@memsomerville.bsky.social
Scientist. Lacemaker.
lacecouvige.com for Wikipedia project
lacecouvige.com for Wikipedia project
Reposted
Woke up this morning to discover that my government has but one branch of government.
The slow moving coup is now complete and the circumstances of all of our lives depend entirely on the whims of an homunculus.
The slow moving coup is now complete and the circumstances of all of our lives depend entirely on the whims of an homunculus.
January 3, 2026 at 2:52 PM
Woke up this morning to discover that my government has but one branch of government.
The slow moving coup is now complete and the circumstances of all of our lives depend entirely on the whims of an homunculus.
The slow moving coup is now complete and the circumstances of all of our lives depend entirely on the whims of an homunculus.
That's weird.
But it was cool when we used to have a functioning CDC to track things.
But it was cool when we used to have a functioning CDC to track things.
January 2, 2026 at 10:52 PM
That's weird.
But it was cool when we used to have a functioning CDC to track things.
But it was cool when we used to have a functioning CDC to track things.
January 1, 2026 at 5:01 AM
Reposted
Please read this & speak out.
Understand how relatively modest US investments in health systems and commodities can stem an unspeakable burden of suffering.
Understand how relatively modest US investments in health systems and commodities can stem an unspeakable burden of suffering.
A maternity ward doctor donated his own blood during surgery to keep a pregnant patient alive.
One woman gained fewer than 10 pounds over her entire pregnancy.
Another collapsed and had seizures during labor.
One woman gained fewer than 10 pounds over her entire pregnancy.
Another collapsed and had seizures during labor.
What I Saw at a Maternity Ward in Kenya After the U.S. Cut Off Food and Foreign Aid
Photographs tell a story of two mothers determined to help their babies gain enough weight to leave the hospital — only to face little to no food again.
www.propublica.org
December 31, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Please read this & speak out.
Understand how relatively modest US investments in health systems and commodities can stem an unspeakable burden of suffering.
Understand how relatively modest US investments in health systems and commodities can stem an unspeakable burden of suffering.
Well there's a redemption story. I hadn't heard about the tourism boom she triggered.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/w...
Spanish Woman Scorned, Then Loved, for Botched Fresco Restoration Dies at 94
www.nytimes.com
December 30, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Well there's a redemption story. I hadn't heard about the tourism boom she triggered.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/w...
Reposted
In 1433, the Duke of Bedford wanted some goods from London for his Calais household. He asked for a customs waiver from the king, and he got it. And what did he need?
- 5 casks of porpoise
- 2 casks of eels
- 98 bows w/ bowstrings
'cause that's how you party.
🗃️🧪
- 5 casks of porpoise
- 2 casks of eels
- 98 bows w/ bowstrings
'cause that's how you party.
🗃️🧪
December 29, 2025 at 4:15 PM
In 1433, the Duke of Bedford wanted some goods from London for his Calais household. He asked for a customs waiver from the king, and he got it. And what did he need?
- 5 casks of porpoise
- 2 casks of eels
- 98 bows w/ bowstrings
'cause that's how you party.
🗃️🧪
- 5 casks of porpoise
- 2 casks of eels
- 98 bows w/ bowstrings
'cause that's how you party.
🗃️🧪
Reposted
Massachusetts, know this:
🏳️⚧️Gender affirming care remains legal and protected in MA
🏳️⚧️ Gender affirming care saves lives
🏳️⚧️As your AG, I will always fight to keep the federal governments’ hands off your health care
🏳️⚧️Gender affirming care remains legal and protected in MA
🏳️⚧️ Gender affirming care saves lives
🏳️⚧️As your AG, I will always fight to keep the federal governments’ hands off your health care
December 29, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Massachusetts, know this:
🏳️⚧️Gender affirming care remains legal and protected in MA
🏳️⚧️ Gender affirming care saves lives
🏳️⚧️As your AG, I will always fight to keep the federal governments’ hands off your health care
🏳️⚧️Gender affirming care remains legal and protected in MA
🏳️⚧️ Gender affirming care saves lives
🏳️⚧️As your AG, I will always fight to keep the federal governments’ hands off your health care
Reposted
Still searching for even a hint of remorse from @joerogan for the role he played in installing this regime 🕵🏻♂️
December 28, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Still searching for even a hint of remorse from @joerogan for the role he played in installing this regime 🕵🏻♂️
Reposted
My new Market Basket ornament
December 27, 2025 at 3:42 PM
My new Market Basket ornament
Reposted
Cat Clinging To Side Of Christmas Tree Admits That Was Extent Of Plan https://theonion.com/cat-clinging-to-side-of-christmas-tree-admits-that-was-1849899567/
December 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Cat Clinging To Side Of Christmas Tree Admits That Was Extent Of Plan https://theonion.com/cat-clinging-to-side-of-christmas-tree-admits-that-was-1849899567/
Reposted
A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty:
My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.
Huh? When did I say that?!
My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.
Huh? When did I say that?!
December 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM
A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty:
My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.
Huh? When did I say that?!
My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.
Huh? When did I say that?!
Reposted
The U.S.'s major airlines stopped selling flight records (name, flight from, flight to, credit card number) to the government after our months of reporting on the issue www.404media.co/airlines-wil...
Airlines Will Shut Down Program That Sold Your Flights Records to Government
The move comes after intense pressure from lawmakers and 404 Media’s months-long reporting about the airline industry's data selling practices.
www.404media.co
December 23, 2025 at 5:50 PM
The U.S.'s major airlines stopped selling flight records (name, flight from, flight to, credit card number) to the government after our months of reporting on the issue www.404media.co/airlines-wil...
In yet another research rabbit hole, I was struck by this "veteran of the US Army".
www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commo...
www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commo...
A veteran of the U.S. Army
Image of horse at Commercial Point Station.
www.digitalcommonwealth.org
December 21, 2025 at 10:54 PM
In yet another research rabbit hole, I was struck by this "veteran of the US Army".
www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commo...
www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commo...
Reposted
Have you ever heard someone go off, and their words are so perfectly chosen, so well said in that moment, that you’re in awe? You think, “There’s nothing to add here,” and you applaud in your head.
That’s exactly this. Pure perfection. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
That’s exactly this. Pure perfection. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
December 21, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Have you ever heard someone go off, and their words are so perfectly chosen, so well said in that moment, that you’re in awe? You think, “There’s nothing to add here,” and you applaud in your head.
That’s exactly this. Pure perfection. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
That’s exactly this. Pure perfection. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Yesterday, in what I think was the quintessential #SomervilleMA transaction, I exchanged a tour of Powder House park and some Lyndell's half moons for this glorious recent photo print by @mcmillen.dev of the #aurora and the #GrandUnion flag there.
A good day.
A good day.
December 21, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Yesterday, in what I think was the quintessential #SomervilleMA transaction, I exchanged a tour of Powder House park and some Lyndell's half moons for this glorious recent photo print by @mcmillen.dev of the #aurora and the #GrandUnion flag there.
A good day.
A good day.
Reposted
He made beer that’s also a vaccine. Now controversy is brewing: shared just as an interesting story. www.sciencenews.org/article/vacc...
He made beer that’s also a vaccine. Now controversy is brewing
An NIH scientist’s maverick approach reveals legal, ethical, moral, scientific and social challenges to developing potentially life-saving vaccines.
www.sciencenews.org
December 21, 2025 at 1:30 AM
He made beer that’s also a vaccine. Now controversy is brewing: shared just as an interesting story. www.sciencenews.org/article/vacc...
Merry Christmas! Hockey Barbie from Canada costs a lot.
#Tariffs are paid by Americans. Someone tell the Orange Menace this.
www.wcvb.com/article/loca...
#Tariffs are paid by Americans. Someone tell the Orange Menace this.
www.wcvb.com/article/loca...
Local grandma receives $30 Barbie from Canada, then $802 tariff charge from shipper
When Bonnie O'Connell received an $802 invoice for a package she received recently via FedEx, she knew something was wrong.
www.wcvb.com
December 20, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Merry Christmas! Hockey Barbie from Canada costs a lot.
#Tariffs are paid by Americans. Someone tell the Orange Menace this.
www.wcvb.com/article/loca...
#Tariffs are paid by Americans. Someone tell the Orange Menace this.
www.wcvb.com/article/loca...
I think this is the best #Caturday thread I've ever seen.
THREAD.
My parents' cat Bridget vanished. As the weeks dragged on they became ever more worried, so to distract himself my dad began to paint Bridget's adventures, imagining her travelling through time and popping up at some of art & music's most important moments.
I've collected his work here...
My parents' cat Bridget vanished. As the weeks dragged on they became ever more worried, so to distract himself my dad began to paint Bridget's adventures, imagining her travelling through time and popping up at some of art & music's most important moments.
I've collected his work here...
December 20, 2025 at 3:01 PM
I think this is the best #Caturday thread I've ever seen.
Reposted
I cannot fathom what would possess a person to want to leave their child vulnerable to rotavirus or varicella if they could avoid it. Even if the chance of mortality from both of those is low, it is such a terrible experience for everyone involved.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/h...
Switching to the Danish vaccine schedule in 🇺🇸 would be insanity. (1) The US, unlike Denmark, does not have universal healthcare, and (2) the Danish vaccine schedule is very poor (e.g., no chickenpox & rota vax. I vividly remember having those as a kid in 🇩🇰. Just 👎).
Switching to the Danish vaccine schedule in 🇺🇸 would be insanity. (1) The US, unlike Denmark, does not have universal healthcare, and (2) the Danish vaccine schedule is very poor (e.g., no chickenpox & rota vax. I vividly remember having those as a kid in 🇩🇰. Just 👎).
December 19, 2025 at 10:13 PM
I cannot fathom what would possess a person to want to leave their child vulnerable to rotavirus or varicella if they could avoid it. Even if the chance of mortality from both of those is low, it is such a terrible experience for everyone involved.
Am I obsessed with the German #AdventCalendar snowflake? Maybe. I was also testing out new thread.
I have to stop making lace and do things now. But I don't really want to.
#BobbinLace
I have to stop making lace and do things now. But I don't really want to.
#BobbinLace
December 19, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Am I obsessed with the German #AdventCalendar snowflake? Maybe. I was also testing out new thread.
I have to stop making lace and do things now. But I don't really want to.
#BobbinLace
I have to stop making lace and do things now. But I don't really want to.
#BobbinLace
Huh. It wasn't on the agenda but they already had the signs ready for today?
What a mystery.
What a mystery.
Updated signage evident the morning after a supposed renaming to “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
Kennedy Center adds Trump’s name to building
The signage change follows a vote by the board of trustees to rename the performing arts complex the Trump Kennedy Center.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Huh. It wasn't on the agenda but they already had the signs ready for today?
What a mystery.
What a mystery.
Reposted
When I was a medical student 45 years ago, I clerked in a 13 year old girl with deep jaundice and an abdominal mass. She was Hepatitis B positive. That had led to a primary liver tumour. In a 13-year-old. She was dead within the month. Avoidable with vaccination.
The CDC has endorsed ACIP’s decision of revoking universal access in USA to hepatitis B vaccines at birth. The policy had been in place for 34y and was changed despite no new evidence emerging of any risk of vaccination. #HealthPolicy 🧵
CDC accepts ACIP’s hepatitis B vaccine recommendations for babies
The CDC also said if a baby is not receiving a birth dose of vaccine, the initial dose should be administered no earlier than 2 months of age.
www.cidrap.umn.edu
December 18, 2025 at 8:14 AM
When I was a medical student 45 years ago, I clerked in a 13 year old girl with deep jaundice and an abdominal mass. She was Hepatitis B positive. That had led to a primary liver tumour. In a 13-year-old. She was dead within the month. Avoidable with vaccination.
Reposted
Look, if Trump gets to unilaterally rename the “Department of Defense” the “Department of War,” then I think we can all get to collectively-unilaterally rename HHS the “Department of Disease.”
Exclusive: The US Department of Health and Human Services plans to overhaul childhood vaccine schedule to recommend fewer shots, source says. https://cnn.it/4qhzOR2
December 19, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Look, if Trump gets to unilaterally rename the “Department of Defense” the “Department of War,” then I think we can all get to collectively-unilaterally rename HHS the “Department of Disease.”
Reposted
This is the best piece I’ve read so far on why the Guinea-Bissau RCT, in which a proven life-saving vaccine will be deliberately WITHHELD, is unethical
“When benefit is established, withholding an intervention is no longer neutral experimentation it becomes premeditated harm”
“When benefit is established, withholding an intervention is no longer neutral experimentation it becomes premeditated harm”
The planned hepatitis B birth-dose trial in Guinea-Bissau raises serious ethical concerns. Withholding a proven, life-saving vaccine from newborns to answer speculative questions is an absence of equipoise with real downstream harms for trust in vaccines.
bktitanji.substack.com/p/how-unethi...
bktitanji.substack.com/p/how-unethi...
How Unethical Research Seeds Medical Mistrust
The absence of equipoise can turn research into harm
bktitanji.substack.com
December 18, 2025 at 11:06 PM
This is the best piece I’ve read so far on why the Guinea-Bissau RCT, in which a proven life-saving vaccine will be deliberately WITHHELD, is unethical
“When benefit is established, withholding an intervention is no longer neutral experimentation it becomes premeditated harm”
“When benefit is established, withholding an intervention is no longer neutral experimentation it becomes premeditated harm”
Yesterday they said there was no link between the #BrownUniversity shooting and the #MIT professor's murder.
Today that seems to have changed. But they aren't saying what may connect them.
www.wcvb.com/article/mit-...
Today that seems to have changed. But they aren't saying what may connect them.
www.wcvb.com/article/mit-...
Authorities examine possible connection between Brown shooting, MIT slaying: 5 Investigates
Authorities are looking at a possible connection between the mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor in Brookline earlier this week, sources tell 5 Investigates.
www.wcvb.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Yesterday they said there was no link between the #BrownUniversity shooting and the #MIT professor's murder.
Today that seems to have changed. But they aren't saying what may connect them.
www.wcvb.com/article/mit-...
Today that seems to have changed. But they aren't saying what may connect them.
www.wcvb.com/article/mit-...