Light pollution’s ‘transformation of night’ requires prompt action. Really!

Another one of those perennial topics of environmentalists for several decades! If I am not mistaken, this topic light pollution has been extensively covered since the 1960s or so.

There is even now a new book about this subject!

How do you become a professor at Cornell U? Write a book about long worn out subjects like light pollution?

According to Google Scholar this professor has a lifetime citation count of 1491! This is very low!

 

Light pollution’s ‘transformation of night’ requires prompt action | Cornell Chronicle

The author Professor Sara B. Pritchard

Universal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year | Yale School of Public Health. Really!

When an elite university has delusions of grandeur! Or is it simply old fashioned socialism or a preference for government run healthcare? What about junk science?

These wannabe socialists have never heard of or seen the e.g. long waiting lines or chronic shortages in historic, socialist countries!

Why not introduce more free market competition into the US and other countries' healthcare systems! Why not shorten intellectual property protections? Why not let nurses do more doctor work? Why not reduce burdensome regulations and much more! However, e.g. import of re-import of government price controlled drugs from other countries is not one of them! 

"A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace, according to a new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health. ...

The model identified five major sources of savings: lower pharmaceutical prices, Medicare-level payments to providers, reduced administrative overhead, less fraudulent billing, and fewer avoidable emergency department visits and hospitalizations.

Even under more conservative assumptions about drug prices and fraud reduction, the researchers projected that the savings would reach at least $663 billion a year. Both figures account for an estimated $304 billion in additional spending to meet unmet medical needs, reimburse care that now goes unpaid, and provide universal dental coverage. ..."

From the abstract:

"The US spends more on health care than any other nation, yet tens of millions of Americans are uninsured or underinsured, and coverage retractions enacted in 2025 are widening these gaps.

The misalignment between the for-profit insurance architecture and optimal patient care, together with the inefficiencies of a fragmented system, contributes to both unnecessary costs and preventable mortality.

We update our previous analyses with the most recent data to project the economic benefits and the number of lives saved that would be achieved by single-payer universal coverage, as proposed in the Medicare for All Act.

We estimate that such a system would reduce national health expenditure by $1,041 billion annually. Sources of savings include reductions in administrative overhead, pharmaceutical prices, fraudulent billing, and avoidable emergency care.

Combined with the reversal of recent retractions, universal coverage would save over 114,000 lives annually."

Universal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year, Yale Study Projects | Yale School of Public Health

Projected economic gains and lives saved under universal healthcare in the United States (preprint, open access)

Credits: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Global Health NOW

What Happens When Producers Are Responsible for Recycling Their Products and Packaging? Really!

Authoritarian socialism coming from Yale University!

Recycling of waste is not solely the responsibility of businesses/producers! Government, society as a whole as well as individual consumers are responsible as well!

"... That question sits at the center of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), a policy strategy that shifts recycling costs onto manufacturers to reduce waste and promote more ecofriendly design.

Used in more than 100 countries [???] for packaging, electronics, mattresses, and batteries, EPR is gaining traction in the U.S. Seven states have passed legislation requiring producers to cover the costs of recycling their packaging. ..."

What Happens When Producers Are Responsible for Recycling Their Products and Packaging? "YSE research scholar Reid Lifset, who has tracked a policy designed to flip product waste responsibilities from consumers to manufacturers, has built an open reference database to help policymakers and companies understand its costs and benefits. "

Reid J. Lifset, a authoritarian socialist on the faculty of Yale University

Yale University: The unforeseen consequences of the ‘great aging’ of America or Gerontocracy in America

Update of 8/6/2026: Of course, the lefty Harvard University had to chime in.
Why we need to break the grip of ‘oldigarchy’ "Legal historian’s new book argues older Americans control power, wealth — and lack sense of urgency to fix nation’s most pressing problems"

Food for thought! What is democracy by elected representatives? A tyranny of the majority?

Is this Yale professor inciting/stoking an uprising/revolution of the younger against the elderly?

His chosen dichotomy is dubious and very simplistic! His prescriptions are even more dangerous and are calling for big government if not socialism!

According to Google Scholar this professor "Samuel Moyn

Professor of Law and History, Harvard University" has only a total citation count of 14521 (as of 7/30/2026 since 2021), but he has authored over 480 publications. Not very impressive!

Caveat: I did not read his book.

"Yale law professor Samuel Moyn’s new book argues that a “gerontocracy” now holds sway in America, with wealth and power disproportionately concentrated in the hands of older people. In a Q&A, Moyn explains how that happened, why it’s a problem, and how we might fix it."

"What Moyn calls “the great aging” has, he says, transformed America into a society in which older people control a disproportionate amount of political power and wealth [???] and “hoard” jobs and housing [???], depriving the young of opportunity and political say. 

Some of the statistics Moyn cites: The median age of congresspeople is more than 60. The median age of voters is 52; in some campaigns, donor ages average as high as 70.

Workers over the age of 55 now comprise nearly a quarter of the workforce, compared to 10 percent in 1990. ...

“If Americans deserve a society that is oriented to innovation and problem-solving, and equips and launches the young into the prime of life, the country is heading the wrong direction,” Moyn writes. ...

His book prescribes a host of possible strategies for wresting control from the aged, from making voting mandatory [???] and boosting public funding [???] of elections to reevaluating age-related tax breaks and bringing back mandatory retirements. Finally, he suggests that a more socialistic model of elder care in America would help reduce the angst around aging that compels older workers to cling to jobs and wealth. ..."

Yale Today

The unforeseen consequences of the ‘great aging’ of America

Gender equity: What keeps women artists out of the art world’s top echelon? Man-overrepresented institutions. Really!

Why are women underrepresented in e.g. construction or mining professions? What about gender equity in construction or mining?

A nice case again of cherry picking (or demagoguery)!

If I were a construction worker myself I would like to have more female colleagues and less male buddies! 😊

Men watch out in the age of gender equality and gender equity!

The author of the article below is a male. Is he pandering to women or spreading the predilections and ideological preferences/biases of an elite US university? Is his and his collaborators study junk science? You bet!

Pardon my following two facetious, possibly sexist, or misogynistic sounding remarks:

• Maybe they are not as pretty as Mistress Kamala, who early on in her political career had an affair with a powerful politician in San Francisco.
• Or some prefer to be and remain muses rather than artists?

"Women remain underrepresented [???] at the highest levels of the art world. In a new study, Yale SOM’s Magnus Resch examined the institutional pathways that shape artistic success — and how they may perpetuate gender gaps. "

"A painting by Joan Mitchell recently set a record for the highest sale price for a single work by a woman artist in Asia. Can you put that news in the context of the market for women’s art more generally?

Joan Mitchell’s $17.6 million sale is an important moment, but it doesn’t change the overall structure of the market. The gap at the very top remains enormous: the highest prices for male artists are still multiple times higher than those achieved by women. ...

To understand why, it helps to briefly explain how careers in the art world are built. Unlike many markets, success is not determined in a single step. It is the result of a sequence of institutional validations. In a previous paper I published in Science, we showed that roughly 99% of institutions have little to no impact on an artist’s long-term success.

Instead, there is a very small circle of highly influential institutions—household names like the Guggenheim Museum or the Gagosian gallery—that disproportionately shape careers. If an artist does not enter this network early on, the probability of reaching the top of the market drops significantly. ..."

From the abstract:

"From disparities [???] in the number of exhibiting artists to auction opportunities, there is evidence of women’s under-representation in visual art.

Here we explore the exhibition history and auction sales of 65,768 contemporary artists in 20,389 institutions, revealing gender differences in the artist population, exhibitions and auctions.

We distinguish between two criteria for gender equity [???]: gender-neutrality, when artists have gender-independent access to exhibition opportunities, and gender-balanced, that strives for gender parity in representation, finding that 58% of institutions are gender-neutral but only 24% are gender-balanced, and that the fraction of man-overrepresented institutions [???] increases with institutional prestige. 

We define artist’s co-exhibition gender to capture the gender inequality of the institutions that an artist exhibits.

Finally, we use logistic regression to predict an artist’s access to the auction market, finding that co-exhibition gender has a stronger correlation with success than the artist’s gender. These results help unveil and quantify the institutional forces that relate to the persistent gender imbalance in the art world."

Yale Today

What Keeps Women Artists Out of the Art World’s Top Echelon?

Quantifying institutional gender inequality in contemporary visual art (open access)

Fig. 1: Gender bias in art.

Trump vs Harvard: DOJ Investigates Harvard's $600 Million China-Linked Funding

Good news! Bravo!

(1547) Trump vs Harvard: DOJ Investigates Harvard's $600 Million China-Linked Funding | FP Explains - YouTube

Inside An Elite University’s Campaign To Bring Conservatives to Campus

Headline of the day!

"The story details efforts by Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels to promote pluralism across the university" (Source)

Inside An Elite University’s Campaign To Bring Conservatives to Campus | RealClearInvestigations

The richer get richer – not just materially, but socially | Cornell Chronicle. Really!

So what! Especially in America, an individual (no matter rich or poor or background) with skills and talent is most likely quickly spotted and given an opportunity.

It also depends very much on the individual him- or herself to make better "social connections" in life!

Is sociology a pseudoscience?

"... This familiar example of elite network influence proves the adage that it’s not what you know but who you know that matters. And such disparities in social connection are far more pervasive throughout daily life than generally recognized, Cornell sociologists argue in a new open-access book, “Friends and Fortunes: Social Capital Inequality in America.”

Inequality in social ties is as stark as income inequality in the United States, the researchers say – and the two are mutually reinforcing. ...

“Why should there be differences in access to valuable social connections? Are they not free?” the authors write. “One would hope so. But the data tell a different story.” ...

explain how social networks subtly feed hidden systems of power, prestige, wealth and, ultimately, life chances. ..."

The richer get richer – not just materially, but socially | Cornell Chronicle

Friends and Fortunes Social Capital Inequality in America

Young Americans are worse than fed up - Harvard Youth Poll Fall 2025. Really!

Is the situation really so gloomy or did Harvard University manipulate the poll?

Are not young people easily influenced by news media coverage for lack of life experience? If so, then all the reporting on price inflation in recent times is reflected in the poll (see chart below)

According to Google: "Around 53-54 million 18- to 29-year-olds live in the U.S."

"Poll finds deep economic insecurity, eroding trust in democratic institutions, growing social fragmentation.

Key Takeaways

• Young Americans feel the country is off course and their futures are unstable.
• Across every measure — national direction, personal finances, and day-to-day security — instability is the dominant reality shaping how young Americans see their lives and their future.
• Only 13% say the U.S. is generally headed in the right direction, while 57% say things are off on the wrong track; 28% are unsure.

..."

51st Edition - Fall 2025 | The Institute of Politics at Harvard University

Harvard University: World is designed by, for men. It shouldn’t be. Really!

Amazing how the elite Harvard University spreads 1960s outdated vulgar feminism!

I don't know how old the author is, but her silly propaganda gives it away anyway. According to Google search, she is 69 years old or born 1957.

Harvard design expert challenges man-made world — Harvard Gazette "Karen Korellis Reuther explains why it’s a problem (dangerous, even) in products, how more inclusive design serves everyone"

Johns Hopkins archives highlight nearly two centuries of LGBTQ+ history. Really!

Does this elite university have nothing better or more relevant/novel to present!

The celebrity circus/cult about LGBTQ goes on!

How many times has the history of gay men and/or LGBTQ been presented over the last 40 years or so? Many times!

Johns Hopkins archives highlight nearly two centuries of LGBTQ+ history | Hub "Curator Gabrielle Dean and librarian Siân Evans share the university's collection of LGBTQ+ books, photos, zines, and more—a testament to the queer community's struggles and joy"

"Ulrichs [Karl Heinrich Ulrichs] described and defended same-sex love in a series of five pamphlets published in 1864 and 1865, collected together under the title Forschungen über das Rätsel der mannmännlichen Liebe (Studies on the Riddle of Male-Male Love)"

AI hiring tools show racial bias | Stanford Report. Really!

It is very disturbing when even an elite university like Stanford engages in this racial bias propaganda and demagoguery! It even features this propaganda in their Stanford Report!

Notice the study is a mixtum compositum! What does e.g. "systemic rejection" have to do with "racial bias"?

When elite university professors hear the grass grow for funding opportunities etc.!

It is regrettable and disappointing when even highly cited, very well known ML & AI researchers like Dan Jurafsky and Percy Liang are involved in this.

It is surprising if not mysterious why elite researchers "don’t yet know why these tools are biased". Are the ML & AI models not trained on tons of human (biased) data?

Furthermore, it appears that these researchers used only one software platform for their study, i.e. " talent platform pymetrics"

As if elite professors have no idea how the labor market works in reality they recommend that "applicants would need to apply widely". Pure common sense and practice!

"In brief

• Many companies use AI-powered tools to sort job applications. There has been hope that these tools reduce bias, compared to assessment of applications by humans alone.
• Through analyzing a dataset of 4 million applications from an AI-based screening tool, researchers found bias against Black and Asian candidates.
• In some cases, the AI hiring tools rejected a candidate from several jobs at a rate higher than would be expected if the candidate was being assessed by each company individually – an outcome they called “systemic rejection.”
• The researchers don’t yet know why these tools are biased. They argue that this work supports the need for more transparency into how AI hiring tools work, and they note that companies are still responsible for checking for biases in their hiring tools and processes.

..."

From the abstract:

"Many employers screen job applicants with algorithms built by the same few algorithm vendors.

We hypothesize that algorithmic monoculture leads to the same individuals and members of the same racial groups facing rejection.

We acquire and analyze a novel dataset of 3 million applicants submitting 4 million applications where all the applications are screened by algorithms built by the same vendor.

We find clear racial disparities in applicant outcomes. Of all applications submitted by Asian and Black applicants, 14.74% and 25.87% are submitted to positions that adversely impact Asian and Black applicants [???], respectively, according to U.S. employment discrimination standards.

Individuals also receive homogeneous outcomes: 4% of all applicants who apply to 10 positions are recommended for rejection from all positions, a rate higher than expected by chance [???].

To better understand this homogeneity, we leverage the deterministic replicability of hiring algorithms to generate the outcomes applicants would have received if they applied to all positions.

We show that applicants would need to apply widely in order to ensure their applications are considered by a human"

AI hiring tools show racial bias | Stanford Report "For many job postings, AI screening tools recommend white candidates at higher rates than Black and Asian candidates, new research shows."

Algorithmic Monocultures in Hiring (preprint, open access)

Notice "appeared to be biased"

How Harvard University intends to deal with grade inflation by implementing an A grade cap

First of all, why did this elite university have a grade inflation problem in the first place!

I am not sure this is helpful! This is like treating the symptoms and not the cause!

"20% The A’s allowed per Harvard course, plus an additional four A’s to account for smaller courses with more variability. Faculty voted to approve the A-cap as part of a yearslong effort to curb grade inflation. The change comes despite a sharp backlash from students."

"Professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) have approved a proposal to cap the number of A’s awarded to Harvard College students, part of a broad proposal aimed at reducing grade inflation.

Starting in the fall of 2027, courses will limit A grades to 20 percent of enrollment, plus an additional four A’s per class.

Voting was conducted by email over the past week, and the results were announced on Wednesday morning. Faculty members voted 458 to 201 to approve the grading cap ..."

Wall Street Journal What's news

Harvard Faculty Approve a Cap on A Grades "Reforms to reduce grade inflation will take effect in the fall of 2027."

A cap on A grades is not exactly Veritas!

Fast home deliveries of consumer goods worsen conditions for e-commerce warehouse workers. Really!

When an elite university like Cornell U is concerned with work conditions! What a joke!

One more good reason to deploy more robots!

"... Consumers’ around-the-clock, often impulsive demand for cheap, rapidly delivered products creates harsher working conditions in e-commerce fulfillment centers than in traditional warehouses, according to Cornell-led research that provides the first comprehensive assessment of e-commerce work in the U.S. ..."

Fast deliveries worsen conditions for e-commerce warehouse workers | Cornell Chronicle

Yale University: The Carbon Dioxide Removal Roadmap. Really!

Plant some more trees and be happy! It is that easy!

Carbon capture: What a waste of money! Or when universities seek new or more funding for ridiculous reasons!!

"In 15 years, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) needs to be a portfolio of safe, effective, and affordable climate solutions that deliver mitigation at scale as well as meaningful benefits to communities, farmers, and ecosystems. In our first five years, the YCNCC has made several contributions towards this goal, and we plan to continue this work for the next five years and beyond. Our symposium is both a celebration of progress to date and an honest survey of the massive task ahead of us. ..."

The Carbon Dioxide Removal Roadmap "The Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture’s Spring Symposium marks an anniversary and sets its sights on what natural carbon capture needs to achieve by 2040."

Stanford University: School cell phone bans deliver benefits – but not right away. Really!

First of all, the term "cell phone" sounds so 1980s/1990s if not 1970s!

Up to what grade should smartphones be banned? All grades?

Why are smartphones not integrated into school curricula beginning from a certain age of the students?

Plus, there is a lot of alarmism and hysteria about the use of smartphones going on! This akin e.g. to the introduction of video and video games!

School cell phone bans deliver benefits – but not right away | Stanford Report "New research reveals that while bans aren’t an instant panacea for problems in U.S. classrooms, schools can achieve positive outcomes with persistence."

Image of the day

Do you recognize any conservative or classical liberal speaker on this image by Columbia University?

Political bias in academia is a very serious issue!

Source: Columbia News

Trump, Xi, and the Specter of 1914 | Foreign Affairs. Really!

This article headline makes very little sense if no sense at all! 

China is very different than any of the European countries involved in World War I!

Maybe the author, a professor of history, should first read Sun Tzu's The Art of War!

Caveat: I did not read the article given the idiotic headline!

Written by "ODD ARNE WESTAD is Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University. This essay is adapted from his forthcoming book, The Coming Storm: Power, Conflict, and Warnings From History (Henry Holt, BBC Books). Copyright © 2026 by Odd Arne Westad."

Trump, Xi, and the Specter of 1914 | Foreign Affairs "How America and China Can Avoid the Blunders That Led to World War I [???]"

Nutrition policy scholar Nestle to speak on food and politics

Headline of the day! Nestle is one of the largest food companies in the world!

Nutrition policy scholar Marion Nestle to speak March 19 | Cornell Chronicle

Marion Nestle

How food shortages reprogram immune system response

Amazing stuff!

It appears this article was not yet published in the Immunity journal as of now according to Google Scholar and the Immunity journal! The article below does not contain a link to the journal article.

Notice how ideology and demagoguery permeates this article by Cornell University! The use of the ideological term "food insecurity" in this context is foolish and wrong! There is a huge difference between a food scarcity and food insecurity!

"When food is scarce, stress hormones direct the immune system to operate in “low power” mode to preserve immune function while conserving energy ... This reconfiguration is crucial to combating infections amid food insecurity [???]. ...

The answer could help the 47 million Americans who are food insecure [???] and face the risk of infectious diseases every day. ...

The results ... found that mice on a calorie-restricted diet fought off infection as well as mice that were fully fed, but did so while using very little glucose. This was possible thanks to glucocorticoids, stress hormones known for their role in regulating blood glucose. The researchers determined that glucocorticoids acted like master conductors, reorganizing immune cells and their energy usage to provide a survival advantage. ..."

How food shortages reprogram immune system response | Cornell Chronicle