Michelle Vigeant Taupier

Dr. Vinay Prasad Doesn’t Realize He’s The Establishment. It’s His Job to Produce Results for the American Public, Not Fluff Donald Trump. Because he can masterfully feign concern over evidence and data, Dr. Prasad is the Shohei Ohtani of spreading doubt and mistrust about vaccines. It's no surprise that under his "leadership", Andrew

In a softball interview with sycophant Bari Weiss, Vinay Prasad
said the "scientific establishment" blindly supports vaccines.

I have bad news for him.

He's the establishment.

With measles & pertussis spreading, he's failing us all.

My latest.

sciencebasedmedicine.org/prasadestabl...

When Beauty Became a Weapon: How Vitruvius Armed Renaissance Power Grabs “Discover how Vitruvius’ Ten Books on Architecture became a blueprint for authoritarian control in Renaissance Italy—reshaping cities, erasing commons, and turning beauty into a weapon of power.”

"We think of [the Renaissance] as a triumph of beauty and good architecture, exactly as both Vitruvius and readers such as Alberti had hoped, but McEwen bids us remember the costs."

Architect Magazine reviews "All the King's Horses: Vitruvius in an Age of Princes":

Lorraine Daston · Kaboom! Slow-Motion Extinction Historians who address such topics as extinction, which straddle the history of humans and of the Earth, face the...

‘Extinction is a protracted, uneven process, and hard to square with our mental picture of abrupt catastrophe.’

Lorraine Daston reads 𝘝𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥: 𝘈𝘯 𝘜𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘹𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯by Sadiah Qureshi.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Cristian Larroulet Philippi, Values and Measurement - PhilPapers At first sight, measurement might appear to be a natural candidate for a scientific practice that is value-free. This chapter reviews prominent arguments supporting the opposite view, i.e., that value...

I’ve just uploaded to philpapers my (preprint) chapter titled “Values and Measurement” forthcoming in the Routledge Handbook of Values in Science.
It’s an overview of arguments for values playing significant roles in measurement practices.

Comments welcome!

philpapers.org/rec/LARVAM-2

Looks really interesting, looking forward to listening. I just bought a copy of the book.

S5 E11 - Steven Shapin on the Social Life of Scientific Knowledge Podcast Episode · The HPS Podcast - Conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science · 19/10/2025 · 50m

This week we welcome Prof. Steven Shapin to the pod!🎙️

We explore his journey through interdisciplinary spaces, revisit Leviathan and the Air-Pump 40 years on, and explore how credibility, trust and expertise are shaped by the fragmentation of expertise and (recent) political & cultural challenges

Then, is every army a terrorist group? There is a draft in Israel —not a choice. You can choose not to and go to prison — not easy for a 30 year old w/ kids. You choose to join Hamas. Many Israelis have protested since the beginning and do not support Netanyahu. We have Trump; they have Netanyahu.

I won’t support Israel breaking the cease fire, but Hamas is showing its true colors with the public execution of its own people without a trial.

Bombshell! - Caleb Nelson, one of the most respected originalist scholars in the country, comes out against the unitary executive interpretation of Article II democracyproject.org/posts/must-a...

Inverse option generation: Inferences about others' values based on what comes to mind Prior research shows that when people try to think of things, such as solutions to a problem, the options that come to mind most often are those that …

🚨Recent work from Jane Acierno, Clare Kennedy, Fiery Cushman & Jonathan Phillips:

Inverse option generation: Inferences about others' values based on what comes to mind

Editor Picks: The best books for designing a better life From vision to voice.

The editors of @designobserver.com have curated a wonderful collection of books to help readers become happier, more authentic and connected versions of themselves, including "Nonlinear" by @kevinbethune.com! Check out their list: #design

Ack — my first name is misspelled on my birth certificate. 😬 I kept my last name and both my kids have my last name as their middle name.

Thank you so much — very kind of you. I will bake this tomorrow.

"תִּכְלֶה שָׁנָה וְקִלְלוֹתֶיהָ, תָּחֵל שָׁנָה וּבִרְכוֹתֶיהָ"🍏🍯🍏🍯

Shana Tova ve Metucha! You can’t show us that beautiful apple cake and not share the recipe. 🤓

there is a point here i want to amplify. the free speech defenders of the mainstream seem to have no awareness that actual free speech is often more fractious and destabilizing than civil and respectful. a society where speech is genuinely free isn’t the deferential space they want it to be.

Nita Farahany (@nitafarahany) I’ve decided to “open the doors” to my AI law and policy class this fall. Why? Because we need an easy way for people to level up on an area that impacts all of our lives. Share this widely!

substack.com/@nitafarahan...

The Pleasure of Patterns in Art The interplay between repetition and variation is central to how we perceive structure, rhythm, and depth across mediums.

"Art critics regularly bring to a painting history, culture, schools of painting, and so on. But what’s often left out is how the act of viewing shapes mental structures in the brain."

Worth reading this article twice.

"A fascinating account of the way culture and institutions interact with new technologies." -Diane Coyle, author of The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters

A remarkable & fascinating journey across the globe, spanning the past 1,000 years, to explain why some societies flourish & others fail in the wake of rapid technological change.

How Progress Ends by @carlbfrey.bsky.social arrives 16 September! Preorder yours: press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/...

Dear President Milliken, Regents, and Governor Newsom, As faculty members of University of California law schools, we endorse Governor Newsom's commitment to resist the Trump Administration's unlawful actions taken against the University of California, Los Angeles. The Governor is on firm legal ground. The Trump Administration's termination and suspension of federal funds has violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in numerous ways. Governor Newsom and the University of California Regents will protect the vital interests not only of Californians but of all Americans if they defend the University of California's rights. The U.S. Department of Justice notified UCLA on July 29, 2025, that it had found that UCLA had "violated its obligations under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964." Chancellor Frenk subsequently announced that "the federal government claims antisemitism and bias as the reasons" for federal grant terminations. UCLA faces losses of at least $584 million, funding that has supported vital research on matters ranging from treatments for pancreatic cancer to advances in online security. The Trump Administration has made no pretense of following the law. Title VI permits a federal agency to terminate funding only if it has found that the particular program receiving that funding has violated the law's non-discrimination provisions. Funding cannot disappear just because the agency's policy or political preferences differ from the institution's. Moreover, the agency can act only after following specific procedural steps. Importantly, Title VI requires a formal administrative hearing—a proceeding much like a trial-before the agency can terminate funding. At the hearing, the agency would have the burden of proving the university's alleged violations of Title VI before an impartial decision-maker. If the agency prevails at the hearing, the university or other interested persons could appea…

factually supported and consistent with civil rights laws. Without the steps Title VI requires, there is no protection against an administration alleging discrimination as a pretext to force compliance with its policy or partisan preferences. Title VI's procedures guarantee the constitutional due process requirement that no person can be deprived of liberty or property without fair notice and opportunity to be heard. They protect the university and its members' academic freedom, an endowment essential to scientific research, intellectual discovery, and open debate. We are deeply committed to the core principle of non-discrimination codified in Title VI and in the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. The principle that no person may suffer discrimination because of race, color, or national origin protects equality and ensures fairness in political as well as social life. Allegations of discrimination deserve serious and careful consideration and, where established, effective redress. But this enforcement effort must follow the law. We urge Governor Newsom and the UC Regents to continue to stand up for the fundamental principles of the rule of law, due process, and equal protection. A defense of the University of California's rights in court will model respect for these bedrock principles of equality and fairness, and it will ensure that the government honors them. The Trump Administration's failure to abide by the law subverts these principles by denying the University of California a fair opportunity to contest the government's charges of unlawful discrimination before an impartial decisionmaker. It is precisely because we cherish the principles of the Civil Rights Act and the Constitution that we encourage Governor Newsom, the UC Regents, and the University of California to fight back. Through its grantmaking powers, the federal government wields vast influence over social and economic life. If not held to account by the procedural protections enacted by Congres…

🚨 150 University of California law professors (and counting) have now signed this open letter to the UC Regents and other officials, explaining the flagrant illegality of the Trump Administration’s UCLA funding cut offs, and urging the UC to fight back. sites.google.com/view/uclawfa...

Researchers uncover surprising limit on human imagination — Harvard Gazette Visual tracking can follow a handful of moving objects, but the imagination can only track one.

sorry about that, they changed it today for Reasons to this:

news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

Pasts Imperfect 8.14.25 This week, Nero scholar and higher ed expert Lauren Donovan Ginsberg busts the myth of the useless humanist. Then, new ancient world scholarship, new journal issues for a global antiquity, upcoming wo...

Good rebuttal to that awful argument here. pasts-imperfect.ghost.io/pasts-imperf...

The final version of my "Corruption and the Supreme Court" has been published in the Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, and is available for download here: ssrn.com/abstract=497...

Front cover of 'science under siege"

back cover of 'science under siege"

Copies now in hand!
#ScienceUnderSiege by @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social & yours truly.

Pre-order now! 🙂

@hachettelibrary.bsky.social: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/micha...

@barnesandnoble.com: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/science-un...
@powells.bsky.social:

'Ew, It's Beautiful' (Joshua Barkman) is a good book

What Does a Misinformation Researcher Actually Do? How do social forces shape belief, and can we strengthen our media literacy in response?

In my latest Psychology Today post, I explain how social identity, personal networks, and media literacy shape how we process information.
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/misg... #MisinfoResearch

Carl Sagan explains how the ancient Greeks knew the Earth was round and calculated its circumference over 2,000 years ago.

Contextualizing ancient texts with generative neural networks - Nature Aeneas, a generative neural network trained on ancient texts, helps historians contextualize inscriptions and perform epigraphic tasks, offering an improved starting point for historical research.

Nature research paper: Contextualizing ancient texts with generative neural networks

go.nature.com/4kRiwab

Ooh this is a nice oppoertunity to plug our recent TICS article - see box 3 for differences in how human children and LLMs learn. www.cell.com/trends/cogni...