What a weirdo is this! Who voted for this woman (age 43, her congressional district incl. Dallas and Tarrant Counties in Texas)!
Has she done this before?
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
How India's Hunt For Crude Oil Reached Guyana with Palki Sharma
Very recommendable! The large Indian diaspora in this country is amazing!
The first Indian Prime Minister visit to this country in 56 years.
Did US Force Qatar to Expel Hamas Leaders? with Palki Sharma
Why the US has allowed and supported the leadership of Hamas to live in Qatar at least since President Obama is outrageous! Why could they not have lived in Gaza?
Make no mistake, Hamas were terrorists long before October 7!
How can electrons split into fractions of themselves? An anomalous effect!
Amazing stuff!
"MIT physicists have taken a key step toward solving the puzzle of what leads electrons to split into fractions of themselves. Their solution sheds light on the conditions that give rise to exotic electronic states in graphene and other two-dimensional systems.
The new work is an effort to make sense of a discovery that was reported earlier this year by a different group of physicists ... found that electrons appear to exhibit “fractional charge” in pentalayer graphene — a configuration of five graphene layers that are stacked atop a similarly structured sheet of boron nitride. ...
The phenomenon was coined the “fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect,” and theorists have been keen to find an explanation for how fractional charge can emerge from pentalayer graphene.
The new study ... provides a crucial piece of the answer. Through calculations of quantum mechanical interactions ... show that the electrons form a sort of crystal structure, the properties of which are ideal for fractions of electrons to emerge.
“This is a completely new mechanism, meaning in the decades-long history, people have never had a system go toward these kinds of fractional electron phenomena,” ... “It’s really exciting because it makes possible all kinds of new experiments that previously one could only dream about.” ...
They found that the moiré arrangement of pentalayer graphene, in which each lattice-like layer of carbon atoms is arranged atop the other and on top of the boron-nitride, induces a weak electrical potential. When electrons pass through this potential, they form a sort of crystal, or a periodic formation, that confines the electrons and forces them to interact through their quantum correlations. This electron tug-of-war creates a sort of cloud of possible physical states for each electron, which interacts with every other electron cloud in the crystal, in a wavefunction, or a pattern of quantum correlations, that gives the winding that should set the stage for electrons to split into fractions of themselves. ..."
From the abstract:
"Remarkable recent experiments on the moiré structure formed by pentalayer rhombohedral graphene aligned with a hexagonal boron nitride substrate report the discovery of a zero field fractional quantum Hall effect. These “(fractional) quantum anomalous Hall” [(F)QAH] phases occur for one sign of a perpendicular displacement field, and correspond, experimentally, to full or partial filling of a valley polarized Chern-1 band. Such a band is absent in the noninteracting band structure. Here we show that electron-electron interactions play a crucial role, and present microscopic theoretical calculations demonstrating the emergence of a nearly flat, isolated, Chern-1 band and FQAH phases in this system. We also study the four- and six-layer analogs and identify parameters where a nearly flat isolated Chern-1 band emerges which may be suitable to host FQAH physics."
Theory of Quantum Anomalous Hall Phases in Pentalayer Rhombohedral Graphene Moiré Structures (no public access, but article above contains a link to request the PDF file)
Rocket plane makes first civil supersonic flight since Concorde's last flight in 2003
Good news! Next time you eat a Kiwi ... 😊
"
- The fastest aircraft ever to climb from ground level to 20 km.
- First New Zealand-designed and -built aircraft to fly supersonic.
- Highest altitude achieved by an aircraft flown from New Zealand.
..."
Dawn Aerospace Achieves Historic Flight - Breaks Sound Barrier and Global Records (original news release)
Look how small this rocket is. A lot smaller than a Concorde! 😊
Datev-Mittelstandsindex: Warum so viele mittelständische Unternehmer aufgeben
Die Lage ist ernst in der Bananenrepublik D!
Man kann das natürlich wieder mal einfach abtun als Kaufleute/Unternehmer klagen immer. Diesmal ist es aber vielleicht anders.
"Steuerberater schlagen Alarm. Durchschnittlich fast fünf Mandanten einer Kanzlei haben in den vergangenen zwölf Monaten ihr Unternehmen aufgegeben oder – seltener – ins Ausland verlagert. Die Gründe für die Geschäftsaufgaben der Mandanten sind vielfältig. Oft fehlen Nachfolger, doch auch mangelnde Rentabilität und der Personalmangel werden als Gründe genannt, um den Laden dichtzumachen. ..."
Is Russia's invasion of the Ukraine about plundering abundant and critical natural resources other than oil and gas?
It may very well be the case! I must admit until today I was not really aware of the fact that the Ukraine has lots of such natural resources.
It appears the breadbasket country of the world is a lot more attractive for invaders like Putin the Terrible!
"The country boasts approximately 20,000 mineral deposits, covering 116 types of minerals. Key resources include titanium, lithium, beryllium, manganese, gallium, uranium, zirconium, graphite, apatite, fluorite, and nickel. Notably, Ukraine holds the largest titanium reserves in Europe, accounting for 7 percent of the world’s reserves, as well as almost 500,000 tons of lithium, a valuable strategic element that can contribute in meeting the global demand for batteries. ..."
Credits: Der erste Krieg der Energiewende
About sexual lesbian entertainment and escort services in Japan for lesbians and straight and married women
Different strokes for different folks! Life is a journey!
"... Rezu fūzoku, which roughly translates to “lesbian sexual entertainment,” refers to agencies where female sex workers provide sex to female clients. And in Japan, it’s entirely legal. I began investigating female-to-female commercial sex and escort services in 2023. ...
Unlike in many countries that historically criminalized homosexual acts, Japan only briefly outlawed them in the 1870s, during an era of rapid Western-inspired legal reforms.
After that period, the country did not reintroduce laws criminalizing homosexual acts, allowing same-sex relationships to exist largely without legal interference – even if they remained frowned upon in Japanese society. ...
For my research, I interviewed a man named Obō, the founder of the Lesbian Girls Club, an agency with branches in Osaka and Tokyo providing female sex workers for female clients. ...
Furthermore, homosexual prostitution has never been illegal. Japan did enact a strict anti-prostitution law in 1956 that bans the practice, which it exclusively defines as penetrative, paid sex between a man and a woman. As a result, any paid-for activity that falls outside of this definition – such as homosexual sex – is not considered illegal.
“Some of our clients are lesbians,” he told me. “But many are straight, also married. Most are between 26 and 35 years old, though we also have clients in their 60s and 70s.” ...
Sex is wellness
In my interviews, the term “iyashi” often popped up.
It means “healing” and refers to activities or services that provide relief from daily stress and negative feelings. Just as yoga classes or massages are seen as forms of iyashi, sex – especially commercial sex – is also branded this way in Japan. ..."
Nagata Kabi created ‘My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness’ after frequenting a Lesbian Girls Club.
Deaf and sterile male mosquitoes are "abolished" to have sex, opening new population control option
Making sure their sex life is no fun anymore! 😊
We seem to have learnt a lot about the sex life of mosquitos!
These researchers also suggested to make the hearing of sterile male mosquitos overactive so they can better compete with non deaf males.
"Genetic studies have revealed that when male mosquitoes lose their hearing, they also lose their sex lives. ...
Scientists have long known that hearing is the main sense used in mosquito mating. ... A few seconds of midair copulation, and the courtship is done. ...
Next, the researchers placed the deaf mosquitoes in a mixed population, and watched what happened. Deaf females had a harder time than usual attracting mates, but still managed to get the job done. Deaf males, however, didn’t respond at all to the waiting ladies, leaving all the fun to those with unimpaired hearing. That suggests that this is the sole sense males use to find mates. ...
Rather than knocking out the trpVa gene and making mosquitoes deaf, the team suggests that it could instead be made overactive in these sterile mosquitoes. ..."
In most species, the act of mating is a multisensory experience, so for the new study, researchers ... Using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system, the team knocked out a gene called trpVa in the insects.
These mutant mosquitoes showed no reaction to sound whatsoever, and no electrical activity was detected in the neurons known to be associated with hearing. That confirmed that the gene edits had worked.
Already, male mosquitoes have been genetically engineered to be sterile, then released in various regions in recent years. The idea is that sterile males will still try to mate, but their partner's eggs won’t hatch. And conveniently, after females mate once, they don’t usually do so again, so the population comes down quickly.
The problem there is that the sterile males have to outcompete natural, virile males for female attention, so populations usually bounce back after a while. But what if the sterile bugs had a female-finding advantage over wild ones?
From the significance and abstract:
"Significance
The modes of communication required for mating in mosquitoes that transmit pathogens causing malaria, dengue, Zika, and other diseases are poorly understood. ... It is established that Aedes males are attracted to the female wingbeat. However, it was not known whether loss of hearing would just compromise or eradicate mating. We created deaf mosquitoes by eliminating the Transient Receptor Potential Va (TRPVa) channel—a protein required for sound-induced activation of auditory neurons. We found that mating was abolished [???] in deaf males, demonstrating that hearing and TRPVa are essential for male mating behavior. This work reveals a mode of communication that is strictly required for male mating success in a mosquito disease vector.
Abstract
Attraction and mating between male and female animals depend on effective communication between conspecifics. However, in mosquitoes, we have only a rudimentary understanding of the sensory cues and receptors critical for the communication that is essential for reproductive behavior. While it is known that male Aedes aegypti use sound to help them identify females, it is not unclear whether sound detection is absolutely required since other cues such as vision may also participate in mating behavior. To determine the effect of eliminating hearing on mating success, we knocked out the Ae. aegypti TRPVa channel ... Strikingly, mutation of trpVa eliminated mating behavior in males. In contrast, trpVa-null females mated, although this behavior was slightly delayed relative to wild-type females. Males and females produce sounds as they beat their wings at distinct frequencies during flight. Sound mimicking the female wingbeat induced flight, attraction, and copulatory-like behavior in wild-type males without females present, but not in trpVa-null males. Males are known to modulate their wingbeat frequencies before mating in the air, which is a phenomenon referred to as rapid frequency modulation (RFM). We found that RFM was absent in mosquitoes lacking TRPVa. We conclude that the requirement for trpVa and hearing for male reproductive behavior in Aedes is absolute, as mating in the deaf males is eliminated."
Deaf male mosquitoes don’t mate (original news release)
Deafness due to loss of a TRPV channel eliminates mating behavior in Aedes aegypti males (open access)
Fig. 3 Mutation of trpVa eliminates male mating behavior and delays female mating.
«Als Leni Riefenstahl Hitler traf, hatte sie Schweissausbrüche. Es war wie etwas Erotisches»
Hatte der olle Adolf etwa sex appeal auf manche Frauen? Oder war die Leni ein bisschen verirrt?
Why is the Dimocratic Party so strangely obsessed with reproductive health?
This obsession with this single issue has most likely also contributed to the loss of their presidential candidate in 2024!
What minority of women are they trying to address with this subject?
Will this single issue gain the party any new voters?
Abortion is not a subject to win hearts & minds!
Israel Defense Forces to expand use of fiber-optic guided drones
These type of drones were only recently introduced by Russia into the Russo-Ukrainian War!
"the IDF has also used fiber-optic guided drones but for different types of missions. Hamas and Hezbollah's many tunnels do not have wireless communication capabilities, so drones and robotic dogs have been connected to fiber optics. However, the ranges are limited, and therefore the Ministry of Defense is striving to increase them based on fiber-optic guidance.
In Ukraine, first-person view (FPV) drones are already being operated with fiber-optic guidance for ranges of up to 10 kilometers. But the bottom line is that range is the major restriction when operating fiber optic guided drones. Two other significant disadvantages of FPV drones are speed and maneuverability because its use requires more careful operation, so that the fiber does not tear, and operation time is shorter due to the weight of the optical fiber. ...
The fiber optic increases protection of the drone against electronic warfare that will disrupt communications between the drone and its operator, including jamming and spoofing. ...
Unlike the broad expanses of Ukraine and Russia, Israel's narrow border with Lebanon and the mountainous topography dictate a high density of communications activity by the drones, which sometimes interfere with each other. ..."
The fiber optic increases protection of the drone against electronic warfare that will disrupt communications between the drone and its operator, including jamming and spoofing. ...
Unlike the broad expanses of Ukraine and Russia, Israel's narrow border with Lebanon and the mountainous topography dictate a high density of communications activity by the drones, which sometimes interfere with each other. ..."
The unappreciated centrality of ethnoracially mixed Americans to the nation’s demographic future. Really!
This Nazi nonsense is published in one of the most prestigious journals, i.e. PNAS! This is pure racism!
The US is about individuals and freedom not about race!
The article was written by a "Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Sociology, Africana Studies" at CUNY.
From the abstract:
"The ethnoracial future of the United States has been framed as a demographic binary: Whites vs. people of color. The argument here is that this binary distorts by failing to take into adequate account the rapidly growing group of Americans who have been raised in mixed minority and White families, the great majority of the total mixed population. The members of this group generally have distinctive social characteristics: socioeconomic advantages compared to minorities and social integration into milieus with many Whites, as revealed by relatively high rates of marriage to them. However, their identities often encompass their minority heritage. Accordingly, they straddle the society’s major ethnoracial fracture line, creating an in-between social space and connecting, through kinship and other close social relations, both of its sides. However, their numbers are distorted in public national population data, such as census data and population projections; and they are typically counted as part of the non-White population. The recently announced revision of the race/ethnic data standards for the census offers an opportunity to refashion public data in a way that illuminates the important role this mixed group is likely to play in the nation’s demographic future."
Dr. ChatBot Is In—and more Often Right than human doctors
Doctors are human, all too human (to borrow from Friedrich Nietzsche)!
"ChatGPT outperformed human physicians in assessing a series of medical case histories, a new, small study published in JAMA Network Open found—demonstrating the power of A.I. systems to be “doctor extenders,” providing niche insights or second opinions.
The study: 50 doctors and ChatGPT—and some doctors equipped with ChatGPT— were all fed the same medical case details and asked to provide a diagnosis. Each was graded on their ability to diagnose correctly, and on their ability to explain why they landed on potential diagnoses.
The results: The doctors operating alone had an average score of 74%. ChatGPT scored an average of 90%. Doctors using the chatbot got an average score of 76%—underscoring how doctors are often wedded to their own conclusions, despite the chatbot’s suggestions."
From the key points and abstract:
"Key Points
- Question Does the use of a large language model (LLM) improve diagnostic reasoning performance among physicians in family medicine, internal medicine, or emergency medicine compared with conventional resources?
- Findings In a randomized clinical trial including 50 physicians, the use of an LLM did not significantly enhance diagnostic reasoning performance compared with the availability of only conventional resources.
- Meaning In this study, the use of an LLM did not necessarily enhance diagnostic reasoning of physicians beyond conventional resources; further development is needed to effectively integrate LLMs into clinical practice.
Abstract
Importance
Large language models (LLMs) have shown promise in their performance on both multiple-choice and open-ended medical reasoning examinations, but it remains unknown whether the use of such tools improves physician diagnostic reasoning.
Objective
To assess the effect of an LLM on physicians’ diagnostic reasoning compared with conventional resources.
Design, Setting, and Participants
A single-blind randomized clinical trial was conducted from November 29 to December 29, 2023. Using remote video conferencing and in-person participation across multiple academic medical institutions, physicians with training in family medicine, internal medicine, or emergency medicine were recruited.
Intervention
Participants were randomized to either access the LLM in addition to conventional diagnostic resources or conventional resources only, stratified by career stage. Participants were allocated 60 minutes to review up to 6 clinical vignettes.
Main Outcomes and Measures
The primary outcome was performance on a standardized rubric of diagnostic performance based on differential diagnosis accuracy, appropriateness of supporting and opposing factors, and next diagnostic evaluation steps, validated and graded via blinded expert consensus.
Secondary outcomes included time spent per case (in seconds) and final diagnosis accuracy. All analyses followed the intention-to-treat principle. A secondary exploratory analysis evaluated the standalone performance of the LLM by comparing the primary outcomes between the LLM alone group and the conventional resource group.
Results
Fifty physicians (26 attendings, 24 residents; median years in practice, 3 [IQR, 2-8]) participated virtually as well as at 1 in-person site. The median diagnostic reasoning score per case was 76% (IQR, 66%-87%) for the LLM group and 74% (IQR, 63%-84%) for the conventional resources-only group, with an adjusted difference of 2 percentage points (95% CI, −4 to 8 percentage points; P = .60). The median time spent per case for the LLM group was 519 (IQR, 371-668) seconds, compared with 565 (IQR, 456-788) seconds for the conventional resources group, with a time difference of −82 (95% CI, −195 to 31; P = .20) seconds. The LLM alone scored 16 percentage points (95% CI, 2-30 percentage points; P = .03) higher than the conventional resources group.
Conclusions and Relevance
In this trial, the availability of an LLM to physicians as a diagnostic aid did not significantly improve clinical reasoning compared with conventional resources. The LLM alone demonstrated higher performance than both physician groups, indicating the need for technology and workforce development to realize the potential of physician-artificial intelligence collaboration in clinical practice."
"... Secondary Outcomes
...
Accuracy of the final diagnosis (eTable 3 in Supplement 2) using the ordinal scale showed the LLM intervention group had 1.4 times higher odds (95% CI, 0.7-2.8; P = .39) of a correct diagnosis than the control group. ..."
Large Language Model Influence on Diagnostic Reasoning "A Randomized Clinical Trial"
Visual abstract
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
So Long, AG Disgrace! Merrick Garland Waves Goodbye After Tumultuous Tenure
Good riddance of one of the worst AGs ever! So glad he did not become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice!
Australian Mining Company Pays $160 Million to Government After CEO’s Detention
This is not the first time that Mail resorted to this kind of extortion by hostage taking of employees of Western businesses!
Iranian woman detained over undressing is released without charge
Good news! Hopefully this is true! Hopefully, she will not be incarcerated in a mental institution or other medical institution. I am afraid, the young lady has to leave the country ASAP to be safe!
MAGA on a bikini with Anna Luna Paulina
Meet Luna Paulina Luna (age 35), United States Representative. She is a model U.S. Representative! Does she embody MAHA too? 😊
El Capitan, the First Exascale Computer is Here at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA)
Good news! Not NSA, but NNSA! 😊
Woman testified that she saw Matt Gaetz having sex with 17-year-old, attorney says
This could get serious for Matt Gaetz! Possibly up to three women claim they witnessed him paying for and having sex including with an underage female.
Russian President to Visit India
Hopefully, Prime Minister Modi will arrest the megalomaniac and war monger/criminal immediately since there is an international arrest warrant on Putin the Terrible!
Why a Museum in Kenya Housing Some of Humanity's Oldest Bones and unparalleled collections of insects Is in Peril
Shocking! Will a billionaire step up please and donate money!
With Louise Leakey of the famous Leakey family.
Putin the Terrible Signs New Doctrine Widening Rules On Nuclear Weapons Use
When will the lethargic and apathetic Russian people finally stop this megalomaniac and war criminal Putin the Terrible before it is too late! The world is watching and waiting!
"President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on November 19 updating and expanding Moscow's nuclear doctrine to allow for the use of atomic weapons in case of an attack on Russia by a nonnuclear actor that is backed by a nuclear power. ..."
Abolish the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Will President Trump reform the arcane, complex and byzantine drug approval process?
This is an excellent opportunity for Trump and a Republican dominate US Congress to go down in history as one of the most remarkable US presidents!
Maybe a fresh start is a good option! Bring the FDA into the 21st century!
"It takes 10–15 years and hundreds of millions of dollars for a pharmaceutical company to navigate the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory process and bring a new drug to market. Many seriously ill people die waiting for the FDA to approve drugs that regulators in other advanced countries have already approved, a phenomenon called “drug lag.” It is impossible to imagine how many drug remedies remain undiscovered and how many people needlessly suffer because pharmaceutical companies must divert excessive research and development dollars to the drug approval process, a phenomenon called “drug loss.”
Congress passed the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) in 1938 to ensure drug safety. ..."
Kenia-Koalition: Merkels Mehltau ist zurück. Es Merzeled gewaltig!
Die Bananenrepublik D braucht dringend neue und bessere Politiker! Zu viele Schwachköpfe!
Die CDU muss sich dringendst von diesem Mann und Überbleibsel der schrecklichen SED Kanzlerin Merkel trennen! Er ist auch ein Schwachkopf!
Pain Refugees: Collateral Damage of the War on Drugs
Food for thought! This is not an easy issue to deal with, i.e. individuals with chronic pain and the risk of becoming addicts.
When will we finally have better and lasting pain treatments available than frequently popping pain killer drugs!
As usual, healthy skepticism regarding single year comparisons is advised (in this case 1992).
"For much of the 21st century, public health officials and policymakers have blamed doctors for overprescribing opioids and causing the overdose crisis. In response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued pain management guidelines aimed at reducing opioid prescriptions. Most states have codified them into law.
Federal and local drug task forces have arrested doctors whom they accuse of overprescribing opioids. This has led to a situation where many physicians either undertreat pain or choose to abandon their long-term pain patients. As a result, opioid prescribing has dropped below 1992 levels, while overdose deaths among nonmedical users have skyrocketed.
This crackdown has also created a population of “pain refugees”—chronic pain patients who have lost or were abandoned by their doctor and are left searching for a doctor willing to treat them. Many, out of desperation, turn to the black market for relief, while others resort to suicide. ..."
Chart of the day
Is this a nice chart showing that throwing large amounts of government money at an issue does not do much to improve lives?
"While federal spending on Indigenous affairs [in Canada] has almost tripled since 2015, the uptick in Indigenous living standards is due primarily to the Canada Child Benefit, an unrelated federal program for families with children. ..." (Source)
Government of Canada announces Canadian AI Safety Institute. Really!
Canada, once a pioneer and leader in machine learning and AI research (e.g. Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio), now wants to play it safe?
Or Canada wants to develop and occupy a niche position in ML & AI?
"Today in Montréal, the Government of Canada announced the creation of the Canadian AI Safety Institute (CAISI), which will include a focused research program at CIFAR. The announcement comes following the previously announced $50M investment in AI safety made in April, a central tenet of the Bletchley Declaration to which Canada has committed its efforts. ..."
Two Undersea cables in the Baltic Seaa cut or damaged hint at possible Russian sabotage
The megalomaniac and war monger Putin the Terrible at work again?
"Two undersea cables carrying internet data deep in the Baltic Sea have been damaged, European telecommunications companies have said, drawing warnings from European governments of possible Russian "hybrid warfare" targeting global communications infrastructure.
The foreign ministers of Finland and Germany said in a joint statement on Monday that a cable connecting the two countries had been cut and that the incidents had raised suspicion of possible sabotage. ..."
Tote gehören nicht ins Museum. Ägyptische Mumien sollten nicht im Museum ausgestellt werden. Wirklichh!
Die Autorin Esther Widmann dieses Artikels ist die "Redaktorin im Ressort Wissenschaft und Technologie." der NZZ. Vielleicht ist diese Journalistin im verkehrten Ressort! Vielleicht wäre Reisen & Tourismus oder Medizin eher angeraten. 😊
Wie unsere Vorfahren bestattet wurden ist Teil der menschlichen Kultur und gehört daher auch selbstverständlich ins Museum!
"Wenn Besucher sich vor ägyptischen Mumien in Vitrinen gruseln, hat das keinen pädagogischen Wert. Tote Menschen auszustellen, ist respektlos und widerspricht der Intention derer, die sie einst begraben haben – egal, wie viele tausend Jahre das schon her ist."
Manchmal sind Deutsche/Wahlschweizer ziemlich kurzsichtig und naiv! 😊
On Scaling Cross-Embodied Learning: One Policy for Manipulation, Navigation, Locomotion and Aviation
Recommendable! An interesting and relevant robotics paper by Sergey Levine et al.!
"Modern machine learning systems rely on large datasets to attain broad generalization, and this often poses a challenge in robot learning, where each robotic platform and task might have only a small dataset. By training a single policy across many different kinds of robots, a robot learning method can leverage much broader and more diverse datasets, which in turn can lead to better generalization and robustness. However, training a single policy on multi-robot data is challenging because robots can have widely varying sensors, actuators, and control frequencies. We propose CrossFormer, a scalable and flexible transformer-based policy that can consume data from any embodiment. We train CrossFormer on the largest and most diverse dataset to date, 900K trajectories across 20 different robot embodiments. We demonstrate that the same network weights can control vastly different robots, including single and dual arm manipulation systems, wheeled robots, quadcopters, and quadrupeds. Unlike prior work, our model does not require manual alignment of the observation or action spaces. Extensive experiments in the real world show that our method matches the performance of specialist policies tailored for each embodiment, while also significantly outperforming the prior state of the art in cross-embodiment learning."
English for trippers: A widow at the window
Is this is the N word!
Did widows in the past spend a lot of time at the window watching out? Or were widows supposed to?
Google search result inconsistencies due to AI
Here is a beautiful example of such an inconsistency!
My first Google search result
My immediate related follow up Google search result
What happened?
- When I first queried about how to use Python to export a PDF file as a text file, Google AI generated a code example using import PyPDF2
- Since I knew there was also a library called pypdf, I was curious what the difference was.
Well Google AI then declared that PyPDF2 was actually deprecated and merged into pypdf.
Monday, November 18, 2024
Schwachkopf-Affäre: Vom Meme zur Hausdurchsuchung - Jetzt spricht der Rentner!
Er würde es wieder machen! Die Polizeibeamten waren Spitze. Kennen sie den Paragraphen 188? Ja, jetzt schon.
Hinweis: Ich hatte nicht die Zeit das ganze Interview anzusehen.
First Jewish Terror Attack ? 1946 King David Hotel BOMBING
Very recommendable! It appears the British colonial power were acting like extreme jerks towards the Jews. Very surprising!
The Jewish Irgun warned the British several times that their headquarters was being targeted.
Hong Kong Sentences Dozens of Democracy Activists to long Jail sentences
This is what happens when a communist dictatorship rules! China has illegally annexed Hong Kong in violation of an agreement with the UK!
Lucy Was Discovered 50 Years Ago. What’s Changed from 1974 to Now?
Recommendable! Beatles song Lucy in the sky with diamonds (released 1967).
The Art of Perspective: The Annunciation and Ginerva de'Benci | early works of Leonardo da Vinci
Very recommendable! What a genius!
Jennifer Lopez Performs in Saudi Arabia's Riyadh with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! Contradictions remain! E.g. the legal system is still archaic. Capital punishment is disproportionately applied to foreign workers.
India Tests Hypersonic Missile, Joins Russia, US, China Club with Palki Sharma
Very recommendable! Good news! India, a rising superpower!
China Economy: Why Investors are Tracking Protests in China with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! It is well known that communist dictatorships suppress negative news and manipulate statistical data. It is also well known that under these circumstances e.g. financial investors resort to other, less conventional metrics to gauge the economy of a communist country.
Fashion App Temu Takes Over the West. Here's Why It's Problematic with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! Maybe the "price butcher" chopped off of one of his fingers! 😊
National security and data vacuuming concerns about Chinese social media apps can not be easily dismissed. There is also e.g. potential for extortion of someone (e.g. high level individual) who does nefarious or dubious things via his/her smartphone etc.
Why Indian PM Modi Toured Nigeria and Guyana before Brazil with Palki Sharma
Very recommendable!
"Nigeria honoured PM Modi with its second-highest national award"
Keep in mind Mahatma Gandhi worked in South Africa from 1893-1914 before he immigrated to India.
Khalistan Referendum in New Zealand Triggers Showdown with Palki Sharma
I don't claim to understand the issue very well! However, such a separatist referendum in NZ by a what seems to be a militant group seems odd. Similar referendums were held so far in Canada, UK, and the US apparently without serious objection.
English for trippers: Zero hero
Real heroes are rare! Like perhaps 0.0001% (or one in a million) of the population!
Iran to Open Clinic for Hijab Defiance
Headline of the day (if it was not so horrific)! Is this for real?
"Officials in Iran have announced plans to open a “treatment clinic” for women who resist mandatory hijab laws—a move decried by human rights advocates.
The clinic will promote “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal,” per one Iranian official.
The announcement follows reports of a university student who publicly protested after being assaulted by campus guards for a hijab violation. That student has since been transferred to a psychiatric hospital. ..."
Israel releases discovered footage of Hamas operatives torturing Palestinians
I have little doubt that this is true!
Why should these coward killers of Hamas treat Arabs in Gaza differently!
A still image taken from CCTV footage and released by the IDF on November 10, 2024 shows a Palestinian detainee chained by his feet to the ceiling by a Hamas operative in the Gaza Strip. The footage is said by the IDF to document the widespread use of torture by Hamas against its opponents.
Former Preschool Teacher and volunteer of the Ukrainian air defense forces Downs Russian Cruise Missile with Her First “Live” Shoot
Good shot! Bravo to the Ukrainian spirit of self defense!
What would Pink Floyd sing today (Another Brick In The Wall/Teacher leave the kids alone)? Teacher bring them Russian drones down!
"A video, posted on the Facebook page of Ukraine’s Western Air Command on Sunday, showed Natalia Hrabarchuk, a former kindergarten teacher now a volunteer member of the command’s air defense forces, using a 9K38 Igla (NATO: SA-18 Grouse) Man-portable air defense system (MANPADS) launcher to bring down an incoming Russian cruise missile. ..."
Screenshot from video of the downing of a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile with an “Igla” MANPADS that captures her delight and disbelief at what she has achieved.
The Grand Unified Theory of Mathematics
Recommendable!
"The kingdom of mathematics can be divided into many disparate realms: number theory, geometry, algebra, topology, analysis, combinatorics. But the greatest mathematical achievements often happen when someone discovers an unexpected connection between two of these domains. This makes it possible to port fresh ideas from one field to attack problems in another. Mathematicians call it “bridge building.”
Langlands’ original conjectures posited a precise correspondence between very different mathematical entities in the fields of number theory (the study of arithmetic) and harmonic analysis (the study of how functions can be broken up into simpler pieces). ..."
The Langlands program, introduced by the Canadian mathematician Robert Langlands in 1967, is bridge building taken to its extreme. ... the program comprises a sweeping suite of conjectures that act like an interstate highway system, intimately linking some of the most distant reaches of the mathematical universe.
How the drone killed the tank
If there is one lesson learnt so far from the Russo-Ukrainian War, then it is that even the latest and greatest Russian tanks are no match for cheap drones.
Likewise, conventional marine vessels may have also become a thing of the past!
Surprisingly, the theocracy of Iran recognized the potential of drones as weapons and has become a major supplier.
Every so often a new weapon on the battlefield obsoletes previous weapons!
Like the bow and arrow and crossbow finished the knight in shining armor!
Positive Human Health and Welfare net Effects from Increased Greenhouse Gases and Warming
Food for thought! I agree with the summary.
Remember, we just came out of the last ice age in about 1850 (The Little Ice Age)!
Global atmospheric temperature measurements are very suspect! Claims of a 1.5 C increase are ridiculously precise!
Increased CO2 in the atmosphere means a greener planet of plants! 😊
"Summary
Claims that global warming will have net negative effects on human health are not supported by scientific evidence. Moderate warming and increased atmospheric concentrations of carbon-dioxide levels could provide net benefits for human welfare, agriculture, and the biosphere by reducing cold-related deaths, increasing the amount of arable land, extending the length of growing seasons, and invigorating plant life. The harmful effects of restricting access to fossil fuel energy and subsequently causing energy costs to increase would likely outweigh any potential benefits from slightly delaying any rise in temperatures. Climate change is likely to have less impact on health and welfare than polices that would deprive the poor living in emerging economies of the benefits of abundant and inexpensive energy.
Key Takeaways
- A colder climate generally poses a much greater risk to human health and causes more deaths than a warmer climate.
- An increase in warmer conditions would not significantly increase the range of vector-borne diseases such as malaria or Lyme disease.
- Life expectancy has improved tremendously as a result of access to affordable and reliable energy
..."
Caveat: I did not read the report.
What is the DOGE or the return of the Doge?
Historic first: Female Israeli combat soldiers conduct Lebanon operations
Good news! Bravo! Progress of gender equality!
"For the first time in Israel’s military history, female combat soldiers entered Lebanon as part of an operational mission. ...
Their tasks included gathering intelligence, identifying terrorist operatives, creating target lists, and directing fire from ground and aerial forces to neutralize threats and dismantle terrorist infrastructure. ..."
Their tasks included gathering intelligence, identifying terrorist operatives, creating target lists, and directing fire from ground and aerial forces to neutralize threats and dismantle terrorist infrastructure. ..."
A $12,000 Surgery to permanently Change your Eye Color Is Surging in Popularity
Is it reversible, if you don't like the new color? Also known as corneal tattooing!
What about different colors for the left and right eye?
And why not combine it with an exciting trip to India?
An Israeli airstrike in central Beirut kills Hezbollah’s chief spokesman, official says
How many more of these coward murderers have to be killed before the hostages are released?
It is absolutely amazing how Israel manages to kill so many of the terrorist leaders!
When will the Saudi Crown Prince finally demand the release of the hostages or is he too coward himself and fearing for his own life? If he is doing this already behind the scenes then he is apparently not very successful.
Continuous, programmable mutagenesis of single genomic loci of the living mammalian genome (HACE)
Amazing stuff! This could be a game changer!
"... researchers have created a tool that allows them to rapidly create mutations only in particular genes of interest without disturbing the rest of the genome. Described in Science, their tool, called Helicase-Assisted Continuous Editing (HACE), can be deployed to predetermined regions of the genome in intact, living cells. ...
“By allowing targeted mutagenesis in specific parts of the genome, this tool opens the door to creating enzymes and treatments that were previously out of reach.” ...
“By allowing targeted mutagenesis in specific parts of the genome, this tool opens the door to creating enzymes and treatments that were previously out of reach.” ...
Unlike current methods for mutagenesis, which involve inserting extra copies of genes or broadly mutating many different genes at once, HACE offers the advantage of being directed to locations — like going to a specific address, rather than a neighborhood. The team’s novel bioengineering involves combining a helicase, which is an enzyme that naturally “unzips” DNA, with a gene-editing enzyme. They then use the gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 to guide the protein pair to the gene they want to mutate. As the helicase unzips the DNA, it introduces mutations into only that gene sequence. ...
To demonstrate the tool’s power in the lab, the scientists used it to identify drug resistance mutations in a gene called MEK1, which cancer treatments often target but frequently fail because the diseased cells mutate resistance mechanisms. Using HACE, the team sequenced only those mutated genes and pinpointed several unique changes associated with resistance to cancer drugs like trametinib and selumetinib, offering insights into how mutations affect drug performance.
They also examined how mutations in SF3B1, a gene involved in a biomolecular process called RNA splicing, affects RNA assembly. Mutations in this gene are common in blood cancers, but it’s been unclear which mutations cause the splicing defects; with HACE, the team could easily identify those changes. ..."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"The ability to mutate regions of the human genome can help us understand the effects of individual genetic variants on gene function. Chen et al. present a new tool for long-range mutagenesis that can be targeted to any genomic locus. Helicase-assisted continuous editing (HACE) uses a nickase–Cas9–single-guide RNA (sgRNA) to recruit a helicase-deaminase fusion enzyme, which then travels more than 1000 base pairs, incurring mutations across the region. The authors multiplexed HACE with sgRNAs to diversify coding and noncoding sequences, thereby identifying single mutations that confer drug resistance, perturb RNA splicing, or modulate expression of an inducible immune gene. HACE provides a powerful tool for the mutagenesis of endogenous loci and has the potential to explore new sequence space through directed evolution in mammalian cells. ...
"Structured Abstract
INTRODUCTION
A fundamental challenge of genomics is to chart the impact of the three billion bases in the human genome on protein function and gene regulation. Thus, a critical goal is to develop strategies for mutagenizing genomic sequences systematically and at high throughput. In particular, targeted mutagenesis of single genomic loci could emulate the natural evolution process to reveal sequence-structure relationships, gain- and loss-of-function phenotypes, and cooperative mutations. However, no method exists that can perform continuous mutagenesis at targeted regions in the endogenous genomes of mammalian cells.
RATIONALE
We sought to develop a tool to perform targeted mutagenesis on the endogenous mammalian genome. Looking to nature, we observed that helicases are highly processive enzymes that can traverse large genomic regions. Some helicases, including those involved in DNA damage repair, can load and start unwinding DNA at single-stranded DNA regions in the genome. We reasoned that such helicases could be used for long-range targeted mutagenesis when fused to a deaminase enzyme. The fusion construct and its interval of hypermutation could then be programmably targeted, through single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs), to specific genomic regions using a Cas9 nickase. The directional and long-range DNA-unwinding event by the recruited helicase will then generate random mutations in the region.
RESULTS
We designed a platform called helicase-assisted continuous editing (HACE), which combines long-range editing of entire loci with the sequence programmability inherent to CRISPR gene editing tools. HACE uses CRISPR-Cas9 to direct the loading of a helicase-deaminase fusion for targeted hypermutation of the downstream genomic sequence. HACE achieved locus-specific deamination across >1000 nucleotides with mutations continuously accumulating over time. We further evaluated HACE prototypes incorporating diverse helicases, Cas9 variants, and deaminases, showing that they have tunable edit rates and ranges. We also showed that HACE can be multiplexed to target multiple genomic regions with a minimal number of guide RNAs. We then applied HACE in coding and noncoding genomic contexts to functionally dissect endogenous mutations conferring drug resistance, changes in enzymatic activity, and altered cis-regulatory element function. In the coding space, we identified variants that lead to mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1 (MEK1)–inhibitor drug resistance and also identified variants in SF3B1, a splicing factor, that lead to alternative 3′ splice-site usage. Turning to regulatory regions, we defined functional artificial variants in the enhancer regions of CD69 and pinpointed specific bases and motifs that mediate the impact of RUNX transcription factors on CD69 regulation. HACE solves two limitations faced by conventional base editing screens: the requirement of an NGG protospacer adjacent motif in the sgRNA recognition sequence and the occurrence of bystander mutations that can create artificial linkages and confound screening results. The long editing range of HACE can also uncover combinatorial effects and interactions between multiple distant mutations across a locus.
CONCLUSION
HACE makes possible the continuous, long-range, programmable diversification of endogenous mammalian genomes. We envision that HACE will substantially expand the functional genomics toolbox and enable the building of systematic sequence-function maps of both coding and noncoding genomes. Furthermore, HACE can be developed into a directed evolution system in the endogenous genome, enabling the selection of sequences for desired functions in mammalian biology."
Helicase-assisted continuous editing for programmable mutagenesis of endogenous genomes (no public access)
Development of a system to perform long-range targeted continuous mutagenesis of endogenous genomes.
Friedrich Merz ist denkbar ungeeignet als Kanzler
Tichys Einblick kommt auch zu dem Schluss!
Die CDU muss sich dringendst von diesem Mann und Überbleibsel der schrecklichen SED Kanzlerin Merkel trennen! Er ist auch ein Schwachkopf!
Der Schwachkopf wurde nun zum Kanzlerkandidat gekürt
Robert Habeck von den Bündnis 90/Die Grünen! Das Treiben in der Bananenrepublik D!
Holodomor - Ukrainians Between Two World Wars
Recommendable! If you want to understand why Ukrainians don't like Russians and why Putin the Terrible is a reminder of Stalin!
BOTSWANA: From Underdog to Top Dog – The Most Prosperous Country in Africa
Recommendable! The country has less than 3 million population, but 4 times as large as Germany!
This 23 minutes long video fails to mention that the first president of this country after independence was married to a white woman and first lady of the country from 1966-1980!
Sunday, November 17, 2024
Saving the bison: Threatened species return to Azerbaijan
What an irony! This oil and gas rich country just hosted the COP29 and it also wants to introduce bisons. Don't cattle and the like not contribute to climate change too?
The 46th President becomes first sitting president to visit a swamp (Amazon Rainforest)
So senile, demented, and corrupt!
Trump DOD pick Hegseth paid female accuser but denies sexual assault, attorney says. Bad move!
I am not familiar with the details of this case! And many fact are not yet known.
However, if Hegseth indeed paid this woman for something he did not do and gave in to extortion or to a liar, because it could potentially damage his career. This does not look good on him. Perhaps a lack of judgement!
It was also clearly short sighted of him! Forgetting if he should ever aspire to a higher job this would most likely come back to haunt him.
Prominent Russian opposition exiles lead anti-Putin protest in Berlin, demand end to war in Ukraine
When will the citizens of Moscow finally protest against Putin the Terrible!
Russia attacks Ukraine energy infrastructure with missiles and drones
Putin the Terrible is committing more war crimes! It is absolutely horrifying if the civilian population (incl. children, babies, elderly) of urban areas has to seek shelter so often!
A Polish professor also reported that Russian missiles have landed in Poland and Poland is seeking to intercept Russian missiles in the future.
Russia-Ukraine War: Biden Clears Use Of Long-Range Missiles Into Russia
Good news! What took so long!!!! Long range is an exaggeration, these are rather medium range missiles at best!
On Self-Rewarding Language Models
Recommendable! Self improving by self rewarding, a new approach!
Superhuman feedback, because human feedback is too confining or becomes a bottleneck! 😊
From the abstract:
"We posit that to achieve superhuman agents, future models require superhuman feedback in order to provide an adequate training signal. Current approaches commonly train reward models from human preferences, which may then be bottlenecked by human performance level, and secondly these separate frozen reward models cannot then learn to improve during LLM training. In this work, we study Self-Rewarding Language Models, where the language model itself is used via LLM-as-a-Judge prompting to provide its own rewards during training. We show that during Iterative DPO training that not only does instruction following ability improve, but also the ability to provide high-quality rewards to itself. Fine-tuning Llama 2 70B on three iterations of our approach yields a model that outperforms many existing systems on the AlpacaEval 2.0 leaderboard, including Claude 2, Gemini Pro, and GPT-4 0613. While there is much left still to explore, this work opens the door to the possibility of models that can continually improve in both axes."
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