More signs of a serious decline of the UK! So much foolishness is beyond belief!
Will the new PM Burnham fix this quickly?
1% of top income taxpayers account for 28.5% of total income tax revenues
Showing posts with label United Kingdom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United Kingdom. Show all posts
Saturday, October 10, 2026
Britain’s Great Wealth Dilemma, more than 14 billionaires have already left the UK
The Bank of England will put a hedgehog, a barn owl, a bumblebee, and a puffin on its redesigned banknotes. Really!
Is this some form of British (bad) humor or infantile silliness? Looks like toy money!
So much naivete! Incredible! The regrettable decline of the UK obviously continues!
Will the new British PM Burnham have the guts to stop this?
"The Bank of England will put a hedgehog, a barn owl, a bumblebee, and a puffin on its redesigned banknotes, replacing historical figures like Winston Churchill after a public vote drew 2.5 million ballots."
Monday, October 05, 2026
Thursday, October 01, 2026
China funding UK research and sending it to Beijing's spies, MI5 warns
Bad news!
"More than 100 academics linked to British institutions have unwittingly assisted China's espionage operations against the UK via a front company working for its intelligence and security services, MI5 has warned.
In the highly unusual public alert, the UK's internal security service warned universities and academics that continuing ties with China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI) could ultimately lead to criminal charges for aiding a foreign state.
Security minister Dan Jarvis said MI5's warning exposed attempts by Chinese intelligence agencies to use British academic research to undermine UK national security. ..."
Monday, September 28, 2026
British counterterrorism police release the five suspects in terror plot against US forces. Really!
What! Who in their right mind releases so quickly possibly fanatic, suicidal terrorists unless these were the wrong individuals!
"British counterterrorism police said they were releasing five men on bail who where arrested over the foiled attack on a U.K. air base. Investigators say they are probing whether Iran or an Islamist group had orchestrated the plot, according to officials familiar with the matter. WSJ spoke to locals who live near the base, who question whether it really was a terror plot or something more mundane."
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Saturday, September 19, 2026
Chemists overturn 40-year assumption about a key class of superconductors
Amazing stuff!
"Scientists at Warwick have shown that a material treated for 40 years as a uniform, textbook superconductor is in fact a patchwork of different crystal structures throughout its bulk, using an advanced 3D imaging technique to see deep inside the crystal for the first time. ...
What they found was a crystal divided into regions with two subtly different atomic arrangements, separated by boundaries hundreds of times wider than anyone expected to see between two crystal structures. These boundaries were so wide that they behaved almost like a structure in their own right, rather than a simple dividing line. ..."
From the abstract:
"Structural phase transitions generate complex microstructures that often govern material functionality, yet directly resolving their three-dimensional organization in bulk samples remains challenging.
Here we employ scanning three-dimensional x-ray diffraction (3DXRD) to resolve the bulk microstructure of
We reveal remarkably broad tetragonallike domain wall regions within the nominally orthorhombic crystal structure, and, upon cooling to 100 K, a fine microstructure of orthorhombiclike stripes embedded within the tetragonal matrix that has significant consequences for interpreting the interplay between structural and electronic heterogeneity in this class of materials. More broadly, this work establishes 3DXRD as a powerful approach for resolving bulk microstructures and understanding their role in emergent functionality."
Warwick chemists overturn 40-year assumption about a key class of superconductor (original news release) "Scientists have shown that a material treated for 40 years as a uniform, textbook superconductor is in fact a patchwork of different crystal structures throughout its bulk, using one of the latest 3D imaging techniques to see deep inside the crystal for the first time."
Fig. 2.
(a) Spatially resolved maps of Γ4+ at 300, 140, 120, and 100 K, illustrating the temperature evolution of the structural domains.
(b) Histograms of Γ4+ at corresponding temperatures, showing the transition from bimodal at 300 K to a more homogeneous but still asymmetric distribution at 100 K.
(c) Maps of the absolute strain magnitude |Γ4+| with
(d) showing enhanced maps and line profiles ...
Friday, September 18, 2026
Tschabalala Self’s ‘Lady in Blue’ Storms London
Does this sculpture not represent if not amplify some stereotypes about black women?
The artist was certainly not the model for her sculpture (see picture below).
Artist Tschabalala Self unveils her artwork, Lady in Blue, on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth in London, 2026
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Israel and Saudi Arabia discuss intelligence aid amid growing Houthi attacks, British advisers are to assist Saudi Arabia
Good news! When will Saudi Arabia sign the Abraham Accords?
"... Saudi Arabia also asked Britain for assistance in repelling the Houthis from Bab al-Mandab Strait and in helping defend against strikes on its oil infrastructure, Bloomberg reported.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has agreed to send British military advisers to assist Saudi Arabia, but he has not yet committed to sending any additional aid, the report said. ..."
62,000 People Arrested for Speech Crimes in Britain over Past Five Years
Concerning! Bad news! The UK used to be a beacon of free speech!
"Censorship laws such as the Malicious Communications Act 1988, the Communications Act 2003, and the Online Safety Act 2023 have been used by both Labour and so-called Conservative governments to arrest 62,199 people for “communication offences”, including offensive jokes online, between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2025, the Big Brother Watch pressure group has revealed.
The report was based on police data from 38 of the 45 territorial police forces in the UK, obtained following a series of Freedom of Information requests sent to all forces. However, the civil liberties group noted that because some forces failed or refused to provide their data, the true number of people arrested for speech crimes was likely much higher. ..."
Thursday, September 10, 2026
UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband invoked his 60 relatives murdered in the Holocaust, then announced sanctions on Israel
What a hypocrite! The new British PM Burnham is making some bad decisions!
Reportedly, the share of these imports from the West Bank is very tiny relative to total imports! This is political theater! Appalling!
"British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband invoked his family’s Holocaust history and his childhood memories of Israel on Tuesday as he delivered one of the UK government’s harshest speeches on Israeli policy and announced a ban on imports from West Bank settlements. ..."
Tuesday, September 08, 2026
12 countries (EU, Canada, and UK) announce boycott of goods from settlements. Really!
Maybe another bad move by the new British Prime Minister Burnham!
What kind of deplorable foreign interference into the internal affairs of the only democracy in the Middle EAst is this? Bullies (Canada & EU) against a small country!
"Twelve countries (11 European countries and Canada) today announced that they will boycott products made by Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The joint move reflects a new low-point in relations between Israel and Europe over the situation in Gaza and the territories.
Britain led the announcement, with Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband declaring that the UK had "taken a central role" in formulating the sanctions. The announcement by the list of countries, some of which have already taken the step and some of which have only declared their willingness to do so, was made following a failure to move forward with sanctions at the EU level due to the position of pro-Israeli countries. ..."
Argentina files criminal suit against Israeli Navitas company over Falklands oil
This seems to be a bad move the UK to allow offshore drilling for oil near the Falkland Islands!
Holding on to the Falkland islands is one thing, another is to exploit any natural resources in this very contested territory.
Did the UK try to establish a joint project?
Britische Privatschulen verlieren 30.000 Schüler wegen 20% Mehrwertsteuer. Wirklich!
Deutschland ist nicht die einzige Bananenrepublik in Europa!
Wer hat sich den Unsinn ausgedacht! 20% MwSt???
Mehr als 100 Schulen mussten schließen. Auch einige Internate wackeln."
Thursday, September 03, 2026
Scientists identify early signal of dangerous pregnancy complications
Good news! This could be a breakthrough!
"In a study published today [8/31/2026] ... scientists who analyzed blood samples from thousands of pregnant women found that low levels of a protein called ISM2 during the first trimester were associated with higher risk of both preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction later on.
Follow-up lab studies of placental cells showed ISM2 likely plays a causal role in the disorders, meaning the findings could help in the development of treatments, too. ...
The researchers measured blood levels of nearly 3000 proteins and found one in particular associated with both preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction: ISM2, a little-studied protein produced by the placenta. Specifically, lower blood levels of the protein at the 12-week blood test were linked to higher risks of preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction, or both. ...
What’s more, ISM2 levels were a better predictor of each condition than currently used proteins. ...
In lab experiments, the team found that blocking the production of ISM2 in stem cells that usually develop into normal, uterus-invading EVTs stopped that process from happening.
By contrast, artificially adding ISM2 into a cell line that usually lacks it induced recipient cells to migrate around lab dishes more like EVTs would. ..."
"... Both of these conditions are known to be linked to problems with the placenta not developing properly early in pregnancy, in particular a failure of specialised placental cells known as the extravillous trophoblast (EVT) to invade the mother’s womb and establish a healthy blood supply. ...
Of all mammals, humans have the deepest placental invasion, which reflects the massive demands of oxygen and nutrients required to manufacture the most complex machine ever known, the human brain. ..."
From the abstract:
"Preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction (FGR) are major causes of global morbidity and mortality.
Both conditions are associated with impaired invasion of the uterus by extravillous trophoblast (EVT).
We performed proteomics in maternal serum obtained at ~12 weeks of gestational age in a prospective pregnancy cohort (Pregnancy Outcome Prediction Study). Here we show that low maternal serum isthmin-2 (ISM2) was the strongest protein signal (out of 2,904) in the first trimester of pregnancy for preeclampsia or FGR.
We validated the association in two independent cohorts (Pregnancy Outcome Prediction Study 2 and Improving Maternal Pregnancy And Child ouTcomes study).
ISM2 protein and mRNA are almost exclusively produced in the placenta, and, within the placenta, ISM2 mRNA is highly enriched in EVT.
Knocking down ISM2 in cultured human trophoblast stem cells profoundly inhibited EVT invasion.
Conversely, expressing ISM2 in a cell line lacking endogenous ISM2 (HEK293 cells) promoted migration.
We conclude that ISM2 may be causally involved in the early pathophysiology of failed trophoblast invasion and that the protein and its associated pathways are potential targets for the prediction and prevention of preeclampsia and FGR."
Pre-eclampsia discovery could lead to new test and treatments for at-risk pregnancies (original news release) "Cambridge scientists have identified a key protein that could act as a predictor for pre-eclampsia and fetal growth restriction, two of the major causes of stillbirth and of sickness among mothers and newborns."
Fig. 2: The association between ISM2 and PE and FGR.
Fig. 3: ISM2 regulates EVT differentiation.
Scientists observe Einstein's gravity in the quantum world
Amazing stuff! This could be a breakthrough!
"An international team ... has observed a long-predicted effect of gravity on a falling quantum object for the first time. The result shows that a fundamental principle at the heart of Einstein's theory of gravity remains consistent with the behavior of matter in the quantum world. ...
Now, an international team has performed an experiment that probes the point where they meet. In the study, the researchers observed a distinctive change in the quantum properties of atoms as they fell under gravity. Crucially, the effect they measured is the same one predicted when Einstein's equivalence principle, a cornerstone of his theory of gravity, is applied to a quantum object.
The equivalence principle states that for an observer in free fall, gravity should locally disappear. ...
At the heart of the experiment is a new apparatus the researchers call the Quantum Galileo Interferometer. It allowed them to do something unusual: effectively split the quantum wave associated with an atom into two paths, hold one in place while allowing the other to fall freely, and then reunite them to see how gravity had changed the falling wave. ...
The experiment ... using clouds of rubidium atoms cooled to just above absolute zero and manipulated close to the surface of a specially designed atom chip. ..."
"... The experimental team ... first used microwave pulses to put the ultracold atoms into a quantum superposition, effectively allowing each atom to travel along two different paths at once. They then used tiny electrical wires on the chip to generate precisely controlled magnetic fields.
One part of the atomic wave responded to this magnetic field, allowing the researchers to apply an upward force that exactly counteracted the downward pull of gravity. In effect, this part was held stationary relative to the laboratory and the Earth. ...
At the end of the fall, the researchers used another precisely controlled magnetic pulse to bring the two parts back together.
When the two waves were reunited, they interfered with each other. That interference allowed the researchers to measure the tiny difference in quantum phase accumulated while one was falling and the other was held still.
The phase measured in the new experiment is the same as the one predicted when Einstein's principle is applied to such a quantum wave. The result therefore provides an experimental connection between quantum physics and Einstein's theory of gravity. ..."
From the abstract:
"The unification of quantum theory and the general theory of relativity, describing gravity, is one of the most important challenges in science.
Einstein’s general theory of relativity is based on the principle of equivalence and has been confirmed to great accuracy for large bodies.
However, in the quantum domain, the equivalence principle has been predicted to take a unique form involving a gauge phase, which is equal, in the context of a measurement on Earth, to the quantum phase of a free-falling wave packet relative to its counterpart wave packet which is static in Earth’s frame.
To measure this phase, we realize a novel cold-atom interferometer in which one wave packet stays static in the laboratory frame while the other is in free fall. The observed relative phase of the wave packets confirms the predicted phase and shows that, in our low energy regime, the equivalence principle may be applied to the quantum domain.
Our observation constitutes a fundamental test of the interface between quantum theory and gravity. The new interferometer also opens the door for further probing of the latter interface, as well as to searches for new physics."
Scientists observe Einstein’s gravity in the quantum world (original news release, Oxford University)
Scientists observe Einstein’s gravity in the quantum world (original news release, Ben Gurion University)
Observation of the quantum phase of free fall and the consistency with the equivalence principle (open access)
The 2D MOT apparatus which feeds the science chamber with cold atoms.
Fig. 1. The QGI experiment to measure the phase accumulation of a free-falling particle.
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