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Monica Gerber

@monicagerber

data scientist (@ Fred Hutch) / rock climber / reader of books / person on a bike https://www.monicagerber.com

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03.10.2023
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Latest posts by Monica Gerber @monicagerber

I find it bleak how many people seem to have given up on having any kind of intellectual life. Depression is rampant because we’ve abandoned books & hobbies in favor of joyless amusements. The single most attractive thing a person can do is read often & delight in learning.

12.02.2026 21:44 πŸ‘ 350 πŸ” 65 πŸ’¬ 9 πŸ“Œ 6

I get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning.

08.03.2026 00:22 πŸ‘ 12740 πŸ” 2775 πŸ’¬ 233 πŸ“Œ 195
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Here Comes the Sunscreen Ingredient the U.S. Has Been Waiting For (Little Darlin') What’s coming, what the science says, and what to do in the meantime

For the first time in decades, the U.S. sunscreen landscape is truly changing. A modern sunscreen filter that has been rigorously tested for safety will eventually give consumers more options that feel better, protect better, and fit seamlessly into everyday routines.

09.03.2026 13:23 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

it's worth reposting this at regular intervals these days

23.02.2026 23:03 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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❀️

30.01.2026 19:57 πŸ‘ 28067 πŸ” 9220 πŸ’¬ 361 πŸ“Œ 757
A bearded man in nurse's scrubs offers aid to Justice, wearing a blindfold and holding a sword and scales, who has fallen to her knees.

A bearded man in nurse's scrubs offers aid to Justice, wearing a blindfold and holding a sword and scales, who has fallen to her knees.

Street art memorializing Alex Pretti in Seattle. Per r/Seattle, it was painted on a building facing Swedish Hospital in the First Hill neighborhood www.reddit.com/r/nursing/co...

27.01.2026 04:00 πŸ‘ 8008 πŸ” 2507 πŸ’¬ 101 πŸ“Œ 92

What a way to end a week.

24.01.2026 00:42 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This shit is so inhumane it's unbelievable.

24.01.2026 00:41 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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photo 1/23/26 by Alex Kormann for The Minnesota Star Tribune

www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

24.01.2026 00:16 πŸ‘ 5072 πŸ” 1194 πŸ’¬ 120 πŸ“Œ 40
Two small children hold signs they made. "LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!" "ICE GIT OUT YA FUCKIN DUMBIES 😑"

Two small children hold signs they made. "LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!" "ICE GIT OUT YA FUCKIN DUMBIES 😑"

Gotta remind yourself not to cry when you see the kid's signs.

It's negative -25Β°F and tears are dangerous.

"LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!"

"ICE GIT OUT YA FUCKIN DUMBIES 😑"

23.01.2026 23:25 πŸ‘ 5663 πŸ” 1444 πŸ’¬ 40 πŸ“Œ 100
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πŸ“£Corvallis is a forming a new R-Ladies group and hosing their first event on Jan 22 at 5:30 pm at Common Fields. Details and an RSVP for the event are here: www.meetup.com/rladies-corv...

Please share widely!

@weare.rladies.org #Rstats #Rlang #R #oregon

15.01.2026 01:36 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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I’m a designer. The new food pyramid is outdated and confusing The new food pyramid represents β€œan outdated way of thinking about visual communication,” writes a designer.

In other news, @debbiemillman.bsky.social wrote about the design of the new food pyramid. Spoiler: it's terrible design reflecting terrible politics. www.statnews.com/2026/01/13/n...

15.01.2026 03:33 πŸ‘ 341 πŸ” 36 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 5
Wenatchee River at Peshastin

You know you work with data nerds when you post a Slack about nearby flooding and the conversation turns into how great @noaa.gov's plots are. water.noaa.gov/gauges/PESW1

10.12.2025 23:19 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Vibe Coding: Empowering and Imprisoning - Anil Dash A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

I sat for a long while with my complicated feelings about "vibe coding". It is _genuinely_ empowering for many β€” opening a door to creating with code that otherwise would never exist. Also? It enables a dangerous dependency that could be a path to serfdom for coders. www.anildash.com/2025/12/02/v...

02.12.2025 22:32 πŸ‘ 124 πŸ” 30 πŸ’¬ 18 πŸ“Œ 6
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Furloughed feds pick up Seattle beach trash to keep serving the public Furloughed federal employees were out in the rain picking up cigarette butts, bottle caps, and other trash at Seattle’s Golden Gardens Park on Friday.

Here in Seattle, furloughed NOAA employees were out in the pouring rain cleaning up beaches yesterday, part of a national week of service organized by federal workers who can't do their jobs due to the shutdown.

Story by @heyjohnryan.bsky.social at KUOW, our federally defunded public radio station.

25.10.2025 16:25 πŸ‘ 3278 πŸ” 1019 πŸ’¬ 34 πŸ“Œ 54
connect – Openscapes

πŸ“£ Come work @openscapes.bsky.social ! We're looking for a NASA Openscapes Team Member to improve access & use of NASA suborbital data thru reproducible notebook clinics. Apply by October 26, 2025. Start December 2025.

Details including pay rate: openscapes.org/connect#work...
Please share!

02.10.2025 17:35 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 15 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 5
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It's rude to show AI output to people | Alex Martsinovich Feeding slop is an act of war

distantprovince.by/posts/its-ru...

20.08.2025 20:51 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

Asking for someone's input and then getting chatgpt-generated text is so discouraging.

20.08.2025 17:57 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

If RFK Jr approach to develop a vaccine against all viruses involves sequentially exposing himself to each of these viruses and letting his amazing body develop a vaccine the natural way, then I highly endorse this approach.

I would start with something easy like Nipah or Hendra virus

08.08.2025 22:31 πŸ‘ 109 πŸ” 17 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 2
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In the Future All Food Will Be Cooked in a Microwave, and if You Can’t Deal With That Then You Need to Get Out of the Kitchen As a restaurant owner – I’m astounded at the rate of progress since microwaves were released a few short years ago. Today’s microwave can cook a frozen burrito. Tomorrow’s m…

"Many chefs I know get upset at me … But this is the truth: If you can’t cook everything you make in a microwave thats a skill issue. You need to learn now because when everything is cooked in a microwave you’ll be out of a job."

www.colincornaby.me/2025/08/in-t... (h/t @olivia.science )

08.08.2025 19:22 πŸ‘ 47 πŸ” 19 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 1

Thank you Dr. Schrier for visiting us at Fred Hutch. It's such a crucial moment for scientific advances in vaccines & cancer. I appreciate that I have a congressperson who recognizes that.

07.08.2025 21:24 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
RFK Jr. & HHS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
RFK Jr. & HHS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) YouTube video by LastWeekTonight

Here’s the show. Please watch!
It’s all about HHS and the first segment is about NIH.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H34...

28.04.2025 12:05 πŸ‘ 138 πŸ” 45 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 8
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Non-Government Career Paths for U.S. Federal Data Scientists A community support and networking event hosted by rOpenSci and Openscapes

"rOpenSci and Openscapes are lucky to have as members many U.S. federal employees who enrich our work and community. In a time of great uncertainty for so many government workers, we want to support our members who are considering their next career steps."
ropensci.org/events/datas...

24.04.2025 20:29 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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To staff at CDC and everyone working in public health: we’re with you. | Tom Frieden | 50 comments To staff at CDC and everyone working in public health: we’re with you. | 50 comments on LinkedIn

Some words of encouragement from Dr. Tom Frieden, former Director of CDC.

www.linkedin.com/posts/tom-fr...

01.04.2025 18:09 πŸ‘ 540 πŸ” 120 πŸ’¬ 9 πŸ“Œ 2

It's getting late on Friday, so you know what that means: HHS has just updated its list of cancelled grants and programs.

The document went from 14 pages long to 42 pages.

Just an incalculable list of cancelled COVID-19 funding.
taggs.hhs.gov/Content/Data...

28.03.2025 20:33 πŸ‘ 261 πŸ” 183 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 30
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I Took My Work Outside Every Day for a Month This Winter. Here’s What I Learned. For a month this winter, I committed to taking my laptop outside every workdayβ€”no matter the weatherβ€”to see how it impacted my life

I Took My Work Outside Every Day for a Month This Winter. (β€œMy work” = typing on a laptop.) β€œEven though I’m not perfectly warm, it lifts my mood to be outside. I can hear the community of songbirds holding their morning conferences, a barking dog…” [outsideonline.com]

07.03.2025 19:22 πŸ‘ 21 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

Nice essay!

"LLMs, while they already have all of humanity's knowledge in memory, haven't generated any new knowledge by connecting previously unrelated facts...We're currently building very obedient students, not revolutionaries."

06.03.2025 23:51 πŸ‘ 93 πŸ” 29 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 3
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Dozens of Clinical Trials Have Been Frozen in Response to Trump’s USAID Order (Gift Article) The stop-work order on U.S.A.I.D.-funded research has left thousands of people with experimental drugs and devices in their bodies, with no access to monitoring or care.

This is so deeply, deeply, deeply fucked up.

β€œThe trial was shutting down. A silicone ring inserted into her vagina, needed to be removed right away. … The stop-work order was so immediate and sweeping that the research staff would be violating it if they helped the women remove the rings.”

07.02.2025 22:32 πŸ‘ 446 πŸ” 166 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 5
Illustration by Allison Horst. a seaside landscape with animals on different paths

Illustration by Allison Horst. a seaside landscape with animals on different paths

πŸ“£ Openscapes Champions Program at Fred Hutch Cancer Center Apr-Jun 2025!
Please share. Encourage your Hutch friends to sign up! Leading this with @seankross.com @monicagerber.bsky.social @tladeras.bsky.social & Chris Lo
openscapes.org/events/2025-...
#OpenScience #KinderScience

04.02.2025 17:02 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

This is how you do open science.

24.01.2025 05:32 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0