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Sudarsan Pattnaik, the renowned sand artist, depicted the message of Earth Hour 2023 through his sand art as Goodwill Ambassador for Earth Hour India 2023. He created a huge sand artwork at Puri Beach in Orissa using more than 150 light bulbs to celebrate sustainability and raise awareness of climate change. Earth Hour is a worldwide movement organised by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to encourage individuals, communities and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights for one hour, from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm on the last Saturday of March as a symbol of commitment to the planet. It...

Antimicrobial-resistant infections are a leading cause of global death, killing nearly 1.3 million people yearly and outpacing malaria and HIV, according to a 2022 study published in The Lancet. In January 2023, a study published in Frontiers in Microbiology confirmed mounting evidence that adding silver nanoparticles to certain antibiotics boosts their ability to kill resistant bacteria.Knowledge of silver’s antimicrobial value has been around since ancient times. Silver nanoparticles (AgNP), however, with their tiny spheres interacting at the cellular level, signify a new frontier in fighting bacteria, gaining more attention over the past two decades.This new study adds to mounting evidence...

The UNM Center for Reproductive Health, an unassuming clinic tucked into the back of an office park down the street from the Albuquerque International Sunport, used to be relatively low volume. So much so that those in an abortion provider fellowship program often had to go somewhere else in their second year to get more experience.That changed once Texas’ Senate Bill 8 went into effect in September 2021, banning abortion after 6-weeks of pregnancy and then again after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Now all abortions are banned in Texas except for cases in...

Several U.S. Army bases will officially get their new names in the coming months as the military seeks to redesignate bases that currently honor Confederate leaders. Driving the news: Fort Hood, the major Army base in central Texas, will be redesignated as Fort Cavazos on May 9, the base announced Friday. The new name honors Gen. Richard Cavazos, the first Latino four-star general and first Latino brigadier general. The base is currently named for John Bell Hood, a Confederate general. Fort Pickett in Virginia was renamed Fort Barfoot on Friday.

Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s lawyer, Kurt Olsen, said that Maricopa County did not have a few bad signatures on mail-in ballots in November’s election, but an entire “systemic failure.” Arizona Supreme Court affirmed most of the trial court’s and the Arizona Court of Appeals’ rulings in favor of Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs and Maricopa County, but did remand one of Lake’s claims — that signature verification laws for mail-in ballots were not followed by the county in 2022 — to the trial court for consideration. ... Olsen told FrankSpeech.com host Emerald Robinson Thursday, “The Supreme Court did remand...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s donors and supporters are beginning to question if the potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate should run in the next election cycle — a bid that would put him against former President Donald Trump — or wait until 2028, according to reports.According to a report from NBC News, donors and supporters of DeSantis are having second thoughts on the prospect of the governor’s potential presidential bid. Per the report, one main issue seems to be the governor’s ability to take Trump — who has been criticizing the governor for months — head on.Per the report:At a Sunday...

DNIPRO, Ukraine—One Ukrainian paid almost $10,000 to flee the draft. Another has ignored five military summonses. A third avoids public spaces, fearing a military official will pounce and issue a call-up. After a year of war, Ukraine is facing increasing challenges in raising the troops it needs to resist Russian forces and eject them from its territory. When Russia invaded in February last year, thousands of volunteers lined up outside military recruitment centers. With many of them now dead or injured, Ukrainian authorities are scrambling to recruit replacements, often drafting those who have neither the desire nor the training to...

Explanation: On March 23 early evening skygazers could watch Venus and a young crescent moon, both near the western horizon. On that date Earth's brilliant evening star, faint lunar night side and slender sunlit crescent were captured in this telephoto skyscape posing alongside a church tower from Danta di Cadore, Dolomiti, Italy. Of course the subtle lunar illumination is earthshine, earthlight reflected from the Moon's night side. A description of earthshine, in terms of sunlight reflected by Earth's oceans illuminating the Moon's dark surface, was written over 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci. On March 24, from some locations...

Trump made the comments speaking in an interview with Rob Schmitt. "No, I think that would be a very unlikely alliance," Trump told Friday's "Rob Schmitt Tonight" in a phone interview, when asked if he would consider DeSantis as a potential running mate. "I've never thought of it," Trump told host Rob Schmitt. "We have a lot of great people in the Republican Party. I've never thought of it; but you know some people every once in awhile mention it, but that's about it." DeSantis told Newsmax one night prior he is "an executive guy," suggesting he is a leader...

The owner of a Rivian R1S electric SUV was overjoyed to have his dream electric vehicle after waiting for years. But after owning the car for just days, it got stuck in the snow and immobilized by a safety feature, leading to a $2,100 bill to transport it to a repair facility. Business Insider reports that a recent incident involving an owner of a Rivian R1S has forced the maker of the electric vehicles to examine its customer service more carefully and think about making changes to improve the user experience. The owner of an R1S truck, Chase Merrill, encountered...

As is often the case with noble purposes, the results do not meet expectations. What China might do two decades later was not part of the calculus in the US and its allies taking down the Iraqi army and freeing the Iraqi people. The US invasion and liberation of Iraq in March 2003 lasted 21 days, ending on April 9, when Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime collapsed and major combat engagements for US and partner forces stopped. Twenty years later, pundits and perfect-hindsight-seers heap criticism on America for either bungling Operation Iraqi Freedom or for starting it in the first place....

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is recalibrating his strategy and messaging amid signs that his presidential ambitions may be faltering before his campaign even gets off the ground. DeSantis began the year with clear momentum in the nascent GOP presidential primary, topping former President Trump in head-to-head polling and drawing unparalleled interest from Republican voters and operatives eager to see a fresh face at the helm of the party. But there are signs that his momentum may be stalling: he’s faced weeks of relentless attacks from Trump and his allies, fellow Republicans have criticized him for dubbing Russia’s invasion of...

Commentary In the mid-1970s I was a struggling business and economics student. I paid for my tuition and personal expenses with physically demanding summer and part-time jobs and some student debt. I dreamed of one day working on Canada’s version of Wall Street, which was located in Toronto at the corner of King and Bay streets. That dream came true in the spring of 1980 when the Dominion Bond Rating Service hired me as a junior analyst. Four of the five big Canadian banks occupied the corners of King and Bay in their impressive skyscrapers. A block away were the...

"And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?" "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God...

March 25, 2023 | Sundance | 361 Comments Before getting to the latest developments regarding the worries of the mid-tier donor class within the republican apparatus, I want to provide some context for the overall Ron DeSantis (RdS) management agenda. I can trace the origin of the RdS 2024 scheme to an originating timeframe in late fall 2021. It may go back further than that, but it is at least in place by the late fall of 2021. That means that everything within the professional republican apparatus, those who manipulate the political events from the controlling wing of the republican...

A U.S. judge delivered a speech at a university on March 24, a few weeks after students and a top staffer prevented him from doing so at Stanford University. U.S. District Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee, told listeners at the University of Notre Dame that there’s a “vital tradition of free speech in this country” and that students have the right to protest him. “It’s a great country, where you can harshly criticize federal judges and nothing bad will happen to you. You might even get praised or promoted,” he said. “But make no mistake. What went on in...

Lawmakers in New York are gearing up to enact legislation that would prohibit gas stoves from being used in new buildings, including new single-family homes and new commercial properties. Should the proposal — included in the state budget that's due March 31 — receive a nod from Empire State lawmakers, it would be the first piece of legislation in the nation to target gas and fossil fuel appliances.

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman said that the Federal Reserve’s latest decision to raise interest rates by 25 basis points, combined with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s remarks that there are no plans for unlimited deposit guarantees, was a “big mistake” that puts more pressure on smaller banks and sends the economy toward a “train wreck.” Ackman issued his warning in a series of tweets over the course of the past several days, after the Fed on Wednesday raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point and Yellen told lawmakers at a Senate hearing that there were no immediate plans...

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord Luke 1:26-38Friends, in today’s Gospel from Luke, we find the Annunciation to Mary. Here is what Gabriel said to the Virgin: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. . . . The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”No first-century Israelite would have missed the meaning here: this child shall be the fulfillment of the promise made to King David.And this...

Videos of Jan. 6, 2021, some of which were previously censored, are now circulating online and sparking controversy and shock. The videos show people who appear to be Antifa infiltrating Trump supporters and Trump supporters stopping Antifa vandalism. Another video shows a man who said he witnessed Antifa disguising themselves and saying they wanted to make Trump supporters look bad. The eyewitness further insisted the Jan. 6 protesters committing vandalism were not Trump supporters. Go to the article for videos and good formatting.