Classy as always.

100 years ago today in Auburn MA, Goddard launched the first liquid fuel rocket. A 1920 NYT editorial was dismissive, asserting—based on the writer’s ignorance of physics—that no rocket could fly through space. Many years later, in 1969 as Apollo 11 approached the moon, the NYT admitted its error...

Wow, even in our crazy new world, this was not on my bingo card. Polymarket gamblers have so much $$ riding on news stories (in this case, a $14M bet over a possible Iranian missile strike) that they are trying to corrupt or threaten (low-paid and vulnerable) journalists to change their reporting.

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/h...

Interesting if true. Since Russia is making $150M per day from the increase in oil prices, it would not be surprising if they are helping Iran to prolong the war.

Following @joshuasweitz.bsky.social post and discussions with him and the Vox story, I have estimated R01 success rates for each NIH institute and center with enough awards for this to be meaningful. A long 🧵... 1/25

Beans on toast - a classic English Breakfast!

Wow, the US just spent $11B in the first week of war. To convey the seriousness, that’s about 1/20th of Jeff Bezos’s fortune.

Hiking in the White Mountains of NH last Sunday. We were hoping to catch the end of the ice-climbing season but were defeated by the water crossings—snow was melting rapidly, and getting across the final stream was challenging!

Useful explanation as always! The number of new awards fell in 2025, dramatically so in the 5-20th percentile range. It’s partly due to multi-yr awards, but that’s not enough to fully explain the drop. Did NIH take the unspent funds from terminated grants and return them to the US treasury?

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Revealing. Trump doesn’t care about Iran, doesn’t care about his responsibility as CIC or the lives of US troops that he sends into harm’s way, or anything except his own political and financial interests. His wretched press sec only needs to know that to Trump “it does not really matter.”

"We are freeing Iran from religious fanatics". A prayer for Trump in the White House.

Existence proof.

Stand Up for Science Boston National Day of Action Rally Sat Mar 7 12-3pm at the Boston Common: Parkland Bandstand. fight2win.standupforscience.net/Boston-March/ Join us in defense of science and public health! #SUFS #WednesdayWalkoutsforHealth #StandUpforScience

The ultra-rich pay crazy prices to live close to iconic wilderness areas, but most of them probably never truly experience it other than from the windows of their fancy houses. For those with an appetite for outdoor adventure, it can be done much more cheaply.

Clear-eyed commentary as usual from @phillipspobrien.bsky.social : There is no Iran strategy – this was a war of choice, driven by Trump’s ever-changing whims, with no US national interest at stake and no clear goal other than for Trump to claim a ‘success’ before the midterms.

Great commentary. Khamenei et al deserved their fate, but that doesn’t solve the bigger problem. Trump has no clear goal other than self-glorification, he has no interest in Iranian politics or the fate of its people, and therefore there is no strategy for what happens next.

SUFS Boston National Day of Action. Take back our science, health, and democracy. Saturday, March 7 from 12:00 -3:00 pm at the Parkman Bandstand, 139 Tremont St., Boston Common.

So two of the three founding directors of the institute were forced out by scandal (Tom Jessell in 2018).

Some winter fun yesterday at Kinsman Notch, NH

Let's try this again 👋 Hi Bluesky - I'm Massachusetts' Attorney General. You might know me from suing President Trump nearly 50 times, beating Uber and Lyft in court, or being the first woman of color elected to statewide office in MA. I officially left X today - help me find my MA people?

Well that's interesting -if even Grok is convinced, that should arouse our suspicions...

This is the good kind of ice, not to be confused with ICE… Climbing today at Auburn canyon, a flood control channel near Worcester MA. (I am the belayer with the orange helmet.)

I was at this great performance of Mahler 3 yesterday in Boston, by the Budapest Orchestra under Ivan Fischer. It’s a stunning piece, which I first heard in my teens, so at this point I probably have more Mahler concerts behind me than ahead, but am lucky to live in a city with such opportunities!

Perhaps it’s a minor detail given everything else, but the story also highlights the sheer decadence of elite consumption habits: $9,858 for 31 sets of underwear (boxers and t-shirts) as a gift to Woody Allen.

So thank to Trump's OBBB they are now paying about 1% tax. But then taxes are for little guys...

In response my colleague @jimswift.bsky.social had chatgpt create new scenes for Coalie. I just spit out my tea

Unclear whether this is another example of political retribution targeted to a Blue State, but pending further evidence that seems like a plausible hypothesis.

Sorry, should have put 'bad' in inverted commas....

You know things are bad when Krugman posts again in the evening

I’ve known Sam as an outstanding neuroscience researcher, and have followed his subsequent career as an insightful (and evidence-based) commentator on US politics. He deserves support from fellow scientists!

Horribly accurate!

That radical rag the NYT warns: If you are somebody who has previously dismissed talk of election interference as overwrought, we understand where you are coming from. Yet we urge you not to assume that the past will repeat itself www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/o...

Trump’s enablers in Congress and SCOTUS cannot be shamed—they will enjoy their moment, and will be dead before history passes judgment on their cowardice. But perhaps they might reflect that their children and grandchildren will someday take a different view, and be embarrassed by their family name.

Yes! As the video clearly shows, when he attacks, her immediate reflexive response is to run forward to confront him - fearless!

At first I thought this guy was planning to push a shopping cart up Denali, but apparently it’s a Trader Joe’s parking lot in Hanover, MA – photo from Boston Globe

The best headline I've seen about MN murder was "Gunmen still at large."

For those not familiar with extreme weather, this is very cold and you have to be very mad to go out and protest.

Good interview! Kinzinger, who is ex-USAF and GOP: “The police should not look like the military…that is a uniform that you wear to kill the enemy, but the blue uniform is different—it’s what you wear to govern your own people...it’s disgusting” when they are confused, as Trump is now trying to do.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Interesting interview with Mass General Brigham psychiatrist Roy Perlis, who has studied US public attitudes to science and medicine. A partisan gap emerged ~15 yr ago and widened since the pandemic—but despite declining trust across all groups, there is still widespread support for research.

Of course they do. They are slow to understand that their former ally has now switched sides.

No Link Between Acetaminophen in Pregnancy and Autism, a New Study Finds www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/h...

This was funny enough to change my opinion about AI-generated fakes.

If they could do that, Kary Mullis would have been a previous strong contender - he invented PCR and later became a prominent AIDS denialist and victim of 'Nobel disease.'

Bluesky is a time sink! After reposting a reply and then realizing that it was superseded by events (re Machado trying to donate her Nobel to Trump, and whether he would also demand her $1M prize money), I tried to delete my repost, but can’t figure out how. That’s 15 mins I’ll never get back…

4. She brings it, and Trump asks for the $1 million+ award she also got.

Good piece! The alarmists from 2024 have been proved correct so far, and it will probably get worse before it gets better. Meanwhile moderates are temperamentally inclined to moderation, which is sometimes ok, but they may find it difficult to update their worldview in response to new evidence.

Safe to say most scientists, and I think most journalists, disagree with his a view. Good journalism should do its best to represent what science says, rather than treat it as a debate where every view is equally valid and readers just need to figure it out.