Stefany

HHS changed the name of transgender health leader on her official portrait Admiral Rachel Levine was the first transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate to serve in the federal government. Her official portrait at HHS headquarters has been altered.

Admiral Rachel Levine was the first transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate to serve in the federal government. Her official portrait at HHS headquarters has been altered. n.pr/48HypvT

Opinion | In a 'sober active' community, I can outrun my addiction Addiction recovery starts when California creates spaces to replace isolation with belonging, where people can gain the confidence to change their lives.

Commentary: Addiction recovery starts when California creates spaces to replace isolation with belonging, where people can gain the confidence to change their lives.

📝 Raelynn Franklin

Chart showing that since 2016, a vast majority of U.S. adults have said healthy children should be required to get the vaccine to attend public school because of the potential risks for others when children are not vaccinated. But support for school MMR requirements dropped from 82% in 2019 to 69% in 2025. This decline is largely because of a steep slide in support among Republicans. In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, 79% of Republicans said healthy children should be required to get the MMR vaccine to attend school. This share sunk to 57% in 2023, then to 52% in 2025. In contrast, Democrats’ views on school MMR requirements have remained stable, with solid majority support.

Republicans increasingly oppose requiring healthy kids to get MMR vaccines to attend public schools
2016 19%
2019 20%
2023 42%
2025 47%
www.pewresearch.org/science/2025... 🧪

National parks change prioritizes Trump birthday over days honoring Black people Free entrance days at national parks no longer include MLK Day and Juneteenth.

It might be easy to find things like this merely petty or superficial, but that would be a mistake. Demeaning, erasing or eliminating celebrations or acknowledgments of Black America is straight from Redemption playbook, and is intended to reinforce the racial hierarchy and signal its reinstatement.

The decision by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to downgrade its recommendations to protect infants from hepatitis B is a dangerous move that will harm children.

Click here to read AAP's full statement: bit.ly/3Y9ZQJT

Infant mortality rates have plummeted over the last 50 years. Globally, they’ve fallen by over two-thirds, from around 10% in 1974 to less than 3% today. A recent study — published in The Lancet by Andrew Shattock and an international team of researchers — estimates that increased access to crucial vaccines means that infant mortality rates are 40% lower than they would be in a world without vaccines. The chart shows the actual reduction in infant mortality rates with vaccination (in blue) and the researchers’ estimates for a hypothetical scenario in which vaccines wouldn’t have been rolled out (in red). Based on these figures, vaccines are estimated to have saved 150 million children over the last 50 years. Vaccinations accounted for 40% of that decline.

Are all these vaccines we're giving seriously harmful?

No, they are saving lives.

We should probably be placing incarcerated people in prisons closest to their homes.

Why?

Assigning individuals to prisons closer to their home reduces recidivism.

Really?

Yep. Being placed close to one's home increases social contacts that appear to reduce reoffending.

AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.

Absolutely devastating account of the CSU's $17 million capitulation to ChatGPT, from a fellow faculty member watching it happen www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

If you ever wondered what GOP gerrymandering looks like in red states with blue cities, I present:

Triggering just-in-time adaptive interventions based on real-time detection of daily-life stress: Methodological development and longitudinal multicenter evaluation - Behavior Research Methods Stress-related disorders present a significant global burden, highlighting the need for effective, preventive measures. Mobile just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAI) can be applied in real time a...

doi.org/10.3758/s134...

OU puts graduate instructor on leave after student claims discrimination on Bible-based essay grade OU has placed a graduate student instructor on leave after a student publicly contested a grade and filed an illegal discrimination claim after receiving a failing grade on an essay

universities will do everything to protect their faculty/instructors when they're middle aged+ men sexually harassing and/or professionally exploiting their students and junior colleagues but not otherwise

A six-panel comic titled "Wildlife Tracking Tips". In panel 1, the text says "A white-tailed deer traveled through here," and there are white-tailed deer prints in fresh snow. In panel 2, the text says "An American Red Squirrel came by," and the leap marks of a red squirrel are in the snow. In panel 3, the text says "A Snowshoe Hare passed through," and there are the distinctive fluffy-footed marks from a snowshoe hare jumping across the snow. n panel 4, the text says "The Snowshoe Hare found a sword," and one of the front paw marks in the track has been replaced with a long thin line running alongside the track. In panel 5, the text says "The Snowshoe Hare is dual wielding," and both front paw marks have been replaced with long thin lines. In panel 6, the text says "The Snowshoe Hare tamed a mount, vastly increasing its jumping distance. You should run," and the Snowshoe Hare trail runs into a deer track and disappears.

Wildlife tracking! I'm reposting things I made this past year. If you look closely at the deer tracks you'll see I added the hint that they're double registering (hind foot is stepping into the same spot as front foot).

Disabled people were one of the first groups targeted by the Nazis.

They coined the term “useless eaters”.

They tested the gas chambers on us.

They knew most people wouldn’t fight to save our lives.

That’s why the President using the R slur is so dangerous.

We’re not expendable

Toad is buried under the covers in bed. From "Spring" In *Frog and Toad Are Friends*

Toad went back into the house. He got into bed and pulled the covers over his head again.

Infographic with AI slop published in Nature Scientific Reports

"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se

In 2014 I introduced a replication project in my grad research methods class. I taught this version of the class 4 times (no longer teach it). Some tallies: 9 published replication papers; 30 grad student authors; 19 *open* data sets; materials, syntax, etc also open (all on OSF). Check them out 👇

People need to understand how deeply eugenicist this is.

They’re insinuating that if you “take care of yourself” you will be healthy and should get affordable healthcare.

Disabled people can’t “healthy living” their way out of being disabled.

It’s not a moral failing.

We need healthcare too

Mark Kelly: "My wife, Gabby Giffords, meeting with her constituents, shot in the head. Six people killed around her, a horrific thing. She spent six months in the hospital. We know what political violence is and we know what causes it too, The statements that Donald Trump made incites others."

15 Good N95, KF94, and KN95 Face Masks to Buy Right Now Flu season is here. These are the best disposable face coverings we’ve tested—and where you can find them.

Glad to see this @wired.com guide on high quality masks! A KN95 can help protect you and your loved ones from COVID-19 and other airborne viruses, especially during this busy travel season. I only wish Wired wrote about the pandemic in the present tense 🙏😷

www.wired.com/story/best-d...

I'm still relatively new to this journal associate editor business, but it already sucks… I've had a paper on my desk for more than a month now:

Reviewers invited: 12
Of those…
Declined: 5
No response: 7

Female Parliamentarians in Iran in the mid 1970's, dressed in dresses and hairstyles similar to styles popular in the USA at the time

If you think women here can't be forced backwards...

These are women in Parliament in Iran in the mid-1970's.

Their decline feels familiar.

A reaction to women having too many rights.
A fear of what was happening to traditional family.
A desire for younger wives.
A closing of the fist.

#Pinks

a photo of a 3.5" floppy disk

there is a woman on TikTok who has been arguing for months now with randos that keep insisting that nobody called 3.5" disks "floppy disks" or "floppies" at the time. it's weird. no matter what kind of proof she provides or how many agree with her, people are coming out of the woodwork to disagree

Wrote up a little intervention post/explanation for my class about why using LLMs for trying to learn programming (as first time learners!) is bad and detrimental datavizf25.classes.andrewheiss.com/news/2025-11...

Our paper, that we worked hard to produce before the second wave, estimated that 21,000 excess deaths were caused by the 1 week delay in lockdown.

The paper was held up & eventually rejected by the Lancet. By the time it came out it could only offer a post mortem.

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

The President of the United States just called for my arrest and execution.

In these moments, fear is contagious, but so is courage:

The President is calling for Democratic members of Congress to be hanged. This is deplorable, un-American, & an open invitation to political violence.

Servicemembers take their oath to the Constitution, not to any president. I stand with my colleagues who have honorably served this nation.

The President of the United States is using his platform to lift up people calling for political violence—the hanging of Democratic Members of Congress.

This is dangerous beyond measure. There has to be a line, and my Republican colleagues must wake up and speak out.

The Pelvic Floor Is a Problem Everyone’s suddenly obsessed with the pelvic floor—physical therapists, MAHA influencers, me. Could this deeply misunderstood body part really be the seat of so much modern dysfunction?

I wrote this piece because I only learned about pelvic floors a few years ago, despite having had one all my life. And then it turned out to be where I store all my issues. And then that turned out to be true for a lot of people www.wired.com/story/the-pe...

Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad

United States Maternal Mortality 2025 Metric — Value — Comparison US MMR 2022 21 per 100,000 live births Highest among developed countries US Rank Globally 62nd position Below all other high-income nations Peak During COVID-19 (2020-2021) 1,222 deaths Nearly doubled from pre-pandemic levels 2023 Maternal Deaths 676 deaths Returned to near pre-pandemic levels Black Women MMR 2-3 times higher Significant racial disparities persist Leading Cause - Cardiovascular Conditions 33% Including cardiomyopathy, heart disease Behavioral Health Issues 20% Including drug use, mental health complications Hemorrhage 16-17% Increasing notably during 2020-2023 Data Source: CDC National Vital Statistics System (2022-2023), Commonwealth Fund Analysis (July 2025)

Women have been highlighting equality and equity disparities in healthcare for some time.

Disturbing to see 3 stories in as many days about the continued decline and outright failure of our systems to care for Black women, particularly in maternal healthcare.

🧵…