Isabel

the USA built a system of higher education so good that smart/rich people from across the world came here, spending billions to learn here, subsidizing education for Americans while spending money to live in our cities and towns. our government arbitrarily decided we should stop doing that

MBL Announces Largest Ever Gift for Its Renowned Biological Education and Research Programs | Marine Biological Laboratory Cell Biology Researcher Mark Terasaki’s $25 Million Unrestricted Gift Will Support Operations and Infrastructure Contact: Samantha Cummis scummis@mbl.edu; 973.800.4119

This is totally, totally awesome! Thanks to Mark Terasaki for this astounding gift to the education mission of @mblscience.bsky.social.

www.mbl.edu/news/mbl-ann...

A fun reminder that a loss of 60,000 jobs in and around academia is ~50% more than all coal mining jobs in the entire country.

Trump Went to War With the Ivies. Community Colleges Are Being Hit.

the trump administration is selling its war on higher education as a strike against the elites who have disadvantaged ordinary americans. in actuality, the administration is destroying advanced education for *everyone* in pursuit of its effort to deskill the american public

The ADL's hypothetical scenario involving flyers critical of Israel's demolition program encapsulates many other issues that those who reviewed the material or completed a training raised. The scenario begins with a student leaving their dorm room to find a flyer taped to the door "warning that your residence hall will soon be demolished" "The rest of the flyer contains 'facts' about how many Palestinian homes have been demolished by the Israeli military to collectively punish and 'ethnically cleanse' Palestinians," the toolkit continues. The ADL is referring to the highly charged debate over Israel's mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank. The training material then offers the Israeli narrative around the demolitions, claiming they target "terrorists" and "deter others from terrorist action". *. Other homes were demolished because they were "built without proper permits", the ADL states. "While you may agree or disagree with these Israeli government actions, the charge that Israel has demolished these homes to 'ethnically cleanse' Palestinians is inaccurate and inflammatory," the ADL material states.

According to the Guardian, the ADL is now creating education materials for schools in which the civil rights organization justifies Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in occupied Palestinian territory.

AI Is Coming for the Consultants. Inside McKinsey, ‘This Is Existential.’ If AI can analyze information, crunch data and deliver a slick PowerPoint deck within seconds, how does the biggest name in consulting stay relevant?

Have the consulting firms finally figured out that a LLM can in fact replace their core product offering: 22-year-olds with Ivy League degrees who don’t know anything other than how to make PowerPoints?

The Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (CBG) is seeking ten taxonomic specialists in Collembola or any of the following insect orders - Blattodea, Ephemeroptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Orthoptera, Trichoptera!

graduatestudies.uoguelph.ca/postdoctoral...

A Fish Falls From the Sky and Sparks a Brush Fire in British Columbia

For a medieval monastic chronicler, a headline to die for

Know an Evolutionary Genomicist looking for a faculty position? Join us in EEB @utknoxville.bsky.social Position is open for studying any organism, but personally I have some botany bias. 🌱 Apply before Sept 19 for full consideration. apply.interfolio.com/170735 Please share widely. Thanks!

Poor image quality introduces systematic bias into MRI data Analyses that include low-quality MRI data underestimate cortical thickness and overestimate surface area, according to new work from the ABCD Study.

Big data won't solve anything if it's crappy data. 😒

We need to 1) train people to inspect datasets before using them and 2) ensure that openly shared data is good data.

www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/poo...

The report is "tedious" and at times "truly wearisome", according to Bob Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University. Kopp recently worked on a paper showing how rising temperatures and drought will worsen crop yields, counter to the report's claims that crops will flourish with extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. "Carbon dioxide fertilization is largely irrelevant to how increasingly extreme heat and intense drought will impact crop yields," Kopp said. "As a former department of energy fellow, I'm embarrassed by this report."

I’m tired and no longer capable of being measured when speaking to reporters…

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

In the longer term (esp. last 2-3 decades), as the chart shows, the mid-latitude oceans, including the N Pacific, are warming very rapidly due to Greenhouse warming, aerosol/ pollution reductions and the related climate feedbacks.

The marine heat wave in the North Pacific is one of the most extensive, spanning the giant N Pacific, and in spots, the most intense, I’ve observed. Anomalies near Japan are 15 F (8C) above normal. (Japan just recorded its hottest temp on record.)
The reason for this N Pacific heat wave is… 1/

Study details higher COVID death risks in undocumented people

This is obscene: a 55% increase in death rate above the prepandemic level. Study details higher #COVID death risks in #undocumented people www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/stu... #immigrants #disparities #socialjustice

BREAKING: We're suing ICE for unlawfully targeting and arresting people who show up to court for their immigration hearings.

One zombie factoid is so pervasive in my field that I knew a corrective footnote in my book wouldn’t suffice. So last year I published a whole article debunking & explaining how it undermines #Indigenous knowledge. It’s bad already; LLMs will make it worse. academic.oup.com/bioscience/a... #pocosin

This is misleading propaganda. I, along with thousands around me, have not received a single meal unless these meals are being distributed through an invisibility cloak, or the center is embezzling and stealing them.

* WHAT...Flooding caused by excessive rainfall is expected. * WHERE...Wake county in central North Carolina. * WHEN...Until 830 PM EDT. * IMPACTS...Minor flooding in low-lying and poor drainage areas. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 632 PM EDT, Doppler radar indicated heavy rain due to thunderstorms. Minor flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly in the advisory area. Between 0.5 and 1 inch of rain has fallen. - Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 1.5 inches are expected over the area. This additional rain will result in minor flooding. - Some locations that will experience flooding include... Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Garner, Fuquay-Varina, RDU International, Apex, Holly Springs, Morrisville, Lake Wheeler, Lake Benson, William B Umstead State Park, Carpenter, New Hill, Research Triangle, Harris Lake Boat Launch, Shearon Harris Reservoir and Jordan Lake. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood

Flood Advisory issued August 1 at 6:33PM EDT until August 1 at 8:30PM EDT by NWS Raleigh NC
Additional Details Here.

Current aid distribution model in Gaza is 'engineering chaos and massacres', MSF says <article data-history-node-id="426631" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/current-aid-distribution-model-gaza-engineering-chaos-and-massacres-msf" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/current-aid-distribution-model-gaza-engineering-chaos-and-massacres-msf" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Current aid distribution model in Gaza is 'engineering chaos and massacres', MSF says</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders said in a statement on Friday that more than 600 aid seekers were treated for injuries in northern Gaza after Israeli soldiers opened fire on them.</p> <p>Caroline Willemen, MSF project coordinator in Gaza, said: "On 30 July, as people approached trucks distributing aid near Zikim, in north Gaza, Israeli forces opened fire on them.</p> <p>"People were wounded in the gunfire and in the crush as crowds panicked and ran. Medical staff at the MSF-supported Sheikh Radwan clinic in north Gaza treated 77 injured patients and received eight people dead on arrival.</p> <p>"Across north Gaza, nearly 600 people were treated for similar injuries following violence and chaos near Zikim that night, according to the Ministry of Health, as food trucks were passing."</p> <p>Willemen said such deadly incidents have become "a daily reality in Gaza for too long now" and the current methods of distribution are "engineering chaos and massacres" while&nbsp;Palestinians risk their lives in a desperate search for food.</p> </div> </div> </article>

Current aid distribution model in Gaza is 'engineering chaos and massacres', MSF says - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/current-aid-distribution-model-gaza-engineering-chaos-and-massacres-msf

A child with cerebral palsy suffering from malnutrition is as noteworthy as a non-disabled kid suffering from malnutrition. Shame on this ableist move.

My sympathies are with the everyone involved in this piece who wanted to run the photos.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Blocks Funding for CDC Health Programs The White House budget office recently reversed a decision to freeze about $15 billion in research funding for the NIH.

The Trump administration is blocking funding for a swath of public health programs run by the CDC, the latest flashpoint in a push by the White House to withhold money already approved by Congress www.wsj.com/politics/pol... w @lizessleywhyte.bsky.social

Mike Konczal @mtkonczal Middle column here is just May and June incorporating the revision, where private education and health services account for 170% of all private sector job growth. Manufacturing jobs are being lost at a comparable clip to Federal jobs, -11/-12 in July and -13/-18 previously. /3 Summary of the July 2025 Jobs Number All numbers in thousands, averaged for time period Total. Last month May-June. 2024 Annual All jobs 73 16 168 Goods Manufacturing -11 -13 -9 Government Federal -12 -18 4 Local govt -3 -2 23 State govt 5 0 11 BLS data, author's calculations. All averaged. Mike Konczal. 8:55 AM • Aug 1, 2025 • 85.9K Views

Manufacturing jobs are being lost at a comparable clip to Federal jobs

Senior Director Policy and Research, Economic Security Project. Posted by @mtkonczal.bsky.social on "X"

Structural basis for the evolution of a domesticated group II intron–like reverse transcriptase to function in host cell DNA repair | PNAS A previous study found that a bacterial group II intron&ndash;like reverse transcriptase (G2L4 RT) evolved to function in double-strand break repair (DSB...

#TEsky Structural basis for the evolution of a domesticated group II intron–like reverse transcriptase to function in host cell DNA repair doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

good afternoon, the biggest story in public health today is still that the United States is building illegal concentration camps

Opinion | Another CDC Advisory Committee Purge Is Underway Multiple members of the Advisory Committee to the Director have been terminated

MedPage EIC @jeremyfaust.bsky.social reported that at least three members of the CDC's Advisory Committee to the Director have been fired.

The terminated members were newly appointed with terms that were supposed to start on July 1. @jennifernuzzo.bsky.social
www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/faus...

Termination letter for appointment to the Advisory Committee to the Director, CDC.

Today I received notice that my appointment to the Advisory Committee to the Director of the CDC--a committee whose existence is mandated by Congress--has been terminated.

I've gotten two independent reports now of people being approached online by a fake WIRED staffer.

Not sure what this actor's goal is, but don't hesitate to reach out to me, @couts.bsky.social, or someone else you know on our staff if you receive a suspicious message.

this is a disgrace and a national shame

The long-term persistence of the wMel strain in Rio de Janeiro is threatened by poor integrated vector management and bacterium fitness cost on Aedes aegypti Author summary In Rio de Janeiro, efforts to control diseases like dengue and chikungunya involve a myriad of approaches, including targeting breeding sites, insecticide application, engaging communit...

Also recently published: independent monitoring of Wolbachia releases in Rio de Janeiro shows wMel dropping out due to a multitude of factors

journals.plos.org/plosntds/art...