Notices by Bill Hooker (sennoma@chaos.social)

Hive Mind, help me out.

Some years ago I read a poem (my brain wants to say it was by Herman Melville but that hasn't helped me search for it) that described a hanged man's body -- I think it was John Brown's -- as "a tongue in the bell of the sky".

That phrase haunts me! Please help me track down the poem!

Baron Samedi, or at least his well dressed cousin.

How my wife rolls on Halloween. She sits between the table displays to give out candy and I hide behind the taller display so that I don't have to interact.

@jeffowski I didn't have to do any verification, FWIW.

@mhoye For myself, I'm happy if the fediverse grows slowly. I don't really want Mastodon et al. to compete with Bsky or Theads or whatever; I'd rather it stay *different* from all of those places, and not become more like them in an attempt to draw users.

JESUS CHRIST I can't take it any more

WHY is EVERY fucking search process on the ENTIRE FUCKING WEB grossly and irreparably BROKEN?????

LinkedIn? broken
Google? broken
Glassdoor, Indeed? broken
Every fucking jobsearch site? broken

They all fail the simplest tests (if I restrict a search, does it return fewer results? NO) and lack the most obvious functions (can I use Boolean? can I subtract searches? can I exclude sources or locations? NO, NO, NO).

WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE LIKE THIS?

AAAAAAAAAAA

Ooh, that's new: job ad says "research associate", but when you click through it's a *postdoctoral* research associate.

That's not a job, it's three abusive relationships in a trenchcoat. GFY.

If I could offer my fellow white men just one piece of advice from my 55 years, I wouldn't, because I've learned that I know nothing.

But if they insisted, here it is: discomfort won't kill you; in fact, it's trying to teach you something.

I am talking, of course, about those times when someone with less privilege says or does something that makes you uncomfortable. Don't react: just sit with it a while, and think.

That's it. One Weird Trick™ for not being such a douchebag.

@inthehands @acsawdey I was lucky, we lost the grant on my third (count 'em!) postdoc and I stumbled into an industry job. Turns out I like to make things, and I like being treated like a human being. (Last job, that laid me off last week, not so much. Beware the megacorps.)

@acsawdey @inthehands

I've been through this four times now, and I think the people who decide layoffs are going to happen don't care about the human costs.

And you're right about those not laid off; I've been talking to colleagues who avoided the axe, and they are having just as shitty a time of it as those of us who got the chop.

Well shit. That's a kick in the nuts.

Just got laid off.

Got the summons yesterday to a 15-minute in-person meeting in an off-campus building, and was pretty sure I knew what was coming. I got 2 weeks' notice and severance, so we won't have to move into a cardboard box for a month or so.

Anyone need a molecular biologist? PhD + 15 years' industry experience. Expertise in HIV replication, general mol & cell bio, in vitro diagnostics, analytical and functional assay design, V&V, production, regulatory. If it involves a binding event I can build an assay for it. ELISA, MSD, ELISpot, MOPA, OPA, MNT, lateral flow. Management experience up to team of 20, familiar with cGxP and 21CFR820. I communicate clearly, work collaboratively and set clear, measurable goals.

#FediHire

@annika Blocked and reported for hate crimes against food and decency.

Hive Mind! Help me out?

I want to deny Unionbuster Bezos as much of my hard-earned as possible, but I still need* to buy books, and I'd as soon shop online when I can in these days of Plague and infinite stupidity.

Where do y'all buy your books online?

*Yes, need. Argue and you eat block.

@NeonPurpleStar You should rename every other one dat_array.

@mybarkingdogs @inthehands I'm training a machine learning model to Spot The Thing at work, and it's remarkably good. Like, "not done training and already better than most humans" good. If we can get it hooked into our workflow properly, a very conservative estimate is $1M/yr in savings. More importantly (to me; my employer might disagree), it will free up time for scientists to think instead of doing robot work.

So yeah, fuck "AI" but with SOME caveats. 🙂

@aral Funny you should mention...

https://chaos.social/@sennoma/112786939698525938

If you have a little cash you could spare, please consider helping Linda Tirado die as comfortably as possible:

https://lindatirado.substack.com/p/story-thirty-nine

Linda is a genuine hero of journalism, mutual aid, and sheer cussedness. We are losing a real one.

If @anildash took the time to write it, it's worth your time to read it.

https://www.anildash.com/2024/06/14/the-new-alt-media/

Jesus Christ. All of my usual job searches on LinkedIn etc are now returning "AI" this and "Deep Learning" that.

Is there no end to this plague of bullshit?