‘From an unenforced oil price cap to rogue countries teaming up, Moscow is exploiting the West’s weaknesses….’ (POLITICO)

‘After sending his wife a Valentine’s Day message and appearing on camera on February 15th, Navalny reportedly “felt sick after a walk and lost consciousness.” Only a fool would take the Russia’s announcement at face value – it is clear that Alexei Navalny’s death was an assassination by the murderous regime of Vladimir Putin.

Like Boris Nemtsov before him, Navalny was a challenge to a political system that marginalizes its opposition and crushes all dissent. His bravery should be seen as an inspiration for Russian civil society and his memory will endure beyond the regime that killed him. As we mourn his death, we should also mourn the Russia that could-have-been. Even though Putin would never have allowed his victory, Navaly’s 2018 presidential campaign was the last opportunity to bring political change via the electoral process in Russia.

In a speech this morning at the Munich Security Conference, his widow Yulia Navalnaya called upon the international community to hold Putin accountable. With this in mind, we should turn our attention to the Americans that have enabled and encouraged Putin every step of the way. Tucker Carlson gushes over Moscow’s subway stations and potemkin McDonalds as Putin murders his chief political opponent. donald trump openly invites Russia to attack NATO members while personally torpedoing military aid to Ukraine. These useful idiots should be seen as accessories to murder….’ ( Alexander Vindman via Why It Matters )

 

‘Brian Wilson’s family is seeking a conservatorship for the Beach Boys star, saying in a filing that he is “unable to properly provide for his own personal needs for physical health, food, clothing, or shelter” due to a neurocognitive disorder similar to dementia. The family said in a statement, shared on Wilson’s Instagram, that it took the decision “to ensure that there will be no extreme changes to the household” after the death last month of Wilson’s wife, Melinda, who had been caring for him. A conservatorship, the statement added, would allow Wilson to “work on current projects as well as participate in any activities he chooses.”

The court document, filed in Los Angeles and reported by The Blast and People, quoted a doctor’s description of Wilson as “easily distracted, often even when aware of surroundings.” The doctor added that Wilson “often makes spontaneous irrelevant or incoherent utterances” and struggles “to maintain decorum appropriate to the situation.” …’ (via Pitchfork )

‘I have been teaching in small liberal arts colleges for over 15 years now, and in the past five years, it’s as though someone flipped a switch. For most of my career, I assigned around 30 pages of reading per class meeting as a baseline expectation—sometimes scaling up for purely expository readings or pulling back for more difficult texts. (No human being can read 30 pages of Hegel in one sitting, for example.) Now students are intimidated by anything over 10 pages and seem to walk away from readings of as little as 20 pages with no real understanding. Even smart and motivated students struggle to do more with written texts than extract decontextualized take-aways. Considerable class time is taken up simply establishing what happened in a story or the basic steps of an argument—skills I used to be able to take for granted.

Since this development very directly affects my ability to do my job as I understand it, I talk about it a lot. And when I talk about it with nonacademics, certain predictable responses inevitably arise, all questioning the reality of the trend I describe. Hasn’t every generation felt that the younger cohort is going to hell in a handbasket? Haven’t professors always complained that educators at earlier levels are not adequately equipping their students? And haven’t students from time immemorial skipped the readings?

The response of my fellow academics, however, reassures me that I’m not simply indulging in intergenerational grousing. Anecdotally, I have literally never met a professor who did not share my experience. Professors are also discussing the issue in academic trade publications, from a variety of perspectives. What we almost all seem to agree on is that we are facing new obstacles in structuring and delivering our courses, requiring us to ratchet down expectations in the face of a ratcheting down of preparation. Yes, there were always students who skipped the readings, but we are in new territory when even highly motivated honors students struggle to grasp the basic argument of a 20-page article. Yes, professors never feel satisfied that high school teachers have done enough, but not every generation of professors has had to deal with the fallout of No Child Left Behind and Common Core. Finally, yes, every generation thinks the younger generation is failing to make the grade—except for the current cohort of professors, who are by and large more invested in their students’ success and mental health and more responsive to student needs than any group of educators in human history. We are not complaining about our students. We are complaining about what has been taken from them….’ ( Adam Kotsko via Slate )

‘It weaponizes the practice in a new way….’ ( Li Zhou via Vox )

‘A vague warning by the chair of the House Intelligence Committee about a “serious national security threat” Wednesday is related to Russia’s attempts to develop an antisatellite nuclear weapon for use in space, according to two people familiar with the matter.

While the people did not provide further details on the intel, one of them noted the U.S. has for more than a year been concerned about Russia’s potentially creating and deploying an antisatellite nuclear weapon — a weapon the U.S. and other countries would be unable to adequately defend against….’ ( via POLITICO )

‘Whether we create consciousness in our brains as a function of our neurons firing, or consciousness exists independently of us, there’s no universally accepted scientific explanation for where it comes from or where it lives. However, new research on the physics, anatomy, and geometry of consciousness has begun to reveal its possible form.

In other words, we may soon be able to identify a true architecture of consciousness.

The new work builds upon a theory Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose, Ph.D., and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff, M.D., first posited in the 1990s: the Orchestrated Objective Reduction theory (Orch OR). Broadly, it claims that consciousness is a quantum process facilitated by microtubules in the brain’s nerve cells.

Penrose and Hameroff suggested that consciousness is a quantum wave that passes through these microtubules. And that, like every quantum wave, it has properties like superposition (the ability to be in many places at the same time) and entanglement (the potential for two particles that are very far away to be connected).

Plenty of experts have questioned the validity of the Orch OR theory. This is the story of the scientists working to revive it….’ ( via Popular Mechanics )

‘Judges will face choices that affect when, and whether, trump stands trial.

 

In trump’s New York case, a judge is slated to finalize the timetable for his trial on charges that he falsified business records to cover up an affair with a porn star in the closing weeks of the 2016 election.

 

In his Washington, D.C., case, the Supreme Court may signal whether it will quickly resolve trump’s claim that he is “immune” from federal charges stemming from his effort to subvert the 2020 election.

 

In his Georgia case, where trump is also facing state charges related to the 2020 election, a judge has scheduled a Thursday hearing to examine an effort by trump and several co-defendants to disqualify the prosecutors.

 

And in his Florida case, a judge is weighing trump’s latest motion to postpone key deadlines — a likely precursor to delaying the May 20 trial on charges of hoarding classified records at his mar-a-lago home.

 

Here’s a look at each of the cases and what to expect this week…’ ( via POLITICO )

‘Whether donald trump faces trial this year for seeking to subvert the 2020 election appears increasingly certain to rest with the nine justices of the Supreme Court — three of whom he nominated himself.

 

trump is expected to ask the high court to stave off the trial following Tuesday’s ruling from a federal appeals court that emphatically rejected his bid for “presidential immunity” from the criminal charges.

 

The former president now faces a key deadline of next Monday to ask the Supreme Court to step in — and once he does, the justices will face a set of options with obvious ramifications for the presidential campaign.

 

They could hear trump’s appeal on an accelerated schedule. They could take their time — and in doing so, essentially guarantee that the federal election-subversion trial could not occur before November. Or they could simply decline to hear trump’s appeal at all — a move that would allow the trial proceedings, which have been stalled for nearly two months, to resume quickly.

 

And as if the choice weren’t fraught enough, the high court is grappling simultaneously with a separate trump question of historic proportions: whether the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause disqualifies him from running for president again. The court will hear arguments in that case on Thursday after putting it on an unusually fast track…’ ( via POLITICO )

‘A bird has been liberated after months of speculation that it might be an asset for the Chinese Communist Party….’ (via Gizmodo )

‘…high definition footage captured by NASA’s three Mars rovers – Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity. The footage (also contributed by JPL-Cal tech, MSSS, Cornell University and ASU) was stitched together by Elder Fox Documentaries, creating what they call the most life like experience of being on Mars….’ (Open Culture)

As someone who has done his share of traveling around western US landscapes but who is not geologically sophisticated, what struck me about this was not how otherworldly it felt to travel around Mars but, to the contrary, how familiar it seemed. In a way there is something comforting about that. As a science fiction reader, I used to feel that many attempts to describe extraterrestrial landscapes felt disappointingly lame and prosaic (off the top of my head, think of Arthur C. Clarke’s “A Walk in the Dark”), but that turns out to be just right. Actually, the skies of these scenes felt much more alien than the terrain.

Columnist Nick Bolton wants to have a unique take on Apple Vision Pro, so he essentially likens it to crack cocaine:

‘I know deep down that the Apple Vision Pro is too immersive, and yet all I want to do is see the world through it. “I’m sure the technology is terrific. I still think and hope it fails,” one Silicon Valley investor said to me. “Apple feels more and more like a tech fentanyl dealer that poses as a rehab provider.” Harsh words, but he feels what we all feel, a slave to our smartphone, and he’s seen this play before and he knows what the first act is like, and the second act, and he knows how it ends….’ ( via Vanity Fair )

Today is Groundhog Day . What hangs in the balance is whether spring is coming early. In the Pagan calendar, it is Imbolc (or Imbolg), which has marked the beginning of spring since ancient times, coming at the midpoint between the astronomical winter solstice (“Yule”) and the spring equinox (“Ostara”) in the northern hemisphere. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals that fall at the ‘quarter cross points’ between the equinoxes and the solstices, along with Beltane, Lugnasadh, and Samhain.

Imbolc was a time to celebrate Brigid (Brigit, Brighid, Bride, Bridget, Bridgit, Brighde, Bríd), the Celtic Goddess of inspiration, healing, and smithcraft with associations to fire, the hearth and poetry. When Ireland was Christianized in the 5th century, the festival of Brigid became Saint Brigid’s Day, although the chronology of the transmigration from the Celtic goddess to the Christian saint is not universally accepted. Imbolc derives from the Old Irish imbolg meaning in the belly, a time when sheep began to lactate and their udders filled and the grass began to grow.It thus coincided with the beginning of the lambing season, the spring sowing, and some of the earliest blooming plants. The gentle curve of a ‘just-showing’ pregnancy embodies the promise of renewal, expectancy and hope.

Evidence indicates that Imbolc has been an important date in the Irish, Scottish and Manx calendar since ancient times. The holiday was a festival of hearth and home with celebrations often embodying hearth fires, feasting, divination for omens of good fortune, and candles or bonfires representing the return of warmth and light. The point of many rituals seemed to be to invite Brigid, and the good fortune she would bring, into the home. Activities included:

— Brigid crosses, consisting of reeds or willows woven in a four-armed equilateral cross, often hung over doors, windows, or stables for protection

— making Bridey (Brideog, Breedhoge, or ‘Biddy’) dolls, representing Brigid, which were paraded from house to house. People would make a bed for her and leave her food and drink.

— visiting of holy wells, which are circled ‘sunwise’ and offerings left. Water from the well was used to bless home, family members, livestock and fields.

— a “spring cleaning” was customary

— Imbolc was traditionally a time of weather divination. Old traditions of watching to see if various animals returned from their winter dens seem to be forerunners of Groundhog Day.

Although many of the customary observances of Imbolc died out during the 20th century, it is still observed and in some places has been revived as a cultural event.Brigid’s Day parades have been revived in the town of Killorglin, County Kerry, which holds a yearly “Biddy’s Day Festival”. Men and women wearing elaborate straw hats and masks visit public houses carrying a Brídeóg to bring good luck for the coming year. They play folk music, dance and sing. The highlight of this festival is a torchlight parade through the town followed by a song and dance contest. Most recently, neopagans and Wiccans have observed Imbolc as a religious holiday.

’…It is the festival of the Maiden, for from this day to March 21st, it is her season to prepare for growth and renewal. Brighid’s snake emerges from the womb of the Earth Mother to test the weather, (the origin of Ground Hog Day), and in many places the first Crocus flowers began to spring forth from the frozen earth. The Maiden is honored, as the Bride, on this Sabbat. Straw Brideo’gas (corn dollies) are created from oat or wheat straw and placed in baskets with white flower bedding. Young girls then carry the Brideo’gas door to door, and gifts are bestowed upon the image from each household. Afterwards at the traditional feast, the older women make special acorn wands for the dollies to hold, and in the morning the ashes in the hearth are examined to see if the magic wands left marks as a good omen. Brighid’s Crosses are fashioned from wheat stalks and exchanged as symbols of protection and prosperity in the coming year. Home hearth fires are put out and re-lit, and a besom is place by the front door to symbolize sweeping out the old and welcoming the new. Candles are lit and placed in each room of the house to honor the re-birth of the Sun. Another traditional symbol of Imbolc is the plough. In some areas, this is the first day of ploughing in preparation of the first planting of crops. A decorated plough is dragged from door to door, with costumed children following asking for food, drinks, or money. Should they be refused, the household is paid back by having its front garden ploughed up. In other areas, the plough is decorated and then Whiskey, the “water of life” is poured over it. Pieces of cheese and bread are left by the plough and in the newly turned furrows as offerings to the nature spirits. It is considered taboo to cut or pick plants during this time. Various other names for this Greater Sabbat are Imbolgc Brigantia (Caledonni), Imbolic (Celtic), Disting (Teutonic, Feb 14th), Lupercus (Strega), St. Bridget’s Day (Christian), Candlemas, Candlelaria (Mexican), the Snowdrop Festival. The Festival of Lights, or the Feast of the Virgin. All Virgin and Maiden Goddesses are honored at this time…’

(Via Celtic Connection)

Imbolc also corresponds with Candlemas, the Christian observance of the baby Jesus’ presentation at the Temple in Jerusalem to officially induct him into Judaism when he was forty days old. It was originally described in the Gospel of Luke as a purification ritual. On Candlemas, a priest traditionally blesses candles which are distributed to the faithful for use throughout the year. In some places, they are placed in windows during storms to ward off damage.

Interestingly, in Scotland, along with Michaelmas, Lammas and Whitsun, Candlemas is one of the four  term and quarter days, the four divisions of the legal year, historically used as the days when contracts and leases would begin and end, servants would be hired or dismissed, and rent, interest on loans, and ministers’ stipends would become due. Although they were later fixed by law as falling on the 28th day every three months, they originally occurred on holy days, corresponding roughly to old quarter days used in both Scotland and Ireland.

Some foreign observances:

In France and Belgium, Candlemas (French: La Chandeleur) is celebrated with crêpes. In Italy, traditionally, it (Italian: La Candelora) is considered the last cold day of winter. Tenerife (Spain), Is the day of the Virgin of Candelaria (Saint Patron of the Canary Islands). 2 February. In Southern and Central Mexico, and Guatemala City, Candlemas (Spanish: Día de La Candelaria) is celebrated with tamales. Tradition indicates that on 5 January, the night before Three Kings Day (the Epiphany), whoever gets one or more of the few plastic or metal dolls (originally coins) buried within the Rosca de Reyes must pay for the tamales and throw a party on Candlemas. In certain regions of Mexico, this is the day in which the baby Jesus of each household is taken up from the nativity scene and dressed up in various colorful, whimsical outfits. In Luxembourg, Liichtmëss sees children carrying lighted sticks visiting neighbors and singing a traditional song in exchange for sweets. Sailors are often reluctant to set sail on Candlemas Day, believing that any voyage begun then will end in disaster—given the frequency of severe storms in February, this is not entirely without sense.

(Via Wikipedia)

‘In a paper published Thursday in the journal Cell, researchers present new evidence that a molecule called Xist — pronounced like the word “exist” and found only in women — is a major culprit in these diseases.

Better understanding of this molecule could lead to new tests that catch autoimmune diseases sooner and, in the longer term, to new and more effective treatments, researchers said.

Women typically have two X chromosomes, while men usually have an X and a Y. Chromosomes are tight bundles of genetic material that carry instructions for making proteins. Xist plays a crucial role by inactivating one of the X chromosomes in women, averting what would otherwise be a disastrous overproduction of proteins.

However, the research team found that, in the process, Xist also generates strange molecular complexes linked to many autoimmune diseases.

Although scientists conducted much of their work in mice, they made an intriguing discovery involving human patients: The Xist complexes ― long strands of RNA entangled with DNA and proteins ― trigger a chemical response in people that is a hallmark of autoimmune diseases…’ ( via Washington Post )