Filing: Chinese AI startup MiniMax seeks to raise up to ~$538.5M in a Hong Kong IPO, offering 25.4M shares at a price range of ~$19.40 to ~$21.20 per share (Shivangi Lahiri/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific…
Today, I walked through an IKEA twice. First for shopping, and then a second time retracing every single step, to find the lost emotional support plushie.
Found it after 2/3 of IKEA.
#neurodiversity
The Department of Homeland Security has ordered immigration officers to gather identifying information about anyone filming them and to “send that information to Intel who will do a ‘work-up’ on them,” a federal law enforcement official directly involved tells me.
“Meaning, trying to identify them via social media, running their license plates if available, and running a criminal history check,” the official explained.
The directive is part of a sweeping, nationwide effort by U.S…
🇺🇦 Auf radioeins läuft...
Brandt Brauer Frick feat. Sophie Hunger:
🎵 This feeling (Radio Edit)
#NowPlaying #BrandtBrauerFrick #SophieHunger
https://brandtbrauerfrick.bandcamp.com/album/this-feeling-grandbrothers-remix
https://open.spotify.com/track/5KpJFmh58kmirXTkC5zwZQ
A minimal wake-vortex model explains formation flight of flapping birds
Olivia Pomerenk, Kenneth S. Breuer
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.22043 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.22043 https://arxiv.org/html/2602.22043
arXiv:2602.22043v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Collective patterns of motion emerge across biological taxa: insects swarm, fish school, and birds flock. In particular, large migratory birds form strikingly ordered V-shaped formations, which experiments and direct numerical simulations have demonstrated provide substantial energetic benefits during long-distance flight. However, the precise aerodynamic and morphological mechanisms underlying these benefits remain unclear. In this work, we develop a reduced-order model of the wake-vortex interactions between two flapping birds flying in tandem. The model retains essential unsteady flapping dynamics while remaining computationally tractable. By optimizing over a six-dimensional state space, which comprises the follower's three-dimensional relative position and three independent flapping parameters, we identify the energetically optimal leader-follower configuration of northern bald ibises. The predicted optimum agrees quantitatively with live-bird measurements. Because of its simplicity, the model allows for direct interrogation of the physical mechanisms responsible for this optimum. In particular, it isolates precisely how the follower's wing kinematics interact with the leader's wake to enhance aerodynamic efficiency. The model predicts an 11% reduction in total mechanical power for a follower in formation flight -- consistent with experimental estimates -- and shows that this saving arises from reductions in both induced and profile power, dominated by decreased profile power enabled primarily through reduced flapping amplitude and, secondarily, reduced upstroke flexion. These results provide a mechanistic explanation for the structure of V-formations and offer new insight into the aerodynamic principles governing collective flight.
toXiv_bot_toot
Looks like studies of hominins in East Asia are this week's goodies. Following on from the study of H. sapiens expansion routes into East Asia, we've now got this remarkable dating of H. erectus suggesting rapid expansion out of Africa 1.9 million years ago.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv
With YIMBYs like this, who needs NIMBYs?
*yes, SF YIMBY endorsed the two sponsors of this ordinance, Matt Dorsey and Bilal Mahmood
https://missionlocal.org/2026/01/sf-soma-store-ban-drug-crime-deterrence/
Bending Spoons acquires Eventbrite for ~$500M in an all-cash deal, following its $1.38B purchase of Vimeo and a pending acquisition of AOL (Cate Lawrence/Tech.eu)
https://tech.eu/2025/12/02/bending-spoons-to-acquire-eventbrite-in-500m-all-cash-deal/