Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org
Bioinformaticist / biostatistician, veteran medic and infantryman, armchair paleontologist, occasional science fiction author, vaccinated liberal patriot.
Joined Oct 2022
Daniel Dvorkin
boosted
One of those headline where you don't need to read the actual story.
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
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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.
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.
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
So, let's review:
The #murderer drove his car into a crowd. The #victim, who was carrying a #rifle openly, in accordance with #Texas law, raised the rifle in self-defense toward the car coming at him. The murderer, who in addition to using his #car as a #weapon, was also carrying a #pistol, shot the victim. "#Gun #rights advocates" are supporting the murderer.
Sometimes I wish I still belonged to the #NRA so I could resign again.
And that's not even the main issue here. No, the main issue is that the #Republican Governor of Texas, along with his hand-picked toadies on the state parole board, wants to legalize #murder. Which, by the way, he will almost surely succeed in doing, in this particular case. Republicans all over the country will back him.
Every day I have a harder time believing any of us are going to live through this.
It would be kind of amazing how many #racist #asshats are still celebrating this pathetic attempt at a country that only existed for fourteen years and ceased to exist before many of them were born, until you consider that many of them are also still celebrating a pathetic attempt at a country that only existed for four years and ceased to exist before many of their *great-grandparents* were born.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure the "#Rhodesians" did, in fact, fucking die.
Some answers just write themselves.
https://www.quora.com/Is-NPR-annoying-and-needs-to-be-taken-off-the-air/answer/Daniel-Dvorkin-3
This one has been flying around my #Facebook friends list. In and of itself, it's true. I have no argument with what it *says*. But there's a lot it's not saying, and I can't help but feel like it's designed to disparage the #15minuteCity concept by that omission.
First, the concept itself. The idea of the 15-minute city ("#15mC") is pretty simple: everything you need for your daily life should be within 15 minutes' #walk. Some definitions have "walk or #bicycle ride," but I think that drastically weakens the concept.
In other words, a healthy, able-bodied adult should be able to get to all the usual destinations in no more than a quarter of an hour, on foot. I would add to this that #children, the #elderly, and people of all ages with #disabilities should also be able to get where they're going via accessible #public #transit, in the same amount of time.
*All* the usual destinations. Which yes, means #grocery #stores, #restaurants, #movie #theaters, etc.—for people who #work there as well as the patrons. And every other kind of #workplace too. Of course you don't *have* to work or eat or shop close to home. But the option needs to be there, and the work has to be able to pay for all the rest.
That's *always* been part of the concept. If the work criterion is not met, you don't have a 15mC; you have a theme park, like the post says. Fair enough.
Yes, and? If you have a #house without a roof, you don't have a house, you have a collection of walls. If you have a plate without #food on it, you don't have a meal, you have #hunger. If you have a #legislature that can arbitrarily kick out its members for voicing their opinions, you don't have #liberty, you have #tyranny. Everyone understands this.
So if we agree that the 15mC is a good idea—I certainly think it is—then let's try to make it happen. This kind of sniping strikes me as less a valid critique and more an attempt to make the whole idea sound impossible.
Maybe that's not the intent, but it's sure how it comes across. Yeah ... don't do that.
Interesting tidbit from FiveThirtyEight:
"Sad news for us data nerds: According to respondents of a recently released December YouGov poll, #statistics was ranked the least interesting college major, with 42 percent of adults calling it 'not interesting.' Criminal justice had the lowest percentage of respondents who called it 'not interesting,' at just 18 percent. When respondents were asked which majors they would pick if they were pursuing a college degree today, a plurality (20 percent) chose #computerscience."
The full poll results are here: https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/8nv9pr6ke6/results_College%20Majors.pdf
Almost surely, a lot of those students who think computer science is interesting, but statistics isn't, are planning on careers in "#datascience," #ML / #AI, etc. So here comes yet another generation of computer scientists who will badly reinvent statistics instead of learning the field from the ground up. Great.
I guess the #awesomebros will find it ...
...
...
...
... hard to swallow!
Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week. Try the #pachycephalosaurus.
https://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2023/03/new-paper-fresh-evidence-and-novel.html
Every #tool is dangerous, and the more powerful the tool the more dangerous it is. Of course. Is #AI as dangerous as #nuclear #weapons? Probably not. It might be in the same league as, oh, say #internal #combustion #engines—and those have done a hell of a lot of damage. But they haven't done it by ushering in the #apocalypse. Instead the damage is from slow, creeping, cumulative change where the effect of any one individual event is too small to measure.
So I really think the focus on world-ending scenarios takes away from the conversations we need to be having. This reminds me a lot of the simmering "how far is too far" #genetics debate, especially the kibitzing from "#ethicists" with no understanding of the #biology and an #ethical sense that isn't nearly as developed as they think it is. There are conversations on that topic I'd like to have without the constant Greek chorus of "#Frankenstein! #Gattaca! #JurassicPark!"
This is your regularly scheduled reminder that Eliezer #Yudkowsky is a complete fraud. He has no qualifications of any kind, in any field. Nor has he contributed any substantial research, in any field. His only credentials are membership in a "research institute" he founded himself, and starting a #cult. None of his opinions are worth a moment of your time.
If you know, you know. If you don't, you're probably better off. Carry on.
In fairness, I should add that I do know people who have found certain aspects of the #paleodiet work well for them. Weight loss, lower blood sugar, etc. Okay: I think the ideal #diet is very much an individual thing, and people who are measurably healthier when they eat a certain way should absolutely eat that way! But when it becomes an #evangelical #religion, it ceases to have any possible medical value.
This makes a great deal of sense to me. Our ideas about which #foods and methods of preparation are tasty vs. disgusting are *deeply* cultural, even in today's relatively homogenized world.
Much more so when our #ancestors lived in widely separated groups, in vastly different environments, and making use of whatever they could get was the only alternative to #starvation. Humans are the omni-est of #omnivores, and we assign cultural significance to practically everything we do.
Also, I'm always just happy to pass on any news that demonstrates how much the modern idea of the "#paleo diet" is bullshit. That's a pretty strong preference on my part, but I don't claim it as a cultural universal. 😉
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/meat-rotten-putrid-paleo-diet-fire-neanderthal
Bioinformaticist / biostatistician, veteran medic and infantryman, armchair paleontologist, occasional science fiction author, vaccinated liberal patriot.
Joined Oct 2022
