Protests in Iran

DUBAI, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Protests continued in several cities across Iran on Thursday against the death of young woman in police custody, state and social media reported, as a human rights group said at least 83 people had been killed in nearly two weeks of demonstrations.

Mahsa Amini, 22, from the Iranian Kurdish town of Saqez, was arrested this month in Tehran for "unsuitable attire" by the morality police that enforces the Islamic Republic's strict dress code for women.

Her death has sparked the first big show of opposition on Iran's streets since authorities crushed protests against a rise in gasoline prices in 2019.

"At least 83 people including children, are confirmed to have been killed in (the) #IranProtests," Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based group, said on Twitter.  READ MORE...

Campfire

Rumors of Rumors

Speaking at Università Degli Studi di Napoli Federico II in Naples, Italy, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that not too long from today, people will wonder how they led a life without augmented reality, stressing the "profound" impact it will have on the not so distant future.

At the university, Cook was awarded an Honorary Degree in Innovation and International Management and also sat down for a Q&A session with students. Responding to a question from a student on what future technologies excite him the most, Cook pointed to artificial intelligence, calling it a "fundamental, horizontal technology that will touch everything in our lives," ranging from innovations in the Apple Watch to "many other things" Apple is working on.

Cook, more importantly, stressed his excitement for augmented reality. Cook suggested that augmented reality's impact on the world will be as profound as the internet itself, saying people will wonder how they led a life without it. As he was speaking on augmented reality, the live stream of the Q&A session abruptly cut, so Cook's full comment on the subject is not publicly known.  READ MORE...

Creature

 

Microsoft Faces Scrutiny

Microsoft is nearing a target to employ more than 10,000 workers in China — doubling down on a massive investment in the country despite rising political tensions with the US.

In a little-noticed, Chinese-language WeChat post last week, Microsoft revealed that it has about 9,000 employees in China and expects that number to top 10,000 over the next year. Microsoft appears to not have made the announcement in any English-language media.

“Microsoft will continue to deepen the fertile ground for scientific research, solidly promote the development of computer science and technology applications locally and globally, help to cultivate digital talents and join hands with Chinese innovation to go global,” Microsoft senior vice president Wang Yongdong wrote, according to a translated version of the post.

Microsoft’s new hires — capping three decades of expansion in the Chinese market — put the tech giant in stark contrast to rivals Google and Meta, which appear to have largely abandoned the country in recent years as tensions have soared between Washington and Beijing. US lawmakers from both parties have become increasingly wary of American tech firms doing business in China.  READ MORE...

Sailing

 

This Year

This year is closing in on its own demise as it only has 3 months left to live...  and, what do we, as Americans and citizens of the world have to show for this 2022 year?

• Hurricane IAN in Florida
• Gas prices increasing again
• Food prices continuing to increase
• Unregulated illegal immigration
• Increase in fentanyl in the US
• Companies laying off workers
• Increase in crime and violence
• Attacks on Trump's integrity
• CRT training in public schools
• A WOKE military gaining strength
• Trans males in female sports
• Censorship by mainstream media
• Busing of illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities

Living in East Tennessee, we don't see all the crap in our backyards that is going on in other states and cities...  and, to tell you the truth, we are thankful that we live where we live...  even though it may not be as progressive as Atlanta, Washington DC, Baltimore, New York City, Chicago, Philadephia, Seattle, Los Angeles and other cities that are in a similar situation...

East TN has none of this shit going on and I doubt that it will change because the perception is that East TN does not have much to offer its residents...  we are a bunch of backward rednecks according to our neighbors who live in the north...  I for one am thankful that you see us like that...  because that means you will stay the hell away...

I for one, hold a masters degree and have over 45 years of management experience in the workplace...  I have traveled all over the US and Europe which is not such a big deal but it is probably more than you living in the North have done.  I am a Vietnam Veteran and still hold animosity against my fellow citizens who treated me the way they treated me while I was in the military.  At one time, I had a working knowledge of French, Spanish, and Arabic.  What about you???

Stay away from East TN...  we don't want you here...  we want to keep our backward redneck attitudes to remain like they are...  we are comfortable and have all that we need.  We don't want more money...  what we want if more life as we have it but not your kind of life.

Today is a lawn mowing day ahead of the rain...  Live long and prosper in your wisdom.

Walking to Live Longer

 

I met with my lumbar fusion surgeon yesterday and was reprimanded for all my silly questions that had very little to do with my recovery like asking for therapy to strengthen my legs so I could climb stairs.  The surgeon had bend my legs and lift them up while sitting on the exam table and he pushed them both down effortlessly which mean my core strength is NOT THERE...

My core strength is not there because of my age and my inactivity since 2015 when I retired.  Sitting behind a desk all my working career did not help either.  But, focusing on my back issues, I was having a problem for about 4-5 months before the surgery...  so his advice was for every day down (as he put it), it takes 2-3 to recover.

With this in mind and if I walk every day, it will take me at least 8-10 months and perhaps 12-15 months or somewhere in between those 2 time frames.  Suffice it to say, I am looking at a good 12 months in order for me to return to normacy.  

So far, it has only been 4 months, so I have a good 8 months to go...    my next milestone is going to be at the end of 2022 or December 31, 2022 which is a good 3 months from now or a total of 7 months after surgery...  

However, this milestone is only viable if I am willing to walk a mile or more every day around the neighborhood.

At 75 years of age, this is my new life whether I like it not and will be your life if you don't start walking.

Fat Fish

 

Most Powerful Magnet in China,

China launched construction of the world’s most powerful pulsed magnet facility in the city of Wuhan on Tuesday.


The upgraded pulsed high magnetic field facility at Huazhong University of Science and Technology will produce a short – but extremely strong – magnetic field at 110 Tesla, more than two million times stronger than that of the Earth.


The current record of 100 Tesla for pulsed magnetic field is held by a facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US state of New Mexico.


The strongest pulsed magnetic field that China can generate at present is 70 Tesla.  READ MORE...

Juggling

Nasher Prize for Sculpture

The Nasher Sculpture Center created a special prize in 2015 to celebrate “a living artist who elevates the understanding of sculpture and its possibilities,” and a Black woman is receiving the honor for the first time.

According to The Washington Post, Senga Nengudi, 79, an acclaimed artist whose unique sculptures incorporate nylon pantyhose and other miscellaneous items and spans more than half a century, is the 2023 recipient of the Nasher Prize from the Dallas-based museum.

Nengudi’s work, which has ably addressed the feminist and Black arts movements, is renowned for defying expectations and elevating artistic expression to a new level. 

For example, she once hung “fabric spirits,” fashioned from flag material from fire escapes in Harlem, to represent what she called the souls of the people she encountered there.  READ MORE...

Animal

 

USA Versus Columbia

I boarded a plane holding hands with my mother and fraternal quadruplet brothers at 7 years old. She sacrificed her upper-class life in Bogotá, Colombia, venturing into the unknown as a single parent of four and immigrating to Miami for us to achieve educations in English and dreams in dollars.

Just over two decades later, I've come back for the reason she left: the pursuit of happiness. For my mom, that meant safety and opportunity during a time when our country was considered one of the most dangerous in the world. In certain parts, it still is. I built on her foundation to seek opulence.

"The ones that live there are the ones that can, not the ones that want," my private driver commented while arriving at Poblado, my new neighborhood. I blushed, thinking I was finally included in the elite.

"You can't just give up," my mom said on the phone when I arrived.

But entering my two-bedroom, two-bathroom doorman apartment with a balcony overlooking a city surrounded by mountains did not feel like defeat. I treated myself to dinner at a renowned restaurant and walked out thinking, "How cheap!" The next day, I paid $13 for a manicure and pedicure, then $37 for a facial.

You can't buy happiness, but I suddenly felt the high of power and access that doesn't exist in the US for a freelance writer.

I couldn't afford my lifestyle in New York

TO READ MORE CLICK HERE...

Running Horse on Beach

 

Big Dog

 

Saturn's Missing Moon

Scientists propose a lost moon of Saturn, which they call Chrysalis, pulled on the planet until it ripped apart, forming rings and contributing to Saturn’s tilt. This natural color view of Saturn was created by combining six images captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on May 6, 2012. It features Saturn’s huge moon Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. Below Titan are the shadows cast by Saturn’s rings. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute




According to a new study, a “grazing encounter” may have smashed the moon to bits to form Saturn’s rings.

Swirling around the planet’s equator, the rings of Saturn are an obvious indicator that the planet is spinning at a tilt. The belted gas giant rotates at a 26.7-degree angle relative to the plane in which it orbits the sun. Because Saturn’s tilt precesses, like a spinning top, at nearly the same rate as the orbit of its neighbor Neptune, astronomers have long suspected that this tilt comes from gravitational interactions with Neptune.

However, a new modeling study by astronomers at MIT and elsewhere has found that, while the two planets may have once been in sync, Saturn has since escaped Neptune’s pull. What was responsible for this planetary realignment? The research team has one meticulously tested hypothesis: a missing moon. Their study was published in the journal Science on September 15.  READ MORE...

Momma

Unemployment Will Rise - Lost Jobs

The Federal Reserve escalated its fight against inflation this week, instituting a major rate increase and saying more will likely follow. The moves will cause a jump in the number of unemployed Americans by the end of next year, the central bank said.

The Fed has put forward a series of aggressive interest rate hikes in recent months as it tries to slash price increases by slowing the economy and choking off demand. But the approach risks tipping the United States into a recession and causing widespread joblessness.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday acknowledged that rate hikes would cause pain for the U.S. economy, as growth slows and unemployment rises. He added, however, that "a failure to restore price stability would mean far greater pain later on."

The job losses forecasted by the Fed this week would by the end of 2023 raise the unemployment rate from its current level of 3.7% to 4.4%. That outcome would add an estimated 1.2 million unemployed people, according to Omair Sharif, the founder of research firm Inflation Insights.  READ MORE...

Bird Attack

Ancient City of Palmyra

ARCHAEOLOGISTS CONDUCTING A STUDY TO ESTIMATE THE MAXIMUM PRODUCTIVITY OF THE LAND AROUND PALMYRA ARE REVEALING NEW INSIGHTS THAT QUESTIONS THE HISTORICAL NARRATIVE.

Palmya is located in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date an early settlement to the Neolithic period, with the first documented mention of the city dating to the early 2nd millennium BC.

Palmyra’s wealth was generated through a system of trade networks, funding the construction of monumental projects such as the Great Colonnade, the Temple of Bel, and the distinctive tower tombs.  READ MORE...

Sea Lion

 

Some of the Best

Downstairs

 

AI Generated Art

As interest grows for AI-assisted artwork programs like DALL-E, so do the controversies surrounding their legal and ethical implications. The newest example of this nebulous realm might be its thorniest yet. As Ars Technica and elsewhere reported yesterday, New York-based artist Kris Kashtanova claims to be the first known artist to receive a US copyright registration for Zayra of the Dawn, a graphic novel featuring latent diffusion AI-assisted artwork.

“I was open how it was made and put Midjourney on the cover page. It wasn’t altered in any other way. Just the way you saw it here,” Kashtanova wrote in an announcement posted to Instagram last week. “I tried to make a case that we do own copyright when we make something using AI. I registered it as visual arts work. My certificate is in the mail and I got the number and a confirmation today that it was approved.” Kashtanova also noted that they first got the idea to show that artists “do own copyright when we make something using AI” from a “friend lawyer.”

Earlier this year, the US Copyright Office ruled against awarding copyrights to AI systems themselves. “The courts have been consistent in finding that non-human expression is ineligible for copyright protection,” the Office reasoned in February, citing previous cases involving attempts to copyright based on “divine inspiration,” as well as that time someone tried to secure copyright protection for a monkey selfie.

Right now, there is a big distinction between granting copyright solely to an AI learning system and granting the same licensing rights to a human who collaborated with an AI learning system on their project, as is the case right now with Kashtanova’s Zayra of the Dawn. That said, critics have already noted that the graphic novel’s title character bears more than a passing resemblance to the actress, Zendaya. Generative image AI programs often rely on celebrities for human references since there are so many widely available photos of them. This usually happens without said celebrities’ knowledge or consent.  READ MORE...

Dirt Bike

Super Earths Are Common

Astronomers now routinely discover planets orbiting stars outside of the solar system – they’re called exoplanets. But in summer 2022, teams working on NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite found a few particularly interesting planets orbiting in the habitable zones of their parent stars.

One planet is 30% larger than Earth and orbits its star in less than three days. The other is 70% larger than the Earth and might host a deep ocean. These two exoplanets are super-Earths – more massive than the Earth but smaller than ice giants like Uranus and Neptune.

I’m a professor of astronomy who studies galactic cores, distant galaxies, astrobiology and exoplanets. I closely follow the search for planets that might host life.

Earth is still the only place in the universe scientists know to be home to life. It would seem logical to focus the search for life on Earth clones – planets with properties close to Earth’s. But research has shown that the best chance astronomers have of finding life on another planet is likely to be on a super-Earth similar to the ones found recently.  READ MORE...

Slow Moving

Letting Hair Go Gray

Caring for your hair properly requires life-long learning. Seemingly every decade, your strands undergo a major change, whether that's puberty, pregnancy, or the natural aging process. But one of the most jarring transitions is when the grays start growing in faster than you can color them, and it feels like you're at the salon for a touch-up every two weeks. At that point, you may wonder: should I stop dying my hair? If you need an added push, read on to hear from hair stylists about the key benefits of letting your hair go gray. Their arguments just might persuade you to cancel your next trip to the salon.

It's a simple fact: if you stop dying your hair, it will become healthier. Just think about what happens when you color your strands. According to Healthline, applying dye lifts the hair's protective proteins so the chemicals can penetrate the strand and change its color. While this might result in a dazzling hue, it weakens the hair, which can cause brittleness, dryness, and overall thinning.

According to Ghanima Abdullah, cosmetologist and hair expert for The Right Hairstyles, this is especially true of dying gray hair, which is already more fragile than fully pigmented hair. Grow your hair out in its natural hue, and you'll likely notice a dramatic improvement in its look, feel, and the level of maintenance it requires.  READ MORE...

Black & White Fish