Today we celebrate the discovery by a few witnesses of something so unexpected and important that for centuries people have debated the facts of the case. On April 5, 1722, Jacob Roggeveen and his crew became the first Europeans to see the moai of Rapa Nui.

Coincidence?

"The brief summary released by OMB did not disclose many details about the NASA budget, but the 2027 proposal includes many of the same proposed cuts as in 2026. Science, for example, would be cut by $3.4 billion, or 47%." That's the same cost as a few days of bombing Iran...

Shroud of India?

How about a good-news story?

Please protest RFK Jr. and MAHA today!

If you're in the DC area, you don't want to miss this presentation by Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick on April 9. Advance registration is required!

Streaming now!

CFI is building a museum!

"Cryptozoology in the 21st century is primarily the realm of the Pop Cryptid. Cryptids, in that sense, are more popular than ever." @sharonahill.bsky.social

Happy pi day!

Still here!

Senator Chris Van Hollen standing up for Science!

Time to Stand up for Science!

On March 7, 1785, James Hutton’s paper “Concerning the System of the Earth” was read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He argued that Earth was shaped by slow, natural processes operating over immense spans of time, challenging Ussher’s famous calculation that God created the world in 4004 BCE.

Tomorrow!

Tonight!

This is madness. I wrote about "peptides" a few years ago, before the trend really hit. People are injecting themselves with black-market liquids purported to contain experimental drugs that were abandoned for failing to show benefits or being unsafe. gizmodo.com/rfk-jr-tells...

This Saturday (March 7), Stand up for Science!

This could be interesting. See also Betteridge's law of headlines: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no.'"

"Frye... and his colleagues launched double-blind placebo-controlled trials that were funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and Defense Department. They involved children who took a twice-daily pill version of leucovorin."

“'These are just the latest examples in a record that stretches back a decade of Secretary Kennedy making claims about vaccines that are contradicted by facts and data,' Michael Osterholm, executive director of the University of Minnesota’s Vaccine Integrity Project, said in a statement."

On Feb. 28, 1998, Andrew Wakefield published a paper in The Lancet claiming that the MMR vaccine causes autism. It doesn't.

This is obvious, but I'm gonna say it anyway... The fact that this wellness grifter is being normalized and legitimized by the nomination and (inevitable) appointment is a powerful symbol of how far the U.S. has fallen. Dark Age 2.0. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Tomorrow's National Capital Area Skeptics presentation will be Dr. Caitlin Ahrens. She will be discussing what we know about building structures on the moon. Join us at 1:30 pm, in person or watch the livestream!

"Trump said Thursday that he was directing agencies to release files pertaining to 'alien and extraterrestrial life.'"

Here’s a shocking fact: they were lied to. MAHA Moms Turn Against Trump: ‘Women Feel Like They Were Lied To’ www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/u...

In first speech to her FDA staff, Høeg says she’ll scrutinize RSV shots and SSRIs in pregnancy www.statnews.com/2026/02/19/t... by @lizzylawrence.bsky.social via @statnews.com She wants to "question the norms" [read: ignore science & push MAGA agenda]. Dark Age 2.0.

On Feb. 19, 1796, Elisha Perkins received a U.S. patent for “metallic tractors.” These expensive ($25) metal rods were sold as medical devices. The metal was said to draw “noxious electrical fluid” from injuries. In 1800, physician John Haygarth showed that wooden replicas were equally effective.

Grief Vampire #SusanneWilson the #CarefreeMedium within seconds of my latest video calling her and other Arizona Mediums out for not finding Nancy Guthrie has released this video invoking the "Dr. Gary Schwartz" fallacy. youtu.be/d_Pobgac7wo

Paltrow pays big for "blood filtering"? She is the gift that keeps giving. The BUNK-O-RAMA gold standard. 🙏

Happy Friday the 13th!

Epstein couldn’t stop emailing people about eugenics www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

"Here's where and when DC Health says people may have been exposed:"

"A graduate teaching assistant for an online psychology class was 'arbitrary in the grading of this specific paper' and therefore will 'no longer have instructional duties,' the university said in a statement."

"Two new members of the IACC, Caden Larson and Elizabeth Bonker, are nonspeaking adults with autism..."

Get in, dorks. We're ready for round two. RALLY TO TAKE BACK SCIENCE! 🔬🧪✊ March 7th, 2026 in Washington, DC Learn more at www.standupforscience.net/ma... (link in our bio.)

"Social psychological research on influence and persuasion suggests factors that make arguments more compelling. Markovsky will explain how he puts those into practice in his own life..."

Hard to sink lower, but @michaelshermer.bsky.social keeps trying with his "sex is binary" dogma.

I also love Penn and Teller for doing this: youtu.be/RfdZTZQvuCo?...

Congratulations, Andrew Wakefield! You did it, you fraudulent quack!

General anxiety predicts conspiracy beliefs while political anxiety does not www.psypost.org/general-anxi... "...conspiracy narratives offer simplified explanations for complex or distressing events." "...these narratives may help individuals regulate negative emotions associated with uncertainty"

Hey @hankgreen.bsky.social you might remember me from the @standupforscience.bsky.social protests last year. I’d love to meet to chat about our (evidence based) ideas! TLDR: Flooding the ENTIRE zone and poking hole after hole after hole in people’s view of the world. It’s not about *one* approach.

Also, it gets cold in winter. Warmer doesn't mean hot or hot all the time. Astonishing people still say "where's the global warming" when we get a snow storm (Trump just posted it, too). It's the brain-deadest climate science denial statement, and that's saying a lot.

"NASA has its largest budget in nearly three decades, but has fewer employees than it had in July 1960 at the dawn of the space age. Rebuilding our national capabilities will take time, effort, and a sustained political commitment, not to mention consistent funding."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dedicated his life fighting for equity and justice. He taught us that even in the face of intimidation and discrimination, we must never stop working towards a better future – a lesson that feels especially relevant today.

Do you study disinformation or want to start working in that area? Come to the DSI June 15-18th with @cailinmeister.bsky.social, @katestarbird.bsky.social, @jevinwest.bsky.social, @rcalo.bsky.social, @naomioreskes.bsky.social, @emmaspiro.bsky.social, and many more. disinfoinstitute.org

I'll say this very satisfying to watch.