It just amazes me that people keep expecting me to fly all over the place for conferences and seminar lectures. I've gotten uninvited to 2 conferences in the last couple weeks by politely asking if I could give the invited talk remotely instead. This is dumb, we need to change.
@sundogplanets Conferences and conventions are just pure madness right now. The CDC's own conference had a 13% infection rate, and each infection has between a 7.5% and 41% chance of giving the person long covid, with 1/4 of long covid cases being SEVERE ( on par with terminal cancer or a major stroke in terms of disability.)
So, yeah in person conference attendance is, at best a .25% chance of being fully disabled. That makes it less safe than activities such as base jumping, bull riding, and mountain climbing.
@Njord@sundogplanets c'mon, let's use science to make the case here. The headline claim is 25% chance of permanent, serious disability from attending an in person conference. How big a conference? How long an exposure? Does it matter who else is there or where it is? Does it matter whether any of the currently recommended protocols, such as masking or vaccination, is used? Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence.
@bobhy@Njord@sundogplanets You upped the claim by two orders of magnitude though.
I think that's quite high still, but it's definitely to high for my risk assessment anyway.
(I'm not going to get disabled over work, it should at least be a risk for something I love.)
I just got invite number 3 this morning, I'll see what the reaction is to this phrasing: "Would it be possible for me to give this invited talk remotely? I have a farm, kids, teaching commitments, and a carbon budget, so I cannot travel long distances right now."
@sundogplanets
I admire you for being able to give talks. I was able to address local groups, even teach some, but was totally unable to give a symposium talk.
@sundogplanets So important, I think, talking about a "carbon budget." I've been behind a set of resolutions so that the American Library Association ensures that governance opportunities are available to remote attendees and it's weird how difficult this has been considering the org's stated commitment to sustainability.
@sundogplanets you know you're allowed just to say no anyway? One of the main things I've come to realise over last 5 years or so is just how messed up the whole industry of conferences is.
@sundogplanets Take it out of their hands with a "It seems like you might be too busy to organize remote participation. Thanks again for thinking of me, but maybe next year?"
Unless your department is really pressuring you to do more conferences, I think you need to pick your priorities!
Relatedly, I have a hive mind question for you all (especially physicists): The Northwest Section of the American Physical Society is a real thing and not scammy, right? And is a reasonable place to talk about satellite pollution to a bunch of interested people? (It looks real, but oh man I get a lot of scam conference invites so I'm paranoid...)
@sundogplanets I have no experience with the Northwest section but my collaborators from California did talks etc. with the Far West Section of the same. So yes, likely real and a good place :)
@sundogplanets You are totally right that you should be able to do this remotely. The technology is there to make it possible.
While, if I were attending, I would love to actually physically meet you, to be able to hear your presentation and interact a little would be fine. In a nice sense, they are interested in what you have to say, not you! If you follow.
@sundogplanets
I wouldn't give any reason for the request, to be honest. It shouldn't really be a big think for someone to give a remote talk in 2023 (Zelensky does it regularly :-))
Conferences and even recently, holiday party invites with no mention of respiratory disease mitigation.
I’m so tired of always being the one to ask “will people be testing, masking, ventilating and cleaning the air. Having windows open a cranking the heat up?” Etc, etc.
@drclareharris I didn't even mention covid in my email, which is also a huge reason to be incredibly selective about attending stuff like this... SO MANY REASONS.
@sundogplanets I was just uninvited too. Originally, I was told that remote presentation was o.k., now my talk may be read out by someone else. The conference is in Taiwan; I'm in Scotland.
@sundogplanets that's how it used to be! Enjoy the traveling, enjoy the adventure. We got so many indistries in so many towns that died outand became wastelands since online took over. I for one would like to see these hotels come back to life and give us our third spaces back.
I guess it shows a lack of dedication if you aren't willing to potentially sacrifice your health, and your irreplaceable time with kids. Just write a book Sam, and tell them where they can buy it, if they want to benefit from your hard earned knowledge. You can write it at home, and still take care of your goats! I have some Alpines. #Goats#Covid
@sundogplanets@Loukas I've been invited to a conference in Sydney in February, so I asked if they could pay my train fare rather than me taking a flight. So that's how I'm going. :)
@sundogplanets I’ve been saying this for years. Why can’t they all do Zoom or another remote way for meetings and conferences. There’s no need to fly everywhere and waste taxpayers money except to put their faces in the trough.
@sundogplanets I have to disagree. The technology for hybrid talks is not there yet. I have experienced this first hand, both as a remote speaker in hybrid workshops as well as being in the audience for remote speakers. Neither is a good experience. The information baud rate is abysmal for remote speakers (let alone the poor remote audience, reduced to third class citizens) compared to what one gains in a live interaction.
Some folks are putting on their CV the number of invited talks to conferences / seminars.
We shall put in ours the number of declined invited talks for environmental and equity reasons.
Things will only change if the community boycott in-person conferences.
@jfg_astro@jaztrophysicist@sundogplanets From what they told us, CNRS and CNAP committees are no longer taking into account invited talks, because most of them are due to networking.
Very recently I could not join an in-person meeting for family reason, so I got a remote talk instead, and they punished me for this choice by adding me to a synergy grant proposal
@sundogplanets I have had two medical appointments canceled, one because I asked them to wear a mask and the other because I told them I would not sign a Covid waiver unless they signed a document swearing they don’t force employees to come to work with Covid. They didn’t feel like doing that so they canceled my appointment instead.
We have been in the #ForcedInfection phase for awhile now. I just don’t get out much so they have limited opportunities to infect me.
@sundogplanets I’m convinced scientists are always flying off to conferences to try to get their h-index up. I think it’d benefit the planet and science in general if we eradicated the h-index
@jradavenport you can get “your work into the community” remotely. Going irl seems to be all about smothering as many ppl as possible to get your h-index up lol. Thus, no one should want to go in-person (esp bc it risks covid brain damage)
@carlysagan@jradavenport I should say that I'm not against conferences - I'm against travelling to many conferences in distant places per year. And I totally realize I'm saying this from a position of relative power - it doesn't make any sense for me to travel to many conferences right now (and maybe not ever again).
I really like Prof. Carrie Nugent's carbon policy, at some point I'd like to write down something formally like this: https://www.crnugent.com/carbon-policy
@sundogplanets@mastodonmigration how much specific Q&A and one on one interaction takes place at a conference beyond a presentation? That may be the actual draw for attendees; free consultation.
Holding conferences is itself an industry. If you dare to suggest appearing remotely, you are hurting the people who survive off this (not) important industry. How dare you be logical? Think of the middling paper pushers who couldn’t have a deductible vacation! It’s your duty to help provide an excuse for people to travel the world and sit around in hotel rooms.
@sundogplanets As we went back to in person for SeaGL this year a core requirement was being hybrid with virtual attendance options, including for speakers
While I intend to travel to Seattle I am glad to have remote options ( live or prerecorded ) for giving my talk in case travel options vanish
It's a lot of extra work, but we intend to remain hybrid in the future
For those who want remote options for conferences, please find a virtual or hybrid conference you like and volunteer to help
@sundogplanets Let them be. Some people simply refuse to have vision or use it. Most times when people refuse or fail to behave in a way that is progressive and, not in the irresponsible way that doesn't care about the collective and just about the self but, in a way that readily and actively embraces what is efficient and least harmful, it's usually because they have no personal benefit in not doing so.
We tend to gravitate towards whatever benefits us financially.
Years ago, I was invited to speak at a Macintosh users group meeting in Tucson. AZ. It was 120 miles each way for me to drive and they told me they made reservations for me in the local Hilton. Silly me; I thought they meant that they PAID for those reservations. No. They didn't pay me for my time or any of my expenses to get to them, eat in the area, or stay overnight. 🙄 That was the last user group meeting I spoke at.
@sundogplanets Thank you for speaking out and standing up for a livable planet, and staying on your own ground. I live in the boreal forest which has been and continues to burn fiercely for now 4 months. Yet there are hoards of Asian tourists roaming around here in the thick wildfire smoke that has a grip on the subArctic. What part of climate emergency don't people get? Stay the hell home!!!
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