Hoping this planned "Zhu Restaurant" is actually named 猪.

The rules have tightened, but it's true: students would tell me they were taking another class meeting at the same time as mine, or that they would be in Europe for months training for an athletic competition, and when I objected, would tell me it wasn't up to me. Deans let them do it.

It just keeps going. As if Harvard hadn’t already betrayed its principles over and over to placate them.

Something I’ve heard that isn’t in the Crimson article: some grants received reinstatement notices after the court decision, but then received new termination notices giving different reasons for termination than the original notices. They are not planning to pay Harvard what they legally owe.

Melissa Hortman practiced politics the right way.

Get out and vote TODAY, Boston! 🗳️ Check where you vote at wheredoivotema.com and find more voting info at michelleforboston.com/vote.

accurate depiction of yudkowsky in case anyone is confused

How can anyone write this without mentioning one of Steve Ditko's most famous creations? This is the article visible in an early scene of a movie to foreshadow the horror that awaits, right?

Not the first time in the last ten years or so I’ve felt like we’re living in a Paul Verhoeven movie, but one of the most over the top.

Looking at my ballot, options for #Boston city councillor are the incumbent who wants to undo vital safety improvements on Tremont St by my home, someone who worked on the Trump campaign, and someone I can find literally no information about online. Leave it blank? Write in Keytar Bear? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Absolutely appalling. I didn’t think I had a very rosy view of our institutions before, but they are all proving to be much more craven and willing to hurt vulnerable people than I thought possible.

I wanted to object but then I remembered a big conference in Madrid that served a different preparation of gazpacho at lunch every day and I have to admit that was pretty exciting.

Perhaps merit-based decisions will finally let us stop having to hear from Larry Summers

🔥 ⚖️ 🌐HAPPENING NOW: Historic #ClimateJustice Ruling being delivered by the 🇺🇳 🧑‍⚖️ International Court of Justice. 🚨This ruling could signal a new dawn for climate law & accountability 📝 🧵 Live thread below with context, summary & analysis 👇 #ClimateJusticeAO #AOLetsGo

"federal agencies were... exercising their right... to redirect funds away from projects whose goals no longer align with government priorities" I'd like to see in detail how hundreds of projects at Harvard, but nowhere else, all simultaneously became misaligned with government priorities. Amazing.

🧪 For those following indirect rates (not normally an issue with so much drama!): Senate bill, out today, seeks to block the admin from making abrupt changes to indirect rates at NSF, NASA, and NOAA: www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

Merrick Garland you dumb bitch

"I never wrote a picture" reminds me of my 2-year-old walking into the room holding a broken object and announcing "I didn't broke it."

NASA science friends, ROSES-25 just dropped. It's slim pickings. Here are *all* the program being solicited for the next seven months. Link: nspires.nasaprs.com/external/sol...

NASA finally posted their annual ROSES call for proposals, five months late. I was hoping to apply for the Astrophysics Theory program, which is offered every other year. This should be an on year, but it’s not there. Of course, Harvard isn’t currently eligible for federal grants anyway.

Confused by news reports saying that the government is threatening to cut federal funding to Harvard, because I didn't think there was anything they hadn't already cut.

The leprechauns can sleep easy again.

A lot of tonight should go to @lindseyboylan.bsky.social who selflessly has made a good and righteous fight on behalf of herself and the other women Cuomo not only harassed... but then wasted our taxpayer dollars to legally harass again and again. www.thecity.nyc/2025/06/02/c...

brad lander primary chuck schumer

New York, I love you, but you're ̶b̶r̶i̶n̶g̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶d̶o̶w̶n̶ giving me hope.

It’s a good thing Congress isn’t alive to see this

Remembering the run-up to the 2003 war with Iraq, which involved serious-looking people solemnly making a case to Congress, to the UN, to the public. They were lying through their teeth, but they felt it was necessary to take time and put on the show. Now, no run-up, just a tweet. It's disorienting.

MAJOR PARTICLE PHYSICS REPORT RELEASE ⚛️🧪 The National Academies particle physics decadal report is out! Read read! (I was a member of the committee that wrote this report but resigned during drafting bc of a conflict of service w/my HEPAP appointment.) nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/2883...

Got the annual "certify that you are not being funded by a malign foreign government" request, wondering where the "I'm not even being funded by a malign domestic government now" option is.

Way back in my first year of college, I heard a talk about the Brookhaven discrepancy in the muon g-2 and how discovery of supersymmetry was probably right around the corner. Now the experts say the Standard Model matches the data after all. (Signs were pointing this way for a while.) Oh well.

I haven’t seen it mentioned here yet, but we have gotten word from CERN that both Mary K Gaillard and Jonathan Rosner have died. Their paper with Ben Lee was the entry to charm physics for so many of us, but each had separately a large impact on particle physics.

Harvard just got a TRO against the SEVP decertification.

This a smart move from HKUST, which is a strong university. I know several great physicists there, and it's in a spectacularly beautiful location that attracts visitors from around the world. If the US government keeps attacking our universities, places like HKUST will benefit. 1/

An aspect of the Harvard SEVP story that I'm not seeing discussion of is that (if I understand correctly) SEVP also applies to J-1 visas, which are often used to employ postdoctoral researchers. So, this affects international researchers, not only students. Lawyers please correct me if I'm wrong!

filling time on air until the new pope is announced is known as "pontiffication"

Apart from, you know, everything, what I can't figure out is: why would the Education Department be capable of cutting off grants from the NSF, DOE, NIH, and all the other agencies?

The same day she's getting endorsed by David Ortiz, Mayor Wu throws a heater of a statement at challenger Josh Kraft

Lynch's district includes a big chunk of Boston (downtown, Back Bay, Southie, JP) that deserves better representation than this. (The rest of us are lucky enough to be represented by @pressley.house.gov.)

This morning in WBUR Today: A new study shows the number of millionaires in Massachusetts has *grown* since the 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million took effect Plus: — What to know about the new Winthrop/Quincy ferry route — Beacon Hill takes on the budget www.wbur.org/news/2025/04... @wbur.org

Looks like the SDNY’s evaluation of Duffy’s attempt to pull the congestion pricing toll accidentally got uploaded to PACER. Which, oops!

Say it louder for the folks in the back. NASA’s annual call for grant proposals is now 68 days late.

I'm so happy. please someone else read this story so we can share in our joy. I never want to stop reading this.

I’ve seen a lot of references to “11-dimensional chess” but now apparently we’re in bosonic M-theory territory, which I guess reflects the instabilities involved.

Take a simple example: I run a trade deficit with Trader Joe's buying their meals, while they buy none of mine. My trade deficit as a share of my imports is 100%. By Trump's trade logic, this deficit is evidence they're imposing 100% tariffs on the meals I try to sell them. Obviously this is false.

I can’t wait to introduce the concept of “bad faith” to the president of Harvard

The physics version of Keynes's famous quote is that experimentalists who believe they are presenting data in objective ways free of theory bias wind up actually doing fits in the service of defunct theories. (This post replaces multiple targeted snipes I've restrained myself from posting.)

SPHEREx, which (among other things) will produce powerful constraints on inflationary cosmology (non-gaussianities and running of the spectral index), has launched. It's nice to get a little bit of good news for US science, in spite of everything.

Reading this and thinking about the geography, I have a new wish for the funniest and most just way that the Trump presidency could end....