Life takes us in many strange directions and wonderful discoveries. It never turns out the way we thought it would.
Monday, July 31, 2023
Saturday, July 29, 2023
Friday, July 28, 2023
Thursday, July 27, 2023
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Monday, July 24, 2023
Long Ago Small Mammals Hunted Dinosaurs
DISCOVERIES
The Small, the Mighty
Early mammals living in the age of the dinosaurs were smaller and couldn’t compete with the giant lizards.
But a new study showed that being small didn’t stop one cat-sized mammal from preying on a dinosaur three times its size, CBS News reported.
First discovered in northeastern China in 2012, scientists recently studied the fossilized remains of a mammal and a dinosaur from around 125 million years ago. The unique fossil shows the two creatures “locked in mortal combat,” with the mammal appearing as the aggressor.
Their findings identified the early furry animal as a Repenomamus robustus, which was one of the largest mammals living during the Cretaceous period. The dinosaur was a Psittacosaurus, an herbivore about the size of a large dog.
Paleontologists had previously suggested that R. robustus preyed on dinos after finding fossilized bones found in the mammal’s stomach.
Now, the study provides the first evidence showing actual predatory behavior by a mammal toward a dinosaur.
Co-author John Mallon told New Scientist that it also challenges the “traditional knowledge” that big dinosaurs devoured smaller mammals.
“But what’s so surprising about this fossil is that it suggests, occasionally at least, smaller mammals could take down a larger dinosaur,” he added.
Saturday, July 22, 2023
Friday, July 21, 2023
Thursday, July 20, 2023
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
500 Killed In Iranian Protests
The Rules Rebound
IRAN
Iran’s morality police resumed their operations across the country, authorities announced Sunday, less than a year after the death of a 22-year-old woman in their custody sparked mass demonstrations in the Islamic Republic, the Associated Press reported.
Officials said there will be a new campaign to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf – the hijab – in public, adding that the police unit would resume notifying and detaining women who violate the dress code.
The morality police retreated from public view following the death of Mahsa Amini in September, who was accused of violating the country’s strict hijab rules.
Her death prompted outrage in conservative Iran and resulted in months-long, women-led protests calling for the removal of the dress code. The demonstrations soon turned into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s clerical leaders.
But the protests were quelled earlier this year after Iranian authorities launched a bloody crackdown that saw more than 500 people killed and nearly 20,000 detained.
During the protests, reports emerged that the morality police had been disbanded – but officials denied that claim.
Iran’s government insisted throughout the crisis that the rules had not changed, adding that the hijab was a key pillar of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Officials also blamed the protests on foreign interference.
Belarus- A Mad Justice System
The Autocrat, the Lapdog
BELARUS
Belarussian artist and political dissident Ales Pushkin, 57, recently died in prison from an undisclosed cause. His crime: painting a picture.
Prosecutors said, incredibly, that his work glorified Nazism. As the Moscow Times reported, however, the timing of his arrest suggests his true transgression. Police nabbed Pushkin in 2021 as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in office since 1994, was cracking down on anti-government protests.
In another example of the twisted, oppressive civic culture of the former Soviet republic, as described by Human Rights Watch, Belarusian authorities recently charged an attorney and a journalist with aiding extremism because they shared information about the attorney’s disbarment – even though the information is also publicly available on government websites.
The ridiculousness of these criminal cases reflects the absurd state of Belarus today. The dictatorial Lukashenko persecutes citizens who challenge his rule. Yet he is arguably the biggest lapdog in Europe as Belarus has become a “vassal state” of Russia, wrote the New York Times.
Lukashenko allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to install nuclear weapons in Belarus, putting a target on his country for American, British, and French ballistic missiles. Factories in Belarus, one of the poorest countries in Europe, produce uniforms for Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. Lukashenko needed Russian economic aid and security guarantees after he squelched anti-government unrest a few years ago. He downplays talk of a union between Belarus and Russia, but Putin now openly discusses it.
Belarus has not contributed troops to the war in Ukraine, but Lukashenko has provided support to Putin in every other way, including hosting Russian troops who could conceivably open a second front against Ukraine, added Bloomberg. These developments led the Telegraph to declare that Russia has been stealthily invading the country.
Furthermore, as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace explained, Lukashenko allegedly helped broker a peace deal between Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin, the boss of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group, who recently led an aborted coup against leaders in the Kremlin. Oddly, however, Prigozhin doesn’t appear to have ever moved to Belarus where, under the deal, he was supposed to receive asylum.
However, the BBC reported that Wagner folks are training troops in Belarus.
Belarus’s poor human rights record, its role in the Ukraine war and related issues are why Belarussian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya recently exhorted NATO leaders to pay more attention to her country. “For almost a year, there has been no new pressure against the regime,” Tsikhanouskaya told Radio Free Europe. “This is viewed as a weakness of democracy – Lukashenko and his cronies do crime after crime, and there is no punishment for that.”
The absurdity can’t last forever, though, analysts believe. The lapdog’s time will come.
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
Monday, July 17, 2023
The Economist Magazine Discusses The Movie Oppenheimer
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Sunday, July 16, 2023
Saturday, July 15, 2023
Friday, July 14, 2023
Thursday, July 13, 2023
Cybersecurity And An Incredible Unknown Man
Here in the
U.S., there is an advertisement on television claiming that there are up to
25,000 unfilled jobs in cyber security. There are labor shortages all over the
US economy. Are there 25,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs? It is possible.
I
am going to introduce you to a man who you have not heard of before, Nathaniel
Fick. For those of you curious, here is a good link describing his amazing
life:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
When you sell 1,000,000 books you can "rake in" $6,000,000 US. While
serving as a U.S. Marine officer in Iraq, he wrote a book "One Bullet
Away, The Making Of A Marine Officer." Very few of us are fortunate enough
to become wealthy while in our 20s. He could have continued as an author and
gone on to greater heights. He could have relaxed and enjoyed life. He could
have become CEO of a giant corporation.
He reinvented himself several times. He is now the U.S. State Department's worldwide ambassador in cyber security. He is in this position to show the US commitment to cyber security and to give China some serious competition all over the world. He is making a difference and someone to continue to watch.
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Monday, July 10, 2023
Sunday, July 9, 2023
Friday, July 7, 2023
Ukraine Spymaster Says That Russia Is On The Verge Of Civil War
In the past, it took some clever research to find out what intelligence organizations were doing without violating criminal laws or administrative regulations.
Now intelligence agencies are going right online and releasing their
most recent findings. Denys Davydov, one of our readers, and a Ukraine expert
without equal has been predicting that The Russian Federation was going to
break apart and fall into civil war. Swedish Army intelligence has been saying
the same. They have warned that different groups fighting in Russia would
employ nuclear weapons during this coming civil war.
Here is the intelligence report from Ukraine's intelligence
agency:
Newsweek
Russia 'On the Edge of
Civil War'—Ukraine Spymaster
By Brendan
Cole,
1 day ago
The head of Ukraine's main intelligence directorate (GUR)
has said that Russia is on the brink of civil war that could tear the country
apart.
Major-General Kyrylo Budanov came to that conclusion after
his spy agency examined a secret internal study by Russia's Ministry of
Internal Affairs (MVD). This focused on levels of public support for the mutiny
by the Wagner Group of mercenaries, which was a direct
challenge to Russian leader Vladimir Putin's authority. Last month, Yevgeny Prigozhin 's men seized military
facilities in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and marched on Moscow.
Budanov told the British newspaper The Times that the MVD had tracked attitudes to the
mutiny using new-generation spyware that monitors messaging apps, as well as
social and regional media trends.
Budanov said the
MVD had assessed that, on the days of the rebellion, Wagner founder Prigozhin
had popular support in 17 of Russia's 46 regions; Putin in 21; while, in the
other regions, backing for both men was roughly equal.
"That's what we see now—that Russian society is torn
into two pieces," Budanov told the British newspaper.
In his view, the data showed "exactly what our
service has been talking about—that the Russian Federation is on the edge of
(the) civil war. There needs to be a small internal 'affair', and the internal
conflict will be intensified."
Ukrainian intelligence found that the MVD study had shown
Putin could rely on the loyalty of Moscow but not in his home city of St.
Petersburg. The Russian president had the least support in the southern
republic of Dagestan, where Prigozhin enjoyed 97 percent support.
The prospect of civil war in Russia, or the country
disintegrating in a post-Putin world, concerns world leaders but is advocated
as necessary by some opposition figures seeking to overthrow the Kremlin.
Former chess player and founder of the Free Russia Forum
Garry Kasparov told Newsweek in
May that Putin's defeat in Ukraine would mean a collapse of his
regime. He added that Russia would end up smaller, with territories such as
Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, and Chechnya likely to leave the federation.
But he added that, while "Eastern Europe would be
cheering if Russia collapses and becomes a multi-state, chaotic, wild east....
further west the situation changes."
"In America, I think this is the biggest concern,"
Kasparov said because this could mean "the rise of China and the expense
of Russia."
Budanov would not confirm or deny Ukrainian responsibility
for the sabotage of Russian targets, such as the Nord Stream pipeline, drones hitting the Kremlin, and the destruction of Crimea's Kerch Bridge, but did say
"we use direct action."
In comments suggesting that Budanov directed unspecified
assassination, he told The Times,
"While these Inhumans are existing, we will be active."
"We know how to do them, and we were proud of using
them, and we are not afraid of using them anywhere in this world against
whoever," Budanov added.
Leaked U.S. intelligence documents showed that, in
January this year, Prigozhin communicated with Ukrainian intelligence in
January, offering Kyiv information on Russian positions in return for Ukrainian
troops withdrawing from Bakhmut.
One document referred to meetings between GUR operatives
and Prigozhin in an unspecified African nation. Without giving details, Budanov
said "of course" the GUR met with Wagner "in many African
countries," although he added that the word 'met' had "many meanings."
Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment via email.
There is going to be a massive loss of
life and much human suffering.
Thursday, July 6, 2023
Wednesday, July 5, 2023
Tuesday, July 4, 2023
Russia Just Threatened Us With A Nuclear Strike on Washington, DC that could decapitate The US Government
I am always on the lookout for obscure stories and things. A couple of days ago, the Russians released a threatening computer-generated animation. It showed a small nuclear weapon being detonated over the part of Washington, DC where major government centers are located. My antenna went up. Why a small nuclear explosion? Why not a big multi megaton warhead devastating the whole city?
Several countries including the US, Russia, China, and a couple
of others have very sophisticated spy satellites and radar systems. If a
nuclear war head is launched, they detect it in nanoseconds. I suspect
that this includes warheads launched from stealth platforms. Retaliation would
be quick. All the nuclear armed players including North Korea understand this.
However, if some nation or terrorist group smuggles a nuclear warhead
into a city and detonates it, it is hard to prove who did it. Retaliation
becomes problematic. Tom Clancy first raised this frightening
possibility 30 years ago when he authored the novel "The Sum of
All Their Fears." Palestinian terrorists smuggle a nuclear weapon into
the US and set it off while the Super Bowl game is being played in Denver. Some
200,000 people die.
President Bush II's expert on nuclear terrorism
wrote a documentary novel titled "The Right Of Boom." An unnamed
terrorist group smuggles a nuclear weapon into Washington. Some 80,000
people are killed. Six months later, the authorities cannot figure out who did
it.
One of our readers, Luah Fontana, is quite familiar with graphic
arts and animation. It is a labor of love to create any animated program or
presentation. Once all the work is done, in the bureaucratic Russian system,
ten approvals would be necessary before the presentation was released to the
public.
Sunday, July 2, 2023
The Economist Magazine Cover For July 1, 2023
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