Dr Bob McNabb
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iamdonovan.bsky.social
Dr Bob McNabb
@iamdonovan.bsky.social
420 followers 440 following 410 posts
Glaciers. Space cameras. Sometimes 🦭. MI -> AK -> Norge -> Northern Ireland. he/him.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
hansonmark.bsky.social
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/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
sarahjeong.bsky.social
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
vincentledvina.bsky.social
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
drandrewthaler.bsky.social
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
iamdonovan.bsky.social
saw a snail piggyback ride earlier this summer
a snail, crawling slowly up a sign by a beach. a second, smaller snail is hitching a ride.
November 10, 2025 at 7:08 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
brendelbored.bsky.social
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
jamellebouie.net
“woke” is when you acknowledge that black people have contributed to the united states
gordondarroch.bsky.social Gordon Darroch @gordondarroch.bsky.social · 5d
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
emilymbender.bsky.social
Wow -- look at OpenAI trying to shift responsibility to the users:

🧵>>

www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/art...
Screencap reading: "OpenAI dispelled suggestions that it’s changing its terms around legal and medical advice. In a statement to CTVNews.ca, it said “this is not a new change to our terms. ChatGPT has never been a substitute for professional legal or medical advice, but it will continue to be a great resource to help people understand legal and health information.” The AI research company updated its usage policies on Oct. 29 to clarify that users of ChatGPT can’t use the service for “tailored advice that requires a license, such as legal or medical advice, without appropriate involvement by a licensed professional.”"
November 6, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
watershedlab.bsky.social
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
radleybalko.bsky.social
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.”
craigipedia.bsky.social Craig Harrington @craigipedia.bsky.social · 17d
America... boy, I dunno.
October 28, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
python.org
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
apowelllaw.bsky.social
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
iamdonovan.bsky.social
feels like it's starting earlier and earlier every year
October 26, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
geophysichick.bsky.social
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
animalarchaeology.com
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 🤷🏻‍♀️
A post from user Audrey Truschke which reads “Fellow academics, I'm doing it. Going all in. Pulling the plug, literally. This is on my syllabus for Spring 2026: "This is an analog class. No Canvas; this syllabus is your guide." All readings are printed books; handwritten exams; no laptops. #academicbluesky #Highered #academia #Rutgers
October 22, 2025 at 5:43 AM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
saddestrobots.bsky.social
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
hypervisible.blacksky.app Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 26d
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
shanewaring.bsky.social
He should be aware of his own personal safety and take steps to be as safe as possible at all times.
A Garda van almost completely blocks a footpath outside the Garda station at St Kevin Street. A 3 old on a balance bike squeezes through the gap. Someone in a wheelchair or a parent with a pram certainly couldn't.
October 18, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
shakespeare.lol
[Exit King.]
October 18, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Dr Bob McNabb
claudewillan.bsky.social
"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.
eve.gd Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 28d
"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
edhawkins.org
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
davidandress.bsky.social
People moaning about kids today, when we spend SIXTY PERCENT LESS on youth services than we did 15 years ago…
 Simon Parker @simonparker.bsky.social · 29d
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
lukeplunkett.com
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
davidrvetter.bsky.social
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
spiraledu.bsky.social
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
asociologist.bsky.social
Two frames from The Good Place: “Fun fact: Columbus is in the Bad Place because of all the raping, slave trade, and genocide.”
October 13, 2025 at 10:49 AM