While leaving work today a colleague and I had to stop to put out a literal garbage fire that was on the verge of starting a forest fire. Coooooool.

Attempts to appease political and pseudo intellectual critics has been a dominant trend in higher ed over the last decade—to the point of cooperating with unprecedented levels of state/federal censorship of teaching + research and political interference in university self-governance.

“Between January 2025 and February 2026, STEM and health employees at science-focused agencies saw nearly 15,000 jobs cut. The rate outpaced cuts among other federal workers.” OPM data - Figure from Wash Post article 19 April. (Where US science has been hit hardest.) NSF at -42%!

this is just a warmed over david duke speech from 1990

I have written elsewhere that academics demanding pay and credit for public engagement is a neoliberal trap. People need jobs, healthcare, housing, and education. This includes artists and writers of all kinds. Employed academics don't need micropayments and merit points for doing public engagement.

Another example demonstrating that the federal science and research ecosystem is being seriously damaged regardless of what’s ultimately appropriated

Just released: "Mission Aborted: How NASA Illegally Implemented the President's Budget Request Without Congressional Approval" - Minority Staff Report Prepared for Members of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, US House of Representatives democrats-science.house.gov/imo/media/do...

It was old family lore that all the Swedes ended up in Rockford because it was the end of the train line. But this always confused me growing up, because Rockford didn't have a passenger train (in my lifetime)!

Elite higher ed has many problems, but the key factor driving down trust is political. Look at the graph - backlash against costs, admissions, etc. can't explain the changes we see. We should still reform our institutions and refocus on our core mission, but blindly blaming ourselves is abuser logic

Nothing in this report indicates that this Yale committee is even aware of the existence of public 4-year colleges. When laying out the higher ed landscape they only mention "large public land-grant institutions" and "community colleges", leaving out the institutions that serve 70% of US undergrads.

Members and staff of AAPT and AAS are on Capitol Hill today advocating for science and STEM education funding! Join them by requesting a meeting with your local congressional office: ow.ly/eiBR50YJTeh #WeekofAction #SaveScience 🔭 @aas.org

Have expertise in #astronomy education that you'd like to share with the AAS community through a workshop? The AAS Education Committee is now accepting Letters of Intent for the 2027 funding cycle. Letters are due 24 April. aas.org/posts/news/2...

The national media is eating up this report as justification for perpetuating the lie that universities themselves - as opposed to decades of attacks from the far right authoritarian party - are responsible for eroding trust in higher education. You can almost hear them salivating at the chance.

Yale is not remotely representative of the greater US higher education ecosystem, but they could at least try to be champions for it. FFS www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/u...

A cute Eastern tent caterpillar that I relocated to a safer spot today 🐛

And Eastman kind of sputtered, as if it were too obvious to mention, but finally said: "Well, they're teaching kids in school that they can be any gender they like!" So now: he still has the freedom, if he likes, to choose his gender. But he can't practice law in CA.

🎉

Today's class topic is massive star evolution, so I'll get to share this fun song about the massive WR star R136A1, by my talented friend Conor Loughridge of the Wiggly Tendrils 🔭🎶 thewigglytendrils.bandcamp.com/track/r136a1...

"These people are my enemies. I have only ill will for this project and wish them failure, because this vision for a future of postsecondary education is a recipe for mass immiseration and public disempowerment."

Our neighborhood in WAVL still holds weekly potlucks around the drive-up water distribution station that one neighbor built to share their well water after Helene. No one could forget the generosity and cooperation we found during that time as a community. I expect the trauma bonds in MN will last.

Starlink 34343 failed on Mar 29 in a fatal energetic event which raised its apogee by 30 km and generated observed (but so far uncataloged) debris. Since then the orbit has undergone natural decay. Current orbit is 547 x 574 km.

"[Bessent] was a leading member of the SFM group, which profited by $1 billion on Black Wednesday, the British pound sterling crisis. In 2013, he made SFM another $1.2 billion by betting against the Japanese yen." 🤔https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Bessent

This blooming mountain azalea(?) on campus today smelled so amazing that it stopped me in my tracks. Seriously, every human and bee in Asheville needs to smell these flowers.

“Russ Vought set out to ensure a second Trump term would not be hampered by checks and balances: ‘I don’t want…Trump having to lose a moment of time having fights in the Oval Office about whether something is legal or doable or moral.’” @propublica.org 10/17/25… 1/ www.propublica.org/article/russ...

Congrats to my old friend Aadam Jacobs, deservingly receiving international recognition from numerous press sites for creating probably the most important live music archive of the past 30 years, simply by being Aadam.

People will be closely studying how Hungary's opposition pulled off their win in such a pro-incumbent system. Important to note that the theme was corruption. Democrats need to get much better at calling out Trump's corruption.

As always, one must also ask the “compared to what?” question. Despite right wing claims & lies about higher education, there are <exactly zero> other American institutions that are <more> protective of or better at safeguarding free speech, viewpoint diversity, or the marketplace of ideas.

At the mass deportation hub in Minneapolis, where Good and Pretti were murdered, they're handing out these "challenge coins" to commemorate their work. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/staff-a...

Really well-observed, cutting account of Trump watching a UFC bout while talks collapse in Iran: www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/u...

Educators and researchers are urging a pivot away from computers and tablets while industry and misguided school leaders push more AI use. Something is going to have to give.

The NYTimes, asking the hard questions this morning.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio at UFC in Miami tonight as diplomatic negotiations with Iran fail (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AFP via Getty)

"Military members are citing myriad reasons for wanting to leave, but the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has been a powerful motivator. In March alone, Galvin's center took on more than 80 new clients — almost twice as many as it takes on in an average year." www.npr.org/2026/04/10/n...

i think it would be productive for the boomers that feel compelled to write these pieces to grapple more honestly (or at all) with how anger and disgust over their generational failures on climate, housing, transit, labor, power transfer, etc. may be affecting youth turnout at no kings

The obvious answer here is that the student protest movement was broadly smeared as anti-semitic and aligned with terrorists, and a variety of institutions from government, media and the universities acted as if that smear was true, threatening, suspending, expelling and even deporting students.

Peppa and George are, of course, the Squirrels of the Day for April 8, 2026 #sqrlpix

This is especially concerning because persistence is foundational to skill acquisition and one of the *strongest* predictors of long-term learning. AI conditions you to expect immediate answers, removing the productive struggle that builds real competence.

Absolutely worth a read!

Basic gangster stuff.

Rufo is also coming to UW Madison, hosted the Thompson Center by the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy. CROWE with just an eagle-eyed focus on the Wisconsin economy.

Today is a good day to remember that Carl Sagan was as outspoken about the dangers of war and nuclear weapons as he was an advocate of space exploration.

If you are struggling to show up for others who need you, I've handled this it by acknowledging the weirdness, and saying that I am showing up for my students because they didn't choose this, they deserve an education, and their work will matter more than ever; the least I can do is prepare them.

So why is the crew using a 10 year old Nikon? For those that are interested: petapixel.com/2026/04/06/t...

Fishy treats will be raining from the sky this week. www.dph.ncdhhs.gov/blog/2026/04...

Firstly, this is silly for all the excellent reasons that @mjibrown.bsky.social & @mattkenworthy.bsky.social share here. That article is a great explainer of this whole debacle ....

I do so enjoy seeing the ferns unfurling.

Strange cover art - but this is a great story about what course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) can look like when they're well-resourced and everything goes right. Congratulations to Ji and his students at UChicago for this exciting result! news.uchicago.edu/story/scient...

"We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace." www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEHe...

Heads up GitHub users. You have less than a month left to opt out of "Allow GitHub to use my data for AI model training". "On April 24 we'll start using GitHub Copilot interaction data for AI model training unless you opt out." github.com/settings/cop...

Whomever wrote the Book of Revelations has a lot to answer for. They could have been like "Jesus will come back when everyone is safe and has plenty to eat". But instead here we are. Utter madness.