Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Science post

I wasn't planning to cover science tonight. Then I saw John Amos' article at BBC:
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: It's an unassuming rock, greenish in colour, and just over 4cm in its longest dimension. And yet this little piece of sandstone holds important clues to all our futures. It was recovered from muds in the deep ocean, far off the coast of modern-day West Antarctica.
: The scientists who found it say it shouldn't really have been there.
: It's what's called a dropstone, a piece of ice-rafted debris.
: It was scraped off the White Continent by a glacier, carried a certain distance in this flowing ice, and then exported and discarded offshore by an iceberg.
: What's remarkable about this particular cobble is that researchers can say where it originated.
: Using the latest "geo-fingerprinting" techniques, they've established with strong confidence that it comes from the Ellsworth Mountains - some 1,300km from where the rock was pulled up from the floor of the Amundsen Sea by a drilling ship.
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: I really thought that was interesting.
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: Let's pair it with Laura Allen (SCIENCE NEWS FOR STUDENTS)::
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: Many green algae are made of single cells. They tend to spend much of their day soaking up sunlight, turning it into energy. These swimming plankton appear plant-like. Unless, that is, one gobbles up a nearby bacterial cell. Now it has become an animal-like predator.
: When ecologist Eunsoo Kim first witnessed this back in 2013, she was shocked. Until then, she and other scientists had thought the sun provided all the energy green algae need. They are green, in fact, because they contain chlorophyll. Just as in plants, these algae use chlorophyll to derive energy from the sun through photosynthesis.
: But seeing some algal cells dine on bacteria upended this worldview. Now, Kim and her team at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City show that the first bacteria-eating algae they found were hardly unique. They have turned up five more oceanic species that do the same thing.
: Kim’s group shared its latest findings March 2 in The ISME Journal. The journal specializes in microbial ecology.
: Some green algae “combine both a plant-like lifestyle, through photosynthesis, and an animal-like lifestyle, through predation,” explains Sophie Charvet. “These special algae can swallow whole bacteria and digest them.” Charvet is a postdoctoral scientist who helped carry out the new experiments.


: We noted SCIENCE NEWS FOR STUDENTS earlier this week. Laura has two kids and is trying to foster an interest in science in both of her children. So she asked to tell April thank you for passing that on.
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"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

 Wednesday, April 28, 2021.  The failure of the Iraqi government continues to garner attention following Saturday's hospital fire in Baghdad, an Australian man is being held in a prison with no reasons for his arrest being provided, and much more.


In a desperate attempt to stop protests following the fire at Ibn al-Khatib Hospital in Baghdad on Saturday, Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi had declared three days of official mourning. It may have caused some to cease protesting but protests have taken place this week and they continue to take place such as in Basra today.  ANADOLU AGENCY reports:


Hundreds of Iraqi workers shut the main headquarters of the Electric Power Production and Transmission Company in the southern city of Basra on Wednesday in protest of delaying their salaries.

Protesters say the company has refused to pay employees with temporary contracts for the past six months.

Demonstrators prevented employees from entering the building and threatened to stage an open-ended sit-in in front of the company if they were not paid, according to eyewitnesses.


The hospital fire has yet again exposed the corruption in Iraq.  At least 82 people died with 110 more left injured is the official count from the Iraqi government.  The official count.  The actual number may be much higher.   Sura Ali (RUDAW) reported earlier this week:

The death toll of a massive fire that ripped through Baghdad’s Ibn al-Khatib Hospital Saturday night has risen to around 130, according to Iraq’s human rights commission.

A report released following a fact-finding mission by the government-funded Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights reports a higher number of casualties than the government’s previous toll, on Sunday, of 82 deaths. It notes that many of the bodies have yet to be identified due to being burned beyond recognition.  


Regardless of the number, this is on the government of Iraq which is supposed to protect the people.  It hasn't protected them.  It hasn't protected protester, it hasn't protected widows, it hasn't protected anyone.  This is part of the corruption -- a direct result of the corruption in Iraq.


This wasn't ''Oh, how sad a fire resulted in all of these deaths."  This is not just a tragedy, it is an injustice because it could have been easily prevented had the government followed written safety measures.  This is a governmental failure and the Iraqi people are expressing outrage.  Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi came to power in May of last year.  Like all of the post-2003-invasion prime ministers, he pledged to end corruption.  He did not.  And now the same interests involved in the corruption that led to the loss of so many lives in Saturday's fire?  Mustafa needs their support if he's to remain prime minister  after this year's election.  Julia Marnen (NEWSWEEK) notes:  

A deadly fire raged Saturday at the Ibn al-Khatib hospital's coronavirus ward in Baghdad, Iraq, where medical officials said the building was a firetrap with safety shortcomings such as blocked emergency exits and broken fire extinguishers, the Associated Press reported.

[. . .]

Doctors have warned of widespread mismanagement in Iraq's hospitals, citing concerns over safety rules, particularly regarding oxygen cylinders, and a lack of smoke detectors, according to AP.

Samer said if a fire safety system was in place, lives would have been saved.


The  Iraqi people have every right to be outraged, the government is not representing the Iraqi people and it is ot protecting their interests.  One of Iraq's militias, The Hezbollah Brigade, is demanding the government resign.  To try to protect his own position, Mustafa has publicly insisted that the blame falls on health officials.  He forgets to note that the blame falls on him.  He's been in office for 11 months (May 7th, 2020 he became prime minister).  He is the head of the government, the buck stops with him.  He can try to push it off on underlings but why were the issues not addressed by the government once Mustafa became prime minister?  He was informed of this problem on two occasions -- one by health administrator in June of last year and again by two doctors in November of last year.  Real concerns were expressed directly to him.  Why didn't he act?


The deaths are an injustice and the blame goes to the government -- the one that Mustafa is the head of.  Shame on him for trying to push the blame off on others.

 

Staying on the subject of government's not serving their own citizens, Robert Pether.  We noted him in yesterday's snapshot..  Steve Jackson (THE AUSTRALIAN) explained, "An Australian father of three has been able to speak to his family for the first since he was seized by Iraqi police and thrown in prison three weeks ago after being tricked into attending a fake business meeting with one of the country’s leading institutions."   Today, Christopher Knaus (GUARDIAN) reports:


Mechanical engineer Robert Pether, 46, was arrested in Baghdad roughly three weeks ago, after travelling to Iraq from Dubai to attempt to restart work on the construction of a new headquarters for the Central Bank of Iraq.

After roughly four years of work, the project became mired in a contractual dispute between Pether’s employer and the bank.

Pether, originally from Sydney, was invited to Iraq for a “meeting” by the bank, which indicated the dispute was over and the work could be resumed.

His wife Desree Pether, speaking from Ireland, said the bank was, in fact, laying a trap.

“He and his colleague had their suits on and got arrested immediately,” she told the Guardian. “There never was any resolution and there was never any meeting scheduled. It was trap.”


Her husband has been thrown into an Iraqi prison.  They have limited any contact she can have wth her husband.  She reaches out to the Australian government -- which hasn't even issued a statement publicly.  Brittany Chain (DAILY MAIL) reports:

Ms Pether has sought answers from the Australian embassy, but claims she has been told she is not authorised to liaise on his behalf. 

'They have no idea how to help him,' she said. 

'They just keep repeating that they can't discuss the case with me without consent from my husband. There is no support for me at all.' 

Daily Mail Australia understands consular staff are not able to communicate with family and friends unless they are a nominated contact. But Ms Pether claims given she is the one who reported his arrest, and that her husband has been so hard to contact, she should be informed of any updates.


She is his spouse, that alone makes her the nominated contact.  This is beyond ridiculous, it is beyond a bad policy or practice.  This is an example of a government failing the people it is supposed to represent. 


Vedank Tweets:


One of my friend’s father is trapped in Iraq for no reason whatsoever. Twitter, do your thing. Help #RobertPether and his family. This needs to be addressed.
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1:31 PM · Apr 22, 2021


Public pleading is what Robert's family and friends have to resort to because the Australian government is not doing anything.  Desree and Robert live in Ireland.  The Irish government has done much more for Robert than his own country has.  THE JOE FINNEGAN SHOW Tweets:


Taoiseach says they will everything they can to help Robert Pether and his family
3:34 AM · Apr 28, 2021





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Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Science Post: Dinosaurs

T-Rex. One of the most popular dinosaurs. Some new developments from SCITECH DAILY:

 
New research addresses longstanding mystery on the anatomy of the Tyrannosaurus rex jaw.
Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs chomped through bone by keeping a joint in their lower jaw steady like an alligator, rather than flexible like a snake, according to a study being presented at the American Association for Anatomy annual meeting during the Experimental Biology (EB) 2021 meeting, held virtually April 27-30.
The research sheds new light on a conundrum that has perplexed paleontologists. Dinosaurs had a joint in the middle of their lower jaws, called the intramandibular joint, which is also present in modern-day reptiles. Previous research has suggested this joint was flexible, like it is in snakes and monitor lizards, helping carnivorous dinosaurs to keep struggling prey in their jaws. However, it has been unclear whether the jaws were flexible at all, or how they could be strong enough to bite through and ingest bone, which Tyrannosaurus did regularly, according to fossil evidence.
“We discovered that these joints likely were not flexible at all, as dinosaurs like T. rex possess specialized bones that cross the joint to stiffen the lower jaw,” said John Fortner, a doctoral student in anatomy at the University of Missouri, first author of the study.

Staying with the topic of dinosaurs, Brett French (BILLINGS GAZETTE reports:

 
The unusual claw of a 3-foot-long dinosaur, which went extinct about 66 million years ago, has been unearthed in Montana — the largest specimen collected from the species so far.
“It’s a cute little dinosaur,” said Denver Fowler, curator of the Badlands Dinosaur Museum in North Dakota’s Dickinson Museum Center.
The fast, long-legged bird — which he named Trierarchuncus prairiensis — had short, strong forelimbs tipped with a large claw next to two smaller claws. One theory is the claws — coupled with the strong, tiny arms — were used to tear open logs to reach grubs to eat.
Earlier speculation was the claws may have been used to tear open termite mounds. The fact that the dinosaur ate insects is manifested by its peg-like teeth, similar to an aardvark’s.
Fowler imagines the dinosaur using its long hind legs to quickly flee an angry group of bees after breaking into a nest to feed.
“Finding one here in Montana was pretty cool,” said Greg Liggett, a paleontologist for the Bureau of Land Management in Billings. “From a BLM perspective, what this shows is that, even after 150 years of studying dinosaurs in the American West, there are still new ones.”

I bet that was a cute little dinosaur. WIKEPDIA notes:

 
The first remains ware discovered in Montana in 1980 and it was informally known as the "Hell Creek alvarezsaur".[5] The then unnamed species was not mentioned again until it was mentioned briefly in the 2018 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology abstract book. The species and genus were scientifically described by Denver Fowler and colleagues in 2020 based on three claw phalanges from MD-I-2, including the holotype MOR 6622, the distal end of a radius and fragmentary metatarsal.
The first part of the generic name, Trierarch, means "triarch" (the title of captain of the trireme in classical Greece); the second, uncus, is translated from Latin as "hook", thus forming Captain Hook, a reference to the villainous hook-handed pirate of Peter Pan. The specific name means "from the prairie" and refers to the plains of eastern Montana where the remains were discovered.

From a tiny dinosaur to a big one, PHYS.ORG reports:

 
Chilean paleontologists announced Monday the discovery of a new species of giant dinosaurs called Arackar licanantay.
The dinosaur belongs to the titanosaur dinosaur family tree but is unique in the world due to features on its dorsal vertebrae.
The Arackar licanantay—a Kunza indigenous language name that means "Atacameño bones"—lived in what is now the Atacama Region, during the end of the Cretaceous period, 80 to 66 million years ago.
The fossil specimen belongs to a large, quadruped, herbivore measuring some 6.3 meters (20'8") in length but scientists determined the remains are that of a juvenile.
Adults are estimated to have grown to reach 8 meters in length (26').
The bones—a femur, humerus, ischium and vertebral elements of the neck and back—were initially discovered in the 1990's by geologist Carlos Arévalo.
Arévalo excavated the specimen with experts from Chile's National Geology and Mining Service, during a dig 75 kilometers (46 miles) south of the city of Copiapó, in the Atacama Region.

Wait, we've got one more dinosaur article to note: Carolyn Gramling (SCIENCE NEWS FOR STUDENTS) reports:

 
Some 66 million years ago, a very different type of rainforest thrived in what is now Colombia. Ferns unfurled. Towering conifers reached for the skies. Flowering shrubs bathed in the sunlight that streamed down to them through large gaps in the canopy between those trees. Then an asteroid crashed into Earth. Overnight, everything changed.
The fireball’s impact set off a massive extinction event. It wiped out more than 75 percent of all life on Earth. It also kicked off a massive transformation of the planet’s tropical rainforests. Gone were the sun-dappled, semi-open woodlands. In their place came forests where large swaths of the ground now were covered by dark, dense, lush and moist trees — ones typical of today’s Amazon. Researchers described their new evidence for this forest-morphing April 2 in Science.
They had analyzed tens of thousands of fossils of pollen, spores and leaves. These came from 39 sites across what is now the South American nation of Colombia. All fossils dated from between 70 million and 56 million years ago.
The team then assessed what plants had left these remains. They gave clues to which had been dominant. They also pointed to what insects had been interacting with them. And the evidence was startling. It showed that once the Earth-shaking space rock struck, forest ecosystems abruptly changed.

We need more science knowledge and science coverage. April agrees and she noted that article in an e-mail. This is science coverage geared towards young adults and a great resource.

 


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

 Tuesday, April 27, 2021.   Fall out from Saturday's injustice continues in Iraq, Moqtada al-Sadr makes an alliance, is the Australian government doing anything at all to assist an Australian citizen imprisoned in Iraq, and much more.


Saturday, a fire broke out at  Ibn al-Khatib Hospital in Baghdad, ignited when an oxygen tank exploded.  As noted in yesterday's snapshot, the death toll of 82 would likely increase.  Sura Ali (RUDAW) reports:

The death toll of a massive fire that ripped through Baghdad’s Ibn al-Khatib Hospital Saturday night has risen to around 130, according to Iraq’s human rights commission.

A report released following a fact-finding mission by the government-funded Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights reports a higher number of casualties than the government’s previous toll, on Sunday, of 82 deaths. It notes that many of the bodies have yet to be identified due to being burned beyond recognition.  

The commission has found that the fire started after an oxygen cylinder exploded in a patient wing crowded with visitors. They say the number of people allowed in the space is evidence of the hospital’s failure to abide by the instructions of the ministry of health.

Fire extinguishing equipment present in the hospital was not used due to people not being aware of where it was stored, it says, also noting that many patients were rescued by companions and family members, rather than civil defense teams.


THE ARAB WEEKLY notes:


Widespread negligence on the part of health officials is to blame for a fire that ripped through a Baghdad hospital, Iraq’s prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, said Sunday.

Following a special cabinet meeting to discuss the blaze, Kadhimi suspended Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi — who is backed by the powerful Shia leader Moqtada Sadr — as part of a probe that also includes the governor of Baghdad.

The fire that killed more than 80 people triggered outrage on social media, with a widespread hashtag demanding the health minister be sacked.

The Hezbollah Brigades, one of Iraq’s most radical pro-Iran factions, on Sunday evening demanded that the government quit.

Kadhimi, in a tweet, urged Iraqis “to be united in solidarity and to refrain from playing politics with this national catastrophe.”


Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ccame to power in May of last year.  Like all of the post-2003-invasion prime ministers, he pledged to end corruption.  He did not.  And now the same interests involved in the corruption that led to the loss of so many lives in Saturday's fire?  Mustafa needs their support if he's to remain prime minister  after this year's election.  


Offering him a possible life raft?  Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.  THE ARAB WEEKLY explains:


Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has pledged to support Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi for a second term, if the latter decides not to run a party of his own in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

An Iraqi political source familiar with the matter revealed to The Arab Weekly the existence of electoral understandings between Kadhimi and Sadr. According to these , the source said, the Sadrist movement will support the current prime minister  to remain at the head of the government in exchange for Kadhimi’s commitment not to form a party or a bloc and not to enter the parliamentary elections that are expected to take place this October.

The source confirmed to The Arab Weekly that these understandings are supported by Shia political forces represented by the former premier Haider al-Abadi and the head of the Wisdom Movement Ammar al-Hakim, as well as by Sunni forces represented by parliamentary speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi and Kurdish groups led by  the former president of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani.



Moqtada is supposedly riding a new cusp.  Supposedly.  I don't believe it and there's nothing to back it up.  He's still out of power and still reviled.  He broke with the protesters in February of 2021 and then engaged in embarrassing behavior including making demands and issuing orders that were not just ignored, but openly mocked.  One example, in April of last year, he demanded that males and females not protest together.  He looked out of touch and that was before the mocking began.  


Older people watched in amazement as he gave up his leadership role to throw a weeks long tantrum in public.  He hasn't recovered from that.  Equally true, the issue of corruption raised by the protesters?  Moqtada's got corruption issues of his own.  His base is in the Sadr City section of Baghdad which is a slum.  Which was a slum in 2003 and continues to be to this day.  He's delivered nothing for his cult.   And that became an issue on Arabic social media late last year.  


If Moqtada is making deals to back Khadimi, that's only one more indication that Moqtada is not riding as high as he and his followers claim.


On the issue of the government, Catherine Pepinster (THE TABLET) reports:


Christians in Iraq will only be able to live safely and securely if religion is separated from the state, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church has warned. According to Cardinal Louis Sako, the Christian community continues to suffer discrimination in a country that does not recognise Christians as citizens with full rights. 

“We still have a problem with corruption and sectarianism”, he said, during a webinar hosted by the charity Fellowship and Aid to the Christians of the East. “We need a secular regime. In many Western communities this protects people. We need to focus on this strongly with political leaders”. 

Cardinal Sako’s comments came in a wide-ranging conversation with Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald, with participants via Zoom from around the world. The discussion came just weeks after Pope Francis’ visit to Iraq, when Cardinal Sako accompanied him. It was a landmark visit, said the cardinal, with many Muslims in Iraq learning about the Pope, the Vatican and the Catholic Church for the first time through media coverage in the run-up to the visit. He said he believed that the impact of the visit was greater on Muslims than Christians. 

“It changed the mentality of people. It touched the heart of all Iraqis, perhaps Muslims more than Christians because it was the first time they could hear and see the Pope. He came for all Iraqis. After years of destruction we heard a message of peace and fraternity”. 


Amnesty International MENA has a thread on the hospital fire:

1. After the horrific #BaghdadHospitalFire at Ibn al-Khatib, we call on the
@iraqigovt
to bring justice to the victims, hold those responsible accountable & take steps to ensure this never happens again. A hospital must be a safe space for people battling for their lives.
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9:38 AM · Apr 26, 2021


2. A thorough investigation is needed for accountability & to prevent negligence resulting in such a catastrophe. Iraq’s neglected healthcare system is grappling with being one of the worst hit by #COVID19 in the region. Comprehensive safety measures need to be put in place now!
9:38 AM · Apr 26, 202


3. Justice for the victims must also include immediate steps to prioritize #Iraq’s fragile health system, further debilitated by lack of adequate procedures to ensure safety of staff and patients. Investigations must lead to urgent change to ensure this never happens again.
9:38 AM · Apr 26, 2021



In other news, MEHR NEWS AGENCY notes yet another attack on a US convoy in Iraq:


Iraqi sources reported on Tues. that another US military logistics convoy was targeted in Al-Diwaniyah, the capital of Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, and Babil Governorate, to become the third convoy targetted on the same day.

No further data has been released about the damages. 

Earlier on Tues., Iraqi resources reported that two roadside bombs exploded Tuesday near US military convoys in Dhi Qar Governorate, in southern Iraq.


Does the Australian government ever do anything to protect its citizens?  They've done nothing to stop the persecution of Julian Assange.   Now they have a citizen in Iraq who's been tossed into a hole.  Steve Jackson (THE AUSTRALIAN) reports:


An Australian father of three has been able to speak to his family for the first since he was seized by Iraqi police and thrown in prison three weeks ago after being tricked into attending a fake business meeting with one of the country’s leading institutions.

Robert Pether, who grew up on Sydney’s north shore and attended Knox Grammar School, was arrested, along with an Egyptian colleague, when they arrived for an appointment set up by the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad on April 7.

The 46-year-old mechanical engineer had been in the country for about a week to try to resolve a contractual dispute between his Dubai-based building company and the bank over the construction of the financial institution’s landmark new headquarters which has been in the works for about four years.

Mr Pether’s wife, Desree, said he had spent a fortnight in solitary confinement after his arrest before being moved into a cell with his colleague and that she had only been able to talk to him for the first time since he was locked up on Tuesday night.


We'll wind down by noting this from Caitlin Johnstone:


This year has marked the first time ever that trust in news media dropped below fifty percent in the United States, continuing a trend of decline that’s been ongoing for years.

Mass media punditry is divided on where to assign the blame for the plummet in public opinion of their work, with some blaming it on Russia and others blaming it on Donald Trump. Others, like a recent Forbes article titled “Restoring Public Trust In Technology And Media Is Infrastructure Investment” blame it on the internet. Still others, like a Washington Post article earlier this month titled “Bad news for journalists: The public doesn’t share our values” blame it on the people themselves.

The one thing they all seem to agree on is that it’s definitely not because the billionaire-controlled media are propaganda outlets which manipulate us constantly in conjunction with sociopathic government agencies to protect the oligarchic, imperialist status quo upon which the members of the billionaire class have built their respective kingdoms. It cannot possibly be because people sense that they are being lied to and are fed up with it.

And actually it doesn’t ultimately matter what mainstream pundits and reporters believe is the cause of the public’s growing disgust with them, because there’s nothing they can do to fix it anyway. The mass media will never regain the public’s trust.

They’ll never regain the public’s trust for a couple of reasons, the first of which is because they’ll never be able to become trustworthy. At no point will the mass media ever begin wowing the public with its journalistic integrity and causing people to re-evaluate their opinion of mainstream news reporters. At no point will people’s disdain for these outlets ever cease to be reinforced and confirmed by the manipulative and deceitful behaviors which caused that disdain in the first place.



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