Ian Ramjohn
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iramjohn.bsky.social
Ian Ramjohn
@iramjohn.bsky.social
3.3K followers 5.9K following 3.3K posts
Wikipedia expert at @wikieducation.bsky.social. 
Plant ecology Ph.D. 🇹🇹Trinbagonian in exile

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2910-0526 (if you want to verify my account's authenticity)
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iramjohn.bsky.social
Scanning the WaPo website this morning as I often do, I saw this OpEd. Then I noticed who the author was. Charles Murray?

Did "finding religion" make him distance himself from all the harm his embrace of race science has caused?

I'll never know if religious actually transformed him? Doubtful...
I'm an academic who found religion. The reactions have been incredulous. Charles Murray.
November 14, 2025 at 4:14 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
It's strange to see people comparing Venezuela with Panama. In 1990 Panama had about 2.3 million people, while Venezuela has 30.5 million. And while Caracas appears to be quite close to the Caribbean Sea on a map, there's a mountain range in between (and the highway passes through two tunnels).
How the Heavy-Metal Fall of a Dictator Shapes Trump’s Venezuela Plans. Seizing Panama’s leader was relatively easy. But the similarities between Panama and Venezuela are dangerously misleading, some analysts warn.
November 12, 2025 at 2:32 AM
iramjohn.bsky.social
Was that my saving grace? Was my bank of known words much bigger than those of my peers, even before I could read? Being a bit hyperlexic would certainly have helped.

And beyond that, once you have made "good reader" part of your identity, doesn't that mean you have to live up to it?
And by using context and memorizing a bunch of words, many children can look like good readers — until they get to about third grade, when their books begin to have more words, longer words, and fewer pictures. Then they're stuck. They haven't developed their sounding-out skills. Their bank of known words is limited.
November 11, 2025 at 9:21 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
"Femora" looks like "femur" so it's processed easily enough. "Dorsum" is presumably "dorsal side" (but I'm struggling a bit with meaning).

"Profemora" is harder. Rather than "pro-" and "femora" my brain is distracted by "profesora" and a host of other words. Luckily I read on...
Femora in males usually green (similar to dorsum) or light brown (rare), females with profemora light brown and with meso- and metafemora usually green
November 11, 2025 at 9:21 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
I couldn't sound words out, all I could do is start and guess. So what do I do now? It's hard when you rarely encounter unfamiliar words.

I know "sternite" has something to do with the segments on an insect's back, and it's just to familiar pieces - "stern" and "ite". So it doesn't slow me much.
Sternites and pygidium vary from light brown (uncommon) to light or dark olive green (most common). Femora in males usually green (similar to dorsum) or light brown (rare), females with profemora light brown and with meso- and metafemora usually green (similar to dorsum); males with all tibiae green and usually with strong, brassy reflections, especially on meso- and metatibiae;
November 11, 2025 at 9:21 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
I remember meeting a word I didn't know in first grade. I stared at it, and couldn't figure it out. I looked at it in context, and that didn't help. Finally I tried to sound it out. That still didn't help (and the shame of not knowing stuck with me for the next 25 years).

The word was "laughed"
You know tens of thousands of words instantly, on sight. How did you learn to do that? It happens through a process called "orthographic mapping." This occurs when you pay attention to the details of a written word and link the word's pronunciation and meaning with its sequence of letters. A child knows the meaning and pronunciation of "pony." The word gets mapped to his memory when he links the sounds /p/ /o/ /n/ /y/ to the written word "pony." That requires an awareness of the speech sounds in words and an understanding of how those sounds are represented by letters. In other words, you need phonics skills.
November 11, 2025 at 9:21 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
This is 100% how I read German (or don't) 😂

A few sentences is easy. Anything more is exhausting.
Experiments that force people to use context to predict words show that even skilled readers can correctly guess only a fraction of the words; this is one reason people who rely on context to identify words are poor readers.
November 11, 2025 at 9:21 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
I distinguish "house" and "horse" from the shape of the top of the word - the curve of "ors" is very different to the shape of "ous". One reason I prefer serif fonts is that they make the shape easier to see, while sans serif make the letters more prominent.

(I struggle to read all-caps courier)
Skilled readers don't scan words and sample from the graphic cues in an incidental way; instead, they very quickly recognize a word as a sequence of letters. That's how good readers instantly know the difference between "house" and "horse," for example.
November 11, 2025 at 9:21 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
For Armistice Day, my great-grandfather, Bruno Wanderer, during World War I.

He was a middle-aged man with a family who was drafted, sent to the Western Front. His family lost their home (it was a company house) and most of his salary, and survived the war through the support of his sister.
November 11, 2025 at 7:11 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
And then there's this.

If you don't want to be sued for breaking federal law, maybe you shouldn't break federal law?
The state also argues that ruling for Landor could open the door to lawsuits being filed against individual government officials in other areas of federal law, such as Title IX, the landmark statute that prohibits sex discrimination in education.
November 10, 2025 at 1:57 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
Some of the quotes from the state are mind-blowing

Holding prison officials liable for abuse of the law is bad because it could hurt recruitment of prison guards if they might be held liable for their actions.

What.The.Actual.Fuck?

Getting away with crimes is a perk?
For example, the current staffing shortage in state prisons would only grow worse if current staff and potential job applicants learned that they would be personally liable for money damages.
November 10, 2025 at 1:57 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
Happy to see Mamdani declared winner tonight!
November 5, 2025 at 3:40 AM
iramjohn.bsky.social
WTAF? Bovino throws a canister of teargas, *in person*? This blows my mind.
October 24, 2025 at 9:36 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
I don't know for sure, but since most of the main building was torn down and rebuilt after the fire, my guess is that the colonnades are - were - among the oldest parts of the building.
The White House after it was burned by the British in the War of 1812, with the west colonnade visible.
October 23, 2025 at 5:52 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
I feel like they’re burying the lead a bit
In one video, an agent can be seen pointing a weapon toward bystanders from the back seat of a truck with the window rolled down.
October 20, 2025 at 1:19 AM
iramjohn.bsky.social
How is this a "defamatory statement"? I thought you can't defame the dead.
“In the language of the tax code, Fred had given his son taxable gifts masquerading as loans, a likely tax fraud that went unnoticed.” Id. at p. 166.
October 17, 2025 at 3:15 AM
iramjohn.bsky.social
There's so much wrong here, but this is just a bad faith argument. She completely ignores the whole right wing assault on higher ed that has been going on since at least Reagan (probably before).

And *expert failure* in the pandemic? That's what she takes away from the pandemic?
The legitimacy and authority of higher education have been eroding for decades — because of high tuition, rising student debt, increasingly opaque admissions processes, and ever-greater ideological skewing. Then it collapsed under the weight of expert failures during the pandemic.
October 7, 2025 at 12:20 AM
iramjohn.bsky.social
Finally, someone doing this right thing about this
He has demanded ICE turn over the names of all federal officers involved in each incident, and said he is ready to take ICE to court. His department has opened three criminal investigations into various incidents involving ICE agents.
October 5, 2025 at 3:10 AM
iramjohn.bsky.social
These kinds of things have always worried me a lot. But it also makes me glad that we got married in Trinidad, and only moved to the US with a resident visa in hand.
Barbara’s supposed crime dates back to 2019, when she allegedly missed an immigration court hearing she says she never knew about. The government insists it sent a letter. No proof of delivery has been produced. No copy of the notice has been made available to her counsel. Yet that single missing piece of paper is being wielded as the justification for her disappearance.
September 29, 2025 at 2:45 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
Thanks! A minor infraction does not make someone deportable (assuming he's actually a green card holder).

This *suggests* he was born in Guyana, but plenty West Indians have family in North America and move back and forth. (My older sister was born in Canada, my brother and I in Trinidad)
September 26, 2025 at 10:35 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
Ok, so these claims coming from ICE via FOX are just plain weird. Pre-9/11 *maybe* you could fade into the system like this, but after? SEVIS pretty much requires them to keep precise track of students.

Really makes me wonder if they have mixed up two people's files, merged them into one.
BREAKING: A senior ICE official tells @FoxNews that today, ICE arrested the Superintendent of Des Moines, Iowa Public Schools, Dr. Ian Andre Roberts, who ICE says is an illegal alien from Guyana & and active ICE fugitive with a deportation order since May 2024. Fox is told Dr. Roberts fled from ICE agents in his car once they ID’d themselves as immigration agents, speeding away, then abandoning the car. He was found in a brushy area 200 yards away with the help of an Iowa State Police K9. Per ICE official, agents found a loaded gun, a “fixed blade hunting knife”, and $3,000 cash in Dr. Robert’s vehicle. Per senior ICE official, Roberts first entered the U.S. in 1999 on a F-1 student visa at St. John’s University was ordered removed from the United States on May 22, 2024, with proceedings being held in absentia. On April 24, 2025, an Immigration Judge in Dallas, TX denied a Motion to Reopen his immigration case. Fox is told Dr. Roberts also has a weapons arrest in 2020, though the disposition of that charge/case is currently unclear.
September 26, 2025 at 7:48 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
We often hear so much about over-diagnosis, but rarely under-diagnosis. But living with autism/ADHD also means living with trauma, anxiety, depression...and whether they're secondary to the main issue or 'stand alone' doesn't change change the fact that they're part of a person's support needs
“Everything gets thrown into the ‘it’s just part of autism and nothing more needs to be done’ bucket; even things that could and should be treated,” explained Srinivasan. “My official diagnoses are autism and ADHD, but there are a bunch of other things going on as well, which often get drowned in these official labels. So this topic isn’t just academic to me; it’s lived experience.”
September 25, 2025 at 2:34 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
Japan makes more sense - at least it has a (disputed) border with a UEFA member.

The reason *why* Israel is in UEFA is interesting (per Wikipedia).
Former member of the Asian Football Confederation (1954–1974), joined UEFA after political pressure from Arab and Muslim members that refused to play against them.
September 25, 2025 at 1:43 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
Ok, it looks like it was in TT's territorial waters. (The current PM is looks more and more like a wannabe mini-Bukele; and I originally thought her election win was probably a good thing!)

guardian.co.tt/news/tt-to-d...
September 10, 2025 at 6:55 PM
iramjohn.bsky.social
We're 7 miles off the coast of Venezuela at the closest. I don't see how you'd stray into international waters.

I really wonder what's going on.
September 10, 2025 at 6:50 PM