Nicola Romanò @nicolaromano@qoto.org

We have two tenure track #lecturer positions available at the #University of #Edinburgh, to support and develop #teaching and #research linked to the undergraduate Dual Award Honours programmes in Integrative Biomedical Sciences and Biomedical Informatics jointly developed in partnership with Zhejiang University, China.

For more info and to apply see the ads here

https://elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1001/job/9999/

https://elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1001/job/10000

@arclight Sure it all depends on use cases and I agree that R can be tricky in production (but so is Python!), although there are some solutions depending on what you need to do. Still, no matter the tool I think the main point is to teach concepts like reproducibility, traceability, version control, and well, professionalism in general! :)

@suzantepas @jamesglave Sure I would be scared, but if I see someone trying to cross and I am driving I stop and let them pass. However, I still don't think that "throw something at the ass driver" strategy is very good.

I think we need to be fair though; I have seen plenty of people crossing the road, maybe at a red light, whilst looking at their phone, or listening to music or both, and not paying the slightest attention to what is happening on the road. Sure, cars should stop, but sometimes it might not be safe to do so, or maybe simply you don't expect someone crossing the road when the light is red. There are many different situations and generalisation is always problematic.

Similarly, I see plenty of cyclists going out at night with no lights/no reflective clothing/no helmet. Sure, cars should be more careful when driving in the dark, but you should not go out at night without lights either.

As I said, there are plenty of car drivers who do not behave properly, and there are plenty of cyclists and pedestrians who also don't. I am just saying that education is important and a much better solution than trying to scare other people off.

@suzantepas @jamesglave If I were in a car and saw someone waving a brick I would probably be scared and might break all of a sudden, which might be dangerous for those behind me. Also, if I saw someone waving bricks at cars I would probably call the police, which is probably not the desired outcome here. I think we should educate people more (everyone, motorists, cyclists and pedestrians alike) on how to behave on the road.

@arclight on the bright side, I've been seeing more and more students coming in the lab and using #R and documenting work in #RMarkdown from day 0, instead of using Excel. How did this happen? Well we taught them during their undergraduate years.
We're far from an ideal situation, but in a better place than we were 5 or 10 years ago.

@PhilippBayer doesn't really come as a surprise... I'd like to try running Gemma locally though

@PacificNic @reinhilde @jay_chi @VisionZeroYVR @jamesglave Not as dangerous as crossing at a red light IMO. You should respect the road code whether in a car, on a bike or on foot!
There's plenty of idiots who drive and there are also plenty of good drivers who respect cyclists. Similarly there's lots of cyclists who respect the rules and there are those who don't know how to ride a bike.

Blaming one part or the other doesn't solve problems unfortunately.

Also the grab a brick idea is dangerous. I suspect it would cause way more accidents than it prevents

@adamhsparks @johannes_lehmann I didn't mean it like that. As I said, change needs to come from the powers that be.
However, they won't change their mind unless there is some tangible evidence that those other things are important and that people are and want to be invested in them. This is about having your voice heard, and lobbying for changes to happen. I do agree that it's definitely harder for someone in a temporary position to do this, I know, I've been there and I'm not suggesting those people should do this alone; however academics who are beyond that point but maybe not at the top (I would consider myself as one) could lead by example and grassroot groups can lead change. That can be a very small step like "ok boss we're aiming for Nature (dream on) but in the meantime this goes to BiorXiv" or "we're putting this code on GitHub with a GPL licence and deposit our data for everyone to inspect" etc. This is hopefully followed by the realisation that those papers get cited, those data bring collaborations and so on. This is obviously only one small aspect of it, but you need to start somewhere