once upon a midnight dreary while I ponder the use of computational systems to deport the weak and weary themarkup.org/artificial-i...

In collaboration with Nature, I investigated the impact of the Trump administration on US science one year after its return to office. More than 7800 research grants were cancelled or frozen, affecting ~25000 scientists and research staff and resulting in an ~US$32 billion in lost research funding.

Happy to be quoted in this overview looking at the complex problem of who pays for scientific #publishing. Appearing with @samuelmoore.org , @juancommander.scholcommlab.ca , @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy by @peterandreysmith.com for @undark.org undark.org/2026/01/07/a...

IMPORTANT STUDY👇💥 Courts often rely on the Force Science Institute when adjudicating police use-of-force suits. Turns out, FSI's research "lacks the scientific rigor required to reliably inform court proceedings, evidence-based policing, or police policy and training." Daubert challenge, anyone?

in newfoundland, tonight is tibb’s eve which appears to have many origins, some more apocryphal than others

Most weak-kneed phrase in journalism right now? “Critics say…”

“Improbable as it might sound, few people in the last century have done more to shape the way science is conducted today than Maxwell.”

Incredible piece on Oliver Sacks. If you were ever awed at his supposedly true stories (I remember being stunned by the account of the autistic twins who rattled off large prime numbers), read this. He told wonderful stories, but they were in large part fiction. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

genuine question: what are emerging frontiers and did they escape reported cuts to the NIH budget

I miss the standalone CS4 version of adobe acrobat that would reliably OCR files locally and probably could not have recognized a single cloud in the sky

who published rfk jr and gave him a cover line in 1974

AP finds a secretive Border Patrol intelligence program detains Americans for “suspicious” travel. Critics call it mass surveillance.

all politics aside I do wonder would the questioned document examination in question pass the scientific standards for admissibility

seeking book reccomendation: is there a barbarian days of bicycling?

'tis squarin-up time in newfoundland (source)

in case you were wondering the origins of the phrase “keep maine green” (from Ten Million Acres of Timber)

“Our spirits are corroded by living in an atmosphere of unrelenting contention—an argument culture.” –Deborah Tannen (1999)

in 2023, a judge overseeing lawsuits claiming tylenol caused autism excluded each and every one of the plaintiff's scientific experts storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

“Paula Soldner, who leads the food inspectors union at the Department of Agriculture, says she now tries to get her meat butchered by people she knows personally, because the agency’s oversight of meatpacking plants has been compromised by this year’s buyouts.”

“firearms identification has not been shown to reach reliable results linking a particular unknown bullet to a particular known firearm” www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinion...

Delicious story about jerks who (allegedly) kill their neighbors' trees to score better views. Come for the shade hate, stay for the zingers www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/u...

“researchers suspect that rising prescription drug use may be behind the trend”

“The real thrill is in having a license to ask, as directly as possible, about the thing you really want to know.”

orange skies summer

still one of the most incredible stories worth a listen if you have never heard it before (and even if you have!)

who here would like me to investigate, by bicycle, how the intensity of rainfall floods towns, topples trees, and messes with the maintenance of public rights of way on 8,534 miles of dirt roads in vermont?

“favorable plea deals that sidestep terrible facts—especially when it comes to crimes involving sexual abuse—are the rule, not the exception” –Carissa Byrne Hessick

'tis wobbling season in newfoundland

“I don’t know how you build infrastructure for rain events like this.” bostonglobe.com/2025/07/10/m...

this came out almost exactly one year ago today podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

“Nobody ever learned how to ride a bike by reading a manual”

Can anyone find a Berman MF et al. Neurotoxicology 2008; 29(5), 914–922 ? This is a fake citation. www.sciencedirect.com/journal/neur...

people have very strange conversations with dogs. it sends them into delusional spirals. one way I use dogs is for fact-checking.

who prevails on appeal, and then pleads guilty? the NYT obit does not mention the plea by name but I knew she must have taken an alford plea

its an easy cool laying on the quiet suburban lawn grass “in tune with the universe” [insert swirling gif of the smoky haze blanketing the northern hemisphere that is so much larger than 1MB and won't uploads to the skies]

“I don’t know about you, but I’m not feeling so sanguine about massive surveillance efforts by the government these days, or ever, really”

gilded tombs do worms enfold 𓆑

“I look at my reporter’s credentials as a passport to talk to anyone … Showing up, listening closely and finding the people burning with intensity to tell their story, those are the three most important qualities of the job.” RIP to a journalism legend www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/b...

“Seven of the cited sources don’t appear to exist at all.”

“The lie detector experience shows us that, despite a ban on its use in some contexts, it will continue to be deployed in others due to a belief in its utility, whether or not it ‘works’” – Marion Oswald

"In a way, the paper was a record of what had been lost, of what might not happen if a food product were poisoning kids right now." www.statnews.com/2025/05/23/c...

what they say about snow that falls in may in newfoundland

icymi how a hundred prize Angora goats financed a trip that seeded the farm-murder narrative

in 1987, a Dutch researcher suggested that daytime running lights on cars might create a conspicuousness race

We’re all talking about AI and energy demand, but there’s still a lot of question marks. So @jamesmodonnell.bsky.social and I got together and did some math. After six months of reporting, we found that AI's energy demand is anything but constant, and the common understanding is full of holes.

“Someday we will be able to look at the radar or satellite and not see a spinning area of clouds and showers overhead, but today is not that day.”

“AI is a general-purpose technology that can be used to automate many tasks, including ones that should not be undertaken in the first place.”

surprised by a victim impact seance voiced by a computationally generated hologram? just wait till you hear about the ubiquity of automated processes that do pass the legal thresholds for admissibility

Model accuracy has fall to some of the lowest levels of the year so far. Could be the pattern, but RAOB data missing because of Fed cuts is likely also a culprit.

i feel like the erosion of weather forecasting falls perfectly into this jia tolentino essay on our current moment... when the forecasts start to get shitty will we notice? will we be able to connect the causation dots to budget cuts? or are things just generally and incomprehensibly deteriorating