Welcome to a Hump Day (“Ziua Cocoașei” in Romanian): Wednesday, February 18, 2026 and Pluto Day (the planet, or whatever you call it) was first spotted on this day in 1930. Here are the photographs, taken a few weeks before the discovery, on which Clyde Tombaugh detected the planet (note positions of arrow):
It’s also National Drink Wine Day, National Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day, and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, on which you’re supposed to repent. I’m giving up rhubarb for Lent this year.
Today’s Google Doodle celebrates freestyle snowboarding; click to see where it goes:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the February 18 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*The Trump administration demanded that displays about slavery be removed from a monument in Philadelphia on the former site of George Washington’s house. A federal judge ordered the displays be replaced, likening the historical erasure to that in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four:
A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore displays about George Washington’s ownership of enslaved people at a monument on the site of his former house in Philadelphia. The judge said the government’s claim to have the power to erase and alter historical accounts at the country’s monuments echoed George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.”
In a 40-page opinion, Judge Cynthia M. Rufe granted a preliminary injunction to the City of Philadelphia, which had sued the Interior Department and the National Park Service over their decision to remove the displays. The order means the government must put the materials back up while the underlying lawsuit proceeds in court.
Last month, National Park Service workers arrived unannounced at the President’s House Site, a monument on the spot of a home used by Washington and President John Adams in the early days of the nation, and took down panels, displays and video exhibits describing the local history of slavery and commemorating the nine enslaved people Washington kept there while he was president.
The Park Service has said that the displays were taken down to ensure “accuracy, honesty and alignment with shared national values.” The move was part of a far-reaching effort by the Trump administration to rewrite American history along ideological lines at national monuments and parks across the country.
“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s ‘1984’ now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance Is Strength,’ this court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Judge Rufe wrote. “It does not.”
I’d call that an appropriate (and informed) rebuke! It’s one thing to claim, as the NYT and Nikole Hannah-Jones did, that the real founding of America coincided with the first arrival of the slaves in 1619, but another thing entirely to try to sanitize American history by effacing the ubiquity and effects of slavery. Unlike Britain, the U.S. didn’t get rid of slavery until after the Civil War: a war that was fought because of divisions caused by slavery. If people don’t realize that, and know about the sentiments and actions of both North and South, then they don’t know American history.
*Talks are continuing between the U.S. and Iran, with both sides making military noises as Iran hopes to stave off a U.S. attack. Iran, however, seems unwilling to make the key concession: stop enriching uranium.
U.S. and Iranian officials said that Tuesday’s nuclear talks in Geneva made progress, after Tehran indicated it was willing to compromise around the edges of its nuclear program, including moving its nuclear material offshore.
As the negotiations resumed, the regime sent a veiled threat, carrying out military exercises in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. News agencies affiliated with the country’s security agencies showed footage of cruise missiles being launched from trucks and boats Monday, as a tanker could be seen sailing in the background.
The question remains whether the proposals and threats will move President Trump, who has repeatedly said he wants a deal that ensures Iran won’t get a nuclear weapon and is assembling a massive force just off the country’s coast in case an agreement can’t be reached.
“I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal,” Trump told reporters late Monday, saying he would remain indirectly involved in Tuesday’s talks, which ended after 3½ hours of discussion. “They want to make a deal.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned in a speech Tuesday ahead of the talks that Iran was prepared to retaliate against an American strike. “More dangerous than the American warship is the weapon that can send it to the bottom of the sea,” he said. The U.S. “may be struck so hard that it cannot get back up.”
Until Tuesday, much of the diplomacy had focused on talking about the scope of negotiations. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tuesday’s talks were more substantive and that both sides in Geneva presented ideas aimed at crafting an agreement. He said Iran and the U.S. agreed to exchange texts to create the framework for a deal before a date for new negotiations is decided.
“This does not mean that we can quickly reach an agreement, but at least the path has started,” Araghchi said after the talks with U.S. chief negotiator Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Let’s face it, “moving the nuclear material offshore” accomplishes nothing. Iran is determined to get nukes, and if Trump thinks he can bargain them out of that, he’s dead wrong. This is not rocket science (well, in a way it is); Iran is determined to have nuclear weapons to not only defend itself but to have them handy should the Islamic Republic wish (as it does) to destroy Israel. Anybody who believes the lies that Iran is enriching uranium for nuclear reactors doesn’t realize that uranium for nuclear power plants need be enriched to a much lower level that uranium destined for bombs, which must be highly enriched. That is all ye need to know.
*The Washington Post has a list and description of 17 people investigated or forced to resign after the release of the Epstein files (article archived here).
Sarah Ferguson is one, though it’s not clear what she did wrong save mantain contact with Epstein after his first conviction (and presumably not after his second arrest). But she lost her charity, which doesn’t seem a humane outcome of her connection to Epstein.
Sarah’s Trust, the charity founded by Sarah Ferguson, a former duchess of York, shut down for the “foreseeable future” following the latest document release.
“Our chair Sarah Ferguson and the board of trustees have agreed that with regret the charity will shortly close for the foreseeable future,’’ the trust said in a statement. “This has been under discussion and in train for some months.’’ Other charities also dropped Ferguson as a patron.
Emails released by the Justice Department revealed that Ferguson maintained contact with Epstein long after his 2008 conviction. Ferguson is the ex-wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who also had ties to Epstein.
Casey Wasserman again seems guilty of nothing but having a tenuous connection to Epstein:
Wasserman is selling his talent agency after the emergence of flirtatious correspondence between himself and Ghislaine Maxwell in the latest batch of files, according to a memo from Wasserman to his agency’s staff obtained by the Associated Press.
The document drop includes an email in which Wasserman expressed a desire to see Maxwell in a “tight leather outfit.” In late 2021, Maxwell was convicted in federal court for her role in trafficking girls and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. The emails do not directly link Wasserman to Epstein himself and were sent in 2003.
The decision from Wasserman, who wrote to staff in the memo that he felt he had become a distraction, came after several entertainers announced their departures from the agency over his appearance in the files.
Peter Attia is more problematic:
Attia, a physician and longevity expert, faced scrutiny after the latest release of documents revealed his friendly and sometimes crude correspondence with Epstein. In one 2016 message, Attia wrote Epstein, “P—y is, indeed, low-carb. Still awaiting results on gluten content, though.”
In June 2015, Attia wrote to Epstein: “You [know] the biggest problem with becoming friends with you? The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul …”
After the emails became public, Attia stepped down from his role as chief science officer of a protein bar brand, David Protein, according to the company’s co-founder. The powdered supplement company AG1 said in a statement that “Dr. Attia is no longer an advisor to the company.”
And Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem also looks a bit guilty, though again we don’t know whether the Sultan committed any crimes:
Bin Sulayem, an Emirati businessman, resigned from his role as chairman of DP World, one of the world’s largest logistics companies. In a Feb. 13 statement, the company said the resignation was effective immediately.
Bin Sulayem appears in wide-ranging exchanges with Epstein, with Epstein telling the sultan in one 2013 email, “You are one of my most trusted friends in [the] very sense of the word, you have never let me down.”
Bin Sulayem replied, “Thank you my friend I am off the sample a fresh 100% female Russian at my yacht.”
*Pediatrician and infectious disease specialist Paul Offit argues on his Substack that the FDA’s recent rejection of an mRNA flu vaccine is part of RFK, Jr.’s strategy to deep-six vaccines in general (h/t Bat). Offit describes what happened:
In April 2024, Moderna submitted a proposal to the FDA for testing its new mRNA influenza vaccine. The plan was to divide 40,000 subjects in 11 countries into two groups: one group would receive the mRNA flu vaccine and the other a standard-dose flu vaccine. At the time, the FDA reasonably pointed out that for people over 65, Moderna should compare its mRNA flu vaccine to high-dose, not standard dose, flu vaccine, as recommended by the CDC. However, if the company still planned to compare the mRNA vaccine with standard dose flu vaccine for those over 65, the CDC might choose not to recommend it for that age group. Because the clinical trial of the mRNA flu vaccine was performed in Europe, where high-dose influenza vaccine wasn’t readily available, the company moved forward recognizing that it might not get a CDC recommendation for older subjects, but that the FDA would still review the company’s submission. This was a written understanding.
In September 2024, Moderna launched its vaccine trial with 40,700 subjects, half of whom received the mRNA flu vaccine and the other half standard-dose vaccine. The mRNA vaccine was 27% more effective at preventing symptomatic cases of flu and 49% more effective against hospitalization than the standard-dose flu vaccine. In August 2025, the FDA agreed with the trial design and encouraged the company to apply for licensure based on the results, especially since Moderna had now performed an additional study in 2,200 people over 65 showing that the mRNA flu vaccine induced higher levels of protective antibodies than the high-dose flu vaccine.
In other words, Moderna did not only do a study comparing the new mRNA vaccine with standard-dose vaccines (presumably in adults), but also did the experiment that the FDA asked for. Both studies showed the superiority of the new vaccine. Nevertheless:
On February 3, 2026, despite a previous written understanding, the FDA refused to review Moderna’s application for licensure of its mRNA influenza vaccine. The decision was made by Vinay Prasad, who now heads the FDA’s Center for Evaluation and Research (CBER). Moderna wrote that the failure to review the application was “inconsistent with previous written communications from CBER to Moderna.” Agency officials later revealed that Prasad had overruled his FDA staff. Indeed, David Kaslow, the head of the vaccine office, wrote a detailed memo explaining why the FDA should review Moderna’s application.
Offit concludes that the FDA made an “arbitrary, unsupportable decision”:
Moderna’s mRNA influenza vaccine appears to be an improvement on both the standard-dose vaccine given to people less than 65 and the high-dose flu vaccine given to people over 65. Nonetheless, because of RFK Jr.’s pick to head an important division in the FDA, Americans might be deprived of an influenza vaccine that appears to be better than the ones we have. On February 11, 2026, a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) headline read: “Vinay Prasad’s Vaccine Kill Shot: Does the White House Know the Harm He’s Doing to Public Health?” “This is arbitrary government at its worst.”
Vinay Prasad’s failure to honor a previous agreement with Moderna appears to be an extension of RFK Jr.’s war against mRNA vaccines.
mRNA vaccines are one of the greatest improvements in medicine in recent years, as the cells themselves can now make harmless antigens that stimulate antibodies against the target virus. It does look as if RFK, Jr. is, as predicted, endangering people becuase of his anti-vax viewpoint.
*The Guardian reports on the perfidy of the Iranian authorities in an article called “‘Deliberate targeting of vital body parts’: X-rays taken after Iran protests expose extent of catastrophic injuries.” There are many X-rays, all taken on one day in one hospital, showing how unarmed protestors get shot. I’ve just put two with buckshot below, but there are other photos showing bullets embedded in heads, spines, and elsewhere.
Across the planes of Anahita’s* face, white dots shine like a constellation. Some gleam from inside the sockets of her eyes, others are scattered over the young woman’s chin, forehead, cheekbones. A few float over the dark expanse of her brain.
Each dot represents a metal sphere, about 2-5mm in size, fired from the barrel of a shotgun and revealed by the X-ray camera for a CT scan. Shot from a distance, the projectiles, known as “birdshot”, spray widely, losing some of their momentum. At close range, they can crack bone, blast through the soft tissue of the face, and easily pierce the eyeball’s delicate globe. Anahita, who is in her early 20s, has lost at least one eye, possibly both.
The image of Anahita’s head is one of more than 75 sets of medical images – primarily X-rays and CT scans – shared with the Guardian from one hospital in a major city in Iran, taken over the course of a single evening during the regime’s January crackdown on protesters. The plain, grayscale images tell their own story of the deadly violence inflicted on protesters and onlookers by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
They provide further evidence of events described by doctors and protesters across Iran, where guards switched from more traditional ‘crowd control’ to opening fire with high-calibre assault rifles and shotguns. The records present a pattern of people being shot in the face, chest and genitals, a trend also seen in the 2022 “Women, life, freedom” protests. Collectively, they help to illustrate the scale of bloodshed, showing dozens of life-threatening injuries appearing at a single hospital in a midsize city within a few hours.
. . . A radiologist and trauma imaging expert who has reviewed the images says that the group of patients would constitute “absolutely a mass casualty situation. Even for our large hospitals [in the US] … that would be a mass casualty alert that would overwhelm hospital resources.”
. . . Iran is one of a small number of states where armed forces and police use metal birdshot. While an individual birdshot pellet does not cause as much damage as a bullet, they can still be catastrophic. At long range, when the pellets spray outward, they will hit a crowd indiscriminately. Even a single pellet can cause terrible damage. The X-rays show several cases where just one or two pellets are present in the skull (indicating the person was likely hit at longer range), but they appear to have pierced the eye and come to rest in the socket. At close range, a person may be pierced by hundreds of pellets, causing the destruction of all surrounding soft tissue.
There are a lot more pictures and a lot more patients described, but two X-rays are below showing the horrors of the regime. We mustn’t forget this even though there appears to have been a lull in the protesting—largely because of deaths as well as injuries like these (this one looks as if there are pellets in the brain):
Aiming at the crotch of a women seems to be a case of sexual sadism:
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is anxious (after all, she’s Jewish):
Hili: All our plans are slowly beginning to collapse.
Andrzej: You are too impatient, we must work harder at it.
In Polish:
Hili: Wszystkie nasze plany zaczynają się powoli rozpadać.
Ja: Jesteś zbyt niecierpliwa, musimy bardziej przyłożyć się do pracy.
*******************
From Barry:
From Cats Doing Cat Stuff:
From Now That’s Wild:
From Masih: the authorities shoot peaceful and unarmed people at a memorial service (see here for a bit more information about the victim Alireza Seidi). Sound up.
Security forces opened fire on civilians in Iran, in the city of Abdanan, targeting people who had gathered for the 40th-day memorial of #AlirezaSeidi.
On Tuesday, February 17, 2026, unarmed mourners were met with live bullets simply for honoring their slain loved one.… pic.twitter.com/kzznjnpoxM— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 17, 2026
From Luana. You have to be really ignorant of genetics to believe Mack’s claim. No need to bother yourself with the calculations:
This claim is incorrect. In humans a parent is always more genetically similar to their child than to a random stranger of their own or another population. https://t.co/0MkDnDtAgZ pic.twitter.com/aBm3HGMHgh
— Iosif Lazaridis (@iosif_lazaridis) February 16, 2026
Larry’s 15th anniversary at 10 Downing Street was three days ago. Here he brags about his tenure:
15 years ago today I arrived on Downing Street in a cage.
I’ve seen off Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak and I’m still going strong.
Only two Prime Ministers have ever done longer stints here: William Pitt the Younger and Sir Robert Walpole.
Bill and Bob – I’m coming for… pic.twitter.com/Mx52NJg93W— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) February 15, 2026
Is this a “fact”? I can’t find any references to “thumbs” (presumably some digit) on cats’ forepaws unless they’re polydactylous. You tell me!
Fun fact.
Barring some congenital deformity, all cats have “thumbs”.
This kitten is actually sucking its thumb.pic.twitter.com/C9owkPLxO9
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) January 14, 2026
“Birdbrains” can nevertheless contain a huge amount of information, including building complex nests:
The impossible architecture of these bird nests
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) February 17, 2026
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This Dutch Jewish girl was killed by cyanide gas within an hour or two of arriving at Auschwitz. She was three years old. Had she lived, she’d be 87 today. https://t.co/AXzasUhW5r
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) February 18, 2026
And two from Dr. Cobb. His daughter, who’s home, made raspberry pancakes yesterday, served with some crème fraîche. Yum! Here’s the British sense of humor on Pancake Day, with “St. Pancras” becoming “St. Pancake.”
Admit it makes me chuckle every year #PancakeDay #ShroveTuesday #BreakfastForDinner 🥞
— Prof Jenny Rohn (@jennyrohn.bsky.social) 2026-02-17T08:13:38.206Z
Matthew calls the “The Big Question”:
subscriptions >>> shop.viz.co.uk/viz353bs
— Viz Comic (@vizcomic.bsky.social) 2026-02-16T19:57:43.962Z
Cats do normally have five digits on their front paws (normally only 4 on the back). The “thumb” is small tucked in on the side of the wrist. It is the base for the dew claw. So when it’s time to clip claws for indoor cats it’s five on each front foot and four on each rear. I have no idea whether calling it a thumb is accurate but it is the homologous structure. Given the lack of useful function I don’t think it’s really analogous.
But presumably the Executive had the authority to establish them in the first place? All we have here is a judge who made a ruling because she didn’t like what the government did. She cited no law nor any Constitutional principle. The judge has no authority over History or how it is protrayed by the Executive. She just made it up. (We’ll leave aside the question of why the Federal government is in this business to begin with.) Now it is the judge, a person who is unelected, who is determining the content. That should be the issue.
The National Parks Service Organic Act of 1916, IIRC, is why the gov’t is in this business. Several follow ups, including by Roosevelt in the early 1930’s. The Historic sites act soon after established that such sites as the one in question should be assessed and National Historic Landmarks established (I believe this was the early 1960’s this finally fruited) There are a few other things I am missing, but I am sure that there are plenty of timelines and resources.
Prior to 1916, there were a slew of assorted agencies with responsibility for various things, and many lands, sites, and monuments were due to acts of congress.
As to authority, who, what, and so on, to specify HOW they are managed and what displays should be there, I do not know offhand, but I would guess Sec. of the Interior is the top of the chain.
Go figure. I learned something in High School history class…..
Here’s a link to the Judge’s opinion: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.paed.648842/gov.uscourts.paed.648842.53.0.pdf. The Judge concluded that various agreements with the City of Philadelphia and congressional directives required the federal government to consult with and secure the agreement of the City of Philadelphia before making any changes to the site — which, predictably, the Trump administration (being a law unto itself) failed to do.
I’m concerned about this decision. The judge is absolutely right in her equating what the government has done to the dystopia in 1984. She and most people are rightly disgusted at this brazen attempt to re-write history. Unfortunately, I do believe it’s true that what we call “history” is only a collection of the most currently acceptable lies. But some of those lies are buttressed (or mitigated) by facts, and that is what museums should do; display the facts of history and let us decide what they mean.
So I like her decision, but I can’t get past the plain and simple logic of the government’s defense; it’s their museum and they can do whatever they want with it. They can’t tell private museums what to do, but it seems to me they have a legal case that, like it or not, it’s their show. Maybe someone with more* legal knowledge than me can clear it up?
*which should be, let’s face it, ‘any’.
Ah Pluto. Yes a planet, but now with a qualifying adjective, “dwarf” planet…a category brought about by our huge increase in knowledge of objects in orbit around the Sun since Pluto’s 1930’s discovery and today. Pluto was always a bit of an odd planet in its larger orbit eccenticity which made it the eighth most distant planet for part of its orbit as it moved inside of Neptune and the 17 degree tilt of its orbital plane to the ecliptic. Alan Stern, PI on the NASA New Horizons robotic mission to Pluto has written a terrific and informative book on the full history of the mission with photos and the story of the scientific, technological, and very interesting political challenges that had to be overcome for this incredible mission. And the cherry on top of the whole deal (as if it needed one) is the firing of thrusters at Pluto to send New Horizons another billion miles out to rendezvous with and photograph Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule. Stern’s “Chasing New Horizons” is available from Amazon at url
https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-New-Horizons-Inside-Mission/dp/1250098971/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0
Lowell Observatory is in Flagstaff, AZ (you probably know that). I lived there for several years, and it is amazing. An antique wooden dome, and the still-working refraction telescope inside. I even got to look thru it at a globular cluster on a public night. Either that historical one, or with a separate but still incredibly good telescope — I don’t remember.
Pluto eludes the ecliptic, and we love her anyway.
You want wildlife stories?
That hawk is now CIRCLING my house in CT here. He’s got “puppy eater” written all over his terrifying dinosaur face. My lunchable sized new dog has to learn his “leash game” better.
Not today pterodactyl a-hole!
D.A.
NYC/CT
(Thx for the advise the other day Lou Jost and friends.)
Did anyone mention the danger of coyotes? You can buy these silly-looking coats with spikes and bristles to keep small dogs safe, but if I lived in the country, I would absolutely get one. I had a cat that was almost certainly taken by coyotes and it’s just heartbreaking to think about.
In other coyote news, people will be glad to hear that the coyote that swam to Alcatraz not only survived but is getting fat!
Unfortunately, it’s by non-stop snacking on nesting seabirds…
I feel for you; a great horned owl once had bad designs on my backyard kitty, or so I thought. I got her back inside. I learned later that she really wasn’t in danger from the bird; she was too large and not the owl’s normal prey. I think the same thing is true with your hawk, David. I understand the fear, but I think the pup is safe from it. Enjoy watching the raptor – I bet there are smaller mammals (rodents, most likely) in your back yard vicinity and the hawk knows it. Really the main things you need to worry about in your back yard are poisonous plants and other dogs. Seriously, watch very carefully the initial interaction between your little pooch and some strange dog.
Also, it’s CT, right? Born and raised there. My sister still lives there. They raise chickens and coyotes would be a problem if they didn’t have large guard dogs. If they had chosen, say, a Pekinese to guard the chickens, well the coyotes would have an appetizer before the main course of chicken alfresco. Just saying. I don’t know where in CT you are but it’s canids you should worry about, not raptors. IMO, of course.
Also, also…maybe post a pic of your pup? Sound totally cute. Or maybe Dr PCC(e) can have a Reader’s Unwildlife day when the tank runs dry (like today!), in which we get to see WEIT reader personal companions, furry, feathery, scaly, or finny. Just an idea.
Coyotes and plenty of raptors here too, deep in the suburbs of Michigan. But it’s the wild canids that cause FB posts about small missing dogs or missing cats.
Once or twice a year I will see one of them loping thru our yard, and they are clearly on a mission. Our large (and presumably safe) dog knows they are not like other dogs.
I don’t know what can be done about RFK Jr., who seems set on dismantling decades of proven research on human health. The only way I see it is to convince Trump that the nincompoop is disloyal to him. That should do it.
Not to worry about low-carb Dr Attia, as far as I can gather, as Bari Weiss has kept him on at CBS.
No more rhubarb? 🙂
I don’t believe a word the Iranian delegation says. You can’t make a good deal with bad people.
Because President Trump now knows that it will take much more than a one-and-done attack to achieve anything useful in Iran, he’s looking for a way to suspend the immediate conflict without going to war. But since he told the Iranian people that “Help is on the way,” he’s now between a rock and a hard place. Can he provide the help he promised without a lengthy military operation? I don’t think so. One outcome would be that the Trump administration and the Iranians reach some sort of symbolic agreement, declare victory, and leave the protestors at the mercy of the criminal theocratic leaders and the IRGC. This would be about the worst outcome possible.
Regarding knucklehead RFK, Jr., I’m deeply concerned about the damage he is causing at the FDA, which risks the entirety of global health. His rejection of Moderna’s application is an example of what Kennedy’s attack on mRNA research actually looks like. mRNA technology allows the rapid production of flu vaccine later in the year, giving public health experts more time to predict the viral strain that will predominate. The technology could save thousands from death and many, many more from severe illness. You or I could be one of them. But Mr. Kennedy stands in the way.
The only bright spot about those X-ray images of Iranian people wounded with birdshot is that in all likelihood none of the pellets entered the brain. A plain X-ray stacks everything in front of everything behind it and you can’t tell how deep in the 3-D structure of the head any finding is. For instance you can see the shadow of the patient’s ear superimposed over the posterior cranial fossa where the cerebellum sits. The pellets are probably all lodged in the scalp.
The reason I think this is that I don’t see any fractures in the skull bones to suggest they were breached by the flying pellets. It is very important in trauma care to be sure that no missiles or foreign bodies have entered the brain. You would have to do an antero-posterior view 90 degrees to the lateral view we see here, and figure out the location of every single pellet that projects over the skull to be sure they are all extra-cranial.
Nowadays we would do a CT which creates slices enabling the precise localization of foreign bodies. Crucially, it also shows brain injury (stroke, bleeding, and swelling). I believe you did show a few days ago one such imaging study which showed a gunshot wound to the head with grave brain injury. So the Iranian authorities are indeed shooting to kill, just not, apparently, in the two patients depicted today.
Birdshot to the face does reliably cause grievous eye injuries — many examples posted on WEIT –, and it is likely this patient did sustain injury to one or both eyes. But at least he will survive (if he doesn’t get shot in the hospital or die in prison.)
A terrible thing to do to people.
Great to see the mention for Viz. Their Top Tips column is one of the best comedy pieces in any magazine.
Sarah Ferguson is a liar and publicly tried to distance herself from Epstein, while writing him emails begging for money. She also took her young daughters to stay with him, which is irresponsible if she was aware of his proclivities. None of these things are criminal offences, just pathetic behaviour and questionable judgement. As she doesn’t have a formal role in the establishment, unlike Mandelson, she won’t be charged with misconduct in public office. Her lies are not on a par with his.
There’s a chance that she could be charged with financial irregularities if the money he gave her was a backhander and wasn’t properly accounted for in taxes, but I think I think that Epstein may have been too savvy financially to let that happen.
CDC has now reversed their decision with Moderna and Moderna is up ~5.5% (>8% earlier today). How many of Vinny Prasad’s friends bought Moderna last week?
Otherwise, there are now over 30 measles cases in some religious-based college in S Florida. Presumably unvaccinated home-schooled kids who were protected via herd immunity until arriving to a scene where that no longer applied.