MBW - 2/22/2022
Hey folks! Happy Tuesday to you all. Here we go:
The biggest story of today is about the Russian incursion into eastern Ukraine on a “peace-keeping” mission after recognizing the two rebel held regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent. The coming days will show whether a war in Europe will take place or not, but my prediction is the West slams Russia with sanctions just like in the case of Crimea and after a while it’s again business as usual.
Here’s a map of the language groups in Ukraine:
But it has to be noted that many Russian-speakers identify as Ukrainians and oppose any kind of territorial change to the country.
In 1994 Ukraine destroyed its nuclear arsenal voluntarily after joining the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). There are a lot of voices today who stress that this one unilateral act is the source of what the country is going through these days because a nuclear arsenal is the ultimate deterrent for any potential invasion.
There has been quite a steady trend of mainstream media outlets embracing wokeism. New York Times has sparked criticism in the past for its 1619 Project, but recently it looks like the paper crossed a line when it started to go after JK Rowling, the author of Harry Potter. JK Rowling has stirred some controversy in the past with her tweets on trans people. She has been labelled a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) by the community and has been shunned from several social events since.
So now, the NYT decides to publish the following ad:
Here’s a more extended coverage by the Daily Mail.
You have probably seen videos of the zombie-ant fungus that takes over an ant’s body and has it move around the colony to spread its spores. If you haven’t, here’s a reminder:
The new insight from this Atlantic article is that the fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (zombie fungus) doesn't control ants by infecting their brain. Instead it destroys the motor neurons and connects directly to the muscles to control them. The brain is made into a prisoner in its own body. A sci-fi movie couldn’t have done it creepier. Here’s the actual paper discussing the discovery.
A woman was cured of HIV and this is great news not only for people affected by the disease but also for the potential it opens for other similar applications in the future. Long story short, an HIV-positive woman was suffering from leukemia. In order to treat her leukemia she had a bone marrow transplant. Apparently there is a small segment of northern European population that is resistant to HIV due to a very rare genetic mutation. The donor of the bone marrow belonged to this population group. As a result of the transplant, the patient was cured both for leukemia and HIV.
And lastly, the usual collection of pics and memes from around the web:
Largest consumers of tea in the world.
Shipping lanes and airways all in one picture.
That was all for today. Enjoy your day.