WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.720 Good morning, I'm Mika Finch, it's Wednesday, September 23, and this is your lol what .net 2 00:00:06.720 --> 00:00:08.280 morning briefing. 3 00:00:08.280 --> 00:00:13.160 A hurricane can stay offshore and still reach the shore in other ways. 4 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:18.360 Polo is a Category 5 storm off southwestern Mexico, according to the US National Hurricane 5 00:00:18.360 --> 00:00:19.620 Center. 6 00:00:19.620 --> 00:00:25.920 In its early Wednesday advisory, the Center put sustained winds near 165 miles an hour, 7 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:30.200 and the eye, about 200 miles south of Zihuatanejo. 8 00:00:30.200 --> 00:00:32.440 Polo was nearly stationary. 9 00:00:32.440 --> 00:00:37.320 Forecasters expect a northwest turn, with its core near the coast for a day or two, 10 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:39.080 though still offshore. 11 00:00:39.080 --> 00:00:41.440 The position of the eye is only part of the story. 12 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:47.240 A tropical storm warning covers a stretch of coast from Tecpan de Galeana to Punta San 13 00:00:47.240 --> 00:00:48.240 Telmo. 14 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:50.680 A watch extends farther west. 15 00:00:50.680 --> 00:00:56.540 The hurricane center expects 3 to 6 inches of rain along coastal Guerrero and Michoacan 16 00:00:56.540 --> 00:01:00.800 through Thursday, with isolated totals as high as 8 inches. 17 00:01:00.800 --> 00:01:04.040 Steep terrain makes flooding and mudslides a concern. 18 00:01:04.040 --> 00:01:08.680 Dangerous surf and rip currents can also arrive well away from the center. 19 00:01:08.680 --> 00:01:16.520 Mexico's sustained winds were listed at 180 mph Tuesday afternoon and 165 overnight. 20 00:01:16.520 --> 00:01:21.320 Storm strength can fluctuate, so that change does not erase the coastal forecast. 21 00:01:21.320 --> 00:01:26.040 The useful distinction is between where the eye goes and where the effects go. 22 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:30.360 Residents should follow Mexico's weather service for local instructions. 23 00:01:30.360 --> 00:01:34.120 Follow our live desk at lolwhat.net for verified updates. 24 00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:40.520 In Indonesia, weeks of fires have left parts of Sumatra, Borneo and Papua under haze, with 25 00:01:40.520 --> 00:01:43.680 smoke also affecting neighboring countries. 26 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:51.840 A health ministry official said Tuesday that seven affected provinces recorded 174,694 27 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:57.160 acute respiratory infection cases from August through September 21. 28 00:01:57.160 --> 00:02:00.160 More than 40,000 involved toddlers. 29 00:02:00.160 --> 00:02:05.440 The figure is a count from fire-affected areas, not proof that smoke caused every individual 30 00:02:05.440 --> 00:02:06.440 infection. 31 00:02:06.440 --> 00:02:10.920 Still, it shows the scale of illness the health system is dealing with, while air quality 32 00:02:10.920 --> 00:02:12.280 is poor. 33 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:17.760 The reported cumulative total was above 113 thousand as of September 9. 34 00:02:17.760 --> 00:02:21.920 Comparing those totals tells us cases have continued to accumulate, though it does not 35 00:02:21.920 --> 00:02:25.520 by itself measure today's rate of new illness. 36 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:29.960 Officials say they have sent oxygen equipment and masks to affected regions. 37 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:34.160 Oxygen particles in smoke are a health concern, particularly for people already struggling 38 00:02:34.160 --> 00:02:35.640 to breathe. 39 00:02:35.640 --> 00:02:39.480 The broader picture is both an air quality problem and a public health workload. 40 00:02:39.720 --> 00:02:43.080 There is a very different weather story in Western Australia. 41 00:02:44.040 --> 00:02:48.040 Winter rain has turned parts of the Murchison region into a wildflower display. 42 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:52.920 NASA Earth Observatory has published a comparison from the Landsat 8 satellite. 43 00:02:53.480 --> 00:02:58.520 A mostly rusty landscape in August last year, and a much greener one in late August this year. 44 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:03.480 Ground photographs show the flowers that satellite greenness alone cannot identify. 45 00:03:04.440 --> 00:03:08.840 NASA says rain was above average in June and especially abundant in August, 46 00:03:08.920 --> 00:03:11.240 waking seeds that had waited in dry soil. 47 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:16.520 Those flowers opened over the winter, after the rain, rather than appearing overnight. 48 00:03:17.160 --> 00:03:21.160 Some threatened plants appeared on land, used by a radio astronomy observatory, 49 00:03:21.720 --> 00:03:24.680 where scientists also monitor the landscape around their telescopes. 50 00:03:25.720 --> 00:03:30.600 The useful connection is simple. A shift in rainfall can reveal a seed bank hidden in 51 00:03:30.600 --> 00:03:35.000 plain sight. And comparing the same place in two different years helps show how much 52 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:38.760 the living landscape can change without moving an inch. 53 00:03:38.760 --> 00:03:42.848 The European Union and the Philippines say they have reached substantial agreement on 54 00:03:42.848 --> 00:03:48.868 a free trade deal. That is a negotiation milestone, not a finished agreement already in force. 55 00:03:48.868 --> 00:03:53.488 The European Commission says the proposed terms would liberalize more than 94% of tariff 56 00:03:53.488 --> 00:03:58.968 lines, covering more than 97% of trade between them. They would also set rules for access 57 00:03:58.968 --> 00:04:03.768 to Philippine government procurement, digital trade, and product standards. 58 00:04:03.768 --> 00:04:08.128 The remaining technical details and implementations still have to be worked out. Here's a small 59 00:04:08.128 --> 00:04:14.768 numbers trap. The Commission reports 17.6 billion euros in goods trade for 2025, and 60 00:04:14.768 --> 00:04:20.888 10.3 billion in services for 2024. Those figures describe different years, so adding them would 61 00:04:20.888 --> 00:04:25.728 not give a single-year trade total. The practical question for businesses is what the final 62 00:04:25.728 --> 00:04:29.248 terms actually say, and when they take effect. 63 00:04:29.248 --> 00:04:33.648 For now, both sides have outlined the direction of a deal, rather than change the rules at 64 00:04:33.648 --> 00:04:34.448 the border. 65 00:04:34.448 --> 00:04:38.904 Taiwan has a striking new reading on demand for its technology supply chain. 66 00:04:39.864 --> 00:04:46.264 The economy ministry says, export orders reached about 103 billion U.S. dollars in August, 67 00:04:46.264 --> 00:04:52.824 up 71.4 percent from a year earlier. Taiwan's central news agency reports, 68 00:04:52.824 --> 00:04:56.424 that is a record, and the 19th straight month of annual growth. 69 00:04:57.544 --> 00:05:02.104 The agency says electronics and information communications equipment, together accounted 70 00:05:02.104 --> 00:05:07.544 for roughly 78 percent of the month's orders, with demand for AI servers and related chips 71 00:05:07.544 --> 00:05:13.464 a major driver, according to a ministry official. Orders are an early signal of what customers want 72 00:05:13.464 --> 00:05:19.384 suppliers to make, they are not the same as goods already shipped. The ministry adds a second 73 00:05:19.384 --> 00:05:24.664 caution. Some products ordered from Taiwanese firms are made overseas, so these orders do 74 00:05:24.664 --> 00:05:30.024 not all become exports from Taiwan. The number is a strong measure of demand across Taiwanese 75 00:05:30.024 --> 00:05:34.664 suppliers, with a narrower meaning than the word exports might suggest. 76 00:05:34.664 --> 00:05:38.392 Now to a tiny organism living near an astonishing heat limit. 77 00:05:38.392 --> 00:05:42.392 NASA-supported researchers found an amoeba in heated waters 78 00:05:42.392 --> 00:05:45.392 at California's Lassen Volcanic National Park 79 00:05:45.392 --> 00:05:50.392 that can reproduce at 63 degrees Celsius, or 145 Fahrenheit. 80 00:05:50.392 --> 00:05:54.392 NASA says that tops the previous known upper limit 81 00:05:54.392 --> 00:05:57.392 for reproduction among organisms with complex cells, 82 00:05:57.392 --> 00:05:59.392 such as those with a nucleus. 83 00:05:59.392 --> 00:06:03.392 At 64 degrees, the amoeba can still move, but reproduction stops. 84 00:06:03.392 --> 00:06:07.392 In lab tests, it recovered after 5 minutes at 70 Celsius. 85 00:06:07.392 --> 00:06:10.392 Exposure to 80 Celsius was too much. 86 00:06:10.392 --> 00:06:13.392 Those are different tests of life at the edge. 87 00:06:13.392 --> 00:06:16.392 Moving, recovering, and multiplying are not interchangeable. 88 00:06:16.392 --> 00:06:20.392 The team examined its genome and found signs of systems 89 00:06:20.392 --> 00:06:23.392 that protect DNA and help keep proteins working in heat. 90 00:06:23.392 --> 00:06:26.392 This widens one measured boundary for complex cells. 91 00:06:26.392 --> 00:06:30.392 It does not show that such organisms could live on another world. 92 00:06:30.392 --> 00:06:35.392 They would also need suitable water, food, chemistry, and other living things. 93 00:06:35.392 --> 00:06:41.848 And, in Australia, a stick insect's camouflage may have worked on scientists as well as predators. 94 00:06:41.848 --> 00:06:46.928 University of Sydney researchers took a fresh look at a group called Ankyale, using DNA, 95 00:06:46.928 --> 00:06:52.768 museum specimens, field surveys, captive populations, and citizen science records. 96 00:06:52.768 --> 00:06:58.248 What had been treated as two Australian species is now five—two newly described species, 97 00:06:58.248 --> 00:07:00.648 plus one restored as distinct. 98 00:07:00.648 --> 00:07:04.968 One of the new species, from Queensland's threatened Mawby rainforest, lays eggs with 99 00:07:04.968 --> 00:07:07.448 an unusual structural lid. 100 00:07:07.448 --> 00:07:10.628 Another had been familiar for decades but misidentified. 101 00:07:10.628 --> 00:07:13.368 The payoff is more than a tidier family tree. 102 00:07:13.368 --> 00:07:18.208 The researchers say an insect linked to outbreaks that strip foliage from trees actually includes 103 00:07:18.208 --> 00:07:20.048 more than one species. 104 00:07:20.048 --> 00:07:24.928 Knowing which is which could help future forestry and farm management target the right insect. 105 00:07:24.928 --> 00:07:30.408 It also reminds us that a thousand observations do not necessarily settle a species' identity, 106 00:07:30.408 --> 00:07:33.568 sometimes the clue is in an egg, or in a museum drawer. 107 00:07:33.648 --> 00:07:37.008 I'm Micah Finch. Thanks for listening.