Number of people shot by Trump's secret police so far: 43. www.thetrace.org/2025/12/immi...

Good morning. I'd like to invite anyone who is interested to make a small gesture of kindness today. It's up to you to decide what that can be. The key is for you to act on the idea. With so much out of our control, we can choose how to be with each other today and every day.

Back in 2018, I started reading about the history of successful movements. Two things really stuck with me: 1) how long real, sustainable change can take (especially given the backlash to early successes, and 2) how you never really know when the watershed moments are when you're living in them.

There are a bunch of fake pictures of protests among my friend networks on other sites. They are really, obviously AI, but I understand how in all the pressures at the moment you can see it, have a feeling, and hit share. Instead: go to local news. Here’s my outlet I write for. There are others.

I'm feeling pretty useless so I called my state rep and said they needed to get on with passing the MELT act and doing everything in power to stop this administration.

It's a really scary time. Our president is rattling sabers across the globe. Government thugs are shooting people in the streets. This is a good week to go to a meeting in your community, in person if possible. Be with others and remember: YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

I need people to wrap their minds around the fact that here in Minneapolis, ICE broke the window of a vehicle yesterday, pepper sprayed the occupants, and arrested them, and shot another observer in the face today, and OBSERVERS ARE STILL GOING OUT TO PROTECT THEIR NEIGHBORS AT MASSIVE PERSONAL RISK

Human brains feed off of negativity. Negative thoughts are easily digested and play in a loop in your mind all of the time. The reality, however, is that there is also A LOT OF GOOD happening every single minute. You have to do more work to pay attention to the good but it's worth it.

When you feel immobilized, remember: there is a world outside these apps. Sometimes, when we feel helpless, the best thing is to look to our own communities. Reach out to a friend going through it. Feed someone. Ask a shelter what they need. Spreading the light somewhere helps it grow everywhere.

We don't have to live like this.

I love getting the local paper. There’s no comments section, I get to donate the papers to the herbarium or the parrot rescue after, and you get gems like today’s front-page story.

After a going through a horrendous year, this is a relief. A 15% cap on overhead costs for university research is a death punch. It doesn't improve efficiency. Research would come to a stop. Recall that changes to #NIH funding DECREASED the number of grants funded in 2025. 🧪 archive.today/KXEIs

I’m rewatching The Expanse. One thing that I really love about this show is that it’s one of the only I’ve seen that envisions a future that depicts climate change impacts. It feels like such a glaring omission when other media just…don’t address it.

My tears are apparently burning my face, which is a new thing for me (I don’t know if it’s my skin or my tears). My skin is raw and flaky around my eyes and nose. What can I put on my face to make this stop?

Eris, the Baby Cutes, came into my life on the winter solstice twenty years and thirteen days ago; today, on the perihelion, she has gone to be the sunshine forever. She was so very loved and I am so lucky to have been her mama.

Strange takes on Mayor Zamdani swearing his oath on the Qu’ran. It has nothing to do with church & state. The point of the oath is for the person swearing in to do so upon some text that is sacred TO THEM. Some Presidents swore in w/o any book. John Quincy Adams was sworn on a law book. His choice.

fwiw it’s been about six weeks since Trump pardoned the former president of Honduras who had been convicted of trafficking drugs into the US

The "Lost Science" series from the NYT is an infuriating and heartbreaking must-read. What a security disaster -- more Americans are in harms way because of the loss of programs like this one:

1. Headlines everywhere today read "Grok apologizes." This is bullshit. A chatbot is not something that can apologize. Pretending otherwise is simple laundering these companies' bullshit about what AI is, while diffusing blame away from the human beings that developed and released this system.

A petition is circulating to defend OU graduate instructor Mel Curth. You can read the letter to OU’s President and sign the petition here: actionnetwork.org/forms/defend...

“The demographics of American workplaces, gold-standard studies of workplace discrimination, and the EEOC’s own data belie the idea that white Americans experience systematic discrimination. These data all show the opposite of the Trump Administration’s fact free claims.”

After my first class, my Mandarin teacher (who was from China) told me that I didn’t sound like an American trying to speak Chinese, I sounded like a “little Chinese baby.”

Wow, hearing Ted Danson on @colbertlateshow.bsky.social talk about how he got his sense of activism from his dad, an archaeologist (Southwestern, I think?) who instilled in him a sense of the need to care for future generations, has got me in the feels.

Sharing this piece by @katherinejwu.com - A succinct explanation about why i fear for the younger generation of scientists... www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...

If you’re looking for a last minute holiday gift for the Earth science/climate person in your life, I would never say any of these things about my book but other people have www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

Apparently I'm doing this -- my open letter to that open latter about AI in writing and publishing. I emerged from Hibernation Week to write it, so god only knows how much sense it makes. But at least a human wrote it, so that's nice. Bonus: picture of my "cat," sweet baby Boomba.

Great post about generative AI. Happy Holidays. Don't say I never gave you anything. anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

Pediatric brain cancer research: cut. Faster chemical safety testing: cut. Training doctors to treat addiction: cut. Six scientists spoke about the devastating impact of 2025’s federal science funding cuts on their work, on their colleagues and on society. buff.ly/cx6x1Ho

Artist friends, check out a fun paid opportunity!

Renewing your Annual National Park Pass? Not a fan of the 2026 design? Would you rather look at beautiful wildlife while supporting our parks? Check out these lovely stickers by a Colorado artist, which you can use to customize your pass!

If you’re cold, they’re not cold. Put on more layers and stop whining. Definitely do not bring them inside. If you do bring them in, you’re the meanest dad ever and you’ll be reported to Mom for cruelty and neglect, you monster.

There is an unfortunate error in this newly published @globalchangebio.bsky.social paper. The caption for this image reads "upper panel with dragon icon symbolising all tetrapod" but this is incorrect. That is either a wyvern (with two wings and two legs) or it is not a tetrapod (6 limbs).

This is an almost shockingly wise essay. I'm glad I've finally read it.

I think my winter break project is going to be to make kimchi. I can't stop thinking lately about the Korean restaurant I used to go when I was a postdoc at Brown. It was on Thayer, below street level, and they had this huge cauldron of self-serve miso soup. On cold days, it was the best.

Worth noting that the student admits that she just threw the thing together in 30 minutes without reading the paper she was supposed to be responding to.

Fund science, not war. Fund healthcare, not war. Fund clean energy, not war. Fund childcare, not war. Fund education, not war. Fund literally anything else but war.

NEW: Organ tuners have been leaving temperature and humidity records in little-known books for decades. 🎹 They reveal how temperatures inside churches have changed over time due to climate change and increased heating. A new scoop for The Reengineer! www.thereengineer.pro/p/church-org...

CBS didn't run the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT, but over here at @propublica.org we've been working on the story since March, including finding out who each and every man sent to that maximum security prison was. You can see our reporting here: www.propublica.org/series/depor...

It was such a tell that so many interviews about the impacts of "political correctness," and later "DEI" and then "wokeness" boiled down to "I'm mad that I am not allowed to say certain words now." That's it. One side wants fundamental human rights, the other side just doesn't want to be shamed.

One day something will happen — a wedding, a graduation, a job promotion, Jake Paul getting knocked out, Andrew Tate getting knocked out the next day — and you’ll want the right outfit to celebrate. Buy that special outfit now, so you’re ready when that next unexpected moment arrives.

Generative AI is also causing me more work as a college professor, in teaching, research, and admin work.

The fact that major media outlets keep platforming the “Loud, Overconfident, and Wrong” class while simultaneously saying we’re fresh out of ideas is just such an embarrassing self-own.

I've done this, and it's really fun and rewarding for the students, too!

With the NYT and WaPo compromised, where are we sending our op eds these days? The Guardian?

I just wish someone would be honest and say “we are ending civilian science in favor of science that is focused on serving national security and war”

Gift link, probably the funniest thing the Wall Street Journal has done this year.

Unburying the lede from my essay on why we all feel like numb frozen crap these days… catvalente.substack.com/p/this-is-wh...

Go see or call your representatives, especially if they are on the House Science committee and/or House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) and Related Agencies subcommittee.

This is what they’re trying to destroy. NCAR is worth fighting for. #SaveNCAR 🧪