ned haughton
@ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
I'm a climate scientist. I've just spent the last 6 years working in physical climate risk assessment, and now I'm heading back into academia to study how to […]
[bridged from https://fediscience.org/@ned on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
[bridged from https://fediscience.org/@ned on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
This article by Cory Doctrow has me wondering what a Reverse Centaur looks like in academia.
I suppose (especially in the light of Hao et al., 2026) it's something like a researcher that pumps out journal articles in high ranking journals, with high citation numbers, but with relatively little […]
I suppose (especially in the light of Hao et al., 2026) it's something like a researcher that pumps out journal articles in high ranking journals, with high citation numbers, but with relatively little […]
Original post on fediscience.org
fediscience.org
January 20, 2026 at 11:23 PM
This article by Cory Doctrow has me wondering what a Reverse Centaur looks like in academia.
I suppose (especially in the light of Hao et al., 2026) it's something like a researcher that pumps out journal articles in high ranking journals, with high citation numbers, but with relatively little […]
I suppose (especially in the light of Hao et al., 2026) it's something like a researcher that pumps out journal articles in high ranking journals, with high citation numbers, but with relatively little […]
Does anyone know if there's a term for a complex adaptive system going off the rails due to internal dynamics? YouTube rabbit-hole style? Where "on the rails" might mean "the intended state" in a social system, or it might mean "sustainable" in an ecological system.
#complexity […]
#complexity […]
Original post on fediscience.org
fediscience.org
January 20, 2026 at 12:26 AM
Does anyone know if there's a term for a complex adaptive system going off the rails due to internal dynamics? YouTube rabbit-hole style? Where "on the rails" might mean "the intended state" in a social system, or it might mean "sustainable" in an ecological system.
#complexity […]
#complexity […]
Reposted by ned haughton
Heh yes. Pretty much this.
"Much more will be written about proposals to build massive undersea walls to hold up Antarctic ice sheets, drill bore holes in Greenland to pump out lubricating meltwater, or scatter glass beads over glaciers. As informed and erudite I'm sure this will be, I don't […]
"Much more will be written about proposals to build massive undersea walls to hold up Antarctic ice sheets, drill bore holes in Greenland to pump out lubricating meltwater, or scatter glass beads over glaciers. As informed and erudite I'm sure this will be, I don't […]
Original post on fediscience.org
fediscience.org
September 12, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Heh yes. Pretty much this.
"Much more will be written about proposals to build massive undersea walls to hold up Antarctic ice sheets, drill bore holes in Greenland to pump out lubricating meltwater, or scatter glass beads over glaciers. As informed and erudite I'm sure this will be, I don't […]
"Much more will be written about proposals to build massive undersea walls to hold up Antarctic ice sheets, drill bore holes in Greenland to pump out lubricating meltwater, or scatter glass beads over glaciers. As informed and erudite I'm sure this will be, I don't […]
You're in a dungeon, trying to escape. You come across two doors, with two guards. One of the guards always provides answers with extreme uncertainty, the other always provides answers with extreme complexity. You are allowed one question. Which guard do you talk to, and what question do you ask?
August 14, 2025 at 1:00 AM
You're in a dungeon, trying to escape. You come across two doors, with two guards. One of the guards always provides answers with extreme uncertainty, the other always provides answers with extreme complexity. You are allowed one question. Which guard do you talk to, and what question do you ask?
Reposted by ned haughton
The so-called #digitaltransformation has created malfunctioning societies that reel dazed and confused from the onslaught of "tech".
The root cause is not too complicated though. The digital stuff has been outsourced to specialists as with any other technical domain. Big mistake.
Digital is […]
The root cause is not too complicated though. The digital stuff has been outsourced to specialists as with any other technical domain. Big mistake.
Digital is […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
August 8, 2025 at 1:03 PM
The so-called #digitaltransformation has created malfunctioning societies that reel dazed and confused from the onslaught of "tech".
The root cause is not too complicated though. The digital stuff has been outsourced to specialists as with any other technical domain. Big mistake.
Digital is […]
The root cause is not too complicated though. The digital stuff has been outsourced to specialists as with any other technical domain. Big mistake.
Digital is […]
Watching the Australian Institute of Company Directors Climate Governance Forum remotely, and the hold music during morning tea is like elevator jazz on crack. Wild choice.
#aicd
#aicd
August 8, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Watching the Australian Institute of Company Directors Climate Governance Forum remotely, and the hold music during morning tea is like elevator jazz on crack. Wild choice.
#aicd
#aicd
What books or articles have you read recently that fundamentally shifted the way you think about the world, and how you work in it?
August 7, 2025 at 2:03 AM
What books or articles have you read recently that fundamentally shifted the way you think about the world, and how you work in it?
Reposted by ned haughton
It makes me feel more than a little weird that my first reaction to the current Starlink outage is "Oh no did they crash before I could publish my paper about Starlink crashing?!"
Academia messes with your head.
Really, though, I sincerely hope they didn't start crashing and that the outage […]
Academia messes with your head.
Really, though, I sincerely hope they didn't start crashing and that the outage […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
July 24, 2025 at 9:39 PM
It makes me feel more than a little weird that my first reaction to the current Starlink outage is "Oh no did they crash before I could publish my paper about Starlink crashing?!"
Academia messes with your head.
Really, though, I sincerely hope they didn't start crashing and that the outage […]
Academia messes with your head.
Really, though, I sincerely hope they didn't start crashing and that the outage […]
If you are certain about what you know, then you probably don't know anything interesting. I think.
July 21, 2025 at 5:20 AM
If you are certain about what you know, then you probably don't know anything interesting. I think.
Reposted by ned haughton
Good to have confirmed that the Paul Nurse, former and incoming head of the #royalsociety, wrote to Elon Musk asking him to resign his fellowship. But they then bottled, preferring to focus on “the defence of science”, whatever that means in the circumstances.
@StephenCurry is right on the money […]
@StephenCurry is right on the money […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
July 17, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Good to have confirmed that the Paul Nurse, former and incoming head of the #royalsociety, wrote to Elon Musk asking him to resign his fellowship. But they then bottled, preferring to focus on “the defence of science”, whatever that means in the circumstances.
@StephenCurry is right on the money […]
@StephenCurry is right on the money […]
Reposted by ned haughton
Inspired by https://cyanometer.net/ I've been measuring the colour of the sky over #uvic. Here's a test video showing all of 2024. Each month shown in a block 6 columns by 6 rows. The months are arranged in rows, JFMA, MJJA, SOND.
The other option I will try at […]
[Original post on mstdn.ca]
The other option I will try at […]
[Original post on mstdn.ca]
July 17, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Inspired by https://cyanometer.net/ I've been measuring the colour of the sky over #uvic. Here's a test video showing all of 2024. Each month shown in a block 6 columns by 6 rows. The months are arranged in rows, JFMA, MJJA, SOND.
The other option I will try at […]
[Original post on mstdn.ca]
The other option I will try at […]
[Original post on mstdn.ca]
Wow.
"under conventional positivist frameworks, the majority of the most pressing issues are ignored: non-linear dynamics, multi-stable states, multi-scale behavior, slow/fast variable dynamics on the systems side and adaptive change, surprise and inherent unpredictability on the policy side […]
"under conventional positivist frameworks, the majority of the most pressing issues are ignored: non-linear dynamics, multi-stable states, multi-scale behavior, slow/fast variable dynamics on the systems side and adaptive change, surprise and inherent unpredictability on the policy side […]
Original post on fediscience.org
fediscience.org
July 17, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Wow.
"under conventional positivist frameworks, the majority of the most pressing issues are ignored: non-linear dynamics, multi-stable states, multi-scale behavior, slow/fast variable dynamics on the systems side and adaptive change, surprise and inherent unpredictability on the policy side […]
"under conventional positivist frameworks, the majority of the most pressing issues are ignored: non-linear dynamics, multi-stable states, multi-scale behavior, slow/fast variable dynamics on the systems side and adaptive change, surprise and inherent unpredictability on the policy side […]
Reposted by ned haughton
Giant study finds a research field that’s mostly reproducible
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02250-1
Researchers assessed more than 1,000 results from fruit-fly immunity research published between 1959 and 2011. The majority of findings look verifiable.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02250-1
Researchers assessed more than 1,000 results from fruit-fly immunity research published between 1959 and 2011. The majority of findings look verifiable.
July 16, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Giant study finds a research field that’s mostly reproducible
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02250-1
Researchers assessed more than 1,000 results from fruit-fly immunity research published between 1959 and 2011. The majority of findings look verifiable.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02250-1
Researchers assessed more than 1,000 results from fruit-fly immunity research published between 1959 and 2011. The majority of findings look verifiable.
How does one talk to Serious People in science, policy and finance about complexity and the inescapable interconnectedness of all things without sounding like a crackpot?
#complexity #science #finance
#complexity #science #finance
July 15, 2025 at 2:06 PM
How does one talk to Serious People in science, policy and finance about complexity and the inescapable interconnectedness of all things without sounding like a crackpot?
#complexity #science #finance
#complexity #science #finance
Reposted by ned haughton
As Trump slashed weather agency, his appointees have ties to companies that stand to benefit from privatizing forecasts
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/as-trump-slashed-weather-agency-his-appointees-have-ties-to-companies-that-stand-to-benefit-from-privatizing-forecasts
#noaa #nws […]
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/as-trump-slashed-weather-agency-his-appointees-have-ties-to-companies-that-stand-to-benefit-from-privatizing-forecasts
#noaa #nws […]
Original post on mstdn.social
mstdn.social
July 12, 2025 at 9:17 PM
As Trump slashed weather agency, his appointees have ties to companies that stand to benefit from privatizing forecasts
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/as-trump-slashed-weather-agency-his-appointees-have-ties-to-companies-that-stand-to-benefit-from-privatizing-forecasts
#noaa #nws […]
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/as-trump-slashed-weather-agency-his-appointees-have-ties-to-companies-that-stand-to-benefit-from-privatizing-forecasts
#noaa #nws […]
Sometimes I think Medium/Genius style annotations/comment highlights for scientific journal articles would would be a very good idea. Seems like it's not that uncommon for minor bullshit to slip through the peer review and editing process, and get baked in to the corpus. Often this stuff is not […]
Original post on fediscience.org
fediscience.org
July 7, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Sometimes I think Medium/Genius style annotations/comment highlights for scientific journal articles would would be a very good idea. Seems like it's not that uncommon for minor bullshit to slip through the peer review and editing process, and get baked in to the corpus. Often this stuff is not […]
![Photo of a conference slide:
Thomas Midgley, Jr. (1889-1944) (photo on right)
- >100 patents
- American Chem. Society - Priestley Medal, Willard Gibbs Award, and fellow of the US National Academy of Sciences
- Developer of Tetraethyllead (leaded petrol)
- Developer of Freon —or CFCs (inert yet volatile)
- J. R. McNeill, quote “[Midgley] had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history.”
- 1.1 million deaths due to leaded petrol (UN report 2011)
- ~70,000 excess cases of skin cancer per year (~10,000 deaths in 2015)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jzgzsk2bbiwf3kr4f5yakh35/bafkreih5fjuaujlsnodo7pfglnmwlpunesl7shay4cq7rsxgleha3pc3ky@jpeg)
What is the point of Quora?
June 3, 2025 at 5:30 AM
What is the point of Quora?
This is all that's left of the Bight Bridge in Wingham... it was a constant all through my childhood there. So many days wagging school to go jump off it in summer.
This bridge was 4-5m high, and solid concrete. It's withstood many large floods, but not one […]
[Original post on fediscience.org]
This bridge was 4-5m high, and solid concrete. It's withstood many large floods, but not one […]
[Original post on fediscience.org]
May 24, 2025 at 6:38 AM
This is all that's left of the Bight Bridge in Wingham... it was a constant all through my childhood there. So many days wagging school to go jump off it in summer.
This bridge was 4-5m high, and solid concrete. It's withstood many large floods, but not one […]
[Original post on fediscience.org]
This bridge was 4-5m high, and solid concrete. It's withstood many large floods, but not one […]
[Original post on fediscience.org]
May 23, 2025 at 5:51 AM