Notices by Redish Lab (adredish@neuromatch.social)

RE: https://mastodon.social/@kottke/117441170099753867

Business was never more efficient than government, just less transparent. This is an import repair to add (along with the closing of DHS, and the repair [expansion] of the court).

The goal was always to remove governmental capacity to move it into a less accountable private system.

@inthehands

Many of these companies do their own internal highly conflicted IRB. Or they contract out to captured companies (like the Enron/Anderson auditing situations).

This is also why it has been important to put research in the hands of university researchers rather than private corporations.* We have shifted research from public dollars (which are transparent and public**) to private companies (which are not***).

* Yes, there have been problems in the past, but (as you say), we have spent decades fixing those problems. Modern universities have strong IRBs because a mistake would jeopardize their existence. These businesses just don't care.

** Everyone complains about every goddamn muffin we buy for our lab.

*** The myth that private corporations are more "efficient" than public accounts is 100% due to a lack of transparency in private accounting.

If my colleagues did half the sh*t that Musk's Neuralink is doing, they would have lost their funding, their jobs, and even their tenure. (Not just human trials, but even in the non-human trials.)

This transition is a bad thing. There are going to be some very bad things coming.

@inthehands

Agreed that we cannot let up our vigilance.

However, I would assume they are going to another city to do the next iteration. There was LA. Then there was Chicago. Then there was MSP.

They don't have enough agents to attack multiple cities, but they are refining their methods. Like the Borg, they learn from their encounters with the us. I can only hope that other cities can learn from what was done here (I am SO proud of MSP!) and they can defend themselves as well.

Meanwhile, we still need to shut DHS down. To quote MN Senator Tina Smith: "We need to rip ICE down to the studs and start over." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/opinion/ice-trump-good-pretti.html

#AbolishICE #PunishICE

I'm getting reports that #ICE was on the #UMN campus today and abducted someone from one of the parking lots. Be careful out there.

@albertcardona

We can't wait for midterm elections. We are dying here. This needs to be stopped now.

@albertcardona

The DHS budget is still not finalized. Current reports are that democrats are demanding a series of reforms for ICE. (No masks. No extrajudicial warrants. No guns. Due process.) These are a first step.

(And, yes, as the others here have said (particularly the phenomenal @inthehands) #AbolishICE is not enough. We need to #PunishICE. But I will start with stopping the assault on my city and re-establishing the basic laws.)

There are reports that some Republican senators are starting to think about this too, given the new "anti-second-amendment" rhetoric coming from the current White House administration.

@inthehands

I assume you've seen the AG request for information, as you're very linked in to the situation.

https://ag.state.mn.us/Federal-Action

@inthehands

Honestly, if they can learn from this and do better in the future, I'll take it.

A fascinating article on why the MN anti-ICE observers are having a positive effect, by a sociologist expert in non-violence.

warning: article refers to violence and assaults.

https://www.ms.now/opinion/minneapolis-ice-watch-protesters-violence-research

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/115867053108521520

This goes for all politicians. If you are US, call your congresspeople, call your senators. If you are MN, call the governor and the AG. Remember that the "political capital" that politicians have is the support they have from their constituents. They use these calls as evidence in the arguments of what actions their colleagues should take.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@mhoye/115866724091168261

Yeah. This.

I have seen people leave their houses to come out into the freezing cold to help dig people out of a snowbank. Not doing so is a statement.

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/115764426529441813

@inthehands

While I very much like the goal of "make the seats adjustable", I would really like to see a little more acceptance of the (neuro)diversity of teachers --- there used to be an attitude that a student should figure out how they can learn from a teacher --- now it is all on the teacher to figure out how to accommodate the student.*

Maybe there's some way to talk about meeting in the middle?

* You wouldn't believe the amount of work they are now demanding I do to accommodate hypothetical students who have never actually asked for changes. I'm getting very close to saying "F*** it. I have other, more important things to do." I do like teaching. I enjoy it. A lot of students love my class. Many have said that it was their favorite class they took in college. But teaching is supposed to be one small part of my job (if at all). The extra work being demanded is interfering with the rest of the important things that I do. At some point, these burdens are going to preclude me being willing to do the work.

@dalias @inthehands

Good point. This market will require a process where the authors are able to control the selling-price of their work. Otherwise, it's being stolen, not sold.

I wonder if cloudflare will do that. That's pretty complicated code,* but it is what the second part says.**

* Wanna bet they're going to let AI write that code?🙄

** Whether it is what the second part _means_, is, of course, less clear. 😓

@inthehands

But isn't the AI-as-theft argument predicated on the idea that they are not paying their fair share? So if cloudflare can create such a marketplace, wouldn't that be a good thing?

(Of course, this is ignoring the inevitable enshittification of the cloudflare monopoly.... So how do we ensure that the marketplace is fair and equitable?)

All external communications with #NIH have been shut down by executive order.

One of my colleagues was in the middle of an F99/K00 (specialized transition grant from grad school to postdoc for marginalized students) and the study section was shut down in the middle of the meeting.

Unclear what this means. Just passing on information.

As usual, @pluralistic nails it.

https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2024-11-21-policy-based-evidence-decisions-decisions-1580ca7cabec?source=rss-eba9888d741b------2

@jonny @tdverstynen

Wait! So now we are doing retractions based on corporate overreach? And not scientific merit?

This raises a very interesting question of what is the goal of the scientific literature.

Um... what is going on on Mastodon? A bunch of ads from some user I don't follow just showed up on my home feed.

#Mastodon

Welcome back, Voyager 1!

Voyager 1 is sending full science data again!

This is an amazing debugging job, of a 1970s computer, done remotely over a distance of 15 billion miles (nearly 163 AU), and a lag time of nearly a day each way.

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/voyager-program/voyager-1/voyager-1-returning-science-data-from-all-four-instruments/

#voyager1 #NASA

@augieray

If you are sick at all, stay home.

It's not just #COVID. If you have the #flu, stay home. If you have a #CommonCold, stay home.

It's a #morality statement. If you are sick, do not transmit that illness to the community. If you are sick, you will recover faster if you stay home and rest. Staying home is a win-win-win.

Of course, from that #morality statement, we need to create social structures that allow you to stay home when sick. (Sick leave is a win-win, better for both the individual and the community.)