I don’t particularly like much at the Affirmative Right site, since much of their time is spent attacking so-called false doctrines of the Right, when the Left is basically carpet-bombing Western civilisation. Too much personality issues for my taste. But, there are some truly excellent pieces that appear there once in a while, so with everything, we take what is useful and discard the rest, as martial arts great Bruce Lee said (John Steele, a Bruce Lee fan told me this.) And, I am a fan of Australian right film maker Richard Wolstencroft, who in his latest Report from Tiger Mountain tackles one question that also preoccupies me, the way the Australian government is allowing China to buy up the whole place. You would think that we are controlled by traitors, who have an alliance with a foreign, hostile power, or as Richard says, are simply “spies.” And, he drops a few names too, but here we are legally ultra-cautious, and don’t.
  https://affirmativeright.blogspot.com/2020/03/report-from-tiger-mountain-24-chinese.html

     Anyway, the way things are, we are soon not going to have local milk, or even baby food, and that is supposed to be sound globalist economics:
  https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/frydenberg-gives-chinese-1-5b-bid-for-bellamy-s-the-green-light-20191115-p53aus.html
  https://www.michaelwest.com.au/bellamys-1-43-billion-price-tag-doesnt-equal-an-australian-icon/
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-28/consumers-angered-by-farmers-union-iced-coffee-takeover/11744626

     Wow, oh wow. Joe Biden who is set to challenge Trump for the presidency, and will have his finger on the nuclear button, is so senile that he forgets his own name, and recently said that Americans can only re-elect Donald Trump: "...We cannot get re-elected, we cannot win this re-election, excuse me. We can only re-elect Donald Trump," Biden said.
  https://www.zerohedge.com/political/confused-biden-calls-himself-obiden-bama-says-we-can-only-re-elect-donald-trump

     I always thought the senile Ronny Reagan was the perfect dupe for the Deep State, but Biden will be the ultimate rubber stamp, doing whatever they want, even before they want it. Maybe nuclear annihilation is not so bad, compared to a world of Biden doing their bidding.
  https://videos.whatfinger.com/2020/03/08/the-democratic-partys-collapse-has-become-sad-democrats-request-biden-can-sit-down-at-next-debate/

     Ladies, it’s time to grow up and put some clothes on! Among other things, it is cold and you might catch coronavirus, and die before the climate apocalypse, which would be shocking, if not totally ironic:
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/08/topless-women-protest-climate-rape-in-london-on-international-womens-day/

“A group of 31 women formed a topless human chain in London to protest against climate change on International Women’s Day. (Warning: explicit images.) Members of the climate change alarmist group Extinction Rebellion (XR) took off their shirts on Waterloo Bridge, blocking traffic in an protest against the supposedly disparate impact that climate change has on women. The protestors painted slogans on their chests such as “climate rape” and “climate murder”. A former teacher who took part in the protest, Sarah Mintram, explained the rationale behind the topless protest, saying: “It’s mainly women in poorer countries in the global south that are experiencing the increase in violence but this will be the reality for all women if the climate and ecological crisis continues to go unaddressed.” “We are here to raise the alarm about what is happening to our sisters around the world and to tell women in the UK the climate and ecological emergency is your issue – it will affect you as a woman if we do not persuade our government to take urgent action starting now,” Mintram told the Metro. Extinction Rebellion cited a January 2020 report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which claimed that climate change was responsible for violence against women in the Southern Hemisphere. The group was mocked on social media, however, by people who thought their protest diminished International Women’s Day, with one user writing: “You reduce women’s day to a farce.”

     I told you so! Former presidential runner Chinese American Andrew Yang, has now endorsed Joe Biden. This is the guy who promised to be against the system, and give everybody $1,000 to party with. That offer immediately attracted the trolls and naïve sector of the Dissent Right, who thought that voting for Yang would teach Trump a lesson. Pure illusion, for it was only a matter of time before Yang would collapse back into the mainstream, if he ever left it. It goes to show how bad some on our side really is, lacking fundamental maturity, and even street wisdom. No wonder they lose all the time, for their army is full of losers!
  https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/10/politics/andrew-yang-endorses-joe-biden/index.html
  https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/19/politics/andrew-yang-cnn-political-commentator/index.html

     Governments seek to revive “the economy” by scattering gifts of our own money wrapped in red tape. This encourages immediate consumption. But this stimulation stops dead when the money tap is turned off. Three simple measures from the three levels of government will create real long term jobs without complicated political handouts that have no lasting effect. Firstly, abolish the federal Capital Gains Tax. Fear of CGT has constipated private property transfer and investment for decades. Most new owners of houses, businesses or farms soon start making improvements – alterations, extensions, a granny flat or new sheds, yards, dams, fences, factories or workshops. But after a few years, owners become satisfied or inactive and capital expenditure dries up. Often they would like to move on but they fear CGT liabilities if they sell. Abolish the CGT and its complicated rules and many owners would upgrade to a new property or business and both old and new properties are likely to attract a new cycle of improvements.

     Making all capital expenditure immediately deductable for tax in all industries would accelerate re-investment. We would hear the hammers starting within days (as in post-war Germany when Ludwig Erhardt set their beaten people free). Secondly, State governments can accelerate economic rejuvenation by abolishing stamp duty, which is a tax on those who do things. New Zealand abolished stamp duty twenty years ago and the sky did not fall.
Thirdly, local governments can help with a six-month rates holiday for all rate payers in shires suffering from fires, flood, drought or corona-virus depression. The feds should fund this. Giving an allowance to people who are forcibly quarantined is reasonable. But most people don’t want a handout – they want a job. We don’t want governments scattering our own money like confetti – we want conditions that encourage people to invest more of their own money in creating real jobs.

     The debate is continuing over whether of not there is a racial bias to the coronavirus, something which I have an open mind about. VDare has been championing this, and they may be right, but the thesis requires qualification. Italians get infected, and so do Iranians, presumably part of the “white” race, so what gives? My hypothesis is that it is the Nordic and possibly Alpine sub-races that have immunity of various degrees to the disease, maybe a product of past evolution, perhaps the Black Death. Anyway, since even nationalists do not like thinking about dividing up the mystical “white race” (a fear of dividing forces, even though diversity makes it as divided as it could be), they have to deal with the Italian counter-examples.
  https://vdare.com/articles/it-s-official-chinese-scientists-find-genetic-explanation-for-coronavirus-discriminating-by-race
  https://russia-insider.com/en/coronavirus-discriminates-race-ethnicity-italy-1st-eu-breakout-italians-were-disproportionally
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-03-05-leaked-video-bbc-coronavirus-victims-iran-body-bags.html

    In any case, here is Chinese research indicating a North East Asian vulnerability:
  https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.26.919985v1.full

     While many of us are concerned about the buy ups by China of Australia’s crucial assets, and the treason of the political class in allowing this to occur, Australia is only one country being bought up. Africa is well on the way to becoming part of China, in a new colonialism:
  https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2018/08/04/china-is-treating-africa-the-same-way-european-colonists-did/#3959fc38298b

“Chinese corporations are all over Africa.  In June 2017 a McKinsey & Company report estimated that there are more than 10,000 Chinese-owned firms operating in Africa. What are Chinese corporations doing in Africa? That's a highly controversial issue. The reason Chinese corporations are in Africa is simple; to exploit the people and take their resources. It’s the same thing European colonists did during mercantile times, except worse. The Chinese corporations are trying to turn Africa into another Chinese continent. They are squeezing Africa for everything it is worth. This is the view several African politicians have. The Zambian politician Michael Sata was one of them. At least he was before being elected President of Zambia in 2011. He wrote a paper presented to Harvard University in 2007 that said “European colonial exploitation in comparison to Chinese exploitation appears benign, because even though the commercial exploitation was just as bad, the colonial agents also invested in social and economic infrastructure services Chinese investment, on the other hand, is focused on taking out of Africa as much as can be taken out, without any regard to the welfare of the local people.” (quoted in Scott D. Taylor's "The Nature of Chinese Capital in Africa, Current History, May 2018, p. 197) Sata's bold position got some support by a deadly blast at an explosives factory partly owned by the Chinese state killing 50 Zambian workers.

     Looks like Sweden is well on the way to becoming an Islamic state, thanks to liberal attitudes to immigration and multiculturalism, which will in the long run lead to the end of diversity as the bleeding-heart liberals have defined it.
  https://www.rt.com/news/482468-sweden-schools-headscarf-ban/

“Two Muslim women with opposing views on a headscarf ban in schools clashed in a fierce TV debate in Sweden. The teacher told the politician that people uncomfortable with the veil should just leave the country. The heated exchange between Naouel Aissaoui, a school teacher in the Swedish municipality of Skurup, and local politician Loubna Stensaker Goransson was over a ban on veils in public schools, which Goransson and other council officials enacted in December. The decision angered many educators, and Aissaoui is among those leading the pushback. "Move away if it annoys you," Aissaoui said during a TV debate after her opponent said she disliked seeing little girls wearing the veil. "This is my country, too." Both women are Muslim and of immigrant background, but have opposing views on what the headscarf represents and whether it has a place in modern Sweden. During the debate, Goransson said people could not expect to "come to a country that is secular and equal and live with medieval values." She sees the controversial piece of clothing as a tool of oppression and sexualization of little girls, and not as a symbol of purity and goodness, as Aissaoui does. The televised clash over the Skurup controversy was a microcosm of a larger debate over immigration in Sweden. The rapid influx of migrants put a strain on the country's welfare system and a surge in crime as ethnic gangs wedged their way into the shadow economy. There is also a strong sentiment among many Swedes that the newcomers have no intention of integrating culturally and would rather isolate themselves in their own communities than adopt the customs of their hosts. But talking about the negative side of welcoming droves of asylum seekers is a challenge, since Sweden has long hailed its open-door policy towards refugees as a matter of national pride, which opened a window of opportunity for politicians, who previously remained on the margins. The Skurup headscarf ban was pushed by the right-wing anti-immigration Sweden Democrats (SD) party, which used to be a political pariah, but saw a rapid surge in popularity over the past several years. The SD has a majority in the municipality council and has found allies in people like Goransson, who is a member of the Moderates, to enact the headscarf ban.”

14 March 2020,      Governments seek to revive “the economy” by scattering gifts of our own money wrapped in red tape. This encourages immediate consumption. But this stimulation stops dead when the money tap is turned off. Three simple measures from the three levels of government will create more long term jobs than discriminatory and complicated political handouts that have no lasting effect. Firstly, abolish the federal Capital Gains Tax. Fear of CGT has constipated private property transfer and investment for decades. Most new investors in houses, businesses or farms soon start making improvements – alterations, extensions, a granny flat or new sheds, yards, dams, fences, factories or workshops. But after a few years, owners become satisfied or inactive and capital expenditure dries up. Often they would like to move on but they fear CGT punishment if they sell. Abolish the CGT and its complicated rules and many owners would upgrade to a new property or business and both old and new properties are likely to attract a new cycle of investment and renovation. Making all capital expenditure immediately deductable for tax in all industries would also accelerate re-investment. We would hear the hammers starting within days (as in post-war Germany when Ludwig Erhardt set their beaten people free of tax). Secondly, State governments can accelerate economic rejuvenation by abolishing stamp duty, which is a tax on those who do things. New Zealand abolished stamp duty twenty years ago and the sky did not fall. Thirdly, local governments can help with a six-month rates holiday for all rate payers in shires suffering from fires, flood, drought or corona-virus depression. The feds should fund this. Giving an allowance to people who are forcibly quarantined is reasonable. But most people don’t want a handout – they want a job. We don’t want governments scattering our own money like confetti – we want conditions that encourage people to invest more of their own money in creating real jobs.

     Young climate princess Greta Something, has criticised the West over climate change, basically wanting to abandon Western civilisation, the standard Leftoid thing to say. But she has been silent, like a good Leftoid, about the climate change impact of China and India, surprise, surprise:
  https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/Swaminomics/sorry-greta-india-needs-more-coal-to-power-growth/

“Greta Thunberg, the 16-year old Swedish girl who lectured the United Nations on climate change, is being touted as a possible Nobel Prize winner. She believes she and her white Swedish teenage friends have to save the world from us terrible oldies who created the oil and coal industries. She will be appalled by the plea of India’s coal secretary, Subhash Chandra Garg, that India must urgently expand its coal production from 600 million tonnes a year to a billion tonnes per year to meet basic energy needs. Yet Garg is right. Thunberg made headlines by sailing to the US in a solar-powered-ship to avoid using fuel oil. Does she have any idea of the enormous electricity used to produce the solar cells in her ship? India is a lower middle-income country. Sweden is among the richest. Despite the green sermons, Sweden’s annual per capita carbon emissions are 4.5 metric tonnes, higher than India (1.7 metric tonnes), Pakistan (0.9 metric tonnes) or Bangladesh (0.5 metric tonnes). South Asians can double their carbon emissions without matching Sweden’s prodigality. Widespread activist attempts to stop all oil and coal production are hypocritical. A total switch to solar and wind energy is impossible since these are produced only intermittently when the sun shines and wind blows, maybe 25% of the year on an average. For the rest of the time, India needs coal-based electricity. Maybe new electric storage technology will ultimately change that, but today India needs massive coal expansion for thermal power.

     This pretty much sums up the attitude that will come to dominate a society where whites, once a majority, fall to minority status, so beware:
  https://www.thecollegefix.com/let-white-people-die-prof-triples-down-whiteness-is-mental-and-physical-terrorism/

“Trinity College sociology professor Johnny Williams is the gift that keeps on giving, so to speak. In an end-of-February op-ed in the Hartford Courant, Williams says white people preside over an “oppressive system,” and when people of color “refuse to abide” by this system, they’re accused of “inciting hatred and violence.” The professor is referencing the controversy following comments he made about the shootings of GOP congressman Steve Scalise and others three years ago. Williams wrote that, in whatever predicament you may them, “let [white people] f*****g die” … and to “smile a bit” when it happens. The professor was suspended for his comments, but cleared of wrongdoing shortly thereafter. He’s since gone on to say calls for “civility” merely serve to “uphold white supremacist heteropatriarchal capitalist power,” and that “‘White’ kneegrows really need a lot of therapy and a good ‘ol [sic] ass kicking.” Such are merely “accusations” of inciting violence, Williams writes in the new op-ed, because he “dare[s] to name and write about the sources of racially oppressed people’s suffering — whites and their system of white racism.” He claims Trinity College suspended him because it was afraid students would hear “the [re: his] truth.”

To The Age         Any discussion of so-called "hate speech" needs to take into account the fact that the term has been weaponised by various powerful minority groups and institutions to protect themselves and promote their interests at the expense of others ("Wounding with words", 14/3). Free speech is certainly "vital to democracy and the contest of ideas"; it is equally important for the enactment of justice and the unfettered search for truth. The problem is not so much that "the effects of hate speech are overstated", since plenty of evidence shows otherwise, but that these unpleasant effects are wrongfully cited in order, deliberately, to close down debate on politically sensitive topics. It follows that in Australia, currently, we need more free speech, not less.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

     Something just has to be done about Turkey. Just over one hundred years ago, there would have been a war over this; they would not continue to get away with such slaps in the face:
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/08/reports-turkish-police-use-drones-to-organise-tear-gas-attacks-on-greek-border-guards/

“Turkish police used drones to organise attacks against Greek security forces tasked with protecting the nation’s borders from thousands of migrants attempting to illegally cross into the country, according to reports. On Friday, Greek security forces were bombarded with smoke bombs and tear gas fired from the Turkish side of the border at the Kastanies checkpoint on the Evros river. It is now alleged that Turkish police used drones to co-ordinate the onslaught upon Greek security forces. During the attack, members of the Turkish police force were seen handing out wire cutters to migrants to help them cut through the border fence separating the two countries, according to the Greek Reporter. The escalation in violence at the border follows the decision by the Islamist president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to “open the gates” to migrants attempting to enter Europe. The move is widely seen as a retaliation for Europe insufficiently backing his invasion of northern Syria to crush Kurdish forces and prop up jihadist rebels in Idlib. The decision by Erdogan abrogtated the 2016 agreement between Turkey and the European Union, which required Turkey halt the flow of migration into the EU in return for billions of euros in aid.”

     Once upon a time, homosexuality, after it was regarded as a legitimate sexual preference, rather than a psychological problem, was viewed as a preference freely chosen, a product of agency. Then the position that is was genetically caused gained some support, where it was argued that it was natural, especially if there was a “gay gene.” But that hypothesis now seems to have come tumbling down:
  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2019/08/29/gay-gene-ruled-huge-study-shows-environment-major-factor-homosexuality/

“Genes play just a small role in whether a person is gay, scientists have found, after discovering that environment has a far bigger impact on homosexuality. In the biggest ever study into the genetic basis of sexuality, researchers from more than 30 institutions including Cambridge University and Harvard, looked at the DNA of nearly 500,000 people in Britain and the US. They found that genes are responsible for between eight to 25 per cent of the probability of a person being gay, meaning at least three quarters is down to environment. Scientists said it worked in a similar way to height, in which genes are partly responsible, but other factors - such as nutrition - also play a major role, adding or knocking off inches. In this case, environment could mean anything from being exposed to certain conditions in the womb, to differences in upbringing or education. Although the research may seem controversial, suggesting that homosexuality is not primarily ‘written in the genes’, the scientists say it does not mean that sexuality it a choice or can be altered. “Some people will misunderstand or even deliberately twist our findings,” said senior author Dr Ben Neale, a statistical geneticist at Harvard Medical School. “There is a long history of people using genetics in harmful ways to advance their own misguided agendas. “As a gay man I’ve experienced homophobia and I’ve felt both hurt and isolated by it. This study disproves the notion there is a so-called ‘gay gene’ and disproves sexual behaviour is a choice. “Genetics absolutely plays an important role, many genes are involved, and altogether they capture perhaps a quarter of same-sex sexual behaviour, which means genetics isn’t even half the story.  The rest is likely environmental. “It’s both biology and environment working together in incredibly complicated ways.”

     Here is some expert advice by an early researcher of the coronavirus, Dr James Robb, a pathologist who is “a recognized expert in biospecimen science with over 50 years of experience in molecular pathology, virology, and genetics. He is board certified in anatomic pathology, clinical pathology, cytopathology, and dermatopathology. Dr. Robb is a consulting pathologist to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research (OBBR).” He wrote that we are welcome to share his email, so, here we go:

“Date: February 26, 2020
Subject: What I am doing for the upcoming COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
Dear Colleagues, as some of you may recall, when I was a professor of pathology at the University of California San Diego, I was one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses (the 1970s). I was the first to demonstrate the number of genes the virus contained. Since then, I have kept up with the coronavirus field and its multiple clinical transfers into the human population (e.g., SARS, MERS), from different animal sources.
The current projections for its expansion in the US are only probable, due to continued insufficient worldwide data, but it is most likely to be widespread in the US by mid to late March and April.
Here is what I have done and the precautions that I take and will take. These are the same precautions I currently use during our influenza seasons, except for the mask and gloves.:

1) NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc.
2) Use ONLY your knuckle to touch light switches. elevator buttons, etc.. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove.
3) Open doors with your closed fist or hip – do not grasp the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. Especially important on bathroom and post office/commercial doors.
4) Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts.
5) Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been.
6) Keep a bottle of sanitizer available at each of your home’s entrances. AND in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can’t immediately wash your hands.
7) If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Use your elbow only if you have to. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more!
What I have stocked in preparation for the pandemic spread to the US:
1) Latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use when going shopping, using the gasoline pump, and all other outside activity when you come in contact with contaminated areas.
Note: This virus is spread in large droplets by coughing and sneezing. This means that the air will not infect you! BUT all the surfaces where these droplets land are infectious for about a week on average – everything that is associated with infected people will be contaminated and potentially infectious. The virus is on surfaces and you will not be infected unless your unprotected face is directly coughed or sneezed upon. This virus only has cell receptors for lung cells (it only infects your lungs) The only way for the virus to infect you is through your nose or mouth via your hands or an infected cough or sneeze onto or into your nose or mouth.
2) Stock up now with disposable surgical masks and use them to prevent you from touching your nose and/or mouth (We touch our nose/mouth 90X/day without knowing it!). This is the only way this virus can infect you – it is lung-specific. The mask will not prevent the virus in a direct sneeze from getting into your nose or mouth – it is only to keep you from touching your nose or mouth.
3) Stock up now with hand sanitizers and latex/nitrile gloves (get the appropriate sizes for your family). The hand sanitizers must be alcohol-based and greater than 60% alcohol to be effective.
4) Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY “cold-like” symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx. Cold-Eeze lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available.

     Informed thinkers feel in their water, as my father used to say when he was certain of something, that things are falling apart, certainly culturally, and also economically. The so-called victories of the Left, since the 1960s cultural revolution, have systematically undermined social capital. Here is Charles Hugh Smith, whom I am sure none of us here have heard of, on the falling apart of everything:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/political/political-and-social-conflict-accelerating-heres-why

“Here's the core self-reinforcing dynamic in my view:

     Welcome to the endgame of immigration and multicultural, where everybody is welcome to the table, except, well, us deplorable whites:
  https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/03/sweden-muslim-leader-of-feminist-initiative-party-invites-millions-of-migrants-to-sweden-in-arabic-language-video?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_2020_03_10_jihad_watch_daily_digest&utm_term=2020-03-10
  https://sputniknews.com/europe/202003061078491562-swedish-feminist-initiative-party-invites-millions-of-migrants-in-controversial-arab-language-clip/

“According to Feminist Initiative leader Farida al-Abani, Sweden needs a repetition of the 2015 migrant crisis, when 163,000 asylum seekers entered the Scandinavian country, challenging its welfare system. The Feminist Initiative Party has stirred up emotions with its reply to the new nascent migrant crisis on Europe's borders. In a clip spread virally on social media, Libyan-born party head Farida al-Abani addressed “millions” of migrants in Arabic and invited them to Sweden. The video appears to be a reaction to national-conservative Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson, who recently distributed flyers on the Greek border informing migrants that “Sweden is full” and cannot provide them with money or housing. Al-Abani attempted to disprove this statement by calling the Sweden Democrats, Sweden's largest party, racists. “Flights cost money and climate, and flyers also cost money and only reach a few. Luckily, I know Arabic and the fact that the web can reach millions. In short, I say 'A racist party spreads lies, don't listen to them, welcome here, we're not full”, al-Abani tweeted in a prelude to her video.”

     This is interesting, and a big problem for feminism, with all of its gender discrimination nonsense; countries with more gender equity have fewer women STEM graduates. Feminist theory, with all of its glass ceilings and imaginary discriminations, would predict exactly the opposite:
  https://www.thejournal.ie/gender-equality-countries-stem-girls-3848156-Feb2018/

“countries with greater gender equality see a smaller proportion of women taking degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), a new study has found. Dubbed the “gender equality paradox”, the research found that countries such as Albania and Algeria have a greater percentage of women amongst their STEM graduates than countries lauded for their high levels of gender equality, such as Finland, Norway and Sweden. The researchers, from Leeds Beckett University and the University of Missouri, believe this might be because countries with less gender equality often have little welfare support, making the choice of a relatively high-paid STEM career more attractive. The study, published in Psychological Science, also examined what motivates girls and boys to study STEM subjects, including overall ability, interest or enjoyment in the subject and whether science subjects were a personal academic strength.

     Italy is in lockdown, but the Pope is urging priests to physically go out and comfort those infected by coronavirus … question mark whether this involves hugs along with praying?
  https://nypost.com/2020/03/10/pope-tells-priests-in-livestreamed-mass-to-meet-coronavirus-patients/
  https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/breaking-coronavirus-pope-tells-priests-21664629
  https://www.news18.com/news/world/as-italy-remains-in-lockdown-pope-francis-tells-priests-to-go-out-and-meet-the-coronavirus-affected-2532175.html

“Pope Francis urged Catholic priests on Tuesday to "have the courage" to go out and help those sickened by the novel coronavirus, hours after Italy was placed on a nationwide lockdown. "Let us pray to the Lord also for our priests, that they may have the courage to go out and visit the sick... and to accompany the medical staff and volunteers in the work they do," the pontiff said during a mass in Vatican City. St Peter's Square in the Vatican -- in the centre of the Italian capital Rome -- was almost empty on Tuesday with only a few dozen people walking around, most of them without masks. The Italian government has asked for people not to travel if they can avoid it and to avoid contact with the sick. Officials passed a decree late Monday extending nationwide restrictive measures that had been put in place at the weekend in the hardest-hit northern regions. The restrictions -- including checkpoints on roads and in railway stations -- are set to remain until April 3. Italy is the epicentre of the European virus outbreak with more than 9,000 cases and 463 deaths so far. Globally, more than 110,000 cases have been recorded in over 100 countries, although health experts are hopeful that the virus has peaked in China, where it originated late last year.”

     Many of our older readers are taking melatonin hormones medications, not the stuff from the health food shop, to aid in sleep, not just to re-establish normal rhythms, and I can say that it works well. But, there are other benefits too:
  https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/11/18/melatonin-reduces-inflammation.aspx?utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art3HL&utm_campaign=20191118Z1&et_cid=DM393404&et_rid=752448100

“In a combined effort, scientists from universities in Brazil and Italy sought to identify the role melatonin may have in improving disorders commonly found in those who are obese. The researchers used mice who were induced to become obese and treated them for 10 weeks with melatonin. The objective was to determine if the hormone could effectively delay or block the damage from eating too much. The researchers found multiple results supporting their theory that melatonin supplementation could have a significant effect on the animals, including reducing triglyceride levels and total and LDL cholesterol levels. They also found that supplementation prevented larger weight gain by reducing the formation of fat tissue and increasing the capacity to break down white fat. This combination of effects helped to prevent the hypertrophy of fat cells caused by excessive eating. Additionally, the researchers noted the supplementation reduced a characteristic inflammatory process found in obese subjects where macrophages infiltrate adipose tissue. The mice also experienced a reduction in inflammatory related factors through a decrease in gene expression. Overall, at the end of the 10-week trial, the group of mice eating an excessive amount without melatonin gained 49% body mass over the control group that ate a normal diet. The group of mice supplemented with melatonin increased their body mass 28% over the control group, but 13% lower than the group eating excess food without melatonin. The researchers believe the data suggest that melatonin could be considered as a therapeutic agent to help mitigate the metabolic and inflammatory conditions triggered in those who are obese.