, funded by billionaire technocrat Michael Bloomberg. This tabletop exercise simulated the global response to a fictional coronavirus pandemic

Event 201 confirms that even if the virus itself wasn’t preplanned, the unprecedented and draconian response to it was

The goal of this pandemic is to usher in the Great Reset, a strategy developed and promoted by the World Economic Forum. Previously referred to as the New World Order, this “reset” of the global economy and society as a whole has been carefully planned for decades

A key component of this agenda is the transfer of global wealth and assets into the hands of the wealthy

source please go to source for video

In this video, Ronnie Cummins, founder and director of the Organic Consumers Association, and I discuss “The Truth About COVID-19 — Exposing the Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports and the New Normal,” which we co-wrote.

The book was released yesterday. If you preordered, thank you! If you didn’t, you can now pick it up without delay.

Thanks for all your support with the book. This is going to be an overwhelming best seller, and likely No. 1 in the U.S. We preordered 50,000 copies, but Amazon told us a few weeks ago that they needed 100,000 copies, which only happens a few times a year for any new book. The orders were placed weeks ago, but this pandemic has massively disrupted the printing industry so it is taking far longer to print books than it used to.

For that reason, your books will be delivered just a bit later than anticipated. However, if you are like me and only read Kindle books, you can get the book now! The good news is that at least 50,000 of you will get the book next week and start to understand the deep web of deception you have been led into. I deeply appreciate all your support on this book and the project to educate the masses about the truth about COVID-19.

As mentioned by Cummins, the COVID-19 pandemic surprised a lot of people, but in researching this book, we learned that vaccine companies and their investors had been anticipating a scenario like this for a very long time.

Event 201 — A Prescient Foreshadowing

Interestingly enough, in October 2019, mere months before the pandemic was announced, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-hosted Event 201, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, funded by billionaire technocrat Michael Bloomberg. This tabletop exercise simulated the global response to a fictional coronavirus pandemic.

Amid predictions that 65 million people were dying, mass lock downs and quarantines were implemented around the world, and alternative viewpoints were suppressed through censorship under the guise of fighting “disinformation.” They even discussed the possibility of incarcerating people who question the pandemic narrative.

The need for radical censorship was perhaps one of the most striking foreshadowing in that exercise. In my view, Event 201, as a whole, confirms that even if the virus itself wasn’t preplanned, the unprecedented and draconian response to it certainly was, and Gates is a key figure in this scheme.

He may not be the mastermind, and he’s certainly not the only person involved, but he appears to be one of the front men for the technocratic elite who are using this pandemic to further their own agenda, which is nothing short of world domination through subjugation of the people.

Science and Facts Tossed by the Wayside

Many of the containment measures employed during this pandemic have never been used before, ever. Among them are the shutting down of businesses and forcing people to self-isolate at home for weeks and months on end — around the whole world! It’s quite unbelievable, and few would have thought it possible.

Clearly, it would not have been possible were it not for having spent long periods of time grooming the right people, infiltrating the right organizations and government agencies, influencing politicians and granting nongovernmental bodies global influence.

We’ve also never quarantined healthy people before. Usually, you isolate the sick and contagious. This is standard practice. But you don’t isolate non-sick people. This is a brand-new idea that has never been tried before and has no scientific basis whatsoever.

They were able to do all of this because the World Health Organization is the de facto ruler when it comes to global pandemics. What they say is what member nations will follow. And who’s the primary funder of the WHO? Not any nation, but Gates. He has, by the way, been involved with the WHO for over a decade, so this is not something he or anyone else dreamed up over some weekend event.

The End Goal Is to Usher in the Great Reset

As we describe in the book, the goal of this pandemic is to usher in the Great Reset, a strategy developed and promoted by the World Economic Forum. Previously referred to as the New World Order, this “reset” of the global economy and society as a whole has been carefully planned for decades.

A key component of this agenda is the transfer of global wealth and assets into the hands of the wealthy. According to a September 2020 economic impact report1 by Yelp, 163,735 U.S. businesses had closed their doors as of August 31, 2020, and of those, 60% — a total of 97,966 businesses — were permanent closures.2

Meanwhile, between March 18, 2020, and April 12, 2021, the collective wealth of American billionaires increased by $1.62 trillion — 55% — from $2.95 trillion to $4.56 trillion. One-third of the total wealth gains by billionaires since 1990 occurred in the last 13 months!3

As noted by Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, “Never before has America seen such an accumulation of wealth in so few hands.”4 The primary benefactors of the pandemic measures include the finance and tech industries and the pharmaceutical and military-intelligence sectors.5

Vaccine Passport Is Your Ticket to Tyranny

As you’d expect, vaccine companies have been able to exploit this pandemic, in large part due to the heavy censoring of any and all preventive and early treatments. Without that censoring, I don’t believe as many people would be lining up to get these shots, seeing how they are experimental gene therapies miscategorized as vaccines.

None of the COVID-19 vaccines currently on the market has been licensed. They are all being used under emergency use authorization, and a condition for an EUA is that there are no other effective treatments available. This, I believe, is the real reason why effective prevention and alternative treatments were so heavily suppressed. They, quite simply, would have rendered the vaccine moot.

In the book, we also detail how inaccurate tests, used inappropriately, created the illusion of a highly infectious pandemic and served as the basis for the fearmongering spewed by the media. In reality, the vast majority of “cases” actually weren’t. They were false positives and/or people being counted multiple times because they kept being retested, and instead of counting people, they were counting tests.

Fatality statistics were also grossly inflated by suddenly changing how death certificates are filled out and marking any person who died having had a positive PCR test within the last month, or who was simply suspected of being positive, as a COVID-19 death. Even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admitted that 94% of COVID-19 deaths were people who died with the virus, not from it. The real cause of death was another underlying, often long-term chronic condition.

All of these statistics were artificially manipulated to make it appear we are in a sufficiently deadly and horrible situation to warrant vaccine passports, without which you won’t be allowed to participate in certain social activities or travel.

The irony is that the COVID-19 vaccines are not designed to prevent infection or spread of the virus, so being vaccinated won’t do a thing for public health. At best, it may protect the vaccinated individual from having a more serious case of COVID-19 if or when they do get infected. They encourage everyone to get vaccinated in order to ensure we reach herd immunity, yet these “vaccines” aren’t designed to provide immunity!

Since vaccination won’t prevent viral spread, the vaccine passport will fulfill but one purpose, and that is to usher in a digital surveillance mechanism that can then be expanded to encompass many other areas of life, including financial data. So, the vaccine certificate is not a passport to freedom. It’s your ticket to tyranny.

How to Take Control of Your Health

I believe your best bet, moving forward, is to address your foundational health, starting with your metabolic flexibility. You want to be metabolically flexible. What does that mean? It means that your body can seamlessly transition between burning fat and burning carbohydrates as its primary fuel. This is important, because when your body can do this, it means you are not insulin resistant.

When you’re insulin resistant, you’re more likely to have complications such as immune insensitivity, obesity, high blood pressure and distorted cholesterol patterns. Your risk for severe COVID-19 will also be dramatically increased. Thankfully, many of these issues can be simply reversed for no cost with time-restricted eating.

Secondly, you need to have enough vitamin D. For optimal health, you’ll want your vitamin D level, which you must measure using a simple blood test, to be between 60 ng/mL and 80 ng/mL (100 nmol/L and 150 nmol/L).

My peer reviewed published study6 on the “Evidence Regarding Vitamin D and Risk of COVID-19 and Its Severity” is available for free on the journal’s website. In the book, we go into more specific details about these strategies, and many others.

Freedom of Speech Is Officially Dead

“The Truth About COVID-19” will become all the more important to own and share in days to come, as I was recently forced to permanently remove all articles on vitamins D, C and zinc, as well as most articles on COVID-19, from my website. This book will now be a primary source of such information.

Over the past year, I’ve been researching and writing as much as I can to help you take control of your health, as fearmongering media and corrupt politicians have destroyed lives and livelihoods to establish global control of the world’s population, using the COVID-19 pandemic as their justification.

Through these progressively increasing stringent measures, I have refused to succumb to these relentless attacks. I have been willing to defend myself in the court of law, as I’ve had everything reviewed by some of the best attorneys in the country.

Unfortunately, threats recently became very personal and intensified to the point I could no longer preserve much of the information and research I’ve provided to you thus far. These threats are not legal in nature, and I have limited ability to defend myself against them.

Politicians in January 2021 managed to pass the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act of the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act.7 This piece of legislation was hidden in a 2,100-page bill8 that now provides the government with enormous legal authority to prosecute anyone for “crime” of disagreeing with the official narrative that the vaccine is the ONLY approved approach to treat or prevent COVID-19. Here is the relevant portion of this Act:

This Act makes it unlawful under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act for any person, partnership, or corporation to engage in a deceptive act or practice in or affecting commerce associated with the treatment, cure, prevention, mitigation, or diagnosis of COVID-19 or a government benefit related to COVID-19.

Remember, Hitler and Mussolini came to power LEGALLY, because they subverted the legal structures of their country. Folks, you are now seeing the same kind of subversion happening in real time in the U.S. It is obvious that this is the first assault, designed to remove your personal freedom and liberty. This law essentially abolishes the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution with respect to ANY dialog on COVID-19.

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michaelhalberstam-blog · 5 years

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LARRY KING LIVES LIFE IN OVERDRIVE

Larry King, the rumbling voice of midnight questions, stares at Pat Buchanan, the White House director of communications. King’s eyes are intense and prying, his chin is jutted toward the target, his lips are parted to give the impression that he is hanging on every word, about to interrupt but holding back to wait for a gem.

Except for six hours of sleep every 24 hours, Larry King keeps this expression all day and all night.

King’s schedule puts demands on his phenomenal energy at an all-time high: He does a daily, hourlong interview show, Larry King Live, for Cable News Network, which reaches more than 300,000 households. He then does The Larry King Show for Mutual Radio, which has been cut back to a live four hours, with the first hour recycled for a five-hour package that reaches 3 million to 5 million people a week. In between these obligations, he writes two newspaper columns. On his slow days, he travels to sports arenas and does color commentary for Home Team Sports – its audience by mid-June standing at 100,000. Once a month he does a worldwide talk show for the Voice of America and his next guest is scheduled to be Ronald Reagan.

“Certainly I have a weird life. But I like everything I do,” says King. At the end of his workday (and night), his companions and staff feel like they just took the red-eye from California in non-reclining seats. Millions of people work two or even three jobs to make ends meet. But, for perhaps the first time in his life, King isn’t worried about money. Mutual alone is paying him a reported $2 million on a five-year contract.

Strangely enough, King, 51, never seems to be in a hurry. Lean with a bit of a belly, he moves at the deliberate pace of a batter stepping up to the plate. The voice and metabolism are fed by coffee and cigarettes. He rarely drinks. A long time ago, he mastered naps – he takes them during the five- minute news breaks on the radio show.

The time is now 11:30 a.m. King already has dressed, taken mucho vitamins and one aspirin – “because the late Dr. Michael Halberstam told me to” – worked for an hour on his personality column for USA Today, haggled a bit with an editor on his next book, talked with an insurance company about his daughter’s graduation present of a Firebird, and complained that he was missing that night’s Orioles game. Before 4 the next morning, he will stop another three times and ask, “Am I crazy?” and then “What is my real complaint? I can’t have dinner when I want to, I can’t see the KING, F-3

baseball game. But what if I had to be a librarian? No, instead, today I’m going to talk to Pat Buchanan and Harry Blackstone.”

This is how he survives.

He eats lunch at Duke Zeibert’s, dinner at the Palm. He gets one of his daily calls from his daughter, Chaia King, 17, and his oldest friend, author and consultant Herbert Cohen.

He doesn’t prepare beyond his daily consumption of several newspapers, backed up by information from his contacts and his nearly 30 years behind the mike.

“I work with an acquired dumbness, a street dumbness,” says King. That means he tries to think about what Joe Citizen would want to know.

From 5 to 9 a.m., he sleeps. He wakes up without an alarm. He tries to nap from 3 to 5 p.m., but the telephone jangles. Sometimes he calls someone personally to ask them to be on the show, such as New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, his first guest on CNN.

It’s now 12:15 p.m. King is at his daily table in Duke’s in full view of the glass doors. He has ordered coffee and is nibbling on the onion rolls. When his platter of fruit and cottage cheese arrives, he largely ignores it. He talks about his forthcoming book. “Sterling Lord is the agent. He’s the kind of guy, you have dinner with him and they remove the plate, you have the crumbs, he doesn’t have any. Impeccable,” says King.

Bill Aber, the general manager of cable TV’s Home Team Sports, tells a King endurance story: “On Wednesday, April 4, 1984, King had done his regular show, then he flew to Cleveland to do a luncheon banquet, then he had to meet us in Baltimore for our kickoff. The game was rained out and at 6 p.m. Larry interviewed celebrities for our party. Then he left at 7 to go to the Capital Centre to do some color on the Caps. Then he did the Wednesday all-night show.”

In the last month King spurned offers from every major network and syndicator, says his agent, and renewed his contract with Mutual. The perks include 12 Fridays off and four weeks of vacation each year and a new luxury car every two years. Now he is driving a gray Riviera, on which Mutual put an “L King” vanity license plate, which King hates. Since the phones started lighting up on Jan. 30, 1978, when he was heard on 28 stations, he has built his affiliate stable up to 262 stations. His is the only talk show ever to win the prestigious Peabody Award. In the last few weeks, he signed with CNN for a reported $200,000 over three years. Once that show gets rolling, King says, he will tape a couple of shows a week.

He has had cameos in two movies – Ghostbusters and Lost in America – and television will increase his recognition by sight, not just sound. July 12 is King Day in Baltimore. Where once the Mutual show was taken on the road to build up audiences, now it’s taken out to satisfy demand. In the next few months it will travel to the All-Star Game in Minneapolis, and to media gatherings in Nashville and Dallas.

It is now 8:15 p.m., the start of his evening’s work.

Walking into the television studio, he says, “you got to be pretty weird to be doing radio, television and newspapers. Godfrey used to do it. I’m tired right now but … something about that light going on … I can’t explain it.”

Makeup is applied to his face and hands. Then King and Buchanan are facing each other.

At 10:20 p.m. he is at Mutual’s studios on the 12th floor of a suburban Virginia highrise. This is home, behind the microphone, checking out the baseball game, doing promotions for a new station. During a commercial break he will do a 2 ½-minute interview with Harry Blackstone Jr., the magician, for something called Larry King in Focus. On Saturdays the network runs The Best of King.

King has been in one studio or another since 1957, when he moved to Miami after finishing high school in Brooklyn. In Florida he quickly established himself as a radio interviewer, added a newspaper column and did commentary on Miami Dolphins games. But he ran into some well-publicized financial troubles, which forced him to leave broadcasting for four years. In 1979, shortly after taking the Mutual job, he filed bankruptcy for $350,000 in debts. Because of his past financial difficulties, his money is now handled by Bob Woolf, the agent he shares with Doug Flutie, Larry Bird and Gene Shalit. King says he gets a $150 weekly allowance.

Now it’s 11:50 p.m. He glances over a press release and talks about his approach.

“You need the ability to listen. A lot of broadcasters don’t know how to ask a question. One of my idols, Jimmy Cannon, could pick up every detail but he couldn’t ask a question in the locker room. You have to keep it spontaneous, always be curious. I have a good memory, I never expect the answer. I don’t think I am a better interviewer than I was at 25. I can relax people.”

“Jimmy Hoffa embodies everything you want in an interview, except one thing. You want someone with a chip on their shoulder, passion, a little bit of anger, the ability to relate to the question and to talk about their business. But he didn’t have a sense of humor.”

At 12:06 a.m., his jacket is off and cigarette dangling. Blackstone is sitting where Gerald Ford, Bob Hope, Dizzy Gillespie, Mel Brooks, Milton Berle, Sophia Loren and scores of others have sat.

At 3:55 a.m. he gets up from the chair, stretches and says he feels really tired. He doesn’t hang around the studio. “We have entertained and informed the callers, and we only reach 1 percent of the audience,” says King.

He ads: “I don’t think much about it. I don’t take it home with me.”

And he goes home. But he’ll be up again in four hours. Making that face.

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michaelhalberstamapartments-blog · 5 years

Text

LARRY KING LIVES LIFE IN OVERDRIVE

Larry King, the rumbling voice of midnight questions, stares at Pat Buchanan, the White House director of communications. King's eyes are intense and prying, his chin is jutted toward the target, his lips are parted to give the impression that he is hanging on every word, about to interrupt but holding back to wait for a gem.

Except for six hours of sleep every 24 hours, Larry King keeps this expression all day and all night.

King's schedule puts demands on his phenomenal energy at an all-time high: He does a daily, hourlong interview show, Larry King Live, for Cable News Network, which reaches more than 300,000 households. He then does The Larry King Show for Mutual Radio, which has been cut back to a live four hours, with the first hour recycled for a five-hour package that reaches 3 million to 5 million people a week. In between these obligations, he writes two newspaper columns. On his slow days, he travels to sports arenas and does color commentary for Home Team Sports -- its audience by mid-June standing at 100,000. Once a month he does a worldwide talk show for the Voice of America and his next guest is scheduled to be Ronald Reagan.

"Certainly I have a weird life. But I like everything I do," says King. At the end of his workday (and night), his companions and staff feel like they just took the red-eye from California in non-reclining seats. Millions of people work two or even three jobs to make ends meet. But, for perhaps the first time in his life, King isn't worried about money. Mutual alone is paying him a reported $2 million on a five-year contract.

Strangely enough, King, 51, never seems to be in a hurry. Lean with a bit of a belly, he moves at the deliberate pace of a batter stepping up to the plate. The voice and metabolism are fed by coffee and cigarettes. He rarely drinks. A long time ago, he mastered naps -- he takes them during the five- minute news breaks on the radio show.

The time is now 11:30 a.m. King already has dressed, taken mucho vitamins and one aspirin -- "because the late Dr. Michael Halberstam told me to" -- worked for an hour on his personality column for USA Today, haggled a bit with an editor on his next book, talked with an insurance company about his daughter's graduation present of a Firebird, and complained that he was missing that night's Orioles game. Before 4 the next morning, he will stop another three times and ask, "Am I crazy?" and then "What is my real complaint? I can't have dinner when I want to, I can't see the KING, F-3

baseball game. But what if I had to be a librarian? No, instead, today I'm going to talk to Pat Buchanan and Harry Blackstone."

This is how he survives.

He eats lunch at Duke Zeibert's, dinner at the Palm. He gets one of his daily calls from his daughter, Chaia King, 17, and his oldest friend, author and consultant Herbert Cohen.

He doesn't prepare beyond his daily consumption of several newspapers, backed up by information from his contacts and his nearly 30 years behind the mike.

"I work with an acquired dumbness, a street dumbness," says King. That means he tries to think about what Joe Citizen would want to know.

It's now 12:15 p.m. King is at his daily table in Duke's in full view of the glass doors. He has ordered coffee and is nibbling on the onion rolls. When his platter of fruit and cottage cheese arrives, he largely ignores it. He talks about his forthcoming book. "Sterling Lord is the agent. He's the kind of guy, you have dinner with him and they remove the plate, you have the crumbs, he doesn't have any. Impeccable," says King.

Bill Aber, the general manager of cable TV's Home Team Sports, tells a King endurance story: "On Wednesday, April 4, 1984, King had done his regular show, then he flew to Cleveland to do a luncheon banquet, then he had to meet us in Baltimore for our kickoff. The game was rained out and at 6 p.m. Larry interviewed celebrities for our party. Then he left at 7 to go to the Capital Centre to do some color on the Caps. Then he did the Wednesday all-night show."

In the last month King spurned offers from every major network and syndicator, says his agent, and renewed his contract with Mutual. The perks include 12 Fridays off and four weeks of vacation each year and a new luxury car every two years. Now he is driving a gray Riviera, on which Mutual put an "L King" vanity license plate, which King hates. Since the phones started lighting up on Jan. 30, 1978, when he was heard on 28 stations, he has built his affiliate stable up to 262 stations. His is the only talk show ever to win the prestigious Peabody Award. In the last few weeks, he signed with CNN for a reported $200,000 over three years. Once that show gets rolling, King says, he will tape a couple of shows a week.

He has had cameos in two movies -- Ghostbusters and Lost in America -- and television will increase his recognition by sight, not just sound. July 12 is King Day in Baltimore. Where once the Mutual show was taken on the road to build up audiences, now it's taken out to satisfy demand. In the next few months it will travel to the All-Star Game in Minneapolis, and to media gatherings in Nashville and Dallas.

It is now 8:15 p.m., the start of his evening's work.

Walking into the television studio, he says, "you got to be pretty weird to be doing radio, television and newspapers. Godfrey used to do it. I'm tired right now but . . . something about that light going on . . . I can't explain it."

Makeup is applied to his face and hands. Then King and Buchanan are facing each other.

At 10:20 p.m. he is at Mutual's studios on the 12th floor of a suburban Virginia highrise. This is home, behind the microphone, checking out the baseball game, doing promotions for a new station. During a commercial break he will do a 2 1/2-minute interview with Harry Blackstone Jr., the magician, for something called Larry King in Focus. On Saturdays the network runs The Best of King.

Now it's 11:50 p.m. He glances over a press release and talks about his approach.

"You need the ability to listen. A lot of broadcasters don't know how to ask a question. One of my idols, Jimmy Cannon, could pick up every detail but he couldn't ask a question in the locker room. You have to keep it spontaneous, always be curious. I have a good memory, I never expect the answer. I don't think I am a better interviewer than I was at 25. I can relax people."

"Jimmy Hoffa embodies everything you want in an interview, except one thing. You want someone with a chip on their shoulder, passion, a little bit of anger, the ability to relate to the question and to talk about their business. But he didn't have a sense of humor."

At 12:06 a.m., his jacket is off and cigarette dangling. Blackstone is sitting where Gerald Ford, Bob Hope, Dizzy Gillespie, Mel Brooks, Milton Berle, Sophia Loren and scores of others have sat.

At 3:55 a.m. he gets up from the chair, stretches and says he feels really tired. He doesn't hang around the studio. "We have entertained and informed the callers, and we only reach 1 percent of the audience," says King.

He ads: "I don't think much about it. I don't take it home with me."

And he goes home. But he'll be up again in four hours. Making that face.

1 note · View note

1962dude420-blog · 3 years

Photo

Today we remember the passing of Bobby Keys who Died: December 2, 2014 in Franklin, Tennessee

Robert Henry Keys (December 18, 1943 – December 2, 2014) was an American saxophonist who performed with other musicians as a member of several horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by the Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Harry Nilsson, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, George Harrison, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker and other prominent musicians. Keys played on hundreds of recordings and was a touring musician from 1956 until his death in 2014.

Bobby Keys was born at Lubbock Army Airfield near Slaton, Texas, where his father, Bill Keys, was in the U.S. Army Air Corps. His mother, Lucy Keys, was 16 when she gave birth to Robert Henry (Bobby), her first child. By 1946, Bill Keys got a job for the Santa Fe Railroad in Belen, New Mexico. The family moved to Belen, but young Robert stayed with his grandparents in Slaton, Texas, an arrangement he was quite happy with. Bill and Lucy would have three more children, Gary and twins Debbie and Daryl. Lucy Keys Brubaker went on to become a state senator in New Mexico.

Keys started touring at age fifteen with Buddy Holly and fellow Texan Buddy Knox.Keys met the Rolling Stones at the San Antonio Teen Fair while sharing a bill with the group as a member of Bobby Vee's band in 1964. He is best known for his impressive resume as a musician (most notably the saxophone solo on the 1971 Rolling Stones hit "Brown Sugar") and his friendship with Keith Richards. Keys and Richards share the same date of birth. Notably, Keys and Richards threw a television set from the 10th floor of the Continental Hyatt House in West Hollywood, California during the group's 1972 American tour, as seen in the Stones' unreleased 1972 concert movie Cocksucker Blues. After renewing his acquaintance with the band via Gram Parsons, a mutual friend, Keys made his debut with The Rolling Stones on the Let It Bleed track "Live with Me" in 1969. In addition to "Brown Sugar," he was prominently featured on such early 1970s Stones songs as "Can't You Hear Me Knocking," "Rip This Joint" and "Sweet Virginia."

Keys and Mick Jagger also became close in the early 1970s, with Keys serving as best man at Jagger's wedding. Together with Jim Price on trumpet, Keys toured with the Stones from 1970 to 1973. Along with trumpeter Steve Madaio and fellow saxophonist Trevor Lawrence, Keys continued as a touring member for the first half of the 1973 European tour before leaving in Frankfurt, Germany on September 30. According to legend, Keys was abruptly dismissed by an incensed Jagger after filling a bathtub with Dom Perignon champagne (resulting in a debt to the band that significantly exceeded his entire salary for the tour) and drinking most of it. Although Keys did not dispute the veracity of the incident, he subsequently maintained in his memoir that he left the tour of his own volition to curtail his heroin addiction for the sake of his family. As a result of his strained relationship with Jagger, Keys only guested on some shows of the 1975 and 1978 American tours, missing the 1976 European tour completely.

Richards recalled Keys overcoming Jagger's objections to returning to the band: Years later, the Stones were rehearsing for another tour. This was 1980-something, and I bought Bobby a ticket and said, “Just get your ass here. When we rehearse ‘Brown Sugar,’ just sneak up and do the solo, man.” Once we did “Brown Sugar,” Bobby hit the solo and then I looked at Mick like, “You see what I mean, Mick?” And Mick looked at me and says, “Yeah, you can’t argue with that.” Once he just played those few notes, there really was no question. So Mick relented and said, “Okay, let’s get Bob back in the band.”

Keys performed only four tracks on the 1981 tour, on which Ernie Watts was the saxophonist. Keys was reinstated as the band's main touring saxophonist on the 1982 European Tour, together with Gene Barge. Keys played with the Stones on all subsequent tours up to his death.

Prior to touring with the Stones, Keys played with Delaney & Bonnie and Friends with Eric Clapton and George Harrison in 1969. In particular, during the year 1970 he gave an extraordinary series of notable performances. Keys started the year working on Clapton's first solo LP. With Leon Russell, he supported Joe Cocker on the 48-city Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour; the live album Mad Dogs & Englishmen was released later in the year, followed by a concert movie in 1971. During the tour, Cocker and the band were accompanied by a largely American entourage, including a choir, friends, wives, children, groupies and a single dog named Canina; the entire group numbered almost 40 people. After work on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass and more Sticky Fingers tracks, he joined the Rolling Stones for their fall 1970 European tour.

From 1973 to 1975, Keys participated in Lennon's "Lost Weekend" in Los Angeles along with Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon; while in Los Angeles, he played on Lennon's albums Walls and Bridges (including a notable solo on the #1 American hit "Whatever Gets You thru the Night") and Rock 'n' Roll. Although Keys' voice is heard on the last known recording session between Paul McCartney and Lennon (widely bootlegged as A Toot and a Snore in '74), he could not recall contributing to the session. He also played the solo on Leo Sayer's 1977 international soft rock hit "When I Need You" from the Endless Flight album.

In 1979, Keys was part of a Rolling Stones spin-off band called The New Barbarians (which also included Ronnie Wood & Keith Richards) that played two concerts in Canada and eighteen shows across the United States in April and May 1979.

In 1989, Keys became the musical director for Ronnie Wood's new Miami club, Woody's On the Beach. The first week the club opened Keys booked Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino and the Crickets. In the early 1990s Keys was a resident of Miami and had a band with former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, Nicky Hopkins, Ivan Neville, former Stephen Stills bassist Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuels and others called Tumbling Dice. Although better known as a session musician, Keys released two albums of his own in the 1970s: a self-titled instrumental album on Warner Bros. Records that featured Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Eric Clapton in 1972; and Gimme the Key on Ringo Starr's record label Ring O'Records in 1975.

Keys appeared on December 16, 2011, with the Athens, Georgia-based band Bloodkin in their "Exile on Lumpkin Street" show at the Georgia Theater, which re-opened in August 2011 in its remodeled and enlarged space after the building had been gutted by fire in June 2009. Besides performing some of their own music, Bloodkin performed with Keys on numerous hits from three of the biggest Stones' albums on which Keys had performed, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main St.

In 2013 he played with the Rolling Stones at their Glastonbury Festival debut, headlining on Saturday, June 29. Keys played on their 14 On Fire tour with Roskilde Festival in Denmark being his last ever gig for the Stones. Keys was married to Holly Keys. Bobby's children are Amber Keys, Huck Keys, Jesse Keys and his step-son Randy Kaune. Bobby Keys died from liver cancer in hospice care at his home in Franklin, Tennessee, on December 2, 2014, sixteen days before his 71st birthday.

#december 2 #2014 #bobby keys #rip

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brianjacob · 4 years

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The Corona virus reality.

We're about 4 months in, Cases have skyrocketed, and a lot of people have died. It's about time people stopped the whole hoax BS. Numbers are from June 25th 2020.

1. Globally 9,808,267 have been listed as having the virus. 493,993 have died. That’s half a million loved ones that are no longer here y’all. That’s a 4.999% fatality rate. (For every 100 people you know that have it, 5 will die) 5,299,920 have recovered, and 4,014,354 are still active cases. Some of those folks will die, but many will get over it.

2. In Florida. 122,960 have been listed as having the virus. 3,366 have died. That’s a 2.74% fatally rate. (For every 100 people you know that have it...about 3 will die.) Only 21,651 have recovered. If you want to know the rate of death, and are smart enough to google… do the research yourself. (Deaths/Total Infected) x 100 = the % of death.

3. "The numbers are going up but deaths are going down.” That does not mean Floridians have somehow beat this. The sun’s only giving you a tan and some Vitamin D, not immunity…. It takes 1-4 weeks for folks to die or recover from this. You will only see the deaths increase in 2-4 weeks. And if we actually obey some mask and social distance rules, our infection rate will go down as well. So 4 weeks from now, the number of deaths could climb while cases are low. The variable of time needs to be accounted for in your assumption.

Ellie Murphy put it best. “What does lead time bias have to do with #COVID19? Well, we switched from only testing people who had really serious severe symptoms to testing a much wider group of people with milder or even no symptoms. Many of the new cases are much earlier in their disease process. Lead time bias tells us that we can expect to see a longer delay between detection & death because we are detecting people earlier in the disease process. This does not mean people are surviving longer! That’s the sneaky lead time bias talking!!“

4. It’s mislabeled, it’s not that serious, it’s like the flu.They are counting diabetes, heart attack, blah blah blah as Covid Deaths. Well it is a Covid death. Almost all those folks were doing fine with their conditions controlled with medication, healthy diets, and exercise. The disease exasperated their pre-existing conditions, and made their body unable to handle it, thus succumbing to their body’s deterioration resulting in their subsequent death. It is a Covid Death, because if they had not gotten it, it probably would have been business as usual. Also we don’t know much about this disease as it is evolving as fast as we are fighting it. We are seeing it attack 30–40 years olds at a much higher rate than before. Kids are facing weird symptoms, and we do not know the long term damage it may cause. NBA players are saying they are still dealing with the after affects months after recovery and a negative test result. There is lung scaring, and many many other things we still do not have a grasp of.

5. Almost all other nations whose citizens respected their scientists, and authority are almost fully recovered, and back to semi-normal. We seem to not care about our fellow citizens, or our scientists. That’s why it’s a FACT that we have the most cases, and most deaths in the USA. Non debatable. That’s why other states are not allowing Floridians to travel to theirs without a 2 week quarantine. That’s why other nations are looking into imposing a ban of US citizens traveling to their shores. We did not flatten the curve. We have created a new one. Facts.

6. The Protests raised the numbers. NO. People not wearing masks, and gathering inside for long periods of time did. Texas, Arizona, Florida… all states with low protesting, all states that opened up early 2–4 weeks ago with some citizens that don’t want to follow any decency rules, are showing the increase. In almost all the film you watch, you see the vast majority of protestors wearing masks. They have been diligent about this. Could some of them have spread it, but of course, we cannot rule that out. But being outdoors and wearing masks have all helped. Close proximity, heavy breathing, poor circulation/ventilation, all indoors is a recipe for disaster. Alcohol makes it worse. Let the politics go. This is a humanity thing now. We need to squash this for all of us, not to prove a president or governor is right or wrong. People shouldn’t die for political loyalty during a pandemic.

7. Masks work. There is science around this. Every nation that has seen a drop has it’s citizens masked up. You are wearing it mostly to not infect others if you are currently asymptomatic, but have the capability of spreading it. Like all things(consider seatbelts, airbags), can you still get sick & die. Possibly, but the risk is significantly reduced. And NO, you cannot faint or die from CO2 poisoning,. Tell that to the doctors that wear stronger masks, and do 12 hour surgeries. You can wear that mask for your grocery run. Calm down.

So what do we do… what can we do? Somethings are simple, and some we must rely on the experts to help. Social distancing, and masks are easy, but let’s also avoid enclosed places, time with our elderly relatives and friends, and large gatherings. As we maintain those guidelines, we wait for our incredibly gifted medical & scientific organizations to come up with solutions, medications and the vaccines needed to shield us from this long term. But that requires time. Like HIV, and other diseases that had high infection and death rates, we had to put a plan together to avoid getting the disease, testing ourselves and our loved ones, and being careful. Did we eradicate it? No. But are we getting closer and closer to beating it? Yes. One main difference is when we heard or saw stories about HIV/AIDS deaths, the pictures and the stories were gruesome. The media has kept away from showing how bad the body does with this disease, how it disfigures and scars your lungs, or how it constricts your blood flow, causes cardiac swelling and scarring, or even how it causes brain inflammation encephalitis, seizures, loss of consciousness or strokes. This is a scary disease, but doesn't sound so scary when compared to the “Common Flu.”

In addition, we have been here before. Referencing the CDC: The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Lasting February 1918 to April 1920, it infected 500 million people–about a third of the world's population at the time–in four successive waves. The death toll is typically estimated to have been somewhere between 17 million and 50 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 years old, and 65 years and older. The high mortality in healthy people, including those in the 20-40 year age group, was a unique feature of this pandemic. Control efforts worldwide were limited to non-pharmaceutical interventions such as isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants, and limitations of public gatherings, which were applied unevenly. Social distancing measures were introduced, for example closing schools, theatres, and places of worship, limiting public transportation, and banning mass gatherings. Wearing face masks became common in some places, such as Japan, though there were debates over their efficacy. There was also some resistance to their use, as exemplified by the Anti-Mask League of San Francisco. Vaccines were also developed, but as these were based on bacteria and not the actual virus, they could only help with secondary infections. A later study found that measures such as banning mass gatherings and requiring the wearing of face masks could cut the death rate up to 50 percent, but this was dependent on them being imposed early in the outbreak and not being lifted prematurely. So we’ve been here before, and we have an outline of time, spread, and effective solutions till a vaccine/medication is made. We just need to listen to it, and follow through. We are significantly more educated, and our science has come a long way since 1918. If we take this seriously, and practice good habits, we will beat this thing. When it comes to work, this is a huge issue. For a large segment, working from home is available. But for many others, this simply does not exist. This is when we need an empathetic and properly functioning government to step in. All retail businesses and the like should have been granted immunity for the year from expenses, leases, and other fees. Emergency & Essential staff should have been provided the proper PPE and an upgrade in their pay. Unemployed folks should have had an easy time dealing with collecting unemployment benefits, and a new assessment program should have been created to teach them how to do work from home jobs to get them back in action sooner than later. These are just a few of my ideas, but many others can be found online that can easily be implemented. Forcing a parent to choose between their small business and feeding their family during this crisis is an impossible position to be in. Unfortunately we did not care, and chose to bail out billionaires, and Companies that should have been more diligent about saving for a rainy day or using the insurance they can afford to shield themselves from collapse.

We all get it. This is an emotional time, families are struggling stuck at home with each other or with homeschooling their kids, businesses are suffering or have shut down, our entire way of life has been dismantled. I know 13 people that have passed away from this. I’ve heard of over 100 stories in network that have had it, and are battling it. Some winning... some struggling. I have countless family and friends on the front line fighting this disease. Many in my immediate family circle. If we don’t ban together and beat this thing like other nations have by being unified... then the disease has won in more ways than one.

#coronavirus #covid #covid19 #masks

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the-k-alien · 4 years

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Goodbye Rico!

We’ve noticed a raccoon living on our neighbor’s deck since April 6th. To be accurate, the raccoon has already lived there for more than a week, but April 6th is the first day we caught it on camera. We found this out because the raccoon (which I named Rico) poops on our deck every night. He uses our deck as a public toilet and it’s pretty gross 💩. Also, my cat used to go on the deck and now I can’t let her out because of all this poop! We tried to catch him on camera from the inside, but it didn’t work (too much reflection). Since we are all in quarantine, we had nothing better to do than to watch Rico’s movements every morning from the camera. We also moved the camera to different locations to learn more about Rico. For example, we discovered that he lives under a pile of stuff that our next door neighbor has conveniently covered with a tent-like cover. We also discovered how Rico goes off of the deck because our deck is only accessible from our house, there’s no stairs to get down. We’ve learned its pooping habits, it’s the first thing he does after he gets out of his hiding place! I guess I didn’t know that I’ve become so fond of Rico that it really makes me sad to know he is now gone, probably forever 😢.

We’ve told our discoveries to our neighbour since day one, but she didn’t seem to care and said she’s too busy to take care of that. Now 3 weeks later, she decides to deal with this yesterday. She phoned us after confirming that there is a raccoon living in her pile of stuff on the deck. We climbed to her deck from our side and understood why Rico loves that spot! She has 2 deck chairs with very comfy cushions inside that pile!! The place is perfectly isolated from wind and rain! She also put kids outdoor toys like a plastic basketball stand on top of those chairs to create extra “living room” space! Rico was pretty friendly when he saw us. He was obviously scared, but didn’t go into attack/self defense mode. He hid in the opposite corner of where our neighbor unwrapped the tent until the tent was fully off. He continued to hide inside the tent material on the floor. Finally he came out, wanted to escape to our deck from the nearest corner. Unfortunately we have blocked that corner days ago. So he went back in the tent and poked his nose and eyes out like a puppy who knows he’s in trouble. Then he went back on one of the chairs as if he’s pleading us to leave the space alone, to let him stay one more night. To be honest, we wouldn’t mind him living there if he didn’t poop on our deck in front of our patio door every night. Our neighbor almost wanted to put everything back to it was to let Rico live in there. After all, she cannot reuse those chairs now! However we encouraged her to remove it because we are sick of cleaning raccoon poop and it has already attracted flies even tho the weather is not very warm. Also, who knows when she’ll do that operation again! She might not call us and we won’t be able to eyewitnesses it!

In the end, Rico took a deep breath, gathered all of his courage and ran as fast as he can thru the gap in the fence from my neighbor’s deck to our deck. Then he climbed on the side fence to another neighbors deck. That other neighbour also has a pile of stuff covered under a thin layer of material, Rico ran in there and that was it.

At the exact moment, I felt relieved because he will not poop on the deck anymore. However after I got home and looked at the pictures and the video I took, I felt extremely sad. First of all, the phone camera failed on me. I took a first clip and when I wanted to take another video, the “video option” disappeared from the camera function!! I just can’t find it anymore!! Stupid me didn’t think of exiting that app and get back in. I just took a bunch of photos instead. So the “escape moment” wasn’t filmed, I just took a few photos 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️. I regret so bad that we just brought 1 phone out to film, we should have taken 2 phones just in case. The worst is I thought about bringing 2 phones, but in the end I told myself that 1 is enough and calm down my extra genes 🤦🏻‍♀️. Yep, next time something like this happens, I bet you I’ll have 2 cameras on me in case one fails!! Luckily we have the surveillance camera and I got a little clip from there 🙏. Secondly, I feel bad that Rico doesn’t have a home anymore and he has to find a new place. I’ve truly enjoyed his stay here because I was excited to wake up every morning and watch the surveillance videos to find traces of him. I loved playing detective every morning! The last 2-3 nights, I’ve even developed a special “telepathy” with Rico because I would walk past the monitor screen and see Rico out there LIVE! I’ve even faced him once from the patio door because he was right at the door, but it was too dark outside and too much reflection, I didn’t see his face at all and he ran away 😔.

Now it’s the morning after Rico left. I feel sad knowing that he probably didn’t come back last night. I watched quickly the video surveillance and sure enough, he didn’t come back. Another sad thing is it was super windy last night and the weather forecast for next week isn’t nice, lots of rain and maybe a little bit of snow. Where would Rico go? Has he already found a spot? Will he be back next week? How old is he? Is it a he or a she? How long has Rico lived here? From what we know, he’s been here at least from April 2nd to April 25. Those cushions sure seem very comfortable and since the neighbor can’t use them anymore, we could leave them for Rico on our deck? I wouldn’t mind him sleeping on the deck, as long as he poops somewhere else 😆. I’ve also learned a lot about raccoon through this experience. I’ve googled about its living habit, toilet habit, I suspected it to be a female with babies, etc. I didn’t know that raccoons are such smart creatures before this. I’ve only seen raccoon once in the past for a brief moment.

Anyway, hope Rico will find a good place to live after this. I don’t know if he’ll ever find such comfy cushions to sleep on in the future, but I’m sure he’ll find a good shelter elsewhere 😊❤️🐾

#storytime #raccoon #quarantine #wildlife #Rico the raccoon #staysafe #i will miss you

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lindaliukas · 6 years

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Year in review 2017

Fourth year in review. This year I did more work with schools and was excited to see school districts start to embrace my work. Ran roughly 400 kilometres around the world and read 60 books. Flew over 120 flights and did over 60 talks. Published the third book in Ruby series.

2017 was a weird year. On the other hand I felt like I found professionally the guidelines I had been looking for: maximising freedom, maximising curiosity. Early on in the year I stumbled upon Robert Irwin who “decided to step in to his own curiosity” and knew I had found what I had been looking for. On the other hand I experienced first hand how easy it is to tip out of balance and ignore the things closest & dearest to you, resulting in a big mess.

Here are 2016, 2015 and 2014. And here is 2017:

January

Changed the year in Långvik with minimal hassle, maximum friends. Moved offices to Maria, again in snow & cold. Enjoyed the quiet days after Christmas and found kindred spirits. Met Andre Agassi at NBF (whose book I loved a few years back), but was most impressed with his charismatic manager who told me war stories about building schools.

Saw Arrival and Jackie. Loved this Tumblr story on Harry Potter and the CS classics list. Celebrated Nils' and Saku's birthdays. Ate more veggies and bought a Vitamix!

Went to Hawaii with Ville and enjoyed St. Regis & hiking. Kauai was green and lush and beautiful. Rode around the island to get one of my magic books of the year: Seeing is Forgetting (more on that later).

Washed my passport in the washing machine. It was a bad year for passports: I lost all together three.

Read:

The Girls.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. (Ended up studying a lot more physics this year than I originally anticipated!)

Juniper. From this Radiolab episode. If I were to start a tech company it would be in this space.

Where Wizards Stay Up Late.

Tale of Shikanako #1. I forgot to read the next parts, need to put it in my reading queue.

Whiplash.

Mothers.

The Gene.

February

Spent most of the month in US: New York, DC and Boston. Visited DC public schools, took mom to see Bowery Poetry Club in NY. Had really wonderful, snowy, concentrated days in Boston and got to hang out with Jie & rest of LLK team + dinners with friends.

Atlantic wrote about Ruby & the philosophy behind it!

Did my first STEM Institute with Roxanne and the CS4All team of New York Department of Education. Was exhausted, happy, loved the thorough feedback and can’t wait to run the course again.

Left my laptop in an Uber in Boston and ran around like crazy trying to get it to New York in time. Bought a new iPad and started experimenting with tools like Astropad, Apple Pencil and PS Sketch that would later in the year replace my old system of drawing.

Wined and dined with Henrietta in a very random evening.

Read:

Beloved. Loved this. More Toni Morrison for 2018.

Association of Small Bombs.

Seeing is Forgetting the Name of The Thing One Sees. On of the three most important books of the year. Oh Robert Irwin. His entire doctorate acceptance speech:"All I want say is that the wonder is still there." Walks away.

The End of Absence.

The Underground Railroad.

March

Went to Melbourne for a few days to speak at NGV Victoria (and Australian TV!). Started my David Hockney obsession that would last the entire year.

Settled into New York life and the TED residency. Started new routines with hip hop yoga! Did an Arduino workshop at School for Poetic Computation and enjoyed feeling like a beginner.

Worked a lot on the Internet book, reading a ton of the original research papers of WWW and Internet. Fell in love with Fermat’s library. Spent a lot of time thinking how to structure the book between software, hardware and culture of Internet.

Visited Switzerland shortly and was chosen as one of the 50 most inspiring women in tech in Europe.

Saw two plays: Tove Jansson in Helsinki with Jemina and an immersive piece Strangest in New York with Paul. Had a really fun, magic, sparkly afternoon with Hugo in Whitney Biennal.

Read

Small Pieces Loosely Joined.

The Vegetarian.

Homo Deus.

Commonwealth

April

Tried to balance living in two continents. Wrote a lot, but also saw a lot of friends. Went to see Puerto Rican / New York Poetry Slam with Roxanne and loved it. Brunched with Jason & Sara, went flywheeling with Zach, had dinner at Farhad’s insane apartment and cooked for Otto.

Saw Ghost in Shell and a live version of Israel Story (and got many ideas for my own performances). Backed Climate Change Coloring Book, which was one of my favorite Kickstarter projects of the year.

Turned 31 in New York. Got to go to Sesame Workshop!!

Got a new, beautiful goddaughter.

A quick trip to Barcelona to see Hola Ruby out in Spanish & Catalanian. Had a magical midnight dinner with a locals and visited one of the most eclectic schools. Continued working on Internet (and concept stage boardgame).

Tried to read David Foster Wallace, but gave up. This year maybe.. Still, always, Björk.

Read

The Handmaid's tale

A Tale of Love and Darkness. Enjoyed this one a lot.

In the Woods

May

The spring was starting to catch up and felt mostly jetlagged for the entire month. On the upside: lots of wonderful encounters with new and old friends. Saw Mikito for the first time in a long time and talked art & technology (TBC!!). Met Fawn! And Karen! Had breakfast with Yon & left with the biggest grin. Celebrated Eve’s engagement.

Celebrated Vappu in Central Park and had one of those funny, warm, random New York dinners where there just happens to be some of the most celebrated musicians, cooks & tech people of Nordics all under same roof.

Saw the Commes des Garcons show in Met and felt Rei Kawakubo’s personality. Saw Georgia O’Keeffe (+Marimekko, Finnish pride!) exhibition with Tiina (and later read this great article). Organised Computing & Stories summit in SFPC and felt the future of computing.

Did another PD on Internet with the NYC teachers (and tested ideas for the book, win-win!) and also in Sweden for Swedish teachers.

Fell in love with China. 你好 Ruby! Hello Ruby won the prestigious DIA Award by China Academy of Art out of 2700 applicants. My visit in Hangzhou was short, but can’t wait to go back and learn more about the country and it’s technology & education culture. Here are a few stories: 1, 2, 3

Read

Startup.

The Wangs vs. the World

See you in the cosmos.

Americanah. LOVED this.

June

Ended TED Residency with a talk. Really wish I would have prioritised the residency more, but luckily the community doesn’t come with an expiration date.

Took my parents to Japan and was really excited to show them all the experiences I loved. Visited Kyoto & Osaka for the first time.

Flew to Birmingham CAS conference. Miles and the UK computing organisations have inspired me a lot and I was glad to be able to give back. Loved being back in London for a few days and spending time in Kew Gardens with Minna and her family + seeing house of Minalima with Emma. Celebrated Tuula’s 60th.

Worked too much. Had a familiar midsummer stretch with Ruby 3. Me & mom going through proofs at 4 AM in the morning. Decided to move the next deadline to May to avoid the summer panic.

For most of the year my phone only had data service. Realised how much I hated being interrupted with calls. Ville had also sold his car, so we were for the first time in 5+ years a car free household. Felt like the future.

Read

On China.

Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees. Finally finished. Best book I read all year.

American War.

July

Had my traditional summer vacation month and lived it vigourously by going to the dentist, eye doctor, doctor.. Oh well, ran and swam also and enjoyed the cold Nordic summer by biking in the soaking rain. Got Nintendo Switch and played hours and hours of Zelda.

Visited Berlin and danced my worries away with girlfriends. One of the most important weekends of the years with big consequences.

Celebrated the wedding of Pete & Liisa, met Juha 6/5, watered plants with little Isla, saw Valerian and had lunch with Miki with omnious predictions.

Did a biking trip to Kristo’s & Anna’s island with Ville and loved the archipelago and sense of summer childhoods. Visited the new Moominmuseum in Tampere and can warmly recommend it. Visited Meidän Festivaali, summer tradition.

Found A16Z AI Playbook and got inspired for the next book - it’s really amazing how much good educational material is out there. Some of my favorite newsletters on the topic for the entire year were: ImportAI, Exponential View and Creative.AI

Read

Artificial Intelligence: What everyone needs to know.

The Thirst. My summer tradition with the Nesbo’s..

In Dialogue with Reggio Emilia. Reggio was a lot on my mind through the year.

Sweetbitter

New York 2140

The Thing About Jellyfish.

August

Had a lot of family problems and overall a very sad month. But was also much more gentle towards myself and had a very strong idea of persisting. Stark contrast to the PR stuff happening around same time. Talked to everyone and everywhere. Cried a lot.

Third Ruby book came out in Finnish. The tetralogy is one step to being finished. I wanted to talk about the Internet, but everyone else still wants to talk about coding. Oh well. This was a nice, long talk about the book, although in Finnish.

Spent a lot of energy making home feel like home. Hosted dinners, spent a fun evening in Lonna, celebrated Flow weekend, had dinner in the Marimekko factory floor, went to the wedding of Johanna and Kalle.

Did two really important things for myself: started seeing a therapist and joined an all-girls running club. Monday evenings of track, hills and forests were the highlight of the week for the entire fall. Thanks Helsinki Core Trainers & Jarno. Went also orienteering for the first time in 20 years and found it very soothing.

Favorite things of the month: Melissa Kaseman’s art project, Preschool Pocket Treasures and Young Explorers.

Read

Rikinkeltainen taivas

The Idiot

The Sellout

Walkaway

September

Went to Copenhagen for Techfestival and enjoyed the small, weird, ambiguous, quality driven discussions. Felt fresh for a technology conference.

Worked on the English version of Internet book and started planning an illustration exhibition around Ruby with mom. Did some play testing at the English School.

Nelli had a masquerade party, dressed up as Alice in Wonderland and made a special dress! Celebrated Marjaana’s birthday in Lonna, ended up at an old friends apartment eating pizza at 7 AM.

Organised a surprise birthday party for my sister together with her friends and baby shower to my cousin’s wife. Hung out with goddaughter on a crips autumn day. Enjoyed doing small things for others.

Judged a hackathon at Marimekko and ended up doing my first machine learning project inspired by it! Found Liu Cixin’s books and mind exploded.

Went to Amsterdam and did a teacher workshop. Walked alone around a lot. Month ended up in better news.

Kept running. Kept reading this essay by Robert Macfarlane. Influenced my work a lot.

Read:

The Beautiful bureaucrat

The God of Small Things

When Marnie was there. Still haven't seen the movie!

Standard Deviation

Sophie's Choice

Sourdough. Loved this. Bought five immediately to giveaway.

Three Body problem. One of the other important books/series of the year.

A Mind at Play

River Town

October

Weird month. Mostly happy and relieved, but also way too much travel. I feel dizzy only reviewing what happened.. Was really happy to get a good review of the second Ruby book in US. The timelines of publishing really kill me.

Ran the Sipoonkorpi Trail and admired the baby kitten of a friend. Had a 15 year old intern who was bold enough to apply! Met with a lot of school people. Was back in Berlin for a few days, fell in love with my German publisher and their worldview.

Had pizza and watched Lady Gaga documentary with friends. Enjoyed this drawing from Aura.

Did an insane around the world few weeks: started with David’s birthday party in Copenhagen, followed by a very hungover flight to South Korea. Ran the best run of the year at Namsan Trail in Seoul, hung out with friends old and new. Saw Hillary Clinton live! Bucket list. Flew to Wisconsin and met with very cool librarians (and woke up to the news I had won an award on future of culture in Finland!). Spent a day in New York: saw friends, did a book event at my favourite bookstore, ran in Central Park.. and met my biggest kidlit idol, Oliver Jeffers, accidentally!

Visited four Finnish cities and three Swedish ones in a week. Did a project for Swedish teachers and tried reading Ruby aloud på svenska. Sounded like moomintrollet, but whatever. Flew to Japan.

Read:

Hold me tight.

Close to the Machine. This was like Patti Smith with computers.

Dark Forest.

Machine Learning: the new AI

Room of One's Own. Thousand times yes.

Little Fires Everywhere.

November

Went to Japan to accept the Rakuten Technology & Innovation award. Loved the other prize winners - among them an 80 year old app developer lady. Soaked for a rainy Sunday in onsen and visited the new Yayoi Kusama museum.

Went to Lapland with Ville. Enjoyed season's first skiing and started knitting again. Saw Tuntematon Sotilas movie. Dear friends got married and we got to be the witnesses. Met a new baby relative.

Very briefly visited Malmö and Oredev - wish I could have stayed longer. Flew to Miami and played Super Mario Odyssey almost entire flight. Got to visit an amazing school in Coconut Grove.

Finished Liu Cixin’s the Remembrance of Earth trilogy and a la Emily Dickinson: “I felt a cleaving in my mind / As if my brain had split; I tried to match it, seam by seam, / But could not make them fit.”

Went to Greece and had the warmest & most enthusiastic crowd. Hope next year will bring more collaborations.

Thought a lot about this essay from Stephen Wolfram and this one from Cory Doctorow.

Read

Forest Dark.

Stoner. This was the suprirse Ferrante of the year: kept popping up everywhere..

Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process. Loved this.

Death's End.

The Obelisk Gate.

The Fifth Season.

At the Existentialist Cafe. Took me almost a year to finish, but I can sense the reverberations..

December

I MET AL GORE. Everyone who knows me (or the 1.6 million people who watched the TED talk..) knows this was a huge deal, like a circle closing after 17 years. (The biggest daily of Finland also wrote a piece about the meeting on their economy pages. Teenage girls & their enthusiasm change the world <3). (Also, had lunch with Prince William, which on any other day would have been a huge deal, but all my excitement had already been used on Gore..). Slush was everything it promised: late from everything, random encounters, techno parties in the tunnels of Helsinki that went on until morning.

Went to Australia, spent half of the trip with a flu and lost my bank card, passport, and a few other gadgets. Decided it was time for a vacation. Loved seeing Australia beyond Melbourne and promised to come back for more than a few days..

Got a bit emotional about Finland turning 100 after being pretty nonchalant for the entire year.

Met with more childhood idols and got feedback on my projects. Met with a mentor and planned a trip to Dubai. Took a metro to Aalto University and heard about their AI research and quantum computing. Got really excited about visiting India. A teacher in NYC dressed up as Ruby for Computer Science week. Wrote about work and worked on writing.

Finished the Hockney book and was happy as a child with the Hockney-Falco-thesis. Perception (be it AI or art) seemed to be the theme of the year. Read Sherry Turkle's work and found direction(s).

Made gingerbread cookies with goddaughters family, took another goddaughter to movies to see Moomin. Celebrated Maija's doctoral dissertation (and surprise wedding!). Went to Christmas concert with Nelli & Juha, had many Christmas celebrations with friends. Saw Star Wars (if I had to choose, liked the new Blade Runner better) and Mozart's Magic Flute (loved the Komische Oper Berlin visuals). Watched the Crown.

Had girls over for wrath meaning and planning the new year. Spent Christmas together with Ville, just the two of us. Loved our tree, the new traditions and the quiet.

Read

Dinner at the Center of the Earth.

Manhattan Beach.

Minun Amerikkani. Felt this strongly.

True to Life: Twenty-Five years of Conversations with David Hockney. One of the big books of the year.

The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit.

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lulusoblue · 7 years

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Headcanon: Casey Jones being on the Autistic Spectrum

I see plenty of neurodivergent headcanons for the turtles galore, but never for any of the human characters. In all honestly, saying one of the turtles is on the autistic spectrum is iffy and uncomfortable to me at least because it’s sorta implying that said autism would be the result of a mutation caused by an external element. Because it’s not like we’ve had shit over some dickhead portraying autism as a side effect of vaccination rather than it being a mental disorder that’s as embedded in our genes and beings as internal organs and a massive part of who we are as people. also fuck you wakefield

And so thinking about it more, it just clicked that Casey could fit an autistic headcanon. So here’s a list of things about his character I believe fit such a headcanon based on personal experience and from other autistic people I’ve known:

• Apparently the writers put him at around 17 years old, a year older than April, with some intent that he might have been held back during his education (probably to tie into him seeking April for tutoring). I don’t have any knowledge of American education beyond secondhand information I may see on the internet or pop up on my dash, so my only knowledge of being autistic in a learning system built around neurotypical students is from brief personal experience. Neurotypical education sucks when there isn’t enough awareness of learning difficulties or the teachers don’t have enough training to know how to handle it. Casey might have trouble with his education because he may have difficulties trying to pay attention and absorb information without the tools or support to help him focus. This can get you labelled as just bad behaviour or being dumb/stupid. I sure as hell wasn’t able to follow lessons in school until I finally had someone who listened to why I didn’t like lessons and found them hard to understand. We don’t have any clue as to when Casey was held back if this concept still applies in canon, but being held back might not mean he just didn’t care to study or doesn’t have the smarts to pass. Granted it gets harder to care about learning when you have trouble understanding and your educators don’t bother to help you so much as call you lazy. Which brings me to my next point.

• Casey’s interests and knowledge in gadgets, vehicles, and metalwork. The boy knows his stuff when it comes to Mad Max-looking makeshift weaponry and devices, which is clear from his decked out bike and the crude taser that he’s managed to strap to his arm without frying himself. He worked with Donnie to rig up a supercar as a hobby and helped pimp up the Party Wagon. And he’s still flunking trig. (so’s April but shhhhh that was just a Season 1 thing) Casey seems like a very visual learner in this case: he picks up on things through observation and is self-taught on what interests him. For all we know he figured out cars while being cooped up on a farm with nothing better to do while one of his terrapin friends was in a coma. I’ve ended up doing that with some programs I use or with life stuff in general. Manuals are boring and slow and easy to lose focus on. Maybe look up a couple of video tutorials for something but most of building skills and interests is self-teaching and trial-and-error. (my experience of video editing and art programs is “what’s this do and can i figure out what makes it tick without looking it up”, which is an approach to new interests I think also fits Casey). Likely not something specific or common in autistic people, but figuring things out in such a way has been a thing that popped up for me and a couple of old friends. What I’m saying is Casey made that new mask after half-watching a couple of cosplay tutorials and winging it with some scrap.

• Casey wears those gloves and that headband all the damn time. Even when he’s eating pizza, he’s eating it wearing gloves that have probably been worn working on his bike, wielding a hockey stick/baseball bat that’s likely bashed sweaty heads in rain two weeks ago without being washed, and just the day-to-day things that would get those gloves sweaty or grimey or icky. He wears that headband at all times, even when he’s wearing a mask thank would probably fit better if he took that band of material off of his head. What do his headband and gloves also have in common? They’re articles of clothing that usually have elastic to stay in place. Sure canonically they’re just there to fit his grungy look (get to that hoodie in a second), but digging myself deeper into this headcanon i got to thinking they might also serve sensory/stimming purposes. If there’s something that I think is one thing autistic people have in common or a feeling they share, it’s fiddling/fidgeting and certain sensory things to some level: e.g. I usually wear loose tops because i like fiddling with the hems and corners of my clothing. Some people wear tight or loose clothing based on how they process the sensation of skin against different type of clothing. Casey never taking off his damn gloves or headband could be seen as him liking the sensation of the elastic in them around his wrists and forehead. He probably pings the elastic as well because that’s fun too when you’re bored and need to fiddle.

I refuse to believe that he has never washed that hoodie. I mean yeah the turtles have smelt worse living in a sewer but Casey is a Human who has spent most of his life around Humans and his Human father would probably have burnt his clothes by now if Casey never washed the stink out of them. That and Casey is a hockey player, and I imagine stinking clothes is an annoyance that comes from most sports. Those paint stains on his hoodie I think he’s leaving there on purpose, like he’ll wash his clothes but no dad his clothes get washed separate because he can’t wash his clothes with your clothes because you use stuff that lifts stains and that’ll get rid of the paint splats that he likes on his clothes and why does he want paint splats because he does and they look nice and he probably won’t get the same splatter pattern again if he tried and shush dad this hoodie stays the same because it has to because shut up. We don’t really see Casey tagging anything regularly so unless it’s because they don’t change the texture on animated models because what’s the point it’s not a cgi blockbuster we’re making here Casey probably keeps his paint splattered hoodie like that because it looks nice and it’ll stay nice dad. It’s a Thing.

• Casey constantly refers to a love of heavy metal music. Too much sound for an autistic person can end up in sensory overload and that fucking sucks. And in general just the world around you can suck and you wanna shut it out because ugh. You know what helps? Headphones and really loud music. What genre has really loud music? Yup.

Casey having a social battery. He just pops in and out of the show all the time because the writers dunno what do with him shrug so yeah. Autism likes to play up the variance of a person’s social needs and wants and limits. You want to be friends but you just can’t be asked to be with people right now. You get this surge of wanting to hang out with friends and be loud for a bit, and then you have this mood where you just want to not exist or just not do things. Basically like this:

“raph great to see you i love your face” “whatever weirdo”

[dude where are you] [home] [you’ve been at home for three days] [i’m waiting until i stop hating faces to talk in person again]

If anyone has any other things to add to this headcanon, please do share/add onto this post. Now if you’ll excuse me i’m gonna dig myself further into this headcanon.

EDIT: I forgot another point I wanted to put in and also @a-specforest added some cool addon tags so broski if you don’t mind imma put them here too

• #okay so one symptom of autism is speaking in ’pre learned phrases’ #and casey has a ton of catchphrases • #sometimes speaking in a tone that doesn’t match the conversation? #casey does that a lot too • #he seems to have a few hyperfixations #in season 2 he’s practicing hockey late by himself #and the working on cars that you mentioned

1) how else would he come up with Goongala of COURSE!!! That and pre-learned phrases are great to have when spontaneous speech is a bitch and you trip over words and stammer. not that i would know anything about that nooo We’ve already heard him muddle up words in the moment (I think he said jumbled up “racism” later in S4)

2) Tone control is something I’ve dealt with, too. Apparently I have resting bitch voice so I’ll say something and get asked if i’m in a bad mood or snapped at for “being rude”. Also knew other autistic people who would have ranges of tones in certain convos too, e.g. one always sounded happy and chipper and laughed a lot even when something wasn’t particularly funny, one person’s tone of voice went everywhere it was hard to tell what their feelings were even with the context of conversation. Casey’s attitude and tone in conversation, even serious ones, might be an indication of that, I agree.

3) Oh yeah, he definitely fits hyperfixation. There’s his hobbies, and also there’s how he sees his future. When he and April are in the park for their first study session, he’s got two clear ideas for what to do with his life; Hockey Star or Bounty Hunter. With him immediately trying to play hero when confronted with a walking talking tank of organs his bounty hunter fantasy may have something to do with it. He’s reckless and headstrong, but it also lends to his fixation on one of his dream careers; if fighting a monster that he’s confronted with something he sees as a step to bounty hunting, he’ll likely put up his dukes and get melted because ACID HANDS I have definitely known people who were determined on doing something because it was what they wanted. It might’ve come across as stubbornness or rigidness depending on what it (even something as simple as just doing something like a chore a certain way), but in context of ambitions and their future they were pumped as hell to take the steps they needed to take to do what they liked and what they wanted for themselves. They didn’t care about what people thought of them even if they didn’t pass as neurotypical and would get stares on the street. Not sure how they would react if say culinary career path involved fighting mutated food, but considering the show itself is an action-adventure cartoon with mutant turtles I think we can give Casey a pass on that lack of realism there. we begrudgingly give the writers passes all the time so why stop now

Aaaand the point i forgot to put in my original post:

• Casey’s less-than appropo reactions or attitudes in situations possibly links to difficulty reading people, being empathetic or understanding social cues/priorities. Reading and understanding facial expressions and body language can be a bitch if you’re autistic. There’s even a learning software program a couple of students from my school would use in one-to-one sessions that specifically addresses this for those who find it THAT hard to tell what another person is expressing. It’s especially troublesome because empathy can be a confusing thing too, because it can go from you not really having any empathy to you having so much that you think you’re hurting the feelings of a pair of shoes because you chose to wear something else that day which totally isn’t the extreme i experience at all hahaha help i’m mentally apologising to a boot Casey doesn’t appear to take things seriously in dangerous circumstances the majority of the time, nor does he appear considerate of others at other times. It’s a lot of confidence and certainty that things will turn out OK (with a heaping spoonful of “self preservation instinct what self preservation instinct”). It’s not always an appropriate attitude to make jokes and quips and tease and make jabs at people, but he HAS taken things seriously and shown worry/sadness at appropriate times. He’s really quiet and almost numb when the subject of his family’s fate comes up in Invasion, and he was surprisingly the only one to be most affected after watching someone get mOLECULARLY RIPPED APART. From experience, both personal and through observation, figuring out how to react and respond to things when you don’t really know how to is a pain in the ass and often distressing because you feel bad for not knowing. Sometimes you resort to humour to lighten things and try to ease tensions, sometimes you have an internal screaming match with yourself and panic and go through an archive of potential reactions because what the fuck would apply here, or sometimes you just shut down or just don’t react like it’s not really a big deal or even happening. Or you end up going through verbal barfing and dig yourself deeper into a hole of instant regret because you’re making yourself look like an ass when you don’t want to why is this so hARD. I think Casey would fall into the “address things with confidence and cockiness” kind of reaction pool, because it’s an attitude he’s comfortable with and how he better deals and processes things. It’s not to say he doesn’t have some empathy or disregard for other people’s feelings (hello Buried Secrets), it could be that it’s not comfortable territory for him even when he wants to be serious/emotionally supportive. did any of that come out right fffffffffU

• Casey’s small social circle and it possibly being by choice. His best friends are the girl who he met through tutoring in a subject she was failing before and four giant turtles who are trained in ninjutsu. He only mentions having one friend before, a friend with whom he had a falling out, and he didn’t seem to like Irma all that much (you can say it’s because “she’s a third wheel on dates” but even outside of that he didn’t seem to get along with her much). With things like hyperfixation and the like making a vast group of friends is tricky. Being autistic might mean the friends you choose to make have lots of interest in common with you rather than just being someone you get along with. Not to say being autistic means you are limited to a few friends. I’m no expert on autistic social lives, I can only draw from firsthand experience. I found trying to maintain a number of friendships difficult and often overwhelming so at some point in school I stopped trying to make friends, with the exception of a couple of people I liked and had common interests with. I chose to keep my social circle small because the thought of making lots of friends and keeping in touch with them all and remembering who likes who and what overwhelmed me and made me nervous as a child. Still kinda leaks into adulthood because I don't have many friends outside of the company I keep on tumblr. In this autistic headcanon, Casey’s very small social circle could be by choice. He doesn’t mention having any other friends besides one previously, fixates on April (and yes I am knocking the romantic aspect out the window for this) after approaching her for tutoring because he found her cool and likes hanging out with her (and probably saw kicking a mutant’s ass as common ground/bonding too), hung out with her even when a person he wasn’t keen on (Irma) was also there, and even when he’s introduced to the turtles and befriends them he still appears to be platonically closest to April arguably, depends on how the writers want to write him that week. Considering how the love triangle bullhockey has been given little to no reference as of late, his concern for April in Tokka vs the World and his annoyance at Leo’s teamup picks in Tale of Tiger Claw might be more because he can’t be with his favourite person. (and yes that can be a Thing too) He might also fixate on having April’s company because she isn’t much of a social butterfly herself outside of the friendly neighbourhood mutants living in the sewer. Compare how many times we see him hanging out with the turtles minus April versus when April is present.

#tmnt 2012 #casey jones (2012)#autistic casey headcanon #yes good #bonus his sister is also autistic #their interactions are just 'ugh' 'what' 'people' 'same'

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walaw717 · 4 years

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Coronavirus: Why everyone was wrong

The immune response to the virus is stronger than everyone thought

Back to Reason

Jul 1

· 12 min read

The original article was published in the Swiss magazine Weltwoche (World Week) on June 10th. The author, Beda M Stadler is the former director of the Institute for Immunology at the University of Bern, a biologist and professor emeritus. Stadler is an important medical professional in Switzerland, he also likes to use provoking language, which should not deter you from the extremely important points he makes.

This article is about Switzerland and it does not suggest that the situation is exactly the same globally. I am advocating for local measures according to local situations. And I advocate for looking at real data rather than abstract models. I also suggest to read to the end, because Stadler makes crucial points about testing for Sars-CoV-2.

Das Coronavirus verzieht sich allmählich. Was hat sich in den vergangenen Wochen eigentlich abgespielt? Die…www.weltwoche.ch

Warum alle falsch lagen

Why everyone was wrong

The coronavirus is slowly retreating. What actually happened in the past few weeks? The experts have missed basic connections. The immune response against the virus is much stronger than we thought.

By Beda M Stadler

This is not an accusation, but a ruthless taking stock [of the current situation]. I could slap myself, because I looked at Sars-CoV2- way too long with panic. I am also somewhat annoyed with many of my immunology colleagues who so far have left the discussion about Covid-19 to virologist and epidemiologist. I feel it is time to criticise some of the main and completely wrong public statements about this virus.

Firstly, it was wrong to claim that this virus was novel. Secondly, It was even more wrong to claim that the population would not already have some immunity against this virus. Thirdly, it was the crowning of stupidity to claim that someone could have Covid-19 without any symptoms at all or even to pass the disease along without showing any symptoms whatsoever.

But let’s look at this one by one.

1. A new virus?

At the end of 2019 a coronavirus, which was considered novel, was detected in China. When the gene sequence, i.e. the blueprint of this virus, was identified and was given a similar name to the 2002 identified Sars, i.e. Sars-CoV-2, we should have already asked ourselves then how far [this virus] is related to other coronaviruses, which can make human beings sick. But no, instead we discussed from which animal as part of a Chinese menu the virus might have sprung. In the meantime, however, many more people believe the Chinese were so stupid as to release this virus upon themselves in their own country. Now that we’re talking about developing a vaccine against the virus, we suddenly see studies which show that this so-called novel virus is very strongly related to Sars-1 as well as other beta-coronaviruses which make us suffer every year in the form of colds. Apart from the pure homologies in the sequence between the various coronaviruses which can make people sick, [scientists] currently work on identifying a number of areas on the virus in the same way as human immune cells identify them. This is no longer about the genetic relationship, but about how our immune system sees this virus, i.e. which parts of other coronaviruses could potentially be used in a vaccine.

So: Sars-Cov-2 isn’t all that new, but merely a seasonal cold virus that mutated and disappears in summer, as all cold viruses do — which is what we’re observing globally right now. Flu viruses mutate significantly more, by the way, and nobody would ever claim that a new flu virus strain was completely novel. Many veterinary doctors were therefore annoyed by this claim of novelty, as they have been vaccinating cats, dogs, pigs, and cows for years against coronaviruses.

2. The fairy tale of no immunity

From the World Health Organisation (WHO) to every Facebook-virologist, everyone claimed this virus was particularly dangerous, because there was no immunity against it, because it was a novel virus. Even Anthony Fauci, the most important advisor to the Trump administration noted at the beginning at every public appearance that the danger of the virus lay in the fact that there was no immunity against it. Tony and I often sat next to each other at immunology seminars at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda in the US, because we worked in related fields back then. So for a while I was pretty uncritical of his statements, since he was a respectable colleague of mine. The penny dropped only when I realised that the first commercially available antibody test [for Sars-CoV-2] was put together from an old antibody test that was meant to detect Sars-1. This kind of test evaluates if there are antibodies in someone’s blood and if they came about through an early fight against the virus. [Scientists] even extracted antibodies from a llama that would detect Sars-1, Sars-CoV-2, and even the Mers virus. It also became known that Sars-CoV-2 had a less significant impact in areas in China where Sars-1 had previously raged. This is clear evidence urgently suggesting that our immune system considers Sars-1 and Sars-Cov-2 at least partially identical and that one virus could probably protect us from the other.

That’s when I realised that the entire world simply claimed that there was no immunity, but in reality, nobody had a test ready to prove such a statement. That wasn’t science, but pure speculation based on a gut feeling that was then parroted by everyone. To this day there isn’t a single antibody test that can describe all possible immunological situations, such as: if someone is immune, since when, what the neutralising antibodies are targeting and how many structures exist on other coronaviruses that can equally lead to immunity.

In mid-April, work was published by the group of Andreas Thiel at the Charité Berlin. A paper with 30 authors, amongst them the virologist Christian Drosten. It showed that in 34 % of people in Berlin who had never been in contact with the Sars-CoV-2 virus showed nonetheless T-cell immunity against it (T-cell immunity is a different kind of immune reaction, see below). This means that our T-cells, i.e. white blood cells, detect common structures appearing on Sars-CoV-2 and regular cold viruses and therefore combat both of them.

A study by John P A Ioannidis of Stanford University — according to the Einstein Foundation in Berlin one of the world’s ten most cited scientists — showed that immunity against Sars-Cov-2, measured in the form of antibodies, is much higher than previously thought. Ioannidis is certainly not a conspiracy theorist who just wants to swim against the stream; nontheless he is now being criticised, because the antibody tests used were not extremely precise. With that, his critics admit that they do not have such tests yet. And aside, John P A Ioannidis is such a scientific heavy-weight that all German virologists combined are a light-weight in comparison.

3. The failure of modellers

Epidemiologist also fell for the myth that there was no immunity in the population. They also didn’t want to believe that coronaviruses were seasonal cold viruses that would disappear in summer. Otherwise their curve models would have looked differently. When the initial worst case scenarios didn’t come true anywhere, some now still cling to models predicting a second wave. Let’s leave them their hopes — I’ve never seen a scientific branch that manoeuvred itself so much into the offside. I have also not yet understood why epidemiologists were so much more interested in the number of deaths, rather than in the numbers that could be saved.

4. Immunology of common sense

As an immunologist I trust a biological model, namely that of the human organism, which has built a tried and tested, adaptive immune system. At the end of February, driving home from the recording of [a Swiss political TV debate show], I mentioned to Daniel Koch [former head of the Swiss federal section “Communicable Diseases” of the Federal Office of Public Health] that I suspected there was a general immunity in the population against Sars-Cov-2. He argued against my view. I later defended him anyway, when he said that children were not a driving factor in the spread of the pandemic. He suspected that children didn’t have a receptor for the virus, which is of course nonsense. Still, we had to admit that his observations were correct. But the fact that every scientist attacked him afterwards and asked for studies to prove his point, was somewhat ironic. Nobody asked for studies to prove that people in certain at-risk groups were dying. When the first statistics from China and later worldwide data showed the same trend, that is to say that almost no children under ten years old got sick, everyone should have made the argument that children clearly have to be immune. For every other disease that doesn’t afflict a certain group of people, we would come to the conclusion that that group is immune. When people are sadly dying in a retirement home, but in the same place other pensioners with the same risk factors are left entirely unharmed, we should also conclude that they were presumably immune.

But this common sense seems to have eluded many, let’s call them “immunity deniers” just for fun. This new breed of deniers had to observe that the majority of people who tested positive for this virus, i.e. the virus was present in their throats, did not get sick. The term “silent carriers” was conjured out of a hat and it was claimed that one could be sick without having symptoms. Wouldn’t that be something! If this principle from now on gets naturalised into the realm of medicine, health insurers would really have a problem, but also teachers whose students could now claim to have whatever disease to skip school, if at the end of the day one didn’t need symptoms anymore to be sick.

The next joke that some virologists shared was the claim that those who were sick without symptoms could still spread the virus to other people. The “healthy” sick would have so much of the virus in their throats that a normal conversation between two people would be enough for the “healthy one” to infect the other healthy one. At this point we have to dissect what is happening here: If a virus is growing anywhere in the body, also in the throat, it means that human cells decease. When [human] cells decease, the immune system is alerted immediately and an infection is caused. One of five cardinal symptoms of an infection is pain. It is understandable that those afflicted by Covid-19 might not remember that initial scratchy throat and then go on to claim that they didn’t have any symptoms just a few days ago. But for doctors and virologists to twist this into a story of “healthy” sick people, which stokes panic and was often given as a reason for stricter lockdown measures, just shows how bad the joke really is. At least the WHO didn’t accept the claim of asymptomatic infections and even challenges this claim on its website.

Here a succinct and brief summary, especially for the immunity deniers, of how humans are attacked by germs and how we react to them: If there are pathogenic viruses in our environment, then all humans — whether immune or not — are attacked by this virus. If someone is immune, the battle with the virus begins. First we try to prevent the virus from binding to our own cells with the help of antibodies. This normally works only partially, not all are blocked and some viruses will attach to the appropriate cells. That doesn’t need to lead to symptoms, but it’s also not a disease. Because the second guard of the immune system is now called into action. That’s the above mentioned T-cells, white blood cells, which can determine from the outside in which other cells the virus is now hiding to multiply. These cells, which are now incubating the virus, are searched throughout the entire body and killed by the T-cells until the last virus is dead.

So if we do a PCR corona test on an immune person, it is not a virus that is detected, but a small shattered part of the viral genome. The test comes back positive for as long as there are tiny shattered parts of the virus left. Correct: Even if the infectious viruses are long dead, a corona test can come back positive, because the PCR method multiplies even a tiny fraction of the viral genetic material enough [to be detected]. That’s exactly what happened, when there was the global news, even shared by the WHO, that 200 Koreans who already went through Covid-19 were infected a second time and that there was therefore probably no immunity against this virus. The explanation of what really happened and an apology came only later, when it was clear that the immune Koreans were perfectly healthy and only had a short battle with the virus. The crux was that the virus debris registered with the overly sensitive test and therefore came back as “positive”. It is likely that a large number of the daily reported infection numbers are purely due to viral debris.

The PCR test with its extreme sensitivity was initially perfect to find out where the virus could be. But this test can not identify whether the virus is still alive, i.e. still infectous. Unfortunately, this also led some virologists to equate the strength of a test result with viral load, i.e. the amount of virus someone can breathe out. Luckily, our day care centres stayed open nontheless. Since German virologist missed that part, because, out of principle, they do not look at what other countries are doing, even if other countries’ case numbers are falling more rapidly.

5. The problem with corona immunity

What does this all mean in real life? The extremely long incubation time of two to 14 days — and reports of 22 to 27 days — should wake up any immunologist. As well as the claim that most patients would no longer secrete the virus after five days. Both [claims] in turn actually lead to the conclusion that there is — sort of in the background — a base immunity that contorts the events, compared to an expected cycle [of a viral infection] — i.e. leads to a long incubation period and quick immunity. This immunity also seems to be the problem for patients with a severe course of the disease. Our antibody titre, i.e. the accuracy of our defence system, is reduced the older we get. But also people with a bad diet or who are malnourished may have a weakened immune system, which is why this virus does not only reveal the medical problems of a country, but also social issues.

If an infected person does not have enough antibodies, i.e. a weak immune response, the virus slowly spreads out across the entire body. Now that there are not enough antibodies, there is only the second, supporting leg of our immune response left: The T-cells beginn to attack the virus-infested cells all over the body. This can lead to an exaggerated immune response, basically to a massive slaughter; this is called a Cytokine Storm. Very rarely this can also happen in small children, in that case called Kawasaki Syndrome. This very rare occurrence in children was also used in our country to stoke panic. It’s interesting, however, that this syndrome is very easily cured. The [affected] children get antibodies from healthy blood donors, i.e. people who went through coronavirus colds. This means that the hushed-up [supposedly non-existent] immunity in the population is in fact used therapeutically.

What now?

The virus is gone for now. It will probably come back in winter, but it won’t be a second wave, but just a cold. Those young and healthy people who currently walk around with a mask on their faces would be better off wearing a helmet instead, because the risk of something falling on their head is greater than that of getting a serious case of Covid-19.

If we observe a significant rise in infections in 14 days [after the Swiss relaxed the lockdown], we’d at least know that one of the measures was useful. Other than that I recommend reading John P A Ioannidis’ latest work in which he describes the global situation based on data on May 1st 2020: People below 65 years old make up only 0.6 to 2.6 % of all fatal Covid cases. To get on top of the pandemic, we need a strategy merely concentrating on the protection of at-risk people over 65. If that’s the opinion of a top expert, a second lockdown is simply a no-go.

On our way back to normal, it would be good for us citizens if a few scaremongers apologised. Such as doctors who wanted a triage of over 80 year old Covid patients in order to stop ventilating them. Also media that kept showing alarmist videos of Italian hospitals to illustrate a situation that as such didn’t exist. All politicians calling for “testing, testing, testing” without even knowing what the test actually measures. And the federal government for an app they’ll never get to work and will warn me if someone near me is positive, even if they’re not infectious.

In winter, when the flu and other colds make the rounds again, we can then go back to kissing each other a little less, and we should wash our hands even without a virus present. And people who’ll get sick nonetheless can then don their masks to show others what they have learned from this pandemic. And if we still haven’t learned to protect our at-risk groups, we’ll have to wait for a vaccine that will hopefully also be effective in at-risk people.

Addendum: I am not the original author of this article, I translated it from German, as indicated at the very beginning. The original author is Beda M Stadler, the original article is linked at the top. I apologise for any typos, as noted in some of your comments. I have corrected hopefully most of them now.

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ldorgan · 4 years

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Fox News Executive Tries To Rein In Stars As They Cheer On Anti-Lockdown Rallies

By DAVID FOLKENFLIK • 2 HOURS AGO

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People gather outside the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus on Monday to protest the state's stay-at-home order, which is in effect until May 1.

GENE J. PUSKAR / AP

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Originally published on April 22, 2020 6:13 pm

Updated at 4:41 p.m. ET

Fox News personalities have been cheerleading protesters across the U.S. gathering in defiance of state lockdown orders. This week, the situation became so extreme that a top executive at the network tried to rein in his stars.

Fox News President Jay Wallace sent a directive Monday urging Fox anchors to take time on the air to remind protesters to practice social distancing, according to a senior executive at Fox. She later said Wallace issued it at the behest of Fox CEO Suzanne Scott. Wallace and Scott declined to be interviewed for this story.

Public health officials say the coronavirus can spread easily when people are packed in tight quarters — including at these protests. Fox hosts have hailed the protesters for standing up for liberty and fundamental American rights, yet have rarely noted the risks involved in those very demonstrations. The hosts have, for the most part, been anchoring their shows from the safety of their own home studios.

Shortly after Wallace's guidance went out Monday, Fox host Harris Faulkner interrupted a guest who said the protesters were not opposing safety measures. Faulkner noted that the footage on the air at that very moment reflected demonstrators clustered closely together, sharing phones and cameras and failing to wear masks.

Few major media outlets have been so resolutely devoted to President Trump's fortunes than Fox News Channel. The crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has proved a test of that loyalty. And with few exceptions, Fox has passed with flying colors — in the sense that its most prominent figures have bolstered the president, even when he has taken a lurching, and at times seemingly self-defeating, approach to the crisis.

Trump's actions stand in contrast to many governors who have acted decisively to close businesses and schools to slow the spread of the virus. They generally have gotten higher marks than the president in polls on the pandemic.

Trump has called on Americans to "liberate" their states from such governors in his drive to re-open U.S. businesses, despite warnings from public health advocates. And Fox News stars have responded on air.

"They want to keep us locked in our homes. They want to keep us from our churches and synagogues. They want to make sure we don't go back to work," said Fox host Jeanine Pirro, a Trump ally.

"They're protesting in Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia," said Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade. "And as more states go online and get their rights back, that is going to fuel, I believe, other states to go, 'Wait a second — this is getting ridiculous!' "

"Why are you arbitrarily shutting down my places of worship, my ability to access the Second Amendment and my right to assembly in some cases?" said weekend host Pete Hegseth, whom Trump had considered for a Cabinet post. "[It] feels un-American to a lot of people." His co-host, Jillian Mele, noted that Americans who know people who have died from the disease may feel differently.

The liberal watchdog group Media Matters found that Fox News had devoted more than six hours over the past week to the protests, despite the fact that they have drawn relatively small crowds.

Columbia University media scholar Nicole Hemmer, who wrote the book Messengers of the Right, said the rallies draw upon many sources of inspiration. Gun-rights and property-rights activists have gathered, in addition to people frustrated over the weeks of seclusion. There have also been displays of racially charged and anti-Semitic sentiment.

"What Fox does is it takes this very small phenomenon and not only amplifies it, but gives it a particular political meaning," Hemmer says. "It lets people know that there are upcoming rallies — much like we saw back in the day of the Tea Party — as a way of not just throwing light on what's happening, amplifying these protests, but also encouraging them as well."

She noted President Trump himself feeds off Fox, by citing interviews and claims made on its programs. In defending their coverage Fox News officials have pointed to earlier moments when hosts alluded to the importance of people's security and taking safety measures at public protests, observations often made in passing.

For weeks, Trump touted the possible anti-coronavirus benefits of hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to combat malaria and lupus. He was following the lead of Fox News hosts and guests such as Dr. Mehmet Oz, who championed the drug too.

But initial anecdotes of successes yielded to shortages for lupus patients and widespread doubts among public health officials about its usefulness, as Fox's Laura Ingraham learned to her chagrin in an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

A new analysis of patients being treated by the Veterans Health Administration found "more deaths, no benefits," in the words of the Associated Press. According to CNN, Fox News buried that development on its website in a story that quickly disappeared. A Fox News spokeswoman noted that Oz returned to its air Wednesday morning on Fox & Friends and addressed the new VA study, which has not yet been peer reviewed.

Other researchers say what Fox News does on the air has real-life consequences for its audience.

"The media can have significant effects on behavior," says Harvard graduate student Aakaash Rao, who studies how messages in the media affect public health outcomes. "If [viewers] hear suggestions from the anchors, then they'll take their suggestions into account, whether those suggestions are about hand-washing or social distancing or, you know, attending public gatherings."

Rao is part of a team of researchers that makes that case in a pointed way. In a working paper posted online this week, the researchers concluded that viewers of Fox's Sean Hannity were more likely to have contracted COVID-19 and to have died from it than viewers of his colleague Tucker Carlson. Hannity, one of the president's strongest allies, consistently downplayed the risk of coronavirus until late February, when he started to present it more seriously. Carlson put a spotlight on those perils far earlier.

The study relies on overlaying granular geographic television ratings data, county by county COVID-19 infection rates, and a survey of more than 1,000 Americans 55 years old and above. (More than half of Fox News' viewers are over the age of 65.) The study, overseen by economics professors at the University of Chicago and the University of Zurich, has not yet been peer reviewed.

"The selective cherry-picked clips of Sean Hannity's coverage used in this study are not only reckless and irresponsible, but down right factually wrong," Fox News said in a statement released through a spokeswoman. She pointed to specific instances earlier this year in which Hannity had expressed concern about the virus.

Indeed, even before Wallace's directive Monday, Fox News hosts would obliquely allude to concerns for safety of protesters. But Fox programs became much more consistent about it afterward.

Even so, prime time hosts continued to defend the protesters from criticism - including Carlson, who had sounded the alarm about the pandemic early.

"When politicians arrest people who disagree with them, what sort of moment is that?" Carlson asked Monday night.

And Fox was back in the fold.

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watsonrodriquezie · 6 years

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The Quest For a Good Life

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

“To inspire people to be their best and love the journey so they get the most out of life and make the world a better place.” – Benj’s WHY: the reason I get out of bed in the morning. Ok, if I’m being honest, that’s my second reason. The first is my home-made quad espresso (black, of course!).

My journey hasn’t been some monumental before-and-after story, but more an EVOLUTION (Grok-style). I grew up out in the “woods” 100 kilometres (60 miles) outside of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I was always a super active kid, playing every sport in school, and then getting home and continuing the sports non-stop with my brother. My parents both got in on the act often, and were always super supportive. When I look back, our family was about half-Grok back then without even knowing it. We didn’t watch TV much (just some Hockey Night in Canada on the weekends), always had home-cooked meals (some food choices have since been adjusted!), and did a ton of stuff outside and in nature. Both of my parents are retired teachers, so we learned how to learn, problem solve, question authority, and investigate.

After high school, I earned a university volleyball scholarship and began my career as an “elite” athlete. I ended up playing 5 years of post-secondary volleyball, and was also fortunate to play 3 years for Team Canada and 1 year professionally in France. At the same time, I completed a Physical Education degree and a Master’s degree in Kinesiology (Coaching). I also figured out how to completely destroy my diet, going from home-cooked meals to almost exclusively processed food, fast-food, and the craziest part: averaging around 3 litres (3/4 of a gallon) of Coke/Slurpees EVERY DAY!!

I look back now in disbelief. I can’t imagine how much better I could have performed on the court, and how much less my knees, shoulder, and everything else would’ve hurt if I wasn’t pounding so much sugar and junk. Half way through my volleyball career, I got into weight lifting and once my playing career was over, I became a college volleyball coach and kinesiology instructor, and continued working out a couple of hours 5-6 days a week. I looked like a pretty fit beast (6’4”, 240 pounds, 12-14% body fat), but I certainly didn’t feel that way.

Gradually, I started reading more about health and making better choices. I reduced my Slurpee intake to 1 per day after my workouts along side my protein shake, and upgraded my diet from complete garbage to the Zone diet (30% fat, 30% protein, 40% carbs every meal). Unfortunately, I think my years of a garbage diet while continuing to pound my body with multiple workouts and practices added up. All my joints constantly hurt, I was often bloated and uncomfortable, and I ended up getting knee surgery. I just chalked it up to things I would have to deal with as a price for being an elite athlete…and here’s where the fun really begins!

I met my wife, Jolene, at the end of 2002 having just turned 30, and we married in August of 2003 (she was 25 at the time), so the rest of this is OUR story! Jolene was keen on working out, adjusting her diet, and so we continued with the Zone and working out chronically. The picture above was taken two months before our wedding.

At about this time I started having symptoms of pretty serious hyperthyroidism and was eventually diagnosed with Grave’s disease and in the spring of 2004 had my thyroid gland destroyed (I’m guessing the doctors would disagree with my description) with 2 doses of radiated iodine leaving me on the opposite end of the spectrum, with severe hypothyroidism. I firmly believe this was an autoimmune response to my decade of crazy carb intake combined with my non-stop sports lifestyle. It has left me having to take thyroid hormones (initially synthetic, but I switched to natural 5 years ago) daily for likely the rest of my life. Luckily, I haven’t had any major issues, I can tell quickly if I need to adjust my dose, and life has basically been good. I only wish I had learned about primal wellness prior to the radiation treatment, because I’m confident I could have reversed my condition and preserved a functioning thyroid gland.

Life continued for Jolene and I, and we became more and more fascinated with holistic wellness. I began reading and researching on all aspects of leading a healthy life and implementing what I learned into the Fitness, Nutrition, and Wellness class I was teaching at college. I also became really curious about how people learn, how the brain operates, and how to create optimal learning environments, which I began experimenting with in my classes and with the women’s volleyball ball team I was coaching. After over 30 years of what I call incidental learning, it finally occurred to me that I had WAY more to learn and it became my passion to find out and implement all I could about each component of wellness. Jolene was busy running her own business as a massage therapist and helping others with their wellness. It’s been amazing that Jolene has been on board the whole way. And I had and have so much to learn from her as well. She has great awareness, kindness, empathy, and authenticity.

Fast-forward to the spring of 2011, I read my first ancestral health book, The New Evolution Diet, by Arthur De Vany, and it was a total game changer. After spending the past 7-plus years reading and researching, the book just put everything together. Jolene and I went all in immediately on a primal/paleo lifestyle and the results were instant. Although we looked to be in pretty “good shape” before hand, in a matter of weeks we both leaned out significantly. The picture above was taken just a few months after ditching grains, sugar and processed food (ages 38 & 33).

But the best changes had nothing to do with how we looked. I was able to get up and down stairs without my knees aching, I no longer had any gastrointestinal discomfort, I slept way better and needed less of it, I was more alert and in a better mood. And these changes happened in a matter of days. All these things were amazing, and I knew there was still so much more to learn. I just continued researching all aspects of wellness, and we applied what I learned, tweaking and adjusting our lifestyle. And then a couple of years later I finally came across Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint…BOOM! Everything we were working on, all covered in 10 Laws that lead to a good life! What could possibly make more sense than to understand that wellness is in our DNA and we have tremendous influence over how our genes are expressed?

Perhaps the coolest thing about this all is that it’s been a family affair. The same half-Grok family at the beginning of this story is now a full Grok-family! My Mom and Dad still live out in the woods, and are enjoying a full-on primal lifestyle in their retirement. My brother, his wife and their 6-year old daughter live in the mountains and honor the Grok way both at the kitchen table and with their daily hikes, mountain bike rides, rock climbs, or whatever else they choose to do.

As time goes by, Jolene and I continue to make adjustments that simplify and enhance our wellness. We now work out less than ever before, and do it intuitively. This usually means about two 20-30 minute intense strength sessions per week, a couple of 5 kilometre jogs keeping the heart rate in the aerobic zone, the occasional sprint workout, and plenty of walks with the dogs. Our meal plans are simple too. We eat delicious food W.H.E.N. (when hunger ensues naturally). This almost always means our first meal is in the early afternoon. Jolene feels at her best when she eats few carbs (less than 50g/day) and I hover in the 50-100g/day range to be at my best. And those are educated guesses because we never stress about it. We don’t measure or track anything, just eat things we know are good for us and don’t eat crap. We have found a primal lifestyle to be fairly easy and simple, and the benefits can’t be overstated! The above pictures are from April of 2018 at ages 45 and 40.

The latest chapter in our story is just beginning! When I first heard about the Primal Blueprint Health Coach program (now Primal Health Coach Institute), I signed up immediately and became certified at the end of 2016. It was such a great summary of everything I’ve learned over the past 15 years and now I’m hoping to inspire others with my passion for wellness and human excellence. This is what that looks like to me.

I’d love for everyone to enhance their wellness and I’m looking forward to starting my Primal Health Coaching career so I can help people with their journey. I’ve recently enrolled in a Primal Health Coaching Institute Masterclass in Miami and I’m so excited to get this off the ground! Thanks for taking the time to read my story, hopefully it inspires you to either start or keep going on a path of health and happiness!

Benj Heinrichs Edmonton, Alberta, Canada June, 2018

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milenasanchezmk · 6 years

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The Quest For a Good Life

Benj Heinrichs Edmonton, Alberta, Canada June, 2018

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fishermariawo · 6 years

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The Quest For a Good Life

Benj Heinrichs Edmonton, Alberta, Canada June, 2018

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cristinajourdanqp · 6 years

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The Quest For a Good Life

Benj Heinrichs Edmonton, Alberta, Canada June, 2018

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