A very long list of names! Count not provided! No background on circumstances etc!
A very poorly/lousily done video President Trump! E.g. it does not explain how these names were selected!
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
In loving memory of those whose lives were stolen by illegal alien crime - White House
Budget 2026-27: Hong Kong operating surplus of HK$51.3 billion forecast
How many Western countries can claim a significant government budget surplus?
Trinidad and Tobago warms up to Washington instead of Venezuela
Recommendable! More steel drums for Trump!
'You should be ashamed': Trump shuts down heckling Ilhan Omar
Recommendable! Trump is blunt and to the point!
How Russia has finetuned its disinformation campaign in 4 years of Ukraine war
Recommendable! Amazing how much disinformation to discredit the Ukraine or its president the propaganda machine of Putin the Terrible produces! Don't be fooled!
Did El Mencho's Girlfriend Lead Mexico's Forces to Him? with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! Palki provides some historical background on organized crime in Mexico!
It’s time to pull the plug on plug-in hybrids
What a waste of taxpayers' money given the e.g. $7,500 federal tax subsidy [credits] for the purchase of such vehicles!
Apparently, these plug-in hybrids also do not meet reductions in CO2 emissions as expected!
"Plug-in hybrid vehicles are often touted as a bridge to battery-electric vehicles, promising to slash emissions by operating as EVs for short trips while relying on fossil fuels for longer ones. ...
They only deliver on that promise if they’re regularly charged. Real-world data drawn from the vehicles’ onboard computers shows that’s often not the case.
Using that data, the Fraunhofer Institute could determine how much of that energy came from charging when plugged in. It found that less than a third of 1 million PHEVs in Germany plugged in either occasionally or not at all. ...
Studies have previously shown that PHEVs produce about 3.5 times more emissions than their official ratings would suggest. This new study explains why since it directly assesses how much electricity the vehicles gained from charging. (PHEVs, like all hybrids, can operate in a mixed mode, using both gas and electricity. The study used data straight off the vehicles to disentangle the two.)
One of PHEV’s many shortcomings are their anemic batteries, capable of powering the vehicle for short distances. Some can only traverse a handful of miles, while many sold in recent years can operate on battery power for about 20 to 30 miles. ..."
From the abstract:
"The energy consumption of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) is significantly higher in real-world driving than in type approval procedures. An evaluation of one million vehicles highlights this major difference and points to the need for action in EU emissions regulation."
"... Plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) are sometimes treated as a bridging technology and benefit from favorable credits toward CO₂ fleet targets in European regulations. Type-approval is based on assumptions about high electric driving shares, which are not confirmed in practice. Current OBFCM data show that the real fuel consumption of PHEVs averages around 5.8–6.1 l/100 km, which corresponds to CO₂ emissions of around 140 g CO2/km. Even under optimal charging conditions (= driving exclusively in charge-depleting mode), today's PHEVs do not achieve truly low emission ..."
Former female teacher's aide gets crushing prison sentence after her conviction of sexually abusing 4 boys
Another Me Too event! Welcome to the age of gender equality!
Men watch out in the battle of the sexes!
"A former teacher's aide in Wisconsin has been sentenced to more than half a century in prison after her conviction of committing child sex crimes against four boys, according to authorities.
The Kenosha County District Attorney announced last week that Judge David Hughes sentenced 34-year-old Anna Marie Crocker to 51.5 years in prison and 32 years of extended supervision. Crocker — a mother of four — will not be eligible for release until she is approximately 85 years old. ..."
The New Anti-Tariff 'Proof' economic research Paper Isn’t What It Seems
I agree with the Breitbart journalists who wrote the article below.
There is essentially no historical data available since 1945 to investigate the economic effects of tariffs. Since 1945, the US and many other countries pursued and implemented global free trade through international agreements etc.
The first author of the paper, i.e. Tamar den Besten (Northwestern University), is a novice. Her lifetime citation count is only 23. She has published only two papers including the one below.
The second and last author of this paper, i.e. Diego R. Känzig (Northwestern University), is not much better. His lifetime citation count is only 1955, which is also very little. He published only 17 papers so far.
So far this research paper is only published as a working paper by NBER! It has not been reviewed nor accepted for publication by an economic journal.
Caveat: I did not read the research paper.
From the abstract:
"We study the macroeconomic effects of tariff policy using U.S. historical data from 1840–2024. We construct a narrative series of plausibly exogenous tariff changes – based on major legislative actions, multilateral negotiations, and temporary surcharges – and use it as an instrument to identify a structural tariff shock.
Tariff increases are contractionary: imports fall sharply, exports decline with a lag, and output and manufacturing activity drop persistently.
The shock transmits through both supply and demand channels. Prices rise in the full sample but fall post-World War II, a pattern consistent with changes in the monetary policy response and with stronger international retaliation and reciprocity in the modern trade regime."
The Macroeconomic Effects of Tariffs: Evidence From U.S. Historical Data (partially accessible to public)
Meta strikes up to $100B AMD chip deal and Meta may end up owning up to 10% of AMD
Amazing stuff! It's all about chips! Let the chips fall where they may!
"Meta plans to purchase potentially up to $100 billion worth of AMD chips, enough to drive roughly six gigawatts of data center power demand, the companies announced Tuesday.
As part of the multiyear agreement, AMD has issued Meta a performance-based warrant for up to 160 million shares of AMD common stock — or about 10% of the company — for $0.01 each, structured to vest alongside certain milestones. The full stock award is conditional on AMD’s share price, which would need to hit $600 for Meta to receive its final tranche ...
Under the agreement, Meta will purchase AMD’s MI540 series of GPUs and its latest generation of CPUs. CPUs are increasingly becoming a core pillar of the AI inference compute stack because they’re efficient, easier to scale, and don’t tie companies solely to Nvidia. ..."
Meta and AMD Agree to AI Chips Deal Worth More Than $100 Billion "The deal could result in Meta owning as much as 10% of AMD’s stock as the chip maker seeks to challenge Nvidia"
AMD Chief Executive Lisa Su
Dream control study to further dream engineering for more creativity and how sounds may be incorporated
Amazing stuff! I don't believe we have made much progress on dream research since the days when individuals would lay down to tell Sigmund Freud what they dreamed about lately! 😊
"Researchers have shown they can achieve some control over what people are dreaming ...
researchers at Northwestern University (NU) were particularly interested in finding out if they could harness dreams to work with the idea that sleeping on a problem can help people solve it.
So they recruited 20 people who were experienced in lucid dreaming, the ability to recognize that you're dreaming from within a dream and sometimes control what happens. Another dream-related study released this month showed that lucid dreams might be able to help with mental health therapy for conditions like PTSD and Parkinson's disease, and previous work with researchers from NU and other institutes showed a simple type of communication was possible between lucid dreamers and test administrators. ..."
"... A new study by neuroscientists at Northwestern University validates the possibility of influencing dreams and offers a crucial step to support the theory that dreams in REM sleep — the rapid eye movement phase of sleep in which lucid dreaming can occur — may be especially conducive to helping individuals come up with creative solutions to a problem. ..."
From the abstract:
"Dreams have arguably been a source of creative insight for millennia. The specific assertion that dreams during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep promote creative problem-solving, however, has only anecdotal support, lacking strong empirical support from rigorous studies. Experimental manipulations of dream content have been confounded by waking components, such that any boost in creative problem-solving could be attributable to waking cognition rather than sleep cognition. Likewise, correlational evidence cannot unequivocally establish that dreams cause insights. Evidence that memory reactivation during sleep promotes creative problem-solving is also insufficient for implicating dreaming per se. Better methods for directly manipulating REM-sleep dreaming are needed. Here, we studied individuals who frequently have lucid dreams—realizing they are dreaming while still asleep. Participants slept after failing to solve several puzzles that had unique soundtracks, and they were instructed to continue working on a puzzle if they heard its soundtrack in a dream. Half of the soundtracks were played during REM sleep to reactivate memories of corresponding puzzles, with the goal of biasing dreams to connect with those specific puzzles versus the remaining puzzles. Those sound cues reliably increased dreaming about the associated puzzles. Furthermore, a post-hoc analysis showed that, for participants with an increase in cue-related dreaming, cues boosted later puzzle-solving. We thus expanded on a well-known phenomenon, that sounds can be incorporated into dreams and can change dream content, by substantiating experimental procedures to align dreams with the search for creative answers to specific challenges. Results highlight that REM dreams can contribute to next-day problem solving."
Dream engineering can help solve ‘puzzling’ questions "Study offers insights to optimizing sleep for creativity"
Creative problem-solving after experimentally provoking dreams of unsolved puzzles during REM sleep (open access)
Fig. 1 Experimental timeline.
(A) Overview of experimental timeline for most participants.
(B) Each in-lab session had an identical procedure, except with different puzzles. Lucid dreams were induced with targeted lucidity reactivation (TLR).
Cannabis use among adolescents increases the risks of being diagnosed with bipolar and psychotic disorders
Bad news! However, this study is based only on self reported use. Apparently, the study also did not investigate the intensity of the use of Cannabis.
Not a good idea for children/teenagers to consume such drugs!
"Cannabis use among adolescents increases the risks of being diagnosed with bipolar and psychotic disorders, as well as anxiety and depression, years later, per a new longitudinal study in JAMA Health Forum that analyzed data on 460,000 teenagers in Northern California for a 25–year period."
"... Findings In this cohort study of 463 396 adolescents aged 13 to 17 years who were universally screened for cannabis use, past-year cannabis use was associated with a significantly increased risk of incident psychotic, bipolar, depressive, and anxiety disorders by age 26 years. ...
Results ... Of 463 396 adolescents (... mean [SD] age, 14.5 [1.3] years) included in the sample ... At baseline, 26 345 adolescents (5.7%) self-reported past-year cannabis use.
Past-year cannabis use was associated with an increased risk of incident psychotic (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR], 2.19; 95% CI, 1.97-2.42), bipolar (AHR, 2.01; 95% CI, 1.82-2.22), depressive (AHR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.30-1.39), and anxiety disorders (AHR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.21-1.28). The strength of the associations between cannabis use and incident depressive and anxiety disorders decreased as adolescents aged. ... "
"... Researchers analyzed health data on 460,000 teenagers in the Kaiser Permanente Health System in Northern California. The teens were followed until they were 25 years old. The data included annual screenings for substance use and any mental health diagnoses from the health records. Researchers excluded the adolescents who had symptoms of mental illnesses before using cannabis. ...
They found that the teens who reported using cannabis in the past year were at a higher risk of being diagnosed with several mental health conditions a few years later, compared to teens who didn't use cannabis. ..."
Österreich AG: Wiener Sozialismus mit Sahne
Empfehlenswert!
"in kaum einem anderen Industrieland der Welt steht ein so großer Teil der Wirtschaft unter staatlicher Kontrolle wie in Österreich. Ein gutes Fünftel der Marktkapitalisierung gehört der öffentlichen Hand, wie eine Auswertung der Agenda Austria zeigt. Es ist der lange Schatten der Verstaatlichten. Was davon übrig ist, ist heute in der Österreichischen Beteiligungs AG (ÖBAG) geparkt. Ihr Portfolio ist knapp 30 Milliarden Euro wert. ...
Die ÖBAG wirft gute Dividenden ab. Trotzdem gibt es gute Gründe, das Ganze zu überdenken. „Das Portfolio der ÖBAG ist historisch gewachsen und aus heutiger Sicht purer Zufall. ..."
Alles muss raus! Österreich entdeckt die Privatisierung. "Die öffentliche Hand besitzt gewaltige Teile der österreichischen Wirtschaft. Zeitgemäß ist das nicht. Privatisierung ist das Gebot der Stunde. Am Ende gewinnen alle."
Forest and tree cover in Uttar Pradesh expanded by roughly 338,000 acres (about 528 square miles) between 2017 and 2023
Good news!
"The scale of this transformation is best seen in the numbers. Between 2017-18 and 2023-24, Uttar Pradesh recorded its highest-ever forest expansion. In the nine years before 2017, only 65.27 crore saplings were planted. Since 2017, that number has jumped to a staggering 242.13 crore saplings.
According to the State of Forest Report 2023, the state’s forest and tree cover increased by 3 lakh 38 thousand acres during this period. The total forest area grew from 1,658 thousand hectares in 2016-17 to 1,772 thousand hectares by 2023-24.” ..."
Mexico and the U.S. tracked a drug lord’s girlfriend to a secluded love nest before yesterday’s deadly raid, Mexican officials said
I am not sure this was a good idea to disclose this information about the girlfriend!
How much in danger is this woman now? Was she a police informant?
"Mexico and the U.S. tracked a drug lord’s girlfriend to a secluded love nest before yesterday’s deadly raid, Mexican officials said.
Security forces launched a massive operation to capture Mexico’s top drug lord, Nemesio “Mencho” Oseguera, the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Elite Mexican army and National Guard special-operations soldiers descended on a town where Oseguera remained holed up after his lover left, Mexico’s defense secretary said. The soldiers chased him and several bodyguards, surrounding them deep into nearby woods. A battle ensued, and eight people were killed, including Oseguera."
Security forces launched a massive operation to capture Mexico’s top drug lord, Nemesio “Mencho” Oseguera, the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Elite Mexican army and National Guard special-operations soldiers descended on a town where Oseguera remained holed up after his lover left, Mexico’s defense secretary said. The soldiers chased him and several bodyguards, surrounding them deep into nearby woods. A battle ensued, and eight people were killed, including Oseguera."
Anthropic accused three Chinese AI companies of setting up more than 24,000 fraudulent accounts
This is a serious allegation!
"Anthropic accused three Chinese AI companies of setting up more than 24,000 fraudulent accounts with its Claude AI model to help their own systems catch up.
The U.S. AI startup said that DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax prompted Claude more than 16 million times to siphon data and that the activity raised national-security concerns for the U.S. Earlier this month, OpenAI, an Anthropic rival, sent a memo to House lawmakers accusing DeepSeek of using the same tactic to mimic its products. Representatives from the trio of Chinese companies didn’t respond to requests for comment."
"Anthropic is accusing three Chinese AI companies of setting up more than 24,000 fake accounts with its Claude AI model to improve their own models.
The labs — DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax — allegedly generated more than 16 million exchanges with Claude through those accounts using a technique called “distillation.” Anthropic said the labs “targeted Claude’s most differentiated capabilities: agentic reasoning, tool use, and coding.” ..."
Monday, February 23, 2026
‘No US participation…' Mexico's President Sheinbaum drops bombshell on US’ role in military ops against Drug Lord
Not really! She admits information sharing! Then there was certainly the pressure by President Trump!
China: An Empire of Illusion | Frank Dikötter
Very recommendable! Right on Frank Dikötter!
Bolivia: From Socialism to Capitalism in Just a Few Weeks
Very recommendable!
The native socialism a la Evo Morales crashed and burned!
Who Caused the 2008 Great Recession? PragerU
Very recommendable! It was largely due to total government failure under at least two Democratic Party presidents!
The craze to extend homeownership to millions of households at extremely low interest rates and regardless of financial capability!
Inside Ukraine’s Drone Zone: the 10km KILL BOX turning Russian advances into a death sentence
Recommendable!
It is estimated that the Ukraine uses over 9,000 drones per day and over 4,000,0000 per year.
Germany Plans to Scrap Phone Sick Leaves Amid Rising Absence with Palki Sharma
Probably most Indians or even the rest of the world find this very strange that work absenteeism is made so easy in Germany.
Revelations of Chinese nuclear tests mark start of a new nuclear arms race era
How serious is this negative prospect?
Is it true that China was never before party to any nuclear weapons agreements?
"... And as we sit here today, China’s entire nuclear arsenal has no limits, no transparency, no declarations, and no controls. ..."
"As major powers renew their focus on nuclear testing, the world may be entering a new nuclear era.
Revelations that Beijing has conducted secret nuclear tests should trigger greater focus on China’s expanding nuclear arsenal. China’s nuclear expansion and modernisation could lead to an accelerated and unbridled nuclear arms race, particularly since Chinese President Xi Jinping refuses to participate in meaningful dialogue and abide by agreements on such issues. This would have implications that go beyond the US-China competition: it would affect global stability; undermine international non-proliferation norms and efforts; and harm the prospects of future arms control agreements.
On 6 February, US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas DiNanno revealed that the US was aware that China had been conducting nuclear tests. One such test was conducted in June 2020, based on US assessments. ..."
Statement to the Conference on Disarmament (original US government statement)
China's brain-computer interface industry is racing ahead
Recommendable! How much is hype?
"While Elon Musk’s Neuralink likes to say it’s “pioneering” brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), China’s BCI industry is already quietly moving from research to scale.
A new wave of startups is racing to commercialize both implantable and noninvasive BCIs, backed by stronger policy support, expanding clinical trials, and growing investor interest. ...
Provinces such as Sichuan, Hubei, and Zhejiang have already set medical service pricing for BCI, speeding its inclusion in the national medical insurance system. ...
In August 2025, China’s industry ministry and six other agencies released a national roadmap to further speed development of BCIs. The plan targets major technical milestones by 2027, common industry standards, and a full supply chain by 2030, with the goal of building globally competitive BCI companies and supporting smaller specialized firms. ...
In December, at the 2025 Shenzhen BCI & Human-Computer Interaction Expo, China announced an 11.6 billion yuan ($165 million) brain science fund to support BCI companies from research through commercialization. ..."
Six early-onset cancers like colorectal cancer rising faster in younger adults than older ones correlated with increasing obesity prevalence
Bad news!
"... The massive study combed through data from two large cancer databases to better understand the recent rise of cases in adults under 50, a trend that belies the traditional understanding of the disease as one that disproportionately affects the elderly. Though still relatively rare among those in middle age and younger, the rising incidence of several cancer types in that cohort has raised concern among experts. ...
The study examined cases that occurred between 2000 and 2017 and found 13 cancers on the rise in those under 50 in at least 10 countries, and six cancers — colorectal, cervical, pancreatic, prostate, kidney and multiple myeloma — rising faster in younger adults than in older adults in at least five.
The trends of both higher incidence and mortality in those under 50 occurred in fewer countries — in five for uterine cancer and, for colorectal cancer, three nations for females and five for males.
Colorectal cancer, particularly in North America, Europe and Oceania, drew particular attention from the authors, who said that 10 percent of global cases already occur in those under 50. ..."
From the abstract:
"Background:
The global increase in the incidence of early-onset cancers (defined as cancers diagnosed at 20-49 years old) is a serious public health problem. We investigated 1) whether the incidence trend of early-onset cancers differs from that of later-onset cancers and
2) whether both the incidence and mortality of early-onset cancers have increased concurrently.
Methods:
We utilized age-standardized incidence and mortality rates for early-onset and later-onset cancers diagnosed between 2000 and 2017 from the Cancer Incidence in Five Continents and World Health Organization (WHO) mortality databases.
The national obesity prevalence among adults aged 20-49 years was obtained from the National Clinical Database. Using joinpoint regression models, we calculated average annual percentage changes (AAPCs) for cancer incidence and mortality by cancer types and countries.
We additionally conducted human development index (HDI)-stratified analyses and assessed the correlation between the obesity prevalence in younger populations and early-onset cancer incidence by country. To investigate the more recent trend of early-onset cancer mortality, we extended our mortality analysis after 2017 for cancer types and countries with statistically significant positive AAPCs in both incidence and mortality of early-onset cancers between 2000 and 2017.
Results:
Our analysis showed that 10 early-onset cancer types (thyroid cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, uterine cancer, colorectal cancer, kidney cancer, cervical cancer, pancreatic cancer, multiple myeloma, Hodgkin lymphoma) in females and
7 early-onset cancer types (thyroid cancer, kidney cancer, testis cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, melanoma, leukemia) in males had statistically significant positive AAPCs in at least 10 countries.
Among these, the following early-onset cancer types had significantly higher AAPCs than later-onset cancer types in females: colorectal cancer (6 countries; AAPC range: 1.8-3.8%), cervical cancer (6 countries; AAPC range: 1.2-3.3%), pancreatic cancer (5 countries; AAPC range: 2.3-13.0%), and multiple myeloma (5 countries; AAPC range: 3.1-9.8%); in males: prostate cancer (12 countries; AAPC range: 3.9-18.4%), colorectal cancer (8 countries; AAPC range: 1.8-3.2%), and kidney cancer (6 countries; AAPC range: 2.0-6.0%).
We observed statistically significant positive AAPCs in both the incidence and mortality of the following early-onset cancer types: uterine cancer (5 countries) and colorectal cancer (3 countries in females and 5 countries in males). The steeper increases in early-onset cancers compared with later-onset cancers were mainly observed in the very high-HDI country group, including early-onset colorectal cancer (AAPC = 2.4%, 95% CI 2.1-2.6 in females; AAPC = 2.0%, 95% CI 1.7-2.4 in males) to later-onset colorectal cancer (AAPC = -0.1%, 95% CI -0.2 to 0 in females; AAPC = -0.2%, 95% CI -0.3 to 0 in males).
We observed strong positive correlations between the increasing obesity prevalence and the rising incidence of early-onset obesity-related cancers in several countries, including Australia (7 cancer types), United Kingdom (7 cancer types), Canada (7 cancer types), Republic of Korea (7 cancer types), and USA (6 cancer types) in females and United Kingdom (7 cancer types), Canada (6 cancer types), Australia (5 cancer types), Sweden (5 cancer types), and Republic of Korea (4 cancer types) in males. Although we did not observe an apparent spike after 2017 in many countries, we observed continued increases in the mortality of certain cancer types, such as uterine cancer (Japan, Republic of Korea, United Kingdom, USA, and Ecuador) in females and colorectal cancer (Argentina, Canada, United Kingdom, and USA) in males.
Conclusions:
The increase in many early-onset cancer types was significantly higher than that of later-onset cancers, and the incidence and mortality of certain early-onset cancer types (such as colorectal cancer) increased simultaneously. Our study highlights global differences in cancer incidence and mortality trends of early-onset and later-onset cancers."
Diverging global incidence trends of early-onset cancers: comparisons with incidence trends of later-onset cancers and mortality trends of early-onset cancers (no public access)
Repurposing used jet engines into natural gas turbines
Good news! Almost like the Biblical "Swords to plowshares"!
Human ingenuity at its best!
"US companies are trying to repurpose jet engines into natural gas turbines to power data centers. According to a Jefferies analyst, about 1,600 commercial jet engines are retired each year, and if a third were converted, they could yield roughly 13 gigawatts of generating capacity."
How Jet Engines Are Powering Data Centers (Wall Street Journal) "Companies are converting aircraft engines to land-based natural gas turbines for power generation in the AI boom"
How is Mexico's most violent cartel so powerful?
Recommendable!
"The Sunday killing of Ruben Nemesio Oseguera, also known as “El Mencho,” represents the highest-profile target struck by Mexican authorities ever since the capture of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in 2016 and Ismael Zambada "El Mayo" García in 2024.
Oseguera, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), was seen as one of the most powerful and violent drug lords in Mexico, with his group taking power when Guzman and Garcia were extradited to the US following their respective arrests. ...
After extensive fighting and chaos, the CJNG managed to gain control of several key states in central Mexico, while maintaining a presence in almost every other state in the country. ...
According to a Science magazine study, the CJNG had between 18,000 and 35,000 people under its control. ..."
The FDA plans to make one major study, rather than two, the agency’s new default requirement for approving new drugs.
Good news! Indeed, this precautionary redundancy may not be necessary anymore or should be reserved for as few cases as possible.
"The FDA commissioner Marty Makary recently announced plans to make one major study, rather than two, the agency’s new default requirement for approving new drugs. He argued that advances in biomedical science make duplicate trials less necessary, and that the change should speed up approvals and encourage more drug development. Makary has also promised to allow more companies to sell drugs without a prescription."
"“The Food and Drug Administration plans to drop its longtime standard of requiring two rigorous studies to win approval of new drugs, the latest change from Trump administration officials vowing to speed up the availability of certain medical products. ..."
Trump organisation signs deal to build Australia's tallest building, a six star hotel in Gold Coast, Australia
Family business as usual! The show must go on! 😊
"... The 91-story skyscraper is planned for the Gold Coast, a popular seaside destination in Australia’s Queensland state. ...
the final agreement was signed with the Trump Organization at the Mar-a-Lago resort on February 14. ..."
Waymo recently disclosed that its fleet of 3,000 robotaxis requires just 70 remote human operators on duty at any given time
Good news! Amazing stuff! Maybe 70 human operators at any time is still too many!
These human operators could also be replaced by robots! Then we may need only a few humans to manage the operations!
"Waymo recently disclosed that its fleet of 3,000 robotaxis requires just 70 remote operators on duty at any given time, a small ratio that suggests the vehicles rarely need human assistance."
Russiagate quietly reaches Supreme Court as justices asked to allow feds to be sued for FISA abuses
Good news! What took so long! It has been known ver early on for several years that the FISA Court was abused to obtain phony warrants by Comey's FBI under Presidents Obama/Biden.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA)
Sunday, February 22, 2026
Palki Sharma Resigns as Managing Editor of Firstpost
Bad and sad news! My most favorite news lady is making a career change!
Good luck in your new endeavors and farewell for now!
Palki Sharma
Where next for China-Germany ties? South China Morning Post
Recommendable! Bad news for Germany!
How dependent is Germany already on China? According to this Chinese news source, Germany is like lap dog!
Why 'Metropolis', Fritz Lang's Silent Movie of 1927, Still Defines Sci‑Fi 100 Years Later
Very recommendable! What a great movie fully restored only in 2010.
Mexico: US Provided Intel for Killing of Drug Boss
Good news! I was pretty sure this has happened!
Thus, it appears that President Trump and Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum cooperate to eliminate or at least reduce organized crime in Mexico. See also my other, recent blog posts regarding this subject.
Next Hamas New Chief: Hamas Preparing to Name New Chief | Meshaal and Al Hayya Top Contenders | WORLD DNA - YouTube
Hopefully, the next Hamas leader is not a warmonger and fool otherwise Israel would have to kill him as well!
Will the inhabitants of Gaza finally disarm and dissolve Hamas!
Please peace in the Middle East!
Potential successors to Yahya Sinwar include Khalil al-Hayya (left) and Khaled Mashal. (Source)
Donald Trump says ‘cartels are running Mexico' and warns action may be coming
Has President Trump provoked or triggered Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum to kill one of the drug lords and to fight back against violence incited by organized crime?
Mexican tourist town erupts into war as cartel clashes with army after police killing of major gang boss
Horrible! This is a warzone!
Will President Claudia Sheinbaum have the guts to continue to fight organised crime in Mexico?
The Mexican government has for too many years allowed organised crime to become so powerful and pervasive!
China has promised to eliminate tariffs on imports from every African country except Eswatini
Have you ever heard of Eswatini (former official name Swaziland in southern Africa, population about 1.3 million)?
The Scramble for Africa continues!
Will Eswatini cave in to Chinese pressure?
"China already has a zero-tariff policy for imports from 33 African countries, but Beijing said last year it would extend the policy to all 53 of its diplomatic partners on the continent…
From May 1, zero levies will apply to all African countries except Eswatini, which maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan.” ..."
Flag of Eswatini
Wikipedia blacklists Archive.today after alleged DDoS attack
Recommendable! An interesting article!
"Wikipedia editors have decided to remove all links to Archive.today, a web archiving service that they said has been linked to more than 695,000 times across the online encyclopedia.
Archive.today — which also operates under several other domain names, including archive.is and archive.ph — is perhaps most widely used to access content that’s otherwise inaccessible behind paywalls. That also makes it useful as a source for Wikipedia citations. ...
“Wikipedia should not direct its readers towards a website that hijacks users’ computers to run a DDoS attack.” Plus, “evidence has been presented that archive.today’s operators have altered the content of archived pages, rendering it unreliable.” ..."
Sam Altman would like to remind you that humans use a lot of energy (and water), too
Good point! Touché!
Let's also keep in mind there is a high probability that the global human population will shrink in the coming decades due to a lower global total fertility rate (TFR).
"... For one thing, Altman ... said concerns about AI’s water usage are “totally fake,” though he acknowledged it was a real issue when “we used to do evaporative cooling in data centers.” ..."
Sam Altman
New Zealand nuclear fusion reactor’s magnetic breakthrough
Good news from Down Under!
The website of this company is pretty lousy. Most of the stuff on their webpages is undated! Plus, it seems the company only presents third party news reports, but not original company news releases!
The news articles below read more like an infomercial!
"Nuclear fusion startup OpenStar Technologies has become the first commercial company in the world to create and confine a plasma using a floating half-tonne magnet.
The New Zealand-based company became the first in the country to turn on a fusion machine back in 2024. In a conversation with this journalist following that milestone, OpenStar founder and CEO Ratu Mataira explained the unique approach the company is taking by working to build a fusion reactor based on a levitated dipole. ...
This week saw the first public demonstration of OpenStar’s technology. ...
The result is a proof-of-concept that the technology powering its prototype device, Junior, is viable and can be scaled up to commercial levels. The startup aims to have commercial devices in production by the 2030s. ...
OpenStar’s next prototype device Tahi will have a magnetic field 4 times stronger than its predecessor. Its magnetic field will perform at up to 20 Tesla.
New Zealand’s government has pledged $NZ35 million to support Tahi’s development. ..."
Neuartige Wasserstoff-Heizung wird in Offenbach getestet
Nachdem alle Kernkraftwerke abgeschaltet wurden setzen die Deutschen nun auf Wasserstoff!
Wie gut beherrschen wir inzwischen dieses explosive Gas? Wie vergleichbar ist Wasserstoff mit Erdgas?
Kleiner Hinweis: Hindenburg Katastrophe von 1937.
Nebenbei bemerkt: In der Vergangenheit hatte Offenbach nicht gerade den besten Ruf.
"... Ihr einziges Abfallprodukt ist Wasserdampf. [???] ..." Wirklich! Was für ein demagogischer Unsinn! Wieviel Wasserdampf würde entstehen wenn fast alle Haushalte und Betriebe einer Großstadt mit Wasserstoff geheizt werden? Wasserdampf ist nicht so harmlos, wie hier so typisch vorgegaukelt wenn es um Wasserstoff heizen geht!
Das laut Hyting erste katalytische Wasserstoff-Luftheizsystem weltweit soll Maßstäbe in der Heiztechnik setzen.
US men and women teams beat Canada in ice hockey for gold at the Winter Olympics in Italy, gold for first time since 1980
It is a total shame that the US women's team win is has been so underreported in by the news media!
What a match up! Back at the Winter Olympics of 1980 in Lake Placid, the US won over the heavily favored team from the former Soviet Union!
Putin the Terrible must be fuming now! However, the Russian ice hockey teams (men/women) were excluded due to international sanctions!
Ice and gold! (source)
Atom-thin electronics withstand space radiation, potentially surviving for centuries in orbit
Amazing stuff!
"Atom-thick layers of molybdenum disulfide are ideally suited for radiation-resistant spacecraft electronics ...
One particularly promising route forward involves highly conductive, ultra-thin materials such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂). Just a single layer of atoms thick—around 0.7 nanometers—the material has already proven remarkably robust against radiation-induced defects in previous laboratory studies.
In their latest work, Zhou's team subjected the material to its most rigorous test yet. They began by growing monolayer MoS₂ using it to fabricate a transistor-based, radio-frequency communications system. The circuits were then exposed to powerful bursts of gamma rays, delivering doses comparable to those experienced by electronics operating in space. ..."
From the abstract:
"Integrated circuits for communications play an enabling role when it comes to outer-space exploration thanks to their small footprint and low weight. However, owing to the severe irradiation effects of space energetic particles, the implementation of radiation-tolerant electronic circuits remains a challenge.
Here we report the observation of the space radiation effect on a satellite-based device and find that atomically thin materials are expected to accumulate minimal radiation-induced damage in principle. Accordingly, on the basis of a 4-inch wafer-scale monolayer 2D MoS2 process, we implement an atomic-layer transistor-based radiation-tolerant radio frequency (RF, 12–18 GHz) system with both transmitters and receivers for spaceborne communication.
For on-orbit experiments, the 2D communication system was successfully launched to the approximately 517 km low Earth orbit.
Notably, the system maintains a bit error rate (BER) of less than 10−8 in the transmitted data after 9 months of on-orbit operation, indicating substantial radiation tolerance and long stability.
The lifespan of the 2D communication system is predicted to be about 271 years even on the geosynchronous orbit with a much harsher radiation environment. This work showcases the unique prospects of 2D electronics for spaceborne applications."
Radiation-tolerant atomic-layer-scale RF system for spaceborne communication (no public access)
Atom-thick circuit made from radiation-resistant molybdenum disulfide
Record-breaking Antarctic drill sediment core of over 225 m length reveals 23 million years of climate history
Amazing stuff! Global warming aka climate change is normal and has repeated itself over thousands of years!
Possibly, variations in solar activity of the sun are to be blamed!
"... "To our knowledge, the longest sediment cores previously drilled under an ice sheet are less than 10 m," ... "We exceeded our target of 200 m, and undertook this 700 km from the nearest base—this is Antarctic frontier science." ...
The 228 m of ancient mud and rock was drilled from under 523 m of ice at a deep-field camp at Crary Ice Rise on the edge of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. ...
The new sediment core ... provides a direct and comprehensive record of how this margin of the ice sheet has behaved during past periods of warmth. ...
including time periods when Earth's global average temperatures were significantly higher than 2°C above pre-industrial," ..."
"... The sediment core holds an archive of past environmental conditions from warmer periods in Earth’s history ..."
Triplet superconductivity—physicists may have found the missing link for quantum computers
Amazing stuff!
Google search: "Triplet superconductivity is an exotic, rarely observed state of matter where electrons pair up with parallel spins (spin triplet S=1), in contrast to conventional "singlet" superconductors (spin S=0) where spins are antiparallel."
"... "Triplet superconductors make a number of unusual physical phenomena possible. These phenomena have important applications in quantum technology and spintronics," said Linder.
More detailed information about these applications:
The reason triplet superconductors can transfer spin without energy loss is that the superconducting particles now carry spin with them.
Triplet superconductors can also be used to create a very exotic type of particle called a "Majorana particle."
A Majorana particle is its own antiparticle. Therefore, it can perform calculations in a quantum computer in a stable way. ...
Conventional superconductors are so-called "singlet superconductors." In simple terms, this means that the superconducting particles do not have spin.
In triplet superconductors, however, the superconducting particles have spin. ...
"The fact that triplet superconductors have spin has an important consequence. We can now transport not only electrical currents but also spin currents with absolutely zero resistance," ...."
From the abstract:
"NbRe is a noncentrosymmetric superconductor that has been proposed as a candidate for intrinsic spin-triplet pairing. However, a conclusive demonstration of triplet pairing in NbRe is yet to be found. To probe the presence of spin-triplet Cooper pairs, we fabricated Py/NbRe/Py trilayers capped with an antiferromagnetic layer.
Magnetic and electrical measurements reveal an inverse spin-valve effect, which could indicate equal-spin-triplet superconductivity. The minimal sample structure and the lack of ad hoc engineered interfaces clearly associate our observation to intrinsic triplet correlations of NbRe. The availability of NbRe in thin-film form and the simplicity of the heterostructure highlight its potential as a scalable platform for superconducting spintronics."
Unveiling Intrinsic Triplet Superconductivity in Noncentrosymmetric NbRe through Inverse Spin-Valve Effects (no public access)
Unveiling Intrinsic Triplet Superconductivity in Noncentrosymmetric NbRe through Inverse Spin-Valve Effects (preprint, open access)
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