Clips of the day

North Korea and the triads: gangsters, ghost ships and spies | FT Film
 
The cobalt challenge - The dark side of the energy transition | DW Documentary
 
CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY (CBDC) FUTURE: Banks Will Tokenize Customer Deposits Before Rolling Out CBDCs

BIS: Bank for International Settlements

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international financial institution which is owned by member central banks.
Its primary goal is to foster international monetary and financial stability through international cooperation while serving as a bank for central banks.

The BIS carries out its work through its meetings, programmes and through the Basel Process, hosting international groups pursuing global financial stability and facilitating their interaction.
It also provides banking services, but only to central banks and other international organizations.

The BIS is based in Basel, Switzerland, with representative offices in Hong Kong and Mexico City.

The BIS was establishment in 1929. Its initial purpose was to oversee the settlement of World War I war reparations.

source: Wkipeadia and About BIS - overview
 
Last edited:
BRICS NEWS: Egypt Ditches US Dollar, 85% SURGE in Millionaires, Expansion of Russia-China Trade
 
The True Size of Countries

Maps don't show the true size of countries due to the challenge of representing a spherical Earth on a flat surface. This inherent difficulty leads to distortions in size and shape, particularly for countries further away from the equator.

Reasons:
  • Mercator Projection: This widely used projection, developed by Gerardus Mercator in the 16th century, prioritizes preserving navigational accuracy over depicting accurate landmass sizes. It achieves this by stretching landmasses farther from the equator, making them appear larger than they truly are.
Consequences of the Mercator Projection:
  • Exaggerated size: Countries closer to the poles, like Greenland and Russia, appear significantly larger than they are compared to those near the equator, like Africa and South America.
  • Distorted shapes: Continents like Africa and Antarctica are stretched out, while shapes of other landmasses are also affected.
Alternatives for accurate size representation
  • Globes: These provide the most accurate representation of Earth's landmasses and their relative sizes.
  • Equal-area projections: These maps aim to show all landmasses with the same proportional area, sacrificing some shape accuracy for size accuracy.
  • Online tools: Websites like "The True Size Of" allow you to drag and drop countries to compare their actual sizes.
Mercator-Russia-Africa.jpg

The True Size.jpg

The True Size - 03.jpg

Source:
 
Cell-1.jpg

Mitochondrial and Nuclear Genome and Human Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroup

Mitochondrial and Nuclear Genome

  1. The mitochondrial genome is inherited solely from the mother (a biological female).
  2. Fathers (biological males) do not transmit their mitochondrial genome to their offspring.
The nuclear genome represents an amalgamation of DNA sequences inherited from each parent.

Male & Female Chromosomes

Biological sex is typically* determined by the combination of sex chromosomes inherited from both parents.
Females typically* have two X chromosomes (XX), and males typically have one X and one Y chromosome (XY).

It is the contribution of the male during fertilization that determines the genetic sex of the offspring.
  1. If a sperm carrying an X chromosome fertilizes an egg, the resulting combination is XX, leading to a female offspring.
  2. If a sperm carrying a Y chromosome fertilizes an egg, the combination is XY, resulting in a male offspring.**
* Girls with Swyer syndrome (1 in 80 thousand) have an XY chromosomal makeup (as boys normally do) instead of an XX chromosomal makeup (as girls normally do). Despite having the XY chromosomal makeup, girls with Swyer syndrome look female and have functional female genitalia and structures including a vagina, uterus and fallopian tubes.

** History has something to say about this: Henry's (8th) driving desire for a male heir was to lead him to divorce two wives and have two wives beheaded: it led to religious revolution and the creation of the Church of England, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Reformation. The decisions that Henry made during his reign were to shape modern Britain.

source: basic science and history

Human Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroup

In human genetics, a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup is a haplogroup defined by differences in human mitochondrial DNA. Haplogroups are used to represent the major branch points on the mitochondrial phylogenetic tree. Understanding the evolutionary path of the female lineage has helped population geneticists trace the matrilineal inheritance of modern humans back to human origins in Africa and the subsequent spread around the globe.

The letter names of the haplogroups (not just mitochondrial DNA haplogroups) run from A to Z. As haplogroups were named in the order of their discovery, the alphabetical ordering does not have any meaning in terms of actual genetic relationships.

The hypothetical woman at the root of all these groups (meaning just the mitochondrial DNA haplogroups) is the matrilineal most recent common ancestor (MRCA) for all currently living humans. She is commonly called Mitochondrial Eve.

The rate at which mitochondrial DNA mutates is known as the mitochondrial molecular clock. It is an area of ongoing research with one study reporting one mutation per 8000 years. source: Wikipedia
 
Last edited:
Windows Desktop Shortcuts - Shutdown, Reboot and Custom Shortcut missing 'pin to taskbar' option solution.

Windows: These work on Windows 10. May work on 11 & 12.

To each their own preference - I prefixed Shutdown, Reboot etc., with Z-Shutdown, Z-Reboot so they always the last icons in alphabetical order for ease of locating.

Shutdown Desktop Shortcut: Note: on Windows below 10 the space between /t and 0 may have to be eliminated. The 0 = time delay, so 0 is immediate shutdown on click.
Icon selection: The C:\Windows\System32\shell32. dll and C:\Windows\System32\imageres. dll files contain most of Windows default icons.(20 Oct 2021)
Shutdown.jpg


Reboot Desktop Shortcut: Note: on Windows below 10 the space between /t and 0 may have to be eliminated. The 0 = time delay, so 0 is immediate shutdown on click.
Icon selection: The C:\Windows\System32\shell32. dll and C:\Windows\System32\imageres. dll files contain most of Windows default icons.(20 Oct 2021)
Reboot.jpg


Custom Desktop Shortcuts can lack the 'pin to taskbar' option.
The solution is to insert the command 'explorer.exe' as indicated below
Custom.jpg
 
Last edited:
Linux Desktop Shortcuts - Shutdown, Reboot, Minimise All and Close All

These should work on all Debian derivatives
Debian.jpg


To each their own preference - I prefixed Shutdown, Reboot etc., with Z-Shutdown, Z-Reboot so they always the last icons in alphabetical order for ease of locating.

Shutdown
Shutdown-L.jpg

Copy and save the following text to text file and name Shutdown.sh file
for n in $(wmctrl -l | awk -v name=$1 '$0 ~ name{print $1}');
do
wmctrl -i -c $n;
done

sleep 2

shutdown -h now

Reboot
Reboot-L.jpg

Copy and save the following text to text file and name Reboot.sh file
for n in $(wmctrl -l | awk -v name=$1 '$0 ~ name{print $1}');
do
wmctrl -i -c $n;
done

sleep 2

shutdown -r --reboot now

Minimize

Minimize will first need Xdotool install - any number of internet source are available. Try this one - note option >> For Ubuntu, Debian or Linux Mint, you can just do:- https://blog.hostonnet.com/installation-of-xdotool-on-linux
Minimize-L.jpg

Copy and save the following text to text file and name Minimize.sh file
#!/bin/sh

//sleeop 10

xdotool key super+d

Close All
Close All-L.jpg

Copy and save the following text to text file and name CloseAll.sh file
for n in $(wmctrl -l | awk -v name=$1 '$0 ~ name{print $1}');
do
wmctrl -i -c $n;
done
 
Last edited:
The Dark Secrets Behind Google's New AI Model 'Gemini'


Disclaimer: I have no connection or interest in the Hallow - Join Hallow’s Prayer 40 Challenge
 
Last edited:
Is it possible to travel from UK to New Zealand in straight line without touching land

 
Rabbit R1: The First Personal AI AGENT Device NO ONE Saw Coming (Look Out, Apple)
 
Top