Slangin' water treatment and renewables tech. Research commercialization @bountifulwork. Out of the Lab podcast. Chess, jiutjitsu, salsa. I just lost the game.
Philadelphia, PA
Joined April 2009
- Tweets8.6K
- Following1.1K
- Followers1.1K
- Likes3.4K
Free the people
Halloween in Iran…
The Islamic Republic calls Halloween a “Western vice” and tries to ban it. But young Iranians have a message for the ayatollahs: You don’t get to decide how we live, dress, dance, or celebrate.
While the new “supreme leader “ and other mullahs hide in fear, the young generation is out there celebrating their own lifestyle.
The regime wants to turn Iran into a graveyard. This generation is determined to turn it into a dance floor.
Max Finder retweeted
My greatest regret is never having become fluent in Hebrew. A new school in Gaza’s Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone is now teaching displaced Palestinian children to speak and write the language. Hebrew was taught in Gaza three decades ago, before the Palestinian Authority assumed control of the Strip, but that ended. Hamas later offered it only in limited settings as “the language of our enemy.”
I vividly remember older generations of Gazans, especially those who worked in Israel, speaking Hebrew and using it to build relationships across the Palestinian-Israeli divide. My hope is that, alongside English, Hebrew becomes a standard part of education for Gaza’s future generations, strengthening connectivity and enabling Palestinians to communicate directly with neighbors who matter immensely, whether we like it or not.
Recently, I met senior Israeli military and political officials whose fluency in Arabic gave them a deeper, more nuanced understanding of Palestinian society. Palestinians likewise need a better grasp of Israeli society, politics, media, and public discourse. Healing and reconciliation require a shared language. Perhaps this can be one small step on the long road toward making that possible.
Max Finder retweeted
I lived in Stockholm. I lived in the house of a Holocaust survivor. Six years a prisoner in three different extermination camps. Sweden was a safe haven for many survivors, not everything went well, but it was a home for those who lost everything.
It is with sadness and outrage that I see posters in the shop windows of Stockholm as if we were in the 1930s in Nazi Germany.
Photograph of the door of Green Laces – a shop for vegan shoes and accessories at Götgatan 28, Stockholm.
ALT #Stockholm #Sweden #Antisemitism
Max Finder retweeted
את יו״ר רע״מ ד״ר מנסור עבאס אני מכיר מפגישות ושיחות ארוכות בכנסת ומחוצה לה. מנסור הוא מנהיג(!) ערבי-ישראלי אמיץ, שמדגיש את עמדתו, כמי שמכיר במדינת ישראל כמדינה יהודית ודמוקרטית ברוח מגילת העצמאות, ודוגל גם בגיוס לכל (בין אם לשירות צבאי או לאומי-אזרחי). ראיתי ושמעתי אותו במהלך ׳שומר חומות׳, כאשר עבר בערים המעורבות ו״שפך מים״ במקומות בהם הכהניסטים של בן גביר ״הציתו אש של שנאה, ושפכו דלק למדורה״.
את ניצב (בדימוס) יואב סגלוביץ׳, אני מכיר היטב, מאז ששירת כפקודי בסיירת הצנחנים.
את איתמר בן גביר אני מכיר כבדוקאי של השב״כ, שחירחר שנאה, הסתה ואלימות בגזרת חברון. על מעשיו הורשע ב-8 כתבי אישום, ביניהם תמיכה בארגון טרור (יהודי).
את בצלאל סמוטריץ׳ הכרתי כמי שנעצר לפני ההתנתקות, בגין חשד לכוונה לפוצץ 700 ליטר דלק על כביש 1 - פיגוע שאמור היה לעצור את ביצוע ההתנתקות. על מעלליו כשר במשרד הביטחון, בעידוד וגיבוי הטרור היהודי ביהודה, שומרון ובקעת הירדן, אין צורך להרחיב.
מנסור עבאס אינו בן דת משה, אך אני מקווה שרוב אזרחי ישראל קרובים לערכיו, ולא לערכי המשיחיים, הגזענים והפאשיסטים.
ראשי גוש השינוי, מנסור עבאס צריך לכהן כשר בממשלת ישראל. הפסיקו לקבל את כללי המשחק של אחראי העל לטבח ה-7.10, ומוכן לשרוף את המדינה, כדי להשאר בשלטון.
השתלטו על הכנסת והקימו ממשלה בדחיפות, ויפה שעה אחת קודם!
Important stuff. Get yourself a shabbos goy who can turn off light switches and shoot crocodiles
Rabbi Mizrachi unpacks what happens if a crocodile eats a Jew during Shabbat
SUMMARY:
Key Points and Halachic Issues
Immediate consequence: The person swallowed is presumed dead after a few minutes inside the crocodile due to the lack of oxygen and other fatal conditions.
Primary halachic dilemma: Normally, one is forbidden to kill animals or perform certain types of work on Shabbat, including lighting a fire or killing animals. However, saving a life overrides these prohibitions.
Saving a dead person: Since the person is already deceased, saving a life imperative no longer applies; hence, desecrating Shabbat to save life is not relevant here.
The question arises on whether desecrating Shabbat is allowed for the sake of the deceased person’s honor and dignity - to retrieve the body from the crocodile before digestion finishes.
Concern about the body: Waiting until after Shabbat means the crocodile will have digested the body, potentially leaving only small, unrecognizable remains (“like chickens”). This raises issues of properly honoring the deceased and providing a proper burial.
Halachic conclusion: It is not permitted to desecrate Shabbat directly to retrieve the body from the crocodile’s stomach.
However, there is a permitted indirect method to address the situation: involve a non-Jew (e.g., a policeman with a gun) who can be instructed to kill the crocodile by shooting it on Shabbat.
Since the non-Jew is acting, the Jew does not violate Shabbat restrictions.
After Shabbat concludes, the stomach of the crocodile can be opened to retrieve the body.
Max Finder retweeted
Before I visited Pennsylvania, everyone warned me that Philadelphia people are the toughest, most impatient people in America.
I believed them until I walked toward the front door of a Wawa gas station.
I was still forty feet away in the parking lot, walking between rows of cars.
A massive construction worker in steel-toe boots, carrying a twenty-four-ounce coffee in one hand and a paper-wrapped hoagie in the other, pushed open the glass door to leave. Then he saw me.
He stopped. He planted his boot against the bottom of the door. And he waited.
Forty feet is a very long distance when a grown man is holding a door for you in the wind.
In Japan, to make a stranger wait carries great shame. So I broke into that awkward half-jog every man performs when he wishes to show gratitude without looking like he is fleeing a crime.
"Go ahead, boss," he said as I passed.
Ten minutes later, as I walked out with my own sandwich, I saw an elderly woman locking her car thirty feet away.
I planted my foot against the glass. I held the door.
Another man behind me held the inner door. Within seconds we had formed an impromptu honor guard of grumpy men holding glass doors in complete silence.
Philadelphia may boo Santa Claus.
But inside the three-foot radius of a Wawa doorway, they have the manners of the imperial court.
Max Finder retweeted
(1/2) What happens when we push the science behind desalination? Five Track B #XPRIZEWaterScarcity Semifinalists from the U.S. East Coast and heartland areas are exploring new solvents, membranes, distillation, and reverse osmosis approaches to recover more fresh water with less energy.
Max Finder retweeted
this might be my last normal tweet before biotech goes vertical
i'm not a whistleblower. I don't work at Lilly, Novo or any of the big labs
but there is a massive shift happening in human biology right now.
it's sitting in press releases and almost nobody reads them
the last 6 months alone:
- a once-daily pill roughly doubled median survival in metastatic pancreatic cancer (13.2 vs 6.6 months)
- a one-time gene editing infusion cut hereditary angioedema attacks 87%, and 62% of patients stayed attack-free and off all other prevention for 6 months
- a one-time gene edit for cholesterol dropped LDL up to 62%, and it held for over a year
- a personalized mrna vaccine beat keytruda alone in a 1,137 patient melanoma phase 3
- retatrutide hit ~28% weight loss in a phase 3
- an ai-designed drug entered phase 3
- a pill that regrows hair passed its second phase 3
- an immunotherapy that could let some rectal cancer patients skip surgery, chemo and radiation just got fda approved
- a man lived 271 days off dialysis on a pig kidney
- human cells were caught passing chromosome-sized chunks of DNA to their neighbors, and it changes how the neighbors behave
we are on the verge of an era where the human body is a software problem and the update cycle gets shorter everyday
stick around, it's going to get weird
bio/acc
Max Finder retweeted
Where are the protests? Where is the outrage? Russia targeting civilians daily.
This is beyond horrifying.
Russia struck a railway station in Dnipro with a drone, killing 13 people who were simply waiting for their train.
The drone operators could see the platform in real time. They could see the civilians standing there. They knew what they were targeting, and they struck anyway.
Max Finder retweeted
A horrific Russian strike on the railway station in Dnipro. The Russians launched a drone attack on a platform where an ordinary commuter train and a scheduled passenger train were standing. Unfortunately, 13 people have been confirmed killed as of now. My condolences to their families and loved ones. Ten more people were injured. All necessary emergency services are working at the scene.
Just how many terrorist strikes has Russia carried out against our people since sanctions were lifted on certain Russian oligarchs and the Russian energy sector, rather than de-escalating? This is precisely why Ukraine has always said that just and decisive action by America and Europe is needed in response to Russian escalation – sanctions against Moscow and its war machine must not be eased for as long as this Russian war continues. It is time for new, stronger sanctions steps by the EU, the United States, and the G7. I thank everyone who is ready to help in this way.
Max Finder retweeted
Eight years ago today, we suffered the deadliest act of antisemitism in American history when a killer entered Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh while people prayed and murdered 11 of our neighbors.
It’s been 2,922 days since the attack, but the pain still lingers in our Commonwealth. Today we offer prayers of comfort to those touched by this violence.
Let today be a moment for action, remembrance, and resolve to combat antisemitism in all forms.
May the memories of Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, and Irving Younger forever be a blessing.
Max Finder retweeted
It’s kinda crazy to me that we melt sand down, clean it to 99.99999% purity, literal wizards have to draw it slowly into an ingot, we cut it, inscribe a hundred billion little on/off switches on it, and when you run electric current through it you can do basic arithmetic, which when you do enough of it can do any math on the planet, and which describes reality well enough that we can teach it the ontological meaning of words and their distance from each other on a high-dimensional space, and if you ask, it can tell you what word comes next and that apparently is powerful enough that if you do it a hundred billion times it’s the smartest thing to ever exist
oh yeah and we use this primarily for email