English Law Effects US Gun Control

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption, Guns did not exist in Europe when the statute was passed


A medieval English law dating back nearly seven centuries is now at the heart of the most important US Supreme Court gun case in a decade.

The case - which stems from a New York legal battle - challenges a state law that requires that gun users who want a concealed carry permit first prove they have a valid reason.

To help them determine how broad the rights of America's many gun owners go, the country's nine supreme court judges are also looking back to the 1328 Statute of Northampton, which dates back to the reign of Edward III.

Here's what we know.

What's the case?
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of the New York Rifle and Pistol Association v Bruen, which revolves around New York's laws governing concealed carry licenses.

The laws require that residents who want a license to carry a concealed pistol must prove they have "proper cause" for it and that they face "a special or unique" level of danger.

The plaintiffs in the case, Robert Nash and Brandon Koch, applied for a concealed carry permit but were denied, although they were given licenses that allow them to carry guns for recreational purposes such as hunting and target shooting.

With the support of the New York Rifle and Pistol Association - which is affiliated with the National Rifle Association (NRA) - in 2018 Mr Nash and Mr Koch filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of New York's "proper cause" requirement and handgun regulations.

Their case was dismissed by a federal court in New York, a decision that was affirmed by an appeals court. This, in turn, led the Supreme Court to hear the case.  READ MORE...

Over the Water

 

Megafires New Norm

Image caption,The megafire on Evia led to thousands of residents fleeing their homes


World leaders at the COP26 summit in Glasgow are under pressure to respond to global warming, and intense heatwaves and frequent forest fires are becoming an increasing threat around the Mediterranean.

This summer alone Greece was hit by thousands of wildfires, fanned by its worst heatwave in decades. Turkey, Italy and Spain all witnessed dramatic fires in recent months and the fire on the Greek island of Evia was the biggest in Greece since records began.

What happened on Evia was a megafire, an intense conflagration, which took almost two weeks to bring under control.

With more heatwaves forecast for future summers, there are fears that megafires could become the new normal.

"We never expected this," says Nikos Dimitrakis, a farmer who was born and raised in northern Evia. "We thought a part might burn, as in previous fires. But now the entire area was burned."

Image caption, Greeks evacuated the island as the fires turned the sky orange

When the fire reached his land, he told me there was no-one there to help. Surrounded by flames, he grabbed tree branches in a desperate attempt to put out the blaze.  READ MORE...

Pawing

 

Shell Needs Oil to Pay for Green

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES


The boss of oil giant Shell has insisted it can transition to net zero by 2050, but it will need the cash from its oil and gas business to pay for it.

Ben van Beurden dismissed splitting its legacy oil and gas business from its renewables investment, a move urged by activist shareholder Third Point.

Talking exclusively to the BBC, he said the company's plans for greener energy could only be funded by oil and gas.

"At this point in time [the cash] comes from our legacy business," he said.

Mr van Beurden was speaking at Europe's biggest oil refinery at Pernis near Rotterdam, a facility he plans to transform from refining petrol and diesel, to making biofuels and hydrogen over the next decade.

"These things can only be done if you have a facility (like Pernis) to work with and if you have the cash.

"If we have to build a hydrogen plant from a wind farm that we build in the North Sea for a billion dollars that is not going to be funded by a hydrogen business - it will be funded by the oil and gas business," he said.  READ MORE...

Grasses

 

Political Humor

 

Trying to Sit Down

Fastest Programmable Quantum Computer In CHINA

China's leapfrogging capabilities in terms of technology development are well documented. Now, scientists from China claim to have developed the world's fastest programmable quantum computers.

Created by researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and led by Pan Jianwei, the quantum computing system called "Zuchongzhi 2.1" is at least a million times more powerful than its nearest competitor.

Unsplash

World's fastest supercomputers
Named after a mathematician from 5th century, Zuchongzhi 2.1 performs quantum computing 10 million times faster than Google's Sycamore computing system.  READ MORE...

Classic Sunday Newspaper Cartoons

 

Space Missions Cause Brain Damage

Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov holds the record for the longest spaceflight. Polyakov spent 438 days in space, returning to Earth on March 22, 1995. (Image credit: NASA)


Staying in space for a long time can cause brain damage, according to a new study.

Being in space has well-documented negative effects on the body. But the effect of being in space on the brain has been studied less. A recent study examined five Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station for about five and a half months. The researchers found elevated levels of proteins in the blood that serve as biomarkers of brain damage.

The study, which was detailed Oct.11 in JAMA Neurology, was small, and the effects on the cosmonauts' brains did not seem to be major. Still, the research could lead to further examination of the effect of being in space on the brain, especially as people begin to spend even longer amounts of time in space.


"It's not like major traumatic brain injury or anything like that," Henrik Zetterberg, a neurochemist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and one the study's authors, told Space.com, adding that the damage was comparable to suffering a concussion. "But still, all of the cosmonauts have this pattern of biomarker change."  READ MORE...

Puppy

 

Zinc Might Treat Colds

In 1771, the German physician Hieronymus David Gaubius introduced the western scientific community to "a medication with many promises" – zinc.

More than 200 years later, we can find it amongst the many supplements on pharmacy shelves. It's even known to be one of the rare things that might help fight off a common cold. 

Evidence for zinc supplement use is limited, study results have been mixed, and dosage, formulation and length of prescription have not been investigated properly to date.

A new meta-analysis of 28 randomized controlled trials has now strengthened the notion that supplementing zinc could prevent symptoms and shorten the duration of viral respiratory infections, like the common cold or the flu.

"It is commonly thought that zinc's role in preventing and treating infections is only for people who are zinc deficient; our findings really challenge this notion," says integrative medicine doctor Jennifer Hunter from Western Sydney University in Australia.

"The two large trials from China found very low dose zinc nasal spray reduced the risk of clinical illness. The two smaller trials in the US that evaluated the preventive effects of oral zinc excluded people who were zinc deficient.

"All the other trials that evaluated zinc for treating the common cold were in populations where zinc deficiency is very unlikely."

When zinc was taken as a preventative measure, the analysis found there was a 28 percent lower risk of developing milder symptoms, and an 87 percent lower risk of developing moderately severe symptoms.  READ MORE...

Ballet

Wake Up America!

 

Sultry

 

Their Peace Views Were Crap

The Beatles legend Paul McCartney has touched on the thing his late bandmate John Lennon and Lennon‘s wife Yoko Ono were believed in and said the things they believed in were crap.

The richest The Beatles member, Paul McCartney, was one of those founding members of the rock band he achieved world fame, The Beatles. After The Beatles disbanded, McCartney launched his solo career. Releasing 18 solo studio albums in total, his latest album was titled McCartney III and was released on December 18, 2020.

On the other hand, John Lennon was the co-founder, co-lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and co-frontman of The Beatles from 1960 to 1969. He had appeared in the entire albums of the band and wrote beloved songs such as I Want To Hold Your Hand, I’ll Cry Instead, I’ll Be Back, No Reply, It’s Only Love, Girl, Tomorrow Never Knows, She Said She Said, Good Night, I’m So Tired.

In 1969, John Lennon had collaborated with his second wife Yoko Ono to form the Plastic Ono Band. With the band, they had held the two-week-long anti-war demonstration Bed-Ins for Peace.

Now, Paul McCartney has commented about Lennon and Yoko Ono‘s anti-war action. When the interviewer mentioned Lennon‘s quitting The Beatles to explore new artistic territory with Yoko Ono, McCartney said the things they’ve believed in were crap. According to him, a war could not be ended like this.

“The thing is – so much they held to be the truth was crap,” McCartney says. “‘War is over,’ well, no, it isn’t. ‘If enough people want the war to be over, it’ll be over…’ – I’m not sure that’s entirely true.”  READ MORE...

Bending

 

Brain Implant Gives Vision

Berna Gomez, wearing glasses to test the prosthesis. (John A. Moran Eye Center at the University 

of Utah)

A 'visual prosthesis' implanted directly into the brain has allowed a blind woman to perceive two-dimensional shapes and letters for the first time in 16 years.

The US researchers behind this phenomenal advance in optical prostheses have recently published the results of their experiments, presenting findings that could help revolutionize the way we help those without sight see again.

At age 42, Berna Gomez developed toxic optic neuropathy, a deleterious medical condition that rapidly destroyed the optic nerves connecting her eyes to her brain.

In just a few days, the faces of Gomez' two children and her husband had faded into darkness, and her career as a science teacher had come to an unexpected end.

Then, in 2018, at age 57, Gomez made a brave decision. She volunteered to be the very first person to have a tiny electrode with a hundred microneedles implanted into the visual region of her brain. The prototype would be no larger than a penny, roughly 4 mm by 4 mm, and it would be taken out again after six months.

Unlike retinal implants, which are being explored as means of artificially using light to stimulate the nerves leaving the retina, this particular device, known as the Moran|Cortivis Prosthesis, bypasses the eye and optic nerve completely and goes straight to the source of visual perception.

After undergoing neurosurgery to implant the device in Spain, Gomez spent the next six months going into the lab every day for four hours to undergo tests and training with the new prosthesis.  READ MORE...

Breeze