Ben Buchler

100% good idea. Sadly, PhD stipends in Australia offer sub-poverty income. This is a serious structural issue for research programs, which rely on being able to recruit talented grad students.

Shocking, but not at all surprising 😞.

Live footage from inside the FBI as it looks for evidence of 2020 US election fraud.

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

The "fake teaching" headline is a bit of a distraction. Decades of neglect has undermined higher education in Australia. The resources to cope with LLMs are thus lacking. It's getting harder to deliver great teaching when successive governments have only offered fake support for our universities.

Dear @theonion.com, my name is Greg and I submit this piece for your consideration.

If I were a foreign power doing "foreign interference" on a tiny fraction of Australian research projects, I wouldn't believe my luck that Australia's response was to extend grant time-scales to 16 months while failing to reverse its systematic decline in research funding.

Talk about bang-for-buck!

Japan: Diarists have chronicled the comings and goings of cherry blossoms each year since A.D. 812

The 20-year average is on the steepest decline since records began, and has moved in perfect correlation with the age of burning fossil fuels

Another one of my charts of the year

More like "Last Night"

Yep, heard it. Thanks!

@pepchasdrdave.bsky.social I don't tune into PEP for medical advice, but in case someone does, you should correct the record. MRIs do not use radiation. They use large magnetic fields. You can have as many of them as you like, provided you don't have an incompatible pacemaker or metallic implants.

News Corp Australia chair says outlets not part of climate crisis ‘denial machine’ Michael Miller tells Senate misinformation inquiry platforming climate deniers and net zero critics part of ‘great democracy and healthy debate’

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirrore...

Help Katya send a message

I hope we get a transcript afterwards.
www.climate200.com.au/petition/hel...

Far right political content has been normalised, protected by free speech and then vomited back at the unsuspecting in a stream of addictive short videos without proper context or moderation. What an absolute shitshow. #auspol

The competition for most stupid thing is fierce, but this will definitely result in a reduction of smarts.

"Coalition to fight Labor’s universal childcare plan as Ley signals ‘unrelenting’ pursuit of efficiency"

Efficiency gains will include a dozen portfolios for each of the 2 remaining coalition members of the lower house after the next election. #auspol

Just Why?

"The willingness of staff to attach their names to these letters demonstrates to the University that staff are not afraid to voice concerns about decisions by the University’s senior leadership."

So this isn't true. I know *many* people didn't sign because they were afraid of repercussions.

Wherever we end up next, this website will serve as a memorial to people who have been hurt. There's a lot of rebuilding to be done, I just hope we find the right people to do it.
www.shoesofanu.com

🚪?
www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/share/21524/...

With ANU vigorously pursuing administrative centralisation, this work seems really relevant.

Administrative burden in Australian universities: Insights into dimensions and drivers from a nationwide survey Abstract. Despite widespread concern about levels of administrative burden within universities, understanding of the associated dimensions and drivers rema

Down is the new up:

"...Two major strategies that universities have pursued to gain efficiencies—administrative centralization and administrative service automation—have resulted in what is widely experienced by academic staff as an intensification of their administrative burden."

bit.ly/3UQldyl

Quentin Buchler I'm proud to be taking part in the MS Mega Challenge. My goal is to raise 500 to help people with multiple sclerosis achieve a dream through the MS Go for Gold Scholarships program. It’s incredible to...

Everyone loves a fundraising post - right? The $500 goal is starting to look a bit unambitious, but don't let that put you off.
www.msmegachallenge.org.au/fundraisers/...

Repeal Job-Ready Graduates Policy Now: Restoring Equity in Higher Education - Online petition We sign this petition in solidarity with those who signed the Open Letter to the Prime Minister on 28 July 2025 (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/28/open-letter-to-australian-govern...

Please consider signing this petition to Parliament:

"We urge the government to abolish JRG and to institute a new fee regime which does not punish students who choose to study the humanities and social sciences."

www.openpetition.org/au/petition/...

Breeze blocks?

It’s difficult to identify a change in tertiary education since the 1980’s that hasn’t diminished or degraded it. Morphing into a corporate enterprise with extraordinary “executive” salaries, outsourcing to consultancy firms and relentless reviews and restructures doesn’t look like moral leadership.

While Australia's university sector bleeds out, successive governments have been drawing blood, all the while spruiking our high-tech, highly educated future. Hollow words.
insidestory.org.au/dropping-out...

To change the course of history you'd probably need to construct irony dense enough to collapse into a singularity. This might be the closest we can get on Earth.

@mattbevan.bsky.social Nice work showing Trump knows the difference between asylum seekers and mental health patients. That he deliberately conflates them to the applause of his supporters is heady mix of cynicism and misinformation. pca.st/episode/780c...