Russell Vought has a plan for science, but so do we. Join the fight by joining our Emergency Science Meeting AND taking action against the latest OMB grant funding proposal here 👉 zurl.co/NWZp0 Donate to our fight here 👉 zurl.co/muvwU

Yes. Using a computer now feels like this at all times.

One of the more misogynistic takes currently trending in the AI policy space is "women use less AI than men because they have less tech literacy" Ok but have you considered that women use less AI than men because we have more tech literacy?

Please listen to Matthew. They are one of the people I really trust on this. They understand how science works and how policy works and how advocacy works. They also know what it’s like to have limited energy. They would not ask you to do anything that would be a waste your time.

4/ 🧵 I have a history of running effective commenting campaigns. During Trump 1, I produced commenting guides for specialist, expert audiences like Hospice & Palliative Medicine Clinicians, and Pediatricians. And I've written about Notice & Comment as a tool ⤵️ www.yalejreg.com/nc/reclaimin...

3/ 🧵 But not just a lawyer. I started a dev psych program at columbia's teachers college before I got too sick to continue. Eventually, my graduate training is in public health from BUSPH, and I spent a tiny bit of time at MIT/HMS. In other words, I understand enough science to be useful here.

2/ 🧵 My juris doctorate is from (what's now called) the Scalia Law School at George Mason. It's one of the most conservative real law schools in the US I trained in the heart of the conservative legal project. I studied under professors who don't want people like me to exist. I know these people.

1/ 🧵 OMB is advancing a proposed rule that would destroy the American scientific enterprise. Randos keep disagreeing with my 'here's how to fight it' I do this for a living. So before the "how," here's the "who" --- and why you should listen to me on this one.

If they start hiring scientists, they will mostly hire their own citizens, many of whom trained in US universities anyway and are every bit as capable. US scientists mostly have to deal with that, under fascism, we're unemployed.

There's a persistent fantasy that maybe some other nice countries will start mass-hiring US scientists. That's not going to happen. A few high-profile, big name researchers will get poached, sure. But most countries, including some very nice ones, are underemploying their own scientists already.

Former human rights lawyer here: under international human rights law, bombing or gassing a medical facility is a crime against humanity. Last night, the NJ state police gassed the medic tent at Delaney Hall over and over and over again until medics had to abandon it and flee for their lives.

Academic unions should join this effort. The regime may dismiss us as woke puppets of big labor, but they can’t deny that there are tens of thousands of us. The larger locals probably represent people working on grants from the vast majority of agencies covered by this proposal.

Vought is probably going to enact the rule, and then there'll be litigation. At that point, the content of comments from noteables, heavy hitters, like colleges/unis, professional associations, learned societies, etc. will matter in federal court. 🧵

In ⤵️, I recommend sending your comment to your state electeds (Gov., legislators) and federal electeds (MoC, Senators) and content could, depending on the elected, matter much more there. Because many of our elected would-be allies simply won't know/understand why this is bad 🧵

Great ?, let's run through it 🧵 Content won't matter to Russ Vought's OMB, they're not on the level. Possibly a large enough number of sufficiently powerful actors submit comments opposed, their combined *political power* could cause Vought to retreat. But it won't be prose that does it

The reason to attack peer review of papers is similar — if fringe economists want to publish papers about their vaccine predictions, the scientific community is an obstacle to that. So the best way for them to elevate their junk science is to try to cut peer review out of things.

There's also a legal reason to attack peer review of grants. 42 USC § 289a REQUIRES that all grants be peer reviewed. That’s statute. So Project 2025 wants to do an end run around it so they can have political hacks, not the scientific community, determine where the money goes.

tl,dr; Scientists no longer allowed to use federal funding to publish, attend meetings, or talk to the public. They cannot collaborate internationally. Grants can be cancelled for any reason, at any time, political appointees have a final say over what gets funded, and who gets funded.

This too is gender.

what if you're hollow and the reason you can't sleep is that anxiety is a liquid and when you're standing or sitting it's more in your legs and when you lie down it can slosh all the way up to your brain

Day 30 of #Coverbirds QUACK magazine publishes an annual Sexiest Duck Alive issue and who else could be on the cover but Ruddy Duck? Any questions? I didn’t think so (1/8) #birds

I genuinely feel sick. A company reached out to me on IG, linking me to an AI version of myself. You can even ask "me" questions. They are also advertising it using an AI photo of me. They told me if I like it, they will give me free access... to my own fucking content that they stole. /1

I think if Guillermo del Toro subtweeted me I would walk into the ocean immediately

I haven't tested this, but my intuition is: "They're trying to turn us into North Korea. When scientists are replaced by political hacks, instead of iPhones you get famines, instead of cancer cures you get contagion, instead of stealth fighters you get wreckage..."

I think about Aaron Swartz a lot these days.

Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule. Russell Vought is going destroy American Science. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of...

god, he was so young

the problem with the shittiest billionaires getting so directly involved in space is how much it turns off people who just want to be excited by space

Just 15 years ago Aaron Swartz died as a result of MIT's overzealous regard for the sanctity of their libraries. He'd be turning 40 this year.

has this story broken through at all? i can’t tell.

So here's what happened to my lab (and @viralemergence.org). www.nature.com/articles/d41...

To explain this for my non-science followers. Such a proposal would be to create a black box around review of scientific proposals - this reduction in transparency is what you would do if you wanted to make political or partisan decisions about funding and not scientific ones

Someone said this last night, but if you look in the threads about "vibescession" the main thing people are talking about is the constant precarity. So what would happen if one wage-earner in your house got cancer and couldn't work?

Good plan! Uh, quick question - why is CDC short on staff, anyway?

Neelix is the Barclay of Wesley Crushers

I just introduced the Anti-Insurrectionist Act in NY. It's simple: If you're a New Yorker who takes from Trump's illegal January 6th slush fund, NY will tax 100% of it.

The dream of most automation is still just this

NIH has allocated just 33% of its normal budget this year, putting critical medical breakthroughs at risk. Johns Hopkins President Ron Daniels and University of Kansas Chancellor Dr. Douglas Girod are calling on the government to release it before the damage becomes permanent. https://bit.ly/4f3GuzR

My recent grad students are making the same amount per hour as I did 25 years ago. Rent is 3x what it was. Groceries have gone up 25% in the last year or so. I'd like to know who thinks all of this is just pessimism and you can think your way out of it.

A network of fake academic journals masquerading as legitimate publications has published more than a hundred AI-generated papers in recent months, in some cases using the names of real professors at top universities without their knowledge.

This is a truly preposterous assertion. SpaceX is perhaps one of the worst examples of ‘free market’ enterprise in modern times, as are all of Musk’s ventures. It only exists because of gargantuan subsidies from the US government, even despite continually missed deadlines and rampant fraud.

Hill I will die on Vaccinations should be mandatory for everyone, unless medically contraindicated and there should be consequences for any parent engaging in medical neglect and criminal consequences when that neglect maims or kills their children

Utterly deranged.

Five nights at Freddys guy can continuously donate to republicans, jk Rowling can ruin entire branches of politics with a hatred legal defense fund, but the digital circus and Steven universe creators were queer and made choices fans didn't like and for that they get hate campaigns to ruin them.

And Kagi lets you change your search buddy to a kitty fyi.

Again, straight from Delaney Hall in Newark NJ: ICE just tear gassed Senator Andy Kim.

If you hold that (1) the man is visibly unwell at 79 and (2) is also in front of a camera most of the day, you kinda have to conclude he's more likely to drop dead on live TV than anyone else in the world. We don't talk about it, but, man, that would add a whole different layer to the Event.