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LNN

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Everything posted by LNN

  1. Very soulful music.... sounds like a great background music for an evening somewhere in Italy. I assume it is in Italian?
  2. He was a very talented artist.... and in this song he tackled a very deep problem of modern society.... even though he probably wrote it 50 years ago. Still very true after all these years! Sadly... the children don't play outside anymore.
  3. Di errori ne ho fatti ne porto i lividi ma non ci penso più ho preso ed ho perso ma guardo avanti sai dove cammini tu di me ti diranno che sono una pazza ma è il prezzo di essere stata sincera E' l'amore che conta non solo i numeri, e neanche i limiti è una strada contorta e non è logica, e non è comoda Nell'attesa che hai nell'istante in cui sai che è l'amore che conta non ti perdere, impara anche a dire di no Di tempo ne ho perso certe occasioni sai che non ritornano mi fa bene lo stesso se la mia dignità è ancora giovane di me ti diranno che non sono ambiziosa è il prezzo di amare senza pretesa E' l'amore che conta non solo i numeri, e neanche i limiti è una strada contorta e non è logica, e non è comoda Nell'attesa che hai nell'istante in cui sai che è… She is a talented singer / writer....
  4. Beautifully sung... but I don't quite understand the full meaning of the song. You?
  5. That has to be the best version of this song that I have ever heard. Thanks for sharing.
  6. Another thing for us to worry about. or.... why worry about Climate change when Polar change is a bigger deal? although...the earth’s magnetic field is always changing, both day-to-day and over long periods of time. The last large-scale change happened over 700,000 years ago! Because this was so long ago, nothing is known about how quickly it happened, and whether the field became very weak during the change. Life on earth continued, and the geological record of life does not show any disturbances during that or the many other changes.
  7. Imagine a sugar that has only 38 percent of the calories of traditional table sugar, is safe for diabetics, and will not cause cavities. Now add that this dream sweetener is not an artificial substitute but a real sugar found in nature and it tastes like, well, sugar. You’d probably want to use that in your next cup of coffee, right? This sugar is called tagatose. The FDA has approved it as a food additive, and there have been no reports to date of the problems that many sugar substitutes have—such as a metallic taste, or worse, links to cancer—according to researchers and the FAO/WHO, which certified the sugar as “generally regarded as safe.” So why isn’t it in all your favorite desserts? The answer lies in the expense of producing it. While derived from fruits and dairy products, tagatose is not abundant and is difficult to extract from those sources. The manufacturing process involves a conversion from more easily obtained galactose to tagatose and is highly inefficient, with yields that may reach only 30 percent. Nikhil Nair, an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Tufts, helped develop a way to produce tagatose using bacteria as tiny bioreactors. Photo: Alonso NicholsBut researchers at Tufts University have developed a process that may unlock the commercial potential of this low-calorie, low-glycemic sugar. In a recent publication in Nature Communications, Assistant Professor Nikhil Nair and postdoctoral fellow Josef Bober, both from the School of Engineering, came up with an innovative way to produce the sugar using bacteria as tiny bioreactors that encapsulate the enzymes and reactants. Using this approach, they achieved yields up to 85 percent. Although there are many steps from the lab to commercial production, yields this high could lead to large-scale manufacturing and getting tagatose on every supermarket shelf. The enzyme of choice to make tagatose from galactose is called L-arabinose isomerase (LAI). However, galactose is not the main target for the enzyme, so the rates and yields of the reaction with galactose are less than optimal. In a solution, the enzyme itself is not very stable, and the reaction can only push forward until about 39 percent of the sugar is converted to tagatose at 37 degrees Celsius (about 99 degrees Fahrenheit), and only up to 16 percent at 50 degrees Celsius (about 122 degrees Fahrenheit), before the enzyme degrades. Nair and Bober looked to overcome each of those hurdles through biomanufacturing, using Lactobacillus plantarum—a food-safe bacterium—to make large quantities of the LAI enzyme and keep it safe and stable within the confines of the bacterial cell wall. They found that when expressed in L. plantarum, the enzyme kept converting galactose to tagatose and pushed the yield to 47 percent at 37 degrees Celsius. But now that the LAI enzyme was stabilized within the cell, it could increase yield to 83 percent at the higher temperature of 50 degrees Celsius without degrading significantly, and it was producing tagatose at a much faster rate. To determine if they could push the reaction even faster, Nair and Bober examined what might still be limiting it. They found evidence that the transport of the starting material, galactose, into the cell was a limiting factor. To resolve that issue, they treated the bacteria with very low concentrations of detergents—just enough to make their cell walls leaky, according to the researchers. The galactose was able to get in and tagatose released from the cells, allowing the enzyme to convert galactose to tagatose at a faster rate, shaving a couple hours off the time needed to get to 85 percent yield at 50 degrees Celsius. “You can’t beat thermodynamics. But while that’s true, you can circumvent its limitations by engineering solutions,” said Nair, who is corresponding author of the study. “This is like the fact that water will not naturally flow from lower elevation to higher elevation because thermodynamics won’t allow it. However, you can beat the system by, for example, using a siphon, which pulls the water up first before letting it out the other end.” Encapsulating the enzyme for stability, running the reaction at higher temperature, and feeding it more starting material through leaky cell membranes are all “siphons” used to pull the reaction forward. Although more work is needed to determine if the process can be scaled up to commercial applications, biomanufacturing has the potential to improve yields and have an impact on the sweetener substitute market, which was estimated to be worth $7.2 billion in 2018, according to the market research firm Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence. Nair and Bober also note that there are many other enzymes that can benefit from using bacteria as tiny chemical reactors that increase enzyme stability for high temperature reactions and improve rates and yields of conversion and synthesis. As they look ahead to exploring other applications, from the manufacture of food ingredients to plastics, there will be a lot on their plate. Mike Silver can be reached at mike.silver@tufts.edu. https://now.tufts.edu/articles/bacteria-help-make-low-calorie-sugar How do we get in the business of producing and selling this stuff? Sounds like a real money-maker once Coca-Cola wants to order it for Coca-Cola Zero + good taste. ;-)
  8. Wikipedia notes: "The red pill, together with its opposite, the blue pill, is a popular cultural meme, a metaphor representing a choice between the "red pill", representing a life of harsh knowledge, desperate freedom, and the brutal truths of reality, and the "blue pill", representing a life of luxurious security, tranquil happiness, and the blissful ignorance of the harsh realities of life, basking in an (essentially dishonest) illusion. The terms, popularized in science fiction culture, are directly derived from a scene in the 1999 film The Matrix."
  9. LNN

    2019 Protests

    So the world is exploding in protest right now... We now have concurrently.... Barcelona 2019 Protests Lebanon 2019 Protests Ecuador France - firefighters vs. Police? Hong Kong Have I missed anything? It seems like technology though is helping the Carrie Lam's of the world stay in power and control the populist uprisings. Oops.... and Jane Fonda had to get in on the action:
  10. And just like that a new genre, sorry... Hashtag....of selfie instagram photos is hatched!
  11. Consumers in America needs more time to "Shop".... supporting the 7 day work week of slave labor in Asia. 😉
  12. We all know the Enterprise-D is big, but how big IS it? Well, turns out it's massive. Insanely huge, in fact. We look at 10 amazing little known features of the USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D, a galaxy class starship, from Star Trek The Next Generation. Features such as the Captain's Yacht, the whale tanks and warp core ejection system, that they never use!
  13. Randy lands in big trouble on a visit to China. Meanwhile, Stan starts a band to work out his frustration over having to move away from South Park. https://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s23e02-band-in-china
  14. Business Hall of Bootlickers • ⁠Activision Blizzard: banned player for supporting HK democracy protest. Confiscated all his winnings. Fired his interviewers. Apologized to China: condemned incident, swore to defend China's national dignity • ⁠Apple: censor Taiwan flag emoji in iOS in HK • ⁠Apple: banned HK protest map from App Store. Approved app after backlash. Banned app once again after China hissy fit • ⁠Apple: removed from China App Store news app that covered HK protest • ⁠Vans: censor pro-HK democracy design in its shoe design competition • ⁠NBA (partial entry): rebuked Rockets manager for his pro-HK tweet, saying NBA was "extremely disappointed with Morey's inappropriate comment." Backpedalled after backlash, now saying they support Morey's freedom of speech. • ⁠Disney / ESPN: forbid mention of Chinese politics when discussing Rockets manager's HK tweet • ⁠Viacom / Paramount: censor Taiwan flag from the jacket worn by Tom Cruise in new "Top Gun" movie • ⁠Disney / Marvel: censored Tibetan monk from "Doctor Strange" & turned him into white woman. Movie screenwriter: "if you acknowledge that Tibet is a place & that he’s Tibetan, you risk alienating one billion people who think that that’s bullshit". • ⁠ASICS, Calvin Klein, Coach, Fresh, Givenchy, Pocari Sweat, Valentino, Versace, Swarovski: details here • ⁠Marriott: apologized & changed "Taiwan" to "Taiwan, China" after China threw a hissy fit • ⁠Nike: removed Houston Rockets products from China webstore • ⁠Activision Blizzard: cut livestream when American U team held up pro-HK sign. • ⁠Apple: handed over iCloud data & encryption keys to China • ⁠Cathay Pacific: fired employees for FB posts supporting HK protests. • ⁠Apple: minimized the seriousness of iOS exploits that enabled China to track Uyghurs, when 1M+ of them are rounded up by China in concentration camps • ⁠Google: censored pro-HK game "The Revolution of Our Times" from Google Play because it was about a "sensitive event". • ⁠Gap: apologized for selling T-shirts IN CANADA that didn't include Taiwan as part of China • ⁠Tiffany: removed tweet showing model covering 1 eye after China accused it of supporting HK • ⁠Marriott: fired employee who liked tweet from Tibetan group • ⁠Mercedes: apologized for quoting Dalai Lama on Instagram • ⁠American, Delta, United: deleted mention of Taiwan as a country from websites • ⁠Audi: apologized for using "incorrect" map of China that left off Taiwan • ⁠Muji: destroyed store catalogs that contain "incorrect" map of China • ⁠Zara: apologized for listing Taiwan as country • ⁠Medtronic: apologized for publishing "illegal content" that listed "Republic of China (Taiwan)" as country • ⁠Ray-Ban: changed "Taiwan" & "Hongkong" to "China Taiwan" & "China Hongkong" • ⁠Qantas, Air France, Air Canada, British Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Japan Airlines, ANA: changed "Taiwan" to "Taiwan China" • ⁠TikTok: censor videos that mention Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, Falun Gong • ⁠Sheraton: banned Taiwan National Day event under China pressure • ⁠Disney: removed non-white characters from Chinese poster of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” • ⁠Philly Sixers: ejected fans for supporting HK • ⁠Princeton: don't talk about 3 Ts: Tibet, Tiananmen, Taiwan • ⁠Leica: released ad on Tiananmen protest. Apologized & distanced itself from ad • ⁠Reddit: took $150M from Tencent. Removed thread like this • ⁠Rockhampton, Queensland: censored Taiwan flag in student project • ⁠Cisco: helped build Great Firewall including module to persecute Falun Gong • ⁠MGM: changed Red Dawn's villain from China to N Korea to placate China • ⁠Global Blue: fired staff for calling Taiwan a country • ⁠L'Oréal / Lancôme: canceled HK artist concert for her pro-democracy activism • ⁠US universities: self-censor in fear of offending China • ⁠Disney: block Winnie the Pooh website in HK After decades of opening up Western market to China while turning a blind eye to rampant Chinese IP thefts, forced tech transfers, & protectionism, we are looking at widespread control of Western firms by China. Firms that are not under outright Chinese control still kowtow to China out of fear of China's retaliation. This is a very incomplete list of what we're seeing publicly. Imagine how bad it is behind closed doors. Business Hall of Backbones • ⁠Matt Stone & Trey Parker: South Park "Band in China" • ⁠Ubisoft: listened to fans, said no to China after initially saying they would tone down game content to be China-compliant. • ⁠Prague: cancel partnership with Beijing over 1-China principle • ⁠Immutable: offer to repay banned gamer's winnings that was confiscated by Blizzard, got cyber attacked as a result This one should be spread. Edit: https://caffeine-overload.github.io/bandinchina/ Link with full explanations. This needs to go everywhere on the internet. Time to say no more
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