Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org

@ChemBob I believe it! Really I think all scientific programming suffers from the "I don't want it good, I want it Tuesday" problem.

There are two philosophies in #programming toward handling questionable #data. The first is to check the #integrity of the data every time it's used. This takes a fair amount of #programmer time, and depending on the size of the data may also take a fair amount of #computer time. It's a PITA to write, test, debug, and run.

The second is to say "I've already checked this data a bunch of times in the program, it's fine" and skip the integrity checks after the first time. In #scientific programming, this is particularly tempting: the data sets are huge, and writing checks is annoying. The whole thing feels like a waste of time when you're reasonably sure your code will never run on anything except this particular data set which you already see more of than your family and your pets and you just want to get the damned thing done.

About 95% of the time, I take the first approach. Every time I do it, I'm grumbling to myself. Just finish it, already! And I am uneasily aware that those who take the second approach get their work done faster than I do.

Yes. This is true.

They also get a lot of #garbage results—many of which don't look like garbage at all. Here comes the ritual chest-thumping ... in #bioinformatics, and #biomedical #research generally, those mistakes don't just lead to flawed publications, as bad as that is. Garbage results kill people.

I just received a lesson in why the first is a really good idea. Let's be careful out there.

@retiredskigod They really should have thought harder about the implications of making "woke" their go-to insult. But that would require thinking, so.

I have been criticized in the past for repeating the observation—not original to me—that the entire #Republican platform depends on persuading people to #vote against their own #interests.

This is #patronizing, I'm told. I just don't understand what their interests *are*. Get out of that #urban #liberal #bubble! Who the hell do you think you are, anyway, telling other people what they need?

Well, here it is, in the starkest possible terms. Republicans are willing and indeed eager to #suffer, as long as they think people they #hate are suffering more. There is no other explanation. None.

https://www.axios.com/2023/04/21/poll-republican-voters-trump-desantis-2024

Some answers just write themselves.

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-differences-between-a-vampire-and-an-ordinary-person-How-can-we-identify-a-vampire-in-reality-without-its-presence-in-humans/answer/Daniel-Dvorkin-3

There are no surprises here: #conservatives have long ago learned to redefine #liberal language to their advantage. Calling out #racism is racism itself, in their eyes. #Diversity, #equity, and #inclusion somehow become totalitarian in their world, even though the entire concept of #DEI would be considered anathema by any totalitarian government in history. And, of course, anything *at all* they don't like is #woke.

No, no surprises. But still well worth reading, because we can never forget for a moment what our enemies are.

@b3n Thank you!

@fatsam I admit my dislike of Musk is such that I have a hard time fairly judging anything associated with him. But I'm all for cheap access to space, and I'm glad SpaceX can judge this launch a success even if it went boom. So I hope people can keep in mind that he's a con man who has nothing to do with any of his companies' technical achievements, even while celebrating the achievements themselves.

Unfortunately, if history is any guide, he'll be credited with them decades or centuries hence. And that does gall me.

On #research, and #dreams, and what I do all day.

Nearly all of my work consists of using absolutely standard #bioinformatics and #biostatistics techniques. These methods were long ago worked out in excruciating detail by people much more knowledgeable in their subspecialties than I'll ever be. Although I grumble about the quality of #scientific #software (and there's a lot to grumble about) I almost always use mostly-reliable packages rather than writing my own. There are only so many hours in a day, days in a year, and years in a career.

The truth is, that's the way most #science jobs are, at least in #biology and #medicine—I'm honestly not sure about others. #Methodological research, working out entirely new ways to do things, is largely a privilege of dewy-eyed grad students and slightly more cynical but still idealistic postdocs. #Faculty get to do some, but less the higher up the food chain they get: full #professorship is at least half administration and half overseeing other people's research and half #grantwriting, and if you're thinking that's one too many halves, you're right. There are probably a couple of other halves in there I don't even know about.

#Industry scientists like me? The #PhD is an entry-level qualification. We're not paid to come up with new ways to do things better. We're paid to use old ways to do things *faster*. Ultimately, the goal is something new, sure, usually a new #drug for a particular #disease. The process of making that happen is a bunch of painstaking and carefully programmed steps. There's about as much room for creativity as there was when I was in the service—which BTW is more than people often assume, but with pretty sharp limits. And almost always, the clock is ticking. Loudly.

This may all sound kind of bitter. Yes, there's some bitterness, but I know I have plenty of company.

No one goes into science for the money or the prestige: without any false modesty at all, I can say that anyone who is capable of becoming a #scientist is capable of doing lots of other things too, and most of those things pay better and get more respect. We start our long and winding road because we see, or think we see, something at the heart of reality no one else has seen before. We think we can bring that into the light and show it to the world. We can make a difference. We *believe*.

Eventually we come around. It's not just an adventure, it's a job.

My point—I swear I have one—is that we grumble about this, and think back wistfully to the days when we could sink into one project, and recall with tolerant amusement our conviction that we alone could reveal the Truth unto the world ... and mostly accept it. Do the work, be the cog in the machine, and small-t truth *will* be revealed. Not just by us alone, no. By us and by everyone who came before us in the chain and everyone after, and a year or five or twenty down the line, someone who would have died will live. They'll never know our names, and we'll never know theirs. It's okay.

And every once in a while, in the middle of this daily grind, we realize that what we have to do to solve this particular problem, get at this particular small truth, no one else has ever done.

So we do it.

We do it, and go back to the grind. Nobody else may ever know we did it. If they do, it will probably be buried in the methods section of a multi-author article in a mid-tier journal. If ten people in the world ever read it, we'll be pleasantly surprised. A citation, and we'll be over the moon. And there's no guarantee of even that much. Locked away in a tech report gathering e-dust, just as likely.

But we know. And sometimes we dream again, for a little while.

Life may have survived far north of equator during #SnowballEarth
---

From a quick scan of the article, they don't mention #geothermal activity. That seems like the most likely explanation for an #oasis like this, but I assume it would show up in the chemical signature. Whatever the explanation, this is impressive if it holds up.

Say it with me now ... "More Research Is Needed!" And funding. That helps. A lot.

https://www.science.org/content/article/life-may-have-survived-far-north-equator-during-snowball-earth

Behind the scenes of cutting-edge, #lifesaving #biomedical #research:

"Got it, thanks. Wow, that's ... uh ... not exactly a masterpiece of organization, is it?"

"ahahahha welcome to my life"

"lolsob"

"My house is a mess 'cause all day I clean up things on my computer, and after I dont have the mind space to clear the space around me."

"I feel that in my bones."

That's just what #scientists are like. Cold, logical, precise. Yep. Positively #Vulcan, we are.

@Marquestor Exactly!

This is #Nobel material.

@Pat Indeed! I probably should have mentioned that, but I was going more for snark than precision.

I'm done trying to educate these shitheads.

#seemslegit

Oh kid, you're so close to getting it.

"[Russian] #Duma Deputy Head of the Committee on Information Policy Oleg #Matveichev stated on April 4 that he has prepared a bill to recognize #feminism as an extremist ideology and argued that #feminists overwhelmingly oppose the '#military #operation' in #Ukraine. Matveichev argued that #Ukrainian feminism consists of women serving together with men fighting against #Russians and alleged that the woman accused of killing of #Russian milblogger Maxim #Fomin (Vladlen #Tartarsky) was motivated by feminist ideology. Matveichev has not specified how the bill would define feminism, and the bill may use a vague overarching definition in order to further promote widespread self-censorship. Russian authorities may increasingly portray other ideologies and groups not explicitly aligned with the Kremlin as being against the war in Ukraine in order to set conditions for increased crackdowns and self-censorship. Ukrainian 'feminism' would appear to be giving Ukraine an advantage in this war since, as Matveichev notes, it has brought many talented and determined Ukrainian women into the fight."

Source: https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-april-8-2023