But I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. Only a hippopotamus will do.

Rearranging variables can make this clearer. In plot below, it's relatively easy to see that total effect needs no adjustment, and that direct effect from A to Y needs to block the indirect path that traverses D and C. D is a collider, and C the child of the collider, hence adjustment on B is needed

This is a hell of a year to be staring down the tenure clock, having yet to secure 'R01 or equivalent' funding. I've submitted 10 proposals this year: 6 as PI, 2 foundations. It's weird to feel both anxious about this, and also guilty for feeling anxious about this amid all the *gestures wildly*

I went to undergrad with a guy who thought eating was a waste of time, so he blended and drank all his meals. I can’t remember his name, but the tuna fish sandwich shakes will be branded into my brain until the day I die.

I'm hiring a researcher to work on several ongoing funded projects at the University of Oslo! Details below: www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Potential outcomes tabs in Outlook! DAGs in your Google query! Marginal structural models to help you plan your next vacation!

I have a weekly meeting with a USian who works in Norway and this is the first time our 10-minute politics-related therapy session at the top of the hour has been hopeful, so.

TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-... 🧵

Ah yes, let's try the "have you tried turning it off and on again" approach to fixing US healthcare.

Weekly Ruport: bad news cycle means more emotional support pillows

It’s hard to know whether talking about these things is helpful or just gives them more oxygen, but the current acetaminophen fire is already roaring so here we go. Most importantly: ACOG affirms their position that acetaminophen is safe in pregnancy bsky.app/profile/acog...

I'm hoping for advice from NIH funded researchers re the updated OA policy (grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...). Specifically: I have students funded on an F31 or T32 whose papers were submitted this spring and accepted after 7/1. Per policy, those papers must be OA from pub date... (1/3)

Props to the CDC staff who presented the science at yesterday’s #ACIP meeting. Key points relating to #CovidVaccination in #pregnancy… 1. No increased risk of any problems in pregnancy, at birth, or for infants 1/ www.cdc.gov/acip/downloa...

I don't know how many of my ISPE friends (and enemies...?) are on here, but (a) the ISPE Peer Mentoring program is currently taking applications and (b) it's GREAT, you should probably sign up. Link: www.pharmacoepi.org/get-involved...

The thing about middle age is that one of your hips always lies and the other always tells the truth.

I went to a talk last year and remember thinking: did he just say we should use AI to create study samples? Not for simulation studies, but to answer an applied question? I must have misheard, that’s clearly bonkers. Anyway, here we are.

1. The philosophy of science sometimes gets an unearned reputation as a purely academic exercise that offers little by way of concrete tools for advancing research. This is wrong. And today, as we grapple with how AI is changing the nature of scientific activity, it's desperately wrong.

a university is not for generating profit, it provides cultural enrichment via weird little gremlin people who love visigoths or haikus, and very occasionally a scientist who figures out faster than light travel

This is very bad. Although entirely predictable. Once more the humanities are being cut back to prop up STEM and, increasingly, AI investment (including at the expense of bench science). In the past, cuts to humanities were promoted on two separate logic streams that do not hold true: /1

Interested in selection of an index date for studies using external comparators? Free upcoming seminar on July 25 hosted by UNC Pharmacoepi, FDA Oncology CoE, and the Triangle CERSI (link to register: lu.ma/yilev7pp).

Provincetown Harbor at sunset

Driving to Boston for SER and was just passed by an SUV with the vanity plate “ECON AF” Feels like a personal attack

Guys, I love all of you, but the answer to RFK, Jr. is not that autistic adults hold jobs, pay taxes, and get laid, it's that everyone deserves to live even if they can't work, pay taxes, or get laid.

The UNC-CH chapter of the AAUP strongly and unequivocally condemns the targeting of international students and scholars. In light of the April 8 revocation of six UNC student visas, we call on UNC-CH to take concrete steps to support students and scholars at risk: unc-ch-aaup.org/news#2025-04...

🚨 BREAKING: I'm suing #RFKJr @ #HHS & #JayBhattacharya @ #NIH Canceling medical research grants threatens innovations benefiting ALL Americans, no matter your politics! 🇺🇸 Thanks to my lawyers @aclu.org @aclum.bsky.social @protectdemocracy.org & @cspi.bsky.social Long 🧵 on why I'm suing 👇 1/

Want to stream our DC event & hear from amazing speakers like Bill Nye, Francis Collins, Atul Gawande, and SO MANY MORE? Join our livestream at www.twitch.tv/standupforsc..., starting at 12 pm! #standupforscience2025

All I can say is, I (sort of) miss driving in Boston because it made me feel alive, while driving in the Triangle makes me feel like I might die at any moment.

🚨 I have gotten word that PRAMS will restart (possibly April) Nonetheless, this reinforces several main points: 1. Reliance on Fed efforts (/$) is risky 2. Good partnerships between academic, gov, and community is essential 3. Efforts to build robust epi data systems locally remain critical ✊🏽

Honestly: bought it for the content, keeping it on my desk because it is the cutest little bitty textbook I own. Fun-sized social epi!

The problem is that some data always lie while some always tell the truth

Every day brings a new thing to be furious and heartbroken about, but this one really got me.

$1 billion… Just refusing to fund federal health research and pocketing away the designated money for their own slush funds Sucking $1 billion out of the economy, diverting it from health research… For what?

NEW: Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion, according to ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind analysis, which found the sepsis rate for women hospitalized as they miscarried in the 2nd trimester shot up by more than 50%. https://propub.li/43487Tj

Melissa and I wrote about our research being purged... www.minnpost.com/community-vo...

Incredible news! The Trump administration's under 19 trans care ban has been BLOCKED in federal court via a bench temporary restraining order. The administration CANNOT withhold funds from hospitals providing trans youth care. ACLU statement here:

Made some slides for scientists to talk about what's been happening & what we should do next. There are probably many people better qualified than me to talk about these issues. If that's you, please, please, please consider holding some virtual advocacy training sessions for researchers this week.

If all you see is posting, it’s because all you’re doing is scrolling.

Freedoms are kind of like the stock market. If people collectively panic & assume they're absent, the market can crash. Limited versions of this happened with "woke" issues on the left in some US workplaces. It's happening now in the USG, but bigger & faster, w "anti-woke" orthodoxies on the right.

Now the whole country gets the experience of what it's like when private equity buys the place you work

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Yeah, this is… bad. This is really bad.

Hello everyone! We compiled a list of Trans Inclusive / LGBTQIA+ health resources. Normally we wouldn't ask for engagement, but sharing this around would be deeply appreciated. Remember: You're not alone. We'll endure. www.broadlyepi.com/lgbtqia-heal... #MedSky #LGBTQIA+ #TransRights #HumanRights

Hi all, I am in contact with a reporter at Science magazine who would like to talk with a trainee or mentor who successfully applied for an equity/DEI-related NIH training grant or a training supplement but have not received the Notice of Award and probably won't get the grant.

in less than eight years the NCAA went from banning North Carolina from hosting championships due to its bathroom bill to... this.

Passing on a note from a colleague: People with federal student loans should download their files IMMEDIATELY. These files are currently on the studentaid.gov website, which may get deleted if Trump follows through with his EO to shut down DOE

I urge everyone to read this concise but very complete history of what's been happening at our nation's science agencies the past few years, I mean days, by @dereklowe.bsky.social www.science.org/content/blog... TY Derek

The American College of OB/GYN’s website is now hosting the critical documents purged by the CDC This is what every professional medical organization should be doing right now #MedSky www.acog.org/clinical/cli...

General plea to anyone involved in the great archiving efforts that are underway to include clinicaltrials.gov