It is not headlines….it is not important….just worthless news that I like to give my readers to help them avoid the crappy news of the day.

We have our problems with the abortion issue and it is being settled as I type…..but what about other nations?

This is a news article from the UK…..

In an article published by the Sunday Times this weekend, demographer Dr Paul Morland puts forward some suggestions for “incentivising families to have more children and to have them when they are younger”.

“Introduce a ‘negative child benefit’ tax for those who do not have offspring,” he says. “This may seem unfair on those who can’t or won’t have children, but it recognises that we all rely on there being a next generation and that everyone should contribute to the cost of creating that generation.”

He then suggests the UK could “use the funds to fix the UK’s broken, expensive early-years care system”.

Lucky you, if you want to have children but can’t – you can simply pay for everyone else’s instead. Never mind the fact that you may want to save up for fertility treatment, which already costs upwards of £5,000 per cycle and is quietly being removed from NHS provision.

And if you don’t want kids at all? Well, you deserve to be financially punished for being so selfish, apparently.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/sunday-times-article-tax-childless_uk_62c2a896e4b00a9334ea7083

Just another attack on women’s rights.

From time to time I get copies of dissertations from grad students….this is one of them…..

This essay will argue that while advances in synthetic biology may have the limited potential to transform the future of warfare, these technologies do not operate in a vacuum and their use will be constrained and shaped by contextual and political factors. As such, they are less than likely to lead to transformation. This case will be made largely in relation to the body of work surrounding Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) theory, however, before discussing this proposition in more depth, some qualification of terms is necessitated in order to delineate the boundaries and underlying assumptions of the argument being forwarded. Firstly, regarding warfare, this paper only considers it in relation to more conventionally held notions of the concept – as the means and methods by which war is fought between two organised state military forces. Consequently, this is a much narrower scope of analysis than if one was to adopt even a Clausewitzian definition of war and warfare; importantly, this excludes terrorism from this analysis.[1] Secondly, with regards to the ‘future’, in order to provide cogent and empirical analysis, the scope of this investigation will be limited to biotechnologies that either exist today or are known to be in development and theoretically feasible.

With the above established, this paper will progress, as follows; firstly, a look RMA theory and how it can be used as a framework to assess if new technologies are potentially ‘transformative’ will be briefly outlined. Next, a brief definition of synthetic biology will be offered, which will then compliment a discussion relating to how certain exemplar technologies under the synthetic biology umbrella, such as CRISPR and germ line editing, may have utility in warfare. This will then be examined in relation to the wider RMA framework to show that while there may be some novel elements to synthetic biological approaches to biowarfare, there is a need for much scepticism regarding its potential transformative effects on the conduct of future war.

Do Advances in Synthetic Biology have the Potential to Transform the Future of Warfare?

With the ruling against Roe v Wade there has been a dangerous trend streaming in social media….

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24 — dismantling federal protection of the right to an abortion — posts began spreading online with home remedies and herbal concoctions that would purportedly cause a “miscarriage.”

Many of the posts — which are circulating on major platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok — provide potentially dangerous ingredients without specifying dosage amounts, giving the impression that abortions can be induced with herbs.

One Instagram post detailed a list of homeopathic ingredients and then said, with a winking emoji, “I mean how else will we avoid accidental miscarriages? You’re smart enough to do this too.”

“The myth of the safe, herbal abortion is pervasive,” Dr. Jen Gunter, an obstetrician/gynecologist who has written books on women’s health, explained in a Substack post addressing the issue. “It is a combination of two fallacies, appealing to the belief in the magical power of ancient remedies and that of course, natural is best.”

But, she said, “there are no safe, effective methods of inducing abortion with botanicals.”

Herbal Recipes for Abortion Are Unproven and Can Be Dangerous, Contrary to Social Media Posts

Disclaimer:  Do not try any of these ‘solutions’ until you have consulted your medical professional….some are dangerous and this article was given solely as an FYI….do not be stupid….talk to your doctor.

A probing question for our time….why are cowards called chickens?

Anyone who refuses a double-dog dare is liable to be labeled a chicken. How dogs found their way into dare culture remains a bit of a mystery—but the reason cowards are called “chickens” is slightly clearer.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest written instance of the word chicken in the craven sense comes from William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, circa 1616. “Forthwith they fly, Chickens,” he wrote, describing soldiers fleeing a battlefield.

But as Grammarphobia reports, domestic fowl had been associated with an absence of bravery long before the 17th century. One play from around 1450 described a coward as a “henne-harte,” and poet John Skelton likened some spineless courtiers to “hen-hearted cuckolds” in his poem Why Come Ye Nat to Courte circa 1529. Hens may have seemed especially timid because roosters were typically characterized as plucky. If you were a leader, a dauntless warrior, or just a dominant presence in the mid-16th century, someone might call you a “cock” (as a compliment). And when people first started using the term hen to tag submissive or cowardly folks in the 1600s, they were often juxtaposing it with cock. 

https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/why-cowards-called-chickens-origins

Finally, if inflation has you struggling to find the cash for food for your family’s table then I have another ‘natural recipe’ for your consideration…..Dandelion Jelly

“There’s no stigma about eating things found in the wild,” explains France-based food writer and enthusiastic forager Emily Dilling. Foraging, she says, is “a national pastime in most non-urban places.”

This open-mindedness toward wild foods, she speculates, is rooted in the mindset of the generation that survived the lean years during and after the Second World War. The ubiquity of dandelions made them even more valuable, since they bloom all year round. But the sunny yellow flowers flourish in the springtime, making dandelion jelly “one of the rare preserves made in the spring,” writes Paul Delsalle in Drinking and Eating in Franche-Comté: A Food History.

But France isn’t the only place where people try to use every part of the dandelion. The common dandelion, or taraxacum officinale, is ubiquitous due to its hardiness and usefulness. Originating in Europe and Asia, the dandelion got its big break right after the Ice Age, since the plant thrives in disturbed ecosystems. As the glaciers retreated, dandelions followed in their wake. Both the Western and Eastern medical traditions used it for everything from soothing an upset stomach to strengthening the liver. The French word for dandelion gives a clue to one other use. Pissenlit literally means “piss the bed,” since the roots were often used as a diuretic.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dandelion-jelly-cramaillotte#recipes

I have the greens in my salads…..very tasty…..

That about closes out my news hunt for useless news for this Saturday…..

Enjoy your weekend.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”