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AI is engineering antimicrobial viruses

All God’s critters got viruses. Not just animals and plants, but fungi and bacteria. The viruses that infect and kill bacteria are called bacteriophages (or phages, for short).   For decades, the USSR developed and used natural bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections like cholera. Even after the discovery of antibiotics, the Soviet Union continued the clinical use of bacteriophages. Now, a US company has used AI to engineer a bacteriophage to treat infections: “ Rather than searching for a virus that could kill the patient's bacteria, Omnii-1 redesigned part of a virus so it could better recognize and attack the specific bacterial strain causing the infection. The company says the AI-driven process could eventually take just days.” An increasing number of bacterial pathogens have acquired resistance to common antibiotics, and in some cases, to all available antibiotics. So, bacteriophage therapy represents a potential new tool in the bacterial arms race. How effective is it? “...
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Quote of the day

What we seem to be getting back to is the nineteenth century. Then politics tended to be centered on the fight between liberals (broadly speaking), and illiberals or anti-liberals. That struggle, and the various victories and defeats of each side, defined the history of many nations throughout that era. We thought for a while that we’d moved beyond that. We were wrong.   ~William Kristol
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Quote of the day

It’s true that the White House squeezes money and well-being from the targets of its campaign even when it doesn’t secure convictions. But when the failures are so consistent and so abject they have the effect of advertising both the President’s abuses of power and his weakness. Successfully abusing your power is a display of dominance which spreads fear. These clumsy and grasping failures more generate anger and contempt. A shrewder would-be autocrat wouldn’t have made himself so deeply unpopular, in such foreseeable ways while he was trying to impose an Orban-style autocracy. Even at this late date one with any foresight or self-control would drop these antics and focus other kinds of wrongdoing. But Trump simply can’t. We don’t diminish the gravity of Trump’s wrongdoing by noting that he is failing in this effort. ~Josh Marshall
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Quote of the day

Globalization has become tainted in our eyes, as if it necessarily constitutes a zero-sum enterprise. And its mercenary form—which is also its most common form –has indeed inflicted harm. But the global semiconductor supply chain reflects an alternative pathway. It has united its participants in the pursuit of something profoundly difficult that could not have been achieved in the absence of intercontinental solidarity. ~Gideon Lewis-Kraus
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RFK Jr is an idiot

RFK Jr’s lack of knowledge about healthcare, vaccines and nutrition has been well-documented. Remarkably, this former heroin addict who cops to snorting cocaine off of a toilet seat continues to self-own his ignorance. “ There's 500 million Arabs in the world and yet they don't produce science," Kennedy said on the campaign trail Monday. "They don't win the Nobel Prize. They don't win the Fields Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature." Egyptian law scholar Mohamed ElBaradei, a diplomat and vice-president of Egypt, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 alongside the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). ElBaradei and the IAEA, which he previously chaired, were awarded for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes. Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni journalist, politician, and human rights activist, was a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Yemeni and the first Arab ...
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Quote of the day

Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you. ~Christopher Hitchens
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Boomers and property taxes

Property taxes are a kind of wealth tax. For most Americans, most of their wealth is in their house.   “92-year-old Pennsylvania woman   died in January   after prolonged health issues and a nightmarish six-year battle over property taxes.   “Gloria Gaynor, who was bedridden from illness, accrued $3,500 in unpaid property   taxes   in 2020. By 2025, she was facing eviction from a company that put a lien on her home after buying the unpaid debt from Delaware County   at auction,   ABC7   reported.   “This stressful scenario is one that strikes fear into the hearts of many   retirees,   and has led to a growing movement among the   baby boomer generation ( those aged 62 to 80)   to   eliminate their property taxes.” Property taxes  fund   public schools , fire and police departments, trash collection, public health programs and road maintenance, among other public services. Here in Rhode Island, our prope...
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