AkaSci 🛰️

The war on Iran has created a shortage of Helium, which plays a critical role in semiconductor manufacturing and in medical equipment such as MRI machines.

Helium is mostly produced as a byproduct of LNG production.

Following retaliation strikes by Iran, Qatar has halted most of its LNG production in the country, which has led to a suspension of helium production as well. Qatar supplies a third of the world’s helium.

https://lnginnorthernbc.ca/2026/03/22/war-in-iran-creates-shortage-of-helium-vital-for-semiconductors/
#UsPol
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Happy Pi Day 🥧
And Happy Birthday to Albert Einstein.

Here are a few mathematical representations of π developed over the ages. Can you identify the mathematicians behind these equations?

Pi (π) is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. It is an irrational, transcendental number; its decimal digits continue infinitely without repeating.

π = 3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi
#PiDay2026 #PiDay
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Good summary of the cyber-attack by the Iran-linked Handala hacker group, on Michigan-based Stryker Corporation, a maker of medical devices.

The group said the wiper attack was in retaliation for a Feb. 28 missile strike that hit the Iranian girls' school.

https://www.techbuzz.ai/articles/iran-s-handala-hackers-paralyze-stryker-in-escalating-cyberwar
https://research.checkpoint.com/2026/handala-hack-unveiling-groups-modus-operandi/
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/03/iran-backed-hackers-claim-wiper-attack-on-medtech-firm-stryker/
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Great news - Democrat Bobbi Boudman flips NH House seat in special election in Carroll County.

This is now the 10th special election flip for Dems in trump's second term, versus zero for the GOP.
:mastodance:
https://bsky.app/profile/the-downballot.com/post/3mgqqtkgs3s2b
#UsPol
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RIP Sir Charles Antony Richard Hoare (11 January 1934 – 5 March 2026), also known as C. A. R. Hoare, pioneering computer scientist.

His seminal contributions include -
Quicksort
Quickselect
Hoare logic
Null reference
Communicating sequential processes
Structured programming
ALGOL

https://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/2026/03/tony-hoare-1934-2026.html
https://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/hoare_4622167.cfm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Hoare
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Cover of the Feb 28, 2026 issue of The Lancet (one of the world's leading medical journals, published weekly since 1823) has this sentence as the main body of the page -

"The destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 year might take generations to repair, and there is little hope for US health and science while he remains at the helm."

Same could be said for science in general under trump.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/vol407no10531/PIIS0140-6736(26)X2006-2#closeFullCover
Full editorial at https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00414-9/fulltext
#UsPol #Health
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This is an interesting pic of the annular solar eclipse of Feb 17, taken by the ESA Proba-2 satellite.

The eclipse was observed during 4 different 99-minute orbital passes from 10:00 to 14:30 UTC. Images were taken by the spacecraft's SWAP extreme ultraviolet imager, at a wavelength of 17.4 nm.

In this pic, ~93% of the solar disk is occulted by the Moon.

From earth, the eclipse was visible only from the Antarctic region.

https://proba2.sidc.be/Eclipse17February2026
Credit: ESA/Royal Observatory of Belgium
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What looks like a brain MRI are images of the Cranium Nebula in visible and mid-IR wavelengths, taken by the Webb telescope.

The Nebula, formed from the outbursts of a dying star, sports a translucent outer shell of mostly hydrogen, ~1 light year in radius, and a "cortex" with a mix of different gases.

A distinctive dark lane runs vertically through the middle of the nebula, likely caused by twin jets from the star.

Constellation: Vela
Distance: 5,000 light-years

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-examines-cranium-nebula/
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ICE whistleblower Ryan Schwank:

"For the last 5 months, I watched ICE dismantle the training program, cutting 240 hours of vital classes from a 584 hour program, classes that teach the Constitution, our legal system, firearms training, the use of force, lawful arrests, proper detention and the limits of officers’ authority.

ICE is teaching cadets to violate the Constitution, and they were attempting to cloak it in secrecy by demanding that I lie about it.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5751455-ice-officer-training-whistleblower/
#UsPol
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Holy Cow! For once, this SCOTUS upholds the law.

"Delivering a major blow to Trump, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that he exceeded his authority when imposing sweeping tariffs using a law reserved for a national emergency.

The justices, divided 6-3, held that Trump's aggressive approach to tariffs on products entering the U.S. from across the world was not permitted under a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-strikes-trumps-tariffs-major-blow-president-rcna244827
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A new scam every day. Or should we call it looting and plundering of the U.S. treasury?

Trump will provide $10B to Board of Peace which is 12x our current annual contribution to the UN.

trump: “I want to let you know that the U.S. is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace. We’ve had great support for that number. And that number is a very small number when you look at that compared to the cost of war. That’s 2 weeks of fighting.”

https://truthout.org/articles/trump-says-us-giving-10b-to-board-of-peace-12-times-uss-un-contribution/
#UsPol
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Lawrence O’Donnell: "The most powerful crime syndicate in history - that is what we are living under now in the United States of America, according to Trump's hometown newspaper.

Donald Trump publicly appears to be planning an election crime spree, even worse than the conspiracy he was indicted for running to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and that is the most important story of this year.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMHA4YGFZs4
#UsPol
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Happy Birthday to Douglas Hofstadter (born 15 February 1945), cognitive and computer scientist, author of "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" and "I Am a Strange Loop".

From GEB, Hofstadter's law - "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law."

From IAASL - “In the end, we self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages are little miracles of self-reference.”

How many of you were influenced by GEB?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Hofstadter
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Babies in the randomized, controlled trial in Guinea-Bissau will either receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth or at 6 weeks.

It is a major breach of scientific ethics to withhold an intervention that has been proven safe and effective - Paul Offit.

The study does not appear to be looking at whether the vaccine is more effective at birth, it will look for “overall health effects".

~18% of Bissau-Guinean adults and 11.2% of toddlers are infected with the virus.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/dec/19/hepatitis-b-vaccine-study-guinea-bissau-rfk
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35 years ago, on Feb 14, 1990, Voyager 1 took this image of the "Pale Blue Dot" from 6 billion km away, minutes before its cameras were shut off forever.

Carl Sagan, who played a key role in the mission wrote -
"To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

35 years later, how well are we doing on these 2 counts? How can we do better?

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia23645-pale-blue-dot-revisited/
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