ZackB @thekazath@qoto.org

I've really been enjoying this book "Pests" by B. Brookshire (audio is also excellent). The author really takes some seemingly mundane (and not-so-mundane) animals and opens up some well-researched & philosophical inquiry into what exactly makes an animal a pest.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60606334-pests

Ok, just curious - how many folks bet #debtceiling is actually headed to trillion $ coin solution?

I'm loving me some #PerryMasonHBO, but what's with all the shows about divorced hapless hero lawyer west coast dads- goliath, lincoln lawyer, and now PM?

How do folks approach peer review of 'perspectives' submissions to academic journals? It's kind of weird to be asked to assess the validity of an author's perspective (beyond novelty & whether claimed facts are in fact supported by evidence) #econtwitter #science

This is the most resonant writing I've read yet about this whole, idiotic dumpster fire: 'What more perfect use of this hellsite than to turn it over entirely to tweets about Twitter, tweets about tweeting, tweets about leaving Twitter, tweets about how Twitter runs, or should, or won’t, or how it will end, any day now … This is what we were after all along, the purest distillation of a service that devours itself in order to fuel its own furtherance.' https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/11/elon-musk-twitter-bad-habit/672249/

I threw on my clothes before a race this morning without thinking - blaze orange windbreaker and shoes and a blue hat - and was confused why I was getting the stink eye from so many people at the race! (Go USA, you can do it!)

Feeling run down on this rainy Nov morning & all I feeling like doing is pulling out my Raspberry Pie SNES emulator & playing Super Metroid... alas, I need to attack my next semester calendar

How did we not know since 2017 there's a trampoline gym around the corner from our house? In terms of burning a 5 year old's energy (& that of an inner 5 yr old), this changes everything!

Are there any good film or television adaptations of Ursula Le Guin's work? I'm a newcomer but now deep into her oeuvre

... not to mention seeing some great presentations & creativity from our students, e.g. thinking about if/how biotech bioremediation could be an enabler of environmental justice

I sat in on some great seminars this week- Comm. Prof. Jean Goodwin talking about 'false polarization' & science denialism & learned about climate change effects on supply chains from Fed economist Nora Pankratz. Links below.
#EnvEcon #climate #econtwitter #ncstate

https://ncsu.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Embed.aspx?id=52fa9005-87b0-4983-ac4f-aef600ac7476
https://www.treeseminar.com/event-details/nora-pankratz-fed

I was in a cafe this afternoon completely absorbed & befuddled looking at some results in Stata that were exactly the opposite of hypothesis (not null, but opposite). I was entranced with fascination. A neighbor saw me in there evidently & told my wife later that I looked super stressed & said he'd invite me over for a whiskey.

But it's *very* hard to find the spray here- only Costco carried it for awhile then it switched to Sam's Club (no membership required to get the vaccine)

These super-scientific results confirm my suspicion that a very small % opt for the nasal spray. I like the spray b/c of something I read awhile back on NPR about mucosal immunity being cross-protective against other viruses:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/10/08/917831035/could-the-live-flu-vaccine-help-you-fight-off-covid-19

Just curious: Of those who've gotten their flu vaccine, which type did you get? (I already got mine, so this isn't to inform my own decision.)

This is a fascinating long piece about how improving the cost-effectiveness of randomized controlled clinical trials is essential for realizing the full value (& minimizing risks) from the biotech revolution:
https://www.statnews.com/2022/11/03/why-were-not-prepared-for-next-wave-of-biotech-innovation/

Been enjoying getting more deeply into global sensitivity analysis for a paper I'm writing with a student. When I was working on a model during my own PhD, I definitely viewed this as perfunctory (& boring) - in our current project, though, it actually provides the main outcomes/results from the work