Neues aus der Bananenrepublik D!
"Jahrzehntelang haben chinesische Autohersteller von den Deutschen gelernt. Inzwischen ist es umgekehrt: Bei Design, Ausstattung und Vertrieb ahmt VW in China die heimischen Pkw-Anbieter nach."
Friday, May 08, 2026
Vom Lehrmeister zum Schüler: VW übernimmt Chinas Erfolgsrezepte
"Jahrzehntelang haben chinesische Autohersteller von den Deutschen gelernt. Inzwischen ist es umgekehrt: Bei Design, Ausstattung und Vertrieb ahmt VW in China die heimischen Pkw-Anbieter nach."
Russian proposal to offer Iran several thousand drones and training for Iranian drone operators including fiber optic drones
Serious stuff, if confirmed!
Of course, the megalomaniac and warmonger Putin the Terrible had to meddle!
"... Confidential Russian documents, seen by The Economist, revealed a Russian proposal to offer Iran several thousand drones and training for Iranian drone operators, which raises concerns about the proliferation of fiber-optic drone technology to Iran and its regional proxies. Some of these proxies have already demonstrated the ability to employ these systems against US and allied targets. ...
The proposal offers Iran 5,000 short-range fiber-optic drones, an unspecified number of longer-range satellite-guided drones equipped with Starlink terminals, and training for Iranian personnel to operate both systems.[xxviii] The Economist stated that it could not confirm whether Russian officials have presented the proposal to Iran yet. The documents are undated, but The Economist assessed that they likely originated during the first six weeks of the war when US officials were reportedly considering a possible ground operation in Iran. ..."
Secret document reveals Russia’s plans to aid Iran "Unjammable drones would be used against American forces, according to proposals seen by The Economist"
Gerrymandering is still very much alive ahead of the November 2026 elections
Some things barely change over time and both political parties resort to it!
"... The term, originally written as “Gerry-mander,” first was used on March 26, 1812, in the Boston Gazette — a reaction to the redrawing of Massachusetts state senate election districts under Governor Elbridge Gerry.
Though the redistricting was done at the behest of his Democratic-Republican Party, it was Gerry who signed the bill in 1812. As a result, he received the dubious honor of attribution, along with its negative connotations. ..."
Blood test identifies tumor neighborhoods impacting immunotherapy
Good news! Cancer is history (soon)! This could be a breakthrough!
"In brief
- Stanford Medicine researchers developed a blood test predicting tumor microenvironments that influence cancer treatment decisions and patient outcomes.
- The study identifies nine shared cellular neighborhoods across cancers, aiding understanding of tumor responses to immunotherapy and potential therapies.
- This noninvasive approach transforms cancer treatment strategies, allowing real-time monitoring of tumor evolution and enabling personalized therapeutic interventions.
A simple blood test can reveal the geographic relationships among healthy cells surrounding a cancerous tumor, researchers ... have found. The test is the first noninvasive way to study what’s called the tumor microenvironment, which plays a critical role in determining how different patients – even those with similar tumors – fare after diagnosis and treatment. ...
the researchers identified nine cellular neighborhoods, or spatial ecotypes, that cancers of all types share and
some of which correlate with a tumor’s response to immunotherapy and a patient’s prognosis.
Because the blood test can be performed repeatedly, clinicians may soon have real-time access to information about which types of therapies are likely to be most successful. ...
The researchers studied more than 100 tumor specimens from 10 distinct types of cancer using the tools they had developed to map patterns of gene expression in nine cell types at varying locations throughout the tumor.
They identified nine distinct spatial ecotypes, or neighborhoods, each roughly the diameter of a human hair. They found that patterns of spatial ecotypes were conserved among all the tumors they studied; some ecotypes were more likely to occur at the border of the tumor and healthy tissue, while others were more likely found deeper inside the tumor, for example. Several of the newly identified ecotypes correlated with whether a tumor would respond to immunotherapy – suggesting they could help guide clinical decision-making. ..."
From the abstract:
"Multicellular programs in the tumour microenvironment (TME) drive cancer pathogenesis and response to therapy but remain challenging to identify and profile clinically.
Here, we present a machine-learning framework for multi-analyte profiling of spatially dependent cell states and multicellular ecosystems, termed spatial ecotypes (SEs).
By integrating over 10 million single-cell and spot-level spatial transcriptomes from diverse human carcinomas and melanomas, we identified nine SEs with broad conservation, each of which has unique biology, geospatial features and clinical outcome associations, including several linked to immunotherapy response.
Notably, SEs were distinguishable by DNA methylation profiling and were recoverable from plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) using deep learning.
In cfDNA from nearly 100 patients with melanoma, SE levels exhibited striking associations with immunotherapy response.
Our data reveal fundamental units of TME organization and demonstrate a multimodal platform for profiling solid and liquid TMEs, with implications for improved risk stratification and therapy personalization."
Non-invasive profiling of the tumour microenvironment with spatial ecotypes (open access)
Nine cellular environments, or spatial ecotypes, are shown here in a melanoma tumor. Spatial ecotypes, defined by the cellular interactions and the gene expression patterns of their cells, give clues about effective treatment options.
Fig. 1: Multimodal profiling of SEs in human cancer.
Fig. 2: Geospatial map of multicellular programs across cancers.
Cloudflare says AI made 1,100 jobs at the company obsolete, even as revenue hit a record high. Really!
Cloudflare is the company that many websites used to test whether you are human when you visit their website. What an irony!
"... Cloudflare, which provides internet security and performance services to millions of websites worldwide, announced it was cutting its workforce by approximately 20%, which equates to 1,100 people, it said as part of its first quarter 2026 earnings report on Thursday. ..."
These slow tests have become so annoying! Grrr!!!!
A Journey to the Center of the Liver: A first genetic atlas of a healthy human liver at a resolution of 2 microns
Amazing stuff!
"... In a new study ... present the first genetic atlas of a healthy human liver at a resolution of 2 microns. The findings show that the division of labor in the human liver differs from that of other mammals and is more extensive than previously recognized, helping explain why certain regions of the liver are particularly vulnerable to fatty liver disease. ...
the liver has a remarkable capacity for regeneration, healthy individuals can donate a substantial portion of their livers to patients in need. ..."
From the abstract:
"Reconstructing gene expression atlases for human tissues is challenging due to limited access to healthy samples from live individuals.
Neurologically deceased donors often show ischaemic changes, and tissues near diseased regions may have altered gene expression. The liver, with its unique regenerative capacity, allows analysis from live healthy donors.
Here, using spatial transcriptomics (Visium, Visium HD3, multiplexed error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH)4 and PhenoCycler imaging) and single-nucleus RNA sequencing, we analysed 16 liver samples: 8 from young live healthy donors and 8 from individuals with liver pathology, sampling ‘adjacent normal’ tissue.
Livers from live healthy donors displayed significant gene expression differences compared with the adjacent normal tissues from individuals with liver pathology.
Hepatocytes and non-parenchymal cells exhibited marked zonation along the porto–central axis of the liver lobules, with key functions being pericentrally shifted compared to mice and other mammals.
Our atlas identified dynamic programmes in early steatotic hepatocytes, including a decline in nuclear-encoded mitochondrial proteins and a compensatory increase in mitochondria-encoded transcripts.
This study presents a spatial gene expression reference for the healthy human liver and insights into hepatocyte changes in early steatosis."
Fig. 1: A spatial expression atlas of human and mammalian livers.
Fig. 2: Zonation of hepatocyte gene expression.
Disclaimer
Since end of February, I am 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.
Thursday, May 07, 2026
Könnten wir Stechmücken ausrotten?
Empfehlenswert! Wer braucht schon diese Blutsauger!
"... Keine dieser Methoden [der Vergangenheit} ist dazu geeignet, eine Mückenart komplett auszurotten. Aber es gibt eine Technik, die es schaffen könnte: der Gene-Drive. Eine einzige im Labor genetisch veränderte Mücke könnte ihre ganze Art ausrotten. ..."
Ein Jahr Digitalministerium: Faxe abgeschafft – sollen wir das glauben?
Neues aus der Bananenrepublik D!
Mir ist z.B. persönlich bekannt, dass das Amtsgericht München immer noch eine Fax Nummer angibt, wenn sie per Email mit Bürgern kommunizieren (Fax 09621/962413115 wie geschehen im Februar 2026).
India's first space tech unicorn emerges as Skyroot Aerospace gears up for orbital launch
Good news!
"Skyroot Aerospace has become India’s first space tech unicorn after raising $60 million in a new investment ahead of the maiden orbital launch of its Vikram-1 rocket in the coming weeks.
The funding round valued the Hyderabad-based startup at $1.1 billion on a pre-money basis ...
The investment comes as Skyroot prepares for the first orbital launch attempt by an Indian private company. The Vikram-1 rocket was flagged off to India’s spaceport on the southern island of Sriharikota in April, and the startup is targeting a June launch after completing flight qualification tests and beginning integration and launch campaign activities. ..."
Skyroot co-founders Naga Bharath Daka (left) and Pawan Kumar Chandana (Right)
Solar System’s largest moon is unique with a still forming core for billions of years
Amazing stuff!
"In 1996, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft made a shocking discovery at Ganymede, Jupiter’s—and the Solar System’s—largest moon. Unlike every other known moon, it hosted an internally powered magnetic field called a dynamo. Now, scientists think the reason might make the moon doubly unique: its core may still be forming. ...
Typically, the elements within a planet or moon stratify over time, with heavier elements like iron sinking down to form a dense core. When that core churns, it generates electrical currents that sustain a magnetic field.
Scientists only know of such dynamos on the gas giants, Earth, and Mercury. But when researchers modeled the process on Ganymede to match the magnetic field measurements from Galileo, they found that the core might not simply be churning, but actively growing, with new iron still dripping down from rocks in the moon’s mantle. If true, that would render Ganymede the only known body still to be forming its center. ..."
From the abstract:
"Ganymede is the only known moon with an active dynamo today.
Previous studies interpret Ganymede’s dynamo as arising from convection in a metal core that formed billions of years ago.
However, Ganymede likely accreted too cold to form with a metal core, which confounds interpretations of Ganymede’s magnetic field as a constraint on the moon’s broader history.
Here, we reevaluate the thermal evolution of Ganymede’s rock-metal interior from a cold start. Our models show that Ganymede’s observed dynamo is consistent with ongoing core formation, a process not yet observed elsewhere.
If Ganymede has an Fe-FeS core with a sub-eutectic composition, then gradual mantle warming may expel dense Fe melt onto the growing protocore and stir liquid metal, sustaining a dynamo for billions of years."
Core of Solar System’s largest moon may still be forming "Ganymede discovery could force rethink of how worlds power their magnetic fields"
Fig. 1. Possible thermal evolution of Ganymede’s interior based on assumed initial temperatures.
Deep inside Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede, molten iron may be sinking, adding to a still-growing core.
Hundreds of different genes have been linked to autism – but a new study suggests it may be their path to the brain that matters
Good news!
"... The researchers found that these genes “converge” on a shared set of biological pathways in the brain, triggering similar downstream effects as brain cells mature. ...
Using a CRISPR gene-editing tool, they switched off 23 genes associated with neurodevelopmental disorders in human brain cells. They then tracked how each genetic disruption altered gene activity across different stages of brain development.
Critically, they found that many of the at-risk genes produced similar effects downstream as brain cells matured. But they first converged in the same neural pathways, including pathways involved in synaptic communication, regulation of gene expression, and mitochondrial function ..."
From the abstract:
"Diverse risk genes have been identified for neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), but how these genes converge on similar biological pathways in neurons, and thus give rise to similar phenotypes, is unclear.
Here we apply a pooled CRISPR approach to successfully target 23 NDD loss-of-function genes with roles in chromatin biology and examine convergent effects on gene expression across human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neural progenitor cells, glutamatergic neurons and GABAergic neurons.
Points of convergence vary between these cell types, with the greatest number of convergent genes and strongest convergent networks in mature glutamatergic neurons, where they broadly represent synaptic, epigenetic and, unexpectedly, mitochondrial pathways.
The most convergent networks were observed between NDD genes with shared biological annotations, clinical associations and co-expression patterns in human post-mortem brain.
Drugs that were predicted to reverse convergent transcriptomic signatures and/or arousal and sensory processing behaviors ameliorated behavioral phenotypes in zebrafish NDD gene mutants.
These results suggest that convergent effects of NDD risk genes could provide clinically useful insights."
Fig. 1: KO [knock out] effects of 21 NDD risk genes are most strongly correlated in mature neurons.
Fig. 2: Gene-level convergence is greatest in mature glutamatergic neurons.
Fig. 3: Network-level convergence resolves cell-type-specific and developmental-specific node genes.
Fig. 4: Functional similarity and brain co-expression between NDD genes predict gene-level and network-level convergence, with unique influences by cell type.
26 killed in fireworks factory explosion in China
Bad news! Communism kills!
Yesterday, I blogged here about the deadliest company in the world, the state-owned China National Tobacco Corp.!
"Incident on 4 May injured over 60 others, with rescue work hampered by further fires and explosions
An explosion at a fireworks factory in Liuyang killed 26 people and injured over 60 others on 4 May.
Five rescue teams totaling 482 personnel attended the scene, according to local news reports, but search and rescue efforts were hampered by re-ignition and further explosions of stored gunpowder as well as finished and semi-finished firework products on the site. ..."
The Fog, a New Encrypted Cloud Platform, Rolls In into the cloud
Good news! The cloud is getting foggy! 😊
"Niobium Microsystems is a technology company based in Dayton, Ohio, specializing in Zero Trust Computing through dedicated hardware accelerators for Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE)." (Google AI)
"... Launched in early April by chip startup Niobium, the Fog is an encrypted cloud platform. It follows a client-server architecture, where a person or organization (the client) can encrypt data or workloads locally using their own private keys and deploy the encrypted data or workloads to the Fog (the server) without sharing their keys. These private keys remain with data owners, and only they can decrypt any results from the platform.
Much as actual fog obscures everything it envelops, so does the encrypted cloud platform named after it. ...
“The data in our cloud will never be exposed—it’s always encrypted,” says John Barrus, vice president of product at Niobium. “It’s a new category of cloud.” ..."
Tesla Model Y 2026 is first car to meet new US driver assistance safety benchmark
Good news! When are we getting rid of the steering wheel and breaks?
"The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Tuesday that the later release 2026 Tesla Model Y is the first vehicle to meet the agency’s new benchmark for advanced driver assistance systems.
Four pass-fail tests were added to the agency’s safety ratings program, assessing a car’s automatic emergency braking for pedestrians, blind-spot warning, blind-spot intervention, and lane assist, a feature that helps keep the vehicle in the lane.
The new benchmark rating applies to 2026 Tesla Model Y vehicles assembled on or after November 12, 2025. ..."
Revolving Doors and Efficient Engines: How Proteins Escape a Molecular Tangle and misfolded proteins
Amazing stuff!
"... Machines from the AAA+ family, which exist in the cells of all living organisms from bacteria to humans, can, among their many functions, recognize misfolded protein chains and swiftly unravel them.
Researchers ... have deciphered this sophisticated mechanism, which is both fast and remarkably efficient. Their findings ... reveal how cells perform quality control on their proteins, and may help explain why this control fails in diseases such as neurodegeneration and cancer. They may also provide inspiration for the development of highly efficient artificial molecular machines. ...
When a protein chain in the cell becomes entangled or misfolded, these machines come to the rescue, unraveling the chain by threading it through the channel. ...
Until now, it was unclear how a tiny molecular machine converts chemical energy within the cell into an effective mechanical pulling action. ...
To address this question, the researchers ... developed a method that allowed them to monitor, in real time rather than through frozen snapshots, the passage of a protein chain through the molecular machine. They used fluorescent sensors attached to the milk protein casein and to the AAA+ machine that processes it. A green sensor was attached to the casein, an orange sensor to the machine’s entrance and a red sensor to its exit. ...
“Loops in the channel wall protrude into its interior and, like the wings of a revolving door, determine the preferred direction of movement. The machine uses energy to ensure that these loops oscillate in the correct direction.” ...
In the final stage of the study, the researchers focused on failure events, in which threading through the channel was not completed. “These events lasted a relatively long time,” ... “We found that in their course, the protein moved back and forth within the channel until it mistakenly exited from the same end where it had entered. This indicates that there are no large energy fluctuations or powerful forces inside the channel, but rather a subtle motion-guiding mechanism that is occasionally prone to error.” ..."
From the abstract:
"How biological machines harness ATP to drive mechanical work remains a crucial question. Structural studies of protein-translocating AAA+ machines proposed a coupled and sequential translocation process, whereby ATP hydrolysis events lead to short threading steps. Yet, direct real-time observation of these events remains elusive.
Here, we employ single-molecule FRET spectroscopy to track substrate translocation through ClpB, a quality control AAA+ machine. We isolate ClpB and its substrate within lipid vesicles and find that translocation events, while dependent on ATP, take milliseconds, much faster than ATP hydrolysis times. Surprisingly, the translocation rate depends weakly on temperature and ATP concentration.
Using three-color FRET experiments, we find that translocation events can occur bidirectionally but are not always complete.
Replacing ATP with the slowly hydrolysable analog ATPγS abolishes both rapid translocation and directionality.
These results indicate a fast, stochastic Brownian-motor-like mechanism, redefining how ATP is coupled with mechanical action in AAA+ machines."
Fig. 1: Observation of multiple fast events of translocation through the lumen of ClpB facilitated by porous vesicles.
Fig. 4: Translocation of casein in both the forward and backward directions is observed in three-color experiments.
How Anthropic’s Mythos has rewritten Firefox’s approach to cybersecurity of its web browser
Good and bad news! How long and how severely was the security of the Firefox browser vulnerable!
"... Now, security researchers for Mozilla’s Firefox browser are providing a closer look at what that process has looked like in practice, and what Mythos’ powers mean for software security at large.
In a post published on Thursday, Mozilla said Mythos has unearthed a wealth of high-severity bugs, including some that had lain dormant in the code for more than a decade.
That’s a significant improvement from what AI security tools were capable of even six months ago. Until now, AI bug-finding tools have come with severe drawbacks, often inundating security teams with low-quality reports and false positives. But Mozilla’s researchers say the latest generation of tools have turned a corner, particularly now that agentic systems can assess their own work and filter out bad results. ...
fixing the 271 bugs identified by Claude Mythos Preview ..."
Behind the Scenes Hardening Firefox with Claude Mythos Preview (original news release)
What a jump in April 2026!
European Commission Releases ‘Simplified’ Deforestation Regulation. Really!
Bad news! Beware of the EU hegemons and do gooders! What an extra and unnecessary burden on businesses!
European colonialists at work again telling the wold what to do and not to do!
"In 2023, the European Union adopted regulations to prevent global deforestation and combat climate change. Originally set to go into effect in 2024, implementation has faced multiple delays and growing calls to reduce the scope of the regulation.
On May 4, the European Commission released the results of a simplification review of the EU Deforestation Regulation. Despite push back from the United States, and possible conflicts with the agreement reached in August, the review did not result in delays or significant reductions. ..."
"... The EU Deforestation Regulation aims to ensure that key goods placed on the EU market do not contribute to deforestation and forest degradation, both within the EU and globally
as they are among the most significant contributors to climate change [???] and biodiversity loss. The main driver of deforestation is the expansion of agricultural land linked to the production of seven commodities covered by the regulation – cattle, wood, cocoa, soy, palm oil, coffee, rubber, and some of their derived products.
Under the Regulation, any operator or trader who places these commodities on the EU market, or exports from it, must be able to prove that the products do not originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation. ..."
Commission publishes simplification review of EU Deforestation Regulation (original news release)
Turkey rolls out intercontinental missile with purported 6,000km range
What is the Osman sultan Erdogan up to?
"The Turkish Ministry of Defense took the opportunity at the SAHA defense expo to reveal a new intercontinental missile with the a reported range of 6,000km (approximately 3,700 miles).
The large missile, dubbed Yildirimhan, was unveiled at the show on Tuesday, with state media outlet Anadolu reporting that in addition to the extremely long range (far enough to reach across Europe and deep into eastern Asia), it can reach up to Mach 25 on the power of four rocket engines. ..."
The Yildirimhan long-range missile makes its debut at SAHA 2026 on May 6
Chart of the day
How refreshing this downward trend! When the busybody lawmakers do less!
Fewer and less laws, more freedom!
Why do elected representatives repeal so few laws?
Palki Sharma, we miss you
Sad news! She did an excellent job presenting world news almost every day!
Good luck in your new endeavor!
According to Google AI:
"As of April 2026, Palki Sharma has stepped down from her role as Managing Editor at Firstpost and is departing mainstream media after a 25-year career.
She is transitioning to entrepreneurship to focus on her own venture, including restarting her saree brand, Reyva
Final Role: She was the Managing Editor at Firstpost and host of the popular show Vantage.
Career Move: She officially resigned from Network18 (Firstpost) with March 31, 2026, marking her last day.New Endeavor: She is returning to entrepreneurship, having previously operated a designer saree label between 2016 and 2019. ..."
Wednesday, May 06, 2026
Cleaner air, thinner clouds? Less air pollution, warmer planet between 1850-2020!
Besides the urban heat island effect and rapid global population growth, this could be another major anthropogenic reason for why we observe global warming since the end of the Little Ice Age in the first half of the 19th century!
What about junk climate models!
Do not dismiss the study just because it only reveals two limited geographic regions, i.e. the Southeastern US and the United Kingdom. I bet in Europe and Asia there were probably similar situations.
Something seems dubious about this study when you look at the chart below:
- Apparently, Antarctica was also affected.
- Japan is missing.
- Europe (except the UK) is missing.
- What about China?
- Why is central Africa in blue color?
- What was going on in southeast Asia?
Caveat: This research paper also relies on computer simulations not hard facts!
"Pre-industrial pollution from coal smoke and wood-burning in regions like the southeastern U.S. and UK may have made the air murkier than previously thought. This historical haze could significantly alter our understanding of how clouds formed and reflected sunlight in the past.
Tiny particles in the air can have big climate effects. Each tiny dust or soot grain can seed a water droplet, so more particles mean more, smaller droplets and a brighter, whiter cloud. ...
The vast majority of climate models have assumed that the skies over 19th-century Earth were pristine, meaning that anthropogenic aerosols were much lower than those observed today. "
From the abstract:
"Understanding the preindustrial (PI) to present-day (PD) change in cloud droplet number concentration (ΔNd) is important to constrain the anthropogenic influence on clouds and aid future model projections.
Perturbed parameter ensemble simulations of PI and PD conditions in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SMv3) reveal two locations with consistent negative ΔNd signal across parameter space–the Southeastern US and the United Kingdom–despite a trend of positive ΔNd globally from increased fossil fuel consumption.
These negative ΔNd signals are driven by higher anthropogenic biofuel emissions in the PI. By varying the PI aerosol mass and/or number emissions across these data sets' uncertainty ranges, we can change the magnitude and sign of ΔNd and the effective radiative forcing from aerosol-cloud interactions (ERFaci) regionally and globally, with near-zero ΔNd leading to near-zero ERFaci.
These results highlight the need to constrain PI emission uncertainty to better understand Earth system responses to aerosol-cloud interactions."
Sensitivity of Anthropogenic Cloud Droplet Number Change to Preindustrial Emission Inventories and Physics Parameterizations (open access)
Fig. 1 (partial, enlarged)
(a) Global ΔNd from the Nephele PPE (default, ensemble mean, and means of the lowest and highest 2.5th percentiles) with the Southeastern US (SEUS) and United Kingdom (UK) denoted by green and blue rectangles, respectively.
A tale as old as time: Young, attractive femme fatale lore appears in nearly every culture
Amazing stuff!
"... The collected data was then split into two groups based on the type of society they belonged to: egalitarian, where everyone has relatively equal power and resources, and complex societies, where large differences in wealth and power exist. ...
They found that these stories existed in almost all egalitarian and complex societies. So, the researcher suggests this isn't just a story shaped by powerful societies to control women—it's a pan-human theme that cuts across cultures. ...
The author also highlighted that these women are consistently portrayed as young and physically attractive across cultures ..."
From the abstract:
"This paper examines the cross-cultural prevalence of the femme fatale (dangerous woman) motif using folkloric materials, ethnographic accounts, and consultations with ethnographers across 84 societies.
Narratives were coded for depictions in which male protagonists suffer harm following involvement with an unfamiliar but physically attractive woman.
Results show that 94% of sampled societies contain recognizable femme fatale imagery.
When male motivation could be inferred, narratives overwhelmingly emphasized expectations of emotional attachment or long-term partnership rather than short-term sexual encounters. This pattern challenges interpretations that frame male involvement primarily in terms of sexual gratification or predatory intent.
Instead, the findings suggest that femme fatale narratives function as culturally mediated responses to recurrent mating dilemmas rooted in asymmetric emotional investment. More broadly, the study demonstrates how universal predispositions toward attraction and attachment are symbolically elaborated within culturally specific moral frameworks."
The current state of cancer vaccination with over 500 cancer vaccines are in development
Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!
"The progress of cancer vaccines has been limited by immune tolerance, variability in how well antibodies can attach to targets and modest clinical efficacy.
But recent advances in mRNA vaccines, better ability to predict cancer-specific targets and combination with immunotherapies are helping to make vaccines more precise and effective.
As of May 2025, there are 513 cancer vaccines in development, with most (47%) in early-stage development. Continued advancement will require more accurate ways to predict new proteins on cancer cells that can be targeted by antibodies, improved delivery systems and integration with other forms of therapy, suggest a group of health and drug researchers."
The landscape for therapeutic cancer vaccines (no public access)
a) All 513 vaccines were classified based on their mechanism, with most being peptide or dendritic cell vaccines. b) The graph shows the trial-stage breakdown of each vaccine type. c) Distribution of products by antigen type, including tumour-associated antigens (TAAs) and tumour-specific antigens (TSAs).
Some kids are bypassing online age-verification checks with a fake mustache. Really!
Is it not foremost the responsibility of parents to make sure their kids do not access inappropriate content on their devices etc.?
This article appears to be based on self reporting by children! How reliable is that?
"Some age-verification systems are no match for enterprising children, who have found that drawing on a fake mustache with a makeup pencil is enough to skirt the blocks of adult websites.
U.K.-based nonprofit Internet Matters surveyed a thousand children about age-verification checks online, and about half said that age checks were easy to bypass. ..."
EU Diversity Month 2026 | Promoting Inclusive Labour Markets for All. Really!
This leftist ideological nonsense has been going on every May since 2020!
"EU Diversity Month raises awareness about the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and across our societies. It is about the representation and visibility of different groups, where diverse perspectives are valued and included into the work environment. ..."
Amazon stuck with months of repairs after drone strikes by Iran on data centers in the Middle East
Bad news! First undersea cables, now datacenters are the very vulnerable assets/infrastructure/targets of modern human progress!
One more reason why humanity can no longer tolerate megalomaniacs and warmongers like Putin the Terrible or religious fanatics and sponsors of suicidal terrorism like the mullahs of Iran!
"Amazon’s cloud customers will need to wait several more months before the US tech company can repair war-damaged data centers and restore normal operations in the Middle East. The announcement comes two months after Iranian drone strikes targeted three Amazon data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain—meaning that full recovery from the cloud disruption could take nearly half a year in all.
The Amazon Web Services (AWS) dashboard posted an April 30 update describing how its UAE and Bahrain cloud regions “suffered damage as a result of the conflict in the Middle East” and are unable to support customer applications. The update also said that “relevant billing operations are currently suspended while we restore normal operations” in a process that “is expected to take several months.”"
Google employees in the UK protest military uses of AI, vote for labor union
Bad news! Antisemitism? Leftist anti militarism?
Does Google Deepmind need new employees?
"Google employees protest military uses of AI, vote for union
Employees at Google DeepMind’s London office voted to unionize, seeking recognition from the Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union specifically to block the lab from providing technology to US and Israeli militaries.
The push accelerated after Alphabet removed its public pledge against weapons development and surveillance from its ethics guidelines in February 2025, a move that prompted one anonymous DeepMind employee to tell WIRED the company is moving toward “further militarization of the AI models we’re building here.”
The unionization effort comes as Google signed a Pentagon deal allowing the US military to use its AI for “any lawful government purpose”—language the employees consider dangerously vague—and follows similar concerns across the industry: DeepMind and OpenAI staff signed a letter supporting Anthropic after the Department of Defense tried to designate it a supply chain risk for refusing autonomous weapons use. If Google refuses to recognize the unions, workers say they’ll escalate to a UK arbitration committee to compel recognition." (Source)
"Employees at Google DeepMind in London have voted to unionize as part of a bid to block the AI lab from providing its technology to the US and Israeli militaries. ...
The push to unionize began in February 2025, when Google’s parent company Alphabet removed a pledge not to use AI for purposes like weapons development and surveillance from its ethics guidelines, according to a DeepMind employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. ..."
Google DeepMind Workers Vote to Unionize Over Military AI Deals "UK staff of Google’s AI research lab hope to block the use of the company’s artificial intelligence models in military settings."
White House signals it will more closely regulate AI industry possibly modeled on the FDA drug approval process. Really!
Bad news! Pray and hope that President Trump will not make this mistake!
The FDA drug approval process is slow and cumbersome etc.!
"US signals it will more closely regulate AI industry
The White House is preparing an executive order to create a vetting system for new artificial intelligence models, modeled on FDA drug approval processes, according to National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett.
The move follows Anthropic’s disclosure that its Mythos model can identify network vulnerabilities and poses potential cybersecurity risks; the Trump administration is currently testing the model across federal agencies and large tech firms before wider release.
Hassett said the vetting process would likely extend to all AI companies, not just Mythos, though it remains unclear whether the order would mandate testing or operate as a voluntary framework. The announcement represents a potential shift toward regulation for an administration that has generally favored hands-off AI policy. Separately, the Commerce Department expanded a voluntary testing program on Tuesday, with Google, Microsoft, and xAI now providing the government early access to assess their models’ security and capabilities. " (Source)
"... But in an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett confirmed that the White House is considering an order that would allow the administration to block the release of AI models deemed unsafe.
“We’re studying possibly an executive order to give a clear roadmap to everybody about how this is gonna go, and how future AIs that also potentially create vulnerabilities should go through a process so that they’re released into the wild after they’ve been proven safe — just like an FDA drug [???],” said Hassett. ..."
"... “We’re studying, possibly an executive order to give a clear roadmap to everybody about how this is going to go and how future AIs that also potentially create vulnerabilities should go through a process so that they’re released to the wild after they’ve been proven safe, just like an FDA drug [???],” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told Fox Business. ..."
White House Prepares Order to Boost AI Security, Hassett Says (behind paywall)
Kevin Hassett (perhaps someone President Trump needs to fire?)
Ted Turner (1938-2026), who shaped cable TV and launched CNN, died at 87.
R.I.P.
While he still owned CNN (until 1995), CNN was much better than afterwards!
Whether it was a good idea to donate $1 billion to the United Nations remains questionable!
"The high-profile media tycoon was also a sailor, a conservationist who was one of the largest U.S. landowners, and a major philanthropist who helped set a model for generous giving by billionaires. Turner was best known for turning the billboard-advertising company he inherited from his father into Turner Broadcasting System, an Atlanta-based TV and movie giant that he sold to Time Warner in 1995."
"... As a philanthropist, he gave $1 billion to create the United Nations Foundation, a public charity to broaden U.S. support for the United Nations. Turner served as chairman of the United Nations Foundation board of directors. Additionally, in 2001, Turner co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative with U.S. senator Sam Nunn (D-GA). NTI is a non-partisan organization dedicated to reducing global reliance on, and preventing the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. He served as co-chairman of the board of directors. ..." (Wikipedia)
Ted Turner
The 'First Salute' exhibition explores how Jews in the Caribbean helped to shape the American Revolution
Recommendable!
"In November 1776, a small Caribbean island fired a cannon at an American ship — and in doing so, made history. The exchange, known as the “First Salute,” marked the first international recognition of the United States. Now, a new exhibition at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia is bringing that moment, and the often-overlooked role of Jewish merchants and Caribbean trade networks in the American Revolution, back into view.
The exhibition, “The First Salute,” which will run until April 2027, traces how the American fight for independence extended far beyond the colonies, relying on global trade networks and unlikely allies. Drawing on newly displayed artifacts — from a 250-year-old cannon recovered from St. Eustatius to letters tied to the movement of revolutionary supplies — it tells the story of how Jewish merchants, many with ties across the Atlantic, helped funnel goods, information, and support to the Patriot cause. ...
At the center of that network was the small Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, then one of the busiest ports in the Atlantic. By the late 18th century, its harbor had become a critical waypoint for goods moving between Europe, the Caribbean, South America, and the American colonies, including weapons and gunpowder, often disguised as ordinary trade goods, that the Continental Army desperately needed.
Because Jews had often been pushed into finance, trade, and mercantile work in Europe ... they developed the Atlantic-world connections that later made them valuable to the Patriot cause. By the time revolutionaries needed weapons, gunpowder, and supplies, “history placed Jews exactly in the right places, with the right skills, the right connections.”
Jewish merchants, who made up 30% of the European population on St. Eustatius at the time, played an outsized role in that system. Many had roots in the Iberian Peninsula, having fled persecution in Spain and Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition, and later built extensive commercial ties across the Atlantic. As a Dutch colony, St. Eustatius offered Jews more religious freedom than in most of Europe. The population grew, and by 1739 had become established enough to build a synagogue, Honen Dalim. By the time of the Revolution, that community was deeply embedded in the commercial networks that made St. Eustatius so valuable to the American cause. ..."
"... For centuries, the story of how a small community of Jews living in America and on a tiny Caribbean island helped tip the scales of the Revolutionary War was largely forgotten — it’s the story of swashbuckling, patriot Jewish pirates who smuggled gunpowder into America.
The Jewish merchants on the lush, windswept island of St. Eustatius, who supplied Washington’s army with the critical contraband, were members of the first international entity to recognize the United States. Their allegiance to the American cause cost them dearly. Targeted for abuse by the British, they were stripped of their homes and wealth, torn from their families and exiled, and had their graves plundered. ..."
The First Salute exhibition "The First Salute: An Untold Story of the American Revolution is the first-ever major museum exhibition to explore the little-known story of a small group of Jewish merchants in the Caribbean whose outsized contributions to the cause of American Liberty tipped the scales in the fight for American Independence."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)