Fresh Water in a Parched Landscape

"All the extra water that [the plants] are producing we will be able to bring it with the national water carrier system up north and into the Sea of Galilee."

"With the environment of climate changes, you don't know what to expect next year and the year afterward."

"We are no longer depending on rain basically for water supply."

Yoav Barkay, manager, Mekorot, state-owned national water carrier, Tiberias, Israel

A photo taken during a tour of the Hadera Desalination Facility on April 3, 2022, shows a general view of the location in the central Israeli coastal town of Hadera. - JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images

When Jordan and Israel signed their peace treaty in 1994 as neighbours previously at war, one of the major issues that became part of the treaty was Israel's agreeing to provide Jordan with potable water in a region of the world perpetually suffering water shortages. Ever since, the two countries have participated in the pact that has Jordan dependent on Israel for the supply of 50 million cubic meters of potable water annually; an amount doubled by agreement in 2021.

Israel's main reservoir is the Sea of Galilee, the very place where biblical Jesus Christ was held to have walked upon water, making the site a religious tourist draw with hotels around the perimeter of the lake that feeds the Jordan River flowing south to the Dead Sea. The lake level responds to protracted droughts with receding shorelines as the water table diminishes, causing no little amount of anxiety. Heat waves and heavy rain events change the lake's water level dramatically.

Which led Israel to build a chain of desalination plants along its Mediterranean coastline, resulting in the country being able to boast a surplus of water in an infamously arid region of Earth. Water gushes into a dry river bed, racing to the shore of the Sea of Galilee when the floodgates are opened in northern Israel. An area lost to droughts and a growing population's needs has been totally altered.

A general view shows the Sea of Galilee with Jordan in the background, in northern Israel, January 23, 2023. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

 

Desalinated water, fresh and high-quality, comes from the Mediterranean Sea to be transported across the country to await the order to replenish the lake when shrinkage occurs. A life-sustaining refill system enabling increased water exports to Jordan. The lake's level can be raised by half a meter annually with the use of this system. 

Another agreement between the two countries saw Jordan agree to partner in a project where Jordan would build 600 megawatts of solar generating capacity for export to Israel in exchange for the additional water supply. A pipeline to redouble the amount to reach Jordan is under construction. Some 200 million cubic meters of water-- an amount equal to what the five largest Israel cities combined consume, is set to be supplied to Jordan.

A bay at the Sea of Galilee can be seen in northern Israel, January 23, 2023. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Dealing With Stress and Anxiety

The determinants of our mental well-being go beyond our genes and brain chemistry to include inflammation, gut health, sleep, nutrition, hormones, chronic limbic hyperarousal due to  unresolved trauma, and even having our basic needs for community, nature, meaning and purpose going unmet. If we do have a chemical imbalance, it is probably a downstream effect of these other states of imbalance."

"In other words, anxiety is not all in your head; it's largely based in the body, and that's where it should first be addressed."

"While our cultural attitude toward mental health is to regard it as a genetic destiny and a matter of troubled brain chemistry, much of our anxiety is rooted in the body and is mostly avoidable. Eliminating unnecessary stress responses can make us more resilient in the face of unavoidable stressors."

Dr. Ellen Vora, holistic and board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher

 

An inventory of avoidable anxiety could include:

• Hunger
• Sleep deprivation
• Being over-caffeinated
• A Hangover (what is now spoken of as "hang-xiety")
• Gut issues
• Inflammation
• Long stretches of being sedentary
• Chemical fallout after consuming highly processed food
• Late luteal phase (the days before the bleeding phase of the menstrual cycle)
• Inter-dose withdrawal (the pharmacologic low-point when  you're due for your next dose of a psychiatric medication)

During the first year that the coronavirus pandemic struck the globe, according to the World Health Organization, global cases of anxiety and depression rose by 25 percent. Among mental health professionals the consensus appears to be that mental health struggles relate to chemical imbalance in our DNA implying that anxiety is chemical, determined by serotonin levels, leading to the belief that the issue reflects genetic destiny.  Applicable therapies and medications are prescribed accordingly.

There may, however be other available options, according to Dr. Ellen Vora. Therapy sessions are becoming more difficult to accommodate given the stressors and shortfalls of late on the health care system, and medications sometimes don't work for everyone. On the other  hand, much of what has an impact on our moods and body is another issue playing a critical role in mental  health. Dr. Vora speaks of two types of anxiety: true anxiety (or purposeful anxiety), and avoidable anxiety.

True anxiety symptoms, she points out, tell the individual that something is awry that should be paid attention to. Some introspection is required to analyze what certain symptoms may indicate as links to anxiety symptoms. Consultation with a health professional is a start. Avoidable anxiety, on the other hand, may represent the body reacting to a stress response. We live in a distracting world that presents us with issues that can be disturbing, both personally and in sympathy with occurrences elsewhere.

What occupies our minds and our thoughts can often bring on stress from information overload or constant exposure to events that are clearly upsetting on a macro level, but which we can do nothing about, ourselves. A solution can be found in focusing on the stress with a mind to addressing the locus of anxiety to  help lift the stress level of the body to eliminate unnecessary stress responses.

Identifying when anxiety has a physical basis can help in the recognition that life feels\somewhat overwhelmed than it is in actuality and that recognition alone can help lift the level of stress. Making it a practise to study how we react to external triggers arousing anxiety levels can help take steps to eliminate avoidable anxiety, as a heightened awareness helps to take charge of moods that stress, making us more resilient as we balance mood and anxiety.

"Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. However, people with anxiety disorders frequently have intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations. Often, anxiety disorders involve repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reach a peak within minutes (panic attacks)."

"These feelings of anxiety and panic interfere with daily activities, are difficult to control, are out of proportion to the actual danger and can last a long time. You may avoid places or situations to prevent these feelings."

"Examples of anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder (social phobia), specific phobias and separation anxiety disorder. You can have more than one anxiety disorder. Sometimes anxiety results from a medical condition that needs treatment."

"Whatever form of anxiety you have, treatment can help."

Mayo Clinic

Politicizing Critical Health and Guidance Communications

"Misinformation is an urgent societal concern that affects us all [with its] infodemic [of falsehoods spread as widely and swiftly as COVID-19."

"Misinformation can be a product of systemic failures in science and medicine, and in the communication of scientific knowledge and research findings."

"[Findings that fail to replicate and weak methodologies are among the reasons why] no one study can be treated as definitive."

Council of Canadian Academies

"[Who or what is to blame? A] perfect storm of actors."

Myth and misperception, lies and deception are not new -- they're probably as old as human communication."

"But something different is afoot. [Pundits have labelled ours a] post-truth [era] where the very idea of truth seems to be under attack, and where misinformation is tied in with ideology and identity and arouses great passions."

"[Misinformation matters, because an] abundance of evidence [shows it causes preventable illness, preventable death and makes people] vulnerable to financial exploitation."

"It's pretty clear that tens of thousands of hospitalizations did occur because of misinformation."

"[It matters when political leaders] endorse [and] further promote misinformation. It accelerates the spread, it matters, it makes it harder to correct."

"When it becomes tied up with identity and ideology, political leaders will often look to misinformation as a means of building their coalition. It has become a tool in politics [and a threat to democracy]."

Dr. Alex Himelfarb, professor of sociology, University of New Brunswick, expert panel chair, Council of Canadian Academies

"A lot of people felt abandoned during this pandemic -- public outreach did not reach them; their needs were not met -- and the response was to turn away and reject all public health communications, and even to respond and protest angrily."

Dr. Maya Goldenberg, philosophy professor. expert in vaccine hesitancy, University of Guelph

A protest against COVID-19 vaccine passports and mandatory vaccinations in Vancouver on September 1, 2021. Among the vaccine refusers, 85 per cent believed that vaccine harms are "covered-up" and 73 per cent believed COVID is fake or overblown. Photo by Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

A newly issued report points out that beliefs of exaggeration of COVID-19, or that it is a hoax; that vaccines can alter a person's DNA or cause other "covered up problems" had a cost to Canada of an estimated 2,800 lives, along with thousands of hospitalizations over more than nine months of the pandemic. These are held to be conservative estimates based on models which did not address ripple effects of misinformation like postponed surgeries, medical billings or "the social unrest and moral injury to healthcare workers".

The report outlines that between March and November of 2021, misinformation persuaded up to 2.4 million people to delay or refuse to be vaccinated against COVID in Canada. Had those same individuals been vaccinated on eligibility by the end of November 2021, 198,000 fewer cases of COVID would have materialized; 13,000 fewer hospitalizations, and 3,500 fewer people requiring intensive care.

Conspiracy theories appearing on social media, the politicization of misinformation; a "multi-decades-long decline in trust" in institutions that once were viewed as reliable purveyors of truth, as well as theories that pinpoint blame on on something or someone, all were implicated as additional issues in the spread of misinformation impressing the vulnerable to act in defiance of their best interests. 

The 13-member panel that produced the report Fault Lines set out to estimate the effects of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy; how much more effectively vaccine uptake would have been without the confusing presence of misinformation and what it might have meant for infections and deaths. Under consideration was what would have occurred had the vaccine-reluctant and vaccine-refusers been vaccinated at time of eligibility.

Peer-reviewed publications, government information and statistics all were reviewed and a model plugging in "real world" data on the number of vaccinations, cases, ICU visits and deaths between March 1 and November 30, 2021 were also commissioned. Everyone aged 12 and older over two waves of COVID was tracked by the model. Three different hypothetical scenarios were run.

• What would have happened to vaccination rates and case numbers if the proportion of people who agreed with the statement that COVID-19 is a hoax or exaggerated, (based on an Abacus survey), were vaccinated as soon as they became eligible;
• Another scenario studied case numbers if the proportion that agreed vaccines contain microchips or hidden dangers were vaccinated as soon as they were eligible;
• And a third modelled of what would have occurred if everyone in Canada had been vaccinated when they became eligible.

The analysis led to the conclusion that misinformation contributed to vaccine hesitancy for an estimated 2.35 million people in Canada; had refusers and vaccine-reluctants not delayed or refused inoculation by the end of November 2021, 198,000 fewer COVID cases might have occurred; 13,000 fewer hospitalizations, 3,500 fewer people requiring intensive care, $300 million would have been saved in hospital costs, and 2,800 fewer deaths might have occurred.

Anti-vaccine demonstrators heckle Dr. Joe Vipond, not shown, an emergency room physician, leads a sustained protest against the Alberta government ending COVID testing, tracing, and isolation in Calgary, Alta., Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021. Jeff McIntosh for The Globe and Mail

 

Long COVID Diagnosis and Management

"[Long COVID] has emerged as a complex and multi-system disease that is anticipated to require multidisciplinary management and treatment across the continuum of care."

Ontario Ministry of Health

"The designation of a specific code really does help us track, count and look at the burden of this across Ontario."

"It is the belief of our review that the vast majority of patients can be treated through their primary health care provider."

Dr. Kieran Moore, chief medical officer of health, Ontario

"This code is a big deal. It's helpful for us and I think it's going to help change the way health care is delivered in Ontario in the future for people with Long COVID."

"We have lots of work to do on pretty much everything to do with the treatment and support of people with it. But I think the first step is just acknowledging that it's a real thing."

"It really is critical and it's something that we've been asking for and advocating for, for a while now."

Dr. Kieran Quinn, clinical expert in Long COVID, associate professor, University of Toronto

New research out of Israel suggests most symptoms of long COVID clear up within a year, but some — like weakness and trouble breathing — are more likely to persist. CBC

"People are grieving the loss of who you were. I'm not who I was before COVID."

"It's [news of a small victory in the imposition of a new fee code recognizing the reality of Long COVID] -- just the first step of a thousand."

"We want to see a commitment from the government with some kind of strategy as to how they're going to deal with Long COVID."

Suzie Goulding, COVID Long-Haulers Support Group Canada

After the frustrating, gruelling experience thrust upon Suzie Goulding following her bout with COVID-19, leaving her with the condition now known as Long COVID, she became a warrior for the recognition of the condition, hoping that general practitioners, the first medical doctors generally who see patients suffering from the syndrome and unable to diagnose it, will begin to help others where she was failed. Early in the pandemic she became ill with COVID-19, but her family doctor did not believe what ailed her was the virus.

She has, in fact, never been formally diagnosed, since at the time of her initial bout with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it was difficult to obtain testing without being judged qualified for the testing process. Eventually she found herself struggling to walk. She was referred to a neurologist whose opinion was she was suffering from anxiety. Low energy levels assail her; she lives with a persistent brain fog affecting her speech.

"The more that I speak, the less words I can find", she said. It occurred to her to launch a community self-help group to welcome others suffering from Long COVID in an atmosphere where it was not being taken seriously throughout the medical community. There are now 18,000 members across the country  for the COVID Long-Haulers Support Group Canada. A support group that lobbies to support researchers like Dr. Quinn in striving to understand the disease.

With his colleague, Dr.Angela Cheung, Dr. Kieran Quinn is preparing to launch clinical trials they call the Reclaim Trial, which purpose is to examine a number of treatments "to actually improve people's quality of life and to treat Long COVID directly".  This all ties in with the recognition of Long COVID by the Ontario Ministry through the release of a new billing code for the use of doctors in diagnosing Long COVID.

The code is to be used when suspected or confirmed Long COVID cases present for treatment. A condition known as well as post-COVID-19 condition. The code also becomes a mechanism through which researchers are enabled to follow patients over time, with Long COVID.  With the bulletin on the new code, came guidelines for primary care physicians to aid them in understanding how to assess and manage their patients with the condition.

Dr. Quinn, along with other researchers has been engaged in painstaking work meant to estimate how many Canadians live with Long COVID. Their conclusion is, about 1.4 million have the condition. Almost every part and organ of the body is affected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. There are well over a hundred symptoms associated with COVID and Long COVID, the most common of which include deep-rooted fatigue, brain fog heart palpitations, insomnia and mood disorders such as anxiety and depression.

In the near term, primary care doctors will be tackling Long COVID. Before it was  disbanded, Ontario's science table informed the province in a brief that saw publication in September, that the lack of a diagnostic code for Long COVID presented as a problem; warning a month later that the heavy lifting going forward on COVID-19 would rest with primary care physicians.

This is doubly problematic given the reality of a shortage of family doctors, with 1.8 million people living in Ontario without a family doctor to call upon. Compounded by the fact that another 1.7 million Ontarians are patients of family doctors aged 65 or older. Backing up family doctors, a number of hospitals in the province have established Long COVID outpatient clinics, with eleven across the province located in cities and with one only in the province's north.

Review: An Angel From Auschwitz by R.S. Brynin

With an epic novelistic turn and a solid grasp of history, R.S. Brynin details an authoritative panorama of failed humanity at its most base stretching upward to its finest heights on a broad canvas of war and unthinkable brutality. A chronicle of desperation, conviction, courage and the struggle for survival in a lethal landscape of formidable fanaticism and viral hatred. 

He has painted a canvass of dialogue revealing both the grim emotional desperation and the humanity of his protagonists with dialogue both credible and heart gripping through the vagaries of fate that brings the reader into the orbit of deranged humanity -- extending into the future of hope.

From the landscape of war to the mindscape of survival this is a wide-ranging journey of human depravity countered by the equally human will to live with entitled dignity. 

The novel introduces the reader to a cast that includes the serpents of destruction driven by the venom of hate, and the victims whose fate the world ignored as an inconvenience. A book infused with character development of complex dimensions faced with a psychological, deeply emotional primal drive for tribal survival.

An informed historical narrative through skilled, imaginative and entirely natural interaction between the novel's enduring characters. The hatefully cynical, intractable belief of the Nazi Final Solution that a segment of humanity should be exterminated in favour of purifying the human race -- balanced against the confused bewilderment and outrage powering the victims' resolve to survive at all costs.

At a time when history drew a dark shield over civilizational enlightenment to re-introduce barbarity on a massive scale of destruction and annihilation of liberty and life, the author lifts a corner of that blind obscuring the light of reason with its deepest delve into the night of genocide to offer hope for the survival of human sanity.

This is a story for the ages, deftly handled in an intimate acquaintance with victims who refuse to submit to the tyranny of humiliation, degradation, terror and death, and who resolve to fight back as best they can in a crisis of endurance. Through the medium of this novel and its extensive cast of perpetrators and victims whose lives have been eviscerated, the mettle of the human character is tested and found equal to the task.

Move Over, Ladies, the Trans Community is Entitled

"I didn’t quite understand why that was uncomfortable because I didn’t know I was trans at the time. I still thought I was a guy. Finding a ladies' gym was something that seemed really exciting, and now that I’m out, I understand why I was uncomfortable at the other place.”

"[I was just] extremely devastated [by the experience and felt very uncomfortable in the past working out around] a bunch of really buff guys at the university gym."

"I got a call…basically saying, ‘Sorry, we made a mistake, you’re not actually allowed to be here, but you’re more than welcome to use the co-ed facility."

 "I just hung up, because I mean, I was extremely devastated, there’s really no other word for it."

"[A]ll it takes is education. Once you understand trans women are women, trans men are men, non-binary people are who they say they are, it’s as simple as that. If you still feel uncomfortable after that, that’s on you, it’s not on me. I am who I am, it’s as simple as that. I just look different. That’s all."

"It was important to me to be in a place that would be, like, explicitly accepting, like, 'You are a woman, you're allowed to be here'."

"One of the trainers greeted me, and she was extremely kind. She could tell I was trans right away and said I would be welcome there, and explicitly said I would be safe as well, even hugged me."

Transgender woman Brigid Klyne-Simpson 

Brigid Klyne-Simpson

"We already have transgender people here, and all sorts of people, we’re not discriminatory at all."

"We’ve got staff that’s minorities, so, we’re not saying there’s no solutions, we’re looking for a solution and we’re not discriminatory people."

"So now you pick the comfort of the male who identifies as a woman … and anybody can go in there saying, 'OK, I identify as a woman, and I want to be able to go in there.' And so, do we pick the comfort of the transgender person, who may not be as comfortable with the co-ed gym, but at least that's an alternative, or do we pick the comfort of the young girls working out there that might not feel comfortable?"

Dale Nagra, owner, Bodyworks Fitness, Parksville, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Peculiar events have been occurring throughout Canada of late; a shop teacher at Oakville-Trafalgar High School showing up for classes in outrageously outsize breast prosthetics with protruding nipples, wearing tight, sheer tee-shirts and the controversy that erupted from that episode when the school board and the school principal refused to react to the provocation. High schools can exercise their authority in mandating an 'appropriate' dress code for students, yet doing so for teaching staff seemed just too frightfully interfering, with the threat of being denounced as 'transphobic' should the teacher be admonished at his/her unprofessionalism.

 

In an earlier case, a man identifying as a transwoman appealed to the B.C. Human Rights Commission when an aesthetician refused a Brazil wax job demanded. The Commission ruled against the complainant, stating that a man identifying as a woman who was equipped with male genitals could not expect a cosmetic service that the complainant, Jessica Yanik demanded as a paying client. "... human rights legislation does not require a service provider to wax a type of genitals they are not trained for and have not consented to wax."

Jessica Yaniv filed human rights complaints against a number of B.C. home salons, alleging she was discriminated against when they refused to provide waxing services.

 

In the latest social travesty transwoman Klyne-Simpson is offended that the gym in question has a policy of accepting trans clients, but has rules and regulations that maintain such clients not be permitted entry to sole-female areas of the gym, where privacy for female clients is a matter of discretion respecting their gender, not their chosen identity. Having been rebuffed, in his/her wish to join the born female gym clients, Klyne-Simpson is musing about taking the gym to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

 

It would seem the Tribunal has a reputation of upholding many such complaints, encouraging British Columbians to file complaints where they are "denied services" related to "gender identity or expression". The B.C. Human Rights Code could serve to empower the Tribunal to order the Bodyworks gym to reverse its privacy-for-women policy and provide compensation to the complainant "for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect".

 

"Trans people deserve to feel safe, welcome & affirmed for who they are. Trans women are women -- period", stated B.C. parliamentary secretary for gender equality, Kelli Paddon. Canada is the first jurisdiction in the world to commit to certifying transgender status through casual "self-identifiction".  In 2018, B.C. changed its rules so that residents could request birth certificates, driver's licences and other documents from the province to identify their gender with a nonbinary "X".

 

"Each individual knows their own gender best, and today, I am proud that our government is recognizing this by taking landmark action", Grace Lore, then-parliamentary secretary for gender equity, Grace Lore, announced in 2018. Now, any British Columbian over age 12 can legally change to any gender by simply submitting a three-page form known as the Application for Change of Gender Designation. 

 

Has no one noticed? Dignity and respect for self-identifying male-to-female transgender individuals, while unfortunately dignity and respect for women whose gender at birth was female, see theirs rapidly eroding, with born-males moving into their territory, invading their privacy and competing both for attention and recognition competing against women in the sports field. In asserting the legality of human rights in support of transwomen, the human rights of all women is abrogated.

Canada is home to some of the world’s first jurisdictions to certify transgender status through a lens of “self-identification.” Photo by Getty Images

Adolescence in Animal Species

"Adolescent chimpanzees are [facing] the same psychological tempest that humann teens are. Our findings show that several key features of human adolescent psychology are also seen in our closest primate relations."

"Risk-taking behaviour in adolescent chimpanzees and humans appears to be deeply biologically ingrained, but increases in impulsive behaviour may be specific to human teens."

Dr. Alexandra Rosati, University of Michigan

Young chimpanzees were shown to exhibit risk-taking behaviour and moodiness very similar to that commonly seen in human teenagers, according to a newly published study. Why is this not surprising? How many parents have puzzled over the monkeyshines they see in their unreasonable, irascible, moody teenage sons and daughters only to conclude some devil has entered their minds; close enough to the conclusions reached by the study of baffling teen behaviour.

 

Dr. Alexandra Rosati and her team of researchers appear to have demonstrated that unreasonable, impulsive behaviour is not necessarily only the prerogative of human teens, but as a biological trait, shared by the animal species closest in line to our own biological inheritance. Of course, as any parent can also attest the dietary appetites of adolescents in their propensity to consume what seems to be far more than their maturing, hormone-ridden bodies might require, along with an indiscriminate taste for  junk food bears a distinct similarity to another species that share many human traits: pigs.

Dr. Rosati, lead author of the new research, found that young chimpanzees exhibit moodiness and risk-taking reflective of teen-age angst over how their lives are unfolding. The primates go through adolescence at roughtly eight to fifteen years of age, with the animals' life expectancy hovering around 50 years. Adolescence for chimpanzees brings rapid changes in hormone levels. 

This is the stage of social development when adolescent chimps begin associating more commonly with their peers, forming new bonds and demonstrating greater degrees of aggression as they compete for social status. A situation that conforms to the very same perplexing 'coming-of-age' patterning of human teens. 

The research team set out with 40 wild chimps at a sanctuary in the Republic of Congo, to introduce the animals to two games. The test subjects were required to choose between a box containing peanuts or one that might have either a cucumber slice or a banana slice. The discovery was made that the subjects were 55 percent likelier than adults to select the risky option, suggesting that like human teens, adolescent chimpanzees seek out a riskier option weighted with a greater reward.

The chimps' 'delayed gratification' skills were put to the test in the second 'game' when they were permitted to receive one banana slice immediately or choose instead to wait for a single minute when they would receive three slices. The chimps were seen to delay their reward in roughly the same numbers as would adults, but they became more emotionally upset with the one-minute delay than adult chimpanzees.

The takeaway was that unlike humans, adolescent chimpanzees appear no more impulsive than adults, but they are inclined to be extremely unhappy with losing, reflecting in fact the reactions of human teens' impulses of anger over delayed gratification.

A study of young chimpanzees has found they exhibit the same risk-taking behaviour and moodiness as human teens Credit: Getty Images

Earthscience in Rotation

"It's only contentious because we can't figure it out."

"It's probably benign, but we don't want to have things we don't understand deep in the Earth."

John Vidale, geophysicist, University of Southern California

"The inner core is the deepest layer of Earth, and its relative rotation is one of the most intriguing and challenging problems in deep-earth science."

"We are hypothesizing that this [slowed rotation] will continue in the coming years and decades, and we should be able to see that in [our] relatively short human time frame."

"The exciting news, is that we don’t have to wait too long."

"We believe the inner core rotates, relative to the Earth's surface, back and forth, like a swing,"

"One cycle of the swing is about seven decades."

"We hope our study can motivate some researchers to build and test models which treat the whole Earth as an integrated dynamic system."

Xiaodong Song, geoscientist, Peking University

"Most of us assumed that the inner core rotated at a steady rate that was slightly different from the Earth." 

"The evidence accumulates, and this paper shows that the evidence for [faster] rotation is strong before about 2009, and basically dies off in subsequent years."

Paul Richards, seismologist, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University

Earth’s core structure. Elements of this image were furnished by NASA. Credit: Maksym Yemelyanov/Alamy Stock Photo

Science never sleeps. The universe is steadily unfolding. And research probes endlessly trying to understand the natural world within ourselves and surrounding us. And what if the very foundation of the natural world closest to us, that we consider our home in the great vastness of the universe is performing mysteriously enigmatic actions that will some day relate to the very stability of what we take for granted; time and the seasons, day and night, ultimately affecting our spin around our life-sustaining sun?

Scientists discovered credible evidence in the mid-1990s that the inner core of our planet, a superheated sphere of iron whose size is similar to that of our moon, was spinning at a pace quicker than the outer core of Earth. A study published recently in Nature Geoscience suggests that the core's rotation has decelerated and was whirling in syncronization with the Earth's surface; a reversed -- lagging behind the surface of the planet.

Years of research and deep discussions among scientists relating to the core and how it influences some fundamental aspects of the planet, including the length of a day and fluctuations in Earth's magnetic field has given way to disagreements among scientific researchers. That solid iron core, sizzling with heat, almost five thousand kilometres below the surface, floats within a liquid outer core.

The liquid in the outer core moves in reaction to the energy released by the inner core, geologists believe. The movement generates electrical currents, in turn creating a magnetic field surrounding the planet that protects organisms on the surface from cosmic radiation damage. This detected inner core slowdown occurred in the later 1960s and early 1970s, leading study authors at Peking University to feel a 70-year cycle of the core's spin results.

The scientific debate over what the mysterious metal sphere at Earth's centre reflects, in reaction to the study stokes the scientific debate. Dr. Song's 1995 work was the first to provide evidence that the Earth's core did not match the mantle's movement. Beneath the mantle and the crust, the core cannot be directly visualized but scientists make use of seismic waves resulting from earthquakes to infer how the Earth's inner core is impacted; as seismic waves travel at varying speeds depending on density and temperature of the rock.

Seismic waves travelling from the sites of earthquakes to sensors on the opposite side of the planet were examined in the study as they passed through the core. Comparison of the waves from similar earthquakes in the same area over the years enabled the scientists to search for and analyze lags of time and perturbations in the waves, giving them indirect insight about the core.

Minute alterations in the length of a day link to the behaviour of the core; the particular details, a matter of spirited debate. But the length of a day has been seen to elongate by milliseconds over centuries relating to other forces, including the moon's magnetic draw on Earth. Ultraprecise atomic clocks measure mysteirous fluctuations. Dr. Song and his research colleagues argue that these variations may explain the core's rotational changes.

When predicable fluctuations in the length of a day resulting from the moon's tidal forces are removed changes are detected appearing to track with the 70-year oscillation in the inner core's rotation. The core's behaviour remains a contested question but there is agreement between geoscientists that as additional data accrues, many of the initial theories of the core's behaviour have become more complicated.

"Ultimately I don't think that things being complicated is a problem in geoscience. We know the surface of our planet is complex ... so it is reasonable to assume the deep interior is also complicated!"

"To definitely say how the inner core is rotating relative to the outer layers of the planet, we will need to keep collecting as much data as we can."

Elizabeth Day, geophysicist, Imperial College London

An artist's rendition of a cross-section of Earth. The innermost layer, the inner core, is a 1,500-mile-wide ball of iron. CHRISTOPH BURGSTEDT / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images

Stopping a Mass Murderer

"Something came over me. I realized I needed to get the weapon away from him. I needed to take this weapon, disarm him or else somebody would have died."

"When I got the courage, I lunged at him with both my hands,l grabbed the weapon and we had a struggle."

Brandon Tsay, 26, Alhambra Dance Studio, Monterey Park, California 

 

"They came across a scene none of them have prepared for." 

"There were injured people inside and dead people inside. My young officers did their job."

"[What his officers found was a] scene of carnage [the first officers on scene responding were some of the youngest on the squad, only just finished their training a few months earlier]."

Police Chief Scott Wiese  

"[An alert should have gone out right away, and a half hour between the two incidents was more than enough time to do so]."

"What took so long? [Five hours before alerting the public.] Maybe they were still doing their investigation. Maybe they didn’t have a good handle on what they had."

"But if they didn’t know, they should have erred on the side of caution and put this out."

 Brian Higgins, adjunct professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, former SWAT team commander and police chief in Bergen County, New Jersey

Photos of the suspect were issued by police during the manhunt  Reuters

Thirty minutes after an elderly gunman had sprayed automatic riflefire inside the Star Ballroom Dance Club where a Lunar New Year's gathering was celebrating, leaving ten celebrants dead and another ten wounded, some seriously, he entered another  club where he obviously meant to repeat the carnage, before he was challenged by a young man whose grandparents had founded the ballroom. 

Once the gun was in Brandon Tsay's hands he aimed it at the elderly intruder shouting "Get the hell out of here, I'll shoot, get away, go!". As soon as the killer, Hu Can Tran, 72, left and returned to his van, the police were called. A frantic search for the gunmen proceeded. An alert went out identifying the shooter, after a lapse of five hours, with photographs posted. It took twelve hours before a SWAT team cautiously surrounded a white parked van. 

 

As they approached the parked vehicle, 30 miles from the shooting scene, they heard a shot. It was the suspect, turning his handgun on himself to be found slumped dead, over the wheel of the vehicle. The manhunt was over. The dance studios were very popular in this majority Asian community. Saturday nights saw people converge on the ballrooms whose clients thought of it as a comforting social circle.

The 72-year-old had in fact been a dance instructor at the Star Ballroom Dance Club where he taught "almost very night" until the early 2010s. It was where he met his wife. They divorced in 2005. Police believe that he entered the first ballroom searching for his ex-wife. The affair had been by invitation and he had not been invited. It appears that he was known to be a man with a short temper and he was fairly unpopular. On his part, he believed that 'evil people' were out to get him.

Not all the dead in the shooting have been identified. It is not known whether the man's ex-wife was among the dead."This hate is because of wife and husband. I believe because of that there was the killing of innocent people", said Chester Chong, a community leader in Monterey Park, a city of about 60,000 people to the east edge of Los Angeles. The population is comprised of majority Asian immigrants from China or first-generation Asian Americans.

The death toll rose to eleven on Monday when another victim died in hospital.Most of the dead and injured were in their 50s and 60s. They were in very fact, a social community. This will be accounted the 33rd mass shooting in the United States in the past 23 days.

The second venue where Brandon Tsay tackled the gunman  Getty Images

Ravenous, Are We?

"We've discovered that  you really need that gut signalling to have long, sustained reduction in AgRP activity."

"In the absence of that gut signalling, you really don't shut off these hunger neurons."

"[Hanger researchers identify neuron activity in the hypothalamus, a brain region co-ordinating hunger and emotion. Hunger activates these brain cells known as AgRP neurons for the proteins they express. These neurons are colloquially spoken of as 'hangry neurons']."

Amber Alhadeff, researcher, Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia

Scientists asked participants to record their emotions and hunger levels five times a day for three weeks. Pexels

 

Researchers are now beginning to make biological sense of how our brains and emotions are affected by what we eat, or what we fail to eat when we should. A study out of Britain concludes that the feeling of hunger is associated with emotions on the negative scale. The word "hangry" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2018 in recognition of its acceptance as a real phenomenon. Not everyone becomes angry when they are hungry, but many do.

And the very link between hunger and mood has long been known, but never before ascribed to biological connections with hormones. Messages are hormonally sent everywhere in the body, travelling through the bloodstream. Research being undertaken at present focuses for the most part on the body communication system through hormones and neurons. Hunger coincides with a drop in glucose linking to hormonal changes affecting brain functioning.

Eating something can raise low blood glucose; a combination of protein, fibre and complex carbohydrates works best to raise blood glucose. Low blood glucose instructs the body to release adrenalin and cortisol, hormones that naturally raise blood sugar, enabling function even with a drop in blood sugar. On the other hand, cortisol and adrenalin flooding the bloodstream creates a natural reaction of alertness to threats. High alert in combination with hunger can result in irritability associated with hanger.

Dr. Alhadeff's laboratory at the Monell Chemical Senses Center studies food intake behaviour and how gut-brain  communication influences what we eat. When lack of food activates AgRP neurons in mice, a signal of hunger is sent by the neurons. The cells also signal a "negative valence"; an emotion of discomfort generally associated with fear, anxiety and anger. Once the mice eat, AgRP neurons calm and both hunger and negativity signals abruptly halt.

Dr. Alhadeff hypothesizes hungry neurons to represent remnants of a era in distant human history when people foraged for food and more than just hunger was needed to motivate us to find food. This neuron group still has a lasting impact. 

Researchers say that hunger turns up the dial on anger.   Dmitry Ageev / Getty Images/Blend Images

Inclusivity and Fairness Polarized in Transgender Athletes Competing in Women's Sports

"Inclusion rights have dominated the policy podium for a generation of athletes. Female athletes watch in dismay as those who were born men breeze past them in track and field, rowing and other sports where post-puberty disparity in muscle power and lung capacity -- even with testosterone reduced -- guarantee them a significant boost in the women's category."

"Resistance was futile."

Sport associations were so committed to the inclusion principle that complaints were interpreted as transphobic, and female athletes risked being cancelled by stepping out of line: team expulsion, loss of athletic scholarships and the annulment of dreams nurtured since childhood. Their coaches went along to get along."

Barbara Kay, columnist, National Post

 

"'For the Olympic level, the elite level, I'd say probably two years is more realistic than one year' said the study's lead author, Dr. Timothy Roberts, a pediatrician and the director of the adolescent medicine training program at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. 'At one year, the trans women on average still have an advantage over the cis women', he said, referring to cisgender, or nontransgender, women."

Dan Avery, NBC News 

Mara Gómez, the first transgender woman to play professional soccer in Argentina, heads the ball during a match in Buenos Aires on Dec. 7.  Juan Mabromata / AFP - Getty Images

"In an effort to better understand this topic, [how hormone therapy affects physical performance], researchers assessed heart-lung (cardiopulmonary) capacity and strength among 15 transgender women, 13 cisgender men, and 14 cisgender women. Each person was in their mid-thirties and generally engaged in similar physical activity levels."

"Participating transgender women had been on hormone therapy for an average of 14 years. On average, these individuals started hormone therapy at the age of 17. The research team measured each person’s body fat and muscle mass (bioimpedance). A hand grip test to assess strength was also conducted, in addition to cardiopulmonary exercise testing (VO2) on a treadmill."

"Transgender women had lower total body fat levels than cisgender women, but more fat than cisgender men. Similarly, skeletal muscle mass was higher among transgender women in comparison to cisgender women, yet lower than it was among cisgender men."

 “Thus, long-term estrogen exposure and testosterone suppression were not enough to completely shift [body composition of transgender women] to the female pattern, despite their direct and indirect effects on fat and lean mass,” researchers say in a media release.

"Transgender women had stronger grip strength and average peak VO2 than cisgender women."

“Thus, long-term estrogen exposure and testosterone suppression were not enough to completely shift [body composition of transgender women] to the female pattern, despite their direct and indirect effects on fat and lean mass,” researchers say in a media release."

John Anderer, Health and Medical, Sports News

University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas congratulates Princeton's Ellie Marquardt at qualifying event  Mary Schwalm/Associated Press

As a male swim competitor in elite sports, trans-identifying Lia Thomas was considered a second-tier swimmer. After socially transitioning and reducing testosterone levels, as a female, the new 'she' outperformed female competitors on a wide scale in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle races in women's swimming and diving championships seemingly effortlessly; an event and a performance that served to emphasize grpss unfairness as an undeniable problem. 

Male sport figures transitioning to female time and again demonstrating an obviously unfair advantage due entirely to their male physicality inherited at birth. From weightlifting competitions, to team sports, racing and racquet sports, men transitioning to women have taken to competing in women's league sports resulting in the advantage of their superior male-inherited muscular endurance strength outlasting and outperforming women's.

The very idea of males competing at muscle-performance strength with females foresees a huge competitive edge, yet the 'human rights' of men declaring themselves females is not to be questioned for their negative impact on women's success in sports that should see women ideally competing against other women, not transwomen who are obviously physically differentiated from born females. Strange beyond explication that the human rights entitlements of transwomen trumps that of women whose gender is without question natural.

The International Consortium on Female Sport, a lobby group advocating for female sport category preservation on a global scale represents member groups that include Canada, the  United States, Spain, France and the United Kingdom, as original members. At the annual National Collegiate Athletic Association convention in January in San Antonio Texas, the ICFS lobbied the NCAA to commit to respecting women's sex-based rights in sport.

In doing so, they ran into a bit of a problem when it was discovered that the convention on "inclusion in sports" and transgender athlete policy did not appreciate dissenting views. "The panellists were all trans activists. Not a single panellist representing the female voice", stated activist Linda Blade, high-performance Alberta coach and author. Each of the panellists justified the sacred inclusionary principle claiming women are obligated to make their sport "safe" for trans-identifying athletes.

"Fairness in sport can be achieved with the reconceptualization of the male category as 'Open' and the women's category as 'Female', where female refers to the sex recorded at birth"; a quote from a Macdonald-Laurier Institute report examining the principles of "fairness, safety and inclusion"; concluding that no scenario exists in which fairness and safety might harmonize with inclusion.

The Boooring Affliction of Sameness

"The problem we observed was that social media can alleviate superficial boredom but that distraction sucks up time and energy and may prevent people progressing to a state of profound boredom, where they might discover new passions."

"This research has given us a window to understand how the 'always-on', 24/7 culture and devices that promise an abundance of information and entertainment may be fixing our superficial boredom but are actually preventing us from finding more meaningful things."

"Profound boredom may sound like an overwhelmingly negative concept but, in fact, it can be intensely positive if people are given the chance for undistracted thinking and development."

Dr. Timothy Hill, associate professor, management marketing, business and society, Bath, U.K.

 

"I felt empty, an emptiness that was difficult to escape from. The longer I was bored, the worse I felt about myself.":

"But one positive thing is that it made me take on new things to escape that empty feeling."

Richard, study participant

(Mindful Media/Getty Images)

Social media researchers are turning to a shared theory of boredom being a psychological spur to turning people toward exploring means by which they can enrich their experiences to stave off boredom. And, they contend, it takes extreme levels of boredom to propel people in the direction of taking steps to relieve that deep sense of monotony. If they seek instead minor or surface distractions, they may still harbour a level of boredom, but of insufficient depth to convince them they should be looking for ways to alleviate the discomfort.

 

Mindless scrolling on social media, viewing videos to briefly instill a sense of interest, following threads, all have a way of preventing "profound boredom" from being mounted, leaving the time-spendthrift feeling only minimally to marginally bored, a condition that while irritating, appears manageable by searching out other, similarly mindless pursuits, unsatisfying in their outcome but preventing the buildup of acute boredom with its potential to trigger a search for meaningful pursuits.

 

Creative thought is not conducive through 'superficial boredom', warn experts. Fifteen people were interviewed by researchers at the University of Bath during the pandemic, a time they would be likelier to be bored -- when normal life became straitened as a result of restrictions imposed to protect people from runaway infection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. 

The interview subjects described feeling trapped in a monotony of daily walks, watching television broken only by supermarket shopping. To pass the time people turned increasingly to the distractions inherent in social media. Despite social media providing temporary escape from superficial boredom, participants reported it also seemed to exacerbate boredom. They were left feeling their time had been wasted.

 

People peruse smartphones and tablets at the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City

Jose Antonio Maciel/Moment Editorial/Getty Images

 

German ph8ilosopher Martin Heidegger identified the two levels of boredom; superficial and profound; the former as being the most common form of boredom; the feeling people are infused with when awaiting something expected has been delayed. During such times people automatically seek out temporary distractions, most frequently turning to cellphones and social media. A trait that prevents the state of profound boredom being reached.

Profound boredom is considered a level of malaise, its importance as an impetus in the creation of an "existential discomfort", challenging the sense of self, to ultimately convince people to exert themselves to improve the situation they find themselves in. Study interviewees reported that they were led to question their purpose and life choices when they fell into profound boredom. Leading them to explore new interests as an escape from that void.

Professor Hill spoke of a "digital detox", helpful to people when they switch off devices, enabling them to reach the state of required tedium to push themselves on to new interests or achievements. The study was published in the journal Marketing Theory, by researchers from the University of Bath and Trinity College Dublin. Dr. Hill was the lead investigator.

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Life Goes On In Lviv, Ukraine

More than 200,000 internally displaced Ukrainians have temporarily settled in the western city of Lviv, which is home to 725,000 in normal times.   Ryan Kellman/NPR

"I have to see that there is a minimum of electricity for the whole population; in homes, in our 127 schools, for our essential services. Each transformer takes a year to repair [after Russian shelllng]. So we won't count on that this winter. We subsidize half the cost of generators for businesses and families. Then I have to make sure there is public transport. Hospitals must also be running, surgeries must be carried out, there must be enough temporary and permanent prostheses for soldiers, children and the elderly. There aren't enough,. There are a lot of amputations. But I'm not a doctor, I'm a mayor. First you have to prepare for winter, survive, hold on. It's my duty."

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy

Wounded Ukrainian war veteran Mykhailo Yurchuk was the first in Lviv to get a bionic prosthetic arm as a part of the Unbroken project.  Roma Cayman Unbroken National Rehabilitation Center

 

This is a type of war with echoes of a long-past era in ancient history when foreign hordes of wildly manic violence slashed and razed, looted and murdered in a frenzy of conquest when marauding armies invaded large swaths of territory to claim as their own in mass, disorganized and demonic campaigns to rid the territories of the indigenous populations so the massive groups of migrating humanity representing an entirely different ethnic culture could settle into their destiny as new indigenous populations to the present.

Giant countries like China still subscribe to the old methods of occupation, wrenching the land from its inhabitants of ancient origin transforming them under duress to unwilling slave labour status in their own ancestral lands, subservient to an unforgiving taskmaster for whom treachery of those conspiring to rebel ranks the death penalty. The Turkic peoples and the Tibetans -- much as Genghis Khan did in the 13th century sweeping his Mongol armies through territory to enlarge his own dominion. The civilized rules of modern-day warfare, theoretically preclude targeting civilian populations during conflict between armies.

So now too are Ukrainians, despite the aggressor Russia denying that it targets civilian enclaves within the country it has invaded and mercilessly attempts to bomb back to the stone age. Moscow, having embarked on a mission to once again subjugate Ukraine denies that it flouts the rules of modern warfare even while it obviously considers bombing hospitals, schools, apartment blocks, theatres and shopping malls in cities far from the front lines a fine strategy for success. Russia's goal, readily observed, is to smash Ukraine's vital civil infrastructure.

And as the artillery attacks and aerial bombing continue day after day with a determined view to making life as miserable as possible for the entire population of Ukraine by depriving cities and their inhabitants of winter heat,  potable water, and access to food, eight million refugees have been created, with Ukrainians seeking safety and haven in neighbouring countries, all of which are fully in support of Ukraine while imagining themselves to be next on Russia's agenda of returning them to satellite status.

Of the internally displaced, there are six and a half million Ukrainians who fearfully and regretfully make their way elsewhere to find places of safety within their country. Heading west from the eastern and south regions of the vast geography, an estimated five million of the displaced are held to have passed through Ukraine's seventh largest city which has extended its resources to give aid and comfort to the displaced, finding temporary homes for as many as possible, advising others to keep moving westward, even to leave Ukraine's borders for haven elsewhere until it is safe to return. 

The train station in Lviv. Many displaced people are on the move as the country deals with electrical outages from Russian shelling. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

 Even as air raid sirens send their messages throughout the city, people in Lviv continue to go about their daily business, unfazed, familiar now with the tactics of the Russian military which had gone seamlessly from supporting Syrian's president Bashar al-Assad in persecuting and violently attacking his own citizens, creating similar numbers of refugees and internally displaced, they carry their experience there into their 'special military operation' in Ukraine, Never did they imagine that Ukrainians would stand up and fight back to the extent that has happened. In the process delaying the great victory that Vladimir Putin envisaged.

Since the war began, the municipality of Lviv has been busy. Far from the front lines it resolved to be a welcoming beacon to the millions of their compatriots with little choice but to flee the violence; women and children leaving their husbands and brothers, sons and fathers behind to help counter the Russian attacks. In the process, Lviv built 6,000 anti-missile shelters, a thousand of them designed to be heated with wood. Services were organized for Ukrainians whom the war had uprooted, many of whom made the decision to remain in the city.

 

Which meant the availability of social housing had also to be significantly addressed. Far from the front lines, Lviv has committed to receiving most of the wounded in the conflict from the front which runs 850-kilometres along a line stretching from Donbas to Kherson. Health workers in the city have treated an estimated 11,000 soldiers and civilians since 24 February. The haven that is Lviv has not escaped Russia's notice which continues to target its infrastructure, impacting Lviv's electricity, water and sewage. Five transformers have been destroyed by Russian missiles, representing half of the city's power grid.

Reuters

"We will be the first national rehabilitation ecosystem. If elsewhere in this country it will be necessary to rebuild entire cities, in Lviv, we will rebuild humans. We will be the model for the whole country. Already, this city of 800,000 inhabitants has a general hospital with 1,300 beds, another for military personnel and one for children, 4,000 health workers, a rehabilitation centre and a small prosthesis factory." 

"Here we are already building a new rehabilitation centre. There, it will be a school right next to the children's hospital to help the little handicapped [thousands]. Further on, this park will offer activities for war amputees. Over there a factory will increase the production of prostheses. We will offer jobs to veterans there. And there will also be a centre to meet the enormous mental health needs."

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy

Amputee Serhiy Pasechnik, with his wife Liza Pasechnik, their two-year-old son Yegor, in the Halychyna Complex Rehabilitation Centre, Lviv Credit: OLEKSANDR KHOMENKO