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Erik Toraason

@etoraason.bsky.social
772 followers 525 following 14 posts

Simons Fdtn. LSRF postdoc fellow in @ctmurphy1.bsky.social lab at Princeton University | Aging, death, and DNA repair in worms 🪱 🏳️‍🌈 | ♥️ art and film letterboxd.com/deelort/films

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Reposted by Erik Toraason
Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 20h
Cis guy walks into a women's locker room and immediately proceeds to sexually assault women. JK Rowling: this is trans people's fault.
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Gwênlyn Glusman (she/her) ☸️ @gwenlyn.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I have modernized and enhanced the NSF COA generator tool. Results now update dynamically • Published under more than one name? Covered! • Other people share your name? No problem! • You prefer searching by ORCID? Go ahead! Give it a try. Feedback, bug reports, feature requests are MOST welcome! 🧪
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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Exactly what we’re seeing in AI in the life sciences: wine and dine a cluster of thinkers, then invite the ones who aren’t put off or critical to contribute to paid-off think tanks
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Lisa Messeri @lmesseri.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
one of the reasons that I warn researchers away from adapting commercial LLMs into their pipeline is that Big Tech has a history of sunsetting popular, usable products and replacing them with worse ones. (i'm trying to ween myself off of google scholar, but it is hard).
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Alfie Kohn @alfiekohn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Google's "ubiquitous presence in US classrms through Chromebks & its software partnerships w/schls have provided a critical launchpad for its AI tools...[which have] helped push many students to become acad'ly & emotionally dependent on AI...'They're learning to regurgitate whatever AI tells them.'"
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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Also, AI creates cognitive decline, so fuck that.
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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
They quoted me in this New Yorker piece about AI today. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
“Let’s say there’s a world or time line I exist in where A.I. has been subject to regulation. It is ethical. It has no footprint environmentally,” the novelist Jeff VanderMeer, a prominent critic of A.I., told me over the phone. “With those guardrails in place, would I read an A.I. book? All I can say is no. And the reason is, in part, because I want to read something coming from a particular mind.” Using A.I., he said, “feels like a betrayal of the whole point of why you’re a writer.”
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Today's winning Biology All email--in fact this is a contender for best this year
Hi all,

We received a package with no name to GSB 2144 with 80 sheep brains in it. If you are expecting this package, please reach out and we can coordinate the pickup!

Best wishes,
Jenna
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 28/09/2026
this is legitimately very funny
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Dr Katie Twomey @k2mey.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026
This is quite cool. My university is the first organisation in the world to force Microsoft to allow us to turn off copilot summaries in Word 365, after a backlash against it from staff (including, very vocally, me). That cannot have been easy for our heroic IT people so hats very much off to them!
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Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 26/09/2026
Amazingly, no one was responsible
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Greatest trick AI leaders have pulled is convincing many people—especially influential people in govt, media, and business—that their software is intelligent, independent, yet never culpable. Humans build it, humans deploy it, but no one bears responsibility for the things that happen when they do.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My entire life I've heard centrists scolding leftist candidates with "oh, but how will we pay for all that? isn't your agenda unreasonable? shouldn't we run on a modest proposal for means-tested tax rebates?" Then Mamdani gets elected and makes it all look pretty easy. No wonder they hate him.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 21/09/2026
As Alex notes in this thread, AI doesn't "democratize" science. Rather, it compels scientists to rely on anti-egalitarian means of directing their attention.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 17/09/2026
Called it. The father was charged with punching the child while the mother did witness intimidation to cover it up. www.wbur.org/news/2026/09...
The case was reported to the state in early 2025. Both parents were charged in connection with an incident at the family’s Southborough home in late January of that year, according to court documents. WBUR is not identifying the teenager, who is a minor.

Joseph Kutzko was accused of punching and threatening his then-15-year-old child at the family home on Jan. 28, 2025, records from Westborough District Court show. A Southborough police detective wrote that Kutzko punched the victim in the shoulder and pulled them by their hair. Kutzko later allegedly threatened to kill the victim “for not singing in tune during a birthday celebration,” according to court records.

Kutzko was arrested the next day and pleaded not guilty. In setting bail, the judge referred to three prior restraining orders against Kutzko, one of which is permanent. She did not say whether any are tied to this case.

The child’s mother, Arlene Kutzko, was charged with witness intimidation after allegedly pressuring the child to “tell the school that she was exaggerating and being stupid.”
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
We told everyone that programming wasn't the hard part, but no one believed us. The reason LLMs can excrete sort-of-okay code is that sort-of-okay code has been a commodity good for 20+ years. Then, just like now, the bottleneck was understanding what people actually want.
nytimes.com
Opinion | A.I. Slopware Is Everywhere Now. Nobody Is Using It. (Gift Article)
Just because A.I. is revolutionizing coding, doesn’t mean it will automatically revolutionize our apps.
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
"People are really mad and however mad you are, it’s not enough. Because there is something so profound about no longer believing in the future, about seeing no value in our shared home, in the natural world. They’re traitors to creation.” www.theguardian.com/books/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Naomi Klein: ‘Extreme wealth has a deranging effect. It turns you into a supremacist’
She’s tackled neoliberalism and the digital world, now the writer and activist is taking on tech billionaires. She explains how the super-rich are capitalising on climate and financial chaos in pursui...
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 08/09/2026
Accusing AI critics of not doing the reading is funny because usually it’s AI users are the most likely to have not done the reading So what now then
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 06/09/2026
It’s actually ok to be a person who does not enjoy doing research but then you should not be doing research for pay
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 06/09/2026
Everyone doing this just needs to understand that they are actively skipping the thinking step
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BWJones @bwjones.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
When I say I want Nuremberg like trials, I am not kidding. Every person who has assisted this administration in their crimes needs consequences. It is the only way to safeguard against future transgressions by them and others who would see them get away with their crimes.
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jonny (leachate composite form) @jo.nny.rip · 05/09/2026
Scientists will be freed from the onerous labor of having to understand anything they are doing or being able to believe any published result, at long last.
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Adrian Daub @adriandaub.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The only thing academic administrators seem to love more than the phrase "whether we like it or not" are LLMs
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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Across the US, workers are souring on AI. The tech industry has insisted that AI would make workers’ lives easier and more productive, that the more people understood and used AI, the more they would like it. Something closer to the opposite has happened.
bloodinthemachine.com
Why office workers are turning against AI
Whether or not you like AI at work ultimately boils down to a question of power.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Very good point here: A lot of university leaders will think, "the Trump administration just wants us to make some vague statements - we can live with that." They are not counting on the DOJ using those statements as the basis for legal investigations. Which this DOJ will be willing to do.
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I went to Columbia for undergrad in 1991. It had only begun admitting women 4 years earlier, in 1987
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
“'We relied too much on AI rather than our own critical thinking,' the group told rangers."
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
while milo gets to chit chat on TV with clear access to safety and basic needs, the US is flying untold numbers of immigrants to unsafe countries of origin or other countries where they don't speak the language or know anyone.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 28/08/2026
The good news: this year's COVID vaccines have been approved. The bad news: thanks to RFK Jr. / GOP antivax fuckery, it'll be a pain in the ass getting yours—and getting it covered by insurance—if you're not over 65.
nytimes.com
What to Know About New Covid Vaccines for Fall 2026 (Gift Article)
The shots have been approved for people 65 and older, and for younger people with underlying conditions. Others may be able to get them off label.
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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
This morning in Danbury, ICE was arresting parents at school bus stops. But it’s more sinister. ICE waited until the kids were on the bus so when they are dropped off at the end of the day, they are alone, scared to death they can’t find their parents. I’m heading to Danbury.
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
"For context, NIH has not funded anything close to the top 25% for >2 decades...The likely result is that everyone will resubmit their applications in the absence of more information, & review will be overrun with applications that may not have needed resubmission at all"
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 24/08/2026
Today is the LAST DAY to leave your public comment on the NSF Proposal. The Proposal implements Vought’s science destroying OMB Policies ahead of time, and we cannot let this sneaky proposal scoot by quietly. Leave your public comment today by visiting the link: zurl.co/ZGP3i
The graphic contains a photo of Russell Vought, the red Stand Up for Science logo, and the NSF logo. The graphic reads: "Today is the last day to leave your public comment on the science endangering NSF Proposal".
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
These are frankly disastrous numbers for the future of 🇺🇸 democracy. We cannot be a full democracy w/o major SCOTUS reform & addressing the egregious malapportionment of the Senate & EC. Democrats, & democrats, have a ton of hard work ahead to convince voters of the necessity of the top 4 reforms 👇
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Oh! 😂
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 19/08/2026
Woah.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 17/08/2026
"AI" has existed in its current form for barely four years and the fact that it's jammed up the cognitive development of an entire generation that fast (and that there's a specific overclass of techofascists who are deeply thrilled about this) is a big damn red flag. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/u...
nytimes.com
What Do Students Lose When They Stop Writing? (Gift Article)
Educators are worried that many students can no longer write essays without A.I. And it’s costing more than just grammar skills.
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
every accusation is an admission of their own guilt: Ramaswamy accuses scientists of corruption and data manipulation because HE is guilty of corruption and data manipulation
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Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · 14/08/2026
A study published in Nature reports that naked mole-rat queens produce a unique scent molecule called isopropyl myristate (IPM) which suppresses reproduction in other females, preventing power struggles and controlling social hierarchy.🧪
go.nature.com
A queen odour mediates reproductive suppression in a eusocial mammal - Nature
Naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) queens produce isopropyl myristate, a low-volatility ester that high-ranking animals detect and avoid, which alters prolactin and progesterone in other females to suppress reproduction and preserve eusocial hierarchy.
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
The NIH just released a proposal that will apparently hide peer reviewers’ impact scores and percentiles from the research team, their institution, and NIH program officers. All the better to obscure how funding decisions will be made primarily via political review, I’m guessing.
grants.nih.gov
NOT-OD-26-088: Request for Information (RFI) on Proposed Changes to Reporting Outcomes from NIH Peer Review
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Request for Information (RFI) on Proposed Changes to Reporting Outcomes from NIH Peer Review NOT-OD-26-088. NIH
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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
These ratio outcome variables are a plague in the sciences. If your analysis treats 1/2 and 10/20 as the same evidence, then you have discarded uncertainty in the outcome. Model what you measure, not what you construct. Use the denominator as an exposure instead.
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Anat Shenker-Osorio @anatosaurus.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Imagine a country where the ruling regime is putting babies in concentration camps and people openly advertise the fight for higher wages and universal healthcare as their greatest foe.
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Jared Holt @jaredlholt.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
The "centrist" think tank Third Way is looking to pay someone between $140,000 and $150,000 to spend their days trying to dig up dirt on DSA members. They're trying to sell this gig as "anti-extremism" work, which I find completely disgusting.
from job listing:

As the Director of Anti-Extremism, a typical day might include…

Assembling and updating a database of the DSA’s most extreme ideas and statements and a repository of voting records, affiliations, and issue positions to make available to allies and partners;
Leading public opinion research to identify and test the contrasts that move base voters away from these extreme candidates;
Overseeing the development of memos, talking points, rapid response materials, and other products that make the case against these extreme forces in American politics;
Promoting and marketing our research and materials to ensure they reach decisionmakers quickly, repeatedly, and at scale through a coordinated distribution infrastructure;
Recruiting and arming a group of young, diverse spokespeople to fight the DSA from a center-left perspective and assembling a broad coalition of organizational partners to make the case against extremism;
Running an earned media program to create a drumbeat of our message in op-eds, television appearances, podcasts, and traditional and digital media engagement.
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Ernest "Dead" Penfold @penfoldsfiv.eurosky.social · 12/08/2026
the media when the centrist loses by 1% vs the media when the leftist loses by (less than) 1%
bluesky post by Politico saying "Progressives didn't get the big election night they wanted" referring to Abdul el-Sayed defeating Haley Stevens in the MI Senate primary and linking to their story with that headline.bluesky post by Politico with the text "The far left hits a wall" referring to David Crowley defeating Francesca Hong in the WI Governor Primary and linking to their story with that headline
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 06/08/2026
Killing off the Social and Behavioral Sciences directorate for this…
The NSF Unlocking Dataset Value for AI-Enabled Scientific Discovery program will invest up to $100 million to help research communities increase the value of existing scientific datasets. The program seeks to 1) apply AI-based capabilities to feature extraction and metadata generation, and the integration of multiple datasets. 2) Develop robust data pipelines necessary for automated analysis of existing datasets and similar use-cases by AI tools and systems. 3) Augment and/or harmonize existing datasets to better enable use by AI data pipelines and automated analysis
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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I actually think that the confusion over this question—the mistaken idea that perverts and preachers have opposing projects—is responsible for a lot of the stagnated and remedial quality of sexual politics discourses.
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Chad Loder @chadloder.dev · 02/08/2026
The diarrhea lettuce company, Taylor Farms, uses slave labor contracted from the Arizona Dept. of Corrections. The backbreaking labor is often performed by imprisoned Mexican nationals who would be otherwise ineligble to work in the US. They are paid $1.50 an hour.
futurism.com
The Diarrhea Lettuce Company Has Been Linked to Forced Labor
The lettuce-producing Taylor Farms was linked to the widespread use of prison labor before its involvement in a cyclospora outbreak.
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Veerender Singh Jubbal @veerenderjubbal.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Sam Altman
@sama •7h
cool use case of chatgpt work i heard last night:
connect your family calendars and explain your kids' interests.
every morning for the drive to school, have it make a podcast that talks about one kid's soccer game that afternoon, one kid's upcoming birthday, some news, etc.
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What if you just talked to your children
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Ruth Deyermond @ruthdeyermond.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Evidence of the great benefits of AI: it used to take a huge amount of time and effort to make yourself look this stupid; now AI allows you to humiliate yourself almost instantly.
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