David A. Keldsen a.k.a. Dak 🇨🇦

The Open Notebook's 15th Anniversary - The Open Notebook For 15 years, The Open Notebook has been the trusted home for journalists worldwide who cover science. What started as an experiment to demystify the craft of science writing has grown into a vital, g...

During the past 15 years, The Open Notebooks has:
✍️Published more than 600 articles—over 1.5 million words!—on the craft of science writing
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Part of a large cervid skull with thick antlers on a white background

Big news about the Toronto Subway Deer! Dug up in 1976 Torontoceros hypogaeus is a prehistoric cervid known only from 1 incomplete specimen. Originally classified as a caribou relative, ancient DNA analysis now suggests it belongs to the genus Odocoileus which includes mule deer & white-tailed deer🧪

Leavitt: “The president has made it quite clear that if narco terrorists are trafficking illegal drugs toward the United States he has the authority to kill them”

[narrator voice]: He did not, in fact, have lawful authority to kill them…

This report is based on interviews with and accounts from seven people with knowledge of the Sept. 2 strike and the overall operation. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell declined to address questions about Hegseth's order and other details of the opera jon, including Special Operations involvement. "This entire narrative is completely false," he said in a statement. "Ongoing operations to dismantle narcoterrorism and to protect the Homeland from deadly drugs have been a resounding success."

Last week: In response to WaPo’s story on the Sept. 2 boat strikes, the Pentagon says “This entire narrative is completely false.”

Today: The White House confirms that a 2nd strike happened and that “Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes”

"Republicans are driving up your electricity bills so they can generate AI memes about their war crimes" should be a political layup

i tell you what, if Democrats win the elections in 2026 and 2028, one of the biggest mistakes they could make is to talk about uniting the country by not prosecuting all of the lawbreakers and corruption of Trump administration officials. One reason we are here today is Ford's pardon of Nixon.

Is it “Natural and Healthy” When Children Get Sick With COVID? The notion that society and children benefit when they contract vaccine-preventable diseases used to be relegated to the fringes of the anti-vaccine movement. It is now embraced by doctors at prestig

Prasad wasn’t just antivaxx.

He was actively pro infection.

sciencebasedmedicine.org/healthy/

Weather it’s Joe Biden pardoning kids who were caught with a couple ounces of weed or Donald Trump pardoning the Honduran president who smuggled in 400 tons of cocaine, both presidents were soft on drugs.

Oh thank goodness. Sadly, a little too close to what she might actually say.

These are threats from conservatives, dear.

Here's another way to look at it.

The headlines & bad puns about this case are going to be epic. DHS are going to look like a bunch of snowflakes, the DOJ will be ridiculed for prosecuting this case, & Trump is going to be absolutely enraged by the acquittal.

Looks like a win for democracy to me

The case never had a meatball’s chance in hell.

It’s a 50 year old song. Love it, but…wow.

The last time I saw Billy Joel, he rubbed his (bald) head, apologized that his father was giving the concert, and apologized for the previous concert (with Elton John!) that was cancelled. For SARS. In 2003.

The utter stupidity of pursuing a criminal trial against someone for throwing a sandwich that bounced off a bullet proof vest pissing away hundreds of thousands of dollars for this joke is the perfect encapsulation of this Administration.

Interesting. So we actually have 6 adults in the Supreme Court, the DOJ managed a wildly incompetent self-own in to cater to the whims of an out of control and delusional president, and the USSC reminds Congress that they have duties that the cannot ever delegate.

@nealkatyal.bsky.social 👍🏻

In February, 7-year-old Dolma Naadhun was crossing the intersection of Newtown Road and 45th Street in Astoria with her mother and sister when the driver of a 2021 Ford Explorer blew through a stop sign, striking and killing Dolma. One month later, New York City Department of Transportation commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez visited the crash site with other officials, met with community members demanding a traffic signal be installed, and promised to make changes to the street - including "daylighting" the intersection using curb extensions and plastic bollards. State assemblymember Zohran Mamdani also visited the scene that day and realized that something else needed to change. "When you take a step back and think about traffic violence in New York City," he said, "you start to understand that this is a systemic issue that is incentivized by the policies that we have in place with regard to the design of our streets and what kind of vehicles we allow to be on our roads." Whether a driver runs a stop sign or a red light, statistically, certain cars - namely, bigger SUVs and trucks - are more likely to kill a 7-year-old. This is why Mamdani is co- introducing legislation for a weight-based vehicle-registration fee intended to discourage people from purchasing heavier vehicles. "The car industry is pushing the sale of heavier and larger vehicles," he says. "The state has to make it clear that these types of vehicles come with a certain kind of cost."

soar above adult shoulders. But there may be another way to disincentivize the purchases of such vehicles, says Edwards. "One other potential idea would be for someone, maybe a city's DOT, to start keeping a list of the different makes and models of vehicles that are killing pedestrians and cyclists, or kids specifically, and post that publicly," he says. "That could bring awareness to which cars are more dangerous and also potentially affect insurance rates, which would possibly convince people not to buy certain cars." There's a bit of accountability in New York's bill, which would require the State DOT to track all fatal crashes by vehicle weight. But the other encouraging aspect of the proposal is that the collected fees stay local, by county, and, after the annual dedications to highway, bridge, and transit trust funds are met, a full 75 percent of the funds raised will go toward safety improvements like bike lanes, bollards, road diets, pedestrianization of streets, and raised crosswalks. This means the neighborhoods most impacted by large vehicles are likely to see the biggest changes. And that might be the most important part of the legislation, says Mamdani. "This is an initiative to make our streets safer for our children," he says. "And we are making sure a significant portion of this funding goes toward creating the very streetscapes that we know will save their lives."

Two years ago I interviewed a 31-year-old NY state assemblymember about a 7-year-old girl killed by an SUV driver in his district. I hung up the phone, astonished that I'd talked to a legislator who so thoughtfully articulated what actually needs to change on our streets.

He'll make a great mayor

Your reminder that COVID and flu shots are now available! Get them so we don't all spread it around and kill your grandpa or baby.

a woman sitting in a chair with the word azaaami on the bottom right ALT: a woman sitting in a chair with the word azaaami on the bottom right

Especially for Stephen Miller and friends.

The troubled birth of aerobiology “FACT: #COVID19 is NOT airborne”, declared a tweet from WHO in March, 2020. WHO did not officially accept until almost 2 years later that infection by SARS-CoV-2 could after all be caused by long-rang...

I have reviewed @carlzimmer.com's book Air-Borne for @thelancet.com. It is excellent and eye-opening, and contains salutory lessons for science more broadly.
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

CARTOON OF THE DAY

(From @deadder.bsky.social )

Ronald Reagan is pointing at you with the words LET'S GO BLUE JAYS!

Found a new meme for the big game today. Gonna use it a lot. Sorry, not sorry.

Didn’t recognize @brittlestar.com in this outfit.

Looks pretty Scarry to me. 😉

Interesting. Another thing where the Canadian model has some advantages.

Province pulls funding for Parkdale supervised consumption site, forcing another closure The move follows a spike in the number of clients using the west end site — and an increase in complaints from its neighbours

Our Parkdale supervised consumption site had near unanimous support at community meetings, 300+ residents who signed a petition in support, and the evidence on our side.

But Premier Ford is closing it regardless, and the results will be absolutely deadly.

www.torontotoday.ca/local/health...

Rule of Law Alert: Trump’s authority for country-specific tariffs comes from the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which doesn’t mention tariffs—but does require a national emergency.

An ad showing that Reagan opposed tariffs surely is not a national emergency. (It may be a personal one)