Liberal science is how we discover what's true, and what's not. Information security *is* national security. Free Birdseed podcast, for people who make software. InfoSec NatSec
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«The “Biden decline conspiracy” turned out to be wildly profitable for the reporters who allege it. Confronted with a similar scenario, barely a year later, you’d think reporters would be falling all over themselves to dig deeper right now.» Paging Ezra Klein www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/it-s-time-...
Hey @laurenlogi.bsky.social there’s some interesting footage of Melania in the background here that you’ll appreciate. She’s happy to be cheering his worst. 👆🏼 Everyone else, follow my hilarious and brilliant character chameleon friend, Lauren LoGiudice… youtu.be/9AJRXQdWOsE?...
🧵 Trump's 79-Year History of RACISM #Racism
This is really it. If Biden's whereabouts were unknown for 45 minutes, there'd be CNN trucks camped out for six blocks in every direction of the White House. But when the felon's in office, it's "eh, he's on the roof, now he's gone, now people are throwing things out the window, probably nothing."
I really appreciated this sober treatment of the question, which focuses on the (to me) main thing—the stunning abundance of lies and lack of information we've always had about Trump's health, and the role legacy media have played in keeping the truth unknown.
Translation for libertarian billionaires: you’re gonna wanna spend less time near open windows.
As so frequently happens in Xi's China, the head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department has mysteriously disappeared. Western officials would not cheer Liu Jianchao’s downfall, rather they should be weary of a tyrannical state filled with violent intrigues.
Concern over low birth rates was what the theocracy in Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale used to come to power.
Related: Who are the "not sure" 4%. Like, somebody gotta track some of those people down and ask them some questions. www.economist.com/interactive/...
One thing they’ve been very successful at is making it so when sober experts put their careers and reputations on the line to issue grave warnings, it gets mostly a shrug.
The yokes right them elves.
You know how sometimes we find toxic waste that’s been haphazardly dumped decades ago and think, “what the fuck were they thinking?” That’s how the future will think about almost everything we’re doing in 2025.
One minute, you're just living your life, and the next, you're mimicking bird calls. Here’s how it happens.
• Benevolent disposition predicted decreased conservative ideology--i.e., more liberal ideology • Those viewing Trump favorably reported elevated malevolent and reduced benevolent dispositions, and less empathy
• Conservative political ideology represented by symbolic and operational ideology and positive view of Trump • Psychopathic traits and malevolent disposition predicted increased conservative political ideology www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
This is actually fascinating. It appears to me that someone finally got to him on the lunacy of RFK Jr. This could be the beginning of an off-ramp.
RFK Jr. targets one of the strongest state school vaccine mandate laws wapo.st/3UWsehc via Anumita Kaur, @washingtonpost.com
New print! Original artwork - no AI - a hand-made digital painting by ME! Jupiter-Ammon - available for SEPTEMBER ONLY from www.alice-roberts.co.uk/prints/jupit...
I don't *think* this is what's going on, but we should at least be aware that close to death rumors can be useful if you need a strong man saved by God moment to buck up flagging poll numbers.
Authorities say Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, is facing its biggest floods on record. https://to.pbs.org/4lQlY5r
Finally checking the final proofs for our edited collection this week 👇 It's been a long journey 👇 So much thanks to our wonderful contributors and to my amazing co-editor Duncan Lees 👇 **Translating Shakespeare: Access and Mediation** | SpringerLink share.google/CphqMXbt9g5I...
Fraser Cain of @universetoday.com captures a lovely moment in science here that would have gone unnoticed otherwise: Astronomer Dr. Pieter van Dokkum describes testing a hypotheses by gathering and analyzing a bunch of Hubble data, only to realize he'd made a fundamental error. youtu.be/JoqjFqakszI
Americans Astronomers watching watching US politics Betelgeuse 🤝 “It could happen at any time”
“The obscure Trump official behind Lisa Cook’s firing *** If Trump doesn’t like you, Bill Pulte may be looking into your mortgage soon.” 8/26/25 … 1/ www.vox.com/politics/421...
#GoldenAgeOfFraud #Crypto
* Trump Family Amasses $6 Billion Fortune After Crypto Launch @wsj.com
"...he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them." "...no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust...shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title...from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
Sure, this piece from @roycerk2.bsky.social is depressing AF, but it is very well written. What you need to know about the algal bloom in SA: "a spreading, imperialistic, green-tinged cloud that began to sweep through the ocean."
Thread of the Day 🏅
If you enjoy astronomy and other space exploration, technology, and science, you'll want to know Fraser Cain and Universe Today. @universetoday.com youtu.be/pygx-mseIZY
Also true. We were on the verge of more-or-less curing a few dozen kinds of cancer, just to start with, and then they cancelled almost everything that turned up in a search for the string "mRNA". www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
One problem with putting Trump and his merry band of Christian Nationalists, QAnon conspiracy theory whackos, and grifters back in power is the opportunity cost. We need to be talking more about climate change, clean energy, AI, and so forth. Instead we're defending vaccines. youtu.be/M4MruTOrLyM
Locked beneath a single-plate crust, Mars’ mantle holds a frozen record of the red planet’s primordial past, according to a new Science study of Martian seismic data collected by NASA’s InSight mission. https://scim.ag/47jTkWX
Everyone knows that if you want to hide something from Trump, the safest way is to put it in writing.
* I'm only mostly joking.
Queue this up and watch it when you get a chance. Don't wait too long though. Veritasium is probably gonna get sued out of existence and this video will be scrubbed from the Internet. youtu.be/CxVXvFOPIyQ
senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, former chief economist to Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) & director of budget and spending policy for Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign👇🏽
Good to see a bipartisan group of former CDC Directors raise alarms in the NY Times about RFK Jr. dismantling US public health. And I can’t help but feel frustrated that they didn’t do this last year when public health was on the ballot—nor did NYT frame it that way—when we had a chance to stop it.
Yup. And if Biden were to have died in office in a second term, J.D. Vance wouldn't become POTUS. That was a big, big plus.
The mental fitness of elderly Presidents has been such an important issue for the media lately, so I expect wall-to-wall coverage of how President Trump has once again thrown a fit about one of his own signature policies, showing no awareness of how it arose or who executed it.
Yup. Anybody who ever listened to them talk in their own spaces, like facebook groups, Christian "talk" radio, or televangelist shows would know. Unfortunately many people don't even make the slightest effort to try to understand what the enemies of the open society seek to do. youtu.be/X5u-kHkUZYY
I was an evangelical for 35 yrs. I bought a family member a years supply of birth control on Nov 6 because I know they're coming for bc too. They've been talking about it for decades. The theocrats behind P2025 view bc as an abortifacient.
I’m gonna teach you guys a really useful phrase: “My bad, I don’t know what I was thinking. Deleting this.”
The Rosette Nebula is a *magniifcent* example of a starbirth factory, and this gorgeous images shows it. But c'mon, you know me: there's a lot more going on here that I am happy to explain. badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/a-narrow-v... 🔭🧪å
They should do it anyway for the environmental benefits.
It always feels weird and inaccurate when someone calls me an "etymologist," so I'm trying on alternate titles for size: Nouncromancer Semantic spelunker Suffix smuggler Root whisperer Prefix plumber Diction didact
New Jersey & Virginia elections are coming up fast. It's time to ramp up Dem fundraising. www.dailykos.com/stories/2025... #Blue25
Pushing boundaries and sidestepping norms - it's the new dance craze from the NYT! Everyone is embracing the authoritarian headline two step.
Yup. The story of his near death from Covid wasn't well reported. Yet another in a long series of press failures. pauloffit.substack.com/p/trumps-cov...
* today He is the most dangerous crackpot in America, today. It changes from hour to hour, what with so many of the most dangerous crackpots in America competing for his attention, now that they've all been appointed to cabinet positions.
Oh my lord look at the BABY
They are afraid to. Trump and his circle threaten the press. Biden like other presidents did not. The press repaid Biden by hounding him about his age. The press are cowards concerned about access and, ultimately, feathering their own nests with book deals and better compensation.
It's very difficult to accept that *none* of these people have a remaining ounce of self respect; but then I remember the Ezra Klein - Jake Tapper podcast about how Biden is old.
The thing I don’t get is the same press that is being kept at a distance from an obviously not hale and hearty president isn’t screaming for answers?
I believe that 99% of what RFK Jr. does is motivated by: 1. Protecting his ego and vanity. He must convince people vaccines are bad b/c he can’t be wrong. Endless photos of himself exercising b/c vanity. 2. Creating conditions for his law firm to increase profits from suing various companies.
Interesting discussion about the first item, here. (They don't discuss his decades-running grift, except to mention that he does exploit the family name.) youtu.be/GXTxVsCMkFE
Also, repeating one of my early viral posts on this site: Parents do not have rights. Parents have responsibilities. CHILDREN have rights.
🤣
Kevin. You walked right into that.
Bonus points for the iMac OG translucent purple push pin, for scale. 🧐🍎🐛
Given he's doing everything the sane staffers and guardrails stopped him from doing last time, have any double XL T-shirts been delivered to the White House this week?
#LMGTFY (let me google that for you) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition
cc: @drpatmas.bsky.social Dr. Michael Patmas you'll find this story of interest.
Vinay Prasad got the YouTube channel of @joho.bsky.social taken down. Dr. Howard provides facts and truth about science, including debunking Prasad’s false claims about vaccines and COVID19. Dr. Howard is much more calm about this than I would be. This is an affront to free speech.
A lovely 600 year-old silver-gilt amethyst setting, probably part of a brooch, has been discovered in the moat of Castle Kolno in Poland. 📷Lech Marek/Antiquity www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
If you're 60, 69.1% of all job growth since your birth occurred under Democratic administrations. If you're 45, that number is 74.7%. If you're under 28, the number is 100%. Happy Labor Day.
"Trump uncharacteristically quiet at press conference, challenging the assumptions of his critics" "President stern, strong, silent, at press conference" "His critics say Trump never stops talking; at recent press conference he proves them wrong, again"
Depending on the composition of that day’s press pool I’m not 100% positive that if they saw Trump being fully Weekend at Bernied they’d actually report it.
How does ketamine affect the political behavior of people who take it ?
Before the summer melts away, dig into some of our favorite ice cream science stories. buff.ly/LOwT4qa
Nurses say that RFKJr must be removed from office immediately before he kills again. www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/nation...
There are a few subreddits that collect the anecdotes. Often it’s pretty bleak, like, ICE deports their spouse and they still declare their support for Trump, but occasionally one gets fired by DOGE and says they regret their vote. www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAt...
MAGA has a demonstrable and very high tolerance for self inflicted pain; their antivax policies killed a few hundred thousand of them and there’s no indication that it had any effect on the surviving MAGA voters. There are a few anecdotes. www.pewresearch.org/politics/202...
At some point we must begin to recognize that his approval rating remains as high as it does because, not in spite, of the destruction, bribery, lies, corruption, bullying, alienation from our allies, and economic corrosion; perhaps it’s time to start saying, “What Trump voters have done…”
If you enjoy… Weekends Safe working conditions Retirement benefits Paid vacations Breaks at work Sick leave Paid holidays … then you’re part of the labor movement. Happy Labor Day.
There’s very little to be seen in the way of learning, from the experience of leopards eating the faces.
www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAt...
It's curious how Rupert Murdoch and son's repeated secretive meetings with JD Vance, like this one in Montana, get huge coverage in London tabloids, but aren't reported or talked about at all in US media. Why is that? www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Venus and the Beehive (Praesepe, M44). 1 September 2025. 🔭 🧪 🎨 #astrophotography #SciArt #photography #StormHour #ThePhotoHour
Trump’s plan to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War shows (once again) that his self-characterization as the “pro-peace” candidate was complete bullshit. www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
So excited to find out what the real cause of autism is tomorrow!! I’m going to be super disappointed if it isn’t something cool, like maybe on the 68th day of pregnancy, if the mom eats a carrot while the sperm provider is fixing a wheel of some kind, then the kid will be autistic. (/s)
You’re not wrong. 🍕
The voters of Maine have never been this concerned in our lifetime.
In Maine, an oyster farmer running as a Democrat has taken a 16-point lead over incumbent Susan Collins. He has now been endorsed by Bernie Sanders. www.the-independent.com/news/world/a...
Part of the problem is that these charlatan tactics work against the MAGA voter base. www.reddit.com/r/PrayersToT...
September 1, 1939 I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade: Waves of anger and fear Circulate over the bright And darkened lands of the earth...
Apropos the fairness doctrine and Rush Limbaugh www.poynter.org/reporting-ed...
This. And a big part of the FCC doctrine was created to prevent another demagogue like Father Coughlin. Who was he? The Rush Limbaugh of his day, spreading non-stop propaganda rooted in hatred and intolerance during the 1930s. www.pbs.org/wnet/explori...
This thread explains the end times cult that put Trump in power, twice. bsky.app/profile/arbi...