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Graze for Mastodon
If you’re active on social media and even just vaguely interested in tech stuff, then you will almost certainly have heard about the changes at twitter and how a lot of users of that platform have switched allegiance to another, Mastodon. I’ve written a Mastodon FAQ by way of introduction to the platform. Mastodon was originally launched in 2016 and I seem to have a record of a login from August that year, but I joined “Mastodon.Social” properly in November 2019. I must admit I didn’t use it much until April 2022, and then again in late October 2022 after which I have been a lot more active th...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - December 20, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs

Sheril Kirshenbaum on Rosalind Franklin
I’ve embedded Sheril Kirschenbaum’s “toot” by way of a test of how easy it is to report/quote content from a Mastodon server. Seems quite straightforward, not sure I will do more of this kind of thing here though it seems like a very late 90s thing to do with a website, but it works. Her text presumably won’t be visible in the Sciencebase newsfeed, just this paragraph that I’ve written to explain this post. It might be worthing noting that although Franklin’s X-ray crystallography is now much more famous than she was at the time, there was other work by Florence Bell and William As...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - December 17, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs

Which Mastodon server should I use?
If you’re new to Mastodon, then have a quick read of my Mastodon FAQ to get an idea of what it’s all about. Once you’ve done that or if you’re ready to dive in, here’s a list of the instances/servers that are most commonly being used by the people I followed on twitter who added a Mastodon ID or link to their bio and I could find via Debirdify. Because they’re all federated you can see what’s happening on other instances, but you might want to opt for an instance in your area to begin with, or perhaps one where you know contacts and colleagues are already active. I first tried Mast...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - December 17, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs

Questions, questions, questions
I get asked a lot of questions…I always try to provide an accurate answer or find one if I don’t have an answer to give immediately. It’s inevitable, I suppose, if you write a lot on a lot of topics, you become known for it…to a degree. Anyway, when lots of people were tentatively heading for Mastodon at the end of October and into November, I kept getting asked questions about what it is, how is it best used, how do I find people, what are the pros and cons etc. Although I was well aware of the FAQs that were out there, I put together my own in my own words, partly to rehearse and reinforce my unde...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - December 9, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs

Starling Murmurations
I’ve talked about Starling murmurations several times before here. They are a fascinating, exciting, wonderful natural phenomenon with a lot to teach us about animal behaviour and perhaps even fluid flow! There are two spots on the outskirts of our village here in South Cambridgeshire where you might see a murmuration. There is a reedbed in the balancing pond that supports drainage from one of the housing estates and then there’s a similar pond on the edge of the local recycling centre (rubbish dump). I’ve mentioned the Red Kites that frequent that site too in an update to an old article. It was while se...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - December 9, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Birds Source Type: blogs

Phishing, smishing
Just had an email from a reliable and trusted contact to notify me of an alert they received from a third party pointing out that phishing attacks are on the rise. Trouble is, the email they sent with a copy of the original alert is full of links offering advice on how to stay secure and specifically how to avoid being phished… In case you don’t already know, phishing is a scam (smishing is SMS phishing) whereby a malicious third-party hooks you in and gets you to click a link in an email that inevitably leads to the installation of malware on your device or tricks you into entering private and/or personal data...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - December 6, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Technology Source Type: blogs

This year ’ s natural highlights
A few natural highlights from a year that’s been rather miserable in too many ways for me, but peppered with music and photography and nature. You can find the photos I took of these highlights littered around the Sciencebase website, in my Imaging Storm galleries, on my Instagram, Twitter, Mastodon, and Facebook. Thousands of Pink-footed Geese, North Norfolk Water Rails – RSPB Lakenheath Frogs (20+) and frogspawn -in our garden wildlife pond Cranes – RSPB Ouse Fen Grasshopper Warbler – RSPB Ouse Fen Otter on the river bank of the River Great Ouse or is it the Great River Ouse, ouse means river so c...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - December 6, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs

Popular Mastodon servers
I periodically scan my Twitter crowd to see who has added their Mastodon ID to their bio. I recommend doing so, if you want people to find you: @sciencebase@mastodon.social The Debirdify site (and Twitodon, Fedifinder) lets you find people from your Twitter lists, which can include the list of people you follow and your followers if you wish, who have added a link or Mastodon ID. Incidentally “mastodon.social” is just a website address not really any different to sciencebase.com, just that the top-level domain, the bit after the dot, is social instead of com. Anyway, the Top 20 most popular Mastodon servers/ins...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - November 29, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs

ActivityPub and the Web 3.0 Fediverse
If you’ve been keeping abreast of recent happenings on social media, you will likely be aware that there are a lot of people looking for alternatives to the site ex-pats often call the bird place. I like to call it the bird cage myself, but that’s just a personal preference. There are lots of alternatives to the bird place. Some older and more established than others, such as Reddit and Tumblr, some fresher and not so familiar, including Mastodon and other Fediverse systems. Much of the Fediverse is run using ActivityPub. ActivityPub, previously ActivityPump, is an open source, decentralized social networking p...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - November 24, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs

Pilchard Curry
When Mrs Sciencebase was a student, she used to make an inexpensive curry: tin of pilchards, tin of tomatoes, chopped onion, crushed clove of garlic, teaspoon each of cumin, coriander, and turmeric powder, salt & pepper, and a half a teaspoon of chili powder. Served on a bed of whole-grain boiled rice. It sounded a bit grim, but wasn’t too bad. (Brown-bread icecream for pudding or Granny Grape Pudding). It was all certainly a whole lot more adventurous than the boiled noodles and soy sauce I once cooked her because I had nothing else in the cupboard. Don’t know if it compares well with a camping meal we onc...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - November 23, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Food Source Type: blogs

More about Mastodon and more
While Mastodon (I’m @sciencebase there and here’s my Mastodon FAQ) has become perhaps one of the most talked about alternatives to Twitter in recent weeks, there is plenty more to investigate in the alternative, federated social media world. This infographic from the JoinFediverse Wiki shows some of the many branches on the Fediverse tree. I’ll leave Sciencebase readers to do their own searching of the terms on the tree, but they’re all linked from here. Some of the terms and systems have been around a long time. Click the graphic to see the latest full-size version Part of the ethos of the fedivers...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - November 23, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs

Supplementing physical and mental health
I’ve always been wary of taking vitamins and other supplements. There are good reasons not to do so, if you have a reasonably balanced diet. Excesses of some vitamins and minerals can lead to problems like kidney and liver damage, kidney stones, and some can interfere with the absorption and activity of prescription medicines. However. I have been feeling rather tired in recent months, becoming unaccustomedly exhausted after even light activity. I’m talking after a short walk, but sometimes even just after a shower. Was it long-COVID, was it my medication, was it just me getting older? Mrs Sciencebase had an ir...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - November 22, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Health and Medicine Source Type: blogs

Mastodon FAQ – Less Musk, More Tusk
What is Mastodon? Mastodon is an alternative social media system comprising lots of different interconnected sites, each with its own specific interests, but all running the open-source Mastodon software, which makes them all function in roughly the same way and allows communication and sharing between users. When was it started? Mastodon was started in March 2016, but gained a lot of new interest in April 2022 and again in November 2022 in the wake of major changes at one of the more well-known social media systems, Twitter. Why is it called Mastodon? Apparently, it’s named after the American rock band of that name....
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - November 21, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs

Less Musk, More Tusk – a Mastodon FAQ
What is Mastodon? Mastodon is an alternative social media system comprising lots of different interconnected sites, each with its own specific interests, but all running the open-source Mastodon software, which makes them all function in roughly the same way and allows communication and sharing between users. When was it started? Mastodon was started in March 2016, but gained a lot of new interest in April 2022 and again in November 2022 in the wake of major changes at one of the more well-known social media systems, Twitter. Why is it called Mastodon? Apparently, it’s named after the American rock band of that name....
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - November 21, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs

More tusk than musk – a Mastodon FAQ
What is Mastodon? Mastodon is an alternative social media system comprising lots of different interconnected sites, each with its own specific interests, but all running the open-source Mastodon software, which makes them all function in roughly the same way and allows communication and sharing between users. When was it started? Mastodon was started in March 2016, but gained a lot of new interest in April 2022 and again in November 2022 in the wake of major changes at one of the more well-known social media systems, Twitter. Technically, how is Mastodon different? First off, Mastodon is not a single service in the way tha...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - November 21, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs