Earth from Saturn, 900 million miles away
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So who exactly is Christiana Figueres? - by Winter Oak
Illustrating how big business and the numerous western "old boy" and "intelligence" networks are heavily intertwined with so called "eco-activist" and "climate action" groups. Or in the words of Vladimir Leni: "The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves."
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Breathing is coupled with voluntary action and the cortical readiness potential (Nature)
Abstract: Voluntary action is a fundamental element of self-consciousness. The readiness potential (RP), a slow drift of neural activity preceding self-initiated movement, has been suggested to reflect neural processes underlying the preparation of voluntary action; yet more than fifty years after its introduction, interpretation of the RP remains controversial. Based on previous research showing that internal bodily signals affect sensory processing and ongoing neural activity, we here investigated the potential role of interoceptive signals in voluntary action and the RP. We report that (1) participants initiate voluntary actions more frequently during expiration, (2) this respiration-action coupling is absent during externally triggered actions, and (3) the RP amplitude is modulated depending on the respiratory phase. Our findings demonstrate that voluntary action is coupled with the respiratory system and further suggest that the RP is associated with fluctuations of ongoing neural activity that are driven by the involuntary and cyclic motor act of breathing.
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Republican mega-donor buys stake in Twitter and seeks to oust Jack Dorsey - Billionaire Paul Singer has taken a ‘sizable stake’ and intends to ‘push for changes’
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Conversation with Victor Riparbelli - CEO of Synthesia, a player in the Synthetic Media space
#Comment: Shallow bullshit aiming at gluing people even more to their little glowing rectangles, to further accelerate late capitalist hyper consumerism. See my talk on the topic here.
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US Flu Cases Climb to 15 Million With 54 Pediatric Deaths Recorded in 2019-20 Season
Influenza activity in the United States has once more started to increase after falling during the first 2 weeks of 2020. The latest FluView surveillance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that as of January 18, 2020, there have been 15 million cases of flu, 140,000 hospitalizations, and 8200 deaths in the US this influenza season.
#Comment: For some perspective, the flue has killed 8000+ people in the US this year already, and some 40'000 people die in car crashes every year. Where is the according mass panic?! #Health
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Coronavirus side-effect: Transformation of China’s business models, logistics, and service delivery - by Niti Bhan
Just the way the SARs epidemic kicked off China’s e-commerce revolution back in 2003, the ongoing COVID-19 containment strategies maybe triggering an even larger transformation of the Chinese economic ecosystem.
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China has built an antenna five times the size of New York – but at what risk? (NZherald, 2019)
"The exact location of the project has not been disclosed." The Wireless Electromagnetic Method (WEM) project took 13 years to build but researchers said that it was finally ready to emit extremely low frequency radio waves, also known as ELF waves. Although the project has civilian applications – officially it will be used for earthquake and mineral detection and forms part of China's 11th five-year plan – it could also play a crucial role in military communications.
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Down on the Farm That Harvests Metal From Plants (NYTimes)
Nickel-rich sap being taken from a tree in Malaysia "Hyper-accumulating plants thrive in metallic soil that kills other vegetation, and botanists are testing the potential of phytomining. Some of Earth’s plants have fallen in love with metal. With roots that act practically like magnets, these organisms flourish in metal-rich soils that make hundreds of thousands of other plant species flee or die. Slicing open one of these trees or running the leaves of its bush cousin through a peanut press produces a sap that oozes a neon blue-green. "
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Responding to Covid-19 — A Once-in-a-Century Pandemic? - by Bill Gates
"We also need to invest in disease surveillance, including a case database that is instantly accessible to relevant organizations, and rules requiring countries to share information. [...] In addition, we need to build a system that can develop safe, effective vaccines and antivirals, get them approved, and deliver billions of doses within a few months after the discovery of a fast-moving pathogen. "
#Comment: Cause everybody knows, that listening to a tech-industry intel kleptocrat during a global #Health challenge is is clearly the best course of action. Grand #Comedy Bluescreen Bill!
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Towards fungal computer - by Andrew Adamatzky
Abstract: We propose that fungi Basidiomycetes can be used as computing devices: information is represented by spikes of electrical activity, a computation is implemented in a mycelium network and an interface is realized via fruit bodies. In a series of scoping experiments, we demonstrate that electrical activity recorded on fruits might act as a reliable indicator of the fungi’s response to thermal and chemical stimulation. A stimulation of a fruit is reflected in changes of electrical activity of other fruits of a cluster, i.e. there is distant information transfer between fungal fruit bodies. In an automaton model of a fungal computer, we show how to implement computation with fungi and demonstrate that a structure of logical functions computed is determined by mycelium geometry.
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Telescopes detect 'biggest explosion since Big Bang' (BBC)
Scientists have detected evidence of a colossal explosion in space - five times bigger than anything observed before. The huge release of energy is thought to have emanated from a supermassive black hole some 390 million light years from Earth. The eruption is said to have left a giant dent in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster. Researchers reported their findings in The Astrophysical Journal. "I've tried to put this explosion into human terms and it's really, really difficult," co-author Melanie Johnston-Hollitt told BBC News.
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Human Stem Cells Successfully Used To Cure Diabetes In Mice
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that it is possible to use human stem cells to functionally cure diabetes in mice in just a couple of weeks. The treatment kept the disease at bay for at least nine months and up to more than a year in some mice. See the researchers statement here.
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GOGLA - The Voice of the Off-Grid Solar Energy Industry
GOGLA is the global association for the off-grid solar energy industry. Established in 2012, GOGLA represents over 170 members as a independent, not-for-profit industry association. Our services assist the industry to build sustainable markets and profitable businesses delivering quality, affordable off-grid electricity products and services to as many customers as possible across the developing world.
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Dynamic material flow analysis of electronic equipment - Webinar by Esther Thiébaud
pymfa: A Tool for Performing Material Flow Analyses in Python 3
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Evolving the Visual Programming Environment with React - talk by Jonas Gebhardt (2016)
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#Art by David Biskup
