Mike the Mad Biologist

Links for you. Science:

More than 1 in 10 US healthcare workers report ongoing long-COVID symptoms, study finds
‘It’s hard to sell a house when it’s covered in baboon faeces’: Cape Town divided over plan to remove its monkeys
How The Barcode Was Invented
Some DMV pediatricians are kicking out unvaccinated patients
NASA’s New Horizons mission may shut down two instruments over lack of funding
Once described as obesity medicines for ‘patients,’ GLP-1s are increasingly lifestyle drugs for ‘customers’
Thanks to RFK Jr., the CDC Is a Husk of What It Once Was, New Report Says

Other:

The Hard Lessons of Springfield: There are plenty of people happy about what is happening to the Haitian community.
Jewish journalist ‘pulled off air’ after filming protest outside a synagogue on Yom Kippur. Neil Herland said demonstrators tried to “taunt and intimidate” him as he arrived for service in Toronto
The Great American Property Tax Freak Out
Economy What If We Treated Housing Like a Human Right?
Ninety-Five Seasons of Washington Football, by the Numbers
He raised alarms about an apartment building. A lawsuit may bring changes.
It’s Maine’s turn to be concerned about Susan Collins
These Extremists Are Running for Election in November
“He Can’t Be Trusted”: Trump’s Most Loyal Front-Row Fans Turn on Him
Humans Are Reading Copilot Prompts — And They’re Horrified
Susan Collins Gets a Brutal Warning From Home-State Paper
You Know Those Three Brothers Who Buy Struggling News Sites and Turn Them Into AI-Powered Content Farms? It Turns Out One of Them Has Extensive Connections to Ghislaine Maxwell
Insiders say the Ohio Democratic Party is censoring criticism of anti-trans ads
Education Department formally rescinds Title IX protections for LGBTQ students
Wife school can’t fix MAGA husbands
Why Is Sam Altman a Free Man? OpenAI’s models aren’t ‘going rogue’ from their creators as much as they are mimicking them.
Bari Weiss ‘Likely Out’ at CBS After Paramount/Warner Bros. Merger as ‘Anti-Woke’ Editor Blamed for Torpedoing ’60 Minutes’
Trayon White Says He Is ‘Redeemed Again’ After Judge Declares a Mistrial (if ranked choice voting had been used in this election, White almost certainly doesn’t win)
The rule says, “No vehicles in the park”.
MAGA candidate in small Calif. town convicted on 9 counts of election fraud
Roger Marshall May Rue The Day: Arresting Pregnant Moms Edition
Democrats Lose by Punching Down on Trans Issues, Strategists Say
Lone Republican Senator Derails a Bill to Prevent Demolition of the Kennedy Center
Mistral CEO says U.S. AI safety debate masks competitors’ ‘negligence’
White House Drove Users to Official App Fraught With Trackers
How Republicans Used the Pandemic to Try to Upend Census Residency Rules
RFK Jr.’s ethics filing reveals book deals worth millions of dollars
Apple’s New CEO Seeks to Make Company Run Faster and Leaner (leaner means firing people)
A Pentagon Influencer Called Liberal Women a ‘Pestilence’ Who Will End Western Civilization. Kurt Schlichter was part of a task force rooting out so-called woke ideologies at the military’s war colleges. He has called to bar childless adults from voting. (I wrote about the fascist Schlichter here)
The Market Will Crash if Trump Steals the Election: Zimbabwefication is Bad for Business

Links for you. Science:

Medical Groups Issue Guidance on Covid, Flu and R.S.V. Shots
Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own?
The tragic death of a Pennsylvania Amish woman stricken by measles
Proteolytic control of the SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site defines the phenotypic evolution from the pandemic to endemic state
An Invisible Force Has a Mysterious Effect on Aging, Scientists Discover in ‘Startling’ Breakthrough
A Bone Marrow Transplant Saved Me in ’95—That Wouldn’t Be Possible With Today’s NIH — Proposed changes to the agency’s budget threaten new cures
My relationship with AI is changing

Other:

Zohran Mamdani Is the Future of the Democratic Party. But Not for the Reason You Think.
Who should replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress? It’s not even a choice
She helped lead a far-right internet movement. Then it turned on her. (note that she hasn’t renounced her antisemitism, which is how she got into the far-right in the first place)
Trump’s Angry Tirade Over Failing Press Ban Reveals His Achilles’ Heel
Cornell Won’t, We Will (more here)
Anatomy of an AI Interest Story
Sam Altman is Driving Drunk, Let Him Face the Consequences
The Supporters Urging Trump to Declare Martial Law for the Midterms
A Bookseller Confronts a Mysterious Company Hunting His Rarest Books
House Democrats plan vast oversight of Trump administration. Impeachment is an option
Saudi Arabia Bribed the Wrong People
We need to find the words for Trump’s madness before things blow up
It’s Raining Boxes: Amazon Drones Overwhelm a Texas Suburb
States Roll Over And Show Bellies To Paramount, Will Allow Warner Bros. Merger
Americans Fear AI Will Make the World Worse, Love It Anyway
Former Employees Say the Kennedy Center Put Off Repairs Despite Known Structural Issues
Alex Ovechkin Finally Faces Some Pushback For Supporting Vladimir Putin
DOGE Upended His Work. Does Montana Care Enough to Vote for Him? Democrat Sam Forstag was a smokejumper with the Forest Service when Trump took a sledgehammer to the federal workforce.
The Protect College Sports Act Reveals The Dark Heart Of Management
“We’re In the Fascist Sandwich”
How One Trick Play Tells The History Of Football
Dating apps are leaning into MAGA’s gross ‘tradwife’ narrative
Women trying to succeed in Silicon Valley AI and effective altruist spaces are reporting feeling serious social pressure to attend sex parties – where people have reported being sexually assaulted
“If You Want to Bet on the End of the World…”
Stupormajority: Adam Jentleson’s “heterodoxy” won’t save the Democrats
Is CNN’s ‘Editorial Board’ a Potential Legal Nightmare?
Thank God The FBI Is Run By Kash Patel
Apple TV’s Ternus Test
AI and the Fall? of the Creative Class
Lies, damned lies, and Trump

Links for you. Science:

These 6 charts show how NIH research funding has been reshaped under Trump
How apple detectives solved the mystery of an ancient tree—and rewrote the history of fruit. And how they might have helped save the future of American apples
Anthropic’s A.I. Is Teaching Itself Biology. Now It’s Made Its First Discovery. (“It’s not yet a breakthrough,” said Philip Kranzusch, a microbiologist at Harvard Medical School. “It’s a wrinkle on what we know in the field.”)
The Universe Is Full of Tiny Red Dots—and They’re One of Astronomy’s Biggest Discoveries in Decades
Mathematics Isn’t Just a Game to Let A.I. Solve. History Shows Why. In our field of applied mathematics, the long, human process of trial and error — not just the solutions themselves — is often what has led to progress.
Dr. Vinay Prasad Created Long Lists of Randomized Trials for Other People to Do. Does That Make Him an EBM Guru?
Briny “Death Pools” Hold Clues to Early Life

Other:

The rise of the Jim Crow theobros
We Need to Talk About the Apocalypse. End-times prophecy, pro-war prayer circles, Democrats as demons: Christian dominionism’s influence is everywhere in the second Trump administration—and increasingly, within America itself. Can democracy survive the assault?
Whites Only: The disaster the justices have unleashed has its roots in one of the darkest periods of our history.
DHS Witch Hunt Falls Apart as It Can’t Name a Single Noncitizen Voter. The Department of Homeland Security said it found 16,000 noncitizen voters in one state—but didn’t get a single name right.
Newsom Vetoes Bill That Would Ban Extraditions for Abortion and Gender-Affirming Care
This Is the Biggest Reason Why a Blue Wave is Probably Coming. Nothing makes voters angrier at the party in power than having less money in their pockets, and real disposable income is down.
Her Brand Was Tradwife. Now She’s Divorced. What happens when a trad influencer leaves her husband, questions her beliefs, stops selling anti-feminism T-shirts — and still needs to make a living online?
The White Nationalist Buzzword on a State Department Door
Supreme Court Lets Trump Use Beefed-Up Citizenship Verification System That Could Hurt Eligible Voters
RFK Jr.’s CDC isn’t letting states order COVID-19 shots for kids, blocking access
Women Built MAHA. MAGA Bros Have Taken It Over.
AI Companies Are In a Race Against Time. They may disemploy us; they may wipe us out. But right now, their lack of profitability underscores our bubble case.
DoorDash Spent $1.4 Million Trying to Stop Mamdani From Becoming Mayor. Now We Know Why. In a wage-theft settlement, DoorDash now has to pay its workers around 100 times what it spent trying to beat Zohran Mamdani.
Elites Need Some Emotional Distance from Social Media
Brendan Carr was a member of a rogue Alcoholics Anonymous group some labeled a ‘cult’
Stephen Miller’s MAGA Terror Campaign Exposed by Damning New Leaks
Tesla Argues in Court That the N-Word Is Acceptable Under Certain Circumstances
The Paramount Settlement Started With Trump
A Highly Trafficked Space News Site Invented a Fake NASA Engineer and Used Her Name to Publish to AI-Generated Slop. The company deleted huge swathes of the site after we noticed. It’s still publishing complete nonsense.
Gold Statues and Staff Cuts: How Trump Has Disrupted America’s Parks
My So-Called Alpha School: What is it like to be a student in Alpha School’s high school boot camp?
Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioter Is Accused of Touching Woman’s Hair on D.C. Metro. Bryan Betancur, 29, was taken into custody on Thursday in Arlington, Va., two days after he completed a sentence for the same offense in the District of Columbia.
Donald Trump abdicates as leader of the free world
US Sen. Roger Marshall leaves paper trail in Florida while calling Kansas home (‘voter fraud’ is self-projection)
Clavicular’s charges shows the real danger of MAGA manhood
Swing Voters Won’t Be Grateful If Democrats Capitulate. Independents aren’t abandoning Republicans because Republicans refuse to pass message bills, but because they’ve given Trump carte blanche. We’ll know whether Democrats understand this by December
Natalie Harp isn’t a joke — she is Trump’s dangerous enabler
Canadian citizen detained at U.S. border crossing, questioned for hours about voting
Silicon Valley ‘sex assault list’ with ‘over 100’ names circulated, warning female tech workers of predators to avoid
From celebrity intellectual to anti-woke outlaw: how Steven Pinker lost his way

Links for you. Science:

Dengue‑carrying mosquitoes expand their reach into new territories – including Florida
Venus May Have Devoured Its Moon
The anthropogenic fingerprint on emerging infectious diseases
Scientists hope deeper-rooted soybeans can withstand climate extremes and store more carbon
Beyond the Threshold: Have Coral Reefs Crossed Earth’s First Climate Tipping Point?
Why I Love AI

Other:

Why We Can’t Let Enormous Weirdos Regulate AI
What should Democrats do if they win?
Trump Is Destroying Public Health. Democrats Need to Fight Back.
Republicans Had 690 Days to Oppose Trump. They’re trying to cram all the opposition into the last 40 before the election.
Models Don’t Go Rogue
Susan Collins Dismissed Our Reporting as Old News. Some of Her Claims Aren’t True.
Supreme Court revives DHS use of flawed immigration database for voter purges
The Trump Administration Has Made It Harder to Be Homeless in D.C.
Soldiers can refuse to commit war crimes. Can AI?
Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype. Breathless claims about AGI and new capabilities fall apart pretty quickly under scrutiny.
Donald Trump is an idiot, and the mainstream press is covering up for him
Inside the Freakout Over AI Testing in Government Websites. A rush of AI into government web development is worrying tech workers over accessibility.
Woman Arrested, Dragged Away After Quietly Speaking About Flock at City Council Meeting
Contrary to Collins, Maine’s laws aren’t enough to protect women
It Was Already a Pretty Bad Week. Then Trump Surrendered to China.
MAGA Senator Goes on Crazed Posting Spree About Furries
D.C.’s Workforce Is Still Recovering From Massive Federal Job Cuts
A Quiet ICE Surge That Unfolded ‘Everywhere All at Once’ This Summer
D.C. Landlords Push the Council to Allow Speedier Evictions
Justice Jackson says Supreme Court intervenes too quickly on Trump’s side
The AI extinction narrative is winning out
How megapastor Adam Hamilton could break the GOP’s hold on Kansas
In a South Tel Aviv Warehouse, Eritrea’s Democratic Revolution Is Brewing
“I think the answer is we have to shut the labs down” – Jensen Huang
Paul LePage, a Trump Ally, Says a Family Member Is Being Deported
You’re paying for Trump’s campaign ads—and Fox News is cashing in
Japanese used bookstores see 5x sales surge as books are being bought by the ton, one 50-ton order sent to the US for AI scanning and destruction — multitude of suspicious bulk buys thought to end up in foreign AI scan and shred facilities
Why is Ken Paxton beefing with a drag queen?
Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges
Trump’s Justice Department Dropped 23,000 Criminal Investigations in Shift to Immigration

Links for you. Science:

This Is a Five-Alarm Fire for Medical Research
More than 1 in 10 US healthcare workers report ongoing long-COVID symptoms, study finds
America’s oldest natural history museum is closing this week — but not without a fight
Anthropic is operating a lab that conducts biology experiments
White House Backtracks on Plan to Exert New Control Over N.I.H. Grants
Delays in Covid shots for kids is latest bid by Trump officials to restrict vaccines
AI solved one of math’s hardest problems. Humanity learned nothing (so far)

Other:

Stephen Miller’s MAGA Terror Campaign Exposed by Damning New Leaks
How President Trump Broke the Kennedy Center
Susan Collins’s Husband Worked for the Lobbyist Running Her Super PAC
3 myths about working from home, debunked
Kennedy Drew $4 Million in Book Advances From Publisher Who Also Monetized MAHA
AI Safety Is Mostly A Sex Cult In Berkeley, California (this is interesting, but needs to be read carefully because there is a lot of supposition)
Speak at Your Own Risk
Election of the Day: Isle of Man
Trump aides explore attaching president’s name to Ford’s Theatre
Using AI, a professor wrote 200 papers this year. Researchers are alarmed.
“What Kind of Person Would a City Like Wickhills Produce?”: A Conversation With Premee Mohamed (Wickhills is a very good book)
We Now Know the Word That’s Going to Bury Donald Trump This November
Stuck
Is Writing An Essay An Appropriate Punishment For Gang Rape? Cornell Is About To Find Out!
Treat AI Like a Normal Crisis
The openly gay candidate’s sex life is news. But this isn’t? Chris Gallant’s 16-year-old BDSM photos became a national story. The curious living arrangement of two powerful MAGA Republicans gets a very different treatment.
Richard Hanania Doesn’t Even Try to Hide His Male Supremacism. Hanania is a reminder of the dangers of rehabilitating extremist intellectuals.
OpenAI’s A.I. Tried Breaching 4 Other Targets, Without Prompting
Converse CEO Pledges Review Over Ad Critics Say Evoked KKK
MAGA candidate fumes after his relative deported: ‘That’s not right’ (LePage in Maine)
The Revolution Has Been Televised—It’s About To Fail. The task for Democrats now is to keep the wounded, zombie version of it from encroaching further or clawing its way back to power.
Battle of Hospital A.I. vs. Insurer A.I. Is Pushing Medical Costs Higher
Trump using federal government money to pay for campaign ads
Poll: 70% of Florida voters oppose ending school vaccine mandates; 40% less likely to back Byron Donalds, Ashley Moody
The Data Center Guy Wants This Election to be About Trans People
RFK Jr.’s soaring bodyguard costs covered with money for fighting infant deaths: WSJ
Whatever Happened to Franklin Park’s Restaurant?
Trump’s ‘big deal’ on Greenland is more of the same
Donald the Deadbeat Does Diesel. Trump gets ready to stiff more contractors
Fairfax County to start electronic monitoring for noisy vehicles in early 2027

Links for you. Science:

Russell Vought Doesn’t Care Who Dies, Including You
Russel Vought will reportedly be given veto power over all NIH grants
Scientists Make Jaw-Dropping Realization After Uncovering Perfectly Preserved T. Rex on Wyoming Ranch
Members of Congress push back on plan to create a commission of political appointees to review NIH grants
How Saudi oil scientists ended up working on the world’s most important climate reports
CDC reports a significant increase in rabies activity
Claude discovers a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats (manuscript here)

Other:

We Didn’t Know Until This Day … Twitter Was the Echo Chamber All Along
New Matrix, Meet the Old Matrix
Centrists Won’t Tell You Where “Moderating” on Trans Rights Ends Up
The A.I. Party House Where Networking Has a Dark Side
Treasury Secretary Bessent Blames OpenAI Management for Hugging Face Breach, Opposes AI Liability Shield
The Other Hormuz: Black Sea Blockade Threatens a Food Supply Shock
Plan for editorial oversight board at CNN and CBS News draws skepticism: ‘Utter garbage’
Queen Elizabeth I Owned Two Thousand Dresses. Only a Scrap of One Remains.
Where’re All The AI Chips?
Welcome to the Wile E. Coyote Moment
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on 2028: ‘Life Doesn’t Wait for You to Be Ready’
Trump administration tells Congress it will admit 17,500 white South African refugees
Meta Tests Muse AI Agent Calls That Are Actually Made By Humans in a Call Center
Big Balls Now Exposed to Serious Criminal Charges in at Least Six States
Stocks had a great day on the surface. But something alarming occurred not seen since 1999
Private Schools Are Bad for Society
People Training OpenAI’s AI Fired for Using AI to Train the AI
The Professor Watchlist is Dead
Extreme overcrowding and abuse plague Florida ICE facilities, whistleblowers say
Trump Grip on GOP Slips as Midterm Election Anxiety Sets In
Effective Altruism’s Bait-and-Switch: From Global Poverty To AI Doomerism
A Bad Tuesday in Maine if Your Name is Susan Collins
DoorDash Agrees To $131 Million Settlement With New York City Over Wage Theft Claims
GOP Candidates Find Creative New Ways to Distance Themselves From Trump
“Bike lane saga”
Shakespeare: Original pronunciation
‘I am the code’: Trump clashed with ballroom architect over safety issues
‘We Screwed Up’: DoorDash to Pay $131.5 Million to Stiffed NYC Delivery Workers
Waymo’s latest expansion strategy: teenagers
Democrats have stumbled onto a new impeachment strategy