Rachel 🌎🚀🛰️🔭💫
@rachelbc.bsky.social
Research scientist @MIT working with @NASA to make Earth & space more accessible & engaging. Here for the science 🧪
The new #OMB rules would transform funding decisions. I don't know where I would be without #NSF funding. Thanks @agu.org for providing a way to submit comments about the latest set of disastrous OMB rule changes. Deadline Aug 24th #resist agu.quorum.us/campaign/dvw...
Submit your comment now to help stop NSF from implementing harmful grantmaking changes
A new proposed rule would rewrite the terms of U.S. science at NSF. Submit a comment today to fight back.
agu.quorum.us
The majority of people have “underlying health issues”, which can also include being elderly! Do not normalize this weakening of regulation because “only the weak or sick” are affected!! #publichealth
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2d agoBreaking News: Two deaths in Michigan have been linked to cyclospora. Both people who had the parasite also had underlying health issues.
Urban firestorms like the one that devastated Spokane Saturday have been growing more common because of increased development in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) and climate change. In this post, I document 9 such fires since 2016 in the U.S. yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/08/urba...
Urban firestorm devastates Spokane as dense smoke envelops the Northwest » Yale Climate Connections
Climate change, combined with development in high-risk areas, is making urban wildfires more likely.
yaleclimateconnections.org
This story from #ohio is an important one. Of how broken promises are made to voters that lead to disengagement and loss of agency in communities. #jobs #manufacturing
The last day of a factory in Trump country, as its work moves to China — The Washington Post
For generations, this Ohio factory was a way of life. Then came the final shift.
apple.news
A chilling look into #dataviz dashboard design capabilities. The last line is the scariest (so far): “Last year, an artificial intelligence lab in the police bureau was named for him.” #AI www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/w...
How China Keeps Tabs on Foreigners
An unsecured police dashboard was a rare window into how the authorities track foreigners by collecting and aggregating vast amounts of private data.
nytimes.com
The findings suggest that the pedagogical value of GenAI feedback in higher education depends less on the availability of AI-generated critique than on how feedback processes are designed. #AI #highered link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Human-centered GenAI feedback design in higher education: a multisite experiment on direct, reflective, and hybrid approaches to scientific argumentation - International Journal of Educational Technol...
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly used for feedback in higher education, yet evidence remains limited on how alternative human–AI feedback designs shape learning processes and...
link.springer.com
Gone are most of Head Start’s 133 pages of requirements for math and literacy curriculums, class sizes, medical screenings, home visits and a requirement that children brush their teeth after meals. The head says federal child care rules should “fit on an index card in my back pocket.” 😡 #edusky
Trump Administration Plans to Upend Head Start by Deregulating It
The White House tried but failed to block funding for preschool for poor children. Instead, it will seek to strip away standards on health, literacy — and brushing teeth.
nytimes.com
If I were still teaching high school #physics this would have been such a fun kinematics problem #edusky
Luke Knox@lukeknox.me · 5d agothis is my new favorite diagram
The FDA won’t tell Americans where their generic drugs are made, so ProPublica did it instead. Use information from your prescription label to locate the factory and see if the plant has a history of inspection violations.
Where Was My Generic Prescription Drug Made? - Rx Inspector - ProPublica
The FDA won’t tell Americans where their generic drugs are made, so ProPublica did it instead. Use information on your prescription label to locate the factory and see inspection reports.
projects.propublica.org
#scicomm oh how the scientists have fallen 😢
David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · 2w agoFacing federal science budget cuts, biologist Daniel Blumstein resorted to uploading marmot videos to OnlyFans to raise funds for his marmot research. However, when he uploaded his driver’s license for verification, OnlyFans informed him that his appearance didn’t match the marmots in the videos.
If someone would just invest in designing an app and online infrastructure for those over 70 they would be a billionaire. #eldercare #aging
Back In My Day Old People
ALT: Back In My Day Old People
static.klipy.com
Pornainen, Finland (pop 5,000) is now heated by a silo of crushed soapstone. I spoke to CNBC about it. 100 MWh, charged when power is cheap, emissions down ~70%. Days to weeks of storage, no critical minerals. www.cnbc.com/2026/07/25/f...
Finland’s radical answer to renewable energy’s biggest headache: The world’s largest sand battery
A small Finnish town has turned to the world's largest commercial sand battery to tackle a major hurdle in the energy transition: intermittency.
cnbc.com
"'Mind-blowing' El Niño stuns scientists. Why are they so concerned?" | Comprehensive, balanced piece by @dinahvp.bsky.social on the current El Niño event and what we're likely to see, via @usatoday.com: www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...
'Mind-blowing' El Niño stuns scientists. Why are they so concerned?
A Pacific El Niño is setting daily warm water records. Scientists say the world is in uncharted waters and they aren't sure what will happen next.
usatoday.com
It's Been 84 Years - Titanic Quote
ALT: It's Been 84 Years - Titanic Quote
static.klipy.com
Nanoraptor@nanoraptor.danamania.com · 2w agoYou suddenly get a narrator describing your life and there’s no way to turn it off - everyone can hear it. While shopping, at work, at home, with friends - the voice narrating your every move goes on. Who do you hope is the voice of this narrator?
#AI private schools open in #boston with no teachers I. The classroom— but $60k a year?! #edusky www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/...
Three 'AI schools' to open in Greater Boston this fall, with no teachers - Boston Business Journal
Three new schools with an emphasis on AI-based learning plan to open this fall — with no teachers in the classrooms.
bizjournals.com
#scicomm #media this is terrible news. How will #AI cannibalize content what there be no more content creators and creatives? It’s a race to the bottom
Asher Elbein@asherelbein.bsky.social · 2w ago"Most of the affected employees were at National Geographic, both at the cable network as well as editorial and operations." 🫠
Amy J. Ko@amyko.phd · 2w agoToday I'm grateful for the new PK-12 CSTA standards, which address diversity in much more robust ways! To celebrate, we've released a 2nd edition of Critically Conscious Computing, incorporating the new standards and suggestions for how to take them even further: criticallyconsciouscomputing.org
The irony that this is in civics is 🤯 These are not subjective questions, so scoring should not be up to the judges discretion. #edusky
Charlotte Clymer@charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 2w agoThis story is crazy. It would appear Trump admin officials rigged their nationally televised high school civics contest to keep a young man from a Sikh family out of the finalists. www.notus.org/national/ame...
“When young people stop believing that long-term effort will improve their lives, something larger is lost: the capacity to imagine a meaningful future.” Gen Z Has Lost Its Ambition. Maybe It’s Found Something Better. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/o...
Opinion | Gen Z Has Lost Its Ambition. Maybe It’s Found Something Better.
For Gen Z college graduates, the way millennials lived out their ambitions no longer makes sense.
nytimes.com
Once you understand that this is a model of science written by non-scientists who hate universities but love venture capital and redirecting money to political allies, everything makes a lot more sense. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/u...
Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities
Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.
nytimes.com
![Comic. [Person 1 with short hair on stage behind podium reading off paper while addressing audience. People are shown sitting in chairs while Person 2 with ponytail and Person 3 waving are walking toward stage.] PERSON 1: This year’s Nobel Prize in “calibrating your equipment carefully and not embarrassing yourself by publishing spurious results” goes to Dr. Adams and Dr. Smith, who did *not* announce the discovery of microbes on Titan. PERSON 3: Thank you, thank you.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreihztdrvxjeyzmz6dmz3xb4vi6wiwwtge6fwdoxjcum5aptndv3kfm)
