INTRO: There’s a virus you may have never heard of before that is estimated to infect up to 90 percent of people and lurks quietly in your cells for life—but if it becomes activated, it will destroy your brain. If that’s not startling enough, researchers reported this week that there may be a new way for this virus to activate—one that affects up to 10 percent of adults worldwide.
The virus is the human polyomavirus 2, commonly called either the JC virus or John Cunningham virus, named after the poor patient from whom it was first isolated in 1971. It shows up in the urine and stool of infected people and spreads via the fecal-oral route. Many people are thought to be infected early in life, and blood testing surveys have suggested that 50–90 percent of adults have been exposed at some point.
Researchers hypothesize that the initial site of infection is the tonsils, or perhaps the gastrointestinal tract. But wherever it happens, that initial infection is asymptomatic. At that point, a person is infected with what’s called the archetype JC virus, which quietly sets up a persistent but utterly silent lifelong infection.
For the vast majority of people, that is all their JC virus infection will be—silent. But for an unlucky few, the JC virus will seemingly awaken, rearrange its genetic material, and morph into a brain-demolishing nightmare that causes a disease called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy or PML... (MORE - missing details)
INTRO: Peer-reviewed scholarship remains the central currency of academic life. It advances careers, drives innovation, informs policy, stimulates economies, and lays the groundwork for the next generation of inquiry. Yet the very system designed to vet and disseminate knowledge increasingly drains enthusiasm from scholars—especially early-career investigators—by subjecting them to burdensome, time-consuming, and often pointless article submission portals. The problem is not peer review. It is the bureaucratic machinery that now precedes it... (MORE - details)
INTRO: The history of the Earth is written on the great tablets of tectonic plates. The motions of plates shaped land masses, formed oceans, and created the varied climates and habitats that set the stage for evolution and the diversity of life.
But this grand drama begins with a deep mystery: just when did the continental and oceanic plates begin to drift? Did the lithosphere begin to move soon after the formation of the Earth 4.5 billion years ago or only in the last billion years?
A new study by Harvard geoscientists shows the oldest-yet direct evidence of plate movement by 3.5 billion years ago. In a study published March 19 in Science, the team found that plate movements—though not necessarily the modern type—shaped the early history of our planet.
“There has been a huge range of ages suggested for timing,” said lead author Alec Brenner, PhD ’24, who conducted the research in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) in the Harvard University Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. “With this study, we're able to say three and a half billion years ago, we can see plates moving around on the Earth surface.”
The new revelations came from some of the oldest well-preserved rocks in the world, the Pilbara Craton in western Australia, which contains formations from the Archean Eon when the Earth was hosting early microbial life and under heavy bombardment by astronomical objects. The Pilbara area contains evidence of some of the earliest known life, stromatolites and microbialite rocks deposited by single-celled organisms such as cyanobacteria.
A team led by Roger Fu, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University, has been conducting research in East Pilbara since 2017. Fu specializes in paleomagnetism, a branch of geophysics that examines changes in the Earth’s magnetic fields to reconstruct the early history of the planet. Last year, they published a paper about an ancient meteor impact at the same site.
In addition to revealing the properties of the Earth’s magnetic field, paleomagnetism can also be used to track the motions of plates. By analyzing the magnetic signals of ancient mineral grains, the researchers can infer the orientation and latitude of the rocks at the time of formation—thus using the ancient samples like paleo GPS units.
“Almost everything unique about the Earth has something to do with plate tectonics at some level,” said Fu. “At some point, the Earth went from something not that special, just another planet in the solar system with similar materials, to something very special. A very strong suspicion is that plate tectonics started Earth down this divergent track.” (MORE - details, no ads)
EXCERPTS: Before Pompeii was engulfed in volcanic ash, its walls may have been battered by an ancient "machine gun" while the city was under siege. With a third of Pompeii still buried beneath volcanic debris from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E., archaeologists continue to discover evidence of the city’s turbulent past, including battle damage on its walls.
A study recently published in Heritage proposes a compelling hypothesis to explain several peculiar impact marks along the northern stretch of Pompeii’s fortified walls: This damage potentially came from a barrage of metal-tipped projectiles launched by a polybolos, a repeating ballista that may have been used to slay Pompeii’s defenders during the city's siege in 89 B.C.E.
Most people see Pompeii as an iconic Roman city, but it wasn’t always inhabited by Romans. The Roman Republic took control of the city during the Social War of 91 to 88 B.C.E., when it fought to subdue its Italian allies (or socii) that wanted either full Roman citizenship or independence, according to EBSCO.
[...] The researchers behind the new study believe these marks may have come from a polybolos, which would have fired out a rapid succession of darts powered by torsion. ... The Roman army may have adopted the polybolos from innovations originating on the Greek island of Rhodes, where the engineer Dionysius of Alexandria is said to have invented the weapon several centuries prior to the siege of Pompeii. Not long before the siege, Sulla even served as governor of the province that included Rhodes, known as a hub of “engineering excellence” in ancient times, according to the study... (MORE - missing details)
I just finally watched it. Highly disturbing picture about a bereaved mother hellbent on completing a ritual. Explore new uses for captive demon possession.
89% rating on RT. 75 score on Metacritic. IMDB entry
LaGuardia Airport is currently closed after a Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-900 from Montreal to NYC that was coming in for a landing struck a fire truck that was on the runway for some reason. Reports say there are two dead and more than a dozen injured. From the looks of it, the two fatalities were the pilots of the jet.
It initially looks like a control tower error to me. The tower should have known the fire truck was out there and closed that particular runway to arriving jets while it was there.
Though upon hearing recordings of the control tower, it seems that the fire truck asked for permission to go out on the runway and received it. The tower is heard directing aircraft to go around and that the runway was closed. The Canadian jet can be heard but it's unclear whether it acknowledged the towers instructions. There does seem to have been some confusion.
Happened in the Dominican Republic at a family wake..These are the videos that convince me the most! Not wind because the flowers next to it aren't moving. The rocking is forceful and continuous, indicatjng paranormal force of either group PK or an actual ghost.
Of course, the old man who was obstructing that kind of missile range was taken out. Though (at 86) he was bound to have croaked in the not too distant future anyway. And his son Mojtaba is a hardliner: "Mojtaba Khamenei was viewed as someone who 'would put the IRGC fully at the helm of Iranian politics', sidelining spiritual and moderate political leadership."
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EXCERPTS: The Islamic Republic of Iran significantly escalated its war effort against the U.S. with its launch of two intermediate-range ballistic missiles on Friday toward Diego Garcia, a key U.S.-U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean.
The targeting of Diego Garcia, roughly 2,500 miles from Iran, means Tehran’s missile capabilities appear to have exceeded previously acknowledged limits.
[...] "I think it's a message that the IRGC is in charge in Iran after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's death," Brodsky said. "When Khamenei was alive, he limited the range of Iran's missile program to 2,000 kilometers. Khamenei recounted in 2018 how he had rejected overtures from IRGC commanders seeking to increase the range to as much as 5,000 kilometers.
"But now that he has died, those voices in the IRGC seeking to increase the range are likely driving the agenda. The launch of the missiles was likely meant as a signal of the IRGC's capabilities to threaten U.S. allies beyond the Middle East. For example, this threatens Europe."
The two long-range Iranian missiles did not hit the base, but the attempted attack marked a significant expansion of Iran’s reach beyond the Middle East and toward a major U.S. strategic hub. One missile reportedly failed in flight, while a U.S. warship launched an SM-3 interceptor at the other, officials said. It was not immediately clear whether the interception was successful. The remote base is a critical launch point for U.S. bombers, nuclear submarines and other strategic assets.
Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital, "The launch hammers home the president’s point about Iran being an imminent threat. It’s easy for casual observers to ignore, but the increasing maturity of Iran’s strategic programs, plural, has been exponentially expanding the threat that the Islamic Republic poses beyond the Middle East.
"That is what Epic Fury is seeking to address. The administration believes, absolutely correctly in my view, that these types of capabilities cannot be left in the hands of a radical, predatory regime... (MORE - missing details)
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