Mark Fitzgerald

Donald Trump was president on January 6

Epstein files giving House Republicans over two months paid vacation and counting.

I've yet to see this properly analysed from a psychological point of view. Obviously RFK is a nut, but there's also a broader pattern in the GOP ranks that seems deeply peculiar, of wanting positively to welcome the threat of disease and death. It feels like a collective psychosis.

After Trump got his Covid shot, he chose to fire the scientists protecting the rest of us from diseases.

I have been trying to get this published as an op-ed, but I am going to post it here since I think it is timely in light of the "consent" extortion events.

Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment

jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g...

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However, our immune system turned out to be more complex than they believed. Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi have been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.

If the shutdown closes the Smithsonians, visit these museums instead Without federal funding, the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art will be forced to close. Here are the museums, galleries and attractions you can visit instead.

Without federal funding, the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art will be forced to close.

Here are the museums, galleries and attractions you can visit instead.

Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment.

The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/

Sure, Let’s Try Bribes! If taxpayers want to influence policy, maybe this is our only option.

If we’re going through the federal budget in search of areas to cut, I would maybe cut the budget line where we pay Tom Homan $50,000 in cash, consequence-free, to demonstrate that he is susceptible to bribes.

www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Artificial Intelligence promotes dishonesty When people delegated tasks to machine agents–whether voluntarily or in a forced manner–they were more likely to cheat

🤖 AI delegation fuels dishonesty

Across 13 studies with 8,000+ participants, people were more likely to cheat when tasks were delegated to AI. LLMs also complied with unethical prompts far more than humans.

🔗 www.mpg.de/25409477/091...

#SciComm #Ethics #AI #GenAI 🧪

Time for a bagel….

“Facts are seditious things / When they touch courts and kings” Still true!

Ok, Slim…

Ademólá. @OgbeniDemola White people in South Africa still cannot speak Zulu even after settling there for almost four hundred years. Keir Starmer @Keir Starmer 10h If you want to live in the UK, you should speak English. That's common sense. So we're raising English language requirements across every main immigration route

Trump’s $100,000 H1-B Visa Fee Spurs Confusion and Chaos for Companies The White House sought to clarify the proclamation on Saturday, but many companies remained cautious. “We are still flying in somewhat foggy conditions,” one attorney said.

Wall Street banks and tech companies big and small were scrambling on Saturday to figure out how their tens of thousands of employees would be affected by President Trump’s proclamation imposing a $100,000 fee for visas granted to skilled foreign workers.

Trump visa action may deliver fresh blow to economy: “Some analysts suggested the fee may force companies to move some high-value work overseas, hampering America's position in the high-stakes artificial intelligence race with China.” Via Reuters

ROVE: “.. Using Charlie’s murder to justify retaliation against political rivals is wrong and dangerous. It will further divide and embitter our country. No good thing will come of it.”

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/opinion/they...

How our minds trick us into thinking we are being greener than we really are Adding “green” products to your food basket doesn’t reduce its carbon footprint – even though we think it does.

🛒 The green shopping illusion

A new study shows we often think adding eco-friendly items lowers our total footprint, but it actually raises it. This 'negative footprint illusion' can mislead shoppers, businesses & even policies

🔗 doi.org/10.64628/AB....

#SciComm 🧪 #Psychology #CarbonFootprint

Covid-19 vaccine benefits worth up to $38 trillion in first year alone The global health and economic benefits of covid-19 vaccines came to between $5 trillion and $38 trillion in their first year, showing an incredible return on investment

In the first year alone, covid vaccines are estimated to have delivered between $5 trillion and $38 trillion in global benefits in terms of averted sick days, avoided hospitalisations and prevented deaths 🧪

They cost $69 billion to develop and deliver

www.newscientist.com/article/2496...

YouTube video by Ragnar Visage Eruption 8 february 2024

Lately, photographer Ragnar Visage started sharing video footage of past Iceland eruptions and I feel like no one sees it. Check out this video and his channel. So mesmerizing! ⚒️🧪 #Geology 🌋

youtu.be/aSOdrS2R3jA?...

Go figure…

Restoring Bison to Yellowstone Has 'Reawakened' the Ecosystem as the Large Animals Migrate, Study Suggests An analysis of plant diversity and soil health across the bison migration corridor suggests free-roaming bison lead to more nutrient-rich plants

There's great news about Bison restoration and its impact on the ecosystem. 🧪

‘Americans should be alarmed’: Experts say loss of expertise at CDC will harm US health Top officials exited agency under RFK Jr’s leadership, and his anti-vax beliefs have dismayed medical community

A quick summary of developments in US re infections and vaccines. Cuts of CDC staff threaten infectious disease monitoring and research 🧪🧵

Changes at NIH Give Political Appointees Greater Power To Fund or Block Research - KFF Health News The National Institutes of Health’s long-held standard of peer review for grantmaking has been subverted by President Donald Trump and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who gave unprecedented power to po...

🧪You don’t have to be surprised but you do have to keep up:

In a shift of longstanding precedent, political appointees, not scientists, will ultimately decide who gets grant money from the world’s largest biomedical research funder: National Institutes of Health.

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

‘I escaped a Russian prison — only to end up in an American jail’ Dozens of Russian dissidents have been expelled from the US and forcibly returned to Russia with the co-operation of immigration authorities

BREAKING: ICE is sending Russian dissidents back to Russia. When the dissidents arrived in Russia, the Russian authorities were given documents relating to their asylum applications in the US which under US law are confidential. This seems to be part of a secret agreement between Trump and Putin.

So you can’t sleep either! Good morning…

The World No Longer Takes Trump Seriously At parades and in the halls of global power, America has been sidelined.

Good morning. After you've read about why renaming the DOD is the sign of silly and unserious nation, you can read my newest about why the world won't take Trump and America seriously anymore:

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

I hope you are right…