froggleston
@froggleston.carpentries.org
Director of Technology @thecarpentries, @froggleston@mstdn.science, open source advocate, heavy metal lover, he/him/they, @docfrogs coffee, @antididact guitarist, noob
Biological Databases are critical infrastructure - not projects. As so much effort is put into harnessing AI to solve all our problems, we are allowing the foundational data resources crumble. Treat biological databases as infrastructure, not projects www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Treat biological databases as infrastructure, not projects
Letter to the Editor
nature.com
I don't think I've met a group of people so ready to say they use a tool because they're clearly experts in that tool, and then vigorously, vehemently and embarrassingly remove themselves from any consequences whatsoever of that tool use.
Arjan@koparjan.bsky.social · 4d agoSo, AI is the greatest tool ever invented, but you really don’t want anyone to know you are actually capable of using it? People seem to admire machinists and carpenters for their tool skills. Must be a field day for @olivia.science and colleagues.
The thing about big AI companies and the public hating them way more now than they did in 2021 is that they 100% brought all of this upon themselves
"Today, 52% of Americans say they are more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life – up from 37% in 2021. " Now THAT'S the power of an actively-hostile marketing approach, baby!
Young adults in the U.S. are increasingly wary of AI, concerned it will take jobs
About half of Americans say they're more concerned than excited about AI, and young adults' concern is rising.
pewresearch.org
> Artists [...] are minor figures in the system of exploitation, despite providing the material which fuels the entire enterprise. Many of these artists, and the fans [...], are finally starting to question the value of this middle man in an economic exchange that disenfranchises them both.
Sarah Friend@isthisa.com · 5d agowhy does it feel like the history of music tech is the history of the internet in microcosm www.pigeonsandplanes.com/read/alterna...
For the record; there is nothing new to say about the genetics of race. In the wake of a news event, a tragic death in this case, the same ghouls churn out their erroneous talking points, Cofnas and that walking meme Hannania, and the drones at Aporia. It is a zombie.
The Carpentries Executive Director @drkariljordan.carpentries.org and Associate Director @erinstellabecker.bsky.social will step down on 1 September 2026. Dr. SherAaron Hurt will serve as Interim Executive Director for a 6-month term from 2 Sept. Full announcement: carpentries.org/blog/2026/08...
carpentries.org
“The report raised concerns about the enormous amounts of energy and water these facilities can consume, as well as their potential impacts on air quality, cultural resources, and noise and light pollution.”
Cherokee Nation Bans Hyperscale Data Center Projects on Tribal-Owned Lands
The tribe cited concerns over energy, water use, and the relatively small number of permanent jobs these massive facilities create.
gizmodo.com
"AI" has existed in its current form for barely four years and the fact that it's jammed up the cognitive development of an entire generation that fast (and that there's a specific overclass of techofascists who are deeply thrilled about this) is a big damn red flag. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/u...
What Do Students Lose When They Stop Writing? (Gift Article)
Educators are worried that many students can no longer write essays without A.I. And it’s costing more than just grammar skills.
nytimes.com
Twitch now uses your channel to train generative AI by default. You can opt out of some training here: www.twitch.tv/settings/sec...
Researchers at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark have conducted multiple landmark, population-wide studies tracking hundreds of thousands to over 1.2 million children using national health registries to examine potential links between vaccines and autism. Every major study found no connection.
Large Danish Study: No link between vaccines and autism or 49 other health conditions
A new Danish study finds no association between aluminum in childhood vaccines and 50 different health conditions, including autism, asthma, and autoimmune diseases. The findings reaffirm the safety o...
en.ssi.dk
Arguing that LLMs are anything more than a load of numbers going into a complicated mathematical function and spitting some more numbers out. Yes they simulate. But they simulate *language*. They do not simulate the cognitive processes underlying communication.
Quite fitting that OpenAI's first physical product looks like a smart haemarrhoid cushion.
"I advise students to keep tabs on AI, to be aware. It takes discipline to resist seductive tools that promise ease and efficiency, and to ask instead what we risk losing when creating gets easy. To me, that is the real question: how to remain intentional". www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
‘Good design takes mastery’: scientific illustrators sketch out AI’s future
Nature talks to five artists about their approaches to communicating science visually.
nature.com
"No amount of shorter showers or diligent recycling can substitute for decarbonising electricity, transport, industry and domestic heating." theconversation.com/was-this-hea...
‘Was this heatwave caused by climate change?’ – we’re asking the wrong question
Instead of asking whether climate change caused a heatwave, we should ask how much hotter it became because of fossil fuel emissions.
theconversation.com
It's incredible to think of the careers and discoveries enabled by 5,000 Carpentries Workshops, teaching probably well over 100,000 learners.
The Carpentries@carpentries.carpentries.org · 4w ago🎉 The Carpentries has reached a significant milestone today: we have hosted our 5,000th registered workshop! 🎊 This monumental achievement is testament to the strengths and efforts of members of our incredible global community. None of this would have been possible without their inspired service! 🙌
🎉 The Carpentries has reached a significant milestone today: we have hosted our 5,000th registered workshop! 🎊 This monumental achievement is testament to the strengths and efforts of members of our incredible global community. None of this would have been possible without their inspired service! 🙌
love when people get caught using LLMs for some important analytical task "to save time" and then they're like "don't worry we rigorously vetted the results." man....you either saved time OR rigorously vetted the results, but i promise you didn't do both
Jail's a great place to think about the consequences of your actions
The Guardian@theguardian.com · last mo.‘I got carried away’: Elon Musk expresses regret about Doge and wading into Trump’s orbit
Editor in Chief of Science: AI in scientific publishing: Slower, worse, and more expensive.
AI in scientific publishing: Slower, worse, and more expensive
There’s a saying in the management world, popularized by NASA administrator Daniel Goldin in the 1990s, that the goal of technological improvements is to make products faster, better, and cheaper. Alt...
doi.org
I'm sure the revolutionary, trailblazing and completely unheard of smart speaker will bring people flooding back.
The PS1 startup sound as a lesbian@janus.bsky.social · last mo.Hatred of AI now reaching the level of cultural consensus that becomes attractive to advertisers
Jesus. 35 UK universities quietly- without debate - joined the Ministry of Defence’s “Battlefield Alliance” which seeks to “reorientate academia towards Defence and National Security” They’re destroying the social sciences and humanities while militarising the institutions
it’s amazing how often the solution to endlessly multiplying pedagogical problems turns out to be restoring an actual pedagogical relationship between instructors and students
Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa@benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social · last mo.A really interesting piece on reducing AI cheating in the classroom from a Professor of English and former Dean of Humanities at University of Utah. The solutions? Smaller classes, lower teaching loads for faculty, and in-person classes.
🔴 For the past year @lucasamin.bsky.social and I have been investigating Palantir in the UK What we found was a company with unrivalled political access, selling a product many data experts in the NHS don’t use, and don’t rate Please read and share democracyforsale.substack.com/p/its-just-a...
"It's just a waste of time": inside Palantir's £330m NHS failure
Our new investigation reveals the problems with Palantir’s NHS tech - and the unrivalled political access that fuelled the firm’s march into the British state
democracyforsale.substack.com