Ellis Crawford @EllisCrawford@qoto.org

One thing I realised almost immediately after joining #Mastodon is the real extent of the toxicity allowed on the other site where I’ve had to limit replies on all my posts & I’ve blocked over 1k handles. The company we keep says a lot about us & I’ve seen the changes in me, esp when I’ve been harassed, demeaned, insulted. I don’t retaliate or swear but the number of times I almost did speaks volumes about the actual site that allows & even condones this kind of behaviour.
#TwitterMigration

#feditip: add .rss to the end of most pages you see on a Mastodon server to get an RSS feed for your RSS reader.

Level 2: go about your day without internet, then in the evening settle down at your Computer Desk with a nice cup of tea to RSS-digest the day's shitposts.

Level 3: Aggregates your RSS feeds into epub format. Load the output onto your 2000's e-ink e-reader via USB cable. Sit in an overstuffed armchair with a nearby lamp, say aloud "Ah, yes, today's internet" and sip your port.

Academics should list their https://orcid.org ID as one of their links in their profiles. Maybe at some point an official way to link and authenticate them will be established.

I was originally planning on having a much longer lie in after a dreadful sleep but Scone had other ideas. Now up, showered, and about to put the kettle on to get some words on the go!

#NaNoWriMo #writing #MastoCats

I've spent over 15 years building a Twitter network of real value to me.

The changes are actively hostile, destructive, & undermine the premise of the entire system. They take away my investment. Your investment too.

Of *course* the user base is angry.

(good 🧵 from @mmasnick)
---
RT @mmasnick
@davekarpf But, instead of taking that fairly straightforward path, which really might have gone over well (I keep noting I'd sign up for Blue if…
https://twitter.com/mmasnick/status/1588789384878657537

The whole idea of the town square is that it belongs to the town. No one should be able to buy it. And honestly, they can’t.

Twitter isn’t really the town square, any more than Facebook is or MySpace was.

We are the town square. It goes where we go. No one can buy that.

My hope is that I'll post my new work here more than I ever did on twitter, but for now here is one of the minis that I'm proudest of! Ala'miaugo from Ignis Art miniatures. #minipainting #miniaturepainting #miniatures #dnd #dndart #cat #ignisart #paintingminiatures

It's Bandcamp Friday. I'd be happy to know what #music the #sciencemastodon crowd will be buying. Any recommendations?

So... #introductions
Well, I write books. So far: The Themis Files trilogy (Giant robots, yay!), The Test (Citizenship exam gone WAY wrong), No Kindness Too Soon (Audible exclusive about an alien signal), and the Take Them to the Stars trilogy (100 generations of slightly homicidal self-cloning mothers and daughters). Last book in that series comes out next April.

Other than that, I love toys, costumes, bourbon and rockets. 1 kid. 2 cats (President Laura Roslin and Jyn Erso).

"A mastodon being attacked by a swarm of bluebirds, cute mastodon, angry bluebirds, cinematic, by Charles R. Knight"

#TwitterMigration #StableDiffusion

gonna fuck up the historical record and say yes, I absolutely identify with whatever far future queer categories society has come up with. yes I'm that. yeah. yeah. you can apply your contemporary understanding of queerness to me

One of the best thing about #StructuralBiology (IMO) is the ability to present your 3D models as gorgeous #rendered images.

I've recently been learning to use @Blender to render some of my structures.

This image shows part of a protein called #Laminin (grey surface) which coordinates a Calcium ion (glowing Cyan sphere) to bind to a polysaccharide (sugar) called #Matriglycan (chemical structure).

#Crystallography #Science #Biochemistry

Throwback to my first paper for my first contribution to #ScienceMastodon

We worked on the dynamics of vesicle reshaping and scission under osmotic shocks, including bursting and developing inner compartments.

Find it here: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/sm/d0sm02012e

#throwbackthursday #firstpaper #softmatter

Worf: I tried donating blood today. The medical officer kept asking stupid questions.
Worf: 'Whose blood is this? Where did you get it? Why is it in a bucket?'

To add to the above:

Since there is no #algorithm it is really important that you #boost interesting posts by others.

A star (liking) does nothing to help increase a post's visibility beyond the original author's followers.

I know it is strange coming from 🐦, but it really is the only way to increase a post's audience.

So #BoostAllTheThings (if you like them) and you will notice others will do the same to your content. Here we're all in it together!

#BeTheAlgorithm #BoostsWelcome #FediTips