Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 18h

The Noise Machine Of Death, in my house

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 19h

Hello from the former home of the entity referred to as The Ten Thousand Dollar Cat.

(I hope Fiorello is OK.)

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 19h

There is a filthy joke in Act 5 of Henry V that, despite being a semi-major in Shakespeare, I never got til I saw Emma Thompson perform it in Kenneth Branagh’s movie of same. I howled.

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Reposted by Maryn McKenna

Le journal du Médecin @journaldumedecin.bsky.social · 1d

🌍 La résistance aux antibiotiques a augmenté de 40 % en 5 ans selon l'OMS. En 2023, 1 infection sur 6 y est résistante dans le monde. L'Europe s'en sort mieux, mais la Belgique doit progresser face aux salmonelles. Un combat global pour prévenir les "super bactéries". #Santé

La résistance aux antibiotiques a augmenté de 40 % en cinq ans au niveau mondial (OMS)

La résistance aux antibiotiques, un enjeu de santé mondiale, s'est intensifiée de 40 % en seulement cinq ans, selon un récent rapport de l'Organisation mondiale de la Santé (OMS). Face à la prolifération des "super bactéries" résistantes aux traitements actuels, le monde doit faire face à un défi sanitaire croissant. Alors que la situation est globalement alarmante, la Belgique se distingue par des résultats globalement positifs, bien que des anomalies subsistent, notamment en ce qui concerne certaines infections à salmonelles. Ce phénomène, accéléré par des comportements humains inappropriés, interpelle sur l'urgence d'une utilisation plus judicieuse des antibiotiques.

lejournaldumedecin.pmg.be

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Reposted by Maryn McKenna

bring on the headless horses @ihavethatonvinyl.com · 1d

like most people my age, i've been with mtv since the first day. the channel was formative for me, the videos always leading me to more and more music. it was all i watched for a long time. this is really sad but expected news
cordcuttersnews.com/mtv-is-shutt...

MTV is Shutting Down Its Last Music Channels, Marking the End of an Era | Cord Cutters News

Paramount Global has delivered a devastating blow to music fans worldwide, announcing the permanent shutdown of five iconic MTV music channels by December 31, 2025 according to the BBC. For 44 years, ...

cordcuttersnews.com

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 2d

“Schumer did it” is the new

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

BRENNAN: CBS confirmed the Trump administration rescinded the layoffs of CDC scientists. Some were involved with the federal measles response. How does a mistake like this happen?

VANCE: The govt shutdown inevitably leads to some chaos. It happened because of Schumer

B: But this was a WH decision

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you for standing up for adverbs, I love them so.

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Reposted by Maryn McKenna

Matthew Cortland (they) @matthewcort.land · 2d

Unlawfully fired from your job at HHS or CDC protecting the public health? Want to talk through how to tell your story in the press? I'm happy to help you think through messaging strategy.

I’ve spent years doing public health comms and talking with reporters. You can see my work at matthewcort.land

Matthew Cortland

Matthew became a lawyer by necessity. Now they use their training in public health and law to help others.

matthewcort.land

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 2d

This is what Catholicism is for, and that this is happening in the hometown of the new pope is not incidental.

Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 2d

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 2d

Some of last night’s CDC bloodbath being reversed? What an absolute cluster. But great breaking reporting by @jeremyfaust.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/insideme...

“Some of the reversals came after the Trump administration realized that they had accidentally terminated critically important staffers working on current measles and Ebola outbreaks.
A former CDC official was told that HHS communications officials were not happy with the media coverage of the RIFs, and may have felt that the move reflected badly on the administration, as outrage and accusations that the administration was using the government shutdown as a pretense to accomplish other political goals seemed to be sticking.”

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 2d

I'm extremely interested in this effort! Best of luck.

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 2d

Oh my god.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 3d

Diane Keaton, famed for roles in “Father of the Bride,” “First Wives Club” and more, has died at 79

Diane Keaton, Famed for Roles in 'Father of the Bride,' 'First Wives Club' and More, Dies at 79 (Exclusive)

Diane Keaton has died at age 79, PEOPLE can confirm exclusively. The actress was best known for roles in movies like 'Annie Hall,' 'The First Wives Club,' 'Something's Gotta Give' and 'The Godfather.'

people.com

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Reposted by Maryn McKenna

Carolyn Barber, MD @cbarbermd.bsky.social · 3d

Measles is back — and hitting schools hard.
👉 153 unvaccinated kids quarantined in South Carolina
👉 118 kids quarantined in Minnesota
👉 103 cases on the AZ–UT border
👉 >1,500 documented U.S. cases in 2025
“Communities are paying the price of quarantining so many children,
#BlueSky #MedSky #NewsSky

Hundreds of U.S. students quarantined amid measles outbreaks

At least 270 unvaccinated kids are staying home from school as measles continues to spread nationwide. "Expect more," one expert said.

shorturl.at

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Reposted by Maryn McKenna

ProPublica @propublica.org · 3d

Federal workers: If you were impacted by the Trump administration's just-announced mass layoffs, our reporters are here to listen.

We understand you may be taking a risk in contacting us, and we take your privacy seriously.

Here's how to get in touch securely 👇

How to Contact ProPublica or Send a Tip Securely — ProPublica

Our job is to hold people and institutions accountable. To do that, we need evidence.

propublica.org

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 3d

More on the CDC tonight: @jeremyfaust.bsky.social , who is impeccably sourced there (physician, Harvard faculty) has details on the divisions hit by the apparently illegal RIFS. insidemedicine.substack.com/p/breaking-n...

BREAKING NEWS: CDC employees terminated in apparent Friday night massacre.

The Trump administration is using the shutdown to further weaken the our national public health infrastructure.

insidemedicine.substack.com

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 3d

"Pontiac fever" in 1968, later found to be an early appearance of Legionnaires disease (not named til 1976); "Four Corners disease" in 1993, later understood to be hantavirus erupting under new environmental conditions.
MMWR rapid-reaction reports have been crucial for guarding public health.
Welp.

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 3d

Reacting too fast, should have said "including when it announced," not "since," because the MMWR has carried many notices of outbreaks that later were back-identified as early appearances of organisms that subsequently caused significant epidemics. Examples: ->

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 3d

Worth noting that for more than 24h, since plans for RIFs began circulating, legal scholars have been saying that a shutdown conveys NO authority to the White House to conduct firings at agencies.
Illegality has not stopped this administration in the past months ofc. It apparently has not tonight.

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 3d

Extremely bad news if true (and unlikely this reporter would run with it if not). The MMWR has been the earliest warning bell for outbreaks since it announced the first US cases, in 1981, of what was later identified as AIDS.

This will be a grievous shock to what remains of US public health.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 3d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 3d

ohlalalalalala putain quoi*

(*lolwut)

Reposted by Maryn McKenna

Leah Greenberg ❌👑 @leahgreenberg.bsky.social · 4d

"After a few moments of laughter, the No Kings Coalition issued the following statement"

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 4d

Whoa!
Data point, things normal in VaHi so far.

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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 4d

Every single AI data center is a toxic investment, with most of its value tied up in GPUs that will be multiple generations behind by the time these things turn on - and then die in 3-5 years.

All to build for AI demand that doesn't exist.
edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo...

Actually, wait - how long do GPUs last, exactly? Four years for training? Three years? The A100 GPU started shipping in May 2020, and the H100 (and the Hopper GPU generation) entered full production in September 2022, meaning that we’re hurtling at speed toward the time in which we’re going to start seeing a remarkable amount of chips start wearing down, which should be a concern for companies like Microsoft, who bought 150,000 Hopper GPUs in 2023 and 485,000 of them in 2024.
Alright, let me just be blunt: the entire economy of debt around GPUs is insane.
Assuming these things don’t die within five years (their warranties generally end in three), their value absolutely will, as NVIDIA has committed to releasing a new AI chip every single year, likely with significant increases to power and power efficiency. At the end of the five year period, the Special Purpose Vehicle will be the proud owner of five-year-old chips that nobody is going to want to rent at the price that Elon Musk has been paying for the last five years. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the rental prices for H100 GPUs that went from $8-an-hour in 2023 to $2-an-hour in 2024, or the Silicon Data Indexes (aggregated realtime indexes of hourly prices) that show H100 rentals at around $2.14-an-hour and A100 rentals at a dollar-an-hour, with Vast.AI offering them at as little as $0.67 an hour.
This is, by the way, a problem that faces literally every data center being built in the world, and I feel insane talking about it. It feels like nobody is talking about how impossible and ridiculous all of this is - it’s one thing that OpenAI has promised one trillion dollars to people - it’s another that large swaths of that will be spent on hardware that will, by the end of these agreements, be half-obsolete and generating less revenue than ever.
Think about it - let’s assume we live in a fantasy land where OpenAI is somehow able to pay Oracle $300 billion over 5 years. Said money is paying for access to Blackwell…

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Reposted by Maryn McKenna

Emory Human Health @emorycshh.bsky.social · 4d

"What does a clinical trial, especially a very long-lasting one, in this case, literally for generations...what does it owe to its participants?" The question runs through the heart of @jennieerinsmith.bsky.social's book, Valley of Forgetting. Health Storytelling Q&A w/ @marynmck.bsky.social

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Emory Human Health @emorycshh.bsky.social · 4d

@marynmck.bsky.social fascinating discussion with science writer @jennieerinsmith.bsky.social about her new book, Valley of Forgetting, Alzheimer's Families and the Search for a Cure? The Full Interview right here on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9Rd...

Health Storytelling with Jennie Erin Smith

YouTube video by Center for the Study of Human Health | Emory Univ.

www.youtube.com

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