Dr Bob McNabb
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iamdonovan.bsky.social
Dr Bob McNabb
@iamdonovan.bsky.social
Glaciers. Space cameras. Sometimes 🦭. MI -> AK -> Norge -> Northern Ireland. he/him.
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
ever since I learned about three-cueing I've developed infinitely more patience for replies on social media. mfers literally do not know how to read. people are walking around conjuring random meanings into words they don't know, and they don't know a lot of words. it's crazy
November 11, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
If you have a very low-latitude aurora observation from tonight, please record your exact time and rough location and DO NOT DELETE your photo. These observations will be important for scientific research of this event.

Comment below if you have a low-latitude aurora sighting.
November 12, 2025 at 2:04 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
In the century leading up to 1975, nearly 6000 freighters went down in the Great Lakes.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.

The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.

Why?

It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
November 11, 2025 at 1:50 AM
saw a snail piggyback ride earlier this summer
November 10, 2025 at 7:08 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
Tech guys six months ago: haha yes we’re cutting all this WASTEFUL spending by eliminating medical research and USAID

Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine
November 8, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
“woke” is when you acknowledge that black people have contributed to the united states
Two panels commemorating the contribution of Black American soldiers towards the liberation of the Netherlands in World War Two have been quietly removed from a cemetery in Limburg. It follows a complaint by right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission.
nrc.nl NRC @nrc.nl · 6d
Op Margraten zijn twee panelen over zwarte Amerikaanse bevrijders van Nederland opeens weg. ‘Past bij beleid van de regering-Trump’
November 8, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
Wow -- look at OpenAI trying to shift responsibility to the users:

🧵>>

www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/art...
November 6, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
Holy moly - this glacier detachment in Tajikistan is WILD. It appears that there was a large piece of glacier ice much farther down the valley from a first detachment which then got pushed by a second soon thereafter. 🧵@planet.com @davepetley.bsky.social 🧪⚒️
November 1, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
I know it’s too much to expect them to know their history, but if the American Revolution had a motto, it definitely would not have been “immigrants go home.”

It would have been “get your fucking soldiers out of our cities.”
America... boy, I dunno.
October 28, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
🧵
The official home of the Python Programming Language
www.python.org
October 27, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
It genuinely staggers me how you can have departments of hundreds of people and this kind of utterly idiotic incompetence happens. This kind of issue was so obvious to anyone with even the most moderate comprehension of the UK as being beyond just England...

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
NI parents caught in UK crackdown lose child benefit after travelling via Dublin
Exclusive: new anti-fraud system fails to account for fact many return to country via airport in Irish capital
www.theguardian.com
October 26, 2025 at 1:18 PM
feels like it's starting earlier and earlier every year
October 26, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
This was behind a paywall for me (ironic, since I'm quoted in it), but if you can read it, it's worthy.

If you can't read it, it describes the Tracy Arm landslide and other similar events, the number of which may be increasing due to climate change.

edition.cnn.com/2025/10/22/c...
Cruise ships are flocking to Alaska to chase ice. But receding glaciers are leaving a new threat behind | CNN
It was a very early morning in August when an entire mountainside in Alaska’s Tracy Arm fjord detached and slid into the deep ocean water beneath it.
edition.cnn.com
October 22, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
Anyway, my joint disorder began to get worse during college and if I wasn’t able to use a small tablet to type notes during class, I wouldn’t been able to take notes at all.

And unsurprisingly, I was very much in denial of my own disability and would have been embarrassed to be the only one 🤷🏻‍♀️
October 22, 2025 at 5:43 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
also, like, "ask the chatbot when low tide is" is very close to what google is increasingly doing to every single one of your local informational queries automatically
Folks will be quick to ridicule people who do this, but it can’t be separated from the media hype and ai boosters telling us the tech is a magic answer wizard that knows all and sees all.
Two People Almost Drown After Asking ChatGPT When Low Tide Was
The owner of a restaurant in South Wales potentially saved the lives of two swimmers, who ventured out after asking ChatGPT for tide times.
futurism.com
October 18, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
He should be aware of his own personal safety and take steps to be as safe as possible at all times.
October 18, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
[Exit King.]
October 18, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
"With the advent of artificial intelligence, the internet transformed from a collaborative space into an extraction zone."

Worth reading this even if you don't know what robots.txt is.
"The protocol taught us that technology can be based on human values like ethics and morality. It showed that voluntary compliance works when all parties benefit."

On robots.txt.

www.heise.de/en/backgroun...
Obituary: Farewell to robots.txt (1994-2025)
The voluntary compliance protocol that civilized the internet has departed, bids Henning Fries farewell.
www.heise.de
October 17, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
A request for weather interested volunteers!

Met Eireann would like to rescue millions of weather observations taken in Ireland over many decades that are still stuck on paper. #WeatherRescue

Anyone can help: www.zooniverse.org/projects/met...
October 16, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
People moaning about kids today, when we spend SIXTY PERCENT LESS on youth services than we did 15 years ago…
The absolute bloody vandalism of austerity in one chart. Good analysis of the overall picture here.
October 16, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
kids teacher just sent this home as part of an assignment he's doing and i want to smash every computer at the school
October 15, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
I will bet my bike that close to zero of the British racists that this law is pandering to could pass A-level English.
Migrants will be required to pass A Level standard of English
Migrants will be required to pass tough new English language requirements under a law introduced in Parliament today.
www.gov.uk
October 14, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
Lingít songs at pick up today ♥️

I love that the kids are singing in their jackets and backpacks. Culture is celebrated everyday.

Happy Indigenous people’s day! #indigenouspeoplesday
October 14, 2025 at 3:50 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
October 13, 2025 at 10:49 AM