Kai Kupferschmidt

Meet three scientists who said no to Epstein The warning signs included a web search, a mother’s doubts, and inklings of a “sexist attitude”

This is a nice contrast to all the awful behavior confirmed through the Epstein files. Proud of @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social & @seanmcarroll.bsky.social for picking up on the sexism & charlatanism right away.

"Democracy in this country remains under threat from Mr. Trump. But it has better than a fighting chance so long as Americans are willing to fight."

"Media organizations, including ABC News and the parent company of CBS News, that responded to his lawsuits by agreeing to settlements that are de facto payoffs made a similar mistake. So did the European Union and individual countries that made concessions to soften his threatened tariffs."

"The first firm to fold was Paul Weiss, ... . The other eight firms were A&O Shearman; Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; Kirkland & Ellis; Latham & Watkins; Milbank; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Skadden Arps; and Willkie Farr & Gallagher."

Opinion | Nine Law Firms Surrendered. Four Law Firms Won.

"These nine firms all failed a high-stakes character test. ... We hope that clients looking for fearless attorneys and law students deciding where to work will remember which elite firms were unwilling to fight back. Meekness is not a quality most people seek in a lawyer."
#giftlink

The gap between how cool he thinks he sounds and how he actually sounds would take light eight centuries to traverse.

Researchers say the ancient breakup of tectonic plates creates churning waves in Earth’s mantle that tumble in slow motion under the continents for tens of millions of years, sculpting topography deep within continental interiors.

Learn more: https://scim.ag/4s8GTEs #ScienceMagArchives

I've made a new starter pack of people to follow for news and commentary on Iran.

Got the idea from a request by @kakape.bsky.social

Beat me to it! Thanks for pulling this together!

I know. Trying to curate a list in the short window before epistemic chaos breaks out…

In the before times I’d probably be relying quite a bit on Twitter right now and checking expert lists curated by people like @joshtpm.bsky.social. Any recommendations on experts and journalists to follow here on bluesky as events unfold in Iran? Please spread widely and recommend broadly…

On moonshots and Minneapolis Space exploration can bring people together and reflect deep societal divisions.

“I came home from the conference to find masked agents in military vests driving around my neighborhood.”

Beautiful piece on writing about moon exploration while living in Minneapolis by the fantastic @astrolisa.bsky.social
🧪

I will never not be angry at the way tech bros have told us that the danger is apocalyptic superintelligence when it was always obvious that the reason to worry is that we would put dumb AI in really stupid places.

Have been listening in to today's hearing. So far, she's dodged questions on vaccines and Tammy Baldwin noted Means made $325K shilling supplements over the last 2 years. But sure, vaccine advocates are the one making bank. 🙃

Wichtig! Danke an @kakape.bsky.social, vor allem auch für den so spannenden und lehrreichen Podcast @pandemia.bsky.social 👏👏👏🙏

Danke. Das kam wirklich von Herzen.

Mal wieder eine großartige Folge von @pandemia.bsky.social - mit einem leidenschaftlichen und wichtigen Plädoyer für spezialisierte #WissKom von @kakape.bsky.social am Schluss:

Und hier ist noch der Trailer für unsere neue Pandemia-Folge. Bin noch nicht ganz an Bord heute Morgen. 😅
Folge findet ihr unter anderem hier:
podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/p...

Eine neue Folge @pandemia.bsky.social ist da! Es geht wie versprochen, um die neuen Erkenntnisse, was damals genau passiert ist mit den seltenen Nebenwirkungen einiger Covid-Impfstoffe, wie Forscher nun die Ursache gefunden haben - und was das alles bedeutet.

I imagine it was extremely disturbing

Yesss. Die Folge ist in Arbeit 👇

wow. Such a beautiful photo!

Ossoff: "Among today's false prophets are the election deniers who indulge this president's obsession with overturning the 2020 election. Hear me when I say this -- they tell a lie so absurd, and therefore so debasing, that the act of telling it proves the teller's total and humiliating submission."

NYT: OPINION INTERESTING TIMES Anthropics Chief on A.l: We Don't Know if the Models Are Conscious' Dario Amodei shares his utopian — and dystopian — predictions in the near term for artificial intelligence. Feb. 12, 2026

God, this annoys me. If you “don’t know” then the precautionary principle applies. You either accept that it’s possible and behave as if you’ve created a novel consciousness with rights, and your company is now essentially a nature reserve/maternity ward… OR…

Utterly unacceptable in a democracy. In a sane world, House Republicans would be drafting impeachment articles today and Senate Republicans would be preparing for a trial to convict and remove him from office

Next pandemic is gonna be lit 🔥
We’ll all be chugging protein drinks and swallowing deworming tablets and talking about “that which cannot be named” while our social media feeds tell us that anyone who died did not do enough push-ups…

Oh and it’s Friday so I get to tell you to follow @maxkozlov.bsky.social, who has been doing great reporting on all this at this magazine called *checks notes* “Nature”. 🤓

@bhadeliamd.bsky.social says the decision to deprioritize these areas will leave people in the United States more vulnerable […] “Just because we say we’re going to stop caring about these issues doesn’t make the issues go away — it just makes us less prepared”

Exclusive: Key US infectious-diseases centre to drop pandemic preparation Staff members have been instructed to scrub this topic and ‘biodefense’ from the agency’s website.

“Staff members at the United States’s premier infectious-disease research institute have been instructed to remove the words “biodefense” and “pandemic preparedness” from the institute’s web pages, according to e-mails Nature has obtained.”

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

“Ethical obligations require minimizing risk and ensuring a prospect of benefit for participants. From what is publicly described, the protocol does not appear to ensure even a minimum level of harm reduction and benefit …[like screening pregnant women and vaccinating exposed newborns].”