every day I wake up and read a headline that sounds like something a concussed writer for The Simpsons would come up with while trying to make an intentionally stupid joke about George Orwell

The US government is aiming to get rid of a quarter million people involved in science research and education by 2026.

I have no words.

i remain convinced a f500 company is going to nuke itself by accidently leaking every corporate secret it has. salaries, negotiations r&d, strategy, pii etc etc because of some janky model in like idk a sharepoint plugin

EVERYTHING ELSE IS A GALAXY *sobs*

Can confirm that my NSF grant "How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them" was cancelled today because it is "not in alignment with current NSF priorities" Shocking that understanding how people are misled by false information is now a forbidden topic. Our work will continue but at a smaller scale

Opinion | Why Did Elon Musk Go After Bunkers Full of Seeds? (Gift Article) Gene banks are like a survivalist cache: our nation’s safeguard against all future challenges to growing the food we need.

“This should unnerve every American who eats. Our food system is only as safe as our ability to respond to the next plant disease or other emergent threat, and a strong N.P.G.S. is central to our preparedness.” www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/o...

As Trump Goes After Universities, Students Are Now on the Chopping Block (Gift Article) Uncertainty about how much money colleges and universities stand to lose has led some schools to reduce the number of doctoral students, in some cases reneging on offers.

🧪
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/u...

Important perspective from
@ucsdcooperlab.bsky.social

"I think they’re trying to break the academic enterprise. And cutting academic science has impacts on the educational mission of the entire university.”

Another reason to #standupforscience

F.D.A. Cancels Meeting of Vaccine Experts Scheduled to Advise on Flu Shots The cancellation plays into fears among scientists who worry that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will use his position as health secretary to sow doubts about vaccines.

First, they said postponed; now the meeting is canceled. That means no flu shots next year.

“'It’s a six-month production cycle,' Dr. Offit said. 'So one can only assume that we’re not picking flu strains this year.'"

Fundamentally, that's a form of mass murder.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/u...

America, just in case you thought Friday went well here’s how the London Times saw it …..

I got laid off today, with the rest of 18F.

18F was an elite federal software shop. We made gov't websites work better, more efficiently for the American people. We saved taxpayers from getting screwed over by contractors. And were fired for it.

We made this website to tell our story:
18f.org

18F, the federal government’s technology shop, was just demolished by Musk’s team. It was a cost-recoverable org, charging agencies for their expertise, using a consulting model. Its cost to government was negligible, its benefits huge. My team there once saved DoD $500 million.

A thread about 18F:

This New Drug Could Help End the HIV Epidemic—but US Funding Cuts Are Killing Its Rollout Lenacapavir, a twice yearly injection that prevents HIV transmission, was named the breakthrough medicine of 2024. But without US foreign aid dollars, its delivery to millions worldwide is under threa...

After a lifetime on the frontiers of the fight against HIV, researchers can finally see the end of the epidemic in sight. But thanks to the Trump administration’s executive orders, it’s unclear when—or possibly even ever—this breakthrough medicine will see the light of day.

What Trump has done for US farmers so far:
-frozen their foreign aid program (and left their food to rot)
-encouraged EU to ban their products
-frozen legally-owed reimbursements for their energy efficiency upgrades etc.
-threatened to deport half their workforce
-suppressed research on bird flu

Among everything else, what a shitty fate, to have national systems of support dismantled by two men who have never once changed a diaper.

The 🌱 garden 🌱 layout app I've been working on is ready for beta testers! If you've been using a garden planner but have been frustrated by the limited database of plant varieties, this one's for you. I have a handful of invites for this first round. DMs open #gardening #gardensky

ByTheTime YouTube video by Science Moms

Guess what - our Science Moms climate ad made this top ten best (upcoming) Super Bowl ads list! The only nonprofit ad on the list!

Warning: do not watch without a tissue

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/a...

Gutting USAID threatens billions of dollars for U.S. farms, businesses U.S. businesses that sold goods and services to USAID are in limbo, including American farms dealing in rice, wheat and soybeans.

USAID used to buy $2B worth of food from US farmers. Now, their food is just rotting away as poor people starve. And next year, many of these same farmers will be farming for government subsidies instead of food. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

A good reminder that part of the reason scientists study “frivolous” things is because they can see potential in those things that the casual observer cannot or will not bother to see

Just saw a farmer say, "you don't have to admit you were wrong, you have to admit you were lied to, " and idk that seems like a good framing to call people in

New — The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) was told this week by DOJ that they'd lose their funding if the org didn't remove any mentions of LGBTQIA+ issues from their public materials, I've learned. Staff were told they need to deadname trans kids in their reports to comply.

Pam Bondi is disbanding the Foreign Influence Task Force - the FBI team that is charged with combatting foreign meddling in US elections.

Worth asking how this makes us more safe in any way, shape, or form.

The Government’s Computing Experts Say They Are Terrified Four IT professionals lay out just how destructive Elon Musk’s incursion into the U.S. government could be.

New: We spoke to government IT employees/contractors about DOGE. Their warnings were dire. The people who maintain the systems that keep the country working are terrified. "This is the largest data breach and the largest IT security breach in our country’s history—at least that’s publicly known."

The US Treasury Claimed DOGE Technologist Didn’t Have ‘Write Access’ When He Actually Did Sources tell WIRED that the ability of DOGE's Marko Elez to alter code controlling trillions in federal spending was rescinded days after US Treasury and White House officials said it didn't exist.

SCOOP: The US Treasury claimed a DOGE's Marco Elez didn’t have ‘write access,’ when he actually did. Sources tell WIRED that his ability to alter code controlling trillions in federal spending was rescinded, days after officials said it didn't exist.

The US Government Is Not a Startup Elon Musk is moving fast and breaking things that can’t afford to be broken.

"Musk will reinvent the US government in the way that the hyperloop reinvented trains, that the Boring company reinvented subways, that Juicero reinvented squeezing. Which is to say he will...offer no solutions beyond those that consolidate his own power and wealth."
www.wired.com/story/the-us...

‘It’s tectonic:’ U.S. foreign aid freeze deals a blow to research around the globe Dismantling of USAID could disrupt clinical trials and wipe away U.S. “soft power” in developing countries, scientists warn

What's happening at #USAID is causing so much damage. The great reporters at @science.org explore some of that damage. www.science.org/content/arti...

A decade of work started to melt away. The horror of losing irreplaceable samples. The science that would no longer be possible (I can’t go get another blood draw from a shark from 2016). THAT is the sort of nightmare unfolding now across Federal labs studying everything from cancer to catfish.

they are mostly targeting black employees so this is quite literally just a repeat of woodrow wilson’s segregationist purge of the federal government

Wild how the category of “women” must both be ruthlessly defended by the right but also stripped from all direct research, support, or institutional funding.