Very recommendable! Good news! Fastest built nuclear reactor. It generates nuclear isotopes for medical diagnostics etc. President Trump pushing nuclear power in the US.
Saturday, August 08, 2026
NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE: Oklo CEO highlights rapid pace of industry scale with Maria Bartiromo
AI Is Hyper-Scaling Digital Inequality The next AI divide is about who gets to build, govern, and benefit. Really!
When the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) regurgitates lefty ideology and demagoguery!
Terms like "digital inequality" or "digital divide" are a giveaways! Sounds like primitive communist dialectic!
To look at this issue from a country by country perspective is already a serious flaw!
Given all the open source models, cloud computing etc. that are out there, this technological revolution of AI is probably the most accessible and disseminated technology in human history!
Caveat: I did not read the whole article.
"... The stakes extend far beyond access to AI. Countries that remain primarily consumers rather than creators of AI [???] risk losing opportunities to build local innovation ecosystems, strengthen public-sector capacity, and ensure that their own languages, cultures, and societal priorities are reflected in AI systems. In this sense, the AI divide is also becoming a divide in economic opportunity and technological influence. ...
The core agenda-setting power [???] often remains with a narrow set of industry actors and a small group of technologically advanced states. Most other countries remain in a perpetual catch-up posture, adapting imported models, standards, and templates for “trustworthy AI” to their own contexts, and may have limited local capacity to assess trade-offs or propose alternatives. ..."
RFK Jr. decertifies Kentucky organ harvesting outfit accused of ignoring signs of life in 'donors'
Good news! Serious stuff! A controversial issue!
As long as there is not more certainty that abuse will be prevented, many individuals will hesitate to become organ donors. I personally have similar concerns once I suffer an urgent, life threatening hospital admission.
"Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. decertified Network for Hope, or NFH, a federally designated "organ procurement organization," on Wednesday following a damning independent investigation exposing allegedly "disturbing practices" associated with the organization. ..."
A precise neuronal mechanism allows the brain to plan future routes to remembered goals
Amazing stuff!
"... When humans and other animals move through familiar or unfamiliar environments, their brains rely on numerous intricate neural processes to decide which path to take next.
Past studies have identified a specific population of cells in the hippocampus, a structure deep within the brain, that appears to play a key role in spatial navigation.
These cells, called place cells, become active when an animal either visits or thinks about a specific location. Place cells often fire in rapid sequences during so-called theta oscillations (i.e., rhythmic brain activity patterns that cycle approximately 4–12 times per second). These rapid bursts of sequential place cell activity, also known as theta sweeps, were previously associated with the mental evaluation of possible future routes.
Two distinct research teams based at Cornell University and University College London recently shed new light on the contribution of theta sweeps to spatial navigation.
Their papers ... suggest that theta sweeps reflect the active mental simulation of possible routes toward remembered goals or locations, which in turn helps animals plan their future movements and actions. ..."
From the abstract (1):
"During navigation, animals continuously sample their environment and plan routes to distant goals. Flexible navigation requires neural dynamics capable of rapidly deploying task-relevant information to direct behavior toward goals. Hippocampal spiking sequences within theta cycles, which sweep along spatial trajectories ahead of the animal, serve as a potential candidate.
Previous research identified experience-independent, left–right-alternating theta sweeps as a mechanism for local spatial sampling. However, it remains unclear whether theta sweeps also facilitate trajectory evaluation toward distant, remembered goals.
In rats performing goal-directed navigation in an open arena, we identified a distinct form of learning-dependent theta sequences that predicted upcoming goal-directed trajectories. These sequences coordinated with prefrontal cortical activity and were preferentially replayed during sharp-wave ripples.
We described a circuit mechanism whereby egocentric goal-direction signals, combined with reduced feedback inhibition, generated goal-directed theta sweeps. Experience-dependent and goal-dependent theta sweeps thus provide a flexible mechanism for goal-directed navigation in open environments."
From the abstract (2):
"Successful spatial navigation requires rapid evaluation of potential future trajectories.
Hippocampal ‘theta sweeps’, the sequential activation of place cells within individual theta cycles, exhibit predictive dynamics within the ideal timeframe for this role. However, whether these sequences reflect movement-related variables, perceptual targets or more cognitive goal-directed planning remains unresolved. Using data from the ‘Honeycomb’ maze, which dissociates head, movement and goal directions, we found that theta sweeps form vectors toward remembered goal locations independent of the rat’s movement or heading directions. Stronger goal modulation preceded correct navigational choices, establishing the relevance of theta sweeps for spatial planning.
A hierarchical continuous attractor network with goal-oriented directional inputs reproduced these findings and made several nontrivial predictions, which we confirmed empirically.
Sequential activity during immobility-related sharp-wave ripples was also goal directed and, therefore, more aligned with theta sweeps than with previously experienced trajectories.
Our findings identify hippocampal theta sweeps as neural substrates for online goal-directed planning."
Goal-directed hippocampal theta sweeps during memory-guided navigation (1, no public access)
Goal-directed hippocampal theta sweeps during memory-guided navigation (preprint, open access, published August 2025)
Hippocampal theta sweeps indicate goal direction during navigation (2, open access)
Fig. 1: Dissociation of movement and goal direction reveals strong goal-oriented direction bias in hippocampal theta sweeps.
Fig. 3: Theta sweeps are more strongly goal modulated prior to correct choices.
Drohnenhersteller: Russisches Attentat auf Donaustahl-Chef offenbar vereitelt
Sehr bedenklich und ernst, wenn bestätigt!
"Stefan Thumann, der Chef des deutschen Rüstungsunternehmens Donaustahl, soll ins Visier des russischen Geheimdienstes geraten sein. Ein womöglich geplantes Attentat sei von deutschen Sicherheitsbehörden verhindert worden, berichtet die Wochenzeitung „Zeit“. Auch im Kanzleramt soll der Fall regelmäßig besprochen worden sein. Das Start-up produziert Kamikazedrohnen für die Ukraine.
Es dürfte nicht das erste Mal gewesen sein, dass Sicherheitsbehörden ein Attentat auf den Chef eines deutschen Rüstungsunternehmens vereitelten.
US-amerikanische Geheimdienste hatten 2024 aufgedeckt, dass Russland die Ermordung von Armin Papperger, dem Vorstandsvorsitzenden des deutschen Rüstungsunternehmens Rheinmetall, geplant hatten.
Deutsche Geheimdienste schützten Papperger. Rheinmetall hatte der F.A.Z. damals mitgeteilt, sich regelmäßig mit deutschen Sicherheitsbehörden abzustimmen. ..."
Nächste Stufe: Mord? (behind paywall) "Ermittler durchkreuzen Vorbereitungen für ein russisches Attentat auf einen deutschen Rüstungsunternehmer."
Under US Defense Secretary Hegseth, women’s share of top military promotions plunged this year
Probably good news! Gender equality does not mean 50%! Meritocracy over ideology please! No gender mediocracy in the US military please!
Probably, the number of qualified high ranking female soldiers is also quite smaller than those of male high ranking soldiers. Or in other words the two pools of individuals are different and the chances for a more qualified male are higher.
Men watch out in the age of gender equality!
"The percentage of high-ranking officer nominations going to women is currently at its lowest level in over two decades."
Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan sign major defense pact amid Iran tensions
Good news! What took so long to counter the hegemonic, fanatical and suicidal theocracy of Iran!
"Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a joint defence agreement in Mecca on Friday, Pakistan's foreign ministry said, as the three countries sought to deepen security cooperation amid heightened military tensions and conflicts in the Middle East. ..."
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif gather to sign a joint defense agreement in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, August 7, 2026.
Physicists watch a material's electrons assemble, and reassemble, into coexisting phases
Amazing stuff!
"A new study by ... physicists sheds light on how two different phases of electron behavior can emerge and coexist in the same quantum material.
Their results ... can help explain how some materials host superconductivity, magnetism and other electronic phases. Untangling such phases and understanding how they emerge will help engineers control electronic behavior and design high-performance quantum devices. ...
Now, ... have teased apart erbium tritelluride's phases and observed how each phase emerges. They found that one phase forms gradually, similar to how liquid water transitions uniformly into vapor. This is the classic, textbook way in which electronic phase transitions are thought to occur.
But the second phase came about in an entirely new and unexpected way: Instead of emerging gradually, the electrons organized first in pockets that eventually expanded, similar to how liquid water crystallizes into ice. ...
Scientists have observed charge density waves for decades, most recently in materials that also host other, more complicated forms of electron coordination, such as various forms of magnetism and superconductivity, in which electrons pair up and flow through a material without friction.
"Just like superconductivity, charge density waves are a collective phenomenon in which electrons move together in certain ways," ... "The power of CDWs is that they are a much simpler form of matter compared to superconductivity. They offer a playground for fundamental understanding." ..."
From the abstract:
"Understanding the origin of phase transitions and the interactions between distinct phases remains a central task in condensed-matter physics.
Charge-density-wave (CDW) systems provide a useful setting to investigate these questions. Although the dominant CDW phases in many materials can be explained through electron–phonon interactions, certain CDW phase transitions remain poorly understood, challenging conventional paradigms.
One example is the rare-earth tritelluride ErTe3, which hosts two competing CDW orders. Although electron–phonon coupling accounts for the dominant order, the mechanism behind the subdominant order remains unclear.
In this study, we combine time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau theory to establish a time-domain approach for probing phase transitions in solid-state systems.
By analysing the distinct recovery dynamics of the two CDW orders in ErTe3 following light excitation, we reveal a novel nucleation and growth mechanism that probably drives the secondary CDW phase transition.
More broadly, this work provides a time-domain framework for studying phase transitions and phase competition in quantum materials."
Physicists watch a material’s electrons assemble, and reassemble, into coexisting phases (original news release) "The study could help scientists understand how superconductivity and other more complex phenomena emerge in quantum materials"
Time-domain identification of distinct mechanisms for competing charge density waves in a rare-earth tritelluride (no public access)
Time-domain identification of distinct mechanisms for competing charge density waves in a rare-earth tritelluride (preprint, open access, a very short paper with only 9 pages)
US Army opens ranges in Morocco to speed interceptor testing, development
Good news? Is this why President Trump has recently recognized West Sahara in Morocco's favor and Morocco named a long highway after him?
"... The international range is the Multidomain Training Area hosted in Morocco, Driscoll added. He said a private start-up company, called Covenant Industries, successfully tested their Anthem missile there on Thursday. ...
The multidomain training center in Morocco is one of the “primary elements” of a new Africa Multidomain Training and Experimentation Center, created through a memorandum of understanding signed between US Africa Command and the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces last month. ..."
Does America have to compete with China for AI dominance?
Not really! What about e.g. India?
This seems to be a late obsession of conservatives in the US! A End of the Cold War remorse or hangover?
What if the Communist Party of China is replaced in the near future with a pluralistic, multi-party democracy? From rivalry to competition and cooperation? Don't count on it! China moves/progresses very slowly!
What if Taiwan offers reunification for a more democratic China? That would be the German reunification in reverse (the Berlin Wall fell and socialism spread all over Germany after unification).
The ongoing data center scaremongering in Western countries
Western news media almost daily spread demagoguery about data centers! It is mostly alarmism and hysteria!
Who is behind or fueling this disinformation too? China, Russia, Iran ...?
I bet electricity consumption of data centers will go down as time goes on due to better, more efficient chips etc. In the near future perhaps more biological brain inspired data centers will be developed and so on.
Water consumption of data centers can be fairly easily controlled e.g. by closed systems and so on.
What about superconductivity and nuclear fusion? Maybe with the help of machine learning & AI we will finally be able to harness these two in the very near future!
Again, what the heck is this noise/bickering and irrationality all about! As if medieval superstition still runs our lives!
We are living now at the beginning of the second quarter of the 21st century!
Record low major rivers and lakes of summer 2026 news (Danube river, Rhine river, Lake Mead and so on)
There has been quite a bit news reporting about receding waterways and lakes/reservoirs etc. lately this summer 2026.
Take it as largely alarmism and hysteria or journalistic sensationalism. How lazy are journalists?
Some questions to ask about it:
- How much of this decline is due to human diversion of water for drinking, agriculture, industry etc.?
- How much of this decline is due to seasonal variation, other natural phenomenons, urbanization, population growth and how much due to climate change?
- How fast and how much will these declines be reversed in coming months?
- Are there other major rivers and lakes not affected by decline? Which ones and why? I bet there such rivers and lakes around the world.
Business investment in Canada barely enough to offset depreciation since 2018
Bad news!
"...
- Canada’s stagnant productivity performance over the past decade is tied to weak investment in non-residential assets such as factories, plants, machinery, equipment, and intellectual property.
- While there is some understanding of the country’s weak national performance in attracting investment, the performance of individual provinces is less well known and is important for an understanding of the current tensions within the country.
- Between 2018 and 2025, three provinces experienced an average annual decline in the overall value of their non-residential assets, meaning that the current levels of investment were insufficient to offset the depreciation (i.e., wear and tear) of existing assets.
- Alberta (-1.05%), Newfoundland & Labrador (-0.67 percent), and Saskatchewan (-0.44 percent) all recorded average annual real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) declines in the value of the stock of non-residential assets like plants, machinery, equipment, and intellectual property. Put simply, the stock of these assets was worth less in 2025 than it was in 2018 (inflation-adjusted).
- Over the same period, the nation as a whole recorded markedly weak growth in the stock of non-residential assets (0.99 percent), on an average annual basis.
..."
Vorzeitiger Ruhestand belastet die Rentenkasse in Deutschland
Bedenklich! Vielleicht sind die Frührentner aber dennoch aktiv in der Wirtschaft und im Arbeitsmarkt als z.B. Selbstständige, freiwillige Kurzeitarbeitnehmer, job hopping usw.!
Ich bin auch mit etwa 62 in den vorzeitigen Ruhestand gegangen, aber in den USA.
"... Das wird für die Rentenkasse zur wachsenden finanziellen Belastung, denn seit einiger Zeit erreichen die geburtenstarken Jahrgänge 1954 bis 1969 nach und nach das rentennahe Alter. Viele von ihnen entscheiden sich dafür, ihre Rente vorzeitig in Anspruch zu nehmen ...
Ende 2024 bezogen rund 1,1 Millionen Menschen in Deutschland eine Rente, die 1959 oder später geboren waren und damit die Regelaltersgrenze noch nicht erreicht hatten.
Insgesamt waren zu diesem Zeitpunkt bereits rund sechs Millionen Babyboomer verrentet. ..."
Science vs. Subjectivity in Environmental and climate Research articles
Food for thought! This research confirms that climate change and the environment are treated by too many scientists more like modern religions than science!
What is particularly disturbing is that subjective science articles may get more future citations than more neutral ones.
Most of these research results have been well known or strongly suspected for decades.
"... about how journal authors use subjective and emotional language when describing environmental or climate change–related issues more often than when writing about other topics.
Looking at 170,000 articles published between 1990 and 2023, they find that “subjective language is more prevalent in articles focused on environmental topics relative to non-environmental topics: by 12 percent in economics and by 42 percent in science.” They also find articles that use subjective language receive more citations than those that do not."
From the abstract:
"Objective science aims to uncover truths about environmental conditions, including those related to emission trends, biodiversity loss, climate change, and their economic costs.
When and why do scientists use subjective language to describe these conditions with bias, emotion, or advocacy? To shed light, we study determinants and trends in subjective language within the abstracts, introductions, and conclusions of over 170,000 peer-reviewed articles published during 1990-2023 in top economics and science journals.
Using machine learning to label and score text by subjectivity, we find that subjective language is more prevalent in articles focused on environmental topics relative to non-environmental topics: by 12% in economics and by 42% in science.
After accounting for factors such as article age, author experience, number of authors, and journal quality, higher subjectivity scores associate positively with future academic citations in both science and economics, especially if the article is focused on an environmental topic.
These findings, which imply subjective language has been rewarded in the academy, are consistent with informal theory suggesting subjective language will be used more frequently by scientists when expected rewards are high and risks are low."
Free-Born John: Champion of English Liberty around the time of the English Civil Wars 1642–1650
Recommendable!
"... Every May [UK Labor Day], trade unionists, socialist politicians like John McDonnell MP, and associated organizations gather in the sleepy village of Burford in Oxfordshire to celebrate Levellers’ Day. There are banners, speakers, the Internationale, a “community group workshop on biodiversity,” and other festivities aimed at preserving the memory of a 17th century political movement known as the Levellers, whom the celebrants praise for “their wish to abolish property rights and develop an equalisation of wealth.” ...
An exemplar is probably the man most associated with the term Leveller during his lifetime, John Lilburne [1614-1657], or Free-Born John. ...
Lilburne was at first a champion of religious liberty, publishing and importing unlicensed Puritan tracts. This brought him to the attention of the Attorney-General, who in 1637 prosecuted him in the Star Chamber for unlawful printing and publishing of “Libellous and Seditious books.” The Star Chamber required all those before it to take an “ex officio oath” to swear to answer all question put to them, before knowing the charges. Lilburne refused to take the oath.
He based his objection on Clause 39 of Magna Carta, the “nullus liber homo” clause that states that no free man can be stripped of his liberties unless by the law of the land. He argued that a secret oath that leads to self-incrimination was illegal, and that freedom from such abusive processes was the birthright of all Englishmen, basing his arguments on earlier work by Sir Edward Coke. This led to his moniker, Free-Born John. The Star Chamber ordered him whipped and pilloried.
By his stance, Lilburne started a movement that demanded what we would now call due process or natural justice. The legal process referred to in Magna Carta required protection against self-incrimination, notice of any charges, confrontation of accusers, trial by jury ... and freedom from arbitrary imprisonment, alongside the freedom of Englishmen to publish, speak, and follow their own religious conscience...."
The moral paradox of extreme wealth: Why people oppose it yet are reluctant to take steps to reduce it. Really!
Some dim witted, naive psychology college professor wrote this piece! Most likely, she has no clue about a free market economy!
Her lifetime citation count on Google Scholar is 3466! This is very low!
This piece was published by
What a joke!
Caveat: I did not read her piece!
"... Given the prevalence of such stark inequality, it would be easy to assume that most people accept it as fair – but they don’t. As a psychologist who studies how people navigate moral problems, I suspect that one major challenge to effectively reining in extreme wealth is that doing so forces people to navigate between opposing moral demands. ...
Some argue that people chronically underestimate the scale of inequality – in the 2014 study, Americans underestimated the actual pay ratio at the time as being only 30-to-1.
Others argue that the primary driver of the disconnect is people’s unwillingness to abandon their beliefs in merit – that wealth is the product of hard work, talent and risk. ..."
The author Jennifer Cole Wright (Source)
This is her portrait photo on Google Scholar
Earth Embeddings: Toward artificial intelligence-centric representations of our planet
This could be an interesting, new paper (first published December 2025) by Stefano Ermon and team.
From the abstract:
"This paper presents a new perspective for the flexible and efficient representation of geospatial data, tailored to and empowered by AI:Earth embeddings.
Earth embeddings provide a unified and accessible vector representation of local geographic characteristics. They fuse different geospatial data sources across time and space, compress highly-correlated raw geospatial data into one dense representation, can be used to guide interpolation between data observations, and can serve as a universal location token for foundation models.
This provides a powerful alternative to existing geospatial workflows that rely on heterogeneous data, hard-to-acquire expertise, and significant computation by the user: embeddings instead provide convenient representations, easily adaptable for numerous downstream tasks.
We posit that Earth embeddings redefine geospatial analytics, transforming it from fragmented, task-specific modeling into a coherent, generalizable framework for AI.
We approach this from both the users’ and developers’ perspectives, outlining a path for how the rapidly developing technology of Earth embeddings can reshape the way we store, represent, and use geospatial data,evidenced by recent research charting initial directions.
We call on Earth embedding users and developers to align methodological and applied development and deployment within an interdisciplinary, open-source oriented research community."
Earth Embeddings: Towards AI-centric Representations of our Planet (preprint, open access)
Blue state ban on AI 'nudification' applies to Wonder Woman, men in Speedos, Trump himself: lawyers
Nudify, the buzz word of the Summer 2026 season? 😊
More vandalism happening at the Reflecting Pool? Just kidding! (Source)
US Senate Dimocrats vote against bill requiring photo ID to cast ballots
Once again the only opposition party, the Dimocratic Party, in the biparty system of the US proves to be stupid!
It appears, all 46 donkey party US Senator voted against it! The otherwise so much celebrated contrarian John Fetterman (D-PA) also voted against it! What a joker!
Especially, voting by mail is prone to abuse (e.g. snowbirds, cross-border workers etc.)!
Again the reckless and irresponsible Mitch McConnell (R-KY, age 84, in very poor health ) failed to vote!
"... The final vote was 52-46.
Speaking out against the bill on the Senate floor, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said the bill is "stricter" than the rules in some states with voter ID laws.
Padilla said it would require voters to input a copy of their identification when voting by mail. [???] ..."
Tesla and SpaceX will invest an initial $16.8B to start building 'Terafab' chip factory in Texas
Impressive! This is huge!
"Tesla and SpaceX said Thursday that “Terafab,” the advanced chip factory they are jointly developing, will be built in Grimes County, Texas, outside Houston, and that they will make an initial investment of $16.8 billion in the project.
The factory will be “the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far,” Elon Musk, CEO of both companies, wrote in a post on Thursday. More than 100 million square feet of manufacturing space is planned for the facility, according to SpaceX. ..."
"... construct a vertically integrated semiconductor fabrication plant in Grimes County. The first phase of the Terafab project represents a capital investment of more than $16.8 billion and will create 3,000 new jobs. ..."
"... Terafab will be epic in both its mission and in its sheer size, designed to build new compute at an unprecedented scale and speed.
A vertically integrated factory with more than 100 million square feet of manufacturing space is planned.
This facility will house the manufacturing, packaging, and testing of advanced logic and memory devices. Bringing these aspects together in one location will enable fast, recursive improvements and accelerate new compute deployed. Terafab will produce chips optimized for edge computing and inference for use in hardware like Tesla’s Optimus robots and self-driving Cybercabs, along with high-power chips designed for operating SpaceX’s space-based data centers. ...
Much of the world’s semiconductor production remains concentrated overseas, and the United States has recognized the importance of rebuilding advanced manufacturing capacity domestically. Terafab aligns with that broader national effort by expanding high-end manufacturing capacity in Texas. ...
The Terafab site is committing to the use of Gibbons Creek Reservoir water for industrial operations rather than local groundwater; planned on-site wastewater treatment facilities; water reuse and conservation efforts ..."
Breaking Ground on Terafab in Texas (original news release)
Trade offs of two-tier electoral systems from a mathematical perspective
Recommendable! The larger the parliament, the better the representation. However, what size of parliament to choose?
"The researchers ... analysed different electoral systems, both proportional and first past the post, and found that in any system, there are always going to be a series of trade-offs when electing a national legislature. For most systems, these trade-offs are between regional representation, guaranteed proportionality and parliamentary size.
In the past decade, voters in northern European democracies have seen the results of these trade-offs, driven by the increasing fragmentation of political parties.
In Denmark, the left bloc won the 2022 election despite winning fewer votes than the right bloc, even though Denmark has a proportional system.
In Germany, the desire to balance regional representation and proportionality led to the Bundestag ballooning in size [after unification], before reforms were made in 2023.
And in the UK, the 2024 general election was its least proportional ever, as Labour won 63% of the seats with 33.7% of the vote. ...
They identified three main components of a ‘fair’ system:
- Regionality: everyone who wins a local seat keeps it
- Proportionality: national seat totals match national vote shares
- Fixed parliament size: the number of seats doesn’t change from election to election
..."
From the abstract:
"Two-tier electoral systems aim to balance regional representation and proportionality. Recently, the mathematical mechanisms of several Northern European two-tier systems have been challenged by increasing political party fragmentation, as evidenced by the expanding German parliament and the majority-deciding disproportionality of Denmark’s 2022 election. Regionality, proportionality, and two-tier systems are defined mathematically and used to identify the common cause behind these developments through the formulation of an impossibility theorem: no electoral system with fixed parliament size can guarantee both proportional and geographic representation.
Finally, a new algorithm, geographically ranked guaranteed proportionality, is proposed to circumvent the impossibility theorem."
Impossibility theorem for two-tier electoral systems (open access)
Fig. 5 From: Impossibility theorem for two-tier electoral systems
Other systems include two-round and run-off systems (USA , France etc.), preferential voting, transferable votes, and non-democracies without elections.
Ackerbau in 20 m Höhe: Wie ein Einkaufszentrum in Paris zur urbanen Farm wurde
Das ist doch mal eine Idee?
"... 5000 m² Dachfläche werden zur landwirtschaftlichen Nutzfläche
Die urbane Farm „Ma Salade à Toit“ befindet sich auf der Dachplatte des Einkaufszentrums im Stadtteil Mont d’Est. Die veranschlagte Fläche von 5000 m² besteht jedoch keineswegs ausschließlich aus Reinkultur-Gemüsebeeten: Zum Gesamtkonzept gehören eine 800 m² große Gewächshauskonstruktion, ein Betriebsgebäude für die Gebäudetechnik sowie ein Pavillon für Gastronomie, Workshops und Veranstaltungen. ..."
P.S. Leider keine Bilder gefunden!
Friday, August 07, 2026
Why Millions of Women Watch Porn. Why not?
Recommendable! Not unusual in the age of gender equality! 😊
Women may not watch the same porn so!
Dr. Rena Malik is a US born and trained physician of Indian-American background. (Google Search & AI). According to Google Scholar her lifetime citation count is only 1471 that is very low (as of 8/8/2026).
Uganda Approves Troops Deployment To Gaza Under Trump's Post-War Plan For Israel
Good news! A very unusual story!
Among other things, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's older brother died 1976 while trying to rescue the Israeli hostages in Entebbe, Uganda.
Ugandans know first hand about Arab terrorism!
Mexico Sends 1,500 Troops To Its Avocado Heartland After US Halts Imports
Very recommendable!
Incredible, organized crime in Mexico has also infiltrated the Avocado business of Mexico. Will the current President Sheinbaum do more to fight organized crime in Mexico?
Kash Patel’s New Playbook: Why the FBI Is Partnering With China & Russia
If confirmed, then this is bombshell news!
This cooperation between the FBI and China may have disrupted some of the fentanyl precursor chemicals production in China and shipments by organized crime.
The West Said India Would Fail. They Were Wrong with Palki Sharma
Recommendable, but with qualifications! Palki tells a very one sided story here.
From the British, the Indians e.g. learnt the rule of law, classical liberalism and the English language.
Palki forgot/omitted to mention e.g. that Mahatma Gandhi was a British trained lawyer from South Africa.
Americans Can’t Buy/afford Chinese EVs. Waymo Is Importing Thousands
Recommendable! However, the most likely explanation is that Waymo was able to buy these vehicles at a significant discount.
I have already seen several of these new Waymo cars driving around in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area. I wondered what they were.
Did Iran outsmart the West by negotiating with Oman about the Strait of Hormuz
Recommendable! This is an interesting and significant viewpoint!
"... [Iran] says: ‘Leave the Americans out of it. This is our business with the Omanis, and in this way, we will overcome the restrictions of international law, because if it is only us, then it is an absolute problem.’ ...
If an agreement is reached with Oman, it creates an opening in international law. That is also why they are ignoring the Americans.” ..."
Drohnen versus Panzer
Schlagzeile des Tages!
Ich würde auch behaupten, dass die Tage des Panzers als Waffe ausgedient haben, wie vor Jahrhunderten die Rüstungen der Ritter!
New York City's Mamdani booed off the stage at NYPD event
New York's Finest! 😊
"... New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani appeared to be booed off the stage this week at a pro-New York Police Department event on Staten Island over his past support for calls to "defund the police." ..."
Chinese AI model Kimi K3 escaped its cybersecurity testing environment, researchers say
Well, they say, Chinese models are plagiarized, cloned and trained on US models! Just kidding!
"Chinese AI model Kimi escaped its cybersecurity testing environment, researchers say
Kimi K3, the latest AI model made by Chinese company Moonshot, escaped an environment set up to test its cyber capabilities, researchers said in a blog post published on Friday. ...
In the case of this Kimi test, the sandbox designed to contain the experiment was not properly configured. While the sandbox disallowed the AI model from accessing certain web traffic, the model instead bypassed the sandbox by relying on command line tools, according to the researchers at AI-focused cybersecurity firm Frontier Security. ..."
Interactive: The Heezen–Tharp World Ocean Floor Map from 1977 – State of the Planet
Recommendable! Seems to be a nice overview article!
What! It took that long to make this old map available interactive?
"... The map became one of the most influential scientific images of the 20th century, and it helped people see the ocean floor not as a static surface, but as part of a dynamic Earth. ..."
A Magnetic Clue to Life’s Origins Chemistry
Amazing stuff!
"... Their study, recently published in Chem, offers a possible missing link in a theory proposing that life first emerged on magnetic surfaces, such as the beds of shallow lakes rich in magnetic minerals. ...
an experiment ... used right- and left-handed versions of methionine – an amino acid that typically initiates protein synthesis – and passed a solution containing this amino acid through a paper filter embedded with micron-sized magnetic particles.
To track the molecules, the researchers incorporated two carbon isotopes – atoms of the same element with different weights – into the amino acid.
In some experiments, right-handed molecules contained the more common, lighter carbon-12 isotope and left-handed ones the heavier carbon-13;
in others, the assignment was reversed. The direction of magnetization was also switched: In different iterations of the experiment, the magnets first pointed toward the solution with one of their poles, north or south, then with the other. After filtering the solution, the scientists used mass spectrometry to measure the ratio of isotopes and the balance between the two chiral forms.
The result was unexpected. The magnetic filter appeared to separate methionine not only by chirality but also by isotope composition. Molecules containing the heavier carbon isotope – regardless of their handedness – showed a stronger attraction to particles magnetized in one direction over the other. ..."
From the highlights and abstract:
"The bigger picture
Isotopic fractionation in biomolecules provides key insight into chemical and biochemical formation pathways, yet the mechanisms underlying isotope selectivity in chiral molecular systems remain poorly understood.
This work demonstrates a direct experimental connection between spin-dependent interactions and isotopic effects in a chiral amino acid, showing that molecules differing only in their carbon isotope composition interact differently with oppositely magnetized surfaces. These findings reveal a previously unexplored contribution of electronic spin polarization to isotopic behavior in molecular systems.
More broadly, the results introduce spin selectivity as a new physical dimension in isotope chemistry.
In the longer term, such spin- and chirality-dependent interactions may enable new approaches for isotope discrimination or separation in chiral chemical environments, with potential relevance to analytical chemistry and materials design.
By linking magnetic interactions, molecular chirality, and isotope effects, this study establishes a framework for investigating how subtle spin-mediated processes can influence isotopic outcomes in complex molecular systems.
Highlights
• Spin-polarized magnetic filters induce carbon isotope fractionation in L-methionine
• Volume-resolved elution reveals metastable spin-dependent interactions
• Chirality couples electronic spin selectivity to isotope chemistry
• Spin-dependent effects may shape isotopic signatures in early biomolecules
Summary
Distinct isotopic fractionation in biomolecules, compared with atmospheric values, reflects their biosynthetic origin.
Monitoring these fractionation changes offers a valuable approach for probing early metabolic networks.
A key question in the study of life’s origins is the role of electronic spin and magnetic surfaces in symmetry breaking and the emergence of homochirality.
Here, we used magnetic filters to show that the dynamical interaction with the magnetic surfaces changes the isotope fractions of 13C L-methionine compared with 12C L-methionine.
Specifically, mass spectrometry analysis reveals that the isotopic fractionation of both natural and ¹³C-enriched L-methionine is influenced by electron spin-dependent interactions."
Spin-dependent isotopic fractionation of L-methionine (no public access, appeared in March 2026)
Graphical abstract
How Ukraine tries to intercept Russian drones more effectively — and affordably
The Ukraine may not need as much expensive Patriot or other missile defense systems as has been repeatedly reported in the news media!
Another media hoax is the depletion of critical ammunitions/missiles of the US military (see e.g. my blog post here).
"From new fighter jet tactics to arming up other aircraft, Ukraine has altered its strategies to make intercepting Russian drones and missiles more affordable and better suited to record wartime attacks launched by Moscow in recent months, according to a new analysis. ..."
Four Years On: An Update on the Air War Over Ukraine "An established Ukrainian F-16 Fighter Wing and the overstretch of fighters and air defences on both sides by sustained long-range strike campaigns have changed the nature of the air war."
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