Cedar Riener
@criener.bsky.social
College professor, cognitive psychologist, textbook author. Also interested in science writing, social justice, politics and anti-racism. Proud member of AAUP & AFT Local 6741. Personal account. Views are my own and do not represent RMC, AAAS or SCHEV
Reposted by Cedar Riener
"there's a new serif in town"
Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move
Rubio Stages Font Coup: Times New Roman Ousts Calibri
The secretary of state called it a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.
www.huffpost.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:06 AM
"there's a new serif in town"
Reposted by Cedar Riener
An absolute horrific nightmare of two AI bots caught in a loop with each other is the perfect example of the total nothingness of AI “brains”.
December 9, 2025 at 9:09 PM
An absolute horrific nightmare of two AI bots caught in a loop with each other is the perfect example of the total nothingness of AI “brains”.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
Probably unpopular take: THIS IS NOT WRONG.
Note that what's being criticized is a COMPOSITION class. It's not a literary criticism class. Time spent on literary criticism could be spent on argument. Less time reading Sylvia Plaith, more reading Martin Luther King, who was a master of argument.
Note that what's being criticized is a COMPOSITION class. It's not a literary criticism class. Time spent on literary criticism could be spent on argument. Less time reading Sylvia Plaith, more reading Martin Luther King, who was a master of argument.
If you are providing me with an education that is low utility in the world then it’s a disservice. My composition class spent four weeks on poetry. I’m sorry, but that only would’ve been useful if I wanted to be a poet. I don’t need to know iambic pentameter in order to be a victim advocate.
December 9, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Probably unpopular take: THIS IS NOT WRONG.
Note that what's being criticized is a COMPOSITION class. It's not a literary criticism class. Time spent on literary criticism could be spent on argument. Less time reading Sylvia Plaith, more reading Martin Luther King, who was a master of argument.
Note that what's being criticized is a COMPOSITION class. It's not a literary criticism class. Time spent on literary criticism could be spent on argument. Less time reading Sylvia Plaith, more reading Martin Luther King, who was a master of argument.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
Yeah, and to be fair, some people who disagree with my original point have actually taught me a few things in those comments. I did learn a little more about the value of poetry to other social and professional skills for example. Not everyone who is arguing with me has an invalid point!
December 9, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Yeah, and to be fair, some people who disagree with my original point have actually taught me a few things in those comments. I did learn a little more about the value of poetry to other social and professional skills for example. Not everyone who is arguing with me has an invalid point!
Reposted by Cedar Riener
In a lot of European countries, the liberal arts type classes are done in primary and secondary school, and the classes that focus on the major are for postsecondary education. By the time you get to college, you will have already learned about genetics and Saturn, and history, and molecules, etc.
December 10, 2025 at 1:19 AM
In a lot of European countries, the liberal arts type classes are done in primary and secondary school, and the classes that focus on the major are for postsecondary education. By the time you get to college, you will have already learned about genetics and Saturn, and history, and molecules, etc.
She's engaging with arguments in good faith in the replies, and (I say as a professor) it is worth taking her much more seriously than many do.
We ask students to pay (as she says) $800 for a class outside their interest, but do we pay for broad education after college?
We ask students to pay (as she says) $800 for a class outside their interest, but do we pay for broad education after college?
If you are providing me with an education that is low utility in the world then it’s a disservice. My composition class spent four weeks on poetry. I’m sorry, but that only would’ve been useful if I wanted to be a poet. I don’t need to know iambic pentameter in order to be a victim advocate.
December 10, 2025 at 2:22 AM
She's engaging with arguments in good faith in the replies, and (I say as a professor) it is worth taking her much more seriously than many do.
We ask students to pay (as she says) $800 for a class outside their interest, but do we pay for broad education after college?
We ask students to pay (as she says) $800 for a class outside their interest, but do we pay for broad education after college?
Reposted by Cedar Riener
oh i got one
December 10, 2025 at 1:40 AM
oh i got one
Reposted by Cedar Riener
my take on fonts is that using either Times New Roman or Calibri as the official font for government documents is insane. you should have a government font that the government commissions and thus places in the public domain. it's like if every government memo was stamped with a Microsoft watermark.
December 10, 2025 at 1:55 AM
my take on fonts is that using either Times New Roman or Calibri as the official font for government documents is insane. you should have a government font that the government commissions and thus places in the public domain. it's like if every government memo was stamped with a Microsoft watermark.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
Reposted by Cedar Riener
Many of my friends are now at the age where their kids are thinning about college, and most don’t know this.
Don’t sleep on private schools and especially small liberal arts schools because of sticker shock. Look into what aid packages the schools offer.
Don’t sleep on private schools and especially small liberal arts schools because of sticker shock. Look into what aid packages the schools offer.
December 9, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Many of my friends are now at the age where their kids are thinning about college, and most don’t know this.
Don’t sleep on private schools and especially small liberal arts schools because of sticker shock. Look into what aid packages the schools offer.
Don’t sleep on private schools and especially small liberal arts schools because of sticker shock. Look into what aid packages the schools offer.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
As parents are helping their kids consider colleges, this is my perennial reminder that state schools often have lower price tags, yes, but private schools, including many small liberal arts schools, often have better aid packages, and are thus often cheaper in the end (but may be more competitive).
December 9, 2025 at 10:42 PM
As parents are helping their kids consider colleges, this is my perennial reminder that state schools often have lower price tags, yes, but private schools, including many small liberal arts schools, often have better aid packages, and are thus often cheaper in the end (but may be more competitive).
Reposted by Cedar Riener
This is the greatest trauma processing I've ever heard.
Will Arnett was on Conan and told a story about how Conan dealt with the death of his parents by accusing Jason Bateman of killing them. It’s so funny.
December 9, 2025 at 10:42 PM
This is the greatest trauma processing I've ever heard.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
i do not regret to inform you that we are going to win
♥️ “ICE looked at that school, saw a community standing up for families, and decided it wasn’t worth it.”
December 9, 2025 at 2:50 AM
i do not regret to inform you that we are going to win
Reposted by Cedar Riener
Oh I can outdo my parents for embarrassing memories. Like the time in Junior High when I was to recite William Blake's Tyger.... only I fucked up in the very first verse and froze.
It does not go
Tyger Tyger burning bright
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43687/...
It does not go
Tyger Tyger burning bright
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43687/...
The Tyger
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? What the hand, dare seize the fire? Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of...
www.poetryfoundation.org
December 9, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Oh I can outdo my parents for embarrassing memories. Like the time in Junior High when I was to recite William Blake's Tyger.... only I fucked up in the very first verse and froze.
It does not go
Tyger Tyger burning bright
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43687/...
It does not go
Tyger Tyger burning bright
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43687/...
Reposted by Cedar Riener
Paper out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com:
1) those groups (women, African Americans, lower SES, rural) that are underrepresented in science have been less trusting of science.
2) If you improve representation in science, you improve trust among those groups.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
1) those groups (women, African Americans, lower SES, rural) that are underrepresented in science have been less trusting of science.
2) If you improve representation in science, you improve trust among those groups.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Representation in science and trust in scientists in the USA - Nature Human Behaviour
Druckman et al. document gaps in trust in scientists in the USA. People from groups less represented among scientists (for example, women and those with lower economic status) are less trusting. Incre...
www.nature.com
December 9, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Paper out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com:
1) those groups (women, African Americans, lower SES, rural) that are underrepresented in science have been less trusting of science.
2) If you improve representation in science, you improve trust among those groups.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
1) those groups (women, African Americans, lower SES, rural) that are underrepresented in science have been less trusting of science.
2) If you improve representation in science, you improve trust among those groups.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Cedar Riener
This is the Tufts PhD student who seized by masked agents on the street and jailed for two months because she wrote an op-ed calling for the school to divest from Israel.
December 8, 2025 at 10:52 PM
This is the Tufts PhD student who seized by masked agents on the street and jailed for two months because she wrote an op-ed calling for the school to divest from Israel.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
I'm open to the idea of LLMs having positive utility in education, but the more I explore the topic and the more experiments I see from others the less open I am to the idea that it has a role in helping students learn to write. It's very "helpful" in producing text for school. Not the same thing.
December 8, 2025 at 6:22 PM
I'm open to the idea of LLMs having positive utility in education, but the more I explore the topic and the more experiments I see from others the less open I am to the idea that it has a role in helping students learn to write. It's very "helpful" in producing text for school. Not the same thing.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
"there are deeper problems: LLM-generated writing undermines the authenticity of not just one’s writing but of the thinking behind it as well. If the prose is automatically generated, might the ideas be too?" rfd.shared.oxide.computer/rfd/0576
576 - Using LLMs at Oxide / RFD / Oxide
rfd.shared.oxide.computer
December 8, 2025 at 6:30 PM
"there are deeper problems: LLM-generated writing undermines the authenticity of not just one’s writing but of the thinking behind it as well. If the prose is automatically generated, might the ideas be too?" rfd.shared.oxide.computer/rfd/0576
Reposted by Cedar Riener
So, it's Monday, and there's no way to say this that doesn't sound stupid, so I'm just going to come out and say it: I've decided to Twitch stream the entire writing of an NIH R01 proposal, and you can follow along at twitch.tv/ColinDoesScience
ColinDoesScience - Twitch
I'm only doing this because they messed up science real bad forever
twitch.tv
December 8, 2025 at 5:03 PM
So, it's Monday, and there's no way to say this that doesn't sound stupid, so I'm just going to come out and say it: I've decided to Twitch stream the entire writing of an NIH R01 proposal, and you can follow along at twitch.tv/ColinDoesScience
Reposted by Cedar Riener
“HIPAA, the federal health privacy law, doesn’t apply to the companies behind popular chatbots. Legally, said Bradley Malin… “you’re basically waiving any rights that you have with respect to medical privacy,” leaving only the protections that a given company chooses to offer.”
People Are Uploading Their Medical Records to A.I. Chatbots
www.nytimes.com
December 8, 2025 at 1:35 PM
“HIPAA, the federal health privacy law, doesn’t apply to the companies behind popular chatbots. Legally, said Bradley Malin… “you’re basically waiving any rights that you have with respect to medical privacy,” leaving only the protections that a given company chooses to offer.”
Reposted by Cedar Riener
Students desire engaging, meaningful learning experiences, but school is often not oriented around those things. This doesn't mean we can't change, though. Rather than rushing headlong into the arms of AI we have to focus on what matters as humans. www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/john-...
More Than Words
A veteran writing teacher makes a “moving” (Rick Wormeli) argument that writing is a form of thinking and feeling and shows why it can’t be...
www.hachettebookgroup.com
December 7, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Students desire engaging, meaningful learning experiences, but school is often not oriented around those things. This doesn't mean we can't change, though. Rather than rushing headlong into the arms of AI we have to focus on what matters as humans. www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/john-...
Reposted by Cedar Riener
So...my undergrad thesis student is doing a quality analysis of studies found in meta-analyses. She identified a few and we contacted the authors to request their effect sizes and other variables for the studies in their papers.
Here's what happened:
scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...
Here's what happened:
scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...
The Impact of Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis | Scientia Psychiatrica
Introduction: The proliferation of social media has raised significant concerns about its potential effects on the mental health of adolescents. This meta-analysis aims to provide a comprehensive asse...
scientiapsychiatrica.com
December 7, 2025 at 11:11 PM
So...my undergrad thesis student is doing a quality analysis of studies found in meta-analyses. She identified a few and we contacted the authors to request their effect sizes and other variables for the studies in their papers.
Here's what happened:
scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...
Here's what happened:
scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...
Reposted by Cedar Riener
We're half a decade into studies finding that improving airflow in classrooms will reduce disease transmission enormously, and that bleaching surfaces etc. does very little. And yet nothing changes. Waves of flu and colds wash over schools, and the schools pretend it's an act of God.
The relative contribution of close-proximity contacts, shared classroom exposure and indoor air quality to respiratory virus transmission in schools - Nature Communications
The relative importance of close-proximity interactions, shared space and air quality to the transmission of respiratory viruses is not well understood. Here, the authors investigate this question by ...
www.nature.com
December 8, 2025 at 4:23 AM
We're half a decade into studies finding that improving airflow in classrooms will reduce disease transmission enormously, and that bleaching surfaces etc. does very little. And yet nothing changes. Waves of flu and colds wash over schools, and the schools pretend it's an act of God.
Reposted by Cedar Riener
Nobody. I do not think you can eat chair
December 8, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Nobody. I do not think you can eat chair
Reposted by Cedar Riener
The real task isn’t “teaching people to spot misinformation.” It’s rebuilding conditions where verification, deliberation and accountability are possible. Critical thinking only works when the world around it gives those skills a place to take root.
December 7, 2025 at 2:18 PM
The real task isn’t “teaching people to spot misinformation.” It’s rebuilding conditions where verification, deliberation and accountability are possible. Critical thinking only works when the world around it gives those skills a place to take root.