Interesting Links for 10-11-2025

[andrewducker]

1. How the world's richest man is boosting the British right

(tags:politics fascism ElonMusk twitter bias )

2. James Watson: From DNA pioneer to untouchable pariah

(tags:biography DNA history viaPatrickHadfield )

3. Fact-Checking Claims About Zohran Mamdani

(tags:politics usa satire funny )

4. Reminder that the New York Times regularly prints hateful nonsense (an article about someone they tried to interview about Zohran Mamdani)

(tags:politics newyork journalism OhForFucksSake USA viaKenny )

5. A bunch of engineers built a drifting wheelchair for an injured coworker. It looks awesome.

(tags:disability engineering video )

6. The nature of the last universal common ancestor and its impact on the early Earth system

(tags:biology genetics earth )

7. Meet the teen behind the Louvre 'Fedora Man' mystery photo

(tags:france police photos crime Paris style )

8. New flu virus mutation could see 'worst season in a decade' (get your vaccinations!)

(tags:flu doom )

9. Long-term Melatonin use associated with much higher risk of heart problems and death

(tags:medicine heart )

10. Senate Democrats Just Made a Huge Mistake

(tags:usa politics )

11. Scotland's first commercial windfarm will be able to deliver five times more clean power than before after being upgraded

(tags:scotland windpower GoodNews )

Comments

[juan_gandhi]

This is a great list of news; thank you so much! (Especially that boy in Fedora, he's so impressive.)

[andrewducker]

He is! I hope he doesn't turn out to be a terrible human being in a week or two!

[nancylebov]

5. I hope the wheelchair will be mass-produced.

[andrewducker]

I am curious why better wheelchairs aren't more common. I wonder if there's are safety/cost factors.

[nancylebov]

I think part of it is money, but having recently spent some time in a hospital, it's reinforced my opinion that patients are low status so what is made for them is apt to be ugly. There are some efforts at not being too uncomfortable.

Perhaps making something as nice as that wheelchair takes personal liking as well as skills.

[dreamaastrid]

Loved the wheelchair

[simont]

#5: I feel the video missed an opportunity to do the Akira slide :-)

[andrewducker]

That would have been awesome. But even harder in a wheelchair than on a bike!

[calimac]

2) Nice explanation of how his genius and his repulsiveness were expressions of the same characteristic. It should be noted, too, that though he supported women scientists in his earlier years, his sexism was there from the beginning. The Double Helix reeks with treating women primarily as eye candy.

3) And I saw somewhere a link to an article (though I didn't read it) actually interviewing communists explaining why Mamdani isn't one.

6) The phrase "early Earth system" makes the article sound astronomical.

10) That was my first reaction too.

#9 melatonin

[mellowtigger]

Hmmm. That's troubling news. Let's hope it remains only an association (people with insomnia have stress and other issues too, I think) rather than a cause. I don't take it daily, and there are weeks that I take nothing, but I do keep a bottle by my bed for nights when I really need to sleep.

[cellio]

10 -- yeah, that was a total screw-up on their part, and I don't understand why they caved now, getting nothing. What were the last six weeks about, then? Unforced error at the expense of everyone who buys health insurance. Appalling.

[andrewducker]

Interesting piece here on that: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/11/democrats-folded-government-shutdown-end/684885/