Blue Eyed Grass

I''m sure risky but have to say that looks like a fun day at work.

Case in point. I remember in Jan I think it was that HHMI hard stopped its IE3 program. I was like seriously, you're just going to put your tail between you legs and run? And I still don't get it, not really, why chicken out like that? Such a cool program.

Which begs the question of who does run universities, and why.

I'll take the liberty to suggest that "scientific establishment" should be defined more concretely. People who do not know how the sausage gets made will not get what that term encompasses. And It matters for this discussion. As always, thanks for what you're doing.

TFW you see a leopard eat its own face.

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Let their dreams be filled with monsters of their own making.

Free of context, still words to aspire to and live by.

This is a great read on Forster. I've been skimming back over Abbey's "Monkey Wrench Gang". Two pre-internet contemplations of technology, isolation and authoritarianism.

“We are caught...in the iron treads of a technological juggernaut. A mindless machine. With a breeder reactor for a heart.”

Yes I suppose with changes to publication it will still come down to what counts and how much.

Beautiful. I can see quilting like that and cryo-EM running in parallel lanes. Particle averaging somehow.

Oh and of course funding mechanisms as an even more upstream gatekeeper. Heh..

Thanks 4 linking. Bypass gatekeepers to speed things up. But there's the faster not always better viewpoint-speed vs quality control. And review at increased scale. I wonder if conferences as effectively fill the need for rapid communication of research before publication that they used to.

The skits are an incredibly effective pedagogical technique. Like we should really do more to teach science this way. Watch the vid and 2 months from now if someone asks "why stripes on zebras" you'll remember.

who amongst us has not willed themself to evolve a story line?

The "feedback to increase mutant gene expression" part. Certainly there are broad cellular stress responses that modulate genetic programs. But there can also be more specificity. Like here's a paper from 2019 you might find interesting. doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1064-z. From chaos emerges order.

My read of "buffering" in that context: structural analysis predicts a missense mutation will reduce function. But no apparent phenotype. Why? "Buffering" is a bit of a hand wave. That protein may not contribute to a polygenic network relevant to those conditions. Or its function is redundant.

Last several days have been on meetings with faculty around the country on different things. On various issues there seems to be this remarkable mistrust of higher admin by rank and file. Always some of that of course. But can't recall ever being quite uniformly like this.

Maybe a reflection of lack of internal coordination. All the relevant agenda pushers aren't on the same page yet. No matter; this is an opening salvo. If these univs bite they'll be back asking for more.

Right now there's a suit against UC's about dropping SAT/ACT as part of holoistic review. Allegation is this disadvantages rich white kids getting accepted. "No SAT = DEI"; now part of the canon of the conservative think tank/Fox news universe. Suspect that's why that's in there.

Gotta give lecture 15 min whose synthetic point is role of cholesterol in Lo domains and lipid rafts. But only words rattling in my head:

"When finally the bottom fell out

I became withdrawn

The only thing I knew how to do

Was to keep on keepin’ on like a bird that flew

Tangled up in blue."

Master of the Telecaster, RIP. Saw him at a little place in Boulder like circa late 1980s. It was up close and personal and he blew the lid off. In those days a lot of blues acts were coming through in the winter-playing in boulder and up in Evergreen at the Little Bear.

If you would like I can find an academic review...but seems like your doctor should be able to help. For our daughter (age 12, she's on Concerta) she does an ER in the AM and then was doing a smaller "booster" dose at lunch. But the booster was suppressing her appetite too much so discontinued.

Could be good dystopian novel through....evil scientist engineers uber mensch protagonist whose powers depend on drug switchable promoters. Scientist with holds drug unless uber mensch....hmmm...let's see...reactivates Sumerian linguistic virus allowing global mind control. Mensch must choose.

My first thought too. That post is bonkers. Sure, we know just what genes to target and how. How to tweak the network. AI figured it out for us. Send me your credit card info today!

In the last several years, a surprising number of the pHD-track TAs I work with tell me they have decided to refocus their career objectives on teaching/pedagogical research. Getting past our current troubles may require re-acquiring a more egalitarian and inclusive view of the teaching mission.

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Interesting. I too ran the piece against formative experiences growing up amidst what you might call nascent MAGA. It was unclear to me if the author meant shame directed at fence riders like Klein or right wing influencers. If the latter, IMO won't punch through, barking up the wrong tree.

Grows out behind our house (SoCal). Always cheery to see it poking up between the foxtails in spring.

On tone policing, given your writings and perspective, I'd be interested in what you think of the "shaming is essential" Boston Review piece making the rounds.

Pritzker's plain speech (v meme) brings Langston Hughes to mind "O, yes, I say it plain....America will be" The question feels upon us.