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Reposted by Venki Murthy

Oxford American @oxfordamerican.bsky.social · 14h

“Education is about finding out what form of work for you is close to being play.”

—From the archive, author and educator Mark Edmundson offers “A message in a bottle to the incoming class” as he urges college students to be intentional in their education.

🔗: https://shorturl.at/MR9zV

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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 23h

Sorry! (but I have to take the crumbs I can get, being an Arsenal fan)

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Reposted by Venki Murthy

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 1d

I have been trying to get this published as an op-ed, but I am going to post it here since I think it is timely in light of the "consent" extortion events.

Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment

jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g...

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jeremymberg.github.io

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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 3d

What sweet schadenfreude to see these late goal defeats for Liverpool!! #Arsenal on top.

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Alick Simmons @parliamentarygoose.bsky.social · 3d

Eurasian Griffon Vulture, Catalonia, April 2025. #birds

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Harvard Book Store @harvardbookstore.bsky.social · 5d

We're joining our Harvard Square neighbors, Y2Y Network, for a fundraiser for their vital mission. Y2Y Network employs a youth-to-youth model to provide a safe and affirming environment for young adults experiencing homelessness. You can donate via their website or with us in-store. buff.ly/nxDTqiz

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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 5d

Relieved to know that I can still make a decent pizza from scratch at home :-)

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The Harvard Crimson @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social · 5d

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor the World Wide Web, criticized the state of the internet today for turning users into “consumable products” in a talk in Harvard Square about his recently released memoir.

Amit Bhatt and Mary E. Tito report.

At Harvard Talk, World Wide Web Inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee Says Today’s Internet Exploits Users for Data | News | The Harvard Crimson

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor the World Wide Web, criticized the state of the internet today for turning users into “consumable products” in a talk in Harvard Square on Wednesday evening about his…

www.thecrimson.com

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Reposted by Venki Murthy

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 6d

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 7d

Woke up to find this gorgeous gem of a poem in my inbox! A Bookshelf, by Hua Xi @huaxi.bsky.social, in Poem-a-Day at poets.org. #poetry

"One year, I came home
and all the leaves fell off my father.

After that,
he was winter."

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Reposted by Venki Murthy

Anita Devineni @anitadevineni.bsky.social · 7d

My department at Emory is a hiring a tenure-track neuroscientist!

Anyone who's talked to me in the last 4 years knows I cannot say enough good things about my dept and the neuroscience community here. My colleagues are so wonderfully supportive. Postdocs, please apply!

apply.interfolio.com/174371

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 8d

"I bring my CBC to work in a large glass jug like the moonshiners do. That way, everyone can see it, and it becomes a spectacle for everyone to take part in."

Do You Have a Moment to Talk About Our Lord and Savior, Cold Brew Coffee?

Excuse me, I know you are enjoying a quiet morning in your cubicle, looking over the news, and drinking a cup of warm coffee from the communal, sin...

buff.ly

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Reposted by Venki Murthy

Blaise Agüera y Arcas @blaiseaguera.bsky.social · 11d

I hope one day more people will understand that AI’s early breakthroughs were deeply connected to neuroscience. It was a pleasure to discuss the history of AI and more on @closertotruth.bsky.social with Robert Lawrence Kuhn.

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Reposted by Venki Murthy

Alexander Mathis @trackingskills.bsky.social · 15d

Understanding behavior requires datasets that capture humans while carrying out complex tasks. The kitchen is an excellent environment for assessing human motor and cognitive function, as many complex actions are naturally exhibited in kitchens from chopping to 🧽!

arxiv.org/abs/2506.01608

EPFL-Smart-Kitchen-30: Densely annotated cooking dataset with 3D kinematics to challenge video and language models

Understanding behavior requires datasets that capture humans while carrying out complex tasks. The kitchen is an excellent environment for assessing human motor and cognitive function, as many complex...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Venki Murthy

eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · 14d

Dear friends,
As have become a habit, I mark each #autumnequinox by sharing a small poem by Xin Qiji. I also start my translation cycle of Chinese and Japanese poems and prose that mark the twenty-four lunisolar micro-seasons. Translation notes blogged here:
#everynightapoem

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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 13d

Sam, thank you very much for talking to @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social, a bit of Harvard that I am fiercely proud of unconditionally and all the time!

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Reposted by Venki Murthy

Naomi Saphra @nsaphra.bsky.social · 13d

I did a QA with Quanta about interpretability and training dynamics! I got to talk about a bunch of research hobby horses and how I got into them.

Ben Brubaker @benbenbrubaker.bsky.social · 13d

I really enjoyed talking to @nsaphra.bsky.social about her thoughts on what much language model interpretability research misses. My latest in @quantamagazine.bsky.social:

To Understand AI, Watch How It Evolves | Quanta Magazine

Naomi Saphra thinks that most research into language models focuses too much on the finished product. She’s mining the history of their training for insights into why these systems work the way they d...

www.quantamagazine.org

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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 15d

Again and again and again, the satire sites are nailing reality.

McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 15d

"Seriously, guys, stop trying to appeal to our conscience. We have none."

Before You Call Out Our Hypocrisy, Let Us Remind You That We Don’t Care

Oh, great. Here we go again. Somewhere, something happened, and some people are getting riled up. So a couple of congressional representatives visi...

buff.ly

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Reposted by Venki Murthy

Harvard_MCB @harvardmcb.bsky.social · 15d

Kathleen Quast on Finding Her Path to Neuroscience Education at Harvard 🧠 🧪🧬 #AcademicSky #higherEd
www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social @neurovenki.bsky.social @rachellegaudet.bsky.social @dulaclab.bsky.social @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social @zombiflied.bsky.social

Kathleen Quast on Finding Her Path to Neuroscience Education at Harvard - Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology

For many scientists, the path into research is straightforward: a keen interest in science as a child, a major in biology or chemistry, and years of graduate training. […]

www.mcb.harvard.edu

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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 16d

Lovely interview in @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social with Curt McMullen, a Math colleague at Harvard @harvard.edu and Fields medalist (and mentor to another Fields medalist Maryam Mirzakhani!). Centers the framing of questions beautifully.

Fifteen Questions: Curtis T. McMullen on Shared Truths, Unsolved Problems, and How to Illustrate Infinity | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson

The Cabot Professor of Mathematics sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss life lessons from mathematics, the challenges of formulating good questions, and his work visualizing curved space.

www.thecrimson.com

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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 16d

So, is he (correctly) confessing that it's not the players' fault, but his?

Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 16d

Sigh, another season of hype and desperation, with tedious play in key matches (while bringing on unnecessary flair against poorer opposition). #Arsenal

Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 18d

Keats: I propose we write extremely emotional letters to each other.

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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 18d

Cc @flatironinstitute.org!

Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 18d

(edited repost) Thrilled to see our computational work on adaptive shaping of behavior (we call it outcome-based curriculum learning) in PLoS Comp Biol! @wl-tong.bsky.social, @gautamreddy.bsky.social & I formalize curricula in any RL task that can be framed as sequential simple-to-complex behavior.

Adaptive algorithms for shaping behavior

Author summary Animals are commonly trained by ‘shaping’ their behavior using a sequence of simpler tasks towards a complex behavior. Numerous schools of thought have proposed heuristics for shaping b...

journals.plos.org

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