“A large study of plant, animal and human remains from an ancient site on the Syrian coast has shed light on what people ate more than 3,000 years ago and how they managed to survive through climate changes that brought periods of protracted drought. The research shows that the so-called Mediterranean diet, loosely defined as a regimen that is poor in animal protein and emphasizes legumes, cereals, fruits and vegetables, is far from a food fad, and was in fact the way of life of people far back into the Bronze Age. It also highlights how people, at least in this particular town, had the resilience and technology to survive the upheavals triggered by climate changes that brought many ancient civilizations to their knees at the end of the Bronze Age, some 3,200 years ago. The study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, focused on hundreds of bones, seeds and other animal and vegetable remains from Tel Tweini, an ancient coastal town located some 30 kilometers south of the Syrian port city of Latakia. An international team of scientists combined archaeological findings with isotope analysis to glean information on what the people and animals at Tel Tweini ate and how their crops fared in times of crisis. ‘You are what you eat, that old adage is very true,’ says Dr. Benjamin Fuller, a researcher with the University of Leuven in Belgium who led the study … For example, when looking at the levels of nitrogen in human remains from Tel Tweini, Fuller and colleagues found that these were surprisingly low, meaning that animal protein was not a major component of their diet. ‘Nitrogen levels tell your position in the food chain: plants are lower, animals eat the plants and they are in the middle, and then humans generally eat the animals and they are higher up, but these individuals are right at the level of the animals or even below, which is uncommon,’ Fuller explains. ‘We had samples from dogs that had more nitrogen than the humans.’” (Ariel David/Haaretz)
“Two ideas dominate discussions about how to bring the war in Ukraine closer to an end: the West should either pressure Ukraine to make concessions to Russia or support Ukraine’s efforts to win on the battlefield. Both approaches rightly recognize that negotiations will remain futile until changing circumstances compel one side to accept peace terms that it rejects today. Nonetheless, neither approach is likely to end the war. Withholding arms from Ukraine could eventually force it to offer concessions to Russia as part of a desperate attempt to end the war, but advocates of this approach overlook how it would also affect Russia’s war aims. Moscow would react to its newfound military advantages by doubling down on its most extreme demands—further territorial gains in places such as Kharkiv and Odessa, regime change, demilitarization, and more. Any willingness in Kyiv to make concessions would be offset by Moscow’s newly expanded war aims. The result would be Russian gains on the battlefield, not peace. Similarly, although the U.S. Congress’s belated passage of $61 billion in aid for Ukraine should be celebrated, it is more likely to increase the amount of territory Ukraine holds a year from now than to end the war. Even in a best-case scenario in which a Ukrainian counteroffensive liberates large areas, Russia would likely continue the fight. Providing enough support for Ukraine to defeat Russia’s ongoing offensives is essential, but it will not end the war … Changing that calculus requires making investments to expand weapons and munitions manufacturing that are large enough to convince Moscow that the West will outproduce Russia in the years to come. The objective is to make Russian leaders fear a long war. That fear is vital to avoiding one.” (Dan Altman/Foreign Affairs)
“There are people who never become openly enraged at dinner parties but I am probably not interested in knowing them. I love telling people stories about me getting upset at dinner parties. Here is one: I was at a small dinner party recently where my companions started talking about what they perceived as the huge problem of anti-Semitism on college campuses. While I do not doubt anti-Semitism exists on college campuses, I would not classify resisting and protesting Israel’s seventy-five-year occupation of Palestine, near twenty-year blockade of Gaza, and killing of tens of thousands of people as anti-Semitism. All I could manage in this situation was a dismissive snort. I was asked to explain my snort, but I knew that if I did I would be beaten to death with facts from one newspaper, which I also read and with whose arguments I have become numbly familiar, so I just snorted again, left the table, and went to bed. Now, the hosts of this dinner party were my own parents. I got lucky in this instance. Most dinner-party invitations do not include a bed and an en suite bathroom. Whatever you are willing to say you must also be willing to stew in. I have a friend who is a film critic who was at a dinner party several years ago when another guest proclaimed, ‘If Walt Whitman were alive today, he would definitely be writing for television.’ No one has ever said to me that if so-and-so dead writer were alive today they would definitely be writing for television. But my friend, because of his job, has similar observations made to him ‘about every eighteen months.’ So he was prepared with a response: ‘That’s a ridiculous thing to say. You don’t know what you’re talking about. What makes you think that Walt Whitman would ever write for television?’ The person had no answer.” (Sarah Miller/The Paris Review)
“I recently reread (the elder) Olufemi Taiwo’s Africa Must be Modern — a provocative and highly readable book that I think should be required reading in all high schools throughout the Continent. The book got me thinking about the role of ideas in African political economy. That, in turn, led me to conclude that there is a dearth of actionable political ideas for social and economic transformation on the Continent; and that this situation is partially attributable to the demise of organized Leftist politics in the region since the 1970s. For a region whose countries are mostly low-income, mired in stark inequalities, and with a rich history of revolutionary left wing politics (see here and here) and accompanying intellectual firepower, it is striking how little traction contemporary Leftist politics gets in African countries. Not even the advent of mass politics in the early 1990s produced nationally-competitive Leftist political formations. Over the last 30 years, only Ethiopia under Meles Zenawi posted successes that could arguable be linked to Leftist ideological origins (albeit very inconsistently). The roster of incumbent African administrations continues to be dominated by ideologically stunted traditionalists and reactionaries. How did this pattern emerge? And what have been the associated costs?” (Ken Opalo)
“Global spending on renewables, nuclear, energy efficiency and low-emissions fuels like hydrogen is set to eclipse $2 trillion in 2024, double the $1 trillion spent on fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency's annual review of global energy spending. The transformation is particularly strong in the power sector, where worldwide investment in solar ($500 billion) is set to exceed spending on all other forms of power generation combined. The IEA's annual World Energy Investment report is closely tracked by industry analysts as a leading indicator for trends in the energy industry. This year's report predicts that spending on clean energy will grow by almost 6 percent, up from nearly $1.9 trillion in 2023. The report also notes an uptick in clean energy spending in emerging markets, a critical development for reaching the world's climate targets. And it provides evidence that the wave in green energy spending sought by President Joe Biden, with passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, is starting to take root. U.S. spending on clean energy is projected to increase by $300 billion this year.” (Benjamin Sworrow/Scientific American)
“HE WAS derided as a ‘transparent charlatan,’ dangerously stoking ‘the passions and prejudices of the ignorant.’ South Carolina Senator Benjamin ‘Pitchfork’ Tillman (1847–1918), that is—a demagogue infamous for his paramilitary fervor and white supremacist views, including his ardent defense of lynching. Donald Trump’s own rhetoric approaches that of fire-eating Southern Redeemers, in tone if not in substance, and his predictions of a ‘bloodbath’ if he’s not reelected harbor the same appeal to his followers as Tillman’s calls for a restored antebellum social order did to his post-Reconstruction listeners. Misguided patriots on the MAGA Right are certainly to blame for the rise of populist authoritarianism, but the Left also bears some guilt, says conservative scholar Robert Kagan in his new book, Rebellion: How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart—Again. ‘One of liberalism’s great weaknesses has always been the belief in its own inevitability,’ he writes. Kagan views liberalism as defined by the Revolutionary War generation, a set of guiding principles of the United States. It is easy to forget just how radical these ideals were at the time, a triumph of reason over revelation, and foremost a mechanism for safeguarding individual rights. ‘The new, radically liberal tradition in America would from the beginning be accompanied by an antiliberal tradition every bit as potent,’ writes Kagan, also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. But taking a selective view of the Revolution and the republic’s founding is not unique to Trump supporters. Kagan’s generally evenhanded analysis shows there is nothing distinct in the current populist movement or its authoritarian impulse, apart from its buffoonish figurehead.” (Bill Thompson/LARB)
“Your supermarket choices actually narrow to a handful of suppliers making different brands whose prices are tightly coordinated. Step deeper inside the supply chain, and you find that the ingredients that make your food so addictive derive from an even smaller circle of titans. What you end up learning, if you take the time, is that the supermarket, this tribute to human ingenuity, is actually a battlefield, a war between some of the biggest companies on the planet. And you are the guinea pig for their experiments. In the grocery business, nothing is accidental. Every product’s placement, every advertisement, every coupon is a function of marketing wizardry and hardball tactics, in a bid for the eyes and wallets of consumers. Because everybody needs food to survive, retailers and manufacturers are willing to try every pricing strategy known to man. The grocery store is where all facets of this new era of pricing come together, where attempts to squeeze more from shoppers are tested, analyzed, and put into action. It started with traditional marketing like coupons and loyalty programs, hooking consumers by giving them a reason to come back. But more insidious schemes lurk inside the grocery store: price-fixing, product shrinkage, electronic shelf tags that change on a whim, and skirmishes between grocers and food producers, or even grocers and other grocers. This cutthroat dynamic has accelerated consolidation across the food and retail supply chain. It has also kept grocery prices noticeably higher since the pandemic than other goods in the economy. Since the beginning of 2020, grocery prices have risen 25 percent, significantly higher than wages. Consumers experience the most reverberating effects, particularly low-income consumers who spend more of their paychecks on groceries.” (Jarod Facundo/TAP)
“A federal judge on Friday ordered the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ′ personal assets but was still deciding on his company’s separate bankruptcy case, leaving the future of his Infowars media platform uncertain as he owes $1.5 billion for his false claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax. Judge Christopher Lopez approved converting Jones’ proposed personal bankruptcy reorganization to a liquidation. He was hearing testimony Friday afternoon on whether Infowars’ parent company, Texas-based Free Speech Systems, also should be liquidated. Lopez’s ruling earlier Friday means many of Jones’ personal assets will be sold off. But his primary home in the Austin area and some other belongings are exempt from bankruptcy liquidation. He already has moved to sell his Texas ranch worth about $2.8 million, a gun collection and other assets to help pay debts.” (Dave Collins and Juan Lozano/AP)
“Kenny Zhu loves animals. Growing up, Zhu would keep as many animals as he could, from chickens and geese to fish and hedgehogs. Now, as a professor of computer science, he leads a team of student researchers to decode animal language through AI and machine learning. Having recently received a grant of $483,804 from the National Science Foundation, Zhu said the project aims to discover whether some animal species have language capabilities like humans. The team behind the project includes six students from other universities and three students from UTA. ‘Traditionally, it is known that language is actually unique to human beings because of the advanced development of human brains and intelligence,’ Zhu said. ‘However, more recently, scientists have discovered that different animal species may possess certain kinds of linguistic skills.’ Research started by downloading videos of dogs from the internet — specifically clips of Shiba Inu dogs, which serve as a control variable in the research because they are popular and kept in both the United States and Japan. The noises the dogs make are put into a language model called Hubert, which transcribes the sounds into a sequence of symbols. Zhu said that the program is similar to turning audio into text. Once the team has the text, they can analyze it to determine if regular patterns exist in the sounds and possibly find a vocabulary in the speech.” (James Ward/The Shorthorn)_
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