Elbows up!

It's really hard to overstate how hugely favored conservatives were up until two months ago. Here's the graph of Canadian polling between March 2023 and March 2025. (Reminder: blue is conservative.) Those are months and months of 20+ point leads for Tories.

Pretty strong case for Liberals and Carney from Laura Loomer

Never felt so seen by a wine cork.

Big news: on a bipartisan basis the Senate just voted to reject Trump's tariffs on Canada. The House has to vote on it next, where it's less likely to pass, but the cracks are starting to form. Trump is losing support from Republicans on his costly trade war.

SCOOP—Trump plans to issue an executive order designating fentanyl as a "Weapon of Mass Destruction," per copy of EO reviewed by me. Source at State speculates purpose is to designate cartels as terrorist orgs/justify military ops in Mexico/Canada. Context/full text of draft only on The Handbasket:

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy on Mahmoud Khalil.

Proud to see so many of my general biology students show up with signs and friends for our local #StandUpforScience rally at the University of Oregon!

Jeff Douglas, an actor who pivoted into a pretty good CBC broadcaster, filmed a new video with a loud nod to an iconic Molson beer ad from *25* years ago about how Canadians are very different than Americans and absolutely don't want to be annexed by the US: youtu.be/_OzbmriDgQc?...

SCOOP: Now that Linda McMahon is confirmed/sworn in as secretary, Trump will be imminently issuing an executive order eliminating the Department of Education. I’ve obtained a draft of an email that McMahon will be sending to staff re: the EO and the department’s “final mission”. Here is a portion:

There has been a lot of chatter today about Zelenskyy's meeting with Trump, some regarding this moment when White House correspondent Brian Glenn asked if the Ukrainian president plans to wear a suit. I want to address idea in this thread. 🧵

Our public K-12 school district in Eugene OR is first to join the lawsuit against Trump admin deadline to end diversity programming. Proud of leadership here and hope others join to stand up for our students www.registerguard.com/story/news/e...

Worst. Episode. EVER.

CANADA!!!!🇨🇦🏒🥅🥰

Diversity is our greatest asset, even if the government disagrees… They not like us! POC in STEM are here to stay. They tried to rig the game but you can’t fake influence! Mustard on the [Be][At] bro. Happy Black History Month!

Gloves are off immediately in Canada USA hockey 👀🇨🇦🇺🇸🏒

I made this Pride flag using only NASA images and our team thought it would be cool to share on social (I work on the NASA heliophysics communications team), but it's getting all sorts of hate on the bird app and Fbook. Thought y'all might be more appreciative of it here. ☺️🏳️‍🌈💖

There is definitely a change in attitude. Even in little things. Grocery stores are now clearly identifying Canadian products on the shelves and in flyers. PC now has a swap option in their app so you can easily find the Canadian version for items on your list.

Honestly, this guy. He’s so upbeat, so genuine, so optimistic. A bridge-builder. And this video shot in the snow is visually stunning.

Top tip. Don’t have insomnia in the middle of a coup. An executive order has now given DOGE oversight of all government departments. It’s a complete takeover of the federal government by Musk. A Musk ‘team lead’ will now make all hiring decisions according to a ‘data-driven’ model

i am going to put a finer point on this: executive orders are not laws. and they certainly are not royal decrees. they are interpretations of existing law for the purposes of enforcement. the fact that so many people are treating them as laws is actually driving me a bit insane.

Hearing that DOGE went into the Dept of Education today and shut down almost the entirety of the department's in-house research arm, Institute of Educational Sciences, cancelling contracts totally about $900m.

In which there are many reasons to obey and one not to. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/o...

Executive wants to frame the NIH indirects cut as $4B in savings. But given that NIH returns $2.5 on every $1 investment, this would actually cost US economy a net $6 BILLION (per year!). Not to mention the human costs of wrecking education and research sectors and the communities they serve.

NEW — DOGE now has full access to HHS Payment Management System, I’ve learned. The system distributes almost $1 trillion per year in grants (largest in the govt) and supports all of NIH, CDC + many other public health initiatives. Musk guy Luke Farritor is actively delaying payments to recipients.

Are you an HHMI-funded researcher affected by the cancellation today of IC3 (Inclusive Excellence 3)? Find me at [email protected] or on Signal: meredithwadman.13

Extremely disappointed to see HHMI decide to kill their Inclusive Excellence program, including terminating the current IE3 awards to over a hundred institutions effective this year in the middle of a 6-year grant. I was hoping HHMI (and other private funders) would continue to lead the way.

Just got word that our Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Inclusive Excellence 3 (IE3) Grant was being canceled. All 100+ institutions. So even private funding is susceptible to this administration’s unraveling of DEI initiatives

Thought this was going to be a about tuxedoes but SO much better ❤️🇨🇦

If you're a journalist downloading CDC data today, please consider filling out this form so we have a centralized guide to who has what. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Everyone concerned about data loss right now should learn about the End of Term Web Archive, which I believe has been working on preserving federal websites for the past 8 months. The dataset you fear has been lost may well be here Just an incredible project. Thank you to everyone involved

On the bright side, this excellent from the CA Dept of Education: "our offer is this: *nothing.*"

“care alone is not enough. Without competence, even the best intentions can falter when faced with complexity…Inclusion requires more than good intentions, it demands skill, strategy, and consistent effort.”

In Canada, a meteorite impacted just outside someone's house…and it was caught on video! This may be the first time a physical impact was recorded with audio. However, it's not *exactly* what you might expect. badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/a-wee-mete... 🔭🧪

Apparently it’s not worth paying ESPN to air an ad during a Canucks game. Not complaining.

Recrudescent. Adjective. That breaks out again; renewing morbid or dangerous activity after abatement, suppression, or cessation. As, a recrudescent boil…(Webster’s, 1934)

How am I only learning LEGO works like this today from my 6 year old?!?!!??!!

Current mood

"kamala harris will protect your right to disagree with her" is something i haven't really heard from another surrogate and i find it genuinely compelling?

Was scheduled for vaccines this afternoon but in some retaliatory measure my insurance company (Providence) has decided not to cover vaccinations from CVS. 😡

Nothing will prepare you for the day your baby starts raiding your closet.

If you see this, quote post with a beach photo from your gallery. (Yesterday evening’s sunset on the north Oregon coast)

If you’re preparing slides for teaching, the Atkinson Hyperlegible font might come in handy: – Designed for readers with partial visual impairment – Compatible with LaTeX, Quarto, RMarkdown, PowerPoint, and Google Slides – Download: brailleinstitute.org/freefont

When it’s your last day in Canada…

Son enjoying a mint chip oat milk ice cream bar. Says it tastes like toothpaste and cheese.

Oilers!!!

Excited to be back in Atlanta for #ASMicrobe! It has been too long!

When I gripe about academic pay, people say things like: "Well, leave then." OR "You chose that." BUT

New preprint by @caitlinkowa.bsky.social is online! Proud and excited for this work at the intersection of fungal-bacterial interactions, pathogen evolution, and antibiotic susceptibility.

We’re searching for Biology Dept Head here at Oregon! Please share careers.uoregon.edu/en-us/job/53...