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The Guardian: Fired USDA Workers Ordered to be Rehired
An independent federal board has ordered the US Department of Agriculture to temporarily reinstate nearly 6,000 employees who were fired as part of Donald Trump’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce.
The decision, issued on Wednesday by Cathy Harris, chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board – responsible for reviewing federal employee firings – orders the USDA to reinstate the roughly 5,600 terminated probationary employees for a period of 45 days while it continues to investigate the firings.
The order applies to probationary workers who received identical termination letters, which stated that based on their performance, they had not demonstrated that their further employment “would be in the public interest”.
GNN: New Way to Address Malaria’s Resistance to Medications
The science of epigenetics, or the adaptive changes to DNA in response to life stressors, may have uncovered a new and dynamic antimalarial medication.
Plasmodium falciparum, aka malaria, remains the most deadly infectious disease faced by man, a position it has maintained for thousands of years as it causes hundreds of thousands of deaths annually. Malaria vaccines, malaria medication, and targeted mosquito treatments have allowed for remarkable progress in the control of this complex, multi-stage parasite, including eradication from countries inside the malaria belt such as Egypt and Cape Verde.
Now though, a multinational team has uncovered a feature in the epigentics of the malaria parasite that controls for a suite of genes. Called a chromatin remodeler, with the abbreviation PfSnf2L, the team believes it could lead to a whole new class of antimalarial medication.
GNN: Mushrooms Assisting Your Immune System
A component found in all fungi may provide a shield that prevents flu-related lung damage, according to a new Canadian study.
The preclinical trial uncovered how beta-glucan—which is found in all mushrooms, and also yeast, oats, and barley—can ‘reprogram’ immune cells to prevent lung inflammation. A team of scientists at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, demonstrated that administering the compound to mice before their exposure to influenza, reduced lung damage, improve lung function and lowered the risk of illness and death.
The scientists led by Professor Maziar Divangahi discovered that a unique structure of this component can boost defenses against pathogens. While most research focuses on stopping the virus from replicating, this study explored how to regulate the body’s immunity to infection, a concept known as “disease tolerance.” The researchers discovered that beta-glucan significantly enhanced flu survival rates by modulating immune responses and preventing severe lung inflammation, a common cause of fatality.
Yahoo.Tech: JWST Spots Free Floating Mass
The James Webb Space Telescope is helping scientists study a strange mass about 20 light-years from Earth. Traveling unpredictably through the cosmos, the mass is thought to be either a rogue planet or a "failed star," also known as a brown dwarf. Only a close examination of the body's atmosphere will determine which it is.
Astronomers first found SIMP 0136 back in 2003 using Sondage Infrarouge de Mouvement Propre (SIMP), a French term that translates to "infrared proper motion survey." This technique uses two telescopes on opposite hemispheres to capture the movement of a cosmic body in infrared. Strangely, SIMP 0136 appeared to be traveling freely and without a central star around which it could orbit. It also spun very quickly, despite being roughly the same size as Jupiter, making a single SIMP 0136 day only 2.4 hours on Earth.
This led astronomers to believe SIMP 0136 was a rogue planet, or a planet that floats freely through space. But there's a chance the mysterious mass could be something else entirely. Brown dwarfs, otherwise known as failed stars, are the result of gas clouds that have collapsed without gaining enough mass to initiate nuclear fusion—an essential step required to become a "true" star. Brown dwarfs have a minimum mass of 13 Jupiter masses (MJ) and SIMP 0136 has 12.7. SIMP 0136 also emits very little light, though these emissions seem to fluctuate, causing astronomers to be unsure about whether it fits within the brown dwarf category.
The National: No Surrender in the Space Race
The US will not relinquish its dominance in low-Earth orbit as the International Space Station nears retirement and a space race with China looms, a leading industry executive has told The National.
Jeffrey Manber, president of International Space Stations at Voyager Space, said the country is seeking a strategic shift to commercial space stations, ensuring a continuing human presence in orbit.
In an exclusive interview with The National at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, he said his company was making steady progress on Starlab, a Nasa-funded commercial station expected to be launched in 2029 on SpaceX’s Starship rocket. “Speaking from the West here, there is no way the United States is going to surrender low-Earth orbit to China – full stop,” he said. “There is no way, not even in the prior administration, not in the Trump era. So, [China’s] Tiangong is an excellent station. It’s up there 24/7, fully crewed, and we will do the same.”
Phys.org, TechXplore: Bionic Hand Can 'Feel'
Johns Hopkins University engineers have developed a pioneering prosthetic hand that can grip plush toys, water bottles, and other everyday objects like a human, carefully conforming and adjusting its grasp to avoid damaging or mishandling whatever it holds.
The system's hybrid design is a first for robotic hands, which have typically been too rigid or too soft to replicate a human's touch when handling objects of varying textures and materials. The innovation offers a promising solution for people with hand loss and could improve how robotic arms interact with their environment.
Details about the device appear in Science Advances.
"The goal from the beginning has been to create a prosthetic hand that we model based on the human hand's physical and sensing capabilities—a more natural prosthetic that functions and feels like a lost limb," said Sriramana Sankar, a Johns Hopkins biomedical engineer who led the work. "We want to give people with upper-limb loss the ability to safely and freely interact with their environment, to feel and hold their loved ones without concern of hurting them."
Phy.org, TechXplore: Apple 'Fixes' Racist Glitch
Apple is fixing a bug within the dictation feature on some iPhones that briefly suggests the word "Trump" when a word with an R consonant is spoken, including "racist."
The company is responding to the controversy after some iPhone owners posted videos on social media this week to detail how the glitch works. When users activated the dictation feature and said the word "racist," the word "Trump" appears in the text window before quickly being replaced by the correct word, according to various videos posted online.
"We are aware of an issue with the speech recognition model that powers Dictation and we are rolling out a fix today," Apple said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Wednesday. The company said that the speech recognition models that power the voice-to-text feature might show words with some phonetic overlap.
Phys.org, TechXplore: How Women & Girls Are Changing Gaming
Gaming is one of the biggest industries in the world. In fact, in 2024, the revenue from the worldwide gaming market was estimated at almost $US455 billion. For context, the gaming industry is now generating more revenue than the movie and music industries combined.
And it's only expected to grow.
What's also interesting is that women are increasingly investing in gaming across various platforms. In 2024, women made up nearly 50% of the gaming population worldwide.
But it's not all gold coins and power ups. Historically, the gaming industry has had problems when it comes to women.
Research last year found that about 56% of women players had experienced one or more types of sexual harassment during online gaming—that number increases here in Australia, with 83% of female players experiencing or observing some kind of abuse while gaming.
It can mean something that should be fun becomes toxic. And that could be to do with what happens behind the scenes.
Phys.org, TechXplore: Fine Tune How Your Phone Tracks You
Here are some tips to make sure location tracking is kept to a minimum:
App permissions
Head to your phone's control panel to check permissions.
iPhone users can go to the Privacy & Security tab, and then to Location Services to check settings for individual apps. It's not a good idea to let apps always use your location in the background, according to cybersecurity experts. Instead, get the app to either ask first before using your location, use it only while you've got the app open, or even never let it use your location.
While you're in Location Services, you might notice little arrows that indicate which apps have used your location. Purple means recently, while grey indicates the past 24 hours.
It's a little different for Android phones because there are so many different versions by various device manufacturers. In general, go to settings, and then tap the Location icon, which lets you turn it on or off for all apps.
To tweak settings for individual apps, tap App location permissions, where you'll get choices similar to those in iOS.
DW: South Korea's Birthrate Posts an Uptick
After nearly a decade of birth rates in steady decline, South Korea reversed that trend to report a significant uptick in newborns in 2024.
Announced by the government-run Statistics Korea agency on February 26, a total of 238,300 babies were born last year, up 3.6% from a record low of just 230,000 in 2023.
And while the increase is certainly grounds for celebration in a nation that is recognized as one of the most rapidly contracting and aging in the world, analysts caution that the rebound is the result of a series of unique factors and that the longer-term outlook remains bleak.
DW: Pressure for a Wealth Tax in Africa
While all governments battle to find funds for better healthcare, schools, roads and other services, African countries are disproportionately groaning under an ever-increasing debt burden.
For years now, African governments have, on average, spent more on debt repayments than on healthcare. Inflation, meanwhile, is further reducing their ability to invest. To break this cycle, governments are looking to tap into new revenue sources.
"Many countries are opting for the easiest route, reaping the rewards that hang lowest," says tax expert Alvin Mosioma. He is the deputy director of an economic and climate program at the Open Society Foundation in Nairobi.
"Governments levy consumption taxes because they know that people need to consume. You cannot escape such a tax," Mosioma tells DW.
DW: Deradicalizing Nigerian Bandits
The Nigerian government said it is expanding its deradicalization program, Operation Safe Corridor, to the country's North West to tackle rising insecurity in the region. In Nigeria, the North West is a geopolitical zone comprising the states of Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara.
The North West has been locked in a decade-old conflict as criminal gangs, otherwise referred to as bandits, raid villages and run a large kidnap-for-ransom industry. They are known to sexually assault women, kill citizens, and tax locals across vast swaths of northern Nigeria.
Chief of Defence Operations Emeka Onumajuru, who represented General Christopher Musa, the chief of defence staff, said the deradicalization program
is "vital to breaking the cycle of terrorism and banditry through a structured pathway for rehabilitation and reintegration" of bandits. The program has also been used to deradicalize former Boko Haram fighters in the North East zone.
Yahoo News: Big Bear Eagles Hatch Two Eyasses
Southern California’s favorite bald eagle couple Jackie and Shadow have two [now three!] new eaglets.
The Friends of Big Bear Valley (FBBV) live camera captured one of the couple’s three eggs hatching late Monday night.
“Before midnight, the first chick had its wing and head visible and a short time later, it was out!” FBBV posted on Facebook a short time later. “Jackie pushed it back in a bit as she rolled the eggs, but it’s first touch down will be the official hatch time: 23:26, cam time.”
Earlier Monday, a crack became visible on a second egg as it moved closer to hatching.
Then, around 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the second eaglet hatched.
The Guardian: California Plugs Nutritious Nutria
California officials encouraging residents to eat invasive rodents
Wildlife experts claim nutria, which destroy habitats with voracious eating habits, taste like rabbit or dark turkey meat
Wildlife officials are encouraging California residents to add a rodent to their daily diet as part of efforts to control the invasive species’ population.
The nutria, a large, semi-aquatic rodent native to South America, is threatening the state’s ecosystems by destroying habitats and outcompeting native wildlife. The nutria’s harmful impacts have prompted wildlife officials to promote hunting and consumption as possible solutions.
“Eating invasive species can help protect native wildlife by reducing their numbers and limiting the damage they cause to ecosystems,” reads a statement released in late February by Erin Huggins, a spokesperson for the Fish and Wildlife Service. “However, it’s not a complete solution and should be combined with other conservation efforts to effectively control these species.”
Nutria are hard to tell from beavers until you can get a look at their tails, (I think of them as rat-tailed beavers), but they‘re highly destructive to the habitat. There are a few contractors locally that hunt them for the fishermen to use as crab bait, but while they’re not as actively dangerous as lionfish, they’re still a major problem.
Hope everyone has a nice evening.
