Over in the bacterial soup du jour dept of the Unorthodox...

Quote:Scientists Engineer Super Bacteria That Are Alien to All Life on Earth

A nightmare scenario keeps synthetic biologists up at night. A strain of bacteria with an extensively revised genetic code leaks out of the lab. A part of its genetic machinery transfers to an unsuspecting host—allowing it to co-opt the host cell to reproduce, even if it means harming the host.

The bacteria wasn’t engineered to harm. Rather, it had its genetic machinery tweaked to resist infections from dangerous viruses. The super-powered bacteria could now pump out life-saving drugs, such as insulin, without worries of contamination.

The plot here is completely fictional. But it illustrates the double-edged sword that comes with the promise of synthetic biology, which builds upon a genetic programming language common to nearly all living creatures.



On one hand, hijacking and editing the existing genetic code can endow even the simplest cells with new abilities, transforming them into micro drug factories or cellular computers.

On the other, because organisms share the same universal code, they’re vulnerable to outside attacks from viruses and other pathogens—and can transfer their new capabilities to natural organisms, even if it kills them.

Why not build a genetic firewall?

A recent study in Science did just that. The team partially reworked the existing genetic code into a “cipher” that normal organisms can’t comprehend. Similarly, the engineered bacteria lost its ability to read the natural genetic code. The tweaks formed a powerful language barrier between the engineered bacteria and natural organisms, isolating each from sharing genetic information with the other.



Translation? The engineered bacteria are now resistant to even the most aggressive viruses, with little chance of leaking their synthetic code into the wild. Dubbed refactoring, the process effectively quarantines synthetic organisms from the natural world.
“We have created a form of life that doesn’t read the canonical genetic code and that writes its genetic information in a form that can’t be read,” said Dr. Jason Chin at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, who led the study.

Rewriting Life

The language of life is surprisingly simple. We have four DNA letters—A, T, C, and G. For genes to impact life, they must be translated into proteins, which are made up of 20 different amino acids.

There’s a whole cellular manufacturing process to make this happen. Imagine a DNA strand as a cassette tape ribbon around a spool. In comes a messenger—mRNA—that copies the genetic message (like making a mix tape) and shuttles it to the protein-making factory inside the cell.

Here, a myriad of different workers translate the genetic code into amino acids. The crux is the rule of three: three DNA letters grouped together as a codon correspond to an amino acid. Transporter molecules, aptly called tRNAs, then read the code—say, TCG—and grab onto the corresponding amino acid. Rinse and repeat, and eventually the cell makes a long chain of proteins ready to be further processed into its final 3D structure.

But here’s the thing. DNA letters form 64 different codons—yet we only have 20 amino acids. Something doesn’t add up.
The reason is that our genetic code is redundant. For example, the codons TCG, TCA, AGC, and AGT all code for the same amino acid. Can we streamline the genetic code, freeing up “extra” codons for other proteins?

Back in 2021, Chin’s group showed the answer is yes. In a technological tour-de-force, his team rewrote over 18,000 codons in E. coli bacteria—a workhorse for biotechnology and research—and showed the new life form lived and divided happily, but with newly freed codons ready for programming. The team then cleaned house, removing tRNAs that previously “read” the now-defunct codons.

In several tests, the super-powered strain, dubbed Syn61.Δ3(ev5), fought off a myriad of viruses that need to hijack the cell’s genetic machinery to replicate. Because the cell couldn’t read the viruses’ standard genetic code, it was no longer susceptible to the invaders.
Or so they thought.

New Rules


In a recent preprint, synthetic biologists Drs. George Church and Akos Nyerges at Harvard University found that Syn61.Δ3 isn’t as invincible as it first seemed.

Dousing the bacteria with viruses isolated from multiple sources—pig manure and scrapings from a chicken shed—they found roughly a dozen viruses that could still penetrate the bacteria’s genetic defenses.

Why? A group of insidious suspects are mobile genetic elements—more commonly known as “selfish genes.” These hopping bits of genetic code can come from viruses and bacteria, and are also embedded inside our own genome.

Because they are DNA code, these elements can encode tRNAs inside a cell. If a virus harbors these selfish genes, it could open a biological “back door” to infect a virus-resistant cell like Syn61.Δ3, replenishing a lack of appropriate tRNAs with its own copy for replication. This ability renders “a genetic-code-based firewall ineffective,” explained Nyerges and colleagues.

Chin agrees. In the new paper, he took a different strategy—actively sabotaging the delivery of the amino acid serine, instead replacing it with alternatives. It’s like finding-and-replacing the letter “s” in a book and changing it to “p” or “a.” The result is completely unreadable to a normal cell, but opens up a world of possibilities for an engineered one.

In all, “we can independently re-assign” two codons to four different amino acids, the authors said, creating 16 new genetic codes. To help the cell read its new code, the team also programmed a slew of tRNAs that help redirect amino acid traffic. These engineered tRNAs can overcome the natural genetic code, instead delivering the programmed amino acid—rather than the naturally correct one—to build a protein.

A Genetic Barrier

These genetic tweaks make the Syn61.Δ3 bacteria strain even more alien. In essence, it now has a genetic code based on—but massively divergent from—that of any living creature.


The upgrade comes with major perks. Bacteria are normally extremely chatty fellows, easily sharing their genetic material. The process, dubbed horizontal transfer, is a terrible headache for synthetic biologists, as their engineered gene elements could theoretically escape into the wild.

The new super strain, however, could neither share nor decode normal genes from natural bacteria. In experiments using mobile genetic elements—the “selfish genes” known to easily spread—natural and engineered cells couldn’t transfer the genetic code. In a way, the team had programmed a new genetic language in the synthetic strain, severing its communications with natural organisms.

The edits also made the new strain invincible to viruses. Here, the team first scanned the River Cam in Cambridge for viruses that can elude the original strain’s genetic protections. Two strains were particularly vicious, carrying their own tRNAs that can overcome previous genetic protections in cells.

Adding just a synthetic version of these viral tRNAs allowed otherwise non-infectious viruses to invade Syn61.Δ3, the authors said. But the new strain was completely immune against a myriad of viruses, easily shutting down selfish genes.

Chin isn’t the only group interested in engineering the next invincible cell. In their preprint, Nyerges and Church used a similar strategy to recode Syn61.Δ3 so that serine was replaced with another amino acid. In preliminary tests, their strain could battle off a dozen viruses that overwhelmed the original strain.

Resisting viruses is just the first step for genetic refactoring. Scientists have long thought that the process could create organisms with new properties, said Chin and colleagues. “The strategies we have described should be generally applicable to any gene or genetic system added to the synthetic organism…we anticipate that the principles we have established may be applied to a broad range of organisms.”

This morning I went online to pay my internet service bill (AT&T). What a surprise when I saw a $9.99 late fee for previous month's service added to our bill! You see, our bill isn't due until the 14th each month and I generally pay it the first week of the month- in this particular case I had paid it on the 6th of October which is in no way late. I checked the screen shot I had made at the time of confirmation, then I grabbed Kdog's phone (which has our bank app on it) and confirmed it there as well. There was no late payment made.

I used the chat feature on the website to dispute the charge and was told I absolutely owed the late fee because payment was not made until October 18th- to which I replied they were full of bullshit! So I did the unthinkable and actually called them personally. Remarkably I got through to an actual service rep within a minute, unremarkable was the fact that the rep's English was nearly worse than my Spanish. It took "Juan" over half an hour to look at his computer screen and see that yes, the bill was paid on time and no, we didn't owe any late fee and then remove it from our bill.

Most people would rather just pay the fee than have to go through the hassle of getting through the automated system until you got to an actual live person and then dealing with someone who barely speaks your language. It is time consuming and frustrating. Kdog is one of those people and the main reason that I alone deal with AT&T- this isn't my first rodeo with them but they are better than other companies I have dealt with in the past. 

So I got to wondering- How much money are they making off of "accidently" charging people late fees that they don't owe? AT&T reports having 14.2 million broadband customers in 2022. If they charge erroneous late fees to only 1% of them that's 142,000 customers at $10 a pop. Let's say 25% of them (and that's lowballing) just pay the fee to avoid the hassle- that's 35,500 customers at $10 each for a total of $355,000.00!!! And if they do it randomly every month that equals $4,260,000.00 per year!!!

Over $4 and a quarter million per year just in "accidental" late fees- and we're not even talking about all those other little nickel and dime fees and taxes that are on the bills that nobody even knows what half of them are. Not even funny is the fact that we know if one corporation is doing it then they probably ALL are.

I hope there's a special place in Hell for thieving corporate executives, and I want to reserve a front row seat to watch them all get pineapples shoved up their asses!

*Rant over* 

Well, Biden said he'd do it when he spoke to a group of troops a couple of months back.

Quote:Pentagon Confirms US Boots Are On The Ground In Ukraine


'Two bombshell reports by the Associated Press and Washington Post Monday and Tuesday have confirmed that
the United States has boots on the ground in the Ukraine conflict. Crucially, these troops are performing tasks
separate from mere embassy security.

The American troops are said to be performing "inspections" of US weapon caches after last week the State
Department and Pentagon unveiled a new plan to track US-supplied weapons in efforts to implement accountability
for the billions of dollars worth of arms and ammunition transferred to Ukrainian forces since near the start of the
war eight months ago.

"A small number of U.S. military forces inside Ukraine have recently begun doing onsite inspections to ensure that
Ukrainian troops are properly accounting for the Western-provided weapons they receive, a senior U.S. defense
official told Pentagon reporters Monday," the AP/WaPo reporting revealed.

A Pentagon briefing confirmed this "small" contingency of troops has been advised to not do inspections "close" to
the front lines of fighting:

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide a military update, would not say where the inspections
are taking place or how close to the battlefronts the U.S. troops are getting. The official said U.S. personnel can’t do
inspections "close to the front lines," but said they are going where security conditions allow.

There have already been "several inspections" overseen by U.S. Defense attache and a US Office of Defense
Cooperation team based out of the Ukrainian capital. The report underscores that "U.S. President Joe Biden
has ruled out any combat role for U.S. forces inside Ukraine."

However, what's clear is that despite the White House's ruling out of "combat" troops, this is the start of perhaps inevitable
'mission creep' - as has been seen in other conflict zones (such as Syria). If US troops are doing inspections of Ukrainian
arms and ammo, and presumably Russia is currently targeting any and all Ukrainian military bases, this puts American
troops and assets in Russia's crosshairs, greatly increasing the possibility that the US and Russia could stumble into a
direct shooting war.

In a follow-up Tuesday report, The Washington Post detailed the following:
U.S. monitors have conducted in-person inspections for only about 10 percent of the 22,000 U.S.-provided weapons sent
to Ukraine that require special oversight. U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that
have not been made public previously, said they are racing to deploy new means for tracking weapons seen as having
a heightened risk of diversion, including Stinger surface-to-air missiles and Javelin antitank missiles, amid what they
describe as Ukraine’s "super hot conflict."

National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson says the Ukrainians have been cooperating as willing partners
in weapons accountability and implementing measures ensuring proper chain of custody. "While we recognize the
unpredictability of combat, the United States and Ukraine have cooperated to prevent illicit weapons diversion since
Russia’s further invasion began earlier this year," she said.

Like with Syria before, it's likely the White House and Pentagon will carefully avoid acknowledging wording like "boots
on the ground" in their press statements...

The initiative is broadly being seen as part of Biden admin efforts to assuage Republican anger in Congress, after complaints
have grown louder over the unaccountable "wild West" way in which Pentagon weapons have proliferated in Ukraine - as even
CNN months ago underscored.

This week Finland has been among the first European countries to document the spread of West-supplied weaponry outside
of Ukraine's borders and into the hands of criminal elements, as we detailed previously. "Weapons shipped [by various countries]
to Ukraine have also been found in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands," Finland's federal National Bureau of Investigation
chief Christer Ahlgren was quoted by national broadcaster Yle as saying.

Russia has already long warned it will attack foreign weapons shipments, transport convoys, and warehouses
found in Ukraine... but how long before Russian forces target American military inspectors on the ground behind
the front lines? The longer the grinding conflict drags on, the greater potential for such a disastrous scenario,
whether intentional or not.

* * *

While at this point we could rightly call the Ukraine conflict a "proxy war" between Russia and US-NATO, all signs point to
a steady slide into direct conflict. Now that Pentagon "inspectors" are confirmed on the ground in Ukraine (notably without
any Congressional vote), expect the White House to vehemently deny that this marks any level of an escalation as far as
Washington's direct involvement... again, despite the evident danger of American soldiers placed in "harm's way" -potentially
being under Russian bombs...'

My husband, the love of my life, my guiding light, and my best friend passed away peacefully in his sleep on 11/1/22 at about 2:30 PM Central Daylight Time. It was calm and peaceful. It took a little over two hours, after they disconnected the bipap and feeding tube. There was just a morphine drip. There was a little green button that I had to press every time it lit up. I did this while holding my husband’s hand and talking to him. His breathing gradually became shallower and less. I told him while he didn’t need my permission to go, I was giving him permission to go. I told him not to worry about me and it was okay for him to go. About five minutes later, he took his last breath. It was peaceful. 

I know now that he’s in Heaven having a joyful reunion with family members and friends. I’m glad his suffering is done. He’s in a better place. I hope he watches over me. I’m relieved that he’s not suffering anymore, but feel great sorrow that he is gone. I don’t know how I’ll live without him, but I also know he’d want me to go on with my life. I will do just that. I’ll love him forever. I will honor his memory. When it is my time to die, I will be reunited with him. I will live my life with purpose until then.

Please keep me in your prayers. I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring. All I can do is to live my life and honor the memory of my husband.

The day after Halloween found VioletDove in a sour mood
She was gathering her decorations as fast as she could

Swiftly and lovingly she placed each in the magic sack
That was placed outside for Pumpkin Man to pack

She had to work steadily and fast in this job each year
For Pumpkin Man had to be off before the sun could fully appear

In went the spiders, the crows and each creepy bat
Next the skeleton, the boos and the witches hat

As she placed the final furry spider
Pumkin Man appeared beside her

She looked away and wanted to cry
For the light had gone from his eye

As he bent to pick up the Magic Sack
Something happened taking them aback

A woman appeared, walking swiftly, a smile on her face
Calling to the man behind her, "Hurry up Kevin! Keep up the pace"

The woman took the sack from Pumkin Man's hand
She smiled, patted his cheek and softly began

"Leave a few, don't take them all away
For Halloween can be celebrated each day"

As the woman bent down to reach into the sack
The man smiled indulgently from behind her back

VioletDove thought to herself Could it really be?
Is this GeauxHomeLittleD the Queen of Halloween?

Before she could get the courage to ask
The woman before her was done with her task

The woman smiled and disappeared without a trace
A skeleton, a bat and a crow were left in her place

As Pumkin Man reached down for the magic sack
VioletDove noticed his eyes were no longer black

As he turned her way his face was as bright
as the morning sun that was rising in sight

As he went on his way, shifting the sack up higher
VioletDove smiled, her eyes twinkling with Halloween fire

"It is just a simulation." Dan Rather introduces a report on the fictional nuking of Omaha. CBS EVENING NEWS, June 12, 1981.



This is wild: the linear implosion device named Cleo I, the first really compact nuclear weapon, was delivered to Nevada Test Site for the Teapot Tesla test (7 kilotons), March 1, 1955, in two large suitcases. The guy carrying them — and eating lunch on one of them — is known only as "summer intern Tommy."







"The Cleo was split into two parts, each placed into a reinforced Samsonite suitcase. Walt Arnold, a mechanical engineer responsible for putting the device together in Nevada, was assisted by a young man named Tommy, an electrical-engineering student from San Jose State University hired as a summer intern. Arnold ordered Tommy to manhandle two hefty suitcases out of the Laboratory’s assembly building and put them into the back of a 'woody' station wagon."

"Then he gave the intern an Army-issue .45-caliber pistol and told him to guard the suitcases."

"The intern sat in the back of the vehicle with the Cleo; a priceless photograph shows Tommy eating a sandwich while using one of the suitcases as a lunch table."

(Poor Tommy probably got laughed out of the room trying to later convince people this really happened.)

Quote and first image are from Tom Ramos, From Berkeley to Berlin (new book on LLNL). Second image (nuclear lunch detected) is from Bruce T. Goodwin, "Nuclear Weapons Technology 101 for Policy Wonks," Figure 26, PDF book. Third is a standard shot photo of Teapot Tesla.

The details about the device (CLEO) are still highly classified. It is interesting to note that the two recent sources I cited (2021 and 2022) were allowed to talk about it a little bit and reproduce these photos that emphasize how small it was, though not the most compact warhead design developed.

I recently discovered that New Jersey still gives a small tax break for fallout shelters...


Exemption of blast or radiation fallout shelters


Oppenheimer vs. Barbie, who would win in a fight?

My money would be on Barbie, who was presumably trained for combat during her stint with the Army in the early 1990s. Oppenheimer could *design* an atomic bomb, but in a one-on-one fight, that isn't going to cut it.


ComicBook

So it turns out (no surprise) the US intelligence cartel has been working intimately with online platforms to regulate the "cognitive infrastructure" of the population.

Quote:Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation

Jen Easterly, Biden’s appointed director of CISA, swiftly made it clear that she would continue to shift resources in the agency to combat the spread of dangerous forms of information on social media. “One could argue we’re in the business of critical infrastructure, and the most critical infrastructure is our cognitive infrastructure, so building that resilience to misinformation and disinformation, I think, is incredibly important,” said Easterly, speaking at a conference in November 2021.

To accomplish these broad goals, the report said, CISA should invest in external research to evaluate the “efficacy of interventions,” specifically with research looking at how alleged disinformation can be countered and how quickly messages spread. Geoff Hale, the director of the Election Security Initiative at CISA, recommended the use of third-party information-sharing nonprofits as a “clearing house for information to avoid the appearance of government propaganda.”

Explanation: Its been over 4 years since I posted this thread of mine ...

Title: MAGA Meme Magick Tweet Trade Wars: The Devil Inside Our Hope Of Nvr Cming Down 

And its a long ... very long, prognostication of future, now past, events.

Personal Disclosure: And I'd like some feedback on what I got right and what I got wrong etc.

  Cheers!

Many of us remember the sitcom Sanford and Son which lasted several seasons. The following video brought a smile for its' creativeness. Welcome to Trump and Son.... enjoy.

Quote:Scholz and Macron threaten trade retaliation against Biden (Politico; Oct 27, 2022)

BERLIN/PARIS — After publicly falling out, Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron have found something they agree on: mounting alarm over unfair competition from the U.S. and the potential need for Europe to hit back.

The German chancellor and the French president discussed their joint concerns during nearly three-and-a-half hours of talks over a lunch of fish, wine and Champagne in Paris on Wednesday.

They agreed that recent American state subsidy plans represent market-distorting measures that aim to convince companies to shift their production to the U.S., according to people familiar with their discussions. And that is a problem they want the European Union to address.

The meeting of minds on this issue followed public disagreements in recent weeks on key political issues such as energy and defense, fracturing what is often seen as the EU's central political alliance between its two biggest economies.

But even though their lunch came against an awkward backdrop, both leaders agreed that the EU cannot remain idle if Washington pushes ahead with its Inflation Reduction Act, which offers tax cuts and energy benefits for companies investing on U.S. soil, in its current form. Specifically, the recently signed U.S. legislation encourages consumers to “Buy American” when it comes to choosing an electric vehicle — a move particularly galling for major car industries in the likes of France and Germany.

The message from the Paris lunch is: If the U.S. doesn't scale back, then the EU will have to strike back. Similar incentive schemes for companies will be needed to avoid unfair competition or losing investments. That move would risk plunging transatlantic relations into a new trade war.

Macron was the first to make the stark warning public. “We need a Buy European Act like the Americans, we need to reserve [our subsidies] for our European manufacturers,” the French president said Wednesday night in an interview with TV channel France 2, referring specifically to state subsidies for electric cars.

Macron also mentioned similar concerns about state-subsidized competition from China: “You have China that is protecting its industry, the U.S. that is protecting its industry and Europe that is an open house,” Macron said, adding: "[Scholz and I] have a real convergence to move forward on the topic, we had a very good conversation.”

Crucially, Berlin — which has traditionally been more reluctant when it comes to confronting the U.S. in trade disputes — is indeed backing the French push. Scholz agrees that the EU will need to roll out countermeasures similar to the U.S. scheme if Washington refuses to address key concerns voiced by Berlin and Paris, according to people familiar with the chancellor's thinking.

Scholz is not a big fan of Macron’s wording of a "Buy European Act" as it evokes the nearly 90-year-old "Buy American Act," which is often criticized for being protectionist because it favors American companies. But the chancellor shares Macron’s concerns about unfair competitive advantages, the people said.

Earlier this month, Scholz said publicly that Europe will have to discuss the Inflation Reduction Act with the U.S. "in great depth."

In a blow to Germany’s industrial core, chemical giant BASF announced plans Wednesday to reduce its business activities and jobs in Germany, with company chief Martin Brudermüller citing heightened gas prices — which he criticized for being six times as high as in the U.S. — as well as increasing EU regulation as the reason.

“The decisions of a successful company like BASF show that we need to improve the overall attractiveness of Germany as a business location,” German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said in a tweet, vowing to take various measures such as “tax relief for private investments.”

Before bringing out the big guns, though, Scholz and Macron want to try to reach a negotiated solution with Washington. This should be done via a new "EU-U.S. Taskforce on the Inflation Reduction Act" that was established during a meeting between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Mike Pyle on Tuesday.

The taskforce of EU and U.S. officials will meet via videoconference toward the end of next week, underlining the seriousness of the European push.

On top of that, EU trade ministers will gather for an informal meeting in Prague next Monday, with U.S. trade envoy Katherine Tai planning to attend to discuss the tensions.

In Brussels, the Commission is also looking with concern at Macron's wording of a "Buy European Act," which evokes protectionist tendencies that the EU institution has long sought to fight.

"Every measure we take needs to be in line with the World Trade Organization rules," a Commission official said, adding that Europe and the U.S. should resolve differences via talks and "not descend into tit-for-tat trade war measures as we experienced them under [former U.S. President Donald] Trump."