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Big Ten explains controversial ending to Michigan-Western Michigan
The Big Ten defended the controversial clock ruling that allowed Michigan to secure a narrow win over Western Michigan.
Can Michigan's controversial Hail Mary win over WMU be overturned?
Per the NCAA rulebook, the score of the controversial Michigan-Western Michigan game is final and cannot be changed.
Michigan Survives Western Michigan on Controversial Hail Mary
Michigan’s 2026 season opener turned into one of the wildest finishes of the college football season. The Wolverines escaped Western Michigan 13-12 Saturday night at the Big House, but the victory came with plenty of controversy. With Michigan seemingly out of time, officials restored one second to the clock , giving the Wolverines one final…
Forest ‘at a loss’ over controversial VAR decision against Spurs
Nottingham Forest felt they were denied a legitimate goal by VAR after Neco Williams’ finish was controversially ruled out against Spurs on Saturday. The full-back had the ball in the net after Sand...
Controversy Over Merger Of UN Women And UNFPA Continues
Women’s organisations are anxious that Secretary-General António Guterres will push the controversial proposed merger of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN
Vance, El-Sayed resist calls to disavow controversial friends: Live discussion
Vice President Vance and Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed (D) are facing separate questions over their associations with Tucker Carlson and Hasan Piker, respectively. How are each of them res…
Iconic singer and controversial TV personality dead at 94: ‘Absolutely unforgettable’
She was one of a kind.
Pakistan’s Punjab allows ‘secret’ terrorism trials: Why it’s controversial
A single unnamed official can order anonymous judges, prosecutors and witnesses in terrorism cases, with no time limit.
First challenge to prediction markets reaches Supreme Court
New Jersey on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to shut down prediction markets in the state, teeing up a potential landmark case where the justices could decide if the highly popular but controversial industry can survive in its current form.
Nvidia's controversial, face-changing, gen-AI DLSS 5 tech releases tomorrow for one game, and seems to tank frame-rates
If you own a 50-series GeForce graphics card or laptop, or use GeForce Now, you can try Nvidia's controversial new DLSS 5 tech this week.
Ex-Bears Cornerback Joins NFC Contender After Controversial Cut
A former Chicago Bears cornerback has joined up with another NFC contender after the team's controversial decision during roster cuts. The post Ex-Bears Cornerback Joins NFC Contender After Controversial Cut appeared first on HEAVY.
Soho Business Alliance opposes Tampa’s flood relief project, proposes alternative
The City of Tampa’s controversial South Howard Flood Relief Project is scheduled to go before city council again later this week.
NVIDIA's DLSS 5 Launches With NBA 2K27 On September 3, But There's Little Reason For Excitement
NVIDIA's controversial DLSS 5 finally arrives this week, but there's little reason to celebrate it.
Nvidia’s controversial DLSS 5 arrives September 3rd and requires serious GPU horsepower
It seems to look better than the terrible initial examples.
Nvidia’s DLSS 5, explained
A show-and-tell with Nvidia’s controversial DLSS 5 neural rendering, launching this week.
Supreme Court clears way for White House ballroom construction to continue
The decision hands President Donald Trump a major political victory in his controversial bid to oversee the largest addition to the executive mansion in decades.
Supreme Court allows Trump to continue building White House ballroom
The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for President Donald Trump to continue construction of a massive new ballroom at the White House, rejecting a challenge from a preservation group that was seeking to indefinitely halt the controversial project.
California lawmakers greenlight a new San Diego sports arena, bypassing environmental hurdles
California leaders pushed through a controversial last-minute deal to protect the major project from environmental lawsuits.
Red Sox news: Ceddanne Rafaela grabs attention with post after controversial no-catch
Boston Red Sox outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela made his frustration clear after a disputed defensive play became a major turning point in a 16-1 loss to the New York Yankees on Sunday . Boston and New York was tied 0-0 in the fifth inning when Jazz Chisholm Jr. sent a 299-foot fly ball toward right-center field. Rafaela adjusted his route, charged […] The post Red Sox news: Ceddanne Rafaela grabs attention with post after controversial no-catch appeared first on ClutchPoints.
Good Good's CEO goes nuclear on Callaway after controversial ad
Good Good's CEO blasted the golf equipment company, saying the brand had asked the YouTube group to "take the fall" for a controversial ad.
Democrats at odds in Michigan over El-Sayed’s ties to controversial streamer
Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed (D) has close political ties to political commentator Hasan Piker, who has been accused of antisemitism. Piker says his comments against Israel have been misunderstood.
SEC Halts NFL Players From Returning to College Football
After a slew of news about the controversial returns in college football, the SEC has laid down the law. The SEC unanimously banned the admittance of professional athletes back to its member schools Tuesday night, ending a recent period of chaos just days before the 2026 season kicks off. The SEC follows in the Big […]
Brooklyn party boss wins enough votes to clinch controversial rule changes
Before the vote, Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn's changes were denounced by Democratic leadership.
What Trump’s Supreme Court win means for mail ballots
The Supreme Court on Monday permitted President Donald Trump to move forward with a controversial executive order targeting mail ballots, but the decision will almost certainly not be the final word in whether the administration can actually implement its far-reaching plan.
El-Sayed distances himself from Hasan Piker after controversial remarks about Jewish Americans
Abdul El-Sayed distances himself from Hasan Piker after the Twitch streamer's comments about Jewish Americans sparked a bipartisan backlash.
The first NFL player to return to college, plus a controversial WNBA ejection
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! Congrats, you’re the Browns’ starting quarterback. Coming up: 📝 NFL –> CFB pipeline? ⏏️ Freedom’s ejection 🔥 Pristine vibes in Philly Last week, we discussed the concept — and your malaise — of the select group of NFL rookies eligible to return to college football via a judge’s order. In the time since, the situation has developed. Last night, former Ole Miss and Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright,...
Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ ball sells for £2.5m
Maradona scored a controversial goal against England in the 1986 World Cup
SUN: Maryland launches court-ordered mental health treatment program
Health officials are launching a controversial program to help those with severe mental health challenges adhere to their treatment by using a court order.
Exclusive | Is Lindsay Clancy really too sick to be guilty? Why experts agree with the defense's controversial claim
Talking Business with Becky Bradley: Facts, fears and what you need to know about the data center debate
Data centers are the most controversial land use of this era, and for valid reasons. But they’re also necessary.
Maryland launches court-ordered mental health care in Baltimore, some counties
Maryland health officials are rolling out a new and controversial program to help those with severe mental health challenges stay on top of their treatment -- by using a court order to mandate that those patients comply with their medical plans.
Yankees’ Aaron Boone Drops Honest Quote After Win Over Orioles
The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-3 on Wednesday night at Camden Yards, to win the series. A controversial foul call on a Pete Alonso fly ball in the seventh kept the game tied. Ryan McMahon exited with a left thumb injury after a slide in the second inning.The winning rally in the […] The post Yankees’ Aaron Boone Drops Honest Quote After Win Over Orioles appeared first on HEAVY.
Backlash to data centers could cost GOP a Senate seat in Ohio, Republicans warn
Controversial data centers are playing a role in the Ohio senate race.
Ties to data centers could cost Ohio Sen. John Husted his seat, memo warns
A GOP memo obtained by The Post urges the tech industry to take action to improve the image of the controversial facilities.
Google begins rolling out Android’s controversial new sideloading flow
The new advanced flow for sideloading adds a 24-hour delay and extra warnings for apps from unverified developers.
Madison County commissioners approve pay raise, health benefits change
Madison County commissioners approved several policy changes during a meeting Monday morning, including one resolution described as controversial among some members and the community.
Controversial Call Cost the Marlins in Loss Against Phillies
The Miami Marlins were one blown call away from completing another rally against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Trump administration pauses border construction project in Big Bend National Park
The Trump administration says it is temporarily pausing construction of a controversial border construction project in the Big Bend National Park while the head of the agency tasked with building the wall visits Texas to do an “on-the-ground evaluation.”
The Scientists Who Want to Steer Hurricanes
Over the weekend, Hawaii was lashed by Hurricane Lala, which has washed away homes, left more than 125,000 people without power, shut down two of the state’s busiest airports, threatened dangerous flash flooding and, at time of writing, has killed one person. What if we could’ve steered the storm away from Hawaii, into the vast expanse of the empty Pacific Ocean that lies all around the islands—where no one could get hurt? This scenario might sound like the stuff of science fiction. But earlier this year, a peer-reviewed study published by the Public Library of Science found that it might be possible, and sooner than we think. The study was titled: “Weather Jiu-Jitsu: Prospects for atmospheric nudging to defuse the impact of catastrophic weather extremes.” According to the paper, the controversial practice of cloud seeding could enable human beings to make hurricanes change direction. The potential results could be astounding: The authors suggested that Hurricane Sandy, which in New York City alone killed 44 people and caused $19 billion of damage in 2012, could’ve been diverted by 200 miles, missing the metropolis entirely. Cloud seeding, which first succeeded in the U.S. in 1946, is a practice whereby small particles—for example, dry ice, silver iodide, or salt—are dropped into clouds, causing moisture to condense into precipitation. In the 1960s, the U.S. government launched Project Stormfury, an experiment that saw Navy pilots flying into the heart of a hurricane, dodging winds over a hundred miles per hour, to cloud-seed inside it, in the hope of reducing the storm’s power. “The seeding,” the theory went, “would stimulate the formation of a new eyewall that would surround the existing eyewall. The new eyewall would contract, strangling the old eyewall and reducing the intensity of the hurricane.”
Hasan Piker torched over playbook to dodge his past controversies: 'Bats--- crazy'
Shannon Watts accused Hasan Piker of deflecting past controversial remarks, sparking a heated exchange over Democrats' responsibility for rhetoric.
Democratic Socialists of America grows in SF
SF group leads on controversial housing ballot measure.
Coe warns on interference in sport: Keep politicians on the bus but out of the driver's seat
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has discussed topics including track and field’s ban on Russian athletes, private equity in sports and FIFA’s credibility crisis following a controversial overturned red card at the World Cup
Twitch is training AI on livestreams, says it's an opt out feature as "nobody would opt in"
The chief product officer offered the cold hard truth behind a controversial new addition to the live stream platform.
Lane Kiffin Feeling ‘Magnitude’ of LSU Job Entering Crucial Season
As the new college football season gets going soon, all eyes will be on the LSU Tigers and head coach Lane Kiffin.After a controversial exit from Ole Miss last year, Kiffin’s new role with the Tigers has been discussed more than ever. There is more pressure on Kiffin entering this season than he’s ever faced […] The post Lane Kiffin Feeling ‘Magnitude’ of LSU Job Entering Crucial Season appeared first on HEAVY.
Sophie Cunningham reportedly shopping tell-all book amid WNBA controversy
Teaser: Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham is reportedly shopping a tell-all book as her growing popularity and controversial public comments continue to place her in the WNBA spotlight.
Trump returns to controversial vaccine policy with order questioning childhood schedule
The Trump administration, which had recently avoided public discussions of vaccine policy because of concern around the political repercussions, is changing course.
Theme Park Controversy Proves Obsession Broke Everyone’s Brains
A controversial Halloween Horror Nights decision has fans debating whether a horror victim should be turned into a terrifying scare actor.
Should Seahawks Sign Controversial Lions First-Round Pick Terrion Arnold?
Seattle scouts a potential defensive cornerstone as the former Crimson Tide standout seeks a fresh start following his release from Detroit, adding intrigue to an evolving secondary.
Mirror cells could threaten life on Earth. Why are we building them?
For people with two hands, one is usually dominant. On a molecular level, earthly life takes this to the extreme. All of the DNA in living things twists to the right, whereas the protein building blocks favor a kind of left-handed chemistry.The rules of life are based on this chemistry.In recent years, scientists have worked toward a kind of mirror version of life. Currently, the technology doesn't exist to make mirror life at the cellular level — and likely won't for at least a decade. Still, a group of scientists is concerned enough about the possibility that they've published a 299-page technical report calling for a stop to the science.In this encore episode for our Tech Camp series, host Regina Barber talks to Carl Zimmer, a science reporter at The New York Times, about his reporting on mirror cells — and why creating them could lead to devastating consequences for life on Earth.Check out Carl's full article.Curious about other controversial research? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
Jared Padalecki apologizes for supporting Perez Hilton amid mental health crisis
Jared Padalecki insists he had ‘absolutely no idea’ about Perez Hilton’s history when he offered support amid the controversial blogger’s mental health crisis.
Shane Gillis’ mom skipped out on his record-breaking standup show for vacation
Controversial comedian Shane Gillis broke two Guinness World Records for a recent standup show at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.
As an American Jew, my first political loyalty is to American democracy
I’m an American Jew, and my political loyalty is not to Democrats or to Republicans. It is to American democracy. Full stop. That shouldn’t be controversial, but for some people, a Jew saying that their first political loyalty is to American democracy will sound like a statement against Israel. They’ll assume I have rejected my […]
Trump officials say they’re strengthening Head Start with proposed rule. Critics say they’ll gut it
The Trump administration unveiled Thursday sweeping and controversial proposed changes to the Head Start program, which provides early education and health services to hundreds of thousands of low-income children.
US Stand Up for Science movement expands to Europe
A grassroots movement by scientists in the US pushing back against threats to academic freedom is setting up a Swiss outpost to take the movement global. Stand Up for Science started in February 2025 to protest against politically-motivated grant cancellations by the Trump administration. Since then, it has organised numerous rallies by scientists and turned into a broader campaigning organisation, supporting “pro-science” political candidates and attempting to impeach Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the health and human services secretary the group accuses of advancing “quack” science. Now, Stand Up for Science is establishing a Swiss office to take some of its campaigning beyond the US, and its leader is urging European academics to organise similar pro-science groups in case they face similar threats in Europe. There will likely be “spillover” to Europe from what the Trump administration is attempting in the US, said Colette Delawalla, chief executive of Stand Up for Science, who last month returned from a tour of Europe. “Are we going to see a Trump-style scientific [. . .] take over in the same way?” she asked.Delawalla, who is doing a PhD in clinical psychology, said she was driven to help found the organisation after the Trump administration started cancelling health research grants in politically taboo topics, such as transgender people, diversity and HIV, in early 2025. Since then, the administration has introduced several other measures that infringe academic and institutional autonomy.It threatened to cut Harvard University’s federal funding unless the university accepted a “critical mass” of new faculty and students to create “viewpoint diversity.” And this year, it proposed explosive new rules that would allow political appointees at research funders to screen grants to make sure they “advance the president's policy priorities.”US scientists have been at times stunned by the volume of announcements, and the country’s researchers were relatively unprepared. “We sit in front of the fire hose every day,” said Delawalla. For this reason, European scientists need to prepare now for similar assaults. “If you've got a little bit of extra time to start thinking through, and making those preparations and building community and solidarity,” then European researchers will “start five steps ahead of where we were.” She plans to return to Paris in September to share experiences with concerned French academics. Is Le Pen the same?During her European tour, Delawalla said that French academics were beginning to worry about a National Rally (RN) victory in presidential elections next year. She said there were “chilling similarities” between Trump and Marine Le Pen, the RN’s likely candidate. However, so far, the RN hasn’t proposed anything nearly as radical as the Trump administration has carried out. Its current manifesto is all but silent on university and research policy. Le Pen’s 2022 manifesto bemoaned a lack of French R&D spending, including in fundamental research, and promised to modernise labs and strip away grant bureaucracy. The party’s 2024 European election manifesto explicitly supported the Erasmus+ student exchange programme, scientific exchange and joint European technology projects. However, a Le Pen victory next year could see France drastically cut its contribution to the EU, which would hit the budget for science and innovation. Meanwhile, more restrictive immigration policies could hit university recruitment of faculty and students. Climate science denial?As heatwaves and wildfires have ravaged France, the RN has sought to distance itself from previous comments casting doubt on climate science.In the UK, the radical-right party Reform UK, now second in the polls, denied climate research in a draft of its 2024 election manifesto, but its leader, Nigel Farage, then appeared to quietly U-turn and said he was “not arguing the science.” By contrast, Trump has repeatedly and explicitly denied climate change science, in 2025 calling it “the greatest con job.” Like the RN, Reform UK has been light on research and university policy. However, it did say in its 2024 manifesto that universities should suffer “heavy financial penalties” for allowing “political bias or cancel culture” on campus, building on laws brought in by a previous Conservative government. Ahead of September state elections in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, the poll-leading Alternative for Germany has proposed abolishing gender studies and postcolonial studies, and promised money for “critical” climate research and studies of Islam. Starts with rhetoricEven if European radical right parties aren’t currently planning the draconian policy measures of the Trump administration, Delawalla said that academics should not be complacent, and fight even small funding restrictions or anti-science talk from the start. “It starts off with sowing distrust about institutions,” she said. “It starts off with these small things, and then all of a sudden it's there.” There are other, more established science and university advocacy groups in the US aside from Stand Up for Science. But the group stands out because of Delawalla’s refusal to attempt to appear politically bipartisan or conciliatory. “I firmly believe that the US is experiencing fascism,” she said. “We’re not trying to win over the super Maga people,” she said, “and we never have been.” The lesson of the US is that even if universities or other institutions capitulate to government demands, this doesn’t save them from cuts and restrictions. “It doesn’t matter what people do,” she said. Global “pseudoscience”Another aim of Stand Up for Science’s push into Europe is to better coordinate a campaign to protect people in poorer countries from what the group describes as “pseudoscientific exploitation,” trials outside the US used to build a case against things like vaccines. Earlier this year, the group sent an investigator to Guinea-Bissau to investigate a controversial, Danish-run Hepatitis B vaccine project funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The study would have withheld a proven vaccine from newborns, Stand Up for Science argued in a briefing it presented to Congress, risking their health. Significantly, the research group based in Guinea-Bissau, known as Bandim, focuses on the “non-specific effects” of vaccines: impacts on health beyond preventing the target disease. Related articlesEuropean researchers sound the alarm that Trump rule changes will hit cooperationData corner: which fields of health science is the US curbing? The US ‘golden age’ science strategy: what Europeans need to know The suspicion is that the study was funded as part of an attempt to shop around for results that could help build a case against vaccines in the US, said Delawalla. “This is just code for vaccines cause autism,” she said.Bandim has put out a rebuttal of Stand Up for Science’s criticisms, arguing its work has uncovered a number of vaccine side effects, both positive and negative, which need to be taken into account in public health. However, Congressional Democrats took up the Stand Up for Science cause, and in February, Guinea-Bissau said it had permanently halted the study. WatchdogBut for Delawalla, this is not the end of the fight. Kennedy has made a number of health claims that scientists think lack evidence, such as the idea that seed oils cause inflammation, for example. Delawalla worries that more studies could be launched in poorer countries to fish around for evidence to support this agenda. Stand Up for Science is talking to African science organisations to create a kind of “watchdog” to scrutinise any further trials. “Outsourcing the investigation to some of the most vulnerable children in the world who are desperate [. . .] is fundamentally wrong,” she said.
SpaceX Is Betting on Cybertrucks to Save NASA Astronauts in an Emergency
Tesla's controversial vehicle is replacing a tactical military transport designed to deflect landmine blasts.
He posted about this controversial medical test. Then came the backlash
Andrew Huberman's recent comments about full-body MRIs sparked a new wave of controversy. Here's what happened.
He posted about this controversial medical test. Then came the backlash
Andrew Huberman's recent comments about full-body MRIs sparked a new wave of controversy. Here's what happened.
The Beauty Of Settled Science
Commenters convinced me I made a subtle mis-step in my framing of Psychology Research Is Mostly Fine. My framing emphasized that social priming studies had failed to replicate, but that many other subfields of psychology hadn’t. This naturally led commenters to point to failed replications in other subfields. Although none of these were as bad as social priming, few or none were entirely problem-free. Instead of emphasizing the difference between social priming and other subfields, I should have emphasized the difference between settled science and novel research. Here are some of my favorite psychology findings: The brain is sculpted by reinforcement learning, and a key driver of this learning is a prediction-error-based algorithm located in the nucleus accumbens and implemented through dopamine. Psychedelic drugs exert their effects through 5-HT2A receptors, pointing to a role for these receptors in some sort of construct like the balance between priors and new evidence. Certain cognitive functions are localized to certain brain areas (for example, impulse control to the frontal lobes; linguistic structure to Broca’s area, linguistic meaning to Wernicke’s area. But injure one of these areas, or render a certain function useless (eg a blind person having no more use for their visual cortex), and these mappings can gradually shift - suggesting that neurons are general-purpose compute whose specialization is a contingent fact about convenience and efficiency rather than a necessity. Most personality traits and general capabilities are about 50% genetic and 50% random, with little role for family environment or childhood history, with a few notable exceptions like partisan preference. Recent research complicates this story, but the further you go from this basic picture, the gnarlier the chains of indirect causation you require. Neurons fire together in “brain waves”, whose exact frequency corresponds with the character of consciousness; These divide neurons into natural subpopulations and linked graphs. The gamma rhythm corresponds surprisingly well to items in conscious awareness. GABA receptors seem to be involved in something like relaxation. By hitting different GABA receptors in different ways, you can modulate the exact type of relaxation you produce. Hitting GABA-A directly is too powerful and can cause dangerous levels of sedation, but allosteric modulation of GABA is an incredibly fruitful strategy that underlies drugs from benzos to barbituates to alcohol. If you know your GABA-A subunits, you can target specific subtypes of relaxation; for example, Ambien hits GABA-A1 and induces sleep. Memory divides somewhat fuzzily into bins of immediate-sensory, short-term, and long-term, with separate retrieval and storage functions, and separate systems for declarative vs. procedural learning. These can be harmed selectively, usually by hippocampal injury, so that some patients can remember their life stories but not form new long-term memories, or learn new skills like bike-riding but not new facts. The exact substrate of memory is unclear but seems to involve new synaptic connections between neurons in at least some way. The ability of modern psychology and psychiatry to treat mental illness is real but limited. SSRIs work for half or slightly fewer than half of patients; antipsychotics work with extreme side effects; benzodiazpines work but produce addiction and tolerance in many (not all) people. Most supplements are stuck in Poor Quality Study Replication Crisis Hell, but melatonin and l-theanine stand out as especially promising. Psychotherapy works with moderate effect size, but (with a few exceptions) seems to be more about the relationship with the provider than the details of the therapy itself. Mental hospitalization can sometimes defuse immediate crises but work less well than mental hospitals would like, with some studies showing overall negative effects. Schizophrenia is mostly genetic, but risk also increases with prenatal infection (especially rubella) and obstetric complications; there is suggestive evidence for roles of social stress and drug use (with psychedelics and marijuana making things worse, and nicotine if anything making things better). Bipolar and schizophrenia are so closely linked on a pathophysiological level that it seems like they might be the same disease; on the clinical level, they do seem to follow two separate courses/prognoses but can sometimes surprise clinicians by eg someone who seemed condemned to permanent schizophrenia unexpectedly recovering. The brain’s native reinforcement learning algorithms cash out in the phenomena of classical and operant conditioning; different reinforcement schedules reinforce at different levels, which can be exploited by bad actors to make especially compelling products (eg slot machines). None of these are immune to doubt. A few are speculative; one or two are genuinely unorthodox. But they’re all a step above one p = 0.049 paper that might not replicate. If they get overturned, they’ll be overturned by the same sort of genuine scientific shift that replaced Ptolemy with Copernicus or Lamarck with Darwin, not some sort of sordid discovery about someone entering random numbers into a spreadsheet. In 2008, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote about The Beauty Of Settled Science: If you only care about scientific issues that are controversial, you will end up with a head stuffed full of garbage. The media thinks that only the cutting edge of science is worth reporting on. How often do you see headlines like “General Relativity still governing planetary orbits” or “Phlogiston theory remains false”? So, by the time anything is solid science, it is no longer a breaking headline. “Newsworthy” science is often based on the thinnest of evidence and wrong half the time—if it were not on the uttermost fringes of the scientific frontier, it would not be breaking news. Scientific controversies are problems so difficult that even people who’ve spent years mastering the field can still fool themselves. That’s what makes for the heated arguments that attract all the media attention. Worse, if you aren’t in the field and part of the game, controversies aren’t even fun. Don’t be embarrassed to read elementary science textbooks, either. If you want to pretend to be sophisticated, go find a play to sneer at. If you just want to have fun, remember that simplicity is at the core of scientific beauty [...] A steady diet of science news is bad for you: You are what you eat, and if you eat only science reporting on fluid situations, without a solid textbook now and then, your brain will turn to liquid. Psychology isn’t centrally the new paper in Annals Of Recently-Breaking News saying that an n=5 study showing that large portion sizes increase support for terrorism. Psychology is centrally ideas like brain waves, GABA receptors, reinforcement learning, twin studies, and connectionism. People who think differently are worrying too much about BREAKING NEWS!!!, and should stop. The key distinction isn’t “recent research in social psychology” vs. “recent research in cognitive/bio/behavioral psychology”, as my essay last week unfortunately implied. It’s recent research in general vs. the deposit of settled science, battle-tested hypotheses, and carefully-earmarked speculation. And part of the reason social priming in particular was such a disaster was that it defied that heuristic, building itself up over hundreds of studies until it approached or even entered the pantheon of settled science - before collapsing (5-HTTLPR was also sort of like this). This isn’t a claim that settled science is always right - Freud was “settled science” for a long time - just that there’s an intuitive distinction between the level of credence you should have in the existence of power posing vs. the existence of Broca’s Area. (I compounded this error by calling the last post “Psychology Research Is Mostly Fine”, which suggested I was talking about the new research rather than the settled science. I actually meant to distinguish between research-psychology-the-field vs. clinical-psychology-aka-therapy, but this framing unintentionally pushed against the point I wanted to make) Some commenters on the previous article understood this point, but challenged its weight. It’s very cool, they said, to know how many neurons are in which brain lobe, but the main way that Psychology affected their lives was through bad clickbait studies used to buttress dumb policies; some p = 0.049 study says that exposure to microaggressions makes minorities’ brains shrivel into raisins, and now their company has to implement punitive DEI or be sued for hazardous work conditions. I won’t dispute this as an accurate description of how the sausage gets made, but it’s worth examining the trains of thought that connect this observation to a campaign against psychology in general: The dumb woke psychology was wrong and bad, and I don’t have good heuristics for distinguishing dumb woke psychology from other psychology, so I’m going to assume it’s all wrong and bad. The dumb woke psychology was wrong and bad; it seems useful to punish/discredit psychology as a whole to assist my campaign against it, so for propaganda purposes I will try to discredit psychology as a whole. To people in the first camp, my response is: come on, your heuristics aren’t that bad. “Microaggressions makes minorities’ brains shrivel up like raisins” is in the woke category; “the hippocampal theta rhythm seems to be associated with both memory and pathfinding, suggesting an unexpected yet surprisingly compelling relationship between the two” is in the not-woke category, don’t play dumb here. To people in the second camp, my response is: deliberately exaggerated propaganda campaigns are bad and this is a confession, not an excuse. Inability to view science through anything but a political lens was what got us into this problem; doubling down on it is a temporary solution but a recipe for permanent disaster. If you pronounce entire fields of science to be acceptable collateral damage in your campaign against bad political actors, you will alienate not just scientists but patients, clinicians, and general lovers of truth. Instead, you can say the thing you mean - that woke partisans shouldn’t try to occupy and exploit the otherwise-noble science of psychology for their own political gain - and wage the same campaign with a halo rather than a comic-book-villain goatee. From the font of oracular wisdom that is Weird Sun Twitter: [ Vessel Of Spirit@VesselOfSpirit i love you all conditionally but i love the good part of you unconditionally. even if it becomes a very small part 2:11 AM · Jan 22, 2015 1 Reply · 5 Reposts · 29 Likes ](https://x.com/VesselOfSpirit/status/558084551772471298) This is how I feel about psychology1, too, but with a touch more optimism. The good part of psychology is enormous, a hoard of endless treasures. You just have to look past the headlines! 1 To play devil’s advocate - should one always be so magnamious? Astrology? Phrenology? These seem different in that their entire orientation was flawed from the start; they didn’t simply fail to find the correct constellation-personality connections, the whole project of searching for connections between constellations and personality was doomed from the start. More difficult might be asking the same question about education research, which is notoriously bad. I don’t know enough about education research to know if there’s some settled science of correct and enlightening results lurking in the background beyond the day-to-day froth of poorly-conducted and politically-motivated studies. I think if it’s 90% bad, 10% good, it’s correct to call it bad as a compact way of communicating a useful truth; I think psychology is better than that, but admit it’s a tough judgment call.
DuckDuckGo Is Selling Anti Pervert Glasses That Contain Zero AI, Cameras, or Even Electronics Whatsoever
Google alternative DuckDuckGo has come up with a pair of plastic, non-pervert glasses in response to Meta's controversial smart glasses.
Senate Judiciary Committee Advances Todd Blanche to Be Attorney General
Two GOP senator holdouts ultimately supported the nomination after getting written assurances that a controversial fund was dead.
Business partner details 'buffer' role in Brandon Deriso's show bookings
Brandon Deriso's history of controversial business partnerships, from a pole-dancing studio to music productions, detailed in This Is Reno investigation.
Como respond to ‘misunderstanding’ over controversial new season ticket rules
Como President Mirwan Suwarso has released a statement explaining the proposed new season ticket rules, which would kick fans off if they missed three matches.The decision had caused controversy that ...
Burcum: Q&A with U President Cunningham on Trump admin threats to science
As U.S. Senate leaders weigh blocking a controversial OMB rule, Rebecca Cunningham explains what’s at risk if political appointees, not experts, decide where federal funding flows, columnist Jill Burcum writes.
Trump’s mail voting appeal tests Supreme Court’s anti-chaos election rule
President Donald Trump’s emergency appeal aimed at limiting the use of mail ballots is poised to test a controversial, 20-year-old Supreme Court principle that was intended to avoid chaos before elections.
Blanche scraps Trump’s $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund
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Does public health *need* MAHA?
Last week, our friend Dr. Craig Spencer sparked an ongoing volatile discussion with his Atlantic article “Public Health Needs MAHA.” Some have come out in strong dissent, others are cheering, and others are simply lamenting that we find ourselves in such a divided world to begin with. We will dare to dip our toes in these controversial waters, too. Does public health need MAHA? We think in some ways yes, and in other ways, no. MAHA leaders versus the everyday MAHA supporter The vitriol in this debate mostly comes from one collapsed distinction: the leadership of MAHA is not necessarily the same as the people who support it. Say “MAHA” and most people picture RFK Jr. Fair enough, as he coined the term and holds most of the power. And, yes, some MAHA followers treat Kennedy as something close to a saint. But talk to the grassroots, and it’s not a monolith. They’re Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. People who distrust vaccines and vaccine supporters. It’s a wide, eclectic coalition. The data backs this too: 4 in 10 Americans support the movement—that’s a lot of people! But according to polls, vaccines and medical choice (the issues most tied to Kennedy personally) are cited by only 4% as their reason for supporting the movement. For many, the motivations are much broader. Many MAHA supporters are signing up for the idea that “something needs to change” with health in this country. They’re asking good-faith questions about corporate influence on our health systems, health care costs, nutrition, chemicals, and clean air and water. These are all questions that plenty of public health professionals recognize as legitimate and also care about very deeply. Blurring the lines between the leadership and grassroots does real damage in two important ways: It hands the 4 in 10 exactly the narrative already fed—that the health ecosystem doesn’t listen, doesn’t care, and paints every critic with the same brush. It gives the actual bad actor more power. RFK Jr. has done irreparable damage and can’t be trusted. What the MAHA movement gets right A healthy population is something the public health field was literally built on, and many of these topics are things we have dedicated our lives to. Yet the MAHA movement has captivated nearly half the country in a way the public health establishment has failed to achieve. So that means MAHA is doing something right. Some of it may be timing (after a Covid-19 pandemic and deep frustration and mistrust with institutions). The movement also does three other things really well: 1. It gives a new, louder voice to system failures. While MAHA is not a monolith, one theme stays consistent across their stories: the system failed them. For some, it was the system that flooded their communities with opioids and then walked away. For others, it was the system that let their business collapse during Covid with no safety net in sight. For others still, it was the system that failed to help them manage a complex chronic illness, bouncing them from physician to physician without any real answers. And in many ways, our health ecosystems are failing Americans. Why are medical bills so incomprehensible? Why do some kids get a healthy school lunch and others don’t? Why do an epidemiologist and a MD/PhD student have to start newsletters in the middle of the biggest public health emergency in a century, just so people can get straight information? Because the systems failed. This deep-seated frustration driving many Americans to search for solutions elsewhere needs to be recognized. 2. MAHA has brilliant comms central to their efforts. MAHA figured out something most health institutions still have not: the information landscape changed. It’s participatory now, not top-down; influence runs through many nodes in a community, not one institution; and storytelling and telling audiences “what you really think” moves people more than data dumps do. MAHA goes where audiences are listening, using podcasts, social media, and memes in ways most health institutions would scoff at—but it works. 3. They are very good at organizing. A MAHA meeting feels like a rally: energy, speakers, music, and most importantly, an action for everyone. Someone’s writing the next policy brief, someone’s seeding a narrative, someone knows the next legislative deadline, someone’s sending the text messages for a campaign. None of this is new (ask the civil rights movement), but MAHA knows it works and has capitalized on it. What MAHA gets wrong This list could be much longer, and this newsletter has spent a lot of time covering it, but here are a few things: Poor use of scientific evidence. This is the fundamental problem with many MAHA policies: the hype outpaces the science, and experts are often villainized for pointing this out. MAHA leadership has traded real solutions for cheap wins. For example, instead of taking on the powerful food industry and passing real reforms, it has celebrated french fries made of beef tallow and taken out artificial dyes from still very sugary children’s cereal. These changes won’t move the needle on America’s diet. MAHA leadership has tried to dismantle vaccine access in the U.S. While many MAHA supporters emphasize other issues, the effort to change vaccine policy has become MAHA’s signature effort. This is not surprising given RFK Jr.’s extensive track record campaigning against vaccines. It has rallied behind the wrong leader. RFK Jr. has a decades-long track record of villifying doctors, scientists, and public health workers, well before he became HHS secretary. He is known for his decades-long work sowing distrust in vaccines as well as life-saving treatments like antiretroviral therapy for HIV. This is not a serious person who can move the needle on health in the U.S, and he has already done serious damage. Public health needs more than defense Defending the evidence is absolutely necessary so health in the U.S. doesn’t move further backward. The public health establishment is very good at defense. The problem is this defense often sounds like defending the status quo, which has failed many people. Public health needs to offer an alternative to RFK Jr.’s MAHA—one that is rooted in evidence, truly listens to and addresses people’s frustrations, and has innovative solutions and the courage to change the systems. How do we get there? Find common ground. Do you know what most people care most about? The abysmal cost of healthcare. Start there. Fight for the human loudly. Too often, communications and engagement center on science with a capital S, funding mechanisms, or the CDC/FDA/NIH. Not the person. So the public doesn’t see themselves in it. Instead, they see people fighting for the very powerful systems that they feel negatively impact their health and well-being. Let the public feel and hear that you see their frustrations, you get it, and you’re fighting for them within the system. Recognize when pro-science messages are alienating people. Facts absolutely matter, but angrily venting only alienates people further. Our friend Elisabeth Marnik recently wrote a New York Times article about her experience growing up unvaccinated and how listening and empathetic conversation are the only ways to reach people that really work (a position backed by communication science). Her comments section was full of hateful comments from pro-vaccine individuals attacking her for daring to suggest we approach vaccine-hesitant individuals with empathy. It is possible to both stand firm behind scientific evidence and empathize with people who don’t trust it. Lean into politics smartly. Often, public health has shied away from politics: Don’t touch it, lest you get burned. But this fails to recognize that the third rail is what fuels the train: who is elected determines our budgets, our priorities, and our authority. Being political means being very savvy in strategy on both sides of the aisle, knowing your audience, and recognizing that political capital is as scarce as financial resources and needs to be allocated accordingly. Bottom line So does public health need MAHA? That’s not really the right question. Public health has a responsibility not to dismiss 40% of the country who feel heard by this movement and are frustrated that the system has failed them. And it has a responsibility to stick to the evidence and recognize MAHA leadership for what it is: a danger to our nation’s health. Both can, and should, be done. Love, YLE and KP A big thanks to Craig Spencer, who had the courage to put his neck out there to start a much-needed discussion at such a critical moment—one that is determining the identity of an entire field. Kristen Panthagani, MD, PhD is completing an emergency medicine residency and research fellowship focusing on health literacy and communication. In her free time, she writes the newsletters You Can Know Things debunking health myths and rumors and The Public Health Roundup. Views expressed belong to KP, not her employer. Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) comprises a team of experts, ranging from physicians to immunologists to epidemiologists to nutritionists, working together with one goal: to “translate” ever-evolving public health science so that people are well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. The YLE suite of newsletters reaches over 475,000 people across more than 132 countries. This newsletter is free to everyone, thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support the effort, subscribe or upgrade below: Subscribe
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