jgo
jgo's JournalI got the new Covid shot this morning ...
Had to travel quite a ways out-of-state, since my state is one of the 16 where the shot is not available (for now/ever?), and had to pay out-of-pocket, since it wasn't covered by Medicare Part B or Part D (for now/ever?), but got it done. I'm hoping to get reimbursed by Medicare if/when Medicare covers the cost, but not counting on it.
Shipping is one of the world's dirtiest industries - could this invention finally clean up cargo fleets?
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Freighters emit more greenhouse gases than jets, but a tech startup believes a simple and effective technique can help the industry change course
An industrial park alongside the River Lea in the London suburb of Chingford might not be the most obvious place for a quiet revolution to be taking place. But there, a team of entrepreneurs is tinkering with a modest looking steel container that could hold a solution to one of the world’s dirtiest industries.
Inside it are thousands of cherry-sized pellets made from quicklime. At one end, a diesel generator pipes fumes through the lime, which soaks up the carbon, triggering a chemical reaction that transforms it into limestone.
With this invention, Seabound, the company behind it, hopes to capture large amounts of carbon directly from the decks of cargo ships, and help clean up this strikingly polluting industry. More than 50,000 cargo ships are at sea at any moment, producing 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions – more than aviation.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/26/global-shipping-emissions-invention-clean-up-cargo-fleets-net-zero
New quantum theory of gravity developed
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Researchers at Aalto University have developed a new quantum theory of gravity which describes gravity in a way that's compatible with the standard model of particle physics, opening the door to an improved understanding of how the universe began.
"If this turns out to lead to a complete quantum field theory of gravity, then eventually it will give answers to the very difficult problems of understanding singularities in black holes and the Big Bang," he says.
Although the theory is promising, the duo point out that they have not yet completed its proof. The theory uses a technical procedure known as renormalization, a mathematical way of dealing with infinities that show up in the calculations.
So far Partanen and Tulkki have shown that this works up to a certain point—for so-called 'first order' terms—but they need to make sure the infinities can be eliminated throughout the entire calculation.
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https://phys.org/news/2025-05-quantum-theory-gravity-sought-crucial.html
Witchcraft accusations putting hundreds at risk of "physical attacks or even death" in Ghana, Amnesty says
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Hundreds of people suspected of witchcraft in Ghana, especially older women, face rampant human rights abuses including murder, Amnesty International said Monday, asking the government to criminalize accusations and ritual attacks.
In 2023, the Ghanaian parliament passed a bill making it a criminal offense to declare, accuse, name, or label someone as a witch but the bill is yet to be signed into law.
"The accusations, which can lead to threats, physical attacks or even death, usually start within the family or among community members following a tragic event such as an illness or a death," Amnesty said.
"Older women living in poverty, with health conditions or disabilities are at greater risk, as well as women who do not conform to stereotypical gender roles. In some cases, accusers even base their claims on having had a bad dream about a person," it added.
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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/witchcraft-accusations-hundreds-risks-ghana-amnesty-international/
We should work with trade partners that don't 'blackmail' us: EU agriculture commissioner
Source: France 24
Asked whether agriculture will be dragged into the current trade dispute between the Trump administration and the EU, Hansen says: "This cannot be excluded, so we have to prepare for it. We have the experience from the first Trump administration when there were tariffs on our agricultural products. And in our Vision (for Agriculture and Food) we clearly refer to a unity safety net, meaning that we can strike back and react to coercion and blackmail, as it happened before. We are strong when we are united, but when this unity is challenged we are very weak, and this something we definitely need to address."
The commissioner elaborates: "We need to get into new markets. In June we have a high-level mission to Japan with our agriculture and food-producing sector in order to get them into those markets, so that they have alternatives and are not being blackmailed, as happened before."
On that issue of alternative markets to the US, Hansen underlines the importance of the Mercosur agreement with Latin American countries. Negotiations on the deal have concluded, but it has not yet been finally adopted. "We have a very positive export balance in trade," Hansen explains. "Our milk and cheese sectors would benefit from such an agreement. Wines and spirits are currently under pressure in the European Union, and they would benefit from it. The whole [agricultural] sector would benefit from it. What is important is that we give fair conditions to our farmers."
Read more: https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/talking-europe/20250228-we-should-work-with-trade-partners-that-don-t-blackmail-us-eu-agriculture-commissioner
The search for the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 has resumed once again
Source: NPR
Recently, Malaysia's Transport Minister, Anthony Loke, announced that a new search for the missing flight has resumed. The exact details of the contract with the maritime exploration firm conducting the search are still being finalized.
On Tuesday, Loke announced to reporters that this search was officially back on. Officials hope that technological advancements will improve the chances of locating the aircraft this time around.
According to Kim's reporting, the search will operate on a "no find, no fee" principle, meaning Ocean Infinity will only be compensated if the aircraft's wreckage is discovered. The reward stands at $70 million, as reported by the Associated Press.
This new search will concentrate on a different location covering 15,000 square kilometers (or 5,800 square miles), in the southern Indian Ocean, based on the "latest information and data analyses conducted by experts and researchers," Loke said. He did not provide details on how long the search is expected to last, as those negotiations are still underway.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/02/26/g-s1-50862/the-search-for-the-missing-malaysian-airlines-flight-has-resumed-once-again
Judge sides with Illinois attorney general in lawsuit over Chicago Trump Tower's water use
Source: The Hill
A Chicago court ruled this week that the Windy City’s Trump Tower violated the Illinois environmental protection law with its use of water from the Chicago River.
In his ruling, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson sided with a 2018 lawsuit from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul (D) and a coalition of environmental groups. Raoul’s office filed the suit based on a referral from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), which accused the building of neglecting to obtain necessary Clean Water Act permits for its cooling water intake system.
In the summary judgment, Wilson ruled the Trump Organization “liable on all counts.” Raoul’s office said in a statement that it intended to seek an injunction and civil penalties at a future hearing, which has not yet been scheduled.
“The recovery of the Chicago River into the healthy heart of our downtown is a major accomplishment for the people of Chicago and the Clean Water Act,” said Sierra Club Illinois Director Jack Darin. “Trump Tower openly violated the Clean Water Act for years, putting the river and the wildlife that call it home at risk. We’re proud to hold these scofflaws accountable, and applaud our pro bono attorneys and the Attorney General for stepping up to protect our river and its recovery.”
Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4876809-trump-tower-chicago-lawsuit-environmental-violation/
US Marshals rescue 200 missing children over six weeks
Source: ABC News
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July 1, 2024, 4:40 PM
The U.S. Marshals Service rescued and located 200 missing or endangered children over a six-week period, the agency announced on Monday.
"Operation We Will Find You 2" focused on several hot spot cities such as Phoenix, Arizona, and Miami, Florida, where there were kids missing, it said.
"Whenever a child is missing, whether we cannot explain how they went missing, whether we think it was a family abduction, or whether it's a runaway, they are at risk of being in danger and at risk of being trafficked, at risk of being hurt, we need to take it very, very seriously," U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis told reporters on Monday.
The Marshals worked with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to help find and locate the children it was tasked with finding.
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Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-marshals-rescue-200-missing-children-weeks/story?id=111591679
Activists pour red paint down Rome's Spanish Steps in outrage over femicides in Italy
(edited from article)
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By The Associated Press
June 26, 2024, 10:08 AM
ROME -- Police detained several activists who poured red paint down Rome's famed Spanish Steps on Wednesday to raise awareness about femicides in Italy.
The protesters, from an organization called “Bruciamo Tutto,'' or ”Let's Burn Everything,'' spilled paint down the 135-step monument, then dipped their hands in the paint, meant to represent blood, to leave handprints on the monument as tourists looked on.
Police carried protesters, who went limp, away from the scene.
One activist shouted that 40 women had been killed in Italy since the Nov. 11, 2023 killing of 23-year-old Giulia Cecchettin that galvanized outrage against violence targeting women. Venice prosecutors recently closed their investigation of her ex-boyfriend for the slaying. Charges are pending.
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https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/activists-pour-red-paint-romes-famed-spanish-steps-111439658
On This Day: Edict of Milan, granting religious liberty, published in Eastern Roman Empire - June 13, 313
(edited from Wikipedia)
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June 13, 313 – The decisions of the Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and co-emperor Valerius Licinius, granting religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire, are published in Nicomedia.
Edict of Milan
The Edict of Milan was the February 313 AD agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Western Roman Emperor Constantine I and Emperor Licinius, who controlled the Balkans, met in Mediolanum (modern-day Milan) and, among other things, agreed to change policies towards Christians following the edict of toleration issued by Emperor Galerius two years earlier in Serdica. The Edict of Milan gave Christianity legal status and a reprieve from persecution but did not make it the state church of the Roman Empire, which occurred in AD 380 with the Edict of Thessalonica.
The document is found in Lactantius's De mortibus persecutorum and in Eusebius of Caesarea's History of the Church with marked divergences between the two.
The version found in Lactantius is not in the form of an edict. It is a letter from Licinius to the governors of the provinces in the Eastern Empire that he had just conquered by defeating Maximinus later that same year and issued in Nicomedia.
Background
The Edict of Milan was in effect directed against Maximinus Daza, the Caesar in the East who styled himself as Augustus. Having received Emperor Galerius's instruction to repeal the persecution in 311, Maximinus had instructed his subordinates to desist, but he had not released Christians from prisons or virtual death sentences in the mines, as Constantine and Licinius had both done in the West.
After Galerius's death, Maximinus was no longer constrained and enthusiastically took up renewed persecutions in the eastern territories under his control, encouraging petitions against Christians. One of those petitions, addressed not only to Maximinus but also to Constantine and Licinius, is preserved in a stone inscription at Arycanda in Lycia, and is a "request that the Christians, who have long been disloyal and still persist in the same mischievous intent, should at last be put down and not be suffered by any absurd novelty to offend against the honour due to the gods."
Edict goes further than Christians
The edict is popularly thought to concern only Christianity and even to make it the official religion of the Empire (which did not occur until the Edict of Thessalonica in 380). Indeed, the edict expressly grants religious liberty to Christians, who had been the object of special persecution, but also goes even further and grants liberty to all other religions:
When you see that this has been granted to [Christians] by us, your Worship will know that we have also conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of their worship for the sake of the peace of our times, that each one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases; this regulation is made that we may not seem to detract from any dignity of any religion.
— "Edict of Milan", Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors (De Mortibus Persecutorum), ch. 48. opera, ed. 0. F. Fritzsche, II, p 288 sq. (Bibl Patr. Ecc. Lat. XI).
Since Licinius composed the edict with the intent of publishing it in the east upon his hoped-for victory over Maximinus, it expresses the religious policy accepted by Licinius, a pagan, rather than that of Constantine, who was already a Christian. Constantine's own policy went beyond merely tolerating Christianity. He tolerated paganism and other religions but actively promoted Christianity.
Religious statement
Although the Edict of Milan is commonly presented as Constantine's first great act as a Christian emperor, it is disputed whether the Edict of Milan was an act of genuine faith. The document could be seen as Constantine's first step in creating an alliance with the Christian God, whom he considered the strongest deity. At that time, he was concerned about social stability and the protection of the empire from the wrath of the Christian God: in this view, the edict could be a pragmatic political decision rather than a religious shift. However, the majority of historians believe that Constantine's adoption of Christianity was genuine, and that the Edict of Milan was merely the first official act of Constantine as a dedicated Christian. This view is supported by Constantine's ongoing favors on behalf of Christianity during the rest of his reign.
Nicomedia
Nicomedia was an ancient Greek city located in what is now Turkey. In 286, Nicomedia became the eastern and most senior capital city of the Roman Empire (chosen by the emperor Diocletian who ruled in the east), a status which the city maintained during the Tetrarchy system (293–324).
The Tetrarchy ended with the Battle of Chrysopolis (Üsküdar) in 324, when Constantine defeated Licinius and became the sole emperor. In 330 Constantine chose for himself the nearby Byzantium (which was renamed Constantinople, modern Istanbul) as the new capital of the Roman Empire.
The city was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the victory of Sultan Orhan Gazi against the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines managed to retake it in the aftermath of the Battle of Ankara, but it fell definitively to the Ottomans in 1419.
Persecutions of 303
Nicomedia was at the center of the Diocletianic Persecution of Christians which occurred under Diocletian and his Caesar Galerius. On 23 February 303 AD, the pagan festival of the Terminalia, Diocletian ordered that the newly built church at Nicomedia be razed, its scriptures burnt, and its precious stones seized. The next day he issued his "First Edict Against the Christians," which ordered similar measures to be taken at churches across the Empire.
Remains
The ruins of Nicomedia are buried beneath the densely populated modern city of İzmit, which has largely obstructed comprehensive excavation. Before the urbanization of the 20th century occurred, select ruins of the Roman-era city could be seen, most prominently sections of the Roman defensive walls which surrounded the city and multiple aqueducts which once supplied Nicomedia's water. Other monuments include the foundations of a 2nd-century AD marble nymphaeum on İstanbul street, a large cistern in the city's Jewish cemetery, and parts of the harbor wall.
The 1999 İzmit earthquake, which seriously damaged most of the city, also led to major discoveries of ancient Nicomedia during the subsequent debris clearing. A wealth of ancient statuary was uncovered, including statues of Hercules, Athena, Diocletian and Constantine.
In the years after the earthquake, the Izmit Provincial Cultural Directorate appropriated small areas for excavation, including the site identified as Diocletian's Palace and a nearby Roman theatre. In April 2016 a more extensive excavation of the palace was begun under the supervision of the Kocaeli Museum, which estimated that the site covers 60,000 square meters (196,850 square feet).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Milan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicomedia
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On This Day: Peasant's assemble for revolt, setting stage in history for reforms for the poor - June 12, 1381
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016379365
On This Day: Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island ends after 19 months - June 11, 1971
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016379265
On This Day: Elusive Equality in the Equal Pay Act, now 77 cents or less on a dollar - June 10, 1963
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016379198
On This Day: Civilians rounded up, 99 hanged in public, following French Resistance operations - June 9, 1944
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016379163
On This Day: Volcanic system spews lava, gases, for 8 months causing death, famine, climate impact - June 8, 1783
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016379099
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