Peter Barabas

Trump aka 'Vengeance Kid':

“They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them,” he wrote. “What a great honor it is to do so!”
(Guardian)

Oh, this I am sure is one for the history books.

Idea: mandatory retirement age for Congress equivalent to the average U.S. life expectancy (79) so they actually care about improving it.

Terry Pratchett in a blue jacket and Akubra hat holding a young owl for release.

Eleven years since you crossed the black sands. I wish I could say that the world is better than you left it (although it will always be better for having had you in it) but at least there is a new Young Sam to help carry on the Pratchett name and ethos. Love you always ❤️

But we have to acknowledge that the strategy Iran CHOSE (it is NOT the only strategy it could use) is to extend the war to the world, make everybody hurt and fear so they take care of Iran's problem. Beyond the moral point, I would just point out how globalisation created targetable dependencies...

And no, this does not mean I agree with the USA and Israel bombing the hell out of Iran. With the expected loss of civilian life, that is as wrong as sending rockets against Israeli population centres or hitting hotels in Dubai.
One wrong does not make the other wrong, right - in either direction.

Iran is still standing and doubling down on non-military pressure The Iranian regime doesn't look like it will fall any time soon - and they look determined to hit the US and Israel where it hurts.

Asymmetric war.
Generally one side does not attack unless they are convinced they can win. So the other side either prepares to surprise with strength or with a very different tactic to reframe the confrontation.

Iran is "reframing" via terrorising the world.

news.sky.com/story/iran-i...

These people are hard at work in blowing up academia and science in general. They want and now have "access" to be able to tell people "what's what" without some "nerd scientist butting in with their stupid ideas".
This way "reality" can be made and remade to whatever is desired. Very profitable.

a man in a black shirt says " wouldn t that be something " ALT: a man in a black shirt says " wouldn t that be something "

The way some nations keep their population disarmed, maybe humanity might consider disarming itself entirely?
Just until we all learn to live with eachother in peace?

Just a thought... yep I know it's stupid.

But just imagine, the kind of world it could be.

Och that's a good one

Sorry, what democracy? Oh, the American kind-of-sorta one?

When did any of the current administration's top people come across as pro-democracy?

*vertebrate (captan Typo strikes again...)

Think of colour vision as a fast, though crude spectroscopic analyser.
Our trichromatic vision allows us to easily differentiate between red and green (for cats and dogs this is a difficult task) and let us spot ripe red berries on a green background.

Mammalian colour vision is fairly new, as our nocturnal rodent ancestors mostly did away with colour vision. So most mammals have just 2 types of cones for daylight vision, primates kind of stand out with their improved 3-cone colour vision. But really, every other vertabrate has more types.
#retina

The Dream of Finishing One’s To-Do List in “Retirement Plan” Dailymotion video by The New Yorker

The 7 minute Irish animation that is nominated for an Oscar. Worth a watch. #SpeirGorm

I like trees and i like auroras, this one ticks both boxes :)

alas, a LOT of auroras this year... or is it just me?

True though you can turn this around and say, oh dear, I thought literally everybody knew about this - and when somebody comes along who didn't share in this experience/common knowledge, we get to experience the edge/border of our "cultural background".

a judge is sitting in a courtroom and saying `` lord help me with this one `` . ALT: a judge is sitting in a courtroom and saying `` lord help me with this one `` .

Translation: he is stopping the thing after being cornered by rocketing gas prices at home and having not thought of, or having a plan for keeping the straight of Hormuz open. But beware, he will order the army back if Iran does this or that.

And just like that giving away tactical information.

1. Stating "North of Ireland" will rile up about half of the population of Northern Ireland right off the bat. But that is just down to not knowing anything about the place visited.

2. When your country is a pariah, then yup, you are expected to follow the "I'm from XY" with a "but...".

RIIIGHT?!

I still remember the shock I got from when i realized that the otherwise very smart, educated, cultured, music-loving PhD student I was talking to, never heard of Tina Turner or ABBA.

And not only is this normal, but cells stransfer "packages" to other cells that "pick this bits up" ie fuse the membrane into their own, taking whatever was in the vesicle into their cytoplasm. This stuff can be proteins, RNA, even mitochondria...

#biology is just cool

So everybody heard about #cells and how they make up the body, right? And that cells take up and release molecules (it's how they eat and communicate...), and how they are made up of organelles that have membranes.

Now check this out: cells nip off bits of themselves, sometimes even with organelles

Wow, is it moving or is it just my eyes, tired?

Garlic all the way! :)

Smoking is one of the top documented risk factors for #AMD (age related macular degeneration). But a "risk factor" is just a fancy way of saying "we know it is somehow connected, but do not know how". This paper from Johns Hopkins sheds light on a possible mechanism.

#retina
#blindness

To be fair, religious fanatics do not need such life-shattering tragedy in their life to keep on being religious fanatics.

But that kind of loss could turn the kindest soul into a fanatic.
War never leads to peace, only to grief, anger and vengance.
I assume we will see a lot more of these now :(

Persephone is 11 years old.

Persephone just discovered that Mom-Hooman had something called “comb” that is the best itch-skritch EVER.

Persephone now herds Mom-Hooman into the Room of Skritch at least thrice daily, bleating like a goat and nipping at her feet.

#CatSky

Hatred, ignorance, fear, greed, and discrimination are viruses, magnified by suffering, carried in buckets, spilled onto the world.

We cannot eliminate them by actions that magnify hatred, ignorance, fear, greed, discrimination and suffering - only by actions that relieve them.

That's a kind of damage the USA will not recover from very fast, irrespective of the next election's outcome. Trust is easy to lose and hard to get back.

So... he actually has that erm 'button' and everybody around him will just nod solemnly if he ever wants to push it.

That's not OK, but apparently, about 40% of Americans think it really is OK, and THAT is my biggest issue with the USA.

Ukraine recommends refraining from traveling to Hungary ➜ ZMINA Ukraine recommends refraining from traveling to Hungary Meanwhile, Ukraine's National Police have opened criminal proceedings into the abduction of seven Ukrainian cash-in-transit guards and an Oschad...

Oh, and generally advising the public to avoid traveling to Hungary.

Fair enough.

zmina.info/en/news-en/u...