Nicola Romanò @nicolaromano@qoto.org

I've collected a set of papers and articles that discuss errors in research due to software errors, in a GitHub repo: https://github.com/danielskatz/errors-due-to-research-software. I think this could be a useful resource for many purposes, and additional contributions are welcome.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon/115689198997943088

I’m proud to share my first blog as @Mastodon’s Community Director. Well the first one posted under my name at least 😉

Digital social networking is one of the most important threads in the fabric of our societies. Right now, we’re letting that thread be controlled by social media platforms that let advertisements for scams stay up because they’re profitable, and that use their algorithms to run human research experiments on us without our consent. That’s not the society I want.

“By making the news and truth contingent on advertising budgets we’ve created an environment where any narrative can win, as long as the storyteller is willing to pay. If we allow these conditions to continue, we will leave behind the voices that truly matter; the people and their public institutions. It is critical that those voices not be silenced forever. The promise of the #fediverse is the promise of a better way forward: free from ads and manipulative algorithms built by and for people like you, where #SocialSovereignty is a right and not a privilege.”

In this thread, we asked folks to crowdsource a list of resources so you can find your local representative. Find them, contact them, and tell them this: if you care about a free and just future, and if you care about #DigitalSovereignty, you must leave X and join the fediverse.

#ItsTimeToAbolishX #SocialWeb #Mastodon #SocialMedia

Blogs deserve love too (and interoperability) ❤️

I just learned about Rogue Scholar @rogue_scholar, a repository that makes science blogs more findable and citable: full-text search, long-term archiving, DOIs, metadata...

You can register your blog and search ~200 blogs already there.

Learn more about Rogue Scholar here: https://rogue-scholar.org/

And I wrote a bit more at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alelazic_roguescholar-openscience-openinfrastructure-activity-7403810948412641281-O2TA

#openscience #openinfrastructure #scicomm

European Twitter exploded following yesterday’s rants by US and Russian hardliners calling to “abolish EU”.

Lots of voices like “we need European social media!!”

And I said, “actually, you know what, we kind of have one for years…” 😆

Some people started complaining “but nobody uses Mastodon” and I once again had no choice but to explain that if “nobody uses” then how come I’ve got 3k+ followers here and engaging in truly interesting discussions not less often than there😁

There’s two data points where Fediverse can be indeed seen as less attractive than US cortisol aggregators:

• number of engagements, but granted that up to 60-70% of these on Twitter are generated by bots who cares? Maybe media advertising agencies do, but I don’t.
• presence of public persons - this is where Fediverse actually loses, because it’s a network that grows between them and can’t be “invited”

I just had to dig this up for something I'm writing, so here's the UN's space debris database (which has mostly turned from "space debris on the ground" to "garbage SpaceX dropped on other countries"): https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/treatyimplementation/arra-art-v/unlfd.html

What I would like is a citation search tool which divides citing work into a) direct replications b) direct extensions and c) stuff that is just citing for support while they do something completely different. And then I can ignore all of c). Does such a tool exist yet? #AcademicChatter

How do you think the brain "stores" our personal memories? 🧠

This is a question for everyone out there, especially for non-neuroscientists and regardless of education level or familiarity with biology.

I'd just like to hear all your ideas and theories, however crazy they may sound. Be as specific or vague as you like. Please do not look at the answers before giving yours so you are not influenced.
More specifically:

What do you think happens (in the brain) at the time of experiencing something that we will end up remembering?
What do you think happens (in the brain) when, later, we remember that thing?

Boosts welcome but answers even more welcome!

#Neuroscience #Memory #EpisodicMemory

Twenty streets of Paris before and after in one minute

GrapheneOS has shut down operations in France due to pressure from law enforcement and media, citing risks for privacy projects and demands for a backdoor. Servers are being moved to Toronto and Germany, and developers are barred from entering France https://alternativeto.net/news/2025/11/grapheneos-ceases-operations-in-france-amid-pressure-and-legal-threats-by-the-government/

Pleased to note my Cambridge lecture on how technical approaches to the right of explanation have gone haywire in the LLM era, is already up!

I discuss the spread of legal mandates of explanations of algorithmic decisions but at same time increasing unreliability of explanations offered by "reasoning" LLMs. Chain of Thought not = explainability!!

Many thanks to @CIPIL who um may not be here? And to @jennifercobbe for her v kind invitation!

https://youtu.be/wLxuq3I2d_s?si=h8vfHGaLhB7it3hG

Tout mon soutien à Elena Mistrello, dessinatrice italienne expulsée sans explications à peine débarquée sur le tarmac de Toulouse, où elle venait présenter sa BD au Festival de @Colomiers31.
Une nouvelle étape grave dans la criminalisation des activistes.
https://www.bubblebd.com/9emeart/bd/actualites/l-autrice-italienne-elena-mistrello-empechee-de-venir-a-un-festival-bd-en-france-par-la-police-nationale