Erik Kemp 🇪🇺 @Erik@mastodon.utwente.nl

Very proud to see this initiative come from our own scientists :)

Scientists4Future - Twente!

https://www.utoday.nl/news/69325/a-platform-where-people-can-connect

http://twente.scientists4future.nl

#utwente
#scientists4future

How to move your group chats to Signal:

Thanks for sharing @vinnl

Let's talk about food!

1) What do you eat and drink?

2) What is your favourite way to eat mushrooms?

3) What is your favourite way to eat beans?

4) What is your favourite soup?

5) What are your favourite non-alcoholic beverages?

6) For after january, what are you favourite beers, wines and whiskies? =)

Currently combining vegan and dry january. Pictures are some of my favourite (and most-consumed) foods :)

Wow! Germany has had over 50% of its energy powered by renewable sources for the first time in 2021!

"Wind (27%), solar (10,4%), biomass (9,3%) and hydropower (3,7%) add up to 50,4%. Over 2019 this was still 45,9%. In 2010 it was 19,1%."

Chart source:
https://energy-charts.info/charts/energy_pie/chart.htm?l=de&c=DE&year=2020
- created by Prof. Dr. Bruno Burger, from the 'Fraunhofer Institut für Solare Energiesysteme'

Dutch source:
https://www.wattisduurzaam.nl/31768/energie-opwekken/wind/duitse-stroom-in-2020-voor-50-duurzaam-bij-fors-dalende-export/

Diving into cognitive biases:
1 #Survivorshipbias

xkcd image explained:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1827:_Survivorship_Bias

Video explanation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9WFpVsRtQg

Practical advice:
1) Remember that often, we don't see the whole picture, and thus, conclusions might be biased.

2) Learning from 'successful' people might not be the best idea. Learn from everyone :)

Survivorship bias explained:

1) https://dataschool.com/misrepresenting-data/survivorship-bias/

2) https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200827-how-survivorship-bias-can-cause-you-to-make-mistakes

3)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

Cool! An insight in the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2-vaccin:

https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source-code-of-the-biontech-pfizer-vaccine/
pfizer-vaccine/

With translations in multiple languages!

Through Covid19, the young generation is asked for solidarity with the older generation.

Similarly, regarding the climate crisis, the older generation is asked for solidarity with the young generation.

To make sure you don't die, we stop meeting friends, having parties and do what young people normally do.

Please take the climate crisis seriously, consider to fly less, buy less and reduce your meat consumption. Thanks in advance! :-)

(idea from Werner Schouten in NRC)

It seems Bill Gates is also going for his Upgraded Worldview certificate. Wise man ;-)

Ancient mastodon pictures discovered in the Amazon rainforest!

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/nov/29/sistine-chapel-of-the-ancients-rock-art-discovered-in-remote-amazon-forest

"Their date is based partly on their depictions of now-extinct ice age animals, such as the mastodon, a prehistoric relative of the elephant that hasn’t roamed South America for at least 12,000 years. There are also images of the palaeolama, an extinct camelid, as well as giant sloths and ice age horses."

Amazing!

This makes me think of one of my favourite book series, Earth's Children by Jean M. Auel :)

How much do you know about the world?

A great new tool from Gapminder, at https://upgrader.gapminder.org/.

I must admit I had about 4-5 questions wrong the first time I tried 😇

Have you never heard of Gapminder? Then you might want to start with late Hans Roslings classic TED-talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w

Did you like it? Then I can recommend buying the book 'Factfullness' by Hans, Anna and Ola Rosling!(https://www.gapminder.org/factfulness-book/)

You want to explore data? Check their tool at https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#$chart-type=bubbles!

What are your favourite songs? Please share =)

In the Netherlands, there is one radio station (NPO radio 2) that always plays the top2000 in the last week of the year, the top 2000 songs on which people voted. I love it, so that's the only part of the year where I move away from Pinguinradio and Spotify.

These are my votes for this year! https://stem.nporadio2.nl/top2000-2020/share/339c2c90ad62e3be5bd503559c3f8a3de6bcedde

The Spotify playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5PjNaqY28kfBEeXuGSQTHU?si=G2h8HDvFRQOvmGKHIr1y1g

ScienceGuide: "Nederland heeft meer technici nodig en de academische wereld houdt dit nu tegen. Dat was één van de conclusies bij de hoorzitting in de Kamer over het nieuwe investeringsfonds."

Een enorm belangrijk onderwerp, en een boeiend artikel over deze hoorzitting. Dit klinkt als een mooie zitting om terug te kijken! Eens even 3,5 uur tijd zoeken komende weken. Voor de geïnteresseerde, hij is hier te vinden: https://www.tweedekamer.nl/debat_en_vergadering/commissievergaderingen/details?id=2020A04023

Ook de position papers zijn interessant:

Re-reading the great book 'The internet is broken - But we can repair it' that I received from Marleen Stikker after I won the privacy quiz at the Big Brother Awards show by Bits of Freedom (no luck involved at all :). That same evening, Marleen received the Felipe Rodríguez privacy award for fighting for internet freedom and privacy.

I'm looking forward to her lecture in the Week of Inspiration at the University of Twente: https://www.utwente.nl/en/sg/programme/2020/11/678966/week-of-inspiration-the-internet-is-broken-but-we-can-fix-it

@aral is on the left page!

Interesting read from Wageningen:

"When battling climate change and mass-extinction, not every #ecosystem should have the same priority. The study published in 'Nature' identifies cost-effective ecosystem restoration projects that have the highest impact. Read more below!
#Extinction #Biodiversity"

Explanation from WUR: https://www.wur.nl/en/news-wur/Show/Restoring-part-of-worlds-ecosystems-could-stave-off-extinctions-and-absorb-carbon.htm

Full publication:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2784-9

So conservation in Indonesia, the Philippines and the whole south of West-Africa seem very cost-effective!

The online #eudatathon finals are today! An interesting morning looking at all the finalists. There are 4 different challenges:

1: A European Green Deal
2: An economy that works for people
3: A new push for European democracy
4: A Europe fit for the digital age

So of course I have to join :)

You can find all finalists here: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eudatathon/2020-finalists

We just watched a presentation by TU-Delft spinoff Geofluxus that maps, analyses and predicts waste streams across the EU! Really cool!