Leonardo Durán @[email protected]

the hell out of here while trying to keep track of my favourite people.

[MLB @MLB]

Every angle of this triple play started by Zach Neto on a line drive from Shohei Ohtani 😮‍💨

Catch more defensive gems TONIGHT when the @Dodgers take on the @Angels for #RivalryWeekend!

[Alec Helbling @alec_helbling]

The Helmholtz decomposition is one of the fundamental results of vector calculus.

It says any well-behaved vector field can be split into two parts, one capturing sources and sinks through divergence, and one capturing rotation through curl.

[DeepSeek @deepseek_ai]

🚀 DeepSeek-V4 Preview is officially live & open-sourced! Welcome to the era of cost-effective 1M context length.

🔹 DeepSeek-V4-Pro: 1.6T total / 49B active params. Performance rivaling the world's top closed-source models.
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Try it now at https://t.co/GCdiMzk1Dl via Expert Mode / Instant Mode. API is updated & available today!

📄 Tech Report: https://t.co/drlDrxkYtp
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1/n

[Natalie Wolchover @nattyover]

Bacteria move around using a molecular machine called the flagellar motor that rotates faster than the flywheel of a race car engine and switches directions in an instant. After 50 yrs, scientists have finally figured out how it works. “My lifelong quest is now fulfilled.” Link⤵️

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

The most f*cked up aspect of this is the "DoorDash grandma" t-shirt she's wearing, and the implications of this: I checked and this is a pre-organized PR stunt between DoorDash and the White House (they boast about it on their website: https://t.co/AHDUwKQfgj).

The lady - Sharon Simmons, "a grandmother of ten" who has "completed more than 14,000 deliveries" - isn't even from DC, they brought her over from Arkansas as a prop for this.

Think about just how uniquely rotten things need to be in order for this to happen.

She is literally a grandmother relying on gig work because she can't afford healthcare for her husband's stage-3 cancer. She doesn't even get paid a living wage and needs to rely on tips. And as an "independent contractor," she gets no benefits, no healthcare, no retirement.

Which means she is an almost perfect illustration of the failure of the American social contract on almost every level: healthcare, labor rights, retirement, wages, etc. Any decent human being looking at her story - let alone policymakers - should feel only one thing: shame.

Yet DoorDash and the White House looked at this woman and saw a photo op. They flew her from Arkansas, branded her "DoorDash grandma" and used her as a mascot for a tax tweak - no tax on tips - that wouldn't even begin to cover her husband's chemo sessions.

Watching the actual video of her "delivery" to Trump (https://t.co/xzNDJq71Jx) is almost unreal. Trump opens up by saying, smiling at the camera, "who says it looks staged? It doesn't." They immediately proceed to do a joint press conference to a bunch of journalists who were conveniently standing right there.

None of the questions that follow during the next 15 minutes are related to Simmons' situation who just stands there. Journalists, the President, and cameras all obsessing over culture wars and the actual war in Iran, while the walking embodiment of the country's deepest structural failures - healthcare, labor, retirement - stands silently in a corporate t-shirt, unmentioned and too uncomfortable to confront.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb @nntaleb]

In the West, you see Israel through the prism of their unrelenting mendacious propaganda.

On the ground, you see it in its raw form: a vindictive, bitter, vicious, ungrateful, unreliable, perfidious, and, mainly, bloodthirsty terrorist state.

Enough, no?

[Pedro Sánchez @sanchezcastejon]

Justo hoy, Netanyahu lanza su ataque más duro contra el Líbano desde que empezó la ofensiva.

Su desprecio por la vida y el derecho internacional es intolerable.

Toca hablar claro:

- Líbano debe formar parte del alto al fuego.

- La comunidad internacional debe condenar esta nueva violación del derecho internacional.

- La Unión Europea debe suspender su Acuerdo de Asociación con Israel.

- Y no debe haber impunidad ante estos actos criminales.

[Anders Åslund @anders_aslund]

Is there anybody who does not see that Trump is mentally sick?

[Martin Bauer @martinmbauer]

This picture is enough to draw the shape of the magnetic field lines of the planet. Can you do it?

[NASA @NASA]

We see our home planet as a whole, lit up in spectacular blues and browns. A green aurora even lights up the atmosphere. That's us, together, watching as our astronauts make their journey to the Moon.

[Chris Hadfield @Cmdr_Hadfield]

4 people are in there with hopes, dreams, risk and the unknown.
It makes me breathless, knowing how they're feeling and what they're facing.
So exciting to see what we're capable of when we work together in common purpose, deciding to push back the edges of our collective ignorance.
Have a great voyage, crew of @NASAArtemis!

[Chris Hadfield @Cmdr_Hadfield]

The crazy, beautiful thin line of air between us and space.
Living in orbit I would often look to Earth's horizon, marvelling at how bizarrely thin our atmosphere is. Half of all air is in the first 3 mi/5 km. A common running distance.
Sometimes big thunderheads were visible, pushing to the edge of the stratosphere. Above that, the coloured aura of the mesosphere, and then eternal empty blackness. Lit by an occasional star, like a small lightbulb in a vast darkened hall.
Let's appreciate and take responsibility for our planet.

[Chris Hadfield @Cmdr_Hadfield]

Imagine - a bird crashing through the windscreen of your airplane into your face, taking out your left eye. And then being able to turn your head to deflect the blood in the roaring wind, and safely land.
This man, my friend Syd Burrows, did just that. After the accident he changed his callsign to Cyclops and flew a full career.
Syd passed away today at 95.
He was proud to be the inspiration for the main character in my Apollo Murders thriller series. A long, beloved, good life, well-lived. Ad Astra, Syd.
https://t.co/DM2CBrGFWZ

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

To tempt the US and Israel, they should probably do inflatable schools and hospitals too...

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Truly the most unabashedly dumb government in history.

(there are of course no penguins in Greenland or anywhere near the North Pole, they're exclusively a Southern Hemisphere bird)

[Leonardo Durán @[email protected] @Der_Evert]

Irán existe y Palestina también. Ni una sola mención sobre los derechos humanos de niños y niñas, población civil en general, reporteros y médicos asesinados en dobles ataques sobre hospitales y la demolición brutal de Gaza. Ni siquiera Hind Rajab y su familia mencionados antes.

[María Corina Machado @MariaCorinaYA]

Narges Mohammadi, Premio Nobel de la Paz en 2023, fue arrestada el 12 de diciembre y hoy cumple 37 días en prisión.

Narges ha dedicado su vida a la defensa de la igualdad, la justicia y los derechos de las mujeres, y ha pagado un altísimo precio por su compromiso con la libertad. Su voz se ha convertido en un símbolo de fortaleza para quienes en Irán y en todo el mundo resisten la represión y el silencio impuesto por regímenes totalitarios.

Toda mi solidaridad y respeto para Narges, su familia y los presos políticos que hoy sufren persecución por alzar su voz. Abogo por su liberación inmediata e incondicional, el respeto a su integridad física y moral, y el pleno reconocimiento de sus derechos fundamentales.

Las causas justas trascienden fronteras y unen a quienes creemos en la dignidad humana. Desde Venezuela, y desde cada rincón del mundo libre, reafirmamos que la lucha por los derechos humanos es una sola y que ninguna dictadura logrará apagarla.

Narges, no estás sola. Tu coraje inspira a millones en todo el mundo. La justicia y la libertad triunfarán en Irán y en Venezuela.

[José Mario @JoseMarioMX]

Regalar un Nobel no es un gesto noble. Es una señal. Y la señal que se manda cuando entregas tu mayor símbolo moral a un político poderoso no es de dignidad, es de dependencia. El Nobel no se ofrece: se sostiene. Cuando se convierte en obsequio, deja de ser principio y se vuelve moneda.

No importa que jurídicamente no se “transfiera” el premio. Lo que cuenta es el mensaje político: “necesito tu aval, necesito tu foto, necesito tu respaldo”. Eso no es liderazgo democrático, es súplica envuelta en épica. Y cuando una causa justa se presenta así, pierde fuerza, pierde autonomía y pierde autoridad.

[Leonardo Durán @[email protected] @Der_Evert]

Un contrapunteo de jalabolismo. El "gobierno" y su oposición (reflección especular) igual de malos como siempre.

[Eva Golinger @evagolinger]

Not sure what is more shameful: Maria Corina Machado giving Trump her Nobel Peace Prize or Delcy Rodriguez meeting with CIA Director John Ratcliffe in Miraflores (Caracas) days after they bombed Venezuela. https://t.co/f6K4u87y2x

[Leonardo Durán @[email protected] @Der_Evert]

Totally bonkers this present time.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Genuinely beyond satire: "Nobel Peace Prize winner gives her medal to U.S. President to thank him for bombing her country"

The Trump presidency is basically a dare to put The Onion out of business.

[Francisco Rodríguez @frrodriguezc]

When María Corina Machado spoke yesterday about her decision to present President Donald Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal, she drew a parallel between her gesture and that of General Lafayette, who gave a medal bearing the image of George Washington to Venezuela’s liberator, Simón Bolívar.

But there is a much more troubling and disturbing parallel to her decision: that of Norwegian Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun gifting his medal to Joseph Goebbels, propaganda minister of the German Nazi regime, in 1943. Hamsun’s gesture appears to be the only historical precedent of a laureate presenting a contemporary political leader with their award.

Hamsun was probably the greatest Norwegian writer of the modern era and his works reveal a profound empathy for human suffering. Yet Hamsun also became convinced that the Nazis had the potential to realize his vision of a good society. Among Norwegians, Hamsun’s decision is still remembered as one of the most troubling episodes in the history of the Nobel Prize.

Many Venezuelans have expressed support for María Corina Machado’s gesture and have voiced valid reasons to do so. Nicolás Maduro was a ruthless and corrupt dictator, and Venezuelans are happy to see him gone. The possibility that the events of the past few weeks have opened a route to democratization is, to them, more than enough to outweigh concerns about the operation or the man who ordered it.

But this argument misses the point. The person who now has in his possession the Nobel Peace Prize medal is not only someone who does not deserve it; it is someone whose political career embodies a project to undermine the very democratic institutions that Venezuelans are trying to recover in their own country. In the same way in which the Nobel Prize is intended as recognition of the recipient’s trajectory in fighting for the values of peace, democracy, and human rights, one cannot pretend that the decision to offer the medal to another political leader can be assessed independently from that leader’s trajectory.

Some will defend Machado’s decision on the grounds of political expediency and realism. It is not her fault that the only country with the power to bring about democratic change in Venezuela is ruled by a leader willing to demand gestures of fealty and subservience from anyone who seeks his support. But understanding her decision does not make it any more acceptable. The Nobel Peace Prize is a symbol of values, of principles, and of integrity. It is not a token entitling its bearer to trade it in a bargain that corrodes the values the prize was meant to honor.

Donald Trump does not stand for the values of democracy; he stands against them. He has falsely claimed that elections have been rigged against him, has unconstitutionally undermined the independence of the civil service and the judiciary, has stigmatized and denigrated his opponents and the media, and has blatantly abused the authority of the US presidency for his personal political and economic benefit. His avowed purpose in intervening in Venezuela was not restoring democracy but obtaining control of oil resources. Some have argued that the real purpose was to distract from one of the darkest scandals ever involving an American political leader.

The Nobel Peace Prize medal should not be sitting in the office of a man who embodies the complete opposite of the ideals Alfred Nobel sought to promote with its creation. That it is there today stands as a reflection of a failure of judgment by both the Nobel Committee and the prize's recipient.