The Hill.

Maybe it’s something about the Hippocratic oath: Doctors, nurses and pharmacists rate highest for honesty and ethics among 18 common professions in the latest version of a long-running Gallup poll.

And maybe it’s something about the sanctity of the dinner hour: Telemarketers rate lowest in the Gallup ethics survey, followed by members of Congress and sellers of cars.

I think that the Pandemic Panic may have impacted the medical profession a bit. Just a bit.

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Greenhouse gases and plastic waste are two of the biggest environmental problems the world faces today. A new reactor from Cambridge is designed to tackle both at once, converting CO2 and used plastic bottles into useful materials, powered entirely by sunlight.

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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, signed seven executive orders to decrease the size of her state’s government, combat “indoctrination” and critical race theory in schools, and remove the term “Latinx” from government documents.

During her inaugural address Tuesday, Sanders pledged to sign an executive order “preventing the political indoctrination of Arkansas’ schoolchildren.”

“As long as I am governor,” she said, “our schools will focus on the skills our children need to get ahead in the modern world—not brainwashing our children with a left-wing political agenda.”

Patriot Missiles Paired With Naval Vertical Launchers Pitched By Lockheed

North Korea’s nuclear escalation, explained (Vox)

Pentagon awards $40M ‘Vampire’ contract for Ukraine’s drone defenses (Defense News)

Russian Officials Throw a Tantrum After U.S. Diplomat Calls Putin ‘Small Man’ (Daily Beast)

Russian artillery fire down nearly 75%, US officials say, in latest sign of struggles for Moscow (CNN)

Top Marine General In Japan Bluntly Describes US Is “Setting The Theatre” For Future War With China  My, what a surprise.

Putin Deploys the Nuke-Capable ‘Sledgehammer’ to Ukraine

Turkey Is Sending Cold War-Era Cluster Bombs to Ukraine (Foreign Policy)

US to Increase Number of Anti-ship Missiles in Japan

War In Ukraine: Hunting For The Mega Trade

Oxfam Report: US, UK Supplied Arms, Killed Civilians in Yemen

BBC.

Consumer groups have for years been calling on companies to allow their customers to be able to fix everything from smartphones to tractors.

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and Deere & Co. signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Sunday.

“It addresses a long-running issue for farmers and ranchers when it comes to accessing tools, information and resources, while protecting John Deere’s intellectual property rights and ensuring equipment safety,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall said.

Under the agreement, equipment owners and independent technicians will not be allowed to “divulge trade secrets” or “override safety features or emissions controls or to adjust Agricultural Equipment power levels.”

(How would you like to have a name like ‘Zippy’?) The main problem was the working through Deere it took forever to get service, and when the harvest is waiting because you can’t get a company rep to service your machine, that’s Not Good.

UPDATE: John Deere vows to open up its tractor tech, but right-to-repair backers have doubts (NPR)

‘Sea Sparrow’ Missiles Compared to Ukraine’s Current Air Defense Options (Newsweek)

On Energy, Putin’s Back Is Against the Wall | Opinion (Newsweek)

United States, South Korea to partner on advanced air mobility development (Reuters)

Sweden says cannot fulfil Turkey’s demands for NATO application (Al Jezeera)

New England grapples with sky-high electricity rates as Ukraine war squeezes gas supply (The Hill) Lie down with virtue-signaling progressives, get up with shortages.

U.S. ‘Top of the Line’ Weapon Will Help Change the War: Ukraine Ambassador (Newsweek)

Ukraine bolsters defences in east as Russia sends waves of attacks (Reuters)

SUBMARINES: Borei SSBNs Keep Coming

Russia’s Wagner group ramping up operations outside of Ukraine, U.S. warns (Politico)

‘We Are Facing The Entire NATO In Ukraine’: Kremlin Says, As UK Mulls Battle Tanks

Abramovich Moved $4 Billion to Children Weeks Before Ukraine Invasion I guess he could feel the fingers diving into his pockets.

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A team at Ohio University carried out a series of simulations showing how coal can be converted to valuable—and carbon-neutral—materials like graphite and carbon nanotubes.

Using the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center’s Bridges-2 system, the researchers simulated coal and graphite in computer software and recreated the coal-to-graphite conversion virtually. Generations of scientists know that, at least in theory, it is possible to convert coal to graphite if the fossil fuel is put under enough pressure at a high enough temperature.

Superman is never around when you really need him.

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“The landscape of refrigerants is an unsolved problem,” says mechanical engineer Drew Lilley, from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. “No one has successfully developed an alternative solution that makes stuff cold, works efficiently, is safe, and doesn’t hurt the environment.”

“We think the ionocaloric cycle has the potential to meet all those goals if realized appropriately.”

So they haven’t invented it yet, they just have a theory that they might (and might not) turn into a viable product. But that’s as much truth as one can expect from the media these days….

New York Times.

Republicans plan to create a special subcommittee, led by a Trump ally, with a mandate to scrutinize open criminal investigations and classified intelligence.

Democrats are about to discover that what goes around comes around.

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Thank you, minimum wage laws.

Thank you, Union label.

Quite frankly, I thought that they already were–every KrispyKreme donut I’ve ever seen looks as it if has been injection-molded out of plastic. They might taste that way, too, for all I know; I don’t eat them, not being able to get past their looks.

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Anyone who’s ever offered up a urine sample at a doctor’s office knows that urine can tell us important things about our health: if we’re dehydrated, if we’re pregnant, if we have an infection and even the health of some of our organs. Withings is homing in on some of these biomarkers with two different versions of its consumer device, available in Europe in the first half of 2023, with plans for US availability following clearance by the US Food and Drug Administration.

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Professor Kyong-Tai Kim and Ph.D. candidate Kyung Won Jo, from the Department of Life Sciences at the Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH), have found that the gossypetin in hibiscus activates microglia, the immune cells in the brain. Their research also showed that these microglia can scavenge amyloid-beta in the brain to improve cognitive function in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.

 

New York Post.

Fortunately, there are ways to find out who’s calling you from an unknown or blocked number. We put together this helpful guide on finding an unknown caller number. (If you’ve ever found yourself asking, “What does unknown caller mean?” or “How to block unknown calls on iPhone?” we’ll explain that, too.) Prevent spam and scam callers from being anonymous with a few of these tricks, starting with a few simple tracing techniques.

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The company’s first product is an over-the-counter device with an app that measures blood pressure without a cuff or calibration. It’s still waiting for FDA clearance, but Valencell’s technology is already found in other products, such as those from Samsung, Bose, Huawei, Sony, and others.

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Some have criticized the new highly automated restaurant, arguing that McDonald’s is opting to install expensive automation systems to replace employees.

Well, duh. Thank you, minimum wage laws. Thank you, Union label.

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Equium has developed a new thermo-acoustic heat pump core that reportedly produces 3 kW to 4 kW of heat for every kilowatt of power it consumes. It says the refrigerant-free device could generate domestic hot water at temperatures of up to 80 C.

Europe’s big question: What a diminished Russia will do next

Russian Military Officer Says He Has ‘Favorable View’ of Nuclear Weapon Use (Newsweek)

What if Ukraine had kept its nuclear weapons? (Responsible Statecraft)

Forced to fight your own people: How Russia is weaponizing passports (Politico)

More Blasts Hit Kyiv Early Monday

INTELLIGENCE: Russian Illegals In Europe

AIR DEFENSE: Unexpected Electronic Side Effects Escalate

The High Cost Of Blowing Up The World: Ukraine & The 2023 NDAA

Ukraine Says It Killed Hundreds of Russians in Donetsk Missile Strike

Russia and China Strengthen Ties

Huge Death Toll After US-Supplied Himars Leveled Russian Barracks In Donetsk, Possibly Hundreds Killed  Well, that’s what it’s for.

Analysts Predict 1 Million Bpd Drop in Russian Crude Output

SciTech Daily.

Leprosy, a chronic infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, is one of the oldest and most persistent diseases in the world. However, new surprising research suggests that the bacteria that cause leprosy may also have the ability to stimulate the growth and regeneration of the liver in adult animals without causing damage or scarring. Scientists have discovered that parasites associated with leprosy can reprogram cells to increase the size of the liver.

Science Alert.

Guessing the color of the coat of a gray wolf seems like a no-brainer. But the canines, whose habitats are spread across North America and Eurasia, aren’t always actually gray.

On the North American continent, specifically, the farther south you go, the more wolves there are with dark, black-hued coats. The phenomenon was unexplained for a long time, but now scientists have determined that the culprit is one of the biggest drivers of natural selection: disease.

Science Alert.

Wood wide webs – incredible networks of fungi and plant roots that span entire forests – act as highways for nutrient deliveries as well as wires for transferring information between plants via electrical and chemical signals. These connections help strengthen a forest as a whole, by distributing resources from nutrient poor to nutrient rich areas of the network. They also allow plants to warn each other of predators and even help protect them from drought.

In exchange for these services, plants pay their fungi allies with some of the hydrocarbons they produce using photosynthesis.

But Monotropastrum betrays this mutualistic relationship by stealing all its nutrients from the fungi, offering no photosynthetic products to the network in return – making them part of a very selective mycoheterotrophic club.

SciTech Daily.

An adhesive that can stimulate muscles to stretch and contract has been developed – and it has the potential to prevent and enable recovery from muscle atrophy.

Muscles can become weak and waste away due to a lack of exercise, such as when a limb is immobilized in a cast, or gradually as people age. This condition, known as muscle atrophy, can also occur as a result of neurological disorders like ALS and MS, or as a response to certain diseases including cancer and diabetes.

Mechanotherapy, a type of therapy that uses manual or mechanical techniques, is believed to have the potential to aid in tissue repair. Massage, which uses compressive stimulation to relax muscles, is the most well-known form of mechanotherapy, however, it is not clear whether stretching and contracting muscles through external means can also be effective as a treatment. There have been two major obstacles to studying this possibility: a lack of mechanical systems that can evenly apply stretching and contraction forces to muscles along their entire length, and the inefficient delivery of these mechanical stimuli to the surface and deeper layers of muscle tissue.

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Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have engineered molecules that act like “cellular glue,” allowing them to direct in precise fashion how cells bond with each other. The discovery represents a major step toward building tissues and organs, a long-sought goal of regenerative medicine.

Adhesive molecules are found naturally throughout the body, holding its tens of trillions of cells together in highly organized patterns. They form structures, create neuronal circuits, and guide immune cells to their targets. Adhesion also facilitates communication between cells to keep the body functioning as a self-regulating whole.

Ukraine Situation Report: Kyiv Struggling To Keep Captured Weapons In The Fight

Taiwan Extends Mandatory Military Service Due To Chinese Invasion Threat

Putin’s Disgruntled Troops Intensify Battle Between Key Allies (Newsweek)

Noted Crimean Activist Afanasyev Dies Fighting Russian Troops In Ukraine (Radio Free Europe)

New sanctions starting to bite Russia’s economy as Moscow admits deficit impact (CNBC)

Ukraine Wants UN-Backed Peace Deal With Russia, But On One Condition: Officials

Special Forces Insider: The CIA Is Directing Sabotage Attacks In Russian Territory

Russia Dismisses “Smokescreen” Kyiv Offer Of February Peace Talks

The Democrats Are Now The War Party

Russia Intensifies Attacks on Liberated Kherson, Eastern Ukraine

(Another) Putin Critic ‘Falls’ Out Of Window, Dies  They ought to be more careful.

Russia, China Hold Naval Drills, Practice Submarine Capture

SEA TRANSPORTATION: Modernized Multi-Scam Oil Smuggling

Drunk Russian Soldier Beats His Commander to Death (Daily Beast) Nah, I don’t believe that one.

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Mississippi could become the nation’s 10th state to eliminate its personal income tax, with Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) backing differing plans to do away with the levy when lawmakers convene their 2023 session on Jan. 3.

Similar 2023 proposals to erase immediately, or phase-out, state income taxes are also expected to be filed in West Virginia, Arkansas, Iowa, Georgia, North Dakota, Utah, and, perhaps, Wisconsin.

The Economist.

Whatever the economic weather, the sun always seemed to shine on Silicon Valley. America’s five largest technology companies—Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta—saw their revenues and profits grow at five times the rate of American gdp in the decade to 2021. Tech’s ability to thrive as others struggled seemed to be confirmed during covid-19 lockdowns, when firms in the Valley posted record earnings even as much of the economy crumpled.

In 2022 tech’s luck ran out.

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Thank you, minimum wage laws.

Thank you, Union label.

Thank you, progressive activists everywhere.

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

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After posting a record-breaking $250 million bond, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is under house arrest at his mom and dad’s $4 million Palo Alto, Calif., home.

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Cue enviro-Nazis losing their shit.

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On January 1, 2023, copyrighted works from 1927 will enter the US public domain.?1? They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon. These include Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse and the final Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, the German science-fiction film Metropolis and Alfred Hitchcock’s first thriller, compositions by Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller, and a novelty song about ice cream. Please note that this site is only about US law; the copyright terms in other countries are different.

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A commercial airship firm, LTA Research, is building two new airships. Pathfinder one was completed in October 2022 and successfully flight tested. This airship is 120 meters long, can lift 28 tons, including up to 14 personnel and cargo. Cruising speed is 110 kilometers an hour and unrefueled range is over 4,500 kilometers. The larger 180-meter-long Pathfinder 3 is under construction and will be ready in 2023. Because of the low speed and small cargo carrying capacity, the intended mission; delivering aid to natural disaster victims in remote locations, is limited.

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The study authors created customizable wood in their lab from the cells of a flowering plant known as Zinnia elegans, popularly referred to as common zinnia. They claimed their novel approach allowed them to bio-print wooden pieces of any shape and size. This means that if you need a wooden table, you can directly produce a wooden table from the cells.

So no deforestation and no wastage, like what happens in the case of traditional furniture. This was achieved by treating common zinnia cells first with a liquid medium and then with a gel solution. The latter comprised hormones and nutrients.

We have the technology,–allegedly. Let’s see whether it will scale.

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Take whatever action you deem appropriate.

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

Defense & National Security — US plans expansion of training of Ukrainian troops (The Hill)

Russia Vs Ukraine War Update | U.S. To Expand Combat Training For Ukrainian Troops (CNN)

Russia’s ‘Second World War’ Military Tactics Leaving Troops Vulnerable—U.K. (Newsweek)

EU Agrees To 9th Russia Sanctions Package After Fierce Division On Food & Fertilizer

Russia to Double Intercontinental Missile Tests in 2023

Russian Troops in Crimea Battered by Ukrainian Drones

NY Times Columnist’s Bizarre Journey From Iraq Peacenik to Ukraine Warmonger

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Playing through the greenery and litter of a mini forest’s undergrowth for just one month may be enough to change a child’s immune system, according to an experiment in Finland.

When daycare workers rolled out a lawn, planted forest undergrowth (such as dwarf heather and blueberries), and allowed children to care for crops in planter boxes, the diversity of microbes in the guts and on the skin of the young kids appeared healthier in a very short space of time.

Send your kids to Finland. You’ll be glad you did.

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A new cancer vaccine from Moderna is showing breakthrough results in preventing recurrences of melanoma, and could ward off other types of cancer as well, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In a mid-stage clinical trial involving post-surgery patients, the vaccine was paired with Keytruda, an immunotherapy manufactured by Merck. The risk of relapse or death by skin cancer was lowered by 44% from the use of Keytruda alone.

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The party season is in full swing, but nothing kills that festive cheer quicker than a prolonged and painful hangover.

However, a US pharmacist has shared the hangover “cure” she swears is “100 per cent effective” – and those who have put it to the test agree.

Ari, a licenced doctor in LA, revealed she takes vitamin B complex, magnesium and a folic acid supplement alongside an electrolyte drink, claiming it is “single-handedly the most effective way” to beat those awful morning after symptoms.

Describing the concoction as an “oral version of an IV fluid bag”, Ari said it helps ease symptoms of dehydration and replenishes electrolytes.

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Thank you, minimum wage law.

Thank you, Union label.

Too bad for you, low-skilled laborers.

Read it.

he machines are coming for your crops—at least in a few fields in America. This autumn John Deere, a tractor-maker, shipped its first fleet of fully self-driving machines to farmers. The tilling tractors are equipped with six cameras which use artificial intelligence (ai) to recognise obstacles and manoeuvre out of the way. Julian Sanchez, who runs the firm’s emerging-technology unit, estimates that about half the vehicles John Deere sells have some ai capabilities. That includes systems which use onboard cameras to detect weeds among the crops and then spray pesticides, and combine harvesters which automatically alter their own setting to waste as little grain as possible. Mr Sanchez says that for a medium-sized farm, the additional cost of buying an ai-enhanced tractor is recouped in two to three years.

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It isn’t ghost- or football-related. And it isn’t some grand conspiracy, though lots of people saw in the synthetic twilight the effects of 5G radiation or government surveillance, a sign of the times. There’s nothing shady going on here. But still: Streetlights aren’t supposed to spontaneously change color.

So I did a little digging. The mystery of the purple lights appears to be both more mundane and more worrisome than anyone has realized — a mood-indigo check-engine light on the entire infrastructure of modernity. When LED streetlights start changing color for no apparent reason, it’s a visual cue that we might need to rethink, just a bit, how we build the future.

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America’s National Institutes of Health funded a group called EcoHealth Alliance, on multiple occasions, to collaborate on research done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. At least one project consisted of gain of function research on bat coronaviruses. Because of concerns about the dangers of such research, NIH shut it off in 2014, but re-started funding gain of function in 2017, largely at the instance of Anthony Fauci.

From 2014 to 2016, Dr. Andrew Huff worked for EcoHeath Alliance, the latter two years as vice president. He has written a book, which comes out on Monday, titled The Truth about Wuhan: How I Uncovered the Biggest Lie in History. Dr. Huff is not given to understatement.

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Cancer cells delete DNA when they go to the dark side, so a team of doctors and engineers targeted the ‘backup plans’ that run essential cell functions.

Researchers at the University of Michigan and Indiana University have discovered a cancer weakness. They found that the way that tumor cells enable their uncontrolled growth is also a weakness that can be harnessed to treat cancer.

Their machine-learning algorithm can identify backup genes that only tumor cells use, allowing drugs to precisely target cancer.

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In what appears to be the first reported use of Emergency SOS via Satellite, a snowmobiler in Alaska was successfully rescued when he became stranded in an extremely isolated area.

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With 50 spray nozzles and a sophisticated computer system, tractors out in California’s central valley are towing artificially-intelligent robots behind them that look set to launch a fourth revolution in agriculture.

Passing over a field they can specifically target individual weeds and crops at a rate of 20 per second, before blasting them with either de-weeder or fertilizer within a millimeter of accuracy.

Verdant Robotics’ SprayBox robot can identify and treat 500,000 plants per hour while using 95% less chemical weedkiller.

Eventually we will have completely automated farms; companies are already developing small smart tools that are suitable for little acreage and affordable for those whose initials arend ADM.

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A new study reveals that ceramics can be made to bend like metal. This finding could lead to lighter, more efficient engines.

Two words: Body armor.

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Hey, this is serious stuff.

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After several decades, therapeutic cancer vaccines now show signs of efficacy and potential to help patients resistant to other standard-of-care immunotherapies, but they have yet to realize their full potential and expand the oncologic armamentarium. Here, we classify cancer vaccines by what is known of the included antigens, which tumors express those antigens and where the antigens colocalize with antigen-presenting cells, thus delineating predefined vaccines (shared or personalized) and anonymous vaccines (ex vivo or in situ). To expedite clinical development, we highlight the need for accurate immune monitoring of early trials to acknowledge failures and advance the most promising vaccines.

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Last week, Amazon extended buyout offers to hundreds of its recruiters as part of what is expected to be a months-long cycle of layoffs that has left corporate employees across the company angered and on edge. Now, Recode has viewed a confidential internal document that raises the question of whether a new artificial intelligence technology that the company began experimenting with last year will one day replace some of these employees.

According to an October 2021 internal paper labeled as “Amazon confidential,” the tech giant has been working for at least the last year to hand over some of its recruiters’ tasks to an AI technology that aims to predict which job applicants across certain corporate and warehouse jobs will be successful in a given role and fast-track them to an interview — without a human recruiter’s involvement. The technology works in part by finding similarities between the resumes of current, well-performing Amazon employees and those of job applicants applying for similar jobs.

Increasingly, labor costs are coming to be the greatest portion of a business’s expenses, not only monetarily but in terms of exposure to government regulation and labor union agitation. As a result, companies are more and more looking for ways to automate as many jobs as possible.

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New evidence indicates that an effort to stamp out disease-carrying insects is working. The key? Mosquitoes genetically engineered to kill off their own kind.