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Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted
Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted

My membership of British Cycling has come around for renewal and I have no hesitation in telling them to get lost. The fact that they took on a major sponsorship deal with Shell (SHELL!) in October and have refused to reverse that decision is appalling. This is classic greenwashing - Shell are continuing to extract all the oil they can. Cycling should not offer shelter to the fossil fuel companies putting profit ahead of the planet.

bikebiz.com/a-shocking-decisio

#Cycling #UCI #Shell

Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted

Put differently: It is not possible for us to recognize and reward the people who have created the free, open tools we all use every day in any way that is even vaguely proportional to what they've given the world. That amount of money doesn't exist.

If you've ever typed ":wq", consider making a donation to the charities Bram Moolenaar supported:

iccf-holland.org/
vim.org/iccf/
iccf.nl/

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Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted
Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted
Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted

🚨 Help spread the word: 🗳️ Nominations to become a Trustee of Society of Research Software Engineering still open until 4 Aug. 💚 Help lead the community, bring your passion and your ideas 🚀 Here’s what it’s all about: society-rse.org/2023-being-a-t #RSEng

Everything you wanted to know about being a Trustee of the RSE Society but were afraid to ask - Society of Research Software Engineering

Volunteering as a Trustee The RSE Society is organising its annual elections for the Board of Trustees and we are looking for volunteers! As a charity, the Society needs a few of its members to take on the formal responsibility for some aspects of running the Society. This primarily involves making sure that Society resources are most effectively used to support the Society’s charitable purpose of establishing a research environment that recognises the vital role of software in research and of people who create it. If you ever wondered what it means to be a Trustee or if you are considering throwing your hat into the ring at our upcoming election, this blog post will answer some of your questions. We’ll be looking at some of the frequently asked questions about the Trustee role, the election process, responsibilities, and the rewards and challenges that come along with it. We want the Trustee team to represent our community and are looking for people at all levels of experience and seniority. You most definitely don’t need to already have leadership experience or experience in the role you want to take on as a Trustee. During my two years as SocRSE trustee I learned so much, met lots of great people, and built lasting friendships as well as a professional network. Standing as a trustee was surely one of the best decisions I made in my career. Marion Weinzierl In June 2023, we had an online discussion where the current trustees answered some questions from the community about becoming a Trustee and the day-to-day responsibilities. This blog post is based on that discussion and features quotes from some of the past Trustees of the Society. The current trustees will also be hosting a Q&A session on Wednesday 26 July at 4pm (register here) or you can join the conversation in the #elections2023 channel on Slack. Process and timeline To give you some context, the election time line for this year is the following: The nominations are open between 14 July and 4 August 2023. To nominate yourself, you will need to provide names of two society members – don’t worry about this bit, if you don’t have any other society members around, please reach out to the RSE Trustee group on the RSE Slack or via email. The nomination form is available on the on the formal nomination page. The voting then opens on 11 August and closes during our Annual General Meeting (AGM) at RSECon on 6 September 2023. We are expecting to recruit 5-7 new Trustees this year. If the number of nominations is 7 or fewer, the vote will be a simple yes/no to confirm each nominee. If there are more nominations, we will use single transferable vote competitive election. The term is 3 years and it is possible to stand once again after 3 years for a second term. Roles & responsibilities As a Trustee, you’ll play a key role in the functioning of the RSE Society. Trustees oversee various aspects of the Society: governance, finance, web and infrastructure, conference and events organization, communications, and our essential work in equality, diversity, inclusion and access. Each area typically has at least two trustees dedicated to it. This way, we ensure a diversity of perspectives, even distribution of responsibilities and work load. You can read more about the roles and what they entail on the Trustee Role Descriptions page and you can find details of the process and a link to the nomination form on the formal call page. Also, we have a structured onboarding process to support everyone in becoming a trustee. Our team operates on a model of peer support, with a strong emphasis on learning and growing together. Newly elected trustees are often paired with more experienced trustees in “vice-roles” or in other working areas, following an “apprenticeship” model. I became a trustee in 2019 with a couple of years experience as an RSE, while the Society was still completing its transition from the former RSE Association. Over the following two years, I got to work with some of the most experienced members of our community on policy topics for a research community and setting the direction of the Society into the future. This experience at an early point was invaluable to me as my career progressed and this becomes an ever larger part of my role, and that of central RSE teams in general. I’d definitely recommend standing as a trustee to anyone who has an interest in research culture and ensuring that we get the most out of our (still young) community. James Graham Rewards and challenges Like any position of responsibility, being a Trustee can be both rewarding and challenging. From the Q&A conversation, our current Trustees found it rewarding to get experience in areas that they do not encounter in their normal day-to-day work, such as management, finance and accounting or community engagement. Overall, the supportive culture of our society and the opportunity to give back to the community are some of the highlights of this role. Having benefited enormously from the welcoming and supportive RSE community, volunteering to become a trustee was a great way to give something back. I was fortunate enough to serve as the president and the experience was superb. I got to work with a fantastic team of driven and passionate people to help set some of the foundations for how the society operates. The experience of charity governance was a real eye opener and has provided me with a range of transferable skills in project and personnel management which have helped me greatly in later work. Paul Richmond The balance between core activities and new, innovative initiatives can be a challenge, but it’s also part of what makes the role so engaging. As volunteers, our Trustees juggle these responsibilities alongside their other commitments. This can sometimes pose a challenge, especially when trying to scale up activities or when core legal responsibilities need their attention (for example organising the […]

Society of Research Software Engineering
Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted
Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted
Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted

Do you prefer to perform overt, immediate evil, or slow, indirect evil? 🤔

@chrischirp Is it possible to get boosters of the vaccine privately since the gov has given up? And would you recommend doing that?

Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted

@ScienceDesk @alandavies1@twitter.com (Alan Davies, comedian, actor) of fame will be quite disappointed if this is true!!!

Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted
Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted

Regular reminder: if your site or app doesn’t work in Firefox, it’s broken.

I lived through the “this site requires and/or is best in IE” era, and I’d rather burn it all down than return to that.

Pro-tip: Firefox does most things better anyway. Give it a spin and enjoy a less-tracked web.

Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted

Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon #OTD in 1939.

In 1954 Einstein said to his old friend, Linus Pauling, "I made one great mistake in my life—when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification—the danger that the Germans would make them ..." via @wikipedia

#science #physics

Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted

Something neat happens when you sort stars by color and brightness.

In this visualization of the stars in the globular cluster Omega Centauri, we can clearly see several groups of stars emerge from this sort: normal, main sequence stars; red giants; blue, horizontal branch stars; and white dwarfs. These are all stages in the lifecycle of Sun-like stars.

Download: hubblesite.org/contents/media/
#astronomy #space #stars #hubble

Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted

I saw this advert from 1956 on Instagram and can’t work out how a fridge from nearly 70 years ago basically has better features than the fridge I own now.

Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted

I'm chronicling the development of "Software Design by Example" (a) because I want people to be interested enough to give feedback but also (b) because I want people who have something of their own to say to understand that there's no magic in creating something like this. A lesson is a user interface for knowledge; good lessons are the product of systematic design, just like good interfaces; I hope that seeing how the cake is baked will encourage others to bake cakes of their own. #sdxpy

Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted

The BBC's experiment with Mastodon is pathbreaking in English-language news -- a major organization setting up its own instance. They've really thought this through. Key language:

"We're using social.bbc as the domain, so you can be sure these accounts are genuinely from the BBC. And by linking to and from the BBC’s website, we have verified our identity on Mastodon."

bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2023-07-mast

Welcome to:
@BBCRD
@BBC5Live @BBCRadio4
@BBCTaster
@Connected_Studio
@BBC_News_Labs

Matthew :python: :scientist: boosted

Haven't seen much discussion on the recent room-temperature superconductivity claims here on Mastodon (am I following the wrong people?), but before the hype hits you, here is the current state of affairs:
* Two experimental attempts to replicate the result have found nothing (t.co/D1gmAEOvzx, t.co/u5qIEv7aB7)
* One numerical result shows that the suggested material should have flat eletron bands, which are consistent with (but do not prove) superconductivity (t.co/2m0ojMOTLr).

Until we have independent experimental replication, any hype is premature.

(h/t @dangaristo)

#Physics

Synthesis of possible room temperature superconductor LK-99:Pb$_9$Cu(PO$_4$)$_6$O

The quest for room-temperature superconductors has been teasing scientists and physicists, since its inception in 1911 itself. Several assertions have already been made about room temperature superconductivity but were never verified or reproduced across the labs. The cuprates were the earliest high transition temperature superconductors, and it seems that copper has done the magic once again. Last week, a Korean group synthesized a Lead Apatite-based compound LK-99, showing a T$_c$ of above 400$^\circ$K. The signatures of superconductivity in the compound are very promising, in terms of resistivity (R = 0) and diamagnetism at T$_c$. Although, the heat capacity (C$_p$) did not show the obvious transition at T$_c$. Inspired by the interesting claims of above room temperature superconductivity in LK-99, in this article, we report the synthesis of polycrystalline samples of LK-99, by following the same heat treatment as reported in [1,2] by the two-step precursor method. The phase is confirmed through X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements, performed after each heat treatment. The room temperature diamagnetism is not evidenced by the levitation of a permanent magnet over the sample or vice versa. Further measurements for the confirmation of bulk superconductivity on variously synthesized samples are underway. Our results on the present LK-99 sample, being synthesized at 925$^\circ$C, as of now do not approve the appearance of bulk superconductivity at room temperature. Further studies with different heat treatments are though, yet underway.

t.co
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