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Month: December 2020
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Joe Biden did a “victory lap” but had “a lot of trouble speaking” & there was one major thing missing from his speech, says @BillOReilly.
Plus, a forensic audit of Dominion machines out of Michigan alleges that rampant computer errors tainted the results in a big way. pic.twitter.com/mBARXiIOFA
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Police face heat after Sandak death: Pressure mounts to shut settler crime unit Haaretz.com
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NPR News: 12-31-2020 11PM ET
NPR News Now
(RFE/RL) — The United Nations has condemned Iran for executing a man convicted of murder when he was 16 years old, saying the punishment violated international law.
The UN human rights office in Geneva said Mohammad Hassan Rezaiee was executed on December 31.
He was the fourth juvenile offender put to death in Iran this year, the office said.
“The execution of child offenders is categorically prohibited under international law and Iran is under the obligation to abide by this prohibition,” UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, “strongly condemns the killing,” she added.
Shamdasani said the office was “dismayed that the execution had taken place despite” its efforts to engage with Tehran on the case.
“There are deeply troubling allegations that forced confessions extracted through torture were used in the conviction of Mr. Rezaiee,” Shamdasani said, along with “numerous other serious concerns about violations of his fair-trial rights.”
Iran regularly forces confessions from prisoners, often under duress or torture, rights groups say.
Amnesty International said Rezaiee was arrested in 2007 in connection with the fatal stabbing of a man in a brawl and had spent more than 12 years on death row.
Iran is among a handful of countries that execute juvenile offenders.
Amnesty International said it is aware of at least 90 cases of people in Iran currently on death row for crimes that took place when they were under 18. The rights organization said the real number is likely to be far higher.
Rights groups have called on Iranian authorities to urgently amend Article 91 of the 2013 Islamic Penal Code to abolish the death penalty for crimes committed by people under 18 in line with Iran’s international obligations.
Iran is one of the world’s leading executioners. Amnesty International said in April that at least 251 people were executed by Iranian authorities in 2019.
The article UN Condemns Iran’s Execution Of Juvenile Offender, The Fourth This Year appeared first on Eurasia Review.
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By Mary Farrow
While the COVID-19 pandemic has turned life upside down for many people in 2020, it’s not the first time the Church has gone through a major health crisis.
In the middle of the 14th century, the plague – also called “The Black Death” – also also called “The Greatest Catastrophe Ever” – ravaged Europe, killing 50 million people, or about 60% of the population (a vastly higher death rate than coronavirus), within a few years.
Lacking the advances of modern medicine today, and layering dead bodies in pits like “lasagne with layers of pasta and cheese,” the people had no choice but to cling to their faith.
It was at this time that the Fourteen Holy Helpers – Catholics saints, all but one of whom were early martyrs – came to be invoked by Catholics against the plague and other misfortunes.
According to New Liturgical Movement, devotion to these 14 saints started in Germany at the time of the plague, and they were called “Nothelfer,” which in German means “helpers in need.”
As bouts of the plague resurfaced over the decades, devotion to the Holy Helpers spread to other countries, and eventually Nicholas V declared that devotion to the saints came with special indulgences.
According to New Liturgical Movement, this introduction to the feast of the Holy Helpers (celebrated Aug. 8 in some places) can be found in the Cracow Missal of 1483:
“The Mass of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, approved by Pope Nicholas…it is powerful on their behalf, however so much one is in great illness or anguish or sadness, or in whatsoever tribulation a man shall be. It is powerful also on behalf of the imprisoned and detained, on behalf of merchants and pilgrims, for those that have been sentenced to die, for those who are at war, for women who are struggling in childbirth, or with a miscarriage, and for (the forgiveness of) sins, and for the dead.”
The collect for their feast in the Missal of Bamberg reads: “Almighty and merciful God, who didst adorn Thy Saints George, Blase, Erasmus, Pantaleon, Vitus, Christopher, Denis, Cyriacus, Acacius, Eustace, Giles, Margaret, Barbara and Catherine with special privileges above all others, so that all who in their necessities implore their help, according to the grace of Thy promise, may attain the salutary effect of their pleading, grant to us, we beseech Thee, forgiveness of our sins, and with their merits interceding, deliver us from all adversities, and kindly hear our prayers.”
Here’s a bit about each of the Fourteen Holy Helpers:
Saint George: While little is known definitively about his life, St. George was a fourth-century martyr under the persecution of the emperor Diocletian. A soldier in Diocletian’s army, St. George refused to arrest Christians and offer sacrifices to Roman gods. Despite bribes from Diocletian to change his mind, St. George refused the order and was tortured and eventually executed for his offenses. He is invoked against skin diseases and palsy.
St. Blase: Another 4th-century martyr, St. Blase’s death is very similar to that of St. George. A bishop in Armenia during a time of Christian persecution, St. Blase was eventually forced to flee to the forest to avoid death. One day a group of hunters found St. Blase, arrested him and brought him back to the authorities. At some point after his arrest, a mother with a son who had gotten a fishbone perilously stuck in his throat visited St. Blase, and at his blessing, the bone dislodged and the boy was saved. St. Blase was ordered by the governor of Cappadocia to denounce his faith and sacrifice to pagan gods. He refused, and was brutally tortured and eventually beheaded for this offense. He is invoked against diseases of the throat.
St. Erasmus: A 4th-century bishop of Formia, St. Erasmus (also known as St. Elmo) faced persecution under the emperor Diocletian. According to legend, he fled to Mount Lebanon for a time to escape persecution, where he was fed by a raven. After he was discovered, he was arrested and imprisoned, but made multiple miraculous escapes with the help of an angel. At one point he was tortured by having part of his intestines pulled out by hot rods. Some accounts say he was miraculously healed of these wounds and died of natural causes, while others say that this was the cause of his martyrdom. St. Erasmus is invoked by those suffering from stomach pains and disorders, and by women in labor.
St. Pantaleon: Another 4th-century martyr persecuted under Diocletian, St. Pantaleon was the son of a rich pagan, but was instructed in Christianity by his mother and a priest. He worked as a physician to the emperor Maximinianus. According to legend, St. Pantaleon was denounced as a Christian to the emperor by his peers who were jealous of his rich inheritance. When he refused to worship false gods, St. Pantaleon was tortured and his murder was attempted by various methods – burning torches on his flesh, a bath of liquid lead, being thrown into the sea tied to a stone, and so on. Each time, he was rescued from death by Christ, who appeared in the form of a priest. St. Pantaleon was only successfully beheaded after he desired his own martyrdom. He is invoked as a patron saint of physicians and midwives.
St. Vitus: Also a 4th-century martyr persecuted by Diocletian, St. Vitus was the son of a senator in Sicily and became Christian under the influence of his nurse. According to legend, St. Vitus inspired many conversions and performed many miracles, which angered those who hated Christianity. St. Vitus, and his Christian nurse and her husband, were denounced to the emperor, who ordered them to be put to death when they refused to renounce their faith. Like St. Pantaleon, many attempts were made at killing them, including releasing them to lions in the Colosseum, but they were miraculously delivered each time. They were eventually put to death on the rack. St. Vitus is invoked against epilepsy, paralysis, and diseases of the nervous system.
St. Christopher: A 3rd-century martyr originally called Reprobus, he was the son of pagans and had originally pledged his service to a pagan king and to Satan. Eventually, the conversion of a king and the instruction of a monk led Reprobus to convert to Christianity, and he was called on to use his strength and muscles to help carry people across a raging stream where there was no bridge. Once he was carrying a child who announced himself as Christ, and declared the Reprobus would be called “Christopher” – or Christ-bearer. The encounter filled Christopher with missionary zeal, and he returned home to Turkey to convert nearly 50,000. Angered, the Emperor Decius had Christopher arrested, imprisoned and tortured. While he was delivered from many tortures, including being shot with arrows, Christopher was beheaded around the year 250. He is invoked against epilepsy and toothache, and is the patron of a holy death.
St. Denis: There are conflicting accounts of St. Denis, with some accounts claiming he was converted to Christianity in Athens by St. Paul, and then became the first Bishop of Paris sometime in the first century. Other accounts claim he was a Bishop of Paris but a martyr of the third century. What is known is that he was a zealous missionary who eventually came to France, where he was beheaded on Montmartre – the Mount of Martyrs – a place where many early Christians were killed for the faith. He is invoked against demonic attacks.
St. Cyriacus: Another 4th century martyr, St. Cyriacus, a deacon, was actually favored by the emperor Diocletian after he cured the emperor’s daughter in the name of Jesus, and then the friend of the emperor. According to the Catholicism.org and The Fourteen Holy Helpers, by Fr. Bonaventure Hammer, O.F.M., after Diocletian died, his successor, emperor Maximin, increased the persecution of Christians and imprisoned Cyriacus, who was tortured at the rack and beheaded for refusing to renounce Christianity. He is the patron of those who suffer from eye diseases.
St. Acacius: A fourth-century martyr under the emperor Galerius, St. Acacius was a captain in the Roman army when he heard a voice telling him to “Call on the help of the God of Christians,” according to tradition. He obeyed the voice and immediately sought baptism in the Christian faith. He zealously set about converting the soldiers of the army, but was soon denounced to the emperor, tortured, and sent before a tribunal for questioning, before which he again refused to denounce his faith. After many more tortures, from some of which he was miraculously healed, St. Acacius was beheaded in the year 311. He is the patron saint of those who suffer from headaches.
St. Eustace: Little is known about this second-century martyr, persecuted under the Emperor Trajan. According to tradition, Eustace was a general in the army who converted to Christianity after a vision of a Crucifix that appeared between the antlers of a deer while he was hunting. He converted his family to Christianity, and he and his wife were burned to death after refusing to participate in a pagan ceremony. He is invoked against fires.
St. Giles: One of the later Holy Helpers and the only one definitively known to not be a martyr, St. Giles became a seventh-century monk in the area of Athens, despite his birth to nobility. He eventually retreated to the wilderness to found a monastery under the rule of St. Benedict, and was renowned for his holiness and the miracles he performed. According to Catholicism.org, he also once counseled Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne, to confess a sin that had been weighing on him. Giles died peacefully around the year of 712, and is invoked against crippling diseases.
St. Margaret of Antioch: Another fourth-century martyr persecuted by Diocletian, St. Margaret, like St. Vitus, converted to Christianity under the influence of her nurse, angering her father and causing him to disown her. A consecrated virigin, Margaret was tending flocks of sheep one day when a Roman spotted her and sought to make her his wife or concubine. When she refused, the Roman had Margaret brought before a court, where she was ordered to denounce her faith or die. She refused, and she was ordered to be burned and boiled alive, and miraculously she was spared from both. Eventually, she was beheaded. She is invoked as a patron of pregnant women and those suffering from kidney diseases.
St. Barbara: While little is known of this third-century martyr, St. Barbara is thought to have been the daughter of a rich and jealous man who sought to keep Barbara from the world. When she confessed to him that she had converted to Christianity, he denounced her and brought her before local authorities, who ordered that she be tortured and beheaded. According to legend, her own father did the beheading, for which he was struck by lightning shortly thereafter. St. Barbara is invoked against fires and lightning storms.
St. Catherine of Alexandria: A fourth-century martyr, St. Catherine was the daughter of the Queen of Egypt, and converted to Christianity after a vision of Christ and Mary. The Queen also converted to Christianity before her death. When Maximinus started persecuting Christians in Egypt, St. Catherine rebuked him and attempted to prove to him that his gods were false. After debating with the emperor’s best scholars, many of whom converted due to her arguments, Catherine was scourged, imprisoned, and eventually beheaded. She is the patron saint of philosophers and young students.
The article The Fourteen Holy Helpers: Plague Saints For A Time Of Coronavirus appeared first on Eurasia Review.
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By Saeed Al-Batati
Yemen has accused Iranian military experts of masterminding Wednesday’s deadly attack on Aden’s airport, vowing to defeat the Tehran-backed Houthis, restore peace and stability to Aden and other liberated areas, and address people’s grievances.
During the first meeting of his government in Aden, Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdul Malik Saeed said initial information showed that military experts from Iran had launched the guided missiles that hit Aden airport killing or wounding dozens of people.
“When we talk about the Houthis, we talk about Iran’s destructive scheme in the region,” the premier said, while visiting some of the wounded in hospital, adding that the attack had made his government “even more determined” to defeat the Houthis, press ahead with the Riyadh Agreement and address the country’s main issues.
“This terrorist attack will not achieve the goals of those who carried it out and who sought to obstruct the implementation of the Riyadh Agreement,” the official news agency quoted the prime minister as saying.
Dr. Qasem Buhaibeh, Yemen’s health minister, said on Twitter that 25 people were killed that that number may rise, since several of the 110 wounded are in critical condition.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said three of its workers died in the attack — two Yemenis and a Rwandan. “A day like this adds even more grief both for the Red Cross family and for the Yemeni families who had loved ones killed or injured in this explosion,” said Dominik Stillhart, ICRC’s director of operations.
The Yemeni Journalist Syndicate said one Yemeni journalist had been killed in the attack and 10 more wounded.
Yemen’s Foreign Ministry blamed the Houthis for the attack, pointing out that the same technology and techniques had been employed in previous attacks by the militia across Yemen.
Maj. Gen. İbrahim Ali Haydan, the new interior minister, said the Houthis were responsible for the attack and that the investigation he is heading up would reveal more details.
Official media reported that Yemenia, the country’s flagship carrier, had diverted flights from Aden to Seiyun airport in the southeastern province of Hadramout.
On Wednesday night, the Arab coalition launched retaliatory strikes on Houthi military sites in the capital, Sanaa, and surrounding areas, including Al-Dailami airbase.
Cale Brown, the US State Department’s deputy spokesperson, condemned the attack on Aden’s airport and expressed his country’s sympathy and support for the Yemeni people and their government. “The attacks were timed with the arrival of new leaders of the legitimate Yemen government, but they will not thwart efforts to bring lasting peace to Yemen. We stand with the Yemeni people,” Brown said on Twitter.
“The main beneficiaries of this attack are the Houthis and the enemies of the Riyadh Agreement,” Yasser Al-Yafae, a political analyst based in Aden, told Arab News. “Iran wants to send a message to Saudi Arabia through its tools (in Yemen) that it is strong and can foil the Kingdom’s gains in the country.”
Najeeb Ghallab, undersecretary at Yemen’s Information Ministry and a political analyst, told Arab News that the Houthis quickly denied their involvement in the attack to create uncertainty and infighting among the Yemeni forces. “The Houthis know that if the government succeeds in addressing problems and unifying forces, they will be isolated,” he said.
The article Yemeni PM Says Iranian Experts Plotted Attack On Aden Airport appeared first on Eurasia Review.
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A new analysis suggests that, by 2040, 19% of the world’s population – accounting for 21% of the global Gross Domestic Product – will be impacted by subsidence, the sinking of the ground’s surface, a phenomenon often caused by human activities such as groundwater removal, and by natural causes as well.
The results, reported in a Policy Forum, represent “a key first step toward formulating effective land-subsidence policies that are lacking in most countries worldwide,” the authors say.
Gerardo Herrera Garcia et al. performed a large-scale literature review that revealed that during the past century, land subsidence due to groundwater depletion occurred at 200 locations in 34 countries. During the next decades, factors including global population and economic growth, exacerbated by droughts, will probably increase land subsidence occurrence and related damages or impacts, they say.
Policies that implement subsidence modeling in exposed areas, constant monitoring of high-risk areas, damage evaluation, and cost-effective countermeasures could help reduce the impacts of subsidence where it will hit hardest – namely, areas with increased population density, high groundwater demand, and irrigated areas suffering water stress.
Towards informing such policies, the authors developed a model by combining spatial and statistical analyses that identified an area’s subsidence susceptibility based on factors like flooding and groundwater depletion caused by human activities.
Comparing their model to independent validation datasets revealed it was 94% capable of distinguishing between subsidence and non-subsidence areas. Notably, the model also revealed that most of the 635 million inhabitants in subsistence-susceptible areas are located in Asia, with a total exposed GDP of $9.78 trillion.
While the model does not consider existing mitigation measures, potentially resulting in overestimates of subsidence exposure, their results still represent a step forward to effective policies, Herrera et al. say.
The article Global Threat Of Sinking Land Will Affect 635 Million People Worldwide appeared first on Eurasia Review.
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Nature has figured out how to make great membranes.
Biological membranes let the right stuff into cells while keeping the wrong stuff out. And, as researchers noted in a paper just published by the journal Science, they are remarkable and ideal for their job.
But they’re not necessarily ideal for high-volume, industrial jobs such as pushing saltwater through a membrane to remove salt and make fresh water for drinking, irrigating crops, watering livestock or creating energy.
Can we learn from those high-performing biological membranes? Can we apply nature’s homogenous design strategies to manufactured, polymer membranes? Can we quantify what makes some of those industrial membranes perform better than others?
Researchers from Iowa State University, Penn State University, the University of Texas at Austin, DuPont Water Solutions and Dow Chemical Co. – led by Enrique Gomez of Penn State and Manish Kumar of Texas – have used transmission electron microscopy and 3D computational modeling to look for answers.
Iowa State’s Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, the Joseph C. and Elizabeth A. Anderlik Professor in Engineering from the department of mechanical engineering, and Biswajit Khara, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering, contributed their expertise in applied mathematics, high-performance computing and 3D modeling to the project.
The researchers found that creating a uniform membrane density down to the nanoscale of billionths of a meter is crucial for maximizing the performance of reverse-osmosis, water-filtration membranes. Their discovery has just been published online by the journal Science and will be the cover paper of the Jan. 1 print edition.
Working with Penn State’s transmission electron microscope measurements of four different polymer membranes used for water desalination, the Iowa State engineers predicted water flow through 3D models of the membranes, allowing detailed comparative analysis of why some membranes performed better than others.
“The simulations were able to tease out that membranes that are more uniform – that have no ‘hot spots’ – have uniform flow and better performance,” Ganapathysubramanian said. “The secret ingredient is less inhomogeneity.”
Just take a look at the Science cover image the Iowa State researchers created with assistance from the Texas Advanced Computing Center, said Khara: Red above the membrane shows water under higher pressure and with higher concentrations of salt; the gold, granular, sponge-like structure in the middle shows denser and less-dense areas within the salt-stopping membrane; silver channels show how water flows through; and the blue at the bottom shows water under lower pressure and with lower concentrations of salt.
“You can see huge amounts of variation in the flow characteristics within the 3D membranes,” Khara said.
Most telling are the silver lines showing water moving around dense spots in the membrane.
“We’re showing how water concentration changes across the membrane.” Ganapathysubramanian said of the models which required high-performance computing to solve. “This is beautiful. It has not been done before because such detailed 3D measurements were unavailable, and also because such simulations are non-trivial to perform.”
Khara added, “The simulations themselves posed computtional challenges, as the diffusivity within an inhomogeneous membrane can differ by six orders of magnitude”
So, the paper concludes, the key to better desalination membranes is figuring out how to measure and control at very small scales the densities of manufactured membranes. Manufacturing engineers and materials scientists need to make the density uniform throughout the membrane, thus promoting water flow without sacrificing salt removal.
It’s one more example of the computational work from Ganapathysubramanian’s lab helping to solve a very fundamental yet practical problem.
“These simulations provided a lot of information for figuring out the key to making desalination membranes much more effective,” said Ganapathysubramanian, whose work on the project was partly supported by two grants from the National Science Foundation.
The article Researchers Measure, Model Desalination Membranes To Maximize Flow, Clean More Water appeared first on Eurasia Review.
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