Paranoid Trump staffers find a plastic toy — call police thinking they are "bugged"
Carla Sinclair / 11:52 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Evan El-Amin/Shutterstock.com
MAGA staffers quickly jumped to conclusions last week, calling police after they heard a beeping noise and saw an unusual item underneath one of the office desks.
"FOUND POTENTIAL LISTENING DEVICES // HEARD BEEPING BY DESKS // INTERNAL SECURITY ALSO FOUND DEVICE," said the report via The New York Times after police rushed to the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee offices. The report also stated that one of the staffers ""THINKS THEY HAVE FOUND LISTENING DEVICES 'BUGS; IN THE OFFICE.'"
Turns out, the alarming "devices" that the terrified Trumpers found were just cheap plastic toys sold on Amazon for $13.97.
What a prankster's paradise! Who better to trick than a bunch of paranoid Qnuts prone to Big Lies and conspiracy theories?
From The New York Times:
Devices were found on Thursday after people heard beeping under a staff member's desk at the Trump campaign offices. When Trump officials searched, they found additional devices, for a total of three. …
Despite the police presence, officials determined quickly that the devices were likely a prank. No one has owned up to the prank, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. …
The police report said that "about fifty employees evacuated the suites." The security official who works for the offices in the building told the police he believed "the devices were part of a prank. The suites were canvassed for any additional devices and evidence yielding negative results," according to the document.
Previously: Televised stunt reveals MAGA's cult-like defense of fake depraved Trump recordings
Clip of "childless cat lady" Taylor Swift sure to trigger JD Vance (video)
Carla Sinclair / 10:43 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Image: Taylor Swift; The Tonight Show
Resurfaced video of Taylor Swift is sure to trigger pussy-fearing JD Vance in the cattiest of ways.
Swift proved to be quite the cat connoisseur in 2022 when Jimmy Fallon asked her to name as many cat breeds as she could in 30 seconds. And boy, did she nail it! (See video below.)
And what better way to knock scaredy-cat Vance off his well-worn couch than by replaying a clip of the most famous "childless cat ladies" of them all?
Via Patriot Takes
Previously: Usha Vance defends husband's weird "cat ladies" insult on Fox News
Song Pong: Syncing Pong to Music with Math
Mark Frauenfelder / 10:40 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
In the first issue of his newsletter, Victor Tao writes about his latest music visualizer, Song Pong:
Lately I've been experimenting with music visualizers. One of my favorites is inspired by the classic arcade game pong. In classic pong a ball bounces off of paddles in a steady rhythm. What if we synchronize the bounces to the beat of a song, making the paddles dance?
To make this possible we alter the physics of the game so that the ball moves at a constant speed, and paddles can move anywhere on their respective halves of the screen.
Here's the visualizer handling the William Tell Overture:
Previously:
• A trippy program that makes you the DJ of your own art
• Ferromagnetic liquid 'dances' to music
This Corgi named Archie does the best rendition of the "demure" trend!
Jennifer Sandlin / 10:23 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
I'm sure you've seen the "demure" trend that's exploded all over the internet lately. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a quick overview, courtesy of The Media Leader:
The phenomenon began in early August when TikTok creator Jools Lebron posted a seemingly simple video. In it, she models her "demure" workplace-friendly makeup, complete with understated eyeliner and face-framing braids. What made the video stand out wasn't just the look—it was Lebron's signature blend of exaggerated poise and deadpan humor as she declared, "Very demure. Very mindful."
The video went viral and has inspired many others to create their versions. The Media Leader explains:
The video quickly gained traction, racking up over 45 million views. According to the platform's analytics, the hashtag #demure has since been shared over 400,000 times on TikTok, and "Very demure, very mindful" has become a catchphrase you can't escape. Whether it's applying makeup or sipping water, Lebron transforms mundane activities into hilarious demonstrations of decorum, all while skewering societal expectations, particularly in the workplace.
I don't really mind seeing all of videos from folks creating their own versions, but if you don't have time to watch them all, I watched a bunch and have found the best one, for your viewing pleasure! You're welcome!
This one features an adorable Corgi named Archie, of course, who shows off how incredibly demure he is. The voiceover on the video says:
You see the way I give my paw? Very demure, very mindful. I don't do too much. I don't put my paw up so high in the air. I'm cutesy with it. I'm very demutesy, very demure.
Previously:
• Doggo's hilarious struggle to escape his blanket (video)
Clearview AI fined by Dutch government over "illegal" face database
Rob Beschizza / 10:15 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
prosopagnosia symptoms
Clearview AI, one of the shadiest outfits in a sketchy business, is to be fined by Dutch privacy regulators over making and maintaining a database of nationals' faces without their knowledge or consent.
The Netherlands' Data Protection Agency, or DPA, also warned Dutch companies that using Clearview's services is also banned.
The data agency said that New York-based Clearview "has not objected to this decision and is therefore unable to appeal against the fine."
But in a statement emailed to The Associated Press, Clearview's chief legal officer, Jack Mulcaire, said that the decision is "unlawful, devoid of due process and is unenforceable."
Clearview's position is simple: it doesn't have any legal presence in the EU, won't pay the fine, and has no plans to subject itself to the GDPR or other local rules. It has, however, been brought to heel in the U.S.
In June, Clearview reached a settlement in an Illinois lawsuit alleging its massive photographic collection of faces violated the subjects' privacy rights, a deal that attorneys estimate could be worth more than $50 million US. Clearview didn't admit any liability as part of the settlement agreement.
If there's any consolation, it's that the tech is more useful for grifting law enforcement agencies than for actually surveilling anyone.
Stevie Wonder's new song, "Can We Fix Our Nation's Broken Heart"
Ruben Bolling / 9:42 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Screengrab: Republic Records / YouTube.com
Stevie Wonder, who hasn't released a new album in almost 19 years, just released his first new single in four years, "Can We Fix Our Nation's Broken Heart."
"The track is a tender plea for unity built around dextrous acoustic guitars and a melange of light percussion, while Wonder also laces it with piano, bass, harmonica, and more. Despite the multitudes this arrangement contains, Wonder's voice and message remain front-and-center as he sings, "We've come together with purpose far bigger than you and me/Don't have no time for hatred and negativity/It's you and me, we hold the key/So tell me please, can we fix our nation's broken heart?"
"Can We Fix Our Nation's Broken Heart" feels like a fitting tune for an election year, and it actually marks Wonder's first new music since the last presidential election cycle in 2020. That year, he dropped three songs, "Real Love" with Byron Miller and Walter Beasley, "Where Is Our Love Song" with Gary Clark Jr., and "Can't Put It In the Hands of Fate" with Rapsody, Cordae, Chika, and Buster Rhymes."
On August 21, he appeared at the Democratic National Convention. Before he performed his 1973 hit "Higher Ground," he made a short speech in which he expressed sentiments that would be featured in his new single:
"This year, I prayed very hard for peace to come to our world's nations, but also to each one of our hearts, even though our hearts have been beaten and broken beyond prayer. I know the importance of action, and now is the time to understand where we are and what it will take to win. Win the broken hearts, win the disenchanted, win the angry spirits — now is the time.
This is the moment to remember when you tell your children where you were and what you did. … We must choose courage over complacency. It is time to GET UP and go vote!"
Trump suing over scathing "Apprentice" movie as 1st clip drops today (video)
Carla Sinclair / 9:22 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Image: Scene from The Apprentice; Rotten Tomatoes
Teaser footage of The Apprentice — the upcoming movie about Donald Trump in the 1970s when he was still just a young convict-in-the-making — dropped today (see below). Meanwhile, the real Trump is trying to kill the film before its pre-election release next month.
"We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers," Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast. "This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked."
The threats haven't dampened filmmaker Ali Abbasi's enthusiasm as he prepares for the movie's release, tentatively set for October 11. "Soooo excited to show the movie to its home audience!!! America here we come," he announced on X last Friday.
From The Daily Beast:
Despite Donald Trump's efforts to shut down the soon to be released Ali Abbasi film The Apprentice, the film is still drumming up buzz as a new clip dropped Tuesday that shows the former president decades prior (Sebastian Stan), as he's coached through an interview by his late friend and lawyer Roy Cohn (played by Succession's Jeremy Strong)….
The Apprentice follows a young Trump as he starts his New York real estate business in the 1970s and 80s, with the help of infamous lawyer Roy Cohn, who died in 1986 and was said to be largely responsible for Trump's rise to power. The film has received largely positive reviews from critics, many of whom highlighted a controversial rape scene between Trump and his first wife Ivana….
Partial financier, Trump ally, and billionaire Dan Snyder was so put off by Trump's depiction in the film that he tried to prevent it from releasing in U.S. theaters, but had his investment in the film bought out as the movie moves forward with its release as planned—and just before the election. Director Ali Abbasi celebrated Friday with a post on Twitter/X: "Soooo excited to show the movie to its home audience!!! America here we come."
Trump, on the other hand, has vowed to sue the filmmakers…
Previously: • Trump sues co-founders of Truth Social company in an attempt to seize their shares
• Donald Trump sues Facebook, Twitter, Google and their CEOs
• Donald Trump is suing my publisher, and its response is magnificent
NaNoWriMo endorses AI, faces backlash, and struggles to clarify
Thom Dunn / 8:55 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
spinetta/shutterstock.com
National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, is an annual online literary festival that is celebrated every November. As the name suggests, the idea is to write a novel in a month. Not a good novel, necessarily, but the idea is to just put pen to paper (or finger to keypad) and get it done. There's a large online community of fellow writers who cheer each other on, offering year-round tips and support for completing this marathon task best.
Starting in 2005, a group of NaNoWriMo organizers incorporated into an official non-profit entity. And it's that organization that recently published a new official FAQ post regarding the use of generative AI by writers attempting to complete a full novel in the month of November. The organization not only expressed its full-throated support of the use of AI (which is largely trained off of the uncompensated labor of other writers who have completed novels), but also offered up a frankly bizarre justification for this decision, writing:
The categorical condemnation of Artificial Intelligence has classist and ableist undertones, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege.
The FAQ then goes into detail about these "privilege" claims, explaining how, actually, there are plenty of valid reasons why some people are unable to write a novel, including time commitments and mental ability, and that it's unfair to exclude those people from participating in something specifically designed to force people to commit their time and mental energy into creating a novel, regardless of quality.
This is quite an evolution from the organization's previously stated policy, which said:
If using AI will assist your creative process, you are welcome to use it. Using ChatGPT to write your entire novel would defeat the purpose of the challenge, though.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this new position has led to a huge backlash, with some board members and established authors resigning. In the wake of this backlash, the NaNoWriMo board has since added an update to its FAQ in an attempt to clarify its position further:
Note: we have edited this post by adding this paragraph to reflect our acknowledgment that there are bad actors in the AI space who are doing harm to writers and who are acting unethically. We want to make clear that, though we find the categorical condemnation for AI to be problematic for the reasons stated below, we are troubled by situational abuse of AI, and that certain situational abuses clearly conflict with our values. We also want to make clear that AI is a large umbrella technology and that the size and complexity of that category (which includes both non-generative and generative AI, among other uses) contributes to our belief that it is simply too big to categorically endorse or not endorse.
Okay then. I'm sure you're covering your asses for some potential financial investments from a generative AI startup that's eager to scrape the words of your participants or anything like that.
NaNoWriMo and AI Clash [Samantha Cole / 404media]
NaNoWriMo 2024 AI Controversy Explained [Klein Felt / The Direct]
Previously:
• Sf writers on writing, for Nanowrimo
Large study finds no link between cellphones and cancer
Rob Beschizza / 8:20 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Michael McKean as EM-sensitive Chuck McGill in Better Call Saul
The largest study so far conducted into cellphone use and and noggin cancers found no link between them, reports the World Health Organization: "We concluded the evidence does not show a link between mobile phones and brain cancer or other head and neck cancers." Slap that slab against your ear!
Led by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (Arpansa), the systematic review examined more than 5,000 studies from which the most scientifically rigorous were identified and weak studies were excluded.
The final analysis included 63 observational studies in humans published between 1994 and 2022, making it "the most comprehensive review to date", the review lead author, associate prof Ken Karipidis, said.
Phones on heads are a notably strong source of electromagnetic energy in our everyday presence. This therefore adds to the body of evidence generally availing against non-ionizing EM as a cause of ailments.
"I think people should feel reassured by this study … but it's worthwhile just remembering that the studies aren't perfect, but the weight of evidence certainly is that mobile phones should be considered safe to use in terms of any concerns about increased risk of cancer," Driscoll said.
Maybe it was Cuban directed energy weapons.
Cop-killing drug kingpin freed by Trump jailed for choking wife
Mark Frauenfelder / 8:19 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Domestic assault and strangulation arrest warrant for Jaime A Davidson, a drug dealing cop-killer freed by Donald Trump in 2021
Jaime A. Davidson, a convicted cop-killing drug kingpin whose life sentence was commuted by former President Donald Trump on his last day in office in 2021, was convicted of domestic violence in 2024, according to an explosive new report by investigative journalist Judd Legum.
From the report:
Davidson was convicted of the murder of Wallie Howard Jr., who was working undercover as a federal agent. Howard was shot in the back of the head in a Syracuse, New York, grocery store parking lot in 1990. According to authorities, Davidson was a drug kingpin in New York and recruited three men to rob Howard of $42,000 that Howard planned to use to buy four pounds of cocaine.
Robert Lawrence, a teenager at the time, testified at trial that Davidson handed him a .357 revolver hours before he shot Howard. Although Davidson was not present when Howard was killed, prosecutors successfully argued that Howard's death was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the robbery planned by Davidson.
On July 2, 1993, Davidson was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Two years after Trump released him, Davidson strangled his wife:
Chang testified that Davidson got up and "grabbed me by the neck with his left hand and choked me." She told him to "let me go because I can't breathe." Chang said that Davidson grabbed her very hard, and when "I tried to release myself using two hands, I couldn't." According to Chang, she "felt weak, and my body started feeling cold." Chang said she "thought she was going to die" and "the only thing I could think of was my child who was in the other bedroom." The prosecution introduced photographs showing red marks when Chang said Davidson's nails dug into her skin.
In MAGA land, law and order means commuting the sentences of people whose actions are driven by greed and violence.
Arizona State Senator cheers on right-wing Germans with the Nazi theme song
Jason Weisberger / 8:00 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Image: Everett Collection / shutterstock.com
Arizona's Wendy Rogers celebrated the hard right election win in Germany with the banned-in-German lyrics from the Nazi anthem.
This comment would have been career-ending for a politician twenty years ago, and now Rogers has made the comment twice. It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see how it plays out for her:
Previously:
• 'Who Goes Nazi?' This 1941 spot-the-fascist game could come in handy soon
Get ready for LEGO board games!
Gail Sherman / 7:50 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Photos: Lego
LEGO conquered the video game space and is now coming for your board games.
LEGO launched a line of board games in 2009, but they got mixed to poor reviews, sold poorly, and were discontinued in 2013. Most games were overly simplistic, as Lego thought kids would want to create and play with their own "house rules." This time, LEGO has partnered with game publisher Asmodee and used experienced board game designers to make LEGO Monkey Palace.
In the game, you and your fellow monkeys attempt to rebuild the Monkey Palace using an assortment of Lego pieces. You earn monkey credits to buy cards that give you more pieces and earn you banana points at the end of the game.
The rules may seem complicated if you haven't experienced modern tabletop games. This may turn off some Lego enthusiasts, but it looks like the sort of game that makes more sense as you play.
One of the optional rules incorporates one of the adorable frogs that are used for the pink leaves in the Lego Bonsai set
Previously:
• Fortnite LEGO: the Loot Llama, Battle Bus and more
Democrats question Trump about that illegal donation from Egypt
Jason Weisberger / 7:45 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Photo credit: Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.com
Democratic leaders on the House Oversight Committee shared a letter asking indicted for espionage Donald Trump if he ever illegally received money from the government of Egypt.
A couple of weeks ago, word came out that the President of Egypt wanted to funnel $10 million to Donald Trump while he was President, and it looked like he might have. Either a bribe, or an illegal campaign donation, neither was really followed up on in the media, and the story seemed to disappear. In all likelihood, Trump's team will pretend the letter was never received, but maybe he'll rant about it on his diminutive social network.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the committee, and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on its National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs subcommittee, wrote to Trump that they were making the request as a result of a Washington Post article published last month. The article revealed details of a secret Justice Department investigation during Trump's presidency into whether he took an illegal campaign contribution from Egypt.
As members of the House minority, Raskin and Garcia do not have the power to subpoena documents or witnesses, and Trump is under no obligation to respond to their inquiries. But the Democrats said the public deserves answers now that Trump is running for president again.
"Surely you would agree that the American people deserve to know whether a former president — and a current candidate for president — took an illegal campaign contribution from a brutal foreign dictator," the letter signed by the two Democrats reads. "Accordingly, we request that you immediately provide the Committee with information and documents necessary to assure the Committee and the American public that you never, directly or indirectly, politically or personally, received any fund from the Egyptian president or government."
Previously:
• Trump forgets he tried to have Mike Pence killed
Man with perfect pitch tackles household appliances
Jennifer Sandlin / 6:52 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Image: YozikKoshechkin / shutterstock.com
Meet Kevin Garner, a man with perfect pitch. His talents are constantly being put to the test in seemingly useless but highly entertaining ways, such as determining the exact pitch of various random household items.
In this video, he demonstrates his talents by correctly guessing the pitch of a microwave, toaster, air conditioning unit, vacuum cleaner, and blow dryer. And here he tackles a pan, mug, jar of avocado oil, electric toothbrush, and bouncing ball. He's also tried his skills with various "body noises" like burps, coughs, hand claps, whistles, screams, nose-blowing, and more. I'm always so amazed by people with perfect pitch, and these videos are super fun (and impressive!) to watch.
Kevin also puts his talents to better use as a singer and songwriter. In his IMDB bio, Garner explains that in the seventh grade he discovered he had perfect pitch. He continues:
. . . his teachers advised him to train and develop it. Throughout his years in high school, Kevin invested his time sharpening his skills in musical theatre, pop singing, songwriting, and learning more instruments every day. He is proficient in 20+ instruments.
Previously:
• Perfect pitch defeats auto-racing cheaters
NIH cancels 'Havana syndrome' research because the CIA forced people to participate in it
Rob Beschizza / 6:49 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Havana. Image: Depositphotos
The National Institutes for Health has abruptly ended its study of "Havana Syndrome" after it learned that the CIA forced people to participate in it. Though the agency isn't named in the NIH's announcement, CNN reports that "some of the people who reported being sick previously claimed that the CIA made them join the research as a prerequisite for getting health care."
"They wanted us to be a lab rat for a week before we actually got treatment at Walter Reed — and at bare minimum, that is unethical and immoral," Marc Polymeropoulos told CNN in May.
Polymeropoulos, a former CIA officer who says he has been sick, is an advocate for those struck by what the US government calls "anomalous health incidents." He said in May that he believes that participation in this research was "ordered" by senior leadership at the CIA.
In March, the CIA issued a statement that denied that people were required to participate. The agency did not respond to CNN's request for comment Friday.
Forced participation in a study is considered highly unethical and is extremely uncommon, ethicists say.
Havana Syndrome—a mysterious collection of ailments suffered by U.S. personnel serving at embassies abroad—is widely thought to be a somatic disorder. Hyped by credulous national security reporters as caused by electromagnetic weapons (or other tall tales from three-letter agencies), the whole saga is now so murky that to discuss it at all is to juggle conspiracy theories.
Previously:
• New podcasts about 'Havana Syndrome'
• US intelligence officer's crazy memoir features Havana syndrome, psychic powers, amnesia, and a mysterious Air Force program
• CIA: Havana Syndrome 'unfounded'
• After years of bullshit, government concludes 'Havana Syndrome' is bullshit
• 'Sonic attacks' on US embassy in Cuba may actually have been insecticide poisoning
• U.S. Senator: 'directed energy attacks' responsible for so-called Havana Syndrome
Is this color blue?
Rob Beschizza / 6:21 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Is my blue your blue, by Patrick Mineault, a neuroscience and AI researcher, is a simple questionnaire that poses complex questions about color perception. It shows you colors, and you tell it whether it's showing green or blue.
Color perception is tricky to measure–vision scientists use specialized calibrated equipment to color perception. Graphic designers use physical color cards, such as those made by Pantone, so that they can communicate colors unambiguously. Here we use your monitor or phone to test how you categorize colors, which is far from perfect.
The validity of the inference is limited by the calibration of your monitor, ambient lighting, and filters such as night mode. Despite these limitations, the results should have good test-retest reliability on the same device, in the same ambient light, which you can verify by taking the test multiple times. If you want to compare your results with friends, use the same device in the same ambient light.
Here's my result:
If I were simply asked to draw that boundary, I think I might have have put it a little to the left, and I'm certain the place I put it would change a little every day.
Wizardry co-creator Andrew Greenberg dead at 67
Rob Beschizza / 6:13 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Screenshot: Robert Woodhead
Andrew Greenberg, co-creator of classic Wizardry series of computer RPGs with Robert Woodhead, is dead at 67. Among the most influential game designers, their 1981 hit defined an emerging genre and led to seven official sequels and countless spinoffs, homages, derivatives and competitors. No prizes for guessing where the evil wizard Werdna got his name.
Wizardry began as a simple dungeon crawl by Andrew C. Greenberg and Robert Woodhead. It was written when they were students at Cornell University and published by Sir-Tech. The game was influenced by earlier games from the PLATO system, most notably Oubliette. The earliest installments of Wizardry were very successful, as they were the first graphically-rich incarnations of Dungeons & Dragons-type gameplay for home computers. The release of the first version coincided with the first wave of Dungeons & Dragons' popularity in North America. … The first five games in the series were written in Apple Pascal, an implementation of UCSD Pascal. They were ported to many different platforms by writing UCSD Pascal implementations for the target machines.
There from the beginning. Wizardry was one of the earliest things I remember about games—a childhood door opening from print ads in 1980s computer mags. [via Time Extension]
U.S. seizes Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro's plane
Rob Beschizza / 5:03 am PT Tue Sep 3, 2024
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro at a military parade. June 24, 2016. REUTERS
Nicolas Maduro lost the 2024 election in Venezuela, kept his job with some comically obvious ballot-stuffing, but has now lost his plane to U.S. authorities, who nabbed it when it landed in the Dominican Republic. The Dassault Falcon 900EX was illegally smuggled out of the U.S. by him, claims the U.S.
The plane has been described by officials as Venezuela's equivalent to Air Force One and it has been pictured in previous state visits by Maduro around the world.
"This sends a message all the way up to the top," one of the US officials told CNN. "Seizing the foreign head of state's plane is unheard-of for criminal matters. We're sending a clear message here that no one is above the law, no one is above the reach of US sanctions."
In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that "the Justice Department seized an aircraft we allege was illegally purchased for $13 million through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies."
Being president for life means you never get to leave.
Alzheimer's breakthrough: Cancer drug wakes up sleepy brain cells in mice and human brain cells
Mark Frauenfelder / 1:30 pm PT Mon Sep 2, 2024
Orla/Shutterstock.com
The brains of people who have Alzheimer's can't use glucose effectively. That's because a natural enzyme in the body called indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) becomes overactive and disrupts how the brain uses glucose.
A study published in Science found IDO1 is harmful to cells called astrocytes, which are essential for supporting neurons. When the scientists blocked IDO1 with an inhibitor in mice and human cells, the brain's ability to use glucose improved significantly. This led to better memory and cognitive function in the mice.
From NPR:
One [test] involved placing a mouse in the center of a shiny white disk under a bright light.
"It really wants to get out of there," [Dr. Katrin Andreasson, a professor of neurology and neuroscience at Stanford] says. "But it has to learn where the escape hole is" by following visual cues.
Healthy mice learned how to read those cues after a few days of training, and would escape almost instantly.
"But in the Alzheimer mice, the time to find the escape hole really skyrocketed," Andreasson says.
That changed when the team gave these mice an experimental cancer drug that could block the enzyme much the way genetic engineering had.
The treated mice learned to escape the bright light as quickly as healthy animals. And a look at their brains showed that their astrocytes had woken up and were helping neurons produce the energy needed for memory and thinking.
In the hippocampus, a brain area that's critical for memory and navigation, tests showed that the drug had restored normal glucose metabolism even though the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer's were still present.
The team also tested human astrocytes and neurons derived from Alzheimer's patients. And once again, the drug restored normal function.
Currently, IDO1 inhibitors are being developed for cancer treatment, but this study suggests they could also be useful for treating Alzheimer's. However, more research is needed to see if these drugs are safe and effective for people with Alzheimer's.
Previously:
• Artist's self portraits reflect progression of Alzheimer's disease
• Former prima ballerina with Alzheimer's remembers her Swan Lake moves by listening to its music
Mystery solved of eerie sound coming through Starliner speaker docked at space station
Allan Rose Hill / 12:30 pm PT Mon Sep 2, 2024
Starliner capsule. Image: NASA
A strange pulsing noise emanating from a speaker over the weekend freaked out the two astronauts who have been stuck in orbit aboard the International Space Station since June when their Boeing Starliner spacecraft experienced mechanical issues that may compromise its safety. The spacecraft is set to return to Earth on Friday without astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who must wait for a ride back from a SpaceX craft in February of 2025. Their mission was only scheduled to last ten days.
"I've got a question about Starliner," Wilmore told mission control on Saturday. "There's a strange noise coming through the speaker … I don't know what's making it."
The astronaut held his microphone to the speaker and NASA confirmed hearing the noise too, comparing it to a sonar ping.
"I'll let y'all scratch your heads and see if you can figure out what's going on," Wilmore said. "Call us if you figure it out."
It took a minute—or rather two days—but NASA just issued a statement on the mystery noise:
A pulsing sound from a speaker in Boeing's Starliner spacecraft heard by NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore aboard the International Space Station has stopped. The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner. The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback.
Previously:
• NASA deals huge blow to Boeing, Starliner crew to return with SpaceX
• Stuck in Space: Starliner mission is 'Gilligan's Island' in orbit
• Starliner spacesuits not compatible with SpaceX Dragon
• NASA insists stranded Starliner crew is not 'stuck'
• Starliner launches two Americans into orbit
• Starliner launch a go despite helium leak
Doggo's hilarious struggle to escape his blanket (video)
Carla Sinclair / 12:15 pm PT Mon Sep 2, 2024
Boing Boing/Midjourney
If you've ever gotten stuck inside an article of clothing while trying to take it off, you'll feel for Norman, a doggo who couldn't for the life of him get out from under his blankie.
The poor pup woke up after a deep slumber looking like a four-legged ghost, underneath a large beige blanket that wouldn't come off no matter what he did. "Let's go, let's go!" his human buddy called out to him. "Come on, get up!"
And it wasn't as if he weren't trying! After a long struggle, Norman momentarily gave up, accepting his fate, as one commenter put it, and blending into the bed as he lay back down.
But with the sound of his buddy cheering him on, adding that there was a "walk" involved, he rallied and finally shrugged his way to freedom.
(See video, posted by Jenna Hyde via Newsweek.)
Previously:
• Bad things happen when doggo chews a lithium battery pack
• Doggo has a grand ol' time shoving his cat pal – straight into the water bowl (video)
• Silly doggo thinks he's 'stuck' inside taped square on floor (video)
• Ridiculously adorable doggo is ready to have his teeth brushed!
• Deep-sleeping doggo refuses to wake up without this 6-step routine (video)
• A guide to doggo names
• Doggo steals some cheese, then tries to cover up the crime with comical plan (video)
• Doggo decides to add his own design to a freshly laid cement pathway (video)