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David Mouritsen

@davidmouritsen.bsky.social
926 followers 1.7K following 4.1K posts

I started out in physics/astrophysics and mathematics. And I strangely wound up a creative director at design, advertising, and web technology agencies. Obsessed with history.

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Reposted by David Mouritsen
Jenny Cohn @jennycohn.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
“A Dishonorable Strike Indulging all assumptions in favor of the administration’s boat strikes, killing helpless men is murder” By Harvard Law Professor Jack Goldsmith (a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute & former head of the Office of Legal Counsel) 1/
execfunctions.org
A Dishonorable Strike
Indulging all assumptions in favor of the administration’s boat strikes, killing helpless men is murder
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Two words come to mind: “hoist” and “petard.” www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Major AI conference flooded with peer reviews written fully by AI
Controversy has erupted after 21% of manuscript reviews for an international AI conference were found to be generated by artificial intelligence.
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Putin gives an investment conference in St Petersburg, and no one comes... highlighting the instability and fragility of the Russian economy. www.ft.com/content/36b8...
ft.com
Vladimir Putin’s investment forum fails to attract western companies
Even Russia’s allies send lower-ranking officials and executives to St Petersburg — except Indonesia’s president
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
The formidable Martin Wolf writes about the Trumpist “pluto-populism” — a term Wolf himself coined back in 2006 — evident in the appalling “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”: www.ft.com/content/31f4...
A paragraph followed by two graphs from Martin Wolf’s 17 June 2025 article “For whom does Trump govern? The Big Beautiful Bill Act is a classic example of pluto-populism” on the website of The Financial Times.

The paragraph reads: “The Yale Budget Lab has estimated the impact of the tariffs implemented as of June 1 2025 and the OBBBA, as passed by the House of Representatives. Of course, the latter is likely to change. But the fact that it was passed by the House of Representatives at all is startling. In brief, the combination of tariff increases with the OBBBA “would reduce after-tax-and-transfer incomes on average among the bottom 80 per cent of US households. The bottom 10 per cent of households would see an average reduction of more than 6.5 per cent in incomes, while those at the top would see an increase of nearly 1.5 per cent.” (See charts.)”

The graphs are titled “For unto every one that hath shall be given but from him that hath not shall be taken away,” and subtitled “Combined distributional effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and of tariffs (average annual change in household resources, 2026-34).”
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) @hcrichardson.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
A short video about Juneteenth:
youtu.be
What is Juneteenth and Why Does it Matter: A Short History | Journey to American Democracy
YouTube video by Heather Cox Richardson
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
The formidable Martin Wolf writes about the Trumpist “pluto-populism” — a term Wolf himself coined back in 2006 — evident in the appalling “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”: www.ft.com/content/31f4...
A paragraph followed by two graphs from Martin Wolf’s 17 June 2025 article “For whom does Trump govern? The Big Beautiful Bill Act is a classic example of pluto-populism” on the website of The Financial Times.

The paragraph reads: “The Yale Budget Lab has estimated the impact of the tariffs implemented as of June 1 2025 and the OBBBA, as passed by the House of Representatives. Of course, the latter is likely to change. But the fact that it was passed by the House of Representatives at all is startling. In brief, the combination of tariff increases with the OBBBA “would reduce after-tax-and-transfer incomes on average among the bottom 80 per cent of US households. The bottom 10 per cent of households would see an average reduction of more than 6.5 per cent in incomes, while those at the top would see an increase of nearly 1.5 per cent.” (See charts.)”

The graphs are titled “For unto every one that hath shall be given but from him that hath not shall be taken away,” and subtitled “Combined distributional effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and of tariffs (average annual change in household resources, 2026-34).”
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
“Trump told reporters: ‘The UK is very well protected. You know why? Because I like them, that's why. That's the ultimate protection.’ Commenters often note that Trump talks like a mob boss, but rarely has his organized-crime style of governance been clearer than in yesterday’s statement.”
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
June 17, 2025
Yesterday at the meeting of the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), a forum of democracies with advanced economies, President Donald Trump told reporters: “The UK is very well protected.
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
“In the past, the NSF has usually enjoyed bipartisan support... But the ravages currently being inflicted upon the agency may bring a truly golden era of American science to a halt. … The Trump forces now directing the NSF have been terminating existing grants at a record pace…”
washingtonpost.com
Opinion | Trump is undermining U.S. science. Here’s why that’s dangerous.
Science has played a crucial role in making the United States great and powerful.
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
“Trump told reporters: ‘The UK is very well protected. You know why? Because I like them, that's why. That's the ultimate protection.’ Commenters often note that Trump talks like a mob boss, but rarely has his organized-crime style of governance been clearer than in yesterday’s statement.”
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
June 17, 2025
Yesterday at the meeting of the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), a forum of democracies with advanced economies, President Donald Trump told reporters: “The UK is very well protected.
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Prof Krugman (@pkrugman.bsky.social‬): “America is no longer a full-fledged democracy. We are currently living under a version of competitive authoritarianism... Trumpists, however, haven’t yet fully consolidated their hold.” 1/4
paulkrugman.substack.com
Trump’s parade flopped. No Kings Day was a hit.
Right now, images largely determine the outcome
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
It seems hollering “woke” isn’t an argument: “The court finds and rules that [NIH’s] explanations are bereft of reasoning, virtually in their entirety…” And as for Trumpian anti-DEI rhetoric: “I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years and I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this”
science.org
Judge orders NIH to restore hundreds of grants cut under Trump
William Young calls terminations illegal, berates agency for discrimination
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
A man with ALS who’d lost the ability to speak: “The team asked the participant to attempt to make interjections such as ‘aah’, ‘ooh’ and ‘hmm’ and say made-up words. The BCI successfully produced these sounds, showing that it could generate speech without needing a fixed vocabulary.”
nature.com
World first: brain implant lets man speak with expression — and sing
Device translates thought to speech in real time.
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Prof Krugman (@pkrugman.bsky.social‬): “America is no longer a full-fledged democracy. We are currently living under a version of competitive authoritarianism... Trumpists, however, haven’t yet fully consolidated their hold.” 1/4
paulkrugman.substack.com
Trump’s parade flopped. No Kings Day was a hit.
Right now, images largely determine the outcome
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
It seems hollering “woke” isn’t an argument: “The court finds and rules that [NIH’s] explanations are bereft of reasoning, virtually in their entirety…” And as for Trumpian anti-DEI rhetoric: “I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years and I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this”
science.org
Judge orders NIH to restore hundreds of grants cut under Trump
William Young calls terminations illegal, berates agency for discrimination
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
“This year, the BMJ, a publisher of medical journals based in London, has seen bot traffic to its websites surpass that of real users. The aggressive behaviour of these bots overloaded the publisher’s servers and led to interruptions in services for legitimate customers…”
nature.com
Web-scraping AI bots cause disruption for scientific databases and journals
Automated programs gathering training data for artificial-intelligence tools are overwhelming academic websites.
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Appalling. And so is: "CBS reported Tuesday that the Navy is also considering renaming other John Lewis-class oilers including the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and USNS Harriet Tubman." Will the lead ship of the class keep the name John Lewis?
military.com
Hegseth Orders Navy to Strip Name of Gay Rights Icon Harvey Milk from Ship
A new name for the Harvey Milk was not given but, according to the memo, Hegseth and Phelan are planning to announce the new name aboard the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned Navy ship.
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
Roger Parloff @rparloff.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Another judge just ordered govt to reveal its deal with Bukele to another alien sent to CECOT. A magistrate judge in Columbus, GA (MDGa) did so in the case of Venezuelan EDQC, sent to CECOT on 3/15 without opportunity to raise a fear-of-torture claim. 1/5 storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 03/06/2025
I've seen folks talk about how "in four years" they'll be able to get back to their planned projects and I really don't think that's going to work out. People & projects losing funding now will not be able to hit pause and come back once funding is restored. Hard-won progress & capacity will be lost
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Definitely cool. But he has a rough road ahead of him...
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
If RFK Jr. wants to identify toxins that are causing harm to Americans’ health, he should pick up his phone, open the camera, and flip it around to selfie mode.
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
Paulrus of West Bumblefrick @paulrusof.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
I am officially one of The Ancients, Keeper of Knowledge of the Before Time
Post to the subreddit r/AskHistorians:

What was navigation like for vehicle drivers in the United States before the internet and
GPS?

Before GPS devices and smartphones/cellular internet networks were a thing (Garmin company was founded 1989), millions of Americans were already getting around driving without the use of those inventions. How did they navigate? Did everyone need stacks of maps? Were drivers frequently lost? Did everyone have to understand the interstate system and use intuition to guide them? How burdensome was driving before GPS? Did drivers pay people to calculate an optimal route for them?
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Utterly appalling.
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Ambassador Greg Delawie @gregdelawie.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Republicans are determined to impoverish the U.S. with their attacks on #science.
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
Paul Graf @paulginva.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Man comes to the US from Lebanon. Starts out delivering pizzas, becomes a Nobel winning neuroscientist. Trump freezes his funding, he gets an email from China offering to move his lab “any city, any university I want" with guaranteed funding for 20 years. What are we doing?
Ardem Patapoutian's story is not just the American dream, it is the dream of American science.

He arrived in Los Angeles in 1986 at age 18 after fleeing war-torn Lebanon. He spent a year writing for an Armenian newspaper and delivering Domino's at night to become eligible for the University of California, where he earned his undergraduate degree and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience.

He started a lab at Scripps Research in San Diego with a grant from the National Institutes of Health, discovered the way humans sense touch, and in 2021 won the Nobel Prize.

But with the Trump administration slashing spending on science, Dr. Patapoutian's federal grant to develop new approaches to treating pain has been frozen. In late February, he posted on Bluesky that such cuts would damage biomedical research and prompt an exodus of talent from the United States. Within hours, he had an email from China, offering to move his lab to "any city, any university I want," he said, with a guarantee of funding for the next 20 years.
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Helen Kennedy @helenkennedy.com · 03/06/2025
This is crazypants. Also funny.
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
The New York Times @nytimes.com · 04/06/2025
After terminally ill patients tried a last-ditch blood cancer treatment, doctors are talking about a potential cure. trib.al/s1XkBk5
trib.al
From No Hope to a Potential Cure for a Deadly Blood Cancer
Multiple myeloma is considered incurable, but a third of patients in a Johnson & Johnson clinical trial have lived without detectable cancer for years after facing certain death.
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Decidedly cool. “The adaptability, the researchers say, underscores just how flexible octopuses are: Their limbs can react to sensory inputs without requiring their brains to engage, as if the appendages are making decisions independently.”
science.org
This octopus grew a ninth arm—which soon developed a mind of its own
Study highlights just how flexible cephalopod’s bodies are after injury and during recovery
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Worth pointing out — again and again and again: “The court… emphasized that ‘the President may not lawfully do by coordinated executive fiat what Congress has repeatedly declined to allow by statute.’”
justsecurity.org
Too Big to Be Lawful: A Federal Court Halts Mass Layoffs Across the Civil Service
A recent court decision has made clear that reorganizing the federal government can't proceed through backdoor executive planning.
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
“This year, the BMJ, a publisher of medical journals based in London, has seen bot traffic to its websites surpass that of real users. The aggressive behaviour of these bots overloaded the publisher’s servers and led to interruptions in services for legitimate customers…”
nature.com
Web-scraping AI bots cause disruption for scientific databases and journals
Automated programs gathering training data for artificial-intelligence tools are overwhelming academic websites.
011
David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Appalling. And so is: "CBS reported Tuesday that the Navy is also considering renaming other John Lewis-class oilers including the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and USNS Harriet Tubman." Will the lead ship of the class keep the name John Lewis?
military.com
Hegseth Orders Navy to Strip Name of Gay Rights Icon Harvey Milk from Ship
A new name for the Harvey Milk was not given but, according to the memo, Hegseth and Phelan are planning to announce the new name aboard the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned Navy ship.
001
David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Decidedly cool. “The adaptability, the researchers say, underscores just how flexible octopuses are: Their limbs can react to sensory inputs without requiring their brains to engage, as if the appendages are making decisions independently.”
science.org
This octopus grew a ninth arm—which soon developed a mind of its own
Study highlights just how flexible cephalopod’s bodies are after injury and during recovery
031
David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Worth pointing out — again and again and again: “The court… emphasized that ‘the President may not lawfully do by coordinated executive fiat what Congress has repeatedly declined to allow by statute.’”
justsecurity.org
Too Big to Be Lawful: A Federal Court Halts Mass Layoffs Across the Civil Service
A recent court decision has made clear that reorganizing the federal government can't proceed through backdoor executive planning.
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
In fairness to Marjorie Taylor Greene, maybe she *can’t* read. That tracks.
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
I suspect they've got socks stuffed into their underwear, as well.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 03/06/2025
If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow. The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.
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Colleen Reynolds @colleenareynolds.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
I've seen several faculty post about how scientists should just tough this period out. As if it were a moral imperative. Most junior scholars (including postdocs!) can't afford to wait several years. For many, the choice will be whether to leave academic research or leave the country.
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
“National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt wrote an apologetic memo to employees. Her statement to STAT that 250 people could lose their positions by summer’s end had come as news to the roughly 1100 NASEM staff.”
science.org
National Academies, staggering from Trump cuts, on brink of dramatic downsizing
Plan for slashed units and mission to be presented at governor’s meeting next week
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
@milestaylor.bsky.social: “I served as Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under Donald Trump – and warned the country about what I saw. ... Back in office, he’s wielding his powers for revenge. ... Now the President is going after individuals – myself included.”
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
To quote ‪Brad DeLong‬ re this article: “The London Economist travels into the Heart of Darkness that is the Republican Reagan-ranch stronghold of Simi Valley... It finds… a landscape where inconvenient facts are ignored, the plain reality of the situation denied, and analysis disappeared...”
economist.com
The fantastical world of Republican economic thinking
The elites of the American right cannot reconcile the inconsistencies in their policy platform
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
I suspect they've got socks stuffed into their underwear, as well.
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
@milestaylor.bsky.social: “I served as Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under Donald Trump – and warned the country about what I saw. ... Back in office, he’s wielding his powers for revenge. ... Now the President is going after individuals – myself included.”
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Reposted by David Mouritsen
Allie Sinclair @asinclair.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Out now in @nathumbehav.nature.com: Cuts to NIH funding will impact the economy and employment nationwide. We visualize these losses and advocate for a theory-driven approach to communicating local, self-relevant impact. w/ @joshuasweitz.bsky.social + SCIMaP team: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
NIH indirect cost cuts will affect the economy and employment - Nature Human Behaviour
Nature Human Behaviour - NIH indirect cost cuts will affect the economy and employment
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
“That’s a fair description of what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did... when he canceled a $766 million government contract to develop a new bird flu vaccine. … Adam Lauring… said ‘these vaccines have probably been studied more intensively over the last five years than pretty much any other vaccines.’”
thebulwark.com
RFK Jr. May Have Just Ruined Our Best Weapon Against Bird Flu
He just made two bad decisions on vaccines, and he made them in the worst way possible.
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Liberation Day, budget, attacks on Powell … “Analysis by Torsten Sløk, chief economist at Apollo, suggested that US government credit default swap spreads — which reflect the cost of protecting a loan against default — are trading at levels similar to Greece and Italy.” www.ft.com/content/9ca0...
Graph from The Financial Times titled “The dollar’s relationship with US yields has broken down” showing a sharp decline in the US dollar index relative to the 10-yield US yield (%) immediately following Trump’s “Liberation Day.”
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
‘Yesterday… NBC News reported that the director of national intelligence (DNI)… is trying to figure out how to change Trump’s intelligence briefings to hold his attention. She is apparently considering creating a video… made to look like… Fox News... ‘The problem with Trump is that he doesn’t read’”
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
June 1, 2025
Even as government agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramp up their arrests and confrontations, the lug nuts on the wheels of the White House bus continue to loosen.
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Swapna Krishna @swapnakrishna.com · 01/06/2025
Aurora alert! It’s possible the aurora boralis may be visible tonight as far south as Alabama. Start looking tonight after dark around 10 pm (I’ve attached both the NOAA and University of Alaska maps, the former is always very conservative with view lines) www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/...
noaa map showing view line to PAFairbanks map showing view line into FL)
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
Never give up.
Small yellow wild flower among tangle of leaves and stalks.
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
Magical thinking does not persuade bond markets
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David Mouritsen @davidmouritsen.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
Still, there is a useful lesson in this article: authoritarianism is not solely a top-down affair. It requires at least some believers as a base.
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Jamison Foser @jamisonfoser.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
“a second aide standing at a door in the office asks one of the agents to show her a warrant. The agent says the officers do not need a warrant and walks past her.”
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