Mark Histed

Mark Histed

@markhisted.org

1516

Posts

How information moves through networks in the brain, and networks in society.
PI/group leader @NIH. Also, Local News Dollars director, Democracy Policy Network.

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When I said yesterday “we have a bothsides mainstream centrist press that does not speak clearly about the parties,” David French’s piece today is exactly what I mean. French has a high-profile Sunday piece in NYT. He claims, ludicrously. the Supreme Court isn’t favoring Trump. That… 1/

I wrote about the UK election outcome, and what it says about institutions, media, and arbiters of truth in the US. The UK is able to hold its politicians accountable. That's an info environment thing. w/ quotes from @volts.wtf @brianbeutler.bsky.social markhisted.ghost.io/conservative...

Conservatives go down to a big defeat in the UK: what that tells us about the USmarkhisted.ghost.io Trump, institutions, and arbiters of truth in the US and UK This week the UK Labour Party won a huge, landslide victory. That’s a big shift from just 5 years ago, when UK Conservatives won a majority...

Interesting thread on the long game to move away from the freedom of religion principles the US was founded on.

The law itself follows from the Project Blitz playbook (first described here in 2018: www.salon.com/2018/04/29/o...), one architect of which, pseudo-historian David Barton, claimed credit for helping to pass it: 3/22

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And I’m a broken record but: We basically had this debate, across democracies, in the context of radio, in the 1920’s-1940s. Here’s one example of the product of that debate. Not saying we need a US BBC. But there are ways we can act today to structure media to better inform the public.

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I focus 90% of my criticism on media ethics and leadership because that is the foundation of how we establish a shared reality. Writing off media effects as immaterial or irrelevant, as if people form opinions about events outside their personal experience without mediation, is deeply ignorant.

Yes. The debate is a good example of public opinion dynamics. @whstancil.bsky.social is right: the event matters but the media commentary changed opinion too. And that’s happening in a trash heap of bad media structures and incentives. (Moving this to bsky b/c convo is better here.)

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You can go to the Heritage Foundation website and download the whole Project 2025 manifesto/how-to manual, in case people don't believe you about how extreme it is. Wonder how much longer they will keep it public?

This is right. We can all help for Nov by talking about Project 2025 now. That helps keep focus on the stakes.

I wrote about the UK election outcome, and what it says about institutions, media, and arbiters of truth in the US. The UK is able to hold its politicians accountable. That's an info environment thing. w/ quotes from @volts.wtf @brianbeutler.bsky.social markhisted.ghost.io/conservative...

Conservatives go down to a big defeat in the UK: what that tells us about the USmarkhisted.ghost.io Trump, institutions, and arbiters of truth in the US and UK This week the UK Labour Party won a huge, landslide victory. That’s a big shift from just 5 years ago, when UK Conservatives won a majority...

This is right. We can all help for Nov by talking about Project 2025 now. That helps keep focus on the stakes.

Don't let his lies scare you out of sharing the details of Project 2025 with everyone you know — especially those who are on the fence about their vote this year. There's good reason to believe knowing about Project 2025 focuses people's minds on the stakes. www.salon.com/2024/07/05/p...

Project 2025 was supposed to boost Donald Trump's campaign — but now it may be backfiringwww.salon.com Trump's authoritarian game plan is breaking through to people who haven't heard of it — and it's scaring them

TV viewers will learn more about American politics tonight watching ESPN than watching cable “news”

Excuse me while I turn off my teevee box because it’s all shit.

Right. Focus on democracy and the courts and what we are up against.

You know what? Go on about Biden's age and debate performance. Me? I'll focus on the existential threat that Donald Trump and his minions represent. We all have limited time and energy. Do you really want to spend July and August talking about Biden's infirmity? Do you really think this is helping?

Laura Loomer is on Twitter trending with medical things about Biden. I’ve seen a few repeats of that rumor from people I know. Laura Loomer. What @volts.wtf said today about our information environment - it’s deeply broken

These are entirely new kinds of experiments — enabled by new voltage sensors. Cool Preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Video here x.com/adamezracohe... #neuroscience 🧪

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this is pretty trivial given the vast, huge legal changes this week, but... I just got a Picopresso, succumbing to maximal coffee OCDness, and it both makes a great shot and is extremely satisfying to use. Recommend www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vz4...

Brewing Espresso with the Wacaco Picopressowww.youtube.com The Wacaco Picopresso Portable Espresso Maker Review highlights the features you can expect to find on this hand held coffee brewer. Shop Wacaco Picopresso P...

Medical journals attach to articles authors’ disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. We have decided readers cannot understand the full context of ideas without judging potential agendas behind them. If this author voted in 2020 and 2022 it should similarly be disclosed by NYT.

This, exactly. When you know what else he’s written, you can properly interpret his ideas. Without that, it’s a lot harder to spot the problems in his argument. This is why there are so many aphorisms about reputation. It’s an essential heuristic for human learning! bsky.app/profile/pwna...

Business models for US journalism influence our public discourse. The Times makes choices. And they are affected by its audience and who it hires, especially as editors and executives. talkingpointsmemo.co...

Times Gonna Timestalkingpointsmemo.com Whatever else happens in the coming days with the presidential election, the...

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just watched 74 people speaking at least a dozen different languages become american citizens in a ceremony at monticello, where the speakers were themselves children of immigrants. inspiring stuff and a vivid illustration of what reactionaries want to snuff out

Right. The far-right SCOTUS majority has decriminalized Nixon’s conduct in Watergate, Reagan’s conduct in Iran-Contra, and also effectively John Yoo’s conduct in DOJ’s signoff on torture. It isn’t unintentional.

"According to Nixon aide John Dean, “the new ruling, in effect, decriminalizes Nixon’s conduct during the Watergate scandal.” donmoynihan.substack.com/p/strongman-...

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Times Opinion would argue different viewpoints should be represented. I’m fine with that (though the choice of opinions to publish defines what the paper is.) But NYT *MUST* disclose agenda and context if it wants its readers to fully evaluate a writer’s points. 2/3 bsky.app/profile/greg...

The NYT also allowed him to exclude his partisan inclinations. From the 2018 piece: "In a bland way I hope to see Republicans control various state and national offices. This arises from a single issue: the legality of abortion."

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This is a dumb article, but also isn't the author's first rodeo, and his other writing shows the real reason he doesn't vote "But my principal reason for declining to take part in elections is moral. It involves, I suppose, a private objection to democracy itself." theweek.com/articles/802...

Here it is, the dumbest thing you will read today www.nytimes.com/2024/07/04/o...

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Wrote something to make sense of the Roberts court capitulation to Trump. But it still doesn't make sense. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/strongman-...

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Most readers will not know who Walther is, or his history — vital info to evaluating his claims. In fact, the majority of NYT readers will read just the headline. Humans do not use info without context. NYT does a disservice to its readers when it publishes highly partisan columns w/out context.

Important. The NYT letting a partisan writer publish this partisan, anti-democracy column—w/out disclosing his background!—is a travesty. The MAGA Republican Party wishes to reduce turnout in Nov. Walther previously said the Trump impeachment was a bad idea and “no one cares about COVID.” 1/2

this is pretty trivial given the vast, huge legal changes this week, but... I just got a Picopresso, succumbing to maximal coffee OCDness, and it both makes a great shot and is extremely satisfying to use. Recommend www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vz4...

Brewing Espresso with the Wacaco Picopressowww.youtube.com The Wacaco Picopresso Portable Espresso Maker Review highlights the features you can expect to find on this hand held coffee brewer. Shop Wacaco Picopresso P...

it is reasonably likely that the SCOTUS majority was thinking about calls from people like Chemerinsky to prosecute John Yoo as they made this decision

under the opinion in trump v. united states there was no need for john yoo to come up with an elaborate justification for torture. george w. bush could have ordered an interrogator to crush the testicles of a child, no questions asked.

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Nathan Kalmoe (he/him)

I’ve given a lot of thought to vital reforms but exactly zero to “what if the president wasn’t bound by law?” For anyone clutching their pearls at the thought, recall e.g. that we only have the 14th & 15th amendments b/c southern states were coerced to ratify, or have no representation in congress.

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Sorry to all my lawyer friends who spent a bunch of time learning how law works in the US. I had friends who were Flash developers and things turned out alright for them after they pivoted to C# or whatever. Hopefully there's an equivalent for our national legal system

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Our first Ultrasound gliomodulation paper is out in Nature Communications. We show that Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound Stimulation (LIPUS) at the implantation injury site helps microglia repair injury, improve device-brain integration, and improve electrophysiological performance. rdcu.be/dMoFV

Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound stimulation (LIPUS) modulates microglial activation following intracortical microelectrode implantationrdcu.be Nature Communications - Implanting an electrode into the cortex activates microglia, triggers the foreign body response, and impedes intracortical brain-computer interface. Here, the authors apply...

"Presidentialism and juristocracy are the twin projects [of the conservative SCOTUS]" Yes. Big implications for US science: 🧪 Presidentialism means a pres can insert cronies w/out real expertise to make grant decisions. Juristocracy means courts are the only possible check. Big trouble.

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Not watching this debate. So I made a Starter Pack for neuroscience on bluesky. Feel free to share #neuroscience 🧠 🧪 go.bsky.app/RnPdB5N

Neuroscientists on blueskygo.bsky.app Join the conversation

“Unless our scientific institutions are willing to step up and denounce attacks on those who risk their lives to defend principles of science and public health…our society will begin to unravel. That unravelling is already far advanced in America.” www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Offline: In defence of Dr Fauciwww.thelancet.com “Is this what we have become? Is this what we have devolved into?” US Congressman Kweisi Mfume was reacting to comments from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene at a hearing of the Select Subcommitt...