Policy And Views

Personal meanderings. Don't view every issue as "Right Versus Wrong" or "Good Versus Evil." (Also post as @WashingtonViews and @QPRReport - Same bio!)

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

Some other search engines vs @SubRosaMagick

[SubRosa )✿( Magick @subrosamagick.bsky.social @SubRosaMagick]

Google is so powerful that it "hides" other search systems from us. We just don't know the existence of most of them.
Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information.
Here's a list of sites you may have never heard of!
https://t.co/hLHSvB1Joo - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
https://t.co/tzsXqbrCJD - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
https://t.co/Fm78bG5hyH - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.
https://t.co/JvTczb6j6o is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
https://t.co/ZtsaKUl9Jy - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
https://t.co/aBLUtUW6a8 is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
https://t.co/IAzkF2ErNt is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free
https://t.co/6ujFPDG4AQ
Ecosia is a not-for-profit tech company that plants and protects trees. By dedicating 100% of its profits to the planet, Ecosia has planted over 214,229,374 million trees since its founding in December 2009
https://t.co/ZrIBFqf207
Yandex is a technology company that builds intelligent products and services powered by machine learning. Our goal is to help consumers and businesses better navigate the online and offline world. Since 1997, we have delivered world-class, locally relevant search and information services.
https://t.co/Duwc39PTkx
Project Gutenberg is a library of over 75,000 free eBooks
https://t.co/hOuRZFcDao
“Protection. Privacy. Peace of mind. Get our browser on all your devices.
Search and browse with the DuckDuckGo browser for more protection. Unlike Chrome and other browsers, we don't track you.”
https://t.co/hIAOHavGYB
Presearch is a community-powered, decentralized search engine that provides better results while protecting your privacy and rewarding you when you search.
https://t.co/BoWNlciH7N
Reliable information for all kinds of research
https://t.co/tPY4FcMJDR
Startpage is a global privacy technology company built around the principle of always putting privacy first. Our suite of easy-to-use privacy products helps anyone around the world to protect their personal data online.
from Christopher Seymore

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

@MrPitbull07 It's very, very tough for the owner to go through (done it several times with our various cats.) But it's really your duty as the pet's owner to do so. Makes that pet's departure as good as it can be as the pet feels secure often in a strange place.

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

Assuming accuracy of this; horrible Via @SamaHoole https://t.co/YQ2Ju3KyHH

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

1866: Cotton seeds are agricultural waste. After extracting cotton fiber, farmers are left with millions of tons of seeds containing oil that's toxic to humans. Gossypol, a natural pesticide in cotton, makes the oil inedible. The seeds are fed to cattle in small amounts or simply discarded.

1900: Procter & Gamble is making candles and soap. They need cheap fats. Animal fats work but they're expensive. Cotton seed oil is abundant and nearly worthless. If they could somehow make it edible, they'd have unlimited cheap raw material.

The process they develop is brutal. Extract the oil using chemical solvents. Heat to extreme temperatures to neutralise gossypol. Hydrogenate with pressurised hydrogen gas to make it solid at room temperature. Deodorise chemically to remove the rancid smell. Bleach to remove the grey color.

The result: Crisco. Crystallised cottonseed oil. Industrial textile waste transformed through chemical processing into something white and solid that looks like lard. They patent it in 1907, launch commercially in 1911.

Now they have a problem. Nobody wants to eat industrial waste that's been chemically treated. Your grandmother cooks with lard and butter like humans have for thousands of years. Crisco needs to convince her that her traditional fats are deadly and this hydrogenated cotton-seed paste is better.

The marketing campaign is genius. They distribute free cookbooks with recipes specifically designed for Crisco. They sponsor cooking demonstrations. They target Jewish communities advertising Crisco as kosher: neither meat nor dairy. They run magazine adverts suggesting that modern, scientific families use Crisco while backwards rural people use lard.

But the real coup happens in 1948. The American Heart Association has $1,700 in their budget. They're a tiny organisation. Procter & Gamble donates $1.7 million. Suddenly the AHA has funding, influence, and a major corporate sponsor who manufactures vegetable oil.

1961: The AHA issues their first dietary guidelines. Avoid saturated fat from animals. Replace it with vegetable oils. Recommended oils: Crisco, Wesson, and other seed oils. The conflict is blatant. The organization issuing health advice is funded by the company that profits when people follow that advice.

Nobody seems troubled by this. Newspapers report the guidelines as objective science. Doctors repeat them to patients. Government agencies adopt them into policy. Industrial cotton-seed oil, chemically extracted and hydrogenated, becomes "heart-healthy" while butter becomes "artery-clogging poison."

1980s: Researchers discover that trans fats, created by hydrogenation, directly cause heart disease. They raise LDL, lower HDL, promote inflammation, and increase heart attack risk more than any other dietary fat. Crisco, as originally formulated, is catastrophically unhealthy. This takes 70 years to officially acknowledge.

Procter & Gamble's response: Quietly reformulate without admission of error. Remove hydrogenation, keep selling seed oils, never acknowledge that their "heart-healthy" product spent seven decades actively causing the disease it claimed to prevent.

Modern seed oils remain. Soybean, canola, corn, safflower oils everywhere. Same chemical extraction process. Same high-temperature refining. Same oxidation problems. Just without hydrogenation so trans fats stay below regulatory thresholds.

These oils oxidise rapidly when heated. They integrate into cell membranes where they create inflammatory signalling for months or years. They're rich in omega-6 fatty acids that promote inflammation. They've never existed in human diets at current consumption levels.

But they're cheap. Profitable. And the food industry has spent a century convincing everyone they're healthy. The alternative, admitting that industrial textile waste shouldn't have been turned into food, would require acknowledging the last 110 years of dietary advice was fundamentally corrupted from the start.

Your great-grandmother cooked with lard because that's what humans used for millennia. Then Procter & Gamble needed to sell soap alternatives and accidentally created the largest dietary change in human history.

We traded animal fats that built civilisations for factory waste that causes disease.

The soap company won. Your health lost.

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

@DudespostingWs Heard this philosophy before; but don't agree with making my bed. And I don't! I focus on the things which I regard as important - and try and do those things as well as I can.

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

@mattduss @CjCmichel - You guys know the intricacies far more than me; but still think taking Greenland is exactly the kind of thing @RealDonaldTrump would do -whatever possible consequences. Truly would make DT "historical" far more than other stuff. And easy to do https://t.co/geUyCZqVMT

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

Assuming President @RealDonaldTrum Administration DOES "Acquire" Greenland - forget the morality or wisdom of that; an interesting question is whether a subsequent Administration would return it; or just say - shouldn't have; but it's moot. Now part of the USA. #Greenland

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

Assuming President @RealDonaldTrum Administration DOES "Acquire" Greenland - forget the morality or wisdom of that; an interesting question is whether a subsequent Administration would return it; or just say - shouldn't have; but it's moot. Now part of the USA. #Greenland

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

Regimes around the World rise and fall; buildings crumble; institutions can be re-renamed. So can think of no-bigger permanent historical "monument" to @RealDonaldTrump than the US "taking" Greenland... (Canada even more so but that would be a vaster). So bet on US-#Greenland!

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

Regimes around the World rise and fall; buildings crumble; institutions can be re-renamed. So can think of no-bigger permanent historical "monument" to @RealDonaldTrump than the US "taking" Greenland... (Canada even more so but that would be a vaster). So bet on US-#Greenland!

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

A British Christmas tradition continues today! Since 1932 the Monarch has given a Christmas Address to Britain and Commonwealth (then-Empire!) Originally on radio; since 1957 on TV. #OnThisDay in 1952: Queen Elizabeth II gave her first address https://t.co/PMnj1K6ru3 @RoyalFamily

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

Christmas greetings from President @RealDonaldTrump

[Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump]

Merry Christmas to all, including the Radical Left Scum that is doing everything possible to destroy our Country, but are failing badly. We no longer have Open Borders, Men in Women’s Sports, Transgender for Everyone, or Weak Law Enforcement. What we do have is a Record Stock Market and 401K’s, Lowest Crime numbers in decades, No Inflation, and yesterday, a 4.3 GDP, two points better than expected. Tariffs have given us Trillions of Dollars in Growth and Prosperity, and the strongest National Security we have ever had. We are respected again, perhaps like never before. God Bless America!!! President DJT

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

Flashback 60 Years.... For the few days: British Christmas TV (on @BBC) in 1965 via https://t.co/4Sb11fkVA3

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

@MikeIsaac So the logic presumably should be if "Facebook" now gets worse and more "unfriendly;" we can blame that "regression" on META's abandonment of DEI. (Somehow I don't think DEI attackers will be saying that)

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

"The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain..."
https://t.co/i1K7gO45OD

[Weather Monitor @WeatherMonitors]

#URGENTE: Images from Barcelona's El Prat Airport. Many flights are being diverted to other destinations. 🇪🇸 #DANA

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

This is what I made as my @X Bio quote a while back. Still think this is the case. Of course people disagree on various issues. Usually that doesn't make them "Evil." Or even necessarily "wrong." Point of view and sometimes won't know till later who was right or wrong #Moderation

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

@elonmusk "The Atlantic is an evil publication." This is silly (or worse) talk. You may not like an article in @TheAtlantic. It may have errors (wouldn't know). Doesn't make it "evil." It's not difficult to point to magazines on both and left and right which make errors and have biases.

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

@elonmusk Not so sure. World population is already pretty big. And getting ever-bigger. It seems the @ElonMusk solution is to just get ever-bigger (with a small number "escaping" to another planet.) Can't grow ever-bigger. Look already in US how much is torn to build more housing etc

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

@elonmusk Just ridiculous @ElonMusk -Employing scare tactics which have no basic. Vote for who ever but not this

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

#BannedBooks

[Penguin Random House 🐧🏠📚 @penguinrandom]

Starting on Banned Books Week, The Banned Wagon—powered by @penguinrandom in partnership with @UABookBans, @LtlFreeLibrary, @FirstBook is hitting the road for its second Banned Wagon tour, visiting nine libraries and bookstores in communities across the Midwest and the South being impacted by book banning and censorship 📚

🗓️ Save the date to join the fight against censorship and pick up your free banned book while supplies last!

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

MCPS updates its reporting protocols for hate incidents - The Washington Post @MCPS https://t.co/xKWJai9d8Y

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

It’s not just dogs. Cats like to fetch, too. - The Washington Post #Cats #Felines #Dogs https://t.co/71dCGhsphY

[Policy And Views @PolicyAndViews]

@atensnut Of course it can work both ways. If they'd allowed audiences at last night's debate; VP Kamala Harris could have brought in some of the accusers of Donald Trump!