Tootfinder

On May 6, the Trump administration announced that it was transferring
1.4 million acres of national public lands in Alaska’s Dalton Utility Corridor to the state’s government,
which has sought to expand industrial development in the region.
The Interior Department noted in a statement that the corridor contains portions of the proposed route for a 211-mile road to the Ambler mining district and fully developing the Alaska Liquefied Natural Gas project.
Ten environmenta…

Trump Admin Uses Iran War Oil Shock to Push Drilling in Alaskan Wilderness
The five-year plan is expected to cause 4,000 additional oil spills and the destruction of fragile ecosystems.

And why is the monastery in the mountain? Because the plot required a murder victim to be found head down in a vat of pig's blood, and pigs were customarily slaughtered in cold temperatures, which in Italy in November would be most plausible at high altitude. And why did a victim have to be dunked in pig's blood? Because the different methods employed by the murderer must seem to correspond to the prophecies of the seven angels of the Apocalypse, or Book of Revelation, announcing the…

How collectible picture insets in Turkish chewing gum became a currency among children in post-soviet Kazakhstan 🇰🇿:
„A stick of gum could be carefully stretched across an entire day, but a rare insert could retain value for months or even years. “Turbo”, “Final 90”, “Tipi Tip” and many others were no longer just candy wrappers. They became the building blocks of a childhood economy centered around cars, football players, cartoon characters, romantic comic strips.“

When Turkish gum became Kazakh children's currency
When Turkish gum became Kazakh children's currency

Patriots agree to trade for Eagles WR A.J. Brown in blockbuster deal https://www.nfl.com/news/aj-brown-patriots-eagles-trade

I'm slowly running my script to update the price list for the books in the #InternetArchive acquisition wishlist, which I last updated (for USA addresses) in 2019.
https://archive.org/details/open_libra…

Open Libraries wish list with USA booksellers information
From the wish list, 2019 version, 1 million ISBNs were searched among USA booksellers (via AbeBooks) to find additional information about availability and approximate prices. This is the result.

Black voters in South Carolina and other southern states are turning out
in defiance of what many see as Donald Trump’s efforts to suppress their political power,
fueling Democratic hopes of clinching upset wins in the region in this fall’s midterm elections.

A surge in Black voter engagement is energizing close Senate races in North Carolina and Georgia,
where Democrats go into the summer with leads in many polls.
Some Democrats see a chance of long-shot vict…

Why resisting Trump has galvanized Black Democrats as the midterms approach
High primary turnout among Black voters in the South has given some in the party hope for upset wins in the region.

A Scoping Review of Physics Informed Machine Learning for Wave Propagation Modeling in Seismology
\'Oscar Rinc\'on-Carde\~no, Gregorio P\'erez-Bernal, Silvana Montoya-Noguera, Nicol\'as Guar\'in-Zapata
https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.00178 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.00178 https://arxiv.org/html/2607.00178
arXiv:2607.00178v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: \emph{Background:} Standard numerical methods accurately simulate seismic waves but are computationally expensive, particularly for inverse problems. Machine learning approaches have been proposed as alternatives that can reduce computational cost while maintaining acceptable physical accuracy. \emph{Objective:} To map how physics-informed machine learning methods have been applied to seismic wave propagation modeling based on partial differential equations. \emph{Methods:} A scoping review was conducted using the OpenAlex and Scopus databases. Selected studies were classified by problem type (forward or inverse) and machine learning strategy to identify research trends, methodological patterns, and gaps in the literature. \emph{Results:} Physics-informed machine learning has been applied to both forward modeling and inversion in seismology, often reaching accuracy comparable to standard numerical methods at lower computational cost. Application of three mechanisms for incorporating physical knowledge were identified: observational bias, inductive bias, and learning bias. To evaluate methodological reproducibility of a representative method, the original PINN framework was replicated in PyTorch, obtaining results consistent with and in most cases more accurate than those originally reported. From the reviewed literature, limitations remain in benchmarking consistency, training cost, and scalability to three-dimensional and experimentally validated problems. \emph{Conclusions:} Standard numerical methods remain the basis of seismological workflows, while physics-informed machine learning offers complementary approaches that are useful for inverse problems and surrogate modeling. Future work should focus on consistent benchmarking, hybrid formulations, and validation under realistic geophysical conditions.
toXiv_bot_toot

Trump intensified his efforts to pass his signature elections bill on Monday
after the Supreme Court handed the president a loss in his push to add restrictions to mail voting.
The decision
— where the Supreme Court ruled that states may choose to count ballots that arrive after Election Day,
so long as they are either postmarked before then or otherwise deemed cast on time
— sparked a flurry of activity Monday among the president and his allies.
“In light…

There is little doubt that Putin is entering the most challenging period of his long rule.
Interviews with several people in the orbit of the Russian leader, as well as sources in the Russian business world and western intelligence officials, paint a picture of
an isolated leader surrounded by an elite that is becoming rapidly disillusioned,
both with the faltering war in Ukraine and the economic downturn at home.
“There’s definitely been a shift in mood among the el…

GOP Rep Tom Kean Jr.’s whereabouts and condition have been a mystery in his New Jersey congressional district.
Now they are becoming a source of growing alarm for his party in Washington,
where Republicans fear his prolonged absence could cost them his swing seat
— and possibly their House majority.

Kean has not voted in the House since March 5.
His district, one of the most affluent in the nation, is also one of the country’s most competitive,
a seat Re…

He hasn’t been seen in Congress for months. Now Republicans are worried.
Rep. Tom Kean Jr.’s New Jersey district is among the country’s most competitive, and his absence from the House since March has sparked increasing alarm in his party.