WhatsApp: “Our app is so private, even we can’t read your messages… while we’re looking at you through your cell phone camera.” 😂😂😂

Non-inherited genes affect children’s development Parents’ genes – even when not directly inherited by a child – may play a role in their educational and mental health outcomes, finds a new report by UCL researchers.

Parents’ genes – even when not directly inherited by a child – may play a role in their educational and mental health outcomes, finds a new report by @uclpals.bsky.social.

A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope

Interesting point about "delve," "leverage," other "AI words."

Well, that was fast!

Also... "poopbutt".

NSO Fined $168 Million for Pegasus Spyware Attack on WhatsApp In a landmark verdict, NSO Group must pay almost $168 million in damages for using Pegasus spyware to target WhatsApp.

NSO to pay almost 168 million in damages!

Congrats to WhatsApp on this historic (yes, historic) jury verdict against NSO Group!

This is also a win for all the researchers, advocates & victims who have been tirelessly exposing NSO's abuses & advocating for justice!
www.accessnow.org/press-releas...

Anyway, it's an interesting approach. Feels more like PI work than DS work at times — everything from "great work!" or "here's some feedback for improvement" to "fine I'll do it myself!" haha.

I also wonder how helpful it may be to ask the model to reason through the task, but then substitute better tokenizers, better algorithms, replace linear models with graphs, replace regex with sentence transformers, etc.

That answer will differ based on the task and relative performance of each model.

The usage question is when that is good enough. It can do something in 5-10 minutes that I can do *WAY* better, but takes me 5-10 hours (or more). As always, it's a trade-off. Is it accurate *enough*? And does the time-to-result outweigh the (in)accuracy?

One thing I keep noticing when watching it "think" is that the process it follows is very remedial (basic tokenization, K-means clusters, regex, etc.). It's doing upper-division undergrad work. (Which is better than the 9th-grade essays it was writing last year! But maybe not professional enough.)

Asking the latest GPT advanced reasoning models (o3 and o4) to perform complex data analysis/machine learning tasks is both entertaining and instructive.

NEW: Denver City Council votes unanimously not to renew a contract for vehicle tracking cameras over fears that ICE will use the camera network for immigration enforcement. #copolitics

"Technology can identify locations from photographs now. It’s vitally important that people understand how easy this is."

This is a really cool new feature AND a major security/privacy risk that you really can't do anything about. So, you know, Generative AI...

Gonna be Barsenalona for the #UEFA women’s #championsleague final this year. And there’s a good chance it will be for the men, too!

a close up of a man 's face with a blurred background ALT: a close up of a man 's face with a blurred background

Do people normally watch movies they like fewer than six times???

In the cogsci discussions I have with students I get asked this a lot.
www.innerdrive.co.uk/blog/impact-...

#cogscisci

Like you don’t even really need to say why, though if it’s significantly inspired something in your own research or teaching, do say so.

Ditto if you give someone’s work to students and they enjoy it or it sparks lively discussion.

Normalise telling people how awesome they are.

I don’t know which academic needs to hear this but yes you should absolutely email other academics just to tell them you enjoyed their article/book/chapter. Just do it. Don’t overthink it.

Hello So-and-so, just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed ‘Title’. Hope you’re well. Best, You.

Done.

Individual voices, collective health: a person-centered cross-sectional study to identify psychological drivers of vaccination attitudes - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - Individual voices, collective health: a person-centered cross-sectional study to identify psychological drivers of vaccination attitudes

🧠💉 Psychology & vaccines

A new study identifies four psychological profiles linked to vaccine attitudes – from eco-humanists to sceptics.

Connectedness to nature predicts vaccine trust, while egoism & conspiracy thinking predict hesitancy.

🔗 doi.org/10.1057/s415...

#SciComm #Vaccines 🧪

It is becoming increasingly funny to me when I see things like 'AI will be able to do all research!'

Buddy I don't know how to break it to you, but the amount of information that is not in any sort of digital form, let alone machine readable, is massive.

✅ Writing isn’t about sounding smart. It’s about being understood.

🗣️ Keep your voice. Write for students. Write for your parents. Write like it matters; because it does.

💟 Writing is thinking. It keeps your science on track, your ideas evolving, and your impact real.


9/10

A collection of modules, datasets, and other resources for learning to program in R, geared toward students in psychology and neuroscience: ritcheym.github.io/ppn/

‘Vaguely Threatening’: Federal Prosecutor Queries Leading Medical Journal The New England Journal of Medicine received a letter suggesting that it was biased and compromised by external pressure. Other journals have also received the letter.

Move major scientific journals out of the reach of US jurisdiction NOW

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/h...

Hegseth had an unsecured internet line set up in his office to connect to Signal, AP sources say Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon’s security protocols set up in his office to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer.

"Signal is a commercially available app that is not authorized to be used for sensitive or classified information. It’s encrypted, but can be hacked."

This is just sloppy writing, implying that the problem with Signal is that someone might break its encryption.

apnews.com/article/hegs...

You know, you could give them their own, separate lane. Maybe even reduce the friction to make the fuel go further with smooth metal wheels and a lay a track.

Guess who’s returning to teaching!!!

I’ll be teaching two courses in the CU-Boulder dept of Information Science this fall!

I’m still continuing my data consulting work. But I’ve realized lately that I missed teaching, and this is a great opportunity to get back into it.

JK Rowling posing like a smug supervillain on some yacht or villa balcony or something and gloating about the UK Supreme Court's anti-trans decision.

See the movies or don't, read your kids whatever you want, but this self-portrait of a gloating hatemonger is the identity she has chosen.

Today is a reminder of Zelensky's superhuman stamina and strength. He deflected deeply unfair vile attacks in his 3rd language and kept it together while two bullies threatened his country's existence and repeated the tired but infuriating propaganda tropes of the aggressor.