North Carolina on Friday became the first state to begin mailing midterm ballots. Really!

Way too early in my opinion! Mail in voting is a form of voting most prone to fraud (e.g. double voting).

Probably, a good practice would be not to send out mail ballots earlier than four weeks before election.

Saturday, September 5, 2026 - Join The Flyover

Midterm Mail Ballots Start to Go to Voters as Litigation Over Trump's Order Creates Uncertainty "Statewide mail voting for this year’s midterm elections is kicking off amid a churning legal battle over President Donald Trump’s attempts to limit the practice"

Look how totally Google AI fails on this simple question. Must be a hot potato topic!

Lab-grown retinal cells show promise for new eye therapies

Good news! This could be a breakthrough! Make the blind see again!

"Biomedical engineers ... have used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to grow specialized blood vessel cells critical to retinal health for the first time. When injected into mouse models of retinal disease, these "retinal endothelial cells" integrated into the damaged tissue to regenerate blood vessels and restore retinal function. Researchers also demonstrated the cells' ability to form functional retinal vascular tissue in a lab-grown environment, providing a pathway to model and research various eye diseases. ..."

From the abstract:

"Retinal microvascular diseases involve a compromised inner blood–retina barrier (iBRB), which remains poorly understood. A renewable source of human iBRB endothelium is thus vital for advancing eye research and treatment development.

Here we differentiated human induced pluripotent stem cells into retinal endothelial cells (iRECs) via the Wnt–β-catenin pathway, namely Norrin–Frizzled4 signalling.

These iRECs show genetic, protein and functional fidelity as well as unique retinal features.

When injected into oxygen-induced retinopathy mice, iRECs integrated into the host vascular network and revascularized the ischaemic eye, rescuing the tissue.

In microphysiological models, iRECs form perfusable microvascular networks that recapitulate iBRB morphology and phenotype in both healthy and diabetic states while also physiologically organizing and interacting with induced pluripotent stem cell-derived retinal pericytes.

Our study establishes functional human iRECs and microphysiological iBRB models that facilitate mechanistic studies aimed at identifying therapeutic targets and promoting the revascularization of injured retinas, thereby supporting treatment advancement."

Lab-grown retinal cells show promise for new eye therapies

Lab-Grown Retinal Cells Show Promise for New Eye Therapies (original news release) "Critical cells that line retinal blood vessels grown from stem cells restore retinal function in mouse models and form retinal tissue in a lab for future disease studies."

Derivation of functional retinal endothelial cells from human pluripotent stem cells for therapeutics and modelling (open access)

This image depicts a mouse’s retina suffering from conditions similar to diabetic retinopathy both before (right) and after (left) being treated with human lab-grown retinal endothelial cells.

The green in the left image shows the human lab-grown retinal endothelial cells integrating into the damaged mouse retina, demonstrating their potential use to treat early stages of the disease.

Fig. 1: Derivation of retinal endothelial cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells via the Norrin–Fz4 axis.

Fig. 4: iRECs revascularize the ischaemic eye.

How does a spherical robot with 20 legs move?

Amazing stuff!

"... Researchers took inspiration from the symmetry in nature to build a variety of Argus bots with 16 to 22 legs. Each leg had a motor and a camera for seeing a near-360-degree picture of its surroundings, which made the robot capable of moving in any direction without adjustment. Across tests, the team found that more symmetrical robots were more successful on tasks, more energy efficient, and more resilient against injury. A 20-legged Argus, specifically, was especially successful at navigating diverse terrains, self-stabilizing, and responding to mechanical failures. ..."

"Symmetry is a central organizing principle in natural systems, yet its use as a unifying design strategy in robotics has largely remained limited to geometric form.

We show that symmetry can instead be leveraged at the level of dynamic actuation capability. We introduce dynamic symmetry, the uniformity of a robot's attainable center-of-mass accelerations, and formalize it through a measure coined as dynamic isotropy.

Across more than 1,000 simulated morphologies, we found that higher dynamic symmetry consistently improves trajectory tracking, task success, robustness, resiliency, and energy efficiency, with the benefits becoming most pronounced as dynamic isotropy approaches its theoretical limit.

To study this regime systematically, we developed Argus, a family of spherical robots designed to explore the effects of increasing dynamic symmetry.

Members of the Argus family vary in their actuation geometry and dynamic symmetry level, while sharing a common architectural principle: radially oriented linear actuators that directly shape the robot's center-of-mass dynamics. Among them, we build a physical 20-leg Argus variant that achieves near-extreme dynamic isotropy and demonstrates orientation-invariant locomotion, agile traversal of cluttered and deformable terrain, rapid self-stabilization, and resilience to partial actuator failures.

Its distributed sensing further enables omnidirectional perception and object interaction during continuous motion.

These results show that designing robots for symmetry not only in morphology but also in their attainable dynamics provides a powerful and general pathway toward agility, robustness, and multifunctionality in uncertain terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments."

From the abstract:

"Symmetry is a central organizing principle in natural systems, yet its use as a unifying design strategy in robotics has largely remained limited to geometric form.

We show that symmetry can instead be leveraged at the level of dynamic actuation capability. We introduce dynamic symmetry, the uniformity of a robot’s attainable center-of-mass accelerations, and formalize it through a measure coined as dynamic isotropy.

Across more than 1000 simulated morphologies, we found that higher dynamic symmetry consistently improved trajectory tracking, task success, robustness, resiliency, and energy efficiency, with the benefits becoming most pronounced as dynamic isotropy approached its theoretical limit.

To study this regime systematically, we developed Argus, a family of spherical robots designed to explore the effects of increasing dynamic symmetry. Members of the Argus family vary in their actuation geometry and dynamic symmetry level while sharing a common architectural principle: radially oriented linear actuators that directly shape the robot’s center-of-mass dynamics.

Among them, we built a physical 20-leg Argus variant that achieved near-extreme dynamic isotropy and demonstrated orientation-invariant locomotion, agile traversal of cluttered and deformable terrain, rapid self-stabilization, and resilience to partial actuator failures. Its distributed sensing further enabled omnidirectional perception and object interaction during continuous motion.

These results show that designing robots for symmetry not only in morphology but also in their attainable dynamics provides a powerful and general pathway toward agility, robustness, and multifunctionality in uncertain terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments."

ScienceAdviser

Omnidirectional, sea-urchin-like robot defies traditional designs

Extreme Dynamic Symmetry Enables Omnidirectional and Multifunctional Robots (original news release)

Extreme dynamic symmetry enables omnidirectional and multifunctional robots (no public access)

First total synthesis of macrocycle with four stereocentres at the heart of bacterial photosynthesis

Good news! But the abstract of this research is loaded with technical terms.

"After nine years of effort, chemists in the US have completed the first total synthesis of bacteriochlorophyll a, a molecule they describe as ‘one of the most challenging photosynthetic tetrapyrroles to synthesise’. ... approach opens the door to making a wide range of photosynthetic tetrapyrroles and exploring their function ‘in a way that’s not been possible previously’. ...

Photosynthetic tetrapyrroles are organic compounds made up of four pyrrole rings. Common examples are bacteriochlorophyll a and chlorophyll a, the main pigments in anoxygenic and oxygenic photosynthesis, respectively. ..."

"Researchers ... have successfully synthesized bacteriochlorophyll a, a photosynthetic pigment found in bacteria which absorbs infrared light. The work represents the first chemical synthesis of this molecule and could give scientists deeper insights into photosynthetic function and photosynthetic energy. ...

“What we did was synthesize both halves of the macrocycle [made up of rings A,B,C, and D], then use constituents of ring E as the joining site for bringing the two halves together,” ... “When the halves are attached to an atom that will eventually become ring E, a cascade reaction triggers and the molecule self-assembles in the last step.”"

From the abstract:

"Photosynthetic tetrapyrroles absorb light to power the biosphere but have largely been neglected as targets of chemical synthesis.

Bacteriochlorophyll a – a key macrocycle in the bacterial photosynthetic reaction center – contains four stereocenters at the rim of the bacteriochlorin chromophore due to the trans-dialkyl group in each pyrroline ring (B, D), and an epimerizable β-ketoester embedded in the isocyclic ring (E).

Here, each pair of stereodefined vicinal substituents was introduced as a chiral 4-nitroalkanal building block, which was converted to an alkynone for subsequent coupling with an iodopyrrole (A, C), affording the AD and BC dihydrodipyrrins. The dihydrodipyrrins were equipped with reactive groups (1-formyl, AD-half; 1-(1,1-dimethoxymethyl) and 8-(3-methoxy-1,3-dioxopropyl, BC-half) suited for directed macrocycle formation.

Knoevenagel condensation of AD and BC halves afforded a propenone, the nexus for constructing ring E concomitantly with the macrocycle in the subsequent one-flask, double-ring closure (Nazarov cyclization, electrophilic aromatic substitution, elimination of methanol).

The aromatic bacteriopheophorbide was obtained as the 2-trimethylsilylethyl propanoate, which upon acidolysis and esterification with phytol yielded bacteriopheophytin a; subsequent magnesiation gave bacteriochlorophyll a.

The modularity of the synthesis, straightforward construction of asymmetric building blocks, and convergent joining of AD and BC halves suggest that the present route may provide an entrée into diverse photosynthetic macrocycles."

First total synthesis of macrocycle with four stereocentres at the heart of bacterial photosynthesis | Research | Chemistry World

Researchers Synthesize Photosynthetic Molecule Found in Bacteria (original news release)

Synthesis of bacteriochlorophyll a (open access)

Bacteriochlorophyll a is the most common photosynthetic pigment in anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria, and plays significant roles in light-harvesting, energy-migrating and electron-transporting reactions

Delivering defibrillators by drone to real 911 calls

Good news! This is only the beginning of what can be done with drones!

Time to renew my first aid training? 😊

"... "There’s only really 10 minutes to help that person survive" ...

The 911 dispatcher coordinates with a drone pilot to fly the drone to the location of the cardiac arrest. Stark said that in their research they have been able to strategically position drones to lower response times from an average of 6 to 7 minutes to less than 4 minutes. ..."

"In Clemmons, North Carolina, Duke University researchers are sending defibrillators by drone to real 911 calls, the first program of its kind in the US. The drones’ median response time is 2 to 3 minutes faster than an ambulance, giving bystanders a chance to start lifesaving treatment sooner."

Doomslayer: Progress Roundup - by Malcolm Cochran

Defibrillator Drones Deployed During Emergencies in NC Town

In a U.S. First, Drones Deliver AEDs in North Carolina County  (original news release)

North Carolina Town First in U.S. to Deploy Defibrillator Drones During Actual 911 Emergencies "Unlike emergency vehicles, drones aren't limited by roads."

‘Metabots’ Shapeshift From Flat Sheets Into Hundreds of highly adaptive and maneuverable Structures

Amazing stuff!

"Researchers have created a class of robots made from thin sheets of material that can snap into hundreds of stable shapes – allowing them to execute a wide variety of actions despite the fact that they have no motor and are made of a single, flat material. These “metabots” essentially resemble animated sheets of plastic, capable of moving around a surface or grasping objects. ...

“By connecting multiple sheets, we create structures that lie flat initially, but can then bend and fold themselves into a wide variety of stable configurations,” ...

“The robots can change their shape and gait to adapt to different terrains or to perform a variety of functions, such as gripping and lifting objects,” ..."

From the abstract:

"Multistable metastructures can switch between multiple stable configurations without requiring locking forces. However, their potential for creating reconfigurable robots—metabots—capable of adapting to changing environments remains largely unexplored.

Here, we report harnessing developable surface–based multistable thin-shell metastructures with high reconfigurability for adaptive manipulation and locomotion.

These multistable metastructures are constructed by cutting and bonding thin polymer sheets with patterned cutouts, enabling programmable prestored elastic energy. A single unit achieves up to 20 stable configurations, while a four-unit assembly yields 256 reconfigured states, through simple folding of dynamic virtual creases.

When integrated with thin sheet–based, multiresponsive soft actuators, these metastructures become highly adaptive metabots, including universal, noninvasive bistable soft grippers; magnetic multigait jumpers; and dual-responsive crawlers powered by magnetic and electroactive actuation.

These systems exhibit high adaptability and maneuverability, capable of navigating complex terrains and confined environments via on-demand shape transformations, paving the way for energy-efficient, reconfigurable soft robotic platforms."

‘Metabots’ Shapeshift From Flat Sheets Into Hundreds of Structures | Office of Research and Innovation

Multistable thin-shell metastructures for multiresponsive reconfigurable metabots (open access)

Fig. 1. High shape-shifting efficient multistable shell metastructures and their multifunctional robotic applications.

Fig. 3. Shape transformation through local folding of dynamic virtual creases in the developable thin-shell unit cell.

Fig. 5. Applications in universal noninvasive bistable grippers.

Fig. 6. Applications in an adaptive magnetic multigait jumper and crawler via shape transformation.

None of the nearby passengers came to the aid of the dying ukrainian refugee in Charlotte after the killer left the crime scene

This ignorance/apathy by the other, nearby passengers is probably the most shocking/disturbing fact about this murder case in my opinion! Perhaps, the victim would not have bled to death.

What sounds did the dying, young woman make? Hopefully, these sounds and images will stay in the minds of these passengers for the rest of their lives.

This is troublesome and uncharacteristic of Americans! Remember, e.g. the American John Rudat (age 20) who was injured while trying to save two women from an attacker with a knife on public transportation in Dresden, Germany in August of 2025. 

A Society Paralyzed by the Presence of Evil

Should Judges Be Held Accountable for Repeat and violent Offenders like the Charlotte killer of the Ukrainian refugee?

Definitely food for thought! The judge in this case was only a magistrate judge. She may have had a significant conflict of interest as she is also running a rehab treatment center.

Why was this known violent Charlotte killer free to roam the streets?: with Sean Hannity

What! Unbelievable! None of the other passengers (witnesses) came to help the young victim while she was still alive, but bleeding. She did not die immediately!

The killer walked through the train after his murder with dripping blood! Nobody subdued him!

The incompetence of the last judge, who let this violent criminal go, and the mayor of Charlotte are utmost incomprehensible and reprehensible!

When anticipated horror becomes reality thanks to government failure like soft on crime

This violent and most likely mentally ill man with a criminal record should have been in prison or institutionalized!

It was reported that the mother of this man kicked him out for fear of violence!

How much was known or should have been known about the seriousness of his mental disorder? Why was it not treated?

Just imagine it was you sitting in this chair using public transportation coming from work!

What is this man actually holding in his hand? Have they blurred the murder instrument too, i.e. a folding knife?

Identical twin sisters celebrate 100th birthday in Raleigh, North Carolina

Very recommendable! These two ladies are charming! Happy Birthday to you two!

How teenage rising golf star Genesis Lewis from North Carolina got into the game

Does she have what it takes to be the next Tiger Woods? We will find out! 😊

Is golf maybe one of the few sports where women or transgender males could successfully compete with men?

Married North Carolina mother arrested for 80 counts of child sex crimes, including statutory rape, indecent liberties with a child

Welcome to the age of gender equality and Me Too!

Men watch out in the battle of the sexes!

"The Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that [the woman] was charged with a total of 80 child sex crimes: 20 counts of statutory sex offense with a child under the age of 15 years old, 10 counts of statutory sex offense with a child by an adult, 20 counts of statutory rape of a child under the age of 15 years old, 10 counts of statutory rape of a child by an adult, and 20 counts of indecent liberties with a child. ..."

North Carolina mother arrested for 80 counts of child sex crimes, including statutory rape, indecent liberties with a child | Blaze Media "A judge set the 44-year-old suspect's bond at $2 million."

NC Charlotte Police Department will use drones as first responders

Good news!

"Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department will pilot drones as first responders, likely beginning this spring.

Why it matters: Drones can respond to calls more quickly than humans. Plus, they'll be able to collect intel about a scene before officers arrive. That information may be critical to de-escalating situations, CMPD says. ..."

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department will use drones as first responders - Axios Charlotte

When the 46th President, his weirdo Secretary Mayorkas and the FEMA fail, citizen volunteers step up using private Helicopters to Deliver 500,000 Pounds of Supplies to hurricane Helene Victims

This is part of the American Exceptionalism! Americans do not wait for government to act!

Private Helicopters Deliver 500,000 Pounds of Supplies to Helene Victims "Over half-a-million pounds of supplies have been delivered to western North Carolina by volunteers flying private helicopters after Hurricane Helene, local reports have said."

North Carolina election board removes 747,000 from voter rolls for ineligibility

Good news!

If there is a least one good and positive outcome of the November 2024 elections, then it is that several states have made an attempt to clean up the for a long-time, severely flawed state voter rolls!

North Carolina election board removes 747,000 from voter rolls for ineligibility | Just The News "North Carolina is expected to be swing state in the upcoming 2024 presidential election."

Several hundreds of thousands of Non-citizen Voting Could Affect Outcome in These 7 Swing States

Mind boggling!

Add to this the enormously flawed and inaccurate voter rolls in many states. I recently blogged here, here about it.

Remember, in Arizona less than 12,000 votes determined the winner in the 2020 presidential elections.

"Noncitizens number in the hundreds of thousands in each of the seven most fiercely contested battleground states expected to decide the Nov. 5 presidential election, and research suggests more than 1 million of them could vote nationally if past voting patterns continue. ...

Of the seven battleground states, 

Georgia has the largest number of adult noncitizens at 787,588 ...

North Carolina follows with 726,079 noncitizens, ...

The third highest number of noncitizens in a battleground state is 

Arizona, with 611,717 ages 18 or older. ...

Pennsylvania has 516,123 voting-age noncitizens ...

Michigan has 271,138. 

Nevada is next with 258,736 and 

Wisconsin, with 129,600, has the smallest number of noncitizens among the seven swing states ..."

Noncitizen Voting Could Affect Outcome in These 7 Swing States

Why Everyone Is Flocking To North Carolina's Tech Hub

Recommendable!

Homeschooling Grows as Families Escape Failing Schools in North Carolina

Good news!

If I were a father today, I would perhaps do the same!

Homeschooling or remote learning has become so much easier with the Internet!

"North Carolina is one of the few states to keep detailed statistics on homeschoolers—who are famously resistant to scrutiny, and for good reason—and officials in the state recorded an interesting development this year. After dipping from a pandemic-era high when public schools were closed or generally making a poor job of remote learning, the ranks of homeschoolers have again begun to rise. With census figures showing similar growth elsewhere, we have further evidence that DIY education is here to stay.

Homeschooling Surges Again

In the Statistical Summary for Homeschools 2023–2024, compiled by the state’s Department of Administration, the number of registered K–12 homeschools in North Carolina stands at 96,529. Each school can serve more than one student, and the estimated number of homeschooled K–12 students is 157,642. That’s down from the peak of 112,614 registered homeschools serving an estimated 179,900 students during the chaos of 2020–2021, but up from 94,154 registered homeschools and 152,717 students last year. Before the pandemic, in 2019–2020, 94,863 homeschools served 149,173 students.

For K–12 private schools, enrollment is up from 126,678 in 2022–2023 to 131,230 in 2023–2024. In 2019–2020, before the pandemic, North Carolina private schools had 103,959 students enrolled.

By contrast, traditional public school enrollment is declining. ..."

Homeschooling Grows as Families Escape Failing Schools

North Carolina teacher arrested for indecent liberties with an underage student, felony sex acts

So many Me Too events in the age of gender equality! Here is another one!

Gentlemen, in the battle of the sexes watch out! 😊

"... Blaze News has reported since May about 11 female teachers and school employees who have been accused or convicted of child sex crimes ..."

North Carolina teacher arrested for indecent liberties with a student, felony sex acts | Blaze Media The 39-year-old teacher faces as much as a decade in prison if convicted on all six counts.