George Mari @GeorgeMari@social.cleverlibre.org

Evergreen question. https://mastodon.world/@StillIRise1963/111187944161296612

Alright, let's see how many Plant Scientists/Botanists we can reach here in the Fediverse.

Reply to this tweet with an introduction of yourself, what first attracted you to plants, and what you work on now. And boost this toot! #Planticipation #Botany #PlantScience

Total student loan debt that would have been erased for millions of Americans: $400 billion

Total cost of the Trump tax cuts that largely benefited the wealthy and corporations: $1.9 trillion

This is what I mean when I say the system is rigged.

Wii U, 3DS online servers to shut down in six months

Online player bases are already dwindling for Nintendo's aging hardware.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/10/wii-u-3ds-online-servers-to-shut-down-in-six-months/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Nothing makes a kiddie play center more festive than a BIOS boot screen!

Why do MAGA politicians want to cut Ukraine off?
“Whatever Republican hard-liners may say, they want Putin to win. They view the Putin regime’s cruelty and repression as admirable features that America should emulate. They support a wannabe dictator at home and are sympathetic to actual dictators abroad….People claiming to be worried about the cost don’t really care about the money. What they are, basically, is enemies of democracy, both abroad and at home.” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/opinion/columnists/maga-republicans-ukraine.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Simple tools can make big changes. Not every software project costs millions & takes months to develop. Sometimes it only takes one clever developer like @badlogic and his food price comparison. This was a hack, #OpenData needs to be the conclusion.
https://www.wired.com/story/heisse-preise-food-prices/

The University of Pennsylvani is acting proud of Katalin Karikó now that she's won a Nobel Prize. But they kicked her out of her tenure track job when she insisted on doing the work that won her that prize:

"She recalls spending one Christmas and New Year’s Eve conducting experiments and writing grant applications. But many other scientists were turning away from the field, and her bosses at UPenn felt mRNA had shown itself to be impractical and she was wasting her time. They issued an ultimatum, if she wanted to continue working with mRNA she would lose her prestigious faculty position, and face a substantial pay cut.

”It was particularly horrible as that same week, I had just been diagnosed with cancer,” said Karikó. “I was facing two operations, and my husband, who had gone back to Hungary to pick up his green card, had got stranded there because of some visa issue, meaning he couldn’t come back for six months. I was really struggling, and then they told me this."

"While undergoing surgery, Karikó assessed her options. She decided to stay, accept the humiliation of being demoted, and continue to doggedly pursue the problem. This led to a chance meeting which would both change the course of her career, and that of science."

Elsewhere she recalled:

“I thought of going somewhere else, or doing something else. I also thought maybe I’m not good enough, not smart enough."

She's now an adjunct in UPenn's neurosurgery department. Will they make her tenure-track now? Luckily she also has a good job at BioNTech.

Both quotes here come from interesting stories. The first is from here:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mrna-coronavirus-vaccine-pfizer-biontech

The second is from here:

https://billypenn.com/2020/12/29/university-pennsylvania-covid-vaccine-mrna-kariko-demoted-biontech-pfizer/

It looks like google is manipulating the entered search queries to make them more profitable for google.

"Say you search for “children’s clothing.” Google converts it, without your knowledge, to a search for “NIKOLAI-brand kidswear,” making a behind-the-scenes substitution of your actual query with a different query that just happens to generate more money for the company, and will generate results you weren’t searching for at all. It’s not possible for you to opt out of the substitution."

From https://www.wired.com/story/google-antitrust-lawsuit-search-results/

@RIDDLES

Moved,…and got a new place… these are called witches stairs. allegedly, witches can't climb up them. you will occasionally find them in very, very old New England homes.

Biblioteca Vasconcelos in Mexico City. I wanted to take more photos but I was getting acrophobia.

What would it sound like if the musicians parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic sang *his* parodies instead? I jumped off the deep end into the world of A.I. voice cloning to find out, and the results are even worse than you imagine. https://waxy.org/2023/10/weird-ai-yankovic-voice-cloning/

Poll: Can generative AI solve computer science's greatest unsolved " Does P = NP" problem? #compsci Please boost for reach.

As an ex-Microsoft guy, it’s the end of an era. We can no longer say we will always need desktop apps because they can’t put Photoshop on the web.

https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2023/09/27/photoshop-streamlines-power-precision-web

Had such a great time making the podcast today. Tune in and get up to speed with our crew and the top #electricvehicle news of the week! https://www.youtube.com/live/7fgMLLOyWYI?si=bdqXFfhdly72cNTB

We curse the one benighted chap /
Who felled the sycamore at the gap /
but tolerate those richer guys /
who burn whole forests, seas and skies.

Simon Heywood, 2023

@catavz @nixCraft cool and short Friday is optimistic...

Progress, the maker of the MOVEit Transfer file-sharing platform recently exploited in widespread data theft attacks, warned customers to patch a maximum severity vulnerability in its WS_FTP Server software.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/progress-warns-of-maximum-severity-ws-ftp-server-vulnerability/

Our new Ladapo scale rates misinformation merchants

A convenient rating system to evaluate the threat posed by misinformation sources.

https://arstechnica.com/staff/2023/09/our-new-ladapo-scale-rates-misinformation-merchants/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social