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For all your fez knowledge needs.

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Plasma thrusters have generally been thought of as a means of propulsion in space, but now one has been designed to operate under atmospheric conditions. According to the researchers involved, it’s an air plasma thruster that has the potential to produce the same thrust as a commercial jet engine.

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Researchers in Switzerland have found a new organic light emitting diode (OLED) material that could scale the technology up to inexpensively light entire rooms and homes for the first time. The results come from a new arrangement of copper electrons, CuPCP, that replaces more costly precious metal diodes (PHOLEDs).

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Well, I guess all of our problems are over, then.

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An experimental antibody developed by researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands can defeat coronavirus in a laboratory setting, according to a new study published in Nature Communications Bloomberg, which notes that the antibody – known as 47D11 – neutralized the virus in cell cultures.

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The malaria-blocking bug, Microsporidia MB, was discovered by studying mosquitoes on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya. It lives in the gut and genitals of the insects.

The researchers could not find a single mosquito carrying the Microsporidia that was harbouring the malaria parasite. And lab experiments, published in Nature Communications, confirmed the microbe gave the mosquitoes protection.

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A group of researchers from University of Toronto Engineering and SickKids Hospital have developed a new way to deliver molecules that target specific genes within cells. Their platform, which uses a modified form of diptheria toxin, has been shown to downregulate critical genes in cancer cells, and could be used for other genetic diseases as well.

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For more than 20 years, researchers have tried with limited success to engineer antibodies into new treatments for bacterial and viral infections. Now, a team of scientists has come up with a new approach: fastening together tiny antibodies from llama blood with a type of bacterial super glue. The interconnected antibodies protect mice from two dangerous viruses, and they could subdue other pathogens.

Steve Sailer.

Because you read iSteve to stay current with all the latest Things, you know that axe-throwing is now a Thing. It’s kind of like bowling, a fun after-work indoor recreation, except with more opportunity for mutilation and disfigurement….

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America’s meat processing crisis, mainly triggered by labor shortages and plant closings due to coronavirus spread, is set to unleash a new wave of automation across plants to ease labor and health woes.

Bloomberg Law reports JBS SA, the world’s largest meat producer, is preparing to install robots in slaughterhouses to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 among human employees working on the production line.

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recent paper from China finds that the vast majority of public transmissions of COVID-19 in that country took place on various modes of mass transportation.

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A significant concern that readers should have during an economic collapse and pandemic is food security. We’ve noted over April that troubling news is developing deep inside America’s food supply chain network, suggesting shortages and rapid food inflation could be ahead.

The reason behind the disruptions begins with meatpacking plants across the country are shuttering operations because of virus-related issues. At the moment, we’ve reported at least 10-12 large operations have gone offline in the last several weeks, which could result in pork shortages in the first or second week in May.

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It has nothing to do with psychology and everything to do with supply chains. It helps to explain why stores are still having trouble keeping it in stock, weeks after they started limiting how many a customer could purchase.

In short, the toilet paper industry is split into two, largely separate markets: commercial and consumer. The pandemic has shifted the lion’s share of demand to the latter. People actually do need to buy significantly more toilet paper during the pandemic — not because they’re making more trips to the bathroom, but because they’re making more of them at home. With some 75% of the U.S. population under stay-at-home orders, Americans are no longer using the restrooms at their workplace, in schools, at restaurants, at hotels, or in airports.

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New figures from the UK’s Office of National Statistics show that the number of deaths from flu and pneumonia is three times higher than the total number of coronavirus deaths this year.

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My, what a surprise.

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This is really amazing.

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After reading this, go read Jerry Pournelle’s Oath of Fealty.

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A vaccine for COVID-19 may be available by September, according to Oxford University scientists who are developing the vaccine.

A report in The Times of Israel said the scientists are expected to commence human trials next week for a coronavirus vaccine. A total of 510 people between the ages of 18 and 55 have been recruited to take part in the trial, The Times said, quoting British tabloid The Daily Mail.

He said that she said that he said that she said….

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The natives grow restless.

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This appears to be a very useful device, if you cook. If you don’t, it still looks like a useful device.

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Notice that the first four bullet points in the article are devoted to enforcing Union Rules, i.e. “No, you can’t have it until we’ve wasted months in clinical trials’. They don’t start actually talking about the drug until bullet point 5.

The Cathedral will not let you think for yourself lest you dash your foot against a stone.

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The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has deployed the first high-energy laser weapon system overseas to combat drones for a 12-month field assessment.

During the field assessment, ARFL will evaluate if the directed energy weapon system can be a game-changing capability to defend high-value assets from drone swarms or drone attacks.

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Because Science!

Just don’t call it Chinese….

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We’ve known for a long time that Toyota’s Land Cruisers and Hilux pickup trucks are the go-to vehicles for armed groups of dubious legitimacy. You see them on the news all the time in locations across the Middle East and Africa. But how do these trucks, usually called technicals, make it from Toyota’s factories to the fleets of armed militants?

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

When Popular Science actually writes about, you know, science rather than thinly-disguised proglodyte talking points, it’s actually pretty interesting.

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I’ve now treated several patients with the new cancer gene therapy called CAR-T, but there’s still a lot to learn.

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He must have had dirt on Hillary.

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The enzyme, originally discovered in a compost heap of leaves, reduced the bottles to chemical building blocks that were then used to make high-quality new bottles. Existing recycling technologies usually produce plastic only good enough for clothing and carpets.

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Imagine what it could do for a destroyer — or a cruiser. (I don’t think it’s quite big enough for a carrier.)

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A coronavirus infection usually plays out one of two ways: as an infection in the lungs that includes some cases of what people would call the common cold, or as an infection in the gut that causes diarrhea. COVID-19 starts out in the lungs like the common cold coronaviruses, but then causes havoc with the immune system that can lead to long-term lung damage or death.

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A phone app to tell you what’s actually in stock in local stores. No idea how well it works, but it’s a clever idea.

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“The patients treated at our hospital were all young to middle-aged. Their symptoms were generally mild and included flu-like symptoms like cough, fever and a loss of taste and smell,” explains the other lead author, Prof. Dr. Clemens Wendtner, Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at München Klinik Schwabing, a teaching hospital of LMU Munich. “In terms of scientific significance, our study benefited from the fact that all of the cases were linked to an index case, meaning they were not simply studied based on the presence of certain symptoms. In addition to getting a good picture of how this virus behaves, this also enabled us to gain other important insights, including on viral transmission.”

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Apparently they’re willing to try anything.

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Let’s hope.

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Dirigible airships are like flying cars in their populatiry in science fiction. It will be interesting to see whether they can get these things to work.

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A Venezuelan navy ship fired shots at a German-owned cruise ship on March 30 and rammed into the passenger vessel, leading to the sinking of the warship in the Caribbean.

The Iranian regime-allied Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused the captain of the RCGS RESOLUTE cruise ship of “terrorism and piracy” and sought to force the ship into a new direction on the high seas. The cruise ship, which had no passengers on board and was flying under a Portuguese flag, has a reinforced hull that enables it to sail through ice water.

Oops.

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My, what a surprise.

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t predictably evoked immediate backlash from leaders across Europe and the West, given he’s already long been under scrutiny for allegedly weakening Hungary’s judicial and parliamentary systems in what critics have long complained is a bid for greater ‘authoritarian’ control. From the start, it should be remembered, he was loathed by EU technocrats for rejecting the so-called open door response to migrants and refugees in 2015.

Their basic objection is that he won’t buy into the ‘invade the world, invite the world’ outlook of the EU bureaucracy. (Kinda like Trump.)

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Could, but probably won’t. People don’t want hydrogen for fuel for the same reason they don’t use it in dirigibles any more — it’s explosive and difficult to store.

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1.4 million free e-books (supposedly).

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Don’t ever say we don’t have useful stuff here.

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Some good news for a change.

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German researchers report in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology that they have identified and characterized a strain of bacteria capable of degrading some of the chemical building blocks of polyurethane.

“The bacteria can use these compounds as a sole source of carbon, nitrogen and energy,” said Dr. Hermann J. Heipieper, a senior scientist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ in Leipzig, Germany and co-author of the new paper. “This finding represents an important step in being able to reuse hard-to-recycle PU products.”

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Imperial College London’s Neil Ferguson – who originally estimated 500,000 deaths in the UK due to Coronavirus, now says that the virus will peak in just two or three weeks, and that UK deaths from the disease are now unlikely to exceed 20,000, according to NewScientist.

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If you reach the age of 110 or older, you’re called a supercentenarian and you’re known for having remarkable health. There are only 28 recorded supercentenarians alive in the world today, so when scientists managed to reprogram the cells of a 114-year-old woman for the first time ever, there was cause to celebrate.

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A report released earlier this month outlines steps that the United States can take to become closer to obtaining a commercially-feasible source of fusion power. The report, authored by 300 researchers, hopes to align the fusion community to realize this goal.

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Passed on without  comment.

Scott Adams shows you how.

CDC guidelines say that you need to get tested before being treated, This could take up to five days, and in that time YOU COULD DIE. (Your tax dollars at work.)

The cost of the test is $1000. You might be able to get a free test, and you might not.

The meds (hydrochloroquine and azithromycin, already approved for malaria) cost about $20.

Ace of Spades is on the case.

I love the smell of conspiracy in the morning….

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In case you’re feeling the pinch.