Melanie Penner

Geese psyops are back

Faculty position at Calgary careers.ucalgary.ca/jobs/1820090...

Breaking News: Two unvaccinated people in Pennsylvania died from measles, the first deaths from the disease this year in the U.S., as a large outbreak there continues to spread.

There is a lot to say about the Nolan Odyssey movie. But one point that I think has not been emphasized enough is: this is a film about living in LA, as Nolan, my erstwhile British compatriot and age mate, has done for years. I gather it’s a strange place.

Niche interest alert: did anyone else think that the Siren song in #TheOdyssey sounds eerily like Bjork’s Anchor Song? It also plays when he is home and first speaking to Penelope. Interesting thematic overlap… youtu.be/17yWeynOfOI

Jimothy has blessed us this #DisabilityPrideMonth people.com/seattle-shor...

FWIW, JB Pritzker recently signed legislation to end subminimum wage labor for people with disabilities, a major priority for disability rights activists.

Both me and Ticketmaster are crashing out trying to get Turnstile tickets

In-house psychologists diagnosing and creating a pipeline of clients. Kids in cubicles. Bonuses for the number of hours of therapy children attend. Cheetos for writing letters. Pulling kids out of their natural environments. An industry in need of oversight & reform www.nytimes.com/2026/05/23/h...

NEW: A serious staffing shortage — of the Trump admin's own making — is delaying the agency's ability to send billions to universities around the country, leaving labs reeling in the meantime. “I thought we were at rock bottom”, a senior NIH official said. “We are below rock bottom now.”

Oh good another autism moral panic

Measles Took My Daughter. This Is What I Want Everyone to Know. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/o...

I'm not joking when I say mRNA technology is more important than "AI" and it's a tragedy we're throwing billions into one while our government is aggressively defunding the other.

The wildest thing about the movie Speed is the number of infrastructure projects

When I was interviewing for my first faculty position, the chief of paediatrics asked me if I thought medicine was a career or a calling. It was clear which one was the correct answer. Thinking about that conversation as I reflect on this season of #ThePitt

It’s hard to overstate how much of this moment is driven by people who got a taste of accountability and were very, very mad about it.

So, thing that is apparently better understood inside academia than outside of it: International students pay sticker price. Most domestic students do not. International students are subsidizing the education costs for domestic students, as per student governmental funding drops.

The American Medical Association directly responds to New York Times coverage mischaracterizing their posiiton on gender affirming care for trans young people. cloud.e.ama-assn.org/newsletter?u...

Major quilt eye candy incoming. This was pieced by Kris Lescinsky, pattern is Catch Me by Jacqueline DeJong. Took me 5 audiobooks to quilt it, lol.

Kudos to @slooterman.bsky.social for unpacking the neurodivergence discourse! Includes references to some of my team’s work trying to understand the use of ‘weaponized autism’ in alt-right spaces

I have a Hector joke but it drags on

The intention of the anti trans project, from “just asking questions” to “fairness in sports” was always this: to make it illegal and impossible to be trans in society. To create pretexts for our arrest and removal, if we don’t put ourselves under house arrest. To punish us for being different.

As a growing number of states weaken childhood immunization requirements, physicians fear many families will miss critical wellness checks.

Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes! "Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."

“The goal horn went off during the ceremony when they kissed.” @slooterman.bsky.social warming my heart during a polar vortex

Big #autism news re: leucovorin. Published trial from India has been RETRACTED. This, combined with the fact that the earlier Frye trial was terminated by the FDA, further emphasizes that this is not a recommended therapy. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Big #autism news re: leucovorin. Published trial from India has been RETRACTED. This, combined with the fact that the earlier Frye trial was terminated by the FDA, further emphasizes that this is not a recommended therapy. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

God loves a terrier.

Sending some love to the Twin cities tonight

Today marks a major moment for child health: the AAP has released its updated 2026 childhood and adolescent immunization schedule. Updated annually to reflect the latest scientific evidence, this year’s schedule is formally endorsed by 12 leading medical and healthcare organizations. bit.ly/4r5KbaQ

Parents of autistic children are clamoring for a prescription vitamin promoted by federal health officials. But there's little evidence the drug will help.

"How could they lie like that so brazenly??"" Because you let them. FOR DECADES About people you didn't care about.

Big day for meritocracy

The lady in this photo is autistic and ICE agents dragged her out of her car as she tried to go to the doctor.

"I’m going to pause here just to review: an institution that purports to be a university has told a philosophy professor he is forbidden from teaching Plato." surreal times dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...

kind of darkly funny that "gender studies" is the stereotypical "useless degree" because gender studies will help you understand a large and important chunk of the current psychosis in american life

(Bjork voice) And if you complain once more

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

why not the APGAR score?

Rise up

They are scatting at the jazz club but it doesn’t sound like the scatting I’m used to from history’s number one scatter Jonathan Davis

Here’s hoping the new year brings us an iconic young lead singer named Polly Crisis.