13 STx 04-Blurb

IRS will compensate for firings with AI– mashable.com

pgnewser May 9, 2025

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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has plans to take advantage of the “AI boom” to fill glaring workforce gaps, following the layoff of thousands of tax agents.

In a May 6 oversight hearing of the House Appropriations Committee, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained that the agency would be leaning into AI solutions in order to accommodate further reductions in the IRS’ budget and staff and not fall behind on tax collection. The Treasury’s budget proposal includes the removal of another 40,000 jobs.

3D printing in vivo using sound– www.sciencedaily.com

pgnewser May 9, 2025

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Imagine if doctors could precisely print miniature capsules capable of delivering cells needed for tissue repair exactly where they are needed inside a beating heart. A team of scientists led by Caltech has taken a significant step toward that ultimate goal, having developed a method for 3D printing polymers at specific locations deep within living animals. The technique relies on sound for localization and has already been used to print polymer capsules for selective drug delivery as well as glue-like polymers to seal internal wounds.

Previously, scientists have used infrared light to trigger polymerization, the linking of the basic units, or monomers, of polymers within living animals. “But infrared penetration is very limited. It only reaches right below the skin,” says Wei Gao, professor of medical engineering at Caltech and a Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator. “Our new technique reaches the deep tissue and can print a variety of materials for a broad range of applications, all while maintaining excellent biocompatibility.”

Gao and his colleagues report their new in vivo 3D-printing technique in the journal Science. Along with bioadhesive gels and polymers for drug and cell delivery, the paper also describes the use of the technique for printing bioelectric hydrogels, which are polymers with embedded conductive materials for use in the internal monitoring of physiological vital signs as in electrocardiograms (ECGs). The lead author of the study is Elham Davoodi, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Utah, who completed the work while a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech.

All Major U.S. Cities Are at Risk of Sinking, Not Just Coastal Urban Areas– www.discovermagazine.com

pgnewser May 9, 2025

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The 28 most populous U.S. cities are all settling to one degree or other, according to a study in Nature Cities. The phenomenon isn’t limited to coastal urban areas but includes population centers in the country’s interior as well. Rates differ from city to city — even area to area within some municipalities — but the general phenomenon is consistent.

Authors suspect that draining the groundwater upon which the cities sit is a major contributor. If that practice continues — not just in the U.S. but around the world — it could put lives at risk.

“As cities continue to grow, we will see more cities expand into subsiding regions,” Leonard Ohenhen, a research fellow at the Columbia Climate School and an author of the paper, said in a press release. “Over time, this subsidence can produce stresses on infrastructure that will go past their safety limit.”

Only Polarized People Want Companies In Polarized Political Issues– www.science20.com

pgnewser May 9, 2025

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Last year, companies began to pull back from promoting their Diversity Equity Inclusion efforts and social justice activists blamed the incoming Trump administration. It has been a violation of federal law to discriminate for 60 years so to moderates it seemed odd to add a layer of discrimination in hiring, even one deemed positive. And they never considered it may have instead been done at all due to pressure from the previous administration.The backlash was entirely predictable, but in both cases it was on the fringes. For no benefit, corporate CEOs were ignoring the ‘stay out of it unless your customers are dominated by it’ mantra.

In the 1930s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer(MGM) studio head Louis B. Mayer was asked why he was not capitalizing on the horror movie craze, “Frankenstein”, etc. that had made Universal so much money. He replied, ‘Why sell two tickets when I can sell four?’ In their case he meant family movies rather than just those for adults but if your product is for both Republicans and Democrats, cheese or booze, it is wise to alienate neither by telling the world you support Hamas terrorists or DOGE or anything else.

Failed Soviet probe will soon crash to Earth – and we don’t know where– www.newscientist.com

pgnewser May 9, 2025

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More than 50 years after its launch, a Soviet spacecraft called Kosmos 482 is about to come crashing back to Earth. It was originally intended to land on the surface of Venus, but it started to fall apart in low Earth orbit and never made it beyond there. After decades of circling our planet in an oval-shaped orbit, it’s finally about to hurtle back to the ground.

Kosmos 482 launched in 1972, but because of secrecy during the cold war period, little is known about its structure or its exact mission. We only know it was headed for Venus because of other Soviet missions that were focused on our neighbouring world at the time and because the spacecraft appeared to attempt to launch on a trajectory there before it went to pieces. It isn’t clear what exactly caused the spacecraft failure, but three of the four fragments fell in New Zealand shortly after the launch.

 

Senate Democrats Plan To Block Crypto Bill That Trump Wants– www.politicususa.com

pgnewser May 7, 2025

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Nine Senate Democrats supported a cryptocurrency bill coming out of committee. Trump and Republicans thought they had an easy win, but progressives in the Senate Democratic caucus have been sounding the alarm about crypto being used as a vehicle for corruption by the president, and have been demanding that the legislation contain stronger rules and regulations.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sided with the progressives and got Democrats to block the bill that Trump wants.

Semafor reported:

Nine pro-crypto Democratic senators are withholding their votes for legislation that would create rules for stablecoins — a type of crypto pegged to assets like the US dollar — in hopes they can convince Republicans to beef up the bill’s provisions on national security and consumer protection.

 

Europe launches a drive to attract scientists and researchers after Trump freezes U.S. funding– japantoday.com

pgnewser May 6, 2025

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The European Union launched a drive on Monday to attract scientists and researchers to Europe with offers of grants and new policy plans, after the Trump administration froze U.S. government funding linked to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

“A few years ago, no one would have imagined that one of the biggest democracies in the world would cancel research programs under the pretext that the word diversity was in this program,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the “Choose Europe for Science” event in Paris.

“No one would have thought that one of the biggest democracies in the world would delete with a stroke the ability of one researcher or another to obtain visas,” Macron said. “But here we are.”

Taking the same stage at the Sorbonne University, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU’s executive branch would set up a “super grant” program aimed at offering “a longer-term perspective to the very best” in the field.

China Steps Up Its Game in the Global AI Race– geopolitics.co

pgnewser May 6, 2025

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Late next month, Huawei will be testing its new powerful AI processor, the Ascend 910 D, even as by early May the previous 910C will start to be mass-delivered to scores of Chinese tech companies.

These serious breakthroughs are the next chapter of Huawei’s drive to counter Nvidia’s global monopoly in GPUs. The Ascend 910D is supposed to be more powerful than Nvidia’s extremely popular H100.

Huawei is pulling no punches in its race to manufacture a new generation of processors. Huawei has collaborated with SMIC – China’s largest semiconductor foundry – to apply Deep Ultraviolet Lithography (DUV) on what was previously only possible on EUV (Extreme Ultra-Violet technology). Once again, Huawei and SMIC defied the proverbial American “experts” with creative engineering solutions.

DNA repair insights could pave way for new cancer therapies– www.futurity.org

pgnewser April 15, 2025

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Researchers have unraveled the complex network that cells use to repair their genetic material.

By examining thousands upon thousands of genetic interactions, the team has discovered new vulnerabilities in cancer cells that could be exploited therapeutically in the future.

The DNA of human cells consists of a sequence of about 3.1 billion building blocks. Cells go to great lengths to maintain the integrity of this vast store of information. They constantly untangle knots in the DNA strand and create new chemical bonds when a strand of DNA breaks somewhere in the nucleus.

“When people read about repairing genetic material, they often think of it being in response to exposure to toxins or radiation,” says Jacob Corn, professor of genome biology at ETH Zurich.

However, repair mechanisms not only defend against external threats; they also play a crucial role in helping cells survive the challenges they face in their daily fight for survival.

 

 

DOGE Announces $2.6 Billion in Savings After Terminating 180 Wasteful Contracts – Includes $85.5k for “Live plant maintenance services” Contract and $265.5k for “Social Media Monitoring Subscription, Training, and Platform Setup” | The Gateway Pundit– www.thegatewaypundit.com

pgnewser April 15, 2025

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President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, announced new contract terminations on Tuesday, saving American taxpayers $2.6 billion in wasteful spending.

The agency highlighted presumably the most outrageous expenses, which total over $350,000 for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “plant maintenance” and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) social media programs.

Similarly, DOGE recently revealed that minor routine website maintenance for the VA cost $380,000 PER MONTH.

“That contract has not been renewed, and the same work is now being executed by 1 internal VA software engineer spending ~10 hours/week,” the department said.