The story of the day occurred today in the White House.  First, Donald Trump met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, followed by a second session, with Zelenskyy and six other European leaders. The public portion, with leaders praising Trump, was cordial.  Trump too was generous. Much of what happen will unfold later, for they group went into private session. But it looks like there will be a united front to seek peace with Russia, possibly with a ceasefire, but maybe not, and the European Union and U.S. in a strengthened mode to end the war. Trump had earlier in the day talked to Vladimir Putin, and said there would be a second call after the European meeting. Looks like peace might now be closer than not, and Trump could well win a Nobel Peace Prize if all goes well. So much to world affairs.  I've recent viewed two questions in  Quora .  This morning: Ryan Mack   ·   Follow   Technical Program Manager   at   Uber ATG 10mo What countries will yo...

Going back to the Black Death in the mid 1300s,  humanity has suffered through a bunch of pandemics. What is the  Black Death ? A bubonic plague pandemic from 1346 to 1353 killed as many as 50 million people, perhaps half the population of Europe. Rats to fleas to the bacterium  Yersinia pestis .  Once affected, this bacterium could also be spread through the air. After 7000 years, there is no consensus of the origin. The most likely first source though was probably Central Asia, more specifically, China over 2600 years ago. There is no direct link yet established, but could a bat have infected a flea to initiate this pandemic? The deadliest recent outbreak struck Madagascar in 2017, killing 170. There are some pandemics that are still here.  For example, malaria has been around throughout history, and this malady had killed perhaps 50-60 BILLION people, about half of humans that have ever lived. COVID-19 has so far killed 7 million , or an average of 1.4 millio...

 This is  Nobel Prize week , and they are into day 4: Physics:  Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Kraausz and Anne L'Huillier for developing a tool for observing electrons within an atom. Chemistry:  Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov, who looked a little larger...quantum dot nanoparticles. Literature:  Jon Fosse, for his innovative plays and prose, giving voice to the unsayable. Physiology/Medicine:   Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman  did the fundamental mRNA research to develop the Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines. Note their wearing masks.  15 Craigside now has an outbreak, so even though the pandemic is over, there is still danger today. Working together at the University of Pennsylvania in the early 2000s, they showed it was possible to dampen the body's inflammatory responses to labmade mRNAs by making specific chemical changes to the component bases of the molecules. Said Anthony Fauci,  this is a wonderful choice of Nobel Prize ...