Do What's Right.

Day: 20 June 2023

Russia attempted to assassinate Russian defector and informant on US soil in 2020

NY Times » “As President Vladimir Putin of Russia has pursued enemies abroad, his intelligence operatives now appear prepared to cross a line that they previously avoided: trying to kill a valuable informant for the U.S. government on American soil.”

“The clandestine operation, seeking to eliminate a C.I.A. informant in Miami who had been a high-ranking Russian intelligence official more than a decade earlier, represented a brazen expansion of Mr. Putin’s campaign of targeted assassinations. It also signaled a dangerous low point even between intelligence services that have long had a strained history.”

Regular daytime naps are good for the brain [Updated]

Updated 2023.10.16 » Scientific American »

From a health perspective, it may be worth it. Though there is some debate over whether napping benefits everyone, research suggests naps can boost at least some people’s cognitive performance in the short term. And a regular midday snooze might also have longer-term impacts, from a possible improvement in cardiovascular health to a bulwark against the loss of brain volume—potentially a protective factor against dementia.

“If you can fit in a nap of anything up to about 30 minutes, which isn’t really long, there seems to be fairly good evidence that you could be helping your brain age a little bit more healthily,” says Victoria Garfield, an epidemiologist at University College London.
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Last Updated on August 16, 2023

Apple sue for all the marbles, err, apples

Wired » The Fruit Union Suisse is 111 years old. For most of its history, it has had as its symbol a red apple with a white cross—the Swiss national flag superimposed on one of its most common fruits. But the group, the oldest and largest fruit farmer’s organization in Switzerland, worries it might have to change its logo, because Apple, the tech giant, is trying to gain intellectual property rights over depictions of apples, the fruit.

Leshie Chandrapala’s dad died of Covid » This is how she reacted to the new Partygate video

The Guardian » Leshie Chandrapala is one of the hundreds of members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group who have expressed their anger and frustration over a newly released video appearing to show a Christmas party at the Conservative party headquarters during Covid restrictions in 2020. Leshie told the Guardian: ‘we are living a nightmare’ and said she felt a ‘physical sickness’ after watching the video for the first time. Her father, Ranjith Chanrapala, 64, was a bus driver and died from the virus in May 2020. The video appears to show staff members drinking alcohol and dancing on 14 December 2020 at a gathering held by the campaign team of the unsuccessful London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey, who has since been given a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list. 232 people lost their lives to the pandemic that day

20 cities with the world’s worst air pollution

Mental Floss »

  1. Lahore, Pakistan
  2. Hotan, China
  3. Bhiwadi, India
  4. Delhi, India
  5. Peshawar, Pakistan
  6. Darbhanga, India
  7. Asopur, India
  8. N’Djamena, Chad
  9. New Delhi, India
  10. Patna, India
  11. Ghaziabad, India
  12. Dharuhera, India
  13. Baghdad, Iraq
  14. Chapra, India
  15. Muzaffarnagar, India
  16. Faisalabad, Pakistan
  17. Greater Noida, India
  18. Bahadurgarh, India
  19. Faridabad, India
  20. Muzaffarpur, India

Here’s how much it takes to be considered wealthy in these 13 US cities

NBC »

San Francisco: US$4.7 million
New York City: US$3.3 million
Southern California (includes Los Angeles and San Diego): US$3.5 million
Seattle: US$3.1 million
Washington, D.C.: US$3 million
Chicago: US$2.3 million
Houston: US$2.1 million
Boston: US$2.9 million
Dallas: US$2.3 million
Atlanta: US$2.3 million
Phoenix: US$2.4 million
Denver: US$2.5 million

This morning » USD$1,000,000 = CDN$1,324,030 = Euro €916,410 = GBP £785,360

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