Free Speech, Harassment and Hypocrisy: What the University Presidents Got Right and Wrong
The present moment seems to demand more from the university presidents than they are capable of delivering.
Author: Michael Siegel
The Boy and the Heron: Miyazaki Takes a Bow
Miyazaki taking one last chance to repeat everything he’s been trying to say while still dazzling us with a fresh and original story.
Thursday Throughput: Schooling Edition
A bevy of results have emerged that have shown, pretty conclusively, that the last few years saw the biggest drop in learning ever measured
2023 Turkeys and Drumsticks: The Year of Finding Out
I take advantage of the Thanksgiving Holiday to give out my awards for 2023 Turkeys of the Year and Golden Drumsticks.
Throughput: Worlds Collide Edition
The collision hypothesis: that the early Earth collided with a Mars-sized object. This week, we got a big hint that this theory is right.
Throughput: Leaky International Space Station Edition
Earlier this week, the International Space Station sprung a leak. The leak was not life-threatening, but was concerning.
Mini Video Throughput: Emergency Zombies, Neuralink and iPhones
So was there a reason to fear that the test of the Emergency Alert System earlier this week? No. Glad we could have this conversation.
Who is This “They” of Whom You Speak, Russell Brand?
The question I’m beginning to ask more and more when I see this sort of thing is: who the hell is this “they” you’re talking about? Let’s go through this…
Thursday Throughput: Decongestant Edition
And so here we are, 16 years later, a nation of 330 million people sniffing, snarking and snarling because a drug that has never demonstrated efficacy beyond placebo was foisted upon us as a replacement for a drug that actually, you know worked.
Mini-Throughput: Masks, Redux
I don’t like masks but the hysteria over them seems fantastically out of proportion. I’m also not sure that we need to bring back mask mandates under the present circumstances.
Video Throughput: Lunar Excursion Module
Time to talk about one of the most amazing real-life spaceships ever built — the Lunar Excursion Model. With LEGO.
Thursday Throughput: HELA Edition
There are more HeLa cells out there than there were in Lacks entire body. The problem is that none of this was consented to by Lacks or her family and they never received a dime from it.
All the President’s Charges: On Donald Trump and Pounding The Table
The last of four major indictments of Donald Trump finally dropped this week, assuming he hasn’t committed any crimes in the last 48 hours.
If This is 1776, John Eastman, You’re On The Other Side
Trump Republicans are not 1776 colonists, they are George III having a fit that Parliament exists. And John Eastman is the apotheosis of this.
Mini-Throughput: Floaty Rock Edition
So my response to LK-99 is a shrug emoji. It could be the most important discovery in our lifetimes. It could be nothing. It could be anywhere in between.
Mini-Throughput: Einstein’s Greatest Mistake Edition
Einstein’s greatest mistake may not have been his greatest mistake. It may have been his most spectacular and enduring insight.
Thursday Throughput: Aspartame Edition
Aspartame is one of the most studied food additives in the human food supply. FDA scientists do not have safety concerns when aspartame is used under the approved conditions.
Video Throughput: The Wandering Earth
The Chinese blockbuster “The Wandering Earth” which is about … uh … a wandering Earth. Could the Sun actually become dangerous to our survival? Could you really push Earth out of its orbit?
Ripples in the Galaxy
By studying many pulsars all over the sky, you can see those ripples propagate across the galaxy, like measuring a tsunami wave from orbit.
