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dangaristo.bsky.social
Dan Garisto
@dangaristo.bsky.social
5.3K followers 330 following 1.2K posts
science journalist | good physics, bad physics, and sometimes ugly physics

Signal: dgaristo.72
Email: [email protected]
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dangaristo.bsky.social
BREAKING: NSF will be relocating to the "Randolph Building," about half a mile from its current location in Alexandria, where they will co-locate with the US Patent and Trademark Office. The lease will begin January 1, 2026.

Below is a transcription of an email shared with me by NSF staff.
U.S. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR ALEXANDRIA, VA 22314 STAFF MEMORANDUM Fri 11/14/2025 10:47 AM OD 25-68 November 14, 2025 ORGANIZATION SUBJECT: U.S. National Science Foundation Headquarters Update Today, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is announcing the award of a lease for the new U.S. National Science Foundation headquarters building at 401 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA. This building, known as the "Randolph Building" is a part of the Carlyle Innovation Campus, where we will co-locate with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The new building is approximately 0.5 miles East of our current headquarters and approximately 0.3 miles away from the King Street-Old Town Metro and Virginia Railway Express (VRE) station. Many of you may already be familiar with the campus. We expect the new lease to begin on January 1, 2026, and it is our intent to move as quickly as possible so that we minimize costs to the agency. GSA is working on the overall schedule, and there is preparatory work that needs to be done to get the building ready for our occupancy, including cabling, furniture, and other basic modifications. We will be updating you on those plans as they are available. We intend to use all available flexibilities, including telework, as we execute the move in the first quarter of 2026. Thank you in advance for your patience, and we hope to have additional details for you at the town hall next week. Brian Stone Chief of Staff Performing the Duties of the Director
November 14, 2025 at 4:03 PM
dangaristo.bsky.social
New: memo sent to NSF staff by acting director Brian Stone confirms that the agency recovery is going to be limited.

"We cannot recover the time missed during the lapse, which means we cannot conduct all the programs and activities that we had originally planned for FY 2026."
Staff Memorandum OD 25-46, NSF Restart (od2567) SUBJECT: NSF Restart As we resume operations today, I want to thank you all for your dedication to the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) mission and your continued service to the nation. The past several weeks have been difficult, and our top priority is to ensure that we restart the agency in a way that allows our staff time to return to full operating capacity. We will be holding a Town Hall on Wednesday, November 19th at 1pm to welcome everyone back, share our plans for an orderly restart, and answer your questions. Please review the attached Frequently Asked Questions document, which provides important information on backpay, employee benefits, IT, and building services. We also have planned a series of HR and IT Pulses in the coming days that will communicate important information on the resumption of various activities in a phased, integrated manner. You may continue sending questions to the lapse email box, fundinglapse@nsf.gov, during the restart period. Our restart activities will be initially focused on processing backpay for federal employees as quickly as possible and restoring our capacity to make awards. Restoring our award-making capacity includes completing FY 2025 year-end activities and initiating FY 2026 start-up processes that were interrupted due to the shutdown. We expect these activities will require the next several days. At the same time, directorate and office leadership teams will be cataloging, prioritizing, and triaging backlogs and new, pending work. We cannot recover the time missed during the lapse, which means we cannot conduct all the programs and activities that we had originally planned for FY 2026. The agency will prioritize funding actions, in alignment with Administration and other priorities, in order to achieve the...
November 13, 2025 at 3:46 PM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Some more physics-related stuff: In 2012 (after the conviction) Lisa Randall emailed Epstein, asking for his opinion about an invitation to Sundance.
Subject: 11/28/2012 5:28:55 PM Jeffrey Epstein [jeeyacation@gmail.com] Re: Invite to Dialog 2014 (16 months away) Importance: High So let me understand. You are suggesting tourism? Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry From: Jeffrey Epstein <jeevacation@gmail.com> Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:28:51 -0500 To: Lisa Randall Subject: Re: Invite to Dialog 2014 (16 months away) sundance is nice „ go On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 11:17 AM, Lisa Randall.___________ wrote: Is this worthwhile? --------Original Message-------- Subject: Invite to Dialog 2014 (16 months away) Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2012 08:05:58 -0800 From: Auren Hoffman To: < Dear Fouad, Dear Lisa — You are invited to join us at Dialog 2014 -- a two-day bipartisan retreat discussing how to change the world.
November 13, 2025 at 3:06 PM
dangaristo.bsky.social
In which Epstein proposes a new US-China particle collider.

"the cinese are willing to build a new collider. they will put up the money and build it , but need american tech. if he were to call it the obama xi collider. his legazy would be great in scinece and the project takes 15 -30 years."
another idea for obama. not as good as bio signal intelligence. . the cinese are willing to build a new collider. they will put up the money and build it , but need american tech. if he were to call it the obama xi collider. his legazy would be great in scinece and the project takes 15 -30 years.
November 13, 2025 at 7:27 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Wow. Gotta say I was not expecting to find a mention of indirect costs.

In 2017 Ito fwds Epstein an email from MIT admin about the Trump admin policy capping indirect costs at 10%.
Ito's fwd'd email to Epstein
November 13, 2025 at 7:23 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
In 2017 Epstein emails Joi Ito and Reid Hoffman proposing that:

"you could organzie a huge public charity that would continue the work of many worthwhile orgs. not my thing but structurally beautiful. its the wealthiest now stepping into a quasi govt
funding."
a HUGE donor advised fund is an elegant solution to the cuts trump proposes to what some consider critical programs. you could organzie a huge public charity that would continue the work of many worthwhile orgs. not my thing but structurally beautiful. its the wealthiest now stepping into a quasi govt funding. national endowment for arts. climate science. as extraordinary amounts of wealth have moved into private hands. elons and jeff space goals should be mirrored with many other former govt ones. hope to see you soon
November 13, 2025 at 7:19 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
A lot of conversations with Joi Ito. Here's Ito letting Epstein know in early 2019 (before Farrow's article in Sept) that a $25k check bounced.
Ito-Epstein email
November 13, 2025 at 7:17 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Epstein offers some travel advice to Chomsky in 2017.
Epstein email to Chomsky
November 13, 2025 at 7:01 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Clearly something of a relationship here.

There are several other emails, in which Chomsky entertains Epstein's questions. Here's a Hanukkah message where he asks about multidimensional linguistic models and jokes that Trump has written more books than he's read.
Email about Iran deal Hanukkah email
November 13, 2025 at 6:57 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
In 2023, Chomsky told WSJ about his relationship with Epstein: “First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone’s. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally.”

Epstein: you are of course welcome to use apt in new york with your new leisure time, or visit new Mexico again
Emails between Chomsky and Epstein in 2015
November 13, 2025 at 6:50 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Chomsky replies with a nuanced message about the perils of secular dogma.

Epstein: I think religion plays a major positive role in many lives. . i dont like fanaticism on either side. . sorry

Krauss: Ps. My piece argued against fanaticism.
Emails between Epstein, Chomsky, and Krauss
November 13, 2025 at 6:32 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
In 2015, Krauss sends Noam Chomsky and Epstein a NYer piece he's written about atheism and the Kim Davis saga.

www.newyorker.com/news/news-de...
Krauss email to Chomsky and Epstein
November 13, 2025 at 6:32 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Epstein: I m here with the trump peopl in palm and when asked i say i dont have any idea if this global warming is a threat that can be reduced

Krauss [on Freeman Dyson]: He has cherry picked data, the typical act of those who believe the answer before they ask the question.
November 13, 2025 at 6:14 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Some informal science advising here:

Epstein: i liked the argument that more co2 is good for plants?

Krauss: My goodness. So you are listening to an old Nobel laureate whose expertise has nothing to do with this, who has never studied this
in detail, built models, done experiments....
Epstein email to Krauss
November 13, 2025 at 6:14 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
In Feb. 2018 following the first Buzzfeed article, Krauss emailed Epstein.

Krauss: "I wonder if I will ever really recover.. I wish they would indict Trump or something right now.."

Epstein, providing more advice: "break the charges into ludicrous. ogling. jokes. . etc. ."
Epstein email to Krauss, Krauss discussing stepping down
November 13, 2025 at 4:13 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
If it helps, you're mentioned in the following files.
November 13, 2025 at 4:07 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Here's Epstein offering Krauss some advice, evidently from experience, on his response to Buzzfeed's inquiry.

"normaly thier strategy will be to take back your defense to the accusers. and attack each one. if they find you
are right they will leave out. and only go with the conflicted."
Epstein response to Krauss
November 13, 2025 at 4:06 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Krauss was also in discussions with Sam Harris, who tipped him off that Buzzfeed was investigating the broader skeptics movement.
Email from Krauss to Sam Harris Harris fwd of Buzzfeed inquiry to Krauss
November 13, 2025 at 3:59 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Here's Krauss emailing Epstein about the allegations detailed to him in @peteraldhous.com's email. Notably, Krauss does not deny #6 (that he groped a woman's breast during a selfie).
Krauss letter to Epstein about the list of allegations
November 13, 2025 at 3:47 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Half of the comments are 'this is completely trivial, complex numbers are easily represented by real numbers,' and the other half are 'this is completely trivial, you can't get rid of complex numbers'.

(Lots of fun comments on Twitter and reddit too, many of them too impolite to share here.)
"it is baffling that there are physicists who deny that there are physical values best represented by imaginary numbers" Hot take: I hate to say it, but this is silly. Mathematicians have known for at least a century that you can replace imaginary numbers with 2x2 matrices of real numbers. Would the result be useful? Sounds like the answer is no.
November 8, 2025 at 12:04 PM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Gutting the federal workforce and shutting down the government does not appear to have gone well for the GOP in Alexandria, VA.
Margin shift in VA showing heavy blue arrows in Alexandria.
November 5, 2025 at 1:54 AM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Eh, I can't be bothered about that.

Can we talk about my hang-up tho: calling an effect/phenomenon a "physics thing" in the text of the article
She said that it’s a “physics thing” called Tyndall scattering. The passage of light through the feathers appears blue, when they are actually brown.
October 31, 2025 at 6:50 PM
dangaristo.bsky.social
Missed this at the time (busy w/shutdown stuff), but on Sept. 30 NSF dropped its appeal for the 15% indirect cost case. The AAU is now suing NSF to recoup ~330,000 in legal fees.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Plaintiff Association of American Universities (“AAU”) hereby moves for an award of attorneys’ fees and costs in the amount of $330,453.56, pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act (“EAJA”), 28 U.S.C. § 2412. On May 2, 2025, the National Science Foundation (“NSF”) issued a policy purporting to cap at 15% the rates it would reimburse for so-called “indirect costs” associated with its grants to institutions of higher education (“IHEs”). This 15% rate cap idea was not unique to NSF—at the time the NSF policy was issued, courts in this District had enjoined materially identical policies issued by two other federal agencies within the prior two months. See Massachusetts v. NIH, 770 F. Supp. 3d 277, 327 (D. Mass. 2025), judgment entered, No. 1:25- CV-10338, 2025 WL 1063760 (D. Mass. Apr. 4, 2025), appeals docketed, Nos. 25-1343, 25-1344, 25-1345 (1st Cir. Apr. 9, 2025); AAU v. DOE, No. 25-CV-10912, 2025 WL 1119791, at *1 (D. Mass. Apr. 16, 2025). Courts in this District have since vacated or enjoined all four Rate Cap Policies, including NSF’s in this case and a later policy issued by the Department of Defense (“DOD”). After Defendants dropped their appeal last month, this case is the first of the four suits to reach an unappealable end. AAU now seeks to recoup some of the cost of challenging a policy that Defendants knew or should have known was unlawful from its inception.
October 31, 2025 at 4:14 PM
dangaristo.bsky.social
It's possible that it was a simile; it's also possible that Tolkien was, as he did elsewhere, using a vagueness->clarity structuring.

I can't believe I have to explain alternative hypotheses to a physicist 🤔

tolkien.slimy.com/essays/TAB6....
A variation of this later argument is sometimes called the 'vagueness to clarity' view. Effectively, it suggests that Tolkien is saying 'the shadow was like wings' because it was dark and obscured and the fellowship could not make it out. Then, when the Balrog came closer Tolkien says simply 'wings' because they could now see it clearly. An example of this sort of presentation is; "Before his feet they saw a large round hole like the mouth of a well. Broken and rusty chains lay at the edge and trailed down into the black pit. Fragments of stone lay near. 'One of you might have fallen in and still be wondering when you were going to strike the bottom,' said Aragorn to Merry. 'Let the guide go first while you have one.' 'This seems to have been a guardroom, made for the watching of the three passages,' said Gimli. `That hole was plainly a well for the guards' use, covered with a stone lid." FotR, A Journey in the Dark Here the fellowship sees a 'hole like the mouth of a well'. Under the 'simile > metaphor' view this would indicate that the hole was NOT actually the mouth of a well... yet Gimli thereafter states that it was. The purpose of the hole was originally vague, but then made clear as they got closer and Gimli's experience was brought to bear. There is a similar passage referring to wings and shadows; "Suddenly a shadow, like the shape of great wings, passed across the moon. The figure lifted his arms and a light flashed from the staff that he wielded. A mighty eagle swept down and bore him away." FotR, In the House of Tom Bombadil This differs slightly in that the shadow is stated definitively, but its SHAPE is described as being 'like wings'. The shape is unclear and hence 'vagueness'. Then, when the eagle swoops down it is clear that the shadow was indeed cast by wings though they are not explicitly mentioned in this case.
October 29, 2025 at 6:17 PM
dangaristo.bsky.social
"That policy was aimed 'directly' at CART, believes Benavente, who is the former science secretary for San Juan, the mountainous western province where the observatory is located. “There is direct interference from the White House here.”"
Researchers trace CART’s difficulties to efforts by Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, to forge close ties with U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration has made curbing China’s global influence a priority. The first signs of trouble came in June, when Argentina’s science agency missed a deadline for renewing a scientific cooperation agreement with China. Then, in September, customs officials in Buenos Aires held up a shipment of key dish parts made in China, which has contributed some $15 million in equipment and engineering to the project. Last month brought another setback when U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said the Trump administration would provide up to $20 billion to shore up Argentina’s beleaguered economy—but only if Milei’s government suspended strategic ties with China, including efforts to build “observational facilities.” That policy was aimed “directly” at CART, believes Benavente, who is the former science secretary for San Juan, the mountainous western province where the observatory is located. “There is direct interference from the White House here.”
October 29, 2025 at 12:04 AM