Odds & Ends

 

• Iranian warnings about domestic unrest should be taken seriously. If the turmoil in Iran continues, regional consequences could be grave.  For the United States, pursuing a conventional war against the Islamic Republic is a non-starter. If the US were to launch an invasion, as it did in the Iraq war, not only would it face difficulties capturing territory and suffer many defeats, Iran’s regional allies, along with its arsenal of ballistic missiles, could devastate Washington’s allies and military facilities throughout the Middle East. Such a war would be, in a sense, akin to a doomsday situation. Therefore, the only options that the US and its allies have to effect regime change in Tehran are through proxies and economic sanctions. See the entire article here

• Researchers in the United States have developed a new method for controlling the brain circuits associated with complex animal behaviours, using genetic engineering to create a magnetised protein that activates specific groups of nerve cells from a distance.

Understanding how the brain generates behaviour is one of the ultimate goals of neuroscience – and one of its most difficult questions. In recent years, researchers have developed a number of methods that enable them to remotely control specified groups of neurons and to probe the workings of neuronal circuits.

The most powerful of these is a method called optogenetics, which enables researchers to switch populations of related neurons on or off on a millisecond-by-millisecond timescale with pulses of laser light. Another recently developed method, called chemogenetics, uses engineered proteins that are activated by designer drugs and can be targeted to specific cell types.  See the whole story here 

• Leading the charge in a new generation of lunar exploration has been the China National Space Administration (CNSA), which has dispatched several probes to the moon from its Chang’e series. They have explored the far side of the moon and sent back the first lunar soil samples in 40 years.

The Chinese space program is working on a new type of nuclear power plant to be used to power a permanent base on the moon, which China hopes to build before the decade is out, the head of China’s lunar exploration effort told Chinese media on Tuesday.  See more here 

• Russian energy giant, Gazprom, said on Tuesday that Ukraine was diverting natural gas supplies transiting to Moldova, and the company has threatened to curtail deliveries through a key pipeline in response.

“The volume of gas supplied by Gazprom to the ‘Sudzha’ gas measuring station (GMS) for transit to Moldova via Ukraine exceeds the physical volume transmitted at the border of Ukraine with Moldova,” Gazprom’s statement read.

Moldova paid for some November gas supplies on Monday, according to Gazprom, which said that Kiev had kept 52.52 million cubic meters of gas meant for Moldova on its territory.  Find the whole story here

• Over the past days, Ukraine has targeted the area around the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, and the IAEA experts at the facility have confirmed there is widespread damage across the site.

"The Kiev regime continued provocations in order to create a threat of a man-made disaster at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. On November 21, artillery of the Ukrainian armed forces fired 8 large-caliber shells at the industrial zone of the nuclear power plant," the Russian defense ministry said in a statement. From RT  

• Pentagon Hiding Cost Of Ukrainian War - watch the short video here 
  

• More videos surfaced of Ukraine Nazi troops killing Russian POW's who were unarmed and lying face down on the ground. See it here