GNR This Year’s First Second Wednesday, 1/8/25 – Daily Kos

Good morning, Gnusies!Welcome to the first second Wednesday of 2024.  I’ve been mostly snowed in at my dad’s for the last several days; we’re well supplied and cozy, and missing my brother who flew home after a couple of weeks here for the holidays before the snow piled up.  Hope everyone else is weathering the weather, and had a wonderful holiday season to boot!As for the news…Have some music.Space, the final frontier!  News about fast radio bursts!Since that first fast radio burst, or FRB, astronomers have detected thousands more, whose locations range from within our own galaxy to as far as 8 billion light-years away—yet, exactly how these brief and brilliant explosions were launched had remained a highly-contested unknown.Now, astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have pinned down the origin of at least one of these cosmic radio flares using a novel technique that could do the same for other FRBs.~~~The team’s findings provide the first conclusive evidence that a FRB can originate from the magnetosphere immediately surrounding an ultracompact object, such as a neutron star or possibly a black hole.“In these environments of neutron stars, the magnetic fields are really at the limits of what the universe can produce,” said the study’s lead author Kenzie Nimmo, a postdoc in MIT’s Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “There’s been a lot of debate about whether this bright radio emission could even escape from that extreme plasma.”~~~The exact physics driving the FRBs have remained unclear. Some models predict that the should come from the turbulent magnetosphere immediately surrounding a compact object, while others predict that the bursts should originate much further out, as part of a shockwave that propagates away from the central object.And there’s more to learn!I never thought environmentalism and exercise would lead to development of a new sport, but here it is. Originating in Sweden, when Erik Ahlström began picking up litter while jogging in Stockholm, the term is a combination of the Swedish word plocka, which means “to pick up”, and the English word “jogging”.The activity of picking up litter while on your outdoor jog, has spread to other countries, and now an estimated 2 million people ‘plog’ regularly in over 100 countries.The workout adds bending, squatting, and stretching to the main action of running—with ‘pliking’ being the latest offshoot for hikers who want to clean up the trail.The third annual World Plogging Championship in 2023, resulted in approximately 6,600 pounds of litter (3,000 kg) removed from the environment around the city of Genoa.~~~Since 2021, the World Plogging Championships have taken place on paved paths and roads according to the principles of trail and mountain running. After their 2023 event, they reported keeping 6 million grams of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere by correctly separating and recycling the waste they collected.I’ve had some bouts with eczema in the past and wouldAmerican researchers discovered that a compound called SYM2081 inhibited certain cells that drive inflammation in mice and human skin samples.They say it paves the way for new treatments to prevent itching, hives, and other symptoms of skin conditions—such as eczema and rosacea—driven by mast cells.Rosacea is a long-term skin condition that mainly affects the face. It may cause acne-like pimples, broken blood vessels, skin thickening, and facial flushing.“I’m really excited about the clinical possibilities of this research,” said study senior author Professor Daniel Kaplan, of the University of Pittsburgh. “Currently, there aren’t a lot of good therapies that target mast cells, so we think that our approach could potentially have huge benefits in many skin conditions, including rosacea, eczema, urticaria, and mastocytosis.”He explained that mast cells are filled with tiny granules “brimming” with histamine and other compounds that act as signals or activators of inflammatory pathways. When mast cells are activated, the granules spill open, releasing compounds that trigger a suite of immune responses.Discoveries from distant space, new medical discoveries, and stuff from ages past.An astonishingly well-preserved sword has been uncovered in England among other grave goods that are helping to reveal critical details about the Anglo-Saxons.Dating back to the 6th century, it was found in a cemetery for high-social-status individuals that’s being kept secret from the public due to the value, both historical and monetary, of the site.Inferior forging techniques and damp burial conditions mean that most swords recovered in excavations in Britain are corroded and broken shadows of their former glory. This example by contrast contains gilt and silver inlays along the hilt, or handle, while the surprisingly intact blade is inscribed with runes.One of the things that I have really appreciated while first reading and then putting together the GNR these last however many years is how it’s enabled me to become more and more aware of my own privilege.  This is one of those times.  There are almost 4,000 emojis to choose from, but for people rocking Black or mixed-race hairstyles, the list simply doesn’t cut it. In emoji-world, it seems, neat side-partings are all the rage. Afros, cornrows and dreads are definitively out.But now a campaign organised by London-based community project Rise.365 aims to bring Black hair to our keyboards and touch screens, and in the process ignite conversations around texturism.~~~Texturism – the word used to describe discrimination against afro-textured and coarse hair – was one topic that cropped up time and time again, with almost two-thirds of Black and mixed-race youths supported by Rise.365 saying they have experienced prejudice based on their hairstyle.“We know of children being excluded from school for having certain haircuts – afros and plaits, for example,” said [Rise.365 founder Joyclen]Buffong. “It’s something we are faced with, but it’s not spoken about enough. We explored the impact of texturism in different spaces, and the digital space was one that it came up in.”~~~Responding to online polls and drawings contributed by Rise.365 youngsters, the agency came up with four new emojis representing braids, afros, locs and cornrows – in men and women. In April, it plans to present the designs to the Unicode Consortium, which sets world standards for digital text and typography, in the hope they’ll be included in its definitive list.Members of the public can help by googling ‘Afro hair’ and ‘Afro hair emoji’ as search frequency is among the factors Unicode takes into account.That’s it for me, fellow gnusies!And now, the weather.(I am still not Cecil Baldwin. I swear.)

Source: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/1/8/2295675/-GNR-This-Year-s-First-Second-Wednesday-1-8-25