Matt Kirkcaldie

It’s worth pointing out that using ANY tool which encourages a habit of “leaving the thinking to others” directly empowers authoritarianism.

Telescopic image of Jupiter, softly lit with brown-grey bands and a Great Red Spot less than half the size it was in Pioneer probe images. Image details: Tiziano Olivetti Unione Astrofili Italiani DK 505 mm - Zen Optics. t=10,500 mm Camera BFS-28S5M-C IMX421 Astrodon RGB filters 2026-03-01, 13:18.7 UT CM I 297.8° CM II 81.5° CM III 345.0° eq.diam.=42.5" Altitude 79 deg

My favourite.
... and, look at the Great Red Spot these days (telescopic image by Tiziano Olivetti on March 1st 2026, via ALPO-J):

What is wrong with these people? Some techbro idiot says "having to pay for others' original work gets in the way of me making unlimited money" so they apologise and roll over?

How university life in Australia has changed Two students who went to the same university 30 years apart share their radically different experiences as lectures go online and face-to-face contact takes a back seat in the post-pandemic world.

Here I was worrying about the death of universities, but it’s already happened thanks to a series of actively hostile governments and a neoliberal management culture. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03...

We need to educate our kids about the nature of the attention economy, the tricks used to capture and exploit users, and the hooks dragging us back to check in again and again. Otherwise they will wait out their suspensions and naively jump back in.
@andrewwilkiemp.bsky.social @albomp.bsky.social

A Landmark Social Media Addiction Case Puts Big Tech on Trial Juries will soon hear arguments in a case against Meta and Google that could reshape social media protections for kids.

To date, social media companies (yes irony) have dodged accountability for their engineered addictiveness. Our Federal Govt responded with a blanket ban for teenagers, as if the companies were above the law, a force of nature. #Auspol
Heartened to see this US lawsuit: www.wired.com/story/meta-g...

They were never an educational institution - the “.edu” was registered a long time ago before that was a requirement. They’ve always asserted ownership over contents and done what they liked with members’ work:
kfitz.info/academia-not...
electronicbookreview.com/publications...

bsky.app/profile/matt...

1983 Radio Shack Model 100 laptop with a full keyboard and an LCD screen, showing Microsoft Basic with 29382 bytes free

Air pollution emerges as a direct risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease: Study Fine particle air pollution, known as PM2.5, consists of tiny particles in the air that come from car exhaust, power plants, wildfires, and burning fuels.

Press article: abcnews.com/US/air-pollu...
and the study: journals.plos.org/plosmedicine...

Not to mention the large US population study showing the odds ratio effect of particulate air pollution on the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. It’s large.

Did you see the recent Moser lab preprint finding that there is absolutely no topographic arrangement of place cells whatsoever? It does seem like they are an instance of a more general tendency to tie whatever-to-whatever among the inputs.

An important question addressed with beautiful neurotechnology - hard and eminent work by very skilled researchers- I am so proud! 🤩👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Young kea descends, wings outstretched showing the red underneath

Still keaposting

how your email finds me

What if NFTs, but for credulous governments?

Opinions I've encountered suggest the opposite, if anything - those most likely to be *for* AI are the ones who don't understand it much beyond the PR hype.

How about the time our state govt sold massive quantities of hydroelectric power to Victoria, draining our dams - and when rainfall didn't materialise, shortfalls and cable failures led to even greater buyback of power and recommissioning of a gas power plant. Nobody was made accountable.

Just needs someone to file a lawsuit making the argument that labor laws would apply to conscious entities, you’d find they suddenly became a lot clearer on the issue.

More of a joke that our “diverse” rodent models are more closely grouped with the primates than any other mammals!

There’s always Silgard for high purity optical type stuff - castable very clear silicone.

I don’t think anyone interested in neuronal types would have ignored their functional roles, from Cajal onward.

Or at least, euarchontoglires biology

Orange coloured fungal balls that have a honeycomb-like pattern growing on a moss and lichen covered branch.

A younger patch of the fungal fruit. This one has a lot more of the "balls" but a large proportion have not opened so look a matt apricot colour. Some have opened to reveal the orange honeycomb-like indents. These probably have a name, but I don't know what it is.

"Myrtle oranges" are a really striking #fungus (Cyttaria gunnii). The myrtles (Nothofagus cunninhamii) at a roadside stop on the #Tasmanian west coast were being hammered by these.

sigh

and too many mentors, friends and colleagues to make a coherent post without fear of omitting someone!

A good day to highlight women whose science has educated, challenged and delighted me - Leah Krubitzer, Nicole Le Douarin, Patricia Goldman-Rakic, Almut Schüz, Kathleen Rockland, @shubhatole.bsky.social, Ruth Benavides-Piccione, @kdmicheva.bsky.social, @sherculanohouzel.bsky.social, Barb Finlay

yikes

Never change, Tasmania.

#JUNO #Jupiter orbiter
#JIRAM Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper

Perijove 72 Target: #Jupiter

atmos.nmsu.edu/PDS/data/PDS...

NASA/JPL/SwRI/JIRAM/ISTITUTO NAZIONALE DI ASTROFISICA/j. Roger