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Scientists analyzing the genomes of thousands of people across Japan discovered evidence for a previously overlooked third ancestral group, challenging the long-accepted “dual origins” theory. The newly identified ancestry appears linked to the ancient Emishi people of northeastern Japan. Researchers also uncovered inherited Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA connected to conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260514003314.htm
Gutting the department.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/16/politics/global-crises-state-department-cuts
Why a Single 5.51-Carat Diamond Commanded $17.3 Million in Geneva
When an ultra-rare blue-green stone with no comparables returns to market, collectors take notice.
When Mr. Carl Craft nearly died from a brain hemorrhage, he and his wife Dawn reviewed their bucket list. Carl wanted to travel, Dawn said she wanted to go to medical school.
“He thought I was crazy,” she said.
Now though, Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft proudly carries a doctorate in medicine after finishing as the school’s oldest-ever graduate at 72 years old.
I wonder if he was working at the Erdemir plant. I worked with an engineer who was involved with a sinter plant for that company.
Here is a snippet from my neighbor Joe Faloon's obit. He died in 2006 at the age of 87, so he was much older than you.
Joseph and his wife Virginia both graduated from Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1939. Joseph was an industrial engineer who worked in the steel industry throughout his career, first for U.S. Steel, then Ford Motor Steel, then Kaiser Engineers, managing the creation and expansion of major steel plants, living in Turkey and consulting in Indonesia, Australia, Venezuela and Mexico.
On another gardening note...I really like a variety of tomato called 'Little Sicily'. Tasty tomatoes, great yields. I have purchased them at Home Depot and at a local garden center but neither had them in stock this year. I don't have a lot of opportunities to get out to do plant shopping these days, so I took a flyer and ordered them from Home Depot online; I was surprised to see them listed. I thought I would probably get a couple of spindly, broken, yellow plants that I'd be schlepping to the store for a refund.
Imagine my surprise when this very sturdy box arrived with two tomato plants in it:
Each plant was in a small hinged "greenhouse":
Some of the healthiest specimens I've seen. I unpacked the plants when they came a few days ago, so they've already grown. I set up this photo so you could see how cozily they were packaged:
Hopefully the universe will forgive me for all that packaging. But I'll be eating the tastiest tomatoes in the 'hood later this summer!
Summer is here (basically zero chance of frost moving forward) so I'll be spending the next few days catching up in the garden. I have already purchased veggie plants and have bean seeds and seed potatoes. Time to get to work getting everything in the ground!
Looks like this year's crop of gooseberries and currants (both red and black) isn't going to be as good as last year. 
Having been involved with technical services to the steel industry earlier in my engineering career
One of my neighbors worked as an engineer in the steel industry. When we bought our house in 1980, he and the family were living in Turkey while he was working on a project there. We finally met them, close to a year after we moved into our house, when they returned to the US.
Not your grandmother's aluminum:
Ha! So I fat fingered the list I typed up a while back. Apparently my memory is better than my typing skills...
One of the other consequences of aging...the memory goes...I was convinced that I remembered Steve's May 16th birthday. Except his birthday was two days ago!!
See @steve-miller 's post below. It's today!!
In any event -- hope you've recovered from the festivities! But if you need more cake, here is a Baumkuchen, complete with recipe:
So does this mean @shirokuro will be house hunting near @bernard soon?
...is that you keep losing lifelong friends.
We got word a few days ago from the daughter of one of our good friends that he passed away. Wasi and I commuted on the same train every day starting back in the 1980s when Mr wtg and I moved here. We got to know each other because I used to kibitz the bridge game on the train. We would walk several blocks heading home; my car was parked not too far from Peg's and his house. The four of us went out for dinner a few times and we hit it off very well, becoming close friends.
Peg was a phenomenal cook and gardener, and Wasi's barbecued spare ribs were to die for. We explored the cuisines of many cultures together, at their home and ours and at restaurants, eating and drinking and laughing a lot. We lived through Peg's rheumatoid arthritis and knee replacements and Wasi's kidney dialysis, then transplant, and his later in life back problems.
They decided to sell their house in 2014 and move to Madison, WI to be close to their daughter. I actually found the house they ended up buying by looking at listings online! We kept in touch and managed to visit them a few times. When Peggy died some four or five years ago, Monya and Wasi put together a a "book" about her. It was a PDF that chronicled her life in text and photos.
Wasi sold their home and moved to a condo after Peggy died. We talked on the phone but between COVID and Mr wtg's health problems in recent years, we never got to see him again.
Their daughter Monya sent us a card a few days ago announcing his October 2025 passing and inviting us to a celebration of life later this summer. Monya put together a Google Earth slideshow, a link to which was on the card that she sent. It uses maps and Wasi's own photos and remembrances as the basis for walking you through Wasi's life. He was born in Assam to a Muslim family, was orphaned at a young age, moved to East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) as a child after the Partition, went to school in British Columbia, and Madison, WI...and on and on. I knew he was Bangladeshi but had never heard the details of his life story.
I don't know if anyone is interested, but I thought I'd share the link to the slideshow. @big_al , you might be interested in the wanderings of a fellow engineer. He had a PhD in mechanical engineering, was a PE, and worked on nuclear reactors when he was at Sargent and Lundy.
I had a bit of trouble navigating the slideshow on my iPad; it was much better on my laptop. After Google Earth loads, just click on Wasi's Story and start the slideshow.
Wasi loved his martinis:
Here they are sitting on the patio in their backyard.
Goodbye to our friends Wasi and Peg. You will live on in our memories.
@ShiroKuro Well done!
A team at the University of Hong Kong has developed a new “super steel” that can survive the harsh conditions needed to make green hydrogen from seawater. The material uses an unexpected double-protection mechanism that resists corrosion far better than conventional stainless steel. Even more impressive, it could replace costly titanium parts used in today’s hydrogen systems..
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260510030950.htm
Google said Monday that it had disrupted a criminal group’s attempt to use artificial intelligence to exploit another company’s previously unknown digital vulnerability, adding to heightened worries across government and private industry about AI’s risks for cybersecurity.
Google shared limited information about the attackers and the target, but John Hultquist, chief analyst at the tech giant’s threat intelligence arm, said it represents a moment cybersecurity experts have warned about for years: malicious hackers arming themselves with AI to supercharge their ability to break into the world’s computers.
“It’s here,” Hultquist said. “The era of AI-driven vulnerability and exploitation is already here.”
I haven’t seen a reliable source saying that, but it’s certainly plausible.
The company acknowledged the ransom payment
I looked into Optery, which is a similar service. I did the free plan, which provides a report that lists where your info is stored. It originally located 60+ sites, and I manually submitted requests to a bunch of them, requesting deletion of my info. Optery still sends me occasional emails and now it says I'm only on 30 sites. I may do some more manual deletion requests; I haven't pulled the trigger on a paid subscription.
PC Mag does a comparison:
https://www.pcmag.com/comparisons/incogni-vs-optery-which-data-removal-service-comes-out-on-top
