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and it got worse & worse & … [verbatim]

Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 23, 2025 by xi'an


“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now (…) From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, which killed a husband and father, to the attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a health-care executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others, radical-left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.” – DT, 10 Sept 2024

“I really think that there’s got to be a change of government in Britain. You can’t – we don’t have another four years, or whenever the next election is, it’s too long.” – Elon Musk, 12 Sept 2025

“There is no separation of church and state. It’s a fabrication, it’s a fiction, it’s not in the Constitution. It’s made up by secular humanists.” – The Charlie Kirk Show, 6 July 2022

“If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified.” – The Charlie Kirk Show, 23 Jan 2024

“If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman, I wonder is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because of affirmative action?” – The Charlie Kirk Show, 3 Jan 2024

“We need to have a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor. We need it immediately.” – The Charlie Kirk Show, 1 April 2024

“The great replacement strategy, which is well under way every single day in our southern border, is a strategy to replace white rural America with something different.” – The Charlie Kirk Show, 1 March 2024

“[The UK is] a totalitarian third world hellhole. It’s tragic. I don’t say that with glib, I don’t say that with delight. It is sad. It’s chilling and it’s depressing.” – The Charlie Kirk Show, 22 May 2025

“The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. The radicals on the left are the problem and they’re vicious and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy. They want men in women’s sports, they want transgender people, they want open borders. The worst thing that happened to this country.” – DT, 12 Sept 2025

“There’s so much violence on the left, with our friend Charlie Kirk getting murdered in cold blood this week and people on the left celebrating it openly. The left is the party of murder and celebrating murder.” – Elon Musk, 12 Sept 2025

“I really think that there’s got to be a change of government in Britain. You can’t – we don’t have another four years, or whenever the next election is, it’s too long.” – Elon Musk, 12 Sept 2025

“If some amazing patriot out there in San Francisco or the Bay Area wants to really be a midterm hero, someone should go and bail [Paul Pelosi’s attacker] out.” – Charlie Kirk, 31 October 2022

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Nature tidbits [10 July 2025]

Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2025 by xi'an

With a beautiful cover and a wealth of papers following China’s mission on the hidden side of the Moon, this issue offers

  • another “feel-good” editorial on the need for a highly ambitious UN treaty on plastics, or rather against plastic, at the August meeting in Geneva this month. Given the opposition of major producers like the USA (now more than ever!) and China, as well as all oil producers, the terrible impact of plastics  on life as a whole (also documented in this issue) is again likely to be ignored in favour of short-term commercial goals. (As illustrated by a feature article on metal-organic frameworks that capture CO² but are posing clear biosafety and environmental challenges, not mention in the article.)
  • a second editorial on the rise of metascience, a term I had not X’ed previously, which appears to be the science of scientific practice and impact. Given the limited impact scientists have on governments and societies, now more than ever!,  it is hard to forecast that metascientists will do better…
  • a rather tone-deaf tribune by the president of the Weizmann Institute on how they are reconstructing the institute after the Iranian attacks of 15 June (following the Israeli attacks of 13 June that hit several universities and assassinated several nuclear scientists). With empty words for “scientists in Gaza” when the very same Israeli government that funds Weizmann has flattened all academic and medical institutions in Gaza. (The asymmetry was later pointed out by a letter to the Nature editor from an Iranian scientist.) Followed a few pages later by the covarege an independent survey on a likely 80,000 death toll in Gaza.
  • A news article on the US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine failing to take a stand against Trump 2.0, and too readily engaging into collaboration and censorship. And another one on the growing number of foreign scientists arrested at the border for carrying biological material. While I have (in the long past!) carried a raw milk Camembert in my bag and into the US, mea culpa (Io), I am less sympathetic to these cases since some of the material was hazardous, beyond being undeclared. What has changed in the recent is Homeland Security jumping on these cases to increase their deportation figures…
  • A long comment by Cantabrigians on the ambivalent role of AIs in writing and reviewing papers, with a proposed fix through the Conservative Evidence database, in Cambridge, England. A lot of coulds, woulds, and shoulds, imposing an international involvement, open access, and reliable procedures separating chaff from grain…

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and it only gets worse & worse & …

Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 13, 2025 by xi'an

“

“We’re going to get some back. We’re going to get some switched. There will be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both [Ukraine and Russia]. You’re looking at territory that’s been fought over for three and a half years, a lot of Russians have died. A lot of Ukrainians have died” – DT, 08 Aug

“I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements [by Dmitry Medvedev] are more than just that.  Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances.” – DT, 01 Aug

“[The 23 July Energy Department report] critically assesses many areas of ongoing scientific inquiry that are frequently assigned high levels of confidence — not by the scientists themselves but by the political bodies involved, such as the United Nations or previous presidential administrations. Unlike previous administrations, the Trump administration is committed to engaging in a more thoughtful and science-based conversation about climate change and energy.” – Ben Dietderich, DoE, 31 July

“Climate change is real, and it deserves attention. But it is not the greatest threat facing humanity. As someone who values data, I know that improving the human condition depends on expanding access to reliable, affordable energy. If we empower innovation rather than restrain it, America can lead the world in providing more abundant energy” Chris Wright, Secretary of Energy, 29 July

“Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them.” – DT, 31 July

“The Trump Administration dismantled American aid organisations in a politically-driven witch hunt for ‘waste, fraud, and abuse.’ Now, they are letting millions of dollars of lifesaving humanitarian aid go to waste. President Trump is preparing to let over $12 million worth of HIV-prevention supplies and contraceptives, which have already been purchased for use in developing countries, be destroyed, rather than let other countries or groups take control of and distribute the products. HIV is one of the deadliest diseases in the world. People will die because of this decision. Their lives are at risk because of President Trump.” – Senator Rosa DeLauro, 18 July

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Nature tidbits [19 June 2025]

Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 9, 2025 by xi'an

Editorials on China becoming the World scientific superpower, along with a call for continued collaboration under security risk assessment, the news that all incoming Nature publications will come accompanied by the full editorial process (reviews and authors’ responses), which sounds most sensible to me, another call for novel research indicators to be used eg in the REF but… being co-funded by Elsevier is not especially promising!—along with a Nature investigation on paper mills—, and another personal take calling for new FAA models on air controller loads, which are too light according to the author!, who thinks controllers can handle several flights concurrently.

News on the incoming Vera Rubin Observatory telescope in Chile—if not close to the Atacama peaks I climbed during ISBA 2004—and its unique technology (with a camera the size of a car!). As well as a highlight on African space agencies (where I discovered that Egypt is the most active). Plus, a rather vague report on ether0 as a “stepping stone towards a reasoning model“,  once again playing with words and double meaning on what’s reason(ing). Further entries (alas!) onH ow Trump 2.0 is reshaping science with the impact of barring entry to 19 countries’ nationals and China multiplying calls to attract researchers from abroad and keep students in the country. Including unusually large salaries and benefits. (Pangolins and axolotls make an appearance in both this issue and the next, how unlikely is this?! With the conflicting items of information that the former are primarily hunted for their scales or for their taste.)

The most frightening section of the 19 June issue is however on the threat of a collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which would bring a new Ice Age to Western Europe and dramatic changes in the weather worldwide. Along with several research articles on climate change and its impacts.

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Nature tidbits [26 June 2025]

Posted in Books, Kids, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 1, 2025 by xi'an

Editorials on how fast advances in computer vision and face recognition are lacking in ethical standards (with plenty of shoulds and musts, but no proposal to enforce those),  a call for stronger condemnations of Trumpian attacks on science and academics by international scientific institutions, taking as a leading example a statement of concern by the Pontifical Academy of Science (or Pontificia Academia Scientiarum in plain latin) in Vatican, which, considering the history of the relations between Church and Science, is not an obvious choice!, another (mostly) Trumpian-induced plea for the return of foreign aid to low and middle income countries from the high income donors, rather than focussing on defence budgets (again with no practical strategy to achieve this goal)—with different headings in printed and online versions.

Half-a-dozen entries on How Trump 2.0 is reshaping science, from the federal judicial ruling that NIH grants are illegal since discriminatory (with no immediate impact), to the new vaccine panel members set by RF Kennedy with a dearth of experts and the arrival of vaccine sceptics (or worse), to a Nature supplement entitle Science Inc., looking at private funding to compensate for federal disengagement (with France’s Sanofi and Capgemini deserving a mention, for once), to an original Nature—and KFF, a non-profit health-policy research organization from San Francisco— investigation on how to make the US healthy again. If at all feasible.

As expected, the gap with other wealthy (and more healthy) nations is stupendous for many criteria. Caused by much higher death rates associated with COVID-19, substance misuse, chronic diseases, transport accidents (poor public facilities), and gun deaths (of course, even though this latter cause was recently removed from the HSS website). With a significant difference between States and ethnicities. The fixes requiring more federal intervention and money, as well as opposing the gun lobby, it is very very unlikely this is going to happen, witness the recent cut on Medicaid.

“one 5-year-old out of every 20 will die before the age of 45 The comparable figure is one in 50 in the United Kingdom and one in 100 in Switzerland.”

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