Nothing beats the heat like a dip in Lake Michigan!

Some slow-motion footage of the storm that blew through West Michigan last night, from our backyard in Holland. Lordy, I love storms!

Surprising 1% spike in the value of #$VTP around 2:40 today, with nothing similar reflected in the comparable fund #$SCHP. Just a random fluke of its low trading volume, or something more?

Taiwan has launched an anonymous tip line for Chinese nationals to share information: “aimed at expanding the collection of intelligence on China’s political, military, economic, and social developments”. Modeled on similar programs by other intelligence agencies. focustaiwan.tw/politics/202...

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. Thoreau

Taiwan. No. 1!

Amazing café at Taiwan’s central research institution, Academia Sinica (中央研究院). Full of deep freezers, incubators, and centrifuges. Really cool idea & an inspiring environment for science work — SINICA COFFEE 中研珈琲所

“Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child”. —Ecclesiastes 10:16

TRUST IN TRUMP! “At the apex of the pyramid comes Big Brother. Big Brother is infallible and all-powerful. Every success, every achievement, every victory, … all wisdom, all happiness, all virtue, are held to issue directly from his leadership and inspiration.” —George Orwell, 1984

Taiwan’s healthcare system may not be perfect — but it may just be the world’s best. And the average cost is only US$42 per month. Grateful for the invitation from Talent Taiwan to share my perspective and extol the virtues of this country’s system. (All views my own.) 1/2 #Taiwan #Healthcare #NHI

Taiwan’s healthcare system may not be perfect — but it may just be the world’s best. And the average cost is only US$42 per month. Grateful for the invitation from Talent Taiwan to share my perspective and extol the virtues of this country’s system. (All views my own.) 1/2 #Taiwan #Healthcare #NHI

The most glaring omission in Western media coverage of Taiwan is Taiwan itself. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a Taiwanese person interviewed! Instead, Taiwan is discussed almost as if it’s uninhabited land contested by China and the US. 1/3

Those less familiar with #Taiwan often talk as if it’s uninhabited land contested by China & the US. In reality it’s a nation of 23 million, already defending its sovereignty daily against aggression like this 👇 youtu.be/TllgAHfKthg?...

🇹🇼 I stand in awe of the health experts from Taiwan, who have traveled to Geneva for a 10th straight year for the World Health Assembly #WHA79 — only to be barred from participating at China’s urging. 1/3

The contrast between the number of media requests I got when rich people on a cruise were facing a deadly, but contained outbreak versus now that some of the poorest people in the world are facing a deadly and devastating epidemic is just so so stark and it just really annoys the hell out of me.

The WHO has excluded #Taiwan 🇹🇼 from the World Health Assembly for a 10th consecutive year, barring its delegates from participating in Geneva. With today’s hantavirus, Ebola, and geopolitical challenges, this undermines credibility and cooperation the WHO desperately needs.

“Taiwan is part of China” is not reality. It’s a prescriptive view that Taiwan SHOULD be part of China — not unlike Donald Trump calling Canada the 51st state or threatening to annex Greenland. 1/3

Affogato in Taipei with boo 🥰 to me there is no happiness greater than the deepening of our minds and souls through industrious hours, made all the more rich through the power of coffee.

On Taiwan’s defense: this would be a SALE — Taiwan would pay for its own weapons, unlike the U.S.-taxpayer-funded military AID sent to Israel and Ukraine. Surely Taiwan deserves the chance to defend itself against invasion. #Taiwan

On Taiwan’s defense: this would be a SALE — Taiwan would pay for its own weapons, unlike the U.S.-taxpayer-funded military AID sent to Israel and Ukraine. Surely Taiwan deserves the chance to defend itself against invasion.

If Taiwan were part of China, I’d already be in jail for this post. bsky.app/profile/chas...

Dazzling golden sun in Taipei today

I live in Taiwan, and this place is a country, not a bargaining chip to be traded between China and the US. Yet, as Trump and Xi meet, the whole world is talking about this place with seemingly zero input from its leaders. 1/3

I live in Taiwan, and this place is a country, not a bargaining chip to be traded between China and the US. Yet, as Trump and Xi meet, the whole world is talking about this place with seemingly zero input from its leaders. 1/3

不解釋 自己意會 Taiwan Is Taiwan! 🇹🇼

Trump has besmirched even the subcellular world. May purifying selection prove effective.

First-author paper representing years of work on HPV16 — the most carcinogenic human papillomavirus — has been officially ACCEPTED at Nature Communications! So excited to share our findings once it’s out. These folks truly make the world go ‘round 💕

After a decade-long week of cloud and rain in Taipei—Sun! 🇹🇼 ☀️

Wow, great thread and animation (see post #14) about coronavirus entry, S2-directed antibodies, and a possible novel, promising treatment (antibodies against TMPRSS2) that could work against pretty much any coronavirus. 1/4

Paper and ink are my last and greatest refuge from total mastery and domination by AI and the tech oligarchs who would control all; as long as any thought remains unexpressed; as long as any writing remains undigitized, we still have hope and secrets, skills that cannot be automated.

Taipei bus stop on a rainy night.

If the news always makes you feel better about the violence your own side is doing, it might not be news.

ACLU has also committed labor law violations in recent years (see Matt Bruenig’s) coverage of this, and they defend money in politics (i.e. the “right” of billionaires to buy elections). jacobin.com/2026/01/aclu...

Surprised to learn that #ACLU @aclu.org CEO Anthony Romero gets paid >$1M per year (per IRS filings). For context, the CEO of Doctors Without Borders earns ~$300K. I’ve donated to the ACLU for years and am now reconsidering. Am I overreacting?

Help me pick! I’m reassessing my charities and would love feedback. Do you have any favorites? I’m open to anything, but my top priorities are (1) in the U.S., to protect free speech, civil liberties, immigrants; and (2) worldwide, to counteract misery caused by my U.S. taxes.

One of more than a dozen posts shared by the US President between ~9pm and 4am, during an active war. It has since been deleted.

Israel is a terrorist state funded by the US taxpayer. On day 1 of the ‘ceasefire’, it launched its deadliest attack on Lebanon to date—hitting residential Beirut without warning during rush hour.

Every American Christian who spent decades preaching the sanctity of human life and remains silent is a hypocrite.

A word from the Christian candidate on Easter Sunday.

This is what our administration does to its own people. Why expect restraint abroad, where Tomahawk missiles massacre schoolchildren and kill civilians on a bridge — then strike again as rescuers arrive? The view that Americans are devils isn’t hard to understand.

Israel targeted the World Central Kitchen cars with a first missile; targeted the survivors with a second missile; targeted the last survivors with a third missile. Remembering the humanitarian workers killed in Gaza on April 1, 2024. wck.org/news/honorin...

Israel's Minister Ben-Gvir celebrates a new Death Penalty law allowing Palestinians to be executed by military courts—courts where approximately 99% of Palestinians are convicted, largely through confessions extracted under documented coercion and abuse.

Where will you be tomorrow? #NoKings Find your event for this Saturday, March 28th. www.nokings.org

A KING levies tariffs without Congress. Threatens to annex nations. Sends masked agents into cities. Mocks the deaths of critics. Fires inspectors. Siccs the law on enemies. Withholds funding from disloyal states. Issues hundreds of decrees. Pardons criminal allies. Amasses wealth. nokings.org

It is Israel, not Iran, that has nuclear weapons. Many folks seem unaware of this.

Healthcare in Taiwan is truly phenomenal. I pay $30/month for National Health Insurance. I’ve never waited more than 10 min as a walk-in at this ENT clinic, which costs only $8/visit, and I always leave with a clear diagnosis and treatment. I’m from the US. This is not normal—but it should be.

Pretty awesome that Taiwan has this measure to freeze gas and diesel costs, with a government oil company footing much of the bill as it assesses the situation. Further, the government may require Taipower to absorb electricity costs, meaning it may have to forgo much of last year’s profit.

Operation Epstein Fury. Tweets pulled from the Snopes compilation linked below. 1/6 www.snopes.com/fact-check/t...

Popped into our heads and had to get it out! #FamilyGuy good old-fashioned values