Favorites July 22nd 2022

September 2017, Amsterdam

Charles Piller @cpiller

Were two separate, major lines of Alzheimer’s research tainted by image fabrication, with far-reaching implications for the field? I take a deep look for @ScienceMagazine science.org/content/articl… 🧵 1/11

science.orgPotential fabrication in research images threatens key theory of Alzheimer’s diseaseA neuroscience sleuth challenges data showing one toxic form of amyloid protein is a cause of brain condition

Billions of dollars have been wasted on ß-amyloid research because of fraud in these research papers. Absolutely stunning. If you go through to the paper you can actually see the image manipulation in question.

Jonathan Swan @jonathanvswan

Trump 2025: The preparations are far more advanced and ambitious than previously reported. The reporting for this series draws on extensive interviews over a period of more than three months on preparations for a potential second Trump term.

axios.comInside Trump ’25: A radical plan for Trump’s second termAllies want to empower him to purge potentially thousands of civil servants.

Yea, this is one case where a better prepared administration would probably be worse.

Catherine Rampell @crampell

Solar capacity in Texas nearly *tripled* from last summer to this summer. Imagine how much worse this record heat, and its associated stresses on the grid, would be if those investments hadn't happened.

wapo.stOpinion | Texan politicians won’t say this, but solar is saving their tushies right nowThere has been an enormous increase in solar investment, and technological advancements have made solar power astonishingly cheap.

This article has a good reminder, "It’s cheaper to build and operate an entirely new wind or solar plant than it is to continue operating an existing coal plant"

Nick Schifrin @nickschifrin

NEW from Senior U.S. Defense Official on the war in #Ukraine: Russia has committed nearly 85% of its military to the war in Ukraine… It has removed military coverage from other areas on their border and around the world.

And the Ukranians still haven't lost any HIMARS.

Threads

• If you've ever wanted to know more about the weird yellow hat Steven Spielberg wore the whole time he filmed Indiana Jones and the last Crusade, boy have I got the article for you

• Detailed thread about the success of protectionist industrial policy in Canada between 1870 and 1913. There's a short bit at the end about why it didn't work in Russia. If I understand correctly, the key to their success was that the tariffs were well targeted, allowing imports of machinery needed to build factories. There's also a full article if you prefer that to a tweet thread.

• A thread covering the many different things going on in China this week.

• I didn't know what it took for the US to acknowledge the My Lai massacre, this thread was a great history lesson.

• Thread highlighting the adverse effects of Apple's latest ad privacy changes