Monday, December 20, 2021

The lasting images of 2021



Australians warned against surge in snakes and spiders DW


This Footage From The First-Ever Probe to Touch The Sun Will Leave You Speechless Science Alert 


The Washington Post - Staff The lasting images of 2021: “It was a year of the angry and the rebellious scaling walls, tearing down barriers, rising up to reverse reality. But it was also a year of carefully considered verdicts and hurriedly ended war, of mass migration and candlelight vigils, a year when many millions of people decided to take a shot, venture forth and return to life, together. It would be easy to sum up 2021 as a year of fear and division, and it was that. But this was also a more complicated year than many: 

It was a time when Americans hopped up on rage and fueled by distortions breached barricades and shattered glass, rebelling against their own country’s most solemn symbol of peaceful change, but it was also a year when other Americans held the powerful to account and chose to trust in democracy and science. 

The images of 2021 tell a complex yet dramatic story. There was fire and there was rain; the West burned and New York flooded. Earth itself seemed to confront people with one test after another. As temperatures rose and storms intensified, a volcano erupted in Iceland and an earthquake leveled Haiti, again. There was, perhaps above all, the terror of lethal disease, a second year of a virus that unraveled the fabric of daily life and managed to set people against each other in ways that defied reason. 

The usual questions born of insecurity — will we be okay? how can we help each other? — were joined by new uncertainties: Is this real? What should I believe? Why don’t people around me believe what I see is true?…”



On December 22, the world’s biggest and most powerful space science telescope will launch from Kourou, French Guiana, providing an unprecedented glimpse of our universe. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with the European and Canadian space agencies, will study every phase of cosmic history — from within our solar system to distant galaxies in the early universe. 

As an infrared telescope — using infrared light to detect celestial bodies — Webb’s scientific explorations will help us better understand the origins of the universe and our place in it. To bring people closer to this engineering marvel — the telescope is three stories tall and as broad as a tennis court — Google Arts & Culture partnered with NASA to bring a 3D model of the telescope to Google Search. You can project the 3D model in Augmented Reality with your phone to explore it up close. 

Zoom in to see its 18 ultra-sensitive primary mirror segments, covered with a golf ball’s mass of gold, which optimizes them for reflecting infrared light (the coating is so thin that a human hair is 1,000 times thicker). You can also get up close to the innovative sunshield that keeps the telescope cool, and check out the newly developed instruments that make measurements using the infrared light collected by the telescope’s mirror…”


Ancient Greek drug could cut COVID-19 deaths – Israeli scientist Jerusalem Post. IM Doc:

Yes – that may really work – colchicine has been an amazing all around anti-inflammatory drug for centuries. It is being used more and more for all kinds of stuff.

When I was fresh out in practice, literally a 2 liter bottle of pills could be had for pennies.

Then a few years ago – colchicine got SHKRELI’d – and it is now hundreds of dollars for 5 days.

Notice though how in Israel it is described as cheap medication – 

Well – it is everywhere else in the world – but not in the USA. It was 30 years ago – but not anymore.

And about Pharma patents. Since this drug was used heavily by Henry VIIII for his gout – seriously doubt it is a patent. No – it was our own stupidity and greed that allowed the fleecing to occur. They are now slowly doing the same exact thing to insulin.

 

Troubling spike in pregnant people dying of Covid with 40% of deaths in last four months as vaccine refused The Sun