Sunday, June 29
Science
Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images
Here are some illuminating scientific discoveries from the week to help you live better and maybe even turn water into wine, and then turn the empty bottle into a hangover remedy.
Orcas were seen using tools in a first for ocean mammals. Seaweed spa treatments are a universal language: Marine biologists witnessed a group of killer whales off the coast of Washington state exfoliating each other with kelp, a practice similar to grooming behaviors that were previously thought to be mostly unique to primates. In the first-ever observed instance of mutual marine grooming, the orcas bit off pieces of seaweed, placed the strips between themselves and another pod member, and then rubbed their bodies together, seemingly to get rid of dead skin and parasites (and to bond). “These are probably the most monitored marine mammals in the world,” the study’s lead author said, so it’s surprising that it took so long to catch them grooming.
E. coli can convert plastic into acetaminophen. Your empty Poland Spring could be upcycled into a headache reliever, according to a new report published this week in Nature Chemistry. In a lab experiment, it took less than 24 hours for a genetically-engineered strain of E. coli to chemically convert 92% of a broken-down plastic water bottle into acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. If you’re wondering why anyone would do this, you may not know that acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol outside the US and Japan) is primarily manufactured from chemicals found in crude oil. Chemists have, in recent years, found greener ingredient alternatives in some trees, and this new discovery could help offset plastic waste.
Mice with two dads have kids of their own. In a major reproductive milestone that could one day help same-sex human couples start their own genetically related family tree, lab mice that were grown from an egg and two different sperm cells have fathered mouse children of their own. The babies were born to female mice that mated with the lab-grown dads. Earlier this year, another research team created mice with two fathers, but they didn’t grow up to be fertile like the new mouse dads. Human applications are unknowably far away because the success rate was very low, but this accomplishment was still a long time coming: Scientists created the first fertile offspring of two mother mice in 2004. Replicating the process for males was more of a challenge.—ML
Robert Reich
Sunday Thought: The One Branch of Government that Trump Wants to Keep Alive
While eviscerating the two others
Friends,
The hardest part of my nights usually occurs around 3 am when my brain starts obsessing about upsetting things, such as what Trump is doing to America.
I’m sure many of you are like me. Our days are filled with all sorts of distractions, but in the wee hours of the morning, we tend to drift back to big and often terrifying realities.
Last night I couldn’t get out of my head that Trump is intent on abolishing the two branches of the government with the constitutional duty to constrain him.
As every American school kid learns, the U.S. Constitution establishes three branches of government that are supposed to check and balance each other.
Every school kid, that is, except Donald Trump and the people around him who have been usurping congressional authority and going to war against the judiciary.
Trump and his lackeys want there to be only one branch of government — the executive branch, under Trump.
At A Glance
Ten films that circumvented Hollywood's mid-century censorship code.
How the fear of the self fuels obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The renaissance in the ancient art of calligraphy.
How much of your life do you actually control?
What makes the B-2 Bomber so sophisticated.
Everything you need to know about the Vietnam War.
Why are subway walls tiled?
Explaining galactic archaeology in 10 minutes.
Gen Z men are driving perfume sales.
How maps were made before modern times.
The stunning advances in observing living cells.
Fanfiction communities want AI off their work.
A method for remembering everything.
How "turn on, tune in, and drop out" became a hippie anthem.
In The NEWS
Trump ends trade talks with Canada over digital services tax.
President Donald Trump said yesterday he is halting trade talks with Canada in response to a new tax on companies making more than $15M off Canadian internet users. The tax, for which first payments will be collected Monday, is estimated to cost US companies up to $3B. Trump said he would inform Canada of the tariff levels he plans to impose within seven days; Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has not responded at the time of this writing.
Son of Norway's crown princess charged with sexual assault.
Marius Borg Høiby, the eldest son of Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit, has been charged by Oslo police with multiple offenses, including rape, sexual assault, and bodily harm, after an investigation involving a "double-digit" number of alleged victims. The 28-year-old Høiby denies most of the accusations. See an overview of the royal family here.
Scientists discover how squids make themselves transparent.
A research team led by scientists at the University of California, Irvine, has revealed how squids manipulate light to shift from transparent to vividly colored. They found cells composed of stacked, spiraling columns of platelets from a protein called reflectin function as reflectors, selectively transmitting and reflecting light at specific wavelengths. The breakthrough could inspire advances in adaptive camouflage, responsive fabrics, and optical technologies.
Fed's preferred inflation gauge rises more than expected in May.
The core personal consumption expenditures price index, which measures costs consumers pay across a wide range of items, excluding food and energy, rose 2.7% year over year and 0.2% month over month. The annualized rate is up 0.1 percentage point from April. The Federal Reserve targets 2% annual inflation. Learn more about the index here.
Lalo Schifrin, composer of the 'Mission: Impossible' theme, dies at 93.
The Grammy-winning Argentine composer passed away from complications of pneumonia. During his career, Schifrin created more than 100 film and television scores. He was best known for composing the "Mission: Impossible" theme's "dun dun dun-dun dun dun" hook, which became a signature for both the original 1960s TV series and the Tom Cruise film franchise.
Tectonic forces may create a new ocean in Africa.
British university researchers say pulsing waves of molten rock deep beneath Ethiopia’s Afar region are slowly stretching and thinning Africa's crust; the motion is guided by the tectonic plates above. Although the continent isn't expected to split for millions of years, growing insights into the relationship between deep Earth pulses and tectonic activity could enhance understandings of surface volcanism and earthquakes.
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Something About Religion
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According to what I remember reading in the Bible, God made heaven and earth in six days and on the seventh day, he rested, hence SUNDAYS.
Why did it take GOD, the ALMIGHTY, seven days to create the universe?
Were each of those days, 24 hours in length?
Did God work at his creation for the entire 24 hours or did he work just a few hours a day?
If he worked straight through, then God worked 144 hours without stopping.
My first question is that if God is God, why did it take him so long?
The stories in the Bible remind me of the stories that I read about Greek, Roman, and Norse Mythology, except those mythologies revolve around many gods and the Bible only talks about one... still the stories are similar.
Special people with special powers coming down from the heavens, trying to influence and control how we live our lives.
Jesus dying on the cross for instance was SYMBOLIC in that through his death, all our sins were overlooked.
One Death for BILLIONS perhaps TRILLIONS of sins given all the people ever born... that is EXCEPT all those people born before JESUS. Those people are SOL.
We are taught by our religious leaders that we are born into SIN and yet, we had no say so in our own birth. If we had a choice in our own birth would we have chosen NOT TO BE BORN? So that we would not be born into sin and therefore have no need for religion or the Bible.
Were we born to justify what was going to be written in the Bible... something like a self-fulfilling prophecy?
We cannot control our own birth and yet we are expected to be able to control our own SINS...
We can also commit sins all our lives and right before our death, ask for forgiveness, and say we believe in Jesus, and we are forgiven...
Lots of death row inmates find religion right before their execution...
<<<The last shall be first and the first shall be last>>>
The ocean is changing colors, researchers say. Here's what it means.
The researchers analyzed satellite data on the open ocean collected from 2003 to 2022 by a NASA instrument that combs through the planet every two days to measure light wavelength, according to the paper.
The presence of chlorophyll in open ocean is a proxy for concentrations of phytoplankton biomass. The colors indicate how chlorophyll concentration is changing at specific latitudes, in which the subtropics are generally losing chlorophyll, and the polar regions -- the high-latitude regions -- are greening, the researchers said.
Green areas became greener, especially in the northern hemisphere, and blue regions "got even bluer," according to a press release by Duke University.
Saturday, June 28
Headline
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| Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images |
Trump ends trade talks with Canada over tech tax. President Trump posted to Truth Social yesterday that the US would be “terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately” and would set new tariffs on Canadian goods within a week. Trump cut off trade negotiations after feeling that US Big Tech companies weren’t experiencing the famous Canadian friendliness because the country is imposing a new digital services tax similar to the one tech giants loathe in Europe. Canada has long been an ally and one of the US’ largest trading partners, but recent US tariffs have raised tensions.
Consumers spent less in May, but were happier in June. Last month, US consumers pulled back for the first time since January, and personal incomes also fell, data released yesterday by the Commerce Department showed. Meanwhile, the personal consumption expenditures price index—the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge—ticked up slightly. But the economic data wasn’t all a bummer, because as the most recent survey results from the University of Michigan revealed, consumer sentiment rose this month, with Americans feeling rosier about their economic future as the initial fears raised by the president’s aggressive tariffs began to subside.
University of Virginia president resigns amid DEI fight. A day after the New York Times reported that the Department of Justice had urged UVA President James Ryan to step down to resolve an investigation into the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, he did just that. “I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job,” he said in a letter to the university community. Ryan, who had led the school since 2018, drew criticism from conservatives for the school’s DEI practices, and the DOJ claimed that the university had failed to comply with a Trump executive order that banned schools with federal funding from having them. The resignation comes as the Trump administration has also put pressure on other universities, including Harvard and Columbia.—AR
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