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Z80 and AY-3-8910 – Part 2
I’ve spent a bit of time looking at the “Tester” part of the AY driver code for Tim Follin’s music archive that I talked about in Z80 and AY-3-8910.
This is documenting what I think I’ve worked out so far for the tester code.
The Sound Tester
As previously mentioned, there are essentially three parts to the code in Follin archive:
- The tune and effect data.
- Ste Ruddy’s Sound Driver.
- A tracker-style (ish) tester UI application.
The first part looked at the sound driver itself, and essentially skipped over the tester part of the code. This post picks up on that tester code.
Reminder, from part one, the main structure is as follows:
Code_Start: EQU 40000
Data_Start: EQU 50000
;-----------------------------
ORG Code_Start
; The UI/tester code
TESTER:
LOOP: Calls the following for each scan:
HALT - Suspends until an interrupt comes in?
CALL UPDATE
CALL REFRESH
CALL CLOCK
CALL KEYSCAN
Repeat as necessary
KEYSCAN: UI scanning
CLOCK: Possibly maintain a 50Hz refresh rate clock?
UPDATE: Loads the internal state of all sound variables from
the driver and displays them in real time via the UI.
; The sound driver
CODE_TOP:
TUNE: Select which tune to play.
TUNE_IN: Init all internal sound state variables for a new tune.
TUNEOFF: Stop a playing tune, eg to change tune or start an FX.
FX: Start playing an FX.
FLOOP: Keep processing FX instructions until complete.
REFRESH: "run" a scan of the sound driver updating and outputting the soundThe Tester Code
Initialisation information and main screen data:
;**************************************
; Z80 AY MUSIC DRIVER
;**************************************
; ORG 40000
; LOAD 0C000H
;======================================
;STACK DEPTHS
SD: EQU 3
;======================================
ASCII: EQU 23560 ; 23560 = $5C08 = System Variable "LAST K"
TESTER: PUSH AF
PUSH BC
PUSH DE
PUSH HL
XOR A ; ASCII = MINS = SECS = 0
LD (ASCII),A
LD (MINS),A
LD (SECS),A
CALL TUNEOFF ; TUNE initialisation
CALL STACKMESS ; Kick off the Tester code!
DB CLS ; The start of the main UI data
DB AT,0,0
DB INK,01010111B
DB "'AY' MUSIC DRIVE"
DB "R V2 BY S.RUDDY"
... Skip ...
DB INK,64+5
DB "VOLUME "
DB " "
DB 255
... Skip ...
AT: EQU 22
INK: EQU 16
CLS: EQU 15
STACKMESS: POP IX
CALL MESS
JP (IX)There is a whole lot of screen data in DB blocks which includes some “op codes” that are defined later: AT, INK, CLS. These are special codes that are used by the ROM-based print routines (more here), as used by Sinclair BASIC, but in this case they are spelt out directly, later in code. The final 255 signifies the end of the screen data.
So how are these definitions handled? That all comes up in the “MESS” routine I’ll get to in a moment, but first that “STACKMESS” routine needs a bit of explanation.
When a CALL instruction happens, such as the CALL STACKMESS at the start, the current program counter gets pushed onto the stack. In this case the current PC will point to the instruction after the CALL, which happens to be the start of the screen data. So the POP IX will grab the address of the screen data and drop it into IX and then call the “MESS” function to actually get on with it!
But before I get to that, there is some more code after the screen data:
LD HL,CALC1
PUSH HL
LD A,H
LD DE,4067H ; Output high byte
CALL HEX
POP HL
LD A,L
LD DE,4069H ; Output low byte
CALL HEX
LD HL,(CALC2)
PUSH HL
LD A,H
LD DE,4071H ; Output number of Tunes
CALL HEX
POP HL
LD A,L
LD DE,4073H ; Output number of effects
CALL HEX
LD HL,CALC1
LD DE,(CALC2)
ADD HL,DE
PUSH HL
LD A,H
LD DE,407CH ; Not entirely sure what this is outputting...
CALL HEX
POP HL
LD A,L
LD DE,407EH
CALL HEXThis is writing some basic data out to the display. CALC1 seems to relate to code section size. I believe CALC2 is the start address of the tune data, which is the following:
ORG Data_Start
TUNES: EQU 5
EFFECTS: EQU 21All three of these sections are outputting a 16-bit value in two single-byte chunks using the “HEX” routine, which takes a screen address (in the range $4000-$57FF) and outputs a hex number at that screen location.
So while I’m at it then, how is that HEX function working?
;--------------------------------------
HEX: INC DE ; DE contains the screen address to use
PUSH AF ; Start with DE+1
CALL ONEnib ; Write out the LOW 4-bits
POP AF
RRA ; A = A>>4
RRA ; to write out HIGH 4-bits
RRA
RRA
DEC DE ; Back to original DE screen address
ONEnib: AND 15 ; A = A & 0xF
ADD A ; BC = A * 2
LD C,A
LD B,0
LD HL,ROM_TAB ; Read from ROM_TAB[BC]
ADD HL,BC
LD A,(HL)
INC HL
LD H,(HL)
LD L,A ; HL = (uint16_t)ROM_TAB[A]
MIKESbug: LD C,D ; So HL now points to character bitmap in ROM
LD B,8 ; Write out 8 bytes to display memory directly
PRloop: LD A,(HL) ; (DE) = (HL)
LD (DE),A
INC HL ; HL++
INC D ; NB: Layout of display mem means D++ is next line of char
; for same value of E.
DJNZ PRloop ; WHILE (B-- > 0)
LD D,C ; (Restore D before returning, so DE still = screen addr)
RET
ROM_TAB: DW 3D80H ; ROM character set: 3D80 = "0"
DW 3D88H ; Each char = 8 x 8 bits
DW 3D90H
DW 3D98H
DW 3DA0H
DW 3DA8H
DW 3DB0H
DW 3DB8H
DW 3DC0H
DW 3DC8H ; = "9"
DW 3E08H ; = "A"
DW 3E10H
DW 3E18H
DW 3E20H
DW 3E28H
DW 3E30H ; = "F"This is making use of the character set stored in the Spectrum ROM (more here) which is indexed via a 16-word jump table mapping the characters onto each of the 16 hex characters: 0..9, A..F.
Then each byte, 8 in total, of the character is written directly out to the Spectrum screen memory taking advantage of the odd formatting of the screen memory to easily skip to the next line of the display for each line of the character (more here).
So before I get into the main update loop, how the screen initialised and set up? That happens in the “MESS” and some ancillary functions.
MESS: LD A,(IX+0) ; At this point, McursorX, McursorY = (0,0)
INC IX ; So read a byte of screen data
OR A
RET M ; Stop IF A=255 (i.e. negative)
CP 32
JR C,Mcontrol ; IF A<32 process control character then RET back to "MESS"
CALL Mgetchar ; ELSE Process character
CALL Mgetaddr ; Get screen address for next output in DE
CALL MIKESbug ; Output the character
CALL PRattr ; Set the colour attributes
CALL INCcursor ; Update the screen position for the next byte of screen data
JR MESS
Mcontrol: LD HL,MESS ; Stick the address of "MESS" on the stack for the RET
PUSH HL
CP 15 ; IF A == CLS
JR Z,Mcls
CP 22 ; IF A == AT
JP Z,Mat
CP 16 ; IF A == INK
JR Z,Mink
RET ; RETurn to "MESS"
Mcolour: DB 0 ; Working variables for cursor position and colour
McursorX: DB 0
McursorY: DB 0 ; Has to be directly after McursorX (see later)
Mink: LD A,(IX+0) ; Process INK to set colour
INC IX
LD (Mcolour),A
RET
Mcls: LD HL,4000H ; Process CLS to clear screen
LD (HL),L
LD DE,4001H
LD BC,1AFFH
LDIR
LD (McursorX),BC
RET
INCcursor: LD HL,McursorX ; Moves the cursor on one position
LD A,(HL)
INC A
AND 31
LD (HL),A ; X++; X = X % 32
RET NZ ; IF X==0; Y++
INC HL ; Assumes McursorY is McursorX++
INC (HL)
RET
Mgetchar: LD L,A ; HL = A*8 + 3C00
LD H,0 ; Note: A > 32; where 32="Space"
ADD HL,HL ; In ROM, space is address 3D00
ADD HL,HL ; 32 * 8 = 0x100
ADD HL,HL
LD BC,3C00H
ADD HL,BC ; HL = Start address of character map for char in A in ROM
RET
.... skip ....
Mgetaddr: LD A,(McursorY) ; Calculate the screen address for (McursorX, McursorY)
AND 18H
OR 40H
LD D,A
LD A,(McursorY)
RRCA
RRCA
RRCA
AND 0E0H
LD E,A
LD A,(McursorX)
ADD E
LD E,A
RET ; DE = required screen address
Mat: LD A,(IX+0) ; Set cursor to provided X, Y in screen data
LD (McursorX),A
INC IX
LD A,(IX+0)
LD (McursorY),A
INC IX
RET
PRattr: LD A,D ; Get address of ATTRibute memory
RRA
RRA
RRA
AND 3
OR 58H
LD D,A
LD A,(Mcolour)
LD (DE),A ; And set the colour
RETBasically this loop keeps working on the provided screen data until the value 255 is found, at which point it returns. There are two paths for handling the data:
- IF the value is < 32 then it is a control value. Only CLS, AT and INK are recognised.
- ELSE the value is assumed to be an ASCII character and is displayed.
Whatever is happening, happens at the coordinates given by (McursorX, McursorY) which start out as (0,0) and get updated automatically when a character is output, or in response to an AT command. INK will set the required colour in Mcolour, which again starts out as 0. This is applied after the character is written to the screen, using the PRattr function.
There is a fun bit of optimisation going on in Mcontrol. At the start it pushes the address of the MESS function on the stack, which means that the RET will jump back to the start of MESS rather than where the jump happened to Mcontrol itself.
There is another shortcut in the Mcls function: LDIR. From http://z80-heaven.wikidot.com/instructions-set:ldir: “Repeats LDI (LD (DE),(HL), then increments DE, HL, and decrements BC) until BC=0.” By setting the contents of HL (the first byte of the display) to zero, this will tile that same value across the display memory until BC, which starts at $1AFF, is zero. This will zero the whole display – both pixels and attributes – from 0x4000 through to 0x5AFF.
Now finally, we get to the main update loop.
LOOP:
HALT
CALL UPDATE ; Update the display from the current Sound parameters
LD A,2
OUT (254),A ; Set border to 2
CALL REFRESH ; Update the sound driver parameters
XOR A
OUT (254),A ; Set border to 0
CALL CLOCK ; Run 50Hz clock
CALL KEYSCAN ; Guess what - scans the keyboard 🙂
LD A,07FH
IN A,(254) ; Reads 0x7FFE which is the bottom row of the keyboard
AND 1
JP NZ,LOOP ; Checks bit 0, which is the SPACE key
LD BC,65533 ; AY OUTPUT PORTS (FFFD, BFFD)
LD A,7
OUT (C),A
LD BC,49149
LD A,63 ; Set AY register 7 to 63 - i.e. all channels OFF
OUT (C),A
POP HL
POP DE
POP BC
POP AF
RETI’m not going through the sub routines of the loop, other than to note the following:
- UPDATE is a whole series of instructions that basically do the following to output the HEX value of a sound parameter:
LD A, (contents of one of the sound variables)
LD DE, (corresponding screen address for the variable to be displayed)
CALL HEX- REFRESH runs the sound driver itself, as described in Z80 and AY-3-8910.
- CLOCK decrements the FIFTY variable and every time it gets to zero updates SECS and MINS and writes them out to the display. As it also uses the HEX routine, I guess it is storing the time using binary-coded decimal (BCD).
- KEYSCAN reads the last key pressed from the system variable location stored in ASCII (23560 / 0x5C08).
At some point I might come back and work out what keys do what…
Closing Thoughts
I’d really like to get some of this code running on some of the alternate Z80 platforms I have. Getting the sound output shouldn’t be too much of an issue, but I’d really like to have some kind of display too.
But as can be seen above, the tester UI is pretty well tied into the oddities of the ZX Spectrum display, so porting it won’t be trivial.
I suspect there are already some existing AY/chiptune players that perhaps would be a better starting point, but from what I’ve seen they tend to stream the register data after having sampled it at regular intervals, which isn’t quite what I was after… there would be something really quite interesting about actually running Ste Ruddy’s Sound Driver with a Tim Follin soundtrack programmed in.
Kevin
#ay38910 #TimFollin #zxSpectrum -
The Ultimate Guide to Zettelkasten Index Card Storage
Invariably, when one is starting out on their analog zettelkasten or index-card based commonplace book journey, one of the first questions besides what size and type of cards should I use, is naturally what sort of box should I put them in? This is one of the more frequently asked questions I’ve seen of those who have detailed their systems or especially in online fora.Generally until you’ve made the commitment to keep up at it beyond a few hundred cards, a simple cardboard box, shoebox, or something sitting around the house will generally do. If a simple box worked so well for Vladimir Nabokov‘s work, surely you might do as well? Eventually you might want to move to something larger or more permanent, or at least something that looks nice on your desk or tucked into a corner. Those who, like Niklas Luhmann, Gotthard Deutsch, Gershom Scholem, Roland Barthe, S.D. Goitein or many others, are in it for the long haul and may need storage for more than 10,000 – 100,000+ cards might prefer something larger and more permanent, or at least something modular that might grow with their collection over time.
Whatever your choices, budget, and ultimate path, it might help to have a list of some of the more common options available to take a look at to see what might work for you now or in the future so you can begin thinking (or if you’re smitten: dreaming) about what your ultimate path might might be. Hopefully this guide will be helpful in that endeavor.
While storage for 3 x 5 inch and 4 x 6 inch index cards are the most ubiquitous and easy to find (with there being a fairly larger market for 3 x 5 inch card storage), one can find larger cards (5 x 8, 6 x 9, etc.) and storage boxes for them, they just may take more searching or cost a bit more. One should keep in mind that the larger the card and box, the harder and more expensive sourcing them will usually become. Your home country may also play a factor in your card size and box choices. I generally wouldn’t recommend that those in the United States opt for the European standards like A4, A5, or A6 cards as they’re slightly harder to source here and there aren’t nearly as many options for the range of storage options unless you’re willing to buy and ship cabinetry from overseas which can become expensive for the more budget conscious. A similar caveat should be noted for those in other countries looking at the standards in the United States. One of the greatest benefits of the A size standard is that larger slips can be folded in half to create the next smaller size down, so for example you could use A4 slips, but fold them in half and have them fit very neatly into your A5 standard box.
Your personal working needs may also play a factor in your choice. Nabokov, mentioned above, may have opted for simple shoebox like boxes because he preferred to be able to work easily on the move. However as seen in the example in Robert Pirsig’s book Lila: An Enquiry into Morals, you might also want to guard against your box tipping over and spilling all over your room. This incidentally is the purpose of the holes in library card catalog cards which are held into their drawers by long metal rods. One should keep in mind that death by zettelkasten as seen in Anatole France’s book L’Île Des Pingouins (1908) is rare, but given the vending machine size and weight of some of the larger index card filing cabinets below, one might consider some care.
My personal preference has been for the 4 x 6 inch form factor, so most of the suggestions below are geared toward that size, though in many cases options for 3 x 5 inch cards are all readily, if not more readily, available. Card storage for larger form factors may not be as readily available for more modern options, but with a little bit of looking, perhaps you’ll find something functional and within your budgetary range. I have definitely seen some lovely storage options for larger cards.
Of course if you go all-in on a gorgeous restored wooden card filing cabinet for something in the $5,000+ range that you intend to use for the next 50 years, the $100/year storage cost over time may seem like a drop in the bucket for something that will help to develop and expand your knowledge and creativity. When you compare this to computers in the $500 – $2,000 range, it’s really not so bad, particularly when you realize that these won’t need replacements or upgrades over time the way your computer might. They also don’t come with the recurring costs for data storage, back up, or software subscriptions that digital zettelkasten methods entail.
One of the few caveats in purchasing a box for your cards is to make sure that they’ll actually fit. While many boxes may advertise that they’re for a specific size and usually those will fit, you may actually want them to be slightly larger. For example, a box may fit your 4 x 6 inch slips, but will it also accommodate the tabbed index cards you use to help organize them? As a result you may actually want something that will accommodate 4.5 – 4.75 inches in height instead of just 4 inches. If you’re shopping for boxes in person, it may behoove you to carry around an index card or two or even a tabbed card to make sure your potential new box will work for you.
DIY and Makeshift Boxes
As I recommended above, your best bet on a first box is something that you have on hand, can upcycle, or that you can make for yourself in DIY fashion. Cardboard boxes, shoeboxes, or even custom cut and glued/taped cardboard can serve as a useful and functional zettelkasten box. One practitioner I’ve encountered swears by her upcycled Sam Edelman shoeboxes which are incredibly sturdy and colorfully handsome boxes which others might spend upwards of $40 on otherwise. Some recycled cardboard and duct tape can give you a custom-sized box for pennies on the dollar and fit anywhere from 500 – 2,000 cards pretty easily.
If you want to go crazy you can decorate your box with stickers, construction paper, or even wrap it with fabric or contact or shelf paper with a variety of patterns and designs. Because they’re cheap, you may as well spend a few dollars and minutes decorating and making your box something you enjoy working with for the coming weeks and months.
Modern Boxes
Before exploring boxes made specifically for index cards, keep in mind that there are some vendors who make boxes for other purposes, but which will easily accommodate your index cards as well.
Recipe boxes
While these tend to be relatively small and only hold somewhere from 200 – 1000 cards, they can be excellent starter boxes that allow some portability and more style options than many of the other options on the market. You can easily find these sorts of recipe boxes in online stores like Amazon and Etsy in a variety of styles, colors, and materials (wood, plastic, metal, etc.) A wide variety of these should be easy to find in the $10 – $100 range from such a wide variety of vendors and suppliers that I won’t bother to mention them.
My first box was a small tin, green box that I’m reasonably sure was from the Martha Stewart collection from Macy’s that I repurposed until it outgrew its 300 card capacity.
Microfiche boxes
Library supplies company Brodart has a selection of potential boxes including Microfiche boxes. These should easily fit 4 x 6″ index cards as well as card dividers with taller tabs which commercially don’t often get taller than 4 1/2″. See also their microfiche divider guides which might be used for sectioning one’s work.
Postcard boxes
Brodart and some other art and photo supply manufacturers make boxes for postcards or photos. (N.B. presuming the 4 1/8″ H dimension of Brodart’s postcard box is even the outer dimension, this means that one can’t easily keep tab cut dividers which often go from 4 3/8″ to 4 1/2″ tall in these boxes with the lids on properly.)
Another subtle difference between Brodart’s postcard and microfiche boxes is that the smaller postcard box is 60-pt paper versus 40-pt for the larger microfiche box, which means that while sturdy, isn’t quite as sturdy. A side benefit in addition to their stackability is that they’re designed for archival storage purposes which may help in long term storage of your collection.
Other options:
- BCW Supplies Postcard box with cover, inside dimensions: 6 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 14, $6.49
- University Products Postcard storage boxes, inside dimensions: 8″ x 6.125″ x 4.5″ for $20.85 and 12″ x 6.125″ x 4.5″ for $21.40 (archival quality)
- Bankers Box, Liberty® Check and Form Boxes, String & Button, inside dimensions 4.25″ x 6″ x 23.25″ with string closeable lid
Photo boxes
While they’re no longer available, Ryan Holiday has previously indicated in many places that he prefers and uses Cropper Hopper plastic photo boxes to keep his index card-based commonplace book. Though those aren’t around anymore, there are certainly others that will fit the bill well since 4 x 6 inch standard photo size are the same size as many index cards. And of course, if you’ve got a favorite index card or two, why not buy a photo frame to feature it on your desk?
Decorative boxes
Kuggis is a generic, but fashionable IKEA box with a lid that can be used for card storage. At 7 x 10.25 x 6 inches its a nice size and just about the perfect size for 4 x 6″ index cards. The lid has a slight indent to make it easily stackable. At $5.99 its a nice budget-conscious option.
Surely there are a wide variety of other decorative boxes one might find with a bit of looking. The downside may be that while these might look nice on a desk, they’re less likely to be high capacity, modular, or able to grow beyond a certain point.
I recently saw a simple decorative holiday box from Kohl’s that could be repurposed into a holiday themed zettelkasten. Does your zettelkasten bring you this kind of “joy”?Universal Storage Boxes
There are a number of available mass manufactured boxes made for a variety of general use purposes which can be used for zettelkasten containers. Some of these include:
Room Essentials™ 6qt Clear Storage Box White, a clear plastic box with a white lid whose interior measurements are 11 1/2″ x 6 3/8″ x 4 3/8″ and retails for $1.50. These are billed as nested/stackable as well. (Example in use)
Sterilite 1751 – 6 Qt. ClearView Latch™ Box, a clear plastic box with handles whose interior measurements are 11 5/8″ x 6 1/8″ x 4 5/8″ and retails for $3.89 at vendors like Target, Home Depot, TruValue, and Big Lots. (Example in use)
Boxes made specifically for index cards
For the more serious zettler, one may prefer to have boxes which are custom made for storing index cards. These usually have some nice refinements for daily use, are more rugged, and come in a variety of colors and styles and are generally meant for easy use in a desk drawer, on one’s desktop, or for easy storage on office shelves. As a result, they’re also generally a bit more expensive than their non-custom brethren.
Acrimet makes a number of box sizes (3 x 5, 4 x 6, 5 x 8, and 6 x 9) and a variety of colors in metal with plastic lids. They all hold approximately 600 index cards and range from $28.00 – 45.00 depending on the card size they’re meant for. While these are quite beautiful on a desk, their hinged lids don’t lend them to easy stackable accessibility if you have a larger collection. This is what I personally used after making the step up from a recipe box, though I opted for purchasing a few additional plastic dividers for $4.20 each
コレクト (Collect, or sometimes translated as Correct) MDF boxes from Japan, $40 and up holds approximately 1,000 cards. The dimensions for these are usually given in centimeters, and so are more likely to be found for DIN sized cards (A6 or A7). These were the boxes used by Hawk Sugano who used a Correct Indexcard Dock (C-153DF) box for some of his 3×5″ index card “Pile of Index Cards” practice.
Globe-Weis/Pendaflex Fiberboard Index Card Storage Box, $20 – $25, holds up to 1,000 cards. These are the boxes used by writer Robert Green to write his books. When they were originally manufactured by Weis, these were also the boxes used by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. while he was studying for his doctorate at Boston University. They’re made of some sturdy archival quality cardboard and their simple structure makes them fairly large and easy to stack.
Snap-N-Store Index Card holder is a collapsible box fits that will fit 1,100 4 x 6 cards for $10 – $15.
Max Gear business card/index card boxes are made of bamboo and will hold up to 600 cards for about $40.00.
JUNDUN index card holder can contain 1,200 cards, comes in 3 x 5 and 4 x 6 options with several available colors from $18 – $30. While being portable, these are also lockable and fireproof.
Steelmaster card files manufactured by MMF Industries are one of the more industrial/serious options in this category. Their 263644BLA Index Card File Holds 400 4 x 6 cards with dimensions of 6 3/4 x 4 1/5 x 5 inches. $80- $100.
Library Charging Trays
These boxes were originally intended for use in libraries to help librarians keep physical track of the books which were out on loan. Because the 3 x 5″ index cards used in the pockets of library books were primarily used in portrait orientation instead of landscape, these boxes are meant to accommodate that specific size and orientation. These might be an interesting choice if you use a non-standard card orientation or perhaps if you’re recreating the old Memindex card productivity system. A few manufacturers like Brodart still make them or they might be found on the used market as libraries continue computerizing. You’re exceptionally unlikely to find them for larger card sizes. I’ve seen them in 1 to 5 tray styles in a variety of lengths and colors and some even with lids. Used versions of Remington-Rand and Gaylord Brothers versions can be found used online (eBay often has them), but they’re usually misidentified as drawers and very rarely identified as library card charging trays.
Update [2023-11-30]: I’ve written a bit more about these boxes and provided photos of a couple I’ve collected for those interested in more information about them.
Brodart Full-Length Single Charging Tray Intended for desktop use, it holds 1,000 5″H x 3″W cards, has an adjustable steel follower block with automatic lock, and felt pads on tray bottom to protect your desktop.
Brodart Mini Single Charging Tray holds 600 5″H x 3″W cards, adjustable steel follower block with automatic lock, felt pads on tray bottom
Modular and Industrial options
For the more serious long term zettelers who have rapidly growing collections, there are some options for modular systems that will allow you to easily add additional boxes over time.
Vaultz 2 drawer card file both with/without locks, $69. These are the type used by many in the zettelkasten space including Scott Scheper.
Steelmaster by MMF Industries, mentioned above in a smaller form factor, also manufactures a two drawer modular card cabinet that holds up to 3,000 cards. Their model MMF263F4616DBLA runs in the $75-100 range. If you’re interested in these, they seem to be becoming harder to find, so you may wish to purchase a few up front in case they are discontinued in the coming years, which seems to be the general case for these sturdier metal filing boxes over the past several decades.
Office furniture manufacturer Bisley has a relatively wide variety of small modular boxes in a variety of form factors and vibrant colors. Some of these aren’t as readily sourced in the United States, but can be ordered from their New York offices. They are not only meant to be stackable, but have options for locking them as well.
Tennsco is one of the few remaining index card filing cabinet manufacturers left in the United States. They make significantly larger cabinets with a variety of sizes, numbers of drawers and colors. Amazon carries a variety of them as does the aptly named Metal Cabinet Store. For purchasing new card filing cabinets that can hold tens of thousands of cards, this seems to be the only stop. Depending on type, number of drawers, and your particular card size these can range from $1,800 – $2,300 and will store up to 43,400 index cards. On the positive side with such high capacities, two of them will likely to take you a lifetime to fill. I’ve not seen exact specifications for these, but I suspect they’re made of slightly lighter 18 gauge alloy steel which makes them fairly sturdy while still being only about 220 pounds. They’re not quite as industrial as the 20 gauge steel filing cabinets made in the mid-1900s which can much stronger as well as much heavier.
FireKing Card, Check & Note File Cabinet, 6 Drawers (6-2552-C) FireKing International manufactures a 1-hour fire protection filing cabinet with index card inserts, that has options for various locks, is rated for 30 foot drops, and is sealed against potential water damage. They offer both four and six drawer options with the larger clocking in at a massive 863 pounds. With each of the 18 sections on the 6 drawer model capable of 25 15/16″ of storage, this beast should hold about 64,800 index cards. The rough news is that this king of cabinets, while providing great protection and security for your zettelkasten, runs a fairly steep $6,218.00 and up which makes it one of the more expensive options out there. Despite the initial sticker shock though, keep in mind that it should provide a lifetime of secure and worry-free storage for just under 10 cents per card.
Brodart libary card catalogs. Brodart is one of the few companies still manufacturing library card catalogs, and they’re doing so in a modular way so that you have a bit more selection about how big your filing cabinet is and how it’s configured. Generally you can choose a table base or not, how many sections of drawers you purchase, whether or not it includes writing board sections (for having writing surfaces for quick note taking in front of it), as well as the ability to remove the top and add new sections. The down side here is that they only make them in the 3 x 5 inch form factor. I’ve previously written about them and some of their available supplies in detail in the past here: Brodart Library Supplies for the Analog Zettelkasten Enthusiast.
Vintage Boxes
Commercial demand for card index files has waned dramatically since the advent of commercial computing. Fortunately they were so tremendously ubiquitous from the late 1800s through the mid-to-late 1900s, they can readily be found in acceptable to excellent used condition, and sometimes even in restored condition for a reasonable sum in comparison to purchasing new filing cabinets. Because the market for people looking for these used boxes and filing cabinets is so thin they’re not terribly expensive. The one caveat to this seems to be for larger restored/refinished wooden library card catalogs from the early 1900s in part because they are stunning pieces of nostalgic furniture and can still function as curiosity cabinets or high end wine storage cabinets.
These cabinets can be searched for at specialty office liquidation companies, surplus government/school/library companies, auctions, and vintage and antique stores. However, some of the quickest places to find these on the less expensive side can be your local Craigslist furniture listings, E-bay, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, Offerup.com, and even Nextdoor.com. I recommend looking around at all of these venues for the variety of what’s available versus your particular style, taste, and budget level. Looking and waiting can be particularly useful if you’re budget conscious, but I’d also advise that once you know what you want and have fallen in love with something, buy it immediately as you may not come across a particular piece again.
I ran across this 12 drawer 4 x 6 inch index card filing cabinet at an antique store in Southern California in December 2022.Because some of these cabinets are so large and the demand is so low, many sellers may be motivated to offload them for much less than they list them for. I purchased my own Singer Industrial cabinet for $200.00 and another a refurbished Steelcase 8 drawer cabinet for $125 while I’ve seen similar ones listed online (and unsold for long periods of time) for over $1,000.
Sellers of refinished pieces are much less likely to drop their prices for obvious reasons.
Another factor to consider in purchasing larger cabinets is that in the 200+ pound range, these can be harder to package and ship and may require freight or furniture shipping methods. As a result, shipping can easily cost as much as the piece itself, so when shopping, keep this in mind. If you’re more budget conscious, narrow your search to local sellers which may make pick-up or shipping significantly cheaper. An additional weight factor to keep in mind is placement of the cabinet(s) and structural support. With my own Steelcase 8 drawer cabinet weighing in at about 240 pounds and a capacity of 61,000 index cards which would have an approximate weight of 255 pounds, the total comes to almost 500 pounds. If you ultimately have a few of these, the load can be significant on home grade construction. I keep mine in a corner of the house which has a slab concrete support because I’ve previously had the experience of a large tanker desk creating a 3/4 inch sinking of the floor underneath it (measured at the baseboard moulding) over the span of about 5 years.
Once you’ve gotten something, keep in mind that the original wear and tear and potential patina of a piece can be part of the allure and nostalgia. Sadly, second and third hand owners may not realize the functionality of some pieces of these files and as a result they may be missing some hardware like card rods, following blocks, locks, or other pieces which may be hard if not impossible to find or replace.
If you’re inclined, you can either send them out for refinishing or refinish them yourself. Some of the larger metal pieces can run from $500 – $1,500 to bead blast and re-paint or re-enamel, but have the benefit that you can choose which color(s) you’d like them to be to fit into your decor. You may have to search around to find refinishing shops for these, but you might also find that your local auto-repair firm is well set up for stripping, priming, and repainting these as well (some of them are almost as large as a car, but without wheels and engines.)
Wood
Cabinets in the late 1800s and early 1900s were primarily manufactured out of wood. Some midcentury and later cabinets mixed wood with steel drawers or in the late century wood cabinets with plastic drawers inside mounted to wooden fronts. Many were made with quarter sawn oak or with “tiger oak”, which can often be a useful key search term for finding them. Sometimes it can also be useful to search for the key phrase “apothecary cabinet” as many who have these either don’t understand the difference or add it to increase their search exposure for potential buyers who seemingly no longer desire to store large quantities of index cards. Another useful search phrase is midcentury modern (or the abbreviation MCM) especially if you like that particular esthetic.
While a number of manufacturers focused on the library card catalog space with catalogs containing 10-30 or more drawers almost exclusively for the 3 x 5 inch index card, many also made file card furniture for business use and these can usually be found with 1-10 drawers in size. Possibly most common are the two drawer files which can often be stacked in a modular way to allow for growth of one’s desktop system. In these areas it is more common to find 3 x 5 inch and 4 x 6 inch form factors, but often larger card sized furniture was built and distributed, though these are rarer on the second hand market.
An 11 inch Shaw-Walker wooden card index that I picked up for $10.With some searching, one can also find combination cabinets that have drawers not only for index cards, but also contain standard hanging file drawers for 8.5 x 11 inch files and paper filing purposes. These sorts are particularly more common in the very early 1900’s as modular systems which were focused on the business market.
Some of the more common manufacturers for wood card catalog files include:
- Library Bureau (Ilion, NY) (1876), Sometimes listed as “Library Bureau Sole Makers”
- Yawman & Erbe
- Globe-Wernicke
- Gaylord Bros. Inc. (Syracuse, NY and Stockton, CA) (1896)
- Remington Rand
- Weis (Monroe, Michigan)
- Wagemaker
- Tucker File & Cabinet Co. (Ilion, NY)
- The Fred Macey Company, Ltd. (Grand Rapids, Michigan), later renamed Macey-Wernicke Co. Ltd., and again as The Macey Co.
- See this 1906 catalog of “filing appliances”
Update: In September 2023, I’ve written more detail about the state of the used Library Card Catalog market, for those who might be interested in going that route for 3 x 5″ index cards: Market analysis of library card catalogs in 2023.
Another option on the secondary market are used library charging trays, but it’s rare that sellers know what these were called or how they were used, so searching for and finding them can be difficult at best. Most often sellers confuse these with card catalog drawers or tray inserts. Additionally searching for charging trays directly results in modern accessories for charging cell phones and other personal electronic devices. Because they’re difficult to search, there’s a greater than necessary implied rarity to them, and as a result, they can be listed for several hundreds of dollars though most often they sell in the range of $5-15 per row of cards in the tray and are frequently found in configurations of one, two, three, and sometimes up to five rows of cards in a single unit.
A two row charging tray sitting on top of a library card catalog.In addition to the more standard run-of-the-mill card files in single or multi-box form, you might also find some rarer combination furniture like the Satelite Combination Card Index Cabinet and Telephone Stand (circa 1906), though something like this could also be used as a semi-portable or movable piece of furniture that one could place as a small writing surface next to their favorite reading chair to write and file notes away on a leisurely evening.
1906 magazine ad from the Adjustable Table CompanySteel
As the 20th century progressed, many manufacturers switched from wood to steel as their material of choice. Most library card catalogs continued to be made of wood though a few can be found in steel. The larger proportion of steel filing cabinets cabinets were manufactured by companies that also manufactured desks and other industrial use filing cabinets.
Again, here desktop two drawer modular/stackable cabinets abound though 8 – 10 drawer and even larger free-standing filing cabinets can be found. Many of these include tab and slot features to lock them together for safer stacking. A good example of a modularly built collection can be seen in this photo from a 2017 New York Times article of Joan Rivers’ collection of index cards with 36 drawers of 4-by-6-inch index cards containing jokes she’d accumulated over her lifetime of work.
Credit: Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
Somewhat rarer, but findable, one may encounter filing cabinets meant for Hollerinth or punch cards which eventually standardized at 3.25 x 7.375 inches, which was also the standard size for paper currency of 1862–1923. Often these will have drawers high enough to accommodate 4 x 6 inch cards, but one should double check this prior to purchase.
Some of the more common steel cabinet makers include:
- Yawman & Erbe
- All-Steel Equipment, Inc. (ASE) (Aurora, Illinois)
- Steelmaster (Art Steel Co., Inc.) (New York)
- Browne-Morse (Muskegon, Michigan)
- Cole-Steel Equipment Company (New York)
- Singer Business Furniture
- Globe-Wernicke
- Buddy (later Sandusky/Buddy)
- They seem to have ceased manufacturing them some time around 2016
- MMF Industries
- GWS
The smaller 1 to 3 drawer vintage metal card files are readily available on a variety of online shopping sites usually between $15 and $40. This isn’t bad given how expensive new files can run. Many were made with small fittings that allow them to be stackable. Usually these are sturdy, but light enough for relatively inexpensive shipping. If they’re in bad shape, they can usually be easily cleaned up and primed and repainted in more modern colors to suit your taste and style.
The larger multi-drawer full cabinets can often run from $200 to over $1,000, but their bigger issue is that they’re so large and heavy that they can be in the range of $800 or more to ship anywhere. If you want something like this, your best bet is to try to find something local that you can drive to and pick up locally.
If you’re into 4 x 6 inch cards, double check with the seller to make sure that they’ll fit as most sellers won’t list the card sizes for drawers since they don’t expect them to actually still be used as card indexes and they’ll neglect to not additional clearances for tabbed cards. Keep in mind that often even the somewhat larger cabinets are a 1/4″ too short for 4 x 6 inch cards, much less the slightly taller tabbed cards (A-Z) you might use for separating sections.
A while back I personally picked up a large Singer Business Furniture card index and a refurbished Steelcase 8 drawer cabinet which I’ve written a fair bit about. Some of the information there may help to provide some more context about these larger cabinets.
Custom made
Of course given all this selection, you still may not have found the right box for your taste or your working style. In this case you may want to have something custom made. Given this, however, it may still behoove you and your designer to be aware of what has existed in the past when designing something specific for your needs.
Some common features you might find useful in either designing or choosing your own cabinets include:
- follow blocks to bunch cards to the front of the drawer and hold them upright or at a slight angle without falling over;
- bail stops, a mechanism to keep the drawer from being accidentally pulled completely out of the case and dropping your cards everywhere;
- card rods as often seen in library card catalogs which insert from the front to the back of the bottom of drawers to prevent accidental card spillage.
I don’t have many examples of custom made set ups, but I’ll add links to what I find below and some individuals may add others in the comments section below as well.
Examples
Been working on this Zettlekasten for my thesis for nearly a year… Made some personal modifications to the system, so it includes a chronological stack of cards and lots of images.
by inantinetIn late 2022/early 2023, Scott Scheper commissioned a two drawer solid wood (cedar) desktop zettelkasten box similar to those from the early 20th century. He had it listed on his website initially for $995 and then later for a reduced price of $495. He created a waitlist sign up for copies like it, ostensibly to test the interest in manufacturing/selling them as a product. To my knowledge he never made any beyond the initial prototype, but it does show that one could custom make their own if they prefer.
Foreign Made Zettelkasten
Particularly missing from this collection is a wide array of European standard furniture and boxes for A4, A5, A6 etc. cards. There are some great German, Russian, and other cultural design specific pieces I’ve not included, in part because they’re not as readily available in my market and I haven’t yet had the time to delve into their histories. If you’ve got experience here, I’d love to hear what’s available.
Anecdotally, I’ve heard that the IKEA Moppe will work for A7 cards. Additionally, I’ve heard that some Chinese practitioners have used Taobao cabinets.
Others?
In addition to the A-standard types mentioned above, surely I’ve missed some boxes and cabinets along the way, though this may be one of the more complete collections of boxes I’ve seen compiled. If I’ve missed any that should be included, or you have an example (your own perhaps?) that I can feature or link to, please let me know in the comments or via a reply in social media. Particularly appreciated are examples of non-standard boxes in use as zettelkasten or custom made examples, particularly if they include photos and/or DIY instructions for construction.
Remember that you shouldn’t have to settle for your zettel… Happy zettel-casting!
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Reasons to Hope: Palm Oil Alternatives Made Without Deforestation
The race is on to find a real solution to stop palm oil ecocide. For several years now, several new #biotech companies have been busy generating alternatives to palm oil that are healthier for human consumption and don’t require the destruction of rainforests sending thousands of species to extinction. Learn more about palm oil grown in labs synthesised from algae, microbes, CO2 and more. #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Unlike #greenwashing promises of the @RSPOtweets to stop #deforestation for palm oil – novel solutions made in labs will actually deliver deforestation-free #palmoil alternatives. Should we be cautiously hopeful? Yes! #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect 💡🙂https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/09/11/reasons-to-hope-palm-oil-alternatives-made-without-deforestation/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterReasons to Hope: synthetic #palmoil alternatives. Free from #deforestation – for real! Made from #algae #yeast #microbes, even CO2! Advocate for ecocide-free #palmoil alternatives! #Boycottpalmoil 🌴☠️⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife 💡🙂@palmoildetect.bsky.social https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/09/11/reasons-to-hope-palm-oil-alternatives-made-without-deforestation/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterLab-grown alternatives to palm oil provide animal advocates and environmental activists with reasons to be cautiously hopeful for the future of mass-produced supermarket goods like cleaning products, pet food, beauty products, and food – 50% of which contain palm oil.
What can I do?
Until these palm oil free alternatives come onto the market and are used in consumer products, you can help these animals by rejecting the immense corruption, pollution and ecocide of the palm oil industry by boycotting major supermarket brands using palm oil and still benefiting from the greenwashing of “sustainable” palm oil. Here are tips on how to do that.
The team behind Smey, an AI-enabled yeast alternative to palm oil.What is it?
Smey is developing a lab-created alternative to palm oil and cocoa butter using a combination of yeast fermentation and artificial intelligence. The company’s precision fermentation process creates cultured fats and specialty oils that replicate the functional and sensory qualities of tropical oils, but without the environmental destruction linked to conventional palm oil and cocoa production. Smey’s fats are designed for use in food manufacturing, confectionery, and cosmetics, offering a deforestation-free, climate-friendly solution for global supply chains, in time for the #EUDR.
“Using AI models, we identify strains that naturally produce specific fatty acid profiles like stearic acid for cocoa butter mimetics. Once a suitable strain is selected, we proceed to fermentation under optimised lab conditions. The goal here is to fine-tune the triglyceride composition, a critical factor that determines the oil’s melting profile, skin feel, and absorption rate.”
Smey Founder Viktor Sartakov-Korzhov explains to Green Queen.Who is behind it?
Smey is a German-French biotech startup headquartered in Paris. The company was founded by a team of scientists and technologists who specialise in merging data science with biotechnology. Smey’s leadership includes experts in precision fermentation, AI, and sustainable ingredient development. The company employs 11–50 people and serves clients in the food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. Smey’s product portfolio includes not only palm oil alternatives but also cocoa butter equivalents, MCT oils, and other specialty fats.
Goal/Objective:
Smey’s mission is to decarbonise the global fats and oils industry by replacing environmentally destructive tropical oils with lab-grown, precision-fermented alternatives. By leveraging AI to optimise yeast fermentation, Smey aims to drastically reduce the land use, emissions, and biodiversity loss associated with palm oil and cocoa production.
When will it be used in supermarket goods?
Smey’s cultured fats are currently being piloted with food manufacturers and ingredient suppliers in Europe. The estimated retail launch date is mid 2027. The company is actively scaling its production and working with partners.
Further Information
Green Queen. (2025, June 26). This Company is Using AI & Fermentation to Create Deforestation-Free Fats. https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/smey-yeast-fermentation-ai-fat-palm-oil-cocoa-butter-neobank/
SMEY. (2025). Engineered protein, sweetener, fats & oils supplier. Retrieved July 13, 2025, from https://www.smey.cc/company
“Smey’s primary focus is on cultivated oils, as these products are ready for industrial scaling and already showing strong commercial traction. Ovalbumin is a key functional protein in food formulations. Given the regulatory pathway, especially for food proteins, we expect Smey Ovo to reach the market in mid-2027.”
Smey Founder Viktor Sartakov-Korzhov explains to Green Queen.Levur
What is it?
Levur is creating a biotechnology-driven alternative to palm oil using yeast fermentation. The product aims to replicate the texture and functionality of palm oil commonly found in food and cosmetic products like processed snacks and soaps. Unlike traditional palm oil, this lab-grown version is designed to avoid the massive deforestation and biodiversity loss linked to oil palm plantations.
Who is behind it?
Levur is an Australian biotech startup co-founded by scientists Tom Collier and Joanne Barber, based in Sydney, Australia. Levur is backed by Main Sequence, a major venture fund investing in science-based startups, and took part in SparkLabs Cultiv8, an accelerator program for agri-food and biotech innovation. Their project was recently recognised as one of five Australian finalists selected from over 100 entries in the KPMG Nature Positive Challenge, securing a $100,000 consulting prize.
Goal/Objective:
Their mission is to radically reduce environmental harm of palm oil industry, which is responsible for massive rainforest destruction, endangering thousands of species all over the tropical world. They hope to help giant global industries towards a just transition to ingredients that preserve biodiversity, human health and planetary health.
Levur was inspired by Collier’s visit to Borneo for a documentary looking at how the palm oil industry caused deforestation and and the survival of threatened species such as orangutans.
When will it be used in supermarket goods?
No specific retail launch date has been announced, however Levur’s win in the Nature Positive Challenge in 2025 is expected to fast-track development of a viable alternative to palm oil.“Winning feels like a pivotal moment for Levur. It’s a validation of the mission our team has worked so hard to make a reality and a powerful reminder of why we started this journey: to protect our planet and create solutions that leave a lasting impact. Thanks to this prize, we’ll be able to scale faster and reach more markets, helping to commercialise our sustainable alternative to palm oil.”
Tom Collier, Co-Founder of levurFurther Information
Startup Daily. (2025, January 23). Palm oil replacement startup Levur brews up $100,000 Nature Positive Prize. https://www.startupdaily.net/topic/palm-oil-replacement-startup-levur-brews-up-100000-nature-positive-prize/What is it?
Locus Ingredients is producing a new class of biobased biosurfactants for use in personal care, cosmetics, and home cleaning products. These biosurfactants offer a safe and environmentally-friendly alternative to palm oil that comes from destroyed rainforests.
The company generates surfactants made via a fermentation process that use non-GMO sugars, fatty acids, and microorganisms such as yeasts or fungi. Unlike bio-based surfactants made through high-energy chemical synthesis, Locus’s approach is low-impact and non-toxic. Their production system is powered by modular fermentation, bioinformatics, and specialised purification. This allows for rapid, cost-effective, and large-scale manufacturing. Locus Ingredients’ surfactants are suitable for use in products like shampoos, micellar water, creams, and conditioners.Who is behind it?
The technology is developed by Locus FS, a US-based fermentation specialist, with commercialisation managed through their Locus Ingredients division. David Anderson, Senior Vice President of Locus Ingredients, leads the innovation strategy. The company has secured an exclusive distribution agreement with Dow Chemical for personal care and home care applications, expanding global market access for the product.Goal/Objective:
Locus aims to disrupt the palm oil-derived surfactant market, which contributes to tropical deforestation and pollution. Their biosurfactants offer superior performance, skin gentleness, and a lower carbon footprint, making them ideal for eco-conscious brands. The broader mission is to eliminate reliance on destructive agricultural oils and transition the cosmetics industry toward regenerative, biotechnologically-produced alternatives.When will it be used in supermarket goods?
The ingredients are already available for use in commercial formulations and are being adopted through Dow’s global distribution networks. With a recent 100,000-square-foot facility expansion, Locus is now positioned as one of the world’s largest producers of biosurfactants and can meet current market demand for palm-free ingredients at scale.
David anderson, senior vp of locus ingredients
“We are also always enhancing our production process to further minimise our already low carbon footprint. Through our technology and formulary library we aim to educate manufacturers and consumers on the best ways to create clean product formulations. We are also continuing to expand our line of biosurfactants, with new glycolipid ingredient offerings.”Further Information
Stern, C., & Pitman, S. (2023, October 5). Locus Ingredients targets sustainable palm oil alternatives. CosmeticsDesign.What is it?
UK based start-up producing a local, circular alternative to palm oil, made from natural yeast using a non-GM process in a lab.
Who is behind it?
The Clean Food Group was co-founded by CEO Alex Neves and co-chairman Ed McDermott in 2021. However, the foundational technology was developed over eight years at the University of Bath by Professor of Bioengineering the University of Bath, Chris Chuck. They have so far gained £1.65M in funding.
Goal/Objective:
To make clean, healthier palm oil derivatives that can be used within food or cosmetic formulations. These provide a clear alternative to palm oil grown in the traditional way which causes irrevocable damage to our planet and health.
When will it be used in supermarket goods?
A definitve date for release has not been advised. However, Clean Food Group’s most recent update occurred in late 2024 when Clean Food Group announced a collaboration with THG Labs to produce a palm oil alternative made from waste bread. This will be used in beauty and personal care products. Read original article on Green Queen.
“We are well placed to take the next step on the path of bringing our palm oil alternative to market.
Alex Neves, Co-Founder and CEO of Clean Food Group, EU startups“Our dependence on palm oil comes at a great environmental cost. We’ve worked over many years to create robust palm oil alternatives that give us a real chance to cut the impact of a range of products. Up until now it has only been possible to produce these products with palm oil and the deforestation, emissions and pollution that comes with that”
Chris Chuck, Clean Food Group Technical Advisor and Professor of Bioprocess Engineering at the University of Bath.Further Information
Clean Food Group. (n.d.). Home.
The Business Exchange Bath and Somerset. (2024, April 18). University of Bath innovation helps deliver sustainable palm oil alternative.
Green Queen. (2024, April 18). THG and Clean Food Group launch palm oil alternative made from food waste.
What is it?
NoPalm produces microbial oils to replace the use of palm- and other tropical oils in food, cosmetics, and detergents. The oil is manufactured by fermenting food waste in a circular, environmentally friendly way.
Who is behind it?
A start-up in the Netherlands founded by Lars Langhout and Jeroen Hugenholtz in 2021.
Goal/Objective:
That no forests anywhere in the world continue to be burned down for palm oil plantations.
How is it made?
Oil is produced from rejected vegetables, potato peels or sugar beets that are fermented with oleaginous yeasts. Whereas normally these waste products would be destroyed or thrown away, NoPalm gives waste biomass a second life. The process is similar to brewing beer or winemaking except for the type of yeast used.
“There is no argument as to why palm oil plantations should continue to run in the long-term. We have a solution that’s local, which can leverage local supply chains to produce it, doesn’t require deforestation or transportation to produce it and limits the use of chemicals. Imagine if all companies in the world started using microbial oil instead of palm oil. We could make a real impact and eliminate palm oil in an accelerated way.”
When will it be used in supermarket goods?
In 2022, the team have received initial funding of 1.5 million euro and are looking for more. They anticipate the ingredient will be available in consumer goods within the next few years.
In April 2025, the NoPalm team made an announcement that they are launching REVÓLEO™—a fermentation-based oil replacing #palmoil in the food and beauty markets. The team explained that REVÓLEO™ means 90% fewer emissions, 99% less land use. Read more at Vegconomist.
Further Information
Innovation Origins. (2022, August 17). NoPalm Ingredients brews a sustainable alternative to palm oil from vegetables.Vegconomist. (2025, April 8). NoPalm Ingredients introduces next-gen fermentation-based oil brand REVÓLEO.
What is it?
GreenOn is a biotech company producing oils and derivatives that can be used to replace palm oil, coconut oil and animal fats, powered by carbon dioxide, electricity and water.
Who is behind it?
GreenOn is a Swedish biotech start-up founded in 2021 by Annette Cecilia Granéli and Roland Vestergren. Initial funding for the technology comes from palm oil polluter and deforestator (and RSPO member) AAK for their go-to-market commercialisation, they have invested $125K so far.
Inset: The Top Ten Palm Oil Traders with Fires in their Supply Chains in Indonesia, Chain Reaction Research (2019)Goal/Objective:
“We hope our product technology can relieve the challenges of agricultural production on the environment.”
GREEN ON’S WEBSITEHow is it made?
Their novel ‘Power-to-Food’ concept uses fossil-free electricity, carbon dioxide and water to produce customised saturated fats that can be used in products such as baked foods, cheese, ice cream, chocolate and shortening. Green-On also makes mono and diglycerides that may be used as emulsifiers in food products.
When will it be used in supermarket goods?
Products are still being developed, however it’s estimated that product ingredients to replace palm oil will be ready at the earliest by 2024.
“We came up with a concept to produce food that bypasses traditional agriculture. We started Green-On to bring deforestation-free ingredients to the food and feed industry.”
GreenOn’s websiteFurther Information
What is it?
“Our palm oil doesn’t even involve palm trees. It doesn’t cause deforestation, endangering precious animal species, or forcing inhumane labor practices. The result is a world where consumers can enjoy the products they love without worrying about the dangerous practices involved in making them.”
C16 Biosciences website.Who is behind it?
C16 Biosciences are a New York City based start-up that are female-founded, and have a majority female team. Established in 2017, they have received $20 million in funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a fund established by Bill Gates along with other investors to support innovations that fight climate change.
Goal/Objective:
“The RSPO has been trying for the last decade to solve this problem of palm oil deforestation through supply chain traceability, and it has largely failed.
“Our real mission is ending the need for deforestation that’s driven by the palm oil industry. We believe that it is totally unacceptable to be burning the planet to make a vegetable oil. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Shara Ticku, Co-founder and CEO of C16 Biosciences told Fast Company.How is it made?
C16 Biosciences use a particular strain of yeast for their lab-grown alternative to palm oil. This grows in tap water and feeds off a feedstock or carbon source to multiply.
CEO Shara Ticku at the Hello Tomorrow Conference, via TwitterWhen will it be used in supermarket goods?
In 2022, biotech company C16 Biosciences announced the launch of Palmless, a palm oil alternative created with yeast. In 2024, C16 Biosciences was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024 for launching Palmless, They plan on targeting beauty and skincare first, aiming to disrupt palm oil supply chains with their solution.
In 2022, biotech company C16 Biosciences announced the launch of PalmlessBill Gates: The Worst Culprit is Palm Oil
Bill Gates quoted on his own website Gates Notes.
“Even some plant-based fats and oils can be a problem for climate change. The worst culprit is palm oil.
“Today, it’s the most widely consumed plant-based fat in the world. It’s found in half of all packaged goods—everything from peanut butter, cookies, instant ramen, coffee creamer, and frozen dinners to makeup, body wash, toothpaste, laundry detergent, and deodorant to candles, cat food, baby formula, and so much more. It’s even used as a biofuel for diesel engines.
“The issue with palm oil isn’t necessarily how we use it but how we get it. That’s because the oil palm tree, a variety of palm that’s native to Central and West Africa, doesn’t grow everywhere. The opposite, actually—the tree will only grow well within five to ten degrees of the equator. That has led to slash-and-burn deforestation of rainforests in equatorial regions around the world, which are then converted to oil palm plantations.
“This process has been bad for biodiversity, putting entire ecosystems at risk. It’s also a one-two punch for climate change: The combustion involved in burning forests emits tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and as the wetlands they sit on are destroyed, the carbon they’ve been storing gets released too. In 2018, the devastation in Malaysia and Indonesia alone was bad enough to account for 1.4 percent of global emissions—more than the entire state of California and nearly as much as the aviation industry worldwide.
“Unfortunately, palm oil is hard to replace. It’s cheap, odorless, and abundant. While most plant oils are liquid at room temperature, palm oil is semi-solid, creamy, and easily spreadable. Since it acts as a natural preservative, it has an extremely long shelf-life. (It actually raises the melting point of ice cream.) It’s also the only plant oil with a near-equal balance of saturated and unsaturated fats, which is why it’s so versatile. If animal fat is the superstar of some meals, then palm oil is the team player that can work to make almost all foods—and non-edible goods—even better.
“For these reasons, companies like C16 Biosciences are working hard on alternatives to palm oil. Since 2017, C16 (which I’m invested in) has been developing a product from a wild yeast microbe using a fermentation process that doesn’t produce any emissions. While it differs from conventional palm oil chemically, C16’s oil contains the same fatty acids, which means it can be used in the same applications. And it’s as “natural” as palm oil—it’s just grown on fungi instead of trees. Like Savor’s, C16’s process is entirely agriculture-free; its “farm” is a lab in midtown Manhattan.” via Gatesnotes.
Further Information
Clifford, C. (2022, November 3). Gates-backed C16 Biosciences uses yeast to create palm oil substitute. CNBC.
Fast Company. (2024, March 26). C16 Biosciences: Most Innovative Companies 2024.
Gates, B. (2024, March 5). The future of food: A smarter way to make fats and oils. Gates Notes.Untitled: Making Palm Oil From Algae
What is it?
A far healthier edible oil alternative created from microalgae.
Who is behind it?
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the University of Malaya in Malaysia.
Goal/Objective:
“Uncovering microalgae as a potential human food source is an opportunity to lessen the impact of palm oil in the food supply chain and the impact this has on our planet.”
~ Dr William Chen, head of the research team and Director of NTU’s Food Science and Technology Program.How is it made?
Edible oils are extracted from a common strain of microalgae that has similar properties to palm oil, however contains fewer saturated fatty acids. This means that the algae alternative will be healthier than traditionally harvested palm oil. Saturated fats from palm oil raise levels of LDL cholesterol in our blood, thereby increasing the risk of heart disease.
When will it be used in supermarket goods?
This microalgae alternative to palm oil can be cultivated at scale, removing the need for further deforestation to plant yet more oil palm crops. They are a couple of years away from market.
“We rely on one of nature’s key processes, fermentation, to convert that organic matter into nutrient-rich solutions, which could be used to cultivate algae, which not only reduces our reliance on palm oil, but keeps carbon out of the atmosphere.”
~ Dr William Chen, head of the research team and Director of NTU’s Food Science and Technology Program.
Find out more:
Jun-Hui Chen et al, Screening and effect evaluation of chemical inducers for enhancing astaxanthin and lipid production in mixotrophic Chromochloris zofingiensis, Journal of Applied Phycology (2021). DOI: 10.1007/s10811-021-02618-6
What is it?
A joint project between biotech company Genomatica and global FMCG brand Unilever to create a fatty alcohol alternative to palm oil made from fermented sugar. This would be used in skincare and beauty products.
Who is behind it?
This project is controversial for environmental activists and animal advocates to support. It is a collaboration funded by Unilever for $120 million. Unilever are a global corporate with a bad historical reputation as polluters and deforesters. They are linked to a dark history of colonial atrocities, ecocide and slavery in Africa. Still, despite Unilever’s involvement – this project deserves a mention due to its innovation. In October 2022, Kao announced that they will also be a founding partner in this biotech venture.
Goal/Objective:
The venture aims to commercialise and scale plant-based alternatives to feedstocks like palm oil and fossil fuels. Replacing environmentally harmful ingredients like palm oil with alternatives for use in cleaning, cosmetics and personal care products.
Beyond creating new transparent and responsibly sourced-supply chains and alternatively-sourced materials, our Geno technology also represents the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 100 million tons in upcoming years.”
Christophe Schilling, Genomatica CEOWhen will it be used in supermarket goods?
As of 2023, L’Oréal went into partnership with Genomatica to produce lab-developed alternatives to palm oil. L’Oréal launched a shampoo with biotech surfactants. According to one news article, these new formulas are not only more sustainable but also gentler on skin and scalp, adding value for consumers. Although it is important to keep in mind that L’Oréal tests its products on animals.
Find out more: Genomatica
Carbon Credits. (2024, May 10). L’Oréal launches sustainable innovation accelerator—Where beauty meets sustainability & carbon reduction. CarbonCredits.com.How can I help the #Boycott4Wildlife?
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you or to help pay for ongoing running costs.
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Join 3,179 other subscribersShare palm oil free purchases online and shame companies still using dirty palm oil!
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https://twitter.com/ECOWARRIORSS/status/1625103083175923713
https://twitter.com/MAPICC2021/status/1643269215929999360
https://twitter.com/netzfrauen/status/1806059662703222960
https://twitter.com/JosieAllan4/status/1716432333698392163
https://twitter.com/ChiweenieT14381/status/1872709841040687385
#algae #biotech #biotechnology #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #deforestation #disruptiveTechnology #EUDR #greenwashing #innovation #labGrownPalmOil #microbes #newTechnology #PalmOil #palmOilAndHealth #palmOilDeforestation #palmOilFree #palmoil #research #startUps #syntheticPalmOil #yeast -
#chatgpt impressed me with some #TV #chyrons data 😁
"The chyrons cover a range of news topics such as Biden's Visit to Selma, Trump's CPAC speech, GOP bills targeting young voters, NTSB investigating an Ohio train derailment, an Israeli minister calling for the wiping out of a Palestinian village, a report on panic inside Fox after the 2020 election, lessons on winning arguments from Mehdi's new book, and more."
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Interview with Professor Chris Ponting on Building ME/CFS Research Infructure with PRIME
By David Tuller, DrPH
This is a crowdfunding month for UC Berkekely and Trial By Error. If you’d like to support my work, here’s the link: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/47768
(Donations are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.)**********
The UK Medical Research Council recently awarded £800,000 over four years to PRIME, a partnership between Action For ME and the University of Edinburgh. PRIME will seek to develop a research infrastructure to pursue investigations into ME/CFS. The funding starts this month.
According to Action For ME, the goals of PRIME are:
“1. Coordinate and engage researchers by creating at least 15 new research collaborations. We will bring together researchers from a range of backgrounds, along with private sector partners to investigate the genetics, biomarkers and disease mechanisms behind ME/CFS.
“2. Strengthen International Research Networks by forming two global consortia, one with a focus on genetics and the other on molecular biomarkers. The aim of the consortias will be to share data, replicate research and create a shared research standard.
“3. Build a Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) pool with at least 100 trained contributors (people with ME and their carers). This will be the world’s first large scale PPI pool available for ME researchers across the UK so that their research can be created and shaped by people with lived experience.”
Chris Ponting, a geneticist at the University of Edinburgh, is the lead investigator of DecodeME, a study that recently identified eight spots on the genome implicated in ME/CFS. Professor Ponting, along with Sonya Chowdbury, Action For ME’s CEO, will oversee PRIME. I spoke last week with Professor Ponting about the project and related issues. (I also spoke with Professor Ponting a couple of months ago about the DecodeME findings.)
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I also happen to really like the Marshmallow library for data validation. It can check types, for missing fields, for extraneous fields, and semantic checks on the values of fields (whether a string contains a valid email address, if numbers are in a specific range, etc.). It then prints out detailed error messages for the violations. #DataEngineering #cseducation #teaching #softwaredevelopment
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Spill the DramaTea #3: Pursuit of Jade, Swords into Plowshares, How Dare You?! and more!
February brought Chinese New Year, which always means chaos for me, so I wasn’t able to write last month’s newsletter. But I’m back, and in March I find myself inundated with so many good Chinese dramas that I’m having decision paralysis deciding what drama to watch first.
If you have a wide range of tastes like I do, watching everything from idol dramas to super serious ones, you face a difficult time deciding what to watch. And that is my situation right now.
What I’m watching
“Pursuit of Jade” is definitely the hit drama of the season, and probably the most controversial.
Starring Zhang Linghe and Tian Xiwei, it’s about Changyu, a village woman who finds a badly injured man in the snow one day; she brings him back home, and one thing leads to another—they end up married. However, she doesn’t know that Xie Zheng actually a powerful, controversial general and nobleman.
A very typical idol drama, to be honest. But what’s winning about this drama is the director, Zeng Qing Jie. He was the director of “Blossom” and came out of short dramas. Qing Jie’s short dramas were the ones that made everybody suddenly interested in Chinese short dramas, but unlike those who came after him, he knows how to tell a story well.
His work never feels choppy or badly edited; it’s always beautifully filmed and complex. He is a master at using a limited budget to weave a beautiful story. Now that he’s been given more resources and two major idol stars, this drama is simply beautiful and very well told. He doesn’t just film things well; he knows how to light scenes, compose shots like paintings, and make the actors look extra gorgeous.
But what I appreciate most is that he knows how to bring out the best in actors—directing them so their characters feel authentic and move like their roles. So this drama is definitely a win for me, and I honestly think I’ll enjoy it to the end.
Unfortunately, this drama has also attracted controversy. Zhang Linghe apparently said something racist about Southeast Asians. Chinese humor isn’t always politically correct, and casual racism is, unfortunately, a thing.
This took many Western audiences by surprise, although we Southeast Asians are like, “Yeah, we know.”
And if that isn’t bad enough, the drama is also caught in a ratings controversy—people are questioning its high ratings. To be honest, I think it deserves high ratings, but maybe not that high, since the numbers put it on par with dramas that sparked national conversation.
Data manipulation is a persistent issue in Chinese fandom; it’s annoying, used as bragging rights by fandoms and to show investors their money paid off. Still, I feel it’s unfortunate because Pursuit of Jade is honestly a very good drama, and these controversies shouldn’t diminish the director’s skill or the actors’ abilities. So I say: go for this drama. It’s really worth it.
“Sword into Plowshares” is a rare historical drama—the kind that comes once in a few years.
Many idol dramas are set in fictional historical times and aren’t faithful to the period, but this one is really faithful, with Merchant Ivory–level quality.
It’s about the little-known Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period—a tumultuous time lasting about 70 to 80 years after the fall of the Tang Dynasty.
Imagine: the Tang Dynasty was probably China’s most prosperous, cosmopolitan, culturally rich era, but when it fell, it fell apart hard, fracturing into vassal kingdoms with one dynasty after another rising and falling in quick succession in decades.
It was a chaotic period and a rarely explored part of Chinese history, so I’m learning so much through this drama.
The story centers on Qian Hongchu, a prince from the more prosperous, relatively peaceful Wuyue kingdom. In a sea of chaos, Wuyue was a rare oasis of peace and prosperity, but up north, war is brewing, and eventually Hongchu has to leave his sheltered life to step into the battleground.
If you have time, try to watch it. These historical dramas don’t come often. It’s worth watching, even though the subject is heavy.
I do find it difficult to watch after work when I’m tired; the last thing I want is death and despair, and there’s a lot of it here. (But I promise, it’s absolutely worth it and I intend to complete it even if it takes me a year.)
To balance things out, I tried something fluffy: “Seeds of Scarlet Longing.” It’s a fun, trashy short drama; every episode is about 20 minutes. Short dramas are very profitable these days, so I’m not surprised the actor took the role. It was fun to watch, with lots of steamy scenes, but stitching those together doesn’t create genuine chemistry between the couple, which I felt was missing.
The worst part? Our female lead is one of those pixie-happy types, feeling very one-dimensional. I never fully bought into their romance; the enemies-to-lovers transition felt sudden and underdeveloped.
The premise: our male lead is a prince hunting jade demons; the female lead is a demon who needs to have sex with a man to survive every full moon (they call it “dual cultivation” hehe). With a premise like that, you’d think you’d feel invested but honestly, it was disappointing. I had some fun, but didn’t enjoy it towards the end because I just didn’t buy their romance.
“How Dare You” really caught me. I don’t usually like transmigration dramas, but I gave this a chance because I like the actor, Cheng Lei. What surprised me: this drama had surprising depth. The plot was coherent and tightly told—no fluff or filler dragging the story. Every episode was thrilling, character writing was super good, and the story wrapped up neatly (no big question mark, like most transmigration dramas).
Yu Wanyin travels into a novel where she’s the villain—but here’s the twist: the villain of the novel, Xiahou Dan, is also a transmigrator!
They find each other and try to survive the bloody twist and turns of the plot together. It’s a pretty good drama with surprising depth and I thirsted for new episodes daily.
“Generation to Generation” is a rare wuxia tale—though wuxia-lite, not quite Jin Yong–level yet.
Cai Zhao, who just want a happy life free of the jianghu, is forced to join the revered Qingque Sect, where she meets the withdrawn Chang Ning, a survivor of a family massacre. One thing leads to another and Cai Zhao and Chang Ning gets dragged into the affairs of the previous generation of heroes, left unresolved for decades.
The only thing that may deter people about this drama: if you dislike repetitive cycles or misunderstandings between the couple, you may not enjoy it as much. But if you’re okay with that, it can be quite fulfilling.
I haven’t finished yet, but I plan to take my time because I like the two main actors—they’re very good, and I’m enjoying their performances.
The dramas that I hope to watch
Ah, Ingenious One, a true blue wuxia that I’ve told myself multiple times to watch but never seem to be able to. I kept putting it off, hoping to watch it right before season 2 of the drama airs, but the next thing I knew, season 2 is here, and I’ve still not watched it! Ack.
I’m sad I can’t catch it live, but I’m also happy to watch both seasons back to back, slowly savouring it.
I’m behind reviews, but they’re coming!
Loving Strangers, Glory and more. (I’m super behind my reviews. There’s just been so many CDramas and I’ve been so super busy!)
So there you have it: what I’ve been watching the last two months. See you next month!
#CDrama #CDramas #China #ChineseDrama #CostumedDrama #Fantasy #HowDareYou #PursuitOfJade #SwordsIntoPlowshares #TV -
Tech broligarchs are lining up to court Trump. And Vance is one more link in the chain
Less than a month after Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016,
he invited the cream of Silicon Valley's #tech #elite to a meeting at his transition team’s headquarters at Trump Tower.It was an awkward affair.
Facebook’s Sheryl #Sandberg, Google’s Larry #Page and Amazon’s Jeff #Bezos had facial expressions that ranged from a semi-rictus grin to full tech-mogul-in-a-hostage-situation.But then, in a sense they were. There was a new sheriff in town – and none of them had seen him coming.
But one person was in his element. Seated next to Trump, uncomplicatedly beaming, was a South African-born tech entrepreneur whose early investment in Facebook had made him billions.
And if this past week marked an inflection point, and there are many reasons to believe it did,
the seeds of it were planted in the summer of 2016.This was when Trump was the outside candidate. The man no respectable west coast tech entrepreneur or east coast business elite wanted to touch.
Last week marked a decisive end to that era.
A week in which Donald Trump not only appointed a #tech #bro to be his second in command, choosing Senator JD #Vance to be his VP,
but in which he received the benediction of the tech bro-in-chief, #Elon #Musk.Musk has said he will donate
💥 $45m a month to Trump’s campaign,
💥though his ongoing endorsement on X,
the platform he bought and owns, is worth countless millions more.But it’s some lesser-known figures in Silicon Valley who last week boarded the Trump bandwagon who are perhaps even more telling.
#Marc #Andreessen and #Ben #Horowitz, who own one of the most storied and influential venture capital (VC) firms in Silicon Valley,
have declared they’re all in for Trump alongside a host of lesser-known but important names who have either followed suit or who beat them to the punch,
including the #Winklevoss twins and investors and podcast hosts #Chamath #Palihapitiya and #David #Sacks.Back in 2016, Peter Thiel was the voice in the wilderness. And in that meeting in Trump Tower, it was Thiel’s hand that Trump picked up and stroked.
(And whose data mining firm, #Palantir, picked up billions of dollars in contracts from Trump’s Department of Defense, and, most controversially, Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, where it profiled and surveilled migrants.)
The principle that underpins Silicon Valley investing is to bet early and bet big.
It worked for Thiel with Facebook. It worked for Thiel with Trump. And last week another of his bets paid off, though few could ever have predicted how spectacularly.
Because JD #Vance, the new potential VP, is Thiel’s creature.
He is a man Thiel moulded in his own image through lavish investments in his business and political careers.
Thiel gave Vance a job at his VC firm, #Mithril #Capital, backed him to start his own venture fund, #Narya #Capital, then later invested $15m in his successful run for the senate.
Max Chafkin, Thiel’s biographer, describes Vance as his “extension”. -
Tech broligarchs are lining up to court Trump. And Vance is one more link in the chain
Less than a month after Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016,
he invited the cream of Silicon Valley's #tech #elite to a meeting at his transition team’s headquarters at Trump Tower.It was an awkward affair.
Facebook’s Sheryl #Sandberg, Google’s Larry #Page and Amazon’s Jeff #Bezos had facial expressions that ranged from a semi-rictus grin to full tech-mogul-in-a-hostage-situation.But then, in a sense they were. There was a new sheriff in town – and none of them had seen him coming.
But one person was in his element. Seated next to Trump, uncomplicatedly beaming, was a South African-born tech entrepreneur whose early investment in Facebook had made him billions.
And if this past week marked an inflection point, and there are many reasons to believe it did,
the seeds of it were planted in the summer of 2016.This was when Trump was the outside candidate. The man no respectable west coast tech entrepreneur or east coast business elite wanted to touch.
Last week marked a decisive end to that era.
A week in which Donald Trump not only appointed a #tech #bro to be his second in command, choosing Senator JD #Vance to be his VP,
but in which he received the benediction of the tech bro-in-chief, #Elon #Musk.Musk has said he will donate
💥 $45m a month to Trump’s campaign,
💥though his ongoing endorsement on X,
the platform he bought and owns, is worth countless millions more.But it’s some lesser-known figures in Silicon Valley who last week boarded the Trump bandwagon who are perhaps even more telling.
#Marc #Andreessen and #Ben #Horowitz, who own one of the most storied and influential venture capital (VC) firms in Silicon Valley,
have declared they’re all in for Trump alongside a host of lesser-known but important names who have either followed suit or who beat them to the punch,
including the #Winklevoss twins and investors and podcast hosts #Chamath #Palihapitiya and #David #Sacks.Back in 2016, Peter Thiel was the voice in the wilderness. And in that meeting in Trump Tower, it was Thiel’s hand that Trump picked up and stroked.
(And whose data mining firm, #Palantir, picked up billions of dollars in contracts from Trump’s Department of Defense, and, most controversially, Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, where it profiled and surveilled migrants.)
The principle that underpins Silicon Valley investing is to bet early and bet big.
It worked for Thiel with Facebook. It worked for Thiel with Trump. And last week another of his bets paid off, though few could ever have predicted how spectacularly.
Because JD #Vance, the new potential VP, is Thiel’s creature.
He is a man Thiel moulded in his own image through lavish investments in his business and political careers.
Thiel gave Vance a job at his VC firm, #Mithril #Capital, backed him to start his own venture fund, #Narya #Capital, then later invested $15m in his successful run for the senate.
Max Chafkin, Thiel’s biographer, describes Vance as his “extension”. -
Tech broligarchs are lining up to court Trump. And Vance is one more link in the chain
Less than a month after Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016,
he invited the cream of Silicon Valley's #tech #elite to a meeting at his transition team’s headquarters at Trump Tower.It was an awkward affair.
Facebook’s Sheryl #Sandberg, Google’s Larry #Page and Amazon’s Jeff #Bezos had facial expressions that ranged from a semi-rictus grin to full tech-mogul-in-a-hostage-situation.But then, in a sense they were. There was a new sheriff in town – and none of them had seen him coming.
But one person was in his element. Seated next to Trump, uncomplicatedly beaming, was a South African-born tech entrepreneur whose early investment in Facebook had made him billions.
And if this past week marked an inflection point, and there are many reasons to believe it did,
the seeds of it were planted in the summer of 2016.This was when Trump was the outside candidate. The man no respectable west coast tech entrepreneur or east coast business elite wanted to touch.
Last week marked a decisive end to that era.
A week in which Donald Trump not only appointed a #tech #bro to be his second in command, choosing Senator JD #Vance to be his VP,
but in which he received the benediction of the tech bro-in-chief, #Elon #Musk.Musk has said he will donate
💥 $45m a month to Trump’s campaign,
💥though his ongoing endorsement on X,
the platform he bought and owns, is worth countless millions more.But it’s some lesser-known figures in Silicon Valley who last week boarded the Trump bandwagon who are perhaps even more telling.
#Marc #Andreessen and #Ben #Horowitz, who own one of the most storied and influential venture capital (VC) firms in Silicon Valley,
have declared they’re all in for Trump alongside a host of lesser-known but important names who have either followed suit or who beat them to the punch,
including the #Winklevoss twins and investors and podcast hosts #Chamath #Palihapitiya and #David #Sacks.Back in 2016, Peter Thiel was the voice in the wilderness. And in that meeting in Trump Tower, it was Thiel’s hand that Trump picked up and stroked.
(And whose data mining firm, #Palantir, picked up billions of dollars in contracts from Trump’s Department of Defense, and, most controversially, Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, where it profiled and surveilled migrants.)
The principle that underpins Silicon Valley investing is to bet early and bet big.
It worked for Thiel with Facebook. It worked for Thiel with Trump. And last week another of his bets paid off, though few could ever have predicted how spectacularly.
Because JD #Vance, the new potential VP, is Thiel’s creature.
He is a man Thiel moulded in his own image through lavish investments in his business and political careers.
Thiel gave Vance a job at his VC firm, #Mithril #Capital, backed him to start his own venture fund, #Narya #Capital, then later invested $15m in his successful run for the senate.
Max Chafkin, Thiel’s biographer, describes Vance as his “extension”. -
Tech broligarchs are lining up to court Trump. And Vance is one more link in the chain
Less than a month after Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016,
he invited the cream of Silicon Valley's #tech #elite to a meeting at his transition team’s headquarters at Trump Tower.It was an awkward affair.
Facebook’s Sheryl #Sandberg, Google’s Larry #Page and Amazon’s Jeff #Bezos had facial expressions that ranged from a semi-rictus grin to full tech-mogul-in-a-hostage-situation.But then, in a sense they were. There was a new sheriff in town – and none of them had seen him coming.
But one person was in his element. Seated next to Trump, uncomplicatedly beaming, was a South African-born tech entrepreneur whose early investment in Facebook had made him billions.
And if this past week marked an inflection point, and there are many reasons to believe it did,
the seeds of it were planted in the summer of 2016.This was when Trump was the outside candidate. The man no respectable west coast tech entrepreneur or east coast business elite wanted to touch.
Last week marked a decisive end to that era.
A week in which Donald Trump not only appointed a #tech #bro to be his second in command, choosing Senator JD #Vance to be his VP,
but in which he received the benediction of the tech bro-in-chief, #Elon #Musk.Musk has said he will donate
💥 $45m a month to Trump’s campaign,
💥though his ongoing endorsement on X,
the platform he bought and owns, is worth countless millions more.But it’s some lesser-known figures in Silicon Valley who last week boarded the Trump bandwagon who are perhaps even more telling.
#Marc #Andreessen and #Ben #Horowitz, who own one of the most storied and influential venture capital (VC) firms in Silicon Valley,
have declared they’re all in for Trump alongside a host of lesser-known but important names who have either followed suit or who beat them to the punch,
including the #Winklevoss twins and investors and podcast hosts #Chamath #Palihapitiya and #David #Sacks.Back in 2016, Peter Thiel was the voice in the wilderness. And in that meeting in Trump Tower, it was Thiel’s hand that Trump picked up and stroked.
(And whose data mining firm, #Palantir, picked up billions of dollars in contracts from Trump’s Department of Defense, and, most controversially, Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, where it profiled and surveilled migrants.)
The principle that underpins Silicon Valley investing is to bet early and bet big.
It worked for Thiel with Facebook. It worked for Thiel with Trump. And last week another of his bets paid off, though few could ever have predicted how spectacularly.
Because JD #Vance, the new potential VP, is Thiel’s creature.
He is a man Thiel moulded in his own image through lavish investments in his business and political careers.
Thiel gave Vance a job at his VC firm, #Mithril #Capital, backed him to start his own venture fund, #Narya #Capital, then later invested $15m in his successful run for the senate.
Max Chafkin, Thiel’s biographer, describes Vance as his “extension”. -
I'm using the proprietary #mySugr Android app to sync the data from my glucometer (and I'd love to replace it with something open source). One of the app's features is giving points for data input. Enter blood sugar, you get points, enter carbs, points, enter insulin doses, points, tag, points. You get the idea.
Now, insulin doses are split into meal and correction doses. Both grant points separately.
Effectively, this means that if you repeatedly suffer from elevated blood sugars and need to correct them, you get more points than if you're well in range. Makes sense, right?
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“What is really amazing, and frustrating, is mankind’s habit of refusing to see the obvious and inevitable until it is there, and then muttering about unforeseen catastrophes”*…
Rubble left in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael is pictured in Mexico Beach, Florida, U.S. October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman (source)One of the effectively-secret ingredients in the world’s economic growth over the last couple of centuries has been insurance. The ability to insure against catastrophic loss has underwritten (pun intended) the trillions and trillions of dollars of loans that have funded the construction and acquisition that has enabled the growth of both commercial endeavor and the the accumulation of personal wealth (directly through home ownership and indirectly through equity ownership in those commercial endeavors or participation in pension schemes that own that equity).
But in a way that was enitrely predictable, climate change is rendering a growing portion of the world uninsurable. Gavin Evans ponders what that might mean…
The Florida peninsula looks like a sore thumb. It juts into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic, where the water is getting warmer year on year, prompting fiercer hurricanes that can blow down houses like collapsing decks of cards. Climate scientists are convinced all hell will break loose sooner or later when a monster-sized, property-destroying storm makes a direct hit on Miami or Tampa-St Petersburg. Given three near-misses in the recent past, the experts view such a calamity as inevitable. It’s a huge risk for anyone living there – they stand to lose everything – but also for those bearing the financial side of this risk, the insurance companies. Some in the industry are seeing this as a portent for their future – an impending existential threat with profound implications for the economic system.
There are no easy solutions for people still paying off mortgages and those who want to buy property along the Florida coast, because the potential payout on the back of a mammoth storm is so high that the reinsurers (who insure the insurers against catastrophe) are refusing to underwrite their clients and, with no reinsurance, there’s no insurance; and with no insurance, no mortgages; and with no mortgages, no property market. Insurance protects investments against loss and is therefore a pillar of the economic system. If it goes, economies are destabilised.
Many panicked homeowners have rushed to make their houses less risky for insurance companies by reinforcing their roofs with hurricane clips, installing impact-resistant windows, doors and shutters, and strengthening their foundations. But it’s not just storms and higher, warmer seas that concern insurers. Rising temperatures mean that the frequency, range and ferocity of wildfires are also on the rise.
So far this year, 3,374 wildfires have burned an area of Florida totalling 231,172 acres (at the time of writing), and it is even worse in California where 7,855 blazes have killed at least 31 people, destroyed more than 17,000 houses and devoured 525,208 acres of land, at an estimated cost of more than $250 billion. Here, too, homeowners rushed to make their properties more palatable to cold-footed insurers – clearing their surroundings of anything flammable, covering yards with gravel, sheathing houses with fire-resistant stucco, and replacing wooden roofs with steel.
But, even for the most diligent, insurance companies have turned tail, dumping existing clients and abandoning fire-prone and storm-prone areas altogether. On the Californian fire front, 2024 was a turning point as several insurers ceased issuing new policies because of fire-associated risks, including the United States’ biggest property insurer, State Farm, which cancelled policies in parts of Los Angeles. It is all too easy to view this cynically, but it’s happening because property insurers have been reporting year-on-year losses from climate change-related payouts.
Insurance companies survive by making more money from covering risk than they lose from these risks, which is why they prefer clients less likely to claim (insofar as they can predict the risk involved) and require them to pay substantial excess to discourage claims. When payouts rise above the premium intake, insurance companies either hike up these premiums or withdraw. But when that risk is considered catastrophic, potentially affecting many thousands of clients, as with Floridian storms and Californian fires, it is the reinsurers who are the first to retreat because they will ultimately bear most of the cost.
Reinsurers aggregate payout patterns to establish the likelihood of having to make huge payouts from future natural catastrophes. They do this by gathering exposure data from existing insurers in a geographical area, and by examining catastrophe models (computer simulations that estimate potential losses from natural perils). When they put all this together with detailed analysis of conditions within the area, they come up with a figure for their total potential loss if a catastrophic event strikes.
This is why reinsurers focus so intensely on climate change. Take a glance at the websites of big ones like Swiss Re and Munich Re and you get a sense of how central this is to their calculations – a concern that has spread to property insurers who are starting to hire climate consultants. Even more than market volatility, climate is their biggest headache. ‘You won’t meet a single insurance or reinsurance CEO who doesn’t believe in climate change,’ the insurance investor and former Lombard Insurance CEO James Orford told me. ‘They see it in the numbers – a combination of more extreme, less predictable events, combined with big losses of sums insured. All the modelling suggests these are uninsurable risks.’…
[Evans recaps the history of insurance, starting in Genoa, in the mid-14th century, with the insuring of maritime expeditions; examines the current state of play; examines the efforts (and gauges the weaknesses) of state’s efforts to step up with coverage when insurers step away; then considers another role for states…]
If states do withdraw from insurance and reinsurance, some of the most lucrative areas of the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia will be devastated: no mortgages and no banks, leading to more ghost towns and villages. ‘It ends with depopulation and abandonment,’ said Agarwala. ‘Climate change reduces the operating space for humanity.’ In the UK, rising sea levels and coastal erosion could literally reduce operating space, putting 200,000 British homes at risk by 2050. There’s no coastal-erosion insurance, which puts more burden on the state, mainly to pay for new defences, but also to help people move.
Governments can take action in other ways, by investing greater sums in risk-prevention and management. There are signs of this happening such as the ‘fire-hardening’ and storm-prevention efforts in Florida, and improved flood defences in the UK; meanwhile, the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility is being used in several countries to build and renovate operations centres to cope with wildfires, and to buy firefighting helicopters.
In future, it is likely that voters will demand that their state and national governments do far more, regardless of the cost. They will want tougher building codes, including limitations on building in risky areas; expensive fire-prevention and fire-fighting schemes; better flood and storm defences; improved early catastrophe management, involving relocating people from risky areas and, when disaster strikes, rapid life-saving interventions such as large-scale emergency evacuations. If the insurance industry is forced to retreat by the climate crisis, all of this infrastructural investment will require vast chunks of taxpayers’ money. It is hard to avoid the feeling that this is part of our destiny, and that the sore thumb of the Florida peninsula is pointing us to the future…
Whole regions of the world are now uninsurable, bringing radical uncertainty to the economy: “The insurance catastrophe,” from @aeon.co.
See also: “An Uninsurable Country” (a report form NRDC), “The Insurance Crisis Is So Desperate People Are Turning Socialist” (a gift article from Bloomberg), and “The Uninsurable Future: The Climate Threat to Property Insurance, and How to Stop It” (from Yale Law Review)
* Isaac Asimov
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As we cover up, we might send highly-charged birthday greetings to a man who made foundational contributions both to the detection of climatic conditions and to a technology that may help allieviate climate change: John Frederic Daniell was born on this date in 1790. Named the first professor of chemistry at the newly founded King’s College London in 1831, he was an avid meteorologist. He invented the dew-point hygrometer known by his name and a register pyrometer; in 1830 he erected a water-barometer in the hall of the Royal Society.
But Daniell is better remembered as a chemist (and physicist), especially for his invention of the Daniell cell, an element of an electric battery much better than voltaic cells, the standard before him. Indeed, the Daniell cell is the historical basis for the contemporary definition of the volt (the unit of electromotive force in the International System of Units). All advances in battery technology since then were “from” the base that Daniell laid.
#chemistry #climate #climateChange #culture #DaniellCell #disasters #economics #finance #flooding #history #insurance #investment #JohnDaniell #JohnFredericDaniell #meteorology #Physics #reinsurance #Science #Technology #volt #weather #wildFires -
Today a slightly different "best practices" blog post, about the idea of using separate "metadata" tables to store information about time-series in your (not only) #TimeScaleDB #Hypertable(s), like valid range, device assigment, whatever. 🤯🥳
Also great for deduplicating additional data per row and externalize them 🙂🤟
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#betacoronavirus #coronavirus #COVID19 #exercise #health #mentalHealth #nutrition #research #sarbecovirus #sarsCov2 #wellness
- June 1 Highlight.
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I updated my electric vehicle charging maps with the latest data. Surprisingly, the number of fast charging stations in Canada and the USA has doubled in the past 18 months.
With the charging density that now exists across Canada and the USA, you can road trip almost anywhere without any range anxiety.
https://canadianveggie.com/2024/06/29/rapid-growth-ev-charging-stations-in-canada-and-usa-analyzed/
#EV #mapping #dataNerd #GIS #electrifyEverything #transportation
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Mind uploading and continuity
As a computational functionalist, I think the mind is a system that exists in this universe and operates according to the laws of physics. Which means that, in principle, there shouldn’t be any reason why the information and dispositions that make up a mind can’t be recorded and copied into another substrate someday, such as a digital environment.
To be clear, I think this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. I’m not in the technological singularity camp that sees us all getting uploaded into the cloud in a decade or two, the infamous “rapture of the nerds”. We need to understand the brain far better than we currently do, and that seems several decades to centuries away. Of course, if it is possible to do it anytime soon, it won’t be accomplished by anyone who’s already decided it’s impossible, so I enthusiastically cheer efforts in this area, as long as it’s real science.
There have always been a number of objections to the idea of uploading. Many people just reflexively assume it’s categorically impossible. Certainly we don’t have the technology today, but short of assuming the mind is at least partially non-physical, it’s hard to see what the ultimate obstacle might be. Even with that assumption, who can say that a copied mind wouldn’t have those non-physical properties? David Chalmers, a property dualist, sees those non-physical properties as corresponding with the right functionality, so for him AI consciousness and mind copying remain a possibility.
One objection that I often hear is the break in continuity. Most people, including most philosophers, feel like a copied mind just wouldn’t be them. Often they’ll acknowledge that we have breaks in continuity every night. Or the Ship of Theseus issue, that the matter that makes up our brain is being constantly recycled and refreshed, so that the matter that we were composed of years ago is not the matter we’re made up of today. But uploading seems like an abrupt shift from one set of matter to another, a very different kind break.
Interestingly, this is an issue for the original mind, not the copied one, who should be able to remember being the original. But to the original, a new being seems to have been created that acts like them, but isn’t them. (Assuming that the copying process doesn’t result in the destruction of the original, a possibility that itself might make people reluctant to volunteer, at least before they’re on their death bed.)
I was reminded about these issues when listening to David Eagleman’s interview of Max Hodak. Hodak is the founder of a company that works on neural prosthetics, with current focus on helping people with vision issues. His ideas on how to make progress in this area are fascinating. They involve growing new neurons to interface with the brain, rather than directly attaching technology to the brain, with all the autoimmune issues that typically result. (You don’t have to watch this video to follow the rest of the post, just embedding for reference.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtp-6GOGfMA
Toward the end of the discussion, Hodak discusses the longer range implications, such as substrate independence, aka, mind uploading. He notes that the technology to link two brains together should be possible in the near future, and sees that as possibly getting around the continuity issue. He seems to envisage it working sort of like a Vulcan mind merge.
I’m personally not sure that’s what would happen, but it highlights some possible workarounds for the continuity concern. It raises the possibility that in a mind upload scenario, the original biological mind could be linked with the copy, possibly being able to experience both sides of the divide.
Another possibility often covered in science fiction is the ability of various copies of a mind to share memories with each other. It’s much easier to think of those other copies as you if you can remember being them. But there are a couple of obstacles to making this work.
One is that a biological brain isn’t like a commercial computer. It doesn’t have a data port or addressable memory. So simply copying things in, as we see in the Matrix movies, isn’t really feasible. The brain’s neural network is constantly changing, but there’s no mechanism for those changes except for experiences in the normal fashion. This means there’s no way for the biological version of me to simply receive my digital twin’s memories.
The second issue is that, even in the digital copies, it’s not clear how to copy memories from one version of the mind to another with fidelity. Consider that learning and forming memories in a neural network means changing the synapses (connection weights), often in a distributed fashion throughout the network. And those changes are relative to the current state of that network. So two copies of a mind, once they start to have different experiences will diverge pretty quickly, changing what a memory means for different versions.
One possible way around both issues might be recording the signals coming in on the sensory pathways to the mind, and then allowing another copy of that mind to play those signals back. This could give the second copy something like the experience of the original. It would involve an enormous amount of data, although if we’re able to record minds, we’re probably able to handle it.
However it seems like it would be far more time consuming than the sci-fi versions of memory swapping, since the receiving mind would have to take the time to undergo the experience. It might also be a very strange experience, since the receiving mind would be experiencing all the sensory effects of any actions taken by the sending mind during the original experience, without going through the same volitional thought processes.
Still, with implants similar to the type Hodak is discussing, we might imagine the original biological mind being able to share in the experience of being the copy, either though a link with the copy, or with sensory playback, which might address the continuity concerns.
Unless of course I’m missing something. What do you think? Are there conceptual difficulties I’m overlooking? Or other possibilities that might alleviate the continuity concern?
#Brain #Consciousness #MindUploading #Neuroscience #Philosophy #PhilosophyOfMind #Science
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A not so great observation for #experimentalEcon:
"Results indicate that misunderstanding is common: the proportion of participants who misunderstood ranged from 22 % (Dictator Game) to 70 % (#Trust Game) in the online samples and from 22 % (Dictator Game) to 53 % (Public Goods Game) in the lab sample. Incentivizing the comprehension questions had no significant impact on misunderstanding, but #numeracy was associated with lower misunderstanding. Misunderstanding also predicted increased prosocial behavior in several of the games. Our findings suggest that misunderstanding may be important in explaining prosocial behavior, making it more complicated to draw clear inferences about #socialPreferences from experimental data."
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107039
That's why I (almost) always included a comprehension pre-test before the actual experiment. -
A not so great observation for #experimentalEcon:
"Results indicate that misunderstanding is common: the proportion of participants who misunderstood ranged from 22 % (Dictator Game) to 70 % (#Trust Game) in the online samples and from 22 % (Dictator Game) to 53 % (Public Goods Game) in the lab sample. Incentivizing the comprehension questions had no significant impact on misunderstanding, but #numeracy was associated with lower misunderstanding. Misunderstanding also predicted increased prosocial behavior in several of the games. Our findings suggest that misunderstanding may be important in explaining prosocial behavior, making it more complicated to draw clear inferences about #socialPreferences from experimental data."
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107039
That's why I (almost) always included a comprehension pre-test before the actual experiment. -
A not so great observation for #experimentalEcon:
"Results indicate that misunderstanding is common: the proportion of participants who misunderstood ranged from 22 % (Dictator Game) to 70 % (#Trust Game) in the online samples and from 22 % (Dictator Game) to 53 % (Public Goods Game) in the lab sample. Incentivizing the comprehension questions had no significant impact on misunderstanding, but #numeracy was associated with lower misunderstanding. Misunderstanding also predicted increased prosocial behavior in several of the games. Our findings suggest that misunderstanding may be important in explaining prosocial behavior, making it more complicated to draw clear inferences about #socialPreferences from experimental data."
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107039
That's why I (almost) always included a comprehension pre-test before the actual experiment. -
A not so great observation for #experimentalEcon:
"Results indicate that misunderstanding is common: the proportion of participants who misunderstood ranged from 22 % (Dictator Game) to 70 % (#Trust Game) in the online samples and from 22 % (Dictator Game) to 53 % (Public Goods Game) in the lab sample. Incentivizing the comprehension questions had no significant impact on misunderstanding, but #numeracy was associated with lower misunderstanding. Misunderstanding also predicted increased prosocial behavior in several of the games. Our findings suggest that misunderstanding may be important in explaining prosocial behavior, making it more complicated to draw clear inferences about #socialPreferences from experimental data."
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107039
That's why I (almost) always included a comprehension pre-test before the actual experiment. -
Are you #trans and taking #HRT? How did it affect your #EmotionalRange? (Please boost for larger dataset.)
There is a certain conventional wisdom, especially insofar as feminizing HRT is concerned, but it would be nice to have some data.
For this poll, please answer only if you have been taking HRT for at least 2 month at a full dose (microdosing doesn’t count). It doesn’t matter whether you are #binarytrans or #nonbinary.
Feminizing HRT means taking Estrogen either via high-dose monotherapy or with a testosterone blocker.
Masculinizing HRT means taking Testosterone.
Emotional range refers to how strong you feel emotions: A wide emotional range means that you cry easily and experience joy strongly, whereas a narrow emotional range means that emotions feel somewhat dull.
More explanation in comments, especially if the answer is more complicated are of course very welcome.
#transgender #transfem #transmasc #transition #medicalTransition #DiyHrt #OpenHRT #enby #poll
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Concern as #LightPollution encourages #birds to sing for longer, study finds
22 August 2025
"Birds around the world are singing for nearly an hour longer each day due to light pollution, a new study has shown.
"The research, to be published in the journal Science, used millions of recordings of #birdsong, including from #NewZealand's #NorthIsland.
"President of Birds New Zealand Dr Natalie Forsdick told RNZ more light meant more time for singing, building nests and feeding.
"But she said those things consumed energy and it could be reducing their overall health.
" 'It's just like with humans, if you go to bed a little bit too late, you wake up the next day feeling a little bit the worse for wear. I imagine that birds could feel that same way too, and we certainly see that it disrupts their natural cycles.'
"She said previous studies in New Zealand had shown a range of outcomes, from no effect to increased night-time predation by black-backed gulls on threatened species like banded dotterels.
"But one of the biggest concerns about light pollution in New Zealand was its effect on seabirds.
"Among juveniles, urban light pollution may be mistaken for moonlight, attracting and disorientating species like Cook's #petrel or Hutton's #shearwaters.
"This could cause birds to crash land or collide with buildings, and they may become injured or grounded in cities.
"She said people could help by turning off outside lights when they were not needed, and asking their local councils to consider more directional or dimmer lighting in public places. [I would recommended warmer lighting as well. Too much blue is unnatural!]
"Associate Professor Kristal Cain from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland said more research was needed to find out how light pollution affected survival and reproduction.
"This paper used bird song data collected by thousands of volunteers globally, and measured when birds started singing in the morning and when they stopped for the night.
"It found that in brighter areas birds started singing early and continued later into the night than in dark areas.
" 'Most of the bird song was collected in #NorthAmerica and #Europe,' Cain said. 'We still need to do similar work in the rest of the world to see how widespread these patterns really are. The manu of #Aotearoa are quite unique in many ways."
" 'Importantly, all this #ArtificialLight is not good for us either.'
"People could do things like closing curtains and planting trees in urban areas to contain some of the light."
Source:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570702/concern-as-light-pollution-encourages-birds-to-sing-for-longer-study-finds -
Concern as #LightPollution encourages #birds to sing for longer, study finds
22 August 2025
"Birds around the world are singing for nearly an hour longer each day due to light pollution, a new study has shown.
"The research, to be published in the journal Science, used millions of recordings of #birdsong, including from #NewZealand's #NorthIsland.
"President of Birds New Zealand Dr Natalie Forsdick told RNZ more light meant more time for singing, building nests and feeding.
"But she said those things consumed energy and it could be reducing their overall health.
" 'It's just like with humans, if you go to bed a little bit too late, you wake up the next day feeling a little bit the worse for wear. I imagine that birds could feel that same way too, and we certainly see that it disrupts their natural cycles.'
"She said previous studies in New Zealand had shown a range of outcomes, from no effect to increased night-time predation by black-backed gulls on threatened species like banded dotterels.
"But one of the biggest concerns about light pollution in New Zealand was its effect on seabirds.
"Among juveniles, urban light pollution may be mistaken for moonlight, attracting and disorientating species like Cook's #petrel or Hutton's #shearwaters.
"This could cause birds to crash land or collide with buildings, and they may become injured or grounded in cities.
"She said people could help by turning off outside lights when they were not needed, and asking their local councils to consider more directional or dimmer lighting in public places. [I would recommended warmer lighting as well. Too much blue is unnatural!]
"Associate Professor Kristal Cain from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland said more research was needed to find out how light pollution affected survival and reproduction.
"This paper used bird song data collected by thousands of volunteers globally, and measured when birds started singing in the morning and when they stopped for the night.
"It found that in brighter areas birds started singing early and continued later into the night than in dark areas.
" 'Most of the bird song was collected in #NorthAmerica and #Europe,' Cain said. 'We still need to do similar work in the rest of the world to see how widespread these patterns really are. The manu of #Aotearoa are quite unique in many ways."
" 'Importantly, all this #ArtificialLight is not good for us either.'
"People could do things like closing curtains and planting trees in urban areas to contain some of the light."
Source:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570702/concern-as-light-pollution-encourages-birds-to-sing-for-longer-study-finds -
Concern as #LightPollution encourages #birds to sing for longer, study finds
22 August 2025
"Birds around the world are singing for nearly an hour longer each day due to light pollution, a new study has shown.
"The research, to be published in the journal Science, used millions of recordings of #birdsong, including from #NewZealand's #NorthIsland.
"President of Birds New Zealand Dr Natalie Forsdick told RNZ more light meant more time for singing, building nests and feeding.
"But she said those things consumed energy and it could be reducing their overall health.
" 'It's just like with humans, if you go to bed a little bit too late, you wake up the next day feeling a little bit the worse for wear. I imagine that birds could feel that same way too, and we certainly see that it disrupts their natural cycles.'
"She said previous studies in New Zealand had shown a range of outcomes, from no effect to increased night-time predation by black-backed gulls on threatened species like banded dotterels.
"But one of the biggest concerns about light pollution in New Zealand was its effect on seabirds.
"Among juveniles, urban light pollution may be mistaken for moonlight, attracting and disorientating species like Cook's #petrel or Hutton's #shearwaters.
"This could cause birds to crash land or collide with buildings, and they may become injured or grounded in cities.
"She said people could help by turning off outside lights when they were not needed, and asking their local councils to consider more directional or dimmer lighting in public places. [I would recommended warmer lighting as well. Too much blue is unnatural!]
"Associate Professor Kristal Cain from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland said more research was needed to find out how light pollution affected survival and reproduction.
"This paper used bird song data collected by thousands of volunteers globally, and measured when birds started singing in the morning and when they stopped for the night.
"It found that in brighter areas birds started singing early and continued later into the night than in dark areas.
" 'Most of the bird song was collected in #NorthAmerica and #Europe,' Cain said. 'We still need to do similar work in the rest of the world to see how widespread these patterns really are. The manu of #Aotearoa are quite unique in many ways."
" 'Importantly, all this #ArtificialLight is not good for us either.'
"People could do things like closing curtains and planting trees in urban areas to contain some of the light."
Source:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570702/concern-as-light-pollution-encourages-birds-to-sing-for-longer-study-finds -
Concern as #LightPollution encourages #birds to sing for longer, study finds
22 August 2025
"Birds around the world are singing for nearly an hour longer each day due to light pollution, a new study has shown.
"The research, to be published in the journal Science, used millions of recordings of #birdsong, including from #NewZealand's #NorthIsland.
"President of Birds New Zealand Dr Natalie Forsdick told RNZ more light meant more time for singing, building nests and feeding.
"But she said those things consumed energy and it could be reducing their overall health.
" 'It's just like with humans, if you go to bed a little bit too late, you wake up the next day feeling a little bit the worse for wear. I imagine that birds could feel that same way too, and we certainly see that it disrupts their natural cycles.'
"She said previous studies in New Zealand had shown a range of outcomes, from no effect to increased night-time predation by black-backed gulls on threatened species like banded dotterels.
"But one of the biggest concerns about light pollution in New Zealand was its effect on seabirds.
"Among juveniles, urban light pollution may be mistaken for moonlight, attracting and disorientating species like Cook's #petrel or Hutton's #shearwaters.
"This could cause birds to crash land or collide with buildings, and they may become injured or grounded in cities.
"She said people could help by turning off outside lights when they were not needed, and asking their local councils to consider more directional or dimmer lighting in public places. [I would recommended warmer lighting as well. Too much blue is unnatural!]
"Associate Professor Kristal Cain from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland said more research was needed to find out how light pollution affected survival and reproduction.
"This paper used bird song data collected by thousands of volunteers globally, and measured when birds started singing in the morning and when they stopped for the night.
"It found that in brighter areas birds started singing early and continued later into the night than in dark areas.
" 'Most of the bird song was collected in #NorthAmerica and #Europe,' Cain said. 'We still need to do similar work in the rest of the world to see how widespread these patterns really are. The manu of #Aotearoa are quite unique in many ways."
" 'Importantly, all this #ArtificialLight is not good for us either.'
"People could do things like closing curtains and planting trees in urban areas to contain some of the light."
Source:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570702/concern-as-light-pollution-encourages-birds-to-sing-for-longer-study-finds -
Concern as #LightPollution encourages #birds to sing for longer, study finds
22 August 2025
"Birds around the world are singing for nearly an hour longer each day due to light pollution, a new study has shown.
"The research, to be published in the journal Science, used millions of recordings of #birdsong, including from #NewZealand's #NorthIsland.
"President of Birds New Zealand Dr Natalie Forsdick told RNZ more light meant more time for singing, building nests and feeding.
"But she said those things consumed energy and it could be reducing their overall health.
" 'It's just like with humans, if you go to bed a little bit too late, you wake up the next day feeling a little bit the worse for wear. I imagine that birds could feel that same way too, and we certainly see that it disrupts their natural cycles.'
"She said previous studies in New Zealand had shown a range of outcomes, from no effect to increased night-time predation by black-backed gulls on threatened species like banded dotterels.
"But one of the biggest concerns about light pollution in New Zealand was its effect on seabirds.
"Among juveniles, urban light pollution may be mistaken for moonlight, attracting and disorientating species like Cook's #petrel or Hutton's #shearwaters.
"This could cause birds to crash land or collide with buildings, and they may become injured or grounded in cities.
"She said people could help by turning off outside lights when they were not needed, and asking their local councils to consider more directional or dimmer lighting in public places. [I would recommended warmer lighting as well. Too much blue is unnatural!]
"Associate Professor Kristal Cain from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland said more research was needed to find out how light pollution affected survival and reproduction.
"This paper used bird song data collected by thousands of volunteers globally, and measured when birds started singing in the morning and when they stopped for the night.
"It found that in brighter areas birds started singing early and continued later into the night than in dark areas.
" 'Most of the bird song was collected in #NorthAmerica and #Europe,' Cain said. 'We still need to do similar work in the rest of the world to see how widespread these patterns really are. The manu of #Aotearoa are quite unique in many ways."
" 'Importantly, all this #ArtificialLight is not good for us either.'
"People could do things like closing curtains and planting trees in urban areas to contain some of the light."
Source:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570702/concern-as-light-pollution-encourages-birds-to-sing-for-longer-study-finds -
📣 Full programme & speakers announced!
'The Future of Open Data' conference is bringing together a diverse range of technical, political, academic and community voices to explore how #opendata can be secured for the future.
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CW: Using Human Pluripotent Stem Cells to Create Human Skeletal Muscle Organoids for Repair and Regeneration
Skeletal #muscle is a type of tissue that makes up a large part of the human body. It is made up of many different cells that are able to contract and move. Skeletal muscle has the ability to #repair itself when it is damaged due to #aging, exercise, or diseases like #MuscularDystrophy. A small group of cells called #SatelliteCell s help with the repair process. Scientists have been trying to create models to study how #Skeletalmuscle develops and regenerates. Recently, they have been using human pluripotent #StemCell to create 3D models of skeletal muscle tissue. However, these models have not been able to recreate the full process of muscle regeneration. In this research paper, the authors introduce a new method of using human pluripotent stem cells to create 3D models of skeletal muscle tissue that can retain the ability to repair itself.
Over the past decades, scientists have used #animalmodel to study #muscleregeneration, which is regulated by #stemcell s. These animal models have been very helpful in understanding the mechanisms of muscle #regeneration, but they don't always accurately reflect the same range of diseases that humans experience. Therefore, researchers have suggested creating reliable in vitro models using human muscle cells. ( #hPSC s) could be used to create 3D human skeletal muscle #organoid s ( #hSkMO s) that contain sustainable #stemcell and distinct myofibers with the same proteins and structure as adult muscles. Previous approaches to skeletal muscle differentiation have been developed using 2D #culture systems, but these lack the natural environment and #StemCell niche that are necessary to model adult #myogenesis and muscle #regeneration.
#Stemcell s ( #SC s) can be used to repair damaged muscle tissue. They explain that SCs can be activated in response to muscle injuries and that other #cell types can contribute to the process of #myogenesis. The author then goes on to explain that #cytokine s, such as IL-4, can influence the #InflammatorySystem and promote SCs differentiation, which helps with muscle regeneration. While #organoid s generated from #hPSC s have potential, they do not fully replicate the in vivo native microenvironment. To address this, treat the #hSkMO s with extrinsic #cytokine s to promote #muscle #regeneration . #hSkMO s might then be used to study aspects of human muscle #biology and to identify novel #therapeutic candidates for muscle-wasting disorders.
To create a 3D structure of muscle tissue. They used #WNT activator and #BMP inhibitors at the beginning of the differentiation process to induce paraxial #mesodermal #cell s. They then added #FGF2 to the Matrigel to promote the 3D structure. #HGF and IGF1 were added later to accelerate the #myogenic specification and further #myofiber differentiation. They optimized the timing of the Matrigel embedding to day seven. After this, they observed #neuralcell s and withdrew FGF2 to focus on muscle tissue development. They then prolonged the HGF and IGF1 treatment to propagate #myogenic #progenitor s. They found that 62% of the #tissue was #skeletalmuscle tissue and that it contained PAX7+ #myogenic #stem / #progenitor cells, MYOD+ activated/committed #myoblast s, and MYOG+ #myocyte s. They also found that 31% of PAX7+/Ki67− and 29% of MYOD−/PAX7+ non-dividing quiescent SCs were present in the mature #hSkMO s. This indicates that the #hSkMO s were able to effectively recreate #embryo nic #myogenesis and have regenerative potential. Future studies using #singlecell #RNA sequencing may be necessary to further characterize the different types of cells in #hSkMO s.
The stepwise process to generate human skeletal muscle organoid s (hSkMOs) from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs)
The process begins with dissociating #hPSC s into #singlecell s and allowing them to form #embryoid bodies ( #EB s) in low-attachment V-shaped 96-well plates. Then, paraxial #mesodermal differentiation is promoted with #WNT activation, BMP inhibition, and FGF2 signaling. The expression of pluripotency markers OCT4 and NANOG decreases, and the expression of #mesoderm markers Brachyury, T-Box transcription factor 6 (TBX6), and mesogenin 1 (MSGN1) increases. To further characterize paraxial #mesoderm al differentiation, TBX6 is #immunostain ed. After paraxial #mesodermal induction, the #organoid s are embedded with growth factor-reduced Matrigel and transferred to a six-well plate on an orbital shaker. Growth factors are then added to the #myogenic specification media, and #hSkMO s are cultured until the day of analysis. The orbital shaker improves the viability, survival, and differentiation of hSkMOs by increasing the penetration rate of oxygen and nutrients into the core area of hSkMOs. The #hSkMOs gradually grow to more than 1.5 mm in diameter by day 60, appearing round-shaped, uniformly sized, and having relatively homogenous morphology. PAX3 and PAX7 are #myogenic progenitor markers, and their expression is verified by qRT-PCR and #cryo sections. The #myogenic cells appear as clusters, and approximately 9% of PAX7+ cells are double-positive for Ki67 at day 30, demonstrating that proliferating cells are #myogenic #progenitor s in hSkMOs. This indicates that the in vitro #hSkMO #culturesystem is able to recapitulate the features of embryonic skeletal #muscle development.
The different types of #SkeletalMuscle stem/progenitor cells that are involved in myogenesis, the process of muscle formation.
The researchers used qRT-PCR analysis and #immunohistochemistry to identify and characterize the different types of cells. They found that PAX3 and PAX7 (SC markers) were the major population during the early stage of #myogenesis, and that MYOD (proliferating and activated SC marker) and MYOG (differentiated myocyte marker) increased over time. They also observed that MYOD−/PAX7+, MYOD+/PAX7+, and MYOD+/Ki67+ cells accounted for 29%, 6%, and 8% of the putative quiescent, activated, and proliferating #SC s, respectively. MYOD+/PAX7− cells constituted 39% of differentiating myoblasts, and MYOG−/PAX7+ cells constituted 23% of putative quiescent SCs. MYOG+/PAX7− cells accounted for 30% of differentiated #myocyte s, and 8% and 6% of the MYOG+ cells in #hSkMO s co-expressed PAX7 and Ki67, respectively. This data shows that the researchers were able to identify and characterize different types of skeletal muscle stem/progenitor cells during #myogenesis.
The text is discussing the results of a research study that used hSkMOs (human skeletal muscle #organoid s) to study the development of skeletal muscle #tissue. The study found that the #hSkMO s grew exponentially in size within two months, and the growth rate then steadily decreased. The researchers then used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging and confocal microscopy to examine the cytoarchitecture of the hSkMOs. They found that the hSkMOs contained a large population of terminally differentiated #myogenic cells and a small population of preserved myogenic stem/progenitor cells. They also found that the hSkMOs contained a substantial proportion of TITIN+ muscle cells and MAP2-positive #neuron s. To further characterize the presence of sustainable stem cells within the mature hSkMOs, they quantified the amount of dormant stem cells by #confocal #microscopy imaging. The results showed that approximately 56%, 31%, and 5% of PAX7+/Ki67- putative dormant stem cells existed throughout the differentiation of hSkMOs at days 30, 70, and 130, respectively. This indicates that the hSkMOs contained mature skeletal muscle properties and had the potential for #regeneration .
The researchers wanted to see if the #hSkMO s (human #skeletal muscle #organoid s) had the ability to regenerate #muscle #tissue after damage. To test this, they treated the hSkMOs with a cardiotoxin (CTX) which is known to induce muscle inflammation and damage. They then observed a decrease in PAX7+ and MYOD+ cells in the hSkMOs. To further test the #regenerative potential of the #hSkMO s, they added interleukin-4 (IL-4) to the medium to promote #muscleregeneration. After 14 days, they observed a significant increase in MYOG+ myocytes in the CTX-injured hSkMOs with the treatment of IL-4 compared to the CTX-injured hSkMOs without the treatment. This suggests that the hSkMOs have the potential to regenerate muscle tissue after damage.
Generation of Skeletal Muscle Organoids from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells to Model Myogenesis and Muscle Regeneration
Authors :
Min-Kyoung Shin , Jin Seok Bang , Jeoung Eun Lee , Hoang-Dai Tran , Genehong Park , Dong Ryul Lee and Junghyun Jo