Scott Alberts

/2 While also (as Begley's article documents), continuting to say things that fit better into the 1930s mission of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

That's a very fair read.

Keeping the pendulum swinging:

Cold Spring Harbor was THE center for Eugenics research from 1910-1939, science's darkest blot. Watson turned it towards cancer research in the 1970s while facing its past, making this series of short videos:

dnalc.cshl.edu/view/15466-T...

Vascular and inflammatory diseases after COVID-19 infection and vaccination in children and young people in England: a retrospective, population-based cohort study using linked electronic health recor... Children and young people have higher risks of rare vascular and inflammatory diseases up to 12 months after a first COVID-19 diagnosis and higher risk of rare myocarditis or pericarditis up to 4 week...

Turns out the good of the COVID vaccines is much higher than the negative effects of (the quite real) possible side effects, even among young people (who didn't get COVID as severe as old people).

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

YouTube video by The 8-Bit Big Band Super Mario Praise Break - *Gospel Mario Bros Medley* (The 8-Bit Big Band)

This is 5 minutes you'll be glad to spend.
(nominated for a grammy today in "Best Arrangement, Acapella or instrumental," one of my favorite undersung categories)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBIo...

The World Is More Uncertain Than You Think: Assessing and Combating Overconfidence Among 2,000 National Security Officials - Texas National Security Review This article analyzes more than 60,000 assessments of uncertainty made by national security officials from more than forty NATO allies and partners. The findings show that national security officials ...

Experts know things, but still worry a bit when experts are certain, in either direction. Worry more when non-experts are certain.
tnsr.org/2025/09/the-...

What about the jump scare that 40 years ago only goes back to 1985. I was thinking we'd at least get back to Burt Reynolds.

And he's 77. (I almost wrote "And he's 77!", but you know that he's not THAT old)

Some really interesting DataViz in this chart (and the entire report). The use of color and scale really makes the point.

There’s a reason we liked Early 80s Night at the ‘Sco

People are having fewer kids. Their choice is transforming the world's economy Family size around the world is dropping. That choice by couples is triggering a population shift that's sending shock waves through economies.

Long-term, this is how humanity will thrive, with a relatively constant population that has enough food and "stuff". But, we don't really know how to build an economy that isn't about perpetual growth. Any ideas?
www.npr.org/2025/10/27/n...

Here's the relevant language, I guess. Not very clear to me.

"The Proclamation also does not apply to a petition ...that is requesting an amendment, change of status, or extension of stay for an alien inside the United States where the alien is granted such amendment, change, or extension."

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Being a content expert was a bare minimum of my job, not what made me a professor. My job is to give context, tell stories, explain why any particular fact is useful for a student to know.

Lecture-and-test was never the way to teach. Before AI, before Wikipedia, we had ..um.. books to give facts

British health service data (sorted by gender proportion, not frequency) confirms that women are more likely to be admitted to hospital for pregnancy-related issues, while men are admitted for falls from ladders, motorcycle accidents, and power tool injuries.

Min Yoon-gi autism center finally unveiled The Severance Hospital in Seoul has officially opened the Min Yoon-gi Center, named after BTS member Suga, following his donation of 5 billion won ($3.6 million

Suga from BTS:

m.koreaherald.com/article/1058...

Minu’s at the Penn State game against Oregon. Maybe you’ll see him on TV in the stands. 113,000 people - he’s the one in the white shirt

Of related interest, is that a novel and cool way to use “today years old” or is it still kind of stupid?

Wilted spinach in a skillet, way smaller than it was in the bag

My middle schooler is not impressed by how much a big bag of spinach wilts into nothingness.

I was still amazed, as of today years old.

It's also interesting that Statistics is on the chopping block, with so many data-heavy jobs everywhere that most schools are adding.
The word "Statistics" is evolving into Data Science (with more coding and less math), so I could see restructuring or renaming, but this looks like a straight cut.

a man says well of course i know them in front of a mountain ALT: a man says well of course i know them in front of a mountain

I had six 3-student teams spend an hour to explore primary and secondary literature to explore the claim that "no one knows whether at least one million people died in the USA from COVID."

All six teams concluded that not only did 'someone' know, but that at least 18 of my students knew.

My favorite translation directly transliterates the Aramaic and avoids the whole idea of debts/tresspasses:
"Detach the fetters of faults that bind us, like we let go the guilt of others. Let us not be lost in superficial things, but
let us be freed from that what keeps us from our true purpose"

We spent a whole day in my church music class talking about how different translations fit the various sung versions (I have sheet music with five different tranlations on the same tune) and how they're interpeted, but also about who would be most offended by using the "wrong" one.

YouTube video by Urumaxi Anthems National Anthem of Poland - "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego"

Poland. Not just a banger, but also the whole feeling of
"I'm not Dead Yet, I think I'll go for a Walk" that runs throughout it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1F0...

Doc probably wrote that set of horn parts the day before and they ran it one time during the warm-up. John and John said, "it could a bit slower" and Doc said, "it could, but not on my watch".

Trump's jobs data denialism won't fool anyone Firing the BLS commissioner won’t prevent the effects of tariffs. But it will reduce American economic leadership and increase uncertainty for businesses, workers and investors.

Counting tricky things is hard. We should count them as well as we can and correct it later when needed. Anything less is less.

www.natesilver.net/p/trumps-job...

Bill Gates: Cuts to federal global aid kills babies. About 3/4 of a million babies and small children saved annually due to global rotavirus vaccines.

Maybe this version next - "If you like saving the unborn, maybe you also like saving the actually born"

www.gatesnotes.com/work/save-li...

The huge storm just hit us in Missouri. We dropped like 15 degrees F in about an hour. As required, I am sipping my coffee and nodding, "We sure needed that."

That's super interesting!
Makes me re-think how I write rec letters.

Palantir and now Erebor?

Is Peter Thiel just trolling the nerds by telling us exactly what he’s doing?