Quote of the day…
The terrible and secret struggle of the mind that plunges us into the deepest abyss and that sadly never ends...
Every 40 seconds one person dies from suicide and for every adult who dies from self-destruction, there are more than 20 others who have attempted to end their life.
GERMÁN & CO While a Chinese balloon caused unrest last week by flying over US airspace, it was the 160th anniversary of another famous five-week balloon ride. The former's fate was to be shot down over the Atlantic coast after being shot down by an F-22 aircraft, in contrast to the latter's successful exploratory flight across the African continent.
In both cases, the aim of the trips was to have a privileged observation of the earth's surface from a few kilometers above the ground, for espionage purposes, as is suspected in the case of the Chinese balloon, or for exploration and discovery, as in the trip to Africa imagined by the writer Jules Verne in his book 'Five Weeks in a Balloon', published in 1863.
Most read…
Stories from the Cosmos: A tale of balloons, not a Chinese one…
The Pentagon made the announcement on Thursday of the discovery of a Chinese spy balloon.
EL TIEMPO BY SANTIAGO VARGAS TRANSLATION BY GERNÁN & CO Brussels paves the way for putting nuclear hydrogen on an equal footing with green hydrogen…
The European Commission is meeting France's aspirations, as opposed to the criteria of other major countries such as Germany and Spain. The Council and Parliament still need to give their approval.
EL PAÍS BY MANUEL V. GÓMEZIGNACIO FARIZAMARC BASSETS TRANSLATIONS BY GERMÁN & CO Ammunition Needs Top Agenda as NATO Defense Ministers Meet
—NATO’s chief says the alliance is meeting at a ‘critical time’ for its security.
AGENCIES Russian-linked malware was close to putting U.S. electric, gas facilities ‘offline’ last year
The malware was targeted at around a dozen U.S. facilities in the weeks after the invasion of Ukraine.
POLITICO.COM BY MAGGIE MILLER 
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Armando Rodriguez, Seaboard CEO for the Dominican Republic, concludes:
“We are very excited about this project because it will be a big benefit to the community in terms of the environment and the employment we will provide to the area.
Cooperate with objective and ethical thinking…
What is Artificial Intelligency?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a computer or a robot controlled by a computer to do tasks that are usually done by humans because they require human intelligence and discernment. Although there are no AIs that can perform the wide variety of tasks an ordinary human can do, some AIs can match humans in specific tasks.
The Incredible Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Now Used In Mental Health
FORBES BY BERNARD MARR Stigma
Stereotypes surrounding those with mental illnesses prevent patients from seeking the help they need. According to a World Health Organization study, 30 to 80 percent of those with mental health issues don’t seek treatment. It’s common to hear stereotypes about people with mental health issues like they’re dangerous, incompetent, or responsible for their illness.
We’re experiencing a mental health crisis. Approximately 15.5% of the global populationis affected by mental illnesses, and those numbers are rising. Although there are many who require treatment, more than 50% of mental illnesses remain untreated. In the United States, one in five adults suffers from some form of mental illness. Every 40 seconds one person dies from suicide and for every adult who dies from suicide, there are more than 20 others who have attempted to end their life. The ramifications of this go beyond our families and cultures as mental health also has a tremendous economic impact on the cost of treatment as well as the loss of productivity.
The critical shortfall of psychiatrists and other mental health specialists to provide treatment exacerbates this crisis. In fact, nearly 40% of Americans live where there is a shortage of mental health professionals; 60% of U.S. counties don’t have a psychiatrist. Those that do have access to mental health professionals often forgo treatment because they can’t afford it. Those with depression visit primary care physicians an average of five times a year versus three times for those who don’t have it. Others seek help in emergency rooms which are more expensive. More than $201 billion is spent on mental health annually making mental health the most expensive part of our healthcare system after knocking out heart conditions for the honor.
Ernesto Cardenal’s Prayer for Marilyn Monroe
She hungered for love and we offered her tranquilizers. For her despair, because we’re not saints psychoanalysis was recommended to her... One of Latin America’s most acclaimed poets, he wrote verses that offered a cosmic fusion of spirituality, politics, science and history, while appearing at frequent lectures and readings that made him a kind of international ambassador for Nicaragua.
Father Cardenal drew few boundaries between his callings. The son of a wealthy Nicaraguan family, he fought with a revolutionary group in his late 20s, then emerged as a leading proponent of liberation theology, which emphasizes Jesus’s message to the poor and oppressed.
THE WASHINGTON POST BY HARRISON SMITH MARCH 2, 2020 Ernesto Cardenal’s Prayer for Marilyn Monroe
LORD RECEIVE THIS YOUNG WOMAN KNOWN AROUND THE WORLD AS MARILYN MONROE ALTHOUGH THAT WASN’T HER REAL NAME (BUT YOU KNOW HER REAL NAME, THE NAME OF THE ORPHAN RAPED AT THE AGE OF 6 AND THE SHOPGIRL WHO AT 16 HAD TRIED TO KILL HERSELF) WHO NOW COMES BEFORE YOU WITHOUT ANY MAKEUP WITHOUT HER PRESS AGENT WITHOUT PHOTOGRAPHERS AND WITHOUT AUTOGRAPH HOUNDS, ALONE LIKE AN ASTRONAUT FACING NIGHT IN SPACE. SHE DREAMED WHEN SHE WAS LITTLE THAT SHE WAS NAKED IN A CHURCH (ACCORDING TO THE TIME ACCOUNT) BEFORE A PROSTRATED CROWD OF PEOPLE, THEIR HEADS ON THE FLOOR AND SHE HAD TO WALK ON TIPTOE SO AS NOT TO STEP ON THEIR HEADS. YOU KNOW OUR DREAMS BETTER THAN THE PSYCHIATRISTS. CHURCH, HOME, CAVE, ALL REPRESENT THE SECURITY OF THE WOMB BUT SOMETHING ELSE TOO … THE HEADS ARE HER FANS, THAT’S CLEAR (THE MASS OF HEADS IN THE DARK UNDER THE BEAM OF LIGHT). BUT THE TEMPLE ISN’T THE STUDIOS OF 20TH CENTURY-FOX. THE TEMPLE—OF MARBLE AND GOLD—IS THE TEMPLE OF HER BODY IN WHICH THE SON OF MAN STANDS WHIP IN HAND DRIVING OUT THE STUDIO BOSSES OF 20TH CENTURY-FOX WHO MADE YOUR HOUSE OF PRAYER A DEN OF THIEVES. LORD IN THIS WORLD POLLUTED WITH SIN AND RADIOACTIVITY YOU WON’T BLAME IT ALL ON A SHOPGIRL WHO, LIKE ANY OTHER SHOPGIRL, DREAMED OF BEING A STAR. HER DREAM JUST BECAME A REALITY (BUT LIKE TECHNICOLOR’S REALITY). SHE ONLY ACTED ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPT WE GAVE HER —THE STORY OF OUR OWN LIVES. AND IT WAS AN ABSURD SCRIPT. FORGIVE HER, LORD, AND FORGIVE US FOR OUR 20TH CENTURY FOR THIS COLOSSAL SUPER-PRODUCTION ON WHICH WE ALL HAVE WORKED. SHE HUNGERED FOR LOVE AND WE OFFERED HER TRANQUILIZERS. FOR HER DESPAIR, BECAUSE WE’RE NOT SAINTS PSYCHOANALYSIS WAS RECOMMENDED TO HER. REMEMBER, LORD, HER GROWING FEAR OF THE CAMERA AND HER HATRED OF MAKEUP—INSISTING ON FRESH MAKEUP FOR EACH SCENE— AND HOW THE TERROR KEPT BUILDING UP IN HER AND MAKING HER LATE TO THE STUDIOS. LIKE ANY OTHER SHOPGIRL SHE DREAMED OF BEING A STAR. AND HER LIFE WAS UNREAL LIKE A DREAM THAT A PSYCHIATRIST INTERPRETS AND FILES. HER ROMANCES WERE A KISS WITH CLOSED EYES AND WHEN SHE OPENED THEM SHE REALIZED SHE HAD BEEN UNDER FLOODLIGHTS AS THEY KILLED THE FLOODLIGHTS! AND THEY TOOK DOWN THE TWO WALLS OF THE ROOM (IT WAS A MOVIE SET) WHILE THE DIRECTOR LEFT WITH HIS SCRIPTBOOK BECAUSE THE SCENE HAD BEEN SHOT. OR LIKE A CRUISE ON A YACHT, A KISS IN SINGAPORE, A DANCE IN RIO THE RECEPTION AT THE MANSION OF THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF WINDSOR ALL VIEWED IN A POOR APARTMENT’S TINY LIVING ROOM. THE FILM ENDED WITHOUT THE FINAL KISS. SHE WAS FOUND DEAD IN HER BED WITH HER HAND ON THE PHONE. AND THE DETECTIVES NEVER LEARNED WHO SHE WAS GOING TO CALL. SHE WAS LIKE SOMEONE WHO HAD DIALED THE NUMBER OF THE ONLY FRIENDLY VOICE AND ONLY HEARD THE VOICE OF A RECORDING THAT SAYS: WRONG NUMBER. OR LIKE SOMEONE WHO HAD BEEN WOUNDED BY GANGSTERS REACHING FOR A DISCONNECTED PHONE. LORD WHOEVER IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THAT SHE WAS GOING TO CALL AND DIDN’T CALL (AND MAYBE IT WAS NO ONE OR SOMEONE WHOSE NUMBER ISN’T IN THE LOS ANGELES PHONEBOOK) YOU ANSWER THAT TELEPHONE! (TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY JONATHAN COHEN) 
Image: Germán & Co Stories from the Cosmos: A tale of balloons, not a Chinese one…
The Pentagon made the announcement on Thursday of the discovery of a Chinese spy balloon.
EL TIEMPO BY SANTIAGO VARGAS TRANSLATION BY GERNÁN & CO 06 FEBRUARY 2023, 11:29 P. M. While a Chinese balloon caused unrest last week by flying over US airspace, it was the 160th anniversary of another famous five-week balloon ride. The former's fate was to be shot down over the Atlantic coast after being shot down by an F-22 aircraft, in contrast to the latter's successful exploratory flight across the African continent.
In both cases, the aim of the trips was to have a privileged observation of the earth's surface from a few kilometres above the ground, for espionage purposes, as is suspected in the case of the Chinese balloon, or for exploration and discovery, as in the trip to Africa imagined by the writer Jules Verne in his book 'Five Weeks in a Balloon', published in 1863. This was the first novel by the famous French writer, and in it, despite not having flown in a balloon when he wrote it, he was able to masterfully recreate the exciting journey of three characters that opened the way to science fiction adventure literature.
The history of balloons, however, predates Verne and goes back to the anecdote of the Jesuit priest Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão when he saw a soap bubble rise as it passed over a candle. It is said that he was inspired to develop something lighter than air, developing an instrument that was patented in 1709. That same year he presented his unmanned hot air balloon in the city of Lisbon, and although the device only rose four meters above the ground, it catapulted him to fame, being recognized as the 'flying father' and a true precursor of aeronautics, although it also led to him being persecuted by the Inquisition for witchcraft.
Of course, when it comes to balloons, the most prominent were the French brothers Joseph and Jaques Montgolfier, who developed manned hot-air balloons. During the 1780s, they held exhibitions that amazed thousands of European spectators, who witnessed how various animals, including ducks and sheep, ascended into the air, only to be followed by human beings.
French brothers Joseph and Jaques Montgolfier developed manned hot air balloons.
Ascending above the clouds in hot-air balloons enabled memorable feats in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as observing total eclipses of the Sun from a privileged position, discovering a powerful source of energy from space (cosmic rays), or having an unprecedented means of transport. Almost a century ago, the Zeppelin was the king of the skies. The huge dirigible balloon was more than 200 meters long and could carry 60 tonnes of cargo at a speed of 128 kilometers per hour.
The story of the colossal Zeppelin involves the Colombian Carlos Albán, a man from Payán who applied for a patent for an airship at the Ministry of Development of the time in Colombia in 1887. Albán was consul in Hamburg, where he became a close friend of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. It is said that Albán gave his friend the plans for the invention, in which the metal envelope of the balloon stood out, without suspecting the success it would have years later. Alban died in 1902.
Today, balloons are still essential for scientific, meteorological, and astronomical experiments, among others. And in the aerospace field, huge balloons are expected to be used in the near future to transport tourists in pressurized capsules on stratospheric journeys 30 kilometers high. Bookings for these trips are already being taken, and all indications are that balloons will return to the grandeur of yesteryear.
Image: Germán & Co Brussels paves the way for putting nuclear hydrogen on an equal footing with green hydrogen…
The European Commission is meeting France's aspirations, as opposed to the criteria of other major countries such as Germany and Spain. The Council and Parliament still need to give their approval.
EL PAÍS BY MANUEL V. GÓMEZIGNACIO FARIZAMARC BASSETS TRANSLATIONS BY GERMÁN & CO BRUSSELS / MADRID / PARIS - 14 FEB 2023 France scored an important goal in Brussels on Monday. In Paris there is even talk of a "victory". The European Commission has opened the door for some hydrogen produced by nuclear power to be labelled on a par with hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources. The EU executive is thus meeting an important aspiration of Europe's second-largest economy, which has the largest nuclear fleet in the EU-27, and which in recent weeks has stepped up its pressure on Ursula von der Leyen's team to go along with its thesis. For the new rules to enter into force, they still need the approval of both the Council and the European Parliament. If they do not object within two months, it will automatically enter into force.
The so-called pink hydrogen, obtained from electricity generated in nuclear power plants, will end up being equated with green hydrogen, which has become one of Paris' main energy battles in the EU's capital. So much so that it has come to mortgage the future of the underground hydro-product between Barcelona and Marseille, which has the approval of Brussels to finance up to half of the work, to receive the same status as that from other sources that do not emit greenhouse gases, such as solar photovoltaic or wind power.
For hydrogen to count towards renewable energy targets, Brussels is now considering three options: it must come from electrolysers powered directly by wind turbines or solar farms; it must come from a geographical area where more than 90% of electricity in the previous year came from renewable sources; or - and this is where France would find a loophole - from an area where most of the electricity is low-carbon - something that nuclear also makes possible - and provided the company producing the hydrogen has signed a bilateral contract (PPA) to supply renewable electricity for an amount equivalent to the amount it uses in the process.
This is the submarine tube that will link Spain and France: 2,500 million in investment, a 455-kilometre route and two million tonnes of hydrogen per year.
"This decision opens the door to labelling hydrogen produced from low-carbon sources as renewable hydrogen. This is a mistake and a disproportionate concession to France," says Socialist MEP Nicolás González Casares. "There are restrictions, but even so it is worrying. With its taxonomy last year, the European Commission already opened the door to both atomic energy (a French claim) and fossil gas (a German claim) being labelled as green energy sources.
"Today's [yesterday Monday] delegated act is about renewable fuels of non-biological origin, which includes renewable hydrogen. We don't have a category of green hydrogen in the legislation. We will define what is low-carbon hydrogen in a separate rule. But it is renewable hydrogen that counts towards the targets of the renewable energy directive," say official Commission spokespersons.
The French government claims a "victory", but considers it to be partial. It makes a distinction between the so-called delegated acts - the documents that the EU executive presented on Monday - and the RED3 directive on renewable energies, which is currently being debated by the Member States. In the negotiations on the directive, Paris is coming up against Germany and Spain head-on.
"The convincing work I have done with my European colleagues has borne fruit and I thank the Members of the European Parliament who have also mobilized," said Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the French Minister for Energy Transition. She added: "The publication of these delegated acts on hydrogen recognizes France's decarbonization efforts. The same logic must now be applied to our renewable hydrogen targets in the RED3 directive. This is a difficult point for France and its partners and we are not there yet.
The "crux of the discussion", according to the Elysée, is the recognition of France's capacity to produce hydrogen from nuclear energy. Otherwise, France considers that a project such as H2Med - the underwater tube to bring hydrogen from Barcelona to Marseille and from there to Germany - is at risk.
"If France cannot produce its hydrogen because of European rules," said a source from the French Ministry of Energy Transition, "the economic viability of the projects will be in question, because if there is no hydrogen to put in the tubes, economically it will not make any sense to build tubes. This position is unacceptable to Spain's González Casares, one of the European Parliament's negotiators on the directive.
The Spanish government is one of the most vocal opponents of France on this issue. "We refuse to consider low-carbon fuels among the renewable energy targets," a spokesperson said at the weekend. The Commission's decision on Monday has not yet been taken: "We are studying it," said sources at the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.
Hydrogen, a gas obtained by electrolysis (the combination of electricity and water) is a key energy vector for the decarbonization of sectors that are difficult or impossible to electrify, such as heavy industry or air and maritime transport.
Image: Leopard-2-Tank-4 Ammunition Needs Top Agenda as NATO Defense Ministers Meet
—NATO’s chief says the alliance is meeting at a ‘critical time’ for its security.
BRUSSELS — With Russia bearing down on a strategically important city in eastern Ukraine, NATO defense ministers gathered in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss ways of continuing to provide military support to Kyiv, whose forces are expending ammunition faster than allies can produce it.
As Russia continues to make grinding gains — particularly around the fiercely contested eastern city of Bakhmut — and the war nears its first anniversary, Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said in opening remarks that the meeting was taking place at “a critical time for our security.”
Mr. Stoltenberg said the U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the larger group of countries supporting Ukraine militarily and financially, would meet later on Tuesday to “address the urgent needs for increased support to Ukraine.”
Ukrainian officials have said that they are in dire need of more Soviet-caliber ammunition for the T-72 tanks they already possess in large numbers, as well as NATO-caliber artillery shells to work with allied-supplied heavy guns. Before the meeting, Mr. Stoltenberg said that the war “is consuming an enormous amount of munitions and depleting allied stockpiles,” and that allies would discuss how to expand production in order to support Ukraine and replenish their own arsenals.
“The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production,” he said. “This puts our defense industries under strain.”
Even as NATO countries try to ramp up manufacturing, waiting times to secure new large-caliber ammunition have grown from 12 months to 28 months, even if contracts are signed immediately, Mr. Stoltenberg said.
The Pentagon is already racing to increase production of artillery shells by 500 percent within two years, pushing conventional ammunition production to levels not seen since the Korean War.
Ukrainian and Russian troops are firing thousands of howitzer rounds at each other every day, U.S. officials say, along a front line more than 600 miles long.
The two-day meeting, and the meeting with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, are part of a series of diplomatic gatherings this week.
“This contact group has made it clear that we will support Ukraine’s fight for freedom over the long haul and help Ukraine hold, and advance, during the spring counteroffensive,” Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said on Tuesday, referring to the long expected renewed push by Ukrainian forces as the war enters a new phase.
High on the list of Ukraine’s requests has been Western fighter jets — a topic that was certain to be discussed, Mr. Stoltenberg said, even if approval to provide them, let alone deliver them, seems distant.
“The urgent need now is to deliver what has always been promised,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. The U.S. and several other NATO allies have committed to supplying tanks to aid Kyiv’s war effort, but they are expected to take months to arrive.
—“The issue of aircraft is not the most urgent issue now,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. “But it is an ongoing discussion.”
President Biden said last month that his administration would not provide American F-16s. And while Britain has said it is willing to begin training Ukrainian pilots, it would not be able to supply Typhoon or Tornado fighter jets on its own.
Both aircraft were joint projects with Italy, Spain and Germany, and export to Ukraine would require other countries to sign off. Like Mr. Biden, Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany, has said that he opposes supplying fighter jets to Ukraine.
The NATO defense ministers were also expected to discuss preparations and goals for the alliance’s summit in July when the alliance will grapple with replacing Mr. Stoltenberg, whose extended term runs out at the end of September. Mr. Stoltenberg has made it clear through his spokeswoman, Oana Lungescu, that after nearly nine years in the job, he would not seek another extension.
Image: By POLITICO.COM Russian-linked malware was close to putting U.S. electric, gas facilities ‘offline’ last year
The malware was targeted at around a dozen U.S. facilities in the weeks after the invasion of Ukraine.
POLITICO.COM BY MAGGIE MILLER 02/14/2023 linked to Russia got very close to being able to take a dozen U.S. electric and gas facilities offline in the first weeks of the war in Ukraine, the head of a top cybersecurity company warned Tuesday.
Robert M. Lee, the founder and CEO of Dragos, which helps companies respond to cyberattacks, said hackers with a group Dragos calls “Chernovite” were using a malicious software to try to take down “around a dozen” U.S. electric and liquid natural gas sites.
“This is the closest we’ve ever been to having U.S. or European infrastructure, I’d say U.S. infrastructure, go offline,” Lee told reporters in a briefing. “It wasn’t employed on one of its targets, they weren’t ready to pull the trigger, they were getting very close.” Lee declined to offer details on what prevented the attack from succeeding, but said it was halted by a coalition of U.S. government and cyber industry groups.
While the U.S. government disclosed last year that the new malware — called PIPEDREAM — was capable of infiltrating U.S. industrial control systems across multiple key sectors, Lee’s comments suggest that the danger was more acute than officials had disclosed. And his disclosure offers a new picture of the U.S. energy supply’s vulnerability to a crippling cyber assault — a possibility that had drawn widespread concern during the run-up to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion.
Lee described the malware as a “state-level, wartime capability.” He did not say if the malware had actually been installed in the targeted networks or if the hackers were just close to getting into the systems.
While Dragos does not link hacking groups to nation states as a matter of policy, other security researchers have said the PIPEDREAM malware used by Chernovite is likely connected to Russia.
The U.S. announced its discovery of the dangerous malware in April 2022, just three weeks after President Joe Biden warned that Russia was “exploring options for potential cyberattacks” against the U.S., and urging critical infrastructure groups to step up security efforts.
Lee said that Dragos worked with partners including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Department of Energy, the FBI and the National Security Agency to “keep something off of American soil that was going to be disruptive in nature.”
“I don’t use those words lightly, not trying to hype anything up, but the state actor responsible for this, there is no chance that this was not their go-to package to be able to actually bring down infrastructure,” Lee said.
A spokesperson for CISA declined to comment on the impact of the malware, and the three other agencies did not respond to requests for comment. When they first announced the discovery of the malware, the agencies said in a joint alert that “certain advanced persistent threat actors” were using new tools to impact multiple types of industrial control systems.
According to Dragos, PIPEDREAM malware is the “first ever” type that can be used across a variety of industrial control systems, and that was not designed to disrupt one specific system — making it particularly dangerous. The malware also does not get into systems through vulnerabilities that could be patched, making it very hard to defend against.
“You could increase temperatures, you could have unsafe conditions in a plant,” Lee said of the impact the use of PIPEDREAM could have. “There is no need to exploit anything, there is no need to find a vulnerability when a capability is already built into the plant so the plant environments can operate.”
Lee told reporters that he believed that since the PIPEDREAM malware was not used successfully against any U.S. infrastructure, the security community “moved past it quickly,” but that there is more to come from these hackers.
“Chernovite is still active, so we assess with high confidence that they are still active and working on this framework and we expect to see it deployed in the future,” Lee said.