Independent Bookstore Day is THIS Saturday! How will you be celebrating? 📚✨

The average federal income tax for an individual is 14.5%.

But in 2025, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, paid just an 8% tax rate.

Meta paid just 3.75%.

Amazon paid just 1.37%.

Palantir and Tesla paid nothing.

itep.org/corporate-ta...

People forget that Amazon Prime has broadcast some of the greatest moments in NBA history.

Slasher sequel: Trump again proposes major cuts to U.S. science spending Science advocates urge Congress to reject 2027 budget plan

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

That appears to be the thinking behind the 2027 budget request to Congress that President Donald Trump unveiled today. https://scim.ag/4sRnw3x

Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration Budget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing.

BREAKING: In response to huge cuts in Trump's budget request, NSF is shuttering its SBE directorate. Staff will be transferred to other parts of the agency and "grants that align with Administration priorities" will be maintained.

That & more w/ @maxkozlov.bsky.social & @edwrdchen.bsky.social

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

"mental imagery reactivates the same sensory codes used during visual stimuli, suggesting the existence of a generative model capable of synthesizing detailed sensory contents from an abstract, semantic representation."

A line graph showing awards over time at NSF's SBE. The line for this year, 2026, is extremely FLAT compared to prior years. By this time in 2025, 179 grants had been awarded. In 2021, it was 243. This year... 16.

NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Directorate has awarded only 16 grants since October.

No big budget cuts went through. No freeze. The courts have acted to keep funds flowing at every turn. The money just isn't going out.

Why...?

1/x

source: grant-witness.us/funding_curv...
🟦🧠 #academicsky

Something is emerging in Santiago this July.
A new kind of scientific gathering. Open data. Interdisciplinary teams. A shared question that's been challenging researchers for decades.
Introducing Consciousness Commons: A satellite workshop for early-career researchers @assc2026.bsky.social #ASSC29

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.

The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

Digits of pi encoded as colours, arranged as a spiral with the symbol pi in the middle

Happy #PiDay!

Here's the first 1,000 digits of pi encoded as colours 🎨 made with #RStats

This year Pi day falls on Saturday so offices all around the country are observing today, Pi-day the 13th.

a man in a suit and tie stands in a crowd ALT: a man in a suit and tie stands in a crowd

Just reaching out to all the newly minted Heat haters out there ... you're not alone.

“Massive” war launched by a man with no plan. Again. Donald Trump is repeating George W. Bush's catastrophic mistakes.

NEW: Trump launches a "massive" war on Iran—with no apparent plans for what comes next. This is what Bush and Cheney did with Iraq two decades ago. It's deja vu all over again. As the missiles fly, I look back at what that dangerous folly can tell us about this one.

🔉 Do everyday sounds feel too loud or painful?
We’re looking for UK adults with hyperacusis (sound sensitivity) to share their experience of talking to a GP.
Your answers can help improve understanding and support.
👉 Scan the QR code to take part.

#hyperacusis #volunteersneeded

Protocol for testing global neuronal workspace and integrated information theories of consciousness in non-human primates and mice Identifying the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) is widely regarded as imperative to our understanding of consciousness. Although several scientific theories of consciousness make predictions ...

Our protocol for a multi-laboratory adversarial collaboration to test multiple theories of consciousness is published! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... with @alleninstitute.org @fanispa.bsky.social

Postdoctoral researcher on single neuron recordings for consciousness Contract period: 18 monthsExpected date of employment: June 2026Proportion of work: Full timeSalary: according to INSERM scales (~2900 – 3300 € gross / month based on experience)Desired level of educa...

#hiring
Come work with us to better understand the neuronal mechanism underlying perceptual consciousness!

18 months postdoctoral position at INSERM in Grenoble, France.

⌛Application deadline 10 March 2026.

euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/408445

📢 PhD position in Computational Neuroscience 🧠
Join the Deco-B project to decode bilingual speech (Spanish–Basque) using MEG/fMRI + multilingual AI models. Work at the intersection of neuroscience & machine learning at BCBL.

More: tinyurl.com/2rnur82n

Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump.

An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump. n.pr/4qTItsU

Things you can tell Alysa Liu, ranked:

1. Not a goddamn thing

Do you work or study in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, computer science, artificial intelligence, or philosophy?

What does the term 'representation' mean to you?

We invite you to participate in a brief survey on key conceptual questions across fields.

eu.surveymonkey.com/r/VX9GNXM

Mood:

(h/t @lettersofnote.com)

Should we use "pre-temporal cortex" to refer to the most anterior of the things labeled anterior temporal lobe?

Should we call it the pre-temporal cortex?

Resist and Unsubscribe

www.resistandunsubscribe.com

www.resistandunsubscribe.com

www.npr.org/2026/02/07/n...

free video for intro lectures on auditory perception

Why did consciousness evolve at all? A superb special issue of @royalsocietypublishing.org brings together experts across disciplines to explore the functions of consciousness and why it emerged in some species but not others. @tecumsehfitch.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...

Immigrant whose skull was broken in eight places during ICE arrest says beating was unprovoked A Mexican immigrant whose skull was broken during his arrest by immigration officers last month in Minnesota says the beating was unprovoked.

A Mexican immigrant whose skull was broken during his arrest by immigration officers last month in Minnesota says the beating was unprovoked. A judge ruled his arrest was unlawful.

See, The Guardian did it correctly. They observed and verified something that is racist and referred to it as such directly, without hiding behind uncertainty that's really a reflection of discomfort about telling the truth. News media can be honest if they want to be. #journalism