Dr Bob-o McNabb

@iamdonovan.bsky.social

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Glaciers. Space cameras. Sometimes 🦭. MI -> AK -> Norge -> Northern Ireland. he/him.

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ancient lizard friend

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

One issue with project 2025 destroying federal endangered species research in favor of letting university scientists do it is that they also want to destroy universities

Project 2025 would shut down research on endangered species by federal scientists.

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

Fluid dynamics is really weird.

geology is fun for everyone!

had to stop and admire the miniature channeled scablands on display on the beach

my brain still has not fully processed that this happened

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

I think about this quote from Audrey Watters' Teaching Machines a lot: "With the students of Harlem as his test subjects, [B. F.] Skinner could rescue them from a failing system and as an ed-tech savior, he could then convince the rest of the world of the effectiveness of his teaching machines."

Also known as “training your replacement.” 😩

Morehouse to be the first university to use virtual AI teaching assistantswww.axios.com The Atlanta HBCU will have AI teaching assistants this fall.

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

Academia's original sin is forcing the most knowledgeable, talented, and passionate scientists, educators, and scholars to move every 1 to 4 years chasing postdocs. The kinds of community level changes we need to fight climate change need people who can commit to those communities.

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

These are terrible human beings, and they should be kept as far away from power as possible.

As a side note, this is John McEntee, Trump's Director of White House Personnel and the primary architect of Project 2025. On Tik Tok he said he gives counterfeit bills to homeless people so they will be arrested when they go to spend them.

Bad news, @watershedlab.bsky.social

This photo is pure 2024.

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

yes, we boiled the planet, but it was worth it to make a machine that, instead of adding two plus two, takes the statistical average of every answer to questions containing "what" "is" "two" and "plus" from a database of illegal cell phone transcripts and returns a fake nude pic of a high schooler

Not field work, but I have a pair of images from near the Mendenhall visitor center from when I first visited in 2001, and again in 2014: imgur.com/a/mendenhall...

@iamdonovan.bsky.social Alaskan fieldwork images relative to this project?

Mendenhallimgur.com Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and ...

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

I first worked on this icefield in 1981. Change was expected, but the change we are reporting in 2024 is breathtaking in scale and acceleration. Project led by masterfully by @bethandavies.bsky.social, coordinating many data streams. apnews.com/article/glac...

Melting of Alaska's Juneau icefield accelerates, losing snow nearly 5 times faster than in the 1980sapnews.com A new study says the melting of Alaska’s Juneau icefield, home to more than 1,000 glaciers, is accelerating.

Good afternoon from Ireland.

Good morning ❤️

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

We just may have to come to grips with the idea we have a king, like Charles I or James II or Richard II.

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

LLMs are useless for lawyering and other tasks involving actual analysis and understanding not because the technology hasn't gotten there yet, but because that's fundamentally not what statistical word association is capable of doing. Not only can't it understand, it's not even trying to understand.

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

some things we, as a society, have recently done to teens: -traumatized them with gun violence -vastly reduced their rights to reproductive healthcare -had a moral panic about their genders -abandoned them to the ravages of covid, destroying their immune systems it's not tiktok that fucked em up

New York bans ‘addictive feeds’ for teens - https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/20/24182396/new-york-governor-social-media-law-parental-consent-algorithms

New York bans “addictive feeds” for teenswww.theverge.com States have been taking the lead on kids online safety.

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

huffington post apparently predicting that the tories will get destroyed so bad that the UK loses northern ireland entirely

N: Kinnvika, Svalbard E: Vilnius, Lithuania S: Bosque Nacional El Yunque, Puerto Rico W: O'ahu, Hawai'i

Furthest I’ve been: N: Thingvellir, Iceland E: Kiritimati Island S: Adelie Coast, Antarctica W: Oahu, Hawaii

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

End to end encryption and real user privacy protections are fundamental to protecting human rights

"Signal would not comply with mass surveillance mandates in countries where it becomes law, and while the company would fight the laws, it would “cease operations” without a second thought if there was no other choice." www.theguardian.com/technology/a...

‘You cannot do mass surveillance privately, full stop’: Signal boss hits out at government encryption-busting moveswww.theguardian.com A ‘legitimate grievance’ with big tech firms is being used by police as a pretext to undermine privacy, Meredith Whittaker says

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

Two years ago today I was part of something remarkable that still gives me goosebumps. 🧪⚒️

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

Does throwing paint on Stonehenge raise awareness of climate risks + support for climate action? @fisherdanar.bsky.social says, "confrontational climate activism has neither deterred nor encouraged the public... but increased publicity does not necessarily translate into greater public concern."

How effective are climate protests at swaying policy — and what could make a difference?www.nature.com Why people take to the streets to march against global heating is relatively well documented. But it’s unclear why certain tactics work better than others in reaching the public and policymakers. Why ...

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

As both a professional archaeologist of 10 years and a political activist, this is fucking dumb, but if this is the thing you're mad about just know that if the A303 judicial review fails this year we're going to dig a 2 mile long tunnel through the site and get it stripped of World Heritage status.

Stonehenge covered in powder paint by Just Stop Oil protesters - BBC Newswww.bbc.co.uk The move comes the day before celebrations for the Summer Solstice.

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

once again noting that if you want to do a disruptive, attention-getting climate protest, a thing you could do is shut down a prominent pro golf tournament instead of attacking priceless artistic or cultural artifacts

Environmental protesters have sprayed Britain’s most famous prehistoric structure, Stonehenge, with orange paint a day before huge crowds are expected to gather there for the summer solstice. Tap to read more: cnn.it/3KMy67A

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

If you're asking "when did The Boys get woke" or "when did Star Wars get woke" or "when did Star Trek get woke" or "when did Doctor Who get woke" or "when did X-Men get woke" it might be time to face facts: you don't have the basic mental capacity to be able to handle watching TV or movies.

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

This is 150% “a thing” in the academy. A friend of mine (WoC) recently bailed on a TT job after just 2 years for a diff Uni. She’s a rockstar, but right after hiring her they started reneging on every promise they’d made in her tenure pkg. I hope the new gig treats her better, but I’m not hopeful.

Thinking a lot about this article today after three relatively junior women, including me, resigned from my department—two of us deciding to leave academia entirely—in a little over a month.

Women ‘take 15 years more than men’ to become professorswww.timeshighereducation.com Analysis of Russell Group data says female researchers are more likely to stay at lower pay grades or to leave the sector

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

Reply to

Nathan Kalman-Lamb

“It may be *good* to take that contingent adjunct job after our dep’t cut 4 faculty lines. Gives you a few years of panicked instability & starvation wages to figure things out! The Academy will reward it as a testament to your drive!” “Not for me of course. But it might be really good For you!”

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

So we go hiking yesterday and I take 1 brief work meeting on my phone at the start of the hike for like 10 minutes. My kids spend the entire time I'm on the meeting singing "Cat's in the Cradle."

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

Grand Plateau Glacier, Alaska retreat 5.5 km since 1984, leads to new island formation and lake expansion of more than 100% to 49 sq. km. @watershedlab.bsky.social glacierchange.blog/2024/06/18/g...

Grand Plateau Glacier, Retreat, Lake Expansion and Island Formationglacierchange.blog Grand Plateau Glacier in Sentinel image illustrating retreat from Island (I) where it terminated in 1984. There was only narrow fringing lake in USGS map from 1948 images. Today lake is 49 km2 and gla...

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Dr Bob-o McNabb

Reply to

The Author, Séamas O'Reilly

But, for every guy in my mentions talking like the Zodiac killer representing himself in divorce court, there were about 20 being funny, kind and savage in my defence. If nothing else, it was a very timely reminder that sound people are not outnumbered, by a long shot. I won't lose hope just yet.