Secrets of the Voynich Manuscript

I have a variety of posts on the Voynich manuscript. (The first in the list will be this post, but continue scrolling.) 

The case against the insurrectionists builds: Bannon and others delaying tactics run out

Heather Cox Richardson has a particularly good column today:

Tomorrow’s public hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET, will be managed by Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Stephanie Murphy (D-FL). It will focus on domestic violent extremists, members of Congress who joined Trump’s pressure campaign on legislators to overturn the election, and Trump’s activity focusing on January 6 itself.

That activity includes the infamous tweet of December 19, 2020, in which Trump announced: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” According to The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell, investigators will demonstrate that the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, as well as other activists, interpreted Trump’s tweet as a signal to come to Washington for the counting of the certified ballots on January 6.

The tweet came the day after a White House meeting in which Trump allies, including former national security advisor Michael Flynn and Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, urged then-president Trump to seize voting machines and make Powell a special counsel to look into alleged voter fraud. Instead, Trump focused on January 6 and called supporters to the city. By December 20, Proud Boys leaders and Oath Keepers made plans for military training and stockpiling weapons. Activists applied for a permit in Washington to protest.

As we gear up for tomorrow’s public hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, there are more stories about the days surrounding that event.

Last Friday, July 8, Trump’s White House counsel Pat Cipollone testified before the committee for more than 8 hours under oath, privately but on video. According to Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who is a member of the committee, Cipollone did not contradict anything that Cassidy Hutchinson, aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, said in her explosive testimony. Those who have suggested they disagree with that testimony have not, so far, testified under oath. Lofgren also suggested that Cipollone had given the committee new information that it would produce for the public later in a later hearing.

Also on Friday,  . . .

Continue reading. Read the whole thing.

This can’t be good: Weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples

Many GMO crops have been genetically modified to increase nutritional value (for example, Golden Rice) or to increase insect resistance, and I see such uses as benign. However, genetically modifying crops to enable them to survive being sprayed with toxins strikes me as a bad idea, and that is what Monsanto has focused on: genetically modifying crops to resist the herbicide Roundup. And now we are seeing the effects.

Carey Gillam reports in the Guardian:

More than 80% of urine samples drawn from children and adults in a US health study contained a weedkilling chemical linked to cancer, a finding scientists have called “disturbing” and “concerning”.

The report by a unit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that out of 2,310 urine samples, taken from a group of Americans intended to be representative of the US population, 1,885 were laced with detectable traces of glyphosate. This is the active ingredient in herbicides sold around the world, including the widely used Roundup brand. Almost a third of the participants were children ranging from six to 18.

Academics and private researchers have been noting high levels of the herbicide glyphosate in analyses of human urine samples for years. But the CDC has only recently started examining the extent of human exposure to glyphosate in the US, and its work comes at a time of mounting concerns and controversy over how pesticides in food and water impact human and environmental health.

“I expect that the realization that most of us have glyphosate in our urine will be disturbing to many people,” said Lianne Sheppard, professor at the University of Washington’s department of environmental and occupational health sciences. Thanks to the new research, “we know that a large fraction of the population has it in urine. Many people will be thinking about whether that includes them.”

Sheppard co-authored a 2019 analysis that found glyphosate exposure increases the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and also co-authored a 2019 scientific paper that reviewed 19 studies documenting glyphosate in human urine.

Both the amount and prevalence of glyphosate found in human urine has been rising steadily since the 1990s when Monsanto Co. introduced genetically engineered crops designed to be sprayed directly with Roundup, according to research published in 2017 by University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers.

Paul Mills, the lead researcher of that study, said at the time there was “an urgent need” for a thorough examination of the impact on human health from glyphosate in foods people commonly consume.

More than 200 million pounds of glyphosate are used annually by US farmers on their fields. The weedkiller is sprayed directly over genetically engineered crops such as corn and soybeans, and also over non-genetically engineered crops such as wheat and oats as a desiccant to dry crops out prior to harvest. Many farmers also use it on fields before the growing season, including spinach growers and almond producers. It is considered the most widely used herbicide in history.

Residues of glyphosate have been documented in  . . .

Continue reading. 

I wonder whether glyphosate in the body inhibits the ability to think rationally. Probably not.

Antica Barbieria Colla and the X3

I have to say that my new tub of Grooming Dept Moisturizing Pre-Shave (in Rainforest) does a terrific job. I think the old tub had its contents gradually diluted by my wet fingers so that its performance was not up to snuff. With the new tub, I am again impressed by the efficacy of this pre-shave.

My RazoRoch 24mm Italian-flag-handled brush seemed appropriate for the set-up today. Antica Barbieria Colla produces a very nice lather indeed, and my iKon Shavecraft X3 slant, here on a RazoRock Barber Pole handle, effortlessly and smoothly wiped away the two-day stubble. 

A small dab of ABC’s aftershave milk rubbed over my amazingly smooth face, and the week begins.

The tea this morning is iced tea, a 50-50 mix of white tea and hibiscus tea.