Sign in

ned haughton

@ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
19 followers 16 following 69 posts

I'm a climate scientist. I've just spent the last 6 years working in physical climate risk assessment, and now I'm heading back into academia to study how to […] [bridged from fediscience.org/@ned on the fediverse by fed.brid.gy ]

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by ned haughton
Eric Maugendre on adapting @eric.social.coop.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026
#solutions #rootCause #AI #futurism
4 picture meme: 
1. "My genius machine will find solutions to all the world problems". 
2. /computer - "Thinking", 
3. /computer - "You already have all the solutions. You just refuse to implement them to protect the financial interests of the wealthiest 0.001%"
4. Inventor - /unplugs machine, "It just needs some tweaking"
0245
Reposted by ned haughton
Bastian Greshake Tzovaras @gedankenstuecke.scholar.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026
LLMs really have put the academic publishing system of "publish or perish" into a death spiral: arXiv introduces a limit of two submissions per month for 'authors'. Academia has been broken for a long time, but this really lays it bare… Fair Moderation, Equitable Access, and AI: arXiv’s Updated […]
scholar.social
Original post on scholar.social
0318
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026
I missed this little climate science/climate activism kerfuffle when it happened a couple of years ago, but just caught up and damn, this response paper is a BANGER. Some choice quotes: > "striving for value-free science is both unattainable and undesirable" > "scientists who deny the […]
fediscience.org
Original post on fediscience.org
010
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026
For any podcast listeners, this one is very good: www.thegreatsimplification.com/epis… Key points: - Efficiency is a bad goal - Resilience (bouncing back after a shock) is a less useful frame than robustness (ability to deal with diverse on-coming shocks). - […]
fediscience.org
Original post on fediscience.org
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 25/08/2026
RE: mas.to/@snowded/117042034357684582 This post is a pretty amazing way to turn a really unpleasant situation into some thing very useful. Very good insights on the power of connectedness.
mas.to
000
Reposted by ned haughton
Moritz Negwer @moritz-negwer.mstdn.science.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2026
Interesting article about #science funders experimenting with lotteries in #grantreview. The main point seems intuitive - expert rankings are noisy and seldom agree, but the system often behaves as if they have perfect discriminative power. Why not simplify the reviewing process and replace […]
mstdn.science
Original post on mstdn.science
005
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2026
@WeirdWriter thanks, I think I just misunderstood your process :)
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2026
@WeirdWriter Not sure what your aim with the edit-delete is, but just in case you're not aware: editing your post sends a notification to everyone who boosted it. Also the previous versions are still publicly accessible (by clicking the edited date).
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 04/08/2026
Is anyone else in #climate space on #vutuv yet? Fediverse-compatible linkedIn clone. I'm tempted to try it, but not sure I want a .de account. vutuv.de
vutuv.de
vutuv
vutuv is the open business network where professionals connect, share, and get found. Free to join.
001
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 08/05/2026
It is more than a little annoying that neither Cambridge University Press's pages for the IPCC reports/chapters provide only half-complete citation information... Also that the IPCC website doesn't provide any. 🤦 #IPCC #science #Cambridge
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 21/01/2026
@malthusjohn.bsky.social Unintended consequences is 100% applicable, but doesn't really capture the process, on the outcome. Adversarial adaptation doesn't really work because there's no specific adversary (thinking of the market as the whole system) Game theory might have some good analogies […]
fediscience.org
Original post on fediscience.org
010
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 20/01/2026
This article by Cory Doctrow has me wondering what a Reverse Centaur looks like in academia. I suppose (especially in the light of Hao et al., 2026) it's something like a researcher that pumps out journal articles in high ranking journals, with high citation numbers, but with relatively little […]
fediscience.org
Original post on fediscience.org
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 20/01/2026
@malthusjohn.bsky.social specific context provided on other comments in this thread. It's a good point though! My example is physical climate rism financial reporting regulations. The regulations are intended as an external influence on the market, but the market has a lot of free reign, and […]
fediscience.org
Original post on fediscience.org
120
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 20/01/2026
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-21/cult…
abc.net.au
'Cool burns' protect land from severe fire so why aren't more happening?
Insurance has been a major stumbling block to the scaling up of cultural burning, but a breakthrough could be on the way.
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 20/01/2026
OK, maybe "systemic drift" captures it. This paper has some really interesting exploration of the idea, and proposes some causes: Parten, J. (2025). Structural Distance Theory: A Mechanism-Level Account of Epistemic Drift in Complex Systems. PhilPapers. philpapers.org/rec/PARVDT-2 […]
fediscience.org
Original post on fediscience.org
030
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 20/01/2026
Does anyone know if there's a term for a complex adaptive system going off the rails due to internal dynamics? YouTube rabbit-hole style? Where "on the rails" might mean "the intended state" in a social system, or it might mean "sustainable" in an ecological system. #complexity […]
fediscience.org
Original post on fediscience.org
250
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2025
ScienceDirect has a *reading assistant* on every article now? WTF? There's going to be a looooot of unpicking to do when this GenAI bubble finally bursts.. #science #genAI
001
Reposted by ned haughton
Ruth Mottram @ruth-mottram.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2025
Heh yes. Pretty much this. "Much more will be written about proposals to build massive undersea walls to hold up Antarctic ice sheets, drill bore holes in Greenland to pump out lubricating meltwater, or scatter glass beads over glaciers. As informed and erudite I'm sure this will be, I don't […]
fediscience.org
Original post on fediscience.org
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/08/2025
You're in a dungeon, trying to escape. You come across two doors, with two guards. One of the guards always provides answers with extreme uncertainty, the other always provides answers with extreme complexity. You are allowed one question. Which guard do you talk to, and what question do you ask?
000
Reposted by ned haughton
Open Risk @openrisk.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/08/2025
The so-called #digitaltransformation has created malfunctioning societies that reel dazed and confused from the onslaught of "tech". The root cause is not too complicated though. The digital stuff has been outsourced to specialists as with any other technical domain. Big mistake. Digital is […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
103
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 08/08/2025
OK, there's some Saint Germain in there, so it's not all AI
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 08/08/2025
99% sure it's AI generated too, so it's going to weird psychedelic places fairly regularly. And weird key changes that have no clear direction.
100
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 08/08/2025
Watching the Australian Institute of Company Directors Climate Governance Forum remotely, and the hold music during morning tea is like elevator jazz on crack. Wild choice. #AICD
110
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 07/08/2025
This was definitely one for me: fediscience.org/@ned/11486740554309…
fediscience.org
ned haughton (@ned@fediscience.org)
Wow. "under conventional positivist frameworks, the majority of the most pressing issues are ignored: non-linear dynamics, multi-stable states, multi-scale behavior, slow/fast variable dynamics on the systems side and adaptive change, surprise and inherent unpredictability on the policy side. ... the “science” in traditional ecology is typically quadrate-science small scale, short term. For it is the only way to pretend that one can be certain. In essence the primary root to success under conventional science is to define a trivial question, use a replicated experimental protocol, and avoid type one error. I saw this vividly among the 60 editors of Conservation Ecology (a journal begun in 1997 that has come to be called Ecology and Society). Those who function at scales below a few meters or a few decades (from population genetics to quadrate ecology, population ecology and community ecology) tended to react to papers by wanting precise answers rather than interesting questions. They searched for what is wrong in a paper, rather than what might be relevant and novel. Their ignorance of the broad scientific literature, or even other areas of ecology and environmental science, was profound. Above that scale, the editors were just about the opposite. Their backgrounds were multidisciplinary with strong roots in one discipline, interests in both theory and practice that extended across large scale and cross scale systems." CS Holling, in https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108235754.003 #complexity
020
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 07/08/2025
What books or articles have you read recently that fundamentally shifted the way you think about the world, and how you work in it?
100
Reposted by ned haughton
Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/07/2025
It makes me feel more than a little weird that my first reaction to the current Starlink outage is "Oh no did they crash before I could publish my paper about Starlink crashing?!" Academia messes with your head. Really, though, I sincerely hope they didn't start crashing and that the outage […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
2426
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 21/07/2025
If you are certain about what you know, then you probably don't know anything interesting. I think.
000
Reposted by ned haughton
SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/07/2025
Good to have confirmed that the Paul Nurse, former and incoming head of the #RoyalSociety, wrote to Elon Musk asking him to resign his fellowship. But they then bottled, preferring to focus on “the defence of science”, whatever that means in the circumstances. @StephenCurry is right on the money […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
003
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/07/2025
@edwiebe @steve Bahaha, I was going to reply about that being nit picky when I saw it yesterday 😂
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/07/2025
@edwiebe this is very cool
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 17/07/2025
Wow. "under conventional positivist frameworks, the majority of the most pressing issues are ignored: non-linear dynamics, multi-stable states, multi-scale behavior, slow/fast variable dynamics on the systems side and adaptive change, surprise and inherent unpredictability on the policy side […]
fediscience.org
Original post on fediscience.org
030
Reposted by ned haughton
kim_harding ✅ @kim-harding.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 16/07/2025
Giant study finds a research field that’s mostly reproducible www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-… Researchers assessed more than 1,000 results from fruit-fly immunity research published between 1959 and 2011. The majority of findings look verifiable.
001
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/07/2025
How does one talk to Serious People in science, policy and finance about complexity and the inescapable interconnectedness of all things without sounding like a crackpot? #complexity #science #finance
010
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 07/07/2025
Sometimes I think Medium/Genius style annotations/comment highlights for scientific journal articles would would be a very good idea. Seems like it's not that uncommon for minor bullshit to slip through the peer review and editing process, and get baked in to the corpus. Often this stuff is not […]
fediscience.org
Original post on fediscience.org
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 26/06/2025
💀💀💀 #AMOS2025
Photo of a conference slide:

Thomas Midgley, Jr. (1889-1944) (photo on right)

- >100 patents
- American Chem. Society - Priestley Medal, Willard Gibbs Award, and fellow of the US National Academy of Sciences
- Developer of Tetraethyllead (leaded petrol) 
- Developer of Freon —or CFCs (inert yet volatile) 
- J. R. McNeill, quote “[Midgley] had more  impact on the atmosphere than any other  single organism in Earth’s history.” 
- 1.1 million deaths due to leaded petrol (UN  report 2011) 
- ~70,000 excess cases of skin cancer per year (~10,000 deaths in 2015)
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 03/06/2025
What is the point of Quora?
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 24/05/2025
This is all that's left of the Bight Bridge in Wingham... it was a constant all through my childhood there. So many days wagging school to go jump off it in summer. This bridge was 4-5m high, and solid concrete. It's withstood many large floods, but not one […] [Original post on fediscience.org]
Drone shot of the bight bridge emerging from the flood waters. half of it is missing completely.
010
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 23/05/2025
Floods in Australia be like: #ManningFloods #floods #NSW #Australia #spiders
Picture of a Farmer in flouro, up to his balls in flood water

Caption:
Troy Irwin says it has been a "catastrophic flood". 

Irwin woke up this morning to knee-deep water. His wife was rescued by the State Emergency Service, but Irwin is planning to swim his stallion and pony out of floodwaters, while also collecting a few stray cows along the way.

"I've had beetles in the budgie smugglers trying to have a chop at me, didn't appreciate that," he said.

"I've been covered in spiders, they're all over me. But this time around there's been no snakes.
013
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 23/05/2025
Taree ha 2.5 days of water above the major flooding level..
Graph of the river level, showing the major flood line at about 3.7m, and the river breaching it at about 3pm tuesday, going above 6m soon after midnight, and peaking at 6.4m late wednesday evening. Flood went below the 3.7m level late friday morning.
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 23/05/2025
Manning valley flood: - Old Killawarra bridge on Gloucester road, - new bridge next to it, during construction, and - the high water yesterday... Someone on FB says it's 24m.⁩ Luckily it's only that high there because it's hilly farm land, and that's a […] [Original post on fediscience.org]
Old truss bridge at Killawarrah, over the Manning. About 20m high already.New bridge just after construction. The bottom of the new one is almost as high as the top of the trusses of the old one.Water hitting the underside of the new bridge.
100
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 21/05/2025
Looking at this crazy flood graph from the Manning River, currently peaking significantly above previous record (last record was in 1921). Anyone know why this flood guage has that weird 12+24 hour cycle? Something to do with the daily cycle? Seems odd.. ⁨ […] [Original post on fediscience.org]
Graph of river depths from the link. It has a regular 12 and 24 hour cycle in the first three days.
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/05/2025
This article @ankurb has some cool ideas in it cheqd.io/blog/dynamic-decentralized…
cheqd.io
000
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/05/2025
And it absolutely needs to be decentralised/federated, so that it can operate without fear of enshittification.
100
ned haughton @ned.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/05/2025
I have always wanted a Web-of-Trust based internet review system. I want to be able to rate websites/pages for things like reliability/trustworthiness, or innovative thinking. And I want to be able to rate other reviewers as trustworthy. And then I want to be able to see website's reliability […]
fediscience.org
Original post on fediscience.org
100