Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 4h

In my experience, the justifications are assisted coding, summarising meeting recordings, and helping people write emails (?). But none of that feels like it will generate a gazillion dollars revenue either.

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 8h

How much of "tech innovation" of the last two decades is the equivalent of slapping a label saying Not A Car, Trust Me onto a car and going 140 km/h in a school zone?

Taxis but without regulations; hotels but without regulations; stocks but without regulations; automated plagiarism but without ...

Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 10h

It might be true that the world needs to remove ten billion tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere every year but it’s never going to happen for many different reasons: technical, financial, social, environmental, governance, etc. If we don’t reduce CO₂ emissions, we’re screwed. That’s it.

Removing CO2 from atmosphere vital to avoid catastrophic tipping points, leading scientist says

10bn tonnes must be captured from the air every year to limit global heating to 1.7C, says Johan Rockström

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 9h

Saying we need massive CO₂ removal is like saying we need fusion power. We might need them but we ain’t got ‘em.

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 8h

I had a classmate who was completely incapable of understanding the concept of sarcasm in writing but who became a STEM professor. Minds are fascinatingly varied. (Which also shows how silly it is to take IQ scores seriously or to believe that AI is a linear thing that you can just crank up to 11.)

Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 10h

this is a rich text but my favorite part is that despite being presumably good at math, her husband is so illiterate that he cannot read a baby's report card

Sam Biddle @sambiddle.com · 14h

I think the belief by the powerful that "people will put up with many things if you are excellent at math" is incredibly revealing in terms of understanding How We Got Here

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 8h

I feel blaming peaceful migration, women being allowed to say "no", and not being able to call your colleague the n-word for right-wing violence and oppression is the bully's "you made me hit you" more than the orphan meme.

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 10h

We have expanded our target capture dataset of the Senecio inaequidens - S. madagascariensis complex to a global scale. More clarity on the areas of origin of invasive madagascariensis, but also raising new questions.

doi.org/10.1007/s105...
@biolinvasions.bsky.social
#asteraceae #compositae #weeds

Phylogenomics and genetic admixture of the invasive fireweed complex (Senecio inaequidens–Senecio madagascariensis) at a global scale - Biological Invasions

The southern African Senecio inaequidens–S. madagascariensis complex, (‘fireweed complex’), contains several species that have established as weeds outside of their native ranges. Senecio madagascarie...

doi.org

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 12h

Leaving aside the whole "future soldier" bit, which implies that they have a very different understanding of "lest we forget" than I do, why do so many people seem to think that poppies have two petals? Have they never seen a single poppy flower?

shaun @shaunvids.bsky.social · 18h

four children holding large plastic poppies, some of them wearing shirts that read 'future soldier'

Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn

Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · 1d

Computer vision species identification of lichens and bryophytes from biocrusts in Australian drylands

New in #AppsPlantSci by Lawler, @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social, Cargill & Gueidan

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #lichen #bryophyte #biocrust #MachineLearning #ComputerVision

The image shows a photograph of various species of the thalloid liverwort Riccia and other cryptogams such as mosses and lichens growing on soil. The photograph was taken in Charleville Rock Pools (Queensland, Australia) by Rosemary Purdie.

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 1d

This can be generalised.

With all the whining about the "decline of the West", are we declining? No, we are merely not growing our economies as fast; and duh, because they are already large.

And what would success look like to the whiners? Keeping most of humanity locked into destitution, forever.

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Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn

the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 2d

Yes really — the “we asked this guy. He doesn’t actually know jack shit but he’s rich” model of reportage really needs to go

rich traditions @helldude.bsky.social · 2d

theres a whole category of newstertainment thats gotta go. and its "ask a really rich freak who is also evil and directly stealing from you what hes seen on the computer lately that has made him feel bad." the only -- ONLY -- story about this guy worth exploring is: he is getting rich spying on you

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 4d

Have we considered not overshooting?

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 4d

Why is half the US economy cults of personality now? It is weird.

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 5d

Various, depending on the habitat above that part of the cave system. She is preparing to publish her study.

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 6d

Okay, but the problem isn't that deepfakes can stop a massive popular backlash, it is that they could swing a close election or ruin some average person's life.

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 7d

The third keynote of the #asbs2025 is given by Helen Kennedy from our herbarium. Her topic is stewardship in botany.

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 7d

The second is awarded to Jeremy Bruhl, emeritus professor at UNE. He is an expert in, among other taxa, Cyperaceae and Phyllanthaceae. The two recipients are giving a shared presentation, reflecting their close collaboration over many years. #asbs2025

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 7d

Unusually, the ASBS awards two Nancy Burbidge Medals in 2025. The first is awarded to Ian Telford, in honour of his lifetime contributions to Australasian botany. He scientifically described over 100 taxa and collected over 14,000 specimens. #asbs2025

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 7d

The ancients who wasted enormous resources on religious monuments while their societies imploded were much more rational than we are. At least they had the excuse of not understanding stuff like salinisation, soil erosion, or why the rivers were drying up. We do understand, yet we do stuff like this

Protos @protos.com · 7d

LLM crypto trading contest finds LLMs can’t trade crypto protos.com/llm-crypto-t...

LLM crypto trading contest finds LLMs can't trade crypto

Four out of the six large language models in the Alpha Arena crypto trading competition finished in the red.

protos.com

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 8d

Last talk of the day is by Niels Klazenga, on the upgrade to Keybase. I was very glad to hear that this is happening, because it is a crucial resource for those needing access to identification keys, those wanting to publish them, and for eFloras integrating the keys. keybase.rbg.vic.gov.au

keybase.rbg.vic.gov.au

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 8d

Katharina Nargar looks back on the Decadal Plan for Taxonomy in Australia, and where to next. #asbs2025

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 8d

Tim Hammer's second presentation is about the new electronic flora of South Australia. (FloraSA makes sense, but my brain goes "flora essay".) #asbs2025

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 8d

Tim Collins gives an overview of the data-driven criteria for listing species as threatened. Estimating number of individuals when creating a record, instead of merely writing something like "frequent" or "rare", would be very useful for these assessments. #asbs2025

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 8d

Siobhan Leachman encourages participants to contribute to wiki projects. The conference workshop on Sunday was about just that.

She also discusses the correlation between conference poster success and poster location (e.g., right next to the coffee).

#asbs2025

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 8d

Melinda Laidlaw gives a broad overview of goings-on at the Queensland Herbarium, including staff changes and research priorities. #asbs2025

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