It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, July 16, 2020
WAR IS ECO DISASTER
U.N. warns of spill '4 times the size of Exxon Valdez' from disabled Yemeni tanker A Yemeni child waits to get his family's food rations in Sana'a, Yemen, on Thursday. U.N. officials said a possible oil leak from a disabled tanker moored off the country's coast could worsen conditions for Yemen's famine-stricken population. Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA-EFE
July 16 (UPI) -- A top United Nations official has warned that unless a disabled oil tanker moored off the coast of Yemen can be boarded and repaired quickly, a disastrous spill affecting 1.6 million Yemenis could result.
Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock told the U.N. Security Council Wednesday that 1.1 million barrels could spill out of the rusting supertanker FSO Safer -- an amount four times greater than that discharged during the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off the coast of Alaska. "If a spill were to occur in the next two months, experts project that 1.6 million Yemenis would be directly affected," he said. "Essentially every fishing community along Yemen's west coast would see their livelihoods collapse and would suffer substantial economic losses.
"About 90 percent of people in these communities already need humanitarian assistance."
The plea came as the United Nations reported that the Yemeni economy is already "in tatters" and its institutions are facing "near-collapse" after more than five years of conflict. Famine conditions have resulted in 2 million Yemeni children suffering from acute malnutrition, Secretary-General António Guterres said this month.
The Safer, a 44-year-old supertanker owned by the Saudi-backed Yemen government, was seized by Houthi insurgents in 2015 off the coast of rebel-held territory while carrying more than 1 million gallons of light crude oil. It has remained moored at the spot near the port of Hudaydah since then.
The vessel sprung a leak in late May, flooding its engine room with seawater and threatening to spill its cargo. Though the leak was relatively small, divers dispatched by the ship's builder needed five days of round-the-clock underwater efforts to contain it.
Lowcock and U.N. Environment Program chief Inger Andersen each urged the international community to urgently work out a deal with Houthi rebels allowing a full team of U.N. technicians to board the rusting ship and assess risk of a spill.
"Despite the difficult operational context, no effort should be spared to first conduct a technical assessment and initial light repairs," Andersen told the Security Council. "In the longer term, she added, the best option will be to offload the oil from the ship and then tow it to a safe location for inspection and dismantling."
The rebels have stated they want to allow an international team to board the Safer, but have also set preconditions linking access to the ship with other issues related to the conflict, Lowcock said.
TODAY IS THE BIRTH-DAY OF THE ATOMIC AGE
75 years ago, 'Trinity' test ushered in nuclear age, changed the world 1954 THE FIRST NUCLEAR SUB THE USS NAUTILUS YEAR LONG VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA, ENDING WITH A TRIP UNDER THE ARCTIC ICE PACK.
IN 1957 SPUTNIKINTRODUCED THE SPACE AGE. U.S. officials conduct the Trinity nuclear test in central New Mexico on July 16, 1945. This is the only color image in existence that shows the explosion, and was taken by Jack Aeby from a camp about 10 miles away. Photo courtesy Los Alamos National Laboratory
July 16 (UPI) -- The world entered the nuclear age 75 years ago Thursday at a location in the central New Mexico desert where the U.S. government carried out the "Trinity" test, setting off a 105-pound, plutonium-based bomb.
The test was conducted by the U.S. War Department and designed by the newly created Los Alamos National Laboratory as the closing salvo of the "Manhattan Project" -- a directive from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to develop a nuclear weapon.
The explosion early on the morning of July 16, 1945 produced a blast equal to that of about 44 million pounds of TNT and proved, after years of theorizing, that an atomic chain reaction could be weaponized.
Three weeks later, U.S. armed forces dropped two nuclear bombs -- including one identical to the "Gadget" tested in New Mexico -- over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing tens of thousands instantly and tens of thousands more later from the toxic radiation. This 100-foot steel tower held the "Gadget" explosive device for the Trinity test near Las Cruces, N.M., on July 16, 1945. Photo courtesy Los Alamos National Laboratory
One month after the Trinity test, Japan announced its unconditional surrender and helped bring victory to U.S. and Allied forces in the Pacific Theater of World War II. By that point, nearly 112,000 U.S. soldiers had died in the war and more than a quarter-million were injured.
On the test's 75th anniversary, experts say that although time may have softened the rationale behind pursuing nuclear weapons, their importance remains undiminished.
"I'm not sure if as many people care about it now as much as they did during World War II, but one of the many reasons why Trinity remains significant is that it was the birth of an entirely new era in human existence," Alan Carr, the official historian at Los Alamos National Laboratory, told UPI in a phone interview. "It's a really big deal looking at it historically.
Carr noted that Trinity ranks among the most significant events in humankind -- as a means of ending a disastrous worldwide conflagration and as one of the most significant experiments in modern science.
For three years leading up to the bomb test, a team of 6,000 scientists led by Los Alamos lab director J. Robert Oppenheimer had worked feverishly on the Manhattan Project to perfect a workable way to channel a nuclear chain reaction.
The campaign was rooted in the fear that Nazi Germany was likely developing an atomic weapon -- and that, uncontested, Adolf Hitler's regime might ultimately conquer or destroy the world.
The fireball rises and a mushroom cloud expands 8 seconds after the "Gadget" test device was set off near Las Cruces, N.M., on July 16, 1945. This image was recorded from a bunker 10,000 yards from the blast. Photo courtesy Los Alamos National Laboratory RELATED Fermilab breakthrough: Scientists record unprecedented neutrino measurement
One proposed method involved shooting an amount of uranium into more uranium through a tube at high speeds, propelled by explosives.
This "gun-style" uranium fission bomb ultimately became "Little Boy," the weapon dropped on Hiroshima. For this type of bomb, scientists were confident enough that a test was deemed unnecessary.
That was not the case, however, with another, more sophisticated and powerful bomb
The novel design of the second bomb used about 5,000 pounds of high explosives to instantly implode a sphere of plutonium about the size of a softball into something closer to a golf ball -- compression that should set off a substantial chain reaction.
That conclusion, however, was entirely academic. Scientists and engineers needed to test their theory.
Officials set the Trinity test for the predawn hours of July 16 and placed "ground zero" near the northern edge of a desolate bombing range about 115 miles north of Las Cruces, N.M., which just days earlier had been established as the White Sands Proving Ground.
At the test site, about 35 miles west of Socorro, the "Gadget" device was placed atop a 100-foot steel tower and scientists pressed the button. At that moment, the United States and the world began the nuclear age. The steel tower that held the weapon was instantly incinerated in the 22-kiloton blast. The blast from the Trinity test explosion is seen about 0.016 of a second after detonation, near Las Cruces, N.M., on July 16, 1945. The hemisphere's highest point in this image is about 200 meters high. File Photo by Los Alamos National Laboratory/UPI
Following the successful test, military officials produced an identical device code-named "Fat Man" and dropped it on Nagasaki on Aug. 9. Officials estimated that as many as 80,000 people died there.
One of the foremost experts on the Trinity test says the passage of 75 years has changed how the historical event is perceived.
Jim Eckles, author of The History Of An Atomic Bomb National Historic Landmark and a former public affairs officer at White Sands Missile Base, has led tours of the Trinity site for decades. In 1975, it was designated a National Historic Landmark.
"Memories of the actual event are diminishing," Eckles told UPI. "We're losing the details, and the people who actually did it are mostly dead now, so we don't have any firsthand witnesses remaining.
"All we have left is what is recorded in books and photos."
However, concern for the nuclear era that Trinity started, he added, is not what it used to be -- and probably not what it should be.
"With that, I think, we're losing the 'edge' to it," Eckles said. "When I see the visitors to the Trinity site today -- and it's amazing they keep coming by the thousands -- they don't seem to have that same kind of worry that these nuclear weapons are still out there."
In an era when concern for nuclear war has largely faded into the background, Thursday's historic anniversary can be a reminder of how powerful nuclear weapons are.
"Trinity's legacy is complex and multifaceted, which is how a lot of history is," Carr said.
For scientists at Los Alamos, the true significance is clear after 75 years.
"That test was arguably the greatest single scientific experiment ever conducted," Carr said.
"When you look at how it changed the world in so many fundamental ways, it greatly increased our understanding of how the universe works. upi.com/7022173
WHO-led vaccine initiatives garner support from 75 countries, but not the U.S. A WHO-led vaccine initiative has received financial commitments from 75 countries, officials said. Photo by marcolohpsoares/Pixabay
July 15 (UPI) -- Up to 75 countries have committed to helping poorer counterparts vaccinate their populations against COVID-19, World Health Organization officials announced Wednesday.
Taken together, the multi-national partnership, which does not include the United States, will increase funding to COVAX, the new coronavirus vaccine development platform overseen by the WHO and other organizations, the WHO officials said.
Should an effective vaccine be developed within the program, it will be available to the 165 countries that have agreed to participate, meaning more than 60 percent of the world's population could be inoculated against SARS-CoV-2, the officials said.
"COVAX is the only truly global solution to the COVID-19 pandemic," Dr. Seth Berkley, the GAVI chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Participating nations will "avoid being pushed to the back of the queue as we saw during the H1N1 pandemic a decade ago," Berkley said.
Though an effective vaccine for H1N1 was developed, it was not available in time for the winter flu season in the Southern Hemisphere, and less than 900 billion doses were manufactured, according to WHO reports.
In addition, even though the United States initially pledged to donate 10 percent of its vaccine doses in September of that year, it later indicated it would not do so until all at-risk Americans had access, as production problems created supply shortages.
"Even for those countries that are able to secure their own agreements with vaccine manufacturers, this mechanism represents ... a means of reducing the risks associated with individual candidates failing to show efficacy," Berkley said.
Countries that have expressed interest in participating in the partnership include Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, WHO officials said.
With the funding commitment, the COVAX initiative has raised $600 million toward its $2 billion goal, according to WHO.
COVAX was created by the WHO, the global vaccine alliance GAVI and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI, to "accelerate the development, production and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines," the WHO said.
Countries involved "share the risks associated with vaccine development" and invest in manufacturing upfront so shots can be deployed at scale as soon as they are proven effective, WHO officials said.
They added that the group should be able to to pool "procurement and purchasing power" to deliver 2 billion doses globally and approach the goal of ending the COVID-19 pandemic by 2021.
"Through COVAX, our aspiration is to be able to vaccinate the most vulnerable 20 percent of the population of every country that participates, regardless of income level, by the end of 2021," Dr. Richard Hatchett, the CEPI chief executive officer, said in a statement.
"Ensuring fair access is not only a matter of equity. It is the fastest way to end this pandemic," he said.
All vaccines produced through COVAX will have to receive regulatory approval or WHO prequalification before to distribution. They will be delivered equally to all participating countries, proportional to individual populations, with healthcare workers receiving priority initially, WHO officials said.
Once 20 percent of the population of all participating countries has been vaccinated against the new coronavirus, additional doses will be made available based on a country's needs, vulnerability and the COVID-19 threat, the officials said.
COVAX also will maintain a buffer of doses for emergency and humanitarian use, they said.
To date, significant progress has already been made through the COVAX initiative, with seven of the nine candidate vaccines already in clinical trials, according to WHO.
The initiative also has signed a memorandum of understanding with drugmaker AstraZeneca to supply 300 million doses of any COVID-19 vaccines deemed safe and effective, WHO officials said.
"A lot of vaccine candidates are in development," William Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said during a conference call with reporters Wednesday.
Hanage was speaking generally and not specifically about the COVAX initiative.
"While we don't know if any [of the vaccine candidates] will work out well, we're seeing positive data for some of them," he said. (0) Leave a comment upi.com/7022078
Black Lives Matter sculpture of Jen Reid that replaced toppled Edward Colston statue in Bristol is removed
The Evening Standard The statue was removed from the plinth and loaded into a recycling and skip hire lorry on Thursday morning ( PA )
Pictures from the scene appeared to show workers at the site in Bristol at around 5.20am on Thursday.
Bristol City Council said it was removed at their request and that it would be held at a museum for the artist to collect.
The statue, by artist Marc Quinn, was put up in the early hours of Wednesday.
Edward Colston statue in Bristol replaced with Black Lives Matter activist Jen Reid
Quinn's life-size black resin and steel piece of Jen Reid was inspired after seeing a photo of her standing on the empty plinth following the toppling of the Colston statue.
Today, Bristol resident Jen Reid and I have unveiled a new temporary, public installation, ‘A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020’, on top of Edward Colston’s empty plinth in Bristol, England. This life-sized sculpture is based on an image I saw on Instagram of local resident Jen Reid standing on the vacant plinth with her fist raised in a Black Power salute, a spontaneous moment following a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020. During the protest, a statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston was toppled from this spot. Cast in black resin, this new sculpture ‘A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020’ takes its place - no formal consent has been sought for the installation. Read the full statement - link in bio. #blacklivesmatter#marcquinnart#5thplinth
British sculpture of slave trader replaced by statue of social activist Activist Jen Reid poses with a raised fist in front of a new statue that appeared in Bristol, Britain, on Wednesday. A sculpture of former British lawmaker and known slave trader Edward Colston previously stood at the location. Photo by Neil Hall/EPA-EFE
July 15 (UPI) -- A statue of a 17th-century lawmaker and slave trader in Britain was secretly replaced Wednesday with one honoring a social activist.
Bristol is located about 100 miles west of downtown London.
The statue of Reid was created by British artist Marco Quinn, who said he was inspired by an image of the activist with a raised fist.
Quinn, who called the image "A Surge of Power," said he hopes his sculpture will be a permanent fixture.
"It is such a powerful image, of a moment I felt had to be materialized forever," he said. "I contacted Jen via social media to discuss the idea of the sculpture and she told me she wanted to collaborate."
It's unclear whether the new statue of Reid will remain in the location since it was placed there without approval from Bristol city councilors.
Colston was a Conservative Party British lawmaker in the 1600s who was known for trading slaves from West Africa. His statue was retrieved from a nearby harbor, but its unknown what will be done with it.
Man on rafting trip rescues coyote pup from drowning
July 14 (UPI) -- A man on a multiday rafting trip in Saskatchewan rescued a drowning coyote pup and brought the animal along for the last 10 days of his trip.
Justin reached out to pluck the coyote out of the water, but fell off his raft. He was able to grab the pup and his raft before it floated away.
The pup did not appear to be breathing when Justin got it out of the water, but he revived it by pushing on its stomach in a modified CPR technique.
The rescue group said the pup accompanied Justin on the next 10 days of his trip.
"The little pup would eat with Justin, cuddle in his jacket, and sleep in his backpack while they rafted down the river," the WRSOS said. Justin eventually got a phone signal and called his wife, who helped him contact various animal rescue organizations. The Swift Current SPCA put Justin in touch with the WRSOS.
The pup, which Justin dubbed YipYip, will be cared for by a WRSOS rehab expert until it is old enough to be released back into the wild, the group said.
Tiger fleeing flooding takes shelter in villager's goat shed
A sub adult tiger has entered inside a goat shed in Kandolimari Village (Agartoli Range) to escape flood. Committee is constituted to monitor the situation on regular basis. Utmost care is being taken to ensure safety of both people and Tiger. @ParimalSuklaba1@GolaghatPolicepic.twitter.com/kBV7uvtK57— Kaziranga National Park & Tiger Reserve (@kaziranga_) July 13, 2020
July 13 (UPI) -- A tiger seeking refuge from flooding wandered into an Indian town and found shelter inside a resident's goat shed.
The Kaziranga National Park in Assam said the tiger was spotted Monday taking shelter from floodwaters in Kandolimari Village, located on the edge of the park.
Park officials said a team was dispatched to the village and found the tiger, a sub-adult male, sheltering inside a goat shed. The officials said the situation was being monitored while experts worked on a plan to return the big cat to the park.
About 118 Bengal tigers are believed to be living inside the boundaries of the park.
Cyclist rides 3,666 miles across Canada in 20 days
Bianca Hayes raised more than $22,000 for ovarian cancer research with a 3,666-mile bicycle ride across Canada. Photo by Free-Photos/Pixabay.com
July 7 (UPI) -- A cyclist who departed from Vancouver, British Columbia, biked across Canada and arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 20 days later.
Bianca Hayes said her 3,666-mile ride across Canada set a new record for female cyclists, although her 20-day ride fell short of her original goal of finishing in under 15 days to beat the male record
"I am the fastest woman to cycle across Canada, so I still have some sort of a record," Hayes told CTV News.
Hayes' ride raised more than $22,000 for ovarian cancer research. She said the cause is personal to her, after her sister, Katrina, died after a battle with the disease in 2018.
"Survival rates haven't changed in 50 years and there haven't been any major breakthroughs," Hayes said.
"It doesn't get as much funding as some other cancers and it was something that really ignited me and made me want to make sure that I put all my efforts ... and every bit of energy into raising more money and awareness for the cause," she said.
Hayes, who estimated she changed 15 to 20 flat bike tires during her journey, said she has not ruled out making a second attempt at a cross-Canada ride.
"We're hoping in a couple years we can attack this again and, now that we know what we're up against, maybe we can anticipate some more things and be a little bit more prepared for those," she said.
"It was obviously a massive physical undertaking, but it was well worth it for what we've been able to do."
Researchers develop glove to translate American Sign Language
June 30 (UPI) -- A team of University of California, Los Angeles, scientists announced they have developed a glove that translates American Sign Language into speech in real time.
The UCLA team, who published their research in the journal Nature Electronics, said the glove contains sensors in the digits that identify each word, phrase or letter in American Sign Language and transmits them wirelessly to a smartphone app that translates them at a rate of one word per second.
The device also includes optional sensors attached to a user's face to register facial expressions used in ASL.
"Our hope is that this opens up an easy way for people who use sign language to communicate directly with non-signers without needing someone else to translate for them," said lead researcher Jun Chen, an assistant professor of bioengineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. "In addition, we hope it can help more people learn sign language themselves."
Chen said the gloves and facial sensors were developed to be more lightweight and comfortable than previous efforts to translate sign language via machinery. She said previous attempts were criticized as too bulky for practical use.
52 bison rounded up after escape from Canadian farm
June 30 (UPI) -- A Canadian family spent two days rounding up a herd of 52 escaped bison with the help of authorities and volunteers.
Authorities warned residents to keep a distance if they spotted the animals, which could be dangerous if they feel threatened.
Les Kroeger, president of the Canadian Bison Association, helped the family and authorities corral the bison.
He said all of the animals were believed to have been contained by Monday evening, and volunteers were working on a plan to load the bison onto trailers and return them to the farm.
One of the bison was reported to have died as a result of the escape.
Police said they are investigating the damage to the fence.
Crater of Diamonds visitor finds 2.23-carat brown diamond in the dirt
A visitor to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas found a 2.23-carat brown diamond, the largest gem found in the park since October 2019. Photo courtesy of Arkansas State Parks June 26 (UPI) -- An Arkansas woman visiting the state's Crater of Diamonds State Park found a 2.23-carat brown diamond -- the largest discovery at the park this year.
Arkansas State Parks said Mena resident Beatrice Watkins, 56, was sifting the soil at the Murfreesboro park with her daughter and granddaughters this month when she came across the gem.
"I thought it was shiny but had no idea it was a diamond!" Watkins said. "My daughter googled similar-looking stones and thought it might have been iron pyrite, so I stuck it in my sack and kept sifting."
The family took their discoveries to the park's Diamond Discovery Center while taking a break about an hour later and Watkins discovered the "iron pyrite" was actually a 2.23-carat brown diamond.
"I was so excited, I just couldn't believe it," Watkins said. "I still can't believe it."
Park officials said Watkins' diamond, dubbed the Lady Beatrice Diamond, is the largest diamond found at the park since the discovery of a 3.29-carat brown diamond in October 2019.
"Ms. Watkins's diamond is about the size of an English pea, with an oblong shape and a metallic luster," Park Interpreter Waymon Cox said. "The surface is smooth and rounded, a characteristic shared by most Crater diamonds. It has a dark brown shade similar to iced tea."
Watkins said she hasn't yet decided what to do with her gem, but she is considering keeping it as inheritance for her children and grandchildren.
