Scientists are generally not stupid. They will not toil away in their garages trying to replicate million dollar laboratories. They will go work for people who have money, like oil companies and hedge funds.

I read primary scientific literature for work. If I am reading for leisure, fantasy is the absolute best. I can’t waste my time reading nonfiction.

I missed that. Seems like they are already using it to send anybody they don’t like.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/guantanamo-bay-immigration-detainees-asia-africa-europe/

The displays at pretty much every bookstore I have been to recently are pretty massive. And kids still like the stories. It is hard to argue against a small child who is begging to read a massive book, as opposed to a kid wanting to stare at a screen all day.

Like when our dog died, my dad tanned the hide, wore it as a cape, and played with the other dog?

I mainly use Lemmy. Reddit for search results, haven’t seen the home page in years. Never had Twitter or Instagram or TikTok. Still watch a lot of YouTube, mostly for either chess content or movie reviews, sometimes tutorials or professional lectures. Use Facebook for talking to exactly two friends.

Logged into Facebook the other day and saw a friend request. The name was familiar, but not exactly, so I checked the profile. Soon realized he was my ex-girlfriend.

Anybody else remember Cheyney singing “bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran?”

Thousands of dollars for your books? Three books hardly counts as a collection.

I just finished marking student reports. There are some sections clearly written without AI, some that clearly are written by AI, and then some sections where the ideas are correct, the grammar is perfect, and it is on topic, but it doesn’t seem like it is written in the student’s voice. Could be AI, could be a friend editing, could be plagiarism, could be written long before or after the surrounding paragraphs. It is not always obvious, and the edge cases are the problem.

Perfect grammar and slightly unusual words in a paragraph. Could be a weird formulation from a student’s mind, could be AI. No way to really know.

I am nearly twice your age. Pretty much everybody has been through a version of what you are experiencing. Two things you must know.

1: You had a relationship that was valuable enough to you that losing it hurt. That is special in itself, and you need to consider the good thing that you had. Seeing a concert is ephemeral, but you remember the music and performance positively. Think of the relationship this way, also.

2: Give yourself time to mourn. Mourning is natural, and it is a process, but there is an endpoint. Many have walked this path and come out on the other end.

You are young, and you will have many more experiences in your life. Some positive, some negative. But your life is far from over.

Take a day, go for a long walk at the beach or park or nature trail. Cry, weep, wail, knash your teeth. Then move on.

A few years before WWI, Russia had a disastrous war against the Japanese, whom they had considered an inferior, small opponent that would be defeated quickly.

Time is a flat circle.

These are research grants. Trade schools do not do the type of research Harvard scientists do. It is the leading research institution in the world for many fields. Most of those grants are on the order of less than a million dollars and fund young, untenured researchers who will become the next generation of scientists. Alum sponsorships are almost always earmarked, and never for research purposes.

Stopped at re-entry to the US.

Just had a prominent colleague return from a conference in Italy. He was stopped at the border and questioned for several hours, making him miss his flight.

1. The Colour of Magic
2. The Light Fantastic
3. Everything else

You need to read more Terry Pratchett.

Of course, everyone does.

It has added some new jokes at the braai. Also spawned arguments about who wants Elon the least.

Deporting legal immigrants with proper documentation has happened already.

Deporting valid visa holders after cancelling a visa for no clear reason has happened.

Tarrifs have been instated, removed, reinstated, and modified based on whims of the president.

Judges made legal decisions, which is their job, and we’re subsequently harassed by ICE.

DOGE has done irreparable harm to the well established, decades old infrastructure that the country runs on. Because of their decisions, top-level scientists are fleeing the country, programs to help people around the world and project US power have been dissolved with no warning, and institutions across the country have been thrown into disarray. There is no indication that the individuals involved know what they are breaking or have any plan to repair it.

If you are, in fact, living under a rock, then looking into all of these things might be a good start. You might then want to look into the history of Nazi Germany in the mid 1930’s to see how they destroyed democracy back then, and see how things happening now mirror what was happening then.

They can be cold as a frozen thermometer in December if you ask about the weather in July.