Albert Cardona

How does the brain work? Someday, we'll figure it out. 
Group Leader, MRC LMB, and Professor, University of Cambridge, UK. 
#neuroscience #Drosophila #TrakEM2 #FijiSc #CATMAID #connectomics #connectome #vEM #iNaturalist #entomology
 Born at 335 ppm. 
Brains, signal processing, software and entomology: there will be bugs.

Public Key

npub1fg672rmxdzphzhahf2nqt4prsey4xqw69gqj88rheyhnggf3j0sqpr04nu

NIP-05 Address

albertcardona_at_mathstodon.xyz@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsy5d09panx3qm3t7m54fs96s3cvj2nq8dz5qfrn3mujte5yyce8cqpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qz9thwden5te0v35hgar09ec82c30wfjkcctefhlsnk

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

ditto.pub/relay

Author Public Key

npub1fg672rmxdzphzhahf2nqt4prsey4xqw69gqj88rheyhnggf3j0sqpr04nu

Show more details

Last Notes

2024-09-23 13:58:40

17 PhD positions are available in the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Training Network “INCITE– Insect Clock Initial Training Experience”.
Distributed throughout Czech Republic, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Poland, Israel, United Kingdom.
Application deadline: 15th of October, 2024.
https://jobs.bc.cas.cz/en/detail/216
"Our network researches insect chronobiology with the aim of developing applications in insect production for feed and food, pest control, as well as basic research. We investigate the circadian and annual clocks, diapause, seasonality, sleep, endocrinology, circadian physiology and chrono-metabolism using combinations of established insect model species (i.e. Drosophila melanogaster) and emerging models, pest species, and economically important or beneficial insect (aphids, linden bugs, bumble bees, moths and butterflies, black soldier fly, houseflies, cockroaches)."
#PhDPosition #PhD #insects #neuroscience #Drosophila #pests #circadian_clock #circadian_rhythm

2024-09-10 11:30:40

- reply

@npub1lv4…ru5g This photo has lots of Nausicaä energy ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausica%C3%A4_of_the_Valley_of_the_Wind_(film)

2024-09-03 14:56:20

Tenure-track group leader positions open at King's College London in "developmental neuroscience, defined broadly."
https://devneuro.org/cdn/content/pdf/TTGL_Sept24.pdf
Deadline is 23:59 BST on 25th September 2024.
#neuroscience #PhDJobs #Devbio

2024-08-12 08:50:50

When will #Firefox make the "Copy link without site tracking" the default? And relegate the default to "Copy link as is" or "Copy unsafe link"?

2024-08-07 12:19:12

There are more and more papers published as CC-BY. This means any journal can republish them if they so choose, with attribution; and what's more, can re-review them as they please, and publish the reviews alongside, if they so choose.
Why this isn't happening is worth considering. After all, ensuring that highly cited papers pass muster is but a step before attempting replication.
#academia #ScientificPublishing

2024-07-27 23:26:13

The deserts of Cambridge, Massachusetts (left). Species diversity approaches zero.
The jungles of Cambridge, Massachusetts (right). A two-meter wide band along each riverside. Hundreds of invertebrate species.
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/861/030/518/822/108/original/f7911a090aaaa904.png
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/861/034/511/503/531/original/9272846a665e4a9b.png

2024-07-24 03:41:48

#iNaturalist reached 200 million verifiable observations. Yowza!
https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/97048
About half of them in North America.

2024-07-17 15:25:39

- reply

@npub1zdp…vqv8
There's a saying in Spanish for that: "piensa el ladrón que son todos de su condición" (thieves believe everyone is stealing).

2024-07-12 19:05:06

“100 years of Drosophila research and its impact on vertebrate neuroscience: a history lesson for the future”, by Hugo Bellen et al. 2010.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn2839
Would be amusing to update with all the recent connectomics work in fly.
#Drosophila #neuroscience

2024-07-12 15:11:06

People "reacting" to an email and me receiving an email with "like <surname, name> reacted to your email": most of the world does NOT use Microsoft Outlook online, even if your professional circles do. Also, arguably such a "reaction" can come across as unprofessional.
#OldManYellsAtCloud

2024-07-04 20:13:30

“Tastes like cake”, says my son. And it should: celebratory bread baguettes made with egg, single cream and 1 tbsp of panela sugar.
May we wake up tomorrow in a country with less istrionic, less cartoon villain, less incompetent, less cruel politicians in government.
#ToryDeathParty #UK #YeastMasters #baking
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/730/033/150/122/022/original/3cdca904ba905b58.png

2024-07-04 14:54:33

- reply

@npub19d9…f02p
Someone at the #ToryDeathParty surely will obligue.

2024-06-25 08:13:56

Tanacetum parthenium
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/225054728
#Bloomscrolling #BloomZoom
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/676/234/913/677/471/original/a1c10ce9bf32317f.mp4

2024-06-24 14:15:44

Turns out there is one single observation of Spilomyia graciosa – a wasp-mimicking hoverfly, a #Syrphidae – in the whole of #iNaturalist, from 2021, and that it was done by myself. The colored pattern on the eyes is wild:
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/717804-Spilomyia-graciosa
#Diptera #entomology #insects #flies

2024-06-22 09:03:06

#Mosstodon
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/659/459/711/679/821/original/2b29b854b5396460.png

2024-06-22 07:16:37

Ichneumonid wasp ovipositing on a lavender flower – there must be an insect larva or caterpillar inside the flower bud.
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/224254567
#iNaturalist #Hymenoptera #parasitoids #wasplove #entomology #insects
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/659/041/289/562/753/original/58942dd46ba96ba2.png

2024-06-19 20:33:04

"Changes in wing morphology rather than wingbeat kinematics enabled evolutionary miniaturization of hoverflies", by Le Roy et al. 2024
https://elifesciences.org/reviewed-preprints/97839
#entomology #Syrphidae #hoverflies #evolution

2024-06-16 12:07:24

- reply

@npub1zdp…vqv8
"Here is what you need to know" is like a giant red flag, part of a new language and culture that makes marks out of those who don't know it.

2024-06-16 07:08:35

"Beyond prediction error: 25 years of modeling the associations formed in the insect mushroom body", a review by Barbara Webb 2024.
https://learnmem.cshlp.org/content/31/5/a053824.short
#Drosophila #neuroscience #LearningAndMemory

2024-06-14 19:57:58

It’s a fly-eats-fly kind of world.
Ballon fly predating upon another fly.
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/222703747
#iNaturalist #Diptera #entomology #insects
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/616/738/305/580/080/original/8de234a5ff59675b.png

2024-06-14 10:34:09

Hard to argue the conclusion of this paper isn't right.
#ChatGPT does not hallucinate (non-standard perception experience unrelated to the world), and does not confabulate (fill in a memory gap). Instead, it soft bullshits:
"Bullshit produced without the intention to mislead the hearer regarding the utterer’s agenda."
"ChatGPT is bullshit", Hicks et al. 2024 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5

2024-06-10 09:56:03

- reply

@npub1knz…c73p
Thanks for voicing a sentiment that seems to be shared by many. What a missed opportunity.

2024-06-08 10:28:34

"impending loss of global linguistic diversity"
"We are approaching a cultural catastrophe of unknown dimensions ... the loss of between 50% and 90% of the languages spoken by humanity."
https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/perdua-diversitat-linguistica-mundial-opinio-glidi/

2024-06-01 12:38:43

- reply

@npub1ks7…eg5u
The movie adaptation (1989) of the novel is quite moving: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelle_the_Conqueror

2024-05-28 13:42:41

Crane fly o’clock.
#Diptera #craneflies
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/518/996/996/044/918/original/94f3c46184d8bfd0.png

2024-05-19 06:58:46

An unusual fly: red-belted hoverfly, Brachypalpoides lentus – a sawfly mimic. The larva is yet to be described. About 20 observations in the whole UK; 172 globally.
From Hyde Park, London (June 2023). Standing right next to Peter Pan's statue.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/166374417
#iNaturalist #Diptera #entomology #insects #flies
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/466/448/202/503/539/original/4ac2a15b98c193de.png

2024-05-18 21:27:35

Surprise observation this afternoon: Homotropus sp. An ichneumonid wasp, about 5-6 mm long.
There are only 8 observations world wide.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/216551306
#iNaturalist #Hymenoptera #entomology #insects #wasplove
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/464/202/716/645/123/original/c54a6126aaf1dbbf.png

2024-04-29 20:18:06

- reply

@npub14k2…ed68
The Bromeliad trilogy is a great starting point with Pratchett: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nome_Trilogy

2024-04-21 17:25:30

I had forgotten camera SD cards have limits. Just reached "Camera full" for the first time – it's a 128 GB SD card, with nearly 50,000 12 MP photos and some videos. 99% of invertebrates, largely insects: 6478 of 7155 observations at #iNaturalist https://www.inaturalist.org/lifelists/albertcardona?view=tree&details_view=observations , of which the last ~5000 were done with this camera.

2024-04-08 00:03:21

On wasps:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/07/in-defence-of-wasps-misunderstood-insect
By Paul Hetherington #BugLife
#wasplove

2024-03-29 17:02:48

The web, unfiltered, is a pile of nonsense. Exhibit A, the Science magazine web page.
The content seems almost like an afterthought.
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/180/047/707/124/012/original/c0c21df9746079e7.jpg

2024-03-29 12:11:25

- reply

@npub1ks7…eg5u
The archive has a "text" version but surely the equations aren't typeset properly. Given the current crop of OCR software, likely typesetting will be a labour of love.

2024-03-29 10:55:23

- reply

@npub1ks7…eg5u
"The absolute differential calculus" book by Levi-Civita:
https://archive.org/details/TheAbsoluteDifferentialCalculus/page/n5/mode/2up

2024-03-25 09:38:46

- reply

The leaf-cutter bee Megachile roeweri is declared as "Data Deficient (IUCN)" and therefore it's threat status is undefined. Let's see if further contributions to #iNaturalist can help clear this.
https://eunis.eea.europa.eu/species/319855

2024-03-24 07:41:38

- reply

@npub19d9…f02p
Same here! To be fair I re-read them multiple times.

2024-03-23 22:48:56

- reply

@npub19d9…f02p
The art of non-commital yet encouraging speech as mastered by an ambassador. It's a famous passage indeed.

2024-03-23 01:05:56

Every reference photo of the leaf-cutter bee Megachile roeweri at #iNaturalist was unwittingly contributed by me. Thanks to the identifiers for picking up the species; makes my memories of last year's Crete Drosophila neuroscience meeting even sweeter – all are observations from the grounds around the Crete Orthodox Academy at Kolymvari, Crete Island, Greece.
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/433924-Megachile-roeweri
#Hymenoptera #entomology #nativebees #bees #Greece

2024-03-18 22:20:23

What new fresh hell is this:
Fire Weather Watch
A FIRE WEATHER WATCH MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS MAY OCCUR. LISTEN FOR LATER FORECASTS AND POSSIBLE RED FLAG WARNINGS.

2024-03-17 22:26:04

#SilentSunday #BloomScrolling #UK
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/113/376/155/226/484/original/769f08bb1ccd6718.jpeg

2024-03-17 13:23:59

- reply

@npub1aeu…e9j4 @npub1qzc…yetl @npub1msr…rr6j
Not to speak of the personal relationships with store keepers and regulars that one meets there, at the small, specialized shops, lasting many years, even lifetimes. The sense of community and connection is enormously fulfilling, the interactions enriching and warming.

2024-03-15 16:40:35

- reply

@npub16nf…q6as
If the authors couldn't be bothered to read it, one wonders why would anyone be. The paper, then, is no longer published to be read, but to be a token of academic promotion. Changing the incentives that led to this outcome is getting urgent.
#ScientificPublishing #academia

2024-03-14 06:50:38

Decoding honeybees’ waggle dance:
“Dynamic antennal positioning allows honeybee followers to decode the dance”, by Anna Hadjitofi and Barbara Webb 2024.
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(24)00220-3
Couldn’t be any other way: the bees’ nest is pitch dark!
#neuroscience #honeybee #bees #WaggleDance #entomology

2024-03-11 15:12:10

Andrena niveata, a micro-mining bee. With two beautiful white bands on its face.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/165385974
Turns out I unwittingly reported, one year ago almost to the day, the only observation in the UK, and one of the 4 observations in the whole of Europe, the other 3 being in Belarus. Thanks to the anonymous iNaturalist identifier for the ID – I had only narrowed it down to subgenus Microandrena.
#iNaturalist #Hymenoptera #nativebees #bees #entomology #insects #Andrena #MicroAndrena
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/077/683/599/754/317/original/c512c703d5e220cd.png

2024-03-11 09:30:15

@npub1jgk…7trd is hiring:
PLOS Biology - Associate or Senior Editor – 6 month fixed-term contract
https://us232.dayforcehcm.com/CandidatePortal/en-US/plos/Posting/View/565
Front Section Senior Editor – 12 month fixed-term contract
https://us232.dayforcehcm.com/CandidatePortal/en-US/plos/Posting/View/561
Editorial Research Associate – 12 month fixed-term contract
https://us232.dayforcehcm.com/CandidatePortal/en-US/plos/Posting/View/493
All other jobs at #PLoS, including software engineering jobs, marketing, and others:
https://us232.dayforcehcm.com/CandidatePortal/en-US/plos
PLoS is based in Cambridge, UK, but a number of roles are remote.
#FediHire #academia #ScientificPublishing

2024-03-10 19:31:00

#Bloomscrolling #SilentSunday #UK
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/073/048/668/414/839/original/dee569be0888bbe2.jpeg

2024-03-10 12:16:17

Witness #Catalonia in bloom.
Translation:
“Bringing color to a rainy day, white over white, almond trees and white-wall rocket, a great feast for bees.”
By Ramon Sunyer https://mastodont.cat/@ramonsunyer/112065315566907116
#Bloomscrolling #ametllers #AlmondTrees
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/071/321/546/752/092/original/32fab3043155879e.jpeg

2024-03-07 22:48:06

Remember: don't use dynamite plots.
https://simplystatistics.org/posts/2019-02-21-dynamite-plots-must-die/
#statistics #plotting #RStats

2024-03-06 14:01:59

Pity the life of those whose job is to have meetings. But don't pity the life of those whose job is to make others have meetings when there's nothing to discuss. Please don't do that. Don't forget what the mission is.
"This message is to invite you to attend a meeting for the <deleted>, which will be held online at <deleted> tomorrow, Thursday 7th March 2024."
"We don’t have any specific agenda items to address, but thought this would be a good opportunity to catch up on any issues <deleted> have."
#academia

2024-03-05 16:50:13

- reply

@npub153s…cvd9
At the same time that the European Research Council proposes to double its investment: https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/statement-erc-scientific-council-next-eu-FP

2024-03-04 22:58:56

Spring in #Pembroke1347 #UK
A few observations among many, all within about 15 minutes of crouching down by a single flower bush, today.
Lispocephala brachialis fly, in brown-resdish and blue colours.
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/201271797
Hairy-footed flower bee, Anthophora plumipes. A male, in gorgeous yellowish-orange fur.
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/201272424
Ichneumonid parasitoid wasp, its antennae as long as its whole body.
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/201272499
Oxytelus sp. rove beetle, its silky wings unfolded.
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/201272638
#iNaturalist #Diptera #Hymenoptera #Coleoptera #nativebees #flies #bees #beetles #parasitoids
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/039/895/494/856/378/original/9b3787e2d5222253.jpeg
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/039/895/490/943/262/original/60632043b656663b.jpeg
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/039/895/577/746/444/original/1079f733431c09c8.jpeg
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/112/039/895/643/006/684/original/5989a26b903556ce.jpeg

2024-03-02 10:13:25

X-ray microscopy of fossil parasitoid wasps to study the evolution of echolocation for finding hosts:
"†Kryptovelona carstengroehni gen. et sp. nov. and †Orussus juttagroehnae sp. nov. are the first female members of the parasitoid wasp family Orussidae recorded from Baltic amber. We describe them, including relevant parts of the internal anatomy examined with synchrotron scanning. The fossils display a number of modifications in the antennae and foreleg correlated with the specialized host-detection mechanism, and in the ovipositor apparatus, as well as in the thorax and abdomen for accommodating the internalized ovipositor."
"By comparing the new Baltic amber taxa with †Cretorussus, it is possible to trace the progressive refinement of the echolocation mechanism through reductions in the number of antennomeres and foreleg tarsomeres."
Vilhelmsen et al. 2024
https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae021
#wasplove #fossil #FossilFriday #Hymenoptera #parasitoids

2024-03-01 11:46:31

- reply

@npub1ks7…eg5u
A sentiment echoed a century later by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, with "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

2024-02-29 19:27:19

- reply

@npub1l7h…c2mg
"More than one in 10 graduate students and postdocs in the health sciences at Harvard University experiences food insecurity, a study has found. Researchers surveyed 1745 early-career researchers in 2023, finding that 17% of graduate students and 13% of postdocs consume food of inadequate quality or quantity because of a lack of money or other resources. Rates were even higher—approximately 25%—among graduate students who identified their race as other than white or Asian and those who were the first in their family to attend college."
#academia

2024-02-26 10:25:19

2 open postdoc positions for insect vision scientists at Mikko Juusola's lab in Sheffield, UK, in collaboration with Aurel Lazar at Columbia University:
"Elucidating the functional logic of 3D vision circuits of the #Drosophila brain"
1. https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DFY229/research-associate-in-genetics
2. https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DFS895/research-associate
And soon they'll advertise for a third position.
#neuroscience

2024-02-17 12:14:08

“The Fraud of Plastic Recycling”
https://climateintegrity.org/plastics-fraud
“The majority of plastics cannot be recycled. They never have been and never will be.”
#EcosystemCollapse #Recycling #PlasticPollution

2024-02-15 22:12:58

Not having watched TV in years, decades even – since I left my parents' home at 18 years old – it's quite the show to receive every year a letter from the #UK TV licensing scheme all but threatening me with thousands of pounds in fines if I don't purchase a license. Every time I say no, and then it tells me, many who say no actually need one, are you sure you don't want to be fined?
Who runs this aggressive racket? How can this system be endorsed by any public institution?

2024-02-13 10:30:51

- reply

@npub19d9…f02p
Indeed the power differential and information asymmetry plays out no matter what.
A model that comes to mind is the French one, where scientists enter the system young and get what appears to me, as an outsider, permanent jobs, and then work their way through the system as they can or want. As long as costs of living are low compared to incomes, which are modest, the system seems to work, even if there are still steep access and power differences between the junior and the senior, with the latter having far too much power over the juniors.

2024-02-11 21:25:44

- reply

@npub1typ…c8hh @npub14mp…zp26
Pay 1% of their income now, or an unknowable large double-digit percent in the near future. Seems like a bargain.
#ClimateChange #GlobalWarming

2024-02-11 16:20:45

- reply

@npub19d9…f02p
That's all that's left? Can confidently call it success.

2024-02-10 22:05:52

- reply

@npub19d9…f02p
Steamed and with butter does sound far more cake-like. Sounds like an hors d'oeuvres – will try.

2024-02-10 22:00:38

- reply

@npub19d9…f02p
Artichokes: trimmed, then quartered, then further sliced thinner, then fried in olive oil and salted – my favourite snack. Like French fries but without potatoes, and crunchy and sweet and bitter at the same time. Delicious. https://irreductibles.cat/2014/carxofes-fregides/
But surely if this is to replace a cake then artichokes will be processed in some other form ... curious to know.

2024-02-10 12:45:14

- reply

@npub16nf…y96v
Figure 3 on the distribution of the citation concentration index, or c2-index for short, is quite interesting.
#ScientificPublishing
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/111/907/239/914/108/455/original/f5e4b71fe1579279.jpg

2024-02-10 12:24:01

#FijiSc being prepped to run on #Java 21: give it a try and please report any issues. See the post by Curtis Rueden at the image forum:
https://forum.image.sc/t/jaunch-a-new-java-launcher-test-fiji-with-java-21/92058/1
#java21 #ImageProcessing #Bioimage

2024-02-07 16:42:21

- reply

@npub1utf…xze5 @npub170h…pemy @npub1ppr…4kld @npub1asp…3z5s
The scenarios are really something. Fascinating read.

2024-02-06 22:48:22

- reply

@npub1zdp…vqv8
Is that for the US? Seems very low. Not that retirement age of 70 isn't abominable, only surprised at the life expectancy values, which are mostly around 80 for most western countries.

2024-02-05 13:32:24

- reply

@npub19d9…f02p @npub1sy9…hnku @npub1skv…aky3
I have had postdocs and PhD students from my lab publish work with other labs and I did not attach my name to the author list – to me that'd be bizarre. If funding is to be acknowledged then it is so in the Acknowledgements section, or with the postdoc's affiliation, or both. My view is that an author is someone who contributes actual work – intellectual or manual or both – as reported in the paper.

2024-02-04 12:38:40

- reply

@npub1zdp…vqv8
I could really use a third hand.

2024-02-03 10:39:09

- reply

@npub1uqt…3ees @npub1g0t…tvm4
Last night a retired UK state school teacher was telling me, over her decades as a teacher she has seen the primary school curriculum narrow and shrink, nowadays it's all about math and testing, and barely little else. Because if the school kids do badly on the tests, a regulatory agency labels the school "unsatisfactory" and it's only downhill from there.
Too many kids per class, too narrow a focus on a few subjects, no emphasis on good.writing and eloquence and expressing oneself, lack of subjects that would develop critical thinking skills. Was grim to hear it from someone who was in it from Thatcher's time to now, witnessing the effects of continued funding cuts and the narrowing of the curriculum, pushing aside the humanities and focusing on skills that, presumably, make good, docile office workers.
#UK

2024-02-01 22:23:53

Arcadia is innovating in publishing: witness this manuscript by @npub1all…0evx et al. 2023
"Phenotypic differences between interfertile Chlamydomonas species" https://research.arcadiascience.com/pub/result-chlamydomonas-phenotypes/release/6
Includes a methods-first approach, aiming at easing how the data was acquired and to make it reproducible. With figures that contain animations without being videos, feeling very natural to the medium (a webpage).
And importantly: no "authors", but "contributors", listed AT THE BOTTOM, in a table sorted in alphabetical order by surname, alongside the role of each contributor. Laudable, and clear. No more first-author last-author nonsense.
And love starting with a section titled "Purpose" and ending with another titled "Next steps". Explicitly embedding the work into the broader stream of science.
#ScientificPublishing #ArcadiaScience

2024-02-01 14:30:59

- reply

@npub1uw8…88kr
Blender video editing interface is surprisingly simple.
Also: if all one wants is to cut video snippets, or speed them up, or concatenate them, the simplest interface I've found is plain old ffmpeg from the command line. An easy way to compose ffmpeg commands is with the help of this web: https://ffmpeg.lav.io/

2024-02-01 14:21:11

- reply

@npub1uw8…88kr
OpenShot and AviDemux are reasonably basic, will let you edit, cut and paste videos.
OpenShot:
https://www.openshot.org/screenshots/
AviDemux:
https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/how-to-use-avidemux-for-video-editing
Otherwise, the video editing tab in Blender is rather straightforward. It's like a simple video editor embedded in an otherwise extremely powerful and complex software.

2024-02-01 13:42:01

"In the 1970s, working at the University of Maryland, Daly pioneered the field of ecological economics, which models the biophysical reality that delimits all economies. “The human economy,” wrote Daly, “is a fully contained wholly dependent growing subsystem of the non-growing ecosphere” — a commonsense observation that amounted to heresy in mainstream economics."
https://theintercept.com/2023/10/29/william-nordhaus-climate-economics/
Reminds me of the divide between psychologists and cell biologists when it comes to neuroscience.

2024-01-30 09:26:07

An act of resistance is to teach your own child to mend clothes, to shop seasonal groceries, to cook a meal, to tender a garden, to ride a bicycle, to observe the procession of the seasons, to dress for the weather.
Instead of buying new clothes, pick up ready to go meals, drive everywhere, keep a constant temperature on the house.
What a strange world we live in. As if we've taken nature for granted. And forgotten our past. And forsaken our future.
#EcosystemCollapse #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #RightToRepair

2024-01-29 23:14:13

- reply

@npub1ylv…99ys
Taras Grescoe @npub1yzt…qh0x has an article out on the #LongNow foundation about seed banks, concluding, after seeing Siria’s and Ukraine’s ancient seed banks reduced to smithereens, and Svalbard’s threatened by climate change, that the real deal is in what we eat, i.e., the seeds that we keep replanting, therefore arguing for wildly diverse diets and against vast monocultures, the latter also susceptible to plagues and demanding environmentally damaging levels of fertiliser and pesticides.
https://longnow.org/ideas/to-save-it-eat-it/
#SeedBank #EcosystemCollapse #ClimateChange

2024-01-29 19:28:52

The amount of kids, all boys, in emergency room for head concussions from playing sports – it's scary. Mostly rugby. Why isn't this sport banned in schools yet? The long-term brain damage is well documented.
#UK

2024-01-23 22:54:05

"The brain: what for?" – my seminar for "everyone else" at the #MRCLMB. Featuring brainless maggots and more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcZwH5MYkFU
#neuroscience #ScienceForEverybody

2024-01-23 22:43:45

"The data double standard", by Binley & Bennett 2023
"Sources of error and bias ... are found equally in data collected through both community science and conventional (professional) monitoring."
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/2041-210X.14110
#iNaturalist
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/111/807/676/415/687/408/original/bb1a52e30d1527fa.png

2024-01-23 16:03:28

- reply

@npub1utf…xze5
I.e., Florida. The academic exodus is well underway.

2024-01-19 13:36:35

- reply

@npub1skv…aky3
Tuning it to the answers – would be lovely to find an RNN simulator similar to thisin-browser feed-forward ANN simulator: http://playground.tensorflow.org/#activation=tanh&batchSize=10&dataset=circle&regDataset=reg-plane&learningRate=0.03&regularizationRate=0&noise=0&networkShape=4,2&seed=0.93386&showTestData=false&discretize=false&percTrainData=50&x=true&y=true&xTimesY=false&xSquared=false&ySquared=false&cosX=false&sinX=false&cosY=false&sinY=false&collectStats=false&problem=classification&initZero=false&hideText=false

2024-01-15 13:07:05

- reply

@npub19d9…f02p
Oh I did. "Unfortunately, blah blah".

2024-01-15 12:40:33

Recently submitted a research grant. The online system didn't let me upload a document, asking instead to type it in (right; copy-paste!) instead. So adding figures required inserting them one by one at the right places using a rich-text widget nobody asked for.
One week before the deadline, I was ready, but upon performing the last update of the text I forgot to re-insert the figures – because of course "select all" and "paste" over removed the figures. Our research office then submitted the grant ... and now it can't be updated any further, despite the deadline still being in the future.
Would like to think it's a natural experiment in not adding bullshit graphics like a Gantt chart, but the preliminary data is missing too. Given the abysmal funding ratios, it's unlikely to have any effect whatsoever on the default answer: reject.
Grant writing is fun. It's clear chances of funding are miserable. To me, the value is elsewhere: on clarifying my own mind on what's worth doing, spell it out in detail, and then find ways to see the project through despite the lack of funding – chances are much higher if one doesn't care where the work gets done and who gets the credit. After all, what matters is adding more paragraphs to the proverbial book of knowledge.
#academia

2024-01-09 21:58:20

Course on "Quantitative Imaging: From Acquisition to Analysis"
Application deadline: January 31st
Course dates: April 1-16
Location: Cold Spring Harbor
Instructors: Jennifer Waters, @npub14mh…603q @npub1hrd…ptxx Hunter Elliott, Talley Lambert, Suliana Manley.
Financial aid is available to help offset tuition costs.
https://meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx?course=C-QICM&year=24
#microscopy #imaging #biology #bioimage

2024-01-09 15:59:17

Contra Chrome: in the style of Scott McCloud's original comic https://scottmccloud.com/googlechrome/ used to announce Google Chrome to the world back in 2008 (yes it's been over 15 years), now here is a similar comic demolishing Chrome for what it has become: a surveillance machine
https://contrachrome.com/comic/page01/
Time to install Firefox if you haven't yet: https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/new/
Remember to setup a Firefox container (right-click on the "+" to open a new tab, choose "Manage containers") for any Google service you use, and to keep all its services there, spying on themselves and not able to see anything else that you do on the web. And trivially open URLs in other containers by right-click and choosing "Open link in ..." to starve the data munching machine.
Don't forget to install the add-ons ublock-origin, Privacy Badger (from the EFF @npub1sqf…5skr) and perhaps also DuckDuckGo privacy essentials.
#Firefox #GoogleChrome #Google

2024-01-08 20:43:42

- reply

@npub1sne…m70q
Would be nice to more easily be able to switch Javascript on and off on mobile. Via add-ons like ublock-origin it's quite some clicks on mobile. And many web pages are unbearable with Javascript on.
Automatically clicking "reject all" to cookie menus would improve the web too.

2024-01-08 10:01:45

On the origin of synapses:
"The pre-synaptic machinery emerged through modification of calcium-regulated large vesicle release, while the postsynaptic machinery has different origins: the glutamatergic postsynapse originated through the fusion of a sensory signaling module and a module for filopodial outgrowth, while the GABAergic postsynapse incorporated an ancient actin regulatory module. The synaptic junction, in turn, is built around two adhesion modules controlled by phosphorylation, which resemble septate and adherens junctions."
by Arendt, 2020 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982220304887
#neuroscience #synapse
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/111/719/743/845/092/323/original/a8a7c4c1dc2fd418.png

2024-01-06 13:01:58

"Brain size scaling through development in the whitelined sphinx moth (Hyles lineata) shows mass and cell number comparable to flies, bees, and wasps", by Isabel Aksamit et al. 2023 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1467803923000968
Just as I was reminded of Suzana Herculano-Houzel's measurements of the number of cells across various vertebrate groups, the very abstract of this paper mentions the "isotropic fractionation" method invented by her.
#entomology #moths #Lepidoptera #neuroscience
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/111/709/127/073/035/465/original/d5eee89e173a3452.png
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/111/709/131/531/932/402/original/6283ba3e128d4bc3.png

2024-01-05 23:11:10

Leslie Lamport, of LaTeX fame, is a very accomplished mathematician and computer scientist with a Turing award for his work on “fundamental contributions to the theory and
practice of distributed and concurrent systems”. He just published a draft of his new book:
"A science of concurrent programs"
https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/tla/science.pdf
True to his pedagogic approach to everything he does, "The book assumes only that you know the math one learns before entering a university." Even the appendices are fantastic. Can only wish I'll remain this lucid at his 82 years old.
#multithreading #maths #LesleyLamport
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/111/705/859/598/320/538/original/9eb0e992023f0993.png

2024-01-05 21:51:38

Our work made it into the "7 medical breakthroughs that gave us hope in 2023" of #NatGeo – proud! They even chose our image of the #Drosophila larval brain neurons for the header:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/medical-breakthroughs-2023-gene-therapy-crispr-cancer-fertility
#connectomics
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/111/705/544/029/972/922/original/77c02968d88883d3.png

2024-01-05 11:47:30

Michal Olšiak, Czech sculptor, did it again. This time, giant sculptures of insects. Fascinating exhibition, wish I could go there.
Ants, flies, weevils, beetles, and more. The gallery:
https://www.idnes.cz/kultura/vytvarne-umeni/michal-olsiak-megabrouci-vystava-brouci-hmyz-modely.A240103_204921_vytvarne-umeni_kurl/foto/COC5ced1bb436_174616_3915720.jpg
(If a Czech native speaker could translate his wikipedia page to English or French or Spanish, that would be greatly appreciated: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michal_Ol%C5%A1iak )
#MegaBrouci #entomology
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/111/703/161/071/742/232/original/9d553bf8a1de3f54.png
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/111/703/161/533/422/866/original/42f64f8cf667d9be.png
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/111/703/161/886/600/908/original/609813479678b41c.png

2024-01-05 09:49:51

Several years on, this simplified advice still rings true:
"What It Takes to Think Deeply About Complex Problems"
by Tony Schwartz
1. Forever challenge your convictions.
2. Do the most challenging task first every day.
3. Pay close attention to how you are feeling.
https://hbr.org/2018/05/what-it-takes-to-think-deeply-about-complex-problems
In my own personal journey to tackle complex problems, learning to structure data and its flow through a software program, and in particular debugging, have more than taught me: it changed how I think and look at the world.

2024-01-05 09:18:34

- reply

@npub15tg…fcc7 @npub14k2…ed68
Thanks – indeed fascinating. And: we need to talk about Poland ... what's up with its high-carbon electricity? More than double that of Germany which infamously shut down its nuclear power plants prematurely.

2024-01-03 23:52:10

- reply

@npub1skv…aky3
Books by Desmond Morris ("The naked ape", "The human zoo") still fascinate my parents' generation – the lure is strong. They don't know, or remember, that most of its reported findings have not withstood the pass of time. It's hard to remember something has been debunked when that something rings "right".

2024-01-03 07:30:45

- reply

@npub19d9…f02p @npub1jzg…hc3a
There must be a British politician out there with a better plan than “managed decline”?

2024-01-02 22:21:11

- reply

@npub19d9…f02p @npub1jzg…hc3a
Isn’t that playing into what the billionaire press are saying?
Is Starmer and his cabinet really that irrelevant, or is that just what is convenient for the press barons that the British voters believe?

2024-01-02 12:15:29

- reply

@npub1zdp…vqv8
Can't help but anticipate a fly or wasp that takes advantage of the flower overgrowth and maybe even assists in spreading the fungal spores?
This paper https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/exobasidium claims the Exobasidium fungus family present molecules for "mounting a defense against insect feeding", which seems to indicate an ongoing red queen effect.
#entomology

2024-01-01 21:42:19

- reply

@npub1zdp…vqv8
"Nothing defines sense of place like the native plants that grow there. We live in an age where place almost means nothing, because in a homogenous consumer culture every place looks the same - just as ugly and bland as the rest. Killing the lawn allows us to restore that sense of place to where we live, but more importantly it allows us to grow the plants that once formed the living skin of the land that we live on, and it allows us to develop a bond and connection with the living world around us, as human beings have done for hundreds of thousands of years."
True that–deeply so. And also shows us the fauna that fed on and pollinated such plants. Living on forgotten margins of our suburban wastelands, they come back and seize any chance such as a rewilded lawn. If only we let nature do its thing.
https://www.crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt.com/kill-your-lawn
#rewild #noLawn

2024-01-01 16:52:40

- reply

@npub1fh6…zu76
Makes climate change look like approaching escape velocity. Time to cut off its fossil fuel – literally.
#ClimateChange #GlobalWarming

2023-12-28 14:11:55

- reply

@npub158j…kggs @npub1zdp…vqv8
Most insidious I've ever seen was some Nestlé baby food, where the ingredients list didn't list sugar - and the packages boasts about "0% sugar added", but the nutritional table shows ~30% sugar. The culprit? They added an enzyme to hydrolize starch, and even marketed it as "easy to digest" – the criminals.
Who would feed a baby good with 30% sugar? For reference, that's like adding 7 teaspoons of sugar to a single-portion yoghurt (125 g).
#CriminalFood
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/111/658/434/341/142/847/original/c48923fff9ffed26.png

2023-12-27 23:52:18

UK: the wind blows.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-2.37,52.73,2225/loc=-0.424,52.240
Grid Carbon app shows 64% of all electricity in the UK grid comes from wind turbines.
Now imagine every home with a small 1-2 kWh rooftop wind turbine.
#UK #WindPower
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/111/655/056/777/262/481/original/2799c46f1c815bf8.mp4
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/111/655/061/435/834/440/original/639c34652ab3ab76.jpeg

2023-12-27 13:22:21

- reply

@npub1zdp…vqv8
I could get behind that, but by that measure, the "Age of the Ants and the Flowers is a subchapter of the "Age of the Sharks" that started 400 million years ago ... which is a subchapter of the "Age of the Cnidaria/Jellyfish" that started >500 million years ago, possibly of Ediacaran origin.