I hadn't shared this photo before. The camera tells the truth, and the camera lies. Photograph was taken just after sunrise with full sun on the bird. Exposed for the bright white bird, the surroundings appear almost black. Yellow-billed Spoonbill at Western Treatment Plant, Victoria, Australia. 🪶

Trump has exposed and created the machinery for another authoritarian presidency down the line, and the next job is to shut that possibility down.

HASSAN: If RFK ordered you to stop promoting flu vaccine during a deadly flu season, would you? S: We have to prioritize-- HASSAN: This isn't a hypothetical. RFK Jr in the middle of a deadly outbreak directed the CDC to do it. So would you? S: I don't speak in hypotheticals-- H: It happened!

Oh my god, who cares if it’s dark on the way to work. People want more sunlight *after* they are off the clock.

"nobody knows how china is making due with less oil." Uh, no. You don't. www.taipeitimes.com/News/editori...

Banger quotes throughout the book: “The fact that there’s a low probability that an AI will be able to do your job doesn’t change the fact that there’s a high probability that an AI salesman will convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can’t do your job” (65).

Covid-19 is on the increase again in the US, after reaching the lowest levels of emergency dept visits and positivity since the beginning of the pandemic. US will see a summer wave once again. But coming off a trough an astounding 4X lower than last year, how big will the wave be? 1/

Exclusive: Three men who were alongside Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was killed in an immigration operation, said a federal officer fired at them almost immediately after exiting his vehicle and that at no point did the driver veer in his direction.

MAINE CHARACTER SYNDROME

“Humanitarian group Red Crescent told ABC NEWS Verify that, generally speaking, it has observed an increase in online campaigns and entities claiming to conduct humanitarian work on the ground in Gaza.” Great reporting on an increasingly prevalent form of online scam www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07...

NEW BLOG FOR YOU Google's energy consumption numbers in their new climate report are mind-blowing. 2 years ago they flipped from linear to exponential growth, and their climate impact is blowing out, too. A WILD testament to the obscene bloat and waste of GenAI: ketanjoshi.co/2026/07/01/g...

Another quick thread on Tulsi Gabbard's documents, released on Thursday: There is finally a version of the May 2020 LLNL Z Division report. There are still redactions, but enough can be read to know it was baseless. ▫️1/5 www.dni.gov/files//docum... #covidorigin

Absolutely done with any and all of the excuses. If you have a genuine, real and material reason to be on that site then **your job is to stop that being a reason**, not to just passively succumb to it and do nothing at all Because otherwise: YOU JUST PROLONG THE HARM IT CAUSES

I've been a broken record on this for three years and I'll be a broken record for as long as that fucking website exists: X is a viciously racist far-right organising platform that ONLY WORKS because a huge number of centrists, lefties and progressivs cannot stop propping it up

Another fantastic preprint on BA.3.2's propensity for children, this time from Yunlong Cao & co. They not only confirm David Ho's lab findings (that kids have ~0 Ab response to BA.3.2) but dig into the details of exactly why kids are so vulnerable to BA.3.2. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/6

Quite amazing charts here. Covid-19 outbreaks growing from very low levels to the highest peak surge levels, in just one week... 1/

This is good news and an excellent time fot covid cautious to relax somewhat- though I’ll still be getting my booster next winter and masking in health settings/ public transport open.substack.com/pub/christin...

Which would you rather have for $65 m - a year of public transport cap of $20 a week, or 588 meters of motorway?

Just want to say that this is absolutely crazy-pants misinfo, even for this account. Covid-19 is lower right now, *in those red counties*, than it was at any point in 2022 through 2025. The rate of emergency department visits with covid is 1 in 600. The idea that 1 in 30 have covid is nuts. 1/

An annual reminder for bands to get off Twitter. Why are you there?

Me: tries to login to RMS RMS: your ac is locked pls reset passwd Me: resets passwd, tries to login RMS: you need to install MFA app Me: installs app, tries to login RMS: your ac is locked cos you muffed up MFA, pls reset passwd Me: tries to reset passwd RMS: you can't reset passwd > once in 24 hrs

This is a very good thread and I would encourage reading all of it. I think the BA.3.2 "mystery" may be solved. The path to get there was quite circuitous, and often surprising! There are several important lessons here: 1/ bsky.app/profile/ryan...

Here's what these gorgeous birds look like in flight. Laysan albatross seen at Ke'anu Point on Oahu, Hawaii 🪶

The epidemiological influenza year has ended in Denmark, and for the second year in a row influenza deaths (680 in 2025/26) outnumbered Covid-19 deaths (314 in 2025/26). It may look like covid deaths are flattening out, but... 1/

It gives me hope for Team Human to see these clumsy clankers being blocked immediately.

The UKHSA's annual flu epidemiological report is out. 2025-26 saw relatively low excess mortality due to acute flu (3,798 deaths, much lower than 2012-20 average of 15,713). Excess mortality due to acute covid was lower still at 1,842 deaths. 1/

For the last time (it's not the last time, I fear), Ebola virus is not going to mutate to go airborne and I've got receipts. rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/why-ebola-...

Out today in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social our paper “Second Thoughts about First Principles in Biology.” www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... . We are in favour of first principles approaches in biology but we think that we need to do better in how we use them.

Scotland has updated their respiratory dashboard for the first time in 4 weeks. SARI Hospitalizations in ages 0-14 in last four weeks: Covid-19: 3 Rhinovirus: 256 Whatever happened with high Covid-19 admissions in children with BA.3.2, it is very very over, admissions now at record low. 1/

Another welcome change: ARC have also clarified that they will announce outcomes for a scheme even if they can’t announce them for some grants because they’re still waiting on security checks for them.

More Hawaii birds: A Common Waxbill waves some nesting material to signal to the ladies that he'd make a great mate. Seen on Oahu, Hawaii, USA🪶

#ARCschedule May26 update ARC added 2027 Future Fellowships & ITRP. Also providing 2-week outcome windows again! ARC removed rejoinder & SAC dates from Scheme Calendar. Info available in Assessor Handbooks for open schemes ▶️ www.arc.gov.au/funding-rese... Data ▶️ docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Once again: Vaccines are far and away our best tool to reduce the number of covid-19 infections (and hence acute and long covid disease, and death). Covid-19 vaccines reduce the odds of getting infected and (as in the study here) the odds that infected person will pass on their infection. 1/

"Does endlessly placing the WHO or CDC on trial over every evolving recommendation from 2020 actually improve our ability to respond to the next outbreak? Does convincing the public that every changing recommendation is evidence of deception rather than scientific adaptation make anyone safer?" 👇

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.

“and eventually, reality will kick in.” www.ft.com/content/32bf...

tough to overstate how quickly science funding in New Zealand has been blown to pieces - on Friday the NZ govt straight up disbanded the Marsden fund (our version of the NSF) it'll be replaced by a 'transition fund' with less money and zero information, as of yet, about what it will support #nzpol

1. If you've been following the rollercoast that #CDC 's #ACIP has become under Sec. Kennedy, you'll find this interesting. The new ACIP charter that was published in April has been withdrawn. The announcement here: public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-10012.pdf h/t @doritreiss.bsky.social

An early look at 2025 mortality, from Denmark. Age-standardized mortality in Denmark in 2025 is significantly (>95% confidence) lower than pre-pandemic, and excess is not statistically significant. 1/

Isn't this simply a scheme to pay informants to deliver inside information? (Even better, *other people* pay the informants!) Polymarket knows with statistical certainty that these account have insider information. A gig-economy outsourced legal spy ring. That's a bit of a security risk, no?

Trachoma defeated? www.theage.com.au/healthcare/f...

Whoops, this week was cut off that chart! Should look like this. 😮

The unprecedented Covid-19 low in the US continues. CDC's wastewater surveillance has been below the limit of detection for 3 weeks, but emergency dept visits and positivity show a coherent picture that Covid-19 prevalence continues to plunge. 40% below this time last year, and falling faster. 1/

I don't mean to say China doesn't see the US as dangerous - powers in terminal decline can still be very dangerous. But China's defining outlook these days, right or wrong, is that time is on its side, and it doesn't need or want much from the US anymore.

More Hawaii birds: Of course everyone likes seeing boobies! Red-footed Booby (lifer!) and Brown Booby, seen on Oahu, Hawaii, USA🪶

Strongly identifying with this story. If I die in a mysterious but internationally important way, investigators should search eBird to determine my last movements. (Rubbish tips and wastewater treatment plants often involved...) www.scientificamerican.com/article/doub...

Interesting paper! Genetic diversity in virus RNA in wastewater is more highly correlated with infection incidence than simple RNA concentration, and avoids extrinsic factors that affect concentration measurements. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A tablet to prevent COVID infections in close contacts: Ensitrelvir reduced the risk of transmission among household contacts with covid in this Phase 3 study from Japan. This could be extraordinarily helpful in Long Term Care among vulnerable people. tinyurl.com/3dfnman5