Author | Lightnews

Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · 7d

Uh oh, the march has ground to a halt. There's an adorable King Charles Spaniel and no one has the heart to do what must be done 😢

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · 13d

Unfortunately, last night I was eliminated as a contestant on Great Baby Bake Off. Sometime after determining the challenge was "muffins", one of the toddler judges changed his mind and threw my entry on the ground in a fit of pique.

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Reposted by Bill Nihilist

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 26d

“It’s hard to know if I should close down my existing projects and/or redouble my efforts writing new grant applications,” Joshua Jacobs, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University, told @thetransmitter.bsky.social.

By Natalia Mesa

www.thetransmitter.org/funding/nih-...

NIH awarded 37 percent fewer neuroscience-related grants in 2025 than in past years

But the agency has spent nearly its entire budget for this fiscal year, which ends tomorrow.

www.thetransmitter.org

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · 26d

The morning walk to daycare drop-off, downtown Wilmington

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Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · Sep 24

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

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Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · Sep 19

Only single cell sequencing of the all these post docs will reveal why

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · Sep 19

Babe, we GOTTA go to this street festival, they're gonna have DJ Foodtrucks!

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · Sep 18

1) "Antifa" is now a terrorist group

2) There is no definition of Antifa beyond being anti-fascist

3) Under 18 U.S. Code § 4, it is "misprision of a felony" to fail to notify authorities re: terrorism

4) You're now a criminal for not turning in your grandpa for his activities 1941-45 🫡

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · Sep 13

Genuinely no, I don't. I follow scientists and mainstream political / economy folks

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · Sep 13

This article would be More convincing if it included any real examples of bad behavior on blue sky instead of one weird tweet from one weird guy with no likes. In the persuasion business it's called "evidence"

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · Sep 11

I was only 7 years old the last time this was studied! It's great to see the classics get some love, but it's considered poor form not to give a shout out to the original artist when you cover their song

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Central administration of oxytocin modulates the infant rats response to social isolation

Several lines of evidence suggest that oxytocin modulates the formation and maintenance of social bonds. In the current experiments we investigated th…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · Sep 10

When you devote your life to the message that empathy is evil and gun deaths are an acceptable price to pay for gun rights, you shape the world with your words. Maybe Charlie Kirk didn’t expect to be a victim of his own worldbuilding, but his death is consistent with the world he helped create.

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · Sep 10

Who doesn't love CCR!

Reposted by Bill Nihilist

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Sep 9

A substantial part (but not all) of this increased investment is multi-year funded grants.

My current estimate is that multi-year funding has been used in lieu of ~2400 annually funded grants that could have been made.

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · Sep 3

There's only one piece of advice to young researchers that really matters:

Pug licks or perish

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Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · Sep 1

🧪 And House appropriators say: no cuts to NIH budget!

House subcommittee version just came out (link below). Holds NIH flat at $48 billion.

To be clear: this is far from over. But a good sign that science still matters across both sides of aisle.

YOUR VOICE MATTERS!!

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Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · Aug 26

Making them wear high-visibility vests over camo is such a good joke you couldn’t write it

Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · Aug 26

National Guard is now tasked with picking up garbage in DC

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · Aug 19

Small towns have the advantage that it's not only possible but ultimately inevitable that a sense of local celebrity will coalesce around a small dog who rides on the back of a bike.

Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · Aug 14

For reference: the tea tax that led to the Boston Tea Party was only 12.5%

Reposted by Bill Nihilist

ᐯIᑕTOᖇ ᑎIᘔET, ᗰᗪ @nizet.bsky.social · Aug 14

one small consolation of being a 60+ year old investigator is the ability to submit to 𝘔𝘈𝘛𝘜𝘙𝘌 family journals — sure they’re low impact (for our knees) but they have an early bird special if you submit between 4:00 and 5:30 on weekdays

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · Aug 13

Coffee is at an all-time high.

'Tariffs are very bad and dumb' was the first econ lesson taught to me by my father who would go on to be economic adviser to one Donald J. Trump.

If only the President was as smart as a 9 year old me.

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Neuroendocrinology and Behavior lab at UCLA @alwardlab-ucla.bsky.social · Aug 11

*Please read and share!* My NIH funds at UCLA were suspended last week.
It's hard to find the words to describe the impact of these grant suspensions. I have felt speechless and heartbroken that people in my lab, my friends, colleagues, researchers, trainees, and undergrads 1/9

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · Aug 5

Me, tracking patterns of dew in the grass to find where my dog pooped in the park:

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · Aug 4

SLF delenda est

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Bill Nihilist @wmkenkel.bsky.social · Aug 4

Has anybody seen anything like this before? I'm finding that among NIH neuroscience grants, male PIs to be more likely to use terms related to basic and molecular research, while women are more likely to use terms related to behavioral and clinical research #GrantMeTheWisdom

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