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A scientific drilling ship has burrowed further into Earth’s mantle than ever before, obtaining new clues about the processes that feed oceanic volcanoes and the possible origins of life

We took off from Capetown yesterday, and after several hours of driving through farmland, we stopped at what in local argot is called a “farm stall,” but it’s really a combination restaurant, snack shop, food store (they sell all kinds of frozen meat), and preserves, teas, and snacks. Here’s a farm stall (click on all photos to enlarge them; twice to make them really big):

. . . and its chalkboard motto, which immediately made me think of ecology because it’s wrong: flowers do compete with their neighbors if they’re of the same species. This is an ideological statement that ignores biology in favor of aesthetics. (Yes, I’m joking, but not 100%!)

This is the menu (1 South African rand is worth about 6 American cents, so you can see things are cheap. Martim told me that Roosterkoek (no, it’s not pronounced “rooster cock”) was a local item: a sandwich made on a special kind of bread. And he recommended the Boerwars Roosterkoek, made from a local sausage. So that’s what I had, with a soda.

Here’s the sausage sandwich. The bread (“Roosterkock,” or grilled bread) is delightful: thick and chewy. It wold be ideal for hamburgers or other juicy fillings.

The inside of the sandwich:

This is a cape weaver (Ploceus capensis), which weaves nests. A lovely yellow bird, with the males being especially yellow.  They hopped around skittishly hoping for crumbs from the rooster cock.

A nest that the males weave, with the photo taken from Wikipedia. The species is polygynous, with a male weaving a group of nests at the rate of about one a week, and the quality of the nest is what attracts the females. A male with mate with all the females that are attracted to the nest he builds.

JMK, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Rita studies the sociable weaver (Philetairus socius) found further north. It’s a fascinating species which builds large group nests that can have up to several hundred birds. She and her team band each one and take blood samples, so they know the relatedness of every bird. Curiously, they have “helpers at the nest” during breeding time, and not all the helpers are relatives, which is an unsolved mystery. Here’s a sociable weaver nest on a power pole; photo from Wikipedia:

Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Local endemic squash plants (probably the Kalahari Melon) that are, I think, eaten by antelopes. I’m not sure of the plant species. There are several antelopes in the area.

And so we enter the fynbos, a small but important and diverse vegetation zone, one of the six “floristic kingdoms” of the world, and the smallest one. Here from Wikipedia is a diagram of all the kingdoms, and you can see that “capensis” (the fynbos, or “Cape Floristic Region“) is the smallest. As Wikipedia notes, the Region  “is home to over 9,000 vascular plant species, of which 69 percent are endemic.”

Dietzel, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

We are staying in a fancy “hut” (more like a hotel) a long drive into the Cederberg Mountains over dirt roads. It’s located on the Driehoek Farm, which not only rears animals, but takes in tourists for hiking and exploring the fynbos, and also harbors the highest vineyards in South Africa, which means the highest vineyards in Africa.

This is a fancy “hut”, as you can see from the appearance of my bedroom:

Last night we had a fancy dinner in our fancy hut, accompanied by the farm’s wine, in this case a 2023 Syrah. It was very good. They also make a white wine and a pinotage.

The adults shared three ostrich filets (my first ostrich), while the two daughters had pasta. These look like beef filets, and I asked for Rita to cook mine rare.

Dinner: potatoes, ostrich filets, young broccoli stems, and bread, washed down with a syrah.

The farm-y part of the farm, but all around are trails that go up to the mountains, with waterfalls, climbing, and vegetation.  Pig and horse below.

The pig, which was very wart-hoggy with bristles and fangs, a precursor of what I’ll see when I meet Ozy in a week.

And a backlit horse:

What I was told were baboon tracks, and the only species here is the chacma baboon (Papio ursinus). They can be quite aggressive when going after tourists’ food, and we’re told to keep our doors shut lest they invade the kitchen.

Martim thought these may have been mongoose tracks:

. . . and two sets of antelope tracks, probably made by small antelopes like common duikers (Sylvicapra grimmia), or perhaps the Cape grysbok.

I was told that this hole was where a local porcupine dug up a tuber:

Views from the farm:

Prickly purple gorse (Muraltia heisteria):

Some of the most striking plants in the fynbos are those in the genus Protea, also called “sugarbushes” because of their sugar-rich nectar. (The national flower of South Africa is the King Protea (Protea cynaroides). Go have a look at the flower at the link. It’s not exactly flowering time here yet, but we could see old flowers on this species (there are several dozen, 92% of them endemic to the Cape Floristic Region.

This is the Grey Sugarbush (Protea laurifolia):

Another view of the prickly purple gorse:

Where there’s a niche, there’s a plant. Here we have a Babiana, probably of the species ambigua (see below).

Purple gorse and unidentified plant:

Grey sugarbush:

Cape Snow (Syncarpa sp.)

An open flower of the gray sugarbush:

Cone bush (Leucadendron sp.):

Grey sugarbush flower at its peak:

More fynbos:

Baboon cabbage (Othonna quinquedentata):

Carwilliam True-Eye (Euryops speciosissimus):

View to the North. I had the Southern Cross pointed out to me last night (the stars are fantastic here since there is no light pollution), and the Milky Way spread across the sky like a huge cloud. When I looked at it through 8X Swarovski binoculars, you could see that the cloud actually comprised billions and billions of stars.

Professor Ceiling Cat in the fynbos; photo by Rita. It is cold here today!

Sour Fig (Carpobrotus edulis):

Vygie, Possibly Lampranthus:

A panorama of a small waterfall with one of Martim and Rita’s daughters:

Another panorama:

Paintbrush lily, genus Haemanthus. Young leaves that will produce a shoot and a beautiful red flower.

Babiana, probably of the species ambigua.

Rita by a termite mound (yes, there are termites inside) I’m told they are much larger in Kruger:

Tomorrow we’re on our way to another locale on the Great Circle Tour.

Corrections welcome if you’re an expert.

Thanks to Martim for the identifications.

Below are screenshots of are all the articles I found on this morning’s New York Times site  It’s clear that the paper has unapologetically gone all out for Kamala Harris (what do you expect?), but has done so in both the news and the op-eds. There is only one dissenter: the ever-heterodox and thoughtful Pamela Paul (see below). The paper is also making a virtue of necessity in heaping encomiums on Tim Walz, an okay VP candidate but not as good, in my view, as Shapiro.

Like Paul in the article below, I’m tired of people urging others to vote for Kamala Harris because she’d be the first black/Asian/woman President. In fact, my favorite candidate was a woman—Gretchen Whitmer—but that was because of merit, not gender or ethnicity. As for Harris, if I do vote for President it would be for her (my vote doesn’t matter in Democratic Illinois), but I have to say—and you already know this—that I’m not a big fan of Harris. I don’t think Paul is, either, at least in the article below (click to read, or find it archived here):

Some excerpts:

But I don’t particularly care that the Democratic candidate is a woman. I care about having the best, most electable Democratic candidate possible, and I suspect many Americans, male and female, feel the same. As my colleague Jeremy Peters reported last week, voters are looking for electability, not representation. “In interviews, Harris supporters of all races said they were concerned that if she talked more directly about her race, she risked feeding the backlash that has been building over diversity,” he wrote.

The year 2020, in other words, is as over as 2016.

If President Biden had pulled out of the race months ago, other candidates, male and female, could have made a case for their qualifications and electability and maybe had a better shot at the presidency. As groovy as the vibe feels right now, all the memes and Zooms in the world can’t cover for Harris’s weaknesses or less than overwhelming vice-presidential record. Nor will promoting her as possibly the first woman president do anything substantive to help her win.

The last paragraph expresses my view, and I’m sure that if Biden had pulled out, say, six months ago, and if there had been an open Democratic forum and a series of debates, Harris wouldn’t be the candidate—except for her inheriting Biden’s campaign funds. But I’d rather have a candidate run on merit than on funds, sex, or ethnicity.

. . . Donald Trump may be the latest in a long line of male presidential candidates, but I don’t oppose him because he’s a man; I oppose him because he is a terrible candidate, a catastrophic leader and a terrible human being, one who treats women (and men) horribly.

Similarly, women didn’t necessarily vote for Hillary Clinton because of her sex. And despite efforts to make gender central to her campaign, women didn’t turn out for her in the same force as pollsters predicted. “I’m Not With Her: Why Women Are Wary of Hillary Clinton” ran a headline in The Guardian months ahead of the election.

. . . I hope Harris is elected and succeeds mightily not as an emblem or a representative and not based on essentialist or identitarian terms but simply on the merits — and that’s on her to prove. Whether she wins or loses, fails or excels, she should be judged based on what she does, not on which box she checks.

So please, stop all the talk of breaking barriers and glass ceilings, of which group is somehow categorically represented by a single human being and which isn’t and instead talk about the candidates’ qualities. A good president represents all Americans, regardless of his or her own identity.

To those who insist on focusing on sex this election, home in instead on Trump’s contempt for members of the opposite sex. That alone — leaving aside his atrocious record and stance on nearly every policy issue — should be reason for his defeat.

It looks to me that Paul wants Harris elected simply because she’s not as insane as Trump, but note that Paul says nothing about Harris’s own merits. What did Harris mean when she said she wanted to earn the nomination rather than inherit it? How has she earned it? By turning down Shapiro, for one thing, because, as a Jew, he wouldn’t appeal to progressives?

Here from the Times of Israel are some of Harris’s antics as she campaigns in Michigan, a state not exactly favorable to Israel:

Democratic US presidential candidate President Kamala Harris told a group chanting about the “genocide” in Gaza at her election rally in Michigan Wednesday to quiet down unless they “want Donald Trump to win.”

Before the Detroit rally, she met briefly with the founders of the Uncommitted National Movement, which led a mass vote protesting US President Joe Biden’s support for the war in Gaza during the swing state’s February primary.

. . . Ahead of the Detroit rally on Tuesday, Harris met with Abbas Alawieh and Layla Elabed, the Uncommitted National Movement’s co-founders. According to The New York Times, Harris indicated she was willing to meet with the two over their demand for an arms embargo on Israel, and introduced them to her staff.

. . .In a subsequent statement, her campaign gave no indication of this, however. “Since October 7, the vice president has prioritized engaging with Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian community members and others regarding the war in Gaza,” the statement said. “In this brief engagement, she reaffirmed that her campaign will continue to engage with those communities. The vice president has been clear: she will always work to ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups. The Vice President is focused on securing the ceasefire and hostage deal currently on the table.”

According to the Times, Alawieh and Elabed had been invited to stand in a photo line welcoming Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Alawieh was quoted in the report as saying he “felt an openness from [Vice President] Harris, as well as a listening ear from Governor Walz.”

“I appreciate her leadership, and I know the uncommitted voters want to support her, uncommitted delegates want to support her,” Alawieh said, “but our voters need to see her turn a new page on Gaza policy.”

Oh, she will, she will, though not perhaps before she’s elected. But her calls for a cease fire are equivalent to calls for a Hamas victory.

And from Batya Ungar-Sargon at the Free Press, in an article called, “America is ready for a Jewish Veep. The Democrats aren’t.”

On Monday night, Vice President Kamala Harris had narrowed her search for a running mate to two men: Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro and Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Each had pros and cons.

In Walz’s favor, he had the distinction of applying the term weird to J.D. Vance, a word that the entirety of his party’s elites then picked up and ran with. Against Walz was the fact that Minnesota is not a swing state and Walz himself is a progressive, like Harris, making it unclear what he would add to the ticket.

In Shapiro’s favor was a 61 percent approval rating in a must-win state for Harris and a history of working across the political divide and choosing moderate, popular positions on everything from school choice to Covid-19 restrictions to degree requirements to corporate taxes. But working against him turned out to be something insurmountable: Josh Shapiro is a proud Jew.

Almost as soon as Harris began her search for a running mate in earnest, a campaign from the progressive left made it clear that the anti-Israel wing of the party would not vote for Shapiro. Though his support of Israel is identical to that of every other contender, though he hates Benjamin Netanyahu a lot, though his view on college campus protesters (he called it “absolutely unacceptable” that “universities can’t guarantee the safety and security of their students”) is the most common, most popular view, none of this was a match for his last name, the fact that he is an observant, kosher-keeping proud Jew, and that, like the vast majority of Jews, he supports the state of Israel.

. . . There can be no doubt about it: there was only one reason to reject Shapiro, and it was that the Democrats would rather cater to their antisemitic base and lose the election than embrace the vast non-antisemitic American middle and win. “You also have antisemitism that has gotten marbled into this party,” Van Jones said on CNN Tuesday. “You can be for the Palestinians without being an anti-Jewish bigot, but there are some anti-Jewish bigots out there.”

There’s an argument to be made—and Free Press reporter Peter Savodnik has made it smartly—that the goal in picking a vice president should be to do no harm. And, like it or not, in the current version of the Democratic Party, Shapiro harms the ticket. But consider what this means: the most qualified person to help a major party nominee win the presidency was passed over because he’s a proud Jew with a strong connection to his heritage.

And a satirical article from the Babylon Bee that still rings true (click to read):

An excerpt, somewhat but not completely satirical:

After hearing Josh Shapiro might be Kamala Harris’s pick for Vice President, Democrats worry his name on the ticket might cost them the all-important “Death To America” vote.

“I think Josh is very qualified to be Harris’s VP pick,” Chuck Schumer told the press over the weekend. “I do worry he might discourage those wishing to obliterate the U.S. and wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. We really need those votes.”

The Harris team announced it is nearing a decision on who will join the current Vice President on the national ticket. Governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro is rumored to be at the top of the list, but some worry his Jewish heritage and past as an IDF soldier might cost the dems votes from those wishing to make the streets run red with the blood of Jews if it’s the last thing they ever do.

“We really need those 15,000 votes from Dearborn, Michigan who want America to be eternally consumed by the fires of holy jihad,” Schumer said. “We’d hate to lose out on their support just because we have a guy on the ticket who probably thinks Jews should exist. It’s a real conundrum.”

I’m not a one-issue voter, but I do care whether Harris supports Israel or not. If she calls for a ceasefire, cuts off or severely reduces aid to Israel, or bawls for a two-state solution, she wants Hamas to win so that she can win. But this surely bears on her moral compass, and if it points to Hamas, it’s 180º off.

Further, I’m not keen on her views on gender or Titles VI and IX, nor on her abysmal failure to do anything about the border. She alienates a huge proportion of people who have worked for her, and that doesn’t bode well, either.  In my view, she has earned the nomination in only one way, by inheriting Biden’s war chest.  And, as with Pamela Paul, I don’t think anybody should be ruled out as President because of their sex or ethnicity. But neither is that a reason to vote for them.

Semiconductor industry waste is typically seen as a costly disposal problem and an environmental hazard. But what if this waste could be transformed into a valuable resource? In an exciting development, researchers have unveiled an eco-friendly method to extract rare metals from semiconductor waste. This innovative approach not only recovers precious tungsten but also assesses its economic viability, offering a sustainable solution for waste management in the tech industry.

Semiconductor industry waste is typically seen as a costly disposal problem and an environmental hazard. But what if this waste could be transformed into a valuable resource? In an exciting development, researchers have unveiled an eco-friendly method to extract rare metals from semiconductor waste. This innovative approach not only recovers precious tungsten but also assesses its economic viability, offering a sustainable solution for waste management in the tech industry.

Researchers develop a microstructured 'artificial lung' model using bioprinting technology.

Stirring allows for homogenization and efficient gas exchange -- this fact has been known for decades. Controlling the stirring rate during the nanocluster synthesis is pivotal in achieving nanostructures with well-defined sizes, structures, optical properties, and stability.

A catalyst that significantly enhances ammonia conversion could improve wastewater treatment, green chemical and hydrogen production.

Researchers have used a new technique to identify pathological abnormalities associated with motor neurone disease.

Polymers can be thought of like trains: Just as a train is composed of multiple cars, polymers are made up of multiple monomers, and the couplings between the train cars are similar to the chemical bonds that link monomers together. While polymers have myriad applications -- from drug delivery to construction materials -- their structures and functions are restricted by the chemically similar monomer building blocks they're composed of. Now, chemists have developed a new reaction to create unique monomers in a controlled way. This reaction, which uses nickel as a catalyst, ultimately enables scientists to create polymers with unique and modifiable properties for drug delivery, energy storage, microelectronics and more.

A research team has recently developed a novel artificial compound eye system that is not only more cost-effective, but demonstrates a sensitivity at least twice that of existing market products in small areas. The system promises to revolutionize robotic vision, enhance robots' abilities in navigation, perception and decision-making, while promoting commercial application and further development in human-robot collaboration.

A research team has recently developed a novel artificial compound eye system that is not only more cost-effective, but demonstrates a sensitivity at least twice that of existing market products in small areas. The system promises to revolutionize robotic vision, enhance robots' abilities in navigation, perception and decision-making, while promoting commercial application and further development in human-robot collaboration.

Researchers posit that a balance between attentional uniqueness and allocation can positively impact a firm's growth.

The control of artificial double-helical structures, which are essential for the development of high-order molecular systems, remains difficult. In a new study, researchers have developed novel double-helical monometallofoldamers that exhibit controllable helicity inversion and chiral information transfer, in response to external stimuli. These monometallofoldamers can lead to novel artificial supramolecular systems for molecular information transmission, amplification, replication, and other exciting applications in various fields of technology.

Researchers in Mexico are using satellite data to find covert graves – these could hold the remains of some of the thousands of people who have gone missing in the country over the past two decades

A newly identified smartphone vulnerability can reveal the floor plans of where you are and what you are doing - and it is possible that companies or intelligence agencies are already making use of it

About half of Americans, when asked, report that they don’t read the user manual for new technical devices they acquire. Although I suspect that many people are like me – I read them sometimes, and then only partly. If there is a “quick user guide” I will often look at that. These are helpful quick summaries with just the critical bits of information you need. But often I give it a go by myself and then only consult the guide for troubleshooting. I do this partly because I want to see how intuitive the device or app is.

But of course there are situations where this approach is not adequate, especially when assembling something complex or using an entirely unfamiliar and complicated piece of technology. In these situations I find, most of the time (with a few happy exceptions) that the instructions are terrible. Sometimes they were clearly written by someone for whom English is a second language. Or the instructions are entirely pictoral (I guess to be language neutral). Other times it seems they were written by engineers who lack the ability to communicate effectively their arcane craft to the general public. I think this is why many people try to bypass the instructions – they are often terrible and frustrating.

In industry, however, this option may not exist. Further, the instructions may need to be highly technical, which is great if you are already an expert but may be challenging for most users.

This is where artificial intelligence enters the picture. Large language model AIs, like Chat GPT, can “read” material and then answer questions about that material, or even give a summary. I have used Chat GPT to analyze a scientific study, then asked it to find specific information within the study or explain certain findings, and it does pretty well. The idea, therefore, is to feed an entire technical user manual into an LLM and then ask it specific questions or have it give a summary or perhaps step-by-step guide.

There are also at least two companies who have made AIs specifically designed for this task (rather than using an all-purpose LLM). One is Aveva who has made an LLM that can read a technical manual and then act as a resource for a user. It can work you through a process, suggest troubleshooting options, or answer specific questions. The idea is that this will be much faster than looking through a manual that might be hundreds of pages long. It will also be more convenient than having to access a more experienced engineer for help.

Another product, CreatorPro by Dozuki, creates the user manual itself. An engineer can make a video of themselves walking through a process, such as assembling a piece of equipment, and then software will make a user manual from the video.

I have not used either of these products so I cannot review how they actually function. Since they are dedicated to this specific task I would assume that they are better at it than Chat GPT or other all-purpose LLMs, which are already pretty good. This is exactly where I hoped the AI community would be going – using the basic technology to develop specific applications. For example, it would be great to have an AI app designed for medical use, actually many medical uses. There are many already is preliminary use or in the works, but I can imagine a future where AI would read most diagnostic studies and present their findings to the physician – EKGs, MRI and CT scans, EEGs, Ultrasounds, etc. AI is good at being thorough, while humans have a tendency to miss stuff.

Also, reading some studies can be tedious. As a fellow one of my tasks was to listen to 24 hour EEG recordings (at fast speed) to listen for any seizure activity. I had to pay attention for hours to go through the recordings for the week. Now we already have software that can automatically detect probable seizures, but the newer AIs can likely do more thorough analysis. This would then open up the possibilities for diagnostic tests that generate lots of data – too much to be practical for humans to go through, but AIs can.

Getting back to user manuals, I would love to see a near future in which I never have to crack open a user manual again. A new purchase will simply come with a URL or QR code leading to an AI app that will be an interactive user manual. An AI expert assistant could walk you through any task, answer questions, and show you helpful images that it can also explain as necessary. Further, it would likely be possible for such an AI to be trained by every interaction with a user, so it gets better at anticipating mistakes and misunderstandings.

While this would be great, I do think it would add to the general trend of humans outsources our thinking to software. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is interesting to think about. Prior to ubiquitous computers, I had to actually remember phone numbers, and know how to navigate a map. Now I just do whatever the GPS tells me to do.  Make not mistake, I would not want to go back to a pre-GPS world. But I do think we need to pay attention to and be thoughtful about unintended consequences from overreliance on AI assistants. This theme has been explored in science fiction, depicting an end-stage of completely infantile and dependent humanity utterly helpless without their AI/robotic caretakers. Sometimes it is a good experience to go through the frustration of having to figure something out on your own.

The post AI and User Manuals first appeared on NeuroLogica Blog.

A small study found that the sugar substitute erythritol makes blood more susceptible to clotting, which can raise the risk of heart attack and stroke

Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, the cats seem not to like grilled food:

Hili: We have a picnic. Szaron: It’s a good thing that it’s not grilled

 

Hili: Mamy piknik.
Szaron: Dobrze, że nie grill.

Hypocritical articles on politics and medicine weren't really about politics and medicine, they were a message- the standards we set for you, don't apply to us and everyone knows it.

The post The Hypocrisy Is The Point. Doctors Who Said Not To Mix Politics & Medicine. first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.