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☆ Worms get the munchies, too, study reveals
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

It turned out the worms did respond, and cannabinoids made them hungrier for their favored foods and less hungry for their non-favored food. The research ultimately revealed that the worms, like humans, engage in hedonic feeding — a phenomenon more commonly known as the munchies. Fluorescent wormsBy measuring the swallowing rate of the worms, Lockery and his team determined that the cannabinoids were increasing how much of a particular bacteria blend the worms ate, making them hungrier. At the molecular level, the cannabinoid system in these worms looks a lot like that in people and other animals. Despite having a small number of neurons (302 neurons versus 86 billion neurons in humans), the worms have a nervous system that includes a primitive brain.

☆ Japan nuclear disaster: Fukushima's fishing industry fears Tokyo's next move may finish it off
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Emiko Jozuka Krystina Shveda Junko Ogura Marc Stewart Daniel Campisi | Emiko Jozuka | Krystina Shveda | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

Ocean currents have since dispersed the contaminated water enough that radioactive Cesium is nearly undetectable in fish from Fukushima prefecture. A year before the 2011 disaster, government data shows Fukushima’s coastal fishing industry landed catches worth around $69 million. At the same time, ground and rainwater have leaked in, creating more radioactive wastewater that now needs to be stored and treated. This isotope is radioactive tritium, and the scientific community is divided on the risk its dissemination carries. He argues TEPCO should build more storage tanks to allow for the decay of the radioactive tritium, which has a half-life of 12.3 years.

☆ The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is actually a unique ocean ecosystem teeming with sea creatures that cling to the plastic trash
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Great Pacific Ocean Patch refers to a big swirling soup of plastic in the ocean. The findings challenged the assumption that coastal species couldn't survive in the open ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch typically refers to an area of the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii in which floating trash concentrates due to factors like wind and currents. The findings also contradicted the assumption that coastal species could not survive in areas of open ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch refers to areas of marine debris concentration in the North Pacific Ocean.

☆ Dominion’s case against Fox News goes to trial next week. Is the First Amendment really on the line?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

But even by the standards of the profession, the language in Dominion's $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News has been downright apocalyptic. A victory for Dominion against Fox, they say, could wreak havoc for other journalism organizations across the country. The sheer closeness between Trump and Fox News makes a case like this unlikely to harm journalism organizations down the line, Goodale said. The vast majority of defamation cases against media organizations are settled, which gives few high-profile precedents to the Dominion lawsuit. "And that's the balance that the Sullivan court strike tried to strike in 1964.

☆ These organizations are trying to tackle plastic pollution and poverty at the same time
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Katie Brigham | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

"All the plastic we've ever produced since the inception of the material is still here," said David Katz, CEO of Plastic Bank, a company that's trying to implement plastic recycling systems in developing nations. It's usually because it's not economically feasible to collect, clean and sort plastic waste — at least not in the U.S., where new plastic is cheaper. Asis Wijayanto and his wife Atmawati support themselves and their daughter by collecting plastic with Plastic Bank. Plastic creditsBut only about 20% of Plastic Bank's partners are actually buying recycled plastic for use in new products. The other 80% are buying plastic credits, meant to help offset their new plastic production by funding recycling efforts in the countries where Plastic Bank operates.

☆ Analysis: After extraordinary rally, bonds' fate now with bank stability and inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Yoruk Bahceli | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Alongside that dash for safe havens was a rapid repricing of rate-hike bets as banking turmoil raised financial stability risks, fuelling the rally in government debt. But coming so soon after markets had positioned for bigger U.S. rate hikes to tame inflation, bonds swung wildly. March's sharp drop in two-year yields followed a 59 bps jump in February. Two-year Treasury yields are down 24 bps this quarter, their biggest quarterly drop since the 2020 COVID-19 crisis. The likes of JPMorgan, BofA and Morgan Stanley, expect Treasury yields to end 2023 lower; others such as Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas expect a rise.

☆ TikTok pile-on opens two cans of worms
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Yet the bipartisan attack on the short-form video app, owned by China-based ByteDance, really points to two different complications – and each, in turn, opens up a much bigger can of worms. The overarching reason for Chew’s appearance is that President Joe Biden’s administration, and many in Congress, think TikTok’s Chinese backing makes it a dangerous tool of the People’s Republic. Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers accused TikTok of collecting biometric data and manipulating what information users see. It’s not just TikTok that potentially vacuums up consumer details while having close links to China. Follow @jennifersaba on TwitterCONTEXT NEWSTikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23.

☆ The bank panic is subsiding just in time for the Fed to
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —One week ago, right in this here newsletter, I wrote about how Wall Street was having a Zen moment. In the optimistic camp: “The bank crisis-ette is over,” Daniel Alpert, managing partner at Westwood Capital, told me. And it will be the first time the world hears from Fed officials since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, thanks to a cosmic twist of timing. But because of the banking turmoil, there is a chance the Fed would decide not to raise rates this time around. If the Fed feels the crisis has passed, Alpert said, it will be emboldened to go for the quarter-point hike.

☆ Fact Check-Viral clip shows tree catkins, not ‘rain of worms’ in China - scientists
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A viral clip online likely shows the catkins, or flower spikes, of poplar trees covering cars in northern China, not a “rain of worms” as social media posts and some news reports have claimed, experts told Reuters. One tweet saying: “China citizens told to find shelter after it looked like it started to rain worms” has been viewed more than 18 million times at the time of writing (here). There can be thousands of poplar catkins per tree, Claire Thomas Federici, a botanist and plant geneticist at the University of California, Riverside (here), said by email. China has a “distinctively rich” variety of trees in the poplar family, particularly in northern China, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (here), (here). Experts say the video from China likely shows catkins from poplar trees instead of a “rain” of worms or caterpillars.

☆ War of the worms: Polish politicians give each other a mouthful over edible insects
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WARSAW, March 3 (Reuters) - Polish voters were given food for thought on Friday, as politicians from the two main parties traded accusations that the other side planned to push meat-loving citizens into eating worms ahead of elections this autumn. "For the upcoming elections, PO politicians should write on each poster 'Instead of chicken eat a worm', because this is their real election programme," PiS lawmaker Bartosz Kownacki told reporters. State-run broadcaster TVP Info accompanied Kownacki's press conference with a news ticker reading "The opposition's proposals for Poles: worms instead of meat". TVP Info has been regularly criticised by the opposition as being a mouthpiece for government propaganda. However, PO politicians and city hall officials say this does not mean proposals to force people to lower meat consumption and eat worms are under consideration.

☆ Gautam Adani lost half his wealth in a flash. Here’s what happened
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

While the Adani Group has condemned the report as “baseless” and “malicious,” investor questions about its claims linger, and the fallout is growing. Gautam Adani is a 60-year-old tycoon who founded the Adani Group more than 30 years ago. The firm said it had taken a short position in Adani Group companies, meaning it would benefit from a drop in their value. Stocks of most Adani Group companies slumped again on Friday. Indian banks that hold Adani Group assets could also be affected if the value of those holdings continues to drop.

☆ Blackstone is predicting steady growth for its real-estate business, which could be bad news for its tenants
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Now imagine if your landlord wasn't just some mom-and-pop family that owned your building, but the world's largest private-equity firm. And while it's received a fair share of scrutiny over it, the performance of one of its real-estate funds has reignited criticism. But the Blackstone executives' comments indicated the firm could also be planning to raise rent and evict tenants, which includes those in affordable housing and student housing. Click here to read more about how Blackstone's real-estate strategy is setting the stage for an ugly battle with tenants. Top executives at Davos share their thoughts on how bad things might get in 2023.

☆ The story behind hing, one of India's most divisive ingredients
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Shalbha Sarda | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The resin from its roots is used in Indian cooking – usually after it’s ground into powder and mixed with flour. At the Khari Baoli market in old Delhi, for instance, hing even manages to ‘out-smell’ all the other spices. Despite the culinary diversity of India, hing is a constant.”Jains, for example, eschew onion, garlic and ginger in addition to not eating meat. The history of hingSome scholars credit Alexander the Great for first bringing hing to India. Nevertheless, Indians have had their encounter with hing now; it came, it saw, and it stayed.”The professor adds that hing was used in some Greco-Roman cooking but didn’t last long.

Persons: ‘ Asa ’, it’s, hing, Hing, Siddharth Talwar, Rhea Rosalind Ramji, Ramji, Talwar, Alexander the Great, ”, Ashish Chopra, “, umami, asafoetida Organizations: CNN, The, Showbiz Chefs, hing, National Library of Medicine Locations: Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, India, Delhi, Worcestershire

Failing to report crypto activity to the IRS could result in an audit. Report any crypto income on Form 1040Aside from your crypto capital gains and losses, you may have also received additional income from your crypto holdings. In these cases, you'll need to report the crypto as income rather than a capital gain or loss. What happens if I don't report crypto on my taxes? "But if you don't file anything and the IRS discovers this — and they're aware that you didn't report it — it's tax evasion," he says.

☆ Dairy Queen is one of Warren Buffett's most-famous businesses. CEO Troy Bader laid out the benefits of Berkshire Hathaway's ownership, and explained how he's navigating the pandemic, inflation, and ne
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway acquired Dairy Queen for nearly $600 million in 1998. Dairy Queen CEO Troy Bader told Insider that Berkshire's ownership lets him invest for the long run. Bader explained how Dairy Queen has dealt with the pandemic, inflation, and new customer demands. "What he feels is really what we see with so many of our customers, who have this different connection with Dairy Queen." Higher prices, less moneyInflation is dealing a one-two punch to Dairy Queen by raising its costs and squeezing its customers, Bader said.

☆ Glass act: Scientists reveal secrets of frog transparency
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Their delicate, greenish transparent forms don’t cast shadows, rendering them almost invisible to birds and other predators passing overhead or underneath. But when northern glass frogs wake up and hop around in search of insects and mates, they take on an opaque reddish-brown color. “When they’re transparent, it’s for their safety,” said Junjie Yao, a Duke University biomedical engineer and study co-author. A male glass frog photographed from below using a flash, showing its transparency. “Transparency is super rare in nature, and in land animals, it’s essentially unheard of outside of the glass frog,” White said.

Your personal credit card data could be used for customized credit card rewards. What if your credit card started offering you enhanced rewards in personalized spending categories based on your past purchases? The future of personalized credit card rewardsYou're likely no stranger to having your personal data re-targeted to you. Personalized content and products already exist, so it makes sense for credit card programs to move in that direction too. For example, charity donations are becoming a more popular way for Gen Zers to redeem credit card rewards, but not all credit cards offer that as an option.

☆ Bond-buying scars will open European can of worms
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Pierre Briancon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, Dec 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The euro zone will soon have to pay for a decade of European Central Bank largesse. The first is to use provisions accumulated by national central banks over the past decade. But the central banks had wide differences in their approach to provisioning, meaning some may be left weaker than others. A central bank cannot be declared bankrupt, but operating with little or negative equity could hurt its credibility. And even if central banks don’t penalise them, they face the added risk that governments may tax them instead.

☆ Japanese biotech firm uses tiny worms in test for pancreatic cancer
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Rocky Swift | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Kim Kyung-HoonTOKYO, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A Japanese biotech firm says it has developed the world's first early screening test for pancreatic cancer, using the powerful noses of tiny worms. Hirotsu Bio Science this month launched its N-NOSE plus Pancreas test, marketing directly to consumers in Japan and with aims to bring the test to the United States by 2023. In the latest version, the company tweaked the genetic code of the nematodes so that they would swim away from pancreatic cancer samples. Hirotsu Bio started with pancreatic cancer due to its difficulty in diagnosis and speed of progression. The pancreas test kit costs up to 70,000 yen ($505), comparatively expensive for a diagnostic test in Japan, which has a nationalised health care system and fixed prices for drugs and procedures.

☆ Shares of CrowdStrike fall after 'disappointing' earnings, Morgan Stanley says buy the dip
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

CrowdStrike shares fell more than 17% in premarket trading Wednesday, a day after the cybersecurity company reported third-quarter results that said new revenue growth was weaker than expected. More than $198 million was net new ARR added in the quarter, which ended Oct. 31. Last year, CrowdStrike's ARR increased by more than 67% in the third quarter, and the company added 1,607 net new subscription customers for that same period. Analysts at Morgan Stanley also said CrowdStrike's results were "disappointing," but they said estimates did not reflect the current macroeconomic environment. An analyst at Stifel said CrowdStrike's results were "disappointing" and downgraded the stock from buy to hold.

☆ A new children’s book about glaciers aims to make activism second nature
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Terry Ward | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN: What do you think might surprise young readers to learn about glaciers in the book? Sanchez: To keep it relevant to young readers, I keep bringing the focus back to the animals that depend on glaciers. CNN: What are some of the tools your book gives young readers to take action to save the glaciers? CNN: What’s the most important message you hope young readers will take away from your book? They really need to be active, and there are so many things they can do.

☆ 2023 Volvo S60 Recharge: The Tailpipe Wags the Dog
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Dan Neil | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

HYBRID BY DEGREES For 2023, the Volvo S60 is available with one of two engine packages: the B5, a lightly hybridized version of the company’s turbocharged 2.0 liter four-cylinder (247 hp); or the Recharge T8 plug-in hybrid, entraining a 143-hp rear electric motor paired with a heavily breathed-upon version of the turbo 2.0-liter (312 hp). Net system output is 455 hp and 523 lb-ft.RONALD REAGAN famously said, “If you’re explaining, you’re losing.” I feel like I’m about to do some epic losing. Our guest is the 2023 Volvo S60 Recharge T8 Black Edition, a plug-in hybrid electric version of the company’s compact premium sedan, which is fresh from a mid-lifecycle face-lift. See, I’m already in the weeds. It’s a can of worms.

☆ Ivermectin — a drug once touted as a Covid treatment by conservatives — doesn't improve recovery much, clinical trial finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Ivermectin, a drug once touted by conservatives as a treatment for Covid, does not meaningfully improve the recovery time for people with mild to moderate Covid-19, according a large clinical trial published in a peer-reviewed journal. Ivermectin has been approved to treat parasitic worms in humans, but it's primarily used as a dewormer for horses. "Among outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19, treatment with ivermectin, compared with placebo, did not significantly improve time to recovery," the team of scientists led by Duke University School of Medicine wrote. The latest trial looked at 817 people who took ivermectin tablets for three days and compared them to 774 who received a placebo. The participants who took ivermectin received a daily dose based on their weight.

☆ Gummy Vitamins Are Surging in Popularity. Are They Healthy or Just Candy?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Alex Janin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Are you stressed out? There’s a gummy for that—and for just about any ailment you can think of. Sweet gummy worms blended with vitamin D and saffron purport to “deliver a delightful dose of cheer.” Marketing for strawberry-flavored spheres with B12 and a supplement called citicoline says the gummy “powers your focus.”

☆ Plastic pollution may have met its match: The saliva of wax worms
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-05 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Two substances in the saliva of wax worms — moth larvae that eat wax made by bees to build honeycombs — readily break down a common type of plastic, researchers said on Tuesday, in a potential advance in the global fight against plastic pollution. For plastic to degrade, oxygen must penetrate the polymer — or plastic molecule — in an important initial step called oxidation. Wax worms are the larvae of wax moths, a species called Galleria mellonella. The idea would be to produce the worms’ saliva enzymes synthetically, which the researchers succeeded in doing, to break down plastic waste. Bertocchini said the use of billions of wax worms to do the job has drawbacks including generating carbon dioxide as they metabolize the polyethylene.

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