WeAreWaves's recent activity
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Comment on Survey results on books that people identify as shaping their life/personality after reading them in high school in ~books
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Comment on Donald Trump administration issues stop-work order for US offshore wind project in ~enviro
WeAreWaves Link ParentI don’t think it’s in international waters? The article says it’s only 15 miles off the coast, which is well within the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone. Also there’s no way in hell this...I don’t think it’s in international waters? The article says it’s only 15 miles off the coast, which is well within the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone.
Also there’s no way in hell this Supreme Court would side with a state trying to bypass the federal government in dealing with other countries.
Though that’s all treating this as if it’s a legitimate use of federal power and not a blatantly corrupt abuse.
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Texas man born to US soldier on US army base abroad deported
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Comment on Parenting is not just for pronatalists: the progressive case for raising kids in ~society
WeAreWaves Link ParentEspecially when that “something” is to create a whole new person who has to deal with whatever it is that life throws at them. I have a four year old and I will question this the rest of my life....No one should tell anybody else to do something that's going to affect the rest of that person's life when they're not going to be doing it with them.
Especially when that “something” is to create a whole new person who has to deal with whatever it is that life throws at them.
I have a four year old and I will question this the rest of my life. Was it the right choice to force existence on her? We do what we can to help her be happy with her life, but a lot of that is out of the parents’ control. She’ll certainly go through hard periods and maybe through periods where she’ll wish she hadn’t been born. With some luck, she’ll be happy on the whole, but most likely I’ll be dead and gone before that total assessment could even be made.
Anyway, pressuring anyone else to make that choice seems irresponsible. And like others have said, it’s hard work and completely changes what your life is like day-to-day and long term.
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Comment on Donald Trump administration gives personal data of immigrant Medicaid enrollees to US deportation officials in ~society
WeAreWaves LinkI don’t understand why they hate immigrants so much.I don’t understand why they hate immigrants so much.
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Comment on Victories and challenges: An A[u]DHD community and support fortnightly thread #1 in ~health.mental
WeAreWaves Link ParentI’m almost certain that’s Delores Umbridge!I’m almost certain that’s Delores Umbridge!
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Comment on Western graters are terrible in ~food
WeAreWaves Link ParentThat looks like the medium size on a typical box grater. Maybe you’d have better luck with a coarser one? I use mine for grating carrots and tofu and it works fine. Things like cabbage or cucumber...That looks like the medium size on a typical box grater. Maybe you’d have better luck with a coarser one? I use mine for grating carrots and tofu and it works fine. Things like cabbage or cucumber tend to turn mushy though so I just use a knife for those.
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Comment on Billions of AI users…? in ~tech
WeAreWaves Link ParentI use Siri extensively to set timers while cooking and literally nothing else.(No, Apple, I will never want to turn on Siri.)
I use Siri extensively to set timers while cooking and literally nothing else.
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Comment on Buyer's remorse for everything in ~health.mental
WeAreWaves (edited )LinkHave you ever tried making a budget? I started using YNAB a couple years ago and it completely solved this problem for me. You obviously don’t need that particular software, but the general...Have you ever tried making a budget? I started using YNAB a couple years ago and it completely solved this problem for me. You obviously don’t need that particular software, but the general approach is zero-based, envelope budgeting. You take all the money you currently have, create a budget with categories for all the ways you need/want to spend your money, and then allocate to those categories until every dollar/pound/euro/etc has a job.
That does two things that changed my mindset to reduce stress.
First, I knew that I had the money for the essential things. Spending on other things (that I had planned for) weren’t going to eat in to my ability to pay rent, so that took out some of the anxiety of having a bank account with ”big pile of money that will need to do everything”. Before, it was easy to be unsure what my balance would look like after next month’s credit card payment, which made it hard to be confident in my choices. Now that’s all clear and spelled out. After the first year, all the recurring annual costs have been caught too so I know I’m planning for those too.
Second, it separated out the decision making. I knew I had come up with my spending plan thoughtfully and in an informed way, so when I see I had £50 left for restaurants, I could use that without the guilt. I had already struggled through the decision of how I wanted to spend my money, so then when it was time to spend it, I could just enjoy it.
I highly recommend trying a forward-looking budget like this (as opposed to just tracking with a vague “goal”) if you find yourself regularly stressed about every spending decision. It’s done wonders for me and my spouse.
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Comment on Donald Trump says "I don't know" regarding whether he has to uphold the Constitution of the United States in ~society
WeAreWaves LinkI think we need a stronger term than “widely panned” for the president proposing to set up a pipeline to send citizens to a gulag in a foreign country.…he would like to see some “homegrown criminals” sent to El Salvador as well, a proposal that was widely panned by legal experts.
I think we need a stronger term than “widely panned” for the president proposing to set up a pipeline to send citizens to a gulag in a foreign country.
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How do you keep up with the research in your field?
Do you have a weekly or daily routine? A preferred application? For context, I’m an ecologist that focuses on statistics and modeling and I work in a few different ecosystems. I’ve always...
Do you have a weekly or daily routine? A preferred application?
For context, I’m an ecologist that focuses on statistics and modeling and I work in a few different ecosystems. I’ve always struggled to feel like I have a good understanding of the literature and I think there are a few main reasons.
- Quantity: It’s overwhelming. There is so. Much. Research. And there’s more literally every day that is or might be relevant.
- Sources: Relatedly, there are so many journals to try to keep up with. And certainly more that I should be keeping up with that I’m not even aware of.
- Method: I haven’t found an interface that really works for me. I end up ignoring emails with journal table of contents. Scrolling through RSS feeds on Zotero or Mendeley is awful. Going to the journal websites is even worse.
- Scheduling: I block out time in my calendar, but there’s always something else I’d rather work on. It’s hard to force myself to focus on it.
- Workflow: The exploration-exploitation trade off. If I skim through all the titles of a bunch of different journals, I end up just spending the whole time downloading papers which then sit in my Zotero library without getting read. If I stop to look in more detail, I don’t get through much of the article list.
- Retention: It’s hard to read something over and really retain it. I’ve taken notes (digitally and on paper) but that adds to the time it takes to skim titles and abstracts, which reduces the number I can cover.
One of the downsides of everything being digital is that I also find it harder to skim an article and get the gist of it. Flipping through a magazine lets you skim the titles and figures to easily get the main idea. Online, I need to read the title, click in a new tab if it seems interesting, scroll around to skim the abstract, and scroll and/or click to the figures. Flipping back and forth to the abstract or different sections is also harder.
What I’d really like is something kind of like a forum or link aggregator where I could skim titles and click an expander to view the abstract and figures.
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Comment on A quick look at the iPhone 16e made in Brazil in ~tech
WeAreWaves LinkI actually just got a 16e to replace my aging iPhone X. I’ll be honest I had to google “MagSafe” to figure out what I’m missing. To be honest I agree with the overall sentiment of the article,...I actually just got a 16e to replace my aging iPhone X. I’ll be honest I had to google “MagSafe” to figure out what I’m missing.
To be honest I agree with the overall sentiment of the article, though I suspect I’d feel like that no matter which new phone I got. After living through the invention of smartphones and the rapid increase in capabilities, I was expecting a more noticeable change over the last 8 years since I got my previous phone. I think that’s just where we are - the technology is pretty mature at this point and has been for about a decade.
The biggest changes for me are once again having a battery that lasts more than half a day and being able to use the latest operating system. And even there, it’s fairly minor improvements all things considered.
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of April 7 in ~society
WeAreWaves Link ParentThe tone and writing style are yelling at my brain that this is satire. How is this official White House communication? Though I guess it’s much better than the social media posts…These appliances worked perfectly fine before Biden’s meddling piled on convoluted regulations that made those appliances worse.
President Trump is slashing red tape and ending Biden’s dumb war on things that work.
The tone and writing style are yelling at my brain that this is satire. How is this official White House communication? Though I guess it’s much better than the social media posts…
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British man's tattoo wrongly linked to Venezuelan gang in US government document
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Comment on Pressuring migrants to ‘self-deport,’ White House moves to cancel social security numbers in ~society
WeAreWaves Link ParentI find it very hard to believe that these six thousand three hundred people who were legally in the US were all criminals and terrorists.the names of more than 6,300 migrants whose legal status had just been revoked were added to the file, according to the documents.
The initial names are limited to people the administration says are convicted criminals and “suspected terrorists,”
I find it very hard to believe that these six thousand three hundred people who were legally in the US were all criminals and terrorists.
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Comment on What are some examples of media that really captured lightning in a bottle? in ~tv
WeAreWaves Link ParentThere were complaints in the fandom by season 5 as soon as they were off book…seasons 6 and 7 already show a bunch of cracks
There were complaints in the fandom by season 5 as soon as they were off book…
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Comment on Bucking US President Donald Trump tariffs, California will push to maintain global trade independently, Governor Gavin Newsom says in ~society
WeAreWaves Link ParentFor the record, this is not federal legislation. Congress makes laws, not the president. This is just more usurping of power.federal legislation
For the record, this is not federal legislation. Congress makes laws, not the president. This is just more usurping of power.
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Comment on 75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving the country in ~society
WeAreWaves Link ParentThis was my experience in Switzerland. Everything above undergraduate level was in English and even the undergraduate courses were typically taught in English, though students usually had the...This was my experience in Switzerland. Everything above undergraduate level was in English and even the undergraduate courses were typically taught in English, though students usually had the option of submitting assignments in either English or French.
Life outside work, on the other hand, definitely required relearning French.
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Comment on 75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving the country in ~society
WeAreWaves (edited )Link ParentIt doesn't look like the poll differentiated between those, but absolutely answering yes to "Are you a US researcher who is considering leaving the country following the disruptions to science...It doesn't look like the poll differentiated between those, but absolutely answering yes to "Are you a US researcher who is considering leaving the country following the disruptions to science prompted by the Trump administration?" could mean anything. They also note that it's a self selected group, so it's almost certainly biased toward people with strong feelings in the affirmative. Still, it's probably indicative of a broad attitude and 75.3% responding yes is pretty wild.
There are a few quotes worth highlighting:
Institutions outside the United States are taking advantage of the Trump turmoil, the researcher says. “From what I’m hearing from the places we’re talking to, and other people who are looking to take international jobs, a lot of universities in these countries are seeing this as a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” he says. “I think it has gone from ‘Can we recruit a few people?’ to ‘How many people can we actually take?’ — because the demand is there.”
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Another respondent is actively applying only to positions in Europe: “I am transgender, and the 1–2 punch makes it improbable that the life I want to live is a viable option in this country.”
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Scientists are already well positioned for being able to move internationally (speaking from personal experience) since academic research is very specialized, the professional community is global, and even small universities and research institutes tend to have the infrastructure to sponsor work visas in a way that private companies are hesitant to.
In a related article, it's reported that the EU is actively encouraging member nations to recruit from the US:
...the European Research Council is planning on doubling the amount of money it offers grantees relocating to the EU, to a maximum of €2 million (US$2.2 million) each.
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The Netherlands’ government has asked its national research-funding council to establish a fund to attract top scientists who are looking to move because of the changing geopolitical climate. Universities in Belgium and France have advertised specific opportunities for US researchers.
The director of research where I work (not in the US) recently told me he was pushing the board to try to find ways to recruit from the US.
It won't be a 75% loss, but I expect that the flow of researchers between the US and other countries will see a pretty dramatic shift over the coming few years. Add to that the realization that the international community can't rely on US data products and things will likely look very different in a decade.
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Comment on Hey parents, how many of you read vs. tell stories before bedtime for your kids? in ~life
WeAreWaves Link ParentDifferent minds of course work differently too. I have basically no mental imagery and never have. I still love reading - it just doesn’t involve any visual element whatsoever. So it’s always...think that sort of ability to “conjure an image” is a muscle that needs training
Different minds of course work differently too. I have basically no mental imagery and never have. I still love reading - it just doesn’t involve any visual element whatsoever. So it’s always possible your kid might not have quite the same experience which could affect the kinds of books or activities he’s ultimately interested in.
I think the combination of Glass, Paper, Beans, The Geography of Nowhere, and What Are People For changed my outlook on life and started me along an entirely different trajectory.
I went to a Catholic high school and the Jesuits who ran it always encouraged thinking critically, telling us we didn’t really have beliefs until we had openly and honestly challenged them. Turns out that that kind of thinking makes a lot of us atheists, by the way. But anyway, we read these books as part of a theology class and they helped me start that process of critical reflection about the suburbs where I grew up and all of American society ultimately, which cascaded into changes in career choices, lifestyle, major priorities, etc.
So well done high school teachers for shaping a student’s life.