Tootfinder

The family of US billionaire
James ‘Fergie’ Cox Chambers Jr.,
who was arrested in Ibiza at the request of the United States,
claimed on Monday that his extradition is the result of
“political persecution” by the Trump administration
due to the philanthropist’s support for the Palestinian cause.
The family has therefore called for action to be taken against his handover to the US authorities.

In a statement sent to EFE, the family reported that Chambe…

United States billionaire family denounces “political persecution” by the Trump administration after son’s arrest in Ibiza
Chambers’ partner, Stella Schnabel, states in the press release that the businessman is being imprisoned “because he uses his wealth to support Palestine and those suffering genocide in Gaza” and believes he is facing political persecution for his humanitarian work.

“Communities across Sussex, Surrey and Kent helped fund this legal action because they have grave and legitimate concerns about the proposed expansion.
“This government must stop viewing aviation expansion through rose-tinted glasses and relying on unsubstantiated claims of economic benefit while ignoring the vast local and global environmental costs.”
Campaigners lose High Court challenges over Gatwick Airport expansion | Morning Star

Emergent gravitational action from non-local $T\bar T$-like deformations
Yun-Ze Li, Bo-Rui Li, Yu-Xiao Liu, Song He
https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.05913 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.05913 https://arxiv.org/html/2608.05913
arXiv:2608.05913v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: We study the gravitational effective action induced, at first order in the deformation parameter, by non-local $T\bar T$-like deformations of quantum field theories. Using a heat-kernel formulation, we extract the local geometric terms generated by stress-tensor two-point functions, and apply the construction to free fermions, massive Maxwell theory, and second-order Yang-Mills theory. While the resulting coefficients are generally model dependent, conformal field theories contain a universal sector fixed by the central charge $C_T$. After regularization and renormalization, this sector yields finite, scheme-independent contributions organized into a finite set of curvature invariants. We further analyze trace-trace deformations, for which the relevant contact terms are determined by the Weyl anomaly, and derive the corresponding finite gravitational action for a general class of minimal non-local kernels. These results provide a quantum effective-action realization of induced gravity in which universal conformal data determine calculable contributions to the emergent geometric response.
toXiv_bot_toot

SpaceX wins a property tax exemption for its planned $55B Terafab chip facility in Texas, despite Texans threatening legal action, amid local opposition to AI (Stephanie Findlay/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/86b2440a-60ce-4a5b-94ba-a6a4456ae574

Trump has ousted members of a bipartisan federal election commission that resisted his efforts to require would-be voters to document their U.S. citizenship before registering.
The White House on Friday confirmed the executive action against members of the Election Assistance Commission,
which distributes federal grants to states, oversees the testing of voting systems and maintains the national voter registration form.
It’s the latest instance of the Republican president t…

Trump fires election commission members ahead of November midterms
President Donald Trump has ousted members of a bipartisan federal election commission charged with assisting state and local elections officials. The White House confirmed Friday that Trump is taking executive action to change the makeup of the Election Assistance Commission. That agency distributes federal grants to states, tests voting systems and maintains the national voter registration forms. It is the latest move in Trump's effort to expand White House influence over how U.S. elections ar…

Standards Not Force
may be useful for residents who want to become more involved in local government, public oversight, peaceful protest, corporate accountability, or community organizing.
It may also support journalists, researchers, democracy advocates, neighborhood groups, students, nonprofit organizations, and volunteers seeking a structured approach to lawful civic engagement.
The organization presents an advocacy framework rather than a neutral government or academic…

Standards Not Force - Resistance Directory
Standards Not Force promotes lawful nonviolent civic action, public accountability, community safety, transparency, and grassroots organizing.

Scalar Hair at the String-Black-Hole Correspondence
Eliseo Pavone
https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.06016 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.06016 https://arxiv.org/html/2608.06016
arXiv:2608.06016v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: We study static, spherically symmetric axion--dilaton solutions of the tree-level four-dimensional string effective action. Using the sigma-model structure of the scalar sector, we show that the full family of static, spherically symmetric and asymptotically flat solutions is obtained as the $SL(2,\mathbb R)$ orbit of the pure-dilaton FJNW solution, and we characterize the associated axion--dilaton charge space. We then analyze the perturbative regime of these solutions by comparing the onset of $\alpha'$ curvature corrections with that of string-loop corrections. Finally, we apply the string--black-hole correspondence criterion to the FJNW family by evaluating the local $\alpha'$ curvature diagnostic at the physical size $R_{\rm typ}$ of a highly excited string state. With the normalization fixed on the Schwarzschild branch, Schwarzschild saturates the nominal $\alpha'$ threshold at the correspondence surface, whereas every scalar-haired FJNW branch lies above it. More generally, independently of the common overall normalization within the matching prescription, every nonzero-hair branch has a larger curvature diagnostic at the correspondence surface than Schwarzschild. Away from the correspondence point, scalar-haired exteriors may remain under $\alpha'$ control at sufficiently weak local self-gravity and may provide perturbatively controlled long-distance fields of highly excited string states whenever the local string coupling also remains weak.
toXiv_bot_toot

Emergent gravitational action from non-local $T\bar T$-like deformations
Yun-Ze Li, Bo-Rui Li, Yu-Xiao Liu, Song He
https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.05913 https://

I've read Douglas Preston's "The Blasphemy" and it was pretty good.
The synopsis is that the US government has built the largest particle accelerator ever, in the remote area of Arizona, and a small team of scientists are about to get it running. However, as it is about to reach full power, they suddenly start losing output and a mysterious "greetings" appears on the main screen. Suspecting prank malware, they decide not to report it upstairs but to resolve it themselves. However, with no progress and suspiciously piling up problems, an ex-CIA operative is sent to investigate, under the cover of liaison tasked with improving the relations with the local Navajo people. On top of that, a lobbyist wanting to see their contract renewed engages with a televangelist to put some pressure on the project.
The book sets a mystery quite really, and keeps you caught in it to the very end. It's also packed with action. You get annoyed by politics, corruption and fundamentalism. You get mystified by the philosophical and theological problems. At some point, you just keep reading to see how the events unfold.
Apparently it's a part of Wyman Ford series, but the story is self-contained.
#books #bookstodon #thriller #SciFi