#researcher — Public Fediverse posts

‘I was just mesmerized.’ Researchers capture first northeast Pacific sighting of spooky squid

The underwater vehicle was coasting about six feet above the ocean floor, two miles deep, when a pinkish,…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Wildlife #andrewdevogelaere #animal #datum #furrow #mesmerizingcreature #northeastpacificsighting #Pereira #researchvessel #researcher #sample #Science #seamount #Ship #spookysquid #video #whale
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/837531/

‘I was just mesmerized.’ Researchers capture first northeast Pacific sighting of spooky squid

The underwater vehicle was coasting about six feet above the ocean floor, two miles deep, when a pinkish,…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Wildlife #andrewdevogelaere #animal #datum #furrow #mesmerizingcreature #northeastpacificsighting #Pereira #researchvessel #researcher #sample #Science #seamount #Ship #spookysquid #video #whale
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/837531/

We reach Rabaul after 4 days of navigation over the Bismarck Sea. I am now docked at the Kute shipping quay for how many days I don't know yet. The good thing is that there's a new company covering the last stretch of my journey, from Rabaul to Buka, Bougainville. I'll just have to wait for the time the ship is ready to depart. In the meantime, I watch at slave-like work of a group of men downloading copra from a cargo ship and uploading it on trucks delivering it on local markets. They tell me they get the equivalent of €2 for every ton of copra downloaded, to be divided among a team of 6. Slavery I said.

More to watch here: https://youtube.com/shorts/Srl5RPy6gE0?feature=share 95/

I slow travel mainly to reduce my carbon footprint (by 10 times according to available estimates: see https://ourworldindata.org/travel-carbon-footprint ) but also to experience travel as most people in this world do.

#RefuseTofly #EnvironmentalBreakdown #ClimateAction #globalwarming #climateBreakdown #travel #slowtravel #decarbonise #StrictlyPublicTransport #climateemergency #BismarckSea #PNG #ferrytravel #researcher #researcherlife #AFuoco

Day 75-78: Conditions are not exactly first class on the vessel taking me from Lae to Rabaul: There's no couchette and no shower room. However, people leave me some space to roll out my 2-inch mattress on the floor (I'm the only one onboard except for crew members enjoying this luxury), so I get some rest. All other passengers sleep crammed on the floor or on the seats. For washing we rely on the "bucket system" in small cabin rooms that get constantly flooded with (rather filthy) water. Surely I'm a white fly on board and everyone wants to speak with me. In spite of this and the breathtaking view of the sunset, I get on with my work...

I slow travel mainly to reduce my carbon footprint (by 10 times according to available estimates: see https://ourworldindata.org/travel-carbon-footprint ) but also to experience travel as most people in this world do.

#RefuseTofly #EnvironmentalBreakdown #ClimateAction #globalwarming #climateBreakdown #travel #slowtravel #decarbonise #StrictlyPublicTransport #climateemergency #BismarckSea #PNG #ferrytravel #researcher #researcherlife #AFuoco

Day 75-78: I don't think I'll ever see as much as beauty as in these breath-taking sunsets over the Bismarck Sea. They fall gently like leaves caressed by an autumn breeze.
https://youtube.com/shorts/qA-dFbqb4ic?feature=share

They are an utmost pleasure in my 4- day 1,100km ferry trip from Lae to Rabaul. Conditions are not exactly first class on the vessel: there's no couchette and no shower room. But people leave me some space to roll out my 2-inch mattress on the floor (I'm the only one onboard except for crew members enjoying this luxury), so I get some rest. All passengers sleep crammed on the floor or on the seats. For washing we rely on the "bucket system" in small cabin rooms that get constantly flooded with (rather filthy) water. Surely I'm a white fly on board and everyone wants to speak with me. In spite of this and the breathtaking view of the sunset, I get on with my work...

I slow travel mainly to reduce my carbon footprint (by 10 times according to available estimates: see https://ourworldindata.org/travel-carbon-footprint ) but also to experience travel as most people in this world do. 93/

#RefuseTofly #EnvironmentalBreakdown #ClimateAction #globalwarming #climateBreakdown #travel #slowtravel #decarbonise #StrictlyPublicTransport #climateemergency #BismarckSea #PNG #ferrytravel #researcher #researcherlife #AFuoco

Day 72: In Papua you can never be sure about schedules and timing until the ship has actually taken off. After an obligatory 3 hour delay, I am eventually about to embark for the previous to last stage of my journey: 4 days of navigation over a 1,100km route: Lae-Umboi-Gloucester-Kimbe-Rabaul. I still don't know how to manage the last stretch from Rabaul to Buka....

I can't believe that after 70 days of travel I am just about to complete the 28,000km dividing Italy from the Solomons without flying! It will count nothing in terms of overall greenhouse emissions, but for me, now, it's everytghing I can do to for this wonderful fragile planet. 91/

I slow travel mainly to reduce my carbon footprint (by 10 times according to available estimates) but also to experience travel as most people in this world do.

#refusetofly #travel #slowtravel #decarbonise #climateemergency #globalwarming #climateBreakdown #collapse #TippingPoint #papuaisland #PNG #Lae #MerobeProvince #researcher #researcherlife #AFuoco

https://youtube.com/shorts/wPmND_u8zn0?feature=share

There are no bus schedules, no tickets, and buses depart when they are full. I am getting to the main departing point in Madang when it's already late in the morning - but I really wanted to talk about locals about coastal erosion in the city. Fortunately, I still find a place for me on probably the last bus, and two seats are allocated to my bulky luggage. Off we go for the last stop in Papua island before hopefully embarking for the Bismarck archipelago.

It takes 6 hours to cover 212km on "Ramu Sugars" road. It was even slower 3 yrs ago with unpaved track
85/

I slow travel mainly to reduce my carbon footprint (by 10 times according to available estimates) but also to experience travel as most people in this world do.

#refusetofly #travel #slowtravel #decarbonise #climateemergency #globalwarming #climateBreakdown #collapse #TippingPoint #papuaisland #PNG #Madang #researcher #researcherlife #AFuoco

Day 65: After a smooth 9-hour boat ride over the Sepik river, we made it to Sisimagung, Northern Papua. This is the 65th day of my no-fly trip from Italy to the Solomon islands. The coastline is beautiful, what you could describe as paradise on earth. Coconut trees gently bend over sandy beaches and the sound of the waves quietly resound among villagers busy with their fishing nets or cooking earths. It is then all the more upsetting that this beauty is slowly but incessantly being destroyed by sea level rise. This is what Jeffery Bae, a local resident, tells me in the few hours I have here before getting on a truck to Madang. It seems impossible that a sea so quiet can become the agent of destruction, but this is precisely what happens, as Jeffery shows traditional houses made with sago and bamboo leaves having been dismantled by the latest storm surges.
"We will have to relocate", tells me Jeffrey with an empty, "but we don't know where, because right behind our village there's a swamp".
Once more, I hear the same story: no help from national, regional governments, and neither from international organisations.
How many million stories are similar to Jeffrey's, and I wouldn't hear were it not for my slow travel.

Check interview here:
https://youtu.be/hk4Vr9p5ZFc

#refusetofly #travel #slowtravel #decarbonise #climateemergency #globalwarming #climateBreakdown #collapse #TippingPoint #papuaisland #PNG #Wewak #Sepik #WestSepik #researcher #researcherlife #AFuoco

I admit I don't have receipts, but I'm not a #journalist or a #researcher, so I'm allowed to speculate: This violence & threats shit is from the #farright , #extrêmedroite, trying to make room for far right candidates to win and take over rural towns in #France 🇫🇷

#Maires quit after threats and violence , but also because of the low allowance, the job being overwhelming etc

#France24English

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M7s4KLC6fo8

This year I let an AI help with Christmas shopping and it made a big difference. It picked warm white lights, a simple tree, muted stockings, spiced cookies, tea, a ceramic dish, beeswax candles, a linen runner, and a custom neon sign reading “Anna’s Space.” I didn’t save time but I saved mental energy and clarity. If you’re curious about custom neon options, you can explore them here:
👉 https://crazyneon.com/

#researcher #writing #blog #honest #review #aishopping #neonsign #customneonsign

From a recent post looking for PhD theses databases across Europe, I got lots of boosts (thanks) but only returns from very few European countries. So I wonder : how many active scientists (lets say having published one peer-reviewed paper in the last five years) are on mastodon from the different EU countries ?
Pools only have 10 choices, so more countries are in the next post 🙂
please boost mainly on servers with a science theme
And if I have missed any hashtags that are followed by many scientists, please add
#AcademicChatter #academic #academics #AcademicFedi #EUscience #EUresearch
#Researcher

As a #medical #editor, I'm very happy to see this assertion, by #sociologist Ian Carrillo, about the use of #ArtificialIntelligence as a #researcher. #AI His post about it appears here: https://bsky.app/profile/iansociologo.bsky.social/post/3lslmgbxugs2m

BBC.com: US #court blocks deportation of #GeorgetownUniversity #researcher
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1enyqjgjlqo

In today's #Introduction #Introductions #Connections #TwitterMigration post, where I curate interesting accounts for you to follow on the #Fediverse :fediverse:, I'd like you to meet:

Professor @KathAlbury is a #researcher #academic at #Swinburne, part of @adms (full disclosure: I @admin the server that the ADMS account is on). Her ADMS projects focus on the development of data capability and capacity in #NFP organisations, and data #ethics and speculative #DesignJustice in the field of #SexTech. 🇦🇺 If you're into #DesignJustice,
you may also like the work of @schock.

@blasbenito is a #DataScience and #AgTch #GIS #researcher and #PhD in computational #ecology

@KristinaRiemer is also a #DataScience educator and communit builder @cct_datascience at #UArizona

@simonoid is a #melbourne / #Naarm #nerd and #gamer 🇦🇺

Dr @amykmcl is a #facilitator, #researcher and #ethnographer in #medical #anthropology 🇦🇺

That's all for today, please do share your own lists so we can more closely connect the #Fediverse ❤️

A wee #introduction since there are lots of folks joining or rejoining the fediverse in general and Mastodon in particular.

I'm Dave, a #queer #Catholic who runs and sings for fun. I play #VideoGames (currently #Titanfall2) and watch a lot of #Dropout (#Dimension20, #PlayItByEar, #GameChanger are faves), #VideoEssays, and #anime.

I recently went to my first #burn (not #BurningMan, tho) and am digging the inclusive accepting culture.

At work I'm a #researcher in #ComputationalLinguistics focused on #NaturalLanguageGeneration and #psycholinguistics methods. You could say my dayjob is trying to develop a more ethical #ChatGPT

Feel free to ask me questions about #Mastodon if you are #NewHere

Today is the third anniversary of the first confirmed #Covid-19 case in the US. As good a day as any to write a long and rambly essay about the current state of the nineteenth crow. I’m going to begin and end on a personal note, with some #science in the middle.

Almost my entire adult life has been dedicated to keeping people alive. I became a #medic for a number of reasons, but most directly because a friend was murdered: if there was any way I could keep another close circle of young, healthy people with a reasonable expectation of living for decades more from having to gather to mourn one of their own, I would.

So. First as a medic, then a #biotech #programmer, and now a #bioinformatics #researcher, my goal has been quite consistent. Everyone dies—but if we can claw back just a little more time, a few more years or days or hours, that is a victory in the war that never ends. As my fiancee says in another context, a slap in the face of a forgetful future. Only our deeds live after us. There is no greater deed than life itself.

For all that time, I’ve known there was another #plague coming. It was inevitable. One aspect of the medic’s war is the arms race, and pathogens have one hell of an R&D program. We can win skirmishes, and sometimes battles, and occasionally even a campaign. They’ll keep coming back, with mindless determination and terrifying numbers.

What I didn’t know, couldn’t even imagine, was what the primary obstacle to that particular phase of the war would be. I thought the challenges would be technical: spotting the #outbreak, identifying the #pathogen, learning its strengths and weaknesses, developing preventions and treatments, getting #medicine out to where it’s needed most. You know, science stuff.

Those are all challenges with covid, to be sure. But it turns the biggest problem is willful, deliberate, self-imposed, homicidal and suicidal stupidity.

I’ve written at length about my opinions of #antimaskers and #antivaxers, and no doubt I will again. The short version is, they’re traitors to humanity. I’ve given up trying to reason with them. Best to concentrate on what I can control: my own work, the knowledge I gain from others in the field, and the information I provide to people who are willing to listen. Eventually the traitors will benefit too, however little they deserve it.

Okay, on to the facts. The data I’ll be discussing are #US-centric. I live here, it’s my primary area of concern, and it’s what I know the most about. Readers in other countries, please feel free to comment on similarities and differences.

1. There were massive spikes in January 2021 and January 2022: here is a nice visualization. At the peaks, 2022’s spike was more than three times as bad as 2021’s. On the other hand, there were only (only!) about three-quarters as many deaths in 2022. I suspect there are a few things going on here:

   • New Year’s celebrations both years, but especially in 2022, packed a lot of people together in small spaces. This is of course a recipe for mass infection.

   • Prevalence of the omicron strain in 2022, which is generally more infectious but less lethal than other strains.

   • More masks in 2021, preventing infection but doing nothing to reduce severity, compared to much more #vaccination but fewer #masks in 2022.

2. As of September, Republicans were dying of covid almost twice as fast as Democrats, controlling for age. Of course it’s not being a Republican that kills you: it’s not being #vaccinated. Antivax has become an ideological purity test for a substantial portion of the Republican Party, and those who try to both-sides this issue have their heads buried so far in the sand they’re hitting bedrock.

3. New #variants haven’t been much in the news lately. That’s not because #SARS-CoV-2 has stopped mutating. It’s because what we call #omicron has now mutated so much that it now has more genetic diversity than all the others put together. Tracking variants by letter made sense in the early stages of the pandemic, but now we could go through the entire Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Arabic, and every other alphabet and still run out. As a practical matter, this means we’ll need at-least-annual #booster shots forever.

4. In June 2022, we passed a little-remarked milestone: total US covid deaths in people under 30 surpassed total US #military deaths in #Afghanistan and #Iraq, in a similar demographic over a much shorter time. Older people are more likely to die of covid, sure. Older people are more likely to die of everything. Youth will not save you.

There is some good news. The January spikes mentioned in item #1 seem so far not to be materializing this year, although we’ll have to wait until the data for the entire month have been sifted to be sure. I doubt people are getting any more careful, but 70-80% of the US population is vaccinated, depending on how you count: maybe that’s enough for a meaningful degree of herd #immunity.

Older #vaccines aren’t as effective against newer strains as newer vaccines tailored to those #strains, but they still help. With any vaccination on board, you’re less likely to get infected, and less likely to die if you do. Keep getting boosters, and your #immune system will build up a kind of library: “oh, this isn’t exactly like anything I’ve seen before, but it looks kind of like this thing I read about, so …”

We can’t make antivaxers go away. They’ll always be there, acting as a reservoir for infection and a breeding ground for new strains. Sure, they’ll die at a much higher rate, but more of them will live, largely thanks to the heroic efforts of the science they reject. What we can do, to a degree, is work around them.

Back to the personal.

I’ve lost a few friends, and I know many people who have lost family, to #antimask / #antivax lunacy. I understand the pain and anger and confusion. Stay strong. Maybe one day before we’re all dead, this will be over and reconciliation will be possible, if we choose to extend such grace. Not today, and not for a long time to come.

Any person, any family, any circle of friends, any gathering, any business, any government … all are more than justified in exiling these traitors forever. When they are those we love, grief is inevitable. But the people we loved are already dead. Our job is to avoid joining them.

Let’s be careful out there.

What would actually happen if we discovered a message from aliens? (BBC Science Focus Magazine)

The SETI mission is scouring the skies for signs of extraterrestrial life. So what will the researchers do when they receive a signal, and will they send a message back?

https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/what-would-actually-happen-if-we-discovered-a-message-from-an-alien-planet

#astronomy #science #alien #aliens #extraterrestrialintelligence #Extraterrestrialcontact #Extraterrestial #extraterrestrial #researcher #research #life #ExtraterrestrialLife