Recommendable!
One of the biggest mistakes of President Trump not to fire or retire this clown and charlatan Anthony Fauci and consorts in the federal administration!
Friday, February 04, 2022
Robust, long-lived quantum register of hundreds of fermion pairs
Inching closer to a quantum computer?
"MIT physicists have discovered a new quantum bit, or “qubit,” in the form of vibrating pairs of atoms known as fermions. They found that when pairs of fermions are chilled and trapped in an optical lattice, the particles can exist simultaneously in two states — a weird quantum phenomenon known as superposition. In this case, the atoms held a superposition of two vibrational states, in which the pair wobbled against each other while also swinging in sync, at the same time. The team was able to maintain this state of superposition among hundreds of vibrating pairs of fermions. In so doing, they achieved a new “quantum register,” or system of qubits, that appears to be robust over relatively long periods of time. ...
By comparison, the MIT team’s new qubit appears to be extremely robust, able to maintain a superposition between two vibrational states, even in the midst of environmental noise, for up to 10 seconds. ..."
By comparison, the MIT team’s new qubit appears to be extremely robust, able to maintain a superposition between two vibrational states, even in the midst of environmental noise, for up to 10 seconds. ..."
From the abstract:
"... Here we demonstrate long-lived motional coherence and entanglement of pairs of fermionic atoms in an optical lattice array. The common and relative motion of each pair realize a robust qubit, protected by exchange symmetry. The energy difference between the two motional states is set by the atomic recoil energy, is dependent on only the mass and the lattice wavelength, and is insensitive to the noise of the confining potential. We observe quantum coherence beyond ten seconds. Modulation of the interactions between the atoms provides universal control of the motional qubit. The methods presented here will enable coherently programmable quantum simulators of many-fermion systems, precision metrology based on atom pairs and molecules, and, by implementing further advances, digital quantum computation using fermion pairs."
Quantum register of fermion pairs (no public access, however here is the preprint link)
Space hummus: Israeli researchers to grow chickpeas on International Space Station
Bon appĂ©tit! What would space be like without hummus? đ
Direct evidence emerges for the existence of two forms of liquid water
The magic of water! The latest research paper on this subject was even written by one researcher alone, very unusual!
Quick reminder: We don't yet even understand water fully, but Western societies are inundated on a daily basis with the pseudoscience and pretense of knowledge of Climate Change!
"Thirty years ago, a team working at Boston University made the dramatic suggestion that there are not one but two forms of liquid water, which can interconvert at high pressure well below water’s normal freezing point.1 Researchers have been searching for this putative liquid–liquid phase transition ever since, and evidence has slowly accumulated that it really exists. New experiments now supply what seems to be a direct observation of such a transformation between liquid states of different density – not in pure water but in solutions of the sugar trehalose. ..."
From the abstract:
"Water forms two glassy waters, low-density and high-density amorphs, which undergo a reversible polyamorphic transition with the change in pressure. The two glassy waters transform into the different liquids, low-density liquid (LDL) and high-density liquid (HDL), at high temperatures. It is predicted that the two liquid waters also undergo a liquid–liquid transition (LLT). However, the reversible LLT, particularly the LDL-to-HDL transition, has not been observed directly due to rapid crystallization. Here, I prepared a glassy dilute trehalose aqueous solution (0.020 molar fraction) without segregation and measured the isothermal volume change at 0.01 to 1.00 GPa below 160 K. The polyamorphic transition and the glass-to-liquid transition for the high-density and low-density solutions were examined, and the liquid region where both LDL and HDL existed was determined. The results show that the reversible polyamorphic transition induced by the pressure change above 140 K is the LLT. That is, the transition from LDL to HDL is observed. Moreover, the pressure hysteresis of LLT suggests strongly that the LLT has a first-order nature. The direct observation of the reversible LLT in the trehalose aqueous solution has implications for understanding not only the liquid–liquid critical point hypothesis of pure water but also the relation between aqueous solution and water polyamorphism."
Ungarn hat das liberalste Covid-Regime Europas
Na wer hÀtte das gedacht oder gewusst! Bravo Ungarn! Bravo MinisterprÀsident Orban!
"... beschritt der ungarische MinisterprĂ€sident Orban einen pragmatisch-gelassenen Weg, der auch der ungarischen MentalitĂ€t entspricht…
Nun bestĂ€tigt eine Untersuchung der UniversitĂ€t Oxford: Kein anderes Land handhabt so locker die Corona-MaĂnahmen wie Ungarn ...
Seit dem Sommer 2021 lÀuft sowohl das öffentliche, politische und wirtschaftliche Leben in Ungarn weitgehend normal ab: Seither waren die GeschÀfte die Friseure, die Restaurants, die Schulen offen ..."
Seit dem Sommer 2021 lÀuft sowohl das öffentliche, politische und wirtschaftliche Leben in Ungarn weitgehend normal ab: Seither waren die GeschÀfte die Friseure, die Restaurants, die Schulen offen ..."
On Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold
Bravo! Very impressive research! Great job by Google! Just finished reading this breakthrough paper!
From the abstract:
"... Through an enormous experimental effort the structures of around 100,000 unique proteins have been determined, but this represents a small fraction of the billions of known protein sequences. Structural coverage is bottlenecked by the months to years of painstaking effort required to determine a single protein structure. ... Predicting the three-dimensional structure that a protein will adopt based solely on its amino acid sequence ... has been an important open research problem for more than 50 years. .... Here we provide the first computational method that can regularly predict protein structures with atomic accuracy even in cases in which no similar structure is known. ... demonstrating accuracy competitive with experimental structures in a majority of cases and greatly outperforming other methods. Underpinning the latest version of AlphaFold is a novel machine learning approach that incorporates physical and biological knowledge about protein structure, leveraging multi-sequence alignments, into the design of the deep learning algorithm."
Somali refugee running in Minnesota to unseat U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar
Bravo Shukri Abdullahi Abdirahman! Impressive candidate! Wish her good luck and success! The GOP version of diversity, equity, and inclusion!
Final word of the host: You are the American dream!
Why is MEXICO NO LONGER an OIL POWER?
Recommendable! Interesting that the nationalization of the electricity and crude oil sector began in the 1930s roughly like fascism in Europe!
Crisis deepens for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as four aides resign
Will the British Prime Minister survive this after the party scandal? He has been a very wobbly British Prime Minister oscillating between moments of brilliance and perhaps too many other moments of mediocrity or worse!
I did not now that one of his closest policy advisors, Munira Mirza, was a communist.
Thursday, February 03, 2022
Roger Sherman and the Great Compromise
Very recommendable! One of the lesser known Founding Fathers and Mothers, but by far not the least important
More evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is a fairly harmless virus
This study fully confirms what a relatively harmless virus SARS-CoV-2 actually is. This was already known latest around mid 2020. Otherwise, would you deliberately expose 36 young volunteers if the virus was dangerous? Most likely not!
Why were such human challenge studies especially on young adults not conducted much earlier like in the first half of 2020? Because medieval superstition, irrationality, panic and hysteria ruled! Too many incompetent lifelong career politicians dominated! Too many so called experts in science, medical profession and bureaucracy had their own agendas!
Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.
"According to the world’s first “human challenge trial” study in which healthy young volunteers were deliberately infected with the virus. ...
The 36 volunteers, all aged 18-30, were exposed to a low dose of the original SARS-CoV-2 virus in the nose. [Only] Half of the participants developed covid symptoms, and became infectious within just two days ..."
"Scientists deliberately gave people COVID — here’s what they learnt
Only half of participants who were exposed to the coronavirus developed infections, most with mild symptoms. ... Nearly half of the participants who received a low dose of virus did not become infected, and some of those who became infected had no symptoms. ...
Human-challenge studies have been used for decades to study influenza, malaria and numerous other infectious diseases. Some researchers argued in favour of conducting such trials with SARS-CoV-2 in the early months of the pandemic, as a way to accelerate the development of vaccines. But others saw challenge trials as too dangerous to be acceptable, when so little was known about the virus and few, if any, effective treatments were available. ...
The trial, led by researchers at Imperial College London and a Dublin-based commercial clinical-research organization called Open Orphan and its London-based subsidiary hVIVO, was announced in October 2020, and the first participants were exposed to the virus in early 2021. Volunteers received £4,565 (US$6,200) for their participation, which involved at least two weeks of quarantine in a high-level isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London. ..."
Human-challenge studies have been used for decades to study influenza, malaria and numerous other infectious diseases. Some researchers argued in favour of conducting such trials with SARS-CoV-2 in the early months of the pandemic, as a way to accelerate the development of vaccines. But others saw challenge trials as too dangerous to be acceptable, when so little was known about the virus and few, if any, effective treatments were available. ...
The trial, led by researchers at Imperial College London and a Dublin-based commercial clinical-research organization called Open Orphan and its London-based subsidiary hVIVO, was announced in October 2020, and the first participants were exposed to the virus in early 2021. Volunteers received £4,565 (US$6,200) for their participation, which involved at least two weeks of quarantine in a high-level isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London. ..."
From the abstract:
"To establish a novel SARS-CoV-2 human challenge model, 36 volunteers aged 18-29 years without evidence of previous infection or vaccination were inoculated with 10 TCID50 of a wild-type virus (SARS-CoV-2/human/GBR/484861/2020) intranasally. Two participants were excluded from per protocol analysis due to seroconversion between screening and inoculation. Eighteen (~53%) became infected, with viral load (VL) rising steeply and peaking at ~5 days post-inoculation. Virus was first detected in the throat but rose to significantly higher levels in the nose, peaking at ~8.87 log10 copies/ml (median, 95% CI [8.41,9.53). ... There were no serious adverse events. Mild-to-moderate symptoms were reported by 16 (89%) infected individuals, beginning 2-4 days post-inoculation. ... Thus, in this first SARS-CoV-2 human challenge study, no serious safety signals were detected and the detailed characteristics of early infection and their public health implications were shown."
Tiefe Geothermie: Erfolgreiche WĂ€rmewende gestalten - Fraunhofer Gesellschaft
Ist das nicht ein neues Windei, wie die WindmĂŒhlen (Windturbinen)?
Wie viele Umwelt- und NaturschÀden sowie FolgeschÀden wird das verursachen? Wie gigantisch werden diese Anlagen sein?
Der Klimawahn in der Bananenrepublik treibt seltsame BlĂŒten!
"Die aktuelle Regierungskoalition möchte dies Ă€ndern und strebt an, die HĂ€lfte der kommunalen WĂ€rme bis 2030 aus klimaneutralen [???] Quellen zu gewinnen. Die Tiefe Geothermie kann hier einen groĂen Beitrag leisten, weil sie witterungsunabhĂ€ngig lokale Energie liefert und wenig FlĂ€che in Siedlungen belegt. Die gemeinsame Roadmap von Forschenden aus der Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft und der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft zeigt auf, dass Tiefe Geothermie mehr als ein Viertel des jĂ€hrlichen deutschen WĂ€rmebedarfes (ĂŒber 300 TWh) abdecken könnte, und gibt Handlungsempfehlungen, um dieses Ziel zu erreichen. Unter anderem braucht es klare Ausbauziele, groĂflĂ€chige geologische Erkundung und FachkrĂ€fteaufbau. ..."
Going forward after the SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 global pandemic
What seems to be clear is that following will happen:
- More routine monitoring of wastewater and the like
- More routine testing of wild animals for viruses and so forth
- More research into diagnostics and treatments of virus caused diseases
- The origins of the virus need to be further investigated. Why was the lab leak hypothesis suppressed and dismissed? E.g. how was it possible that high risk virus research was outsourced by the West to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in circumvention of Western safety regulations?
- The colossal failures of Western government responses to this global pandemic need to be thoroughly analyzed and corrected. Safety was overemphasized over individual liberty and more. Irrationality and dishonesty ruled!
However, if humanity has learnt something from this global pandemic:
- We can beat any virus in rapid time!
- Incompetent, lifelong career politicians dominate in Western democracies
Last-resort cancer therapy holds back disease for more than a decade
Good news! Cancer is history!
"... In the years since [2010], five CAR-T cell therapies have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, to treat leukaemias, lymphomas and myelomas. June estimates that tens of thousands of people have received CAR-T cell treatment. ...
But the therapy is expensive, risky and technically demanding. It remains a last resort, to be used when all other treatments have failed. Despite the treatment’s success ..., not everyone experiences durable remission of their cancer. In the beginning, only about 25-35% of CAR-T cell recipients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia experienced a complete remission of their cancer, says Porter. With refinement, that percentage has increased over the years, he says, but some of these initial successes still lead to relapse. Tracking the treatment long-term could reveal clues as to what factors are important for lasting CAR-T cell success. ...
Efforts are underway to use CAR-T cell approaches to treat solid tumours, such as prostate tumours and the devastating brain cancer glioblastoma. In January, researchers reported success in using the cells to destroy scar tissue in the heart — an approach that could one day be used to treat cardiac fibrosis. ..."
But the therapy is expensive, risky and technically demanding. It remains a last resort, to be used when all other treatments have failed. Despite the treatment’s success ..., not everyone experiences durable remission of their cancer. In the beginning, only about 25-35% of CAR-T cell recipients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia experienced a complete remission of their cancer, says Porter. With refinement, that percentage has increased over the years, he says, but some of these initial successes still lead to relapse. Tracking the treatment long-term could reveal clues as to what factors are important for lasting CAR-T cell success. ...
Efforts are underway to use CAR-T cell approaches to treat solid tumours, such as prostate tumours and the devastating brain cancer glioblastoma. In January, researchers reported success in using the cells to destroy scar tissue in the heart — an approach that could one day be used to treat cardiac fibrosis. ..."
CAR-T cell therapy modifies T-cells
shown here attacking a brain cancer cell — to recognize specific proteins.
shown here attacking a brain cancer cell — to recognize specific proteins.
GefĂ€ngnisstrafe fĂŒr Fauci? – Wissenschaftler kritisiert auch Drosten
Empfehlenswert! Wir wissen immer noch viel zu wenig ĂŒber das beinahe totale Staatsversagen des Westens in Sachen Covid-19! Die BĂŒrger wurden hinters Licht gefĂŒhrt. Die ergriffenen MaĂnahmen waren schlimmer als die Krankheit u.v.m.
Auch noch so ein schlimmes VermÀchtnis der SED Kanzlerin Merkel! Hier ist meine Abrechnung mit der SED Kanzlerin!
Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.
"Das neue Wiesendanger-Papier fordert AufklÀrung in Wuhan. Der Physiker kritisiert auch Christian Drosten.
Als der Hamburger Physikprofessor Roland Wiesendanger vor knapp einem Jahr als einer der ersten in Deutschland die Labor-These zum Ursprung des Corona-Virus als sehr wahrscheinlich bezeichnete, erfuhr er geballte Ablehnung und Diffamierung in Politik und Medien. Er wurde dafĂŒr von zahlreichen Medien und Wissenschaftlern angegriffen ... Mittlerweile erscheint die These immer plausibler, dass das Virus bei einem Unfall aus einem chinesischen Labor in Wuhan entwich. Nicht nur das, auch dass dies bewusst in der Ăffentlichkeit verschleiert wurde, wird nun deutlich.
Wiesendanger ist jetzt gemeinsam mit anderen Wissenschaftlern aus verschiedenen LĂ€ndern erneut an die Ăffentlichkeit gegangen – mit einem TE vorab vorliegenden Forderungskatalog fĂŒr eine genaue Untersuchung des Corona-Ursprungs in Wuhan und scharfer Kritik an jenen, die dies bislang zu verhindern suchen. ...
Im Fokus der Kritik Wiesendangers steht vor allem ein jĂŒngst durch das US-ReprĂ€sentantenhaus öffentlich gemachter Vorgang, bei dem sich fĂŒhrende Virologen Anfang 2020 verabredeten, Hinweise auf eine mögliche Labortheorie bewusst zu verschweigen. Darunter waren neben dem US-Epidemiologen und fĂŒhrenden Regierungsberater Anthony Fauci auch der deutsche Virologe Christian Drosten. Fauci war selbst an der Auslagerung der hochrisikoreichen Gain-of-Function-Forschung unter der Obama-Administration nach Wuhan beteiligt.
Zur Rolle Christian Drostens sagt Wiesendanger: „Er hat nicht nur einen offenen Brief in der medizinischen Zeitschrift The Lancet im MĂ€rz 2020 mitunterzeichnet, worin die Labortheorie als Verschwörungstheorie gebrandmarkt wurde, sondern in seinem Podcast vom 12. Mai 2020 auch zugegeben, dass er zusammen mit anderen Kollegen soziale Medien angewiesen hat, solche ‚Verschwörungstheorien‘ zu bekĂ€mpfen.“"
"... Seitdem ist viel geschehen: Die Theorie wird in der WHO kritisch diskutiert, ein US-Nachrichtendienst hĂ€lt einen Laborursprung fĂŒr wahrscheinlich, Wissenschaftler unter anderem der Harvard-UniversitĂ€t sprechen offen ĂŒber das Thema. Nur das Regime in Peking verweigert bis dato jede offene Untersuchung und verschleiert die Tatsachen, wo es nur kann. ...
Zwar gab es 2020 eine Untersuchung der Weltgesundheitsorganisation WHO in Wuhan – sie erhielt allerdings keinen Zugang zu den kritischen Bereichen und musste sich ausschlieĂlich auf die Aussage chinesischer Offizieller verlassen. Der Vorsitzende dieser WHO-Kommission, Dr. Embarek, sagte spĂ€ter selbst, dass er dennoch mindestens ein Indiz fĂŒr die Labortheorie gefunden habe. AuĂerdem sei man von chinesischen Offiziellen unter Druck gesetzt worden, die Labortheorie auszuschlieĂen. ..."
Zwar gab es 2020 eine Untersuchung der Weltgesundheitsorganisation WHO in Wuhan – sie erhielt allerdings keinen Zugang zu den kritischen Bereichen und musste sich ausschlieĂlich auf die Aussage chinesischer Offizieller verlassen. Der Vorsitzende dieser WHO-Kommission, Dr. Embarek, sagte spĂ€ter selbst, dass er dennoch mindestens ein Indiz fĂŒr die Labortheorie gefunden habe. AuĂerdem sei man von chinesischen Offiziellen unter Druck gesetzt worden, die Labortheorie auszuschlieĂen. ..."
Israel's laser missile defense system readiness significantly accelerated by prime minister
David's new slingshot! Israel at the forefront of advanced weapons systems!
"... On Tuesday (2/1/2022), Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the system would be deployed “within a year,” first experimentally and then operationally in the South. ...
The IDF has admitted that Iran’s conventional missile threat is a major worry for Israel, which despite its multi-layered air defenses may not be able to contend with intensive missile barrages fired by Iran and its proxy groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon or Shi’ite militias in Iraq. ...
Terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have already tested the Iron Dome’s ability to deal with a heavy barrage, including during the war in May that saw more than 4,000 rockets, missiles and mortars fired toward Israel by the groups. ...
The IDF has admitted that Iran’s conventional missile threat is a major worry for Israel, which despite its multi-layered air defenses may not be able to contend with intensive missile barrages fired by Iran and its proxy groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon or Shi’ite militias in Iraq. ...
Terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have already tested the Iron Dome’s ability to deal with a heavy barrage, including during the war in May that saw more than 4,000 rockets, missiles and mortars fired toward Israel by the groups. ...
The laser system, meanwhile, costs just a few dollars per pulse. ...
One of the systems being developed with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is in the advanced stages of research and development. It is a ground-based high-powered laser that will be integrated with the Iron Dome. In parallel, MAFAT is also working on an airborne-based high-powered laser with Elbit.
The Defense Ministry has already carried out a successful series of interceptions using the airborne laser system installed on a civilian plane, downing several drones.
During the June trials, the high-powered laser system that had been installed on a civilian Cessna aircraft destroyed several unmanned aerial vehicles at different ranges and altitudes. According to the ministry, Israel is among the first countries in the world to succeed in integrating laser technology onto an airplane and intercept targets in an operational scenario. ...
The method of airborne interception using a powerful laser has many advantages, including a low cost per interception, the ability to effectively intercept long-range threats at high altitudes regardless of weather conditions, and the ability to defend vast areas. ..."
Ukraine-Konflikt - Olaf Scholz will demnÀchst nach Moskau fliegen
Hat der Bundeskanzler Scholz etwa schon die Ukraine besucht seit dem russischen Truppenaufmarsch an der Grenze der Ukraine? Das wÀre seine Pflicht! Er hÀtte schon vor dem britischen Prime Minister Johnson in Kiev sein sollen!
Was fĂŒr eine Witzfigur! Aber die Bananenrepublik liefert 5000 Stahlhelme an die Ukraine fĂŒr die Verteidigung!
U.S. says Islamic State leader killed in Syria raid
I am not sure this was a necessary and good move! How much of a threat was this terrorist leader really at this time?
What exactly was the mission of this raid? Something else? To capture this terrorist and bring him to justice? To kill him, a drone would have done the job!
Elite U.S. soldiers on the ground were executing this dangerous operation inside Syria of all places! What will be the repercussions of terrorist leader's death!
What if the terrorist leader is not dead? What confirmation do we have he was indeed killed when the bomb exploded? Is it not a little surprising that this man with a $10 million bounty on his head was not guarded and that there was no fight during the raid?
It was also known beforehand that he would most likely detonate a bomb when fearing his arrest like his predecessor.
It appears, the demented and senile 78 years old 46th President, who is a lifetime career politician and chronic liar for decades wanted to show strength given his many failures as president. A desperate attempt to show some success?
"The leader of the jihadist group Islamic State died in a U.S. special forces raid in northern Syria on Thursday when he detonated a bomb that killed him and family members, the U.S. administration said.
"Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi had led the group since the death of its founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was also killed when he detonated explosives during a U.S. raid in 2019. ...
Syrian rescue workers said at least 13 people including six children and four women were killed by clashes and explosions that erupted after the raid began, targeting a house in the Atmeh area near the Turkish border."
Syrian rescue workers said at least 13 people including six children and four women were killed by clashes and explosions that erupted after the raid began, targeting a house in the Atmeh area near the Turkish border."
'Trafficker In Chief, Biden': U.S. Representative Kat Cammack Hammers Biden Over Fentanyl In The United States
Recommendable! Impeach the 46th President!
Saudi Arabia Vs Iran: The Rivalry explained
Very recommendable! Nice brief overview! Recapitulates e.g. the many proxy wars in the Middle East between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
This Indian media outlet suggests there is a new rapprochement going on between Saudi Arabia and Iran. There is historical precedent: E.g. during the cold war Saudi Arabia and Iran used to be allies with the United States.
Did you know:
- There is a significant Shia minority living in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia in an oil rich province. Recent protests by Shia in that province caused concern
- There is a significant Sunni minority living in the Khuzestan province of Iran, where 80% of Iran's oil reserves are located
- Saudi Arabia executed Saudi Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr in 2016, who called for free elections in Saudi Arabia
How Billionaire Mark Cuban's Online Pharmacy Went From Pitch To Reality
Update of 2/9/2022: Can Mark Cuban Slash Drug Costs? Not where prices are highest. Last month, Mark Cuban, the billionaire serial entrepreneur and star of NBC’s Shark Tank, announced the launch of an online pharmacy with a mission to drive down the cost of generic drugs. Generic drug prices often greatly exceed manufacturing costs, though competition is generally uninhibited by patents. But because insurance plans typically have very low copays for preferred generic drugs, Cuban’s new firm may struggle to make a significant impact on the marketplace, even if it substantially undercuts existing providers on price.
Bravo Mark Cuban! Free markets and enterprises are the best medicine! Bring on more competition!
Why can't we still not buy new cars online? Why do consumers still have to pay for all these fancy car dealerships?
This Texas town unanimously said ‘No’ to the federal stimulus money
Very recommendable! A typical case of the camel's nose or federal money dictating local and state policies!
Wyoming is Becoming America’s Crypto Capital
Very recommendable! State chartered banks for crypto currencies. Digital assets recognized as private property and more. The Cowboys are riding into the sunset! State motto: Equal rights!
Wednesday, February 02, 2022
Google Scholar falls behind capturing new machine learning papers!
Today (2/2/2022), I searched for two recent ML related papers posted on arxiv, but Google Scholar search failed to retrieve them:
- Variational Neural Cellular Automata (https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.12360, published 1/28/2022, but available on Semantic Scholar)
- Third Time's the Charm? Image and Video Editing with StyleGAN3 (https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.13433, published 1/31/2022, but available on Semantic Scholar)
A Covid Origin Conspiracy? The Watergate Scandal of our time!
Very recommendable!
The covered up and suppressed lab leak hypothesis is akin to or rises to the level of the Watergate scandal of our time except that the perpetrators in government are still not held accountable! This time the culprit is not the president, but top level federal bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins!
How much of this cover up can be attributed to the Trump Derangement Syndrome exhibited by federal bureaucrats not least because President Trump referred to the China virus?
Or how much was e.g. Anthony Fauci financially invested in China?
Add to this the financing of the so called gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology by Anthony Fauci in circumvention of U.S. regulations!
"... Now a string of unearthed emails—the most recent being a batch viewed by the House Oversight and Reform Committee and referred to in its January 11, 2022 letter—is making it seem increasingly likely that there was, in fact, a conspiracy, its aim being to suppress the notion that the virus had emerged from research funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), headed by Anthony Fauci. The latest emails don’t prove such a conspiracy, but they make it more plausible, for two reasons: because the expert virologists therein present such a strong case for thinking that the virus had lab-made features and because of the wholly political reaction to this bombshell on the part of Francis Collins, then-director of the National Institutes of Health. ...
A striking feature of the excerpts released in the committee’s January 11, 2022 letter is that the virologists had little doubt that the virus bore the fingerprints of manipulation. The focus of their attention was a genetic element called a furin cleavage site. This short snippet of genetic material is what makes the virus so infectious for human cells. Scientists sometimes add this element to laboratory viruses to make them more virulent, but in nature, viruses usually acquire runs of genetic material like this by swapping them with other members of their family. The furin cleavage site in the Covid virus sticks out like a sore thumb because no other known member of its family—a group called Sarbecoviruses—possesses a furin cleavage site. So how did the virus acquire it?
A member of the Andersen group, Garry of Tulane University, remarks in the latest emails on the fact that the inserted furin cleavage site, a string of 12 units of RNA, the virus’s genetic material, was exactly the required length, a precision unusual in nature: “I just can’t figure out how this gets accomplished in nature . . . it’s stunning. Of course, in the lab it would be easy to generate the perfect 12 base insert that you wanted.” ..."
A striking feature of the excerpts released in the committee’s January 11, 2022 letter is that the virologists had little doubt that the virus bore the fingerprints of manipulation. The focus of their attention was a genetic element called a furin cleavage site. This short snippet of genetic material is what makes the virus so infectious for human cells. Scientists sometimes add this element to laboratory viruses to make them more virulent, but in nature, viruses usually acquire runs of genetic material like this by swapping them with other members of their family. The furin cleavage site in the Covid virus sticks out like a sore thumb because no other known member of its family—a group called Sarbecoviruses—possesses a furin cleavage site. So how did the virus acquire it?
A member of the Andersen group, Garry of Tulane University, remarks in the latest emails on the fact that the inserted furin cleavage site, a string of 12 units of RNA, the virus’s genetic material, was exactly the required length, a precision unusual in nature: “I just can’t figure out how this gets accomplished in nature . . . it’s stunning. Of course, in the lab it would be easy to generate the perfect 12 base insert that you wanted.” ..."
Bacteria build communities using chemical signals comparable to radio waves
Amazing stuff! Complex communication among bacteria for 10-20 generations!
"... But biofilm communities have important implications for human health, from causing illness to aiding digestion. And they play a role in a range of emerging technologies meant to protect the environment and generate clean energy.
New UCLA-led research could give scientists insights that will help them cultivate useful microbes or clear dangerous ones from surfaces where biofilms have formed — including on tissues and organs in the human body. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, describes how, when biofilms form, bacteria communicate with their descendants using a chemical signal analogous to radio transmissions.
The investigators showed that concentration levels of a messenger molecule called cyclic diguanylate, or c-di-GMP, can increase and decrease in well-defined patterns over time, and across generations of bacteria. Bacteria cells employ those chemical signal waves, the study found, to encode information for their descendants that helps coordinate colony formation. ...
The study adds new dimensions to the scientific understanding of the mechanisms that lead to biofilms. The current paradigm, established over the last 20 years or so, holds that when a bacterium senses a surface, that cell begins producing c-di-GMP, which in turn causes the bacterium to attach to the surface. Indeed, biofilm cells generally have higher levels of c-di-GMP than bacterial cells that move around a lot.
Biofilm research focusing on bacteria’s ability to communicate from one generation to another was pioneered ... in a 2018 publication. ..."From the abstract:
"Work on surface sensing in bacterial biofilms has focused on how cells transduce sensory input into cyclic diguanylate (c-di-GMP) signaling, low and high levels of which generally correlate with high-motility planktonic cells and low-motility biofilm cells, respectively. Using Granger causal inference methods, however, we find that single-cell c-di-GMP increases are not sufficient to imply surface commitment. Tracking entire lineages of cells from the progenitor cell onward reveals that c-di-GMP levels can exhibit increases but also undergo oscillations that can propagate across 10 to 20 generations, thereby encoding more complex instructions for community behavior. Principal component and factor analysis of lineage c-di-GMP data shows that surface commitment behavior correlates with three statistically independent composite features, which roughly correspond to mean c-di-GMP levels, c-di-GMP oscillation period, and surface motility. Surface commitment in young biofilms does not correlate to c-di-GMP increases alone but also to the emergence of high-frequency and small-amplitude modulation of elevated c-di-GMP signal along a lineage of cells. Using this framework, we dissect how increasing or decreasing signal transduction from wild-type levels, by varying the interaction strength between PilO, a component of a principal surface sensing appendage system, and SadC, a key hub diguanylate cyclase that synthesizes c-di-GMP, impacts frequency and amplitude modulation of c-di-GMP signals and cooperative surface commitment."
The Vikings were the first to reach these idyllic Portuguese Azores
Amazing Vikings! Not only did they first discover North America and Greenland, but also the Azores!
The PNAS article title below refers to the Medieval Warm Period (ca 950-1250 AD). Exactly why was that island called Greenland? Global Warming is a hoax. Climate Change a religion.
Caveat: This study relies on unreliable climate models!
"... In 2015, a study found some evidence in the unlikeliest of places: mice. The study noted intriguing genetic similarities between mice in the Azores and in Northern Europe. But as tantalizing as this evidence was, it was insufficient to draw any clear conclusions. Now, the needed evidence may have finally been discovered. ...
But in addition to climate information, researchers also found signs of human disturbance: pollen from non-native crops that explorers would have brought along and spores from fungi that grow on livestock dung. This was not surprising — but what was surprising was that these traces extended all the way back to 700 years before the Portuguese settled on the Azores.
In one particular layer, that was dated to AD700-850, researchers found clear signs of human activity: an increase in charcoal particles, a dip in the pollen of native trees, and a compound (5-beta-stigmastanol) that is found in the feces of animals such as cows and sheep. This suggests that some of the island’s trees were being cut down and burned, presumably to make way for pastures. ..."From the abstract:
"... Here, we use a multiproxy approach to reconstruct the initial colonization and subsequent environmental impacts on the Azores Archipelago. Our reconstructions provide unambiguous evidence for widespread human disturbance of this archipelago starting between 700-60+50 and 850-60+60 Common Era (CE), ca. 700 y earlier than historical records suggest the onset of Portuguese settlement of the islands. Settlement proceeded in three phases, during which human pressure on the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems grew steadily (i.e., through livestock introductions, logging, and fire), resulting in irreversible changes. Our climate models suggest that the initial colonization at the end of the early Middle Ages (500 to 900 CE) occurred in conjunction with anomalous northeasterly winds and warmer Northern Hemisphere temperatures. These climate conditions likely inhibited exploration from southern Europe and facilitated human settlers from the northeast Atlantic. These results are consistent with recent archaeological and genetic data suggesting that the Norse were most likely the earliest settlers on the islands."
IRS Issued Grand Jury Subpoena to JPMorgan for Hunter, James Biden Bank Records In Probe into Biden Family’s China Connections
This could get interesting! What took so long!
How a disappearing ear bone turned bats into masters of echolocation
Amazing stuff!
"... Then, in 2015, Benjamin Sulser, a University of Chicago biology student on the hunt for a thesis project, took detailed 3D images of the inner ear of a bat skull. But he couldn’t find a feature common in virtually all mammals—a bony tube that encases the nerve cells and connects the ear to the brain. Thinking he’d made a mistake, he and Luo imaged the skulls of two more related species using a computed tomography scanner, with similar results. The researchers realized they might have stumbled across an answer to a mystery that had bedeviled bat biologists for 2 decades—and an explanation for why some families of bats had such a diverse echolocation arsenal. ...
But until now, no one could find a physical difference linked to the genetic split between the two groups. After Sulser’s discovery, the duo spent 5 years scanning the skulls of 39 bat species. In 24 of 26 yang bats they scanned, the bony nerve channel was missing or contained large holes making it resemble lace, Sulser and Luo report today in Nature. ..."
For years, bats were divided into two groups: big fruit bats, which don’t generally echolocate, and small bats that hunt by sound. But in 2000, a genetic analysis revealed bats had actually diverged into two different groups some 50 million years ago: one group that included the large fruit bats and some of the echolocating insect eaters (known as Yinpterochiroptera, or “yin”), and another group that included the rest of the small, sound-hunting bats (known as Yangochiroptera, or “yang”). The latter make up 82% of the 1250 known echolocating species of bats.
From the abstract:
"... Here we report the observation of highly derived structures of the spiral ganglion in yangochiropteran bats: a trans-otic ganglion with a wall-less Rosenthal’s canal. This neuroanatomical arrangement permits a larger ganglion with more neurons, higher innervation density of neurons and denser clustering of cochlear nerve fascicles. This differs from the plesiomorphic neuroanatomy of Yinpterochiroptera and non-chiropteran mammals. The osteological correlates of these derived ganglion features can now be traced into bat phylogeny, providing direct evidence of how Yangochiroptera differentiated from Yinpterochiroptera in spiral ganglion neuroanatomy. These features are highly variable across major clades and between species of Yangochiroptera, and in morphospace, exhibit much greater disparity in Yangochiroptera than Yinpterochiroptera. These highly variable ganglion features may be a neuroanatomical evolutionary driver for their diverse echolocating strategies and are associated with the explosive diversification of yangochiropterans, which include most bat families, genera and species."
Milestone: Over 10 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine administered worldwide
Contrast this with total world population of about 7.9 billion.
About every 30 days, 1 billion doses of the vaccine are administered! Absolutely mind boggling!
Many nations began rolling out vaccines in late 2020 and early 2021, and since then more than 60% of the world’s population — 4.8 billion people — have received at least one dose of one of more than 20 different COVID-19 vaccines that have been approved by nations for use around the world.
Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.
12 Euro Mindestlohn: Jeder zweite Betrieb muss GehÀlter erhöhen
Staatliche Preis- und Lohnkontrollen sind unvereinbar mit einer freien und sozialen Marktwirtschaft!
Deutschland, bevor sie zu einer Bananenrepublik verkam, hatte zwischen 1945 und 2014 keinen gesetzlichen Mindestlohn! Das war gut so!
Die EinfĂŒhrung des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns in Deutschland ist auch eine der vielen ĂŒblen Nachlassenschaften der SED Kanzlerin Merkel! Hier ist meine Abrechnung mit der SED Kanzlerin!
Utah only offers driver exams in English for many immigrants
What is wrong with that? There is only one official language. Most traffic signs are in English language and so forth. I bet, you can get a translated version on the Internet or elsewhere.
Frederic Chopin: The Greatest Piano Composer
Recommendable! His life was too short. His heart is buried in Poland, his body in Paris. The video contains a lot of footage about Poland and its dramatic history.
'Come On, Judge, Don't Dodge The Question': U.S. Senator Kennedy Grills Biden Judicial Nominee
This judicial nominee was so totally and obviously unprepared especially with respect to questions from the notorious U.S. Senator Kennedy! Half of her face was vertically covered by her hair. She was indecisive! She appeared not very confident!
I hope this inept nominee will be rejected!
One YouTube commentator wrote: "A judge is basically a shitty lawyer that you wouldn't hire for a dui case"
"At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) questioned Judge Kenly Kiya Kato, nominee to be United States District Judge for the Central District Of California."
President of the National Border Patrol Council.: "We Go Home Every Single Day Defeated", Biden Has Broken the Border Patrol
Very recommendable! Strong words by this border patrol representative!
The massive illegal immigration across the southern border of the U.S. sanctioned by the current administration is outrageous! Impeach the 46th President!
Tuesday, February 01, 2022
Greg Kelly: It's time to impeach Joe Biden
Yes, the the demented and senile 78 years old 46th President, who is a lifetime career politician and chronic liar for decades ought to be impeached. The earlier, the better!
U.S. Public debt passes $30 trillion
Current nominal GDP for 2021 is only $22.9 trillion!
Given rising interest rates, debt servicing will become a major burden on the e.g. the federal budget!
"... When President Biden took office, the national debt stood at $21.6 trillion.
The federal government ran a budget deficit of $2.8 trillion in fiscal year 2021, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. .."
What does 2022 hold for Geometric & Graph ML? by Michael Bronstein
Very recommendable! Great overview article about the research highlights in 2021 written by one of the preeminent researchers in the field of graph machine learning.
Leading American libertarian: Why Die for Ukraine?
What a naive and unrealistic fool this Chairman of the The Mises Institute is! Here is one reason not to like libertarianism!
Or is the Mises Institute financed by Putin the Terrible or the Communist Party of China? Possible!
".... We threaten [????] China with a new Cold War. But it isn’t enough. Now Biden wants to ignite a war with Russia [???] that could easily turn nuclear and destroy us. ..
The saddest part of this whole manufactured crisis [???] is that it should make absolutely no difference to us whether Russia controls Ukraine. ..."
The saddest part of this whole manufactured crisis [???] is that it should make absolutely no difference to us whether Russia controls Ukraine. ..."
English for trippers: Wether to tether weather
Very contrived, I admit! However, phonetically challenging for non native speakers.
Are genetic mutations random in humans? Probably not!
Here are two studies showing that mutations of the human and other organism genome are not random!
"... For the past century, an assumption central to Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory is that mutations are random and accidental and that natural selection favors such accidents. In an article published in the scientific peer-reviewed journal Genome Research, researchers have found the first evidence of non-random mutations in human genes. ...
Using a new and innovative method, the researchers ... have managed to prove that the rate of generation of the human hemoglobin S (HbS) mutation which protects one from malaria is higher in people from Africa in contrast to people from Europe. In other words, the mutation is not random but rather exists preferentially within the population of Africa where it is more needed."
Using a new and innovative method, the researchers ... have managed to prove that the rate of generation of the human hemoglobin S (HbS) mutation which protects one from malaria is higher in people from Africa in contrast to people from Europe. In other words, the mutation is not random but rather exists preferentially within the population of Africa where it is more needed."
"The work, published in Nature on January 12, finds that there’s a discrepancy in the rates of mutations among genes in model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Specifically, genes playing a crucial role in survival and reproduction mutate far less often than those that are less important. ... On top of that, genes considered essential had a 37 percent lower mutation rate than those in which modifications would be less likely to prove disastrous. ...
[researchers] found evidence of specific epigenetic characteristics such as cytosine methylation that prevent mutations from occurring in those regions, not unlike protective barriers. These structures and the variability in mutation rates within a single organism’s genome ... suggest that “evolution created mechanisms that changed how evolution works.” ...
So the study’s authors calculated mutation bias among silent mutations, which don’t result in functional changes and still encode the same amino acid sequence as before when new proteins are synthesized. The effect, the paper shows, is still present among silent mutations as well as non-coding gene regions called introns, suggesting that the different mutation rates “is best explained by a genuine mutation difference” and not selection"
[researchers] found evidence of specific epigenetic characteristics such as cytosine methylation that prevent mutations from occurring in those regions, not unlike protective barriers. These structures and the variability in mutation rates within a single organism’s genome ... suggest that “evolution created mechanisms that changed how evolution works.” ...
So the study’s authors calculated mutation bias among silent mutations, which don’t result in functional changes and still encode the same amino acid sequence as before when new proteins are synthesized. The effect, the paper shows, is still present among silent mutations as well as non-coding gene regions called introns, suggesting that the different mutation rates “is best explained by a genuine mutation difference” and not selection"
Essential Genes Protected from Mutations (Long, comprehenisve article) Epigenetic structures appear to reduce the rate of changes in genes essential for survival and reproduction, a study finds, challenging the notion that mutations are evenly distributed throughout the genome prior to selection.
Biden Administration Reverses Course, Requests that the U.S. Oil and Gas Industry Boost Production
When you have the demented and senile 78 years old 46th President, who is a lifetime career politician and chronic liar for decades ...
"Amid persistent criticism over rising inflation and high gasoline prices at the pump and faced with falling approval ratings, the Biden administration, in an about-face, has asked the U.S. oil and gas industry to raise production on existing leases as quickly as possible.
Hoping to reassure an industry it has blamed for climate change, the administration also says it will not reinstate a decades-old ban on the export of crude oil. ...
The Biden administration’s request was delivered by Jennifer Granholm, the U.S. Energy Secretary, to oil executives at a mid-December meeting of the National Petroleum Council. ..."
A comprehensive Literature Review and Meta-Analysis finds that Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality had little or no effect
Are you surprised? The hysterical and irrational response of Western governments to the fairly harmless Covid-19 pandemic amount to a case of enormous government failure!
Fear and caution ruled instead of common sense! The social and economic costs of this government failure will be with us for years to come!
Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.
The senior author of this study was Prof. Steve H. Hanke,
Founder and Co-Director of The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise
From the abstract:
"This systematic review and meta-analysis are designed to determine whether there is empirical evidence to support the belief that “lockdowns” reduce COVID-19 mortality. Lockdowns are defined as the imposition of at least one compulsory, non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI). NPIs are any government mandate that directly restrict peoples’ possibilities, such as policies that limit internal movement, close schools and businesses, and ban international travel. This study employed a systematic search and screening procedure in which 18,590 studies are identified that could potentially address the belief posed. After three levels of screening, 34 studies ultimately qualified. Of those 34 eligible studies, 24 qualified for inclusion in the meta-analysis. They were separated into three groups: lockdown stringency index studies, shelter-in-place-order (SIPO) studies, and specific NPI studies. An analysis of each of these three groups support the conclusion that lockdowns have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality. More specifically, stringency index studies find that lockdowns in Europe and the United States only reduced COVID-19 mortality by 0.2% on average. ... While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument."
Here is the link to the paper PDF
'Enough of this bulls**t!': older woman blocks 'a**hole' shoplifter, yanks off his ski mask, and curses him out — before he departs store empty-handed
Bravo! More civil courage is needed! What would you do if you watch a shoplifter committing theft of merchandise? Would you at least notify loss prevention?
And remember, shoplifting also drives up prices for merchandise. Or who do you think is paying for it?
"A spunky and salty-tongued older woman is becoming a bit of a folk heroine since video has been circulating of her confronting and stopping a suspected shoplifter in a Canadian Walmart over the weekend. ..."
Weltweit rollen die Freiheits-Konvois
Bravo! Es ist höchste Zeit wieder zu praktisch normalen Leben, wie vor der Pandemie zurĂŒckzukehren. Dass hĂ€tte schon etwas seit etwa Anfang 2021 geschehen sollen!
Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.
"... Auch andere LĂ€nder auf der ganzen Welt sind dabei sich dem Protest anzuschlieĂen.
Auf Telegram haben sich in Dutzenden LĂ€ndern bereits zig-tausende Trucker und UnterstĂŒtzer zusammengeschlossen um gegen die unsinnigen Corona-MaĂnahmen zu protestieren und die dafĂŒr verantwortlichen Politiker ..."
WHO: Hundreds of thousands of Tonnes of COVID-19 health care waste expose urgent need to improve waste management systems
A return to fairly normal times like before the Covid-19 pandemic is long overdue like at least since Spring 2021! This is another good reason!
Why SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and why the cure was worse than the disease.
"Masks. Gloves. Swabs. Syringes. Needles. Multiply them by the millions.
COVID-19 has generated tens of thousands of tons of extra medical waste globally, adding “tremendous strain” to hospitals’ waste management systems, a new WHO report finds. The WHO says pandemic waste from health facilities alone includes:
144,000 tons of syringes, needles, and safety boxes from 8 billion doses of vaccine
2,600 tons of mostly plastic waste and 731,000 liters of chemical waste from +140 million test kits
Not to mention 87,000 tons of PPE shipped via a UN emergency initiative alone. ..."
"Tens of thousands of tonnes of extra medical waste from the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has put tremendous strain on health care waste management systems around the world, threatening human and environmental health and exposing a dire need to improve waste management practices ...
They point out that over 140 million test kits, with a potential to generate 2,600 tonnes of non-infectious waste (mainly plastic) and 731,000 litres of chemical waste (equivalent to one-third of an Olympic-size swimming pool) have been shipped, while over 8 billion doses of vaccine have been administered globally producing 144,000 tonnes of additional waste in the form of syringes, needles, and safety boxes. ..."
The authors note that this just provides an initial indication of the scale of the COVID-19 waste problem. It does not take into account any of the COVID-19 commodities procured outside of the initiative, nor waste generated by the public like disposable medical masks.
Altersschwerhörigkeit: das Gehirn verlernt das Hören
Danke fĂŒr den Tipp!
How pregnancy dramatically resculpts the brain
Recommendable, but this video has a few ideological overtones! Amazing stuff!
The Great Indian Brain Drain
Recommendable! Some food for thought! Of course, these Indians living abroad transfer $15 billion in remittances to India and more.
Jesse Watters: This was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's downfall
Nice take down of this totally overrated, incompetent politician! She was a carefully crafted product of her manager Saikat Chakrabarti who left her in early August 2019!
Least productive U.S. Representative!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)