Malaika D'Souza

Once branded the world's unluckiest city, Christchurch is now the 'capital of cool' Our second biggest city is experiencing the type of revival that should make the rest of New Zealand envious.

Every "Christchurch is cool now" article is illustrated with a photo of a pedestrianised street with a tram, meanwhile every local election the discourse is like "rip out the cycle lanes, then turn the botantic gardens into a car park? It's worth a least considering"

www.rnz.co.nz/news/thedeta...

When she was just 26 Florence Merriam wrote the first guide to birding with binoculars in 1889. And she slipped in this incredible feminist gem:

Queen Anne's Lace with a dragonfly and 'Jack go to bed at noon' seedheads. All painted in watercolours.

I wanted to paint Queen Anne's Lace.
Thought it would be a good idea. Turns out this is not true.

I placed a dragonfly on it (much easier) and surrounded it with 'Jack go to bed at noon' (much easier).

Now I'm just content to grow it.

It is not a political statement to note the fact that science enhances our well being, expands our knowledge of the world, and drives economic growth 🧪

This may also be true for sciences.

re: genAI placeholders
-good placeholders are blatant enough there's no risk of leaving it in release
-using gazillion dollar anti-environment tech to meet the nonexistent problem of throwaway placeholders is like buying tanks to crack peanut shells, it's very not a problem and that's not a solution

Infectious Disease Modelling starter pack update! Many more modellers have joined Bluesky recently so this update is overdue. Pls keep on sending suggestions! (bio should contain experience relevant for this pack)
IDModelling pack 1: go.bsky.app/86Ao1a5
IDModelling pack 2 : go.bsky.app/2oBB7KX

the main function of an LLM ai is to produce *plausible human output*

someone who tries out chatgpt and comes back saying it's useful is a bit like someone who visits a psychic and comes back saying they're legit

it shouldn't be surprising that something intended to trick people can trick people

Spotify CEO, Daniel Ek, becomes chairman of Al military start-up after €600 million investment

Parasite becomes aggressive.

Sure all the musicians looking at our £0.0003 Spotify payouts for our work are delighted this is what our fans’ money went towards instead, and the fans equally pleased.

Artists are always very in favour of war, traditionally.

bird

NEW SCIENCE! 🚨🚨🚨🧪🪶🌐
Our paper is now online at @natecoevo.nature.com! “Geographic redistributions are insufficient to mitigate exposure to climate change in North American birds”. We know birds are moving north with climate change, but what are the consequences?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

tried this on Firefox and it works perfectly!

Light tuned to the avian eye elicits early detection and escape from an approaching aircraft | royalsocietypublishi... | Royal Society Open Science | #ornithology 🪶

Economical Louisiana crawfish farming are the product of government and university research and instruction materials and consultation provided free of charge. They control 90% of the market. Be sure to mention this to your relative at the crawfish boil.
youtube.com/watch?v=v5BL...

Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution The purpose of these awards is to provide support for students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs with a plan to perform research in ecology and evolution. While we will consider all projects in ecolo...

Cool funding opportunity for a new PhD student in ecology or evolution. www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...

The Flanderization of ghibli in the public mind is just so insane to me. Acting like it’s entirely wholesome and cutesy but is really overtly anti capitalist, depict the horrors of war and environmental decline, and have TONS of body horror and depictions of death and disease. it legit annoys me

Every businessy guy I have ever met who finds out about Crash Course tells me that we're not just decreasing our revenue by not building a paywalled business, we're also decreasing our impact. This is wrong...and this video shows why.

complexly.info/CCcoin25-6

Sorry everyone, turns out it's too hard to go to Mars. Instead we're bringing Mars to you. It's gonna be desolate and shitty here now

But here's the part that most ignore. Both energy and water would be scarce on Mars, so humans there would need to live in a way that minimized usage of both.

Most of the people advocating for colonizing Mars absolutely refuse to live that way. (9/)

Was overjoyed to help host one of my scientific inspirations, @neilshubin.bsky.social as the invited speaker for this year! Also had my books signed :)

🌊 Fully-funded graduate opportunity! Join Apoqnmatulti'k (Mi'kmaw for "we help each other") to study gaspereau movements in the Bras d’Or Lake through @dalhousieu.bsky.social. Work with Mi’kmaw, local, & western scientific knowledge systems. www.apoqnmatultik.ca/new-blog/msc...

Toxic positivity, be damned, Herman Hesse reminds us that true optimism is not the denial of suffering. It is the will to perceive beauty amidst the suffering, and to conceive compassion despite suffering: “because the world is so full of death and horror I try again and again to console my heart and pick the flowers that grow in the midst of hell“

From @yepicurus on instagram

My drawing below illustrates the importance of spatial ecology for stability: if we ignore space, it's like everyone dancing on the tip of a pin. When space is included (and complex dynamics, too), diversity is easily sustained.