Kevin O'Connor

Tulsan in LA. Worked on innovation initiatives at SBA and WH Detroit collaboration during Obama years, then law and entertainment.

[Daniel @growing_daniel]

My favorite part of this article is one of the visiting scholars pointing out that by Olah’s logic he is by far the worst slaver in history and he must immediately give up this abhorrent and immensely lucrative project, which anthropic people ignored.

[Aaron Connelly @ConnellyAL]

Just checking the till here, Mark, and it seems you’re short a couple of wars.

[Patrick Collison @patrickc]

The small Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice in London's Postman's Park is quite moving: an assembly of earnest Arts and Crafts tiles commemorating people who died saving the lives of others.

George Watts, the creator, in 1887: "My proposal, as you know, is plainly this: that the memory of the deeds of heroism constantly recurring in our everyday life should be perpetuated and honoured as such deeds should, for they illustrate the character of our people as a nation of great acts." And elsewhere: "It is a great pity that they should only receive the recognition of a newspaper paragraph, and be forgotten next day."

I'm often struck by how figures in this period across many countries seem solemnly concerned with the character of the nation.

[Saloni @salonium]

There is no good reason for mosquitoes to exist in wealthy countries today.

New technologies can get rid of the mosquito species that cause diseases like dengue, yellow fever, and malaria; and others can prevent them from carrying those diseases.
https://t.co/CddUFByGZA

So why do mosquitoes still exist?

In a new article for Works in Progress, Maya Rosen explains how state incapacity and risk aversion led to over a decade of delays and billions of unnecessary bites in the United States.

Oxitec, for example, engineered an Aedes aegypti mosquito in such a way that its female offspring would die before adulthood. Through sustained releases, they showed they could reduce local mosquito populations by 80% or more, in field trials.

They sought approval from the USDA in 2010, which then passed it to the FDA, which passed it to the EPA. In 2020, the EPA allowed them to conduct limited field trials in the Florida Keys. Two years ago, their experimental permit expired, and they still need another review before it can be used routinely. Their proposed field trial in California was withdrawn after public opposition.

Another company, MosquitoMate, developed a technique involving Wolbachia, which also suppresses local mosquitoes. They then spent over fifteen years working through the system before finally receiving commercial registration nationwide in 2024.

It seems that, sometimes, the barrier to getting rid of diseases isn’t technology at all. It’s policy and political will.

New products shouldn’t get stuck in regulatory review for so long, especially if the delays are about basic questions like which agency has oversight over the product, rather than testing for safety.

Though some of those uncertainties were being addressed, the broader changes haven’t materialized. After Biden’s 2022 executive order, the agencies planned to update how their coordinated framework was implemented. But Trump rescinded the order last year.

Meanwhile, the EPA unit that reviews new mosquito control products is still a small office backlogged in reviewing a wide range of products.

Mosquitoes are a policy choice. We can get rid of them. Will we choose to?
https://t.co/CddUFByGZA

[Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias]

I guess I’m old-fashioned but I think if you accuse someone in Congress of committing perjury based on your own confusion of the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Atlantic Hawks, you ought to take a minute and apologize.

[Chris Hayes @chrislhayes]

actual lol because 100% true

[Geoff Shullenberger @g_shullenberger]

What makes the Covidian lesbian bar story so appealing is its quintessentially American and specifically New England character: a remote sect of true believers trying to preserve the old faith, but consumed by vicious factional conflicts over how to live up to its strictures…

[QC @QiaochuYuan]

sorry i just can't get over this, if you saw this happening in the opening to a movie it would be the most overwrought heavy-handed symbolism imaginable but it's just actually happening in real life. it's astonishing. god really is an artist

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

Incredible. First @SecMullinDHS claimed that @DHSgov identified 15,903 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter roll. Then DHS officials said, no no no, that’s just people we flagged, here’s the names of 185 people we KNOW aren’t citizens.

All 185 were citizens. DHS got 100% wrong.

[Thomas Bordeaux @ThomasBordeaux7]

Fourteen years ago, a video was posted to YouTube, showing Austin Tice, an American journalist who had been abducted in Syria being dragged up a mountainside.

We've geolocated it next to a Syrian military site, visually confirming it was the regime who took him.
🧵

[Alec Stapp @AlecStapp]

This turned out to be the most prophetic tweet of the year

[Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias]

Goosebumps. For all its faults, Western culture is still worth defending.

[rebekah @rebekah_e_s]

transfixed by the tiktok account of this laotian guy with a thick louisiana accent who was recently deported to laos, where he hasn't lived in decades

[S. I. Rubinstein @si_rubinstein]

So relieved right now that I didn’t get my degree in a mickey mouse subject like mathematics.

[ettingermentum @ettingermentum]

Do you think he gets really really upset when they discuss maybe not posting pictures of the meetup this time

[Anton Hofmiller @bnzchr]

@nickisafraud It’s the only capital city in Europe to be so

[Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) @adamscochran]

Holy shit!

The title DOESN’T do this justice it should read:

“Susan Collins took Bribes; Trump FBI covered it up”

-Scott Reed (of the Collins super PAC) raised money from a government contractor illegally via a shell company in exchange for offering government contracts.

-He assured the contractor that Collins was aware of who the donation was from.

-Kao (the contractors CEO) told the entire scheme to the US attorneys office hoping for leniency.

-He provided a ***50-page document*** of details, including emails.

-In document he named other GOP staffers and members of Congress who he had bribed via this donation scheme.

-Trump had the FBI and US attorneys office drop the investigation.

[Susan McLaughlin @SusanMcLaughli2]

It's time for more Trivia!

The basement crypt where Benedict Arnold and his wife, Peggy, are buried in St. Mary's Church in the Battersea district of London is now part of the church's kindergarten classroom, right next to the fish tank.

(photo credit: Jenna Fortunati

[Gillian Branstetter @GBBranstetter]

For NPR listeners this is Tahrir Square

[Mary @MaryJackalope]

At last, we have created Algernon from the heartwarming story, Flowers for Algernon,