yetiinabox

yetiinabox, 1 day ago to random

We often complain that the future we have is not what we imagined.

I definitely did not imagine handheld "aurora enhance and share with folk worldwide" devices.

Much better than flying cars.

Thanks all. You and this place are indeed beautiful.

We'll all keep struggling to save it then, shall we?

#aurora

yetiinabox, 3 days ago to random

In the USA, you can see junkyards from the train. Here, I see people's allotment gardens.

yetiinabox, 5 days ago to random

One small positive result in the survey of aviation emissions <https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad3a7d> is that they find a negative relationship at a global scale, comparing per-country using linear regression, between air traffic emissions and number of railway passengers. Otherwise grim, if very useful, research.

yetiinabox, 10 days ago to random

Earlier today, I was in a meeting where one person called for co-production of governance structures together with a disempowered community that would be affected by these structures. Another person picked up on their point and said, yes, what we want is for them to "challenge, engage and inform our decisions". (My emphasis).

And I thought to myself: that is a textbook example of why consultation is not co-production.

yetiinabox, 13 days ago to Scotland

Hey ho. If anyone happens to have a connection to channels through which folks might organise collectively to resist imminent deport-to-Rwanda raids on asylum seekers across Scotland, or indeed elsewhere in the UK, that might be useful information to post.

#Scotland #NewScots #solidarity

yetiinabox, 14 days ago to random

Twelve hours yesterday hanging wallpaper in a room with all the challenges - old plaster walls that I had patched and primed, complex ceiling angles, almost nothing true or square, random electrical fixtures. Weirdly, the indicator of success at the end is a total lack of salient features; all the wobbles and skew lines vanish in an anodyne haze of textured wallpaper blandness.

It's some sort of anti-Daoist triumph: enormous effort, no natural quirks remain. I would far rather live among the roots and branches of a vast, gnarled tree on a sunny mountain, but Northeast Scotland is too harsh for such impractical thoughts, and the sun is too weak to sustain them.

yetiinabox, 1 month ago to random

One of the greatest students of life, peace, culture, and interspecies relations has left us, a scholar of astonishing insight, kindness, and humility.

de Waal's powerful writings about Orientalist bias and the kneejerk Western defense of human exceptionalism by anthropologists and biologists are, I think, essential reading - e.g., https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-003-0197-4

“One thing that I’ve seen often in my career is claims of human uniqueness that fall away and are never heard from again,” he said in 2014. “We always end up overestimating the complexity of what we do … I’ve brought apes a little closer to humans but I’ve also brought humans down a bit.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01071-y

yetiinabox, 1 month ago to Scotland

Local question for #Scotland - in the past two months I've seen the wooden handles come off two valued hand-tools, a left-handed Japanese hand-hoe and an old weeding fork. Is there anyone about who could fit new handles to old steel hand-tools? I don't have even the rudiments of the skills needed to turn new hardwood handles and fit them.

yetiinabox, 1 month ago to Anthropology

There is a challenging job in #anthropology for a DRC expert : https://reliefweb.int/job/4050529/cultural-studies-kahuzi-biega-national-park-conservation-peace-and-reconciliation-local-communities

yetiinabox, 1 month ago to random

Stop destroying forests and viral spillover pandemics will stop. Simple. We've been saying this for decades. Here's another paper which uses Australian data on eucalyptus blooms, flying foxes, and Hendra to say the same thing.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2024/03/26/1240779167/how-do-we-halt-the-next-pandemic-be-kind-to-critters-like-bats-says-a-new-paper

yetiinabox, 1 month ago to random

It is bizarre to hear broadcast media folk commuting on the train loudly planning their holiday flights to Portugal - "I just deserve a break with my mates." They must have access to reliable information about the polycrisis, but it feels like part of the general horror they deal with, not something immediately requiring them to abandon their privileged lifestyle and make big changes. If they cannot grasp the seriousness of the situation, if they simply pretend that ending short haul flights isn't relevant, how can they report it?

yetiinabox, 1 month ago to random

As someone who ran the only other #ethnobotany programme in the UK (Aberdeen, which was closed more than 10 years ago), and who taught #ethnobiology at the Edinburgh Botanics for many years, I believe I am qualified to say that the closure of ethnobotany, ethnobiology, and anthropology at Kent is appalling cultural vandalism.

Dark times are upon us, and the custodians of the lineages of wisdom must be careful now.

@pvonhellermannn

inquiline, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to mastodon

Friends, strangers, haters: I have... made hay. Let no one say I haven't committed to the bit.

(Wrote a paper about Asstodon, everyone be kind)

https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13367/11436

#STS #Mastodon #Commodon #autoethnography #DareIUseTheHashtag #Donkeygate #FirstMonday

yetiinabox, 2 months ago to random

Sigh. In succession, in my morning feed of articles from phys.org:
"Research shows government regulation of jobs hinders workers and consumers"
"Nearly half of Britons say women's equality has gone far enough"
No biases here, then just pure Science.

C'mon, #fediscience, wake up and send interesting articles!

yetiinabox, 2 months ago to random

Well intentioned, but tone-deaf, or just completely unaware of conservation biology outside the USA and all modern ethnobiology?

"It's important that we work with communities to understand what their needs are—and then build a better partnership," Carlen said. "We can't just show residents the app and tell them that they need to use it, because that ignores the underlying problem that our society is still segregated and not everyone has the resources to participate."
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.10592

This paper seems to overlook that ignoring affluent White urban/global Northern conservation projects can be an act of resistance. It's not just about "not having the resources"; it's about choosing what matters, about having the power to choose one's conversation partners and whether or not to share knowledge.

In #ethnobiology, scientists who happen to be from dominant communities actively work to overcome oppression by listening first, acknowledging anger, awaiting permission to collaborate (which may never come!), co-designing research, and breaking up privilege in their own institutions. We've been in this struggle for decades. Organisations like the #ICCA are led by local/Indigenous community stewards of biodiversity. #IPBES and #GEF worked all this out, even if there are still a few bumps.

yetiinabox, 2 months ago to random

There is no legal framework for an environmental refugee. Why not?

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/3/2/protecting-climate-refugees-requires-a-legal-definition

Cristina-Ioanna Dragomir assesses the obstacles and argues that we must update existing international refugee law.

yetiinabox, 2 months ago to random

Dancing your PhD winning entry. Just wonderful. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/27/kangaroo-time-anu-scientist-global-science-prize-aaas-dance-your-phd-competition

yetiinabox, 2 months ago to random

Folks, for those of us who care about #Gaza or #refugees generally, may I suggest you follow my remarkable friend @alisonphipps .

She has been writing and exchanging poetry and witness with #Palestian writers, diplomats, doctors, and survivors online - using any network platform they have access to. That is not, so far, the Fedi. She's one of the stubborn, compassionate hearts of #Scottish and international support for Gaza, and a wonderful scholar-activist.

As of this morning, she's brought her work back to the #Fedi. We have a long history here of using networks for justice. Please help me add strength and reach to her humanitarian work. #Boost this, follow her work, amplify the voices of the Palestinians, help find tools to stop the genocide.

yetiinabox, 2 months ago to random

Having shifted half a tonne of topsoil yesterday, the dog and I went out to see the garden this frosty morning. There was an unusual two-note call in the air, and after a moment, three curlews flew overhead, whistling.

Then we played with a squeaky ball.

#notAtAllSilentSunday #silentsunday #hashtagfail

yetiinabox, 2 months ago to random

This morning, I will meet a friend at a cafe near the intersections of

• Western Way
• Pathology Way
• Chapel Lane

and I cannot help but think that this will be a good place to analyse the triple environmental crises in terms of the obsessive and malignant individualism of Euro-American colonial societies.

yetiinabox, 2 months ago to random

I wish I were visiting Paris just now - this exhibit on Black women anthropologists looks amazing.

https://m.quaibranly.fr/en/exhibitions-and-events/at-the-museum/exhibitions/event-details/e/deborder-lanthropologie

yetiinabox, 2 months ago to random

Wang and Ng use archaeological material uncovered during the construction of the Los Angeles metro and comparative ethnobiological data, to recover the history of 19th century California Chinese and their urban pig farms. Very cool research on immigrant ethobiology!

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-antiquity/article/selfreliance-and-pig-husbandry-in-los-angeles-chinatown-18801933-new-evidence-from-dental-calculus-analysis-and-historical-records/2D3AE03645EA1984E35DA7B5B27E9034

petersuber, 3 months ago to academia

"Following the controlled demolition of Al-Israa University, Israeli army footage of which was widely shared on social media, every single higher education institution in #Gaza is believed to have either been destroyed or severely damaged since the invasion began."
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/academia-gaza-has-been-destroyed-israeli-educide
(#paywalled)

#Academia #Universities
@academicchatter

peterdutoit, 4 months ago to climate

deleted_by_author

pvonhellermannn, 5 months ago to random

Half thinking of starting an #AcademicVenting hashtag here, about the dire, dire state of UK (global?) higher education. Sharing nuggets of senior management decisions, neoliberal language, and overall slow collapse.

Won’t work of course because most of us can’t risk honesty, but honestly: the everyday reality of what is happening deserves recording in all its depressing and damning detail. #Universities #AcademicChatter #neoliberalism