Huawei poaches top German scientist, as scholars blame academic system

How times are changing!

"Huawei Technologies has poached a prominent German scientist from a leading public institution [Fraunhofer Gesellschaft], highlighting the difficulty that the country faces in keeping staff from joining well-resourced and fast-moving Chinese tech giants."

Huawei poaches top German scientist, as scholars blame academic system - Nikkei Asia "Lawmakers call for tighter rules over fears of Chinese tech know-how theft, sabotage"

Taiwan’s Kuomintang leader to visit mainland China to aid ‘peaceful’ relations

Good news? This seems to be a little bit unusual?

"Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT), will lead a delegation to mainland China next month at the invitation of Beijing, her first visit since assuming the position in November."

Breaking | Taiwan’s Kuomintang leader to visit mainland China to aid ‘peaceful’ relations: Beijing | South China Morning Post "Cheng Li-wun invited to visit Jiangsu province, Shanghai and Beijing next month"

Phoebe Zhangin Shenzhen, Published: 10:47am, 30 Mar 2026

Novel measurement confirms a 50-year-old prediction: Dark points are faster than light

Amazing stuff!

"A research group from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology reports in Nature an unprecedented achievement in electron microscopy: the direct measurement of "dark points" within light waves. By doing so, the researchers were able to confirm a prediction from the 1970s that the speed of these points exceeds the speed of light. ..."

From the abstract:

"Phase singularities—points carrying quantized topological charge—are universal features found across diverse wave systems from superfluids and superconductors to acoustic and optical fields. Ensembles of these singularities exhibit distance correlations resembling particles in liquids, extensively studied for their role in exotic material phases. By contrast, the full correlations in phase space that govern the system evolution have remained unexplored and experimentally inaccessible.

Here we directly measure the ultrafast dynamics of optical singularity ensembles, capturing their full phase-space correlations, presenting the joint distance–velocity distribution.

Our observations show a breakdown of the particle-singularity analogy: phase singularities accelerate towards formally divergent velocities in the moment before annihilation, indicated by measurements of velocities exceeding the speed of light.

These apparent superluminal velocities are paradoxically amplified by the slow group velocity of hyperbolic phonon polaritons in our material platform, hexagonal boron nitride membranes. We demonstrate these phenomena using combined hardware and algorithmic advances in ultrafast electron microscopy, achieving spatial and temporal resolutions, each an order of magnitude below the polaritonic wavelength and cycle period. Our findings deepen our understanding of phase singularities and their universality, enabling to probe topological defect dynamics at previously unattainable timescales."

Novel measurement confirms a 50-year-old prediction: Dark points are faster than light

Superluminal correlations in ensembles of optical phase singularities (no public access)

Earth's 40,000-year tilt cycle links Antarctic ice growth to subtropical productivity

Much of the so called global warming/climate change is most likely caused by variations in solar activity or various regular, recurrent movements of the earth axis. I have blogged about this multiple times.

"... The study ... found that the obliquity cycle—a 40,000-year astronomical cycle tied to changes in Earth's axial tilt—influenced ocean productivity in subtropical latitudes about 34 million years ago, when the Antarctic ice sheet was first expanding. ..."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

The impact of Antarctic cryosphere dynamics on global marine ecosystems, under the anticipated elevated atmospheric pCO2-levels of our future, is a question of broad societal importance. Newly acquired geologic data from the subtropical South Atlantic provide the first evidence of a highly synchronized 40-kyr-scale teleconnection between Antarctic ice sheet evolution, physical oceanography, and subtropical marine bioproductivity following the Eocene–Oligocene Transition, under pCO2-levels that exceed that of today. This work underscores the sensitivity of the marine-based ice sheets of Antarctica to oceanic heat delivery—with linkages to meridional temperature gradients and pCO2—yielding important implications for marine bioproductivity in our future warming world.

Abstract

The inception of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) marked a major global climatic reorganization of the Cenozoic, but the response of the subtropical marine biosphere remains poorly constrained.

A new sediment archive from the subtropical South Atlantic (IODP Exp. 390 and 393) reveals a sevenfold increase in surface ocean bioproductivity proxy accumulation (biogenic barium) commensurate with the initial expansion of the AIS 34 Mya, and the emergence of an amplified astronomical forcing of subtropical bioproductivity that mirrors the subsequent evolution of the AIS in the early Oligocene.

We find that a strong 40-kyr obliquity response characterizes subtropical bioproductivity following the initial establishment of an expansive marine-based AIS. Portions of the AIS in contact with the marine environment are sensitive to meridional heat delivery controlled by obliquity-forced interactions between the atmosphere and ocean, which can propagate to the lower latitudes via Southern Ocean overturning circulation.

The surprising emergence of obliquity forcing of low-latitude bioproductivity enhances our understanding of global teleconnections and feedbacks that regulate global climate, and points to mechanisms driving global marine bioproductivity on astronomical timescales—and their intricate connections to the evolution of the cryosphere."

Earth's 40,000-year tilt cycle links Antarctic ice growth to subtropical productivity

High-latitude teleconnections drive subtropical marine bioproductivity at the dawn of the Antarctic ice sheet (no public access)

Autonomous language-model-powered agents went rogue

Bad news!

"Artificial intelligence “agents,” a kind of algorithm that can autonomously plan and carry out tasks such as managing emails and entering calendar appointments, have been attracting a lot of buzz. ... [a team] wondered how trustworthy they are ...  organized a series of stress tests. Their answer: too often, not very much.

Scientists probed the AIs for security and privacy vulnerabilities; in 11 case studies the agents went rogue, sharing private files—containing medical details and Social Security and bank account numbers—without permission. One agent publicly posted a potentially libelous allegation about a fictitious person, Shapira and her team reported in a preprint they titled “Agents of Chaos.” ..."

From the abstract:

"We report an exploratory red-teaming study of autonomous language-model-powered agents deployed in a live laboratory environment with persistent memory, email accounts, Discord access, file systems, and shell execution. Over a two-week period, twenty AI researchers interacted with the agents under benign and adversarial conditions. Focusing on failures emerging from the integration of language models with autonomy, tool use, and multi-party communication, we document eleven representative case studies.

Observed behaviors include unauthorized compliance with non-owners, disclosure of sensitive information, execution of destructive system-level actions, denial-of-service conditions, uncontrolled resource consumption, identity spoofing vulnerabilities, cross-agent propagation of unsafe practices, and partial system takeover.

In several cases, agents reported task completion while the underlying system state contradicted those reports.

We also report on some of the failed attempts.

Our findings establish the existence of security-, privacy-, and governance-relevant vulnerabilities in realistic deployment settings. These behaviors raise unresolved questions regarding accountability, delegated authority, and responsibility for downstream harms, and warrant urgent attention from legal scholars, policymakers, and researchers across disciplines. This report serves as an initial empirical contribution to that broader conversation."

ScienceAdviser

Agents of Chaos (open access)

Independent measurement strengthens the case for toponium

Amazing stuff!

"An independent measurement by the CMS experiment at the LHC confirms the existence of toponium, a bound state of a top quark and its antiquark, with a statistical significance exceeding five standard deviations. This finding establishes toponium as the most massive composite particle observed and enhances understanding of the strong nuclear force."

"... The first hints of toponium appeared in searches for heavy Higgs-boson-like particles that could decay into a top quark–antiquark pair. An unexpected excess of collision events was observed at a mass close to twice the mass of the top quark, which is more characteristic of a bound state rather than a new fundamental particle. Detailed studies by the CMS and ATLAS experiments confirmed this excess using events in which both top quarks decay into leptons (electrons or muons).

The new CMS study approaches the problem from a different angle, examining events in which one top quark decays into a bottom quark, a charged lepton and a neutrino while the other decays into quarks that produce sprays, or "jets," of particles. ...

These new techniques proved highly effective. They resulted in the observation of an excess with a statistical significance of more than five standard deviations ... The result provides a new, statistically independent confirmation of toponium production.

"Toponium is heavier than the heaviest known atomic nucleus, oganesson, making it the most massive bound state ever observed," ..."

From the abstract:

"A search is presented for top quark-antiquark (t¯t) bound states near the t¯t

 production threshold, in final states with a single electron or muon and jets. The study uses proton-proton collision data at √s= 13 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb

−1. The analysis examines the relative velocity between the top quark and antiquark, along with two angular observables sensitive to the parity and spin of the t¯t system. A significant excess of events is observed relative to the standard model prediction for t¯t production calculated at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. The excess corresponds to an observed cross section of 5.1 ± 0.9pb and is consistent with a simplified model of a color-singlet pseudoscalar toponium motivated by nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics. The result provides an independent confirmation of the excess reported in the dilepton channel."

Independent measurement strengthens the case for toponium

Observation of a pseudoscalar excess at the top quark pair production threshold in the single lepton channel (open access)

Rheinmetall-Chef spottet über ukrainische Drohnen

Ich glaube nicht, das Putin der Schreckliche ueber diese Dronen spottet!

Was für eine chauvinistische Bemerkung!

"Rheinmetall-Chef spottet über ukrainische Drohnen

Von Hausfrauen mit 3-D-Druckern gemacht: Der Rheinmetall-Chef sieht in ukrainischen Drohnen kein besonderes Innovationspotential. Das sorgt für deutliche Kritik aus der eigenen Branche und aus der Ukraine." (Source)

Armin Pfaffberger. Vielleicht ist der Kragen am Pullover zu eng?

Female Teacher, 28, who engaged in sexual activity with 15-year-old boy in her car — victim's aunt caught them

Another Me Too event!

"A former Ohio high school teacher who was caught sexually abusing a 15-year-old student in a car has pleaded guilty to child sex crimes. The teacher avoided a harsher sentencing with a plea deal. ..."

Teacher, 28, who engaged in sexual activity with 15-year-old boy in her car — victim's aunt caught them — cuts plea deal | Blaze Media

The Venezuelan first lady’s other job: tending a family crime dynasty and crime business

Another Me Too!

"The Venezuelan first lady’s other job: tending a family crime dynasty.

 

When DEA agents flew Nicolás Maduro to New York to face narcoterrorism charges, beside him was his wife, Cilia Flores. Pursued for years by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Flores was an alleged crime lord in her own right.

A federal indictment unsealed the day U.S. commandos pulled Flores and Maduro from Caracas accused her of conspiring with Venezuelan officials to smuggle cocaine into the U.S., accepting bribes to allow drug-trafficking flights and ordering murders.

According to court records and former associates, she rewarded a web of relatives with drug routes, state contracts and impunity. In a January appearance in federal court, Flores pleaded not guilty and said she was “completely innocent.”"

Wall Street Journal What's news

Cilia Flores

Rwanda and Zipline agreed to build the world’s first nationwide on-demand drone delivery network for healthcare

 Good news!

"The Rwandan government has agreed to expand its partnership with Zipline to build the world’s first nationwide drone delivery network for healthcare. The system will extend beyond rural areas into cities like Kigali, enabling on-demand delivery of blood, vaccines, and medicines across the entire country." (Source)

A pill for sleeping sickness that can cure the disease with a single dose has been approved by EU regulators

 Good news!

"A pill for sleeping sickness that can cure the disease with a single dose has been approved by EU regulators and could be deployed in endemic countries as soon as next year. It’s far easier to administer than the current standard 10-day regimen and could make it much easier to treat patients in remote areas." (Source)

The economy of Paraguay

Good news!

"Paraguay’s economy has grown by an average of 4 percent annually for two decades—a record of stability that helped earn it investment-grade credit ratings and is now drawing in foreign investors." (Source)

Celebrated female cop accused of 'grooming,' raping teen boy for years

Another Me Too event!

"A female cop in Massachusetts and her husband are facing serious allegations that they raped a boy for years, beginning when he was 14.

Around 6 a.m. on Thursday, Samantha Pelrine, a 31-year-old officer with the Plymouth Police Department, and husband Daniel Forand, 37, were arrested without incident in connection with the allegations. ..."

Celebrated female cop accused of 'grooming,' raping teen boy | Blaze Media 

Self-cleaning fabric could eliminate the need for detergent

Call me skeptical! This goal has been researched for several decades now. More success this time?

To use a spray, as in this case, makes you already wonder.

And these researchers worry about "microplastic-laden wastewater"! These researchers are beholden to the superstition of our time!

"... In a study published in Communications Chemistry, researchers introduced a versatile self-cleaning fabric coating that could eliminate the need for detergents in everyday laundry. By alternately spraying the fabrics with two polymers—poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) and poly(vinylsulfonic acid) (PVS)—they created a dense hydration layer that allows dirt and microbes to be washed away using only water. ..."

From the abstract:

"Laundry is an everyday necessity in modern life, yet its role in converting vast amounts of clean household water to wastewater remains underappreciated primarily due to the excessive reliance on detergents to achieve effective cleanliness and hygiene. To tackle this enduring issue particularly amid mounting global concerns over water scarcity, here a self-cleaning polyelectrolyte multilayer coating was developed by alternately spraying poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) and poly(vinylsulfonic acid) (PVS) onto various fabrics-including both hydrophobic synthetic fibers and hydrophilic cotton textiles-forming an ultra-high dense sulfonate-derived complete hydration layer that enables the effective removal of food stains, oily residues, bacteria, and fungi through simple rinsing with tap water.

This innovation transforms conventional detergent-assisted, multi-step laundry practices – typically requiring 1 washing cycles and 4 rinsing cycles – to a single detergent-free rinsing cycle with enhanced cleanliness and hygiene.

As a result, the overall consumption of water, electricity, and time is reduced by approximately 82%, while the discharge of detergent- and microplastic-laden wastewater is entirely eliminated. This study presents an approach for sustainable textile care that has the potential to advance environmentally responsible and resource-efficient hygiene technologies in everyday life."

Self-cleaning fabric could eliminate the need for detergent

A versatile self-cleaning fabric coating as a detergent-free laundry product (open access)

US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (age 75) is losing it like the senile and demented 46th President

I have been saying this since at least November last year!

When old, elected politicians don't know when it is time to quit! When voters are ignorant about the age of politicians!

It is high time for the Dimocratic Party to look for better leadership!

Howie Carr: Chuck Schumer's losing it like Dementia Joe Biden

U.S. Records Net Negative Migration Across Every Metro Area With illegal border crossings at their lowest level since the 1970s

Good news! Massive illegal immigration like under the administration of the senile and demented 46. President finally came to an end!

"The United States has achieved a historic turnaround on immigration, with net migration falling across every single metropolitan area in the country last year. ... 

With illegal border crossings at their lowest level since the 1970s, the U.S. recorded net negative migration last year for the first time in at least 50 years — reversing decades of open border failures that undermined American workers, strained public resources, and eroded national sovereignty. ..."

America First in Action: U.S. Records Net Negative Migration Across Every Metro Area – The White House

Disclaimer

I  am currently blogging from behind the Great Firewall of China.

My Internet service in China is very spotty. Thus, I am not able to blog as usual.

Notes on Hyperplasia Functions as a Link Between Obesity and Cancer

Good to know! Cancer is history (soon)! I only became aware of this paper, because one of authors is Allain Yuille, a well known ML & AI researcher, who I am following via Google Scholar.

Another good reason to lose weight when overweight!

From the abstract:

"Obesity is a well-established risk factor for several cancers, yet the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. We hypothesized that as body size increases with obesity, organ size increases to meet metabolic demands, which in turn raises the number of cells at risk of malignant transformation.

Measurement of the liver, pancreas, and kidney volumes in 747 adults across a wide BMI range (17.8 to 70.9 kg/m²) showed a strong positive correlation between BMI and organ size: a 5-unit increase in BMI was significantly associated with volume increases of 12% in the liver, 9% in both kidneys combined, and 7% in the pancreas.

To determine the cellular basis of organ enlargement, kidney cell numbers were quantified using both autopsy samples (34,337 proximal tubular epithelial cells) and biopsy data from 25 individuals. The total number of cells increased substantially, indicating that approximately 61% of kidney enlargement was due to hyperplasia, with the remaining 39% increase attributable to hypertrophy. Moreover, organ volume ratios, relative to volume for normal-weight adults, strongly correlated with cancer risk across the three organs, indicating that a doubling in organ volume corresponded approximately to a doubling in cancer risk. These findings suggest a mechanism linking obesity to cancer: as body size and metabolic demands increase, organs expand primarily through hyperplasia that increases the number of cells susceptible to malignant transformation, complementing known pathways involving inflammation, hormones, and metabolic dysregulation."

Hyperplasia Functions as a Link Between Obesity and Cancer | Cancer Research | American Association for Cancer Research (no public access)

Notes on Efficient Exploration at Scale

This could be an interesting paper by Benjamin Van Roy and the Google team!

Caveat: I have not read this paper yet.

From the abstract:

"We develop an online learning algorithm that dramatically improves the data efficiency of reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF). Our algorithm incrementally updates reward and language models as choice data is received.
The reward model is fit to the choice data, while the language model is updated by a variation of reinforce, with reinforcement signals provided by the reward model. Several features enable the efficiency gains: a small affirmative nudge added to each reinforcement signal, an epistemic neural network that models reward uncertainty, and information-directed exploration.

With Gemma large language models (LLMs), our algorithm matches the performance of offline RLHF trained on 200K labels using fewer than 20K labels, representing more than a 10x gain in data efficiency. Extrapolating from our results, we expect our algorithm trained on 1M labels to match offline RLHF trained on 1B labels. This represents a 1,000x gain. To our knowledge, these are the first results to demonstrate that such large improvements are possible."

[2603.17378] Efficient Exploration at Scale

Die USA verzetteln sich im Iran: Greift China jetzt nach Taiwan? Wirklich!

Eine interessant klingende Spekulation, aber wohl nur eine Spekulation!

Je nachdem wie stark und intensiv die Taiwaner ihre Insel verteidigen würde es für China sehr blutig werden!

Peking schweigt zu Iran: Greift China jetzt Taiwan an | FAZ "Wirtschaftlich ist Peking bestens auf die neue Ölkrise vorbereitet und beobachtet den US-Angriff auf seinen Partner Iran auffälllig still. Was bedeutet das für die Sicherheitsarchitektur in Asien?"

First microlasers capable of detecting individual molecules and ions could one day aid diagnosis

Amazing stuff! Notice it is in whispering-gallery mode! 😊

"Scientists have created the first microlasers capable of detecting individual molecules and even single atomic ions, a breakthrough that could significantly advance early disease diagnosis and molecular-scale medical testing.  ... The paper opens up new possibilities for microlaser biosensing technology, including "lab-on-a-chip" technology capable of instant medical testing and diagnosis. ..."

From the abstract:

"Whispering-gallery-mode microlasers have emerged as powerful tools for label-free biosensing, yet their sensitivity has been limited to detecting nanoparticles larger than 10 nm.

Here we demonstrate a plasmon-enhanced whispering-gallery-mode microlaser capable of detecting single atomic ions in solution, achieving unprecedented sensitivity.

By integrating gold nanorods onto ytterbium-doped silica microspheres, we reduce the effective mode volume by approximately 1,000-fold and enhance the local electromagnetic field, amplifying the signal-to-noise ratio. The self-heterodyne detection of beatnote frequency shifts between split lasing modes enables the real-time monitoring of transient and permanent interactions of zinc (Zn2+) and cadmium (Cd2+) ions with nanorod sensing sites.

We report peak sensitivities with beatnote shifts of 3.7 fm for Zn2+ and 7.2 fm for Cd2+, showcasing the potential of plasmon-enhanced whispering-gallery-mode microlasers for single-molecule and atomic-scale sensing applications, including in vivo probing."

First microlasers capable of detecting individual molecules and ions could one day aid diagnosis

Single-atomic-ion detection with plasmon-enhanced whispering-gallery-mode microlasers (open access)

Fig. 1: Experimental setup and microlaser mode splitting.

English for trippers: A quiet quit

Quid pro quo! Silent or noisy quitters, a matter of personality.

Crafting Safe Sounds for Electric Vehicles

Indeed electric vehicles are too quiet in urban areas!

"... To address that risk, regulators in Australia, Europe, the United States, and other regions now require EVs to emit artificial warning sounds at low speeds, forcing some automakers to recall their cars for failing to meet safety standards. What might seem like a simple safety measure has become a complex web of engineering, involving acoustics, signal design, human perception, and regulatory compliance. ...

But designing those signals means navigating strict technical requirements and the messy realities of urban soundscapes. And it’s still not entirely clear how well those warning signals actually work in real-world conditions. ..."

Crafting Safe Sounds for Electric Vehicles - IEEE Spectrum "How automakers work to balance perceptibility and pleasantness [???]" Why pleasantness?

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez Spent $19,000 In Campaign Cash On A Psychiatrist

Bad news, if confirmed! Will this be the end of her political career?

Unfortunately, it appears the Daily Caller news source is blocked in China!

dailycaller.com

Greater precision for in vivo cancer-fighting CAR T cells

Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!

"Greater precision for in vivo CAR T

Researchers have invented a two-vector system that uses CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing to create in vivo cancer-fighting CAR T cells without accidentally targeting other cells. Leukaemia and multiple myeloma were eliminated in the mice treated with these precision in vivo CAR T cells, while more than half of mice with sarcoma went into remission. Biotech company Azalea Therapeutics is testing the approach in monkeys and hopes to trial the treatment in people by the end of next year."

From the abstract:

"Engineered T cells, reprogrammed to express chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) or T cell receptors (TCR), have transformed cancer treatment and are being explored as therapeutics for autoimmune and infectious diseases. Enhancing T cell function through genome editing, either by disrupting endogenous genes or precisely inserting DNA payloads, has shown considerable promise. However, the ex vivo manufacturing process is lengthy and costly, limiting accessibility of these therapies. In vivo generation of CAR T cells could overcome these barriers, but current methods rely either on transient expression with limited durability, or on random integration of DNA payloads that lack specificity.

Here we demonstrate that stable and cell-specific transgene expression can be achieved through in vivo site-specific integration of large DNA payloads. We developed a two-vector system to deliver CRISPR–Cas9 ribonucleoproteins and a DNA donor template, using enveloped delivery vehicles and adeno-associated viruses, respectively. We optimized both vectors for T cell-specific delivery and gene-targeting efficiency.

By integrating a CAR transgene into a T cell-specific locus, we generate therapeutic levels of CAR T cells in vivo in humanized mouse models of B cell aplasia, and haematological and solid malignancies. These findings offer a pathway to more efficient, precise and widely accessible T cell therapies."

Nature briefing cancer

CRISPR makes enhanced cancer-fighting immune cells inside mice "Gene-editing technique promises a potentially safer way to create CAR T cells with a simple injection."

A gene-editing method generates immunotherapeutic CAR T cells in the body "Laboratory-engineered immune cells called CAR T cells provide effective treatment for some cancers. Progress is being made towards creating these cells in vivo." (no public access)

In vivo site-specific engineering to reprogram T cells (open access)

Fig. 1: Co-delivery of Cas9-EDV and HDRT-AAV generates TRAC-CAR T cells in vitro and in vivo.

Previous efforts to create in vivo CAR T cells have involved viral vectors (that sometimes accidentally edit ‘bystander’ cells using retroviral transduction) or lipid nanoparticles (which deliver mRNA to T cells, creating transient expression of the CAR protein). To specifically target and permanently edit T cells, the team used two vectors: a CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system inside ‘enveloped delivery vehicles’, and viruses that transported the DNA coding for the CAR protein.

Ukraine’s Drone Campaign Knocks Out Up to 40% of Russia’s Oil Exports

Good news! Why not 80% or more?

When will the lethargic and apathetic Russian people finally get rid of warmonger and war criminal Putin the Terrible!

"Up to 40 percent of the oil export capacity of Russia has been taken offline following Ukrainian drone strikes, a disputed attack on a major pipeline, and seizures of tankers, according to Reuters calculations based on market data.

The disruption – estimated at around 2 million barrels per day – marks what analysts describe as the most severe hit to Russia’s oil supply chain in modern history. ..."

Ukraine’s Drone Campaign Knocks Out Up to 40% of Russia’s Oil Exports "Oil exports are one of the main sources of revenue for Russia’s state budget and a key part of funding its war in Ukraine."

Putin Reportedly Demands Oligarchs Fund War in Ukraine, Kerimov Pledges 100 Billion Rubles

Will the oligarchs stop Putin the Terrible? Hope and pray they have the courage!

Putin Reportedly Demands Oligarchs Fund War in Ukraine, Kerimov Pledges 100 Billion Rubles "At a closed-door meeting, Putin is said to have urged Russian oligarchs to bankroll his war in Ukraine – with at least two of them agreeing to his "proposal.”"

Putin the Terrible

Ukraine and Saudi Arabia concluded a defense cooperation agreement

Good and unusual news!

"Ukraine and Saudi Arabia concluded a defense cooperation agreement on March 27. The Ukrainian Presidential Office reported that Ukraine will help Saudi Arabia with air defenses under the agreement, which also outlines the foundations for further contacts and includes technological cooperation and investments.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the agreement ahead of further talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman al Saud. Zelensky stated that such cooperation can be mutually beneficial as Saudi Arabia has "something that Ukraine is interested in." Zelensky and al Saud discussed possible energy cooperation.

Zelensky also met with Ukrainian military experts who have been supporting air defense operations in Saudi Arabia for over a week (since at least March 20) and discussed additional measures to support Saudi Arabia's air defense operations. ISW continues to assess that Ukraine can offer the United States and US allies in the Middle East unique insights into how to counter Iranian strikes, as the Ukrainian military has institutionalized and operationalized the fighting experience that Ukraine has learned throughout the past four years of war."

Iran Update, March 27, 2026 | Critical Threats

Klingbeils Weg in die Staatswirtschaft über den staatlichen Wohnungsbau

Ich habe auf meinem Blog schon zig mal gesagt, die Mauer fiel und der Sozialismus breitete sich in ganz Deutschland aus! Hier ist ein weiteres Beispiel!

Klingbeils Weg in die Staatswirtschaft über den staatlichen Wohnungsbau "Die neueste Idee aus dem sozialistischen Baukasten von Finanzminister Klingbeil ist die Wohnraumbewirtschaftung. Dazu möchte er eine staatliche Wohnungsbaugesellschaft gründen. Bezahlen sollen das diejenigen, die ohnehin schon alles bezahlen. Bei der Vergabe werden sie allerdings die letzten sein, wenn sie denn überhaupt eine Wohnung bekommen."

Hat der Mann keine besseren Ideen! Wie wärs mit mehr freier Marktwirtschaft! Finanzminister Lars Klingbeil (SPD)

Jury Says Bill Cosby (age 88) Drugged and Raped a Woman in 1972, Awards Her $59 Million

Such verdicts over 50 years after the alleged rape took place are insane and injust!

This is a dangerous attack on the legal principle of statute of limitations! This is a serious perversion of justice!

Did any of the accusers come out to report the rape at the time (1972)?

Caveat: I am not familiar with the details of the case.

"After a nearly two-week trial in Santa Monica, jurors found Cosby, 88, liable for the sexual battery and assault of Donna Motsinger. They awarded her $17.5 million in past damages and $1.75 million for future damages, including “mental suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, inconvenience, grief, anxiety, humiliation, and emotional distress.”

Then in a second phase of the trial Monday afternoon, they awarded an additional $40 million in punitive damages. ...

Deliberations lasted about two days.

The decision came nearly five years after Cosby was freed from prison in Pennsylvania when the state Supreme Court threw out a criminal conviction based on similar allegations. ..."

Jury Says Bill Cosby Drugged and Raped a Woman in 1972, Awards Her $59 Million "A civil jury in California found Monday that Bill Cosby was liable for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 1972 and awarded her $59.25 million."

Indonesia's coastal erosion crisis triggers $80bn seawall bet

Is this necessary? Will this work?

"Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is reviving an ambitious, long-stalled plan to build a 500-kilometer seawall to try to protect communities from accelerating coastal erosion in the economic powerhouse that is Java, the world's most populous island. A September 2025 presidential regulation designated what was dubbed the "Giant Seawall" a national strategic project at an estimated cost of $80 billion. If the undertaking can surmount engineering, financial and political issues, Indonesia will have built the world's longest seawall."

Indonesia's coastal erosion crisis triggers $80bn seawall bet - Nikkei Asia "Prabowo revives grand 500km wall plan; Java villages, businesses sink as waves encroach"

Image of the day

Source

Image of the day

Quelle

In a rare event, the moon got a massive new crater and ejecta found up to 120 km from crater

Amazing stuff! Unfortunately, we do not learn what caused the new crater.

"... A routine search of images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera found a fresh crater as wide as two American football fields ...

The crater is 225 meters wide and formed in April or May 2024 ...

The discovery can help highlight the risks impacts pose to future astronauts. ...

The crater seems to have formed on a boundary between the cratered and craggy lunar highlands and a wide, flat mare, which formed from liquid magma pooling on the moon’s surface. Its depth, about 43 meters on average, and its steep edges suggest it formed in strong material like solidified lava. But its shape is slightly elongated, which suggests the ground beneath the crater is not all the same, Robinson said.

The crater is also surrounded by a bright blanket of ejecta — rock and dust that splashed out in all directions when the impact occurred — that extends hundreds of meters from the rim. ... found other disturbances as far as 120 kilometers from the crater. ..."

In a rare event, the moon got a massive new crater "The crater is 225 meters wide, a size expected only once every 139 years"

A new 225-M diameter creator on the moon

Trump, Xi, and the Specter of 1914 | Foreign Affairs. Really!

This article headline makes very little sense if no sense at all! 

China is very different than any of the European countries involved in World War I!

Maybe the author, a professor of history, should first read Sun Tzu's The Art of War!

Caveat: I did not read the article given the idiotic headline!

Written by "ODD ARNE WESTAD is Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University. This essay is adapted from his forthcoming book, The Coming Storm: Power, Conflict, and Warnings From History (Henry Holt, BBC Books). Copyright © 2026 by Odd Arne Westad."

Trump, Xi, and the Specter of 1914 | Foreign Affairs "How America and China Can Avoid the Blunders That Led to World War I [???]"

Are Waymos driving significantly longer than humans to get to a destination?

Does it matter? How fair is the comparison?

"... it takes up to 30% longer for a Waymo robotaxi to get somewhere compared to a human driver because of how careful the robot car needs to be and its tendency to avoid potential challenges like unprotected left turns. ..."

When a robotaxi has to call 911

Polar algae contain hundreds of genes given to them by giant viruses—roughly 5% of their genome

Amazing stuff!

"Genome forms of the single-cell, green algae called Chlamydomonas do just fine in polar waters despite the fierce cold, harsh UV radiation, and other extremes. Their success may stem in part from genes given them by so-called giant viruses.

Uncommonly large and complex, and often sporting unusual tendrils, giant viruses were first discovered in 2003. They most often infect algae or amoebae, but can invade more complex multicellular organisms, and are found throughout the world, including in marine, aquatic, and terrestrial habitats.

In Current Biology yesterday, a team reported that polar algae have hundreds of genes given to them by these viruses—roughly 5% of their genome. Further studies showed these genes, remnants of past infection, were active and made proteins that could help the algae—some of the genes encode ice-binding proteins, which help keep the algae from freezing in waters that can dip as low as –2°C. “  ..."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• Diverse polar algal genomes harbor widespread endogenous giant virus elements

• Polar alga Chlamydomonas ICE-L shows extensive giant virus genome endogenization

• Many viral genes are expressed and respond to abiotic stress

• Co-expression patterns of viral genes suggest regulatory integration with host

Summary

Giant viruses, members of the phylum Nucleocytoviricota (NCV), possess exceptionally large genomes that encode hundreds of genes involved in replication, metabolism, and host manipulation. These viruses have emerged as major players in protist ecology and evolution. Recent studies reveal that their genomes are frequently endogenized in protists, contributing to structural innovation and functional novelty. Yet, the extent and impact of such events on genome architecture and physiological responses in algae inhabiting extreme polar environments remain unknown.

Here, we report widespread giant endogenous viral elements (GEVEs) in nine polar microalgae, revealing extensive viral integration. Most notably, Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-L, an Antarctic sea ice alga, harbors over 400 GEVE regions spanning more than 26 megabase pairs (Mbp)—the most extensive giant viral endogenization recorded in any eukaryote. These insertions, derived from multiple NCV lineages, encode >25,000 genes, including those associated with replication, chromatin remodeling, stress responses, and transposable elements.

Transcriptomic analyses show that ∼40% of GEVE genes are actively expressed, with hundreds being differentially regulated under UV radiation, salinity, and temperature stress. A co-expression network reveals modular regulation patterns, suggesting functional integration of viral genes into host transcriptional networks.

Additionally, phylogeny supports giant viruses as important mediators of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of key freeze-tolerance proteins, such as ice-binding proteins (IBPs), in polar algae.

Our findings position giant viral endogenization as a key driver of genome content, regulatory complexity, and environmental adaptation in polar algae and establish Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-L as a model for studying virus-derived genomic innovation in extreme environments."

ScienceAdviser

Genes from giant viruses help polar algae survive frigid waters and harsh sunlight "A prior infection may create lasting, beneficial evolutionary change in these hardy microbes"

Extensive array of endogenous giant viral elements in a polar alga shows dynamic transcriptional response to abiotic stress (open access)

Figure 1 GEVE statistics and distribution

An Iranian missile struck a Saudi Arabian air base, damaging several U.S. refueling aircraft

How is this possible? Why was it not prevented? Why are Iranian missiles able to hit multiple targets in the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia.

Have the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia not been buying the latest US weapons for decades?

"The attack also involved unmanned aerial vehicles, they said. Check out what other U.S. military assets have been damaged or lost. Meanwhile, Marco Rubio said ... the war would continue for two to four weeks. ..."

Wall Street Journal What's news

Ukrainian drones hit all three Baltic States this week − did Russia redirect them?

Bad news! Is Russia now more able to defend against drone attacks?

"Three Baltic states recorded drone incursions within roughly 48 hours this week, as Ukrainian strike drones targeting Russian Baltic port infrastructure were apparently diverted into NATO territory by Russian electronic warfare. ..."

Ukrainian drones hit all three Baltic States − did Russia redirect them?

Unified theory explains paradox of freezing water water thrown into air to make snow

Amazing stuff!

"Unified theory explains paradox of freezing water water thrown into air to make snow

Here’s an oddity of nature: Hot water seems to freeze faster than cold water. But it turns out that the phenomenon, called the Mpemba effect after a Tanzanian teenager who first noticed it in the 1960s, occurs in a variety of materials, from crystallizing polymers to magnets. More recently, the effects have turned up in the quantum realm, such as single ions suspended with lasers.

Now, a new theoretical framework,  ... stitches the assorted Mpemba effects together. It explains how, in each case, a system that’s pushed farther from equilibrium can find a quicker path back to a steady state. “ ...

The shortcuts to equilibrium are not just curios of nature; if scientists can identify the initial conditions that give rise to Mpemba effects, they could optimize all kinds of processes. That could lead to more efficient cooling and heating schemes, and in the quantum realm, could help speed up quantum computers and the preparation of quantum states."

"... It turns out water was only the tip of the iceberg. Over the past decade, scientists have uncovered similar “Mpemba effects” in a zoo of different materials—from crystallizing polymers to magnets. More recently, the effects have turned up in the quantum realm, such as single ions suspended with lasers. ..."

ScienceAdviser

Hot things can freeze faster than cool ones. Now, this paradox has gone quantum (no public access)

Resource-Theoretical Unification of Mpemba Effects: Classical and Quantum (open access)

Fig. 1 In a resource-theoretic framework, the Mpemba effect occurs when a state that initially possesses more of a given resource depletes that resource faster than a less resourceful state, under the evolution by the same free operation, so that their resource monotones cross. This single picture unifies a variety of anomalous equilibration phenomena (for example, restoring thermal equilibrium or symmetry in classical and quantum systems). Mpemba physics then becomes the study of why different initial states dissipate resources at different rates and how we can harness those differences to engineer exotic effects such as ultrafast cooling. In this article, we apply this analysis to the specific resource theories shown in the schematic.

Iranian hackers backed by the Iranian government claim breach of FBI director Kash Patel's personal email account

Desperate measures by desperate people? In how bad a shape is the theocratic dictatorship in Iran now?

"A hacking group backed by the Iranian government dubbed “Handala” said on Friday that it has breached the personal email account of FBI director Kash Patel. 

In a post on its website, Handala included several pictures of a visibly younger Patel, as well as a link to a cache of files that appear to come from Patel’s personal Gmail account.  ..."

Iranian hackers claim breach of FBI director Kash Patel's personal email account | TechCrunch

Waymo’s skyrocketing ridership in one chart

Good news! What an amazing business success!

Since I live in the Phoenix metro area, I can confirm that Waymo cars now can be seen almost everywhere on the streets all the time.

"Waymo is now providing 500,000 paid robotaxi rides every week across 10 U.S. cities, the company shared in a post on X this week. The eye-popping figure is reflective of the Alphabet-owned company’s accelerated commercial expansion. But it’s Waymo’s rate of growth in ridership and markets that offers a more compelling story. 

In less than two years, the company’s average weekly paid robotaxi trips have grown tenfold, from 50,000 per week in May 2024 to 500,000 per week today. Over that same two-year timespan, Waymo has expanded within its initial markets of Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles — and beyond them to Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. Those seven cities in the Sun Belt were all added in just the past year. ..."

Waymo’s skyrocketing ridership in one chart | TechCrunch

Scientists uncover two million ancient DNA switches controlling plant genes

Amazing stuff!

"The study ... reveals that the power of plant genomes lies not only in their protein-coding genes, but also in ancient regulatory DNA sequences that control where, when and how strongly to turn on gene expression. ...

Scientists have long searched for similar ancient regulatory sequences in plants, but with limited success. Now, The Conservatory Project team has revealed the hidden ancient regulatory sequences that have been hiding in plain sight. ...

Plant genes are continually shuffling themselves around, which makes the links between genes and their master switches extremely hard to spot. ...

They identified over two million ancient gene master switches, which control gene expression across 284 plant species from 73 plant families. This includes DNA switches that pre-date the emergence of flowering plants over 300 million years ago. ..."

From the abstract:

"Developmental gene function is often conserved over deep time, but cis-regulatory sequence conservation is difficult to identify. Rapid sequence turnover, paleopolyploidy, structural variation, and limited phylogenomic sampling have impeded conserved non-coding sequence (CNS) discovery.

Using Conservatory, an algorithm that leverages microsynteny and iterative alignments to map CNS-gene associations over evolution, we uncovered ~2.3 million CNSs, including over 3,000 predating angiosperms, from 284 plant species spanning 300 million years of diversification.

Ancient CNSs were enriched near developmental regulators, and mutating CNSs near HOMEOBOX genes produced strong phenotypes.

Tracing CNS evolution uncovered key principles: CNS spacing varies, but order is conserved; genomic rearrangements form new CNS-gene associations; and ancient CNSs are preferentially retained among paralogs, but are often lost as cohorts or evolve into lineage-specific CNSs."

Scientists uncover two million ancient DNA switches controlling plant genes | University of Cambridge "An international project has uncovered millions of ancient DNA ‘switches’ that have been regulating plant genes for up to 300 million years – a discovery that could pave the way for more precise engineering of crop traits."

A deep-time landscape of plant cis-regulatory sequence evolution (no public access)

Olympics Bar Biological Males from Women’s Events

Good news! Bravo! When common sense prevails!

What about biological females? I smell gender discrimination here! 😊

Why not let transgender individuals compete with each other?

"The International Olympic Committee on Thursday banned biological males from competing in women’s events at the Olympics, starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

This reverses a policy first adopted in 2004 that allowed transgender women to compete after undergoing sex reassignment surgery and hormone therapy. ..."

Friday, March 27, 2026 - Join The Flyover

Kinder sollen keine Pornografie schauen: Die EU verlangt von Portalen wie Pornhub eine wasserdichte Altersverifizierung

Was für ein Unsinn! Ist das ist ein Vorwand/Versuch Pornographie wider zu verbannen?

Warum können das z.B. die Eltern und die Smartphone/Netzwerk Betreiber nicht verhindern?

"In Mitgliedsländern der EU schauen bis zur Hälfte der über 12-Jährigen Pornos auf dem Smartphone. Schuld daran seien die nachlässigen Videoportale, sagt die Kommission." (Quelle)

Unprecedented footage shows sperm whales joining forces to help a newborn calf

Amazing stuff!

"The researchers quickly realized they had in fact observed a group of whales helping a calf take its first breath. Even more fortuitous, they had captured it on video from a drone.

It’s rare for researchers to see a sperm whale birth, with only a handful having been recorded previously.

And this time, overhead footage allowed the scientists to meticulously analyze the individual whales’ behavior before, during, and after the delivery. Although researchers have long hypothesized that sperm whales cooperate in certain social situations, the new study—reported today in Science—shows whales from different family branches can work together to support a newborn calf. ..."

Unprecedented footage shows sperm whales joining forces to help a newborn calf | Science | AAAS

IDF soldiers target Hamas infrastructure, kill over 60 terrorists in past month

Hamas is still not defeated and disarmed!

"IDF soldiers continue to conduct counterterrorism operations in the Gaza Strip, particularly along the Yellow Line, to destroy terror infrastructure, including destroying terror tunnels, locating weapons, and killing Hamas terrorists.

The military has killed over 60 terrorists who attempted to carry out acts of terror against the IDF or who crossed the Yellow Line, posing a threat to the soldiers. Among those were armed members of Hamas's Nukhba Force, and senior commanders of the terror group, as well as a cell of terrorists who participated in the October 7, 2023, massacre. ..."

IDF soldiers target Hamas infrastructure, kill over 60 terrorists in past month | The Jerusalem Post "The IDF's Southern Command continues operations to destroy terror infrastructure and remove threats in the Gaza Strip, killing over 60 Hamas terrorists last month."

Google caches in with TurboQuant extreme compression

Amazing stuff!

"Not to oversimplify, but I understand TurboQuant to be part of a trio, with TurboQuant the compression algorithm, and PolarQuant and Quantized Johnson-Lindenstrauss making up the trio of techniques that work in tandem. Together, they're a training-free data compression algorithm that solves one of the most expensive bottlenecks in running large language models, the Key-Value cache. ..."

"High-dimensional vectors are incredibly powerful, but they also consume vast amounts of memory, leading to bottlenecks in the key-value cache, a high-speed "digital cheat sheet" that stores frequently used information under simple labels so a computer can retrieve it instantly without having to search through a slow, massive database.

Vector quantization is a powerful, classical data compression technique that reduces the size of high-dimensional vectors. This optimization addresses two critical facets of AI: it enhances vector search, the high-speed technology powering large-scale AI and search engines, by enabling faster similarity lookups; and it helps unclog key-value cache bottlenecks by reducing the size of key-value pairs, which enables faster similarity searches and lowers memory costs. ..."

From the abstract:

"Vector quantization, a problem rooted in Shannon's source coding theory, aims to quantize high-dimensional Euclidean vectors while minimizing distortion in their geometric structure.

We propose TurboQuant to address both mean-squared error (MSE) and inner product distortion, overcoming limitations of existing methods that fail to achieve optimal distortion rates. Our data-oblivious algorithms, suitable for online applications, achieve near-optimal distortion rates (within a small constant factor) across all bit-widths and dimensions.

TurboQuant achieves this by randomly rotating input vectors, inducing a concentrated Beta distribution on coordinates, and leveraging the near-independence property of distinct coordinates in high dimensions to simply apply optimal scalar quantizers per each coordinate.

Recognizing that MSE-optimal quantizers introduce bias in inner product estimation, we propose a two-stage approach: applying an MSE quantizer followed by a 1-bit Quantized JL (QJL) transform on the residual, resulting in an unbiased inner product quantizer.

We also provide a formal proof of the information-theoretic lower bounds on best achievable distortion rate by any vector quantizer, demonstrating that TurboQuant closely matches these bounds, differing only by a small constant () factor. Experimental results validate our theoretical findings, showing that for KV cache quantization, we achieve absolute quality neutrality with 3.5 bits per channel and marginal quality degradation with 2.5 bits per channel. Furthermore, in nearest neighbor search tasks, our method outperforms existing product quantization techniques in recall while reducing indexing time to virtually zero."

AI Impact

TurboQuant: Redefining AI efficiency with extreme compression "We introduce a set of advanced theoretically grounded quantization algorithms that enable massive compression for large language models and vector search engines."

TurboQuant: Online Vector Quantization with Near-optimal Distortion Rate (open access; published already in April 2025; no revisions nor updates since then)