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Business
,Internet
,Technology
,Cyber
Time to Give AI a Rest
Like a lot of people, I too am sick of AI in everything. It’s a useful tool that’s degenerated into nothing more than every company in the world trying to jam the LLM down our thoughts as the next big thing (aka the game change).
I am not alone. See here
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Science
,Medicine
Cause of Lupus Found
Very impressive work by a team of doctors finding cause of the disease Lupus.
We’ve identified a fundamental imbalance in the immune responses that patients with lupus make, and we’ve defined specific mediators that can correct this imbalance to dampen the pathologic autoimmune response,” said co-corresponding author Deepak Rao, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a rheumatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and co-director of its Center for Cellular Profiling.
In the study, the scientists reported a new pathway that drives disease in lupus. There are disease-associated changes in multiple molecules in the blood of patients with lupus. Ultimately, these changes lead to insufficient activation of a pathway controlled by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), which regulates cells’ response to environmental pollutants, bacteria or metabolites. Insufficient activation of AHR results in too many disease-promoting immune cells, called the T peripheral helper cells, that promote the production of disease-causing autoantibodies.
To show this discovery can be leveraged for treatments, the investigators returned the aryl hydrocarbon receptor-activating molecules to blood samples from lupus patients. This seemed to reprogram these lupus-causing cells into a cell called a Th22 cell that may promote wound healing from the damage caused by this autoimmune disease.
Obvious caveats. Any type of drugs to reverse Lupus are a long ways off. What is great is that they landed in Nature which may spark more interest in this area of study.
Source: Northwestern Medicine
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Science
,Medicine
New Drug for Alzheimer's Nears Wider Market Approval
A bit of good news for a Friday
On Monday, the panel unanimously voted that the medicine, developed by Eli Lilly and known as donanemab, appears to be an effective treatment for certain Alzheimer’s patients. The experts also concluded, by an 11-0 vote, that the drug’s benefits outweigh its risks, despite some safety concerns.
Source: Biopharmadive
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Science
,Medicine
New Way to Grow Human Liver Being Trialed
Well this is just down right extraordinary. It would be amazing if this works!
The approach is unusual: researchers injected healthy liver cells from a donor into a lymph node in the upper abdomen of the person with liver failure. The idea is that in several months, the cells will multiply and take over the lymph node to form a structure that can perform the blood-filtering duties of the person’s failing liver.
Source: Max Kozlov writing for Nature
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Science Fiction
Vernor Vinge has passed away
One of my favorite authors has moved on to what’s next (honestly nobody knows).
A Fire Upon the Deep remains one of my favorite stories written by him.
He will be missed on this side for sure.
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Medicine
Whats in a Copy?
Well this certainly does not strike confidence in medical device development. I would think this would be a fixable issue but the fact it’s still present certainly seems like it's being exploited at some level.
Source: William Edmisten Blog
The Hacker News comments are also worth a read: Hacker News
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Technology
,Gaming
And Now DOOM....running on a Toothbrush
Well the train keeps chugging along the “what exactly can we get Doom to run on next tracks…."
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Technology
Battery Passports
While I doubt this would ever take off in the US it’s interesting to see.
The digital documents will be linked to the VIN and a QR code that, when scanned with a digital device, will reveal detailed information about the sources and nature of the raw materials prior to manufacturing, along with post-manufacturing details, such as capacity and condition
Source: Autocar
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Science
Insight into Lupus
Researchers have found what can cause Lupus in children. From the article:
Sometimes a single mutation in our genetic make-up is enough to cause disease. This is also the case with the autoimmune disease lupus. Lupus causes severe inflammation throughout the body and can have a serious impact on the lives of those affected. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin have now discovered a mechanism that can trigger lupus in children. This mechanism regulates the amount of a specific immune receptor that normally recognizes the genetic material of pathogens. If this mechanism is disrupted, receptors accumulate in the immune cells leading to the recognition of the body's own genetic material. As a result, the immune system turns against its own body and causes the systemic inflammation of lupus.
Source: Max-Plance-Gesellschaft
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Science
Finally - What's in Pee
Our long national nightmare is over. Researchers have determined an enzyme is responsible for making our urine yellow.
From the article:
Gut microbes encode the enzyme bilirubin reductase that converts bilirubin into a colorless byproduct called urobilinogen," explained Hall, who has a joint appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. "Urobilinogen then spontaneously degrades into a molecule called urobilin, which is responsible for the yellow color we are all familiar with.
Source: Phys.org
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Science
Cause of Fatigue in Long Covid Patients Found
Well this is some good news. Via the article:
We saw various abnormalities in the muscle tissue of the patients. At the cellular level, we saw that the mitochondria of the muscle, also known as the energy factories of the cell, function less well and that they produce less energy," says Rob Wüst, Assistant Professor at Department of Human Movement Sciences at the VU University. "So, the cause of the fatigue is really biological. The brain needs energy to think. Muscles need energy to move. This discovery means we can now start to research an appropriate treatment for those with long-COVID
Source: Amsterdam UMC
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Health
Phenylephrine determined not to work
Interesting to see this kind of science. A rare win in todays medical landscape for consumers.
Schering-Plough, the maker of Claritin D (loratadine and pseudoephedrine), was already studying phenylephrine as an alternative oral decongestant. In addition to funding two studies that found phenylephrine was no better than placebo when patients with seasonal allergies were exposed to allergens (grass and ragweed) in a controlled chamber, they funded additional research.
Source: Scientific American
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Science Fiction
Space 1999 - The Catacombs - Comprehensive guides to Space 1999
Whilst tunneling on the Internets (a series of tubes), I came across The Catacombs - Comprehensive guides to Space 1999. A breakout of all things Space 1999. I loved the series as a kid. I have even purchased the remastered BlueRay versions. If you have not checked it out I recommend it. Its campy and worth your time if you like science fiction.
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Business
The Death of Microwaves and the Instapot
Some very interesting facts on why microwaves are terrible these days along with the death of the maker of InstaPots.
Source: Moth.Monster
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Technology
Insanity of Airbnb
Now I realize there are always two sides to every story and don’t believe everything you read on the internet. With that said I have read more and more of these stories.
If this is even remotely true, this is utter and totally insanity and should be a huge red flag for Airbnb would be hosts.
Here's the story of how I ended up pregnant and homeless and in over $300,000 of debt after Airbnb guests flooded my home
Source: Coach Erika on X
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Movies
Graham Chapman's Eulogy by Sir John Cleese
Came across this in my digital travels. It's stuff like this that will forever make them legends.
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Science
Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to scientists who laid foundation for messenger RNA vaccines
WELL deserved I might add.
Source: Washington Post
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Cyber
Sony Systems Compromised
Appearing on Kotaku, Sony systems have been supposedly breach by a ransomware gang called Ransomed.vc. The gang has indicated they will be selling the compromised data.
“We have successfully [compromised] all of [Sony’s] systems,” Ransomed.vc proclaimed. “We won’t ransom them! We will sell the data. Due to Sony not wanting to pay. DATA IS FOR SALE. WE ARE SELLING IT.”
Another day of digital life….
Source: Kotaku
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Technology
Ziply Fiber and the MTU Universe
I wanted to put this out there in case some other poor savage goes down this road. Plugging a Ziply fiber connection into a EdgeRouter 4 will most likely see you dropping packets randomly. This is due to the MTU size needing to be adjusted. In my case, the default value in use was 1500. I needed to set it to 1492 to eliminate the issue. I screwed around with numerous equipment swap outs and resets trying to figure out what was going on. I have had to set the MTU for an ISP exactly once in my life (this being it) and I have consulted for a great many years. I have a redundant Internet connection. The failures would see me ping ponging between connections (driving me insane in the process). The fix:
SSH into your router (or CLI in the GUI) and do the following:
configure set interfaces ethernet ethX pppoe X mtu 1492 set firewall options mss-clamp mss 1452 set firewall options mss-clamp interface-type all commit;save
Reboot your router and you should be good. You can also do this in the GUI. Select your WAN interface (via DASHBOARD tab) and click config. You will see the MTU value there. Next, you can go to config tree and then firewall / options / mss-clamp : Enable IPv4 TCP MSS clamping for specified interface types. Set the value of 1452. Save and reboot.
Hope this helps you!
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Technology
Aardvark'd: The Fog Creek Documentary, 18 Years Later
Stumbled across this on the internetz. Interesting documentary on Fog Creek software. Well worth the view.
Source: Michael Lynch Website
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Science
,Nature
Beetle grows ‘termite’ on back to steal food
Just when I thought nature could not get crazier, she proves me wrong yet again.
Richard Pallardy writing for Science.org:
The new beetle species (Austrospirachtha carrijoi)—found beneath the soil in Australia’s Northern Territory—emulates a termite by enlarging its abdomen, a phenomenon known as physogastry. Evolution has reshaped this body part into a highly realistic replica of a termite (as seen above), head and all, which rides on top of the rest of the beetle’s body. The beetle’s real, much smaller head peeks out from beneath its termite disguise, the authors report this month in the journal Zootaxa.
Source: Science.org
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Entertainment
,Gaming
The Return of Alan Wake
The original Alan Wake was released in 2010. Although the game generally got good reviews, I could never get into it much. Remedy, the makers of Alan Wake, also make Control, which I much preferred. The game authors have indicated that Alan Wake is in the same universe as Control and there is even an expansion for Control that included Alan Wake.
Remedy is getting ready for the coming release of a sequel to Alan Wake. Judging from the video for the next-generation console graphics it appears to be highly polished. I may just have to come back to this title.
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Entertainment
Why Cartoon Characters Wear Gloves
Tuesday August 29, 2023 -
Science
Added to the Growing List of "Nope"
Well I shall not lie, this is disturbing.
It was a fairly regular day on the ward for Canberra hospital infectious diseases physician Dr Sanjaya Senanayake, until a neurosurgeon colleague called him and said: “Oh my God, you wouldn’t believe what I just found in this lady’s brain – and it’s alive and wriggling.”
The neurosurgeon, Dr Hari Priya Bandi, had pulled an 8cm-long parasitic roundworm from her patient, prompting her to call on Senanayake and other hospital colleagues for advice about what to do next.
Source: The Guardian
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Science
Paper Cups No Better Than Plastic
Well I guess this makes sense but it would be great if we could get some good news for a change.
Replacing single use plastic cups with paper ones is problematic. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg show that a paper cup that ends up in nature can also cause damage as they also contain toxic chemicals.
Source: University of Gothenburg