Kirsten Read

i feel seen..

Critical and Creative Explorations of the Languages that Shape Our Lives We recently published Languages We Live By by Katrin Ahlgren and Clara Molina. In this post, the authors explain the ideas behind the book and how it is designed to prepare educators and students t…

New blog post!

"When we think about languages, we often think of them as if they had an existence of their own, independent of those who speak them. But that is not the case. It is we, the speakers, who bring languages to life every day – who shape them and give them meaning..."

Graphic by Trung Le Ngyuen featuring a drawing of Liam Ramos with his bunny hat and Spidey backpack and a small smile. Text reads: "Comics 4 Liam / WE're asking artists to draw pictures for Liam Ramos that you think might make this particular boy feel happy and cared for. / Maybe drawings of things he might love; maybe pictures of Liam himself as you think he might like to be seen. / Please post your art with the hashtag #Comics4Liam and a link to comics4liam.com, which lists fundraisers for Liam and others victimized by ICE and links to organizations that support immigrants.

A few other guidelines: 1. Please avoid images of Liam in danger or sad. 2. Please avoid images that include violence or would otherwise by inappropriate for a five year old. 3. Please NO "A.i." USE AT ALL. 4. Please DO NOT POST YOUR IMAGE ON X (Twitter). Thank you!

Friends, we're thrilled to announce #Comics4Liam to encourage artists to draw pictures for Liam Conejo Ramos and share links to help Liam's family and other immigrants persecuted by ICE! Check out comics4liam.com and please do feel free to pitch in! Images by the great @trungles.com!

They want to tell you a kid with a Spider-Man backpack is evil Liam Ramos' innocence, like the innocence of all kids, is unimpeachable. The visuals of his arrest are excruciating.

At least 3,800 kids, including 20 infants, have been detained since Donald Trump returned to office.

The tenure track is hard, no doubt. What can make it a bit easier is to have senior colleagues who willingly share their knowledge and wisdom, provide constructive feedback, and generally are committed to your success. I am lucky to have exactly that.

Be that senior colleague. Pass it on.

how is this helping to solve the problems caused by the grotesque wealth gaps in our country, let alone our county? @rokhanna.bsky.social do you have suggestions?

Who needs more plants? In Seattle?

Maybe everyone.

FAQ: The Status of the Shits Women Have Left to Give Q: I was wondering: how much of a shit do women give about what conservative old white dudes say about them? A: Thanks for contacting us. We have c...

"We have checked our inventory thoroughly, and we no longer have any shits left to give. We only had a small amount of shits left at the end of last year, and now we’ve found that the most recent news cycles have completely emptied us out."
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/faq...

love how this is putting the peices together. elegant work.

Dear Author, I am Honglin Bao (www.hbao.info), a data science PhD student in Knowledge Lab (https://knowledgelab.org/) at the University of Chicago, working on a study about “The Capabilities and Potential of AI for Automating Scientific Idealization: A Large-Scale Human-in-the-Loop Study” (under UChicago IRB25-1372). As AI plays an increasingly significant role in scientific discovery, this project aims to evaluate how far AI helps scientists extend their work in new directions – or if it is not useful in this regard. This is a research project – it has no commercial purpose. I will share the final draft, technical details, and aggregate results from scientists once the study is complete. We came across your preprint "Principles of music perception" and applied custom AI models on it in accordance with the terms of the preprint license, which generated five new extensions (i.e., ideas proposed by AI based on the same context as your paper). Our pilot study of 400 scientists (excluding you) indicates that around 60% found at least one of the proposed extensions thought-provoking and actionable. However, the remaining reported that AI only generates seemingly plausible but vague sentences. We solicit your help in evaluating whether you think AI is useful or not, since we believe you are the best judge of new ideas proposed from your own paper. No matter where you stand regarding AI and science: From principally believing that AI is prone to producing fake and morally problematic science to finding it useful, or something in between, we hope to receive evaluations that reflect a spectrum of views. The AI-proposed extensions are included in the survey link below. If you consent to review them and participate in the survey, we would appreciate it if you could do so within the next 14 days (it will take you < 10mins). If you do not consent, we will not use your research in this study. If you find these ideas valuable, you are welcome to purs…

Please remove my data from your study. I want nothing to do with this — and I would also point out that if you had done appropriate background work in the selection of articles you fed to the plagiarism machine, you would have found that the preprint of mine you used is way out of date and has been updated substantially since it was first posted. ——— Samuel Mehr School of Psychology, University of Auckland and Child Study Center, Yale University Be a citizen scientist at themusiclab.org!

somebody at UChicago is feeding preprints to LLMs without authors' consent, in a research study

they have the gall to suggest to authors they've opted-in that they volunteer to evaluate the LLMs' suggestions regarding their own work.

lol, lmao even. here is the invite and my reply

hard same

i love this.. yay for humans.

Share Your Story and Your Science Competition Participate in APS's social media video competition designed to bring the importance of psychological science to the public. Deadline: January 12, 2026

The APS Advocacy Task Force is mobilizing scientists to communicate their stories, their research, and the real-world impact of their work.

Learn more about APS's #WhyPsychScience video competition and submit by Jan 12! #AcademicSky #PsychSciSky

www.psychologicalscience.org/2025-why-psy...

Students applying for grad school, or reaching out to professors. I have an important piece of advice for you: STOP DOING THIS 👇 (a thread) #STEM #PhD #gradschool #academictips

Are you a US-based PhD student WITHOUT summer funding who is interested in adolescent development, trans youth, and/or gender? Reach out to me about applying to join my lab in Summer 2026 for the VIPS program! psych.princeton.edu/diversity/vi...

this would make a good example for teaching factor analysis.. @notawfuljess.bsky.social do you do FA examples on your blog?

Elon Musk is set to make more than every U.S. elementary teacher combined See how your profession stacks up against Musk’s pay. By Alyssa Fowers and Leslie Shapiro

Every elementary school teacher On average, Musk will make $3 billion more per year than the 1.4 million elementary school teachers in the U.S. combined. Each figure represents 1,500 elementary school teachers. Together, they made $97 billion last year

Humans are bad at big numbers. Which makes it easier for billionaires (and trillionaires) to get away with hoarding wealth. Because most people just can't comprehend how much money that is.

So, I appreciate this WaPo effort to help people visualize what ridiculous amounts of wealth really mean.

Video: Saudi Crown Prince Dines With Trump at the White House President Trump stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia during a White House dinner on Tuesday. The room was packed with leaders from several industries.

i'm soooo tired of waking up at 5am to be grossed out by all these monsters before i start my day. i can't digest my coffee and toast with all this opulence and corruption in my face. i just wanted to take my pup for a run and try to do a little good in the world.
www.nytimes.com/video/us/pol...

Person holding sign in crowd reading Get the (Image of Duck) Outta Here RFK Jr.

Two people in crowd holding signs reading "Autism is not a problem. RFK Jr. is a problem."

Group of students holding signs, visible sign reads: "Warning, Speaker contains toxic levels of misinformation"

A person in a bright purple reflective vest holds a microphone as a crowd behind them holds signs and faces a subject off-stage to the left.

While RFK Jr. spewed his misinformation on campus, students, allies, and scientists rallied to demand he "get the 🦆 outta here!"

The Anti-science agenda has no place on our campuses — whether platformed in events or as part of academic "compacts for excellence."

@christopherstreet.bsky.social

true.

SCARY

chef's kiss 😘

YOU'RE INVITED TO SAN JOSE FOR A CANVASS & BBU Saturday November 1st 9:00 AM Canvass begins at 2302 Zanker Rd 12:00 PM: BBQ at Cimarron Park

Bay Area! Join us in San Jose this Saturday for a BBQ and canvass in support of Prop 50 and Santa Clara County Measure A! We'll be joined by WFP champions Asm. Ash Kalra, Santa Clara Supervisor Duong, and San Jose Councilmembers Campos & Ortiz. RSVP Here: www.mobilize.us/ca-wfp/event...

Experimental evidence of the effects of large language models versus web search on depth of learning Abstract. The effects of using large language models (LLMs) versus traditional web search on depth of learning are explored. A theory is proposed that when

When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.

Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.

academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

tracks..

Has Your Scientific Work Been Cut? We Want to Hear.

Hey US scientists, the NY Times wants to hear from you if you've had your funding cut. 🌊🧪

The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced changes to its Grad Research Fellowship Program, which include excluding clinical science students and limiting eligibility to 1st year students. #AcademicSky

Sign a petition to urge #NSF to reverse these changes:
laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

For folks who want to help change this, join your local @aaup.org chapter or check out @standhighered.bsky.social. Since we're not celebrities, we have no choice but to put in the work ourselves to build reservoirs of public support.

This is higher education in Texas right now. People applying for faculty jobs here should be aware of this.