As area chair I’m finding myself too often having to refocus discussion between authors and reviewers away from forced homogeneity, value judgements, gatekeeping, ad hominem attacks and general adversarial issues, and towards clarification and understanding. Not sure how we’ve come to be so weird…

In fact, what we most need is funding to build out and stabilize the network of academic workers. We need more secure positions for people who work in universities, so they can do good teaching and research, day in and day out. We do not need to hire stars.

A humble academic proposal: let's not have stars. Everyone hired as an academic at a university is there to teach younger generations, to make new knowledge, to have that knowledge critically evaluated by others, and to act on collective insights. We do not need to designate some people as stars.

As area chair I’m finding myself too often having to refocus discussion between authors and reviewers away from forced homogeneity, value judgements, gatekeeping, ad hominem attacks and general adversarial issues, and towards clarification and understanding. Not sure how we’ve come to be so weird…

Got it taken care of right away. Me, forgetting what comes next in the movie: is this it? Is this all you can conjure, universe?

Federico Adolfi@fedeadolfi.bsky.social · 2d ago

Injured myself on the street but I was already on my way to the hospital. Nice try, universe

Injured myself on the street but I was already on my way to the hospital. Nice try, universe

Dr: you might have carpal tunnel syndrome — we can fix it with a quick surgery after we test for it Me: wonderful *test comes back negative* Dr: yea the test is not sensitive enough but I think you have CTS and we can fix it with a quick surgery Me, resisting every single impulse: wonderful

Me, trying to project gravitas while supervising students: The key to modeling is patience. Like that time I shook a bottle of freshly squeezed orange juice & went to bed. It didn’t react. It silently waited. Then waited some more. Until at 3 AM it exploded with the fury of eleventy thunderbolts.

Me, trying to project gravitas while supervising students: The key to modeling is patience. Like that time I shook a bottle of freshly squeezed orange juice & went to bed. It didn’t react. It silently waited. Then waited some more. Until at 3 AM it exploded with the fury of eleventy thunderbolts.

Funder: that’s an important research program with an innovative methodology you got there. What are some concrete deliverables? Me: for example nothing

As scientists we are used to explore at the edge of knowledge. To straddle the boundary between possible and impossible. We are guided by plausibility but not enslaved by it. Like that time I was out of milk so I tried yogurt in my coffee. A long shot, yes. But did it work? Not even a little bit.

Funder: that’s an important research program with an innovative methodology you got there. What are some concrete deliverables? Me: for example nothing

As scientists we are used to explore at the edge of knowledge. To straddle the boundary between possible and impossible. We are guided by plausibility but not enslaved by it. Like that time I was out of milk so I tried yogurt in my coffee. A long shot, yes. But did it work? Not even a little bit.

While the Fields Medal celebrates the under-40s, the mathematician Joan Birman has, at the age of 99, solved a major open problem in representations of the Braid groups, a topic she has worked on for more than 60 years.

A stock scene in American shows that always confuses me A: you look like shit, B, you should get some sleep B: yeah *looks fabulous*

Yeah exactly, just like if you ask for mayo and you get aioli, it looks the same but only when all the information is integrated together does the model fail, showing that single point estimates do not reflect dynamical systems. See? simple intuitions.

As a total outsider who has never really done any serious science communication work, I wonder if we could do a bit more of “I can’t explain X in lay terms, but I can tell you it’s role in giving us Y which I can give intuition for” (metatheory) and less “X is to Y as feet are to soccer balls”

New preprint (well, very updated). 🤖🧠🧪 We find that an abstract model of neuromodulation lets spiking neural networks perform much better, particularly in challenging noisy environments, using less energy. Relevant to #neuroscience and #neuromorphic computing. 🧵👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Neuromodulation enhances the capability and efficiency of spiking neural networks

Spiking neurons underlie the brain’s extreme energy efficiency, and therefore have great potential in neuromorphic computing, although realising this efficiency in practice has proven challenging. We ...

biorxiv.org

Them: please submit a CV, 1-page cover letter, and 1-page research plan Me, staring at my 5-page research statement: sure

Carga de Sofá: Não Vai Caber!

Alt: A bunch of people clumsily trying to fit a big couch in the trunk of a small car and failing

static.klipy.com

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Sanjay Srivastava@sanjaysrivastava.com · 4w ago

Aren't you sure you don't want to not unsubscribe? ⬜ Yes I'm not ⬜ No I am

I am honestly pretty sad there was only one reply to this. Are there seriously not people out there doing cool stuff?

Elise Cutts@elisecutts.bsky.social · 4w ago

Who are some science journalists writing great newsletters? Trying to get some more independent science writing in my feed.

My magic wormhole time machine works! Now, with great power comes great responsibility. So we’ll prevent the bad wars right after we prank kid-who-used-to-bully-me-in-school’s bloodline

My magic wormhole time machine works! Now, with great power comes great responsibility. So we’ll prevent the bad wars right after we prank kid-who-used-to-bully-me-in-school’s bloodline

We are also running this again next year in Norway: aliceworkshop.org. Plenty of people from ALife here (and adjacent fields), so do apply ;)

Main journal is the ALife journal direct.mit.edu/artl and ISAL is the overarching org. GECCO (gecco-2026.sigevo.org/HomePage) and CCS (ccs26.cssociety.org) are also popular with people in the field. There may be others that I am missing

One of my colleagues created this back when BS started gaining traction: bsky.app/starter-pack...

Can anyone point me toward the ALife community? Accounts, feeds, journals, conferences, all welcome (including adjacent communities)

That’s pronounced “thirty-five business days”

Introvert Problems@introvertproblems.bsky.social · last mo.

This must be one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had *oil dripping all over the place* I wonder why *oil has now filled the room up to my neck* It’s a mystery *drowns*

Dune Oil Man Emerging from Water

Alt: Dune Oil Man Emerging from Water

static.klipy.com

Ordering food in The Netherlands Me: is there anything in the menu that’s not fried? Them: uh I…there’s this apple tart Me: wonderful I’ll have— Them: yea it’s fried Me: Them: Me: Them: would you like some fries with that? Me: no thanks— Them: sorry they’re free and compulsory