antsara.bsky.social
@antsara.bsky.social
Reposted
Consider giving donations to the museums you value as holiday gifts this year.
npr.org NPR @npr.org · Nov 12
The American Alliance of Museums put out its annual industry snapshot and it's not great. Trump's targeting of museum programming had downstream effects and put a "chill on corporate philanthropy." n.pr/43lIZa7
Museums had a rough 2025: Report shows lower attendance, lost grants, less money
The American Alliance of Museums put out its annual industry snapshot and it's not great. Trump's targeting of museum programming had downstream effects and put a "chill on corporate philanthropy."
n.pr
November 12, 2025 at 11:47 AM
A beetle lost, a beetle found: just one of many examples of the endless bounty tucked away in the drawers of natural history museums.
val.vtecostudies.org/newsfeed/new...
How the Rediscovery of a 150-Year-Old Specimen Revealed Vermont’s 48th Lady Beetle Species | Vermont Atlas of Life
After over 150 years, researchers confirmed that Vermont's holotype specimen of the Snow Lady Beetle had been hiding in plain sight at the Harvard MCZ with its location misclassified due to faded coll...
val.vtecostudies.org
December 5, 2025 at 11:48 AM
A fantastic resolution to this sorry saga - yay museums and libraries everywhere, you are doing great work!
NEWS: The Institute of Museum & Library Services has restored ALL previously canceled federal grants to libraries, following a ruling by a federal judge in Rhode Island last month.

This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory!

Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...
December 4, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Reposted
Essential reading if you care about the health of scientific inquiry in the US

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine
A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Career highlight - a new species of spider has been named after me! Thanks to Ingi Agnarsson for the shout-out.
November 22, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted
new paper by Sean Westwood:

With current technology, it is impossible to tell whether survey respondents are real or bots. Among other things, makes it easy for bad actors to manipulate outcomes. No good news here for the future of online-based survey research
November 18, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted
This is a freaking travesty.
November 17, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Consider giving donations to the museums you value as holiday gifts this year.
npr.org NPR @npr.org · Nov 12
The American Alliance of Museums put out its annual industry snapshot and it's not great. Trump's targeting of museum programming had downstream effects and put a "chill on corporate philanthropy." n.pr/43lIZa7
Museums had a rough 2025: Report shows lower attendance, lost grants, less money
The American Alliance of Museums put out its annual industry snapshot and it's not great. Trump's targeting of museum programming had downstream effects and put a "chill on corporate philanthropy."
n.pr
November 12, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Reposted
Happy #JellyfishDay! The oceans are increasingly full of these gelatinous invertebrates, provoking a range of responses in humans, from disgust to awe. The biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel was most certainly in the latter camp... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/ernst-haeckels-jellyfish
November 3, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted
Some charts for those who don't know the extent of the US public (and private) investment in research (particularly in biomedical research) compared to other countries and institutions. The destruction of the US' scientific institutions has global implications.
November 2, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Basic science matters! If you do not understand how the world works, you have no hope of fixing things when they go wrong, or designing a life-changing innovation. Scientists are in it for the long game, and you should be too. #SaveNSF
October 30, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted
I thought I'd put the administration's proposed "compact" with universities in context, so I wrote the blog post below.

It's especially for journalists covering this story!

Many details about how the compact itself works and why the administration has retreated to this strategy.
Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
balkin.blogspot.com
October 4, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Reposted
for any UVA folks that follow me you should circulate this among your networks balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
balkin.blogspot.com
October 5, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted
The Trump Administration’s “Compact of Excellence” for Universities is... far from excellent! Indeed, it’s unconstitutional. In this post, let me count the ways.

blog.dividedargument.com/p/the-uncons...
The Unconstitutional Conditions Doctrine and the Compact for Excellence
Members of the Trump administration love to say that federal funding is a privilege not a right and therefore something that can be granted or withheld based on changing administrative priorities.
blog.dividedargument.com
October 3, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Reposted
Hear! effing Hear!

[Gift link]

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...
Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion
www.nytimes.com
October 3, 2025 at 3:17 PM
I love Gretchen Wilson's version of Kris Kristofferson's Sunday Morning Coming Down.
youtu.be/EQzr1DPlxdY?...
September 15, 2025 at 3:21 AM
A crazy ant story to brighten up your day:
www.science.org/content/arti...
Ant queen lays eggs that hatch into two species
Bizarre discovery of interspecies cloning “almost impossible to believe,” biologists say
www.science.org
September 3, 2025 at 7:53 PM
The "Oversight" EO will make it impossible to challenge even baldy political funding decisions. Congress needs to include language reasserting the primacy of peer review and career staff evaluation over political appointee "judgement".
Furthermore, #Vought has used presidential executive orders to interfere with #NIH research priority-setting, so that any research he doesn't like, doesn't get funded. Usually scientists make these decisions. #Vought thinks he knows better. Congress has to figure out how to stop this. 3/
September 2, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Reposted
The bill is not posted but multiple sources tell me that it contains a provision that multi-year funding cannot exceed fiscal year 2024 levels.

I will check as soon as it is posted.
Big highlight was Senator Baldwin calling out the NIH MYF “policy”
July 31, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted
IMPORTANT UPDATE IMPORTANT UPDATE

Regarding APHU/ACLU et al. vs. NIH Lawsuit
a cartoon of a man and a dog with the words now 's the time for action written on the bottom
ALT: a cartoon of a man and a dog with the words now 's the time for action written on the bottom
media.tenor.com
July 30, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Reposted
July 30, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Reposted
IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT

Please watch the workshop video and COMMENT by 5:00 Monday 7/14

This is the source of the "no more model organism only grants in NIH-funded research" decree.
Dear all, PLEASE add comments on the importance of model organism research at this link:
July 12, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Reposted
NEW: NSF will be kicked out of their building. Announcement will be made tomorrow by HUD Sec. and Governor of VA. HUD will take over the NSF building over the next two years.

NSF staffer: "There is no planning for NSF, no identified future location, appropriation for a new building or a move."
June 24, 2025 at 10:20 PM