Charles Ofria

I've had a good experience with PDF Expert, but I think they've moved to a subscription model recently, which seems less ideal. Not sure if you can still just buy a regular license.

BUT - I’m going to stay hopeful! I mean up to 20 will make it to round two…

Oh - that is a good idea! We’ll have to think about if there’s something else we can do with ours as well. Blog entry if nothing else. ;-)

Huh - for me it’s Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi! Some interesting biology in there.

It does also allow us to learn about those few companies who try to stick to their values despite political winds.

A couple of years later, my dad mentioned that the only reason his small business could afford someone so incredibly skilled is that no one else would hire her. I remember being so confused by that and then frustrated on her behalf when I learned why. (2/2)

Early 1980's, my dad hired a (clearly trans) programmer who was amazing. I got to know her before I even knew transphobia was a thing. My parents were the least judgemental people I've ever known so as a kid I never even had reason to think about it beyond "huh, that's different". (1/2)

Sorry I missed your call, the frogs had my phone again.

Giving to Harvard Directions on how to make a gift by credit card, check, stock transfer, mutual fund transfer, and planned giving options.

Here's something I never thought I'd ask: @harvard.edu - where is the best place to donate to show our support? I went to alumni.harvard.edu/giving, but it wants me to specify a school and a fund to give to and there was no option for "Standing up to Government Overreach" or anything similar...

The goal is for liberal education to teach you how to critically think. That helps with both A and B, but they're not the only point of it. Critical thinking helps in all parts of your life.

And counterexamples will always exist. No form of education (or anything else) will help universally.

Wow, those are really gorgeous.

Nominate your friends! Nominate yourself! Nominate your favorite professor! It’s all okay! It’s all encouraged! Do it, because too many people simply don’t!!! #alife #alife25 #alife2025

The International Society for Artificial Life promotes Artificial Life research and celebrates researchers who do an exceptional job. Help identify ALife people and projects who should be recognized by nominating them here! forms.gle/5ajEpG43APUn...

Until Musk and his illegal budget cuts are OUT, @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social must refuse all budget negotiations with Speaker Johnson. Republicans can't agree where cuts should come from & can't lose more than 2 GOP house votes; Dems have leverage if Johnson needs help kicking the can down the road.

I agree 100%. And yet I would take him back right now with hearty enthusiasm.

The interesting part is that Musk is putting a lot of trust in Trump here. If the two of them have a serious falling out, Musk will likely end up going to jail for a very long time.

Trump Brazenly Defies Laws in Escalating Executive Power Grab (Gift Article) In the radical opening weeks of his second term, President Trump has appeared to feel little constraint by any need to show respect for the rule of law.

Indeed, I don't post a lot about politics, but I do try to stay as informed as I can. Here's a NYTimes article (gift link) that sums up the current situation well: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/u...

So, how is it that most Americans seem to be just going about their day, blissfully unaware (or uncaring) that the foundations of our democracy seem to be coming out by the roots?

Accidentally wrote this thread of some thoughts on what an organized movement among scientists to fight back against government suppression of science might look like, and how to start.

Note: part of my point is that we should listen to experts on social change in making these plans. I'm no expert.

Same. But even then, it's really hard to have a sense of which other economies are going to hold up the best in the face of the U.S. economy sliding. It might make sense to spread the money around, but that is even more of a hassle.

With tariffs about to trigger high inflation in the U.S., and other decisions that have the potential to damage our economic standing in the world, where are folks putting their personal savings to weather the storm?

I don't think the general public (or the press) understands how disruptive a halt in federal grants & loans could be. If it lasts longer than a few weeks it could tip us into a major recession all by itself.

They have already paused research funding and (I think?) student financial aid, while laying the groundwork to scale back H1B visas (needed to recruit international faculty) and overhaul accreditation. I worry that universities are too passive, though I'm not sure how they might effectively respond.

YouTube video by National Conservatism J.D. Vance | The Universities are the Enemy | National Conservatism Conference II

The recent pauses of funding bode poorly for academia and I don't think they're ending anytime soon; J.D. Vance has long been on a crusade to eliminate universities, and these ideas are integrated into Project 2025. Here's a talk by Vance from a few years ago: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FR6...

That's what I was trying to figure out. We're not near any trees, so I assume it was something with how the light glinted off the ice?

Birds attacked our skylight today, pecking at the layer of ice. It was surprisingly loud!

Gradually over the years I've slid from pathologically prepared to healthily prepared... to having a solid outline of what to say... to assuming that by the time I walk to class I'll have something figured out. (To be fair, it is over a mile walk from my office!)

First class session of my Advanced C++ capstone course seemed to go well today. I'll admit that I did not plan to spend 15 minutes on what's really going on in "Hello World", but it turned out to be useful in demonstrating that there's a lot more to C++ than most people expect.

Changed format of the image and it looks so much better.

It really is such an iconic image for evolutionary biologists.