I-75 Scientist

And some reported in Jacksonville. I think the saddest thing was seeing this “outreach” come across my FB. Even just a year ago, they wouldn’t have added “… of personal choice.” It’s totally to placate the quack on staff.

ohhh ‘democracy dies in darkness’ was aspirational

If you want to see what abject moral cowardice in the service of ambition looks like, here you go

This is not rocket surgery Kurt! Senior citizens can use Teams!

I know I know. We've all hear, 5 minutes early or your late. That does not apply to Teams meetings...

This is indirectly a consequence of the shutdown in that some institutes have been completely focused on catching up on non-competitive renewals. Study section delays and councils delays have no effect at this point.

Administrative review is probably playing a substantial part.

Don't let anybody tell you what your academic-life balance is supposed to be You do you. And please stay healthy.

Your time for doing science waxes and wanes throughout your career. Don’t let anybody tell you that you’re doing it wrong. You get to decide what’s right for you (as long as you meet your basic commitments). 🧪

Wow.

Since someone floated this up, some data! A little birdy sent me a slide deck FOIA’d from CSR. Costs for a normal recent operating year (FY24) of one in-person meeting, two remote, per standing study section. $13.15M in reviewer payments. $7.25M in hotel and $4.38M airfare

Panel 1: Person 1: Can you pass the salt? Panel 2: (waiting) Panel 3: Person 1: I said... Person 2: I know! I'm developing a system to pass you arbitrary condiments. It'll save time in the long run!

Evergreen

(came up today because I'm sharing slides with class, and instead of uploading a Powerpoint file like a normal person I'm sending them links to quarto-published html files on github)

xkcd.com/974/

Bowie High's Landmark Border Patrol Case offers lessons amid Trump administration crackdown The Trump administration's push for mass deportations and removing protections for "sensitive locations" resonates decades after Bowie High School students sued the Border Patrol over racial profiling...

When you hear politicians use the word “reform”…

La Migra has *always* been like this, & they’ve been ordered to “reform” before.

In 1992 students & teachers from Bowie High in El Paso (TX) were tired of harassment & profiling so they sued the Border Patrol…

1/

www.tpr.org/news/2025-12...

NIGMS will have council meeting tomorrow. You can watch the open session here. nigms.nih.gov/node/145911

I think scurvy. Measles cure has been updated to soaking in some FL swamp water for 3hrs.

Why don’t you give me a paper cut and pour lemon juice in it while you’re at it

Indeed. For context I needed to wear socks and shoes for my toes to still be cold and I’m not about that lifestyle any more.

Moon shining bright above pine trees behind a steamy outdoor pool

32f’ing degrees

Sort of temps where I’d rather be in the water instead of standing on deck coaching

“We” need to spend a little more time verifying stories out of Florida…

Wormbrain.

It was a hard day of doing not much, but I still don’t want to cook dinner

YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHH!

Thanks to all of you who called your representatives, and worked behind and in front of the scenes to keep biomedical science in America from being destroyed.

Also: Do not underestimate how much labor went into keeping NIH functional in the face of massive staff cuts.

To be fair, I honestly don't think he's much acquainted with the extramural side either.

Yeah, I’ve plenty of grad students that will disagree about not having their awards terminated.
And a bunch of PIs of GRISE, URISE and IMSD grants.
Those just being the ones I manage:

Or the people who have literally profited the most from society could pay their taxes to ensure its continuation.

Or, hear me out, Write 2.

geographic concentration leads to "group think" but I guess no other dimension of homogeneity of funding leads to such group think?

lol. To entertain the possibility he's asking in good faith, the very simple answer is that Boston is one of, if not the, largest hubs in the nation for scientific research with several of the nation's top research institutions. From 2025 RePORTER data, I count 205 research orgs in MA vs 23 in IN.

Yup. And NIGMS has a whole division focused on Research Capacity building across these states and institutions. And yes the “anti-woke/DEI” purge hit many of the programs

They’re basically the Stephen Millers and Kristi Noems of biology and medicine.

I appreciate how easy it is to use. I also think SciENcv is a great equalizer: it makes everyone's CV look like garbage. Win-win for ease and equity!

A black lab mix puppy shares his thoughts about a beared dragon sitting on my lap.

No, seriously dad, that thing is hecka scary? Does it breathe fire?

Ok, how about a little nose boop to be sure not dangerous. A bernadoodle sits in the chair in the background watching with some interest.

Look, my tongue is going. How bout a little lick to be sure. The dragon, wishing is could breath fire, merely side eyes it all

Dragons are friends, not food…