This video is about an ortolan bunting singing in Sweden.
Ortolan bunting singing in Sweden, video
1
Daily Archives: January 4, 2020
Trump’s Iraq-Iran war for reelection
This 3 January 2020 video from the USA is called Trump Wants War with Iran to Help Him Win Reelection.
Megalosauroidea and Carnosauria dinosaurs, video
Londoners demonstrate against Trump’s Iraq-Iran war
This 4 January video from the Evening Standard daily in England says about itself:
Hundreds protest against threat of war with Iran following death of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani
Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell has criticised the [Conservative] Government’s response to the Iran crisis as he joined protesters at a Stop the War Coalition demonstration outside Downing Street.
Mr McDonnell and his colleague shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon are among demonstrators who are calling for the US to avoid any further conflict with Iran.
“We’ve been here before, we were here 17 years ago. And there’s one lesson that came from those events, is that violence begets violence”, Mr McDonnell said.
“And it was acts like this that led us to the catastrophic war in Iraq.”
THE assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani by the United States means 2020 begins with the risk of a devastating Middle Eastern war coming closer than ever. This targeted killing was not just a “provocative and disproportionate action,” as US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi describes it — though the fact that even right-wing Democrats (from Joe Biden to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 running mate Tim Kaine) are voicing concern over “escalating aggression” and attacking President Donald Trump for having “tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox” shows just how reckless it was: here.
Trump endorses tweet comparing top Senate Democrat to Iranians: here.
Pompeo: European response to Suleimani killing ‘not helpful enough’. US secretary of state unfavourably compares European reaction with [Saudi] ‘partners in the region’: here.
Beached whales saved by New Zealanders
This 3 January 2020 New Zealand TV video says about itself:
Hundreds of beachgoers race to save pilot whales stranded in Coromandel
Seven of the pilot whales were successfully re-floated and four died.
Translated from Dutch NOS radio today:
Rescue workers and hundreds of residents and vacationers kept the whales wet until they could be led back to deeper water when the tide was high.
A total of ten [eleven] pilot whales washed ashore on the beach of the Coromandel peninsula of the North Island. Three [no, four] animals did not survive that. They were buried on the beach.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders oppose Trump’s Iraq-Iran war
This 3 January 2020 video from the USA says about itself:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Trump Iran Attack: “Now is the moment to decide if you are pro-peace”
Earlier this afternoon, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned Donald Trump’s attack on Iranian General Qassem Soleimaniin Baghdad, because the attack on Suleimani was undertaken without the necessary congressional approval and oversight.
But Alexandria Ocasio Cortez made other key points, which is that powerful forces will tell you there is no alternative but conflict with Iran, when the reality is that peace is possible. She also noted–like Bernie Sanders has done–that “War is a class conflict, too. The rich and powerful who open war escape the consequences of their decisions. It’s not their children sent into the jaws of violence.”
It’s good to see AOC take a stand against Trump and for peace.
This 3 January 2020 video from the USA says about itself:
Bernie Sanders And Ro Khanna Introduce Bill to Block Trump War on Iran
In light of Donald Trump’s attack on Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna have proposed legislation that would block funding for any offensive military force in or against Iran without prior congressional authorization. This is because many felt Trump’s unilateral attack on Iran general Soleimani
was unconstitutional, and as such, he needs to be reined in by congress.“It’s working-class kids who will have to fight and die in a disastrous new Middle East conflict—not the children of billionaires“.
FEARS are growing in the Democratic Party establishment that Bernie Sanders could become their presidential nominee, as party grandees started to round on the Vermont senator: here.
This 3 January 2020 video from the USA says about itself:
Bernie Sanders continues to warn of Trump-Iran war escalation. John Iadarola and Brett Erlich break it down on The Damage Report.
This 3 January 2020 video about Canada says about itself:
Earlier today, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and NDP MP Charlie Angus critiqued Donald Trump’s attack on Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad as an act of aggression against Iran, and expressed a desire to take an approach against further conflict. Justin Trudeau has yet to speak, but Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne took the same hedge-betting approach that Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren took, which was to call Suleimani a bad guy, critique the Quds Force, and worry about procedure.
But Singh and Angus took a clear line like Bernie Sanders: This is a foolish move that is an act of aggression on Iran, and will harm Americans and Iranians. Jagmeet Singh is the leader Canada needs on this issue.
Making a kestrel brush drawing, video
Bernie Sanders says stop Trump’s Iraq-Iran war
This 3 January 2020 Bloomberg news video from the USA says about itself:
‘This Is Not a Game:’ 2020 Democrats React to Qassem Soleimani Assassination
While on the campaign trail, 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, including Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg
so, even Buttigieg of the right wing of the Democratic party
and Tulsi Gabbard, sounded off on the killing of Iran’s Qassem Soleimani by a U.S. airstrike, universally condemning the Trump administration for a “dangerous escalation that brings us closer to another disastrous war.”
From Axios.com in the USA today, by Orion Rummler:
Sanders, Ro Khanna push to block funds for military force against Iran
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on Friday to introduce legislation that “blocks Pentagon funding for any unilateral actions” taken by President Trump “to wage war against Iran without congressional authorization.” …
Both Democrats and Republicans — such as Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) — have criticized Trump for not obtaining congressional approval for the strike.
Flashback: Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said earlier on Friday that he considers the strike an “act of aggression against Iraq” that would “light the fuse of war.”
“We know that it will ultimately be the children of working-class families who will have to fight and die in a new Middle East conflict—not the children of the billionaire class.
…The House and Senate should pass our legislation immediately and uphold our constitutional responsibilities. We must invest in the needs of the American people, not spend trillions more on endless wars.”
— Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna’s Friday statement
‘Nanotyrannus were young Tyrannosaurus rex’
This 2016 video says about itself:
In this video I talk about the most controversial tyrannosaurid, Nanotyrannus. I give the two sides of the story of the Nanotyrannus – Juvenile T. Rex argument so that it is a bit more clear and transparent.
I also talk about the history of Nanotyrannus, how the argument has developed and changed and the perception of current scientists of this argument.
Nanotyrannus lancensis is around 5m long, lived in the Cretaceous Period in North America and had amazing binocular vision and depth perception.
Among the specimens discovered of Nanotyrannus is “Jane” which is considered to be a juvenile T. Rex as evidence shows it was entering the rapid growth stage of large carnivorous dinosaurs.
From the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences in the USA:
Researchers learn more about teen-age T.Rex
How the large predator grew up
January 1, 2020
Summary: A team studied two mid-sized tyrannosaur skeletons and concluded they were in fact teenage T.Rex and not a new pygmy species. They also studied the interior of the leg bones to determine age and how the dinosaurs grew and matured.
Without a doubt, Tyrannosaurus rex is the most famous dinosaur in the world. The 40-foot-long predator with bone crushing teeth inside a five-foot long head are the stuff of legend. Now, a look within the bones of two mid-sized, immature T. rex allow scientists to learn about the tyrant king’s terrible teens as well.
In the early 2000s, the fossil skeletons of two comparatively small T. rex were collected from Carter County, Montana, by Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Illinois. Nicknamed “Jane” and “Petey”, the tyrannosaurs would have been slightly taller than a draft horse and twice as long.
The team led by Holly Woodward, Ph.D., from Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences studied Jane and Petey to better understand T. rex life history.
The study “Growing up Tyrannosaurus rex: histology refutes pygmy ‘Nanotyrannus’ and supports ontogenetic niche partitioning in juvenile Tyrannosaurus” appears in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances.
Co-authors include Jack Horner, presidential fellow at Chapman University; Nathan Myhrvold, founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures; Katie Tremaine, graduate student at Montana State University; Scott Williams, paleontology lab and field specialist at Museum of the Rockies; and Lindsay Zanno, division head of paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Supplemental histological work was conducted at the Diane Gabriel Histology Labs at Museum of the Rockies/Montana State University.
“Historically, many museums would collect the biggest, most impressive fossils of a dinosaur species for display and ignore the others,” said Woodward. “The problem is that those smaller fossils may be from younger animals. So, for a long while we’ve had large gaps in our understanding of how dinosaurs grew up, and T. rex is no exception.”
The smaller size of Jane and Petey is what make them so incredibly important. Not only can scientists now study how the bones and proportions changed as T. rex matured, but they can also utilize paleohistology — the study of fossil bone microstructure — to learn about juvenile growth rates and ages. Woodward and her team removed thin slices from the leg bones of Jane and Petey and examined them at high magnification.
“To me, it’s always amazing to find that if you have something like a huge fossilized dinosaur bone, it’s fossilized on the microscopic level as well,” Woodward said. “And by comparing these fossilized microstructures to similar features found in modern bone, we know they provide clues to metabolism, growth rate, and age.”
The team determined that the small T. rex were growing as fast as modern-day warm-blooded animals such as mammals and birds. Woodward and her colleagues also found that by counting the annual rings within the bone, much like counting tree rings, Jane and Petey were teenaged T.rex when they died; 13 and 15 years old, respectively.
There had been speculation that the two small skeletons weren’t T. rex at all, but a smaller pygmy relative Nanotyrannus. Study of the bones using histology led the researchers to the conclusion that the skeletons were juvenile T. rex and not a new pygmy species.
Instead, Woodward points out, because it took T. rex up to twenty years to reach adult size, the tyrant king probably underwent drastic changes as it matured. Juveniles such as Jane and Petey were fast, fleet-footed, and had knife-like teeth for cutting, whereas adults were lumbering bone crushers. Not only that, but Woodward’s team discovered that growing T. rex could do a neat trick: if its food source was scarce during a particular year, it just didn’t grow as much. And if food was plentiful, it grew a lot.
“The spacing between annual growth rings record how much an individual grows from one year to the next. The spacing between the rings within Jane, Petey, and even older individuals is inconsistent — some years the spacing is close together, and other years it’s spread apart,” said Woodward.
The research by Woodward and her team writes a new chapter in the early years of the world’s most famous dinosaur, providing evidence that it assumed the crown of tyrant king long before it reached adult size.
Anti-Trump’s Iraq war protest London today
This 3 January 2020 video from the USA says about itself:
It appears that Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump, knew in advance about the unauthorized assassination of Iranian Quds leader Qassim Soleimani, publishing a strange tweet and subsequently deleting it.
So, Trump told his son about this assassination; but did not tell the government of Iraq where that bloody attack happened, and did not tell his British government ‘allies’.
By Ceren Sagir in Britain:
Friday, January 3, 2020
Trump’s drone assassination of Iranian general raises tensions to boiling point, campaigners warn
Stop the War Coalition calls for anti-war protest outside Downing Street at 2pm on Saturday
THE assassination of Iran’s top general, Qasem Soleimani, has raised tensions in the Middle East to boiling point, anti-war campaigners have warned.
Stop the War Coalition has called a demonstration outside Downing Street at 2pm on Saturday under the heading No War with Iran.
The commander of the elite Quds Force, who led Tehran’s military operations in the Middle East, was targeted by the United States in a drone strike at Baghdad’s international airport early today and Iran and its allies are calling for a “harsh vengeance.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “The US assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani is an extremely serious and dangerous escalation of conflict in the Middle East with global significance.
“The UK government should urge restraint on the part of both Iran and the US, and stand up to the belligerent actions and rhetoric coming from the United States.
“All countries in the region and beyond should seek to ratchet down the tensions to avoid deepening conflict, which can only bring further misery to the region, 17 years on from the disastrous invasion of Iraq.”
Labour MP Richard Burgon warned that US President Donald Trump’s is risking engagement in a war with Iran that would be “even worse than that on Iraq.”
Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey called for a de-escalation of tensions and resistance against “any rush to war.”
She said: “With this assassination, President Trump is pushing us to the brink of another disastrous war that would cost countless lives, further destabilise the region and make us all less safe.”
Stop the War Coalition’s Lindsey German called the killing of Gen Soleimani “an act of war by Donald Trump”, and said the act violated all agreements with the Iraqi government.”
She said: “Trump has been heading for war since tearing up the nuclear deal with Iran, and, if he succeeds, will create a bigger war than we have seen in the Middle East. It will draw in major players across the region including Israel, Saudi Arabia and possibly Russia.
“This is the bloody result of two decades of war started by the US after 9/11.
“Those of us who said war in Iraq would lead to endless conflict and misery were absolutely right to do so.
“And those who justified those wars are now looking on while the situation escalates.”
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called for a de-escalation of tensions, adding that further conflict “is in none of our interests.”
Chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the last parliament Tom Tugendhat suggested that the US had neglected to warn the British government about the airstrike.
And while Labour MP Stella Creasey called for MPs to immediately return to Parliament, there was no response from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, busy celebrating New Year on the private Caribbean island of Mustique.
Labour’s shadow secretary Emily Thornberry called Mr Raab’s statement insufficient and criticised the PM for having “pathetically unopposed” Mr Trump pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later thanked Mr Raab for recognising the “aggressive threats posed” by the Quds Force during a phone conversation between the pair.
…
Mr Trump, who tweeted an image of the US flag shortly after the strike, later said that Gen Soleimani was “plotting to kill” many US citizens and that “he should have been taken out many years ago.”
But US Senator Bernie Sanders said he would do “everything in [his] power” to prevent a war with Iran and would “apologise to no-one.”
The presidential hopeful, competing for the Democrat nomination, said: “Trump’s dangerous escalation brings us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East that could cost countless lives and trillions more dollars.
“Trump promised to end endless wars, but this action puts us on the path to another one.”
…
General Soleimani and Iranian and Iraqi advisers were leaving Baghdad airport in two cars when they were hit by the US strike near a cargo area. Several missiles struck the convoy and, according to Iranian state TV, at least 10 people are believed to have died.
The [Iranian opposition] Association for Defence of Peace, Solidarity & Democracy warned that any war on Iran would inevitably strengthen the grip of its theocratic regime “and thus weaken the people’s struggle for human and democratic rights and social justice.”
Dear Kitty. Some blog 