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knud

@knud@mastodon.social

Astronomer, #ESAEuclid developer, cares enthusiastically about #space, #urbanism, #climatechange, and #HumanPoweredVehicles

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elizabethtasker , to random
@elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

For the Astronomical Society of Australia meeting this year, we at @futuremeetings built a virtual venue with 22 (I think..!) different spaces where you can chat, watch talks, examine epic video posters, or leap off asteroid Ryugu!

This was one hell of a lot of work, but I love how it's turned out! Attendees can drop into the space via a web browser, phone app, or VR headset, so there's a super low barrier for entry.

It's online conferencing, but not as you knew it 😀 (Too cheesy? Surely not!)

One of the 10 poster halls at the venue. This one resembles a historic art gallery, with a domed ceiling and pillars that look like they're made of golden marble. The posters are pinned to the walls and free standing plinths. Many play a video version of the poster that is controllable by the viewer.
A second poster hall. This one is a round room with a domed metal ceiling and wood floor. It's larger than the other poster room, with a much more modern feel.
An avatar leaps high on the surface of asteroid Ryugu, with the Milky Way behind them.

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@elizabethtasker @futuremeetings

Wwwwow!

I want that now. How we people handled? Configurable avatars? Photo-something?

Having just come back from a Covid-infested hybrid meeting with Zoom webinar as the peak of immersiveness, and 400 ppl in person, I really REALLY want better alternatives.

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@elizabethtasker

Any chance to visit the Spatial space? Maybe even this week? I'd love to get a feel for this environment. And if we can just use it (or the approach) for other meetings.

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@elizabethtasker

It would be great to get a glimpse. Maybe not necessarily this week. Although it might be worth specifically this week.

But I might be interested in the future!

elizabethtasker , to random
@elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

I was reading one of my Japanese graded readers (stories for language learners) on the flight (since even in my 40s, being strapped into a seat is a great homework aid), and I accidentally replied to the flight attendant bringing around food in Japanese.

I may now have started an irrevocable chain of events where I’m not addressed in English again for the whole trip 😨

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@elizabethtasker

That is brilliant!

knud , to random
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

If you are an -citizen then go ! Else the totalitarians and fascists will take over.

Just do it. If you didn't find the perfect party then just vote for one where you see a lot of overlap with your positions. Perfect matches don't exist.

Or have doubts about some structures of the EU, not voting will not make that better, but worse.

Just do it!

luckytran , to random
@luckytran@med-mastodon.com avatar

This article is misleading and emboldens pandemic deniers and minimizers.

It's incorrect to say there was no science to support distancing rules.

The science absolutely shows us that increasing physical distance is associated with decreasing risk.

The nuance that is dangerously not conveyed here is that while distancing helps, 6-feet alone often isn't enough because COVID is airborne, so we need layered measures like masks and clean air too.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/06/02/six-foot-rule-covid-no-science/

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@luckytran

Like has been stated by experts about a gazillion times: protection comes from total of individual measures.

parismarx , to random
@parismarx@mastodon.online avatar

Tesla charging chief Rebecca Tinucci cut 15-20% of her team after Musk demanded it.

She felt that would justify a major Supercharger network expansion, but when she met with Musk he wanted more layoffs. When she pushed back, he fired the whole team.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-story-elon-musk-mass-100216178.html

#tesla #tech #elonmusk #layoffs #ev

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@parismarx

Just rational boss decision. Surely. Well thought through. And with a plan. Surely.

parismarx , to random
@parismarx@mastodon.online avatar

Elon Musk is betting Tesla’s future on using self-driving fantasies to boost the share price instead of building a real car business. He just gutted the teams working on the Supercharger network (right as other companies are adopting it!) and new vehicles.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/04/tesla-to-lay-off-everyone-working-on-superchargers-new-vehicles/

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@parismarx

If it is something that customers love, it's a megalomaniac CEO that also doesn't seem to care about products.

Checks out. He wanted more bots on Twitter, he wants more bot-cars for Tesla. Let's see how that works out for Twitter first...

elizabethtasker , to random
@elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

This week, we're hitting the shop floor for a big design that (I hope) will ultimately become a space for a conference.

So far... it's a doughnut.

Is this to remind attendees that they better getting running around this track to burn off eating too many pastries? We shall see...

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@elizabethtasker

Pleeeease keep us posted about the final product, the path to get there and the user experience during the meeting.

We have a paper coming out tomorrow (in PNAS Nexus) on the CO2 emissions of all astronomy conferences in 2019. They're immense and not sustainable in the future and as a depedency for communication of the field.

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@elizabethtasker

I will and yes. This started as a small product in A4E and took very long to get all data (and equally long to get it into a journal). We assessed all astro conferences and schools globally (~300 with specific data, the remaining ~60 with extrapolation).

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@elizabethtasker

Initiated by me, but led, coordinated, and pushed through over the past 2+ years by Andrea Gokus (now at WUSTL in St Louis). :-)

parismarx , to random
@parismarx@mastodon.online avatar

Apple’s Vision Pro is a bad product with an even worse vision for the future of computation.

New sales numbers prove it’s a failure, but more than that it shows the idea of tech’s inevitability is a myth. We have the collective power to stop tech that doesn’t serve us.

https://disconnect.blog/the-vision-pro-is-a-big-flop/

#tech #apple #visionpro #vr #ai

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@parismarx

So each "Cybertruck" owner and wannabe-owner bought a pair of goggles and after these 5000 that was it?

parismarx , to random
@parismarx@mastodon.online avatar

Elon Musk might say Tesla is preparing for its “next growth phase cycle,” but laying off 14,000 people after news the mass-market vehicle was canceled and sales are dropping doesn’t suggest things are going all that great.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-lay-off-more-than-10-its-staff-electrek-reports-2024-04-15/

#tesla #elonmusk #evs #cars #tech

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@parismarx

Well, making overblown promises and then cancelling them later was one of the main strategies throughout Musk's businesses.

Now claiming to survive with "robotaxis" will not help strengthen confidence in Musk.

randahl , (edited ) to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

This is the level of disinformation, Elon Musk spreads at The Dead Bird’s Graveyard:

Picture 1: Elon Musk ensures a conspiracy tweet gets 59 million views.

Picture 2: The tweet claims, 1,250,710 Texan voters have registered without a photo ID in 2024 (insinuating fraud).

Picture 3: Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson clarifies, that the actual number of newly registered voters in Texas in 2024 is only 57,711.

It took me 2 minutes to Google the facts, but of course, Elon Musk does not care.

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@randahl @carbonwoman

"Wahlbenachrichtigungskarte", and only if there's reasonable doubt about the identity of a person at the polling station they can be requested to show an id. Which I haven't had so far.

elizabethtasker , to random
@elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

I’m in the Science Museum in London… searching to find the tiny asteroid grain I smuggled in from Japan last summer!

… this is somewhat of a challenge. Grain is small. Museum big.

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@elizabethtasker

Raises hand! :-)

elizabethtasker , to random
@elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

Any tips for dealing with hayfever in Japan? The over-the-counter claritin does... zero. I was hoping it might pass in a week or so, but I remain a goopy mess.

I could... visit the doctor... but that seems like a lot of hassle compared to just asking everyone on mastodon 😉

(Japan medicine tends to be different brands, and often weaker, than the overseas counterpart. I know what I could get in the UK or US, but unsure if there's anything reasonably effective in Japan.)

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@elizabethtasker

This?

https://www.rad-ar.or.jp/siori/english/search/result?n=41293

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@elizabethtasker

Sorry, I should have written more than one word: I'm using this in this dose, though not in Japan. One tablet in the evening, not making me drowsy at all. One could up the dose to 2 if needed.

I don't know if it's above counter in Japan.

parismarx , to random
@parismarx@mastodon.online avatar

I hope this is the final nail in the coffin of the idea that self-driving cars will make any meaningful difference in transportation. It was never true, but distracted so many people from real solutions for over a decade.

Having more money than sense, Apple threw billions at a bad idea they should’ve pulled the plug on years ago.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-27/apple-cancels-work-on-electric-car-shifts-team-to-generative-ai

#apple #tech #car #transport

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@parismarx
Now they throw that money at the next hype. They did skip "crypto", right?

renordquist , to AcademicChatter group
@renordquist@akademienl.social avatar

Me: Gets PhD in animal behaviour and studies animal behaviour for 20-odd years

Random man: "I, too, have looked at an animal once in my life, I will now e-mail this woman to tell her about animal behaviour that she probably has never seen as fully and expertly I have"

Me: Puts e-mail with the mainsplaining collection

#mansplaining #WomenInScience #academia @academicchatter

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@renordquist @academicchatter

Most of us astronomers have email folders like that. Mansplaining (also to men) why we're all wrong with a tendency towards conspiracy theories.

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@tobychev @renordquist @academicchatter

In my use not. Mansplaining for me is a condescending explaining of issues to people that probably have more knowledge on the topic than the mansplainer. And it's 95% men that do this, but not exclusively.

Crank for me is someone that propagates non-scientific "science" ideas.

Those cranks that I hear of are usually also mansplainers (and men, as far as I can tell), but only some mansplainers are cranks.

renordquist , to AcademicChatter group
@renordquist@akademienl.social avatar

I very much feel this column on "slaying zombie projects"; I remember as a newly-minted PhD not understanding how it was possible to have a drawer full of unpublished data. I now have my own zombie data sets, and this take on how to deal with undead projects is a quite refreshing way to look at them.

Perhaps time to clean up some hard drives.

(sorry, in Nature, thus not OA. Moral of the story: "do, or do not, there is no try")

@academicchatter https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03958-8

knud ,
@knud@mastodon.social avatar

@renordquist @academicchatter

I've just cleaned up a 10-year old side project. Have some hardware to dispose of, wrote a blog-post style result summary instead of a full science article. Spent 2 afternoons, 1 for writing, 1 for plots. That's it. Was lingering in the back of my head for many years. Not good!

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