Archive for Protect Abortion
International Safe Abortion Day
Posted in Kids with tags abortion is healthcare, abortion rights, International Safe Abortion Day, Protect Abortion, reproductive rights, September 28, universal access, WGNRR on September 29, 2025 by xi'an
Nature tidbits [Jan 2025]
Posted in Statistics with tags @ScientistTrump, abortion rights, Africa, Anaheim, Belarus, climate denial, climate science, Cucuteni-Trypillia culture, David Spiegelhalter, DNA, E. coli, East Germany, Ethiopia, Germany, hallucinations, Heligoland, Human Rights, impact factor, Instagram, Jimmy Carter, Nature, neuromorphic computing, Protect Abortion, quant, quantum, quantum mechanics, Roe v. Wade, Russian invasion, spreadsheet, The Art of Uncertainty, Ukraine, UNESCO, University of Warwick, Werner Heisenberg on April 13, 2025 by xi'an
– yet another 100th anniversary!, namely the founding paper of Heisenberg’s quantum mechanics paper in Zeitschrift für Physik, written on the Instagrammable island of Heligoland. With celebrations at the UNESCO in Paris, Anaheim (CA), Kumasi (Ghana), and Salvador de Bahia (Brazil)!;
– some bird species decorating their nest with shed snakeskins, to frighten predators;
– climate predictions for Trump 2.0, albeit the only certainty being it will get worse and worse (and only the beginning of a flow of articles on the Trumpian attacks on science and scientists);
– the curious plight of the open access journal elife loosing its impact factor after getting too open for Clarivate and then seeing submission from China falter;
– the first European cities from 6000 years ago being found in Ukraine (and Romania) within the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture, with apparently an equalitarian structure with no temple or elite, although the lack of written documents (besides beautiful clay figures whose style evolved over the period);
- an AI tool that interprets spreadsheets (which I would find most useful, given my distaste of said spreadsheets!);
and how to help lab workers facing substance disorders. And break
Also
– a quick report on a Physics Review Letters paper about simulating elections results to spot whether or not margins of victory were properly distributed, having a distribution (for the scaled margins) mostly depending on voter turnout, with a universal shape! The concept behind this analysis is one of universality borrowed from statistical physics. (The fit does not work for the Ethiopian election of 2010 and the Belarus elections during 2004–2019, no wonder!);
- an awakening that the huge majority of bacteria that have never been studied, or at least figured in a published paper;
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yet again another paper about testing AI for human-level intelligence, plus another one on handling AI hallucinations in LLM;
– another book review of David Spiegelhalter’s Art of Uncertainty, by Yongyi Min, a statistician from the UN Statistics Division;
- the obituary of Jimmy Carter, a nuclear physics engineer who fought (for peace, human rights and) for the eradication of the Guinea worm disease, which could possibly happen anytime soon, with 13 human cases reported in 2024 (provisional) and 14 in 2023 (unless the Agent Orange cut enough funding to impact this as well), following a book review of You must stand up, by Amanda Becker, covering fighting for abortion rights across US regions;
creating a DNA base for identifying children kidnapped during a conflict, as for the 20,000 Ukrainian children forcibly deported to Russia over the past three years;
a substantial survey article on neuromorphic computing (submitted in 2023!), about new forms of computing based on hardware/software co-design;
with more technologies to watch in 2025, and another long article (and the cover) on the strong impact of small-scale fisheries on sustainable development.
abortion bans increased fertility rates and infant deaths (through a Bayesian analysis)
Posted in Books, Kids, Statistics with tags abortion, abortion ban, Bayesian hierarchical causal model, Bayesian hierarchical model, causality, Donald Trump, infant mortality, maternal mortality, my body my choice, panel data, Poisson factor model, posterior predictive check, Protect Abortion, reproductive rights, Roe v. Wade, social disparities, Stand Up To Trump, Supreme Court, Texas, The New York Times, US politics on February 26, 2025 by xi'an
“fertility rates in states with abortion bans were higher than would have been expected in the absence of these policies, with the largest estimated differences among subpopulations experiencing the greatest structural disadvantages and in states with among the worst maternal and child health and well-being outcomes” Bell, Frank & al., JAMA, 13 Feb 2025
“The groups that are most likely to have children as a result of abortion bans are also individuals who are most likely, for a number of different reasons, to have higher rates of infant mortality,” THYT, 13 Feb 2025
“Infant mortality in Texas was 9.4 percent higher after abortion bans were implemented than would have been expected” THYT, 13 Feb 2025
“Evidence suggests that increases in the fertility rate due to abortion bans were especially large among people who experienced structural disadvantage, including racially minoritized individuals, those without a college degree, and individuals using public health insurance3—all groups with higher infant mortality rates.” Gemmil, Frank & al., JAMA, 13 Feb 2025
and it only gets better [?!]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel, University life with tags abortion, Agent Orange, Alabama, America, baby Trump, cliffs, climate change, Donald Trump, Florida, gun lobby, immigration, in vitro fertilization, IVF, Melania, populism, Protect Abortion, reproductive rights, school shootings, theocracy, Ukraine invasion, US elections 2024, US politics, US presidents, Volodymyr Zelensky on October 21, 2024 by xi'an
“Those cities are gone, they’re gone, and we continue to give billions of dollars to a man [President Zelensky] who refused to make a deal” – DT, 25 Sept
“What do we do to protect our kids? I unfortunately think that we have to increase security in our schools. We have to make the doors lock better. We have to make the door stronger. We’ve got to make the windows stronger,” – JD Vance, 01 Oct
“One of the things that I’ve noticed some of our Democratic friends talking a lot about is a concern about carbon emissions, this idea that carbon emissions drives all the climate change … let’s just say that’s true, just for the sake of argument.” – JD Vance, 01 Oct
“I’m the father of IVF (…) I got a call from Katie Britt, a young, just a fantastically attractive person from Alabama (…) I said, explain IVF, very IVF, very quickly. And within about two minutes, I understood it” – DT, 17 Oct
And, then, most unexpectedly…
“It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government. Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes. Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body. I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.” – Melanija Knavs, 03 Oct
“I am sympathetic to all who wish to find a better life in this country. As an immigrant myself, I intimately understand the necessary if arduous process of legally becoming an American. As a mother myself, I stressed: ‘The government should not be taking children away from their parents.’” – Melanija Knavs, 03 Oct
francescoverdose [update]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures with tags abortion rights, anti-abortion organisations, Catholic Church, gender inequality, International Safe Abortion Day, Jorge Bergoglio, Louvain-la-Neuve, Marseille, media, patriarchy, pope, Protect Abortion, religions, reproductive rights, secularism, UCL, Université Catholique de Louvain, Vatican on October 12, 2024 by xi'an
“Peace requires before all else the defense of life, a good that today is jeopardized…through the promotion of an alleged ‘right to abortion’. No one, however, can claim rights over the life of another human being, especially one who is powerless and thus completely defenceless.” 09 Jan.
“I would like to emphasize one thing: It is very important that we have this meeting, this meeting between men and women, because today the worst danger is gender ideology, which erases differences.” 01 March
“A woman within the People of God is a daughter, a sister, a mother. Womanhood speaks to us of fruitful welcome, nurturing and life-giving dedication”. 28 Sept.
“On my return to Rome, I will open the process for the beatification of King Baudouin. His example as a man of faith may enlighten those in power. [I praise] the courage of this man who chose to leave his position as king in order not to sign [the 1990 abortion] law.” 28 Sept. (International Safe Abortion Day)
