Academic Mixtape 36
Hi folks. It's been a while since I've sent you a mixtape because so much of what I've been reading has been the same bad news you've been seeing. And who wants me to share that. Here are things I'm happy and proud to share with you, from the past couple months.
A short story in Nature about how we folks in the US are dealing with reduced meeting attendance (from fewer federal scientists as well as international people who are wisely staying away).
There is something hilarious and tragic about people using AI to write, and then evaluators using AI to evaluate the writing. Like the University of California scoring application essays.
15 questions to ask before picking a grad school institution. Most of the standard advice all in one place.
The Epic Chicken Sandwich. It's not really about the Sandwich, and it's most definitely worth your time.
How one sentence can make classrooms more inclusive. (Here's the peer-reviewed article that this piece is about). Makes a very strong case for being more of ourselves in the classroom. So much great science coming out of the Brownell lab.
"I became a[n AI] hater by doing precisely those things AI cannot do: reading and understanding human language; thinking and reasoning about ideas; considering the meaning of my words and their context; loving people, making art, living in my body with its flaws and feelings and life. AI cannot be a hater, because AI does not feel, or know, or care. Only humans can be haters. I celebrate my humanity."
If you are immature as me, this will be hilarious. The Space Telescope Science Institute has an innovate outreach program for the visually impaired, by distributing tactile images of planets so folks without sight can understand what the JWST is imaging. Which means they are distributing Tactile Images of Uranus. (But also it's a cool program!)
Bluesky is now the platform of choice for the scientific community. Come on over, the water's warm and so are the people. You can find me as @hormiga.bsky.social.
Joyas Voladoras. An ode to the hummingbird.
A Science News story about the parasitic ant species that uses chemistry to tell its hosts to assassinate their mother. Nature is weirder than we could possibly even imagine.
A thing I'm reading right now is Tim Winton's Island Home (2015), about landscape and his sense of place in Australia. It's some of the best nature writing I've ever enjoyed. The opening chapter about Australian landscapes just takes my breath away, with the ideas but also the writing itself. Just wanted to let you know.
Maybe don't talk to the New York Times about Zohran Mamdani. from Literary Hub.
This is an absolutely wild story and I wonder why it hasn't seemingly gotten beyond the Irish Times. A judge in the International Criminal Court has been personally added to a list for US Sanctions. Which means that the oligarchs associated with the US government have shut her out of their business. She can't use Amazon, can't do financial business involving dollars, order an Uber, book a hotel online, etc. It's wild.
I thought I knew my US History pretty well but I had no idea that Joe McCarthy was pro-Nazi. Huh. It makes sense, but I just didn't even see things that way.
This peer-reviewed article about reading comprehension skills of university English majors is stunning. Mouth-agape appalling. Even if not surprising. But these are English majors. I read the whole article, and the details are where it gets so shocking.
I didn't realize this, but back in August, Stanford University chose to turn down CalGrant scholarships for students from the state of California. Why? Because now the state requires Cal Grant institutions to not provide preferred admissions to donors and legacies. And they have decided that that sweet, sweet pay-to-play admissions money is better than state funded scholarships.
I remember occasionally reading papers in Science of the Total Environment. It was a legit journal, with good papers. But basically it got diluted, started publishing crap papers with sham per review, and it's being delisted from major indices. Here's the story. I would appreciate a deeper journalistic dive on this or hear from someone who was on the editorial board who saw more on the inside.
Did you know that in their early days, Foo Fighters put a lot of effort into propping up conspiracy theories about HIV and fought against FDA-approved drug treatments? This story is 25 years old, but I think remains shocking. It's been pointed out by a lot of folks that members of the band have never come forward to take accountability.
This is a very nice long form profile of John Darnielle, of The Mountain Goats.
The XKCD that made a lot of people cry.
Have a great weekend, and as the semester ramps up, I wish us all a strong start.
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