A ‘shadow CDC’ is scrambling to fill gaps in public health data Dozens of routinely updated CDC databases have gone quiet. Here’s what states and medical societies are doing to preserve U.S. public health www.scientificamerican.com/article/stat...

My latest: Applauding community defense is not enough. We are organizing resistance to a concentration camp regime. The front lines are everywhere. (Plus resources and my must-reads list!)

Each Friday night, I write about what happened in US science & higher ed. 🧪 Year 2, Week 6: Feb 6 - civil servants face Schedule F - NSF disappoints on pre & postdoc research fellowships - Oklahoma ends tenure - Dept of Ed Civil Rights Office fails & much more - buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

Switching fully over to @bookshop.org was both very easy and very pleasing. Cannot recommend highly enough.

GM: Charisma check. Mamdani: [rolls natural 20] GM: that’s a d6 how did you Mamdani: [direct to camera] Did you know you can check out board games at your local public library? 😊

For example: if 84% of people already agree that scientific research aimed at advancing knowledge is usually a worthwhile investment over time... Why are you so sure that the real problem is that people "just don't know enough about why research matters" www.pewresearch.org/science/2026...

Trying to explain what I'm writing about tonight: Husband: "Ah, bureaucromancy" Me: "OMG, can I use that? Source?" Him: "Pretty sure it's the Onion" Which is how I discovered the @theonion.com's "Department Of Corruption, Bribery, & Incompetence" 20yrs ago this week theonion.com/president-cr...

Trump's Education Department dismissed 9 out of 10 student discrimination complaints last year. Why? 19thnews.org/2026/02/stud...

Savvy leaders “playing a long game” (i.e. using public silence to increase their private leverage) know that loud & angry voices are precious. Savvy leaders using public outage as their main tactic know that private/hidden pressure are precious. Neither try silence the other.

I needed this today. "To succeed often requires–and always demands–of you to embrace the utterly insane notion that you cannot fail... You will need to prepare and make ready everyone around you. To fail as a leader is when you do not prepare people for when that inevitable failure happens."

I am a AAAS Elected Fellow and believe strongly in the mission. But there is a difference between playing the long game and having played the game for a long time.

My latest: A look inside the secretive immigration prisons at Guantanamo—and the ethical questions that doctors and nurses face to treat those inside.

If we are going to talk about trust in science/scientific institutions (and we should), I am BEGGING researchers to engage their critical thinking & dig into the data instead of making assumptions based on headlines & parroting talking points. www.kff.org/health-infor...

Will Jones, president UMN Twin Cities AAUP, said many people had hoped the event would provide a space to express the outrage they felt about Pretti’s death. “The university chose to ignore those pleas and to impose restrictions on the way community members could express their grief."

Tenure Eliminated at Oklahoma Colleges Regional and community colleges professors will no longer receive tenure; research university faculty are spared, with some exceptions. https://bit.ly/4tlEtUq #EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd

In brief, this maneuver: - effectively converts employee status to "at-will" (meaning they can be fired for any--or no--reason), - redirects whistleblower complaints to internal agency counsel, & takes away these civil servants' rights to appeal adverse personnel actions.

Reposting again because according to Reddit threads, another round of RWR emails went out today.

It illustrates the complex balancing act for colleges and universities in responding to ICE actions.

INBOX: Washington Post Ukraine Correspondent Lizzie Johnson announces that she has been laid off in the middle of a below-freezing war zone without power, heat, or running water.

Some great news. My hybrid memoir IN OPEN COUNTRY will now be published by Little, Brown. It’s about freedom of movement and stillness in the US, and the ways capitalism & settler colonialism have shaped (and continue to shape) the answer to who has either across time. I also do a lot of walking.

hallo, I am hiring again! - SF Digital Services is looking for a new Engineering Director careers.sf.gov/role/?id=374... This reports directly to me, & I’m looking for a practical & flexible technical expert with excellent communication & coaching skills, who is excited to do both. More below...

These are the curves for new and competitive renewal grants. The number of new awards is increasing slightly, but only slightly. 17 out of 25 institutes and centers with funding authority have now made awards. 3/4

Oh friends, it’s like this right now. This week alone, I have had SIX of the most brilliant people I know separately botch meetings/emails/other work stuff. For almost all of them, it’s the first major mistake I’ve ever seen them make? I hope we can give ourselves grace in things large & small.

I hate that we need it, but I’m really proud of our @unbreaking.org team quietly working away on food safety. (Be warned: it’s unsettling 🤢) unbreaking.org/issues/food-...

NSF GRFP applicants (and mentors): Was your application Returned Without Review and deemed ineligible despite fitting in the allowed topics? 1) Write NSF 2) Write your Congressperson 3) CC us at [email protected] so we can compile + follow up Details and template at grant-witness.us/grfp-letter

If you write primarily about nature and environmental issues, it can be hard to see the value of your work during times like these. I wrote about this a bit in my introduction to @biographic.bsky.social's weekly newsletter.

@sydmt.blacksky.app became a journalist to be part of the solution. Journalism had other plans. She's given us an essay on what it means to choose empathy and ethics as both are under attack, and to tell the truth outside the media institutions that are failing us. unbreaking.org/blog/Unbreak...

Cool workshop in DC in June for higher ed policy academics with less than 10 years of research experience. Deadline to apply is March 1. www.peer-center.org/research/sum...

I'm on Capitol Hill watching NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya testify to the Senate HELP committee. Thankfully I haven't been escorted out of this event (yet). Here's what I'm following. You can also watch live here: www.help.senate.gov/hearings/mod...

This is another one of the reasons I’m so deeply troubled by the fabulous new plan to just pivot to private philanthropy. Billionaires will not save science

Reposting w/alt text. Iranians are experiencing collective trauma. Thousands have been killed/injured, the economy is crippled & the threat of a wider conflict is real. It’s especially difficult for those living in Iran, as many have lost (or fear losing) loved ones. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

“You need only know this: Whatever is happening with your data, it is important enough to the most egregiously lawless administration in American history that it be collected and consolidated.” Always read @tressiemcphd.bsky.social (gift link)

Yes, the Harvard news swung from “they’re dropping the request for $200M to get a deal done” to “now they’re demanding $1B in ‘damages’” within six hours. Universities CANNOT cave to this www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Trump Demands Harvard Pay $1 Billion Just hours before the latest demand, the New York Times reported he had backed off calling for a cash settlement. https://bit.ly/4qS0bO1 #EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd

I have been worried about the census and this thread explains some of why

"President Trump has backtracked on a major point in negotiations with Harvard, dropping his administration’s demand for a $200 million payment to the government in hopes of finally resolving the administration’s conflicts with the university, according to four people briefed on the matter."

And now we have measles outbreaks in ICE detention facilities in Arizona (tucson.com/news/local/b...) and Texas where they're shipping children from Minnesota, like Liam Conejo Ramos. (www.sacurrent.com/news/san-ant...)

Each Friday night, I write about what happened in US science & higher ed. 🧪 Year 2, Week 5: Jan 30 - shutdown w/UMN student leaders + Texas A&M protesters & AAUP/AFT advocacy - where we stand on research $$ - so many measles (21 day quarantine, oof) & so much more - buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

I truly believe discourse about voters (especially those who may have voted for Trump) would go better on this app if everyone was using the spectrum of allies as a framework commonslibrary.org/spectrum-of-...

My reflections on the ongoing framing contents around Minnesota, the right wing propaganda to policy pipeline, and worries that we may see the echoes of "they're eating the pets" falsehoods mobilized against Haitians in Springfield Ohio this week. open.substack.com/pub/katestar...

As more academic names keep coming up in the Epstein files, I keep thinking about this NYT interview with the Bard president from a few years ago, and wondering how many people were rationalizing in similar ways. www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/u...

Lawyers can't reach clients in ICE detention. I've heard it anecdotally, but scale of issue is horrifying. Bloomberg Law is a legal trade pub so many may miss this. Screenshot from their CA newsletter summarizes "bleak" situation for justice and rule of law. news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/l...

Each Friday night, I write about what happened in US science & higher ed. 🧪 Year 2, Week 5: Jan 30 - shutdown w/UMN student leaders + Texas A&M protesters & AAUP/AFT advocacy - where we stand on research $$ - so many measles (21 day quarantine, oof) & so much more - buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

New from me: It is not just that the US is experiencing democratic backsliding. Authoritarianism has emerged more quickly than in other benchmark countries. This graph from John Burn-Murdoch sums it up. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/autocracy-...

Don Lemon speaks outside of the courtroom after release: "I have spent my entire life covering the news. I will not stop now ... I will not be silenced."

Science friends, this week's briefing is squarely in your wheelhouse. Please read & share the 🧵. Even better, dig into the briefing unbreaking.org/blog/this-we... & follow the reporters we rely on like @aniloza.bsky.social @maxkozlov.bsky.social @dangaristo.bsky.social @amymaxmen.bsky.social

This week, the in-depth Unbreaking briefing focuses on Medical Research Funding. We also have a necessary review of the latest on Immigration as well as quick updates from our Data Security and Federal Workforce teams. Read it in full at: unbreaking.org/blog/this-we...

Update on the compromise budget bill - it just passed the Senate, now over to the House www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

The Minnesota Star Tribune, @mprnews.org @minnesotareformer.com , @spokesmanrecorder.bsky.social, @sahanjournal.bsky.social, Center for Broadcast Journalism and Minnesota Newspaper Association today released the following statement:

The @unbreaking.org team is on top of this. Our Data Security page has a quick orientation and then a comprehensive timeline of all the ways federal agencies - not just DOGE - are enabling vast collection, consolidation, analysis & weaponization of personal data - unbreaking.org/issues/data-...