Scheduled as of half an hour ago, yes

Thanks to @theguardian.com for highlighting the people involved in the effort to save and demonstrate the importance of federal public data. ❤️🛟 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

VT uses Canvas...

Probably fine

🌍 This #EarthDay, AGU scientists gathered on Capitol Hill to advocate for science workforce policies that drive progress. Their voices help shape stronger communities, innovation, and our planet’s future. Get involved: spklr.io/63324EKgSG#EarthDay @aguscipolicy.bsky.social

When Einstein developed general relativity the closest thing to a practical application that could even be imagined at the time was a slightly more precise description of where to look for the planet Mercury in the sky, and yet now we’d all be literally lost without it. Anyway: fund basic research.

That's me in the back left. Our VA legislative staffers were very friendly and conversational folks!

Summer research experience is a critical pathway to train the next generation of scientists. I participated in a relative of the REU program (Keck geo consortium) which was super important training to make me competitive and prepared for grad school. Eating the seed corn.

"Publishers can support this by enabling stronger linking between articles, data, methods, and reviews, and by investing in tools and formats that facilitate synthesis across disciplines" As one running a data repository, I agree publishers can do a lot more in linking to other research objects!

This is Sadie. She was finally reunited with her human, astronaut Christina Koch, after her mom’s voyage around the moon took her the furthest any human has ever been from their dog. She can't wait to hear all about the universe. 14/10 (IG: astro_christina)

The Trump administration, via the Office of Personnel Management, has proposed an unprecedented requirement for health insurers to hand over detailed, identifiable medical records for more than 8 million federal workers, retirees, and their families. #MedSky

Our PhD student Kennedy Orwa, who studies applications of AI to health care, was hastily deported today to Kenya along with his 13-year-old son without opportunity to speak to legal counsel. King 5 reports that he held a valid visa that was rescinded without explanation.

We do now know the NSF is proceeding with dissolving the Social and Behavioral Sciences Division. Congress might reverse it, but it is now already underway. YOU CAN NO LONGER SUBMIT FUNDING PROPOSALS TO SBE. Program officers are being moved to different parts of the agency. Call your Congress member

🧵 Democracy feels like it's in a rough state at the moment across the globe, and we hear various explanations, like polarisation, extremism, disinformation, and loss of trust. But what if those explanations are mainly symptoms and we've been trying to treat them rather than the underlying causes?

"I'm not arguing that LLMs should be banned from research...I'm arguing that...the distinction between tool use and cognitive outsourcing is the single most important line in this entire conversation, and that almost nobody is drawing it clearly"

If you used LastPass -- please check your spam for this settlement email www.lastpasssettlement.com

GSA wants to add new certifications to federal grant agreements — affecting universities, nonprofits & research orgs across every agency. Potential civil & criminal penalties for noncompliance. Comment period is open until 3/30. Make your voice heard. buff.ly/KNfXj0h

My resignation letter

🧵1 “ICE agents at checkpoints can use more force than TSA checkpoint staff, with less chance of legal sanctions, even if you can afford to sue them.” TSA can’t physically prevent you from leaving, ICE can. … viewfromthewing.com/ice-is-showi...

I really, really need academic organizations to think more critically about travel (conferences, talks, and meetings) during the Trump administration. Sadly, most are not.

@abigailspanberger.com: amend VA's collective bargaining bill to include faculty & grad workers. "If you want a strong university that can protect itself against political attacks...that means collective bargaining." — @tim-gibson.bsky.social , @aaupmason.bsky.social & @aaupvirginia.bsky.social

@shelleystall.bsky.social @agu.org position on #OpenData is robust: 1. Equitable access to trust reusable 2.Change culture to recognize data contributions 3. implement metadata standards across disciplines/domains 4. take collective responsibility #RDAPlenary2026 #DefendResearch

It is very easy to read statements like this as a joke. This is not a joke. We have proven with AI, completely by accident, what knowledgeable people have been saying for decades: the environment that rich people live in gives them a very specific personality disorder.

Want to get involved? You can contact NSF about the future of NCAR by tomorrow, March 13. This @agu.org template makes it easy. agu.quorum.us/campaign/154...

Christ...My dad is a professor at ODU. People always talk about the number killed/injured, but leave out the countless people who will be scarred by this incident for the rest of their lives. We cannot keep letting this happen.

I too remember the earlier, woke wars. tons of spent microaggression munitions strewn about everywhere, friends crying out for God as they were slowly cancelled...look, if you weren't there, you'll never understand

One of my go-tos: "If no one's responsible for that task, that's exactly who does it" So much of data management (and a lot of other task-oriented stuff) is just roles and responsibilities

NSF Update (Awards through 2/27/26) Directorates to follow 1/10

Super useful research advice from our friends @ TLOS for my skeptic view of all things AI: -Consider portions of research workflow that you understand well and can scrutinize what an AI tool/agent is output -Ask AI tool/agent to output an object that could be integrated into existing workflows

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

"This isn't a replacement [for domain expertise], it is an accelerant. Results still need to be validated" Good quote on the use of agentic AI in research

When people have asked me about thoughts on AI & qualitative data, this has been at the top of my list. Sobering to see proof of concept. Lots of research needed on what (de-identified?) human subject data we can still publish under which conditions.

Librarians can be key research partners who help to scour the literature, manage data and make science open go.nature.com/4c4JTwR

What's more shocking than ICE's plan to cram as many 8,500 humans into massive, soul-crushing warehouses? Seeing the actual DHS floor plan that echoes slavery ships and history's worst gulags with no rec space but a gun range for guards My new column on the camps www.inquirer.com/opinion/ice-...

"Concomitant with the emergent partisan gap [in trust in science] is a massive perceptual gap among Democrats, who perceive a partisan divide more than double its actual size. Democrats vastly underestimate Republicans’ trust in scientists" academic.oup.com/poq/advance-...

Writing is thinking. It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.

The American Academy of Actuaries warns that dismantling NCAR would degrade the catastrophe models insurers depend on to price climate risk—driving up premiums and threatening coverage availability nationwide. "Uncertainty carries a positive cost." www.riskmarketnews.com/trumps-clima...

lol this is gonna burst so fucking hard

I feel this way about pretty much all vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. You shouldn't be allowed to dump cyanide into municipal drinking water and you shouldn't be allowed to recreationally spread viruses around shared public spaces.

The Trump administration moves to strip 50,000 agency staff of civil service protections & give himself the power to fire them without just cause. This... www.govexec.com/workforce/20...

“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)

Motherfucking wind farms…

Is there also a known relationship between increasing ice/freezing rain with winter storms and a warming climate, esp on the East Coast? Warmer air aloft leads to less snow, more ice and sleet, after all Something we've been speculating here in SW VA while stuck without public school...

Seen here on BSky but I like to quote it: "Microsoft doesn't have users, they have hostages"

I agree. Working on a new report on this right now. What happened in Atlanta today is significantly worse than it even appears on the surface. I daresay I no longer hold out much hope that this fall will be anything but utter—and scary—chaos. A free and fair election increasingly feels unthinkable.

"open science behaviors function as honest signals of a researcher’s willingness to expose their work to scrutiny"

NSF just posted their Dear Colleague Letter regarding the restructuring of NCAR. www.nsf.gov/funding/info...

I picked a hell of a week to visit Europe, and Switzerland, at that.l I’ve spent three days at an international gathering, and, Americans: everybody else is deep into planning a post-US world. We are only worth considering as an opponent. New alliances are being formed. We are being left behind.

I developed a new workshop, "Accessible Data for Everyone," for Love Data Week 2026. It's about making data accessible to people with disabilities. Anyone is welcome to sign up. The class is on Feb 10 at 2pm PST online. Register here: libcal.caltech.edu/event/16205574