Archive for US politics
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
and it is getting worse… [verbatim]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures with tags Agent Orange, Amish communities, antivaxers, autism, baby Trump, BBC, cliffs, Derailed Trump, Donald Trump, measles, populism, quotes, religious communities, US politics, vaccines, WHO on August 19, 2026 by xi'an
“In many cases we were requiring 72 jabs for our beautiful, healthy, lovely, delicate little children“ — DT, 10 Aug. 2026
“[Autism] is many, many times what it used to be years ago, and it gets progressively worse. And we had progressively more and more vaccines” — DT, 10 Aug. 2026
“A vaccination looks like the size of the bottle of soda poured into a little child’s body“ — DT, 10 Aug. 2026
“Decades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today. In those times, people were much [healthier], and of course, the high rates of autism now observed did not exist” — DT, 10 Aug. 2026
“When you and I were kids, everybody got measles, and measles gave you … lifetime protection against measles infection. The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people, it wanes” — Robert F Kennedy, March 2026
“Those agencies are going to do everything in their power to make the Amish vaccinate. Because they cannot stand the fact that you are healthy.” — Robert F Kennedy, 10 Aug. 2021
“The communities that are suffering from measles are almost all religious communities that just don’t vaccinate” — Robert F Kennedy, 2 Aug. 2026
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
Nature tidbits [18 June]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags @ScientistTrump, Agent Orange, AI, AI regulation, cancer, Catholic Church, cover, deep learning, DNA, hunter-gatherer, immigration, Lake Baïkal, Leiden, Leon, marmot, Nature, obesity, philogenetic trees, plague, popes, religions, Russia, science v. religion, Siberia, Ukraine invasion, ultraprocessed food, US politics, Vatican, Yersinia pestis on July 13, 2026 by xi'an
A personal tribune (by a Vatican advisor) on why scientists should learn from the Pope’s AI message, not the first time Nature caters to religious views! Not that his (Leon’s) concerns about unregulated AI and the abdication of States in that matter are misplaced. But it seems unlikely (as the author concedes in his conclusion) that the Catholic Church or his leader will manage to make a dent on the spiraling impact of AIs. As suggested in the next tribune, a coordinated approach at a massive increase of taxes on tech companies (unsurprisingly resisted by the Orange Menace) is more likely to happen. And yet another tribune on AI and math(ematician)s, related to the recent Leiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics, following several entries in the previous issue.
An introductory (general public) article as to why cancer occurrences in young people is rising so quickly in the US, with no single explanation. Environmental factors are certainly to blame, like the consumption of ultra–processed foods, but the article does not say much, adding to the uncertainty.
A rather unhelpful representation of human migration in 2023, appart from showing a majority of migrations are local (to the continental scale). Connected to an article of 10 June I missed. Partly based on a deep learning model to achieve a country-level granularity.
A research article (and the cover) on a plague outbreak near Lake Baikal—over which I could have flown when reading this issue, except that flights to Japan now contour the territories of the invader of Ukraine—that occurred about 5,500 years ago and impacted a community of hunter-gatherers, In a sparsely populated area, marmots being the likely primary vectors, and a close phylogenetic proximity to current strains.
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.
