VM

1. Stop sharing people's phone numbers unless you have their explicit permission to do so. 2. My phone number is my property, and only I can decide what to do with my property. 3. My profession and who you're sharing it with are both inconsequential.

Is it coincidental that more ‘complicated’ pathogens to vaccinate against and more poverty/poorer countries share a geographic area? rootprivileges.net/2026/05/25/peo…

"Are we going to let gatekeepers like Scott decide who gets to contribute based on prejudice? Or are we going to evaluate code on its merits and welcome contributions from anyone, human or AI, who can move the project forward? I know where I stand." theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-pu…

How a journalism of ecology treats a community — as a steward rather than as an encroacher, say — will influence how policy ‘sees’ the community as well as how the community must ‘see’ itself in order to be visible to the institutions that govern it rootprivileges.net/2026/05/17/why…

It's time to stop brushing these comments off as harmless banter. Read more: srkl.in/6010B7braM

Through the intimate story of a family in exile, Shida Bazyar’s 'The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran', an International Booker-shortlisted novel, captures the trauma and cost of revolution ✍️@1amnerd thehindu.com/books/books-re…

Westerlund 2 is a young cluster of thousands of stars located about 20,000 light-years from Earth. This close-up image, roughly 12 light-years across, combines observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory & @NASAWebb.✨

Demographic shifts and the rise of Hindutva in Kanniyakumari district thehindu.com/news/national/…

With elections done, PM Modi urges citizens to cut fuel use, avoid foreign travel. PM to leave for 7-day trip to UAE, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway and Italy on Friday. thehindu.com/news/national/…

A study in Germany found that a brief intervention, in the form of a seven-minute-long video, could improve journalists' ability to craft accurate science headlines. I don't think such a simple intervention could work in India. thehindu.com/sci-tech/scien…

The prevailing assumption is simple: remove the invasive species and ecological recovery will follow. Before accepting that, however, one must first ask: what condition was the landscape in before these species spread, and what conditions now sustain them? thehindu.com/sci-tech/energ…

@Kaju_Nut How does anyone go from string theory to Avi Loeb?

Of course that's your contention. You are a vicarious iconoclast. You just finished watching a video, Hossenfelder probably. You're gonna be railing about how string theory is a hoax. That's gonna last a year. Then you're gonna be in here regurgitating Avi Loeb, talkin' about, you know, how comets are alien probes and how mainstream science is suppressing this truth.

I’ve started a series in The Hindu (@the_hindu ) called the Examined World, a “contemplative series exploring what the sciences reveal about us”. Here is a link (thehindu.com/sci-tech/scien…) to the first piece l which Is about how ideas can have a long reach and impact, and how impact and application can stimulate such ideas. The title of the piece and the picture in the article is a bit of a ‘click-bait’ into the GMO debate, but that is not the principal thrust—just a very important example. The principal question is really that if ideas and consequential directions can steer biotech in new ways; what is the crucible that can generate such ideas how can their consequences be regulated? Here are excerpts that summarise the thesis. Feedback and critiques much appreciated.

I need more examples of people in academia who haven't had a linear path at all and missed years on the way to PhD and still did their PhD. I don't wanna feel all isolated here 🫩

Apollo 8 captured the earthrise image the same year 🇺🇸 forces were responsible for the My Lai massacre in 🇻🇳. On April 6, the Artemis II crew captured an earthset months after the first casualty of coordinated strikes by 🇺🇸and 🇮🇱 against 🇮🇷 was a school. thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/…

At the heart of Noida industrial protests is the hasty implementation of the four Labour Codes by the Centre on Nov 21,2025. work-hours increased to 12 hours, leaving the contractual workers in a lurch, add to this the LPG price-rise. They hoped some respite from April 1, which never came. Read this important perspective by @jigeesham in The Hindu thehindu.com/news/national/…

In today's must read is @the_hindu editorial that strips away the veneer of the proposed 33% reservation for women in Parliament, exposing the more troubling truths it attempts to conceal thehindu.com/opinion/editor…

@aliciaandrz Happy birthday, Dr Andrzejewski. :) I love your feed on here. Best wishes for the talk and everything you do.

happy birthday to me. this is 38 (ready to give a big invited talk on my second book).

Yes

Ernaux is sharply aware of the limits of writing as a corrective to injustice. Personal accomplishment cannot erase centuries of oppression and humiliation, of being “the last in a line of landless labourers, factory workers and shopkeepers…” thehindu.com/books/from-mem…