Alex Silver's Avatar

Alex Silver

@alexsilverlevy.bsky.social

Postdoc at Penn & Pitt playing with babies & studying how we learn math

267 Followers  |  660 Following  |  15 Posts  |  Joined: 14.11.2024  |  2.6482

Latest posts by alexsilverlevy.bsky.social on Bluesky

A third infant in Kentucky has died of whooping cough this year.

Reminder: The best way to protect against whooping cough is to get vaccinated. Adults should get a Tdap booster every 10 years, so please check, you may be overdue!

25.11.2025 23:34 β€” πŸ‘ 358    πŸ” 113    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 7

How awful. This is outright health disinformation, lying to the American people. Not only is there massive evidence showing no link between vaccines & autism, there’s not even a plausible mechanism based on what we’ve learned about the genetics of autism, some environmental exposures in pregnancy

20.11.2025 03:18 β€” πŸ‘ 2823    πŸ” 1141    πŸ’¬ 60    πŸ“Œ 22
Submit a Claim

Hey authors! Check to see if Anthropic stole your book to train their slop generator on. You’re entitled to $1500 per stolen Work.

Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/

18.11.2025 07:39 β€” πŸ‘ 3053    πŸ” 2543    πŸ’¬ 78    πŸ“Œ 141
NOT-OD-26-005: Interim Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Interim Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities NOT-OD-26-005. NIH

NIH grant applicants:

October and November grant application submission *deadlines* will be rescheduled (🀯). Specific dates TBD.

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

14.11.2025 20:45 β€” πŸ‘ 54    πŸ” 52    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 9

you could fact check this β€” there aren’t 30 million illegal immigrants and there is no evidence that the presence of an immigrant in say houston has any impact on housing in madison, wisconsin β€” or you could note straightforwardly that this is just nazi rhetoric

13.11.2025 22:12 β€” πŸ‘ 16334    πŸ” 4043    πŸ’¬ 532    πŸ“Œ 128

BREAKING: The Supreme Court denied an attempt to challenge Obergefell v. Hodges, the case affirming marriage equality nationwide.

Our freedom to marry remains the law of the land.

10.11.2025 14:46 β€” πŸ‘ 11831    πŸ” 2745    πŸ’¬ 247    πŸ“Œ 411

How about we shut down the government for this very popular and specific goal and then, hear me out, we hold out for like a month and a half and then, ok this part is important, after a watershed election where we ran the table, ONLY THEN, fold and don't get the one thing we said we wanted.

10.11.2025 02:31 β€” πŸ‘ 15291    πŸ” 4137    πŸ’¬ 259    πŸ“Œ 206
Preview
GitHub - hadley/genzplyr: dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap. Contribute to hadley/genzplyr development by creating an account on GitHub.

Do you teach #rstats? Do your students complain about how lame and old-fashioned dplyr is? Don't worry: I have the solution for you: github.com/hadley/genzp....

genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.

06.11.2025 23:25 β€” πŸ‘ 458    πŸ” 167    πŸ’¬ 43    πŸ“Œ 56

Watching RFK jr run away from someone collapsing feels like a harbinger of things to come

06.11.2025 18:42 β€” πŸ‘ 15123    πŸ” 2749    πŸ’¬ 467    πŸ“Œ 92
Meme showing six logical operators illustrated with jack-o'-lantern images. 

trick OR treat 
trick AND treat 
trick XOR treat 
trick NOR treat 
trick NAND treat 
trick XNOR treat

Meme showing six logical operators illustrated with jack-o'-lantern images. trick OR treat trick AND treat trick XOR treat trick NOR treat trick NAND treat trick XNOR treat

31.10.2025 22:42 β€” πŸ‘ 4572    πŸ” 1532    πŸ’¬ 21    πŸ“Œ 39

I love kids. I have two of them. They’re amazing. However, kids are the absolute least self aware, clumsiest little puffins on the planet.

Please don’t drive tonight unless you have to, and if you do drive, drive super slow and pay 100% attention at all times.

Happy Halloween! πŸŽƒ πŸ‘» πŸ’€

#PublicHealth

31.10.2025 11:35 β€” πŸ‘ 1903    πŸ” 480    πŸ’¬ 24    πŸ“Œ 24

Pennsylvania has an important Supreme Court race coming up on Tuesday, November 4. If you live in the Keystone State, or know someone who does, vote YES to retain three justices who will protect your fundamental rights and freedoms.

29.10.2025 20:38 β€” πŸ‘ 19969    πŸ” 7672    πŸ’¬ 343    πŸ“Œ 284

The Senate is still meeting and holding votes as normal despite the shutdown.

The House has not held a vote in a month and a half now solely because Mike Johnson wants to prevent the release of the Epstein Files.

They've killed our government to save their pedophiles.

29.10.2025 12:04 β€” πŸ‘ 3829    πŸ” 1309    πŸ’¬ 64    πŸ“Œ 24
Preview
Scientists had to change more than 700 grant titles to receive NIH funding. Health disparities researchers fear what’s next The titles of more than 700 multi-year NIH grants have been changed this year, according to an analysis by Jeremy Berg, a former agency official

New story up on the non-existent banned words from NIH grants (based on my grant title, word cloud analysis)

www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/n...

1/3

29.10.2025 12:07 β€” πŸ‘ 122    πŸ” 58    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 6
Here's why Vanderbilt's response to the Trump higher ed 'compact' is not enough | Opinion With the deadline looming for colleges to sign Trump's "compact," Vanderbilt must resist, says one university professor.

"Vanderbilt is failing in its moral responsibility to push back against rising authoritarianism and political coercion."

My effort to convince Vanderbilt (and all universities) to take a stand for the rule of law, the Constitution, and our democracy.

www.tennessean.com/story/opinio...

24.10.2025 12:32 β€” πŸ‘ 293    πŸ” 93    πŸ’¬ 7    πŸ“Œ 8

Today, the White House Press Secretary told the country that this ridiculous damn ballroom is β€œthe president’s main priority”…not reopening the government, not lowering the cost of groceries, not lowering the cost of housing, not lowering the cost of healthcare….building a ballroom

23.10.2025 22:36 β€” πŸ‘ 32219    πŸ” 11007    πŸ’¬ 1857    πŸ“Œ 633

With millions at risk of losing SNAP in the coming days, a reminder: hunger doesn't happen in isolation. When food assistance disappears, families use rent money to eat. Then come evictions and homelessness.

Housing, food, healthcareβ€”it's all connected. Cut one thread and the whole thing unravels.

24.10.2025 12:26 β€” πŸ‘ 6798    πŸ” 3089    πŸ’¬ 202    πŸ“Œ 141
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

Columbia Psych is hiring *two* junior faculty in Cognitive Science/Neuroscience this year! If you work on cognition (broadly defined), submit your application materials as soon as possible (review starts Nov 1). If you have questions you can reach out to me by email! apply.interfolio.com/175428

23.10.2025 18:28 β€” πŸ‘ 68    πŸ” 46    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

"you will be intellectually transformed by the process of reckoning with the knowledge these courses are about"

Essential reading about why learning is important even if/when you forget the specific content (and is especially important in these times)

23.10.2025 15:10 β€” πŸ‘ 23    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
An email appointing Kyle Walsh is director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

An email appointing Kyle Walsh is director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

VERY TROUBLING NEWS REGARDING NIH INSTITUTE DIRECTORS

A new appointment for NIEHS

1/3

17.10.2025 20:11 β€” πŸ‘ 114    πŸ” 69    πŸ’¬ 9    πŸ“Œ 11
Post image

There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.

America’s children deserve better than this.

11.10.2025 16:51 β€” πŸ‘ 5422    πŸ” 2631    πŸ’¬ 263    πŸ“Œ 525
Preview
Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error

Seeing a lot of celebration of this as a win.

But at NIH we have seen this exact play before.

It looks like it is the Vought strategy -and to stop the lawless firings we have to see the bigger picture.
A 🧡:

11.10.2025 23:10 β€” πŸ‘ 787    πŸ” 328    πŸ’¬ 13    πŸ“Œ 30

I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.

11.10.2025 03:05 β€” πŸ‘ 13929    πŸ” 6175    πŸ’¬ 518    πŸ“Œ 394

aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage

10.10.2025 22:31 β€” πŸ‘ 19266    πŸ” 7691    πŸ’¬ 301    πŸ“Œ 243

Everyone who studies research methods just had an aneurysm

09.10.2025 19:09 β€” πŸ‘ 3284    πŸ” 672    πŸ’¬ 10    πŸ“Œ 50
photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)

photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)

twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross

08.10.2025 13:44 β€” πŸ‘ 8951    πŸ” 2832    πŸ’¬ 194    πŸ“Œ 200
Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

08.10.2025 13:44 β€” πŸ‘ 26457    πŸ” 7607    πŸ’¬ 1023    πŸ“Œ 516
Poster-style graphic with bold text reading β€œTELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES: THE QUACK RFK Jr. HAS TO GO!” A large photo of RFK Jr. is overlaid with a yellow biohazard sign, while a man’s shoe is about to kick him out. At the bottom, logos and text say β€œStand Up For Science” and β€œFuel the fight: standupforscience.net.”

Poster-style graphic with bold text reading β€œTELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES: THE QUACK RFK Jr. HAS TO GO!” A large photo of RFK Jr. is overlaid with a yellow biohazard sign, while a man’s shoe is about to kick him out. At the bottom, logos and text say β€œStand Up For Science” and β€œFuel the fight: standupforscience.net.”

🚨BREAKING NEWS: Congresswoman files articles of impeachment against RFK Jr. We've been sounding the alarm for months, sending 3k+ quack-o-grams, and collecting 25k petition signatures calling on our reps to impeach & remove RFK Jr.

We’re closing in on him. Help us WIN the fight. πŸ¦† zurl.co/vkZQV

25.09.2025 15:59 β€” πŸ‘ 1073    πŸ” 360    πŸ’¬ 23    πŸ“Œ 25

@alexsilverlevy is following 20 prominent accounts