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Reposted by Emily Barkley-Levenson

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 1d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Aug 2

Been staying with family in MN for the last two weeks watching every Twins game, and we were so sad to see Bader go! Will miss him and his epic villain-in-an-80s-ski-movie mullet. Glad he’s getting a big welcome.

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Jul 20

If you ever need to explain to someone what “don’t threaten me with a good time” means

Sexy CHOAM Nomsky costume @samthielman.com · Jul 19

Nice to see Cuomo finally being a team player and campaigning for Zohran

US News
NEW YORK POST
Metro
Long Island
Politics
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World N
METRO
EXCLUSIVE
Andrew Cuomo says he 'will move to Florida' if Zohran Mamdani becomes NYC
mayor
By Carl Campanile and Rich Calder
Published July 19, 2025, 3:31 p.m. ET
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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Jul 9

Yes, this! Plus, every researcher is already applying 3 Rs of animal research (replacement, reduction, refinement). Use fewest animals of least biological complexity and treat them as humanely as possible. Animal research is still essential to advance science/medicine for humans AND animals.

@LaBonneLaB @labonnelab.bsky.social · Jul 8

This is so wrong-headed. You could not pay me to take a drug that was not tested in animals, and animal models remain absolutely essential for discovery research www.statnews.com/2025/05/19/a...

Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Jun 14

Mine turned out pretty well too

Protest sign reading “YES QUEENS NO KINGS” with some pictures of the drag queens RuPaul, Jinkx Monsoon and Brigitte Bandit doing a story time

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Jun 14

Proud parenting moment that my 6-year-old makes a legit excellent protest sign
#nokings

Protest sign in kid’s handwriting that says “put Trump in the dump! (The government too) (for now)”

Protest sign in kid’s handwriting that says “protect everyone” in uneven lettering, with a circle saying “ceasefire now and forever” and a 🚫 over Trump’s name

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Jun 14

Spectacular! ✨

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · May 31

For undergrads this shit is an automatic F and an honor code violation, just saying.

DrHello @drhellodarkness.bsky.social · May 29

When you have a non-scientist faking "science," they commit science fraud and plagiarism:
www.thedailybeast.com/rfk-jrs-maha...

RFK Jr.’s MAHA Report Included Lots of Bogus Studies

The 73-page document details seven reports that don’t appear to exist.

www.thedailybeast.com

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · May 31

Anecdata supporting this: most PhDs I know (myself included) are from lower-middle to middle-middle-class families. Smart kids who couldn’t fathom paying $200K for grad school so we TAed for $20K salary & no debt. The rich kids went to law school or business school, some med school.

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · May 31

But seriously, if you or a loved one have dealt with mental illness or substance abuse and wish there were better treatments, making more researchers scramble for less $$ is not the way.

Time to tell your senators that proposed FY26 is hot garbage and that you expect them to stand with NIH & NSF🧪🧠

Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · May 31

Also, this combining of institutes is just nonsensical. Teeth and eyes, now they’re brains! Child health and deafness go together because, uh, kids can be deaf? (But vision isn’t part of sensory disorders? It’s with brains) It’s like they put them on a dartboard and threw randomly.
🧪🧠

Proposed consolidation of NIH institutes in a truly hodgepodge fashion, such as “while and women’s health, sensory disorders and communication“

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · May 31

In the FY26 proposed budget, an almost 50% cut to funding for mental health and substance abuse research. That “Behavioral Health” bucket includes NIMH, NIAAA and NIDA, but funding is approx what NIMH *alone* currently has.
🧪🧠

Chart from proposed budget FY26 showing funding to NIH institutes (it doesn’t state explicitly on the chart but these are massive budget cuts)

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · May 21

Have you needed their customer service at all? In grad school I had some issues with ornate survey flow/randomization and found their staff shockingly, pleasantly helpful.

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Reposted by Emily Barkley-Levenson

Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.bsky.social · Apr 13

This Passover I’m thinking hard about the holiday’s history of resistance to tyrannical leaders, and the imperative for Jewish people to stand with all oppressed peoples of the world.

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Mar 1

evergreen

The Onion @theonion.com · Mar 1

De Blasio: ‘Well, Well, Well, Not So Easy To Find A Mayor That Doesn’t Suck Shit, Huh?’ theonion.com/de-blasio-we...

De Blasio: ‘Well, Well, Well, Not So Easy To Find A Mayor That Doesn’t Suck Shit, Huh?’

NEW YORK—Clucking his tongue with mock disappointment, Bill De Blasio announced to New Yorkers that “It’s not so easy to find a mayor that doesn’t suck shit after all, huh?” during a press conference ...

theonion.com

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Mar 1

Also at risk? The postbac program, 2 years of training for the brightest grads who go on to become doctors & researchers.

Foreign scientists whose NIH contracts aren’t renewed lose their visas.

American science used to attract and retain the best people in the world. No hyperbole, that’s ending.

Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Mar 1

These are folks on renewable contracts doing “blue-sky research with high stakes but potentially high reward.” Lifesaving stuff made possible by NIH’s unrivaled research infrastructure, bigger than any one university. “There are entire branches that would be gutted within 6 months.”

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Mar 1

More devastating assaults on American science research, this time trying to purge 3200 NIH senior scientists doing cutting-edge research at agencies like the Natl Cancer Institute, Natl Institute on Aging, Drug Abuse, Mental Health, Heart, Lung & Blood Inst, etc.
🧪🧠

NIH ban on renewing senior scientists adds to assaults on its in-house research

Policy follows firings of tenure-track scientists and suspension of training programs

www.science.org

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Reposted by Emily Barkley-Levenson

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Feb 7

This is a de facto massive budget cut to research universities. We are talking Great Recession size impacts.

David F. Warner @dwarnersoc.bsky.social · Feb 7

⚠️ Effective Monday 2/10/25, NIH indirect rate capped at 15%. Applies to existing & future grants.

—> Deep budget cuts & program closures coming to a university near you.

Is this the break the glass moment for university administrators who have been silent so far about the attack on science?

NOT-OD-25-068: Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates

NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates NOT-OD-25-068. OD

grants.nih.gov

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Jan 30

I get to stand in solidarity with union comrades AND with Bowen Yang? John Early? Maris Kreizman? Julia Fox? Zohran Mamdani? Damon Lindelof? Hari Nef? Truly I will never be this cool again.

Kathryn VanArendonk @kvanaren.bsky.social · Jan 30

new york's hottest club is! reader walkout pledge.

it's got EVERYTHING: cole escola. labor solidarity. reading a gossipy list of names. ella emhoff. and ... you!
nymagunion.org/reader-pledge

READER PLEDGE — New York Mag Union

nymagunion.org

Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Jan 28

This piece also has great, succinct talking points to use when calling your reps about this! It’s worth creating a big, noisy backlash.

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Jan 28

Fantastic, super clear explanation by Dr. Choo of NIH grants process: takes “tens of thousands of reviewers annually on more than 1000 meetings with study sections like the one I should have been sitting in Thursday.” Even if/when the freeze ends, can’t just be restarted with a snap.
🧪

Esther Choo @choo.bsky.social · Jan 24

An explainer about how health research funding happens and why this NIH funding cycle shutdown matters: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Opinion | I’m a health researcher. NIH’s pause on research grants could have a devastating cost.

This is a potentially devastating event — not just for the scientific community, but for all Americans.

www.msnbc.com

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Jan 26

🤝 outdoor summer stock production of West Side Story

Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Jan 23

Biomedical research can’t just pause and start up again. An extended freeze like this is potentially dire for science in this country. Call me naive but I’m gobsmacked that the orgs doing research to cure cancer and COPD and Alzheimer’s are seen as partisan and expendable.

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Emily Barkley-Levenson @emilybl.bsky.social · Jan 23

NIH employees aren’t even sure if they are allowed to publish papers under the “communications freeze”. I used to promote the NIH Postbac program to my students, but with the hiring freeze its future is in question.

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