manisha

I question academic, scientific, and cultural norms, and who they serve.

sculpting cooperative communities of practice and democratizing science @ theecho.network #climatematch #neuromatch

introvert with keyboard courage :P lover of both the beauty of chaos and ugly perfection :D victim of #ImposterSyndrome trying to embrace my #neurodiverse brain

interested in: a myriad of things #ScientificReform #AcademicReform #OpenScience #OpenInfrastructure #PublicPolicy #governance #cooperatives #sustainability #gardening #RegenerativeAgriculture #Permaculture #EcosystemServices #AccessAndBenefitSharing #NaturalCapitalAccounting #EcosystemsValuation

me: I choose to not disclose my number of followers and my social graph because I am not here for clout and appreciate some digital privacy. #NoIndex #NoBot #NoBridge

also me: I have -1 follower lol

manisha boosted:
2025-05-30

"If you've chosen science, it's because you're passionate about it... never stop being amazed and fascinated by life."

Pilar Márquez-Cardona shares her thoughts on plant science.

wp.me/pdRZhH-lXx

#Botany #PlantScience 🧪

Three researchers (or four?) work together at an outdoor field station under a canopy tent. On the left, a person in a white lab coat with dark hair in a ponytail works over a white gridded surface. In the center, someone wearing a baseball cap and brown jacket observes, while on the right, a person with curly dark hair in a dark jacket also participates in the work. All are wearing white gloves.
manisha boosted:

What Quebec experts are doing to save the snowy owl
Scientists estimate there are just 25,000 snowy owls left across the entire globe.
#animals #science #conservation #Canada #Environment #snowyowl
globalnews.ca/news/11203348/qu

manisha boosted:
2025-05-29

I have had people ask me what meteorites would taste like.

Nickel-irons would taste like nothing or like rust.
Ordinary chondrites would taste like cement.
Carbonaceous chondrites would taste like tar, with notes of arsenic and mercury.

Hence "please do not try to eat the meteorites".

manisha boosted:
Tariqrzeta0
2025-05-29

@considermycat

that's not the only crime

extremely expensive oral b electric toothbrush on amazon £122manual toothbrush but extra fine bristles £3.78 on amazon
manisha boosted:
Skeet by @robmesure.bsky.social

“I have been logged out of my toothbrush.”

Screenshot: 

Oral-B iO

Log in

You have been logged out. Log back in
to your account to continue your Oral-B
brushing experience.

Enter email
Enter password
manisha boosted:
2025-05-29

Other people who own/have owned tubus racks: I was thinking of getting a second logo classic for the new to me bike, does anyone have a compelling argument for a different model? I need a lower rail for 3 point attachment which rules out a couple of the lighter models that come to a point at the axle.

On the off chance someone in north america has a used one for sale I'd be interested in buying it off you.

#BikeTooter

2025-05-29
manisha boosted:
2025-05-29

Just one of a gazillion reasons why collecting data on people to sell is wrong: Data broker giant LexisNexis says breach exposed personal information of over 364,000 people | TechCrunch techcrunch.com/2025/05/28/data

manisha boosted:
Sunguramy :nb_lily:sunguramy@flipping.rocks
2025-05-29

And in good news for your day (but please take action on my other post for the bad news - flipping.rocks/@sunguramy/1145) in case you have not heard, the amendment by the House Natural Resources Committee for the sale and transfer of 460,000+ acres of federal public land in Nevada and Utah as part of the federal budget bill was removed before the budget went to the Senate. This doesn't mean it won't come up again, so let's stay vigilant!

But this proves being loud about our mistreatment *does help* and *can work* - so don't sit down and shut up, stand up and shout out!

#GoodNews #land #public #nature #park #nationalPark #bloomscrolling #flower

The rare Sundial Lupine, taken at Indiana Dunes National Park, a new and small but still fun National Park to visit on the shores of Lake Michigan in Northern Indiana. I'd recommend it! 

Plant with green leaves arranged in a flat circular clock like fashion, probably where the "sundial" comes from, the leaves themselves look like a classic flower and are beautiful in and of themselves. The lupine is a bright purple-blue, more purple near the top and more blue hued purple towards the bottom, with five lil flowers on each level, the bottom levels more open and bloomed and the top of this layered cone of flowers still closed.
manisha boosted:
2025-05-28

Neuro Postdocs: please consider applying to the Rising Stars Seminar at MIT BCS, hosted by the postdoc association here. Application open until this weekend!

Call for Applications: MIT BCS Rising Star Seminar Series 2025-2026

The MIT BCS Postdoc Association is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Rising
Star Seminar Series. The Rising Star seminars will recognize postdoctoral candidates of
exceptional scientific merit and highlight the importance of diversity and broad representation in
the brain and cognitive sciences. Selected speakers will be invited to present their research at
the department-wide colloquium with opportunity to connect with students, staff, and faculty. An
honorarium will be awarded and travel expenses will be covered.
We are seeking postdocs who are strongly considering pursuing a career as an independent
investigator at all stages. Applicants should submit a CV (no more than 3 pages) and a
statement that includes the following:
● A brief overview of their research (300 words).
● A plan for their future work (500 words).
● A statement on how they have contributed to the community or how they have overcome
a significant difficulty* (300 words).
● A bullet point list of why their work is of interest to the MIT BCS community (3 or less).
Send application as a single pdf to: MIT.BCS.PDA@gmail.com
Applications will be accepted until May 31, 2025.
We look forward to receiving your applications!
manisha boosted:
Tom Morristommorris
2025-05-24

A thing I’ve been thinking about: when someone says “this is a good use case for generative/agentic AI”, that’s usually a sign that the process could be improved.

Like, people use LLMs to write overly fluffy covering letters for job applications. OK, just have an application form.

Or people use LLMs to understand errors when coding. Okay, that’s a sign to make the error handling more readable/helpful. E.g. the Rust compiler has pretty excellent errors compared to “syntax error on line 37”.

manisha boosted:
Paco Hope #resistpaco@infosec.exchange
2025-05-24

@tommorris Mostly this sounds like the person saying “this is a good case for AI” is accurately sensing something that could be improved.

But you’ve omitted the case where what needs to be improved is the person speaking. Material is hard to read? The person might need to learn more before they can understand it. The basics might be available and well written but the speaker hasn’t learned them yet.

Some people have opinions on fields and subjects where they have very little knowledge or expertise and they think AI will bridge that gap: allowing them to achieve things in a domain that they are not sufficiently literate or expert yet.

Today when someone says they want to use “AI” they mean one of 3 things:
- predictive machine learning (eg transcription, OCR, translation, etc)
- generative AI (LLM, image generation, etc)
- pure made-up computer magic

manisha boosted:
jonny (good kind)jonny@neuromatch.social
2025-05-24

we took an afternoon to add a quote randomizer to #sciop because we all have too many heroes to honor. to me, this project is in loving memory to all our friend Aaron Swartz, who would have been holding up the gray archives right alongside us, and who would have understood the difference between ensuring all people have access to information by putting them directly in contact with it vs. selling the promise of information access by renting a product to them.

"We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that's out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access."

— Aaron Swartz, Guerilla Open Access Manifesto
manisha boosted:
2025-05-23

I very much get a "we just discovered radium and want to put it in everything" vibe from this whole generative AI bubble.

(Including the thing where companies used to slap the word "radium" on existing products even though they thankfully did not actually have any radioactive materials. Like "radium butter".)

manisha boosted:
2025-05-23

Now everybody wants to put funds to attract talent from Harvard. On one side ofc is great. On the other side it kinda saddens me to see that suddenly there's additional UE funds for research... that have been never invested in places were they are urgently needed for years.

Most 'top students' in Spain, Greece or southern Italy cannot join a PhD in their country because of lack of funding and cutting-edge labs. A 'big PI' in Spain has usually 3-4 students, counting away some outliers in Madrid/Barcelona. A Prof position does never come with a 'starter pack', a lab, or students. These countries do usually well in math or theoretical physics because it's cheap. If you look at experimental facilities, we fall behind. Our unis have problems hiring new research personnel, have outdated labs, etc etc.

The US does a terrible policy and then suddenly everybody is considering what can we do to help them. And don't get me wrong, I believe it's a good thing to help people and a great opportunity to catch some exceptional scientists. Just saddens me to see top European talents absolutely wasted, for years, and there is little to 0 conversation about that in other places. As someone who has struggled a lot with this situation, it feels sad.

manisha boosted:
2025-05-23

"Exploring brain circuits, one cell type - or more - at a time" www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
This one is for all the #ChandelierNeuron fans out there
#sciArt #sciComm #neuroscience

Cover of journal Neuron shows a female scientists turning lamp-like neurons on and off
manisha boosted:

I'm glad this is finally out, and the most important part is not that it's a very distant dwarf planet (though that is very cool), but rather that its existence in that orbit completely blows a hole in the Batygin & Brown "Planet 9" hypothesis. So, there almost certainly isn't a hidden distant giant planet in our Solar System.

(Which quite a few of us, including @sundogplanets and myself, have argued was the case for years, but this rather confirms it)
phys.org/news/2025-05-extreme-

manisha boosted:
2025-05-22

We're ready for Microsoft Recall and the automatic screenshots it takes of everything on your desktop.

Signal Desktop on Windows now includes support for a new "Screen security" feature designed to block screenshots of your Signal chats.

signal.org/blog/signal-doesnt-

manisha boosted:
2025-05-22

Will making snarky comments about AI/LLMs get you canned at a workplace whose execs think AI is the future? 🤔

manisha boosted:
404 Media404mediaco
2025-05-21

Chicago Sun-Times Prints AI-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don't Exist

🔗404media.co/chicago-sun-times-

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