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Reposted by Amir Haji-Akbari

NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · May 29

The real scandal in 1930s German politics was Kaiser Wilhelm’s cognitive decline

Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Apr 6

#AcademicTwitter Our students don't feel OK these days. They're anywhere between scared and concerned. We held a listening session in our department to hear them out. Everybody needs to do the same. This is the least we can do to show that we care & that we share their concerns.

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Usha Lee McFarling @usha.bsky.social · Apr 5

Elementary school principals going where university presidents fear to tread...

New York Times headline reading "New York says it does not intend to comply with D.E.I. order on schools"

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Apr 2

This is how to deal with bullying @columbiauniversity.bsky.social not to shamelessly capitulate.

jon ben-menachem @jbenmenachem.com · Apr 2

Princeton has announced that it is considering selling approximately $320 million of taxable bonds. The bonds are a way for the University to raise short-term funds. The major credit-rating agencies rate University bonds AAA, the highest level of creditworthiness.

Princeton considers issuing bonds same day as federal government pauses grants

The University announced its consideration to sell approximately $320 million of taxable bonds on Tuesday, following a notification from government agencies about the suspension of research grants.

www.dailyprincetonian.com

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Mar 21

What happened to GOP 2017-20 is what is happening to our institutions now from big corporations to academia & big law firms. Turns out institutions were not worth defending. They are corrupt to the core & deserve annihilation. A shameful day culminating a scary week. www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Exclusive | Columbia Yields to Trump in Battle Over Federal Funding

Columbia’s agreement is a significant moment in the intensifying battle between Trump and elite universities.

www.wsj.com

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Mar 20

Lack of collective action by university presidents is shameful.

Andrew S. Rosen @andrewrosen.bsky.social · Mar 20

Not enough people are talking about this one, at least within my circles: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/u.... Have no doubt — the administration is out to kill universities using whatever motivation they see fit.

White House Expected to Pause $175 Million for Penn Over Transgender Policy

The decision is the latest clash between a university and the administration as it pushes schools to end diversity programming and adopt stricter discipline, among other things.

www.nytimes.com

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Mar 13

The outcome of this petition will determine whether we are still a constitutional republic or a banana republic.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · Mar 13

Breaking news: The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow U.S. officials to begin implementing a limited plan to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants and foreign visitors.

Trump asks Supreme Court to okay limited plan to end birthright citizenship

Judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington have issued nationwide orders blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban birthright citizenship.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Zahra Fakhraai @zahrafakhraai.bsky.social · Mar 12

What I don't understand about myself and academia in general, is why we are not in a general strike in support of our colleagues at Columbia, John Hopkins and others who have lost funding. Why is my day to day feeling like nothing huge is happening in the background. Tomorrow it's us.

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Mar 8

This is insane! Are we going to war against Canada? Seriously? Thanks all the morons who voted this insanity into reality. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/w...

How Trump’s ‘51st State’ Canada Talk Came to Be Seen as Deadly Serious

President Trump, in an early February call, challenged the border treaty between the two countries and told Justin Trudeau he didn’t like their shared water agreements.

www.nytimes.com

Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Feb 19

I never expected to agree with Bannon on anything. But here, he has a valid point.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Feb 19

Steve Bannon renewed his feud with Elon Musk, calling him a “parasitic illegal immigrant” in an interview published online on Tuesday.

Bannon Calls Musk a ‘Parasitic Illegal Immigrant’

Stephen Bannon, a top adviser during President Trump’s first term and a popular figure among his supporters, said Elon Musk wants to “play-act as God” as part of his push to overhaul the federal gover...

www.nytimes.com

Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Feb 18

Thrilled & honored to be a recipient of a Sloan Fellowship in Chemistry. Thanks for my mentors, colleagues and most importantly my students, for making this possible. #SloanFellow.

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation @sloanfoundation.bsky.social · Feb 18

🎉Congrats to the 126 early-career scientists who have been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship this year! These exceptional scholars are drawn from 51 institutions across the US and Canada, and represent the next generation of groundbreaking researchers. sloan.org/fellowships/...

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Feb 5

It is so ironic to hear nothing about genocide when our new King is proposing to ethnically cleanse Gaza from Palestinians & use it as his beachfront property! It looks like Genocide Joe was never really about genocide after all.

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Feb 4

It looks like we can no longer talk about "biased MD simulations". From today, umbrella sampling and metadynamics are banned in the US.

Darby Saxbe @darbysaxbe.bsky.social · Feb 4

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Feb 3

The revenge of South African Apartheid from the leader of the free world :(

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Dec 21

Thrilled to announce my promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure at @YaleEngineering. Grateful for all the support/mentoring from my family & colleagues, but more importantly, for the ingenuity & hard work of my wonderful students without whom this wouldn't have been possible.

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Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · Dec 8

Maybe Tulsi Gabbard can let Assad stay at her house, since they are pals.

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Dec 8

I remember my despair at the fall of Aleppo in December 2016 and back then, I thought I will not live to see the day when Assad falls & Syria is liberated. Thankfully, I was wrong & I can finally live the joy of a liberated Syria.

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Dec 8

from "antiwar" activists who became Assad apologists, to foreign policy "experts" who facilitated democratic backsliding by rationalizing appeasement of likes of Assad, Khamenei & Putin.

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Dec 8

This was primarily what led Obama to walk back his now-infamous redline & tacitly prop up Assad by infusing billions of dollars into Iran's coffers to run its war machine in the region. Thankfully, all these people will forever live in infamy,

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Dec 8

It also exposed the hollowness & absurdity of the prevailing foreign policy consensus on the left, which prizes isolationism and avoiding war above all and excuses war crimes committed by "anti-imperialist" dictators aligned with the former Eastern bloc.

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Dec 8

destruction brought about by my own country to Syria, but also exposed the hypocrisy & moral bankruptcy of many "democracy activists" in Iran who let their animosity towards Arabs & Sunni Muslims make them apologists for genocide & war crimes.

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Dec 8

This is a very emotional moment for me, celebrating the liberation of Syria after five decades of brutal dictatorship & 14 years of painful war & suffering. As an Iranian, Syria was a defining moment for me. It not only made me permanently ashamed of the death and .

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Hanieh Falahati @haniehfalahati.bsky.social · Dec 2

Our paper is out just in time for #EM_Monday! It is about a specialized neuron-specific ER, called the spine apparatus, which is found close to synapses and has a very peculiar shape. If you think neurons are special, the spine apparatus is their🦄 horn! But how does it form?!
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

Gif showing a spine containing spine apparatus, reconstructed from FIB-SEM images. ER: red, synapse: yellow, plasma membrane: blue

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Reposted by Amir Haji-Akbari

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · Nov 16

Few thoughts for people who continually talk about leaving the country.

1. Not everyone has that option or the resources and that’s not their fault.

2. In terms of solidarity it communicates you won’t be an ally if things get bad.

3. This is a worldwide movement. You can’t escape it.

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Amir Haji-Akbari @hajiakbari.bsky.social · Nov 16

Gas was already 10 cents more expensive today. #Trumpflation.