🌧 An unusual shift in the weather has turned the Sahara green
Satellites recently captured plant life blooming in parts of the typically arid southern Sahara after storms moved there when they shouldn’t. It has also caused catastrophic flooding. And scientists say a world warming due to fossil fuel pollution is making both more likely.
Satellite imagery from NASA's MODIS satellite depicts vegetation extent (green coloring) over Africa on September 12, 2024, versus the same day in 2023. Vegetation reaches much farther north in 2024 in places like Niger and Chad and is more lush (darker green) just above the equator in a place like the Central African Republic. NASA
Rainfall north of the equator in Africa typically increases from July through September as the West African Monsoon kicks into gear.
The phenomenon is marked by an increase in stormy weather that erupts when moist, tropical air from near the equator meets hot, dry air from the northern portion of the continent. The focus for this stormy weather – known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone – shifts north of the equator in the Northern Hemisphere’s summer months. Much of it sags south of the equator during the Southern Hemisphere’s warm months.
But since at least mid-July, this zone has shifted farther north than it typically should, sending storms into the southern Sahara, including portions of Niger, Chad, Sudan and even as far north as Libya, according to data from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
As a result, these portions of the Sahara Desert are anywhere from twice as wet to more than six times wetter than they should be.
The transition from El Niño to La Niña has influenced how far north this zone has moved this summer Haustein said. El Niño – a natural climate pattern marked by warmer than average ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific – typically leads to drier than normal conditions in the wet portions of West and Central Africa. La Niña, or even a budding one, can have the opposite effect.
A warming world is the other significant factor.
“The Intertropical Convergence Zone, which is the reason for (Africa’s) greening, moves farther north the warmer the world gets,” Haustein explained. “At least, this is what most models suggest.”
🔗 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/13/weather/sahara-desert-green-climate/index.html
The U.S. Army 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) often nicknamed the "Ghosts in the Machine" released their newest recruitment video on November 19, 2025. hell this one slaps still no lujan no join. 😒
Somali dance at the Timberwolves vs the Celtics game yesterday in Minnesota https://x.com/westtoeastt/status/1995140208589967665/video/1
Follow Libs of TikTok Fans: t.me/libsontiktok
16,499 people died by euthanasia in Canada in 2024, accounting for 5.1% of all deaths in the country.
According to the latest report on “medical assistance in dying” (MAiD) from Health Canada released at the end of last month, there was a 6.9% increase in state-assisted deaths in Canada in 2024.
In 2024, although assisted suicide is permitted, in which the person who wishes to end their own life self-administers the lethal substance, there was not a single case of assisted suicide. Instead, every single person who died under Canada’s MAiD programme died by euthanasia. In 2023, there were fewer than five instances of assisted suicide.
There have been a total of 76,475 instances of euthanasia and assisted suicide since they were made legal in Canada in 2016.
Posters have appeared on the New York subway offering would-be parents the opportunity to "genetically optimise" their future baby.
By signing up to their $8,999 service, Nucleus Genomics will profile the full DNA sequence of up to 20 embryos for couples undergoing IVF.
The New York start-up's slick app then allows would-be parents to review their brood for known disease genes, conditions like autism and ADHD, as well as traits like eye colour, height, and intelligence.
Peter Thiel, who shares similar views to Musk on the topic, supported the start-up through his Founders Fund. – Article
OpenAI's Sam Altman has also invested in gene-editing startup, Preventive, to eliminate gene-hereditary diseases from babies.
The first successful IVF (test tube baby) occurred in 1978. The place, perhaps appropriately, considering English author Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, was England.
The irreversible transformations to the human genome will make the 4IR a pandora’s box.
👀 – ...
AI influencers are now boasting personalities, backstories and even making ill-advised decisions
Aitana Lopez is an AI influencer who makes as much as $11,000 per month.
She’s part of a new breed of digitally created avatars winning the battle for the public’s attention, joined by the likes of chart topping “singers” Solomon Ray and Breaking Rust and “blonde bombshell” Mia Zelu, who stole the show at the Wimbledon tennis tournament — even though she wasn’t physically there.
Aitana has made promo videos for Amazon, while huge global brands such as Calvin Klein, Prada, Samsung and YouTube have all used AI influencers.
AI generated Christian recording artist Solomon Ray topped the Billboard gospel charts with his song “Find Your Rest.” He’s cleverly billed as a “Mississippi-made soul singer,” and has over 500,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
One of the most followed AI influencers, Lil Miquela, caused serious backlash when she posted about being diagnosed ...