#Data Transformation using Momentum

[suppose-i-was-worm]

Ghost on the Stairs

**alright, alright. I asked and y'all answered. Here's my siblings Bruce and Danny fic!**

“Boo!”

Bruce clattered to a stop on the floor, holding his arms out for his baby brother as the boy toddled his way forward.

“Hey, Danny! Did you miss me while I was at school?”

Danny waved chubby arms, clearly delighted that Bruce was waiting for him. He was all of two years to Bruce’s seven, and the two of them were almost inseparable.

Chancing a look over to his mother, Bruce found her and father smiling fondly at the two of them. Alfred was coming up behind them with a tea tray.

“Boo!”

Bruce turned back to his brother, only to lurch forward as his tiny brother took a step straight into a swirling green portal that opened up from nowhere.

Danny’s screech as he fell was cut off by the portal shutting with a snap, leaving Bruce on his hands and knees, reaching for air.

Mother, father, and Alfred all clustered around him as he began to cry, and the four of them began desperately looking for the youngest member of the family.

They never found him, and a year later, Bruce lost his parents to a gun. At least that was something he could fight against.

When Bruce became Batman at the age of twenty-two, he finally erected a gravestone for his baby brother, right next to their parents. If Danny ever came back, he wouldn’t be the same boy who had vanished.

~~~

Red Robin swung into the building, breaking through the window with his momentum. The cult surrounding a magic circle on the floor of the warehouse had been causing a ruckus in Gotham, and the bats had finally had enough.

Just as they finished knocking out the cultists, the magic circle flared to life and a green pool bloomed from the floor.

Tim, purely out of scientific curiosity, leaned closer, only to be pulled back roughly by Batman.

“Stay away from it.”

“B?”

Batman grabbed a batarang from where it had landed in the melee and threw it with a precise hand, cutting through one of the lines of chalk surrounding the pool.

Narrowing his eyes, Tim watched Bruce’s face- his expression right now was all Bruce, no Bat in sight- sorrow mixed with relief.

Once the pool had vanished completely, Bruce pulled Tim into his arms.

“Woah, what’s up B?”

“I cannot lose you too.”

The moment passed, and Red Robin found himself following Batman as the vigilante swept out of the building.

~~~

“Constantine.”

“Bats. Nice of you to call. What do you need?”

“I sent you a data packet. What is the summoning circle for?”

Constantine was quiet for a long while as he perused the files Bruce had sent him. Bruce paced in front of the batcomputer, glad that all his children were in bed for the night. Somehow they had known something was wrong, and every single one of them had come to the manor- even Jason.

“Looks like an attempt to summon a being of the Infinite Realms to me.”

“Infinite Realms?”

“Mhmm. The afterlife, if you will.”

Bruce couldn’t help the small wheeze as his airways caught. Constantine didn’t seem to notice, as he continued.

“The ghosts haven’t been as active lately, not since the new king came into power. It’s been maybe two decades since?”

“I would like to meet this king.”

“Why?”

“It would be politically intelligent of us to make allies.”

Constantine sighed, long and loud.

“Fine. Give me a week to gather up the stuff.”

~~~

Jason glanced over the thin information brief that Bruce handed down, skimming it at first, until something caught his eye.

“B?”

“Hn.”

“According to this, the being we’re trying to summon is damn powerful. Wouldn’t it be better to do this on the Watchtower with more backup?”

“Yeah B,” Dick chimed in, “Constantine’s report does say that the guy is rumored to be a wandering spirit, which limits his power, but what if that’s not right?”

Jason looked back down at the papers, his eyes darting through to find out what a wandering spirit was.

A ghost that couldn’t find its grave. Part of Jason ached at the thought, and he didn’t quite understand why.

“Fine. We will summon the king at the Watchtower.”

Small victories.

~~~

Bruce was not a praying man, and yet here he was, hoping against hope that this ghost could assist him in finding out what happened to his brother.

The sigils on the floor flared to light, and a now familiar green portal swirled into being. The entire room waited with bated breath for a few moments, and then a young woman rose from the portal.

Batman knew what it felt like to be stabbed. There was no way he could have been, and yet there was a knife in his gut as he stared at this girl who looked so much like his mother, except for the inverted colors.

“The Ghost King thanks you for your call- Unfortunately he is currently unavailable. Please leave your message after the-“ the girl’s professional, almost robotic voice petered off. “Wait a minute- it’s here!”

Her eyes were wide, as was the smile she flashed at the group.

“Please hold.”

She sunk back into the pool, and Bruce took a step towards it, despairing of his chance.

And then she returned, dragging a young man up with her.

“Can you feel it, Phantom? It’s here! We can find it!”

“Calm down, Phantasm. We can go looking soon- first we need to find out why I was summoned.”

The young man turned to Diana, who was standing at the front of the group. She had been chosen as diplomatic leader, seeing as she was a Princess and Ambassador.

“Pardon my sister, how may I assist?”

Bruce let their conversation wash over him as he cataloged the young man’s features. They were so very similar- so close.

The man was both too young and too old. Daniel would be in his mid-forties had he lived, and only two if he’d died. This young man couldn’t be older than thirty.

As Diana’s explanation ended, the young man smiled.

“I agree. It would be advantageous of us to be allies, knowing what I know of this reality now. As allies, I must ask- what is the real reason I was summoned?”

He turned his green (wrong, too much like Damian’s) eyes to Bruce.

“Will you explain? The summoning was filled with great longing for something.”

Bruce stumbled forward, and surely to the shock of his teammates, friends, and children, fell to his knees before the king.

“My- my brother. He fell through a portal so similar to yours and I- I need to know what happened to him. Please.”

The king and his sister looked at each other before looking back at Bruce.

“The Infinite Realms are just that, infinite. However, I may be able to help.”

“Phantom!”

The king ignored his sister.

“What was his name, this brother of yours?”

Bruce hadn’t spoken his brother’s name in decades.

“Danny. Daniel Wayne.”

The room was so silent he could have heard a pin drop.

“And you gave him a grave when he never returned to you.”

Bruce looked up at the king, who was looking back contemplatively. The king’s sister was staring up at her brother with her mouth agape.

“I did.”

The king was very, very quiet, and the moment stretched on and on and on.

After a time, the room grew darker as the green pool closed slowly, and the two ghosts landed with barely a whisper of sound.

“I died at age fourteen,” the king began, musing his own thoughts. “As I died, I thought that the color of the ectoplasm surrounding me was too familiar in color and movement for that to have been my first experience with a portal.”

He took a step towards Bruce.

“It was terrifying and I was so afraid that I would be ripped away from everything I ever loved again.”

Two bright white rings circled the king, and Bruce found himself looking at a man who looked just like his mother, but with a twitch of the lips that was entirely his father’s.

“Hello, Boo. I’m afraid I can’t remember your name properly.”

Bruce took his cowl off slowly, wanting his baby brother to see him despite the fact that he was crying.

“We’ve got his chin, Danny.”

The girl was standing a little behind Danny, smiling. She winked at Bruce.

“He always did want to find his bio family.”

Bruce held his hand out, and Danny took it, using his position and apparently superior strength to pull Bruce into a hug.

“Bruce. Bruce Wayne.”

“Danny Nightingale- well. Nightingale-Wayne, I suppose.”

~~~

Danielle Nightingale (Wayne?) watched her original and his brother(!?!) hug it out. The big man in black was obviously not used to hugs.

“Miss?”

She turned to the inquirer, the nice looking ambassador from before. (Sue her, Dani hadn’t been listening to the conversation. She had been trying to pinpoint the location of their grave!)

“How can I help?”

Ambassador lady smiled at her.

“We were unaware that our teammate had siblings, and clearly Daniel has introduced himself. May we ask your name?”

Dani grinned.

“Oh, I’m not a sibling. I’m sibling-adjacent. Sibling clone? One of those. My name is Danielle, but I go by Dani with an i. It gets a little confusing since he’s Danny with a y.”

“I see. Welcome to the Watchtower, Dani. May I ask what you and his majesty are looking for that was found here?”

“Our grave, of course! Since I’m Danny’s clone, I can feel it too- a little distantly, but it’s not like I’ll get my own. I was born dead.”

Ambassador lady was looking a little faint. Dani took pity on her.

“But now I’m a kickass princess, so all’s well that ends well.”

“I suppose so.” The ambassador looked over at Danny and surprise brother with a small smile. “I suppose so indeed.”

[scarlettsabetlondongirl]

Poet Scarlett Sabet's partner, Led Zeppelin Founder, Jimmy Page had an article about artificial intelligence in The Times on March 1, 2025. Jimmy is a very private man so you know this is close to his heart.

In the disciplined studios of the early 1960s London, I honed my craft as a session musician, lending my guitar to a myriad of artists across genres. Those countless hours, often three three-hour sessions a day, were more than just work; they were a crucible of creativity, collaboration, and ceaseless inspiration.

I was required to create and conjure riffs and lyrical figures immediately without slowing down the momentum of the work being recorded with the other musicians and the artist.

This journey from the anonymity of session work to the global stages with Led Zeppelin was not a path paved by algorithms or data sets. It was a voyage marked by spontaneous improvisation and the unquantifiable spark of human ingenuity. The alchemy that transformed a unique riff into an anthem was etched into the collective soul of the band — a synergy that no machine can emulate.

Today, as artificial intelligence seeks to mimic and monetise creativity, we stand at a crossroads. AI-generated art and music, synthesised from existing human works, lack the visceral essence that comes from lived experience. They are but hollow echoes, devoid of the struggles, triumphs, and soul that define true artistry.

Moreover, the ethical implications are profound. When AI scrapes the vast tapestry of human creativity to generate content, it often does so without consent, attribution, or compensation. This is not innovation; it’s exploitation.

If, during my session days, someone had taken my riffs without acknowledgment or payment, it would have been deemed theft. The same standard must apply to AI.

We must champion policies that protect artists, ensuring that their work isn’t siphoned off into the void of machine learning without due regard. Let us celebrate and preserve the human touch in art — the imperfections, the emotions, the stories behind every note and cadence.

In defending the sanctity of human creativity against the encroachment of AI, we safeguard not just the rights of artists, but the very soul of our cultural heritage.

Yet, today, the UK government is proposing changes that would strip creators of this protection. Under the Data (Use and Access) Bill, AI companies would be allowed to take works, past and future, and use them as training data without consent or payment. These models digest vast amounts of human-created content and then generate imitations, bypassing the rights of the original creators.

The government’s proposed “opt-out” system — the idea that artists will always be in a position to preemptively reserve their rights — is a sham. It is technically impossible for artists to opt out. The government’s consultation ends today, but we should be clear: this is not regulation; it is a free pass for AI to exploit creativity without consequence. We must push for legislation that ensures AI cannot monetise human creativity without explicit consent and fair compensation. The government’s preferred option in its current consultation does not do that.

Music is not a product of data. It is an evocation, a defiance of logic, a collision of time and place and soul. If we allow AI to co-opt the heart of human creativity, we are not ushering in a bold new era — we are signing the death warrant of originality itself.

The choice is ours. Will we let the machines take the stage, or will we fight for the irreplaceable magic of human artistry?

The article was copied from Led Zep News, check them out.

Photo: Jimmy Page Instagram

[lucidheart3]

Here is an addition to my Sonic Live action fic series; Different Kinds, Kindered Souls

It is longer than my usual fics so I’m only posting a small part here, hope you all like it!

————————————

“Seriously Knux, are you alright?” Sonic’s voice takes him out of his trance, and he worriedly glances at Knuckles, who grunts in response. His expression looks distressed, and he’s panting a lot more than usual. Tails looks over at the computer to somehow find an answer. The programme doesn’t detect any decrease in Knuckles’ base power, but he is shown to be falling into defensive a lot. Tails compares the data to the previous fights, and sees that this has been the case for the several of their latest spars, which parallels the rising trend of Sonic’s base power. The answer is clear to Tails, Sonic is catching up to Knuckles. Sure, Knuckles is a powerhouse, even without generating chaos energy, but the amount of power behind his punches only matters if it collides with Sonic, like the latter had argued before. Albeit less powerful, Sonic can easily pack a nasty punch or kick using his momentum and take Knuckles by suprise.

But that doesn’t really explain older boy’s frustrations, Tails thinks the boy would be proud of his brother, having declared that Sonic is a noble warrior and all, right? Maybe he feels under the weather today, and the spar is straining him. The thought worries him more, since Knuckles has a bad habit of not telling anyone when he’s unwell.

“Knux, you’d tell us if you were sick, right?” Tails says, and Knuckles frowns. Sonic backs away from the fight, awaiting an answer, but the echidna gets more annoyed. Sonic and Tails’ eyes meet, and they pass worried glances to one another in every passing moment Knuckles doesn’t answer them. Then, just after Knuckles catches his breath, he lunges at Sonic, who narrowly avoids one hell of a punch. Tails gasps, and Sonic chuckles to dissipate the bad mood.

“Dude, this is giving me flashbacks! None of ‘em are good. At all!” Sonic says, his voice trembling slightly, and he is exerting himself to avoid Knuckles’ attacks. The programme alerts Tails of Knuckles’ increase of powers. In fact, he is on the verge of sparking. Tails also notices Knuckles’ short breaths, his eyes are unfocused, and he doubts Knuckles recognises his opponent as Sonic at the moment. Not anymore.

“Sonic, I think you guys should wrap this up, quick!”

“Buddy! What a great idea! Right, Knux?” Sonic slides to a stop, and holds out his arms defensively. Knuckles halts in his step.

“What it is, hedgehog? Afraid you’ll lose?”

“Nope! No need to be afraid when it’s you I’m sparring! It’s all to improve, right?!” Sonic says, trying again to lighten the dark aura he can feel surrounds Knuckles.Tails is about to sigh in relief but red sparkles envelope Knuckles’ fists, making Tails doubt that the words got through to Knuckles the way Sonic intended them to.

“Then you must have forgotten who you’re up against!” Knuckles declares, and before Tails can interfere, he lands a punch on Sonic’s stomach, sending him to the other side of the backyard.

[sageofsunbloom]

Is AI fr gonna steal our jobs?

Disclaimer: This post is mostly speculative and meant to encourage discussion and different perspectives on the topic.

Some time ago, I along with many others thought that AI was mostly going to aid in all the task centered, administrative, repetitive jobs. Cashiers, factory workers, call center workers, all the jobs that would benefit from automation were being taken over by AI.

When the ghibli trend came around, it was a guttural shock to many artists.

What used to generate questionable and bad looking art has now developed and is transitioning to generating high quality pieces, videos, music, animation and what not. In a matter of mere months. [AI tools example: midjourney, DALL-E, ChatGPT]

Art is not simply something pretty to look at. It is the accumulation of experiences, emotions and essense of humans. Art is their unique expression and the lens with which they see the world.

This blog is not an argument against the use of AI for art, but a call to understand what it really means.

Did most people see it coming when AI mimicked it with precision?

How long before it starts mimicking creativity, intuition, emotion and depth, all of what we thought was deeply and uniquely human?

"AI works by learning from lots of information, recognizing patterns, and using that knowledge to make decisions or do tasks like a human would." - Chatgpt.

Some time ago, the dominant argument was that AI might be able copy the strokes of a painting, the words of a novel. But it cannot hold the hands of another human and tell them all was well, it cannot feel and experience the real world like us, it cannot connect with humans and it cant innovate and envision new solutions.

If you still believe this, I urge you to go to chatgpt right now and open up to it like it was your friend. It will provide consolidation and advice tailored so well to your individual behaviours that it might feel better than talking to your bestfriend.

What is a deep neurological, experience based and emotional reaction to us is simply just analysis and application of data and patterns to AI. And the difference? Not easily distinguishable to the average human.

As long as the end result is not compromised, it doesnt matter to client and employers whether the process was human or not. Efficiency is often prioritized above substance. And now even substance is being mimicked.

Currently, the prominent discussion online is that in order to improve your job security, we need to master AI tools. Instead of fighting for stability(which is nothing but an illusion now) we need to ride the waves of the new age flooding towards us, and work with Ai instead of fighting against the change.

But the paradox is, the more we use AI the quicker it will learn from us, the quicker it will reduce the need for human guidance and supervision, and the quicker it will replace us.

Times are moving fast. We need everyone to be aware of the rate at which the world is changing and the things that are going on beneath the surface. If we simply take information at face value and avoid research, give it a few years or even months of time, and noone will know what hit us.

"Use of generative AI increased from 33% in 2023 to 71% in 2024. Use of AI by business function for the latest data varied from 36% in IT to 12% in manufacturing. Use of gen AI by business function for the latest data varied from 42% in marketing and sales to 5% in manufacturing."-Mckinsey, Mar 12, 2025.

By 2030, 14% of employees will have been forced to change their career because of- AI-McKinsey.

Since 2000, automation has resulted in 1.7 million manufacturing jobs being lost -BuiltIn

There is a radical change taking momentum right now. It's gonna be humans vs AI starting from the job aspect of the world.

Its not a matter of which jobs and skills are AI proof but which ones is AI likely to take over last.

What I predict personally, is that soon the world leaders are going to have to make a transformative choice.

This can either lead to a world where humans can be provided with money and resources instead of working to earn, as AI generates profit, and we can lay back and enjoy the things we love doing.

Or the other option is that we are going to have to live by scraps as small elite groups take over all the resources and tech.

Dystopia or utopia? The line is blurred.

Thankfully, for now, the choice is in human hands.

[sourcreammachine]

GREEN PARTY MANIFESTO 2024 SUMMARY

tldr: there's a feeling of tension in this manifesto, between youthful zennial climatic ecosocialism and old-guard hippy-liberal environmentalism. this year the greens may well go from 1 MP to the dizzying heights of 2 (there's whispers on the wind that they may even get 3...), and the green council delegation is at 800-odd now, so this could easily be a changing-of-the-guard moment

with the great Berry and the ok Denyer in parliament the party could have more momentum in battling the starmerite government, and with that, it has the ability, the possibility to pick up more momentum. this is a big opportunity in the party's history - over the next five years it can and could be pushed into a holistic ecosocialist movement by the centrally influential mass party membership, and remove the last dregs of its tunnel vision to provide a lefty movement for everyone, green and pink, a Newfoundland coalition. with votes at 16 on the cards and this potential evolution of the party, 2029 could be a big moment for this country's left. whether or not the greens play the role of keystone is up to them

it is also the only manifesto to use the term 'neurodivergent'

💷ECONOMY

wealth tax of 1% on individuals with assets over §10m and 2% for assets over §1b (an extremely humble proposal), reform capital gains and investment dividend taxation to be at the same rates as income taxation, remove the income-based bands on national insurance contributions, ie raising total income taxation by 8% at §50k/a, – altogether raising government revenues by upwards of §70b/a

stratify VAT to reduce it for consumer stuff and hike it for stuff like financial services

permanent windfall tax on banks for whenever they get windfalls

perform a holistic land survey to get the data needed for a new, effective Land Tax

abolish the tax relief on existing freeports and SEZs

heavy carbon tax to raise a boatload of billions, rising progressively over a decade to allow industrial adaptation, for a ~§80b state windfall for five years that'll be for green investment as this windfall starts to recede

renationalise water and energy

§15 minimum wage, 10:1 pay ratio for all organisations public and private (ie §150 sort-of maximum wage, ~§300k/a), mandatory equal pay audits, 'support' lower hours and four-day weeks [clarification needed]

unambiguously define gig workers as workers with contract rights from day one, repeat offenders of gig-slavery will be banned from operating in the country

every City bank required to produce a strategy with a clear pathway to divestment of all fossil fuels "as soon as possible and at least by 2030", every City non-banking organisation simply to be banned from having fossil fuel in their portfolios, credit to be banned for repeat City climate offenders, mandate the BoE to fulfil the funding of the climate transition and climate leadership of the City, FCA to develop measures to ban fossil fuel share trading in the City and immediately prohibit all new shares in fossil fuels

"we will explore legal ways for companies to be transformed into mutual organisations"😈

develop regional cooperative banks to invest in regional SMEs, coops and community enterprises

diversify crop growth, promote local agricultural cooperatives and peripheral urban horticultural farms, give farmers a sort of collective bargain against grocers

aim towards a circular economy: require ten-year warranties on white goods, rollout of right-to-repair

tighten monopoly laws on media with a hard cap preventing >20% of a media market being owned by one individual or company and implement Leveson 2

🏥PUBLIC SERVICES

abolish tuition fees and cancel standing debt

surge nhs funding by §30B, triple labour's spending plans for everything, the entire budget, the entire state, everything

free personal care, with occupational therapy being part of this

35h/w free child care (eg seven hours over five days, or seven days of five hours)

renationalise many academies under local authorities, abolish the "charity" status of private schools and charge VAT

surge funding for smoking-cessation, addiction support and sexual health service

surge funding for public dentistry with free care for children and low-earners

free school breakfasts in primary school and free school lunches for all schools

one-month guarantee of access to mental health therapies

online access to PrEP

let school playing fields be used in the evenings by local sports clubs

greater funding for civic sports facilities and pools

🏠HOUSING

unambiguously-under-the-law nationalise the crown estate for an absolute fuckton of land and assets for housing and for green energy and rewilding for FREE

rent control for local authorities, ban no-fault evictions and introduce long-term leases, create private tenancy boards of tenants

local authorities to have right of first refusal on the purchase of certain properties at aggressive rates, such as unoccupied or uninsulated buildings

all new homes to be Passivhaus standard with mandatory solar panels and heat pumps

§30B across five years to insulate homes, §12B of which is for social homes, and §9B more for heat pumps, and §7B more for summer cooling

planning law reform: council planning mechanisms to priorities little developments all over the place rather than sprawling blobs, demolitions to require as thorough a planning application as erections, new developments required to not be car dependent

planning laws to require large-scale developments feature access to key community infrastructures such as transport, health and education, often mandating the construction of new key infrastructures, support nightlife and local culture in planning regulations

exempt pubs and local cultural events from VAT

building materials to be reusable, builders' waste rates to be surged to encourage use of reuse

750k new social homes in five years

🚄TRANSPORT

'a bus service to every village', restore local authority control and/or ownership of their busses

renationalise rail via franchise-concession lapsing, slowly assume ownership of the rolling stock (currently leased, and would continue to be so under labour's implementation of renationalisation) by buying a new train when the stock needs to be replaced

electrification agenda across the rail network, strategic approach to rail line and station reopenings

bring forward (sorta, the tories suspended it but labour says they'll reinstate it) the new petrol car ban from 2030 to 2027, existing petrol cars targeted to be off the road by 2034, investigate road-price charges as a replacement for petrol tax, hike road tax proportionally to vehicle weight, drop urban speed limits from 50kph to 30kph (or from 30mph to 20mph if you only speak Wrong), mass funding for freightrail and support logistics firms transitioning away from lorries

§2.5b/a for footpaths and cycleways, target of 50% of urban journeys to be extravehicular by 2030

frequent-flyer levy, ban on domestic flights within three-hour rail distance, remove the exemption of airline fuel from fuel tax, prioritise training of airline workers into other transportational jobs

👮FORCE

abolish the home office, transfer its police/security portfolio to the justice ministry and its citizenship/migration portfolio to a new migration ministry separate from the criminal justice system

abolish the kill the bill bill and restore the right to protest

recognise palestine, push for immediate ceasefire and prosecution of war crimes, back the south africa case, "[support] an urgent international effort to end the illegal occupation of palestinian land"

grant asylum-seekers the right to work before their application is granted

end the hostile environment

abolish Prevent

end routine stop-and-search and facial recognition

commission to reform 'counterproductive' drug regime, decriminalise personal possession

amend the Online Safety Act to "[protect] political debate from being manipulated by falsehoods, fakes and half-truths", ie actually protecting 'fReE sPeEcH' and not everything that rightists imply by that phrase

decriminalise sex work

reform laws to give artists IP protections against ai

cancel trident and disarm

push for nato reforms (in its and our interest, they're not russophiles, they're not galloway, it's ok): get it to adopt a no-first-use nuclear policy, get it to prioritise diplomatic action first rather than military reaction, get it to adopt a stronger line on only acting for the defence of its member states

right to roam🚶‍♂️

🌱CLIMATE

zero-carbon by 2040, rather than the ephemeral ostensible government target of 2050

stop all new oil/gas licenses, end all subsidy for oil/gas industries, regulate biofuels to end greenwashing, end subsidies for biomass

decarbonise energy by 2030, minimum threshold of energy infrastructures to be community owned, "end the de facto ban on onshore wind" with planning reform

massively expand the connections between the insular grid and the UCTE continental grid to increase electricity import and export and prevent the need for energy autarky

more targeted bans on single-use plastics

"give nature a legal personhood" ok grandma let’s get you to bed

§2b/a to local authorities for local small-business decarbonisation

"cease development of new nuclear power stations, as nuclear energy is much more expensive and slower to develop than renewables. we are clear that nuclear is a distraction from developing renewable energy and the risk to nuclear power stations from extreme climate events is rising fast. nuclear power stations carry an unacceptable risk for the communities living close to facilities and create unmanageable quantities of radioactive waste. they are also inextricably linked with the production of nuclear weapons. green MPs will campaign to phase out existing nuclear power stations." because some people just can't let go of the seventies. nuclear is good. nuclear is our friend

invest in r&d to find solutions to decarbonise 'residual' carbon in the economy, such as HGVs or mobile machinery

increase unharvested woodland by 50% (no time frame given), grants to farmers for scrub rewilding, rewet Pete Boggs, make 30% of the EEZ protected waters and ban bottom trawling

§4b/a in skills training to stop gas communities getting Thatchered, prioritising shifting these workers into offshore wind

a.. licensing scheme for all pet animals? you guys sure about that one

regulate animal farming with a goal of banning factory farms, ban mass routine antibiotics, ban cages/close confinement and animal mutilation

ban all hunting including coursing and "game", ban snaring, ban hunt-landscaping such as grouse moors, end the badger cull, mandate licensing of all animal workers with lifetime striking off for cruelty convictions, compulsory hedgehog holes in new fencing, 'push' for 'ending' horse and dog racing [clarification needed], new criminal offences for stealing and harming pets, 'work towards' banning animal testing

🗳️DEMOCRACY

proportional representation for parliament and all councils

abolish voter ID

votes at sixteen

votes for all visa'd migrants

restore the electoral commission's prosecutory powers and remove the cap on fines it can impose on parties

increase Short Money, especially for smaller parties

create a manifest legal category of organisation for think tanks, to allow better enforcement of lobbying and funding restrictions

consider fun new measures for political accessibility such as MP jobsharing and allowing public provision of offices for all parliamentary candidates

🎲OTHER STUFF

Self-ID including nonbinary recognition, including with an X passport marker

"work towards rejoining the eu as soon as the domestic political situation is favourable", join the eea now (with restored free movement)

let local authorities invest shares in sports teams, including professional ones, dividends ringfenced for public sports facilities and coaching

right to die

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Inside-out galaxy growth observed in the early universe

Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe the ‘inside-out’ growth of a galaxy in the early universe, only 700 million years after the Big Bang.

This galaxy is one hundred times smaller than the Milky Way, but is surprisingly mature for so early in the universe. Like a large city, this galaxy has a dense collection of stars at its core but becomes less dense in the galactic ‘suburbs’. And like a large city, this galaxy is starting to sprawl, with star formation accelerating in the outskirts.

This is the earliest-ever detection of inside-out galactic growth. Until Webb, it had not been possible to study galaxy growth so early in the universe’s history. Although the images obtained with Webb represent a snapshot in time, the researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, say that studying similar galaxies could help us understand how they transform from clouds of gas into the complex structures we observe today. The results are reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.

“The question of how galaxies evolve over cosmic time is an important one in astrophysics,” said co-lead author Dr Sandro Tacchella from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. “We’ve had lots of excellent data for the last ten million years and for galaxies in our corner of the universe, but now with Webb, we can get observational data from billions of years back in time, probing the first billion years of cosmic history, which opens up all kinds of new questions.”

The galaxies we observe today grow via two main mechanisms: either they pull in, or accrete, gas to form new stars, or they grow by merging with smaller galaxies. Whether different mechanisms were at work in the early universe is an open question which astronomers are hoping to address with Webb.

“You expect galaxies to start small as gas clouds collapse under their own gravity, forming very dense cores of stars and possibly black holes,” said Tacchella. “As the galaxy grows and star formation increases, it’s sort of like a spinning figure skater: as the skater pulls in their arms, they gather momentum, and they spin faster and faster. Galaxies are somewhat similar, with gas accreting later from larger and larger distances spinning the galaxy up, which is why they often form spiral or disc shapes.”

This galaxy, observed as part of the JADES (JWST Advanced Extragalactic Survey) collaboration, is actively forming stars in the early universe. It has a highly dense core, which despite its relatively young age, is of a similar density to present-day massive elliptical galaxies, which have 1000 times more stars. Most of the star formation is happening further away from the core, with a star-forming ‘clump’ even further out.

The star formation activity is strongly rising toward the outskirts, as the star formation spreads out and the galaxy grows in size. This type of growth had been predicted with theoretical models, but with Webb, it is now possible to observe it.

“One of the many reasons that Webb is so transformational to us as astronomers is that we’re now able to observe what had previously been predicted through modelling,” said co-author William Baker, a PhD student at the Cavendish. “It’s like being able to check your homework.”

Using Webb, the researchers extracted information from the light emitted by the galaxy at different wavelengths, which they then used to estimate the number of younger stars versus older stars, which is converted into an estimate of the stellar mass and star formation rate.

Because the galaxy is so compact, the individual images of the galaxy were ‘forward modelled’ to take into account instrumental effects. By using stellar population modelling that includes prescriptions for gas emission and dust absorption, the researchers found older stars in the core, while the surrounding disc component is undergoing very active star formation. This galaxy doubles its stellar mass in the outskirts roughly every 10 million years, which is very rapid: the Milky Way galaxy doubles its mass only every 10 billion years.

The density of the galactic core, as well as the high star formation rate, suggest that this young galaxy is rich with the gas it needs to form new stars, which may reflect different conditions in the early universe.

“Of course, this is only one galaxy, so we need to know what other galaxies at the time were doing,” said Tacchella. “Were all galaxies like this one? We’re now analysing similar data from other galaxies. By looking at different galaxies across cosmic time, we may be able to reconstruct the growth cycle and demonstrate how galaxies grow to their eventual size today.”

TOP IMAGE; Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe the ‘inside-out’ growth of a galaxy in the early universe, only 700 million years after the Big Bang. Credit JADES Collaboration

LOWER IMAGE: The galaxy NGC 1549, seen 700 million years after the Big Bang.  Credit JADES Collaboration

[joemardesichcms]

The Future of Commercial Loan Brokering: Trends to Watch!

The commercial loan brokering industry is evolving rapidly, driven by technological advancements, changing market dynamics, and shifting borrower expectations. As businesses continue to seek financing solutions, brokers must stay ahead of emerging trends to remain competitive. Here are some key developments shaping the future of commercial loan brokering:

1. Rise of AI and Automation

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are revolutionizing loan processing. From AI-driven underwriting to automated document verification, these technologies are streamlining workflows, reducing manual effort, and speeding up loan approvals. Brokers who leverage AI-powered tools can offer faster and more efficient services.

2. Alternative Lending is Gaining Momentum

Traditional banks are no longer the only players in commercial lending. Alternative lenders, including fintech platforms and private lenders, are expanding options for businesses that may not qualify for conventional loans. As a result, brokers must build relationships with non-bank lenders to provide flexible financing solutions.

3. Data-Driven Decision Making

Big data and analytics are transforming how loans are assessed and approved. Lenders are increasingly using alternative data sources, such as cash flow analysis and digital transaction history, to evaluate creditworthiness. Brokers who understand and utilize data-driven insights can better match clients with the right lenders.

4. Regulatory Changes and Compliance Requirements

The commercial lending landscape is subject to evolving regulations. Compliance with federal and state laws is becoming more complex, requiring brokers to stay updated on industry guidelines. Implementing compliance-friendly processes will be essential for long-term success.

5. Digital Marketplaces and Online Lending Platforms

Online lending marketplaces are making it easier for businesses to compare loan offers from multiple lenders. These platforms provide transparency, efficiency, and better loan matching. Brokers who integrate digital platforms into their services can enhance customer experience and expand their reach.

6. Relationship-Based Lending Still Matters

Despite digital advancements, relationship-based lending remains crucial. Many businesses still prefer working with brokers who offer personalized service, industry expertise, and lender connections. Building trust and maintaining strong relationships with both clients and lenders will continue to be a key differentiator.

7. Increased Focus on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Lending

Sustainability-focused lending is gaining traction, with more lenders prioritizing ESG factors in their financing decisions. Brokers who understand green financing and social impact lending can tap into a growing market of businesses seeking sustainable funding options.

Final Thoughts

The commercial loan brokering industry is undergoing a transformation, with technology, alternative lending, and regulatory changes shaping the future. Brokers who embrace innovation, stay informed on market trends, and continue building strong relationships will thrive in this evolving landscape.

Are you a commercial loan broker? What trends are you seeing in the industry? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

[linkedinseoforhealthcare]

Top Healthcare SEO Trends on LinkedIn You Need to Watch in 2025

In the digital era, healthcare marketing is transforming faster than ever. With more professionals turning to online platforms to connect, learn, and grow, LinkedIn has become a vital space for healthcare marketers, providers, and organizations to build brand authority. Among the most important strategies gaining traction on this platform is Healthcare SEO—and understanding the Healthcare SEO trends on LinkedIn can give you a significant competitive edge.

Whether you’re a healthcare marketer, medical practice owner, or health tech entrepreneur, aligning your SEO efforts with LinkedIn’s professional ecosystem is now essential for digital success. Let’s explore the top trends shaping Healthcare SEO on LinkedIn in 2025.

1. Thought Leadership Content Is Driving SEO Authority

One of the most impactful Healthcare SEO trends on LinkedIn is the surge in thought leadership. Healthcare professionals and marketers are increasingly using the platform to share long-form content, industry insights, and expert commentary.

LinkedIn articles and posts that answer common medical or health-tech questions, share new research, or offer actionable tips are often indexed by Google. These posts not only improve visibility on LinkedIn but also enhance domain authority when they link back to your website.

Pro tip: Create SEO-optimized content for your website, then repurpose it into digestible LinkedIn articles. Include internal links to your site, and use keywords like “healthcare marketing,” “patient acquisition,” and “digital health solutions.”

2. Keyword-Optimized Profiles Are Ranking on Google

Another major trend is the optimization of personal and business LinkedIn profiles for SEO. A well-structured profile with strategically placed keywords like "Healthcare SEO strategist" or "digital health marketing expert" can help you appear in Google searches—even outside the LinkedIn platform.

LinkedIn profiles and business pages are treated as high-authority domains by search engines. This means that optimizing your “About” section, headlines, and descriptions with relevant healthcare SEO keywords can give you better online visibility.

Bonus: Include backlinks to your main website in your contact information or featured content.

3. Video Content is Boosting Engagement and SEO Signals

Video continues to dominate content marketing across all platforms, and LinkedIn is no exception. In the healthcare sector, short videos that explain treatments, answer FAQs, or showcase patient success stories are performing incredibly well.

From an SEO perspective, these videos increase time-on-page and engagement—two signals that search engines love. When embedded on your website or linked from LinkedIn, these videos can help enhance your site's performance and visibility.

Creating short, keyword-rich video descriptions with terms like "Healthcare SEO trends on LinkedIn" can also improve discoverability both on the platform and on search engines.

4. Data-Driven Insights Are Guiding Content Strategy

More healthcare marketers are using LinkedIn analytics to inform their SEO content strategy. By reviewing post engagement, impressions, and follower demographics, marketers can identify which topics resonate most with their audience.

This trend is shaping the way healthcare organizations plan their blog content, landing pages, and downloadable resources. If posts about "telehealth solutions" or "AI in healthcare" perform well on LinkedIn, those insights can fuel SEO blog topics that rank on Google.

Use case: A healthcare tech company sees high engagement on a post about “AI in diagnostics.” They then write a long-form blog post optimized with that keyword and link to it from a follow-up LinkedIn article—boosting both engagement and search rankings.

5. Cross-Channel SEO Strategies Are Gaining Momentum

SEO is no longer isolated to just websites. One of the newer Healthcare SEO trends on LinkedIn is the integration of cross-channel strategies, where LinkedIn is used to amplify SEO-focused content hosted elsewhere.

Healthcare organizations are now sharing blog snippets, infographics, webinars, and eBooks on LinkedIn—each one linking back to an SEO-optimized landing page. These backlinks, shares, and engagements contribute to improved search rankings and greater brand reach.

Smart move: Create downloadable guides or case studies on your website, and promote them on LinkedIn with a compelling CTA and an SEO-friendly title.

6. Employee Advocacy Is Amplifying SEO Reach

LinkedIn is built around people—and that’s exactly where this trend comes in. Healthcare brands are encouraging employees to share SEO-rich content from the company page on their personal profiles.

When doctors, specialists, marketers, and admin staff share valuable insights or company updates, the content reaches a broader audience and earns more trust. Google and LinkedIn both recognize these signals as authority builders.

Tip: Provide employees with pre-written captions, hashtags, and links to use when sharing content, and ensure the main post includes "Healthcare SEO trends on LinkedIn" to maximize keyword relevance.

Final Thoughts

The intersection of Healthcare SEO trends on LinkedIn represents a powerful shift in how healthcare brands attract and engage patients and partners. From content optimization and profile enhancements to video marketing and employee advocacy, these trends highlight the growing importance of integrating SEO into your LinkedIn strategy.

[bakerstreetbabble]

Granada TV Series Review: "The Copper Beeches" (S02, E01)

Season 2 of Granada's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starts with a gripping, dramatic episode, complete with a creepy "bad guy" (played to great effect by British actor Joss Ackland), a winsome heroine (the late Natasha Richardson playing Violet Hunter), and a bloodthirsty hound (not that hound, mind you). Honestly, re-reading "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" just now, I felt like the Granada series took a fairly average story and made it into something much more exciting. Overall, they were very faithful to the source material, but they managed to rearrange a few plot points and use a fine cast to elevate the adaptation beyond its original form.

For one thing, Joss Ackland is extremely creepy as Mr. Rucastle. Sure, he's jovial enough most of the time, but Ackland is a talented enough actor to make every line seem sinister. From the very first time we meet him, we feel as if things just aren't quite right with this "generous" employer. Meanwhile, Natasha Richardson as Violet Hunter gave the role the right balance between a young lady who's getting more and more frightened and the kind of ingenuity that obviously wins the great detective's respect.

Jeremy Brett and David Burke are excellent, as usual, and there's a particularly delightful sequence at the opening of the episode where we are treated to one of Holmes's rants about how Watson has injected too much romance into the stories that Holmes thinks should be cold, logical case studies. We also are treated to a classic Holmes line, as the detective and his sidekick take the train to meet up with Miss Hunter: “Data! data! data! I can’t make bricks without clay.” (This line, which happens back at the flat at 221B Baker Street in the story, is moved a bit later in the TV episode, which I think works quite well.)

I should also mention the little detail of the slight change of setting of Mr. Rucastle's daughter's prison: in the original story, it is merely a mysterious, shuttered wing of the Copper Beeches estate. In the adaptation, however, it has been transformed into a mysterious "turret," which I think works a bit better.  That's what I enjoyed about this episode: the writers, while staying quite faithful to the original story, made minor tweaks to the plot, which ended up giving the story a lot more drama and forward momentum.

This was really a top-notch episode to begin the second season of the successful series. Before I wrap up the review, I should probably mention the entertaining final scene, in which Watson is clearly reading his most recent write-up of the events at the Copper Beeches, with no little delight at the effect his "romantic" storytelling has on his friend. By this point in the series, one can easily tell how comfortable David Burke and Jeremy Brett were becoming in their own roles, as well as in the camaraderie shared by the two friends. It really was a very fine episode to begin the second season!

[layingeggs]

Game concept: Sonic-likes should have a Super transformation like Super Sonic and this Super transformation should include meta buffs to movement techs like Vergil in Devil May Cry V.

Allow me to explain. Vergil is a boss character who can be unlocked as a dubiously canonical playable character in a number of entries in the Devil May Cry series. Vergil has the power to teleport. (Called Trick.)

DMCV specifically massively buffs all of Vergil's movement options. Example, he has a move called Trick Back that allows him to teleport backwards. It's a useful evasive manoeuvre. But is sorely limited by ending lag in the animation, there is a limit to how fast it can be used consecutively, and each Trick Back has a short distance, so it can't be used to teleport very far.

DMCV buffs Trick Back, it still has the distance limit, but it can now interrupt (cancel) any other move animation. Meaning it can be intitiated at almost any time. So you can rapidly use several in succession and almost instantly put huge distance between yourself and any enemy.

In order to balance this, it requires a complex control input.

Lock on. Backwards. Forwards. Special.

This is the input for Trick Back. It's a little finicky. It's easy to fudge the input. If the game registers only Special instead of back forward special, then it comes out as a normal Trick, which teleports you towards the enemy, rather than away from.

Sometimes an enemy will use a large AoE attack. You will need more than one Trick Back to clear its distance. If you haven't memorised the exact range of every enemy attack in the game then you might want to err with caution and use more Trick Backs than is necessary.

But this leads you to hammering out the input quickly. Lock on backwardsforwardsspecialbackwardsforwardsspecialbackwardsforwardsspecial-

When you're trying to play like this, it becomes exponentially easier to fudge a single input, which registers then as a normal Trick, causing you to teleport instantly into the huge sod off attack that you were just trying to get away from.

Vergil has a special transformation called Sin Devil Trigger.

SDT gives Vergil a number of new abilities and passive powerups.

SDT also gives Vergil a meta buff to his movement options.

It's a meta buff because his movement options still have all the same frame data and in-game properties, but the controls are remapped for the transformed state and the player can now spam them more easily with less risk of fudged inputs.

Trick Back can still be performed as backwards forwards Special while in SDT, but now it can also register with only backwards Jump.

So SDT Vergil feels faster and more graceful than regular Vergil, even though his movement options are technically the same.

So what if Super Sonic could do this?

Let's say, hypothetically, 3D Sonic game, Sonic has a new aerial move that gives him massive height and momentum. But it can only be performed with a half circle forward input. (Like the input for Potemkin's Potemkin Buster from the Guilty Gear series.)

And let's say that the face button that has to be comined with that directional input is also the same button that allows you to use the Bounce ability, that sends you plummeting straight down.

So you jump off a platform, perform the half circle forward, and it allows you to gain fantastic reach over vast sections of level, OR you fudge the input and you immediately fall into bottomless pit heaven and are sent back to a checkpoint.

And then you gain the means to activate Super Sonic. This aerial move gets remapped to a simple spammable button that isn't being used elsewhere.

Super Sonic then feels faster than Sonic, not becase of a change in actual acceleration or max speed or what have you, (though we'll add those too,) but simply because the toolkit is in closer reach to the player. The action economy which was always theoretically available to players so long as they have very fast and very delicate hands, suddenly becomes available to anyone who can button mash.

[kvibe-test]

Middle Eastern Hip-Hop Revolution: A Cultural Sound Explosion

TITLE: The Evolution of Hip-Hop and Trap in the Middle Eastern Music Scene

In recent years, hip-hop and trap music have made notable strides within the Middle Eastern music landscape, creating an electrifying blend of cultural expressions. This dynamic musical and cultural exchange is transforming the region's auditory landscape, offering exciting and novel sounds that appeal locally and worldwide.

Combining Genres and Heritage

Musicians in the Middle East are creatively fusing traditional music elements with the vibrant energy of hip-hop and trap. This amalgamation of genres acts as a cultural connector between the East and the West. Producers such as Morocco's Ramoon lead the charge in this trend, adeptly integrating Moroccan traditional rhythms with contemporary hip-hop beats to generate a uniquely captivating sound.

Khalifa Santo from Abu Dhabi epitomizes this fusion by weaving current radio hits with classical Arab tunes, enchanting audiences both at home and abroad. These acts are reshaping the identity of Middle Eastern music, appealing to those who appreciate the familiar while seeking fresh, innovative sounds.

Social and Political Themes

Music has long been a powerful medium for social commentary, and Middle Eastern hip-hop artists are harnessing their platforms to tackle pressing social and political topics. Palestinian producer Al Nather's work serves as a prime example, using synth glitches to bring social stories to the forefront, resonating strongly with audiences spanning generations. This storytelling through music elevates its cultural value, making it much more than just entertainment.

Streaming data reveals that artists from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have experienced phenomenal growth in their global audience, showing a strong international interest in their music. Artists like Algeria's Dxrk ダーク and Lebanon's Anthony Keyrouz have gained significant recognition on the world stage, pulling in considerable streaming figures from diverse countries such as France and the USA. Their achievements underscore how musical talent transcends cultural and geographic borders.

Growing Local Scenes

In Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, gifted artists are driving innovation within their regional music scenes. NBL, a Saudi-Palestinian producer, is acclaimed for his Ramadan beat series "Jalsat Nabilia," which cleverly combines traditional Saudi music with contemporary genres such as trap and Afrobeats. Likewise, Dina Ayada from Morocco is garnering attention with her festival performances, showcasing the abundant talent within the Arab world.

The international expansion of Middle Eastern artists is fueled further by their cross-border collaborations and tours. For example, ElGrandeToto's albums include collaborations with artists from Belgium, Spain, and Nigeria, broadening his global reach. Additionally, Egyptian rapper Wegz and Saudi-Ecuadorian singer Mishaal Tamer are captivating audiences worldwide with their tours, extending their musical influence far beyond Middle Eastern borders.

Online platforms, particularly TikTok, play a critical role in promoting Middle Eastern music on a global scale. Issam Alnajjar's track "Hadal Ahbek" went viral, demonstrating the astounding capability of social media to elevate regional music to a worldwide platform. Effectively using these tools enables artists to connect with wider audiences, allowing their voices to be heard across continents.

Tactical Insights and Opportunities

Middle Eastern artists aiming to build on this momentum can adopt several best practices to sustain their progress:

Cultural Fusion: Continue to merge traditional and modern musical styles to develop innovative sounds.

International Engagement: Collaborate with artists from various countries to expand their audience and achieve worldwide recognition.

Social Media Savvy: Use Instagram and TikTok to promote music in a viral manner.

Perform Globally: Seize opportunities to perform at international festivals and tours to introduce their music to new listeners.

Expressive Content: Utilize music as a medium for social and political discourse to engage deeply with audiences.

In summary, the fusion of hip-hop and trap with Middle Eastern music is a rich tapestry reflecting a broader cultural dialogue. By employing these strategies, MENA artists continue to surpass barriers, pushing the boundaries of what is possible both sonically and culturally.

#HipHopMiddleEast #CulturalFusion #TrapMusic #MENAArtists

Dive deeper into the blend of cultures creating new musical horizons. Join the conversation today!

[photon-insights]

The Role of Photon Insights in Helps In Academic Research

In recent times, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with academic study has been gaining significant momentum that offers transformative opportunities across different areas. One area in which AI has a significant impact is in the field of photonics, the science of producing as well as manipulating and sensing photos that can be used in medical, telecommunications, and materials sciences. It also reveals its ability to enhance the analysis of data, encourage collaboration, and propel the development of new technologies.

Understanding the Landscape of Photonics

Photonics covers a broad range of technologies, ranging from fibre optics and lasers to sensors and imaging systems. As research in this field gets more complicated and complex, the need for sophisticated analytical tools becomes essential. The traditional methods of data processing and interpretation could be slow and inefficient and often slow the pace of discovery. This is where AI is emerging as a game changer with robust solutions that improve research processes and reveal new knowledge.

Researchers can, for instance, use deep learning methods to enhance image processing in applications such as biomedical imaging. AI-driven algorithms can improve the image’s resolution, cut down on noise, and even automate feature extraction, which leads to more precise diagnosis. Through automation of this process, experts are able to concentrate on understanding results, instead of getting caught up with managing data.

Accelerating Material Discovery

Research in the field of photonics often involves investigation of new materials, like photonic crystals, or metamaterials that can drastically alter the propagation of light. Methods of discovery for materials are time-consuming and laborious and often require extensive experiments and testing. AI can speed up the process through the use of predictive models and simulations.

Facilitating Collaboration

In a time when interdisciplinary collaboration is vital, AI tools are bridging the gap between researchers from various disciplines. The research conducted in the field of photonics typically connects with fields like engineering, computer science, and biology. AI-powered platforms aid in this collaboration by providing central databases and sharing information, making it easier for researchers to gain access to relevant data and tools.

Cloud-based AI solutions are able to provide shared datasets, which allows researchers to collaborate with no limitations of geographic limitations. Collaboration is essential in photonics, where the combination of diverse knowledge can result in revolutionary advances in technology and its applications.

Automating Experimental Procedures

Automation is a third area in which AI is becoming a major factor in the field of academic research in the field of photonics. The automated labs equipped with AI-driven technology can carry out experiments with no human involvement. The systems can alter parameters continuously based on feedback, adjusting conditions for experiments to produce the highest quality outcomes.

Furthermore, robotic systems that are integrated with AI can perform routine tasks like sampling preparation and measurement. This is not just more efficient but also decreases errors made by humans, which results in more accurate results. Through automation researchers can devote greater time for analysis as well as development which will speed up the overall research process.

Predictive Analytics for Research Trends

The predictive capabilities of AI are crucial for analyzing and predicting research trends in the field of photonics. By studying the literature that is already in use as well as research outputs, AI algorithms can pinpoint new themes and areas of research. This insight can assist researchers to prioritize their work and identify emerging trends that could be destined to be highly impactful.

For organizations and funding bodies These insights are essential to allocate resources as well as strategic plans. If they can understand where research is heading, they are able to help support research projects that are in line with future requirements, ultimately leading to improvements that benefit the entire society.

Ethical Considerations and Challenges

While the advantages of AI in speeding up research in photonics are evident however, ethical considerations need to be taken into consideration. Questions like privacy of data and bias in algorithmic computation, as well as the possibility of misuse by AI technology warrant careful consideration. Institutions and researchers must adopt responsible AI practices to ensure that the applications they use enhance human decision-making and not substitute it.

In addition, the incorporation in the use of AI into academic studies calls for the level of digital literacy which not every researcher are able to attain. Therefore, investing in education and education about AI methods and tools is vital to reap the maximum potential advantages.

Conclusion

The significance of AI in speeding up research at universities, especially in the field of photonics, is extensive and multifaceted. Through improving data analysis and speeding up the discovery of materials, encouraging collaboration, facilitating experimental procedures and providing insights that are predictive, AI is reshaping the research landscape. As the area of photonics continues to grow, the integration of AI technologies is certain to be a key factor in fostering innovation and expanding our knowledge of applications based on light.

Through embracing these developments scientists can open up new possibilities for research, which ultimately lead to significant scientific and technological advancements. As we move forward on this new frontier, interaction with AI as well as academic researchers will prove essential to address the challenges and opportunities ahead. The synergy between these two disciplines will not only speed up discovery in photonics, but also has the potential to change our understanding of and interaction with the world that surrounds us.

[blueiscoool]

Largest Roman Griffin Weight Unearthed in Turkey

A 2,300-year-old lead weight was discovered during excavations conducted at the 2,200-year-old Roman fountain located in northwestern Türkiye, at the ancient site of Assos.

According to the initial determinations, the object is the largest weight ever discovered. The weight bears intricate depictions of a mythological creature known as the griffin, which held significant cultural significance and was even featured on the city's coinage. Intriguingly, some representations showcase the city's name abbreviated as "ASS."

The excavations continue under the guidance of Professor Nurettin Arslan from the Faculty of Science and Letters at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University's Archaeology Department.

Following the short-term excavations in 1881-1883 conducted by the U.S., the Turkish team initiated excavations in 1981, and Arslan stated this year marks the 42nd year of ongoing excavations. Beginning in 2022, the ongoing excavations in this region have a central focus on uncovering the historical remnants of various structures from distinct epochs. Among the prominent features being explored are the hostelry buildings, called "ksenedochion" from Byzantine, assembly chambers called "nymphaeum" from Romans, and "gymnasium" from Hellenistic periods.

Arslan, the lead archaeologist, has outlined a comprehensive vision for the future, indicating a transition into the implementation phase for approved restoration projects. Foremost among these projects is the revival of the ancient theater, which, once restored, is anticipated to evolve into a vibrant hub for festivals and concerts, thereby transforming Assos into a captivating cultural destination.

Our excavation work here is not yet complete. The space between this fountain and the bedrock, though not yet fully explored, has emerged as a compelling source of archaeological riches. Functioning as a repository during the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D., this area has bestowed upon us a wealth of data. The previous year saw us unveiling a selection of remarkable discoveries from this locale. Building upon that momentum, our efforts this year have yielded a diverse array of artifacts. Notable among these are utilitarian items such as pottery and vessels, shedding light on the daily life of late Roman Assos."

"Further enriching the narrative are small terracotta figurines, which are believed to have played a role in religious ceremonies. Also unearthed are remnants of tableware, alongside an abundance of animal bones, predominantly those of sizeable cattle. Our analysis has discerned evidence of the consumption of animals like pigs, goats, and sheep. While pigs appear to have been a staple, the presence of other species is also noteworthy. For a more comprehensive understanding, we eagerly await the detailed assessments of specialized researchers on this zoological assemblage," he said.

"The artifact that stands before us holds a distinct place in Assos's historical tapestry—a lead weighing unit. A tangible relic from the bygone era, these weights held city-specific significance, employed primarily for trade and the precise measurement of commodities. Comparable instances have been recovered from Hellenistic tombs, although those variants were characterized by lighter weights. This specific lead weight, however, surpasses its predecessors in heft, tipping the scales at approximately 320 grams. Originating from the late Roman Assos, its origins trace back to the 2nd century B.C., offering a link to the city's past. Hailing from a time when the Agora played a pivotal role, this artifact serves as a testament to the meticulous practices of trade and measurement that once thrived within Assos's bustling marketplace," elucidated the archaeologist.

[longlistshort]

Today’s throwback is to Jenson Leonard’s solo exhibition Workflow, at Wood Street Galleries in Pittsburgh, from the beginning of February.

From the gallery about the work-

Workflow, the first institutional solo exhibition of artist Jenson Leonard, centers on a titular film that explores the velocity and momentum of Blackness as it relates to the philosophical concept of acceleration—the notion that the only way out of capitalism is through its intensification.

In Workflow, a spectral Michael Jackson Halloween mask recites a surrealistic quarterly earnings reports. Building on a 2017 essay by artist Aria Dean titled “Notes on Blacceleration,” the short film centers on the ways in which the Black subject grapples with its commodified status within the labor market despite—or, resultant of—its own history as a commodity, stemming back to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Completed during Leonard’s residency at Pioneer Works in 2021, the video utilizes uncanny humor as a mechanism to expose the shared grammars inherent in Afro-pessimism and speculative finance.

Within the exhibition, the film repeats simultaneously across two grids of computer monitors situated on ergonomic desks that flank the gallery, mimicking the workstations that can be found ubiquitously across stock trading floors and financial institutions. Sculptures modeled after computer keyboards and mouses are displayed on the desks, each rendered inoperable by concentric riffs that symbolize the erratic transformations caused by the flows of capital. The appearance of Jackson represents a transmogrification of its own; whereas many have aligned the controversial pop icon’s bleached skin and surgical procedures with Black self-hatred, Leonard positions his bodily modifications as a radical rupture from racial paradigms of being.

In Leonard’s own words, “Workflow is defined as the sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion. My film seeks to disabuse notions of completion, whether it be completion of the human, the nation state, or civil society. As Dean notes, Blackness is ‘always already accelerationist’ via its incongruence with Western humanism, a wrench thrown into the locomotive gears of ‘capital and subjecthood.’ Her essay prompts us to look toward the way that the Black has been historically constructed outside of the human, as coterminous with the slave. Slavery therefore represents a kind of proto-automation, a mass forced coercion of labor, and the Blacks’ transition from object to subject calls for a reappraisal of accelerationist ideas about the (non)human entity and its revolutionary potential.”

The artist continues, “There is something about going to work—the repetition of it—that gets inscribed at an epigenetic level, as an everyday, embodied violence. From there, I thought about the panoptic workplace (open air plan, transparent yet closely surveilled, management that does not have to be in the room to be monitoring you), the fetish of efficiency (ergonomic mouse and keyboards so you can work longer), biometric data of a labor force (fingerprint and facial scans to help reduce repeat processing tasks). All of these methods to maximize profits and production can be traced back to methods worked out and perfected in the cotton and sugar cane fields hundreds of years prior.”

The text from the video was included on one of the gallery walls (image above) but I’ve included it below as well as it is definitely worth reading.

“Looking out across the macro- Panoptic eyes are everywhere. Predictive models rendered bilious, You are scalable, You contain platitudes. Clean and renewable, black from the waste management down. These are micro-credentials too big to fail. Angel investors watch over you, guide you through your webinar. You are green with infrastructure. A Nick Land acknowledgment. A multiprocession of the tiniest micropixels in all of the Anglosphere. Plan your obsolescence. Chitin’ circuitry courses through you. Wayward modulation thrumming, throbbing like an old techno spiritual. A Self driving mythology Keloid optimized. Upload speeds faster than Drapetomania. A contactless, decentralized, hands free accumulation. The base salary determines the superstructure of your beast of burden of proof of concept. Perfection is the enemy of egress. Pay the heap of flesh no mind, live in the nanosecond. Fake it till you’re skeuomorphic. You’re more than the sum of your outsourced manufacturing components. Know your neural net worth. Walk with your overhead held high. There’s never been more exciting growth in the excrement sector! It is easier to imagine the end of the world than to unsubscribe from my Onlyfans. Rather, If you can’t handle me at my Linkedin you don’t deserve me at my locked in chastity. Will you risk it all to manage my assets? Are you willing to do my taxes from the back? Tax to mouth? From the overton window, to the overton wall, to the overton sweat drop down my overton balls. Going, going… Zong.”

[4gravitons]

now that this Euclid telescope is on its way to L2 to to do some kind of survey of distant galaxies, want to explain what's up with these string theorists quantifying statistics of galaxy triangles or some shit? Do you know what I'm talking about? I never really got what that was about

I think you’re talking about this stuff, right?

So, the first thing to understand is that the whole “triangles” thing is a fanciful way to refer to three-point correlation functions. You’re measuring something (density of galaxies for galaxy surveys, temperature for the CMB) in three places, nothing more mysterious than that. The idea is that (if you subtract off backgrounds, yadda yadda), those three-point correlation functions should let you infer the three-point correlation functions of the quantum field theory that governed inflation (so, expectation values of three operators).

Currently, all of the data we have has only been good enough to get statistical significance for two-point functions (measure something at two places). Two-point functions can tell us some general things, but they don’t tell us a lot about the underlying physics. One way to think about why is that two-point functions are very constrained kinematically. If you’re looking at an isotropic patch of sky (which you’re always trying to do for stuff like this), then the two-point function can only depend on the distance between the two points. Fourier transform that and you’ve got a momentum, or a frequency, so really what two-point functions give you are a spectrum. That’s why you see a bunch of plots of the power spectrum of the CMB that look like this:

The three-point function tells you more, not just the spectrum but something about how whatever quantum fields that generated the data interact. (For certain theories, that’s actually all you need: for a scale-invariant (more properly, conformal) theory, the theory is uniquely determined by two-point and three-point functions.)

So what does this have to do with string theory?

Inflation is pretty much the only process we have evidence for that could probe anywhere close to the energy scale of string theory. As such, certain string theorists are quite interested in this stuff. There are a bunch of candidate quantum field theories of inflation, and some of them are “string theory inspired” in more or less direct ways, with stories about branes and curled up dimensions and so on. Evidence for any of those wouldn’t be a “smoking gun” for string theory because most of these things can be reproduced with a more normal quantum field theory, but it would at least be a validation of the model as inspirationally useful. (Plus, evidence for specific beyond-the-standard-model physics, which a lot of people would be quite happy to see anyway.)

The Quanta article I linked above suggests something more direct, though. This is based on a paper by Maldacena and Arkani-Hamed, Cosmological Collider Physics. Most of the paper is just filling out the math in the above argument: how different n-point functions can reveal different things about the quantum field theory that governed inflation, including finding evidence for particles with specific masses and spins. They do mention string theory in the introduction, where they briefly point out that, if we see a particle with spin greater than the graviton then we could interpret that as evidence for string theory, since having particles like that that are weakly interacting at such high scales seems to demand that a theory be string-theory-like in a broad sense. It wouldn’t refute string theory if we didn’t see those particles, though, since string theory doesn’t require that such things have a role in inflation specifically.

So anyway, yeah, missions like Euclid have the potential to tell us something about high-energy beyond-the-standard-model physics! There really is something meaningful to be excited about there. There’s nothing that’s “required to show up” though, and nothing that has the potential to “falsify string theory”.

[snehalshinde65799]

Dairy Container Market Gains Momentum With Expanding Dairy Consumption and Evolving Sustainability Demands Globally

The Dairy Container Market is experiencing notable growth as evolving consumer habits, sustainability trends, and advancements in packaging technology reshape how dairy products are stored, transported, and presented. From traditional milk bottles to innovative single-serve yogurt cups and eco-friendly cheese packaging, the industry is undergoing a transformation to meet the demands of both manufacturers and consumers.

Market Overview

The global dairy container market includes packaging solutions for a variety of dairy products such as milk, yogurt, cheese, cream, and butter. Containers range from plastic and glass bottles to cartons, pouches, and newer biodegradable options. The increasing consumption of dairy products in emerging economies, combined with growing health awareness in developed markets, is driving steady demand for reliable, safe, and efficient packaging.

In 2024, the market was valued at over USD 30 billion and is projected to surpass USD 42 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of approximately 5.7%. The surge is fueled by both the growing dairy industry and shifting consumer preferences toward convenience and sustainability.

Material Trends

Plastic remains the dominant material used in dairy containers due to its flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and lightweight properties. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are widely used for milk and yogurt containers. However, environmental concerns are prompting a shift toward recyclable and biodegradable alternatives. Cartons made from paperboard with thin plastic or aluminum linings are gaining traction, especially for milk and cream. Some companies are also exploring bio-based plastics and compostable films.

Glass containers, once a staple in dairy packaging, are making a modest comeback among premium brands that emphasize quality and sustainability. Though heavier and costlier, glass is perceived as more environmentally friendly and reusable.

Innovation and Technology

Smart packaging technologies are emerging in the dairy container market. These include temperature-sensitive labels, QR codes for traceability, and tamper-evident seals. Such innovations improve food safety, enhance the consumer experience, and provide manufacturers with better data insights. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and vacuum sealing are also being adopted to extend the shelf life of dairy products, especially cheese and cream.

Automation in packaging lines, driven by Industry 4.0, is improving efficiency and consistency. Robotics and AI are being employed to minimize human contact, a trend that accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regional Dynamics

North America and Europe are mature markets with a strong focus on sustainable and recyclable packaging. Regulatory pressures and eco-conscious consumers are encouraging the use of reusable or biodegradable materials. In contrast, the Asia-Pacific region is witnessing rapid expansion due to urbanization, rising disposable incomes, and increased consumption of dairy products. India and China, in particular, are driving demand for flexible and affordable packaging solutions.

Latin America and Africa, while smaller markets, are showing promise due to increasing dairy production and improvements in cold chain logistics, making packaged dairy products more accessible.

Consumer Preferences and Sustainability

Modern consumers are prioritizing convenience, health, and environmental responsibility. Single-serve and on-the-go containers are in demand, especially among younger demographics. Resealable lids, ergonomic designs, and lightweight materials are key design trends.

Sustainability is no longer optional. Many brands are committing to reduce their plastic footprint by switching to recyclable, biodegradable, or reusable packaging. Some dairy producers have introduced "return and refill" systems, especially for milk, to minimize single-use containers.

Challenges

The dairy container market faces several challenges, including fluctuating raw material prices, supply chain disruptions, and strict regulatory standards for food safety. Additionally, balancing cost with sustainability remains a hurdle for many manufacturers.

Despite these issues, the long-term outlook for the dairy container market remains strong. As dairy consumption continues to rise globally and consumers become more discerning about packaging, manufacturers that invest in sustainable, innovative, and user-friendly container solutions are poised to gain a competitive edge.

Conclusion

The dairy container market is evolving rapidly, driven by consumer demand for convenience, sustainability, and safety. Innovations in materials and smart packaging, coupled with regional growth and changing dietary habits, are shaping a dynamic and competitive landscape. Stakeholders across the dairy supply chain must adapt to these trends to remain relevant and responsive in this growing sector.