All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Sharpshot Nature .Com 01569-tod-040455 Monochamus Notatus

Monochamus Notatus

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2020-09-19 01569-tod-040455 Monochamus Notatus

Canon PowerShot – f/3.2 1/25 ISO800 – Savanna Portage State Park, MN

Source: Sharpshot Nature .Com 01569-tod-040455 Monochamus Notatus

Doctors overwhelmed by blast injuries as civilian impact of device explosions sparks outcry

American and Lebanese officials say Israel was behind the blasts, which killed at least 37 people, including at least two children, and injured nearly 3,000 more.

“Most of the patients are very sick, with injuries to the eyes, to the hands,” said Dr. Salah Zeineldine of the American University of Beirut Medical Center. The facility’s surgical rooms have been operating nonstop since the attacks, he said in a video message sent via WhatsApp on Thursday.

Most of the victims were young men, Jrade said, but he said they had also treated women and children.

The pagers and walkie-talkies were used by Hezbollah, which has exchanged months of escalating fire and threats with Israel that have displaced and killed civilians on both sides of the border — but the devices could have been in anyone’s possession when they exploded.

Source: Doctors overwhelmed by blast injuries as civilian impact of device explosions sparks outcry

World’s biggest deforestation project gets underway in Papua for sugarcane (Me: Look for huge outbreak of malaria and dengue in coming years in Papua deforested area)

Excavators have begun clearing land in the Indonesian region of Papua in what’s been described as the largest deforestation undertaking in the world.

A total of 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of forests, wetlands and grasslands in Merauke district will be razed to make way for a cluster of giant sugarcane plantations, part of the Indonesian government’s efforts to boost domestic sugar production.

Five consortiums, consisting of Indonesian and foreign companies, are confirmed to be participating in the 130 trillion rupiah ($8.4 billion) project, with roles ranging from developing sugarcane plantations and processing mills, to building the power plants to run them.

Source: World’s biggest deforestation project gets underway in Papua for sugarcane

मीठा दर्द / Sweet Ache  – Kaushal Kishore

 

प्यास बूझा सक ती है एक गिलास पानी,

लेकिन उसका क्या जिसे नहीं है बुझानी…

वह खिसका देता है गिलास को अपने से, 

और नहीं रोक पाता है प्यास को बढ़ने से…

उसे प्यास की पकड़ में ही मजा आता है, 

जिसके हर पल का रसास्वादन वह पाता है…

🎊🎊🎊🎊🎊🎊

A glass of water quenches thirst with ease,

But what of one whose thirst won’t cease?

Who gently pushes the offered glass aside,

And lets the deepening thirst inside reside?

He finds delight in the thirst’s tight hold,

Savouring its every moment as it unfolds…

.

–Kaushal Kishore 

Source: मीठा दर्द / Sweet Ache  – Kaushal Kishore

Brazil X: Court fines Musk website for site’s brief return

Brazil has fined Elon Musk’s companies after some users in the country were able to briefly access the social media platform X, despite a ban imposed last month.

Brazilian users swarmed the site on Wednesday after X updated how its servers within the country were accessed.

The platform’s restoration was unintended, the company said. Hours later access was again blocked.

On Thursday, a Brazilian court fined the firm five million reais ($920,000; £695,000) for breaching the ban.

Source: Brazil X: Court fines Musk website for site’s brief return

Covid origins: Genetic ghosts suggest pandemic started in market

A team of scientists say it is “beyond reasonable doubt” the Covid pandemic started with infected animals sold at a market, rather than a laboratory leak.

They were analysing hundreds of samples collected from Wuhan, China, in January 2020.

The results identify a shortlist of animals – including racoon dogs, civets and bamboo rats – as potential sources of the pandemic.

Despite even highlighting one market stall as a hotspot of both animals and coronavirus, the study cannot provide definitive proof.

The samples were collected by Chinese officials in the early stages of Covid and are one of the most scientifically valuable sources of information on the origins of the pandemic.

Source: Covid origins: Genetic ghosts suggest pandemic started in market

Opinion: Why does Trump seem to talk like no one ever before? – Los Angeles Times

…A quick look at Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention in July shows that his dependence on superlatives has overtaken all his other oratorical habits. He used them to describe almost everything he discussed. The criminalization of political disagreement is “at a level that nobody has ever seen before.” The “inflation crisis” is “crushing our people like never before. They’ve never seen anything like it.” As for the “illegal immigration crisis,” well, “Nobody’s ever seen anything like it” either…

…This type of rhetoric is not new. Vesna Mikolič, a Slovenian scholar of linguistics, analyzed the speeches of four of the original Italian fascists of the 1920s. She found that an increased intensity of their language, including hyperbole and superlatives, correlated with their detachment from reality, as well as with incitements to violence, and with actual violence. Mikolič calls this kind of oratory — as when Trump promises to “lead America to new heights of greatness like the world has never seen before” — the “fascist imaginary.”

…Once a leader commits to hyperbole, he stays committed. As Richard Evans reminds us in his book “Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich,” Adolf Hitler claimed that his invasion of France was the most “glorious victory of all time” and that he was the greatest military leader ever — greater than Napoleon or Caesar.

Federico Finchelstein, an Argentinian fascism expert, says such leaders “fantasize about creating new realities and ultimately transform reality to fit their fantasies.” For example, Hitler claimed that Jews were disease-ridden subhumans and then created the conditions that made him prophetic. The fascist’s aim, says Finchelstein, is “the destruction of any trace of demonstrable truth.” And the philosopher Hannah Arendt says “the ideal subject of totalitarian rule is … people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist.”

Source: Opinion: Why does Trump seem to talk like no one ever before? – Los Angeles Times