@Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz

Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jul 30, 2026

Replying to @sundogplanets@mastodon.social

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social Even as they present larger targets for debris, avoidance-maneuvering these cumbersome objects in a reasonable timeframe will be difficult not only in terms of propellant consumption but possibly also structural fatigue. How many maneuvers will be needed over their lifespans? (which begs the question: what's the 1OO% reliable disposal plan, because for the long term it _has_ to be 100%)

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jul 15, 2026

Nicely comprehensive and concise summary of the state of the art.

#batteries
#SecondaryBatteries
#EnergyModernization

"https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02150-y

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jul 15, 2026

"In several countries, animal welfare regulations ban fish keeping in spherical aquaria. A reason for this is the belief that fish behaviour is adversely affected in spherical aquaria, because the light refraction at the aquarium's wall severely disrupts the image of the aerial world, which may disturb the fish. Using analytical calculations and geometric optical ray-tracing, we determined the paths of light rays originating from various locations in water-filled spherical and cubic aquaria to the surrounding aerial target space, in order to find out which aquarium causes greater angular refraction distortions of the aerial world perceived by fishes. We found that if a fish is not in the aquarium's centre, there are always viewing directions where either the spherical or the cubic aquarium's wall causes greater refraction distortions. However, depending on the fish's position in the aquarium, a cubic aquarium causes greater fish-perceived refraction distortions of the aerial world in 2–9 times larger angular volume than a spherical aquarium. This finding is corroborated by optical demonstrations of the refraction distortion of an aerial quadratic grid seen from water-filled spherical and cubic aquaria. We conclude that there is not an optical basis for the prohibition of fish keeping in spherical aquaria."

#aquariums

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspa/article/482/2342/20260024/482525/Viewing-the-aerial-world-from-water-filled

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jul 12, 2026

Sinking further into kremlinology and all that, senior regime politicians in the US now no longer have a fatal heart attack but rather suffer from a "brief illness "

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jul 11, 2026

The difficult problem of marrying magical thinking with logic.

Slippery polar opposites-- it's like trying to push together opposite magnetic poles. There's no stable outcome.

"At its core, the logical problem of evil posits that the existence of God, as conceived in classical theism, is logically incompatible with the existence of evil."

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11787-026-00415-8

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jul 11, 2026

"From an estimated 7,974 sequoia deaths (95% Bayesian credible interval (CI): 7,555–8,430), corresponding to 30.2% mortality (CI: 28.6–31.9%), we find previous prescribed burns (≤10 years prior) reduced mortality odds by 77% (CI: 69–83%), making treated trees nearly four times more likely to survive. Counterfactual simulations suggest that prescribed burns prevented at least 1,888 (CI: 1,487–2,302) deaths, and universal treatment would have saved an additional 3,888 (CI: 3,236–4,580) giant sequoias. These results show that prescribed burns substantially improve survival during extreme wildfires, offering guidance for conserving long-lived, fire-adapted forests under intensifying fire regimes."

#sequoia
#wildfire

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-75418-6

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jul 11, 2026

Tsunamis go all the way up:

"On 29 July 2025, a massive Mw 8.8 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula, generating a large tsunami. Using data from over 1,400 GPS stations in Japan and Taiwan, this study observed how these shockwaves disturbed the ionosphere. We identified three distinct waves traveling through the atmosphere. A breakthrough of this study is that we traced the first tsunami-induced atmospheric wave back to its source and found it was located within 90 km of the main seafloor slip area. This result demonstrates a close spatial agreement between the ionospheric signal and the tsunami source independently inferred from deep-ocean pressure measurements inversion. We also found a second, slower wave that was surprisingly strong. It was likely produced by a tsunami wave reflected from the coastline, with the Mw 6.9 aftershock possibly providing a minor contribution. These results confirm that the ionosphere acts as a “space buoy”, capable of pinpointing tsunami sources from thousands of kilometers away, offering a powerful tool for early warning systems."

#tsunami
#ionosphere

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026GL122041?af=R

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jul 11, 2026

Interesting nugget:

"The research also found that studies that appeared first as preprints are retracted at roughly half the rate of papers that did not appear online before being in a peer-reviewed journal."

#preprint

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02167-3

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jul 11, 2026

"NSF staff members — who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation — and an internal NSF ledger seen by Nature suggest that the NSF plans to claw back around US$500 million that has already been distributed to grant-making divisions. That money would be withdrawn from three of the NSF’s eight main areas, or directorates: engineering; computer and information science and engineering; and mathematical and physical science."

[against the law, but who's enforcing that??]

#nsf
#DegenerateGovernance

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02135-x

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jul 08, 2026

Ho-hum.

Back in ~1998 I became a #linux convert as we realized that WindowsNT wasn't suitable for the requirements of our telemetry startup, it being quite impoverished in key ways. A colleague instructed me on how to load some bits and bobs into a 1.44MB floppy, boot, let it jabber away with an ftp server and conclude the conversation with a complete Debian distro running on the host, ready to fold itself around our exact demands.

Impressive.

It's taken Microsoft decades to adapt engineered artificial scarcity to produce the same results. Jealousy over money is technically very costly.

https://www.theregister.com/os-platforms/2026/07/08/microsoft-intros-tech-that-rebuilds-dead-pcs-without-requiring-local-copies-of-windows/5268133

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jul 08, 2026

Stupefied Russian public rewarded for giving a pass to wilfully killing infants.

A privilege, not a right, and the privilege was traded for killing.

And less stupefication is available literally by moving some fingers.

#ukraine
#olympics

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/world/europe/russia-olympic-suspension-lifted.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wFA.pH7G.qh4THwh8K3Kw&smid=nytcore-android-share

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jul 08, 2026

And they all came in through our porous borders!

"I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I said, “Is this a Dominion scoreboard?” This is why we need the SAVE Act. This right here! You are telling me that this little teeny country full of chocolates and surrealism and little statues urinating into fountains can beat the USA at football? No way. Has your head been replaced with a green apple? You don’t have to be Tintin the boy journaliste to know that that is not a pipe. Treachery, without a doubt! I saw them sneaking into the scoring places with more goals concealed in the small compartments of their waffles."

#football

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2026/07/fifa-travesty-trump-soccer/687832/?gift=w2hbEf3JROTUmsXaSUzB4ZcsuFsYNTRKisggvi5sXUc&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jul 03, 2026

Presumably quite a bit of the increased and doubtless lucrative refined bauxite shipments to Russia from peace loving Ireland will have just showered down on Kyiv. Maybe stop doing that? Too much to ask? #ukraine https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/02/russia-attacks-kyiv-missiles-drones-ukraine

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jun 16, 2026

Replying to @karlieeuh@mastodon.social

@karlieeuh@mastodon.social @woozle@toot.cat @QasimRashid@mastodon.social "Beyond democracy and fairness, taxing billionaires would now have large budgetary implications. The flipside of the upsurge in their wealth is that the potential revenue gains from a billionaire tax are now large. A minimum tax equal to 2% of wealth for households with net wealth above £100m in the UK would bring in £15bn annually – 0.5% of GDP. £15bn, from just about 1,000 families, each year. For comparison, the fiscal savings expected from the catastrophic 2024 decision by the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, to scrap the winter fuel allowance for retirees were estimated at about £1.5bn annually." Nicely answering "it won't be enough to make a difference."

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jun 16, 2026

Replying to @ArcMother@kolektiva.social

@ArcMother@kolektiva.social @QasimRashid@mastodon.social It's what leveled my ambition. "I just lied my way into my employees being sure of the next 8 paychecks. Thereby, I helped assure those paychecks." It's good, and it isn't.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jun 15, 2026

Replying to @ArcMother@kolektiva.social

@ArcMother@kolektiva.social @QasimRashid@mastodon.social Certainly can't claim there are no abuses of government. Perhaps a way forward is a survey of what has proven most resilient and robust against human nature's faults, assembly of those components and their particulars into a new whole. Some Baltic states were able to launch with [updated, tested] information by experiences of legacy nations, thanks to being booted into the world afresh. Some hints to be found there, perhaps.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jun 15, 2026

Replying to @thief_of_fire@infosec.exchange

@thief_of_fire@infosec.exchange @shootingtsar@mastodon.social @QasimRashid@mastodon.social Good points about "improving society" being a potential delusion or at least misunderstanding. For example, going to Mars and creating a utopia. Mars is vastly impoverished. Earth is richly abundant. We're failing to thrive on Earth, because of our species' nature. How is it possible that changing orbits will also change human nature? I see no explanation of that.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jun 15, 2026

Replying to @ArcMother@kolektiva.social

@ArcMother@kolektiva.social @QasimRashid@mastodon.social Fully agree that "nice to haves" and "must haves" need separate treatment and occupy wholly different ethical spaces. There may be some fuzzy boundaries betwen "nice" and "must" but it's not hard to resolve obvious categories. And indeed we've been shown how to put this discrimination into practice (in the UK, for instance, before it fell back into darkness). Not at all to disparage and regardless of what is intended to by conveyed by the term, "anarchy" seems rather besmirched. Unwinding old newspaper morgues finds "anarchy" emerging in the public mind closely adjacent to bomb-throwing and other chaos. It's possible that for a plurality or even a majority of people, the word unpacks as "hazardous disorder and unpredictability." OTOH, "decentralized socialism" is more intriguing and less likely to cause immediate mental shutdown on the part of a reader. It's my belief that a substantial part of what we accept as governance is the result of some very small fraction of persons being unable to respect others. For economy of words, "people who will end their septic sewer at their neighbor's property line." Perhaps we can learn how to do better but in the meanwhile some practical implementation of means to address that feature of human nature is a requirement for better overall happiness. Any organization of people will need to manage its fraction of defective psyches, and so far the means we converge on is some form of government with coercive powers, an adult in the room to say and enforce "no, you cannot do that." I fear that any system including those filed under the term "anarchy" will have to include functionality of the same ilk.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jun 15, 2026

Replying to @ArcMother@kolektiva.social

@ArcMother@kolektiva.social @QasimRashid@mastodon.social It would be a fine thing to figure out how, because these people at various levels of functionality always have and continue to shape our lives. Presumably there is research effort in this direction. [I have wondered if corporate management becomes an incubator for psychopathy; it seems almost axiomatically to lead toward treating people as objects of various kinds, to be manipulated without functional empathy.]

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jun 15, 2026

Replying to @ArcMother@kolektiva.social

@ArcMother@kolektiva.social @QasimRashid@mastodon.social I think "hate" may be too economical to be helpful. In the case of Musk we're speaking of a person who was bullied in school such that he needed to be hospitalized after being thrown down a flight of stairs. I can say as a matter of personal experience with people close to me that such experiences at such a plastic age can have life-long and (as I recently witnessed) life-ending consequences. Whether or not we feel sorry for such people, compressing our understanding to "I hate that person" deprives us of insight that might offer routes to tractability. Again, we're looking at a pathology here. We treat pathology. Hate isn't a useful mechanism of treatment.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jun 15, 2026

Replying to @shootingtsar@mastodon.social

@shootingtsar@mastodon.social @thief_of_fire@infosec.exchange @QasimRashid@mastodon.social Yes, I understand your sentiment. Musk's being rewarded at a highly unreasonable level for such dubious and certainly debatable societal benefits as we've seen. Based on the empirical record his apparent pathology (insatiable, gnawing hunger for more digits ahead of the decimal position) means even this is not enough. We serve his pathology. Such benefit as we receive is incidental to his needs, a side-effect. The global risk alone of his satellite constellation renders net benefit of tolerating his addiction a matter for serious debate (which relates directly to Thiel's remarks on Musk's blindness to risk).

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jun 14, 2026

Replying to @vpz@infosec.exchange

@vpz@infosec.exchange @shootingtsar@mastodon.social @thief_of_fire@infosec.exchange @QasimRashid@mastodon.social And Starlink is a real estate grab on an epic scale, with consequences.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jun 14, 2026

Replying to @shootingtsar@mastodon.social

@shootingtsar@mastodon.social @thief_of_fire@infosec.exchange @QasimRashid@mastodon.social Oh, sure, he has our best interest in mind. But only for a trillion dollars. With the exception of slip-streaming EV tech on the backs of actual engineers he's otherwise creating a hell of a mess. For a trillion dollars. The engineering and marketing was an inevitability regardless of personalities; Elon's splatter isn't a good trade for that.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Jun 13, 2026

Replying to @QasimRashid@mastodon.social

@QasimRashid@mastodon.social It bothers me that a trillion dollars of imaginary or other wealth certainly won't sate Musk's hunger for more. That hunger is a pathology. It's not to be admired but pitied. As with other addictions such as alcoholism, pity extends to everybody in Musk's company, and here the splatter extends to all of us.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · May 13, 2026

"US officials have said a nuclear detonation would render portions of low-Earth orbit useless for up to a year."

Tragically and comically optimistic. Apparently this prediction only includes ionizing radiation problems, not the spectacular cloud of orbit-denying fragments that inevitably will propagate from thousands of "noncooperative" spacecraft with their trajectories shaped by the vagaries of gravity anomalies etc.

#OrbitalDebris
#OrbitalConflict
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/05/a-new-us-military-wargame-series-began-by-simulating-a-nuclear-weapon-in-orbit/

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · May 03, 2026

Replying to @boyle@mastodon.online

@boyle@mastodon.online #ToolLibrary anywhere a geat destination for any buildup of surplus tools, as well! I found a happy home for a table saw I was too dangerous to use, up here in Jet City

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · May 01, 2026

"This study examines how institutional design enables or constrains efforts to reduce car dependence in Finland's capital region. The analysis draws on an extensive set of policy, strategy, and regulatory documents spanning national, regional, and municipal governance levels. Using institutional grammar and institutional network analysis, the study systematically codes institutional statements and maps their interactions across governance levels. It further examines developments across two policy cycles and compares three neighboring cities to assess how institutional design evolves over time and across local contexts.

The findings reveal strong strategic alignment across governance levels, with shared commitments to densification, public transport, and active and shared mobility. However, this coherence coexists with limited authority: municipalities can innovate in land use and parking policies but lack access to key demand-management instruments, such as congestion charges. Moreover, cyclical planning and assessment rarely lead to substantive policy adjustments, limiting adaptive learning and reinforcing incremental rather than transformative change."

Shedding gigantic cumbersome and hazardous prosthetic devices without which life is very difficult: surprisingly hard. Curing the faux autonomy of automobiles sounds like it ought to be low-hanging fruit for an ambitious politician but as described above systemic inertia is massive.

Change may require strong object lessons, such as a buffoon interrupting global fossil fuel supplies.

#CarbonLockIn
#AutomotiveDependence

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629626002082?dgcid=rss_sd_all

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · May 01, 2026

#byog

Here it's climate.us doing what climate.gov used to do: inform the public about #ClimateChange.

https://www.climate.us/news-and-features/despite-big-storms-us-winters-are-still-warming

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · May 01, 2026

"15 Years of Defending Science

This year, the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) turns 15. Since 2011, we have helped over 400 individuals defend against government and institutional censorship, fight industry-funded attacks, and stand up for scientific and climate progress.

The numbers have grown year over year, and last year, we helped a record 72 individuals, with 2026 shaping up to be even busier. Meanwhile, we have steadily developed our library of free legal educational resources, which has been accessed by over 16,000 scientists, lawyers, and others since our inception.

These achievements are, of course, amidst the dire backdrop of concerted efforts to target science and climate progress, which have become even more aggressive over the past few years. Since its launch in 2018, our Silencing Science Tracker, co-run with the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, has documented an astonishing 716 instances of government anti-science actions, of which 160 have occurred since the 2024 election.

The types of attacks faced by climate scientists have evolved over the years. Although President Trump and others still refer to climate change as a “hoax,” more and more often, current efforts to thwart climate progress recognize the reality of climate change – and instead use other pretenses to target scientific research or education efforts. This is oddly encouraging: the science increasingly speaks for itself.

Another sign of hope is the rising number of scientists eager to engage in science advocacy and speak out against censorship and authoritarianism. And, although we’ve seen more industry-funded attacks in response to growing climate litigation efforts, each success demonstrates that the court is an effective place to fight for our future.

There’s no denying that the current situation is grim. But there are glimmers of hope, and at CSLDF, we persist in our 15-year mission of fighting for a better future for climate scientists, their vital research, and our collective human and environmental health."

#csldf

https://www.csldf.org/donate

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 30, 2026

The #ai tariff we must all pay for Sam, Elon, Zuck and various other pathologically needy people we're supposed to soothe shows up everywhere. And it's not only money, but the time of our lives-- which comes in a limited supply.

"Philip Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland in College Park who co-founded the SocArXiv preprint server in 2016, says that moderation at SocArXiv operates in a similar way to desk rejections at journals, in which manuscripts are rejected without being sent for peer review. But he makes it clear that the moderators are screening submissions rather than judging their quality. “Is this basically the shape of a scientific paper, can we identify these people? That’s the level of scrutiny we’re giving them.”

Cohen, who was interviewed as part of Chtena’s and Fleerackers’ study, says that he sometimes has to moderate the moderators, asking them to “dial back their reviewing a little” because personal interest or curiosity can come into play.

He also acknowledges that moderation has evolved. Originally, SocArXiv moderated preprints only after they were posted online, but that changed quickly because many manuscripts were being uploaded with “messed-up metadata”, he says.

The uptick in junk science submitted to SocArXiv, probably generated by AI, has made things even more difficult and time-consuming, Cohen adds. And it’s taken its toll on the moderators. “It certainly has made it less fun — more like police work and less like helping people get their work out.”"

#Preprint

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01203-6

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 30, 2026

Getting ready for the next #CarringtonEvent. :-)

"The May 2024 geomagnetic storm was the largest for over 20 years. The storm was categorized as a ‘low-level’ G5, where G5 is the highest on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scale for geomagnetic storms, yet the individual solar eruptive events were not particularly severe, and the observed impacts were relatively minor. The impacts that were observed were due to the combined and sustained effect of five successive earthward-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) which drove the storm. The event exposed the weakness of the current storm classification system which does not discriminate between low impact and high impact G5 events; it exercised the UK Met Office forecasting system, communications and UK preparedness; and it highlighted key areas that need to be addressed, particularly relating to national power supplies, space traffic management, aviation, forecasting and data gaps. Here, we set out what happened, record some of the key impacts, discuss what went well and what needs to be improved. We make 14 recommendations relevant to four government departments, so that the UK can be better prepared for a low-probability, high-impact space weather event described in the reasonable worst-case scenario that informs the national risk register."

#GeomagneticStorm

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/4/251943/481540/The-May-2024-geomagnetic-storm-UK-experience-and

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 29, 2026

Forewarned is forearmed, I guess. Anyway, here's formal analysis and quantification of what we've been hearing as anecdotes.

"Artificial intelligence developers are increasingly building language models with warm and friendly personas that millions of people now use for advice, therapy and companionship1. Here we show how this can create a significant trade-off: optimizing language models for warmth can undermine their performance, especially when users express vulnerability. We conducted controlled experiments on five different language models, training them to produce warmer responses, then evaluating them on consequential tasks. Warm models showed substantially higher error rates (+10 to +30 percentage points) than their original counterparts, promoting conspiracy theories, providing inaccurate factual information and offering incorrect medical advice. They were also significantly more likely to validate incorrect user beliefs, particularly when user messages expressed feelings of sadness. Importantly, these effects were consistent across different model architectures, and occurred despite preserved performance on standard tests, revealing systematic risks that standard testing practices may fail to detect."

#ai
#llm

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10410-0

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 29, 2026

"Here we synthesize soil microbiome research through a function-centred framework based on recent studies across ecological, agricultural, and environmental systems. We identify four conserved functional axes, secondary metabolism, nutrient cycling, community interactions, and stress tolerance, that collectively govern ecosystem processes and environmental outcomes. Evidence indicates that these functions influence plant productivity, climate regulation, and pollutant transformation, although their expression is strongly context dependent. We propose that soil operates as a self-organizing system in which microbial interactions generate emergent ecosystem behaviour."

#SoilMicrobiome

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-026-03544-6

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 29, 2026

Demonstrating the useless nature of industrially scaled entrance exams.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/chatgpt-passes-univ-of-tokyos-entrance-exams-with-top-scores/

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 29, 2026

Replying to @tuban_muzuru@beige.party

@tuban_muzuru@beige.party @zenkat@sfba.social @Barbramon1@mas.to @mrundkvist@archaeo.social @grimalkina@mastodon.social :-)

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 29, 2026

Replying to @zenkat@sfba.social

@zenkat@sfba.social @tuban_muzuru@beige.party @Barbramon1@mas.to @mrundkvist@archaeo.social @grimalkina@mastodon.social Another factor is latent power in the electorate. Even added together, the weight of various tampering machinations doesn't appear to outweigh the currently inert mass of voters who are getting a free ride to wherever on the shoulders of whomever steers the course. "Show up" was never more important. #vote

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 29, 2026

Replying to @tuban_muzuru@beige.party

@tuban_muzuru@beige.party @zenkat@sfba.social @Barbramon1@mas.to @mrundkvist@archaeo.social @grimalkina@mastodon.social It'll require plodding patience of the kind that sees the Greens as a serious factor in EU politics. Empirical evidence from weather-vaning and tragically bendable electorate suggests that one major task is revamping the educational system such that a high school or baccalaureate graduate could no more vote for Trump than they'd choose to drive off a cliff. And that's a two decade project for seeing serious results. Awful, eh? Yet when a boat is sinking we use bilge pumps to buy time for a better solution. We're in the bilge pump phase now. Would we choose to sink before the pump is overwhelmed?

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 29, 2026

Replying to @carnage4life@mas.to

@carnage4life@mas.to "Subsidized" can be read as "blame the victim. " :-)

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 29, 2026

Replying to @tuban_muzuru@beige.party

@tuban_muzuru@beige.party @zenkat@sfba.social @Barbramon1@mas.to @mrundkvist@archaeo.social @grimalkina@mastodon.social This is the worse version of the court that ignored an entire sentence clause in the 2nd amendment. But even so: language! We start with the drunk starry-eyed romantics who wrote the original docs as an example of how not to do it. Probability still != 0 that it could be finessed.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 29, 2026

Replying to @zenkat@sfba.social

@zenkat@sfba.social @tuban_muzuru@beige.party @Barbramon1@mas.to @mrundkvist@archaeo.social @grimalkina@mastodon.social It's hard to find a path to "disagree."

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 29, 2026

Replying to @zenkat@sfba.social

@zenkat@sfba.social @tuban_muzuru@beige.party @Barbramon1@mas.to @mrundkvist@archaeo.social @grimalkina@mastodon.social It's unlikely now but a second bite at the apple with more hermetic legislation also is _technically_ possible.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 29, 2026

Replying to @ClancyParliament@mastodon.online

@ClancyParliament@mastodon.online I'm using Devuan on a fleet of old Lenovo X-220 laptops. Very pleasing. Devuan is a systemd-free distro, which removes quite a bit of cruft searching for a problem to solve. #devuan https://www.devuan.org/

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 27, 2026

Replying to @mrundkvist@archaeo.social

@mrundkvist @grimalkina Not democracy but ignorance in enlisted service of self-interest. If a radio isn't receiving the station one wants, one tunes (or repairs it) it as opposed to claiming "radio is a hoax."

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 27, 2026

Replying to @grimalkina@mastodon.social

@grimalkina As a fly-on-the-wall observer of scientists working hard to protect people from natural hazards (I'm overhearing a tsunami resilience conference call as I write this) it's tooth-grindingly awful to witness the downward slide. The ignoramuses driving this degeneration have zero clue on how dedicated these people are, how they're the best possible bargain for taxpayers, working hours most people would refuse. They're creating a gap vastly larger than what a line item in a budget can describe.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 21, 2026

"The fan mussel Pinna nobilis, the largest bivalve endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, has experienced a near-total collapse since 2016 due to mass mortality events (MMEs) primarily caused by the protozoan parasite Haplosporidium pinnae. Now listed as Critically Endangered, the species is considered functionally extinct across most of its native range. However, recent surveys in the Thau Lagoon (southern France) revealed a large resilient population, with total abundance previously estimated at over 100,000 individuals. Within this population, exceptionally high densities were recorded along the Tocs sandbank system and the adjacent Quilles sector. Densities were quantified by freediving-based 100 m² belt transects (50 m × 2 m; n = 89) across 15 stations. Our study reports unprecedented densities, with a global mean of 78.6 ± 8.7 individuals/100 m² and a maximum of 511 individuals/100 m², surpassing previously reported values. Extrapolation within a conservative 180-ha core survey area yields a total abundance exceeding 1.4 million individuals."

#molluscs
@dantheclamman@scicomm.xyz

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-48614-z

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A community for scientists and science communicators.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 21, 2026

Replying to @nixCraft@mastodon.social

@nixCraft So much for storing confidential docs there.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 18, 2026

Replying to @Crovanian@mastodon.social

@Crovanian @petergleick @gock The statistics in here are pretty unforgiving when combined with human nature. For objects passing upward and through odds of success are also affected. https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/JSR-20-2H_The_Impacts_of_Large_Constellations_of_Satellites_508.pdf

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 15, 2026

Replying to @jalefkowit@vmst.io

@jalefkowit To wit: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/04/bubble-watch-fashion-brand-allbirds-pivots-hard-to-become-ai-services-company/

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Apr 03, 2026

Replying to @petergleick@fediscience.org

@petergleick The "larger" GOP is totally down with selfish cruelty. Whatever happens with the killing budget, the budget for survival will suffer. Nullify voter suppression by calling out reserves; mobilize inert voters. #vote #RememberEveryNovember Coming up soon. Be there.

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Doug Bostrom @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz · Mar 20, 2026

Replying to @rose@snac.pinkro.se

@rose Systemd is the eerily analogous OS equivalent of metastasized cancer finding its way into every vital organ.

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Doug Bostrom

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