Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
@radioactivegorgon.bsky.social
This account is used to post or re-post political and/or academic interests—mostly. Predictive processing enthusiast.
she/her
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Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
People talk about this stuff in terms of how much it'll suck for gaming and I hate to inform you how many MRI machines, X-Rays, all sorts of other vital machinery are just a Windows IoT Edition PC in a beige plastic box with a big magnet/accelerator/whatever attached.
WD and Seagate confirm: Hard drives for 2026 sold out
WD and Seagate confirm: Hard drives for 2026 sold out
Hyperscalers are tearing hard drives out of the hands of manufacturers. Prices are therefore also rising for SSDs.
www.heise.de
February 17, 2026 at 9:12 PM
People talk about this stuff in terms of how much it'll suck for gaming and I hate to inform you how many MRI machines, X-Rays, all sorts of other vital machinery are just a Windows IoT Edition PC in a beige plastic box with a big magnet/accelerator/whatever attached.
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
🚨 New Paper from UP NExT (Univ. Pitt NeuralEngineering Cross-Translation): We discovered that microglia the brain’s immune cells, aren't just a "cleanup crew". During brain stimulation, they act as hidden neural modulators, actively monitoring and contacting neurons to help manage circuit stability.
February 16, 2026 at 11:22 PM
🚨 New Paper from UP NExT (Univ. Pitt NeuralEngineering Cross-Translation): We discovered that microglia the brain’s immune cells, aren't just a "cleanup crew". During brain stimulation, they act as hidden neural modulators, actively monitoring and contacting neurons to help manage circuit stability.
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
It's easy to be concerned about vaccines when you stop being concerned about viruses. You can only stop being concerned about viruses in a world with vaccines.
February 15, 2026 at 7:02 PM
It's easy to be concerned about vaccines when you stop being concerned about viruses. You can only stop being concerned about viruses in a world with vaccines.
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
What I love about ichthyosaurs: they're marine REPTILES pretending to be fish pretending to be dolphins.
Like, if you unfocus your eyes here, it's a dolphin, right?
But I think we need to talk about Ichthyotitan: a marine reptile pretending to be a fish pretending to be a BLUE WHALE.
Like, if you unfocus your eyes here, it's a dolphin, right?
But I think we need to talk about Ichthyotitan: a marine reptile pretending to be a fish pretending to be a BLUE WHALE.
a dolphin with a long nose is swimming against a blue sky
Alt: An ichthyosaur with a long nose is swimming against a blue sky, from an animation in the gif library.
media.tenor.com
February 14, 2026 at 9:13 PM
What I love about ichthyosaurs: they're marine REPTILES pretending to be fish pretending to be dolphins.
Like, if you unfocus your eyes here, it's a dolphin, right?
But I think we need to talk about Ichthyotitan: a marine reptile pretending to be a fish pretending to be a BLUE WHALE.
Like, if you unfocus your eyes here, it's a dolphin, right?
But I think we need to talk about Ichthyotitan: a marine reptile pretending to be a fish pretending to be a BLUE WHALE.
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
I was radicalized years ago by getting added to a food writers forum in which I learned that the food writing industry is so godawful that many recipe writers end up just making things up or estimating because they aren't given time to try out the recipes. It's not you!
February 6, 2026 at 11:42 PM
I was radicalized years ago by getting added to a food writers forum in which I learned that the food writing industry is so godawful that many recipe writers end up just making things up or estimating because they aren't given time to try out the recipes. It's not you!
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
Why do otherwise rational people disagree about the same evidence? Our new paper finds that group membership is a deeply rooted influence on how we form beliefs, leading even preschoolers to bias their evidential standards and form inaccurate beliefs.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
February 5, 2026 at 4:56 PM
Why do otherwise rational people disagree about the same evidence? Our new paper finds that group membership is a deeply rooted influence on how we form beliefs, leading even preschoolers to bias their evidential standards and form inaccurate beliefs.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
Great article by @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social .
Also: the leaded gas ban also coincided with the most incredible decrease in violent crime ever recorded in America.
More on that here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2...
Also: the leaded gas ban also coincided with the most incredible decrease in violent crime ever recorded in America.
More on that here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2...
February 2, 2026 at 8:08 PM
Great article by @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social .
Also: the leaded gas ban also coincided with the most incredible decrease in violent crime ever recorded in America.
More on that here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2...
Also: the leaded gas ban also coincided with the most incredible decrease in violent crime ever recorded in America.
More on that here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2...
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
Just a few months ago, a child in the US developed the most feared complication of measles (subacute sclerosing panencephalitis) from an infection they had years ago when they were too young to be vaccinated. I hate to think about what is being unleashed by this virus as a future tragedy.
January 31, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Just a few months ago, a child in the US developed the most feared complication of measles (subacute sclerosing panencephalitis) from an infection they had years ago when they were too young to be vaccinated. I hate to think about what is being unleashed by this virus as a future tragedy.
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
You are being misled about renewable energy technology.
YouTube video by Technology Connections
www.youtube.com
January 30, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
Are episodic and semantic memory really that different? Using closely matched tasks, we found no substantial neural differences between recalling personal experiences and general knowledge: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02390-4
January 29, 2026 at 11:01 AM
Are episodic and semantic memory really that different? Using closely matched tasks, we found no substantial neural differences between recalling personal experiences and general knowledge: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02390-4
Got to thinking about whether a common defense of AI usage (review and oversight to fix confabulations) might be overlooking how misinformation can introduce memory errors in humans. Glad there's research into AI false memory effects!
www.media.mit.edu/projects/ai-...
www.media.mit.edu/projects/ai-...
Project Overview ‹ AI-Implanted False Memories – MIT Media Lab
We present three interconnected studies examining how artificial intelligence technologies can induce and amplify false memories in human subjects. Our re…
www.media.mit.edu
January 29, 2026 at 5:07 PM
Got to thinking about whether a common defense of AI usage (review and oversight to fix confabulations) might be overlooking how misinformation can introduce memory errors in humans. Glad there's research into AI false memory effects!
www.media.mit.edu/projects/ai-...
www.media.mit.edu/projects/ai-...
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
Awesome to see more journals promote replication studies. They are an essential but too rare part of scientific discovery. If an effect can't be intersubjectively established, we do not understand it well enough to consider it scientific knowledge.
New submission format at SBE:
“Replications as Registered Reports”
link.springer.com/journal/1118...
You can get "in-principle acceptance" before data collection even begins; final paper gets published regardless the results, if the study is conducted rigorously.
#EconSky
“Replications as Registered Reports”
link.springer.com/journal/1118...
You can get "in-principle acceptance" before data collection even begins; final paper gets published regardless the results, if the study is conducted rigorously.
#EconSky
January 29, 2026 at 6:28 AM
Awesome to see more journals promote replication studies. They are an essential but too rare part of scientific discovery. If an effect can't be intersubjectively established, we do not understand it well enough to consider it scientific knowledge.
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
It does not just change how you understand reality, it changes how you engage with that reality. When we know that our speech will be silenced if it does not capture and hold attention, we alter our behavior to say only the most attention-grabbing things.
January 28, 2026 at 5:29 PM
It does not just change how you understand reality, it changes how you engage with that reality. When we know that our speech will be silenced if it does not capture and hold attention, we alter our behavior to say only the most attention-grabbing things.
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
if bovino is out and conservatives are turning on noem then there is a real opportunity to demand that miller resign too.
January 27, 2026 at 1:07 AM
if bovino is out and conservatives are turning on noem then there is a real opportunity to demand that miller resign too.
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
Bring back ancient Greek ostracism, but just for pundits
Sorry, Jonathan Rauch, you can't appear in print publications for the next 10 years. Also, you have to leave the county
Sorry, Jonathan Rauch, you can't appear in print publications for the next 10 years. Also, you have to leave the county
hey folks, six figure opinion columnist here and gotta say, made a big ol’ whoopsie on the most consequential and honestly, probably the most obvious opinion of my life. thats my bad. anyway, guess I’ll just keep getting paid to give my opinion, thanks for reading
January 26, 2026 at 12:51 PM
Bring back ancient Greek ostracism, but just for pundits
Sorry, Jonathan Rauch, you can't appear in print publications for the next 10 years. Also, you have to leave the county
Sorry, Jonathan Rauch, you can't appear in print publications for the next 10 years. Also, you have to leave the county
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
completely unironically, this is how we'll know
Everyone in his inner circle would be insider trading trading on his death on Kalshi before turning the plane around
January 21, 2026 at 4:11 AM
completely unironically, this is how we'll know
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
The basic problem is that high-quality journalism is not a viable market product. If it is not protected from market forces, it will inevitably degenerate into the ragetainment that dominates these days.
Ragetainment is what, measured on a pure impulsive will-they-click-it basis, the public wants.
Ragetainment is what, measured on a pure impulsive will-they-click-it basis, the public wants.
January 16, 2026 at 12:44 AM
The basic problem is that high-quality journalism is not a viable market product. If it is not protected from market forces, it will inevitably degenerate into the ragetainment that dominates these days.
Ragetainment is what, measured on a pure impulsive will-they-click-it basis, the public wants.
Ragetainment is what, measured on a pure impulsive will-they-click-it basis, the public wants.
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
Congress Is Reversing Trump’s Steep Budget Cuts to Science
www.nytimes.com
January 11, 2026 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
'The answer cannot be nothing': The battle over Canada's mystery brain disease
www.bbc.com/news/art...
1/6
www.bbc.com/news/art...
1/6
The battle over Canada's mystery brain disease
A small Canadian province feared it had a mystery neurological illness on its hands. The search for answers set off a battle for the truth.
www.bbc.com
January 11, 2026 at 12:16 PM
'The answer cannot be nothing': The battle over Canada's mystery brain disease
www.bbc.com/news/art...
1/6
www.bbc.com/news/art...
1/6
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
Facial expressions may involve an “everything, everywhere, all at once” type of coding in the brain, a new study suggests.
By @natmesanash.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/emotion-proc...
By @natmesanash.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/emotion-proc...
Facial expressions less reflexive than previously thought
A countenance such as a grimace activates many of the same cortical pathways as voluntary facial movements.
www.thetransmitter.org
January 9, 2026 at 7:04 PM
Facial expressions may involve an “everything, everywhere, all at once” type of coding in the brain, a new study suggests.
By @natmesanash.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/emotion-proc...
By @natmesanash.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/emotion-proc...
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
I've watched thousands of videos from the Jan. 6 riot as part of NPR's reporting and archive project on that day.
Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me.
🧵
Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me.
🧵
January 6, 2026 at 1:23 PM
I've watched thousands of videos from the Jan. 6 riot as part of NPR's reporting and archive project on that day.
Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me.
🧵
Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me.
🧵
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
I found this discussion really interesting (and validating of some of the thoughts I’ve been having about certain aspects of politics for a while).
ICYMI: I sat down with political scientist @samuel-bagg.bsky.social to discuss the crisis in our information environment and its roots in social identity.
The cure for misinformation is not more information or smarter news consumers
Political scientist Samuel Bagg explains why social identity is at the root of the misinformation crisis -- which calls for something deeper than factchecking.
www.volts.wtf
January 6, 2026 at 3:45 AM
I found this discussion really interesting (and validating of some of the thoughts I’ve been having about certain aspects of politics for a while).
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
Dorsal striatal dopamine integrates sensory and reward prediction errors to guide perceptual decisions https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.01.696999v1
January 2, 2026 at 11:15 PM
Dorsal striatal dopamine integrates sensory and reward prediction errors to guide perceptual decisions https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.01.696999v1
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
It’s a great study, and I’m excited to see this entering public awareness! But there’s still much more to cover, as BOLD coincides with other metabolic changes, including anaerobic metabolism and lactic acid production. In fact, others have proposed ↑CBF may help regulate local pH homeostasis.
December 29, 2025 at 3:08 PM
It’s a great study, and I’m excited to see this entering public awareness! But there’s still much more to cover, as BOLD coincides with other metabolic changes, including anaerobic metabolism and lactic acid production. In fact, others have proposed ↑CBF may help regulate local pH homeostasis.
Reposted by Zhuāngzǐ's Tree
When we see something that's moving, our memories about it end up projected forward in time: We remember it further along than it was. In a new paper in 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, out today and led by @dillonplunkett.bsky.social, we demonstrate that this happens even when there is 𝙣𝙤 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙨𝙤𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧.🧵
Representational Momentum Transcends Motion
Dillon Plunkett & Jorge Morales (2025) Psychological Science
subjectivitylab.org
December 9, 2025 at 3:37 PM
When we see something that's moving, our memories about it end up projected forward in time: We remember it further along than it was. In a new paper in 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, out today and led by @dillonplunkett.bsky.social, we demonstrate that this happens even when there is 𝙣𝙤 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙨𝙤𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧.🧵