herid @herid@qoto.org

Iceland is a pretty amazing place.

Talk about a hard turn: Egypt made detailed plans to export rockets at Moscow’s request, but after a diplomatic offensive from Washington, later approved artillery production for Kyiv https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/17/russia-ukraine-egypt-weapons-leaked-documents/

This might be the beginning of a new era where Malaria is concerned. Will this ancient enemy be tamed at last?
https://allafrica.com/stories/202304170328.html

News orgs like the CBC should remove the Twitter share button from their sites and articles. #CBC #Canada #birdsite #News #Media

Democrats should make the GOP own this every second between now and the election.

I'm fascinated by Eskimo-Aleut languages in Alaska, Canada and Greenland. There are many of these languages; they ring much of the Arctic Ocean. I just learned that they use a base 20 system for numbers, with a 'sub-base' of 5. That is, quantities are counted in 'scores' (twenties) with intermediate numerals for 5, 10, and 15. This makes a lot of sense if you look at your fingers and toes.

But the Inuit didn't have a written form of their number system until the early 1990s, when nine high school students in a small northern Alaskan school invented one!

They used 5 principles:

• Visual simplicity: The symbols should be easy to remember.
• Iconicity: There should be a clear relationship between the symbols and their meanings.
• Efficiency: It should be easy to write the symbols without lifting the pencil from the paper.
• Distinctiveness: There should be no confusion between this system and Arabic numerals.
• Aesthetics: They should be pleasing to look at.

They decided that the Kaktovik digit 0 should look like crossed arms, meaning that nothing was being counted.

This was the start of quite a tale!

(1/n)

Poilievre and Gov't funding? $26.4 million tax subsidized donations to CPC in 2021. For donations up to $1275, $650 can be claimed as tax credit. Averaging, that's 20,705 donations or $13.4 million in federal support the CPC recieved. Is the CPC going to pay it back, or will Pierre eat his words? https://globalnews.ca/news/8966765/conservatives-liberals-2021-donations/ #cdnpoli

⚡️Ombudsman says his office has received 'dozens' of videos with alleged executions of Ukrainian POWs.

"This is cutting off the head, the genitals, the ears, nose, limbs, phalanges on the hands," Dmytro Lubinets told Ukrainska Pravda news outlet. https://t.co/OsW4yNTSOT

Life-Giving but Lethal: The Culprit Behind Dead Zones and the Threat to Our Water Supply
==

The unchecked flow of phosphorus into our waterways — often from farm runoff — contributes to “dead zones” and toxic algae blooms.

At the same time, as an essential ingredient in fertilizer, phosphorus turns vast swaths of land green, nourishing crops and animals. It makes life possible for billions of people.

#Water #GreatLakes #Farming #Agriculture #Algae #Fertilizer

https://www.propublica.org/article/phosphorus-the-culprit-behind-dead-zones-threat-to-water-supply?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

⚠️🇺🇦Ukrainian soldier in “fight-or-die” situation and should not surrender as the Ombudsman's Office has dozens of videos showing execution of Ukrainian POWs by Russians (more) https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3696971-the-ombudsmans-office-has-dozens-of-videos-showing-execution-of-ukrainian-soldiers-by-russians.html #Ukraine #News #Invasion #Russia #9yearsOfWarInUkraine #WantedDeadOrAlive

⚠️🇺🇦Ombudsman: 86% of Ukrainian soldiers suffer physical torture in Russian captivity giving another reason to never surrender and fight-or-die (more) https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3696998-ombudsman-86-of-ukrainian-soldiers-suffer-physical-torture-in-russian-captivity.html #Ukraine #News #Invasion #Russia #9yearsOfWarInUkraine #WantedDeadOrAlive

Forgot what it’s like to live somewhere where you can watch seasons fight with each other.

The judge who sentenced @vkaramurza to 25 years in prison today, Sergey Podoprigorov, is the same one who jailed Sergey Magnitsky in November 2008. Podoprigorov is one of the first corrupt Russian officials added to the Magnitsky List, which Kara-Murza lobbied into existence.