The flexibility of a hybrid at this point in time is why I own one. I assume it won't be terribly long until improvements in battery charge duration and in charging infrastructure make the flexibility of a hybrid less attractive.
Science & medical writer/editor. Movie / music / comedy / travel / ethnic foods buff. Fan of the scientific method & freedom of the press.
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The flexibility of a hybrid at this point in time is why I own one. I assume it won't be terribly long until improvements in battery charge duration and in charging infrastructure make the flexibility of a hybrid less attractive.
"It took her nearly two decades to find a permanent academic position. She found occasional work as a visiting professor, filling in for someone on leave for a year or two. She earned grants to fund her research... but she was often living on unemployment benefits" www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/s...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DscJ...
Your grandfather is awesome!
RFK Jr., the one-man "death panel"
Pritzker: To the members of the press who are assembled here today and listening across the country, I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is. This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story.
The same people who are pushing their MAHA agenda are largely the same people who are denying that certain human activities are tied to the heating of the planet. Not surprising: Ignoring science in one realm is consistent with ignoring science in another. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/c...
Just to say this plainly: what you're looking at here is a federal police force accountable only to the president rolling up to intimidate the governor of California as he announces his plan to counter a federal legislative coup out of Texas which will ensure their permanent presence in our streets
Thanks, John. Well worth repeating.
Who wouldn't adore that face! Love his bow tie.
I'm grateful that he's governor of my state. I didn't know what to expect when he took office, but he won my respect in how he handled COVID, and that respect has continued to grow.
What a beautiful life. I imagine he was very proud of you. I'm so sorry for your loss, and hope you find comfort in your memories.
This is clearly a time where we could use science-based recommendations for vaccine use, and I don't think we're going to see it from this HHS.
Inflicting generational harm on US citizens, including dedicated researchers who may have to abandon their field or move abroad, if that's an option. There are no deserving winners in this action, zero. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/c...
Good man! I thought there was a good chance you did. I endorse your sentiment.
Please don’t forget NPR, too.
Good man.
What a lovely story!
A State Department employee shared with PBS News an image from inside the department. The image includes a piece of paper taped to a mirror with the words, "Colleagues, if you remain: RESIST FASCISM. Remember the oath you vowed to uphold."
I hope you're right. But even if we get through these dark times, it will come at a considerable cost. I would hate to be a young scientist just starting out at this time in US history.
🚨BREAKING: IDSA, along with AAP, APHA, ACP and others, has filed a lawsuit against HHS/Secretary Kennedy to stop unlawful changes to vaccine policy and defend public health. We refuse to stand by while America’s public health safeguards are torn apart. bit.ly/4lm7UkW
Outstanding post.
Now, that's the way to resist rather than collaborate on a bad-faith mission. Respect.
Safe travels, John.
Loved, loved, loved this profile. I feel very lucky to have seen Patti Lupone perform. My favorite phrase of the profile (of many memorable ones): "In the city, where LuPone is the apex predator ... "
Ed Martin, the acting US Attorney for Washington, DC, had recently been peppering medical journals with “vaguely threatening” letters accusing them of acting as “partisans” in scientific debates. But what does RFK Jr. have do do with it? Let’s dig in.
Your dog looks a little like my brother's energetic pumi, Laszlo.
That is exactly what I've been wondering.
My comment was more about mourning the ugly concrete jungle that my neighbor's yard is going to become very soon than a serious suggestion you need/should plant more trees. I only said "maybe consider." Or not. It's your yard and it already has trees to die for, and it looks lovely and peaceful.
Your proposed #MaskBan is ill-advised, @governor.ny.gov #GovHochul and is a danger to #PublicHealth. Please read www.forbes.com/sites/judyst... and see that you don't need to ban #masks for facial recognition
Beautiful lawn, but maybe consider planting some trees? to offset loss of trees/wildlife habitat elsewhere? Right now, I'm sad because my new next door neighbor plans to cover his entire back yard in concrete. At least I won't have to look at it with the 8' fence he's putting up.
This reminds me of the classic Honeymooners bit where Ed Norton "addresses the ball." www.youtube.com/watch?v=70bb...
Congratulations! So well deserved. ProPublica is doing essential reporting on important issues.
Congratulations! Great work—and I know there will be more important pieces to come.
*answered* (wish we had an edit button)
Oops, I see you answer that. I agree, this one will likely be worse.
1987 crash? Or older/more recent?
Sickening and heartbreaking.
And they don’t care.
Yeah, I really trust the pronouncements of a former football coach over analyses by professional economists.
For those not already listening to The Business podcast, here's a link: www.kcrw.com/culture/show...
Strongly recommend @kimmasters.bsky.social interview with documentarian @alexgibneyfilm.bsky.social about his upcoming HBO project The Dark Money Game (based on @janemayer.bsky.social's book)—and other topics. The pernicious influence of dark $ is such an important issue at this time in US history.
My other half and I saw Cats when we were in London, so it was a first-rate production. We both disliked it so much we considered leaving half-way through but out of respect for the actors, we toughed it out. (It didn't get better.) A waste of so much talent, IMO.
That photo is giving off an Evita vibe.
Thank you for writing about this urgently important issue.
"Ah, but the strawberries!"
Is this a good use of taxpayer dollars?
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi... Court orders say that NIH staff must restart awarding medical research grants & issuing payments, but they're afraid to because the administration's lackeys have ordered them to hold off. This great piece by bsky.app/profile/kath... sums up this awful standoff.
Great piece by @monicahesse.bsky.social wapo.st/4i6mAD5
Guilty as charged: pour over + has a New Yorker subscription and reads it. I feel seen.
I love Canada and have visited all but the northernmost provinces (which I hope to visit someday). I wouldn't be surprised to find myself returning to beautiful Canada soon as a vaccine tourist.
🌞🏖️🌴 Lucky you! I don't hate you, even a little, but please send a little sunshine in my direction to break up the cold, gray winter in these parts.
Marty Baron is absolutely right. It's a disgraceful position for a major American newspaper to take. It's heartbreaking and enraging to see this happen.
I agree that it's awful & Putinesque for the White House to do this. On the other hand, what's coming out of the WH press briefings is lie after lie from Karolyn Leavitt, & denial after denial of any fact-based assertions from reporters. So is the public benefiting from coverage of these briefings?
Have the @DOGE folks made it to the part of the system yet that shows private Medicare Advantage plans get paid by the government 22% more than costs would be in traditional Medicare?
Just subscribed earlier this week! Keep up your good, important work.
Preach it, Joan.
I would actually hate being a White House correspondent right now. How many times can you say "... the President/Press Secretary said, despite evidence to the contrary"?
SCOOP: Cats that became infected with bird flu might have spread the virus to humans in the same household and vice versa, according to data that briefly appeared online in a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but then abruptly vanished. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/h...
Did she have any difficulty getting down? Beautiful dog!
I think it’s mostly about the money but I’m convinced there are other factors. For some of them, they also love the high of power over others and the ability to wreak vengeance over people who have pushed back and those they see as a threat.
@USAID is enduring an unlawful shutdown, purge, and dismantling. It’s thrown its vital work into turmoil—based on spurious, absurd, and willfully slanted attacks. Here's what’s real: the massive and growing harm now being caused. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/h...
Notice that the mourning doves drink differently than most birds. Most birds take a sip and tip the head back to allow water to trickle down the throat. Pigeons and doves immerse the bill and suck up water!
PLEASE CALL/EMAIL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPS AND DEMAND ACTION. Call/write frequently. Letters/calls from constituents do matter. www.congress.gov/contact-us
Call your senators and urge them to vote no on Trump’s nominations for AG and FBI director. The Senate needs to assert its power to check Trump’s retribution tour. He is illegally firing lawyers and agents who prosecuted violent attackers of police officers.
In addition, the American people paid for these resources. Removing them is essentially theft.
A new era of government censorship has begun. It started with the silencing of scientific speech, when the admin blocked release of research on bird flu. But MAGA has also cracked down on other wrongthink—on race, geography (!), and of course Trump himself www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Timeline cleanse.
Interesting idea. I have no idea if that's a factor.
Mentoring and supporting new leadership in the Democratic Party is essential to a vibrant and forward-looking party. 👏
Alas, so many wonderful books out there and we can't read them all.
Also, it’s not a preoccupation I’ve ever seen women entertain, though I suppose I could be wrong about that.
It seems to me that the very idea of imagining oneself writing The Great American Novel takes massive hubris. I’m curious—do writers outside of the US imagine themselves writing The Great Novel?
This morning Uganda announced a new Ebola outbreak. The last time there was an Ebola outbreak in Uganda, the CDC worked with the WHO on helping end it. But now, the CDC can’t even talk to the WHO. I repeat, again and again, this is pure stupidity that will only hurt us.
I found this account about the crash gripping and illuminating.
There is no reasonable justification to "pausing" publication of MMWR, a key source of important information for public health. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
I ran @USAID health programs for the last 3 years. Trump’s 90 day Stop Work Order on foreign assistance does serious damage to the world and the US. Examples:🧵
Same.
I'm so sorry. I hope things work out so that doesn't happen.
Timeline cleanse. www.facebook.com/reel/1338068...
The US, and the world, have benefited immensely by the work done by federally funded science. Now, the new administration is crippling the scientific enterprise. The ripple effects will be immense. Article below from Science. It's a sobering read. www.science.org/content/arti...
Study sections are the review panels that allocate NIH research grants. They bring in experts from around the country and have to be scheduled many months in advance; they provide the funds that keep the nation's biomedical research going. It's hard to overstate the disruption this causes.
This is concerning. The American public, which pays for the work of these agencies (and also funds the White House itself), deserves to be kept in the loop regarding health information that can be important to our well-being.
The Biden executive order Trump rescinded called for the development of new approaches to lower drug costs. The big question, which Trump hasn’t addressed yet, is what he’ll do with government negotiation of drug prices under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Trump has rescinded a Biden executive order calling for the development of policies to lower drug costs for people in Medicare and Medicaid.
There are a lot of busy lawyers out there. Trump doesn't just issue an EO & that's it. There will be challenges, some of them lengthy, over legality & constitutionality. The Supreme Court gave him immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts, not omnipotence.
We cannot make WHO more effective by walking away from it. The decision to withdraw weakens America's influence, increases the risk of a deadly pandemic, and makes all of us less safe.
In 2020, we mapped out the danger zones that will close in on Americans over the next 30 years — combining climate data with wildfire projections by US Forest Service researchers. See what changes are in store for your county. By @shaw.al , @abrahm.bsky.social & Jeremy W. Goldsmith
Stay safe!
This is a major structural change to western capitalism that gets little coverage. The implications have been, and will continue to be, profound (including for anyone with a pension scheme). It's one of the key components of increased wealth inequality.
anntelnaes.substack.com/p/with-grati...
Fascinating/daunting article (FREE LINK) on how the rise in sea levels in the South is "blowing past expectations" & how rise is unequal along the coastlines. Many factors (including gravitational pull of the ice sheets!) play a role. The graphics in this piece are amazing. wapo.st/3ZYVaat
No one should be surprised by the rage that so many people have about US health care (& health care insurance). We're tired of being treated as marks. Free link to article by Elisabeth Rosenthal. wapo.st/3D7aPfW
Among many things to be thankful for, I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving Day Fresh Air podcast, with Terry Gross interviewing Yo-Yo Ma (and he plays snippets throughout!). A lovely interlude on this Thanksgiving Day. Do yourself a favor, follow this link and listen: www.npr.org/2024/11/28/1...
Most Medicaid enrollees who are not elderly or disabled are already working. The vast majority of those who aren't are not working due to illness, caregiving responsibilities, or school. www.kff.org/medicaid/iss...
bird sounds
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not a “skeptic” of vaccines. He has said there are no safe or effective vaccines. He is a foe of vaccines.
"Controversial Views"? The man ignores science. Don't do this NPR. We need you.
Very happy to see you here!