Norway Pulls the Plug on Classroom AI and Tablets

Norway is imposing a near ban on the use of generative AI tools by elementary school pupils while also restricting their ​use in the education of older children to prevent a ‌negative impact on learning, the country's prime minister declared. 

Facing a broad decline in education test scores, the government in 2024 banned smartphones from schools and have given teachers back more powers to enforce discipline in the classroom. 

Using AI increases the risk that young children skip important ⁠steps in their education, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere (right) told a press conference on Friday. 

"The most important thing in school is that our children learn to read, write and do mathematics", Stoere said, adding that the new standards will be imposed from the new school year beginning in late August. 

Pupils from first through seventh grade, aged 6 to 13, should as a general rule not be using AI, while those in lower secondary school, aged 14 to ‌16, can ⁠cautiously adopt tools under teachers' supervision, the government said. In upper secondary education, from ages 17 to 19, students should learn to use AI appropriately so that they are prepared for further education and work, they added. 

Norway began adopting computers in classrooms in ⁠the 1990s and tablets after the introduction of the iPad from 2010 onwards, reducing the reliance on books and handwriting. 

But in a related statement on Friday the government also ⁠said they will propose legislation to fund the use of more books in classrooms, reversing the trend towards computer tablets. 

In April, the Norwegian government had ⁠announced plans to ban children from using social media until they turn 16, in order to reduce young people's use of electronic devices.

Yes, Lobsters Feel Pain

New research on Norway lobsters adds to a growing body of evidence that these crustaceans feel pain – something scientists have long suspected and even inspired David Foster Wallace's famous 2004 essay "Consider the Lobster". 

In a study published April 13, 2026 in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers found that two drugs used for pain relief in humans – aspirin and lidocaine – significantly reduced the escape responses of Norway lobsters (Nephrops norvegicus) when they were electrically shocked. 

The researchers argue that the medicines were muting the animals' pain processing and that the tail flip is therefore a pain reflex, rather than a simple stress reaction. The team says the findings suggest lobsters deserve greater ethical consideration. 

"The fact that painkillers developed for humans also work on Norway lobsters shows how similar we function", Lynne Sneddon, a professor of zoophysiology at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said in a statement. "That's why it's important to care about how we treat and kill crustaceans, just as we do with chickens and cows". 

Countries including Switzerland, Norway, New Zealand, Austria and some states in Australia ‪have already banned the boiling of live crustaceans on welfare grounds, and the new findings may add pressure for broader reforms in how these animals are treated and killed. 

[Recommended humane methods for killing arthropods involve electrical stunning (e.g., Crustastun), followed by rapid mechanical destruction of the nervous system (pithing), such as spiking or splitting the carapace, to ensure instant death. These methods prevent suffering by targeting the ganglia, which are distributed along the body, and should be preceded by cooling in a refrigerator or ice slurry for 15–30 minutes to reduce mobility and, likely, sensitivity]. 

To understand how lobsters respond to painful stimuli, the researchers separated 105 Norway lobsters into multiple groups. These included several control groups of lobsters that weren't shocked, along with two shock groups treated with either lidocaine or aspirin. The lidocaine was dissolved in the individual lobster's tank, while the aspirin was injected into the animal directly.

The researchers then gave a 9.09-volt-per-meter electrical shock for 10 seconds to the three shock groups and observed their behavior before, during and up to two hours after the shock. 

When shocked, the lobsters tried to escape by using a tail flip, a common escape maneuver in some crustaceans that rockets them out of danger in small, rapid spurts. The tail flips were seen only in the electrically shocked group of lobsters, not in the control groups. 

Yet when the animals received lidocaine or aspirin before being shocked, the rate of tail flips dropped sharply: Only seven of the 13 lidocaine-treated lobsters and three of the 13 aspirin-treated lobsters tail-flipped, with more intense responses seen in the untreated group.

According to the researchers, their results suggest that the electrical shocks weren't just triggering muscular contractions in the lobsters but instead created a painful experience. That's because if the behavior was merely electrically stimulated, the painkillers wouldn't be expected to suppress the tail flip. 

Instead, painkiller treatment reduced the escape behavior. From this finding, the researchers suggested that the tail flip may have had a neurological component known as nociception. This is when signals from the body part exposed to the harmful stimulus travel to the brain and trigger a negative internal state associated with pain. 

This study joins a growing body of research indicating that crabs, octopuses and other invertebrates can experience pain. In past studies, hermit crabs shocked inside their shells eventually abandoned their homes to avoid experiencing the painful stimulus.

Octopus (Phylum: Mollusca, Class: Cephalopoda, Order: Octopoda) have shown even stronger clues about pain processing; in one widely cited study, "Behavioral and neurophysiological evidence suggests affective pain experience in octopus" published February 23, 2021 in iScience – they avoided places linked to injury and favored those associated with pain relief. This evidence is beginning to gradually change policies about how these animals are being treated. 

In the UK, crabs, lobsters and octopuses are now recognized as sentient animals "capable of experiencing pain and suffering" under the 2022 Animal Welfare Act.

No More a Peacemaker

US President Donald Trump blamed the Nobel Peace Prize committee for turning him from a peacemaker to a warmonger in a letter to Norway Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, that was confirmed on Monday. 😂😂😂

He reiterated he no longer feels obliged to think only of peace after he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year.

The authenticity of the message was confirmed by a source close to the matter to the AFP news agency and by Støre to the Norwegian newspaper VG. 

It remains unclear why Trump directed the message to the Norwegian government, as the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by the independent Norwegian Nobel Committee, not by Oslo’s political leadership. 

In a written response, Støre underlined that point. “I have clearly explained, including to President Trump, what is well known: the prize is awarded by an independent Nobel Committee”, he said. 

CNN reported yesterday that Støre asserted he received the said message in reply to a text he and Finnish President Alexander Stubb sent Trump, in which the Nordic leaders “conveyed our opposition to his announced tariff increases against Norway, Finland and select other countries”. [Refer my post "Greenland Prompts US Tariffs on European Allies" published on Monday].

The number of European troops being deployed in Greenland is still undetermined. Danish state-owned broadcaster TV2 have reported that 58 Danish troops landed in the Arctic territory, joining about 60 others (as opposed to 31 soldiers, as per my January 19 post) dispatched earlier to supposedly participate in ongoing multinational military exercises, dubbed Operation Arctic Endurance. 

On the US side, the Pentagon have issued “prepare-to-deploy” orders to roughly 1,500 active-duty soldiers from the 11th Airborne Division. Officially, the alert is tied to a potential domestic deployment to Minneapolis but it has immediately raised scrutiny. Reconstituted and reoriented in recent years, the division have been widely regarded as the Army’s premier Arctic and cold-weather formation, optimized for sub-zero operations and high-latitude logistics.

Methinks, Trump should just quickly give the order to seize Greenland! End of story!

Greenland Prompts US Tariffs on European Allies

The Greenland issue is not going away anytime soon! 

US President Donald Trump is seeking to force the hand of his European allies who opposed his plan to take over the self-governing territory when he wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday that Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and UK will be subject to a 10% US tariff on "all or any goods" from February 01. 

Accusing these countries of playing "a very dangerous game", he said the tariffs would be raised to 25% on June 01 "until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland". 

Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and UK have even dispatched a tiny contingent of troops to Greenland in a symbolic show of force. It is strange that Denmark wasn't mentioned at all – but I would think they'll have troops there too.

I saw another report that says only 31 troops were deployed. Of this total, 15 were from France, 13 from Germany, 2 from Norway and one from UK. 😂😂😂

Denmark's Army chief Major-General Peter Boysen has come out to boldly assert that he's ready to defend Denmark! 😂😂😂

But Greenland and Denmark are two separate entities. Lest we forget, Denmark is an occupier, a colonizer.

And Boysen should know that at the Pituffik Space Base located on the north-west coast of Greenland – where the Americans already have a presence – the US has 150 troops stationed there!

Trump has previously said Washington would get the territory "the easy way" or "the hard way" – an apparent reference to buying the island or taking it by force. The US president insists “world peace is at stake” as China and Russia “want Greenland”. 

Only the US can “play this game”, he emphatically adds.

Donald Trump Puts Pressure on Norwegians

US President Donald Trump is pressuring the Norwegian government and the Nobel Committee in an unprecedented push for the Nobel Peace Prize, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. Experts reportedly remain skeptical that the campaign will succeed, however. 

The Norwegian Nobel Committee are set to announce the Peace Prize winner on Friday. Analysts are doubtful that Trump will be selected, citing his domestic and international record, as well as the fact that the prize honors actions taken in 2024, when he had not yet taken office. 

“Putting pressure on the committee, going on talking about ‘I need the prize, I’m the worthy candidate’ – it’s not a very peaceful approach”, Nina Graeger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, told FT. 

According to Norwegian officials, as cited by FT, Trump raised the issue in a call with Norwegian Finance Minister and former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. 

There is also concern in Oslo about potential retaliation, including tariffs or other punitive measures, if Trump is not selected, the newspaper noted. The controversy has reportedly been exacerbated in recent weeks after Norway’s sovereign wealth fund divested from US company Caterpillar due to their equipment being used by Israel in Gaza. 

Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan underlined their title credentials after cruising into the women's doubles quarter-finals of the Arctic Open in Vantaa, Finland, on Thursday. 

The world No. 2 were in ruthless form as they crushed Indonesia's Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma-Meilysa Trias Puspitasari 21-17, 21-13 and extending their winning streak against the world No. 27 to three matches this season. 

The result kept the Malaysians firmly on track to defend their runners-up points from last year's edition, where they reached the final before falling to China's world No. 1 Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning.

Donald Trump's Ultimatum to Russia

US President Donald Trump on Monday issued an ultimatum to Russia, threatening economic punishment if peace isn’t reached in 50 days, as he approves the funneling of a “full complement” of weapons to Kiev. 

The plan is to have European nations purchase American weapons, then transfer them to Ukraine. Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO described the weapons agreement as a game-changer. He identified several nations – including Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway – as potential suppliers of the new equipment. 

In fact, Trump told NBC News on Thursday that he has already secured a deal through NATO to send new Patriot anti-missile missiles to Ukraine. 

This is just bullshit. A warmongering country that started this proxy war using Ukraine to fight Russia wants "peace" at its own terms! 😡😡😡

Of course, that's not all. Trump promised “tariffs at about 100%, you’d call them secondary tariffs. You know what that means”. He even gloated: “I use trade for a lot of things. But it’s great for settling wars”. 

A White House official clarified to CNN that when the president referred to “secondary tariffs”, he meant 100% tariffs on Russia and secondary sanctions on other countries that buy Russian oil. The US conducts very little trade with Russia, making the secondary sanctions the piece with potentially the most bite. 

“They’re secondary sanctions. It’s sanctions on countries that are buying the oil from Russia. So it’s really not about sanctioning Russia”, Matt Whitaker, the US ambassador to NATO, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the White House. “It’s about tariffs on countries like India and China (and Brazil) that are buying their oil. It really is going to dramatically impact the Russian economy”.

On Sunday, Liverpool won their first pre-season friendly game by claiming a 3-1 victory over Preston North End. BTW, pre-match saw emotional tributes to Diogo Jota, including a rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone and a minute’s silence in honour of the striker and his brother Andre Silva.

The Beer That Uses 2,000-year-old Glacial Water

Svalbard Bryggeri are a microbrewery in Longyearbyen – Svalbard's administrative center – located on Spitsbergen, the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norway.  

For almost a century, it was illegal to brew beer here. All of that changed in 2015 when a local guy named Robert Johansson worked to change the laws and then start the Svalbard Brewery. 

This unique Arctic brewery use 2,000-year-old glacier water to brew beer. They're the world's northernmost commercial brewery, sitting on the 78th parallel North, just 1300 km away from the North Pole. The brewery focus on sustainability, such as converting production waste into energy and heating, and reducing CO₂ emissions by 80% by substituting CO₂ with nitrogen. 

Visitors to the brewery can join in on scheduled tastings and tours. The brewery also host a "brewery night" every Friday from 16:00 to 10:00 PM.

If I happen to be in Norway, for sure, I'll want to make a stopover there! FYI, Svalbard is about the same size as Ireland, but only 2,500 people live there. In fact, it is claimed there are more polar bears there than there are people!

Women's doubles pair Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan began their campaign at the Malaysia Masters on a positive note today. 

The world No. 4 defeated Hong Kong's world No. 56 Fan Ka Yan-Yau Mau Ying 21-17, 21-16 in 37 minutes at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil. 

The Thailand Open champions will next face Thai pair Pichamon Phatcharaphisutsin-Nannapas Sukklad, the world No. 85, in the second round.

Donald Trump's Tariffs Spark Penguin Memes

Donald Trump’s tariffs have become a black and white issue on social media, where penguin memes have gone viral after he targeted an island inhabited by the flightless birds, but no people. 

One widely shared image on Thursday showed a penguin in place of Ukrainian leader [V]olodymyr [Z]elensky in the Oval Office during his recent row with the US president and Vice President JD Vance. 

Another meme is said to show US First Lady Melania Trump gazing up at an emperor penguin – in place of former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – while Trump looks askance.  [I wasn't able to locate this particular online gag though].

Trump’s announcement of worldwide tariffs on Wednesday certainly received an icy reception in many countries. But there has also been bafflement about why some of the most remote parts of the world have been targeted.

A case in point: why would Trump slap 10 percent tariffs on all exports from the Heard and McDonald Islands, a barren sub-Antarctic Australian territory without a human population, but four different species of penguin? 

As US congresswoman Jasmine Crockett indignantly asked: "So let me get this straight – Trump hit places with NO people and NO trade with the US with tariffs... and it's literally just penguins out there? PENGUINS???"

A netizen also highlighted that this 10 percent tariff would make the penguins the “first nonhuman in history” to enter a trade war with the US.

“The penguins have been ripping us off for years”, Anthony Scaramucci, who was Trump’s former communications chief for 11 days in his first term and is now a vocal critic, joked on X. 

However, a MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporter had contended that the tariff is meant to close any loophole that Australia could use as leverage. “What’s funny is how everyone is listening to MSM and not doing their own research. The tariffs on Heard and McDonald island were put there to close a loophole so Australia couldn’t cheat the tariffs”, the user claimed.

Trump also caused puzzlement with his 29 percent tariff on Norfolk Island, a tiny Australian territory in the Pacific with a population of a little over 2,000 humans. 

“I’m not quite sure that Norfolk Island, with respect to it, is a trade competitor with the giant economy of the United States”, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. 

And Britain’s remote Falkland Islands – home to one million penguins, and most famous for a 1982 war fought between UK and Argentina – was hit by 41 percent exports even though the UK only faces 10 percent.

Anyway, check out more of these memes:

While the Internet laughed at penguin tariff memes, economists scratched their heads, wondering if maybe, just maybe, we should be worried about the actual human consequences of Trump’s tariffs. But that’s boring. 

Instead, we have memes – memes that clearly demonstrate the flawless logic behind imposing trade restrictions on islands inhabited solely by wildlife. Because, obviously, the biggest threat to American jobs is Antarctic bird life.

Bounty to Catch 27,000 Escaped Salmon

Seafood company Mowi will remunerate fishers who catch escaped salmon after an estimated 27,000 fish went missing from a farm off the Norwegian coast in what campaigners said was a “disaster for wild salmon”. 

The reward of 500 kroner ($45) per salmon caught after the world's largest supplier of farm-raised salmon said a quarter of their 105,000 salmon population escaped from their enclosure in Troms, north-west Norway. 

The Norwegian directorate of fisheries said the escape was reported on Sunday by Mowi, which said they discovered damage to the outer ring of a pen during stormy weather at the Storvika V facility in Dyrøy municipality, Troms. The average weight of the escaped fish was 5.5kg (12.1lbs), they said. 

Norwegian authorities were on site on Monday inspecting the facility and issued an order to expand the company’s efforts to recapture the fish. Vegard Oen Hatten, a spokesperson for the fisheries directorate, said: “Normally, fish farmers are only allowed to conduct recapture operations within a 500-metre zone around the facility in the event of an escape. However, based on the potential scale of this incident, Mowi was instructed to extend recapture efforts beyond this zone”. 

Mowi said it was “a serious and very regrettable situation” and that fish caught by registered fishers could be delivered to fish “reception centres” around the area in return for the bounty. 

Escaped salmon pose huge environmental problems, campaigners say. They endanger wild salmon by reducing their genetic diversity, increasing infection from sea lice and intensify competition for spawning grounds. 

In Norway, which exports 1.2m tonnes of farmed salmon a year, the problem is such that last summer wild salmon numbers dropped to a historic low, resulting in the closure of 33 rivers to salmon fishing. This summer 42 rivers and three fjords have been proposed for closure. 

“27,000 farmed salmon on the run is a disaster for wild salmon”, said Pål Mugaas, a spokesperson for Norske Lakseelver (Norwegian Salmon Rivers).

Malaysia's King on State Visit to China

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Malaysia's Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Ibrahim is on his maiden state visit to China from September 19-22 at the invitation of President Xi Jinping. The visit coincides with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and China.

 

“Malaysia has gone through various governments, but I am here as the King of the country. Malaysia’s foreign policy has always been in favor of strong partnership with China. Moving forward together is what we seek for”, the King said in his introduction to the meeting with Xi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A rare polar bear was spotted in a remote village in Iceland, the first one seen in the country since 2016. On Thursday, police shot and killed it.

 

Police reportedly consulted the national environment agency, which declined to have the animal relocated, according to the Westfjords police chief, Helgi Jensson.

 

“It’s not something we like to do”, Jensson said. “In this case… the bear was very close to a summer house. There was an old woman in there”.

 

The owner, who was alone, was frightened and locked herself upstairs as the bear rummaged through her garbage, Jensson said. She contacted her daughter in Reykjavik, the capital, by satellite link, and called for help.

 

“She stayed there”, Jensson said, adding that other summer residents in the area had gone home. “She knew the danger”.

 

Polar bears (Scientific name: Ursus maritimus) are not native to Iceland but there have been occasions when they come ashore after traveling on ice floes from Greenland, according to Anna Sveinsdóttir, the director of scientific collections at the Icelandic Institute of Natural History. Many icebergs have been spotted off the north coast in the last few weeks.

 

Although attacks by polar bears on humans are extremely rare, a study in Wildlife Society Bulletin in 2017 said that the loss of sea ice from global warming has led more hungry bears to land, creating a greater chance of conflicts with humans and increasing the risk to both.

 

Of 73 documented attacks by polar bears from 1870 to 2014 in Greenland, Canada, Norway, Russia and the United States – which killed 20 people and injured 63 – 15 occurred in the final five years of that period.

 

While the bears are a protected species in Iceland and it is forbidden to kill one at sea, they can be killed if they pose a threat to humans or livestock.

 

After two bears arrived in 2008, a debate over killing the threatened species led the environment minister to appoint a taskforce to study the issue, the institute said. The working party concluded that killing vagrant bears was the most appropriate response.

 

They said the non-native species posed a threat to people and animals, and the cost of returning them to Greenland, about 180 miles away, was exorbitant. They claimed they found there was a healthy bear population in east Greenland, from where any bear was likely to have come.

Tongue-in-cheek Beer Names

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A beer named after Osama Bin Laden has sold out after going viral on social media. 

 

Staff at Mitchell Brewing Co had to unplug phones and close their website temporarily because of demand for Osama Bin Lager. FYI, the company, of Billinghay, Lincolnshire, also brews Winston Churchpale, Kim Jong Ale and Putin Porter. 

 

 

"They're all tongue-in-cheek names – a nicer outlook on some horrible dictators", co-owner Luke Mitchell said. Millions of people have seen a picture of the beer – named after the former al-Qaeda leader who died in 2011 – posted on social media. 

 

A husband and wife team run the brewery and a pub. 

 

"We've woken up the last couple of mornings with thousands and thousands and thousands of notifications", Luke Mitchell said. 

 

"It's been crazy", Catherine Mitchell added. "The phone just hasn't stopped for the last 48 hours".

 

"Everyone laughs when they see the names on the bar. As far as I'm aware, no one's been offended, but I'm sure there is someone out there", Luke added. 

 

"I think there's always a risk of somebody being offended", Catherine piped up. 

 

Predictably, opinions are divided, but the brewery donates £10 from each barrel of Osama Bin Lager to a charity that supports victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

 

The establishment of a Palestinian state is “the only route to peace” in the Middle East, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday as his country announced formal recognition, alongside Norway and Ireland.

 

I guess better late than never. Palestine has already been recognized by 144 other countries.

Dance of the Twigs

Someone collected these twigs, arranged them together and called them "nature's dance". ❤️

 

It's really clever, this troupe of headless stick figures showing off their slick dance moves. 

 

"I Love Cow", a member of the National Geographic Facebook page had posted it on Thursday.

 

Al Jazeera reports that Norway 👍 has decided to continue funding UNRWA. Noway’s UN ambassador explains the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees are the “main lifeline” for Palestinians in Gaza “who find themselves in a humanitarian catastrophe”.

 

Besides Norway, only a handful of countries, including Belgium, Spain and Saudi Arabia have pledged to continue funding. The largest donors, notably the US and Germany, have suspended funding altogether.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Makes U-turn

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner on a transatlantic flight had to turn around three hours after its departure from Amsterdam, Netherlands on Monday. This time, you can't pin the blame on Boeing.

 

The plane with more than 200 passengers on board was headed for Los Angeles in California, USA, Airlive.net reported. Soon after takeoff, flight attendants discovered eight of the nine bathrooms were inoperable.

 

Data from Flightradar24 suggests the pilots first considered heading back to their point of embarkation about an hour into the flight. The plane did a circle north of the UK before the pilots decided to continue.

 

But two hours later, KLM KL601 did a U-turn over Greenland and returned to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol – meaning passengers had a 6-and-a-half-hour flight to nowhere.

 

The airline then replaced the Boeing with another one, KLM said. It departed from Amsterdam nine hours later than originally scheduled.

 

The plane with the faulty restrooms appears to have been fixed overnight, as it flew to Houston and back on Tuesday, per Flightradar24. 

 

Planes diverting due to faulty toilets isn't unheard of. 

 

Last April, 300 Austrian Airlines passengers had to rebook their flights after five of the eight toilets wouldn't flush properly. 

 

And in 2018, a Norwegian flight, which ironically had 85 plumbers on board, had to return to the airport due to malfunctioning toilets.

Sleeping Beauty

Last year, the Natural History Museum announced their spectacular winning images selected from 50,000 submissions. A further 25 memorable images were shortlisted by the judges and the Natural History Museum, from which the public had a chance to select their favorites.

 

Fast forward to today, and the People's Choice Winner is a picture of a sleeping polar bear, voted for by a record number of 75,000 people.

 

"Ice Bed" By Nima Sarikhani

 

"A polar bear (Scientific name: Ursus maritimus) carves out a bed from a small iceberg before drifting off to sleep in the far north, in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. 

 

Having spent three days searching for polar bears through thick fog, the expedition vessel Sarikhani was on changed course. It turned and headed to where there was still some sea ice. Here Sarikhani encountered a younger and an older male polar bear. 

 

Just before midnight, the young male clambered onto a small iceberg and, using its strong paws, clawed away to carve out a bed before drifting off to sleep".

 

I agree with their pick and I would have voted for the said photo too. 

 

Two other images that I also liked are shared here: 

 

"The Happy Turtle" by Tzahi Finkelstein

 

"A Balkan pond turtle (Scientific name: Mauremys rivulata) shares a moment of peaceful coexistence with a northern banded groundling dragonfly (Scientific name: Brachythemis impartita) in Israel’s Jezreel Valley. 

 

Finkelstein was positioned in his hide photographing shore birds when he spotted a Balkan pond turtle walking in the shallow water. At first, he wasn’t interested in it and carried on watching the birds. It wasn’t until a northern banded groundling dragonfly flew past his lens in the direction of the turtle that his focus changed. The dragonfly unexpectedly landed on the turtle’s nose, but instead of snapping up the insect, the turtle appeared to be experiencing pleasure from the interaction as they shared a moment in the midst of the swamp’s murky waters". 

 

"Starling Murmuration" by Daniel Dencescu

 

Dencescu was mesmerized by the movements of the starlings (Family Sturnidae, especially genus Sturnus) as they formed colossal organic shapes in the sky. 

 

Each day, as they returned from foraging, they would gather in large numbers and perform spellbinding aerial shows, known as murmurations, on their flight home to their communal roosts. In a bid to locate the best roosting sites at which to capture the spectacle, Dencescu spent hours following the starlings around the city and suburbs of Rome, Italy. Finally, on this cloudless winter’s day, the flock didn’t disappoint, swirling into the shape of a giant bird".

 

Israeli soldier casualties have become a bone of contention. Hamas are claiming that 562 Israeli soldiers have lost their lives in the current conflict in Gaza – but the Israel Defense Forces have disputed the numbers.

Furthermore, Hamas challenged the IDF admission of 2,500 wounded, presenting hospital records indicating a much higher toll of over 6,500 injured soldiers.

The conflicting accounts between Hamas and the IDF point towards the challenge in obtaining accurate information amid chaos and conflict.

 

The actual fatalities aside, the fact is Hamas are fiercely fighting the Israelis and tallying up the kills. It's not a one-sided war. Israelis die too.

US Treats Taiwan As A Sovereign State

My post on Taiwan earlier today refers. I was right, wasn't I?

Western countries are emboldened to begin treating the rebellious Chinese province as a sovereign entity.

US President Joe Biden’s administration have approved a military transfer to Taiwan under the Foreign Military Financing, or FMF, program normally used for sovereign states, according to a notice sent to Congress.

The notification, which was seen by Reuters on Wednesday, informs congressional committees of the State Department’s intention to obligate up to $80 million in FMF funds in support of Taiwan. 

“FMF will be used to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defence capabilities through joint and combined defence capability and enhanced maritime domain awareness and maritime security capability”, the advisory announced.

FMF, the largest military assistance account managed by the State Department, provides primarily grant assistance to foreign governments for the purchase of US defense equipment and military training under the Foreign Military Sales program.

The United States, Taiwan’s most important arms supplier, last month already announced a Taiwan weapons aid package worth up to $345 million.

And in fact, Taiwan's Vice President Lai Ching-te himself had spoken out that there was no need for Taiwan to declare independence because it is already an independent sovereign state (Taiwan News, May 17, 2023). 

China must not remain passive. Get tough! Now!

Norway will become the third country to pledge F-16 fighter jets to Kiev to bolster its Soviet-era air force, the country's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said on August 24. 

 

According to Norwegian news agency NTB, Norway will give Kiev between five and 10 planes.

TikTok Get Blamed for Guzzling Energy in Norway

TikTok are being blamed for being an energy-guzzler! 

 

At Raufoss (about 120 kilometers north of Oslo in Norway), a weapons firm co-owned by the Norwegian government and a Finnish state-controlled defence company, said they can’t meet the surging demand for artillery shells because a TikTok data center there is using up the electricity! 

 

Elvia, the local energy company, confirmed that the electricity network has no spare capacity after promising it to the data center as they allocate it on a first come, first served basis. 

 

Experts say fights over which companies and which type of industry get priority access to electricity grids are likely to increase across Europe. Data centres have flourished in the Nordic countries because of once-plentiful and cheap electricity, as well as a colder climate that keeps cooling costs down. 

 

“We are concerned because we see our future growth is challenged by the storage of cat videos", Morten Brandtzæg, the CEO of Nammo AS, said in an interview with the Financial Times. (I guess he doesn't like cats!)

 

Brandtzæg said that the demand for artillery rounds was 15 times higher than normal – a trend driven by the war in Ukraine, which has featured heavy artillery use. Ukraine, for instance, would like to increase its daily usage of rounds from 6,000 to 65,000, he explained. 

 

It isn’t known if Nammo shells are being used in Ukraine – their customer base, as described in a 2021 annual report, is overwhelmingly EU and NATO states, which have been making huge donations to Ukraine since Russia launched its Special Military Operation. 

 

TikTok and other tech giants have faced criticism for their energy use. Back in July, a report from the FT found that the electricity usage of large companies – including Microsoft, Oracle, LG, Huawei, Amazon, and Dell – was making it harder to build more homes in London, UK. Due to the electricity grid running out of capacity, the report stated that the capital could face a ban on new housing projects until 2035. 

 

An earlier report from 2019 by EirGrid, Ireland's electrical grid operator, found similar conclusions for Ireland, which is a popular base for global companies' European data centers. It found that data centers can often require the "same amount of energy as a large town", and could account for "29% of electricity demand in Ireland by 2028".

Countries as Supervillains

Start from the premise that there's no such thing as a guiltless country. 

 

We must admit that as human beings, we're some of the foulest and most violent specimens roaming the surface of the Earth. History is mostly filled with villains and monsters – and the truth is that no country is a goody two shoes. 

 

If the world were a wrestling promotion, everyone would be a heel. And so, Lucas Freitas decided to make AI art that personified countries as supervillains. 

 

Here’s a selection: