Archive for Trump administration
no return to the future!
Posted in Books, Statistics with tags @ScientistTrump, censoring, Census Bureau, dataindex.us, Donald Trump, federal datasets, health dataset, misinformation, The Guardian, Trump 2.0, Trump administration, US politics on August 28, 2026 by xi'an
left to their own devices
Posted in Books, pictures, Travel with tags cover, cult of strength, Dr. Strangelove, extra-judiciary deaths, imperialism, Iran war, nuclear weapons, Stanley Kubrick, The New Yorker, Trump 2.0, Trump administration, US politics on July 16, 2026 by xi'an
“too dangerous to release” [a correct prediction]
Posted in Books, Travel with tags @ScientistTrump, AIs, Anthropic, Fable 5, hackers, industrial ruins, LLMs, Mythos, Nature, protectionism, superintelligence, Sydney Harbour, Trump administration on July 9, 2026 by xi'an
Nature of 26 May had a long report on how the Mythos model is deemed to be too dangerous by its conceptor, Anthropic, to be publicly released, but instead shared with a limited number of organisations of their own choice. The argument being that Mythos was able to spot security flaws in every operating system and web browser on the market. But, sooner or later, the AI will prove accessible to a hacker who manages to penetrate one of these organisations, won’t it?! As pointed out by Nature’s writers, the natural question is why should firms be left to decide on who gets access to their software and how dangerous they are. The same writers also muse about governments imposing prohibitions on the firms, including outside their country. Which is exactly what happened a few weeks later on 12 June with the Trump administration “suspend[ing] all access to both Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States” with little factual argumentation. Another illustration of the short-sighted, knee-jerk, inconsistent, policies of that joke of an administration that does not address the real issue.
For Whom the Bell Curve Tolls
Posted in Statistics, University life with tags Abraham Lincoln, academia, academic position, Boston, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, JSM 2026, Midwest, Nebraska, tenured position, Trump 2.0, Trump administration, United States of America, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, US politics on June 19, 2026 by xi'an
Despite protests from the statistical community, incl. mine’s, the Regents of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have voted for the closure of the Statistics Department (as well as three others) and the firing of their faculty. (Several of whom I know personally.) While this is a shocking event, untimely in the age of Data, this alas aligned with the legislative vision of science and academia under the Trump.2.0 yoke. In the meanwhile, the faculty is looking for positions before the termination of their appointment in Lincoln.
They will also hold a “late breaking session” at JSM 2027 in Boston to discuss this shocking elimination. The session will be on Tuesday, August 4 at 10:30AM.
how to qualify a State where…
Posted in Kids, pictures, Statistics, Travel with tags Arc de Triomphe, Bible, death penalty, declaration of independence, Department of War, extra-judiciary deaths, FBI, George III, Instagram, Mother Jones, personality cult, Pulp Fiction, theology, Thomas Jefferson, Trump 2.0, Trump administration, unhinged, USA on May 8, 2026 by xi'an
death penalty by firing squads is being reinstated- foreign, extra-judiciary, State killings are praised by the highest levels of the administration
- counter-powers and political opponents are threatened with legal action
- local and national bodies are actively and aggressively pursuing voter suppression tactics
- scientific bodies are silenced to cater to anti-vaxers and anti-abortion organisations
- avoidable mortality rose from 2009 to 2021, while it declined in most other high-income countries
- the judiciary and the legislature are silenced
- a former F.B.I. director is indicted for a Instagram image of seashells
- the President pushes for a personality cult (e.g., posting his picture on passports, creating an gallery of presidential portraits demeaning his predecessors and extolling himself, and broadcasting images of himself as an healing Christ),
- threatens to destroy a millenial civilization,
- and intends to build an triumphal arch that competes with Napoléon’s Arc de Triomphe
- the Vice President gives theology lessons to the Pope
- the Defence Department is renamed the Department of War
- and its secretary is invoking divine sanction for illegal, criminal, military actions, if confusing quotes from the bible with quotes from Pulp Fiction
Strikingly, Mother Jones draws a strong parallel between the grievances against King George III in the Declaration of Independence and the above…
