Maybe scholarly societies have taken the instruction to follow the money too literally? There now are societies that make 83% of their nearly $700 million in revenue from publishing (American Chemical Society). Or 88% of $130 million (American Psychological Association). Or 91% of $5 million (Biochemical Society). In essence, societies like these (there are hundreds predominantly in STEM subjects) are publishers first and societies second.
Nick Miller
A great ape
Nick Miller boosted:
The fact that some people can't distinguish between etymology and entomology bugs me in ways I can't put into words
@alexwild I felt a great disturbance in the force, as if the snickerings of millions of adolescent boys were suddenly silenced.
@lolgop Indeed. The prevailing narrative is that Trump won Iowa by a "landslide". This ignores the fact that, because he hasn't gone away or stopped campaigning, he is, effectively the incumbent leader of the Republican party. From that perspective, getting 50% of the caucus vote is not great. Imagine the headlines if Biden were to win a primary with only 50%.
@bhaller Thank you! There are some interesting new goodies here.
@rspfau I would argue that generative AI is not structuring ideas or integrating knowledge at all, it is merely producing a convincing facsimile of the output of these processes.
@rspfau The bulk of learning to "write well" is learning to structure one's ideas. Generative AI is of limited help with this.
Learning to navigate a world in which information sources are filled with material produced by generative AI is something else.
Nick Miller boosted:
Wow. Ok. Normally I feel like it's a bit overplayed to individually comment on #MDPI in the whole #AcademicChatter conversation, but this is really a must-see:
A Special Issue where the guest editors are lead or senior author on 27 of the 28 papers it published. Were they also their own reviewers!? Like... that sounds like I'm taking the piss, but... no seriously were they?
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/processes/special_issues/Biologics_Botanicals
I guess this is a preview to an upcoming post. Look forward to it...
@rspfau This is what happens when one tries to force paradigms of assessment that have been around for generations into new situations where they simply don't fit. The traditional "sit in a room sweat" exam just doesn't work in an online setting.
Once I realized this I found there are much better ways to measure what students have learned than the cram-regurgitate-forget cycle of the traditional timed exam.
Nick Miller boosted:
Great opportunity to work at the Illinois State Museum (two Museum technician positions and an assistant curator position).
Plus, actually useful and complete job descriptions and compensation info! (Look, it can be done! Thanks, ISM!)
If I could relocate, I'd definitely love to work there.
https://www.illinoisstatemuseum.org/ism-system-content/jobs.html
@alexwild @cbuddenhagen @joeinwynnewood
Ironically, the standard recommendation to rotate where Bt resistance is suspected may end up selecting for rotation resistance in places where it was previously not a problem.
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One of the decisive moments in my understanding of #LLMs and their limitations was when, last autumn, @emilymbender walked me through her Thai Library thought experiment.
She's now written it up as a Medium post, and you can read it here. The value comes from really pondering the question she poses, so take the time to think about it. What would YOU do in the situation she outlines?
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BLOGPOST
“The King’s Champion”
Why a confident monarchy should welcome challenges on coronation day
For that was once part of the purpose of a coronation
@alexwild The late British politician Tony Benn proposed five questions that should be asked of anyone with power. The fifth of these was "How do we get rid of you?"
It strikes me that with SCOTUS, while there may be routes to answer that question in principle (impeachment), the answer in practice is "you can't", which is a problem.
@alexwild but should sp./spp. be italicized or not?
@alexwild @hydropsyche I don't disagree that oligarchs are a problem. I'd just prefer that critique to stay focused on the abuse of disproportionate power and wealth. My fear is that the framing you proposed risks spill-over in xenophobia, albeit unintentionally.
@hydropsyche Neither do I. But one can criticize how Crow uses his power and money without entangling it with questions of nationality and citizenchip.
Would Crow be doing anything different if he were not a dual citizen?
@hydropsyche @alexwild I'm well aware of why the far right demonizes Soros. My point is that, othering people based on their national identity can get to some pretty nasty places pretty quickly.
@hydropsyche @alexwild Exactly, like many Americans born outside the United States, he has dual citizenship. And to be clear, there's nothing wrong with that.
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Postdoc in PLANT PHYLOGENOMICS available !
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