Recommendable!
Friday, April 18, 2025
Mariam Batsashvili plays Liszt: Liebestraum No. 3 in A-flat Major
Enjoy! She wears no nail polish! So appealing!
How the Famous Architect Zaha Hadid Revolutionized The Way Architects Design
Very recommendable! Excellent video!
Tulsi Gabbard On The Release Of The RFK Assassination Files
Very recommendable! Bravo Tulsi! What an effort to release and digitize the dispersed, stored documents! Was there a second shooter? Repeated death threats against the husband of Tulsi and Tulsi herself?
Israel-Hamas War: Hamas Fighters Go Unpaid As Cash Crisis Deepens with Molly Gambhir
Good news! Good riddance of Hamas!
AI Founder Lucy Guo Has Unseated Taylor Swift As The World’s Youngest Self-Made Woman Billionaire
Congratulations! A child of Chinese immigrants to the US and a college dropout!
US confirms Chinese satellite firm helping Houthi rebels target ships
Serious stuff! State sponsored terrorism! In times past, this would have been considered a cause for war!
Trump Targets Chinese Ships to Win Trade War with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! Food for though! The Communist Party has corned the global market of shipbuilding.
UNESCO Honours Ancient Indian Texts Bhagavad Gita, Natyashastra with Palki Sharma
Good news! Recommendable!
UK successfully tests radio wave weapon to neutralize drone swarms commercial and military
Good news! Even glass fiber controlled drones should be disabled by this new defense weapon.
Trump appoints Mark Levin of BlazeTV to 'revamped' Homeland Security Advisory Council. Really!
I don't think this was a good decision. Over the years, Mark Levin (age 67) has become old, boring, repetitive, if not senile.
Image of the day
This US Senator (D-Md, age 66) is such a moron/fool! Hopefully, next election, the voters will vote him out of the U.S. Senate.
Life on K2-18b? We’re probably not much closer to that finding than we were the day before. Really!
Don't believe this spoiler attempt! We are not alone!
This is the first time that such chemical signatures were found on an exoplanet! Further, investigations will be forthcoming, I am sure.
"The discovery of living organisms, no matter how primitive, on another world would be the most monumental scientific discovery of anyone’s lifetime. But, despite the headlines that swept the globe yesterday, we’re probably not much closer to that finding than we were the day before. ...
using NASA’s JWST telescope to detect the signatures of the gases dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) in starlight that had passed through the atmosphere of K2-18b, a massive planet 120 light-years from Earth. Here on Earth, those gases are produced by marine phytoplankton and give sea air its distinctive scent. “ ..."
Alien planet’s atmosphere bears chemical hints of life, astronomers claim "A study suggests a distant world has gases linked on Earth to algae, but others urge caution before invoking alien slime"
Global soil pollution by toxic metals threatens agriculture and human health. Really!
How often have we learnt about this kind of alarmism and hysteria in the past 50 or more years? Similar soil contamination has been claimed many times!
Beware this is a meta study using extrapolation! This study was possibly driven by the presumption/preconception of increasing demand for critical minerals! Just the title of this study strongly indicates that the researchers were not objective, but biased!
I am not sure the study properly distinguishes between natural and human contamination. The author's use the ideological term "anthropocene era". Anthropocene is obscene! Junk science!
Look also how many huge blind spots/areas there are on this global map.
"Researchers have created the first global map of toxic metals in soils, showing that vast swaths of land are contaminated from a combination of factors including industrial pollution and the erosion of bedrock.
The map reveals a transcontinental corridor of metal-laced soil that stretches from southern Europe to China, as well as hot spots across Africa and the Americas. The map suggests that anywhere from 900 million to 1.4 billion people worldwide could be exposed to elevated levels of at least one toxic metal, with 14% to 17% of global farmland potentially affected.
To create a global picture, the researchers
first scoured the scientific literature for data on arsenic, lead, and five other relatively common toxic elements.
Next, the researchers used machine-learning algorithms to extrapolate metal concentrations from these samples to places that lacked soil measurements. According to the analysis, the most widespread toxic metal is cadmium, with an estimated 9% of topsoil worldwide bearing high levels. Cadmium, which moves easily through the soil, comes from natural erosion of bedrock and zinc mining.
Other researchers say soil levels on their own don’t necessarily signal risks to crops or people. That depends on chemical details influencing how likely the metals become incorporated into plants, for example, in a form that’s dangerous. But as demand grows for critical minerals to build everything from batteries to wind turbines, the authors stress that nations should test more soil for toxic metals and give international aid to support sampling efforts in understudied regions such as sub-Saharan Africa."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
Metals and metalloids are ubiquitous in soils, originating from bedrock and from human activities and infrastructure. These compounds can be toxic to humans and other organisms, and their soil distribution and concentrations at global scale are not well known. Hou et al. analyzed data from more than 1000 regional studies to identify areas of metal toxicity and explore drivers of these trends.
They estimate that 14 to 17% of cropland exceeds agricultural thresholds for at least one toxic metal.
Climate and topography, along with mining activity and irrigation, predicted which soils would exceed metal thresholds. Soil metal pollution is a global issue that will likely increase with the growing demand for toxic metals in new technologies. ...
Abstract
Toxic metal pollution is ubiquitous in soils, yet its worldwide distribution is unknown.
We analyzed a global database of soil pollution by arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel, and lead at 796,084 sampling points from 1493 regional studies and used machine learning techniques to map areas with exceedance of agricultural and human health thresholds.
We reveal a previously unrecognized high-risk, metal-enriched zone in low-latitude Eurasia, which is attributed to influential climatic, topographic, and anthropogenic conditions.
This feature can be regarded as a signpost for the Anthropocene era. We show that 14 to 17% of cropland is affected by toxic metal pollution globally and estimate that between 0.9 and 1.4 billion people live in regions of heightened public health and ecological risks."
Toxic metals abound in soils worldwide, new global map reveals "An analysis combining nearly 800,000 soil measurements charts threats to agriculture and human health"
Fig. 1. Global soil pollution by toxic metals exceeding agricultural thresholds (AT).
The most-cited papers of the first quarter of the 21st century
Good news!
Notice 4 of the 10 papers are related to machine learning & artificial intelligence, i.e. nos. 1, 6, 7, and 8.
Exclusive: the most-cited papers of the twenty-first century "A Nature analysis reveals the 25 highest-cited papers published this century and explores why they are breaking records."
How psychological stress increases the risk of bacterial skin infection via defective responses
Amazing stuff!
"... Now, new experiments in mice have revealed that stress makes it harder for certain skin cells to fight off bacteria—leaving the animals vulnerable to more severe infection with Staphylococcus aureus.
To induce stress, scientists confined the mice inside small tubes for three hours a day on three consecutive days, exposing them to S. aureus upon release. The restrained rodents produced more adrenaline, leading to higher levels of a stress-related protein called TGFβ. This protein interferes with specialized skin cells known as dermal fibroblasts and prevents them from making cathelicidin—an antimicrobial molecule that normally plays a key role in the skin’s defense system. As a result, the restrained mice ended up experiencing more severe infections, characterized by larger lesions. Blocking adrenaline or TGFβ, meanwhile, allowed the animals’ skin cells to mount a stronger defense against the bacteria."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
Psychological stress affects multiple systems in mammals and is linked with greater susceptibility to bacterial infections. Chan et al. used a mouse model to show that psychological stress causes an impaired response to Staphylococcus aureus infection.
The defective response was associated with decreased dermal adipogenesis by fibroblasts and decreased production of the antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin (Camp) by these cells, thus enhancing susceptibility to S. aureus.
This brain-skin axis triggered by stress was mediated by adrenergic signaling and the production of TGFβ. These were critical for infection given that inhibiting adrenergic or TGFβ signaling restored normal host defense to S. aureus in stressed mice. ...
Abstract
Infections after psychological stress are a major health care problem.
Single-cell transcriptomics and lipidomic profiling in a mouse model of stress show that dermal fibroblasts undergoing adipogenesis have defective responses to Staphylococcus aureus skin infection.
Adrenalectomy or adrenergic inhibition restores the fibroblast adipogenic response to S. aureus and enables mice to effectively resist infection during stress. Increased susceptibility to S. aureus from stress is attributed to suppression of the antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin (Camp) because adrenaline directly inhibits Camp production by fibroblasts, and mice lacking Camp in fibroblasts do not increase infection after stress.
Transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) is induced by stress and adrenergic signaling, and inhibition of TGFβ or deletion of the TGFβ receptor on fibroblasts increases Camp expression and restores protection against infection.
Together, these data show that stress initiates a brain-skin axis mediated by TGFβ that impairs the immune defense function of dermal fibroblasts to produce the Camp antimicrobial peptide."
Psychological stress increases skin infection through the action of TGFβ to suppress immune-acting fibroblasts (open access)
Fig. 1. Psychological stress exacerbates skin infection by SA [Staphylococcus aureus].
Mitochondria are moving between cells on demand or due to cancer
Amazing stuff! A recommendable overview article.
"Mitochondria — the supposedly static energy factories that reside inside cells — seem to actually be expert travellers, skipping from one cell to another.
This ‘mitochondrial transfer’ has been observed in a wide variety of cells and in organisms as diverse as yeast, molluscs and rodents.
Some studies have hinted that cells donate their mitochondria to their neighbours during times of need.
Other research suggests that mitochondrial transfer can be a lethal weapon that cancer cells deploy to gain an advantage.
A handful of researchers have begun developing treatments that would draw on this process to enhance immunotherapies or treat mitochondrial diseases."
"... Ever since they were discovered in the mid-nineteenth century, mitochondria have been known as organelles that reside inside cells.
But that textbook picture now seems to be wrong. An explosion of research is challenging mitochondria’s long-standing image as exclusively cellular organelles. “They may be a multicellular organelle,” ... In other words, the supposedly static energy factories now seem to be expert travellers, skipping from one cell to another on demand. ...
It’s not yet clear why mitochondria are so mobile. Some studies have hinted that cells donate their mitochondria to their neighbours during times of need. In cellular emergencies, newly arrived mitochondria might kick-start tissue repair, fire up the immune system or rescue distressed cells from death. ..."
Cells are swapping their mitochondria. What does this mean for our health? "Researchers are studying why the energy factories are moving between cells and whether the process can be harnessed to treat cancer and other diseases."
Mitochondria, visible in red, travel through a tunnelling nanotube from a type of bone marrow cell (top left) to a T cell that fights infections and cancer (bottom right)
RNA blood test detects risky pregnancies in a a person or in people. Really!
When the once prestigious science publisher like Nature again uses terms like "pregnant person" or "pregnant people" instead of woman/women it is disgusting! It is so demeaning to women!
The underlying Nature Communication research article also avoids woman/women in it's abstract by using "maternal", "pregnancy", "maternal age population" and "individual".
"A simple blood test can predict with 99% accuracy whether a pregnant person will develop certain cardiovascular complications. The test by biotech company Mirvie analyses RNA transcripts of genes that have been linked to the cardiovascular disorder pre-eclampsia, which is caused by a faulty placenta. Catching pre-eclampsia early could allow pregnant people at risk of the disease to take precautions such as lowering their blood pressure. “We can narrow it down to about one in four pregnancies that are truly at high risk, and that’s a big step,” ..."
President Trump Orders Hospitals to Disclose actual Prices, 'Not Estimates'
Good news! Bravo President Trump! There is indeed too little competition in the healthcare sector other than cosmetic surgery!
It would also make it easier for patients to compare hospital prices. Why don't hospitals post price lists etc.!
I also have too often the impression US hospitals are too vague about total costs of a treatment or even specific, well defined treatments. If you have no health insurance, your hospital bill may increase fast.
"President Donald Trump ordered the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to develop a framework to enforce hospital price transparency, within 90 days.
Trump originally established the rule during his first term in office, but compliance and enforcement under the Biden administration were weak.
Trump signed the new “Making America Healthy Again by Empowering Patients with Clear, Accurate, and Actionable Healthcare Pricing Information” executive order (EO) on February 25. The order directs the administrative departments to develop an enforcement plan to ensure hospitals disclose “actual prices, not estimates” and make “prices comparable across hospitals and insurers, including prescription drug prices.” ...
Frustrated by the [46th President] administration’s lack of enforcement, the states of Colorado in 2022 and Ohio in 2024 took hospital price transparency into their own hands. They prevented hospitals from collecting on unpaid bills if their prices were not disclosed in a “comprehensive machine-readable file.” ...
An independent economic analysis found full implementation of the regulations in the EO could save consumers, insurers, and employers $80 billion this year alone, the EO states.
“Why would anyone pay $3,000 for an MRI when they could get the same quality for $300?” ... “Likewise, no patient would agree to pay a $12,000 colonoscopy bill when the fair market price is around $1,000.”"
US and Ukrainian officials signed a memorandum of intent to boost cooperation on minerals and hydrocarbons
Good news! This will be beneficial for both countries.
It will also make the megalomaniac and war criminal Putin the Terrible think twice whether to go forward to invade more land of the Ukraine.
"... Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko called the agreement “very beneficial for both countries,” though officials confirmed it includes no binding guarantees or funding commitments.
The deal follows months of failed attempts to reach an agreement. In February, a planned signing in Washington was scrapped after a shouting match between Trump and Zelensky derailed talks. A previous version was rejected after Kyiv said it lacked sufficient protections and favored US corporate interests. ..."
We’re on the verge of a new universal Spring allergy treatment using the monoclonal antibody Omalizumab
Good news! A recommendable survey article!
"... Omalizumab, sold as Xolair, is an asthma medication that was approved more than 20 years ago, but it has proven successful in treating seasonal allergies in recent preliminary trials. So successful, in fact, that now some doctors in the US are prescribing it for certain patients during hay fever season. It is an injection, rather than a pill or a spray, that’s given a couple of weeks before pollen and grass levels start to rise.
One obvious benefit is you get a single shot and enjoy your spring. But even better, omalizumab can forestall allergic reactions at the source. That means an injection could stop all allergic reactions — not only seasonal allergies but food allergies (such as peanuts) and insect allergies for a prolonged period of time. This class of treatment — monoclonal antibodies, special artificial proteins that carry instructions to the body’s immune system — have the potential to be a genuine all-in-one allergy wonder drug. ...
Large clinical trials are underway in China and Japan, which could lead to omalizumab’s approval in those countries for seasonal allergies. The next generation of monoclonal antibody allergy treatments is already in the works. ...
Monoclonal antibodies stop that process before it begins. They deliver artificial proteins that carry instructions to your immune system to block the receptors that create allergic reactions and prevent the overresponse that releases histamine in the first place. ..."
We’re on the verge of a universal allergy cure "The one allergy treatment to rule them all, explained."
Lithium-ion batteries offer longer lifespan, fast charging with nanoscale engineering
Good news!
"South Korean researchers ... have dramatically improved lithium-ion battery technology using nanoscale engineering. According to reports, their innovations have successfully enhanced the technology’s energy storage and cycling stability, addressing the growing demand for efficient energy solutions. ...
Their findings ... focus on a new hybrid composite material engineered at the nanoscale to optimize conductivity and stability.
The innovation’s heart is a hierarchical heterostructure composed of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and nickel-iron layered double hydroxides (NiFe-LDH). Each component brings distinct advantages. Reduced graphene oxide is a high-speed highway for electrons, while the nickel-iron elements store charge through a fast pseudocapacitive mechanism. ..."
"... Researchers ... have achieved a significant breakthrough in lithium-ion battery technology by developing a novel hybrid anode material. This innovative study introduces a hierarchical heterostructure composite that optimizes material interfaces at the nanoscale, resulting in remarkable enhancements in energy storage capacity and long-term cycling stability. This engineered structure integrates graphene oxide's superior conductivity with the energy storage capabilities of nickel-iron compounds for future electronics and energy solutions. ..."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• The rGO/a-NiO/NiFe2O4-HS anode is developed with a hollow nanostructure derived from the GO/NiFe-LDH composite.
• The phase change of NiFe-LDH leads to the formation of a-NiO/NiFe2O4 nanoparticles embedded in a graphene matrix.
• This hollow nanostructure prevents volume expansion and nanoparticle aggregation, ensuring long-term cycling stability.
Abstract
Integrating transition metal oxides with carbon-based materials through chemical heterointerface engineering presents a promising approach for achieving enhanced ionic/electrical conductivity, additional interfacial storage space, and structural stability, facilitating superior cyclic performance in energy storage systems. In this study, we synthesized a hierarchical heterostructure composite by combining graphene oxide with nickel–iron layered double hydroxides and promoted the formation of additional grain boundaries through phase change. Thus, we enhanced the pseudocapacitive contributions and the ion/charge transfer kinetics through nano-interfaces. These hybrid structures were formed through the layer-by-layer self-assembly of two-dimensional nanosheets. This design facilitates the construction of low-dimensional nanoarchitecture suitable for long-term cycling without ionic intermediates. Furthermore, to prevent agglomeration during the annealing process, we induced a phase change in NiCo-LDH under an inert atmosphere to fabricate reduced graphene oxide (rGO) embedded with amorphous nickel oxide (a-NiO) and NiFe2O4 nanoparticles, designated as rGO/a-NiO/NiFe2O4-HS. When utilized as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries, this material maintained an outstanding specific capacity of 1687.6 mA h g−1 at a current density of 100 mA g−1 after 580 cycles. This nanostructuring and phase change strategy of the two-dimensional heterostructures can effectively promote the development of high-performance electrode materials based on the pseudocapacitive mechanism."
Dongguk University Researchers Advance Lithium-Ion Battery Technology with Hybrid Anode Material (original news release) "Innovative nanoscale engineering enhances energy storage and cycling stability, addressing the growing demand for efficient energy solutions"
Graphical abstract
This AR headset is changing how surgeons see inside their patients
Good news!
"At the beginning of this year, Ocutrx Technologies introduced DigiLoupes, an AR/XR [augmented/extended reality] headset that contains 3D sensors and a pancake lens that provides high-quality optics and high-resolution imaging in a headset design. ..."
DigiLoupes "Bringing traditional loupes into the digital age with DigiLoupes — the ultimate in 8K resolution, magnification, ergonomic comfort, and hands-free control. Ocutrx is redefining the way surgeons see and perform with next-generation digital optical loupes."
State Department shutters Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office
Serious stuff! Will there any be any substitute? Could this be a mistake by President Trump?
How massive are foreign influence and disinformation campaigns by Russia and China in Western countries? I am afraid, the public is left in the dark! E.g. how much money are Russia and China donating to divisive political activism in Western countries? I bet a lot!
"A small office in the State Department tasked with monitoring foreign disinformation threats was shuttered Wednesday by the Trump administration, the latest in a series of steps the White House has taken since January to dismantle entities that monitor foreign influence and information campaigns, or respond to them. As that effort continues, experts say, the United States and audiences around the world could be left virtually defenseless against increasing Chinese and Russian efforts to turn global populations against the United States.
But that’s not how the administration sees it. “Over the last decade, Americans have been slandered, fired, charged, and even jailed for simply voicing their opinions. ... the closure of the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference hub, known as R/Fimi.
R/Fimi was a remnant of the Global Engagement Center, which was created in 2016 by the Obama administration to counter Russian disinformation efforts. Rubio said the GEC “actively silenced and censored the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” ...
The closure is only the latest move in a pattern that has been building for months. In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the dissolution of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force—the unit dedicated to investigating foreign disinformation and influence campaigns (including election interference) ..."
There’s no more DEI at the US Department of Defense, watchdog GAO finds
Good news! DEI must die! A skin color racism ideology like DEI has no place in the US military!
"The Pentagon has officially eliminated all diversity, equity, and inclusion jobs, to comply with White House executive orders, according to a watchdog report. But Congress had already done the heavy lifting last year.
The Defense Department went from 115 to just 41 DEI jobs by July 2024 per a provision in the 2024 annual defense policy law, according to a Government Accountability Office in a report released Thursday.
The Defense Department “reduced its civilian workforce” after implementing section 1101 of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which put a cap on civilian personnel pay grades assigned for diversity, equity, and inclusion roles to that of a GS-10 or about $73,484 annual salary. The law also directed civilians in DEI roles—defined as having primary duties for developing and implementing DEI policy, objectives, education and training—be reassigned.
The remaining 41 jobs were not subject to the NDAA provision because “their pay rate was less than a General Schedule (GS)-10, they were military positions, or DOD determined that DEI was not the primary reason the position existed,” the report says.
Of those 41 DEI positions—which have now been eliminated or restructured—25 were held by military personnel, while 16 were held by civilians, the GAO wrote. The Air Force and Space Force had the most, with 19 jobs, followed by the Army, which had seven civilian-filled and five military positions. ..."
There’s no more DEI at DOD, watchdog finds - Defense One "But most of the roles were eliminated last year by an act of Congress."
Thursday, April 17, 2025
Wrestlen mit Gott: Kampfring in Kirche landet Volltreffer - Nackte Haut und Gewaltspiele
Die Wege des Gottes sind unergründlich!
US Senator Van Hollen (D-Md) meets deported alleged gang member and domestic abuser in El Salvador. Really!
What a fool of a US Senator! Hopefully, the many voters will never vote for him again!
Trump Trade War: China Courts India After US Tariffs with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! India will try to prevent rerouting of Chinese products to the US and more. Will the Dragon and Elephant tango together?
CNN: This woman dated only far-right men for a year: ‘They were so insecure’. Really!
Typical demagoguery by CNN! This a very old leftist trope/narrative that right wing men are insecure and want women to be submissive etc. It probably dates back at least to the 1960s.
Scientists Find "Strongest Evidence Yet" of Life on Distant Planet with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! Good news! We are not alone!
‘Bridge Man’ Returns: Chinese Dissidents Unfurl Pro-Democracy Banners in Chengdu
When will the Chinese people finally shake off their Communist Party dictatorship! The world would be a much better place!
Chinese people need more courage! Tiananmen Square 1989
Who was the last conservative to win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination?
According to the Coolidge Foundation it was John W. Davis (1873-1955), who ran and lost against Calvin Coolidge in 1924!
In the 21st century this party has become the Dimocratic Party. Very bad for a two party only democracy like the US.
Taiwan-based JelloX Biotech to open US research base in Phoenix for 3D pathology services
Good news!
The Phoenix metro area is becoming a little Taiwan for Taiwanese businesses like TSMC.
"A company based in Taiwan that creates 3D pathology services and platforms to help cancer researchers is setting up a new lab in Phoenix.
JelloX Biotech Inc. will open its facility inside a biotechnology corridor called the Discovery Oasis across from the Mayo Clinic at 5777 E. Mayo Blvd.
The company’s research base in Phoenix will be 1,100 square feet.
What’s unique about JelloX research base in Phoenix?
It will house some of the company’s most advanced equipment, which allow for AI analysis and 3D imaging, according to Dr. Yen-Yin Lin, the CEO of JelloX. ..."
JelloX Biotech Establishes US Research Base (original news release)
Who Is deported illegal immigrant Abrego Garcia? What Court Filing and Police Report Reveal
This is the criminal monster gang member the left/Dimocratic Party is obsessed with including a U.S. Senator (D-MD)! It is disgusting!
Reminds very much of the lifetime criminal and drug addict George Floyd. Same pattern over and over again! Criminals are turned into heroes of some sort!
"On May 5, 2021, Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed domestic violence allegations against her husband, claiming, “I am afraid to be close to him.”
“I was watching on my laptop and he yelled to turn it off,” Vasquez Sura recounted in a handwritten statement for the Prince George’s County District Court of Maryland. “I told him I wasn’t sleepy,” she went on. “He got angry, reached over, shut, and threw my laptop on the floor, and the baby started to cry because he was putting pressure on him. My immediate reaction was to push him off of us, and he then punched, scratched me on my left eye, leaving one bleeding.”
At the time, Abrego Garcia’s wife claimed to have “multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he has left me.” ...
Citing a report from the Prince George’s County Police Gang Unit, the 2019 DHS form states that “Abrego Garcia was validated as a member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) Gang.” ..."
Pentagon to end $5.1 billion in information technology services contracts with Accenture, Deloitte, others
Good news! I also have my doubts how many of these services by any of the big consulting firms are really needed for the U.S. military.
"U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the termination of several information technology services contracts valued at $5.1 billion, including companies such as Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton and Deloitte, according to a Pentagon memo.
The contracts "represent non-essential spending on third party consultants" for services Pentagon employees can perform, Hegseth said in the memo released late on Thursday. ..."
Taiwan: the sponge that soaks up Chinese power
That has been one familiar way to look at the China/Taiwan situation for several decades! The Communist Party of China may hold similar views.
However, this view is too narrow!
"Taiwan has an inadvertent, rarely acknowledged [???] role in global affairs: it’s a kind of sponge, soaking up much of China’s political, military and diplomatic efforts. Taiwan absorbs Chinese power of persuasion and coercion that won’t be directed elsewhere while the island remains free. ..."
Strengthening Australia’s space cooperation with South Korea
Good news!
"The time is ripe for Australia and South Korea to strengthen cooperation in space, through embarking on joint projects and initiatives that offer practical outcomes for both countries. ..."
China targets Canada's election—and may be targeting Australia's
How about other Western countries? How severe is the overtly and covertly interference?
How naive are Western countries when it comes to election interference by China?
"Following Canadian authorities’ discovery of a Chinese information operation targeting their country’s election, Australians, too, should beware such risks.
In fact, there are already signs that Beijing is interfering in campaigning for the Australian election to be held on 3 May.
In Canada, China evidently prefers the Liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney to the Conservative opposition.
In Australia, we are seeing messaging against Opposition Leader Peter Dutton—suggesting that Beijing wants the Labor government of Anthony Albanese to be re-elected.
The Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Electoral Commission are cooperating to guard against China’s now well established habit of trying to shape foreign elections. ...
For Australian voters, especially those consuming media in languages other than English, the information environment is crowded and contested. Overtly, there are foreign official state channels (communications by foreign governments) and state-controlled outlets (those funded and editorially controlled by foreign states).
Covertly, there are attributed and non-attributed channels. Attributed channels operate under foreign state oversight without publicly disclosing affiliation. Non-attributed channels aren’t directly linked to foreign states, but are nonetheless aligned. The interwoven and reinforcing nature of these channels is part of the cause for concern, particularly as they operate outside regulatory or journalistic oversight. ..."
Indicative sample of state-affiliated entities, it is not an exhaustive list. Source: 3rd EEAS Report on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Threats Report, March 2025.
Training LLMs to self-detoxify their language. Really!
Call me a skeptic of those kind of efforts!
Who gets to define what is harmful or toxic?
From the abstract:
"Reducing the likelihood of generating harmful and toxic output is an essential task when aligning large language models (LLMs). Existing methods mainly rely on training an external reward model (i.e., another language model) or fine-tuning the LLM using self-generated data to influence the outcome.
In this paper, we show that LLMs have the capability of self-detoxification without the use of an additional reward model or re-training.
We propose Self-disciplined Autoregressive Sampling (SASA), a lightweight controlled decoding algorithm for toxicity reduction of LLMs. SASA leverages the contextual representations from an LLM to learn linear subspaces characterizing toxic v.s. non-toxic output in analytical forms. When auto-completing a response token-by-token, SASA dynamically tracks the margin of the current output to steer the generation away from the toxic subspace, by adjusting the autoregressive sampling strategy.
Evaluated on LLMs of different scale and nature, namely Llama-3.1-Instruct (8B), Llama-2 (7B), and GPT2-L models with the RealToxicityPrompts, BOLD, and AttaQ benchmarks, SASA markedly enhances the quality of the generated sentences relative to the original models and attains comparable performance to state-of-the-art detoxification techniques, significantly reducing the toxicity level by only using the LLM's internal representations."
Large Language Models can be Strong Self-Detoxifiers (preprint, open access)
Image of the day
Do these The String Queens play any rap or hip hop music? Just kidding! 😊
Credits: MIM Music Theater newsletter
James Boasberg, chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Is this district court judge a stooge of the Dimocratic Party? Maybe we will learn more about it.
Or is he addicted to publicity and fame?
Is he exceeding his authority as a district court judge?
He was also a FISA court judge during the 46th Presidency when FISA abuses were rampant.
"... President Barack Obama nominated him to a Federal judgeship on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ..."
Russia needs a second revolution in the name of democracy and freedom
The first one in 1918 was not sufficient! It resulted in a long lasting socialist dictatorship!
Perestroika and Glasnost in the 1980s with Mikhail Gorbachev was more Western wishful thinking than anything else! The collapse of the Soviet Union was not enough!
How will Russia get rid of the megalomaniac and war criminal Putin the Terrible? It is long overdue! Putin the Terrible is the successor to Stalin! Get rid of the last tsar once and for all!
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang travels to China
Concerning!
"Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang doesn’t seem ready to take the hits from Trump’s new chip export rules. The Financial Times reports that Huang visited Beijing on Thursday to meet with DeepSeek and Chinese vice-premier He Lifeng to discuss continued cooperation."
Brain implant cleared by FDA for Musk Neuralink rival Precision Neuroscience
Good news! Competition is good, more competition is better!
"Key Points
- Precision Neuroscience announced that a core component of its brain implant system has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
- The company is building a brain-computer interface that will eventually help paralyzed patients restore functions such as speech and movement.
- Other prominent startups in the space include Elon Musk’s Neuralink, and Synchron, which is backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
..."
Running Visual Studio Code now with three, different AI code assistants side-by-side
They are Microsoft Copilot (very stingy limited completion budget), Google Gemini Code Assist, and now also Windsurf AI coding assistant.
Reportedly, Windsurf is going to be acquired by OpenAI.
Let's see how this works out!
Windsurf seems to be very good at:
- Generating doc strings
Will my sanity suffer from so much assistance? Just kidding! 😊
The Royal Society of Chemistry is tainted by DEI/racism ideology too!
Or why does the RSC spell black American with a capital B? Appalling!
"The analytical chemist on growing up Black in Alabama in the 1950s and 1960s and his journey through NIST, academia and the AAAS presidency ..."
In situ with Willie May "The analytical chemist on growing up Black in Alabama in the 1950s and 1960s and his journey through NIST, academia and the AAAS presidency"
About 400 of Hezbollah field Commanders Reportedly Ordered to Evacuate Lebanon and to deploy to four South American countries
Good news, if confirmed!
"In a striking sign of shifting power dynamics in Lebanon, approximately 400 Hezbollah field commanders have reportedly been ordered to leave the country and redeploy to South America. According to a Latin American diplomatic source cited by Al Hadath, at least 200 of these operatives have already arrived in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, with the rest expected to follow soon. ...
The source indicated that Hezbollah issued the order out of concern that their senior operatives would become high-priority targets once disarmament efforts intensify.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun announced that 2025 would mark a national shift toward a state monopoly on weapons, emphasizing that Hezbollah’s disarmament must be achieved peacefully and without triggering a civil war. Aoun said that the Lebanese army has begun sealing cross-border tunnels and destroying hidden weapons caches tangible signs that the state is taking concrete steps toward reclaiming full sovereignty."
France, Britain Mount Beefy Air Surveillance Op Over Black Sea, Making Close Approach to Crimea
How will the megalomaniac and war criminal Putin the Terrible take this and other, similar provocations by NATO (e.g. over the Baltic Sea)?
The Russo-Ukrainian War is World War III by any other name. Will it escalate further?
Third Top Pentagon Staffer Suspended in Expanding Leak Probe regarding a proposed top secret briefing of Elon Musk on China
There is a bit of turmoil already going on at the Pentagon! Concerning!
"... that Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to the deputy defense secretary, was suspended.
Carroll is the third top political appointee to be suspended from his job in connection with a leak probe -- apparently into a news story about a proposed top secret China briefing to Elon Musk -- that also ensnared Dan Caldwell, a top adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Darin Selnick, Hegseth's deputy chief of staff. ..."
Report: Trump scuttled Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities
I suppose good news! Once more the powder keg known as the Middle East!
As if Israel Defense Forces were not already busy with Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt.
"As Donald Trump took office in January, many who have kept a close eye on Israel’s efforts to blunt Iran’s nuclear ambitions believed the timing was ripe for a decisive strike.
Iran had been deeply weakened by Israel’s direct attacks and wars with its proxies, and Trump was seen as open to being convinced to provide the crucial U.S. support that would be needed to pull off an attack on Iran’s fortified nuclear sites. ...
Instead, [Trump] is favoring diplomacy for now, opening nuclear talks with Iran last week but vowing that the cost could be high if they fail. ..."
A restored, painted shield once wielded by Roman soldiers in Syria
Amazing stuff!
"This Roman scutum, the only known surviving example of the shields used by Roman legionaries, was found in Syria at Dura-Europos, once a Roman garrison, and dates to around 256 C.E. (Soon after that date, the city was abandoned and left to be covered by sand and mud, which helped preserve the artifacts left behind.) The shield’s painted surface depicts the Roman iconography of victory: an eagle with a laurel wreath, winged Victories, and a lion."
Yale University: The science of climate adaptation “[Humans] are not good at preparing for the unprecedented”. Really!
Another example of an elite university trying to fool the public with climate change demagoguery! What a nonsense!
What a nutty and ideologically corrupt professor! According to Google Scholar this professor is fairly highly cited with over 62,000 lifetime citations.
Humans survived the Little Antique Ice Age (about 536-660 CE), Medieval Warm Period (about 950-1250 CE) and the Little Ice Age (about 1300-1850 CE) Humans will do just fine! Humans would even do much better without all this grotesque alarmism, scaremongering, and pseudoscience of climate change!
"The evolving science of climate adaptation. “We are not good at preparing for the unprecedented,” says Yale environmental scientist Katharine Mach"
Of course, Yale U also repeats this lie:
"Between July 2023 and June 2024 temperatures were the highest on record and surpassed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for the full year."
No wonder the IPCC is so tainted:
"Mach served as director of science for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II Technical Support Unit in 2015 ..."
"It is now unambiguously the case that the most important adaptation is reducing emissions of greenhouse gases at the same time that we need to increase preparedness. We are pretty good at increasing preparedness for things we have already experienced. We are not good at preparing for the unprecedented.” Katharine Mach
From Observation to Implementation: The Evolving Science of Climate Adaptation "Coleman P. Burke Distinguished Visiting Professor Katharine Mach is leading interdisciplinary research efforts to translate climate data and knowledge into tangible action and policy."
Pretty, but nutty professor. Maybe a DEI first?
Infection control: How a bacterial pathogen survives a hostile intracellular environment
Amazing stuff! This could be a breakthrough! Towards better antibiotics! The article below is very well written!
This article also emphasizes the critical difference between studying bacteria isolated in a laboratory (in vitro) versus in the natural environment (in vivo).
"For years scientists have puzzled over why the intracellular pathogen Salmonella is able to survive — and thrive — in human and animal tissues, even within otherwise hostile cells that are part of the body’s immune system, such as white blood cells known as macrophages. ...
study reveals the molecular basis for the metabolic adaptations this pathogen undergoes that promotes its survival. ...
a team of ... researchers identify the process — including the role of a key signaling molecule that helps regulate carbon uptake in these organisms — that underlies the physiological changes governing Salmonella’s carbon source preference during infection.
Their findings also show that the behavioral changes commonly observed in Salmonella in laboratory settings don’t necessarily reflect how they behave in the natural environment ...
They also offer new insights into the role of metabolism in antibiotic tolerance, the researchers say.
“We know that Salmonella exhibits an increased tolerance to antibiotics when it is inside of macrophages,” ...
“These findings support a growing body of literature that implicates metabolism as a major foundation for antibiotic tolerance in bacteria,” ...
Bacteria, like all living organisms, rely on some form of carbon for most cellular processes — and their preferred or available diet plays a key role in their metabolism and physiology. Decades of research has shown that most microorganisms prefer glucose, a simple sugar, over other carbon sources.
The same is true for Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, a common form of Salmonella — at least when it is grown in laboratory media. But when found inside macrophages, ... Salmonella’s so-called “carbon preference” becomes upended, showing instead a preference for alternative sources of carbon, such as gluconate and glycerol. This difference, researchers say, is likely the result of the host cell “starving” the pathogen of magnesium, an essential cofactor in hundreds of chemical reactions that fuel multiple cellular functions.
When a mammalian cell detects a pathogen, it responds by withholding magnesium. This forces the pathogen to carefully regulate the amount of magnesium it uses so that the cell doesn’t get the upper hand and eventually eliminate it. In Salmonella, the reduced concentration of magnesium induces changes in metabolism and other important physiological adjustments — including slower growth and increased tolerance to antibiotics.
Importantly, the researchers say, this infection-related stress changes pathogen metabolism by decreasing the amounts of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), an essential activator of the master regulator of carbon utilization known as CRP (the cAMP receptor protein). This, in turn, decreases expression of carbon utilization genes, hindering carbon source uptake, and altering metabolism. ...
The findings may also offer new understanding of the dynamics of microbial metabolism beyond intracellular pathogenesis, such as in the gut microbiome, ... or even the role of metabolism in the growth of cancer cells.
“We may find that these findings have a much broader relevance outside of just Salmonella pathogenesis, given the fact that metabolism is so highly conserved across all domains of life and that magnesium is essential to all organisms,” ..."
From the significance and abstract:
"Significance
Carbon source preference is critical for bacterial metabolism and physiology. Most microorganisms utilize glucose over other carbon sources when grown in laboratory media with plentiful Mg2+.
However, pathogens such as Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium experience cytoplasmic Mg2+ starvation during infection of mammalian cells, resulting in alternative carbon sources being preferred over glucose. This altered preference results from cytoplasmic Mg2+ starvation decreasing the amount of the master regulator of carbon utilization, the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) receptor protein (CRP) bound to its allosteric activator cAMP, and from the differential sensitivity of carbohydrate utilization genes to a decrease in CRP-cAMP amounts. Our findings explain why behaviors displayed by bacteria in their natural environments do not correspond to those reported for laboratory media.
Abstract
Glucose is the preferred carbon source of most studied microorganisms. However, we now report that glucose loses preferred status when the intracellular pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium experiences cytoplasmic magnesium (Mg2+) starvation.
We establish that this infection-relevant stress drastically reduces synthesis of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), the allosteric activator of the cAMP receptor protein (CRP), master regulator of carbon utilization.
The resulting reduction in cAMP concentration, which is independent of carbon source, decreases transcription of CRP-cAMP-activated carbon utilization genes, hinders carbon source uptake, and restricts metabolism, rendering wild-type bacteria phenotypically CRP−. A cAMP-independent allele of CRP overcame the transcriptional, uptake, and metabolic restrictions caused by cytoplasmic Mg2+ starvation and significantly increased transcription of the glucose uptake gene when S. Typhimurium was inside murine macrophages.
The reduced preference for glucose exhibited by S. Typhimurium inside macrophages reflects that transcription of the glucose uptake gene requires higher amounts of active CRP-cAMP than transcription of uptake genes for preferred carbon sources, such as gluconate and glycerol. By reducing CRP-cAMP activity, low cytoplasmic Mg2+ alters carbon source preference, adjusting metabolism and growth."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)