2.23 Million-Person Study Finds Pneumococcal Vaccines Increase Risk of Pneumonia and Death
October 22nd, 2025Via: Focal Points:
…a landmark population-based study published in BMC Infectious Diseases has shattered the rationale for current pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) recommendations. Analyzing outcomes among 2,234,003 adults aged 50 and older in Catalonia, Spain, the authors found that recipients of both PCV13 and PPSV23 were significantly more likely to be hospitalized for pneumonia and more likely to die from pneumonia-related causes compared to their unvaccinated counterparts—even after adjusting for age, sex, comorbidities, and influenza vaccination status.
…
Even in those for whom vaccination is most strongly recommended—elderly (?65 years), immunocompromised, or those with chronic heart, lung, or metabolic disease—no protective effect was observed.
Sanae Takaichi Is The First Woman To Serve As Prime Minister Of Japan
October 21st, 2025Will anything be done about Japan’s unbelievably dire inverted population pyramid?
I don’t see it turning around.
With this election, Japanese have (wisely) signaled that they don’t want to see the place flooded with foreigners.
So…
The slow motion collapse looks set to continue.
Via: France24:
Hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi was elected Japan’s first female prime minister on Tuesday, shattering the nation’s glass ceiling and setting it up for a forceful turn to the right.
An acolyte of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and an admirer of Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, Takaichi received 237 votes in the lower house election to choose the next premier, topping the majority of the 465-seat chamber.
Her victory marks a pivotal moment for a country where men still hold overwhelming sway. But it is also likely to usher in a sharper move to the right on things like immigration and social issues.
…
After years of deflation, Japan is now grappling with rising prices, something that has sparked public anger and fueled support for opposition groups including far-right upstarts.
Like Abe, Takaichi is expected to favour government spending to jumpstart the weakened economy. That has prompted a so-called “Takaichi trade” in the stock market, sending the Nikkei share average to record highs, the most recent on Tuesday. But it has also caused investor unease about the government’s ability to pay for additional spending in a country where the debt load far outweighs annual output.
The One About the New Jersey Drone Mystery Being “Solved”
October 20th, 2025The aircraft in the New York Post article below looks a lot like the Black Fly, a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft made by Pivotal:
The flight time of that aircraft is about 20 minutes.
Reports from 2024 indicated that the mystery drones would be operating for, “Six to seven hours per night.”
Additionally, this account does not sound like aircraft with flight times limited to 20 minutes:
More than a dozen drones followed a 47-foot Coast Guard boat Sunday night, while law enforcement tracked another 50 drones coming onto land from the ocean at Island Beach State Park, Rep. Chris Smith said.
Meanwhile, an FBI assistant director admitted that the agency doesn’t know who is behind the unidentified drones that are flying over New Jersey.
Authorities did confirm that the drones are not coming from local military bases.
So…
It doesn’t seem likely, at least not to me, that the Pivotal aircraft are what were observed.
Via: New York Post:
A private company at a high-powered Army conference demonstrated a unique aircraft at the event — and allegedly took responsibility for setting off last year’s drone and “UFO” pandemonium in New Jersey, a source told The Post.
At the Army’s UAS and Launched Effects Summit at Fort Rucker in August, a private contractor conducted a live demonstration of a manned aerial craft that wowed the crowd with its unconventional appearance and unorthodox flight-movements, an attendee told The Post.
“You remember that big UFO scare in New Jersey last year? Well, that was us,” an employee of the unnamed contractor claimed to a small group after the demonstration, according to the source who was invited to the summit.
Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons
October 20th, 2025Via: Kristina Petterson Bauer:
Book: Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons by Kris Newby
FBI Investigating Suspicious Hunting Stand with Sightline to Trump’s Air Force One Landing Zone
October 20th, 2025Via: Independent:
The FBI is investigating what appears to be a hunting stand with direct line of sight to the area where President Donald Trump exits Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport.
The discovery was made by Secret Service agents last week during advance security sweeps ahead of the president’s arrival in Florida for the weekend, spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement to The Independent.
“The U.S. Secret Service is working closely with the FBI and our law enforcement partners in Palm Beach County,” Guglielmi said. “During advance security preparations prior to the Palm Beach arrival, which included the use of technology and comprehensive physical sweeps, our teams identified items of interest near Palm Beach International Airport.”
Guglielmi added that “there was no impact to any movements, and no individuals were present or involved at the location.”
Israel Halts Supply of Humanitarian Aid to Gaza ‘Until Further Notice’
October 19th, 2025That didn’t take long.
Via: Daily Mail:
Israel says it has halted the supply of humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip in the latest and most serious test of this month’s US-brokered ceasefire.
It also comes as Israel launched a series of strikes in Gaza on Sunday after accusing Hamas of carrying out attacks on its forces in what it called a ‘bold violation’ of the peace deal.
An Israeli official confirmed Israel’s suspension of delivery of aid into the Palestinian enclave, and said that the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip will remain halted ‘until further notice.’
The Irony Of Trump’s New ‘War On Drugs’: Recalling The History Of CIA Narco Trafficking
October 18th, 2025Via: ZeroHedge:
For those who are aware of the CIA’s 20th century decades-long legacy in Latin America, the idea that the United States government and its intelligence agencies are fundamentally and on principle stand against drug trafficking is laughable.
There was a time, not too far back in history, where the CIA itself was the biggest narco-trafficker in United States and perhaps the entire Western hemisphere (if not the world). This was to fund regime change and covert operations in Latin America after a belated Congressional crackdown on taxpayer funding for black ops.
‘Wetware’: Scientists Use Human Mini-Brains to Power Computers
October 17th, 2025Via: AFP:
Inside a lab in the picturesque Swiss town of Vevey, a scientist gives tiny clumps of human brain cells the nutrient-rich fluid they need to stay alive.
It is vital these mini-brains remain healthy, because they are serving as rudimentary computer processors — and unlike your laptop, once they die, they cannot be rebooted.
This new field of research, called biocomputing or “wetware”, aims to harness the evolutionarily honed yet still mysterious computing power of the human brain.
During a tour of Swiss start-up FinalSpark’s lab, co-founder Fred Jordan told AFP he believes that processors using brain cells will one day replace the chips powering the artificial intelligence boom.
The supercomputers behind AI tools like ChatGPT currently use silicon semiconductors to simulate the neurons and networks of the human brain.
“Instead of trying to mimic, let’s use the real thing,” Jordan said.
AI Has a Cargo Cult Problem
October 17th, 2025Via: Financial Times:
Is it just a Ponzi scheme? That is the question that currently haunts American tech — and wider markets — as the valuation of artificial intelligence-linked groups soars to evermore eye-popping heights.
Indeed, calculations by the FT suggests that ten lossmaking AI start-ups — such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI — now command a collective valuation of close to $1tn, while venture capital has poured $161bn into AI overall this year.
More startling still, few of these entities expect to turn a profit anytime soon — and these valuations are being boosted by variants of cross-cutting vendor financing, like recent deals between OpenAI, Nvidia, Oracle, AMD and Broadcom.
The net result is a pattern of circular flows that echo some of the hairball of interconnections that emerged between banks and insurance companies via credit derivatives before 2008. And those, remember, resulted in unseen concentrations of risk — and subsequent contagion when the bubble burst.
Starshield: Classified Network of SpaceX Satellites Emitting Mysterious Signal
October 17th, 2025Via: NPR:
A constellation of classified defense satellites built by the commercial company SpaceX is emitting a mysterious signal that may violate international standards, NPR has learned.
Satellites associated with the Starshield satellite network appear to be transmitting to the Earth’s surface on frequencies normally used for doing the exact opposite: sending commands from Earth to satellites in space. The use of those frequencies to “downlink” data runs counter to standards set by the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency that seeks to coordinate the use of radio spectrum globally.
…
The band of the radio spectrum he found himself looking at, between 2025-2110 MHz, is reserved for “uplinking” data to orbiting satellites. That means there shouldn’t be any signals coming from space in that range.
But Tilley’s experienced eye noticed there appeared to be a signal coming down from the sky. It was in a part of the band “that should have nothing there,” he said. “I got a hold of my mouse and hit the record button and let it record for a few minutes.”
…
It’s unclear what the satellite constellation is up to. Starlink, SpaceX’s public satellite internet network, operates at much higher frequencies to enable the transmission of broadband data. Starshield, by contrast, is using a much lower frequency range that probably only allows for the transmission of data at rates closer to 3G cellular, Tilley says.
Tilley says he believes the decision to downlink in a band typically reserved for uplinking data could also be designed to hide Starshield’s operations. The frequent shift in specific frequencies used could prevent outsiders from finding the signal.
Gifford says another possibility is that SpaceX was just taking advantage of a quiet part of the radio spectrum. Uplink transmissions from Earth to satellites are usually rare and brief, so these frequencies probably remain dark most of the time.
“SpaceX is smart and savvy,” he says. It’s possible they decided to just “do it and ask forgiveness later.”
