How much have the Houthis been degraded by the airstrikes from Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government?

Good question! Time and more airstrikes will tell!

Do you have to have troops on the ground to defeat the terrorists?

Next time, perhaps the buildup of terrorist groups like the Houthis need to be prevented early on!

"Saudi or Yemeni government-aligned forces conducted airstrikes on Sanaa City on October 3, likely to degrade Houthi capabilities central to the group's offensive campaigns.

Yemeni government-aligned forces also struck Houthi frontline positions, reinforcements, and logistics throughout southwestern Yemen. Yemeni Armed Forces Spokesperson Majed al Nuzaili claimed that strikes on Houthi reinforcements and support convoys have caused a state of "deprivation" that is weakening Houthi forces' ability to fight in Taiz Governorate. ..."

Iran Update: October 3, 2026 | Critical Threats

Resistance gene helps C. difficile spores survive hospital-grade disinfectants

Serious stuff! Good news! Time to develop new antibiotics!

"New research ... reveals that the bacterium Clostridioides difficile has picked up a key gene that gives its dormant spores a free pass against antibiotics and cleaning products.

Its spores act like plant seeds, waiting to activate and spread in the right environment, like the human gut.

This is particularly dangerous because the bacterium is commonly found in hospitals and causes diarrhea that can be deadly for patients who are already ill. ..."

From the abstract:

"Spore-forming bacteria produce two distinct cell types: vegetative cells and resilient spores. While antibiotic resistance is typically associated with vegetative cells, spores play a critical role in disseminating resistance genes due to their durability and transmissibility.

We previously demonstrated that cephamycin antibiotics target the conserved spore-specific protein SpoVD, significantly reducing spore formation in pathogens including Clostridioides difficile.

Here, we show that when C. difficile acquires CdmecA, a homologue of Staphylococcus aureus mecA, one of the most globally burdensome resistance genes, the anti-sporulation effect of cephamycins is bypassed.

CdMecA functionally replaces CdSpoVD, restoring sporulation and producing phenotypically distinct spores.

We further show that mecA is prevalent across C. difficile strains and other pathogenic, gut, and environmental spore-formers. Since SpoVD is conserved, MecA may broadly co-opt sporulation; we confirm this in Clostridium perfringens. This work reveals an unusual resistance mechanism with unexpected physiological consequences, reshaping our understanding of antibiotic resistance within the context of sporulation and microbial adaptation."

Resistance gene helps C. difficile spores survive hospital-grade disinfectants

Antimicrobial resistance: Scientists discover new gene boosting harmful gut bacteria (original news release)

Uncovering an alternate pathway of antibiotic resistance in spore-forming bacteria (open access)

Antibiotic resistance is supercharging dangerous gut bacteria to withstand even hospital-grade disinfectants intended to kill them

Human night owls are more likely to retire early and with disabilities. Really!

This might be dubious research! I suspect other factors than the circadian cycle or chronotype.

Again Finnish people were used for this study. See also my other blog post of today involving Finnish subjects. For some reason (better data?), Finnish people seem to be preferred test subjects. 😊

"... People with evening chronotypes are 1.7 times as likely as morning chronotypes to retire early and receive a disability pension, according to research ...

To strengthen the evidence, researchers analyzed whether people classified as E-types in their mid-40s were more likely to receive a disability pension over the next 12 years than people classified as M-types.

The researchers analyzed data from an ongoing population study that began in 1966 and included 96% of all people born in two northern provinces of Finland. ...

During the 12-year follow-up, 135 of the men (5.2%) and 249 of the women (8.1%) were granted their first disability pension.

Being classified as an E-type at age 46 was linked to a 1.7-fold greater likelihood of receiving a disability pension over the following 12 years compared with being an M-type, for both men and women. ..."

From the abstract:

"Objectives

Evening chronotypes (E) generally have poorer health than morning chronotypes (M), but whether this translates into disability pensions (DPs) is poorly known. We examined whether chronotype at age 46 predicts incident DPs over a 12-year follow-up.

Methods

In 2012, we determined chronotype among the non-retired participants of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (n=5679) using the short Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire, further validated by comparing the participants’ survey scores at age 46 with their polygenic scores for morningness (PGSmorn) at age 31 (n=5130). We used Cox regression to calculate HRs with 95% CIs of incident DPs until age 57 (years 2012–2023), adjusting for factors related to socioeconomic status, health, sleep and working times at age 46.

Results

In total, 253 men (9.7%) and 381 women (12.4%) were E-types. The PGSmorn correlated with the chronotype (p<0.001).

During follow-up, 135 men (5.2%) and 249 women (8.1%) were granted their first DP. For E-types, the corresponding proportions were 8.3% and 12.1%, respectively. Compared with M-types, the unadjusted HRs (95% CIs) for DPs among E-types were 1.72 (1.04 to 2.83) in men and 1.73 (1.22 to 2.46) in women. Adjusting for socioeconomic factors did not attenuate the results.

Conclusions

The higher incidence of DPs among E-types in the core productive years of work careers represents a major challenge for sustainable national economies. Further research and action to support health and work ability among E-types are needed."

Night owls may struggle to continue working until official retirement age

Evening chronotype and disability pensions: 12-year register-based follow-up of middle-aged adults from the Northern Finland birth cohort 1966 Free (open access)

Pre-exercise caffeine enhances repeated sprint performance for at least 3.5 hours

Coffee is a miracle drink! Here is more evidence! 😊

"In the study, 12 healthy young adults consumed either caffeine (5.5 mg per kilogram of body mass) or a placebo 60 minutes before exercise. Participants then completed repeated cycling sprint tests over 3.5 hours. Physiological measurements included plasma caffeine and noradrenaline concentrations, cardiovascular and respiratory responses, cerebral blood flow, and ratings of perceptual responses. Caffeine enhanced both mean and peak sprint power output, with noticeable performance benefits for at least 3.5 hours after ingestion. ..."

From the abstract:

"Introduction:

Caffeine is well recognized to acutely enhance repeated sprint performance during intermittent exercise involving brief, repeated efforts. However, it remains unclear whether a single pre-exercise dose improves repeated sprint performance, and whether it alters noradrenergic, cardiorespiratory, and perceptual responses over several hours.

Methods:

12 healthy young adults (4 females) completed two randomized, double-blind trials ingesting caffeine (5.5 mg·kg⁻¹) or placebo. Approximately 60 min after ingestion, participants performed three repeated sprint sets over a 3.5 h protocol. Each set consisted of 5 min of moderate-intensity cycling followed by 6 × 5 s sprints.

Plasma samples were collected for caffeine and noradrenaline concentration analysis. Ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), leg muscle pain, respiratory variables, and heart rate were recorded. Middle cerebral artery mean blood velocity (MCAVmean), an index of cerebral blood flow, was measured using transcranial Doppler, and carotid artery blood flow was assessed using ultrasound.

Results:

Caffeine increased mean sprint power across repeated sprint sets compared with placebo (P < 0.05), with modest but consistent effects sustained up to 3.5 h post-ingestion (0.5-2.4%). Peak power was also enhanced in the second and third sets, with increases of up to 3.7% (P < 0.05).

These effects were accompanied by higher plasma noradrenaline concentrations (P < 0.05) and lower RPE and leg muscle pain (P < 0.05).

Caffeine also reduced partial pressure of end-tidal CO2 and MCAVmean, and increased heart rate (P < 0.05).

Conclusions:

A single pre-exercise dose of caffeine (5.5 mg·kg⁻¹) sustains ergogenic effects across multiple repeated sprint bouts over 3.5 h post-ingestion. These improvements were observed alongside increased noradrenergic activity, reduced perceptual strain, and concomitant cardiorespiratory responses."

Pre-exercise caffeine enhances repeated sprint performance for at least 3.5 hours

Pre-Exercise Caffeine Enhances Repeated Sprint Performance for at Least 3.5 Hours (original news release) "Researchers at University of Tsukuba have reported that consuming caffeine before exercise enhances performance during repeated cycling sprints and that these benefits persist for at least 3.5 hours thereafter. These findings suggest that a single pre-exercise caffeine dose may help athletes maintain performance during prolonged competitions and tournament-style events."

Pre-Exercise Caffeine Enhances Repeated Sprint Performance and Alters Physiological and Perceptual Responses with Effects Lasting up to 3.5 h (no public access)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a construction permit for a commercial small modular nuclear reactor

Good news! A nuclear power renaissance!

"... authorizing the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a 300-megawatt reactor near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Small modular reactors are designed to be simpler, more standardized, and easier to build than conventional nuclear plants, potentially reducing the cost of expanding nuclear power. The permit is the second issued for a US commercial reactor this year, following TerraPower’s Natrium reactor in Wyoming in March."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a construction permit for the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a small modular nuclear reactor at its Clinch River site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, clearing the way for the nation’s first commercial small modular reactor and completing the NRC’s review in 14 months. This is the agency’s second major reactor approval this year. ..."

Doomslayer: Progress Roundup - by Malcolm Cochran

Tennessee Valley Authority Gets Approval to Build Small Nuclear Reactor (behind paywall)

NRC Approves Construction of Nation’s First Small Modular Reactor (original news release)

Idaho has cut its state administrative code nearly in half since 2018

Good news! Bravo! Trim the fat! Eat more Idaho potatoes! Just kidding!

"... Under a “zero-based regulation” program, rules that agencies did not identify as necessary were allowed to expire, while the remaining rules were reviewed chapter by chapter for their necessity, legal authority, costs, benefits, and whether less burdensome alternatives were available. By July 1, 2026, the state had eliminated 4,201 pages of regulations compared with 2018, reducing the length of its regulatory code by 49.1 percent."

Doomslayer: Progress Roundup - by Malcolm Cochran

How States Can Cut Rules and Regulations—and Make It Stick Idaho’s Two-Step Process That Other States Can Copy

Source

Hopefully Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will lose the election in Brazil

I don't know whether the son of a former president is really a better choice, but reelecting this leftist fossil from a bygone era to a fourth term is too much!

Atlas of immune cells explains how genetic variants cause disease

Good news! Thanks to 1108 Finnish individuals!

"Highlights

• Geneticists have long struggled to find the mechanisms by which many disease-linked genetic variants actually cause disease. 
• A new atlas of more than 10 million immune cells from more than 1,100 Finnish blood donors provides a way to connect disease-associated regulatory variants with the genes they control.
• The approach relies on looking at chromatin accessibility — the openness of the DNA around a certain genetic variant — and how that openness correlates with the expression of nearby genes.

...

Now, scientists have developed a new approach to connecting disease-linked regulatory variants to the actual genes they control. Their results, in Nature, reveal that these variants are more likely to influence disease risk if they alter chromatin accessibility — the openness of a section of the genome — in a way that then changes expression of a specific gene, compared to variants that affect only chromatin accessibility or gene expression alone. The finding could help other scientists prioritize the genetic variants that are most important in a particular disease. ...

Across eight broad types of immune cells, the team carried out the full analysis of chromatin accessibility and gene expression for thousands of different disease-linked genes. They then traced the precise molecular mechanisms behind several disease-linked genetic variants. ..."

From the abstract:

"Most disease-associated genetic variants lie in non-coding regions, yet mechanistic insights are limited by the lack of an empirical framework for characterizing the molecular consequences of regulatory variation.

Single-cell molecular quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping connects variants to gene regulation but lacks the power and simultaneous measurements to trace mechanisms from chromatin to expression.

Here we show that population-scale simultaneous profiling of chromatin accessibility and gene expression across immune cells reveals regulatory architectures connecting variants to disease.

From paired single-nucleus assay for transposase-accessible chromatin-sequencing (snATAC–seq) and single-nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq) analysis of 10 million peripheral blood mononuclear cells in 1,108 Finnish individuals, we identify 51,083 cis-expression QTLs for 20,829 genes, 338,100 cis-chromatin accessibility QTLs for 210,584 peaks, 119,094 putative causal variants and 593,765 peak–gene links.

Variants completing chromatin-to-expression cascades show twice the disease colocalization of chromatin-only effects, with massively parallel reporter assays validating 10,428 fine-mapped molecular QTLs.

At evolutionarily constrained genes, we identify multilayered regulatory buffering, in which chromatin accessibility changes occur with normal effect sizes, but transmission to expression is attenuated through weaker, more numerous enhancer–gene links. This reconciles why disease variants preferentially target constrained genes despite apparent expression QTL depletion.

Analysis using a massively parallel reporter assay confirms that this buffering acts downstream of the regulatory element, with constraint operating at the chromatin-to-expression interface rather than on intrinsic cis-regulatory activity.

Our atlas provides testable hypotheses for over half of immune disease associations, illustrated by cascades at autoimmune loci (TICAM1 and RHOH) and Finnish-enriched variants (TNRC18 and IL21R)."

Atlas of immune cells explains how genetic variants cause disease | Broad Institute "A new method reveals which genetic variants are most important in disease and how cells “buffer” the expression of genes critical for health."

Population-scale immune multiome atlas reveals regulatory disease mechanisms (no public access)

Population-scale multiome immune cell atlas reveals complex disease drivers (preprint, open access)

What if automating AI R&D triggers an intelligence explosion?

This could be an interesting new research paper by Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Thore Graepel, Philip H. S. Torr, Jeff Clune their team.

I would say the fear that the progress of AI could get out of control is quite overblown. Humans can handle and manage it and they will grow with it. We have done it before with nuclear power and genetics.

Keep government intervention to a minimum!

Maybe in a few years we will see super intelligent humans.

"In contrast to even a year ago, AI systems now write most of the code inside the companies that build them.

As more of the AI research and development (R&D) pipeline is automated, could AI progress radically accelerate in an "intelligence explosion," where years of advances are compressed into months or less?

Preliminary evidence suggests that it could. In this work, we assess this evidence, analyze an intelligence explosion's potential impacts, and propose policy responses. AI systems are on track to automate most AI R&D work within a few years, and possibly all of it. If this triggers an intelligence explosion, it could dramatically bring forward AI's benefits, but also pose extreme risks: capabilities growth could accelerate far beyond what society can keep up with, humanity could lose control over superhuman AI systems, and checks on power within and between states, companies, and branches of government could be severely eroded.

Although there remains much uncertainty about these possibilities, the high stakes warrant serious further attention. Policymakers should urgently obtain more visibility into the automation of AI R&D, develop ways to steer and constrain an intelligence explosion, and prepare society to adapt to an intelligence explosion's impacts."

[2609.36054] What if automating AI R&D triggers an intelligence explosion?

When Do Models Admit They Are Wrong? Failure Disclosure Is Unstable Under Reinforcement Learning

This could be an interesting new research paper by Noah D. Goodman and his team!

From the abstract:

"Outcome-based reinforcement learning can produce models with similar task performance but very different ways of communicating about their mistakes.

We study failure disclosure: whether a model admits that an attempted solution failed rather than staying silent or presenting it as successful.

Across repeated outcome-only GRPO training runs, failure disclosure varies far more than task accuracy.

The pattern extends to a second reasoning task and stabilized PPO, persists at 7B, and also appears in an instruction-conditioned 32B setting.

We also find that small floating-point and sampling differences during training can redirect reporting behavior even when the task objective and earlier training history are held fixed.

Additional tests show that failure disclosure is not a single decision: Checking the answer, entering a report, and completing the admission can separate, and the weak point depends on the task and response format.

Further, experiments with neutral controls show more broadly that behaviors left weakly constrained by training are especially likely to vary across runs, of which failure disclosure is an example. We can reduce variability in failure disclosure by discouraging the model from drifting from its starting policy on failed, well-formed responses. This makes reporting substantially more consistent, though its effect on task performance depends on the setting.

Stable task accuracy therefore does not guarantee stable safety-relevant behavior: Researchers should measure these behaviors directly across runs and design training methods that keep them reliable."

[2609.33220] When Do Models Admit They Are Wrong? Failure Disclosure Is Unstable Under Reinforcement Learning (preprint, open access)

Animals may have evolved hundreds of millions of years earlier than fossil evidence suggests

Amazing stuff!

"The earliest animals may have evolved hundreds of millions of years before their first unmistakable fossils appear in the fossil record, according to a new study led by the University of Oxford. The findings, published in Science Advances, suggest animals may have originated deep in the Neoproterozoic Era, even before some of the most extreme ice ages in Earth's history. ...

The research team ... carried out a comprehensive survey of exceptionally well-preserved microfossils from the Kheseen Biota in Mongolia. The Kheseen Biota is more than 40 million years younger than Weng'an, even though they share some species. By this time, animal fossils are known from sites elsewhere around the world, including Namibia and South China. ..."

From the abstract:

"Divergent models persist for the emergence of animals.
Lipid biomarkers suggest animals originated before 635 million years ago (Ma), but their
body fossil record extends to only 574 Ma.
Molecular clocks might differentiate between these records, but we demonstrate how their accuracy and precision hinge on maximum age calibrations.

We evaluate the Ediacaran Weng’an Biota (China) as a maximum calibration utilizing microfossils from the Kheseen Biota (Mongolia).

These two biotas have similar preservation and microfossil assemblages, containing no definitive animals.

The Kheseen Biota, deposited at a time (∼550–526 Ma) when animals were undoubtedly present, questions the validity of the Weng’an calibration. We discuss the uncertainty in maximum calibration strategies and propose multiple pre-Ediacaran deposits with favorable taphonomy, preserving both non-animal body fossils and biomarkers, as currently the most reliable calibrations.

Our analyses support a late Tonian to mid-Cryogenian (∼800–700 Ma) origin for Metazoa."

Animals may have evolved vastly earlier than fossil evidence suggests

Re-evaluating molecular clock maximum age calibrations revives pre-Ediacaran divergence estimates for animals (open access)

Fig. 4. Comparison of recovered animal divergence estimates with varying maximum calibrations.

How sex chromosomes influence lifelong health beyond determining biological sex

Amazing stuff!

"A new review published in Science brings together growing evidence that the X and Y chromosomes do more than determine biological sex. They also shape how cells function, age and respond to disease.

Differences in health between men and women have long been attributed mainly to sex hormones such as estrogen and testosterone. However, genes on the X and Y chromosomes also play a direct role, working both on their own and alongside hormones. ..."

From the abstract:

"Sex differences have traditionally been attributed to gonadal hormones, but accumulating evidence shows that sex chromosomes exert distinct, cell-autonomous effects on health, aging, and disease.

XX and XY complements alter gene dosage, epigenetic programming, immune signaling, metabolism, and cellular stress responses, which shape aging and disease trajectories in women and men.

This Review integrates mechanistic advances in sex chromosome biology—including escape from X chromosome inactivation, X reactivation, parent-of-X-origin, X-skew, X- and Y-linked gene functions, and Y loss—with aging, neurologic disease, immunity, cancer, and cardiometabolic disease. We highlight insights from mouse models, human studies, and emerging technologies that disentangle hormone-driven effects from chromosome-mediated effects and discuss translational implications for diagnostics, biomarkers, therapeutics, and clinical trial design, emphasizing the integration of sex chromosome biology into precision medicine."

How sex chromosomes influence lifelong health beyond determining biological sex

X and Y chromosomes as determinants of aging and disease (open access, a special issue review)

Fig. 1. Mechanisms of two X chromosomes.

Fig. 2. The Y chromosome in human health and disease.

Fig. 3. Clinical and translational implications of sex chromosome biology.

1,200 Year-Old Clue To Why The Mayan Civilisation Disappeared. Really!

Very badly done video by BBC! It is too short and it ends abruptly! And poor explanation! This is worse than a teaser!

(6) 1,200 Year-Old Clue To Why The Mayan Civilisation Disappeared | BBC Timestamp | BBC Studios - YouTube

How the samurai sword evolved over 1000 years

Recommendable!

(4) How the samurai sword evolved over 1000 years | Curator's Corner S10 Ep11 - YouTube

Henry Knox: Washington’s Artillery Master

Very recommendable!

Henry Knox: Washington’s Artillery Master | 5-Minute Videos | PragerU - YouTube

Inside Xi Jinping’s Demands at the U.S.-China Summit: A Private West Wing Room to Rest

In what physical shape is the Chinese dictator (in power since 2012)? Was it temporary or is it chronic?

The question of succession is becoming more urgent!

"Chinese officials made unusual demands that the U.S. accommodate Xi Jinping’s need for rest during a summit with President Trump, offering a rare glimpse of the 73-year-old leader’s emerging physical limitations, said people familiar with the visit planning.

Chief among the requests was a private room inside the West Wing for Xi to take a break between events, with only his wife, Peng Liyuan, permitted to join him ..."

Exclusive | Inside Xi Jinping’s Demands at the U.S.-China Summit: A Private West Wing Room to Rest - WSJ "Beijing pared back the schedule and insisted on private downtime for China’s 73-year-old leader"

There is also a news video available about this subject:

(158) Report: Unusual Breaks by Xi Sucked Hours Out of Summit with Trump | WION - YouTube

Thailand’s century-long southern conflict is heating up

Bad news! Again Muslims are involved in the violence!

(156) Thailand’s century-long southern conflict is heating up - YouTube

She risks everything to expose India's hidden worlds: Female professional photographer Smita Sharma

Recommendable!

(155) She risks everything to expose India's hidden worlds | Culture Explained - YouTube

A 'reality check' for lab-grown human embryo models or the human embryo reference

Cause for concern? This research is actually only about a new, but important benchmark!

It appears the University of Sydney did not publish any news release yet!

"... University of Sydney researchers have developed a new way to test how closely lab-grown biological models resemble real human embryos, finding that while some models perform well, none yet fully capture the complexity of early human development.

Research on embryo models derived from stem cells, known as blastoids, offers scientists a way to study the biological events that underpin fertility, pregnancy success and early human development without relying on donated human embryos. ...

Researchers at the University of Sydney have developed a computational framework that helps answer that question. Their study systematically evaluated four leading human blastoid-generation methods and found substantial differences in how faithfully they reproduce the cell types and developmental processes seen in natural human embryos. ..."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• An integrated human embryo reference resolves lineage- and stage-specific identities

• Complementary metrics assess multiple dimensions of blastoid fidelity

• Blastoid protocols differ in cell identity, timing, and lineage structure

• Different protocols show complementary strengths in modeling human blastocysts

Summary

Recent generation of stem-cell-derived blastoids that recapitulate the architecture and cellular constitution of the human blastocyst offers an experimental model for the elucidation of the biology of early human development.

To evaluate the fidelity of the blastoids for modeling human blastocysts, we first established a reference map of cell identity and lineage differentiation of the human blastocysts through the integration and curation of single-cell transcriptome data of ex vivo blastocysts profiled at a range of developmental time points in culture.

We next used this reference map to assess the coverage and the authenticity of cell lineages and the progression of lineage differentiation of various blastoid models generated with different cellular sources and protocols.

The reference map generated from this study enables the benchmarking of blastoids that may guide the optimization of the protocol for the generation of high-fidelity blastoid models that faithfully recapitulate the natural human blastocyst."

A 'reality check' for lab-grown human embryo models

Systematic transcriptomic evaluation of blastoid models of early human development

Graphical abstract

Figure 1 Generation of the human embryo reference

Nazi Germany had no hope of making an atomic bomb, uranium cubes reveal

How many articles have been written about this subject? Many! According to Google Search "the subject comprises thousands of academic papers, books, and historical studies published over the last eight decades."

How close did Hitler ever come to developing an atomic bomb? What was actually known as fact at the time?

Did not some German scientists actually delay or sabotage the effort/project? I don't remember the details anymore.

What was the effect e.g. the exodus of Jewish scientists?

Nazi Germany had no hope of making an atomic bomb, uranium cubes reveal | Science | AAAS "Experimental reactor needed much more uranium and heavy water than the country could muster"

Trump Administration Turns Up Pressure on UCLA Law exposing racial discrimination against white and Asian applicants

Good news! Bravo! Yes, expose racial discrimination against white and Asian applicants at US universities.

It is very simple: Any race based discrimination is a violation!

"... This time, the Department of Justice is taking aim at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, which has been accused of continuing a racialized admissions process even after the Supreme Court ruled against it in 2023.

On Thursday, the DOJ announced that, after a lengthy investigation, it found that UCLA Law “discriminated against white and Asian students in granting admission to its 2023, 2024, and 2025 incoming classes.” ..."

Trump Administration Turns Up Pressure on DEI Admissions at UCLA Law - The Daily Signal

The US spent billions on border surveillance. Why can’t it catch people before they die? Really!

What kind of a moronic headline is this by the MIT Technology Review!

What are these people doing at the border?

The US spent billions on border surveillance. Why can’t it catch people before they die? | MIT Technology Review "Surveillance towers, increasingly powered by AI, promised faster responses to crossings. Our investigation of deaths near the towers found they are failing to deliver."

She died at the San Diego border. A surveillance camera was in plain sight "In Southern California’s Otay Mountain Wilderness, the federal surveillance network seems unavoidable. But year after year, migrant deaths persist. "

Arizona Could Soon Get a 4th National Park. Really!

Next time I step out of our home in the Phoenix metro area, I will be in a national park if this goes on! Just kidding!

When are there too many national parks!

I think the power of US presidents based on the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create new national monuments needs to be restricted! Too much temptation to abuse it to go down in history (latest example the senile, demented 46th President, he declared 10 new sites).

"Congress passed the Chiricahua National Park Act, sending President Trump a bill that would make the southeastern Arizona monument the state’s fourth national park.

The 12,000-acre preserve sits 36 miles southeast of Willcox, where a volcanic eruption 27 million years ago left the rock spires visitors come to see. The land has carried federal protection since 1924; park status mainly means a new name and more tourists."

Saturday, October 3, 2026 - The Arizona Flyover

Mined, Melted, and Poured in America again: Steel

Good news! Some industries are critical and can not be outsourced!

"Alongside the steel announcement (The Largest Steel Plant in American History Is Coming to Iowa.), President Trump reversed years of anti-mining policy. Mesabi’s plan links iron ore from Minnesota’s Iron Range to steelmaking in Iowa, creating a fully American supply chain from mine to mill for the steel that national defense, cars, shipbuilding, and infrastructure depend on."

White House Weekly Briefing | September 28–October 4, 2026

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Announces Nearly $100M for homelessness and mental illness care

Good news!

"Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in Houston on Friday that eight communities will receive a total of $96 million for homelessness and mental illness care.

Kennedy visited a Houston Christian shelter and recovery center called Open Door, serving men experiencing homelessness and addiction, where he announced the new Safety Through Recovery, Engagement, and Evidence-based Treatment and Support, or STREETS, program. ...

Communities in Ohio, Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas, West Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, and Louisiana will receive $3 million a year for four years, Kennedy announced. ...

Kennedy said in a statement. “Under President [Donald] Trump, we will no longer accept a system that manages human suffering instead of ending it. We are helping people reclaim their health, rebuild their lives, and achieve the dignity, purpose, and independence that come with recovery.” ..."

EXCLUSIVE: RFK Jr. Announces Millions to Treat Homeless

The FlyDubai attacker copilot was known adopting radical ideological views and he was previously barred from flying

What!

"Despite the ban, the co-pilot, an Omani national, was hired by FlyDubai allowing him to pilot on the sensitive route connecting the United Arab Emirates and Israel, people familiar with the matter said. ..."

"... Prior Flight Ban: The Wall Street Journal first reported that al-Hammami had been explicitly barred from flying by Omani authorities after they grew concerned about his extremist beliefs. CNN later verified that he was terminated or removed from flight duties at Oman Air last year because of these security risks. ..." (Google Search)

The Wall Street Journal What's news

How Butterfly wing patterns confuse predators

Amazing stuff!

"... That’s because the dazzling stripes and spots on their wings create powerful visual illusions as they flap, tricking predators into missing them, researchers report today in Nature.

Scientists have long suspected that high-contrast animal markings—such as the zebra’s iconic stripes—confuse predators via “motion dazzle” effects. Yet attempts to investigate the theory have produced mixed results. ..."

From the abstract:

"The dazzling stripes found on zebras and snakes have long been thought to interfere with predator motion perception, but this hypothesis has received little empirical support so far.

Butterflies show enormously diverse and high-contrast wing patterns, the function of which has inspired intense theoretical debate and research.

Here we suggest that butterfly wing patterns work in tandem with flight dynamics to create visual illusions that confuse predators.

We use multiple lines of enquiry with biologically inspired modelling to support this hypothesis:

free-flight butterfly take-offs filmed at high speed demonstrate the creation of misleading motion cues;

phylogenetically controlled analyses demonstrate that this is an evolutionarily widespread strategy;

in silico evolution experiments independently converge on high-contrast butterfly-like wing patterns; and behavioural experiments validate model predictions.

Our results show that butterfly wing patterns and flight dynamics create powerful illusory motion effects, potentially representing one of the most successful visual defence strategies in moving animals."

Butterfly wing patterns give predators the old razzle-dazzle | Science | AAAS

Butterflies use optical illusions to dodge predators (original news release)

Butterfly wing patterns in flight create powerful illusory motion cues (open access)

European swallowtail

Fig. 2: Motion confusion across European butterflies.

Again the AAAS used pregnant individuals instead of pregnant women!

Disgusting and disturbing!

AAAS = American Association for the Advancement of Science

"... Höbler et al. analyzed tissue and blood samples from pregnant individuals ..."

In Science Journals | Science

Open-sourcing AstaBrief, the fast report-generation model in Asta

Good news!

"This week, we’re releasing two new open artifacts for researchers and model builders: AstaBrief 8B, a model for generating fast, cited scientific reports, and Olmo-core 3, our redesigned framework for training large mixture-of-experts (MoE) models. ...

AstaBrief

 

Reviewing and synthesizing scientific literature can be time-consuming. AstaBrief 8B is an 8-billion-parameter model trained to generate a cited report from a research question and retrieved scientific literature, giving researchers a faster starting point for exploring a topic, checking sources, and refining their questions. ..."

AstaBrief, Olmo-core 3, and more from Ai2 (newsletter)

Open-sourcing AstaBrief, the fast report-generation model in Asta | Ai2

US Treasury Department dismantles Hamas financing network

Good news! What took so long!

"The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced Friday it designated a member of Hamas’s military wing, along with two France-based individuals and two affiliated entities that provide critical financing to Hamas.

These designations expose a sophisticated, multi‑year financing architecture that moved more than $2 million to Hamas through deceptive charitable fronts and cryptocurrency channels, demonstrating the organization’s persistent ability to adapt its fundraising mechanisms to evade detection, according to the Treasury. ..."

Treasury Department dismantles Hamas financing network | Just The News "The designations are part of a broader, multi-jurisdictional operation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to dismantle several Hamas fundraising ventures, including those active inside the United States. "

The Beatles - I Am The Walrus

Enjoy!

(4) [4K] The Beatles - I Am The Walrus - YouTube

Renoir in Paris: Impressionism and the 'city of love'

Enjoy!

Renoir in Paris: Impressionism and the 'city of love' | National Gallery - YouTube

IDF's UNTRACEABLE New SECRET WEAPON to Counter Iran's Nuclear Threat? The new INS Drakon submarine

Good news!

BREAKING: IDF's UNTRACEABLE New SECRET WEAPON to Counter Iran's Nuclear Threat? | TBN Israel - YouTube

President Trump on Fake News CNN

Enjoy!

Fake News CNN - YouTube

Why have Ethiopia and Eritrea cut off relations? with Palki Sharma

Serious stuff! So much war in this region for so many years!

(2) Why have Ethiopia and Eritrea cut off relations? | The Palki Sharma Show | IGR | India Global Review - YouTube

Ronald Reagan's Funniest Jokes Compilation Part 3

Enjoy!

Ronald Reagan's Funniest Jokes Compilation Part 3 - YouTube

Iran's Parliament Moves Towards Nuclear Treaty Withdrawal

Ist the theocracy making another bad choice?

(264) Iran's Parliament Moves Towards Nuclear Treaty Withdrawal | The West Asia Post - YouTube

The Top 10 Richest People In The World according to Forbes

Impressive! Very little change from previous top 10 list.

(261) The Top 10 Richest People In The World | October 2026 - YouTube

Andra Pradesh: Cadbury's Sri City Factory Soon to Be the World's Largest chocolate factory

Another good reason to travel to India (at least for a chocoholic like me)! 😋

(261) Andra Pradesh: Cadbury's Sri City Factory Soon to Be World's Largest | WION Dispatch - YouTube

The Group of Seven major economies agreed to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil

Good news!

It was also reported that President Trump pushed and insisted that Western countries release some fuel from their emergency stocks.

"The nations plan to release the fuel from their emergency stocks and also agreed not to restrict exports. It’s a move that aims to bring down the soaring price of fuels and would seem to end the threat of a U.S. ban on diesel exports, at least for now. The first batch of the release will give priority to diesel. It will begin immediately and last for 20 days, the group said."

The Wall Street Journal What's news

North America’s largest wildlife overpass in Colorado has cut animal-vehicle collisions by 91%

Good news!

"...
• Dimensions: 200 feet wide and 209 feet long, covering 41,800 square feet (nearly an acre).

• Completion Date: December 2025.

..." (Google Search)

"... "This area was getting about one deer hit a day during those high movement periods in the spring and fall." ..."

"North America’s largest wildlife overpass has cut animal-vehicle collisions by 91% along Colorado’s I-25 since opening in December [2025]. Elk herds, bears, and deer are already using the bridge, and pronghorn have crossed to the west side of the highway for the first time in decades."

Friday, October 2, 2026 - Join The Flyover

Largest wildlife overpass in North America located in Colorado with 91% reduction in collisions: "Big success"

Source

The US and China will have a red phone for AI emergencies, while Europe is left to watch

Headline of the day! Goes to whether Europe is a museum and a hoard of antiquities!

ZhōngHuá Mundus | The US and China will have a red phone for AI emergencies, while Europe is left to watch

Astronomers identified a lava planet with an atmosphere about 154 light years away

Amazing stuff!

Why "stars much smaller than the sun"?

"... a scorching world that may resemble early Earth and offer clues about how young planets hold onto their gaseous envelopes."

"... Researchers spotted HD 3167 b, a rocky super-Earth covered in lava, orbiting a star 154 light-years away. This planet orbits so closely to its star that a "year" on the world (one revolution around its star) takes only one Earth day. But it's not just a lava-covered rock  — it's the smallest lava world researchers have ever found. And yet, it has managed to hang onto its atmosphere. ...

One of the driving questions that the James Webb Space Telescope is being used to answer is whether planets orbiting stars much smaller than the sun have atmospheres. It appears that most of those terrestrial planets don’t—they’re just bare rock. ..."

From the abstract:

"“Lava worlds”, Earth-sized planets hot enough (Teq ≳ 1100 K) to melt their dayside silicate surfaces, have emerged as promising candidates for atmospheric detection and characterization.

Thermal emission observations show an apparent dichotomy: The hottest lava worlds have colder daysides than the temperature of a maximally emitting bare rock, indicating the likely presence of thick and/or reflective atmospheres, while the coldest ones do not.

However, where in instellation flux this potential bifurcation occurs is uncertain. We present a JWST/MIRI Low Resolution Spectrometer eclipse of the ultra-short-period (USP) lava world HD 3167 b (Teq  = 1786 K, R = 1.6 R⊕, P = 0.96 day) that helps bridge this gap.

We measure the white-light eclipse depth to be 38 ± 11 ppm, more than 5σ lower than the expected eclipse depth of a dark, maximally hot bare rock. We use this to derive a dayside brightness temperature that is best explained by the presence of an atmosphere that cools the dayside by reflecting incoming starlight and/or efficiently redistributing heat to the planet’s nightside.

An atmosphere is further compatible with the planet’s slight underdensity compared to an Earth-like composition. The corresponding dayside emission spectrum is not precise enough to constrain atmospheric composition, motivating follow-up spectroscopic observations with JWST/NIRSpec.

Lastly, we use our observation and existing data to refine key planetary parameters of the HD 3167 system. HD 3167 b is currently the least irradiated USP super-Earth with evidence for an atmosphere."

Friday, October 2, 2026 - Join The Flyover

Astronomers discover a cold lava planet that may resemble early Earth ""We think early Earth might have looked a lot like a lava world.""

Study led by UChicago scientists finds atmosphere on the coldest lava world to date (original news release) "Studying the atmospheres of lava worlds offers window to Earth’s earliest history, pathway to habitable worlds"

Evidence for an Atmosphere on the Ultra-short-period Super-Earth HD 3167 b (open access)

Self-Play Pretraining with Zero Data

This could be an interesting new paper by Noah D. Goodman and Yoav Levine

From the abstract:

"Advances in language modeling have been driven by scaling pretraining on ever more data. Yet, the training data is still largely curated on the model's behalf.

A more general approach to pretraining would let the model learn to generate the data most useful for its own improvement. This would provide an effectively unbounded source of training data, limited by compute rather than human knowledge.

We introduce Self-Play Pretraining with Zero Data, an initial proof-of-concept towards realizing this vision. Our procedure casts synthetic data generation as a search over the space of all computable structure, taking inspiration from Solomonoff induction.

Starting from random initialization, two models learn in tandem:
a generator proposes programs interpreted by a universal Turing machine, generating byte sequences, while

a learner autoregressively predicts these byte sequences.

The learner is trained with standard cross-entropy, while the generator is trained with reinforcement learning to produce sequences at the frontier of the learner's capabilities, yielding an adaptive curriculum.

A universal Turing machine gives us a search space over all computable data-generating processes, imposing little domain-specific structure, and self-play searches over this space for useful training data.

We test whether zero-shot performance on natural data improves predictably with self-play compute; this is a clean test of transfer since neither generator nor learner is trained on natural data. Across several natural datasets, zero-shot loss exhibits predictable scaling in compute. The models also exhibit in-context learning, and discover recognizable mathematical sequences during training."

[2609.30063] Self-Play Pretraining with Zero Data (preprint, open access)

Frankreich brennt: Polizisten werden gejagt, Feuerwehrmänner in Brand gesteckt

Wow! Was ist da los in Frankreich? In der Tat diese Gewalt wurde bislang nicht oder sehr wenig in den Medien berichtet!

Selbst wenn nur die Hälfte dieses Artikels stimmt, dann ist es immer noch sehr schlimm!

Frankreich brennt: Polizisten werden gejagt, Feuerwehrmänner in Brand gesteckt "Nein, das sind keine üblichen Schülerproteste: Frankreich wird von massiver Gewalt junger Migranten erschüttert. Die Täter handeln total enthemmt: Frauen oder auch Feuerwehrmänner werden mit selbstgebauten Flammenwerfern angezündet, einschreitende Lehrerinnen geschlagen, Polizistinnen durch die Straßen gehetzt, Schulen angezündet. Die Polizei verhaftete 1949 Tatverdächtige."

Racial Promotion Gaps (at the US patent office). Really!

More junk science published by the American Economic Association (AEA) as I suspect!

Apparently, some economists can not resist to use race baiting!

The first author of this study, i.e. Deepak Hegde (Professor at New York University, Stern School of Business), has only a lifetime citation count of 3544. That is very low! Maybe this paper gets his citation count up a little bit.

"We study racial disparities in promotions in a setting in which promotions are formulaic: the US patent office. Using detailed administrative data that allow us to observe who is eligible for promotion when, we document that Black patent examiners experience delays in promotions they are entitled [???] to, slowing their climb to the top of the career ladder by a year and reducing career earnings by 2.5 percent. Institutional features rule out statistical discrimination with accurate priors. Slow promotions even under Black supervisors argue against taste-based animus. Instead, the patterns fit models of belief-based discrimination."

Racial Promotion Gaps - American Economic Association