Music Video: He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You)

Tony Orlando and Dawn

Watch video at You Tube (3:39 minutes) . . . .

Charts: Global Housing Affordability

Source : Demographia

China to Reach 2030 Solar and Wind Energy Target Five Years Ahead of Schedule

China’s solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity reached 609.5 GW in 2023, while its onshore and offshore wind capacity stood at 408.1 GW and 37.7 GW, respectively. The country is on track to surpass its 2030 target by a significant margin, achieving this milestone five years ahead of schedule in 2025. By that year, it is anticipated that the cumulative capacity of solar PV, onshore wind, and offshore wind will reach 1,104.6 GW, 560.8 GW, and 54.7 GW, respectively. This will result in a total of 1,720 GW of solar PV and wind capacity, thereby exceeding the initial 1,200 GW target set for 2030, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s latest report, “China Power Market Size, Trends, Regulations, Competitive Landscape and Forecast, 2024-2035” reveals that solar PV power is expected to maintain its status as the dominant source of renewable power until 2035. Financial incentives and policy support are among the primary drivers that facilitate the achievement of targets ahead of schedule.

Sudeshna Sarmah, Power Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Despite considerable advancements in renewable capacity development, China continues to depend heavily on thermal power. The nation’s substantial reliance on coal-based power generation presents two primary challenges. First, pollution from coal-based generation has contributed to making China’s cities some of the most polluted globally. Second, domestic coal production is declining, even as the demand for power increases. A significant demand-supply shortfall may emerge if China cannot maintain coal imports from Indonesia, potentially compromising energy security.”

The government is endeavoring to address this challenge by concentrating on renewable energy generation. Nevertheless, the principal obstacle is the insufficient grid infrastructure; numerous renewable energy projects have been deferred due to inadequate offtake capacity. The development of new transmission lines and a comprehensive smart grid network, capable of reconciling the variable nature of renewable energy supply with consumer demand, is crucial. However, this necessitates significant investment.

Sarmah adds: “In 2023, solar PV power constituted 20.9% of the total installed capacity mix, while onshore and offshore wind accounted for 14% and 1.3%, respectively. By 2030, it is projected that solar PV will represent 41.8% of the country’s total power capacity mix. Additionally, onshore and offshore wind are anticipated to hold shares of 16.8% and 2.1%, respectively.”

Sarmah concludes: “China’s power sector encountered a significant shortfall in 2012, which compelled the government to embark on a process to augment capacity. Consequently, this initiative has led to a situation where capacity expansion has surpassed consumption, raising the possibility of an oversupply and underutilized plant capacity.

“Transitioning to a decentralized approach may supplant the existing centralized planning process, fostering more nimble decision-making. It is imperative that the government give precedence to the development of grid infrastructure and the advancement of energy storage systems, with the objective of gradually diminishing its dependence on thermal power.”

Source : GlobalData

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In Pictures: Storm Pilot Photographer Captures Breathtaking Images From 40,000 Feet

Source : The Epoch Times

Some People Are Strangely Resistant to Alzheimer’s. Here’s What Makes Them Different.

DAVID NIELD wrote . . . . . . . . .

Some people have the changes consistent with Alzheimer’s without presenting any symptoms, almost as if their brains are more resistant to the condition. A new study has explored how this perplexing phenomenon might point the way to treatments.

A team of researchers led by scientists from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience looked at brain tissue samples stored at the Netherlands Brain Bank, a repository of donated brains from more than 5,000 people who died with a brain disease.

Among those thousands of samples, the team found just 12 who had been cognitively healthy prior to their death yet had clear neurological signs of the disease’s underlying pathology.

Beyond demonstrating just how rare it is for brains to avoid the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s, the small sample gave the team an opportunity to learn what might make such brains so resilient.

“What is happening in these people at a molecular and cellular level wasn’t clear,” says Luuk de Vries, a neuroscientist from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience. “We therefore searched for donors with brain tissue abnormalities who did not show cognitive decline in the Brain Bank.”

This kind of resilience has been noted before, and it’s thought that both the genetics we’re born with and the lifestyle choices we make might have some effect. These different factors are tied to the development of Alzheimer’s in general as well.

By analyzing the unique combinations of hundreds of genes being expressed within cognitively healthy Alzheimer’s brains, brains of more typical Alzheimer’s patients, and otherwise healthy controls without the disease, researchers found key differences in the resilient brains related to the astrocyte cells that are involved with the clearing of waste out of the brain.

What’s more, the resilient brains seemed to be better at removing toxic proteins associated with the development of Alzheimer’s. It seems these brains are somehow better at stopping neurological garbage from building up.

Another difference was more efficient energy production in the cells in resilient brains. It’s not clear yet what’s behind these differences or how they link in to Alzheimer’s disease, but identifying what the differences are is an important first step.

“If we can find the molecular basis for resilience, then we have new starting points for the development of medication, which could activate processes related to resilience in Alzheimer’s patients,” says de Vries.

Alzheimer’s now affects some 47 million people worldwide, and those numbers are rising rapidly. We’re still not sure what combination of factors are required for the degeneration to progress, how to prevent the disease from arising, or how its damage could be reversed – but every study like this one gets us closer to some answers.

The next step with this particular research is to try and figure out why there are these differences in the production processes of resilient brains. From there, it might be possible to develop drugs that help make brains better able to protect themselves.

“It remains difficult to determine from human data which process initiates the disease process,” says de Vries. “You can only demonstrate this by changing something in cells or animal models and seeing what happens next. That is the first thing we have to do now.”

The research has been published in Acta Neuropathologica Communications.

Source : Science Alert

Humour: News in Cartoon

Mapped: The World’s Oldest and Youngest Countries, by Median Age

Source : Visual Capitalist

A Good Knife Is Not Only About the Steel

CASSANDRA LORD wrote . . . . . . . . .

A hammering reverberates through the green fields of Ibaraki Prefecture’s countryside. Inside the spartan workshop at Isamitsu Knives, a blade, glowing red from heat, is being pounded into shape.

The manufacturer, located in Sakuragawa, may be small but it has attracted customers far and wide for its craftsmanship, a reputation earned from its use of high-quality steels known as Aogami Super and Shirogami.

The team at Isamitsu consists of just three smiths: Naoko Abe, Gaku Kanatsu and Isamitsu Abe. After spending 15 years working at a traditional knife workshop in the prefecture, Abe, 45, found himself wanting to start his own company, driven by a desire for autonomy and the freedom to improve upon old techniques.

“I started to notice things that were lacking in the process here and there, and I wanted to do things my own way,” Isamitsu says.

Since 2022, Isamitsu’s knife-making process differs from industrial manufacturers in small but significant ways. For example, when steel drops to a certain temperature after being heated, most smiths no longer hammer it due to risk of breakage. Some workshops might choose to hammer the steel as fast as possible when the temperature is high, but at Isamitsu, they do it differently.

“Instead, we move between the furnace and the hammer over and over again using a low heat,” Abe says. “By doing so, the steel’s structure becomes denser and tougher. We specifically choose to use the best steels, so we want to use them to their full potential.”

While Abe notes that it’s quite common elsewhere for knife makers to specialize in discrete parts of the process, the small team at Isamitsu necessitates that everyone has a hand in each step.

“When everyone has their own station, it’s hard to know how it will affect the next step,” he says. “This way, we’re thinking about the next step while working on the current one, making it easier to improve the final quality.”

Rather than making each knife one by one, the team makes their knives in batches. Key to this is coke, a special type of slow-burning coal the team uses to forge the knives. Coke takes a long time to cool down — in some cases, coke can burn 45% to 90% longer than normal coal — and forging in batches makes the most of that slow burn, which would otherwise be wasted in making a single blade.

Batch orders can take six months to a year to fulfill, but by intentionally overproducing, remaining knives can go onto the market for the general public. This allows Isamitsu to sell its wares online and via local pop-up stalls.

Still, part of the reason for this deliberate overproduction is an attempt to mitigate one of the drawbacks of working with high-quality Aogami Super and Shirogami metals: They are highly sensitive.

“The metals are hard to use,” Abe says. “If you get the temperature just a tiny bit wrong, they start to crack. When working with fire, the most difficult and most important part is temperature control.”

This is evidenced in the multiple lengths the smiths go to to maintain that careful control. In addition to coke for forging (compressing metal into a desired shape), pine charcoal and mizuyaki (water quenching) are used for quick heating and cooling during tempering (a process that makes steel harder and more elastic).

The many hours of manpower are exactly what you pay for when you buy an Isamitsu knife, and they don’t come cheap. According to its online shop, Isamitsu’s cheapest knife is a 90-millimeter Shirogami paring knife priced at ¥17,600 (about $112), while the most expensive blade is a 330-millimeter Aogami Super gyūtō (butcher’s knife) at ¥189,200 (about $1,203).

“When I bought my knife, I wasn’t used to the length,” says Taeko Dada, owner-chef of Dada Shokudo in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture. “Once I started using it, I realized that the length was effective especially when cutting large pieces of meat. It felt easy to use and cut without a concerted effort.”

The low yen also makes the knives more effective from purchasers overseas, with chefs singing Isamitsu’s praises from as far away as Southeast Asia and Europe.

Nicolas Tam, head chef at Singapore’s one-Michelin-starred Willow, uses a variety of knives at his restaurant but turns to his Isamitsu-made sujihiki (literally, “flesh slicer”) for cutting meat, and as a showpiece when preparing ingredients in front of guests at the counter.

“(My knife) has an amazing heat treat — which allows (it) to hold its edge for a long time — as well as a good grind and a striking and unique appearance,” Tam says. “To be honest, there aren’t any cons I can think of. I use it daily and don’t have any complaints.”

Dutch knife shop owner Elwin de Veld echoed Tam’s praise of an Isamitsu edge.

“A good knife is not only about the steel,” says the owner of Rangelrooij, a specialty Japanese knife store located in The Hague. “Many factors will influence the quality. Abe-san knows these factors by heart: thin, razor-sharp edges and a very good geometry.”

The thought and creativity that goes into Isamitsu’s work is another element customers cite in their appraisals. Canadian knife collector Franco Alo, who goes by the moniker “Kitchen Knife Guy” on YouTube, lauds Isamitsu’s modern approach to the craft.

“They are attentive to the needs of the community,” Alo says. “I don’t doubt if you asked me years from now that there would be changes, because they aren’t stuck in the ways of the past.”

Alo points out, however, that the high price point means Isamitsu knives likely “aren’t for everyone.”

“Their knives, given how sharp they are, how thin they are, are for a more experienced kitchen knife user,” he says. “That doesn’t mean you need to be a professional chef, but you need to have proper cutting technique, use the proper cutting surface and know how to maintain your knife well to appreciate an Isamitsu. Fail at any one of those three and you’ll likely chip your knife.”

While word may have already spread overseas about the knives themselves, Abe hopes to inspire others to follow in his footsteps and take up the craft of making knives themselves.

“These days, it’s difficult to find a place where you can learn (knife-making techniques),” he says. “So eventually I want to create a kind of video manual for setting everything up and doing it yourself.”

Source : The Japan Times

Charts: Quality of Life Index by Countries 2024

Source : NUMBEO

Could a Blood Test Predict Parkinson’s Years Before Symptoms?

Dennis Thompson wrote . . . . . . . . .

A new blood test might be able to predict Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before symptoms of the movement disorder surface, researchers said.

The test correctly predicted a high risk of Parkinson’s in 16 patients who went on to develop the disease, results show.

If validated, the test could help provide early treatment that might blunt or even block the onset of Parkinson’s, researchers said.

“As new therapies become available to treat Parkinson’s, we need to diagnose patients before they have developed the symptoms,” said senior researcher Kevin Mills, a professor with University College London.

Parkinson’s is caused by the death of nerve cells in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra, which controls movement.

These nerve cells produce an important hormone called dopamine. As a person’s dopamine levels decline, they develop symptoms like tremors, slowness of movement and gait and memory problems, researchers said.

Currently, people with Parkinson’s are treated with dopamine replacement therapy once they’ve developed symptoms.

It’s believed that early prediction of Parkinson’s could be valuable in finding treatments that would slow or stop the disease by protecting dopamine-producing brain cells, researchers said.

“We cannot regrow our brain cells and therefore we need to protect those that we have,” Mills said in a university news release. “At present, we are shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted and we need to start experimental treatments before patients develop symptoms.”

For the study, researchers trained an AI program to recognize Parkinson’s using eight blood-based biomarkers.

The AI could diagnose Parkinson’s with 100% accuracy, researchers found, They then tested the program’s ability to predict whether a person would go on to develop Parkinson’s later in their lives.

Researchers had the AI analyze blood from 72 patients with Rapid Eye Movement Behavior Disorder. The disorder causes people to physically act out their dreams without knowing about it or remembering it.

About 75% to 80% of people with this disorder will go on to develop either Parkinson’s or a brain disorder similar to it, researchers said.

The AI found that 79% of the patients had the same blood profile as someone with Parkinson’s, results show.

Over 10 years’ follow-up, 16 of the people predicted for Parkinson’s went on to develop the disorder, researchers said.

The new study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

The team is continuing to follow the rest of the group, to see how many others wind up with Parkinson’s.

“By determining eight proteins in the blood, we can identify potential Parkinson’s patients several years in advance. This means that drug therapies could potentially be given at an earlier stage, which could possibly slow down disease progression or even prevent it from occurring,” said lead researcher Dr. Michael Bartl, a neurologist with University Medical Center Goettingen in Germany.

“We have not only developed a test, but can diagnose the disease based on markers that are directly linked to processes such as inflammation and degradation of non-functional proteins,” Bartl added. “So these markers represent possible targets for new drug treatments.”

Source: HealthDay