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John Borghi

@johnborghi.bsky.social

230 followers 160 following 310 posts

PhD | Cognitive Neuroscience | Research Data | Photography | Opinions are just mine | Boring you all in a personal capacity

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John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 5d

Every few days I summarize the news in science and higher education...

Today's update includes:
- Notes on the government shutdown
- A new compact for academic institutions
- Me trying not to lose my mind at DHS's vaporwave video with music by The Cure.

fusiforms.beehiiv.com/p/october-3r...

October 3rd, 2025

Get some rest. Drink some water. Watch a medium bad movie.

fusiforms.beehiiv.com

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 12d

Welp.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 12d

Every couple of days I post a roundup of the latest news in science and higher education.

Subscribe if you like. Or don’t, it’s fine.

fusiforms.beehiiv.com

a man in a tuxedo is holding a microphone and talking into it .

ALT: a man in a tuxedo is holding a microphone and talking into it .

media.tenor.com

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 12d

Hopefully I didn't jinx us all by posting this before 5pm on a Friday.

Today's updates include an imminent government shutdown, more on (sigh) acetaminophen and autism, and changes to the NSF GRFP. Also inexplicably, Amelia Earhart.

fusiforms.beehiiv.com/p/friday-sep...

Friday, September 26th

Who is asking the President about Amelia Earhart?

fusiforms.beehiiv.com

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 16d

Yeah, I know of at least one of them. I guess I was just being rhetorical, I'm kind of in a daze after that press conference.

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 16d

It will be very interesting to see who applies for those Autism Data Science Initiative grants...

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 19d

I have to keep track of all this for work reasons, but if you’d rather not scour the news for the latest in science and higher education happenings…

fusiforms.beehiiv.com

a man in a suit and tie is reading a newspaper in an office .

ALT: a man in a suit and tie is reading a newspaper in an office .

media.tenor.com

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 19d

There is A LOT of news today:

* An impasse in the Federal budget
* Contentious vaccine discussions at the CDC
* $100k for an H1-B visa, $1 million for a Gold Card
* The Northeast Public Health Collaborative (minus NH)

...and lots more. Happy Friday everyone.

fusiforms.beehiiv.com/p/friday-sep...

Friday, September 19th

Listening in as people read systematic reviews on Youtube...

fusiforms.beehiiv.com

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 20d

Unless you don’t cite my papers, which would be misconduct. Obviously.

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 20d

If a paper had some misattributed citations in the introduction and faked data in the methods/results, it would be pretty easy for me to say which of those things was “worse”.

Also, nobody calls any of this library work!

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 20d

I’m also real uncomfortable with the “this is misconduct” framing.

Ok, yes. Making up citations and misattributing things is bad scientific practice. My third grader knows that.

But there are all sorts of reasons why somebody might cite/not cite something.

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 20d

As a former researcher and former (sorta kinda) librarian, I’m scratching my head at this.

Of course, it is real bad practice to intentionally misrepresent what a paper says. Obviously.

But this is not a situation in which “hey, cite your sources” is remotely adequate!

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 20d

The @aaup.org has released some guidance for academic workers engaging with social media.

www.aaup.org/news/advisor...

A screenshot from the AAUP guidance. The first tip given is "Set your personal social media accounts to private mode. When prompted, approve the setting to make all previous posts private."

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 25d

Maybe my favorite part of my house is the window bench where Greta and Meatball greet the neighbors and enjoy the sunshine.

An orange cat and a grey cat sitting in the sun.

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 26d

Get updates directly to your e-mailbox. fusiforms.beehiiv.com

a cartoon character is reading a newspaper that says daily beagle gromit exonerated

ALT: a cartoon character is reading a newspaper that says daily beagle gromit exonerated

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John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 26d

Reading the (science and higher education) news so you don't have to. Today's update includes:

1. Some goodish NIH news (with some caveats)
2. The CDC's new vaccines/autism study
3. More COVID vaccine news
4. Animorphs at a ska punk show

fusiforms.beehiiv.com/p/friday-sep...

Friday, September 12th

Now with 10% more Gold Standard Science (not really).

fusiforms.beehiiv.com

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 27d

Thanks! It helps me with the deluge a bit. Plus I figure if I am reading all this anyway, I might as well mark some jokes and help others make sense of a small piece of what’s going on.

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 27d

I work in education, I have family who are teachers. Every day I ask what we are all doing here.

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 27d

We had our first lockdown drill when I was a freshman in high school. We anxiously sat in our classrooms while police swept through the hallways.

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 27d

There was a “secure campus” incident at my local school system yesterday, during which all the doors of classrooms were locked and all the shades were drawn.

Everything turned out fine, but my gen alpha kid described all this as if it were completely normal. Because for them it is.

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 28d

Today's completely unrelated cover image is an outtake from when I was playing around with some Phoenix 200 film. I was going for a shoegaze sort of vibe?

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · 28d

I am very tired and wish there was less news. But here is today's roundup of whats going on in the land of biomedical science and higher education.

fusiforms.beehiiv.com/p/wednesday-...

Wednesday, September 10th

I can't think of a pithy subtitle.

fusiforms.beehiiv.com

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · Sep 4

Every movie is good except for the movies that are bad (Hillbilly Elegy).

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · Aug 29

We’ve worked in very different libraries in very different capacities, but my journey to a career in science probably owes a teeny tiny bit to her turning me loose in the stacks to find all the books about dinosaurs and space travel.

John Borghi @johnborghi.bsky.social · Aug 29

After 36 years, today is my mom’s last day as a children’s librarian. She’s retiring to pursue her many crafty hobbies!