Author: VD

Fake Alzheimer’s Science

The latest scientific scandal isn’t even remotely surprising. Most science – yes, MOST science – is fraudulent. And we’re not talking about obviously fake science like vaccines, psychiatry, and evolutionary biology, we’re talking about gold-standard, peer-reviewed studies published in well-respected science journals that are landmark studies that serve as the basis for the present scientific consensus in the relevant field:

Science magazine said Thursday that it uncovered evidence that images in the much-cited study, published 16 years ago in the journal Nature, may have been doctored.

The findings have thrown skepticism on the work of Sylvain Lesné, a neuroscientist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, and his research, which fueled interest in a specific assembly of proteins as a promising target for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Lesné didn’t respond to NBC News’ requests for comment, nor did he provide comment to Science magazine.

Science said it found more than 20 “suspect” papers by Lesné and identified more than 70 instances of possible image tampering in his studies. A whistleblower, Dr. Matthew Schrag, a neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University, raised concerns last year about the possible manipulation of images in multiple papers.

Karl Herrup, a professor of neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute who wasn’t involved in the investigation, said the findings are “really bad for science.”

“It’s never shameful to be wrong in science,” said Herrup, who also works at the school’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. “A lot of the best science was done by people being wrong and proving first if they were wrong and then why they were wrong. What is completely toxic to science is to be fraudulent.”

The science is usually the very last thing you can trust; you’re literally better off trusting a coin toss. On average, scientists are more corrupt and less reliable than used car salesmen. And if the scientists and politicians are in agreement, you can be 100-percent certain that whatever it is that they’re trying to push on you is false.

Technological advancement does not depend upon science, that is an inversion of the actual relationship. In most cases, the technology precedes the scientific understanding that results from applying the technology to various hypotheses. For example, my hypothesis that atheism is actually the loss of a connection to the spiritual plane which is the result of brain damage that can either be congenital or caused by vaccines cannot be tested until a technology is invented that is capable of identifying and quantifying that connection. Until then, we’re limited to the sort of social science that only supports the hypothesis that there is an observable link between atheism and autism, though not necessarily a causal one.

We have a word for science that is reliable. And that word is engineering. You will note that scientists do not, for the most part, engineer anything.

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Why Russia Quit on Syria

Andrei Martyanov’s citation of a Russian journalist helps explain why the Russians finally stopped protecting the Assad regime in Syria:

I do not feel sorry for the Syrian authorities. I remember too well how, back in 2012, we, Russian journalists, were “squeezed” at border control, with all our luggage turned inside out, and our cameras and photo cameras confiscated. Then they hounded us around the offices of various ministries, putting us through an unsolvable puzzle of obtaining various papers and permits. And Western reporters were practically carried around in their arms, trying to demonstrate their liberal views against the backdrop of the uprising in Daraa. These are not my personal grievances. This, among other things, was an expression of their attitude towards my country. Condescending, with rolled eyes and a disdainfully raised upper lip. Then we saved Syria in 2013, if anyone doesn’t remember. Obama was going to cover it with carpet bombing after the chemical provocation in Eastern Ghouta. And thanks to the efforts of Russian diplomacy, the catastrophe was averted. Postponed, as it turns out now. In 2015, we came to Assad’s aid again when the terrorists were five kilometers from the center of Damascus. And as best we could, we patched up this patchwork quilt, consisting of various religious, social, forbidden and not so forbidden pieces, between which contradictions grew.

Now Israel and Turkey will divide up whatever parts of the country ISIS-HTS are not allowed to keep. It appears the US military is already bombing their jihadist proxy army; one wonders how it is going to respond to the Turkish invasion of Kurdistan.

I would also keep an eye out for similarly sudden events in Ukraine; Martyanov and others believe Russia dropping its support for the Assad regime was traded for US dropping its support for the Kiev regime and that this was not necessarily the win for Clown World that it appears to be.

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If You Want Sigma

I’ve added a paywall to Sigma Game for those who are interested in what will be a very modest amount of subscriber-only content. One post per week will be at least partially-paywalled, as per the example of today’s post. I’m basically following the model of Simplicius here, who provides a substantial amount of free content with a dash of paywalled-content to essentially express appreciation for his backers.

Communication is an art, not a science. But we can nevertheless apply certain scientific principles to the practice of that art, which is to say that we can observe existing patterns, formulate hypotheses about the way those patterns reliably play out, and then test those hypotheses.

Being more a student of social interaction than a participant by nature and nurture alike, I have done this and I have determined that a considerable amount of social conflict is caused by the use of just two words.

The first conflict-inspiring word is “why”. While there is a school of thought that teaches a) there are no stupid questions, b) all curiosity is merited and must be assuaged, and c) all questions are innocent and posed in good faith, this is an objectively stupid school and all three of its assumptions are observably incorrect.

If you ever wonder why there isn’t just one single subscription to everything, it’s because I have learned the hard way over time that every project needs to be capable of standing alone on the basis of its own merits. Where one gets into trouble is misallocating resources from productive projects to an unproductive one, and keeping the streams separate is the best way to avoid the temptation to prop up something that really doesn’t have the support required to justify the time and effort required to keep it going.

But please note that there is absolutely no need for any VP reader to feel any pressure to back externalities like Sigma Game that are also offered for free. The community here is absolutely fantastic in its support for our various projects, and the paywall is primarily intended for those outside this community who are encountering the SSH and experiencing its utility for the first time to express their support for it.

“SSH awareness is an invaluable tool and what better place to come for the regular dose of it than straight to the source?”

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Burning the Village to Save the Village

Clown World is systematically destroying its own justifications for its right to govern the nations, as Simplicius observes in the aftermath of the fall of Syria and the failed presidential coup in South Korea:

The short-term obsessed West considers the various CIA-sponsored subversions of the democratic processes as “winning”: but have these people given any thought to what precedent they’re setting? They are burning their foundations, lighting their entire house on fire. In the hopes of smoking out a few ostensible ‘wasps’ they now stand to destroy their entire order within a generation.

The perception of the West’s miserable ‘Rules Based Order’ will never be repaired after this—the rest of the free world is watching and learning precisely how ‘Rule of Law’ hews to principle; the West will never regain their trust, and its institutions will forever carry the stench and stain of political interference and hidden hatred for true democracy—which has always been a token byword meant to excuse the Western order’s imperialistic overreach.

The Western order has turned into an odor, and the global south can’t pinch its nostrils hard enough.

Long concealed beneath the hypnotic glitz and glam of the hegemon’s ‘magic show’ was that the ‘indivisible’ idol of democracy has always been apportioned into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ forms, as necessity dictates. It was hidden well at one time, with Western leaders who at least made attempts at pretenses to maintain the fable. Now things have spiralled down the drain so quickly that desperate measures are required—with all precautions tossed out with the bath water, to reveal the ugly face of the Western political system kept buried in the ash of its conquests for so long.

In short: they don’t have the time to construct elaborate myths and schemes any longer, instead forced to merely act on instinct to save their foundering empire. But in doing so, they have hastened its decline by revealing just how illiberal and despotic it has been all this time.

It’s hardly news that the neo-liberal rules-based world order is neither liberal nor rules-based, but it is remarkable to see how “democracy” has been redefined to mean “whatever the ruling foreign elite demands” everywhere from Moldova to Ireland.

While this dropping of the democratic veil is a good sign that Clown World’s power and influence are on the wane, as the unexpected fall of the Assad regime in Syria shows, just because a beast is wounded does not mean that it is no longer dangerous.

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Worse Than Infidels

No matter how much you despise the Boomers, you don’t despise them enough. We keep seeing this sort of thing again and again and again.

My husband should have inherited the farm he grew up on. After our first child was born, my husband called his dad and asked if he could come home and help farm. The answer was No. The farm will be auctioned off to Blackrock. Four generations of land will die with the selfishness of the boomers.

And remember, no generation inherited as much wealth, or will leave a smaller percentage of that wealth behind, than the Boomers.

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The Word Descended

This is a very different sort of Christmas carol. It’s probably not at all to your taste, and certainly isn’t one you’ll hear any carolers ever sing, but it’s reflective of a Christmas sermon I heard many years ago by Greg Boyd, one which I’ve never forgotten, about the more somber aspects of Christmas. You can listen to it on UATV.

The Word Descended
God made real
A child is born
For his ordeal
A cleansing flame
The sacrifice
To free Mankind
He paid the price

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Defuse Mode Activated

The mainstream media is suddenly in full defuse mode as public awareness of the Six Bidens and the Three Trumps is beginning to confuse the NPCs.

The US President Elect has a history of being flexible with the truth, and his vital statistics are seemingly no exception. Donald Trump, 78, has always claimed to be a towering 6ft 3″ in height…but his meeting with Prince William at the re-opening of Notre Dame in Paris this weekend suggested a little shrinkage may have taken place.  

The incoming US leader and the Prince William appeared to have a cordial exchange as they shook hands inside the Parisian cathedral. Later the pair posed for photos at the residence of the British ambassador in the French capital, with Trump calling the Prince of Wales a ‘good man’.  On both occasions, William, 42, cut a statuesque figure – the royal is 6ft 3″ or 191cm – and Trump didn’t quite match him in the height stakes. 

That’s the official line. Trump is lying and he is also shrinking. Never mind the fact that at his first inauguration, he was taller than his 5’11 wife, the former professional model, who was wearing heels, which is consistent with all of their historical pictures together.

The one explanation they never touch is the obvious one in line with the conclusion that Ockham’s Razor dictates: the pictures are not of the real President Trump, but of some other individual who is shorter than the Donald Trump.

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Clown World Takes Syria

In an effective demonstration of its global influence, Clown World’s jihadist proxies managed to take Syria in less than two weeks.

Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) jihadists and other anti-government militias entered Damascus on Saturday, taking control over the Syrian capital. Flight data websites show that President Bashar Assad’s plane has left the city. Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad al-Jalali has already offered cooperation “with any leadership chosen by the people,” also claiming that he remains in his home.

HTS, a group led by a former Al-Qaeda commander and previously known as Jabhat al-Nusra, launched a surprise offensive from the opposition-held province of Idlib in northern Syria just last week. Jihadists have already driven the Syrian Army from the cities of Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and Al-Qusayr at the border with Lebanon.

Other opposition and militant groups operating in Syria also seized several parts of the country. The US-sponsored Free Syrian Army (FSA) has taken control of the ancient site of Palmyra, while the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) also backed by the US have seized Deir ez-Zor.

This is a reminder of Moshe Dayan’s explanation of Israel’s military success: they fight Arabs. Russia didn’t offer much assistance; as Andrei Martyanov pointed out, there is no point in assisting those who will not fight for themselves, a lesson that Americans and Europeans should keep in mind as they meekly submit to the invasion of their various countries.

This is obviously an attempt to secure a bargaining chip in the aftermath of the failure of the Kursk invasion, and Russia’s inaction makes sense in light of its attempt to avoid the full-blown hot war with the West that Clown World is seeking to ignite prior to January 20th. Even so, it is a moderately astonishing shuffle of the deck that no one was expecting.

It also shows the unpredictability of the Turks, who were seemingly cozying up to BRICS and moving away from NATO, but apparently whatever price they were demanding for their cooperation was finally deemed worth paying. Presumably they will be rewarded with the Syrian territory they have been craving in order to completely control Kurdistan, as part of what is described as “a devil’s bargain”.

A truly seismic change in the Middle East appears to be happening very fast. At its heart is a devil’s bargain – Turkey and the Gulf States accept the annihilation of the Palestinian nation and creation of a Greater Israel, in return for the annihilation of the Shia minorities of Syria and Lebanon and the imposition of Salafism across the Eastern Arab world.

This sort of thing is why it is totally pointless to attempt to predict geopolitics. There are always additional factors and variables that one does not know to enter into the equation.

UPDATE: The Russians have confirmed a) Assad has been deposed and b) Russia is maintaining its military bases in Syria.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has confirmed that Bashar Assad has stepped down as Syrian president and left the country following negotiations with armed opposition groups after the fall of Damascus to Islamist forces. In a statement issued on Telegram on Sunday afternoon, officials clarified that Moscow was not involved in the talks but acknowledged Assad’s decision to transfer power “peacefully.” “Russian military bases in Syria are on high alert. At present, there is no serious threat to their security,” the statement read.

In the unlikely event that you haven’t understood that WWIII began in February 2022, the conquest of Syria should make it clear that this is, indeed, the case.

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The Shadow Cannot Maintain

The Dark Herald explains why the IP holders of the D&D property are destroying the appeal of the Drow, and even more so, the character of the Drow renegade, Drizzt Do’Urden

The problem is that Drizzt was intriguing to D&D players because he was the only good member of a race that was well-known for being unspeakably evil. You hated running into even a single Drow if you were in a low-level campaign.

It was the fundamental dichotomy of his character that drew people to him. A child of the spider goddess who followed a path of light was somebody you wanted to find out more about.

What made him choose the life of a complete outcast? A traitor to be tortured and murdered by his own people but hated and feared by all else because he was a member of that race. His character archetype is that of the Renegade Hero* and it is their rebellion that fascinates an audience.

The problem is that retards like the people who write for Screenrant are so wrapped up in their Delulu Land paradigm that they can’t be made to understand that turning the Drow into just a bunch of subterranean indigenous people with BLACK skin and cultural differences that white colonizers from Greyhawk or the Wherever Realms can’t acknowledge as being valid utterly destroys the character of Drizzt.

It’s his rebellion against the fundamental evil of his own race that drew his audience to him. His evil race is the very foundation of his character. Take that away from him and he’s just some loner.

We all know that the shadow cannot create. But we’re learning that it cannot even successfully maintain what it holds. It inevitably destroys everything it touches over time.

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Good King Metal

Last night I introduced two new Christmas carols on the Darkstream, one original and one a very different take on a very traditional classic. Both are very much in line with what Owen and I discussed three years ago about the decades-long secular subversion of Christmas music and our desire to do something about that. They’ll be released to the public later this month, but UATV subscribers can download high-quality MP3s now.

Now roads are clear of snow
The world has changed completely
Yet there is one thing we know
A son was born uniquely
It’s Jesus Christ we celebrate
His coming is the reason
Everyone around the world
Welcomes Christmas season!

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