iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Not my usual thing to post but this is a truly deranged restaurant review

First, when we arrived I asked for a particular table near the front window so we could watch for an old friend who we were meeting. The table was unoccupied and unreserved. The hostess said she would ask "the boss". An older white lady arrived and looked at us reluctantly and said she would need it for a group arriving in 1.5 hours. This seemed odd and a little rude but no problem as we are in a hurry.
The food was ok, but nothing special. Particularly the spring rolls were devoid of flavor. The soups were the only positive note.
Our waitress was rather inattentive. At one point in the meal I caught the eye of "the boss" and asked for duck sauce. She came to our table and began to ask me about the Starbucks cup on my table. Was it mine? Didn't I think it was rude to bring outside food into "her restaurant"? I didn't think it was rude because I wasn't drinking it in "her restaurant", plus it isn't like they serve a Flat White in "her restaurant".
It was embarrassing to be treated like an errant school boy in front of friends. I told her I didn't appreciate her rudeness but she didn't care. It's "her restaurant" and she is "the boss"! Too bad she never learned customer service.

Dear Mr. President, our gold standard Mosquito trapping apparatus using carbon dioxide is safe and effective and controls the DC Mosquito population near a park (Here are a dozen trapped mosquitos; they will dry out and die in a few hours when I put this back.)

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1h

Dear Mr President, it has come to the attn of the 700,000 citizens of DC that you are interested in mosquitos.🦟 Good news! Neighbors are already banding togthr to trap mosquitos (see @51st.news) And #NIH & #NSF do mosquito research. But you’re trying to kill them. web.archive.org/www.whitehou...

(a) Leading the world in safe and effective tick and mosquito population control to prevent disease through smart land management techniques and procedures, natural predator populations, non-chemical pest control measures, and advanced technologies, including sterile insect techniques and insect control tools developed with safe and effective biotechnologies.
(b) Diagnosing, preventing, and treating the syndromes and diseases spread by ticks and

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 7h

Excellent coffee name ☕️

030

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 28/09/2026

Many of these lines are being said in similar or slightly weaker form right now in science advocacy world. The similarities are uncanny. Underlying bipartisan support, it’s Dems’ fault Republicans are upset (bc they used reconciliation !?!), some fixes but hardly all

Nevertheless, many in the industry share Matzzie's view that most Republicans are supportive of clean energy. "The foundation of clean energy remains firmly bipartisan, despite the appearance of division in recent reconciliation efforts," Frank Macchiarola, chief advocacy officer at the ACP, told me in a statement. He points to what survived the budget bill: Tax credits for some technologies remained in place, and the Senate gave utility-scale wind and solar a longer phaseout than the House-passed bill had allowed.
"When the chips were down, we were grateful to see a dozen Republican senators step up on behalf of our industry and to ensure that the phaseout of tax credits was done in a manner consistent with business principles," Macchiarola said.
Neil Chatterjee, a former Republican chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and now chief of governmental affairs at cleantech firm Palmetto, argues that the budget bill is a poor proxy for Republican sentiment toward clean energy. Clean energy subsidies had long been authorized on a bipartisan basis, he noted, including during the first Trump administration. Chatterjee believes the Biden administration created partisan polarization around them by passing the Inflation Reduction Act through budget reconciliation rather than trying to make a bipartisan deal with Republicans-and later by celebrating the law as a Democratic climate achievement. "The Biden White House hosted a birthday party for the IRA on the South Lawn," he told me. "They completely spiked the football." Still, Chatterjee maintains that as he lobbied Republicans during budget bill negotiations, "there wasn't an animus

140

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 27/09/2026

Ha this is the original footage on @c-span.bsky.social , 53 years old www.c-span.org/program/vign...

Senate Watergate
Committee Testimony
53yr
2:12
C-SPAN.org

1180

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 26/09/2026

Another highly unflattering historical analogy (autocratic tsarist comparisons are bad)

That is the course of action President Donald Trump's second administration has pursued.
Feeling unconstrained by any fear of criminal posecution, the president prefers to govern by issuing executive orders that have become the American equivalent of a tsarist ukase.
Whole departments and agencies have been decimated, their funds left unexpended, their staffs gutted, and their direction left in the hands of incompetent satraps like Secretary of "War" Peter Hedgseth and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F.
Kennedy, Jr. One technique of this reign

120

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 26/09/2026

Correction - it was pointed out to me that this grant is not through NIH, but through HHS: reporter.nih.gov/search/yRoAR... So I take back what I said about this (illegal in effect) rescission motion affecting NIH. Deleted the below. I’ll wait for a journalist to publish on it.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 25/09/2026

The column has its highlights. For example it is good he admits that governments can improve the provision of public services, and markets are not some panacea. But this section is a non-sequitur. Incredibly, he seems to deny that “segregation and school choice” cause ineffective schools

Where we differ is over policy. Ms. Hannah-Jones
sees segregation and school choice as causing educational inequality. The data suggest the fundamental problem is the scarcity of effective schools. Other parents' choices didn't cause Najya's teachers to leave assignments
uncorrected, lower expectations, or award A's for below-grade work.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 22/09/2026

Solid freepress.bsky.social statement on the capitulation to the Ellisons today: “As we learned from the failed and widely-panned Facebook Oversight Board, a fake bipartisan oversight committee won’t save CNN…”

"Behavioral conditions do not work. They won't save jobs, preserve choice, or prevent price hikes. As we learned from the failed and widely-panned Facebook Oversight Board, a fake bipartisan oversight committee won't save CNN. We have all the evidence we need from the Ellisons' destruction of CBS about what they do to warp journalism at Donald Trump's request. This latest capitulation comes as the Trump administration barred CNN and other reporters who dare ask hard questions from the White House press pool.
"Consolidating the media in the hands of friendly oligarchs is right out of the authoritarian playbook. Americans across the political spectrum are fed up with corruption and consolidation, and billionaires calling all the shots while everyone else struggles. People won't forget who stood up for them and who capitulated.

What's exceedingly clear is that our laws and our political system are not strong enough to resist the pressure and manipulation of corrupt billionaires.

"We need to strengthen democratic systems of government, including getting money out of politics, and pass laws that break up big media conglomerates. We need to ensure that a few billionaires can't drown out the masses to dictate bad policy."

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 20/09/2026

Also, @scottgoldstein.bsky.social just wrote a book based on his experiences in DC schools. “Instead of doubling down on high stakes accountability, what would it look like … with more human-centered schools that prioritize ppl, distributed leadership, [and] trust?” www.amazon.com/Human-Center...

Scott Goldstein
Human-Centered Schools
ISBN-13: 978-1041376729, ISBN-10: 1041376723
Standards Based
Dete Driven
AI Powered
HUMAN-CENTERED
SCHOOLS
A Roadmap to Sustainable
School Progress
SCOTT GOLDSTEIN
An Eye On Education Book
ROUTLEDGE

181

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 20/09/2026

I just bought this book by @dianeravitch.bsky.social on Friday (from @politicsprose.bsky.social !) and am looking forward to reading it. But it will take a week or two. My father the former public high school teacher has borrowed it.

An
Education
How I Changed My Mind About
Schools and Almost
Everything Else
Diane Ravitch

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 19/09/2026

First, the negative rights view of free speech: “almost wholly negative notion of speech by assuming that the only relevant constitutional interest at s speech cases is the autonomy interest of the speaker…” @genevievelakier.bsky.social lawreview.uchicago.edu/sites/defaul...

The First Amendment's Real Lochner
Problem
Genevieve Lakier*
One of the most common criticisms of contemporary free speech la is too Lochnerian. What critics usually mean by this is that First Amen trine, by extending significant constitutional protection to advertising kinds of commercially oriented speech, makes the same mistake as th Court made in Lochner v New York and other late nineteenth- and early century Due Process Clause cases: namely, it grants judges too muc second-guess the economic policy decisions of democratically elected legi This Article challenges that argument—not to reject the idea that rary free speech law resurrects Lochner, but instead to reconceive what t It argues that contemporary free speech law is not Lochner-like in failin the legislature's economic polic decisions. Instead, it repeats the er
Lochner Court by relying upon
an almost wholly negative notion of
speech and by assuming that the only relevant constitutional interest at s speech cases is the autonomy interest of the speaker
The result is a body.
not just in its commercial and corporate speech
es, but in many oth
well, replicates Lochner-era due process jurisprudence in both its doctrin and its political economic effects.
What this means is that the First Amendment's Lochner problem solved—as the conventional critiques suggest—by simply denying comn corporate speech constitutional protection or by weakening

141

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 19/09/2026

Pretty psyched about chance to read this

SUPREMACY
HOW RULE
BY THE COURT
• REPLACED •
GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE
NIKOLAS BOWIE DAPHNA RENAN

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 18/09/2026

This article is basically a straight repetition of what the 1970s Powell memo advised to push universities to the right: claim existing bias and demand equal time. Separately: notice how the author leans into “polarization” even though it’s a non sequitur here. I’ve seen this in sci policy too.

washingtonexaminer.com
The polarization afflicting the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law reflects a broader national trend, but the school has created these issues through its hiring decisions. At the University of Utah, the faculty overwhelmingly leans left. The makeup of the faculty chills debate before the students can enter the classroom. Law schools should strive for intellectual
divorcity oman thair folty hansuco

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 16/09/2026

Ha. So true. I bought an espresso machine and grinder for the lab (and myself!)

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 16/09/2026

\lim{x \to infty} trust = 1 I suppose but during that infinite time there are endless excuses to blame others

171

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 11/09/2026

Good thing physics research was not important for other things, like neuroscience or AI! THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS 2024 "for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks"

THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS 2024
Illustrations: Niklas Elmehed
John J. Hopfield
Geoffrey E. Hinton
"for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks"
THE ROYAL SWEDISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

2173

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 11/09/2026

Yes and see @bingbrunton.bsky.social ‘s talk at Cosyne last year for some addl implications m.youtube.com/watch?v=yhUB...

youtube.com
YouTube
The digital sphinx:
Can a worm brain control a fly body?
O Incorporating high resolution biological datasets into a model does not necessarily
worm
connectome
make it more meaningful.
* Deep reinforcement learning (DRL)
approaches are pervasive and very powerful; users and readers bewarel
• If critical interfaces between brain and body are replaced and trained by ANN, the
flybody
connectome dataset may function as a randomly connected, reservoir network.
• To be biological interpretable, a virtual neuromechanical model must be grounded in
Mu loCo physics
physiology, lots and lots of good data about
ANN
(frained with DRU
Torques
I
Actions & Anactions
•••
Open App
COSYNE
2026

130

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 09/09/2026

“Openly vowing to destroy church-state separation and democracy as we know it, they now work inside the highest levels of gov’t to drive domestic and foreign policy, reshape federal agencies, undermine science and education, and tilt elections. The endgame: an authoritarian theocracy…” Seems bad

Upenly vowing to destroy church-state separation and democracy as we know it, they now work inside the highest levels of government to drive domestic and foreign policy, reshape federal agencies, undermine science and education, and tilt elections. The endgame: an authoritarian theocracy that imposes their religious beliefs by force of law.
Drawing on his experiences as a formerly devout Christian and the only Humanist ever to serve in Congress, Huffman maps the movement's largely hidden landscape-taking readers behind the scenes of the Capitol, exposing the tactics and myths Christian nationalists use to advance their agenda, and showing how America is imperiled by our reluctance to confront

1105

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 08/09/2026

Dissenting (in part), five judges, Clinton, GWB, Obama, Biden, Biden. The Fifth Circuit: Merely calling balls and strikes, not pursuing a political agenda, just like John Roberts.

STEWART, HIGGINSON, DOUGLAS, and RAMIREZ, Circuit Judges:
Because this case comes to us from the district court's dismissal of
Plaintiffs' complaint based on the pleadings, the standard of review is of paramount importance. We apply the same standard of review when considering Rule 12(b)(6) and Rule 12(c) motions —we must accept all well-

151

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 06/09/2026

YES Also, while I am not great at making figures either, I tend to think that a review article where figures 1 through seven are variants of basic sigmoids plus stick figures is a bit much.

Science Before Citation Obsession
Science Today
Scientific Impact of Idea
Scientific Impact of Idea
Total Scientific Effort on Idea
Total Scientific Effort on Idea
Exploration
Breakthrough
Incremental Advance
Exploration
Breakthrough
Incremental Advances

020

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 06/09/2026

It’s a lonely war against mosquitos out here but someone has to fight it

Three dead mosquitos fallen from the high voltage bug zapper tennis racket thing

090

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 05/09/2026

Ok here we go: It DOES look like a major purpose of this NIH funding transfer to NIH is to circumvent NIH’s peer review processes so political appointees can have control. Check out the redacted agreement @maxkozlov.bsky.social released: 1/

AGENCY-AGREEMENT-NIH-AND-DOW-REDACTED v
Q
Federal departments, agencies, and offices with respect to the identification of additional priority virus families and other viral pathogens with a significant potential to cause a pandemic" (42
U.S.C. § 285f-5(e)(1)).
Through this agreement, NIH will leverage OASW ND-CBD's procurement, grants, and funding network to allow for critical basic science
I, related research pathways, and basic research to
support the translation and advanced development of medical countermeasures.

11441245

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 04/09/2026

On the diversion of several billion dollars from #NIH to the Department of Defense (NYT today reports it’s up to “one third of the NIAID budget” and that Trump NIH director Bhattacharya signed the deal.) The big question I have: Is this is an end run around peer review? 1/

Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD •
E•5h
NIH funds should be used to improve the health of Americans.
X
Far from siphoning money away from research, this partnership between @NIH and @ DeptofWar focuses on research projects that will drive discoveries to improve the health of American citizens and members of the military. Led by the National I Show more
NOTUS
NOTUS 2 @NOTUSreports • 20h
As the military faces a war-driven cash crunch, Rep. Rosa DeLauro said it would be "outrageous" to siphon that money from disease research. notus.org/congress/delau...

36723

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 03/09/2026

Ah wait, it was Paragon Health (run by MAGA Trumper types) that published that report. But same funders, same world, basically. Still FAI is right in the middle of the make-NIH-work-poorly to justify cutting/privatizing it debate. “A plan rolled out by a strange confluence of newish foundations…“

The Sci-Tech Project 2025
A plan rolled out by a strange confluence of newish foundations is worth knowing about
Note: Post includes updates for paying subscribers on eLife and the US Attorney for DC
Earlier this month, members of the Foundation for American Innovation (FAI),
American Compass, the Institute for Progress (IFP), and the New American Industrial Alliance (NAIA) issued their Techno-Industrial Policy Playbook, via a slick web site and a well-designed PDE. It touches on a number of issues around science funding as well.
Never heard of these groups? Let's do a run down:
• The Foundation for American Innovation
(FAI). Formerly the Lincoln Network, which was described as a "a right-wing

220

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 01/09/2026

“Smashing“ coming up in several quite different contexts today

120

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 30/08/2026

I don’t have a good picture easily at hand but here’s one that shows the fence and the campus behind

120

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 30/08/2026

Also on brand for my content we got some info environment commentary “don’t believe the hype” he said

THE WALL
IS A c
CONSTRUCT
THEY DONT WANT OKNOW
ISELA

010

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 30/08/2026

Feel bad for the guy and glad he’ll be ok

130

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 28/08/2026

From NIH, the typical 1950s-style coffee percolator setup for seminars. It is a privilege to get to do science full-time, and great work is happening at NIH still, so no complaints. But we are not allowed to spend public money on food, and so it’s always on a shoestring and usu paid out of pocket

Coffee ☕️ percolator, cups, milk pitcher

0134

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 26/08/2026

This is great, Dan, glad to hear your thoughts. I agree it's an important topic to bring forward. The Wang article is excellent. As you note, there's lots to say but I'll stick to one or two quick comments. First, this is interesting:

fter extensive hearings on S. 1285 and S. 1297, Kilgore revised his
legislation. His new bill, S. 1720, delineated two additional differences
between his and Bush's approaches that further underlined Kilgore's pro
gram of tying research to social needs. Kilgore's S. 1720 included a divi
sion for the social sciences in the NSF to assist in linking basic research to
social and economic needs; Magnuson's S. 1285 left the social sciences out.
In order to avoid concentration of funds in a few elite institutions, S. 1720
also mandated that ten percent of research and development funds be appor
tioned to the states in equal shares, and fifteen percent divided among the
states on the basis of population. S. 1285 eschewed such formulas on the
ground that funds should be distributed purely on the basis of merit.8

130

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 25/08/2026

Wish me luck as I dust off this absolutely epic homemade hot sauce recipe. I have the pic somewhere in old notes lostartofhomecooking...

The Historic Original Inner Beauty Hot Sauce Recipe
(courtesy Chris Schlesinger, East Coast Grill)
5 lb scotch bonnet or habanero peppers
1 gallon yellow mustard
1/2 lb brown sugar
1 quart orange juice
1/2 gallon white vinegar
1 cup honey
1 cup molasses
46 oz. papaya juice
46 oz. pineapple juice
1/2 gallon peanut oil
6 oz. each of cumin, chili, curry, tumeric
2 oz. all spice
salt and pepper

6131

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 23/08/2026

“despite the mythmaking around Murray, nobody has silenced him… In 2016, he won the Bradley Prize, a prestigious conserv award that carries a $250k stipend…” Fun fact: Jay Bhattacharya, the Trump NIH pick, also got that award. Science is under attack fm the same ecosystem Murray is part of. /end

What's more, despite the mythmaking around Murray, nobody has silenced or stymied him. He is one of the most successful authors of policy-relevant nonfiction working in America today. He's ensconced at the center of the conservative policy establishment as an emeritus scholar al the American Enterprise Institute. In 2016, he won the Bradley Prize, a prestigious conservative award that carries a $250,000 stipend, He regularly publishes op-eds in the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times reviewed Coming Apart twice. Tom Edsall featured it in a column (he says it raises "issues that are rarely examined with the rigor necessary to affirm or deny their legitimacy"), and David Brooks recommended it twice, lauding the "incredible data, along with the analysis. PBS built an interactive around

1203

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 18/08/2026

With hindsight it seems clear that these 19 economists did not think enough about political economy—for ex how the wealthy would exploit info from prediction market betting games, and manipulate it to cheat normal people. Per @mcopelov.bsky.social : we don’t think abt political economy enough

The Promise of Prediction Markets
The abi predict be freer
enneth J. Arrow,' Robert Forsythe, Michael Gorham, Robert Hahn, ** Robin Hanson, lohn O. Ledyard, Saul Levmore, Robert Litan,® Paul Milgrom,' Forrest D. Nelson,? jeorge R. Neumann, Marco Ottaviani, ° Thomas C. Schelling," Robert J. Shiller, 2
/ernon L. Smith, 13 Erik Snowberg, Cass R. Sunstein, Paul C. Tetlock, 15 Philip E. Tetlock, 6
lal R. Varian," Justin Wolfers, ® Eric Zitzewitz'9 rediction markets are forums for trad-
on the outcome of uncertain events.
There is mounting evidence that such markets an help to produce forecasts of event out-omes with a lower prediction error than con-entional forecasting methods. For example, rediction market prices can be used to ncrease the accuracy of poll-based forecasts f election outcomes (1) (see the figure), offi-ial corporate experts' forecasts of printer ales, and statistical weather forecasts used y the National Weather Service.
Several researchers emphasize the poten-ial of prediction markets to improve deci-ions (2-5). The range of applications is vir-ually limitless-from helping businesses nake better investment decisions to helping governments make better fiscal and mone-ary policy decisions.
Prediction markets have been used by lecision-makers in the U.S. Department of Defense (6), the health care industry (7), and
Information Revelation Through Til
6
Average absolute forecast error
(Vote share %)
2
0+
150
120
90
Days until e
Information revelation through time. Data are from the lowa two-party vote shares from the 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000 plots the average absolute difference between the market pred immediately before the election, the market erred by an averag average error of 2.1 percentage points for the final Gallup poll the market is also impressive, with an average error of only 5 pe a time when polls have much larger errors when

102

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 18/08/2026

“The key theme of the federal securities law is disclosure.” “In many cases, the promises made by companies and brokers had little or no substantive basis, or were wholly fraudulent…” “In response to this calamity, FDR…”

Cornell Law School
Search Cornell
Legal
LIL information
Institute
HQ
Menu
The development of federal securities law was spurred by the stock market crash of 1929, and the resulting Great Depression. In the period leading up to the stock market crash, companies issued stock and enthusiastically promoted the value of their company to induce investors to purchase those securities. Brokers in turn sold this stock to inventors based on promises of large profits but with little disclosure of relevant information about the company. In many cases, the promises made by companies and brokers had little or no substantive basis, or were wholly fraudulent. With thousands of investors buying up stock in hopes of huge profits, the market was in a state of speculative frenzy that ended in October 1929, when the market crashed as panicky investors sold off their investments en masse.
In response to this calamity and at President Franklin Roosevelt's instigation, Congress enacted laws to prevent speculative frenzies like those

222

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 16/08/2026

The radio host then continued to lambast the "pretend media"… "You’d think that the Constitution is just another statute for these guys to play with," Levin said. "This is why I'm furious. Once we lose the Constitution, and we're losing it big, what's left? How do we keep these people in check?" LOL

his "fury" over President Obama's "tyranny" in his use of executive orders. "He keeps telling us he won re-election," Levin said of the president. "Congratulations!
But guess what, the Constitution wasn't up for election, it wasn't for a referendum," he continued, before rattling off the list of ways he believes the president has expanded his office into an "imperial presidency," including
"unilateral action" on immigration, the tax implications of ObamaCare, "attacks on religious liberty," and the potential use of executive order on gun control.
"What the hell is this?" Levin continued. "He was elected president. Congratulations. This guy makes Richard Nixon look like a man who followed the law all the time. I think we have an imperial president. He sounds imperial, he's arrogant as hell and I'm furious about this."
Host Megyn Kelly pushed back that many also found Obama's Republican predecessor George W. Bush to be
"imperial" in his presidency, vastly expanding the powers of the executive branch.
Levin didn't like the comparison: "People better wake up to this. This is not what Bush did or what anybody else did. This president is different and in a very, very negative way and the fact that a t of people voted for him, that's
extremely troubling, but the Constitution, as I said, that wasn't up for grabs and it's still not up for grabs.
The syndicated radio host then continued on to lambast the "pretend media" for assisting Obama's "big lies" including the precedence for invoking the 14th Amendment in the debt ceiling negotiations, the limitations of the Second Amendment, and the idea that government can prevent more shootings like Sandy Hook. "You would think that the Constitution is just
anatharotott, forthoo awotanay with lavin

131

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 16/08/2026

And here’s the fence around the White House complex

Tall fence on left, sidewalk around White House (ellipse I think)

1174

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 16/08/2026

Just flipped through photos, here’s my most recent DC national guard pics

1214

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 14/08/2026

Correction: 52 R Senators voted for Blanche. I really want to give those Senators the benefit of the doubt, we all do. But votes have consequences. They all decided to back Trump on this disastrous move for the whole country.

senate.gov
Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs ---52
Banks (R-IN)
Justice (R-WV)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Kennedy (R-LA)
Blackburn (R-TN)
Lankford (R-OK)
Boozman (R-AR)
Lee (R-UT)
Britt (R-AL)
Marshall (R-KS)
Budd (R-NC)
McConnell (R-KY)
Capito (R-WV)
McCormick (R-PA)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Moody (R-FL)
Collins (R-ME)
Moran (R-KS)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Moreno (R-OH)
Cotton (R-AR)
Mullin (R-OK)
Cramer (R-ND)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Crapo (R-ID)
Paul (R-KY)
Cruz (R-TX)
Ricketts (R-NE)
Curtis (R-UT)
Risch (R-ID)
Daines (R-MT)
Rounds (R-SD)
Ernst (R-IA)
Schmitt (R-MO)
Fischer (R-NE)
Scott (R-FL)
Graham (R-SC)
Scott (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Sheehy (R-MT)
Hagerty (R-TN)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Hawley (R-MO)
Thune (R-SD)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Tillis (R-NC)
Husted (R-OH)
Tuberville (R-AL)
Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
Wicker (R-MS)
Johnson (R-WI)
Young (R-IN)

000

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 03/08/2026

This is the opposite of “promoting classical herd immunity”: it is anti-promoting it

outbreaks in undervaccinated or otherwise incompletely protected subsets of individuals.
However, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, is so different from polio and measles that classical herd immunity may not readily apply to it.
Important differences include the phenotypic stability of polio and measles viruses, and their ability to elicit long-term protective immunity, compared to SARS-CoV-2. For these and other reasons, controlling COVID-19 by increasing herd immunity may be an elusive goal.
HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDING OF HERD IMMUNITY

120

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 01/08/2026

And another connection betw science and the conservative legal mvmt: “The notion that corporations may claim First Amendment political speech rights only gained strength in the Bellotti Supreme Court ruling … opinion was written by Justice Lewis Powell.” The memo guy. Nixon appointee.

The idea that corporations also have 'free speech rights' protected by the Constitution is relatively The notion that corporations may claim First Amendment political speech rights only gained strengt the Bellotti Supreme Court ruling which asserted that corporations have a right to spend money to influence state ballot initiatives. This opinion was written by Justice Lewis Powell, who 7 years earlie corporate attorney, wrote an influential memo advising corporate America to focus on the courts a:
"instrument for social, economic and political change." Conservative Justice William Rehnquist diss from the Court's decision. In his dissenting opinion, he recognized the long-standing constitutional difference between the inherent rights of people and the government-given rights of for-profit corporations?
Corporations and their ideological allies have increasingly used their expanded First Amendment i advance policies that promote profit at the expense of public health and well-being.
***********
1600 20th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20009 * (202) 588-1000
www.democracyisforpeople.org

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 01/08/2026

‘Arnold gave a lot of money. Wired reported more than $80M to “science critics and reformers” from 2012-2017. Stuart Buck, formerly the director of research at the Arnold Foundation (later Arnold Ventures), recounts allocating “over $60 million” of that.’

Arnold gave a lot of money. Wired reported more than $8OM to "science critics and reformers" from 2012-2017. Stuart Buck,
formerly the director of research at the Arnold Foundation (later Arnold
Ventures), recounts allocating "over $60 million" of that. All of that money buys a lot of things. It pays for big, expensive replication studies that appeal to vanity journals like Science and bring attention to the cause. It also buys things that feel more 'unseemly,' such as paying the first 1,000 scientists who would use their preregistration platform $1,000 each.
Buck, a self-styled "metascience venture capitalist," further takes credit for the

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 01/08/2026

I keep driving by the “we are making DC Safe And Beautiful” Orwellian banners by the Lincoln Memorial and getting outraged

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