One of the many cheat sheets of the senile and demented 46th President! (Source)
Thursday, April 27, 2023
Cato Institute Awards 2023 Milton Friedman Prize to Jimmy Lai
Good news! Bravo!
China has brutally violated the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 of one country, two systems!
"... A prominent critic of the Chinese Communist Party, Lai was arrested on 10 August 2020 by the Hong Kong police on charges of violating the territory's new national security law,an action which prompted widespread criticism. Lai was allowed bail on 12 August, but on 3 December, Lai was accused of fraud and his bail was revoked. The court decided to jail Lai until April 2021, marking the first time Lai has been detained. Lai regarded his imprisonment as "the summit of his own life"." (Wikipedia)
"... Jimmy Lai has become a powerful symbol of the struggle for democratic rights and press freedom in Hong Kong as China’s Communist Party exerts ever greater control over the territory. In prison and denied bail, Lai is an outspoken critic of the Chinese government and advocate for democracy who faces charges that could keep him in jail for the rest of his life. ..."
US writer E. Jean Carroll testifies in her lawsuit against Donald Trump
This lawsuit is a bad joke! She claims it happened almost 30 years ago! Why is she suing now and not many years ago?
That such lawsuits are allowed to go forward is preposterous!
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
Norway Lashes Out at Sweden over missile crash with Palki Sharma
This seems to be a very peculiar incident, which was poorly handled by Sweden!
T-Mobile is experiencing a serious hotspot issue this morning possibly affecting all customers in the U.S.
I was not able to find any news reports about it using Google search! Strange!
My Internet access is affected by this. It is slow as molasses!
Why More Older Americans Never Want to Retire #NeverRetire
Recommendable! Why not start a new career in your 60s?
Former president's Doctor’s ultimatum: Joe Biden told ‘resign’ or ‘take cognitive test’
The senile and demented 46th President has never took a cognitive test to this day only physical exams! Besides term limits for U.S. presidents, we also need to require physical and cognitive exams!
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Pakistan: Is The Military Planning a New Coup? with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! In life nothing is certain except death, taxes, and military coups in Pakistan, but perhaps not this time!
Is China’s Economy Staring at a New banking Crisis with Palki Sharma
Very concerning! If serious enough, it could trigger the demise of the communist party rule! There are also reports of a shaky real estate market!
“Racist” German Cartoon On India’s Population Triggers Outrage with Palki Sharma
Looks like Der Spiegel weekly news magazine committed a pretty stupid and arrogant mistake! Do not underestimate India! India is a rising superpower!
On Learning Quadrupedal Locomotion over Challenging Terrain
Very recommendable paper! Impressive results!
A.I. chatbots will teach kids how to read/write and to do math within 18 months
Good news! Great prospects for AI to accelerate learning for children! The possibilities are infinite! Just imagine e.g. little children discovering the next big thing in math or science by playing around with AI.
"... Today’s chatbots have “incredible fluency at being able to read and write,” which will soon help them teach students to improve their own reading and writing in ways that technology never could before ...
“If you just took the next 18 months, the AIs will come in as a teacher’s aide and give feedback on writing,” said Gates. “And then they will amp up what we’re able to do in math.” ...
Then, it could help make private tutoring available to a wide swath of students who might otherwise be unable to afford it. ..."
“If you just took the next 18 months, the AIs will come in as a teacher’s aide and give feedback on writing,” said Gates. “And then they will amp up what we’re able to do in math.” ...
Then, it could help make private tutoring available to a wide swath of students who might otherwise be unable to afford it. ..."
Chronic pain Patients Hit ‘Sweet Spot’ With Cannabis Inhaler, but it depends on standardized medicinal cannabis
Good news! However, it depends on "Bedrocan is the only company in the world that can supply standardised medicinal cannabis. All our varieties are of consistent composition and quality."
"... Israeli startup Syqe Medical says it’s solved the problem with an inhaler that delivers precisely the same dose of vaporized cannabis every time. ..."
"Raw Plant of Controlled Quality
A genetically stable cannabis inflorescence (Bedrocan®), which is uniform and adherent in each batch,
VaporChips of Uniform Doses
is packed in a metered and uniform amount into 60 VaporChips (60 inhalations),
VaporChips of Uniform Doses
Loaded Cartridge Ready for Inhalation
loaded into a secured platform which is inserted into the inhaler,
Metered-Dose Medical Cannabis Inhaler
for a fast reduction in the intensity of chronic neuropathic pain with minimum psychoactive side effects." (Source)
Newly discovered einstian aperiodic monotile shape solves 60-year mathematical mystery in tiling of the plane
Fascinating math!
"... A new shape has been discovered which would make for a pretty unique set of bathroom tiles. Nicknamed “the Hat,” the 13-sided shape can tesselate with itself without ever repeating a pattern, solving a 60-year-old mathematical mystery. ..."
"... This elusive shape is known to mathematicians as an aperiodic monotile or an einstein, a clever pun that takes its name from the German words ein and stein that mean one stone. ..."
From the abstract:
"A longstanding open problem asks for an aperiodic monotile, also known as an "einstein": a shape that admits tilings of the plane, but never periodic tilings. We answer this problem for topological disk tiles by exhibiting a continuum of combinatorially equivalent aperiodic polygons. We first show that a representative example, the "hat" polykite, can form clusters called "metatiles", for which substitution rules can be defined. Because the metatiles admit tilings of the plane, so too does the hat. We then prove that generic members of our continuum of polygons are aperiodic, through a new kind of geometric incommensurability argument. Separately, we give a combinatorial, computer-assisted proof that the hat must form hierarchical -- and hence aperiodic -- tilings."
A trick of the hat The story of how a Waterloo computer science professor helped find the elusive einstein tile
An aperiodic monotile (open access)
A tiling of a 13-sided shape called the Hat, the first known example of a shape that can be tiled without gaps or overlaps, and without repeating a pattern across an infinite plane
Study links an accumulation of stranded stem cells to hair turning gray
Now, where is the cure? 😊 However, this is a highly complicated process!
"... Hair color is controlled by whether nonfunctional but continually multiplying pools of McSCs [melanocyte stem cells] within hair follicles get the signal to become mature cells that make the protein pigments responsible for color. ...
the new study showed that McSCs are remarkably plastic. This means that during normal hair growth, such cells continually move back and forth on the maturity axis as they transit between compartments of the developing hair follicle. It is inside these compartments where McSCs are exposed to different levels of maturity-influencing protein signals.
Specifically, the research team found that McSCs transform between their most primitive stem cell state and the next stage of their maturation, the transit-amplifying state, depending on their location.
The researchers found that as hair ages, sheds and then repeatedly grows back, increasing numbers of McSCs get stuck in the stem cell compartment called the hair follicle bulge. There, they remain, do not mature into the transit-amplifying state and do not travel back to their original location in the germ compartment, where WNT proteins would have prodded them to regenerate into pigment cells. ..."
From the abstract:
"For unknow reasons, the melanocyte stem cell (McSC) system fails earlier than other adult stem cell populations, which leads to hair greying in most humans and mice. Current dogma states that McSCs are reserved in an undifferentiated state in the hair follicle niche, physically segregated from differentiated progeny that migrate away following cues of regenerative stimuli. Here we show that most McSCs toggle between transit-amplifying and stem cell states for both self-renewal and generation of mature progeny, a mechanism fundamentally distinct from those of other self-renewing systems. Live imaging and single-cell RNA sequencing revealed that McSCs are mobile, translocating between hair follicle stem cell and transit-amplifying compartments where they reversibly enter distinct differentiation states governed by local microenvironmental cues (for example, WNT). Long-term lineage tracing demonstrated that the McSC system is maintained by reverted McSCs rather than by reserved stem cells inherently exempt from reversible changes. During ageing, there is accumulation of stranded McSCs that do not contribute to the regeneration of melanocyte progeny. These results identify a new model whereby dedifferentiation is integral to homeostatic stem cell maintenance and suggest that modulating McSC mobility may represent a new approach for the prevention of hair greying."
Study Links ‘Stuck’ Stem Cells to Hair Turning Gray (Primary source)
Hair-coloring stem cells (at left, in pink) need to be in the hair germ compartment in order to be activated (at right) to develop into pigment.
Biden announces reelection campaign. What a joke!
Let the Dimocratic Party suffer as much as possible for hiding their candidate in the basement!
The man had a chance to go down in history as a great president had he resigned for health reasons about two years ago!
Beware of the emerging gerontocracy in Western countries!
The rest of the world is bewildered how this happened in the United States that a senile and demented man could become a presidential candidate! The adversaries of the West are celebrating and taking advantage!
The Dedollarisation is ongoing and accelerating! The Pax American or U.S. based world order is falling apart faster!
A brief summary of the 46th President goes like this:
He is senile and demented, a frequent pathological liar throughout his long political career, a seriously compromised lifelong career politician, a terrible opportunist, the head of the Biden clan with their shady foreign dealings.
Heritage Foundation President Roberts Offers Tucker Carlson a Job after Fox News
Good news! Tucker Carlson's professional career started at my former employee!
"Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts expressed shock Monday at the news that Fox News had parted ways with prime-time host Tucker Carlson earlier in the day, and reiterated his offer to give Carlson a job if he needs one. ..."
Bundeskasper Lauterbach fordert Ausnahme für Krankenhäuser vom Heizungsgesetz
Wann wird sich der durchlavierende Kanzler Scholz endlich von dieser Lachnummer Lauterbach trennen!
Typisch Bananenrepublik D. im Rausch des Klimawahns!
Schmuggelgeschäfte mit dem Kreml und eine Mine namens Schweiz: wie der Goldreichtum des Sudans zur heutigen Krise führte
Schlagzeile des Tages von der Neuen Züricher Zeitung!
"In April 2012, a small team of wandering miners discovered gold in the Jebel Amir hills of North Darfur, Sudan. One of the mines was so rich -- it reportedly brought millions of dollars to its owners -- that it was nicknamed “Switzerland.” ..." (Source)
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin Meets With Taiwan's PM In Tapei, Announces Economic Development Office
What is the governor of Virginia doing in Taiwan? Is he running for president in 2024?
India leads the world in remittances totaling over $100 Billion in 2022
Good news! With 18 million people India has the largest diaspora in the world!
First Republic Bank LOSES $100 billion in deposits in the first quarter of 2023
Is this another shoe going to drop in a developing banking crisis?
Monday, April 24, 2023
Zachary Taylor: The Man Who Might Have Prevented the Civil War
Recommendable! The American Civil War was entirely unnecessary! It was not about slavery, but about secession! A secession was legal and should not have been stopped by this war! By 1860 slavery was already about to be phased out in Western countries. So it was only a matter of time to happen in the U.S. as well!
ESA - Tiny magnetic episodes may have large consequences on the Sun
What little do we know about the sun! Let's not forget that the sun is the most important factor influencing climate on earth! But the sun is rarely mentioned in this context! Why? Are we supposed to believe that the output of the sun is static, never changing? What if the output of the sun undergoes cyclic or periodic changes perhaps on the scale of decades or centuries?
All this daily propaganda and demagoguery about the life essential trace gas CO2 in our atmosphere may well turn out to be the greatest medieval superstition every perpetrated by scientists!
The renewable energy/global warming/climate change is the greatest scam perpetrated on humanity of our time. It’s big business and big government!
"... On 3 March 2022, just a few months into Solar Orbiter’s nominal mission, the spacecraft’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) returned data showing for the first time that a magnetic phenomenon called reconnection was taking place persistently on tiny scales.
At that time, the spacecraft was about halfway between the Earth and the Sun. This enabled coordinated observations with NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) missions. The data from the three missions was then combined during the analysis.
Magnetic reconnection occurs when a magnetic field changes itself into a more stable configuration. It is a fundamental energy release mechanism in superheated gasses known as plasmas and is believed to be the major mechanism for powering large-scale solar eruptions. This makes it the direct cause of space weather, and a prime candidate for the mysterious heating of the Sun’s outer atmosphere. ...
The 3 March 2022 event took place over the period of one hour. The temperatures around the point of the magnetic field where the magnetic field intensity drops to zero, known as the null-point, sustained itself at around 10 million °C, and generated an outflow of material that came in the form of discrete ‘blobs’ travelling away from the null point with a speed of around 80 km/s.
In addition to this continuous outflow, an explosive episode also took place around this null point, and lasted for four minutes. ..."
From the abstract:
"Magnetic reconnection is a key mechanism involved in solar eruptions and is also a prime possibility to heat the low corona to millions of degrees. Here, we present ultra-high-resolution extreme ultraviolet observations of persistent null-point reconnection in the corona at a scale of about 390 km over one hour observations of the Extreme-Ultraviolet Imager on board Solar Orbiter spacecraft. The observations show formation of a null-point configuration above a minor positive polarity embedded within a region of dominant negative polarity near a sunspot. The gentle phase of the persistent null-point reconnection is evidenced by sustained point-like high-temperature plasma (about 10 MK) near the null-point and constant outflow blobs not only along the outer spine but also along the fan surface. The blobs appear at a higher frequency than previously observed with an average velocity of about 80 km s−1 and life-times of about 40 s. The null-point reconnection also occurs explosively but only for 4 minutes, its coupling with a mini-filament eruption generates a spiral jet. These results suggest that magnetic reconnection, at previously unresolved scales, proceeds continually in a gentle and/or explosive way to persistently transfer mass and energy to the overlying corona."
Ultra-high-resolution observations of persistent null-point reconnection in the solar corona (open access)
Fig. 1: Overview of observations
Sound can successfully remove microplastics from water
Good news! I blogged here several times now in the very recent past how plastic can be recycled or upcycled!
Could it even be that especially microplastics are actually fairly harmless? Is this noise about microplastics just another case of alarmism and hysteria? Quite possible!
If you suffer from plastophobia, please seek medical treatment immediately!
The article below also repeats this very dubious and most likely politically and ideologically motivated statement: "A 2019 study revealed that we're even ingesting about 5 grams of microplastic, the weight of a credit card, each week."
"... A team of scientists out of Shinshu University has turned to sound to make it happen, experimenting with acoustic filtering to push MPs into a central channel, with branched sections filled by MP-free water that can be then released. ..."
From the abstract:
"Small plastic debris particles less than 5 mm in size called microplastics (MPs) are an emerging global ecological issue. This study developed a high enrichment microfluidic device to collect various-sized microparticles that uses four serial acoustic separations. To adopt the device for use with up to 200-µm MPs, the microchannel was widened by lowering the excitation frequency. The microfluidic device was designed for a 3.2-fold enrichment at each junction and a total 105-fold enrichment at the four junctions. The microfluidic network of the device was designed on the basis of a hydraulic-electric analogy and it worked even though only a single pump was used without multiple precise flow controllers. The collection performance of the device was evaluated based on the total collection rate that in turn was based on microscopic observations at the four junctions and the actual collection rate and the actual enrichment ratio obtained by measuring the effluents from the outlets. First, the device was evaluated separately using microparticles of 5, 10, 15, 25, 50, and 200 µm in diameter. The total collection rates were over 90% except for the 5-µm microparticles which seemed to be too small to manipulate acoustically at the lowered frequency. Finally, the device was evaluated with two example mixtures representing small MPs ranging from 200 µm down to 25 µm and very small MPs ranging from 25 µm down to 10 µm. Both the total collection rates and the actual collection rates ranged from 70% to 90%. However, the actual enrichment ratios ranged from half the designed value of 105 to the design value itself as some microparticles were slowed down and a few seemed to become trapped and attached to the microchannel walls by acoustic radiation force. Therefore, the microfluidic device was judged to be applicable to MP removal applications after prefiltration through a coarse mesh, while the MP analysis applications were judged to require improvement to inhibit the microparticle attachment used in 2D focusing. In conclusion, the serial acoustic separations could be a promising approach to highly enrich and remove various-sized MPs from environmental samples."
Filtering Pollution: A Microfluidic Device for Collecting Microplastics via Acoustic Focusing It has four serial trifurcated junctions where a 500 kHz acoustic wave is applied for a 105-fold enrichment of microplastics.
Microplastics (MPs), plastic debris smaller than 5 mm, indirectly harm the environment. They are traditionally collected and removed from water by filtering through meshes, which is inefficient. In this light, researchers from Japan have developed a high-enrichment microfluidic device that utilizes acoustic focusing to collect and remove 10–200 μm MPs from wastewater without recirculation. Its collection rates and enrichment ratios ranged approximately from 70–90% and 50–100, respectively on test samples.
Graphical abstract
How electricity can heal skin wounds three times faster
Good news at least for e.g. the elderly or for diabetic patients or people with blood circulation issues suffering from chronic wounds!
"... Using a tiny engineered chip, the researchers were able to compare wound healing in artificial skin, stimulating one wound with electricity and letting one heal without electricity. The differences were striking. ...
In order to study exactly how this works for wounds, we developed a kind of biochip on which we cultured skin cells, which we then made tiny wounds in. Then we stimulated one wound with an electric field, which clearly led to it healing three times as fast as the wound that healed without electric stimulation," ..."
In order to study exactly how this works for wounds, we developed a kind of biochip on which we cultured skin cells, which we then made tiny wounds in. Then we stimulated one wound with an electric field, which clearly led to it healing three times as fast as the wound that healed without electric stimulation," ..."
From the abstract:
"Upon cutaneous injury, the human body naturally forms an electric field (EF) that acts as a guidance cue for relevant cellular and tissue repair and reorganization. However, the direct current (DC) flow imparted by this EF can be impacted by a variety of diseases. This work delves into the impact of DC stimulation on both healthy and diabetic in vitro wound healing models of human keratinocytes, the most prevalent cell type of the skin. The culmination of non-metal electrode materials and prudent microfluidic design allowed us to create a compact bioelectronic platform to study the effects of different sustained (12 hours galvanostatic DC) EF configurations on wound closure dynamics. Specifically, we compared if electrotactically closing a wound's gap from one wound edge (i.e., uni-directional EF) is as effective as compared to alternatingly polarizing both the wound's edges (i.e., pseudo-converging EF) as both of these spatial stimulation strategies are fundamental to the eventual translational electrode design and strategy. We found that uni-directional electric guidance cues were superior in group keratinocyte healing dynamics by enhancing the wound closure rate nearly three-fold for both healthy and diabetic-like keratinocyte collectives, compared to their non-stimulated respective controls. The motility-inhibited and diabetic-like keratinocytes regained wound closure rates with uni-directional electrical stimulation (increase from 1.0 to 2.8% h−1) comparable to their healthy non-stimulated keratinocyte counterparts (3.5% h−1). Our results bring hope that electrical stimulation delivered in a controlled manner can be a viable pathway to accelerate wound repair, and also by providing a baseline for other researchers trying to find an optimal electrode blueprint for in vivo DC stimulation."
Bioelectronic microfluidic wound healing: a platform for investigating direct current stimulation of injured cell collectives (open access)
Fig. 1 Microfluidic design to allow different electric field (EF) distributions around the wound
Physicists discover that gravity can create light
Amazing stuff! It was published in the Physics of the Dark Universe of all journals! Science can be fun! 😊
If confirmed, this may be consequential! Caveat: I did not read the entire paper.
"... More details will be given in a follow-up paper. ..." And it is a sequel! Stay tuned!
The paper also contains curiosities like:
"... In passing, we shall mention that for a travelling gravitational wave in vacuum, the parametric resonance does not occur, even if the scalar field is massless. This is because the lightcones of the gravitational wave and the scalar field overlap with each other. Sitting on the wavefront of the scalar wave, one does not “feel” the oscillation induced by the gravitational wave. ..."
From the abstract (this abstract appears weird as it does not seem to really relate to the title of the paper):
"We study the parametric resonance excitation of the electromagnetic field by a gravitational wave. We show that there is narrow band resonance. For an electromagnetic field in the vacuum the resonance occurs only in the second band, and its strength is thus suppressed by two powers of amplitude of the gravitational wave. On the other hand, in the case of an electromagnetic field in a medium with the speed of light smaller than 1 (in natural units), there is a band of Fourier modes which undergo resonance in the first band."
Physicists Discover that Gravity Can Create Light (primary source) Researchers have discovered that in the exotic conditions of the early universe, waves of gravity may have shaken space-time so hard that they spontaneously created radiation.
Graviton to photon conversion via parametric resonance (open access)
Ancient DNA reveals the multiethnic structure of Mongolia's first nomadic empire, the Xiongnu
Amazing stuff! I was not aware or I forgot there was another huge Mongol empire before the well known Mongol empire of the 13-14th century.
"Long obscured in the shadows of history, the world's first nomadic empire—the Xiongnu—is at last coming into view thanks to painstaking archaeological excavations and new ancient DNA evidence. Arising on the Mongolian steppe 1,500 years before the Mongols, the Xiongnu empire grew to be one of Iron Age Asia's most powerful political forces—ultimately stretching its reach and influence from Egypt to Rome to Imperial China. ...
Economically grounded in animal husbandry and dairying, the Xiongnu were famously nomadic, building their empire on the backs of horses. Their proficiency at mounted warfare made them swift and formidable foes, and their legendary conflicts with Imperial China ultimately led to the construction of the Great Wall. ...
Although recent archaeogenetics studies have now traced the origins of the Xiongnu as a political entity to a sudden migration and mixing of disparate nomadic groups in northern Mongolia ca. 200 BCE ...
an international team of researchers ... conducted an in-depth genetic investigation of two imperial elite Xiongnu cemeteries along the western frontier of the empire: an aristocratic elite cemetery at Takhiltyn Khotgor and a local elite cemetery at Shombuuzyn Belchir. ...
Researchers found that individuals within the two cemeteries exhibited extremely high genetic diversity, to a degree comparable with that found across the Xiongnu Empire as a whole. In fact, high genetic diversity and heterogeneity was present at all levels—across the empire, within individual communities, and even within individual families—confirming the characterization of the Xiongnu Empire as a multiethnic empire. However, much of this diversity was stratified by status. ...
A second major finding was that high status Xiongnu burials and elite grave goods were disproportionately associated with women, corroborating textual and archaeological evidence that Xiongnu women played especially prominent political roles in the expansion and integration of new territories along the empire's frontier.
At the aristocratic elite cemetery of Takhiltyn Khotgor, researchers found that the elite monumental tombs had been built for women, with each prominent woman flanked by a host of commoner males buried in simple graves. The women were interred in elaborate coffins with the golden sun and moon emblems of Xiongnu imperial power and one tomb even contained a team of six horses and a partial chariot.
At the nearby local elite cemetery of Shombuuzyn Belchir, women likewise occupied the wealthiest and most elaborate graves, with grave goods consisting of wooden coffins, golden emblems and gilded objects, glass and faience beads, Chinese mirrors, a bronze cauldron, silk clothing, wooden carts, and more than a dozen livestock, as well as three objects conventionally associated with male horse-mounted warriors: a Chinese lacquer cup, a gilded iron belt clasp, and horse tack. Such objects and their symbolism convey the great political power of the women. ..."
Economically grounded in animal husbandry and dairying, the Xiongnu were famously nomadic, building their empire on the backs of horses. Their proficiency at mounted warfare made them swift and formidable foes, and their legendary conflicts with Imperial China ultimately led to the construction of the Great Wall. ...
Although recent archaeogenetics studies have now traced the origins of the Xiongnu as a political entity to a sudden migration and mixing of disparate nomadic groups in northern Mongolia ca. 200 BCE ...
an international team of researchers ... conducted an in-depth genetic investigation of two imperial elite Xiongnu cemeteries along the western frontier of the empire: an aristocratic elite cemetery at Takhiltyn Khotgor and a local elite cemetery at Shombuuzyn Belchir. ...
Researchers found that individuals within the two cemeteries exhibited extremely high genetic diversity, to a degree comparable with that found across the Xiongnu Empire as a whole. In fact, high genetic diversity and heterogeneity was present at all levels—across the empire, within individual communities, and even within individual families—confirming the characterization of the Xiongnu Empire as a multiethnic empire. However, much of this diversity was stratified by status. ...
A second major finding was that high status Xiongnu burials and elite grave goods were disproportionately associated with women, corroborating textual and archaeological evidence that Xiongnu women played especially prominent political roles in the expansion and integration of new territories along the empire's frontier.
At the aristocratic elite cemetery of Takhiltyn Khotgor, researchers found that the elite monumental tombs had been built for women, with each prominent woman flanked by a host of commoner males buried in simple graves. The women were interred in elaborate coffins with the golden sun and moon emblems of Xiongnu imperial power and one tomb even contained a team of six horses and a partial chariot.
At the nearby local elite cemetery of Shombuuzyn Belchir, women likewise occupied the wealthiest and most elaborate graves, with grave goods consisting of wooden coffins, golden emblems and gilded objects, glass and faience beads, Chinese mirrors, a bronze cauldron, silk clothing, wooden carts, and more than a dozen livestock, as well as three objects conventionally associated with male horse-mounted warriors: a Chinese lacquer cup, a gilded iron belt clasp, and horse tack. Such objects and their symbolism convey the great political power of the women. ..."
From the abstract:
"The Xiongnu established the first nomadic imperial power, controlling the Eastern Eurasian steppe from ca. 200 BCE to 100 CE. Recent archaeogenetic studies identified extreme levels of genetic diversity across the empire, corroborating historical records of the Xiongnu Empire being multiethnic. However, it has remained unknown how this diversity was structured at the local community level or by sociopolitical status. To address this, we investigated aristocratic and local elite cemeteries at the western frontier of the empire. Analyzing genome-wide data from 18 individuals, we show that genetic diversity within these communities was comparable to the empire as a whole, and that high diversity was also observed within extended families. Genetic heterogeneity was highest among the lowest-status individuals, implying diverse origins, while higher-status individuals harbored less genetic diversity, suggesting that elite status and power was concentrated within specific subsets of the broader Xiongnu population."
Genetic population structure of the Xiongnu Empire at imperial and local scales (open access)
Excavation of the Xiongnu Elite Tomb 64
Fig. 3. Genetic diversity of the Xiongnu
Dutch government cracks down on tobacco free nicotine products
What a surprise! What happened to the proverbial tolerance of the Dutch?
"The Dutch government on Friday said it would ban the sale of all types of nicotine pouches in the Netherlands, while widening the rules for tobacco to include all other types of tobacco-free nicotine products.
The government said the ban would make it easier to uphold the rules regarding nicotine pouches, which are currently only allowed if they contain less than 0.035 grammes of nicotine.
The new rules will also prohibit the use of nicotine pouches and other tobacco-free nicotine products in places where smoking is not allowed.
The government said it would also end all advertising for tobacco-free nicotine products ..."
Excavating Cuneiform Tablets in Iraq with the Girsu Project
Very recommendable!
Why are they called tablets? Most of them shown in this video are so tiny!
Before and after
The tiny tablet is also photographed from all sides!
Klimaalarm-Forscherin beim Fälschen ertappt
Sehr empfehlenswert! Die Ozeanversauerung ist wohl auch eine ideologische Verfälschung der Tatsachen sogar durch Wissenschaftler! Der berüchtigte hockey stick von Michael Mann blieb kein Einzelfall!
Nicht vergessen: Klimamodelle und deren Prognosen sind schrott!
Sunday, April 23, 2023
Meet The Plastic Eating Worms
Very recommendable! Why not upcycle plastics into vanilla! Do not believe the alarmism and hysteria about plastic! It has already been going on for decades! It is only a matter of very finite time that human ingenuity will handle the plastic related issues.
Are you a psychopath?
Recommendable! About 1-2% of all humans have attributes that characterize them as psychopaths! But few become dangerous!
Can the War in Ukraine Cause a Famine in Africa? You bet!
Very recommendable!
The breadbasket Ukraine produces food for over 400 million people around the world!
PETA rep tells Tucker Carlson NYC rats ‘aren't the problem’
You learn that rats are intelligent, clean animals that keep their dwelling free of trash unlike the citizens of New York City! That comment by this PETA representative was in part hilarious!
Untangling the Mystery of Sleep: Can we live without sleep? Possibly!
You may sleep because of your gut and not because of your brain!
Eat more proteins and you sleep better!
"... Sleep is one unified state, but it seems to have multiple components that are regulated through separate mechanisms ...
Sleep is a super old behavior that we think originated in the earliest animals. These animals had no brain; they only had a very simple nervous system. ...
We found that fruit flies who slept less had shorter lifespans: We saw a correlation where the more sleep the flies lost, the faster they died. Interestingly, the mode of sleep deprivation did not matter. What mattered was the amount of sleep lost. ...
We found that in the gut, there was an increase in oxidizing molecules, and the peak of oxidation correlated with the inflection point where the flies started to die. We confirmed this finding in sleep-deprived mice. But when we gave sleep-deprived flies antioxidants or turned on antioxidant-producing genes in the gut, we found the flies could survive on little or no sleep, suggesting that the gut is a really important target of sleep. ...
However, while CCHa1 is present in both the nervous system and the gut, it was only when we depleted it in the gut that flies were roused more easily. ...
Finally, we showed that a higher protein diet also improved the quality of sleep in mice, making them more resistant to mechanical disturbances. ..."
Sleep is a super old behavior that we think originated in the earliest animals. These animals had no brain; they only had a very simple nervous system. ...
We found that fruit flies who slept less had shorter lifespans: We saw a correlation where the more sleep the flies lost, the faster they died. Interestingly, the mode of sleep deprivation did not matter. What mattered was the amount of sleep lost. ...
We found that in the gut, there was an increase in oxidizing molecules, and the peak of oxidation correlated with the inflection point where the flies started to die. We confirmed this finding in sleep-deprived mice. But when we gave sleep-deprived flies antioxidants or turned on antioxidant-producing genes in the gut, we found the flies could survive on little or no sleep, suggesting that the gut is a really important target of sleep. ...
However, while CCHa1 is present in both the nervous system and the gut, it was only when we depleted it in the gut that flies were roused more easily. ...
Finally, we showed that a higher protein diet also improved the quality of sleep in mice, making them more resistant to mechanical disturbances. ..."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• Enrichment of dietary proteins can make flies and mice less arousable from sleep
• Dietary proteins activate cells in the fly gut to secrete the peptide CCHa1
• CCHa1 signals to brain dopamine neurons to modulate sensory responsiveness
• Different sensory modalities can be gated by independent mechanisms during sleep
Summary
Suppressing sensory arousal is critical for sleep, with deeper sleep requiring stronger sensory suppression. The mechanisms that enable sleeping animals to largely ignore their surroundings are not well understood. We show that the responsiveness of sleeping flies and mice to mechanical vibrations is better suppressed when the diet is protein rich. In flies, we describe a signaling pathway through which information about ingested proteins is conveyed from the gut to the brain to help suppress arousability. Higher protein concentration in the gut leads to increased activity of enteroendocrine cells that release the peptide CCHa1. CCHa1 signals to a small group of dopamine neurons in the brain to modulate their activity; the dopaminergic activity regulates the behavioral responsiveness of animals to vibrations. The CCHa1 pathway and dietary proteins do not influence responsiveness to all sensory inputs, showing that during sleep, different information streams can be gated through independent mechanisms."
A gut-secreted peptide suppresses arousability from sleep (no public access)
Graphical abstract
Several studies by TracerX reveal cancer’s ‘infinite’ ability to evolve
Recommendable! Cancer is a mighty foe, but human ingenuity will make sure that cancer is history (soon)!
The following BBC article is way too pessimistic! BBC interviewed the wrong professor! When it comes to cancer you do not interview worry warts or defeatists! It may take only one serendipitous discovery and cancer is history!
Lessons learnt (again):
- Screen early for cancer to catch a cancer at the earliest possible
- Continue to screen frequently after cancer treatment
"Cancer Research UK said early detection of cancer was vitally important.
The study - entitled TracerX - provides the most in-depth analysis of how cancers evolve and what causes them to spread. ...
The research showed:
Highly aggressive cells in the initial tumour are the ones that ultimately end up spreading around the body
Tumours showing higher levels of genetic "chaos" were more likely to relapse after surgery to other parts of the body
Analysing blood for fragments of tumour DNA meant signs of it returning could be spotted up to 200 days before appearing on a CT scan
The cellular machinery that reads the instructions in our DNA can become corrupted in cancerous cells making them more aggressive. ..."From the abstract:
"Metastatic disease is responsible for the majority of cancer-related deaths. We report the longitudinal evolutionary analysis of 126 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumours from 421 prospectively recruited patients in TRACERx who developed metastatic disease, compared with a control cohort of 144 non-metastatic tumours. In 25% of cases, metastases diverged early, before the last clonal sweep in the primary tumour, and early divergence was enriched for patients who were smokers at the time of initial diagnosis. Simulations suggested that early metastatic divergence more frequently occurred at smaller tumour diameters (less than 8 mm). Single-region primary tumour sampling resulted in 83% of late divergence cases being misclassified as early, highlighting the importance of extensive primary tumour sampling. Polyclonal dissemination, which was associated with extrathoracic disease recurrence, was found in 32% of cases. Primary lymph node disease contributed to metastatic relapse in less than 20% of cases, representing a hallmark of metastatic potential rather than a route to subsequent recurrences/disease progression. Metastasis-seeding subclones exhibited subclonal expansions within primary tumours, probably reflecting positive selection. Our findings highlight the importance of selection in metastatic clone evolution within untreated primary tumours, the distinction between monoclonal versus polyclonal seeding in dictating site of recurrence, the limitations of current radiological screening approaches for early diverging tumours and the need to develop strategies to target metastasis-seeding subclones before relapse."
Fig. 1: Sample distribution and mutational overview in the paired primary metastasis TRACERx 421 cohort
Fig. 2: Timing metastatic divergence
Gene-Editing An Ancient Crop To Help Feed The World
Good news! Hunger be damned! Food for all!
"Cowpea is a staple in sub-Saharan Africa, where it has always been picked by hand. The stalks don’t naturally stand upright, making it impossible to harvest by machine.
Until now. The agri-tech company BetterSeeds has re-coded the plant’s genetic makeup, so it’s suitable for mechanized harvesting, and can help address the world’s food security concerns."
"... The first Cowpea plant made suitable for mechanized harvesting is being developed by BetterSeeds, an Agri-Tech company that genetically enhances agricultural crops by using its proprietary genome editing technology. BetterSeeds is set to plant their enhanced Cowpea seeds in the United States in the Spring of 2023, in order to test its potential for mass scale cultivation. ...
Cowpea, also called Lubia or black-eyed peas, is the most ancient crop known to have been farmed by man. Due to its high protein content, heat tolerance and highly efficient water and fertilizer consumption ..."
Cowpea, also called Lubia or black-eyed peas, is the most ancient crop known to have been farmed by man. Due to its high protein content, heat tolerance and highly efficient water and fertilizer consumption ..."
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/first-successful-gene-editing-cowpea-140000658.html
Cowpea pods and beans.
Upending a decades-long theory of reverse osmosis water desalination
Good news! Desalination is salvation!
Scientists are all too human! They fail like everyone else!
"... Now a team of researchers reveal in a new study that the standard explanation for how reverse osmosis works — one that has been accepted for more than five decades — is fundamentally wrong. In the process, the researchers offer an alternate theory. Besides correcting the record, these insights could lead to more effective uses of reverse osmosis. ..."
From the abstract:
"We performed nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations and solvent permeation experiments to unravel the mechanism of water transport in reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. The NEMD simulations reveal that water transport is driven by a pressure gradient within the membranes, not by a water concentration gradient, in marked contrast to the classic solution-diffusion model. We further show that water molecules travel as clusters through a network of pores that are transiently connected. Permeation experiments with water and organic solvents using polyamide and cellulose triacetate RO membranes showed that solvent permeance depends on the membrane pore size, kinetic diameter of solvent molecules, and solvent viscosity. This observation is not consistent with the solution-diffusion model, where permeance depends on the solvent solubility. Motivated by these observations, we demonstrate that the solution-friction model, in which transport is driven by a pressure gradient, can describe water and solvent transport in RO membranes."
Water transport in reverse osmosis membranes is governed by pore flow, not a solution-diffusion mechanism (open access)
Fig. 1. MD simulation of water transport through a polyamide membrane
Methane may not warm the Earth quite as much as previously thought
Good news! More confirmation that climate models are junk! Unfortunately, this latest research is also based on model simulations!
The renewable energy/global warming/climate change is the greatest scam perpetrated on humanity of our time. It’s big business and big government!
"It heats Earth’s atmosphere 28 times as potently as carbon dioxide, gram for gram. But its absorption of the sun’s radiation high in the atmosphere also alters cloud patterns — casting a bit of shadow on its warming effect. ...
methane’s solar absorption sets off a cascade of events that reduces its overall warming effect by about 30 percent ..."
methane’s solar absorption sets off a cascade of events that reduces its overall warming effect by about 30 percent ..."
From the abstract:
"Although greenhouse gases absorb primarily long-wave radiation, they also absorb short-wave radiation. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of methane short-wave absorption, which enhances its stratospherically adjusted radiative forcing by up to ~ 15%. The corresponding climate impacts, however, have been only indirectly evaluated and thus remain largely unquantified. Here we present a systematic, unambiguous analysis using one model and separate simulations with and without methane short-wave absorption. We find that methane short-wave absorption counteracts ~30% of the surface warming associated with its long-wave radiative effects. An even larger impact occurs for precipitation as methane short-wave absorption offsets ~60% of the precipitation increase relative to its long-wave radiative effects. The methane short-wave-induced cooling is due largely to cloud rapid adjustments, including increased low-level clouds, which enhance the reflection of incoming short-wave radiation, and decreased high-level clouds, which enhance outgoing long-wave radiation. The cloud responses, in turn, are related to the profile of atmospheric solar heating and corresponding changes in temperature and relative humidity. Despite our findings, methane remains a potent contributor to global warming, and efforts to reduce methane emissions are vital for keeping global warming well below 2 °C above preindustrial values [what a nonsense!]."
Surface warming and wetting due to methane’s long-wave radiative effects muted by short-wave absorption (open access)
Look at the scale parts per billion!!! This is cheap alarmism and hysteria! Remember, the life essential trace gas CO2 is measured in parts per million!
Global monthly average of atmospheric methane, 1983–2021
Extended Data Fig. 1: Global maps of the total near-surface air temperature response to methane perturbations
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