pmags

n.b. Down votes are not mine

Azoles (and other antifungals) are indeed still used in the US and there is documented azole resistance in important opportunistic fungal pathogens such as Aspergillus in the US:

• Celia-Sanchez BN, Mangum B, Gómez Londoño LF, Wang C, Shuman B, Brewer MT, Momany M. Pan-azole- and multi-fungicide-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus is widespread in the United States. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2024 Apr 17;90(4):e0178223. doi: 10.1128/aem.01782-23. Epub 2024 Apr 1. PMID: 38557086; PMCID: PMC11022549. -- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11022549/

Table 1 in this paper gives estimated azole use in various countries. US is lower than many European nations but still nowhere near zero.

• Burks C, Darby A, Gómez Londoño L, Momany M, Brewer MT. Azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus in the environment: Identifying key reservoirs and hotspots of antifungal resistance. PLoS Pathog. 2021 Jul 29;17(7):e1009711. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009711. PMID: 34324607; PMCID: PMC8321103. -- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8321103/

Full title: "Proposed civilian faculty cuts at Air Force Academy raise alarms over critical engineering programs"

• If civilian faculty are cut, this would represent about a 38% cut in the number of faculty at the Air Force academy

From the article:

>The April 11 letter from the White House’s task force on antisemitism, this official told Harvard, should not have been sent and was “unauthorized,” two people familiar with the matter said.

(see letter here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/04/14/us/trump-harv...)

This sounds like a major case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, but now the administration is trying to deflect their blame for the screwup by insisting it was Harvard's fault that they took the letter at face value (letter was on official letterhead, signed by three officials, etc):

>“It was malpractice on the side of Harvard’s lawyers not to pick up the phone and call the members of the antisemitism task force who they had been talking to for weeks,” said May Mailman, the White House senior policy strategist. “Instead, Harvard went on a victimhood campaign.”

> Harvard officials, including several who worked in government earlier in their careers, were shocked that such an important letter — bearing the logos of three government agencies, with signatures of three top officials at the bottom — could be sent by a mistake.

I too think that we don't yet have convincing evidence that recent changes in global temperature have driven thermal tolerance. However, there are some interesting aspect of C. auris that are worth pointing out:

• C. auris does have unusual thermotolerance -- it grows up to 42C which is unusual compared to other Candida species.

• C. auris does not appear to be a typical commensal of mammals, or other high body temp animals, and hence it's thermal tolerance is likely not due to selection for this aspect of the host niche

Some more info on C. auris and hypotheses about origins here:

• Sharma C, Kadosh D. Perspective on the origin, resistance, and spread of the emerging human fungal pathogen Candida auris. PLoS Pathog. 2023 Mar 23;19(3):e1011190. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011190. PMID: 36952448; PMCID: PMC10035752.

But I agree

In the midst of the AI-revolution the idea that that the federal government would be halting data collection of all sorts and purging valuable data sources is baffling.

If AI is going to have positive societal value, fittings models to such data seems like a dead obvious use case.

The citation rate, 34 carpool lane citations in 2024 compared to >30,000 citations issued for all infractions, makes it seem like a case of factually "yes", practically "no".

Here's on article on the same topic in the NY Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/well/kevin-hall-nutrition...

I'm disappointed by the article's failure to capitalize on the potential of the "nuts" / "protein" pun.

I always thought Sinclair's "The Jungle" was a brilliant novel. Now we get to experience it in real life!

Sarcastic joking aside, the concern is that the retreat of the FDA will lead to a very high degree of variability in food safety on a state-by-state basis.

Since our food system really is nationwide, it will be "interesting" to see how differing standards get resolved if the Feds wash their hands of the whole affair.

An interesting editorial/news piece from this week's PNAS.

Wow! This is wild to read -- a real life version of "The Americans".

Hall's post:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7318377...

Thank you.

Carr is clearly wearing a huge golden Trump pin in the picture posted on his official Twitter/X page.

But I agree that the details from the Snopes discussion suggest there's little evidence of a "mandate" for his cabinet to wear one as per the title of the blog post I linked.

I concede the point that with regard to lapel pins the evidence only points to the lapdog-like obsequiousness of the FCC chair at this time. ;-)

This discussion is flagged but in the interest of transparency and for anyone who stumbles across this thread it's good to know that this person has now been released:

https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/04/17/u-s-citizen-released-f...

and

https://bsky.app/profile/llanosjackie.bsky.social/post/3ln2a...

Many electronic music gear purchases from small companies outside the US exceed that threshold. This is certainly going to hit the small producers in the synth and electronic music industry.

Previous discussions here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43721170) and here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43722680).

Both unfortunately flagged.

Will be interesting to see how the US retreat from science investment affects numbers/rankings for FY 2025.

If the current pace of NIH (lack of) funding is a guide [0], then the US is likely to move "out" a ring or two in that graphic.

[0] https://jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.github.io/

"Good news"! It's not just 400 kids / 70 jobs -- that's just one city in one state. That's small potatoes...

No, we're on target to eliminate Head Start completely:

https://apnews.com/article/head-start-trump-funding-budget-c...

That will effect nearly 780K children and pregnant women nationwide[0]. Go big or go home I guess...

[0] Data from HeadStart.gov for FY 2023 -- https://www.headstart.gov/program-data/article/head-start-pr...

Here's a few more:

• US Department of Agriculture (USDA) -- https://www.msn.com/en-us/public-safety-and-emergencies/heal...

• National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) - https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elec...

Don't forget massive cuts coming down the line to Department of Energy, NASA and NSF too.

• Department of Energy -- https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/doe-preparing-10b-cl...

* NASA -- https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01217-6

• National Science Foundation -- https://www.rdworldonline.com/nsf-layoffs-in-2025-deep-budge...

Who needs research, right?! /s

Carr is proposing to punish Comcast / NBC over failing to toe the line with regard to Trump Administration propaganda:

> In his post yesterday, Carr alleged that "Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding US citizen, just a regular 'Maryland man.'" Carr wrote that "Abrego Garcia came to America illegally from El Salvador, was validated as a member of the violent MS-13 gang—a transnational criminal organization—and was denied bond by an immigration court for failure to show he would not pose a danger to others."

NBC had the gall to disagree with "dear leader" according to the man who wears a huge lapel pin with a giant profile image of Trump on it [0][1]

•[0] Viewable in Carr's own post on Twitter here: https://x.com/BrendanCarrFCC/status/1907881926922481815

•[1] Discussed here: https://deanblundell.substack.com/p/trump-is-now-mandating-h... (TRIGGER WARNING: likely to upset loyalists; see above)

Why not both?!

Thanks for the details about the Muon G-2 move. Are there aspects of the G-2 that made it more modular / easier to disassemble than the shuttle?

The quote in the article cited by Ars (http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-041025a-space-shuttle-...) seems to come from the former "director of NASA's transition and retirement program".

> Partially disassembling Discovery is also not an option. Removing the wings would result in destroying many of the thermal blankets and tiles that protected the space shuttle as it returned to Earth, and you would still be left with segments too large to enter normal traffic, explained Jenkins.

You're the one who seems to be ungrounded from the news:

"The homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You've got to build about five more places," Trump said to Bukele, an apparent reference to prison space that would be needed in El Salvador to house U.S. citizens.

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/16/nx-s1-5366178/trump-deport-ja...

EDIT: Also from the article above:

"Asked again about the idea during Monday's news conference, Trump confirmed he has ordered U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to explore whether it might be a legal and cost-effective way to house American prisoners.

Trump also suggested his administration might send U.S. citizens to be incarcerated in other countries."

I thought there must be some sort of URL spoofing or invisible unicode character action going on. But no, I typed in the URL by hand and it appears to be real!

I now know with certainty what sort of "card" my siblings are getting for their next b-days!

Disgusting, un-American, and unconstitutional.

From the original article:

"Based on her inspection of his birth certificate and Social Security card, Riggans said she found no probable cause for the charge. However, the state prosecutor insisted the court lacked jurisdiction over Lopez-Gomez’s release because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had formally asked the jail to hold him."

I wonder what the betting market odds are on the possibility that the Trump administration will use this as a test case for deporting a US citizen?

Here's the original article in Science:

Tutolo et al. 2025. Carbonates identified by the Curiosity rover indicate a carbon cycle operated on ancient Mars. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado9966

From the editorial in Nature:

Around 3.8 million people die each year of infections caused by C. auris and other fungi. Annual deaths caused by fungal infections have nearly doubled in the past decade.

Pathogenic fungi pose unique challenges, and overcoming them will require innovative approaches to both science and policy. Yet, despite the growing global threat posed by drug-resistant fungi, such infections rarely loom large in discussions of antimicrobial resistance. Two World Health Organization (WHO) reports published this month (see go.nature.com/3rniybw) — the organization’s first analyses of tests and treatments for fungal infections — highlight the result of that neglect.

At this point I can't help but conclude you're trolling, or the post linked here applies -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43693402

But for the record here's the breakdown of malnutrition related mortality (ICD codes E40-E46) by 5 year age blocks as reported by the CDC for 2023. First field is age range, 2nd field is total number of deaths attributed to ICD codes related to malnutrition:

  25-29 years, 17 
  30-34 years, 22
  35-39 years, 40
  40-44 years, 71
  45-49 years, 119
  50-54 years, 197
  55-59 years, 323
  60-64 years, 651
  65-69 years, 1112
  70-74 years, 1722
  75-79 years, 2507
  80-84 years, 3321
  85-89 years, 4147
  90-94 years, 4362
  95-99 years, 2821
  100+ years, 824
  Total 22284 

Anyone who wishes to repeat the query themselves or to look at other demographic aspects can do so at https://wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10-expanded.html

ICD classifications aren't perfect but they are standardized. Here's the CDCs description of where this data comes from:

The Underlying Cause of Death database contains mortality and population counts for all U.S. counties. Data are based on death certificates for U.S. residents. Each death certificate identifies a single underlying cause of death and demographic data....

And here's the latest update to the extra-judicial sh*tshow that we're witnessing in real time:

• "Columbia Activist Arrested by ICE at His Appointment for Citizenship" -- https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/nyregion/columbia-student...

  From the article:

  Mohsen Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident, has lived in the United States for 10 years and was arrested in Vermont. He has not been charged with a crime...