The RECC’E - DAY 57 | 02.26.22 | LIFE & DEATH

Day 57 / 365

406YEARS ago today the Roman Inquisition delivered an injunction to Galileo demanding he abandon his belief in heliocentrism - the concept that the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun.

RECC’E OF THE DAY

2.8KTROOPS have now been lost by Putin alongside 80 tanks, 516 armoured vehicles, 10 fighter jets and seven helicopters according to Ukraine officials. Russian officials claim to have captured 160+ troops; destroyed 74 Ukrainian military ground facilities; downed five fighter jets, one helicopter and destroyed 18 tanks.

30ALLIANCE leaders of NATO have pledged to send more troops to Eastern Europe in a joint statement after a virtual summit chaired by the Secretary General. This news comes as Ukraine’s President warns Russia is actively preparing to storm Kyiv imminently. 

4RUSSIAN state owned media organisations who were subject to independent fact checking and labelling of content posted to Facebook ordered the social network to stop the practice but it refused. Russia has now partially restricted access to Facebook in retaliation. 

11UN COUNCIL members voted in favour of a resolution that would have deplored Moscow's invasion of Ukraine; Russia vetoed, while China, the United Arab Emirates and India abstained. The draft resolution is now expected to be taken up by the 193-member U.N. General Assembly.

3POP CULTURE responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are a ban on the country participating in the Eurovision Song Contest, the scheduled Formula one Grand Prix there being cancelled and the nation being stripped of holding the European Champions league football final .

NEED-TO-KNOW

9%OF PLASTIC used across the world is actually recycled according to a new OECD report; 460 million tonnes of plastics were used in 2019, nearly double the figure in 2000. Now an ambitious UN global treaty which 'holds the potential and the promise of being the biggest multilateral environmental breakthrough' since Paris 2015 will be thrashed out in Nairobi next week.

87YEAR OLD man becomes the first person to have their brain activity measured in detail as they die. Research found a spike in gamma brain waves right before and after the mans heart stopped beating resembling dreaming or memory recall. Scientists state this could support the theory of a last ‘recall of life’ that may take place in the near-death state.”

20FOLD increase in radiation has been documented near Chernobyl's nuclear power plant since it was seized by Russian forces. The rise was caused by heavy military vehicles stirring contaminated soil in the 4,000-sq-km (2,485 sq-mile) exclusion zone surrounding the abandoned plant. 

SHOULD-KNOW

16.5%DROP in the share of renewable energy used to power the mining of Bitcoin - 41.6% in 2020 to 25.1% last August - as miners stop using Chinese hydro and move to the US where gas supplies much of their power. It’s estimated Bitcoin now causes carbon emissions comparable to Greece.

233YEARS the U.S Supreme Court has overseen the U.S judicial system, now President Joe Biden has nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be appointed there, she will be the first black woman to serve in the role if confirmed with Biden calling her "one of the nation's brightest legal minds".

120FLOORS up the ‘Heavenly Jin’ restaurant inside the J Hotel Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China becomes the "world's highest restaurant in a building." It steals the crown from Dubai’s At.mosphere at 441.3 meters which is located on Level 122 of the world's highest building, Burj Khalifa 

GOOD-TO-KNOW

27%OF THE NORTHERN SKY above the Earth has now been mapped and it revealed 4.4m objects ranging from galaxies to black holes. The map processed 3.5k hours of observations that occupy 8 petabytes of disk space - the equivalent to 20k laptops. 

120xTHE VALUE of its weight in gold, a 1.7g (0.05oz) meteorite fragment which fell over the UK back in February 2021 has now sold at Christie’s auction house for £9,256 ($12,600). A second and larger 15g fragment sold for an eye-watering £22,556 ($30,240).

5thVOICE for Siri as Apple adds a ‘gender neutral’ option to the currrent list of 2 female and 2 male voices. ‘Voice 5’, which has the file name ‘Quinn’ was recorded by a member of the LGBTQ+ community and is neither distinctively male or female. It will roll out in IOS 15.4. 

SIGN-OFF STAT

385ftWIDE at its wingspan, ‘Stratolaunch”, the worlds largest airplane developed by Microsoft’s Paul Allen has performed its 4th successful flight lasting 103 minutes and reaching 15,000ft. For reference a Boeing 747 “jumbo jet” has a wingspan of 210ft.

  

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