Read it.

A majority of Americans are fed up with imploding progressive metro areas transforming into violent crime hellholes because Soros-backed District Attorneys refuse to enforce common sense law and order. Americans are tired of radicals in the Biden administration who knowingly push for open southern borders. At the same time, tax-payer-funded non-governmental organizations facilitate the greatest invasion this nation has ever seen of unvetted individuals – some of whom are on the FBI’s Terror Watch List. The president’s collapsing polling data is a symptom the American people have rejected this mumbling, silent generation president who should be in a nursing home or on a La-Z-Boy recliner at his beach house in the elite-only beach town of Bethany.

In recent years, the tyrannical overreach of government during Covid, BLM riots, and nationwide violent crime eruption, plus the 30-year fixed mortgage rate under 3%, unleashed the greatest-ever exodus of Americans from Demcorat-controlled states and metro areas for safer areas in red states.

The migration trends of the Covid period are still happening today, just less because of housing affordability woes.

However, an entirely new trend is emerging: a venture fund in rural Kentucky is building a new community for folks who want to escape all the chaos of progressive cities.

Called the “Highland Rim Project” (HRP), venture fund New Founding is developing “rural towns and communities nestled in the bucolic hills of the Eastern Highland Rim area of Tennessee and Kentucky.”

Tennessee would be good. I have my doubts about Kentucky, which has state and local income taxes like Indiana.

Read it.

Section 241(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act requires that Immigration and Customs Enforcement send deportees back to their nation of origin, or the country in which they boarded the transport that brought them to America.

However, if that fails, the section also allows for the agency to remove aliens to any country that will accept them.

Talks between the United States and countries such as Honduras, Panama, and Venezuela have resulted in the nations accepting illegal immigrants that the United States needs to remove.

Here is a list of some of the countries either in talks with Washington about assisting with deportation or that have already begun the process of accepting other nations’ citizens being deported by the United States.

Read it.

Think of it as evolution in action.

NBC News, a Voice of the Crust.

Well, most of a victory.

Read it.

And about fucking time.

Read it.

The past couple of weeks have seen a lot of drama within the Make America Healthy Again movement. Much of the commotion surrounds President Donald Trump’s new surgeon general nominee, Dr. Casey Means along with her brother, Calley Means, a special adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

A few members of the wider MAHA coalition have cited concerns over their involvement in biotech companies, while others condemn their lack of emphasis on vaccines. Predictably, the far-left media is having a field day, running stories better suited to the E! network than serious media outlets.

Amidst all the distractions, however, major MAHA wins are flying under the radar.

Read it.

Nine out of 10 U.S. companies say they expect to bring some or all of their production or sourcing back home in response to new tariffs imposed under President Donald Trump’s trade policy, according to the latest Allianz Trade Global Survey.

So Trump’s strategy is actually working, which you wouldn’t know if you only read the Narrative Media.

As Mulder liked to say, the truth is out there.

Read it.

A federal judge on Wednesday struck down regulations requiring most U.S. employers to provide workers with time off and other accommodations for abortions.

TechCrunch.

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but it actually comes from a lab in Maryland.

In 2018, Liangbing Hu, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, devised a way to turn ordinary wood into a material stronger than steel. It seemed like yet another headline-grabbing discovery that wouldn’t make it out of the lab.
“All these people came to him,” said Alex Lau, CEO of InventWood, “He’s like, OK, this is amazing, but I’m a university professor. I don’t know quite what to do about it.”

Rather than give up, Hu spent the next few years refining the technology, reducing the time it took to make the material from more than a week to a few hours. Soon, it was ready to commercialize, and he licensed the technology to InventWood.

Now, the startup’s first batches of Superwood will be produced starting this summer.

Read it.

Previous studies have explored gender and ethnic biases in hiring by submitting résumés/CVs to real job postings or mock selection panels, systematically varying the gender or ethnicity signaled by applicants. This approach enables researchers to isolate the effects of demographic characteristics on hiring or preselection decisions.

Building on this methodology, the present analysis evaluates whether Large Language Models (LLMs) exhibit algorithmic gender bias when tasked with selecting the most qualified candidate for a given job description.

…

Despite identical professional qualifications across genders, all LLMs consistently favored female-named candidates when selecting the most qualified candidate for the job. Female candidates were selected in 56.9% of cases, compared to 43.1% for male candidates (two-proportion z-test = 33.99, p < 10?²⁵² ). The observed effect size was small to medium (Cohen’s h = 0.28; odds=1.32, 95% CI [1.29, 1.35]). In the figures below, asterisks (*) indicate statistically significant results (p < 0.05) from two-proportion z-tests conducted on each individual model, with significance levels adjusted for multiple comparisons using the Benjamin-Hochberg False Discovery Rate correction.

Read it.

If you haven’t come across it before, NotebookLM functions as an AI research companion that helps users analyze and interact with their documents, websites, and other content. The tool can generate summaries, create FAQ lists, produce timeline views, and even transform research materials into podcast-style audio discussions with AI-generated hosts. Google originally launched it in 2023, and then launched its NotebookLM Plus plan for businesses, schools, organizations, and enterprise customers in December. NotebookLM Plus is also available as a part of a Google One AI Premium subscription.

One of the big additions with the app is offline access to Audio Overviews, the genuinely impressive feature that sees two hosts have a podcast-style chat about your project sources. Users can now download summaries for listening on the go, which should be handy for those looking to conserve data. Whether offline or online, the app also supports background playback, making it easier to catch up on research insights while multitasking.

The iOS version also adds more interactivity. Users can tap “Join” to engage directly with the app’s AI-powered hosts, allowing them to ask clarifying questions, change the direction of a summary, or toss in an offbeat query.

Sharing content into NotebookLM is now easier than it was via the web app. If you’re viewing a website, a PDF, or a YouTube video, access the share sheet and select NotebookLM to add the material as a source. Google says it plans to expand the range of supported input types over time.

The NotebookLM app is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

The article has a link that will allow getting the app. It appears to be free, but (as is the way of the world) there may be in-app purchases.

The Verge.

One morning last month, I walked into my kitchen to get a glass of water, but my smart faucet was out of battery. I went to sit down in my front room, and the shade was still shut — it was out of battery. I walked down the hall and found a beached robot vacuum — out of battery. I headed outside to feed the chickens, unlocking the back door on the way out. The battery-powered smart lock had done what it was supposed to and automatically locked at 8PM. At least something was working.

The game changer here is wireless charging. Not wireless like putting your phone on a charging pad, wireless like across the room. For the past year, a Wi-Charge transmitter in my ceiling has been shooting infrared lasers at a photovoltaic panel on the specially modified Alfred DB2S smart lock on my back door, keeping its battery hovering at 100 percent. So I never have to deal with a dead lock when going to feed my chickens.

To get this souped-up setup cost around $1,250, required cutting a hole in my ceiling, and is only available through an early access program (the Wi-Charge-compatible Alfred lock can’t be purchased off the shelf). However, despite this extra effort, after a year of living with a wirelessly-powered smart lock, whose battery I never have to mess with, I want this for everything in my smart home.

Read it.

NYU Tandon-led research team discovers unprecedented genetic adaptations in Gowanus Canal organisms, revealing a potential new approach for cleaning contaminated waters and recovering valuable resources

Naval Gazing.

This is an excellent discussion of some recent proposals to fix what is wrong with the current U.S. Navy by someone who knows what he’s talking about. An interesting read for those who like such things.

Read it.

While I was in Japan over winter, one thing that stood out to me was the incredible public transport system. Efficient and reliable, as expected, but the tap-in-tap-out gates at the stations were suspiciously fast. The London Underground gates don’t work nearly as quick with Google Pay or any of my other contactless cards – what gives? I spent some time researching what makes Japan’s transit card system (IC cards) so unique compared to the West, and all of the interesting bits I learned along the way.

…

What’s interesting about Japan (and Asia in general) is that they have their own type of NFC which basically does not exist in the West: FeliCa, a standard developed by Sony, officially classified as NFC type F (as opposed to MIFARE, which is type A). In fact, FeliCa came first, being developed in 1988; as opposed to Philips’ (now NXP) MIFARE which was introduced in 1994. FeliCa started getting widespread adoption initially not in Japan, but in Hong Kong, through its public transport Octopus cards in 1997 – only later did JR East adopt FeliCa for its Suica transit cards in November 2001, and Rakuten started using FeliCa for its Edy cards (the name reminds me of something…). After that, a bunch of Asian countries adopted it, like Vietnam and Bangladesh. They fill the same niche in those countries as they do in Japan: contactless prepaid cards and transit tickets.

Read it.

When it comes to AI, the spotlight tends to shine on the dramatic: Models that ace medical exams, write like seasoned authors, or spit out images indistinguishable from real photos. But while those headlines grab attention, the real transformation is happening quietly, behind the scenes in the form of micro-automations.

These are not all-competent copilots. They’re surgical, single-task automations that chip away at the inefficiencies baked into our everyday workflows. And done right, they shift the productivity curve without anyone noticing.

Read it.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday on whether nationwide injunctions violate the Constitution, after lower courts have issued 40 nationwide injunctions against the second Trump administration.

“Universal injunctions exceed the judicial power granted in Article III which exist only to address the injury to the complaining party,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued.

The case, Trump v. CASA, concerns nationwide injunctions that lower court judges have ordered, pausing President Donald Trump’s order interpreting the 14th Amendment as not guaranteeing what is known as “birthright citizenship,” the idea that if someone is born in the U.S. to alien parents (who are not foreign diplomats or enemies in a hostile occupation), they are immediately a citizen.

Read it.

Well, maybe they are, and maybe they aren’t.

The days of rogue district court judges hijacking executive authority may finally be numbered. On Thursday, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a consolidated case, Trump v. CASA, which challenges lower court rulings that blocked President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants. Despite the constitutional authority granted to the executive branch on immigration matters, three district judges issued sweeping nationwide injunctions halting the order.

Now, the highest court may have the chance to rein in judicial overreach and restore balance between the branches of government.

Read it.

U.S. energy officials are reassessing the risk posed by Chinese-made devices that play a critical role in renewable energy infrastructure after unexplained communication equipment was found inside some of them.

Read it.

In the coming weeks, investors in nine public companies worth at least $1 billion each will vote on proposals to ditch Delaware as their place of incorporation, potentially denting the state’s longtime reputation as Corporate America’s capital, Reuters has found.

Five companies with a stock market value of at least $1 billion have moved their legal home out of Delaware since last year, in what some have nicknamed “Dexit.” Tesla made a high-profile move to Texas last year and in April, President Donald Trump’s social media company Trump Media & Technology , which owns the Truth Social platform, decamped to Florida.

Most of the companies are dominated by a significant shareholder or founder. Delaware judges have expanded the court’s most stringent legal standard to a growing range of situations involving controllers, increasing the risk of shareholder lawsuits.

Read it.

Researchers have used the protein-structure-prediction tool AlphaFold to identify1 hundreds of thousands of potential new psychedelic molecules — which could help to develop new kinds of antidepressant. The research shows, for the first time, that AlphaFold predictions — available at the touch of a button — can be just as useful for drug discovery as experimentally derived protein structures, which can take months, or even years, to determine.

Read it.

Hair follicles go through repeated cycles of growth, rest, and shedding. At the heart of these cycles are hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs), which are responsible for producing new hair after the old ones fall out. In the new study, scientists discovered that these stem cells require a protein known as MCL-1 to function properly. When MCL-1 was deleted in mice, HFSCs quickly underwent stress and died. Without the stem cells, the process of hair regrowth halted completely.

In experiments where MCL-1 was removed from adult mice, researchers also shaved small patches of fur to test recovery. They found that in the absence of MCL-1, the shaved patches did not regrow any hair. In contrast, mice with normal MCL-1 expression experienced routine regeneration. This points to the protein’s essential role in maintaining healthy HFSC populations in adults.

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Artnet reports that on his daily walks around Paris, Egyptologist Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier of Paris Sorbonne University and Institut Catholique de Paris began to notice unusual hieroglyphics on the giant obelisk standing in the city’s Place de la Concorde. The monument was erected during the reign of Ramesses II (reigned ca. 1279–1213 B.C.) and originally stood outside Egypt’s Luxor Temple, but was moved to France in the 1830s. Olette-Pelletier believed that the carved stone block could feature crypto-hieroglyphics, secret messages involving puzzles or wordplay that only Egypt’s educated and intellectual elite would have been able to read. He was given the opportunity to examine the 70-foot obelisk up close as it underwent cleaning prior to the 2024 Paris Olympics, and confirmed that the symbols did indeed contain at least seven examples of crypto-hieroglyphics. These essentially sought to remind those who could read them that Ramesses II had been chosen by the gods and claimed his ancestry from Amun-Re and Maat. Their location on the stone would have only made them visible to nobles who arrived at the Luxor Temple by boat during the Opet festival, which was held annually during the Nile’s flood season and reinforced the pharaoh’s right to rule. “Given the angle of approach, the nobility would have seen the hidden message and reflected: ‘the king confirms himself as god incarnate, who cannot be dethroned,’” Olette-Pelletier said. “It was propaganda aimed at the very high intellectual elite.” To read about obelisks from the Egyptian city of Heliopolis that were later moved to European cities, go to “Egypt’s Eternal City.”

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Marijuana has intrigued people for decades, especially as more places allow it for medical or recreational use. Many see it as a natural product with relaxing properties, yet scientists have been eager to uncover how it might alter the body in subtle ways.

Researchers tracked the cannabis habits of more than 1,000 U.S. adults over roughly two decades. The team included epidemiologist Lifang Hou from Northwestern University, who analyzed blood samples at two points to search for signs that cannabis use may shift genetic markers.

Read it.

The Message is: Your fake currency isn’t worth shit, and is getting worse.

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

Power Line.

Democrats have sought to block the Trump administration from carrying out its policies by bringing lawsuits before Democratic Party judges, in which the administration’s actions are challenged on various grounds. The Democratic Party’s District Court judges then issue sweeping orders enjoining the government’s actions, sometimes without even hearing from the administration’s lawyers. We have never seen anything like this in our history.

Yesterday the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order in several related cases involving the United States Agency for Global Media, which, among other things, oversees Voice of America. The cases were brought by employees who are being laid off, and entities that had contracts with agencies controlled by USAGM:

On March 14, 2025, the President issued Executive Order 14238, which directed USAGM leadership to reduce the agency to the minimum level of operations required by statute. 90 Fed. Reg. 13043. In response, USAGM placed over 1,000 employees on administrative leave, terminated nearly 600 personal-service contractors, and terminated [Radio Free Asia’s and Middle East Broadcasting Networks’] grant agreements for the 2025 fiscal year.

The district judge entered an order blocking the administration’s actions; yesterday the Court of Appeals stayed that order.

Read it.

Open-source intelligence analyst Mehdi H., known on X as “mhmiranusa” and known for his reporting on Iranian naval developments, reports that the Iranian Navy’s new forward base ship—also referred to as a forward operating base ship—is set to begin sea trials.

“Iranian Navy will soon start sea trials of a new forward base ship named Kurdestan. This new base (442) like IRIS Makran (441) is a converted crude oil tanker previously named Tabukan (IMO: 8917467),” Mehdi H. said, adding, “The conversion by ISOICO includes a helipad likely for helicopter & UAV ops.”

Read it.

Mmmmmmmm … brains….

UPDATE: How molecular traffic cops guide development of the human brain.

Mmmmmmmm … brains….

Read it.

A panel of black voters spoke with CNN political analyst Van Jones and thoroughly eviscerated any theories about there being some regret when it comes to Trump supporters.

The three individuals, each defined as not supporting the President before ultimately voting for him, had little hesitation when Jones asked if they were currently having second thoughts.

Their comments show the media’s coverage of ‘buyer’s regret’ has been little more than wishcasting on their part.

Wall Street Journal.

Pennies these days are more likely to end up lost or buried under couch cushions than to be used for transactions, according to detractors. Each one cost 3.7 cents to make last year.

It wouldn’t be a problem if the government hadn’t been inflating the currency so badly for the last 80 years.

When I was a kid, you could still buy something for a penny.

Read it.

An increasing number of “zombie” or “phantom” oil tankers—vessels that assume the identities of scrapped ships—have emerged off Venezuela’s coast, allowing dark fleet operators to circumvent U.S. trade restrictions on global oil transport.

Read it.

A new day dawning….

Read it.

Yet more work for an activist Democrat judge.

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Canada will elect a new government on Monday, with former central banker Mark Carney’s liberal party vying to extend their hold on power against Pierre Poilievere’s conservatives. The first results are expected to come in just after 7 p.m. ET after voting hours end in the four Atlantic provinces, with the majority of results expected to be released at 9:30 p.m. when voting ends in most of the country, including in seat-rich Ontario and Quebec.

In January, it seemed Poilievere was a lock over the center-left Liberals, who had been in power for a decade under the leadership of unpopular PM Justin Trudeau. Conservatives had a double-digit lead in polls amid public outcry over Trudeau, inflation, and steep housing costs – leading Trudeau to bow out for a Liberal party leadership contest that saw Carney take pole position.

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When an unflagged vessel smuggling advanced arms to the al-Shabaab jihadi group was spotted in the waters off Somalia last week, there was no time to send a boarding party to interdict it, a U.S. defense official told The War Zone Tuesday morning. So, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) made a rare decision, calling in an airstrike. The ability to do so was, in large measure, made possible by new authorities given to commanders to act, the official told us. This is meant to speed up critical kill chains and increase the effectiveness of the force that has to keep ahead of enemies on a fast-moving modern battlefield. But even with the clear benefits of increased authorities down the chain of command and forward in the field, there can be added risks.

“This was a time-sensitive issue,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details. “They have to do things quickly. They did not have time to pull in boats.”

“In coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) conducted airstrikes against advanced conventional weapons aboard a flagless vessel and a smaller supporting vessel inside Somalia territorial waters on April 16, 2025,” the command announced. “The weapons were en route to al Shabaab terrorists inside Somalia and posed an imminent threat to partner and U.S. forces in Somalia. AFRICOM’s initial assessment is that no civilians were harmed.”

This is a positive change. One of the constant drags on U.S. military operations, present since the Viet Nam debacle, is constant micro-management of military operations by political operatives, exacerbated by modern telecommunications. Trump and his appointees bring refreshing self-awareness to this situation, setting policy and allowing military commanders the freedom to exercise their professional competence in effecting that policy, something no Democrat President has ever (since Wilson) been able to do.

Read it.

The State Department is formally removing the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, the office former president Joe Biden created and appointed John Kerry to lead as part of his aggressive agenda to combat global warming, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

In a statement to the Free Beacon, a senior State Department official confirmed the office has been shuttered, noting that its mission did not align with the Trump administration’s agenda. Webpages for both Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate and the State Department’s initiatives relating to the environment were recently deleted.

“This climate office has long been captured by ideology instead of common sense policy. The new chapter of the State Department will not include this office,” the official told the Free Beacon. “This is part of a broader effort to empower regional bureaus and embassies to effectively carry out diplomacy.”

Governing the election of a new Pope of Rome. (There are other Popes; the title was first used by the Patriarch of Alexandria.)

Read it in English.

Read it in Latin, the definitive text.

Sede vacante nihil innovetur.

The movie SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN, which Anthony Quinn, gives an excellent depiction of the death of one Pope of Rome and the election of his successor, although using the traditional composition of the College of Cardinals before it was expanded by Paul VI.

Watch it.

Don’t ever say we never have useful stuff here.

Read it.

Okay, it’s clear that there is an unmet need for new and better antivenoms. The authors of today’s paper propose a solution, using AI-driven protein design. In particular, they focused their computational efforts on 2 families of toxins, both from 3 fingers toxins (3FTxs) family:

Read it.

One of the most detrimental consequences of the stagflationary surge in the US since 2020 was the meteoric rise in housing prices, from rentals to purchases to mortgages, across all markets. At present the cost of housing stands at around 30% of the average American’s income, with home prices and rentals seeing at least a 60% increase in only 5 years. In high traffic markets the prices have jumped far higher.

Inflation in fixed expenses like housing, utilities, gasoline, food, etc. directly reduce disposable income which forces consumers to cut back on retail and recreational purchases. Higher prices in retail goods can be weathered through savings and spending adaptation, higher prices in fixed expenses is much more difficult to deal with and the results are hard to miss.

There may, however, be a light at the end of the tunnel with new developments suggesting a decline in housing costs is on the way.

.UPDATE: The Family Home: From Shelter To Asset To Liability

Read it.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled a searchable Classical Schools Database featuring nearly 900 schools across the United States that say they are “committed to offering a classical liberal arts education to their students.”

I doubt that they teach Classical Greek and Latin, which were the foundation of  the ‘classical liberal arts education’. Pity.

Parents can even choose the religious denomination (choices include Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, and Orthodox, among others). The database also allows the sorting of schools based on the classical language(s) they teach, including Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew.

Well, that makes me feel better.

The New York Times, a Voice of the Crust.

A daily pill may be as effective in lowering blood sugar and aiding weight loss in people with Type 2 diabetes as the popular injectable drugs Mounjaro and Ozempic, according to results of a clinical trial announced by Eli Lilly on Thursday morning.

The drug, orforglipron, is a GLP-1, a class of drugs that have become blockbusters because of their weight-loss effects. But the GLP-1s on the market now are expensive, must be kept refrigerated and must be injected. A pill that produces similar results has the potential to become far more widely used, though it is also expected to be expensive.

Lilly said it would seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration later this year to market orforglipron for obesity and early in 2026 for diabetes. Industry analysts expect the drug to win approval sometime next year and to eventually become a major blockbuster. Eli Lilly is not expected to announce a price for the drug until after it wins approval.

Nature.

Bad news.

Reducing body weight to improve metabolic health and related comorbidities is a primary goal in treating obesity1,2. However, maintaining weight loss is a considerable challenge, especially as the body seems to retain an obesogenic memory that defends against body weight changes3,4. Overcoming this barrier for long-term treatment success is difficult because the molecular mechanisms underpinning this phenomenon remain largely unknown. Here, by using single-nucleus RNA sequencing, we show that both human and mouse adipose tissues retain cellular transcriptional changes after appreciable weight loss. Furthermore, we find persistent obesity-induced alterations in the epigenome of mouse adipocytes that negatively affect their function and response to metabolic stimuli. Mice carrying this obesogenic memory show accelerated rebound weight gain, and the epigenetic memory can explain future transcriptional deregulation in adipocytes in response to further high-fat diet feeding. In summary, our findings indicate the existence of an obesogenic memory, largely on the basis of stable epigenetic changes, in mouse adipocytes and probably other cell types. These changes seem to prime cells for pathological responses in an obesogenic environment, contributing to the problematic ‘yo-yo’ effect often seen with dieting. Targeting these changes in the future could improve long-term weight management and health outcomes

Nature.

Circular RNA (circRNA) represents a type of RNA molecule characterized by a closed-loop structure that is distinct from linear RNA counterparts. Recent studies have revealed the emerging role of these circular transcripts in gene regulation and disease pathogenesis. However, their low expression levels and high sequence similarity to linear RNAs present substantial challenges for circRNA detection and characterization. Recent advances in long-read and single-cell RNA sequencing technologies, coupled with sophisticated deep learning-based algorithms, have revolutionized the investigation of circRNAs at unprecedented resolution and scale. This Review summarizes recent breakthroughs in circRNA discovery, characterization and functional analysis algorithms. We also discuss the challenges associated with integrating large-scale circRNA sequencing data and explore the potential future development of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven algorithms to unlock the full potential of circRNA research in biomedical applications.

Read it.

Most cells in the human body each contain about six feet of DNA. Yet the nucleus, where DNA is coiled, is no larger than a single speck of dust. Despite its density, DNA is not a tangled ball of yarn. It is organized into intricate layers of loops that fold and unfold in response to cues from the cell.

Scientists know that the three-dimensional shape of DNA is important. This long helical thread is peppered with genes that are translated into proteins to drive cellular activity. And the structure of the genome—those layers of loops—determines which genes are active at any given time. How the three-dimensional structure of the genome is maintained, however, is less clear. Structural changes and abnormalities are associated with many diseases, such as cancer and developmental disorders. Identifying what controls genome structure could yield targets for treatment.

In a new study, published April 10 in Nature Methods, Yale scientists uncovered 21 regulators of genome structure, 19 of which are associated with diseases. They developed a combination of advanced methods that set a new standard for accuracy and efficiency.

Read it.

More than 9,000 Catholic employers do not need to abide by federal regulations requiring accommodations for workers who seek abortions and fertility treatments, according to a ruling issued this week by a federal judge in North Dakota.

The Catholic Benefits Association and the Bismarck Diocese filed a lawsuit last year challenging the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s regulations on implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnancy and childbirth-related needs. The EEOC interpreted the statute to include abortion and fertility treatments as among those needs, which the Catholic groups argued violated their religious rights.

The Catholic groups also challenged separate EEOC guidelines for enforcing anti-harassment laws, which the agency updated last year to specify that workers cannot be harassed over their gender-identity or for seeking or contemplating having abortions.

Read it.

China’s full-size, land-based aircraft carrier test facility, a key part of the country’s path toward establishing a carrier fleet and associated air wings, is being modified once again, and this time in a massive way. The extensive reworking and expansion of the unique facility suggests that the aircraft carrier mockup is now intended to represent a layout similar to the U.S. Navy’s Ford class. This likely coincides with the configuration of China’s next, more advanced, homegrown carrier design.

A satellite photo of the land-based aircraft carrier mockup in Wuhan, taken on April 6, shows the changes that have taken place, including a much greater overall flight-deck width, and the island superstructure redesigned and moved further aft, as on the Ford class. So significant is the extra width, meanwhile, that the edges of the deck now extend out to or even over the adjacent road.

Quillette.

Few creatures are as deadly as the mosquito. These small insects are responsible for transmitting malaria, dengue fever, Zika virus, and other diseases that collectively kill over a million people every year. While insecticides have long been the main tool for controlling mosquito populations, they have significant drawbacks: They can harm other insects, contribute to environmental damage, and are becoming increasingly ineffective as mosquitoes develop resistance.

But what if we could turn the tables on these pests and make their favourite food—human blood—a lethal weapon against them?

A groundbreaking recent study shows that mosquitoes can be poisoned by the blood of people taking a specific medication. The drug, nitisinone, is already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for treating certain rare genetic disorders, and researchers have now found that it is also highly effective at killing malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

Reminds me of the famous Superbowl hot-sauce commercial.