"They were careless people..They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald

Another scientist of unknown birthday: my #linocut of Chinese Han Dynasty #polymath & statesman Zhang Heng (78-139) who invented a seismoscope (simplified seismometer which does not make a record of earth motions) to detect distant earthquakes & indicate their direction 2000 years ago! 🐡🧪⚒️#histsci

Instead of whatever this is, we should have a government getting lots of new homes and apartments built, lots of clean energy built, lots of high speed rail and transit and bike lanes built, human rights for everyone, economic & healthcare opportunities for all, & innovation that leads the world.

I still have this protest sign I made in college.. but not because I thought I would actually need to use it again, more than two decades later.

so they are trying to make this look somehow legal. good luck with that, but I cannot stress enough that if your initial “wtf” reaction gets short-circuited by this, that’s bad.

Trump "could have tried to persuade Congress or the public to give him permission to use force. He didn’t bother. He chose war despite polls that found a large majority of Americans opposed it." From Conor Friedersdorf www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

I feel like I haven’t even been properly lied to about the purposes of this war

It's worse than that.. this act (which seems dumb enough to become law in certain states) would require public universities to PUBLISH standardized test scores for every faculty member **and applicant**! civicsalliance.org/faculty-meri...

My cat agrees www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

ICYMI: London's fireworks display was a master class in how to unapologetically celebrate diversity, drawing a stark contrast with white nationalist messaging of national decline. www.youtube.com/live/FuzyX3q...

Welcome to the Public Domain, ANIMAL CRACKERS (1930) 🎭 😂 Nothing to do with soup. The Marx Brothers return in this 1930 adaptation of their stage musical. Laughs abound in the public domain. Learn more ➡️ blog.archive.org/public-domai... #PublicDomainDay #CopyrightFree

The National Science Foundation starts 2026 with a new management structure that affects every scientist with--or applying for--NSF funding. Here's what you need to know. www.science.org/content/arti...

I just learned that this incredibly flawed story was put on the front page of the newspaper, and that certainly seems like an editorial choice

AAS' Congressional Visits Day is a fantastic opportunity to get started advocating for science. For me, it cemented an interest that would lead me to a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship and further service in federal science policy. I highly recommend applying! 🔭 aas.org/applications...

For the 2nd time this year, MTP has platformed Robbins -- an influencer whose tag line is "Let Them". Just what America needs to "meet the moment"... which, for the record, is a dismantling of our constitutional democracy. But just let them! Don't let extrajudicial kidnappings ruin your brunch!

Fascinating! as.ft.com/r/5442aac6-1...

DeSantis' appointees took over New College, a public liberal arts college of <900 students, and promptly decided they needed nearly half a billion dollars to run it. 🤡🤡🤡

As conceded later in the piece, this is bad advice. fortune.com/2025/12/27/m...

ICYMI www.nature.com/articles/s41...

At the food court in CLT airport and Baby Got Back just played very loud and in full over the speakers. Lol

"Technology firms... are not invested in our students or the learning process, only in harvesting the attention of an entire generation of users, who will be addicted to their product for the rest of their adult lives." www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...

It is EXHAUSTING not only being made responsible for coming up with new kinds of assignments for our students; it's also tedious reading op-eds that suggest the core problem is a crisis in teaching. But, as Chris and I lay out here, this isn't a crisis in teaching; it's an attack on learning.

No one says to legit business owners, "hey I see there's an underground market selling toxic knock-offs of your product: how will you incorporate the toxic product AND protect your customers against its harms?" But apparently it's fine to make this suggestion to educators with respect to AI.

www.npr.org/2025/12/22/n... I said some things…

Heading into what's already looking like a, let's say, challenging 2026, this lovely little piece stands for science too. Do the work. It'll help.

👀

The Wes Anderson exhibit at The Design Museum is the perfect antidote to AI slop: room after room filled with meticulously designed and handcrafted art, puppets, and costumes

Imagine having to post this on a syllabus: “inclusion of a reading does not imply endorsement.” And ask yourself who wanted that line and why.

NIST having to say to the media "time is not broken." That's 2025 all over. The venn of people who know what NIST is, and are so certain of tech is just two circles. www.cbsnews.com/colorado/new...

This is a really amazing opportunity for astronomy students! 🔭☄️ It's always also very oversubscribed, so make sure to apply to a few things if you want to do a summer research internship

In the wake of this news from UNC, I'm seeing some talk about copyright ownership and faculty scholarship. If you're interested in the topic, here's a good explainer from from @authorsalliance.bsky.social:

The English National Ballet's 2025 Nutcracker has incredible creative direction. I saw it a few nights ago in London, and I just discovered it's been made free to stream on PBS in the US. How wonderful that more people can enjoy it! Happy solstice everyone! 🌲 www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/t...

(Also, icyi, here are the 42 papers citing our non-existent paper which includes a "meta-analysis" - often called the evidence "gold standard" - of "LLM effects" in education 🤮 scholar.google.com.vn/scholar?star...)

“Gantchev suffered from type 2 diabetes and told his wife no diet accommodations were made for him. She and Anna said the small amount of food that is given to people detained at North Lake was not enough for maintaining Gantchev's blood sugar levels.”

Info that must be posted: 1. Class name 2. Goals 3. Grading info 4. Materials required for purchase 5. (This is new) "A statement noting that the course engages diverse scholarly perspectives to develop critical thinking, analysis, and debate[,] and inclusion of a reading does not imply endorsement"

The UNC system just released its final policy on mandatory syllabi disclosure, stating that syllabi are university (not faculty) IP and certain course info must be posted on new, publicly searchable databases before every semester. A thread about what's changed from the draft I reported on earlier:

"The tribe had entered a contract to conduct feasibility studies and concept designs for ICE detention centers in the area. Tribal leadership railed against the decision by the Prairie Band LLC, as a violation of their values, and fired the board members responsible for the decision."

"The study also found that once the ancient Egyptians finished building the pyramids, their parents paid for them to go to grad school." lol theonion.com/new-research...

Ever wondered how many bins to choose when making a histogram of data? The answer is that you shouldn't choose a number of bins yourself! ☄️ #astrocode Here's a little notebook explaining how to make less biased histograms:

A study examined 116 TikTok videos about gout, with nearly half a billion views, combined. A majority of the videos pushed diets and herbal remedies; only 2 of the videos mentioned the most effective medication prescribed by medical professionals. We are so cooked. academic.oup.com/rheumap/arti...

Sincerely one of the funniest things the WSJ has ever written or done. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

New space policy just dropped. Two quick thoughts 1. Clear win for Moon over Mars as NASA priority 2. This sounds (between the lines) even *worse* for space science than earlier policy statements www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Heads up to paying Evernote users that you’re being auto-renewed into their new “Advanced” tier (replacing the old “Professional” tier) for $250 annually, so check your auto-renewal date.

#ArtAdventCalendar Day 17: #SpaceShuttle stud earrings from real 4.5-billion-year-old #meteorite ☄️✨ Iron-nickel meteorites are so special to work with. After being acid-etched, they reveal their gorgeous #Widmanstätten patterns. 🔭🐡🧪🎨

"she’d been drawn to [UATX] because she worried that other parts of American higher ed had come to adhere too closely to what she described as ideological tribalism. It never occurred to her.. that [UATX] would push her out for expressing her perspective..." 🤔 www.chronicle.com/article/at-t...

NCAR data saved lives in my community, by helping WNC predict the flooding from Helene. It's also been critical for understanding the power of the storm, and how to build more resilient infrastructure and more detailed predictions and warning systems for the future. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbZl...

NSF is about to dismantle NCAR at Russell Vought's direction to protect the fossil fuel industry. It's hard to communicate just how much NCAR does, so let's take a look: I've never worked at NCAR, and I've worked with NCAR researchers once ever. What scientific discoveries has NCAR made possible? 👇

"Dan Reed.. former chair of the National Science Board that sets policy for NSF, thinks there’s a downside to panels. “You can get groupthink, or a strong voice can sway the group,” ... Program officers will now have greater latitude to reject more proposals without sending them out for review." 🙃