Nick @internic@social.cleverlibre.org

What type of doctor/specialist gets the most speeding tickets? Bapu Jena and Chris Worsham quizzed me on the latest episode of Factually!

Does anyone have a trusted source they could share telling me not to worry about wiping down groceries and stuff anymore?

It's one of those things that I'm preeeeeeeetty sure turned out not to be helpful re: COVID a while back, but also I never really had time to do my homework on it and as a result never stopped.

I wrote a bit about conference travel, uncertainty and passport privilege:

https://arunraghavan.net/2023/08/to-conference-organisers-everywhere/

#conferences #opensource #foss #travel

Frustrating #weather data situation with #Hilary for meteorologists/enthusiasts, due mostly to rural areas, funding cuts, and bad luck. Few weather stations, river gauges, buoys, traffic cams, and historical analogs to this storm.

My interview about the role climate change played in the Maui wildfire disaster and what we can do to prevent these disasters from getting worse with @CNN Jim @acosta https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFKq5gpJohM

So following on from that research into why people aren't signing up to the fedi, yesterday I tried a little experiment to remove some of the biggest barriers and help people make the jump.

People complain the process of signing up to mastodon is complicated, and it's hard to find the Good Posts.

So I shared with people who wanted to join two things:
1. An invite link to the server I'm on, to stop them having to choose.
2. My follow list in csv format, to populate the tl with good posts.

I am too exhausted to think, my family is experiencing crisis on multiple fronts--my brother evacuating fire, my aunt working the emergency in Lahaina--but I am filled with rage about #CHI2024 adjacent to my family's anguish. If you are a student skipping CHI I will figure out some way to be part of helping you. Maybe this doesn't matter to all the academics but I have a big post-ac alt-ac network. Let's organize an online alternative networking session for students skipping CHI

Dry parts of #Maui that were just devastated by wildfire can expect to get drier in the next century, with far less rain, according to a sophisticated new climate model of Hawaii.

Meanwhile, wet parts of the islands on the windward side of volcanoes will get even wetter.

#ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #MauiFires
https://theconversation.com/hawaiis-climate-future-dry-regions-get-drier-with-global-warming-increasing-fire-risk-while-wet-areas-get-wetter-211379

How can we possibly expect folks to understand the emergence of new #COVID variants given most lack a basic understanding of evolution?
#science #health

I remember the 2000 Election. There were enough votes for Ralph Nader to hand the election to George W. Bush.

I remember the 2016 Election. There were enough votes for Jill Stein to hand the election to Donald Trump.

In 2024 the Green Party is running Cornell West. Let’s not repeat this history, friends

Your vote is not a marriage. You’re not choosing a life partner. It’s a chess move for what’s best for the country and the world.

New study: "We find that scientists are overwhelmingly (95%) failing to publish their #code and that there has been no significant improvement over time, but we also find evidence that code sharing can considerably improve citations, particularly when combined with #OpenAccess publication."
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3222221/v1

#Citations #Impact #OACA #OpenSource #Reproducibility

Here’s the story of how a 37-follower Twitter account seeded a propaganda narrative about Hawaii that made headlines around the world, thanks to a network of right-wing influencers — and amplification by both Russian and Chinese state media.

My latest — a very deep dive into a coordinated campaign:
#socialmedia #disinformation #propaganda
https://open.substack.com/pub/weaponizedspaces/p/russia-amplifies-right-wing-influence?r=1aupz&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Captcha

We usually build space telescopes for a nominal lifetime of a few years but also in a way that allows them to live much, much longer. Combine this with the ingenuity of some of the engineering and operarions folks, and you have missions in space for more than 20 years. It's not without challenges, though...

▶️ https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230815-the-ancient-tech-keeping-space-missions-alive

#astrodon #space #esa

Protein
http://smbc-comics.com/comic/protein (click for bonus panel)
#smbc #hiveworks #comics

The 2023-2024 academic year will be the first full year where students have unlimited access to ChatGPT and other LLMs.

While it's easy to short-circuit AI use in the classroom or by requiring that they show their work on written assignments, it's harder to prevent its use, or use it effectively, in online assignments.

So I want to know: what's your best idea for an ONLINE assignment that either:
(1) teaches them to use it effectively, or
(2) asks them for something they can't easily produce with an LLM?

I'll go first, with one example of each.

First, I ask them to have AI write a paragraph about a topic we studied in the module, and then have them fact-check each sentence with the assigned class readings.

Second, since the pandemic I've added journaling to all my classes. I ask students to reflect on the content of that module using examples from their lives, their thoughts, or their lived experience. It's easy to tell if their response isn't personalized, meaning that they used AI to write it (not just improve it, which I am fine with).

What do YOU suggest?

With #HurricaneHilary headed toward Mexico & California, it’s worth noting that while #ClimateChange may not be causing storms, warmer ocean waters make them more stronger & more dangerous.

Forecast for maximum #wind gusts from NWS for #Hilary. #cawx #tropics #azwx

I was somewhere last month where I found an unexpected treasure trove of rare keyboards I have never seen before…