AlexM

Specialized R packages for spatial machine learning: An introduction to RandomForestsGLS, spatialRF, and meteo r-bloggers.com/2025/06/specia… via @Rbloggers

Why did USAID sponsor the 70-NGO consortium that directly threatened newly elected 2019 President Zelensky in Ukraine with 25 "Red Lines Not To Be Crossed" by his new government, ensuring USAID grantees controlled virtually every facet of how Ukraine could run its own country?

@ChakhoyanAndrew @lexfridman You could save a lot of wording. No peace, let's just go on with the war no matter how many more Ukrainians would eventually die. That's your point.

Given what you just wrote, how did you think it was a good idea to suggest an interview in russian? You mentioned Babyn Yar—how do you not see the parallels after visiting Bucha? And don’t try to “push for peace” in Ukraine 🇺🇦. No one wants peace more than Ukrainians.

I'm in Kyiv to interview President Zelenskyy, trying to do my small part in pushing for peace. This photo is of me visiting Babi Yar yesterday, a place where many in my family were slaughtered by Nazi forces in 1941. They were ordered to gather with valuables with the promise they'd be "resettled", and then forced to lay down in this ravine on top of other people's bodies and were shot. Over 30,000 people were slaughtered in this way in just 2 days. Let me add another note, because sadly I'm attacked a lot online by all sides but in this case Ukrainian people. I'm told by many Ukrainian friends (living in Ukraine) that the attacks are voices propped up by Ukrainian bot farms. I disagree, and I think it's not a good way to operate intellectually, thinking that anyone attacking me is a bot, and anyone supporting me is a smart thoughtful human being 🤣 Maybe it's true sometimes, but it's better to assume it's not. I prefer to assume it's just a lot of passionate people who care about Ukraine and yes sometimes get caught up in the witch-burning hysteria of the crowd. The far left and far right in United States did this a lot over the past few years. Anyway, in the previous post, I already correcting a bunch of lies spread about me online about my my background. I explained my family roots in Ukraine, and now let me add some more context to the pile about my previous visit to Ukraine during the war. I visited Ukraine in summer of 2022, traveling to Bucha, Borodyanka, Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, and several places on the front in Kherson Oblast. This trip was personal. Most of it was not recorded, and was not meant to be recorded. I had two goals for the trip: 1. To interview President Zelenskyy 2. For me to personally understand and feel the reality of this war. For the first part, President Zelenskyy eventually agreed, and that's why I'm back in Kyiv. For the second part, I spoke with hundreds of people off-mic (not recorded, just human to human), including soldiers, civilians, politicians, artists, religious leaders, journalists, economists, historians, and technologists. I recorded only a tiny number of these, with no intent to publish them as standalone episodes, but instead to maybe consider including them in a documentary-style video as part of a Zelensky interview (if it happens during the 2022 visit), kind of like David Letterman did. But the project quickly fell apart and started to not make sense, not in the way I was approaching it. As I was speaking with people (off-mic), the conversations I enjoyed having most and that I felt would powerfully show the beauty and pain of Ukrainian people in this war would be with hundreds of soldiers and civilians. The interviews I DID record were simply just not good conversations, and it's my fault, and I take full responsibility for that. They were short (by my standard: ~1 hour) where I asked disparate generic questions, which resulted in shallow generic conversation. I quickly realized that I would need to change my approach. I would need to either make a documentary by recording hundreds of conversations with soldiers & civilians or do full normal deep-dive 3-5+ hour podcasts with individual people. I agreed to do the latter with a few folks I met, including President Zelenskyy. I did an episode with Ukrainian historian Serhii Plokhy in this style. Almost all the people I spoke with on and off-mic have reached out with support and total understanding. Many have become good friends. Still, I'm deeply sorry for the many ways I've failed in this effort, but I promise I'm working really hard to get better. I really do try with all my heart to speak to people from all sides with empathy, depth, and compassion. I'm sure the attacks will continue, but at least now you have some more context. Sorry for the long post, and any mistakes (I didn't proofread). I'm writing it looking over Kyiv as the sun rises. Happy Holidays. I love you all ❤️

I am a political refugee from Ukraine, currently residing in the United States. Just now, the Zelensky-Yermak regime sent their security service, the SBU, to my mother. She is being arrested for sharing my video. I am urgently asking for your help! They want to imprison her FOR SHARING HER SON’S VIDEO! Please help! @RepSpartz @TuckerCarlson @DonaldJTrumpJr

In 2017, I did something dumb. There was a total solar eclipse passing through the US, but I was in NY, far from the path. Was I really gonna get on a plane to see a cool thing for two minutes? Nah. I had shit to do. The day came. I put my stupid glasses on and saw the sun become a little less big and then back to being full size again. It was mildly interesting. Then the reports started coming in from the people who had seen it from the totality zone. People were like "it was an indescribably profound, perspective-shifting, life-altering experience." They were like "I'm a different person now, someone who can only be understood by other people who saw the total solar eclipse." It was massively fomo-y and upsetting. Solar eclipses happen when the moon passes directly through the invisible line connecting the sun and Earth, something that doesn't happen very often because space is big and the invisible line is skinny. Earthlings are very lucky, eclipse-wise. Most planets don't have a big enough moon to create a total solar eclipse. Not only is our moon big enough, it's about exactly the size of the sun in our night sky because, by sheer coincidence, the sun is about 400 times farther from us than the moon and also about 400 times bigger than the moon in diameter—making our eclipses especially breathtaking. There are about 70 total solar eclipses every century, each resulting in a thin path of total sun blockage. For most of history, there was no way to know when or where they would happen. Only the very lucky few who happened to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right weather, got to experience a total solar eclipse. Today you can ensure that you see one—and I had passed up the opportunity. I would not make the mistake again. I went online and learned that there would be another total solar eclipse passing through the US in 2024, and then that would be it until 2045. It went on my calendar that day. As fortune would have it, the 2024 eclipse's path of magical totality would be passing right over my new hometown of Austin, Texas. It was perfect. Then came the weather reports. Austin was going to be cloudy on eclipse day. Nope. Not okay. It wasn't an option to not see this eclipse. My friend @Liv_Boeree was equally psychotic about this, so we decided on Sunday night that Monday morning we'd get on a flight to somewhere in the eclipse's path that was forecast to have clear skies. We settled on Arkansas. Early the next morning we flew to Little Rock, got in a car, and drove northwest to get to the dead center of the totality path, where the total eclipse would last for more than three minutes. We ended up in a big open rural field that may or may not have been part of someone's farm. It was us and some cows. The sky was perfectly clear. 30 minutes until totality. I looked through my glasses at a crescent sun. It seemed a little dimmer out than usual, but only a little. 20 minutes. Thinner crescent, a tad dim, maybe a tad cooler than it was before? 10 minutes. Razor thin crescent now, definitely weird lighting. Because all of the light is coming from one small area, shadows are very sharp. You can see the shadow of individual hairs on your head. 1 minute. It's very dim, like early evening, but still feels like daytime generally. Waves of light and dark ripple across the ground, like the way light moves at the bottom of a swimming pool. 5 seconds. Diamond ring! I take off my glasses and the diamond ring looks strikingly beautiful and strange (google "eclipse diamond ring" to see what I'm talking about). 4 seconds to 1 second. The Earth's dimmer switch suddenly goes downnnnn as dim daylight drops into night. Totality. Imagine a world where there was always cloud cover, and one day every few years, in certain places, the sky cleared at night, and you could see stars for the first time in your life. It would be a totally surreal experience, something that reminded you that you don't live in a big world but on the edge of a tiny rock in vast outer space. It would show you the truth about reality. We see stars all the time, so we're well-acquainted with our reality living in outer space (even if it's easy to forget during the day). But when I looked up at the sky during the total eclipse, it was the first time I had experienced another, totally different way to see with my eyes that I lived in outer space. I saw one sphere positioned in front of another sphere, with two other spheres—Venus and Jupiter—floating nearby. More than ever before, it felt obvious that I was standing on the edge of a fifth sphere. For the first time in my life, I was looking at the Solar System. I looked around. There was a dim 360° sunset along the entire horizon—another first. It was dark. At 2pm. By a minute in, there was a chorus of chirping crickets that hadn't been there before. Birds were flying around overhead that hadn't been there before. The cows continued being cows but I assume they were super confused. I looked back up at the Solar System and noticed a little imperfection on the edge of the black moon circle, which I realized must be a solar flare. A solar flare I could see with my naked eye. Only half of my brain was focused on the eclipse because the other half was frantically trying to figure out how to best use the precious three minutes. I told myself I wouldn't spend more than 30 seconds of the three minutes doing stuff with my camera, but I was not gonna not take pics. I got things all focused and snapped this gem: Just kidding that's @AJamesMcCarthy's photo. But mine was pretty good too. Okay fine that one was taken by @NASA. Here's mine. Whatever. Anyway, eventually it ended. The glorious diamond ring reappeared, followed by me being blinded before remembering to not look at the sun anymore. Earth's dimmer switch swooped back up, as night turned to day in a few surreal seconds. It was over. Thoughts were processed. Emotions were felt. It was very very VERY worth the last second trip. For any of you who pulled a 2017 Tim and decided not to see this one, I hope I've sufficiently fomo'd you into making sure you see this for yourself, sometime soon, in some part of the world. 🌻

#Russland|s Krieg hat dramatische Auswirkungen auf die Landschwirtschaft der #Ukraine. @oniviev1 & @rneyter (@kse_ua) und @MkrtchianAlex & @DanielMu11er (@iamoLeibniz) gehen in den neuen Ukraine-Analysen 294 den Schäden und Verlusten für den Agrarsektor nach

Jetzt bewerben: Studentische Mitarbeit (m/w/d) in der Forschungsgruppe „Land Systems Group“ iamo.de/karriere/stell… (Bewerbungsfrist: 1. März 2024) #Job #Hiwi #Landwirtschaft #Forschung #Wissenschaft #Agrarwissenschaften #Wirtschaftswissenschaften #Geografie