“Urgency is itself a technique of extraction, a way to exhaust the present for the future, while foreclosing deliberation about what we build, how we build it, and who pays the price.”

just cracking myself up because I’m firmly in middle age (wonky iphone camera and all) taking advantage of my crone era and it looks like I summoned the clouds and made people flee the beach.

In 2024, we submitted a grant on the intersectional risks of race, genetic ancestry, and age w/menopause in cardiometabolic health. It scored well going in to council. Then the NIH shut down and the health equity RFA was terminated. We ended up adding men to a new grant, which sums up 2025/26.

My new favorite show just dropped a new episode. 10/10. Incredible. I would die for Susan.

spooky parks and rec got google in on it. 😆

I went over there to peak and this was one of top search results...so I closed the app while chuckling in horror and went back to my goblin weekend.

Looking through the words, I’m struck by the specificity of targeting. “Diversity” is not on the list, but any positive word associated with “diversity” is flagged. I had to remove many of these terms for my non-competitive renewal last year (2.5 months late), so I’m not surprised. But damn.

The aspect of who your partner is interests me looking at the proportion of men vs women being in an academic couple between trajectories. I wonder how much the early differences would change if they looked at income levels.

An incredible line-up and for a good cause, including JHPIEGO and the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health. Very very cool.

"For half a century, American parents have tried to be exceptional individuals, contorting themselves into every possible shape to make the raising of children possible. (...) There is no amount of private exertion that can overcome public indifference." 🎁🔗: www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/m...

diabolical.

“...“mama bear” politic — a moral appeal to fecund motherhood that whitewashes punitive anti-female, anti-family sentiment and policy as wholesome Americana.” “Mama bears are defending America’s white future. Their violence is moral, not deviant. The G.O.P. spin boys have rarely done it better.”

Quote with a fictional band that is not Spinal Tap.

I know we're usually all about our work or collective hellscape on here, but last week I entered a knitting competition (MD Sheep & Wool Festival) for the first time as a personal goal. And I got fifth place! So here. Look at my pretty scarf. And if you don't like knitting, check out my dog.

That the main argument against these is framed as Gattaca makes a lot of assumptions. It assumes the science is settled. That it will “work”. That there is a such thing as an optimal human. All of these are false. Utter boloney!

These are *very different* in almost every single way. In the genetics involved, their inheritance patterns, and pathologies. To collapse them into a single thing that they are predicting, treated as a single science and method is preposterous and so misleading. (Hello motte and hello bailey!)

First, if this is what you expect of parenthood, that you’ll have this level of control over the life of another human being, do not pass go. Parenthood isn’t for you. Second, it’s snake oil peddled by eugenicists who know it’s crap or are ignorantly fanatical about only some people having value.

:: screams and screams and screams :: I do not know how you can have been alive during 2025, throughout DOGE's destruction of USAID, targeting of science at NIH, and general dismantling of vital institutions in the stupidest and cruelest way, and still believe this tech bro fairy tale.

Yeah, these bigger resources are a great step, but there's so much more work to do. You can't hack your way out of poor representation. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Scientists have a habit of assuming there is a default ("gold-standard") for a reason, instead of our past and present biases. I like to think that most of us go into this line of work for somewhat altruistic purposes, but this requires thinking of everyone, not narrowly defined "people like me".

Imagination and empathy are interlinked. Read more books. It's easier and more accessible than ever. You can get ebooks, audiobooks, and more from your local library through your phone or computer. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Also in my late 30s, this morning walking the dog: Man, spring has sprung. Everyone is so chatty.

2023 me: I'm going to focus new grants on understanding health disparities in how womens reproductive and cardiometabolic health influence each other! Yay intersectionality! 2026 me: