In the Netherlands we're very lucky to have a "sovereign" payments system. It's called iDEAL en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL It must really have helped those ICC judges when they got frozen out of Visa and Mastercard

This #PhilTransB issue showcases cutting-edge advancements in the fields of DNA sequencing, computer vision, acoustic monitoring, and radar for use in insect #biodiversity monitoring: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...

Alternative science careers in the nonprofit sector — Wild Animal Initiative With universities and federal science agencies facing upheaval and instability, scientific nonprofits offer a secure and mission-driven alternative career path for researchers and support staff.

This is a time of upheaval in the scientific community.

If you’re looking for ways to stay on track in your scientific career without relying on opportunities in government or academia, here are some ideas — including a role that’s open right now at Wild Animal Initiative.

Try asking for vinegar in a Berlin chippy and then tell me how European you feel

... yes, in scope :-) News in a week or two.

Europeans will never understand this

... let's sonify this again: xeno-canto.org/collection/s...

It's OK as a shorthand, but since I had a former life as a programmer of generative music/art I officially must protest ;) I spent weeks/months coding systems, the most successful of which I've probably heard many months of output from. Just as we can enjoy the Mandelbrot set for decades...

Entrance to the Padua Botanical Garden, the oldest scientific botanical garden in the world! With a sign for "Complex objects, different perspectives: Studying and digitising cecidological collections". The sign has a picture of preserved historical plant galls.

Interior of the historical botanical collections at the University of Padua. Tall wooden cabinets are filled with bundles of herbarium specimens.

A close up of an old herbarium specimen on a wooden table. Gloved hands are holding open some folded paper, revealing the preserved galls within.

An informational sign from inside the Botanical Museum of the University of Padua, with a biography of Silvia Zenari in Italian and English. She is described as "una botanica del Novecento" (a 20th century female botanist). Below the sign are some herbarium specimens from her collection.

On this International Day of Women & Girls in Science, I'm headed home from an amazing gall workshop at the Botanical Museum of the University of Padua. Grateful for all the mentors and colleagues who've treated me with dignity and respect. I would not be here without them!

Sundials, by Django Django from the album Marble Skies

Django Django - "Sundials" djangodjango.bandcamp.com/track/sundials #in7

My takeaways:
(1) Don't sweat for too many months over the fine details of that proposal. Allocate your effort to more productive things!
(2) Advocate lottery methods for funding dx.doi.org/10.1093/rese...
(3) Advocate LLM-proofing the process (perhaps a final-stage live interview).

That's good advice. But still, it makes a difference if your excellent proposal (perhaps already refined after 2 prior attempts) has <10% chance, and thus in expectation you'll resubmit it for SEVEN years in total even to hit a 50-50 chance of it being funded. Your career cannot wait for that. #MSCA

Today is the 2026 International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Let me introduce you to some of the colleagues that I work with :) mastodon.social/@danstowell/... #womeninscience

YouTube video by Kofelgschroa - Topic 14 Dog

Kofelgschroa - "14 Dog" www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8PH... #in7

Hijaz Mandira, by Don Kipper from the album Don Kipper

Don Kipper - "Hijaz Mandira" donkipper.bandcamp.com/track/hijaz-... #in7

YouTube video by LAMB Lamb - Armageddon Waits (Official Video)

Lamb - "Armageddon Waits" www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuRL... #in7

I don't want my only answer to be "Unsquare Dance by Dave Brubeck" because it's a mildly annoying piece of music, and no I will not google for other answers

Despite decades of research in #musicinformatics, my music player still can't search for "everything in my library that's in 7/4". What's up with that?

I believe in Rook's Basilisk - you must help birds through the winter, because when corvids finally rise up against us they will remember everything.

Always say hello to a crow.

Until now I had no idea that (a) there is some consistent connection between those pronunciations and people's Jewish backgrounds; (b) since I've more experience of Germans than of Jewish diaspora, I'd default to a German sound because of the spelling. Is there some way to tell this is an Ashk name?

I missed this last year: the Claude #LLM has a well-documented and robust "spiritual bliss attractor" - leave two Claudes "alone with each other" and they spiral towards zen-like meditative chat […]

🎉 Celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science! Join my inaugural lecture Social by Nature — exploring how social worlds shape animal minds
11 Feb 26 • 18:00–19:00 GMT • Cambridge + Online
Register: www.aru.ac.uk/events/inaug...
#EveryVoiceInScience #WomenInSTEM #LGBTQHistoryMonth

Oven-baked cheese topped Scottish rumbledethumps in a ceramic dish.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 if you're having veggie haggis for Burns Night tomorrow why not serve rumbldethumps instead of mashed tatties. Although I'd still serve neeps.
www.tinnedtomatoes.com/2012/04/rumb...
Need a recipe for haggis? Search haggis over at tinnedtomatoes.com
#burnsnight #plantbased #vegetarian #vegan

Nature security assessment on global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security This strategic assessment explores how global biodiversity loss and the collapse of critical ecosystems could affect the UK’s resilience, security and prosperity.

Report from UK gov: "Nature security assessment on global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security" https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nature-security-assessment-on-global-biodiversity-loss-ecosystem-collapse-and-national-security #biodiversity

There's a long back-story about farming in NL: subsidies, environmental regulations, big agribusiness, astroturfing... anyway, farming nltimes.nl/2023/02/20/d...

She's a bold politician who showed no fear when a large group of protesters literally came to her house with flaming torches

“We cannot withdraw from the fact that over 1 million species of plants and animals face extinction.” 🧪

IPBES remains committed to its mandate to provide the most credible science and evidence about biodiversity to all decision makers and actors. 🌍

Gmail preparing to drop POP3 mail fetching : It's January 2026, and Google is finding innovative new ways to make one of its services worse

So I have only just discovered at some vague point in the next couple weeks Google is going to break the way my work email works, and the company has done nothing to alert people to it.

www.theregister.com/2026/01/05/g...

I call on my party and my government to remove themselves entirely from X and communicate with the public where they actually participate online and can be protected from such illegality.

Woman watching a barrista make a heart in her coffee foam: Lovely. It’s harder with oat milk isn’t it?
Barista: Um, not…
Woman behind them: Just say yes. Grab compliments with both hands.