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MAY 28 - JUNE 3 , 2021
VISION TIMES
NY EDITION AdobeStock
How By Neil Campbell Vision Times
Beijing
Is Taking Over
Bitcoin
B
itcoin, the world’s foremost cryptocurrency, is often hailed by supporters, pundits, and influencers alike as the common man’s hope of salvation from the trappings of fiat currency such as inflation and centralization. However, Bitcoin, originally created by the mysterious online persona “Satoshi Nakamoto” as a decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system — structured in such a way that it would not be annihilated by the U.S. government as predecessors such as Liberty Reserve were — has mutated into something quite far from its creator’s stated vision. Bitcoin now not only seems to be firmly in the hands of Communist China, but may be a major contributor to the ongoing global semiconductor shortage and the unprecedented crises many power grids all over the world face.
Mining: a euphemism for data centers
Bitcoin (BTC) is, in essence, a shared transaction ledger using a type of database known as a blockchain. The term “mining” was coined because Bitcoin’s software was designed to manifest the currency as a reward to those computers who made themselves the data center transactions rely on. Some 13 years ago, in the beginning of Bitcoin, long
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Bitcoin mining hardware consumes a great deal of semiconductors amid the global supply shortage.
before the currency could be traded for the astronomical sums of U.S. dollars it goes for today, the software could be run on a laptop or a desktop computer, and coins were both abundant and worthless. After all, there were no exchanges BTC could be traded on for dollars, they have no underlying value or use besides trade between users, and the world not only didn’t understand what Bitcoin was or how it worked, but was also skeptical of it. On May 18, 2010, the world was so Bitcoin shy that Laszlo Hanyecz made history when he offered 10,000 BTC to the first person who would have pizza delivered to his house. Someone took him up on the transaction, providing two large Papa John’s pies, in what is perhaps the most famous trade in cryptocurrency’s history. H a n y e c z ’s pizzas were worth more than $600,000,000 USD in April. How the system works is less arcane than it appears to outsiders. Bitcoins, which can be divided down to eight decimal places, can be sent from one user to another. When a user sends a coin (or a fraction of a coin) from
one wallet to another, they report that transaction to the Bitcoin network in exchange for a small fee, which is paid to those who contribute computing power to the network to exact the transaction. These contributors are called “miners.” The computing power, however, is not at all utilized to process transactions per se. Instead, the software works something like a lottery, running a hash of the SHA256 encryption algorithm. The first computer to find the correct answer for each “block” of transactions processes the transactions in the block and is awarded
First conceived of as a way of independence from central bank issued fiat currencies, Bitcoin is now firmly under Beijing's control.
A wall of Bitcoin mining hardware at Bitfarms in Saint Hyacinthe, Quebec on March 19, 2018.(Image: LARS HAGBERG/AFP via Getty Images)
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a set number of Bitcoins in addition to the fees paid in all the transactions in the block. This is known as “finding” a block. In the beginning, the software awarded the miner of each block 50 BTC. Bitcoin was created to only ever create 21 million Bitcoins, so the software is programmed to half the block reward every time 210,000 blocks are found. A 2018 study by analysis firm Chainalysis found that nearly 4 million of the currently mined coins on the Bitcoin blockchain are lost and unrecoverable. February of 2019 was the last halvening and the current block reward today is 12.5 BTC. Eventually, this number will reach zero and miners will decide which version of a new software protocol to utilize. Naturally, the more computing power (“hashrate”) added to the network the faster each SHA256 puzzle is solved, the faster each block of transactions is processed and added to the chain, and the faster those who own the mining hardware receive their bounty.
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Biden to ‘Change Course’ on Infrastructure Plan
If GOP Does Not Support By Prakash Gogoi Vision Times
W
hite House advisor Cedric Richmond recently stated that President Joe Biden might consider other options for implementing his proposed infrastructure bill if it does not get the bipartisan support needed to get it passed. The infrastructure bill, which is pegged at around $2.25 trillion, was recently reduced to $1.7 trillion by the White House as Democrats and Republicans negotiate the package. In an interview with CNN, Richmond said that shaving off $550 billion from the initial proposal shows the president’s “willingness to negotiate in good faith and in a serious manner.” He questioned whether Republicans would “meet the effort” that Biden is showing. “He wants a deal. He wants it soon, but if there's meaningful negotiations taking place in a bipartisan manner, he's willing to let that play out. But again, he will not let inaction be the answer. And when he gets to the point where it looks like that is inevitable, you'll see him change course," Richmond said to the media outlet. In an interview with Fox News, Republican Senator Roy Blunt stated that the biggest issue between the two political parties regarding the bill is “defining what infrastructure is.” Republican Senator Susan Collins also raised the issue in an interview with ABC News. “We, Republicans, tend to define infrastructure in terms of roads, bridges, seaports and airports, and broadband. The Democratic definition seems to include social programs that have never been considered part of core infrastructure,” she said.
Republicans do not agree with the definition of ‘infrastructure’ Democrats have used in the $1.7 infrastructure bill.
Compromises
Raising taxes would be the worst thing you could do in this economy and that no Republicans were going to support such a move. House Minority Leader Republican Kevin McCarthy
Biden’s initial infrastructure plan had set aside $400 billion for elderly and disabled care, $52 billion for investments in domestic manufacturers, $31 billion for small businesses, $30 billion for R&D job creation and innovation, $35 billion for clean energy tech and jobs, $100 billion for workplace training, and so on, according to the program’s fact sheet. The GOP has proposed a $568 billion infrastructure bill, which exclusively caters to infrastructure projects and does not include any spending on unrelated areas like care for the disabled and elderly. The bill has received praise from Democrat Senator Joe
Manchin who is also likely to oppose Biden’s attempt to pass the infrastructure bill without Republican support. Another point of conflict between Republicans and Democrats is regarding taxes. President Biden has said that he is open to fixing the corporate tax rate “between 25 and 28 percent” to fund the infrastructure bill. Former President Donald Trump had slashed the corporate tax rate through the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to the current rate of 21 percent. “We’re not interested in reopening the 2017 tax bill. We both made it clear to the president… That’s our red line,” Senate Minority Leader Republican Mitch McConnell said to reporters after a meeting with Presi-
Pelosi Floats Diplomatic Boycott of China’s 2022 Winter Olympics By Steven Li, MD Vision Times
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emocrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has asked for a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. She made the declaration at a May 18 bipartisan congressional hearing about holding the Olympics in China in light of the country’s “egregious human rights record.” At the hearing, Pelosi stated that America “cannot continue to give Beijing a blank check” in hopes that their behavior will change. In fact, this is not the first time Congress has held a debate about the Olympics in China. Back in 1993, the U.S. passed legislation urging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to reject China’s 2000 bid for the Summer Olym212-730-6962
dent Biden, reports Breitbart. McConnell stated that in February 2020, the U.S had the best economy in the past 50 years as a consequence of Trump’s tax cuts. House Minority Leader Republican Kevin McCarthy said that raising taxes would be “the worst thing you could do in this economy” and that no Republicans were going to support such a move.
Jobs, government debt, and GDP
Biden has also made false claims about the infrastructure plan’s ability to create jobs, according to a report by AP. The president apparently said that the plan would create “19 million jobs - good jobs, blue-collar jobs, jobs that pay well.”
still participate. “For heads of state to go to China in wake of a genocide that is ongoing while you’re sitting there in your seats really begs the question: What moral authority do you have to speak again about human rights any place in the world if you’re willing to pay your respects to the Chinese government as they commit genocide… Silence on this issue is unacceptable. It enables China’s abuses,” she said at the hearing.
International call for action
A Chinese man wears a protective mask as he walks in front of the logos of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics at National Aquatics Centre. (Image: Lintao Zhang via Getty Images)
pics due to Beijing’s ongoing human rights violations. The 2000 Olympics was eventually held in Sydney,
Australia. However, a similar attempt to block China from hosting the 2008 Olympics failed. Pelosi proposed a dip-
lomatic boycott of the 2022 Olympics, in which heads of state would be barred from the event, but athletes could
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A coalition of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hongkongers, and others have issued a statement calling for “all governments and people” to boycott Beijing 2022 Olympics, stating that taking part in the games would be “tantamount to endorsing China’s genocide.” In August 2018, a report released by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination stated that “tens of thousands to upwards of a
(Image:Pixabay)
Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, stated that “Moody’s suggests it would create 19 million jobs.” However, Moody’s has never stated such a thing, says AP. Moody’s calculated that 16 million jobs would be generated in the United States by 2030 without the $1.9 trillion pandemic aid package or the infrastructure bill. A study published at the website of the University of Pennsylvania Penn Wharton found that the infrastructure plan might lead to a fall in GDP, but might also lessen government debt. However, the study warned that even though the plan could reduce public debt, the tax provision would discourage business investment.
million” Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities were being held in detention by the Chinese regime “without being charged or tried, under the pretext of countering terrorism and religious extremism.” Furthermore, there were “Reports of mass surveillance disproportionately targeting ethnic Uighurs, including through frequent baseless police stops and the scanning of mobile phones at police checkpoint stations. Additional reports of mandatory collection of extensive biometric data in XUAR [Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region], including DNA samples and iris scans, of large groups of Uighur residents.” In March 2020, China Tribunal released a report stating that the practice of “forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience” continues to this day in China, in large part targeting Falun Gong prisoners. There was also substantial evidence of medical testing on Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs. subscription@visiontimes.com
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A3
Progressive Blaming of Trump and Republicans for
‘Asian Hate’ Absurd Image: Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images
By David Wagner Vision Times
A
lex Marlow, the editor-in-chief of conservative media outlet Breitbart, has criticized as “absurd” what he called “the idea that the left is now in charge of Asian hate” — given that many of those blaming former President Donald Trump and the Republicans for an increase of anti-Asian sentiment support policies that discriminate against Asians in the name of “diversity.” Activist organizations and figures have cast Trump — who criticized China’s communist regime for covering up the initial outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 and called it the “China virus” — and other conservative officials and politicians as the culprits behind the wave of verbal and physical harassment against people of Asian descent following the pandemic. The Chinese American Civil Rights Coalition is seeking to sue Trump for $22.9 million, blaming his use of such terms for the rise in Asian hate crimes, claiming his “extreme and outrageous conduct” caused Chinese-Americans “to suffer emotional distress.” The relative increase in
suspected hate incidents occurred following the global spread of the disease from China in early 2020. Previously, reported incidents against Asians was in the hundreds, but shot up to several thousand through 2020 and past the election in November. Asian-Americans numbered an estimated 22.9 million in 2019, including 5 million people of Chinese descent. They made up about 7 percent of the U.S. population (328 million) that year. In his book Breaking the News: Exposing the Establishment Media’s Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption, Marlow took aim at the “Stop Asian Hate” campaign, which he argued is a political move by Big Tech and the Democratic Party to blame conservatives disgusied as concern for racial discrimination.
for years about how the left, in the name of diversity, has been discriminating against Asians,” Marlow added.
Now they’re
alleging that its racial quotas discriminate unfairly against applicants of Asian descent. The case was struck down by a federal appeals court on Nov. 12 last year, but it may still be heard by the Supreme Court. According to a landmark decision in 2003, universities are justified in using race as a criterion in choosing to accept or reject applicants — a standard that differs from those set following the Civil Rights movement. Affirmative action is defended as necessary to allow more minorities and people of marginalized groups into the nation’s top schools.
Progressive support for affirmative action
In particular, Marlow wrote that the progressive movement has long supported affirmative action policies that openly discriminate against Asians and Asian-Americans applying for universities in most parts of the country. “We’ve been reporting for years how the Ivy League, for example, discriminates against Asians because they want more colors. They want more pretty colors. It doesn’t matter who’s going to school, they just want them to not look like Asian people, apparently,” Marlow wrote. In recent years, the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) took legal action against Harvard University,
Opponents,
like Marlow, say that applicants should be considered for their personal merits, not their racial background.
thus they perform better in school.”
Concern or hypocrisy?
U.S. President Joe Biden has recently passed legislation addressing the rise in Asian hate crimes due to the pandemic. The new law “aims to make the reporting of hate crimes more accessible at the local and state levels by boosting public outreach and ensuring reporting resources are available online in multiple languages,” according to NPR. It also gives the Department of Justice authority to designate personnel to expedite hate crimes related to COVID-19 and conduct programs intending to prevent and respond to hate crimes. But Marlow says the concern is false. “We’ve been writing
acting like they’re the authorities on Asian hate. Overnight, they decided to be the authorities on Asian hate… You should keep in mind that most of this violence against Asians, they’re not taking place at the hands of white people and they’re taking place in Democrat-run cities.”
The overwhelming majority of the incidents thought to be targeting Asians have occurred in urban areas — where most Asian-Americans live — and are committed by members of other minority groups. Ina statement after the new legislation was passed, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that “Investigating and prosecuting hate crimes is a top priority, deeply rooted in the department's founding. We will use the new law to enhance the aggressive measures we are taking to combat crime motivated by bigotry and discrimination.” Stop AAPI (Asian-American and Pacific Islander) Hate, which was created in 2020 as a response to the escalation of Asian hate crimes, approved of the legislation passed by the Biden administration, but believes more action is needed. “Because the Act centers criminal law enforcement agencies in its solutions, it will not address the overwhelming majority of incidents reported to our site which are not hate crimes, but serious hate incidents,” Stop AAPI Hate said in a statement. “We need legislation that addresses the root causes of systemic racism a nd oppression.”
Ad ob e
Sto ck
Criticizing policies in states like California and Oregon, Marlow said, “They don’t have testing requirements. Why? Specifically, because Asians do better on tests than everyone else, so there’s too many Asians [in colleges and universities]. This is unfair because, culturally, Asians take school more seriously,
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Wall Street Behemoths Ate Reddit’s Gamestop Lunch
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ccording to Wall Street behemoth JPMorgan, the fairytale spun by pundits about Reddit’s WallStreetBets organizing to “squeeze” badly positioned hedge fund short sellers of video game retailer Gamestop (NYSE: GME) in what has been affectionately dubbed the “Gamestop Rebellion” is simply false. Peng Cheng, the JPMorgan quantitative and derivatives strategy analyst, wrote to clients in a note: “Although retail buying was portrayed as the main driver of the extreme price rally experienced by some stocks, the actual picture may be much more nuanced,” according to CNBC.
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JANUARY 22-2
2021
American UN
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on January 23, 2020. BlackRock is Gamestop’s largest owner at more than 9.2 million shares.
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When a resident of Anxi village in the Sichuan province of China set a match to a small pile of garbage in the gutter two years ago, a loudspeaker blared out his name and address and ordered him to extinguish the blaze immediately. He jumped with fright, quickly put out the flames and scurried away.
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How Beijing Is Taking Over Bitcoin Continued from FRONT
In order to throttle the rate at which BTC’s finite supply is paid, the software is configured to average block time to approximately 10 minutes. It does this by increasing the difficulty of the SHA256 calculation in proportion to the hashrate every 2016 blocks, which is theoretically every two weeks. The increase in difficulty means the amount of coins each miner generates decreases, which is what has ultimately led to the long running cryptocurrency mining arms race. More and more computing power has to be added to the network in order for the same miners to stay profitable, or as profitable as they would like. Notably, profitability is determined by whether the amount BTC generated is greater than the electricity consumed to operate the data center. For many years, home computers have no longer been sufficient to produce enough computing power to handle the difficulty set by the Bitcoin hashrate. Instead, SHA256 crypto mining has long since evolved to using specialized hardware known as an Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), which is a fancy way of saying a semiconductor that is designed to do one thing and one thing alone: hash the SHA256 lottery and attempt to win coins for its owners. Because of the move away from home computers to specialized hardware, Bitcoin “mining” is now a euphemism for industrial sized data centers housing hardware that does nothing but hash SHA256 and the extensive HVAC systems needed to cool them.
Hashrate centralized in China
Regardless of how much hashpower each data center can create, finding blocks is still mathematically random and is subject to statistical variance. Because of this, miners form “mining pools,” which are effectively cartels of different data centers, except virtually anyone with a miner can join. When one miner within 212-730-6962
the pool finds a block, the coins are paid to the pool and divided by the pool to its miners in proportion to the amount of hashrate each individual is supplying, leading to a more stable flow of income. Because the Bitcoin blockchain is transparent, which pool finds a block is publicly available knowledge. According to data from BTC.com, the top five mining pools in the last year of data are, in descending order, F2Pool, Poolin, BTC.com, AntPool, and Huobi Pool. These five pools combined to find approximately 61 percent of all blocks as of May 24. All five pools are either Chinese or linked to China. Huobi is a Chinese-founded cryptocurrency exchange, AntPool and F2Pool’s All Rights Reserved links to the same gov.cn domain, BTC. com was purchased by 500. com, which is owned by keystonemining rig manufacturer Bitmain’s former CEO, Jihan Wu, in February, and Poolin is headquartered in Hong Kong. Also in the top 12 are Binance Pool, ViaBTC, Lubian.com, OKExPool, and BTC.top. These pools are also Chinese-connected and comprise an additional 24 percent of all blocks found in the last year. Recent developments in 2021 have shed some light on how centralized Bitcoin’s data centers are in the hands of Communist China. In April, a coal mine in the Xinjiang Autonomous Zone flooded, trapping at least 21 miners. As a result, coal delivery was halted to power plants in the area, which caused several data centers operating Bitcoin miners to go offline, immediately reducing the total hashrate on the BTC network by as much as 35 percent, according to Fortune. In mid-May, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) banned banks and payment services from processing transactions related to crypto or conducting exchange between crypto and either the Yuan or foreign fiat currencies. On May 13, the Bitcoin network posted a high for hashpower at 171 exa-
While chasing the next Bitcoin “moon,” amateur speculators often spend all day long in front of their computers, watching charts and participating in message boards and chat rooms, unable to realize cryptocurrency’s market is controlled, and made, by entities in communist China. (Image: Pexels)
hashes. By May 22, it had fallen to 118 exahashes as miners once again quickly went offline, a 31 percent decline.
Chinese miners hungry for semiconductors
The three big Bitcoin mining rig manufacturers are Bitmain, Canaan, and MicroBT. Bitmain is the largest and most well known, being creator of the iconic Antminer. In a March 10 report by overseas Chinese media Dajiyuan, Bitmain was found to have ties to the CCP, which found Bitmain is connected to the Haidan District Government in Beijing through a “Party Building” alliance and was also granted CCP subsidies and funding. MicroBT lists its address as Shenzhen and Canaan is headquartered in Beijing and Hangzhou. Amid a worldwide shortage in semiconductors, both Bitmain and Canaan have sourced the 5nm semiconductors fueling their ASICs from industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC), while MicroBT sources theirs from Samsung. In March, Taiwanese prosecutors accused Bitmain of setting up front companies and working behind the scenes to poach TSMC staff. According to Nikkei Asia, the scheme rewarded Bitmain with more than 100 engineers. In a 2017 article by IEEE Explorer focusing on Bit-
coin data centers in Inner Mongolia, China, the publication revealed each Antminer S9 used 189 individual chips manufactured by TSMC. The center IEEE visited had more than 20,000 S9s running. The S9 has since been replaced by the more powerful, and more power hungry S19 Pro. The S9 used a 16nm ASIC semiconductor and produced 13.5 terahashes per second with a power consumption of 1320 watts versus the 5nm S19 Pro’s 110 terahashes per second with a power consumption of 3250 watts. According to Bitcoin mining website MinerDaily, all three manufacturers are sold out of equipment as of May 1. According to 8BTC, the supply shortage has been a problem since at least November of 2020. According to Blockchain.com, BTC’s hashrate nonetheless increased from approximately 130 exahashes in November to its peak in May.
The most expensive lottery in the world
Investing.com says Bitcoin miners were raking in $57 million USD (approximately 365 million Yuan) per day in April, when Bitcoin price traded between $47,000 and $65,000 USD. According to NiceHash, each Antminer S19 Pro, which if available for sale would cost approximately $5,000 USD and can be found in third party markets at more than double the cost,
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will generate approximately $22 USD per day at Bitcoin’s current price of $38,000 USD. According to a 15 cent per kilowatt-hour electricity cost in the State of New York, each 3250- watt machine will make approximately $11 USD per day after paying for electricity. According to some estimates, the cost of power in Inner Mongolia can be as low as 3 cents per kilowatt-hour, which would lead to a profit of more than $20 USD per day. Because the Bitcoin data centers run 24/7, not to process transactions, but to calculate SHA256 for a chance to win the next block’s lottery, each 3250 watt miner will consume roughly 28,500 kilowatt-hours per year. This figure, however, is only for the mining hardware itself and does not include the cost of HVAC to cool the data center or power for the warehouse itself. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average single family detached home in the south, where air conditioning requirements are the highest, uses slightly less than 16,000 Kwh per year. In a May article by Worldcrunch, which visited cryptocurrency data centers in mainland China, one employee at a rural warehouse was quoted as saying his data center, which mined both Bitcoin and utilized retail video game graphics cards to mine alternative cryptocurrencies such as
Etherium, used “the equivalent of the electricity consumption of 10,000 households every day.” Website Digiconomist calculates Bitcoin’s annual electricity footprint at approximately 121 terawatt hours, which competes with some countries such as the Netherlands, Pakistan, and Norway. In an effort to conjure a vision of efficiency for this asstronomical sum of Earth’s resource usage, Digiconomist compares Bitcoin to Visa’s data centers. In 2019, Visa used the electricity equivalent of approximately 19,000 U.S. households to process 138 billion transactions. According to analysis from Blockchain.com, Bitcoin by comparison has processed approximately 112 million transactions year-overyear. This math breaks down to slightly less than 865,000 Visa transactions being processed for the same energy cost as a single Bitcoin transaction. For all the energy Bitcoin’s miners spend, the network can still only process approximately five transactions per second because the resources are spent calculating an everincreasingly difficult encryption algorithm and not on actual transactional load. In January, CCP-ally Iran suffered rolling power grid failures, which left the capital city Tehran crippled. According to ABC, officials say the culprit was more than 1,600 Bitcoin mining facilities, some legal and others underground, which had overloaded the country’s electric grid capacity. Iran’s electricity cost is roughly 4 cents per kilowatt hour, according to the report. In November of 2020, RadioFreeEurope reported the Georgian state of Abkhazia, along with its approximately 250,000 people, suffered the same fate as Iran after Russian mining operations moved in to take advantage of cheap electricity, overloading the country’s grid. The report said some engineers estimated miners were using 120 million kilowatt hours per month in electricity, or about 10,000 U.S. households. subscription@visiontimes.com
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This photo taken on May 23, 2021 shows a runner receiving treatment at a hospital after surviving from extreme weather when competing in a 100-kilometre cross-country mountain race, near the city of Baiyin, in China's northwestern Gansu province.
MAY 28 - JUNE 3 , 2021 |
A5
Governor Abbott Warns
800 %
(Image: STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Increase in Fentanyl Flow Into Texas,
China Culpable By Arvind Datta Vision Times
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Ultra-Distance Athletes
Dead in China After
‘Unexpected’ Storm By Simone Jonker Vision Times
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wenty-one athletes passed away in northwestern China during an ultra-distance race in extreme weather conditions. Icy rain, hail, and gale-force winds struck the competition, state media reported Sunday, May 23. Rescuers carried out a night mission in the biting cold and icy gales and that involved over 700 staffers. Rescuers confirmed 151 of the 172 athletes were rescued. Search operations ended by noon Sunday, rescuers told Xinhua. The deceased suffered from severe physical discomfort and hypothermia, the state-run agency stated. The 100-kilometer (60-mile) sporting event was held on Saturday in the Yellow River Rock Woodland in Baiyin city. The race involved running along narrow mountain paths at an altitude of 2,000-3,000 meters (6,5009,800 feet.) “We express deep condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims and the injured,” Baiyin city Mayor and organizer of the event, Zhang Xuchen, said.
conditions, he said, “The most difficult section, from kilometer 24 (mile 15) to kilometer 36 (mile 22), climbed 1,000 meters (3,280 feet), the path was just a mix of stones and sand.” According to a reporter for state broadcaster CCTV, some athletes who were running ahead had fallen into deep mountain crevices. Distressed family and friends of the victims questioned whether, if any, preparations were made by event organizers in preparation for an emergency. The race organizer did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment Sunday. The government promised a full investigation.
According to Beijing News, a woman who worked at Gansu Shengjing Sports Culture Development Co. said there were no predictions of extreme weather for the day of the race, however, Baiyin city’s local branch of the National Early Warning Information Center apparently issued a warning of bad weather three days prior to the event. An athlete confirmed online that he had run the race before and it had been officially held four times previously. But he said he had a bad feeling after his body could not warm up and quit the race. He managed to get to safety just in time. He said the runners were not dressed for wintry conditions, many wearing short-sleeved tops. “I ran 2 kilometers before the starting gun fired to warm up … but the troublesome thing was, after running these 2 kilometers, my body still had not heated up,” he said in a post that has been viewed more than 100,000 times on his WeChat account “Wandering about the South.” He confirmed that no warning of extreme weather conditions was broadcast the day before the event. Recounting the unfavorable running
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A selfless hero
Meanwhile, a man in China has been hailed a hero. An elderly shepherd called Zhu Keming who had been grazing his sheep in the region during the ultra-distance trail run happened to come across six badly injured athletes on the mountain. He rescued the runners, three men and three women, helping them to a cave where he had emergency supplies prepared. STR/CNS/AFP via Getty Images
No warning of severe weather
On Weibo, where Zhu was trending, there was an outrage as to why organizers did not cancel the event, apparently ignoring warnings of the approaching weather conditions. “It was because of the wind and rain that the athletes were frozen to death because they were wearing too little clothes,” a Chinese Twitter user wrote. “It was easy to prevent it. It was the responsibility of the organizer.” Zhu said what he did was very ordinary, and expressed regret that some runners he came across did not survive. “There were still some people that could not be saved,” Zhu told state media. “There were two men who were lifeless and I couldn’t do anything for them. I’m sorry.”
exas Governor Greg Abbott recently warned that there has been a significant increase in the amount of fentanyl, an opioid drug, being smuggled into the U.S. through the Texas-Mexico border. In an interview with Fox News, the Republican governor revealed that Border Patrol apprehended over 170,000 illegal immigrants entering the country in April, which he says is a “tenfold increase” compared to last year, when only around 17,000 people were caught. “There [are] dangerous drugs coming across the border. For your audience who may not know, two milligrams of fentanyl is a fatal dose. And so, know this, we had… [an] almost 800% increase April over April of the amount of fentanyl that has been apprehended by the Texas Department of Public Safety. We have obtained enough fentanyl coming across the border to kill every single person in the state of New York,” he said on the show, Breitbart reported.
This photo taken on May 24, 2021 shows shepherd Zhu Keming, hailed as a hero in China for rescuing six ultramarathon runners when extreme weather hit the area leaving at least 20 dead, showing the cave dwelling where he sheltered the stricken athletes near the city of Baiyin, in China’s northwestern Gansu province.
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Recent data published by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shows that the agency has seized around 6,494 pounds of fentanyl in the fiscal year ending in April 2021, which represents an over 35 percent increase compared to the 4,776 pounds seized in the entire 2020 fiscal year. Assuming two milligrams of fentanyl is a fatal dose, one pound, which contains 453,592 milligrams, can potentially kill up to 226,796 people. As such, the 6,494 pounds of fentanyl seized by CBP could potentially kill over 1.4 billion people. CBP data also showed that the agency encountered 178,622 migrants attempting to enter the United States via the Southwest border in April, which is consistent with Abbott’s numbers.
China fails to keep its promises
According to a November 2018 report published by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, China is the largest source of illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-like substances in the United States. Fentanyl is shipped from China directly or indirectly through Mexico. The report also notes that “domestically, China does not have a fentanyl abuse problem.” In a video published in August 2019, exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui explains, “Think about it. Any person who sells fentanyl in China is arrested and will be immediately executed. However, the drug is now sold to the United States in large quantities, yet the Chinese government remains silent.” In late 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with the then-president Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. After the meeting, the White House released a statement saying that Xi had agreed to designate fentanyl as a controlled substance. However, Xi failed to honor his promise to crack down on fentanyl distribution, according to a Trump tweet in August 2019.
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A6 | MAY 28 - JUNE 3 , 2021
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RFA notes in their report that supposedly civilian vessels are “being equipped with high-end surveillance and communications technology” supplied by U.S. defense contractors Wavestream and Comtech EF Data.
ay
ab pix
‘Fishing’ Vessels Actually Serve Beijing’s South China
Sea Militia: RFA
By Todd Crawford Vision Times
R
Chinese fishing vessels in the South China Sea regularly rattle neighbouring nations, even going as far as to violate a nation’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
ecently unearthed bidding documents, corporate records and other official data strongly suggest that many Chinese “fishing vessels” in fact contribute to, or are part of China’s maritime militia, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. RFA analyzed troves of publically accessible documents and discovered that a “state-owned fishing company in charge of Sansha city’s maritime militia fleet has managed projects involving classified national security information” stating that it is “a strong indicator
that the company’s ships are engaged in more than just fishing.” Sansha, located in a disputed portion of the South China Sea and administered as a city of Hainan Province, established its maritime militia in 2013. It was trained and commanded by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). By 2016, the militia had grown to include over 1,800 militiamen and more than 100 vessels and was regarded as playing an “irreplaceable role” in defending China’s maritime claims, as reported by the Sansha government. It is now widely suspected that what appear to be ordinary fishing vessels are in fact part of the Sansha city maritime militia.
‘State secrets’ of a ‘fishing community’ In 2015, Sansha Garrison Commander, Cai Xihong, published an article in a PLA-run magazine, “National Defense” which stated that the city created a company named “Sansha City Fisheries Development Co, Ltd”, a supposed fishing company, to manage the militia’s fleet of steelhulled ships. Corporate records obtained by RFA confirm that this company was incorporated in February of 2015. Radio Free Asia discovered that Sansha Fisheries Development regularly invites companies to bid on contracts that involve “classified information systems integration” and also require bidders to hold “state secrets protection” credentials. In one documented case a company, Xi’an Jiangong Construction Tendering Co., Ltd. managed bids for a “fishing boat hull underwater cleaning project” however bidders on the tender were told that the project involved “national security and secrets” and specified that any third-party supplier to the job required a “state secrets protection” qualification. In another example, the ‘fishing company’ requested tenders to supply “SX command system[s]” and stated that “the third-party supplier needed to have a ‘classified information systems integration first-class credential’ or a ‘national thirdlevel or higher secrets protection qualification.’” Classified information sys-
tems integration first-class credentials are required to develop, construct and operate classified information systems while a national third-level or higher secrets protection qualification is required to work on weapons and equipment research at the lowest classification level, according to Chinese regulations. The company that won the “SX command systems” tender was Space Star Technology CO. Ltd. also called “CASC 5th Academy 503rd Research Institute.” The research institute is a subsidiary of a state-owned defense contractor, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). RFA notes in their report that supposedly civilian vessels are “being equipped with high-end surveillance and communications technology” supplied by U.S. defense contractors Wavestream and Comtech EF Data. Their report also uncovered “clear evidence” that there is an “overlap between the fishermen living on islands and reefs occupied by China and the maritime militia personnel charged with guarding those features.” They discovered that 13 members of Sansha city’s maritime militia including “10 militiamen of unspecific rank, one militia squad leader, one militia platoon sergeant and one militia company commander”, on paper, appeared to run “aquatic product and fishing businesses.” According to the RFA report, “these militiamen are likely fishermen who received military training.”
IDF Drops Gaza Hamas Base Housing
International Press Used as ‘Human Shields’ By Jonathan Walker Vision Times
A
n airstrike by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) toppled a building in Gaza housing the offices of international media outlets such as Al Jazeera and AP. The IDF revealed Hamas shared this building with the press, using the outlets as “human shields.” “After providing advance warning to civilians & time to evacuate, IDF fighter jets struck a multi-story building containing Hamas military intelligence assets. The building contained civilian media offices, which Hamas hides behind and deliberately uses as human shields,” tweeted the IDF. Following the destruction of the 12-story building, the President and CEO of Associated Press, Gary Pruitt, released a statement in which he stated that the news service was “shocked and horri212-730-6962
fied” at the development. He confirmed that they had received advanced warning from the IDF. However, Pruitt denied having knowledge about Hamas military assets being located inside Al Jala. Israel, however, shared intelligence with the United States showing Hamas operating in the location, from a report in The Jerusalem Post. “We showed them the smoking gun proving Hamas worked out of that building. I understand they found the explanation satisfactory,” an unidentified diplomatic source told the media outlet. In an interview with CBS News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that they had shared intelligence with “our American friends.” Netanyahu said that the building housed “an intelligence office for the Palestinian terrorist organization,” which made it a “perfectly legitimate target.” He
asserted that there were no civilian injuries or deaths from the strike. Dr. Mostefa Souag, Acting Director-General of Al Jazeera Media Network, said in a statement that the Israeli attack was “barbaric” and demanded immediate international action, claiming “The aim of this heinous crime is to silence the media and to hide the untold carnage and suffering of the people of Gaza.” Al Jazeera is funded by the Qatari government, which has been accused of funding terror outfits in the Middle East. Qatar has admitted to bankrolling islamist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood following a regional boycott by surrounding countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates in 2017. Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus dismissed the idea
A ball of fire erupts from Hamas controlled Jala Tower as it is destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on May 15, 2021. The Israeli Defense Force said it showed Washington the smoking gun that Hamas was operating in the building, using the press as a “human shield.”
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(Image: MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)
that his country was seeking to silence the media. “That is totally false, the media is not the target,” he said to Reuters. In a 2014 article written by Jerusalem-based reporter Matti Friedman at The Atlantic, Friedman stated that Hamas “understood that reporters could be intimidated when necessary and that they would not report the intimidation. Western news organizations tend to see no ethical imperative to inform readers of the restrictions shaping their coverage in repressive states or other dangerous areas.” “In the war’s aftermath, the
NGO-UN-media alliance could be depended upon to unleash the organs of the international community on Israel, and to leave the jihadist group alone.” In a May 17 tweet, the IDF proclaimed that more than 3,150 rockets were fired at Israel by Palestinians. In response, Israel has struck more than 820 targets and neutralized 130 plus alleged terrorists; 450 rockets fired by Hamas misfired and exploded inside Gaza. “The threat is real. Millions of Israelis are living under fire. We will continue to defend ourselves,” the IDF tweeted. subscription@visiontimes.com
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MAY 28 - JUNE 3 , 2021 |
In Iceland’s Glowing Lava Fountains
HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP via Getty Images
Volcanic Eruption
A7
Seen From Space
TOPSHOT - Lava flows from an eruption of a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland on, March 28, 2021. - A week on, big crowds of Sunday hikers flocked to the Fagradalsfjall area to see up close Iceland's latest volcano eruption, as the gentle lava flow allowed people to get close to the eruption some 40 km west of Iceland's capital Reykjavik.
By Simone Jonker Vision Times
T
he eruption on March 19 at Fagradalsfjall volcano in southwestern Iceland colored the skies brilliant red, illuminating the night with stunning lava flows and with fiery plumes that could be seen from space. According to the BBC, after weeks of seismic activity in Iceland with more than 50,000 earthquakes recorded, experts warned that lava was moving under the Geldingadalur valley at a superficial depth and could belch lava. On March 19, an eruption began as lava appeared on the surface area near Fagradalsfjall, one of several shield volcanoes on the peninsula. Shield volcanoes are not very steep and resemble a “warrior’s shield guard resting on the ground.” They are composed solely of
Parallel rows of clouds lined up over southwestern Iceland on April 30, 2021. NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.
basalt lava, which is very fluid upon eruption. News reports announced that a river of lava could be seen from the country’s capital city of Reykjavik, situated 30 kilometers away. The event was bright and large enough for NASA and NOAA satellites to observe. Hot lava streamed from a fissure that was originally 500 to 700 meters
(1,600 to 2,300 feet) long. After accumulating, the continuous output broke down mounds of cooled lava called spatter or cinder cones. This was the first historic eruption of the volcano in the Reykjanes Peninsula in nearly 800 years, the Associated Press reported. No injuries from the lava or danger from volcanic ash or gasses have been reported so far. However, according to the Iceland Meteorological office, experts are monitoring the progress of the volcano’s activity and share forecast reports. According to an IMO news report, as the eruption in Fagradalsfjall continues through one main crater, the active crater is the fifth fissure opening that opened in the area on the 13th of April. Since April 27, the lava from the cinder cone was seen spewing hundreds of meters into the air. In early May, the eruption
Fagradalsfjall Volcano seen from Space. NASA Earth Observatory Images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.
began oscillating, reaching 13 cubic meters per second. The fiery plume even produced its own unique pattern in the atmosphere in the form of wave clouds observed by NASA. In early May, the eruption began oscillating, starting and stopping alternatively. Almost 30 million cubic meters of lava have spilled since the start of the eruption. In late March, according to a volcano activity update, the lava flow was apparently so spectacular that residents of the town of Grindavík decided to call the lava field “Fagradalshraun,” meaning Beautiful Lava Valley, reported Reykjavík Newscast. In a quick attempt to stop the lava from entering the Natthagi valley, an artificial dam was built. By now, however, it has entered the valley, which leads towards the southern Ring Road. The lava created a stunning lava fall to many
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26 Members of Thailand’s Women’s Volleyball Team Test Positive
onlooker’s awe and delight as it descended the northern precipice. It then formed a new flow in the valley below, following and covering the hiking path that leads from the parking area northwards to the eruption zone. Fissure Vent Number Five is still producing lava flows. During the past two weeks, at intervals of around 7 to 10 minutes, pulsating lava fountains of 400-500 m in height have continued to fall into the Meradalir valley since April 24. According to the formation of lava flows, the eruption shows no signs of ceasing, reported Icelandic Met Office group leader Kristín Jónsdóttir. The Icelandic Met Office volcano activity update on May 12 stated that the eruption has become more volatile due to changes at the magma chamber at depths between 15-20 km.
After Taking China’s Sinovac Vaccine SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP via Getty Images
By Arvind Datta Vision Times
26 26 members of the team tested positive after accepting China’s Sinovac inactivated virus injection. All will miss the upcoming Volleyball Nations League tournament.
members of Thailand’s women’s volleyball team tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, forcing the team to withdraw from the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) tournament held in Italy from May 25 to June 19. All players and staff members on the team accepted the first dose of the Chinese-made Sinovac inactivated virus COVID-19 injection on April 29. As of May 12, 22 players and 4 staff tested positive and were sent to hospital for observation. The Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) will, however, allow Thailand a special exemption to send in ringers for the VNL, according to Bangkok Post. “[FIVB] provided Thailand with a special exemption on the pub-
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Silver medallists from Thailand celebrate during the medals ceremony during the women's volleyball final at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.
lication of its roster to allow the Thailand Volleyball Association time to establish the best and safest way of ensuring that Thailand can compete in this prestigious global event,” an FIVB statement said. Thailand is set to take on Japan in its first match on May 25, according to the match schedule. In April, Reuters reported that
Thailand had seen six cases of unusual stroke-like side effects in medical personnel who had been injected with Sinovac’s offering. Symptoms included drowsiness and numbness in the limbs. No blood clots were found. All six affected individuals were female medical personnel from Rayong Province, east of Bangkok. Experts believe that
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the symptoms might have been related to the nervous system. Thailand, a country of approximately 70 million people, has so far received 6 million doses from Sinovac, and is expected to receive an additional three million sometime in June.
China’s vaccine diplomacy not met with open arms
In January, clinical trials conducted in Brazil had shown Sinovac only had an efficacy rate of 50.4 percent, which is barely above the 50 percent threshold necessary for World Health Organization approval. After results were released, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had stated that he had been right to question the credibility of China’s injections, “This 50 percent is good, is it? All the [criticism] I got for my comments, and now they are seeing the truth. Four months of being lambasted because of the
vaccine,” he told supporters outside his residence. In April, Chilean authorities released a study showing that the Sinovac vaccine only had an efficacy rate of 16 percent after the first dose. Almost 10.5 million people had participated in the study. The 26 positive-testing members of the Thai team had all taken only one shot of Sinovac. Chile began vaccinating its people with Sinovac in February. On Feb. 1, its daily new positive PCR tests per million was at 207. This peaked at 663 on April 14 and is presently at the 316 level. In April, the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Gao Fu, admitted during a presentation in the southwestern city of Chengdu that Chinese vaccines had low effectiveness, reported AP. Gao later tried to claim his comment referenced all “vaccines in the world, and not particularly for China.” 212-730-6962
LIFESTYLE
A8 | MAY 28 - JUNE 3 , 2021
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The World-Renowned
Taiwan Oolong Tea
By Ikegami Mayuko Vision Times Staff
T
he origin of Oolong tea is known as Wuyishan tea in northern Fujian Province. Wuyishan tea Wuyi is not a variety name, it refers to the tea produced in the Wuyishan tea area, also known as Wuyiyan tea. Wuyi has been a famous tea-producing area since ancient times. Oolong tea was born in the late Ming and Qing Dynasties and has been around since the Tang and Song Dynasties. Wuyi Mountain tea has always been a tribute to the emperors, and all emperors in the Song Dynasty fell in love with it. Every year, tea tasting parties are held in Fujian and Zhejiang. At the peak, 600 counties from 22 provinces participate. Among the 20 high-quality teas selected, Wuyishan tea was rated as excellent. The famous hometown of Oolong tea is Fujian Province. It was a loose tea that
became popular after solid tea was slowly eliminated. It mainly produces four types of tea: green tea, white tea, green tea, and black tea. Micro-fermented white tea is the most famous in the Song Dynasty, and Oolong tea is one of the green teas after the Qing Dynasty and is the most famous. It is mostly consumed by the Chinese in Japan and Southeast Asia. The reason for the limited production and output is that the production of oolong tea is very time-consuming and labor-intensive, and it is not easy to train skilled workers. In this era, not only did domestic demand increase, but even European countries also began buying tea from Asia. In 1607, the Dutch East India Company exported Wuyi Shan tea from Macau to Europe, which aroused great interest and attention. However, in the second half of the 19th century, after Taiwanese tea began to be exported overseas, the status of Wuyishan tea was shaken.
Later, Fujian tea was also transplanted to Nantou County, and tea planting in central Taiwan began. In 1858, due to the Opium War, the "Tianjin Treaty" was signed, and Anping and Danshui ports in Tainan were forced to open. Although this is an unequal treaty, after opening the port, Taiwanese tea has become the darling of the international market. The most popular of the Formosa teas, "White Oolong Tea", was also known as "Oriental Beauty Tea", and was frequently purchased in England during the boom period. The high price of Formosa tea in the United States is a testament to its high popularity. In the past, drinking Taiwanese tea was a symbol of status. However, the golden age of Formosa tea did not last long due to the downturn in the market economy, war or colonial rule, etc. There was a period in 1873 when the price of tea plummeted
worldwide and exports of Taiwanese tea stopped. A large amount of oolong tea that was not sold in Europe and the United States was smoked with fragrant flowers and sold to the South Seas as a packet of flower tea. After the Sino-Japanese War, under Japanese rule, the export of oolong tea was restricted, and the cultivation of black tea was rewarded. For some time, black tea became a major foreign exchange earner, but after the war, it was replaced by green tea. The cultivation of tea in Taiwan began with oolong tea and breaded tea and later changed to black tea and green tea (fried green tea, steamed green tea, gunpowder green tea, etc.), but in any case, until 1980, tea was the top export product of Taiwan. The various types of tea made in response to international market demand were of the highest quality in terms of color, aroma, taste, and shape, and
won numerous awards at international expositions. In the 1980s, Taiwan's tea changed. As the value of the currency rose along with the economic power, Taiwan tea that did not match the cost gradually lost its competitiveness in the international market. In its heyday, the annual export volume was over 23,500 tons, but in recent years, the import volume has been increasing year by year. The situation is the same as that of Japan, where cheap tea for business and processing is imported from China or Southeast Asia. Taiwan, skilled in making various kinds of tea, has taken advantage of the natural environment where tea trees are cultivated, the excellent varieties, and the technical ability to continuously research and improve the tea. In recent years, "high mountain tea" has been developed to pursue the original flavor of tea leaves and is cultivated at high altitudes.
On the other hand, economic prosperity has contributed to Taiwan's unique tea culture. The domestic population of tea drinkers has increased and the domestic consumption of tea has increased dramatically. Nowadays, people are more concerned about tea because of the rising trend of tea art and health care. As a result, high-quality oolong tea, which is only available domestically, has become the main market leader instead of the industrialized mass production of tea, which used to be an export product. In recent years, it is said that more than 3 million tons of tea are produced globally every year. About 70% of the tea is black tea, which can oxidize and ferment the leaves, and then unfermented green tea. Oolong tea, which is between black tea and green tea, produces less than 3% of the total and is a very precious tea.
COVID-19 Vaccine rollout has sped up
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MAY 28 - JUNE 3 , 2021 |
A9
By Arvind Datta
M
any cultures from all over the world depict legends of nations that avoided complete extinction due to a man-made or natural global catastrophe. In the ancient Biblical story, at the time of the great flood, Noah was chosen to preserve life. Today, scientists are considering building a ‘Noah’s Ark’ in space. The ark is to be built on the closest planet to earth, the Moon. In the event of a disaster, it could protect lifeforms from total annihilation. The concept comes from a group of researchers at the University of Arizona, whose lead engineer, Jekan Thanga, recently presented the idea at a meeting of experts from NASA. Potential threats to the earth’s biodiversity include global nuclear war, supervolcanic eruption, climate change, global storm, pandemic, global solar storm, and asteroid impact. In the event of any of these phenomena, a large number of species could be lost.
Moon ark
Thanga explained that the ‘moon ark’ will allow us to “hit a reset button” and could even bring back species that become extinct under such potential cataclysms. He stated that the moon would be an excellent choice for building such an ark since it would not be not susceptible to changes in weather patterns like on earth. Thanga added that structures that are built deep underground on the moon may be used to preserve existing lifeforms for a very long time. The plan estimates for the ark to hold spores, sperm, and eggs of around 6.7 million species. The proposal comes as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, which preserves many seeds from around the world, is already showing signs of weathering.
Álvaro Díaz-Flores Caminero, a University of Arizona doctoral student leading the thermal analysis for the project, said in a statement.
Many of the technologies needed to realize the project do not presently exist. Researchers are confident that the technology will be developed within the next three decades. The ark would be constructed inside the empty cavities and lava tunnels below the moon’s surface. Ideally, robots would run the entire facility without the need for human intervention. Solar panels will cover the surface, which would provide the power required to run the necessary life-sustaining processes and organic samples would be cryogenically frozen. Launching an earth’s worth of organic samples into space would be a daunting task. According to the researchers’ calculations, the project would require about 250 rocket launches. The International Space Station alone took 40 rocket launches. NASA plans on sending civilians to the moon by 2024, and this mission could lay the foundation for future bases on the lunar surface.
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“There’s this strong interconnectedness between us and nature… We have a responsibility to be guardians of biodiversity and the means to preserve it…. I like to use the data analogy… It’s like copying your photos and documents from your computer onto a separate hard drive, so you have a backup if anything goes wrong,” Thanga told Live Science.
What amazes me about projects like this is that they make me feel like we are getting closer to becoming a space civilization, and to a not-very-distant future where humankind will have bases on the moon and Mars… Multidisciplinary projects are hard due to their complexity, but I think the same complexity is what makes them beautiful,”
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ARTS
A10 | MAY 28 - JUNE 3 , 2021
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you sing the perfect note right in the center stage, the person at the back of the amphitheater can hear it just as well as the person in the front, " said educator James H. Smith. He says the amphitheater in Rome is a carefully designed crystal, "not something that happened by mistake." Smith, the founder of the architectural photography and design studio Cartio, grew up in Australia and now lives in New York and works as a designer. His father was an aviator, and he grew up visiting many places with him; he fondly remembers his visit to Greece. He remembers the public squares that fell 10 feet below the surface, revealing ancient ruins, witnessing the transformation of an ancient civilization, as he walked around Athens. The magnificent sculptures and ornate architecture that nestled into the city's landscape have left a lasting impression on him.
Of Athens' ancient architecture, he says, "This whole art form and ancient wisdom was right there in front of you, present in people's everyday life." Smith explains that the ancient Greek philosophers inspired a spiritual realm of art and set the tone for future classical architectural design. For example, Plato's understanding of man's connection to the divine led to the enlightenment of higher truths. The Parthenon, perched on top of the Acropolis, overlooking the city, exemplifies this philosophy, "it is stunning, so bold and beautiful," Smith said. "It has a real, majestic presence to it." Smith believes that classic architecture has a more profound mission. "Passive daily experience of classically inspired settings creates semidivine living environments and, in this way, the human realm aligns with the divine", he says.
Speaking of Plato's philosophy, Smith said,
" There is beauty and order in higher realms of existence from which we all came. Proportion, rhythm, color, space, light, geometry, and ornament would come together to create unity, order, and beauty. These carefully composed buildings stimulate the soul as we connect with the very nature of creation."
Ancient theater in Acropolis Greece, Athnes
Inspired by the Renaissance Smith, who worked as a sculptor before studying architecture, sees architecture as a study of the visual arts, "it learns from and brings together the beauty of painting and sculpture, integrating them into people's lives," he says. In addition, he has improved his knowledge of design concepts by learning photography. "Photography gives you the foundational understanding of design. Line, tone, texture, shape, and color are the fundamentals of the overall composition in photography," and you can apply these principles to designing houses, he says. Likewise, during the Renaissance, architects mastered the basic principles of composition by studying drawing, painting, and sculpture. In stark contrast to the Golden Age's holistic approach of studying multiple disciplines, the modernist approach omits broader training. Students rarely have the opportunity to learn the core fundamentals of the extensive design field. Smith, a graduate of a top Australian design school, says, "In three years of undergrad and two years postgrad, I don't remember a single class about aesthetic composition. Proportion was just a word that was said to critique your work, but it was never taught. We weren't taught some of the basic grammar of the language we were trying to learn." "Beautiful is what brings delight
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to people," Smith says. Traditional schools in the past systematically taught aesthetics and created magnificent art. Beautiful architecture, such as the Palace of Versailles, can be found everywhere in Europe. He believes that after the Renaissance in Italy, art styles became overly ornate, and King Louis XIV of France elevated the era's elegance. "King Louis XIV kept the simplicity of the Renaissance, but he refined it, made it very tasteful, elegant and nuanced," Smith says, adding that this architectural style is what inspires his work. Later generations followed the standards set by Louis XIV, such as Louis XV's neo-classical Petit Trianon, built in the palace of Versailles. "It had this propriety or nobility to it. The proportions are simple; the building is astute; the French windows have this verticality to it, ornamented elegantly. They speak to my inner realm. It makes me feel more upright as a person and more alive", Smith says. This feeling, he believes, is a moment of connection with one's true divine self, as Plato put it. "Classical settings create noble, upright, and dignified living environments that stimulate the true self within each of us and evoke one's genuine true character." Author: James H. Smith is an arts, culture, and men's fashion journalist and lives in New York.
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The Pantheon: a temple devoted to all the gods. Bulit between 27-25 BC Rome,Italy.
The Parthenon 447-432 BC,Athens,Greece.
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Rub your face to help slow aging
1
Rubbing your face can promote blood circulation in your hands and face and make your fingers more flexible. Your facial skin receives more nutrients, and you will look younger. You can rub your forehead when you are tired. Not only does this make your face feel comfortable, but your eyes also become relaxed and you feel refreshed. Method: Place the fingertips of both hands on your forehead, and push from the midline to both sides 30-50 times a day. You can wake up your mind and delay the appearance of wrinkles. It has a better effect when done after waking up in the morning.
HEALTH
Rub 8 Parts of Your Body to Slow Aging and Remain Healthy By Helen London
MAY 28 - JUNE 3 , 2021 |
A11
Rub your chest to adjust your emotions
2
We all know that anger hurts our bodies. When we are angry, we all like to rub our chests to ease our constricted breath. In fact, in addition to calming rage, this action can also enhance the cardiopulmonary function, and soothe and regulate emotions. It is recommended to do it frequently. Method: Lightly press the palms of both hands on the breastbone and the ribs on both sides, and do rubbing activities in cycles. You can do each part of the body for 50 cycles and do that several times a day.
Rubbing these 8 parts of your body regularly can relieve sore muscles in adjacent areas, promote blood circulation, prevent diseases, and help to slow aging, which is more beneficial than getting a massage.
Rub your head to reduce gray hair Rub your nose to stop hay fever There are many people suffering from hay fever and there is a simple, easy, and effective method of massaging your nose to cure chronic rhinitis without taking medicine. Method 1: Rubbing your nose with cold water every morning or before going out can improve blood circulation in the nasal mucosa and help relieve allergic rhinitis symptoms, such as nasal congestion and sneezing. Rubbing your nose frequently can speed up blood circulation in your nose, stimulate acupuncture points, and prevent colds. Method 2: Use the index fingers of both hands to start from the middle of the brow, push down the bridge of the nose and then rub upwards. Don’t use too much force. It is the best to massage till the nose becomes slightly red.
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If you rub your head daily, you can prevent gray hair from increasing, and you may even see your gray hair change back to its original color. Rubbing the head with all five fingers can speed up blood circulation and make your head receive a sufficient blood supply. It also enhances cell activity, speeds up cell division, helps secrete melanin, and helps restore hair color.
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Rub your back to keep your back straight
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Rubbing the lower back at the Yaoyan acupoints frequently can keep an old man’s back straight even into his seventies or eighties. Placing your hands on your waist with the four fingers in front and the thumbs on the back, the thumbs stretch backward and land on the position of the Yaoyan points. Method: You can make a fist with both hands to massage against the Yaoyan points, or rub with the palms until warm, which can dilate the capillaries in the local skin and improve the endurance of the lumbar muscles. It helps old people stand up straight. It can also prevent low back pain caused by rheumatism and fatigue.
Rub your feet to live longer
Rub your ears to have good hearing
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The ears are densely covered with acupuncture points that connect to all parts of the body. When your body is sick, it usually shows on the ears. Rubbing your ears frequently can invigorate your kidneys and strengthen your back, improve health, and prolong life. It can also promote the filling of capillaries and improve peripheral circulation. Method: Rub the cartilage part of your ear from the bottom to the top until it becomes red and warm. It has a therapeutic effect on inflammation as well. subscription@visiontimes.com
Chinese medicine believes that amount of nutrients the feet can get is far less than those of other parts of the body because they are at the bottom of the body, but the load the feet support is extremely heavy, which makes them age quickly. It has been proven that rubbing the feet can adjust body functions and help people live longer. There is little subcutaneous fat on the soles of the feet, so they can easily become cold, which is why there is a saying that cold starts from the feet. When people sleep, their soles should not face where the wind is from. Massage the soles often to avoid illness. But patients with diabetes should be careful when rubbing their feet. Dry rubbing: When dry rubbing, hold the front of the left instep with your left hand, rub it up and down along the sole 100 times with your right hand till warm, and then use your left hand to rub the sole of your right foot. The intensity of the massage should not be enough to make you uncomfortable. Wet rubbing: When rubbing wet, put your feet in warm water, soak them until your feet are red, and then use the dry rub method to massage them.
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Rub your hands to adjust your organs
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There are many important acupuncture points on your hands, and different acupuncture points correspond to different body organs. Frequent rubbing of these acupoints can regulate their function. Rubbing your hands is simple and easy, and can be done anytime and anywhere. Method: Use the palms of your hands or the backs of your hands to rub against each other until your hands are red or feel warm, which can stimulate the hand acupoints and strengthen the body. 212-730-6962
PET
A12 | MAY 28 - JUNE 3 , 2021
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Worms
Consulting a veterinarian
It’s important to mention that kittens must be taken to the vet at 6 weeks to be given medicine for roundworms, and then again at 3 months for tapeworms. Older cats must be regularly given medicine to prevent worms as prescribed by the vet.
Consult a vet if your cat has been in an accident, looks weak or dull, has respiratory problems, is making sounds of pain or discomfort, has balancing difficulties, or urinary or defecating problems. It is important to remember that you need to keep calm in a crisis.
A Pet Owner’s Guide
First Aid for Cats W
ho doesn’t love cats? They are sensitive, intelligent, and so adorable. Cats don’t easily get sick, but it’s always a good thing to keep a first aid kit handy. The kit should have a thermometer, round nose scissors, cotton wool, Elastoplast, olive oil, paracetamol, table salt without iodine, glucose powder, medicinal paraffin, milk of magnesia, eye cream, Cicatrin antibacterial cream, Savlon, and 3 percent hydrogen peroxide. By Simone Jonker / Vision Times Staff
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Resuscitation
Approach your cat carefully and slowly. A cat in shock or pain has the potential to lash out if they feel threatened. In the case of an injury, begin first aid immediately while someone phones the vet. In the mouth-to-nose method, first, check for any obstruction in the mouth, and remove it with a hairpin or pliers. Put the cat on its back and pull its tongue out. Hold its mouth closed with your hand and blow rhythmically once every second into its nose. Persevere, even if it takes an hour. Another approach is the pressure method. Put the cat on its side. Open its mouth. Remove obstructions. Pull its tongue out. With your palms in the middle of its chest, one inch behind the elbow, push down firmly, release quickly, and repeat. Don’t give up, even if it takes an hour.
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Electrocution
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Earache
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Hairball
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Splints
Only a broken lower leg can be splinted. Let the cat lie with the sore leg up. Use sticks or anything fairly rigid of the right size to make a splint. Put the leg on the splint and bind it with a sock or Elastoplast. Treat your cat for pain and trauma, and take it to the vet.
The cause of a hairball lodged in the stomach is from licking the pelt and swallowing the hair. The hair forms into a ball in the stomach, especially in the case of long-haired cats. Symptoms are eating grass and belching. More symptoms include vomiting, difficulty in defecating, appetite loss, and pain in the abdomen. For relief, you can administer 25 ml medicinal paraffin, and if the hairball still hasn’t come out, head on over to the vet. Prevent hairballs by brushing your cat regularly.
Causes of earache in cats are germs, mites, or foreign objects. Symptoms include rubbing, pushing head hard against the wall or other places. If the ear smells bad, or there is discharge, put a little lukewarm olive oil in the ear, and give your cat a quarter paracetamol; never give a cat aspirin. Don’t put anything else in the ear. Consult a vet.
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Wounds
In the case of injuries, bandage the wounds to help stop bleeding. Use cotton wool, tissues, or a piece of toweling and bandage the wound. With internal injuries, your cat will bleed from its nose or mouth. Treat your cat for trauma (if conscious and not vomiting) with a mixture of 50 ml glucose powder in 500 ml water every 2 hours, and then, go to the vet.
In the event of your cat or kitten having bitten through an exposed electrical wire and received a shock, it may be unable by itself to release the cord. If the cat still has the electrical cord in its mouth, do not touch it. Remove the plug from the outlet. Disconnect the plug from the socket immediately before touching the cat. If you touch the cat before disconnecting, you can also be shocked. If the cat is not breathing, feel for a heartbeat by placing fingers about one inch behind the cat’s elbow and in the center of its chest. If the cat’s heart is not beating, perform CPR. If it’s beating, perform artificial respiration. If the cat’s mouth or lips are burned (bright red), swab them gently with 3 percent hydrogen peroxide. Do not use any other antiseptic. Transport the cat to the veterinarian immediately.
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