Tootfinder

Fucking amazing. Not surprising at all coming from such unfuckable losers, but still amazing.
https://toad.social/@wdlindsy/115503363869254443

Not sure if Denver Fowler is on Mastodon. He posted a thread on this recent paper about dinosaur reproduction over on bsky. #fossilfriday

Unpacking Discourses on Childbirth and Parenthood in Popular Social Media Platforms Across China, Japan, and South Korea
Zheng Wei, Yunqi Li, Yucheng He, Yuelu Li, Xian Xu, Huamin Qu, Pan Hui, Muzhi Zhou
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.06788

Unpacking Discourses on Childbirth and Parenthood in Popular Social Media Platforms Across China, Japan, and South Korea
Social media use has been shown to be associated with low fertility desires. However, we know little about the discourses surrounding childbirth and parenthood that people consume online. We analyze 219,127 comments on 668 short videos related to reproduction and parenthood from Douyin and Tiktok in China, South Korea, and Japan, a region famous for its extremely low fertility level, to examine the topics and sentiment expressed online. BERTopic model is used to assist thematic analysis, and a …

this seminar looks plenty interesting!
Sept 19th, 3:00PM
East Hall - 4448
Lisa Fauci, Tulane University
Two Tales of Waving Tails in Biological Fluid Dynamics
The motion of undulating, flexible “tails" in a fluid environment is a common element in many biological systems, from sperm movement in reproduction to fish swimming in the ocean. This talk will focus on two collaborative projects where computational fluid dynamics has shed some light on fundamental me…

The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest newspaper by circulation, sues Perplexity, alleging unauthorized reproduction of its articles, and seeks $14.7M in damages (Andrew Deck/Nieman Lab)
https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/08/japans-l

Japan’s largest newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, sues AI startup Perplexity for copyright violations
The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper by circulation, has sued the generative AI startup Perplexity for copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed in Tokyo District Court on August 7, marks the first copyright challenge by a major Japanese news publisher against an AI company. The fil…

The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest newspaper by circulation, sues Perplexity, alleging unauthorized reproduction of its articles, and seeks $14.7M in damages (Andrew Deck/Nieman Lab)
https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/08/japans-l

Japan’s largest newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, sues AI startup Perplexity for copyright violations
The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper by circulation, has sued the generative AI startup Perplexity for copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed in Tokyo District Court on August 7, marks the first copyright challenge by a major Japanese news publisher against an AI company. The fil…

A Synthetic Theory of Socio-Epistemic Structuration: Capital, Ideology, and Agency in the Age of Digital Inequality
Ricardo Alonzo Fern\'andez Salguero
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25259

A Synthetic Theory of Socio-Epistemic Structuration: Capital, Ideology, and Agency in the Age of Digital Inequality
This article proposes a synthetic theory of socio-epistemic structuration to understand the reproduction of inequality in contemporary societies. I argue that social reality is not only determined by material structures and social networks but is fundamentally shaped by the epistemic frameworks -- ideologies, narratives, and attributions of agency -- that mediate actors' engagement with their environment. The theory integrates findings from critical race theory, network sociology, social capita…

Fern reproduction is weird

Modeling Epidemics on Multiplex Networks: Epidemic Threshold and Basic Reproduction Number
Eric Alejandro Rozan, Mario Ignacio Simoy, Sebastian Bouzat, Marcelo Nestor Kuperman
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.12614

Modeling Epidemics on Multiplex Networks: Epidemic Threshold and Basic Reproduction Number
Accurate epidemic forecasting requires models that account for the layered and heterogeneous nature of real social interactions. The basic reproduction number $\mathcal R_0$ calculated from models that assume homogeneous mixing or single-layer contact structures have limited applicability to complex social systems. Here, we propose an expression of $\mathcal R_0$ in the context of multiplex networks, enabling the analysis of disease transmission across multiple social layers. We adapt the Deg…

Hierarchy Entropy Degeneration Explains the Rat Utopia Population Collapse: The Role of Full Visibility and Isolation
Alexander V. Mantzaris
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08587 htt…

Hierarchy Entropy Degeneration Explains the Rat Utopia Population Collapse: The Role of Full Visibility and Isolation
Calhoun's Rat Utopia experiments demonstrated a puzzling population trajectory: initial growth, plateau, and eventually a total collapse of the rat population despite abundant resources. This paper proposes a hypothesis that the enclosure's design enabled full visibility of the social hierarchy (pecking order), leading to entropy degeneration: progressive loss of uncertainty in rats' perceived ranks over generations. High initial uncertainty drives engagement in dominance, reproduction, and car…