toucana

'Indolent' was a joke from the Latin root 'in-dolens' meaning "Not suffering" - because these mummified baboons were long dead silent witnesses. But there is something ludicrously regal, and imperiously lazy in how baboons often appear on camera

Scientists may have solved one long standing mystery that has puzzled Egyptologists and archaeologists alike for well over a century according to a recent paper: https://elifesciences.org/articles/87513 Egyptian writings and inscriptions dating back to the reign of the pharaoh Sahure in the period of the Old Kingdom c. 2500 BCE testify to a prosperous trade relationship with another kingdom called Punt that supplied the Egyptians with luxury items such as Frankincense, ebony, leopard skins and baboons. The relationship was documented in a Middle Kingdom fictional tale called ‘The Shipwrecked Sailor’ dated to 2000 BCE, and also by an inscription found in a mortuary temple from the reign of Queen Hatshepsut c.1400 BCE that describes the re-establishment of relations with Punt at that time. The problem is that none of the sources explain where Punt was located, beyond some vague suggestions it lay to the southeast of Egypt. Plausible guesses included Sudan, Nubia, Somalia, Ethiopia, Arabia, and even Uganda and Mozambique - until a harbour inscription from 1900 BCE was found in 2005 which confirmed that the Egyptians probably reached Punt by a sea route, rather than by travelling up the Nile. In 2010 scientists turned their attention to mummified remains of baboons found in ancient Egypt. Baboons were venerated in Egypt as being sacred to Thoth the god of learning, and large numbers of them were mummified and preserved (along with cats crocodiles and ibises as well). Baboons are not native to Egypt, and the ones to be found there were either imported, or bred in captivity in ancient times. Scientists realised that they could geolocate the mummified specimens by first studying the ratios of two istopes of Strontium - Sr-86 and Sr-87 - found in the bones and teeth of mummified baboons, and then comparing these ratios to those found in soil samples in coastal areas. The isotope ratios in the teeth are particularly important because baboon teeth stop growing after about 3 years. The most recent study in 2023 has refined this geolocation by examining mitochondrial DNA found in several caches of baboon mummies found in Saqqara in Egypt, and in Eritrea. The overlay of data with the distributions of known mitochondrial DNA families of baboons in Africa now suggests that Punt was most likely the Eritrean port city known as Adulis to the Romans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv0myuOFIeY

One of the many oddities about the hippopotamus amphibious is that they can neither swim nor float in water: https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/hippo Here is a photo of a hippopotamus at rest in shallow water which I took myself a few years ago - coincidentally in the zoo at San Diego California.

The US enterprise infosec firm CrowdStrike has admitted responsibilty for pushing a bad software update that has bricked millions of Windows PC computers around the world, causing chaos at airports, medical facilities, and banking firms on an unprecedented scale. In UK the Sky television network was taken off the air for a while because of this IT failure, and London taxi drivers say they have been unable to process card payments, and are having to work on a cash only basis. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp4wnrxqlewo Sources at CrowdStrike say that a bad channel content update to a driver in their Falcon sensor software system appears to be the cause of the problem. The software is supposed to identify and mitigate potential cyber security threats on enterprise level computer network systems, but the malformed update achieved its apotheosis by deciding that the Microsoft Windows 10 itself was a dangerous virus - resulting in a BSOD boot-loop. https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/19/crowdstrike_falcon_sensor_bsod_incident/ CrowdStrike have around 24,000 enterprise customers worldwide, but many of these are large corporations with global networks of their own, so the consequences of this software error are quite enormous. The coding issue has been identified, but the problem is that while some affected computer systems can apparently be reset by rebooting a machine up to 15 times in a row, other systems will need to be fixed by rebooting each one in safe mode, and carrying out a directory seach to locate and delete the damaged system file. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_CrowdStrike_incident Going to be a busy weekend if you are an IT tech.

The BBC News channel had a reporter live on site at the Trump rally in Butler Pennsylvania when the firing began. His name is Garry O’Donoghue and he has been blind since the age of 8. This is a precis of his remarkable reporting of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzRnEzesdNk

The Republican National Convention is due to start in Milwaukee Wisconsin USA tomorrow - Monday 15 July 2024. You can’t help wondering if these security arrangement are likely to be rethought ? https://apnews.com/article/republican-national-convention-security-perimeter-protesters-parade-491834e6d26cc1c580d09b1384f9c09d

Shots have been fired at former president Trump while he was speaking onstage at a political rally in the town of Butler 35 miles north of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania within the last hour today. According to the rolling BBC News channel, a sniper with a rifle opened fire from the roof of a low building outside the perimeter of the rally. Witnesses say that a number of shots were fired, and that up to 4 people in the crowd behind the stage were hit. Trump himself was apparently grazed on the ear by a bullet and fell to the floor behind the rostrum before the stage was swarmed and surrounded by Secret Service agents. Blood could be seen on his right ear as he was bustled into an SUV. Other casualties were seen being taken on stretchers to ambulances An Information Director for the Trump campaign later said that he had been taken to a medical facility and was unhurt. The BBC say that other law enforcement sources claim the gunman had been ‘neutralised’.

There is a worked example in the video previously cited at around 4.39 elapsed - (the video is only 7.09 long)- showing the convergence for λ = 20.

There is a reference to this subscript in the YT video by Sabine Hossenfelder which Eise linked to earlier (c.3:15 elapsed) It's apparently a Pochhammer Symbol - which she says is another type of Gamma Function.

From the expanded text of the main article (§ QFT expectations) --> https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.221601

A novel method of calculating the value of Pi has been found by an Indian physicist Aninda Sinha, Professor at the Centre for High Energy Physics (CHEP) - Indian Institute of Science, and co-author Arnab Saha, a post-doc assistant - published in Physical Review Letters https://www.iisc.ac.in/events/iisc-physicists-find-a-new-way-to-represent-pi/ The new method was stumbled upon by chance while the researchers were investigating how string theory can be used to explain certain physical phenomena: There are several well known methods of calculating Pi by using infinite series, notably the Wallis product formula first published by John Wallis in 1656, and the Gregory series discovered by Scottish mathematician James Gregory (1638-75). They can however be cumbersome to use. In the Gregory series you need to use 10,000 terms of the series to get 4 decimal places of π correct. The authors refer to a similar formula known in India as the Madhava series in recognition of a 14th-century Indian mathematician and astronomer Madhava of Sangamagrama who first discovered it - but while the Madhava series takes 5 billion terms to converge to ten decimal places, the new representation with λ between 10 and 100 takes 30 terms according to an appendix in the paper. https://www.iflscience.com/physicists-accidentally-discover-a-whole-new-way-to-write-pi-74768

(For viewers across the pond - Several Conservative MPs, including the one for my own constituency, have been disowned by their own party for allegedly making bets on the date of the General Election before it was announced to the public. - "Things Can Only Get Better" by D:Ream was the anthemic song of the Labour party campaign that swept Tony Blair to victory in 1997).

I recently bought an Apple Watch Series 9, and thought it might be interesting to share some of the issues I have encountered so far. My main motive in purchasing a smart watch was to carry out enhanced health & activity monitoring, and to keep track of medication schedules and medical appointments. Why pick an Apple Watch - rather than a Google Pixel Watch 2, Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 or a Garmin Vivomove Trend ? Well, all my other devices happen to be Apple (iMac, iPad, iPhone) and are already linked up to each other via iCloud. If you happen to be an Android or Samsung phone user, or if you are training for the Olympics - then you would probably make different choices. iOS 17 --> Practically the first thing you need to know is that the Apple Series 9 smart watches have to be paired with an iPhone that is running iOS 17 at the very minimum. This unfortunately means that you cannot pair a Series 9 Apple Watch to an iPhone 8, as the latter only supports up to iOS 16.7 - this was the first gottacha as my existing iPhone happened to be an iPhone 8 - strike #1. Having bought a new Apple Watch Series 9, I then had to buy a new iPhone as well to make any constructive use of the new watch. As it happened, my iPhone 8 needed to be replaced as it had developed a crack in the screen (which also meant it had zero trade-in value). The entry level phone on sale at Apple Stores in our area nowadays is an iPhone 13, which more than doubled the intended outlay for the watch. Magnetic Link Band --> A wide variety of wrist band styles are available for the watch and I selected a fine weave Textile Magnetic Link Band. These are relatively new. Apple originally offered Magnetic Link Bands in leather, but then withdrew these from sale for ecological reasons, and replaced them with Textile Bands made from recycled materials. These new Magnetic Link Bands have attracted some criticism from users complaining that they slip. I initially had some problems with this too, until I realised that these magnet straps have a preferred rotational orientation to each other. When correctly fitted the bands should snap together with an audible clunk - like a magnet toy. If they don’t, then you need to disengage one strap and refit it the other way up. The straps come in 3 colours, Pacific Blue, Dark Olive, and Taupe. The latter has a lighter tone on one side than the other which makes it easier to orientate them correctly.

There is an old piece of sage advice for guys desperate to find a partner:- "You just need to keep on chasing girls until one of them catches you" 😉

I think this NCBI paper provides a relevant and useful precis of what lies behind the ‘Incel’ ideology mentioned in the OP https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9780135/ Probably the most surprising thing is that the Incel movement originally began in 1997 with a female student who created an online site called Alana’s Involuntary Celibacy Project which documented her struggles on the dating scene, and which soon became a popular hub and mutual support site for individuals with similar experiences. Alana subsequently found a partner and left the site in the hands of others, only to discover some years down the line that the group had splintered, and had been hijacked into a number of embittered male-only assemblies whose sexual frustrations were now often directed at the women who had ‘shunned’ them. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/25/woman-who-invented-incel-movement-interview-toronto-attack The full extent of this transformation became clear in 2014 when a former college student called Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured 14 others in a mass attack at Isla Vista California near the University of California Santa Barbara before committing suicide himself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliot_Rodger Rodger had uploaded a video on YouTube called ‘Elliot Rodger’s Retribution’ detailing his plans, along with a 137 page manifesto titled ‘My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger’ lamenting his frustrations with being a virgin and explaining his motivations were to “punish” women for their lack of interest in him. Elliot Rodger was subsequently lauded as a hero and ‘martyr’ by other members of the online Incel community - including notably - Alek Minassian a 25 y/o Toronto man who killed 11 pedestrians (9 of them women), and injured 15 other by driving a van along the sidewalks of Yonge St in April 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Toronto_van_attack Minassian who was subsequently jailed for life told police that he was an Incel and described the attack as a continuation of the “incel rebellion” started by the late Elliot Rodger. Three years later in August 2021 another mass killing by a self-styled Incel took place at Keyham Plymouth England. A 22 y/o man called Jake Davison shot 6 people in total - including his own mother, and a 3 year old girl at random before killing himself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_shooting Checks of his online activities subsequently disclosed that he subscribed to Incel related content, and had posted YouTube videos about ‘the black pill worldview’ which is a favoured theme of Incel programming and propaganda. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incel#%22Red_pill%22_and_%22black_pill%22 In the wake of the Toronto van attack in 2018, Canadian authorities classfied militant Incel activity as misogyny terrorism. The views and values of Inceldom are more generally seen as a dangerous form of psychopathology whose adherents live within self-validating social bubbles and online echo-chambers that simply reinforce their own delusional and violent mysogonistic grievances.

Trump’s newly amended status as a convicted felon debars him from an interesting variety of occupations in various USA states. The Independent has recently published a list which includes the following: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-convicted-felon-jobs-b2558874.html - He cannot hold a liquor license to sell alcohol (New Jersey & many other states too) - He cannot work as a bartender (Florida) - He cannot be a firefighter (Florida) - He cannot work in pest control (North Carolina) - He cannot work in a casino (Illinois) - He cannot work in a health care industry (Virginia) - He cannot work as a vet (Indiana) - He cannot work as a realtor without special permission (New York) - He cannot sell cars (Mississippi) As noted:

Juanita N. Holmes is a name that may become more widely familiar in coming days. She is an American police officer and administrator who is the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Probation - and she has the responsibility of interviewing and making sentencing recommendations to Judge Juan Merchan in respect of newly convicted felon Donald J. Trump before his sentencing hearing on July 11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juanita_N._Holmes One issue that is of particular interest to a Probation Officer is whether a felon is in compliance with 18 US Code §922(g), a Federal law that renders it illegal for a convicted felon to be in possession of a firearm or ammunition. https://www.atf.gov/firearms/identify-prohibited-persons#:~:text=Further%2C%20the%20GCA%20at%2018,or%20possessing%20firearms%20or%20ammunition. The problem here is that Donald J. Trump who was previously reported to be in possession of 3 guns before his concealed carry permits were cancelled in New York has apparently only returned 2 of them to the NYPD. The registration of a third gun was said by his representatives to have been legally transferred to Florida, but according to new reporting by CNN, the Florida Palm Beach authorities have no record of any such transfer. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-admitted-to-having-a-gun-in-florida-during-probation-interview-report This is bad news for Trump because an adverse PO report of non-compliance with 18 US Code §922(g) can not only lead to an extra 3-5 years on any prison sentence imposed by Judge Merchan in New York, but can also lead to the revocation of Trump’s bail in all other pending cases throughout the country where he is under indictment. The timing is particularly unfortunate given that Hunter Biden the son of President Biden has just been convicted by a jury in Delaware of three offences under 18 US Code §922(a), a much more minor offence of failing to tick a checkbox disclosing that he was a recreational drug user when purchasing a handgun that was disposed of 15 days later without ever being loaded or used. The 18 US Code §922(a) charge against Hunter Biden (which is hardly ever brought alone) was originally meant to be set aside under a plea agreement with the Trump appointed Attorney/Special Counsel who cut a diversion deal under which Hunter Biden was suppposed to plead guily to two minor tax misdemeanours instead. For reasons best known to himself, the Delaware judge threw out this plea deal, and pressed the §922(a) charge instead.

Poles can be a problem for politicians ..

As a newly convicted felon, Donald Trump can no longer travel abroad to at least 37 foreign countries - according to a recent Newsweek report based on data from the World Population Review: https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-travel-ban-1906686 These countries include Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. A number of other countries also reserve the right to refuse entry pending border checks on criminal records: these include Israel, Mexico, Turkey, Ukraine, South Africa, South Korea, and the Philippines. The good news for Trump is that Russia and North Korea aren’t currently on the ‘no-fly’ list. He can always potter off to either the Kremlin or Pyongyang, and hang out with his best mates Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un.

Trump's lawyers can't file any appeals until sentencing has taken place on July 11th - because the trial isn't complete until that has taken place. This point was covered in a Q&A with former prosecutor Glen Kirschner on Brian Tyler Cohen's channel.

Trump's has just said that "The real verdict will be the presidential election" which is simply false. The real verdict was just given by a jury of his peers, and unless it is overturned on appeal (highly unlikely), he is now - and will remain - a felon convicted on 34 criminal indictments.

Trump has been convicted on all 34 indictments by a unanimous verdict of the jury. Sentencing will be in about 5 weeks time in mid July.