Wednesday Reads

RFK, Jr. is at it again, this time trying to argue a case against the HPV vaccine, despite its effectiveness.

My big complaint is the age restrictions on getting the vaccine.  Many, many older people do NOT have HPV, and it is extremely cavalier on the part of the medical establishment to think everybody is screwing around and has been exposed to the virus.  I think it is very irresponsible.
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"He Died Doing What He Loved," Case Number 2999:  I guess it is time for an article trying to explain how a young, idealistic idiot,  John Allen Chau, violated the law and all common sense when he walked right into an environment he had no right to be, and he paid the ultimate price for it.


What Pathak did not say, because Port Blair’s small press corps already knew, was that, aside from Chau, almost no outsider had ever set foot on North Sentinel. That in itself did not make the island unusual. The Andamans and Nicobars are a lost world, 836 islands of mangroves, rainforests, and crescent-moon beaches stretching for 480 miles where the Bay of Bengal meets the Andaman Sea in the warm waters between India, Myanmar, Thailand, and Indonesia. Only 31 islands are inhabited. Living alongside Indian settlers are six protected indigenous tribes that for thousands of years have existed apart from the rest of humanity, spearing fish and turtles and shooting wild pigs with bows and arrows. This includes the people of North Sentinel, whose reputation for killing anyone who lands on their tiny island ensures that they are the world’s most isolated people.

Almost nothing is known about the Sentinelese. From their appearance, they are African. The theory is that, like three other black tribes on the Andamans, they are descended from people who migrated from the Cradle of Humankind in Africa tens of thousands of years ago. Some of them settled on a mountain range that once connected to Myanmar. Around 10,000 B.C., when the ice caps melted and the sea rose, those mountains became islands, sealing the tribes off from the world. For anthropologists, the existence of black hunter-gatherers in Asia is a wonder. For the religious, it’s a miracle: Adam and Eve, living as God created them.
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Obituary:  Actor Rutger Hauer, 75, known for his role in Blade Runner, has died.  He died at home in the Netherlands after being briefly ill:

He was born Jan. 23, 1944, in Breukelen, the Netherlands, near Amsterdam. Though both his parents were acting teachers, he took a circuitous route to the craft. He ran away from home at 15 to join the Dutch merchant navy; after returning to Amsterdam in 1962 he briefly studied acting, but exited school again for a stint in the army.

Finally committing himself to the stage, he became a member of the touring experimental troupe Noorder Compagnie, in which he acted, directed and served as costume designer and translator for several years.

His major break came in 1969 when Verhoeven cast him in the title role of “Floris,” an Ivanhoe-like knight who becomes embroiled in court intrigue upon his return from the Crusades. The show proved wildly popular, and Hauer reprised the part in a 1975 revival of the series, “Floris von Rosemund.”
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Actress Valerie Harper is near the end, if articles are accurate.  According to a web search, she lives nearby me, in Ashland, Oregon, or at least has a home there.

I know years and years ago, before she became famous,  she performed for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which is THE big event in Ashland.

Thinking about it some more, there are more than a few in show business who do end up in the Rogue Valley past and present including Patrick Duffy, Kim Novak, Ginger Rogers, Jack Elam, and the list goes on.   Decades ago, the valley was a favorite hangout for Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. Walter Cronkite and Johnny Carson had relatives here.    I suppose the reason for it, besides the natural beauty of the area, is there is a strong arts culture here.
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In case you missed it:



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The entire trans "rights" movement naturally legalizes sexual harassment and assault against women and girls.




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