Becca

WBAL in Baltimore helping viewers understand the difference between watches and warnings

From the grave to the cradle: evidence that mortality salience engenders a desire for offspring - PubMed On the basis of terror management theory, the authors hypothesized that reminders of mortality (mortality salience) should promote the desire for offspring to the extent that it does not conflict with other self-relevant worldviews that also serve to manage existential concerns. In 3 studies, men, b …

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16060742/

The U.S. borrowed $50 billion a week for the past five months, finds the CBO: 'Our fiscal problems will not solve themselves' | Fortune "We need policymakers to come together, agree to reduce deficits ... and put our national debt on a downward sustainable path as a share of the economy."

And once more I need to ask: If Trump's goal was to completely obliterate the United States as a political, economical, or even ideological entity, then what, exactly, would he be doing differently?

fortune.com/2026/03/10/t...

For reference, the DoD cut $15M in pancreatic cancer research funding last year.

Miscarriage Is Increasingly Dangerous for Women in Texas, Our Analysis Shows. Here’s How We Did It. Using seven years of hospital discharge data, we found that the number of blood transfusions during emergency room visits for first-trimester miscarriage shot up by 54% since Texas banned abortion.

Our analysis, which shows that more women nearly bled to death during miscarriage after Texas banned abortion, adds to a growing body of reporting revealing that maternal outcomes have gotten worse under bans.

(Published July 2025)

Man having a teenager is not for the faint of heart, y'all.

This is hilarious.

Also, completely enraging.

in case you've never seen it, this is Roger Ebert on The Mummy

This is so heartbreaking, and also I am going to make my PSA again.

Babies can be vaccinated against measles as young as six months, it’s just not standard. It’s usually only recommended for international travel in the US. But guess what? We’re the plague pit now.

Everyone knows that if its not a bundle of rods and an ax from the Italian region of Vetulonia, it's not a fascism- just sparkling brutality conducted on behalf of a single head of state

It's hard to remember Iraq being as popular as it was, but when it enjoyed this approval rating people thought it'd be mischief managed in a fortnight instead of "9" years (that stretched on and on)

I've seen Wicked. They will absolutely try to make defying gravity criminal.

Graph of award probability of R01 from NIH factbook as a function of review rank percentile. Fiscal year 2025 is a significant departure, with lower award probabilities at all scores <40 and significant departures from norm, where even being in the top 10% is no longer a nearly certain indicator of success.

@joshuasweitz.bsky.social recently posted this graph that shocked but did not surprise me.

This graph is based on data recently release by NIH

report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/...

2/20

But he and Epstein always thought that meant they were super geniuses with no female peers. The variance distribution is real, but not on IQ but on ethical reasoning. And they are left tail people not right tail people.

5 states (Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Washington) have an *option* for a citizenship status designation (enhanced real id). The vast majority of IDs Americans use for these purposes are no good for thr SAVE act.

Hot take but the spike in fertilizer prices is the thing I'm sweating

Steve isn’t quite ready for Tuesday. Actually… he’s not really ready for anything.

Honestly some days as a Mom I'm just playing the long game for being a grandma. I mean both my kids say they don't want kids but I'm gonna spoil their puppies to pieces and never have to house train

you don’t hate rich people enough

Thousands protested yesterday at 70+ Citizens Bank branches in 13 states, from Virginia to Vermont.

Our message was clear: Stop financing notorious ICE prison companies CoreCivic and The GEO Group.

#deicecitizensbank #deicecitizens #iceout

The internet, on scientists: They're secretive gatekeepers, they hoard esoterica/the truth, they don't want anyone in their ivory tower little clubs

Actual scientists: LOOK, WE FOUND A 300 MILLION YEAR OLD FOSSILIZED CLOACCAL IMPRESSION AND THE VENT IS HORIZONTAL! PLZ READ MY 67-PAGE PAPER ABOUT IT

C&EN's brand-new short video series is here! Each month, ChemReels features science communicators diving into chemistry subjects you've been curious about, with all the technical detail intact. Join Maciek Majdecki as he guides us through the incredible science of fluorescence:

#chemsky 🧪

Never daylight. Forever night.

Three round-bottom flasks, one beaker, and an Erlenmeyer flask contain substances that glow different colors under UV light.

“It looks like a tiny solar system. But instead of planets, it’s a snapshot of my research journey in the lab,” says Sadiya Tanga, a chemistry graduate student at Ashoka University. Read more: cen.acs.org/synthesis/Ch...

#chemsky 🧪

What is Plumpy'Nut? Plumpy'Nut is an effective tool to combat malnutrition, providing essential nutrients to severely malnourished children.

*side note, I knew of RUTFs mostly through John Green describing them, but Plumpy'Nut has to be the most hilarious name. Which, you know, if it helps people remember it and fund MSF, then Godspeed www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/what-...

?

Plumpy'nut - Wikipedia

When I was a kid I thought George Washington Carver was a bit overhyped, but honestly the older I get the more I appreciate peanut butter. I'm sick and have no appetite but could handle peanut butter bread. Plus without PB, would we have lifesaving Plumpy'Nut? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy%...

I mean I actually wasn't in one of the blessed states that had access to this, and I never pay to do my taxes www.irs.gov/e-file-do-yo...

The American Job Quality Study

A huge portion of jobs in the US economy are structured either Medieval Guild (massive barrier to entry/high wages, e.g. physicians) or Ponzi scheme (low barrier to entry, race to the bottom wages e.g. Uber driver). We weren't starting from a good base before AI www.jff.org/idea/the-ame...

Pedantic historically aware quibble- but the Luddites weren't mindlessly in favor of "hand labor drudgery" over "mechanical progress!", they were actually simply about "skilled craftsman Labor" over "Owners of the Means of Production Undercutting Capital".