Did Jackie Chan say he cried over video of Palestinian child? What we know
Jan. 2nd, 2026 08:58 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
snopes_feedChan reportedly spoke at a movie premiere in Beijing on Dec. 28, 2025.
snopes_feed
The Science Behind Better Visualizing Brain Function
Jan. 2nd, 2026 09:00 pmnautilus_feedOne of the ongoing challenges in understanding the workings of the human brain is being able to visualize its activity in real time. Our brains are collections of nerve cells, or neurons, that receive, transform, and send signals to other cells to create thoughts, decisions, and memories. To date, researchers have illuminated the outgoing signals from nerve cells using techniques like electrophysiology but have found the incoming signals too fast and faint to capture.
Now, described in a recent paper published in Nature Methods, neuroscientists have devised a way to detect incoming chemical signals. “What we have invented here is a way of measuring information that comes into neurons from different sources, and that’s been a critical part missing from neuroscience research,” explained lead study author Kaspar Podgorski at the Allen Institute in Seattle in a statement.
Podgorski and an international team of collaborators from the United States, Germany, Italy, London, and Austria engineered variants of a protein—iGluSnFR—to record incoming brain cell signals. Nerve cell signals bridge the gap between neurons by sending chemical messengers across the gap, or synapse. The most common messenger for learning, memory, and feelings is the molecule glutamate, for which the iGluSnFR protein is a good tracking indicator.
Read more: “A New Doorway to the Brain”
By testing the performance of 70 variants of iGluSnFR in mouse brains, the researchers discovered two variants that were sensitive enough to detect even the faintest incoming neural signals. The glutamate indicators were tested in mouse models in various regions of the brain—including the neocortex, thalamus and hippocampus, and midbrain—and proved able to provide a window into information flow between neurons of various types. Coupled with existing techniques to monitor outgoing signals, the iGluSnFR variants offer a way to interpret entire through-puts of information in the brain.
“I feel like what we’re doing here is adding the connections between those neurons and by doing that, we now understand the order of the words on the pages, and what they mean,” Podgorski continued.
The scientific advance has implications for treating a range of diseases that are linked to disruptions in glutamate signaling, including Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, and autism. Being able to visualize the activity of synapses paves the way for understanding the mechanisms underlying brain disorders and then developing drugs that restore normal synaptic function. 
Enjoying Nautilus? Subscribe to our free newsletter.
Lead image: Juan Gaertner / Shutterstock
Drake Accused of Manipulating Streaming Play Counts With Bots in New Lawsuit
Jan. 2nd, 2026 09:15 pmio9_feedA new class action claims the rapper helped promote an online casino and allegedly used the site to fund bot farms to boost music streaming numbers.
Raw Oysters Behind Salmonella Outbreak Sweeping Across the US, CDC Warns
Jan. 2nd, 2026 09:05 pmio9_feedAt least 64 cases in 22 states have been identified so far, though the true toll is "likely much higher," CDC health officials say.
22 Pawfect Cat Memes Portraying Precious Purrs and Meowing Menace
Jan. 2nd, 2026 12:00 pmicanhascheezburger_feedCats can be sweet baby angels, but they can also be meowing menace goblins.
When your cat is the sweetest baby, you feel their love and connection to you. Your cat could be rolled like a cinnamon bun on your lap, purring like a gentle tractor, while you pet the tiny space between their ears. It's like a meowgical moment that can turn any frown fluffside down. And knowing how much your cat loves you back, with their slow blinks and belly showing, is like an instant warmth to your heart. It's everything a cat pawrent could want.
But then you have the other side of the cat coin. The gobline mode. The meowing menace. The zoomies at 3 AM, as if every piece of furniture that you own is the greatest skate park for cats trying parkour for the first time. The screaming at a piece of paper that flew a little too weird for their taste. The biting of the couch because… why not, right? When cats enter their goblin mode, it's like witnessing a demon possess your fluffy friend. But that's okay, because it's just part of their operating system.
And what type is your cat today?
Physicists Turn Quantum Chaos Into Something Surprisingly Useful
Jan. 2nd, 2026 08:40 pmio9_feedLong considered a serious technical challenge, superradiance could actually help quantum devices go even further.
icanhascheezburger_feedUsually, the Cat Distribution System doesn't care if you're an expawrienced pet parent, a newly adopted human, or what animals are actually inside your house. It only cares about you being a good fit to pawrent the cat in need it sends in your way. And oh boy, does the CDS make some purrfect matches between people and cats.
This next kitten was meant to be found and adopted into an already animal-filled home. But when your heart is big enough - you find room for another kitten. Especially if this kitten is in a need for a home. They found him digging in the trash, desperately trying to find food. And in this weather? It's a matter of survivability - especially for such young kittens on the street. They need a roof over their heads, a bowl full of nutrious food, and the love of a family. And lots of treats, surely.
But what do you do when you adopt a cat in an already pet-full house? Well, you make room. And besides, cats can be friends with many animals - you just need to introduce them correctly. And when you do? Not only you won a feline friend for life, but also the rest of the household pets.
The difficulty of Russian cursive
Jan. 2nd, 2026 07:51 pmlanguagelog_feed
There are many hard things about learning Russian. This is one of the hardest.
Selected readings
- "Cursive and Characters: Dying Arts" (4/29/11)
- "Cursive" (3/30/14)
- "Transletteration" (8/11/09)
[Thanks to J.M.G.N.]
‘Andor’ Season 2’s Opening Remains One of Its Best Moments
Jan. 2nd, 2026 08:22 pmio9_feedWelcome to the circle.
Alleged PS5 Jailbreak Method Spikes Prices for Old Star Wars Game on eBay
Jan. 2nd, 2026 08:10 pmio9_feed'Star Wars Racer Revenge' is selling for hundreds of dollars.
Scientists Scanned 3I/ATLAS for Alien Signals. Here’s What They Found
Jan. 2nd, 2026 07:55 pmio9_feedAs this interstellar object approached its closest point to Earth, a massive radio telescope attempted to sniff out a technosignature.
People Spent the Holidays Asking Grok to Generate Sexual Images of Children
Jan. 2nd, 2026 07:40 pmio9_feedElon Musk's xAI has largely been silent on the matter, but some authorities have noticed.
How to Glimpse the Prime Meteor Shower of 2026
Jan. 2nd, 2026 07:00 pmnautilus_feedTonight, people in the northern hemisphere may glimpse one of the year’s most dazzling meteor showers: the Quadrantids.
This cosmic spectacle peaks annually in early January, and it’s particularly tricky to get a good look at it compared with other meteor showers. Many peak over two days, but Quadrantids are usually visible for just a few hours.
The bright streaks we see during meteor showers result from sand-sized bits of dust released from comets or asteroids, known as meteors, which barrel into air particles in our atmosphere. The collision creates heat that vaporizes meteors, producing the streaks of light that have astonished people for millennia. This glow can take on different hues depending on the chemical makeup of a meteor and its speed.
We can see a few meteor streaks each night, but highly anticipated showers like the Quadrantids occur when Earth passes through trails of dusty space rock remnants around the same time each year. The Quadrantids, which are thought to emerge from an asteroid called 2003 EH1, can look blue or yellow.
The Quadrantids peak is particularly brief because the shower consists of a skinny stream of particles that Earth cruises through at a perpendicular angle. Another viewing obstacle: The height of the shower will coincide with a supermoon, which happens when the full moon is closest to Earth in its orbit—this makes it look up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than the year’s faintest moon.
Read more: “Before the Supermoon Showed Its Face It Flashed Us”
“The biggest enemy of enjoying a meteor shower is the full moon,” Mike Shanahan, planetarium director at Liberty Science Center in New Jersey, told The Associated Press.
Tonight, onlookers may see up to around 10 Quadrantid meteors per hour. This shower is known for its especially luminous and long-lasting fireball meteors, which emerge from relatively big bits of material.
It gets its name from Quadrans Muralis, a former constellation discovered in 1795, the spot in the sky where the meteors appear to travel from. The moniker refers to the quadrant, an early astronomical tool that people used to map out star locations.
To get a good look at the Quadrantids, NASA recommends settling down in a spot far from light pollution and lying flat on your back with your feet oriented northeast. Stay off your phone and let your eyes get accustomed to the complete darkness, a process that takes around 20 minutes. “Be patient—the show will last until dawn, so you have plenty of time to catch a glimpse,” NASA advises.
For location-specific tips on your best shot at seeing the Quadrantids, check out timeanddate.com.
Enjoying Nautilus? Subscribe to our free newsletter.
Lead image: Aref Fathi / Wikimedia Commons
2025/204: Crypt — Alice Roberts
Jan. 2nd, 2026 07:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth2025/204: Crypt — Alice Roberts
In politically tense times, differences – rather than similarities – can easily be brought into sharp focus. And such differences can be exploited by any politician who ultimately cares more about their own power, or indeed some abstract idea of nationhood, than about the lives of ordinary people and the ordinary communities that they govern. [loc. 317]
Following Ancestors (which examined several prehistoric burials) and Buried (ditto, but Roman and early medieval), Crypt explores the discovery, social context and archaeological significance of a number of burials that date to between 1000 AD and about 1500 AD. ( Read more... )
io9_feed'Dungeons &Dragons' was the obvious reference, but Peter Jackson's fantasy trilogy also played a hand in how the Netflix series wrapped up its final episode.
icanhascheezburger_feedThey can resist all they want, but we know that no one can resist the allure of a fluffy feral feline for long.
It's only a matter of time before anyone who says they "don't want" a cat gets one, especially if it's a cute feral boy that's living in your backyard. Mom was allergic, and Dad was just purrfeclty ornery about animals in the house. So, instead of letting the kitty in, he went and built an outdoor cat house for the little guy. Then, during a terrible snowstorm, he went missing. The wife felt pawisitively terrible that they didn't let him inside, and vowed that if he ever showed back up again, they would let him in the house. A few days later, he reappeared, and the rest is history.
The former feral feline went from sleeping on piles of leaves to having a front row seat to the fireplace on his own purrsonal couch. He's attached to his hooman dad at the hip, often seen hugging his arm while they snuggle together on the couch. It's purrfectly heartwarming to see such an ameowzing meowtamorphosis - from feral and fearful to snuggly and safe.
This story isn't unique, but it is purrfectly heartwarming. It's a tale of transformation, understanding that love is worth a little discomfort, and caring for others despite their differences. We wish them years and years of happiness together!