Cyrus C. Taylor

Physicist & ultrarunner. Former Dean, CWRU College of Arts & Sciences 2006-2018; now working on climate science. he/him/his. Born at 316 ppm. Solvitur ambulando

[Cyrus C. Taylor @CyrusCTaylor]

You can find me on Bluesky https://t.co/IpmqVZYfUR

[Cyrus C. Taylor @CyrusCTaylor]

@thealepalombo Tough decision but I vote for B

[Daniel Mendelsohn @DAMendelsohnNYC]

How cool is this, #poetry lovers? In this manuscript of a sonnet by #Raphael (I saw the fab show at the Met today), he’s fiddling (at right) to find a rhyme for “di luce” in the last line of his poem (at left): conduce, riduce, etc. 💕

[Pete @splendid_pete]

The hypocrisy is absolutely volcanic.

For years, Orbán’s propaganda machine screamed about “foreign interference”, “sovereignty”, “rolling dollars”, and evil foreign money corrupting Hungarian politics. Meanwhile, the same regime was quietly using Hungarian taxpayer money to build its own foreign influence network through the state-funded Danube Institute, tied to the Batthyány Lajos Foundation.

According to Átlátszó, the Danube Institute became one of the regime’s main vehicles for cultivating foreign right-wing populists, MAGA-world conservatives, Brexit nostalgics, and sympathetic Western intellectuals. And this was not some harmless academic tea party. The contracts reportedly required media appearances, articles, conferences, networking, and the promotion of Orbán’s Hungary abroad.

In plain English: Hungarian public money was used to manufacture foreign validation for Orbánism.

The spending exploded. Átlátszó says Danube Institute research contracts rose from 76.76 million forints in 2022, to 179 million in 2023, to 284.6 million in 2024. Then in 2025, just before the election, DI-linked partners signed contracts worth more than 389 million forints.

So while Hungarian hospitals were rotting, schools were begging, and ordinary people were counting every forint, the regime was shovelling public money into foreign cheerleaders.

Lord David Frost reportedly received more than €43,000 in total, averaging over €3,600 per month. His tasks included appearing regularly, or at least twice a month, in British media.

David L. Dusenbury was identified as receiving €4,666 per month for three years, totalling €168,000. His duties reportedly included writing books, teaching, and representing the institute at events.

Timothy Burns reportedly received $12,500 for 36 days of work, plus a return transatlantic flight.

Melissa Ford Maldonado was connected to an $8,400 contract for a 10-page paper on Hungarian migration policy and lessons for Texas.

Philip Pilkington was linked to a €5,000-per-month contract involving British media networking and themes connected to Ireland, Northern Ireland, and alleged risks of liberal political shifts.

Carlos Roa reportedly signed contracts worth $160,000 over 16 months.

Rod Dreher was also part of this ecosystem, with Átlátszó previously reporting a Danube Institute contract worth $8,750 per month, or $105,000 a year.

Jonathan Price reportedly received €5,000 per month for 12 months, totalling €60,000, while objecting to disclosure on privacy grounds.

And then there was the article-production model: Átlátszó reported a $4,500-per-month contract requiring at least two articles per month for Western outlets such as American Conservative, National Review, Newsweek, The Federalist, The Spectator, and UnHerd. Átlátszó said the contract was most likely signed by Michael O’Shea.

So let’s say it clearly.

This was not “sovereignty protection”. This was Orbán’s taxpayer-funded foreign influence operation. A public-money laundromat for ideological networking. A state-financed fan club for foreign right-wing pundits, academics, Trump-world operators, Brexit nostalgics, culture-war influencers, and professional Hungary-praisers.

They accused everyone else of foreign interference while literally paying foreigners to interfere on their behalf.

They cried about NGOs while funding their own GONGOs.

They screamed about the “dollar left” while running a forint-funded international propaganda export business.

And the dirtiest part? Much of this was happening while Hungarian public services were collapsing. Hospitals without toilet paper. Schools without teachers. Families crushed by inflation. Villages abandoned. Public transport rotting.

But there was always money for some Western “conservative intellectual” to write a love letter to Orbán or explain why Hungary is the glorious model of the future.

NER using Hungarian taxpayers as an ATM for its international ego project.

[Albert-László Barabási @barabasi]

Hungary’s chance to rebuild science: my editorial in Science is out today.
https://t.co/w8c6Eh7aKZ
Its message is simple: “If Hungary gets this right, it will offer a model that matters far beyond its borders.”

[Dr. Catharine Young @DrCatharineY]

Members of Congress recently called on OMB to defund the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, whose founding academy dates back to 1863.

This was OMB’s response.

This should alarm everyone paying attention to the future of evidence-based policy making.

[CWRU Physics @PhysicsCWRU]

Congrats to our physics students at Intersections! Antonio Maia won 1st place in Physical Sciences & Math for his work on shear thickening and jamming; his mentor is A. Singh. Moq earned 3rd place in CS & Data Science for his ML tail risk project, with mentorship from C. Taylor.

[CWRU Physics @PhysicsCWRU]

The CWRU Department of Physics is very excited to announce that we are having our CWRU PHYSICS SENIOR PROJECT SYMPOSIUM on April 29th.

Don't miss out on a chance to hear from our seniors before they graduate!

Wednesday, April 29, 10am–4:20pm | Foldy Room, Rockefeller 221

[Peter Baker @peterbakernyt]

Acting CDC head cancels publication of a study showing Covid vaccine sharply cut odds of hospitalization and ER visits. Agency veterans say they've never seen an article pulled after being cleared by scientists and scheduled for publication. @apoorva_nyc https://t.co/vGKGOajbsH

[Reid Wiseman @astro_reid]

Only one chance in this lifetime…

Like watching sunset at the beach from the most foreign seat in the cosmos, I couldn’t resist a cell phone video of Earthset. You can hear the shutter on the Nikon as @Astro_Christina is hammering away on 3-shot brackets and capturing those exceptional Earthset photos through the 400mm lens. @AstroVicGlover was in window 3 watching with @Astro_Jeremy next to him.

I could barely see the Moon through the docking hatch window but the iPhone was the perfect size to catch the view…this is uncropped, uncut with 8x zoom which is quite comparable to the view of the human eye. Enjoy.

[Viktória Serdült @viktoriaserdult]

It took one and a half years and an election victory for
➡️Péter Magyar to be invited to state media
➡️state radio to start playing "a larger variety of music"
➡️state TV to air Magyar's presser
➡️Fidesz politicians to give interviews to independent media
And it's only Tuesday.

[Cyrus C. Taylor @CyrusCTaylor]

@Kasparov63 @GMJuditPolgar @SubhashishNandi Happy Birthday!

[Cyrus C. Taylor @CyrusCTaylor]

@elonmusk @AlexanderSoros

[Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss]

You can track the Hungarian election results here: https://t.co/F1lkLA6L1v

[Max Kozlov @maxdkozlov]

BREAKING: In response to huge cuts in Trump's budget request, NSF is closing its social sciences directorate. Staff will be transferred elsewhere in NSF, and "grants that align with Administration priorities" will be kept.

W/ @dangaristo for @Nature

https://t.co/Lakcl0oLYa

[Cyrus C. Taylor @CyrusCTaylor]

@UtdKobi 1729

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

I mean, how the hell is this even legal?

Was it part of the contract that the seller is entitled to say “screw you and the money you've paid us, we're talking these weapons for ourselves”?

[NASA's Johnson Space Center @NASAJohnson]

A meteor - nearly 6 feet in diameter and weighing about 7 tons - entered Earth’s atmosphere near Cleveland, Ohio, on March 17, 2026, creating a light show in the sky and the opportunity to find pieces of the space rock on Earth.

The meteorites are suspected to be Eucrites, many of which come from the asteroid 4 Vesta. Watch to learn more about this fireball and how to find and care for meteorites!

Learn more at https://t.co/l866GnFnNm

[NWS Cleveland @NWSCLE]

@jacecraftmiller The latest GLM imagery (1301Z) does suggest that the boom was a result of a meteor.

[Quanta Magazine @QuantaMagazine]

The lonely runner problem isn’t just for runners: It can also show how where billiard balls might move on a table, or how to organize a network. https://t.co/JzyJuIdfMj

[Cyrus C. Taylor @CyrusCTaylor]

@Math_files Or in suitably compact notation