Tickled rats reveal brain structure that controls laughter

Tickled rats reveal brain structure that controls laughter

Science reports: Do rats like to be tickled? The furry rodents can be quite fun-loving, scientists say. And yes, under the right circumstances, they do enjoy a bit of rough-and-tumble play, letting out high-pitched squeaks akin to human laughter. Now, researchers say they have identified the area of the brain responsible for this playfulness. The discovery, reported today in Neuron, represents “a fantastic step forward” for understanding the neural basis of play and laughter, says Sergio Pellis, a neuroscientist at…

Read More Read More

Elon Musk’s unmatched power in satellite internet technology

Elon Musk’s unmatched power in satellite internet technology

The New York Times reports: On March 17, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the leader of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, dialed into a call to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Over the secure line, the two military leaders conferred on air defense systems, real-time battlefield assessments and shared intelligence on Russia’s military losses. They also talked about Elon Musk. General Zaluzhnyi raised the topic of Starlink, the satellite internet technology…

Read More Read More

Coast to coast, a corridor of coups brings turmoil across Africa

Coast to coast, a corridor of coups brings turmoil across Africa

The New York Times reports: Africa’s coup belt spans the continent: a line of six countries crossing 3,500 miles, from coast to coast, that has become the longest corridor of military rule on Earth. This past week’s military takeover in the West African nation of Niger toppled the final domino in a band across the girth of Africa, from Guinea in the west to Sudan in the east, now controlled by juntas that came to power in a coup —…

Read More Read More

U.S. hunts Chinese malware that could disrupt military operations and civilian infrastructure

U.S. hunts Chinese malware that could disrupt military operations and civilian infrastructure

The New York Times reports: The Biden administration is hunting for malicious computer code it believes China has hidden deep inside the networks controlling power grids, communications systems and water supplies that feed military bases in the United States and around the world, according to American military, intelligence and national security officials. The discovery of the malware has raised fears that Chinese hackers, probably working for the People’s Liberation Army, have inserted code designed to disrupt U.S. military operations in…

Read More Read More

As America’s political gerontocracy clings to power, who will tell them to step aside?

As America’s political gerontocracy clings to power, who will tell them to step aside?

The New York Times reports: After a series of troubling moments this week, an uncomfortable question has become unavoidable, leaving voters, strategists and even politicians themselves wondering: Just how old is too old to serve in public office? For years, like so many children of aging parents across America, politicians and their advisers in Washington tried to skirt that difficult conversation, wrapping concerns about their octogenarian leaders in a cone of silence. The omertà was enabled by the traditions of…

Read More Read More

One of GOP’s highest-profile Black lawmakers blasts DeSantis on slavery: ‘You’ve gone too far. Stop.’

One of GOP’s highest-profile Black lawmakers blasts DeSantis on slavery: ‘You’ve gone too far. Stop.’

Insider reports: Republican Rep. John James of Michigan on Friday blasted Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida over the governor’s response to criticism from key Black conservatives over the state’s new Black history education guidelines, stating that the presidential candidate had “gone too far” and needed to “stop” his defense of the changes. James — a Black freshman lawmaker who was the GOP nominee in two highly competitive Senate races in 2018 and 2020 — took to X, the social media…

Read More Read More

Syrian refugee elected mayor in Black Forest town as anti-immigrant sentiment rises elsewhere in Germany

Syrian refugee elected mayor in Black Forest town as anti-immigrant sentiment rises elsewhere in Germany

  Malcolm Brabant, reporting for PBS: In a small town on the edge of the Black Forest, a social revolution is taking its first tentative steps. Ryyan Alshebl, Mayor of Ostelsheim, Germany (through interpreter): Germany is a country that has given hope to many in the past, and it’s also a country of hope for me. Malcolm Brabant: Eight years after Ryyan Alshebl arrived in Germany as a 20-year-old refugee, the people of Ostelsheim have entrusted him to be their…

Read More Read More

RFK Jr.’s latest tweet widely understood as white supremacist dog whistle

RFK Jr.’s latest tweet widely understood as white supremacist dog whistle

HuffPost reports: A tweet from the account of Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday used language that many observers say evokes the known Nazi hate symbol “1488.” A post on the candidate’s official Twitter account used the numbers 14 and 88 in close proximity. Kennedy has not responded to HuffPost’s request for comment or explained the post elsewhere as of Friday afternoon. It’s not clear whether he personally approved the tweet. His post on Twitter (which recently…

Read More Read More

‘Era of global boiling has arrived,’ says UN chief as July set to be hottest month on record

‘Era of global boiling has arrived,’ says UN chief as July set to be hottest month on record

The Guardian reports: The era of global warming has ended and “the era of global boiling has arrived”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said after scientists confirmed July was on track to be the world’s hottest month on record. “Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” Guterres said. “It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C [above pre-industrial levels], and avoid the very worst of climate change. But only…

Read More Read More

As the world confronts the reality of the climate crisis, the GOP remains stuck in denial

As the world confronts the reality of the climate crisis, the GOP remains stuck in denial

HuffPost reports: Unless you’ve been living underground or have a vested interest in turning a blind eye to reality, you know that climate change has sent temperatures soaring to dangerous levels around the planet this summer. Two global climate organizations on Thursday confirmed that July is on track to be the single hottest month on record. It is also likely the hottest monthlong stretch in 120,000 years. Nearly 200 million people — 60% of the U.S. population — are currently…

Read More Read More

Events that never happened could influence the 2024 presidential election – a cybersecurity researcher explains situation deepfakes

Events that never happened could influence the 2024 presidential election – a cybersecurity researcher explains situation deepfakes

The volatile mix of deepfakes and political campaigns is a good reason to be on guard. Sean Anthony Eddy Creative/E+ via Getty Images By Christopher Schwartz, Rochester Institute of Technology Imagine an October surprise like no other: Only a week before Nov. 5, 2024, a video recording reveals a secret meeting between Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The American and Ukrainian presidents agree to immediately initiate Ukraine into NATO under “the special emergency membership protocol” and prepare for a nuclear…

Read More Read More

As nuclear threats grow, the ranks of experts in arms control are dwindling

As nuclear threats grow, the ranks of experts in arms control are dwindling

Bryan Bender writes: This summer, as the public is treated to a rare thriller about the development of the atomic bomb in director Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer, the nation’s leading nuclear policy wonks like [Ed] Geist [at RAND] are more concerned than ever about the specter of a nuclear war — and warn that we are far less prepared than during the Cold War to deal with a more expansive threat. As Oppenheimer reminds us, the bomb itself was the…

Read More Read More

Netanyahu won’t commit to abiding by ruling if Israel’s Supreme Court blocks controversial law

Netanyahu won’t commit to abiding by ruling if Israel’s Supreme Court blocks controversial law

CNN reports: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to say if he would abide by any potential Supreme Court ruling striking down his controversial judicial reform law, as Israelis agonize over a looming showdown between their government and the court. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Netanyhu warned that the country could enter “uncharted territory” if the Supreme Court overturned the law, which strips the court of its power to block government actions. “What you’re talking about is…

Read More Read More

Let the tragedy in my homeland be a lesson

Let the tragedy in my homeland be a lesson

Tahir Hamut Izgil writes: About seven years ago, people around me started disappearing. It began slowly, quietly. The editors of a well-known literature textbook were suddenly nowhere to be found. A friend of mine left for work and never came home. My family and I are Uyghurs, and at the time we were living in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China. The political situation in our region had been growing gradually more tense for…

Read More Read More