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Archive for the 'News You Can Use.' Category

Illegal Immigrant Accused of Shooting Jewish Man Near Chicago Synagogue Found Dead in Cell After Apparent Suicide

3rd December 2024

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How convenient.

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Chinese Researchers Indicate Diamonds Can Store Data for Millions of Years

1st December 2024

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he work carried out by a team at the University of Science and Technology of China achieved a new record for storage density in diamonds, at 1.85 terabytes per cubic centimeter.

As impressive as the storage capacity is, the researchers believe this can be eclipsed by the staying power. It has been claimed the diamond system can hold data for millions of years, due to the technique used to encode information within the atomic structure of the diamond.

As published in Nature Photonics, the scientific breakthrough extends beyond the significant density capacity with marked improvement in read times. The team indicated high-speed readout showed a fidelity of over 99%

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Haitian Immigrants ‘Self-Deporting’ Ahead of Trump Inauguration

1st December 2024

The Foundry.

According to both CBS News and The Guardian, thousands of Haitian immigrants in the city of Springfield, Ohio, are rushing to Chicago, New York City, and other “sanctuary” locations before Trump is sworn into office and initiates his pledged mass deportation program.

Springfield, a city of less than 60,000, has been crippled ever since the outgoing Biden-Harris administration imported roughly 20,000 Haitian immigrants into the municipality starting in 2021. The city has seen a drastic rise in housing costs and traffic accidents and has been forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to accommodate the immigrants, who were granted “temporary protected status” by the Biden-Harris administration.

Many Haitians in Springfield have taken Trump’s promise of mass deportations—to be enacted by his new “border czar,” former Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director and immigration hardliner Tom Homan—seriously. Trump has vowed to terminate the temporary protected status granted to the Haitians, causing many to leave the Ohio city that Trump mentioned during a presidential debate. Popular destinations for the immigrants include Chicago, New York City, Boston, Canada, and even Brazil, where many Haitian migrants had previously been granted temporary asylum before illegally entering the U.S.

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Alzheimer’s May Not Be a ‘Brain Disease’

1st December 2024

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The battle against Alzheimer’s has recently taken a controversial turn. Long-held theories about its cause are being challenged, sparking heated debates.

Now, emerging research points to the possibility that Alzheimer’s is actually an immune system disorder.

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‘Dark Genes’ Hiding Unseen in Human DNA Have Just Been Revealed

30th November 2024

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Our records of the human genome may still be missing tens of thousands of ‘dark’ genes. These hard-to-detect sequences of genetic material can code for tiny proteins, some involved in disease processes like cancer and immunology, a global consortium of researchers has confirmed.

They may explain why past estimates of our genome’s size were way larger than what the Human Genome Project discovered 20 years ago.

The new international study, still awaiting peer review, shows our library of human genes very much continues to be a work in progress, as more subtle genetic features are picked up with advances in technology, and as continued exploration uncovers gaps and errors in the record.

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Chinese Pebble-Bed Reactor Passes “Meltdown” Test

30th November 2024

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New testing done at China’s Shidaowan nuclear power plant has confirmed its ability to be naturally cooled down, an industry-first milestone for achieving commercial-scale inherent safety, according to researchers.

The Shidaowan plant, a demonstration high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor with a pebble-bed module (HTR-PM), went into commercial operation last December.

Shidaowan’s twin 100-MW units house tiny uranium capsules encased in graphite shells about the size of billiard balls (dubbed “pebbles”), which make the energy density of the fuel much lower than in a traditional nuclear reactor with fuel rods. In the pebble design, the nuclear fission reaction occurs more slowly than in conventional reactors, but the fuel can withstand higher temperatures for longer and the heat resulting from the fission reaction is dispersed, enabling a passive cooling process.

The reactor doesn’t rely on large volumes of water in the cooling process—instead, a small amount of helium gas, which can withstand much higher temperatures than water, is piped through the system to naturally cool it down. If the reactor starts to get too hot, its components automatically slow down the nuclear reaction and the system cools. This setup makes such a reactor “meltdown proof,” in concept.

 

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Navy Ship Menus From Thanksgivings Past

28th November 2024

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My wife and I recently had occasion to watch the film The Sand Pebbles, and I was pointing out to her various aspects of how what sailors did Back Then compared to when I was in the Navy.

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Trump Draws the Map to 2028

27th November 2024

Newsbusters.

As they carve their turkeys this year, Republicans can be grateful for Donald Trump, mapmaker.

He’s redrawn America’s political geography — not only winning back the White House for himself but pointing the way to victory for his party four years from now.

Before Trump, the major industrial states touching the Great Lakes were out of Republicans’ reach.

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Inside Your Body, Aging Unfolds at Remarkably Different Rates

26th November 2024

Washington Poop.

The research suggests aging isn’t strictly temporal, not solely about minutes and years passing. Once considered a steady, predictable decline, affecting everything in our bodies, everywhere, all at once, aging is much more haphazard than we once thought, starting in different parts of our bodies at different times, possibly long before we’re even thinking about aging.

It’s also personal, occurring at a unique molecular level inside each of us, and the process may be partially within our control. Once we know how our own organs are aging, we may be able to brake or speed that process by how we live.

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Rural Counties in California, Illinois Push to Secede From Blue States to Separate From Liberal-Run Cities After Trump’s Win: ‘So Flipping Excited’

26th November 2024

New York Post.

A movement in a myriad of rural counties across deep blue states such as Illinois and California to split off and form new states appears to be gaining some steam in the wake of the Nov. 5 election.

Conservative residents of the rural regions are taking note of their peers fleeing to lower-taxed and less-regulated red states but they are ready to stay put — pining for a divorce with the urban sectors of their state.

A group dubbed the New Illinois State has drafted a new constitution and championed plans to “Leave Illinois Without Moving.” On Election Day, seven rural counties in Illinois voted to contemplate splitting off from the state.

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NASA: Mystery of Life’s Handedness Deepens

24th November 2024

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The mystery of why life uses molecules with specific orientations has deepened with a NASA-funded discovery that RNA — a key molecule thought to have potentially held the instructions for life before DNA emerged — can favor making the building blocks of proteins in either the left-hand or the right-hand orientation. Resolving this mystery could provide clues to the origin of life. The findings appear in research recently published in Nature Communications.

Proteins are the workhorse molecules of life, used in everything from structures like hair to enzymes (catalysts that speed up or regulate chemical reactions). Just as the 26 letters of the alphabet are arranged in limitless combinations to make words, life uses 20 different amino acid building blocks in a huge variety of arrangements to make millions of different proteins. Some amino acid molecules can be built in two ways, such that mirror-image versions exist, like your hands, and life uses the left-handed variety of these amino acids. Although life based on right-handed amino acids would presumably work fine, the two mirror images are rarely mixed in biology, a characteristic of life called homochirality. It is a mystery to scientists why life chose the left-handed variety over the right-handed one.

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Farming Robot Kills 200,000 Weeds Per Hour With Lasers

24th November 2024

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The agricultural world is witnessing a remarkable transformation, driven by groundbreaking technology. Among the most fascinating innovations is a farming robot equipped with lasers that can destroy hundreds of thousands of weeds in mere hours. This high-tech solution is not just a marvel of engineering but a timely response to persistent challenges in farming, from labor shortages to the environmental impact of chemical herbicides.

By combining artificial intelligence with precision laser technology, companies like Carbon Robotics are reshaping the way farmers tackle one of agriculture’s most labor-intensive tasks. These futuristic machines offer a glimpse into the potential of sustainable farming, where innovation meets efficiency, paving the way for a healthier and more productive future for agriculture.

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Trump’s Republican Party Is Increasingly Winning Union Voters. It’s a Shift Seen in His Labor Pick

24th November 2024

Associated Press.

Working-class voters helped Republicans make steady election gains this year and expanded a coalition that increasingly includes rank-and-file union members, a political shift spotlighting one of President-elect Donald Trump’s latest Cabinet picks: a GOP congresswoman, who has drawn labor support, to be his labor secretary.

Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her bid for a second term this month, despite strong backing from union members, a key part of the Democratic base but gravitating in the Trump era toward a Republican Party traditionally allied with business interests.

“Lori’s strong support from both the Business and Labor communities will ensure that the Labor Department can unite Americans of all backgrounds behind our Agenda for unprecedented National Success – Making America Richer, Wealthier, Stronger and more Prosperous than ever before!” Trump said in a statement announcing his choice Friday night.

UPDATE: Trump’s GOP Making Huge Gains With Union Voters

 

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A Camera the Size of a Grain of Salt Could Change Imaging as We Know It

23rd November 2024

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Or don’t, as the case may be….

When it comes to cameras, size matters, but not in the way you think.

Any time a new smartphone is released, it is easy to drool over the latest, greatest, and biggest features that allow you to take even more stunning selfies composed of even more megapixels. However, in the world of cameras, smaller cameras could end up having a far greater impact on the world at large—and enable a ton of positive applications in society—than the next iPhone camera. Work from researchers at Princeton University and the University of Washington is pointing the way.

A team of researchers from both institutions has published work that uses innovative methods and materials to create a “meta-optics” camera that is the size of a single grain of salt.

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‘Achilles Heel’ of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Discovered in Life-Saving Breakthrough

20th November 2024

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n the ongoing battle against antibiotic-resistant “superbugs,” researchers have uncovered an unexpected vulnerability that could change how we fight these deadly infections – and it all comes down to a microscopic competition for resources.

The discovery comes at a crucial time. Current estimates paint a grim picture: drug-resistant infections already claim over one million lives annually, with deaths projected to nearly double to two million per year by 2050.

However, a team led by researchers at the University of California-San Diego may have found a new way to tackle this crisis without relying on traditional antibiotics. Their research, published in Science Advances, reveals that antibiotic-resistant bacteria have an inherent weakness – one that might explain why these seemingly unstoppable superbugs haven’t completely taken over.

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20 Things You Didn’t Know About Google Scholar

20th November 2024

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(1) There is such a thing.

Google Scholar, a tool used by researchers around the world, was founded by two researchers. We started Scholar in 2004, physically delivering hard drives to the office (see fact number 2), and two decades later adding new AI features (see fact number 6). To celebrate 20 years of Google Scholar, here are 20 fun facts about its origins, how you can use it and what’s new.

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Ga. Appeals Court Cancels Hearing in Case Against Trump

19th November 2024

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A Georgia appeals court on Monday canceled oral arguments that were scheduled for next month on the appeal of a lower court ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the election interference case she brought against President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump and other defendants had asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to hold oral arguments in the case, and the court had set those arguments for Dec. 5. But in a one-line order with no further explanation, the appeals court said that hearing “is hereby canceled until further order of this Court.”

A Fulton County grand jury in August 2023 indicted Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a sprawling scheme to illegally try to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Four defendants have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors, but Trump and the others have pleaded not guilty.

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Egg Consumption and 4-Year Change in Cognitive Function in Older Men and Women: The Rancho Bernardo Study

19th November 2024

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The effect of dietary cholesterol on cognitive function is debatable. While eggs contain high levels of dietary cholesterol, they provide nutrients beneficial for cognitive function. This study examined the effects of egg consumption on change in cognitive function among 890 ambulatory adults (N = 357 men; N = 533 women) aged ?55 years from the Rancho Bernardo Study who attended clinic visits in 1988–1991 and 1992–1996. Egg intake was obtained in 1988–1991 with a food frequency questionnaire. The Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE), Trails B, and category fluency were administered at both visits to assess cognitive performance. Sex-specific multiple regression analyses tested associations of egg intake with changes in cognitive function after adjustment for confounders. The mean time between visits was 4.1 ± 0.5 years; average ages were 70.1 ± 8.4 in men and 71.5 ± 8.8 in women (p = 0.0163). More men consumed eggs at higher levels than women; while 14% of men and 16.5% of women reported never eating eggs, 7.0% of men and 3.8% of women reported intakes ?5/week (p = 0.0013). In women, after adjustment for covariates, egg consumption was associated with less decline in category fluency (beta = ?0.10, p = 0.0241). Other associations were nonsignificant in women, and no associations were found in men. Results suggest that egg consumption has a small beneficial effect on semantic memory in women. The lack of decline observed in both sexes suggests that egg consumption does not have detrimental effects and may even have a role in the maintenance of cognitive function.

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Eco-Activists May Have Inadvertently Gutted One of Their Favorite Regulatory Systems

17th November 2024

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Eco-activists sued the federal government to stop activity they didn’t like, but a bombshell Tuesday ruling in that case from a federal appeals court may end up weakening a regulatory system that has served environmentalists well for years.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in Marin Audubon Society v. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) does not have the legal authority to issue National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules.

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Trump Team Plans To Axe Biden’s EV Tax Credit: Report

14th November 2024

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President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is preparing to eliminate the Biden administration’s $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit as part of its broader tax reform plan, Reuters reported Thursday.

Trump’s energy-policy team, led by oil magnate Harold Hamm and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R.), has held several meetings to discuss repealing the EV subsidy, a cornerstone of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, sources told Reuters.

Trump plans to use savings from ending the tax credit to help fund the extension of his 2017 tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of 2025, Reuters reported. With the GOP retaining control of the House, congressional Republicans plan to make broader tax reform a top priority.

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Trump Completes Trifecta: Republicans Keep Control of US House

13th November 2024

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Standing Desks May Be Bad for Your Health, New Research Finds

13th November 2024

CNN.

The science is settled … until it’s not.

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Bonus Thought for the Day: Geometriphylogenetics

12th November 2024

There's a maximum likelihood that I'm doing phylogenetics wrong.

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Stanford Scientists Overturn Mendel’s Law With Shocking Cancer Discovery

12th November 2024

SciTechDaily.

A trio of research papers from Stanford Medicine researchers and their international collaborators transforms scientists’ understanding of how small DNA circles — until recently dismissed as inconsequential — are major drivers of many types of human cancers.

The papers, published simultaneously in Nature on Nov. 6, detail the prevalence and prognostic impact of the circles, called ecDNA for extrachromosomal DNA, in nearly 15,000 human cancers; highlight a novel mode of inheritance that overthrows a fundamental law of genetics; and describe an anti-cancer therapy targeting the circles that is already in clinical trials.

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Democrats! In a Hurry to Leave the U.S.? Here Are 3 Countries You Can Move to Today

11th November 2024

Forbes.

Moving abroad normally involves months of preparation, but many Americans feel a sense of urgency to leave the U.S. quickly. Here are 3 countries where you can launch a new life starting today.

UPDATE: Record numbers of wealthy Americans are making plans to leave the U.S. after the election (CNBC)

UPDATE: Californians reportedly preparing to flee country pending election results (New York Post)

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Police Freak Out at iPhones Mysteriously Rebooting Themselves, Locking Cops Out

10th November 2024

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Law enforcement believe the activity, which makes it harder to then unlock the phones, may be due to a potential update in iOS 18 which tells nearby iPhones to reboot if they have not been in contact with a cellular network for some time, according to a document obtained by 404 Media.

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More Than Half of Harris Voters Want to Relocate Following Trump Win: Survey

10th November 2024

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Don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.

More than 50% of voters for Vice President Kamala Harris say they want to move following Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, according to a survey commissioned by StorageUnits.com.

Storage Units surveyed 1,837 Harris voters on Nov. 6 to determine how many would like to relocate – and who actually plans to – and the top concerns of those who voted against Trump.

Of those surveyed, 44% would like to move, but probably won’t, while 5% said they will definitely move and another 5% said they probably will. Those who would like to move, but probably won’t, cited personal finances, family and community ties as reasons they will stay in place.

Of the 10% planning to move or seriously considering it, 90% are looking into moving to another country, with the top choices being Canada, the United Kingdom and Mexico. California, New York and Colorado were the top three choices for those considering moving to another state.

Yes, please move somewhere that your vote will no longer affect the Presidential election.

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Trump Wins Arizona to Sweep Swing States and Secure 312 Total Electoral Votes

10th November 2024

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Not quite a blowout, but certainly a strong victory.

President Biden won the state of Arizona by less than one-half of 1% in the 2020 election and the results in the key area of Maricopa County were also slim, with Biden beating Trump by 2%.

Before Biden won Arizona in 2020, Republicans had carried the state every year since 1996.

The 2020 election is smelling more and more rotten.

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Judge: N.Y. Can’t Use ‘Antiquated, Unconstitutional’ Law to Block Migrant Buses From Texas

9th November 2024

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New York City can’t use an unconstitutional, two-century-old “anti-pauper” law to block the state of Texas from offering migrants free bus rides to the city from the southern border, a state judge has ruled.

The court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by Mayor Eric Adams in January against charter bus companies contracted by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. It sought to bar them from knowingly dropping off “needy persons,” citing an 1817 state law that criminalized bringing an indigent person into the state “for the purpose of making him a public charge.”

Justice Mary Rosado said in a sternly worded decision that the law is unconstitutional for several reasons.

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Soft-on-Crime Policies and Politicians Get Smoked by Voters in Blue California

9th November 2024

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The sleepers wake.

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Mich. Jury Awards Millions to a Woman Fired for Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine

9th November 2024

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A jury awarded more than $12 million Friday to a woman who lost her job at a Michigan insurance company after declining to get a COVID-19 vaccination.

Much of the award — $10 million — is for punitive damages against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, according to the verdict form.

Lisa Domski, who worked at Blue Cross for more than 30 years, said she was a victim of religious discrimination. The company in 2021 did not grant an exemption from its vaccine policy, despite her insistence that it clashed with her Catholic beliefs.

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Female Athletes Who Challenged Connecticut Trans Policy Score Win for Women’s Sports

8th November 2024

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A federal court upheld four female high school track athletes’ challenge to a Connecticut policy allowing male participation in female sports.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert N. Chatigny, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, ruled in favor of allowing the athletes’ case against the Connecticut Association of Schools to proceed, rejecting the request of state officials to dismiss it.

The athletes—Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, Chelsea Mitchell, and Ashley Nicoletti—all say they lost races to male athletes identifying as female. The women argue allowing biological males to compete in girls sports is unfair and violates federal Title IX, which protects female school sports by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex.

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Amish Turn Out for Pennsylvania Vote in ‘Unprecedented Numbers’: Source

8th November 2024

New York Post.

The state’s famed “Pennsylvania Dutch” registered to vote in “unprecedented numbers” in response to a January federal raid on a local raw milk farm in Bird in Hand, Pa., a source familiar with the situation told The Post.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture stormed Amos Miller’s farm Jan. 4 after reports of illnesses in children linked to raw dairy products purchased there, according to the local media outlet Lancaster Farming.

The Amish community saw the move as an overzealous reach by the government and was planning to vote for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose party favors less government intervention.

“That was the impetus for them to say, ‘We need to participate,’ ” the source said of local Amish voters. “This is about neighbors helping neighbors.”

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Failed Veep Candidate Tim Walz Couldn’t Even Beat Trump in His Home County in Telling Final Blow

8th November 2024

New York Post.

President-elect Trump’s overwhelmingly win saw him net 49.6% of the vote in Minnesota’s Blue Earth County, where Walz’s family lived for 20 years before he was elected governor.

Walz’s running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, fell short with about 48.3% of the vote.

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Putin Says He’s ‘Ready’ to Pick Up If ‘Manly’ Trump Calls Him

8th November 2024

Politico, a Voice of the Crust.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Donald Trump on his U.S. election victory, praising the Republican’s “manly” response to an attempted assassination — and saying he’s “ready” to speak with him.

“I take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election as president of the United States of America,” Putin said on Thursday at the annual meeting of the Valdai Club in Sochi, breaking his silence after initially choosing conspicuously to not send his well-wishes.

Putin confirmed he had yet to talk with Trump in the wake of his victory — but indicated that he’d pick up the phone if the U.S. president-elect called.

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What Trump’s Election Could Mean for the War in Ukraine

8th November 2024

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Over the course of his presidency, Joe Biden vowed to back Ukraine for as long as it took to defeat Russia. So far, his administration has doled out over $61 billion in military aid to Kyiv, with scores of packages including advanced air defense systems and munitions, millions of artillery shells, hundreds of armored vehicles, and much more. President-elect Donald J. Trump has vowed a very different approach to how the U.S. will deal with the nearly three-year-old all-out war, raising concerns that he could abandon Ukraine.

On the campaign trail, Trump lambasted his predecessor’s approach, chiding Biden for providing arms free of charge. Above all else, Trump repeatedly touted his ability to quickly end the conflict, even if it means Ukraine conceding much of the nearly 20 percent of its territory Russia has captured going back to the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Moreover, Vice President-elect JD Vance has repeatedly expressed his disdain for the open-ended support to Ukraine, saying it should be greatly dialed back.

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Trump Has Sweeping Plans for His 2nd Administration: Here’s What He Has Proposed

7th November 2024

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Projected President-elect Donald Trump has made a number of sweeping proposals for a second term in office, outlining a wide-ranging agenda that targets federal regulations, taxes, immigration, and social issues.

I suppose Payback looms large in the agenda. It certainly would for me.

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Mitochondrial Imbalance Linked to 90 Percent of Chronic Diseases

7th November 2024

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Mitochondria are often called the power generators of human cells. They convert nutrients such as glucose and fatty acids that we obtain from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the primary energy source in our cells during metabolism.

At the same time, mitochondria are the core of human immunity, too. Healthy mitochondria effectively regulate immune responses, while mitochondrial dysfunction can damage immune cells, resulting in many chronic diseases and impaired cellular differentiation.

Chen argues that seemingly diverse conditions—including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, allergies, autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, and even various mental illnesses—can be understood through a “unified theory” of mitochondrial imbalance. This means that almost every disease can be traced to mitochondrial imbalance. In other words, in mitochondrial imbalance, there is invariably something wrong with the body’s basic metabolism. This perspective suggests that approximately 90 percent of chronic diseases stem from problems with mitochondrial metabolism.

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Rogue Prosecutor George Gascon Loses Reelection as LA County District Attorney

6th November 2024

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In perhaps the least surprising outcome of this election cycle, incumbent Democrat George Gascon got a shellacking Tuesday from his opponent, independent Nathan Hochman, in the race for Los Angeles County district attorney, losing by 62% to 38%.

The writing was on the wall for Gascon, as LA voters not only twice unsuccessfully tried to recall him but 74% of primary voters also voted for candidates other than Gascon in April.

It turns out that voters do indeed want a safe county, unburdened by violent crime. Voters correctly blamed Gascon for the tsunami of crime he unleashed through his pro-criminal policies.

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Americans Might Kick Soft-on-Crime Prosecutors to Curb on Election Day

5th November 2024

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Several left-wing district attorneys could find themselves out of a job after Tuesday’s election as voters voice their frustration with an explosion in crime ripping through their communities, including three California jurisdictions.

With many progressive prosecutors on the ballot this election, polling and fundraising data shows that voters are rejecting soft-on-crime policies across the nation with their ballots and wallets, according to multiple reports.

Crime remains one of the most important issues, with 75% of voters saying crime is very or somewhat important to their decision in the 2024 election, according to a Gallup poll released Oct. 9.

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Scientists Glue Two Proteins Together, Driving Cancer Cells to Self-Destruct

4th November 2024

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Stanford researchers hope new technique will flip lymphoma protein’s normal action — from preventing cell death to triggering it.

 

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UCLA Chemists Shatter 100-Year-Old Chemistry Rule – Textbooks Need a Rewrite

4th November 2024

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I guess the science really isn’t settled after all.

UCLA chemists have discovered a major flaw in a fundamental rule of organic chemistry that has held for 100 years. They say it’s time to rewrite the textbooks.

Organic molecules, which are primarily made of carbon, have specific shapes and arrangements of atoms. Molecules called olefins contain double bonds, or alkenes, between two carbon atoms. Typically, these atoms and their attached groups lie in the same 3D plane, and deviations from this structure are rare.

The rule being questioned, known as Bredt’s rule, was established in 1924. It asserts that molecules cannot have a double bond at the “bridgehead” position—the junction of a bridged bicyclic molecule—because this position would distort the geometry of the double bond. Bredt’s rule has constrained the design of synthetic molecules by preventing chemists from creating certain structures. Since olefins play a critical role in pharmaceutical research, Bredt’s rule has limited the types of molecules that scientists could envision, potentially holding back innovations in drug discovery.

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Top 10 Discoveries About Ancient People From DNA in 2023

4th November 2024

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Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

If you’re eagerly following discoveries from genetics, this year might have seemed a bit more sedated than last year. After all, 2022 saw a Nobel Prize awarded for innovation in ancient DNA, researchers uncovered a Neandertal family from mere bone fragments, and a team carried out a major study of ancient genomes from eastern Africa.

This year saw a lot of research consolidation, with continued progress along well-established lines. This year saw many research studies that are in this category of “filling in the map” of ancient DNA, especially within the last 3000 years. These included ancient DNA genotyping from Scandinavia, Tibet, the east coast of Africa, northwest Africa, the Aegean, and many more. In a preprint released this year, Swapan Mallick and collaborators have described the Allen Ancient DNA Resource, a database that now includes more than 10,000 individuals.

Building out the database of ancient DNA is undeniably valuable. But even more fascinating are the discoveries that allow us to look at biology, social dynamics, and evolution in new ways.

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Refugees of California Leftism Could Deliver Nevada to Trump

1st November 2024

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If swing-state Nevada goes for Donald Trump in 2024, a decisive role may be played by a critical but widely under-examined constituency: ex-Californians who fled spiraling West Coast leftism and are now nudging Nevada rightward, Politico reports.

Early voting data from Nevada has already sent Republican hopes of securing the state’s six electoral votes soaring. Through Thursday — the penultimate day of early voting — the number of registered Republicans who’ve cast a ballot exceeds the Democrats’ tally by 47,300, or 5.1 percent. That’s a complete turning of the tables, as it’s usually Democrats who’ve banked a majority of the votes before Election Day. The GOP has built that lead not through the mail, but by a level of Republican in-person turnout that veteran Nevada political reporter and full-on leftist Jon Ralston has called “startling.”

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What happened to the Soviet Nuclear Arctic Land Train?

31st October 2024

Watch it.

Inquiring minds want to know. Maybe.

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Nuclear Fusion’s New Idea: An Off-the-Shelf Stellarator

31st October 2024

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FOR A MACHINE THAT’S designed to replicate a star, the world’s newest stellarator is a surprisingly humble-looking apparatus. The kitchen-table-size contraption sits atop stacks of bricks in a cinder-block room at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in Princeton, N.J., its parts hand-labeled in marker.

The PPPL team invented this nuclear-fusion reactor, completed last year, using mainly off-the-shelf components. Its core is a glass vacuum chamber surrounded by a 3D-printed nylon shell that anchors 9,920 meticulously placed permanent rare-earth magnets. Sixteen copper-coil electromagnets resembling giant slices of pineapple wrap around the shell crosswise.

The arrangement of magnets forms the defining feature of a stellarator: an entirely external magnetic field that directs charged particles along a spiral path to confine a superheated plasma. Within this enigmatic fourth state of matter, atoms that have been stripped of their electrons collide, their nuclei fusing and releasing energy in the same process that powers the sun and other stars. Researchers hope to capture this energy and use it to produce clean, zero-carbon electricity.

 

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Israeli Strikes Knocked Out All Of Iran’s S-300 Air Defense Systems: Officials

29th October 2024

Read it.

Iran is likely still tallying the costs of the Israeli airstrikes launched on Saturday in retaliation for Tehran’s massive October 1 missile barrage on Israel. Among the targets that Israel appears to have gone after are Iran’s prized Russian-made S-300 air defense systems, according to U.S. and Israeli officials. Putting the Iranian S-300s out of action leaves the door open to follow-up strikes by Israel, including larger-scale direct attacks. As we noted on Saturday, this serves as both a contingent opportunity for the Israel Defense Forces and a deterrent against a response from Iran.

Among the critical Iranian military infrastructure destroyed on Saturday were its three surviving S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile systems. This is the assessment of unnamed U.S. and Israeli officials speaking to the Wall Street Journal. Iran’s only other S-300 system was already hit by Israel earlier this year.

Told ya so.

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Joe Rogan Experience #2219 – Donald Trump

28th October 2024

Watch it.

And read the comments — people are getting sick & tired of YouTube hiding and throttling content that doesn’t agree with their Woke agenda.

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Room-Temperature Superconductivity Heats Up

27th October 2024

Read it.

Few areas of research have captivated scientists more than the search for room-temperature superconductivity. Finding a way to reduce energy loss as electricity travels over transmission lines and across wires would profoundly change society. It would deliver nearly unlimited energy, turbocharge compute speeds, and introduce new and better ways to use computers and other electronics.

Yet assembling the right mix of materials to achieve room temperature superconductivity has eluded researchers for more than a century. Time and time again, physicists have announced breakthroughs that were later found to be irreproducible, in error, or even fraudulent. Consequently, the challenge—getting to superconductivity at temperatures above 0 degrees Kelvin (-273.15 degrees Celsius) at ambient pressure—remains a holy grail of physics and materials science.

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UK Sleep Experts Say It’s Time to Kill Daylight Saving for Good

27th October 2024

The Register.

A group of researchers in the UK affiliated with the BSS published a paper this week calling for the permanent abolition of Daylight Saving Time (DST) and adherence to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in large part because modern evidence suggests having that extra hour of sunlight in the evenings is worse for our health than we thought back in the 1970s when the concept was all the rage in Europe.

Not only does GMT more closely align with the natural day/light cycle in the UK, the boffins assert, but decades of research into sleep and circadian rhythms have been produced since DST was enacted that have yet to be considered.

The human circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle our bodies go through, drives a lot about our health beyond sleep. It regulates hormone release, gene expression, metabolism, mood (who isn’t grumpier when waking up in January?), and the like. In short, it’s important. Messing with that rhythm by forcing ourselves out of bed earlier for several months out of the year can have lasting effects, the researchers said.

Speed the day.

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