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  "Woke" is the rebranded "politically correct," which was the rebranded "polite." So if you're "woke," you're expecting others to behave like mature adults.

I went to college right after high school and graduated four years later. My freshman year, I attended Vanderbilt University. While I competed on their varsity cross country team, my academic record that year was poor. Without going into detail, suffice to say that during my entire four years in college, my cumulative GPA never went down. After that, I transferred to UT-Knoxville. There are a variety of reasons to choose one college or university over another. But the lifetime income of a white private school grad is barely distinguishable from a white public school grad, on average, and certainly doesn't compensate for the disparity in tuition. There are data suggesting that Black and Latinx do benefit from the networking at elite private schools. "In 2002, economists Alan Krueger and Stacy Berg Dale published a study that compared the earnings of graduates of elite colleges with graduates of schools that were less selective. After controlling for student characteristics like...

Godwin's law posits that as an online discussion progresses, it becomes inevitable that someone or something will eventually be compared to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis, regardless of the original topic. Can Putin's Russia today be compared to Germany in 1933? We report, you decide. "Putin’s Russia differs from 1933 Germany in one critical way: Germany had not yet launched a brutal war of aggression against a neighboring nation, and Putin has." https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/04/28/opinion/putins-russia-has-crossed-threshold-it-now-looks-like-1933-germany/

I recall learning in college about the ozone hole and its connection to CFCs that were used in refrigerators, freezers and spray deodorants, among other products. I immediately switched to roll-on deodorants. At the time, global warming wasn’t a big discussion but CFCs are a thousand times more potent as greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Now, freezers and refrigerators use alternative gases, and the ozone hole is recovering. I certainly remember leaded gasoline, but didn’t realize until recently the human cost of its use. About ten years ago, Kevin Drum, one of my favorite bloggers who was writing for Mother Jones at the time, called attention to the remarkable correlation in blood lead levels and the rise and fall of violent crime 20 years later. He noted a similar correlation worldwide, and that the declines in violent crime correlated with the year that leaded gasoline was banned in each country, offset by ca. 20 years. We’ve known for decades that childhood lead exposure reduces ...

Mike Pence was hardly a profile in courage during most of the Trump administration, but I knew he played an essential role in thwarting the 6 January plot by Trump and the Trump cult terrorists to hijack the Constitutional vote counting process. But I was today years old when I learned this: “We’ve known for some time that Pence was asked repeatedly to get into a protected vehicle to evacuate the Capitol building on Jan. 6, with his security detail more aggressively pressing the Veep to flee after the mob of protesters breached the building with their ire directed at Pence. The Washington Post’s Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig revealed the details of the scene last summer when the Post published excerpts of their then-new book, “I Alone Can Fix It.” Despite the Secret Service’s urging, Pence told his top security detail after being taken to a parking garage below the Capitol building, “I’m not getting in the car.” This is the full quote: “I’m not getting in the car, Tim,” Pence said, a...

I've never been to either Disney park, but the juvenile effort by Gov. DeSantis and the Florida legislature to punish Disney for opposing the "don't say gay" legislation by removing Disney's special tax district looks to backfire bigly. Not only will it stick Florida taxpayers with about a billion dollars worth of bills, it can't be fully implemented until 2029, long after DeSantis has left office. "Bloomberg‘s analysis concludes that it is legally impossible for Florida to dissolve Disney’s special improvement district status before that last bond is paid off which would be in 2029 at the earliest . . ." https://occupydemocrats.com/2022/04/26/breach-ron-desantis-revenge-on-disney-could-have-to-wait-until-2029/?fbclid=IwAR1eopEd8y434USBnR60oshOoZJaiuoCcyGuvro1cHbB2LuvDvyCh8FuufY

This was off my radar until now, but apparently there are already Russian military bases there. One of the original “frozen conflicts” that emerged after the fall of communism, [Transnistria] is an unrecognized Russian proxy republic contained entirely within Moldova. It covers a thin strip of land that borders Ukraine’s west, removed from where the bulk of fighting has taken place. But it may be the next flashpoint in Russia’s war against Ukraine, opening up a new front in the war or, at the very minimum, ratcheting up pressure on the Ukrainian military. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/five-points-on-russia-threats-to-expand-its-war-to-moldova

In what is seemingly a move to troll Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration’s latest effort to censor school children from non-existent “prohibited” material for no discernible reason, a Florida man and atheist activist recently asked some of the state’s largest school districts to ban the Bible from public schools, citing age inappropriate content. https://www.miaminewtimes.com/media/pdf/miami_-dade_bible_banning_letter.pdf

  I recently read biographies of Marx, Mao and Lenin, and am currently reading a biography of Trotsky. As a result, I have a much better understanding of the Boshevik project, which at its core was a reaction to Tsarism and monarchism, but sought to replace it with a different sort of dictatorship. With the benefit of historical hindsight, it is obvious how the embrace of the single-party state led by a small cadre of educated elitists who pretended to speak on behalf of the workers led to Stalinism and Maoism and government by terror. This Vanity Fair piece paints a picture of a new-right movement that seeks a single-party state to purge liberals and others who don't conform to their utopian vision. These quotes are from one of their new darlings, J.D. Vance: "I tend to think that we should seize the institutions of the left,” he said. “And turn them against the left. We need like a de-Baathification program, a de-woke-ification program.” “I think Trump is going to run again ...

There's a lot of interest in using CRISPR gene editing technology to cure inherited diseases in humans and to engineer crops and animals for more abundant food. Less often discussed is pest management and infectious disease. In the latter category is a recent proposal to release CRISPRed mice engineered to be resistant to Borrelia burgdorferi, the etiological agent for Lyme disease. Ticks don't cause Lyme disease, but they can carry the Lyme disease bacterium after a blood meal from an infected mouse and then transfer it to humans with a later bite. If resistant mice displace the natural mouse population, they could interrupt the natural life cycle of B. burgdorferi. Back in 2021, I published an article on the ethics of CRISPR gene editing in which I discussed the ethical considerations of releasing engineered disease vectors such as mosquitos as an alternative to insecticides to control, e.g., malaria and yellow fever. The same considerations apply to these CRISPRed mice--once...

Amid the tragedy that is Ukraine, there is at least one group that is cheering: "The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought immense suffering to the people of that land, while sparking calls for increased military spending in both the United States and Europe. Though that war may prove to be a tragedy for the world, one group is already benefiting from it: U.S. arms contractors. "Even before hostilities broke out, the CEOs of major weapons firms were talking about how tensions in Europe could pad their profits. In a January 2022 call with his company’s investors, Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes typically bragged that the prospect of conflict in Eastern Europe and other global hot spots would be good for business, adding that “we are seeing, I would say, opportunities for international sales… [T]he tensions in Eastern Europe, the tensions in the South China Sea, all of those things are putting pressure on some of the defense spending over there. So I fully expect we’re g...

You've read how the GOP in Florida is banning math textbooks for critical race theory arithmetic. Here's why: Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) claims “more than 1,000,000,000” migrants have been arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border over the past six months. For one thing, 1,000,000,000 (one billion) is more than three times the entire population of the United States of America. For another, even if it were true (and it isn't), wouldn't the GOP be proud, not outraged, at how effective the Biden administration has been at stopping undocumented immigration? Maybe GOP needs lessons in both math and logic? Or maybe outrage porn just works better than math and logic with the GOP voters.

  Cumulative excess deaths from COVID-19 Kevin Drum has an insomina-driven post over at jabberwocking.com on comparisons of excess deaths from COVID-19 so far in the USA, Canada and large western European countries.. Not surprisingly, the US is #1, thanks to Trump, Fox News and anti-vax science denialism. Interestingly, Kevin presents data showing that latitude explains 58% of the variability in COVID death rates among the countries he looked at. The USA is still the worst. I wonder how many more people would be alive today if Trump and Fox hadn't called COVID-19 a "hoax" and instead had promoted masks, social distancing and vaccination.

I have several FB friends who are diabetic. How much the cost of insulin affects their pocketbooks varies. But at the end of the day, somebody pays for it. The fashion has become to blame drug prices on the parma industry, but in this case, it may not be so simple: "But our research reveals a different picture of who bears responsibility for driving up insulin costs. Manufacturers have been accepting lower and lower prices for insulin, while intermediaries in the drug supply chain have been demanding, and pocketing, more. To get a fair deal, much more attention needs to focus on pharmaceutical middlemen." https://www.medpagetoday.com/endocrinology/type1diabetes/98264?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2022-04-18&eun=g1700464d0r&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Headlines%20Evening%202022-04-18&utm_term=NL_Daily_DHE_dual-gmail-definition

I’ve heard plenty of excuses for why Trump hasn’t been indicted for inciting the 6 January 2021 insurrection. IANAL, but it sure seems like the DOJ is slow-walking this one. Anyway, here are five hypotheses, each of which seem both plausible and problematic. I’ll go with the punchline at the end: “Ultimately, trying to scare somebody like Trump into doing what may be in his best interests—quietly cashing in his chips and going away in order to avoid the risk of jail time—is impossible. The smartest outcome might ultimately be to simply enforce the law and file charges if they are warranted, no matter what the possible political cost.” https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/04/trump-indictment-prosecution-theories.html

Why do you have to be a hater to get elected in the Republican Party? Sad. "Among his efforts to appeal to MAGA voters, Vance also tweaked his persona, which includes speaking in an “angry register” as he referred to lawmakers in Washington as “idiots” who “hate” hardworking Americans, according to the Washington Post. Vance also welcomed the support of far-right lawmaker and QAnon-friendly Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) last month." https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-jd-vance-endorsement-ohio-republicans

Let’s start with some basics. Prior to uniting during fertilization, a human sperm and a human egg are both alive and human. That they are both human is undeniable, based on their sourcing. That they are alive can easily be demonstrated by autoclaving them and then testing whether they can still participate in fertilization (they can’t; autoclaving kills gametes). So in a real and meaningful sense, human life precedes fertilization. Indeed, there has been no point in the history of our species when human life began, since it is a continuum. Are you with me so far? So if by “human life,” you mean human diploid life, then does it begin when the sperm head (containing the paternal haploid complement) fuses with the oocyte (containing the maternal haploid complement)? Well, no, because it takes several hours for the two pro-nuclei to fuse. Then there’s the small matter of when the zygote implants in the uterus. Without implantation, the zygote is lost. Many human conceptuses are lost that...

There's a lot of media clickbait about vaccine hesitancy, but is it the dominant explanation for low vaccine rates? "As vaccinations were rolled out across the country last year to combat COVID-19, public health experts raised concerns about low uptake in communities of color, based on historic distrust with the health care system. But a new study of vaccination data in Massachusetts has found that educational level is a much stronger predictor than race, and could find no evidence that vaccine hesitancy played a role in people’s decisions. “Although ‘vaccine hesitancy’ dominates media coverage, in fact, language barriers, lack of regular health providers, absence of paid time off to get vaccinated and recover, and lack of trust in the health system all play a role in undermining vaccine coverage,” noted the team of researchers from Boston University’s School of Public Health and the city’s Public Health Commission." *snip* “This report highlights that people with complic...

The rot and grift that is the modern GOP has taken another step forward in Colorado. The Republican Party used to be the party of "law and order." No more. "Tina Peters, the Colorado county clerk now facing federal charges for an alleged conspiracy theory-fueled scheme to breach her county election systems’ security protocols, was the clear favorite of core Republican Party voters who met Saturday to pick their 2022 candidates." Shame. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/tina-peters-secretary-of-state-indicted-clerk-colorado-republicans

Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cells are patient T-cells that have been engineered ex vivo to recognize tumor-specific antigens. They are revolutionizing therapy for certain blood cancers, but solid tumors are a difficult challenge. Here's one approach that seems to work on subcutaneous human medulloblastoma (MED8A) solid tumors in a mouse model. The CAR T-cells are injected in a hydrogel at the tumor site, which delivers them locally rather than the usual route, which is an IV drip. Of course, we've cured cancer in mice thousands of times, so hold your applause for now. https://www.technologynetworks.com/biopharma/news/car-t-cell-therapy-hydrogel-cures-cancer-in-mouse-models-360438?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=IFLS%20Referral&fbclid=IwAR2ktIBDV1UMDxjrW4m4Th_LfHhvXFo3bxinEx1mzIzIokyNsBBqlslwsOE

 There are two given reasons people choose to use a cryptocurrency. One is that they want a currency that isn't tied to a government, which might destabilize their sovereign currency for political reasons. Since Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies fluctuate at frequencies and levels that would make the Russian ruble appear rock-steady, it's hard to understand the reasoning here, except as some sore of weird libertarian thing. The other reason is the claim that the blockchain controlling cryptocurrency transactions delivers complete and transparent ownership of cryptocurrency coins/tokens while making the transactions completely anonymous. As the link below documents, cryptocurrency transactions are far from anonymous, and in the right hands, can be used to identify most users. A word of warning: the Wired story is about using cyber sleuthing of blockchains in the service of catching distributors, users and creators of child sexual abuse materials ("child pornography...

Kevin Drum asks “Do we mint too many PhDs?” His answer is in the link below, which links to other links that link to other links. Unlike Drum, I have a PhD. So did both my parents and so does my wife and younger brother. I’ve mentored seven PhD students and served on the dissertation committees of over 35 PhD students, both US and international. Needless to say, I have an opinion on this. My answer is “no.” The PhD degree, despite the designation “Doctor of Philosophy,” is awarded based on the demonstrated ability of the graduate to contribute significant new knowledge in their discipline. But at its best, the PhD means that the holder has mastered a level of critical and analytical thinking that can be applied to a wide variety of tasks. If the question were “Do we mint too many PhDs for the academic tenure track market, then the answer is yes. Even STEM PhDs have less than a 25% chance of landing a tenure track university job (and not all of them will get tenure). As for humanity PhD...

  History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. ~Karl Marx I'm reading an epic biography of Trotsky just now, and this line describing the Bolshevik Party of the mid-1920s jumped out as somehow familiar: “The party was shown a picture of itself and of its leaders which resembled those early medieval frescoes of The Last Judgment, where the virtuous, whose faces express nothing but piety, climb straight to heaven, while the sinners, concentrated symbols of vice, rush to damnation.” There was a time when we treated our political opponents as fellow patriotic Americans. Why has the GOP chosen to follow in the footsteps of the Bolsheviks? Feh. Like Comment Share

Cotton said: “You know, the last Judge Jackson left the Supreme Court to go to Nuremberg and prosecute the Nazis,” Cotton said, referring to Robert Jackson, who was appointed by President Harry Truman to lead cases against German war criminals at the trials. “This Judge Jackson may have gone there to defend them.” That's how a fair criminal justice system works. The defendant is considered innocent until proven guilty, and is entitled to an attorney. But it's worse: Cotton: "“No, John, again, in three separate cases, she was representing not American citizens charged with a crime entitled to due process in our Constitution,” Cotton said, but “foreign terrorists who had committed acts of violence against Americans.” See what he did there? "American citizens charged with a crime" versus "foreign terrorists who had committed acts of violence." Uh, no. That presumes facts not in evidence, counsel. IANAL, but even I know that. To continue Cotton's analog...

  When the GOP accuses others of misbehavior or excusing misbehavior, it's a safe bet it's projecting. "As Republicans accuse others of being “groomers,” new details are surfacing about Congressman John Rose (R-TN), who met his now-wife in his 40s while she was an underage teenager. He paid her with a scholarship that she says “made everything possible” and then married her." - Brian Tyler Cohen See also: Roy Moore and Matt Gaetz

It's sad to see a major political party represented by the juvenile behavior of Sens. Graham, Cruz and Blackburn. In a follow-up email to HuffPost, a spokesperson for Blackburn said her definition of a woman is “Two X chromosomes.” Hmm. Well, there are humans with a single X chromosome. In the medical literature, these are called Turners Females. They have female genitalia, but only streak ovaries. There are humans who are XXY. In the medical literature, these are called Kleinfelters Males. They have male genitalia. So I guess Blackburn has overturned human genetics. You can add basic human genetics to the list of things that you can ignore when you hear them from Republicans. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-ketanji-brown-jackson-woman_n_624c9967e4b0d8266ab22274

Here's a fun graphic depicting the conditions that are most likely to kill you at different points in your life. If you're reading this, you can disregard the stuff before your present age. I tell people that I didn't get my genome sequenced to find out if I have a genetic disease, since most single gene disorders are evident by the fifth decade (your 40s). I was interested in alleles that increase risk for, e.g., heart disease, stroke, hypertension, cancer and dementia. As you can see, these are the big killers in my demographic. In a sense, this could be considered "congenital," although I don't think that's how this graph thinks about it. Of course, gene-environment (diet, weight, exercise, sun exposure, carcinogen exposure) interactions are important. I wonder how these data will be affected when COVID-19 is included. https://flowingdata.com/2016/01/05/causes-of-death/