Lee Ardis

Candida auris: What is the deadly fungus sweeping through US hospitals?

The drug-resistant fungus Candida auris (C. auris) was only discovered some 15 years ago but is already one of the world’s most feared hospital microbes.

If it gets inside the body, the yeast-type fungus can affect the bloodstream, the nervous system and several internal organs. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that its mortality rate ranges from 30% to 53% of patients affected by an invasive infection.

What is more worrisome is that the fungus has proven to be resistant to the most common types of antifungal drugs. Some strains are resistant to all of the medicines we have, says BBC’s health correspondent James Gallagher.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been outbreaks in more than 30 countries. A 2020 review from case reports from those nations found almost 4,750 cases globally between 2009 and 2019.

Report: 28 Girls Hospitalized With ‘Anxiety,’ Other Symptoms in Columbia After Allegedly Playing With Ouija Boards

The Ouija board is once again in the headlines, with outlets reporting 28 school-aged girls in Colombia were hospitalized after reportedly playing with the oracle boards at their school.

The incident purportedly unfolded among students at Galeras Educational Institution in Galeras, with the girls experiencing anxiety attacks, fainting, and other related issues after engaging with the board.

Those impacted were sent to a local hospital. Their diagnoses are currently unclear, though parents are reportedly waiting to hear from doctors about what exactly unfolded, according to Fox News.

Some are purportedly blaming the use of Ouija boards for the anxiety, panic, and other related issues.

“There were 28 possible cases of anxiety in school students,” Hugo Torres, who leads the Galeras Educational Institution in Galeras, told Jam Press.

But, according to the New York Post, the school leader isn’t necessarily happy with how the situation has been discussed publicly thus far, and he’s urging people to wait for more details before rushing to judgment.

“Given the reported cases, a series of comments were unleashed on the community that, rather than helping to resolve the situation, led to confusion and an adverse environment for our work,” he said. “The school is waiting for the medical diagnoses to provide further reliable information.”

Netflix show for preschoolers pushes gender ideology with ‘non-binary’ character – creator touts episode as ‘a roadmap for coming out’

A kids’ show on Netflix is pushing gender ideology on 2- to 4-year-olds by featuring a character that comes out as “non-binary.” The show’s creator touted the episode as “a road map for coming out.”

An episode of Netflix’s “Ridley Jones,” a kids’ television show targeted at young children, follows the story of a bison named “Winifred” who hesitates to tell Grandma Dottie, voiced by singer Cyndi Lauper, that it feels “most myself” when referred to by the name “Fred.”

“Grandma doesn’t know I changed. She still thinks I’m her granddaughter instead of her grandFred … I do want to tell her,” Fred tells the show’s main character, Ridley.

Fred then “comes out” to Grandma Dottie and requests to be referred to by the gender-neutral pronouns “they” and “them.”

LASER FOCUS Chinese satellite gathering intel for Pearl Harbor-style hypersonic missile attack by using green lasers, claim experts

CHINA used green lasers fired from satellites to gather intelligence for a surprise hypersonic missile attack on Hawaii, it has been warned.

The satellite was recorded flashing lasers for a fraction of a second by a livestream camera attached to a telescope on top of a mountain on one of the islands.

Initially the lights were thought to come from a NASA satellite before it was finally established it was a Chinese pollution monitoring satellite the Daqi-1.

But questions immediately began to be raised about why the Chinese would feel it necessary to monitor pollution in Hawaii, given the large US military presence there.

And it comes just weeks after China flew a giant balloon over the US – which was widely understood to be a spy tool even as Beijing claimed it was a civilian weather airship.

Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii remains vital for the United States military and the presence of the satellite comes amid increased tensions between the US and China.

Stoking Fears Of An All-Out Nuclear Conflict — Is The Threat Credible?

The diplomats of the world are making noise about Russia more and more looking like it will come to the nuclear option in finally defeating the Ukrainians. Thus, more and more people are becoming nervous that we are headed for World War III.

The worry—the threat—has always been that, once a nuclear weapon has been used, things will escalate until all-out atomic war results. All the big nukes on all the tips of the ICBMs and other delivery systems will be unleashed. Planet earth will be turned into a cinder–or at the very least, it will be made inhabitable.

Russian President/dictator Vladimir Putin, among wanting more control and power in his region of hegemony, wants to secure the wheat and other grains of Ukraine to add to Russia’s considerable grain possession. In this way, he will control the food of the world—at least to a considerable extent.

It is said that, even now, Putin and his top adjutants are hunkered in underground facilities for protection from the nuclear exchanges that are to come. Of course, a lot of things are said these days about a lot of things.

In fact, a lot has been said about a lot of things for a long time. We have heard that economic collapse is coming within days for—literally—years, even decades.

In first, scientists create mice with cells from 2 males

Researchers say the work “opens up new avenues in reproductive biology and fertility research” for animals and people. Down the road, for example, it might be possible to reproduce endangered mammals from a single male.

For the first time, scientists have created baby mice from two males. This raises the distant possibility of using the same technique for people – although experts caution that very few mouse embryos developed into live mouse pups and no one knows whether it would work for humans.

Still, “It’s a very clever strategy,” said Diana Laird, a stem cell and reproductive expert at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the research. “It’s an important step in both stem cell and reproductive biology.”

Scientists described their work in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

First, they took skin cells from the tails of male mice and transformed them into “induced pluripotent stem cells,” which can develop into many different types of cells or tissues. Then, through a process that involved growing them and treating them with a drug, they converted male mouse stem cells into female cells and produced functional egg cells. Finally, they fertilized those eggs and implanted the embryos into female mice. About 1% of the embryos – 7 out of 630 – grew into live mouse pups.

CDC Bought Phone Data To Monitor Americans’ Compliance With Lockdowns, Contracts Show

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) purchased data from tracking companies to monitor compliance with lockdowns, according to contracts with the firms.

The CDC paid one firm $420,000 and another $208,000. That bought access to location data from at least 55 million cellphone users.

The contracts, approved under emergency review due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were aimed at providing the CDC “with the necessary data to continue critical emergency response functions elated to evaluating the impact of visits to key points of interest, stay at home orders, closures, re-openings and other public heath communications related to mask mandate, and other merging research areas on community transmission of SARS-CoV-2,” the contracts, obtained by The Epoch Times, state.

The CDC said it would be using the tracking data to “assess home-by-hour behaviors (i.e. curfew analysis) by exploring the percentage of mobile devices at home during specific period of time.” The data could also be integrated with other information “to provide a comprehensive picture of movement/travel of persons during the COVID-19 pandemic to better understand mandatory stay-at-home orders, business closure, school re-openings, and other non-pharmaceutical interventions in states and cities.”

Employers Now Must Cover Abortion Leave Under Federal Law?

Employers must provide “pregnant persons” with accommodations to procure and recover from abortions under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), a memo from the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) recently declared.

President Joe Biden signed H.R. 1065, the PWFA, in December 2022. National abortion organizations such as NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood advocated for the bill, as well as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Prior to the bill’s passage, CatholicVote warned that PWFA could be used to force employers to pay for abortion-related expenses.

“I’m surprised some pro-life groups just didn’t seem to realize how this bill is going to impact their own operations,” said CatholicVote Director of Government Affairs Tom McClusky this week. “Under the bill, as the NWLC is now clearly stating, pro-life organizations can be sued if they don’t provide their employees special leave to get abortions.”

The NWLC, founded in 1972, is a legal advocacy group fighting for “gender justice – in the courts, in public policy, and in our society.” The website notes “for 50 years, NWLC and our supporters have been on the leading edge of every major legal and policy victory for women,” including the fight against Hobby Lobby in 2014.

Utah Teacher Has Kids Eat Bugs Because Cows Are Destroying the Environment

In the interest of full disclosure, I have eaten bugs. I was in Cambodia on a human trafficking awareness mission. A woman was selling roasted crickets, and I bought a bag for a buck and ate one or two. Maybe three. I always believe in trying new dishes so I thought, “Why not?” They weren’t half bad. A little heavy on the salt and soy sauce. And to be honest, I wouldn’t eat a bowl full of them while watching football. But they were alright. That said, I have two steaks marinating in the fridge right now that are headed to grill this evening. The upshot is, I have tried eating ze bugs. I know whereof I speak when I say I’ll take a pass. I’ll take a cheeseburger every time. Except on steak night. Which is tonight.

But of course, there are those who have been baptized into the First Church of Climatism. Some, if not most of these folks I think, enjoy the power that comes with posturing, hectoring, and bossing people around under the banner of saving the planet. In fact, I am convinced that 75% of climate outrage is the product of people getting in touch with their inner totalitarian. With that in mind, we take you to Spring Canyon Middle School in Springville, Utah. As part of an English assignment, teacher Kim Cutler purchased bugs approved for human consumption from a website and gave them to her students. It was part of an assignment on–what else? Climate change. The premise was that cows, which produce methane, are depleting the ozone layer and should be replaced with ze bugs. According to Fox News, the school issued the following statement, “Middle schoolers loved the ‘ewww’ factor, many of them gave bugs a try (and even a few staff members!). Many thanks to our English teachers for creating fun and engaging lessons.” And the kids may have had a fine time since middle school students are still young enough to enjoy icky stuff and it was probably a fun change of pace from the usual lesson plan.

However, there was also an essay assignment. For the essay, students were told that they could only argue for eating bugs and against eating beef, since cow flatulence poses a dire hazard to said ozone layer and life on Mother Earth. According to Ms. Cutler, there is no evidence to support eating beef over bugs and thus any pro-beef argument cannot exist. Well, there are other points of view, whether Ms. Cutler chooses to acknowledge them or not. What seems to be the case here is that the evidence Ms. Cutler likes is the only evidence that should be considered, and she has appointed herself the Holy Arbiter of Facts. One mother, Amanda Wright, was concerned that children were being indoctrinated into the religion of climate change and talked with the principal about how her daughter was not given the chance to create a rebuttal or discuss the other side of the issue. The principal, Alison Hansen, said that the assignment was about finding facts. Cutler stated, “All the evidence has suggested, that we probably should be eating bugs – it’s good for the environment, etc. But I didn’t know that that was an offensive topic to indicate.” Exploring and even debating climate change is not offensive.

Old people should embrace ‘mass suicide’, says Yale professor

Old people in Japan should kill themselves to avoid burdening the state, a professor at Yale University has said.

Yusuke Narita, an assistant professor of economics, has also suggested that euthanasia could be made compulsory.

Last year, official statistics in Japan revealed that over-75s accounted for 15 per cent of the country’s population for the first time. Those over 65 account for 29.1 per cent of the total, making the Japanese population the oldest in the world.

“I feel like the only solution is pretty clear,” said Mr Narita, 37. “In the end, isn’t it mass suicide and mass ‘seppuku’ of the elderly?” – referring to the act of disembowelment employed by dishonoured Samurai in the late 19th century.

Prof Narita told The New York Times his comments had been taken out of context, adding that they related to demands for older people in leadership positions to make way for the younger generation. He said his primary concern was how old people dominated positions of influence in Japanese society.

The references to “mass suicide” and “mass seppuku” touched a raw nerve in a country which honoured kamikaze pilots during the Second World War.