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@peter4jc said:
The self-help guru who decided he might be doing more harm than good
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/09/tim-ferriss-self-help-may-be-harming-people/
I found the original self-help guru's blog post that this article was based on more understandable and interesting.
Join us on Zoom vHerf (Meeting # 2619860114 Password vHerf2020 )0 -
A certain aging gut bacteria may cause some amount of cognitive decline
Intestinal interoceptive dysfunction drives age-associated cognitive decline
Abstract
Ageing is accompanied by declining memory function, with extremely heterogeneous manifestation in the human population1. Brain-extrinsic factors influencing cognitive decline, such as gastrointestinal signals, have emerged as attractive targets for peripheral interventions2,3,4,5,6, but the underlying mechanisms remain largely unclear. Here, by charting a high-resolution map of microbiome ageing and its functional consequences throughout the lifespan of mice, we identify a mechanism by which inhibition of gut–brain signalling during ageing results in impaired neuronal activation in the hippocampus and loss of memory encoding. Specifically, accumulation of gut bacteria that produce medium-chain fatty acids, such as Parabacteroides goldsteinii, can drive peripheral myeloid cell inflammation through GPR84 signalling. As a result, the function of vagal afferent neurons is impaired, the interoceptive signal received by the brain is weakened and hippocampal function declines. We leverage this pathway to define interventions that enhance memory in aged mice, such as phage targeting of Parabacteroides, GPR84 inhibition and restoration of vagal activity. These findings indicate a key role for interoceptive dysfunction in brain ageing and suggest that interoceptomimetics that stimulate gut–brain communication may counteract age-associated cognitive decline.2 -
"The Deep Blue Good-by a Travis McGee novel by John D. MacDonald. 1964 One of a series by a grand master of detective fiction.
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The start of Cyberdyne and Skynet
https://www.wsj.com/business/entrepreneurship/rivian-ceos-ai-powered-robotics-startup-raises-500-million-0edc0209If it don’t bother me, it don’t bother me. Just leave me alone.
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What do physicists think this failure of quantum field theory is telling us?
It tells us that something new happens as we zoom in. And I would say there are roughly three lines of thinking as to what that might be.One is that maybe quantum field theory breaks down, full stop. The objects are not points, in the way that we think of elementary particles as points. Instead, they become stringy. That’s string theory.
To this day we call it the OMG plot. It was just so mind-blowing to us, that this idea really works out in a quantitative way.
Another is that we need to remove the assumption that space-time is continuous. I take my glass of water, and it looks continuous to me, but fundamentally it’s atomic. Maybe it’s the same with space-time. This is the idea spelled out in loop quantum gravity, or in causal sets.
Or you can say that fields and particles persist; space-time persists; and the new thing is that space-time takes on a structure that is, broadly speaking, like a fractal: The intensity of the forces, including gravity, stops changing, and you start seeing the same picture, the same rules for how particles talk to each other, over and over. That’s the idea I’m pursuing, asymptotic safety. If this self-similar realm exists, then the fluctuations of space-time, and of the other fields, would become stable enough for us to make predictions using good old-fashioned quantum field theory.
more here:
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@peter4jc said:
The self-help guru who decided he might be doing more harm than good
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/09/tim-ferriss-self-help-may-be-harming-people/
Ran across this and thought of your post
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Reading about the Eurasian Eagle-owl, bubu bubu.
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Researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered that the constant gnawing of rodents isn't just a reflex or a consequence of a tough diet. It also triggers a release of dopamine in the brain—which acts as a biochemical reward or incentive—through a newly identified neural circuit.
Although the circuit was discovered in mice, it could also be at work in other mammals, the researchers said, adding to a growing body of evidence that there's a deeper connection between our brains and our oral health and habits.
"In the old point of view, everyone sort of believed that gnawing was a very passive behavior driven by mechanical considerations," said Bo Duan, associate professor in the U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. Duan led the study with Joshua Emrick, assistant professor at the U-M School of Dentistry.
"What we're learning is that this is indeed a motivated behavior. There is a defined neural circuit that connects sensory input from the teeth to dopamine neurons in the midbrain," Duan said. "This tells us that even very basic maintenance behaviors are actively reinforced by the brain."
He added that identifying the circuit provides a concrete biological explanation for why these repetitive behaviors are sustained over time. This connection could help explain why dogs chew bones and why people bite their nails.
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Stock Market Today: Dow falls 430 points, S&P 500 and Nasdaq trade lower after inflation report spooks market; global oil prices near $110; Fed decision on tap
Stocks are under pressure Wednesday as tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate and wholesale inflation rises again.
--Market Watch1 -
These roaches form exclusive long-term relationships after eating each other's wings
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/18/nx-s1-5749488/cockroach-pair-bonding-relationships-wing-eating
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interesting financial prognostication
I Predicted the 2008 Financial Crisis. What Is Coming May Be Worse.
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why I do not use on-line banking:
Hundreds of Millions of iPhones Can Be Hacked With a New Tool Found in the Wild
A powerful iPhone-hacking technique known as DarkSword has been discovered in use by Russian hackers. It can take over devices running iOS 18 that simply visit infected websites.1 -
Even after the Information Revolution transformed society through automation and rationalisation, the bastions of Romanticism – artistic inspiration and scientific insight – remained largely the province of humanity. Now in the early 21st century, AI is reigniting the conflict, and new strains of rationalism and romanticism are fighting it out on disparate fronts, debating the destiny of science, art and politics. This is a war over whether technology will merely optimise calculations or eliminate a quintessentially human element such calculations can’t capture. But beneath these debates, the question still lurks: what makes us so special? And can it be computed?
https://aeon.co/essays/if-we-hope-to-build-artificial-souls-where-should-we-start?
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Summary: A new study suggests that measuring neurofilament light chain (NfL) levels 48 hours after a cardiac arrest can accurately predict a survivor’s long-term cognitive health. Researchers compared NfL to the currently used biomarker, neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and found that NfL had significantly higher diagnostic performance.
https://neurosciencenews.com/nfl-biomarker-cardiac-arrest-cognition-30362/
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Got a home network?
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The four botnets targeted by the US in Thursday's takedown had all evolved new techniques that let them infect types of devices that even Mirai had never managed to access. Kimwolf in particular took advantage of cheap internet-connected gadgets that acted as “residential proxies” that—often unbeknownst to their owners—let hackers pivot into users' home networks to compromise devices that are typically protected behind a home router, says Chad Seaman, a principal security researcher at networking firm Akamai. “It really shook the foundations of what we considered to be a secure home network,” Seaman says.
...Aisuru and Kimwolf, a distinct but Aisuru-related botnet, had together comprised more than a million devices, according to DDoS defense firm Cloudflare, with Aisuru infecting a variety of devices ranging from DVRs to network appliances to webcams, and its Kimwolf offshoot infecting Android devices including smart TVs and set-top boxes.
https://www.wired.com/story/us-takes-down-botnets-used-in-record-breaking-cyberattacks/
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Research suggests people who read before bed every night have a fundamentally different brain than people who watch TV
What Happens When You Watch TV
Television is a fundamentally different cognitive experience. The brain is receiving rather than constructing. Images are provided. Sounds are provided. Emotional cues are delivered through music, pacing, and cinematography. Your brain doesn’t need to build anything. It just needs to process what’s being handed to it.This isn’t inherently bad. Some television is genuinely excellent storytelling. But the neurological difference matters, especially before sleep. A causal analysis published in Human Brain Mapping using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study found that screen use, particularly watching TV and movies, had a significant causal influence on lower language skills. The same study found that reading habits were positively associated with brain volume in multiple areas, including bilateral prefrontal cortex, insula, and temporal lobes, regions essential for cognitive control, emotional processing, and language.
The contrast is stark: screen time was linked to reduced cognitive performance and, in some cases, reduced brain volume. Reading was linked to the opposite on both counts.
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Question is why did a $10 part cost the military $5,600?
Marine lance corporal develops $10 solution to $5,600 antenna problem
militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/03/20/marine-lance-corporal-develops-10-solution-to-5600-antenna-problem/ https://share.google/0RTNkJdpKf1TUH9QA
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^^That's a question that repeats itself every generation. It's been answered many times, usually the same answer: an unholy alliance between Congress and the Pentagon.
For example, the military used to buy a locknut that was available at any hardware store for about 10 cents, for $25 apiece. Why? Because the Pentagon asked for one, and Congress approved for a machine shop to make them to specification. A machine shop owned by someone with Congressional connections, possibly a relative of a Congressperson. $5k hammers, toilet seats, the list goes on.
Up at Ft. Riley there was an anchor for an aircraft carrier, I believe, on display at the parade ground. Either some joker ordered it delivered to the central land mass of the U.S., or it was a clerical error that no one thought to ask "Why would they want an aircraft carrier anchor in the middle of Kansas?"
Generation after generation, history repeats itself.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain1
