Hacker News: pmags

New comment by pmags in "U.S. measles cases reach 33-year high as outbreaks spread"

pmags — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 15:21:15 +0000

Useful graphics in this NY Times article on the numbers and geography of the outbreak:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/well/us-measles-record-ou...

The Gutting of America's Medical Research

pmags — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 14:10:47 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/04/health/trump-cuts-nih-grants-research.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44180921

Points: 91

# Comments: 88

New comment by pmags in "The White House Vision for Dismantling Science"

pmags — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 16:26:15 +0000

Your comment suggests that you fundamentally misunderstand the process of scientific discovery and innovation, how the American scientific ecosystem works, or how the economic and technological return on scientific investment has helped to propel the US for the last 70 years.

The White House Vision for Dismantling Science

pmags — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 15:15:36 +0000

Article URL: https://joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/the-white-house-vision-for-dismantling

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44151500

Points: 8

# Comments: 5

New comment by pmags in "Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades"

pmags — Thu, 22 May 2025 16:56:25 +0000

If you have any doubts that Trump 2.0 will destroy the American scientific workforce for years to come, this summary of cuts at NSF makes the case very strongly.

Engineering: -57%

Math, Physics, Chemistry: -67%

STEM Education: -80%

... and the list goes on...

New comment by pmags in "FDA will limit Covid vaccines to people over 65 or high risk of serious illness"

pmags — Tue, 20 May 2025 19:35:00 +0000

I already had "deny access to life saving medicines and public health improvements" on my Trump 2.0 bingo card.

What do I win besides greater probability of serious viral infection?

New comment by pmags in "Model Organisms Are Not Static"

pmags — Thu, 15 May 2025 17:00:25 +0000

This is a real and important challenge, which is even further exacerbated if you work on microbial organisms. I can easily think of a half dozen times in my own research where we tracked down differences in phenotype between ostensibly isogenic strains from different labs that turned out to be the result of in lab evolution.

Trump Administration Cancels Scores of Grants to Study Online Misinformation

pmags — Thu, 15 May 2025 16:30:38 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/business/trump-online-misinformation-grants.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43996675

Points: 9

# Comments: 0

New comment by pmags in "[dead]"

pmags — Wed, 14 May 2025 17:38:58 +0000

Trump's 'fear factor': Scientists go silent as funding cuts escalate

pmags — Tue, 13 May 2025 21:04:10 +0000

Article URL: https://www.science.org/content/article/trump-s-fear-factor-scientists-go-silent-funding-cuts-escalate

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43977708

Points: 8

# Comments: 0

US administration proposes to cancel Mars Sample Return mission

pmags — Sat, 10 May 2025 15:06:46 +0000

Article URL: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-budget-calls-for-stranding-nasas-mars-samples-on-the-red-planet/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43946253

Points: 8

# Comments: 1

New comment by pmags in "Trump just made it much harder to track the nation's worst weather disasters"

pmags — Fri, 09 May 2025 16:38:14 +0000

You mean like this?

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/06/politics/trump-sharpie-hurric...

New comment by pmags in "National Snow and Ice Data Center changes service level to key sea ice datasets"

pmags — Fri, 09 May 2025 16:31:48 +0000

The US government is playing "hide the data".

The Actual Math Behind DOGE's Cuts

pmags — Fri, 09 May 2025 13:41:41 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/05/musk-doge-spending-cuts/682736/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43936635

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by pmags in "Recency and geog origins of the bat viruses ancestral to SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2"

pmags — Wed, 07 May 2025 20:32:02 +0000

And a related piece on this article in the NY Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/science/covid-coronavirus...

New comment by pmags in "White House budget seeks to end SLS, Orion, and Lunar Gateway programs"

pmags — Tue, 06 May 2025 16:04:44 +0000

That's a bizarre interpretation if you bother to take a few minutes to look at the flagged/dead posts on 'newest' of late.

Almost anything policy-adjacent gets shut down almost immediately even if it has a strong tech or science angle.

New comment by pmags in "Carolina Eyck, renowned superstar of the theremin"

pmags — Tue, 06 May 2025 12:50:12 +0000

The synth company SOMA has an interesting new theremin-like synth called Flux, that uses magnetic "bows". See:

https://somasynths.com/flux/

New comment by pmags in "Citing NIH Cuts, a Top Science Journal Stops Accepting Submissions"

pmags — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 15:47:39 +0000

The journal in question, Environmental Health Perspectives, doesn't charge submission fees and is open access (articles are freely available to everyone to read). Its impact factor puts it among the top journals in the fields of toxicology and Public and Environmental Health (https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/journal/ehp/journal-impact-factor).

The article notes that two other open access journals, published by the CDC are also potentially on the chopping block at HHS:

• Emerging Infectious Diseases • Preventing Chronic Disease

Citing NIH Cuts, a Top Science Journal Stops Accepting Submissions

pmags — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 15:47:39 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/science/science-journal-environment-trump.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43846880

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by pmags in "Ted Kaczynski's brother wrote him for decades to explain why he turned him in"

pmags — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 22:03:02 +0000

This is an odd interpretation if the details cited in the NY Times articles are correct:

> When he informed Ted of his marriage plans, Ted, who had never met Ms. Patrik, fumed, and warned him, in what David called a “vicious” letter, that he was making the biggest mistake of his life. Ted then severed virtually all communication with him.

From this quote it seems like Ted Kaczynski had already cut off most communication with his brother w/out ever meeting the wife.