Scientists reveal how Venus flytraps snap shut

Amazing stuff!

"... Despite how different Venus flytraps are from humans, studying the structure and function of these mechanosensitive channels gives us a broader framework for understanding the ways that cells and organisms respond to touch and pressure ...
Mechanosensitive ion channels are like tunnels that span the membranes of cells. When jostled by movement, the channels open, letting charged molecules rush across. In response, cells then alter their behavior—a neuron might signal its neighbor, for instance. The ability for cells to sense pressure and movement is important for people’s senses of touch and hearing, but also for many internal body processes—from the ability of the bladder to sense that it’s full to the ability of lungs to sense how much air is being breathed. ...
Flycatcher1, caught researchers’ attention because its genetic sequence looked similar to a family of mechanosensitive channels, MscS, found in bacteria ...
In the new study, the researchers used cryo-electron microscopy—a cutting-edge technique that reveals the locations of atoms within a frozen protein sample—to analyze the precise arrangement of molecules that form the Flycatcher1 protein channel in Venus flytrap plants. They found that Flycatcher1 is, in many ways, similar to bacterial MscS proteins—seven groups of identical helices surrounding a central channel. But, unlike other MscS channels, Flycatcher1 has an unusual linker region extending outward from each group of helices. Like a switch, each linker can be flipped up or down. When the team determined the structure of Flycatcher1, they found six linkers in the down position, and just one flipped up. ..."

From the abstract:

"Flycatcher1 (FLYC1), a MscS homolog, has recently been identified as a candidate mechanosensitive (MS) ion channel involved in Venus flytrap prey recognition. FLYC1 is a larger protein and its sequence diverges from previously studied MscS homologs, suggesting it has unique structural features that contribute to its function. Here, we characterize FLYC1 by cryo-electron microscopy, molecular dynamics simulations, and electrophysiology. Akin to bacterial MscS and plant MSL1 channels, we find that FLYC1 central core includes side portals in the cytoplasmic cage that regulate ion preference and conduction, by identifying critical residues that modulate channel conductance. Topologically unique cytoplasmic flanking regions can adopt ‘up’ or ‘down’ conformations, making the channel asymmetric. ..."

Scientists reveal how Venus flytraps snap shut | Scripps Research The mechanosensitive ion channel is related to channels found in a variety of other organisms.

Structural insights into the Venus flytrap mechanosensitive ion channel Flycatcher1 (open access)

The flycatcher

A Matter of Survival: How the Immune System Sets Priorities

Recommendable! This is a reminder that our natural immune system is very imperfect and needs improvement!

"Even after prevailing over a viral infection, our immune system stays active, protecting us from any lingering viruses or recurring disease. But what happens if we pick up a bacterial infection – say, salmonella food poisoning from take-away chicken soup – while recovering from flu or COVID-19? A new study at the Weizmann Institute of Science published today in Immunity, shows that in such cases, the immune system has a clever way of setting priorities, one that might be exploited for the development of future therapies against autoimmune diseases. ...
This means that innate and adaptive immunity generally come to the fore at different stages of an infection. But when one infection is followed by another ...  the two arms are forced to go into high gear at the same time ...
they found that the interaction ends in a clash: Infection with [disease A] interferes with the manufacture of antibodies against the [disease B]. In other words, when faced with a lethal threat, the immune system shuts down mechanisms needed for long-term protection, dealing instead with the more urgent danger. ...
Most immune cells adapt to this shortage by changing their metabolism, shifting to burning glucose for energy instead of oxygen. But for a subset of B cells that reside in the lymph nodes in microscopic structures called germinal centers, an oxygen shortage proves fatal: Unable to adapt their metabolism, these B cells choke and die. This is precisely the subset of cells that plays a key role in adaptive immunity, generating antibodies having the best possible fit against the invading pathogen. The death of these cells puts an end to the production of antibodies required for long-lasting protection against the viral infection. ..."

From the abstract:

"Consecutive exposures to different pathogens are highly prevalent and often alter the host immune response. However, it remains unknown how a secondary bacterial infection affects an ongoing adaptive immune response elicited against primary invading pathogens. We demonstrated that recruitment of Sca-1+ monocytes into lymphoid organs during Salmonella Typhimurium (STm) infection disrupted pre-existing germinal center (GC) reactions. GC responses induced by influenza, plasmodium, or commensals deteriorated following STm infection. GC disruption was independent of the direct bacterial interactions with B cells and instead was induced through recruitment of CCR2-dependent Sca-1+ monocytes into the lymphoid organs. GC collapse was associated with impaired cellular respiration and was dependent on TNFα and IFNγ, the latter of which was essential for Sca-1+ monocyte differentiation. ..."

A Matter of Survival: How the Immune System Sets Priorities - Life Sciences | Weizmann Wonder Wander - News, Features and Discoveries

Bacterial infection disrupts established germinal center reactions through monocyte recruitment and impaired metabolic adaptation (no public access)

Three-prong photothermal therapy eliminates tumours in mice

Good news! Cancer is history!

"Photothermal therapy – a cancer treatment based on laser irradiation of injected gold nanorods – provides high tumour targeting accuracy with low toxicity. Now researchers in China have developed a new nanoplatform that completely eliminates solid liver cancer tumours in mice following a single five-minute light dose and without toxic side effects.

The treatment works by injecting gold nanorods directly into a tumour and then irritating them with near-infrared (NIR) laser light. This causes the nanorods to heat up and kill surrounding cancer cells. Photothermal therapy alone, however, can fail due to incomplete tumour ablation, particularly for larger lesions. This is mainly due to the limited penetration depth of light into tissue and the nanorods not fully permeating throughout the tumour.

To address these issues, the researchers deposited clusters of palladium (Pd) on the ends of gold (Au) nanorods to create heterogeneous Pd-Au nanorods. To improve biocompatibility, they modified the nanorod surfaces with bovine serum albumin (BSA). The introduction of Pd nanoclusters improves the photothermal therapy in three unique ways[:]

[1)] the BSA-Pd-Au nanorods absorb light at longer wavelengths than standard gold nanorods, extending the maximum absorption wavelength from 950 nm to 1050 nm. In this NIR-II region, light penetrates deeper into tissue and can be used at higher maximum skin exposures.

[2)], the nanorods can be used to activate Pro-5-Fu, a prodrug of the chemotherapy drug 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu). By injecting Pro-5-Fu intraperitoneally, then synthesizing 5-Fu in situ at the site of the BSA-Pd-Au nanorods, the potential for damaging healthy cells is minimized.
[3)], the nanorods convert hydrogen peroxide into harmful reactive oxygen species. This so-called chemodynamic therapy (CDT) helps eliminate any residual tumour cells. ..."

Three-prong photothermal therapy eliminates tumours in mice – Physics World

Nucleoporin-93 reveals a common feature of aggressive breast cancers

Good news! Cancer is history! Perhaps new forms of treatments are on the horizon!

"Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute, USA, and other institutions, have now revealed a mechanism that accounts for the spread of a particularly aggressive type of breast cancer.

The study began with a large-scale computational analysis of data from several databases, including information on patient survival and the genes that are overly active in fast-spreading cancers. The scientists came up with a list of some 20 genes, out of about 25,000, that the most aggressive breast cancers appeared to need in order to spread. The top two are genes that play a role in cell division, and they already serve as targets for anticancer drugs. But the third puzzled researchers: It encoded a protein called NUP93, one of the numerous components of the pores, or tunnels of sorts, in the envelope enclosing a cell’s nucleus. ...
The researchers found that NUP93 was present in abnormally large amounts in breast cancer patients with the poorest survival records. As the disease progressed, the genomes of some of these patients came to contain two or three copies of the gene for NUP93 instead of the usual one. Strikingly, many of these patients had tumors that were not sensitive to estrogen. Such tumors, which make up about a third of all breast cancers, are particularly difficult to treat because they lack the estrogen receptors that are targeted by hormonal anticancer drugs. ...
Next, the scientists unraveled the mechanism by which NUP93 plays its grim role in cancer. Because this protein forms a tunnel in the nuclear membrane, it can allow the passage of shuttle proteins called importins, which, among their cargo loads, deliver growth and migration commands from the cytoplasm into the nucleus and thus to the DNA. In this manner, cancer gets access to the cell’s genome, harnessing it for its own needs, namely, increasing the cell’s ability to migrate and revving it up so as to spread the disease. ..."

From the abstract:

"By establishing multi-omics pipelines, we uncover overexpression and gene copy-number alterations of nucleoporin-93 (NUP93), a nuclear pore component, in aggressive human mammary tumors. NUP93 overexpression enhances transendothelial migration and matrix invasion in vitro, along with tumor growth and metastasis in animal models. ..."

To Slow Cancer, Close the Cells’ Tunnels - Life Sciences | Weizmann Wonder Wander - News, Features and Discoveries

Nucleoporin-93 reveals a common feature of aggressive breast cancers: robust nucleocytoplasmic transport of transcription factors (open access)

Britain is paying the price for its fracking panic

Like the United States, the United Kingdom enjoyed energy independence into the 21st century until a few years ago when fossil fuels where shunned to become an energy net importer again!

Human folly knows no bounds!

Will the British people have the courage to restart their shale and fracking revolution for energy independence?

"Between 1980 and 2005, the UK produced more energy than it needed. Today, we import more than a third of our energy and over half of our natural gas. ...

A decade ago, the US shale gas revolution was well underway, with fracking creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and driving down gas prices. Household energy spending in America has fallen by around 15 per cent during the last ten years, even while helping drive a 20 per cent reduction in energy-related emissions over the past two decades.

And it appeared the UK was on the cusp of a similar transformation. In 2013, 58 per cent of the public supported fracking ... At the same time, the British Geological Survey was estimating that the Bowland, a thick seam of shale across Lancashire and Yorkshire, could alone yield up to 13,000 billion cubic metres of natural gas. If just 10 per cent of this had been extracted from the ground, it could have heated homes for half a century.

... in 2013 we were at the zenith ... of our own fracking revolution. Had we developed our reserves of shale oil and gas, it’s possible we would not only be self-sufficient in energy but exporting it to the rest of Europe. Had we not killed our shale industry at birth, the British public would not only be funding more of our own priorities (including low carbon investment), we wouldn't be fuelling the Russian war machine. ...

There is now an anti-fracking consensus in Britain and the last operational site closed in 2019. It was announced last month that Cuadrilla would be permanently abandoning its shale gas wells in Lancashire. A mix of net zero ideologues, naive Nimby’s and renewable energy promoters — often gullibly latching on to Putin’s anti-fracking propaganda — worked tirelessly to stop renewed gas extraction in its tracks. Proponents of the ‘leave it in the ground’ mentality organised protests, stoked public hostility, and made it near-impossible for politicians to reconcile fears with reality. ..."

Britain is paying the price for its fracking panic | The Spectator

Die unbekannte Seite der Brüder Grimm

Sehr empfehlenswert!

Die Frau, die den beiden Brüdern viele Märchen erzählte

Prime Minister of Israel Bennett visits Putin the Terrible in Moscow

This is unusual! Notice how close Putin the Terrible allowed the Israeli Prime Minister to come to him. With recent Western heads of governments, Putin the Terrible had them sit at a 10 meter long table opposite to him. 

Remember e.g. French President Macron on 2/12/2022!

Fertility crisis: Is modern life making men infertile?

Not recommendable! Very one sided, ideology driven video by BBC! The video also emphasizes the growing infertility of women as well.
Only one scientist is narrating the whole video and she is probably biased. No contrary views are represented and so on

Paper: Strategies for Pre-training Graph Neural Networks

Recommendable! Just finished reading it for the first time. Well done!

From the abstract:

"... The key to the success of our strategy is to pre-train an expressive GNN at the level of individual nodes as well as entire graphs so that the GNN can learn useful local and global representations simultaneously. We systematically study pre-training on multiple graph classification datasets. We find that naïve strategies, which pre-train GNNs at the level of either entire graphs or individual nodes, give limited improvement and can even lead to negative transfer on many downstream tasks. In contrast, our strategy avoids negative transfer and improves generalization significantly across downstream tasks, leading up to 9.4% absolute improvements in ROC-AUC over non-pre-trained models and achieving state-of-the-art performance for molecular property prediction and protein function prediction."

Strategies for Pre-training Graph Neural Networks | OpenReview

Working for one of the largest security service companies in the world

Until very recently, I worked part time for one of the top five largest security services companies of the world. It was not Securitas, for which I worked temporarily while studying economics several decades ago. I did not even now that the IT consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton was also in the securities service business.

"This industry is rapidly growing across the world. In the United States alone, the security industry is a 350 billion dollar industry.

1. G4S Secure Solution
2. Securitas Services
3. Allied Universal
4. Booz Allen Hamilton
5. ADT"

As a security officer for this firm, I worked at a very high profile property, a luxury high end shopping mall in Scottsdale, AZ. Perhaps, one of the top five premier shopping malls in Arizona.

Previously, I blogged here about Security services use outdated technology in the retail industry

The company, I worked for about 2.5 years is particularly lousy in several  respects. Especially towards the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, staffing levels fell to a low of about 50% of normal at this property. The company proved unable to attract new hires, so the situation lasted for over half a year or so. Not only that the last two new hires turned out to have such serious non temporary medical conditions that their work performance was very severely impaired and the other colleagues had to pick up their work.

Despite the extra work imposed on the remaining staff during the Covid-19 pandemic it has not occurred at all to top management to praise the extra work done at the local level and to recognize or reward the loyal and dedicated employees with e.g. bonus checks or what have you. In my 2.5 years with the company, nobody from regional management or other higher management rarely ever showed up on site.

The company does not even offer incentives or rewards like extra bonuses for a job well done! I am not even sure they really track performance at the individual level.

I probably don't have to mention that the hourly pay for part time employees was low like $14 per hour when I started. The company also does not offer to raise the pay even after more than 12 months with the company and a good work record. So it was left to me to finally ask for a pay raise, which was granted, but only to $15 per hour.

In conclusion, the appreciation of this company for its workforce really sucks!

The company also failed to notice that the long time top manager at this site was seriously neglecting his job. He pretended to be some kind of auxiliary manager of the shopping mall. Rarely ever did he care about his employees or mingled with his staff. His office was inside the shopping mall management office. Thus, he rarely visited the break room and supervisor office, which are physically very separated from the shopping mall management office. He foremost and almost exclusively talked only with shopping mall management staff or he chatted with on site city police officers, but not with his security staff. He even went so far to do menial work for the shopping mall management like carrying stuff around. It looked weird! Some of my colleagues wondered what is he actually doing for years all day long other than listening to the radio traffic, but his voice is rarely heard on the radio.

Because of this senior security manager on site, the staff break room, the supervisor office, the common kitchen area, staff restrooms, locker rooms were neglected for months. E.g. broken ceiling lights, broken soap dispenser in the lady's restroom, dirty fridge, poor cleaning and upkeep of the common areas and so on.

There is also a second and third senior manager on this site. While the first manager does barely anything, the second one gets involved in work as needed, but not too often. The third manager on site actually does a lot of work but mostly related to surveillance video recordings to document incidents at the mall and he fills in when needed.

Last, but not least: I don't want to brag, but I was probably one of the top 3 security officers at this high profile site. I worked exclusively interior of the mall only on the busiest days, i.e. Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. My service was also very appreciated by the Scottsdale police officers of which two PD officers were always on site on weekends during mall hours. E.g. I had build up over time excellent relationships with many of the mall tenants and their employees. Many of them appreciated my work and for going the extra mile. I had gained their trust so they would sometimes come forward etc. I was usually present and responding at many of the incidences of any kind at the mall. 

U.S. Army tests its first high-energy laser weapon for short-range air defense

It is about time. Israel is ahead (see e.g. my blog here)!

"The U.S. Army is just a few small steps away from fielding its first combat-ready, high-powered laser weapon. Over the summer, such a weapon was mounted on a Stryker military vehicle and used in tests at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in a “combat shoot-off” against a series of possible combat scenarios. The first platoon of four laser-mounted Strykers is expected to join the ranks of the army in early 2022. ...
a 50-kilowatt laser weapon to the field in order to demonstrate short-range air defense (SHORAD) against a series of simulated threats and combat scenarios. These included drones, rockets, artillery, and mortar targets. ...
Designing a laser that is powerful enough to take out a mortar shell from a mile away is a huge engineering challenge. The way it is done is through a technique known as Spectral Beam Combination, whereby multiple outputs of beams are combined into a single high-power beam rather than using a single individual fiber laser. ..."

U.S. Army tests its first high-energy laser weapon The high-power laser weapon is meant to be deployed against drones, as well as rockets, artillery, and mortars.

The End plastic pollution tyranny is coming!

Plastic is turned into something demonic and is compared to a scourge of humanity! The global environmentalist elite wants us citizens to believe that plastic is the next  menace! Much of it is mere propaganda and demagoguery!

For the most part plastic is pretty harmless, but very useful! Plastic can easily be dealt with as long as it is properly disposed of in landfills etc. That some countries lack waste e.g. waste management does not mean all e.g. Western countries need commit to socialist central planning etc. 

We are already developing microbes etc. to dissolve plastics etc. We are also developing plastic that disintegrates/breaks down naturally by itself etc. It is only a matter of time that we have better solutions. There is no need for worldwide massive government intervention! This is a dangerous fantasy by do-gooders and other ideologues!

That too much plastic ends up in the world's oceans is a serious concern, but that should be focused on and addressed as such. Primarily the offenders (some countries more than others) should be targeted!

Historic day in the campaign to beat plastic pollution: Nations commit to develop a legally binding agreement Nairobi, 02 March 2022 – Heads of State, Ministers of environment and other representatives from 175 nations endorsed a historic resolution at the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) today in Nairobi to End Plastic Pollution and forge an international legally binding agreement by 2024. The resolution addresses the full lifecycle of plastic, including its production, design and disposal.

Alphabet’s Wing drones hit 200,000 deliveries as it announces supermarket partnership

Good news!

"Alphabet’s drone service Wing this morning announced another milestone, as it hit 200,000 commercial deliveries. The number, which the firm says excludes test flights, comes half-a-year after it hit 100,000. Australia, which has been the primary market for testing and commercial deployment, comprises 30,000 of those deliveries in the first two months of this year.

Broken down further, Wing says it was up to more than 1,000 deliveries in a day, or one delivery every 25 seconds or so. The big round number arrives as it announces a commercial partnership with Coles, one of Australia’s leading supermarket chains. The deal finds Wing delivering 250 different items, from food stuffs to healthcare products and toiletries, in Australia’s capital, Canberra. ..."

Alphabet’s Wing drones hit 200,000 deliveries as it announces supermarket partnership | TechCrunch

West Virginia became the 18th state to sign the Article V Convention of States!

This is big news!

"... West Virginia State House passed the Convention of States Resolution on an overwhelming -- and bipartisan! -- 77-19-4 vote ... Then, less than one hour later, the state Senate passed the Resolution on a voice vote, making West Virginia the 18th state in history to pass the Convention of States Resolution! ..."

Another state joins the Convention of States movement! Both House and Senate pass Convention of States Resolution in a single day

W.Va. senators pass resolution calling for convention of states

AI computer maker Graphcore unveils 3-D chip, promises 500-trillion-parameter 'ultra-intelligence' machine

Good news! Advances in artificial intelligence/machine learning are almost foremost made possible by advances in computer hardware like better chips are larger, faster memory etc.!

"... The Bow processor is the latest version of what Graphcore refers to as "IPUs," standing for Intelligence Processing Units. The company has previously released two iterations of IPU, the last one being in late 2020.

..., is "the first step in what to us is a strategic direction that involves vertical silicon integration, in other words, stacking silicon dies on top of each other ...

Similar to the "Wafer Scale Engine" developed by competitor Cerebras Systems, the Bow makes use of novel manufacturing techniques that go beyond conventional microprocessor fabrication.

The Bow is the first chip to use what's called wafer-on-wafer chip technology, where two die are bound together. It was developed "in close collaboration" with contract chip manufacturing giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing ..."

AI computer maker Graphcore unveils 3-D chip, promises 500-trillion-parameter 'ultra-intelligence' machine | ZDNet The new chip, made of two die stuck together, will speed performance by 40% for machine learning tasks such as EfficientNet.

The Soap in the primordial soup

Very recommendable! Amazing stuff!

"... Currently, the leading hypothesis within the scientific community is that life developed from RNA molecules, known for their self-replication ability. Yet for the past two decades, Prof. Doron Lancet, of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Molecular Genetics Department, has been swimming against the currents of the primordial soup. “It is highly improbable that the origin of life traces back to a single complex molecule such as RNA,” says Lancet, “but more likely to assemblies of simple chemical compounds that can form spontaneously and reproduce as a whole.” ...
RNA molecules that are able to replicate consist of tens, and often hundreds, of discrete molecular units organized linearly. These units, in turn, are assumed to be distilled from a milieu containing millions of other different molecules, a next to impossible feat. ...

The molecular ensembles proposed by Lancet as the earliest reproducible entities are called micelles – nano-scale spheres the size of viruses, composed of lipid molecules. These possess a unique property: They are made up of a water-“loving” head, and a water-“hating” tail. This arrangement enables lipids to perform their task as the principal structural component of the membranes that surround every living cell, as well as to form into significantly smaller micellar structures.       

...  it has been demonstrated that lipid molecules could have formed on ancient Earth and may even have arrived here carried on meteorites. Previous studies by Lancet have further provided evidence that micellar structures, unlike RNA, could have readily formed spontaneously in the chaotic primordial environment.
For lipid micelles to be considered candidates for the origin of life, they must show catalytic properties, namely, a capacity for speeding up reaction processes. In their first paper, the researchers present comprehensive evidence for just that: diverse instances of lipid catalysis. These findings, derived unexpectedly from the chemical industry, support the notion that micelles can indeed mimic present-day cells. The researchers also surveyed studies that implemented Lancet’s computational model to predict the behavior of lipids under a variety of conditions. These studies demonstrate that micelles can create copies of their molecular composition as they develop – and later on split – which is reminiscent of how cells behave. ...
Given that micellar replication is error prone – similar in a way to how DNA acquires spontaneous, random mutations – it could drive forward evolutionary processes. The researchers address this aspect as well by introducing new routes by which micelles could have evolved to gradually become more complex, toward becoming what are known as protocells – simple precursors of modern cells. In the second paper, the scientists provide further biochemical evidence that chemical groups, attached to the water-“loving” surface of micelles, may form molecular recognition sites, comparable to those found in present-day proteins. ..."

From the abstract (1):

"... This postulate gains considerable support from experiments describing micellar catalysis and autocatalytic proliferation, and, more recently, from reports on cross-catalysis in mixed micelles that lead to life-like steady-state dynamics. Such results, along with evidence for micellar prebiotic compatibility, synergize with predictions of our chemically stringent computer-simulated model, illustrating how mutually catalytic lipid networks may enable micellar compositional reproduction that could underlie primal selection and evolution. Finally, we highlight studies on how endogenously catalysed lipid modifications could guide further protocellular complexification, including micelle to vesicle transition and monomer to biopolymer progression. These portrayals substantiate the possibility that protocellular evolution could have been seeded by pre-RNA lipid assemblies."

From the abstract (2):

"A widespread dogma asserts that life could not have emerged without biopolymers – RNA and proteins. However, the widely acknowledged implausibility of a spontaneous appearance and proliferation of these complex molecules in primordial messy chemistry casts doubt on this scenario. A proposed alternative is “Lipid-First”, based on the evidence that lipid assemblies may spontaneously emerge in heterogeneous environments, and are shown to undergo growth and fission, and to portray autocatalytic self-copying. What seems undecided is whether lipid assemblies have protein-like capacities for stereospecific interactions, a sine qua non of life processes. This Viewpoint aims to alleviate such doubts, pointing to growing experimental evidence that lipid aggregates possess dynamic surface configurations capable of stereospecific molecular recognition. Such findings help support a possible key role of lipids in seeding life's origin."

The Primordial Soap - Chemistry | Weizmann Wonder Wander - News, Features and Discoveries Weizmann Institute scientists disclose comprehensive evidence that life may have originated with lipid nano-scale particles

1) Self-reproducing catalytic micelles as nanoscopic protocell precursors (no public access)

2) Dynamic lipid aptamers: non-polymeric chemical path to early life (open access)

Possible Case of Deer-To-Human SARS-CoV-2 Transmission

Why was it not a human-to-animal transmission?

There is still a preoccupation by scientists to explain the Covid-19 global pandemic as caused by zoonotic transmission. 

From the abstract:

"Wildlife reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 can lead to viral adaptation and spillback from wildlife to humans ... In North America, there is evidence of spillover of SARS-CoV-2 from humans to white-tailed deer ..., but no evidence of transmission from deer to humans ..."

Possible Case of Deer-To-Human SARS-CoV-2 Transmission | The Scientist Magazine® Canadian researchers identify a highly mutated variant of the virus in white-tailed deer and link it to a human COVID-19 case in the region—though they emphasize that the infection risk to people is low.

Highly divergent white-tailed deer SARS-CoV-2 with potential deer-to-human transmission (open access)

Verdi: The Tragic Life Story Of The Italian Composer

Very recommendable! Plus Giacomo Puccini!

Volodomyr Zelensky: His Presidency in the Context of Ukrainian-Jewish History

Very recommendable!

More Americans Produce Their Own Power supply

Energy independence!

"More Americans are producing their own power.

As the American electric grid becomes less dependable, a growing number of businesses and homeowners are buying their own power systems to protect themselves from being left in the dark. Twenty years ago, only 0.57% of U.S. homes worth $150,000 or more had installed backup generators, mainly along hurricane-prone coastlines, according to backup-power provider Generac Holdings, a 10-fold increase. Many entrepreneurs now consider secondary power systems to be a necessary cost of doing business. Reliability isn’t the only driver of the power-independence trend. The cost of renewables has fallen enough that some companies are adding on-site renewable energy to reduce their use of power from the electric grid or to meet corporate sustainability goals."

Wary of Being Left in the Dark, Americans Produce Their Own Power - WSJ

It’s not just Mali: French influence in Africa is collapsing

Recommendable! African countries are still shaking off their colonial past, but they are also seeking new allies!

"Today, many Africans view the French as irrelevant if not persona non grata in many countries in which they once held sway. Earlier this month, for example, thousands of Malians celebrated the French ambassador’s expulsion in the capital city, Bamako. When French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called the elected military junta “illegitimate” and “out-of-control,” Malian military leaders ordered Ambassador Joel Meyer to depart the country. ...
Recently, the Malian junta contracted out security to Russia’s paramilitary Wagner Group, an outlet known to commit human rights abuses and pillage local resources. French troops, meanwhile, are on their way out from the country.
The French divorce from Mali is increasingly becoming the rule rather than the exception. Increasingly, France’s more-than-a-century-long diplomatic dominance in Africa is ending, and with it, France’s pretension of being a major player on the world stage. ...
Then there is Rwanda itself. While Rwanda was originally a Belgian colonial possession, France treated it as its own following the country’s 1962 independence. French policy, however, was twisted. Declassified French archival documents and an assessment of newly-available sources now show beyond any reasonable doubt direct French complicity in the 1994 anti-Tutsi genocide. France’s motives? Distrust of Rwandans seeking greater ties to the Anglophone world as well as President Juvénal Habyarimana’s willingness (under whom Hutu militants planned the anti-Tutsi Genocide) to subordinate Rwandan interests and human rights to French requests. ...
France’s unwillingness to recognize regional competition has also taken its toll. Djibouti, for example, was once France’s strategic backstop. Until a decade ago, Djibouti was home to the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion. It subsequently moved to the United Arab Emirates and then back to France. Meanwhile, China has become the dominant influence in the former French colony. Nor is China alone. Turkey is using anti-French, anti-colonialist rhetoric to cultivate former French colonies across Africa. In the most infamous example, Ahmet Kavas, the Turkish ambassador to Chad, lauded Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and accused French troops fighting them of being the real terrorists. ..."

It’s not just Mali: French influence in Africa is collapsing | American Enterprise Institute - AEI Just a decade ago, France held paramount influence in Africa. Today, its reach is in freefall and, with it, any pretension of being a global power.

Researchers Use Ultrasound to Control Neurons in Mice

Amazing stuff!

"More than a decade ago, scientists developed optogenetics, a method to turn cells on and off with light. The technique allows scientists to spur or suppress cells' electrical activity with just the flip of a switch to tease apart the roles of specific cell types. But because light doesn’t penetrate deep into tissues, scientists need to surgically implant light sources to illuminate cells below the surface of the skin or skull.

In a new study published today (February 9) in Nature Communications, researchers report they’ve found a way to use ultrasound to noninvasively activate mouse neurons, both in culture and in the brains of living animals. The technique, which the authors call sonogenetics, elicits electrical activity in a subset of brain cells that have been genetically engineered to respond to sound waves. ..."

From the abstract:

"Ultrasound has been used to non-invasively manipulate neuronal functions in humans and other animals. However, this approach is limited as it has been challenging to target specific cells within the brain or body. Here, we identify human Transient Receptor Potential A1 (hsTRPA1) as a candidate that confers ultrasound sensitivity to mammalian cells. Ultrasound-evoked gating of hsTRPA1 specifically requires its N-terminal tip region and cholesterol interactions; and target cells with an intact actin cytoskeleton, revealing elements of the sonogenetic mechanism. Next, we use calcium imaging and electrophysiology to show that hsTRPA1 potentiates ultrasound-evoked responses in primary neurons. Furthermore, unilateral expression of hsTRPA1 in mouse layer V motor cortical neurons leads to c-fos expression and contralateral limb responses in response to ultrasound delivered through an intact skull. Collectively, we demonstrate that hsTRPA1-based sonogenetics can effectively manipulate neurons within the intact mammalian brain, a method that could be used across species."

Researchers Use Ultrasound to Control Neurons in Mice | The Scientist Magazine® A study shows “sonogenetics” could be a useful new tool in neuroscience and other fields.

Sonogenetic control of mammalian cells using exogenous Transient Receptor Potential A1 channels (open access)

Bring Back Risk Taking

Recommendable! It is a several decades old, well known subject that in Western countries risk taking is more and more frowned upon by too many of its citizens!

"... There are many reasons for our declining risk tolerance. We were raised and live in a richer society, where we need to take fewer risks. The government plays a growing role in removing risk from our lives, from the financial system to the workplace and beyond. We wind up less used to confronting risk—and less prepared for life’s inevitable shocks.

This threatens not only our resilience but also, over time, our prosperity. Risk is critical for a flourishing society and vibrant economy. Investors and entrepreneurs must take chances to find new innovations. Individuals need to do so as well, in order to achieve their personal and economic potential. If well designed, regulation can help us balance risk and reward sensibly. But our goal as a society seems more and more to be reducing risk at all costs. ..."

Bring Back Risk | City Journal Our increasing aversion to taking chances creates dangers of its own.

Russian energy giant Lukoil calls for immediate end of Ukraine war

Good news! The domestic pressure on Putin the Terrible is mounting!

"Russian oil giant Lukoil on Thursday [3/3/2022] called for an immediate halt to fighting in Ukraine, one of the first major domestic firms to speak out against Moscow’s invasion of its pro-Western neighbor.

The board “expresses its concern over the ongoing tragic events in Ukraine and its deepest sympathy to all those affected by this tragedy,” the company said in a statement.

“We stand for the immediate cessation of the armed conflict and fully support its resolution through the negotiation process and through diplomatic means,” its note added. ..."

Russian energy giant Lukoil calls for immediate end of Ukraine war | The Times of Israel

Biden weighing sanctions on India over Russian military stockpiles

For the demented and senile 46th President of the U.S to impose sanction on India, because India is a major importer of Russian arms is extremely stupid!

India has for years worked on diversifying its arms sourcing thus reducing the once dominant share of Russian arms significantly.

India is urgently needed as an important partner of the free world. Its economic and political relevance is growing.

"The Biden administration is weighing whether to impose sanctions against India over its stockpile of and reliance on Russian military equipment as part of the wide-ranging consequences the West is seeking to impose on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine."

Biden weighing sanctions on India over Russian military stockpiles | TheHill

Klimaschau: Thorium-Flüssigsalz-Reaktoren als Game Changer?

Sehr empfehlenswert! Warum hat die Bananenrepublik keine Thorium-Flüssigsalz Reaktoren entwickelt an Stelle von z.B. China?

Ukraine and Putin: Russian leader is not crazy, he's consistent

Recommendable! A quick reminder who Putin the Terrible is!

How it began:

"... When Putin was prime minister in 1999, he was suspected of having approved a series of bombings in four Russian cities, two of them in Moscow, that killed over 300 people. Blaming the bombings on Chechen rebels, Putin then used the ostensible terror attacks as a pretext to reignite a second war in Chechnya, launching a massive air and land campaign that resulted in thousands of refugees, reduced much of Grozny, the capital, to rubble and killed at least 25,000 civilians. ..."

Ukraine and Putin: Russian leader is not crazy, he's consistent | Fox News by Judith Miller. Since taking power 22 years ago, Putin has specialized in killing

Deutschland gewinnt den Preis für die idiotischste Energiepolitik der Welt

Habe nicht alles gelesen, aber der Artikel liegt wohl richtig!

Zur Erinnerung:

"... Im Jahr 2000 verabschiedete die Koalitionsregierung von Sozialdemokraten und Grünen unter Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder das EEG-Einspeisegesetz für erneuerbare Energien  Was folgte, war ein Baurausch für grüne Energie, bei dem jedes Jahr Hunderte von Megawatt volatiler Wind- und Solarkapazität an das Netz angeschlossen wurden, während die Kernenergie abgeschaltet wurde. ..."

Deutschland gewinnt den Preis für die idiotischste Energiepolitik der Welt | EIKE - Europäisches Institut für Klima & Energie

So kann man eine Wirtschaft auch ruinieren!

Comment: Evaluation of the Homogenization Adjustments Applied to European Temperature Records in the Global Historical Climatology Network Dataset

As they say: Garbage in, garbage out! Climate data is massaged in sometimes dubious ways or even manipulated (e.g. by excluding weather station data that contradict the narrative of Global Warming)

Climate models are a hoax: We cannot even forecast weather fairly accurate for more than a few days (Make no mistake weather is as complex climate). They cannot backcast!

From the abstract:

"... However, only 19% of the breakpoints (18% for Version 3) were associated with a documented event within 1 year, and 67% (69% for Version 3) were not associated with any documented event. Therefore, while the PHA remains a useful tool in the community’s homogenization toolbox, many of the PHA adjustments applied to the homogenized GHCN dataset may have been spurious ..."

Atmosphere | Free Full-Text | Evaluation of the Homogenization Adjustments Applied to European Temperature Records in the Global Historical Climatology Network Dataset (open access)

Credits: Gefunden: große Probleme mit den Daten-Adjustierungen in einem verbreitet genutzten globalen Temperatur-Datensatz

Emma Matratzen wächst sprunghaft und überholt die amerikanische Caspar

Nach Pfizer/Biontech werden nun deutsche Matratzen gelobt! Welch ein Rückschritt! Na dann, schlaft mal gut in Deutschland! 😄

Emma Matratzen wächst sprunghaft und überholt Caspar Das neun Jahre junge Unternehmen Emma aus Frankfurt ist nun einer der weltgrößten Matratzenhersteller und -händler. 2021 hat er selbst die amerikanische Konkurrenz abgehängt.

Nachhaltigkeit: Brüssel plant Vorgaben für fast alle Waren

Die Grüne Tyrannei geht weiter! Was wird der ideologische Unsinn den Verbraucher kosten?

"... Ohne kleinteilige Vorgaben für Waschmaschinen, Fernseher oder Staubsauger kann die EU ihre ehrgeizigen Klimaschutzziele nach Ansicht der Behörde nicht erreichen. Im Gegenteil: Die Kommission will die Ökodesign-Richtlinie, die ihr die Festlegung von Mindestanforderungen für den Energie- oder Ressourcenverbrauch ermöglicht, nun noch einmal stark ausweiten. ..."

Nachhaltigkeit: Brüssel plant Vorgaben für fast alle Waren Das [unsinnige] Glühbirnen-Verbot war nur der Anfang. Jetzt will die EU-Kommission selbst für Textilien und fast alle anderen Produkte genaue Vorgaben machen, wie sie nachhaltig hergestellt werden können.

The benefits of peripheral computer vision

An interesting new approach!

"... Humans and computer vision systems both have what is known as foveal vision, which is used for scrutinizing highly detailed objects. Humans also possess peripheral vision, which is used to organize a broad, spatial scene. Typical computer vision approaches attempt to model foveal vision — which is how a machine recognizes objects — and tend to ignore peripheral vision ...
But foveal computer vision systems are vulnerable to adversarial noise, which is added to image data by an attacker. ...
The results suggest that designing a machine-learning model to include some form of peripheral processing could enable the model to automatically learn visual representations that are robust to some subtle manipulations in image data. ..."

The benefits of peripheral vision for machines | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Finding Biological Plausibility for Adversarially Robust Features via Metameric Tasks (open access)

In the Ukraine, Orthodox Jewish father and son soldiers are 'ready to kill Russian soldiers'

The war in the Ukraine goes on! Putin the Terrible is still in office!

"... The 20-year-old Hasidic Jew and his father Asher [from Dnipro] are among a force of 400 Ukrainian troops poised to try to repel an attack on their eastern Ukraine city, one of several where Russian troops are expected to stage combat in the coming days. ...
The centrally located city of Dnipro is of key strategic importance in the conflict because of its airport and its high level of metals production. ...
“I would go all the way to Moscow and beyond and shoot f—ing Putin myself if I could,” Cherkaskyi told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency ..."

In Dnipro, Orthodox father and son soldiers are 'ready to kill Russian soldiers' - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Father praying with a traditional paper Torah (?) and son with smartphone

Chip industry standardizes on UCIe chiplet ecosystem for interoperability

Good news!

"... Today, the industry consortium that includes AMD, Arm, Google Cloud, Intel, Meta, Qualcomm, Samsung and TSMC announced UCIe (Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express) as a new die-to-die interconnect to provide an open, multivendor chiplet ecosystem. More specifically, the ratified UCIe 1.0 specification covers the physical I/O layer, die-to-die protocols and a software stack that leverages the existing PCIe and CXL industry interconnect standards (although other protocols could also be used in principle). In addition, there is even support for inter-board interconnection: In the future, the industry expects to be able to connect different boards at the package level using co-packaged or even integrated photonics.  ..."

Chip industry standardizes on UCIe chiplet ecosystem for interoperability | VentureBeat

Wie viel das „Gratis“ Covid-19 Testen kostet in Österreich

Ein etwas verspäteter blog post! Mea culpa! 😄

"Österreich ist Europameister im Testen. In keinem anderen EU-Land wird derzeit so viel getestet wie hierzulande. Die hohe Anzahl an Corona-Tests verursacht in Österreich Milliardenkosten. Wie die Beantwortung einer Budgetanfrage der NEOS ergeben hat, rechnet das Gesundheitsministerium für das laufende Jahr [2021] mit Testkosten in Höhe von 1,6 Milliarden Euro. Kommendes Jahr sollen es weitere 1,3 Milliarden Euro sein. ..."

Grafik: Wie viel das „Gratis“-Testen kostet

IAEA Director General Statement on Situation of nuclear power plants in Ukraine

Putin the Terrible invaded a country with several nuclear power plants with about 15 nuclear reactors!

"Russia has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that its military forces have taken control of the territory around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today.

In an official letter to the Director General dated 1 March, the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the International Organizations in Vienna also said personnel at the plant continued their “work on providing nuclear safety and monitoring radiation in normal mode of operation. The radiation levels remain normal.”

Earlier on 1 March, Ukraine informed the IAEA that all its nuclear power plants remained under the control of the national operator. In an update this morning, the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) said it maintained communications with the country’s nuclear facilities and that the NPPs continued to operate normally. ..."

Update 6 – IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine | IAEA

The giant plan to track diversity in research journals

This is published as a news feature by the prestigious Nature journal!

 

The Nazis their Nuremberg Laws and their race ideology are back and this time they are scientists!

Any scientist in their conscious mind should refuse to comply with this nonsense!

"In the next year, researchers should expect to face a sensitive set of questions whenever they send their papers to journals, and when they review or edit manuscripts. More than 50 publishers representing over 15,000 journals globally are preparing to ask scientists about their race or ethnicity — as well as their gender — in an initiative that’s part of a growing effort to analyse researcher diversity around the world. ..."

The giant plan to track diversity in research journals Efforts to chart and reduce bias in scholarly publishing will ask authors, reviewers and editors to disclose their race or ethnicity.

Arizona Senate study estimates 200k ballots counted in 2020 with mismatched signatures

More evidence that the November 2020 elections in the U.S. were a mess!

Biden won by less than 11,000 votes in Arizona!

"A study of Maricopa County's mail ballots in Arizona's 2020 presidential election estimates that more than 200,000 ballots with mismatched signatures were counted without being reviewed, or "cured" — more than eight times the 25,000 signature mismatches requiring curing acknowledged by the county."

 

Arizona Senate study estimates 200k ballots counted in 2020 with mismatched signatures | Just The News

Stanford University uses AI computing to cut DNA sequencing down to five hours

Good news! When will we will achieve 1 hour or less? Any future pathogenic virus be damned!

This record is actually old according to Guinness as it dates from 3/16/2021. Only the journal article about the record is new! Or in other words, the record is almost one year old and still unchallenged!

"... The study ... involved speeding up every step of genome sequencing workflow by relying on new technology. This included using nanopore sequencing on Oxford Nanopore's PromethION Flow Cells to generate more than 100 gigabases of data per hour, and Nvidia GPUs on Google Cloud to speed up the base calling and variant calling processes. ...
The previous Guinness World Record for DNA sequencing was 14 hours held by Rady Children's Institute."

Stanford University uses AI computing to cut DNA sequencing down to five hours | ZDNet Speeding up the genome sequencing process has earned the project a Guinness World Record title.

Ultrarapid Nanopore Genome Sequencing in a Critical Care Setting (no public access) Because a genetic diagnosis can guide clinical management and improve prognosis in critically ill patients, much effort has gone into developing methods that result in rapid, reliable results. The authors describe extremely rapid sequencing and analysis of the genomes of 12 patients, 5 of whom received a diagnosis.

$1 million bounty on Putin the Terrible offered by Russian businessman

Will this be the end of Putin the Terrible! Will this call inspire others?

However, the career of the former Russian businessmen Alex Konanykhin is a bit  colorful. He is a Russian exile living in the U.S. since about 1992.

"A $1,000,000 bounty for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin was offered to military officers by Russian entrepreneur Alex Konanykhin in a post he published on social media this week, as Russia continued its invasion of Ukraine.

"I promise to pay $1,000,000 to the officer(s) who, complying with their constitutional duty, arrest(s) Putin as a war criminal under Russian and international laws," wrote Konanykhin on LinkedIn. "Putin is not the Russian president as he came to power as the result of a special operation of blowing up apartment buildings in Russia, then violated the Constitution by eliminating free elections and murdering his opponents." ..."

$1 million bounty on Putin offered by Russian businessman - The Jerusalem Post The Russian entrepreneur said the Russian president came to power by "blowing up apartment buildings in Russia."

Russian troops confronted by unarmed Ukrainians: Why are you here? 'Go home while you are alive'

Brave, unarmed Ukrainian citizens are facing the Russian soldiers!

EU parliament to discuss Kyiv's application for immediate membership amid Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Bravo, the EU is rising fast to the challenge of the invasion of the Ukraine by Putin the Terrible! Will the EU also take the next step to significantly expedite the membership application or will it take years as usual? E.g. a provisional membership in the EU?

Extraordinary circumstances require sometimes extraordinary measures to preserve peace and humanity!

Chaka Khan - I'm Every Woman (Official Music Video)

Enjoy!

Free Black People of Revolutionary America

Recommendable! They were nation builders!

Watch Nancy Pelosi Rip Up Copy Of President Donald Trump’s State Of The Union speech

I almost had forgotten about this nasty act by crazy 80 year old Nancy Pelosi! Hope after the November 2022 elections she will be out of office finally!

I am also surprised that VP Pence did not intervene or object to this!

Credits to Greg Kelly who played a video clip showing this act of Nancy Pelosi this evening.

EU's synchronised support for Ukraine: Nations unite in sending arms to Ukraine

Dozens of European countries including usually neutral countries together are sending hundreds of millions of US dollars in weapons to Ukraine!

Germany's surprisingly swift about face towards Russia was the turning point!

Add to this U.S., Canada, Australia, and Israel!

How much longer will Putin the Terrible be in office? His time is up!

Large Cargo Ship Carrying electric Luxury Cars Sinks in the Atlantic due to burning car batteries

The electric cars that sank a 2005 built ocean going cargo ship! Let this sink in for a moment (no pun intended)!

"... The captain told Reuters that the lithium-ion batteries in the cars ignited and the fire could only be extinguished with special equipment. ..." (Source)

"The burning cargo ship with thousands of luxury cars onboard sank in the Atlantic Ocean about 253 miles off Portugal’s Azores Islands. The Felicity Ace—loaded with Porsches, Bentleys, Audis, Lamborghinis and other high-end autos, many of them electric—caught fire in February. Electric-vehicle batteries have been known to ignite and burn at high temperatures when they combust. Insurance experts said the cargo was worth about $438 million, most of it for the cars."

Cargo Ship Carrying Thousands of Luxury Cars Sinks in the Atlantic - WSJ

For first time, majority of Finns support joining NATO

Good news! This is huge! Finland beat Stalin in the November 1939 First Soviet-Finnish War and it has remained fiercely neutral and independent since 1945.

I believe, Putin the Terrible miscalculated terribly! He had no clue what he was getting into when he decided to invade the Ukraine!

Will the Russian people arrest Putin the Terrible and put him before a tribunal for war crimes?

"Finland's parliament will discuss a petition on Tuesday [3/1/2022?] calling on the country to join NATO, after a new survey found that, for the first time, a majority of Finns support joining the military alliance. ...
The Finnish parliament will discuss a citizens' initiative which has gotten over 72,000 signatures calling on the parliament to hold a referendum on joining NATO. The initiative was first published on February 21. In Finland, the parliament is required to consider an initiative if it receives over 50,000 signatures. ..."

For first time, majority of Finns support joining NATO - The Jerusalem Post The percentage of Finns in favor of joining NATO has risen 34% since 2017, when only 19% were in favor.

Saint Olga of Kyiv: Ukraine's patron saint of defiance and vengeance

Very recommendable! Lessons of history!

How does the Russian Orthodox Church respond to Putin the Terrible's horrible invasion on the Ukraine?

"... Ukrainians are used to adversity and they have a special medieval role model who personifies their bravery in the face of hardship. The Mongol horde destroyed her tomb in Kyiv in 1240 but a Ukrainian Orthodox cathedral dedicated to her was consecrated there as recently as 2010. ...

Olga of Kyiv, consort of Igor, second ruler of the Rurikid dynasty, is today recognized as one of Eastern Orthodoxy’s greatest saints. A fierce and proud woman who protected her young son and avenged her husband’s death, she was a crucial figure in the consolidation of the medieval kingdom of Kyivan Rus’ as a political entity and in its peoples’ conversion to Christianity.

Olga was born to Viking parents in Pskov, northern Russia, around the turn of the 10th century. She married Prince Igor young and may have been only 20 when the Drevlians, a neighbouring tribe, rose up against his rule and murdered him.

The Byzantine chronicler Leo the Deacon gives gruesome details of Igor’s killing: he was tied to two tree trunks which were then released so his body was split in two. ...

Olga’s legend was born of her actions in the weeks and months that followed. The Drevlians sent her emissaries to suggest she marry their leader Prince Mal. The Primary Chronicle, an 11th-century manuscript which is our main source for what follows, records Olga as greeting them deceptively, apparently to bide for time.

The account may be part-fictitious or at least exaggerated. Yet that is not the point: in medieval hagiography it is the morality of the tale that matters most.

“Your proposal is pleasing to me”, Olga told her interlocutors. “Indeed, my husband cannot rise again from the dead. But I desire to honour you tomorrow in the presence of my people. Return now to your boat, and remain there […] I shall send for you on the morrow […]

The hubristic Drevlian delegation took her at her word gleefully. But what they did not know was that she had arranged for a trench to be dug into which they and their boat were flung.

They were buried alive.

Olga summoned a second Drevlian embassy before the rest of the tribe had had time to learn of the first one’s fate. When they arrived she commanded her people to draw a bath for them.

The Drevlians then entered the bathhouse but Olga ordered the doors to be bolted and the building set ablaze.

For a third reprisal, Olga went to the place where the Drevlians had killed her husband, telling those present she wished to hold a funeral feast to commemorate him. Once the Drevlians were drunk and incapacitated she had her men massacre them.

Finally, she laid siege to the Drevlians’ base at Iskorosten (the modern-day Ukraine city of Korosten). She tricked those inside the city with an offer of peace: all they had to give up were three pigeons and three sparrows from each house.

But when Olga had the birds in her possession she had her men tie a sulphurous cloth to one of each one’s legs. The birds flew back to their nests for the night and the sulphur set every building on fire simultaneously.

Olga ordered her soldiers to catch everyone who fled the burning city so they could be extirpated or taken into slavery. ..."

Saint Olga of Kyiv: Ukraine's patron saint of defiance and vengeance - The Jerusalem Post

Russia’s over 19 Jewish oligarchs and their donations come under threat of Western sanctions amid Ukraine war

This is rich! History is rarely pure and never simple! 

Some of the richest oligarchs in Putin the Terrible's orbit are Jewish so is the President of the Ukraine! And Israel is supporting the Ukraine with weapons and more. How will this play out?

"... The 19 Russian Jewish billionaires who are either already under sanctions or likely to be next are worth a collective $127 billion. ...
Fridman is the controlling owner of Alfa-Bank, a major Russian financial institution that the United States and European Union last week placed under sanctions, limiting its ability to operate internationally. ..."

Russia’s Jewish oligarchs and their donations come under threat of Western sanctions amid Ukraine war - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Wisconsin voting probe chief urges Legislature to consider decertifying 2020 election

Wow! If confirmed, this could be huge! The 2020 elections were a mess! Questions about election integrity remain!

Could Mark Zuckerberg finally face indictment for his about $400 million spending on the 2020 elections!

"Retired Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Mike Gableman presented a 136-page report outlining the preliminary results of his probe to the state Assembly, offering evidence of several irregularities including that "most vulnerable" nursing home residents had been defrauded of their votes.

His conclusions followed two major court rulings that declared election rules changes enacted in 2020 -- which allowed for ballot drop boxes to be used and voters to skip ID requirements by declaring themselves "indefinitely confined" by COVID -- were illegal. Those rulings call into question tens of thousands of ballots cast in a state where Biden won by less than 21,000 votes. ..."

Wisconsin voting probe chief urges Legislature to consider decertifying 2020 election | Just The News Former Supreme Court justice Mike Gableman cites evidence that "most vulnerable citizens" in nursing homes were defrauded, Mark Zuckerberg donations were improper and some rule changes were illegal.

Wird die Wehrpflicht in Deutschland wieder eingeführt dank Putin der Schreckliche?

Wenn wieder Wehrpflicht, dann bitte schön endlich auch für Frauen! Das wäre im Sinne der Gleichberechtigung

Klar, Frauen und Feministinnen mögen Frauenquoten etc. wenn es ihnen genehm und von Vorteil ist!

Eine reine Berufsarmee war wohl nicht die Lösung!

"Die Personalstärke der Bundeswehr wurde seit der Wiedervereinigung von 486.825 Soldaten (Stand 1989) über 331.148 (1999) auf 183.758 (Januar 2022) reduziert. Im Jahr 2018 wurde großspurig eine „Trendwende Personal“ ausgerufen mit dem Ziel, die Gesamtstärke der Streitkräfte bis 2025 wieder auf 203.000 Soldaten zu erhöhen. ..."

Ein Plus von 100 Milliarden für die Bundeswehr: Wie gewinnt man das notwendige Personal? Wird Es Ohne Eine Wehrpflicht Gelingen? Die Bundeswehr hat ein Personalproblem. Die Gewinnung von Nachwuchs ist mit dem Aussetzen der Wehrpflicht vor gut zehn Jahren immer schwieriger geworden. Die Frage ist also: Führt an der Wiedereinführung der Wehrpflicht ein Weg vorbei?

Isla Tasajera off of Ecuador Receives Gift Of Bitcoin

This is one way how to spread the use of digital currency around the world! You start very small in a remote area of the world.

Isla Tasajera Receives Gift Of Bitcoin - Bitcoin Magazine: Bitcoin News, Articles, Charts, and Guides 

Through Fundraising And Financial Revolution, Bitcoin Has Forever Changed Lives On Isla Tasajera A philanthropic effort led by the Built With Bitcoin Foundation and Bitcoin Magazine provided a ferry, school supplies and hope to an island in El Salvador.

John Stossel: Why are there so few medical doctors in the U.S.: The doctor cartel

The American Medical Association and politicians restrict more people from becoming doctors and other qualified professionals from treating patients! 

By the way, John Stossel ought to get rid of his new beard!

Oligarchs feel the pinch of sanctions, lose over $126 billion due to Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Good news! Some oligarchs living abroad are beginning to have second thoughts about Putin the Terrible and voice them in public!

How RUSSIA and PUTIN extend their POWER? From Afghanistan to Libya via Angola

Very recommendable! E.g. Russia is the largest weapons exporter to Africa. Oil pipelines from Caspian See to India and much more. A little bit about the Wagner Group ...