Diminished immune cell adhesion in hypoimmune ICAM-1 knockout human pluripotent stem cells Nature Communications - Hypoimmune gene editing in human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) provides a promising platform for cellular therapies. Here, the authors report that CRISPR mediated deletion...

I’m excited to share our new manuscript in Nature Communications, Saha et al., “ Diminished immune cell adhesion in hypoimmune ICAM-1 knockout human pluripotent stem cells.” rdcu.be/eAnEC

Sherrod Brown Plans to Try for a Senate Comeback in Ohio

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/u...

Exclusive | White House to Vet Smithsonian Museums to Fit Trump’s Historical Vision Top White House officials will scrutinize exhibitions, internal processes, collections and artist grants ahead of America’s 250th anniversary.

Gift link:

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Pentagon plan would create military ‘reaction force’ for civil unrest Documents reviewed by The Post detail a prospective National Guard mission that, if adopted, would require hundreds of troops to be ready around-the-clock.

Pentagon plan would create military ‘reaction force’ for civil unrest
Documents reviewed by The Post detail a prospective National Guard mission that, if adopted, would require hundreds of troops to be ready round-the-clock.
wapo.st/46UGmic

Vaccine safety and effectiveness testing - debunking anti-vax myths This article addresses common vaccine safety myths, emphasizing that vaccines undergo extensive testing and are safe.

From @doritreiss.bsky.social — #Vaccine safety and effectiveness testing - debunking the common anti-vax myths about vaccine research. www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalrap...

Work in Progress: Registered Work in Progress is a recurring feature on CAMPAIGN TRAILS, in which I share some of the more interesting materials I’ve uncovered in my book-in-progress on the work of John Doar and the Civil Rights ...

Sixty years ago today, the first federal examiners went to work in the first nine counties covered by the Voting Rights Act.

Here's my account of the first day in Selma from the first draft of The Division manuscript.

A photo of Anas Al-Sharif and his Al Jazeera colleague Mohammad Qrere in their press bullet proof vests looking at their phones. Both are reported killed. Photo credit to Motassem A Dalloul.

BREAKING: One of the most important and prominent reporters on the ground in Gaza has been Anas Al Sharif.

He - and several other Al Jazeera journalists - have just been assassinated by Israelis forces whilst in their press tent in central Gaza.

Speechless.

Lots of people talking about Big Dick Toilet Salesman (jeebus that nickname turned out to be prescient) performance on TV this morning.

Keep in mind that Whitaker replaced the woman, Julianne Smith, whom Russian spies framed only to have John Durham chase their conspiracy theory for four years.

Anne Applebaum: What USAID's Absence Looks Like on the Ground The United States, through USAID, not only supplied a big chunk of the world's humanitarian aid, it also provided almost all of the logistical support for other aid organizations to deliver relief as ...

With @timmiller.bsky.social - on Sudan, America and Polish wildflowers

www.thebulwark.com/p/anne-apple...

Why Georgia's National Memory is on Trial - Coda Story On the anniversary of Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia, an increasingly autocratic Georgian government toes the Kremlin line, blaming its predecessors for "instigating" war

"memory is fragile. Every time we recall the past, we reshape it, filter it through what we’ve heard, what we’ve lost, and what we choose to believe. Repeated messages from those in power can overwrite what we thought we knew"

from @codastory.bsky.social

www.codastory.com/rewriting-hi...

WTAH? More here (from earlier): nashvillebanner.com/2025/07/29/e...

The Legacy of the Washing Machine Pilot Rest in peace, Mr. Lovell.

"Imagine your life’s goal of walking on the Moon has suddenly, without warning, slipped away, and you have no time to mourn that loss. You have to get your crew back safely, and things are looking pretty damn grim."

charlotteclymer.substack.com/p/the-legacy...

Gunman in Deadly C.D.C. Shooting Fixated on Covid Vaccine, Officials Say

I spent this morning talking to the CDC shooting suspect's neighbors. They said he was polite, helpful and OBSESSED with vaccine conspiracy theories.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/09/u...

Fraudulent Scientific Papers Are Rapidly Increasing, Study Finds A statistical analysis found that the number of fake journal articles being churned out by “paper mills” is doubling every year and a half.

“If these trends are not stopped, science is going to be destroyed." Here's my story on the accelerating growth of systemic research fraud--aka paper mills. Gift link: nyti.ms/45rDirw

Gish-gallup, galore.

RFK Jr.’s Plan to Eliminate Vaccines Think VICP

"Sometime in the next couple of months, RFK Jr. will hold up a bogus “study” that he will claim proves that aluminum adjuvants in vaccines cause autism or some other chronic disorder." pauloffit.substack.com/p/rfk-jrs-pl...

Zelenskyy looks to European allies to stop handover of territory to Russia Donald Trump said a peace deal with Russia could involve ‘some swapping’ of Ukrainian land

Latest: Kyiv fears Trump and Putin could cut a deal behind closed doors in Alaska with no Ukrainian voice at the table. Zelensky is rallying EU leaders to unify positions and firm up opposition to any backroom deal that undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty.
www.ft.com/content/69ab...

Mandamus, stopping the district court from completing its normal process.

Not only does no one get sanctioned for flagrant contempt of court, but the trial court can’t even establish the facts, which are of immense public importance.

Using an extraordinary remedy to stop the truth from emerging.

HPV vaccine after cervical pre-cancer surgery reduces recurrence A recent study indicates that administering the HPV vaccine after cervical surgery greatly reduces the risk of recurrent cervical lesions.

Good news: HPV vaccine after cervical pre-cancer surgery reduces recurrence www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalrap...

Correcting Vaccine Court misinformation from Wayne Rohde This article critiques a recent post by Wayne Rohde on the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), correcting misconceptions.

Correcting Vaccine Court misinformation from Wayne Rohde www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalrap...

Lot’s Wife (as translated by Noah Berlatsky) The righteous man followed God’s messenger, huge and terrible, like a black mountain. His great back to Lot’s wife was sorrow and fear. She longed to stop and see just once again the white spires of her home, the place in the square where she sang to her children. The windows of the house where in joy and pain she gave birth to her children. And so she turned back, for one last sight. Her eyes like those windows were empty. Her body was a pillar of salt, bleached white. Her feet were rooted in place, like a memory. We aren’t supposed to mourn her. She’s a fool, and so many others burned. They say do not look towards her who defied God, and turned.

Noah Berlatsky's 1st collection of poetry, *Not Akhmatova* is a collection of quasi translations, appropriations, and arguments with the poetry of Anna Akhmatova in the context of Jewish diaspora.

Order here: www.amazon.com/Not-A...

Print is not dead

And what did he leave behind?

(w/apologies for late comment)

A historian details how a secretive, extremist group radicalized the American right Matthew Dallek says the John Birch Society, which was active from the late '50s through the early '70s, propelled today's extremist takeover of the American right. His new book is Birchers.

Was it "Birchers: How The John Birch Society Radicalized The American Right," (2022), or has he updated it?

His NPR interview with Terri Gross on All Things Considered resonated w/ me (despite my 20/20 hindsight): www.npr.org/2023/05/17/1...

United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit - Wikipedia

Non-existent. The 3rd Circuit does not include DC: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...

NEW: Jeff Clark is the latest participant in Trump's effort to subvert the 2020 election to face severe professional consequences, following Rudy Giuliani, Ken Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and John Eastman.

Trump ally Mike Davis says this means "war."

www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

I have a real love/hate lolsob relationship with NYT Pitchbot's SCOTUS content. 🫠

It would be hard to make this week's Midtown Manhattan shooting any more devastating. But Fortune found a way. Among the four murder victims in Monday's rampage was Wesley LePatner, a top real estate executive at Blackstone Inc. and a forty-three-year-old mother of two. On Tuesday, Fortune ran a bizarre, disrespectful, and mercifully short obituary about LePatner. Under the unfortunate subhead "FORTUNE INTELLIGENCE," the obituary: • misstated LePatner's age; • put the gunman's name into the lede; • included a graf about his football injury; • linked to a New York congressman's tweet, without offering evidence the two knew each other; • published this photo caption: "An image of Wesley LePatner"; • and added this line, which is reprinted here verbatim: He honored her sense of civics, as a ". The most informative part of the obit is the editor's note at the end: "For this story, Fortune used generative Al to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing."

When obituaries go awry.

Via this week’s Laurels & Darts/ @columjournreview.bsky.social

www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...

As we process Monday’s tragic shooting in Midtown Manhattan, it's crucial to recognize that individuals with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) are at heightened risk for suicide, often by firearm. A 2025 study found that 39% of those diagnosed with CTE died by suicide.

An inevitable stand-off created by this Court’s distorted interpretation of the 14th Amendment to require colorblindness. How can a legislature could draw districts that don’t violate the Voting Rights Act w/o looking at race? It can’t be done. But the Court’s rightwing could not care less.