Alessandro
LightNews LightNews
poli.sisti.ca
Alessandro
@poli.sisti.ca
630 followers 600 following 680 posts
Posts on public policy (in 🇨🇦 or abroad), humanities, classical music, altruism effective and ineffective. Many silly posts. Toronto-adjacent.
Posts Replies Media Videos
poli.sisti.ca
From The Economist: the US Congress has stood up to the president on science funding. Funding will be essentially unchanged from last year.

Link for Economist subscribers: www.economist.com/united-state...
January 18, 2026 at 4:20 AM
poli.sisti.ca
welcoming new neighbours the best way I know how!

(NB.—two jars out of frame of final pic)
A full sauce pot is shown cooking, next to two jars of strained tomatoes and two emptied cans of whole peeled tomatoes. Four half-litre jars of finished sauce are shown next to the empty sauce pot.
January 14, 2026 at 2:34 AM
poli.sisti.ca
Reading whatever grabs your interest is great because you occasionally come across sequences of words such as:

“The story of the horn in Austro-Bohemia begins with Count von Spork”
The story of the horn in Austro-Bohemia begins with Count von Spork, a Bohemian nobleman whose two greatest passions were hunting and music. On a visit to France, the Count, intrigued by the chasse a courre, had two members of his entourage instructed in the art of playing this instrument.
January 12, 2026 at 1:53 AM
poli.sisti.ca
I disagree with her thesis, but this part is fair enough
Mass female departures from X represent yet another instance of women being forced to modify their behaviour to accommodate dangerous men. We already avoid walking alone after dark. We already walk home at night with keys clenched in our hands. We already cover our drinks in clubs. Why, then, should we be the ones forced to leave X? Shouldn't we be removing the predators instead?
January 11, 2026 at 1:57 PM
poli.sisti.ca
gPu — you mean I typed it wrong and have been learning about the wrong thing all these years?!
Picture from the Wikipedia article for gnus.
January 11, 2026 at 6:17 AM
poli.sisti.ca
Novo Nordisk is responding to the expiration of its patent in Canada in an odd way: it's creating rebranded versions of Ozempic and Wegovy that are identical in everything but name; the rebranded versions will differ only in marketing and price.

www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
Novo Nordisk is preparing to launch new drugs that are medically identical to Ozempic and Wegovy, but sold under new names and likely at a lower price. Kate Hanna, a spokeswoman for the company’s Canadian branch, told The Globe and Mail on Monday that it is considering competing in the generic market with versions of semaglutide called Plosbrio and Poviztra. Health Canada approved the new brand names for semaglutide on Dec. 22. Mark Johnson, a spokesman for Health Canada, said the only difference between the old and new versions is in the products’ name and packaging. “To be clear, these are not generic semaglutide products and have no connection to Health Canada’s review of the generic semaglutide submissions,” Mr. Johnson said by e-mail.
January 7, 2026 at 1:48 AM
poli.sisti.ca
I love your pics, Frances! Here are a few I shot in SW Ontario on Saturday
December 30, 2025 at 1:29 AM
poli.sisti.ca
learning about the horn player whom Mozart enjoyed trolling

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_...
Extract from the article for Joseph Leutgeb, in the section on his relationship with Mozart. Highlighted is the text, "In one place, [Mozart] marks the orchestra part 'Allegro' and the solo part 'Adagio', perhaps mocking the tendency of horn notes to come in late, dragging the tempo." The full extract reads as follows: Leutgeb was most likely Mozart's favorite horn player, as a number of the composer's works were written for him. These include the Horn Concertos K. 417, K. 495 and K. 412/386b (514) and "probably"[4] the Horn Quintet K. 407/386c. These date from Mozart's years in Vienna after his move there in 1781. The concertos are at the core of the solo horn literature and are widely performed today. These works were written for natural horn, the valved instrument not being invented until after 1814 when Heinrich Stölzel invented the valve, patented in 1818. Leutgeb thus needed to exercise great lip control, as well as using the hand-stopping technique (hand in bell) to play chromatic notes. Mozart had a curious joking relationship with Leutgeb, seen for instance in the mocking comments he placed in Leutgeb's horn parts. K. 417 bears the mock dedication: "Wolfgang Amadé Mozart takes pity on Leutgeb, ass, ox, and simpleton, at Vienna, 27 March 1783". In one place he marks the orchestra part "Allegro" and the solo part "Adagio", perhaps mocking the tendency of horn notes to come in late, dragging the tempo. For another possible instance, see K. 412. The multicolored inks in K. 495 are often taken to be a kind of joke, though Mozart biographer Konrad Küster has claimed they had a purpose, specifically "to make some musical suggestions to the interpreters."
December 29, 2025 at 10:23 PM
poli.sisti.ca
Pipe organ maintenance logs as a source of British climate data:

www.thereengineer.pro/p/church-org...
December 22, 2025 at 8:29 PM
poli.sisti.ca
Story for Canadians to watch in 2026: what will generic Ozempic mean for prices (and use)?

newsletters.cbc.ca/q/12J0r7ibmf...
What’s next for Ozempic? The new year may bring cheaper versions of Ozempic to Canadians. Health Canada has approved Ozempic to treat diabetes but it’s often prescribed off-label for obesity. In Canada, the patent for the semaglutide will expire in January, and six companies are clamouring for Health Canada’s approval to manufacture and sell the generic version. Due to a backlog at Health Canada it’s unlikely the cheaper medication will hit the shelves until late spring or early summer. No one knows exactly how much cheaper the generic drugs will be because that depends on how many companies get approved. Ozempic currently costs between $200 and $400 per month. If three companies end up manufacturing the medication, the base price could drop to between $75 and $100 per month, according to Mina Tadrous, pharmacy professor at the University of Toronto.
December 20, 2025 at 3:54 PM
poli.sisti.ca
More, including a quote by Danish vaccine researcher Anders Hviid in the article:
December 20, 2025 at 4:28 AM
poli.sisti.ca
Anthropic got a CEO agent, "Seymour Cash", to monitor the vending machine operator agent, "Claudius". It did not always go as expected:
December 19, 2025 at 7:50 PM
poli.sisti.ca
special shout-out to @klong.bsky.social for her expert contributions, of which this was the first:
December 19, 2025 at 6:06 AM
poli.sisti.ca
Is this the world's most Italian news story?

www.ansa.it/english/news...
December 11, 2025 at 4:09 PM
poli.sisti.ca
Happy smallpox eradication day! It's a fine day to remember what we can accomplish together, and how much medical technology and public health have improved, and lengthened, our lives.

I recommend this moving, short piece:
open.substack.com/pub/laneless...
December 9, 2025 at 8:40 PM
poli.sisti.ca
this is the biggest innovation in "putting grain inside other grain" since the toast sandwich
November 19, 2025 at 11:12 PM
poli.sisti.ca
"'Reed' with two E's? It's my favorite joke of all time."
Captain Holt displays a copy of Reed it and Weep Mouth Exercises, by oboist John William Weichselbraun.
November 8, 2025 at 5:04 AM
poli.sisti.ca
From the Wikipedia article "Top hat", one of my childhood's burning questions answered at last:
The style most commonly referred to as the stovepipe was popularized in the United States by Abraham Lincoln during his presidency; though it is postulated that he may never have called it stovepipe himself, but merely a silk hat or a plug hat. Lincoln often carried documents and letters inside the hat.
November 7, 2025 at 12:55 PM
poli.sisti.ca
I believe this is one of the articles Hemingway would have written. It's from when James Macleod, returning from travel, had just heard the news of the prize and Banting's decision to share his portion with Best.

More context for the clip: collections.library.utoronto.ca/view/insulin...
Newspaper article entitled "Asks Time to Consider Prize Award Disposal".
October 18, 2025 at 5:39 PM
poli.sisti.ca
James D. Havens (1900-1960) was the son of James S. Havens, who attended Yale as an undergraduate and later studied law. James Sr. briefly served as a congressman.

The doctor, John R. Williams, who was treating Jim's diabetes visited Toronto to make a personal appeal to Banting for insulin in 1921.
James D. Havens, c. 1921, sitting in a hospital bed.
October 16, 2025 at 1:47 PM
poli.sisti.ca
Elizabeth (1907-1981) was the daughter of Charles Evans Hughes, the 36th governor of New York State, the 1916 Republican opponent to Woodrow Wilson, and secretary of state under Warren Harding.

Elizabeth's mother, Antoinette, heard about Banting and persuaded him to accept Elizabeth as a patient.
Elizabeth Hughes c. 1923, looking healthy. The photograph is signed "Gratefully yours, Elizabeth E. Hughes." Clipping from the Toronto Daily Star, August 17th, 1922, "Daughter of Secretary of State Tries New Toronto Discovery." A triptych of portraits is shown. A caption explains the portaits as follows: "On the left is Mrs. Charles Evans Hughes, who accompanied her daughter to Toronto this week to take a new treatment for diabetes, which has been worked out at the University of Toronto. In the centre is her fifteen-year-old daughter, who is here to take the treatment. On the right is Dr. F.G. Banting, 160 Bloor street west, who is the originator of the insulin treatment for diabetes, and who for over a year has been doing research work along with Mr. C.H. Best, of Toronto. The new treatment has already prolonged the lives of many sufferers from the disease."
October 16, 2025 at 1:47 PM
poli.sisti.ca
Thread of things I'm learning as I read The Discovery of Insulin by Michael Bliss
Book cover, in the Special Centenary Edition with a forward by Alison Li.
October 5, 2025 at 6:34 PM
poli.sisti.ca
I see my alma mater has gotten into podcasts
Email from the University of Toronto welcoming Alessandro to U of T Lectures on Demand.
October 1, 2025 at 10:07 PM
poli.sisti.ca
All three episodes of this documentary on the malaria vaccine are now available ☺️
September 29, 2025 at 12:53 PM
poli.sisti.ca
A little-known invention that made obsolete a lot of child labour: the "scandiscope", invented by George Smart (1757ish – 1834), allowed an adult chimney sweep to avoid employing "climbing boys" as assistants.

Words by @antonhowes.bsky.social:
In 1803 the Society for Superseding the Necessity of Climbing Boys (SSNCB) was founded to promote a technological replacement for child labour in sweeping chimneys. To meet the challenge, by 1805 Smart applied his interlocking hollow poles to design a ‘scandiscope’. A sweep could sit in safety at the hearth, assembling the poles while pushing them up the chimney shaft. Once the contraption reached the top, a cord running down the middle of the tubes was pulled, opening brushes to pull the soot back down with it. A skilled sweep could use it to clean a chimney in as little as 9 minutes, and, with a wet rag over the brush, it could put out house fires starting in the flue. In recognition of his achievement, the Society of Arts awarded Smart its gold medal in 1805 and 1807, and he received a premium from the SSNCB in 1805. By keeping his prices low, and with the SSNCB's backing, Smart's scandiscope spread rapidly throughout London. By 1807 the prince of Wales had adopted the technology for use at his residences. It met more resistance in other cities, but finally armed with a viable alternative to climbing boys (with later improvements to the device in 1828 by Joseph Glass), the SSNCB turned its attention to lobbying for legislation to force the scandiscope's adoption, with eventual success.
September 20, 2025 at 2:15 PM