White oak genome reveals genetic markers for climate adaptability and pest resistance
White oak (Quercus alba) is important economically, ecologically, and culturally. However, the species currently faces a significant challenge: a low rate of seedling recruitment, the process by which seeds successfully germinate and grow into new trees. ⌘ Read more
Dark matter could color our view of the universe
Dark matter has two central properties: it has mass like regular matter, and unlike regular matter, it reacts weakly or not at all with light. Neutrinos satisfy these two criteria, but neutrinos move through space at nearly the speed of light, making them a form of hot dark matter. The observations we have suggest that dark matter is cold. ⌘ Read more
Property-Based Testing in Practice
Property-based testing (PBT) is a testing methodology where users
write executable formal specifications of software components and
an automated harness checks these specifications against many
automatically generated inputs. From its roots in the QuickCheck
library in Haskell, PBT has made significant inroads in mainstream
languages and industrial practice at companies such as Amazon,
Volvo, and Stripe. As PBT extends its reach, it is important to understand
how developers are usin … ⌘ Read more
Why US activists are wearing inflatable frog costumes at protests against Trump
Three frogs, a shark, a unicorn and a Tyrannosaurus rex dance in front of a line of heavily armored police in riot gear. ⌘ Read more
‘This Is Astounding’: Overnight, Millions More Americans Could Be Labeled Obese
, - Sttudy Finds
_Stephan: The other day, I published a lengthy academic study showing that Americans have shorter lives, and are less healthy in general than populations in other developed countries. Now another study has just been published showing that research data has redefined obesity. It turns out that Americans, under the new research data, have gone from 42 … ⌘ Read more
Tax cuts for the rich in 5 red states have cost residents whopping $2.2 billion: report
Brad Reed, Staff Writer - Raw Story
Stephan: Every day, I am amazed at how many Americans, particularly in Red States, still support Trump and the Republican Party, given what is happening in the country and in their own lives. Here is an example of just what I mean.
_Stephan: How is it possible that the richest country in the world has tens of millions of its people facing lack of food issues? What kind of country is the United States, and why is adequate food not driving tens of millions into the streets in nonviolent demonstrations. W … ⌘ Read more
How the Mayans were able to accurately predict solar eclipses for centuries
The Maya Civilization, from Central America, was one of the most advanced ancient civilizations, known for its significant achievements in astronomy and mathematics. This includes accurate calendars and detailed celestial records, but scientists don’t fully understand all the details of their calculations. However, new research is shedding light on how they predicted future eclipses with remarkable accuracy. ⌘ Read more
Hurricane Melissa strengthens as it crawls toward Jamaica
Hurricane Melissa was cutting a deadly path through the Caribbean on Sunday, strengthening into a Category 4 storm as it crawled along a worryingly slow course toward Jamaica and the island of Hispaniola. ⌘ Read more
Japan successfully launches new cargo spacecraft to deliver supplies to International Space Station
Japan’s space agency successfully launched Sunday its most powerful flagship H3 rocket, carrying a newly developed unmanned cargo spacecraft for its first mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. ⌘ Read more
KDE Linux deep dive: package management is amazing, which is why we don’t include it
Comments ⌘ Read more
4MOST telescope facility captures first light
On October 18, 2025, the 4-meter Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) facility, installed on the VISTA telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Paranal Observatory in Chile, obtained its first light. This milestone is a crucial step in the life of any telescope, marking the moment it is ready to begin its scientific journey. ⌘ Read more
GM bananas could soon be for sale in Australia, but will people eat them?
Australia’s first genetically modified banana has been tweaked to protect it from a disease that’s on the verge of wiping out crops around the world. Researchers hope it may be on our shelves by 2027. ⌘ Read more
Father-son team’s hand-picked citrus blossoms brighten cocktails
Farmers and distillers collaborate to capture a delicate flower’s flavour for the boutique drinks market. ⌘ Read more
Trump punishing Canada with 10% extra tariffs for not pulling down anti-tariff ad sooner ⌘ Read more
Trump increasing tariffs on Canada by 10% ‘over and above what they are paying now’ | CBC News ⌘ Read more
Connecting distributed Kubernetes with Cilium and SD-WAN: Building an intelligent network fabric
Learn how Kubernetes-native traffic management and SD-WAN integration can deliver consistent security, observability, and performance across distributed clusters. The challenge of distributed Kubernetes networking Modern businesses are rapidly adopting distributed architectures to meet growing demands for… ⌘ Read more
NIH Institute Director Abruptly Replaced
Kristina Fiore, Director of Enterprise & Investigative Reporting - MedPage Today
_Stephan: It should be clear to you and anyone else paying any attention to what is going on, that fascists such as Trump and the Republican Party at both the state and federal level, care not all about the wellbeing of ordinary Americans. The already very poor, very expensive, healthcare system in the United States has been gutted, as you may be about to find … ⌘ Read more
US army taps private equity groups to help fund $150bn revamp
Steff Chávez and Antoine Gara, Reporters - Financial Times
_Stephan: The military-industrial corporate system in the United States, and the military itself, is being corrupted like every other agency of government, as the Trump Republican Party oligarch fascist coup continues. We are 10 months into the coup, and almost every day there are reports, like this one, about more corruption. The Republican … ⌘ Read more
Chicago-Area Judge Rules ICE Agents Can Be Arrested at Courthouses
Warner Todd Huston, Contributing Writer - Breitbart
_Stephan: AS we go through the dismantlement of democracy in the United States, what we are seeing is people of integrity standing up for the law and ethical behavior, and the Trump coup vassals, doing what their pseudo-king desires of them. In this case, a District Court judge has authorized police to arrest Trump’s ICE Gestapo if they d … ⌘ Read more
‘Utter Moral Failure’: Critics Aghast at New Reporting That Shows US Elites ‘Scared of Crossing Trump’
Brad Reed, Staff Writer - Common Dreams
_Stephan: One of the major trends I am seeing as the Trump Republican coup proceeds is the grotesque lack of ethics I see amongst the wealthy, who bow to Trump as their king, and pour money into his corruption schemes. It is the exact opposite of the creation of the United States. Man … ⌘ Read more
Saturday Citations: Primate skull diversity; exploring matter-antimatter asymmetry; asthma clarified
Howdy, pards! This autumnal week brought a new challenge to last decade’s claim of a strong Yellowstone trophic cascade after the reintroduction of wolves. Evolutionary biologists propose that carrion-eating was a dependable nutritional strategy for early humans that may have influenced evolution. And Chinese researchers report that LLMs and humans represent sentences similarly. ⌘ Read more
New forecasting tool improves accuracy of epidemic peak and hospital demand predictions
During an epidemic, some of the most critical questions for healthcare decision-makers are the hardest ones to answer: When will the epidemic peak, how many people will need treatment at once and how long will that peak level of demand for care last? Timely answers can help hospital administrators, community leaders and clinics decide how to deploy staff and other resources most effectively. Unfortunately, man … ⌘ Read more
Check Your Mac Security Update Status with SilentKnight
Basically every Mac user is familiar with the process of updating MacOS system software to install updates for their operating system, which typically arrive as point releases (like 15.6) or major version releases (like 26). But did you know that MacOS will also periodically install security updates and anti-malware updates to Gatekeeper, MRT, and Xprotect? … [Read More](https://osxdaily.com/2025/10/24/check-your-mac-secur … ⌘ Read more
‘Destructive’ swans in the crosshairs as California allows hunting
Hunters will soon be allowed to kill mute swans as part of an effort to cull the “destructive, non-native” species statewide, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. ⌘ Read more
Rust Clone of Core Utils Breaks Ubuntu Updates
Ubuntu 25.10 dropped the battle tested GNU Core Utils, in favor of the untested, incomplete “uutils”. ⌘ Read more
I finally took a closer look at OpenRouter today, added some credits, and used it with the Kilo Code VS Code extension to vibe code (or at least guide the LLM to code) a bit on the wedding website I’m building for next year. I used the Grok Code Fast 1 model most of the time. Furthermore, I also switched this blog’s AI plugins to use Mistral Small 3.2 for summary generation and image caption generation. ⌘ Read more
Cloud Native Sustainability Month 2025: A global community movement for greener tech
Following the success of previous years, CNCF’s Sustainability Month is back — bigger and greener than ever. Organized by the TAG Operational Resilience community, this month-long global initiative brings together practitioners, developers, and advocates to explore… ⌘ Read more
Virtual reality can help people understand and care about distant communities
For many of us, climate change feels like a distant threat—damage that will happen in the future somewhere far away to people we know little about. A new Stanford University-led study reveals how virtual reality can close that distance, enabling users to explore faraway places, develop a sense of attachment to those places, and care more about how a warming world is wreaking havoc on people’s lives. ⌘ Read more
ICE Is Mounting a Mass Surveillance Campaign on American Citizens
Autumn Billings , Assistant Editor - reason
_Stephan: In every country ruled by an authoritarian dictator, one of the hallmarks of such societies is the surveillance of the citizenry, to control any resistance to the leader’s authority. Well, now that reality has come to the United States. I’m not sure how I will get to my daughter’s wedding. I have been warned not to fly or go through any g … ⌘ Read more
We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.
Nicole Foy, ProPublica Ancil Payne Fellow - ProPublica
_Stephan: The Trump Gestapo is becoming more and more aggressive and racist. If your skin color is anything other than White, I advise you to get one of those [passport cards.](https://govplus.com/solutions/passp … ⌘ Read more