Great commercial!
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Pollak: Democrats Have Destroyed the Border Between Party and State
Recommendable!
Mikhail Gorbachev R.I.P.: One of the great leaders of the late 20th century
Unfortunately, Russia is still run by a former KGB officer, the current dictator Putin the Terrible!
In the wake of the ongoing war of aggression against the Ukraine, will the Russian people remember "his policy of glasnost ("openness") allowed for enhanced freedom of speech and press, while his perestroika ("restructuring") sought to decentralize economic decision-making to improve its efficiency. His democratization measures and formation of the elected Congress of People's Deputies undermined the one-party state." (Source)
His courage to allow the former Soviet Union to dissolve without major violence or war will never be forgotten! Perhaps, him "born in [a small village] Privolnoye, Stavropol Krai, to a poor peasant family of Russian and Ukrainian heritage. Growing up under the rule of Joseph Stalin, in his youth, he operated combine harvesters on a collective farm before joining the Communist Party ..." (Source) gave him the strength and wisdom to go ahead with the reforms and the tremendous transformation.
Without him the concerted efforts of President Reagan, Prime Minister Thatcher, and the Pope John Paul II would have been in vain!
These are truly rare moments in history when such a meeting of great minds happens!
Google was not able to find a picture of Gorbachev, Reagan, and Thatcher together. Does it not exist?
U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive annual decline. Really!
This is mind-boggling and misleading misinformation disseminated by the U.S. government and eagerly and uncritically propagated up by leftist outfits like STAT!
This does not make any sense. A baby born today, will have a much better life expectancy and better health than any generation before given all the advances just over the last two decades and going forward.
To use the singular event of the global Covid-19 pandemic to reduce the life expectancy statistic is at best amateurish by the CDC!
"... American Indian and Alaskan Native people have experienced a particularly precipitous drop in life expectancy since 2019, going from 71.8 to 65.2 years. ..."
"Life expectancy in the United States
... Life expectancy at birth represents the average number of years a group of infants would live if they were to experience throughout life the age-specific death rates prevailing during a period. In 2021, life expectancy at birth was 76.1 years, declining by 0.9 year from 77.0 in 2020 (3). ... Excess deaths due to COVID-19 and other causes in 2020 and 2021 led to an overall decline in life expectancy between 2019 and 2021 of 2.7 years for the total population ..."
Amazon new 20B-parameter Alexa model sets new marks in few-shot learning
Good news! Amazon is again pushing the boundaries of computational linguistics!
This seems to be very interesting work. I have not had a chance to read the related research paper.
"As part of this move, we have introduced Transformer-based large-scale multilingual language models we call Alexa Teacher Models (AlexaTM). Given only a few examples of a task in a new language, AlexaTM can transfer what it knows to the new language with no extra human supervision.
In a paper we’re presenting at this year’s Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining Conference (KDD), we showed that 10-billion- and two-billion-parameter AlexaTM models can improve on state-of-art cross-lingual transfer learning and increase Alexa’s accuracy in different locales.
In a follow-up paper, which we've published on arXiv, we have taken this line of research a step further, with a 20-billion-parameter generative model called AlexaTM 20B. The experiments reported in the paper — which use only publicly available data — show that AlexaTM 20B can not only transfer what it learns across languages but also learn new tasks from just a handful of examples (few-shot learning). ...
he gains in translating to and from low-resource languages like Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu are particularly significant ..."
he gains in translating to and from low-resource languages like Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu are particularly significant ..."
How Miami ‘Caught a Wave’ and Became the Hot New Tech Hub
Very recommendable! Will Ron DeSantis be the next GOP presidential candidate (perhaps together with Trump as VP)?
"This city has become the favorite destination for people escaping progressive dystopias like San Francisco and New York. During the pandemic it had the country’s hottest real-estate market, which has yet to cool despite a likely recession. ...
Here, you have a migration of $2 trillion”—the assets under management of firms that have moved to Miami since the start of the pandemic. Citadel, one of the largest U.S. hedge funds, recently announced that it’s moving here from Chicago. ...
The city leads the nation in tech-job growth and migration and is among the top 10 U.S. cities for venture-capital investment. CrunchBase news reports that Miami-based companies raised $2.6 billion in capital in 2021, a more than 20-fold increase from $128 million in 2018. ...
Here, you have a migration of $2 trillion”—the assets under management of firms that have moved to Miami since the start of the pandemic. Citadel, one of the largest U.S. hedge funds, recently announced that it’s moving here from Chicago. ...
The city leads the nation in tech-job growth and migration and is among the top 10 U.S. cities for venture-capital investment. CrunchBase news reports that Miami-based companies raised $2.6 billion in capital in 2021, a more than 20-fold increase from $128 million in 2018. ...
Progressives have long sought to use federal power to neutralize the competitive advantages of states with low levels of regulation and taxation. A poisonous example is the federal income-tax deduction for state and local taxes, or SALT. Part of the tax code for more than a century beginning in 1913, the deduction protected high-tax state governments by reducing their residents’ incentive to move elsewhere, while punishing low-tax states by transferring part of their responsibly forgone revenue to profligate neighbors.
Thus the 2017 tax reform, which capped the SALT deduction at $10,000, was historic. By exposing high-income workers in blue states to the full brunt of their states’ levies ...
Those same states stuck to oppressive Covid-19 mandates, softened their crime policies, and pushed woke indoctrination in schools. Gov. Ron DeSantis went in the opposite direction, defying what he called the “woke mob,” reopening quickly, and declaring Florida “the freest state in these United States.” ...
The 15 months between April 2020 and June 2021 saw a net migration of nearly 300,000 people to Florida, more than any other state. Among those earning more than $200,000 a year, four times as many people moved to Florida as to New York in 2019 and 2020. Florida led the country in income migration, gaining more than $20 billion in net income from 2019 to 2020, while California and New York each lost almost as much. ..."
Those same states stuck to oppressive Covid-19 mandates, softened their crime policies, and pushed woke indoctrination in schools. Gov. Ron DeSantis went in the opposite direction, defying what he called the “woke mob,” reopening quickly, and declaring Florida “the freest state in these United States.” ...
The 15 months between April 2020 and June 2021 saw a net migration of nearly 300,000 people to Florida, more than any other state. Among those earning more than $200,000 a year, four times as many people moved to Florida as to New York in 2019 and 2020. Florida led the country in income migration, gaining more than $20 billion in net income from 2019 to 2020, while California and New York each lost almost as much. ..."
A Sense of Place in the brain
Amazing stuff!
"Now, scientists ... have made a major advance toward understanding the molecular mechanisms that are involved in the creation of spatial maps in the brain. ...
To find out, the team used a technique developed in Harvey’s lab that places mice in a virtual reality maze: A mouse runs on a ball as it looks at a large, surround screen that displays a spatial navigation task such as solving a maze to find a reward. As the mouse jogs on the ball and performs the task, researchers record neural activity and changes in Fos expression in the hippocampus.
... The team found that in the hours after a mouse performed a navigation task, neurons with high Fos expression were more likely to form accurate place fields — clusters of place cells that signal spatial position — than those with low Fos expression. Moreover, neurons with high Fos expression had place fields that were more reliable over time in indicating spatial position as the mouse repeated the task on subsequent days. ..."
From the abstract:
"In the hippocampus, spatial maps are formed by place cells while contextual memories are thought to be encoded as engrams. Engrams are typically identified by expression of the immediate early gene Fos, but little is known about the neural activity patterns that drive, and are shaped by, Fos expression in behaving animals. Thus, it is unclear whether Fos-expressing hippocampal neurons also encode spatial maps and whether Fos expression correlates with and affects specific features of the place code. Here we measured the activity of CA1 neurons with calcium imaging while monitoring Fos induction in mice performing a hippocampus-dependent spatial learning task in virtual reality. We find that neurons with high Fos induction form ensembles of cells with highly correlated activity, exhibit reliable place fields that evenly tile the environment and have more stable tuning across days than nearby non-Fos-induced cells. Comparing neighbouring cells with and without Fos function using a sparse genetic loss-of-function approach, we find that neurons with disrupted Fos function have less reliable activity, decreased spatial selectivity and lower across-day stability. Our results demonstrate that Fos-induced cells contribute to hippocampal place codes by encoding accurate, stable and spatially uniform maps and that Fos itself has a causal role in shaping these place codes. Fos ensembles may therefore link two key aspects of hippocampal function: engrams for contextual memories and place codes that underlie cognitive maps."
Fig. 1: Imaging Fos induction and calcium transients during a learned, hippocampus-dependent spatial navigation task in virtual reality
Collagen a key player in breast cancer metastasis
Good news! Cancer is history (soon)!
"Collagen type XII plays a key role in regulating the organisation of the tumour matrix ... also discovered that high levels of collagen XII can trigger breast cancer cells to spread from the tumor to other parts of the body, a process known as metastasis. ...
The research also suggests that measuring the level of collagen XII in a patient’s tumour biopsy could potentially be used as an additional screening tool to identify aggressive breast cancers with higher rates of metastasis, such as in the triple-negative type of breast cancer. Furthermore, collagen XII might be a possible target for future treatments. ...
The research also suggests that measuring the level of collagen XII in a patient’s tumour biopsy could potentially be used as an additional screening tool to identify aggressive breast cancers with higher rates of metastasis, such as in the triple-negative type of breast cancer. Furthermore, collagen XII might be a possible target for future treatments. ...
The researchers studied tumors in mouse models from the earliest pre-clinical stages of cancer, right through to late-stage tumors. They found that as the tumors developed, many matrix molecules changed, and importantly the level of collagen XII was also increased.
“Collagen XII seems to be altering the properties of the tumor and makes it more aggressive,”... “It changes how collagens are organised to support cancer cells escaping from the tumor and moving to other sites like the lungs.”
The team then used genetic engineering to manipulate production of collagen XII, and looked at the effects of metastasis to other organs. They found that as levels of collagen XII increased, so did metastasis. These findings were then confirmed in human tumor biopsies ..."
From the abstract:
"The tumor stroma, and in particular the extracellular matrix (ECM), is a salient feature of solid tumors that plays a crucial role in shaping their progression. Many desmoplastic tumors including breast cancer involve the significant accumulation of type I collagen. However, recently it has become clear that the precise distribution and organisation of matrix molecules such as collagen I is equally as important in the tumor as their abundance. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) coexist within breast cancer tissues and play both pro- and anti-tumorigenic roles through remodelling the ECM. Here, using temporal proteomic profiling of decellularized tumors, we interrogate the evolving matrisome during breast cancer progression. We identify 4 key matrisomal clusters, and pinpoint collagen type XII as a critical component that regulates collagen type I organisation. Through combining our proteomics with single-cell transcriptomics, and genetic manipulation models, we show how CAF-secreted collagen XII alters collagen I organisation to create a pro-invasive microenvironment supporting metastatic dissemination. Finally, we show in patient cohorts that collagen XII may represent an indicator of breast cancer patients at high risk of metastatic relapse."
Temporal profiling of the breast tumour microenvironment reveals collagen XII as a driver of metastasis (open access)
Fig. 1: Proteomic profiling of decellularized breast tumours reveals dynamic changes in the matrisome
How much does it cost to replace the old or defective battery of an electric car? A lot
Car owners will find out soon! Most electrical cars are still fairly new, but the time for replacement will come. It might cost several thousand dollars as a minimum.
The extreme example below is about a 2012 2012 Chevrolet Volt:
Florida man goes viral over car dealership quote showing absurd cost [of nearly $30,000] to replace electric vehicle battery - TheBlaze
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Chinese citizens demand "liberty" from Zero Covid
Very recommendable! The emperor Xi Jinping has no clothes!
The second dissent to official communist party policy in China in one week. Graffiti adorns Covid-19 testing stations saying give me liberty or death!
Tucker Carlson: Government bans on gas fueled vehicles is an attack on your autonomy
Very recommendable! He got it right about 95% of the time!
Internal Clock Disruptions Increase Colon Cancer Risk in Mice
Recommendable! Cancer is history (soon)!
More evidence that stressful lives and/or disruptive live styles likely promote cancer especially among younger people.
"... This link between the body’s natural circadian clock and colorectal cancer, the researchers behind the study say, may explain the alarming rise in young onset colorectal cancer observed over the last two decades. “A majority of these [cases in young adults] are sporadic in nature and not actually linked to genetic predisposition,” ...
Indeed, previous research found that nurses working night shifts have higher rates of breast cancer, so Masri and her colleagues hypothesized that keeping odd hours could also play a role in colorectal cancer. ...
Indeed, previous research found that nurses working night shifts have higher rates of breast cancer, so Masri and her colleagues hypothesized that keeping odd hours could also play a role in colorectal cancer. ...
To find out, the researchers took healthy mice and deleted the gene Bmal1, which regulates circadian rhythms, preventing the clock from functioning properly in their intestines. They then crossed these clock-deficient mice with ones that are prone to tumors because they carry two mutated copies of their APC gene, which normally acts as a tumor suppressor in colon cancer. The cross resulted in mice with one nonfunctional APC allele and disrupted intestinal clocks.
Intestinal organoids grown from these animals’ stem cells exhibited accelerated development of intestinal tumors compared to organoids grown from animals with a functional circadian clock. ..."
From the abstract:
"An alarming rise in young onset colorectal cancer (CRC) has been reported; however, the underlying molecular mechanism remains undefined. Suspected risk factors of young onset CRC include environmental aspects, such as lifestyle and dietary factors, which are known to affect the circadian clock. We find that both genetic disruption and environmental disruption of the circadian clock accelerate Apc-driven CRC pathogenesis in vivo. Using an intestinal organoid model, we demonstrate that clock disruption promotes transformation by driving Apc loss of heterozygosity, which hyperactivates Wnt signaling. This up-regulates c-Myc, a known Wnt target, which drives heightened glycolytic metabolism. Using patient-derived organoids, we show that circadian rhythms are lost in human tumors. Last, we identify that variance between core clock and Wnt pathway genes significantly predicts the survival of patients with CRC. Overall, our findings demonstrate a previously unidentified mechanistic link between clock disruption and CRC, which has important implications for young onset cancer prevention."
Disruption of the circadian clock drives Apc loss of heterozygosity to accelerate colorectal cancer (open access)
Fig. 1. Disruption of circadian clock accelerates intestinal tumorigenesis in vivo
Wave-riding generators promise the cheapest clean energy ever. Really!
What a nonsense and quackery! It is bad enough to have already huge land areas covered with wind mills and bird killers, let's not ruin the coastal waters as well.
How many of these generators do you need for any large scale production of energy?
What are the negative effects on the ecosystem or oceans?
We've got a 1 in 6 chance of a mega-volcano erupting this century
Such a mega volcano eruption would be a real climate crisis unlike the phony climate change!
Why this major natural event was so underreported by media is more than strange!
"In mid-January 2022, most people didn’t notice anything special, but geologists knew we dodged a bullet. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted in Tonga, sending enough water into the atmosphere to briefly warm the planet. The eruption was one of the largest ever recorded; it essentially blew up an island, created tsunamis ...
We were lucky the eruption lasted only 11 hours — had it lasted longer, the damage would have spread to other areas in southeast Asia, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, which also hosts vital shipping lanes and key global agriculture and infrastructure."
"... Researchers classify volcanic eruptions in something called the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI). This index classifies eruptions in terms of total volume of ejecta, cloud height, and types of eruption (some can be more gentle, some can be more explosive). The VEI ranges from 1 to 8, with 1 being a “chill” Hawaiian eruption, and 8 being an absolute catastrophe and possibly, a civilization-ender.
VEI 8 eruptions are relatively rare (the Yellowstone eruption from 2.1 million years ago and the Toba eruption from 74,000 years ago are good examples) — but VEI 7 eruptions are not that rare. In fact, the odds of such an eruption within this century is around 1 in 6, which is way too close for comfort.
The last such eruption was the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora. [followed by the year without summer] ..."
Huge volcanic eruptions: time to prepare More must be done to forecast and try to manage globally disruptive volcanic eruptions. The risks are greater than people think.
Genetic clues to age-related macular degeneration revealed
Good news!
"Scientists ... reprogrammed stem cells to create models of diseased eye cells, and then analysed DNA, RNA and proteins to pinpoint the genetic clues. ...
The researchers took skin samples from 79 participants with and without the late stage of AMD, called geographic atrophy. Their skin cells were reprogrammed to revert to stem cells called induced pluripotent stem cells, and then guided with molecular signals to become retinal pigment epithelium cells, which are the cells affected in AMD. ...
Analysis of 127,600 cells revealed 439 molecular signatures associated with AMD, with 43 of those being potential new gene variants. Key pathways identified were subsequently tested within the cells and revealed differences in the energy-making mitochondria between healthy and AMD cells, rendering mitochondrial proteins as potential targets to prevent or alter the course of AMD. ..."From the abstract:
"There are currently no treatments for geographic atrophy, the advanced form of age-related macular degeneration. ... Induced pluripotent stem cells generated from patients with geographic atrophy and healthy individuals were differentiated to retinal pigment epithelium. Integrating transcriptional profiles of 127,659 retinal pigment epithelium cells generated from 43 individuals with geographic atrophy and 36 controls with genotype data, we identify 445 expression quantitative trait loci in cis that are asssociated with disease status and specific to retinal pigment epithelium subpopulations. Transcriptomics and proteomics approaches identify molecular pathways significantly upregulated in geographic atrophy, including in mitochondrial functions, metabolic pathways and extracellular cellular matrix reorganization. Five significant protein quantitative trait loci that regulate protein expression in the retinal pigment epithelium and in geographic atrophy are identified - two of which share variants with cis- expression quantitative trait loci, including proteins involved in mitochondrial biology and neurodegeneration. Investigation of mitochondrial metabolism confirms mitochondrial dysfunction as a core constitutive difference of the retinal pigment epithelium from patients with geographic atrophy. This study uncovers important differences in retinal pigment epithelium homeostasis associated with geographic atrophy."
Transcriptomic and proteomic retinal pigment epithelium signatures of age-related macular degeneration (open access)
Fig. 1: Generation of RPE from iPSCs, identification, and characterization of RPE subpopulations
Rolling Stone magazine: Trump Bragged He Had ‘Intelligence’ on Macron’s Sex Life. Really!
The Trump Derangement Syndrome is becoming more scurrilous and weirder by the day!
It is common knowledge that national intelligence services also study the sexual preferences of friends and foes, especially also of friends to be aware of potential weaknesses etc. Better safe than sorry!
Who knows what intelligence the French President has on Trump.
Australiens Verteidigungsminister Marles: Antrag einer Partnerschaft mit Deutschland
Bravo! Ein ungewöhnlicher und dringlicher Appell von Down Under! Der Beginn einer transpazifischen Allianz?
"... Siebzehn Nationen kommen auf einem der größten Luftwaffen-Übungsgelände der Welt [Darwin] zusammen. In diesem Jahr ist erstmalig auch Deutschland beteiligt. Als stellvertretender Premierminister und Verteidigungsminister Australiens habe ich die Eurofighter und das Personal der deutschen Luftwaffe persönlich auf dem RAAF-Stützpunkt in Darwin willkommen geheißen. ...
Deutschland und Australien sind wichtige Partner und pflegen eine tiefe Freundschaft und teilen ähnliche Werte. Unsere liberalen Demokratien sind einer Weltordnung verpflichtet, in der alle Staaten sich an internationale Regeln und Grundsätze halten. Wir arbeiten gemeinsam für Multilateralismus, Menschenrechte und freien Handel sowie für die Stärke und Stabilität unserer Regionen. Angesichts der größten strategischen Spannungen der letzten Jahrzehnte sind unsere bilateralen Beziehungen heute wichtiger denn je. ...
Gemeinsam müssen wir die Souveränität aller Staaten schützen. Rechtsstaatlichkeit, nicht rohe Gewalt muss die Grundlage des zwischenstaatlichen Handelns sein. ...
Dass Russland Deutschland mit dem Stopp von Energielieferungen zu erpressen versucht, zeigt eindeutig: Gegenseitige wirtschaftliche Abhängigkeiten allein können Konflikte nicht verhindern. ...
Die Spannungen nehmen zu, ebenso die staatlich gelenkte Provokation. Die Akteure lassen die Grenzen zwischen Konflikt und Frieden verschwimmen, Gewalt und Zwang werden zur Durchsetzung territorialer Ansprüche eingesetzt. ...
Unsere Verteidigungs- und Sicherheitspartnerschaft mit Deutschland hat für Australien einen hohen Wert, etwa der Besuch der Fregatte Bayern im Indopazifik im letzten Jahr oder die aktuelle Teilnahme der Luftwaffe an Pitch Black. Im September dürfen wir deutsche Streitkräfte bei unserer Marineübung Kakadu begrüßen, und wir haben Deutschland auch zur Übung Talisman Sabre 2023 eingeladen. ..."
Deutschland und Australien sind wichtige Partner und pflegen eine tiefe Freundschaft und teilen ähnliche Werte. Unsere liberalen Demokratien sind einer Weltordnung verpflichtet, in der alle Staaten sich an internationale Regeln und Grundsätze halten. Wir arbeiten gemeinsam für Multilateralismus, Menschenrechte und freien Handel sowie für die Stärke und Stabilität unserer Regionen. Angesichts der größten strategischen Spannungen der letzten Jahrzehnte sind unsere bilateralen Beziehungen heute wichtiger denn je. ...
Gemeinsam müssen wir die Souveränität aller Staaten schützen. Rechtsstaatlichkeit, nicht rohe Gewalt muss die Grundlage des zwischenstaatlichen Handelns sein. ...
Dass Russland Deutschland mit dem Stopp von Energielieferungen zu erpressen versucht, zeigt eindeutig: Gegenseitige wirtschaftliche Abhängigkeiten allein können Konflikte nicht verhindern. ...
Die Spannungen nehmen zu, ebenso die staatlich gelenkte Provokation. Die Akteure lassen die Grenzen zwischen Konflikt und Frieden verschwimmen, Gewalt und Zwang werden zur Durchsetzung territorialer Ansprüche eingesetzt. ...
Unsere Verteidigungs- und Sicherheitspartnerschaft mit Deutschland hat für Australien einen hohen Wert, etwa der Besuch der Fregatte Bayern im Indopazifik im letzten Jahr oder die aktuelle Teilnahme der Luftwaffe an Pitch Black. Im September dürfen wir deutsche Streitkräfte bei unserer Marineübung Kakadu begrüßen, und wir haben Deutschland auch zur Übung Talisman Sabre 2023 eingeladen. ..."
India's top court: Queer relationships too constitute a family
Recommendable! India is modernizing fast!
Fed up with homelessness, San Francisco Castro District merchants threaten to withhold city taxes
Good news! Bravo! Business owners take action!
Monday, August 29, 2022
India hits back at China's Envoy to Sri Lanka
Very recommendable, but concerning! Tensions are mounting between the two Asian superpowers. A tit for tat is going on. India has dropped its decades long support for the One China Policy since about 2010.
Xi Jinping criticized by Communist Party "Elders"
Very recommendable! This is Big News! A published protest letter from members of the higher ranks of the communist party against Xi Jinping before the upcoming National Congress!
Beware the emerging alliance between Russia and Iran
How close are we to a World War III? Too close for comfort! We are living in very dangerous times!
Especially, Western leaders should be extremely cautious to avoid any unnecessary escalation or misunderstanding.
Not least has an initially regional conflict evolved into e.g. World War I, because more and more alliances were triggered into action etc. World War II spread across continents and oceans before it ended.
"Beware the emerging Tehran-Moscow alliance: Russia has begun using Iranian-made drones in the Ukraine war and Iran has offered to share its financial networks to help Russia evade sanctions, according to Western intelligence officials.
For Russia, struggling to maintain momentum in Ukraine after six months of brutal conflict, the new Iranian assistance could be a game changer, the intelligence officials warn. ..."
Advancing conservation with AI-based facial recognition of turtles
Face recognition for turtles? I don't think we should allow that! Don't turtles have any privacy and personal rights? What about informed consent?
So facial recognition for animals, but not for humans? (Caution: Satire)
Will the American Experiment and Exceptionalism survive?
Given the recent and unprecedented government raid on the private residence of a former president and potential contender of the current (demented and senile) president in 2024 for no good reason, the question becomes more urgent and very relevant!
This outrageous scandal plus the endless previous and vicious unlawful attacks on President Trump by an unaccountable deep state affiliated with the Dimocratic Party have created a very serious situation. Apparently, the leadership of the Dimocratic Party is unwilling or unable to take appropriate action to restore the tenets of the U.S. Constitution and to uphold law and order to hold the perpetrators accountable!
Add to that, too many Americans have become dependent on the sweet poison of government handouts instead of private and volunteer initiatives!
There is talk about secession, civil war and the like! We the people of this great historical experiment have to come together!
Tesla wants to develop an in house machine learning silicon supercomputing system from scratch
This is Big News! Quite an undertaking by Elon Musk! Apparently, there is not even yet an official website by Tesla about this new chip.
"Tesla has revealed a wealth of details at Hot Chips 34 on their fully custom supercomputing architecture called Dojo.
The system is essentially a massive composable supercomputer, although unlike what we see on the Top 500, it's built from an entirely custom architecture that spans the compute, networking, and input/output (I/O) silicon to instruction set architecture (ISA), power delivery, packaging, and cooling. All of it was done with the express purpose of running tailored, specific machine learning training algorithms at scale. ..."
Battery made of aluminum, sulfur and salt proves fast, safe and low-cost
Good news! However, this seems to be very early stage technology. I am not so sure about molten salt, elevated temperature (above the boiling point of water) ...
"Engineers at MIT have developed a new battery design using common materials – aluminum, sulfur and salt. Not only is the battery low-cost, but it’s resistant to fire and failures, and can be charged very fast, which could make it useful for powering a home or charging electric vehicles. ...
After a search and some trial and error, they settled on aluminum for one electrode and sulfur for the other, topped off with an electrolyte of molten chloro-aluminate salt. ...
They can not only operate at high temperatures of up to 200 °C (392 °F) but they actually work better when hotter – at 110 °C (230 °F), the batteries charged 25 times faster than they did at 25 °C (77 °F). Importantly, the researchers say the battery doesn’t need any external energy to reach this elevated temperature – its usual cycle of charging and discharging is enough to keep it that warm. ..."
After a search and some trial and error, they settled on aluminum for one electrode and sulfur for the other, topped off with an electrolyte of molten chloro-aluminate salt. ...
They can not only operate at high temperatures of up to 200 °C (392 °F) but they actually work better when hotter – at 110 °C (230 °F), the batteries charged 25 times faster than they did at 25 °C (77 °F). Importantly, the researchers say the battery doesn’t need any external energy to reach this elevated temperature – its usual cycle of charging and discharging is enough to keep it that warm. ..."
From the abstract:
"Although batteries fitted with a metal negative electrode are attractive for their higher energy density and lower complexity, the latter making them more easily recyclable, the threat of cell shorting by dendrites has stalled deployment of the technology. Here we disclose a bidirectional, rapidly charging aluminium–chalcogen battery operating with a molten-salt electrolyte composed of NaCl–KCl–AlCl3. ... to form the foundation for high-rate charging of the battery. This chemistry is distinguished from other aluminium batteries in the choice of a positive elemental-chalcogen electrode as opposed to various low-capacity compound formulations, and in the choice of a molten-salt electrolyte as opposed to room-temperature ionic liquids that induce high polarization. We show that the multi-step conversion pathway between aluminium and chalcogen allows rapid charging at up to 200C, and the battery endures hundreds of cycles at very high charging rates without aluminium dendrite formation. Importantly for scalability, the cell-level cost of the aluminium–sulfur battery is projected to be less than one-sixth that of current lithium-ion technologies. Composed of earth-abundant elements that can be ethically sourced and operated at moderately elevated temperatures just above the boiling point of water, this chemistry has all the requisites of a low-cost, rechargeable, fire-resistant, recyclable battery."
A new concept for low-cost batteries Made from inexpensive, abundant materials, an aluminum-sulfur battery could provide low-cost backup storage for renewable energy sources.
Fast-charging aluminium–chalcogen batteries resistant to dendritic shorting (no public access)
Taiwan: Two US warships sail through strait since Pelosi's visit. Irresponsible!
Was that necessary! Is the demented and senile 46th President attempting to trigger an international incident to win the mid-term elections by trying to rally the people behind the president?
This is irresponsible sable rattling and brinkmanship by the demented and senile 46th President in dangerous times!
"Two US warships are passing through the Taiwan Strait, the US Navy has announced.
It is the first such operation to take place since tensions between Taiwan and China increased following a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan earlier this month. ..."
Israel's five main desalination plants are now in private hands
Good news! We need a lot more desalination plants!
Nearly 100 Republican Members of Congress urge Pelosi to hold Biden accountable for student loan plan
Yes, put pressure on the 82 year old nutty and erratic Nancy Pelosi!
When you live in a gerontocracy with a demented and senile 46th President at the helm all sorts of things happen!
Why were the well endowed universities and colleges not asked to cooperate in this student loan forgiveness plan?
Die CDU vor ihrem Bundesparteitag in Hannover - Quoten für Frauen und kein Arbeitskreis für Katholiken
Dieser weit überschätzte Friedrich Merz scheint eine ziemliche Pfeife zu sein! Was hat er eigentlich geleistet als die SED Kanzlerin Merkel im Amt war?
Frauenquoten sind verfassungswidrig und schädlich für eine freiheitliche Grundordnung! Schlicht und einfach!
Zwischen Anmaßung und Selbsthass - Der Westen droht zu scheitern
Empfehlenswert! Frei nach dem Motto, der Westen schafft sich unsinniger Weise selbst ab! Que vadis!
Viele großartige Zivilisationen sind schon untergegangen im Laufe der Geschichte, der Westen ist keine Ausnahme!
Vieles ist natürlich seit langem bekannt, aber es schadet nicht es noch mal konzentriert zu wiederholen und zusammenzufassen.
Die Autorin Susanne Schröter ist Ethnologin an meiner Alma Mater Johann Wolfgang Goethe Uni in FfM!
"Der Westen ist die freieste, wohlhabendste und sozialste Region der Welt. Nirgendwo werden die Freiheitsrechte des Individuums stärker geschützt, haben Frauen im Kampf für Gleichberechtigung mehr erreicht, können sexuelle, ethnische und religiöse Minderheiten ihre Anliegen besser geltend machen. Nirgendwo profitiert die Bevölkerung mehr von steuerbasierten sozialen Einrichtungen, einem hoch entwickelten Gesundheitssystem sowie kostenloser [???] Bildung. ...
Der Angriff der russischen Armee auf die Ukraine war nur möglich, weil man die von Putin stets offen zur Schau gestellte Aufrüstung nicht als Bedrohungsszenario einstufte. Das gilt besonders für Deutschland. Selbst die Überfälle Russlands auf seine Nachbarstaaten hinderten deutsche Politiker nicht, weiterhin an der Mär Wandel durch Handel festzuhalten und die Abhängigkeit in besonders vulnerablen Sektoren voranzutreiben. ...
Ähnlich wie bei den Beziehungen zur Russischen Föderation setzt man seit Jahrzehnten auf die Hoffnung, dass Menschen zu Demokraten werden, wenn man das richtige Angebot macht und es monetär attraktiv ausgestaltet. In Afghanistan ist diese Strategie nach 20 Jahren ebenso krachend gescheitert wie beim politischen Islam westlicher Prägung, ohne dass dies zu tieferen Einsichten geführt hätte. ...
Gerade für die westliche Linke ist ein tief verwurzelter Antiamerikanismus konstitutiv. ... Zum anderen stand hinter der Feindschaft gegen die USA eine ideologisierte Einäugigkeit, die bemerkenswert ist. ...
schwiegen sie über Millionen von Gefolterten und Ermordeten in kommunistischen Ländern. Während sie die Freiheitsrechte des Westens bei antiwestlichen Demonstrationen und Versammlungen in Anspruch nahmen, erwähnten sie mit keinem Wort, dass jede Form der Opposition in China, der Sowjetunion oder in Kuba mit äußerster Repression unterbunden wurde. ...
Bis auf den heutigen Tag wird der Westen von der Mehrheit der Linken bis hinein in konservative Kreise für Armut, Kriege, Umweltkatastrophen und andere Übel dieser Welt verantwortlich gemacht. An europäischen, amerikanischen und australischen Universitäten konstruieren sogenannte postkoloniale Theoretiker den Westen als Reich eines postreligiösen Antichristen, der die Welt in einen Zustand der Verdammnis gebracht hat. Dabei geht es längst nicht mehr nur um den Westen als politisches und ökonomisches System, sondern auch um Menschen weißer Hautfarbe. Ein neuer Rassismus formiert sich, und er richtet sich – historisch ein absolutes Novum – gegen die eigene Bevölkerung. ...
Da die Anerkennung eines Opferstatus in der Regel mit finanziellen Zuwendungen belohnt wird und ein lukratives Geschäftsmodell darstellt, lässt sich gegenwärtig eine Multiplizierung von selbst ernannten Opfergruppen beobachten. ...
Auf der Gegenseite wurde der heterosexuelle alte weiße Mann zur ultimativen Hassfigur. Die Folgen sind alles andere als trivial. Die Idee der Gleichheit aller Bürger weicht einem identitätspolitischen Furor, der Menschen nach äußerlichen Merkmalen, sexuellen Gewohnheiten und, sofern es Muslime betrifft, auch nach Religionszugehörigkeit gliedert. ...
Mit verordneten Sprachregelungen möchte man die Bevölkerung zur Anerkennung der neu geschaffenen Realitäten nötigen und setzt damit implizit an das alte kommunistische Ideal der Erschaffung eines neuen Menschen an, der in der Diktatur des Proletariats geschmiedet werden sollte.
Auch die Meinungs-, Presse-, Kunst- und Wissenschaftsfreiheit geraten unter Druck. Verboten werden soll alles, was Lobbygruppenvertreter als verletzend empfinden könnten ...
Wenn der Westen in diesen Herausforderungen bestehen will, muss er sich auf seine Grundlagen besinnen. Es gibt weder einen Grund für Überheblichkeit noch für Selbsthass. Beides behindert die realistische Überprüfung eigener Stärken und Schwächen, die notwendig ist, um aus Fehlern zu lernen und die Zukunft des Westens zu sichern. Eines sollte dabei gewiss sein: Wer die Freiheit im Innern nicht achtet, hat nach außen nichts zu verteidigen. ..."
Der Angriff der russischen Armee auf die Ukraine war nur möglich, weil man die von Putin stets offen zur Schau gestellte Aufrüstung nicht als Bedrohungsszenario einstufte. Das gilt besonders für Deutschland. Selbst die Überfälle Russlands auf seine Nachbarstaaten hinderten deutsche Politiker nicht, weiterhin an der Mär Wandel durch Handel festzuhalten und die Abhängigkeit in besonders vulnerablen Sektoren voranzutreiben. ...
Ähnlich wie bei den Beziehungen zur Russischen Föderation setzt man seit Jahrzehnten auf die Hoffnung, dass Menschen zu Demokraten werden, wenn man das richtige Angebot macht und es monetär attraktiv ausgestaltet. In Afghanistan ist diese Strategie nach 20 Jahren ebenso krachend gescheitert wie beim politischen Islam westlicher Prägung, ohne dass dies zu tieferen Einsichten geführt hätte. ...
Gerade für die westliche Linke ist ein tief verwurzelter Antiamerikanismus konstitutiv. ... Zum anderen stand hinter der Feindschaft gegen die USA eine ideologisierte Einäugigkeit, die bemerkenswert ist. ...
schwiegen sie über Millionen von Gefolterten und Ermordeten in kommunistischen Ländern. Während sie die Freiheitsrechte des Westens bei antiwestlichen Demonstrationen und Versammlungen in Anspruch nahmen, erwähnten sie mit keinem Wort, dass jede Form der Opposition in China, der Sowjetunion oder in Kuba mit äußerster Repression unterbunden wurde. ...
Bis auf den heutigen Tag wird der Westen von der Mehrheit der Linken bis hinein in konservative Kreise für Armut, Kriege, Umweltkatastrophen und andere Übel dieser Welt verantwortlich gemacht. An europäischen, amerikanischen und australischen Universitäten konstruieren sogenannte postkoloniale Theoretiker den Westen als Reich eines postreligiösen Antichristen, der die Welt in einen Zustand der Verdammnis gebracht hat. Dabei geht es längst nicht mehr nur um den Westen als politisches und ökonomisches System, sondern auch um Menschen weißer Hautfarbe. Ein neuer Rassismus formiert sich, und er richtet sich – historisch ein absolutes Novum – gegen die eigene Bevölkerung. ...
Da die Anerkennung eines Opferstatus in der Regel mit finanziellen Zuwendungen belohnt wird und ein lukratives Geschäftsmodell darstellt, lässt sich gegenwärtig eine Multiplizierung von selbst ernannten Opfergruppen beobachten. ...
Auf der Gegenseite wurde der heterosexuelle alte weiße Mann zur ultimativen Hassfigur. Die Folgen sind alles andere als trivial. Die Idee der Gleichheit aller Bürger weicht einem identitätspolitischen Furor, der Menschen nach äußerlichen Merkmalen, sexuellen Gewohnheiten und, sofern es Muslime betrifft, auch nach Religionszugehörigkeit gliedert. ...
Mit verordneten Sprachregelungen möchte man die Bevölkerung zur Anerkennung der neu geschaffenen Realitäten nötigen und setzt damit implizit an das alte kommunistische Ideal der Erschaffung eines neuen Menschen an, der in der Diktatur des Proletariats geschmiedet werden sollte.
Auch die Meinungs-, Presse-, Kunst- und Wissenschaftsfreiheit geraten unter Druck. Verboten werden soll alles, was Lobbygruppenvertreter als verletzend empfinden könnten ...
Wenn der Westen in diesen Herausforderungen bestehen will, muss er sich auf seine Grundlagen besinnen. Es gibt weder einen Grund für Überheblichkeit noch für Selbsthass. Beides behindert die realistische Überprüfung eigener Stärken und Schwächen, die notwendig ist, um aus Fehlern zu lernen und die Zukunft des Westens zu sichern. Eines sollte dabei gewiss sein: Wer die Freiheit im Innern nicht achtet, hat nach außen nichts zu verteidigen. ..."
Texas Blacklists BlackRock, UBS and Other Financial Firms Over Alleged Energy Boycotts
Good news! Bravo Governor Abbott!
Inside the laboratory growing sausages from animal cells
Recommendable! The future of meat! No more slaughter! Vegetarians may like it too! 😊
Sunday, August 28, 2022
Scientists develop AC that uses solid refrigerants and doesn’t hurt the environment
Good news!
This is my second blog post regarding A/C technology today!
"Solid refrigerants could be an ideal solution. Unlike gases, solids won’t leak into the environment from A/C units. One class of solid refrigerants, called barocaloric materials, work similarly to traditional gas-liquid cooling systems. They use pressure changes to go through heat cycles, but in this case, the pressure drives a solid-to-solid phase change. That means the material remains a solid, but the internal molecular structure changes. ...
A disadvantage of barocaloric systems, however, is that most of these materials require massive pressures to drive heat cycles. To produce these pressures, the systems need expensive, specialized equipment that’s not practical for real-world cooling applications. Mason and his team recently reported barocaloric materials that can act as refrigerants at much lower pressures. They’ve now shown that the refrigerants, which are called metal-halide perovskites, can work in a cooling system they’ve built from scratch. “The materials we reported are able to cycle at about 3,000 psi, which are pressures that a typical hydraulics system can work at,” ...
The team has now built a first-of-its-kind prototype that demonstrates the use of these new materials in a practical cooling system. The device has three main parts. One is a metal tube packed with the solid refrigerant and an inert liquid — water or an oil. Another piece of the device is a hydraulic piston that applies pressure to the liquid. Finally, the liquid helps transfer that pressure to the refrigerant and helps carry heat through the system. ...""... Other scientists have investigated using plastic crystals or shape-memory alloys as potential solid state refrigerants. With more work, this new class of materials could help make cooling devices more environmentally friendly. ..."
The team's prototype set up to test the solid-state refrigerant
Human drivers in UK won’t be liable for accidents when vehicle is self-driving
This is Big, but old News! It came out last week, but I missed it somehow!
Brexit keeps on giving! When the soviet style Goliath EU will be ready, who knows! And for many years, the EU has been driven by an extreme form of precautionary principle!
This would be a very clear assignment of responsibility and liability! Bravo! However, the law has not been passed.
Probably, car manufacturers will be more cautious and possibly slower in their roll out of new autonomous driving capable cars.
"Manufacturers operating self-driving vehicles in the U.K. will be liable for a vehicle’s actions when in autonomous mode, according to the country’s new roadmap to achieve a widespread rollout of self-driving vehicles by 2025.
The British government unveiled the roadmap over the weekend, announcing $119 million in funding for AV projects and an additional $41 million for research to support safety and new legislation. ...
This distinction could set a precedent globally, where liability in the case of autonomous vehicle accidents can still be somewhat of a gray area. ..."
This distinction could set a precedent globally, where liability in the case of autonomous vehicle accidents can still be somewhat of a gray area. ..."
Annual US drug survey finds use of psychedelics at a record high
Not good news! Drug use disorders remain a serious issue! There are no easy solutions! A difficult subject!
E.g. how much drug use is fairly harmless and temporary or exploring/experimenting and how much is more long lasting, harmful, excessive and of concern etc.?
"New data from an annual drug-use survey supported by the US National Institutes of Health has found recreational use of psychedelics among older adults in the US is at the highest point ever-recorded in the survey’s nearly 40-year history. The data also indicates while alcohol and tobacco consumption is still trending down, marijuana-use has increased. ...
The Monitoring The Future (MTF) study began in 1975, initially surveying drug-use habits in a single class of senior high school students. Over the next few years the survey expanded to include younger school students, while annually following up with all prior participants. ...
On the other hand, marijuana use has unsurprisingly dramatically increased over the past decade, with 42.6% of young adults reporting using the drug at some point over the past 12 months, up from 28.6% in 2012. ..."
The Monitoring The Future (MTF) study began in 1975, initially surveying drug-use habits in a single class of senior high school students. Over the next few years the survey expanded to include younger school students, while annually following up with all prior participants. ...
On the other hand, marijuana use has unsurprisingly dramatically increased over the past decade, with 42.6% of young adults reporting using the drug at some point over the past 12 months, up from 28.6% in 2012. ..."
From the government news release:
"Marijuana and hallucinogen use in the past year reported by young adults 19 to 30 years old increased significantly in 2021 compared to five and 10 years ago, reaching historic highs in this age group since 1988, according to the Monitoring the Future (MTF) panel study. Rates of past-month nicotine vaping, which have been gradually increasing in young adults for the past four years, also continued their general upward trend in 2021, despite leveling off in 2020. Past-month marijuana vaping, which had significantly decreased in 2020, rebounded to pre-pandemic levels in 2021.
Alcohol remains the most used substance among adults in the study, though past-year, past-month, and daily drinking have been decreasing over the past decade. Binge drinking (five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks) rebounded in 2021 from a historic low in 2020, during the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, high-intensity drinking (having 10 or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks) has been steadily increasing over the past decade and in 2021 reached its highest level ever recorded since first measured in 2005. ..."
Marijuana and hallucinogen use among young adults reached all-time high in 2021 NIH-supported study also found past-month vaping levels rebound after early pandemic drop.
The Energetic Cost of Chewing May Have Shaped Hominin Evolution
Amazing stuff! A very clever approach to use chewing gum for this research! How much did this actually affect our facial appearance (muscles, tendons, bones, blood vessels etc.)?
Masticatory effort, what a teeth gnashing term! Are these researchers suggesting that chewing is like going to a gym for a physical workout? Let me chew on that for a while! 😊
"Back before the advent of cooking, our early hominid ancestors probably spent a lot of time chewing. ...
Estimates for how long humans have been cooking range from 500,000 to 2 million years ago ... Our ability to draw out excess calories from meats and starchy foods via heat and tool use “changed the entire energetics of modern humans. And basically, you could say it’s allowed the formation of a very large brain.” In this way, the metabolics of chewing is still “one of the fundamental questions of evolution,” ...
Based on a back-of-the-envelope calculation of how much time chimpanzees spend chewing, our early hominid ancestors may have been chewing for five or six hours a day, he says, which may have cost them up to 5 percent of the energy they consumed. It’s possible that this drove the evolution of the form or muscle architecture of the jaw, or changes in tooth morphology ..."
Estimates for how long humans have been cooking range from 500,000 to 2 million years ago ... Our ability to draw out excess calories from meats and starchy foods via heat and tool use “changed the entire energetics of modern humans. And basically, you could say it’s allowed the formation of a very large brain.” In this way, the metabolics of chewing is still “one of the fundamental questions of evolution,” ...
Based on a back-of-the-envelope calculation of how much time chimpanzees spend chewing, our early hominid ancestors may have been chewing for five or six hours a day, he says, which may have cost them up to 5 percent of the energy they consumed. It’s possible that this drove the evolution of the form or muscle architecture of the jaw, or changes in tooth morphology ..."
From the abstract:
"Any change in the energetic cost of mammalian mastication will affect the net energy gain from foods. Although the energetic efficiency of masticatory effort is fundamental in understanding the evolution of the human masticatory system, nothing is known currently about the associated metabolic costs of chewing different items. Here, using respirometry and electromyography of the masseter muscle, we demonstrate that chewing by human subjects represents a measurable energy sink. Chewing a tasteless odorless gum elevates metabolic rate by 10 to 15% above basal levels. Energy expenditure increases with gum stiffness and is paid for by greater muscle recruitment. For modern humans, it is likely that mastication represents a small part of the daily energy budget. However, for our ancestors, before the onset of cooking and sophisticated food processing methods, the costs must have been relatively high, adding a previously unexplored energetic dimension to the interpretation of hominin dentofacial fossils."
The cost of chewing: The energetics and evolutionary significance of mastication in humans (open access)
Riesiger Gasfund vor Zypern weckt Hoffnungen für Alternative zu Russland
Gute Nachrichten! Aber ein neuer Konflikt im Nahen Osten oder zwischen Griechenland, Zypern, und Türkei ist auch wahrscheinlich!
"... Schon im Frühjahr 2014 hatte Brüssel eine Strategie aufgelegt, um die im östlichen Mittelmeer vorhandenen Gasvorkommen anzuzapfen. Geworden ist daraus nichts, auch wegen der Streitigkeiten mit der Türkei um die Wirtschaftszone vor Zypern, über Erkundungs- und Bohrrechte, das Verlegen von Leitungen. Zeitweise stand die Erkundung still. ...
Die Regierung in Nikosia hat im Meeresgebiet südlich der Insel 13 Gebiete zur Erkundung vorgesehen. In Block 6 waren der französische Energiekonzern Total und die italienische Eni schon 2018 auf Gas gestoßen. Eine neue Bohrung hat sie jetzt überrascht. Das Resultat der Cronos-1-Bohrung in 2287 Metern Tiefe sei „signifikant“. Nach ersten Schätzungen lagerten dort 2,5 Billionen Kubikfuß Gas. Das sind umgerechnet 70 Milliarden Kubikmeter – beinahe genug, um Deutschland ein Jahr lang zu versorgen. ...
Womöglich liegt im Cronos-Feld, 160 Kilometer südlich der Küste in Block 6, noch mehr Gas. ..."
Die Regierung in Nikosia hat im Meeresgebiet südlich der Insel 13 Gebiete zur Erkundung vorgesehen. In Block 6 waren der französische Energiekonzern Total und die italienische Eni schon 2018 auf Gas gestoßen. Eine neue Bohrung hat sie jetzt überrascht. Das Resultat der Cronos-1-Bohrung in 2287 Metern Tiefe sei „signifikant“. Nach ersten Schätzungen lagerten dort 2,5 Billionen Kubikfuß Gas. Das sind umgerechnet 70 Milliarden Kubikmeter – beinahe genug, um Deutschland ein Jahr lang zu versorgen. ...
Womöglich liegt im Cronos-Feld, 160 Kilometer südlich der Küste in Block 6, noch mehr Gas. ..."
Top Programming Languages 2022
I am a jack of several of the top 10 programming languages, but a master of none!
Notice: They forgot to add the rank of the language!
When will China’s population peak or has it peaked?
Recommendable! India and China are in a sort of population race. Demography is destiny!
The aftermath of the One Child Policy (officially started in 1980 and ended in 2015, but prior efforts to control population growth started in the 1970s).
"... After years of falling birth rates, the National Health Commission wrote in an article published online in early August that China’s population growth has slowed significantly and will start to decline between 2023 and 2025. According to an estimate published last month in a peer-reviewed Chinese journal, Social Science Journal, Wei Chen, a demographer at Renmin University in Beijing, concluded that, on the basis of national census data released in 2020, China’s population might have already peaked in 2021 ...
Last year, China’s total population increased by only 480,000 people, to just more than 1.41 billion, with a natural growth rate — the difference between the numbers of births and deaths — of close to zero. The country’s birth rate declined for the fifth consecutive year to 7.5 births per thousand people, and only 10 million babies were born in 2021, the lowest since 1949."
Last year, China’s total population increased by only 480,000 people, to just more than 1.41 billion, with a natural growth rate — the difference between the numbers of births and deaths — of close to zero. The country’s birth rate declined for the fifth consecutive year to 7.5 births per thousand people, and only 10 million babies were born in 2021, the lowest since 1949."
AI Could Make Air Conditioners 10x Better
Good news! When was the last time A/C technology saw a major innovation? Billions of people do not even have any significant access to air conditioning!
"The energy we spend on cooling indoor spaces has tripled since 1990, and it’s going to triple again by 2050 as developing and middle-income countries embrace air-conditioning. Researchers are putting a lot of sweat into innovative cooling technologies that consume less energy, but none seem ready for prime time in the near future. ...
Cooling consumes over 16 percent of the energy used by buildings today, with the heat exchanger being the most energy-intensive component of an A/C unit. ...
By using AI to generate a radically new heat-exchanger design that can then be printed with a 3D metal printer, Hyperganic says it is developing a residential A/C unit that is 10 times as efficient as conventional air conditioners, while costing the same amount of money to buy and operate for a year. [Remark: Costs the same to operate???] ...
Hyperganic’s AI-based design platform allows engineers to make heat exchangers with radically different structures, using elements inspired by the intricate designs found in nature, like corals, ... By increasing the surface area and optimizing air flow, these designs boost the component’s energy efficiency. “We take knowledge from engineering about how to build a heat exchanger, but now you can do it automatically,” ... “You can create, test, and iterate faster.” ..."
By using AI to generate a radically new heat-exchanger design that can then be printed with a 3D metal printer, Hyperganic says it is developing a residential A/C unit that is 10 times as efficient as conventional air conditioners, while costing the same amount of money to buy and operate for a year. [Remark: Costs the same to operate???] ...
Hyperganic’s AI-based design platform allows engineers to make heat exchangers with radically different structures, using elements inspired by the intricate designs found in nature, like corals, ... By increasing the surface area and optimizing air flow, these designs boost the component’s energy efficiency. “We take knowledge from engineering about how to build a heat exchanger, but now you can do it automatically,” ... “You can create, test, and iterate faster.” ..."
Researchers Fuse Mouse Chromosomes in Scientific First
Amazing stuff!
"For the first time, researchers have fused two mouse chromosomes together in vitro, resulting in living mice with new karyotypes. ...
Chromosomal fusions are also common in cancer and have been linked to health issues, including infertility, aneuploidy, and childhood diseases. So, researchers have long sought the ability to precisely manipulate chromosomes in model organisms, especially mammalian ones, in the hopes of investigating fusions from both medical and evolutionary perspectives. ...
To fuse chromosomes in mice, the researchers used a technology they first developed in yeast: briefly, they injected modified haploid mouse embryonic stem cells friend (haESCs) with a CRISPR-Cas9 system that targets and eliminates telomeres and centromeres on two specific chromosomes. As a result, the targeted chromosomes zipped themselves together. ..."
Chromosomal fusions are also common in cancer and have been linked to health issues, including infertility, aneuploidy, and childhood diseases. So, researchers have long sought the ability to precisely manipulate chromosomes in model organisms, especially mammalian ones, in the hopes of investigating fusions from both medical and evolutionary perspectives. ...
To fuse chromosomes in mice, the researchers used a technology they first developed in yeast: briefly, they injected modified haploid mouse embryonic stem cells friend (haESCs) with a CRISPR-Cas9 system that targets and eliminates telomeres and centromeres on two specific chromosomes. As a result, the targeted chromosomes zipped themselves together. ..."
"Designer chromosomes
One of the goals in synthetic biology is to generate complex multicellular life with designed DNA sequences. Being able to manipulate DNA at large scales, including at the chromosome level, is an important step toward this goal. So far, chromosome-level genetic engineering has been accomplished only in haploid yeast. By applying gene editing to haploid embryonic stem cells, Wang et al. achieved whole-chromosome ligations in mice, and successfully derived animals with 19 pairs of chromosomes, one pair fewer than is standard in this species."
From the abstract:
"Chromosome engineering has been attempted successfully in yeast but remains challenging in higher eukaryotes, including mammals. Here, we report programmed chromosome ligation in mice that resulted in the creation of new karyotypes in the lab. Using haploid embryonic stem cells and gene editing, we fused the two largest mouse chromosomes, chromosomes 1 and 2, and two medium-size chromosomes, chromosomes 4 and 5. Chromatin conformation and stem cell differentiation were minimally affected. However, karyotypes carrying fused chromosomes 1 and 2 resulted in arrested mitosis, polyploidization, and embryonic lethality, whereas a smaller fused chromosome composed of chromosomes 4 and 5 was able to be passed on to homozygous offspring. Our results suggest the feasibility of chromosome-level engineering in mammals."
A sustainable mouse karyotype created by programmed chromosome fusion (no public access)
Antytila: Ukrainian rock band on the frontline of war
Very recommendable! Great reporting by BBC!
What is the Ukrainian rock band turned into soldiers singing now: We will rock you Putin the Terrible! One of the musicians was saying that blood is the most terrible smell that he knows and he is now a medic in the Ukrainian army.
What is the Ukrainian rock band turned into soldiers singing now: We will rock you Putin the Terrible! One of the musicians was saying that blood is the most terrible smell that he knows and he is now a medic in the Ukrainian army.
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Poland: People line up at coal mine, fearful of winter shortages because of Russia
It is shocking! Blame it on Putin the Terrible!
On the Trump raid affidavit
Just finished reading the entire 38 pages Affidavit!
This Affidavit only confirms that what the swamp (Dimocratic Party and government operatives) have done to Donald Trump since he announced his candidacy for President is much worse and much more sophisticated than Watergate ever was.
Here are a few of my thoughts:
- Judge Reinhardt should reject this Affidavit as it is too much redacted and ask for a new one with less redactions! We do not know the content of the redactions, but based on the unredacted parts Judge Reinhardt should have dismissed this search warrant!
- The unnamed FBI agent, in whose name this Affidavit is signed, comes across as another Peter Strzok or Lisa Page. Perhaps, he or she is even from the same FBI unit!
- The former President Trump is treated as a serious criminal in this affidavit. It is shocking! No respect, nothing! You find language like "Based upon the following facts, there is probable cause to believe that the locations to be searched at the PREMISES contain evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 793(e), 1519,or 2071."
- The whole Affidavit is about 15 boxes of government documents that the former president returned to the United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on 1/18/2022. However, the FBI insinuates or speculates there must be more, because e.g. CBS news reported moving trucks on January 18th, 2021 at the residence of the former president. This is really laughable!
- There are reports that the United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is also a hotbed of employees with Trump Derangement Syndrome! It was NARA, which referred this case to the FBI.
- The unredacted parts of the Affidavit contain no explanation whatsoever as to why the search was necessary and urgent at this time. It is totally mute about this! It does also not list or mention any other efforts to resolve the issue without a search warrant!
- The Affidavit actually confirms that Trump cooperated regarding document requests: "On February 18, 2022, the Archivist of the United States, chief administrator for NARA, stated in a letter to Congress's Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairwoman The Honorable Carolyn B. Maloney, "NARA had ongoing communications with the representatives of former President Trump throughout 2021, which resulted in the transfer of 15 boxes to NARA in January 2022"
- The Affidavit also curiously quotes an article by Breitbart, because according to this article Kash Patel claimed the president had declassified some documents. You got to be kidding!
- Who in the U.S. government has the ultimate constitutional authority to classify or declassify documents? Perhaps, it is none other than the president. If so, then by taking these documents to his residence he implicitly declassified them.
- We also know that the FBI and/or other government agencies e.g. lied to the FISA Court to obtain warrants against Trump or his associates. I believe, nobody was yet sanctioned for this grievous offense! Who can assure us that it is different this time? This Affidavit is not reassuring!
- Who can rule out that perhaps highly classified documents were intentionally planted with the documents that Trump retained after office or planted while the raid was going on etc.
- The whole Affidavit smells a lot like trumped up charges (pardon my pun)!
Attached you find the PDF file as provided by PBS:
gov.uscourts.flsd_.617854.102.1-2.pdf
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