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ericrscott.com

@ericrscott.com
129 followers 170 following 78 posts

Scientific Programmer & Educator | Data Engineer at grant-witness.us #rstats, #tea, #foraging, #tucson, #UniversityOfArizona

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Reposted by @ericrscott.com
Michael Friendly @datavisfriendly.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
#rstats Q: Tips from anyone who's made a #cheatsheet for an R package? Posit has PPTX/Keynote templates, but I'd rather build it reproducibly: Quarto → PDF (Typst?). I can generate all thumbnails from data in a script, but they need to be highly schematic. Examples / repos welcome!
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is an excellent article about what has been happening with federal funding for scientific research.
npr.org
These 6 charts show how NIH research funding has been reshaped under Trump
Stories of science funding being cut, labs shutting down and scientists losing jobs have flooded the media under Trump's administration. These six graphics show how those changes have affected U.S. biomedical research.
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Politics and Health 🗳️ 🩺 @politicshealth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
So fuc*ing infuriating and sad. The CDC used to be the crown jewel of the world's scientific firmament. Other countries came to us for help fighting deadly diseases. Its disease detectives learned what caused illness and helped change practices to prevent them. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/h...
nytimes.com
‘Zombified’ C.D.C., Hobbled by Cuts, Struggles to Fulfill Scientific Mission (Gift Article)
The agency has lost its independence and nearly a third of its staff, as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and associates have tightened control.
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ericrscott.com @ericrscott.com · 26/09/2026
When was this training last updated? 2000?
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Both have the same root cause: wealth inequality. The monied elites in government and in chancellorships don’t think of students and faculty as humans, we are poors well below their station and so should accept their crumbs.
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Ultimately what is killing higher Ed in the United States is not just hostile politics at the Federal level, but the greed and ineptitude of university leadership.
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Colette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Absolutely not. ABSOLUTELY THE HELL NOT. WE ARE NOT DOING INTERNMENT CAMPS FOR CHILDREN.
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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Fake. USDA. Seals. Used by an NC meat processing plant on 83.5 TONS of meat. Produced entirely outside the federal inspection system, according to news reports. We are pretty close to The Jungle (second ed.) now, no? www.scrippsnews.com/life/recalls...
scrippsnews.com
Interactive: Meat recall linked to fake USDA labels
Pork, beef and goat products are being recalled after a company allegedly used fake USDA inspection labels. Explore our interactive guide to see which products are affected and what to look for.
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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Thoughts and prayers for research data managers everywhere. You are not alone. We will get through this together techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/excelbl...
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Excel now supports multiple values in a single cell | Microsoft Community Hub
Lists, arrays in cells, and nested arrays introduce new ways to store and organize related information, helping you keep data together without sacrificing...
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Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Fuck ChatGPT flyers. The future is broadsheets.
A crowded broadsheet with way too many fonts. It says:
Forget ChatGPT Flyers
Say it with 
Broadsheets
Unlimited fonts
Stretch them
Or cram a really long sentence into one line for no good reason
No whitespace
Mix capital and lowercase
Pointing hands
(They're called manicules!)
Don't be left behind
Broadsheets are the future
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ericrscott.com @ericrscott.com · 25/09/2026
Is this The Oldest House?
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 12/12/2023
I fixed the headline. And I honestly don't understand how any journalist could write this story without mentioning the study author's own "extreme productivity".
Surge in number of ‘extremely productive’ authors concerns extremely productive scientist who published 324 papers during the three year study period.

Some researchers publish a new paper every five days, on average, claims study author who published a new paper every 3.4 days, on average.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 12/12/2023
NOT NEWS: Stanford epidemiologist who wrote 324 papers from 2020-2022 expresses grave concern about the proliferation of "extremely productive authors" who wrote a mere 180 or more papers during the same period, suspects fraud is at play, blames global South. NEWS: Nature sees fit to cover it.
nature.com
Surge in number of ‘extremely productive’ authors concerns scientists
Some researchers publish a new paper every five days, on average. Data trackers suspect not all their manuscripts were produced through honest labour. Some researchers publish a new paper every five d...
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Ultimately, the US fossil fuel cartel took too long to consolidate political power, the climate regulations they gut are now too late to catch the market shifting to renewables. It's now over $150k cheaper to operate an electric semi truck than a diesel.
Cost comparison chart showing electric semi's 5 year purchase+operating costs of $486k vs diesel's $633K, with diesel fuel at $5.35/gallon.
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PBS News @pbsnews.org · 17/09/2026
The Trump administration has cut or frozen up to $177 billion in federal grants since the president took office for his second term, according to a tracking tool released Wednesday by a pro-democracy nonprofit and a group of researchers and scientists. to.pbs.org/4xsQwjo
pbs.org
Trump administration has cut or frozen $177 billion in grants across every state, analysis shows
Among the grants that were eliminated, frozen or delayed were ones related to maternal health in Michigan, education research in Mississippi and assistance to minority farmers in Iowa, the researchers...
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23/09/2026
i think you can fairly say that the second trump administration is the most racist federal administration since woodrow wilson and honestly i'm not sure that it isn't more racist than wilson's
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Senator Patty Murray @murray.senate.gov · 21/09/2026
Breast cancer patients shouldn’t be denied hope of a new lifesaving treatment because Russ Vought thinks women’s health research is woke. I will fight this plan tooth and nail.
nytimes.com
White House Moves to Take Control of N.I.H. Grants
Federal officials are drafting an executive order that would place grants under review by an outside panel, the latest effort to redirect billions of dollars in research spending.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 22/09/2026
huh, this piece nailed the AI bros like a decade ago
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ericrscott.com @ericrscott.com · 22/09/2026
Cranes don't bother me because I'm not yearning for a future where humans can lift steel beams on their own. LLMs are not like cranes.
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Libby Heeren @libbyheeren.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I'm so confused by the notion that we can all just stop learning how to do things and let computers do them. If we stop knowing what correctness or goodness looks like, especially with statistics, ethics, etc., who will do the over-watching? I don't see how folks can learn without doing 🤷🏻‍♀️
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Colette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
HEY. LISTEN TO ME. WE ARE ✨NOT✨MAKING JAY BHATTACHARYA INTO A HERO FOR (allegedly) REFUSING TO CUT HARVARD’S NIH FUNDING BECAUSE THE PRESIDENT TOLD HIM TO. The BARE MINIMUM of being a political appointee in the US is that you abide by the Constitution. He is NOT a hero. He did his job for once.
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ericrscott.com @ericrscott.com · 21/09/2026
I hope not! I wish for a future where we don't outsource thinking and creating to machines, and that includes writing code and solving coding problems. But yeah, I also have the luxury of not being forced to use AI for my job, so far.
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ericrscott.com @ericrscott.com · 21/09/2026
Or people like me who don't use LLMs because we don't want to (for various reasons)
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Steven (with a PH) @sjksalisbury.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Christening a baby is nothing like christening a ship. I know that now. Once again I can only apologise.
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Here's an updated version of that chart. (Includes latest numbers from 2026, USGS, and the comparison is vs. 2015–2024 avg.)
Plot of science agency workforces. Peaks in '24 and declines in '25 and '26.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18/09/2026
RFK Jr. wants people to get sick. He wants them to get sick and he thinks it is a good thing if they die, since those who live will have "natural immunity" and emerge stronger and fitter.
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 18/09/2026
Your life saving clinical trail could be TERMINATED by the Trump administration. We scraped through the data and found that 50% of all clinical trials are at risk of being cancelled. It's time to talk about it and what you can do to stop this. 🧵 🧪
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 17/09/2026
The Trump admin has decimated American science budgets, taking away life saving opportunities, and the potential for groundbreaking discoveries. This is how you destroy American innovation. apnews.com/article/trum...
apnews.com
Trump administration has cut or frozen $177 billion in grants across every state, analysis shows
An analysis finds that the Trump administration has cut or frozen up to $177 billion in federal grants since the president took office for his second term.
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Grant Witness @grantwitness.org · 16/09/2026
We're proud to partner with @statesunited.org on the new Lost Funds project, comprehensive tracker of how the administration has usurped Congress's power of the purse and harmed local governments, businesses, nonprofits, tribes, schools, universities and communities across America.
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WEATHER IS HAPPENING @weatherishappening.com · 16/09/2026
WEATHER *IS* HAPPENING
TOP PANEL IS ELIZABETH HOLMES SMILING UNCONVINCINGLY W/ A CAPTION THAT READS "WEATHER IS NOT HAPPENING"
BOTTOM PANEL IS NATHAN FIELDER LOOKING SKEPTICAL W/ A WEATHER IS HAPPENING LOGO
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Evening Forest News @forrestnews.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
MITCH MCCONNELL DEEMED FIT TO SERVE BY SENATE TAXIDERMIST
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ursula kaczmarek @ursula.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026
We at @grantwitness.org have just released the Lost Funds tracking tool documenting $177B in terminated U.S. grantmaking for research, disaster aid, health, and more: apnews.com/article/trump-administra…. Data pipelines built with […]
fosstodon.org
Original post on fosstodon.org
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
New lawsuit challenging NIH actions around "DEI" on Constitutional grounds. protectdemocracy.org/work/researc... 1/2
protectdemocracy.org
Researchers challenge NIH screening of grants for disfavored viewpoints - Protect Democracy
Today, researchers filed a class action lawsuit challenging the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) policy of blocking grants in order to censor views it disagrees with, on everything from DEI to ge...
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Ethan White @ethanwhite.weecology.org · 16/09/2026
Just heard that NSF panels now cannot have anyone on panel from the same institution as any of the PI's. This is going to make assembling panels really challenging going forward. Folks with these conflicts used to be able to serve, but step out when a proposal from their institution was discussed.
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Kelly Bodwin @kellybodwin.com · 16/09/2026
👏👏👏 to @liomys.mx for calling out the issue of academic works citing the IDE instead of the language/packages!
A slide containing many snippets of text from academic papers saying "analysis was performed with RStudio"Luis standing at a lectern
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States United Democracy Center @statesunited.org · 16/09/2026
💰🚨 NEW: Since January 2025, the Trump administration has disrupted $177 billion across 17 funding sectors in all 50 states and DC. Our new project with @grantwitness.org tracks every dollar, grant by grant, and shows the impact of disruptions 🔗 www.lostfunds.org
lostfunds.org
Lost Funds — $177 Billion Gone
Track the Trump administration’s federal funding disruptions state by state — what was cut or frozen, who it hurts, and how states are fighting back in court.
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Yep. Trumpies are going to start stuffing NSF money into their own pockets.
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Emil Hvitfeldt @emilhvitfeldt.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Posit conf, a conference for data scientists who loves stickers or for sticker enthusiasts who love data science?
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Greg Folkers @gregfolkers.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Wash Examiner: Trump wants to cut NIH. What future medicines will your family lose? By David Adler @washingtonexaminer.bsky.social bit.ly/467WQSv
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 02/09/2026
Hallucination is how AI deals with not knowing something. AI is how the Trump administration deals with not knowing anything. Article: wapo.st/4gKELyw
Article clipping from Washington Post reading: "Judge rebukes HHS over AI use in cutting teen pregnancy prevention grants. He wrote that grant solicitations for changes to funding reference public health studies that appear not to exist or do not support what they are cited for."
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Scott Delaney @scott-delaney.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Check out our new @grantwitness.org website! 18 months ago, we launched as a humble Google Sheet listing 8 terminated NIH grants. Today, we’ve launched a new site tracking tens of thousands of grants and new awards at several different agencies. THANK YOU to everyone who's made this possible! 🧵
grantwitness.org
Grant Witness
An independent, up-to-date, grant-level record of federal science funding disruptions in the United States.
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ericrscott.com @ericrscott.com · 20/08/2026
REMINDER! Check your voter registration today. If anything needs to be updated, do it right away. If you’re not registered at all, get registered. And if you have any trouble or need more help, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE and they can get you the support you need. share.indvs.org/s/3XwghXAu
share.indvs.org
Select Your State
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milkweed.bsky.social @milkweed.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Never thought I’d have to check for state-censored curriculum to decide where my kid applies to college …
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Simon P. Couch @simonpcouch.com · 05/08/2026
i was looking up song lyrics and
Screenshot of a Google search for "don't mean to wake you up." The AI Overview box responds: "You are not disturbing anything. I am ready to help you right now," followed by a "How to Proceed" section suggesting the user share a question, topic, or task, and asking "What would you like to work on today?" Below the AI Overview is a "Show more" expander, then a YouTube search result for Ken Yates' song "Don't Mean To Wake You (Acoustic)."
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Danielle Froom 🏳️‍🌈 @danifroom.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
It's now been over a month since the Trump regime openly declared they intend to eliminate trans people from the United States and not a single Democrat or mainstream media figure or celebrity has cared enough to even mention it.
Supreme Court Bolsters President Trump’s Push to Eliminate Transgender Insanity
The White House
June 30, 2026 .
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Noam Ross @noamross.net · 02/08/2026
SEC. 157. (a) Notwithstanding section 106, through December 11, 2026, a rule to revise the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (commonly known as the ‘‘Uniform Guidance’’), arising out of the notice of proposed rulemaking titled ‘‘Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance’’, which was published in the Federal Register on May 29, 2026, or a substantially similar rule, shall not be issued or finalized.
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Michael Bono @mbonotheyounger.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
I am once again saying that Boston should be an hour ahead in the winter. Either have DST the whole year or move the entire region to the Atlantic time zone.
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
The lab leak push is part of a decades-long propaganda effort to erode support for publically funded science, which helps those who aim to replace democracies and their public services and safety nets and healthy egalitarian societies with a neofeudal system where 10 people own everything.
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Noam Ross @noamross.net · 22/07/2026
Last week's terminations at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) total at least 150 grants worth $230M. That is over half of the agency's portfolio. It's the latest assault on healthcare, health equity, and the rule of law. grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0... #AHRQ 🧪
grant-witness.us
Termination of AHRQ grants is the latest assault on health equity and the rule of law. – Grant Witness
The agency charged with finding ways to make American health care more effective has been gutted. Last week’s terminations are just the latest blow.
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Scott Delaney @scott-delaney.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
‼️ AHRQ is in the midst of a mass grant termination event. We (at Grant Witness) need your help to launch a tracker ASAP. If you received an AHRQ termination notice--or if you know of someone else who did--please submit information about the grant here: grant-witness.us/submit-nih.h...
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