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Category: Analysis

  • MIL-OSI Global: Anxious over AI? One way to cope is by building your uniquely human skills

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Nitin Deckha, Lecturer in Justice Studies, Early Childhood Studies, Community and Social Services and Electives, University of Guelph-Humber

    The concern over the loss and transformation of work by generative AI is well-founded and widely documented. (Shutterstock)

    We live in a time of growing anxiety and fear, where the disruptive forces of artificial intelligence (AI), automation, Big Data, virtual reality and augmented reality loom ominously over people’s lives.

    In a recent Scientific American article, psychologist Mary Alvord described how these anxieties are manifesting in her clients. Their concerns ranged from the increase in students cheating with generative AI to the erosion of online data privacy, to more existential fears of job loss and even the “possibility of overall human obsolescence.”

    These aren’t abstract concerns. Beyond the psychologist’s chair, the concern over the loss and transformation of work by generative AI is well-founded and widely documented by academic research studies and reports. As AI becomes more capable and embedded in daily routines, anxieties surrounding it are likely to intensify.

    The future of work

    The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2025 Future of Jobs Report found that 85.7 per cent of employers surveyed see AI, information processing, Big Data, virtual reality and augmented reality as the biggest technological driver of business transformation. Robots and automation follow at 57.8 per cent.

    While the report notes that long-term productivity gains from these technologies remain uncertain, it found that certain jobs are being impacted more than others. Roles where generative AI can mimic human capacities — like data entry, administration, legal and executive secretaries, claim adjusters and examiners, and graphic designers — are declining the fastest.

    These findings are corroborated by a recent joint report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Poland’s National Research Institute. It found that 25 per cent of jobs are at risk of being changed by generative AI, a number that jumps to 34 per cent in higher-income countries.

    Roles where generative AI can mimic human capacities, like administration, are most at risk of job loss.
    (Shutterstock)

    The report also noted a gendered impact: in high-income countries, 9.6 per cent of jobs held by women are at high risk of automation, compared to just 3.5 per cent of jobs held by men.

    The impact on clerical jobs noted by the WEF is supported by ILO’s data as well. Joining these roles are what the ILO describes as “highly digitized cognitive jobs in media, software, and finance-related” fields.

    The significant exposure of jobs such as securities and finance dealers and brokers, software developers, financial advisers, authors and writers, translators, interpreters and journalists underscores the encroachment of generative AI onto all sorts of “thinking” and creative work.

    It is no wonder psychologists like Alvord suggest some humans are questioning what role they will have in the future world of work.

    Work in a time of disruption

    The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on work — including the “great resignation” which saw record numbers of employees quitting their jobs — encouraged workers to reflect on their relationship to work.

    Although workplace trends like remote work, flexible hours and employees re-evaluating their job expectations were already underway before the pandemic, COVID-19 accelerated these shifts.

    According to futurists at Policy Horizons Canada, there are a number of “game changers” transforming the future of work. Disruptive technologies like generative AI and automation are just one driver.



    Read more:
    Generative AI can boost innovation – but only when humans are in control

    Another major force is the fraying of the social contract between employers and employees. This shift speaks to larger currents of anxiety, fear and employee disengagement and low morale. Put simply, employers and employees are no longer investing in each other as much as before.

    With the erosion of benefits, the rise of the gig economy and the increasing cost of living, employees were already feeling vulnerable and anxious about their work before the launch of ChatGPT in 2023.

    How can we cope with AI anxiety?

    As with any form of anxiety, it’s important to acknowledge your feelings and take steps to avoid becoming overwhelmed.

    Psychologists suggest several specific strategies for managing anxiety about generative AI. These include: trying out AI tools to figure out how and where they can be useful; taking breaks from technology to restore and revitalize; building new skills; and pursuing activities that activate human creativity and imagination.

    I would like to expand on the third strategy — building new skills. In a recent research study, my colleagues and I investigated the skills that are required to succeed in the future of work. We reviewed six research studies from around the world and created a skills inventory of future of work skills.

    One of the most effective responses to anxiety about AI is focusing on developing our own human capacities.
    (Shutterstock)

    We identified 10 skills that were most frequently identified as key for the future of work: collaboration, communication, creativity and innovation, critical thinking, cross-cultural competency, decision-making and judgment, learning/willingness to learn, problem-solving and social intelligence/perceptiveness.

    For those concerned about remaining employable in the face of AI disruption, focusing on these skills is a practical starting point, as they are likely to remain in demand as workplaces evolve.

    Importantly, all these skills are “human” skills, meaning not digital or technological. In this context, perhaps one of the most effective responses to anxiety about AI is focusing on developing our own human capacities.

    Rethinking our relationship with AI and work

    Researchers argue that the disruptive potential of AI in the workplace involves one of three channels: replacing aspects of human work; complementing or augmenting human workers and their skills; and creating new tasks for workers.

    Of these, the second — complementing or augmenting human work — might be the best path forward. Rather than viewing generative AI solely as a threat, it can be seen as a tool that enhances human abilities.

    Exploring how our own cognitive and creative capacities could be augmented through “collaborative intelligence” with generative AI, might be a useful antidote to being anxious about it.

    Such collaboration may also catalyze our re-imagining of our relationship to work and enhance our sense of purpose in a rapidly changing world.

    Nitin Deckha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Anxious over AI? One way to cope is by building your uniquely human skills – https://theconversation.com/anxious-over-ai-one-way-to-cope-is-by-building-your-uniquely-human-skills-256213

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The Phoenician Scheme: a fun watch even though it’s the same journey in a different vehicle

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Daniel O’Brien, Lecturer, Department of Literature Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex

    As someone attuned to the distinct styles of auteur filmmakers, I came to Wes Anderson’s latest offering The Phoenician Scheme intrigued, feeling a mix of distance and familiarity.

    My appreciation for other auteur directors like Stanley Kubrick, Spike Lee and Alfred Hitchcock may have sometimes inadvertently pushed Anderson’s work to the periphery of my viewing habits, but The Phoenician Scheme (his 13th directorial film) provides an opportunity to reassess that omission.

    The cinematic trademarks were all there: deadpan performances, meticulous symmetry, whip-pan camera work (when the camera whips round so fast, everything blurs), ice-cream colour palettes and trains, frequently present in some form throughout Anderson’s
    filmography.

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    And a Bill Murray cameo? Of course – along with other minor roles from Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, Richard Ayoade, Riz Ahmed and Benedict Cumberbatch (as well as many others), all appearing briefly across the film’s brisk 90-minute runtime – a fairly typical length for an Anderson feature.

    Although I found The Phoenician Scheme a fairly enjoyable film and one that ardent fans will surely embrace, my issue was perhaps precisely within the formulaic nature of this work. This sense of familiarity makes the viewing simultaneously comfortable, but also a little predictable.

    Aside from a genuinely unexpected explosion in the film’s opening moments, there was little that caught me off guard, making it difficult to gauge just how memorable The Phoenician Scheme will be in the long run. It entertains but rarely surprises and despite the litany of cameos, each one is fairly unmemorable. In fact, while writing this, I’ve only just remembered that Willem Dafoe is in a scene or two as well.

    It’s not that anyone is necessarily giving a bad performance but rather each iteration of wry whimsy results in a kind of stylistic uniformity that renders them indistinct from one another. By contrast, the film’s three leading roles benefit from sustained screen time, allowing for a little more nuance.

    Benicio del Toro leads the cast as Zsa-Zsa Korda, a rich and morally ambiguous industrialist, set within the fictional Middle Eastern nation of Phoenicia during the 1950s. Korda is on the point of political and personal ruin. His life is constantly in danger with ongoing visual and verbal gags from the beginning about his nonchalance towards assassination.

    Korda faces execution threats from shadowy agencies and members of his own board to the extent that his suspiciousness has become a comfortable characteristic. Newcomer Mia Threapleton (daughter of Kate Winslet) stars as Liesl Korda, his estranged daughter who has spent years in quiet devotion as a nun in a remote convent.

    Her sudden appointment as her father’s heir thrusts her back into a world she had long abandoned, continuing Anderson’s other fascination with fractured, complex familial dynamics, as the rest of her siblings look on. Michael Cera portrays Bjorn Lund, a docile yet quietly astute tutor with a fascination for insects, who is brought in to help Liesl adjust to her new responsibilities.

    Without revealing too much, Lund turns out to be more than he initially seems, giving Cera the chance to slip back into that awkward, mock-cool persona –reminiscent of his Twin Peaks: The Return role, in which he channels a Marlon Brando–style rebel straight out of The Wild One.

    In typical Anderson style, visual gags (here in the form of props) propel the film along, from Lund’s bugs to Liesl’s jewel-encrusted rosary and Korda’s weapons, which include grenades that he politely offers to other diplomats as a formal greeting.

    The visually rich and symmetrical arrangement of characters, against a static or sideways moving camera reminded me of how much Anderson is inspired by Peter Greenaway’s work, particularly The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989).

    Anderson draws on this auteur aesthetically and thematically but also through absurdity. While Greenaway’s films take inspiration from canvas painting, the closing credit sequence of The Phoenician Scheme also features well known artworks, serving as inspiration for the content.

    The visuals, which are rich throughout, are also interestingly compacted to a 1.50 aspect ratio, making the frame of the screen quite box like. This is perhaps also relevant to the structure of the film in which most of the events and visitations of external characters are pre-organised into a range of numbered shoeboxes, which is afforded a lengthy sequence, with plenty of overview shots of the boxes neatly arranged.

    Each section of the film that follows pertains to a certain box. Viewers are reminded as to which box they are in through a range of title cards which divides the film into a series of vignettes, not unlike Anderson’s chapter structure in The Royal Tenenbaums.

    This earlier film is perhaps his better-known one about the estrangement and reconnection of dysfunctional family members. This trait can also be found in The Darjeeling Limited aboard a train, or in a submarine in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. The Phoenician Scheme echoes these familiar tropes (domestic dysfunction wrapped in whimsical packaging) aboard a number of private plane journeys (with a token train scene in the middle).

    While it may feel like a familiar journey aboard a new vessel, that familiarity will probably be either the reason you enjoy the ride – or the very thing that makes it feel like an exhausting commute, one where you’re tempted to pull the emergency cord.

    While there is much to enjoy, I doubt The Phoenician Scheme will be remembered as one of Anderson’s most essential works. At times, it teeters on the edge of parodying its own auteur style. Despite this I found it compelling enough to spark a renewed interest in his earlier films.

    And any work that can reignite curiosity, even while treading familiar ground, is worth your time, even if it’s only for a chance to play cameo bingo.

    Daniel O’Brien does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. The Phoenician Scheme: a fun watch even though it’s the same journey in a different vehicle – https://theconversation.com/the-phoenician-scheme-a-fun-watch-even-though-its-the-same-journey-in-a-different-vehicle-257658

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Have sanctions against Russia backfired? What apartheid-era South Africa tells us about who may be profiting

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By John Luiz, Professor of International Management and Strategy, University of Sussex

    There are no longer any golden arches logos in Russia, but is the firm hoping for a return? forden/Shutterstock

    Even as the war in Ukraine grinds on, some multinational companies are quietly positioning themselves for a thaw in relations with Russia.

    Many of those who rushed to divest from the country, selling off assets after the full-scale invasion in 2022, may now be reassessing their options. It’s also becoming clear that some of these companies never completely left to begin with.

    What is apparent is that divestment was, in many cases, provisional rather than permanent – with firms embedding “buy-back” clauses in their sales contracts, or structuring their exits in ways that would make future re-entry simple.

    This should not come as a surprise. Our research into foreign divestment from apartheid-era South Africa shows this is a well-trodden business path.

    In South Africa, sanctions inadvertently strengthened local white business elites aligned with the ruling regime. Multinationals sold their assets under pressure – often at discounts, often to the local companies of politically connected elites – and later bought them back at a premium.

    Today, the same dynamic could be playing out in Russia.

    When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, more than 1,600 multinational enterprises announced they were pulling out of the country. However, reports last year suggested that 2,175 foreign companies, including some who had announced they were pulling out, remained in Russia – and were becoming increasingly open about their operations.

    One CEO stated that investors did not “morally care” about doing business in Russia, and that if they pulled out, rivals would simply take their place.

    Even for those companies that did leave, many of these exits were more symbolic than substantial. Research has shown that even companies that claimed to have fully divested left behind options to return.

    Carmaker Nissan, for example, appears to have sold its Russian subsidiary to state-owned NAMI in 2022 with a six-year buy-back clause. In a statement at the time, the company said the terms allowed it “the option to buy back the entity and its operations within the next six years”.

    And fast-food giant McDonald’s can reportedly reacquire its Russian business within 15 years. A statement from McDonald’s in 2022 said that, for the first time in its history, it was “de-Arching” a major market – but suggested it hoped to return eventually.

    Such arrangements, often quietly written into exit contracts, allow multinationals to comply with sanctions in the short term – while keeping the door open for a future comeback.

    In many cases, the operations have continued seamlessly under new ownership. While the brand names may have changed in Russia, the staff and product designs remain almost identical. And sometimes, the foreign supply chains and intellectual property are still in play too.

    Who profits?

    The South African precedent is instructive. During the 1980s, foreign companies divested under pressure from shareholders, activists and governments over apartheid. But very few truly left. Most sold their operations to local elites – powerful business groups aligned with the ruling regime. They then continued to supply products, license trademarks and support operations through quiet back channels.

    The intention of sanctions is to weaken the sanctioned state. However, our study shows that the economic value created by foreign multinationals in South Africa did not disappear.

    The aim of sanctions against Russia is to weaken the economic position of the Kremlin.
    E.O./Shutterstock

    In Russia, foreign companies have sold assets at big discounts to Russian oligarchs and state-linked entities since 2022. In some cases, the buyers were longstanding local partners or franchisees. In others, they were entities unknown to consumers but which were thought to have close ties to the Kremlin.

    The consequences are predictable. Rather than weakening the regime’s economic base, sanctions may have consolidated it. As in South Africa, the departure of foreign firms appears to have strengthened domestic elites and allowed them to accumulate new assets and market power.

    Some companies that left Russia are reported to be reconsidering their decisions. Negotiations are taking place behind the scenes about how to ree-stablish operations should conditions shift. Their re-entry may be smoothed by structures – buy-back clauses, licensing deals or local partnerships – that firms put in place on their way out.

    This strategy mirrors what we found in South Africa. In the 1990s, once apartheid ended, foreign multinationals returned in large numbers. But they didn’t start from scratch. They repurchased their former assets, often at a much higher price, from the local elites.

    In short, in the case of South Africa at least, the period of supposed withdrawal was often one of careful preparation for re-entry. Meanwhile, our study also found that South African conglomerates used their windfalls to fund international expansion and entrench their power in the new economy.

    Unintended results

    Sanctions remain a key tool of international diplomacy. But our research shows their effectiveness depends heavily on how firms implement them – and who ends up with the assets that are divested. If those assets are consistently transferred to politically connected insiders, the long-term outcome may be to reinforce the very regimes the sanctions were intended to pressure.

    Sanctions policy should not just consider whether firms have divested, but how and to whom. Without that, even the most well-intentioned measures may end up producing unintended results.

    This means that governments should go beyond imposing sanctions and develop mechanisms to ensure transparency, monitoring and accountability in how corporate exits are structured.

    South African sanctions are generally seen as having played a useful role in ending apartheid. But as unemployment and inequality continue to plague the country along old institutional lines, the South African experience offers a clear historical warning. If sanctions are meant to promote accountability and change, it’s vital to pay close attention to what happens after the headlines fade.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Have sanctions against Russia backfired? What apartheid-era South Africa tells us about who may be profiting – https://theconversation.com/have-sanctions-against-russia-backfired-what-apartheid-era-south-africa-tells-us-about-who-may-be-profiting-257422

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: From soil to slugs to songbirds – how plastic is moving through ecosystems

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Emily Thrift, PhD Candidate and Doctoral Tutor in Ecology, University of Sussex

    Philippe Clement / shutterstock

    For many people, “plastic pollution” calls to mind pictures of turtles and other marine life drowning in single-use plastic bottles and discarded fishing nets. My own research looks at how the same story is playing out on land.

    Plastics are increasingly found in small mammals, insects and the soil. But how it moves through these ecosystems – and the damage it might be doing – is still poorly understood.

    My own research into this started during my masters degree. I wanted to find out if plastic pollution was affecting UK mammals – and the results were startling.

    Colleagues and I first looked at the faeces of a range of small UK mammals. We then used a special machine that detects infrared light to identify different types of plastic.

    We found plastics in the faeces of European hedgehogs, wood mice, field vole, and brown rats. Of the 189 hedgehog samples, 19% contained plastics. In one sample alone I was shocked to find a total of 12 pink and clear fibres of polyester. This is the UK’s most popular wild mammal, and no one knew they were ingesting plastic.

    Where the microplastics came from

    As part of my ongoing PhD, the next step was figuring out how this plastic was getting into the hedgehogs in the first place. Hedgehogs feed on invertebrates like beetles, snails, slugs, earthworms, caterpillars and woodlice. We wanted to see if those creatures could themselves be contaminated by plastic.

    We collected over 2,000 invertebrates and soil samples from 51 sites in Sussex, England. The sites covered farmland, grassland and suburban areas.

    To trace how plastic might move through the food web, we sampled creatures at various different points in the food web (known as “trophic levels”). This meant plant-eaters, like peacock butterfly caterpillars, and earthworms and other animals that feed on dead plants. We sampled omnivores who will eat all sorts, like the red-footed soldier beetle, and carnivores like ladybirds and ground beetles, who eat other animals and are found higher up the food web.

    After we had grouped the invertebrates by both species and location, we had 530 samples to analyse. We recently published our results in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

    Overall, plastic showed up in 12% of the invertebrate samples. Earthworms had the highest rate at 29%, followed by snails & slugs at 24%. Interestingly, the types of plastic found in carnivores didn’t match those in herbivores and dead plant-eaters. That suggests the carnivores are not just getting it from eating contaminated prey – they might also be picking up plastic as they move through the soil or even from airborne particles that land on their next meal.

    Earthworms are particularly plastic pollution-prone.
    VaskePro / shutterstock

    We also found the first evidence of plastic in species of caterpillar like the peacock, powder blue and red admiral butterflies, and in beetles such as ladybirds.

    The most common plastic we found was polyester, probably from clothing and furniture. Other common plastics were those used in single-use packaging, agricultural materials (such as fleece, mulch film, greenhouse films and silage wrap), and even paint.

    So, does it matter if a few slugs or worms are ingesting plastic? Absolutely.

    Invertebrates play important roles within their ecosystems. Earthworms, for example, add air to the soil and help cycle nutrients. Therefore, when they consume plastic, it affects the animals that prey on them, the soil they live in, and even the food we grow.

    In fact, plants grown in plastic-contaminated soil have been shown to take microplastics into their cells. This can stunt their growth and limit the water they can retain, and ultimately reduce our ability to grow the food we need.

    Insect-eating birds like swifts,thrushes and blackbirds are also ingesting similar plastic, likely from their prey. This can stunt their growth, damage organs, and make them less fertile.

    It is too easy to place the responsibility solely on individuals to avoid single-use packaging, recycle more, and avoid synthetic materials. These things make a difference, of course, but big polluters must be held accountable. That means fast fashion companies, drinks giants, supermarket chains and the agriculture sector, which all produce a huge amount of plastic waste and have failed to take responsibility for the damage this causes.

    If we want to protect ecosystems from plastic – on land as well as at sea – we need more than personal action. We need serious accountability, better waste management, and real investment in truly sustainable alternatives.

    Emily Thrift does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. From soil to slugs to songbirds – how plastic is moving through ecosystems – https://theconversation.com/from-soil-to-slugs-to-songbirds-how-plastic-is-moving-through-ecosystems-257685

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why Islamic State is expanding its operations in north-eastern Nigeria

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Folahanmi Aina, Lecturer in Political Economy of Violence, Conflict and Development, SOAS, University of London

    Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap), one of the most powerful global affiliates of the Islamic State jihadist organisation, is in the middle of its largest offensive against the Nigerian military in years.

    The group has overrun security positions in Borno state, a region of north-east Nigeria, a dozen times in the past few months. Borno state has been the epicentre of a conflict between the Nigerian army and jihadist insurgents for 15 years. The UN Development Programme said in 2021 that the violence had killed more than 35,000 people there directly.

    The latest offensive began in March with a string of attacks. This included an improvised explosive device planted underneath a commercial vehicle in Biu, a town in southern Borno state, which killed four people and injured four others.

    Iswap then launched several more attacks the following month, including an operation on a Nigerian army barracks in Yamtage town. It claimed to have killed three soldiers. The group sustained its campaign into May, with the launch of one of its most sophisticated attacks in recent memory.

    On May 12, suspected Iswap militants stormed the town of Marte, capturing several soldiers and forcing others to retreat. A coordinated dual strike on nearby Rann and Dikwa towns followed hours later. The insurgents now have a strong presence in Marte, which holds immense strategic value due to its access to Lake Chad smuggling corridors.

    Iswap, which was originally formed in 2015 as an offshoot of Boko Haram and has around 5,000 fighters, appears to be adapting to the Nigerian army’s military strategy. Since 2019, the Nigerian army has consolidated its forces in a heavily fortified “super camp” in key towns and cities in the north-east, from which they can respond to reported insurgent activity.

    However, Iswap militants have launched several attacks on some of these camps by using tactics such as nighttime raids. They have also targeted bridges and roads between the camps, as well as launching attacks on nearby positions as a diversion, to prevent reinforcements from reaching targeted bases.

    Iswap has been carrying out a sustained offensive against the Nigerian army since March.
    Institute for the Study of War

    There are several factors that could explain Iswap’s resurgence. The first is that there have been strategic shifts on the ground, including a lull in fighting between Iswap and rival faction Boko Haram over territorial control.

    Niger also withdrew its troops from the region’s counter-terrorism joint task force in March. The security vacuum created by this withdrawal may have further emboldened Iswap to carry out its offensive.

    Nigeria and Niger share a long border, so the reduction in military patrols could have led to an increase in the number of weapons and militants supplied to Iswap from its regional network.

    The second factor is that the authorities have relied too heavily on responding militarily to the threat posed by Boko Haram and Iswap. The joint task force has launched several major offensives against the two groups in recent years, helping to contain the insurgency. This has led to the return of refugees to some parts of the Lake Chad basin.

    But the reliance on military offensives has only prolonged the conflict, allowing the terrorist groups to evolve. Iswap, for instance, is now using sophisticated weaponry including armed drones to stage attacks.

    A recent assault on a military base in Wajikoro in north-eastern Borno state began with the use of four drones armed with grenades. The group had previously used drones almost entirely to conduct surveillance and gather intelligence.

    Dismantling and ultimately defeating terrorist groups such as Iswap in the region will require addressing the root causes and drivers of insecurity. These include poverty, inequality, unemployment, poor governance and weak institutions. Poverty rates in north-eastern Nigeria are estimated at over 70%, almost double the rate in the rest of the country.

    The third factor that could explain Iswap’s resurgence is that it has been using technology effectively to expand its appeal, particularly among young people, and drive recruitment.

    It has intensified its presence on social media, using TikTok to post videos justifying killings, lecture young audiences about extremist ideologies and spreading jihadist propaganda. It is also deploying AI tools to edit videos and written communications.

    At the same time, it is making use of new satellite-based internet services such as Starlink to record footage of prayers and sermons. Starlink launched in 2019 with the aim of providing high-speed broadband internet to people all over the world, especially in remote areas.

    Another factor is that Iswap has expanded its sources of funding. The group collects tax revenue from local populations in areas where it has a strong presence, with farmers in some parts of Borno state reportedly paying about ₦10,000 (£5) per hectare.

    But Iswap is also allegedly tapping into Nigeria’s fast-growing cryptocurrency markets and earns considerable revenue from black market operations. The groups’s ability to rely on multiple revenue sources has ensured its supremacy over other terrorist groups in the region, while enabling it to plan and execute more sophisticated attacks.

    The growing strength of Iswap will undoubtedly have dire consequences for peace and security in Nigeria. It could help coordinate Islamic State’s activity in west Africa, giving it a stronger foothold in the region.

    Emphasis should be placed on addressing the root causes of the insurgency in Nigeria, as well as implementing tighter measures to constrain Iswap’s sources of funding.

    Folahanmi Aina does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Why Islamic State is expanding its operations in north-eastern Nigeria – https://theconversation.com/why-islamic-state-is-expanding-its-operations-in-north-eastern-nigeria-256935

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What is AI slop? Why you are seeing more fake photos and videos in your social media feeds

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jon Roozenbeek, Lecturer in Psychology, University of Cambridge

    Pikselstock/Shutterstock

    In May 2025, a post asking “[Am I the asshole] for telling my husband’s affair partner’s fiancé about their relationship?” quickly received 6,200 upvotes and more than 900 comments on Reddit. This popularity earned the post a spot on Reddit’s front page of trending posts. The problem? It was (very likely) written by artificial intelligence (AI).

    The post contained some telltale signs of AI, such as using stock phrases (“[my husband’s] family is furious”) and excessive quotation marks, and sketching an unrealistic scenario designed to generate outrage rather than reflect a genuine dilemma.

    While this post has since been removed by the forum’s moderators, Reddit users have repeatedly expressed their frustration with the proliferation of this kind of content.

    High-engagement, AI-generated posts on Reddit are an example of what is known as “AI slop” – cheap, low-quality AI-generated content, created and shared by anyone from low-level influencers to coordinated political influence operations.

    Estimates suggest that over half of longer English-language posts on LinkedIn are written by AI. In response to that report, Adam Walkiewicz, a director of product at LinkedIn, told Wired it has “robust defenses in place to proactively identify low-quality and exact or near-exact duplicate content. When we detect such content, we take action to ensure it is not broadly promoted.”

    But AI-generated low-quality news sites are popping up all over the place, and AI images are also flooding social media platforms such as Facebook. You may have come across images like “shrimp Jesus” in your own feeds.

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    AI-generated content is cheap. A report by the Nato StratCom Center of Excellence from 2023 found that for a mere €10 (about £8), you can buy tens of thousands of fake views and likes, and hundreds of AI-generated comments, on almost all major social media platforms.

    While much of it is seemingly innocent entertainment, one study from 2024 found that about a quarter of all internet traffic is made up of “bad bots”. These bots, which seek to spread disinformation, scalp event tickets or steal personal data, are also becoming much better at masking as humans.

    In short, the world is dealing with the “enshittification” of the web: online services have become gradually worse over time as tech companies prioritise profits over user experience. AI-generated content is just one aspect of this.

    From Reddit posts that enrage readers to tearjerking cat videos, this content is extremely attention-grabbing and thus lucrative for both slop-creators and platforms.

    This is known as engagement bait – a tactic to get people to like, comment and share, regardless of the quality of the post. And you don’t need to seek out the content to be exposed to it.

    AI-generated images like this one are designed to get as much engagement (likes, comments and shares) as possible.
    Microsoft Copilot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

    One study explored how engagement bait, such as images of cute babies wrapped in cabbage, is recommended to social media users even when they do not follow any AI-slop pages or accounts. These pages, which often link to low-quality sources and promote real or made-up products, may be designed to boost their follower base in order to sell the account later for profit.

    Meta (Facebook’s parent company) said in April that it is cracking down on “spammy” content that tries to “game the Facebook algorithm to increase views”, but did not specify AI-generated content. Meta has used its own AI-generated profiles on Facebook, but has since removed some of these accounts.

    What the risks are

    This may all have serious consequences for democracy and political communication. AI can cheaply and efficiently create misinformation about elections that is indiscernible from human-generated content. Ahead of the 2024 US presidential elections, researchers identified a large influence campaign designed to advocate for Republican issues and attack political adversaries.

    And before you think it’s only Republicans doing it, think again: these bots are as biased as humans of all perspectives. A report by Rutgers University found that Americans on all sides of the political spectrum rely on bots to promote their preferred candidates.

    Researchers aren’t innocent either: scientists at the University of Zurich were recently caught using AI-powered bots to post on Reddit as part of a research project on whether inauthentic comments can change people’s minds. But they failed to disclose that these comments were fake to Reddit moderators.

    Reddit is now considering taking legal action against the university. The company’s chief legal officer said: “What this University of Zurich team did is deeply wrong on both a moral and legal level.”

    Political operatives, including from authoritarian countries such as Russia, China and Iran, invest considerable sums in AI-driven operations to influence elections around the democratic world.

    How effective these operations are is up for debate. One study found that Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 US elections through social media were a dud, while another found it predicted polling figures for Trump. Regardless, these campaigns are becoming much more sophisticated and well-organised.

    And even seemingly apolitical AI-generated content can have consequences. The sheer volume of it makes accessing real news and human-generated content difficult.

    What’s to be done?

    Malign AI content is proving to be extremely hard to spot by humans and computers alike. Computer scientists recently identified a bot network of about 1,100 fake X accounts posting machine-generated content (mostly about cryptocurrency) and interacting with each other through likes and retweets. Problematically, the Botometer (a tool they developed to detect bots) failed to identify these accounts as fake.

    The use of AI is relatively easy to spot if you know what to look for, particularly when content is formulaic or unapologetically fake. But it’s much harder when it comes to short-form content (for example, Instagram comments) or high-quality fake images. And the technology used to create AI slop is quickly improving.

    One of these days, these bots are gonna walk all over you.
    Summit Art Creations/Shutterstock

    As close observers of AI trends and the spread of misinformation, we would love to end on a positive note and offer practical remedies to spot AI slop or reduce its potency. But in reality, many people are simply jumping ship.

    Dissatisfied with the amount of AI slop, social media users are escaping traditional platforms and joining invite-only online communities. This may lead to further fracturing of our public sphere and exacerbate polarisation, as the communities we seek out are often comprised of like-minded individuals.

    As this sorting intensifies, social media risks devolving into mindless entertainment, produced and consumed mostly by bots who interact with other bots while us humans spectate. Of course, platforms don’t want to lose users, but they might push as much AI slop as the public can tolerate.

    Some potential technical solutions include labelling AI-generated content through improved bot detection and disclosure regulation, although it’s unclear how well warnings like these work in practice.

    Some research also shows promise in helping people to better identify deepfakes, but research is in its early stages.

    Overall, we are just starting to realise the scale of the problem. Soberingly, if humans drown in AI slop, so does AI: AI models trained on the “enshittified” internet are likely to produce garbage.

    Jon Roozenbeek has received funding from the UK Cabinet Office, the US State Department, the ESRC, Google, the American Psychological Association, the US Centers for Disease Control, EU Horizon 2020, the Templeton World Charity Foundation, and the Alfred Landecker Foundation.

    Sander van der Linden has received funding from the UK Cabinet Office, Google, the American Psychological Association, the US Centers for Disease Control, EU Horizon 2020, the Templeton World Charity Foundation, and the Alfred Landecker Foundation.

    Yara Kyrychenko receives funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is supported by the Alan Turing Institute’s Enrichment Scheme.

    – ref. What is AI slop? Why you are seeing more fake photos and videos in your social media feeds – https://theconversation.com/what-is-ai-slop-why-you-are-seeing-more-fake-photos-and-videos-in-your-social-media-feeds-255538

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s West Point speech brought partisanship to the home of the US military − 2 essential reads

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jeff Inglis, Environment + Energy Editor, The Conversation US

    President Donald Trump delivers the commencement address at West Point on May 24, 2025. AP Photo/Adam Gray

    President Donald Trump’s speech at the graduation of the class of 2025 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point included segments that were clearly scripted and portions that were obviously not.

    During the unscripted portions, Trump, who wore a bright red “Make America Great Again” campaign hat during his entire appearance on May 24, 2025, delivered remarks that hit many of his frequent partisan political talking points. That included attacking presidential predecessors Barack Obama and Joe Biden, describing immigrants to the U.S. as “criminals” and trumpeting other policy accomplishments in his first and second terms.

    That level of partisanship in a military setting – on the campus of the nation’s first military academy, and before an audience of cadets and their families, many of whom are veterans – is unusual in the United States.

    The Conversation U.S. has published several articles discussing the importance to democracy of keeping the military and partisan politics separate. Here are two highlights from that coverage.

    1. Cadets focus on the Constitution

    During the West Point ceremony, the graduates themselves took an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” And all of them had studied the significance of that oath, including in classes like those taught by Joseph G. Amoroso and Lee Robinson, active-duty Army officers who graduated from West Point and later served as professors there.

    As Amoroso and Robinson wrote, those classes teach cadets that, like all military personnel, they serve the Constitution and the American people, not a particular person or political party:

    “(O)ur oath forms the basis of a nonpartisan ethic. In the U.S., unlike in many other countries, the oath implies military leaders should be trusted for their expertise and judgment, not for their loyalty to an individual or political party. We emphasize to cadets the rules and professional expectations associated with this profound responsibility.”



    Read more:
    Military personnel swear allegiance to the Constitution and serve the American people – not one leader or party

    2. A tradition of nonpartisanship

    Retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Samuel C. Mahaney, who teaches history, national security and constitutional law at Missouri University of Science and Technology, observed:

    “(S)ince the days of George Washington, the military has been dedicated to serving the nation, not a specific person or political agenda. … (N)onpartisanship is central to the military’s primary mission of defending the country.”

    Mahaney wrote that if Trump’s actions during his second term meant a change from the centuries of precedent, “military personnel at all levels would face a crucial question: Would they stand up for the military’s independent role in maintaining the integrity and stability of American democracy or follow the president’s orders – even if those orders crossed a line that made them illegal or unconstitutional?”

    Presenting a key question for military personnel.



    Read more:
    Trump’s firings of military leaders pose a crucial question to service members of all ranks

    This story was updated to highlight two articles from The Conversation’s archives.

    – ref. Trump’s West Point speech brought partisanship to the home of the US military − 2 essential reads – https://theconversation.com/trumps-west-point-speech-brought-partisanship-to-the-home-of-the-us-military-2-essential-reads-257673

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Most South African farmers are black: why Trump got it so wrong

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Johann Kirsten, Director of the Bureau for Economic Research, Stellenbosch University

    When world leaders engage, the assumption is always that they engage on issues based on verified facts, which their administrative staff are supposed to prepare. Under this assumption, we thought the meeting at the White House on 21 May between South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and US president Donald Trump would follow this pattern.

    Disappointingly, the televised meeting was horrifying to watch as it was based on misrepresenting the reality of life in South Africa.

    Issues of agriculture, farming and land (and rural crime) were central to the discussions. What is clear to us as agricultural economists is that the skewed views expressed by Trump about these issues originate in South Africa. This includes Trump’s statement: “But Blacks are not farmers.”

    In our work as agricultural economists, we have, in many pieces and books (our latest titled The Uncomfortable Truth about South Africa’s Agriculture), tried to present South Africans with the real facts about the political economy policy reforms and structural dimensions of South African agriculture.

    Writing on these matters was necessary given that official data – agricultural census 2017, as well as the official land audit of 2017 – all provide an incomplete picture of the real state and structure of South African agriculture. The reason is that the agricultural census, which is supposed to provide a comprehensive and inclusive assessment of the size and structure of the primary agricultural sector, and the land audit, which was supposed to record the ownership of all land in South Africa, are incomplete in their coverage.

    The incomplete and inaccurate official data provides fertile ground for radical statements by the left and the right – and novices on social media. This is why South Africa has to deal with falsehoods coming from the US. These include Trump’s statement that black people are not farmers in South Africa.

    South Africa is to blame for providing inaccurate data to feed these false narratives.

    The facts presented here should allow a more nuanced interpretation of South Africa’s farm structure. Firstly, there are more black farmers in South Africa than white farmers. And not all white commercial farm operations are “large-scale”, and not all black farmers are “small-scale”, “subsistence” or “emerging”. Most farm operations can be classified as micro, or small in scale.

    This is important so that one doesn’t view South Africa’s agriculture as mainly white farmers. Indeed, we are a country of two agricultures with black farmers mainly at small scale and accounting for roughly 10% of the commercial agricultural output. Still, this doesn’t mean they are not active in the sector. They mainly still require support to expand and increase output, but they are active.

    The facts

    In the wake of the circus in the Oval Office, we were amazed by the total silence of the many farmers’ organisations in South Africa. We have not seen one coming out to reject all of Trump’s claims. The only thing we can deduce from this is that these falsehoods suit the political position of some farmer organisations. But at what cost? Will many of their members be harmed by trade sanctions or tariffs against South Africa? The US is an important market for South Africa’s agriculture, accounting for 4% of the US$13.7 billion exports in 2024.

    When Ramaphosa highlighted the fact that crime, and rural crime in particular, has an impact on all South Africans and that more black people than white people are being killed, Trump’s response was disturbing, to say the least: “But Blacks are not farmers”. This requires an immediate fact check.

    We returned to the text from our chapter in the Handbook on the South African Economy we jointly prepared in 2021. In the extract below, we discuss the real numbers of farmers in South Africa and try to provide a sensible racial classification of farmers to denounce Trump’s silly statement.

    As highlighted earlier, the two latest agricultural censuses (2007 and 2017) are incomplete as they restricted the sample frame to farm businesses registered to pay value added tax. Only firms with a turnover of one million rands (US$55,500) qualify for VAT registration.

    We were able to expand the findings from the censuses with numbers from the 2011 population census and the 2016 community survey to better understand the total number of commercial farming units in South Africa. The Community Survey 2016 is a large-scale survey that happened between Censuses 2011 and 2021. The main objective was to provide population and household statistics at municipal level to government and the private sector, to support planning and decision-making.

    Data from the 2011 population census (extracted from three agricultural questions included in the census) shows that 2,879,638 households out of South Africa’s total population, or 19.9% of all households, were active in agriculture for subsistence or commercial purposes.

    Only 2% of these active households reported an annual income derived from agriculture above R307,000 (US$17,000). This translates into 57,592 households that can be considered commercial farmers, with agriculture as the main or only source of household income. This corresponds in some way with the 40,122 farming businesses that are registered for VAT as noted in the 2017 agricultural census report.

    If we use the numbers from the agricultural census it is evident almost 90% of all VAT-registered commercial farming businesses could be classified as micro or small-scale enterprises. If the farm businesses excluded from the census are accounted for under the assumption that they are too small for VAT registration, then the fact still stands that the vast majority of all farm enterprises in South Africa are small family farms.

    There are, however, 2,610 large farms (with turnover exceeding R22.5 million (US$1.2 million per annum) which are responsible for 67% of farm income and employed more than half the agricultural labour force of 757,000 farm workers in 2017.

    Another way to get to farm numbers is to use the 2016 Community Survey. Using the shares as shown in Table 2, we estimate there are 242,221 commercial farming households in South Africa, of which only 43,891 (18%) are white commercial farmers. (This is very much in line with the VAT registered farmers but also acknowledging the fact that many white farm businesses are not necessarily registered for VAT.)

    Let’s consider only the agricultural households with agriculture as their main source of income, surveyed in the 2016 community survey. We end up with a total of 132,700 households, of whom 93,000 (70%) are black farmers. This reality is something that policy makers and farm organisations find very difficult to deal with and it seems that Trump also found this too good to be true.

    We have tried here in a long winded way to deal with farm numbers and how to get to a race classification of farmers in South Africa. In the end we trust that we have managed to show that there are more black farmers in South Africa than white farmers. Their share in total output is smaller than that of their white counterparts. The National Agricultural Marketing Council puts black farmers’ share of agricultural production as roughly 10%. But these numbers are also incomplete and largely an undercount.

    It will always be challenging to get to the real number of black farmers’ share of agricultural output as nobody would ever know whether the potato or the cabbage on the shelf came from a farm owned by a black farmer or a white person but operated by a black farmer, for example. As South Africans know, the labour on farms, in pack houses, distribution systems and retail are all black. So, the sweat and hard work of black South African workers are integral to the food supply chain in South Africa.

    Let’s get these facts straight and promote them honestly.

    Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and a member of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC).

    Johann Kirsten does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Most South African farmers are black: why Trump got it so wrong – https://theconversation.com/most-south-african-farmers-are-black-why-trump-got-it-so-wrong-257668

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Do biases affect assessment in kindergarten? Educators discuss strategies for mitigation

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Natalie Spadafora, Research Associate, Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University

    Educators in a study agreed that the scarcity of dedicated resources, time, attention and training on bias affected their ability to assess their students’ development as accurately as they would like.
     (Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency/EDUimages), CC BY-NC-SA

    Teachers’ perceptions and judgments of student skills are key to measuring children’s academic progress. But educators’ own biases can distort these perceptions and judgments.

    For example, research in Canada has shown that racialized students were less likely to be perceived as “excellent” in their achievement and learning skills than white students, despite doing well academically. To our knowledge, no work has been done focusing specifically on teachers, assessment, bias and the Canadian kindergarten population.

    Our team at the Offord Centre for Child Studies set out to understand more about how educators perceive the system for assessing kindergarten children’s development, in the context of children’s race, gender and family socioeconomic status.

    In Ontario, kindergarten features five full days of play-based learning every week. Classes are led by a team of one teacher and one early childhood educator (ECE). Teachers have knowledge of the curriculum and are responsible for student learning and reporting to parents. ECEs have knowledge of early childhood development and plan age-appropriate activities to support development.



    Read more:
    A team approach makes full-day kindergarten a success

    As part of our study, we conducted a series of four focus groups with kindergarten educators (five kindergarten teachers and one designated early childhood educator) from a school board in Ontario.

    To be eligible to participate, educators had to have previously participated in cultural responsiveness initiatives and administered a teacher-completed developmental health checklist for kindergarten students at least once. All participants in our focus group were female, taught schools in urban neighbourhoods and five of the six were racialized.

    In Ontario, kindergarten features five full days of play-based learning every week.
    (Shutterstock)

    Educators discussed how their feelings and potential biases might creep into their assessments, and the strategies they use to limit this bias. Specifically, we asked about their use of the standard tool for assessing child development in kindergarten: The Early Development Instrument (EDI).



    Read more:
    ‘Dreams delayed’ no longer: Report identifies key changes needed around Black students’ education

    Five areas of child development

    The EDI asks teachers to evaluate children in five areas of development: physical health and well-being; social competence; emotional maturity; language and cognitive development; and communication skills and general knowledge.

    Race-related data are not routinely collected with the EDI (such as asking teachers to report how a child’s family identifies a child’s race, or in reporting their own race), even though, as some researchers and educators have noted, race-related data could be used to inform provision of supports.

    While teachers complete this assessment for every child in their classrooms, the results are aggregated and reported at the population level. All publicly funded school boards in Ontario have collected the EDI roughly every three years since 2004.

    Key themes

    Several key themes emerged from our discussions with educators. First, educators admitted that the social identities and demographic characteristics of the students in their classrooms could impact how they interpret kindergarteners’ skills and behaviours.

    They explained that being exposed to a wide variety of students would increase their own awareness of children’s and their families’ identities, shaped by factors like race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status and language, and help broaden their perceptions. For example, this would allow them to have a greater understanding of the range of behaviours children display.

    Second, educators addressed the consequences of racial and gender biases in schools, some of them reflecting systemic racism. Educators acknowledged these systemic biases could impact their internal expectations of students, and potentially their reactions and interpretation of student behaviour.

    Recognizing the potential for such unfairness, educators also identified deliberate strategies they use to minimize the impact of individual and systemic biases on their assessment.

    They told us they pause and think critically about what may influence their perceptions of students, reframe how they might be looking at certain situations (that is, taking an “asset-based” approach, focusing on the students’ strengths) or check in with colleagues to be sure they’re being equitable.



    Read more:
    Children with special health needs are more likely to come from poorer neighbourhoods

    Scarcity of training about bias

    The educators we interviewed revealed many personal feelings come up as they complete assessments and interact with students. For example, educators noted that it can be hard to separate assessing a child from their history with the child, or that they felt they were judging the child’s family.

    In addition to the acknowledgement that biases and preconceived expectations could colour their assessments, they also acknowledged that these feelings, whether positive or negative, can make it difficult to assess their pupils objectively.

    Similar to exposure to a diverse group of students, having knowledge of the whole child and building trusting and reciprocal relationships with families are other ways educators can reduce the impact of bias. For example, if their family is going through hard times, it could be expected that the child might be sad or worried.

    Regarding the specific characteristics of the EDI, educators explained it was sometimes difficult to choose the most accurate responses to each item on a checklist when there were only two or three options.

    Educators said they often wished they could explain their responses more.

    Finally, educators agreed that the scarcity of dedicated resources, time, attention and training on bias affected their ability to assess their students’ development as accurately as they would like.

    Policy improvements needed

    While our study used the example of the EDI to elicit the discussion on assessment being influenced by student identities, the issues mentioned by educators go beyond this specific tool.

    In our study, educators were not only aware of this influence; they used strategies to overcome it. These educators acknowledge that their expertise in evaluating children’s skills and behaviours can improve with better knowledge of and relationships with individual children and their families, by collaborating with colleagues and by having more time and training.

    Our results suggest that policy improvements are necessary to make sure all educators have access to better strategies and opportunities to reduce unintended identity bias and provide more accurate assessments.

    Given that the educators in this study had already participated in cultural responsiveness initiatives, further research could examine how interventions mitigate occurrences of particular biases and their potential adverse effects on students.

    This research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Council Partnership Engagement Grant.

    Magdalena Janus receives funding from SSHRC.

    – ref. Do biases affect assessment in kindergarten? Educators discuss strategies for mitigation – https://theconversation.com/do-biases-affect-assessment-in-kindergarten-educators-discuss-strategies-for-mitigation-250580

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Is Vladimir Putin’s indiscriminate bombing of Ukrainian civilians ‘crazy’? It’s more a sign of impatience

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Mark Edele, Hansen Professor in History and Deputy Dean, The University of Melbourne

    United States President Donald Trump was “not happy” with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, this week.

    For three consecutive nights, from Friday to Sunday, Russia launched about 900 drones and scores of missiles at Ukraine. At least 18 people were killed, including three children.

    “We’re in the middle of talking and he’s shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities,” Trump told reporters on Sunday, after Putin ordered the largest air assault on Ukraine’s civilians in its three-year war.

    Following up on his remarks, Trump posted on social media that Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY!”

    Putin is not crazy. He is a tactician with a long-term goal: to make Russia a great power again and secure his place in the history books as the re-builder of Russia’s imperial might.

    Trump announced after a phone call with Putin on May 19 that Russia and Ukraine would “immediately start negotiations” towards a ceasefire.

    With his latest air campaign on Ukraine, however, Putin is threatening to destroy the goodwill he’s built up in Washington, where Trump has been consistently soft on Russia and tough on his allies.

    So, what is Putin’s strategy? Why is he launching these massive air bombardments on Ukrainian civilians now?

    Putin sees weakness in the West

    One theory is these attacks are somehow preparations for a major offensive. That makes little sense.

    Attacking military facilities, weapons depots or even frontline troops are useful preparations for an impending attack. Indiscriminate bombing of civilians, meanwhile, is a sign of either desperation or impatience.

    Britain and the US bombed German cities during the second world war because they had no alternatives until they built up enough capacity to transport land forces across the sea to invade the continent.

    The US also sent bombers to Japan in the final stages of the war because the American public became tired of seeing their sons, husbands, brothers and fathers die on Pacific islands they had never heard of. The war had dragged on forever by this point, and there seemed no end in sight.

    Is Putin desperate or impatient? Likely the latter.

    From the perspective of the Kremlin, Russia’s strategic situation is as good as it has been for years.

    The US is trying to destroy itself through trade wars and boorish diplomacy. Trump clearly dislikes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and hopes the war will somehow end if he just demands it.

    Europe is continuing to back Ukraine. However, for the time being, it still needs US support because its entire security structure is built around NATO and US strength, both economic and military.

    What Putin sees when he surveys the international scene is weakness. In his thinking, such weakness needs to be exploited – now is the time to hurt Ukraine as much as possible, and hope it will crack. Analysts call this a “cognitive warfare effort”.

    Indiscriminate air war on civilians is the only means Putin currently has to pressure Ukraine. His army has been advancing, but painfully slowly. There is no breakthrough in sight, even once the spring muds dry and the summer fighting season starts in earnest.

    Russia has gradually advanced in Ukraine throughout 2024, but with no perceivable change in the overall situation. Putin does not command precision weapons or super spies, which he could use to take out Ukraine’s leadership.

    All he can do is rain death on women, children and the elderly from relatively cheap, unsophisticated weapons, such as drones. He now has these in large supply, thanks to ramping up military production at home.

    Bombing campaigns do not end wars

    A strategic air war on civilians seldom works, however.

    Japan’s surrender in 1945 is an exception, but it is misleading in many ways. The Americans had flattened Japan’s cities for a while already, just not using their new atomic weapons. Japan had already lost the war and the real question was if there would be a bloody US invasion or surrender.

    And as the US dropped its two nuclear bombs in August of that year, the Red Army joined the fight, racing across Manchuria to help occupy Japanese territories.

    In Germany, the British-American bombings from 1942 onwards certainly had an effect on war production, as they killed workers and destroyed factories. But they did not incapacitate the German army and certainly did not break morale.

    Instead, the bombings led to embitterment and a closing of ranks around the regime. German society fought to the last moment. It did so not just despite, but because of the air war. The German army was eventually defeated by the ground troops of the Red Army, who took Berlin in an incredibly bloody fight.

    Other historical failures are even more spectacular. The US air force dropped 864,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam during an air campaign of more than 300,000 sorties lasting from 1965 to late 1968. The North Vietnamese lost maybe 29,000 people (dead and wounded), more than half of them civilians. The Americans and their South Vietnamese allies still lost the war.

    Putin’s air war will likely follow the historical pattern: it has further embittered the Ukrainians, who know very well that what comes from the east is not liberation.

    Another summer of fighting lies ahead. Ukraine’s friends in the democratic world need to urgently redouble their efforts to support Ukraine. The misguided hopes that Putin would somehow “make a deal” lie under the rubble his drones leave behind in Ukraine’s cities.

    Mark Edele receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Is Vladimir Putin’s indiscriminate bombing of Ukrainian civilians ‘crazy’? It’s more a sign of impatience – https://theconversation.com/is-vladimir-putins-indiscriminate-bombing-of-ukrainian-civilians-crazy-its-more-a-sign-of-impatience-257630

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What a 120-year-old research station is telling us about the warming of the sea around the UK

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tim Smyth, Head of Group: Marine Processes and Observations, Plymouth Marine Laboratory

    Platslee/Shutterstock

    A marine heatwave has been building in the ocean surrounding the UK during an exceptionally warm and dry spring. In other words, the sea surface temperature has been within the top 10% of records for each day of the year since at least the beginning of 2025.

    How can we know the temperature of the sea surface over such a large area? Throughout April and May 2025, scientists have been able to map and monitor the seas surrounding the UK via satellites, buoys and other floating devices, plus computer models that simulate the ocean’s physical and chemical properties.

    Infrared detectors mounted on pole-orbiting satellites can infer the temperature of the top layer of the ocean and have been doing so continuously since the late 1970s. These sensors cannot “see” through clouds, which is why other sources of data are essential.

    These datasets are now 45 years old, which is long enough to create a baseline assessment of the climate during that time. This is important to properly contextualise any departures from the long-term average. Without it, scientists would not know how severe and widespread a marine heatwave truly is.

    Thanks to a research station that has been collecting ocean temperatures in the western English Channel for over a century, we know that this part of the sea south of Devon is 2.7°C warmer than the 120-year average, which makes it a category II (“strong”) marine heatwave within the four-category scheme.

    The importance of long-term monitoring

    Marine heatwaves are different to what we expect in a meteorological heatwave. Since 2023, the waters around the UK have been regularly experiencing marine heatwave conditions, because the data shows that the sea temperature has been in the top 10% of records: but most of us would admit that a sea temperature of 10°C in early March doesn’t exactly conjure up the impression of a heatwave.

    The search for better definitions of a marine heatwave continues among scientists, particularly as long-term baseline temperatures continue to warm and the top 10% of warm temperatures shifts upwards. Datasets gathered over several decades in the same place are valuable to this effort.

    For example, the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the Marine Biological Association have been monitoring conditions in the western English Channel for over a century. One of the longest running surveys in the world is situated 20 miles south of Plymouth.

    Station E1 was originally founded by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas in 1902, as part of the English (hence the “E”) effort in ocean observation.

    What sets E1 apart is the near continuous nature of its recording since then, the frequency of its data collection (monthly in winter, fortnightly in summer) and its sampling throughout the entire water column (80 metres deep), not just at the surface. This enables scientists to observe the seasonal progression of water mixing and layer formation in that location.

    The 123-year old dataset shows that sea surface temperatures have increased markedly within the past 40 years, at a rate of around 0.6°C a decade. Warm anomalies have been increasingly common, and cold anomalies increasingly rare.

    Marine heatwave conditions have become increasingly frequent, particularly since 2010. The data also shows that at a depth of 50 metres – well below the top layer of the ocean – temperatures have also increased markedly. The ongoing marine heatwave is not just a surface phenomenon.

    Fishers are catching octopus in large numbers off Devon and Cornwall due to the warm sea temperatures.
    Captured by Aixa/Shutterstock

    What caused this heatwave?

    The marine heatwave of spring 2025 has resulted from a combination of factors. It boils down to the fact that more energy is being put into the ocean during the day than is being lost at night.

    March 2025 was the sunniest March on record (since 1910), with UK Met Office statistics showing there were around 185 hours of sunshine. April set new records for UK solar power generation, with a peak of 12.2 gigawatts (GW) being produced on April 1 out of a possible solar generating capacity of 18 GW.

    May continued that trend, with long periods of clear skies under areas of the atmosphere with persistent high pressure. High-pressure areas are also associated with relatively low winds, which restricts the mixing of the warm surface with cooler deep water.

    During the spring, rapidly lengthening days mean the time for energy in (day) outweighs energy out (night). It has also been notable that the spring phytoplankton bloom was very early this year (during early March). This is when tiny plant cells at the seawater surface burst into life, like plants on land. The bloom finished relatively early and the surface waters cleared earlier.

    The conditions during May at E1 resembled those we would ordinarily associate with midsummer, with the phytoplankton bloom sitting deeper in the water. The clearer water at the surface allowed sunlight to penetrate deeper.

    It is evident from our century-plus of measurements that marine heatwaves are happening more frequently and that there appears to be an almost continuous marine heatwave state emerging around the UK.

    The intensity of a marine heatwave is generally tied to persistent high-pressure areas remaining static over the UK, but it is still unclear whether or not this is an emerging climate pattern, or just an episode within the general patterns of change within UK seas.

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Tim Smyth receives funding from Natural Environment Research Council and UK Research and Innovation.

    – ref. What a 120-year-old research station is telling us about the warming of the sea around the UK – https://theconversation.com/what-a-120-year-old-research-station-is-telling-us-about-the-warming-of-the-sea-around-the-uk-257378

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why do we cry happy tears? The science behind this emotional paradox

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Michelle Spear, Professor of Anatomy, University of Bristol

    maxbelchenko/Shutterstock.com

    Tears are usually seen as a sign of sadness or pain, but it’s not uncommon for people to cry during life’s most joyful moments: weddings, births, reunions, sporting triumphs, or even just an unexpected act of kindness.

    These “happy tears” seem contradictory, but they offer a fascinating window into how the human brain handles intense emotion.

    Crying is a complex biological response to emotional overload – and it doesn’t discriminate between good and bad feelings. Whether triggered by grief or elation, tears are often the result of our brain attempting to process more than it can manage in the moment.

    Both positive and negative emotions activate the limbic system, the part of the brain involved in processing feelings and memory. Within this system, the amygdala – an almond-shaped cluster of neurons – acts as an emotional alarm bell, detecting arousal and signalling the body to respond.

    When highly stimulated, the amygdala activates other brain areas including the hypothalamus, which controls involuntary physical functions like heartbeat, breathing and tear production.

    Another key structure is the anterior cingulate cortex, which plays a role in emotion regulation, decision-making and empathy. It helps coordinate the brain’s response to emotional conflict, such as experiencing joy and sadness at the same time. These overlapping pathways explain why a sudden surge of happiness can still produce a reaction typically associated with distress.

    The limbic system explained.

    Scientists believe happy crying is a form of emotional homeostasis: a way of bringing us back to equilibrium after an emotional high. Crying activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which slows the heart rate and relaxes the body after the adrenaline spike of intense feeling. In other words, tears help us calm down.

    This idea of “resetting” isn’t unique to happiness. Crying in response to stress or trauma serves a similar purpose. What’s striking about happy crying is how it illustrates the body’s effort to balance opposing forces: relief after fear, gratitude after hardship, pride after struggle.

    Happy tears

    So-called “happy” tears are rarely just that. Often they emerge from a blend of emotions. For example, a parent watching their child graduate may be proud, nostalgic, and a little melancholic all at once. A long-awaited reunion might stir joy and the pain of absence. Psychologists refer to this as a dual-valence response – an emotional state that contains both positive and negative elements.

    These emotional blends engage memory systems as well, particularly the hippocampus, which processes and retrieves personal history. That’s why a joyful moment can unexpectedly bring a lump to the throat – it activates memories of previous loss, struggle or longing.

    Interestingly, humans are the only animals known to shed emotional tears. While many mammals produce reflex tears to lubricate the eye, only humans cry in response to emotion. This probably evolved as a form of non-verbal communication, especially in early social groups.

    Tears signal vulnerability, authenticity and emotional depth. Crying during joyful moments demonstrates to others that something profoundly meaningful has occurred.

    In this way, happy crying can strengthen social bonds, invite empathy and create shared moments of catharsis. Research has even shown that people are more likely to offer help to someone who is crying, regardless of whether the tears are sad or joyful.

    So why do we cry when we’re happy? Because happiness is not a simple emotion. It is often tangled with memory, relief, awe and the sheer weight of meaning. Tears are the brain’s way of processing this complexity, of marking a moment that matters, even when it’s joyful. Far from being a contradiction, happy tears remind us that emotional life is rich, messy and above all deeply human.

    Michelle Spear does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Why do we cry happy tears? The science behind this emotional paradox – https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-cry-happy-tears-the-science-behind-this-emotional-paradox-256482

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Hockey night in Belfast? How Canada’s sport could be bridging longtime sectarian divides

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Eric Lepp, Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Waterloo

    The Belfast Giants celebrate a goal. (Belfast Giants)

    In its simplest form, the protracted tensions in Northern Ireland have at their foundation two separate sectarian identities deeply divided over how, and by whom, they are governed — Protestant/Unionist populations wishing to maintain British rule and Catholic/Nationalists desiring a united Ireland.

    The 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement brought an end to armed hostilities that devastated cities and towns through years of urban guerilla conflict. Yet divisions remain sewn into the everyday lives and patterns of the Northern Irish people — 90 per cent of students attend segregated schools and there are few friendships spanning the sectarian divide.

    One setting sits identifiably apart from these entrenched divisions: the ice hockey arena. Now in their 25th season, the Belfast Giants, Ireland’s only professional hockey team, impressively draws an average of 6,480 spectators to their games. They’ve also built a large and enthusiastic fan base known as the “Teal Army.”

    As a spectator sport with limited opportunity to play the game competitively and no significant history on either side of the conflict, the hockey arena has emerged as something of a neutral ground where fans from different backgrounds come together side-by-side.

    The arena is a place where symbols of division, so common across Northern Ireland via flags, murals and graffiti, are not allowed.

    The lack of a historical association with one side of the conflict, the fact that the sport is played predominantly by men from outside Northern Ireland — mostly from North America and Scandinavia — and a name and logo rooted in the shared regional lore of mythical giant Finn McCool has allowed the team to forge its own path post-peace agreement.

    The Belfast Giants Mascot, Finn McCool, at a recent game.
    (Belfast Giants)

    The Friendship Four

    In 2015, after years of planning, the Belfast Giants hosted the inaugural Friendship Four hockey tournament.

    Held over the American Thanksgiving weekend, the tournament has since become an annual event that sees four Division I hockey teams from American universities come to Belfast for a two-day experience that includes intercultural exchange, educational visits to local schools and a hockey tournament.

    The Friendship Four promotional poster.
    (Notre Dame Hockey X account)

    Since the tournament began, it has hosted teams from the New England and Boston areas as a means of fostering stronger ties between the sister cities of Belfast and Boston.

    In 2024, the Friendship Four tournament notably included a school with a long association with Ireland, the University of Notre Dame. As a prominent American Catholic university with a team name — the Fighting Irish — that is directly connected to the island’s divisive history, the team’s inclusion in the Friendship Four had the potential to tarnish the neutrality of the event.

    Controversial social media post

    As a researcher who has engaged significantly with supporters of the Belfast Giants, and as an alumnus of the University of Notre Dame, this tournament drew me to Belfast.

    The ‘Know Before You Go’ post from Notre Dame Hockey on X on Nov. 19, 2024 that was subsequently deleted.
    (Notre Dame Hockey X account)

    Before the 2024 tournament in November, the Notre Dame Hockey account posted guidelines on X for their supporters in Belfast, including an image of what to wear, and what not to wear, around the city. It noted: “Just a reminder to avoid our Irish symbolism, that may be deemed offensive to some, while out around town.”

    The post was deleted a few hours later, and an apology was issued acknowledging the tournament was meant to build bridges, not stoke division. Nonetheless, the original post drew significant attention and criticism.

    Belfast media and British news outlets picked up the story about the Notre Dame post. Many of the comments on social media about the story were situated in ethno-sectarian views or pointed fingers of blame.

    The outrage that greeted the Notre Dame X post demonstrates the tension and complexity of identity and symbols in Northern Ireland. But it thankfully wasn’t replicated in the Belfast hockey arena because the groundwork of social capital among hockey fans in the city has been built over the last 25 years.

    ‘Game on!’ and getting on with it

    On Nov. 29, 2024, the Notre Dame team took to the ice to play against Harvard without any extra fanfare.

    The afternoon game was filled with school groups carrying homemade signs and cheering for the teams whose players had visited their schools earlier in the week with overt hopes of seeing themselves on the jumbotrons. The game could have been in Saskatoon given the lack of any sectarian tensions.

    Action at the Friendship Four Championship Hockey Game on Nov. 30, 2024, in Belfast.
    (Notre Dame Hockey Facebook)

    In an age of rising polarization and lack of human connection, the hockey arena in Belfast is worthy of attention.

    Hallmarks of post-conflict reconstruction include the development of a shared understanding of the truth about past events and directly engaging with contested acts and issues. Neither effort has been particularly well-executed in Northern Ireland.

    Nonetheless, as people wait for a more fulsome peace in the region, they have managed to live peacefully side by side in places like the Belfast hockey arena.

    As peace and conflict research continues its attempts to understand how those in conflict-affected communities navigate their everyday lives, the importance of non-traditional, non-partisan activities that can bridge divides should not be overlooked.

    Eric Lepp does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Hockey night in Belfast? How Canada’s sport could be bridging longtime sectarian divides – https://theconversation.com/hockey-night-in-belfast-how-canadas-sport-could-be-bridging-longtime-sectarian-divides-257094

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Want an advanced AI assistant? Prepare for them to be all up in your business

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Isabel Pedersen, Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies, Ontario Tech University

    Sophisticated AI assistants are becoming commonplace in people’s lives. (Shutterstock)

    The growing proliferation of AI-powered chatbots has led to debates around their social roles as friend, companion or work assistant.

    And they’re growing increasingly more sophisticated. The role-playing platform Character AI promises personal and creative engagement through conversations with its bot characters. There have also been some negative outcomes: currently, Character.ai is facing a court case involving its chatbot’s role in a teen’s suicide.

    Others, like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, promise improved work efficiency through genAI. But where is this going next? Amid this frenzy, inventors are now developing advanced AI assistants that will be far more socially intuitive and capable of more complex tasks.

    The applications of generative AI keep growing.
    (Shutterstock)

    Future shock

    The shock instigated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT two years ago was not only due to the soaring rate of adoption and the threat to jobs, but also because of the cultural blow it aimed at creative writing and education.

    My research explores how the hype surrounding AI affects some people’s ability to make professional judgments about it. This is due to anxiety related to the vulnerability of human civilization, feeding the idea of a future “superintelligence” that might outpace human control.

    With US$1.3 trillion in revenue projected for 2032, the financial forecast for genAI drives further hype.

    Mainstream media coverage also sensationalizes AI’s creativity, and frames the tech as a threat to human civilization.

    Raising the alarm

    Scientists all over the world have signalled an urgency around the implementations and applications of AI.

    Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel Prize winner and AI pioneer, left his position at Google over disagreements about the development of AI and regretted his work at Google because of AI’s progress. The future threat, however, is much more personal.

    Recreating users

    The turn in AI underway now is a shift toward self-centric and personalized AI tools that go well beyond current capabilities to recreating what has become a commodity: the self. AI technologies reshape how we perceive ourselves: our personas, thoughts and feelings.

    The next wave of AI assistants, a form of AI agents, will not only know their users intimately, but they will be able to act on a user’s behalf or even impersonate them. This idea is far more compelling than those that only serve as assistants writing text, creating video or coding software.

    These personalized AI agents will be able to determine intentions and carry out work.

    Iason Gabriel, senior research scientist at Google DeepMind, and a large team of researchers wrote about the ethical development of advanced AI assistants. Their research sounds the alarm that AI assistants can “influence user beliefs and behaviour,” including through “deception, coercion and exploitation.”

    There is still a techno-utopian aspect to AI. In a podcast, Gabriel ruminates that “many of us would like to be plugged into a technology that can take care of a lot of life tasks on our behalf,” also calling it a “thought partner.”

    Senior research scientist at Google DeepMind, Iason Gabriel, discusses the implications of AI.

    Cultural disruption

    This more recent turn in AI disruption will interfere with how we understand ourselves, and as such, we need to anticipate the techno-cultural impact.

    Online, people express hyper-real and highly curated versions of themselves across platforms like X, Instagram or Linkedin. And the way users interact with personal digital assistants like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa has socialized us to reimagine our personal lives. These “life narrative” practices inform a key role in developing the next wave of advanced assistants.

    The quantified self movement is when users track their lives through various apps, wearable technologies and social media platforms. New developments in AI assistants could leverage these same tools for biohacking and self-improvement, yet these emerging tools also raise concerns about processing personal data. AI tools involve the risk of identity theft, gender and racial discrimination and various digital divides.

    More than assistance

    Human-AI assistant interaction can converge with other fields. Digital twin technologies for health apply user biodata. They involve creating a virtual representation of a person’s physiological state and can help predict future developments. This could also lead to over-reliance on AI Assistants for medical information without human oversight from medical professionals.

    Other advanced AI assistants will “remember” people’s pasts and infer intentions or make suggestions for future life goals. Serious harms have already been identified when remembering is automated, such as for victims of intimate partner violence.



    Read more:
    Features like iPhone’s and Facebook’s ‘Memories’ can retraumatize survivors of abuse

    We need to expand data protections and governance models to address potential privacy harms. This upcoming cultural disruption will require regulating AI. Let’s prepare now for AI’s next cultural turn.

    Isabel Pedersen receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

    – ref. Want an advanced AI assistant? Prepare for them to be all up in your business – https://theconversation.com/want-an-advanced-ai-assistant-prepare-for-them-to-be-all-up-in-your-business-253271

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: When Elvis and Ella were pressed onto X-rays – the subversive legacy of Soviet ‘bone music’

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Richard Gunderman, Chancellor’s Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University

    In the Soviet Union, some clever people realized that X-ray film was just soft enough to be etched by a sound recording device. Michelle Mengsu Chang/Toronto Star via Getty Images

    When Western Electric invented electrical sound recording 100 years ago, it completely transformed the public’s relationship to music.

    Before then, recording was done mechanically, scratching sound waves onto rolled paper or a cylinder. Such recordings suffered from low fidelity and captured only a small segment of the audible sound spectrum.

    By using electrical microphones, amplifiers and electromechanical recorders, record companies could capture a far wider range of sound frequencies, with much higher fidelity. For the first time, recorded sound closely resembled what a live listener would hear. Over the ensuing years, sales of vinyl records and record players boomed.

    The technology also allowed some enterprising music fans to make recordings in surprising and innovative ways. As a physician and scholar in the medical humanities, I am fascinated by the use of X-ray film to make recordings – what was known as “bone music,” or “ribs.”

    This rather bizarre, homemade technology became a way to skirt censors in the Soviet Union – and even played an indirect role in its dissolution.

    Skirting the Soviet censorship regime

    At the end of World War II, Soviet censorship shifted into high gear in an effort to suppress a Western culture deemed threatening or decadent.

    Many books and poems could circulate only through “samizdat,” a portmanteau of “self” and “publishing” that involved the use of copy machines to reproduce forbidden texts. Punishments inflicted on Soviet artists and citizens for producing or disseminating censored materials included loss of employment, imprisonment in gulags and even execution.

    The phonographic analog of samizdat was often referred to as “roentgenizdat,” which was derived from the name of Wilhelm Roentgen, the German scientist who received the first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901 for his discovery of X-rays.

    Roentgen’s work revolutionized medicine, making it possible to peer inside the living human body without cutting it open and enabling physicians to more easily and accurately diagnose skeletal fractures and diseases such as pneumonia.

    Today, X-rays are produced and stored digitally. But for most of the 20th century they were created on photographic film and stored in large film libraries, which took up a great deal of space.

    Because exposed X-ray films cannot be reused, hospitals often recycled them to recoup the silver they contained.

    Making music from medicine

    In the Soviet Union in the 1940s, some clever people realized that X-ray film was just soft enough to be etched by an electromechanical lathe, or sound recording device.

    To make a “rib,” or “bone record,” they would use a compass to trace out a circle on an exposed X-ray film that might bear the image of a patient’s skull, spine or hands. They then used scissors to cut out the circle, before cutting a small hole in the middle so it would fit on a conventional record player.

    Then they would use a recording device to cut either live sound or, more commonly, a bootleg record onto the X-ray film. Sound consists of vibrations that the lathe’s stylus etches into grooves on the disc. Such devices were not widely available, meaning that only a relatively small number of people could produce such recordings.

    A disc-cutting lathe demonstrates the production of an X-ray record at a 2021 exhibition in Berlin, Germany.
    Adam Berry/Getty Images

    The censors kept a close eye on record companies. But anyone who could obtain a recording device could record music on pieces of X-ray film, and these old films could be obtained after hospitals threw them out or purchased at a relatively low price from hospital employees.

    Compared with professionally produced vinyl records, the sound quality was poor, with recordings marred by extraneous noises such as hisses and crackles. The records could be played only a limited number of times before the grooves would wear out.

    Nonetheless, these resourceful recordings were shared, bought and sold entirely outside of official channels into the 1960s and 1970s.

    A window into another life

    Popular artists “on the bone” included Ella Fitzgerald and Elvis Presley, whose jazz and rock ’n’ roll recordings, to the ears of many Soviet citizens, represented freedom and self-expression.

    In his book “Bone Music,” cultural historian Stephen Coates describes how Soviet authorities viewed performers such as The Beatles as toxic because they appeared to promote a brand of amoral hedonism and distracted citizens from Communist party priorities.

    One Soviet critic of bone music recalled of its purveyors:

    “It is true that from time to time they are caught, their equipment confiscated, and they may even be brought to court. But then they may be released and be free to go wherever they like. The judges decide that they are, of course, parasites, but they are not dangerous. They are getting suspended sentences! But these record producers are not just engaged in illegal operations. They corrupt young people diligently and methodically with a squeaky cacophony and spread explicit obscenities.”

    Bone music was inherently subversive.

    For one thing, it was against the law. Moreover, the music itself suggested that a different sort of life is possible, beyond the strictures of Communist officials. How could a political system that prohibited beautiful music, many asked, possibly merit the allegiance of its citizens?

    The ability of citizens to get around the censors and spread Western thought, whether through books or bone music, helped chip away at the government’s legitimacy.

    One Soviet-era listener Coates interviewed long after the USSR’s collapse described the joy of listening to these illicit recordings:

    “I was lifted up off the ground, I started flying. Rock’n’roll showed me a new world, a world of music, words, and feelings, of life, of a different lifestyle. That’s why, when I got my first records, I became a happy man. I felt like a changed person, it was as if I was born again.”

    The playing of a bootleg record from the Soviet Union, recorded on an X-ray negative.

    Richard Gunderman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. When Elvis and Ella were pressed onto X-rays – the subversive legacy of Soviet ‘bone music’ – https://theconversation.com/when-elvis-and-ella-were-pressed-onto-x-rays-the-subversive-legacy-of-soviet-bone-music-251885

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Critical minerals don’t belong in landfills – microwave tech offers a cleaner way to reclaim them from e-waste

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Terence Musho, Associate Professor of Engineering, West Virginia University

    Broken electronics still contain valuable critical minerals. Beeldbewerking/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    When the computer or phone you’re using right now blinks its last blink and you drop it off for recycling, do you know what happens?

    At the recycling center, powerful magnets will pull out steel. Spinning drums will toss aluminum into bins. Copper wires will get neatly bundled up for resale. But as the conveyor belt keeps rolling, tiny specks of valuable, lesser-known materials such as gallium, indium and tantalum will be left behind.

    Those tiny specks are critical materials. They’re essential for building new technology, and they’re in short supply in the U.S. They could be reused, but there’s a problem: Current recycling methods make recovering critical minerals from e-waste too costly or hazardous, so many recyclers simply skip them.

    Sadly, most of these hard-to-recycle materials end up buried in landfills or get mixed into products like cement. But it doesn’t have to be this way. New technology is starting to make a difference.

    A treasure trove of critical materials is often overlooked in e-waste, including gallium in LEDs, indium in LCDs, and tantalum in surface mount capacitors.
    Ansan Pokharel/West Virginia University, CC BY

    As demand for these critical materials keeps growing, discarded electronics can become valuable resources. My colleagues and I at West Virginia University are developing a new technology to change how we recycle. Instead of using toxic chemicals, our approach uses electricity, making it safer, cleaner and more affordable to recover critical materials from electronics.

    How much e-waste are we talking about?

    Americans generated about 2.7 million tons of electronic waste in 2018, according to the latest federal data. Including uncounted electronics, a survey by the United Nations suggests that the U.S. recycles only about 15% of its total e-waste.

    Even worse, nearly half the electronics that people in Northern America sent to recycling centers end up shipped overseas. They often land in scrapyards, where workers may use dangerous methods like burning or leaching using harsh chemicals to pull out valuable metals. These practices can harm both the environment and workers’ health. That’s why the Environmental Protection Agency restricts these methods in the U.S.

    The tiny specks matter

    Critical minerals are in most of the technology around you. Every phone screen has a super-thin layer of a material called indium tin oxide. LEDs glow because of a metal called gallium. Tantalum stores energy in tiny electronic parts called capacitors.

    All of these materials are flagged as “high risk” on the U.S. Department of Energy’s critical materials list. That means the U.S. relies heavily on these materials for important technologies, but their supply could be easily disrupted by conflicts, trade disputes or shortages.

    Right now, just a few countries, including China, control most of the mining, processing and recovery of these materials, making the U.S. vulnerable if those countries decide to limit exports or raise prices.

    These materials aren’t cheap, either. For example, the U.S. Geological Survey reports that gallium was priced between US$220 to $500 per kilogram in 2024. That’s 50 times more expensive than common metals like copper, at $9.48 per kilogram in 2024.

    Revolutionizing recycling with microwaves

    At West Virginia University’s Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering, I and materials scientist Edward Sabolsky asked a simple question: Could we find a way to heat only specific parts of electronic waste to recover these valuable materials?

    If we could focus the heat on just the tiny specks of critical minerals, we might be able to recycle them easily and efficiently.

    The solution we found: microwaves.

    This equipment isn’t very different from the microwave ovens you use to heat food at home, just bigger and more powerful. The basic science is the same – electromagnetic waves cause electrons to oscillate, creating heat.

    In our approach, though, we’re not heating water molecules like you do when cooking. Instead, we heat carbon, the black residue that collects around a candle flame or car tailpipe. Carbon heats up much faster in a microwave than water does. But don’t try this at home; your kitchen microwave wasn’t designed for such high temperatures.

    West Virginia University researchers are using this experimental microwave reactor to recycle critical materials from end-of-life electronics.
    Ansan Pokharel/West Virginia University, CC BY

    In our recycling method, we first shred the electronic waste, mix it with materials called fluxes that trap impurities, and then heat the mixture with microwaves. The microwaves rapidly heat the carbon that comes from the plastics and adhesives in the e-waste. This causes the carbon to react with the tiny specks of critical materials. The result: a tiny piece of pure, sponge-like metal about the size of a grain of rice.

    This metal can then be easily separated from leftover waste using filters.

    So far, in our laboratory tests, we have successfully recovered about 80% of the gallium, indium and tantalum from e-waste, at purities between 95% and 97%. We have also demonstrated how it can be integrated with existing recycling processes.

    Why the Department of Defense is interested

    Our recycling technology got its start with help from a program funded by the Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

    Many important technologies, from radar systems to nuclear reactors, depend on these special materials. While the Department of Defense uses less of them than the commercial market, they are a national security concern.

    We’re planning to launch larger pilot projects next to test the method on smartphone circuit boards, LED lighting parts and server cards from data centers. These tests will help us fine-tune the design for a bigger system that can recycle tons of e-waste per hour instead of just a few pounds. That could mean producing up to 50 pounds of these critical minerals per hour from every ton of e-waste processed.

    If the technology works as expected, we believe this approach could help meet the nation’s demand for critical materials.

    How to make e-waste recycling common

    One way e-waste recycling could become more common is if Congress held electronics companies responsible for recycling their products and recovering the critical materials inside. Closing loopholes that allow companies to ship e-waste overseas, instead of processing it safely in the U.S., could also help build a reserve of recovered critical minerals.

    But the biggest change may come from simple economics. Once technology becomes available to recover these tiny but valuable specks of critical materials quickly and affordably, the U.S. can transform domestic recycling and take a big step toward solving its shortage of critical materials.

    Terence Musho has received funding from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

    – ref. Critical minerals don’t belong in landfills – microwave tech offers a cleaner way to reclaim them from e-waste – https://theconversation.com/critical-minerals-dont-belong-in-landfills-microwave-tech-offers-a-cleaner-way-to-reclaim-them-from-e-waste-254908

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Public health and private equity: What the Walgreens buyout could mean for the future of pharmacy care

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Patrick Aguilar, Professor of Practice of Organizational Behavior, Washington University in St. Louis

    Pharmacies are more than just stores – they’re vital links between people and their health care.

    One of us, Patrick, witnessed this firsthand in 2003 while working as a pharmacy technician at Walgreens in a midsize West Texas town. Each day involved handling hundreds of prescriptions as they moved through the system – meticulously counting pills, deciphering doctors’ handwriting and sorting out confusing insurance issues. The experience revealed that how pharmacies are owned and managed is as much a public health issue as it is a financial one.

    Fast-forward to today, and Walgreens – one of the world’s largest pharmacy chains, which filled nearly 800 million U.S. prescriptions in 2024 – is at a turning point. In March, the company announced it would be acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners for US$10 billion, just 10% of its peak market value. That deal takes the storied pharmacy chain off the public market for the first time in nearly 100 years.

    We’re professors who study the intersection of medicine and business, and we think this deal offers a window into the future of pharmacy care. It matters not just to pharmacists but also to the tens of millions of Americans who rely on outlets like Walgreens to meet their everyday health needs.

    The rise and struggles of Walgreens

    A lot has changed in the pharmacy industry since 1901, when Charles R. Walgreen Sr. purchased the Chicago drugstore where he served as a pharmacist. The company went public in 1927, expanded rapidly throughout the 20th century and grew to 8,000 stores by 2013. By 2014, a merger with the European pharmacy chain Alliance Boots made Walgreens one of the largest pharmacy chains in the world.

    More recently, however, the picture for the pharmacy industry hasn’t been so rosy. Labor costs have risen. Front-end retail sales – things like snacks, greeting cards and cosmetics – have fallen. And financial pressures from pharmacy benefit managers – those third-party groups that manage the cost of prescription drug benefits on the behalf of insurers – have grown.

    All of these things have significantly constrained revenues across the industry, leading stores to shutter. Some estimates suggest that as many as one-third of U.S. retail pharmacies have closed since 2010.

    Against that backdrop, Sycamore Partners’ March acquisition of Walgreens raises big questions. What does Sycamore see in this investment, and what might their strategies imply about the future of American pharmacy care?

    Framing the private equity bet

    Private equity firms typically buy companies, streamline their operations and seek to sell them for a profit within five to seven years of the acquisition.

    This growing movement of private equity into the global economy is by no means limited to health care. In 2020, private equity firms employed 11.7 million U.S. workers, or about 7% of the country’s total workforce. The total assets under management by such investors have grown by over 11% annually over the past two decades, a trend that’s expected to continue.

    In looking at Walgreens, Sycamore, like many of these businesses, likely sees an opportunity to buy low, cut costs and improve profitability. One survey of private equity investors found that the most common self-reported sources of value creation in these deals for companies of Sycamore’s size were changing the product and marketing it more robustly to drive demand, changing incentives for those within the business, and facilitating a high-value exit.

    While private owners may have more patience than public markets, critics argue that private equity firms tend to have a short-term focus, looking for quick, predictable services of margin improvement – like, for example, cutting jobs.

    There’s some evidence in favor of that claim. One study found that employment often drops in the years following a private equity buyout. And if the focus shifts to repaying debt or prepping for resale, long-term projects, such as investing in future innovation, can get deprioritized.

    The history of privatized public companies offers a mix of successes and failures. Dell Technologies and hotel chain Hilton are two prominent examples of companies that went private, restructured successfully and came back stronger. In those cases, going private helped management focus without the constant pressure of quarterly earnings reports.

    On the other hand, companies such as Toys R Us, which was taken private in 2005 and filed for bankruptcy in 2018, show how high debt and missed innovation can lead to collapse.

    What’s next for Walgreens

    So, where does this leave Walgreens − and the investors involved in the deal?

    If part of the returns will be driven by “buying low” – the easiest indicator of potential future success to measure as of today – Sycamore started well: Its purchase price represents a mere 8% premium over the market trading value on the day of the announcement, significantly less than the 46% seen across industries in 2023. That said, Sycamore financed 83.4% of the purchase with debt, a number on the high end for these kinds of transactions. Health care groups have pointed to this number while raising concerns that innovation-focused investments may take a back seat to debt obligations.

    As the dust settles on the purchase, Sycamore has indicated an interest in splitting Walgreens into three business units: one focused on U.S. pharmacies, one on U.K. pharmacies and one on U.S. primary health care through its VillageMD subsidiary.

    That’s not unusual: Sycamore has used a similar approach before with its investment in the office supply retailer Staples, a strategy that has garnered strong financial returns but been called into question for its long-term sustainability.

    Given the significant financial challenges VillageMD has faced since its acquisition by Walgreens, this represents an opportunity to separately evaluate and optimize its performance. Meanwhile, Sycamore’s historic focus on retail and customer-focused businesses might help it modernize the in-store experience or optimize staffing.

    For more than a century, Walgreens has survived and adapted to sweeping changes in retail. Now, it’s entering a new chapter – one that could reshape not just its own future but the role of pharmacies in American life.

    Will Sycamore help Walgreens thrive, using its resources to strengthen services and deliver more value to customers? Or will pressure to generate quick returns create problems? Either way, the answer matters – not just for investors but for anyone who’s ever relied on their neighborhood pharmacy to stay healthy.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Public health and private equity: What the Walgreens buyout could mean for the future of pharmacy care – https://theconversation.com/public-health-and-private-equity-what-the-walgreens-buyout-could-mean-for-the-future-of-pharmacy-care-253598

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Guns bought in the US and trafficked to Mexican drug cartels fuel violence in Mexico and the migration crisis

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sean Campbell, Investigative Journalist, The Conversation

    The Mexican security forces tracking Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes – the leader of a deadly drug cartel that has been a top driver of violence in Mexico and narcotic addiction in America – thought they finally had him cornered on May 1, 2015.

    Four helicopters carrying an arrest team whirled over the mountains near Mexico’s southwestern coast toward Cervantes’ compound in the town of Villa Purificación, the heart of the infamous Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel.

    As the lead helicopter pulled within range, bullets from a truck-mounted, military-grade machine gun on the ground struck the engine. Before it reached the ground, the massive helicopter was hit by a pair of rocket-powered grenades.

    This .50-caliber cartridge was found stuck in the truck-mounted Browning M2HB machine gun that the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel used to damage a Mexican Security Forces Super Cougar helicopter.
    ATF

    Four soldiers from Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense were killed in the crash. Three more soldiers were killed in the firefight that followed, and another 12 were injured.

    The engagement was the first known incident of a cartel shooting down a military aircraft in Mexico. The cartel’s retaliation for the attempted arrest was swift and brutal. It set fire to trucks, buses, banks, gasoline stations and businesses. The distractions worked. Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho,” escaped.

    The Browning machine gun that took down the helicopter was traced to a legal firearm purchase in Oregon made by a U.S. citizen. And a Barrett .50-caliber rifle used in the ambush was traced to a sale in a U.S. gun shop in Texas 4½ years before.

    Many military-grade weapons like these are trafficked into Mexico from the U.S. each year, aided by loose standards for firearm dealers and gun laws that favor illicit sales.

    We – a professor of economic development who has been tracking gun trafficking for more than 10 years, and an investigative journalist – spent a year sifting through documents to find the number, origins and characteristics of weapons flowing from the U.S. to Mexico.

    The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – the agency known as ATF tasked with regulating the industry – publishes the number of U.S. guns seized in Mexico and traced back to U.S. dealers, but it doesn’t provide an official trafficking estimate. The 2003 Tiahrt Amendments bar the ATF from creating a database of firearm sales and prohibit federal agencies from sharing detailed trace data outside of law enforcement.

    To estimate weapons flow, we gathered trafficking estimates, including leaked data, previous research, firearm manufacturing totals and the ATF trace data.

    The model we generated gave us a conservative middle estimate: About 135,000 firearms were trafficked across the border in 2022. In contrast, Ukraine, engaged in a war with Russia, received 40,000 small arms from the United States between January 2020 and April 2024 – an average of 9,000 per year.

    Our analysis also found:

    • This flow of weapons is connected to the drug trade in the U.S. and enables increased gang violence in Mexico, causing more people to flee across the border.

    • An increase in guns trafficked to Mexico from the U.S. relates to an increase in Mexico’s homicide rate.

    • More of the most destructive weapons come from independent gun dealers versus large chain stores – 16 times as many assault-style weapons and 60 times as many sniper rifles.

    • The trafficking flow drives an arms race between criminals and Mexican law enforcement; the U.S. gun industry profits on sales to both.

    • ATF oversight of dealers reduces the likelihood their guns are resold on the illicit market.

    Following the flow

    Since 2008, the U.S. has spent more than US$3 billion to help stabilize Mexico through the rule of law and stem its surges of extreme violence, much of it committed with U.S. firearms. Many programs are funded through the U.S. State Department, which is facing budget cuts, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has sustained deep cuts.

    Meanwhile, the gun industry and its supporters have undercut these efforts by fighting measures to regulate gun sales.

    From 2015-2023, 185,000 guns linked to crimes in Mexico were sent to the ATF to be traced – the process of using a firearm’s serial number and other characteristics to identify the trail of gun ownership. About 125,000 of those weapons have been traced back to the U.S.

    Our analyses show that U.S.-Mexico firearms trafficking has dire implications for ordinary Mexicans – and that U.S. regulatory actions can have an enormous impact. This adds to a growing body of research tying U.S.-sold guns to Mexico-based gangs and cartels, illegal drug trafficking, homicide rates, corruption of Mexican officials, illicit financial transactions and migration trends.

    Oregon guns tied to cartel

    The Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel is poised to be the biggest player in the drug cartel game. El Mencho, still at large, is one of the most powerful people directing the flow of heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamines into the United States, while orchestrating campaigns of fear, intimidation and displacement in Mexico.

    The Browning .50-caliber rifle that aided El Mencho’s evasion in 2015 was manufactured by a company based in Morgan, Utah, and legally sold to Erik Flores Elortegui, a U.S. citizen.

    Elortegui fled the country after he was indicted in Oregon for smuggling guns into Mexico and is now at the top of the ATF’s most wanted list. He wasn’t alone in his gunrunning schemes. According to a grand jury indictment, Elortegui purchased 20 firearms through an accomplice, Robert Allen Cummins, in 2013 and 2014. Cummins was straw purchasing – buying weapons under his name for Elortegui.

    Two of the .50-caliber weapons that Cummins purchased for Elortegui – the long rifles on the right – were among those later recovered from a tractor trailer in Sonora, Mexico. USA v. Robert Allen Cummins.
    USA v. Robert Allen Cummins

    Before she gave Cummins a 40-month prison sentence in 2017, Judge Ann Aiken admonished him for the pain and suffering his weapons were likely going to cause. She told him to read “Dreamland,” which chronicles America’s opioid crisis and its connection to Mexican drug cartels.

    Guns and violence

    In 2021 the ATF teamed up with academics to produce the National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment. It showed that the share of firearms trafficked to Mexico, already the top market for illegal U.S.-to-foreign gun transfer, increased by 20% from 2017 to 2021.

    Gun sales are strictly regulated within Mexico. But homicides have risen to disturbing heights – three times that of the U.S. – since the lapse of the U.S. assault weapons ban in 2004. Research suggests the two are linked.

    After their mother was killed by organized crime five years ago, Emylce Ines Espinoza-Alarcon’s sister’s family migrated to the States, she said.

    Espinoza-Alarcon, her children and other relatives were more recently driven from their homes by violence. “As a parent, you try to flee to a different place where they might be safe,” Espinoza-Alarcon said. She said she believes American weapons are to blame, but there “is nowhere else for us to go.”

    Emylce Ines Espinoza-Alarcon holds her toddler as she listens while her aunt, Alicia Zomora-Guevara, front, describes the cartel attack on her town that forced their families into exile. Zomora-Guevara’s son, Kevin Jait Alarcon-Zamora, stands to the right, and Espinoza-Alarcon’s son and teenage daughter sit on the Mexico City hotel room bed in front of her.
    Sean Campbell, CC BY-ND

    A 2023 survey found that 88% of the 180,000 Mexican migrants to the U.S. that year were fleeing violence – a flip from 2017 when most were coming for economic opportunity.

    The ATF’s enforcement

    ATF inspections keep illicit guns in check, our analysis shows.

    The agency’s primary enforcement tools are inspections, violations reports, warning letters and meetings, and, when inspectors find violations that are reckless or willfully endanger the public, revocation notices.

    But the bureau’s 2025 congressional budget request points out that it would need 1,509 field investigators to reach its goal of inspecting each dealer at least once every three years.

    The ATF is “focusing on identifying and addressing willful violations,” a spokesperson wrote in a November 2024 email, referring to the zero-tolerance revocation policy the Biden administration put in place in 2021 that dramatically increased the number of revocations.

    Meanwhile, the ATF announced in April 2025 that it was repealing the revocation policy and reviewing recent rules, including one that clarifies when a gun is a rifle. The webpage listing revocations, including detailed reports, was also removed from the ATF site.

    This is a condensed version. To learn more about the connections between U.S. gun sales, U.S. regulations, Mexican drug cartels and migration, read the full investigation

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Guns bought in the US and trafficked to Mexican drug cartels fuel violence in Mexico and the migration crisis – https://theconversation.com/guns-bought-in-the-us-and-trafficked-to-mexican-drug-cartels-fuel-violence-in-mexico-and-the-migration-crisis-256070

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: High electricity prices zapping your budget? Here are 5 ways to save

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Hannah Wiseman, Professor of Law, Penn State

    Pennsylvania residents may get sticker shock when they see their electric bills this summer. Aging infrastructure, extreme weather, transmission bottlenecks and increased demand are sending electricity rates soaring.

    Widespread rate hikes across the commonwealth started in December 2024 and are continuing in 2025. Rising prices are related to how the wholesale electricity market in Pennsylvania operates, among other factors. Utilities are paying much more than in previous years to ensure they can meet their customers’ future demand, and these costs are being passed on to consumers.

    For example, Philadelphia residents were among those hit with a 10% rate increase that went into effect in January 2025 for all residential customers of PECO, Pennsylvania’s largest electric and gas utility. Some of PECO’s residential customers will see an additional 12.5% rate increase kick in on June 1, 2025.

    A notice from PECO sent May 21, 2025.

    As Penn State University professors who research energy law and electricity markets, we want to suggest five ways Pennsylvania consumers can lower their electric bills amid price hikes.

    1. Use less

    Much like when gasoline prices rise, the best response for individual consumers when electric rates go up is often to use less electricity.

    The largest efficiency improvements typically involve weatherizing a home – for example, adding insulation or sealing drafty windows and doors. Installing energy-efficient appliances such as heat pumps or changing your thermostat setting a few degrees can also save money.

    Weatherization has an added benefit: improved health. In addition to maintaining a more comfortable indoor temperature, weatherizing paired with ventilation improvements can improve indoor air quality and control indoor moisture and mold.

    Making a home more energy efficient can be tricky for low-income people, who might not be able to afford the costs, and renters, who don’t own the premises. However, Pennsylvania offers several programs to help residents make energy efficiency improvements, and organizations such as the Philadelphia Energy Authority try to reach low-income households.

    Through the state’s low income usage reduction program, eligible tenants can receive help installing energy-saving features with written permission from their landlord. The multifamily weatherization assistance program has also provided grants for weatherization measures such as insulation and “air sealing to reduce infiltration” in buildings with five or more units that meet income criteria for residents.

    In Pennsylvania, residential electricity rates are expected to climb 10% or more in each of the next three years.
    MStudioImages/E+ Collection via Getty Images

    2. Shop around – but buyer beware

    Pennsylvania has what is called “retail electricity choice,” which means residents can pick who generates their electricity. For example, consumers can shop around for different rates charged per kilowatt-hour of electricity they consume or for electricity produced from wind and solar power.

    But electricity customers cannot choose who carries that electricity to their residences. That is done by a regulated electric distribution company, or utility, with a monopoly on service.

    Consumers can sometimes reduce their bills by choosing a cheaper offer for generation. But retail choice can be risky if consumers do not carefully read the conditions of the contract.

    For example, some plans charge a higher rate than the default rate from the distribution company. Others charge different rates depending on whether the electricity is consumed during peak or off-peak hours. And still others lock customers into long contracts at a fixed price. This becomes undesirable if the default electricity rate drops lower than the contracted rate.

    3. Try solar

    For those who own their home, installing rooftop solar panels is another way to avoid higher electric bills.

    The cost of solar panels has fallen steadily for many years, and rising electric rates make the economics of solar better.

    Central Columbia High School in Bloomsburg, Pa., installed solar panels to offset power consumption.
    Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

    Pennsylvania also has fairly advantageous rules for “net metering, which allows solar homeowners to get credits from the utility for excess solar power fed back into the grid.

    For example, say a customer uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity in a month and their rooftop solar panels generate 1,200 kilowatt-hours. They won’t have to pay for the 1,000 kilowatt-hours they used, and those additional 200 kilowatt-hours will be credited on their next monthly electric bill.

    Additionally, a number of federal and state tax incentives are available for rooftop solar energy in Pennsylvania. These incentives offset some of the up-front costs of installing solar panels.

    Buying solar panels is a high up-front expense, however, even with tax credits. Programs such as Solarize Greater Philadelphia can help reduce the cost. But keep in mind that not all properties have roofs that are large, strong or sunny enough to benefit from solar.

    For homeowners with suitable roofs, third-party solar is another option. This is when a company installs and continues owning the solar panels and charges the customer a fixed rate for the electricity produced by the solar panels. This rate is typically cheaper than the rate offered by the utility. But as with any contract, consumers need to read the fine print carefully and understand the long-term obligation.

    4. Go to a public hearing

    Local electric utilities are regulated by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. Pennsylvania residents can file formal complaints with the PUC about rate hikes, or they can attend one of PUC’s public input hearings.

    At these hearings, consumers can voice their concerns or argue against certain utility expenditures, such as lobbying expenses that utilities sometimes recoup through charges to customers.

    Consumers might want to pay particular attention to the commission’s proceedings as it considers new electric rates and regulation for data centers and other large-load customers. These rates will determine which costs are shouldered by the data center operators and which costs wind up on the electric bills of all Pennsylvanians.

    Consumers can file comments to advocate for a rate-sharing plan they believe will be fair.

    5. Think holistically

    As Americans continue to digitize their lives, electricity demand – and therefore prices – will likely continue to rise.

    Existing electric power grids are strained by increasing demand.
    Joe Raedle via Getty Images

    Given that growing electricity demand contributes to higher future rates, consumers may want to think about the energy-intensive online applications they use, such as data storage and all the AI features that tech companies are integrating into their products.

    Consumers might also want to consider the types of energy they want produced in their neighborhood. Many people understandably oppose constructing new energy facilities in their communities due to the aesthetic impacts, use of land and in some cases pollution. But this opposition can also slow the construction of new energy generation.

    Better processes for community involvement can enable the construction of generation with fewer negative impacts. These processes include, among other things, more detailed developer-community discussions and more comprehensive and thoughtful community benefits agreements. These agreements allow communities to negotiate services and resources that the energy developer will provide them. Such offerings might include vocational training programs, financial or other donations, or commitments to hire local labor.

    Read more of our stories about Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.

    Hannah Wiseman receives or has recently received funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Arnold Ventures, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Center for Rural Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. She is a member of the Center for Progressive Reform.

    Seth Blumsack receives or has recently received funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Heising Simons Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, Center for Rural Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

    – ref. High electricity prices zapping your budget? Here are 5 ways to save – https://theconversation.com/high-electricity-prices-zapping-your-budget-here-are-5-ways-to-save-256049

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump wants to cut funding to sanctuary cities and towns – but they don’t actually violate federal law

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Benjamin Gonzalez O’Brien, Associate Professor of Political Science, San Diego State University

    While sanctuary policies for immigrants have grown in the U.S. since the 1980s, the Trump administration is the first to challenge them. Marcos Silva/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    San Francisco, Chicago and New York are among the major cities – as well as more than 200 small towns and counties and a dozen states – that over the past 40 years have adopted what is often known as sanctuary policies.

    There is not a single definition of a sanctuary policy. But it often involves local authorities not asking about a resident’s immigration status, or not sharing that personal information with federal immigration authorities.

    So when a San Francisco police officer pulls someone over for a traffic violation, the officer will not ask if the person is living in the country legally.

    American presidents, from Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden, have chosen to leave sanctuary policies largely unchallenged since different places first adopted them in the 1970s. This changed in 2017, when President Donald Trump first tried to cut federal funding to sanctuary places, claiming that their policies “willfully violate Federal law.” Legal challenges during his first term stopped him from actually withholding the money.

    At the start of his second term, Trump signed two executive orders in January and April 2025 which again state that his administration will withhold federal money from areas with sanctuary policies.

    “Working on papers to withhold all Federal Funding for any City or State that allows these Death Traps to exist!!!” Trump said, according to an April White House statement. This statement was immediately followed by his April executive order.

    These two executive orders task the attorney general and secretary of homeland security with publishing a list of all sanctuary places and notifying local and state officials of “non-compliance, providing an opportunity to correct it.” Those that do not comply with federal law, according to the orders, may lose federal funding.

    San Francisco and 14 other sanctuary cities, including New Haven, Connecticut, and Portland, Oregon, sued the Trump administration in February on the grounds that it was illegally trying to coerce cities to comply with its policies. A U.S. district court judge in California issued an injunction on April 24 preventing the administration – at least for the time being – from cutting funding from places with sanctuary policies.

    However, as researchers who have studied sanctuary policies for over a decade, we know that Trump’s claim that sanctuary policies violate federal immigration law is not correct.

    It’s true that the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over immigration. Yet there is no federal requirement that state or local governments participate or cooperate in federal immigration enforcement, which would require an act of Congress.

    A sign is seen at the Nogales, Ariz., and Mariposa, Mexico, border crossing.
    Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images

    What’s behind sanctuary policies

    In 1979, the Los Angeles Police Department was the first to announce a prohibition on local officials asking about a resident’s immigration status.

    However, it was not until the 1980s that the sanctuary movement took off, when hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Nicaraguans fled civil war and violence in their home countries and migrated to the U.S. This prompted a number of cities to declare solidarity with the faith-based sanctuary movement that offered refuge to Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Nicaraguan asylum seekers facing deportation.

    In 1985, Berkeley, Calif., and San Francisco pledged that city officials, including police officers, would not report Central Americans to immigration authorities as long as they were law abiding.

    Berkeley also banned officials from using local money to work with federal immigration authorities.

    “We are not asking anyone to do anything illegal,” Nancy Walker, a supervisor for San Francisco, said in 1985, according to The New York Times. “We have got to extend our hand to these people. If these people go home, they die. They are asking us to let them stay.”

    Today, there are hundreds of sanctuary cities, towns, counties and states across the country that all have a variation of policies that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

    Sometimes – but not always – places with sanctuary policies bar local law enforcement agencies from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the country’s main immigration enforcement agency.

    A large part of ICE’s work is identifying, arresting and deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. In order to carry out this work, ICE issues what is known as “detainer requests” to local law enforcement authorities. A detainer request asks local law enforcement to hold a specific arrested person already being held by police until that person can be transferred to ICE, which can then take steps to deport them.

    While places without sanctuary policies tend to comply with these requests, some sanctuary jurisdictions, like the state of California, only do so in the cases of particular violent criminal offenses.

    Yet local officials in sanctuary places cannot legally block ICE from arresting local residents who are living in the country illegally, or from carrying out any other parts of its work.

    Can Trump withhold federal funding?

    Trump claimed in 2017 that sanctuary policies violated federal law, and he issued an executive order that tried to rescind federal grants that these jurisdictions received.

    However, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2018 case involving San Francisco and Santa Clara County, California, that the president could not refuse to “disperse the federal grants in question without congressional authorization.”

    Federal courts, meanwhile, split over whether Trump could freeze funding attached to a specific federal program called the Edward Byrne Memorial Assistance Grant Program, which provides about US$250 million in annual funding to state and local law enforcement.

    These cases were in the process of being appealed to the Supreme Court when the Department of Justice, under Biden, asked that they be dismissed.

    Other Supreme Court rulings also suggest that the Trump administration’s claim that it can withhold federal funding from sanctuary places rests on shaky legal ground.

    The Supreme Court ruled in 1992 and again in 1997 that the federal government could not coerce state or local governments to use their resources to enforce a federal regulatory program, or compel them to enact or administer a federal regulatory program.

    Under pressure

    The first Trump administration was not generally successful, with the exception of the split over the Edward Byrne Memorial Assistance Grant Program, at stripping funding from sanctuary places. But cutting federal funding – even if it happens temporarily – can be economically damaging to cities and counties while they challenge the decision in court.

    Local officials also face other kinds of political pressure to comply with the Trump administration’s demands.

    A legal group founded by Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff in the Trump administration, for example, sent letters to dozens of local officials in January threatening criminal prosecution for their sanctuary policies.

    Michelle Wu, the mayor of Boston, a sanctuary city, testifies during a House committee hearing on sanctuary city mayors on March 5, 2025, in Washington.
    Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

    The real effects of sanctuary policies

    One part of Trump’s argument against sanctuary policies is that places with these policies have more crime than those that do not.

    But there is no established relationship between sanctuary status and crime rates.

    There is, however, evidence that when local law enforcement and ICE work together, it reduces the likelihood of immigrant and Latino communities to report crimes, likely for fear of being arrested by federal immigration authorities.

    Sanctuary policies are certainly worthy of debate, but this requires an accurate representation of what they are, what they do, and the effects they have.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Trump wants to cut funding to sanctuary cities and towns – but they don’t actually violate federal law – https://theconversation.com/trump-wants-to-cut-funding-to-sanctuary-cities-and-towns-but-they-dont-actually-violate-federal-law-255831

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The hidden power of cultural exchanges in countering propaganda and fostering international goodwill

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Nicholas J. Cull, Professor of Communication, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

    The bluegrass group Della Mae plays at an orphanage in Kyrgyzstan on its State Department-sponsored American Music Abroad tour in 2012. Photo: Paul Rockower

    At a time when China is believed to spend about US$8 billion annually sending its ideas and culture around the world, President Donald Trump has proposed to cut by 93% the part of the State Department that does the same thing for the United States.

    The division is called the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Among its other activities, the bureau brings foreign leaders to the U.S. for visits, funds much of the Fulbright international student, scholar and teacher exchange program and works to get American culture to places all across the globe.

    Does this matter?

    As a historian specializing in the role of communication in foreign policy, I think it does. Reputation is part of national security, and the U.S. has historically enhanced its reputation by building relationships through cultural tools.

    Previous U.S. administrations have realized this, including during President Donald Trump’s first term, when his team, led by Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce, raised the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs budget to an all-time high.

    Modern Jazz Quartet traveled to Germany in 1960 as jazz ambassadors on a State Department-sponsored tour.

    Giving politics a human dimension

    Government-funded cultural diplomacy is an old practice. In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison’s government hosted a delegation of leaders from Latin America on a 5,000-mile rail tour around the American heartland as a curtain raiser for the first Pan-American conference. The visitors met a variety of American icons, from wordsmith Mark Twain to gunsmiths Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson.

    President Teddy Roosevelt initiated the first longer-term cultural exchange program by spending money raised from an indemnity imposed on the Chinese government for its mishandling of the Boxer Rebellion, during which Western diplomats had been held hostage. The program, for the education of Chinese people, included study in the U.S. In contrast, European powers did nothing special with their share of the money.

    During World II, Nelson Rockefeller, who led a special federal agency created to build links to Latin America, brought South American writers to the U.S. to experience the country firsthand. In so doing, he invented the short-term leader visit as a type of exchange.

    This work went into high gear during the 1950s. The U.S. sought to stitch postwar Germany back into the community of nations, so that nation became a particular focus. Programs linked emerging global leaders to Americans with similar interests: doctor to doctor; pastor to pastor; politician to politician.

    I found that by 1963, one-third of the German federal parliament and two-thirds of the German Cabinet had been cultivated this way.

    Visits gave a human dimension to political alignment, and returnees had the ability to speak to their countrymen and women with the authority of personal experience.

    From jazz to promoting peace

    The globally focused International Visitor Leadership Program built early-career relationships between U.S. citizens and young foreign leaders who later played a central role in aligning their nations with American policy.

    Nearly 250,000 participants have traveled to the U.S. since 1940, including about 500 who went on to lead their own governments.

    Future Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain visited as a young member of Parliament; F.W. De Klerk came from South Africa and saw the post-Jim Crow South before he helped lead his country to dismantling apartheid; and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat visited the U.S. and began to build trust with Americans a decade before he became leader of his country and partnered with President Jimmy Carter to advance peace with Israel.

    British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s note from 10 Downing Street about her 1967 exchange visit to the US – ‘Forevermore I shall be a true friend to the United States.’
    U.S. Department of State

    Cultural work more broadly has included helping export U.S. music to places where it would not normally be heard. The Cold War tours of American jazz musicians are justly famous. Work bringing together the world’s sometimes persecuted writers for creative sanctuary at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa is less well known.

    The Reagan administration arranged citizen-to-citizen meetings with the Soviet Union to thaw the Cold War. Reagan’s theory was that ordinary citizens could connect: He imagined a typical Ivan and Anya meeting a typical Jim and Sally and understanding each other.

    Current programs include bringing emerging highfliers in tech, music and sports to the U.S. to connect to and be mentored by Americans in the same field and then go home to be part of a living network of enhanced understanding. Such programs are in danger of being cut under Trump.

    Five U.S. hip-hop artists traveled to Harare, Zimbabwe, in 2024 to perform for audiences and collaborate with local artists as part of the State Department’s Next Level program.
    U.S. Department of State

    Personal experience conquers stereotypes

    How exactly does this work advance U.S. security?

    I see these exchanges as the national equivalent to the advice given to a diplomat in kidnap training: Try to establish a rapport with your hostage-taker so that they will see the person and be inclined to mercy.

    The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is the part of the Department of State that cultivates empathy and implicitly counters the claims of America’s detractors with personal experience. Quite simply, it is harder to hate people you really know. More than this, exchanged people frequently become the core of each embassy’s local network.

    Of course, an exchange program is just one part of a nation’s reputational security.

    Reputation flows from reality, and reality is demonstrated over time. Historically, America’s reputation has rested on the health of the country’s core institutions, including its legal system and higher education as well as its standard of living.

    U.S. reputational security has also required reform.

    In the 1950s, when President Dwight Eisenhower faced an onslaught of Soviet propaganda emphasizing racism and racial disparities within the U.S., he understood that an effective response required that the U.S. not only showcase Black achievement but also be less racist. Civil rights became a Cold War priority.

    Today, when the U.S. has no shortage of international detractors, observers at home and abroad question whether the country remains a good example of democracy.

    As lawmakers in Washington debate federal spending priorities, building relationships through cultural tools may not survive budget cuts. Historically, both sides of the political aisle have failed to appreciate the significance of investing in cultural relations.

    In 2013, when still a general heading Central Command, Jim Mattis, later Trump’s secretary of defense, was blunt about what such lack of regard would mean. In 2013 he told Congress: ‘If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition, ultimately.“

    Nicholas J. Cull does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. The hidden power of cultural exchanges in countering propaganda and fostering international goodwill – https://theconversation.com/the-hidden-power-of-cultural-exchanges-in-countering-propaganda-and-fostering-international-goodwill-256316

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Billy Joel has excess fluid in his brain – a neurologist explains what happens when this protective liquid gets out of balance

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Danielle Wilhour, Assistant Professor of Neurology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

    Billy Joel was diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

    Cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF, is a clear, colorless liquid that plays a crucial role in maintaining the health and function of your central nervous system. It cushions the brain and spinal cord, provides nutrients and removes waste products.

    Despite its importance, problems related to CSF often go unnoticed until something goes wrong.

    Recently, cerebrospinal fluid disorders drew public attention with the announcement that musician Billy Joel had been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus. In this condition, excess CSF accumulates in the brain’s cavities, enlarging them and putting pressure on surrounding brain tissue even though diagnostic readings appear normal. Because normal pressure hydrocephalus typically develops gradually and can mimic symptoms of other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease, it is often misdiagnosed.

    I am a neurologist and headache specialist. In my work treating patients with CSF pressure disorders, I have seen these conditions present in many different ways. Here’s what happens when your cerebrospinal fluid stops working.

    What is cerebrospinal fluid?

    CSF is made of water, proteins, sugars, ions and neurotransmitters. It is primarily produced by a network of cells called the choroid plexus, which is located in the brain’s ventricles, or cavities.

    The choroid plexus produces approximately 500 milliliters (17 ounces) of CSF daily, but only about 150 milliliters (5 ounces) are present within the central nervous system at any given time due to constant absorption and replenishment in the brain. This fluid circulates through the ventricles of the brain, the central canal of the spinal cord and the subarachnoid space surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

    Cerebrospinal fluid circulates throughout the brain and spinal cord.
    OpenStax, CC BY-SA

    CSF has several critical functions. It protects the brain and spinal cord from injury by absorbing shocks. Suspending the brain in this fluid reduces its effective weight and prevents it from being crushed under its own mass. Additionally, CSF helps maintain a stable chemical environment in the central nervous system, facilitating the removal of metabolic waste and the distribution of nutrients and hormones.

    If the production, circulation or absorption of cerebrospinal fluid is disrupted, it can lead to significant health issues. Two notable conditions are CSF leaks and idiopathic intracranial hypertension.

    Cerebrospinal fluid leak

    A CSF leak occurs when the fluid escapes through a tear or hole in the dura mater – the tough, outermost layer of the meninges that surrounds the brain and spinal cord.

    The dura can be damaged from head injuries or punctured during surgical procedures involving the sinuses, brain or spine, such as lumbar puncture, epidurals, spinal anesthesia or myelogram. Spontaneous CSF leaks can also occur without any identifiable cause.

    CSF leaks were originally thought to be relatively rare, with an estimated annual incidence of 5 per 100,000 people. However, with increased awareness and advances in imaging, health care providers are discovering more and more leaks. They tend to occur more frequently in middle-aged adults and are more common in women than men.

    Risk factors for the condition include connective tissue disorders such as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome as well as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.

    An upright headache could be a sign of a CSF leak.

    Unfortunately, it’s common for health care providers to misdiagnose a CSF leak as another condition, like migraine, sinus infections or allergies. What can make diagnosing a CSF leak challenging is its broad symptoms. Most people with a CSF leak have a positional headache that improves when lying down and worsens when standing. Pain is usually felt in the back of the head and may involve the neck and between the shoulder blades. In addition to headaches, patients may experience ringing in the ears, vision disturbances, memory problems, brain fog, dizziness and nausea.

    Imaging may help guide diagnosis, including an MRI of your brain or entire spine, or a myelogram of the space surrounding your spinal cord. Features of a CSF leak that are visible in a scan include your brain sagging down in the base of your skull as well as a fluid collection outside of your dura. However, an estimated 19% of people with a CSF leak can have normal scans, so not seeing signs of a leak on imaging does not entirely rule it out.

    Conservative treatment for a CSF leak involves rest, lying flat and increasing your fluid intake to give your spine time to heal the puncture. Increasing your caffeine consumption to an equivalent of three to four cups of coffee per day can also help by increasing CSF production through stimulating the choroid plexus. Caffeine also relieves pain by interacting with adenosine receptors, which are key players in the body’s pain perception mechanisms.

    If a conservative approach is not successful, an epidural blood patch may be necessary. In this procedure, blood is drawn from your arm and injected into your spine. The injected blood can help form a covering over the hole and promote the healing process. Headache improvement can be fast, but if the patch does not work or the results are short-lived, additional testing may be needed to better locate the site of the leak. In rare cases, surgery may be recommended. Most patients with a CSF leak respond to some form of these treatments.

    Idiopathic intracranial hypertension

    Idiopathic intracranial hypertension is a disorder involving an excess of CSF that elevates pressure inside the skull and compresses the brain. The term “idiopathic” indicates that the cause of the raised pressure is unknown.

    Most patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension have a history of obesity or recent weight gain. Other risk factors include taking certain medications such as tetracycline, excessive vitamin A, tretinoin, steroids and growth hormone. Middle-aged obese women are 20 times more likely to be diagnosed with idiopathic intracranial hypertension than other patient groups. As obesity becomes more prevalent, so too does the incidence of this condition.

    Idiopathic intracranial hypertension results from increased intracranial pressure.

    Patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension typically experience headaches and vision changes, tinnitus or eye pain. Papilledema, or swelling of the optic disc, is the hallmark finding on a fundoscopic examination of the back of the eye. Clinicians may also observe paralysis of the patient’s eye muscles.

    Normal pressure hydrocephalus, Joel’s diagnosis, is a form of this condition that commonly results in difficulty walking, loss of bladder control and cognitive impairment, sometimes referred to as the “wet, wobbly and wacky” triad. Joel’s diagnosis has brought awareness to this underrecognized but potentially treatable disorder, which is often managed through surgically placing a shunt to divert excess fluid and relieve symptoms.

    Brain imaging of patients suspected of having idiopathic intracranial hypertension is crucial to excluding other causes of elevated CSF pressure, such as brain tumors or blood clots in the brain. A lumbar puncture or spinal tap to measure the pressure and composition of CSF is also central to diagnosis.

    Since high intracranial pressure can damage the optic nerve and lead to permanent vision loss, the primary goal of treatment is to decrease pressure and preserve the optic nerve. Treatment options include weight loss, dietary changes and medications to reduce CSF production. Surgical procedures can also reduce intracranial pressure.

    Future directions and unknowns

    Cerebrospinal fluid is indispensable for brain health. Despite advances in understanding diseases related to CSF, several aspects remain unclear.

    The exact mechanisms that lead to conditions like CSF leaks and idiopathic intracranial hypertension are not fully understood, though there are many theories. Further research is vital to enhance diagnostic accuracy and effective treatments for CSF disorders.

    This is an updated version of an article originally published on Aug. 14, 2024.

    Danielle Wilhour does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Billy Joel has excess fluid in his brain – a neurologist explains what happens when this protective liquid gets out of balance – https://theconversation.com/billy-joel-has-excess-fluid-in-his-brain-a-neurologist-explains-what-happens-when-this-protective-liquid-gets-out-of-balance-257689

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Anti-trans measures don’t just target transgender men and women – a sociologist explains how ‘male’ or ‘female’ categories miss the mark for nonbinary Americans

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Barbara J. Risman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of Illinois Chicago

    The nonbinary flag, shown here on a pin, represents people who say ‘man’ or ‘woman’ does not describe their sense of self. Abraham Gonzalez Fernandez/Moment via Getty Images

    Since his inauguration in January 2025, President Donald Trump has issued several executive orders that seek to limit federal recognition of transgender people. These orders have attempted to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports, require identity documents to label people as biologically male or female, bar federal funding for gender-affirming care for minors and bar transgender people from serving in the military.

    The common element in each of these policies is a promise from Trump’s inaugural speech that his administration would recognize only two genders: male and female.

    These executive orders make life difficult for transgender people, many of whom do identify as women or men, just not the sex they were assigned at birth. Apart from that, however, the emphasis on two and only two genders denies the existence of another group that is often misunderstood: nonbinary people.

    Trans vs. nonbinary

    I am a sociologist who studies gender. Over the past few years, co-researchers and I have interviewed 123 nonbinary people in three regions in America: the South, the Midwest and the West Coast. These interviewees spoke about how nonbinary people’s increased visibility in society in recent years helped them feel more welcome and liberated from gender stereotypes.

    All of the respondents are nonbinary. They do not want to be seen as the opposite sex from what they were assigned at birth; they do not feel they were “born in the wrong body.”

    Rather, they want to avoid being forced into the either/or labels that the categories “masculine” and “feminine” or “man” and “woman” entail. They opt out of those binary identifications altogether.

    For many nonbinary people, the pronouns they/them help express their sense of gender.
    Luis Alvarez/DigitalVision via Getty Images

    Decades of research, some of it our own, have shown that sex and gender are different from one another. Sex refers to primary and secondary sex characteristics, while gender is about the cultural meanings built upon sex categories.

    Gender is a social system that justifies rules and expectations that differentiate between the rights and social roles of men and women. These systems vary across time and place. Today, there are societies such as those in Iceland, Barbados and Bosnia-Herzegovina where women lead the government, while in other societies women must be covered or secluded at home.

    Sense of self

    Most of the people we talked to were under age 30. Typically, they rejected the societal pressure to adopt the personality characteristics that are stereotypically associated with their biological sex, such as submissiveness for women and toughness for men.

    Many of them also reject the ways people are expected to dress and use their bodies to show whether they are men or women. Some people who had been raised as boys wore nail polish and earrings, for example, while sporting a beard. Others wore long earrings and makeup – though those kinds of choices do not necessarily mean someone is trans or nonbinary. Many of the respondents who had been raised as girls, meanwhile, chose to wear masculine clothing. They wanted to mix and match traditional symbols of gender.

    Many of the respondents had felt that binary gender identities never quite fit, and they described feeling overjoyed or relieved when they learned about the word “nonbinary”: an identity that offered a more accurate reflection of their sense of self.

    “I was just kind of a flesh blob to myself, until I kind of found out that there was a term … nonbinary. And I heard the term and I was like, “Oh, that actually sounds correct for me. That actually feels right …”

    Another person we interviewed remembered:

    “Before I knew what to call myself … it was like a sense of emptiness. … I finally found that piece to put in that empty spot. And it feels more full now. Like, I feel complete now.”

    He, she, they

    The implications of that discovery were quite diverse, however. Although all the interviewees identified as nonbinary, what that meant for how they wanted to interact with their friends and families differed dramatically.

    For about half of our respondents, using the pronouns “they/them” rather than he/him or she/her was very important, because using that pronoun made them feel respected. Indeed, when asked how they felt being referred to as they/them, one person told us:

    “It felt like magic. It felt like everything just went into place and everything fit. And I was just like, ‘Oh, my God, this is … this is it.‘”

    Not all nonbinary people prefer to be addressed as ‘they/them.’
    MarioGuti/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    Other people we interviewed didn’t really care how others refer to them: he, she or they. Some of these people described having a flexible sense of their own gender. Some days they feel more feminine and use “she”; other days they feel more masculine, and “he” might work better.

    “I don’t have to choose one,” one person told us about their pronouns. “I just need all of them in the arsenal.”

    Still others said they don’t care about a “proper” pronoun because they do not think gender should matter at all. They don’t want to be a third category, a “they.” Instead, they hope for a world where their body parts do not determine how they’re perceived or treated, and so gender is not central to their identity. They would like to do without gender entirely.

    Significance – for everyone

    The people we interviewed want the right to live in peace without being forced into a gender category. The recent executive orders deny this freedom by declaring that gender “does not provide a meaningful basis for identification” – contradicting a decades-long consensus in the social sciences on the distinction between sex and gender.

    Understanding that sex and gender are related but different matters not only for people who identify as nonbinary or transgender, but for everyone. Without that understanding, it is far too easy to presume socially constructed gender differences are essentially biological and to stigmatize people who do not follow strict gender norms. If you believe the myth that biology alone is the sole reason women and men differ, it would be easy to presume, for example, that women are naturally less ambitious or that men cannot be as nurturing.

    If I have learned anything from our team’s research on nonbinary young people, it is that human beings are creative and try to carve out a place for themselves in the world. The evidence suggests that gender nonconformity and diversity is wide and deep in America. What is at stake, however, is how much freedom or oppression individuals will face as they express themselves.

    Barbara J. Risman has received funding from the National Science Foundation for the research discussed in this article.

    – ref. Anti-trans measures don’t just target transgender men and women – a sociologist explains how ‘male’ or ‘female’ categories miss the mark for nonbinary Americans – https://theconversation.com/anti-trans-measures-dont-just-target-transgender-men-and-women-a-sociologist-explains-how-male-or-female-categories-miss-the-mark-for-nonbinary-americans-251443

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: A common parasite can decapitate human sperm − with implications for male fertility

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Bill Sullivan, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Indiana University

    _Toxoplasma_ can infiltrate the reproductive system. wildpixel/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    Male fertility rates have been plummeting over the past half-century. An analysis from 1992 noted a steady decrease in sperm counts and quality since the 1940s. A more recent study found that male infertility rates increased nearly 80% from 1990 to 2019. The reasons driving this trend remain a mystery, but frequently cited culprits include obesity, poor diet and environmental toxins.

    Infectious diseases such as gonorrhea or chlamydia are often overlooked factors that affect fertility in men. Accumulating evidence suggests that a common single-celled parasite called Toxoplasma gondii may also be a contributor: An April 2025 study showed for the first time that “human sperm lose their heads upon direct contact” with the parasite.

    I am a microbiologist, and my lab studies Toxoplasma. This new study bolsters emerging findings that underscore the importance of preventing this parasitic infection.

    The many ways you can get toxoplasmosis

    Infected cats defecate Toxoplasma eggs into the litter box, garden or other places in the environment where they can be picked up by humans or other animals. Water, shellfish and unwashed fruits and vegetables can also harbor infectious parasite eggs.

    In addition to eggs, tissue cysts present in the meat of warm-blooded animals can spread toxoplasmosis as well if they are not destroyed by cooking to proper temperature.

    While most hosts of the parasite can control the initial infection with few if any symptoms, Toxoplasma remains in the body for life as dormant cysts in brain, heart and muscle tissue. These cysts can reactivate and cause additional episodes of severe illness that damage critical organ systems.

    Between 30% and 50% of the world’s population is permanently infected with Toxoplasma due to the many ways the parasite can spread.

    Toxoplasma can target male reproductive organs

    Upon infection, Toxoplasma spreads to virtually every organ and skeletal muscle. Evidence that Toxoplasma can also target human male reproductive organs first surfaced during the height of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s, when some patients presented with the parasitic infection in their testes.

    While immunocompromised patients are most at risk for testicular toxoplasmosis, it can also occur in otherwise healthy individuals. Imaging studies of infected mice confirm that Toxoplasma parasites quickly travel to the testes in addition to the brain and eyes within days of infection.

    Toxoplasma cysts floating in cat feces.
    DPDx Image Library/CDC

    In 2017, my colleagues and I found that Toxoplasma can also form cysts in mouse prostates. Researchers have also observed these parasites in the ejaculate of many animals, including human semen, raising the possibility of sexual transmission.

    Knowing that Toxoplasma can reside in male reproductive organs has prompted analyses of fertility in infected men. A small 2021 study in Prague of 163 men infected with Toxoplasma found that over 86% had semen anomalies.

    A 2002 study in China found that infertile couples are more likely to have a Toxoplasma infection than fertile couples, 34.83% versus 12.11%. A 2005 study in China also found that sterile men are more likely to test positive for Toxoplasma than fertile men.

    Not all studies, however, produce a link between toxoplasmosis and sperm quality.

    Toxoplasma can directly damage human sperm

    Toxoplasmosis in animals mirrors infection in humans, which allows researchers to address questions that are not easy to examine in people.

    Testicular function and sperm production are sharply diminished in Toxoplasma-infected mice, rats and rams. Infected mice have significantly lower sperm counts and a higher proportion of abnormally shaped sperm.

    In that April 2025 study, researchers from Germany, Uruguay and Chile observed that Toxoplasma can reach the testes and epididymis, the tube where sperm mature and are stored, two days after infection in mice. This finding prompted the team to test what happens when the parasite comes into direct contact with human sperm in a test tube.

    After only five minutes of exposure to the parasite, 22.4% of sperm cells were beheaded. The number of decapitated sperm increased the longer they interacted with the parasites. Sperm cells that maintained their head were often twisted and misshapen. Some sperm cells had holes in their head, suggesting the parasites were trying to invade them as it would any other type of cell in the organs it infiltrates.

    In addition to direct contact, Toxoplasma may also damage sperm because the infection promotes chronic inflammation. Inflammatory conditions in the male reproductive tract are harmful to sperm production and function.

    The researchers speculate that the harmful effects Toxoplasma may have on sperm could be contributing to large global declines in male fertility over the past decades.

    Sperm exposed to Toxoplasma. Arrows point to holes and other damage to the sperm; asterisks indicate where the parasite has burrowed. The two nonconfronted controls at the bottom show normal sperm.
    Rojas-Barón et al/The FEBS Journal, CC BY-SA

    Preventing toxoplasmosis

    The evidence that Toxoplasma can infiltrate male reproductive organs in animals is compelling, but whether this produces health issues in people remains unclear. Testicular toxoplasmosis shows that parasites can invade human testes, but symptomatic disease is very rare. Studies to date that show defects in the sperm of infected men are too small to draw firm conclusions at this time.

    Additionally, some reports suggest that rates of toxoplasmosis in high-income countries have not been increasing over the past few decades while male infertility was rising, so it’s likely to only be one part of the puzzle.

    Regardless of this parasite’s potential effect on fertility, it is wise to avoid Toxoplasma. An infection can cause miscarriage or birth defects if someone acquires it for the first time during pregnancy, and it can be life-threatening for immunocompromised people. Toxoplasma is also the leading cause of death from foodborne illness in the United States.

    Taking proper care of your cat, promptly cleaning the litter box and thoroughly washing your hands after can help reduce your exposure to Toxoplasma. You can also protect yourself from this parasite by washing fruits and vegetables, cooking meat to proper temperatures before consuming and avoiding raw shellfish, raw water and raw milk.

    Bill Sullivan receives funding from the National Institutes of Health.

    – ref. A common parasite can decapitate human sperm − with implications for male fertility – https://theconversation.com/a-common-parasite-can-decapitate-human-sperm-with-implications-for-male-fertility-256892

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Chronic stress contributes to cognitive decline and dementia risk – 2 healthy-aging experts explain what you can do about it

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jennifer E. Graham-Engeland, Professor of Biobehavioral Health, Penn State

    Social isolation is often stressful and can affect the aging brain. MixMedia/E+ via Getty Images

    The probability of any American having dementia in their lifetime may be far greater than previously thought. For instance, a 2025 study that tracked a large sample of American adults across more than three decades found that their average likelihood of developing dementia between ages 55 to 95 was 42%, and that figure was even higher among women, Black adults and those with genetic risk.

    Now, a great deal of attention is being paid to how to stave off cognitive decline in the aging American population. But what is often missing from this conversation is the role that chronic stress can play in how well people age from a cognitive standpoint, as well as everybody’s risk for dementia.

    We are professors at Penn State in the Center for Healthy Aging, with expertise in health psychology and neuropsychology. We study the pathways by which chronic psychological stress influences the risk of dementia and how it influences the ability to stay healthy as people age.

    Recent research shows that Americans who are currently middle-aged or older report experiencing more frequent stressful events than previous generations. A key driver behind this increase appears to be rising economic and job insecurity, especially in the wake of the 2007-2009 Great Recession and ongoing shifts in the labor market. Many people stay in the workforce longer due to financial necessity, as Americans are living longer and face greater challenges covering basic expenses in later life.

    Therefore, it may be more important than ever to understand the pathways by which stress influences cognitive aging.

    Social isolation and stress

    Although everyone experiences some stress in daily life, some people experience stress that is more intense, persistent or prolonged. It is this relatively chronic stress that is most consistently linked with poorer health.

    In a recent review paper, our team summarized how chronic stress is a hidden but powerful factor underlying cognitive aging, or the speed at which your cognitive performance slows down with age.

    It is hard to overstate the impact of stress on your cognitive health as you age. This is in part because your psychological, behavioral and biological responses to everyday stressful events are closely intertwined, and each can amplify and interact with the other.

    For instance, living alone can be stressful – particularly for older adults – and being isolated makes it more difficult to live a healthy lifestyle, as well as to detect and get help for signs of cognitive decline.

    Moreover, stressful experiences – and your reactions to them – can make it harder to sleep well and to engage in other healthy behaviors, like getting enough exercise and maintaining a healthy diet. In turn, insufficient sleep and a lack of physical activity can make it harder to cope with stressful experiences.

    Stress is often missing from dementia prevention efforts

    A robust body of research highlights the importance of at least 14 different factors that relate to your risk of Alzheimer’s disease, a common and devastating form of dementia and other forms of dementia. Although some of these factors may be outside of your control, such as diabetes or depression, many of these factors involve things that people do, such as physical activity, healthy eating and social engagement.

    What is less well-recognized is that chronic stress is intimately interwoven with all of these factors that relate to dementia risk. Our work and research by others that we reviewed in our recent paper demonstrate that chronic stress can affect brain function and physiology, influence mood and make it harder to maintain healthy habits. Yet, dementia prevention efforts rarely address stress.

    Avoiding stressful events and difficult life circumstances is typically not an option.

    Where and how you live and work plays a major role in how much stress you experience. For example, people with lower incomes, less education or those living in disadvantaged neighborhoods often face more frequent stress and have fewer forms of support – such as nearby clinics, access to healthy food, reliable transportation or safe places to exercise or socialize – to help them manage the challenges of aging
    As shown in recent work on brain health in rural and underserved communities, these conditions can shape whether people have the chance to stay healthy as they age.

    Over time, the effects of stress tend to build up, wearing down the body’s systems and shaping long-term emotional and social habits.

    Lifestyle changes to manage stress and lessen dementia risk

    The good news is that there are multiple things that can be done to slow or prevent dementia, and our review suggests that these can be enhanced if the role of stress is better understood.

    Whether you are a young, midlife or an older adult, it is not too early or too late to address the implications of stress on brain health and aging. Here are a few ways you can take direct actions to help manage your level of stress:

    • Follow lifestyle behaviors that can improve healthy aging. These include: following a healthy diet, engaging in physical activity and getting enough sleep. Even small changes in these domains can make a big difference.

    • Prioritize your mental health and well-being to the extent you can. Things as simple as talking about your worries, asking for support from friends and family and going outside regularly can be immensely valuable.

    • If your doctor says that you or someone you care about should follow a new health care regimen, or suggests there are signs of cognitive impairment, ask them what support or advice they have for managing related stress.

    • If you or a loved one feel socially isolated, consider how small shifts could make a difference. For instance, research suggests that adding just one extra interaction a day – even if it’s a text message or a brief phone call – can be helpful, and that even interactions with people you don’t know well, such as at a coffee shop or doctor’s office, can have meaningful benefits.

    The same behaviors that keep your heart healthy are also beneficial for your brain.

    Walkable neighborhoods, lifelong learning

    A 2025 study identified stress as one of 17 overlapping factors that affect the odds of developing any brain disease, including stroke, late-life depression and dementia. This work suggests that addressing stress and overlapping issues such as loneliness may have additional health benefits as well.

    However, not all individuals or families are able to make big changes on their own. Research suggests that community-level and workplace interventions can reduce the risk of dementia. For example, safe and walkable neighborhoods and opportunities for social connection and lifelong learning – such as through community classes and events – have the potential to reduce stress and promote brain health.

    Importantly, researchers have estimated that even a modest delay in disease onset of Alzheimer’s would save hundreds of thousands of dollars for every American affected. Thus, providing incentives to companies who offer stress management resources could ultimately save money as well as help people age more healthfully.

    In addition, stress related to the stigma around mental health and aging can discourage people from seeking support that would benefit them. Even just thinking about your risk of dementia can be stressful in itself. Things can be done about this, too. For instance, normalizing the use of hearing aids and integrating reports of perceived memory and mental health issues into routine primary care and workplace wellness programs could encourage people to engage with preventive services earlier.

    Although research on potential biomedical treatments is ongoing and important, there is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. However, if interventions aimed at reducing stress were prioritized in guidelines for dementia prevention, the benefits could be far-reaching, resulting in both delayed disease onset and improved quality of life for millions of people.

    Jennifer E. Graham-Engeland receives funding from the National Institutes of Health.

    Martin J. Sliwinski receives funding from The National Institutes of Health

    – ref. Chronic stress contributes to cognitive decline and dementia risk – 2 healthy-aging experts explain what you can do about it – https://theconversation.com/chronic-stress-contributes-to-cognitive-decline-and-dementia-risk-2-healthy-aging-experts-explain-what-you-can-do-about-it-250583

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Sports hernias can cause severe pain in the groin region – and footballers may be at greatest risk

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dan Baumgardt, Senior Lecturer, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol

    Sports hernias – which are more common in men – cause pain in the groin and pubic region. Inspiration GP/ Shutterstock

    A friend of mine came to see me recently complaining of an odd ache he’d noted in his lower abs and groin. He couldn’t blame it on crunches at the gym, nor a cow kicking him in the belly again (he’s a farmer). But he does spend a fair amount of his time on the football pitch and was now noticing that every training session and match was bringing the pain on – sometimes agonisingly so.

    The diagnosis? A sports hernia. This condition also goes by many other names, including athletic pubalgia and Gilmore’s groin – after the late British surgeon Jerry Gilmore who was the first to coin it. It’s actually a fairly recently described condition, dating back to only the 1980s.

    The main symptom of a sports hernia is pain in the pubic and groin regions, brought on through athletic activity. The condition is actually more common that you think, especially so in footballers. Around 70% of all sports hernias appear to be related to the sport. It’s also estimated that groin pain accounts for around 5-18% of athletic injuries.

    A sport’s hernia is not your typical hernia. In fact, it’s not really a hernia at all.

    A true hernia is defined as when a section of tissue or organ passes into a space where it shouldn’t be. Many will be aware of those hernias which involve a section of bowel passing through the abdominal wall – such as an inguinal hernia.

    There are other types of hernias as well. For instance, your stomach can pop through a gap in the diaphragm and into the chest (called a hiatus hernia). More seriously, even the brain can herniate – out of one of the holes in the skull.

    But a sports hernia is different, in that it actually arises from overuse of the abdominal muscles.

    The abdominals include the long, straight and central “rectus abdominis” muscles – which allow you to perform a sit-up or crunch. Three layers of muscle also lie on either side of the abdominals. These are the obliques, which have important roles in twisting and turning our bodies. The muscles are also mixed with layers of tendon and connective tissue which not only attach them together, but also to the bones and ligaments of the pelvis.

    Sports hernias are typically caused by moves which involve a lot of twisting and turning – and especially those occurring at speed. Hip movements can also put strain on where the ab muscles attach at the groin region. These actions appear to cause shearing and tears in the tissue, leading to pain. It’s felt in the groin or lower abs, usually on one side. In men, who are particularly at risk, pain may also be felt in the genitalia.

    Some sports rely upon these sorts of moves and actions during play. Think about dribbling in football and hockey, or pinning and throwing opponents in wrestling or martial arts. Slalom skiing is another prime example – travelling at speed and rapidly changing direction. Tackling and scrum action in rugby or American football, and explosive block starts and hurdling in track athletes might also be to blame.

    People who play sports that have a lot of twisting, such as football, may have a greater risk of suffering a sports hernia.
    Vitalii Vitleo/ Shutterstock

    The condition appears much more common in males, who are up to nine times more likely to develop it. This is perhaps because of the anatomy of their lower abs, which is different to females. The testes – which initially develop inside the abdomen – descend to the scrotum during the foetal period. But to do this, they actually have to pass through the layers of the abdominal wall which makes the structure weaker and potentially more prone to damage.

    While sports hernias are vastly more common in athletes because of the regular repetitive strain they put their bodies under, it’s still technically possible for non-athletes to get it.

    If you work in a job where there’s regular heavy lifting, pivoting as you do so – on a building site for instance – it may be possible to sustain the same injury. Or, doing too many advanced core exercises at the gym before you’re sufficiently strong enough might also make you more prone. Dead lifts and core exercises that use a medicine ball (such as Russian twists) are some culprits.

    Managing a sports hernia

    If you do develop a sports hernia, it appears that improving core strength may help you recover. Patients diagnosed with a sports hernia typically undergo a training programme to strengthen and stabilise their core muscles. In athletes who already have a strong core, it may also be worthwhile training muscles that strengthen the pelvis alongside a gradual return to sport. Physiotherapy, massage and acupuncture may also help.

    Some cases might also require surgery to reinforce the groin structure, and relieve any tension on the tissues.

    There’s evidence to suggest that sports hernias are both under-reported and under-diagnosed. This may be because they get confused with other types of injuries – such as an inguinal hernia, which is also related to the groin, more commonly found in males and associated with abdominal wall strain and damage.

    The key difference is that a real inguinal hernia causes a swelling in the groin region or scrotum, whereas sports hernias do not. Inguinal hernias can also cause complications if the bowel gets twisted and obstructed, which can have potentially severe consequences.

    So, if you’re someone who participates in these twisting, turning types of sports and notice any of the symptoms of a sports hernia, it’s best to stop instead of pushing yourself through the pain. You should also speak to a doctor in case there are signs of a true hernia, which often requires further surgical treatment.

    Dan Baumgardt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Sports hernias can cause severe pain in the groin region – and footballers may be at greatest risk – https://theconversation.com/sports-hernias-can-cause-severe-pain-in-the-groin-region-and-footballers-may-be-at-greatest-risk-257277

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Is the bar higher for scientific claims of alien life?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Oliver Swainston, Research Assistant, RAND Europe

    Nasa / JPL

    The search for extraterrestrial life has long gone back and forth between scientific curiosity, public fascination and outright scepticism. Recently, scientists claimed the “strongest evidence” of life on a distant exoplanet – a world outside our solar system.

    Grandiose headlines often promise proof that we are not alone, but scientists remain cautious. Is this caution unique to the field of astrobiology? In truth, major scientific breakthroughs are rarely accepted quickly.

    Newton’s laws of motion and gravity, Wegener’s theory of plate tectonics, and human-made climate change all faced prolonged scrutiny before achieving consensus.

    But does the nature of the search for extraterrestrial life mean that extraordinary claims require even more extraordinary evidence? We’ve seen groundbreaking evidence in this search beforehand, from claims of biosignatures (potential signs of life) in Venus’s atmosphere to Nasa rovers finding “leopard spots” – a potential sign of past microbial activity – in a Martian rock.

    Both stories generated a public buzz around the idea that we might be one step closer to finding alien life. But on further inspection, abiotic (non-biological) processes or false detection became more likely explanations.

    In the case of the exoplanet, K2-18 b, scientists working with data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) announced the detection of gases in the planet’s atmosphere – methane, carbon dioxide, and more importantly, two compounds called dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl disulphide (DMDS). As far as we know, on Earth, DMS/DMDS are produced exclusively by living organisms.

    Their presence, if accurately confirmed in abundance, would suggest microbial life. The researchers even suggest there’s a 99.4% probability that the detection of these compounds wasn’t a fluke – a figure that, with repeat observations, could reach the gold standard for statistical certainty in the sciences. This is a figure known as five sigma, which equates to about a one in a million chance that the findings are a fluke.

    So why hasn’t the scientific community declared this the discovery of alien life? The answer lies in the difference between detection and attribution, and in the nature of evidence itself.

    JWST doesn’t directly “see” molecules. Instead, it measures the way that light passes through or bounces off a planet’s atmosphere. Different molecules absorb light in different ways, and by analysing these absorption patterns – called spectra – scientists infer what chemicals are likely to be present. This is an impressive and sophisticated method – but also an imperfect one.

    It relies on complex models that assume we understand the biological reactions and atmospheric conditions of a planet 120 light years away. The spectra suggesting the existence of DMS/DMDS may be detected because you cannot explain the spectrum without the molecule you’ve predicted, but it could also result from an undiscovered or misunderstood molecule instead.

    Climate comparison

    Given how momentous the conclusive discovery of extraterrestrial life would be, these assumptions mean that many scientists err on the side of caution. But is this the same for other kinds of science? Let’s compare with another scientific breakthrough: the detection and attribution of human-made climate change.

    The relationship between temperature and increases in CO₂ was first observed by the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius in 1927. It was only taken seriously once we began to routinely measure temperature increases. But our atmosphere has many processes that feed CO₂ in and out, many of which are natural.

    The James Webb telescope was used to study K2-18 b.
    NASA-GSFC, Adriana M. Gutierrez (CI Lab)

    So the relationship between atmospheric CO₂ and temperature may have been validated, but the attribution still needed to follow.

    Carbon has three so-called flavours, known as isotopes. One of these isotopes, carbon-14, is radioactive and decays slowly. When scientists observed an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide but a low volume of carbon-14, they could deduce that the carbon was very old – too old to have any carbon-14. Fossil fuels – coal, oil and natural gas – are composed of ancient carbon and thus are devoid of carbon-14.

    So the attribution of anthropogenic climate change was proven beyond reasonable doubt, with 97% acceptance among scientists. In the search for extraterrestrial life, much like climate change, there is a detection and attribution phase, which requires the robust testing of hypotheses and also rigorous scrutiny.

    In the case of climate change, we had in situ observations from many sources. This means roughly that we could observe these sources close up. The search for extraterrestrial life relies on repeated observations from the same sensors that are far away. In such situations, systematic errors are more costly.

    Further to this, both the chemistry of atmospheric climate change and fossil fuel emissions were validated with atmospheric tests under lab conditions from 1927 onwards. Much of the data we see touted as evidence for extraterrestrial life comes
    from light years away, via one instrument, and without any in situ samples.

    The search for extraterrestrial life is not held to a higher standard of scientific rigour but it is constrained by an inability to independently detect and attribute multiple lines of evidence.

    For now, the claims about K2-18 b remain compelling but inconclusive.

    That doesn’t mean we aren’t making progress. Each new observation adds to a growing body of knowledge about the universe and our place in it. The search continues – not because we’re too cautious, but because we are rightly so.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Is the bar higher for scientific claims of alien life? – https://theconversation.com/is-the-bar-higher-for-scientific-claims-of-alien-life-256258

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump surrounds himself with sycophants. It’s a terrible way to run a business – and a country

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Neil Beasley, PhD Candidate in Business and Law, Liverpool John Moores University

    Since the start of his second term in office, US president Donald Trump has cultivated a political atmosphere that discourages freedom of thought. He also actively villainises and punishes any dissenting opinion. Worryingly, this atmosphere looks like it is spreading across other democracies.

    Commentators have described Trump as both narcissistic and authoritarian. Yet, running parallel to these factors, one character trait is glaringly common among Trump supporters: sycophancy.

    You just have to examine the pre-election rhetoric of Trump loyalists. One backer, Stephen Miller, declared him “the most stylish president … in our lifetimes”. Miller is now deputy White House chief of staff.

    And South Dakota governor Kristi Noem gifted Trump a four-foot Mount Rushmore replica – with Trump’s face added alongside the original four presidents. Noem, who is now secretary of homeland security, epitomises the elevation of loyal sycophants over those with arguably better credentials.

    Research has examined the dangers of sycophantic behaviour in the workplace, finding it reduces peer respect and morale, and leads to dissonance and lower productivity.

    Other research has shown that someone who chooses to employ these tactics can enjoy improved promotion prospects, rewards such as the first refusal on business trips, easier access to company resources and a higher salary compared to their peers. But studies have also shown sycophants often suffer emotional exhaustion from the dual stresses of manipulation and responsibility.

    Ongoing research I (Neil) am doing on workplace sycophancy reveals similar patterns. Interviews, spanning from junior staff to CEOs, show reduced motivation, falling team morale and declining respect for sycophants.

    One participant highlighted the effect on teamwork that sycophantic behaviour can have within the workplace.

    Sycophancy means raising yourself in somebody’s esteem, at the expense of somebody else, on the ladder. And so… it’s going to impact upon on the ability to be part of a team.

    Another participant offered a comparison to a different deviant workplace behaviour – intimidation.

    I’d say that sycophantic behaviour is coming into the same category as bullying. And it’s hard sometimes, especially with bullying and sycophantic behaviour, you are dealing with a lot of people that are manipulative, and manipulating people are quite charismatic. And when you’re charismatic, you’re more believable because you’re a storyteller.

    One solution that emerges from the research is workforce education – teaching employees to recognise and mitigate a culture of ingratiation.

    As an employee, many people might find it difficult not to bow to peer pressure. If the senior colleague encourages and rewards those who suck up, how do other colleagues, who do not choose to utilise such tactics, compete?

    Dangerous ideas take root

    Another factor to consider is the tendency for some workers to “kiss up and kick down”. What this means is that staff who are lower down the hierarchical ladder suffer detrimental treatment from the colleagues who are trying to suck their way up the same ladder.

    If workforces were educated on what these tactics looked and felt like, perhaps included in corporate codes of conduct, HR departments and management could identify potential issues and deal with them.

    But this is not merely an HR concern. Previous research also shows a link between ingratiation, high turnover rates and poorer performance by the organisation as a whole.

    Perhaps the most insidious aspect of sycophancy is the push for conformity when it comes to opinions. If leadership hears nothing but agreement, dangerous ideas can be reinforced. Things like the leader’s own skills or the competence of the organisation as a whole can become wildly exaggerated – with disastrous consequences.

    When leaders are surrounded by “yes-men”, they’re deprived of critical input that could challenge assumptions or highlight potential flaws. This can lead to cognitive entrenchment where decision-makers become overconfident and resistant to change. Bad decisions then proceed unchecked, often escalating into systemic failures.

    In return, this can lead to groupthink, a phenomenon where a desire for harmony overrides rational evaluation. Environments that suffer from groupthink often ignore red flags, silence whistleblowers and overvalue consensus. All of these things are damaging to an organisation’s ability to remain agile and competitive.

    Which brings us back to Trump. In his case this isn’t a corporate crisis. It’s a geopolitical one. At stake is not shareholder value but national security and global stability.

    With sycophants backing poor decisions, the risk ranges from damaged diplomacy to outright conflict. If loyalty replaces truth, the cost could be catastrophic. Trump’s regime may ultimately collapse under the weight of its own delusions – but the collateral damage could be profound.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Trump surrounds himself with sycophants. It’s a terrible way to run a business – and a country – https://theconversation.com/trump-surrounds-himself-with-sycophants-its-a-terrible-way-to-run-a-business-and-a-country-257391

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What I’ve learned from teaching philosophy in prisons

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jim Chamberlain, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Sheffield

    zapomicron/Shutterstock

    Of all the subjects that could be taught in prisons, philosophy might seem a strange choice. You might think that we should address the educational basics first, since, according to a House of Commons report, 57% of prisoners in England “have English and Maths levels at or below those expected of an eleven-year-old”. You might also expect prison education to focus on the skills needed for employment after release.

    In the UK, many people think that prisons should harshly punish offenders, and perhaps see philosophy courses as an unjustifiable luxury for those who have broken the law.

    However, we are in a period of potentially significant change for the UK prison system, which has been overcrowded and in poor condition for years.

    In my three years of running philosophy courses in prisons, I have witnessed what can be achieved with this kind of education. I have found that philosophy courses can make a big difference to the lives of prisoners and prison culture, often in unexpected ways.

    Working with colleagues at the charity Philosophy in Prison and the University of Sheffield, I have led philosophy courses in several English prisons, and found that philosophy is particularly well-suited to prison education. Unlike most topics, philosophy can be taught purely in conversation, without textbooks or technology.

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    There are many good reasons for engaging in philosophical conversations with people in prison. Conversations allow almost anyone to get involved, regardless of their levels of literacy. Philosophical conversations can give male prisoners a rare opportunity to relax the rigid norms of masculinity that prisons implicitly enforce.

    But one of the biggest benefits I have seen is the effects of these conversations on people’s attitudes towards disagreement. Prisons are overcrowded and often dangerous places, where disagreement can all too easily lead to conflict. Fortunately, philosophy provides an excellent opportunity for constructive dialogue.

    Getting philosophical

    One of the most intriguing things about philosophy is that nobody knows the answers to the questions it asks of us. Think about questions like, “what makes you the same person you were ten years ago?”, “what is a good life?” or “what is knowledge?”

    Such questions get to the heart of what it is to be human, and they have puzzled people for centuries. They require everyone, from the most experienced philosopher to the complete newcomer, to question why we think as we do. They also sharpen our interest in what others have to say.

    Take the first of these questions, for example. Perhaps you think that your memories of your past make you the same person that you used to be. But we cannot remember being asleep, and we are presumably not different people when we sleep. So, you might suggest instead, we had the same bodies ten years ago. Except that every part of a human body changes over time – over ten years, every cell in our bodies might be replaced. Now, with just four sentences, the puzzle has been set, and a conversation begun.

    Many of the questions we discuss in prison courses originally come from the world of classical philosophy (such as the three mentioned above). And our conversations often explore the ideas of ancient and historical philosophers – whether Aristotle or Bentham has a better understanding of the good life, for example.

    In any philosophical conversation, we will quickly realise that disagreement need not involve confrontation: it can be progressive, exciting, even fun. Philosophy helps people develop and practice the conversational norms – and the confidence – needed for positive disagreement. In my experience, prisoners often enter philosophy courses with little expectation that they will have anything to contribute.

    Many prisoners “have limited or negative experiences of education and therefore a limited belief in the potential of learning”. But philosophy courses can radically improve people’s confidence, and so help them to rethink what education might mean for them.

    One of our course participants summarised this point as follows: “With philosophy, people care about what I think. Nobody listens when you’ve been in prison. Everything you think is wrong, rubbish, you’re nothing.” Another was even more direct: “Hated school, dropped out at 11, can’t read, can’t write. But I can do this.”

    Transforming prison culture

    Evidence shows that participation in education can significantly reduce the likelihood of reoffending. Yet, as the recent Independent Sentencing Review highlights, the rise in the UK prison population has led to finite resources being diverted away from such programmes.

    Philosophy courses can facilitate transformations in prison culture, at relatively little cost. An inspection report into one of the prisons that I have worked in for several years noted that prisoners who took the philosophy courses “reported that their mental health and wellbeing had improved and that they enjoyed the opportunity to participate”.

    Moreover, I have seen philosophy courses influence a whole prison wing, as people continued their conversations after we left. One participant said that “being in a room with inmates I didn’t know but ended up talking to went a long way to understanding each other… I now talk to more people on the wing”.

    No matter what prisoners may have done, they share in our common humanity. By engaging in philosophy with prisoners, we can address this with very positive results – potentially both in and after prison.

    Jim Chamberlain receives funding from The University of Sheffield and from BA/Leverhulme grants to fund philosophy courses in prisons. As well as working for the University of Sheffield, he is a Trustee of the charity Philosophy in Prison. Jim is also a member of the Green Party.

    – ref. What I’ve learned from teaching philosophy in prisons – https://theconversation.com/what-ive-learned-from-teaching-philosophy-in-prisons-253796

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Texas’ annual reading test adjusted its difficulty every year, masking whether students are improving

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jeanne Sinclair, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland

    Millions of Americans take high-stakes exams every year. Caiaimage/Chris Ryan/iStock via Getty Images

    Texas children’s performance on an annual reading test was basically flat from 2012 to 2021, even as the state spent billions of additional dollars on K-12 education.

    I recently did a peer-reviewed deep dive into the test design documentation to figure out why the reported results weren’t showing improvement. I found the flat scores were at least in part by design. According to policies buried in the documentation, the agency administering the tests adjusted their difficulty level every year. As a result, roughly the same share of students failed the test over that decade regardless of how objectively better they performed relative to previous years.

    From 2008 to 2014, I was a bilingual teacher in Texas. Most of my students’ families hailed from Mexico and Central America and were learning English as a new language. I loved seeing my students’ progress.

    Yet, no matter how much they learned, many failed the end-of-year tests in reading, writing and math. My hunch was that these tests were unfair, but I could not explain why. This, among other things, prompted me to pursue a Ph.D. in education to better understand large-scale educational assessment.

    Ten years later, in 2024, I completed a detailed exploration of Texas’s exam, currently known as the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR. I found an unexpected trend: The share of students who correctly answered each test question was extraordinarily steady across years. Where we would expect to see fluctuation from year to year, performance instead appears artificially flat.

    The STAAR’s technical documents reveal that the test is designed much like a norm-referenced test – that is, assessing students relative to their peers, rather than if they meet a fixed standard. In other words, a norm-referenced test cannot tell us if students meet key, fixed criteria or grade-level standards set by the state.

    In addition, norm-referenced tests are designed so that a certain share of students always fail, because success is gauged by one’s position on the “bell curve” in relation to other students. Following this logic, STAAR developers use practices like omitting easier questions and adjusting scores to cancel out gains due to better teaching.

    Ultimately, the STAAR tests over this time frame – taken by students every year from grade 3 to grade 8 in language arts and math, and less frequently in science and social studies – were not designed to show improvement. Since the test is designed to keep scores flat, it’s impossible to know for sure if a lack of expected learning gains following big increases in per-student spending was because the extra funds failed to improve teaching and learning, or simply because the test hid the improvements.

    Why it matters

    Ever since the federal education policy known as No Child Left Behind went into effect in 2002 and tied students’ test performance to rewards and sanctions for schools, achievement testing has been a primary driver of public education in the United States.

    Texas’ educational accountability system has been in place since 1980, and it is well known in the state that the stakes and difficulty of Texas’ academic readiness tests increase with each new version, which typically come out every five to 10 years. What the Texas public may not know is that the tests have been adjusted each and every year – at the expense of really knowing who should “pass” or “fail.”

    The test’s design affects not just students but also schools and communities. High-stakes test scores determine school resources, the state’s takeover of school districts and accreditation of teacher education programs. Home values are even driven by local schools’ performance on high-stakes tests.

    Students who are marginalized by racism, poverty or language have historically tended to underperform on standardized tests. STAAR’s design makes this problem worse.

    What still isn’t known

    I plan to investigate if other states or the federal government use similarly designed tests to evaluate students.

    My deep dive into Texas’ test focused on STAAR before its 2022 redevelopment. The latest iteration has changed the test format and question types, but there appears to be little change to the way the test is scored. Without substantive revisions to the scoring calculations “under the hood” of the STAAR test, it is likely Texas will continue to see flat performance.

    The Texas Education Agency, which administers the STAAR tests, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

    Jeanne Sinclair receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.

    – ref. Texas’ annual reading test adjusted its difficulty every year, masking whether students are improving – https://theconversation.com/texas-annual-reading-test-adjusted-its-difficulty-every-year-masking-whether-students-are-improving-244159

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –