Nick @internic@social.cleverlibre.org

Can planets share the same orbit? A new observation of a forming planetary system strongly implies the answer is "yes"!

https://badastronomy.substack.com/p/can-planets-share-orbits-a-new-observation

This is Elisabeth Wollman (1888-1943). Her life was extraordinary & her legacy is phenomenal.

In collaboration with her husband, Eugène, she was a pioneer of what became molecular genetics. This pic is her Pasteur Institute portrait from the early 1920s.

Their groundbreaking work was carried on by a colleague & their son, leading to a Nobel prize & more.

CW: The Wollmans' lives were ended in Auschwitz.

I've just created her Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_Wollman

🧵 1/6

#WomenInSTEM

A World of Warcraft player managed to trick an AI article generator into writing fake news by posting about a non-existent feature for the game called "Glorbo." https://www.pcmag.com/news/ai-article-generator-falls-for-world-of-warcraft-glorbo-prank

I know it's easy to make fun of logo designers and the mystical abstract things they talk about-- but it's just one of those things that when it works it really works.

The fediverse has a massive branding problem-- but also a legitimate excuse: it's not easy to do branding in this context.

There isn't any real fediverse logo. Most people call it "Mastodon" -- which simply isn't correct.

Amazing to see a big company want to emulate the troubles of those with no ad budget.

@gewalker @timnitGebru The thing is, turnitin ALREADY ADMITTED that their "gpt-checker" generates more false positives than should be countenanced in a tool like this, and research shows that that rate is higher for non-native speakers AND neurotivergent individuals. It should not ever be used, let alone trusted as a certainty

We got an email from someone who was falsely accused of using ChatGPT to generate their essays.

My name is XXX I am a XXX year old XX student at XXX. I am currently being falsely accused of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) on an assignment of mine. The AI detector is used through the company "Turnitin".

I am contacting you because I am interested in discussing this subject with someone who is willing to listen.

An immunocompromised person in my family got COVID for the first time, AT THE HOSPITAL because they stopped requiring ANY PRECAUTIONS. No masks, no nothing.

They can't avoid the hospital so that means they'll just have to roll the dice each time they go?

What a cruel world.

Immunocompromised means the vaccine doesn't work as well. So what the current US policy says is equivalent to "you're on your own" good luck! 😡😡😡

@EricFielding @CMDoran @mickeleh

Vote America has what I consider to be the most comprehensive, most accurate, most up to date information on navigating through voter suppression.

https://www.voteamerica.com/how-to-vote/wisconsin/

Debrah Cleaver is a national treasure. ♥️👍🏿

Imo, evidence for dark matter has always been as solid as the evidence for dark energy, which earned a Nobel Prize in 2011. But the historically sexist Nobel Committee never recognized Rubin with a share of a prize for dark matter. They just waited until she passed away.

If helping discover roughly 27% of the Universe isn’t enough, what is? The lack of a Nobel doesn't diminish Rubin's contributions, but it did a lot to diminish my opinion of the Nobel.

Image: Carnegie Institution of Washington

Astronomer Vera Rubin was born #OTD in 1928.

Her work on galactic rotation curves became one of the main pieces of evidence for the existence of dark matter, and she deserved a Nobel Prize for it.

Image: Vassar College / Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

And also David DeVorkin's interview with Vera Rubin for the AIP's oral history series. It’s a great read.

https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/5920-1

This bit, especially, does a beautiful job of capturing the germ of basic research. DeVorkin asks Rubin what possessed her as a child to stay up late and study the sky.

Rubin: “I don’t have the vaguest idea. I just found it fascinating.”

Even I, for as COVID-cautious as I've been, have gotten pretty lax about outdoor events. A new study from China suggests we should be more careful. Three infected people attended a crowded night market, and they infected at least 131 other people. The market was crowded and there was little wind. Researchers found #COVID19 aerosols released by patients could suspend in ambient air up to 1 h 39 min and still be contagious. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1153303/full

@augieray

I find it very difficult to find good information about the effects of ambient UVA, UVB, because most studies point to UVC as the most effective for disinfection/sterilization and disregard effects on transmissibility.

There are number of studies that have identified an inverse correlation between the UV Index and Covid morbidity and mortality in the following time periods. The mechanisms posited include direct effects and increased vitamin D production.

To protest a #PrideMonth display at their local public #library, right-wing activists thought it would be smart to check out all the featured books and threaten to keep them until the library promised to remove them from its collection.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/22/us/pride-books-library-protest.html

It backfired. Citizens gave $15k and the city gave $30k to replace the books and expand the collection.

#Books #BookBans #Censorship

I don't get it. There's already an http://x.company It was fun working at that one.

Possibly the most remarkable organizational phenomenon that the internet has produced is #Wikipedia. Its much more impressive to me than Google or the social media sites. But it never really gets mentioned in the conversation of the greatest internet corporations, presumably because it doesn't make money and has no intention of doing so. It has so many issues but not as many as most internet titans and the fact of its sustained existence is remarkable.

No, the ethically challenged billionaire who just shuttered Santa Barbara's newspaper, leaving massive debts for bankruptcy judges to sort out, did not "run out of money." https://www.noozhawk.com/santa-barbara-news-press-staff-told-all-jobs-eliminated-as-newspaper-stopped-publishing/

In 2000, Elon Musk tried to rebrand PayPal as X.com, but was forced out by the board and replaced as CEO by Peter Thiel.

Now he’s doing the same to Twitter, but is surrounded by sycophants who can’t tell him it’s a bad idea.

Read more: https://www.disconnect.blog/p/elon-musk-wants-to-relive-his-start

#tech #twitter #x #elonmusk #socialmedia