Why does MACAU want to become the NASDAQ of CHINA?

Recommendable! The competitor of Hong Kong, a former colony of Portugal!

Selected famous quotes by Voltaire

Were Voltaire to return to France today, he would be in for a big surprise! He would immediately note that not much has changed since he died in 1778! Voltaire's wisdom is timeless for the ages! Not to compete with Voltaire, but I humbly tried to provide some commentary.

All quotes are taken from: Wikiquote: Voltaire

Je meurs en adorant Dieu, en aimant mes amis, en ne haïssant pas mes ennemis et en détestant la superstition
(I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition)
Comment: Voltaire would not believe that humans in the 21st century believe in such superstitions like Climate Change!

On parle toujours mal quand on n'a rien à dire
(One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say)
Comment: I like his observation about human nature.

Les anciens Romains élevaient des prodiges d'architecture pour faire combattre des bêtes
(The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture for wild beasts to fight in)
Comment: That is one reductionist way to look at Rome! :-)

Go into the London Stock Exchange – a more respectable place than many a court – and you will see representatives from all nations gathered together for the utility of men. Here Jew, Mohammedan and Christian deal with each other as though they were all of the same faith, and only apply the word infidel to people who go bankrupt. Here the Presbyterian trusts the Anabaptist and the Anglican accepts a promise from the Quaker.
Comment: What a great observation on the many merits of free market economies

1. If there were only one religion in England there would be danger of despotism, if there were two they would cut each other's throats, but there are thirty, and they live in peace and happiness.
2. Being of opinion that the doctrine and history of so extraordinary a sect as the Quakers were very well deserving the curiosity of every thinking man, I resolved to make myself acquainted with them

Comment: Two quotes on the importance of religious freedom and religious tolerance!

Le superflu, chose très nécessaire
(The superfluous, a very necessary thing)
Comment: Who gets to decide what is superfluous and what is not? Is superfluous not in the eye of the beholder?

Le paradis terrestre est où je suis
(Paradise on earth is where I am)
Comment: During your lifetime, is it not your choice to make paradise on earth for yourself and for others?

Usez, n’abusez point; le sage ainsi l’ordonne. Je fuis également Épictète et Pétrone. L’abstinence ou l’excès ne fit jamais d’heureux.
(Use, do not abuse; as the wise man commands. I flee Epictetus and Petronius alike. Neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.)
Comment: Avoid extremes!

Il vaut mieux hasarder de sauver un coupable que de condamner un innocent
(It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.)
Comment: Have you ever wondered why capital punishment was abolished in Western countries? I have written a critical assessment of the death penalty here.

Les opinions ont plus causé de maux sur ce petit globe que la peste et les tremblements de terre
(Opinions have caused more ills than the plague or earthquakes on this little globe of ours)
Comment: Was Voltaire a misanthrope you have to wonder sometimes

Mari qui veut surprendre est souvent fort surpris
(The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself)
Comment: Gender equality? How naive men can be when it is about women?

Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande
(Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all)
Comment: Something to ponder about!

Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer
(If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him)
Comment: Wise words indeed!

Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien
(The best is the enemy of the good)
Comment: This is one of his most famous quotes!

L'amour est de toutes les passions la plus forte, parce qu'elle attaque à la fois la tête, le cœur et le corps
(Love is of all the passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart, and the body)
Comment: Could anyone, but a French philosopher have said it any better?

I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges, astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc. It does not behoove us, who were only savages and barbarians when these Indians and Chinese peoples were civilized and learned, to dispute their antiquity.
Comment: That is called enlightenment!

If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?
Comment: Good question!

Our labor preserves us from three great evils -- weariness, vice, and want.
Comment: Very ancient wisdom, I suspect! But, it deserves repeating especially also in our time! The virtue of labor!

On dit quelquefois, le sens commun est fort rare...
(It is sometimes said, common sense is very rare.)
Comment: Common sense is very rare indeed!

Tous les hommes seraient donc nécessairement égaux, s’ils étaient sans besoins. La misère attachée à notre espèce subordonne un homme à un autre homme: ce n’est pas l’inégalité qui est un malheur réel, c’est la dépendance.
(All men would then be necessarily equal, if they were without needs. It is the poverty connected with our species which subordinates one man to another. It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.)
Comment: Humans are not equal in their wants and needs!

Les hommes vertueux ont seuls des amis.
(Virtuous men alone possess friends)
Comment: This is about true friendship, which is rare.

Qu’est-ce que la tolérance? c’est l’apanage de l’humanité. Nous sommes tous pétris de faiblesses et d’erreurs; pardonnons-nous réciproquement nos sottises, c’est la première loi de la nature.
(What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly — that is the first law of nature.)
Comment: If you want peace on earth ...

En général, l’art du gouvernement consiste à prendre le plus d’argent qu’on peut à une grande partie des citoyens, pour le donner à une autre partie.
(In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.)
Comment: Do we need government to replace voluntary charity, philanthropy and private individual donations?

An avalanche of violence: New analysis reveals predictable patterns in armed conflicts

Recommendable! Towards a more peaceful world!

"... present a new model using data from armed conflict in Africa that explains how conflicts spread over a geographic region. More technically, the model describes the scale-free ways that clusters of violent interactions grow and spread over time and space. ...
“Your intuition says each of these conflicts should be a consequence of specific social and cultural dynamics,” ... “but then you do the analyses and you find that in fact these seemingly different conflicts are characterized by the same patterns.” ...
discovered the general patterns by looking at how an initial event spreads and ignites conflicts in other regions. ... likens these “conflict avalanches” to well-known cascades in nature. If you add enough sand to a pile, for example, the sides will eventually become so steep that a single new grain can create an avalanche. By virtue of collapse, however, the slope flattens and allows another build-up. ...
These cascade dynamics might seem to explain large variation among conflict outbreaks, with some petering out quickly and others generating long-lasting conflagrations. ... in their work, have also found it essential to account for regional variation. Not only is conflict much more frequent and intense in some regions compared to others, the spatial variation in intensity may itself follow a scaling law. ..."

"Armed conflict data display features consistent with scaling and universal dynamics in both social and physical properties like fatalities and geographic extent. We propose a randomly branching armed conflict model to relate the multiple properties to one another. ...
We show how this approach akin to thermodynamics imparts mechanistic intuition and unifies multiple conflict properties, giving insight into causation, prediction, and intervention timing."

An avalanche of violence: New analysis reveals predictable patterns in armed conflicts | Santa Fe Institute

Here is the link to the referenced paper:

Scaling theory of armed-conflict avalanches

How many well known morons are in the 46th president's administration?

Way too many!

E.g.

1. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry (interesting I did not blog about him much before, but he was e.g. easily the dumbest secretary of state since 1945. It is almost painful to watch him speak and act. Why is Kerry not taking care of his grandchildren?)
2. Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen  (I blogged here, here, and here about her). Is this the best candidate, the Dimocratic Party has to offer?
3. Agency for International Development Samantha Powers (I blogged here about her)
4. Director of the Domestic Policy Council Susan Rice (I blogged here about her) and more.

I am probably missing quite a few other morons here!

Linda Thomas-Greenfield nominated as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Her curriculum vitae does not look impressive at all! However, she is female and she has a black skin color. That counts these days more than lifetime accomplishments and mental capabilities!

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana (population 102,000) nominated for Secretary of Transportation. What is his qualification? He is openly a member of the LGBTQ cult?

Toilet Hell: Over 25 Years of Failed Flushing

Recommendable! A wonderful example how fanatic and extreme environmentalism has gone overboard and was never corrected to this day!

"... Leave it to the United States Congress to revert the progress of millennia. In 1992, a new law was passed (the Energy Policy Act) that came into effect in 1994. That law mandated that all toilets sold in the United States use no more than 1.6 gallons, which was less than half the water usually used in every flush. ...

The result was awful. People would buy new toilets or move into new homes and be startled to discover that something they had taken for granted for ages suddenly stopped working.

Why is my new toilet causing so many problems? Why is it clogging all the time? What is that strange stink? Why am I ... looking for that ... plunger? ...
Then there was a huge shift in the toilet paper market. Paper once used only for the most primitive systems and in prisons suddenly became common. ...
Black markets developed. You could briefly buy large tank toilets online, but those ran out. Then a porcelain-running market developed between the US and Canada, until border control tightened. Fines increased to $2,500 for any plumber in the US who installed one, and inspectors were forced to report them."

Toilet Hell: 21 Years of Failed Flushing - Foundation for Economic Education

Pfizer CEO to Receive Technion Honarary Doctorate

I would say, a well deserved honorary doctors degree for this CEO!

"... Dr. Bourla’s family history, as a son of Holocaust survivors from Thessaloniki, is a symbol of the remarkable vitality of the Jewish people, their liveliness, and their renewal capacity in the wake of the Holocaust. ...
Dr. Bourla completed all of his academic degrees at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and holds a Ph.D. in veterinary medicine and reproductive biotechnology. In 1993 he joined Pfizer, one of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical companies, where he went on to hold a series of positions."

Pfizer CEO to Receive Technion Honarary Doctorate | Technion - Israel Institute of Technology The President of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Professor Uri Sivan announced today that the Technion will award an honorary doctorate to Pfizer CEO and Chairman Dr. Albert Bourla, for his extraordinary achievement in leading the record time development of the novel vaccine against SARS-CoV-2

SARS-CoV-2: A reminder of the horrors of biological warfare

Whether or not this virus was unintentionally released or accidentally escaped or was deliberately released from a (civilian/military) laboratory in Wuhan, China or not, cannot obscure the fact that this virus is another valuable lesson of what could happen should a biological warfare break out. In short, pandemonium! 

We can be very thankful that this SARS-CoV-2 virus is relatively harmless as if it was a ominous reminder how dangerous it could have been had another, more lethal virus been released. Just imagine ...

The whole world ought to insist that the Communist Party of China fully cooperates in thoroughly investigating this incident! Pressure ought to be put on the dictator for life, Xi Jinpeng to resign.

The specter of a war with biological agents was shrouded in some kind of mystery or obscurity for decades. If I am not mistaken, not much was discussed about it in public as if not to frighten the general public. Unlike nuclear warfare, biological warfare has received much less attention then it has deserved and it ought to deserve. When comparing nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare, it is quite obvious that latter is most likely the most dangerous one. The Covid-19 global pandemic was also a stark reminder how unprepared most countries are should a biological warfare ensue. This might and ought to change now!

Biden’s Executive Order Shows Big Labor—Not Taxpayers—Is the Priority

Recommendable! These outrageous privileges for federal employees are unconstitutional and should be eliminated!

"... Biden wasted no time in restoring the largely unrestricted practice of “official time” to federal unions. On Friday, his third day in office, Biden repealed an earlier order by his predecessor, Donald Trump, that limited the practice which allows union officials employed by the federal government to spend their days working for their unions while still drawing full pay and benefits from the taxpayers. ...
Federal official time has been lucrative giveaway to public employee unions since it was created by federal law in the 1970s. In 2016, those unions were granted 3.63 million hours of official time to spend doing union business at a cost to taxpayers of $177.2 million. ...
Biden also ordered federal agencies to purge, suspend, or revise any actions they have taken to implement restrictions on official time. ..."

Biden’s Executive Order Shows Big Labor—Not Taxpayers—Is the Priority – In Defense of Liberty

Karl von Habsburg: Zur Zukunft Europas

Empfehlenswert!

" ... „Wer nicht weiß woher er kommt, der weiß auch nicht, wohin er geht, weil er nicht weiß, wo er steht.“  ...
In Europa wurden im vorigen Jahrhundert einige Versuche unternommen, den Himmel auf Erden zu erschaffen: Nationalismus, Nationalsozialismus, Kommunismus, all diese Ideologien sind gescheitert. Sie haben Millionen von Menschen in den gewaltsamen Tod getrieben und massive wirtschaftliche Schäden verursacht. Ideologien sind vermeintliche Heilslehren, die kein Heil bringen können, weil sie sich der Vernunft entziehen. ...
Krisen haben wir von vornherein ausgeschlossen. Und wenn sie doch kommen – denn ohne Krisen kommt die friedlichste Zeit nicht aus –, dann haben wir auf jenen Wohlfahrtsstaat vertraut, der sich spätestens ab den 70er Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts, im Westen des Kontinents beginnend, in Europa etabliert hat. ...
Dass wir diesen Wohlfahrtstaat im Schatten des Kalten Krieges entwickeln konnten, verdanken wir mindestens zwei Umständen. Das eine ist der militärische Schutzschirm, den die westliche Supermacht USA mit der Nato über den westlichen Teil Europas gespannt hat. ... Der zweite Umstand ist jene Politik, die unter dem Begriff „Wirtschaftswunder“ heute noch bekannt ist. Es war eine Politik, für die nicht Planwirtschaft, sondern Marktwirtschaft im Mittelpunkt stand. Der Staat hat Ordnungspolitik betrieben, nicht Interventionspolitik. In Deutschland stand dafür Ludwig Erhard, in Österreich der Raab-Kamitz-Kurs. Eine solide Währungspolitik der deutschen Bundesbank hat mit dazu beigetragen, dass sich ein solider Mittelstand etablieren konnte, der durch Leistung, Sparen und Investieren, sowohl im privaten als auch im unternehmerischen Sinn, dazu beigetragen hat, dass es der nächsten Generation besser ging. ...
Die Politik des Wirtschaftswunders basiert auf Eigeninitiative und Leistung. Der Wohlfahrtsstaat ist ein Konzept, um die Bürger – noch dazu mit ihrem eigenen Geld – vom Staat abhängig zu machen. ...
Die Entwicklung dieses Wohlfahrtsstaates im Schatten des Kalten Krieges hat auch die außenpolitische Kraft der europäischen Länder erlahmen lassen. Eine Entwicklung, die wir sowohl während der Kriege am Balkan in Folge der Auflösung Jugoslawiens beobachten mussten, aber auch bei der Aggression Russlands gegen die Ukraine. Es war für die europäischen Politiker recht bequem, die wirklich wichtigen außenpolitischen Entscheidungen, inklusive der Sicherheitspolitik, den USA zu überlassen. ...
Dieser Wohlfahrtsstaat braucht einen immer größeren Staatsapparat, um die vergemeinschafteten Mittel zu verwalten. Damit verbraucht er aber immer größere Mittel aus dem Steuertopf, um die eigene Bürokratie zu erhalten. ... „Je mehr Funktionen ein Staat übernimmt, desto schwerer ist seine Verwaltung zu kontrollieren.“ ... „Je größer und je vielseitiger der Staat, desto einflussloser das Volk.“ ...
Das Problem dabei ist, dass die Politik heute Krisen nicht mehr meistert, sondern eine neue Krise die alte Krise aus den Medien und damit aus der öffentlichen Debatte verdrängt. [oder eine Krise jagt die andere] ...

Und wenn ich Russland und China nenne, dann ist auch klar, dass es da in erster Linie um geopolitische Interessen geht. Das sollten auch jene Mitgliedsländer der EU bedenken, die aus meist kleinlichen nationalen oder gar nationalistischen Interessen heraus Blockaden gegen diese Erweiterung aufbauen. ... Ukraine ... dass die Bürger dieses Landes ihre Zukunft in Europa und nicht unter russischer Dominanz sehen. ...  Wer die europäische Einigung ernst nimmt, muss es für jedes europäische Land möglich machen, der Europäischen Union beizutreten. ... Ukraine in eine konkrete Beitrittsperspektivenpolitik zu ändern. ... Belarus ... diese Demokratiebewegung zu unterstützen, wo es nur geht.  ...

So gesehen steht die Rechtsstaatlichkeit tatsächlich am Beginn der europäischen Idee. ... Auf diesem Fundament beruhen weitere Grundpfeiler wie das Privateigentum, die persönliche Haftung für Misserfolg aber auch Erfolge, damit das private Unternehmertum, das auf Innovation setzen muss, um erfolgreich zu sein. ... Diese Betonung des Rechts ist deshalb so wichtig, weil gerade in Europa immer wieder Rufe nach einem Primat der Politik laut werden. Die Politik müsse alles regeln. Je mehr sie das tut, umso tiefer aber wird der Konflikt mit dem Recht. Dieser Konflikt wird immer schärfer, weil immer seltener rechtsstaatliche Grundsätze regieren – also die Herrschaft des Rechts -, sondern Machtverhältnisse. Dieser Konflikt wirkt sich langfristig zum Schaden Europas aus. ...

Ein weiteres Wesenselement der europäischen Identität ist die Freiheit. ... Europa wird bestehen, solange es diesen Kampf fortsetzt; sobald es dieses Ideal preisgibt und seiner Mission untreu wird, verliert es seine Seele, seinen Sinn, sein Dasein. Dann hat es seine historische Rolle ausgespielt.“ ... Freiheit ist nicht selbstverständlich. Freiheit muss immer wieder neu erkämpft werden. Freiheit ist untrennbar mit Verantwortung verbunden. Und diese Verantwortung für die Freiheit können wir nicht an den Staat delegieren. ... Der Schutz der Freiheit ist also die oberste Aufgabe der Politik. Es ist nicht Machterhalt und Machtausübung, wie uns das heutzutage so gerne vorgeführt wird, sondern Dienst an den ewigen Werten: Recht, Freiheit und Menschlichkeit. ...
Sie kennen den schönen Ausspruch: Rom wurde nicht an einem Tag erbaut. Auch die europäische Einigung wird nicht an einem Tag vollendet, sie ist ein Prozess, der von Fortschritten und Rückschlägen gekennzeichnet ist. ...
Gerade in dieser Außen- und Sicherheitspolitischen Frage braucht es eine europäische Souveränität. Souveränität bedeutet im konkreten Fall die Fähigkeit zu handeln und zu gestalten. ...
Dazu brauchen wir einen Kern einer europäischen Verfassung, in der genau diese außenpolitische Kompetenz für die Europäische Union festgeschrieben wird. Ein Punkt übrigens, der auch allen Anforderungen der Subsidiarität entsprechen würde. ...
Die EZB konterkariert mit ihrer Politik den Abbau der Schulden. Das betrifft sowohl die Nullzinspolitik als auch den Ankauf von Staatsanleihen. Damit werden keine Anreize zum Abbau von Schulden gesetzt, im Gegenteil, eine höhere Verschuldung wird attraktiv. ..."

Zur Zukunft Europas - Prometheus

Innovative tool offers hope for children with rapid-aging disease progeria

Good news! This may well be another great breakthrough for genetic base editors like CRISPR! This new gene editing method may also be applicable to other genetic diseases! However, it may take a while to safely transfer this new treatment from mice to humans!

"... a team of scientists from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard ..., the National Institutes of Health, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center to achieve an almost unbelievable leap for the CRISPR gene-editing tool known as base editing, moving the technology a critical step closer to being a treatment for progeria, a deadly premature aging disease. Several hundred children worldwide live with the malady. In most cases, just one small error involving one of the four main bases, or building blocks, of DNA — a thymine (T) in place of a cytosine (C) at one position in just one copy of the lamin A gene in a cell nucleus — causes the body to produce a toxic protein known as progerin. ... used an adenine base-editing treatment in mice to successfully convert an impressive percentage of those errant Ts back to Cs in DNA, RNA, and protein, leading to a dramatic improvement in tissue health (including the heart) and lifespan — mice lived about 2½ times longer with just a single treatment and reached the start of what would be old age in normal, healthy mice. ... Because their effort proved so successful, the work not only offers a path to treat progeria, it provides a blueprint for testing novel gene-editing treatments for other genetic diseases like sickle cell anemia and muscular dystrophy. ...
“To our knowledge, this work resulted in the strongest rescue of the symptoms of progeria by multiple measures,” he continued. “Five years ago, we were still finishing the development of the very first base editor. If you had told me then that within five years, a single dose of a base editor could address progeria in an animal at the DNA, RNA, protein, vascular pathology, and lifespan levels, I would have said, ‘There’s no way.’ ...
Since about half of all known disease-causing mutations are single-letter errors (like progeria), other scientists could use this study as a guide to hone base editors to cure more genetic disorders in humans. ...
While the team observed no significant off-target edits, some of the longest-living mice developed liver tumors, a known complication when using adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) to deliver genes into mice that are allowed to live into old age. ..."

"Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS or progeria) is typically caused by a dominant-negative C•G-to-T•A mutation (c.1824 C>T; p.G608G) in LMNA, the gene that encodes nuclear lamin A. This mutation causes RNA mis-splicing that produces progerin, a toxic protein that induces rapid ageing and shortens the lifespan of children with progeria to approximately 14 years ...Lentiviral delivery of the ABE [Adenine base editor] to fibroblasts from children with HGPS resulted in 87–91% correction of the pathogenic allele, mitigation of RNA mis-splicing, reduced levels of progerin and correction of nuclear abnormalities. ..."

Innovative tool offers hope for children with rapid-aging disease Progeria study finds base-editing therapy more than doubles the lifespan of mice

Here is the underlying research article:

In vivo base editing rescues Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome in mice (behind paywall)

Lessons from the host defenses of bats, a unique viral reservoir

Amazing stuff! Why are bats capable of hosting so many viruses without getting sick? Why are bats so unique? Why do we still not know more about bats?

"There have been several major outbreaks of emerging viral diseases, including Hendra, Nipah, Marburg and Ebola virus diseases, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)—as well as the current pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Notably, all of these outbreaks have been linked to suspected zoonotic transmission of bat-borne viruses. Bats—the only flying mammal—display several additional features that are unique among mammals, such as a long lifespan relative to body size, a low rate of tumorigenesis and an exceptional ability to host viruses without presenting clinical disease. ... Recent studies suggest that 64 million years of adaptive evolution have shaped the host defence system of bats to balance defence and tolerance, which has resulted in a unique ability to act as an ideal reservoir host for viruses. ... Studying the mechanisms of immune tolerance in bats could lead to new approaches to improving human health. ... The ability of bats to harbour many viruses—and zoonotic coronaviruses in particular—may result from their ability to efficiently regulate host responses to infection, although species richness may also have a role ...
bats represent 1,423 of the more than 6,400 known species of mammal ...
Bats have been associated with infectious diseases for centuries. Their role in the transmission of rabies virus led Metchnikov to investigate fruit bat macrophages and their immune responses in 1909 ...
By contrast, infected bats show no or minimal signs of disease even when high viral titres are detected in tissues or sera, which suggests that they are tolerant of viral diseases ...
Humans express minimal baseline levels of type I interferons (IFNs), and they are highly inducible upon stimulation. By comparison, the black flying fox (Pteropus alecto) constitutively expresses some baseline IFNα, and many species of bats express several IFN-stimulated genes before stimulation. ... The kinetics of the IFN response in bats also differs from those of other mammals, with a faster decline phase for some bat interferon-stimulated genes. In addition, several antiviral genes ... are IFN-induced in bats but not in other mammals or have undergone selection pressure to potentially alter function, such as those encoding Mx proteins96 and APOBEC397 ...
In addition to the innate immune responses, recent studies have shed light on other mechanisms of bat host defence. Enhanced autophagy has a key role in the increased clearance of lyssavirus from bat cells, and is known to regulate immunity and mediate pathogen clearance. Bats express very high levels of heat-shock proteins, which confers upon bat cells the ability to survive at high temperature and high oxidative stress in vitro. ...
Both naturally infected and experimentally infected bats indicate tolerance of viral infection, even during a transient phase of high viral titres. ... This supports an immunological tolerance to RNA viruses in bats, particularly during the acute response. ..."

Lessons from the host defences of bats, a unique viral reservoir | Nature (open access)

Bats show an excellent balance between enhanced host defence responses and immune tolerance through several mechanisms. Examples of enhanced host defences include constitutive expression of IFNs and interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs), increased expression of heat-shock proteins (HSPs), a higher base level expression of the efflux pump ABCB1 and enhanced autophagy. On the other hand, dampened STING and suppressed inflammasome pathways—such as dampened NLRP3, loss of PYHIN and downstream IL-1β—contribute to immune tolerance in bats.

Biden’s Worst Executive Order Went Almost Entirely Unnoticed

Recommendable!

"... The order also seems harmless enough, going by the seemingly innocent title “Modernizing Regulatory Review.”[1/20/2021] Except this order isn’t about modernizing regulations. It’s about unleashing the regulatory state with a ferocity never before seen in this country. ...

aims to effectively toss the cost-benefit analysis that for many decades has served as at least a modest brake on the ambitions of regulators. In the past, regulations where the cost of compliance far exceeded the benefits could be stymied by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Biden wants the review process instead to be “a tool to affirmatively promote regulations” and “to ensure swift and effective federal action” on everything from the pandemic, to the economy, to racial inequality, to the “undeniable reality and accelerating threat of climate change.”[] In other words … everything. ...

One of Trump’s biggest – unsung – achievements in the White House was his effort to rein in the regulatory state. A lifelong businessman, Trump understood – in a way lifelong politicians cannot – the avalanche of regulations that fall on a business and the enormous costs they impose. One of his very first actions was the two-for-one order.

CEI’s Crews says that Trump actually exceeded that goal, with agencies getting rid of 4.3 rules for every new one.

The Trump administration’s Council of Economic Advisers calculated that the deregulatory measures taken over the past four years saved households an average of $3,100 a year. And while there’s some debate over the extent of the benefits from Trump’s efforts, the undeniable fact is that he slowed the regulatory current.

Even so, the regulatory state today imposes $1.9 trillion in costs, according to CEI. That is an enormous hidden tax on families. ..."

"... These recommendations should provide concrete suggestions on how the regulatory review process can promote public health and safety, economic growth, social welfare, racial justice, environmental stewardship, human dignity, equity, and the interests of future generations.  The recommendations should also include proposals that would ensure that regulatory review serves as a tool to affirmatively promote regulations that advance these values.  These recommendations should be informed by public engagement with relevant stakeholders. ..." (Source)

Biden’s Worst Executive Order Went Almost Entirely Unnoticed – Issues & Insights

How ecstasy and psilocybin are shaking up psychiatry

I am afraid that such psychoactive drugs are fairly crude/blunt instruments/medications for treating severe psychological disorders. This is certainly no panacea by any measure!

"... A treatment might show benefits in a trial because the experience is carefully coordinated, and everyone is well trained. Placebo controls pose another challenge because the drugs have such powerful effects. ...
And there are risks. In extremely rare instances, psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD can evoke a lasting psychotic reaction, more often in people with a family history of psychosis. Those with schizophrenia, for example, are excluded from trials involving psychedelics as a result. ...
Several trials show dramatic results: in a study published in November 2020, for example, 71% of people who took Psilocybin for major depressive disorder showed a greater than 50% reduction in symptoms after four weeks, and half of the participants entered remission. Some follow-up studies after therapy, although small, have shown lasting benefits. ...
In the 1950s and 1960s, scientists published more than 1,000 articles on using psychedelics as a psychiatric treatment; the drugs were tested on around 40,000 people in total. Then, as recreational use of the drugs spread, they were banned and the FDA constricted supplies for research. Only recently have neuroscientists and psychopharmacologists ... had the technology to start unpicking how they work in the brain. ...
It is now thought that these antidepressants work not by flooding the brain with the neurotransmitter, as was initially assumed, but by stimulating neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to forge new neuronal connections. There is some evidence that psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin, enhance neuroplasticity in animals, and limited evidence suggests that the same might happen in human brains ..."

How ecstasy and psilocybin are shaking up psychiatry Regulators will soon grapple with how to safely administer powerful psychedelics for treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Royal Society of Chemistry: Marking the Anthropocene

Anthropocene is obscene! What human hubris on display, not much more!

Can humans stop or even accurately predict earthquakes, volcano eruptions, or other natural catastrophes? Can we change the daily weather? What about the almighty sun? And there are many more questions about humans and nature ...

"The idea for the Anthropocene came from a chemist – the Nobel prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen, who sadly died on 28 January this year. In 2000 he suggested that we are now in a new geological epoch, marked by the activities of humans. ..."

Marking the Anthropocene | Feature | Chemistry World The idea that we’re in a human-influenced geological epoch is gaining traction, but how will future geologists measure it?

Researchers construct molecular nanofibers that are stronger than steel

Amazing stuff! This fascinating research appears to be at very early stages of practical relevance.

"... that can be accomplished when a dense network of strong hydrogen bonds join the molecules together. “That’s what gives a material like Kevlar — constructed of so-called ‘aramids’ — its chemical stability and strength ...
This finding led the authors to wonder if the nanoribbons could be bundled to produce stable macroscopic materials. ... a strategy whereby aligned nanoribbons were pulled into long threads that could be dried and handled. ... showed that the threads could hold 200 times their own weight and have extraordinarily high surface areas — 200 square meters per gram of material. "This high surface-to-mass ratio offers promise for miniaturizing technologies by performing more chemistry with less material ..."

"... Here we show a small-molecule platform, the aramid amphiphile, that overcomes these dynamic instabilities by incorporating a Kevlar-inspired domain into the molecular structure. Strong, anisotropic interactions between aramid amphiphiles suppress molecular exchange and elicit spontaneous self-assembly in water to form nanoribbons with lengths of up to 20 micrometres. Individual nanoribbons have a Young’s modulus of 1.7 GPa and tensile strength of 1.9 GPa. We exploit this stability to extend small-molecule self-assembly to hierarchically ordered macroscopic materials outside of solvated environments. ... This bottom-up approach to macroscopic materials could benefit solid-state applications historically inaccessible by self-assembled nanomaterials."

Researchers construct molecular nanofibers that are stronger than steel | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Self-assembly of Kevlar-inspired molecules leads to structures with robust properties, offering new materials for solid-state applications.

Here is the link to the underlying research article:

Self-assembly of aramid amphiphiles into ultra-stable nanoribbons and aligned nanoribbon threads (behind paywall)

Chinas HNA-Konglomerat ist bankrott

Wie heißt es so schön: Die Chinesischen Unternehmen kochen auch nur mit Wasser! Kommunismus und staatliche Förderung können schlecht wirtschaftende Unternehmen auch nicht retten!

"In July 2017, HNA Group ranked No. 170 in 2017 Fortune Global 500 list with a revenue of $53.335 billion."(Source)

Chinas HNA-Konglomerat ist bankrott Seit mehreren Jahren steckt das chinesische Konglomerat HNA Group nach einer weltweiten Expansion in einer prekären Schieflage. Die Corona-Krise und die Reiseflaute haben ihm den Rest gegeben. Jetzt zieht der Staat den Stecker.

Kay Gottschalk zum Stand der Wirecard-Aufarbeitung

Empfehlenswert! Herr Gottschalk scheint sich gut eingearbeitet zu haben. Man kann ihm nur viel Glück wünschen diesen Skandal rückhaltlos aufzuklären bis hoch zur SED Kanzlerin Merkel und Bundesfinanzminister Scholz.

Liz Wheeler: How to drain the swamp

Very recommendable! Liz Wheeler starts with President Woodrow Wilson, however she should have started with President Theodore Roosevelt to explain how the all powerful administrative state came about!

GameStop and The AUDACITY of these BILLIONAIRES with Grant Stinchfield

Recommendable! A very interesting explanation of what happened to the GameStop stocks!

Tucker Carlson also reported on GameStop:

Largest-ever survey exposes career obstacles for LGBTQ scientists

Why are these people treated as if they were so special, so unique, so important? Almost like these people are semi/demi gods! Is it not cultism or sectarianism or like a clique or like religious fervor or a sociological obsession? Fads of our time! Such fawning even by respected science journals like Nature!

As a member of the majority non-LGBTQ people I am so tired of being inundated with this on a daily basis! When will this nonsense finally end! Sexual or gender preferences/association/realization are probably in the end quite irrelevant! As if non-LGBTQ people do not encounter prejudice and harassment at the workplace. Laughable!

LGBTQ will become a footnote in history! However, gender fluidity or the disappearance of gender as we know it today is a possible outcome in the not so distant future.  

Largest-ever survey exposes career obstacles for LGBTQ scientists Study of thousands of US-based researchers finds those from sexual and gender minorities are more likely to experience workplace prejudice and harassment.

Microsoft DeBERTa surpasses human performance on the SuperGLUE benchmark

Recommendable! Cutting edge natural language understanding (NLU) research at Microsoft.

"... Since its release in 2019, top research teams around the world have been developing large-scale pretrained language models (PLMs) that have driven striking performance improvement on the SuperGLUE benchmark. Microsoft recently updated the DeBERTa model by training a larger version that consists of 48 Transformer layers with 1.5 billion parameters. The significant performance boost makes the single DeBERTa model surpass the human performance on SuperGLUE for the first time in terms of macro-average score (89.9 versus 89.8), and the ensemble DeBERTa model sits atop the SuperGLUE benchmark rankings, outperforming the human baseline by a decent margin (90.3 versus 89.8). The model also sits at the top of the GLUE benchmark rankings with a macro-average score of 90.8. ..."

Microsoft DeBERTa surpasses human performance on the SuperGLUE benchmark - Microsoft Research

LAMBDA: The ultimate Microsoft Excel worksheet function

Recommendable! Very interesting stuff! Now how will Google Sheets respond to this challenge?

It is a bit disingenuous by these authors not to mention the famous and great predecessor of Microsoft Excel, i.e. Lotus 1-2-3 or VisiCalc (quite possibly the first major spreadsheet software for personal computers).

"... In December 2020, we announced LAMBDA, which allows users to define new functions written in Excel’s own formula language ... These newly defined functions can call other LAMBDA-defined functions, to arbitrary depth, even recursively. With LAMBDA, Excel has become Turing-complete. You can now, in principle, write any computation in the Excel formula language. ..."

LAMBDA: The ultimate Excel worksheet function - Microsoft Research

Amgen’s KRAS-blocking drug proves effective for lung cancer patients

Cancer is history!

"A drug from Amgen designed to block the cancer protein known as KRAS shrank tumors in 37% of patients with advanced lung cancer and delayed tumor progression by just under seven months, according to results from a clinical trial announced Thursday.

The Amgen drug, a pill called sotorasib, is the most important medicine in Amgen’s cancer research pipeline. ..."

Amgen’s KRAS-blocking drug proves effective for lung cancer patients

Here is a recent Amgen press release regarding this new drug:

Amgen Submits Sotorasib New Drug Application To U.S. FDA For Advanced Or Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer With KRAS G12C Mutation FDA Granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Sotorasib. Sotorasib Application Being Reviewed Under FDA Real-Time Oncology Review (RTOR) Pilot Program

DALL·E: Creating Images from Text

Recommendable! The latest in text-to-image synthesis!

"DALL·E is a 12-billion parameter version of GPT-3 trained to generate images from text descriptions, using a dataset of text–image pairs. We’ve found that it has a diverse set of capabilities, including creating anthropomorphized versions of animals and objects, combining unrelated concepts in plausible ways, rendering text, and applying transformations to existing images. ..."

DALL·E: Creating Images from Text We’ve trained a neural network called DALL·E that creates images from text captions for a wide range of concepts expressible in natural language.

Auslaufmodell – Warum Deutschland in der Corona-Krise versagt

Im neuesten Monatsheft des Cicero wird der deutsche Föderalismus verunglimpft und es wird anscheinend der Ruf nach mehr Zentralismus laut.

Nach etwa 75 Jahren seit dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs sollte man eher auf die weitgehend unfähige lebenslange Berufspolitikerkaste auf allen Ebenen hinweisen, die sich im Laufe der Jahrzehnte im Lande überall herausgebildet hat. Eher unrealistische, tollpatschige Träumer und Romantiker, die von Tuten und Blasen wenig Ahnung haben bestimmen die Politik. Gartenzwerge könnten es besser! Dann wird Deutschland seit viel zu vielen Jahren von der ebenfalls seit langem nachweislich sehr unfähigen und zu schweren Fehlern neigenden SED Kanzlerin Merkel regiert! Deutschlands übertriebene Zugeständnisse, Einbindung, und Selbstaufgabe an die EU und die eklatanten Verletzung des Maastricht Abkommens etc. tun ihr übriges! Deutschland braucht Trumps! Deutschland, spätestens seit der Wiedervereinigung, hat sich viel zu weit entfernt von Ordoliberalismus, Walter Eucken, Ludwig Erhard, freie Marktwirtschaft und weniger Staat ...

Das die Gefahr der Covid-19 Pandemie, die seit mindestens 6 Monaten völlig übertrieben dargestellt wird in Deutschland, ist nicht dem Föderalismus anzulasten! Die überwiegend linkslastigen deutschen Medien sehen in der Krise eine wunderbare Gelegenheit mehr Zentralplanwirtschaft und einen zunehmend sozialistischen Staat zu fordern. 

"... die Pandemie zerstört nicht nur Existenzen, sondern auch so manche Gewissheit. Zum Beispiel den Glauben daran, dass unser föderalistischer Staatsaufbau effizientes Regieren ermöglicht. ... Der deutsche Föderalismus erweist sich als störungsanfällig – zumindest in einer Situation wie dieser. Während der Ministerpräsident eines nördlichen Bundeslandes schon laut über Lockerungsszenarien nachdenkt, bringt einer seiner Kollegen weiter südlich eine Verlängerung bis Ostern ins Spiel. Oder macht den Bundesgesundheitsminister für ein Impfstoff-Debakel verantwortlich, an dem er selbst beteiligt war. Währenddessen fragen sich die Bürger, ob in diesem Land überhaupt noch jemand für irgendetwas verantwortlich sein will. Oder ist. Oder vielleicht sein könnte. ... Es geht um die Frage, warum wir in der Bundesrepublik nicht mehr hinbekommen, wofür wir im Ausland einst neidvoll belächelt wurden: zielführende Organisiertheit. ..."

„Auslaufmodell – Warum Deutschland in der Corona-Krise versagt“

Fiscal Federalism and the Dependency of Atlantic Canada by Fraser Institute

When the oil rich province of Alberta largely finances huge subsidies to Atlantic Canada! Alberta, a milk cow no more?

"Fiscal federalism, the massive and unbalanced flow of federal money to and from the provinces, will create a huge fiscal challenge going forward for at least three reasons: economic difficulties emerging after the COVID-19 pandemic, the overhang of provincial and federal deficits prior to COVID-19, and, most importantly, the decline of the energy industry, which arguably funded fiscal federalism in past years. For more than a decade, Alberta’s taxpayers have funded the lion’s share of federal fiscal transfers flowing predominantly to Atlantic Canada and Quebec. The decline of the energy industry will dramatically reduce this source of funding. ..."

Fiscal Federalism and the Dependency of Atlantic Canada | Fraser Institute

Maricopa County Votes to Perform Forensic Audit of Machines Used in November 2020 Election

What took so long!!! Will We The People finally learn about what went on in the most important county of Arizona! These coward state and U.S. Congress Republican politicians that failed to support these crucial recount/audit efforts!

"Maricopa County in Arizona will carry out a comprehensive forensic audit of its voting systems to allay concerns raised by some constituents about the integrity of the November 2020 election."

Maricopa County Votes to Perform Forensic Audit of Machines Used in November Election

Harvard Professor wants to expand understanding of environmental literature a.k.a. climate fiction

Fresh out of the ivory tower! About "the intersections of environmentalism, climate change, and literature". "How can literature help us understand the lived realities of climate change?" 

I think, climate fiction is a very apt description for the Global Warming hoax and Climate Change religion! Caution: This blog post is more a satire!

In the professor's own words:

"Often, when I describe what I do, people will say, “Oh, you work on cli-fi,” the shorthand for climate fiction. I do appreciate that emphasis on the speculative [in that genre]. ... Last semester, I was struck by the way that my students gravitated toward climate poetry. ..."

Professor wants to expand understanding of environmental literature – Harvard Gazette

Scientists jump-start two people’s brains after coma

Amazing stuff! Almost a miracle!

"... report that two more patients with severe brain injuries — both had been in what scientists call a long-term “minimally conscious state” — have made impressive progress thanks to the same technique. ...

One is a 56-year-old man who had suffered a stroke and had been in a minimally conscious state, unable to communicate, for more than 14 months. After the first of two treatments, he demonstrated, for the first time, the ability to consistently respond to two distinct commands — the ability to drop or grasp a ball, and the ability to look toward separate photographs of two of his relatives when their names were mentioned.

He also could nod or shake his head to indicate “yes” or “no” when asked questions such as “Is X your name?” and “Is Y your wife’s name?”  ... In the days following the second treatment, he also demonstrated, for the first time since the stroke, the ability to use a pen on paper and to raise a bottle to his mouth, as well as to communicate and answer questions. ..."

"... The rapid (re)development of low intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) as a means of reversible modulation of (subcortical) brain tissue offers a potential alternative to [Deep Brain Stimulation] DBS for restorative intervention in [disorder of consciousness] DOC. ..."

Scientists jump-start two people’s brains after coma | UCLA ‘Stunning to see with your own eyes,’ says UCLA neuroscientist Martin Monti

Here is the underlying research paper:

Ultrasonic Thalamic Stimulation in Chronic Disorders of Consciousness

Forscher finden Schwachstelle in RNA-Polymerase von Coronaviren

Good news!

"... Zusammen mit Kollegen aus Marburg, Russland und den Niederlanden identifizierten sie einen Enzymbestandteil, der in allen Coronaviren vorkommt und für ihre Vermehrung unverzichtbar ist. Um ihre Erbsubstanz vervielfältigen zu können, brauchen die Viren ein spezielles Enzym, die RNA-Polymerase. Bei Coronaviren enthält es eine zusätzliche Protein-Domäne, die als NiRAN bezeichnet wird. ... mit Experimenten zeigen, dass dieser Bestandteil essentiell für das Kopieren der Virus-RNA ist. ... könnten neue antivirale Medikamente auf die NiRAN-Domäne  zielen. Man finde diesen Baustein ausschließlich bei Viren der Ordnung Nidovirales, zu der auch Sars-CoV-2 zähle. ..."

"We report an intersubunit interaction within the coronavirus replication–transcription complex that is critical for replication and evolutionarily conserved. We provide evidence that the nsp12-associated NiRAN domain has nucleoside monophosphate (NMP) transferase activity in trans and identified nsp9, an RNA-binding protein, as its target. ... NiRAN activity and nsp9 NMPylation were found to be essential for coronavirus replication. ..."

Forscher finden Schwachstelle in RNA-Polymerase von Coronaviren Ohne einen bestimmten Enzymbaustein können sich Coronaviren nicht vermehren. Virologen der Universität Gießen halten es für denkbar, diese Schwachstelle mit Medikamenten zu attackieren.

Hier ist der Link zum wissenschaftlichen Artikel:

Coronavirus replication–transcription complex: Vital and selective NMPylation of a conserved site in nsp9 by the NiRAN-RdRp subunit (open access)

I Want You Back - The Jackson 5

Enjoy! With young Michael Jackson

Steve Turley: Texas Rep Files TEXAS INDEPENDENCE ACT as Support for Secession SURGES!!!

Recommendable! Session fever in Texas, Oregon, and Washington state!

EU facing £200m punishment bill from Sir James Dyson as UK business turns on bloc!

We all should be very thankful to Sir James Dyson for fighting such overreach of the EU! Let's hope he wins! When environmentalism becomes ridiculous!

Switzerland's brutal rejection of EU membership: 'Whole thing is ridiculous!'

You gotta love the Swiss people! One of the most mature and oldest continuous democracies in the world with lot's of direct citizen participation by referendum.

Biden halts wall construction with just a half-mile left in NM

The 46th President of the U.S. is such a moron!

Meet the Cochin Jews - Israel’s oldest Indian community

Amazing stuff! Israel is perhaps one of the most diverse countries in world as far as its population is concerned due to e.g. the diaspora! It represents a true United Nations within one country! An extraordinary melting pot ("Ingathering of the Exiles" (קיבוץ גלויות))!

Recently, I have blogged here and here about the former prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir. She was born in Russia, raised in the United States, before she migrated to Israel.

Meet the Cochin Jews - Israel’s oldest Indian community - ISRAEL21c Recent attention has focused on the Bnei Menashe Indians who just arrived in Israel, but there’s an older Indian community that’s been here since the country was founded.

Recycling single-use plastic with bacteria

Very recommendable! Trust in human ingenuity! For several decades, the populations in mostly Western countries were subjected to massive alarmism and false propaganda about single use plastic! 

To develop biodegradable forms of plastic is of course another alternative! I bet, we will also see breakthroughs in this area of research and engineering going forward!

"... Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev are looking into biodegradation by bacteria — a simpler and more environmentally friendly way to break down and recycle PET (polyethylene terephthalate) ... After several attempts, we saw a microorganism that grows and utilizes polyethylene as a carbon and energy source. These are the bacteria that can handle the polymers,” ... “We understood that in order for the bacteria to biodegrade the carbon bonds in the plastic polymers, it had to be grown in a carbon-free environment, so that the bacteria had no other choice but to consume the only available carbon in the plastic to survive,” ... We had to give them all kinds of additives, like sources of nitrogen and phosphorus to make it easier for them to perform decomposition" ... research team wound up discovering several types of bacteria capable of successfully biodegrading polyethylene microplastics in soil samples ... that within 30 days, 10 to 20 percent of the soil’s weight was lost just through the decomposition activity performed by the bacteria, which emitted carbon dioxide in the process of respiration ... biodegradation is much cheaper than thermal or chemical processes of recycling ..."

Recycling single-use plastic with bacteria - ISRAEL21c Collaboration between Israeli researchers and a Portuguese recycling company to develop a novel solution to the problem of disposable plastic.

What the world can learn about immunity from Israel’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout

Recommendable! Tiny Israel with only about 9 million population! It is phenomenal how Israel has tackled this pandemic! Lot's learn!

The article also mentions that the SARS-CoV-2 mutations are rare, mostly harmless to infected humans, and sometimes even harmful to virus itself. 

"More than 1.3 million Israelis have already received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech. ...
studies showed the mRNA vaccines to be about 95 percent effective within a certain amount of time after the second dose. ...
Maccabi [HMOs] saw a 60% drop in Covid-19 hospitalizations among members aged 60 and over as little as two days after the second dose. ...

“We also know that statistically, the disease is less severe in the vaccinated [even one dose] than in the non-vaccinated.” ...

“In general, vaccine side effects are extremely rare. With the Covid vaccine, mostly people have been reporting minor side effects from the first dose when they come for the second dose,” ... These effects are mainly soreness or pain at the injection site in the arm ...
“We see only one to two mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus genome per month — which is not a lot compared to other viruses. Most mutations don’t cause any recognizable change in the virus and some actually harm the virus. It’s rare that a mutation gives a virus an advantage.” ..."

What the world can learn about immunity from Israel’s vaccine rollout - ISRAEL21c Israel's extraordinary vaccination program has provided a wealth of information about the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and it's impact.

Socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders at the trough

Self explanatory! Sometimes a picture proverbially says more than a thousand words! :-)

The 46th President of the U.S. Reverses U.S. Policy, Cancels the Keystone XL Pipeline

Recommendable! Already one of the dumbest and earliest decision of the new president! More to come, I suspect!

Apparently, the premier of the Canadian province of Alberta Jason Kenney was not amused at all about the 46th President of the U.S. move (see e.g. here)! Canada is one of the United States most important ally!

"... In anticipation of a possible Biden presidency, TC Energy signed labor agreements with four pipeline unions in August 2020 and agreed to sell partial ownership in the pipeline to Native American tribes along its route. The company even committed to power the pipeline entirely with renewable energy, all in the ultimately vain hope of convincing Biden and other Democrats of the virtue of the project. ...

The Keystone XL pipeline may be the most thoroughly examined pipeline in U.S. history. Initially proposed almost 15 years ago, as designed the 1,200 mile Keystone XL pipeline would transport up to 830,000 barrels of crude oil daily from Canada to Nebraska, where it would be transferred to other pipelines for shipment to refineries and export terminals on the Gulf of Mexico.

The vast majority of the pipeline did not need federal approval and has been built or connected in segments stretching from the Gulf Coast of Texas to the Midwest. ..."

New President Joe Biden Reverses U.S. Policy, Cancels the Keystone XL Pipeline - Heartland Daily News

Immuno-antibiotics: A New Frontier in the Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance

Good news! A new class of antibiotics has been developed! The race for the cure!

"... the many antibiotic misuses and over-uses that have led to the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), one of the greatest threats to human health of our time. And one of the most under-reported. ... Almost a century after the discovery of penicillin, an estimated 700,000 people die each year due to antibiotic-resistant infections such as tuberculosis and malaria ...
Not to mention the economic burden to patients and the health care system. In 2006, hospital-acquired sepsis and pneumonia cost the U.S. health care system more than $8 billion. ...
In the last two decades, only a few new antibiotics have been approved for clinical use and resistant bacteria have already emerged against these new drugs. ...

The new compounds, named immuno-antibiotics, kill bacteria by blocking a metabolic pathway that is essential for them to grow and survive. Though at the same time, these drugs potently activate a subset of T cells involved in immune responses to a wide variety of viral and bacterial infections, adding a second line of attack.

When tested on patient-derived, drug-resistant bacteria and in preclinical models of infection, immuno-antibiotics outperformed the current best-in-class antibiotics.

Creating a synergy between the direct killing of antibiotics and the natural power of the immune system, immuno-antibiotics have the potential to represent a milestone in the fight against AMR."

"... Isoprenoids are vital for all organisms, in which they maintain membrane stability and support core functions such as respiration. IspH, an enzyme in the methyl erythritol phosphate pathway of isoprenoid synthesis, is essential for Gram-negative bacteria, mycobacteria and apicomplexans ...After modification of these compounds into prodrugs for delivery into bacteria, we show that they kill clinical isolates of several multidrug-resistant bacteria—including those from the genera Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Vibrio, Shigella, Salmonella, Yersinia, Mycobacterium and Bacillus—yet are relatively non-toxic to mammalian cells. Proteomic analysis reveals that bacteria treated with these prodrugs resemble those after conditional IspH knockdown. Notably, these prodrugs also induce the expansion and activation of human Vγ9Vδ2 T cells in a humanized mouse model of bacterial infection. The prodrugs we describe here synergize the direct killing of bacteria with a simultaneous rapid immune response by cytotoxic γδ T cells ..."

Immuno-antibiotics: A New Frontier in the Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance

Here is the underlying research paper:

IspH inhibitors kill Gram-negative bacteria and mobilize immune clearance (behind paywall)

Rome: Bread and circuses

My phrase of the day! Food for thought! 

To be politically correct in these times we live in, I almost feel obligated to warn that the author (Decimus Junius Juvenalis better known as Juvenal) was a white middle aged man, who may or may not have owned slaves, although he himself was reportedly the son or adopted son of a rich freedman. Please be aware this could be considered to be classical humanist education, which is almost condemned by some narrow minded witch hunting contemporaries!

(Caution: satire, irony)!

The interesting part about this famous phrase is its dual or ambiguous meaning (as so often in human life, the truth is a mix of both): 

1) People are easily content and do not seem to aspire to much or 

2) Government governs by exploiting and distracting the population 

"... In a political context, the phrase means to generate public approval, not by excellence in public service or public policy, but by diversion, distraction or by satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace - by offering a palliative: for example food (bread) or entertainment (circuses). ..."

Bread and circuses - Wikipedia

SARS-CoV-2 Needs Cholesterol to Invade Cells and Form Mega Cells

Amazing stuff! Good news!

"... To cause COVID-19, the SARS-CoV-2 virus must force its way into people’s cells – and it needs an accomplice. Cholesterol, the waxy compound better known for clogging arteries, helps the virus open cells up and slip inside ... Without cholesterol, the virus cannot sneak past a cell’s protective barrier and cause infection ...
“Cholesterol is an integral part of the membranes that surround cells and some viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. ...
These experiments and others suggested that if SARS-CoV-2’s membrane lacks cholesterol, the virus cannot enter its target cell. ...
This isn’t the first evidence implicating cholesterol. The previous study ... found that the body’s immune response to the virus produces a compound that depletes cholesterol – but in this case from the cell’s own membrane, not the virus’s. ...
The interesting thing is that cholesterol’s role in viral entry varies a lot between viruses.” It’s not clear exactly how cholesterol aids SARS-CoV-2, but understanding that process could offer clues about the biology of infection ...

“People already knew that the COVID-19 virus will create syncytia, but the researchers were able to visualize the process beautifully,” ... “Cell-cell fusion is itself a really under-studied area in biology.”

The experiments likely illustrate how mega cells found in patients’ lungs form ... “The formation of syncytia can be very injurious in the case of COVID, where it can destroy lung tissues and lead to death.” ... it’s not clear yet whether or not syncytia play a major role in the progression of COVID-19. ..."

"Many enveloped viruses induce multinucleated cells (syncytia), reflective of membrane fusion events caused by the same machinery that underlies viral entry. These syncytia are thought to facilitate replication and evasion of the host immune response. ...
Together with cell biological and biophysical approaches, the screen reveals an essential role for membrane cholesterol in spike-mediated fusion, which extends to replication-competent SARS-CoV-2 isolates. Our findings provide a molecular basis for positive outcomes reported in COVID-19 patients taking statins, and suggest new strategies for therapeutics targeting the membrane of SARS-CoV-2 and other fusogenic viruses. ..."

SARS-CoV-2 Needs Cholesterol to Invade Cells and Form Mega Cells | HHMI.org People taking cholesterol-lowering drugs may fare better than others if they catch the novel coronavirus. A new study hints at why: the virus relies on the fatty molecule to get past the cell’s protective membrane.

Here is the link to the underlying research paper:

SARS-CoV-2 Requires Cholesterol for Viral Entry and Pathological Syncytia Formation

Researchers engineered cells to carry either a protein (green) from SARS-CoV-2 or its human target ACE2 (magenta). When near each other, the cells’ membranes fused. Researchers think a similar process lets the virus slip into cells.

Europa vor dem Black-Out: Weckruf aus der Strombranche

Europa im Abstieg! Wer sich auf Sonnen- und Windenergie verlässt ...

"Es war genau vier Minuten und 25,9 Sekunden nach 14 Uhr als Europa am Freitag vor drei Wochen knapp einem Black-Out entging. ... versagte das kroatische Umspannwerk Ernestinovo seinen Dienst und brachte das europäische Stromnetz an den Rand des Zusammenbruchs. Im Abstand von Sekunden rauschte eine Abschaltkaskade durch das Stromnetz, mit Folgen bis nach Frankreich und Italien. Ein erster Zwischenbericht des Verbands der europäischen Netzbetreiber Entso-E nennt nun Details.  ..."

Europa vor dem Black-Out: Weckruf aus der Strombranche (behind paywall) Anfang Januar kam es zu einer kritischen Lage im europäischen Stromnetz. Südosteuropa musste abgetrennt werden, um Schlimmeres zu verhindern. Details wurden jetzt bekannt. Die Strombranche spricht von einem Weckruf.

Schumer advises Biden to declare 'climate emergency' to circumvent Congress on certain agenda items

How many totally unhinged politicians like Schumer and Pelosi does the Dimocratic Party have! Way too many!

Schumer advises Biden to declare 'climate emergency' to circumvent Congress on certain agenda items | Just The News Promising 'real dramatic change,' Schumer says Democrats will 'certainly' use 'reconciliation' to pass Biden's $1.9T COVID bill if GOP attempts to stall it

Why bats don't get sick

Recommendable!

Golda: A biographical documentary film about Golda Meir

Very recommendable! Great documentary! Great selection of original footage of her! What a lady (1898-1978)! She preceded Margaret Thatcher! She was also one of the first female foreign ministers of any country!

"... she was often portrayed as the "strong-willed, straight-talking, grey-bunned grandmother of the Jewish people. ..." (Wikipedia)

I was in particular struck that the director of this documentary e.g. showed what a heavy chain smoker Golda Meir was. Some of the footage looks so unreal from today's viewpoint. You have to rub your eyes!

Golda

A Tweak to Immune Cells Reverses Aging in Mice

Amazing stuff! Good news!

"... But the mechanisms behind age-related inflammation are not well understood. In a study published today (January 20) in Nature, researchers show that older immune cells have a defect in metabolism that when corrected in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease can decrease inflammation and restore cognitive function. ...
COX-2 activation is the first step in the production of a lipid called prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), which can bind to one of its receptors, EP2, on immune cells and promote inflammation. To plug up the pathway, [researchers have] shown that deleting the EP2 receptor in mouse macrophages and brain-specific microglia—the cells normally responsible for detecting and destroying immune invaders and cellular debris—reduces inflammation and increases neuronal survival in response to both a bacterial toxin and a neurotoxin. ... "

"... However, the underlying mechanisms that initiate and sustain maladaptive inflammation with ageing are not well defined. Here we show that in ageing mice myeloid cell bioenergetics are suppressed in response to increased signalling by the lipid messenger prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), a major modulator of inflammation. In ageing macrophages and microglia, PGE2 signalling through its EP2 receptor promotes the sequestration of glucose into glycogen, reducing glucose flux and mitochondrial respiration. This energy-deficient state, which drives maladaptive pro-inflammatory responses, is further augmented by a dependence of aged myeloid cells on glucose as a principal fuel source. In aged mice, inhibition of myeloid EP2 signalling rejuvenates cellular bioenergetics, systemic and brain inflammatory states, hippocampal synaptic plasticity and spatial memory. ...
Our study suggests that cognitive ageing ... can be reversed by reprogramming myeloid glucose metabolism to restore youthful immune functions."

A Tweak to Immune Cells Reverses Aging in Mice | The Scientist Magazine® Knocking out the receptor for a lipid that causes inflammation rejuvenates macrophage metabolism and restores cognitive function in an Alzheimer’s disease model.

Here is the underlying research paper:

Restoring metabolism of myeloid cells reverses cognitive decline in ageing (open access)