for the first time in two and a half years, a new note was played in this organ performance today!
![Organ²/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible) is a musical piece by John Cage.[1]
An organ in St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt in 2001 began a performance that is due to end in 2640. This makes it the longest running non-computerized piece currently being performed.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cyyd366g3hrxp5rynixm2mm3/bafkreiabq354dz537iuzii7lwylq56yyr4bcrzkj32by4z7fq3clewmssy)
Michael L. Barnett
@mlbarnett.bsky.social
health policy researcher, primary care physician, dad
Mass General Brigham 🤝 Palantir www.bostonglobe.com/2026/08/04/n...
Mass General Brigham was talking about partnering with controversial data firm Palantir. Blowback was swift. - The Boston Globe
After a Mass General Brigham exec told employees the health network might work with AI firm Palantir, pushback came quickly from workers worried about the company's links to the Trump administration.
bostonglobe.com
I just cannot fathom that doctors like this not only exist but command the highest level of respect saying garbage like this: "He described a proper bowel movement to me this way: odorless, wipe-free, over in three to seven seconds and “nearly orgasmic."" www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/m...
Diagnosis-contingent incentives that tie treatment incentives to diagnostic results reduce unnecessary treatment and improve welfare, from Maria Dieci, Paul Gertler, Jonathan T. Kolstad, and Carlos Paramo www.nber.org/papers/w35543
Time to offer this seminar again I see.
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 5d agothere are a lot of philosophical concepts that get egregiously misused out of the seminar room (and in the seminar room, to be fair). but in terms of sheer pernicious misuse "social construct" has gotta be top 5 somewhere and it's not number 5
this is one of the most unhinged things i've ever heard about vaccines. like how does this make any possible sense for anyone making vaccines.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6d agoRep. John McGuire: "I don't know if you heard about the BLT sandwich -- using human fetus baby parts in the vaccine when they could've used ivermectin"
This joke goes nuts if you, like me, are the son of a evangelical pastor who became an epidemiologist
Julia M. Rohrer@dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 6d agoNew blog post! Odds ratios are...a bit weird. Here I explain two problems (interpretation, non-collapsibility) and provide some simple recommendations for improved reporting. www.the100.ci/2026/07/30/r...
literally the plot device in the movie Brazil, minus the cool music arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months
When the first step goes wrong, bad results follow.
arstechnica.com
NEW Economist/YouGov Jul 25-27 72% of Independents strongly or somewhat disapprove of Trump's job performance, and only 19% approve — a net approval of -53, his lowest ever At this point in Trump's first term, his net approval among Independents was -5 d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/ec...
Homicides of white and wealthy people get more press attention. In this excellent new study, @jbenmenachem.com interviews journalists to understand why. Short version: journalists often recognize the inequity but feel constrained by resources and demands for novelty. doi.org/10.1111/1745...
Which deaths count? Debating homicide coverage amidst newsroom scarcity
Past research documents disparities in which homicides receive news coverage and how victims are portrayed, yet the organizational processes producing these patterns remain understudied. This paper a...
doi.org
Good reminder of how hard it is to access health insurance for people who are disabled by their conditions but in the waiting period for coverage for SSDI/Medicare. The mortality during the wait period for people with cancer (neoplasms) is nearly 40%. www.healthaffairs.org/doi/epdf/10....
New CBO paper: every $1 of federal R&D returns ~$3–$4 of GDP in present value over 30 years www.nber.org/papers/w35472
1/ I read it. Fascinating. On a surface level there are many things to like, incl faster review times and trying to fund investigators taking new directions. There are also some things that are troublesome, like moving away from life sciences and anti-immigrant bent.
Atheendar Venkataramani@atheendar.bsky.social · 2w agoThis is what I will be reading/focusing on: www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...
Just heard on @npr.org - Nigeria, a country of over 240 million, has only 80 oncologists
🚨New paper!🚨Who orders more testing: male physicians or female physicians? And what are the implications on patient outcomes? We examine these questions in the emergency department (ED) in @jamainternalmed.com .🧵1/
that's a big one
NEJM.org@nejm.org · 3w agoA man presented with a 2-month history of chest heaviness and a 2-week history of shortness of breath. Pulsations were visible between his ribs (shown in a video). Ultrasonography revealed a rounded structure near the heart. Read the full case details: https://nej.md/4wcvAO8
RFK Jr. asked the National Institute of Health to dedicate $5 billion (!) to finding a link between vaccines and autism. "That would have dedicated more than a tenth of the NIH’s annual budget to investigating a hypothesis already refuted by scientists worldwide."
Inside RFK Jr.’s push to dismantle decades of U.S. vaccine policy
Insider accounts reveal the scale of the health secretary's ambitions to curb childhood immunizations and unearth a link between vaccines and autism.
reuters.com
El Niño is now likely to be stronger than anything we’ve seen in recorded history, and probably stronger than anything in the last 50 million years. Global temperatures are very likely to reach new, unprecedented levels in the next 1-2 years with far reaching impacts. #climate
This Day in Labor History: July 5, 1935. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act. This created real labor law and allowed unions to survive. Let's talk about the most important labor law in American history!
NIH grants have been under political scrutiny since early 2025. But what does the screening process actually look like? What is being flagged? I spent a month digging into leaked docs and emails. We've published the 235-word list that are being flagged by an internal AI tool. And so much more. 🧵
Inside the new political screening that’s stalling NIH grants
Mandatory reviews by top health officials and checks for 235 disfavoured terms have left hundreds of vetted grant applications in administrative limbo.
nature.com
More reporting from @maxkozlov.bsky.social on the political screening process that is slowing public investment in science to a crawl www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Inside the new political screening that’s stalling NIH grants
Mandatory reviews by top health officials and checks for 235 disfavoured terms have left hundreds of vetted grant applications in administrative limbo.
nature.com
Noam Ross@noamross.net · last mo.Thousands of biomedical studies are stuck in limbo as NIH drags out renewals months after annual budgets expire. Since 2025, the rate of overdue renewals has TRIPLED. This leaves scientists unable to plan, keep staff employed, or maintain long-term research. grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0... #NIH 🧪
This is perhaps the most impressive #medical study I have seen in years: www.nature.com/articles/s41... It will save a lot of lives.
An ECG biomarker for sudden cardiac death discovered with deep learning - Nature
A deep-learning model trained on electrocardiogram (ECG) waveforms identifies an easily visible biomarker that predicts sudden cardiac death more accurately than the current clinical state of the art.
nature.com
It’s here, it’s finally hereeeee!!!! This paper is in the AER because of two people: my co-author @atheendar.bsky.social, and our copy-editor @sameyler.bsky.social.
AEA Journals@aeajournals.bsky.social · last mo.Forthcoming in the AER: "Rationing by Race" by Manasvini Singh and Atheendar Venkataramani.
NEW at @thebulwark.com The fate of 300K+ Haitian refugees hangs on a Supreme Court ruling that could come any day now Here’s why America’s senior citizens—and their families—could pay a huge price www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-dep...
Trump’s Deportation Agenda Awaits SCOTUS—With Grandma at Risk
The status of hundreds of thousand refugees will be determined in the coming days. Seniors dependent on caregivers may suffer tremendously for it.
thebulwark.com
holy sh*t, STAT is not messing around "STAT does not know who the patient is. But given the patient demographics and the unusual nature of the application, STAT asked the White House whether the patient was President Trump" www.statnews.com/2026/06/23/e...
Eli Lilly gave extraordinary obesity drug access to a 79-year-old patient. Who was it?
Exclusive: STAT has learned that Eli Lilly and the FDA allowed a 79-year-old to gain extraordinary access to an experimental obesity drug through the agency’s “compassionate use” program.
statnews.com
Archaeologists: D.C. Capitol May Have Once Been Used For Legislating
Archaeologists: D.C. Capitol May Have Once Been Used For Legislating
WASHINGTON—Calling the discovery the “clearest proof yet” of how the U.S. government was originally designed to function, archaeologists published new evidence Thursday that suggests the Capitol build...
theonion.com