Insects called burying beetles haul mouse carcasses down into the dirt and prep them to feed their future offspring. Also known as carrion beetles, they have some stiff competition … and some help from tiny traveling mites.
Category: News / Information
Something To Read On A Lazy Weekend Day
(I did not find this bit in there, so here it is from my email. It’s a start! There are a few more, all interesting and totally off topic.)
| The Times introduces your favorite (?) typeface, Times New Roman. |
| What font do you write in? People may argue all day on the internet about their favorite typefaces, but it’s a fair wager that the most ubiquitous font of all, whether it’s your personal go-to or not, is Times New Roman. Whence this towering behemoth, you may wonder? It was invented in the 1930s by type designer Stanley Morison, who, after criticizing the London Times for their dated font, was asked to make them a new one. “Morison enlisted the help of draftsman Victor Lardent and began conceptualizing a new typeface with two goals in mind: efficiency—maximizing the amount of type that would fit on a line and thus on a page—and readability,” writes Meredith Mann, Assistant Curator of Manuscripts at the New York Public Library. Morison’s new font was taller and narrower, but the letterforms were weighted in a new way that made them easier to read, despite the cramped spacing. (The weighting meant that the font also required more ink, which meant more money—a main reason that the font wasn’t immediately picked up by other papers.) Once the new font was approved, The Times published a pamphlet explaining the switch. “It is evident that there must be changes in typography as long as our social habits are open to variation,” the editors explained. “When it was founded, The Times was largely read in coffee-houses; in the nineteenth century it came to be read in trains; today it is largely read in cars and airliners. Reading habits, dependent on social habits, will not remain constant. Neither must newspaper typography remain constant.” Indeed not, especially when you’ve got such a splashy new font to brag about. “The new [font] will be employed on and after October 3, 1932,” the notice declares. “The Times, for generations the best printed paper, will, by present-day optical standards, be the most comfortably readable journal in the world.” The paper held onto the exclusive rights to Times New Roman for a year, and after that, other publications—once they’d decided it was worth shelling out for—began to follow suit. By now, it’s trickled down into just about everybody’s personal computers and for many, simply become the default. “Times New Roman is a workhorse font that’s been successful for a reason,” writes Matthew Butterick, author of the impressively niche Typography for Lawyers. “Yet it’s an open question whether its longevity is attributable to its quality or merely its ubiquity. Helvetica still inspires enough affection to have been the subject of a 2007 documentary feature. Times New Roman, meanwhile, has not attracted similar acts of homage.” Why not? “Fame has a dark side,” Butterick writes. “When Times New Roman appears in a book, document, or advertisement, it connotes apathy. It says, ‘I submitted to the font of least resistance.’ Times New Roman is not a font choice so much as the absence of a font choice, like the blackness of deep space is not a color. To look at Times New Roman is to gaze into the void.” (Or perhaps you are merely a novelist, who knows that if your paragraph looks good in Times New Roman, it will look good in anything. Too often have we been fooled by the slender affections of Garamond!) By the way, Butterick points out, lawyers should beware: though it’s as much the standard font for them as everyone, the highest court in the land (such as it is) forbids its use. Something to remember for when you get there. |
Court refers Haitian group’s Springfield filing vs. Trump, Vance to prosecutor
(This is a good thing; read a little farther to see why. The system is working; the prosecutor will make a case where one can be made under law. -A)
Haitian Bridge Alliance seeks charges vs. Republican candidates; judges point toward strong constitutional protections afforded to political speech
A panel of local judges referred the citizen-initiated criminal case against former President Donald Trump and his running mate U.S. Sen. JD Vance to Clark County prosecutor Dan Driscoll for investigation.
The case filed by the Haitian Bridge Alliance requests charges of felony inducing panic, disrupting public services, making false alarms, two counts of complicity, two counts of telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing.
Those requests reference comments made by Trump and Vance about the Haitian community in Springfield killing and eating residents pets. Shortly after those claims were amplified by Trump, Vance and thousands of others online, the community was hit by a wave of bomb and safety threats.
“The conclusion of whether the evidence and causation necessary for probable cause exists to commence a prosecution of the alleged offenses is best left in the investigatory hands of the prosecution,” the judges wrote in their decision.
The judges said particular consideration should be given to “the strong constitutional protections afforded to speech, and political speech in particular.”
“The presidential election is less than 35 days away. The issue of immigration is contentious,” the ruling states. “Due to the proximity of the election, and the contentiousness concerning the immigration policies of both candidates, the Court cannot automatically presume the good faith nature of the affidavits.”
The court ruling states that this does not mean HBA executive director Guerline Jozef does not believe what she alleges, but brings into question whether her conclusions that Trump and Vance’s “political speech” are criminal are influenced by her personal experiences, “as opposed to an objective analysis of the alleged speech, the constitutional protections afforded to that speech, the alleged conduct occurring within the community, and a claimed nexus between the speech and that conduct.”
Under Ohio law, a private citizen seeking to “cause an arrest or prosecution” can file an affidavit with “a reviewing official” — a judge, prosecuting attorney or magistrate — to have them review the facts and decide if a complaint should be filed.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance asked the court to find probable cause for the charges and issue arrest warrants for Trump and Vance.
According to the document, in a felony case, if the court questions good faith or probable cause, it will refer the case to the prosecutor for further investigation. Unless it issues a warrant for Vance and Trump’s arrests, the court must refer the case to the prosecutor.
The HBA’s updated filing alleges that free speech cannot be used as a defense, as Trump and Vance’s actions disrupted public service.
“Trump and Vance engaged in a purposeful pattern of conduct to impede public services in Springfield. Despite seeing that Springfield was suffering from repeated bomb threats, evacuations, hospital lockdowns, necessity of state-trooper deployment, and closures of government buildings, they continued to double, triple, and quadruple down on their false claims,” the affidavit stated. ” … Trump’s and Vance’s refusals to stop, despite serious chaos they were inflicting and the governor’s and mayor’s pleas, highlights their criminal purpose in spreading these lies. The chaos caused was the purpose, and the First Amendment affords no protection for that campaign of criminal conduct.”
The affidavit alleges that Trump and Vance’s actions “were not just hateful, they were calculated to stir alarm and emotional distress in the community.”
The court ruling also raised the concern of strong constitutional protections of free and political speech.
According to a concurring opinion by Judge Stephen Schumaker, the case does not require a hearing. Schumaker’s opinion went further into the question of proving certain actions.
“The Court acknowledges the difficulties of proving a negative. There is significant difference however, between stating that there are no verifiable reports that a statement is true and proof and/or probable cause that a statement is false,” Schumaker wrote. “This Judge has tremendous respect for the officials making the above and similar statements but if any of the officials voiced the opinion that the statements at issue were false, those statements are in the form of opinion.”
Update:
Links: Romancing the Vote, Yarn, & More
by Amanda · Oct 2, 2024 at 2:00 pm ·
Good info regarding books that could be near and dear to hearts of readers, some other stuff, and Romancing the Vote helping to save democracy.
Peace & Justice History for 10/3:
| October 3, 1967 Thich Nu Tri, a Buddhist nun, immolated herself in protest of the repression of the Government of (South) Vietnam. It had denied participation in recent elections of peace and neutralist elements. Buddhist leaders thus boycotted the elections, and the Ngo Dinh Diem regime received only 35% of the vote. Within four weeks, three more nuns followed Thich Nu Tri’s example (among them Thich Nu Hue and Thich Nu Thuong), all in an effort to bring peace to the their country, split in two and caught up in a war with their countrymen in the North, and the escalating presence of U.S. troops. |
October 3, 1967 Woody Guthrie, 1912-1967Folksinger/songwriter Woody Guthrie died in New York City at the age of 55. He had spent the last decade of his life in the hospital, suffering from Huntington’s chorea. Woody called his songs “people’s songs,” filled with stinging honesty, humor and wit, exhibiting Woody’s fervent belief in social, political, and spiritual justice.  Extensive bio with photos and Woody’s writing |
| October 3, 1972 The SALT I treaties, which placed the first limits on nuclear arsenals, went into effect. The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks succeeded when U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev agreed to limit anti-ballistic missile systems, and to freeze the number of intercontinental and submarine-based missile launchers (1,710 for the United States, some of which had multiple warheads, and 2,347 for the Soviet Union). |
| October 3, 1981 Irish republicans at the Maze Prison near Belfast, Northern Ireland, ended seven months of hunger strikes that had claimed 10 lives. The first to die was Bobby Sands, the imprisoned Irish Republican Army (IRA) leader who initiated the protest on March 1—the fifth anniversary of the British policy of “criminalisation” of Irish political prisoners.  Prior to 1976, Irish political prisoners were incarcerated under “Special Category Status,” which granted them a number of privileges that other criminal inmates did not enjoy. Despite Sands’s election (while an inmate) as member of Parliament from Fermanagh and South Tyrone after the first month of his hunger strike, and his death from starvation a month later, the government of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would not give in, and nine more Irish republicans perished before the strike was called off. The dead included Kieran Doherty, who had been elected to Parliament in the Irish Republic during the strike. In the aftermath, the British government quietly conceded to some of the strikers’ demands, such as the rights to wear civilian clothing, to associate with each other, to receive mail and visits, and not to be penalized for refusing prison work. |
| October 3, 1994 The United States and South Africa signed a missile non-proliferation agreement committing South Africa to abide by the The Missile Technology Control Regime, and to end its missile program and its space-launch vehicle program. More about MTCR |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryoctober.htm#october3
Updated: Trump’s Team Is Trying to Stop — Or Heavily Redact — the Release of Jack Smith’s Election Fraud Report
Tengrain’s Mock Paper Scissors has the pleading, which has been unsealed. Though there are redactions, they’re easily ID’d by people like us who pay attention, and there’s a nice index of them on MPS’s page. The link to the pleading, which is delicious (the pleading, I mean,) is also here.
The former president’s lawyers are trying to get ahead of what could be his campaign’s October surprise.
Donald Trump’s lawyers are scrambling to get ahead of what could be this election’s October surprise: the public release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report detailing evidence in the election fraud case against the former president.
In a court filing on Tuesday, Trump’s legal team accused the Department of Justice of putting together a “politically motivated manifesto” specifically timed to influence voters “in the final weeks of the 2024 Presidential election while early voting has already begun throughout the United States.”
They asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to highly redact the report or stop it from appearing in the court’s public docket altogether.
The report, which runs approximately 180 pages and was filed last Thursday under seal pending the judge’s approval for public release, would reveal grand jury testimony and what Trump lawyers called “sensitive witness statements” gathered by federal investigators over recent years.
Trump’s team says prosecutors must explain “why their proposed public disclosure … will not pose risks to potential witnesses and unfairly prejudice the adjudication of this case.” Ironically, their argument comes after Trump, for months, has been complaining that a judge-imposed gag order has prevented him from attacking former allies for assisting FBI agents and testifying against him.
Trump’s defense attorneys, John F. Lauro and Todd Blanche, turned that narrative upside down, claiming that the DOJ special counsel is hypocritically publicizing investigative materials after vehemently trying to keep them secret in Trump’s classified records case. (Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed those charges this past summer, and the case is on appeal.)
“Now that public disclosure serves their politically motivated mission, the special counsel’s office takes a different view. The office believes President Trump’s constitutional rights to
impartial jurors and fair proceedings — to say nothing of witness privacy and even safety — all take a back seat to the office’s political goals,” they wrote.
Unstated in today’s filing is that the potentially disastrous timing of this report — and its existence — is only due to the Trump team’s delay tactics in the case. Trump managed to push back the trial by fighting the indictment all the way up to the Supreme Court, which granted him an expansive new definition of presidential immunity. That opinion ultimately sent the trial judge on a fact-finding mission to figure out what alleged misconduct counts as personal versus official actions — hence Smith’s latest report.
Trump’s lawyers initially tried to file their counterargument under seal, but Chutkan ordered the D.C. federal court’s clerk to post it publicly by midday Tuesday.
The judge gave Trump’s team until noon today to file their proposed redactions to the report and until Oct. 10 to go over what they want to keep secret in what’s expected to be a large and detailed appendix to the report. Chutkan could order the report’s release at any time after that.
—
Jose Pagliery is a reporter at NOTUS.
https://www.notus.org/trump-team-jack-smith-election-fraud-report-redaction
Gee-I wonder why?
Springfield meeting change: Only Clark County residents can speak at city meeting
Springfield city government announced Wednesday that only residents of Clark County will be permitted to speak during the public comment portion of City Commission meetings in the future.
“The city of Springfield is committed to prioritizing the voices of our local residents at all commission meetings,” a city statement released Wednesday said. “To enhance community engagement and ensure that our decisions reflect the needs and interests of Springfield residents, we are implementing a new policy effective immediately.”
For months, Springfield City Commission meetings have been packed with attendees, many of them addressing grievances toward the commission over Haitian immigration issues. Some recent meetings have met the capacity limit for the City Hall Forum, forcing some later arrivals to sit outside on City Hall plaza.
To participate in the public comment portion of future commission meetings, speakers will have to complete a comment card and present valid proof of residency. Accepted forms of identification will include a State of Ohio driver’s license or a State of Ohio ID card.
“This requirement for proof of residency is designed to uphold the integrity of our meetings by ensuring that Clark County residents have a proper platform to address issues that matter to them,” city officials said. “This policy also aims to minimize disruptions from individuals who may misrepresent their residency to seek notoriety or cause distractions during meetings.
City officials said they do encourage all residents to speak up and share their perspectives on community matters at the meetings.
The next City Commission meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, in the City Hall Forum at 76 E. High St. in downtown Springfield.
Good Review of Last Night’s Debate
with a transcript link.
For Science on Wed.
Some sloths among animals unable to adapt to rapid climate change
A new study warns that sloths living in high-altitude rainforests of South and Central America could face extinction if temperatures there continue to rise according to climatic predictions.
The research, published in PeerJ Life & Environment, suggests that some sloths’ restricted ability to migrate to cooler regions and limited metabolic flexibility make them particularly vulnerable to climate change.
“Sloths are inherently limited by their slow metabolism and unique inability to regulate body temperature effectively, unlike most mammals,” says Dr Rebecca Cliffe, lead researcher of the study from Swansea University and The Sloth Conservation Foundation in the UK.
“Our research shows that sloths, particularly in high-altitude regions, may not be able to survive the significant increases in temperature forecast for 2100.” (snip-MORE)
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Structure of important male contraceptive target finally solved
A team at Monash University in Victoria developing a hormone-free, reversible male contraceptive has now figured out the 3D structure of one of their primary therapeutic targets – the P2X1-purinergic receptor (P2X1).
According to Dr Sab Ventura from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), this has been the main stumbling block that has so far hindered the team from progressing the drug discovery program to the next stage.
“Our primary goal is to develop a male contraceptive pill that is not only hormone-free but also bypasses side effects such as long-term irreversible impacts on fertility, making it suitable for young men seeking contraceptive options,” says Ventura.
In previous research in mice, the team showed that simultaneous inactivation of P2X1 and a second protein, α1A-adrenergic receptor, resulted in male infertility.
“Now we know what our therapeutic target looks like, we can generate drugs that can bind to it appropriately, which totally changes the game,” says Ventura. (snip-MORE)
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River piracy pushing Mount Everest upwards
Mount Everest is tall. In other news, the sky is blue.
But Everest (also called Chomolungma and Sagarmāthā) is taller than it logically should be – towering 238m above the world’s next highest peak, K2, and more than 250m higher than any of its counterparts in the relatively uniform Himalaya range.
Plus, it’s growing at about 2mm a year, faster than the expected rate for the range.
A team of Chinese and UK scientists have now suggested why this is the case.
The researchers think the culprit is a nearby river which “captured” another river 89,000 years ago, causing erosion that made Everest more buoyant.
They’ve published their findings in Nature Geoscience.
The Himalayan peaks get their extraordinary height from the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, causing the Earth’s crust to thicken and the mountain range to push upwards.
“An interesting river system exists in the Everest region,” says co-author Dr Jin-Gen Dai, from China University of Geosciences.
The team used numerical modelling to see how the river changed over time. They found that, about 89,000 years ago, the Arun river “captured” another nearby river.
This event, referred to as “river piracy”, happens when a river diverts its course and takes up the discharge of another river or stream.
“Our research shows that as the nearby river system cuts deeper, the loss of material is causing the mountain to spring further upwards,” says co-author Adam Smith, a PhD student at University College London, UK.
The team estimates that the river piracy has made Everest between 15 and 50m higher than it would otherwise be.
It’s also made neighbouring peaks, Lhotse and Makalu, unusually tall. These are the 4th and 5th highest mountains in the world, respectively. (snip-MORE)
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Science fiction health technology a step closer
It’s not the famous Star Trek tricorder but it’s close: researchers have developed a hand-held scanner that can generate highly detailed 3D images of body parts in almost real time.
The technology can accurately image blood vessels up to 15mm deep in human tissue, which the researchers say could help to diagnose conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis.
“We’ve come a long way with photoacoustic imaging in recent years, but there were still barriers to using it in the clinic,” says Paul Beard of University College London (UCL), UK, corresponding author of the new Nature Biomedical Engineering paper.
“The breakthrough in this study is the acceleration in the time it takes to acquire images, which is between 100 and 1,000 times faster than previous scanners.
“This speed avoids motion-induced blurring, providing highly detailed images of a quality that no other scanner can provide. It also means that rather than taking 5 minutes or longer, images can be acquired in real time, making it possible to visualise dynamic physiological events.
“These technical advances make the system suitable for clinical use for the first time, allowing us to look at aspects of human biology and disease that we haven’t been able to before.” (snip-MORE)
Scottie's Playtime 