Nvidia's new AI-powered supercomputers to advance nuclear fusion and brain imaging research

Good news! Will humanity finally see a major breakthrough in sustainable nuclear fusion.

Nvidia's AI-powered supercomputers advance nuclear fusion research | VentureBeat

Desktop air curtain could block viral spread in hospitals

Air curtains to block pathogens in hospitals? Sounds interesting, but is it practical?

"... To protect them from exposure to infections in such scenarios, a team at Nagoya University in Japan has developed a desktop air curtain system (DACS) that blocks emitted aerosol particles and prevents potential spread of viruses such as SARS-CoV-2.

The DACS contains a generator at the top that produces a steady airflow, which is then guided to a suction port at the bottom of the device, effectively creating a smooth curtain of air. ..."

Desktop air curtain could block viral spread in hospitals – Physics World

Russian women are protesting the war of aggression against the Ukraine

Bravo! These two courageous women, Natalja Perowa und Ljudmila Annenkowa, protested in front of the foreign ministry in Moscow!

There is even a Wikipedia article about protests by Russians against this war.

Protest in Russland wegen Ukraine: Wer kann das Blut abwaschen? Der Widerstand ist weiblich und liest George Orwell: Wer in Russland gegen den Krieg protestiert, wird drakonisch bestraft. Es sei denn, die Gerichte machen ausnahmsweise nicht mit.

A man who competes against women in sports: A historical perspective

Not long ago (up until 20-30 years ago), I remember, a (biological) man who competes against women e.g. in sports would have been called a sissy or pussy or something like it

How times have changed!

Israel and UAE sign free trade agreement

Good news! Blessed are the peacemakers! The Abraham Accords keep on giving!

"... will remove excise from an estimated 96% of the bilateral trade between the two countries including: food, agriculture, cosmetics, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and more. The free trade agreement covers such issues as regulations and standards, excise, cooperation, government procurement, e-commerce, and protecting IP rights.
This is the first free trade agreement between Israel and an Arab state and has been pushed through only 20 months after the countries established full diplomatic relations. The UAE only has free trade agreements with its Gulf neighbors and the EFTA countries (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein). The agreement means that Israel will be able to trade tariff free throughout the Gulf via the UAE. ..."

Israel and UAE sign free trade agreement - Globes Economy Minister Orna Barbivai and her UAE counterpart Abdulla bin Touq al-Marri have signed the first free trade agreement between Israel and an Arab country.

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (Lyrics In Spanish & English / Letras en Inglé...

Enjoy! One of the best and most unusual rock songs of all times! Nothing really matters ...

Queen - Somebody To Love - HD Live - 1981 Montreal

Enjoy! One of their best songs! Somebody! Somebody! Contains some great improvisations!

Jerry Lee Lewis "Great Balls Of Fire, What'd I Say & Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On" on the Ed Sullivan Show

Enjoy! How Jerry Lee Lewis played the piano with hands and feet was unique and and inspiration for other rock musicians that followed.

British MI6 makes a wild claim, says Putin could be dead

Don't you wish it was true? However, I suspect if Putin the Terrible was indeed dead, his successors would have already tried to end the war of aggression against the Ukraine.

John Woolman: The Conscientious Quaker Who Paved the Way for the Abolitionist Movement by Lawrence Reed

Very recommendable! Another reminder of why freedom of religion is so important!

"... Woolman died in England in 1772 at the age of 51 but he had planted so many abolitionist seeds on both sides of the Atlantic that within a decade, slavery among Quakers was history. Quakers became the first Christian sect to crusade for abolition.  ..."

John Woolman: The Conscientious Quaker Who Paved the Way for the Abolitionist Movement - Foundation for Economic Education

Israeli passport? Saudi Arabia welcomes you

Good news! Blessed are the peacemakers! The Abraham Accords keep on giving!

More business is good for peace!

Israeli passport? Saudi Arabia welcomes you - Globes Saudi Arabia has relaxed its entry rules for Israeli business people, and trade is burgeoning.

Getting Under the Skin of an Autoimmune Disorder

Good news! 

"... researchers ... have shown that supporting cells called fibroblasts, long viewed as uniform background players, are in fact extremely varied and vital. A subset of these cells, according to the study, may lie at the origins of scleroderma – a rare autoimmune disease. The findings open a new direction for developing a future therapy against this devastating, incurable disorder.  ...
Aside from roles in growth and wound healing, fibroblasts were thought to be mere “scaffolding” holding cells in place. The new study challenges this humdrum picture: The researchers found that fibroblasts can be divided into about ten major groups, each performing different and often vital functions, from conveying immune system signals to affecting metabolism, blood clotting and blood vessel formation. These groups can be further broken into some 200 subtypes.
Most importantly, the researchers managed to identify a subset of fibroblast whose concentration drops sharply in the early stages of scleroderma. They named these cells Scleroderma-Associated Fibroblasts, abbreviated as ScAFs (which is also short for “scaffold”). Whereas in healthy controls ScAFs accounted for nearly 30 percent of all fibroblasts, this percentage decreased dramatically in scleroderma patients and continued to plummet as the disease progressed. ..."

From the abstract:

"Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma, SSc) is an incurable autoimmune disease with high morbidity and mortality rates. Here, we conducted a population-scale single-cell genomic analysis of skin and blood samples of 56 healthy controls and 97 SSc patients at different stages of the disease. We found immune compartment dysfunction only in a specific subtype of diffuse SSc patients but global dysregulation of the stromal compartment, particularly in a previously undefined subset of LGR5+-scleroderma-associated fibroblasts (ScAFs). ScAFs are perturbed morphologically and molecularly in SSc patients. Single-cell multiome profiling of stromal cells revealed ScAF-specific markers, pathways, regulatory elements, and transcription factors underlining disease development. Systematic analysis of these molecular features with clinical metadata associates specific ScAF targets with disease pathogenesis and SSc clinical traits. Our high-resolution atlas of the sclerodermatous skin spectrum will enable a paradigm shift in the understanding of SSc disease and facilitate the development of biomarkers and therapeutic strategies."

Getting Under the Skin of an Autoimmune Disorder - Life Sciences | Weizmann Wonder Wander - News, Features and Discoveries Weizmann Institute of Science researchers, in collaboration with Hadassah and Rambam physicians, present a new roadmap for exploring poorly understood diseases

LGR5 expressing skin fibroblasts define a major cellular hub perturbed in scleroderma

"In healthy skin (left), ScAFs feature long, thin extensions (green). In patients with limited scleroderma (center), and even more so, in those with diffuse scleroderma (right), the numbers of ScAFs are reduced. They gradually lose their elongated extensions and develop altered expression levels of certain proteins (blue, red)"

Nature journal: Mathematics prizes have a gender problem — can it be fixed? Really!

Another, horrible ideological article from Nature journal news!

What is the ratio of male to female mathematicians past and present? Just because a few women choose math as their profession means that they are all brilliant.

Mathematics prizes have a gender problem — can it be fixed? Female representation among mathematicians is improving. But the field’s most prestigious awards are still going almost exclusively to men.

How censoring China’s open-source coders might backfire

I did not know that the Chinese communists created and allowed a Chinese Github to exist.

"On May 18, thousands of software developers in China woke up to find that their open-source code hosted on Gitee, a state-backed Chinese competitor to the international code repository platform GitHub, had been locked and hidden from public view.

Later that day, Gitee released a statement explaining that the locked code was being manually reviewed, as all open-source code would need to be before being published from then on. The company “didn’t have a choice,” it wrote. ... it is widely assumed that the Chinese government had imposed yet another bit of heavy-handed censorship.

For the open-source software community in China, which celebrates transparency and global collaboration, the move has come as a shock. Code was supposed to be apolitical. Ultimately, these developers fear, it could discourage people from contributing to open-source projects, and China’s software industry will suffer from the lack of collaboration. ...
GitHub, founded in 2008 and acquired by Microsoft in 2018, is the go-to platform developers around the world use to publish their code and then critique and learn from each other. This publicly available code—as opposed to the proprietary code created by companies or individuals—is referred to as open-source software. Of the 73 million people using GitHub as of 2021, 7.5 million are based in China, making them the largest group outside the United States. ..."

How censoring China’s open-source coders might backfire | MIT Technology Review Many suspect the Chinese state has forced Gitee, the Chinese competitor to GitHub, to censor open-source code in a move developers worry could obstruct innovation.

Ella Fitzgerald - Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered

Enjoy!

On Contrastive and Non-Contrastive Self-Supervised Learning Recover Global and Local Spectral Embedding Methods

Very recommendable! I think, it is an impressive work.

This is a theoretical machine learning paper hot off the press, co-written by Yann LeCun (Chief AI Scientist at Facebook/Meta)!

This is a serious attempt at unifying major self supervised learning approaches. It is loaded with math.

[2205.11508] Contrastive and Non-Contrastive Self-Supervised Learning Recover Global and Local Spectral Embedding Methods

Cancer-killing bacteria evade the immune system

Good news! Fascinating stuff! Interesting approach to treat cancer!

"... Over the past decade, researchers have explored the reduction of toxicities from live bacteria by genetically deleting the parts of the bacterium that can cause toxicity; but this can lead to unwanted mutations in the bacterium itself and may substantially decrease therapeutic efficacy.
A team of engineers ... has now determined an effective approach to enhance the delivery of living engineered bacteria into cells, while maintaining the bacterium’s integrity and minimizing toxicity. ... the researchers describe a way of coating engineered bacteria with an inducible capsular polysaccharide (iCAP) that responds in a smart manner when delivered into the body.
Capsular polysaccharide (CAP) is a layer of water molecules that coats the surface of natural bacteria and acts as a shield against foreign infections. By converting CAP into iCAP, the researchers could apply programmable external stimulus that enables the engineered bacteria to evade immune attack, survive for a considerable duration in the host environment and deliver a tolerable therapeutic dose. ..."

From the abstract:

"Living bacteria therapies have been proposed as an alternative approach to treating a broad array of cancers. In this study, we developed a genetically encoded microbial encapsulation system with tunable and dynamic expression of surface capsular polysaccharides that enhances systemic delivery. Based on a small RNA screen of capsular biosynthesis pathways, we constructed inducible synthetic gene circuits that regulate bacterial encapsulation in Escherichia coli Nissle 1917. These bacteria are capable of temporarily evading immune attack, whereas subsequent loss of encapsulation results in effective clearance in vivo. This dynamic delivery strategy enabled a ten-fold increase in maximum tolerated dose of bacteria and improved anti-tumor efficacy in murine models of cancer. Furthermore, in situ encapsulation increased the fraction of microbial translocation among mouse tumors, leading to efficacy in distal tumors. The programmable encapsulation system promises to enhance the therapeutic utility of living engineered bacteria for cancer."

Cancer-killing bacteria evade the immune system – Physics World

A programmable encapsulation system improves delivery of therapeutic bacteria in mice (open access)

"a, We engineered the biosynthetic pathway of bacterial CAP for tunable and dynamic surface modulation of the probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917 with synthetic gene circuits. This approach enables increased CAP levels upon induction to control immune evasion and clearance. b, The programmable CAP system enhances systemic delivery of bacteria by transiently expressing CAP. Non-CAP bacteria (thin gray cells) elicit toxicity by exposing the immunogenic bacterial surface, and permanently CAP-expressing bacteria (thick black cells) lead to overgrowth. The iCAP (blue cells) system enables transient encapsulation of bacteria, thus reducing initial inflammation while effectively clearing bacteria over time. c, The CAP system controls bacterial translocation among tumors. The iCAP system allows in situ activation of CAP in one tumor, which results in inducible bacteria translocation to distal, uncolonized tumors."

Brain Fluid from Youngsters Gives Old Mice a Memory Boost

Amazing stuff! Another step closer to the age old quest for the fountain of youth! Don't try this at home! 😄

"... In the study, 18-to-25-month-old mice that had the CSF [cerebral spinal fluid] of 2-to-3-month-old mice injected directly into their brains outperformed controls on a fear conditioning memory task. The study authors say that’s thanks to the growth of new oligodendrocytes, which support other brain cells by producing myelin, the insulation that shields neurons’ axons. ...
“Oligodendrocytes are unique because their progenitors are still present in vast numbers in the aged brain, but [those progenitors] are very slow in responding to cues that promote their differentiation,” ... “We found that when they are re-exposed to young CSF, they proliferate and produce more myelin in the hippocampus,” a brain region associated with memory formation and retention. ...
more recent research has begun to appreciate the key roles played by glia cells (like oligodendrocytes), which seem to be just as important to brain function as neurons. ..."

From the abstract:

"... Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) makes up the immediate environment of brain cells, providing them with nourishing compounds4,5. We discovered that infusing young CSF directly into aged brains improves memory function. Unbiased transcriptome analysis of the hippocampus identified oligodendrocytes to be most responsive to this rejuvenated CSF environment. We further showed that young CSF boosts oligodendrocyte progenitor cell (OPC) proliferation and differentiation in the aged hippocampus and in primary OPC cultures. ... we identified serum response factor (SRF), a transcription factor that drives actin cytoskeleton rearrangement, as a mediator of OPC proliferation following exposure to young CSF. With age, SRF expression decreases in hippocampal OPCs, and the pathway is induced by acute injection with young CSF. We screened for potential SRF activators in CSF and found that fibroblast growth factor 17 (Fgf17) infusion is sufficient to induce OPC proliferation and long-term memory consolidation in aged mice while Fgf17 blockade impairs cognition in young mice. These findings demonstrate the rejuvenating power of young CSF and identify Fgf17 as a key target to restore oligodendrocyte function in the ageing brain."

Brain Fluid from Youngsters Gives Old Mice a Memory Boost | The Scientist Magazine® A growth factor found in the cerebrospinal fluid of young mice triggered the proliferation of myelin-making cells when injected into the brains of older mice.

Young CSF restores oligodendrogenesis and memory in aged mice via Fgf17 (no public access, but article above provides access to PDF file)

Artificial cilia could someday power diagnostic devices

Amazing stuff!

"A technical marvel, cilia have proved difficult to reproduce in engineering applications, especially at the microscale. ... researchers have now designed a micro-sized artificial cilial system using platinum-based components that can control the movement of fluids at such a scale. The technology could someday enable low-cost, portable diagnostic devices for testing blood samples, manipulating cells or assisting in microfabrication processes. ...
the first to use our new nano actuator to demonstrate artificial cilia that are individually controlled ..."

From the abstract:

"Cilial pumping is a powerful strategy used by biological organisms to control and manipulate fluids at the microscale. However, despite numerous recent advances in optically, magnetically and electrically driven actuation, development of an engineered cilial platform with the potential for applications has remained difficult to realize. Here we report on active metasurfaces of electronically actuated artificial cilia that can create arbitrary flow patterns in liquids near a surface. ... By combining these unit cells, we create an active cilia metasurface that can generate and switch between any desired surface flow pattern. Finally, we integrate the cilia with a light-powered complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) clock circuit to demonstrate wireless operation. ... These powerful results, demonstrated experimentally and confirmed using theoretical computations, illustrate a pathway towards fine-scale microfluidic manipulation, with applications from microfluidic pumping to microrobotic locomotion."

Artificial cilia could someday power diagnostic devices | Cornell Chronicle

Cilia metasurfaces for electronically programmable microfluidic manipulation (no public access)

When scientists add reference numbers to their paper abstract

This is a really bad new habit at least as far as the AI & machine learning literature is concerned. And it is a recent phenomenon regarding AI & machine learning papers.

These reference nos. interrupt the flow of reading and really don't make much sense.

Here is a recent example (not AI or ML related) of such an abstract literally littered/cluttered with reference numbers almost like an obsession:
"The RNA world concept1 is one of the most fundamental pillars of the origin of life theory2,3,4. It predicts that life evolved from increasingly complex self-replicating RNA molecules1,2,4. The question of how this RNA world then advanced to the next stage, in which proteins became the catalysts of life and RNA reduced its function predominantly to information storage, is one of the most mysterious chicken-and-egg conundrums in evolution3,4,5. Here we show that non-canonical RNA bases, which are found today in transfer and ribosomal RNAs6,7, and which are considered to be relics of the RNA world8,9,10,11,12, are able to establish peptide synthesis directly on RNA. The discovered chemistry creates complex peptide-decorated RNA chimeric molecules, which suggests the early existence of an RNA–peptide world13 from which ribosomal peptide synthesis14 may have emerged15,16. The ability to grow peptides on RNA with the help of non-canonical vestige nucleosides offers the possibility of an early co-evolution of covalently connected RNAs and peptides13,17,18, which then could have dissociated at a higher level of sophistication to create the dualistic nucleic acid–protein world that is the hallmark of all life on Earth."

Synthetic RNA Can Build Peptides, Hinting at Life's Beginnings

Amazing stuff! This could well be a breakthrough discovery!

"... Now, a study published yesterday (May 11) in Nature points to the possibility that RNAs may have played a role in building early proteins by simply linking amino acids together. ...
The discovery “opens up vast and fundamentally new avenues of pursuit for early chemical evolution,” ...
The researchers engineered the RNA molecules to include two modified nucleosides that are found in ribosomes, enzymes made up of RNAs and proteins that synthesize proteins from RNA transcripts. According to Nature, scientists have considered these unusual, or noncanonical, bases to be traces of the components of the ancient primordial broth from which life emerged. ..."

From the abstract:

"The RNA world concept is one of the most fundamental pillars of the origin of life theory. It predicts that life evolved from increasingly complex self-replicating RNA molecules. The question of how this RNA world then advanced to the next stage, in which proteins became the catalysts of life and RNA reduced its function predominantly to information storage, is one of the most mysterious chicken-and-egg conundrums in evolution. Here we show that non-canonical RNA bases, which are found today in transfer and ribosomal RNAs, and which are considered to be relics of the RNA world are able to establish peptide synthesis directly on RNA. The discovered chemistry creates complex peptide-decorated RNA chimeric molecules, which suggests the early existence of an RNA–peptide world from which ribosomal peptide synthesis may have emerged. The ability to grow peptides on RNA with the help of non-canonical vestige nucleosides offers the possibility of an early co-evolution of covalently connected RNAs and peptides which then could have dissociated at a higher level of sophistication to create the dualistic nucleic acid–protein world that is the hallmark of all life on Earth. ..."

Synthetic RNA Can Build Peptides, Hinting at Life's Beginnings | The Scientist Magazine® Researchers engineered strands of RNA that can link amino acids together, suggesting a way that RNA and proteins may have emerged together to create the earliest forms of life.

A prebiotically plausible scenario of an RNA–peptide world (open access)

Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz liefert keine Waffen an die Ukraine und beschädigt das Ansehen der deutschen Politik

Der Herausgeber der FAZ spricht deutliche Worte!

Olaf Scholz hat das Charisma eines Kleinstadtbeamten! So kommt es mir vor! Nach 16 Jahren mit der SED Kanzlerin Merkel scheint das ja die richtige Nachfolge zu sein für die Bananenrepublik D.

Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz liefert keine Waffen an die Ukraine und beschädigt das Ansehen der deutschen Politik Bloß nicht Putin provozieren: Deutschland, das Lieferungen „in großem Umfang“ an die bedrängte Ukraine angekündigt hat, liefert tatsächlich nur militärisches Kleinstgerät. Das Ansehen der deutschen Politik ist beschädigt.

This camera lens can focus up close and far away at the same time

Amazing stuff! This is a very new type of photography technology

"Roughly 400 million years before the founding father invented bifocals, the now extinct trilobite Dalmanitina socialis already had a superior version ... Not only could the sea critter see things both near and far, it could also see both distances in focus at the same time — an ability that eludes most eyes and cameras.

Now, a new type of camera ... can simultaneously focus on two points anywhere between three centimeters and nearly two kilometers away ...
A high depth of field — the distance between the nearest and farthest points that a camera can bring into focus — is important for the relatively new technique of light-field photography, which uses many tiny lenses to produce 3-D photos. ..."

From the abstract:

"... Here, inspired by the optical structure of their eyes, we demonstrate a nanophotonic light-field camera incorporating a spin-multiplexed bifocal metalens array capable of capturing high-resolution light-field images over a record depth-of-field ranging from centimeter to kilometer scale, simultaneously enabling macro and telephoto modes in a snapshot imaging. By leveraging a multi-scale convolutional neural network-based reconstruction algorithm, optical aberrations induced by the metalens are eliminated, thereby significantly relaxing the design and performance limitations on metasurface optics. The elegant integration of nanophotonic technology with computational photography achieved here is expected to aid development of future high-performance imaging systems."

This camera lens can focus up close and far away at the same time | Science News The large depth of field helps recover distance information from a single image

Trilobite-inspired neural nanophotonic light-field camera with extreme depth-of-field (open access)

Costco introduced a new half and half creamer. Don't buy it

Usually, Costco sells a great half and half creamer for a long time, but it has become more expensive too.

Recently, Costco introduced a new half gallon half and half creamer, i.e. Sarah Farms Half&Half. The label on it does not reveal its fat content. 

This creamer is more liquid than milk and it runs faster than water. This is quite a feat, but does not make your coffee really taste better. 😄

This creamer should be advertised e.g. for people on a diet ...

Machine Learning Librarian - Hugging Face

Jobs of the future!

"... As our first ML librarian at Hugging Face, you will be in charge of organizing and connecting the growing amounts of information and documentation of Machine Learning systems and their uses, produced both by our team and our community. Hugging Face is home to 40,000 ML models and over 5000 datasets, a multi-part course on using ML systems, extensive technical documentation, interactive demos, a thriving blog, and a community of users who write about their experiences interacting with the technology at every stage of its life cycle. ..."

Machine Learning Librarian - Hugging Face

UC Berkeley’s Automated Crossword Solver Achieves 99.9% Letter Accuracy, Wins Top Tournament

Another traditional human pastime taken over by machine learning!

How would have my late grandparents and passionate crossword solvers responded to these news?

 

UC Berkeley’s Automated Crossword Solver Achieves 99.9% Letter Accuracy, Wins Top Tournament | Synced In the new paper Automated Crossword Solving, researchers from UC Berkeley and Matthew Ginsberg LLC present the Berkeley Crossword Solver (BCS), an end-to-end state-of-the-art system for automatically solving challenging crossword puzzles that captured first place in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

Ireland appoints first Artificial Intelligence Ambassador

The island is making a splash! 😄

AI and machine learning is still in its infancy as a new technology, but many people are already trying hard to burden it with all kinds of restrictions etc. 

"... As AI Ambassador, Dr Scanlon will lead a national conversation on the role of AI in our lives, emphasising Ireland’s commitment to an ethical approach to the use of the technology and in particular its adoption by enterprise. ..."

gov.ie - Minister Troy appoints Ireland’s first Artificial Intelligence Ambassador

In the UK, a Surge in Number of Pedestrians Injured by E-Scooter Riders

The flip side of E-scooters! Perhaps, not as deadly as car accidents, but painful nevertheless!

"The number of pedestrians injured after being hit by e-scooters was nearly four times higher in 2021 than the previous year, new figures show.

Department for Transport statistics revealed that 223 people travelling on foot were wounded by the contraptions in Britain last year, including 63 who were seriously hurt. ...

Private e-scooters are often used on public roads and pavements despite being banned.

Legalised trials of rental e-scooters have been set up in dozens of towns and cities across England.
The casualty statistics also show that 64 cyclists were injured in e-scooter crashes in 2021, up from 21 during the previous 12 months. ..."

Are E-Scooters Legal in UK? Surge in Number of Pedestrians Injured by Riders - Bloomberg

The first academic agreement of its kind was signed by the Technion – Institute of Technology and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco

Good, but dated news! Blessed are the peacemakers!

"On March 31, the Technion – Institute of Technology received a historic visit from a Moroccan delegation headed by Mr. Hicham El Habti, President of Morocco’s Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) – one of Morocco’s leading technical universities. ...

At a ceremony held at the Technion, a document of academic cooperation between the two universities was signed ..."

The first academic agreement of its kind was signed by the Technion – Institute of Technology and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco.

Lens fabricated in space for the first time using innovative technology

Amazing stuff! When will the first telescope be built on the moon?

"A historic moment: a lens was fabricated in space for the first time earlier this week, using innovative technology developed at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The fluidic shaping method, developed by Prof. Moran Bercovici’s research team, in collaboration with NASA, could revolutionize space optics by overcoming the current limitations due to the size of the launcher and enabling fabrication of giant lenses for space telescopes. ..."

Lens fabricated in space for the first time earlier this week, using innovative technology

China in Africa: should the West be worried? | The Economist

Very recommendable! It has been reported many times before, but this is a good summary! From infrastructure, to satellite TV to wireless communication, China is a big player all over Africa. Debt trap diplomacy has worked in China's favor e.g. at the U.N.. However, some Africans begin to ask questions etc.

A Brief History of Led Zeppelin

Recommendable! Unfortunately, little of their music is provided.

China pushes to increase its orbit in South Pacific, signs bilateral agreement with Samoa

A hegemon on the move and closing in on Australia!

Canadian Air Force ship M777 howitzers to Ukraine

Bravo Canada! This quite an effort to load the artillery weapon on a cargo plane!

Most complete human genome yet reveals previously indecipherable DNA

Recommendable! Until the next study! How many more decades will it take for a full and complete human genome sequence?

One may also pay attention to the very special cell line used here. I am not so sure this special cell line fully qualifies.

"When it comes to sequencing the human genome, “complete” has always been a relative term. The first one, deciphered 20 years ago, included most of the regions that code for proteins but left about 200 million bases of DNA—8% of the human genome—untouched. Even as additional genomes were “finished,” some stretches remained out of reach, because repetitive segments of DNA confounded the sequencing technologies of the time. Now, an international grassroots effort has sorted out those hard-to-read bases, producing the most complete human genome yet.

In six papers in Science, the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) Consortium—named for the chromosomes’ end caps—fills in all but five of the hundreds of remaining problem spots, leaving just 10 million bases and the Y chromosome only roughly known. ...
The previously indecipherable sequences of the genome that have now come into clear view include the protective telomeres and the dense knobs called centromeres, which typically reside in the middle of each chromosome and help orchestrate its replication. Also almost completely revealed are the short arms of the five chromosomes where centromeres are skewed toward one end. Those short arms were known to contain scores of genes coding for the backbone of ribosomes, the cell’s protein factories. ...
To simplify the task, they decided to use an anonymized cell line that was derived more than 20 years ago from an unusual growth excised from the uterus of a woman—a failed pregnancy called a mole, produced when a sperm entered an egg that lacked its own set of chromosomes. With just the sperm’s genetic material, such eggs can’t develop into an embryo, but they can still replicate, especially if the sperm delivers an X instead of Y chromosome. In a boon for the project, both members of the resulting cell line’s 23 pairs of chromosomes are identical. ...

The short chromosome arms held another surprise. As expected, they included multiple copies, 400 in all, of the genes coding for the RNA that’s used to make ribosomes. ...

The short arms are also “just chock-full of [other] repeats,”  ... Those include mobile elements, duplicated segments and other types of repetitive DNA, as well as many copies of genes from other parts of the genome. ... In five spots along these chromosomes, the resulting jumble is so long that the researchers still can’t clearly determine the order of the bases, although they have a rough idea of the sequence ...

Short arms are likely hotspots for gene evolution ... as gene copies parked there are free to mutate and take on new functions. The catalog of duplications could also shed light on neurological and developmental disorders, which have been linked to variations in the number of copies of specific sequences ..."

Most complete human genome yet reveals previously indecipherable DNA | Science | AAAS Unusual cell line and multiple sequencing methods made advance possible

Researchers identify mechanism by which fatigue cracks grow

This is not a joke! Material fatigue has been researched for over 100 years.

"The mechanics behind – and inside – this slow fatigue are difficult to study. They’re literally hiding in the cracks. ...

A research group ... has made a breakthrough in understanding how some materials break. By using atomic modeling, the researchers identified the mechanism that causes fatigue cracks to grow: a defect – or dislocation – in the structure that begins near the crack tip, moves away from it, then returns to a slightly different location.

The finding could help engineers better anticipate a material’s behavior and design novel alloys that resist fatigue. ...
A fourth simulation succeeded in propagating the crack after the team realized the defects needed to interact more closely with the crack tip, such that the atomic bonds would break. ..."

From the abstract:

"Structural failures resulting from prolonged low-amplitude loading are particularly problematic. Over the past century a succession of mechanisms have been hypothesized, as experimental validation has remained out of reach. Here we show by atomistic modeling that sustained fatigue crack growth in vacuum requires emitted dislocations to change slip planes prior to their reabsorption into the crack on the opposite side of the loading cycle. ... Our results provide a mechanistic foundation to relate fatigue crack growth tendency to fundamental material properties, e.g. stacking fault energies and elastic moduli, opening the door for improved prognosis and the design of novel fatigue resistance alloys."

Researchers identify mechanism by which fatigue cracks grow | Cornell Chronicle

Atomic mechanism of near threshold fatigue crack growth in vacuum (open access)

Cancer Thwarts Immune Cells by Donating PD-1 When Attacked

Cancer is a beast with many heads, but it will be history one discovery at a time!

"... NK cells, also known as large granular lymphocytes, engage tumor cells in a process called trogocytosis, which involves stealing part of their target’s membrane and integrating it into their own. The new study, published today (April 13) in Science Advances, shows in mice with leukemia that this nibble sometimes comes with a side of PD-1, a protein that inhibits NK cell activity, allowing the cancer cell to escape.

When an immune cell such as an NK cell or a T cell encounters PD-1 on the surface of a cancer cell, its activity is subdued. PD-1 is thus a common target of cancer immunotherapies, which aim to rev up the body’s own defenses against the disease. ..."

From the abstract:

"Trogocytosis modulates immune responses, with still unclear underlying molecular mechanisms. Using leukemia mouse models, we found that lymphocytes perform trogocytosis at high rates with tumor cells. While performing trogocytosis, both Natural Killer (NK) and CD8+ T cells acquire the checkpoint receptor PD-1 from leukemia cells. In vitro and in vivo investigation revealed that PD-1 on the surface of NK cells, rather than being endogenously expressed, was derived entirely from leukemia cells in a SLAM receptor–dependent fashion. PD-1 acquired via trogocytosis actively suppressed NK cell antitumor immunity. PD-1 trogocytosis was corroborated in patients with clonal plasma cell disorders, where NK cells that stained for PD-1 also stained for tumor cell markers. Our results, in addition to shedding light on a previously unappreciated mechanism underlying the presence of PD-1 on NK and cytotoxic T cells, reveal the immunoregulatory effect of membrane transfer occurring when immune cells contact tumor cells."

Cancer Thwarts Immune Cells by Donating PD-1 When Attacked | The Scientist Magazine® New research in mice reveals why natural killer cells, normally effective at hunting cancer, are sometimes stopped in their tracks.  

When killers become thieves: Trogocytosed PD-1 inhibits NK cells in cancer (open access)

Tumors change their metabolism to spread more effectively

Cancer is a beast with many heads, but it will be history one discovery at a time!

"Cancer cells can disrupt a metabolic pathway that breaks down fats and proteins to boost the levels of a byproduct called methylmalonic acid, thereby driving metastasis ...

The findings open a new avenue for understanding how tumors spread to other tissues via metastasis, and hints at novel ways to block the spread of cancer by targeting the process. ...
that metastatic tumors suppress the activity of a key enzyme in propionate metabolism, the process by which cells digest certain fatty acids and protein components. Suppressing the enzyme increases production of methylmalonic acid (MMA). That, in turn, causes the cells to become more aggressive and invasive. ...
but to go from the primary tumor to the metastatic tumor, that transition has not been studied very extensively ..."

From the abstract:

"The alteration of metabolic pathways is a critical strategy for cancer cells to attain the traits necessary for metastasis in disease progression. Here, we find that dysregulation of propionate metabolism produces a pro-aggressive signature in breast and lung cancer cells, increasing their metastatic potential. This occurs through the downregulation of methylmalonyl coenzyme A epimerase (MCEE), mediated by an extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2-driven transcription factor Sp1/early growth response protein 1 transcriptional switch driven by metastatic signalling at its promoter level. ... Altogether, we present a previously uncharacterized dysregulation of propionate metabolism as an important contributor to cancer and a valuable potential target in the therapeutic treatment of metastatic carcinomas."

Tumors change their metabolism to spread more effectively | Cornell Chronicle

Altered propionate metabolism contributes to tumour progression and aggressiveness (no public access)

Do Invertebrates Have Emotions?

Recommendable! This is a long article about this subject. I think it is quite possible that other forms of life or even plants have some form of feelings. Feelings may be quite separate from intelligence or the capability of thinking.

Do Invertebrates Have Emotions? | The Scientist Magazine®

Victor Davis Hanson: Biden's Cabinet of Dunces

Recommendable! A typical VDH!

Biden's Cabinet: A Cabinency of Dunces

A woman 3D-prints schools in Africa

A single room school built in less than 24 hours!

India's 3,000-year-old martial art still practiced today

Looks scary! Injuries are only mentioned once and very briefly.

Apparently, there is no or little distinction between men and women martial artists.

Russian mum’s fight to save sons from President Putin's war in Ukraine

What a courageous mother! You wish there were more Russian parents asking questions about their sons in the military ...

On A Modern Self-Referential Weight Matrix That Learns to Modify Itself

This is an interesting and unusual research paper by Jürgen Schmidhuber.

Here the weights of the neural network are not frozen in time after training, but are self improved after training.

From the abstract:

"... The WM [weight matrix] of a self-referential NN, however, can keep rapidly modifying all of itself during runtime. In principle, such NNs can meta-learn to learn ... in the sense of recursive self-improvement. While NN architectures potentially capable of implementing such behavior have been proposed since the '90s, there have been few if any practical studies. Here we revisit such NNs, building upon recent successes of fast weight programmers and closely related linear Transformers. We propose a scalable self-referential WM (SRWM) that uses outer products and the delta update rule to modify itself. We evaluate our SRWM in supervised few-shot learning and in multi-task reinforcement learning with procedurally generated game environments. Our experiments demonstrate both practical applicability and competitive performance of the proposed SRWM."

[2202.05780] A Modern Self-Referential Weight Matrix That Learns to Modify Itself

What’s up with the W boson mass?

Recommendable!

However, the article uses the acronym CDF about without ever explaining it. You Google for it and the first search result is a web page from the Fermilab Tevatron website titled "Energy Frontier CDF" with no resolution what these three letters stand for. The second and third search results featuring Wikipedia and a webpage from CERN finally explain that CDF stands for Collider Detector at Fermilab.

As this article painfully describes the measurement of the W boson are probably are as exact as humanly possible given the current technology, but what about the theory?

What’s up with the W boson mass? | symmetry magazine

How did humans survive hundreds of thousands of years without baby formula?

A very pertinent question!

If the demented and senile 46th President and his incompetent government had not made so many mistakes regarding the production and import of infant formula, there would not have been such a shortage!

Let's stop the hysteria!

Father of Uvalde Shooter Salvador Ramos Is Sorry for School Shooting

Father of the latest mass school shooter gives an interview as we learn more about the background of the latest mass shooting murderer. Of course, nothing can really excuse the mass murder.

"... The younger Ramos reportedly had a poor relationship with his mother and had dropped out of high school ahead of his graduation this year. His father admitted he had not spent much time with him lately because he was employed outside Uvalde—he digs holes around utility poles for inspection—and because of the pandemic.

His own mother was suffering from cancer, Ramos said, and he could not risk being exposed to the coronavirus. He added that his son grew frustrated with the COVID precautions about a month ago and refused to speak to him. Ramos has not seen him since.

“My mom tells me he probably would have shot me too, because he would always say I didn’t love him,” he told The Daily Beast.

Ramos also faulted the boy’s mother, Adriana Reyes, for not buying him more school supplies and clothes. He said his son was bullied at school for wearing the same high-water jeans every day, and that this was the reason he ultimately dropped out.  ...

Former classmates and families confirmed that the younger Ramos had been bullied in middle school for a speech impediment. But some former co-workers and others who knew him said Ramos had an aggressive streak, and his internet history pointed to someone all too happy to descend into twisted boasting about guns and mass bloodshed.

A high school classmate told the Washington Post she had seen Ramos engage in multiple fist fights, and a former co-worker told The Daily Beast he was inclined toward harassing women he worked with.

“I don’t think he was necessarily bullied,” the classmate, Nadia Reyes, told the paper. “He would take things too far, say something that shouldn’t be said, and then he would go into defense mode about it.”

For his own part, the father has a lengthy criminal record which includes at least one conviction for assault and causing bodily injury to a family member. He said he was currently estranged from his daughter—the gunman’s sister—who he said was also upset with him for not spending enough time with the family. ..."

Father of Uvalde Shooter Salvador Ramos Is Sorry for School Shooting

Scientists pretend We Know What The Problem Is with gun violence in the U.S.

This is as stupid as it gets! Look how a bunch of PhDs make fools out of themselves spreading propaganda and demagoguery!

More to the truth: The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a left wing fringe outfit! They claim: "Science [journal] has been at the center of important scientific discovery since its founding in 1880—with seed money from Thomas Edison". Thomas Alva Edison is probably wildly spinning in his grave at this abuse of his name!

This is a preposterous and garbage piece of editorial published by the Science journal!

The Right to Bear Arms is a fundamental human right like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!

Most of the so called "civilized world" has no Second Amendment in their constitution either! Could it just be that these "other countries" also admit humans with serious mental health issues to treatment voluntary and involuntary if these humans pose a threat?

To compare the struggle to abolish slavery and for women's voting rights with the right to bear arms is pretty ludicrous and desperate!

"... Although opponents of sensible gun control—the kind that prevails throughout most of the civilized world—continue to put the spotlight on the shooters’ motivations or unstable mental states, these are cynical diversions from the one obvious truth: The common thread in all of the country’s revolting mass shootings is the absurdly easy access to guns. The science is clear: Restrictions work, and it’s likely that even more limitations would save thousands of lives. So why not take the laws much further, as other countries have done? ...
No doubt that mental health is a factor. But the rates of mental illness in the United States are similar to those in other countries where mass shootings rarely occur. ... the fallacy of blaming gun violence on mental illness in the wake of another mass shooting tragedy in 2019 ...
It’s also argued that gun ownership is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights by the Second Amendment. But a lot of things have changed since 1789, and there are many times when the American people have concluded that rights granted at the nation’s founding could not be reconciled with modern conditions and knowledge. It was decided that owning other human beings was not consistent with the founding principles of America. It was decided that prohibiting women from voting was not consistent with a representative democracy. And now it needs to be decided that unfettered gun ownership by American citizens is not consistent with a flourishing country where people can worship, shop, and be educated without fear. ...
Women’s suffrage, the end of slavery, and civil rights were not won without struggle. ...
The National Rifle Association and its minions must be defeated. ..."

Science Editorial: We know what the problem is

‘Unsustainable’: how satellite swarms pose a rising threat to astronomy

Time for space based or moon based telescopes for astronomy?

"Astronomers are worried about the impact of satellite ‘megaconsteallations’, such as SpaceX’s Starlink Internet network, which already consist of thousands of satellites — and there are plans to launch tens of thousands more. If that happens, at some latitudes and times of year, a significant number of ‘stars’ visible to the naked eye will actually be satellites. The International Astronomical Union is about to debut tools to help telescope operators predict satellite locations so that they can point their instruments elsewhere. ..."

‘Unsustainable’: how satellite swarms pose a rising threat to astronomy SpaceX and other companies are still struggling to make their satellites darker in the night sky.

China retaliates after Biden's Taiwan comment

Yes, a very dangerous situation brought about by a stupid remark by the demented and senile 46th President of the U.S.

As if one war of aggression in the Ukraine is not enough!

Uvalde Shooter Fired Outside School for 12 Minutes Before Entering

What else will we learn about this latest horrific mass shooting at a public school?

Apparently, several massive failures by authorities occurred before the massacre!

Despite shots being fired outside the school and even at the school, the school did not go into immediate emergency mode and lock down?

"... Officials now say 12 minutes passed between the time the gunman — identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos — crashed his truck near Robb Elementary School and when he entered the building. ...
Police now say he shot at two funeral home workers before entering the school. ...
He entered through an unlocked door and barricaded himself in a classroom filled with students and teachers. ..."

Uvalde Shooter Fired Outside School for 12 Minutes Before Entering - WSJ Local residents express anger and frustration as police detail new timeline of mass shooting

Texas school shooting timeline: Police significantly alter narrative of how tragedy unfolded

This new shock-absorbing material protects like a metal but is light like foam

Amazing stuff!

"Scientists at Johns Hopkins University may have invented the perfect material for protective gear. They’ve devised a new material that is strong and sturdy like metal, but is super lightweight like foam. The material performed very well in preliminary tests, which suggests it could be a real game-changer for the automobile and aerospace industries, as well as the military that could use it to fashion lighter body armor and helmets. ..."

From the abstract:

"A unique rate-dependent energy absorption behavior of liquid crystal elastomer (LCE)-based architected materials is reported. The architected materials consist of repeating unit cells of bistable tilted LCE beams sandwiched between stiff supports. The viscoelastic behavior of the LCE causes the energy absorption to increase with strain rate according to a power-law relationship, which can be modulated by changing the degree of mesogen alignment and the loading direction relative to the director. ... For a multilayered structure of unit cells, nonuniform buckling of the different layers produces additional viscoelastic dissipation. This synergistic interaction between viscoelastic dissipation and snap-through buckling causes the energy absorption density to increase with the number of layers. The sequence of cell collapse can be controlled by grading the beam thickness to further promote viscous dissipation and enhance the energy absorption density. It is envisioned that the study can contribute to the development of lightweight extreme energy-absorbing metamaterials."

This new shock-absorbing material protects like a metal but is light like foam

Synergistic Energy Absorption Mechanisms of Architected Liquid Crystal Elastomers (open access)

The Most Prosperous Ancient Nation You’ve probably Never Heard Of by Lawrence Reed

Recommendable! Or why the Ukraine is a special and distinct country!

"... Take Khazaria, for example. It lasted over 300 years (650 to 965 AD) and covered more territory than the combined Scandinavian nations of our time. It spanned the eastern half of modern-day Ukraine, the steppes of the Volga-Don region of present Russia, the entire Crimean Peninsula, and the northern Caucasus. Its southern portion took in most of the shorelines of three seas: the Black, the Caspian and the Aral. ...
A Turkic people, the Khazars asserted their independence from a weakened Western Turkish Empire in the middle of the 7th Century. The overland routes they built connected to the famous “Silk Road,” which in turn linked Europe with Asia. Khazaria’s geographical position provided unique economic advantages its people eagerly embraced, much as a small town grows when a new interstate highway opens a few miles away. Khazaria became a bridge between East and West
Khazaria provided safe passage and imposed minimal taxation on traders, making the country one of the medieval world’s thriving commercial crossroads. The Arabs to the southwest highly prized Khazarian furs and clothing. The Khazars traded their own silver coins for mirrors from China. The game of chess likely originated in Khazaria, which exported it to Europe. Archeologists have found evidence that Khazarian traders journeyed as far as Sweden. ..."

The Most Prosperous Ancient Nation You’ve Never Heard Of - Foundation for Economic Education This country lasted over 300 years and covered more territory than all of Scandinavia.

Early Inflammation Protects Against Chronic Pain, Study Finds

What a surprise!

"Why acute pain sometimes resolves after a few weeks or months, but becomes chronic in other people, is not entirely understood, particularly at the molecular level. A study published yesterday (May 11) in Science Translational Medicine suggests that the initial inflammatory response may be key to avoiding lasting pain.

The study authors report that pain in the lower backs of patients with elevated inflammation was more likely to resolve after three months than that of patients with a more discreet reaction. Thousands of genes, many of them related to the inflammatory response and immune cell activation, changed expression in the blood samples of those who recovered, while none seem to be altered when pain persisted. Based on mouse experiments and a database analysis of drug use and medical conditions, the team found preliminary evidence that blocking the inflammatory response with medication can prolong musculoskeletal pain.

The results challenge two decades of research indicating “that actually a proinflammatory state is accelerating the transition from acute to chronic pain,” ..."

From the abstract:

"The transition from acute to chronic pain is critically important but not well understood. Here, we investigated the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the transition from acute to chronic low back pain (LBP) and performed transcriptome-wide analysis in peripheral immune cells of 98 participants with acute LBP, followed for 3 months. Transcriptomic changes were compared between patients whose LBP was resolved at 3 months with those whose LBP persisted. We found thousands of dynamic transcriptional changes over 3 months in LBP participants with resolved pain but none in those with persistent pain. Transient neutrophil-driven up-regulation of inflammatory responses was protective against the transition to chronic pain. In mouse pain assays, early treatment with a steroid or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) also led to prolonged pain despite being analgesic in the short term; such a prolongation was not observed with other analgesics. Depletion of neutrophils delayed resolution of pain in mice, whereas peripheral injection of neutrophils themselves, or S100A8/A9 proteins normally released by neutrophils, prevented the development of long-lasting pain induced by an anti-inflammatory drug. Analysis of pain trajectories of human subjects reporting acute back pain in the UK Biobank identified elevated risk of pain persistence for subjects taking NSAIDs. Thus, despite analgesic efficacy at early time points, the management of acute inflammation may be counterproductive for long-term outcomes of LBP sufferers."

Early Inflammation Protects Against Chronic Pain, Study Finds | The Scientist Magazine® Human data and experiments in mice challenge the common use of anti-inflammatory drugs to treat pain.

Acute inflammatory response via neutrophil activation protects against the development of chronic pain ( no public access)

Tumor release of lactate forces nearby cells into supportive role

Good news! Sounds a little bit bizarre! A tumor secretes milk.

"Tumors can force neighboring cells into supporting cancer growth by releasing lactate into their local environment ... how tumors, as they develop, recruit nearby cells called fibroblasts to work as their enablers. Fibroblasts are part of the “stroma,” or connective tissue of organs, and normally have important repair and maintenance functions. But cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) acquire properties that allow them to assist tumors in ways that make the tumors more malignant and harder to kill.

The researchers also discovered that widely used cancer drugs, PARP-1 inhibitors, mimic one of the key steps in CAF recruitment, and thus may often hobble their own effectiveness by switching local fibroblasts to this cancer-enabling mode. ...

Scientists have known for decades that developing tumors often modify their local environments in ways that promote their own survival and growth. Cancer-associated fibroblasts are a central component of the tumor microenvironment in prostate, lung, colon and many other cancer types. Targeting these cells is therefore seen as a promising complementary approach to standard cancer treatment – and one that could work very broadly against cancers of different cellular and genetic origins. ...
But there was a second, surprising finding. A key step leading from tumor lactate secretion to fibroblast p62 suppression turned out to be the inhibition of PARP1, a DNA-repair enzyme. A class of cancer drugs called PARP1 inhibitors has the same effect, suggesting these drugs might be working partly against themselves by creating a more tumor-friendly microenvironment. ..."

From the abstract:

"Reduced p62 levels are associated with the induction of the cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) phenotype, which promotes tumorigenesis in vitro and in vivo through inflammation and metabolic reprogramming. However, how p62 is downregulated in the stroma fibroblasts by tumor cells to drive CAF activation is an unresolved central issue in the field. Here we show that tumor-secreted lactate downregulates p62 transcriptionally through a mechanism involving reduction of the NAD+/NADH ratio, which impairs poly(ADP-ribose)-polymerase 1 (PARP-1) activity. PARP-1 inhibition blocks the poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation of the AP-1 transcription factors, c-FOS and c-JUN, which is an obligate step for p62 downregulation. Importantly, restoring p62 levels in CAFs by NAD+ renders CAFs less active. PARP inhibitors, such as olaparib, mimick lactate in the reduction of stromal p62 levels, as well as the subsequent stromal activation both in vitro and in vivo, which suggests that therapies using olaparib would benefit from strategies aimed at inhibiting CAF activity."

Tumor release of lactate forces nearby cells into supportive role | Cornell Chronicle

The lactate-NAD+ axis activates cancer-associated fibroblasts by downregulating p62 (open access)

Howard Hughes Medical Institute to Award More than $1 Billion to Promote Equity in Research Nonsense

Is this not a violation of the original donor's intent? Howard Hughes is probably spinning in his grave!

This obsession with race, diversity, and ethnic background in science is extremely annoying and disturbing!

"The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has announced a nearly $1.3 billion program for early-career scientists in an effort to increase diversity in the scientific workforce.

“For academic science to thrive in an increasingly diverse world, we need to attract and support scientists from a wide variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds,” says HHMI president Erin O’Shea ..."

HHMI to Award More than $1 Billion to Promote Equity in Research | The Scientist Magazine®

Lost beneath the leaves: Lasers reveal an ancient Amazonian civilisation

Amazing stuff!

From the abstract:

"Archaeological remains of agrarian-based, low-density urbananism have been reported to exist beneath the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and Central America. However, beyond some large interconnected settlements in southern Amazonia, there has been no such evidence for pre-Hispanic Amazonia. Here we present lidar data of sites belonging to the Casarabe culture (around AD 500 to AD 1400) in the Llanos de Mojos savannah–forest mosaic, southwest Amazonia, revealing the presence of two remarkably large sites (147 ha and 315 ha) in a dense four-tiered settlement system. The Casarabe culture area, as far as known today, spans approximately 4,500 km2, with one of the large settlement sites controlling an area of approximately 500 km2. The civic-ceremonial architecture of these large settlement sites includes stepped platforms, on top of which lie U-shaped structures, rectangular platform mounds and conical pyramids (which are up to 22 m tall). The large settlement sites are surrounded by ranked concentric polygonal banks and represent central nodes that are connected to lower-ranked sites by straight, raised causeways that stretch over several kilometres. Massive water-management infrastructure, composed of canals and reservoirs, complete the settlement system in an anthropogenically modified landscape. Our results indicate that the Casarabe-culture settlement pattern represents a type of tropical low-density urbanism that has not previously been described in Amazonia."

Lasers reveal ancient urban sprawl hidden in the Amazon A network of pre-Columbian canals and pyramids lurks within the thick forest

Lidar reveals pre-Hispanic low-density urbanism in the Bolivian Amazon (open access)

Why Queen Elizabeth served as an auto mechanic | Princess Elizabeth in WW2

Definitely some unusual footage!

11 of the Most Memorable Acts of Civil Disobedience in History by Lawrence Reed

Recommendable!

I am glad, Rosa Parks, though represented by a picture, was only mentioned quasi as a footnote in this list.

11 of the Most Memorable Acts of Civil Disobedience in History - Foundation for Economic Education

Machine learning finds fluoride battery materials that could rival lithium

Good news!

"Machine learning has been used to quickly discover some of the most promising materials for fluoride-ion batteries. The work could accelerate development of these batteries, which are tipped by some to rival, or even replace, lithium-based ones.

In theory, fluoride-ion systems are ideal for batteries in everything from electric vehicles to consumer electronics. That’s because fluoride ions are lightweight, small and highly stable. Sourcing fluoride could also be cheaper than lithium and cobalt that are required for lithium-ion batteries. What’s more, calculations suggest that fluoride-ion batteries have potential for greater storage capacity than lithium-ion technologies. ..."

Machine learning finds fluoride battery materials that could rival lithium | Research | Chemistry World (no public access) AI could help make new battery type that could store more energy than lithium-ion batteries viable

Massaker an US-Grundschule: Die Mär von den Guten mit Waffe. Wirklich!

Angesichts der neuesten Massenschießerei in den USA verbreiten deutsche Medien wieder mal, wie jedesmal, den selben Müll und Blödsinn!

Diese relativ seltenen Massenmorde mit Schusswaffen haben wenig mit dem Second Amendment zu tun, aber sehr viel mit der Persönlichkeit des Täters und anderer Personen im Umkreis der Täter.

Im jüngsten Fall, hat der 18 Jährige wohl zuerst seine Großmutter erschossen bevor er die Schule aufsuchte! Es wird berichtet, dass der Täter auch schon Polizei bekannt war. Wäre er vielleicht als Jugendlicher strafrechtlich härter behandelt worden, wer weiß ...

Warum greifen diese feigen Täter ausgerechnet öffentliche Schulen an? Hohe Konzentration un Unbewaffneten! Weil ihre Überlebenschancen erheblich besser und Risiken deutlich kleiner sind!

Warum sind Lehrer oft nicht bewaffnet! Frag z.B. die Gewerkschaften!

Es gibt mit Sicherheit weitere Fragen!

Was diese dämlichen Journalisten auch wenig berichten, ist wie oft ein Bürger mit Waffe ein Verbrechen tatsächlich verhindert oder wie oft ein bewaffneter Bürger beispielsweise einen Einbrecher erschießt!

Ich behaupte nicht, die Einzelheiten des neuesten Falles genau zu kennen. 

Massaker an US-Grundschule: Die Mär von den Guten mit Waffe Nicht der Schock über das Grundschulmassaker vor zehn Jahren hat Amerika verändert, sondern dieser Spruch der Waffenlobby: „Das Einzige, was einen bewaffneten Bösen stoppen kann, ist ein bewaffneter Guter.“ Die Wirkung ist verheerend.