Very serious question that I cannot find the answer to by search: people are now using GenAI to effectively bot online studies. But do those bots emulate things like the Stroop effect, or do they lack cognitive interference? We're trying to validate some data.
Yeah, bro, those of us who know you have like zero surprise. Your concern for your students has always been obvious. Well deserved and congrats!
A campaign making the rounds here in Minneapolis, to reduce the dollars flowing to Big Tech to pressure them to speak out against the invasion.
www.resistandunsubscribe.com
Almost nobody can get off all these platforms, but we can get off most of them and reduce others.
Peter, politely, long time listener and I have Bill on my voice mail. I'm a psychiatrist and scientist. You are wrong. Racism is not a mental illness as we know them. It's a response of normal brains to bad information and need to belong. That's not a disease. Please correct.
Scenes from today's protests. This is what Minnesota looks like. This is who we are. We show up for our neighbors. Such amazing energy on a brutally cold day.
Tomorrow, there is a mass civic day of action in Minnesota, with a general strike and a march.
The weather forecast is -30 with wind chill.
We're marching anyway, because this is Minnesota.
Cold doesn't stop us fishing, skiing, camping, or fighting for truth and decency.
I had no idea that my youth spent hand-hacking HTML for pizza money and having l33t h@xxx0r w3b$it3zzz would turn out to be a Useful Skill for a Serious Scientist.
Anyone know if the biosketch supports <blink> for good measure?
Facing a new year, I found this @dansinker.com post from February — about how the KKK in the 1920s felt unstoppable, about the people that fought against them anyway, and about how fascism always fails — to be a welcome read.
dansinker.com/posts/2025-0...
Applevent, Dec 21: Arkansas Black (sweetlandorchard.com/arkansasblack). Yeah, we skipped days, it was Honeycrisp, you know about that one. Another 5/10. Perfectly eatable, cool name, super dark skin, but nothing exciting here. We've been on a run of mid apples here and hoping for another Frostbite.
Applevent, Dec 18 (Dec 17 was crabapples): Esopus Spitzenberg (sweetlandorchard.com/esopusspitze...). +1 for the name. Not a bad apple. Crispy, juicy, minimal tartness, a little toastiness. Not a must have but did not regret. 7/10 because it's so fun to say.
No apple, it was a weird one. Instead, my lab Christmas gift: a Pichu with implanted electrodes. The head cap leaves something to be desired.
Applevent, Dec 15: Golden Russet (sweetlandorchard.com/goldenrusset). Good things come in small packages! Mostly sweet, a little acid (not like a Pink Lady though), quite juicy, and with a spicy note we haven't seen since Frostbite. They make a cider out of this and I'm sad bc it's sold out. 8/10.
Applevent, Dec 14: Caville Blanc D'Hiver, an apple so old it was at Versailles (sweetlandorchard.com/calvilleblanc). Delightfully weird: tart, lemony, a little juicy. Served on a cheeseboard and consumed by a pack of teenagers. Solid 7/10, would not seek it but would have again.
Applevent, Dec 12: Hubbardston Nonesuch (sweetlandorchard.com/hubbardstonn...). 5/10 on the basis of the name alone. It does have a slightly nutty flavor and is an interesting apple. Still does not beat Frostbite which leads the first half of the calendar. Might make a good cider.
Read it here: www.bmj.com/content/391/... We hope you will share it broadly and if you find our points compelling enough that you will engage with it and discuss. @patientrevolution.org
Applevent, Dec 11: Keepsake (sweetlandorchard.com/keepsake). One of the parents of Honeycrisp and a descendant of Frostbite, which we loved. Not bad, 6/10, but not as good as either parent or child. Crisp, good texture, juicy, not nearly as sweet as advertised.
Applevent, Dec 10: Winesap (adamapples.blogspot.com/2009/11/wine...). A 3/10 with profound "meh". Again just too soft for eating out of hand, plus thick skin that makes the experience worse. Lacking in flavor. Maybe good for cider, not good for me. Kids didn't finish their slices.
Applevent, Dec 9: Fireside. Another UMN alum, from the days of FDR. Bred from McIntosh and is a lot like it: inoffensive, sweet, but too soft for me. 6/10.
Applevent, Dec 8: Zabergau Reinesse (sweetlandorchard.com/zabergau). 4/10. Another soft flesh apple, not particularly juicy, flavor mild to bland. Easy to grow but not fun to eat. Darn immigrant apples interfering with Gold Standard Fruit.
Applevent, Dec 6: Haralson (sweetlandorchard.com/haralson), one of the OG UMN outputs. We loved its child Honeygold, Haralson itself is 5/10. Flesh is mid btwn crunch and soft, flavor mid btwn sweet and tang, and overall the apple is mid. Proof our apple game is improving over time!
Applevent, Dec 5: Connell Red.
7-8/10. I was really worried about this one, I despise Red Delicious. This is so juicy it should be on a Matt's Bar menu (IYKYK). Not as crisp as Frostbite, but still good. There's a vanilla note over the sweetness. I wouldn't seek this out but would buy it on sale.
And yes, there are edge cases besides the above, but I submit that a scree plot would show 90+% of variance captured in those 4 components.
We already do this for papers; you know when an editor has decided to accept something and your job as reviewer has been reduced to "tell me what analyses and Discussion points they absolutely need to include before it's published" plus "and then skeet about it when it comes out".
I would argue that this is already how NIH study sections implicitly work (at least in my experience as both reviewer and submitter), but we could make the process a LOT faster by eliminating the loop latency.
So what if we experimented with one level of peer review that was purely "is this study high priority to do?", and then a second level that was "we will not recommend for award until you have satisfied these 3 reviewers with your design and budget for it, and you have a time limit"?
A thought I need to formalize as a comment.
2 kinds of grants die at study section: concept is bad/low-impact and concept is potentially good but approach is bad (in eyes of reviewer)
2 kinds succeed: concept is good and PI bowed to reviewer concerns, or PI is super famous MUST FUND.
(1/N)
Applevent, Dec 4: Honeygold (sweetlandorchard.com/honeygold). Another 8/10. Sweet, crisp (Frostbite was better), very slightly spicy. WAY better than its parent Golden Delicious and another fine example of Minnesota apple engineering. The kids loved it.
Applevent, Day 3: Northern Spy (sweetlandorchard.com/northernspy). Solid 5/10. Firm, not as crisp as Frostbite, decently juicy, nothing special on flavor, just middle-of-the-road sweet fresh apple. A good "if you use one apple for eating and cooking" kind of apple.
Applevent, Dec 2 (late): Frostbite (mnhardy.umn.edu/frostbite). Invented by my University! 8-9/10. Interesting creamy, spicy, sort of tropical flavor. Good crunch, slightly thick skin. Kinda small and was sad it was gone! Would get this one again.
Applevent, Dec 1: Bonnie Best
3/10, maybe 4/10. Neither sweet, nor crunchy, nor refreshingly tart, nor unique flavor. On a par with every conference box lunch Red Delicious I've had. You can eat it, but you shouldn't, just cook/bake with it.
Hopefully just a slow start.
