The images of last week’s blood moon were captured by an Iraqi astrophotographer with a fast-growing online following.
Darya Kawa Mirza, from Erbil, capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, shares his astrophotography on Instagram, where he boasts 131,000 followers. Astrophotography is the art of shooting astronomical or celestial objects.
Sky watchers were treated to a blood moon, also known as a Hunter’s Moon, on Oct. 21. The Hunter’s Moon is the full moon after the Harvest Moon and occurs in October or early November. Its name is literal: The full Hunter’s Moon illuminates the hunter’s prey.
Moonlight illuminates its surroundings. (@daryavaseum/Zenger)
Mirza shared several shots with the message: “What is Hunter’s Moon? Also called the blood moon or sanguine moon, it is the first full moon of fall in the Northern Hemisphere.
“As autumn settles in and crops are cleared from the field, hunters journey into the twilight to stock up on fattening deer — guided by the light of a full moon, known as the Hunter’s Moon.
“I love the night sky, the stars and the planets, and exploring the unknown,” Mirza said.
Darya Kawa Mirza loves the sky and exploring the unknown through his photos of the moon in Erbil, Iraq. (@daryavaseum/Zenger)
How does he achieve his perfectly timed snaps?
“Astrophotography is completely different from normal photography, and you have to be patient, calm, waiting for the best moment. Sometimes, even after working on a single image for a month, most pictures are far from perfect — and 95 percent will go in the garbage,” he said.
“Every month we have a different full moon, some years it is 12 and others 13. It depends mainly on the number of full moons in that year and the Hunter’s Moon is no exception.”
Darya Kawa Mirza takes a photo of clouds shaped like tiger stripes, while capturing a harvest moon, shot in Erbil, Iraq. (@daryavaseum/Zenger News)
Mirza said he got exceptional shots of the Hunter’s Moon this year. During a full moon at this time, the moon is at its highest point above the horizon, “leading to less atmospheric turbulence. I don’t use filters for my images, only raw data editing in Photoshop or another type of software.
“There are several devices I use, like my cameras (Canon EOS 6D and Canon EOS 1200D) and lenses Canon EF 24-105mm, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM, and Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM.
“I also use a Celestron Astro Master 114eq telescope and a Celestron NexStar 8SE telescope.”
Mizra is currently at university, studying for a Master of Science degree.
For those in the Southern Hemisphere, the Harvest and Hunter’s Moons are based on the March equinox, their equivalent autumn equinox.
Retail gasoline prices should remain elevated for the short term as demand holds up even amid mounting inflationary pressures, analysts said.
Travel club AAA listed a national average retail price of $3.39 for a gallon of regular unleaded on Tuesday, about 20 cents per gallon higher than a month ago.
Retail gasoline prices have been on a steady rise for at least a month. (Graph courtesy of AAA)
That means a perfect storm is brewing in the commodities market.
Higher natural gas prices push some segments of the economy toward coal or crude oil as an alternate resource. In an under-supplied oil market, there is competition for the petroleum that refineries would usually turn into gasoline.
White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said Tuesday that Washington would continue to put pressure on OPEC to open the spigot, given ongoing concerns about energy-related inflation.
Like crude oil, the average retail price for gasoline is at a seven-year-high. But even with soaring prices, demand seems to be holding. Federal estimates last week on the total amount of refined petroleum products sent to the market, a loose proxy for demand, showed levels are still on par with pre-pandemic numbers.
“Once weather turns (colder), demand should turn lower,” said Denton Cinquegrana, the chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. “But right now, I don’t see anything deterring demand.”
Winter weather usually curbs road travel and subsequently demand, pushing retail gas prices lower as a result. Commuters would also get a break because the so-called winter blend of gasoline is usually cheaper to produce, but that’s not the case this year. Most of the blending components needed to make gasoline are also expensive.
A national forecast shows a warm winter ahead, though La Nina could spoil that for part of the South. (Map courtesy of The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Cinquegrana added consumers may still feel flush from stimulus and savings from last year, so there’s discretionary cash to dampen the pain at the pump.
Patrick DeHaan, the senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, said there is no real impact on demand yet, but the unknown factor may be where oil prices are headed.
Crude oil prices account for the bulk of what consumers see at the pump. If forecasts for $100 per barrel oil, a good $15 per barrel higher than the U.S. benchmark, prove accurate, it would trickle down to consumers.
Some of those forecasts, DeHaan said, are hyperbolic. “I just don’t know that we’ll hit $100,” he said.
Recent forecasts of a colder winter in some parts of the country could add to the pressure ,given the contagion effect of the exponential spike in natural gas prices. Colder weather could lead to lower demand, but that could be offset by higher prices for heating fuels in general, which are already fetching a premium.
Phil Flynn, a senior energy analyst at The PRICE Futures Group in Chicago, told Zenger that refiners are behind where they should be in utilization and output. It just doesn’t look good for travelers at the moment.
“I don’t think the pain at the pump is done yet,” he said.
In the tiny Samaritan village of Kfar Luza on Mount Gerizim, some 37 miles north of Jerusalem, the gregarious 78-year-old Samaritan priest Husney Wasef Cohen welcomes visitors into his sukkah.
While the week-long Jewish harvest and pilgrimage festival of Sukkot was celebrated a month ago in temporary outdoor huts, the Samaritan calendar had Sukkot beginning on Oct. 20 this year, and their sukkot are built indoors.
On a frame hung from the ceiling of his living room, Cohen’s sukkah is elaborately decorated with almost a ton of fruits and vegetables — citrus fruits, pomegranates, red and green peppers, quince, apples and even eggplants.
Samaritan priest Husney Wasef Cohen welcomes visitors into his indoor sukkah. (Judith Sudilovsky)
Branches from three tree species, including palm fronds, a green tree and usually a lilac chaste tree, lie barely visible on top of the fruit display.
The community, too, is barely visible.
Known to many because of the parable of the Good Samaritan told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, the Samaritans are perhaps the smallest religious group in the world.
They identify themselves as descendants of the Israelite tribes of Efraim and Menashe. While most of those tribes were exiled by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E., the Samaritans have been here continuously for some 3,650 years.
Numbering in the millions at one time — Cohen says 3 million — they are now some 840 people divided almost evenly into two communities: one in Kfar Luza/Mount Gerizim near Nablus and the other in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon.
Never having left the Land of Israel, Cohen said, the Samaritans were subject to slaughter and conversion by the conquering armies of the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Byzantines and Muslims.
Husney Wasef Cohen showing a printed copy of the Samaritan Bible in ancient Hebrew. (Judith Sudilovsky)
When National Geographic came 110 years ago to report on “the last of the Samaritans,” they counted barely 130 souls, said Cohen.
“But we are still here,” he said. “Now, thank God, we are [more than] 800.”
People of peace
“Because we Samaritans have gone through so many difficult times we believe only in peace. We are in good relations with the Jews and the Palestinians,” Cohen said.
“War is a catastrophe for all. There are no victors in war, so we pray for there to be real peace. When blood is shed the earth does not distinguish between Samaritan blood or Jewish blood or Arab blood.”
Like most Samaritans, Cohen speaks modern Arabic, Hebrew and English as well as ancient Hebrew, the Samaritan holy language in which their Bible is written.
The outside wall of the Samaritan synagogue in Kfar Luza has depictions of the 12 Tribes of Israel with their names written in ancient Hebrew. (Judith Sudilovsky)
Samaritan boys and girls begin studying their Bible together at the age of six. But in daily life, Samaritans on Mount Gerizim speak Arabic and those in Holon speak Hebrew.
Samaritans adhere only to the Five Books of Moses in the Torah and do not follow any rabbinical teachings or edicts. They do not celebrate post-Torah holidays such as Purim or Hanukkah.
According to Samaritan beliefs, Mount Gerizim, and not Jerusalem, is where God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and also where the Tabernacle first rested when Joshua Ben Nun led the ancient Israelites into the Land of Israel.
The Kfar Luza Samaritan community used to live in Nablus but moved to their sacred Mount Gerizim in 1988 during the First Intifada because of clashes in Nablus between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian protestors. The community does not get involved in politics.
Since 1995, the Samaritans hold three identity cards: Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian. They are the only group to do so.
Samaritans living in Holon serve in the Israeli army, but not in combat units or in the West Bank.
“Because we are a really small community, we can’t be with clashes,” said Cohen’s daughter Salwa, 33, a former high-tech professional who runs the Samaritan Museum with her father.
“We are a very small community, so we can’t [risk losing anyone]. Every person in the Samaritan community is very precious for us.”
Salwa Cohen with a Samaritan Bible written in ancient Hebrew. (Judith Sudilovsky)
Marrying within the faith
While the Samaritan community integrates into daily life both in Nablus and Holon, they are very strict about marrying only among themselves, said Salwa.
To marry outside the faith means excommunication, she said.
Until recently, the biggest challenge was a shortage of girls in the community. But some two decades ago, the Samaritan elders ruled to allow some of the men to marry outsiders as long as the women agreed to become Samaritan. They brought in about two dozen brides from countries such as Ukraine and Turkey, and a few local Jewish women.
“Every girl … knows … that of the 20 or 30 boys she knows, one of them will be her husband,” said Salwa, who chose to marry her cousin and is mother to three girls.
“Because we don’t have enough girls, the girls have many choices. You may think it is very odd, but when you raise your children in this way they absorb it. But the good news is that the number of girls is growing, so in five or six years I think we won’t need to get any girls from outside.”
Sukkot, Samaritan style
Inside the sukkah, Cohen, wearing a white-and-red turban and a gray robe over a cream-colored tunic, said the Samaritan tradition of building the sukkah inside rather than outdoors comes from the times when locals, dating back to the Byzantine era, would deface the sukkah when it was built outside.
A Samaritan sukkah, laden with nearly a ton of fruits and vegetables. (Judith Sudilovsky)
There are other differences in how this biblical festival is celebrated by Samaritans.
While Jews bundle together willow, myrtle and palm branches along with an etrog (citron) as part of their holiday observance, the Samaritans believe the holiday mitzvah is fulfilled simply by sitting under the edge of the suspended indoor sukkah.
In the early morning of the first day of the seven-day holiday, the male members of the community, clad in white robes, ascend to the top of Mount Gerizim for the traditional holiday prayers.
Celebrants carry an ancient copy of their Torah, which they say is the oldest in the world.
On that day, the Holon Samaritans come for the pilgrimage atop the holy mountain and later share in festivities visiting friends and relatives in the village.
Everyone is welcome to his home for the holiday, Cohen said.
In the evenings, Palestinian officials and neighbors from Nablus come to greet the Samaritans. During the daytime, Israeli tour groups and Israeli representatives visit the village.
Abdallah Wasef Tawfiq, the High Priest of the Samaritans of Kfar Luza. (Judith Sudilovsky)
A priestly family
As the oldest male in the Cohen family — who according to Samaritan tradition are direct descendants of the biblical priestly caste, the cohanim — Husney Wasef Cohen’s oldest brother, Abdallah Wasef Tawfiq, is the High Priest of the Samaritans.
“My father was the High Priest 40 years ago, my grandfather 80 years ago,” he said.
While Tawfiq is the High Priest, the younger Cohen has largely taken on the role of emissary of the community. He often gives radio and television interviews, and on this Sukkot holiday was speaking to a group of print journalists.
Giving the priestly blessing to his visitors, the elderly Tawfiq was dressed in a striped gold and white robe.
He expressed his hope that Samaritans could serve as a bridge between Jews and Arabs, having a foothold in both worlds while maintaining their neutrality.
For more information on the Samaritan community of Kfar Luza/Mount Gerizim, click here.
More than 6,000 silver coins from the late Middle Ages were discovered during a renovation project on a farm in the village of Rainbach, Upper Austria.
The silver coins, which were handed over to the OÖ Lande-Kultur GmbH museum in Upper Austria, also known as Linz Schlossmuseum, “were wrapped in fabric and kept in a clay lidded pot,” the museum said.
“As a hiding place, the owner chose a spot in the foundation of a farmhouse, which he chose so skilfully that the coins remained undiscovered for more than five centuries.”
Kreutzers found recently at a farm renovation project in Upper Austria. (Michael Maritsch/Zenger)
The museum said that it is unclear how the coins got there and who they belonged to.
“We can only make assumptions about the question of who the former owner was, most likely it was the former owner of the farm or one of his family members; servants as owners can in any case be excluded in view of the size.”
The statement said that “the exact time of the concealment is not yet known. What is certain, however, is that it is from the second half of the 15th century and consists of different types of coins that were then in circulation in the country as a means of payment.”
The museum gave details about the different coins they found.
“On the one hand, these were pfennigs and their half-pieces, called ‘halves;’ on the other hand, larger coins worth several pfennigs, mainly ‘Prague groschen’ imported from Bohemia and some Milanese pegioni, popularly called ‘snake groschen’ after the coat of arms, and Tiroler Kreuzer, a type of coin of particularly high quality,” the museum said.
Parts of the clay pot in which the coins were found. (Michael Maritsch/Zenger)
The museum said that it could not put a value on the coins, which will be the subject of scientific study.
The find represents “one of the most extensive, late medieval complexes from a rural milieu in our state and beyond,” the museum said.
The museum in Upper Austria has about 108,000 square feet of exhibition space that focuses on natural, cultural and art history. “There is a wide spectrum of permanent exhibitions in the historic castle and in the new southern wing,” the museum’s website says. “They range from geological to contemporary history and bear witness to diverse and extensive special areas.
“The permanent exhibitions are flanked by diverse special exhibitions on current international and regional, as well as cultural, natural and contemporary history topics.”
Linz Schlossmuseum has two rooms with a permanent display of antique coins and historic currency from the territory of today’s Upper Austria from the Celtic times, the museum’s website says.
It is unclear whether the coins that were recently discovered will go on display at the museum.
A young elk was saved by wildlife officers after it wrapped a child’s swing around its head like a muzzle, leaving it unable to eat or drink.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a statement the two-and-a-half-year-old bull elk was first sighted near the Evergreen Golf Course in Jefferson County, Colorado on Oct. 23.
As seen in the footage, the distressed elk was charging up and down a hill entangled in the swing.
The locals who spotted the elk contacted Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which sent officers out to tranquilize the animal.
The animal was constantly on the move and wildlife officers caught up with it at Indian Hills, off the Parmalee Gulch Road. They successfully subdued the animal and removed the swing muzzle from its head.
CPW said in the statement: “This bull had a set of nontypical antlers, which most often happens when the pedicle or base where the antlers grow to get damaged at an early age. If a bull has a damaged pedicle, the animal will likely have nontypical antlers every year.”
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials tranquilized the bull elk to remove the swing set wrapped around his face. (Colorado Parks and Wildlife/Zenger)
After the tranquilizer wore off, the elk got back on its feet and appeared a little drowsy as it wandered into the woods.
The elk, also known as the wapiti, is the second-largest species within the deer family and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in North America, Eastern and Central Asia. Males (bulls) weigh about 700 pounds and are 5 feet high at the shoulder. Female elks (cows) weigh about 500 pounds. Calves are born in late May through early June.
Elks tend to inhabit forests and forest-edge habitats, where they feed on plants, leaves and grass. Male elks have large antlers that grow in the spring and usually drop in March or April the next year.
The elk heads to the woods after being freed from the swing. (Colorado Parks and Wildlife/Zenger)
The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the elk as a “least-concern species” as it is abundant in the wild.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife reminded residents to remove items from their gardens that could entangle big-game animals.
“Wildlife has been hung up in hammocks, soccer goals, volleyball nets, holiday lights, lawn chairs, tires, laundry baskets, low-hanging wires, tomato cages, plastic fencing, etc.,” it added.
The elk was tagged, and its antlers cut off to stop it from being harvested this season.
This was no game: The crew of a Russian anti-submarine ship prevented pirates from seizing a Panamanian cargo ship in the Gulf of Guinea on Monday night, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation said.
The crew aboard the Vice-Admiral Kulakov received a distress signal from the nearby container ship, Lucia, which was flying the flag of Panama. The civilian ship was off the coast of Nigeria, and was en route from Togo to Cameroon.
The crew on board the Russian destroyer responded by ordering the cargo crew to take cover in the engine room while soldiers made their way to the Lucia.
As seen in the footage, the container ship was being threatened by masked men in small speed boats that pulled up alongside.
Marines from the Vice-Admiral Kulakov boarded a Ka-27PS helicopter in full combat gear and took off toward the Lucia. Upon seeing the approach of the chopper, the suspected pirates fired up the engines on their speedboats and fled.
Despite that, the troops went ahead and dropped from the chopper onto the ship and worked to secure its decks. The Russian marines can be seen carefully passing through the ship checking for suspected pirates as they made their way to the crew holed up in the engine room.
Russian marines secure the decks of the cargo ship that pirates attempted to seize in the Atlantic Gulf of Guinea. (Ministry of Defense of Russia/Zenger)
It was not immediately known how many crew members were on board, or if any of them were injured. Also unknown is whether any of the suspected pirates had actually made it on board the ship before fleeing and what types of cargo the ship was carrying.
It is not clear if the Russian military plans to carry out an investigation into the incident or track the speedboats.
Such attempted piracy is becoming less common. Reported incidents of piracy and armed robbery at sea fell to the lowest recorded number in nearly three decades in the first nine months of 2021, according to the most recent report on such illegal activities by the ICC International Maritime Bureau. “The overall reduction of piracy and armed robbery incidents in the region is a testament to enhanced maritime security and response coordination measures adopted by regional and national authorities,” according to the bureau.
Pirates in speedboats exit the scene upon the approach of a Russian military helicopter sent from a nearby destroyer to thwart an apparent hijacking of a cargo ship on Monday off the east coast of Africa.(Ministry of Defense of Russia/Zenger)
The Russian vessel involved in Monday’s incident, the Vice-Admiral Kulakov, launched in 1980. It’s equipped with two anti-submarine/ship missiles and several other anti-submarine torpedoes and missiles.
The Ka-27PS Soviet-era military helicopter that ferried the marines to the cargo ship is used by several other countries in addition to Russia, including Ukraine, Vietnam, China and South Korea. It is primarily used for moving troops and anti-submarine operations.
Israel’s own “Bird Man,” professor Yossi Leshem, presented his famous “Owls for Peace” project at the opening of the Dubai Expo in the United Arab Emirates earlier this month.
For nearly 40 years, the Tel Aviv University ornithologist’s environmentally friendly project — which promotes barn owls as biological pest control agents instead of toxic pesticides — has fostered cooperation among Jewish and Muslim farmers in Israel and its neighbors.
A barn owl family can consume annually between 2,000 and 6,000 destructive rodents. But because birds no know borders, the project works only if farmers on surrounding fields join in. Otherwise, the owls would be killed by chemical pesticides spread in those fields.
Barn owl (Bruno van der Kraan/Unsplash)
Owls for Peace became a national initiative in 2008 in cooperation with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and the governmental ministries of Agriculture, Environmental Protection and Regional Cooperation.
“Today we have incorporated into the project Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Morocco, Greece, Cyprus and Switzerland — seven countries!” said Leshem. “We hope that soon Dubai will join us, too.”
That is a likely possibility. Following his visit, Leshem received an email from Hiba Obaid Mohammed Al Shehhi, director of the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment’s Marine Biodiversity Section.
“We were impressed by the [barn owl] project and its impact, and we are excited to look into ways that we can implement the project in the UAE,” she wrote to Leshem.
Professor Yossi Leshem and his delegation meeting Israel Environmental Minister Tamar Zandberg in Dubai. At the Expo, Zandberg and the KKL-JNF launched the DeserTech international innovation center for the benefit of all countries in the fight against climate change and its repercussions. (Courtesy of Yossi Leshem)
Owls for Peace could be part of a memorandum of understanding on environmental cooperation to be signed by Israel and the UAE. Leshem relates that barn owls can save millions of valuable Emirati date palms from rats — which can climb trees — without using chemical pesticides.
Leshem’s delegation to Dubai included representatives of Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Morocco and Switzerland.
The Swiss Pavilion will host the exhibition throughout the six months of the Dubai Expo, an event expected to attract about 25 million visitors.
As of 2020, the Owls for Peace project has led to the installation of about 5,000 nesting boxes for barn owls on Israeli farms.
“We started with 14 boxes on Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in 1983,” Leshem said.
Professor Yossi Leshem (center) with his delegation at the Swiss Pavilion of the Dubai Expo, October 2021. (Courtesy of Yossi Leshem)
Owls: the new symbol of peace
There are about 390 nesting boxes in Jordan, 120 in Palestinian Authority territories, close to 600 in Cyprus and 110 in Greece so far. In January, Leshem will travel to Morocco to help choose the best fields in which to install the first nesting boxes there.
Leshem’s colleague in Morocco, professor Imad Cherkaoui, hopes to get Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia involved in Barn Owls for Peace as well. Cherkaoui’s participation in the project’s presentation at the Expo was front-page news in Morocco.
“We also had a meeting with a key person from Bahrain who wants to come to Israel and learn more,” said Leshem.
He will host a five-day international seminar in Israel next month to present the owl project and new associated research.
“Everyone at the Expo was very excited to learn what we do,” Leshem said. “The barn owl is replacing the dove of peace. It’s not just a symbol; it does the job.”
Leshem is always eager to spread the message far and wide. He traveled to the Vatican in 2019 to present the Barn Owls for Peace project to the pope.
His children’s book about barn owls, available in Hebrew, Arabic and English, is titled “Buma the Barn Owl: The Farmer’s Friend.”
WBA (regular) welterweight champion Jamal James is defending his title against Radzhab Butaev of Russia this Saturday night.
But James wants more — much more — than a victory in that bout, including a rematch against the only man who has ever defeated him as a pro: WBA (Super) welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas.
“Jamal James has battled his way to the highest levels of the welterweight division,” said Tom Brown, president of TGB Promotions. “Jamal will get one step closer to gathering elite status if he can overcome the unbeaten Radzhab Butaev.”
James has knocked out two opponents among his seven straight victories at 147 pounds, a run that includes a WBA (regular) title-winning unanimous decision over Thomas Dulorme in his last fight in August.
James’ lone loss came in August 2016 via a 10-round unanimous decision to Ugas of Cuba. James, aka “Shango,” took the fight on three days’ notice after Ugas’ original opponent, Bryant Perrella, pulled out with a thumb injury.
“I was a little too confident in myself, taking it on such short notice, but my timing and everything was off,” said James, 33. “I was trying to hit him with heavy shots instead of just boxing him. It was a hard lesson but a good one. The Ugas fight is one I’d like to have back, and winning this next fight could give me that opportunity.”
The 6-foot-2-inch James (27-1, 12 KOs) could earn the rematch by getting beyond Butaev (13-0, 10 KOs) of Russia on Saturday at the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas in a Premier Boxing Champions event on Showtime (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT).
Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) has been declared “super champion” by the WBA, which has mandated a defense of his crown against Lithuania’s Eimantas Stanionis (13-0, 9 KOs), with the winner to face the victor of James-Butaev in March 2022.
The WBA made its resolution last month as a means of reducing its number of champions to just one from its current total of as many as three per weight class — super, regular and interim titleholders.
“The WBA should really just have one title for all of their weight classes instead of having multiple champions per weight class where it’s like, ‘Who’s the real champion?’” James said. “Since Ugas is the super champion, and I’m the regular champion, I feel that as the regular champion I should be the first one to have that opportunity to fight him.”
Ugas won a unanimous decision in August over eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao to defend the crown he earned by split decision over Abel Ramos in September 2020.
WBA “regular” welterweight champion Jamal James (right) won his crown via majority decision over Abel Ramos (left) in April 2018. (Brian Schroeder/Premier Boxing Champions)
“When we did fight, it was on short notice, and it was still a competitive fight that went the distance. I would like to see what would happen if we both had full camps,” James said.
“I’d like a fight with any of the big-name guys, but I’m cool with the tournament because I want a rematch with Ugas, especially because he had that great win over Pacquiao.”
In addition to Ramos, loser of a 10-round majority decision in April 2018 to James, Ugas shares Dulorme with James as an opponent. During an August 2017 unanimous decision loss to Ugas, Dulorme rose from a pair of second-round knockdowns and scored one of his own in the seventh.
“I don’t take it like, ‘Well, I beat Ramos and Dulorme more easily than Ugas, who struggled with them, because styles make fights, and I have a different style and skill set than Ugas does against those particular opponents,’” James said.
“A rematch with Ugas would be awesome, especially after he beat Manny Pacquiao. But I’m holding a title, and I know Radzhab Butaev wants my title. I’m taking Butaev very seriously. God willing, I’ll be victorious, so we can make a matchup with Ugas or any of the other big names.”
Nicknamed “The Python,” Butaev won his last fight in December 2020 by third-round knockout over Terry Chatwood, who entered at 9-0-1 (5 KOs).
“We’ve been working hard for a year leading up to this fight. Everything is going really well in camp, and we’re excited to finally get in the ring against James,” Butaev said.
“I’ve seen how James fights, and it’s definitely going to be a clash of styles. I can just promise that I’m going to bring the war and make this an exciting fight. I’m going to start writing my history on Oct. 30.”
James and Butaev share a common opponent in Janer Gonzalez, who entered at 19-0-1 (15 KOs) before suffering back-to-back losses.
Butaev won an eight-round unanimous decision over Gonzalez in November 2017, while James stopped him in the sixth round of his next fight in February 2019.
“I know Butaev’s gonna be ready because I’ve got a title, and at this level, all of these guys are coming with their A game,” James said. “But he doesn’t have as much experience as I do. This is a dangerous sport, and I can fight, win and be resourceful in a number of ways.”
Since losing to Ugas, James’ run includes a 10-round unanimous decision over former world title challenger Ionut “JoJo” Dan ion (July) and a third-round KO over former interim welterweight world champion Diego Chaves (December) both in 2017. The victory over Ramos preceded a second-round knockout of Mahonri Montes in August 2018.
After beating Gonzalez, James won a unanimous decision over left-handed former champion Antonio DeMarco in July 2019.
“I’ve used my height to win from distance, and I’ve used my inside game,” James said. “I’ve done it successfully where I don’t allow the camera and the lights to mess with my head. That won’t change when I’m in the ring on Saturday against Butaev.”
Unbeaten welterweight contender Jaron Ennis (right), who scored a sixth-round knockout of former champion Sergey Lipinets (left) in April, will try to extend his 17-match knockout streak on Saturday against Thomas Dulorme. (Amanda Westcott/Showtime)
Meanwhile, Ennis looks to uphold the tradition of boxing-rich Philadelphia, which spawned champions Joe Frazier, Bernard Hopkins, Steve Cunningham, Danny Garcia, Julian Williams Stephen Fulton and others.
“Jaron Ennis definitely belongs in that conversation. He’s a monster with explosive, next-level talent,” said Cunningham, a 45-year-old retired two-time cruiserweight champion. “There are things Jaron does in the ring where you’re asking, ‘How is he doing that?’ Jaron is destined to be an undisputed, unified welterweight champion if you ask me.”
Named Ring Magazine’s 2020 “Prospect of the Year,” Ennis embraces the lineage of past and current pugilists from the City of Brotherly Love. In his last fight in April, Ennis scored a sixth-round knockout of former champion Sergey Lipinets, who entered at 16-1-1 (12 KOs) before being knocked out for the first time in his career.
Dulorme’s last two bouts were unanimous decision losses to James in August 2020 and the unbeaten Stanionis in April.
“Dulorme is a good fighter, and I don’t take anything away from him. He’s fought a lot of great guys, world champions. But Dulorme’s gotta go because I’m on a different level right now,” said Ennis, 24, who is trained by his father, Bozy.
“I have so many fans from Philly coming out to this fight. It’s going to feel like I’m fighting at home. I would love to keep fighting in Vegas, bring my Philly people out and make it like a second home. I’m coming to take over the welterweight division, and he’s in my way. I’m coming for all the belts.”
For cancer immunotherapy to be most effective, a patient’s immune system must be able to “see” the tumor in question.
“Hotspots” on cancer cells’ outer membranes can provide this service. These molecular structures contain mutated peptides called neoantigens that the immune system’s T cells recognize as foreign – the first step in binding to the neoantigens and killing the cancerous cells.
But only a handful of neoantigens qualify as hotspots. And they are hard to find because they are presented to the immune system by protein complexes that come in thousands of versions.
Professor Yardena Samuels (pictured) and her PhD student Aviyah Peri led a team using bioinformatics to develop a method for identifying features common to many tumors. (Weizmann Institute)
The Weizmann Institute of Science’s professor Yardena Samuels and her PhD student Aviyah Peri led a team using bioinformatics to develop a method for identifying features common to many tumors. This can help develop effective immunotherapy for entire groups of patients.
Their findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The scientists applied algorithms to search through international databases of the genomes of thousands of cancer patients. Focusing on melanoma, the main cancer type studied by the Samuels lab, they looked for common mutations presented by common protein complexes. The search produced several neoantigens that could potentially be considered hotspots.
Next, the scientists subjected these candidate molecules to laboratory analysis and investigated their interactions with T cells.
Using this approach, the scientists identified a hotspot neoantigen derived from an oncogene known as RAS, which is involved in a third of all human cancers and 20 percent of melanoma cases.
They and their colleagues isolated the T cell receptor that can recognize this hotspot neoantigen in melanoma tumors. They then engineered T cells from healthy individuals to express this receptor and incubated them with tumor samples from patients whose tumors displayed this hotspot. The T cells killed only those cells that displayed the neoantigen.
“We’ve uncovered a neoantigen that is expressed in thousands of new melanoma cases every year, and we’ve shown that it can be used in these patients to mark tumor cells for immune destruction,” Peri said.
“Our study suggests that our newly developed platform can lead to ‘off-the-shelf’ immunotherapies in which T cell receptors that recognize cancer hotspots can be prepared in advance, ready to be applied in groups of patients whose tumors have been shown to harbor these hotspots,” said Samuels.
Also participating in the study were the late professor Nir Friedman of Weizmann’s Immunology Department; professor Masha Y. Niv of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; professor Steven A. Rosenberg of the U.S. National Cancer Institute; professor Cyrille J. Cohen of Bar-Ilan University, Dr. Ansuman T. Satpathy of Stanford University School of Medicine; and other researchers.
Following the death last year of Chicago rapper FBG Duck, and the recent charges against five alleged street gang members in connection with his killing, the already tainted reputation of the Chicago rap scene suffered another blow.
In an effort to change that perception of his city, the always positive NLM Geno recently launched an independent record label, Campaign Music.
Geno has already signed two Second City artists, Kid Codeine and LA Lamourt, and is seeking to provide job opportunities for other local hip-hop and R&B artists, among others. He also wants to help artists learn about different aspects of the music business.
NLM (Never Lose Motivation) Geno talks about his goals for The Campaign, his hopes of setting a positive tone in Chicago and much more in an interview with Zenger.
Percy Crawford interviewed NLM Geno for Zenger.
Zenger: How is everything going?
NLM Geno: Everything has been great. Life is a roller coaster as usual, but sometimes you gotta sit back and enjoy the ride. Take the twists and turns that it brings to you.
Zenger: Manifesting your own destiny comes with a lot of work. It seems like you have been very busy getting things going.
NLM Geno: Definitely man. I barely sleep. Most people are on a 24/7 schedule, I have been on a 25/8 schedule.
Zenger: Tell us about Campaign Music and the things you have going on with your new label.
Percy Crawford interviewed NLM Geno for Zenger. (Heidi Malone/Zenger)
NLM Geno: Most definitely. Campaign Music, right now we have a trifecta of artists, me included. I got Kid Codeine, who just dropped a new single. He’s out there in Los Angeles, California. He wavy as hell, man, he’s turnt up. Both of my artists are from Chicago, but Kid Codeine is just out in LA. LA Lamourt just did a show. We are working on his new release, as well. We just trying to keep the ball rollin’ and just really show what The Campaign is, what it really means, and the energy we are trying to put behind it. I’m definitely stamping those two on our new beginning. We just bout to go crazy, man.
Zenger: You have been an artist for a long time. What made owning your own label an aspect of the music industry you wanted to get into?
NLM Geno: Overall, I’m just passionate about the business, music and everything. It started with me just loving the pen and the pad to me just really wanting to expand. It really just came with artist development. What I saw was, a lot of artists that were in my position, weren’t getting that development. I analyzed everything about my career, figured out where I wanted to expand at and wanted to put my own spin on things. I started with a team and I still have that team, but my personal endeavors, I wanted to expand on what I had.
It all stems from my first mix tape turned album, “Get It Campaign.” That’s where “Campaign Music” actually came from. Now that I have artists who are wholeheartedly passionate like I am, that’s ready to run things up, I have something good on my hands.
Zenger: Is this label strictly signing hip-hop acts, or can we expect some R&B singers and other genres as well on the label?
NLM Geno: You can definitely expect some R&B to come out of Campaign Music. We’re just waiting for that right sound, that right artist. I’m definitely looking to add females to the roster, at least two. I’m not really rushing things right now, but I got my eye on a couple of people.
Music is a lifestyle for me. I’m trained in hip-hop, but I have an ear for everything. As much good music as I can create in terms of artists bringing something different to the table, we are going to run with it, we’re going to multiply it, and make the best of it. That includes all genres.
Zenger: Will it be centered solely around Chicago artists, or are you looking to expand outside of the Chi?
NLM Geno: It’s going to start at home until we really get that expansion and get those other connections. I definitely got some people down South and on the West Coast. I look at it like this: We get some different people on different coasts on board, and we take over the country. You gotta aim big. At this point, I’m let’s go hard or let’s go home. And I ain’t going home until I got about five of ’em to go to.
NLM Geno says he’s been working “25/8” to establish his new record label. (Courtesy NLM Geno)
Zenger: That blue check from Facebook must mean a lot to you because the grind hasn’t been easy. How did it feel to get that verification from the social media giant?
NLM Geno: It was a great feeling. It actually came all of a sudden. I wasn’t really focused on it when it did happen. But it was a nice congratulations through social media. For people to open their eyes and really see this guy is really working. It’s a lot of things in the music business that, consumers, listeners and fans can’t really see. They don’t really know how hard the work is behind the scenes, especially when it comes to marketing and promo and things like that. So, to get that salutation and to that verification lets me know that the work is being noticed, and that inspires me to keep working. I really just want to kick it into high gear. The proof is in the pudding and the proof is in the results.
Zenger: Your last work, “Open Book,” shows your consistency as an artist. Consistency is obviously key for you — how have you mastered that aspect of your craft?
NLM Geno: You always want to keep a hold of the people that you have paying attention. You don’t want to lose those people, so consistency is always key. It comes with that marketing and promo work, it comes with constantly dropping new music, it comes with branding.
You have to be able to give people a guarantee on what you have. You always want to guarantee people that you will be there for great music, sensible music, motivational music, and all those purposes to push us forward in life. And I enjoy what I do for a living. Music is a vibe for me. All of those things are equally detrimental in pushing this thing forward. The moment that you fall off or present something they aren’t used to getting from you… that’s not to say you can’t evolve, but it’s way harder to bounce back once you lose your core audience.
Zenger: Now that you have the label and you’re still a successful artist, what else can we expect from you?
NLM Geno: Right now, I’m looking at things as a gateway. As I’m mastering music and reaching new heights, I’m constantly sponging and learning new things. I definitely want to get into more lucrative business opportunities that can reach beyond music, but still tie into it at the same time.
I actually got an endorsement right now with a clothing brand called, Zah Life Clothing. Shout out to those guys. They keep me well-dressed and you can find their merchandise at www.zahlifeclothing.com. Of course, I got the smokers theme with my “Papers 2 Papers” album. I’m an avid smoker, so I’m looking for more opportunities to expand on situations with that as well. I’m just an open book. I’m keeping an open mind and open hand for ideas and opportunities.
Zenger: Chicago is looked at in such a negative light on the hip-hop side of things. But you bring a different kind of energy to the table. Is that deliberate?
NLM Geno: Most definitely. The thing about Chicago is, although there is a lot of negative things going on, there are people just like me, and the vast majority are doing positive things. You can’t just shine a light on a city like that because of our history because I can guarantee you there are a lot of good things going on. We just have to keep going with it and striving until we get to the point where you can’t ignore these positive things.
Zenger: You can’t control the entire city of Chicago, but how important is it for you to play your role and continue to inspire and now employ people and give them a better situation?
NLM Geno: It means everything. When you have a voice, and you have people that actually listen to you, you stepped into a position to be a leader. I don’t want to lead anyone off a cliff. I want to lead people to the promised land, whatever that is to them. I want people to get to it.
I never want to intentionally lead people in the wrong direction. With music, especially hip-hop, there are a lot of things that can be said to try and keep it real that can directly or indirectly influence people. I try my best to be wary of that.
Zenger: Campaign Music, give me the short-term goals for your company?
NLM Geno: Within a few years, I want to be way more relevant. I want the company to be bigger and eventually be a powerhouse in Chicago. I want to let people know as far as the indy [independent] artist is concerned, we still have major labels out there, but the name of the game is independent right now. I want to be a prime example of what it means to be independent and show people that you can get out here and chase your dreams and achieve your goals. You just have to take the steps and continue to progress.
Zenger: Good luck to you, your label, and your artists. They are in good hands. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
NLM Geno: I just want to let everyone know; new music is always on the way. “Get It Campaign 3,” my next album, will be coming soon. My new artists will definitely be featured on there. It’s about to go crazy. I appreciate all the love, I appreciate all the blessings, and third time is a charm. Let’s get it.
