Nick @internic@social.cleverlibre.org

The assumptions embedded in so much commentary about technical leadership and organizational design are so hard to sit through sometimes. Like oh hmmm I wonder why certain groups of people think the only problem is that everyone else is too stupid to keep up with them. I wonder why certain facets of our society are delighted to make 10x the money of the people they sit next to, and then find themselves struggling to incorporate the expertise of the people they sit next to. Mysteries abound.

Incredibly proud of the team @VLBAI_Hannover for having demonstrated the first mini launch in the 10m facility 💪💪💪

Did you know that a famous math reference – most physicists of a certain age have a copy – is the result of a New Deal project to employ scientists and mathematicians?

Mathematician Irene Stegun was born #OTD in 1919. A major contributor to the Works Progress Administration’s Mathematical Tables Project, she’s probably best known as co-author of the classic “A Handbook of Mathematical Functions” — usually referred to as “Abramowitz and Stegun.”

On May 30th –June 2nd this year, one of my favourite things is happening: Electromagnetic Field Festival.

@emf is a camping festival taking place every two years, and it’s a gathering of hackers, makers and cool people who want to share interesting things and do daft things in a field. Past years have had a giant fire-based playable Pong, mechanical music machines, an escape room in a shipping container, giant LEGO cars, rideable hexapods, and a fully interactive robot bar that pours drinks.

@mscroggs and I go along every two years to run the Maths Village - a tent full of cool maths stuff which hosts workshops from the main programme plus our own content - hands-on puzzles and games, face painting, sculpture builds, and anything else we come up with. We all camp together in the area next to the maths tent, and past guests who’ve visited or stayed in the village have included Hannah Fry, @standupmaths, Simon Singh, @henryseg and loads of others.

Tickets for EMF cost £180 for the full weekend (Thursday to Sunday). If you’re interested, the next ticket sale goes live this Sunday, 11th Feb at 11am GMT - details at https://www.emfcamp.org/tickets

"The private sector is where all the innovation happens", he posted using a protocol developed at CERN built on top of communications technology developed by ARPA, on a device powered by technology created for the US Air Force and NASA in the 1960s.

"The DOJ's Antitrust Division has fewer people enforcing anti-monopoly laws in a $24 trillion economy than the Smithsonian Museum has security guards."

—Matt Stoller (via @pluralistic )

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/08/permanent-overlords/#republicans-want-to-defund-the-police

Excited to announce the Critical Perspectives on the Metascience Reform Movement Symposium on March 7, 2024! Dive into discussions on the evolving social dynamics shaping research processes and the impact of open science practices.

This symposium is a unique opportunity to collaborate, share insights, and contribute to shaping the future landscape of scientific inquiry. Register for free now to secure your spot. https://bit.ly/499ti6F

#OpenScience #Metascience #Research

New, by @Sarahp: A fake app that was masquerading as password manager LastPass on the App Store has been removed, whether by Apple or the fake app’s developer is yet unclear — Apple has not commented.

"That such an obviously fake app got through Apple’s App Review process is a bad look for the tech giant, which has been arguing against new regulations, like the EU’s Digital Markets Act, by claiming these laws would compromise customer safety and privacy."

More: https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/08/a-fake-app-masquerading-as-password-manager-lastpass-just-got-pulled-from-the-app-store/

If a relatively obscure company with cyber mercenary ties can succeed in keeping its name out of the public discourse with strategic lawsuits, it sets a dangerous precedent for other larger companies such as Dark Matter or NSO Group to do the same. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/02/eff-helps-news-organizations-resist-legal-bullying-cyber-mercenary-group

New: Without clear standards, people facing dangerous or biased AI can’t get problems fixed or seek justice. That's why CAT Lab (via Cornell) is joining the US AI Safety Institute.

As pioneers in community/citizen science of our digital environments, CAT lab has a decade of experience designing scientific methods that anyone can use to understand our digital environments. At NIST, we will advocate for standards that actually work for people in the public interest.

https://citizensandtech.org/2024/02/cat-lab-cornell-join-the-u-s-ai-safety-institute-consortium/

Hahahahaha. Good. @MichaelEMann should have gotten more than $1 million but this is a good victory for climate science.

Listening to Wil Wheaton read @pluralistic's Red Team Blues was a delight.

Such a rare treat to read a techno-thriller written by someone who not only knows, but actually CARES about the "tech" in the tech-uh-no :)

I hope some day the Fediverse finds it in its collective heart to invite him back, even if he did say some dumb ass things :) I think he belongs here.

In today's Bad Astronomy Newsletter: a) a VERY cool pic of the Martian moon Phobos photobombing Deimos, and 2) a story of Phaethon and the Geminid meteor shower.

Also, I'm testing the paywall, so *everyone* should be able to read the first story.

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/phobosbombing-deimos-duel-phaethons

Today I'd like to discuss the Biden administration rigging the Super Bowl in favor of a midwestern team with a racist name whose owner has given tens of thousands of dollars to Trump Republicans who deny Biden won the 2020 election https://skepchick.org/2024/02/a-word-about-the-taylor-swift-super-bowl-conspiracy-theory/

How is it 2024 and reviewers still question the importance of reporting a comprehensive demographics table in research papers? Like, I understand it's a lot of space devoted to tables, but also don't you want to know who this work does/doesn't generalize to?

"Being able to say, 'wherever you get your podcasts' is a radical statement. Because what it represents is the triumph of exactly the kind of technology that's supposed to be impossible: open, empowering tech that's not owned by any one company, that can't be controlled by any one company, and that allows people to have ownership over their work and their relationship with their audience." - @anildash

Powerful to think of this in the context of messaging too.

https://www.anildash.com//2024/02/06/wherever-you-get-podcasts/

I opened up a new Firefox tab, and who should I see but my old friend @drskyskull!
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-surprisingly-complicated-physics-of-why-cats-always-land-on-their-feet

@danhon We have a standards group at the W3C working hard on building new features for ActivityPub. Mastodon is an important part, but there are people from lots of different projects working there. It's OK if you don't see that. I'd also like to see more interesting and diverse applications built on top of ActivityPub.