Saturday, August 22, 2026

Clown Governor Walz bans copper, nickel and other precious metals mining in Minnesota,

Who wanted this fool of a governor to be Vice President of the US? Mistress Kamala! Thank God he did not become Vice President!

"Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz issued a sweeping executive order Tuesday that aims to prevent the mining of copper, nickel and other precious metals within the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeast Minnesota. ..."

‘King’ Walz bans copper mining in Minnesota, crippling attempts to de-carbonize the economy



Official photo of Governor Walz (Source)


The Fight for Afghanistan Isn’t Over

When will there ever be peace and prosperity again in Afghanistan?

"The modern history of war in Afghanistan spans over four decades of foreign intervention and internal civil conflict, beginning with the 1979 Soviet invasion [ending in 1989], transitioning through civil war [1989-2001] and the rise of the Taliban, and concluding with the 2001–2021 U.S.-led war." (Google Search)

The Fight for Afghanistan Isn’t Over "As armed opposition groups intensify attacks amid Taliban divisions, Lt. Gen. Sami Sadat explains in an exclusive interview why his forces have begun combat operations—and what comes next."

The Wolf Solar Grand Minimum roughly between 1270 and 1350 CE and of other grand solar minimums and grand solar cycles

Here is another reason why the global warming is a hoax and why climate change is a religion

Anthropocene greenhouse gases is an obscene explanation! What has probably more influence on climate on Earth when comparing trace gases and varying solar activity? Varying solar activity!

Let's not forget that the world population also increased tremendously over the past several centuries from about 1 billion around 1800 AD/CE to now about 9 billion (aka as the Population Bomb since 1968). Of course, so many humans and their activities largely concentrated in urban areas contribute to warming (e.g. urban heat island effect). However, world population growth might be at an inflection point.

Much more likely are variations in solar activity and solar cycles over short and long term periods that cause warming and cooling periods on Earth than trace gases in the atmosphere! We know for a long time about the 11 year solar activity cycle, but most likely there are other, yet to be discovered cycles like the grand solar cycle.

Grand solar minimums is the missing link I was looking for to possibly explain changes of extended warming to cooling climate periods.

Thanks to the incessant daily climate change demagoguery, the effect of solar activity on Earth climate is heavily suppressed, avoided and omitted! 

"The Wolf Solar Minimum is a grand solar minimum—a prolonged period of sharply reduced sunspot activity and magnetic output on the Sun—that lasted roughly from 1270 to 1350." (Google Search)

This Wolf Solar Minimum roughly coincides with the end of the Medieval Warm Period from about 950 AD/CE to 1250 AD/CE (not medieval climate anomaly) or it falls between the MWP and the Little Ice Age from about 1400 AD/CE to 1850 AD/CE. Or in other words, we are currently in another, modern warm period!

"Major historical grand solar minima identified in solar physics include the following:
Homeric minimum: ~750 BC – 400 BC
Oort minimum: 1040 – 1080
Wolf minimum: 1280 – 1350
Spörer Minimum: 1450 – 1550
Maunder Minimum: 1645 – 1715
Dalton Minimum: 1790 – 1820
Modern Minimum: 2020 – 2053" (Google Search)

From the abstract (1):
"In this editorial I will demonstrate with newly discovered solar activity proxy-magnetic field that the Sun has entered into the modern Grand Solar Minimum (2020–2053) that will lead to a significant reduction of solar magnetic field and activity like during Maunder minimum leading to noticeable reduction of terrestrial temperature. ..."

From the abstract (2):
"Recent progress in undersatanding a role of the solar background magnetic field in defining solar activity is presented using eigen vectors derived with Principle Compnent Analysis.
This approach revealed a presence of not only 11 year solar cycles but also of grand solar cycles with duration of 330-380 years.
We demonstrated that these grand cycles are formed by the interferences of two magnetic waves produced by solar dynamo with dipole magnetic field in two layers of the solar interior with close but not equal frequencies.
These grand cycles are always separated by grand solar minima (GSMs) similar to Maunder minimum type, with the modern GSM started in 2020 and to last until 2053.
This GSM leads to a reduction of solar irradiance by about 0.22% from the modern level and a decrease of the average terrestrial temperature by about 1.0C in the cycle 26.
The reduction of a terrestrial temperature can have important implications for different parts of the planet on growing vegetation, agriculture, food supplies and heating needs in both Northern and Southern hemispheres."

Modern Grand Solar Minimum will lead to terrestrial cooling (1, open access)

Modern grand solar minimum and its impact on the terrestrial environment (2, open access?)


Figure 3. Solar activity (summary) curve restored for 1200–3300 AD



Figure 4.
Top plot: restored total solar irradiance from 1600 until 2014 [Notice the dip around 1812 AD. This when Napoleon tried and failed to conquer Moscow due to an extremely cold winter.]
Bottom plot: Central England temperatures (CET) recorded continuously since 1658. Blue areas are reoccurring cool periods; red areas are warm periods. All times of solar minima were coincident with cool periods in central England.



Why immune responses to vaccines vary from person to person and how to predict a vaccine response before vaccination

Good news! A still open question how much of the humoral immune response is inherited and how much is due to lifetime training of the immune system of an individual.

"... In blood samples from more than 4,000 people, ASU researchers and their colleagues measured antibodies against 185 antigens—targets recognized by the immune system, including those from common viruses and bacteria as well as targets associated with autoimmune diseases.

They then used artificial intelligence to analyze patterns in samples collected before and after COVID-19 vaccination, identifying antibody signatures that helped distinguish strong vaccine responders from weak ones.

The research opens a possible path toward more personalized vaccination strategies.

"What our study found is that certain biomarkers, when analyzed with AI, can predict who is likely to respond well to a vaccine, even before they receive it. This suggests that some people may be more immune-ready than others," ..."

From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
Pre-existing antibodies to common microbes predict new vaccine response robustness
• These sentinel antibodies are stable markers of humoral immune readiness
AI models use global antibody profiles to stratify high and low vaccine responders
Blunted vaccine responses occur in both immunosuppressed and healthy individuals

Summary
Predicting which individuals will mount poor antibody responses before vaccination could improve personalized vaccination strategies.
Here, we conducted a national longitudinal study of humoral immune responses to 185 antigens, including SARS-CoV-2 (n = 3), common microbial pathogens (n = 157), and autoantigens (n = 25), in 1,644 immunosuppressed patients and 2,445 healthy individuals before and after COVID-19 vaccination.
Although blunted COVID-19 vaccine responses were more frequent in solid organ transplant recipients and individuals with multiple myeloma, autoimmune disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and human immunodeficiency virus, responses were highly heterogeneous within every cohort, and approximately 5%–6% of healthy individuals also mounted weak responses.
Pre-existing antibodies to common microbes, including Staphylococcus aureus, respiratory syncytial virus, and human respirovirus 3, consistently predicted post-vaccination antibody responses in both healthy and immunosuppressed populations.
These broadly prevalent antimicrobial antibodies represent sentinel antibodies that may serve as biomarkers of system-level humoral immune competence.
Using global antimicrobial antibody profiles, we developed a deep-learning predictive model that stratified individuals according to their likelihood of mounting blunted vaccine responses.
Together, these findings identify pre-existing antimicrobial antibody profiles as scalable biomarkers of humoral immune responsiveness and provide a framework for predicting vaccine responses before immunization."

Why immune responses to vaccines vary from person to person

Why immune responses to vaccines vary from person to person (original news release) "Study finds past immune encounters may predict future vaccine response"


Graphical abstract


Figure 2 The multiplexed humoral immune profiling of 8,687 individual samples among seven cohorts


Figure 7 Pre-existing antimicrobial antibody profiles predict healthy individuals with low vaccine response to COVID-19 booster


Robots learn new skills from a single video—in just 29 seconds

This seems to be an interesting new Chinese paper on robotics!

Did these researchers successfully overcome catastrophic learning of previously learned skills?

"... Researchers ... recently developed HOST (Human-to-robot One-Shot Skill AcquisiTion), a new framework that could allow robots to acquire new skills faster and more efficiently. Their proposed learning approach ... allows a robot to acquire a new skill from a single video showing a human demonstration without compromising previously acquired abilities. ..."

"...
Highlights
  • Inference-time skill acquisition: one human video, no fine-tuning, and no parameter update.
  • Fast acquisition: 29 seconds per novel skill on average, including recording the demonstration.
  • Broad real-robot evaluation: acquires executable skills across 50 novel manipulation tasks, each evaluated over 20 trials.
  • Strong novel-task performance: achieves 62% average success on the task subset used for baseline comparisons.
  • Data and time efficiency: 50 times fewer demonstrations and 507 times faster acquisition than the strongest task-specific fine-tuning baseline evaluated in the paper.
  • Skill retention: new skills are supplied through external video context rather than written into the shared policy weights.
  • Robust execution: evaluated under lighting changes, unseen objects, scene replacement, and human disturbances during execution.
..."

From the abstract:
"The ability to acquire skills rapidly and effortlessly while retaining those already mastered is essential for robots. However, current methods still rely on a cumbersome training-time loop that is costly and slow, while eroding skills already mastered.
In this paper, we introduce HOST (Human-to-robot One-Shot Skill AcquisiTion), a framework that enables a robot to acquire skills in seconds from a single human video while retaining previously mastered skills.
HOST resolves skill acquisition through a cascade of self-grounded prediction.
It first estimates the robot's progress within the demonstrated task, then translates the upcoming progression into the robot's own future observations, and finally derives actions from these predicted observations.
This cascade is trained on targets coupled to the video demonstration, obtained by mapping the robot trajectory and the video demonstration onto a shared task progress manifold, then redefining each target to align with the future progression of the video.
HOST thereby enables the robot to actively follow the demonstrated procedure and adapt it to the robot's embodiment.
HOST acquires novel skills at inference time from a single human video in an average of 29 seconds and achieves a 62% average success rate. It exceeds the zero-shot baseline by 45% while retaining previously mastered skills.
HOST even exceeds the baseline fine-tuned on 50 robot demonstrations per task while requiring 50 times fewer demonstrations and acquiring each skill 507 times faster. ..."

Robots learn new skills from a single video—in just 29 seconds

Why do we get sleepy? How neurons control sleep drive

Amazing stuff!

"... researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Auburn University, have now identified specific neurons that are crucial for this balanced relationship between sleep and wakefulness.
"We have identified neuronal populations that monitor prolonged wakefulness and actively promote sleep," ... "This is an important missing piece of the puzzle in understanding why we become sleepy." ...

This highlighted specific brain areas that reflected time spent awake. Within one of these regions, they further identified two distinct neuronal populations that influence sleep drive: GABAergic and serotonergic neurons in the brainstem.
The activation of both neuronal populations increased the longer the animals stayed awake and declined again after sleep onset. ..."

From the abstract:
"Prolonged wakefulness increases sleep drive and is normally compensated for by increased sleep. This homeostatic regulation of sleep shapes our lives profoundly, but the underlying neural circuit mechanisms remain poorly understood.
Here, we identify wake-activated neurons that regulate sleep drive in mice, using whole-brain activity mapping, targeted neuronal manipulations and electrophysiology.
By comparing whole-brain responses to sleep deprivation, recovery sleep and circadian behaviour, we identify the anterior medial preoptic area and the median raphe as candidate regions that encode sleep deficit. Activating sleep-deprivation-responsive cells in these regions induces increases in sleep duration and intensity that resemble recovery sleep. Conversely, inhibiting deprivation-responsive cells reduces sleep and abolishes the increased sleep propensity usually observed during deprivation.
Neurons in the median raphe that are responsive to sleep deprivation project to subcortical sleep-associated regions and act through the preoptic hypothalamus. These deprivation-sensitive cells include serotonergic neurons and a distinct population of GABAergic neurons, whose intrinsic excitability increases during sleep deprivation.
Co-activation of GABAergic and serotonergic neurons synergistically promotes sleep, whereas 
co-inhibition chronically decreases sleep by nearly 70%.
Remarkably, most mice survive despite this marked reduction in sleep, without the compensatory increases in sleep drive or the behavioural deficits typically associated with severe sleep deprivation.
Together, these results define neuronal populations that are activated during wakefulness and are crucial for sleep drive."

Why do we get sleepy? How neurons control sleep drive

Why do we get sleepy? How neurons control sleep drive (original news release) "Why does staying awake inevitably make us sleepy? Researchers ... have identified neuronal populations in the brain that become activated during prolonged wakefulness and are crucial for sleep drive. Their findings provide new insights on how the brain generates the need for sleep."


Sleep-promoting neurons (green) and recently activated neurons (magenta) in the mouse brain.


Fig. 1: Mapping of whole-brain activity reveals correlates of sleep deprivation and recovery.


Fig. 2: Deprivation-TRAP cells promote NREM sleep and slow-wave activity.


Scientists unveil more than 600 new tissue models of human cancer including over 150 models of rare cancers

Amazing stuff! Cancer is history (soon)!

"... developed nearly 700 new cancer models, derived from patient tumors, which they hope will aid in drug development. 

These cells, which represent 25 different types of cancer, are now available for cancer researchers around the world to use. ..."

From the abstract:
"The development of new therapeutics and the validation of pathogenetic cancer mechanisms require representative laboratory models. However, existing collections represent only a fraction of the diversity observed in human cancer. Recent technologies have enabled efficient in vitro model derivation (for example, tumour organoids). However, whether these maintain essential properties of patient tumours during long-term expansion has not been systematically investigated.
Here we present results of a large-scale international programme—the Human Cancer Models Initiative—which involved the generation of a resource of 665 next-generation models from 2,780 donors with 25 cancer types and integrated tumour–model whole genome, exome, methylome and transcriptome analyses. The resource provides 522 models with comprehensive clinical data, 153 models of rare cancers and 71 models from participants with non-European ancestry. Analyses of 421 matched tumour–model pairs reveal high genetic (97.8%) and epigenetic (95%) concordance and define correlates of model discordance. Single-nucleus RNA sequencing of tumour–model pairs reveals subsets of models in which culture conditions significantly influence cell states.
Finally, we characterize model preservation of extrachromosomal DNA and post-treatment mutational signatures to provide opportunities to study therapeutic resistance.
This model repository is being made available to the community—including multimodal molecular profiling, clinical information and integrative software tools—thus providing a valuable resource for preclinical investigation of cancer pathogenesis and treatment response."

Scientists unveil more than 600 new tissue models of human cancer | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Derived from patient tumor samples and available to researchers around the world, the cells will aid the development of new cancer treatments."



Fig. 1: Overview of the HCMI resource and clinical demographics.


Fig. 3: Transcriptional and epigenetic concordance between models and matched tumours.


Forensic Psychiatrists on both sides agree the mother heard voices the day she killed her three children. Really!

How is that even possible? Seems to be junk headline! The forensic psychiatrists did not agree, they just heard the same story from the killer.

What did the husband know and what did he do about it?

"Forensic psychiatrists for both the defense and prosecution agree that Duxbury mother Lindsay Clancy was hearing voices on the day she strangled her three children but disagree on whether that makes her culpable for their murders.

Her uttering “Go to God” as she killed her children, one expert argued, suggests the mom knew what she was doing was wrong. ..."

"... [forensic psychiatrist Dr. Avram Mack] said Clancy recounted the killings to him, saying she heard a loud male voice telling her to kill the children so she could kill herself. She recalled strangling the children and saying "go to God" as she did so, he told jurors. ..."

Psychiatrists agree Lindsay Clancy heard voices the day she killed her children: 'Go to God' "The defense rests its case that she is not criminally responsible"

Who Is Natalie Harp? The Woman Always Beside President Trump with Palki Sharma

Anything wrong with her being a close confidant/aide of President Trump? So far the news coverage of Ms. Harp seems to be rather hot air!

Who Is Natalie Harp? The Woman Always Beside Trump | The Palki Sharma Show | India Global Review - YouTube


Friday, August 21, 2026

Calicut: A day of food in Kerala's culinary capital

Bon appetit!

(238) Calicut: A day of food in Kerala's culinary capital | BBC News India - YouTube


Khatia Buniatishvili plays Liebestraum No. 3 from Franz Liszt | Verbier Festival 2011

Enjoy!

(239) Khatia Buniatishvili plays Liebestraum No. 3 from Franz Liszt | Verbier Festival 2011 - YouTube


Prince - Hot Thing (Live - 'Sign O' The Times' - 1987)

Enjoy!

(238) Prince - Hot Thing (Live - 'Sign O' The Times' - 1987) - YouTube


Prince - Musicology (Official Music Video)

Enjoy!

(238) Prince - Musicology (Official Music Video) - YouTube


Prince - Nothing Compares 2 U (Official Video)

Enjoy!

(238) Prince - Nothing Compares 2 U (Official Video) - YouTube


Turkey Issues Arrest Warrant for Israel's Netanyahu Over 'Gaza Genocide'. Really!

Osman Sultan Erdogan (age 72, president of Turkey since 2014) is becoming more and more erratic! And Turkey is still a NATO member!

(236) Turkey Issues Arrest Warrant for Israel's Netanyahu Over 'Gaza Genocide' | Vantage on Firstpost - YouTube


Bank Withdrawals Surge: Is Russia Headed for a Banking Crisis?

Good news! Perhaps, there is a slow bank run going on in Russia! Make Putin the Terrible sweat and have nightmares!

(234) Withdrawals Surge: Is Russia Headed for a Banking Crisis? - YouTube







Texas Governor Greg Abbott asks US Department of Justice to investigate accommodations for Muslim foot washing at two major airports

Food for thought! When doe religious accommodations go too far?

Why does the airport have to provide this and not a Muslim organisation/mosque e.g. by renting a space on the airport for this purpose?

"Gov. Greg Abbott is escalating his fight against foot-washing stations used by Muslim passengers at Texas’ biggest airports, requesting on Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the matter. ...

Abbott threatened last week to pull state funding from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston over their ablution stations, saying they amounted to religious discrimination. The stations are used by Muslim passengers who perform ritual washings before their daily prayers. ..."

Greg Abbott asks DOJ to investigate Muslim airport accommodations

Engineers connect bacteria to create living transistors

Amazing stuff! Are we getting closer to artificial biological intelligence? You bet!

The human brain is a lot more energy efficient than machine learning & artificial intelligence. The human brain does not need a voracious water and energy consuming data center!

"MIT researchers have engineered bacteria that can function as transistors, allowing the team to create living “circuit boards” that can be printed onto a growth medium in a Petri dish. ...

The research team designed two different transistors, along with three bacterial strains that relay information between the transistors, giving them the building blocks they need to design nearly any type of circuit. In a new study, they used these cells to create circuits that can add two or three inputs, or send one input to a specific location in the circuit. ..."

From the abstract:
"The multicellular forms and functions seen in biology are controlled by cellular communication and collective computation.
Reprogramming natural systems is difficult because they comprise many signaling molecules connecting a web of regulatory networks within cells.
Here we apply principles from pass transistor logic (PTL) to design bacteria that can be easily reconfigured to perform computations on a solid surface. Strains of Pantoea agglomerans were built to encode two transistors (N-type and P-type) whose inputs and outputs are small molecules. They are connected by three relay strains that convert molecular diffusion to unidirectional flow.
To build circuits, an acoustic liquid handler prints patterns of these five strains on a surface.
By changing the pattern, not requiring any genetic changes, different operations are implemented, including multi-input multioutput logic, demultiplexor, half-adder and full-adder.
This work demonstrates that only five cell types, each encoding a simple operation, can be scaled to create complex computational operations."

MIT engineers connect bacteria to create living transistors | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology "By wiring together colonies of these bacteria, the researchers built circuits that can perform complicated calculations."





President Trump's Smart Move to Cut domestic Nonprofit Funding

Recommendable! Probably, federal government funding of nonprofits is way too lavish!

In general, it should be left mostly to the private sector to fund non-profits!

How much of it is vote buying and/or government funding of partisan propaganda?

"In fiscal year 2025 the federal government obligated $36.3B in grants directly to 501(c)(3) charities that are not universities or hospitals — down from $43.5B in FY2024, a 16.5% decline ..."

"... But the question is: What obligation does the federal government have to support such groups, and what would happen if these groups had to rely more on private donations for their operations? ...

While the Chronicle refers to the problem of losing federal support and instead being forced to rely on “donors whose interests can be fickle,” those donors are definitely looking for some bang for their buck. And yes, the donors may decide to withdraw funds from organizations that are not accomplishing what they want. But maybe this will force organizations to be more responsive to a wider audience. ...

At least 30 percent of nonprofits receive government grants, totaling $300 billion annually, according to a Candid analysis. That’s almost triple the amount that private foundations give to the same groups. ...

The depth of these entanglements becomes apparent on the rare occasions when the relationships break down. In 2024, the MacArthur Foundation withheld a grant of $625,000 from the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office until the office showed that it was “fully committed to the goals and strategies” of criminal-justice reform. [What! How is that even possible!] ..."

Trump's Smart Move to Cut Nonprofit Funding | American Enterprise Institute - AEI

What happened to federal grants to charities in FY2025? (This report provides annual data only for only two years, i.e. 2024 & 2025. This is lousy and deceptive!)

Federal Grants to Everyday Charities Fell 38% in Trump's First Months – Chronicle of Philanthropy (This report provides monthly data for only for two years, i.e. 2024 & 2025. This is lousy and deceptive!)

How reliant are nonprofits on government grants? "Delve into data to learn how many nonprofits rely on government grants—including which types of organizations and U.S. states receive them most–and discover what a potential freeze of federal funding may mean for the sector as a whole."








President Trump’s dictator envy is once again on display in tiff with South Korea. Really!

What is here clearly on display is another manifestation of Trump Derangement Syndrome of a journalist!

"President Donald Trump's decision to "substantially reduce" joint military exercises between the armed forces of the United States and those of South Korea captures the distilled essence of the nation's current chief executive in its combination of petulance and affection for autocrats. ..."

Trump’s dictator envy is once again on display in tiff with South Korea

Hundreds of women rally outside courthouse to show support for woman accused of murdering her 3 children. Really!

Did the killer have postpartum psychosis only after her third child? Why did she have three children?

What did the husband know or do about it?

Caveat: I am not familiar with the case.

"Hundreds of Lindsay Clancy supporters, many wearing pink clothing emblazoned with phrases such as "Believe," "She Needed Help" and "Peace For Lindsay," gathered Thursday outside the courthouse where she is on trial in the killings of her three children. ..."

Hundreds of women rally outside courthouse to show support for woman accused of murdering her 3 children | Blaze Media

Google Gemma AI passes 1 billion downloads

Good news! Very impressive!

"... What matters far more than the download count is what the community is building with them. Over the past two years, developers have published over one-hundred thousand Gemma model variants and built a thriving ecosystem of innovation we call the Gemmaverse. ...

Empowering 100 million citizens in India

... India's National Health Authority (NHA) integrated Gemma 4 and the Google open-source Medical Data Toolkit into Aarogya Setu 2.0, an app with over 100 million downloads on Android. By using Gemma 4 to process complex medical reports into standardized digital formats, the app helps citizens manage and securely share their health data across providers. This capability demonstrates how developers can deploy our open models to handle critical information at a massive scale. ...

Pioneering breakthroughs in medicine

Researchers from Yale and Google built C2S-Scale, a powerful AI model designed to interpret the “language” of single cells. Built on Gemma, C2S-Scale successfully discovered a novel cancer therapy pathway that was verified in living cells. This research marks the first time an AI system produced novel mechanistic therapeutic pathways that were verified in living cells. ..."

Gemma passes 1 billion downloads "From outer space to underwater, here's how developers are bringing a positive impact with our open models."

CO₂-Emissionen: Volkswagen drohen Milliardenstrafen der EU. Wirklich!

Der Klimawahn tobt nicht nur in der Bananenrepublik D! Ist VW auch exemplarisch für die Misere der Bananenrepublik D? Jede Wette!

Geht es noch absurder?

CO₂-Emissionen: Volkswagen drohen Milliardenstrafen der EU | FAZ (Abo erforderlich) "Weil Volkswagen zu wenig Elektroautos verkauft [???], werden die europäischen Grenzwerte für CO₂-Emissionen nicht eingehalten [???]. Das kann teuer werden. Für die Tochtergesellschaft Porsche deutet sich eine Lösung unter chinesischer Beteiligung an."

Manilas Nordfriedhof: Der lebendigste Friedhof der Welt

Eine makabere Schlagzeile? Oder wenn der Día de los Muertos (ein mexikanischer Feiertag) zum Alltag wird. Vorsicht Satire!
 
Es scheint so als ob z.B. die South China Morning Post dieses Thema schon vor einem Jahr aufgegriffen hat (siehe YouTube video Living among the dead in a Manila cemetery Oder Slate Magazin in 2017.

„Komm, Bro, ich zeige dir den lebendigsten Friedhof der Welt“ (Abo erforderlich) "Weil es zu wenig Wohnungen gibt, leben in Manila Tausende auf dem Friedhof in Gräbern. Wenn es regnet, fischen die Kinder das Mittagessen aus dem Gully."








Apollo Atomics wants to make nuclear power cheaper by dramatically shrinking the steam generator

Good news!

"The nuclear power industry is undergoing something of a renaissance, with startups raking in funding to develop advanced reactors in a quest to lower costs. But based on recent projections, it’s unlikely those reactors will be cost-competitive anytime soon. ...

Apollo is rethinking the way thermal energy is converted into electricity. ... the steam generator ...

While most steam generators are hand-built and several stories tall, Apollo says its version can be mass-manufactured and is about the size of a person. That has allowed the startup to build a reactor that’s 40-times smaller than one that uses a conventional steam generator. ..."

Apollo Atomics wants to make nuclear power cheaper by shrinking an overlooked part | TechCrunch




Optimised, updated Free trade agreement Switzerland - China (SECO) in August 2026

Good or bad news! Something to watch!

It appears, this update is quite a success for Switzerland. However, it may deepen dependence!

Caveat: I am not familiar with this FTA nor with the current update

"President Guy Parmelin and Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao announced on 20 August, during a meeting in Bern, that negotiations on the optimisation of the free trade agreement (FTA) between Switzerland and the People’s Republic of China had been concluded.

Switzerland has achieved its negotiating objectives.
Under the existing FTA almost all Chinese imports into Switzerland are duty-free, while this is only the case for around half of Swiss exports to China.
The optimised FTA rectifies this imbalance: 99.8 per cent of Switzerland’s current exports will be able to enter the Chinese market duty-free. ...

Lastly, the provisions on environmental issues and labour rights will also be expanded and strengthened in the revised FTA. ..."

"... Trade ​between the ​two countries has ⁠expanded from 31.7 billion francs in 2015 to 51.2 billion francs last year, according ​to figures from the Swiss customs office, ​with China ⁠a big market for Swiss chemicals, pharmaceuticals, precision instruments and watches. ..."

Switzerland and China conclude negotiations on optimisation of free trade agreement (original press release)

Iran’s Kurdish and other Opposition forces to the theocracy in Iran Have United

Good news! Were it not for the joined domestic and abroad Iranian opposition that the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was toppled in 1979, but unfortunately the Islamists took control/over and established a theocratic dictatorship.

Let's hope and pray that the days of the Islamic Republic of Iran are numbered!

"The Iran Freedom Congress (IFC) was founded in London in March 2026 to bring together opponents of the Islamic Republic around two goals: increasing political and economic pressure on the regime and preparing for a democratic transition if it falls. Its members have engaged with European lawmakers to push for measures including limiting financial ties with Tehran and pressuring the regime over executions, while also confronting the question of what should replace it and how a transition should be managed.

The Congress is not a government-in-exile, and participation does not require its members to agree on every political issue. It is an Iran-wide opposition platform that brings together political parties, civic groups, and individual figures to develop common positions on Iran’s future. Among its participants are three parties from Iran’s Kurdish region, known among Kurds as Rojhelat, or Eastern Kurdistan.

Those Kurdish parties are simultaneously part of another, narrower political project. In February, most of the major parties from Rojhelat formed their own coalition in an attempt to coordinate Kurdish political strategy after decades of rivalry. ..."

Iran’s Kurdish Opposition Has United. Can the Coalition Hold? "The parties agree on opposing the Islamic Republic. They are less clear on what acting together actually requires."

30 major US research universities ordered by the Department of War to audit foreign research partnerships

Good news! From time to time such audits are necessary to deal with the enemies of open and free societies!

Not only capitalists are greedy and willing to sell anything (incl. the infamous rope to hang them)! 😊

"The US Department of War (DoW) has ordered 30 major research universities, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to audit and report on their financial and research collaborations with foreign institutions by the end of the month or risk losing federal funding. ..."

30 US universities ordered to audit foreign research partnerships | News | Chemistry World (behind paywall) "Pentagon says review must be finished by the end of August to maintain federal funding"

How America Prospered Before the Introduction of the Income Tax in 1913

Recommendable! Food for thought! Yes, one can argue that the introduction of the income tax by the US in 1913 was a huge mistake and it enormously fostered the expansion of Big Government in the following decades and until now!

However, on the other hand the article is quite naive! "Before 1911, the U.S. federal government raised almost all its tax revenue from customs duties (tariffs) on imported goods and domestic excise taxes" (Google Search).
Or in other words, how is the federal government to generate sufficient revenues to operate and fulfill its government functions (like defense, law enforcement)? Of course, less government revenues also means less or smaller government!

Naivete is a very common criticism of classical liberalism!

"The power to tax is the power to destroy" is a famous quote from Chief Justice John Marshall in the 1819 U.S. Supreme Court case McCulloch v. Maryland" (Google Search)

"‍Taxing labor has deterred American growth and prosperity. It has exacerbated income inequality. Most importantly, it is immoral.

Ratified in 1913, the Constitution’s Sixteenth Amendment enabled the federal government to levy an income tax. That amendment should be repealed. It conflicts with the Thirteenth Amendment, which bans slavery and involuntary servitude. When you work until May [Tax Freedom Day] every year to pay off your burden to the government, you are in a form of involuntary servitude. ...

It would also unleash capital formation throughout the economy. Every business startup needs capital to fund growth. Before the Sixteenth Amendment, Americans saved much more of their income.
The average savings rate in the nineteenth century was somewhere between 10 percent and 14 percent; today the rate is about 4 percent to 7 percent. ..."

How America Prospered Before the Income Tax — The Coolidge Review

11 EV carmakers (incl. Tesla) recall a total of over 4 million cars as part of China-wide push to stop hidden door handles

When elegant design and electronics meet reality!

Notice how few cars are affected by this recall in a country with over 1 billion population! However, keep in mind there are probably hundred millions of electric motorcycles in operation in China.

"Tesla is recalling just shy of 3 million vehicles in China as part of a nationwide effort to alert vehicle owners to hidden emergency door releases, which can trap occupants in the event of a crash or a fire.

Reuters reported on Friday that 11 carmakers in China are issuing recalls related to the problem. Nine manufacturers, including Tesla, will install warning labels on their vehicles that help occupants identify the emergency door releases.
Xiaomi, Xpeng, and Geely brands Zeekr and Lynk & Co. are also recalling EVs. All 11 companies will also push software updates as part of the recall.

Manual door releases have become a problem in recent years as automakers like Tesla made electronic door latches the standard way of getting in and out of a car. ..."

"Summary
  • China's largest auto recall campaign yet concerns 4.3 million vehicles
  • Tesla to recall 2.98 million vehicles
  • China bans hidden door handles from 2027
..."

Tesla recalls 3 million cars as part of China-wide push to stop hidden door handles | TechCrunch

Individualized mRNA vaccine combination treatment Triumphs Over Melanoma

Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!

"An mRNA vaccine to treat the deadliest form of skin cancer has met a major milestone on the path to a new treatment, according to clinical trial results released today by Merck and Moderna.

If approved by the FDA, it would become the first ever mRNA-based cancer treatment and pave the way for similar treatments for other cancers—representing “the next frontier of cancer immunotherapy,” ...

Phase 3 clinical trial results showed that the experimental drug—intismeran autogene—prevented recurrence and metastasis of removed melanoma tumors when combined with the immunotherapy Keytruda. The companies have not released the full phase 3 results, but earlier phase 2 trials reported that risk of recurrence or death was reduced by nearly half after five years. ..."

"First and only combination regimen to demonstrate statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in RFS and DMFS compared to KEYTRUDA alone for these patients in the adjuvant melanoma setting

The Companies plan to present data at an upcoming international medical meeting and will engage with regulators on filing submissions for intismeran autogene in combination with KEYTRUDA

Intismeran autogene is an mRNA-based individualized neoantigen therapy (INT) designed specifically for each patient based on the unique set of mutations within their tumor to train and activate the immune system to recognize and fight cancer
...

The trial met its primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival (RFS) and a key secondary endpoint of distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS). This represents the first positive Phase 3 readout for an individualized neoantigen therapy (INT) and for an mRNA-based cancer therapy, as well as the first Phase 3 study to demonstrate a clinically meaningful improvement over KEYTRUDA alone, a standard-of-care immunotherapy, in the adjuvant setting for patients with resected melanoma. ..."

Global Health NOW: In the ‘Next Frontier’ in Cancer Treatment, mRNA Triumphs Over Melanoma’; and All Eyes on Australia as Social Media Ban Plays Out

Kyrsten Sinema Reveals New Details Of Affair With Married Veteran Bodyguard While a US Senator

Another Me Too event! Welcome to the Age of Gender Equality! Human, all too human! 😊

Maybe Ms. Sinema watched The Bodyguard movie (1992) one too many times! Just kidding!

Men watch out!

"... A new narrative of the affair was made available through depositions filed in the ongoing lawsuit initiated by the bodyguard’s ex-wife under North Carolina’s homewrecker law, which enables an individual to sue the person they believe to be the cause of their divorce. ...

Matthew Ammel (Ammel), Sinema’s former bodyguard, had been married to the plaintiff, Heather Ammel (Heather), for 14 years. The Ammels had three children together. Ammel began working for Sinema in the spring of 2022. 

Sinema admitted in her July 31 deposition that despite knowing Ammel was married with children, she and Ammel had sex for the first time on May 27, 2024, while on a Memorial Day trip in Napa, California. Prior to that date, Sinema denied having ever flirted with him, let alone held or touched him in any way that could be considered romantic in nature. ..."

Kyrsten Sinema Reveals New Details Of Affair With Married Veteran Bodyguard While In Senate - AZ FREE NEWS


Kyrsten Sinema (Source)




The U.S. began deporting illegal immigrants to Liberia

A case of history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes? What an irony of history!

"History: Founded in 1822 by freed African-American and Caribbean settlers backed by the American Colonization Society, it became Africa's oldest republic when it declared independence in 1847." (Google Search)

"The U.S. began deporting immigrants to Liberia in an expansion of President Trump’s plan to send migrants to third-party countries.
A plane carrying an initial group of deportees landed in the country today, according to a spokesman for the Liberian government. The flight is part of a broader plan, announced by Liberian officials earlier this week, for the country to take up to 1,200 deportees in the next year.
More than 35 nations, including South Sudan, Mexico and Uganda, have similar agreements with the Trump administration."

The Wall Street Journal What's news


The flag of Liberia


China joins Europe in scrapping Windows for Linux

Headline of the day! However, it appears to be sensational!

As a Linux user myself, I get it! 😊

"... key takeaways
  • The Chinese government is dumping Windows for some desktops.
  • A Linux desktop version will replace Windows.
  • The most likely candidates are Kylin OS or UOS.
According to a Bloomberg report, attributed to China's Ministry of State Security, the country has ordered some government agencies to drop Windows 10 China Government Edition for Chinese-made Linux distributions. ..."

"China is pulling the plug on an older version of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows tailored for government agencies, taking another step toward rooting out the world’s most popular PC software in a broader effort to reduce its dependence on foreign technology.

The Chinese Ministry of State Security recently told some state-linked entities to uninstall customized Windows 10 software from their machines, people familiar with the matter said. That moves up the schedule to discontinue the operating system by several months ..."

China joins Europe in scrapping Windows for Linux | ZDNET "The specialized Chinese version of Windows was already scheduled for retirement in February 2027, but now its end-of-life date has been moved up."

Thursday, August 20, 2026

Milei's Latest Gamble to Save Argentina's Economy by opening up Argentina to mining and more federalism

Recommendable! Is it a gamble? I don't think so! It makes a lot of business sense!

The video points out e.g. that neighboring Chile has a lot more mining activity than Argentina although Argentina has plenty of natural resources as well to be mined.

Will It Work? Milei's Latest Gamble to Save Argentina's Economy | VisualPolitik EN - YouTube