tingilinde

don't be a sucker

I"ve posted this several times..  it's even more relevant now than it was in 1947 .. or even a few years ago

a mathematician's cancer

Hannah Fry has made a video on dealing with her cancer.  It's going to be shown in the UK shown and the claim is it's unique and terrific.  (she's a great math communicator)  Here's a piece on it. (I don't subscribe and was kept out by a paywall on my desktop, but it worked on my phone..  your mileage may vary)

 

ah baseball

Always something controversial - this time it's the ball's grip.

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Generations of big leaguers have played with baseballs that are sewn by hand with leather that is a product of its own distinct environment. The baseballs have never been identical. But thanks to the widespread availability of spin rate, exit velocity and ball flight data, this generation of big leaguers knows exactly how much those inconsistencies impact performance.

If the seams are lower than usual and a pitcher snaps off a curveball with a slightly lower spin rate than average and that curveball gets hit, was it the pitcher? Or was it the ball? How much should a pitcher be expected to adapt to the ball versus working around it?

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the private putin

The wall around something he's focused on protecting is beginning to crumble.

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Mr. Putin is more than just a protective father who, as he has said, wanted to give his daughters a normal life and considered their safety a matter of national security. A former K.G.B. operative steeped in the agency’s ways of subterfuge, disinformation and the Janus-like ability to present different selves depending on the situation, he has shrouded his personal life in secrecy and wrapped it in rumor.

He has two officially recognized daughters from his first marriage, but according to independent Russian news outlets and unverified international news reports, he may have four more children with two other women. Yet even his acknowledged daughters, now approaching middle age, are so hidden as to be unrecognizable on a Moscow street. His former wife, whom some biographers believe he married to improve his chances of entering the bachelor-resistant K.G.B., essentially vanished from view even before they divorced.

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ticks

Global warming is expanding their range in North America.  Some can be quite nasty - the Lone Star tick can trigger a violent meat allergy.

 

the mystery of the buried owl

A long running puzzle in France.

by the title those who know her may have guessed Lynn sent the link

 

a boost for rna world

There are a number of ideas for the origin and evolution of very early life.  All have some issues, but the RNA-world hypothesis received a boost. 

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According to the new theory, a decisive element at the beginning was the presence of RNA molecules that could adorn themselves with amino acids and peptides and so join them into larger peptide structures. "RNA developed slowly into a constantly improving amino acid linking catalyst," says Carell. This relationship between RNA and peptides or proteins has remained to this day. The most important RNA catalyst is the ribosome, which still links amino acids into long peptide chains today. One of the most complicated RNA machines, it is responsible in every cell for translating genetic information into functional proteins. "The RNA-peptide world thus solves the chicken-and-egg problem," says Carell. "The new idea creates a foundation upon which the origin of life gradually becomes explicable."

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college life in the pandemic

The students aren't ok.  This squares with comments from four professors I know.

 

 

ghosts in the gut

An unusual attack for the virus .. a friend of ours was devastated by an attack in her lower intestine.  You really don't want your BMI to drop below 12 and have problems with almost all foods except for a few liquids made for cancer patients.  Oh - and she's only 30. 

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

 

on long covid

Symptoms up to two years later.

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A pair of new studies describe the effects of long COVID, with one estimating that half of hospitalized patients have at least one persistent symptom 2 years after infection, and the other revealing a fourfold higher risk of abnormal blood clotting in survivors struggling with basic physical activity more than 12 weeks after diagnosis.

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a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

in their own words

truth here

 

the mind of a dog

a fun piece from the Aspen Ideas Festival -- if you only listen to a few minutes, start at the four minute mark 

 

ApJ papers on EHT observation of Sgr A*

If you're interested in the Event Horizon Telescope announcement yesterday, you're probably into these already ..  but here they are 

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We present the first image of the Galactic Center black hole, Sagittarius A*. Identified nearly 50 years ago as the nearest supermassive black hole candidate and among the most studied astrophysical objects, Sgr A* is the ultimate laboratory for black hole astrophysics. In six papers, the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration presents observations, images, and analysis that spark new insights into accretion, outflow, and gravitational physics on scales not accessible through any other observation. These results are the culmination of a multi-year effort by the EHTC and a decades-long journey by the astronomy community to approach the event horizon through high-resolution imaging.

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this week's cover of the british medical journal, the lancet