Lithuania's independence is truly an amazing story. As the state began to break away from the USSR in 1990, tanks were sent in, and Soviet troops shut off the nation's broadcaster.

But suddenly, a family TV station that usually went online only once a week started broadcasting.

The broadcaster wasn't on the air, a technition was. He told the world that the Soviet Union was invading Lithuania and that he needed people who spoke as many languages as possible to rush over so the world could be told.
University professors rushed over to the building and began translating the broadcast into several languages, live.

The Soviet troops called into the station live, threatening to shut them down.

By that time, the Swedes picked up the broadcast and began sending it to the world.
The Soviets, once they learned that, called again and said they wouldn't kill the people in the station as long as "no misinformation was given."

The Lithuanian people saw the broadcast, and 50,000 people took to the streets to block the tanks. The tanks retreated.
One random small town TV show technician stopped a Soviet invasion and coup by going in front of the camera in his studio and begging to the world for help, knowing that the Soviets had taken out the state's major broadcaster.
The last images on the Lithuanian national broadcaster were Soviet troops walking up to the camera and shutting it off.

More from All

You May Also Like

https://t.co/6cRR2B3jBE
Viruses and other pathogens are often studied as stand-alone entities, despite that, in nature, they mostly live in multispecies associations called biofilms—both externally and within the host.

https://t.co/FBfXhUrH5d


Microorganisms in biofilms are enclosed by an extracellular matrix that confers protection and improves survival. Previous studies have shown that viruses can secondarily colonize preexisting biofilms, and viral biofilms have also been described.


...we raise the perspective that CoVs can persistently infect bats due to their association with biofilm structures. This phenomenon potentially provides an optimal environment for nonpathogenic & well-adapted viruses to interact with the host, as well as for viral recombination.


Biofilms can also enhance virion viability in extracellular environments, such as on fomites and in aquatic sediments, allowing viral persistence and dissemination.
My top 10 tweets of the year

A thread 👇

https://t.co/xj4js6shhy


https://t.co/b81zoW6u1d


https://t.co/1147it02zs


https://t.co/A7XCU5fC2m