James Koehline: The fall is near[NOW THE HOUR BENDS DOWN/ da neigt sich die Stunde]
Now the hour bends down and touches me
with its clear, metallic strike:
my senses tremble. The feeling forms: I can—
I grasp the yielding day.
Nothing was complete before I saw it,
all becoming stood still.
My looking ripens things, and whatever they desire
approaches like a bride.
Nothing’s too small: against a gold sky
I paint it large and with love
I hold it high — and I will never know
whose soul it may release…
~ Rilke, The Book of Hours, first poem; various translations combined by Susan Rogers
*
A certain day became a presence to me;
there it was, confronting me—a sky, air, light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task. The day's blow
rang out, metallic—or it was I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what it knew: I can.
~ Denise Levertov, Variations on a Theme of Rilke (The Book of Hours, Book I, Poem I, Stanza I)
Thinking of Rilke, I am tempted to reverse the customary saying: poetry is that which survives translation. Rilke has drama, mystery, and eros. He doesn't use weak words like "a certain day" or "there it was."
I realize that it’s not fair to compare a the work of a minor poet with that of a poetic genius. My purpose was not to put down Denise Levertov; there is a handful of her poems that I enjoy. Rather, my purpose is instructional: to show the difference.
*
*
THE ROAD THAT SAVED THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE
For nearly 40 years, daring smugglers transported nearly 40,000 Lithuanian-language books into the nation each year when it was forbidden under Russian rule.
Following the gentle bends of the Nemunas, Lithuania's largest river, the Panemunė road stretches for more than 100km and marks the former border between Lithuania and East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). Considered the most romantic road in Lithuania by locals, it travels past a series of 17th-Century castles, Renaissance-era mansions and postcard-worthy towns.
Yet, the route is perhaps best known as the site of a remarkable movement that took place in the late 19th Century and helped save Lithuanian, which is commonly considered the world's oldest surviving Indo-European language.
Panemunė was built in the early 13th Century along a chain of early medieval fortresses and castles designed to protect the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the invading Teutonic forces coming from Prussia. By the 1800s, it had developed into a major trade and travel route as the fortresses became mansions for the nobility, and smaller towns grew around them.
Among the road's many regal attractions are the Castle of Panemunė, a 17th-Century manor complete with intricate frescoes and a park with cascading ponds that's been transformed into a lavish hotel and artist residence. Ten kilometers east of the castle, Raudone ("The Red Castle") is a 16th-Century fortress that was partially destroyed during World War Two but has since been rebuilt and now offers horseback riding, archery lessons and a weekly food and arts fair.
A further 20km east, the ancient city of Veliuona and the castle hill of Seredzius come into view, where a 30-minute hike up the wooden steps to the top of the lush green hill reveals sweeping views of the Nemunas river below. As the road unfurls in one final sweeping bend before the city of Kaunas, the towers of the Raudondvaris Castle emerge. Built where the Nemunas and Nevezis rivers meet, this sprawling 17th-Century estate now features a concert hall, labyrinth park, museum and a restaurant.
"The Panemunė road is often called the 'paradise road' in Lithuania: it boasts exceptional scenery, rich history and countless cultural experiences ranging from the [Honey Valley]; boat trips along River Nemunas; [and] local dandelion wine tastings; to art and history museums, food fairs and cultural events in the Renaissance mansions along the road," said Eglė Speičienė, founder of the local travel agency TavoGidas. Because of the many castles, rolling hills and boutique wineries located along the Panemunė, Speičienė says some travelers liken the road to France's famed Loire Valley.
However, stunning scenery and dreamy castles aren't the only thing Panemunė is known for. The road is also where a unique Lithuanian movement took place in the late 19th Century that would help shape the nation's character: book smuggling.
From 1865 to 1904, the Lithuanian language (which is actually related to ancient Sanskrit and diverged thousands of years ago) was banned under the tsarist Russian rule, which controlled large swathes of the country at the time. The ban prohibited the printing, possessing and distributing of any publications in Lithuanian with the Latin alphabet – but instead of creating a complete Russification of the country, it had the opposite effect.
A large network of resistance publishers, book smugglers and distributors sprang up and more than three million books, scientific papers, textbooks and newspapers were printed in Lithuanian in East Prussia and the US, which each had large populations of Lithuanian émigrés. According to historian Vytautas Merkys, during this 39-year-period more than 40,000 Lithuanian-language publications were smuggled into the country each year, reaching villages, parishes and towns across the nation via the Panemunė road.
Panemunė's proximity to both East Prussia and Poland, (where the books entered) helped it serve as an entry point into the nation for book-smugglers. Tilžė (now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad) was one of the main points where smugglers crossed, and the road's final point, the city of Kaunas, served as Lithuania's capital from 1919 to 1940 and was a center for cultural resistance against the Russians.
"Essentially, Panemunė was the main artery through which the Lithuanian printed press and books reached the country. River Nemunas was a crucial point for crossing into the country. Some book smugglers swam across, carrying bundled-up books on their bodies, while some transported books hidden in steamboats or paid merchants to help," explained Vaidas Banys, a historian and educator. "[These] banned books, newspapers and religious texts reached deep into the country.”
According to Banys, these book smugglers were key to saving the Lithuanian language. They frequently carried up to 80lbs of printed Lithuanian books and other publications, smuggling them from East Prussia and other border locations across the Nemunas river, then transporting them along the backroads of Panemunė in horse-drawn carts hidden among stacks of hay, furniture or even empty coffins.
Nemunas River
"All routes were intricately connected, and no book smuggler worked alone. It wasn't just the person who smuggled the books across the border or carried them on their bodies. There were people who would carry the printed materials for a leg of the way, further distribute the prohibited press, finance the printing or supply local communities, parishes and schools," Banys said. "There [wasn't] a 'typical' book smuggler profile, either: people involved in the printing and transporting of the books came from all backgrounds – from simple peasants and devout women to landowners, priests, merchants, bankers and doctors. The network spanned thousands of individuals and organizations. That, in the end, was why the Russians eventually gave up and lifted the ban – the network was so vast and well-connected that it was impossible to destroy.”
According to Banys, crossing the border was the most dangerous part of the journey. If caught, book smugglers could be shot on sight by Russian officials, imprisoned, tortured and banished to Siberia.
"A book smuggler had to know the smallest details – when the border guards would be changing, which ones could be bribed, which trails or river crossings were watched more closely. Even inside the country, they had to be careful who to trust, how to transport the books and press – using double floors in carts and boxes, paying Jewish merchants aboard the Nemunas steamboats, hiding the books under haystacks and merchandise," Banys added. "The severity of the punishment, when caught, also depended on the kind of books they carried: religious materials were considered less of an offense, and a book smuggler might get away with a fine or a few years of imprisonment. Newspapers and literature that promoted the ideas of freedom, democracy, Lithuanian national identity and the like usually carried a death sentence or deportation to Siberia.”
According to Banys, these book smugglers didn't just save the language – they helped solidify Lithuanian identity, and, ultimately, its battle for independence.
"Although many of the fates of the book smugglers were tragic, their contribution and their memory remain vital. During the years of the language ban, one book smuggler from Kėdainiai was caught by the Russian officers and beaten so severely he went mad. Even when the ban was lifted, this man would still wander around with books on his back, and people would tell their kids: look what our language has cost us; study it and cherish it," Banys said.
When the Lithuanian language ban was lifted in 1904, Juozas Masiulis, one of the prominent book smugglers, opened his own book store in the town of Panevezys. The shop is now Lithuania's oldest bookstore. It's still operational today, and every year on 16 March, the nation commemorates the Day of the Book Smugglers.
The river ferry near Vilkija – the only remaining Nemunas ferry – is now a popular attraction along the Panemunė road, and travelers can experience what it must have been like to cross the river on smaller boats. In Kaunas, the final stop along the Panemunė road, visitors can also see the Wall of the Book Smugglers – a monument honoring those who perished on their perilous journeys.
Today, this scenic drive lives on as a living testament to Lithuania's rich culture, complex history and defiant spirit.
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240917-panemune-the-scenic-road-that-saved-europes-banned-language
Oriana:
Tzarist Russia also tried to russify the part of Poland it owned after the partitions. The idea was to erase the whole national culture. But you could say that Poles specialize in resistance. My grandmother learned to read in Polish by reading a translation of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days.
One “colorful” detail: after the January Uprising, there was a ban on wearing mourning clothes by the families of the fallen. Consequently the women took to wearing black jewelry.
Another odd detail is that I learned about Lithuania from . . . Polish literature. Every Polish schoolchild knows the opening of the most famous Polish epic poem, Pan Tadeusz:
O Lithuania, my fatherland, you are like health —
only he knows your worth
who has lost you.
One important novel we studied in school was On the Banks of the Niemen, by Eliza Orzeshkowa. Niemen is the Poolish name for the river Nemunas.
Add to this various poems and essays by Czeslaw Milosz, who didn’t really like being Polish, and wished he could be described as a“Polish-speaking Lithuanian.”
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WHY RUSSIANS ARE RUDE AND CONDESCENDING TOWARD THE BALTIC STATES, CALLING THEM “DWARVES” AND “BARKING DOGS”
Sour grapes. Russia is an ex-empire with a severe identity crisis.
The whole issue begins at 1940 and annexation of the Baltic countries. All the Baltic countries were either Lutheran or Catholic, and democratic civil societies with rule of law. Stalin conquered and raped those countries so thoroughly that they in 1941 considered Germany to be their liberator. (Mind you the Second Law of Realpolitik: the enemy of your enemy is your friend.) Stalin reconquered and re-repressed those countries in 1944 and plundered them and killed approximately 25% of their inhabitants as revenge.
But the Baltic countries remembered their heritage — USSR in all its violent corruption did not manage to destroy it.
Came 1991. The transition from Bolshevism into civil society in the Baltic countries was rather smooth. But the privatization of the assets of the USSR in Russia was a major heist and embezzlement. Similar heist did not happen in the Baltic countries, which had been Lutheran or Catholic before their annexation, nor in the Warsaw Pact vassal states, where the transition to market economy was rather smooth. It did happen in Russia proper, Belarus, to some extent in Ukraine, and in the Islamic “-stan” republics.
The reason for this heist was the complete lack of legacy of civil society and justice state. The Baltic states had been rather developed democracies before their annexation by Stalin, as had been Poland, Czechoslovakia and DDR. There the privatization could be organized justly and orderly, and return to democracy and civil society was smooth.
Russia has never had any kind of civil society nor a tradition of justice state. It has been Authoritarian Patrimonialism ever since it got Mongolicized 1237. It has always been ruled by a strongman by terror and violence. The Russian mindset is that the state and everything within is personal property of the ruler and he may deal it to his cronies at will to guarantee their loyalty — and confiscate it just at will.
This is a completely Asian mindset. No country in Europe has been ruled in the same way, except Ottoman Turkey.
And it weren’t just the Abramoviches and Berezovskis who embezzled the Soviet property — it was just anyone who had a chance to do so. Just how much they were able to embezzle, depended on the favor of the ruler (first Yeltsin, then Chernomyrdin and finally Putin. The embezzled property was quickly moved to West — safe from being seized by the ruler if his whim would turn unfavorable.
Only a madman will invest in Russia and its industry. There is no guarantee of ownership in Russia — anything can be stolen and seized at will. The laws mean absolutely nothing, it is the whim of the ruler. Russia fucked everything up on its own — due to its complete lack of civil society. So did all Orthodox republics and vassal states. Islamic “-stan” republics fucked everything up even worse. They returned back to tribal culture, but each religion creates a society of its image. This is also why the Lutheran and Catholic republics and vassal states succeeded where Russia fucked up.
The Russians themselves know how messed up they are, and they are acutely aware no might in the world can change it anyhow. When a country lacks the tradition and legacy of citizen society, rule of law and civil rights, they won’t develop overnight—especially in a country which has a long tradition in corruption, state terror and tyranny.
This is why they are so embittered by Finland, the Baltic States — and especially Poland. It is all about sour grapes. ~ Susanna Viljanen
Andre Leong:
It's amazing how Russia, Soviet or otherwise, can conquer people, oppress them, attempt to erase their culture and language (Ukraine), give them the Holodomor (Ukraine and other regions), conquer them again, subject them to oppression and poverty again, and then turn around and wonder why their former “brothers” are “Russophobic”.
Dallas Manning:
What’s crazy is that next none of the countries Russia has ever ruled has a positive image of them—-say what you will about Britain’s economic exploitation and promulgation of scientific racism, but a lot Britain’s former empire still has a fairly positive or at least neutral view of them.
Marcus Hartman:
During the Soviet occupation the industrious Baltic states provided the USSR with many products, as vegetables and fruts, like apples and pears, that the rest of the USSR couldn’t cultivate and harvest in sufficient amounts.
I am currently reading Anne Applebaum’s book Autocracy Inc., which describes how the rulers with chosen oligarch institutions and cronies plunder and subdue anyone who wants to be an independent entrepreneur in any branch the rulers consider their own turf. These rulers copy their methods from and collaborate with mafia organizations and drug cartels.
Tom Chadaravicius:
Excuse me, fruit doesn't grow well in the Baltics (especially during the Soviet times, before the climate change.) It was rather meat and dairy from the three countries that fed Russia.
Genevieve Vavance:
I there something ‘special’ about Russia that makes it extremely susceptible to top-heavy, large scale corruption at all levels? It seems very little changed about that aspect of Russia between Tsarism, Bolshevism, and whatever came after that.
Susanna Viljannen:
Mongol Yoke 1237–1480.
Danny Bagg:
The excessive top-heavy bureaucracy riddled with intrigue at every level is very Byzantine, literally — this is how the Eastern Orthodox remnant of the Roman Empire was structured until its fall.
Russia inherited many of the ideas about statehood from Byzantium, which was the first civilization to heavily influence it (prior to the Mongol and Turkic invasions).
Anthony BagnalL:
Putin seeks not the return of the USSR but the Russian Tsarist empire which would include Finland, the Baltic states & much of Poland.
Erik:
Russian thief-commander and his tribespeople have no love for our countries not only because just how we fared after ending the Russian occupation but how our people fared during that miserable period. Putin often likes to refer to some pseudo-historic fiction to support his obsession over controlling neighboring countries and his followers seem to genuinely believe in some sort of twisted siblinghood between us. But that is painfully rejected by historic facts. For example, how Lithuanian partisans mounted a doomed resistance against the Soviet troops, resulting in a largest guerilla war campaign in Europe's history. People willingly chose to die fighting in the forests rather than accept the alien rule. They don't like such reality-affirming facts—thus the endless avalanche of salt.
Yaroslav Mar:
Upvote for managing to write an answer about Russia without bringing up the Mongols.
Russia owes its shittiness to orthodoxy — the most primitive, backward and barbaric denomination of Christianity. All but two orthodox countries are rife with corruption, poverty and misery — the only exceptions are Greece and Cyprus who had a preexisting tradition of democracy and avoided communism, though they’re still considerably poorer than Western European countries.
Russia’s misery has nothing to do with the Mongol Empire but everything to do with the Byzantine one — whose heir Russia actually is.
Gerardo Aguirre:
Didn’t the Roman Empire (well within Europe) also hold that all within the empire belonged to Caesar?
Susanna Viljannen:
No. That is the difference between res publica and patrimonium.
The Empire was res publica, “public thing”, and the Caesar was merely the imperator, supreme commander, of the state and society, not its owner.
Conversely, when a state is patrimonium, it is considered as personal property of the ruler and everything within is also his personal property. That was the case with Merovingians and Carolingians — whenever the ruler died, the domain was divided equally between his sons. The rise of the Ottonians and Capetians put end to this practice — the domains (kingdom of France and Holy Roman Empire) became res publicae instead of patrimonia.
Tom Chiswell:
I'd add that it's also about the current optics — the 3 Baltic States were regarded as poor, underdeveloped republics within the USSR… the fact that, after 30 years of independence, their standard of living has outstripped that of Russia by leaps and bounds does not say anything good about Russia's political and economic systems… and, they're right next door (the Estonian border's only a 2 or 3 hour drive from St. Peterburg), so it's not like the stark contrast can be easily hidden from the Russian population.
Charles Zigmund:
Don’t forget about the role of vodka, old Father Forgetfulness, in the sorry story of Russia.
Oriana:
Some people have expressed doubt if NATO would really enter the fight if Russia entered the Baltics. Such people ask, “Would we risk a world war for . . .. Estonia?” Let’s not forget that multinational NATO forces are already in the Baltic countries, by invitation of course — just in case. As to Poland, I know that an American Airborne Division has a base near the eastern border. And the Polish army has the latest weapons. The response would be quick.
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HOW HEZBOLLAH’S PAGERS WERE WEAPONIZED (BY THE MOSSAD?)
There was a possible supply chain poisoning in Europe whereby a tiny amount of explosive PETN was placed in around 5,000 pagers. They were remotely detonated in a synchronized attack. Here's the whole operation explained in three easy points.
Just after 3.30 pm on Tuesday, thousands of pagers used by terrorist outfit Hezbollah exploded almost simultaneously across Lebanon and parts of Syria, resulting in the deaths of at least nine people and injuring over 3,000.
The spectacular attack in which pagers exploded has been attributed to Israel by both Hezbollah and the Lebanese government. Pagers, communication devices from bygone decades, were made to explode in a remote, sophisticated and coordinated manner. Experts also pointed out that the attack exploited vulnerabilities in the supply chain of the pagers that reached Hezbollah five months back.
But how did the primitive device with no GPS, no microphones and cameras, meant to avoid Israeli surveillance, instead, turn out to be a killer device for Hezbollah? Turns out the pager attack in Lebanon signals a combination of physical planting of explosives and a trigger prompting the explosions.
Here are the three broad steps that outline how this attack was likely executed.
SUPPLY CHAIN COMPROMISED, SAY EXPERTS
The attack is believed to have its origin in supply chain interference, where the pagers were manipulated either during production or in transit.
Hezbollah recently ordered 5,000 pagers from a Taiwan-based manufacturing firm called Gold Apollo. However, the company revealed that those pagers were actually produced by a European company, BAC, using the Gold Apollo brand, somewhere in Europe.
Although Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang initially declined to comment on the location of the European manufacturer, a Reuters report later revealed that BAC, which made the devices under licence, is based in Hungary's capital Budapest. .
The pagers before getting to Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria had fallen into the hands of Israel's external intelligence agency, Mossad, reported Sky News Arabia, citing sources.Experts told Sky News Arabia that during the shipment stage, a tiny amount of explosive material, likely PETN (Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate), was inserted into the pagers and placed near their batteries by the Israeli spy agency.
Hezbollah switched to pagers from cellphones to avoid being tracked by Israeli intelligence agencies, but didn't realise that pagers had three of the five components that could be used to weaponize them.
A British Army veteran said a pager has three of the five main components that are needed in an explosive device. The five components are -- a container, a battery, a triggering device, a detonator and an explosive charge.
"A pager has three of those already. You would only need to add the detonator and the charge," the former officer told news agency AFP.
2. THE PAGERS REACH HEZBOLLAH
The compromised pagers with explosives were shipped to Lebanon's Hezbollah almost five months ago, reported Qatar-based Al Jazeera. Until the Tuesday explosions, the newly acquired pagers did not raise any suspicions and were widely used. Hezbollah had purchased almost 5,000 of them.
This level of sophistication in the pager attack showed that the operation was carried out by a highly skilled and resourceful state actor, a distinction associated with the Mossad.
The compromised pagers were then distributed among Hezbollah members, who had ditched cellphones to hoodwink Israeli spy agencies.
Interestingly, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon lost one eye in the attack when a pager he was carrying exploded on Tuesday afternoon, The New York Times reported. That also exposed the network of Hezbollah, which is an essential part of Iran's 'Axis of Resistance', that the US and Israel refer to as the 'Axis of Evil’.
For months, the pagers were used without incident, as the explosives remained hidden and undetected. The period of dormancy proved crucial, as it ensured that the pagers became an integral part of Hezbollah's communication network among its members and the facilitators in Iran. It was about time that the eventual attack on Tuesday (September 17) was carried out.
3. REMOTE DETONATION FOR SYNCHRONIZED ATTACK
On Tuesday afternoon, thousands of pagers simultaneously received a message that remotely detonated the explosives, according to a BBC report. Though it is clear that the explosives were remotely detonated, it hasn't been confirmed exactly how that was done.
A message, likely an alphanumeric text, triggered the explosives placed in the pagers, causing them to explode almost simultaneously across various cities of Lebanon and parts of Syria.
One of the theories is that the pagers were remotely detonated by raising the temperature of the batteries.
"The pagers were likely implanted with explosives and designed to detonate only upon receiving a specific message," David Kennedy, a former US National Security Agency intelligence analyst, told CNN.
The Wall Street Journal reported that some Hezbollah members felt their pagers heating up and disposed of them before they exploded.
Pagers usually need AA, AAA or lithium-ion batteries to function that can explode.
However, a British Army munitions expert, speaking anonymously to the BBC, suggested that the pagers were likely packed with between 10 grams and 20 grams of military-grade high explosives.
Lithium batteries that overheat can reach 1,093 degrees Celcius (2,000 degrees Fahrenheit), Richard Meier told The Washington Post. Devices are generally designed to vent this heat, but if they don't, "the battery can and will explode", he said.
It is theoretically possible to hack into a pager and trigger its battery to overheat and explode, according to Meier.
So, one of the most sensational attacks in modern warfare involved three steps -- of 1. rigging pagers, 2. waiting for them to reach the intended targets, and 3. exploding them remotely. This involved both physically inserting explosives and then detonating them from afar.
https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/how-hezbollah-pagers-rigged-exploded-details-israel-mossad-lebanon-explainer-3-steps-detail-mossad-spy-agency-petn-explosive-2601913-2024-09-18
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THE ATTACK EXTENDED TO WALKIE-TALKIES
As of Wednesday 9/18, the attack has apparently been extended to walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah. They really didn’t suspect anything?
The facts about the pager attack are coming out pretty quickly. Hassan Nasrallah is the “secretary general” of Hezbollah, a cleric by training, and perhaps not an expert on technology. He was freaked out by Israeli surveillance of the Lebanese cellphone network, and ordered his minions to get off their cellphones and use pagers instead. (What they would do once they received a pager message to call him, is not clear.)
Anyway, so an order goes out to Gold Apollo Co., Ltd., of Taiwan, distributor of cheap pagers of the kind popular 30 years ago. Gold ships the order off, perhaps to an Iranian company that claimed it needed them for hospitals (typical users back in the day).
Reports say a company called BAC Consulting KFT was involved. It appears to be a shell company. Whose side it’s on, isn’t clear.
Just when and how the explosive was put in the pagers is unknown. The operation could have taken place over a period of months or years.
Somehow, the shipment gets diverted to Israel, where scores of technicians get to work opening the devices, fiddling with the (very basic) electronics, and packing PETN, or some other explosive, into the available space. (Some reports say the batteries were replaced with units containing PETN — half battery, half bomb.)
Or: the pagers were assembled by the shell company with the explosives in place and shipped directly to Lebanon.
However the shipment got there, the units were given to Hezbollah guys with strict instructions to watch out for orders from the great leader.
So at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 17, all the pagers simultaneously beep for several seconds, causing their users to take them out and look closely at the display — whereupon they explode.
A meaningless alphanumeric message may have been the last thing many of them will ever see. Who knows — maybe, decoded, it said, “Don’t mess with Israel.”
Apparently Hezbollah bought an old, cheap model of the Apollo pager. The current one can be yours for $149.67 on Amazon: ~ Richard Lobb, Quora
The second wave of clandestine [walkie-talkie] attacks is another serious security breach in Hezbollah's ranks and increases pressure on the militant Lebanese group. Lebanon's health ministry said 14 people were killed and 450 wounded in the attacks on Wednesday , September 18, 2024.
The walkie-talkies were booby-trapped in advance by Israeli intelligence services and then delivered to Hezbollah as part of the militia's emergency communications system, which was supposed to be used during a war with Israel, the sources said.
The attack further damages Hezbollah's military command and control system.
In the pager attack, at least nine people were killed, including a child, and more than 2,800 were wounded in the attack. [The latest number of the killed has risen to 12.]
On Wednesday afternoon local time during the funerals of some of the Hezbollah members killed in the first attack, a second wave of explosions took place.
Videos circulating on social media showed an explosion during one of the funerals that resulted in one Hezbollah guard wounded on the floor.
Numerous other explosions were reported in Beirut and across Lebanon — some of them in apartments and houses.
One source said that because they were meant to be used only during war with Israel, a large number of the walkie-talkies were in storage in Hezbollah warehouses.
The two sources said Israel's goal in the second wave of attacks was to increase paranoia and fear in Hezbollah's ranks, in an attempt to press the militia's leadership to change its policy regarding the conflict with Israel.
The goal was to convince Hezbollah that it is in its interest to disconnect itself from Hamas and cut a separate deal for ending the fighting with Israel regardless of a ceasefire in Gaza," the source said.
The two sources added that the decision to conduct the second attack was also driven by the assessment that Hezbollah's investigation into the pager explosions would likely expose the security breach in the walkie-talkies.
After the explosions on Wednesday, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said in a visit to an Israeli Air Force base that "the center of gravity is moving from Gaza to the north through the diversion of resources and forces. We are opening a new phase in the war."
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Herzi Halevi held meetings at the northern command's headquarters and approved the updated operational plans for Lebanon, the IDF said.
"We are determined to create the security conditions that allow the return of our citizens to their homes with a high level of security, and we are ready to do whatever it takes to bring these things about. We have many capabilities that we have not yet activated," Halevi said in a statement.
A few hours before the second wave of explosions, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a press conference in Egypt that the U.S. wasn't involved and had no knowledge of the pager attack.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. was not involved in Wednesday's explosions in Lebanon.
https://www.axios.com/2024/09/18/israel-detonates-hezbollah-walkie-talkies-second-wave-after-pager-attack?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
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Treating some of the injured, Dr Elias Warrak said at least 60% of the people he had seen after Tuesday's blasts had lost at least one eye, with many also losing a finger or a whole hand. He described it as "the worst day of [his] life as a physician”.
"Unfortunately, we were not able to save a lot of eyes, and unfortunately the damage is not limited to the eyes – some of them have damage in the brain in addition to any facial damage.”
The attacks are a humiliation for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, and a possible indication that its entire communication network may have been infiltrated by Israel, the worst security breach in the group’s history.
Oriana:
An alternative theory is that there was no need to insert the explosive; lithium batteries can explode by themselves under the right conditions.
Regardless of how it was actually accomplished, this is sheer technological genius. Now, I don’t mean the sentence that follows as an anti-Israeli statement — far from it. Yet how sad for such genius to be displayed in warfare rather than in effort to better our daily lives.
WHY?
~ Because Hezbollah, the fundamentalist organization funded by Iran, has turned its obsession with destroying Israel into a war against innocent civilians.
For nearly a year, Israel has endured a relentless barrage of rockets, drones, and daily threats from its northern border. Thousands of families in the north have been displaced, their lives uprooted and forced to live in uncertainty. ~ Anna Magdalena, Quora
One of the ironies of the pager attack:
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah says the group’s leadership was mostly spared during Tuesday’s attack targeting pagers that killed several members in Lebanon as they were using older devices while “new ones were sent elsewhere.”
https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/lebanon-explosions-hezbollah-israel-09-19-24-intl-hnk/index.html
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It’s highly unlikely that Russia is behind the explosives because Russia is allied with Iran and its proxies.
And I thought Russian communications were badly compromised.
Imagine meeting 72 virgins when your vitals have just been blown off. Oh what a shame, how sad, oh well, never mind. ~ Frances Neil, Quora
Oriana:
I think it’s Iran more so than Russia. Putin is too busy with Ukraine. But both Russia and Iran are terrorist states. Some decades ago, who knew that Reagan was onto something huge when he spoke about the “axis of evil.”
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UKRAINE’S EFFORTS TO DEMILITARIZE RUSSIA (sarc on)
The world record for demilitarization has been achieved by Ukrainian drones. The biggest Russian arsenal was blown up totally on 18 September 2024. It is just the very beginning. Ukraine does not need to wait permission from Biden administration to use USA made weapons on Russian territory, because there are wonderful Ukrainian-made drones. The area of the arsenal was 6 km long 1.5 km wide. Nothing is there now. Annihilation. Welcome to hell of real demilitarizaion of Moscow empire. No cats and dogs suffered.
Massive explosion in Tver region of Russia terrified local residents — but it wasn’t a nuclear blast.
According to the Russian media, the explosion was the result of a Ukrainian drone strike at a large ammunition warehouse.
Local residents say that before the drone attack, an unidentified reconnaissance UAV was hovering over the town for 2 days.
“The warehouse for storage of ammunition, missiles and explosives, which is being built in the city of Toropets in the Tver region, meets the highest world standards,” reported the Russian media in 2018, quoting Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, General Dmitry Bulgakov.
They actually opened the new strategic ammo depot like a new shopping center, with balloons and music, shown it on TV.
Dmitri Bulgakov
On June 26, 2024, Dmitry Bulgakov was arrested for fraud “on an especially large scale”. He became the 7th top Russian defense official arrested for fraud and corruption since Putin began his cleanup in the ministry in April 2024.
According to Bulgakov, the warehouse in Toropets “allows to hide stocks of missiles and ammunition from external influence and to ensure their safety, and explosion and fire security.” It was supposed to be able to withhold a nuclear blast!
Well, it wasn’t as safe as they hoped, I guess.
Already 3 earthquakes have been recorded by NORSAR in Tver region:
2.8 magnitude at 1:29 UTC.
2.5 magnitude at 2:29 UTC.
2.7 magnitude at 3:23 UTC.
The explosions at the ammo depot continue.
The view from a nearby home
“Bulgakov noted that the full load of each storage facility of the arsenal is up to 240 tons,” continued the article author.
There are 41 of these newer bunkers at Toropets ammo depot, plus there are over 70 sheds that hold up to 120 tons of munitions each.
According to locals, this warehouse was actively used: ammunition was shipped almost around the clock, trucks driving in and out day and night.
The whole place has been detonating for over 6 hours.
Up to 30,000 tons of ammo could be stored there, including:
4-ton Iskander ballistic missiles
3-ton North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles
S-300/S-400 air defense missiles
Grad MLRS rockets.
Now it makes sense why Russian enforcers are urgently evacuating local residents.
Russian armamentsThe Russians bragged the storage building was supposed to withstand a nuclear explosion (yes, really). ~ Elena Gold, Quora
Matthew Lambert:
They also bragged about being able to “hide” their munitions there … in the facility they showed, while having a grand opening, to the public.
It's pretty astonishing the Ukrianians were able to find this super-secret facility let alone penetrate its impenetrable-ness.
Over 300 miles north of Ukraine, past Belarus.
David Huhta:
“We continue to deplete their drone force”
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THINGS TRUMP SAID ARE GOING TO HAPPEN IF HE’S NOT ELECTED
“The quality of life is going to collapse. Energy prices are going to skyrocket far more than even in Europe. We are going to have a crash. We’re going to have a 1929-style crash if Harris gets in. There will be a bloodbath for the country. Every one of you will be gone. They will be vicious. They will be ruthless. They will do things you wouldn’t believe.”
Conservative attorney George Conway warned that Donald Trump and his campaign are in the middle of an “implosion” right now ― and he said it’s only going to get worse as the former president grows more desperate.
“None of his tricks are working anymore,” Conway, a longtime Trump critic, said on MSNBC over the weekend. “They don’t excite anybody anymore. He’s losing in the polls.”
Conway noted Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on Sunday admitted he had to “create stories” about unsubstantiated rumors of immigrants eating pets to get attention.
But even that hasn’t been enough to save Trump’s campaign.
“It’s not working for him and he knows it, and he knows he’s going down,” Conway said. “And the more he feels that he’s going down ― remember, he’s running not just for president, he’s running from prison ― you’re gonna see him engage in more and more desperate behavior.”
That, he said, is what led to Trump’s bizarre social media attack on pop superstar Taylor Swift, who endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris last week.
“His people have lost control over him,” Conway said. “And the only person who seems to have any control over him is the person who’s telling him, or whispering in his ear, or doing something, to tell him that ‘everything’s great, you’re amazing’ and that’s Laura Loomer.”
Loomer is the far-right conspiracy theorist in Trump’s inner circle who has recently been traveling with the former president.
“This is the ultimate implosion and we’re watching it live,” Conway said. “And it’s gonna get worse.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/george-conway-trump-implosion_n_66e79fe3e4b0da0e8515df39
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Oriana: The only eternity (of sorts) that we know is photographs. if we are lucky, our poems will survive as photographs (of sorts) — stills of our fugitive life. And then there is the uncanny persistence of info placed ages ago on the Internet. 
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THE MOLOTOV-RIBBENTROP PACT
Most Russians don’t know about Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. They really don’t know about the 2 years of Stalin and Hitler being best buddies in 1939–1941, while butchering Europe between them — Russians only know about WW2 since June 1941, when Hitler troops attacked the Soviet Union.
85 years ago, on September 17, 1939, the Red Army's “Polish Liberation Campaign” began.
In plain English — the Invasion of Poland and the USSR’s joining into World War 2 on Hitler's side.
4,736 tanks and 3,300 aircraft participated in the Soviet campaign.
5 days later, on September 22, Hitler's Germany and Stalin's USSR celebrated their victory over Poland by holding a joint Soviet-German military parade in Brest.
As the result, the USSR annexed part of Polish territory.
From the beginning of 1940, mass deportations of Polish citizens from the captured territories began; they were sent to settlements in Siberia, the Urals, and northern Kazakhstan.
The USSR captured about 240 thousand Polish servicemen.
Many Polish officers who were captured were shot by Bolsheviks without trial.
4,415 prisoners of war were shot and buried in the Katyn Forest, more than 6,000 people were shot in Mednoye.
Before Hitler’s attack on the Soviets in 1941, the USSR transferred 856,000 tons of oil, 14,000 tons of copper, 1.4 million tons of grain and more than a million tons of timber to the Nazis.
Russia tries to position itself as the country that “defended the world from fascism”.
They want to make the world forget that Russia was a party to starting WW2. ~ Elena Gold, Quora
Willy Daglish:
When the Soviet invasions started, the Polish Army had got itself organized and was rapidly improving its resistance to the Germans, especially in the South East. These troops initially thought the Soviets were coming to help them.
Until the shooting started….
Jan Krusat:
I think that many German rightwing extremists are hoping for a situation like prior to 1914, when Poland was divided between Russia, Germany and Austria.
Putin has clearly declared that he wants all territory of Poland, which was once controlled by Russia, back, this means all territory up to the Vistula river, including Warsaw.
Nick Gornikoff:
Those same people in Russia can’t even admit that Soviet regime tortured and killed millions of its own citizens especially during the height of Lenin’s and Stalin’s dictatorships . To them Stalin was and is “a great leader,” not a bloody genocidal tyrant.
Gregg Goodfellow:
Thank you for posting this Elena. The west downplayed this at first as no country was ready to do anything about it and after 1941 Russia was a vital ally invaded by Nazis so highlighting this earlier ugly alliance did not serve the public interest. Now Russians believe they were always anti-Nazi. Shades of 1984.
Edward Novelli:
Yep Russians are kept in the dark.
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WAS IT AN INSANE MOVE FOR HITLER TO DEDICATE SO MUCH WORKFORCE AND MILITARY INTO ERADICATING THE JEWS RATHER THAN HAVE THEM DEFEND THE MOTHERLAND?
Absolutely. And the German and Austrian Jews were loyal citizens many of whom would have joined the army, and he also drove many of his top scientists into exile where they gave the Allies the atom bomb.
Most genocides are done for practical reasons, and are essentially very large-scale robberies with violence, or (as in Rwanda) the end result of lengthy rivalries. Only for the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge was exterminating the groups they hated an end in itself, with no other benefit and in fact causing them to lose many loyal citizens and waste resources on killing even while those resources were urgently needed elsewhere, so those two regimes are the equivalent of large-scale serial killers. And serial-killers are insane pretty much by definition. ~ Claire Jordan, Quora
David Zimmerman:
I have heard it said that being a serial killer is a form of slow suicide. You know you will eventually be caught and either imprisoned or killed but you lack the capability to end your own life so you become fascinated with the taking of others’ lives.
Michal Jančina:
According to the famous saying — it was worse than a crime. It was a mistake.
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THE “RUSSIAN WORLD”
That’s what “the Russian World” looks like in Vovchansk, Ukraine
Putin made the concept of “the Russian World” the core of Russia’s foreign policy.
It means, you either do what Russia wants — or they start a war against you. Not a conventional war at first — hybrid war, like Putin is waging against the USA, UK and European Union — with election interference, troll factories spreading fakes, buying intellectuals and politicians, physical attacks on major opponents, spying for compromising materials against individuals in positions of influence, acts of sabotage, political assassinations and more.
Right now, a Russian ship full of explosive materials — a floating bomb — hangs around the coast of Norway outside Bergen, home to the important naval base Haakonsvern.
The ship reported that they have lost propulsion engines and is “no longer in control” — despite the weather being perfectly calm.
To understand the scale of it, if this ship explodes, we are looking at a near Hiroshima sized blast.
The area is not only the location of the main naval base of Norway, but it is also stacked with oil and gas infrastructure: a huge gas terminal (Kolsnes), a crude-oil terminal (Sture) and a combined crude-oil terminal and refinery (Mongstad).
This ship has been hanging around the Norway coast for over a week. It's been meandering down the coastline trying to get into various ports full of important infrastructure.
That’s Russia and its hybrid tricks. ~ Elena Gold, Quora
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WHAT COMPETENT PEOPLE ARE CAPABLE OF
Ukraine blows up a gigantic Russian ammunitions depot 500km inland, triggering a series of magnitude 2.8 earthquakes, while kicking the Russians’ arse on their own territory.
Israel performs an absolutely unique decapitation strike against Hezbollah with unprecedented precision. Stuff for the history books.
Both are running circles around their enemies. It shows what competent people are capable of. And this is just the military aspect of things. Let’s not forget:
~how the Germans switched their whole infrastructure to LNG within a few months
~ how Europe hooked up Ukraine to the European electricity network within weeks
~ how Europe imposed a price cap on Russian oil via its dominance of the insurance market
~ how the Czechs found a million shells [for Ukraine]
Talk about 4D chess.
The point here isn’t how well any of these things have aged, but what the depth of sophistication and cooperation it needs to recognize the opportunity, devise a response, coordinate, decide and implement with speed. This is not(!) trivial.
And this is the main difference between, let’s not call it the West, let’s call it civilization as such … the difference between civilization and the barbarity of autocratic systems.
Christopher Bail, Quora (the first part of his post)
Georges Jardinet:
I would definitely add a strong separation of religion and state as a core value of civilization. This is key for people of different religions and non-believers to live in peace together
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CONFEDERACY’S MAJOR MISTAKE
They fired on Fort Sumter. It was all down hill from there. Ironically the film “Gone With The Wind,” foreshadowed this during the party at 12 Oaks. Pro war men were talking up how easy the Yankee Army would be to beat. Rhett Butler was asked about his thoughts since he had been in the North extensively. He pointed out the vast military resources the North had, listing them at length. Finally he said, . . “and there is not a single cannon factory in the whole South.” A young man challenged him saying, “What difference does that make to a gentleman?” and Butler replied, correctly, “It’s going to make a great deal of difference to a great many gentlemen.” And so it did. ~ Kevin Burke, Quora
Nicholas Martin:
Ashley Wilkes, though despicable when it came to work or women, was at least intelligent enough to understand Rhett's meaning. Most of the guys in that room had never worked a day in their lives. Ashley didn't want war because war meant they lose their way of life forever.
He opposed war, did not want to fight, knew that war would be a very bad thing for the South but he volunteered and did his duty.
I imagine many Southern men felt the same way.
Dave Owens:
They went in with a white hot zeal that, while kind of cute, was not going to overcome sheer numbers. Their only hope was to wear the North out, and Lincoln was just as determined as they were. Any lesser leader in the North (I'm looking at YOU, Seward) would probably have sued for peace at some point.
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I DON’T KNOW IF THIS STORY IS TRUE, BUT IT’S WONDERFUL
During the Battle of Britain, my mother lived in Kent and often watched the aerial battles. One day, she and her friends saw a German plane being shot down. They saw the pilot parachute into a nearby field and quickly rode over to see what had happened. On the way, they met the local gamekeeper, who had also seen the plane go down and was carrying his shotgun.
When they reached the field, they found the parachute on the ground. As they approached, the pilot emerged from behind some hay bales, raising his hands. He said, “Hello!” in broken English, offered his pistol, and then threw it away. He complained, “My leg hurts.”
My mother, who was a nurse and spoke some German from her Austrian cousin, examined his leg and found it was badly sprained. The gamekeeper gave the pilot a cigarette, and they decided to take him to the farmhouse while waiting for the police. They helped him across the field, and my grandmother had tea ready for everyone.
About an hour later, the local policeman arrived with two home guard members and the doctor. They exchanged greetings, and the doctor treated the pilot’s ankle. They all had more tea, and the policeman informed the pilot he needed to go to the police station and wait for the army.
“Of course, thank you for the tea,” the pilot said as he left.
In 1950, the pilot visited my family again. He had spent the rest of the war as a POW in Scotland, then returned to Germany and worked as a civil engineer. He was in town on business and became a family friend ~ Loose and Lux, Quora
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THE US-CHINA RACE TO ACHIEVE NUCLEAR FUSION, THE CLEANEST SOURCE OF ENERGY
An aerial image of the under-construction Comprehensive Research Facility for Fusion Technology, or CRAFT, in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei, in November 2021. It is scheduled for completion in 2025.
The bustling city of Shanghai marks national celebrations with world-famous light shows, illuminating its skyscrapers with dazzling colors, like beacons of Chinese innovation.
It is here that scientists and engineers work around the clock to pursue the next big thing in global tech, from 6G internet and advanced AI to next-generation robotics. It’s also here, on an unassuming downtown street, a small start-up called Energy Singularity is working on something extraordinary: nuclear fusion energy.
US companies and industry experts are worried America is losing its decades-long lead in the race to master this near-limitless form of clean energy, as new fusion companies sprout across the world. The prize of this energy is its sheer efficiency. A controlled fusion reaction releases around four million times more energy than burning coal, oil or gas, and four times more than fission, the kind of nuclear energy used today. It won’t be developed in time to fight climate change in this crucial decade, but it could be the solution to future warming.
The Chinese government is pouring money into the venture, putting an estimated $1 billion to $1.5 billion annually into fusion, according to Jean Paul Allain, who leads the US Energy Department’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences. In comparison, the Biden administration has spent around $800 million a year.
“To me, what’s more important than the number, it’s actually how fast they’re doing this,” Allain told CNN.
Beijing outspends DC.
Nuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun and other stars, is painstakingly finicky to replicate on Earth. Many countries have achieved fusion reactions, but sustaining them for long enough to use in the real world remains elusive.
Private businesses in both countries are optimistic, saying they can get fusion power on the grid by the mid-2030s, despite the enormous technical challenges that remain.
The US was among the world’s first to move on the futuristic gambit, working on fusion research in earnest since the early 1950s. China’s foray into fusion came later that decade. More recently, its pace has ratcheted up: Since 2015, China’s fusion patents have surged, and it now has more than any other country, according to industry data published by Nikkei.
Energy Singularity, the start-up in Shanghai, is just one example of China’s warp speed.
It built its own tokamak in the three years since it was established, faster than any comparable reactor has ever been built. A tokamak is a highly complex cylindrical or donut-shaped machine that heats hydrogen to extreme temperatures, forming a soup-like plasma in which the nuclear fusion reaction occurs.
Plasma confined
For a fledgling company working on one of the world’s most difficult physics puzzles, Energy Singularity is incredibly optimistic. It has reason to be: It has received more than $112 million in private investment and it has also achieved a world first — its current tokamak is the only one to have used advanced magnets in a plasma experiment.
Known as high-temperature superconductors, the magnets are stronger than the copper ones used in older tokamaks. According to MIT scientists researching the same technology, they allow for smaller tokamaks that can generate as much fusion energy as larger ones, and they can better confine plasma.
The company is planning to build a second-generation tokamak to prove its methods are commercially viable by 2027, and it expects a third-gen device that can feed power to the grid before 2035, the company said.
In contrast, the tokamaks in the US are aging, said Andrew Holland, CEO of the Washington, DC-based Fusion Industry Association. As a result, the US relies on its allies’ machines in Japan, Europe and the UK to further its research.
Holland pointed to a new $570 million fusion research park in eastern China under construction, called CRAFT, on track to be completed next year.
“We don’t have anything like that,” he told CNN. “The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory has been upgrading its tokamak for 10 years now. The other operating tokamak in the United States, the DIII-D, is a 30-year-old machine. There’s no modern fusion facilities at American national labs.”
There’s a growing unease in the US industry that China is beating America at its own game. Some of the next-generation tokamaks China has built, or plans to, are essentially “copies” of US designs and use components that resemble those made in America, Holland said.
China’s state-funded BEST tokamak, which is expected to be completed in 2027, is a copy of one designed by Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Holland said, a company in Massachusetts working with MIT. The two designs feature the same kind of advanced magnets Energy Singularity is using.
Another machine being built by a private Chinese company looks very similar to one designed by the US company Helion, Holland said.
There is “a long history” of China copying American tech, he added.
“They’re fast followers and then take the lead by dominating the supply chain,” Holland said, using solar panel technology as an example. “We’re aware of this and want to make sure that’s not the way it goes forward.”
CNN did not receive a reply from China’s National Energy Administration when asked whether state-funded fusion research had copied or been inspired by US designs.
Lasers vs tokamaks
Nuclear fusion is a highly complex process that involves forcing together two nuclei that would normally repel. One way to do that is to turn up temperatures in a tokamak to the tune of 150 million degrees Celsius, 10 times that of the sun’s core.
When they bind, the nuclei let off a large amount of energy as heat, which can then be used to turn turbines and generate power.
The US has been a fusion leader for decades; it was the first nation to apply fusion energy in the real world — in a hydrogen bomb.
In the early 1950s, the US military tested a series of nuclear weapons in the Pacific Ocean that were “boosted” by gases that created a fusion reaction, resulting in an explosion 700 times the power of Hiroshima blast.
Sustaining nuclear fusion for long periods is much more challenging, and while China races ahead with its tokamaks, the US is finding an edge in other technology: lasers.
In late 2022, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California shot nearly 200 lasers at a cylinder holding a fuel capsule the size of a peppercorn, in the world’s first successful experiment to generate a net gain of fusion energy. That means more power came out of the process than was used to heat the capsule (though they didn’t count the energy needed to power the lasers).
There are yet more ways to achieve nuclear fusion, and the US is hedging its bets on a variety of technologies.
With the money China is putting into research, the tokamak concept is rapidly evolving.
China’s EAST tokamak in Hefei held plasma stable at 70 million degrees Celsius — five times hotter than the core of the sun — for more than 17 minutes, a world record and an objectively astonishing breakthrough.
If the Chinese government continues to invest more than $1 billion a year, that could soon eclipse US spending, even in the private sector.
And if those investments pay off, colorful celebrations in Shanghai will not only be powered by fusion, they will cast China in a whole new light.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/19/climate/nuclear-fusion-clean-energy-china-us/index.html
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A tokamak is a machine that confines a plasma using magnetic fields in a donut shape that scientists call a torus. Fusion energy scientists believe that tokamaks are the leading plasma confinement concept for future fusion power plants.
We need temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius and intense pressure to make deuterium and tritium fuse, and sufficient confinement to hold the plasma and maintain the fusion reaction long enough for a net power gain, i.e. the ratio of the fusion power produced to the power used to heat the plasma.
Deuterium: an isotope of hydrogen that is composed of one proton, one neutron, and one electron. Ordinary hydrogen has no neutron. Deuterium is also called the heavy hydrogen.
Tritium or hydrogen-3 is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with half-life ~12.3 years. The tritium nucleus contains one proton and two neutrons.
Plasma: Fusion reactions take place in a state of matter called plasma — a hot, charged gas made of positive ions and free-moving electrons that has unique properties distinct from solids, liquids and gases.
The sun, along with all other stars, is powered by a reaction called nuclear fusion. The sun’s massive gravitational force naturally induces fusion. If this can be replicated on earth, it could provide virtually limitless clean, safe and affordable energy to meet the world’s energy demand.
Fusion fuel is plentiful and easily accessible: deuterium can be extracted inexpensively from seawater, and tritium can be produced from naturally abundant lithium.
Deuterium and tritium fusion reaction produces helium and high energy neutrons.
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THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT CLOSES RANKS, AND PATIENTS FEEL THE EFFECTS
You probably know about the surge in childhood peanut allergies. Peanut allergies in American children more than tripled between 1997 and 2008, after doctors told pregnant and lactating women to avoid eating peanuts and parents to avoid feeding them to children under 3. This was based on guidance issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2000.
You probably also know that this guidance, following similar guidance in Britain, turned out to be entirely wrong and, in fact, avoiding peanuts caused many of those allergies in the first place.
That should not have been surprising, because the advice violated a basic principle of immunology: Early exposure to foreign molecules builds resistance. In Israel, where babies are regularly fed peanuts, peanut allergies are rare. Moreover, at least one of the studies on which the British advice was based showed the opposite of what the guidance specified.
As early as 1998, Gideon Lack, a British pediatric allergist and immunologist, challenged the guidelines, saying they were “not evidence-based.” But for years, many doctors dismissed Dr. Lack’s findings, even calling his studies that introduced peanut butter early to babies unethical.
When I first reported on peanut allergies in 2006, doctors expressed a wide range of theories, at the same time that the “hygiene hypothesis,” which holds that overly sterile environments can trigger allergic responses, was gaining traction. Still, the guidance I got from my pediatrician when my second child was born that same year was firmly “no peanuts.”
It wasn’t until 2008, when Lack and his colleagues published a study showing that babies who ate peanuts were less likely to have allergies, that the A.A.P. issued a report, acknowledging there was a “lack of evidence” for its advice regarding pregnant women. But it stopped short of telling parents to feed babies peanuts as a means of prevention. Finally, in 2017, following yet another definitive study by Lack, the A.A.P. fully reversed its early position, now telling parents to feed their children peanuts early.
But by then, thousands of parents who conscientiously did what medical authorities told them to do had effectively given their children peanut allergies.
This avoidable tragedy is one of several episodes of medical authorities sticking to erroneous positions despite countervailing evidence that Marty Makary, a surgeon and professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, examines in his new book, “Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health.”
Rather than remaining open to dissent, Makary writes, the medical profession frequently closes ranks, leaning toward established practice, consensus and groupthink. (Makary acknowledges having been guilty of this himself.)
In this kind of environment, what begins as opinion can quickly become dogma, especially once the profession has become wed to an idea.
“There was an internal policy that all A.A.P. recommendations had to be consistent,” a member of the committee that issued the original peanut guidance told Makary. “It was old dogma, perpetuated.” In other words, Makary writes, “protecting the institution was more important than letting the public see alternative viewpoints.”
The causes of this perpetuated mistake replicate those of other medical errors outlined in Makary’s book.
In 1983, near the beginning of the AIDS crisis, the American Red Cross, the American Association of Blood Banks and the Council of Community Blood Centers rejected a recommendation by a high-ranking C.D.C. expert to restrict donations from people at high risk for AIDS. Instead, they issued a joint statement insisting that “there is no absolute evidence that AIDS is transmitted by blood or blood products.” The overriding concern was that Americans would not trust the blood supply, or donate blood, if people questioned its safety.
As with the advice on peanuts, a reversal came about far later than it should have. It took years for the blood banking industry to begin screening donors and it wasn’t until 1988 that the F.D.A. required all blood banks to test for H.I.V. antibodies. In the interim, half of American hemophiliacs, and many others, were infected with H.I.V. by blood transfusions, leading to more than 4,000 deaths.
In the case of hormone replacement therapy, millions of women used H.R.T. to relieve the symptoms of menopause and decrease the likelihood of bone fractures, heart attacks and even Alzheimer’s disease in later years. But in 2002, women were told unequivocally that taking estrogen and progestin to treat menopause symptoms increased their risk of breast cancer. The guidance that formed the basis of that recommendation was based on a single study, even though the lead author of that study acknowledged to Makary years later that it did not show a statistically significant difference in rates of cancer among women who were on H.R.T. and those on a placebo.
As with peanuts, early dissenters were ignored, ridiculed and suffered professional consequences. It would be years before the guidance was corrected. In the interim, millions of women suffered withdrawal from hormone therapy and missed out on H.R.T.’s health benefits.
While these mistakes are appalling, more worrisome are the enduring root causes of those errors. Medical journals and conferences regularly reject presentations and articles that overturn conventional wisdom, even when that wisdom is based on flimsy underlying data. For political or practical reasons consensus is often prized over dissenting opinions.
“We’re seeing science used as political propaganda,” Makary told me when I spoke to him by phone. But, he argues, mistakes can’t be freely corrected or updated unless researchers are encouraged to pursue alternative research.
“Asking questions has become forbidden in some circles,” Makary writes. “But asking questions is not the problem, it’s the solution.”
With trust in science on the wane, conspiracy theories and misinformation proliferating and anti-vaxxers like Robert Kennedy Jr. setting a deranged example, this may not seem like the best time to criticize the medical profession. Yet a dose of healthy skepticism may be the healthiest attitude when information seems contradictory, whether it’s about a decades-long practice or newer, faddish procedures like tongue-tie surgery.
When it comes to medical certainty in the face of dissent, it’s useful to remember the case of Ignaz Semmelweis. Semmelweis was the Hungarian doctor who in 1847 proposed that doctors wash their hands before delivering babies, to reduce the chances of “childbed fever,” now known as postpartum infection. For making the offensive suggestion that doctors’ hands might somehow be unclean, Semmelweis was denounced by the medical establishment and later lost his job. His life ended at age 47 in an insane asylum and on an especially cruel note. He died there of sepsis, the very disease he’d fought so hard against as a doctor.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/19/opinion/medicine-allergies-research.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ME4.7zJ_.xCH5pYK7OqCq&smid=em-share
(My thanks to Kerry Shawn Keys, to whom I owe access to this article)
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DOWN’S SYNDROME AND ALZHEIMER’S
~ "People with Down syndrome represent the world's largest population of individuals predisposed to getting Alzheimer's disease," says Michael Rafii, director of the Memory Disorders Clinic at UCSD.
Down syndrome is a genetic disorder that's best known for causing intellectual disability. But it also causes Alzheimer's. "By the age of 40, 100 percent of all individuals with Down syndrome have the pathology of Alzheimer's in their brain," Rafii says.
Down syndrome is caused by the presence of an extra copy of chromosome 21. And one of the genes on chromosome 21 happens to control the production of amyloid, the substance that forms the sticky plaques associated with Alzheimer’s.
Because their bodies produce extra amyloid, most people with Down syndrome develop problems with thinking and memory by the time they reach 60. Rafii has chronicled the decline of one of his patients, a woman named Irma, by collecting her signatures from medical forms over the years.
The first one is from 1999, when Irma was in her mid-50s. "You can see her signature is on the line, it's clear, she wrote it in script," Rafii says. By 2005, though, she has switched to large block letters. By 2009, Irma is misspelling her name. By 2011, "there are only a few characters written that resemble letters," Rafii says. "And in the very last year it's completely blank.”
People like Irma used to be rare because the medical problems associated with Down syndrome meant they rarely lived long enough to get dementia. Today, though, better medical treatments mean people with the disorder often live into their 60s.
And that has created a huge opportunity for Alzheimer's research, says William Mobley, chairman of the neuroscience department at UCSD. "This is the one group in the world that you could argue would benefit most by the institution of early therapy," he says.
Early therapy means starting people on drug treatment years before the symptoms of Alzheimer's appear. The approach has been hard to test because, in the general population, there's no good way to know who is going to develop Alzheimer's. But for people with Down syndrome, it's a near certainty.
Finding a drug that prevents Alzheimer's in people with Down syndrome could help millions of people who don't have the disorder, Mobley says. "This approach to treating Alzheimer's disease might apply to all of us," he says. "Imagine someday a drug that we all start taking when we're 25 so we never get Alzheimer's disease.”
That's a long-term goal. But already, people with Down syndrome are making a difference in Alzheimer's research. Early work with Down patients helped confirm the importance of amyloid. More recently, people with the disorder helped test an eye exam that may offer a simple way to screen for Alzheimer’s.
And then there's the study that Justin McCowan signed up for. It involves a drug from Transition Therapeutics called ELND005 that, in mice, can prevent the brain changes associated with Alzheimer's. Scientists hope the drug can do the same thing in people, including those with Down syndrome.
McCowan says he volunteered for the study because he wants to help other people, especially a friend of his named Maria, who also has Down syndrome. "I feel very sad about Maria because she doesn't remember anything," McCowan says.
His parents, Don and Annamarie McCowan, say their son's memory is still sharp. They hope that what scientists are learning from people like Justin will keep it that way.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/08/25/341672950/people-with-down-syndrome-are-pioneers-in-alzheimers-research
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BENEFITS OF BEETS
1. Beets boast an impressive nutritional profile.
They’re low in calories yet high in valuable vitamins and minerals. In fact, they contain a bit of almost all of the vitamins and minerals your body needs Beets are particularly rich in folate, a vitamin that plays a key role in growth, development, and heart health.
They also contain a good amount of manganese, which is involved in bone formation, nutrient metabolism, brain function, and more.Plus, they’re high in copper, an important mineral required for energy production and the synthesis of certain neurotransmitters.
2. Could help keep your blood pressure normal.
Beets have been well studied for their ability to decrease elevated blood pressure levels, which are a major risk factor for heart disease.
In fact, some studies show that beetroot juice could significantly lower levels of both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
The effect appears to be greater for systolic blood pressure, which is the pressure when your heart contracts, rather than diastolic blood pressure, which is the pressure when your heart is relaxed. Also, raw beets may exert a stronger effect than cooked ones.
These blood-pressure-lowering effects are likely due to the high concentration of nitrates in this root vegetable. In your body, dietary nitrates are converted into nitric oxide, a molecule that dilates blood vessels and causes blood pressure levels to drop.
Beets are also a great source of folate. Although research has turned up mixed results, several studies suggest that increasing your intake of folate could significantly lower blood pressure levels.
However, keep in mind that beets’ effect on blood pressure is only temporary. As such, you need to consume them regularly to experience heart-health benefits over the long term.
3. Can improve athletic performance
Several studies suggest that dietary nitrates like those found in beets may enhance athletic performance.
Nitrates appear to affect physical performance by improving the efficiency of mitochondria, which are responsible for producing energy in your cells.
According to one review, beetroot juice could enhance endurance by increasing how long it takes to become exhausted, boosting cardiorespiratory performance, and improving efficiency for athletes.
Promisingly, beet juice has also been shown to improve cycling performance and increase oxygen use by up to 20%.’
It’s important to note that blood nitrate levels peak within 2–3 hours of consuming beets or their juice. Therefore, it’s best to consume them a couple of hours before training or competing to maximize their potential benefits.
4. May help fight inflammation
Beets contain pigments called betalains, which possess a number of anti-inflammatory properties.
This could benefit several aspects of health, as chronic inflammation has been associated with conditions like obesity, heart disease, liver disease, and cancer.
One study in 24 people with high blood pressure found that consuming 8.5 ounces (250 mL) of beet juice for 2 weeks significantly reduced several markers of inflammation, including C-reactive protein (CRP) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a).
Plus, an older 2014 study in people with osteoarthritis — a condition that causes inflammation in the joints — showed that betalain capsules made with beetroot extract reduced pain and discomfort.
Beetroot juice and extract have also been shown to reduce kidney inflammation in rats injected with toxic, injury-causing chemicals.
Still, more studies in humans are needed to determine whether enjoying beets in normal amounts as part of a healthy diet may provide the same anti-inflammatory benefits.
5. May improve digestive health
One cup of beetroot contains 3.4 grams of fiber, making beets a good fiber source.
Fiber bypasses digestion and travels to the colon, where it +
This can promote digestive health, keep you regular, and prevent digestive conditions like constipation, inflammatory bowel disease (IBS), and diverticulitis.
Moreover, fiber has been linked to a reduced risk of chronic diseases, including colon cancer, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
6. May support brain health
Mental and cognitive functions naturally decline with age, which can increase the risk of neurodegenerative disorders like dementia.
The nitrates in beets may improve brain function by promoting the dilation of blood vessels and thus increasing blood flow to the brain.
Particularly, beets have been shown to improve blood flow to the frontal lobe of the brain, an area associated with higher level thinking like decision making and working memory.
Furthermore, an older study in people with type 2 diabetes found that reaction time during a cognitive function test was 4% faster in those who consumed 8.5 ounces (250 mL) of beetroot juice daily for 2 weeks, compared with a control group.
However, more research is needed to determine whether beets could be used to improve brain function and reduce the risk of dementia among the general population.
7. May have anti-cancer properties
Beetroot contains several compounds with cancer-fighting properties, including betaine, ferulic acid, rutin, kaempferol, and caffeic acid.
Although more research is needed, test-tube studies have shown that beetroot extract can slow the division and growth of cancer cells.
Several other studies have found that having higher blood levels of betaine may be associated with a lower risk of developing cancer.
However, it’s important to note that most studies on the topic have used isolated compounds rather than beetroot. Therefore, further research on beetroot consumption as part of a well-rounded diet and cancer risk is needed.
8. May help balance energy intake
Beets have several nutritional properties that could make them a great addition to a balanced diet.
First, they’re low in fat and calories but high in water, which can help balance your energy intake. Increasing your intake of low calorie foods like this root vegetable has also been associated with weight loss.
Furthermore, despite their low calorie content, they contain moderate amounts of protein and fiber. Both of these nutrients can make it easier to achieve and maintain a moderate weight.
The fiber in beets may also support digestive health, decrease appetite, and promote feelings of fullness, thereby reducing your overall calorie intake.
Additionally, by including them in smoothies or other recipes, you can easily increase your intake of fruits and vegetables to improve the quality of your diet.
9. Delicious and easy to use
Beets are not only nutritious but also incredibly delicious and easy to incorporate into your diet.
You can juice, roast, steam, or pickle them. For a convenient option, you can purchase them precooked and canned. You can even enjoy them raw, either sliced thinly or grated.
Choose beets that feel heavy for their size with fresh, unwilted green leafy tops still attached, if possible.
Because dietary nitrates are water-soluble, it’s best to avoid boiling beets if you’d like to maximize their nitrate content.
Oriana:
Grated beets with a bit of horseradish, one of my favorite side dishes in childhood and teens — an eternity ago, as if in another lifetime. As for not boiling beets, I think the easiest solution is to make beet soup. Toss in a few other vegetables and you have a marvelously delicious and nutritious addition to your main meal.
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Ending on beauty:
IN MY HOMELAND
In my homeland, where I will not return,
I remember a lake in the woods,
And slow clouds about to burst, miraculous.
From low waters whispers in the dark,
And the bottom thick with prickly weeds.
The cry of black seagulls, blush of icy sunsets,
The startling whistle of wild ducks in flight.
This thorny lake sleeps in my heaven-sky.
I bend over it and see down below
The tall glow of my life. And that which
Frightens me is there, before death
Forever consummates my shape.
~ Czeslaw Milosz, tr. Oriana Ivy
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