M.
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molaru.bsky.social
M.
@molaru.bsky.social
Chemist. Main group, organometallic chemistry.
Moved out of academia, kinda missing it.
Perpetually exhausted.
Reposted by M.
Experts say it’s highly unusual for the White House to tell agents to give up custody of potential evidence in an investigation, as it did with the Tates.

“I’ve never heard of anything like that in my 30 years working,” an ex-DHS official said.
The White House Intervened on Behalf of Accused Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate During a Federal Investigation
Federal authorities were chided for seizing electronic devices from Tate and his brother, and told to return them, records and interviews show. Experts said the intervention was highly inappropriate.
www.propublica.org
November 28, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Reposted by M.
In normal democracy terms, we've in bad shape and things are getting worse.

In consolidated authoritarianism terms, we're doing pretty well, as the regime is haphazard, meeting resistance, and growing increasingly unpopular.

Depends on one's perspective. I started using the latter standard in Jan.
It is good to see the pushback on Trump lead to real losses for him. But it's hard to be optimistic when he still wields the enormous power of the presidency. ICE is still rampaging, HHS is harming people, the U.S. may be about to sell out Ukraine, the boat strikes...he's still doing so much damage.
November 22, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by M.
This is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Trump Has a Recipe for War and Corruption, Not Peace
Who would benefit from the White House’s 28-point proposal for Ukraine?
www.theatlantic.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Reposted by M.
Elon Musk's poison hall of mirrors
from @cwarzel.bsky.social

www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Elon Musk’s Worthless, Poisoned Hall of Mirrors
How X blew up its own platform with a new location feature
www.theatlantic.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Reposted by M.
It doesn’t need conspiracy or coordination. The incentives alone are sufficient. The platform pays the public to perform, and the performance produces the disorder.
November 23, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by M.
The platform architecture forces convergence: authentic conviction expressed through the same escalating, performative patterns. Which isn't great for functional democracy.
November 23, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by M.
Even sincere actors get pulled into the same incentive field. Their beliefs may be genuine, but the attention economy doesn’t distinguish. To be heard, they must compete with the grifters on the grifters’ terms.
November 23, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by M.
It performs rage for profit but generates real anger in the audience. That anger feeds real political behaviour. Performative signals become grievances, and the disordered discourse migrates from the feed into institutions and streets.
November 23, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by M.
It produces a performative ecosystem. Actors aren’t communicating; they’re staging provocations for yield. The result is disordered discourse: signals detached from truth, identity shaped by escalation, and a feedback loop where the performance eclipses reality itself.
November 23, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by M.
Although the scale of this is still to be assessed, this is the inevitable outcome of the monetization of the algorithm. Rage-bait becomes a personal revenue model. Nothing about this should be a surprise.
NEWS: I spent the past 24 hours going through major MAGA accounts on Twitter, and a bombshell development has become clear: most of the right-wing ecosphere is being fed propaganda from foreign actors.

This impacts elections. This impacts discourse. This is major. Subscribe to support my work:
NEWS: Major MAGA Accounts on Twitter Exposed as Foreign Actors
A stunning development over the past 24 hours.
open.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Reposted by M.
privatize the gains and socialize the costs ftw.
A story in 3 acts:
November 24, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by M.
Thrilled to announce publication of the crystallography children’s book illustrated by undergraduate Justine Wong!

You can buy it here for $15: meitneriumpress.com

50% of profits will support undergrad education at the Cal Poly Pomona Crystallography Co-op.

#chemsky #chemchat
November 17, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by M.
"The AI industry’s most important product at this moment is not a chatbot or a video generator; it’s the story the AI industry is telling about itself.... According to an MIT study, 95% of businesses that have deployed generative AI have gotten no value from it." www.theringer.com/2025/11/04/t...
How Catastrophic Is It If the AI Bubble Bursts? An FAQ.
The AI industry's most important product is not a chatbot or a video generator; it's the story the AI industry is telling about itself
www.theringer.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Reposted by M.
Huge congratulations to Harvard’s Naomi Oreskes for winning the Volvo prize! She is a pioneer in unmasking the financial interests and methods behind climate science denial.
I’m proud to have published with her how Exxon knew exactly what they were doing.
www.environment-prize.com/laureates/na...
Naomi Oreskes - Volvo Environment Prize
Harvard Professor Naomi Oreskes, a world-renowned earth scientist and historian, is the laureate of the 2025 Volvo Environment Prize. She is recognized for her influential work on the history of scien...
www.environment-prize.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by M.
On this day 225 years ago, John Adams moved into the still-not-quite-complete White House, becoming the first president to occupy it. His blessing was carved into the State Dining Room mantel in 1945: "May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof.”
November 1, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by M.
How many cockroaches does it take to sink a ship? Wall Street may soon find out.
Cracks in the Credit Market Could Be a Warning for Wall Street
How many cockroaches does it take to sink a ship? We may soon find out.
bloom.bg
November 1, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by M.
Trump's AI video, showing himself as a pilot dumping shit on Americans, fits right in to a long authoritarian tradition

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Why Trump Turned to the Sewer
The president’s disturbing, excremental propaganda campaign
www.theatlantic.com
October 20, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Reposted by M.
This morning my ChatGPT quota was inexplicably exhausted.

It took a while but I pieced it together. Voice mode somehow got activated when I went to bed.

The bot then engaged in a 10 hour conversation with my snoring dog, answering questions the pup wasn’t asking and praising him for his insight.
October 18, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Nobel prize in medicine or chemistry?
This is huge news!
UBC has developed an enzyme that can convert donor organs to type O, making them universal.
Normally a using organs of the wrong blood type causes the recipient's immune system to attack the organ, leading to failure.
❤️🇨🇦⚕️
news.ubc.ca/2025/10/univ...
UBC enzyme technology clears first human test toward universal donor organs for transplantation - UBC News
UBC-developed enzymes successfully converted a kidney to universal type O for transplant, marking a major step toward faster, more compatible organ donations.
news.ubc.ca
October 15, 2025 at 5:24 AM
Reposted by M.
So today's Substack about the impact of tariffs concluded:

"in many ways the level of the tariffs is less important than the huge uncertainty Trump’s policies have created. And that uncertainty hasn’t abated at all."

Ya don't say. paulkrugman.substack.com/p/leprechaun...
Leprechauns, Effective Tariffs and Inflation
Yes, tariffs are hurting us. No, Trump wasn’t right.
paulkrugman.substack.com
October 10, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by M.
Brian Kilmeade endorses euthanizing homeless people: "Involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill them."
September 13, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by M.
Cancer drug Revlimid is one of the bestselling pharmaceutical products of all time, with total sales of over $100 billion.

It’s also extraordinarily expensive, costing nearly $1,000 for each pill, even though that pill costs just 25 cents to make.

(Published May 2025)
The Price of Remission: This Cancer Drug Saves Lives — but Costs a Fortune. I Wanted to Know Why.
When I was diagnosed with cancer, I set out to understand why a single pill of Revlimid cost the same as a new iPhone. I’ve covered high drug prices as a reporter for years. What I discovered shocked ...
www.propublica.org
September 8, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Reposted by M.
We might be “experiencing an AI bubble,” Rogé Karma argues. “If that bubble bursts, it could put the dot-com crash to shame—and the tech giants and their Silicon Valley backers won’t be the only ones who suffer.”
Just How Bad Would an AI Bubble Be?
The entire U.S. economy is being propped up by the promise of productivity gains that seem very far from materializing.
bit.ly
September 8, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Reposted by M.
“Scientists Are Flocking to Bluesky
*** Academics once loved Twitter—but in the age of X they’ve abandoned it in droves.” 8/28/25 arstechnica.com/science/2025...
Bluesky now platform of choice for science community
It’s not just you. Survey says: “Twitter sucks now and all the cool kids are moving to Bluesky”…
arstechnica.com
August 28, 2025 at 10:01 PM