Paul Sutton @zleap@qoto.org

Scientists, would you rather get a pushy, confident referee report? Or one that gently, even timidly suggests changes to your paper?

(My referee writing style seems to be timid, polite suggestions with lots of "please"s and compliments thrown in. Not sure if that's cool or not. But hey, the whole journal-referee process is totally whacked, so whatever.)

We are searching feedback from admins that have an access to their database for tracking a fedilab bug.
It's about multiple notifications in 3.22 release or error 429 for previous versions.
Don't hesitate to reply in PM. Thank you.

Yesterday Russian occupiers have committed an ecocide! The destruction of Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant is a terrible technogenic, ecological and humanitarian catastrophe.

The future of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is also at question. Water to cool off its reactors comes from Kakhovska water reservoir. #Ukraine

In a 2022 poll of 14 Arab countries, 78 percent of respondents believe the greatest threat and source of instability in the region is the United States https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/6/6/the-middle-east-goodbye-america-hello-china

📢 Funding opportunity!

We're thrilled to launch the Open Infrastructure Fund pilot, which offers 5-25k USD to projects worldwide that strengthen resilience + increase adoption of #openinfrastructure underpinning research & scholarship.

We are committed to reserving at least 60% of the funds available to applicants working in/services widely adopted in Low and Middle Income Economies (LMIEs).

Applications are accepted in both Spanish and English.

Find out more at https://investinopen.org/blog/open-infrastructure-fund-pilot-cfp/

This morning, a dam in Kherson, where most of my family comes from, was blown up, creating the worst human-made ecological catastrophe in the region since Chernobyl. As a result, 16000 people lost their homes, a dozen of towns and villages were wiped out, including a chunk of Kherson city. A huge part of Ukraine, including Crimea will lose its main source of water, the nearby nuclear power plant, the biggest one in Europe loses its ability to cool off the reactors. Local zoo was completely destroyed killing all the animals in it except the swans. Due to the flooding of a cemetery, it is feared that chances of disease outbreaks will rise. Also, because ruzzians left many minefields before retreating from the right bank of the river, these mines are now being washed away by the influx of water and will end up randomly scattered along the river bank. All of this happened in less than ONE DAY. It is not even the peak of flooding yet. Also, as I mentioned before, Kherson is being shelled by the ruschists EVERY SINGLE DAY since they retreated to the left bank of the river. Today was no exception. They shelled the city WHILE this tragedy was unfolding, WHILE people were being evacuated from the affected areas.

Russwines are like reverse Midas. Everything they touch turns into shit. I swear, everywhere they go, they bring hopelessness, despair, corruption and destruction. Absolute scum on Earth.

And here comes UN, rushing to not let us forget about the Orwellian nature of our geopolitical reality: they found it appropriate to remind us that today is "russian language day". Russian was the first language I learned and the one I use to communicate with my family, we are all phasing it out since everything that is remotely related to those genocidal orcs reminds us of how rotten this world really is.

"We thought we hit rock-bottom but then we heard someone knocking from below"
- a russian proverb that is as applicable to them today as it was yesterday and as it will be a century from now.

Over 60,000 Android apps disguised as legitimate applications have been quietly installing adware on mobile devices while remaining undetected for the past six months.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/over-60-000-android-apps-secretly-installed-adware-for-past-six-months/

@zleap That is a most excellent suggestion. Thank you Paul.

💾 Export your Instagram

✨ Import into Pixelfed

We're updating our Import feature to better support the latest IG export format, and will be rolling out later tonight!

Make sure you select the JSON information format. #pixelfed #instagramImport

One of our most popular cartoons of all time is the "Who can work in science" pie chart. We felt that it was long overdue a small update. Happy #PrideMonth everyone #LGBTQ

French authorities are now considering that using encryption (eg encrypting your harddrive, using @signalapp, educating others about privacy-preserving apps) as evidence of conspiracy and terrorism. That's much scarier than "AI" taking over the world.

https://www.laquadrature.net/en/2023/06/05/criminalization-of-encryption-the-8-december-case/

Record 106 vetos: Gov. Hobbs says 'no' to GOP bills criminalizing homelessness, ranked-choice voting https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/060623_hobbs_veto_streak/record-106-vetos-gov-hobbs-says-no-gop-bills-criminalizing-homelessness-ranked-choice-voting/
Arizona Gov. Hobbs has racked up more than 100 vetoes, rejecting Republican-backed bills that criminalized homelessness, banned ranked-choice voting, and a bill that created penalties for filming sexually explicit acts on school property - but also threatened educators with prison.
#Tucson #Arizona

The two iROSA roll-out solar panels will be installed by NASA astronauts Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg on June 9 and June 15. These will be the 5th and 6th iROSAs installed at the ISS, on the 1A and 1B power channels. See graphic below for the locations of the various iROSA panels.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/facts-and-figures
#NASA #SpaceStation #ISS #IROSA
2/n

From the article:

“Carbon dioxide levels in the air are now the highest they’ve been in more than 4 million years because of the burning of #oil, #coal and #gas.”

(HT @samlitzinger)

https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-carbon-dioxide-hawaii-warming-194da356db37ff4d465c6ffebdf0e3fb

Donald #Trump, when asked by an audience member at the #CNN town hall what he would do to “bring the cost of things down”:

“Drill baby, drill!”

#ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #FossilFuels

Unsupervised Deep Learning Can Identify Protein Functional Groups from Unaligned Sequences https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evad084 #science #evolution #biology #genome #evolgen_paper

Alzheimer's went into the textbooks with n=2

Many of you might know (or not) that Alzheimer's disease is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer who first reported that the brains of some patients with age-related dementia had "a peculiar substance" (which today we know as beta-amyloid plaques).

But did you know that he found that in exactly 2 patients that he studied before his boss put it in a 1910 textbook and coined it "Alzheimer's disease"? That substance could have been a complete coincidence! (And in that case, I guess we never would have heard about it again) ...

https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262546010/how-not-to-study-a-disease/

Republican presidential candidates are eager to appease Putin—and Putin's surely listening https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/6/2173649/-Republican-presidential-candidates-are-eager-to-appease-Putin-and-Putin-s-surely-listening?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=main&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Learn to let certifications expire when they’re no longer needed. For example, I received my second reminder email today:

“Your credential for Logical Operations Certified Virtual Educator (CVE) will expire on 2023-07-03. If you haven't already, you should start the renewal process with CertNexus.”

At the beginning of the pandemic I thought it might be useful to take a class on teaching in a virtual environment. I'm glad I did. I got lots of useful tips and advice from this course, and many of the things I learned are now automatic for me. I do them all the time, in all of my virtual course preparation and delivery.

But…

No one has ever asked me if I’m a Certified Virtual Educator.
No one has ever asked me for proof of certification.
My certificate has not “clinched the deal” with any student or business.

So…

I’m not spending money on renewal.
I’m not taking the time to study for a refresher.
I’m not taking the exam again.

Be aware, there are times when you should absolutely renew your certifications.

If there have been lots of changes in a particular domain of expertise, keep your training current. Using Certified Virtual Educator as an example, let’s suppose that VR headsets become a routine part of virtual education. That’s a significant change, and it would be well worth my time and money to get some training on how to make the most effective use of that technology for education.

Maybe next year, or the year after that. But not yet.

#callmeifyouneedme #fifonetworks

#onlinecourses #cybersecurity #informationtechnology #securityawarenesstraining

Since posting 👆 job advert, I've only been contacted by men.

If you are a woman in cybersecurity, please apply! I'm happy to offer an informal chat about the role and the team.