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Ofer

@oferon.bsky.social

I am a psychology professor at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). I study cultural evolution and social learning in songbirds and humans http://ofer.hunter.cuny.edu/

76 Followers  |  155 Following  |  30 Posts  |  Joined: 04.10.2023  |  1.5862

Latest posts by oferon.bsky.social on Bluesky

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this is just the beginning (award cycle is 5 years)

14.05.2025 16:12 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Many are complaining about the immediate damage of eviscerating The NIH & NSF, but beyond that, they fund basic research, from genes to behavior. It is the muscle driving progress, which shapes modern society. This muscle is now much smaller. The real damage will be seen long after Trump is gone.

03.05.2025 11:08 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Thank you Harvard University President Alan Garber for showing leadership and resistance. I hope this will convince Columbia University leadership to change course and resist as well. Just say No No No

15.04.2025 02:03 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Musk just sold X to xAI (he already owns both) for 40B. Amazon and Apple are both reinvesting in X campaigns again. Terrifying. If you still have an X account, please consider closing it.

29.03.2025 12:27 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

DOGE put a $1 spending limit on all NIH scientists credit cards, halting basic operations, like to pay for gas for vehicles used to transport patientsโ€™ blood samples. Very efficient.

24.03.2025 11:51 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

NYT: "Dominoโ€™s pizzas arrived at the homes of judges without explanation. Trump: โ€œWe have judges that are destroying our country.โ€ Musk made contribution to House members who supported judge impeachment, and posted X messages describing him as evil". CU gave up. This is a nightmare. Wake up!

22.03.2025 11:46 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

NYT (David French):Columbia has become Patient Zero in an outbreak of censorship and repression. And unless itโ€™s stopped there, expect more universities to yield to Trumpโ€™s control. Expect political repression to spread far beyond the borders of the university.

16.03.2025 12:34 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Just watched the King's Speech: Isn't it funny that 77 years old Al Green was the only representative who had the courage to show real resistance, and get removed after disrupting Trump? Whose idea was it to wave these stupid signs instead of protesting loudly, and getting removed one by one?

05.03.2025 03:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Kafka made a similar argument: โ€œwho is a great man? The one who damaged his contemporaries more than they managed to damage himโ€

14.02.2025 01:20 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

NYT: "State Dept. plans $400 million order for armored trucks from Muskโ€™s Tesla". This is such a fantastic anti corruption work Musk is doing, so transparent! This decay will soon ruin everything. What can be done? Either resist, or diversify your investments.

13.02.2025 03:28 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Alexandria: If you want to lead, just help us organize resistance. We need to organize a nationwide strike. There are many things faculty can do: we can walk away, and effectively close the universities and the medical hospitals. If we strike now, we can perhaps prevent a real collapse. Help us.

09.02.2025 01:19 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I am tired of getting 'give me money' messages from Democrats, while academia and DOE are getting gutted. Please lead: help us organize resistance. We need to organize a nationwide strike. Let's close the universities and the medical hospitals. A strike now might prevent a real collapse.

09.02.2025 01:15 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Trump nominated Michael Kratsios, a man with no degrees in science or engineering, to be his science adviser. Now we have the military, health services, and investment in science, decided by people who do not know what they are doing. How long would it take before something big goes wrong?

29.01.2025 14:08 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

An executive order from Trump, supported by his new friend Sam Altman, just ditched all safety standards on developing and implementing AI technology. Wellcome to the apocalypse!

22.01.2025 01:35 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The wise withdraw their hands from the leadership of the world, because they know that there are wiser than them, in the meantime the foolish and the wicked jump in and take the world into their hands and rule the world according to their wickedness and according to their foolishness [Agnon 1948]

11.01.2025 05:31 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I am a Professor at Hunter College, I have no affiliation with Emblem. I just had a very good experience with then over the last three years. I hope they did not deteriorate... It is a non-profit, which I think is a good thing.

07.01.2025 16:10 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

"everything in the world is beautiful really, everything but our own thoughts and actions, when we lose sight of the higher aims of life, and of our dignity as human beings"
Chekhov, 1899 (The Lady with the Dog)

17.12.2024 03:45 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

NYT: "Biden Commutes 1,500 Sentences, a One-Day Record"
I bet this record is going to last 38 days

12.12.2024 16:40 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

"Elon Musk, the worldโ€™s richest man, spent over a quarter of a billion dollars in the final months of this yearโ€™s election to help Donald J. Trump win the presidency, federal filings revealed on Thursday."
This should not be legal

06.12.2024 04:38 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Right, but EmblemHealth is a true non profit entity

05.12.2024 20:40 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Reading about the morbid glee from patients after the killing of UnitedHealthcare executive, Brian Thompson, I would like to say that my Health insurance, Emblem, is amazingly good: they rarely deny anything, and customer service is fantastic. What is the magic? Emblem is a non profit.

05.12.2024 19:05 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I think this might be a good time for BlueSky users to consider unionizing. Any thoughts about this?

02.12.2024 18:28 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

This is corruption! What is noble about giving immunity to your family? This is not why Presidents were given the power to pardon people, and this is not how Democrats can get the public trust back (I am a registered Democrat)

02.12.2024 01:18 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Biden just pardon His Son Hunter. So, like Trump, like Clinton, Biden gives immunity to friends and family. Saving democracy? No wonder people did not buy it.

02.12.2024 01:10 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Preview
Opinion | Democrats, Itโ€™s Time to Say Goodbye to Our Neoliberal Era The Democratic Party can seize defeat to establish a new order, but the era of tinkering around the edges is over.

โ€œWe know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.โ€
Franklin Roosevelt (1936)
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/21/o...

21.11.2024 11:52 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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AI can help humans find common ground in democratic deliberation Finding agreement through a free exchange of views is often difficult. Collective deliberation can be slow, difficult to scale, and unequally attentive to different voices. In this study, we trained a...

@colinmegill.com : I wonder if you have seen this paper? www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Seems highly relevant to your project

30.10.2024 21:44 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Can a hundred million users defeat the richest man in the world <This is just a draft of an idea, feel free to use and implement> Can a hundred million users defeat the richest man in the world? Elon Musk has the desire and the means to shape a large chunk of hu...

Can a hundred million users defeat the richest man in the world?
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

18.10.2024 12:23 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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and here is the real graph

29.11.2023 01:29 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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TIAA are manipulating the presentation of data to hide losses on retirement. They do it by including monthly investment in the 'rate of return'. For example, they show 3.72% gain in the last three month -- but if fact, they lost money. Here is what they present:

29.11.2023 01:29 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Gaza hospital explosion: NYTime reader comment: โ€œThe NYT, AP, Reuters and other western media organizations owe a public apology on this one. Whatever safeguards to disinformation that are meant to be in place failed badly in this instance and caused grievous harm... the dangers of misinformation."

18.10.2023 19:24 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

@oferon is following 19 prominent accounts