India, a rising superpower also needs a modern cultural center!
Friday, March 31, 2023
The Vulkan Files: Vladimir Putin’s Secrets Leaked with Palki Sharma
Very recommendable and concerning!
The heart is one of the brain's timekeepers
Amazing stuff!
"They found that our momentary perception of time is not continuous but may stretch or shrink with each heartbeat.
The research builds evidence that the heart is one of the brain’s important timekeepers and plays a fundamental role in our sense of time passing – an idea contemplated since ancient times ...
The team harnessed that variability in a novel experiment. Forty-five study participants – ages 18 to 21, with no history of heart trouble – were monitored with electrocardiography, or ECG, measuring heart electrical activity at millisecond resolution. The ECG was linked to a computer, which enabled brief tones lasting 80-180 milliseconds to be triggered by heartbeats. Study participants reported whether tones were longer or shorter relative to others.
The results revealed what the researchers called “temporal wrinkles.” When the heartbeat preceding a tone was shorter, the tone was perceived as longer. When the preceding heartbeat was longer, the sound’s duration seemed shorter. ..."
From the abstract:
"The role of the heart in the experience of time has been long theorized but empirical evidence is scarce. Here, we examined the interaction between fine-grained cardiac dynamics and the momentary experience of subsecond intervals. Participants performed a temporal bisection task for brief tones (80–188 ms) synchronized with the heart. We developed a cardiac Drift-Diffusion Model (cDDM) that embedded contemporaneous heart rate dynamics into the temporal decision model. Results revealed the existence of temporal wrinkles—dilation or contraction of short intervals—in synchrony with cardiac dynamics. A lower prestimulus heart rate was associated with an initial bias in encoding the millisecond-level stimulus duration as longer, consistent with facilitation of sensory intake. Concurrently, a higher prestimulus heart rate aided more consistent and faster temporal judgments through more efficient evidence accumulation. Additionally, a higher speed of poststimulus cardiac deceleration, a bodily marker of attention, was associated with a greater accumulation of sensory temporal evidence in the cDDM. These findings suggest a unique role of cardiac dynamics in the momentary experience of time. Our cDDM framework opens a new methodological avenue for investigating the role of the heart in time perception and perceptual judgment."
FIGURE 1 Two views on the impact of heart rate on the brain and behavior.
The first Passover haggadah in Ukrainian marks a community's break with Russia
The independence of the Ukraine is making further progress!
The Ukrainian language for a long time derided in the past as the language of peasants while Russian was considered sophisticated, advanced, and modern!
"... Stamova’s text, titled “For Our Freedom,” was released online earlier this month in advance of the Passover holiday that starts April 5. It is one of a growing number of efforts to translate Jewish texts into Ukrainian. Translators affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement have produced a book of psalms and are working on a daily prayer book, with their sights set on a full translation of the Torah. An effort is also underway now to translate a chapter of a newer text associated with Yom Hashoah, the Jewish Holocaust memorial day, in advance of its commemoration this year on April 18.
The absence of those texts until now, despite Ukraine’s significant Jewish population, reflects the particular linguistic history of Ukrainian Jews. Under the Russian empire, Jews living in what is now Ukraine in the 19th century tended to adopt Russian rather than Ukrainian, usually in addition to Yiddish, because Ukrainian was perceived as the language of the peasantry and conferred few benefits. That tilt became more pronounced after World War II and the Holocaust, when Yiddish declined as a Jewish vernacular and Russian became the main language of the Soviet Union. ..."
Trump-Ankläger in den USA: Wer ist der Alvin Bragg? Absurder Journalismus!
Die deutsche Presse versucht diesen schrecklichen Ideologen und Idiot von Oberstaatsanwalt als Helden zu stilisieren!
Das Trump Derangement Syndrome grassiert auch in der Bananenrepublik D.!
AI ‘fairness’ research held back by lack of diversity. Really!
It is so annoying and tiresome this skin color propaganda and demagoguery! Again it is disseminated by the once prestigious Nature journal!
I don't even want to comment anymore on this rubbish and pseudoscience!
The science of California’s record snow
Abstract: Global Warming is a hoax and Climate Change is a religion!
Is it time to call for a Global Cooling again like in the 1970s, before Global Warming became fashionable! (Caution: Irony)
"In the Sierra Nevada mountain range in eastern California, the season is the snowiest since 1952, ... “It’s just dumping snow,” he says. A total of 18 metres of snow has fallen at the lab this season, nearly double the yearly average. And statewide, the snow’s water content — the amount of water that would result if the snow were melted — is roughly double the average ..."
A rare snowstorm in southern California frosted the mountains on the edge of Los Angeles on 1 March
Dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex had lips
Amazing stuff! This will change our perception of the oral configuration of the dinosaurs so the scientists say! Maybe they smiled too to be left for future research! 😊
"Analysis of the teeth and skull of this king of the dinosaurs showed that, unlike its more recent relatives, the crocodiles, Tyrannosaurus rex probably had lips covering its formidable teeth. Most lizards have lips to keep their tooth enamel moist and their delicate dentition protected, and palaeontologists have wondered for years whether T. rex was lippy like a lizard or lipless like a croc."
From the abstract:
"Large theropod dinosaurs are often reconstructed with their marginal dentition exposed because of the enormous size of their teeth and their phylogenetic association to crocodylians. We tested this hypothesis using a multiproxy approach. Regressions of skull length and tooth size for a range of theropods and extant varanid lizards confirm that complete coverage of theropod dinosaur teeth with extraoral tissues (gingiva and labial scales) is both plausible and consistent with patterns observed in living ziphodont amniotes. Analyses of dental histology from crocodylians and theropod dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus rex, further indicate that the most likely condition was complete coverage of the marginal dentition with extraoral tissue when the mouth was closed. This changes our perceptions about the appearance and oral configuration of these iconic predators and has broad implications for our interpretations of other terrestrial animals with large teeth."
Theropod dinosaur facial reconstruction and the importance of soft tissues in paleobiology (open access)
Fig. 1. Comparisons of the reconstructions of T. rex.
Stressed plants emit ultrasound noise
Amazing stuff! It appears to be passive noise as opposed to active noise.
"Plants do not suffer in silence. Instead, when thirsty or stressed, plants make “airborne sounds,” according to a study published today in Cell1.
Plants that need water or have recently had their stems cut produce up to roughly 35 sounds per hour, the authors found. But well-hydrated and uncut plants are much quieter, making only about one sound per hour. ...
Plants do not have vocal cords or lungs. ... the current theory for how plants make noises centers on their xylem, the tubes that transport water and nutrients from their roots to their stems and leaves. Water in the the xylem is held together by surface tension, just like water sucked through a drinking straw. When an air bubble forms or breaks in the xylem, it might make a little popping noise; bubble formation is more likely during drought stress. But the exact mechanism requires further study ..."
Plants do not have vocal cords or lungs. ... the current theory for how plants make noises centers on their xylem, the tubes that transport water and nutrients from their roots to their stems and leaves. Water in the the xylem is held together by surface tension, just like water sucked through a drinking straw. When an air bubble forms or breaks in the xylem, it might make a little popping noise; bubble formation is more likely during drought stress. But the exact mechanism requires further study ..."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• Plants emit ultrasonic airborne sounds when stressed
• The emitted sounds reveal plant type and condition
• Plant sounds can be detected and interpreted in a greenhouse setting
Summary
Stressed plants show altered phenotypes, including changes in color, smell, and shape. Yet, airborne sounds emitted by stressed plants have not been investigated before. Here we show that stressed plants emit airborne sounds that can be recorded from a distance and classified. We recorded ultrasonic sounds emitted by tomato and tobacco plants inside an acoustic chamber, and in a greenhouse, while monitoring the plant’s physiological parameters. We developed machine learning models that succeeded in identifying the condition of the plants, including dehydration level and injury, based solely on the emitted sounds. These informative sounds may also be detectable by other organisms. This work opens avenues for understanding plants and their interactions with the environment and may have significant impact on agriculture."
Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and informative (open access)
Can you hear me now! 😊
Graphical abstract
Wirtschaftsweise Grimm: Ganz andere Zeiten kommen auf uns zu. Wirklich!
Ist das eine Quotenfrau in der Bananenrepublik D.?
Laut Wikipedia ist ihr Resume sehr dürftig! Laut Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar hat sie viel publiziert, aber sie wird sehr wenig zitiert!
Manche Wirtschaftswissenschaftler basteln lebenslang an grimmigen und Fantasie vollen Prognosen!
Sie neigt auch zur Gewalttätigkeit!
"... Für diese Schritte hält es die Ökonomin Veronika Grimm für wichtig, dass die Politik mehr mit den Bürgern kommuniziert und erklärt, was passiert. „Man muss den Menschen klarmachen: Es sind ganz andere Zeiten, die auf uns zukommen“ ...
Mit Blick auf den Regierungsstreit um Klimaschutz und Heizungen nennt es Grimm einen großen Fehler, den Emissionshandel nicht zu etablieren. „Man hätte der FDP auch die Pistole auf die Brust setzen können“, sagte sie auf dem Panel zum jüngsten Koalitionsausschuss."
Mit Blick auf den Regierungsstreit um Klimaschutz und Heizungen nennt es Grimm einen großen Fehler, den Emissionshandel nicht zu etablieren. „Man hätte der FDP auch die Pistole auf die Brust setzen können“, sagte sie auf dem Panel zum jüngsten Koalitionsausschuss."
Wie naiv ist diese Wirtschaftsweise?
Selbstbestimmungsgesetz: Schlachtfeld Frauensauna
Aufgespießt! Verkehrte Welt! Flexibilität ist gut für das Leben!
Ich schwitze eigentlich nicht gerne in einer Sauna, aber die Option eine Frauensauna als Mann, der sich als Frau identifiziert, zu besuchen ist verlockend! 😊 Kann mich nach dem Besuch der Sauna ja wieder als Mann Identifizierenen oder? (Vorsicht: Satire)
How did carbon dioxide become public enemy no. 1?
Let us all remember again CO2 is a totally harmless life essential trace gas in our atmosphere! Without it life on earth as we know it would not exist! More CO2 is actually good for e.g. growing plants and food!
For years, we told that CO2 is responsible for a coming global apocalypse! It is causing a so called climate crisis. Life on earth will end if we do not anything about it! Hogwash! This is the 21st century and so many of us still believe in doomsayers like in the Middle Ages! Superstition at its worst!
The ideological and pathological obsession with the dangers of this gas are absolutely paranoid! This insanity about this gas has to come to an end! The earlier, the better!
The massive exploitation of human fears and existential concerns is abhorrent and disgusting! It is has been actively and on a grand scale abused to justify extraordinary government powers in Western countries! This has to stop!
CO2 is certainly not the sole or major cause of the natural variability of earth's climate! This is absurd!
The Iraq War of 2003 as distorted by dishonest Western intellectuals
On the 20 year anniversary of the Iraq War many reflections are published in Western media!
Again, journalists and other are repeating that the claim of weapons of mass destruction were not found lie! Fact is that Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons in his war against Iran! Chemical weapons stands for the C in ABC weapons of mass destruction!
Again, these arm chair historians almost entirely omit or play down what a horrible and dangerous dictator Saddam Hussein was!
The enormity of the September 11, 2001 Attacks on American soil are systematically and intentionally downplayed! Thus, the Global War on Terror was born. To answer violence with violence is always problematic!
There is also little doubt that Saddam Hussein was aiding and abetting terrorists: E.g. "In 1993, the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) directed and pursued an attempt to assassinate, through the use of a powerful car bomb, former U.S. President George Bush and the Emir of Kuwait. Kuwaiti authorities thwarted the terrorist plot and arrested 16 suspects, led by two Iraqi nationals." (see e.g. here (unfortunately this document is undated), here). Whether Saddam Hussein directly or indirectly supported the 9/11 terrorists is in dispute.
That Saddam Hussein also presented a threat to the gulf states is another frequently and conveniently downplayed fact!
Probably, the United States should not have invaded Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power! In hindsight, this has become very obvious!
EU Parliament lawmakers back new rules on gender pay. Really!
This EU parliament produces a lot of rubbish and it is very expensive to maintain! It has been a circus for many years!
More Big Government interventions for what!
Feminist propaganda and demagoguery! If women and men are compared under the same conditions and circumstances this fictitious gender wage gap disappears in most cases!
UK joining Indo-Pacific trading bloc in biggest deal since Brexit is 'good news for everybody'
Recommendable! My second blog post on this momentous move by the UK!
Thursday, March 30, 2023
India pushes for arms sales to Africa as part of strengthening its defense sector
India, a rising superpower! This is a major shift for a formerly nonviolent, nonaligned country!
Saudi Arabia Enters China-Led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation with Palki Sharma
Recommendable and concerning! Saudi Arabia is looking for new partners like China!
Why The World Is Dumping The American Dollar with Palki Sharma
Recommendable!
India is also not far behind:
Russia Ukraine War: Europe's Double Standards Exposed with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! It's a little bit shocking!
Donald Trump indicted in New York, a first for a former US president. Incredible!
The Dimocratic Party is absolutely insane! Are they trying to provoke another civil war!
The Trump Derangement Syndrome in overdrive!
The Dimocratic Party again can not win fair and square!
As if the Dimocratic Party did not have plenty of their own issues:
- The senile and demented 46th President and his largely incompetent administration with its as many as possible firsts and implicit gender quota!
- A brief summary of the 46th President goes like this: He is senile and demented, a frequent pathological liar throughout his long political career, a seriously compromised lifelong career politician, a terrible opportunist, the head of the Biden clan with their shady foreign dealings.
Researchers create spintronics manufacturing process that could revolutionize the electronics industry
Good news!
"... The new process will allow for faster, more efficient spintronics devices that can be scaled down smaller than ever before. ...
Spintronic devices, which leverage the spin of electrons rather than the electrical charge to store data, provide a promising and more efficient alternative to traditional transistor-based chips. These materials also have the potential to be non-volatile, meaning they require less power and can store memory and perform computing even after you remove their power source. ...
For the first time, the researchers were able to grow iron palladium on a silicon wafer using an 8-inch wafer-capable multi-chamber ultrahigh vacuum sputtering system, a one-of-a-kind piece of equipment among academic institutions across the country and only available at the University of Minnesota.
“This work is showing for the first time in the world that you can grow this material, which can be scaled down to smaller than five nanometers, on top of a semiconductor industry-compatible substrate, so-called CMOS+X strategies,” ..."
Spintronic devices, which leverage the spin of electrons rather than the electrical charge to store data, provide a promising and more efficient alternative to traditional transistor-based chips. These materials also have the potential to be non-volatile, meaning they require less power and can store memory and perform computing even after you remove their power source. ...
For the first time, the researchers were able to grow iron palladium on a silicon wafer using an 8-inch wafer-capable multi-chamber ultrahigh vacuum sputtering system, a one-of-a-kind piece of equipment among academic institutions across the country and only available at the University of Minnesota.
“This work is showing for the first time in the world that you can grow this material, which can be scaled down to smaller than five nanometers, on top of a semiconductor industry-compatible substrate, so-called CMOS+X strategies,” ..."
From the abstract:
"As a promising alternative to the mainstream CoFeB/MgO system with interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), L10-FePd and its synthetic antiferromagnet (SAF) structure with large crystalline PMA can support spintronic devices with sufficient thermal stability at sub-5 nm sizes. However, the compatibility requirement of preparing L10-FePd thin films on Si/SiO2 wafers is still unmet. In this paper, high-quality L10-FePd and its SAF on Si/SiO2 wafers are prepared by coating the amorphous SiO2 surface with an MgO(001) seed layer. The prepared L10-FePd single layer and SAF stack are highly (001)-textured, showing strong PMA, low damping, and sizeable interlayer exchange coupling, respectively. Systematic characterizations, including advanced X-ray diffraction measurement and atomic resolution-scanning transmission electron microscopy, are conducted to explain the outstanding performance of L10-FePd layers. A fully-epitaxial growth that starts from MgO seed layer, induces the (001) texture of L10-FePd, and extends through the SAF spacer is observed. This study makes the vision of scalable spintronics more practical."
Sputtered L10-FePd and its Synthetic Antiferromagnet on Si/SiO2 Wafers for Scalable Spintronics (open access)
Figure 2
a) Stack structure of the samples with (bottom) and without (top) the MgO seed layer. ...
b) Hysteresis loops ...
c) RAH-Hext loops
a) Stack structure of the samples with (bottom) and without (top) the MgO seed layer. ...
b) Hysteresis loops ...
c) RAH-Hext loops
The most dangerous rioter of January 6th has been released from prison!
Good news! Bravo! Now run for your life! Take all necessary precautions recommends the FBI! (Caution: Satire) 😊
Remember, he dared to sit in the chair of and put his dirty boots on the desk of the nutty and erratic Nancy Pelosi (age 83), then the senile Speaker of the House! That was his crime! 😊
Shock this dangerous man is now in my neighborhood (I tremble at the thought 😊):
"... As of Thursday, reports from the Bureau of Prisons indicate that Chansley, 35, has been moved from federal prison to a halfway house in Phoenix, Arizona. ..."
Jacob Chansley, the painted face with bull horns
America and other Western countries ought to Opt Out Of The World Health Organization’s Global Medical Tyranny
Food for thought! The obsession with globalism is detrimental! Countries are not equal!
There is little doubt that so called international organisations like the WHO supposedly representing all of humanity have been perverted or instrumentalized!
Do countries like China, Russia, or North Korea care about the WHO? No they don't unless it serves their purpose e.g. to undermine Westen countries!
I personally also have come to the conclusion that Western countries should foremost have their own organisations! Then Western countries can decide how to engage on a global scale.
"The experts could hide behind international law as they advocate economy-crushing lockdowns and forced vaccinations.
Elon Musk tweeted that “Countries should not cede authority to WHO,” and conservatives have joined him in sounding the alarm about proposed legal changes to the World Health Organization and its International Health Regulations (IHR). ...
First, proposed changes to the International Health Regulations would convert recommendations into requirements. In May of 2024, 196 U.N. member nations will vote on the changes to the IHRs, with a simple majority required to approve them. ...
Second, the new WHO pandemic treaty, also up for a vote in the U.N. in May 2024, would represent another assault on U.S. sovereignty and thus the self-governance of the American people. ..."
First, proposed changes to the International Health Regulations would convert recommendations into requirements. In May of 2024, 196 U.N. member nations will vote on the changes to the IHRs, with a simple majority required to approve them. ...
Second, the new WHO pandemic treaty, also up for a vote in the U.N. in May 2024, would represent another assault on U.S. sovereignty and thus the self-governance of the American people. ..."
Vesuvius Challenge: Resurrect an ancient library from the ashes of a volcano. Win $1,000,000
Kaggle just announced this exciting challenge!
"In Herculaneum, twenty meters of hot mud and ash bury an enormous villa once owned by the father-in-law of Julius Caesar. Inside, there is a vast library of papyrus scrolls. ..."
CPTPP trade bloc to give U.K. green light to join
Good and big news! A follow up on the UK after Brexit!
The UK joins "Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam" (Source) Who needs the European Union if you can join the countries around the Pacific Ocean!
"The 11 members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership are expected to allow the U.K.'s accession to the free trade bloc this week, taking a step to expand the group to include a European nation.
This makes the U.K. the first nonfounding member welcomed into the CPTPP fold, demonstrating the allure of a grouping that spans the Asia-Pacific region. ..."
Britische König Charles „Deutschlands Unterstützung für Kiew ist überaus mutig“
Das ist eine hohe Anerkennung für die Regierung von Olaf Scholz! Diese tolle Unterstützung ist wohl eines der wenigen vorzeigbaren Leistungen dieser Regierung!
Russia arrests US journalist Evan Gershkovich on spying charge
Putin the Terrible is further escalating the Russo-Ukrainian War! A world war III by any other name!
These are very dangerous times!
Will the Russian people stop being slavish Slavs and finally end the rule of the last and megalomaniac czar of Russia before it is too late!
Let the international war crimes tribunal against Putin the Terrible and his accomplices begin immediately, preferably in Nuremberg, Germany! (in absentia or not).
Senioren mit ADHS: Manche erhalten erst im hohen Alter die Diagnose
Das scheint ein sehr interessantes und relevantes Thema zu sein. Mehre Fragen sind hier wohl notwendig.
Hier stellt sich wieder eine fundamentale Frage, ob nicht zu schnell und zu oft relative normales Verhalten als Krankheit diagnostiziert wird. Wenn es nach den Ärzten und dem Geldbeutel ginge wäre doch jeder Mensch krank! (Vorsicht: Satire)
Auf der anderen Seite ist ADHS, Autism usw. möglicherweise viel weiter verbreitet als bisher angenommen und indizieren möglicherweise eine schweres, bisher unterschätztes Gesundheitsproblem.
Dank der heutigen Medizin und der fortgeschrittenen Zivilisation ist natürlich auch die Überlebenschance dieser Menschen deutlich angestiegen. Oder ist die Zivilisation ursächlich beteiligt am vermehrten Auftreten dieser Krankheiten?
AAAS: White House science adviser welcomes more agile research agencies with ‘big bold goals’. Really!
Looks like today, I am preoccupied with some of the staff of the senile and demented 46th President and his largely incompetent administration with its as many as possible firsts and implicit gender quota!
Here is another featured person of this administration! She seems similarly unaccomplished like one I just blogged about here. This one has been praised by the American Association for the Advancement of Science!
Google Scholar has no entries for her. Scholastic Scholar shows 11 publications with a total of 32 citations in her name. One of the 11 publications is a PhD thesis. So what is her resume?
I guess, wearing fancy glasses and you have a good chance to become an advisor of the senile and demented 46th President!
Let's hope she is not a fetishist like Sam Brinton! This would be a relieve!
"Arati Prabhakar has been part of the U.S. research establishment for 3 decades. Now, the 64-year-old applied physicist stands at its epicenter, as science adviser to President Joe Biden and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. ..."
To model research after the DARPA is scarcely a new idea! Has been discussed and tried for at least 4 or more decades!!!
"... One of the best ways to achieve that goal, she believes, is through the government’s growing stable of small and agile research agencies modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), known for laying the foundation for the internet and GPS. (Prabhakar led DARPA from 2012 to 2017, after directing the National Institute of Standards and Technology from 1993 to 1997 and working as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.) ..."
Picture of the day
If this poster is for real, then it certainly is not an April Fool's joke! I am sorry, but this poster reminds of Nazis and Hitler!
Hopefully, LGBTQ has reached its zenith before it turns ugly. Human fads come and go!
MIT: Ezinne Uzo-Okoro has A portfolio that’s out of this world. Really!
Update: I just blogged here about another so called policy advisor of the White House.
It appears the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is hyping a young person of black skin color!
She has joined Karine Jean-Pierre in the White House! There is a strong hunch she was chosen because of her gender and skin color, but not on merits!
One fact is that this supposedly accomplished lady has not published much in academic journals! Google Scholar does not list any publication with her name on it. Semantic Scholar lists just four publications with 44 total citations.
Let's hope she is not a fetishist like Sam Brinton! This would be a relieve!
The senile and demented 46th President and his largely incompetent administration with its as many as possible firsts and implicit gender quota!
Grüner Plan statt Marktwirtschaft – Armut für Alle?
Noch einer, der die Idee hatte den berühmten Buchtitel von Ludwig Erhard etwas umzuschreiben. Sie mein Neues, posthumes Buch von Ludwig Erhard: Armut für Alle! vom 24.3.2023.
Der Schwarze Tod in neuem Licht: Nicht Flöhe, sondern Läuse sollen in Europa die Pest verbreitet haben
Eine neue, weltbewegende Erkenntnis! In ein paar Jahren wird es dann wohl der Waschbär gewesen sein, wie letztlich mit der Covid-19 Pandemie! 😊
Vorsicht: Ironie!
Vorsicht: Ironie!
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
The Tale of Two Economies: The West Struggles, Middle East Booms with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! Why this Indian news outlet persistently calls the Middle East West Asia is curious to say the least.
Jon Stewart notes alarming fact about how the U.S. Congress works behind closed doors: 'Like an assisted-living facility'
I like that headline!
Fact is our elected representatives are becoming older and older like society at large! However, a gerontocracy poses serious dangers to a democracy! It will most likely create tensions between younger and older generations!
Thus, e.g. term limits for all members of the U.S. Congress would be one measure to improve the situation! Had term limits already been in force for a long time, the senile and demented Joseph Biden would most likely not have become president!
Picture of the day
Concerning! This is about children and juveniles in the U.S. Look at e.g. the absolute numbers of hospitalizations with attempted suicide or self-injury (third row from the top of the table below)! I suspect though that perhaps the definition of "self-injury" may have changed.
WHO recommends COVID-19 new vaccination guidance to prioritize older adults. Better late, than never!
Well, the World Health Organisation should have done so since about mid-2020 when it was already abundantly clear that Covid-19 is a fairly harmless, but very infectious disease!
The colossal failure of the Western medical establishment since the beginning of Covid-19 has been stunning!
Highly educated Clowns and charlatans like Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Francis Collins, Prof. Karl Lauterbach and others dominated the response!
"... The revised roadmap outlines three priority-use groups for COVID-19 vaccination: high, medium, and low. These priority groups are principally based on risk of severe disease and death, and consider vaccine performance, cost-effectiveness, programmatic factors and community acceptance.
The high priority group includes older adults; younger adults with significant comorbidities (e.g. diabetes and heart disease); people with immunocompromising conditions (e.g. people living with HIV and transplant recipients), including children aged 6 months and older; pregnant persons; and frontline health workers. ..."
Why Tug-of-War over Kyiv’s Pechersk Lavra is a Case of Russo-Ukrainian War Waged by Other Means
Recommendable! A brief historic backgrounder on the Russo-Ukrainian War!
After independence of the Ukraine in 1991, the country has tried to overcome hundreds of years of foreign occupation involving the eradication e.g. of its language and religion.
Chinese EV startup Nio to install 1,000 battery swap stations
Is this a viable solution or option? Battery swap instead of charging?
"... Nio has been building a network of battery swap stations since 2018, with more than 1,300 in China. Of the 1,000 it plans to install this year, 900 of them will be third-generation models that can exchange up to 408 batteries per day, or up 30%. ..."
From the company's website:
"NIO Power Swap
Fully-automatic battery swap in just a short coffee break.
Enabled by over 1,400 patented technologies, NIO Power Swap, the first of its kind, offers an ultimate and exclusive power service experience. It takes only 3 minutes* to swap a fully charged battery. Automatic battery and electric system checks are performed during each swap to keep both the vehicle and battery in the best shape."
Biden says he won't invite Netanyahu soon. Does it matter?
What! The senile and demented 46th President does not want to meet with another now senile leader of the Western world? What a missed opportunity! 😊
"Biden also said he had no plans to meet Netanyahu anytime soon."
Who is more senile? Any bets? 😊
Madrid wird zum Miami Europas
Schöne Schlagzeile! Auf nach Madrid!
Too shoot, heavily armed, 9 year old school students! What a coward!
This was again a very perverse mass shooting event! Honestly, I don't care about the gender of any person who commits such horrible and cowardly crimes!
Hopefully, the celebrity cult and tribalism of LGBTQ has reached its zenith! Human fads come and go! Faster would be better! It belongs on the dustbin of history!
Swift justice was served at the hands of the police officers in this case, who had to risk their lives to confront and stop this perpetrator!
Why did nobody stop this young woman (transgender man) before her crime! Did she really act totally alone? Who knew about her intentions? Who encouraged or incited her?
P.S. This was also in some sense a Me Too event in the age of gender equality! The dark side of gender equality! Again a woman with a gun perpetrating violent crimes heretofore rather associated with males!
Karlsruhe fordert Möglichkeit, Kinderehen in Deutschland weiter zu führen und etabliert Unterhaltsansprüche!
Kenne mich mit den den Details der Materie nicht aus, aber das scheint wohl wieder mal eine fragwürdige Entscheidung des höchsten Gerichts zu sein!
Die Entscheidung scheint wirklichkeitsfremd zu sein! Im Klartext bedeutet diese Entscheidung wohl auch, das die Richter in den roten Roben auch Sex mit Kindern (Pädophilie) befürworten!
Das BVerfG riskiert so den Verlust des allgemeinen Vertrauens in die Rechtsprechung!
Aus der Pressemitteilung des BVerfG:
"... Allerdings bedarf es dann Regelungen über die Folgen der Unwirksamkeit, etwa über Unterhaltsansprüche [???], und über eine Möglichkeit, die betroffene Auslandsehe nach Erreichen der Volljährigkeit auch nach deutschem Recht als wirksame Ehe führen zu können. ...
Art. 13 Abs. 3 Nr. 1 EGBGB erweist sich zudem als unangemessener Eingriff in die Eheschließungsfreiheit, weil es an einer Regelung fehlt, die es der Minderjährigen ermöglicht, ab Erreichen der Volljährigkeit die Ehe aufgrund eines nun selbstbestimmten Entschlusses [????] im Inland als wirksame Ehe zu führen. ...
Während der Dauer des Zusammenlebens gelten übergangsweise die §§ 1360, 1360a BGB für die Unterhaltsansprüche der Betroffenen entsprechend."
Während der Dauer des Zusammenlebens gelten übergangsweise die §§ 1360, 1360a BGB für die Unterhaltsansprüche der Betroffenen entsprechend."
Olaf Scholz regiert als Merkel-Klon
Aufgespießt!
Die Mauer fiel und der Sozialismus breitete sich in ganz D. aus! Hier ist meine Abrechnung mit der SED Kanzlerin Merkel!
FDA approves over-the-counter use of opioid overdose reversal drug Naloxone as a Nasal Spray
Good news! What took so long! Should have been done years ago!
The FDA slow worked this at least since 2019!
The senile and demented 46th President and his largely incompetent administration with its as many as possible firsts and implicit gender quota has even the audacity to blame the manufactures for the long delay!
"Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan, 4 milligram (mg) naloxone hydrochloride nasal spray for over-the-counter (OTC), nonprescription, use – the first naloxone product approved for use without a prescription. Naloxone is a medication that rapidly reverses the effects of opioid overdose and is the standard treatment for opioid overdose. Today’s action paves the way for the life-saving medication to reverse an opioid overdose to be sold directly to consumers in places like drug stores, convenience stores, grocery stores and gas stations, as well as online. ...
The FDA has taken a series of measures to help facilitate access to naloxone products. In November 2022, the agency announced its preliminary assessment that certain naloxone products, such as the one ultimately approved today, have the potential to be safe and effective for over-the-counter use and encouraged sponsors to submit applications for approval of OTC naloxone products. The agency previously announced in 2019 that it had designed, tested, and validated a model naloxone Drug Facts Label (DFL) with easy-to-understand pictograms on how to use the drug to encourage manufacturers to pursue approval of OTC naloxone products. ..."
The FDA has taken a series of measures to help facilitate access to naloxone products. In November 2022, the agency announced its preliminary assessment that certain naloxone products, such as the one ultimately approved today, have the potential to be safe and effective for over-the-counter use and encouraged sponsors to submit applications for approval of OTC naloxone products. The agency previously announced in 2019 that it had designed, tested, and validated a model naloxone Drug Facts Label (DFL) with easy-to-understand pictograms on how to use the drug to encourage manufacturers to pursue approval of OTC naloxone products. ..."
FDA NEWS RELEASE FDA Approves First Over-the-Counter Naloxone Nasal Spray Agency Continues to Take Critical Steps to Reduce Drug Overdose Deaths Being Driven Primarily by Illicit Opioids
Netanyahu postpones judicial reform plan in Israel
What took him so long! Netanyahu, I am afraid, has become old! He should retire! His best days are behind him! It is sad, but it can not be overlooked!
It appears that his judicial reform was dilettante!
India Begins Training Afghan 'Diplomats' with Palki Sharma
Where the Soviet Union and the U.S. failed, will the new and rising superpower India succeed in Afghanistan? Time will tell! My hunch is India may accomplish this!
War is easy, maintaining peace is hard! A transition from warrior to civilian is difficult for the Taliban!
War is easy, maintaining peace is hard! A transition from warrior to civilian is difficult for the Taliban!
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz's Shocking Confrontation With Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas
Update of 3/29/2023: Cruz tells Mayorkas. “If you had integrity, you would resign.”
This incredible! This secretary is so incompetent and much worse than I thought! What a moron! Just watch how often he repeats himself!
The senile and demented 46th President and his largely incompetent administration with its as many as possible firsts and implicit gender quota!
Absolutely shocking!China’s Debt Trap: How Beijing Became a Victim of Its Own Debt with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! E.g. Chinese municipalities have amassed about $5 trillion in debt.
Virtual Reality Can Now Help 'See' Death Before Dying with Palki Sharma
Some food for thought! The claims are most likely exaggerated!
Huge Water Reservoir Found on Moon: Human Life Next? with Palki Sharma
Amazing stuff! Discovered by Chinese scientists! What took so long?
The Rise of the Indian subcontinent: Pakistani-Origin Humza Yousaf to Lead Scotland with Palki Sharma
This is indeed a highly unusual situation in the United Kingdom. The Major of London, the Prime Minister, and now a leading politician in Scotland all have a background from the Indian subcontinent. Possibly, the son of Pakistani parents will negotiate the independence of Scotland.
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Cyber Weapons: The Next Chapter in Iran-Russia’s Bonhomie with Palki Sharma
Very concerning! Will the people of Iran have the strength to end the dangerous theocracy!
Tucker Carlson: The trans movement is targeting Christians
Very recommendable! Tucker essentially nailed it! Tucker asks e.g. when will the public learn about the content of the transgender mass shooter's manifesto?
Four Transsexual Mass Shooters in Less than Five Years
Very sad!
Greg Kelly was reporting yesterday that yesterday's mass shooting by a female transgender killer was not the first attack by a transgender individual involving a gun.
A fish can sense another's fear, a study of zebrafish and oxytocin shows
Amazing stuff! Why is oxytocin so addictive?
"... Our capacity to care about others may have very, very ancient origins, a new study suggests.
It might have been deep-rooted in prehistoric animals that lived millions of years ago, before fish and mammals like us diverged on the tree of life ...
The new study shows that fish can detect fear in other fish, and then become afraid too – and that this ability is regulated by oxytocin, the same brain chemical that underlies the capacity for empathy in humans. ...
The researchers demonstrated this by deleting genes linked to producing and absorbing oxytocin in the brains of zebrafish, a small tropical fish often used for research. Those fish were then essentially antisocial – they failed to detect or change their behavior when other fish were anxious.
But when some of the altered fish received oxytocin injections, their ability to sense and mirror the feelings of other fish was restored ...
The new study shows that fish can detect fear in other fish, and then become afraid too – and that this ability is regulated by oxytocin, the same brain chemical that underlies the capacity for empathy in humans. ...
The researchers demonstrated this by deleting genes linked to producing and absorbing oxytocin in the brains of zebrafish, a small tropical fish often used for research. Those fish were then essentially antisocial – they failed to detect or change their behavior when other fish were anxious.
But when some of the altered fish received oxytocin injections, their ability to sense and mirror the feelings of other fish was restored ...
The study also showed that zebrafish will pay more attention to fish that have previously been stressed out – a behavior the researchers likened to consoling them.
Previous research has shown that oxytocin plays a similar role in transmitting fear in mice. ...
This brain processing “may have already been in place around 450 million years ago ..."
"Fundamentals of empathy
Emotional contagion, in which individuals display fear or distress behaviors in response to observations of the same in another, is considered a basal form of empathy and is known to occur in fishes. ... have shown that the neuropeptide oxytocin is responsible for these behaviors in zebrafish, as it is in mammals ... They also found that the same regions of the brain are involved in zebrafish and in mammals. Such homologies in emotional response mechanisms across fishes and mammals suggest that this most basal form of empathy could have evolved many, many millions of years ago."
From the abstract:
"Emotional contagion is the most ancestral form of empathy. We tested to what extent the proximate mechanisms of emotional contagion are evolutionarily conserved by assessing the role of oxytocin, known to regulate empathic behaviors in mammals, in social fear contagion in zebrafish. Using oxytocin and oxytocin receptor mutants, we show that oxytocin is both necessary and sufficient for observer zebrafish to imitate the distressed behavior of conspecific demonstrators. The brain regions associated with emotional contagion in zebrafish are homologous to those involved in the same process in rodents (e.g., striatum, lateral septum), receiving direct projections from oxytocinergic neurons located in the pre-optic area. Together, our results support an evolutionary conserved role for oxytocin as a key regulator of basic empathic behaviors across vertebrates."
Generic image of a zebrafish
Origin of superconductivity in nickelates revealed
The practical realization of high temperature superconductivity would immediately relegate the Global Warming hoax and the Climate Change religion to the dustbin of history where they belong!
"... Superconductivity was predicted in nickel-based oxide compounds, or nickelates, more than 20 years ago, yet only realized experimentally for the first time in 2019, and only in samples that are grown as very thin, crystalline films – less than 20 nanometers thick – layered on a supporting substrate material. ...
This limitation led some researchers to speculate that superconductivity was not being hosted in the nickelate film, but rather at the atomic interface where the film and substrate meet. ...
What they discovered was an intermediate compound formed at the interface – one that had never been predicted and that alleviated the kind of electronic charge buildup that could give rise to superconductivity. The finding proved that the previously proposed model of a superconducting interface is not valid – the superconductivity is instead occurring in the nickelate film itself. ...
The discovery is encouraging for the field because it shows that superconductivity may not be reliant on the thin-film geometry. This means that creation of superconducting bulk crystals theoretically should be possible ..."
What they discovered was an intermediate compound formed at the interface – one that had never been predicted and that alleviated the kind of electronic charge buildup that could give rise to superconductivity. The finding proved that the previously proposed model of a superconducting interface is not valid – the superconductivity is instead occurring in the nickelate film itself. ...
The discovery is encouraging for the field because it shows that superconductivity may not be reliant on the thin-film geometry. This means that creation of superconducting bulk crystals theoretically should be possible ..."
From the abstract:
"Nickel-based superconductors provide a long-awaited experimental platform to explore possible cuprate-like superconductivity. Despite similar crystal structure and d electron filling, these systems exhibit several differences. Nickelates are the most polar layered oxide superconductor, raising questions about the interface between substrate and thin film -- thus far the only sample geometry to successfully stabilize superconductivity. We conduct a detailed experimental and theoretical study of the prototypical interface between Nd1−xSrxNiO2 and SrTiO3. Atomic-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy in the scanning transmission electron microscope reveals the formation of a single intermediate Nd(Ti,Ni)O3 layer. Density functional theory calculations with a Hubbard U term show how the observed structure alleviates the strong polar discontinuity. We explore effects of oxygen occupancy, hole doping, and cation structure to disentangle the contributions of each for reducing interface charge density. Resolving the nontrivial interface structure will be instructive for future synthesis of nickelate films on other substrates and in vertical heterostructures."
Reconstructing the polar interface of infinite-layer nickelate thin films (open access, preprint, will be published in Nature Materials)
How about these two supercool researchers!
Lena Kourkoutis, left, associate professor of applied and engineering physics, and Berit Goodge, Ph.D. ’22, with the scanning transmission electron microscope.
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