Jon Shaffer

The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine (Gift Article) A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.

Jay Bhattacharya and Matthew Memoli aren't bringing "gold standard science" to the #NIH, they are gutting research slowly but surely. When this time is over, they should be hauled before Congress, and shunned for the rest of their lives. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Hey Linda! Up for a short call some time?

I think one of the most helpful ways to think about AI systems comes from Jasmina Tacheva and Srividya Ramasubramanian's article, "AI Empire: Unraveling the interlocking systems of oppression in generative AI’s global order" and this figure. Open article is at: journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

The New U.S. Global Health Strategy — A Reset of America’s Health Cooperation | NEJM The U.S. administration recently unveiled its new approach to global health. A retreat from multilateralism, a geopolitical emphasis, and rushed transitions could threaten progress.

🆕 Our new piece in @nejm.org, written with colleagues in 2 PEPFAR countries—Zambia & South Africa—& at Duke examines the new US approach to global health

“A retreat from multilateralism, a geopolitical emphasis, and rushed transitions could threaten progress,” we say

www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

The "campus free speech types are hypocrites" line of commentary is very well-worn, so I won't belabor the point much further. But it feels worth noting that *unions* are the organizations actually fighting for freedom of speech on many college campuses...

NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announces transition committees New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani​ announced Monday the creation of 17 transition advisory committees made up of more than 400 people.

Honored to serve on Mayor-elect @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Transition Committee on Technology. For too long, too many New Yorkers have been left behind. NYC deserves governance that centers affordability, equity, and the public good-looking forward to the work ahead. www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...

the ai bullshit slop flood will continue until morale improves (we fix our hearts)

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

From doing science to saving science Science and scientists are under assault. From denial of vaccines to climate change, political leaders are increasingly sacrificing democracy as well as science on the altar of populism and authoritar...

Scientists must learn to join larger pro-democracy and people's movements, coalitions. Our science training may not have prepared us for such work, but we can no longer sit in the safety of our labs and expect the world to get better

My book review @thelancet.com

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Couldn’t agree more with my colleague @madhupai.bsky.social. And thanks for shout out to @defendpublichealth.bsky.social! @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social @brucemirken.mas.to.ap.brid.gy @jonshaffer.bsky.social @mirandayaver.bsky.social

this is just gutter racism

Exactly right:

“More disease means a much larger market for the supplements and miracle cures he and his friends are selling. More disease means there will always be a need for MAHA. More disease means more death, and the body count will be the achievement by which Kennedy’s legacy is measured.”

Are we destroying the planet? No, it is the cows who are wrong

NY Hochul and James are regulating "Companion" Bots. with a new General Law. This whole thing feels like a race against a tide. Millions of people are hooked on these things.

www.nysenate.gov/legislation/...

www.governor.ny.gov/sites/defaul...

hear hear!

I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

I really fear that is all going to end so badly for all involved.

This is utter nonsense and will be used by the White House to produce bullshit 'evidence' to attempt to justify fascist policy in all domains of social life.

Is it miscommunication? Or are there deeper epistemological and theoretical problems with much population health sciences that aggregate primarily from individual level quantities which then imply a kind of individualist politics of intervention?

Northeastern University is hiring an Assistant Professor in AI Policy and Media. The tenure home would be either Communication Studies or Journalism, with a joint appointment with the policy school. Please apply and be my colleague :)

northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/careers/job/...

Article from The Economist Governments should stop raising the minimum wage There are better ways to help low earners

This is a deeply sexist take, given that ~2/3 of minimum wage workers in the US are women.

Awesome!

Love to see multiple wonderful sociologists joining Mamdani’s transition team!

Saw that Ruha Benjamin and Alondra Nelson will be a part of it. Are there others?

Congrats, Rand Paul, you’ve invented health insurance companies.

Laughing at Donald Trump saying he'd definitely feel comfortable living in Zohran Mamdani's New York on the same day that half the consultant brain-poisoned Democratic party voted to condemn socialism

it's so funny to watch the far right White House press pool try to bait Trump to say something nasty about Mamdani and every time he's just like "nah this guy rocks"

A glorious selfie with the official MAHA lanyard seconds after I made it past Secret Service screening.

About that exclusive, "closed-to-press" MAHA summit last week with RFK and JD Vance: I got in.

Here's what I saw. 🧵 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Democrats busy tearing out some duct tape and sticking big signs on their backs reading: "PRIMARY ME"

Stupid and destructive.