You've seen this scar on older people's arms. That weird little starburst on the shoulder.
It's not from a normal shot.
The smallpox vaccine wasn't injected like a regular jab. They used a bifurcated needle - basically a tiny fork with two prongs. Invented in 1965 by a guy named Benjamin Rubin, who ground down the eye of a sewing machine needle to make it.
Here's the wild part. You dip the needle in the vaccine and one drop gets caught between the prongs. That's the whole dose. Then you jab the arm 15 times, fast. Quick shallow pricks, just deep enough to draw a bit of blood and slip the weakened virus into the skin.
Your immune system does the rest. Red bump. Blister. Pus. Scab. Falls off. Scar for life.
The mark isn't from the needle. It's from your body fighting the virus. And the reason it looks like a starburst instead of a dot? Those 15 rapid punctures.
That scar is basically a receipt. Proof you survived one of the deadliest diseases in human history before we wiped it off the planet.
#13Feb | El biólogo Carlos Alvarado Sánchez y otros expertos denunciaron que debido a las crecientes construcciones «ilegales» a la orilla del mar en playa Parguito en la isla de Margarita, las tortugas marinas se están quedando sin espacio para dejar sus huevos en la arena.
Video: wild.vzla (IG)
Los hijos del teniente coronel del Ejército, Igbert Marín Chaparro, de 13 y 8 años de edad, han crecido prácticamente sin ver ni escuchar a su papá, preso político recluido en la cárcel del Rodeo I.
Desde el 2 de marzo de 2018, cuando fue detenido, el Marín Chaparro ha sido sometido a desaparición forzada, aislamiento en celdas diminutas, torturas y falta de atención médica.
En casa tienen la esperanza de verlo libre luego de las excarcelaciones que se han dado desde el 8 de enero. Sus padres, de 77 y 83 años, han envejecido con la injusta prisión de su hijo.
“No sé lo que es dormir desde el 8 de enero, duermo con el celular al lado de mi almohada, a cada hora me levanto viendo las noticias, es una angustia enorme”, relata su hermana Ignell Marín (@liberenaigbert).
El teniente coronel cumplió la condena de 7 años y 6 meses, de su primera causa, el 9 de septiembre de 2025.
Sin embargo, el 1° de febrero de 2024 fue imputado por el caso de La Viñeta, en una audiencia clandestina en la Dgcim en horas de la noche, que podría postergar el encarcelamiento hasta por 30 años. Hasta la fecha no le han permitido defensa de su confianza.
Desde el 30 de abril de 2024 hicieron la audiencia preliminar y hasta la fecha esperan juicio. Por el caso de La Viñeta lo imputaron por los delitos de terrorismo, conspiración, asociación y traicion a la patria.
Marín Chaparro tiene dos años en la cárcel del Rodeo I, donde los familiares denuncian que les ponen una capucha al momento de la visita. En esa prisión hemos documentado torturas, castigos en celdas y aislamiento prolongado. A los parientes los castigan con la suspensión de la visita si denuncian a los medios de comunicación lo que allí sucede.
Pero el teniente coronel también estuvo detenido en la Dgcim de Boleíta, donde inició una huelga de hambre en rechazo a las torturas que recibían en la celda llamada “la casa de los sueños”.
@oveprisiones exige la libertad y sin restricciones e inmediata de Igbert Marín Chaparro y de todos los presos políticos.
Mi admiración y mis respetos.
¡Vaya determinación!
Les recomiendo que escuchen este discurso.
¿Se imaginan que en el mundo hubieran más mujeres así como la diputada del congreso español Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo? 😍
“There's a stray cat sleeping in the little greenhouse on my patio right now and I can see him through the kitchen window, curled up on the heating pad like he's finally figured out what safety feels like. We've been working on catching him for months, me and my neighbor who's better at this than I am, and he's so close to trusting us but not quite there yet. Two years ago we caught his sister when she was pregnant and we kept her and all the babies, found homes for most of them, and now we're trying to get him inside before something happens.
He's got this favorite chair on the patio that he sleeps in during the day but at night it gets cold, even in Southern California, and I kept thinking about him out there shivering. So I bought him a proper bed with sides, the kind that holds heat, and then I found this small greenhouse on Amazon that fits perfectly over the chair. I put the heating pad inside and left the sides open during summer so he wouldn't overheat, and now when it rains he stays dry and warm in there. He sleeps in it every single night. I can see his little gray body just completely relaxed, and it does something to my chest knowing he feels safe enough to sleep that deeply.
I've been buying him these handmade catnip toys from someone's shop, trying to get him to associate good things with coming closer to the door, and it's actually working. He plays with them right on the patio now instead of running off. The woman who makes them also sent me tips on socializing feral cats and we've been messaging back and forth about his progress. She told me about her own rescue story and it made me feel less alone in this whole thing. I ended up getting a custom collar from another maker on an app for when we finally catch him, something soft that won't scare him, with a little tag that says "Cooper" because that's what we've been calling him.
My husband thinks I'm obsessed and maybe I am, but Cooper's sister is inside right now sleeping on our bed and she's the sweetest cat we've ever had. She would've died out there if we hadn't caught her. So yeah, I'm spending money on a greenhouse and heating pads and handmade toys for a cat that isn't even mine yet, but he will be. It's just a matter of time. He's already halfway home, he just doesn't know it yet.”
Credit: Paulina Grant
“Oh my god… I have no words.”
Listen to the emotional moment this year’s laureate Maria Corina Machado finds out she has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Kristian Berg Harpviken, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, shared the news with her directly before it was announced to the world.
#NobelPrize #NobelPeacePrize
Globus INK, a Soviet era mechanical spaceflight navigation system from the 1960s. It featured a rotating, 5" globe to display the spacecraft's real-time position relative to Earth and calculated orbital parameters using an intricate system of gears, cams, and differentials. Photo by Ken Shirriff