At 10:13 am today (Thursday), Ukraine began shelling central Donetsk. There were five powerful blasts in the space of ten minutes.
The last explosion blew out my hotel’s ground-floor glass, including a sitting room – where journalists often congregate before and after going out to do field reporting – and the lobby.
One such hard-to-watch Telegram post (warning: graphic footage) features a man in shock at the gruesome sight of the bodies of his murdered wife and grandchild on a street two blocks from the hotel.
About one minute earlier, I had passed through the latter. A cameraman’s assistant who was there at the time of that fifth explosion suffered a concussion from the force of the blast.
[This is the text of a talk I gave at the “Three Days Against Techno-Sciences” gathering near Alessandria, Italy, on Saturday July 30, 2022. Many thanks to the organisers and fellow participants for the warm welcome and the stimulating exchanges. A post-recorded audio version can be found here.]
The so-called Great Reset is nothing but the extension and violent acceleration of a longstanding process.
Over the decades, I have often despaired at the general apathy of my fellow citizens in the face of the dark forces which I could clearly see – and feel – gathering.
Wondering how we could ever hope to see a mass uprising against the dominant system, I sometimes comforted myself with the thought that one day “they” would become so arrogant, or impatient, that they would push things too far, beyond the limits of what humankind is collectively prepared to tolerate.
What we have been experiencing for the last two years could well be that moment, so that the Great Reset would prove to be not just the extension of the existing process, but its culmination, the hubris which announces its final demise, its nemesis.
So what is this “process” I am talking about? There are lots of different ways of describing it. It is the increase of centralising power, the tightening of control, the growth of “the economy”, the ever-closer convergence of power and money.
Today I want to focus on one concept which I think is key to understanding the essence of this process, namely “development”.
The term, in English, is a very broad and ambiguous one, which allows it to be seriously misused and manipulated.
Sometimes it is used in the intransitive context to refer to something that happens by itself, from the inside, like the development of a child’s abilities or character as it grows into an adult, the development of somebody’s understanding or the development of a particular culture.
In this sense, it carries the implications of being natural and positive – resonances which serve to disguise the quite different qualities of other applications of the same word.
Development used in a transitive sense refers to actions taken from the outside to develop a certain thing.
It could refer to what I am doing right now – the development of an idea or an argument. This kind of development is the act of organising various elements (information, personal experience, opinions) in order to create something which is (hopefully!) coherent and useful.
Again, this sense carries positive implications which can be used to camouflage the reality behind other processes with the same semantic label.
In terms of the historical process I referred to, development could broadly be applied to the industrialisation which began in the country of my birth in the 18th century and subsequently spread across what we term the West.
Orangutan with the golden hair: A short story by @setiabudhi18 about #palmoil plantations, how pesticides seep into the groundwater killing people and animals @global_witness @GreenpeaceUK @EIA_news #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
He’s a golden haired orangutan, at least that’s what the villagers called him….
He is a male of the species of Pongo pygmaeus. This orangutan appears all the time on the slopes of the Müller Mountains, located10,000 meters from the Mantikip Dayak village in the lush green heart of Borneo.
News spreads rapidly throughout the village of the presence of this magnificent creature with the golden hair.
As a result, leaves and branches of the tree glisten with golden flashes of light. Not only that, plants such as Meranti trees, Balau Wood, Keruing and weeds catch the hairs and become woven in golden threads.
From his explorations of the jungle, the orangutan’s golden hair sticks…
Turkey has requested Finland help it prosecute a resident living in Finland, who allegedly insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on social media.
The Turkish government claims that the man posted derogatory images and comments on Facebook in 2016.
The recent request by the Turkish government comes after both Finland and Sweden signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Turkey for them to join NATO.
Under the agreement, Finland and Sweden will be expected to comply with extradition requests of individuals suspected of terrorism.
The man Turkey wants to be extradited has dual citizenship of Turkey and Finland, and has lived in the Nordic country for decades.
Finland has refused all previous requests, arguing that Turkish courts might not respect human rights, and, while the comments could be considered derogatory, his chances of a fair trial in Turkey are minimal.
Turkey has a law making it illegal to insult the president. In 2016, Ankara called for the prosecution of a German comedian after they posted a poem attacking Erdogan. Hundreds of supporters replied by also writing satirical poems.
Following the release of the poem, the Turkish consulate in the Netherlands encouraged people to report insults to Erdogan that they had heard.
Under the controversial law, tens of thousands of people, including children as young as 12, have been prosecuted.
At the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference last year, positive reports were published on a pair of studies where Alzheimer’s patients were exposed to one hour each day of 40Hz light and sound over a period of weeks.
The goal of the light and sound therapy was to boost and reinvigorate a rhythmic brain wave frequency called gamma waves. Gamma frequency is known to slow down in the Alzheimer’s brain.
Amyloid plaque buildup in the brain has long been considered a key factor in the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
Scientists have been working to develop drug therapies to attack and reduce the Amyloid Beta plaque build up. Historically pharmaceutical therapies for Alzheimer’s have been challenged and controversial at best.
Li-HueiTsai (Chinese: 蔡立慧) is a neuroscientist and the director of the Picower Institute
This latest research focused on a drug-free non-invasive approach.
Both research studies were led by scientists at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
These scientists pioneered research and development of 40Hz stimulation in the Alzheimer’s brain.
“One study conducted testing on people with mild Alzheimer’s disease. Individuals were exposed to light and sound therapy for 1 hour daily. After three months, the test group brain scans revealed improved brain wave potency, while signs of Alzheimer’s-related brain degeneration slowed. The test group also performed better on face and name recognition tests. “
“The second study focused on patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease and similarly exposed them to daily, 60-minute, 40Hz light and sound therapy. This team determined that while brain degeneration linked to Alzheimer’s continued to progress within the test group, it did so 65% more slowly compared to similar stage patients with no 40Hz therapy. “
A Syrian-flagged ship named the Laodicea that docked in the Lebanese port of Tripoli was detained last Saturday, preventing desperately needed flour and barley from reaching people in the Middle East.
The move came after Western threats against Beirut and unsubstantiated claims from Kiev that the cargo was stolen from Ukraine.
Beautiful Lebanon is bankrupt, near starving and swamped in refugees. It was destroyed in a corrupt capitalist feeding frenzy, much like what happened in Ukraine. Only it was the billionaire sons of Arab petro-states to the fore, instead of the sons of US politicians.
The ship, which has been on a US blacklist since 2015 for allegedly carrying shipments from sanctioned Crimea, is now under investigation.
On Friday, allegations emerged in Western media, citing the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut, that “stolen” flour and barley had been transferred to the Lebanese port of Tripoli and that Kiev had warned the Lebanese government against buying the grain.
On Wednesday Lebanon’s top prosecutor lifted his seizure order on a ship accused by Ukraine of carrying stolen flour and barley, allowing it to sail after finding “no criminal offence committed”, a senior judicial source told Reuters.
However the ship, the Laodicea, remains unable to sail for the time being due to another seizure order issued by a judge in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, where the ship is dockedthe source said.
Suspicions were raised as to the impartiality of the judges.. NATO/Ukraine want the food blocked while Lebanon/Hezbollah/Syria want it unloaded and sold.
The blocking showed up the cynical and cruel US policy. However within days more ships, already ‘checked’ and laden with grain, may dock in Lebanon on their way from Ukraine under the new export agreement.
The fight against Bristol Airport expansion takes a new turn as campaigners unite to target airport owner the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
A new group, Stop OTPP Funding Airport Expansion (SOFAX), is composed of members of the National Education Union (NEU) climate network, medical activists MedAct Bristol, and airport campaigners BABE and London-based HACAN East.
Together the members of the group have launched a solidarity campaign aimed at pressuring the OTPP, which owns stakes in five European airports, to pull its investments in airport expansion.
Climate campaigner Tanguy Tomes said: ‘We know teachers in Ontario are worried about climate change. Some have even campaigned on this issue before, so SOFAX seeks to build on those efforts. The Pension Plan’s claim to be a responsible investor is completely incompatible with its commitment to expanding airports across Europe.’
A still from the new video by SOFAX: Image: SOFAX.
Bristol teacher and NEU member Loz Hennessy said: ‘Ontario teachers are resisting budget cuts and ever-increasing workloads: many of the same issues we face in the UK today. We stand in solidarity with their struggle and see it as related to the fight against airport expansion. What are we prioritising?’
Free the prisoners: Kill the Bill returns to Bristol's streets this Saturday. https://t.co/GyA9jLn6Ql
— The Bristol Activist (@BristolActivist) August 3, 2022
