Back in the 1960s, college antiwar protests included protests against ROTC and other military training programs. Now I see where “Whisky Pete” Hegseth also wants to shut down graduate military education on university campuses. “Beginning next fall, the Defense Department will discontinue graduate-level professional military education, fellowships, and certificate programs at Harvard, according to the […]
Jeff Bezos is richer than God. He owns the Washington Post, formerly an icon of objective journalism. “Jeff Bezos could float almost limitless news organization losses forever and barely notice. What we’re seeing is something that should be familiar to any close of observer of the news over the last generation. Let’s call it the […]
I see where Mussolini wannabe Steve Bannon has been asserting that ICE should swarm election polling places, ostensibly to prevent non-citizens from voting. “During Tuesday’s episode of his War Room podcast, Bannon outlined his vision, which, as I alluded to above, should not necessarily be taken as literal White House policy. But it mirrors concerns […]
Trump quietly chickened out on his effort to extort $200 million from Harvard University. “Harvard has been the top target in Trump’s sweeping campaign to exert more control over higher education. Hard-liners in his administration had wanted Harvard to write a check to the U.S. Treasury as part of a deal to address claims that […]
Mark Twain famously observed: ”A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” Today is the 16th anniversary of the retraction of Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent report claiming a link between vaccination and autism. Sadly, RFK Jr and his fellow anti-vaxxers got the lie but not the truth. […]
I grew up in Oak Ridge Tennessee in the ‘60s. At the time, it was a town with one of the highest concentrations of scientists and engineers in the nation. Both of my parents were college grads. So, I took it for granted that most Americans graduated from college. I didn’t know until I was […]
Apart from their utility in criminal finances, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (other than stablecoin) are manifestations of The Greater Fool Theory of Investing. So how is the Bitcoin investment performing for ya? “The world’s largest cryptocurrency slipped below $76,000 in thin weekend trading, dropping about 40% from its 2025 peak and revisiting levels last seen […]
I spent my entire research career working on animals. In this case, the animals were Drosophila melanogaster, or “fruit flies.” I dissected tens of thousands of larval salivary glands because their giant polytene chromosomes afforded a relatively high resolution map of the genome. I made over 100 transgenic lines to gain insight into gene function. […]
Musk’s Tesla brand is becoming toxic. The unsold cyber trucks are accumulating in large lots. Sales of Tesla sedans have slumped, partly because Musk himself is a toxic brand and partly because of competition. Looks like Musk is crying “uncle.” “Elon Musk, who turned an upstart electric vehicle maker into an industry-changing powerhouse, is pulling […]
I’m opposed to allowing private citizens to carry guns in public unless they are hunting on public land. The 2nd amendment explicitly links “bearing arms” (nobody “bears arms” into a 7-11) to membership in a well regulated militia, Antonin Scalia notwithstanding. If you believe you need a gun to protect yourself in your own home, […]