Dr Keith Walker @SteelFolk@qoto.org

The death toll from a russian missile strike on Kharkiv has risen to eight, as rescuers retrieved the body of a child from beneath the rubble of a house, as reported by the Kharkiv Mayor. Additionally, 62 civilians were injured.

📷place_kharkiv

Deadly russian missile strikes on Kharkiv this morning claimed the lives of six civilians and injured 57, including eight children. The blood of innocent Ukrainians will forever stain the hands of all russians.

"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons."
Douglas Adams

American physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff died #OTD in 1967.

His research interests included electrostatic generators and nuclear research. He invented the Van de Graaff generator, an apparatus designed to supply high voltage to accelerate subatomic particles to very high velocities for the bombardment and study of atomic nuclei.

#science #physics
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This is a very well-written piece, but nestled in here is a humbling fact: Israeli military action has killed more hostages than it has saved. Most of the hostages who have been saved were through negotiation, ceasefire, and prisoner transfers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/12/opinion/israel-icj-genocide-south-africa.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NU0.3yfi.VkCcLHsw5kdK&smid=url-share

Excellent explainer by @davidallengreen How the legal system made it so easy for the Post Office to destroy the lives of the sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses - and how the legal system then made it so hard for them to obtain justice https://emptycity.substack.com/p/how-the-legal-system-made-it-so-easy?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=474138&post_id=140614319&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=8zwbz&utm_medium=email

⚠️ Confirmed: Live metrics show that the #Gaza Strip is again in the midst of a near-total internet blackout; telecom services including landline, cellular and wifi are likely to be unavailable to most residents at the present time 📉

French mathematician Pierre de Fermat died #OTD in 1665.

He is recognized for his discovery of an original method of finding the greatest and the smallest ordinates of curved lines, which is analogous to that of differential calculus, then unknown, and his research into number theory. He made notable contributions to analytic geometry, probability, and optics. via @wikipedia

#mathematics
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This, & its second part, are well worth a listen even if you watched the TV show. Talks about one of the most appalling cases, in a crowded field.

Today in Focus | Revisited: the Post Office scandal – part 1 on Podbean https://www.podbean.com/ea/dir-wzs2q-1cca729e

Nikolas Tesla also built a wirelessly controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited. He pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. via @wikipedia

#science #technology

Just as it was foretold in the ancient texts...

#LotR #Tolkein

French printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, & sculptor Gustave Doré was born #OTD in 1832. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravings illustrating classic literature. He created over 10,000 illustrations, the most important of which were copied using an electrotype process using cylinder presses, allowing very large print runs to be published simultaneously in many countries. via @wikipedia

Gustave Doré @ PG
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=gustave+dor%C3%A9&submit_search=Go%21

#books #literature

Refugees left sleeping around train stations to meet Sunak’s backlog pledge

Read the full story here 👇

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/home-office-evictions-refugees-homelessness-rise-backlog/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=mastodon&utm_campaign=asylumhomeless

#UkPolitics #UkPol #unhoused #refugees

There is an interesting article about the Bose–Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases, see below:

Coldest: how a letter to Einstein and advances in laser-cooling technology led physicists to new quantum states of matter

The road to Bose–Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases was paved with ideas that shouldn’t have worked, but did, as Chad Orzel explains. via @PhysicsWorld

https://physicsworld.com/a/coldest-how-a-letter-to-einstein-and-advances-in-laser-cooling-technology-led-physicists-to-new-quantum-states-of-matter/

#physics

A simple fact: this night attack on Kyiv was the largest ever combined attack using cruise missiles and hypersonic ballistic missiles. No one ever repelled an attacked of such scale and such weapon. Ukrainian Air Defense did. No one ever did attack a civilian city with such weapon and scale. Russia did. … In the meantime some European and American politicians are “afraid of escalation”. While Putin and russians with such attacks cynically spit in your face demonstrating that they know about their impunity, whatever they do. … What’s on agenda today? “Deep concerns”? Blah, we heard you… Give more weapon to Ukraine to protect itself and don’t limit how this weapon can be used to push back — that’s the only answer to abominable and cynical war criminals. // #russia #attack #Ukraine #kyiv #WarCrimes #supportUkraine

Caption this!