RDN

Retired environmental scientist (biology/oceanography), data analyst, data manager.

Mostly posting links related to #Environment, #Nature, #DataAnalysis, #DataVisualization, #FLOSS, #Health, #Fitness, #Psychology, #USPolitics

Posts auto-delete after one year. Some posts are compiled at https://dblog.vitumbre.tech/dart/ under the "Links" topic.

Avatar by [@orbite](https://mastodon.social/@orbite )

Blog profile: https://dblog.vitumbre.tech/dart/about/
Blog: https://dblog.vitumbre.tech/dart/
SQL script processor: https://pypi.org/project/execsql/
Map-based data explorer: https://pypi.org/project/mapdata/

Public Key

npub1nejr7qkq558lpnvhu6nc9tk7gz5zuvcrj4m7pnh5nff3p0spkh0q6h6te9

NIP-05 Address

rdnielsen_at_floss.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsfueplqtq22rlsekt7dfuz4m0yp2pwxvpe2alqem6f55cshcqmthsprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqfz0qp

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1nejr7qkq558lpnvhu6nc9tk7gz5zuvcrj4m7pnh5nff3p0spkh0q6h6te9

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Published at

2026-10-01T03:08:16Z

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0 Metadata

Event JSON

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Last Notes

2026-08-16 19:36:56 UTC

A survey of over 1,000 U.S. adults aged 18-34 found that a large majority didn't trust any of nine executives leading AI companies.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/young-people-ai-ceos-executives-poll
#AI

2026-08-15 17:46:40 UTC

Analysis of blood chemistry data from 7,000 U.S. residents, collected over 20 years, found that bicarbonate levels have increased about 7%, tracking the rise in atmospheric CO2. Calcium and phosphorus declined over the same period. These may lead to effects on respiration, heart rate, kidney calcification, oxidative stress, inflammation, and cerebral electrical activity.
Summary: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260814235845.htm
Original paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11869-026-01918-5
#Science #Health #ClimateChange #CO2

2026-08-09 17:26:33 UTC

Invisible car:
https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/09/this-adversarial-pattern-can-prevent-surveillance-cameras-from-detecting-you/
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/117/066/707/514/394/668/original/cb6a83c33013d42a.webp

2026-08-04 14:30:57 UTC

A stroke can lead to cavities in the brain where tissue has died. A new rat study injected these cavities with extracellular vesicles collected from astrocytes in vitro, and bound to a porous hydrogel. Immune cells, blood vessels, and nerve tissue then migrated into the cavities, and the rats regained lost motor function.
Summary: https://scitechdaily.com/new-stroke-treatment-turns-brain-cavities-into-repair-hubs/
Original paper: https://www.cell.com/cell-biomaterials/fulltext/S3050-5623(26)00199-6?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS3050562326001996%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
#Science #Health #Stroke

2026-07-12 18:25:17 UTC

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I have used UMAP and t-SNE for analysis of environmental samples of PCBs and other things, and have found that they usually produce different, but often complementary, insights. The results in this paper shouldn't be taken as an indication that UMAP is always the best approach.

2026-07-12 18:21:00 UTC

Evaluation of concentrations of 35 PCB congeners in blood of about 5,000 individuals in the U.S. in 2003-2004 identified variations in PCB fingerprints by age, with a distinct pattern in a subset of younger individuals.
UMAP, t-SNE, and PCA were used for dimensionality reduction and pattern analysis. UMAP proved best at clustering data points with similar fingerprints.
#Science #PCBs #DataAnalysis #UMAP #tSNE #PCA #RStats
https://cdn.masto.host/floss/media_attachments/files/116/908/362/915/533/815/original/e69b945306fff0e3.jpg

2026-07-03 23:37:51 UTC

Weekly monitoring of 368 Finnish children through the first year of life found that those from families with dogs had fewer respiratory infections and required fewer courses of antibiotics. Three dog-associated bacterial genera explained 25% of the protective effect. Protection may also be provided by aspects of the dog-owning lifestyle.
Summary: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-early-dog-exposure-babies-infections.html
Original paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pai.70408
#Science #Health #ChildRearing #Dogs

2026-05-24 19:47:05 UTC

Melting ice sheets, and redistribution of water to lower latitudes, is slowing Earth's rotation at an unprecedented rate.
Summary: https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/unprecedented-earths-rotation
Original paper: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025JB032161
#Science #ClimateChange

2026-05-03 12:32:11 UTC

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Here's a recent summary of non-designed flaws in the human body: https://theconversation.com/the-human-body-isnt-a-masterpiece-of-design-its-a-patchwork-of-evolutionary-compromise-279343
The knee, the epiglottis, and the sinuses are also often described as examples of the absence of intelligent design.

2026-04-25 16:48:09 UTC

Two studies in the U.S. and one in the U.K. examined the relationship between political affiliation and factual knowledge on climate related issues. Consistently, left-leaning participants showed greater factual knowledge than conservatives.
Summary: https://www.psypost.org/research-links-environmental-policy-support-to-factual-knowledge/
Original paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494425001239
#Science #Psychology #Politics #Climate

2025-12-02 21:51:43 UTC

A new study that takes advantage of a change in availability of the shingles (*Herpes zoster*) vaccine in Wales finds that vaccination reduces dementia symptoms in those already diagnosed with the disease, and reduced deaths from dementia by approximately 30% over the following nine years.
Summary: https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/shingles-vaccine-dementia
Original paper: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)01256-5?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867425012565%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
#Science #Health #Dementia #Alzheimers #Shingles #HerpesZoster

2025-11-08 15:37:08 UTC

The swallow-tailed gull, a nocturnal gull that flies as much as 100 km at night from the Galapagos to the Humboldt Current to feed on squid:
https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/swallow-tailed-gull-hunting
#Nature #Birds

2025-09-24 01:32:43 UTC

Mouse studies indicate that the dental-plaque-forming bacterium *Streptococcus mutans* can colonize the gut, where it produces a metabolite (imidazone proprionate) that can cross the blood-brain barrier and induce symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
Summary: https://scienceblog.com/your-mouth-bacteria-could-be-rewiring-your-brain/
Original paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63473-4
#Science #Health #Parkinsons #DentalHealth

2025-09-05 22:05:59 UTC

States that enacted abortion restrictions after the 2022 *Dobbs v. Jackson* ruling had, on average, a 7.3% increase in the death rates for infants up to 1 year old. The mechanism(s) causing these excess deaths is (are) unknown.
Summary: https://theconversation.com/infant-mortality-rises-in-states-with-restrictive-abortion-laws-new-research-263707
Original paper (not open access): https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308228
#Abortion #InfantMortality #USPol #USPolitics

2025-08-28 23:49:53 UTC

LinkedIn has recently changed their policy to allow harassment by deadnaming transgender people (https://www.advocate.com/news/linkedin-transgender-deadnaming-misgendering-policy), and as a consequence I have just deleted my LinkedIn account.
#TransRights #LBGTQIA

2025-06-26 01:02:32 UTC

Examination of 412 U.S. infants (1-3 months old) found low levels of the Bifidobacterium in the intestines of most, with 25% of them lacking the bacterium entirely. Low levels of Bifidobacterium in infants were associated with greater incidences of allergies, eczema, and dermatitis in 210 individuals who were assessed at age 2.
Summary: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/babies-gut-bacteria-allergies-asthma
Original paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08274-7
#Science #Microbiome #Allergies #Eczema #Bifidobacterium

2025-06-06 15:57:02 UTC

A new coating that cools solar panels by absorbing moisture during the night and releasing it during the day results in greater power output and lifespan.
Summary: https://scitechdaily.com/new-material-supercharges-solar-panel-power-lifespan/
Original paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0927796X25000932
#Science #Energy #Environment #SolarPower

2025-05-22 20:56:08 UTC

Interviews with 98 tech workers in the U.S. and China identified three strategies that the workers use to deal with conflicts between their own ethics and their employer's practices. U.S. and Chinese tech workers cite different factors for guiding their navigation through this conflict.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20539517251340626?af=R
#Ethics

2025-03-31 11:56:04 UTC

Narcissists are more honest after being exposed to explanations of different rationalizations of unethical behavior (assuming everybody does it, blaming others, minimizing harm, or using euphemistic language) and how using these rationalizations can adversely affect one's standing.
Summary: https://www.psypost.org/scientists-discover-how-to-psychologically-inoculate-narcissists-against-dishonesty/
Original paper (not open access): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01461672241276562
#Science #Psychology #Ethics #Honesty #Narcissism

2025-02-11 16:18:36 UTC

Mary Midgley, the historical predominance of unmarried male philosophers, and the shift from abstract philosophy to the incorporation of a human perspective.
https://aeon.co/essays/for-mary-midgley-philosophy-must-be-entangled-in-daily-life
#Philosophy

2025-01-24 00:32:24 UTC

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You can do this per-user via the web interface. On the user's profile page, click the 3-dot menu and select "Hide boosts from..."

2024-10-16 15:54:56 UTC

Social media posts containing numbers are shared more widely than those without, and stimulate more interest.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/numbers-are-persuasive-if-used-in-moderation/
Some numbers from the article: 8,000,000; 17,000; 9; 27; 16.9; 31.7; and 212.
#Science #SciComm #Communication

2024-10-14 13:17:39 UTC

Brain activity in sleeping birds suggests that they are 'rehearsing' or dreaming about singing.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/birds-practice-singing-in-their-sleep/
#Science #Birds

2024-09-25 14:11:58 UTC

Soil warming leads to release of stored carbon, and nitrogen enrichment leads to increased carbon storage. New research that looks at the combined effect of these factors finds an increase in respiratory loss of carbon from soils, but no change to the stock of soil carbon.
Original paper (not open access): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02546-x
#Science #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #SoilCarbon #CO2

2024-08-21 17:10:06 UTC

Creative people process unusual or surprising stimuli in the same way as ordinary stimuli. Unconventional details are given attention equivalent to typical details.
Summary: https://www.psypost.org/scientists-reveal-a-fascinating-neurocognitive-trait-linked-to-heightened-creativity/
Original paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278262624000551
It's not thinking outside the box if you don't recognize the box's existence.
#Science #Cognition #Psychology #Creativity #Attention

2024-08-16 22:53:09 UTC

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I have a great idea for a villain called The Rearranger.
My wife is the model.