Okay, you have to see the photo with this BBC story:
If you can’t see it, it’s a long – huge – white thing that looks kind of like a tapeworm only slimmer.
BBC explains:
A North Korean soldier who was shot while fleeing across the border has an extremely high level of parasites
in his intestines, his doctors say.
The defector crossed the demilitarised zone on Monday, but was shot several times by North Korean border
guards.
Doctors say the patient is stable - but "an enormous number" of worms in his body are contaminating
his wounds and making his situation worse.
His condition is thought to give a rare insight into life in North Korea.
"I've never seen anything like this in my 20 years as a physician," South Korean doctor Lee Cook-jong
told journalists, explaining that the longest worm removed from the patient's intestines was 27cm (11in) long.
And, to be clear, I’m not making fun
of North Korea or the man. I would assume everyone would know I’m not
bringing politics into this but in case not let me say so.
I just think this is very
interesting. Spooky even. But interesting. I wonder what it would be
(or will be) classified as since it’s a parasite but not a tapeworm.
And I also enjoyed a story at NEWSWEEK:
You are alive right now and able to read this article in part because of
Earth's plush atmosphere, a blanket
about 60 miles thick.
Its most plentiful ingredient is nitrogen, its most beloved oxygen, its
most concerning carbon dioxide, and a smattering of other gases. But a
similar mix may also envelope a dramatically
different planet
40 light-years away from us, according to
a new paper published in The Astronomical Journal.
That distant planet, known as 55 Cancri e, has been entrancing scientists since they
first spotted it in 2004. It's
skewed with respect to its star,
its core may be basically a giant diamond, and
its surface is covered in lava. It's pretty hard to turn away from a combination like that.
But scientists
haven't actually seen the molten rock themselves, nor will they any time
soon. Instead, they're basing that hypothesis on what they can measure
from here, using
a month of data gathered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope during the
summer of 2013. That instrument measures infrared light, which
scientists can then use to understand how temperatures on the planet are
changing.
There is so much out there that we still haven’t discovered.
I love my life, don’t get me wrong.
But if I had a reset button, I’d hit it.
I’d want the same life and my three kids.
But just to be a little younger so I could live to see where this all ends.
I feel like a lot of great stuff has
happened since I left high school. (I only took required science
classes in college. I wish I’d majored in it.)
But if I could hit a reset, I’d probably want to in 20 or so more years.
Science is always evolving.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Friday, November 17, 2017.
"Love Hangover" is one of the 19 number one pop songs (BILLBOARD US singles chart) that Diana Ross has sang on (and it's the theme to her hist film MAHOGANY). November 19th, she'll be on the live broadcast (ABC) of The American Music Awards to perform and to receive the American Music Award for Lifetime Achievement. Motown Classic is issuing DIAMOND DIANA: THE LEGACY COLLECTION November 17th (today!) to note this monumental achievement. That's this Sunday and her daughter Tracee Ellis Ross (BLACKISH, GIRLFRIENDS) will be hosting the broadcast.
Turning to Iraq . . .
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE this coming Sunday will feature a cover story by Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal "The Uncounted:"
Not only did the strike target his house and his brother's house, the US military posted a video of the strike insisting it was targeting an ISIS facility.
There are no precision strikes. It's as big a lie as smart bombs.
But where has the left been since the fall of 2014 when Barack Obama began ordering daily strikes? Strikes that have continued under Donald Trump?
Is the only true sign of a 'woke' person really just bad morning breath?
We certainly haven't seen one damn effort to stop the Iraq War and our 'Social Justice Warriors' can't be bothered with Iraq.
Nor can THE NATION or THE PROGRESSIVE or any of our so-called 'independent' outlets.
They've had nothing to say or do for over three years now as Iraq has endured daily bombings -- not by terrorists but by a US-led coalition.
Kahn and Gopal note:
"Love Hangover" is one of the 19 number one pop songs (BILLBOARD US singles chart) that Diana Ross has sang on (and it's the theme to her hist film MAHOGANY). November 19th, she'll be on the live broadcast (ABC) of The American Music Awards to perform and to receive the American Music Award for Lifetime Achievement. Motown Classic is issuing DIAMOND DIANA: THE LEGACY COLLECTION November 17th (today!) to note this monumental achievement. That's this Sunday and her daughter Tracee Ellis Ross (BLACKISH, GIRLFRIENDS) will be hosting the broadcast.
Turning to Iraq . . .
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE this coming Sunday will feature a cover story by Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal "The Uncounted:"
Around midnight, Basim heard a thump from the second floor. He peeked
out of his office and saw a sliver of light under the door to the
bedroom of his daughter, Tuqa. He called out for her to go to bed. At
21, Tuqa would often stay up late, and though Basim knew that he wasn’t a
good example himself and that the current conditions afforded little
reason to be up early, he believed in the calming power of an
early-to-bed, early-to-rise routine. He waited at the foot of the
stairs, called out again, and the sliver went dark.
It was 1 a.m. when Basim finally shut down the computer and headed
upstairs to bed. He settled in next to Mayada, who was fast asleep.
Some time later, he snapped awake. His shirt was drenched, and there
was a strange taste — blood? — on his tongue. The air was thick and
acrid. He looked up. He was in the bedroom, but the roof was nearly
gone. He could see the night sky, the stars over Mosul. Basim reached
out and found his legs pressed just inches from his face by what
remained of his bed. He began to panic. He turned to his left, and there
was a heap of rubble. “Mayada!” he screamed. “Mayada!” It was then that
he noticed the silence. “Mayada!” he shouted. “Tuqa!” The bedroom walls
were missing, leaving only the bare supports. He could see the dark
outlines of treetops. He began to hear the faraway, unmistakable sound
of a woman’s voice. He cried out, and the voice shouted back, “Where are
you?” It was Azza, his sister-in-law, somewhere outside.
“Mayada’s gone!” he shouted.
“No, no, I’ll find her!”
“No, no, no, she’s gone,” he cried back. “They’re all gone!”
Not only did the strike target his house and his brother's house, the US military posted a video of the strike insisting it was targeting an ISIS facility.
There are no precision strikes. It's as big a lie as smart bombs.
But where has the left been since the fall of 2014 when Barack Obama began ordering daily strikes? Strikes that have continued under Donald Trump?
Is the only true sign of a 'woke' person really just bad morning breath?
We certainly haven't seen one damn effort to stop the Iraq War and our 'Social Justice Warriors' can't be bothered with Iraq.
Nor can THE NATION or THE PROGRESSIVE or any of our so-called 'independent' outlets.
They've had nothing to say or do for over three years now as Iraq has endured daily bombings -- not by terrorists but by a US-led coalition.
Kahn and Gopal note:
Our own reporting, conducted over 18 months, shows that the air war
has been significantly less precise than the coalition claims. Between
April 2016 and June 2017, we visited the sites of nearly 150 airstrikes
across northern Iraq, not long after ISIS was evicted from them. We
toured the wreckage; we interviewed hundreds of witnesses, survivors,
family members, intelligence informants and local officials; we
photographed bomb fragments, scoured local news sources, identified ISIS
targets in the vicinity and mapped the destruction through satellite
imagery. We also visited the American air base in Qatar where the
coalition directs the air campaign. There, we were given access to the
main operations floor and interviewed senior commanders, intelligence
officials, legal advisers and civilian-casualty assessment experts. We
provided their analysts with the coordinates and date ranges of every
airstrike — 103 in all — in three ISIS-controlled areas and examined
their responses. The result is the first systematic, ground-based sample
of airstrikes in Iraq since this latest military action began in 2014.
We found that one in five of the coalition strikes we identified
resulted in civilian death, a rate more than 31 times that acknowledged
by the coalition. It is at such a distance from official claims that, in
terms of civilian deaths, this may be the least transparent war in
recent American history. Our reporting, moreover, revealed a consistent
failure by the coalition to investigate claims properly or to keep
records that make it possible to investigate the claims at all. While
some of the civilian deaths we documented were a result of proximity to a
legitimate ISIS target, many others appear to be the result simply of
flawed or outdated intelligence that conflated civilians with
combatants. In this system, Iraqis are considered guilty until proved
innocent. Those who survive the strikes, people like Basim Razzo, remain
marked as possible ISIS sympathizers, with no discernible path to clear
their names.
This is Rawa, the lone survivor of an airstrike that killed her parents and siblings in Qaiyara, Iraq last year. The U.S. told us the coalition carried out an airstrike "10 meters away against a known ISIS weapons cache." nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Murray Brewster (CBC) reports on one aspect of the US-led coalition:
Canada is sending 20 combat engineers to train Iraqi troops to dismantle roadside bombs and booby traps left behind by retreating ISIS fighters, the Canadian military announced Friday.
The undertaking unfolded this week even as the overall advise and assist mission involving 200 elite Canadian special forces troops, remains on hold because of tensions between the central government in Baghdad and the independence-minded Kurdish region.
The tensions are long standing. ISIS provided a common enemy that briefly set various problems aside. These problems include the lack of funding from the Baghdad-based government to the KRG.
They also include issues of oil and issues of territory.
September 25th a non-binding referendum was held in the KRG and over 92% of those voting expressed the wish for the semi-independent Kurdistan to become fully independent.
Today's Nervous Nancies and Terrified Terrances of the press trembled at the thought and did not report what was taking place but instead presented spin from the Baghdad-based government.
The notion of splitting Iraq into three areas under a system of federalism is not a new one.
And when Senator Joe Biden proposed it, it was treated as normal and rational.
In fact, we were among the few to oppose that.
Our reason for opposing it?
If the Iraqi people want to do it, let them do it. But it should not be imposed upon them by a foreign government.
We got a lot of flack for that position.
And yet a few years later, when a section of the Iraqi people want to explore it, the press treats it as how-dare-they! and acts as if the notion is something that has never been raised before and certainly not by any right-thinking-person.
It was a non-binding referendum.
The press and various foreign leaders treated it as though the KRG had announced they were building nukes.
This allowed Iraq's latest prime minister and thug Hayder al-Abadi to start persecuting the Kurds.
The latest move?
RUDAW reports:
Kurdish members of the Iraqi parliament left Thursday’s session, causing the legislature to postpone a vote on punishing Kurdish MPs for participating in the independence referendum.
Parliament has sought to have Kurdish MPs stripped of their parliamentary immunity and put on trial in retaliation for voting for Kurdistan independence in the September 25 referendum.
The Iraqi parliament was to discuss the matter on Thursday, but most of the Kurdish MP’s left the legislature when the subject came up. Their absence meant quorum for the session was not met and the meeting had to be delayed.
An MP with the State of Law Coalition condemned the Kurdish lawmakers’ action.
“The parliament brought yet another failure on the people of Iraq. It was meant to punish wrongdoers. Voting on a parliamentary committee formed to punish separatist MPs was on the parliament agenda. These MPs were part of a big plot to undermine the security and stability of Iraq,” said Kazim Sayadi.
Again, this is awful for the Kurds at present but it will ensure that they are resolved in leaving Baghdad behind. Hayder doesn't know how to foster unity.
The following community sites -- plus THE GUARDIAN, DISSIDENT VOICE, LATINO USA, PACIFICA EVENING NEWS and GORILLA RADIO -- updated:
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