Oxygen already killed most of the life on Earth once. The first time it filled the air, around 2.4 billion years ago, it was so poisonous that nearly everything alive died. Scientists call it the Oxygen Catastrophe.
Back then the oceans were full of tiny microbes, and none of them used oxygen. Then one kind, an ancestor of the green scum you still see on ponds, started giving off oxygen as a waste gas, the same way you breathe out air you don’t need. Oxygen is a wrecker. It rips apart the delicate machinery inside a living cell, including the DNA, and as it built up in the water and then the sky, it triggered the first mass extinction this planet had ever seen.
A few survivors hid in the mud and deep underground where the gas couldn’t reach, and some of their descendants are still down there. But one tiny cell did something nobody else did. It ate a bacterium that had learned to use oxygen rather than die from it, and instead of digesting its meal, it kept it alive inside itself. That trapped bacterium became the mitochondria, the little engines that power your cells right now. Almost every cell you are made of carries hundreds or thousands of them, all descended from that one strange truce with a poison.
The trade was worth it because burning food with oxygen releases about 18 times more energy than burning it without. It is the reason anything can swim fast or think hard. Every big, fast-moving animal on Earth, you included, runs on the gas that almost ended life.
Oxygen changed the sky too. Some of it floated up high and turned into ozone, a thin layer that blocks most of the sun’s harshest rays. Before that shield existed, raw sunlight was strong enough to fry the DNA of anything out in the open, so life had to stay underwater, where a few feet of sea soaked up the danger. For almost two billion years, nothing lived on land at all. Only once the ozone grew thick enough, a few hundred million years ago, did the first plants and animals crawl out of the water.
And the old poison never really left. Every second, the oxygen your cells burn throws off tiny broken bits called free radicals, and they keep nicking your DNA and the proteins around it. The damage adds up, slowly, your whole life. Back in 1956 a scientist named Denham Harman suggested this slow rusting from the inside is a big reason we get old. People still argue about how much it matters, and no antioxidant pill has ever been shown to make anyone live longer, but the basic idea has held up. The gas keeping you alive right now is also quietly wearing you down, year by year. The joke just got the timing wrong. Oxygen really does kill slowly, and billions of years before we showed up, it already proved it can kill fast.
“An Indian Hindu girl wore a Burkha for 24 hours in Saudi Arabia, and her experience ended up challenging a lot of assumptions people casually make online”
The girl clarified from the beginning
that this was not meant to insult any religion or culture
She said she was simply curious to understand
what it actually feels like to spend an entire day wearing a Burkha in Saudi Arabia
At first
she struggled badly
The heat
the face veil
the completely unfamiliar environment
everything felt mentally exhausting to her
But slowly
something unexpected happened
Instead of feeling judged
she started feeling completely normal in the crowd
Nobody stared at her strangely
nobody treated her differently
And by the end of the challenge
she admitted something that surprised even her
She said she finally understood
why many women feel comfortable, confident, and secure wearing it in public places
Her final statement is what really caught people’s attention online
“People judge your attitude more than your clothes.”
And now a bigger debate has started online
People are saying –
In Christianity too
many women cover their heads during prayers and traditions
In Hindu culture as well
ghoonghat and parda have existed for generations in many families
So if different religions have their own forms of modest dressing
then why does Burkha specifically trigger so much anger and criticism online ?
I am a diplomatic aide in the Sultanate of Oman's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
My job is logistics. When two countries that cannot speak to each other need to speak to each other, I book the rooms. I prepare the briefing materials. I make sure the water glasses are the right distance apart. You would be surprised how much of diplomacy is water glasses. Too close and it feels informal. Too far and it feels like a tribunal. I have a chart.
We had a very good month.
Since January, Oman has been mediating indirect talks between the United States and Iran on Iran's nuclear program. The talks were held in Muscat and in Geneva. The Americans would sit in one room. The Iranians would sit in another room. I would walk between them. My Fitbit says I averaged fourteen thousand steps on negotiation days. The hallway between the two rooms at the Royal Opera House conference center is forty-seven meters. I walked it two hundred and twelve times in February. This is good for my cardiovascular health. It was less good for my knees. Both are in the service of peace.
By mid-February, we had something.
Iran agreed to zero stockpiling of enriched uranium. Not reduced stockpiling. Zero. They agreed to down-blend existing stockpiles to the lowest possible level. They agreed to convert them into irreversible fuel. They agreed to full IAEA verification with potential US inspector access. They agreed, in the Foreign Minister's phrase, to "never, ever" possess nuclear material for a bomb. I have worked in diplomacy for seven years. I have never seen a country agree to this many things this quickly. I made a spreadsheet of the concessions. It had fourteen rows. I color-coded it. Green for confirmed. Yellow for pending. By February 21 the spreadsheet was entirely green. I printed it. It is on my desk in Muscat. It is still green.
That phrase took eleven days. "Never, ever." The Iranians initially offered "not seek to." The Americans wanted "will not under any circumstances." We landed on "never, ever" at 2:14 AM on a Tuesday in Muscat. I typed the final version myself. I used Times New Roman because Geneva prefers it. The document was fourteen pages. I was proud of every comma.
Here is what they said, in the order they said it.
February 24: "We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity." — The Foreign Minister, private briefing to Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors. I prepared the slide deck. Slide 14 was the implementation timeline. Slide 15 was the signing ceremony logistics. I had reserved the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Room XX. It seats four hundred. We discussed pen brands for the signing. The Iranians preferred Montblanc. The Americans had no preference. I ordered twelve Montblanc Meisterstucks at six hundred and thirty dollars each. They arrive on Tuesday.
February 27, 8:30 AM EST: "The deal is within our reach." — The Foreign Minister, CBS Face the Nation. He sat across from Margaret Brennan. He said broad political terms could be agreed "tomorrow" with ninety days for technical implementation in Vienna. He said, and I wrote this line for the briefing card he carried in his breast pocket: "If we just allow diplomacy the space it needs." He praised the American envoys by name. Steve Witkoff. Jared Kushner. He said both had been constructive.
I watched from the Four Seasons Georgetown. The minibar had cashews. I ate the cashews. They were nineteen dollars. The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten. But it was a good morning and we were within our reach.
February 27, 2:00 PM EST: Meeting with Vice President Vance, Washington. The Foreign Minister presented our progress. Zero stockpiling. Full verification. Irreversible conversion. "Never, ever." The Vice President used the word "encouraging." His aide took notes on an iPad. The aide did not make eye contact for the last nine minutes of the meeting. I noticed this. Noticing things is the only part of my job that is not water glasses.
February 27, 4:00 PM EST: "Not happy with the pace." — President Trump, to reporters.
Not happy with the pace.
We had achieved zero stockpiling. Full IAEA verification. Irreversible fuel conversion. Inspector access. And the phrase "never, ever," which took eleven days and cost me two hundred and twelve trips down a forty-seven-meter hallway.
Every American president since Carter has failed to get Iran to agree to this. Forty-five years.
Not happy with the pace.
February 27, 9:47 PM EST: The Foreign Minister's flight departs Dulles for Muscat. I am in the seat behind him. He is reviewing Slide 14 on his laptop. The implementation timeline. Vienna technical sessions. The signing ceremony. The pens.
I fall asleep over the Atlantic. I dream about water glasses.
February 28, 6:00 AM GST: I wake up to push notifications.
February 28: "The United States has begun major combat operations in Iran." — President Trump.
Operation Epic Fury. Coordinated airstrikes. The United States and Israel. Tehran. Isfahan. Qom. Karaj. Kermanshah. Nuclear facilities. IRGC bases. Sites near the Supreme Leader's office. Israel called their half Operation Roaring Lion. Someone in both governments spent time choosing these names. Epic Fury. Roaring Lion. I spent eleven days on "never, ever." They spent it on branding. The President said Iran had "rejected American calls to halt its nuclear weapons production."
Rejected.
Iran had agreed to zero stockpiling. Iran had agreed to full verification. Iran had agreed to "never, ever." Iran had agreed to everything in a fourteen-page document that I typed in Times New Roman.
The President said they rejected it.
I do not know which document the President was reading. I know which one I typed.
February 28, 18:45 UTC: Iran internet connectivity: four percent. — NetBlocks, confirmed by Cloudflare. Ninety-six percent of a country went dark. You cannot negotiate with a country at four percent connectivity. You cannot negotiate with a country that is being struck. You cannot negotiate. This is not a political opinion. This is a logistics assessment.
February 28: The governor of Minab reported forty girls killed at an elementary school.
I do not have logistics for that. There is no slide for that. The water glass chart does not cover that.
February 28: Lockheed Martin: up. Northrop Grumman: up. RTX: up. Dow futures: down six hundred and twenty-two points. Gold: five thousand two hundred and ninety-six dollars. An analyst at AInvest published a note titled "Iran Strikes: Tactical Plays." The note recommended positions in oil, defense stocks, and gold.
The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten was nineteen dollars. The most expensive pen I have ever ordered was six hundred and thirty dollars. The math suggests I have been working in the wrong industry. Defense stocks do not require water glasses. Defense stocks do not require eleven days. Defense stocks require one morning.
February 28: Israel closed its airspace and its schools. Iran launched retaliatory missiles toward US bases in the Gulf. The Supreme Leader promised a "crushing response." Israel's defense minister declared a permanent state of emergency. Everyone is using words I recognize in an order I do not. I recognize "permanent." I recognize "emergency." I do not recognize them next to each other. In diplomacy, nothing is permanent and everything is an emergency. In war it is the reverse.
February 28: The Foreign Minister has not made a public statement.
The briefing card is still in his breast pocket. It still says "within our reach."
I took a look at this Pastor Chris' video and as a medic I slowed it down and examined critically.
I zoomed into the legs of the so called " crippled" and here is what I'd say
1 If truly one is crippled , As Medics we know that the particular leg that's crippled or non functional will assume an angle or rotation , None of the "crippled" had that angle which means most of them had fully functioning leg muscles.
2 If you look well there is a particular woman there that crossed her legs. If you are crippled aka paralyzed you can't summon muscle power to bring your legs to make that angle
3 I tried to zoom even though I wasnt able to see clearly , usually when one has been crippled for a while there is tendency for the muscle to be asymmetric due to disuse, (except they've been having physio) took a look at all of them well, even though difficult i didn't see physical signs of being crippled.
4 Even if we assume they were crippled for a while. If they miraculously got new nerves and muscles cells.
Jumping off the bed, the brain and other organs will still have to remaster movement. Balance and a little stagger.
The jump was spontaneous and not looking like a need for remastering.
Were they really crippled from the beginning ?
5 Slow the video and zoom zoom and check the occasional movement of the lower limb muscles of some of them ( show your doctor friends) that shows signs of intact nerve and muscle control
So are they really crippled?
PS- crippled will mean paralyzed or Paraplegic ( medical word)
Do miracles exist? As a Christian yes.
But is this a miracle? Looking at medical facts evidenced i don't believe it is a miracle denovo.
You can fact check yourself
@AbuHafsah1 Sharing utensils with a dog = clean
Eating with your hands = dirty
That’s the thought process of people who don’t wash their bums after a poo.
Percayalah, kalau harga petrol RON95 turun ke RM1.99 sekalipun, harga makanan tetap tidak berubah.
Tetapi jika RON95 naik ke RM2.05, peniaga pasti akan gunakan alasan itu untuk menaikkan harga.
Can we start calling non Muslims terrorists too
THIS WEEK we’ve seen…
-A black guy stab a white girl
-A white guy shoot Charlie Kirk
-A trans shoot up a school
But I haven’t seen ANY of them called terrorists
Pretty funny how that works…