Dean Shamess

Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal

Further consolidating control over federal research funding under Russell Vought and a cadre of apparatchiks.

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Lapses in funding can lead to long-term/permanent dislocations in sci. Labour

weiyangtham.com/files/tcps_f...

And

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

I’d also wonder, just more broadly, about all sorts of practical things that go along with this money being rug-pulled.

Who gets fired, what labs get shuttered, etc etc etc - because there may well be business cases and ways to get $ to continue pursuing this, but we also know that even very brief

In the specific case of mRNA… I think there is a lot more to think about, but, I’d probably want to start by looking at what, exactly, the vaccines were being developed for - or, more specifically, ‘who’ would be the buyer of the product (esp now that the US govt has pulled out)

Nelson changed his mind in this regard over the years, especially re: Patents, and wrote about it here:

www.lem.sssup.it/WPLem/files/...

But the ultimate point, and starting point for this discussion I think still holds - are there, maybe, significant diffs be the social and private incentives?

The basic argument that they both put forward, that has evolved (obv), since is that there is private underinvestment in research, for many reasons, largely related to appropriability and how the ‘social incentive’ (what society gets) and private ones often aren’t compatible.

How far back do you want to go? Because I’d argue there’s a pretty straightforward reading of Arrow (1962) and Nelson (1959) that get you like 90% of the way there.

Soon only monks will know how to read. They will ensure the continuance of human knowledge by painstakingly copying vellum codices by candlelight.

Will anyone review this paper? Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review Scholarly publishing relies on peer review to identify the best science. Yet finding willing and qualified reviewers to evaluate manuscripts has become an increasingly challenging task, possibly even ...

1. Kevin Gross and I just posted a new science-of-science preprint.

This one explores the looming peer review crisis. As many of you know, it's becoming significantly more difficult for journal editors to find scholars willing to serve as peer reviewers for submitted manuscripts.

I have thoughts on the tech oligarchs and the system that made them

I’ve heard tell that Ottawa Farm Boy(s?) absolutely slap compared to those I’m familiar with (Peterborough lol)

USask still Studies-ified

I’m White as Hell (just look at the DP). I’m also Lebanese and a good chunk of my family are a lot more “olive” than me.

It’s not literally never that I’ve checked “Middle Eastern” on an ethnicity list. Sometimes it feels weird, sometimes it doesn’t - it’s also just true. Jesus Christ.

“The New York Times collaborated with a white nationalist eugenicist hacker and agreed to keep his identity a secret to publish a Zohran Mamdani hit piece” is a way bigger story than “18 year old Zohran Mamdani ticked ‘African American’ on his Columbia application because he was a citizen of Uganda”

(1/5) Out now in Acta Politica: Populist parties increasingly target scientists and scientific knowledge. By analyzing 15 annual waves of representative panel data from the Netherlands (2007–2022), I examine to what extent populist parties fuel science skepticism among their supporters.

Reading Jacques Ellul's (1962) book, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes. In it, he laments how American scientists had abandoned the term “propaganda” because it “cannot be defined with any degree of precision," calling that "intellectual surrender." We've been down this same road before.

Given the discussion at #metascience2025, does anyone know if Google Deepmind is/has trained models on the data @cos.io's OSF?

Similarly (and if so) whether and how that interacts with Licensing. Plenty of repos have no license which retains copyright.

Monarch shit (complimentary)

Computers used to scream every time they connected to the Internet. They knew. They tried to warn us. We did not listen.

Anyone have anything good to read on the legislative history of the Small Business Innovation Research Development Act of 1982 that gives us the SBIR program across government? Especially interested in Rep. LaFalce.

What’s the point of knowing all these doctors and nurses when none of them will give you a lobotomy when you really need it.

Why public consultations are essential to good governance Public consultations are vital to Canadian governance. Weakening them risks poor policy, reduced trust, and democratic backsliding.

In the US, they’ve scrapped the rule to consult the public before repealing regulations. Up here, our government is gearing up to fast-track big projects.

Speed’s great, but skipping the people most affected? That comes with a cost.

I put my two cents into the debate at @policyoptions.irpp.org.

I’d like to know more about robot king python…

Ok.
Let’s make this more than a hasty “framework to agree on future discussions”. Defence procurement, student & maybe labour mobility, boosting FDI, build on intel collab., DST, ++

Also, selfishly, please include phytosanitary coordination. I’d like to buy from UK nurseries & seed sellers.

The irresistible urge to pet potentially dangerous (scared) animals

That’s a big coyote!! Glad Fergus (and you) are ok!

Ya, I’ll eat my hat (and move countries) if I’m wrong…

But there’s absolutely zero chance The Economist has the right scoop on any potential Canada-USA deal.

Carney only comes to power on nationalist sovereignty - he sells actual sovereignty for status quo? Lol

And no I do not agree with science reform's policies and no that does not, in fact, mean that I am against improving science. The fact that we can have different views and approaches on this is a good thing actually. Science does not operate on premature consensus. WTAF folks??