Marcel Swart

If you want to visit Southern France AND learn about catalysis, check this Summuer School in June!
schoolcat2026.sciencesconf.org

My heart breaks for the three service members who have lost their lives, and I am praying for those who were wounded.

America’s sons and daughters are being put in harm’s way because of Donald Trump’s illegal war.

Congress must act to rein in Donald Trump before more lives are lost.

(1) Well, it’s been almost 3 years since I left my tenured position at Newcastle Uni for life in sustainable tech start ups and I have a few plusses and minuses for both academia and industry (obv n=1!)

Anyone wanna hear whether I regret leaving academia after 20 years?

Older people can get jobs in a tech startup. I was 48 when I got my job in my first start up and 51 when I got my job in my 2nd . Academics have a huge amount of transferable skills , it’s all about how you present them in both your CVs and at interview

This all began with a concerned mutual reaching out to me, stating that they saw a notification that pointed at me using the Meta AI app and asking if my stance on generative AI had changed. That’s when I learnt that Meta has been quietly using random people’s accounts to promote their app. The catch is… these people never actually downloaded the app. Including myself. I just wanted to make this post to warn people. If you see a notification like that - know that it’s a lie, I never downloaded any AI app and never will. I’m an artist who values hard work and human effort, and generative AI repulses me to an unimaginable degree.

If you follow me on Instagram and you receive a notification about me joining or downloading Meta AI well, IT'S A FUCKING LIE. Meta is blatantly lying to us in order to make us download that fucking sludge-generator. I would never touch GenAI with a 10 foot pole.

OP www.instagram.com/p/DVN3Ac2DG9p/

Antonio Guterres is up first at this Security Council meeting. He condemns this morning’s strikes by Israel and the US on Iran, and the return strikes by Iran on countries in the region. There is, he says, no alternative to the peaceful settlement of disputes

Trump’s Reckless Decision to Pursue Regime Change in Iran And the risks Democrats face if they fail to strongly oppose his war.

"There are multiple arguments that Democrats need to be making, including the fact that he’s acting illegally, and the fact that he’s acting strategically stupidly. So make all of those arguments. Don’t just ask for a briefing," says @mattduss.bsky.social. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

A social media post from Donald J. Trump on Truth Social, posted 9 minutes ago. The text reads: "Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump, and now faces renewed war with United States:" followed by a link to justthenews.com. Below is a link preview showing the article headline "Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump, and now faces possible war with U.S." accompanied by a photo from what appears to be an Iranian protest or rally, showing demonstrators holding anti-Trump signs and posters with Persian text.

I am going to need every single person who said that misinformation was a moral panic to feel enough shame and regret that they leave public intellectual life.

Homepage Anthropic Copyright Settlement

They can check if their books were used here:

Flashback to January 2024

do i need to have done all of that to believe that bombing an elementary school and murdering 85 school girls is not acceptable?
How many children must die for you to stop supporting the US' illegal strikes?

The Senate must immediately return to Washington and use our Constitutional powers to pass a War Powers Resolution to stop this.

This war will not make us safer, nor will it help Americans afford groceries or health care or rent.

In case you’re just waking up, the U.S. has teamed up with Israel overnight to start an illegal war of regime change, apparently on a presidential whim with no involvement of Congress, and they are already committing horrific atrocities.

THIS.

Wrong. Under controlling case law and the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the executive branch does not have the ability to withhold congressionally appropriated funds except under very limited circumstances that don’t exist here.

Indeed. New grants are not getting funded, already funded grants are not getting paid, and non-competitive renewals are being held up.

Focusing on the top line budget, instead of looking at what is really happening on “the ground” is deeply misguided.

Terrible headline (this is NOT what the new research - link below - shows!), terrible AI image! Argh!
Here’s the actual research:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Where do I start?! 1/4

And the picture!!! If you ever needed a great example of how AI lazily reproduces sexual stereotypes (and other stereotypes) then this is IT!!! FFS

What Adults Get Wrong About Girls and Autism For decades, autism was believed to overwhelmingly affect boys. Yet a big new study out of Sweden provides perhaps the best evidence yet that girls aren’t less likely to be autistic — they’re just les...

A new study has provided perhaps the most solid evidence yet that autism isn't 3-4x more common in boys--rather, girls are being missed until adolescence or even adulthood. For my latest @opinion.bloomberg.com, wrote about some of the reasons girls are overlooked & how to close that gap:

The Python3 based alternative for Makefile
www.marcelswart.eu/msxc/PyMake....

Embedding unreliable AI deep into the source code of the military without human oversight is the single stupidest thing we could do as a species.

And that is *exactly* what the United States is about to do.

DOJ’s Epstein Files Screwups Get Worse With Unredacted Nudes — The Daily Beast Close to 100 explicit photographs were reportedly found before they were removed and re-uploaded with redactions.

Nearly 100 explicit images involving minors were reportedly released unredacted in the DOJ’s Epstein files dump, despite the Epstein Files Transparency Act requiring victim protections. Abusers names were redacted and all of this seems intentional.

#USDemocracy
#Pinks

apple.news/AWg179DVsQpy...

The Trump regime is withholding $259 million in Medicaid funding from Minnesota over loose allegations of "fraud."

Meanwhile, Trump has pardoned multiple convicted fraudsters, including several who gave money to his campaign and Super PAC.

The "law and order" president.

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Breaking on MS NOW:

@alivitali.bsky.social reports the Hillary Clinton deposition has resumed, but that Clinton is asking press be allowed into the room for the rest of the deposition.

Comer said NO — despite Lauren Boebert taking photos of Clinton and giving them to a far-right activist.

JOIN THE FIGHT!!!

standupforscience.net/march7

#March7
#March7DC
#rally
#science

Morning walk with our visitor

We are looking for two talented people to join us at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick as assistant professors. Permanent positions. 🧪🍎🥽
warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/appcentre...

SCOOP: A White House staffer appears to be operating the anonymous pro-Trump X account JohnnyMAGA with nearly 300,000 followers.

More here:
www.wired.com/story/a-whit...