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klbr.bsky.social
klbr
@klbr.bsky.social
390 followers 660 following 410 posts
Only good at taking pictures of subjects less than .00001 inches tall
Location: New Jersey
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klbr.bsky.social
life achievement: replaced my chainsaw chain for the first time
July 10, 2025 at 1:02 AM
klbr.bsky.social
She couldn't resist the opportunity to explicitly say she's punishing Harvard for hiring former elected or appointed Democrats. This level of explicitly partisan score-settling is wrong and un-American.
ericcolumbus.bsky.social Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · May 6
🚨🚨 Deranged letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon to Harvard’s president, cutting off federal funding for any new grants.

Worth reading in full. It is NUTS.
THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION WASHINGTON, DC 20202 May 5, 2025 Dr. Alan Garber Office of the President Harvard University Massachusetts Hall Cambridge, MA 02138 Dr. Garber, The Federal Government has a sacred responsibility to be a wise and important steward of American taxpayer dollars. Harvard University, despite amassing a largely tax-free $53.2 billion dollar endowment (larger than the GDP of 100 countries), receives billions of dollars of taxpayer largess each year. Receiving such taxpayer funds is a privilege, not a right. Yet instead of using these funds to advance the education of its students, Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law. Where do many of these "students" come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country—and why is there so much HATE? These are questions that must be answered, among many more, but the biggest question of all is, why will Harvard not give straightforward answers to the American public? Harvard University has made a mockery of this country's higher education system. It has invited foreign students, who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America, to its campus. In every way, Harvard has failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor. It had scrapped standardized testing requirements and a normalized grading system. This year Harvard was forced to adopt an embarrassing "remedial math" program for undergraduates. Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics, when it is supposedly so hard to get into this "acclaimed university"? Who is getting in under such a low standard when others, with fabulous grades and a great understanding of the highest levels of mathematics, are being rejected? Harvard has even been embroiled in humiliating plagiarism scandals, exposed clearly and plainly in the media, with respect to your then… running the institution in a totally chaotic way. Harvard alumnus and highly successful hedge fund manager Bill Ackman noted that, under her leadership, Harvard has become "a political advocacy organization for one party." Ackman has called for the resignation of Pritzker, concluding that the "[t)he mismanagement here is Penny Pritzker" and noting that any serious corporation would have removed her after a litany of recent failings and the fact that, incredibly, "Harvard is not in a good financial position." According to Ackman, one of the world's foremost finance experts, Harvard's so-called S53 billion endowment is "massively overstated as far as what it's really worth," and Harvard has irresponsibly taken out $8 billion in debt. If this is true, it is concerning evidence of Harvard's disastrous mismanagement, indicating an urgent need for massive reform-not continued taxpayer investment. If Harvard prefers not to change, then Harvard should have no problem using its overflowing endowment to fund its bloated bureaucracy. At its best, a university should fulfill the highest ideals of our Nation, and enlighten the thousands of hopeful students who walk through its magnificent gates. But Harvard has betrayed this ideal. Perhaps most alarmingly, Harvard has failed to abide by the United States Supreme Court's ruling demanding that it end its racial preferencing, and continues to engage in ugly racism in its undergraduate and graduate schools, and even within the Harvard Law Review itself. Our universities should be bastions of merit that reward and celebrate excellence and achievement. They should not be incubators of discrimination that encourage resentment and instill grievance and racism into our wonderful young Americans. The above concerns are only a fraction of the long list of Harvard's consistent violations of its own legal duties. Given these and other concerning allegations, this letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek GRANTS from the fede… Federal Agencies. The Administration's priorities have not changed and today's letter marks the end of new grants for the University. These requests will advance the best interests of Harvard University, so it can reclaim its status as a respected educational institution for the future leaders of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter! Sincerely, Linda E. McMahon Secretary of Education
May 6, 2025 at 2:43 AM
klbr.bsky.social
I know I haven't been active on here much lately but...I am hiring a core facility postdoc to own the Krios, do a lot of cryoET jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/249...
Postdoctoral Associate in Rutgers Core Facility
The researcher will conduct experiments and provide technical expertise in the Rutgers CryoEM & Nanoimaging Facility (RCNF). The RCNF serves as a university-wide resource for the imaging and three-dim...
jobs.rutgers.edu
May 5, 2025 at 5:47 AM
klbr.bsky.social
I was thinking to myself "what were the best years so far for USA? maybe 1998 and 2014?"
This leads to my new hypothesis (nonserious) that the best years are going to be an inflection point in the median income (PPP-adjusted) with positive first derivative.
March 5, 2025 at 1:53 AM
klbr.bsky.social
Trafficking studies that rely on following virus microinjected into the cytoplasm aren't valid if the virus in native cells would be inside a membranous organelle.
March 4, 2025 at 8:35 PM
klbr.bsky.social
Since I got a third cryo-transmission electron microscope, I have more 'scope time than I know what to do with. If you have a project that requires a large amount of data collection, get in contact because we can probably work something out.
February 25, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by klbr
drugmonkey.bsky.social
Don't be a useful idiot puppet for the regime drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/02/25/d...
Don’t be a useful idiot puppet for the regime
I say this to myself regularly in the past weeks, mostly when it comes to sitting on my hands about my regular NIH-related and academic science career-related hobby horse issues as they arise. We h…
drugmonkey.wordpress.com
February 25, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Reposted by klbr
annikabarber.bsky.social
Wondering if your study section cancelled? I update this sheet daily. As of today, 56/124 study sections that should have met since Jan 2, 2025 have "not met as scheduled." docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
2025 Study section tracking
docs.google.com
February 24, 2025 at 4:17 PM
klbr.bsky.social
Does anybody else find it weird that it's common for receptor homologs to bind different viral species of the same family but in a completely different pose? I would've thought a priori that if receptor use is conserved, the pose will also be conserved,
February 22, 2025 at 8:29 PM
klbr.bsky.social
Next Thursday I am teaching in the morning, flying to Wyoming, dinner with the faculty, meetings/seminar all day, flying back on the red-eye. Feels like what my schedule used to be like pre-pandemic
February 18, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Reposted by klbr
skibidimckoozyak.bsky.social
This is great visual of what IDC is used for from the Council of Governmental Relations (COGR).
February 8, 2025 at 2:44 AM
Reposted by klbr
cantlonlab.bsky.social
Academics with tenure: we aren’t supposed to cower and grovel for money like people do in other jobs. The whole point of tenure is to be liberated and courageous.
February 4, 2025 at 1:01 PM
klbr.bsky.social
Thrilled to see the approval of a Nav1.8 inhibitor for pain. Has anyone tested whether the analgesic effects of suzetrigine and opiates are additive, synergistic, or antagonistic?
January 31, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by klbr
angierasmussen.bsky.social
Tests: not enough tests & not fast enough thanks to CDC. New tests might not be authorized by FDA. CDC not tracking data or sharing it. CMS again not covering testing costs. No tests, no detection, no ability to contain the outbreak.
January 30, 2025 at 8:15 PM
klbr.bsky.social
a health official being quoted in the newspaper saying TB "is a respiratory virus" does not fill me with confidence that the outbreak will be managed competently
January 25, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by klbr
drugmonkey.bsky.social
Complying in advance doesn't protect you, it just gets you on historical record as a quisling: The NIH Edition drugmonkey.scientopia.org/2025/01/21/c...
Complying in advance doesn’t protect you, it just gets you on historical record as a quisling: The NIH Edition
I have been pointing out a recent trend at the NIH whereby they have been inserting language in their Funding Opportunity Announcements related to diversity, equity and inclusion that appears to to…
drugmonkey.scientopia.org
January 21, 2025 at 9:41 PM
klbr.bsky.social
David & I preparing for electron microscopy class on the JEM-2010F
January 19, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Reposted by klbr
johnrubinstein.bsky.social
We are hosting a cryo-EM grid nanofabrication workshop on 28 April 2025, as part of the Canadian Cryo-EM Nexus (ccemn.ca).
Learn how to make holey gold or holey carbon grids in your own laboratory!
Space is limited, so please apply at web.cvent.com/event/ee88ac...
January 6, 2025 at 7:28 PM
klbr.bsky.social
US government is botching bird flu in the exact same ways the botched COVID. Completely avoidable disaster that the Biden administration sleepwalked straight through.
December 31, 2024 at 7:09 PM
klbr.bsky.social
well, OK then, if you say so...
Jiankui He tweet: "Gene editing in human embryo is safe to proceed now" with picture of Dr. He in a lab coat in front of an empty lab
December 18, 2024 at 2:43 AM
klbr.bsky.social
Every time my lab visits the Stanford Linear Accelerator, there is some hardware catastrophe or power outage or something. I think we bring all our bad luck to California. Better that than keeping it at home, though
December 12, 2024 at 4:31 AM
klbr.bsky.social
Cleaning out old files and wanted to post this because I got nostalgic:
me in grad school with my dear colleague Joanita Jakana in front of the JEM-3200FSC. A good teacher and friend.
December 9, 2024 at 12:23 AM
Reposted by klbr
dkh.bsky.social
It was revealed during the trial that FHP had agreements with pathologists, where some % of tests with abnormal but inconclusive results would be reported as normal, preventing tests and costs. These agreements were once in writing, but for obvious reasons, became verbal. But the practice continued.
December 8, 2024 at 1:45 AM
Reposted by klbr
plevkalab.bsky.social
𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀
This study reveals that enterovirus-containing #endosomes can deform and rupture, enabling the release of genome-containing particles into the cytoplasm.
3/9
December 6, 2024 at 2:47 PM
klbr.bsky.social
I'm going to run an intensive "boot camp" called "Practical Cryo-EM" where we learn how to freeze grids, align microscopes, collect images, and do 3D reconstruction and stuff. January 13-17
December 5, 2024 at 2:31 AM