In mid‑October 2026 I posted a rapid‑fire X thread that stitched together five unrelated but data‑rich stories: a 2003 geological study of sequential mountain slides, the legal saga of mTOR discoverer David Sabatini, and a soccer highlight of Kylian Mbappé’s “Zidane roulette” goal. I captured the durable numbers, timelines and quotes to inform my decisions about risk, liability and performance analysis.
- Geological sequence – each slide occurs “a little higher up the mountain than the one before.”
- Historical aerial photos (pre‑1999) show a “small V‑shaped crack at the top of the slope.”
In Chiayi, Taiwan a farmer heard “mountain cracking sounds,” filmed the event on a cell phone, and within minutes a “huge rock and soil mass” collapsed, producing a dense dust cloud.
David Sabatini’s defamation case resulted in a $6 million award (plus interest) to Sabatini; the judgment is owed to the complainant, Kristin Knouse, who continues teaching at MIT.
- Whitehead Institute needed about seven months to go from the first complaint to Sabatini’s exit (August 2021).
Sabatini’s former lab at the Whitehead Institute (MIT) employed 39 people before the institutions terminated his position.
A 2018 Whitehead rule prohibited lab heads from dating anyone at the institute, even peers, which shaped the institutional response to the allegations.
Kylian Mbappé, now nine league goals into the 2026‑10 season, scored a “Zidane’s signature spin” (roulette) that requires dragging the ball back with the bottom of one foot and rolling it forward with the other while the body spins a full circle.
- Prof. Geir Jordet’s 30‑year eye‑tracking research finds “strikers look around less than anyone else on the field,” and even less when tightly defended near the opponent’s goal.
These observations helped me decide to track early‑warning signals for slope stability, monitor institutional liability risk, and consider striker gaze‑behavior metrics when evaluating forward performance.