Tag Archives: Donald Trump
Trump, science denial and violence
For a few days last week, before the mail-in votes had been counted in the US, the contest between Joe Biden and Donald Trump seemed set for a nail-biting finish. In this time a lot of people expressed disappointment on … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged anti-masker, anti-vaxxer, Ashis Nandy, Challakere, COVID-19, disease modelling, Donald Trump, history of science, India-based Neutrino Observatory, Joe Biden, Kudankulam nuclear power plant, medical care, medical ethics, political mathematics, public hospitals, reason of state, Science City, science denialism, scientism, social epidemiology, Sterlite, Thoothukudi, US presidential election
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Pandemic: A world-building exercise
First, there was light news of a vaccine against COVID-19 nearing the end of its phase 3 clinical trials with very promising results, accompanied with breezy speculations (often tied to the stock prices of a certain drug-maker) about how it’s … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds
Tagged anti-vaxxer, clinical trials, COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine, Donald Trump, epidemiological modelling, epidemiology, healthcare privatisation, migrant workers, phase 3 clinical trials, Politically Math, private healthcare
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The WHA coronavirus resolution is not great for science
On May 19, member states of the WHO moved a vote in the World Health Assembly (WHA), asking for an independent investigation into the sources of the novel coronavirus. Their exact demands were spelled out in a draft resolution that … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm, Science
Tagged coronavirus lab origin hypothesis, COVID-19, Donald Trump, evolutionary biology, furin, Harsh Vardhan, Nitin Gadkari, novel coronavirus, principle of correspondence, SARS-CoV-2, sufficient cause, sufficient condition, WHO, World Health Assembly, World Health Organization, zoonotic spillover
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A personal manifesto
Many people who are unsure of how their work can help put out the various (figurative) fires ravaging the country at the moment often quickly conclude that purpose is best found at the frontlines of this battle. The common trap … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged anti-CAA protests, authoritarianism, Boris Johnson, Constitution of India, Donald Trump, fascism, Jair Bolsonaro, majoritarianism, make good art, Narendra Modi, National Registry of Citizens, Neil Gaiman, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Rodrigo Duterte, Vladimir Putin
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Accumulation then philanthropy
Peter Woit’s review of a new book about Jim Simons, the mathematician and capitalist who set up the Simons Foundation, which funds math and physics research around the world but principally in the West to the tune of $300 million … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged Bill Gates, capital accumulation, capitalism, Donald Trump, income inequality, Jeffrey Epstein, Jim Simons, philanthropy, Simons Foundation, wealth inequality
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Two sides of the road and the gutter next to it
I have a mid-October deadline for an essay so obviously when I started reading up on the topic this morning, I ended up on a different part of the web – where I found this: a piece by a journalist … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Op-eds
Tagged bias, Bob Woodward, Donald Trump, ignorance, Jay Rosen, Kary Mullis, Nobel Prizes, objectivity, Omar Kelly, Poynter, Richard Feynman, Surjit Bhalla, Swarajya Mag, The New York Times, victim-blaming, victimisation, view from nowhere, women in STEM
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False equivalency
Margaret Sullivan in the Washington Post on August 16: Does finding these powerful ways to frame the [Charlottesville] situation amount to abandoning journalistic impartiality? “The whole doctrine of objectivity in journalism has become part of the [media’s] problem,” Jay Rosen, a journalism professor … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Charlottesville, Dalits, democracy, Donald Trump, Jay Rosen, journalism, Margaret Sullivan, view from nowhere
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The metaphorical transparency of responsible media
We in India often complain about how the media doesn’t care enough to cover science stories. But when we’re looking back and forward in time, we become blind to the media’s efforts. Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 2016, 2017, authoritarianism, BJP, climate change, counterproductive continuity, David Fahrenthold, Donald Trump, Facebook, Google News, ideologue, independent media, Jay Rosen, Jeff Leek, left-wing, Philip Stark, religion, right wing, Science, science journalism, science media, speaking truth to power, The Intersection, The Life of Science, The Wire, Twitter
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