Michael S. Rosenberg

Michael Rosenberg

@mrosenberg.bsky.social

1.3K followers 210 following 1.2K posts

Evolutionary Biologist, Data Scientist, Amateur Fiddler Crab Wrangler

I don't so much focus on specific topics as meander randomly through the topical landscape, like a broken adaptive model that doesn't realize downhill isn't supposed to be an option. .. more

Videos

Education 31%

Biology 22%

Posts Replies Media Videos

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Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · Apr 29

The entirety of the tournament has been archived in a Google Doc for posterity: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

I may try to create a neater PDF version once I’ve caught up on the rest of my life.

#FiddlerCrabBracket #FiddlerCrab 🦀🦑🧪

Fiddler Crab Tournament Archive

docs.google.com

Reposted by Michael S. Rosenberg, Rosemary A. Joyce, Kevin Carey , and 8 more Michael S. Rosenberg, Rosemary A. Joyce, Kevin Carey, Smith, Rebecca Tushnet, W. Andy Knight, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Sarah Roberts, Ann Bartow, Catherine J. Frieman, Steven H. Seggie

Emily C. Hughes @emilyhughes.bsky.social · 2d

pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.

Brittany Trang @brittanytrang.com · 2d

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫

James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers

James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.

www.statnews.com

Reposted by Jason Mittell, Michael Barnett, Michael S. Rosenberg , and 30 more Jason Mittell, Michael Barnett, Michael S. Rosenberg, Jesse M. Shapiro, Delphine K. Farmer, Joshua S. Weitz, John R. Hutchinson, Scott L. Greer, Stacie B. Dusetzina, Steven French, Megan L. Ranney, Rosemary A. Joyce, Mark E. Schaffer, Amir Attaran, Dawn J. Wright, Paul E. Smaldino, Kevin Carey, Bonnie Honig, Smith, Rebecca Tushnet, Michael W. Kraus, David Merrett, W. Andy Knight, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Brian Keegan, Sarah Roberts, Lisa Diedrich, Ann Bartow, Catherine J. Frieman, Michael Larkin, Aviel Roshwald, Carly D. Ziter, Shan Kothari

Brittany Trang @brittanytrang.com · 2d

James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers

James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.

www.statnews.com

Reposted by Michael S. Rosenberg

HAWI Studios @hawistudios.com · 4d

Fiddler crabs on the beach #sand #underwater #nature #wildlife #crab #mud #stones #beautiful HA77667

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Michael S. Rosenberg, John R. Hutchinson , and 3 more Anna O. Law, Michael S. Rosenberg, John R. Hutchinson, Ben Barr, Dustin Mulvaney, Christine Kooi

Cristian Vlad @cristianvlad.bsky.social · 6d

Wonder why this scene looks so familiar...
#WildlifeWednesday 🐦🐕

Reposted by Michael S. Rosenberg

HAWI Studios @hawistudios.com · 6d

Tetragonal Fiddler Crab #sand #underwater #nature #wildlife #crab #mud #stones #beautiful HA94256

Reposted by Michael S. Rosenberg

The Scamperbeasts @scamperbeasts.bsky.social · 10d

NEWS FLASH: We have achieved the rare and coveted Cat Tree Triple Decker

Smudge is laying at the top of the cat tree, Spice is in the middle, and Saja is there at the bottom. It's all coming together now!

Proton @proton.me · 10d

Last chance to turn it off.

On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default.

To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 15d

I am aware of at least 37 different published metrics of this type that try to account for co-authorship in publications and this plug-in represents none of them, so I guess that makes at least 38.

The bigger question: why is Nature wasting space even talking about a random useless tool?

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 15d

It's not just bad, it's completely arbitrary. Dozens of papers have been written trying to solve this "problem" (assuming you think it is one in the first place) and this plugin just makes up yet another approach. There can never be an automated solution because there is no standard for author order

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 16d

For the record, I am tired of everyone on Bluesky comparing the new plans for the White House to fiddler crabs.

This is extremely insulting to fiddler crabs, who did absolutely nothing to deserve this. 🦀

Reposted by Michael S. Rosenberg

Callen Harty @callenh.bsky.social · 16d

Atlantic sand fiddler crab. #AtlanticSandFiddlerCrab #UcaPugilator #SandFiddlerCrab #FiddlerCrab #Crab #Arthropod #Animal #Nature #Photography #TECOManateeViewingCenter #ApolloBeach #Florida

An Atlantic sand fiddler crab in the sand. The crab is just to the right of a small hole in the ground. The shell, or carapace, is mostly white with a few black spots and also is pink in the center, which identifies it as a displaying male. The eyes are hard to see in this photo but are at the end of small stalks. The right claw is considerably larger than the left. It is a light brown with many small bumps on it. The legs are orange.

Reposted by Michael S. Rosenberg

Alistair @funkyalchemist.bsky.social · 20d

Yesterday’s inktober was wholly an experiment - “rivals” blue and orange water based inks drawn onto damp paper #inktober #inktober2025

Fuzzy drawing of two fiddler crabs competing. Blue and orange ink line drawing on white paper but the lines have bled and diffused away from where they were originally drawn and hazy colour has washed across the surface

Reposted by Michael S. Rosenberg

uel aramchek @uel.bsky.social · 21d

My first day working at AWS is going great. For some reason they had a lot of computers plugged in that nobody was using, so I’ve started an initiative to lower our carbon footprint

Reposted by Michael S. Rosenberg

Will O'Connor @entosphenus.bsky.social · 25d

West African Fiddler Crabs (Afruca tangeri) in the Río Tinto estuary, Huelva, Andalusia, Spain, October 2025. Greater Flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) also feature in the video.

Read the full post here :-https://x.com/EcofactEcology/status/1979067565830709672

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 28d

I honestly didn't realize MTV channels still existed.

It's kind of like when you hear about a celebrity death and your first reaction is "Wait...they were still alive?"

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · Oct 9

@amalelmohtar.com has been holding out on us. She's going to be part of the 2026 @jococruise.bsky.social lineup!

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · Oct 8

Note that v could be an imaginary number in the imaginary case one actually find the material interesting, in which case time would shrink and the lecture would appear to end faster than it actually does.

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · Oct 8

Based on this we can determine that the large 1 hour and 20 minute lecture with v = 0.9c, appears to last 3 hours and 4 minutes, the 50 minute seminar with v = 0.75c appears to last 1 hour and 16 minutes, and the 15 minute conference presentation with v = 0.8c appears to last 25 minutes.

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · Oct 8

Since the actual time (dT') is measured by the lecturer, the apparent length of time according to your mental reference frame (dT) dilates and becomes longer than the actual time. According to the relativity formula, dT = dT' / sqrt(1 - v^2/c^2).

Relativity formula, delta T equals delta T prime divided by the square root of 1 - v squared divided by c squared

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · Oct 8

Because your knowledge is remaining relatively stationary while the lecture is shooting ahead astronomically, you view the lecture from a different frame of references than it actually occupies.

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · Oct 8

Large values of v indicate material presented very quickly or which is very boring. Careful empirical analysis has indicated that for large lectures, v is approximately 0.9c (where c is the speed of light). For departmental seminars is is ~0.75c and for conference presentations ~0.8c.

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · Oct 8

The length of a lecture according to your mind is dependent on the confusion-boringness factor, v. This represents the relative speed at which your brain can absorb the material versus the speed at which is presented, corrected by the level of boredom generated by the lecture style and material.

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · Oct 8

Why lectures seem to last forever?
An explanation based on the time dilation principle of Einstein's special theory or relativity (1905).

Note 1: Also applies to many other types of presentations.
Note 2: I originally came up with this idea 35 years ago, after one week as a freshman college student

Reposted by Michael S. Rosenberg

KStJBirdblog @kstjbirdblog.bsky.social · Oct 3

What Good is the Fiddle on a Fiddler Crab? www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2025/10/03/w...

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · Oct 2

I spot checked a number of additional academic books, including some I wrote chapters for, and found them included as well. I am not personally eligible for a claim on those works, but the editors and publishers are.

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · Oct 2

Attention Academics: The Anthropic settlement includes many academic works. A book I edited is listed and eligible for a claim. If you've ever written or edited a book, check to see if its part of the settlement and make a claim:
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup

Submit a Claim

secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

Reposted by Michael S. Rosenberg

John Trumbull @trumbullcomic.bsky.social · Oct 1

RIP to Jane Goodall, who was cool with this Gary Larson FAR SIDE strip from 1987:

A Gary Larson FAR SIDE cartoon from August 1987, where a glasses-wearing female gorilla is picking a hair off of her mate's back and saying, "Well, well -- another blonde hair. ....Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?"

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · Sep 30

This is true. But also not permanent. Given time and multiple molts, they will eventually regrow a claw as strong as the one that was lost.

Reposted by Michael S. Rosenberg

Harriet Carroll: Long Covid Scientific Consultancy @angryhacademic.bsky.social · Sep 30

Fun fact: male fiddler crabs have 1 GIANT claw. If the claw gets severed, they can grow a new weaker one. Other crabs cant tell the diff so may surrender to a weaker claw if it looks big
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
Watch: youtu.be/hg9WoCwrB10
Easy read: nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

A red and black crab with one giant and completely out of proportion orange claw

Reposted by Michael S. Rosenberg

The lime of Doom @thelimeofdoom.bsky.social · Sep 24

Fiddler crabs are so cool. We don't have them in NZ! I'm in Fiji atm

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