Derek A. Houston, PhD

Home | FreeStyle - Abbott

Folks with Diabetes!

There is an urgent recall on some FreeStyle Libre 3 and FreeStyle Libre 3 Plus sensors because they are showing false low glucose readings.

Check your sensor serial numbers at freestylecheck.com

Beware of the simple, satistfying, answers to complicated sociological problems.

This is the correct take. Stewing in white supremacist propaganda is bad for your thinking. And if think you are so savvy that it won’t impact you, you are the exact kind of mark they are slowly converting (I’m looking at you, centrist pundits).

Nearly every mechanism that made my career possible—Ford, NSF, Harvard BiGS—is gone or on the way to the chopping block.

I liken this to financing negative equity in a car. The new coach may make less per year than Kelly (unlikely) but there's still that 8 figure albatross of a buyout. What happens when the next coach gets let go after three years? Another buyout and another albatross. Two 8 figure buyouts in 4 years.

In South Carolina, a Colombian family of five went to a government office for a fingerprinting appointment, only to have the parents detained while the children — ages 5, 11 and 15 — were sent into the shelter system for four months. In South Florida, a 17-year-old from Guatemala was taken into custody because officers couldn’t make contact with his dad after a traffic stop; his dad is deaf. In Maryland, a 17-year-old from Mexico ended up in a shelter after making a wrong turn onto military property. In around 150 cases, children were taken into federal custody after traffic stops. The trend is especially noticeable in states like Florida, where thousands of state and local police, including highway patrol, have been deputized to enforce immigration laws.

“In South Carolina, a Colombian family of five went to a government office for a fingerprinting appointment, only to have the parents detained while the children — ages 5, 11 and 15 — were sent into the shelter system for four months.”

Meanwhile, 600 kids have been sent to ICE detention this year.

Perfect is the enemy of good.

A federal judge barred the Trump administration from freezing or threatening to freeze the UC’s federal funding Friday. The lawsuit was filed by the American Association of University Professors, as well as 21 labor unions and faculty associations that represent 100,000 UC employees altogether. It alleges that the Trump administration’s suspension of $584 million in federal research funds to UCLA and proposed $1 billion settlement demand to regain said funding amounts to financial coercion and violates the free speech and due process rights of the University’s employees.

This story is not getting enough attention.

Unions affiliated with UC fought the Trump administration *and* the UC administration and WON, preserving academic freedom that was under enormous financial threat.

dailybruin.com/2025/11/14/j...

Someone is going to have the write the thing about how “vibe” has become a substitute for meaningful theory in a world where the theory is so clear — grift and power — but we collectively refuse if because it isn’t sophisticated enough to generate make work for empiricists.

Exactly

More reason not to go there.

(more capitalist enshitification)

On official UC letterhead: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA James B. Milliken President Office of the President 1111 Franklin Street Oakland, CA 94607 universityofcalifornia.edu CAMPUSES Berkeley Davis Irvine UCLA Merced Riverside San Diego San Francisco Santa Barbara Santa Cruz MEDICAL CENTERS Davis Irvine UCLA San Diego San Francisco NATIONAL LABORATORIES Lawrence Berkeley Lawrence Livermore Los Alamos DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES November 18, 2025 Dear Chancellors: I'm writing with regard to the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP) and the program's associated faculty hiring incentive. As you know, for more than 40 years, PPFP has provided postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development, and faculty mentoring to scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service advance the academic and research missions of the University of California. Since 2003, UC campuses that hire current and former PPFP fellows into ladder-rank positions have been eligible for a hiring incentive funded by the University that provides support for newly hired fellows for five years. Since the creation of the incentive, more than $162 million has been invested by the University to support PPFP faculty hires. This commitment has enabled our campuses to successfully recruit and retain outstanding faculty across a range of disciplines. Given the myriad challenges currently facing UC - including disruptions to billions of dollars in annual federal support, as well as uncertainty around the state budget- reasonable questions were raised in recent months about whether the University could maintain the commitment to current levels of incentive funding. After considering a recommendation to sunset the incentive program due to these significant fiscal constraints, I consulted with all of you as well as faculty and campus academic administrators and systemwide Academic Senate leadership. [continued on next image]

After learning more about the history and success of the program and weighing the thoughtful perspectives that have been shared, I have concluded that barring extraordinary financial setbacks, the PPFP faculty hiring incentive program will continue while the University continues to assess the program's structure as well as its long-term financial sustainability. As a result of our continuing consultation and review, there may be consideration of some changes to elements of the program including the total number of incentives supported, a number that has fluctuated significantly over the years, and how the awards are distributed among campuses. In the meantime, the University will continue to fund the PPFP faculty hiring incentive program and campuses may continue to take advantage of these incentives. We will have an opportunity to discuss any potential changes prior to adoption. As we look to the future, I will continue to engage with faculty leaders, program stakeholders, and UC community members about this important program. I especially appreciate the thoughtful perspectives shared in recent weeks by Academic Council Chair Palazoglu and Vice Chair Scott, the Council of Graduate Deans, UC faculty members, and you as our campus leaders. Sincerely, James B. Milliken President

WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)

1/ Today the Department of Education said that it’s transferring a variety of programs to other agencies, making good on Trump’s promise to dismantle ED.

The most important thing to understand is that this is a Potemkin reorganization. It’s fugazi, it’s fairy dust. It’s not real.

Love you @raskin.house.gov. But it’s not THAT big.

Remembering Alice Wong: Writer, Advocate, Friend Though we were in frequent conversation for a decade, I only got to meet my friend Alice Wong in person just once. And when I did, I  was a bundle of nerves—and that was before she cussed me out wi…

"Remembering Alice Wong: Writer, Advocate, Friend"

Steven W. Thrasher on Meeting and Collaborating with the Outspoken Founder of the Disability Visibility Project

published by @literaryhub.bsky.social | art by @mollycrabapple.bsky.social lithub.com/remembering-...

If you have to get permission to teach in your area of expertise from people who are definitionally not qualified to adjudicate your expertise then you are no longer working at a university.

You’re working at a state propaganda factory.

Their goal is to eliminate possibility models (like happy and thriving LGBTQ+ adults; a robust racial justice movement)

They want to censor their way to a right-wing hellscape. If you can't name the problem, you remove the possibility of remedying it.

Conservatives claim that structural racism does not exist while simultaneously creating innovative new forms of structural racism like banning discussions of the concept.

Texas A&M Tightens Rules on Talking About Race and Gender in Classes

By banning “race or gender ideology“ in class, Texas A&M is actually imposing race and gender ideology by the white, hetero power structure. (NYT gift link)

Image describing a virtual presentation in which the RSVP is required. VIRTUAL (RSVP REQUIRED) HTTP://TINYURL.COM/AASANOV2025 Learn about the role of the arts in passing on culture, language and tradition to Lao American children and youth. Open to students, educators, and community members to deepen understanding of Asian American histories, particularly in Texas, while exploring ways to integrate this content into K-12 curriculum and the TEKS.

It's always fun to share the work of students that I've worked with in the past. It is one of the best parts of the academy.

Re: Epstein’s emails

I volunteer to run said tournaments, have ability levels, and they would be complete with non judgmental learning sessions. Well, not too judgmental, maybe just the first minute or two. 🤣

Sharing again because Jason still needs your support. If you have $5 to spare, please consider sending it his way. Thank you!

YouTube video by American Educational Research Association 2025 Brown Lecture in Education Research (Post-Production)

Really enjoyed this conversation a few weeks back. In case you missed this year's @aeraedresearch.bsky.social Brown Lecture by Dr. James Banks and subsequent discussion, the video now lives here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRQ5...

But what alarms me in all this is how the girls who were victimized by these men are largely forgotten. I want us to find ways of centering them in the discourse.

15-year auto loans.
50-year mortgages.

They’re not “financial innovations.” They’re warning signs.
When survival becomes debt, the economy isn’t recovering — it’s cannibalizing.

You're forgetting the small stuff. Financing furniture for five or six or seven years. Buy now, pay later with Affirm or Afterpay or Paypal or Klarna for online purchases. A number of brick & mortar places offer the same thing. The sad part is that folks need access to these services.

This. As @biblioracle.bsky.social talks about, writing is thinking and thinking is writing.

Absolutely sadistic.

A Dem Congress should pass a law banning anyone who is currently serving with ICE or CBP from future Fed employment.

The Feds should condition all future Fed grants to police depts on blanket refusals to hire ppl who were in ICE/CBP right now.

Yes lol

They want to do that to me sometimes, too. They are just scared to.

I will say, I think the Luddites will win this one in the near future.