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Reposted by alex ioannidis

Lakshya Jain @lakshya.splitticket.org · 13d

By many independent standards, Mississippi’s educational standards now exceed California’s.

Illiteracy is a policy choice.

www.theargumentmag.com/p/illiteracy...

Illiteracy is a policy choice

Why aren’t we gathering behind Mississippi’s banner?

www.theargumentmag.com

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Reposted by alex ioannidis

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression @thefireorg.bsky.social · 26d

Student acceptance of violence to silence speakers is at a record high.

In 2020, 1 in 5 students said violence was acceptable to stop a speaker. In 2025, that number is 1 in 3.

That’s a 79% increase in just five years. And it’s chilling.

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Reposted by alex ioannidis

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression @thefireorg.bsky.social · 22d

The attorney general would be wise to read the words of the Supreme Court, which has repeatedly held that the "proudest boast" of America's free speech tradition is "freedom for the thought that we hate."

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Aug 23

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Reposted by alex ioannidis

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · Jul 30

So meta:

“There is no quantum world,” said physicist Anton Zeilinger, outlining his view that quantum states exist only in his head and that they describe information, rather than reality. “I disagree,” replied Alain Aspect, who shared the 2022 Nobel prize with Zeilinger.

Physicists disagree wildly on what quantum mechanics says about reality, Nature survey shows

First major attempt to chart researchers’ views finds interpretations in conflict.

www.nature.com

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 29

Karl Marx and Thorstein Veblen would have a lot to say about the modern leftism of elite America.

alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 29

"What this event revealed, more than anything, is the tension between public persona and private reality. Mamdani campaigns on economic justice, police reform, and housing equity. But his family wealth, private armed security..."

www.economictimes.com/news/interna...

Masked security, million-dollar views: Zohran Mamdani’s wedding sparks culture clash, faces criticism - The Economic Times

New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani celebrated his wedding with a high-security, three-day party at his familys estate in Uganda. While the celebration dazzled with music and luxury, its timing ...

m.economictimes.com

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 28

A classic...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDE...

Tom Lehrer - Wernher von Braun - with intro

YouTube video by The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel

m.youtube.com

alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 28

"He retired from public performances in the 1970s and focused on teaching. He taught for many years at the University of California, Santa Cruz, splitting his time between there and Cambridge."

Tom Lehrer had it all figured out. RIP to one of my heroes.

www.npr.org/2025/07/27/8...

Tom Lehrer, influential musical satirist, dies at 97

The songwriter and math professor found a following with his satirical political songs.

www.npr.org

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Reposted by alex ioannidis

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Jul 27

After restrictions on aid imposed by Israel, medics in Gaza are fainting in hospitals and lack supplies to stop patients’ malnourishment. “The expression ‘skin and bones’ doesn’t do it justice.” nyti.ms/3J5WDXp

A young woman, in a dark dress and pink head scarf, feeds a bottle to a malnourished child. A headline reads: "Starvation Haunts Gaza Hospitals." Photo by Bilal Shbair for The New York Times.

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 18

References

Harald means Ioannidis et al. Nature 2021, not Ioannidis et al., Nature 2020, which is about something else entirely.

Also, I referenced a paper Harald reviewed [Moreno-Mayar et al., Nature 2024], which replicated the Rapa Nui founder effect that we showed in the above 2022 preprint.

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 18

Anyway, the 2021 paper shows no evidence of significant later genetic contact. (See F4 stats, there's nothing to "correct" on those.)

The 2021 paper also noted that cultural contact btw islands had been proven by traded obsidian. Cultural contact is fascinating, but it is orthogonal to this debate.

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 18

As explained here arxiv.org/abs/2212.03197 the linked model does not show this. Also as shown here (replicated later in Nature 2024), Rapa Nui genetics is dominated by a founder effect, not later inter-island contact. Harald is a reviewer listed on that 2024 paper, so I take it he approved of that.

Ancestry-specific analyses of genome-wide data confirm the settlement sequence of Polynesia

By demonstrating the role that historical population replacements and waves of admixture have played around the world, the genetics work of Reich and colleagues has provided a paradigm for understandi...

arxiv.org

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 8

To be clear I am not arguing strongly for or against using race for college admissions, but all the Supreme Court justices appointed by a Democrat (three) did argue for, and I believe most supporters of Mamdani on here would argue for, and I believe he would too, so I'm reasoning in that framework.

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 7

Perhaps these two links are helpful to understand the US context. (Image from the 2023 US Supreme Court case, first link.)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student...

www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/u...

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 7

It would be better, but the US is allergic to socialism (so income is out). Zip code is interesting; California is trying something like it (demographics of each high school), though more as a proxy for race than income, since its voters have barred it from using race directly via a referendum.

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 6

bsky.app/profile/alex...
Mamdani went to an elite Upper West Side private middle school and then tracked into a top NY magnet public high school. He understood identities well, and that Columbia considered race in admissions, as his father was a prof of Anthropology & African studies at Columbia.

alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 5

Mamdani's mother is a movie producer from India & his father is a prof from a colonial era family that came to British Africa from British India & like many other South Asian families (Freddie Mercury) were evicted from east Africa when it threw-off British associations. His father however returned.

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 6

bsky.app/profile/alex...

alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 5

Elon is more African than Mamdani, having spent a decade longer in his natal South Africa. Whatever your view on the attempt to include more Black students in university, those efforts are not for Elon Musk or Mamdani, (& imo should not be for Columbia profs children or wealthy private school kids).

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 6

If you believe identity boxes should not be used for college admissions, then you are right.

If you believe they are important (and Mamdani is running on a platform that frequently emphasizes identity, so to him and to admissions officers at the time they were important), then this is fraud.

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 5

I would advise those US profs on here, who pretend not to understand what this is about due to their misplaced party loyalty, to come to east Oakland where I live, and I will show them.

alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 5

The criticism I've seen on here seems directed at the NY Times for reporting a story that I suspect the Black community of New York, (who did not much support Mamdani), will find interesting. There is also criticism of the source, but whistleblowers take risks & will never be people w/ much to lose.

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 5

Mamdani's mother is a movie producer from India & his father is a prof from a colonial era family that came to British Africa from British India & like many other South Asian families (Freddie Mercury) were evicted from east Africa when it threw-off British associations. His father however returned.

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 5

Elon is more African than Mamdani, having spent a decade longer in his natal South Africa. Whatever your view on the attempt to include more Black students in university, those efforts are not for Elon Musk or Mamdani, (& imo should not be for Columbia profs children or wealthy private school kids).

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 5

The box said "Black or African American" because these are the two ways that community in the US identifies. Mamdani knows this, bc his father is a prof of African studies at Columbia. The objective is to include members of a community that suffered slavery and myriad later forms of discrimination.

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alex ioannidis @alexgioannidis.bsky.social · Jul 5

As the 1st person from my public school to go to an Ivy League...exposed to these privileged (and to me at the time intimidating) kids from elite public & private schools & locales, with elite parents, many of whom ticked such boxes, who still sees this issue in faculty today, I'm very disturbed.

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