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It’s called a sudden stratospheric warming event — and, unlike the name might suggest, the rare phenomenon could spell a burst of bitterly cold weather for Australia and New Zealand over coming weeks.

If so, it could be the southern hemisphere’s own version of the icy “beast from the east” that paralysed Europe in 2018, reported the New Zealand Herald.

A sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event kicks off when the temperature of the stratosphere — that’s 30km to 50km above ground — over the South Pole climbs by more than 25C. Meteorologists from New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) think it’s likely this is about to happen next week.

On humans are many, and widespread across Earth. Respiratory and cardiovascular effects of air pollution have long been recognised, and account for the majority of air pollution-related deaths. There is also a strong link between poor air quality and the incidence of lung cancer.

Globally, ambient (outdoor) air pollution causes an estimated 25 per cent of all adult deaths from heart disease, 24 per cent from stroke, 43 per cent from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 29 per cent from lung cancer. Household (indoor) air pollution also leads to a wide variety of similar diseases and is one of the top five causes for premature death across the world. Current estimates put the death toll from household and ambient air pollution combined at 7 million deaths a year.

NASA has published a new sequence showing the carbon monoxide plume generated by the wildfires in Brazil, tracking the changes each day starting from August 8. The country has experienced record wildfires this year, and, as of August 23, has more than 2,500 active fires throughout the Amazon. NASA’s time-series map shows the carbon monoxide concentrations at an altitude of 18,000ft.

The street performer was only 10 years old. He put knives through his arms and walked on hot embers. By 14 he was dead. Someone dared him to jump from a roof. He did it, knowing it wouldn’t hurt.

The case of the Pakistani boy with a rare genetic disorder was described in 2006. He could feel warmth and cold and the texture of objects. But he never felt pain.

Now scientists have paired the discovery with the gene-editing tool CRISPR, in what they say is a step toward a gene therapy that could block severe pain caused by diabetes, cancer, or car accidents without the addictive effects of opioids.

The following is a white paper on the Metagame concept and meme. Metagame means “above” or “beyond” the game. The core idea of the Metagame is that voluntary participation in life itself constitutes a Divine Game with rules, purpose, and feedback. The Game asserts the existence of a Divine Science at the original root of the philosophical and religious tradition and at the root of coordinative social self organization. The Metagame is a shared learning community of people who are involved in research or creative projects that deal with these areas. Such areas are important to the health of the social fabric. Herein, we propose two phases and explore several areas of research that may be relevant to the Game.

Introduction:

“According to our social science, we can be or become wise in all matters of secondary importance, but we have to be resigned to utter ignorance in the most important respect: we cannot have any knowledge regarding the ultimate principles of our choices, i.e., regarding their soundness or unsoundness; our ultimate principles have no other support than our arbitrary and hence blind preferences. We are then in the position of beings who are sane and sober when engaged in trivial business and who gamble like madmen when confronted with serious issues — retail sanity and wholesale madness.” — Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History (1953)