Craig Kaplan
@triggerloop.bsky.social
3.5K followers 710 following 5.2K posts
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh. RNA polymerase II mechanism, classic films, #classiccountdown once in awhile
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Reposted by Craig Kaplan
mjsdc.bsky.social
The Supreme Court's Republican appointees sound ready to transform the 14th and 15th Amendments into a weapon against the very racial minorities they were meant to protect—handing Republicans 15-19 additional House seats in the process. A disaster for democracy.
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Is it racist to remedy racism? That’s the question at the heart of Callais v. Louisiana, which the Supreme Court heard on Wednesday. The case asks whether the Voting Rights Act gives Black Louisianans too much political power—and if so, whether the landmark law violates the Constitution. Unsurprisingly, the Republican-appointed justices seem eager to rule that it does. Throughout oral arguments, they suggested the VRA protects minority voters too effectively, dragging the government into race-conscious considerations that offend the equal protection rights of the white voters who sued in this case. And they floated various ways to gut what remains of the statute by twisting it beyond recognition or striking it down altogether. The result would be a windfall for Republicans, who stand to gain at least 19 seats in the House of Representatives if the Supreme Court frees them to gerrymander Black communities into oblivion. Such a decision would also devastate minority representation in Congress, eliminating up to 30 percent of the Congressional Black Caucus.
triggerloop.bsky.social
I guarantee something unintentionally like this has been sold at the immensely and famously sketch South Side BK in Pittsburgh PA. It is back to being real BK now but they run out of (checks notes) Whoppers and also show up on Pittsburgh scanner a fair bit! www.cracked.com/article_2801...
The Story Of The Rogue Burger King In Pittsburgh
Every city has its own fast food urban legend, here's Pittsburgh's.
www.cracked.com
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
guertin.bsky.social
we are recruiting a postdoc with interest in using genomics and molecular biology to study transcription factors. We have an R35 to fund the project/salary.
triggerloop.bsky.social
JAM (3 x 🔫)
hooverstreetrag.org
Well he found his little lonely love
His bride of the northern woods
But, she took me to the Opera House
Like she said she would
Then she sighed and she fell from the balcony
Shakespeare's bent to touch
She never had any time for me
'Cause I didn't protest enough
lake-ontario.live
Current* conditions near Kingston, ON:
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
davekarpf.bsky.social
Everyone agrees that we're currently in a dotcom era-like AI bubble. People disagree what sort of bubble it is.

There are 3 stories one can tell about the dotcom crash: a startup story, a telecom story, and an accounting fraud story.

My take: it's giving Enron
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
It's Giving Enron
On the AI bubble, and the various echoes of the dotcom crash
open.substack.com
triggerloop.bsky.social
I present your tRNA CCR4-NOT paper to the ugrads in Advanced Mol Bio but maybe will have to switch it out haha for this one
triggerloop.bsky.social
Quality control on the font sizes on the new PA license plates is below Cheez It level
triggerloop.bsky.social
I think the only way I would have laughed harder is if you said the Horta. No- not even then!!!
triggerloop.bsky.social
OH MY GOD YOU CRAZY FOR THIS ONE FOUNDIE
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
gavinyamey.bsky.social
Wait, WHAT? The IRB gone. The IRB!

What an extraordinarily dangerous, harmful, unethical bunch of MAGA and MAHA lackeys we now have running US public health, healthcare, and health research; they have totally lost their moral compass (assuming they once had one?).
melodyschreiber.com
The entire HR department at the CDC is gone. Everyone at the IRB, which makes sure studies are conducted ethically and rigorously, and the ethics office, which oversee conflicts of interest for CDC leaders and advisory committee members, were also let go.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘Instability and confusion’ as CDC slashes 1,300 jobs before reinstating half
Trump administration says 700 notices were sent in error, while top CDC officer says ‘they didn’t think through what they were doing’
www.theguardian.com
triggerloop.bsky.social
Yeah the onion and pickles are so good w brisket on the straight from the bag white bread
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
kateclancy.bsky.social
I am being asked to tell my department which pieces of lab equipment should be supported with backup power because they expect rolling blackouts and brownouts in 2026 due to increased energy demands from AI. In case you're wondering how my day is going.
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
theonion.com
Injured Player Gives Thumbs-Down While Being Carted Off Field
Injured Player Gives Thumbs-Down While Being Carted Off Field
triggerloop.bsky.social
Very cool!
mendell-lab.bsky.social
Colliding ribosomes are potent signals of cellular stress. But do cells use ‘programmed’ ribosome collisions to regulate gene expression? I’m excited to present a new story from my lab led by Frederick Rehfeld(@fred-rehfeld.bsky.social) which revealed that the answer is YES! Read on to find out how👇
Oxidative stress sensing by the translation elongation machinery promotes production of detoxifying selenoproteins
Selenocysteine, incorporated into polypeptides at recoded termination codons, plays an essential role in redox biology. Using GPX1 and GPX4, selenoenzymes that mitigate oxidative stress, as reporters,...
www.biorxiv.org
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
amandamull.bsky.social
For Businessweek’s November issue, I have a feature about the high-fee premium credit card war being waged by American Express and Chase for the hearts, minds, and swipes of America’s affluent supershoppers. Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Inside the Credit Card Battle to Win America’s Richest Shoppers
The fierce fight between Amex and Chase is playing out over higher fees, extravagant events and every perk imaginable.
www.bloomberg.com
triggerloop.bsky.social
I hope you were very baroque in letting them know how you feel about that
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
cryoempapers.bsky.social
Assessing scoring metrics for AlphaFold2 and AlphaFold3 protein complex predictions pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41081541/ #cryoem
triggerloop.bsky.social
Percentiles will go up literally because prob more ties at the top. “Dynamic” calibration is even harder now with random discussion order imo
Reposted by Craig Kaplan
paris.nyc
my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...
Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports
CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.
www.consumerreports.org