Ukraine

Your first link starts off with the following passage:


"Patients who took part in clinical trials at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) had no idea that scientists at the institutes received $8.9m (£4.8m; €6.8m) in royalty payments and might benefit financially for the use of their discoveries by pharmaceutical companies and device makers, reports from Associated Press allege. [the bold emphasis was mine]


If you think there is something wrong with this I would be interested in knowing why. If you are a researcher and develop a medication that is subsequently patented I don't see what the problem is with getting royalties on your results. Why shouldn't you? The implication I got from posts above were that some here believed that NIH employees who allocate NIH research money to researchers outside the NIH were receiving patent credit for discoveries they did not personally uncover, but that's not what the article says. I'm not sure what point you were making with this link.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time to watch a 10-minute video to see what somebody is trying to say. If you could give me the Cliff Notes I'd be glad to take a look if you would like............................Luca

The images and stories coming out of Ukraine over the past two months bring to mind the horrors during the rape of Nanking by the Japanese army in 1937-38. Seeing and hearing of the atrocities every day makes me wonder:

Whatever ever happened to the United Nations, and what is its purpose today? United Nations peace-keepers used to be sent to combat zones to lessen the tensions and protect civilian rights. Where are they now? If the only purpose of the U.N. is to pass resolutions shaking their fingers at naughty nations when they do naughty things, what is the point?

And how shortsighted was it making Russia and China permanent members of the Security Council with the power to unilaterally veto any resolution that comes down the pike?

I’m surprised how little interest there seems to be in the Ukrainian war on this board. Lots of commentary on the cultural wars, but the Ukrainian situation is as fascinating as it is dangerous.

The term "Nazi" is becoming overused is much as "fascist" is (I was called a fascist a couple years ago by a 20-year-old girl because I wasn’t wearing a mask). In fact in some circles they appear to mean the same thing. Making Nazi comparisons has become a cliche, but still I can’t help but notice a few similarities between Vladimir Putin and Adolph Hitler.

First, Hitler had his bizarre worldview that Aryans where the superior race and all people east of Germany were untermunchen (I think that’s the right German word). His total lack of understanding of other cultures led him to make catastrophic decisions for Germany. Likewise, Vlad the Bad – no humanitarian himself - seems to have convinced himself that Ukrainians are really just Russians being controlled by (of course) Nazis, and Jewish Nazis at that. So he launches his invasion assuming that Russian troops will be welcomed with enthusiam. Hey, what could possibly go wrong?

Second, Hitler underestimated the ultimate resolve of France and Britain (read "Winston Churchill") and was stunned when those Western countries were so belligerent as to actually follow-up on their promise to declare war if Germany invaded Poland. Similarly, Putin evidently assumed  that NATO was so divided that they’d cower in the face of the majestic shock and awe campaign of the elite Russian military. So now the remainder of Ukraine and possibly Finland and Sweden will join a NATO alliance unified against Russia…………. Shrewd, Vladimir.

Third, Hitler completely overlooked the obvious deficiencies in his military and overruled the hesitation of many of his military advisors that perhaps it wasn’t such a great idea to invade Russia, given their enormous manpower reserves  and the tens of thousands of square miles that would have to be occupied at the end of a very long and tenuous logistical chain. In winter. The Wehrmacht had efficiently overwhelmed smaller unprepared neighbors, but he didn’t realize Russia was a completely different prospect. Deficiency in logistics killed the German Army and lost the war. Likewise, Putin also seems to have had no clue how weak his army’s logistical situation was. It’s not clear whether he actually overruled his general staff because it’s believed that everybody in his inner circle won’t dare tell him anything that he wouldn’t want to hear, anyway. But if you’re going to make decisions like this, it’s your responsibility to know. The Russians blew their initial invasion plan because of crappy logistics. It’s impossible to believe that the general staff would not have known that. But Vladimir, like Adolf, made the facile assumption that his opponent was weak and would collapse before him. Georgia, Ukraine, like what’s the difference, y’know?

Fourth, Hitler was incapable of compromising or being practical because of his ideological zeal. Putin, the former KGB operative as unfamiliar with other cultures as I am with hieroglyphics, seems not to grasp that he’s way the hell underwater in the cost/benefit analysis of this war. There is no way this is going to end up to Russia's long-term advantage whether they steal a part of Ukraine or not......................Luca