Yes children that time again….the weekly ‘Dump’ on your PC from the friendly people at IST.

These are the stories that fell through the cracks in the past week or so….

Welcome to the Summer!

On a personal note:  The garden is still coming along…..tomatoes are great, blueberries are almost finished now I await the figs.  We have had some rain but not enough and the temps have been a bit low for this time of the year…..mid 90s.

Enough of the mundane let’s get cracking….

The Arctic is melting quickly and there is a proposal to try and reverse this trend….

It sounds pretty out-there: to save the snowy Arctic from melting away due to global warming, some scientific experts have been working on plans to hack the entire region’s climate.

This doesn’t entail popping the North Pole into an unfathomably large deep freezer like so much ground beef, but it would involve a slate of projects — some of which are already being undertaken — to cool the region by reflecting sunlight, according to a new video short from The Wall Street Journal.

One experiment involves pumping water to the surface, where it’ll freeze to form a protective layer over the Arctic snow. Another has scientists scattering reflective glass beads on top of snow to reflect the Sun’s harsh rays.

These are all forms of geoengineering, techniques to mold certain aspects of the environment in order to offset harm from climate change. The fact we are even seriously contemplating these experiments means that our collective mitigation efforts aren’t enough — because last year was the warmest year on record for the Arctic.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-refreeze-arctic

Thinking outside the box….but sounds a bit too ambitious to me.

Body art, tattoos, can be linked to skin cancer….

New research suggests that there may be a link between tattoos and cancer. But the findings have proved controversial, with experts pushing back against the authors’ conclusions, which they characterize as exaggerated.

The study, published last month in the journal eClinicalMedicine, surveyed close to 12,000 people in Sweden, examining every subject 20 to 60 years old that was diagnosed with a form of cancer called lymphoma between 2007 and 2017. When compared to a control group of random people who never had lymphoma, the researchers found that people that had at least one tattoo were 21 percent more likely to have developed the cancer.

The study only demonstrates that there’s an association, not a definitive link. Still, 21 percent would constitute a pretty significant risk, especially for a form of cancer that’s considered somewhat rare. What’s more, it appears that the number or size of tattoos the subjects had didn’t matter: so long as they had at least one tattoo of any size, they were seemingly at risk as much as someone who had multiple.

“We do not yet know why this was the case. One can only speculate that a tattoo, regardless of size, triggers a low-grade inflammation in the body, which in turn can trigger cancer,” co-author Christel Nielsen, an associate professor in the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Lund University, said in a statement about the work “The picture is thus more complex than we initially thought.”

https://futurism.com/neoscope/tattoos-links-developing-cancer

Personally I have never thought about decorating my body with anything….other than a cute redhead.

On the political side of life….you know that in a few days Biden and Trump will have a debate….I think it is a mistake for Biden but what the Hell do I know?

Anyway there are some that think the candidates should be asked a probing question….

In the age of fever pitch UFO discourse, one group is urging the US president to declassify it all — and wants debate moderators to grill candidates on the topic.

The group, called the New Paradigm Institute, announced last week the launch of a social media campaign insisting moderators of the upcoming June 27 presidential debate hold both candidates’ feet to the fire when asking UFO questions.

The NPI is encouraging like-minded seekers to lobby CNN, which is hosting the debate between President Joe Biden, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to ask tough questions about whether or not they would release unredacted files about what the US government refers to as “unidentified anomalous phenomena” or UAPs for short.

“The next president of the United States will make critical decisions about UAP disclosure and government transparency,” NPI chief counsel Daniel Sheehan said in the group’s statement. “It’s time for all presidential candidates…to commit to UFOs/UAP disclosure and transparency.”

“Regardless of political affiliation,” the attorney added, “the time has come to inject UAP into the political discourse of our elections.”

https://futurism.com/presidential-debate-ufo-disclosure

I say why not?  Make the debate more interesting than it will be with these two bumbling bozos try to convince me that they are doing all this stuff for me….that is a lie.

Gun violence is out of control in this country so why not let those ‘bump stocks’ be freely available what we need is a good massive shooting again (sarcasm)….

Senate Republicans blocked bipartisan legislation Tuesday that would have outlawed bump stocks after the Supreme Court struck down a ban on the rapid-fire gun accessory used in the deadliest shooting in modern US history. Democrats tried to force a voice vote on the bill to ban bump stocks, a tactic often used by both parties when they know that they don’t have the votes to pass legislation but want to bring an issue to the Senate floor, the AP reports.

• The bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, would ban the sale of the devices, similar to the rule issued by Donald Trump’s administration after a gunman in Las Vegas attacked a country music festival in 2017 with semiautomatic rifles equipped with the accessories.

“I refuse to stand idly by and wait for the next mass shooting,” Heinrich said as he called for a vote on the Senate floor. “Bump stocks serve no legitimate purpose.”

Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts objected for Republicans, blocking an immediate vote on the bill. He called the legislation a “gun grabbing overreach” that could be interpreted to include other gun accessories beyond bump stocks. “This bill will not pass,” Ricketts said. “It won’t pass because enough people in this building still believe in the Constitution, and the Constitution affords Americans the right to own a firearm.”

• Many Republicans supported the ban when Trump issued it. But several said this week that they would oppose the legislation to reinstate it, arguing that the vote is another election-year stunt by Democrats, not a serious attempt to pass bipartisan legislation.
• North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican who worked with Democrats on bipartisan gun legislation two years ago, said that if Schumer were serious about banning bump stocks, “he’d be calling people into a room who have worked on bipartisan bills,” but instead “it’s a political exercise, which is a shame.”

Repubs are really a piece of work….’work’ may not be the best term for them….

More gun stuff….

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a federal gun-control law intended to protect victims of domestic violence, per the AP. In their first Second Amendment case since they expanded gun rights in 2022, the justices ruled in favor of a 1994 ban on firearms for people under restraining orders to stay away from their spouses or partners, per the AP. The justices, reversing a ruling from the federal appeals court in New Orleans, ruled that the Constitution allows authorities to bar people deemed dangerous from having guns, per the Washington Post. The decision was 8-1, with Clarence Thomas (author of the 2022 decision) the lone dissenter.

“An individual found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority opinion.

The longer Thomas is on the court the more we realize what a POS he truly is……

That is it for thew ‘Dump’ this Saturday and since it is official and Summer has begun….roll out the grill and get to cooking.

Enjoy your weekend and as always….Be well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”