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Reposted by Derek Lowe

John Berlinsky @berlinskyjohn.bsky.social · 1h

This is the life-saving work that the Trump Regime is doing its best to destroy.

I have to add: please note that this work is the result of long years of university research, much of it federally funded. And note that the years (decades) of less-successful attempts that have led up to these papers are in the same category: NIH and NCI money are all over this field. This is the very thing that the Trump administration has been working tirelessly to destroy. I am not exaggerating. They have been hitting these funding agencies over and over with layoffs, budget cuts, and whatever obstacles they can dream up, and they are also ripping into the universities where these funds have been granted. The exact phrases that J. D. Vance, Stephen Miller, Russell Vought and their henchmen have used is "universities are the enemy" and federal workers "need to be put into trauma". More specifically, the attitudes of our HHS head (RFK, Jr.) and his own minions toward mRNA research and vaccination are easy to summarize: they hate it and they want it to stop. It seems bizarre and insane and almost impossible to believe, but that is exactly what is happening. Every time you see scientific progress being made from US universities, remember that our elected officials are trying every day to defund it, to cripple it, to kill it outright. They are hitting it again and again in the hopes that it will finally stop moving. Act accordingly.

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Elf M. Sternberg @elfsternberg.bsky.social · 4h

No startups, no science: How the Republican Administration switched off America's most important engine of economic success.

steveblank.com/2025/10/13/n...

Steve Blank No Science, No Startups: The Innovation Engine We’re Switching Off

Tons of words have been written about the Trump Administrations war on Science in Universities. But few people have asked what, exactly, is science? How does it work? Who are the scientists? What d…

steveblank.com

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Dr. SkySkull @drskyskull.bsky.social · 5h

It is all about gaining the public's support. The fascists want fear and violence from us to justify their actions. The more we mock them and have fun, the more their actions seem out of proportion and unjustifiable and the more support they lose from "undecided" folks.

Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 6h

This is not just funny, it's smart. We need more of this mockery that shows these thugs that we see their despicable fascism and give them the respect that they deserve.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 8h

ICYMI: “And now, a response from the leader of the frog resistance...” 🐸 🎵 #Colbert

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John Timmer @jtimmer.bsky.social · 7h

It strikes me as more than a little ironic that the new atheists spent years itching for a fight between science and folks like the Christian Right because they assumed science would win.

Well, we're now having that fight and we're all talking about generational damage to science.

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 7h

Silverberg’s “Dying Inside”, Blish’s “Jack of Eagles”, perhaps Andersen’s “Brain Wave”, and a lighthearted take would be Lafferty’s “Slow Tuesday Night”.

The whole idea came into disrepute thanks to L. Ron Hubbard (aided by Campbell) and was satirized in Leiber’s “Poor Superman”

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 7h

More blog catchup: worries about “mirror life” (have a look if that phrase doesn’t ring a bell):

Mirror Life Worries

www.science.org

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Gluon Spring @gluonspring.bsky.social · 1d

The idea that someone could hire 100 thousand people, to say nothing of a million, to engage in protest is the sort of thing only a child could believe. 100? Sure. 1000? Possible. 100,000? You are a mental child.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Sean Duffy: "The No Kings protest, Maria, really frustrating. This is part of antifa, paid protesters. It begs the question who's funding it."

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 7h

Definitely not unhinged! BR has great things in it, but to me the main plot points just don’t work. And the writing keeps slipping over from “wonderful” to “too much” (and even Waugh came to agree, dialing this back in a later revision that I haven’t read).

TT: Brideshead Revisited revisited | About Last Night

www.artsjournal.com

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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 10h

Reshma Ramachandran “said the sequence of events is the antithesis of how the FDA is supposed to function.

“What we’re seeing here is, ‘We believe this and we’re going to find the evidence to support that’ …That’s just inherently wrong in terms of how a scientific agency like the FDA operates.”

Inside FDA, career staffers describe how political pressure is influencing their work

Current and former FDA staff said the level of involvement of political officials in nitty-gritty regulatory matters is unprecedented.

www.statnews.com

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Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 1d

A couple of parking signs for anyone who wants to print them out for this coming Saturday.

Parking Signs

If you want to print out a poster for October 18th, here are two; fully-guaranteed countrywide but maybe especially suitable for in and around New York. No King Anytime sign ...

kieranhealy.org

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 1d

Really encouraging progress in cancer vaccine work. Bonus editorial at the end:

Progress in Cancer Vaccines (Really)

www.science.org

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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 1d

The fact that top Republicans are already fearmongering about, lying about, the No Kings rallies this Saturday, across the US, tells you how worried they are about public pressure and protest against their reactionary, autocratic, anti-American agenda.

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 1d

The one that surprised me was the town in Texas where my wife and I ended up seeing the last solar eclipse. I felt sure that in Texas a place called Llano would be pronounced as in Spanish (ya-no), but nope: "lawn-o".

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 1d

One possibility is Brooks Law Firm, 857 767 7705. I have not had to use them myself, but they have been involved in Boston area immigration cases recently.

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Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD DSc(hon) @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social · May 30

No words

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Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 1d

You all are so relentlessly insufferable. (not Kevin)

STOP GATEKEEPING PROTEST

THATS NOT HOW PROTEST WORKS

THE MORE PROTEST THE BETTER

THE MORE KINDS OF PROTEST THE BETTER

the same people screaming “do something!” also screaming “not like that!”

Y’all are shooting yourselves in the foot.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Someone in my mentions is upset because these people haven’t suffered the worst at ICE’s hands and therefore they shouldn’t be praised for being out on the streets?

Yeah, no. To push back on these people we need everyone — especially those with relative privilege — to get up and get involved.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 2d

Portland, you magnificent weirdos

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Karen Fisher, PhD @fisherke.bsky.social · 2d

-80 freezer at -20

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 2d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 2d

"The chancellor approved it"

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 2d

Shared courtesy of my Penn History colleague, Ben Nathans

Image: A variation on Benjamin Franklin’s “Join, or Die” engraving, originally published in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. Each segment of the snake has the name of a university sent Trump’s “compact”: Texas, AZ, Vanderbilt, USC, Dartmouth, UVA, Brown, Penn, MIT.

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 2d

“Ver-sails” Kentucky checking in

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 2d

Other Arkansas locales came out as “Blyvul”, “Lilrock”, and “Fay’vul”

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 2d

I have a few recordings of me from that era, and for example I refer to nearby Jonesboro as “Jone-burr”, more or less.

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 2d

No surprise! People from Boston can immediately tell I’m not from here, but my accent is nowhere near what it was while I was growing up in Poinsett County, Arkansas fifty years ago.

NPR @npr.org · 2d

In a rare study, two audiologists found that Taylor Swift's accent has, indeed, changed over the years, reflecting where she's lived, where she wants to go and who she's inspired by.

How Taylor Swift's accent and dialect have changed throughout her eras

In a rare study, two audiologists found that Taylor Swift's accent has, indeed, changed over the years, reflecting where she's lived, where she wants to go and who she's inspired by.

n.pr

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 2d

So to summarize:

- There is a pattern where Vought makes the RIFs too wide, apparently to flood the zone with sh*t and see who will draw protests.
- They restore some people after outrage and work by us.
- But we are still left with many who remain fired at the end.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 2d

Seeing a lot of celebration of this as a win.

But at NIH we have seen this exact play before.

It looks like it is the Vought strategy -and to stop the lawless firings we have to see the bigger picture.
A 🧵:

Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error

www.nytimes.com

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Carolski @carolski.bsky.social · 2d

Oh, my.
#chemistry

www.justice.gov/usao-nm/pr/t...

Texas Man Sentenced to 24 Months in Prison for Illegally Dumping Laboratory Grade Cyanide and Other Chemicals in Bernalillo County

Daniel Winard was sentenced to 24 months in prison for knowing endangerment in the storage and disposal of hazardous waste without a permit.

www.justice.gov

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