Michael Moore Pushes Biden to Cancel All Student Loan Debt, Abolish Death Penalty in Final Months as President. Really!

I am afraid the lifelong pathological and serial liar and senile, demented and corrupt 46th President might just do that in a last ditch effort to polish up his very rotten legacy!

Or will he do something else crazy?

How will he try in his waning days to avoid being among the 10 worst U.S. presidents if not the 5 worst U.S. Presidents in history!

Michael Moore Pushes Biden to Cancel All Student Loan Debt, Abolish Death Penalty in Final Months as President

Bundesregierung verursacht gewaltige Personalinflation. Was für eine Verschwendung!

Nicht nur der deutsche Bundestag ist total und widersinnig aufgebläht seit der Wiedervereinigung!

Die Bananenrepublik D braucht dringend einen Kettensägenmann wie den argentinischen Präsidenten Milei!

Bei der französischen Revolution von 1789 ging es auch um die unfassbare Opulenz des Monarchen!

Oder wie sagt man so schön: Dekadent geht die Welt zugrund!

"... Aber im selben Zeitraum hat sich die Zahl der Beamten um fast genau die Hälfte erhöht: von etwa 15.000 im Jahr 2013 auf heute über 22.000 (plus 47 Prozent). ..."

Regierung verursacht Beamtenschwemme "Innerhalb von nur zehn Jahren ist die Zahl der ständigen Mitarbeiter im Kanzleramt und in den Bundesministerien um satte 50 Prozent gestiegen. Die Kosten gehen in die Milliarden – und weil diese Leute ja auch was zu tun brauchen, wird Deutschland immer nur noch bürokratischer."

Smart on Crime plagiarism by Mistress Kamala exposed by a prominent Austrian plagiarism hunter

As an aside, I think I prefer the broken windows theory!

Has an Austrian just dared to commit foreign election interference less than 30 days before elections? Just kidding! 😊

This book was published in 2009. Did nobody ever before claim that it contained plagiarism?

Note Mistress Kamala did not write this book herself! How much did Kamala write and how much the ghost writer contribute? This should be a fair question for the presidential candidate.

To hire ghost writers is common, but in her case it has perhaps more meaning and supports the allegation that she is incompetent and has achieved not much in her professional life.

Plagiarism is not uncommon among politicians! 😊

"... The so-called "plagiarism hunter," Austrian professor [???] Stefan Weber, found 27 times that Harris, the 2024 Democrat nominee for president, and her co-author allegedly committed some form of plagiarism. ..."

"Like Germany’s current minister for foreign affairs Annalena Baerbock, also Kamala Harris did plagiarize in a book, namely in „Smart on Crime“ (2009). ..."

Footnote: It appears Mr. Stefan Weber is not a professor. He might be a docent. See e.g. the Wikipedia entry on him.

Kamala Harris accused of plagiarizing in 2009 book about being 'smart on crime' "Harris' book features 27 instances of plagiarism, according to 'plagiarism hunter'"

Plagiarism allegation against Kamala Harris (the original source of the plagiarism claims by Stefan Weber)

Credits: Plagiats-Gutachten aus Salzburg belastet Kamala Harris

Caveat: I did not read the book.

Does she not look eerily similar on this book cover  to her very recent vogue cover?

UK sanctions Russian troops for deploying chemical weapons in Ukraine

More on the megalomaniac, serial war criminal and dissident killer Putin the Terrible!

"... In an announcement published on 8 October, the UK government said Russian forces had openly admitted to using hazardous chemical weapons, with widespread use of riot control agents and multiple reports of the use of the choking agent chloropicrin – a highly irritating chemical discovered in the 1840s – on the battlefield. ..."

UK sanctions Russian troops for deploying chemical weapons in Ukraine | News | Chemistry World

How Russia Became a Gerontocracy Once Again

At least these Russian gerontocrats do not appear to be as drunk as Boris Yeltsin in his final years in office (but Yeltsin at least was a reformer of the command economy)! Caution: irony!

Unfortunately, the article below does not contain a list or table of the gerontocrats surround Putin the Terrible (age 72).

Hopefully, the end of the megalomaniac and war criminal Putin the Terrible is nigh! The sigh of relief around the world will be very audible!

"... Putin [the Terrible, age 72] was elected president at the relatively young age of forty-seven, and those he appointed to key positions upon first entering the Kremlin were of a similar age. At the time, officials in Russia had to retire at sixty-five, without exception, and it did not occur to anyone that the country’s relatively young leadership might still be around at that age. In the early 2000s, Putin repeatedly assured Russians that he did not intend to rule beyond sixty-five or to make it possible to govern past that point. ..."

How Russia Became a Gerontocracy Once Again - Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace "The Russian regime increasingly resembles the gerontocracy that ran the late Soviet Union, with elderly officials replacing other elderly officials, and some starting to die on the job."

Did Canada refuse to extradite terrorists and/or criminals to India?

This might be at the core of the current, intensifying foreign relations dispute between Canada and India.

Were the reasons for Canada to deny the extradition well founded or flimsy? It has the appearance that the reasons for the denial were not convincing!

Caveat: I am not familiar with the details of this dispute

Second image of the day

Als die sozialistische Welt in Deutschland (genauer DDR) noch in Ordnung war! Vorsicht: Ironie

Zwei dandys in 1972! (Sozialistische Diktatoren Erich Honecker & Walter Ulbricht) Quelle

Image of the day

Do you recognize this guy? 

He should have stayed home and play with his three grandchildren or have lunch with his wife!

His campaign for Mistress Kamala was a disaster! He appeared more senile and demented than the 46th President! Perhaps, his romantic affairs with interns caused him to contract a sexually transmitted diseases.

To bring him out to campaign is one heck of sign of verry palpable desperation by the Dimocratic Party!

Hint: William Jefferson Clinton (age 78), 42nd U.S. President

Chart of the day

Good news! What a nice trend! Increased cooperation among scientists across borders!

Source

Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe, study finds

Amazing stuff!

PLA launches blockade drills around Taiwan

Serious stuff! Is the aging dictator Xi Jinping trying to take advantage of the remaining about 90 days that the senile, demented and corrupt 46th President will still be in office!

Let the Taiwanese people decide whether they want to reunite with China or not! Perhaps, this will have to wait until the Communist Party of China is not in power anymore.

New book ‘Threat Multiplier’ details the fight for the Pentagon to adapt to climate change

What a nonsense! Global Warming is a hoax and climate change is a religion!

Hopefully, the 47th President will stop these absurd and degrading efforts by the U.S. military.

India Withdraws High Commissioner from Canada Amid Khalistan Row with Palki Sharma

The son of a prominent former Prime Minister of Canada is a fool! India, a rising superpower!

Prager University: Government: Too Big to Fix?

Very recommendable! Excellent! The bigger the government, the bigger the failure!

India’s 100 Richest 2024: Fortunes Jump 40% Blowing Past $1 Trillion

Recommendable! Good news!

Gewalt gegen Polizisten in Deutschland: Zahl so hoch wie nie zuvor. Jeden Tag werden im Schnitt 290 Polizisten Opfer von Gewalt.

Zustände wie in einer Bananenrepublik!

Der Charm der Bundesheimatministerin Faeser ist entwaffnend! 😊 Vorsicht: Ironie!

In den Jahren 2013/2014 lag die Anzahl bei rund 33.000 Gewalttaten (Siehe Tabelle unten)

Entweder ist die Statistik übertrieben (z.B. zu viele Bagatelldelikte) oder sie ist erschreckend und deutet auf eine Verrohung der Sitten.

"... Demnach ist es im vergangenen Jahr zu 46.218 registrierten Gewalttaten gegen Polizisten gekommen – das ist der höchste Stand bislang. Die Zahl der Taten ist dem Bundeslagebild zufolge um acht Prozent gestiegen, was der stärksten Zunahme seit 2017 entspreche. ..."

Gewalt gegen Polizisten: Zahl so hoch wie nie zuvor "Es gibt so viele Gewalttaten gegen Einsatzkräfte wie nie zuvor, zeigt das am Montag veröffentlichte Bundeslagebild. Auch Feuerwehrleute und Rettungskräfte sind betroffen."

Bundeslagebild Gewalt gegen Polizeivollzugsbeamtinnen und Polizeivollzugsbeamte 2023

Bundesheimatministerin Nancy Faeser

Tiny protein offers new path for gene editing

Good news! Will this discovery amend or enhance CRISPR-Cas (discovered in 2012)?

"Scientists have used protein engineering and an AI model to make the bacterial protein TnpB an effective gene editing tool for mammalian cells. TnpB is much smaller than the CRISPR-Cas system and could be more easily delivered to the right cells of the body as a result.

“By engineering the small but powerful protein TnpB, we were able to design a variant that shows a 4.4-fold increase in efficiency of modifying DNA – making it more effective as a gene editing tool,” ..."

"... It was recently discovered that Cas proteins evolved from much smaller proteins, with TnpB being the progenitor of Cas12. Since the large size of Cas proteins creates challenges when trying to deliver them to the right cells in the body, recent studies tried to use their smaller evolutionary progenitors as a genome editing tool. The problem with these small alternatives is that they function less efficiently. ...

TnpB proteins are found in a variety of bacteria and archaea. The TnpB studied by the researchers comes from the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans. This microbe survives cold, dehydration, vacuum and acid, and is one of the most radiation-resistant organisms known to humans. The compact TnpB protein has previously been shown to work for genome editing in human cells, albeit with low efficiency and limited targeting ability due to its recognition requirements when binding DNA. ...

Therefore, the researchers optimized TnpB so that it edits the DNA of mammalian cells more efficiently than the original protein. “The trick was to modify the tool in two ways: first, so that it more efficiently goes to the nucleus where the genomic DNA is located, and second, so that it also targets alternative genome sequences,” ..."

From the abstract:

"Transposon (IS200/IS605)-encoded TnpB proteins are predecessors of class 2 type V CRISPR effectors and have emerged as one of the most compact genome editors identified thus far. Here, we optimized the design of Deinococcus radiodurans (ISDra2) TnpB for application in mammalian cells (TnpBmax), leading to an average 4.4-fold improvement in editing. In addition, we developed variants mutated at position K76 that recognize alternative target-adjacent motifs (TAMs), expanding the targeting range of ISDra2 TnpB. We further generated an extensive dataset on TnpBmax editing efficiencies at 10,211 target sites. This enabled us to delineate rules for on-target and off-target editing and to devise a deep learning model, termed TnpB editing efficiency predictor (TEEP; https://www.tnpb.app), capable of predicting ISDra2 TnpB guiding RNA (ωRNA) activity with high performance (r > 0.8). Employing TEEP, we achieved editing efficiencies up to 75.3% in the murine liver and 65.9% in the murine brain after adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector delivery of TnpBmax. Overall, the set of tools presented in this study facilitates the application of TnpB as an ultracompact programmable endonuclease in research and therapeutics."

Tiny protein offers new path for gene editing

Compact “Gene Scissor” Enables Effective Genome Editing (original news release) "CRISPR-Cas is used broadly in research and medicine to edit, insert, delete or regulate genes in organisms. TnpB is an ancestor of this well-known “gene scissor” but is much smaller and thus easier to transport into cells. Using protein engineering and AI algorithms, UZH researchers have now enhanced TnpB capabilities to make DNA editing more efficient and versatile, paving the way for treating a genetic defect for high cholesterol in the future."

Effective genome editing with an enhanced ISDra2 TnpB system and deep learning-predicted ωRNAs (no public access)

English for trippers: When a flake is a fluke

The senile, demented and corrupt 46th President appointed the fool Jeff Flake (former U.S. Senator from Arizona and a RINO) to be ambassador to Turkey!

What a fluke!

Meet the Chinese communist hackers preparing for war against the US

More on the new Cold War and the future of warfare!

One has to distinguish between espionage and sabotage! Espionage is used by both sides and is acceptable to some degree. Carrying out or preparing to commit sabotage is an entirely different matter.

Is the placing of remote sabotage capabilities within the critical infrastructure of a country by a potential future adversary an act of war (casus belli)? 

In the not so distant past, there would have been little doubt about the answer this question. It would clearly have been in the affirmative!

Communist leader Xi Jinping is playing a dangerous game!

Always remember The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

"Of the cybersecurity risks facing the United States today, few loom larger than the potential sabotage capabilities posed by China-backed hackers, which top U.S. officials have described as an “epoch-defining threat.”

In recent months, U.S. intelligence officials said Chinese government-backed hackers have been burrowing deep into the networks of U.S. critical infrastructure, including water, energy and transportation providers. The goal, officials say, is to lay the groundwork for potentially destructive cyberattacks in the event of a future conflict between China and the U.S., such as over a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan. ...

In January, the U.S. disrupted “Volt Typhoon,” a group of China government hackers tasked with setting the stage for destructive cyberattacks. Later in September, the feds hijacked a botnet run by another Chinese hacking group called “Flax Typhoon,” which masquerades as a private company in Beijing and whose role was to help conceal the activities of China’s government hackers. Since then, a new China-backed hacking group called “Salt Typhoon” emerged, capable of gathering intelligence on Americans — and potential targets of U.S. surveillance — by compromising the wiretap systems of U.S. phone and internet providers. ..."

Meet the Chinese 'Typhoon' hackers preparing for war | TechCrunch

Seeing double: Designing drugs that target “twin” cancer proteins

Good news! Cancer is history (soon)! Seems to be an interesting approach!

"... To design a drug that blocks a cancer-related protein, ... scientists took a hint from the protein’s paralog, or “twin.” Using innovative chemical biology methods, the scientists pinpointed a druggable site on the paralog, and then used that knowledge to characterize drugs that bound to a similar—but more difficult to detect—spot on its twin. Ultimately, they found drugs that only bound to the protein of interest and not its highly similar sibling.

Their approach ... dubbed “paralog hopping,” could uncover new binding sites for drugs and inform drug development more broadly, since nearly half of the proteins in human cells—including many involved in cancer and autoimmune diseases—have such paralogs. ...

Many genes have duplicated throughout evolution, resulting in multiple copies in the human genome. In some cases, copies have evolved slightly different sequences from each other, making their corresponding proteins into paralogs. These protein paralogs remain highly similar in structure and often have redundant or overlapping functions within cells. ...

As a test case, the team tackled the paralog pair known as CCNE1 and CCNE2. Both proteins have been found to be overactive in breast, ovarian and lung cancer. However, scientists suspected that the two proteins play slightly different roles. The team posited that turning off just one protein could make treating some cancers more effective. ..."

The scientists first engineered a cysteine into CCNE1, mimicking the drug-binding spot they had pinpointed in CCNE2. They then leveraged this neo-cysteine to identify drugs that bind to CCNE1. Next, they screened a library of other chemical compounds for the ability to compete with that drug in binding to CCNE1. The team reasoned that some of the compounds that competed for the same spot would bind in ways that did not rely on the cysteine. ...

discovered multiple compounds that could bind to the same site on CCNE1 even when the cysteine was removed again. Some compounds did not bind to CCNE2. Some also had opposite functions, stabilizing the molecule so that it might be more active than usual, rather than inactivating it. Structural studies revealed that the CCNE1 compounds bind to a cryptic pocket that was not previously known to be druggable. ...

From the abstract:

"More than half of the ~20,000 protein-encoding human genes have paralogs. Chemical proteomics has uncovered many electrophile-sensitive cysteines that are exclusive to subsets of paralogous proteins. Here we explore whether such covalent compound–cysteine interactions can be used to discover ligandable pockets in paralogs lacking the cysteine. Leveraging the covalent ligandability of C109 in the cyclin CCNE2, we substituted the corresponding residue in paralog CCNE1 to cysteine (N112C) and found through activity-based protein profiling that this mutant reacts stereoselectively and site-specifically with tryptoline acrylamides. We then converted the tryptoline acrylamide–CCNE1-N112C interaction into in vitro NanoBRET (bioluminescence resonance energy transfer) and in cellulo activity-based protein profiling assays capable of identifying compounds that reversibly inhibit both the N112C mutant and wild-type CCNE1:CDK2 (cyclin-dependent kinase 2) complexes. X-ray crystallography revealed a cryptic allosteric pocket at the CCNE1:CDK2 interface adjacent to N112 that binds the reversible inhibitors. Our findings, thus, show how electrophile–cysteine interactions mapped by chemical proteomics can extend the understanding of protein ligandability beyond covalent chemistry."

Seeing double: Designing drugs that target “twin” cancer proteins | Scripps Research "Scripps Research scientists used knowledge about a protein to characterize drugs that selectively bind to its “twin,” or paralog."

An allosteric cyclin E-CDK2 site mapped by paralog hopping with covalent probes (no public access)

A drug candidate (pink) found to bind to the pocket between the cancer-related protein CCNE1 (green) and its partner CDK2 (blue) using the new paralog-hopping approach. 

In double breakthrough, mathematician helps solve two long-standing problems with paper and pencil

Good news! What progress will we make in mathematics once AI is being utilized?

Caveat: I am almost clueless as to what these achievements in the queen of all sciences (Carl Friedrich Gauss) are all about!

"A Rutgers University-New Brunswick professor who has devoted his career to resolving the mysteries of higher mathematics has solved two separate, fundamental problems that have perplexed mathematicians for decades. ..."

"... completed a proof of the 1955 Height Zero Conjecture posed by Richard Brauer, a leading German-American mathematician who died in 1977. Proof of the conjecture – commonly viewed as one of the most outstanding challenges in a field of math known as the representation theory of finite groups ...

In a sense, Tiep and his colleagues have been following a blueprint of challenges Brauer laid out for them in a series of mathematical conjectures posed and published in the 1950-60s.

“Some mathematicians have this rare intellect,” Tiep said of Brauer. “It’s as though they came from another planet or from another world. They are capable of seeing hidden phenomena that others can’t.” ...

In the second advance, Tiep solved a difficult problem in what is known as the Deligne-Lusztig theory, part of the foundational machinery of representation theory. The breakthrough touches on traces, an important feature of a rectangular array known as a matrix. The trace of a matrix is the sum of its diagonal elements. The work is detailed in two papers ...

Both breakthroughs are advances in the field of representation theory of finite groups, a subset of algebra. Representation theory is an important tool in many areas of math, including number theory and algebraic geometry as well as in the physical sciences, including particle physics. Through mathematical objects known as groups, representation theory also has been used to study symmetry in molecules, encrypt messages and produce error-correcting codes.

Following the principles of representation theory, mathematicians take abstract shapes that exist in Euclidean geometry – some of them extremely complex – and transform them into arrays of numbers. This can be achieved by identifying certain points that exist in each three- or higher-dimensional shape and converting them to numbers placed in rows and columns. ..."

From the abstract (an unusually short one, but the proof is 110 pages long):

"We complete the proof of Brauer's Height Zero Conjecture from 1955 by establishing the open implication for all odd primes."

In double breakthrough, mathematician helps solve two long-standing problems

In Double Breakthrough, Mathematician Solves Two Long-Standing Problems (original news release) "Rutgers professor’s proofs will provide deeper understanding of math mysteries and may lead to advances in science and technology"

Brauer's Height Zero Conjecture (pre-print, open access, first published September 2022, 110 pages)

Character levels and character bounds for finite classical groups (open access)

Uniform Character Bounds for Finite Classical Groups (pre-print, open access)

Migratory geese have arrived again in Phoenix, Arizona this weekend

Today, I found that out during my usual early morning walk when I was surprised to see a flock of about 30 geese on the shores of a pond.

These are some real snow birds spending the Winter in Arizona! 😊

When you see the silhouettes of these big birds flying in formation in the sky near you it is very impressive!

I do not take credit for this photo

The Shia-Sunni Divide: Understanding the split with Palki Sharma

Very recommendable!

Why did the Umayyad Caliphate Collapse?

Recommendable!

Indus Valley Civilization - Ancient Civilizations

Recommendable!

You Really Got Me - The Kinks (live)

I think, I like the studio/vinyl version of this song much better! The lead singer of The Kinks looks and acts like a fool.

46th President authorizes deployment of anti-missile defense system and about 100 military personnel to Israel

Hopefully, Israel will kindly decline this double-edged offer at this time!

This would only allow the senile, demented and corrupt 46th President to have more influence and say on Israel's coming military operations!

The 46th President will still be in office until 1/20/2025! Don't forget this not one moment!

U.S. authorizes deployment of anti-missile defense system and about 100 military personnel to Israel | Just The News

Cells Across the Tree of Life Exchange ‘Text Messages’ Using RNA

Recommendable!

"... There is one way RNA can survive outside a cell unscathed: in a tiny, protective bubble. For decades, researchers have noticed cells releasing these bubbles of cell membrane, called extracellular vesicles (EVs), packed with degraded RNA, proteins and other molecules. But these sacs were considered little more than trash bags that whisk broken-down molecular junk out of a cell during routine decluttering.

Then, in the early 2000s, experiments ... revealed that the RNA inside some EVs didn’t look like trash. The cocktail of RNA sequences was considerably different from those found inside the cell, and these sequences were intact and functional(opens a new tab). When Valadi’s team exposed human cells to EVs from mouse cells, they were shocked to observe the human cells take in the RNA messages and “read” them to create functional proteins they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to make. ...

In 2024, new studies have exposed additional layers of this story, showing, for example, that along with bacteria and eukaryotic cells, archaea also exchange(opens a new tab) vesicle-bound RNA, which confirms that the phenomenon is universal to all three domains of life. Another study has expanded our understanding of cross-kingdom cellular communication by showing that plants and infecting fungi can use packets of havoc-wreaking RNA(opens a new tab) as a form of coevolutionary information warfare: An enemy cell reads the RNA and builds self-harming proteins with its own molecular machinery. ..."

Cells Across the Tree of Life Exchange ‘Text Messages’ Using RNA | Quanta Magazine "Long known as a messenger within cells, RNA is increasingly seen as life’s molecular communication system — even between organisms widely separated by evolution."

New surveys of the ski for near earth asteroids and comets

Good news! It has been a long while that the earth was hit by a large asteroid, which would likely trigger a real climate crisis not the man made fantasy climate crisis were are told every day!

"... to discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. These are collectively known as near-earth objects, or NEOs.

NEO Surveyor consists of a single scientific instrument: a 50 centimeter (nearly 20 inch) diameter telescope that operates in two heat-sensing infrared wavelengths. It will be capable of detecting both bright and dark asteroids, which are the most difficult type to find.

After launch, NEO Surveyor will carry out a five-year baseline survey to find at least two-thirds of the near-Earth objects larger than 140 meters (460 feet). These are the objects large enough to cause major regional damage in the event of an Earth impact. By using two heat-sensitive infrared imaging channels, NEO Surveyor can make accurate measurements of NEO sizes and gain valuable information about their composition, shapes, rotational states, and orbits. ..."

"... The first asteroid was spotted in 1801, and it took two centuries to find a million more. In the first six months of operations, which begin in 2025, Rubin will double that number [but only for the southern hemisphere]. It is, in other words, a polymathic telescope; one that, among all its other tasks, will find asteroids of all shapes and sizes faster than any other spotter on Earth. ..."

Near-Earth Object Surveyor | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) "An infrared space telescope designed to help advance NASA’s planetary defense efforts"

NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory will revolutionize the way we explore the cosmos

Credits: Human Progress weekly newsletter

Injection of Boron powder into plasma could prevent tungsten from shearing off the walls of the ITER reactor

Good news! How many more years before humans can create the power of the sun on earth? Don't trash or mothball your solar panels yet! 😊

"Seeking to improve the tokamak fusion reactor known as ITER, researchers have found a way to stop ... tungsten atoms from shearing off the walls and messing with the plasma. The finding is another important milestone on fusion's road to success. ...

They found that injecting boron powder into the reactor shields the tungsten walls from the ravages of the plasma and allows it to hold on to all of its atoms. ..."

"... But under the intense heat of fusion plasma, tungsten atoms from the wall can sputter off and enter the plasma. Too much tungsten in the plasma would substantially cool it, which would make sustaining fusion reactions very challenging.

Now, researchers ... have experimental results suggesting that sprinkling boron powder into the tokamak could solve the problem. Boron partly shields the reactor wall from the plasma and prevents atoms from the wall from getting into the plasma. A new computer modeling framework ... shows the powder may only need to be sprinkled from one location. ..."

From the abstract:

"The ITER Organization (IO) is proposing to change to full tungsten plasma facing components. As risk mitigation to achieve and sustain Q=10, the IO has proposed real-time solid boron injection (SBI) during plasma operation to supplement gaseous discharge boronization (GDB).  Boron getters oxygen and reduces tungsten sputtering.  In areas with significant plasma wall interactions, boron coatings are expected to be short-lived at high plasma performance.  The system should be used sparingly, as boron redeposition retains tritium, which must be minimized in ITER to comply with nuclear safety.   SBI can limit and precisely control the amount of boron injected.  Some design requirements and concepts for SBI in ITER will be presented based on results with pellet injection or granule dropper systems installed at or by PPPL on machines around the world. Boron from 5 µm – 2 mm diameter was injected at calibrated rates of 2 – 200 mg/s during plasma operation on AUG, DIII-D, EAST, KSTAR, LHD, TFTR, WEST, and W7-X, to improve wall conditions and plasma performance.  The boron is ionized in the plasma edge and then deposited on plasma-wetted surfaces.  Reduced tungsten sputtering was observed following discharges with SBI on AUG, EAST, and WEST.  Experimental SBI results will be compared with modelling of erosion and redeposition of boron to attempt to quantify the amount of boron needed and if one SBI location is sufficient in ITER.  SBI control requirements and operation scenarios for ITER will also be described."

A sprinkle of boron makes for a better fusion reactor recipe

Stopping off-the-wall behavior in fusion reactors "Boron could help the tungsten wall inside a tokamak keep its atoms to itself"

Abstract: UO06.00010 : Proposal for Solid Boron Injection in ITER for Real-Time Wall Conditioning

This drawing of a cross section through ITER shows the pellet injection guide tubes and a sketch of a conceptual design for a boron dropper.

Newly discovered Milky-Way-like rotating disc galaxy is the most distant and oldest of its type found in the universe about 700 million years after Big Bang

Amazing stuff! This study seems to challenge some prevailing theories about early galaxy formation.

"... The galaxy in question is dubbed REBELS-25. It is at a red shift of z=7.31, which means that it is from a time when the universe was only 700 million years old. The earliest galaxies ever seen are only a few hundred million years older. ...

This odd galaxy has stumped astronomers because it shows evidence of an ordered structure and rotation. It may even have a central elongated bar and spiral arms, though further observation is needed to confirm these structures.

This is in contrast to the small, messy, lumpy and chaotic norm for galaxies of a similar age. ..."

"... The rotation and structure of REBELS-25 were revealed using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner. ... astronomers found REBELS-25 to be the most distant strongly rotating disc galaxy ever discovered. The light reaching us from this galaxy was emitted when the Universe was only 700 million years old — a mere five percent of its current age (13.8 billion) — making REBELS-25’s orderly rotation unexpected. ..."

"Researchers have discovered the most distant Milky-Way-like galaxy yet observed. Dubbed REBELS-25, this disc galaxy seems as orderly as present-day galaxies, but we see it as it was when the Universe was only 700 million years old. This is surprising since, according to our current understanding of galaxy formation, such early galaxies are expected to appear more chaotic. The rotation and structure of REBELS-25 were revealed using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). ..."

From the abstract (contains graphics, which were not copied):

"We present high resolution (∼0.14” = 710 pc) ALMA [CII] 158μm and dust continuum follow-up observations of REBELS-25, a [CII]-luminous (L[CII] = (1.7 ± 0.2) × 109L⊙) galaxy at redshift z = 7.3065 ± 0.0001. These high resolution, high signal-to-noise observations allow us to study the sub-kpc morphology and kinematics of this massive (⁠⁠) star-forming (SFR⁠) galaxy in the Epoch of Reionisation. By modelling the kinematics with 3DBAROLO, we find it has a low velocity dispersion (⁠ km s−1) and a high ratio of ordered-to-random motion (⁠⁠), indicating that REBELS-25 is a dynamically cold disc. Additionally, we find that the [CII] distribution is well fit by a near-exponential disc model, with a Sérsic index, n, of 1.3 ± 0.2, and we see tentative evidence of more complex non-axisymmetric structures suggestive of a bar in the [CII] and dust continuum emission. By comparing to other high spatial resolution cold gas kinematic studies, we find that dynamically cold discs seem to be more common in the high redshift Universe than expected based on prevailing galaxy formation theories, which typically predict more turbulent and dispersion-dominated galaxies in the early Universe as an outcome of merger activity, gas accretion and more intense feedback. This higher degree of rotational support seems instead to be consistent with recent cosmological simulations that have highlighted the contrast between cold and warm ionised gas tracers, particularly for massive galaxies. We therefore show that dynamically settled disc galaxies can form as early as 700 Myr after the Big Bang."

Newly discovered rotating disc galaxy is most distant of its type found in the universe

Space oddity: Most distant rotating disc galaxy found (original news release by Leiden University) "Researchers have discovered the most distant Milky-Way-like galaxy yet observed. Dubbed REBELS-25, this disc galaxy seems as orderly as present-day galaxies, but we see it as it was when the Universe was only 700 million years old. This is surprising since, according to our current understanding of galaxy formation, such early galaxies are expected to appear more chaotic. Leiden astronomers Lucie Rowland and Jacqueline Hodge tell about their discovery."

Space oddity: Most distant rotating disc galaxy found (original news release by ALMA)

REBELS-25: Discovery of a dynamically cold disc galaxy at z = 7.31 (open access)

This image shows the galaxy REBELS-25 as seen by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), overlaid on an infrared image of other stars and galaxies. The infrared image was taken by ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). In a recent study, researchers found evidence that REBELS-25 is a strongly rotating disc galaxy existing only 700 million years after the Big Bang. This makes it the most distant and earliest known Milky Way-like galaxy found to date.

This image of the galaxy REBELS-25, taken by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), shows how cold gas is distributed in the galaxy and exhibits hints of an elongated bar structure at its center.

Scientists create first map of DNA modification in the developing human brain

Amazing stuff!

"Key takeaways

• A UCLA-led study has created a map of DNA modification in two regions of the brain critical to learning, memory and emotional regulation. The map offers a benchmark for ensuring stem cell-based models accurately replicate human brain development. 
• ... researchers were able to simultaneously analyze two epigenetic mechanisms – DNA methylation and chromatin conformation – that control gene expression on a single-cell basis. 
• Understanding how these regulatory elements act on genes that affect development will help elucidate where genetic variants connect with certain genes, helping to pinpoint the cell types and developmental periods most vulnerable to disorders and diseases.

...
It created the first map of DNA modification in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex — two regions of the brain critical to learning, memory and emotional regulation. These areas are also frequently involved in disorders like autism and schizophrenia. ...

To produce the map, the research team used a cutting-edge sequencing approach ... called single nucleus methyl-seq and chromatin conformation capture, or snm3C-seq.

This technique enables researchers to simultaneously analyze two epigenetic mechanisms that control gene expression on a single-cell basis: chemical changes to DNA known as methylation and chromatin conformation, the 3D structure of how chromosomes are tightly folded to fit into nuclei. ...

The research team analyzed more than 53,000 brain cells from donors spanning mid-gestation to adulthood, revealing significant changes in gene regulation during critical developmental windows. In capturing such a broad spectrum of developmental phases, the researchers were able to assemble a remarkably comprehensive picture of the massive genetic rewiring that occurs during critical timepoints in human brain development. ..."

From the abstract:

"The human hippocampus and prefrontal cortex play critical roles in learning and cognition, yet the dynamic molecular characteristics of their development remain enigmatic. Here we investigated the epigenomic and three-dimensional chromatin conformational reorganization during the development of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, using more than 53,000 joint single-nucleus profiles of chromatin conformation and DNA methylation generated by single-nucleus methyl-3C sequencing (snm3C-seq3). The remodelling of DNA methylation is temporally separated from chromatin conformation dynamics. Using single-cell profiling and multimodal single-molecule imaging approaches, we have found that short-range chromatin interactions are enriched in neurons, whereas long-range interactions are enriched in glial cells and non-brain tissues. We reconstructed the regulatory programs of cell-type development and differentiation, finding putatively causal common variants for schizophrenia strongly overlapping with chromatin loop-connected, cell-type-specific regulatory regions. Our data provide multimodal resources for studying gene regulatory dynamics in brain development and demonstrate that single-cell three-dimensional multi-omics is a powerful approach for dissecting neuropsychiatric risk loci."

Scientists create first map of DNA modification in the developing human brain | UCLA "Findings could help pinpoint cell types most vulnerable to conditions like schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder"

Temporally distinct 3D multi-omic dynamics in the developing human brain (open access)

Fig. 1 Fig. 1: Profiling of epigenomic and chromatin conformation dynamics during human brain development using snm3C-seq3.

Several colleges forfeit women’s volleyball games against team with trans player

Good news!

As a female athlete, I would not compete with a transgender male! Period!

Several colleges forfeit women’s volleyball games against team with trans player | Just The News

The 46th President urges Israel to stop hitting UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. Really!

Oh, what a fool! Here is my rendition of his legacy!

Did Israel not ask the UN peacekeepers to move their position before their military actions against terrorists and they refused to move?

Is it possible that coward terrorists are hiding near the UN peacekeepers?

What are these UN peacekeepers (UNIFIL) doing anyway in Lebanon since 1978? Have they prevented any terrorist attacks from Lebanon against Israel?

Latest since October 7, I felt very sorry for Prime Minister Netanyahu having to deal with this senile, demented and corrupt 46th President!

Biden says US urging Israel to stop hitting UN workers in Lebanon - Israel News - The Jerusalem Post "The leaders of France, Italy, and Spain on Friday condemned the firing on the position of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon explaining that such attacks were "unjustifiable.""

Hayek on The Road to Serfdom

Recommendable!

What is Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution?

Recommendable!

Russian Federation on the brink of collapse as Chechen leader incites blood feud | Diane Francis

Very recommendable! Will the Russian Federation fall apart due to the megalomaniac and war criminal Putin the Terrible! Like some of the countries of the Caucus!

China vows to significantly increase debt to revive economic growth

Bad news! Bad choice! Deficit spending has been known for a long time to be misguided!

Polish PM says he won't respect EU right to asylum if it threatens his country's security

Strong words by the Polish Prime Minister Tusk! Donald Tusk sounds almost like Donald Trump! Just kidding! Apparently, illegal immigration from Belarus seems to be a concern.

Focus on Central Asia as ‘Middle Corridor’ grows

Recommendable!

“A Woke Holy War” - Elon Musk on the Decline of Religion

Recommendable! Who is the creator of reality?

When the 46th President, his weirdo Secretary Mayorkas and the FEMA fail, citizen volunteers step up using private Helicopters to Deliver 500,000 Pounds of Supplies to hurricane Helene Victims

This is part of the American Exceptionalism! Americans do not wait for government to act!

Private Helicopters Deliver 500,000 Pounds of Supplies to Helene Victims "Over half-a-million pounds of supplies have been delivered to western North Carolina by volunteers flying private helicopters after Hurricane Helene, local reports have said."

Discovery of new type of progenitor cell with potential to boost tissue repair

Amazing stuff!

"A newly discovered cell that matures into two specialist cell types – an immune cell responsible for tissue repair and a cell that forms blood vessels – significantly boosts wound healing, according to new research. It could be a game-changer for people suffering from chronic, hard-to-heal wounds. ...
discovered a completely new type of bipotent progenitor cell with the potential to boost healing. ..."

"... the research team says the cells, dubbed ‘EndoMac progenitors’, possess the unique ability to transform into two specific cell types of cells: endothelial cells that form blood vessels, and macrophages that are immune cells responsible for tissue repair and defence. ...

Cells with similar functions have been theorised to exist for more than a century however, until now, had never been found. The were discovered in the outer layer of aortas in adult mice. ...

Ongoing research suggests the EndoMac progenitors could be used to boost healing in conditions like diabetes, where the body struggles to repair itself properly. Crucially, these cells don’t express typical “self” markers, meaning they could be ideal candidates for stem cell transplantation as they’re much less likely to be attacked by the recipient's immune system. ..."

From the abstract:

"Converging evidence indicates that extra-embryonic yolk sac is the source of both macrophages and endothelial cells in adult mouse tissues. Prevailing views are that these embryonically derived cells are maintained after birth by proliferative self-renewal in their differentiated states. Here we identify clonogenic endothelial-macrophage (EndoMac) progenitor cells in the adventitia of embryonic and postnatal mouse aorta, that are independent of Flt3-mediated bone marrow hematopoiesis and derive from an early embryonic CX3CR1+ and CSF1R+ source. These bipotent progenitors are proliferative and vasculogenic, contributing to adventitial neovascularization and formation of perfused blood vessels after transfer into ischemic tissue. We establish a regulatory role for angiotensin II, which enhances their clonogenic and differentiation properties and rapidly stimulates their proliferative expansion in vivo. Our findings demonstrate that embryonically derived EndoMac progenitors participate in local vasculogenic responses in the aortic wall by contributing to the expansion of endothelial cells and macrophages postnatally."

Discovery of new type of cell with potential to boost tissue repair

World-first discovery of new cell type (original news release) "A team of SAHMRI scientists has discovered a completely new type of cell which has the potential to enhance the future of tissue repair and generation."

Discovery of an embryonically derived bipotent population of endothelial-macrophage progenitor cells in postnatal aorta (open access)

Fig. 1: Immunophenotypic characterization of CFU-M progenitors in adult aorta.

Chinese firms lead US firms in remote sensing satellite systems

More on the global arms race between superpowers!

"A new assessment of global commercial remote sensing satellite systems shows that Chinese firms are edging out US commercial firms in capabilities across a broad range of sensor technologies.

The study produced a “Top 3” ranking of the world’s best commercial space-based remote sensing systems in 2024 framed as a mock Olympic Games. China grabbed the “gold medal” in five areas; the US in four. One company each from Finland and South Korea also nabbed gold. ..."

"Four leading institutions—the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Taylor Geospatial Institute, Taylor Geospatial Engine, and the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation—collaborated to produce a “Top 3” ranking of the world’s best commercial space-based remote sensing systems.  ..."

Going for the gold: Chinese firms lead US firms in remote sensing 'Olympics' - Breaking Defense ""The stakes are high. Should any one country dominate the commercial remote sensing market, not only could it gain economic advantages, but it would also control the information narrative about the entire planet, from the environment to natural resources to human conflict," the report concluded."

Gold Rush: The 2024 Commercial Remote Sensing Global Rankings (Link to PDF)

Vereidigung in Wiesbaden: Hessens Heimatschützer

In der Bananenrepublik D macht sich homeland security breit? 😊

Vereidigung in Wiesbaden: Hessens Heimatschützer "Als zentrales Aufmarschgebiet spielt Hessen für die Landes- und Bündnisverteidigung eine zentrale Rolle. Mit der Aufstellung des Heimatschutzregiments 5 wird es zum Vorreiter in der Republik."

Natürlich sind auf dem Propaganda Foto fast mehr Frauen als Männer zu sehen

Ants changed the architecture of their nests when exposed to a pathogen

Amazing stuff!

"... Several animals are known to alter their behavior to avoid infections, including humans, guppies and mice. But these are the first nonhuman animals shown to actively alter their surroundings in response to infections, researchers report September 2 in a paper posted at bioRxiv.org. ...

To see whether ants act in a similar way, ... team ... let 20 groups of 180 black garden ants excavate nests in soil-filled jars. The day after digging started, the researchers added 20 more worker ants to each jar, with half of the jars receiving groups infected with a fungal pathogen.

Over the next six days, the researchers used video to monitor the ants’ behavior and micro-CT scans to study the evolution of their nests.

Ant colonies exposed to the pathogen dug nests faster and initially made more tunnels than healthy colonies, and after six days, had made several structural modifications, including spacing entrances 0.62 centimeters farther apart on average. The exposed colonies also placed chambers — which house colony resources such as queens, their brood and food — in less central locations. And ants infected with the fungus spent more time at the surface than their coworkers, which the study suggests is probably a form of self-isolation. ...

The team then used spatial network analysis and disease transmission simulations to see if the changes would have any noticeable impact on the way disease would spread in the nests. Taking the designs crafted by the exposed and unexposed colonies, the team simulated what would happen if a pathogen was introduced. Ant colonies in the disease-resistant redesigns would have a significantly lower fungal load — and fewer lethal doses — than those in nests built without any previous exposure to disease, the team found. ..."

From the abstract:

"In animal groups, spatial heterogeneities shape social contact networks, thereby influencing the transmission of infectious diseases. Active modifications to the spatial environment could thus be a potent tool to mitigate epidemic risk. We tested whether Lasius niger ants modify their nest architecture in response to pathogens by introducing controlor pathogen-treated individuals into nest-digging groups, and monitoring three-dimensional nest morphogenesis over time. Pathogen exposure led to an array of architectural changes including faster nest growth, increased spacing between entrances, transmission-inhibitory changes in overall nest network topology, and reduced chamber centrality. Simulations confirmed that these changes reduced disease spread. These results provide evidence for architectural immunity in a social animal and offer insights into how spatial organisation can be leveraged to decrease epidemic susceptibility."

Ants changed the architecture of their nests when exposed to a pathogen "Tweaks to entrances, tunnels and chambers may help prevent diseases from spreading"

Architectural Immunity: ants alter their nest networks to fight epidemics (open access, pre-print)

Fig. 1 Experimental protocol and nest network extraction.

Scientists decode key mutation in many cancers, pointing to expanded role of RNA in human gene expression

Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!

"... In the study ... a team of scientists  ... found that RNA plays a significant role in how DNA is packaged and stored in your cells, via a gene known as TET2 ...

This pathway also appears to explain a long-standing puzzle about why so many cancers and other disorders involve TET2-related mutations—and suggests a set of new targets for treatments. ...

With this lens, they turned their attention to a gene called TET2. For a long time, we’ve known that when TET2 or TET2-related genes are mutated, all sorts of problems follow. These mutations occur in 10-60% of different human leukemia cases, and pop up in other types of cancers as well.  ...

The other members of the TET family act on DNA, so for years, researchers had been looking at TET2’s effects on DNA. But He’s lab found they’d been looking in the wrong place: TET2 actually affects RNA. ...

TET2 mutations also occur in a fraction of all adults older than 70 and contribute to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other inflammatory conditions, a condition known as CHIP. ..."

From the abstract:

"Mutation of tet methylcytosine dioxygenase 2 (encoded by TET2) drives myeloid malignancy initiation and progression. TET2 deficiency is known to cause a globally opened chromatin state and activation of genes contributing to aberrant haematopoietic stem cell self-renewal. However, the open chromatin observed in TET2-deficient mouse embryonic stem cells, leukaemic cells and haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells is inconsistent with the designated role of DNA 5-methylcytosine oxidation of TET2. Here we show that chromatin-associated retrotransposon RNA 5-methylcytosine (m5C) can be recognized by the methyl-CpG-binding-domain protein MBD6, which guides deubiquitination of nearby monoubiquitinated Lys119 of histone H2A (H2AK119ub) to promote an open chromatin state. TET2 oxidizes m5C and antagonizes this MBD6-dependent H2AK119ub deubiquitination. TET2 depletion thereby leads to globally decreased H2AK119ub, more open chromatin and increased transcription in stem cells. TET2-mutant human leukaemia becomes dependent on this gene activation pathway, with MBD6 depletion selectively blocking proliferation of TET2-mutant leukaemic cells and largely reversing the haematopoiesis defects caused by Tet2 loss in mouse models. Together, our findings reveal a chromatin regulation pathway by TET2 through retrotransposon RNA m5C oxidation and identify the downstream MBD6 protein as a feasible target for developing therapies specific against TET2 mutant malignancies."

Scientists decode key mutation in many cancers, pointing to expanded role of RNA in human gene expression

UChicago scientists decode key mutation in many cancers (original news release) "Finding points to expanded role of RNA in human gene expression"

RNA m5C oxidation by TET2 regulates chromatin state and leukaemogenesis (open access)

Wilhelm Röpke is 125: his Lessons for Modern Free Marketers

Recommendable! One of the pioneers of the German economic miracle after 1945.

Wilhelm Röpke is 125: his Lessons for Modern Free Marketers | The Daily Economy

Having more than one vote in elections thanks to mail in voting in the US

Update: I personally just learnt that an individual in Arizona voted already by absentee vote, but this individual still received a mail-in ballot in the mail after the individual voted.

This is a serious concern!

State voter rolls are notoriously outdated, inaccurate and unreliable! E.g. when voters move across state borders or even within a state, how likely would they receive more than one ballot?

Some state election results are often very tight when a several thousands or ten thousands of votes can make a difference.

How easy is it for someone to obtain two or more ballots when someone is determined to do so?

Will Republican voters be equally inclined to cheat this way as Democratic voters or are there disparities?

Will Republican voters who received two, or more ballots be as honest as Democratic voters and vice versa?

Can foreign, hostile powers exploit the mail in voting to vote for their candidate of choice?

Source