Dear reader, i wish you a wonderful, relaxing, healthy and fun new year! I appreciate your continued support for this blog. If you have any comments, questions or ideas - do reach out!
Dear reader, i wish you a wonderful, relaxing, healthy and fun new year! I appreciate your continued support for this blog. If you have any comments, questions or ideas - do reach out!
Orangutan reaching out to help a Human who is stuck in a river
Recently, amateur photographer Anil Prabhakar captured a fascinating sight in a conservation forest area in Borneo. While on a safari with his friends, the photographer stumbled upon a forest warden who was clearing snakes, the sworn enemy of orangutans, from the river. Just as Prabhakar prepared to take a picture, an orangutan reached out his hand to the man, apparently wanting to help him out. The photos quickly went viral, leaving people in awe of the orangutan’s act of kindness.
The ten points of the Nuremberg Code
The Nuremberg Code is a set of research ethics principles for human experimentation created as a result of the Nuremberg trials at the end of the Second World War.
Roots
Boston Dynamics is back with dancing Robots
The Russian answer to this new Boston Dynamics Video is even more entertaining...
'Electronic amoeba' finds approximate solution to traveling salesman problem in linear time
Researchers have, inspired by the efficient foraging behavior of a single-celled amoeba, developed an analog computer for finding a reliable and swift solution to the traveling salesman problem -- a representative combinatorial optimization problem. (Paper)
Emotional headlines have an impact regardless of the credibility of the source (HU-Berlin)
"Neurocognitive studies by researchers at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) show that headlines with emotional content influence our judgments about other people even when we consider the media source to be untrustworthy."
#Comment: More research by captain obvious. Sadly, this study focuses on "the influence of 'fake news' on the brain", instead of "the influence of 'news' in general (fake or true) as key driver of stress and disorder in the brain."
The Infinity Burial Suit is put on the deceased to cleanse the body and soil of toxins, delivers nutrients from body to surrounding plants, and speed up the decomposing process.
China's Yangtze River Basin to Recover Biodiversity (telesur)
The Asian longest river boasts one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world. However, the protection situation of some rare and unique aquatic species is grim. China began a 10-year fishing moratorium in 332 conservation areas in the Yangtze River basin, which will expand to all the natural waterways of the river and its major tributaries from no later than Jan. 1, 2021. "The biodiversity is recovering in the Yangtze. The species number has so far increased to 79 in the Jiangsu section from 48 at the beginning of 2017," said Zhang Jianjun, the Jiangsu Province's Agriculture Department Deputy Director.
How China’s digital currency will thwart US dollar trap and help the world (SCMP)
"The digital renminbi is a sovereign currency fully backed by the state, does not require a bank account and has full oversight by Chinese banking authorities. Developing countries will embrace the convenience of China’s digital payment systems, which have great poverty-relief potential for the world’s unbanked poor."
#Comment: In summary, highly centralized, total surveillance technocratic money coming east and west - aiming to quantize reality even more.
The Technotronic Era
"In conclusion, there is no conclusion. Things will go on as they always have, getting weirder all the time." - Robert Anton Wilson
"When you drink the water, remember the spring" —Chinese Proverb
Your Credit Score Should Be Based on Your Web History, IMF Says (gizmodo)
#Comment: A related post from a few years ago: "Asshollery of a very refined form".
Barge Haulers on the Volga (1870) - by Ilya Repin (1844 - 1930)