Seth Jacobson

I’m aboard.

They are really planning to go through with these cuts at Nebraska, despite recommendations not to. Unbelievable.

If you want to hire highly qualified, very successful earth and atmospheric sciences faculty in teaching and research, quite a few are probably looking for jobs for next year.

Why do childcare costs seem to endlessly rise faster than anything else? Same answer.

For good reasons, we mandate classroom sizes but this means no efficiency gains and always rising prices.

Is there ever going to be an interviewer who pushes back and tells him that immigrants seeking asylum is different than insane asylums?

Baumol effect - Wikipedia

**Why does it seem like healthcare costs and teacher pay seem to always increase at rates higher than anything else?** It's not a mystery. It's called the Baumol Effect (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_...) and the world would likely be a better place if everyone understood this concept from economics.

Perhaps, I'm too influenced by Karl Popper, but I think we must recognize that *all scientific claims are wrong*. Science is a process towards truth. The scientific literature is a public record of this process and so it is filled with claims that have and will someday be shown to be wrong. 2/2

Healthcare productivity has hardly budged because ICU rooms still require a nurse on-standby, an OR still needs a surgeon, etc.

In education, labor productivity is effectively the teacher-to-student contact time (i.e., ratio). Hence, the obsession of some with MOOCs, AI teachers, etc.

Baumol effect - Wikipedia

**Why does it seem like healthcare costs and teacher pay seem to always increase at rates higher than anything else?** It's not a mystery. It's called the Baumol Effect (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_...) and the world would likely be a better place if everyone understood this concept from economics.

ICE secretly kidnap autistic boy during bathroom break—never notify parents.

Mother reported him missing a week ago—turns out ICE had him detained the whole time.

He was helping sell fruit and asked to go to the restroom—by the time she was done helping a customer he was gone.

Houston, Texas

Federal officer blasts chemical spray into vocal but nonviolent Portland protester, video shows

The interaction illustrates how federal law enforcement officers do use aggressive tactics against protesters who yell and needle officers but don’t appear to present clear physical threats.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), top Democrat on Senate Commerce Cmte, is out with a Democratic staff report: "The Destruction of NASA's Mission: Whistleblowers Reveal OMB's Unconstitutional Plot to Gut the Agency."
www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...

I did not like the now-past NSF GRFP rules. I have ideas on how to improve, but sudden changes are not how one runs programs to see them flourish. Instead, this reeks of administrators sabotaging a program—the goal may be to induce lower application pressure to justify removing resources. 2/2

‘Completely shattered.’ Changes to NSF’s graduate student fellowship spur outcry The announcement comes months later than usual, leaving many would-be applicants stranded

This is not how you reform. This is how you do damage. We've too quickly forgot how during the 2025 cycle, NSF dropped the ground out from many applicants by deeming entire paths and topics of study as ineligible after students had already spent time applying. 1/2

www.science.org/content/arti...

Whether they're blaming vaccines and Tylenol, or selling dubious "remedies," what they're really doing is promoting the perception that families (and especially mothers) can prevent and treat Autism. And thus also the perception that people with Autism and their families don't need social support.

Yes, this does sum up the entire current US populist moment, Trump et al.

YouTube video by BBC News South Korean detained in US Hyundai factory raid speaks to BBC | BBC News

BBC interview with one of the Korea workers who was shackled and imprisoned. This was nothing but an American own goal. Attempting to blow up the largest economic development project in Georgia history. Billions in investment, thousands of jobs for Americans. youtu.be/fcwJtWU4fn4?...

Programs for Students With Hearing and Vision Loss Harmed by Trump’s Anti-Diversity Push Citing concerns about DEI, the U.S. Department of Education has halted funding for programs that support students with combined hearing and vision loss in eight states. “How low can you go?” one advoc...

Ed Dept has pulled funding for programs in eight states aimed at supporting students who have hearing & vision loss. They got caught in Trump admin’s attacks on DEI, with Ed Dept spokesperson citing concerns about “divisive concepts” and “fairness” in acknowledging decision to withhold the funding.

Their waists and hands were tied together, forcing them to bend down and lick water to drink. The unscreened bathrooms contained only a single sheet to cover their lower bodies. Sunlight barely penetrated through a fist-sized hole, and they were only allowed access to the small yard for two hours. Detained by US immigration authorities for eight days, the workers and their families expressed shock, describing human rights violations and absurdities they could not have imagined as ordinary Koreans living in 2025.

korean reporting is nightmarish on the conditions Korean workers were contained in

Opinion | We Are Watching a Scientific Superpower Destroy Itself

We Are Watching a Scientific Superpower Destroy Itself

Old enough to remember when NYT couldn’t remember the word torture now they can’t remember the word murder.

This isn’t bad luck or coincidence or predestination.

This is our choice. To live in a nation where our leaders teach hate, and military style guns are everywhere.

The Benefits of Getting an Icy Start to the Day (Published 2016)

I still often take cold showers in the morning because of this article: www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/b...

Alternatively might be sed, grep, regex, etc. expressions that

How RFK Jr. alienated MAGA, MAHA and the White House in a single week The botched announcement about mRNA vaccines reveals a health department full of dysfunction and infighting.

I spent the week tracing how HHS Secretary RFK Jr. canceled $500 million in mRNA research and reporting on a(nother) very chaotic week inside HHS.

Let me introduce you to the fringe doctors, anti-vaccine activists, and MAHA operatives behind the mRNA “debacle.”

www.msnbc.com/news/news-an...

Yes! 10x the number of congress people and have proportional representation for all parties that cross 10% threshold.

Everybody studying #exoplanets needs to be aware of this incredibly important point! 🔭

A passenger on a flight that required an emergency exit via an inflatable slide describes to NBC News' @georgexsolis the moment he watched a wheel come flying off the #plane during takeoff at the #Den... TikTok video by nbcnews

This happened to @astroyami.bsky.social, @carolineszcz.bsky.social and myself but it was a Toyota Hi-lux. We were in northern Namibia and I was driving. www.tiktok.com/t/ZT6kV85NW/

Perhaps, I'm too influenced by Karl Popper, but I think we must recognize that *all scientific claims are wrong*. Science is a process towards truth. The scientific literature is a public record of this process and so it is filled with claims that have and will someday be shown to be wrong. 2/2

Retraction The Research Article “A bacterium that can grow by using arsenic instead of phosphorus” by F. Wolfe-Simon et al. (1) has been the subject of discussion and critique since its online publication in 201...

For whatever its worth, I disagree with the decision by Science to retract a paper because it was wrong. Retraction is a tool to identify and remove works created by willful malfeasance. When scientific claims are wrong, the reason why is important, and Science's decision muddles them. 1/2

I think a key point is that any laws that weaken tenure will be weaponized not to target famous white men at Ivy League schools but rather more vulnerable folks. That's part of the reason one should take the tenure process seriously, and why one has to accept some failure modes with tenure.