Jordan

1/7 💔 We are very disappointed to announce that on April 25, NSF terminated a $1.5M PhET grant – our Pathways to Open Source Ecosystems Phase II grant for advancing PhET’s SceneryStack project. Learn how this impacts our work and how you can help: bit.ly/PhETNSF2025

About fifty years ago, NASA strapped a message in a bottle to a rocket and flung it into the deep dark
It wasn’t supposed to go this far, but it did. Long past its mission, it’s still out there so far away now that a simple hello takes a day to reach it, and another day to hear if it says hello back

A squirrel holds a butter knife covered in a red substance, likely jelly.

Drained, Chester sat down and waited for the police to arrive. Staring at Alan’s still-warm body laying among the empty shells, he felt no remorse. There were two sacred rules. You didn’t touch another man’s wife, or another man’s nuts. His ears perked up as the sound of sirens rose in the distance.

A shiny new pocket-sized Particle Physics Booklet, 2024 edition, published by the Particle Data Group (PDG). The cover is a blue and purple design with white arcs representing particle tracks spreading away from a point on the booklet’s spine.

A 2022 PDG booklet next to the new 2024 booklet. The old booklet has a dark green cover and is clearly worn with numerous creases and corners slightly rounded from wear. Crumpled neon green tabs stick out from the pages, added by someone who likes organized reference materials probably has control issues.

New PDG Particle Physics booklet arrived, and it’s sooo pretty! Despite the appearance of my old one, I don’t use these *all* the time (but still regularly enough that I always keep one in my bag)
#Physics #ParticlePhysics

A willow ptarmigan in a blizzard perched in some branches.

A willow ptarmigan in a blizzard perched in some branches, facing the camera.

A willow ptarmigan in a blizzard perched in some branches, standing behind some of the branches and showing off its fluffy feet.

Two willow ptarmigans standing in the snow. One is nibbling a bud from a branch.

I took a very long drive for some round birds. These are Willow Ptarmigans up in Quebec, aka Awebo birds. I love them so much.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS IN CASE OF ICE: CONOCE TUS DERECHOS EN CASO DE ENCUENTRO CON ICE:

DO NOT OPEN YOUR DOOR. ICE cannot enter your home without a warrant signed by a judge. Tell the agents to show you the warrant by sliding it under the door. NO ABRAS TU PUERTA. ICE no puede entrar a tu casa sin una orden firmada por un juez. Diles a los agentes que te muestren la orden deslizándola debajo de la puerta.

ASK THEM TO LEAVE. If ICE doesn't have a warrant, tell them you do not consent for them to enter your home and ask them to leave. At work, ICE cannot enter employee-only areas without permission. 2 PÍDALES QUE SE VAYAN. Si ICE no tiene una orden judicial, diles que no das tu consentimiento para que entren a tu casa y pídeles que se vayan. En el trabajo, ICE no puede ingresar a áreas exclusivas para empleados sin permiso.

REMAIN SILENT. You have the right to remain silent. If the agents ask you questions, tell them, "I wish to remain silent." PERMANECE EN SILENCIO. Tienes derecho a permanecer en silencio. Si los agentes te hacen preguntas, diles: "Deseo permanecer en silencio".

It is perfectly legal to know your rights and to educate others about them, too.

EVERYONE in the United States, citizen or not, has rights. I will not allow this administration to intimidate us from helping you know about them.

Here’s our shareable guide ⬇️: (pt. 1/2)

Literally, protect trans kids. Protect trans adults. We all deserve to grow up without fear. We all deserve to walk outside freely, without judgment or fear. My community does not feel that way and it's because these small-minded motherfuckers are scared of their shitty paradigms collapsing.

In response to headline “Cruz-Led Investigation Uncovers $2 Billion in Woke DEI Grants at NSF, Releases Full Database” I want to re-emphasize that all these grants were public record and written in response to public solicitations supporting DEI content. No “uncovering” or “releasing” was done here

These are research grants awarded through evaluation of their merits by scientific peers, in which the investigators are carrying out important, ground-breaking work. They're being targeted because, as required by NSF guidelines, they include some investment in benefits for the broader community.

I was just told that I have to remove “climate” from the title of an ongoing grant if I want to keep it. And publications from that grant cannot include “climate” and other forbidden words. I can’t believe I’m writing this from the United States of America. #AcademicSky

Vaccines are good. That's not an opinion, it's a fact.

Gender affirming care is good. That's not an opinion, it's a fact.

"But big pharma!" misses the forest for the trees. The problem with big pharma isn't the medicines. Medicines and vaccines are good! It's the price they charge for them.

I stand with the trans community. Pass it along.

Today the @nytimes.com sought to whitewash its central role in laundering anti-trans falsehoods and turbocharging anti-trans attacks nationwide. My reporting showed that editorial leadership was aware of this depravity which is why this disingenuous piece can’t erase the scale of what they’ve done.

Part of thriving under collapse has to be to mourn the life that you thought you'd be able to live.

That will take a while. Most of us are not there yet.

If you think the proposed cuts to American science are because science is unpopular, this are wrong. DON'T BELIEVE THEM.

1. 76% of Americans express trust in scientists, more than for police officers and school principals (Pew).
2. 80% say federal funding of science is vital to our nation (STAC)

We need to call out the blatant lie being pushed by the Trump administration—that Elon’s staffers have only “read-only” access. It has been confirmed across departments that they have “administrative” access to computer systems.

NASA Intern Found Hope in the Moon - NASA Lee esta historia en español aquí

This profile has been scrubbed from the site. Rose Ferreira grew up without reliable electricity, immigrated to NY, then survived homelessness and cancer on her way to NASA. She was so moved by images from the Webb telescope she wept. This is what’s at stake

web.archive.org/web/20231206...

Trump policies sow chaos, confusion across scientific community U.S. scientists, unaccustomed to shock-and-awe political assaults, are reeling from President Donald Trump’s executive orders on DEI, gender and other subjects.

When Scientific American endorsed Harris, many scientists and science-friendly people were supportive and grateful, but some said: stick to science, science isn’t political, etc. But reality-denying right-wing fanatics will absolutely come for the scientists www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

Here’s a story with some numbers. The proposed cuts are unfathomable: a 60% reduction to NSF would be the end of American science as we know it.

If your boss or company tells you to do something unethical: don't say yes. Make them write it down.

Now more than ever.

House Democrats made an unsuccessful attempt to subpoena billionaire Elon Musk to testify about his efforts to radically reshape the federal government, only to be blocked by Republicans.

Now more than ever, 1 kg * m / s is a noether (Nr).

#ITeachPhysics

To America’s 2.3 million federal employees:

Don’t accept a buyout.

Neither Musk nor even Trump has the legal authority to make such an offer.

And even if they did, would you trust them to follow through on it?

Sincerely,

Robert Reich
Former U.S.Secretary of Labor

Federal health workers terrified after ‘DEI’ website publishes list of ‘targets’ The site calls out workers who have been involved with DEI initiatives. A majority are Black.

Federal health workers are expressing fear and alarm after a website called “DEI Watch List” published the photos, names and public information of a number of workers across health agencies, describing them as “targets.”

State Department Travel Safety Website Changes "LGBTQI+ Travelers" to "LGB Travelers" The change is an attempt to insert a divide in the LGBTQIA+ community by the Trump administration, and to erase transgender people from any consideration or recognition.

1. The state department has removed transgender people from its website and just reads "LGB Travelers," as reported by a number of journalists.

However, on further investigation, it is also removing trans-specific directions for individual countries.

Subscribe to support my journalism.

list of banned keywords

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

Download CDC Guidelines Removed By The Trump Admin The Trump administration is scrubbing the CDC’s website of documents on reproductive rights issues, sexual health, intimate partner violence, and more.

The Trump administration is scrubbing the CDC’s website of documents on reproductive rights issues, sexual health, intimate partner violence, and more.

I'm trying to save them.

You can find the deleted docs at cdcguidelines.com - I'll be adding more over the weekend.

If you cannot call it what it is when all in a week: a government removes every mention of a group of people, destroys information about them en masse, bans their discussion in schools, restricts their ability to travel and starts seizing and refusing their official identification, when will you?