Science stuff @Gizmodo lately. Misc bylines @techreview, @thenation, @sciam, @newrepublic, @Gawker (RIP), etc. Leak to me on Signal, please: matthew_d_phelan.16
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I sorta loathe doing this—meaning an earnest thread on XDotCom—but there are some key updates/added context to my NYTs story about DOGE’s cuts over at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center: i.e. the office that’s helped NASA land safely on other planets since the Apollo era (1/26)
There’s a lot more that I could and probably will say here about the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, but (for starters) here’s some reporting on it that I did for The New York Times.
nytimes.com/2025/04/14/scien…
Matthew Phelan retweeted
“In cinematography, the ‘Dutch Angle’ is often used to portray a character’s psychological unease and may represent madness or their unstable mental state.”
Got MGM+ free for 7 days to watch a doc I needed to see for research—and it is a hilarious streamer.
Not unlike that first year of Disney+ when it was only Star Wars, Pixar, and deep back catalogue Disney slop like The Shaggy DA, Mr. Boogedy, and Not Quite Human.
Old Dracula!
Matthew Phelan retweeted
Controversial opinion: this is not sad it is extremely funny, she went to church with an auntie and randomly decided to start talking like the preacher one day
Matthew Phelan retweeted
Any Democrat who has said anything critical about AES in public since he clinched the nomination is objectively pro-Trump and should be treated as such going forward. If the shoe was on the other foot they'd be saying that about us, and they'd have a point.
Matthew Phelan retweeted
You work hard to get your law degree. Your friends are mostly going into Big Law where they start out making $350k to help corporations rip people off. You want to make the world better, not worse, so you get a job at NRDC, making $70k to protect people and places from pollution. Then you see Matt Yglesias—the guy who cheered on the Iraq War and defended Biden’s senility and said the people of Minneapolis shouldn’t have protested ICE—use Halloween to argue that you’re the problem with our politics.
Spooky, indeed!
Matthew Phelan retweeted
Cannabis Users Most Likely to Call Psychedelic Hotline Mid-Trip gizmodo.com/the-most-distres…
Matthew Phelan retweeted
"Do you worry [Abdul El-Sayed] is a bit too left wing to win in Michigan?"
Michigan voter "At this point what do we have to worry about? Anything but what we have. We're on our way to hell so at this point socialist, socialise, social, dont matter to me, lower my cost of living"
Matthew Phelan retweeted
My client and 2016 lawsuit named it today's Judiciary Democrats’ Report Details Mounting Evidence Linking Trump to Epstein’s Criminal Activities and DOJ’s Cover-Up; Specific Accounts Involving 11 Women Provide More Evidence of Potential Sex Crimes
patreon.com/oppermanreport/p…
Matthew Phelan retweeted
It’s a very good movie but if your takeaway is that Elizabeth Holmes might be a neurodivergent victim I think you have forcibly disconnected yourself from reality.
More specifically, she *obviously* gets The Who’s on First joke—and is profoundly motivated to pretend she doesn’t.
Susan Collins is such a freak. I'm trying to imagine any other person for whom a corrupt, self-dealing dirty coal baron "Independent" would be their thrilling, admirable endorsement.
apnews.com/article/collins-m…
Joe Manchin likes you, Susan Collins? You mean, the guy who was poisoning his own constituents to make a buck off crypto mining?
typeinvestigations.org/inves…
eenews.net/articles/a-coal-p…
They are emptying America's dankest, foulest-smelling parents' basements to invade our Nation's capital.
Matthew Phelan retweeted
🚨 Actualización | Fueron encontradas 12 iguanas de Galápagos presuntamente trasladadas de manera ilegal hacia el continente.
Una de ellas ya falleció y varias presentan entumecimiento en sus extremidades debido a las condiciones en las que estaban siendo transportadas.
Desde este momento, los animales están bajo custodia de @EcuadorMAE para su análisis, estabilización y atención especializada.
Matthew Phelan retweeted
how is this legal!!!!! nytimes.com/2026/10/16/us/po…
Love seeing this one researcher proudly holding up his giant prehistoric fungus. 😇
Meet 'D. Rex,' the Monster Fungus Born in the Wake of the Dinosaur Apocalypse gizmodo.com/meet-d-rex-the-m…
Can you believe this shit? Not me. "All told, nearly two-thirds of Gulf oil production and 57% of natural gas production had been shut by noon Thursday, according to the U.S. Marine Minerals Administration."
nbcnews.com/business/energy/…