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Mary Had Schizophrenia—Then Suddenly She Didn’t

August 16, 2025 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Schizophrenia is not a single disease, it is a very consuming one, taking up large numbers of both medical resources, research, and of course, millions of shattered lives. In the April 25, 2025 New Yorker, Rachel Aviv (Mary Had Schizophrenia—Then Suddenly She Didn’t) follows the trajectory of a woman with a 20 year history of … [Read more…]

Posted in: Environment, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Science, What I Read Tagged: autoimmune therapies, immunological, immunotherapy, lupis, mental illness, NMDA receptor, rituximab, Schizophrenia, Stavros Niarchos Foundation

Mary K. Gaillard, physicist who broke a ceiling in subatomic research, dies at 86

August 1, 2025 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Mary K. Gaillard NYT obituary on August 1, 2025 tells a tale of sexism in the sciences. No Nobel for you young lady, wrong gender. Overcoming discrimination in a mostly male preserve, she did groundbreaking work that showed experimentalist physicists where and how to look for new particles.

Posted in: Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Feminism, Obituaries, Science Tagged: Bruno Zumino, CERN, discrimination, experimentalist physicist, female physicist, Fermilab, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Mary K. Gaillard, National Science Board, University of California Berkeley

Herbert J. Gans, 97, Dies; Upended Myths on Urban and Suburban Life

April 23, 2025 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Herbert J. Gans an eminent sociologist who studied the communities and cultural bastions of America up close and shattered popular myths about urban and suburban life, poverty, ethnic groups and the news media, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 97. For “The Urban Villagers” (1962), Dr. Gans immersed himself in Boston’s … [Read more…]

Posted in: Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Obituaries, Politics, Racism, Science, Thinking about Tagged: economic problems, Herbert Gans, Herbert J. Gans, highbrow and popular cultures, Kerner Commission, liberal activist, Nixon, nostalgia for the rural past, race relations, The Urban Villagers

James C. Scott and the Art of Resistance

April 18, 2025 by sergneri Leave a Comment

James C. Scott and the Art of Resistance The late political scientist enjoined readers to look for opposition to authoritarian states not in revolutionary vanguards but in acts of quiet disobedience. By Nikil Saval New Yorker April 7, 2025 Some books: The Moral traditional societies of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (1976) … [Read more…]

Posted in: Environment, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, History, Obituaries, Politics, Racism, Science, Slavery, the Anthropocene, Thinking about Tagged: Authoritarian, authoritarian states, Autonomy, Dignity, disobedience, infrapolitics, James C. Scott, Meaningful Play, Meaningful Work, New Yorker, political scientist, Resistance, revolutionary vanguards, Seeing Like a State, Southeast Asia, traditional societies

Pluralistic: Machina economicus (14 Apr 2025)

April 15, 2025 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Pluralistic: Machina economicus (14 Apr 2025) Arguably, we do live in the shadow of such modern demons: we call them “limited liability corporations.” These are (potentially) immortal colony organisms that treat us fleshy humans as mere inconvenient gut flora. These artificial persons are not merely recognized as people under the law – they are given … [Read more…]

Posted in: Environment, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Finanace, Future of Work, IT Failures, Politics, Racism, Science, Slavery, the Anthropocene, Thinking about Tagged: AI, antitrust, artificial intelligence, Cory Doctorow, enshittification, Homo economicus, IP laws, limited liability corporations, mass layoffs, regulatory capture, Yochai Benkler

‘Parkinson’s is a man-made disease’

April 15, 2025 by sergneri Leave a Comment

‘Parkinson’s is a man-made disease’ – Europe’s flawed oversight of pesticides may be fueling a silent epidemic, warns Dutch neurologist Bas Bloem. His fight for reform pits him against industry, regulators — and time. politico.eu

Posted in: Climate Change, Environment, Ethical and green living, Politics, Science, the Anthropocene Tagged: Air pollution, Bas Bloem, Bayer, carcinogenic, disease, European Food Safety Authority, Farmer, glyphosate, herbicide, industrial solvents, intensive agriculture, Monsanto, MPTP, multiple sclerosis, neurologist, neurotoxic, Paraquat, Parkinson's, pesticides, Radboud University Medical Center, Ray Dorsey, Roundup, stroke, substantia nigra, Syngenta, William Langston

‘Yoda’ for scientists: the outsider ecologist whose ideas from the 80s just might fix our future

April 10, 2025 by sergneri Leave a Comment

‘Yoda’ for scientists: the outsider ecologist whose ideas from the 80s just might fix our future The Guardian – April 10, 2025 John Todd’s eco-machine stunned experts by using natural organisms to remove toxic waste from a Cape Cod lagoon. Forty years on, he wants to build a fleet of them to clean up the … [Read more…]

Posted in: Climate Change, Environment, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Politics, Science, the Anthropocene Tagged: Bill McClarney, biological intelligence, Cape Cod, eco-machine, John Todd, microorganisms, Nancy Todd, New Alchemy Institute, pollution, sewage, toxic waste, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

Why some chaos-seekers just want to watch the world burn

February 25, 2025 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Stealing (copying) directly from Science News: Why some chaos-seekers just want to watch the world burn This article is an interview with political scientist Kevin Arceneaux of the research university Sciences Po in Paris, France. In it, he and the author Sujata Gupta discuss this very relevant aspect of human behavior. Arceneaux helps us understand … [Read more…]

Posted in: Ethical and green living, History, Politics, Racism, Science, the Anthropocene, Thinking about, Trump Tagged: chaos, DEI, dissatisfaction, Donald Trump, globalization, Hugo Chavez, Inequality, Kevin Arceneaux, misinformation, populism, rebuilders, Science News, status loss, Sujata Gupta

Olive Flowers Magnified

February 19, 2025 by sergneri Leave a Comment

The twig of olive flowers I found in the backyard, courtesy of my neighbor and a high wind: This stacked image of an olive flower was made with low magnification.

Posted in: Content, Photography, Science, Thinking about Tagged: February 2025, microscope, olive flower, stacked images

Brain Eating Fungus?

October 12, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Just finished reading I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is What’s happening in America today is something darker than a misinformation crisis. (gift link) and realize now that there is a brain eating fungus out there that has manifested itself in key spore producers like MTG and Loomer et al. At … [Read more…]

Posted in: Climate Change, Environment, Ethical and green living, IT Failures, Politics, Racism, Science, Sea Stories, the Anthropocene, Trump, Uncategorized Tagged: delusion, Hurricane Milton, Hurricanes, Loomer, misinformation, MTG, transgender, Trump
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