The RECC’E - DAY 83 | MAR 24 | INVISIBILITY

Day 83 / 365

23YEARS ago today NATO commenced an air bombardment of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo war; this marked the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.

RECC’E OF THE DAY

5YEARS ago doctors afforded patients with completely locked-in syndrome (CLIS) - who could not even control their eye muscles - with the ability to answer yes/no questions with 70% accuracy through the measurement of brain patterns. 

2x3.2MM microelectrode arrays have now - in a world 1st - been surgically implanted into the part of a patients brain which has enabled them to accurately control a keyboard with their mind. This breakthrough has enabled the patient to make requests and communicate with his children.

TRACKING: UKRAINE

4554PEOPLE were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors yesterday including 2912 from the besieged city of Mariupol. This followed 8057 people who escaped the country on Tuesday.  

264CIVILIANS have been killed in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv since the invasion began according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. 

10mPEOPLE in total are on the move as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine according to the most recent estimates; this includes 6.5m still displaced within Ukraine itself. 

3KEY alliances; the 30 members of NATO, the 7 leaders of G7 and the 27 EU member nations will all meet later today to discuss the ongoing conflict. These meets come as one of Russia’s top diplomats in the US says Russia will use nuclear weapons if provoked or attacked by NATO stating “why not, we are a nuclear power”.

13MEMBERS of the UN Security Council have abstained to vote on a resolution put forward by Russia calling for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine; only Russia and China voted in favour. Britain’s UN ambassador told the council that if Russia cared about the humanitarian situation it would stop bombing children. 

NEED-TO-KNOW

23mCHILDREN across Southern Africa will now be offered vaccinations against Polio after an outbreak of the virus has been detected in Malawi for the 1st time in 30 years. Cases of wild poliovirus have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350k cases then, to 33 reported cases in 2018. 1 in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis and among those paralysed, 5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.

37gbOF STOLEN DATA has reportedly been released by hacker group Lapsus$ including source codes to major Microsoft products. This news comes as a teenager living about 5 miles from Oxford University is reported to be the alleged mastermind behind the group which has recently targeted Nvidia, Samsung and Ubisoft.

2kEARTHQUAKES with a magnitude of between 1.6 and 3.3 have occurred on the Portuguese volcanic island of Sao Jorge since Saturday, indicating a "real possibility of eruption" that is leading to a mass evacuation plan. 8.4k people live on the island and it hasn’t erupted since 1808. 

SHOULD-KNOW

70%EFFECTIVE at detecting cancer cells, a new “worm-on-a-chip” device developed by scientists has shown worms will wriggle toward cancer cells by following an odour trail. It’s thought this discovery could revolutionise the detection of lung cancer and scientists hope to improve the accuracy of the method by using worms previously exposed to cancer cells who have a ‘memory’ of odour molecules.

<1IN 1000 breakthrough Covid infections occur in people who have been vaccinated or previously infected with COVID-19 according to a new longitudinal study. Researchers found the hospitalization rate was 0.06% or 6 in 10,000 for vaccinated patients, 0.03% or 3 in 10,000 in previously infected but unvaccinated people and 0.01% or 1 in 10,000 among those who were both vaccinated and infected previously.

$400FOR INVISIBILITY? A British startup has financed a real life invisibility shield measuring 3ft by 2ft which requires no external power. It works by reflecting light in a horizontal direction so that the subject behind it is almost completely obscured and is arguably the biggest breakthrough in this area in over a decade.

GOOD-TO-KNOW

18TO 25 year old participants in a pain study have been found by scientists to exhibit “significantly reduced” self-reported feelings of pain when viewing nostalgia such as cartoons or toys. This surprising connection between pain relief and nostalgia proposes the thalamus - a part which collects sensory input - may be the ‘central functional linkage’ in the effect and suggests nostalgia could in fact be a tool for pain management.

90%OF RECIPIENTS who received donations from MacKenzie Scott - former wife of Jeff Bezos - have revealed her donations to be the largest they’ve ever received. Now the philanthropist who settled for $38b in her divorce with Bezos has donated $436m to a home building non-profit called Habitat for Humanity. 

15%OF SEARCHES on Google each day are completely new and have never been searched before. Back in 2007, 25% of all searches were brand new however since 2013 the figure has remained relatively stable at 15% and has very recently been reaffirmed by Google themselves. 

 

SIGN-OFF STAT

136mTIMES A DAY - this is how often Netflix users worldwide hit the “skip intro” button. While this isn’t surprising, the fact that the cumulative time saved by doing this each day across the world totals 195 years - nearly 3 human lifetimes -  certainly is.

  

   

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