Two New DNA Letters

Semi-Synthetic Life Form Now
Fully Armed and Operational
Could life have evolved differently? A germ with
“unnatural” DNA letters suggests the answer is yes.
By Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review

November 29, 2017 -- Every living thing on Earth stores the instructions for life as DNA, using the four genetic bases A, G, C, and T.

All except one, that is.

In the San Diego laboratory of Floyd Romesberg—and at a startup he founded—grow bacteria with an expanded genetic code. They have two more letters, an “unnatural” pair he calls X and Y.

Romesberg, head of a laboratory at the Scripps Research Institute, first amended the genes of the bacterium E. Coli to harbor the new DNA components in 2014. Now, for the first time, the germs are using their expanded code to manufacture proteins with equally unusual components.

“We wanted to prove the concept that every step of information storage and retrieval could be mediated by an unnatural base pair,” he says. “It’s not a curiosity anymore.”

The bacterium is termed a “semi-synthetic” organism, since while it harbors an expanded alphabet, the rest of the cell hasn’t been changed. Even so, Peter Carr, a biological engineer at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, says it suggests that scientists are only beginning to learn how far life can be redesigned, a concept known as synthetic biology.

 “We don’t know what the ultimate limits are on our ability to engineer living systems, and this paper helps show we’re not limited to four bases,” he says. “I think it’s pretty impressive.”

Humankind has been disappointed in the quest to find life on Mars or Jupiter. Yet the alien germs growing in San Diego already hint that our Earth biology isn’t the only one possible. “It suggests that if life did evolve elsewhere, it might have done so using very different molecules or different forces,” says Romesberg. “Life as we know it is may not be the only solution, and may not be the best one.”

Romesberg’s efforts to lay a genetic cuckoo’s egg inside bacteria started 15 years ago. After creating a candidate pair of new genetic letters, the first step was to add them to a bacterium’s genome and show it could use them to store information. That is, could the organism abide by the unnatural DNA and also copy it faithfully as it divided?

The answer, his lab showed in 2014, was yes. But early versions of the bacteria were none too healthy. They died or got rid of the extra letters in their DNA, which are stored in a mini-chromosome called a plasmid. In Romesberg’s words, his creations “lacked the fortitude of real life.”

By this year, the team had devised a more stable bacterium. But it wasn’t enough to endow the germ with a partly alien code—it needed to use that code to make a partly alien protein. That’s what Romesberg’s team, reporting today in the journal Nature, says it has done.

 

Using the extra letters, they instructed bacteria to manufacture a glowing green protein that has in it a single unnatural amino acid. “We stored information, and now we retrieved it. The next thing is to use it.

We are going to do things no one else can,” says Romesberg.

The practical payoff of an organism with a bigger genetic alphabet is that it has a bigger vocabulary—it can assemble proteins with components not normally found in nature. That could solve some tricky problems in medicinal chemistry, which is the art of shaping molecules so they do exactly what’s wanted in the body, and nothing that isn’t.

Pursuing such aims is a startup Romesberg founded, named Synthorx. It has raised $16 million so far and hopes to turn the science into new drugs. One project aims to make a new version of interleukin-2, an anticancer drug with some nasty side effects. Maybe the semi-synthetic germs could fix that by swapping in some unusual components at key points. “This company needs to get out of the lab and into the clinic,” says its newly installed CEO, Laura Shawver.

Carr says an expanded genetic code could have implications beyond providing a shortcut for programming new properties into proteins. He also thinks the new letters might be used to hide information in ways other biologists couldn’t easily see. That could be useful in concealing intellectual property or, perhaps, to disguise a bioweapon.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609567/semi-synthetic-life-form-now-fully-armed-and-operational/

Deepest Swimming Fish

There’s a Deeper Fish in the Sea
Michelle Ma, UW News

November 28, 2017 -- The ocean’s deepest fish doesn’t look like it could survive in harsh conditions thousands of feet below the surface. Instead of giant teeth and a menacing frame, the fishes that roam in the deepest parts of the ocean are small, translucent, bereft of scales — and highly adept at living where few other organisms can.

Meet the deepest fish in the ocean, a new species named the Mariana snailfish by an international team of researchers that discovered it. The Mariana snailfish (Pseudoliparis swirei) thrives at depths of up to about 8,000 meters (26,200 feet) along the Mariana Trench near Guam. The team published a paper describing the new species this week in the journal Zootaxa.

“This is the deepest fish that’s been collected from the ocean floor, and we’re very excited to have an official name,” said lead author Mackenzie Gerringer, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories. “They don’t look very robust or strong for living in such an extreme environment, but they are extremely successful.”

Snailfish are found at many different depths in marine waters around the world, including off the coast of San Juan Island, where Gerringer is continuing research on the family of fish. In deep water, they cluster together in groups and feed on tiny crustaceans and shrimp using suction from their mouths to gulp prey. Little is known about how these fish can live under intense water pressure; the pressure at those depths is similar to an elephant standing on your thumb. This new species appears to dominate parts of the Mariana Trench, the deepest stretch of ocean in the world that is located in the western Pacific Ocean. During research trips in 2014 and 2017, scientists collected 37 specimens of the new species from depths of about 6,900 meters (22,600 feet) to 8,000 meters (26,200 feet) along the trench. DNA analysis and 3-D scanning to analyze skeletal and tissue structures helped researchers determine they had found a new species.

Since then, a research team from Japan has recorded footage of the fish swimming at depths of 8,178 meters (26,830 feet), the deepest sighting so far.

“Snailfishes have adapted to go deeper than other fish and can live in the deep trenches. Here they are free of predators, and the funnel shape of the trench means there’s much more food,” said co-author Thomas Linley of Newcastle University. “There are lots of invertebrate prey and the snailfish are the top predator. They are active and look very well-fed.”

A handful of researchers have explored the Mariana Trench, but few comprehensive surveys of the trench and its inhabitants have been completed because of its depth and location, Gerringer explained. These research trips, conducted while Gerringer completed her doctorate at University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, involved dropping traps with cameras down to the bottom of the trench. It can take four hours for a trap to sink to the bottom.

After waiting an additional 12 to 24 hours, the researchers sent an acoustic signal to the trap, which then released weights and rose to the surface with the help of flotation. That allowed scientists to catch fish specimens and take video footage of life at the bottom of the ocean.

“There are a lot of surprises waiting,” Gerringer said. “It’s amazing to see what lives there. We think of it as a harsh environment because it’s extreme for us, but there’s a whole group of organisms that are very happy down there.”

Footage from the 2014 research cruise on R/V Falkor will also run in the BBC’s “Blue Planet II” series, which is now airing in the U.K. The research team also filmed another new species on this cruise, the ethereal snailfish, living at great depths in the Mariana Trench.

The Mariana snailfish’s location was its most distinguishing characteristic, but researchers also saw a number of differences in physiology and body structure that made it clear they had found a new species. With the help of a CT scanner at the UW’s Friday Harbor Laboratories, the researchers could look in close digital detail to study elements of the fish.

The authors acknowledge the broad collaboration needed for deep-sea science, particularly in this discovery, and decided the new fish’s scientific name should reflect that collaborative effort. The fish is named after a sailor, Herbert Swire, an officer on the HMS Challenger expedition in the late 1800s that first discovered the Mariana Trench.

Other co-authors are Alan Jamieson of Newcastle University, and Erica Goetze and Jeffrey Drazen of the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

           http://www.washington.edu/news/2017/11/28/theres-a-deeper-fish-in-the-sea/

What Is a "Companion Dog"?

Companion dog usually describes a dog that does not work, providing only companionship as a pet, rather than usefulness by doing specific tasks. Many of the toy dog breeds are used only for the pleasure of their company, not as workers. Any dog can be a companion dog, and many working types such as retrievers are enjoyed primarily for their friendly nature as a family pet, as are mixed breed dogs. The American Kennel Club also offers a Companion dog title for judged dog obedience competitions.

Working Dog versus Companion Dog

Breed groups argue that any dog in the working group type is inherently a "working" dog, while others argue that only a dog with an active occupation, either in a breed-related field (such as water trials for retrievers or herding trials for herding dogs) or in a breed-nonspecific field that requires training and discipline, such as being assistance dogs or participating in dog agility, can be considered a working dog.

Dogs that have been chosen for traits that make a convenient pet are generally smaller breeds, and the tradition of keeping pretty dogs for no purpose other than to be court decorations stems back thousands of years to Chinese nobility. The Pekingese and the Pug are both examples of canines chosen for their ability to be pets. In the case of the Pekingese, it was for their lion-like demeanor; for the Pugs, it was for their "lucky" wrinkles and their monkey-like face.

Other dogs that appear to be strictly a decorative or entertaining breed of dog originally also had jobs outside of their main companionship task, such as the Lhasa Apso's job as a watch dog, or the delicate Yorkshire Terrier's exceptional rat catching abilities.

Competition Obedience Titles

Companion Dog ("CD" added to dogs registered name) - is officially a "Novice obedience Title" in the AKC Competition Obedience Ring, whereby a team enters the "ring" with 200 points, and needs to leave with at least 170 points to "qualify". It requires 3 "legs" (trials) under 3 different AKC judges. Any dog can earn a CD title. Levels for obedience are Companion Dog (CD), Companion Dog Excellent (CDX), Utility Dog (UD), Utility Dog Excellent (UDX), Obedience Trial Champion (OTCH), National Obedience Champion (NOC). A pet dog is not considered a "Companion Dog" without entering a competition ring and creating a document trail. The first AKC licensed obedience trial was held in 1936, where 200 dogs were entered.

Companion Dogs versus Toy Dogs

Toy dogs and companion dogs have a large overlap. However companion dogs are not limited by size, whereas all toy dogs are small.

A List of Companion Dogs

• Affenpinscher
• Alaskan Klee Kai
• American Eskimo
• American Hairless Terrier
• Askal (Aspin)
• Australian Silky Terrier
• Australian Shepherd
• Basset Hound
• Beagle
• Bichon Frisé
• Biewer
• Brussels Griffon
• Bolognese
• Boston Terrier
• Bulldog
• Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
• Chihuahua
• Chinese Crested Dog
• Collie
• Coton de Tulear
• Cross-breed dog
• Dalmatian
• Dachshund
• Elo
• English Toy Terrier
• Eurasier
• French Bulldog
• German Spitz
• Golden Retriever
• Griffon Bruxellois
• Havanese
• Indian Spitz
• Italian Greyhound
• Japanese Chin
• Japanese Spitz
• Keeshond
• King Charles Spaniel
• Kromfohrlander
• Lhasa Apso
• Löwchen
• Maltese
• Manchester Terrier
• Miniature Pinscher
• Miniature Poodle
• Miniature Shar Pei
• Miniature Schnauzer
• Mixed-breed dog
• Papillon
• Pekingese
• Phalène
• Pomeranian
• Pug
• Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie)
• Pembroke Welsh Corgi
• Shih Tzu
• Skye Terrier
• Staffordshire Bull Terrier
• Teddy Roosevelt Terrier
• Tibetan Spaniel
• Tibetan Terrier
• Toy Fox Terrier
• West Highland White Terrier
• Xoloitzcuintli (Xolo or Mexican Hairless Dog)
• Yorkshire Terrier

                           https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Companion_dog

Rapid Species Evolution

Galapagos Study Finds that New Species Can Develop in as little as Two Generations

Princeton University, November 23, 2017 -- The arrival 36 years ago of a strange bird to a remote island in the Galapagos archipelago has provided direct genetic evidence of a novel way in which new species arise.

In this week's issue of the journal Science, researchers from Princeton University and Uppsala University in Sweden report that the newcomer belonging to one species mated with a member of another species resident on the island, giving rise to a new species that today consists of roughly 30 individuals.

The study comes from work conducted on Darwin's finches, which live on the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The remote location has enabled researchers to study the evolution of biodiversity due to natural selection.

The direct observation of the origin of this new species occurred during field work carried out over the last four decades by B. Rosemary and Peter Grant, two scientists from Princeton, on the small island of Daphne Major.

"The novelty of this study is that we can follow the emergence of new species in the wild," said B. Rosemary Grant, a senior research biologist, emeritus, and a senior biologist in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. "Through our work on Daphne Major, we were able to observe the pairing up of two birds from different species and then follow what happened to see how speciation occurred."

In 1981, a graduate student working with the Grants on Daphne Major noticed the newcomer, a male that sang an unusual song and was much larger in body and beak size than the three resident species of birds on the island.

"We didn't see him fly in from over the sea, but we noticed him shortly after he arrived. He was so different from the other birds that we knew he did not hatch from an egg on Daphne Major," said Peter Grant, the Class of 1877 Professor of Zoology, Emeritus, and a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, emeritus.

The researchers took a blood sample and released the bird, which later bred with a resident medium ground finch of the species Geospiz fortis, initiating a new lineage. The Grants and their research team followed the new "Big Bird lineage" for six generations, taking blood samples for use in genetic analysis.

In the current study, researchers from Uppsala University analyzed DNA collected from the parent birds and their offspring over the years. The investigators discovered that the original male parent was a large cactus finch of the species Geospiza conirostris from Española island, which is more than 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) to the southeast in the archipelago.

The remarkable distance meant that the male finch was not able to return home to mate with a member of his own species and so chose a mate from among the three species already on Daphne Major. This reproductive isolation is considered a critical step in the development of a new species when two separate species interbreed.

The offspring were also reproductively isolated because their song, which is used to attract mates, was unusual and failed to attract females from the resident species. The offspring also differed from the resident species in beak size and shape, which is a major cue for mate choice. As a result, the offspring mated with members of their own lineage, strengthening the development of the new species.

Researchers previously assumed that the formation of a new species takes a very long time, but in the Big Bird lineage it happened in just two generations, according to observations made by the Grants in the field in combination with the genetic studies.

All 18 species of Darwin's finches derived from a single ancestral species that colonized the Galápagos about one to two million years ago. The finches have since diversified into different species, and changes in beak shape and size have allowed different species to utilize different food sources on the Galápagos. A critical requirement for speciation to occur through hybridization of two distinct species is that the new lineage must be ecologically competitive -- that is, good at competing for food and other resources with the other species -- and this has been the case for the Big Bird lineage.

"It is very striking that when we compare the size and shape of the Big Bird beaks with the beak morphologies of the other three species inhabiting Daphne Major, the Big Birds occupy their own niche in the beak morphology space," said Sangeet Lamichhaney, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and the first author on the study. "Thus, the combination of gene variants contributed from the two interbreeding species in combination with natural selection led to the evolution of a beak morphology that was competitive and unique."

The definition of a species has traditionally included the inability to produce fully fertile progeny from interbreeding species, as is the case for the horse and the donkey, for example. However, in recent years it has become clear that some closely related species, which normally avoid breeding with each other, do indeed produce offspring that can pass genes to subsequent generations. The authors of the study have previously reported that there has been a considerable amount of gene flow among species of Darwin's finches over the last several thousands of years.

One of the most striking aspects of this study is that hybridization between two distinct species led to the development of a new lineage that after only two generations behaved as any other species of Darwin's finches, explained Leif Andersson, a professor at Uppsala University who is also affiliated with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Texas A&M University. "A naturalist who came to Daphne Major without knowing that this lineage arose very recently would have recognized this lineage as one of the four species on the island. This clearly demonstrates the value of long-running field studies," he said.

It is likely that new lineages like the Big Birds have originated many times during the evolution of Darwin's finches, according to the authors. The majority of these lineages have gone extinct but some may have led to the evolution of contemporary species. "We have no indication about the long-term survival of the Big Bird lineage, but it has the potential to become a success, and it provides a beautiful example of one way in which speciation occurs," said Andersson. "Charles Darwin would have been excited to read this paper."

               https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/pu-gsf112217.php

The Loners' Manifesto

Introduction by the Blog Author
Party of One: The Loners’ Manifesto is a challenging book written by Anneli Rufus.  She pugnaciously defends those who prefer to be alone with their thoughts rather than melting into a mob.  It is a thoughtful and clever approach to defending a group that almost never defends itself.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

The Buddha. Rene Descartes. Emily Dickinson. Greta Garbo. Bobby Fischer. J. D. Salinger: Loners, all—along with as many as 25 percent of the world's population. Loners keep to themselves, and like it that way. Yet in the press, in films, in folklore, and nearly everywhere one looks, loners are tagged as losers and psychopaths, perverts and pity cases, ogres and mad bombers, elitists and wicked witches. Too often, loners buy into those messages and strive to change, making themselves miserable in the process by hiding their true nature—and hiding from it. Loners as a group deserve to be reassessed—to claim their rightful place, rather than be perceived as damaged goods that need to be "fixed." In Party of One Anneli Rufus -- a prize-winning, critically acclaimed writer with talent to burn -- has crafted a morally urgent, historically compelling tour de force—a long-overdue argument in defense of the loner, then and now. Marshalling a polymath's easy erudition to make her case, assembling evidence from every conceivable arena of culture as well as interviews with experts and loners worldwide and her own acutely calibrated analysis, Rufus rebuts the prevailing notion that aloneness is indistinguishable from loneliness, the fallacy that all of those who are alone don't want to be, and wouldn't be, if only they knew how.

                               -- overview of Anneli Rufus’s Party of One on Amazon.com

                    Reviews by Amazon.com readers

5 Stars
We Loners Are Not Alone
By nicwe on April 16, 2017

Finally, someone who gets it and expresses it so well in Party of One. I loved this book and found it both comforting and witty as I resonated with many familiar situations and feelings I've had throughout my life. Finally, someone understands! I feel more happy within myself after reading this to be who I am. I like the examples of famous loners and how many are misunderstood as "hermits" with bad temper. It's tough to be in a world of group people who don't understand a desire to go it alone; indeed, they may even vilify you for doing so. I just read an article in the NY Post about an author who was described as a loner in the usual negative terms such as "hermit", "lonely", "sad", she was considered moody and yet incredibly creative. I thought to myself, Are we sure she was lonely and sad? That being said, there are misanthropes and hermits who are alone who let their negative beliefs eat away at them; this is not who she is referring to for the most part. As long as you're happy and enjoy being alone, just be who you are. There is a difference between enjoying solitude (being focused more internally) and feeling lonely. In fact, many artists and creative types NEED their alone time. An excellent and enjoyable read.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

5 Stars

Someone Finally Tells It Like It Is!
ByScribblin' Possum on September 7, 2003

I was an only child of a single parent who loved to draw, read, do mind-game puzzles and generally enjoyed more solitary activities. I'm also a Virgo and supposedly, as a sign, we tend to prefer to work more behind the scenes and shun the limelight. I mention this only because, for years, I used these truths as excuses for why I was the way I was.
Growing up, most people thought I was weird or odd or just a bit off simply because I hated group situations, avoided being a joiner and was just interested in things that most kids my age couldn't conceive of - and interested in pursuing those interests alone and in solitude. Although, when in groups, people tended to defer to me because I was so level headed, conscious of the bigger picture, detached in a way they were not able to be and able to articulate my thoughts in a thorough and often persuasive kind of way - I still hated being involved in groups!!
As a teen, when fitting in becomes so life or death, I shunned many of my more loner tendencies... and wound up suicidal and in counseling for three years, suffering from an identity crisis. In my 20's I was convinced, still, that there was something wrong with me that needed to be rooted out and fixed so that I could be "normal" - or, as Anneli Rufus terms it, a non-loner. Now in my mid-30's I'd finally made peace with myself and the way I am. If people thought I was odd as a kid, whoa! I've embraced that oddness now, full force. But I'm happier and more content than I've ever been in my entire life. And it was at this time of settled inner peace that I found this little gem of a book.
All the issues that Rufus tackles in Party Of One and how these issues are seen so differently between loners and non-loners were things that had crossed my mind over the years, too. I don't know how many times I've said out loud while reading this book, "How many times have I said that very same thing myself?" or "Yes, yes, yes!! That's how I feel and what I think, too!!" It never occurred to me that there were others like me. I thought I was the only weird one... but then again, it makes sense that most loners would think this about themselves simply because, as Rufus points out, loners seldom encounter other loners because by our very nature, we are anti-group so the likelihood of other loners hooking up in some sort of support group... it just wouldn't happen!
This book didn't enable me to suddenly think I was okay as a person and to stop fighting my basic nature - I came to that realization several years ago. But it was comforting in the sense that I realized I was not alone in my supposedly eccentric ways and that there's nothing that needs to be fixed because there is nothing wrong with those of us who are loners. If anything, like most loners probably tend to feel, it's the rest of the world comprised and often governed by those nutty non-loners that's a bit off center.
Not only did this book provide comfort but it also raised some additional issues that I may have thought about in passing but never brought to the front burner of consciousness. It's a book that you'll want to give to all your non-loner friends and family members so they can better understand you and it's a book you'll want to recommend to other loner friends and family members who struggle in the predominantly non-loner world. I now have a 13 year old sister who is also a bona-fide loner and who's demonstrated those clear loner characteristics since she was 2. I'm saving this book for her when she gets a bit older and starts to wonder why she is the way she is and why I and only a handful of others around her truly "get" her. It may spare her all the drama I endured before I finally found self-acceptance and made peace with my loner self.

https://www.amazon.com/Party-One-Manifesto-Anneli-Rufus/dp/1569245134/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511758824&sr=1-1&keywords=party+of+one+the+loner%27s+manifesto

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior. Although examples of such prophecies can be found in literature as far back as ancient Greece and ancient India, it is 20th-century sociologist Robert K. Merton who is credited with coining the expression "self-fulfilling prophecy" and formalizing its structure and consequences. In his 1948 article Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, Merton defines it in the following terms:

The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the original false conception come true. This specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning.

In other words, a positive or negative prophecy, strongly held belief, or delusion—declared as truth when it is actually false—may sufficiently influence people so that their reactions ultimately fulfill the once-false prophecy.

Self-fulfilling prophecy are effects in behavioral confirmation effect, in which behavior, influenced by expectations, causes those expectations to come true. It is complementary to the self-defeating prophecy [see below].

History of the Concept

Merton's concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy stems from the Thomas theorem, which states that "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences". According to Thomas, people react not only to the situations they are in, but also, and often primarily, to the way they perceive the situations and to the meaning they assign to their perceptions. Therefore, their behaviour is determined in part by their perception and the meaning they ascribe to the situations they are in, rather than by the situations themselves. Once people convince themselves that a situation really has a certain meaning, regardless of whether it actually does, they will take very real actions in consequence.

Merton took the concept a step further and applied it to recent social phenomena. In his book Social Theory and Social Structure, he conceives of a bank run at the fictional Last National Bank, over which Cartwright Millingville presides. It is a typical bank, and Millingville has run it honestly and quite properly. As a result, like all banks, it has some liquid assets (cash), but most of its assets are invested in various ventures. Then one day, a large number of customers comes to the bank at once—the exact reason is never made clear. Customers, seeing so many others at the bank, begin to worry. False rumours spread that something is wrong with the bank and more customers rush to the bank to try to get some of their money out while they still can. The number of customers at the bank increases, as does their annoyance and excitement, which in turn fuels the false rumours of the bank's insolvency and upcoming bankruptcy, causing more customers to come and try to withdraw their money. At the beginning of the day—the last one for Millingville's bank—the bank was not insolvent. But the rumour of insolvency caused a sudden demand of withdrawal of too many customers, which could not be answered, causing the bank to become insolvent and declare bankruptcy. Merton concludes this example with the following analysis:

The parable tells us that public definitions of a situation (prophecies or predictions) become an integral part of the situation and thus affect subsequent developments. This is peculiar to human affairs. It is not found in the world of nature, untouched by human hands. Predictions of the return of Halley's comet do not influence its orbit. But the rumoured insolvency of Millingville's bank did affect the actual outcome. The prophecy of collapse led to its own fulfilment.

Merton concluded that the only way to break the cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy is by redefining the propositions on which its false assumptions are originally based.

In economic "expectations models" of inflation, peoples' expectations of future inflation lead them to spend more today and demand higher nominal interest rates for any savings, since they expect that prices will be rising. This demand for higher nominal interest rates and increased spending in the present, in turn, create inflationary pressure and can cause inflation even if the expectations of future inflation are unfounded. The expectations theory of inflation played a large role in Paul Volcker's actions during his tenure as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve in combating the "stagflation" of the 1970s.

Philosopher Karl Popper called the self-fulfilling prophecy the Oedipus effect:

One of the ideas I had discussed in The Poverty of Historicism was the influence of a prediction upon the event predicted. I had called this the "Oedipus effect", because the oracle played a most important role in the sequence of events which led to the fulfilment of its prophecy. … For a time I thought that the existence of the Oedipus effect distinguished the social from the natural sciences. But in biology, too—even in molecular biology—expectations often play a role in bringing about what has been expected.

An early precursor of the concept appears in Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: "During many ages, the prediction, as it is usual, contributed to its own accomplishment" (chapter I, part II).

                              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-fulfilling_prophecy

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

A self-defeating prophecy is the complementary opposite of a self-fulfilling prophecy: a prediction that prevents what it predicts from happening. This is also known as the "prophet's dilemma".

A self-defeating prophecy can be the result of rebellion to the prediction. If the audience of a prediction has an interest in seeing it falsified, and its fulfillment depends on their actions or inaction, their actions upon hearing it will make the prediction less plausible. If a prediction is made with this outcome specifically in mind, it is commonly referred to as reverse psychology or warning. Also, when working to make a premonition come true, one can inadvertently change the circumstances so much that the prophecy cannot come true.

It is important to distinguish a self-defeating prophecy from a self-fulfilling prophecy that predicts a negative outcome. If a prophecy of a negative outcome is made, and that negative outcome is achieved as a result of positive feedback, then it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, if a group of people decide they will not be able to achieve a goal and stop working towards the goal as a result, their prophecy was self-fulfilling. Likewise, if a prediction of a negative outcome is made, but the outcome is positive because of negative feedback resulting from the rebellion, then that is a self-defeating prophecy.

                             https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-defeating_prophecy

 

"Stalking Horse" Offers

A stalking horse offer, agreement, or bid is an attempt by a bankrupt debtor to test the market for the debtor's assets in advance of an auction of them. The intent is to maximize the value of its assets or avoid low bids, as part of (or before) a court auction.

Procedure

While entering a stalking horse offer, the debtor can offer bidding protections such as breakup fees to its best bidder before the auction. These incentives enhance the value of the offering for the bidder which might lead to a better price offer before the auction begins. This higher offer is now the starting offer for the auction and may result in benefiting the debtor and its estate.

Examples

On October 22, 2007, technology company SCO asked a bankruptcy court to approve a deal whereby a purchaser would acquire "substantially all assets used by the Company in connection with its SCO UNIX Business and certain related claims in litigation." The agreement included a "stalking horse" provision: If the purchaser, York Capital Management, were to be designated as a stalking horse in subsequent bidding for SCO's assets, and if others outbid York, then SCO would have to pay York a $780,000 breakup fee and reimbursement of all expenses incurred by York up to $300,000. In this way, York would earn its expenses and $780,000 by acting as the stalking horse and preventing other bidders from making lowball offers.

On August 4, 2008, Steve and Barry's LLC, a retailer of casual apparel, filed a stalking horse agreement with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Their partner in this asset purchase agreement was BH S&B Holding LLC, a subsidiary of Bay Harbor Management.

On July 27, 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported that Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson had won a stalking horse bid to acquire Nortel Networks Corp's CDMA division, for $1.13 billion.

On July 8, 2010, the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball team announced a potential stalking horse deal. "'An auction with a stalking horse, or minimum, bid is more frequently used than a so-called “naked” auction without a floor price,' William K. Snyder, the court-appointed restructuring officer, said. 'Moreover, the stalking horse bidder commonly receives a “reasonable” break-up fee if unsuccessful in the auction,' said Snyder. Under the scrapped plan, the $304 million in cash portion of the Greenberg-Ryan group’s May 24 deal with owner Tom Hicks would serve as a minimum bid, with the next bid at least $20 million higher. Greenberg-Ryan would have received $15 million if it lost."

On February 21, 2011, Reuters reported Blockbuster's intention to pursue a $290 million stalking horse offer with Cobalt Video Holdco.

On April 4, 2011, TechCrunch reported Google's intention to pursue a $900 million stalking horse bid for Nortel's patents.

In 2013, Hostess Brands used a stalking horse auction to sell off its assets in bankruptcy.

On October 17, 2013, Designline, now known as Environmental Performance Vehicles the Charlotte, NC bus manufacturer, used the technique but received no offers.

On April 15, 2013, Eastman Kodak proposed a stalking horse deal of $210 million whereby Brother Industries would acquire Kodak's Document Imaging division ahead of Kodak's bankruptcy court approval slated for June 2013.

On June 10, 2016, Ziff Davis proposed a stalking-horse bid of under US$90 million after Gawker Media announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Further Reading

• Owsley, Henry (2005). Distressed Investment Banking. City: Beard Books. ISBN 1-58798-267-6. 
• Hillman, William (2004). Bankruptcy Deskbook. City: Practising Law Institute (PLI). ISBN 0-87224-139-4.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalking_horse_offer

Ratko Mladic Is Sentenced

Ratko Mladić (pronounced [râtko mlǎːdit͡ɕ]; born 12 March 1943) is a Bosnian Serb former general found guilty of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). On 31 May 2011, Mladić was extradited to The Hague, where he was processed at the detention center that holds suspects for the ICTY. His trial formally began in The Hague on 16 May 2012 and was concluded on 22 November 2017 finding him guilty and sentencing him to life in prison.

                                                          Mladic in court, June, 2011
A long-time member of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, Mladić began his career in the Yugoslav People's Army in 1965. He came to prominence in the Yugoslav Wars, initially as a high-ranking officer of the Yugoslav People's Army and subsequently as the Chief of Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska in the Bosnian War of 1992–1995. He has often been referred to by Western media as the Butcher of Bosnia, a title also sometimes applied to Radovan Karadžić, the former President of Republika Srpska.

In July 1996 the Trial Chamber of the ICTY, proceeding in the absence of Mladić under the ICTY's Rule 61, confirmed all counts of the original indictments, finding there were reasonable grounds to believe he had committed the alleged crimes, and issued an international arrest warrant. The Serbian and United States governments offered €5 million for information leading to Mladić's capture and arrest. In October 2010, Serbia intensified the hunt by increasing the reward for Mladić's capture from €5 million to €10 million. Mladić nevertheless managed to remain at large for nearly sixteen years, initially sheltered by Serbian and Bosnian Serb security forces and later by family. On 26 May 2011, he was arrested in Lazarevo, Serbia. His capture was considered to be one of the pre-conditions for Serbia being awarded candidate status for European Union membership.

On 22 November 2017, he was sentenced to life in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for 10 charges, one of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and four of violations of the laws or customs of war. He was cleared of one count of genocide. As the top military officer with command responsibility, Mladić was deemed by the ICTY to be responsible for the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratko_Mladi%C4%87

Moviola Film Editing Device

A Moviola is a device that allows a film editor to view a film while editing. It was the first machine for motion picture editing when it was invented by Iwan Serrurier in 1924. The Moviola company is still in existence and is located in Hollywood where part of the facility is located on one of the original Moviola factory floors.

History and Development

Iwan Serrurier's original 1917 concept for the Moviola was as a home movie projector to be sold to the general public. The name was derived from the name "Victrola" since Serrurier thought his invention would do for home movie viewing what the Victrola did for home music listening. However, since the machine cost $600 in 1920 (equivalent to $20,000 in the 2000s), very few sold. An editor at Douglas Fairbanks Studios suggested that Iwan should adapt the device for use by film editors. Serrurier did this and the Moviola as an editing device was born in 1924 with the first Moviola being sold to Douglas Fairbanks himself. Ninety-four years later, a framed copy of the original receipt still resides at Moviola, the company, in Hollywood.

Many studios quickly adopted the Moviola including Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, Charles Chaplin Studios, Buster Keaton Productions, Mary Pickford, Mack Sennett, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The advent of sound, 65mm and 70mm film, and the need for portable editing equipment during World War II greatly expanded the market for Moviola's products.

Iwan Serrurier's son, Mark Serrurier, took over his father's company in 1946. In 1966, Mark sold Moviola Co. to Magnasync Corporation (a subsidiary of Craig Corporation) of North Hollywood for $3 million. Combining the names, the new name was Magnasync/Moviola Corp. President L. S. Wayman instantly ordered a tripling of production, and the new owners realized their investment in less than two years.

Wayman retired in 1981, and Moviola Co. was sold to J&R Film Co., Inc. in 1984.

Usage of Moviola

The Moviola allowed editors to study individual shots in their cutting rooms, thus to determine more precisely where the best cut-point might be. The vertically oriented Moviolas were the standard for film editing in the United States until the 1970s, when horizontal flatbed editor systems became more common.

Nevertheless, a few very high-profile filmmakers continue to prefer the Moviola. One such editor is Michael Kahn, who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Film Editing in 2005 for his work on Steven Spielberg's Munich, which he edited with a Moviola. Kahn eventually convinced Spielberg to use Avid for all his current film work, beginning with The Adventures of Tintin in 2011 and Lincoln in 2012.

Awards

Mark Serrurier accepted an Academy Award of Merit (Oscar statue) for himself and his father for the Moviola in 1979.

To MARK SERRURIER for the progressive development of the Moviola from the 1924 invention of his father, Iwan Serrurier, to the present Series 20 sophisticated film editing equipment.

There is a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Mark Serrurier because of the Moviola's contribution to Motion Pictures.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moviola

Argentinian Submarine Lost at Sea

ARA San Juan (S-42) is a TR-1700-class diesel-electric submarine in active service with the Argentine Navy as part of the Argentine Submarine Force. The submarine was built in West Germany and entered service on 19 November 1985. San Juan underwent a mid-life update from 2008 to 2013.

                                                            ARA San Juan (S-42)

On 15 November 2017, San Juan stopped communicating during a routine patrol in the South Atlantic off the coast of Argentina. A multi-nation search operation was mounted to try to locate the submarine, which was believed to have suffered an electrical malfunction.

Disappearance

In early November 2017, San Juan was part of a navy exercise in Tierra del Fuego which included the sinking of the ex ARA Somellera as a target. With the war game completed and after a short visit to Ushuaia open to the public, the submarine sailed to her home base at Mar del Plata. On 17 November, it was announced that it had not been heard from since 15 November, and that search and rescue operations had been launched 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) southeast of San Jorge Gulf. There are at least 44 servicemen on board the missing submarine, including Argentina's first female submarine officer, Eliana María Krawczyk. The submarine carries oxygen for no more than seven days when submerged.

On 17 November, Argentine president Mauricio Macri moved to the official residence at Chapadmalal, near Mar del Plata, in order to follow the search and rescue operation more closely. The Argentine Armed Forces set up a centre of operations at the naval base in Mar del Plata, with family members of the submariners also present at the base. The Argentine Navy brought in a team of mental health professionals to aid the families; a team to keep them updated on the search and rescue effort had also been set up.

On 18 November, the Ministry of Defense reported that there had been attempts at communication that day from a satellite phone that was believed to be from the submarine, but it was later determined that the calls were not from the vessel.

On 19 November, the Argentine Armed Forces stated that severe weather with 8-metre (26 ft) waves in the area was hampering the search effort and that weather conditions would not be favourable until 21 November.

On 20 November, the Argentine Navy announced that the "critical phase" for the rescue was approaching. Though the submarine has enough supplies to last 90 days above water, it only has enough oxygen for 7–10 days underwater and it is speculated that it was underwater when communications were lost given the rough weather. The Navy also stated that if the issue had simply been a communications failure, then San Juan would have arrived at Mar del Plata on 19 or 20 November.  The Argentine Navy later reported that sonar systems on two of its ships and sonar buoys dropped by a US P-8A Poseidon aircraft detected noises possibly coming from San Juan; a senior United States Navy officer told CNN that this sounded like banging on the hull in order to alert passing ships; later analysis of the audio determined that the sound "did not correspond to a submarine", and was probably of biological origin. By the end of the day the oceanographic vessels of the Argentine Navy Puerto Deseado and ARA Austral with support of the icebreaker Almirante Maximiano of the Brazilian Navy carried out an extensive scan in the place where the biological sound started. The Royal Navy stated that 10-metre (33 ft) waves had slowed the search, but easing weather led to improved sonar conditions.

As of 21 November, the search area was 482,507 square kilometres (186,297 sq mi) in size; 15 planes and 17 ships were actively searching the area. Weather conditions improved, with 3–4-metre (9.8–13.1 ft) waves, making the search for the submarine less difficult. The United States Navy later reported that one of its planes had detected a heat signature which corresponded to a metallic object at a depth of 70 metres (230 ft), 300 kilometres (190 mi) off the coast of Puerto Madryn. There was no official confirmation from the Argentine Navy whether the object was indeed San Juan, but sources told Clarín newspaper that a fleet in the area led by the corvette ARA Drummond was given orders to proceed "at full speed" towards where the object was detected. At 7:00 pm the British ship HMS Protector, in its maritime patrol area, had seen three flares to the east: one orange and two white. This information was reported to Puerto Belgrano where the Search and Rescue Coordinating Center is set up. The Argentine Navy later determined that both the flares and heat signature were false leads.

On 22 November, the Argentine Navy investigated a "hydroacoustic anomaly" identified on 15 November, three hours after the last contact of the lost submarine; ships and airplanes were sent back to the last contact point with ARA San Juan. During a search flight over the South Atlantic, a U.S. P-8A Poseidon aircraft detected an object near the area where the missing submarine sent its last signal. The plane returned to its base in Bahía Blanca late the same day.

On 23 November the Argentine Navy said an event consistent with an explosion had been detected on the day the submarine lost communications by CTBTO seismic anomaly listening posts on Ascension Island and Crozet Islands. The Navy received information through the Argentine ambassador in Austria since the CTBTO is based in Vienna. The organisation had been asked to analyse data in the search area by the Argentine government on the week of the disappearance, but no leads surfaced until 22 November when the CTBTO informed the government.

                                     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_San_Juan_(S-42)

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Families of the submarine crew have been told that the entire crew is probably dead.  See

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/aboard-missing-argentine-sub-believed-dead-family-missing-174950883--abc-news-topstories.html
 

How the Crust of the Moon Formed

Moon’s Crust Underwent Resurfacing
After Forming from Magma Ocean

University of Texas – November 21, 2017 -- The Earth’s Moon had a rough start in life. Formed from a chunk of the Earth that was lopped off during a planetary collision, it spent its early years covered by a roiling global ocean of molten magma before cooling and forming the serene surface we know today.

A research team led by The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences took to the lab to recreate the magmatic melt that once formed the lunar surface and uncovered new insights on how the modern moonscape came to be. Their study shows that the Moon’s crust initially formed from rock floating to the surface of the magma ocean and cooling. However, the team also found that one of the great mysteries of the lunar body’s formation – how it could develop a crust composed largely of just one mineral – cannot be explained by the initial crust formation and must have been the result of some secondary event.

The results were published on Nov. 21 in Geophysical Research Letters.

“It’s fascinating to me that there could be a body as big as the Moon that was completely molten,” said Nick Dygert, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville who led the research while a postdoctoral researcher in the Jackson School’s Department of Geological Sciences. “That we can run these simple experiments, in these tiny little capsules here on Earth and make first order predictions about how such a large body would have evolved is one of the really exciting things about mineral physics.”

Dygert collaborated with Jackson School Associate Professor Jung-Fu Lin, Professor James Gardner and Ph.D. student Edward Marshall, as well as Yoshio Kono, a beamline scientist at the Geophysical Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Large portions of the Moon’s crust are made up almost entirely of a single mineral. In these sections, 98 percent of the crust is plagioclase. According to the prevailing theory, which this study calls into question, the purity is due to plagioclase floating to the surface of the magma ocean over hundreds of millions of years and solidifying into the Moon’s crust. This theory hinges on the magma ocean having a specific viscosity, a term related to the magma’s “gooiness,” that would allow plagioclase to separate from other dense minerals it crystallized with and rise to the top.

Dygert decided to test the plausibility of the theory by measuring the viscosity of lunar magma directly. The feat involved using a high-pressure apparatus called a synchrotron to shoot a concentrated beam of high-energy X-rays into a sample of mineral powders and flash melting them into magma. The researchers then measured the time it took for a melt-resistant sphere to sink through the magma.

“Previously, there had not been any laboratory data to support models,” said Lin. “So this is really the first time we have reliable laboratory experimental results to understand how the Moon’s crust and interior formed.”

The experiment found that the magma melt had a very low viscosity, somewhere between that of olive oil and corn syrup at room temperature, a value that would have supported plagioclase flotation. However, it would have also led to mixing of plagioclase with the magma, a process that would trap other minerals in between the plagioclase crystals, creating an impure crust on the lunar surface. Because satellite-based investigations demonstrate that a significant portion of the crust on the Moon’s surface is pure, a secondary process must have resurfaced the Moon, exposing a deeper, younger, purer layer of crust. Dygert said the results support a “crustal overturn” on the lunar surface where the old mixed crust was replaced with young, buoyant, hot deposits of pure plagioclase. The older crust could have also been eroded away by asteroids slamming into the Moon’s surface.

Dygert said the study’s results exemplify how small-scale experiments can lead to large-scale understanding of geological processes that build planetary bodies in our solar system and others.

“I view the Moon as a planetary lab,” Dygert said. “It’s so small that it cooled quickly, and there’s no atmosphere or plate tectonics to wipe out the earliest processes of planetary evolution. The concepts described here could be applicable to just about any planet.”

            http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2017/11/moons-crust-underwent-resurfacing-after-forming-from-magma-ocean/