Paul Konstant
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progpk.bsky.social
Paul Konstant
@progpk.bsky.social
500 followers 1.3K following 690 posts
Retired scientist/ technologist. Diverse interests, few of them mainstream, fewer overlap. I like to follow specialists. Rational, romantic, mystic, cynical, idealist. He/him.
📍València, España
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progpk.bsky.social
Paul Konstant @progpk.bsky.social · Nov 10
New folks on Bluesky, I *beg* you to fill out your profiles with enough info we can tell you're a real person.

I get dozens of new followers a day. At least half are scams and bots.

If your avatar isn't personalized, you never post, but follow thousands, you're getting blocked.
Reposted by Paul Konstant
killgrove.bsky.social
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.

Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
www.livescience.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
charlesmartinshields.com
The NSF social sciences program has funded some of the best research I’ve seen, especially at the PhD level. There really isn’t another country in the world with the equivalent funding capacity to fill this gap, and the damage from this choice will be felt for a long time.
killgrove.bsky.social Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 1d
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.

Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
www.livescience.com
November 27, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
robingnelson.blacksky.app
The NSF Bio Anthro Program DDRIG, Cultural Anthrpology DDRIG, and Archaeology DDRIG have all been archived (as of yesterday afternoon). Please speak with your grad students and plan accordingly. To say I am angry and depressed about this is an understatement.
November 26, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
jacksonwryan.com
On the Factor Fexcectorn and autism bicycle AI slop study: I got an answer from Springer Nature this morning that this scientific paper will be retracted! 🧪

Full story: nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/riding-the...
Riding the Autism Bicycle to Retraction Town
Does anyone *really* know their Factor Fexcectorn?
nobreakthroughs.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:25 AM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
castltrastondrs.bsky.social
#Mesky🧪 #neurosky #publichealth @cp-iscience.bsky.social
The neuroimmune axis refers to the bidirectional communication between the nervous system & the immune system,

www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

www.cell.com/action/showP...
The neuroimmune axis and chronic pain disorders
Both the nervous system and the immune system alert and protect the body against pathogen invasion and damage, but the extent of their interactions have only truly been elaborated in the past few deca...
www.cell.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
loretahur.bsky.social
#TalDíaComoHoy nos dejaba Mary Somerville. Matemática, astrónoma y científica escocesa autodidacta. Motivó la acuñación de la palabra «científico/a» en vez de «hombre de ciencia» , además de ser la tutora de Ada Lovelace.

#WomenInSTEM
November 28, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
ie-news.bsky.social
Spider-Man star Danny Seagren died aged 81

https://www.europesays.com/ie/204559/

Danny Seagren, the first live-action Spider-Man and a former Sesame Street puppeteer, has died at the age of…
Spider-Man star Danny Seagren died aged 81 - Ireland
Danny Seagren, the first live-action Spider-Man and a former Sesame Street puppeteer, has died at the age of 81, his family has announced.
www.europesays.com
November 28, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
hetanshah.bsky.social
Your universe is a photocopy of a photocopy of a…
on.ft.com/4ahkNKa
Al-generated content has surpassed human-written articles Graph
November 27, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
carolecadwalla.bsky.social
I’m a past winner of the Orwell Prize & won partly because I exposed Vote Leave’s unlawful activities.

Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise

bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...
Michael Gove Made Orwell Prize Judge Despite Record of Attacking Journalists and Dodging Scrutiny
Critics say "Orwell would have enjoyed the irony" of the former Conservative minister's appointment
bylinetimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
tjheffernan.bsky.social
Amazon heads: hey what if instead of dealing with problems like toxic air...we made things even worse for people:

"the biggest single factor in the city’s failure to end its dependence on fossil fuels: energy-hungry datacentres."

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
‘It’s hell for us here’: Mumbai families suffer as datacentres keep the city hooked on coal
As Mumbai sees increased energy demand from new datacenters, particularly from Amazon, the filthiest neighbourhood in one of India’s largest cities must keep its major coal plants
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
debbie156.bsky.social
Keep passing this on
November 27, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
Putin has been very consistent throughout the war: Ukraine belongs to him, the Ukrainians don't get a say in that, and the only peace Russia is open to is that of Ukraine's forced surrender and Russia's successful conquest.
Only outsiders are pretending otherwise, which makes themselves feel better.
christianthiels.bsky.social Christian Thiels @christianthiels.bsky.social · 1d
"President Vladimir Putin has doubled down on his core demands for ending the war in Ukraine, stating that Russia will lay down arms only if Kyiv's troops withdraw from territory claimed by Moscow."
@bbcnews-world-rss.bsky.social
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Putin doubles down on demands for Ukrainian territory ahead of talks with US
The Russian president confirmed a US delegation is expected for talks in Moscow next week.
www.bbc.com
November 27, 2025 at 5:35 PM
progpk.bsky.social
On Monday Nov 24th, the White House quietly published a signed EO handing ALL "FEDERAL SCIENTIFIC DATASETS" to the tech broligarchs to pursue their AI pipedream. This newsletter puts it in perspective & links to EO. I shudder to think how bad this is going to be.
www.mind-war.com/p/strange-at...
Strange Attractor: The PayPal Mafia’s “Manhattan Project”
What are they building? And for whom?
www.mind-war.com
November 27, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
getinformed23.bsky.social
Here's a gift article so everyone can read it. Trumps brain is mush.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/u...
Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
coltoncasto.bsky.social
What does it mean to understand language? We argue that the brain’s core language system is limited, and that *deeply* understanding language requires EXPORTING info to other brain regions.
w/ @neuranna.bsky.social @evfedorenko.bsky.social @nancykanwisher.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2511.19757
1/n🧵👇
What does it mean to understand language?
Language understanding entails not just extracting the surface-level meaning of the linguistic input, but constructing rich mental models of the situation it describes. Here we propose that because pr...
arxiv.org
November 26, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
bgrueskin.bsky.social
"Now, me to you, I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere."
-- Steve Witkoff, in his call to Putin aide Yuri Ushakov

Read the whole transcript of the Oct 14 call. It's amazing.

Gift link (for 7 days) ⤵️

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Witkoff Discusses Ukraine Plans With Key Putin Aide: Transcript
The following is a transcript of an Oct. 14 phone call lasting just over 5 minutes between Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy for peace missions, and Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s most senio...
www.bloomberg.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
alexandragallant.com
Tapping the sign again
Page from BRAINS First Panel: "An AI has no sense of anything. No context. No experience." Illustration of a little pink frog (he's playing a blood cell in this comic, though, which is why he's pink) Second panel: "It cannot touch" the pink frog bends down to pick a flower Third panel: "It cannot smell" 'sniff sniff' the frog smells the flower Fourth panel: "It cannot breathe" (the frog is now dark blue with bright pink lungs visible, as though the frog has been imaged in some way) Fifth panel: "It cannot think" (the frogs brain is now visible, similarly to the lungs in the previous panel) Sixth panel: "It cannot be" the frog is floating and his cute lil butt is visible Seventh panel: "*Stares directly at camera*" the pink frog stares directly at camera Eight panel: "It cannot be... YOU"
November 25, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
euractiv.com
Russia welcomes ‘aspects’ of new US plan to end Ukraine war: Moscow also accused Europe of “meddling” with the peace process
Russia welcomes ‘aspects’ of new US plan to end Ukraine war
Moscow also accused Europe of “meddling” with the peace process
dlvr.it
November 26, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
hypervisible.blacksky.app
An Amazon spokesperson noted “that the drone had completed its package delivery.” 🤦🏿‍♂️
Amazon faces FAA probe after delivery drone snaps internet cable in Texas
The probe comes as Amazon faces stiffer competition from Walmart, which has also begun drone deliveries.
www.cnbc.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
nature.com
“There were some cells in there that were very messed up”

In a technological tour-de-force, researchers have sequenced the whole genomes of more than 100 individual cells from one 74-year-old man
go.nature.com/44yj4MN
We are all mosaics: vast genetic diversity found between cells in a single person
Technical advances allow researchers to trace the genetic changes that occur over time.
go.nature.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
goingmedieval.bsky.social
Anyway I already talked about how stupid this is. www.podbean.com/ep/pb-uwifh-...
November 26, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
christopherjhale.bsky.social
In newly leaked audio, Peter Thiel admits he urged JD Vance to ignore Pope Leo XIV on moral questions — including the ethical development of AI.

He goes even further, branding Leo “the woke American pope” and suggesting he’s a tool of the Antichrist.
NEW: JD Vance’s Top Donor Suggests Pope Leo XIV is Antichrist
In a leaked lecture, Peter Thiel says he’s urged Vance to ignore the pope on moral questions — and simply pray for him.
www.thelettersfromleo.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
walkerbragman.bsky.social
The anti-vaccine movement is a death cult
jessdkant.bsky.social Jesspooka Kant 🎃 @jessdkant.bsky.social · 2d
A third infant has died in Kentucky, KYDPH adds:

“These are Kentucky’s first pertussis deaths since 2018. None of the infants nor their mothers received the recommended pertussis vaccinations during pregnancy or early infancy.”

s3.amazonaws.com/nursing-netw...
Kentucky Public Health KENTUCKY HEALTH ALERT Increase in Pertussis in Kentucky Recommendations for Identification and Prevention November 21, 2025 Kentucky health officials are alerting providers that cases of pertussis ("whooping cough") have increased steadily across the Commonwealth in recent weeks. To date, 566 cases of pertussis have been reported in Kentucky in 2025, the highest number of cases in the Commonwealth since 2012. This follows a trend that was first announced in July 2024 when pertussis cases began increasing in Kentucky to levels not seen in over a decade. Health officials anticipate that pertussis will continue to increase during the winter months based on historic trends. Many U.S. states and other countries are also experiencing elevated levels of pertussis. Many of the recent cases have occurred in young infants, and health officials also recently confirmed the third pertussis-related death in a Kentucky infant within the last year. This follows two other infant deaths that were announced in June. These are Kentucky's first pertussis deaths since 2018. None of the infants nor their mothers received the recommended pertussis vaccinations during pregnancy or early infancy. Health officials urge all Kentuckians to remain up to date on recommended pertussis immunizations and emphasize the importance of maternal immunization during pregnancy, and for all infants beginning promptly at two months of age. Health officials also encourage providers to consider pertussis as a diagnosis in addition to circulating seasonal respiratory viruses such as influenza, RSV and COVID-19. A significant number of cases have also occurred in school-aged children, many of whom were up to date on pertussis vaccination. Immunity from vaccination or natural infection wanes over time so infections can occur in people who are fully vaccinated. However, the vaccine is known to reduce disease severity, and hospitalization among vaccinated individuals is rare. The Kentucky Dep… Kentucky Public Health regularly in Kentucky, however an increase beyond the expected background rate has been reported in recent weeks. Though pertussis vaccination (DTaP or Tdap) is available and widely implemented, B. pertussis continues to spread in the U.S. due to lack of vaccination or timely boosters, the lack of lifelong immunity from vaccination or natural infection and the long duration of infectiousness in untreated cases. Symptoms of pertussis usually begin with a runny or congested nose, a low-grade fever, and mild coughing; apnea/stopping breathing can also occur in infants. After one to two weeks, the cough can progress to rapid, violent (paroxysmal) coughing fits that can cause the "whooping" sound, vomiting or labored breathing. Young children are the most severely affected; most teens and adults will have mild symptoms. People with preexisting health conditions that may be worsened by whooping cough are at high risk for developing a severe infection. Testing for Pertussis: The preferred methods for pertussis testing include nasal pharyngeal (NP) swab or nasal wash via PCR testing or culture. PCR has optimal sensitivity during the first three weeks of cough, is widely available at commercial laboratories and has a fast turnaround time. Culture is considered the gold standard due to excellent specificity but may take longer to complete. Serology for antibodies to B. pertussis is available at many commercial laboratories, however, serologic assays are not generally recommended for primary diagnosis of pertussis due to variability and unknown clinical accuracy. The most promising serologic assays are those that measure IgG antibodies against pertussis toxin only and are collected two to eight weeks following cough onset. Prevention of Pertussis: Prevention of pertussis is primarily achieved through routine vaccination with DTaP (ages two months to six years) and Tdap (ages seven years and older), followed by appropriate booster doses. Vaccination of pr… Bordetella parapertussis B. parapertussis is a bacterium that is similar to B. pertussis and can cause pertussis-like illness but does not produce pertussis toxin. Symptoms of parapertussis are typically milder and infection may be asymptomatic. There is no vaccine for B. parapertussis and post-exposure prophylaxis is not recommended, however treatment recommendations for symptomatic patients are the same as those for B. pertussis. B. parapertussis is not reportable in Kentucky. Thank you for your attention to this alert and guidance. The KDPH pertussis website includes supplemental resources, including a pertussis quicksheet with additional information that providers may find useful. If you have questions regarding reporting, testing, or prevention of pertussis or other infectious diseases, please contact the Kentucky Immunization Branch at (502) 564-4478 or after hours by calling the KDPH Epidemiology on-call line at 888-9-REPORT (888-973-7678). Our Mission: To improve the health and safety of people in Kentucky through Prevention, Promotion, and Protection
November 26, 2025 at 6:01 AM
Reposted by Paul Konstant
marcveld.bsky.social
Efficacy, Immunogenicity, and Safety of Modified mRNA Influenza Vaccine

Yes, safe and effective! mRNA may be able to closely match influenza variant and vaccine.

www.nejm.org/doi/ful...
1/8
Efficacy, Immunogenicity, and Safety of Modified mRNA Influenza Vaccine | NEJM
Influenza remains a major health burden despite the use of licensed vaccines. Nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA) influenza vaccines have shown promising immunogenicity against influenza and...
www.nejm.org
November 26, 2025 at 11:56 AM