this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 347 points 8 months ago (2 children)

et. al

I wouldn't mess with her, she contains multitudes!

[–] [email protected] 35 points 8 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 33 points 8 months ago (1 children)

We are Borg et al. Resistance is futile.

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[–] [email protected] 167 points 8 months ago (10 children)

What does “human drivers of fire” mean?

[–] [email protected] 137 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Well I'm here so I guess I'll answer.

There are many human drivers of fire, the first and foremost being, well you know, lighting a fire. And boy, do humans light a lot of fires.

Take for example, here is a map of active fires around the globe, right now:

First order human drivers of fire are things we actively or accidentally do to light a fire. Ignition is a fundamental for fire to happen, and humans cause WAY more ignition events than nature does. Things like a cook fire, burning brush or downed debris for management purposes, infrastructure like power lines or fueling stations, car accidents, lit cigarettes being thrown out etc.. etc.. The timing and frequency of these events directly influence the frequency of fires.

Second order drivers are things like vegetation management, home placing and construction, and other biophysical drivers. For example, introduction of invasive species like bromus tectorum, which burns very readily, represents more fine fuels in the environment. Yadayadayada more fires. Other things around vegetation management would fall into this category, such as the suppression of fire, or the psychical thinning of fuels in forests, or prescribed burns.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Well I'm here so I guess I'll answer.

Are... are you McCarty et al., TropicalDingdong?

edit: [email protected]

[–] [email protected] 76 points 8 months ago (8 children)

No no no, I'm an et al, just no any of those particular et al. I focus on wildfire risk and have read much on the topic. I've read McCarty and many more when it comes to understanding wildfire and wildfire risk. Some of my research focuses on wildfire risk, and spatial features as they relate to wildfire risk, so drivers becomes pretty important when it comes to wildfire risk modeling. I have taken several courses through NASA on the matter even though I don't focus on drivers directly.

This is the kind of thing I'm working on:

The nodes are features, the edges are weights. In this case I'm just looking at structure:structure risk.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I'm sorry, but you obviously don't understand wildfires. You should really try reading Tropical Dingdongs, Esq.

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 8 months ago

I use geospatial science and data to document, analyze, and predict complexities of wildland and human-caused fire, from individual to global scales. I have a particular interest in fire emissions and modeling, regional food security, land-cover/land-use change, and the Arctic. As a mom, I am concerned with helping children and future generations have better lives.

https://jmccartygeo.org/

[–] [email protected] 49 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This is my best guess without googling it or her.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The only acceptable use of generative AI is to get the shit posts out faster

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 8 months ago

Those who are deemed "Lit" in academic language.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 8 months ago (3 children)

It means she’s a trouble starter, punkin' instigator, fear addicted, a danger illustrated.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 8 months ago

Probably just the totality of human influences on wildfires. This can include a wide range of activities and factors including climate change, forest preservation or cutting, changes in wild or domestic mammal herbivory, accidental ignition events, controlled burns, irrigation or diversion of streams, damming rivers, invasive species introductions, etc.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Found an article referencing McCarty as a "fire scientist" which is a really cool title. Seems like human drivers of fire is exactly what it sounds like, motivations and causes for why humans set fires.

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[–] [email protected] 139 points 8 months ago (16 children)

She is McCarty for sure but I doubt that she is et al too ...

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[–] [email protected] 124 points 8 months ago (14 children)

I always roll my eyes whenever I see a "you can't do that because you're a woman" character in a show, and then I'm always reminded that these people actually exist

[–] [email protected] 32 points 8 months ago (14 children)

these people actually exist

The way it's been explained to me is that so much of the negative interactions in life come from a tiny, tiny number of offenders who manage to be shitty to dozens and dozens of people. So anyone who has to interact with many different people will inevitably encounter that shitty interaction, while most of us normies would never actually behave in that way.

Of the literally thousands of times I've interacted with a server or cashier, I've never yelled at one. But talk to any server or cashier, and they'll all have stories of the customer who yelled at them. In other words, it can be simultaneously true that:

  • Almost all servers and cashiers get yelled at by customers.
  • Very, very, few customers actually yell at servers or cashiers.

In other words, our lived experiences are very different, depending on which side of that interaction we might possibly be on.

When I talk to women in male dominated fields, basically every single one of them has shitty stories about sexist mistreatment. It's basically inevitable, because they are a woman who interacts with literally hundreds or thousands in their field. And even if I interact with hundreds or thousands of women in that same field, just because I don't mistreat any of them doesn't mean that my experienced sample is representative.

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[–] [email protected] 90 points 8 months ago (1 children)

And then everyone applauded..

But seriously if I witnessed this, I might actually applaud because that is a pretty badass bit of trivia to get to whip out.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago

I think I would rather this happen to me than just about anything professionally, the withdrawal from that high might actually kill me

[–] [email protected] 80 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (15 children)

ITT people baww at the mere mention of race and gender, and proceed to behave as if the problem is other people being too sensitive about race and gender.

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Hilarious. I actually witnessed this online when someone tried to “well actually” another user and it turned out that user was the author of the paper they cited.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 8 months ago (28 children)

Funny, but what does the skin color have to do with the situation?

[–] [email protected] 71 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's a reminder than people that have always been in a privileged position often don't realize they do.

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[–] [email protected] 67 points 8 months ago (49 children)

When a given demographic is a dominant presence in a given area (not necessarily work, it can be anything), there is a tendency for they demographic to start making assumptions about other demographics.

In most places, men are the dominant presence, and in most of the "western" world, they will also be white.

In this case, the individual who a white male was doing what's called colloquially, "mansplaining". He was correcting a woman when not only was the woman right, but was the very source he was using to correct her.

This is a consistent and very unpleasant fact of the world that white men will treat anyone of any other demographic as less than equals.

In this specific case, I suspect that the person making that post was pointing to the prejudice and stupidity of the person indirectly insulting her being a systemic issue arising from both gender and sexual entrenchment along with the privilege that allows the dominance of the white male demographic despite their being no quantifiable factor for that group to be dominant other than that privilege.

She, in other words, was pointing out a systemic issue by using an anecdote. Which can be a bit difficult to accept as evidence. Or would be if there wasn't a good century or so of giant piles of anecdotes from real people pointing to that systemic issue not only existing, but being something that holds everyone back.

Truth? Yes, women and people of color are going to assume they're right and whoever they're talking to is wrong just like any humans will. But white dudes have been pulling that crap for multiple generations, and anyone that isn't both white and male get sick of the bad behavior.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 8 months ago (55 children)

It's not obvious? Because white males as a demographic are the most privileged people on the planet and not coincidentally also the ones most prone to petty, oblivious arrogance, tantrum-throwing, and egotistical man-splaining. The latter was demonstrated by the one in this NASA scientist's anecdote.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Did you drop a /s? This is a funny meme, so I'm assuming I just missed a joke.

Right?

(Speaking as a white male, white male entitlement, and privilege for that matter, are incredibly relevant to white men being sexist/racist.)

(You can trust me on this because I'm a white male. Also, I'm used to my opinion being listened to, so I expect you to as well. Just FYI.)

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (52 children)

lemmy.zip

Edit: this slap fight below this comment is the reason for this comment originally, that is why it was a joke to point out the instance, Thanks for demonstrating my point lol

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Being white is a huge risk factor for unearned confidence. So is male. Being both just multiplies the chances.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Any kind of interruption seems rude AF, and that’s without even considering the sexism and insinuation that she’s incompetent.

What’s the norm for the audience in situations like this? Raising your hand? Holding any questions/comments until the end?

[–] [email protected] 44 points 8 months ago (7 children)

Even then you don't go "you don't understand x!". You make an actual point about something in the presentation, usually with enough self-doubt to state it as a question.

If the whole presentation is trash in your opinion, just leave.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

The @lemmy.liberals in the comments here being flabbergasted that straight white men in positions of power are privileged and embarrassing is very funny

Keep it up dorks

Edit:

To the salty folks out there mad about people not stooping down and being your personal elementary school teacher to teach you basic lessons about the world we live in, and our friends from lemmy.world who are assuredly reading through posts like this one from defederated instances (hi!)

A word about what it is to be civil in conversation and Why Those Tankies Are So Mean (not a tankie but w/e):

I will definitely admit that I was very annoyed and could have been nicer about a lot what I went about saying throughout my posts in this thread. Here's the thing, 'being nicer about it' is a personal decision not a moral necessity, and not even necessarily beneficial at all. The "it" we're being "nicer" about is often something horrifying, like when people got upset at Aaron Bushnell for his self immolation, people who were more upset about THAT than they are about what's happening to innocent bystanders in Palestine. These are not positions that should be met with civility. No one is required to put up with someone's bullshit just for the purpose of helping them learn and grow. Its good to do in the few times when that is possible...

but here?

on the internet? On a not-reddit forum website in a science memes community? Its 1/10000 chance where that's possible.

We all know why you would feel attacked by seeing the mention of his white maleness and the implication that had anything to do with it. No unbiased person would see that and think "this is prejudice based on skin color!" or pretend they can see no connection between the guy in the tweet's old male whiteness and THE TWEET, A perfect encapsulation of the absurdity our nightmare culture which enshrines and systematically enforces the power of ignorant old white men. Its not a statement that all white people are bad, its not a statement that all old people are bad, its not a statement that all men are bad.

It's a recognition of the systemic rot inflicted on the scientific community by our current culture shaped by patriarchy, capitalism, and imperialism.

Add to that how sick I and many of us are of the constant bullshit, the harmful attitudes beliefs and inevitable whining and whinging when the least criticism lands near the fancy of the loser we run across on some post. We're leftists, but also most of us are either trans or queer or poc or neurodivergent etc etc or any combination thereof. We have been around for years just on lemmy, and years before. And over those years, have grown to recognize civility bullshit for what it always was. And recognize what it means when we see stuff like this post, where people are upset about criticism of privileged behavior that demonstrates an injustice inherent to our current system. So we see that bullshit, and we come down on it. To see that an not react harshly against it is no different than contributing to it yourself, to let it fester and grow, to let something horrible and unjust become simply 'normal'.

To hear incorrect views without rebutting them and instead to take them calmly as if nothing had happened is unacceptable.

That's why many people in this thread reacted negatively to the comments we did. Clear enough?

This is why I usually just say shut up, loser. It's way fucking easier, and taking the effort like this is never worth it, not on here, not with the .world et all crowd.

So shut up, losers.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Not as confrontational, but had a similar experience with a collaborator. Due to the PIs' old habits, our collaboration meetings were telecons (telephone landlines, rather than zoom or other video conferencing). So at a conference, I see a poster from a member of the collaboration, having never seen the faces of many members, and go over to introduce myself. This other grad student was in poster presenter mode, so as I approach he immediately asks "So you are interested in [collaboration project], how much do you know about [project]" and I point to my name on the author's list and say "well, I am that guy".

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 8 months ago

That et al is the best scientist, they’re in all the papers.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 8 months ago (2 children)

That man's name? Albert Einstein

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago (14 children)

As a white dude, I would be horribly embarrassed to do something like that. I hope the guy in the story learned a lesson from it.

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