Notices by Dr. Victoria Grinberg (vicgrinberg@mastodon.social)

No, covid did not teach me that online conferences are just not working. It taught me that 2/3rds of all conferences could be fully online (though one still needs to think about best structure for them and not just transplant them without any adaptation) - and the remaining third needs to focus even more on interaction (unconferences, small workshops, hackatons...) and not the usual talks.

#subtoot #AcademicChatter #academia

Royal Alcázar of Seville

(I'm absolutely in love with Mudéjar architecture but there seem to be no books on it except in Spanish 😢 If you know any in English or German, recs welcome.)

#Seville #sevilla #Mudéjar #architecture #photography

Córdoba at sunset.

[My phone camera seems to be dying (and it bugs me that I don't understand how the particular CCD artefacts I see come to be), so not sure how long I'll be able to provide these, but let's try as long as it works.]

#GoldenHour #sunset #photography #cordoba

It's both impressive (I got a good nose for stuff like this by now) and scary (I did have to develop the nose and also yeah, those people are here) how often I read a single thing comment, think "this sounds like someone denies Soviet atrocities" or "this sounds antisemitic" or "sounds like far right stuff", check the profile of the commenter and lo and behold, there is a Stalin (and often also Putin) apologist, antisemite or a nazi there.

I'm thinking about what to do with this place and how to use it productively. And the best, most useful thing I get out of it is the happiness of shared books and recipes and the chance to meet new great people.

So what I will try is to make it a happy and productive space for us for the next months. I will not always succeed but we need it.

@goatsarah when things get very small, so when things get close to singularity, we need to use both General Relativity and quantum mechanics, however so far we do not know how to combine both. Finding this "Quantum theory of gravity" or "Theory of Everything" is one of the big questions of today's physics! So a singularity is a handy description within the general relativity but we know that general relativity is (likely) not enough...

Celebrating the women working on ESA/NASA #SolarOrbiter mission on this #WomenInScience day.

▶️ https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/02/Celebrating_Solar_Orbiter_and_the_women_behind_the_mission

#esa #astrodon

What did you always wonder about #BlackHoles? Something that you always wanted to ask an astronomer working on them?

Collecting questions for a reason, maybe even answering them in the comments (or at a later point).

#VicisAstro

Let's focus on happy things we need to refuel: What are you reading this weekend?

Here, it's classic Scandinavian crime fiction (Martin Beck series). Not sure what the second book will be once I finish this one.

#bookstodon

@hmwilker @cstross oh, laundry files!

Und ein paar Wochen sagt Herr Merz, dass er es sehr bedauert, aber dass er nun mal mit der #noAFD regieren muss, weil andere Parteien nicht 100% auf seine Linie einschwenken.

Wenn jemand von euch zu einer der Demos gegen rechts will aber aus finanziellen Gründen nicht kann (Tickets um hinzukommen zu teuer, Kinderbetreuung zu teuer...) sagt bescheid.

Ich kann nicht hin, weil im Ausland gerade, aber ich kann zumindest anderen ermöglichen hinzugehen, für irgendwas arbeite ich ja.

Boosts welcome.

Inspired by my current book (English, "Serviceberry" by Robin Wall Kimmerer) and one of my favorite books from last year (German, "Nagori" by Ryoko Sekiguchi):

Does smone have a good (=comprehensive, clear) printable seasonal calender for veggies & fruit for *the Netherlands* to recommend? The kind you can print and hang on your fridge as a reminder? Like this but analog: https://www.eufic.org/en/explore-seasonal-fruit-and-vegetables-in-europe

Also glad to buy a pretty printed one that can go into a frame & onto the wall.

Boost welcome.

This is a major mistake from A&A - forcing such short papers will result in crucial info missing (already now data treatment is often not properly discussed!). I'm a very (sometimes too) concise writer & only two of my 1st author papers are below the 12 page limit. None could be shortened without loss of science.

▶️ https://www.aanda.org/2025-press-releases/3045-shaping-a-sustainable-future-for-a-a-new-policy-on-paper-length

There is no funding for publication charges eg in all German grants for astro because Germany is already a sponsoring country for A&A...

#astrodon

⬆️ I'm seriously glad my last German PhD student just had his last PhD paper accepted. I have no idea how I would have paid for it otherwise. And I have no idea where we'll get funding for my Dutch one - his paper will be longer, because complex, time-variable high res data...

(I'm really missing having a professional astro community here the same way it existed in old twitter 😭 I'd love to talk & be upset together with folks who really understand the field and what it means...)

Yesterday, with the (planned and expected) news of ESA's #Gaia finishing its operation after 10 years of scanning the sky, a new amazing artist's impression of the Milky Way dropped, based on our changed understanding of our Galaxy that Gaia enabled and made by Stefan Payne-Wardenaar.

Here is an #ESA video explaining it:

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEZBNsU4dMU

Isn't it just beautiful? 🤩

(You can download it: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2025/01/The_best_Milky_Way_animation_by_Gaia)

See next post for images ⬇️

#astrodon #MilkyWay

@Gargron thanks a lot - for your time as a ceo and for taking the decision and for talking about it (I can only imagine howh hard this is but it's also such an important example of how to handle things well!).

I think @kathhayhoe's "friendly fire" statement about mastodon is one of the saddest and most depressing things I've heard in the last days (and I've heard a lot of sad and depressing things, both in the context of the overall world and of my private life).

And yes, this is also often how it feels to me here:

https://fediscience.org/@kathhayhoe/113787805278562159

Dear 40+ ladies - what's the best and/or most useful book on menopause you've read? Scientific takes only, please!

Liebe ü40 Frauen - was ist das beste und/oder das nützlichste Buch zum Thema Wechseljahre, das ihr gelesen habt? Wissenschaftlich korrekte Bücher, bitte!

Boosts welcome / danke fürs boosten!

@kim_harding no worries and thanks for chiming in! I think low clouds is the closest I'm getting to it so far when trying to convey the image of what I mean to people...