I…yet…live…sorta

Every year I tell my genetics students that once we start our crosses they are on fly time — you schedule your lab work around when the flies produce eggs and pupate and start breeding again, forget the registrar’s schedule. Now I have live by that, too. My gastrointestinal stress is over, I hope, but I’m feeling drained and exhausted, and am feeling intimidated by the need to put my socks on, but I must go into the lab today. The flies are calling to me.

Just to compound the difficulties, we had a blizzard and a white-out yesterday, and I don’t want to go out there. The temperature is supposed to drop to -21°F tonight, and I’m going to come home later to pick my wife up at work, because she doesn’t want to walk home when it’s that frigid.

And then I’m going to lie down under warm blankets and not move for a day.

Trump doesn’t get a consolation prize

Look at that shit-eating grin as Trump is given a Nobel prize by María Corina Machado, who doesn’t have the authority to award Nobel peace prizes.

It’s another embarrassment for the United States, that we elected this childish buffoon to the presidency. No, Donald, holding someone else’s prize does not mean you won it. I once got to briefly hold Harold Kroto’s Nobel, it does not mean I’m one of the premiere chemists of the age, and I would not go around smirking because I’d received a great honor. This is more like a spoiled child demanding a toy at the store, and a grown up getting tired of his whining and giving it to him. It’s more shame than honor.

Apparently, Trump has been hectoring Norwegian PM Støre to give him the award. The Nobel Peace Prize is not issued by the Norwegian government, but is handled by an independent committee, and Støre has nothing to do with it. The Nobel Foundation has since posted a rebuke of Trump’s nonsense, plainly stating that NO, he has not been awarded a Nobel prize. Naughty child. Keep crying and you’ll be sent to bed without your supper.

Statement from the Nobel Foundation
One of the core missions of the Nobel Foundation is to safeguard the dignity of the Nobel Prizes and their administration. The Foundation upholds Alfred Nobel’s will and its stipulations. It states that the prizes shall be awarded to those who “have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind,” and it specifies who has the right to award each respective prize. A prize can therefore not, even symbolically, be passed on or further distributed.

Compounding our humiliation, is now complaining to Støre that he has to give him Greenland. Støre does not have the authority to bestow Greenland on anyone — that’s a possession of Denmark. Denmark and Norway are two different countries. So he sent of this stupid letter.

Dear Ambassador:
President Trump has asked that the following message, shared with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, be forwarded to your [named head of government/state]
“Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, | no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. | have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT”

The country of Norway does not give Nobel prizes, Trump has not stopped 8 wars, Russia and China are not threatening to take over Greenland, we are. Well, Trump is — the majority of American oppose taking it over. Complaining that their only claim is because a boat landed there…well, yeah, that’s colonialism for you, and it’s the only basis for American ownership of this part of the continent.

This whole thing is the logic of a greedy baby.

Seriously, we need to get rid of this demented narcissist. And if Republicans can’t see reason, we need to get rid of them, too.

Zero surprise

Elon Musk declared that Wikipedia was “woke,” and started his own online encyclopedia titled “Grokipedia”. He was probably tempted to call it Xipedia, but decided to use a different ‘cool’ word. You will not be surprised that he chose the easy routed of stealing all of Wikipedia’s entries and dewokify it by spicing it up with racism. I’ll let someone else suffer the task of doing the actual comparisons.

In his latest quest to fix something far from broken, racist billionaire lunatic Elon Musk decided to unleash his own optimized version of Wikipedia, predictably named Grokipedia, onto the world this week. Now if, like Musk’s own children, you’re not a member of the Elon fan club, you can probably imagine why Musk took on this project. Here’s a man who purchased Twitter a few years ago specifically to refashion it into a neo-Nazi disinformation machine (check), insinuated himself with the second Trump administration so that he could hollow out the federal government (check), and designed electric cars that spontaneously combust, burning their liberal owners to death (check). There is nothing this man cannot make cheaper, wonkier and 20% more Hitler-y.

Plagiarism is not a mark of genius, if not being racist is all it takes to be “woke,” shouldn’t everyone aspire to be woke?

They’re not hiring the best

A stupid man

Do you like NASA and space research? Sorry, it’s all going away. The man in charge is not qualified, as if that is any surprise.

Sean Duffy, the acting administrator of NASA for a little more than a month, has vowed to make the United States great in space.

With a background as a US Congressman, reality TV star, and television commentator, Duffy did not come to the position with a deep well of knowledge about spaceflight. He also already had a lot on his plate, serving as the secretary of transportation, a Cabinet-level position that oversees 55,000 employees across 13 agencies.

Sean Duffy is not the right person to run just about anything. My brain shut down at “reality TV star”.

What he’s planning to do is worrisome.

Nevertheless, Duffy is putting his imprint on the space agency, seeking to emphasize the agency’s human exploration plans, including the development of a lunar base, and ending NASA’s efforts to study planet Earth and its changing climate.

Putting humans in space? Robots do it better. Let’s not look at the damage the Trump administration is doing to the Earth — turn off the satellites that are looking at the planet.

This is a good time to say “NO!”

There’s a letter floating around among American universities. It’s a good letter that expresses some commendable statements, but is a bit light on specific actions they’re going to take. They “reject the coercive use of public research funding,” which is nice, but how?

As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education. We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding.

America’s system of higher learning is as varied as the goals and dreams of the students it serves. It includes research universities and community colleges; comprehensive universities and liberal arts colleges; public institutions and private ones; freestanding and multi-site campuses. Some institutions are designed for all students, and others are dedicated to serving particular groups. Yet, American institutions of higher learning have in common the essential freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom. Our colleges and universities share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation.

Because of these freedoms, American institutions of higher learning are essential to American prosperity and serve as productive partners with government in promoting the common good. Colleges and universities are engines of opportunity and mobility, anchor institutions that contribute to economic and cultural vitality regionally and in our local communities. They foster creativity and innovation, provide human resources to meet the fast-changing demands of our dynamic workforce, and are themselves major employers. They nurture the scholarly pursuits that ensure America’s leadership in research, and many provide healthcare and other essential services. Most fundamentally, America’s colleges and universities prepare an educated citizenry to sustain our democracy.

The price of abridging the defining freedoms of American higher education will be paid by our students and our society. On behalf of our current and future students, and all who work at and benefit from our institutions, we call for constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic.

The letter has over 200 signatories, a good start. I notice, however, that the University of Minnesota is not one of them. Even Columbia has signed on, but my university is taking their sweet time. I heard from our chancellor that there is going to be a meeting this week to discuss our response to the Trump regime. I hope they come up with the right answer.