Pillars of Creation Nebula*
FROM ROSA LUXEMBURG
Dear Comrade Eurydice,
how sad that you ask,
But doesn’t every woman die
on her wedding night?
Not if she banked her roses
against the winter, wrapped
with newspaper, straw of politics.
I the Red Rosa, Revolution’s bride,
tell you in secret: I don’t want
marches, banners, slogans.
I want a a little garden, a small house,
and a child, quite small.
My first time in prison, a tour:
a polite inspection until
those last cells in the basement —
The guard nudges me to the left:
“Frau Luxemburg, this one’s
for the ladies.” I shrug:
“It’s the same slaughterhouse” —
but I mumble it in French,
abattoir — in those crystal languages,
everything is permitted,
not in the shattering German. Dear
Lost Bride, if you wear only white,
you are dressed for suicide.
Take a rose in your hand,
reddest rose. The bells
toll my name, and I write,
Revolution is about
roses for everyone.
From the leafy
throat of darkness,
the live perishable petals.
Do not tell me, “It’s no time
to save the roses
when forests are burning.”
Forests are always burning.
This house, this body
is burning. If you don’t
save the roses,
you have nothing.
~ Oriana
*
SOME FAMOUS DIARIES
Samuel Pepys
Written by English politician Samuel Pepys between 1660 and 1669, The Diary of Samuel Pepys was first published in 1825 to much critical fanfare. Providing firsthand accounts of epoch-defining Restoration era episodes like the Great Fire of London and the city’s bubonic plague outbreak, Pepys’s meticulously crafted journals would go on to become an indispensable primary source for historians of England’s Stuart Restoration.
Alongside vivid accounts of the beginnings of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Pepys’s journals came complete with tales of everything from political upheaval to his purchasing of a new wig. Pepys spent the vast majority of the 1660s carefully chronicling his life through his diaries, his entries only stopping near the end of the decade when his failing eyesight prevented him from writing in the diary himself.
Despite this, Pepys’s parliamentary connections and talent as a political operator would afford him an illustrious career in government that would credit him with reforming and elevating the English Admiralty despite having no maritime experience himself.
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A CONFEDERATE GIRL’S DIARY BY SARAH MORGAN DAWSON 
Born to a wealthy, slave-owning Louisiana family, Sarah Morgan Dawson is best known for her richly detailed diaries kept during the American Civil War. Written between 1862 and 1865, Dawson’s diary provides a captivating firsthand account of what day-to-day civilian life looked like in the South throughout the Civil War.
Just 19 years old when she began keeping her diary, Dawson’s journals chronicle her family’s displacement during the war and interactions with Union soldiers. Though Dawson made efforts to preserve her diaries for future generations, she never sought to have them published during her lifetime. After passing away in 1909, Dawson’s diaries passed to her son, Warrington, who heavily edited the diaries to exclude personal family information and untoward political comments before publishing them.
Following the conclusion of the Civil War, Sarah and her family relocated to South Carolina, where Sarah would begin writing for Charleston’s The Post and Courier under the pseudonym Mr. Fowler. After her husband, Francis Warrington Dawson, passed away in 1889, Sarah relocated to Paris to live with her son until her death in May 1909.
By 1913, Dawson’s son Warrington would have Sarah’s heavily edited Civil War diary published as A Confederate Girl’s Diary. The diary would be published again in the early ‘90s as Sarah Morgan: The Civil War Diary Of A Southern Woman, this time with far more of Sarah’s original writing included, giving a fuller, more accurate picture of Sarah’s life in the South during the Civil War.
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THE SARASHINA DIARY
Written by Japanese noblewoman Lady Sarashina, The Sarashina Diary is an 11th-century memoir depicting the conflicted inner life of a lady-in-waiting during Heian-period Japan.
Thought to be collected sometime in the 1050s, The Sarashina Diary traces Lady Sarashina’s journey from Japan’s rural provinces to the imperial capital to assuming her place as a mid-ranking noblewoman at Imperial court. Contrary to other memoirs of the time, Lady Sarashina’s work is characterized by its contemplative nature, deep introspection, and rumination as opposed to a careful cataloguing of royal happenings.
An indispensable insight into the rich, often conflicted interiority of Japanese noblewomen of the time, The Sarashina Diary offers a humanizing, illuminating look into the minds of a group of women often overlooked by historians. While the diary would remain an artifact of cultural history for hundreds of years, it wasn’t until the latter half of the 20th century that a modern publication of the work in English brought the diary to wider international attention.
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SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH POLE
In June 1910, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott departed Wales aboard the Terra Nova on a historic journey to Antarctica. After Scott and his crew spent much of 1910 and 1911 establishing a string of supply depots in preparation for a groundbreaking journey to the South Pole, Scott finally began the long march to the geographic South Pole in late 1911.
After an arduous journey with the express goal of becoming the first explorers to reach the South Pole, Scott and his men finally made it to their destination on January 17, 1912, but found they had been beaten there by a group of Norwegian explorers who’d arrived about a month earlier. Defeated, Scott and his team left the South Pole to head back to their main base at Cape Evans on Ross Island. On their journey back to Ross Island, the group of five explorers faced severe weather, exhaustion, and quickly dwindling rations. Over the weeks-spanning journey, Scott and each member of his crew would succumb to the elements.
A little over half a year later, the remains of Scott and two members of his crew would be discovered frozen inside their tent just 11 miles from their next supply depot. The search party that had found Scott’s body was able to recover his journals, a harrowing account of the grim final days the group of explorers faced. An indispensable historic and scientific chronicling of the Antarctic, Scott’s journals were edited and published in 1913 as Scott’s Last Expedition.
Though some experts have questioned Scott’s capability as a leader and explorer, he remains a regarded and fabled figure in the history of Antarctic exploration.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/history/famous-diaries-changed-how-we-see-history?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us#inline-text-31
Oriana:
For me, the most heart-breaking (and inspiring) part of Scott’s story involves Colonel Oates. Oates became injured, and, unable to walk, he was being pulled on a sled. Realizing that he’d become a burden, in an opportune moment he managed to roll of the sled into a crevice.
Another version of his action is that, knowing he was slowing down his companions, he stepped out into the Antarctic blizzard and never returned. One way or another, he sacrificed his life for the sake of the rest of the team. In the end, all of them were doomed, but Colonel Lawrence Oates chose to die a gallant death on the day of his thirty-second birthday.
*
WHAT SOCIALISM GOT RIGHT
Writing "The Red Riviera" taught me that even flawed socialist systems offered insights into equality, solidarity, and the dignity of everyday life.
Twenty years ago, in November of 2005, Duke University Press published my first book: “The Red Riviera: Gender, Tourism, and Postsocialism on the Black Sea.” Produced in the wake of socialism’s global collapse and the riot of Western triumphalism that ensued, I deployed both qualitative and quantitative methods to advance a simple, but unpopular, argument: For most people in the former Soviet bloc, capitalism sucked.
By writing the “small histories” of men and women laboring in Bulgaria’s vibrant tourism industry in the decade following their country’s mad dash to embrace democracy and free markets, I explored how and why this small southeastern European country transformed from a relatively predictable, orderly, egalitarian society into a chaotic, lawless world of astonishing inequality and injustice.
I wrapped my critiques of the rampant neoliberalism of the “Wild, Wild, East” in thickly descriptive accounts of the lives of chambermaids, bartenders, tour guides, cooks, waitresses, and receptionists. I wanted to show, not tell.
Through a close examination of the shattered careers and broken families of ordinary men and women forced to live through the cataclysmic decade of the 1990s, I asked readers to empathize with the sheer scale of the upheavals of banking collapses, hyperinflation, unemployment, violence, suicide, and the mass emigration of youth.
Capitalism promised prosperity and freedom, but for many it delivered little more than poverty and despair. The dislocations of the transition period, as I’ve documented in my subsequent books, still reverberate today. One can easily draw a straight line from the trauma of the 1990s to the rise of right-wing parties and authoritarian leaders in the region.
Perhaps more controversial, especially back in 2005, was my claim that, despite some serious shortcomings, there were some positive aspects of socialism that should not be forgotten. In those heady days of Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history” narrative about the primacy of liberal democracy and free markets, to suggest that there was a baby in the bathwater was political heresy.
As a young academic, I was perhaps too naïve to anticipate the sort of vitriolic criticism I would receive by listening carefully to my older informants, researching socialist-era legal codes, and conducting two large anonymous surveys of tourism workers. Although I dutifully corroborated my various findings and wrote an honest description of what life in socialist Bulgaria had been like for ordinary people, some reviewers accused me of having been duped by communist disinformation. For example, one 2007 review in the journal Aspasia suggested that: “Ghodsee’s analysis is problematic because sometimes interpretations fall into the trap of sociological legends fabricated by communist propaganda.”
As an apparent example of these “sociological legends,” the reviewer quotes me: “Bulgarian women once benefited from generous maternity leaves, free education, free healthcare, free or subsidized child care, communal kitchens and canteens, communal laundries, subsidized food and transport, subsidized holidays on the Black Sea, etc. (p. 165).” All of this was true, and the reviewer did not present any evidence to the contrary.
Part of the “propaganda” that I apparently bought into was that the radical dismantling of social safety nets following the introduction of free market economies would push millions of Bulgarians into poverty, and that the process would be distinctly gendered to most women’s disadvantage. This turned out simply to be true, as I and others have documented (see Milanovic 2014, Ghodsee 2018, and Ghodsee and Orenstein 2021, for example).
You didn’t need to be a Marxist to understand the black humor behind common jokes being told in the late 1990s:
Q: What did Bulgarians light their homes with before they used candles?
A: Electricity.
Q: What was the worst thing about communism?
A: The thing that came after it.
This is not to deny that there were some appalling things about the communist regimes, including its lack of genuinely representative government, its attacks on political speech the government didn’t like, and its use of repressive and secretive police outside the rule of law. One should condemn such infringements of basic human rights, both as they occurred under communism and as they are happening now in the United States.
However, constantly preaching about the negative aspects of 20th-century state socialism can make it harder for us to see the things that socialism got right. It may even be a deliberate strategy. Those with the most to gain from capitalism want us to forget the good things that happened under socialism, lest we try to do anything to change a system in which wealth flows up into the hands of the rich and powerful.
Doing the research necessary to write “The Red Riviera”convinced me that there are indeed many things we can learn from the experiences of those who lived through a real and relatively long-lasting alternative to capitalism. The experiences of socialist countries in Eastern Europe remind us that societies can achieve a great deal when they treat people’s basic needs as a shared responsibility. Education, healthcare, childcare, housing, and a reasonable, minimal standard of living were seen not as privileges, but as something we should collectively guarantee for all.
My subjects did complain about having to wake up early for neighborhood work on a “Lenin Saturday,” but also noted that socialism promoted a belief in the power of community and the dignity of every person’s contribution. Women entered schools and workplaces in greater numbers, finding new confidence and independence. Cultural life — music, theater, literature — was made accessible to everyone, helping people feel connected to something larger than themselves. Planned microdistricts (an early version of what are now called “15-minute cities”) and socialist workplaces often became centers of shared activity and mutual support.
Even though these societies faced serious political and economic challenges, their social ideals of equality, solidarity, and collective care remain relevant to us in 2025. They remind us that success isn’t only about material wealth or technology, but about how we choose to care for one another. When an economy is guided by social purpose instead of profit, it can serve the common good and lay a foundation for long-term progress, a lesson that we should all remember as we face the existential threat of the climate crisis.
I’m not as naïve as I was in 2005. These days, I expect that my critics will see me as the hapless victim of red “propaganda” and will accuse me of underplaying the repression that occurred in the Soviet bloc countries.
But I’ve also come to conclude that there is a place for naïveté. Naïvely listening to how ordinary people remember their lives (even the “less educated (near) pension-age women”!) can be far better than going into a project with preconceived ideas about how your subjects have been brainwashed by propaganda from an evil system and without fear about how you will be criticized for taking those subjects seriously.
I’ve learned that good scholarship, like good politics, depends on empathy as much as on evidence. Listening carefully to how ordinary people remember their lives under socialism isn’t an endorsement; it’s an effort to understand what they valued and why.
Those memories, often complex and sometimes contradictory, reveal the texture of daily life that grand theories tend to miss. They remind us that the past is never as simple as our ideologies make it out to be. If we can take those lessons seriously, if we can listen with curiosity rather than judgment, we might find inspiration for new forms of solidarity and care in the uncertain world we inhabit today.
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/what-socialism-got-right/
[First, a brief explanation. How come Bulgaria came to be seen (not by everyone, to be sure) as the "Red Riviera"? Because it had Black Sea beaches —and, unlike the chilly Baltic, the Black Sea is warm. Vacation in Bulgaria was seen as a status symbol in the countries of Eastern Europe.]
Oriana: A MIXED SYSTEM IS BEST
Nothing is all good or all bad. Yes, there are some exceptions under extreme conditions: it’s hard to find anything good about a catastrophic fire, for instance. And yet perhaps a beautiful new city will eventually rise from the ruins of the old one, this time built with new fire-resistant materials.
When it comes to “state socialism” [also, paradoxically, known as "state capitalism"] — and I speak as one who grew up under it — my feeling is that the gigantic social and economical experiment had to be performed. Otherwise the ideal would keep on beckoning, inciting utopian dreams and perpetual dissatisfaction with whatever social order may be dominant. Now that we know both the good and the bad aspects of “socialism” (I’m using the quotes because the definition keeps shifting), we can adopt the best features without replicating the bad ones — all the time with the understanding that no system is ideal.
The best part of socialism is the social safety net. You don’t have to worry that an expensive illness will bankrupt you, or that you won’t be able to afford to send your children to college. Housing and public transportation will be free or nearly free. I remember, in Poland, one stranger on the train, an older man, waxing ecstatic about his stay in a mountain-resort health spa (“sanatorium”), getting what to him felt like luxurious health care — for free.
One could indeed point out to him to perhaps under capitalism he might be rich enough to pay for a stay in a health spa himself. Might. For the average person, paying for a a month at a health-spa facility, with therapeutic pools, massages, physical therapy — and perhaps, above all, that feeling of feeling of being taken care of like someone precious (“just like a baby,” one eighty-year-old male patient kept saying, both laughing and crying) — would be difficult at best, perhaps impossible.
And we know it's ultimately not about free massages — it's about feeling valued. And this creates certain dilemmas — as someone said, "what's the value of a baby?"
And here we come to an interesting point in human psychology: assuming that the price of something you desire is within your means, would be prefer to buy it or get it for free? To be sure, “free” means funded by taxes, but that’s not what’s on people’s minds. “Free” — even if it’s just a shuttle bus, or a potentially life-saving vaccine — makes people happy. They feel they are getting a gift, and who doesn’t love getting gifts? The scent of childhood Christmas still clings to them, and birthdays, and knowing you are loved.
Having to pay for things, on the other hand, involves just a twinge of pain. Not if you are very rich, I suppose — but again, for an average person, a free shuttle bus can feel like a minor miracle, without having to decide whether to pay the fare or simply walk, no matter how tired you feel. Parting with money feels like a loss; getting something for free is a moment of childlike joy.
The quality of life doesn't depend on how many toys you accumulate but rather on whether you feel valued, and yes, even loved. Whether you feel necessary, useful, helpful to others. Whether you are treated kindly, with treats and gifts for Christmas and birthday. So many things one can't put a price on! Young Marx seemed to be at least somewhat aware of these intangibles, and the slogan of a group of striking American women was "Bread and Roses" — not just "bread." Because a human does not live by bread alone.
Parting with money often involves choice — and choice is stressful. Receiving a gift generally creates positive emotions. But should every child be entitled to a free puppy? Love has limits. “Social justice” certainly does. Yet countless idealists were willing to die for this ill-defined vision.
Of course human nature being what it is, for every person ecstatic about his or her stay at a free sanatorium there would be someone complaining about the food — lumps in the cream of wheat! meat too fatty or too lean! — or, as Woody Allen put it, “the food is lousy, but we all want bigger portions.” No, nothing is ideal. But yes, socialism, by whatever definition, delivers an extensive social safety net, and the post-Soviet countries knew better than to do away with it, particularly when it came to health care.
Taxes? In my experience, people don’t mind taxes — or lower wages — if the services are good. But are the services ever good enough? The complexities never end. We need to think selectively. A society is a collective enterprise, and there is no escape from that. Try doing away with traffic laws. Neither can you escape learning that certain investments simply have to be made, i.e. some degree of capitalism (if we have to call it that) is inevitable. And some degree of socialism is inevitable also.
Yes, some young men dream of being entirely self-sufficient and try to live off the grid in Alaska, but that’s not the social ideal. It's a common adolescent fantasy that usually remains just a fantasy. We do not revere men who think the highest achievement is living off the grid; we revere men like Jonas Salk, who didn’t take out a patent on his polio vaccine so that it could be provided free to all children.
In some ways, state socialism is an abject failure; in other ways, it spoils you. The wisdom seems to lie in a mixed system, and continuing to experiment. Free child care might become as common as free primary and secondary education, free public libraries, or toll-free highways on the West Coast — do we even think of such things as “socialism”?
At the same time, should the state be telling Walmart how to run its business? Of course not — that would be ridiculously inefficient. It takes a lot of wisdom and experience — and sufficient resources — to know how to choose the best features of any system. It may take long debates to establish what is a human right and what is an optional privilege. As Woody Allen explained the human condition: “The food is lousy, but we all want bigger portions.”
And yes, we already know that even under socialism you have to pay a surgeon more than a janitor, or else you’ll have a catastrophic shortage of surgeons. And besides, those wily capitalists have learned to give certain things for free (be it just "free samples") to build good will in order to sell more in the end.
Social democracy, or “regulated capitalism”? Perhaps it's the same thing. The name matters because of the decades of struggle, sometimes bloody, for decent living conditions for the workers. No minimum wage, child labor, extremely long work hours, women paid less than men for the same kind of work — it's almost unbelievable today that all this was perfectly legal, and, until the trade unions (which infuriated Karl Marx, who wanted more misery to hasten the Revolution), the workers' wages kept going down.
Are there conditions where unrestrained free market works best, and conditions where only government intervention can prevent avoidable hardship? Answers are tentative at best, never absolute. What we need is not ideologies, but selective, flexible wisdom and a minimum of moral decency. In Marx's era unrestrained capitalism was a horror; but that was then, in a different world. Now we read Dickins for entertainment, and discuss the pros and cons of basic universal income (interestingly, one proponent of basic universal income is Elon Musk).
In reality an ideal society has never been created, unless in small monastic communities — and let’s not forget that even in those, some would grumble that the porridge is too thick, while others found it too thin.
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TRUMP’S OBSESSION WITH THE WORD “GROCERIES”— YET ANOTHER SIGN OF DEMENTIA?
Donald Trump can't stop talking about the word "groceries." Not the price of groceries—though he claims that's his concern—but the word itself. And it's getting weirder.
On November 21, 2025, during an Oval Office meeting, Trump called groceries "an old-fashioned word" while dismissing a MAGA voter's plea for help with rising food costs. This wasn't a one-off. It's become a pattern—a verbal tic that's been escalating for over a year.
The fixation appears to have started during the 2024 campaign. By October 2024, Trump was already musing about how often people mentioned "the word grocery" to him. But the real escalation came after his election victory.
In December 2024, he told NBC's Meet the Press: "Very simple word, groceries. Like almost — you know, who uses the word? I started using the word — the groceries."
By March 2025, the riff had evolved. He began calling it "an old fashioned term but a beautiful term" and waxing poetic about its meaning: "It sort of says 'a bag with different things in it.'"
He repeated variations of this throughout 2025:
March 25: "An old fashioned word, but it's a very descriptive word."
March 26: "A word that I used a lot on the campaign. It's like an old fashioned word, but it's a beautiful word, very descriptive word."
April 7: "An old fashioned term but a beautiful term. Groceries.”
The pattern is unmistakable. Trump discovered a word—one that literally every American uses regularly—and became fascinated by it as if he'd unearthed some linguistic artifact.
What This Actually Reveals
Here's the thing: "groceries" isn't old-fashioned. It's not obscure. It's not beautiful or poetic. It's just... a word. One that appears in everyday conversation millions of times daily.
But Trump's repeated fixation on it—and his belief that he popularized it—reveals something more concerning than simple disconnection from ordinary life (though a 2010 video shows him saying he'd "never even gone to a food market" with Melania).
Mental health experts have been sounding alarms. Cornell psychologist Harry Segal points to Trump's "phonemic paraphasia—when he begins a word and can't finish it—and decline in the complexity of his words and concepts.”
University of Texas psychologist James Pennebaker analyzed Trump's speech patterns from 2015-2024 and found a "staggering" decline in linguistic complexity.
Trump's analytic thinking scores range from 10-24 on a scale where most presidential candidates score 60-70. "He does not think in a complex way at all," Pennebaker concluded.
The grocery fixation fits a pattern experts call confabulation—taking an idea and adding elements that didn't happen. Trump genuinely seems to believe he discovered or popularized the word "groceries." He's constructed a narrative around it, complete with aesthetic judgments ("beautiful," "descriptive") that make no objective sense.
[The word goes back to the 15th century, though its meaning has shifted from "wholesale" toward retail — but that's getting too complicated. Quiet, Piggy!]
The Dementia Question
Multiple mental health professionals have warned about signs consistent with cognitive decline. Psychologist John Gartner, who taught at Johns Hopkins, described "overwhelming evidence" of dementia, predicting Trump will "fall off the cognitive cliff.”
Psychiatrist Lance Dodes, retired from Harvard Medical School, told Newsweek: "Unlike normal aging, which is characterized by forgetting names or words, Trump repeatedly shows something very different: confusion about reality."
The grocery obsession exemplifies this. Trump isn't forgetting the word—he's confused about its basic nature, its commonality, and his relationship to it. He's exhibiting what STAT analysis identified as increased tangentiality (jumping topics without connection), repetition, and "all-or-nothing thinking"— all potential markers of cognitive decline.
The Narcissism Angle
There's another explanation that doesn't exclude cognitive decline: malignant narcissism. Dementia makes narcissism worse. Trump's insistence that he "started using the word" and his amazement that others use it too fits a pattern of believing he's the center of all phenomena.
In Trump's mental universe, if he noticed something, he must have discovered it. If he talks about groceries, that makes the word significant. The concept that millions of Americans have been using this word their entire lives without his involvement doesn't compute.
This isn't just ego. It's a fundamental inability to conceive of a world that exists independently of his perception of it.
Why This Matters
When a 79-year-old president repeatedly marvels at common words, confabulates his relationship to them, and shows declining linguistic complexity, it's not a quirk. It's a red flag.
Biden faced relentless scrutiny over his age and mental fitness—scrutiny that ultimately contributed to his decision not to seek reelection. Trump, now the oldest person ever inaugurated as president, receives far less examination despite exhibiting behaviors that experts say warrant "a rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation."
The grocery fixation is a window into Trump's cognitive state. It shows:
Confabulation: Creating false narratives about his role
Tangentiality: Digressing into irrelevant observations
Repetition: Cycling through the same riff compulsively
Reduced complexity: Fixating on simple concepts
Reality confusion: Misunderstanding basic facts about common words
The Bigger Picture
Trump's White House removed official transcripts from its website in May 2025, claiming "consistency." But reading his full remarks reveals the extent of the problem. During a July cabinet meeting ostensibly about Texas flooding, Ukraine, Gaza, and tariffs, Trump spent 13 minutes talking about how he decorated the room, including a soliloquy about picture frames and lamp medallions.
"Look at those frames, you know, I'm a frame person, sometimes I like frames more than I like the pictures," he told his cabinet as they waited to address actual crises.
This isn't normal. And the media's tendency to "sanewash" Trump—selecting his more coherent moments while ignoring the concerning ones—does the public a disservice.
What It Shows About His Mind
Trump's grocery obsession reveals a mind that:
Struggles with object permanence: Things don't exist until he notices them
Confabulates constantly: Creates false memories and narratives
Shows declining complexity: Fixates on simple concepts with childlike wonder
Lacks self-awareness: Can't recognize how bizarre his observations sound
Exhibits possible cognitive decline: Displays multiple markers experts associate with dementia
Whether this represents advancing dementia, lifelong narcissistic pathology reaching new extremes, or both, the pattern is clear. And it's accelerating.
[A bit on a tangent: These days, if Trump shot someone on Fifth Avenue, would he really lose no votes?]
The man who claims groceries is "an old-fashioned word" also falsely insists you need ID to buy them—a claim he's repeated since 2018 despite it being obviously untrue. He's constructed an entire alternate reality around a mundane word, and he's governing from inside that reality.
That should concern everyone, regardless of political affiliation. Because when the president can't accurately perceive something as basic as the word "groceries," what else is he getting wrong?
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/22/2355155/-Trump-Can-t-Stop-Talking-About-Groceries-Psychologists-Say-It-s-a-Dementia-Tell
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THE BATTLE OF BERLIN, 1945
Towards the end of April 1945, Germany was defeated in the war. It was all over, victory was impossible. The huge Soviet army was already encircling Berlin and the allied forces of the west approached on the other side.
A prudent ruler or government would have said, We give up. This ruling would have averted many deaths. Hitler said "No." The Nazi leaders, particularly Hitler, could not give up.
They were in a dream, and they were giving orders to their soldiers to protect the capital. It was a reckless command.
The army that was fighting in Berlin was not a real army. They were primarily aged men and young recruits of Hitler Youth. They did not have adequate tanks, fuel to their limited number of trucks, and aircraft. The Russians on the other hand were well equipped.
There was no advantage in waging the battle. It merely hastened the conclusion of the war by two weeks.
During the two weeks, the Germans had lost between 80,000 and 100,000 men in vain. This useless battle had also destroyed Berlin leaving the city in broken stone and rubble.
But worst of all thousands of common German people were subjected to the brutal combat. They would have saved themselves as well as spared a colossal waste of lives simply because of fanaticism by surrendering earlier. ~ Alex Colby, Quora
Stephen Joseph:They were led to their demise by a psychopath — then he blamed the people for the loss of the war.
Arjun Suhgal:
True, but the Germans faced an army of enraged Soviets who were also indulging in serious pillage, rape and murder; the desperate Berliners may have felt that they had no choice but to fight to the death.
Oriana:
Many Germans behaved as if hypnotized by Hitler. The news of his suicide finally broke the trance. His staff fled the bunker, concerned with saving their lives. “The German people have proved unworthy of me,” Hitler dictated to his personal secretary, in his “Last Will and Testament.” But those were already the last hours of putting up with his murderous insanity.
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WHAT PUTIN “GAINED” IN THE WAR WITH UKRAINE (repost)
Russia’s inflation is 35%, the national wealth fund is empty, no money to pay soldiers, Soviet weapon stockpiles finished, a million of maimed and killed, and after Ukraine began striking deep into the Russian territory, the people — even in Siberia — are getting worried that the war can come to their own homes.
In close to three years, nothing is going to Putin’s plan.
Russia failed to take Kyiv and was defeated at Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Kharkiv.
Russia lost at least 200,000 KIA, 20,000 combat vehicles. [The number of casualties is likely much higher, especially counting those severely wounded.]
At least 9 Russian generals killed.
Bottomless Soviet-era stockpiles of weapons exhausted, and now Russia has to beg Iran and North Korea for munitions and missiles.
Russia had to announce mobilization — 1st time after WW2.
Black Sea fleet decimated, including the flagship ‘Moskva’.
Russia expended 10,000 missiles and failed to destroy Ukraine’s power grid, which Putin himself admitted was the goal.
Russia’s oil industry is getting severe blow because of Ukrainian strikes.
Multiple oil depots and ammo depots obliterated.
After nearly 3 years of total war, Russia couldn’t occupy a single regional city (3 regional cities were occupied by Russia in 2014).
Ukraine still controls 80% of its territory.
NATO added 1,300 km on Russia’s border, after Finland and Sweden joined the alliance.
Missiles can now reach Putin’s residence in Valdai (between St. Petersburg and Moscow) even faster...
Ukraine acquired advanced western weapons and air defense systems that exceed the Russian analogues.
Russia lost lucrative European gas market and is losing oil markets.
Nearly a million of young, educated Russians emigrated.
Ukraine invaded the Kursk region of Russia 5 months ago, and Russia was unable to squeeze them out — despite bringing North Korean troops for help. [Ukraine left Kursk in March 2025.]
Russia lost its bases in Syria and was unable to save the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Russian troops got kicked out of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan.
Russian economy is in deep trouble due to sanctions and overheating, because of militarization of productive industries.
Russia’s base interest rate by central bank is at 21%, home loans are at 30%, consumer loans at 40–50%.
Russia’s reliance on China has greatly increased.
Ukraine’s international weight skyrocketed.
Russia’s military potential will take decades to restore.
After nearly 3 years of total war, Russia is still stuck in Donbas.
Things are not going well for Vladimir Putin.
One of Russia's overage recruits Not going well at all. ~ Elena Gold, Quora
This billboard in Moscow reads: The history of Russia is the history of the defenders of the fatherland." The official line is "Russia has never invaded anyone." Apparently this is how Russia gained its enormous territory: waging wars of defense.
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PUTIN’S RUSSIA ROSE LIKE HITLER’S GERMANY
The striking similarities between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Adolf Hitler’s Germany are not accidental. Both regimes had — the past tense is intentional — the same historical trajectory because both were the product of imperial collapse and its destabilizing aftermath on the one hand and the emergence of a strong leader promising to make the country great again on the other.
In contrast to most empires, which decay and progressively lose their colonial possessions over time, both Wilhelmine Germany and Czarist Russia collapsed — swiftly and completely — at the height of their power in 1917-1918.
Decay inures imperial elites to the loss of colonies, enables them to formulate different ideologies centered on the nation state, and reduces the number of institutional and economic ties between the imperial core and its colonies. The Ottoman Empire is an excellent example of the decay dynamic. Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, fought the Greeks but was perfectly satisfied with the Turkish state.
Empires that collapse — usually as a result of a war or some other severe crisis — experience a sudden severing of political ties between the imperial metropolis and the colonies, but the imperial mindset remains dominant in the metropolis and the economic and institutional connections between core and periphery remain strong.
Almost inevitably, the post-collapse economies, societies and cultures of the metropolis experienced enormous disarray — as in Germany in the 1920s and Russia in the 1990s. The blame for this sad state fell on the democratic elites who came to power after the authoritarian empire ended. Once democracy was discredited, strong men appeared — Hitler and Putin — promising to return their countries to their rightful place in the sun and establishing cults of personality.
The Nazis argued that Germany should have one people, one empire, and one Führer; the Putinists claimed that Putin embodied the state. Nazi propaganda emphasized Hitler’s genius and benevolence; Putinist propaganda focused on Putin’s virility and ability to outwit the world.
In such circumstances, the former metropolis had every incentive to rebuild the old empire. Imperial revival was popular, enhanced elite legitimacy, promised to revive the economy and extirpate humiliating memories of collapse, and seemed to guarantee great-power status.
Central to their attempts at re-imperialization was the false claim that their ethnic brethren in the newly independent colonies were being oppressed: the Germans in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland; the Russians in all the post-Soviet states, and especially Ukraine.
Tentative stabs at expansion followed. Hitler grabbed the Rhineland, Austria, and the Sudetenland. Putin grabbed Chechnya, parts of Georgia, and parts of Ukraine. Given their imperial mindsets, militaristic ambitions, personality cults and demonization of minorities (Jews and Ukrainians), it was almost inevitable that Hitler and Putin then embarked on major wars. In 1939, Hitler attacked Poland; in 1941, he attacked the USSR. Putin’s war with Ukraine began on Feb. 24, 2022.
As often happens with leaders who believe their own propaganda, both Hitler and Putin committed strategic mistakes that resulted in their downfall. The Bolsheviks were able to reestablish most of the czarist empire because their militaries and economies were stronger than those of the former colonies, while the powerful countries of the West were distracted by the war.
Hitler’s and Putin’s fatal error was not to have heeded the Bolshevik example and, instead, to have antagonized a whole array of states with more hard power than they had. Expansion was one thing: Europe and the United States ignored or downplayed it. A major land war threatened the stability and survival of Eurasia and could not go unheeded.
Hitler’s generals knew they had lost when they failed to win the Battle of Britain and the United States entered the war. It took millions of dead and the Holocaust before Germany was finally defeated and Hitler committed suicide in his bunker.
Putin’s generals also appear to have known they would not win after their attempt at a blitzkrieg failed to capture Kyiv. It has taken thousands of dead and Russia’s genocide of Ukrainians to align scores of countries — and, in particular, the United States and the United Kingdom — with Ukraine and to provide it with the heavy weaponry it needs to defeat Russia.
Fittingly, Putin reportedly also resides in a bunker. In all likelihood, that’s where he, too, will meet his end.
The death and destruction will have been as enormous as they will have been unnecessary. But, as after World War II, the West again will have the opportunity to create a security architecture that provides for Russia’s de-Putinization and a durable peace.
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THE STORY OF THE CAPTIVES TRANSPORTED ON THE HMS BEAGLE WITH DARWIN
‘The American aborigines, Negroes and Europeans differ as much from each other in mind as any three races that can be named; yet I was incessantly struck, whilst living with the Fuegians on board the “Beagle”, with the many little traits of character, showing how similar their minds were to ours.’ – Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871)
Charles Darwin had a complex relationship with race. In his writings, passages reflecting convictions of European superiority, then common among his peers, today read as nakedly racist. However, he found reason to oppose slavery in his firm belief that all humans were part of a single, unified species, and through his personal experiences, including the cruelties he observed during his travels. The complexities of his views are well captured in his writings on the Indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego – an archipelago at the tip of South America – to whom he ascribed a ‘savage’ character, yet in whom he recognized a common humanity and an extraordinary ability to survive in a rugged landscape.
The first ‘Fuegians’ he encountered weren’t in South America but aboard the first leg of his famed voyage on HMS Beagle in 1831. Two young men and a girl of the Alacaluf people and one Yahgan boy had been kidnapped by the ship’s captain, Robert FitzRoy, during an expedition in the previous year and were later brought to England in an attempt to ‘civilize’ them. One of the men died soon after arriving in Plymouth.
https://aeon.co/videos/the-story-of-the-captives-transported-on-the-hms-beagle-with-darwin
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DON’T MISREAD DARWIN: FOR HUMANS, ‘SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST’ MEANS BEING SYMPATHETIC [= compassionate]
One of the shockwaves from Charles Darwin’s idea that humans evolved from other animals was moral panic. If our ethics are not guided by an omnipotent and all-knowing god and, instead, life is driven by ‘survival of the fittest’ via natural selection, how could we possibly expect humans to behave with anything other than brash self-interest? Yet Darwin’s use of the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ was hardly meant to suggest that existence was a knockdown, drag-out fight – he was very clear that generosity, sympathy and all those other traits that give us warm feelings are central to human survival.
https://aeon.co/videos/dont-misread-darwin-for-humans-survival-of-the-fittest-means-being-sympathetic
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NO ONE IS ALL WICKED OR ALL GOOD
The new installment of "Wicked for Good" brings back two characters representing opposite moral positions.
New research on moral judgments shows how no one is completely good or wicked, but that we all can be both.
Adding archetypes to the equation gives us further insight into these classic moral dichotomies.
If you’ve seen the second installment of "Wicked," called “Wicked for Good,” you may be thinking now about how hard it can be to separate the “wicked” from the “good.” This duality that feeds the narrative of this movie doesn't stop at the title but carries throughout the entire plot. No spoilers here, in case you haven’t seen it yet, but suffice it to say that it’s not always clear who’s the “good” witch and who’s the “wicked” one.
The struggle between forces of good and evil occupies not only fiction but also much of psychology. Lack of a clear differentiation is what makes this duality so fascinating. When you’re a child, the world is composed mostly of right vs. wrong, but as you develop into adulthood, you realize for yourself that there are plenty of gray areas.
The Utilitarian Dilemma
One of the murkiest of all gray areas involves moral decision-making. You may be familiar with some of the classic studies in developmental psychology in which children and adolescents are asked whether “Hans,” whose wife is dying of cancer, should steal an expensive drug rather than let his wife die. Stealing is illegal, but it is also morally wrong to let another person die, whether wife or not, which only makes it more of a dilemma.
Updates to this paradigm now take the form of what are called “sacrificial moral dilemmas,” such as what's called the Trolley Problem. A trolley is speeding down the track and will kill five people unless you, at the switch, pull a lever that sets the trolley down another track, killing just one unfortunate person standing in the way. The so-called “utilitarian” solution is to pull the lever to save the five but kill the one, and this is what most people opt for. The “deontological” choice is to let the trolley ride down the track, hurting more people but not involving personal responsibility by your actions.
This problem is so popular among philosophers and psychologists that it was featured in an episode of “The Good Place” where the lead characters rode an actual trolley showing the graphic results of either choice.
Morality in the Lab
Believing that this type of problem is too unrealistic to be of any use, Universiteit Gent psychologist Dries Bostyn and colleagues (2025) decided to see what would happen if people were put into situations where the choices they made could affect actual people (ironically, somewhat like "The Good Place" episode).
In addition to developing scenario-based situations like the Trolley Problem, the authors set up an experiment in which participants could choose to control how many people (one or two) out of three would receive a “mild electric shock.” If they did nothing, two people would receive the shock. If the participant took action, only one person would get the shock. The shocks were described as “medically safe but painful.”
The entire process was repeated a second time to see if participants would change their option when going through it again. One important detail: Those receiving the shock were hired by the experimenters and had rated the shock as tolerable.
If this conjures up images of the infamous Milgram obedience experiment, that’s not a coincidence. Obviously, the authors were aware that they could be creating a similar ethical conundrum, so they made it clear that all participants were free to discontinue at any time. Participants also were told they would communicate their choice to a computer that would administer the shock. Many controls were put in place to keep everything safe and to be transparent in terms of the ethics of the study itself.
The key question was whether people would behave in a real-life situation the same way they did in the hypothetical scenarios they received before the lab task. The authors also wished to learn whether people would change their minds on the second trial of the shock portion of the study.
Showing the value of hypothetical scenarios, the findings showed that people acted similarly to both hypothetical and real-life dilemmas. However, the shock situation revealed additionally that about one-third of respondents changed their response during the second phase of the shock portion in an effort to “distribute harm equitably” among the research confederates.
Though the dilemma gave participants no choice but to act in a way that would induce harm on another person, the “fairness principle” emerged as being just as important as the contrasting philosophical orientations. When faced with having to act in a "wicked" way, people still tried to wrest some "good" out of the situation.
Another Path to Goodness
All of this can inform in part the idea that good vs. wicked isn’t a straight 50-50 proposition. However, is there something deeper that the theme of "Wicked," not to mention much of fiction, taps into? To understand this process, it can be helpful to refer to the concept of archetypes.
In Jungian theory, an archetype is a universal theme often represented in a fictional or mythical character.
In a 2025 essay on archetypes and their meaning, Beatenberg (Switzerland) psychologist Patricia Skar writes about the evolution of Jungian theory. She defines archetypes as images that reflect “complexes” within the “brain/mind” that organize our experiences. She concludes, “Thus as we encounter new social and environmental challenges and/or as our brains evolve and become even more complex, we might expect new complexes to arise from the brain’s continual self-organization.”
Whether you’re a Jungian or not, it can be useful to conceptualize the good vs. wicked dilemma in terms of this inner need we have to understand what goes on around us in these dual themes. One reason we enjoy fantastical pieces of fiction that portray these themes is that they give us insight into ourselves and our own innermost urges.
To sum up, when faced with someone who seems all good vs. someone who seems all wicked, taking a more nuanced view may help you reach a happier, if not more realistic, compromise.
WHY DO WE SAY ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS’ AND NOT ‘HAPPY CHRISTMAS’?
For well wishes on all occasions, from general holidays like Halloween and Valentine’s Day to personal milestones like anniversaries and birthdays, English speakers are happy to let happy do the heavy lifting. But for some reason, we’ve decided that Christmas deserves its own bespoke greeting.
So, as Thanksgiving fades to black, the word merry shakes off the dust of its nearly year-long hibernation and emerges—along with eggnog, ugly sweaters, and jolly old St. Nick himself—into the glorious red and green glow of seasonal relevance.
Which leaves the curious with one question: How exactly did merry become the go-to modifier for Christmas—and only Christmas?
Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Victorians!
It all began when merry arrived in Old English by way of Germanic. It essentially meant “pleasing,” but that definition expanded over the centuries to cover “festive,” “joyous,” and other celebration-related senses. The earliest known reference to merry Christmas dates back to 1534—in a letter from John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, to Henry VIII’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell. “And thus our Lord send yow a mery Christenmas, and a comfortable, to yowr heart desyer,” Fisher wrote.
Happy got a slightly later start, showing up in English around the 14th century from hap, meaning “good fortune.” Happy, too, enjoyed a broadening of its definition into the territories of pleasure and celebration, and it wasn’t long before people were wishing each other happy holidays. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Happy New Year came first in the mid-16th century, and Happy Christmas was in play by the late 17th.
For a while after that, merry and happy were both regularly paired with Christmas. It wasn’t until the Victorian era that merry pulled ahead in the rankings, thanks to some seminal Yuletide content. Charles Dickens peppered 1843’s A Christmas Carol with roughly 20 Merry Christmases, for example, and not a single happy Christmas. The first commercial Christmas card, which debuted that same year, featured Merry Christmas as well.
The phrase also cropped up in carols, including early versions of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” favored by 19th-century British kids. As one stanza went, “I wish you a merry Christmas / And a happy new year / A pocket full of money / And a cellar full of beer.”
Though not all Victorian Christmas traditions have prevailed, our modern conception of the holiday is still very much a reflection of that era—as evidenced by the fact that we’re still reading (or watching adaptations of) A Christmas Carol, sending Christmas cards, and listening to “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
Moreover, we’ve shored up the staying power of Merry Christmas by adding our own memorable references to the heap, from Judy Garland’s warbling “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to Home Alone 2: Lost in New York’s iconic catchphrase, “Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!”
Using merry for other occasions wasn’t always unheard of; merry Thanksgiving and merry birthday continued making appearances into the 20th century. But the ever-swelling volume of Christmas culture containing merry has anchored it to the holiday in a manner that hasn’t happened with any other fête.
All things considered, it’s quite an achievement that the UK has managed to avoid merry’s monopoly and keep happy Christmas on the market. Semantics just might know why.
It’s a Jolly Holiday With Merry
Despite their definitional overlap, merry and happy aren’t mirror images of each other. Since the 14th century, per the OED, people have used merry to mean “boisterous or cheerful due to alcohol.” Merry Christmas, therefore, might be construed as a winking way to say, “I hope your cup runneth over ... with champagne at all the best Christmas parties, that is!”
You could argue that it’s vaguely sacrilegious, or at least in poor taste, to focus on booze-heavy revelry during a holiday that’s about as holy in origin as they come. And you certainly wouldn’t be the first.
“We make Christmas excessively merry, only by being excessively wicked; and we celebrate the festivity of our Savior, as if we were ministering the mad orgies of Bacchus,” one observer wrote in a 1772 issue of The London Magazine: Or, Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer. “But profligacy is the characteristic of this wretched age.”
And the next age, too: A North London reverend named Gordon Calthrop pointed out the debauchery often involved in a merry Christmas during an 1864 address that advocated for happy Christmases rather than simply merry ones. But his thesis was less about condemning merrymakers and more about questioning whether merriment equaled happiness. In Calthrop’s estimation, it did not.
“The boisterous gaiety which many put on, is oftentimes only a mask. It covers a sad—sad face,” he said. “And if a man tries to reassure me, or to persuade himself, by extravagant demonstrations of delight, that he is exceedingly happy, I always feel disposed to take the liberty to doubt the statement. True happiness is not a noisy and boisterous, but a quiet thing.”
You can write it off as a personal hot take that true happiness is never expressed noisily. But Calthrop’s opinion does jibe with the connotations of the words merry and happy. The former is typically characterized by some energetic and short-lived expression of cheer: laughing, singing, dancing, clinking beer steins, etc. Happy, meanwhile, often implies a deeper-seated and less fleeting kind of contentment—not to mention its original sense regarding good fortune.
This distinction could shed light on why people started wishing each other a merry Christmas and a happy New Year: as if to say, “I hope you have a really fun Christmas, and then after that I hope the new year brings you lasting pleasure and prosperity.”
One Happy Royal Family
Calthrop wasn’t the only 19th-century Christian who found something lacking in a really fun Christmas. Plenty of others contended that the notion of a merry Christmas was juvenile, irreligious, or just not a very accurate representation of how it feels to actually celebrate the holiday.
For well wishes on all occasions, from general holidays like Halloween and Valentine’s Day to personal milestones like anniversaries and birthdays, English speakers are happy to let happy do the heavy lifting. But for some reason, we’ve decided that Christmas deserves its own bespoke greeting.
So, as Thanksgiving fades to black, the word merry shakes off the dust of its nearly year-long hibernation and emerges—along with eggnog, ugly sweaters, and jolly old St. Nick himself—into the glorious red and green glow of seasonal relevance.
Which leaves the curious with one question: How exactly did merry become the go-to modifier for Christmas—and only Christmas?
Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Victorians!
It all began when merry arrived in Old English by way of Germanic. It essentially meant “pleasing,” but that definition expanded over the centuries to cover “festive,” “joyous,” and other celebration-related senses. The earliest known reference to merry Christmas dates back to 1534—in a letter from John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, to Henry VIII’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell. “And thus our Lord send yow a mery Christenmas, and a comfortable, to yowr heart desyer,” Fisher wrote.
Happy got a slightly later start, showing up in English around the 14th century from hap, meaning “good fortune.” Happy, too, enjoyed a broadening of its definition into the territories of pleasure and celebration, and it wasn’t long before people were wishing each other happy holidays. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Happy New Year came first in the mid-16th century, and Happy Christmas was in play by the late 17th.
Though not all Victorian Christmas traditions have prevailed, our modern conception of the holiday is still very much a reflection of that era—as evidenced by the fact that we’re still reading (or watching adaptations of) A Christmas Carol, sending Christmas cards, and listening to “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Moreover, we’ve shored up the staying power of Merry Christmas by adding our own memorable references to the heap, from Judy Garland’s warbling “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to Home Alone 2: Lost in New York’s iconic catchphrase, “Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!”
Using merry for other occasions wasn’t always unheard of; merry Thanksgiving and merry birthday continued making appearances into the 20th century. But the ever-swelling volume of Christmas culture containing merry has anchored it to the holiday in a manner that hasn’t happened with any other fête.
All things considered, it’s quite an achievement that the UK has managed to avoid merry’s monopoly and keep happy Christmas on the market. Semantics just might know why.
This distinction could shed light on why people started wishing each other a merry Christmas and a happy New Year: as if to say, “I hope you have a really fun Christmas, and then after that I hope the new year brings you lasting pleasure and prosperity.”
Great Britain’s Happy Christmas crusaders, like baby Jesus before them, were soon blessed with a gift from a king. During the monarchy’s first-ever Christmas Day message in 1932—written by Rudyard Kipling and broadcast over the radio to the entire empire—George V wished everyone a happy Christmas. George VI took up the happy mantle during his reign, as did Elizabeth II after him. Their Christmas Day broadcasts made it abundantly clear that Happy Christmas was high society’s holiday greeting of choice. (That said, some members of the royal family do sometimes use Merry Christmas these days.)
All feelings about the merits of a merry Christmas versus a happy one aside, we can all agree that Crimbo has at least earned a hat tip for heading off merry’s descent into obsolescence. (Not to diminish the good work of the humble merry-go-round.)
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/72663/why-do-we-say-merry-just-christmas
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THE SECRET OF ANCIENT ROMAN ARCHITECTS — WHY SO MANY ROMAN BUILDINGS STILL STAND
The secret behind the durability of Roman architecture has long fascinated scientists and historians. From the iconic Roman buildings that dot the landscapes of Italy to structures scattered across the former Roman Empire, the construction techniques the Romans developed have allowed their monuments to survive for thousands of years. One of the most remarkable achievements in ancient Rome was the development of a type of concrete that was not only revolutionary for its time but still outperforms many modern concretes in certain aspects.
Interior view of the dome of the so-called “Temple of Mercury” in ancient Baiae, today Baia, Italy
The Foundations of Roman Architecture: The Role of ConcreteWhen most people think of Roman architecture, they imagine colossal structures like the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the aqueducts that brought water to cities throughout the empire. What many might not realize is that the enduring strength of these Roman buildings is largely due to the Romans’ mastery of concrete, a material that has since become a cornerstone of modern construction.
In the ancient Rome period, the Romans developed a special form of concrete known as opus caementicium. This innovation involved mixing volcanic ash, lime (a type of limestone), and seawater to create a durable, waterproof material. This mixture, when combined with volcanic stones called “tuff” and lime, formed a strong, versatile substance that allowed Roman engineers to construct enormous buildings and structures that could withstand the test of time.
The Science Behind Roman Concrete
The primary ingredient in Roman concrete that set it apart from modern versions was the volcanic ash, specifically pozzolana, named after the region of Pozzuoli near Naples in Italy. Pozzolana reacts with lime and water to form a material that hardens over time, making the concrete even stronger. The Romans often used seawater in their mix, which led to a unique chemical reaction that resulted in the formation of a rare mineral called aluminum tobermorite. This mineral greatly enhanced the strength and longevity of the concrete.
This unique formulation made Roman architecture and Roman buildings remarkably resilient, particularly in environments exposed to moisture, such as coastal regions and the interiors of Roman harbors.
Example of opus caementicium on a tomb on the ancient Appian Way in Rome
How Roman Concrete Made Buildings Last
The impressive longevity of Roman architecture is primarily due to the durability of their concrete. The Pantheon, which still stands today, is perhaps the most famous example. The Roman building has the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world, and it has remained intact for almost 2,000 years. The reason for this lies in the very composition of the concrete used.
Unlike modern concrete, which can deteriorate and crack over time due to the presence of water and chemical reactions with air, Roman concrete actually becomes stronger with age. When exposed to seawater, the minerals in Roman concrete react with the salt, creating new compounds that reinforce the material. This chemical process, known as hydraulic setting, allows Roman buildings to endure even in harsh conditions.
The Resilience of Roman Harbors and Coastal Structures
The Romans also used their advanced concrete techniques to build harbor structures, many of which are still in excellent condition today. One of the most famous examples is the port of Caesarea Maritima in modern-day Israel, where Roman concrete piers continue to stand, resisting the erosive effects of seawater for over two millennia.
These Roman buildings made it possible for the Roman Empire to engage in extensive maritime trade, contributing to its economic dominance. The use of Roman concrete in these coastal structures was essential, as it allowed them to withstand the forces of nature that would have destroyed other forms of construction.
The Challenge of Replicating Roman Concrete
Despite advances in modern construction materials, Roman architecture still presents a mystery. Scientists and engineers have long been trying to replicate the secret of Roman concrete, but achieving the same results has proven elusive. Modern concrete is typically made from a mixture of cement, water, and aggregates like sand and gravel, but it lacks the special ingredients and chemical properties that made Roman concrete so durable.
One of the biggest challenges modern scientists face is the fact that the specific volcanic ash the Romans used is not readily available. Researchers have explored different ways to recreate the chemical reactions that occur in Roman concrete, and some have even looked into the use of modern-day volcanic ash to replicate its properties. However, the process remains complex, and there is no exact modern equivalent that matches the strength and durability of ancient Rome’s concrete.
Why Modern Concrete Still Can’t Compete
Modern concrete, while incredibly strong, has limitations. Over time, the chemicals within modern concrete can break down, causing cracks to form and leading to deterioration. Steel reinforcements used in modern concrete can also corrode when exposed to moisture, reducing the material’s overall strength and lifespan.
In contrast, Roman architecture benefited from a form of concrete that became stronger as it aged. The mineral formation processes in Roman concrete created a stable structure that could resist cracking and degradation. Today’s engineers continue to study ancient Roman construction techniques, hoping to unlock the secrets of their longevity and perhaps make improvements to modern concrete that could offer similar durability.
The Legacy of Roman Architecture and Its Impact Today
The enduring strength of Roman buildings is a testament to the innovation and ingenuity of the Romans. Their mastery of concrete allowed them to build structures that have lasted for millennia, and it continues to influence modern engineering and architecture.
From the Colosseum to the Pantheon, Roman architecture has left a lasting legacy that modern scientists are still studying and trying to replicate. The secret of Roman concrete is a reminder that sometimes the past holds the key to solving the challenges of the future. As we continue to develop more sustainable and durable materials, the lessons learned from ancient Rome will remain an essential part of the conversation in the world of construction and architecture.
In conclusion, the impressive longevity of Roman buildings and the secret behind their concrete mix are marvels that have intrigued scholars for centuries. While modern scientists continue to experiment with methods to replicate Roman concrete, there’s no denying the extraordinary achievement of Roman architecture, whose influence can still be seen and felt in the world today.
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A volcano in Russian territory, located on an old military base, is the lead contender for causing the Little Ice Age in 1831.
RUSSIAN VOLCANO IDENTIFIED AS SOURCE OF 1831 GLOBAL CLIMATE CATASTROPHE
The eruption led to a global temperature drop of about 1°C [1.8 degrees F], causing famines and crop failures, especially in Asia.
Zavaritsky Volcano
Scottish researchers have identified the Zavaritsky volcano on Simushir Island in the Kuril Islands as the source of a mysterious 1831 eruption that led to global cooling and widespread famines. According to The Independent, Dr. Will Hutchison from the University of St Andrews led the research team, with contributions from Professor Jill Plankett from Queen's University Belfast.
For decades, scientists suspected that a volcanic eruption caused the 1831 weather anomaly, but the exact source remained elusive. Recent advancements in technology allowed researchers to analyze ice cores from Greenland containing traces of sulfur and volcanic ash from around 1831. The investigation confirmed that the ash cloud from the eruption reached the stratosphere, consistent with increased sulfur compounds found in polar ice cores, as reported by ORF Science.
By examining the chemical composition of the ash particles, the researchers found a perfect match with samples from the Zavaritsky volcano. "The moment in the lab when we analyzed the two ashes together, one from the volcano and one from the ice core, was a genuine eureka moment," said Dr. Hutchison. Extracting the ash shards was a meticulous process, as they are "roughly one-tenth the diameter of human hair," he told The Independent.
The eruption in 1831 led to a global cooling of approximately 1°C, coinciding with widespread crop failures and famines, particularly affecting India and Japan. Focus Online reports that reduced rainfall resulted in a drastic decline in crop yields, contributing to severe famines in the affected regions. The Tenpō famine devastated northeastern Japan from 1832 to 1838, with the number of deaths estimated to be double that of the Madras famine in India.
Although the eruption had global impacts, its location had remained unknown until now. Identifying the Zavaritsky volcano sheds light on one of the major climate events of the 19th century, as noted by Interesting Engineering.
The Zavaritskii eruption is comparable to the well-known eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991. According to Gazeta.ru, the Zavaritskii volcano's eruption strength was rated at 5 to 6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index and released a greater amount of sulfur compounds into the atmosphere.
The Kuril Islands, part of the "Ring of Fire," are a chain of 56 islands and islets that connect the tip of Russia and Japan. Der Standard - Archäologie reports that they remain a disputed territory between the two countries. Simushir Island is currently controlled by Russia and operates as a strategic military outpost. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union used Simushir as a secret nuclear submarine base, docking vessels in a flooded volcanic crater inside the caldera of the Zavaritsky volcano.
Dr. Hutchison emphasized the importance of monitoring understudied volcanic chains. "There are so many volcanoes like this, which highlights how difficult it will be to predict when or where the next large-magnitude eruption might occur," he said. He added, "As scientists and as a society, we need to consider how to coordinate an international response when the next large eruption, like the one in 1831, happens."
The researchers collaborated with colleagues in Russia and Japan to obtain samples from the volcano and ice cores. This extensive international cooperation was crucial in solving the nearly two-century-old mystery, as detailed by Blick.
"Finding the match took a long time and required extensive collaboration with colleagues from Japan and Russia, who sent us samples collected from these remote volcanoes decades ago," Dr. Hutchison explained. This discovery serves as a reminder of the profound effects that volcanic activity can have on the global climate and the importance of international cooperation in scientific research.
https://www.jpost.com/science/science-around-the-world/article-835651
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LIGHTNING ON MARS
On Earth, lightning can occur in turbulent clouds of volcanic ash. Now researchers have found evidence of sparks in Martian dust devils.
Mini-lightning strikes created by whirling dust devils on Mars have been detected accidentally by the microphone on board the Perseverance rover.
The chance discovery is direct evidence of a form of lightning on Mars, researchers say in a report published in Nature. They describe how the rover's microphone picked up signs of electrical arcs just a few centimeters long, which were accompanied by audible shockwaves.
"There's been a very big mystery about lightning on Mars for a long time. It's probably one of the biggest mysteries about Mars," says Daniel Mitchard, a lightning researcher at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, who wasn't part of the research team but wrote an accompanying commentary for the journal.
"The key thing here," he explains, "is that we actually have a rover on the surface of Mars that appears to have detected something that fits our idea of what we think lightning on Mars would look like."
Besides Earth, flashes of lightning have been seen in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, and lightning has also been detected on Neptune and Uranus. But finding lightning has proven more elusive on our closest planetary neighbors — even though experimenters in the 1970s did lab work that suggested lightning should exist on Mars.
For example, when researchers put volcanic sand into a flask and pumped it down to Martian atmospheric pressures, swirling the sand in the flask created a glow that could be seen in the dark, says Ralph Lorenz, a planetary scientist with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
The glow came from electrical charges caused by the friction between the bits of sand. If you had a bigger buildup of electric charge, he says, that could produce a more sudden discharge, like what happens with spark plugs in a car, or on a larger scale, lightning. After all, even on Earth, lightning can occur in turbulent clouds of volcanic ash.
"So there's no reason that blowing dust or sand on Mars shouldn't become electrically charged," says Lorenz.
Recently, he and some colleagues were reviewing audio picked up by the Perseverance rover, a car-size robot that's been trundling around on the red planet since 2021. It's got a microphone, and a few years ago scientists reported hearing the sounds of a whirling dust devil passing over the rover.
Besides the wind and the hiss of the dust, Lorenz says, there was a brief sound of a snap or crack in the middle of the encounter. "We just assumed it was a big sand grain or a small gravel grain just, you know, hitting the structure," he says.
But not too long later, one of their team members attended a science conference and heard a talk about atmospheric electricity. "I thought that if there were discharges, we could hear them. And then, I remembered this recording," says Baptiste Chide, who is with the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in Toulouse, France.
So he did some experiments here on Earth, using an electrostatic generator, to see how electric discharges would affect the microphone. What he saw was the same signals that had been captured on Mars; there was a distinctive pattern of a brief electrical interference followed by the acoustic signal of a shockwave.
Fifty-five such events were picked up by the microphone over two Martian years, the researchers say, and the sparks were usually associated with dust devils and the fronts of dust storms.
The electrical arcs would feel and sound like strong static electricity sparks, says Chide. If an astronaut was on Mars, it might be possible to see them, although "small discharges are hard to see in strong sunshine, and it's the sunniest times of day that have most dust devils and maybe most of the strong discharge events. That said, some events were at night," he says.
The researchers think it's important to study this atmospheric electrical activity to understand the hazards it could pose to future robotic or human missions. While most space hardware is designed to be robust, they note that the Soviet Mars 3 mission landed during a dust storm and only operated for about 20 seconds on the surface before suddenly and mysteriously ending its transmission.
"Something changed in 20 seconds," says Lorenz. "Could it have been an electrical discharge event? I don't think we can rule that out.”
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/26/nx-s1-5616433/mars-rover-lightening-space
Mars is red 🔴 because it's rusting. It's smaller size prevented most of its iron from sinking down to the core, leaving it in the mantle and crust. This iron oxidized over billions of years to form thin a layer of rust.
In most areas this layer is extremely thin— just a few millimeters. However in some areas, like Tharsis plateau, it can be as deep as 25 meters.
Mars is awesome. Valleys that would eat Grand canyon for breakfast, mountains so high that their peaks are literally in space, dust storms which can cover the entire planet, and possibly long dead life under the remains of its ancient rivers and oceans.
This planet has endured a lot.
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CAN A PAINTING MAKE A SKEPTIC BELIEVE?
Following the death of his mother, the artist Mark Rothko set off on a five-month trip across Europe in 1950, visiting the continent’s great museums. It wasn’t until he visited a former Dominican convent in Florence, Italy, that he found what he was looking for. Each “cell” — where the convent’s friars lived — was adorned with a fresco painted by the 15th-century friar Fra Angelico that captured, Rothko said, what no other art he’d seen could.
“I traveled all over Europe and looked at hundreds of Madonnas,” Rothko wrote to a friend, “but all I saw was the symbol, never the concrete expression of motherhood.” With Angelico, though, Rothko recognized an artist of the highest order: Angelico’s paintings transcended representation to transmit deep emotional, spiritual experience.
A major influence on Abstract Expressionists like Rothko, wherein emotional evocation trumped figuration, Angelico’s great gift was his ability to convey a sense of the divine. Centuries later, his work invites a skeptic to belief. Angelico’s art has pushed me to find within myself a desire for belief I’d thought had been extinguished long ago.
So strong is Angelico’s own vision, so capable is he of showing it that while his foreign, 15th-century world of asceticism, magic and unconditional faith is at first discombobulating, it is a testament to his artistic ability that even more than half a millennium later, I find myself transported into his way of seeing the world, as though I were a friar in one of his cells.
Angelico began as an illustrator of illuminated manuscripts and had sold a few paintings by the time he joined the convent of San Domenico near Florence, where he took the name Fra Giovanni. (He posthumously gained the “angelic” moniker.) He was a man of deep faith, said to have wept every time he painted Jesus on the cross.
The Dominican friars of Angelico’s order were a particularly disciplined breed, following a 13th-century credo that encouraged extreme austerity. There was no search for meaning in that convent; it was a given. When Cosimo de’ Medici commissioned him to paint many of the frescoes in Angelico’s new convent of San Marco, it’s very likely Angelico didn’t even consider what he was doing to be “art.” His painting was, more than anything, an act of devotion — “visions,” as the art critic John Ruskin would later write.
This fall, I visited a major exhibit — running through January — at the Museo Nazionale di San Marco (where Rothko visited) and the nearby Palazzo Strozzi that brings one into Angelico’s world and faith.
There, you’ll find Angelico’s most stunning work, “The Annunciation,” outside the friars’ cells, up the stairs in the convent, which became a museum in 1869. A large-scale fresco painted in the 1440s, it depicts Mary and the Archangel Gabriel. Look first at Gabriel’s wings. Though the light and shadow of the scene are otherwise realistic, Angelico omits the shadows that would otherwise emanate from the angel’s wings, lending Gabriel an otherworldliness.
Look next at both Gabriel and Mary’s eyes. Angelico has given the angel a feminized face — neat lashes, reddened cheeks, golden and curly hair. He looks ever so slightly upward at Mary. He is here to deliver impossible news. His eyes pretend toward authority, but mostly he appears puzzled. Mary meets his gaze with a look of her own weighted shock, her lips pursed, her neck arched downward so that she has quietly become the one in control of the conversation, as though, with the exchange of this revelation, she now embodies a divinity greater even than an angel.
Look then at the architecture around them. The ornate, Corinthian columns, the mathematically precise Roman arches. How classical and ordered. What a contrast these exacting, human creations are to the cosmic information being delivered and received by these startlingly modern, expressive faces. It is as though the word of the Virgin birth has slashed its way through art history itself, so that we can practically see the Classical giving way to the early Renaissance.
And though it would have mattered a great deal to Angelico, it matters not to contemporary eyes whether the viewer believes this scene to have ever occurred. It will capture you regardless.
“You may be as little of a formal Christian as Fra Angelico was much of one,” the novelist Henry James wrote after visiting the former convent, “you yet feel admonished by spiritual decency to let so yearning a view of the Christian story work its utmost will on you.”
It is this ability to emotionally spellbind the viewer that most sets Angelico apart — imparting belief through art. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the philosopher, described Angelico’s key artistic invention as interiority: “that indwelling significance of human features.” Angelico did not just depict; he evoked. Before Angelico, one largely found ideas in art, but not necessarily feeling.
Consider, as Hegel does, an ancient Egyptian sculpture of Isis embracing her son, Horus. In this, there is no warmth, no “soul,” writes Hegel. The artist expects the viewer to know that there exists love between these two by the nature of their relationship. The viewer must generate within himself the associated feelings and apply it to the art.
Angelico, by contrast, elicits these emotions — through his depictions of eyes, hands, the use of light and so much else — so that upon looking at his art one is immediately struck by the love and intimacy flowing between his depictions of Virgin and Child or the awe and befuddlement between her and Gabriel in “The Annunciation.” Angelico broke through art history by subtracting a crucial step. One does not regard his art, then create feeling, then look again to see that feeling manifest; rather, the seeing and the feeling are simultaneous, as Rothko saw in Angelico’s work. The artwork has become the emotion.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/02/opinion/fra-angelico-artist-paintings-faith.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4E8.od7B.WliIL7QmjhUT&smid=fb-share
Elizabeth:
A painting can be inspiringly beautiful without converting you to a religion. Religious art is actually propaganda for religion, but you don't have to fall for it to recognize that the artwork is amazing.
Keith:
My answer to the headline is an emphatic NO. I would no more change my mind being a skeptic after looking at a painting of something religious than I would looking at a picture of a Buick Regal. Again, faith is belief in something or someone without proof. I can at least drive the Regal.
skeptonomist:
Obviously the writer was already a believer. The stated premise of the piece, that specific art works can instill belief, is totally unsupported by any evidence. Belief is certainly instilled by parental and social indoctrination or other social forces (for example forced conversion), not literature or art.
Haldon Lindstrom:
Art is defined by its ability to move a person's emotions. Speaking for myself, I find medieval art to be flat and lifeless. It can be beautiful, but remote and lifeless, almost cartoonish.
I would never deny the feelings art inspires in others, but it's a personal kind of inspiration. Others are moved to religious ecstasy by nature, or childbirth, or mathematical perfection, or even driven from faith to nonbelief. Can art inspire faith? Yes, but not all art will inspire, and even that which does can have wildly different impacts.
Charles:
The beauty of Catholic art makes one *want* to believe. Go read the absurdities contained in their catechism and you will be disabused of this desire.
TheDoctorSez:
If one "believes" in a god, that god is not factual and therefore does not exist ... I "know" that I have a car in my garage, I don't "believe" that I do.
Opus:
While I can stand in awe of these renderings, the beauty and the skill needed to create them, I can also realize that the Medici funding whether it be because of piety or the need to create beautiful works that will outlast them can not be easily minimized. But let us not forget that these were created at a time that most thought the world was flat and the center of the universe and the greatest pursuits of beauty were an extension and desire to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. I also realize that being a Jewish Atheist, I would probably been burned at the stake in this historical context. While I might find it interesting the sojourn of Rothko in his age old quest to Search for Meaning, I do not see his travels for the search as anything more than trying to Rhyme and Reason in a Random Universe.
NancyinChi:
I am an atheist through and through but being in San Marco brings me close to appreciating religious belief. Perhaps the feeling is transcendence or an inkling of it. An unfortunate outcome of atheism has been to reject too often deeply meaningful words like sin, redemption, blessed, faith. The words seem too important for human existence including atheists.
Jill C.:
I am a Jewish atheist and so do not believe in any of these paintings. That said, I have always been fascinated by the religious art of medieval Europe and the Renaissance. Even as a nonbeliever, the sheer spirituality of these paintings, and also the massive cathedrals that are monuments to similar aspirations, have always taken my breath away. The sheer and utter BELIEF behind them is extraordinary — and palpable. This great art has not made me a believer, but it has made me understand the human instinct to try to make sense out of a world, and of life itself, that rarely makes sense. I just haven't needed it. The product of a chaotic childhood, I learned very early that the universe is random and looking for fairness, or sense, in it is an exercise in futility.
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Qatar relies heavily on desalination to meet its water needs, sourcing approximately 99% of its municipal water supply this way. The country uses a mix of technologies, with a significant shift towards reverse osmosis (RO), while older, large-scale plants primarily use thermal methods like multi-stage flash (MSF). Qatar is also investing in innovative and sustainable desalination, including hybrid systems and the integration of renewable energy sources like solar power, to improve efficiency and reduce its environmental impact.
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ADOLESCENCE LASTS INTO 30S — NEW STUDY SHOWS FOUR PIVOTAL AGES FOR YOUR BRAIN
The brain goes through five distinct phases in life, with key turning points at ages nine, 32, 66 and 83, scientists have revealed.
Around 4,000 people up to the age of 90 had scans to reveal the connections between their brain cells.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge showed that the brain stays in the adolescent phase until our early thirties when we "peak."
They say the results could help us understand why the risk of mental health disorders and dementia varies through life.
The brain is constantly changing in response to new knowledge and experience – but the research shows this is not one smooth pattern from birth to death.
Instead, these are the five brain phases:
Childhood - from birth to age nine
Adolescence - from nine to 32
Adulthood - from 32 to 66
Early aging - from 66 to 83
Late aging - from 83 onwards
"The brain rewires across the lifespan. It's always strengthening and weakening connections and it's not one steady pattern — there are fluctuations and phases of brain rewiring," Dr Alexa Mousley told the BBC.
Some people will reach these landmarks earlier or later than others – but the researchers said it was striking how clearly these ages stood out in the data.
These patterns have only now been revealed due to the quantity of brain scans available in the study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications.
The five brain phases
Childhood — The first period is when the brain is rapidly increasing in size but also thinning out the overabundance of connections between brain cells, called synapses, created at the start of life.
The brain gets less efficient during this stage. It works like a child meandering around a park, going wherever takes their fancy, rather than heading straight from A to B.
Adolescence — That changes abruptly from the age of nine when the connections in the brain go through a period of ruthless efficiency. "It's a huge shift," said Dr Mousley, describing the most profound change between brain phases.
This is also the time when there is the greatest risk of mental health disorders beginning.
Unsurprisingly adolescence starts around the onset of puberty, but this is the latest evidence suggesting it ends much later than we assumed. It was once thought to be confined to the teenage years, before neuroscience suggested it continued into your 20s and now early 30s.
This phase is the brain's only period when its network of neurons gets more efficient. Dr Mousely said this backs up many measures of brain function suggesting it peaks in your early thirties, but added it was "very interesting" that the brain stays in the same phase between nine and 32.
Adulthood — Next comes a period of stability for the brain as it enters its longest era, lasting three decades.
Change is slower during this time compared with the fireworks before, but here we see the improvements in brain efficiency flip into reverse.
Dr Mousely said this "aligns with a plateau of intelligence and personality" that many of us will have witnessed or experienced.
Early aging — This kicks in at 66, but it is not an abrupt and sudden decline. Instead there are shifts in the patterns of connections in the brain.
Instead of coordinating as one whole brain, the organ becomes increasingly separated into regions that work tightly together — like band members starting their own solo projects.
Although the study looked at healthy brains, this is also the age at which dementia and high blood pressure, which affects brain health, are starting to show.
Late aging — Then, at the age of 83, we enter the final stage. There is less data than for the other groups as finding healthy brains to scan was more challenging. The brain changes are similar to early aging, but even more pronounced.
Dr Mousely said what really surprised her was how well the different "ages align with a lot of important milestones" such as puberty, health concerns later in life and even the pretty big social shifts in your early 30s such as parenthood.
'A very cool study'
The study did not look at men and women separately, but there will be questions such as the impact of menopause.
Duncan Astle, professor of neuroinformatics at the University of Cambridge, said: "Many neurodevelopmental, mental health and neurological conditions are linked to the way the brain is wired. Indeed, differences in brain wiring predict difficulties with attention, language, memory, and a whole host of different behaviors."
Prof Tara Spires-Jones, director of the center for discovery brain sciences at the University of Edinburgh, said: "This is a very cool study highlighting how much our brains change over our lifetimes."
She said the results "fit well" with our understanding of brain aging, but cautioned "not everyone will experience these network changes at exactly the same ages."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgl6klez226o
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A NEW WEIGHT LOSS DRUG LEADS TO 20% WEIGHT LOSS IN TRIAL
A new study found that a new type of medication, called eloralintide, which targets a different hormone called amylin (rather than GLP-1), helped people achieve meaningful weight loss.
According to the World Obesity Federation, as of 2024, about 3 billion people around the world were overweight or obese.
To help in the fight against obesity, medications for weight loss have skyrocketed in popularity over the last few years. A 2024 poll found that about one in eight adults have ever taken a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist medication such as Wegowy or Zepbound.
However, not everyone who takes a GLP-1 medication loses weight. Past studies show that as much as 17% of GLP-1 users may be “non-responders” to the medication.
“Obesity is a highly complex chronic medical condition,” Liana K. Billings, MD, MMSc, vice chair of research in the Department of Medicine, and director of clinical and genetics research in diabetes and cardiometabolic disease at Endeavor Health in Illinois, told Medical News Today.
Billings is the lead author of a Phase 2 clinical trial recently published in the journal The Lancet,Trusted Source reporting that people achieved meaningful weight loss through the use of a new weight loss medication that, instead of focusing on the hormone GLP-1, is a receptor agonist for a different hormone called amylin.
Eloralintide is the name of the new medication produced by Eli Lilly and Company that is focused on in this clinical trial. Like the GLP-1 medications already on the market, eloralintide is a subcutaneous injection created to be taken once a week.
According to Billings, amylin is a hormone that is secreted from cells in the pancreas when eating a meal.
“Eloralintide acts like amylin, because it is a selective amylin-agonist,” she continued.
“Eloralintide acts in the brain to regulate appetite, slows gastric emptying, and helps metabolism. In this way, it can be an effective therapy for obesity.”
The Phase 2 clinical trial included 263 adults who had obesity or overweight, had at least one obesity-related comorbidity, and did not have type 2 diabetes. Participants were given different amounts of eloralintide or a placebo.
Eloralintide helps lower weight by as much as 20%
After 48 weeks, researchers found that all participants who received eloralintide experienced average weight loss between 9-20%, compared to only 0.4% weight loss in those on the placebo.
“The weight loss we saw in the study is clinically impactful. With this degree of weight loss in only 48 weeks, we see people having improvement or resolution in other conditions like hypertension, hyperlipidemia, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and more weight-related conditions,” Billings said.
“Furthermore, in the study, we did not see a nadir or plateau of weight loss, so I would expect weight loss to continue if the study continued for a longer duration. Additionally, up to 90% of participants on eloralintide improved by at least one BMI category,” she added.
Additionally, scientists observed that taking eloralintide was correlated to improvement across cardiometabolic risk factors, such as waist circumference, blood pressure, blood sugar management, lipid profiles, and inflammation biomarkers.
“The next steps involve launching Phase 3 clinical trials, which will study eloralintide in a much larger and more diverse group of participants to further examine eloralintide’s effectiveness and long-term safety,” she added. “These trials are critical because they provide the final data needed for regulatory review.”
MNT also spoke with Mir Ali, MD, a board certified general surgeon, bariatric surgeon and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, about this research.
Ali commented that he was excited to see a study that targets a different receptor, other than GLP-1, that can aid in weight loss.
“The next step would be to compare the effectiveness of this new medication with ones already on the market and compare cost,” Ali added. “As many people know, these medications are very expensive and are often not covered by insurance. So, if there are more options that can be potentially cost-effective, that would benefit more people.”
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/new-weight-loss-drug-once-weekly-20-weight-loss-trial-eloralintide#A-variety-of-weight-loss-treatment-options-needed
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HAVING MORE MUSCLE, LESS BELLY FAT, MAY SLOW DOWN BRAIN AGING
Previous research has linked high amounts of visceral fat to an increased risk for several health issues, including Alzheimer’s disease.
A new study found that having a higher muscle mass and lower visceral fat to muscle ratio may help keep your brain young, which may help lower future risk for brain-related diseases.
While fat can be found throughout the body, past studies show one of the most potentially harmful areas to have fat accumulation is within the abdominal area.
Known as visceral fat, previous research has linked high amounts of this type of fat to an increased risk for heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, certain cancers, and a type of dementia known as Alzheimer’s disease.
Now a new study recently presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) adds to what we know about the possible connection between visceral fat and the brain.
Researchers found that having a higher muscle mass and lower visceral fat to muscle ratio may help keep the brain young, which can help lower a person’s future risk of brain-related diseases like Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings are yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
For this study, researchers recruited 1,164 healthy adults with an average age of about 55 years. All participants were given a whole-body MRI scan using a special technique that helps researchers better identify muscle, fat, and brain tissue during the scan.
Scientists then applied an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to measure each participant’s total muscle volume, visceral fat, subcutaneous fat under the skin, and brain age.
“Our prior work shows that visceral fat is linked to Alzheimer’s pathology and neuroinflammation, so it made sense to examine whether this same type of fat relates to accelerated brain aging,” Cyrus A. Raji, MD, PhD, associate professor of radiology at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, associate professor of neurology and director of the Raji Brain Health Imaging Lab at the Washington University School of Medicine in Missouri, and lead author of this study, told Medical News Today.
Higher visceral fat linked to higher brain age
At the study’s conclusion, researchers found that having a higher visceral fat to muscle ratio correlated to a higher brain age, while subcutaneous fat showed no significant association with brain age.
“Visceral fat is the biologically active ‘hidden’ fat around the abdominal organs linked to inflammation and metabolic disease, so its relationship with older-appearing brains highlights it as a key driver of impaired brain health,” Raji explained. “The fact that subcutaneous fat, or fat under the skin, showed no relationship tells us that not all fat is the same. This is a key reason why brain and body MRI is a powerful tool for visualizing and quantifying these types of fat and their relationships with brain health.”
Additionally, scientists discovered that in general, study participants with more muscle mass tended to have younger-looking brains.
“Muscle mass is one of the most important indicators of overall metabolic and physical health, so the fact that participants with more muscle had younger-looking brains suggests a meaningful link between muscular health and brain aging,” Raji said.
“Loss of muscle often occurs alongside inflammation, obesity, and other risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. By showing that more muscle mass corresponds to a younger brain age on MRI, our results highlight muscle mass maintenance as a potentially actionable target for supporting healthier brain aging,” he added.
Objective evidence of link between brain health, body composition
MNT spoke with Manisha Parulekar, M.D, FACP, AGSF, CMD, director of the Division of Geriatrics at Hackensack University Medical Center, and co-director of the Center for Memory Loss and Brain Health at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, about this research.
“In clinical practice, we consistently advise patients on the importance of maintaining healthy body composition, but this research provides objective evidence linking it directly to brain health through MRI-based data,” Parulekar commented.
“It is important for researchers to continue exploring accessible methods for slowing brain aging, such as diet and exercise to alter body composition,” she continued. “As our population ages, the prevalence of cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s is increasing, placing a heavy burden on individuals, families, and healthcare systems.”
“Finding modifiable risk factors gives people tangible, empowering strategies to protect their own brain health,” Parulekar added. “Interventions focused on increasing muscle mass and reducing visceral fat are particularly promising because they are achievable through lifestyle changes, offering a proactive way to potentially enhance brain resilience and reduce the risk of future cognitive impairment.”
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/having-more-muscle-less-belly-fat-help-slow-brain-aging#Objective-evidence-of-link-between-brain-health-body-composition
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POLYPHENOL-RICH DIET LINKED TO BETTER LONG-TERM HEART HEALTH
The research, led by King’s College London, found that those with higher adherence to polyphenol-rich dietary patterns had lower predicted cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.
Polyphenols are natural compounds found in plants that are linked to various health benefits, including improved heart, brain, and gut health.
vThe study, published today in BMC Medicine, followed more than 3,100 adults from the TwinsUK cohort for over a decade, found that diets rich in specific groups o
For the first time, the researchers also analyzed a large number of metabolites in the urine that are produced when the body breaks down polyphenols.
These biomarkers confirmed that individuals with higher levels of polyphenol metabolites—especially those derived from specific groups of polyphenols, flavonoids and phenolic acids—had lower cardiovascular risk scores. They also had increased HDL cholesterol, also know as ‘good’ cholesterol.
The study used a newly developed polyphenol dietary score (PPS) to capture intake of 20 key polyphenol-rich foods commonly consumed in the UK, ranging from tea and coffee to berries, olive oil, nuts, and whole grains.
This score showed stronger associations with cardiovascular health than estimates of total polyphenol intake, likely because it captures overall dietary patterns rather than individual compounds.This finding suggests that considering the whole diet provides a more accurate picture of how polyphenol-rich foods work together to support long-term heart health.
Professor Ana Rodriguez-Mateos, senior author and Professor of Human Nutrition at King’s College London, said: “Our findings show that long-term adherence to polyphenol-rich diets can substantially slow the rise in cardiovascular risk as people age. Even small, sustained shifts towards foods like berries, tea, coffee, nuts, and whole grains may help protect the heart over time.”
Dr Yong Li, first author of the study, added: “This research provides strong evidence that regularly including polyphenol-rich foods in your diet is a simple and effective way to support heart health. These plant compounds are widely available in everyday foods, making this a practical strategy for most people.”
The researchers note that while cardiovascular risk naturally increases with age, higher polyphenol intake was associated with a slower progression of risk over the 11-year follow-up period. They also emphasize the need for future dietary intervention studies to further validate these associations.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1107205
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SOYBEAN OIL LINKED TO OBESITY
Soybean oil, the most widely consumed cooking oil in the United States and a staple of processed foods, contributes to obesity, at least in mice, through a mechanism scientists are now beginning to understand.
In an experiment conducted at UC Riverside, most mice on a high-fat diet rich in soybean oil gained significant weight. However, a group of genetically engineered mice did not. These mice produced a slightly different form of a liver protein that influences hundreds of genes linked to fat metabolism. This protein also appears to change how the body processes linoleic acid, a major component of soybean oil.
“This may be the first step toward understanding why some people gain weight more easily than others on a diet high in soybean oil,” said Sonia Deol, a UCR biomedical scientist and corresponding author of the study published in the Journal of Lipid Research.
In humans, both versions of the liver protein HNF4α exist, but the alternative form is typically produced only under certain conditions, such as chronic illness or metabolic stress from fasting or alcoholic fatty liver. This variation, along with differences in age, sex, medications, and genetics, may help explain why some people are more susceptible than others to the metabolic effects of soybean oil.
The study builds on earlier work by UCR researchers linking soybean oil to weight gain.
“We’ve known since our 2015 study that soybean oil is more obesogenic than coconut oil,” said Frances Sladek, a UCR professor of cell biology. “But now we have the clearest evidence yet that it’s not the oil itself, or even linoleic acid. It’s what the fat turns into inside the body.”
Linoleic acid is converted into molecules called oxylipins. Excessive consumption of linoleic acid can lead to increased amounts of oxylipins, which are associated with inflammation and fat accumulation.
The genetically engineered, or transgenic, mice in the study had significantly fewer oxylipins and showed healthier livers despite eating the same high-fat soybean oil diet as regular mice. Notably, they also exhibited enhanced mitochondrial function, which may help explain their resistance to weight gain.
The researchers narrowed the obesity-linked compounds down to specific types of oxylipins derived from linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid, another fatty acid found in soybean oil. These oxylipins were necessary for weight gain in regular mice.
However, transgenic mice on a low-fat diet also had elevated oxylipins without becoming obese, suggesting that the presence of these molecules alone isn’t enough, and other metabolic factors likely contribute to obesity.
Additional analysis revealed that the altered mice had much lower levels of two key enzyme families responsible for converting linoleic acid into oxylipins. Notably, the function of these enzymes is highly conserved across all mammals, including humans. Levels of these enzymes are known to be highly variable based on genetics, diet, and other factors.
The team also noted that only oxylipin levels in the liver, and not the in the blood, correlated with body weight. This means common blood tests may not reliably capture early metabolic changes linked to diet.
Soybean oil consumption in the U.S. has increased five-fold in the past century, from about 2% of total calories to nearly 10% today. Although soybeans are a rich source of plant-based protein and their oil contains no cholesterol, the overconsumption of linoleic acid, including from ultra-processed foods, may be fueling chronic metabolic conditions.
Additionally, despite the lack of cholesterol in the oil, the UCR study found that consumption of soybean oil is associated with higher cholesterol levels in mice.
The researchers are now exploring how oxylipin formation causes weight gain, and whether similar effects occur with other oils high in linoleic acid, such as corn, sunflower, and safflower.
“Soybean oil isn’t inherently evil,” Sladek said. “But the quantities in which we consume it is triggering pathways our bodies didn’t evolve to handle.”
Though no human trials are planned, the team hopes these findings will help guide future research and inform nutrition policy.
“It took 100 years from the first observed link between chewing tobacco and cancer to get warning labels on cigarettes,” Sladek said. “We hope it won’t take that long for society to recognize the link between excessive soybean oil consumption and negative health effects.”
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1107646
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ending on beauty:
CLIMBING
One time when I was a college kid
hiking up a mountain in the Smokies,
I met a guy, an older guy, maybe in his 60s.
On his back he was carrying
his mother in some kind of home-made,
wooden cradle. She was old too,
maybe in her 80s, and shrunken
into a ball of bones and old cloth and skin.
I laughed when I first saw them. I had to.
He was struggling under her weight,
but he was happy. So was she.
She was smiling and chatting away,
talking about how lovely
the mountain was in the morning sun,
how much she loved it all,
how this was the last time
she was going up because she knew
she didn't have another climb in her,
but it was lovely, lovely, lovely.
When I sat down finally to rest,
they passed me by,
his mom still waving at me
on the trail sloping upward.
~ John Guzlowski
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