Janet Frick
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jfrickuga.bsky.social
Janet Frick
@jfrickuga.bsky.social
2.8K followers 2.1K following 460 posts
UGA Psychology prof, PI of UGA Infant Lab. Higher Ed, developmental science, prenatal dev, Georgia life. Missouri native and Jayhawk at heart. Lover of podcasts, piano, and professors who use their tenure (while it still exists).
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Reposted by Janet Frick
mathijsvdsande.bsky.social
"[U]niversities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically."
November 9, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Reposted by Janet Frick
emilyhughes.bsky.social
pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.
brittanytrang.com Brittany Trang @brittanytrang.com · 2d
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:55 AM
jfrickuga.bsky.social
I finally had my wordle day!

Wordle 1,603 1/6

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
November 9, 2025 at 2:16 AM
jfrickuga.bsky.social
November 8, 2025 at 2:57 AM
jfrickuga.bsky.social
Insane.
November 7, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Reposted by Janet Frick
caitlindeangelis.bsky.social
I know this is pedantic, but Kim Davis was not "jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses." She was jailed for contempt of court because she refused to follow a court order (she had stopped issuing all marriage licenses). NYT makes it sound like the Woke Police broke down her door.
New York Times snippet: A Decade Later, Supreme Court is Asked to Revisit Same-Sex Marriage Decision; Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk once jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses, has asked the court to reconsider its landmark 2015 opinion. 6 minute read
November 7, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Janet Frick
jaywillis.net
This is so embarrassing, man. The six most influential Republicans in the country with the unreviewable power to make the law whatever they want, patting each other on the back for their courage. Butter-soft.
Asked for advice for conservative women in law schools who feel marginalized because of their views, Barrett said they should not be afraid to be “countercultural.” Referencing her seven children, Barrett said she’s done “lots of countercultural things in the course of my life.” “In truth, being a conservative woman, in a law school particularly, takes a lot of courage and independence and in many ways shows more feminism than just falling into some predetermined vision of what a woman should be,” she said.
November 7, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Janet Frick
tom.medsky.social
In honor of sandwich guy getting out of his legal pickle, here is the original video synced with Freedom - George Michael 1990.
August 27, 2025 at 2:34 PM
jfrickuga.bsky.social
Excellent conversation
October 26, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Reposted by Janet Frick
drewharwell.com
An OpenAI executive said GPT-5 found solutions to 10 "previously unsolved" math problems when in reality all it did was find online references to places where people had already solved them

techcrunch.com/2025/10/19/o...
OpenAI’s ‘embarrassing’ math | TechCrunch
No, GPT-5 did not solve a bunch of previously unsolved math problems.
techcrunch.com
October 20, 2025 at 4:14 PM
jfrickuga.bsky.social
Great thread (as well as overall great account to follow). 🐸 🚫 👑
drlisacorrigan.bsky.social Dr. Lisa Corrigan @drlisacorrigan.bsky.social · 23d
In social movement studies, we talk about how marches and protests expand the threshold of acceptable risk so that people take more and bigger social risks IN PUBLIC, EN MASSE. This is extremely important for the bourgeois white folks holding signs and building social rapport.
katz.theracket.news Jonathan M. Katz @katz.theracket.news · 23d
Not a shitpost: #NoKings is feel-good performative activism for comfortable mostly upper and upper middle class white folks and that’s good, actually. Millions of people in the streets protesting a fascist regime is good. It is good for the normie baseline to be massive displays of public dissent.
October 19, 2025 at 11:26 AM
jfrickuga.bsky.social
Seems that an independent student newspaper serves an important function in higher education.
October 15, 2025 at 3:30 AM
jfrickuga.bsky.social
Whoops.
jessicacalarco.com Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 27d
Indiana University has fired the staff director of the student newspaper, after disputes in which university leadership tried to pressure him to prevent students from publishing news.
IndyStar 2 . Follow 1h: "All Media School and IU students, faculty and staff should be scared by this blatant attack on someone standing up for what's right," student Editors-ln-Chief Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller said in a statement. Read more: bit.ly/43ebKW1 IndyStar. IDS The original investigative student newsroom of Indiana University Barge suspends Bloomingtonr LITTLE 500 IDS IDS She should've knownbetter:' nt in N eoiencnalt. A INnpttM Indiana University fires IDS adviser amid push to control student newspaper's content The director of student media at Indiana University was fired amidst a dispute between university leadership and editors at the Indiana Daily Student over what content gets printed in the student newspaper. As director of student media, Jim Rodenbush did not directly oversee or have any say over the content published in the IDS, per a charter between the IDS and the university. But he told IndyStar his firing follows a series of meetings with IU Media School leadership in which it grew increasingly apparent they were expecting him to officially prohibit students from publishing news.
October 15, 2025 at 3:29 AM
jfrickuga.bsky.social
Higher ed admins: don’t turn into Umbridge. History will remember.
miriamposner.com Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · Oct 10
Found this just incredibly depressing, more than anything.
An easel sign reads, “UCLA ATTENTION No events are permitted in this area today. Per Policy 852, this location is NOT designated for public expression activities. Individuals participating in an event or a public expression activity in this area are subject to discipline and/or arrest. Scan for policy information.”
October 11, 2025 at 5:10 PM
jfrickuga.bsky.social
We have several fantastic new faculty in our Psychology department at UGA! Come join a thriving, supportive department here in Athens GA!
herzberg-mp.bsky.social Max Herzberg, Ph.D. @herzberg-mp.bsky.social · Oct 10
📣 I am excited to be recruiting PhD students to my lab in Psychology and Neuroscience at UGA! If you are applying for Fall 2026 and passionate about environmental effects on brain function, plasticity, and behavior development, consider joining me in Athens!

psychology.uga.edu/how-apply-ou...
How to Apply to Our Graduate Programs
The department offers two graduate degrees: the Ph.D.
psychology.uga.edu
October 11, 2025 at 1:41 AM
jfrickuga.bsky.social
Everyone who works at, attends, or cares about American universities needs to read.
October 7, 2025 at 9:31 PM
jfrickuga.bsky.social
This should be of great concern to all social science professors as well
kissphoria.bsky.social grateful gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · Sep 18
Welp: Texas A&M President Mark Welch just stepped down after pressure from Republicans over a video of a professor who taught about transgender people in a children's literature class
September 18, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by Janet Frick
jaspar.bsky.social
Maria Ressa won a Nobel prize in 2021 for her efforts to support free expression against the authoritarian regime of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines.
brianstelter.bsky.social Brian Stelter @brianstelter.bsky.social · Sep 18
This just in: Jon Stewart normally only hosts “The Daily Show” on Monday nights nowadays, but tonight he is returning to his longtime desk for one Thursday edition, Comedy Central says. His guest: Maria Ressa
September 18, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Janet Frick
shannonrwatts.bsky.social
The problem with allowing guns everywhere is that no one is safe anywhere.
September 10, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Reposted by Janet Frick
joshtpm.bsky.social
This “explicit” is a weird editorial choice. The constitution gives the president no power over this at all. It’s not ambiguous.
August 31, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Reposted by Janet Frick
anthonymoser.com
I considered writing a long carefully constructed argument laying out the harms and limitations of AI, but instead I wrote about being a hater. Only humans can be haters.
I Am An AI Hater
I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.
anthonymoser.github.io
August 27, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Janet Frick
alyssaharad.bsky.social
This is a hell of a letter. “The intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines…will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer….Eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated…”
donmoyn.bsky.social Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Aug 28
Full resignation letter from Demetre C. Daskalakis, a CDC leader, does not hold back.
"The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud."
My resignation letter from CDC. Dear Dr. Houry, I am writing to formally resign from my position as Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), effective August 28, 2025, close of business. I am happy to stay on for two weeks to provide transition, if requested. This decision has not come easily, as I deeply value the work that the CDC does in safeguarding public health and am proud of my contributions to that critical mission. However, after much contemplation and reflection on recent developments and perspectives brought to light by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I find that the views he and his staff have shared challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people. Enough is enough. While I hold immense respect for the institution and my colleagues, I believe that it is imperative to align my professional responsibilities to my system of ethics and my understanding of the science of infectious disease, immunology, and my promise to serve the American people. This step is necessary to ensure that I can contribute effectively in a capacity that allows me to remain true to my principles. The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people. The data analyses that supported this decision have never been shared with CDC despite my respectful requests to HHS and other leadership. This lack of meaningful engagement was further compounded by a “frequently asked questions” document written to support the Secretary’s directive that was circulated by HHS without input from CDC subject matter experts and that cited studies that did not support the conclusions that were attributed to these authors. Having worked in local and national public health for years, I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people. It is untenable to serve in an organization that is not afforded the opportunity to discuss decisions of scientific and public health importance released under the moniker of CDC. The lack of communication by HHS and other CDC political leadership that culminates in social media posts announcing major policy changes without prior notice demonstrate a disregard of normal communication channels and common sense. Having to retrofit analyses and policy actions to match inadequately thought-out announcements in poorly scripted videos or page long X posts should not be how organizations responsible for the health of people should function. Some examples include the announcement of the change in the COVID-19 recommendations for children and pregnant people, the firing of scientists from ACIP by X post and an op-ed rather than direct communication with these valuable experts, the announcement of new ACIP members by X before onboarding and vetting have completed, and the release of term of reference for an ACIP workgroup that ignored all feedback from career staff at CDC. Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults. Their base should be the people they serve not a political voting bloc. I have always been first to challenge scientific and public health dogma in my career and was excited by the opportunity to do so again. I was optimistic that there would be an opportunity to brief the Secretary about key topics such as measles, avian influenza, and the highly coordinated approach to the respiratory virus season. Such briefings would allow exchange of ideas and a shared path to support the vision of “Making America Healthy Again.” We are seven months into the new administration, and no CDC subject matter expert from my Center has ever briefed the Secretary. I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us. Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be the sources HHS use over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources. At a hearing, Secretary Kennedy said that Americans should not take medical advice from him. To the contrary, an appropriately briefed and inquisitive Secretary should be a source of health information for the people he serves. As it stands now, I must agree with him, that he should not be considered a source of accurate information. The intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines favoring natural infection and unproven remedies will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer. I believe in nutrition and exercise. I believe in making our food supply healthier, and I also believe in using vaccines to prevent death and disability. Eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated and is derivative of a legacy that good medicine and science should continue to shun. The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud. I am resigning because of the cowardice of a leader that cannot admit that HIS and his minions’ words over decades created an environment where violence like this can occur. I reject his and his colleagues’ thoughts and prayers, and advise they direct those to people that they have not actively harmed. For decades, I have been a trusted voice for the LGBTQ community when it comes to critical health topics. I must also cite the recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision. Public health is not merely about the health of the individual, but it is about the health of the community, the nation, the world. The nation’s health security is at risk and is in the hands of people focusing on ideological self-interest. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for the opportunities for growth, learning, and collaboration that I have been afforded during my time at the CDC. It has been a privilege to work alongside such dedicated professionals who are committed to improving the health and well-being of communities across the nation even when under attack from within both physically and psychologically. Thank you once again for the support and guidance I have received from you and previous CDC leadership throughout my tenure. I wish the CDC continued success in its vital mission and that HHS reverse its dangerous course to dismantle public health as a practice and as an institution. If they continue the current path, they risk our personal well-being and the security of the United States.
August 28, 2025 at 11:28 AM
jfrickuga.bsky.social
Good to see this kind of work. More will be needed.

Follow @climate.us
Nonprofit successor to climate dot gov
August 28, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by Janet Frick
edzitron.com
Newsletter: My 16,000 word opus - How To Argue With An AI Booster, a comprehensive guide to arguing with AI boosters, addressing both their bad faith debate style and their specific (and flimsy) arguments as to why generative AI is the future.

www.wheresyoured.at/how-to-argue...
How To Argue With An AI Booster
Editor's Note: For those of you reading via email, I recommend opening this in a browser so you can use the Table of Contents. This is my longest newsletter - a 16,000-word-long opus - and if you like...
www.wheresyoured.at
August 25, 2025 at 4:16 PM
jfrickuga.bsky.social
This is a great opportunity!
jzacks.bsky.social Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · Aug 15
The Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (@fabbs.org) is searching for a short-term technology policy fellow. Great opportunity for a new PhD interested in policy, maybe before a research postdoc or faculty position:
fabbs.org/news/2025/08...
We’re Hiring: Technology Policy Fellow – FABBS
Location: Washington, D.C. (hybrid) Salary: Approximately $7,000 per month Start Date: September 15, 2025 Duration: 3 months, with potential for longer Position
fabbs.org
August 15, 2025 at 5:43 PM