Hank Greely

its truly remarkable, you have to really take the measure of it and it's almost hard to comprehend it, but the president of the united states is having texas invade illinois and oregon just to make twitter content

"the quickest way to get a collaborator to return edits on your manuscript is to write down their affiliation wrong" (ancient academic proverb)

White House calls court ruling blocking Portland national guard deployment ‘untethered from reality’ – live Karoline Leavitt criticizes Trump-appointed judge’s decision; Trump deploying military to Chicago on ‘flimsy pretext’, Illinois lawsuit alleges

From @theguardian.com:
"White House calls court ruling blocking Portland national guard deployment ‘untethered from reality’"
Funny. The Trump appointed judge who issued it said the same thing about the Admin's claims concerning Portland. I know who I believe
www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

"Family and friends," he said, "then home – where you live, your neighborhood, your town, your city – then your state, then your region, then your country." My father was explaining to me when I was 11 or 12 why he went to war when he didn't have to. He was driving me to Boy Scout camp, and we had some time to talk. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he was an engineer, and his company had government contracts that could keep him here. At almost 33, he was also getting long in the tooth for war. My mother would also have me tell you he also had two small children, my brothers, one eight months, and the other five. He joined the Navy a week after Pearl Harbor. "Those are the priorities in the order of priority," he continued. "But if your country is threatened, really threatened, everything flips. If your country, this country, falls, everything in that lineup falls, everything in that lineup is at mortal risk." "So, I'll know when it's country first?" "You'll know," he answered. Last week, I shared the mayor's plan for peacefully enduring, if not gaining, from the National Guard presence in our city. That was last week. This week changed everything. This week, the president called an extraordinary meeting. He and the secretary of defense addressed a room of some 800 generals and admirals called from their command posts around the world to hear the president's words in Virginia. He told our country's top brass their attention would soon be turned inward. That they would be commanding military operations in our cities against the "enemy within." Further, he said that they should hold military training exercises in our cities. Never mind what Secretary Hegseth told them. His message was as empty as his suit. He basically told them they had to shave and lose weight. The Commander in Chief told them their enemies are Americans, and that their field of battle would be Democratic cities. The great power and might of America's military would be turned toward its own.

Toward here, people. Not here in general terms, here in very specific terms. Memphis is an official battlefield. "Family and friends," he said, "then home – where you live, your neighborhood, your town, your city ..." As the rest of the world rages, the president told his top military leaders that we will disengage from the protection of our interests and those of our allies and attack the political enemies of our president, root out the "radical left," crush "the woke," seal our borders against mighty Venezuela, and reduce blue cities and states to whimpering vassals of the federal government. The president who would be king. Before this week, he commanded the justice department to intimidate and threaten, even indite, his political enemies including a former director of the FBI, and DA's in Georgia and New York. A president can't do that. Not just because it's blatantly personal and political. Not just because it's abuse of power, petty, and childish. Because most if not all of what he's doing is straight-up, in-your-face, unconstitutional. It is, in fact, just the latest additions to the long list of unconstitutional that defines the dangerous actions of this man. You know this is wrong. No what-about this or that. You know this is wrong. No bemoaning the awful state of something or somewhere. You know this is wrong. Nothing excuses this. Nothing. Now, he has openly told the military that anyone in America that challenges him is the enemy, and where they live the new front. The National Guard deployed here will be unarmed and have no power to arrest. They are a camo-covered smokescreen, eye candy for the cameras disguising what will really be going on, click bait for the internet. We now know that Trump and his minions are sending hundreds of ICE agents and FBI agents to Memphis, not to mention a small army of Justice Department prosecutors and investigators. The mission is to arrest, prosecute, incarcerate/deport as many people as possible.

Pam Bondi, U.S. Attorney General, was here this week to tell us that, along with Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, and Stephen Miller, Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff. Not to mention, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, looking very much like he was waiting to be told wat to do, bless his heart. Here, ready to rumble. Who wasn't here or invited was Steve Cohen, the duly elected Democratic representative in Congress of all the people who will be in that rumble. Republicans should be every bit as alarmed as Democrats – every American should – because every time Trump stomps on the Constitution, he leaves that boot print on every one of us. Or, as the very first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, famously put it, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Due process and habeas corpus are becoming quaint reminders of a once proud nation of constitutional laws and justice. What happened in that room in Virginia this week, and what happened out at Shelby Farms give us more than a hint of what could follow the National Guard to Memphis. "So, I'll know when it's country first?" "You'll know," he answered.

One man has put 340 million people at risk of losing this democracy. Just as surely as he's made the Oval Office look like a bad imitation of royal chambers at Versailles, just as surely as he's made the majority of both house of Congress look like lackeys waiting to empty the king's chamber pot, just as surely as he's turning the Constitution into a Mara-a-Lago doormat, just as surely, he's coming for us. You're right, Dad. I know. I'm a Memphian, soon under siege. (Lt. Frank E. Conaway Sr., 1943)

Memphis writer Dan Conaway, who helped found the @dailymemphian.bsky.social & comes from a century of local journalism, has just been censored by his own publication.

Here’s the column they wouldn't run.

Please consider writing:
barnes@dailymemphian.com
mcashiola@dailymemphian.com

Stand with Dan.

California has hit 50% of its electricity generated by solar on several days, but not longer term. Yet.

Solar becomes main source of electricity in the EU for first time More than half of the EU’s electricity in the second quarter of 2025 came from renewable energy

#Solar becomes main source of electricity in the #EU for first time. More than half of the EU’s #electricity in the second quarter of 2025 came from #RenewableEnergy
www.independent.co.uk/tech/solar-p...

That apple didn't fall far from the tree.
(And don't tell me about Newton myths in reply, Philip!)

One thing that comes through awfully clearly in these ICE videos is how many of these goons gravitated toward the job because being able to assault people with impunity is a big thrill for them.

Oh wow, that's really something.

A 25 year research project. Now, I suspect there's a good possibility time and chance will mean this doesn't fully happen or pay off. But the very idea of such an ambitious science project seems inconceivable in today's US.
(And, no, I do know what that word means - today's Princess Bride reference

As I was saying, affirmative action for incompetent ideologues.

Every time politicians demand equal representation for conservative academics, remember that they are requesting affirmative action for incompetent ideologues.

We invite scholars from around the world to submit their neuroethics research for presentation at the Neuroethics 2026 conference next April — with opportunities to present virtually or in-person at locations in the U.S., Italy and South Africa.
neuroethicssociety.org/meeting/neur...

Funny thing, in its awful way. I figured about that Tylenol speech, This must be the worst. Then only the day after, it was the UN speech. A week later, the address to the US generals. And amazingly, each is actually worse than the one before.

Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Turing Test | Royal Society An event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Turing Test, held at the Royal Society on 2 October 2025.

You might imagine that an event celebrating 75 years of the Turing Test would be all "Wasn't he prescient, and look, now we really do have machines that think!" Mercifully, this event yesterday was close to the opposite. /1
royalsociety.org/science-even...

The Trump Administration’s ‘Compact’ Is a Trap Choose independence. Refuse to sign.

"To the presidents and trustees of those nine universities: This decision will define you. You can be remembered as leaders who defended higher education’s independence against attack, or as those who surrendered it. There is no middle ground. Choose independence." www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

and who could read his Sharpie handwriting anyway?

3/ You want to make health care in the US cheaper? Make health care services more efficient—and you'll actually probably increase the quality. (As some of you know, I'm a big Kaiser Permanente fan, at least for Nor Calif. I'd look first at them for ideas.)

/2 Biopharma have US revenues ca $600-700 billion. A LOT! Health care services are about $2.5 TRILLION, 4x higher. In their "excess profits" (tricky calc) Pharma is about $130b; health services is $171b.
So, yes, but. Pharma does gouge US but cut it half & you cut $1k/yr of individual cost: ca 7%.

Does big pharma gouge Americans? In the bloated health-care system, others are the real money-makers

@economist.com newsletter item: "$13.4k how much the average American spends on health care a yr. That is $6k more than in other rich countries, yet Americans are no healthier for it. Read...whether big pharma is gouging them." www.economist.com/business/202...
They answer "not really". Yes!

/2 event of such an attack, the United States will take all “lawful and appropriate” diplomatic, economic, and military measures to defend its interests and those of Qatar."
Little legal effect but, don't you feel better knowing we've said this? (But no guarantees for Ukraine).
You don't? ; )

From @foreignpolicy.com's newsletter:
Trump guarantees Qatar's security
"The order states that Washington will regard “any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure” of Qatar as “a threat to the peace and security of the United States.” It goes on to say that in the

FDA approves another generic abortion pill, prompting outrage from conservatives Federal officials have approved another generic version of the abortion pill mifepristone, a regulatory formality that quickly triggered pushback from anti-abortion groups and politicians aligned with...

4 years after the application, FDA approves another generic version of mifepristone ("the abortion pill"). Real world effect of 1 more version is probably tiny, but the anti-abortion folks are outraged, at FDA (of course) & at the Trump Admin's betrayal.
www.statnews.com/2025/10/02/f...

District judge throws out prosecution against protester in DC with prejudice, slams US attorney for a pattern of abuse

assets.alm.com/ab/b6/aa7477...

Selection at the GSDMC locus in horses and its implications for human mobility Horsepower revolutionized human history through enhanced mobility, transport, and warfare. However, the suite of biological traits that reshaped horses during domestication remains unclear. We scanned...

Just caught up on this fascinating paper in Science in August. It reports evidence of strong selective pressure from breeding of horses around 5000-3000 years ago in Central Asia. One reason it's interesting is that the selection is *really* strong... /1
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

/2 We see a lot of children of African immigrants at Stanford. Interesting group,w/sometimes complex dynamics.
Article also talks about (black) Caribbean-Americans, who I don't see as much.

Immigrants are narrowing the black-white wage gap in America Their success is changing what it means to be African-American

Nice little piece on something that has long intrigued me: "African"-Americans: recent immigrants & their descendants. "Over the past 30 yrs 4 times more Africans—around 2m—have arrived in the US than did in continental North America during the Atlantic slave trade"
www.economist.com/united-state...

Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91. Gift link: nyti.ms/48FOuUn

Scientists Made Human Eggs From Skin Cells and Used Them to Form Embryos The embryos weren’t used to try to establish a pregnancy, but the researchers behind the technique say it could one day be used to address infertility.

/2 1 more @emilymullin.bsky.social in @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/scient... Has the 2 most important caveats: 1) need 1 each of chromosomes 1-22 + sex, 2) need to harvest a real egg to make this "egg". Of unknown importance is the absence of recombination: mixing of grandparents' chromosomes.

/2 I did like this, from the Economist's story:
"Hayashi Katsuhiko, a geneticist from the University of Osaka and a pioneer of the stem-cell approach, recently said that researching how to make eggs has started to feel “like being in a race”." Glad that it's heating up!