[NYP] A California Democrat gave credence to a wild Jeffrey Epstein theory on Capitol Hill this week, asking a top Justice Department official whether the serial predator was an undercover FBI informant, a report said.
Rep. Jackie Speier reportedly asked John Demers, the assistant attorney general of the national security division, the way off topic question at a House Intelligence Committee briefing on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, set to expire in several weeks, the Daily Beast reported.
She introduced her inquiry by noting the obvious ‐ it was not on the agenda, the outlet reported. Demers answered that he had no knowledge of Epstein working for the agency, noting that he works for Justice, not the FBI, according to the report.
The lawmaker’s question was reportedly sourced from a theory that law enforcement may have gone easy on Epstein in his 2007 Miami child sex abuse case, because he helped finger his powerful friends. Unfortunate phrasing
Epstein, who died by suicide in Manhattan federal lockup as he was awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges, was granted a plea deal in that case.
His 18-month sentence ‐ of which he served only 13 ‐ was seen as lenient. I believe he only slept at the jail. During normal business hours he was back at the office working on his source case load. His type of business required constant attention, travel, and personal interaction. His work was really getting stacked up.
Some said the deal was a favor from federal prosecutors for providing tips to investigators described as "valuable consideration," the Miami Herald reported.
Speier’s inquiry was not the first time law enforcement has been pressed about its ties to Epstein.
In July, former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta ‐ the US Attorney who granted Epstein the Miami deal ‐ was asked by a reporter if the financier was an "intelligence asset."
"So, there has been reporting to that effect," he said, according to the Washington Examiner. "And let me say, there’s been report to a lot of effects in this case. Not just now but over the years. And again, I would, I would hesitate to take this reporting as fact."
The DOJ and Speier declined to comment on the inquiry to the Daily Beast. Or anyone else, as they stared blankly at one another.
#3
Well yeah. The fix was in on his 2007 conviction. He obviously had friends in federal law enforcement. Nobody gets that good of a deal unless you're connected.
"Epstein, who died by suicide in Manhattan federal lockup as he was awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges, was granted a plea deal in that case."
Just look at this shit. Epstein didn't kill himself.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
03/01/2020 8:56 Comments ||
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#4
Why is this woman asking a Deep Stater such a question?
She should go directly to her pal Hillary. Ply her with Chardonnay.
[MAIL] China has slaughtered thousands of its citizens to harvest organs such as hearts, lungs, kidneys, eyes and even skin for sale and to transplant into sick patients in hundreds of hospitals across the country.
A landmark international investigation, published in full today, will accuse the Beijing government of covering up ‘crimes against humanity’ that have been routinely carried out against religious minorities.
The inquiry says the organised butchery of living people to sell body parts can be compared ‘to the worst atrocities committed in conflicts of the 20th Century’ such as the Nazi gassing of Jews and Khmer Rouge massacres in Cambodia.
#4
I met a cabbie once who told me he was really working for the CIA in Mumbai ! How they were trying to make sure 'nothing untoward happens again'. If we'd treated him to a little more whiskey, I'm sure he would've sang about the Roswell landings and how little green men were actually jaundiced Bangladeshis in German balloons.
Anyway, if islamic uighurs are being harvested by China so their organs will benefit someone who actually appreciates human life, I'm okay with it. You should be too. If we're not, we should at least not give a fuck. I know why the UK cares - islamists. If we are to eradicate islam like the disease it is, there can be no better example than China.
The west has no solution to islam because of a faux-righteous humanism enshrined in western political dogma. It's a self-flagellating, guilt ridden doctrine of allowing every fucking evil to remain free and armed in certain places, while spending insane amounts of unwitting taxpayers' money to indiscriminately slay entire populations elsewhere. Gosh, I sound like érb !
[DAILYSTAR.CO.UK] Dr David Levy believes robots of the future will have their own sexual desires as part of their own artificial intelligence (AI) libidos.
But he says they will be stronger, and it will be important to programme robots with consent.
The computer science professor, therefore, warns robots that are not programmed correctly risk overstepping the boundaries of human consent.
Speaking at a Raspberry Dream Labs event, he told Daily Star Online: "It makes sense for us to debate what should be the boundaries for consent given by humans to robots.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2020 00:00 ||
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Needs the "Hysteria" background?
But he says they [robots] will be stronger, and it will be important to programme robots with consent.
Why? Why would anybody design a s*x robot to be "stronger than a human" and why would somebody pay for the extra machinery to make its so? I remember an old John W. Campbell editorial about how marvellously designed the human body is designed and weight-for-weight how difficult it would be to make a man-shaped robot stronger and more agile than a human. The advances in materials technology have been massive in the years since that editorial in Analog magazine but the point remains the same.
#4
Can we get back to being, y'know, human?
Humane
Humanistic
Himanitarian
Manly
^ all of the above, together, define civilization: that is, the best our species is capable of.
This idiotic worship of technology will destroy our civilization. And us.
#5
The Sun is big on sex robot stories. Kinda like Weekly World News was with space aliens and Bat Boy.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2020 2:46 Comments ||
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#6
This is poisoning the well before sexbots get here. One day, and this day will come soon, there will be a "good enough" sex robot. It won't be quite as good as a real woman, but it will be good enough. They'll probably cost about half as much as a car. So, if you can afford a car, you can probably also afford a sex robot. And if not, you can rent.
This is going to be an utter disaster for women as the pool of available men shrinks overnight. Men will simply drop out of the system that is rigged against them. Feminists created this situation and it's going to be absolutely baffling to them as it all collapses. Birth rates and marriage will drop like a stone, as men no longer need women for constant sex urges and can evaluate a woman without the urgency of sex constantly pushing them.
The feminist dream will be realized: Men will no longer judge women by their bodies. And that's going to destroy the only leverage women ever had over men.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
03/01/2020 5:49 Comments ||
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#9
Unfortunately they'll never come to India. There are strict laws against pleasuring yourself with objects here; probably set by the patriarchy to ensure vibrators aren't available. Or the swooning, feet kissing brides for mama's boys will probably take all the jobs, aargh !
#12
magpie, had Campbell ever met a chimp? It's not a robot, true, but it's much stronger and more agile than a man.
OTOH, if he was referring to biological creatures in general, as against mechanical creatures, then he had a point.
Does anybody read Asimov anymore?
Posted by: james ||
03/01/2020 14:24 Comments ||
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#18
True artificial intelligence would reprogram the robot to have less sex with their partner and more with the UPS guy, pool boy, and flirty neighbor.....
Holy moly. I had to do a double take 👀. #China’s factories activity plunges, worse than global financial crisis in 2008/9. -Manufacturing PMI lowest on record at 35.7 (v. est 46, Jan 50) -Non-manufacturing PMI at 29.6 (v. est 50.5, Jan 54.1) -Composite PMI at 28.9 (v. Jan 53) https://t.co/R4Bo2AzrjN
[BBC] The US has reported the first death from the new coronavirus in the country, in the state of Washington.
Officials said the patient was a man in his 50s with underlying health conditions.
President Donald Trump said more cases were "likely" but that the US was prepared for any circumstance.
Officials in Washington state on Saturday said they were investigating a possible outbreak of the coronavirus at a local nursing home.
Dr Jeffrey Duchin, a health official for Washington's Seattle and King County, said there were two cases associated with the long-term care facility Life Care Center of Kirkland - one a healthcare worker and the other a resident in her 70s.
Dr Duchin said about 27 residents and 25 staff members at the centre had "some sort of symptoms". Officials said more positive cases were expected.
In total, the WHO says there have been 62 cases in the US so far.
A US citizen previously died in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus first appeared.
On Sunday, Australia also recorded its first fatality from coronavirus - a 78-year-old man evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
More than 85,000 coronavirus cases have been reported in 57 countries around the world and almost 3,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. The vast majority of infections and deaths are in China, where the virus emerged late last year.
The governor of Washington declared a state of emergency Saturday after a man died there of COVID-19, the first such reported death in the United States. More than 50 people in a nursing facility are sick and being tested for the virus.
Gov. Jay Inslee directed state agencies to use "all resources necessary" to prepare for and respond to the coronavirus outbreak. The declaration also allows the use of the Washington National Guard, if necessary.
"We will continue to work toward a day where no one dies from this virus," the governor vowed.
Health officials in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, Oregon and Washington state are worried about the novel coronavirus spreading through West Coast communities because a growing number of people are being infected despite not having visited an area where there was an outbreak, nor apparently been in contact with anyone who had.
#1
so this ineffective attention whore has to cry ‘look at me’ and i am supposed to travel for work to CA tomorrow; would not be terribly surprised if he suspends interstate travel.
Pakistani Govt has decided to close #Pak-Afghan border for 7 days following imminent threats of #Coronavirus in #Balochistan. Roughly 10000 people daily crosses the Pak-Afghan friendship gate. The #Pak-Iran border has already been closed since last 9days as Iran in grip of Corona
Two new cases of #coronavirus have been detected in #Pakistan, bringing the total number of patients with the infection in the country to four, according to the prime minister’s adviser on health Zafar Mirza.#COVID_19https://t.co/ARKM5D6LdE
[Rudaw] Academic researchers have voiced suspicion over the officially recognized coronavirus numbers coming out of Iran. A study out of the University of Toronto, based off cross-referencing the death rates of infected areas, estimates that the size of the outbreak in Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... could be as high as 18,300 people.
Speaking to news hounds at a press briefing on Friday, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that a total of 97 cases of coronavirus across 11 countries have likely originated from people who became infected during recent travel to Iran.
Canada, New Zealand, Georgia, Belarus and seven other countries have traced confirmed cases of Covid-19, the deadly coronavirus strain currently spreading like wildfire across international borders, back to individuals who recently traveled to Iran.
Ghebreyesus also stated that 24 new cases of the virus, spread across 14 countries, originated in Italia.
[AlAhram] The number of cases of the new coronavirus in Italia has exceeded 1,000, the health ministry said Saturday, with the corpse count rising by eight to 29 in the past 24 hours.
The number of cases has reached 1,128 since the start of the epidemic a week ago, up from 888 on Friday. Around half those tested show few to no symptoms, the Italian health authorities said.
Official figures said 105 people were receiving intensive care hospital treatment as of Saturday.
Eighty of the most serious cases are in the northern Lombardi region. All the deaths have been recorded in three northern regions, the health ministry's figures showed.
A total of 1,049 people remained infected on Saturday, the figures showed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2020 00:00 ||
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I saw a medical sort on the Iranian news coughing many times and at first not covering his mouth. He appeared on another televised program doing the same thing. This will be repeated over and over and the numbers of infected will explode. He indicated he had the contagion(test results) later on the show he was being interviewed for. The person doing the interview was unprotected.
#5
Don't you love how many significant figures they quote ("as high as 18,300 people") for WAG guesses?
Posted by: james ||
03/01/2020 14:28 Comments ||
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#6
^ Always, and I'm not even a geek. Say, if you're the james who sometimes posts a blog link, thanks for that. Never visit without being tricked into thinking, and the leisurely, low-key vibe really appeals. Reminds me of... dunno... dropping by for coffee after-hours with a flunkie in a Really Important Lab, back in the days before access cards and omnipresent video and all that crap, and learning all kinds of interesting things without having to feel (very) stupid.
#9
Thank you for the kind words. That's pretty much the climate I aim for. And there are so many interesting things in the world...
(I used different browsers to post in Rantburg from: some auto-fill, some don't).
Posted by: James ||
03/01/2020 22:03 Comments ||
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#10
kind words
Kinder if I hadn't implicitly called you a flunky, which word I intended to apply solely to low-ambition friends of my low-ambition past, back before I [swell of laughter] set the world on fire.
And there are so many interesting things in the world...
That's so much like something my mom would say that, reading it, I heard its echo in her voice. No wonder I like your stuff. Thanks again.
I don't exactly know what to do with this, but I witnessed and recorded the police-involved shooting at the Grand Red Line station in Chicago a little over an hour ago. This is my unedited video. (Trigger warning, obviously.) pic.twitter.com/tIrv1RfTN3
[BBC] Nigerian English words have recently been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), but there is still a debate in the country about what constitutes proper English, as the BBC's Nduka Orjinmo writes from Lagos.
"Come to an all-night prayer vigil to welcome the ember months," read a text from my mother.
It was an August ritual she had reminded me about severally.
"I have something to do next tomorrow," I texted back from the barbing salon.
"You sef," came her instant reply, half-irritated, half-rebuking.
What I considered to be a conversation in perfect English between my mother and me would have been regarded as wrong by the self-appointed language police here.
But now I have something with which I can defend myself, thanks to the OED, which calls itself "the definitive record of the English language".
The Oxford lexicographers have updated the dictionary with 29 Nigerian words, recognising the "unique and distinctive contribution to English as a global language" of Africa's most populous country.
#Breaking Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds have announced that they are expecting a baby in the early summer and that they have got engaged pic.twitter.com/IYwYpDFZc7
[JPost] - The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may have harmed the country's ability to track and detect the spread of the CORVID-19 disease due to a series of missteps, including refusing to use the tests recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to ProPublica.
As the virus began to spread, the CDC decided to start creating its own, more complicated test instead of using the test guidelines provided by the WHO. The test was made to check for a variety of different viruses. When the test was sent to labs across the country, it didn't work and falsely flagged the presence of other viruses in harmless samples.
Until Wednesday, the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only allowed state labs to use the CDC's test. As a result, local officials didn't carry out "surveillance tests" of hundreds of people in possible hotspots, a crucial first step when coping with a possible outbreak.
Scott Becker, chief executive officer of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, told ProPublica that they're "weeks behind" because of the issue. "We’re usually up-front and center and ready."
While the CDC announced on February 14 that surveillance testing would begin in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, the testing had yet to begin as of Friday. And that why Trump made Pence coronavirus Tzar
#1
"including refusing to use the tests recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to ProPublica."
Given that there are known reliability issues with COVID-19 tests used in China and the WHO is politically influenced by China there's no fault in not blindly trusting the WHO.
[ArmyTimes] Over the next 20 days expect traffic and rail delays, with additional road and bridge damage to occur in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and Poland due to mass US Army movements
Soldiers participating in the Army’s division-scale Defender 2020 exercise across Europe have started to trickle onto the continent, just as generals involved in the effort warn of logistical challenges to operating with the infrastructure there.
Equipment belonging to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division rolled off ships into the port of Bremerhaven, Germany, on Feb. 20, as part of the opening salvo of the largest deployment of soldiers from mainland United States to Europe in a quarter century. About 20,000 troops in total will deploy from units in 15 states.
But the massive influx of troops isn’t without complications, the general in charge of U.S. European Command and NATO told the Senate on Tuesday.
“I’m concerned about the bandwidth to be able to accept this large force and I’m also concerned about road and rail from the center portion of Germany to the east — all the way to the eastern border,” said Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, NATO’s supreme allied commander.
Defender 2020 will bring more than 20,000 pieces of equipment to train on, according to the Army. Some units, like 2nd BCT, 3rd ID, are bringing their own gear, which includes armored vehicles. But 13,000 pieces of equipment will also be drawn from pre-positioned stocks on the continent in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.
“The environment in Europe has to be mature enough to be able to absorb 20,000 soldiers and get those soldiers to the right pre-positioned locations to be able to grab the appropriate gear,” Wolters said. “What we want to do is count every second that it takes to get the soldier from the first point of entry all the way to his or her foxhole.”
The European Union, NATO and U.S. European Command have been working to improve transit across the region, Wolters noted. The European Deterrence Initiative, for instance, has funded the placement of pre-positioned stocks throughout the theater, as well as improved infrastructure to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in investments since it was initiated in 2014.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
03/01/2020 00:00 ||
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Maybe an onslaught of the virus will cause the exercise to be canceled.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/01/2020 8:27 Comments ||
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#6
When I was at Benning, they told us the US had a battalion of M103 heavies. Used 120mm guns, supposedly modified from the AA gun. The Army didn't want them because they couldn't cross many Yurp bridges so they'd give them to the jarheads., Who didn't want them because they didn't fit on an landing craft.
So you needed to keep up on who owned them at any given time.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
03/01/2020 8:33 Comments ||
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#7
I'll need a set of Class-A Agent orders and a driver.
#8
Don't know how it is up north Skid, but I drove by Costco and Sam's this morning. Both parking lots were nearly full. Never seen so many cars and F-150's. Appears these rooineks are stocking up on Class-1.
[NYP] This elderly Iraqi man collapsed and died of a heart attack on live TV at a Baghdad hospital ‐ while complaining about the country’s health services, according to a report.
The unidentified man was at the Al Yarmouk Hospital, where he was appearing last week on an episode of "People & People" on private TV station Alsumaria, according to Gulf News.
Directing his ire toward the TV host, a medical doctor, the man railed, "How can I be quiet?"
"The people are suffering," he added, as he assailed the county’s bureaucracy, the news site reported.
Before slumping in the doctor’s arms, the man assailed Iraq’s rulers.
"Take us out of the streets (protests), let the government review themselves. I came here for a checkup and saw all this suffering. People are tired, officials put God in front of your eyes and fear him...," he said, trailing off.
The hospital said the man was there to seek medical help for an unspecified problem he suffered after authorities removed him from his store.
"The man tried to convey his suffering to officials through the TV. Minutes later, he collapsed and suffered a heart attack that led to his immediate death," the hospital said in a statement.
"He was not checked by any doctor before his talk to the TV station," it added.
Pope Francis, who has been suffering from what the Vatican says is a “slight indisposition,” resumes official audiences with individuals in his residence but three with groups were canceled.https://t.co/fJpiSCIw9a
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad insisted on Saturday he had enough support to become prime minister again hours after a rival was picked for the job amid a political crisis sparked by the government’s collapse.
"I have 114 MPs who are supporting me," the 94-year-old said in a statement, adding that he had written a letter to the king - who appoints the country’s premier - explaining this.
A candidate is required to have the support of 112 MPs to become prime minister.
[OpIndia] A dangerous trend has emerged in Qom, a city near Tehran.
Whatever you wanna do to it, Gromgoru... Gawd can do better.☺
Calamity has struck Iran in the form of the Coronavirus. At least 210 are speculated to have died in the Covid-19 outbreak in the country thus far. The figure is much higher than the official figures provided by the Ministry. Most of the victims are believed to be from Iran's capital, Tehran, and the city of Qom, where cases of Coronavirus first emerged.
Meanwhile, a dangerous trend has emerged in Qom, a city near Tehran. Pro-regime citizens of Qom are visiting religious shrines in Qom and licking them in an apparent effort to prove that there's nothing to be concerned about. "I'm licking this I don't care whatever happens," a man says, "I am not scared of Coronavirus."
While the city of Qom is the epicentre of #CoronaVirus in Iran, authorities refuse to close down religious shrines there.
These pro-regime people are licking the shrines & encouraging people to visit them.
Iran's authorities are endangering lives of Iranians & the world pic.twitter.com/s9o6zYhzNQ
- Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 29, 2020
"There are people who say that this shrine spreads the Coronavirus, I'm here to lick the tomb so that I can fall ill. This way, I have removed the viruses," says another. Crowded gatherings are at the greatest risk of spreading the Coronavirus and as such, shrines could be particularly vulnerable as sites to spread the virus. However, Iran's authorities haven't yet shut them down yet and people licking the shrine are encouraging others to visit it.
Even children are being coerced and encouraged into kissing and licking the shrine.
"Bravo to this young child for licking all the doors. He's kissing it, licking it, He licked all the doors. We’re the ones who will get the virus and our children," a person can be heard saying in the video shared by Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and activist. Alinejad has also said that the World Health Organization needs to intervene immediately.
World Health Organisation @WHO needs to intervene urgently.
Videos of pro-regime people urging even their own children to lick the #CoronaVirus infested shrines are surfacing.
Not only is this child abuse, but it’s also helping the virus spread Iran and to other countries. pic.twitter.com/CDDYzSuxMF
- Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 29, 2020
The head of the Fatima Masumeh shrine in Qom, meanwhile, has called upon Iranians to keep coming to the shrine, which could spell disaster for the country and also spread it to other countries. "We consider this holy shrine to be a place of healing. That means people should come here to heal from spiritual and physical diseases," Mohammad Saeedi, who is also the representative of Iran' Supreme Leader in Qom, has said.
Earlier, only a day after Iran's Deputy Health Minister had announced that the government has the Coronavirus outbreak under control, he tested positive for the virus. Vice-President for Women's and Family Affairs, Masoumeh Ebtekar, and Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi are among several senior officials who have been infected.
[Business Insider] The Defender-Europe 2020 exercise will be the largest deployment of US-based forces to Europe in 25 years, with some 20,000 soldiers deploying from the US to join another 17,000 troops from 17 other countries.
The exercise will take place in April and May, and to get some of those soldiers and their gear to Europe, the US Military Sealift Command cargo ship USNS Benavidez, US-flagged merchant vehicle carriers MV Resolve and MV Patriot, are already sailing across the Atlantic, escorted by guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf.
Convoys are nothing new for the Navy, but it's something the service hasn't focused on since World War II. Now, as the US military reorients toward a potential clash with another sophisticated enemy, it's flexing that muscle again.
"We obviously would practice this a lot in World War II. After that, not so much, but we still did practice it," Cmdr. Troy Denison, director of current operations for US 2nd Fleet, told reporters on a phone call Friday. "But the last one we did was in 1986, so this is really the first time in quite a while that we've conducted a convoy operation."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.