Not to brag, but I was spewing out hilariously incorrect information before huge tech companies decided to create AI chatbots and ruin the internet.
Jonathan Z Simon
@jzsimon.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Auditory neuroscientist, dad, husband, nerd. Incorrigible punster (please don't incorrige me). he/him. Formerly @JonathanZSimon #tfr [bridged from https://fediscience.org/@jzsimon on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
Describe eclipse to 4 year old hoping to spark childlike wonder and excitement for tomorrow. Daughter is now screaming “DONT TAKE THE SUN AWAY PLEASE”. I’m not sure how to parent out of this situation.
Comparing NIH intramural vs extramural funding and productive, as explained by @Drugmonkey https://drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/08/05/nih-intramural-versus-extramural-research-efficiency/
drugmonkey.wordpress.com
A decent first-pass framework to help decide whether using AI will help or hinder you personally, for any given task. https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/07/should-you-use-ai-for-a-task-heres-a-simple-way-to-decide.html
schneier.com
RE: https://indieweb.social/@xkcdbot/117004831060440385 As someone who works on the Rubin Observatory, I can confirm that it would in fact be possible to leave the blinds up and the lights up in the kitchen 🙂.
indieweb.social
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to the Roku Channel
“ISPs’ long nightmare of having to list all the fees they charge is finally over: FCC lets ISPs stop listing all fees after companies complained it was too hard.” https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/isps-long-nightmare-of-having-to-list-all-the-fees-they-charge-is-finally-over/
arstechnica.com
I noticed my Purple Air sensor went off the air about a month ago. I just went up to the roof to check on it today and the power supply was completely missing. It appears to have become part of a bird’s nest in a nearby tree. New power supply ordered. I would send the bill to the thieving birds […]
Original post on federate.social
federate.social
“Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise.” #Q4TD #Quote #Quotes https://q4td.blogspot.com/2026/07/any-sufficiently-advanced-information.html
“Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise.”
q4td.blogspot.com
“The older I grow the more I listen to people who don’t talk much.” — Germain G. Glien #Q4TD #Quote #Quotes https://q4td.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-older-i-grow-more-i-listen-to.html
“The older I grow the more I listen to people who don’t talk much.” — Germain G. Glien
q4td.blogspot.com
Major new study comparing biomedical #preprints with versions later published in peer-reviewed journals: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.30.735556v1 "The primary claim was unchanged in 39.9% of abstracts, minorly revised in 50.0% [mostly for level of confidence], and […]
Original post on fediscience.org
fediscience.org
This aligns with my experience as a college teacher. Not sure about cause and effect here, but it’s at least plausible. https://fortune.com/article/how-did-us-spending-30-billion-dollars-on-laptops-result-in-first-generation-less-cognitively-capable-than-parents/
The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents | Fortune
Neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath said older generations “screwed up” giving students access to so much technology: “I genuinely hope Gen Z quickly figures that out and gets mad.”
fortune.com
Today #arXiv officially leaves Cornell to becomes an independent nonprofit org. Details: https://blog.arxiv.org/2026/06/30/arxivs-next-chapter/
**On July 1, 2026, arXiv will spin out from Cornell University, its home for the past 25 years, to become an independent nonprofit organization.** With this next phase in arXiv’s journey quickly approaching, you can read more about arXiv’s history and the decision to spin out from Cornell in this recent article in the Cornell Chronicle. arXiv has been discussing the opportunity to become an independent organization for a long time, and we’re excited for the new flexibility and opportunities that this change will bring. This step is an important part of arXiv’s story that will have a positive impact as we continue to grow and has required great effort from staff to transition smoothly. Thanks to this, in the coming months, arXiv authors, readers, and the community that relies on us will not notice much change at all. arXiv was built for scientists, by scientists, and while our home may be changing, our mission, vision, and values never will. arXiv will remain committed to being free to read and to submit to, and we are dedicated to supporting scientists across the globe with equitable access to new ideas and discoveries. As we spin out from Cornell University, arXiv staff, volunteers, and our supporters are working hard to ensure there is no interruption to the important service arXiv provides. arXiv is also committed to transparency. We are a community resource, and we want to make sure that our community is aware of any changes to arXiv that may affect them. We also want to make sure the community has a better understanding of how changes support arXiv’s long-term goals as an essential scholarly publishing infrastructure. arXiv has created a page dedicated to frequently asked questions and information about the arXiv’s establishment as an independent organization. This FAQ page will be updated promptly as new information is available. On this dedicated FAQ page, you can find out more about the new arXiv’s leadership, governance, and special projects. While the FAQ page will be the best place to find the most up-to-date information on arXiv’s spinout, major updates will also be announced through arXiv’s blog and social media as they occur. In addition to the FAQ page, arXiv will be releasing a series of blogs to cover recent arXiv milestones, new organizational updates, and upcoming changes, including: * Introduction to arXiv’s new Engineering Director and dev team projects * arXiv’s 3 million submission milestone * Recent changes to arXiv policy practice around AI articles These blogs will be up in the coming weeks, and as always, comments from our community are welcome.
blog.arxiv.org
This, as requested by @mhplives.bsky.social, is the @newscientist.com cartoon that Alan Moore describes (rather well) in a recent episode of the Team Human podcast www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/371...
RE: https://mastodon.social/@thetransmitter/116816927175774869 Avis was a wonderful mentor to me when I was a postdoc and navigating my move into neuroscience from physics, in the mid 90s.
mastodon.social
Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. Which means Safari is now old enough to rent itself a car. But let's not speculate about my age. I'm still sad I can't use Safari on my Windows PC. Alas, I lost the battle to keep it there. But at least […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
#Neuroscience folks: When did the Journal of Neuroscience *officially* change its name to “JNeurosci”? Was it very recently? Was it more than a decade ago? Somehow I only noticed today that’s JNeurosci isn’t just a nickname, it’s how the journal gets referred to in the New York Times […]
Original post on fediscience.org
fediscience.org
Gary Trudeau, Doonesbury creator, has opinions about Snoopy the dog from Peanuts, and they are wonderful. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/snoopy-tribute-garry-trudeau-1235560627/
In Praise of Snoopy, the Ordinary Dog Whose Imagination Ran Away With Him -- And Us
'Doonesbury' cartoonist Garry Trudeau pens a tribute to Charles M. Schulz's character Snoopy, the charming dog who became our most beloved fantasist.
rollingstone.com
Feeling very grateful to my scientific colleagues and my collaborators today. Just got the best NIH review score I’ve ever received.
A student who puts their name in the file name of a PDF they send me instead of just calling it thesis.pdf is clearly a genius and I almost don't need to read the thesis. 😛 #AcademicChatter
Cleve Moler, of LINPACK and MATLAB, Dies at 86 (gift link) https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/science/cleve-moler-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.plA.5ZOO.ibUKBYs-ecQS&smid=nytcore-ios-share
Assoc editor of Frontiers in Systems #Neuro: > Over the last month I saw that human editors are now stripped of control. I could no longer stop the system from auto-inviting "reviewers" with zero relevant expertise. Even worse - the AI began actively revoking the invitations I manually sent out […]
Original post on neuromatch.social
neuromatch.social
I’ve officially resigned as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. It used to be a reputable journal, but became a case study in how forced automation destroys academic integrity. 👇
Fedizens! Please send me your favourite meme which shows something important about the #Fediverse I'll go first:
Black Hole porn: “To our knowledge, this upper limit makes QSO1 the most ‘naked’ massive BH ever found”. https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/05/little-red-dot-in-early-universe-is-a-naked-supermassive-black-hole/
arstechnica.com
I tried to introduce my son, Alex, to programming when he was young. He wasn’t interested. But he eventually found his way to it on his own. By the time Alex graduated high school, he had put his first app into the App Store. Now, after 4 years at WPI, Alex […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
RE: https://mastodon.social/@daringfireball/116574498506232658 “But, then again, here we are in 2026 and the standard gesture to invoke the Undo command on iOS is to shake your whole iPhone like a maraca.” Or your entire iPad (which scares my dog).
mastodon.social
“If at first you don’t succeed, you’re running about average.” — M. H. Alderson #Q4TD #Quote #Quotes https://q4td.blogspot.com/2026/05/if-at-first-you-dont-succeed-youre.html
“If at first you don’t succeed, you’re running about average.” — M. H. Alderson
q4td.blogspot.com
Great idea: A web page that simply shows you the info your browser sends about you and your system whenever you open a web page. https://sinceyouarrived.world/taken #Privacy #Surveillance
taken.
A web page that tells you what your browser gave away the moment you arrived. No login, no form, no permission. Most pages do this. None of them tell you.
sinceyouarrived.world
"Thousands of shady ads sell paper authorship for cash, large-scale investigation finds." https://www.science.org/content/article/thousands-shady-ads-sell-paper-authorship-cash-large-scale-investigation-finds PS: This article from _Science_ reports important news about paper mills. But it draws […]
Original post on fediscience.org
fediscience.org