@tobychev@qoto.org
@tobychev@qoto.org avatar

tobychev

@tobychev@qoto.org

Not sure what this account will be about, mostly boosting things I find interesting.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

jonny, to random
@jonny@neuromatch.social avatar

am i even in a union if i am not getting scolded for encouraging ppl to do unsanctioned offroad rank and file organizing lmao

tobychev,
@tobychev@qoto.org avatar

@jonny
Dear comrade from the underprivileged world, what does "raggedy ass ground work" to perform "unsanctioned" "organising" actually mean?

Well, I can imagine what raggedy ass means, but what is "unsanctioned organising"? Do you only get to speak about collective bargaining once a month or something?

jonny, to random
@jonny@neuromatch.social avatar

Nothing dismays me more in academia than my colleagues excusing themselves from the world because they have internalized their job as their identity, and exist in a separate domain from everyone else. every time I knock on doors with my union I get someone, sometimes angrily, wondering what any of this has to do with them - they're here to just do science.

tobychev,
@tobychev@qoto.org avatar

@jonny
But how certain are you that they truly have internalised this mantra as opposed to simply using it as a defence against entanglement in the overt struggle? Have you only heard it from people with tenure, or is it rather that people at every level will use the phrase, even those who then quickly leave academia altogether?

Are you really expecting those who want to quietly stay on the good side of the ruling power to say so openly?

It doesn't look very loyal to loudly say "I side with them because they have the power", simply being quiet is better and the "aloof scientists" is a well worn trope to hide behind.

b9AcE, to random
@b9AcE@todon.eu avatar

"The United States has concluded that five Israeli security force units committed serious human rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank before the start of the Gaza war in October, the State Department said Monday."
https://www.newarab.com/news/us-says-five-israeli-military-units-committed-abuses-west-bank

tobychev,
@tobychev@qoto.org avatar

@b9AcE
Interesting thread about the legal details here: https://x.com/Seharrison7/status/1785054144652300655

franco_vazza, to random
@franco_vazza@mastodon.social avatar

Awesome, there is some chance that some of the students doing this for no reason to their school in Bologna will also become my student in a few years 😩

https://video.corrieredibologna.corriere.it/il-video-dei-danni-nell-istituto-belluzzi-fioravanti-di-bologna-estintori-svuotati-e-fuga-degli-studenti/59f7b72e-6dc8-4ac0-aa9c-a63c9a8e2xlk

tobychev,
@tobychev@qoto.org avatar

@franco_vazza
People never do this type of large scale actions for no reason, and in this case the reason seems pretty straightforward too: they have been mistreated to the point they no longer see the school as their own.

ErikJonker, to Ukraine
@ErikJonker@mastodon.social avatar

Ukraine and Poland are considering the scenario of protecting the western Ukrainian regions with Polish Patriot systems, Dmetro Kuleba has said (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine). That would be an excellent idea, a purely defensive, not escalatory move that protects civilians and infrastructure in western Ukraine. Other EU countries could also contribute.
@geopolitics

tobychev,
@tobychev@qoto.org avatar

@ErikJonker
I think it's a big stretch to claim actively entering the conflict to destroy weapons not targeting you is "purely defensive".

As for "not escalatory", fully written out this means "Putin will not think it is escalatory" (that the poles shoot down his weapon). The plausibility of claim is pretty obvious once you see its full meaning.

A responsible argument in favour would start by acknowledging that attacking russian missiles from Poland is an expansion of the conflict but then explain why Russia's response would be limited and the cost entirely bearable.

To pretend going to war is entirely safe is deeply dishonest.
@geopolitics

mrundkvist, to tea
@mrundkvist@archaeo.social avatar

. I just tried to put my cup on a pencil, but I realised my mistake in time.

tobychev,
@tobychev@qoto.org avatar

@mrundkvist
Remember, PAKE! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipfVaHoakqc

franco_vazza, (edited ) to academia
@franco_vazza@mastodon.social avatar

"Good morning Sir...this is the invitation to attend a multi-cultural initiative to promote a dialogue between science and spirituality in an unbiased way...would you please join us....by the way it's going be hosted in a MONASTERY WITH MONKS"
etc etc

No, thanks no!

My bottom line here is that no, I think that while people have their spirtuality, there should be no legitimacy for an equal ground dialogue between science and sprituality.

Thoughts?

tobychev,
@tobychev@qoto.org avatar

@hfalcke
Maybe there is this synthesis position to bridge you two: Theology has its place in all the sciences, but in Astronomy the big debates have already happened and passed into the canonical history of the field, so the remaining space is very small.

As an example what happens when you have a new field, but there is low theological literacy among its actors, consider the transhumanism movement in computer science: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23779413/silicon-valleys-ai-religion-transhumanism-longtermism-ea

In summary: you always risk people doing theology when they start speculating about the future of the field, and its good if at least some of the actors can recognise that's what they are doing.
@franco_vazza @spacegeck @NatureMC

tobychev,
@tobychev@qoto.org avatar

@franco_vazza
Did you read down to the example of what happens when scientists soeculate about the future without theological training? They just reinvented theological stories on their own, didn't realise it, and now Musk is super popular for being "rational".

I guess I see your point, if you accept the restriction that scientists should never speculate about the future of society in their role as scientists.

I don't think it's a very usual restriction, because the public is more likely to not see the difference between the vulgar and filthy 🤢speculation🤢and the pure and truthful ✨science✨. But I will happily admit this is an argument from resigned pragmatism and not pure principle.
@hfalcke @spacegeck @NatureMC

tobychev,
@tobychev@qoto.org avatar

@NatureMC
No, from the example of transhumanism it is pretty clear to me that theology itself is what's needed.

And I don't think people really object to including ethics in general, the fight is always over which set of ethical principles.
@hfalcke @franco_vazza @spacegeck

mrundkvist, (edited ) to science
@mrundkvist@archaeo.social avatar

There's a fundamental difference between theoreticians in the natural sciences and the . The natural sciences aim to develop better theory. The humanities aim to develop more theory.

tobychev,
@tobychev@qoto.org avatar

@mrundkvist
For particle physics the last ~30 years have seen a situation where theorists have very little data by which to judge if a theory is indeed better. Consequently there's a lot of "making more" in the hopes that something turns out to be better later.

My impression is that the humanities are seduced by the immediacy of their subject to explain more details than the data can support, and so are endlessly fighting inconsistencies (well, the economists are making some progress on collective behaviour but they largely trade away the humanity from the picture).

elizabethtasker, to random
@elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

We’re in the studio today to record some interviews for our Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission to Phobos! Now… which one of these jokers do we question first…

tobychev,
@tobychev@qoto.org avatar

@elizabethtasker
Seeing these tricksters and remembering how that scamp SLIM stuck their landing, I have some concerns...

I'd ask them to all agree to a "landing seriously" training camp. Two weeks long and the first week is just doing traditional tea ceremonies to build the mindset.

GossiTheDog, to random
@GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @GossiTheDog
    Sorry, I'm confused: why are you writing like there haven't been any big world events in the age of social media?

    anderspuck, to random
    @anderspuck@krigskunst.social avatar

    If the U.S. will play a smaller role in European security going forward, we need to have a conversation about nuclear weapons. The current UK and French arsenals are not sufficient to deter Russia, but the big question is if the solution is to grow their stockpiles, or if more countries need to join the nuclear club.

    (The fact that this is now a discussion just goes to show the shortsightedness of American isolationalism.)

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/15/uk-europe-nuclear-shield-donald-trump-germany-nato-deterrent

    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @Povl
    I suspect some asinine argument about numbers, whenever someone talks about "not enough to deter" you know
    someone is either deeply careless or is out to sell you something: "deterrence" is not a solid enough concept that it can be quantitatively measured, much less with such precision you can clearly state if a single weapon category is "enough".
    @anderspuck

    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @anderspuck
    See? "Use for themselves" like nuclear war is haggling about slices of bread in a famine!

    The US with its 1600 deployed warheads were nevertheless allegedly so threatened by Iraq they had to invade and destroy the regime. Israel, the lone nuclear power in the middle east is nevertheless engaged in what it sees as an existential struggle with a extremely weak opponent.

    Nuclear weapon numbers don't mean much once you have enough to destroy the 10 largest cities, counterforce is just a bad euphemism.
    @Povl

    MikeDunnAuthor, to Tupac
    @MikeDunnAuthor@kolektiva.social avatar

    Today in Labor History February 4, 1979: Six workers were killed by police in the massacre of Cromotex, Lima Peru. The workers had taken over the factory after it went bankrupt and its owners tried to close it down. Led by a hardline revolutionary, Hemigidio Huertas, workers armed with sticks took the premises over. They held out for a week, killing a police captain in the process. When police later stormed the factory, they killed six workers including Huertas. One of the survivors, Nestor Cerpa, was arrested and jailed for 10 months. After his release, he went underground and started to organize the MRTA, or Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.

    ,

    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @MikeDunnAuthor
    The photos, presumably included to illustrate the story, shows people armed with more than sticks?

    renordquist, to academia
    @renordquist@akademienl.social avatar

    Me: Gets PhD in animal behaviour and studies animal behaviour for 20-odd years

    Random man: "I, too, have looked at an animal once in my life, I will now e-mail this woman to tell her about animal behaviour that she probably has never seen as fully and expertly I have"

    Me: Puts e-mail with the mainsplaining collection

    @academicchatter

    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @knud
    Is the difference between a mansplainer and a crank only the gender labels of the two interacting parties?
    @renordquist @academicchatter

    vicgrinberg, to random
    @vicgrinberg@mastodon.social avatar

    So, as far as I understand, mastodon social implements some of the beta features that are not fully rolled out. How am I to give feedback on them? (Preferably without actually activating my super old unused github account - FYI, yes, I know how to use git but work on a local gitlab installation).

    Because I'm really unhappy about the way the replies work in the browser on mobile (I need to see the whole post I reply to, not just the first few lines!)

    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @vicgrinberg
    If you mean the server admins they list an account and a contact email here:https://mastodon.social/about

    Since dev happens on github I expect that is the most direct way to highlight your complaint to devs, but I've also seen people speaking directly to some of the more famous devs on masto, like Eugen. Not sure how well that works in practice.

    (my wife tends to just make a new girhub account when she forgets the details to the old one)

    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @vicgrinberg
    (I wondered if you meant you didn't like the instance running beta features)

    I couldn't find any other "official" channel, and since open source is at its core a developer philosophy I'm not surprised: open source projects tend to expect a substantial level of familiarity with development practices from those that address them directly.

    Usually what exists is github and maybe some social media channel, and it takes a long time until a project develops enough formal structure that it creates some sort of public friendly feedback mechanism.

    kevinrothrock, to random

    my geopolitics social media feed

    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @kevinrothrock
    Is that feed on an entirely different screen in your... extensive social media setup, or can it sit next to the others without causing cancer?

    elizabethtasker, to random
    @elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

    Here's today's press release for JAXA's SLIM lunar landing!

    TL;DR:

    Pinpoint site identification was crazily successful.

    We were lowering into position, detecting boulders like a champ.

    THEN ONE OF THE ENGINES DROPPED OFF.

    (I kid you not)

    (we don't know why yet)

    (maybe space pirates)

    But we still soft-landed on 1 engine.

    (TAKE THAT SPACE PIRATES!)

    but on our head.

    Strangely, might not be a big deal once the Sun moves round to the other side of the spacecraft.

    https://global.jaxa.jp/press/2024/01/20240125-1_e.html

    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @elizabethtasker
    With that sort of trickster mascot it seems entirely expected that SLIM would land on its head, just look at them!

    I'm trying to imagine that character carefully doing any delicate tasks, but it always ends with some zany disaster ;)
    @oloturia

    kevinrothrock, to random

    Columnist Yulia Latynina suggests that there were two military transport planes used today in the failed POW swap. Ukraine shot one down, and the other escaped, she says. She’s skeptical that Moscow staged the flights to trick Ukraine into attacking.

    https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/01/24/v-shage-ot-osvobozhdeniia

    Russia is desperate to take out Ukraine’s Patriot missile batteries, she says, arguing that Russia would have attacked those weapons if it knew they were stationed so close to Belgorod.

    At the same time, Latynina defends the Ukrainian attack on the transport plane, arguing that Belgorod airspace is part of the combat zone and that the plane was a legitimate target (this ain’t MH17), but she adds that Russia isn’t obligated to inform Kyiv about its military transport routes over Russian airspace.

    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @pixelpusher220
    How? What particular bit of it specifically has opinions on how you load your transport vehicles?
    @kevinrothrock

    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @pixelpusher220
    When I asked for the "particular bit of it" I mean of the actual text, not a piece of folklore.
    @kevinrothrock

    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @pixelpusher220
    No, I asked a question and you didn't answer it, why would you say I was claiming something?
    @kevinrothrock

    mrundkvist, to random
    @mrundkvist@archaeo.social avatar

    I'm politically depressed. I don't trust dictators, I don't trust revolutions (a.k.a. tomorrow's dictators) and I certainly don't trust poorly informed, short-sighted, tribal voters.

    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @mrundkvist
    I think the bitter truth is that we have to participate in all those meetings and processes ourselves, not just delegate to someone else once every four years...

    tobychev,
    @tobychev@qoto.org avatar

    @mrundkvist
    I think the term of art is "politician" ;)

    More seriously there is obviously a lot of social infrastructure needed to allow everyone to participate meaningfully, instead of the current system where the mechanics allow the well off an excess amount of influence simply because they can afford to actually attend everywhere and prepare extensive materials.

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