Sort of insane fact about how broken US urban planning is—America now spends more building *just the lights for roads and highways* than on all subways & ground mass transit combined Spending on roadway *pavement* is 18x transit spending

Exclusive: The National Science Foundation is trimming this year’s budgets for hundreds of its traditional basic science programs by roughly 20% to 30%, even though its overall budget is down just 3%. https://scim.ag/4xY2KCm

Exclusive: NSF slashes research programs to support new tech initiative, insiders say

Unexpected shift in funds has meant sharp drop in grants this fiscal year

science.org

"We think that building housing is part of the solution. We think net zero is part of the solution. We think a car-light development is part of the solution. We think building a sense of place and community is part of the solution." -- leader of the Squamish nation www.nytimes.com/2026/06/15/o...

Opinion | One City Might Have Just Cracked the Housing Crisis

nytimes.com

MIT Haystack Observatory’s SIMONe meteor radar network caught something at the same time that a loud boom was heard over eastern Massachusetts. Scientists are already analyzing the data!

After reading this newest essay of mine, one of my readers said via email, "This is probably the best article I've ever read advocating for UBI. And one of the best you've ever written." If you haven't read it yet, please do. Maybe you will feel the same way. 🎲 www.scottsantens.com/the-angine-d...

The Angine de Poitrine Argument for UBI

Why Angine de Poitrine's viral microtonal math rock KEXP session, Ireland's permanent basic income for artists, and Albert Einstein are three sides of the same human triangle Two guys in papier-mâc...

scottsantens.com

I think it's best for my mental health to stay the hell away from the internet today. But, now and forever, fuck ICE

This is our satellite. Bought and paid for with taxpayer dollars, appropriated for this specific mission by the elected Congress. Those who would destroy it on purpose are our enemies.

Dave Vetter@davidrvetter.bsky.social · last yr.

Head of NASA Sean Duffy intends to destroy a satellite that collects key data on carbon dioxide and plant health, by causing it to burn up in the atmosphere. The U.S. Dept of Agriculture and private agriculture firms use the data to forecast crop yield, drought conditions and more.

And I'll go farther than this: Democrats are never going to start winning elections again until they're willing to call a thing just what it is. Texas Democrats should be clear and persistent in saying that public service cuts overseen by non-experts desperate for billionaire tax cuts killed people.

I have no difficulty saying Trump and Musk caused the deaths of some of the 50+ people who died in the floods in Texas. And here's why: these two men with no expertise in disaster preparedness were told not to cut the positions they cut—and were told people would die if they did. Then people died.

“ICE gets a bigger budget than the Marine Corps” is a simple fact that should be communicated very widely because it clearly expresses how crazy and radical this is

David Burbach 🇺🇸@dburbach.bsky.social · last yr.

With this budget, ICE alone would have nearly as large a detention operation as all 50 states' prison systems combined. Bigger budget than the Marine Corps. Police-state levels of spending

If a 33 year old socialist immigrant Muslim can win the Dem mayoral nomination in a landslide in the biggest city in the entire country Fuck it man, the game is on, get this shit moving and start fighting

Cool cool cool. I’m not allowed to have a drink with dinner or buy modest upgrades from cattle car seats on transatlantic flights on federal grants, plus we’re audited every year…but it is somehow absolutely necessary for the head of HUD to kick out NSF to have an executive dining room?

Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social · last yr.

Some of his requests, per NSF staff: - Dedicated suite for him in the 19th floor - constructing an Executive Dining Room - reserved parking space for his 5 cars - exclusive use of 1 elevator for the Secretary - hosting the Secretary’s executive assistants in the 18th floor.

Maybe quit voting for their fucking bills then? Maybe quit confirming their nominees? Maybe shut down the Senate with the many procedural tools available to you? Maybe do something other than send sternly worded letters?

Chuck Schumer@schumer.senate.gov · last yr.

Sen. Padilla thrown to the ground, manhandled, brutally taken down, handcuffed It's disgusting Reeks of totalitarianism Un-American Not what democracies do Sen. Padilla was in that building to ask questions of what's going on in California, doing his duty to his constituents We need answers now

We should never let ourselves get desensitized to this. It can’t be overstated how outrageously unpresidential and un-American it is for Donald Trump to speak to the US military like they’re his partisan personal army.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last yr.

Trump goads the troops into booing California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass and attacks them as "incompetent"

do you ever think about how this is all happening for no reason at all?

Hell of a photo

Last week, NASA and NSF released their FY26 budget requests. We list the detailed impacts on the astronomical sciences in this blog post, and share how you can take action today. aas.org/posts/news/2... @policy.aas.org

saw a post saying we're not gonna see a human land on mars in our lifetime. i mostly agree but wanna sort of point out why. getting to mars: ez. solved. we've done it dozens of times with satellites, rovers and stuff. getting to mars has been solved for 60 years. but:

Cutting research at the National Science Foundation by more than half(!) is intentionally sabotaging the future. These are contracts the federal government competitively awards to universities to develop breakthroughs and train graduate students to become future leaders & experts. Future is at risk.

Gregg Gonsalves@gregggonsalves.bsky.social · last yr.

I don't think anyone outside of universities, pharma and biotech, independent research institutions have any idea of what is happening right now. If you haven't sounded the alarm among your friends, family and colleagues, now is the time to do it.

I realize that as a retired professor I have a responsibility to say more on this than I have. International students are essential to the fiscal bottom line of almost every university. This is an unambiguous attempt to destroy Harvard—permanently. And he won’t stop with Harvard. This is madness.

NSF Physics was cut by 85%, basically wiping out most of its capacity for supporting research. NSF Astronomy was cut by 53% Undergrad education was cut by 71% and research on learning by 79% Graduate education was cut by 100% to ZERO. #GiftLink ⚛️🔭 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades (Gift Article)

The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.

nytimes.com

It's #NEWSDR time again (already)! The New England Workshop for Software Defined Radio is May 29-30 @wpiedu.bsky.social (WPI): newsdr.org/workshops/ne... Haystack researchers Ryan Volz & Kazu Akiyama will give invite talks this year! Register by May 22 to attend: newsdr.org/workshops/ne...

This is absolutely devastating. ACAB. Regardless of what it says on their vests. Fascists, one and all.

Luke O'Neil@lukeoneil47.bsky.social · last yr.

A report from the scene of a horrifying kidnapping on the streets of Worcester, MA today by @billshaner.bsky.social www.welcometohellworld.com/they-dont-ne...

I'm calling for an army of volunteers to build a massive wiki that enumerates the things that Trump has broken and that will need fixing: presswatchers.org/2025/05/we-n... Are you with me?

We need a way to aggregate what Donald Trump is doing to this country | Press Watch

I'm calling for an army of volunteers to build a massive wiki that enumerates the things that are broken and will need fixing

presswatchers.org

Because no one spends as much on science as the US does, destroying NIH, NSF, NOAA, NASA, EPA, USDA, USGS, etc. is leading to a brain drain, but it's not to other countries but rather from science. This senseless destruction of US science will hurt the US and the world for a very long time.

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · 2y ago

To see why destroying the US science enterprise is so detrimental to the world, we have to realize that the US spends more on research and development than any other country in the world (by far), and if we remove China and Japan, the US spends almost as much as ALL other countries combined.

US ground-based astronomy has been largely funded by NSF, including EHT, as well as NRAO that operates world-leading radio telescopes. This will cut ~70%+ of the budget for the infrastructure, including buildings, equipment, and administrators, causing catastrophic damage to basic science research.

Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social · 2y ago

NEW: Starting May 5, NSF will implement an across-the-board 15% indirect cost rate (mirroring policies at DOE, NIH) Also, NSF staff expect 341 additional terminations today, bringing the total number of terminations to ~1,380.

I’m pretty sure all the astronomers already heard this bad news, but idk how many other folks know about this proposal—NASA science would be absolutely GUTTED if this passed. US astronomy & astrophysics would be dead. We can’t let this happen—tell your reps, & your friends! 🔭

Stand Up for Science!@standupforscience.net · 2y ago

NASA’s science programs are facing what experts are calling an “extinction-level event” under Trump’s proposed budget. From climate monitoring to planetary research, entire fields of discovery are on the chopping block. eos.org/research-and...

Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been sitting in a Salvadoran prison for over a month because the Trump Admin made a mistake. Now, the Admin is defying SCOTUS & refusing to bring him back. If we allow Trump to violate Kilmar's rights, none of our rights are safe. Kilmar is all of us.

Yashar Ali 🐘@yasharali.bsky.social · 2y ago

BREAKING The President of El Salvador says he will not be releasing Kilmar Abrego Garcia. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” The Supreme Court recently ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return. (Abrego-Garcia was never convicted of terrorism)