Hello Putin, My Old Facebook Friend | Gattaca & Playing God | The Prevalence of Domestic Violence

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Like A Bridge Over Troubled Nations: When Russian President Vladimir Putin took the unabashedly bold step of annexing part of another nation’s territory (Crimea, taken from Ukraine in 2014), he got away with it. In 2016 he started building a 12 mile multi-billion dollar bridge across the Kerch Strait, linking Crimea to the Russian mainland. The Kerch Strait is the only way into the Sea of Azov, which lies between Ukraine and Russia. The US imposed sanctions on Russian companies that were helping to build the bridge, and Ukraine said the construction showed blatant disregard for international law. Regardless, he got away with it.

The bridge opened six months ago, and ever since, Putin has been building up Russian naval presence there, and seeking to restrict Ukrainian access to the Sea of Azov. Moscow simply assumed control of the waterway, demanding that Ukrainian ships give notice of their intention to transit the strait, and request permission to do so.

Last weekend three Ukrainian vessels approached the Kerch Strait. Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Volodymyr Yelchenko, said Russian naval authorities were notified that the vessels wished to pass through the strait; they were waiting for confirmation Sunday morning when Russian ships and special forces attacked, seizing the vessels and crews. “All hell broke loose… the Russian vessels were trying to provoke Ukrainian seamen to open fire,” Yelchenko said. Six Ukrainians were reported injured, one critically. Russia’s ambassador claimed the Ukrainian ships had entered Russian territorial waters and “illegally crossed Russia’s border.” Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN, said of Russia’s actions: “This is no way for a law-abiding, civilized nation to act. Impeding Ukraine’s lawful transit through the Kerch Strait is a violation under international law. It is an arrogant act that the international community must condemn and will never accept.”

Additional read: “Is there a link between Putin’s approval rating and aggressive Russian foreign policy?” (WaPo)

Elon Musk Eat Your Heart Out: NASA nerds in Pasadena, California weren’t out shopping on Cyber Monday; they were in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) watching their InSight probe land on Mars, and cheering. After a 300 million mile trip, the probe’s landing on Mars was no simple task. InSight had to slow down from 12,300 mph as it entered the top of the Martian atmosphere; it then came to a complete stop on the ground 6 1/2 minutes later. “The landing is all completely automatic and autonomous,” said the leader of the Entry, Descent and Landing team at JPL. Real time control by a person isn’t possible, because the entire landing sequence takes less time than it does for a radio signal to travel from Earth to Mars. It will take a while longer for the first scientific results to come in — at least six months. (NPR)

The French Fuel Tax Did Start The Fire But The Roof Is Not On Fire:Shopkeepers along the Champs-Elysee in Paris were hoping for a busy weekend after Christmas lights were turned on last week. Instead they were forced to shut their shops after a small number of protesters angered by fuel tax increases turned the famously beautiful street into a battlefield,smashing windows, building barricades and setting fires. City authorities mobilized 200 extra workers to repair damages to the street and buildings, at a cost that could run into the millions. French president Emmanuel Macron told ministers at a cabinet meeting Monday the government must respond after war-like images were relayed around the world of police firing tear gas and water cannon at protesters. BFM TV reported that France’s intelligence services had identified 80 to 120 extreme-right sympathizers at the heart of the violence. (Guardian)

Additional read: “Paris protest: ‘People are in the red. They can’t afford to eat.’: “People from across France came to the capital to let the president know how they feel about the new tariffs.” (Guardian)

Icarus Became A Scientist: A CRISPR scientist from a university in Shenzhen, China, Jiankui He, claims his team’s research has resulted in the world’s first gene-edited babies. He told the Associated Press that twin girls were born earlier this month after he edited their embryos using CRISPR technology to remove the CCR5 gene. Editing out the CCR5 gene would theoretically allow the creation of children with resistance to many forms of the HIV virus. There is still no independent confirmation of his research, and it has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. When a reporter for TechCrunch contacted the hospital that supposedly approved He’s study, a representative stated: “what we can say for sure is that the gene editing process did not take place at our hospital. The babies were not born here either.” But his claims are certain to cause a stir at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, opening Hong Kong on Tuesday. (TechCrunch)

Domestic Violence – The Silent Killer: According to the 2018 report on the killing of women and girls released Sunday by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, last year 137 women across the globe were killed every day by intimate partners or relatives. Said differently, of the 87,000 killed worldwide, more than 30,000 were the result of domestic violence. The study noted that violence against women is almost universally underreported to authorities. Research suggests reluctance to come forward has many dimensions, such as “fear of reprisals, economic and psychological dependence, anticipation that the police will not take the charges seriously and viewing the assault as a private matter.” The executive director of UN Women said in a statement: “We still do not know the true extent of violence against women, as the fear of reprisals, impact of not being believed, and the stigma borne by the survivor — not the perpetrator — have silenced the voices of millions of survivors of violence and masked the true extent of women’s continued horrific experiences.”

The likelihood of women being murdered by relatives or intimate partners has increased over 10 percent since 2012. Most at risk today are women in North and South America, and Africa. The report calls for a coordinated response from law enforcement that empowers and protects victims and holds their abusers accountable. It was released to coincide with the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, a campaign to raise awareness of gender-based violence and its global prevalence.

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning To Breathe Tear Gas: Tens of thousands of people cross between the US and Mexico each day at the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry, located between San Diego and Tijuana. Recently more than 5,000 migrants have been camped in Tijuana after arriving in Mexico from Central America. Many are hoping to apply for asylum in the US; however, fewer than 100 asylum petitions are processed per day at the San Ysidro entry point. On Sunday hundreds of migrants made their way through Tijuana toward the border, prompting Customs and Border Protection agents to close the entry. Mexican police officers in riot gear stopped many of the marchers, but those who continued toward the fence, including women and children, were sprayed with tear gas by US border agents. (NPR)

Additional read: “Why tear gas, lobbed at migrants on the southern border, is banned in warfare“ Commonly known as CS gas, tear gas is an aerosol compound that is considered a chemical weapon; it has been outlawed on the battlefield by nearly every nation on Earth, including the United States. (WaPo)

– “Mia Love slams Trump in concession speech: ‘No real relationships, just convenient transactions’” (CNN)

– “What’s up with all those black men who voted for the Republican in the Georgia governor’s race?” (WaPo)

– “Jerome Corsi, Friend of Roger Stone, Is in Plea Talks With Mueller: A person familiar with the talks said that the prosecutors had presented Mr. Corsi with evidence that he had not been truthful when investigators asked him whether he knew beforehand that WikiLeaks was going to publish emails stolen from Democratic computers during the campaign.” (NYT)

– “Special Counsel Says Paul Manafort ‘Breached’ Plea Deal, Lied to FBI” (NPR)

– “The Return of the Chastened Establishment: Who should run the country next?” (NYT)

– “From Trump to Boris Johnson: how the wealthy tell us what ‘real folk’ want” (Guardian)

– “George Washington Was a Master of Deception: The Founding Fathers relied on deceit in championing American independence—and that has lessons for the present.” (Atlantic)

– “How populist are you?: Take our quiz to find out” (Guardian)

– “Bitcoin sinks as cryptocurrency sell-off gathers pace” (Reuters)

– “America’s Epidemic of Empty Churches: Religious communities often face a choice: Sell off the buildings they can no longer afford, or find a way to fill them with new uses.” That’s not the only problem religion is facing. Exorcisms are back in style. (Atlantic)

– “VARDØ, NORWAY: Killed 91 suspected “witches” in the 17th century” (The Outline)

– “The Crash and Burn of Dolce & Gabbana: Racism and arrogance about China has imperiled the brand.” (NYT)

– “Six people swallowed LEGOs and pored through their own poo for science: It takes about two days for LEGO minifig heads to pass through the body. Science!” (ArsTechnica)

– “An Atomwaffen Member Sketched a Map to Take the Neo-Nazis Down. What Path Officials Took Is a Mystery.” (Propublica)

“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden

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