zagan1.bsky.social
@zagan1.bsky.social
"At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new." Carl Sagan
I trust that self-styled antivax "purebloods" will practice what they preach and never let mRNA vaccines near their immaculate DNA. The rest of us can look forward to mRNA vaccines tailored to specific cancer antigens, letting the immune system target tumors. Over 60 candidates are in development.
GOOD NEWS! A groundbreaking study in MORE THAN 1,000 people reveals that cancer patients who received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy lived dramatically LONGER than those who didn’t. In some cases, their survival rate was DOUBLED.
November 14, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Reposted
The most compelling reason to learn about the natural world around you is for its effect on your own psyche. You can live in a fuzzy drab world, or you can live in a world full of detail, and the difference comes mostly from knowing about it.
October 24, 2025 at 4:29 PM
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Pu spells out Ru's imperialist motivations for the war. He calls the conquest a long-held dream and historical destiny.

He beclowns those who insist NATO expansion caused the war. Let's see if anyone from the Mearsheimer fan club admits the claim has been falsified.
www.kremlin.ru/events/presi...
Обращение по случаю Дня воссоединения ДНР, ЛНР, Запорожской и Херсонской областей с Россией
www.kremlin.ru
October 1, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Reposted
For decades, palaeontologists and geologists have told the story that early Earth was a lifeless, volcanic hellscape for hundreds of millions of years. But a raft of evidence suggests this story is completely wrong
Life on Earth emerged fast. Far quicker than we thought | Aeon Essays
It’s time to rethink how we study life’s origins. It emerged far earlier, and far quicker, than we once thought possible
buff.ly
August 19, 2025 at 10:31 AM
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It wasn't just OpenAI.

Google also used a general purpose model to solve the very hard math problems of the International Math Olympiad in plain language. Last year they used specialized tool use

Increasing evidence of LLMs generalizing to novel problem solving deepmind.google/discover/blo...
Advanced version of Gemini with Deep Think officially achieves gold-medal standard at the International Mathematical Olympiad
Our advanced model officially achieved a gold-medal level performance on problems from the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), the world’s most prestigious competition for young...
deepmind.google
July 21, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted
The longer the political left refuses to engage with AI - or transhumanism, space exploration, abundance, or any number of other pieces of tech - the more they will simply continue to cede these grounds to neolibs and fascists.
June 18, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Mit "Modernisieren statt aussteigen" hätte die deutsche #Energiewende ein Erfolg werden können. China entwickelt gerade einen #Thoriumreaktor (TMSR-LF1), ab 2030 sollen kommerzielle Reaktoren folgen. Thorium braucht keine neuen Bergwerke, es fällt als Nebenprodukt beim Abbau von Seltenen Erden an.
@nina-scheer.de (SPD): „Erneuerbare der game changer“, „Erneuerbare das Günstigste“, „Erneuerbare zubauen“.
Kein Wort von den Systemkosten der Energiewende, die das ganze Projekt in die Luft sprengen.
Der Game changer wird die Deindustrialisierung Deutschlands. www.deutschlandfunk.de/kuenftige-kl...
Künftige Klimapolitik: Interview mit Nina Scheer, MdB, SPD-Klimapolitikerin
www.deutschlandfunk.de
April 27, 2025 at 4:47 PM
The Putinization of the USA continues. Now scientists are self-censoring for fear that Trump's Christofascist minions may disapprove of their discoveries.
I received a heartbreaking email today: A paper in a special issue I’m editing is being retracted because one of its authors is afraid of losing their job and their legal status in the U.S. if they publish a scientific study on evolution. Yes, on evolution, nature's engine of diversity.
April 22, 2025 at 12:26 PM
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No, the “Kalam cosmological argument” doesn’t prove God’s existence

No, you can't use what's known about the Universe to prove the existence of God.

Whatever underlying assumptions you make aren't necessarily valid in a very weird Universe.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #physics #philosophy
No, the "Kalam cosmological argument" doesn't prove God's existence
The Kalam cosmological argument asserts that everything that exists must have a cause, and the "first" cause must be God. Is that valid?
bigthink.com
April 3, 2025 at 3:32 PM
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U.S. State Department terminated the program investigating and documenting evidence of Russian genocide via abduction of Ukrainian children.
These are literally the crimes for which the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin.
newrepublic.com/article/1927...
Trump Admin Nixed Contract Helping Kidnapped Ukrainian Children
The fate of abducted Ukrainian children is a white-hot issue for peace negotiations—and it looks like the State Department may have just undercut the cause.
newrepublic.com
March 14, 2025 at 10:27 PM
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"At this time, no negotiations will succeed because Putin does not have any incentives to end his imperial ambitions to conquer Europe."
Ukraine must be armed to win and Russia must be bankrupted before the negotiations can take place.
open.substack.com/pub/igorsush...
The United States Should Make Putin Beg for Negotiations
The path is obvious once we finally dismiss Putin's nuclear blackmail and overcome our irrational fear of Russia's collapse
open.substack.com
February 13, 2025 at 7:34 PM
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In den USA ist viel von einem "Deep State" die Rede, von einer angeblichen Schattenstruktur, die von der Politik nicht gesteuert werden kann. Das Gegenteil ist der Fall: Die Politik hat viel zu viel Macht, in Institutionen hineinzuregieren, die eigentlich eigenständig sein sollten - die NASA etwa.
NASA to eliminate chief scientist position
Long-running advisory role cut along with two dozen others in agencywide reduction
www.science.org
March 10, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted
Countless emails asking how Americans can directly aid Ukrainian soldiers. Here’s an easy answer:
savelife.in.ua/en/
Come Back Alive Foundation - Charity Organization
One of the top charity organizations who help the Ukraine Army since 2014. Donate via the website - 100% of proceeds go directly to Ukraine Army.
savelife.in.ua
March 5, 2025 at 5:04 PM
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A Trump administration insider has leveraged a 50x Bitcoin and Etherium position bought just hours prior to the admin announcing their strategic crypto reserve into millions.

Remember that crime is no longer illegal in the United States and when this administration ends they will all be pardoned.
March 2, 2025 at 4:42 PM
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The truth about banning “dangerous gain-of-function” research

So, the US Senate has introduced a bill to ban "dangerous gain-of-function" research.

But virology is already more tightly and sanely regulated; this would merely end life-saving research.

bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#science #biology
The truth about banning "dangerous gain-of-function" research
A new bill introduced into the US Senate claims to make us safer. Instead, it would destroy all virology research, and for no real cause.
bigthink.com
March 4, 2025 at 4:10 PM
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HEY EVERYONE REMEMBER WHEN TRUMP WAS IMPEACHED FOR DENYING AID TO UKRAINE BECAUSE HE WANTED ZELENSKY TO LIE AND SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT BIDEN AND ZELENKSY WOULDN’T DO IT?

Maybe literally one fucking American newspapers could mention this in their, “think pieces,” about what happened yesterday.
March 1, 2025 at 6:33 PM
I'm not shocked. This betrayal has been a foregone conclusion since Nov 5.

But I will be disgusted if my German government does not take the opportunity to make lemonade from lemons. We must rebuild our military, work with France and Britain on nuclear deterrence, and #armUkraineNow any way we can.
HERO vs ZERO
I'm in a state of shock & still trying to process yesterday's shameful, traitorous debacle in the WH: A DAY THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY. Our standing in the world has plummeted overnight, but the repercussions will be felt forevermore.
#SlavaUkraini🇺🇦 #ShameOnUS🇺🇸
March 2, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Apology for what, betraying and backstabbing a people fighting for their survival against a genocidal invader? Spewing Kremlin-scripted mendacity in the face of Ukraine's elected leader? Yes, Caligula & his horse, I mean Trump & his VP have plenty to apologize for. These gaslighters fool no one.
⚡️Starmer aims to bridge Trump-Zelensky rift as US expects apology, Bloomberg reports.

Amid the diplomatic fallout, the Trump administration has privately signaled that it expects a public apology from President Volodymyr Zelensky to mend relations, European officials told Bloomberg.
Starmer aims to bridge Trump-Zelensky rift as US expects apology, Bloomberg reports
Amid the diplomatic fallout, the Trump administration has privately signaled that it expects a public apology from President Volodymyr Zelensky to mend relations, European officials told Bloomberg.
kyivindependent.com
March 2, 2025 at 1:28 AM
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Zelensky is a wartime leader watching his people suffer and die under Russian attacks every day. To be lectured and lied to by Trump and Vance, as they defend the war criminal dictator committing these atrocities, is unimaginable agony. An everlasting shame for America.
Trump has not uttered a critical word about Putin but he and his VP publicly belittled the leader of the nation Putin invaded.
February 28, 2025 at 7:15 PM
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Zelensky is a hero by any sensible measure. A leader inspiring his nation in the midst of an invasion by a powerful, repressive dictatorship. The fact that any American can think of him as the bad guy just demonstrates the triumph of tribalism over principle.
Republicans are lining up to denounce Zelensky because their base was seduced by a cranky old racist with a fondness for dictators. Just wild how the whims, prejudices, and weird obsessions of a senile 78-year-old have completely supplanted the party’s priorities — and reshuffled the world order.
March 1, 2025 at 12:40 AM
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Trump and Vance needed to create an incident to provide a justification for their pre-planned abandonment of Ukraine now, then separation from NATO in the near future. That’s what that was all about, and that was always the way a second Trump term was going to go.
February 28, 2025 at 8:28 PM
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Years ago I wrote an article for Slate detailing why RFK Jr. is an anti-vaxxer, and he was so pissed he called my editor and gave her a spittle-flecked rant for an hour.

Yet here we are.
February 21, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted
These 7 anti-science myths threaten modern-day society

Science tells us what's real/true about our physical reality, and is perhaps the only "way of knowing" that leads us to facts.

These 7 myths need to die if we're to move forward in the 21st century.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#science
These 7 anti-science myths threaten modern-day society
We're all entitled to our own opinions, no matter how ill-informed they are. But facts are facts; we can't just choose the ones we prefer.
bigthink.com
February 20, 2025 at 4:08 PM