Sea Floor Fossils Revealed Atop Swiss Alps

"The tooth is particularly interesting because it could possibly -- but unlikely -- represent the largest animal to ever inhabit Earth."

"The Alps have a very complicated structure, with giant slabs of rock consisting of former sea floor, called nappes, piled on top of each other by the African plate pushing into the European plate."

"The nappe that the ichthyosaurs come from is the highest in the pile. This piling up happened in the last 35 million years or so." 

"Maybe there are more rests of the giant sea creatures hidden beneath the glaciers."

Martin Sander, paleontologist, University of Bonn 

Illustration of an ichthyosaur. Image: © Daniel Eskridge/Stock.adobe.com

 

The blue whale, an aquatic mammal that grows up to around 30 meters in length is considered to represent the largest-ever creature that Earth has ever seen. New discoveries on long-extinct Triassic ichthyosaurs may now crown these marine reptiles as having been even greater in size than the whales. The giant ichthyosaurs' bodies were shaped elongated with relatively small skulls. That early in the evolutionary cycle they may have borne small brains.

Specimen fossils were discovered back in the 1970s and '80s in the eastern Alps at three sites, in Switzerland. It is only now that after a deep study of the fossils that they are being scientifically described. A study has now been published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Found atop the Chrachenhorn mountain near Davos, one of the fossils was a tooth.

The root of the ichthyosaur tooth fossil, with a diameter of 60mm. Image: Rosi Roth/University of Zurich

 

More complete fossil remains were described as a rib and vertebrae from two ichthyosaur species, one judged to be 21 meters in length, the other about 15 meters; considerable size in any natural lexicon of Earth's creatures, large and small. Dating to around 205 million years back, close to the conclusion of the Triassic Period, the three individual creatures represented by the fossil remains are considered to be the largest of the giant ichthyosaurs to inhabit the oceans, when dinosaurs were starting to dominate land.

They were all found on three mountains in the Swiss Alps at an elevation of 2,740 meters above sea level. The third of the specimens, representing a tooth, was the largest from any ichthyosaur ever found. Its base is 6cm wide with an estimated length of 15cm, testing the imagination to envision a fearsome predator of the day. Last year, a 18-mters-long ichthyosaur was described as having had a tooth with a base 2cm wide.

"Then a tooth 6 centimetres wide could possibly have come from an animal 54 meters in length", suggested Dr.Sander; a formidable, absolutely unimaginable size. Other giant ichthyosaurs evidently ate small fish and squid, sucking them up, engulfing them in their toothless mouths. Fossils formed in an ancient seabed were found on top of mountains resulting from the inexorable, crushing movement of immense plates making up Earth's crust; a process called plate tectonics.

(Photo : Pixabay/Efraimstochter)
Fossils of Giant Sea Monster From 205 Million Years Ago Found 9,000 feet Above Sea Level in the Swiss Alps

Keeling Over Dead-Drunk

"[Bradley Johnson left the Roxy in a state of] extreme intoxication [and shortly afterward injured himself]."

"There is both a legal and a common law prohibition against over-serving alcohol beverages -- a visibly intoxicated patron should never be served more alcohol."

Personal injury lawsuit, Vancouver

Getty Images

Bradley Roger Johnson, a Vancouver pub bartender, finished his shift at the Kingston Taphouse and Grille at 11:00 p.m. Before he left his workplace he had two drinks. At 11:30 p.m. he wandered over to another establishment, the Studio Lounge and Nightclub, in the Granville area of Vancouver. There he enjoyed two ciders and two shots of whisky. An hour later he entered another bar, Relish, and there he relished "approximately four 12-ounce Lonetree ciders, a double vodka and soda and a shot of Jameson Whiskey".

 

In a total period of four hours on 23 of August, 2016, he consumed two double vodka and sodas, two Strongbow ciders, two shots of whiskey, four 12-ounce Lone-tree  ciders, a double vodka and soda, a shot of Jameson whiskey, three double vodka and sodas, three shots of whiskey and one other shot not identified. Between 2:20 a.m. and 3:20 a.m. he downed three rounds at the Roxy Cabaret, each a double vodka and soda and a whiskey shot, all ordered at three different bars n the establishment, capped with a final "further unidentified shot".

When he finally called it a night, he began to walk home, and in an obviously compromised condition, soon fell backwards. As he fell his head hit the sidewalk. In the claim he filed with the B.C. Supreme Court, there is a statement that he was left with a "severe brain injury". On the basis of this rather straightforward narrative of gross over-consumption of alcohol, it just might be assumed that his brain injury preceded his fall and the night's overindulgence.

What he wants and feels he is entitled to, is to be awarded damages for health-care-related costs and loss of earning capability. He points out that his parents gave him the support he required to recuperate from his ordeal. The allegations in his lawsuit have not been proven -- with both The Roxy and Studio denying his version of events. Johnson was a regular patron at the Roxy, so they knew him well; his character, or lack of such.

 

Johnson had about 19 ounces of hard liquor, six servings of cider and one “unidentified” shot. Photo by Getty Images

 

 

According to their account, he was not over-served, and nor was he visibly intoxicated when he left. "If the plaintiff was intoxicated at the time he departed The Roxy, which is expressly denied, the plaintiff left The Roxy in the care and company of persons who were, or alternatively who reasonably appeared to be, sober", read the response to the lawsuit.

 

Not only is this bartender fortunate that he didn't die on the spot from alcohol poisoning, he has guaranteed that he will never again be hired by any respectable bar or lounge in the city. His legal claim for compensation will never succeed. As a bartender himself he knows the rules, and as a mature adult he should be aware that the responsibility not to overindulge to the point of non-function is ultimately his. Too bad, so sad. His suffering parents stuck with a wastrel son to support.

Bartenders are generally reluctant to serve already-intoxicated customers. Photo by Getty Images

Reptile Species' Endangerment of Extinction

"Reptiles represent an important and diverse branch of the tree of life and play integral roles in the eco-system where they occur."

"This global assessment is a key beginning to understanding reptile conservation needs. Now we know where the priorities are and what the threats are that we need to ameliorate."

Bruce Young, chief zoologist, senior conservation scientist, NatureServe, biodiversity science organization, Arlington, Virginia

"Global collaboration and commitment are a must if we are to prevent an extinction catastrophe."

Neil Cox, manager, Biodiversity Assessment Unit, International Union for Conservation of Nature

The green vine snake (Ahaetulla nasuta ) is among the world's reptiles that face extinction. Photograph: Ruchira Somaweera/IUCN/ZSL

 

A new study on biodiversity threats focusing on the world's reptile species, published in the journal Nature, indicates that roughly one fifth of reptile species from the Galapagos tortoise to the Komodo dragon of Indonesian islands face the threat of extinction. A conclusion based on the first comprehensive global assessment of the status of reptile conservation and possible extinction.

Other species at risk studied by researchers included West Africa's rhinoceros viper and India's gharial. A total of 10,196 reptile species was included in the study from turtles, crocodilians, lizards and snakes, to the tuatara, the sole member of a lineage dating back over 200 million years still to survive. The study found that 21 percent of species classified as reptiles are in the critically endangered category; endangered or vulnerable to extinction.

 

Lyriocephalus scutatus, another lizard species on threatened list. Photograph: Ruchira Somaweera/IUCN/ZSL

 

Another 31 species were identified that had already been declared extinct. The research reported that many reptiles are threatened to the brink of extinction through factors that imperil Earth's other land vertebrates, amphibians, birds and mammals. Deforestation to prepare arable lands devoted to agriculture; logging and development; urban encroachment; and hunting. Throw in climate change and invasive species competing with species indigenous to certain geographies and the threats multiply.

Status reports that preceded this one found that some 41 percent of amphibian species, 25 percent of mammal species, and 14 percent of bird species were placed on the threatened-with-extinction list.The status of species are assessed on circumstances associated with distribution, abundance, threats and population trends.

The world's longest venomous snake, the king cobra is vulnerable to extinction, as is the leatherback, the larges sea turtle. Vulnerable to extinction is the Galapagos marine iguana, and various tortoise species on Galapagos, ranging from vulnerable to extinct.

A dead green sea turtle washes up on the beach in the Khor Kalba Conservation Reserve on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates. AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili,

COVID-19 Subvariants

"Recombinant variants are not an unusual occurrence, particularly when there are several variants in circulation, and several have been identified over the course of the pandemic to date."

"As with other kinds of variant, most will die off relatively quickly."

Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser, U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA)

"Scientists are looking for signs that Omicron recombinants such as XE change disease severity, transmissibility or impact the effectiveness of diagnostic tests, vaccines or treatments for COVID-19."

"While preliminary international reports have shown that XE has modestly increased transmissibility compared to BA.2, more data is needed to confirm this finding."

Public Health Agency of Canada

Tulio de Oliveira’s team at Stellenbosch University in South Africa discovered the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron.   Credit: Stefan Els/Stellenbosch University

The Omicron subvariant XE -- one of several hybrid variants that have recently emerged -- is being tracked by Health Canada. That they are considered recombinant variants indicates that they contain genetic material of two or more different variants or subvariants. To the present, 32 detections of Omicron recombinants are in circulation. An April 8 technical briefing from the U.K. Health Security Agency identifies XE with three mutations, not present in BA.1 or BA.2.

The "stealth Omicron", the XE variant has been identified as a recombination of Omicron BA.1 and Omicron BA.2, the highly-transmissible Omicron driving Canada's sixth wave at the present time. The U.K. identified its first case of XE in January of 2022. To April 4, 1,179 XE cases have been confirmed in the United Kingdom, and since reported found in other countries, including Canada, India, Japan, Thailand and Israel. Obviously carried from a source location through travel and return to one's home country.

Viruses like HIV and influenza commonly produce recombinant variants. a not-unique phenomenon among such pathogens. Yet other recombinants have been identified; variants XD and XF, both labelled Deltacron; combining Delta and Omicron variants. Delta, seen to be more dangerous and communicable than the original from which it developed from through mutation, and Omicron variants, less lethal, but more communicable.

Most confirmed cases of XD, identified by the UKHSA, have been found in France, and the second most numerous findings at this eaqrly stage, in the United Kingdom. XF is just behind XD in prevalence, but appears to have petered out. The World Health Organization's technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, stated based on initial analysis XE has a ten percent growth advantage over BA.2, making it slightly more transmissible. 

Symptoms that arise with contracting any of the recombinant variants are unlikely to be more serious than other variants, since reports indicate BA.2 is no more severe than BA.1 and variants of the original COVID-29 tended to result in decreased severity. XE under Omicron is considered a variant of concern by the World Health Organization; with XD listed as a monitored variant.

The most reliable way to being protected from experiencing severe COVID symptoms according to health experts -- irrespective of the variant type -- is through a full series of vaccinations and a booster dose. "We need to critically ensure that those around the world, particularly those who are most vulnerable, get vaccinated in every single country", stated Van Kerkhove of the WHO.

Physical distancing, mask wearing, avoiding crowded indoor spaces, better ventilation (opening windows and doors) and remaining home if unwell, continue to be advised as measure that work well in preventing the spread of the virus, as well as the prevention of severe disease outcomes and death. It is primarily among the large numbers of people in emerging economies that have not been vaccinated from among whom the variants have the opportunity to mutate and to thrive.

Covid variants are new versions of the virus that are smarter at surviving. (Photo: hms.harvard.edu / Wikipedia)

You Are What You Eat

Popular two-component meals, such as steak frites, seem to offer a wider range of micronutrients than would be predicted by chance, the study shows. Photo by Getty Images

"If it's just calories that turn us on, why do we pay so much money for wines from Burgundy, which have no more calories than an $8-bottle of red wine out of some crappy factory?"

"We;re not just looking for vitamins and minerals just for their own sake -- hoovering them up. But there seems to be some added level of intelligence -- to avoid excesses of one and make sure we get the full spread."

"Which seems particularly intelligent, and a particularly efficient way of foraging, if you think about how we would have been in an evolutionary context."

"If flavour has some connection to how the brain seeks out or finds value in food in terms of micronutients, we could really be messing things up by adding these things to junk food."

"Studies have shown animals use flavour to guide the vitamins and minerals they require. If flavour serves a similar role for humans, we may be imbuing junk foods such as potato chips and fizzy drinks with a false 'sheen' of nutrition by adding flavourings. In other words, the food industry may be turning our nutritional wisdom against us, making us eat food we would normally avoid and thus contributing to the obesity epidemic."

Mark Schatzker, writer-in-residence, Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center (affiliated with Yale University)

"We hit upon this idea of 'Hang on, if people are showing nutritional intelligence, then maybe that's exposed and expressed in combinations of foods -- the foods that they prefer to pair together."

"[While carbohydrates, fat or protein are important] if we only focus on those macronutrients, then I think we arrive at an impoverished understanding of the underlying everyday interaction that we have with food."

"In a sense, then you've got a corruption of a system that would have otherwise conferred significant benefit, but now is being adopted perhaps by the food industry to generate foods that are attractive,but hold little nutritional value."

Jeff Brunstrom, experimental psychology professor, University of Bristol, England

“Animals are quite sophisticated,” says Toronto-based author Mark Schatzker. “Cows just don’t mindlessly munch on plants. They’re very picky.” Photo by William West /AFP via Getty Images

 

New research published in the journal Appetite, suggests that humans are possessed of "nutritional wisdom", an inborn trait no doubt linked to survival that has the end effect of guiding humans in their navigational search for the "hidden complexity" inherent in the choices we make about the food we prefer to consume. Which leads to the impression that it is food composition, absent the need for calories, that guides our preferences.

Animals "seem to possess a discerning intelligence" in their propensity to select foods based on their micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), and now, according to this new collaboration between two researchers, it would appear that humanity has also been endowed with that inclination. We look not only to fill our stomachs, but to do so with the types of food that our body needs for maximum health, energy and efficiency, as a reflexive action when hunger speaks.

 

Schatzker's proposition is that mealtime decisions are influenced in part by the need to consume specific micronutrients. The body triggers that autonomous search, sidestepping the mind's awareness of that deliberation. According to Brunstrom there is a belief among scientists that a single factor governs food choice; that could be finding highly calorific foods or sweetness attractive. Their research indicates that the process is found to be more nuanced.

 

Animals other than human; livestock and rodents for example, select food for their micronutrients, while there is little known about the manner in which human preferences gear to food composition. What does appear is that nutritional intelligence in humans is more complex than it is in other animals. Researchers can tightly control rodent environments and diets, but this kind of experimentation cannot be carried out for human subjects. 

 

The published paper on human nutritional intelligence presents three studies leading to interpretations. In the first, participants selected between images of two pairs of fruits and vegetables all of which vary in their micronutrient composition. "A significant tendency" appeared for people choosing pairings offering both greater amounts of micronutrients and a balance (micronutrient complementarity). A second image-based study followed with different foods, and then a third such study.

In their analysis of a national U.K. nutritional survey of 1,086 people, the researchers saw a similar pattern in two-component meals; the range of micronutrients in steak and fries or curry and rice was wider than might be predicted by chance, for example. People appeared to avoid excess micronutrients as "a form of foraging efficiency". In recent decades alternating focus was placed on low-fat, high-protein and low-carb regimens, with diet culture tending to emphasize macronutrients (carbohydrates, fat and protein).

The collaborative research indicates the manner in which people interact with food is more complicated than macronutrients or calories -- and macronutrients potentially play a role in that complexity. Were humans only involved in meeting macronutrient levels, mixtures of fat and sugar would form a basic diet. And then it seemed to the researchers that human nutritional wisdom could be diminishing, given today's diets rich in processed products so completely at variance from the diets of our evolutionary past.

Today the foods normally consumed may have the hallmarks of nutritional value, but the sensory clues humans are dependent on are in actual fact, the product of artificial flavourings and colourings. Flavour, as Schatzker points out is used by the body's outreach as a guide to nutrition. The multi-billion food-flavour industry places additives in a wide range of food products that we familiarly identify as convenience foods and food 'junk'.

The research findings were published in the journal 'Appetite' by Jeff Brunstrom who is the lead author and Professor of Experimental Psychology and Mark Schatzker at the University of Bristol.

Soviet-Style Totalitarian Rule

"This idea was born last year and now it has become especially relevant."

"Similar work has already been carried out, but now it will be co-ordinated by the Kremlin's domestic political bloc."

"Through this system, employees at all levels will be explained both their goals and objectives and the national policies and, at the right time, 'signals' will be sent to the Kremlin from this network."

"Each of its divisions has recently appointed a person responsible for informing employees about activities in support of the Russian army, and installations for the placement of various visual content are descending from the head office for this."

Kommersant newspaper report 

In a plan that harks back to the paranoia of Josef Stalin's Soviet Union in the 1930s, these "political officers" will also push Vladimir Putin's political agenda and ensure official support for his war in Ukraine stays on track Credit: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

 

Political commissars have been assigned to Russian government ministries and state-owned companies. Their vital task is to be the eyes and ears of the Kremlin, and their reports will be rendered directly to the Presidential Administration, the beating heart of Vladimir Putin's Kremlin. An old tactic given new life under the special circumstances of President Putin's 'special military operation' in Ukraine. A military operation so special it has, in three months, claimed the lives of fifteen-thousand Russian servicemen, a significantly smaller number of their Ukrainian counterparts, and a much larger number of Ukrainian civilians.

 

This is, needless to say, a reality that must not be whispered within Russia. For to do so, to speak of 'war', to mention in hushed tones 'war crimes', and to hint at the fact that despite Vladimir Putin's pride in equipping his military with the latest technological gadgetry in updated materiel and state-of-the-art munitions, ships, planes, and missiles, there has been a desperate need to dust off Soviet-era tanks and other military equipment to make up for those lost to Ukrainian military prowess standing firm against the Russian invasion.

 

Mention any of this. Protest audibly. Stand in a collaborative protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on a Moscow street, and expect arrest and the possibility of a 15-year prison sentence for sedition. Now, political commissars are tasked to report back to the president's office what they gain in knowledge of the "emotional state and mood" of government staff. Anger and paranoia rule the day in the presidential suite at the Kremlin.

 

The "political officers" are tasked as well with acquainting employees with the virtues of the invasion, and the intention to 'rescue' Ukrainians from the talons of the neo-Nazis governing them from Kyiv. The 'liberation' of Ukraine is uppermost in the tender regard of the Russian president, and he wants everyone to be aware of that singular fact. The trusted political officers, prepared to propagandize the issue in the workplace, have been elevated to the rank of deputy minister.

 

One can judge just how nervous the Kremlin is about the potential for dissent from a wider public, by the fact that even though most of the Russian public is supportive of the invasion, as a good-neighbour act by Russia for their Ukrainian 'cousins', particularly those in Russian government ranks, concern remains with respect to hidden dissent. In a country where criticism of the war is strictly banned, and discussion of any kind focusing on casualties is summarily suppressed. The threat of a long prison sentence can have that effect, in any event.

 

The Kremlin is resolved that the Z logo of the major battle group in Ukraine be popularized and become dear to the hearts of the Russian public. To that end, posters celebrating the mission of the 'special operation' and T-shirts feature the Z logo are being made available. Broadcasts of support for the invasion run continuously on state-operated television. The new initiatives boost a high level of state control, paralleling Stalin's network of informers; no surprise, given Mr. Putin's stated admiration for Stalin as a great man and superb leader.

 

The official narrative of the special operation has had repercussions as well on education curricula. Publishers have been placed on notice that textbooks must delete references to Ukraine. "You can mention how we saved Kyiv, but it is no longer possible to talk about any independence of Ukraine as a country", commented one publishing source. Another source revealed his publishing house was forced to re-write 15 percent of its textbooks, deleting references to Ukraine. 

Putin Taps Into Russia’s Centuries of Paranoid Aggression- Photo: The Daily Beast

Just ... Coincidentally

"I heard three shots and shouting. A woman was screaming. Then two more shots were fired. No one else was screaming."

"I looked out the window -- I thought it was fireworks. It turned out they weren't."

"My mother told me it was definitely gunshots."

Neighbour of Vladislav Avayev, Moscow

 

"He was a smart man, almost the head of Gazprombank. I had seen him -- he did not look like a  maniac. He was a nerd."

"He had no reason to do that. He was rich, smart."

"There's no way a man like that could kill."

Neighbour of Vladislav Avayev, Moscow

Vladislav Avayev (pictured), 51, was found in his elite Moscow penthouse alongside his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter, Maria, 13

Very recently two puzzling deaths of high-profile Russian oligarchs. One day apart; one discovered in Moscow, the other in Spain. Both prominent men, both met violent ends. Investigators in Russia would like to convey the impression that both were suicides. Murder-suicides, since their family members were murdered. Ostensibly, by the very men who supposedly committed suicide. On two occasions, on two consecutive days, two separate families of immensely wealthy men, wiped out.

 

A neighbour had contacted the daughter of one of the men, Vladislav Avayev, because she had heard disturbing sounds coming from his million-dollar residence that made her suspicious. Which led 26-year-led Anastasia to visit his Moscow apartment. There she found her 51-year-old father, her mother Yelena, 47, and her younger sister Maria, age 13. All shot to death. She contacted police, informing them she had found a gun in her father's hand.

 

Her father, Vladislav, was a former vice-president of the state energy corporation, Gazprombank, and was also a Kremlin official. Vladislav Avayev had made his fortune in construction, following which he was appointed a deputy head of a Kremlin major department. He had resigned from his post as Gazprom vice-president. From Russia's third-largest bank, the main oil and gas payments bank in Russia.

 

Sergey Protosenya (right), 55, who had a fortune of over £330 million, is believed to have hacked his wife Natalia (centre) and their 18-year-old daughter to death before hanging himself in the courtyard of his Lloret de Mar villa on Spain's Costa Brava

According to Russian police, any leads will be investigated, in his personal and professional life. They had discovered a collection of 13 weapons in the apartment. Investigators are also involved in another death, one that took place on April 19, when Sergei Protosenya, formerly on the board of directors for Russian natural gas company Novatek was found dead. His wife and daughter were discovered hacked to death inside a Spanish villa in Costa Brava.

 

The 55-year-old Sergei Protosenya himself was found hanging in the villa courtyard. The police theory is that Protosenya had killed his wife and daughter using an axe and knife,and then took his own life. According to local reports, however, someone had taken precautions to ensure no fingerprints were left on the murder weapon. The local news outlet El Punt Avui had it that no suicide note had been left behind, and when Protosenya's body was found there was no blood on it. 

 

These were not the only puzzling deaths of Russians high on the administrative hierarchy of a country at war, where many within the various arms of the Kremlin, as well as journalists, educators and ordinary Russians, along with Russian-Ukrainians have voiced timid dissent over their country launching a deadly conflict with its neighbour. Some oligarchs and influential Russians have spoken out publicly and gone into exile. Some have remained in Russia, and been arrested for sedition.

Two other deaths remain unsolved; that of 61-year-old Gazprom former deputy Alexander Tyulyakov who, the day after Russia invaded Ukraine, was found hanged near St.Petersburg, in a cabin. His body hung ln his garage, a suicide note next to him. He had been deputy general director at Gazprom after working there for a decade.

In January, Leonid Shulman, 60, head of Gazprom's transport service, died a suicide, found in the bathroom of a Leningrad-region cabin. The note he left behind spoke of a broken leg and the knife, cause of his death, found in a bathtub beside him, but out of reach. He was found in a pool of blood, his body punctured by multiple stab wounds.

SOURCE:sledcom.ru

Infection or Vaccine for Maximum Effectiveness?

"[The study ended before Omicron took off], and we can't necessarily extrapolate our findings to the situation today."

"Obviously, if you have to choose between getting a vaccine versus getting COVID, I would highly recommend going the vaccine route."

"But I do think it's an interesting finding [the robust nature of immunity post infection]."

"I expected to see some level of protection, but personally I was surprised that it was as high as it was."

Dr.Jessica Ridgway, infectious diseases specialist, University of Chicago

"Vaccination, although imperfect, provides a much more standard level of protection."

"When you have an Omicron infection  you don't generate really strong immune responses that protect you from subsequent Omicron in the absence of vaccination."

"Omicron needs at least three doses of vaccine, because you have to have sky-high levels of antibodies to deal with it. It would be lovely if your third shot gave you zero chance of picking up the infection. But what your third shot does is provide you with a better infection -- shorter, less severe, less likely to develop long-term health consequences." 

"It's [the most recent study] got inevitably, what we call a survivor bias. Meaning, anyone who died of their first infection is not in the study. It doesn't account for all the people who didn't live to be in this study because of their first infection."

Dawn Bowdish, immunologist, McMaster University

"The good news is that vaccines still protect very well against severe disease."

"We will see large numbers of double and triple vaccinated people getting infected [since the subvariants are ultra transmissible and require high levels of neutralizing antibodies for reinfection prevention]."

Dr.Marc-Andre Langlois, molecular virologist, University of Ottawa

COVID-19 infection potentially gives those who are unvaccinated strong, durable protection from reinfection. It can mitigate the disease through allowing for mild infections rather than severe to develop. In short, a new research study gave every indication that 'natural immunity' can produce an infection-aversive effect similar to those reported for mRNA vaccines. That is, it did, with the Delta strain, prevalent in the period of the study, before the advent of the Omicron variant.

The study has been hailed, however, for offering insights into the debate that is ongoing relating to the risk of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection among those who are unvaccinated. People opposed to vaccination believe that natural immunity, gained from infection is superior because it's 'natural', that immunity can be gained as a result of infection. The argument in some quarters is that it makes no difference where immunity is raised from; infection or vaccine.

The study team at University of Chicago viewed data from over 100,000 people who had been tested for COVID in six western American states between 2020 and 2021, with solely unvaccinated people included. It was found that a past infection turned out to be 85 percent protective against reinfection and 88 percent against hospitalization, with no waning of protection up to nine months from initial infection.

In other words, the researchers saw protection levels similar from severe COVID, and mild, whether by 'natural' immunity or immunity gained through a mRNA vaccine. The conclusion fairly well matches a large study conducted between 2020 and 2022 in Qatar, where researchers found natural infection to be associated with stronger, more durable protection against infection, variants aside, than two doses of either Pfizer or Moderna.

Natural immunity "demonstrated hardly any waning in protection for eight months of followup after the primary infection", wrote the researchers, whereas protection gained through vaccines waned with time. following the second dose. Natural infection was seen to be associated with stronger protection against reinfection when the Omicron wave led to a massive increase in reinfections in both groups. Despite which "vaccination remains the safest and optimal tool" against infection and death", they concluded.

"It is natural to become immune through contracting infections, but it is also natural to die from serious infections", wrote the researchers in the Journal of Medical Ethics. The notion that natural infection is somehow 'superior' to vaccine-induced immunity is a "grave mistake and a form of the naturalistic fallacy", they wrote. "It would be prudentially irrational to choose to be infected rather than to have the vaccine, for those who are vulnerable to COVID 19." 

 

Since, obviously, COVID infection can cause grave damage to the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and lead to long-term consequences such as long COVID. One study indeed found that one in four people infected with COVID suffer from impaired cognitive function. In addition to which, COVID is increasingly being linked with an incidence of accelerated aging. 

 

"[The study is important, well-designed, confirming recently published work and I don't see an argument] that would favour letting the virus run free, aim for 'natural immunity' through infection of unvaccinated people."

"SARS-CoV-2 in unvaccinated people can cause severe pathologies and death, especially in the aging and immunocompromised population, often with long-term consequences."

"The only way to lower the negative effects is vaccination and not natural immunity."

Dr.Jorg Fritz, immunology professor, McGill University

Mariupol, Shattered, Holding On

The Azovstal steel plant is seen in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Friday. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

"The conditions are not great for kids here."

"Children's teeth are getting worse. They're lacking in vitamin D. There's no sun."

Mother of three, Azovstal steel plant, Mariupol

"There are many children [here] of all ages, women, elderly people."

"They found that their only available shelter [was] next to the Ukrainian troops who are still defending the city from Russian invaders."

"Russian occupation forces...know perfectly well about the civilians here, and they keep using bunker-buster bombs, shelling them with missiles and all varieties of artillery."

Denys Prokopenko, commander, Azov Battalion

"The Azovstal factory is an enormous space with so many buildings that the Russians... simply can't find [the Ukrainian forces]."

"[Russians were] considering a chemical attack [to] smoke out [those sheltering in the plant]."

Oleh Zhdanov, military analyst, Kyiv

The Azovstal steel plant, seen above, is the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol. The city's fall would hand Russia its biggest military victory of the war and give it full control of a land corridor from the Donbas to Crimea, a southern region it seized from Ukraine in 2014. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

 

Video footage recently released was of families struggling to live in Mariupol's vast Azovstal steel plant where approximately a thousand civilians found refuge within the wide network of service tunnels and utility passages carved into the earth beneath the sprawling plant. Aside from the civilians, Ukrainian defenders are also present there. About 500 troops remain.

They are all, militia members and civilians alike, awaiting either death or liberation as powerful bunker buster bombs, capable of penetrating heavy fortification to hit underground targets, were being used by Russian troops to force those in hiding under the plant to surrender. "The world watches the murder of children online and remains silent", stated Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak.

A fresh ultimatum was issued early in the week for Ukrainian troops to save their lives by surrendering, laying down their weapons. Not one Ukrainian soldier had responded in the affirmative to an earlier offer that expired on Tuesday, and the Wednesday ultimatum elicited a similar non-response. The proposal was that Russian troops were prepared to observe a ceasefire while the proposal was in effect beginning April 20. In the event, they failed to.

"But realizing that the commanders of Ukrainian units may not receive such commands from the Kyiv authorities; to stop the senseless resistance, we urge them to make such a decision on their own and to lay down their arms", Moscow's defence ministry stated. The leader of Russia's Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, predicted Russian forces would take the steelworks completely by Tuesday night. 

 

Pro-Russian troops are seen in Mariupol. Ukraine disputes Russian claims that the city has been captured. Russia is bent on capturing the Donbas after failing to take Kyiv. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

 

"Today, with the help of the Almighty, we will ... take over Azovstal completely", an audio message repeated on his Telegram channel. But they failed to. The Azovstal plant, built during the Soviet era, is the largest such metallurgical factory in Europe. It spans four square miles in its location along the city's waterfront. The plant was heavily fortified by Ukrainian forces. Without control of the plant with its giant footprint, Russia would find it difficult to hold Mariupol.

The month-long siege saw Russian troops encircle the seaside town with the intention of expanding control along the coast of the Sea of Azov. It was Russia's intention back in 2014, when it annexed the Crimean Peninsula to form a land bridge between the eastern Donbas bordering Russia, by capturing and annexing Mariupol eventually as well. That goal is now within reach.

Residents walk by a destroyed tank and damaged buildings in Mariupol, which has been encircled by Russian troops for weeks and seen some of the worst fighting in the war. The city is located in the Donbas — an eastern region partly held by Moscow-backed separatists. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Sacrilege

Sacrilege

A group of Jews, including a small boy, is escorted from the Warsaw Ghetto by German soldiers in this April 19, 1943 photo. The picture formed part of a report from SS Gen. Stroop to his Commanding Officer, and was introduced as evidence to the War Crimes trials in Nuremberg in 1945

To Jews, ever mindful of Jewish history and a never-ending plague of assaults on their presence by communities wherever diaspora Jews have put down alternate roots, after their second expulsion from Judea, their ancestral homeland in the Middle East, the Holocaust represents an unspeakable atrocity committed by Nazi Germany with the considerable assistance of eastern and western Europe and the determined oblivious attitude of the West in general to their plight. 

 

When Jews repeat in their minds 'never again' it means that they will do their utmost personally to fight back against the persecution and defamation they are endlessly subjected to. 'Fighting back' is a passion expressed in the struggle for survival. Slights, born of an inbred, taught and sought discrimination  expressed against the Jewish presence has a habit of becoming socially institutionalized. It ebbs and flows, like the oceans surrounding continents.

 

A German in a military uniform shoots at a Jewish woman after a mass execution in Mizocz, Ukraine. In October of 1942, the 1,700 people in the Mizocz ghetto fought with Ukrainian auxiliaries and German policemen who had intended to liquidate the population. About half the residents were able to flee or hide during the confusion before the uprising was finally put down. The captured survivors were taken to a ravine and shot. Photo provided by Paris' Holocaust Memorial

 

And whatever continent Jews happen to populate, a minority group within much larger groups, they are always 'noticed' as outsiders. With that notice comes a degree of suspicion. A suspicion often a nudge away from contempt and hatred. For within the larger population there are always those whose antipathy toward Jews -- even and particularly if those haters know nothing about Jews, do not know any individual Jews, have never met Jews -- twists them toward rage against Jews.

 

There are Holocaust memorials erected in various geographies across the world, in a determined effort never to forget the stark inhumanity that humans are capable of exerting against other humans. Where governments and individuals embrace the opportunity to learn and to empathize, committed to ensuring as believers in elementary human rights that nothing of this dread magnitude will ever re-occur. And yet, on a smaller, and equally inexcusable scale, they do, and each time they do humanity is shamed and shocked anew.

 

The arrival and processing of an entire transport of Jews from Carpatho-Ruthenia, a region annexed in 1939 to Hungary from Czechoslovakia, at Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in Poland, in May of 1944. The picture was donated to Yad Vashem in 1980 by Lili Jacob

 

Start small? With ignorance about the fact that a fascist horde schemed to annihilate the entire Jewish population of Europe, on its way to conquering the world for Aryan purity. That the organized industrial-scale mass murder succeeded to the degree that an estimated six million Jews were systematically slaughtered. The corpses were used to produce soap and fertilizer. Children and adults alike fed into death chambers where Zyklon B, a cyanide-based pesticide, killed them, and their bodies were shovelled into vast, non-stop crematoria. The odour of burning flesh and the ash circulating as particulate matter lifted by the smoke exuded by the giant chimneys to fertilize the fields of Europe. 

Canada was late to erecting a memorial to the Holocaust; but one was finally built and opened to the public in 2017. On a number of occasions, the stark, grey angular walls of mourning attracted professional photographers on fashion shoots, as likely backgrounds to show off glamorous designer apparel featuring poised, sleek female models. The photographers in each instance appear not to have known, or really gave no thought to the fact that their commercial enterprise in artistry and mercantilism in a place sacred to the memory of millions of people was an assault on social morality and values.

In the latest of these events, the photographer was scathing in his response to criticism over his obtuse choice of backdrop for a photo shoot:

"If taking a photo with grey walls as a backdrop is a crime, lock me up."

"If you don't want people shooting at certain walls in the city, you should put on a reflective vest, get a whistle and go stand in front of them year 'round."

 

Targeting Summer's Pathogen-Carrying Pest

"The mosquito is very difficult to control. It likes to live around people, in houses, under houses."

"We're also seeing an increase in resistance to a number of our adulticide products that we use for mosquito control, so at the end of it, we're looking for new tools to put in our tool box to  help us control this particular mosquito."

"[It's important to look at methods without impacts on the environment]."

Andrew Leal, executive director, Florida Keys Mosquito Control District

 

"I like the way they're going about it. They're doing it in a systematic, thoughtful way."

"So I'm encouraged, but they have a lot of work ahead of them."

Thomas Scott, entomologist, University of California, Davis

An Aedes aegypti mosquito is shown in a lab at the University of El Salvador, in San Salvador. (CNN)

When the Zika virus began spreading in Brazil and French Polynesia and with its presence an alarming surge in babies born with abnormally small heads, a condition called microcephaly, it didn't confine itself to those geographies, but began spreading worldwide. Mothers infected with Zika were left with babies whose condition at birth was less than optimal in development. The mosquito lost no time in spreading the virus to another 34 countries. The United States was one of them, where Texas and Florida now host theAedes aegypti mosquitoes. 

 

In an effort to combat the problem, Florida contracted with a biotechnology company, Oxitec, that developed genetically modified mosquitoes. The scheme to release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys alarmed environmentalists, biologists and area residents. Much the way genetically modified food crops have engendered suspicion and aversion to this area of science, its detractors are averse to releasing these modified organisms since once released, they cannot be recalled and no one can guarantee their release will not have an impact not quite expected.

April 2021 saw the first phase of what was to be a pilot study where almost five million modified Aedes aegypti male mosquitoes were released in a group of islands off Florida's southern tip. Examined results to date give every indication the method may succeed in the eradication or diminishing the number of the problem mosquitoes in circulation. While Aedes aegypti make up only four percent of the mosquito population in the Keys, they are responsible for the spread of yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya and Zika virus.

The Florida Keys are situated within a national marine sanctuary, which makes it imperative that any such initiative limiting the number of and malign outcomes of exposure to the mosquitoes as carriers of these pathogens does not end up harming the environment or adversely effect other native organisms. Mosquito boxes out of which genetically modified male mosquitoes emerge then hunt down the wild females for the purpose of breeding were distributed to select neighbourhoods in the Florida Keys.

Researchers were able to observe 22,000 mosquito larvae from areas where the males were released. The modified males had been engineered to carry a gene designed to kill female offspring. Male offspring end up carrying the modified gene. The researchers verified that none of the female larvae, offspring of the modified males, lived to adulthood. The experiments are set to continue; another release is scheduled for Visalia, California.

 

An aedes aegypti mosquito which can spread Zika virus and dengue fever    Dreamscape

 

Outcome of Banning the Veil in French Schools

"For students who wore the veil, the ban may have had a negative effect on those who were most attached to it, as it may have led them to drop out of school."

"But the ban may also have had a positive effect on students who were forced to wear the veil, and on students suffering from stigmatization and discrimination in school because of it."

"When comparing women in the Muslim group to those in the non-Muslim group, the data reveal a very significant increase in educational attainment in the Muslim group for the cohorts that attended middle school and reached puberty after the ban."

"This increase clearly coincides with the implementation of the circular – the more years the Muslim group women spent in middle school after the circular, the higher their educational attainment."

Eric Maurin, Paris School of Economics, study co-author

State schools in France were asked to ban "ostentatious religious signs" -including Islamic veils - in 1994, but it was not forbidden by law until 2004. Photo by FRED DUFOUR/AFP via Getty Images

Im 1994 the government of France emphatically recommended that state schools ban "ostentatious religious signs", the customary Muslim girls' veils included. This was not a mandatory order but a recommendation. It became law in 2004 however, when despite warning from religious leaders that the law would persecute Muslims and encourage fundamentalism, it became lawfully illegal for French Muslim girls to wear the veil while attending state schools.

Now, researchers have produced results from a decades-long study with the finding that positive effects resulted after all, from the state initiative of removing the veil in schools. It was found that educational outcomes for Muslim girls were significantly improved once the law was formally implemented. There was also seen to have been an increase in mixed marriages.

Academic accomplishments of Muslim and their non-Muslim female counterparts in France were compared with the use of data extracted from the French Labour Force Survey which had been conducted between the years 2005 to 2019. Born between 1970 to 1974, Muslim women who completed school before the 1994 guideline on veils were 12 percent less likely to graduate from high school in comparison with their non-Muslim coevals.

Among women born between 1980 to1984 that gap in school completion was seen to shrink to 7 percent. For those who spent their education with some form of veil ban in place between 1990 to 1994 the gap in high school completion was seen to shrink once more to 6.5 percent. As well, the number of Muslim women marrying non-Muslim men increased from 13 to 22 percent, during that same period.

 

 

Treating Long COVID

"Research into long COVID — which is also known as post-acute sequelae of COVID-19, and is usually defined as COVID-19 symptoms that last longer than three months — has lagged behind studies of the acute phase of infection. People who experience long COVID live with a wide array of symptoms, ranging from mild to severely debilitating. Researchers have proposed a variety of causes for the condition — from lingering viral reservoirs, to autoimmunity, to tiny blood clots. Many think that a mix of these factors is to blame. “It took a while to get going on any serious mechanistic long-COVID research,” says immunologist Danny Altmann at Imperial College London. “It’s hard to piece the big picture together.”

Heidi Ledford, NATURE News

Researchers are studying the long-term effects of treatments given to people hospitalized with COVID-19.  Credit: Diego Vara/Reuters'

An informed estimate puts the number of people infected with  COVID-19, suffering symptoms long after the infection period, a phenomenon named 'Long COVID', at up to 30 percent. A miserable condition that can last for months. Many people with that condition are left in a state that makes them incapable of returning to work. Over 200 symptoms are associated with Long COVID, inclusive of pain, fatigue, brain fog, difficulty breathing, and minimal activity causing exhaustion.

Reports have emerged that give new hope that a potential control mechanism is in view capable of reducing Long COVID effects, going so far as to dispel them entirely. Two patients were found to have been given relief from Long COVID, having taken Pfizer's antiviral Paxlovid pill. One of those individuals was herself a researcher, testing the drug off-label on herself, for this was not what Paxlovid was formulated to do.

The Pfizer pill Paxlovid is a combination between an old antiviral, ritonavir, and a new Pfizer formula. Its use was meant for patients very recently diagnosed with COVID and immediately prescribed the pill meant to prevent severe disease occurring from a COVID infection in high-risk patients. Pfizer conducted no studies on Long COVID that would link it to their new medication.

 

A patient suffering from Long COVID is examined in the post-coronavirus disease (COVID-19) clinic of Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel, February 21, 2022. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

 

The researcher let it be known that her chronic fatigue symptoms, part of her Long COVID condition, which "felt like a truck hit me" had disappeared since she took the two-drug oral therapy. Scientific researchers urge caution in the situation they speak of as "hypothesis-generating only" with no proof existing that the drug actually gave relief of symptoms associated with Long COVID.

They do, however, support a theory that parts of the body may have seen ongoing infection by the virus in a persistence that causes Long COVID -- affecting the daily lives of patients long after the infection's original acute symptoms dissipate. 

A National Institutes of Health study under peer review saw researchers conducting autopsies on 44 people whom COVID-19 killed, or another compromising illness did, while they had also been infected with the virus -- finding widespread infection throughout the body including in the brain. The conclusion being that the infection is capable of enduring over seven months and beyond, long after the onset of symptoms.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) treatment pill Paxlovid is seen in a box, at Misericordia hospital in Grosseto, Italy, February 8, 2022. REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini