Finally! A definition!

The UK plans to release new bank notes in a few years, which isn’t news at all. Countries do this every once in a while, you know.

Banknotes issued by the Bank of England will soon feature images of wildlife rather than historical figures, following a public consultation on the design of the next set of currency.

There is nothing too trivial to trigger the Right, though. And new we finally have a definition of “woke”!

The Bank of England is replacing Winston Churchill with a picture of a beaver on our bank notes.
This is the definition of woke.

You can always trust Nigel Farage to babble out some ludicrous nonsense.

I, for one, will welcome the new, much prettier UK currency. Can you also replace Farage with a more attractive animal? Something that doesn’t scream “gormless” when displayed?

This is what it feels like to be a rogue state

Think about this truth.

The 2026 National Science Foundation budget is $8.75 billion.
First 6 Days of Iran War Cost U.S. $11.3 Billion, Pentagon Says
David Ho

Anyone who wants to defend our war with Iran needs to justify the expense. The NSF provides a material benefit, discovers new knowledge, and enhances the reputation of our country. It is a net advantage to support the NSF; you could reasonably argue for a different kind of positive investment, an argument that goes on in congress all the time while they hash out the yearly budget.

The Iran war, on the other hand, is an illegal action triggered by one lunatic executive without congressional approval, that is destructive of human life and property, and does not succeed in it’s stated goal of reducing threats to Americans and others. For my selfish fellow citizens, it’s also going to raise the cost of oil. It’s also a war we cannot win, and that’s just the beginning of an escalation that will make that $11.3 billion look like a bargain.

It is a no-brainer to choose between those two alternatives.

Also, it wasn’t long ago that the president raged at a few congresspeople who put out an ad stating that soldiers don’t need to follow illegal orders. That ad did not go far enough. We need to pull a few generals into a courts martial and explain to them that the president does not have the authority to unilaterally tell you to launch your missiles at civilian citizens of a country we are not at war with. You must first be informed by congress that you are at war, which is the minimal requirement before military action can be triggered. Learn to tell the president to shut the fuck up and get authorization first.

The officers that ordered the pushing of the buttons are war criminals, and that’s how history will regard them.

A good maggoty morning to you, too

Even though it is officially Spring Break, I had to trudge through the snow (yeah, it snowed again) to the lab to take care of my students’ flies, since they’re away doing splendidly fun things and couldn’t be bothered to come into the lab and maintain their experiment themselves, and I had to do it all. Which wasn’t much…they set up their crosses last week, and I just had to come in and kill their parents before they had an opportunity to commit incest.

I am happy to report that their bottles were mostly full of maggots, some had entered the wandering stage and crawled up the sides of the bottles, but none had pupated yet. Our timing is perfect — I expect they’ll be eclosing this weekend, so the students will return to buzzing bottles full of purebred Drosophila adults for the next stage of the cross.

I’m sure they were all concerned so I just sent them all a note to read on their holiday, reminding them of what’s next.

This woman cannot fade into obscurity fast enough

WTF? Who is this Erika Kirk weirdo, other than the Charlie Kirk’s widow and a former Miss Arizona? She’s now going to be in charge of Turning Point USA, which is great — she’s going to eventually kill the organization, so more power to her. But now…

Donald Trump has appointed Erika Kirk, the widow of murdered rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, to a key advisory board of the US Air Force Academy.

No mention of her qualifications or why she was even considered for the position. It’s just part of Trump’s general policy of packing all kinds of positions with clowns, incompetents, and grifters. Look who else is serving on this advisory board:

Other people appointed by the president in March 2025 include the Republican Alabama US senator Tommy Tuberville, and Dina Powell, who was deputy national security adviser for strategy during the first Trump administration.

A number of Congress members from both parties make up the bulk of the rest of the panel, which includes two other Republican US senators elevated by John Thune, the chamber’s majority leader; they are Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, named recently as Trump’s pick to replace the fired homeland security secretary Kristi Noem.

In other words, the Air Force Academy is simply a dumping ground for every failed twit in the Republican party. They claim that their role is to inquire “into the morale, discipline, curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods and other matters” of the Colorado Springs military training facility,” whatever that means. The clue, though, is Colorado Springs, the notorious center of televangelist/religious nutjobbery in the country.

I know that Candace Owens is spinning a whole set of conspiracy theories about Kirk. I don’t need to hear about them.

Does China know something we don’t?

I kinda sorta envy Chinese science policy.

The Chinese government is ramping up its support for science, announcing plans to boost two key budgets at the country’s biggest political meeting called the Two Sessions.

China has proposed to increase its overall research and development (R&D) expenditure by at least 7% per year over the next five years, which translates to billions of extra dollars each year. This typically covers government and private-industry spending on basic research, applied research and experimental development.

China’s R&D expenditure has skyrocketed over the past 20 years. Last year, it exceeded 3.9 trillion yuan (US$567 billion). For the past five years, it has has increased by at least 8% a year.

They had me at “support for science.” I don’t have an unqualified envy — the USA has been gutting science in this country, which I’d like to see stop — but there’s more to improving science than throwing money at it. China is going to direct money by dictating how it should be spent, and I’d rather see science supported by informed, peer-directed investment.

Unfortunately, the US approach is to slash the science budget and put it under the control of an asylum full of demented lunatics who know nothing about science. We’ve chosen the very worst science policy possible!

Apple Hell

I’m beginning to hate computers. I have been trying to deal with Apple security this morning, trying to log in to the system on my home Mac mini. The problem is two-fold: one is that I have to log into my Apple account; two is that I don’t own any of my computers. Somehow, they are all registered to my wife.I had to register with Apple all over again, which took an absurd amount of verification and re-verification and filling out forms. Finally got that straightened around, set up my new official account, tried to login, only for it to tell me that I needed Mary’s password now.

I took one stab at it and quit. The other delightful thing about Apple is that you get three tries, and then you are locked out of even attempting to log in for a week.

I have spent the last hour screaming profanities at the ceiling.

I get email

Yeah, I still get lots of this stuff.

Study am Right

human genus with child STAINS, died biology, more than genitalia.
.. M

Imax movie further x Man sexy sense bible archaic…

Perpetrators within don’t realise who I refer to..

No fundamental understanding of human genus creativity normal as fuck yeah

Imax movie wanna have it made for conscience on screen had deep..

Kill shot, mental, lost life thus far

Basic morals

Boyfriend material not child Friern weirdly to romantic millions with grown adults

Famous type Star

Look below

I AM presence

Frustrates, can correct Life Form at every moment that took my private evidence which is ducking weird I mean existence and is. A pervert..

I’m a normal British civilian..

Around here no small talk

Paradox stains front two, inner of incisors, thinks NHS gender clinic lesss legit when are more legit than psychiatrist sectioned sector

Love is public failing in love

“*” men””” ” outside creepy and weird old
. Not in 29s 20s 35s idk

There were attachments. I will spare you.

This poor person desperately needs counseling and mental health assistance, but I’m not going to reveal their email address.

Nice to know that good guys exist

Via Mano, I am reassured to learn that not all scientists were taken in by Epstein. Sean M. Carroll represents what I’d regard as the best response to the blandishments of a perverse, corrupt weirdo trying to seduce scientists with money.

His host interrupted the meal to call Epstein and then handed Carroll the phone.

“It was a 2-minute conversation, and frankly, it didn’t make much of an impression on me at the time,” Carroll says. “As best I can remember, we talked about the Big Bang and dark energy and things like that.”

But Carroll says when he told others about the call, including his wife, science writer Jennifer Ouellette, we “were rolling our eyes.” In a recent blog post, Carroll said Epstein came off as a “standard, fast-talking charlatan who trotted out lots of big words with no real understanding [of them].”

A few months later, Carroll received an email invitation to a scientific conference at Epstein’s home on his private Caribbean island. “It was billed as a workshop of scientists from different fields, something that I usually find appealing, and it sounded like fun,” he says. But he declined after learning a bit more about the arrangements.

“Jennifer was also invited,” Carroll recounts. “But when we asked if she would be a participant, they said ‘she could go shopping with the other wives.’ And we were repulsed by that sexist attitude.”

“I had no idea through any of this that he was a convicted sex offender,” Carroll adds. “That would have made it a much easier decision for me. But in 2010 he was not a famous person. If I had tried really hard, I could have found out about [his criminal record], but the thought that I would really have to try hard never entered my mind.”

Carroll says the lure of possible funding wasn’t an issue for him. “I’m not desperate for money,” he says. “And besides, at the end of your life, who you are is the accumulation of the things you did. It’s not just how much money you got.”

“standard, fast-talking charlatan who trotted out lots of big words with no real understanding [of them]” is a pretty good summary of the the Epstein spiel. Keep that in mind when you read about scientists who were taking rides on Epstein’s plane — they had to be either stupidly naive or criminally greedy.

I just can’t watch TikTok

Twitter is bad because it is full of hate and lies, but TikTok is bad because it is full of stupid. I can’t engage with either of them, but occasionally the folly leaks through.

DNA contains sulfur, and is made up of 24 strands, and you can “activate” it, whatever that means, by making silly noises? These smiling happy people have had their brains pithed at some point.