ORB Lab

University of Delaware's Ocean Exploration, Remote Sensing, Biogeography (ORB) Lab

[ESPN College Football @ESPNCFB]

THE BLUE HENS ARE BOWL CHAMPS IN THEIR FIRST FBS SEASON 🔥

[Rich Gannon @RichGannon12]

Congratulations to my @Delaware_FB team for a big bowl win tonight!
#Pride of Delaware

[ORB Lab @orblab]

Hey All, We are looking for a post-doctoral researcher to help us out in the area of ocean acoustics and optics. We are partnering with a really talented group at NASA Langley. Check out the description!
https://t.co/FZjC1rSKRb

[ORB Lab @orblab]

Hey All, We are looking for a post-doctoral researcher to help us out in the area of ocean acoustics and optics. We are partnering with a really talented group at NASA Langley. Check out the description!
https://t.co/FZjC1rSKRb

[ORB Lab @orblab]

Looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher
https://t.co/xFZo9xuF1w

[UD College of Earth, Ocean and Environment @udceoe]

#UDel President Dennis Assanis, First Lady Eleni Assanis and community members from across UD gathered to celebrate Patricia and Charles Robertson’s extraordinary $5 million commitment to graduate research in the School of Marine Science and Policy. https://t.co/3YnJ63Afc3

[NOAA Fish Southeast @NOAAFisheriesSE]

Sturgeon & Space? We are excited to be part of Dr. Matt Oliver @orblab & Dr. Matt Breece’s project, funded by @NASAEarth, to use satellite data to track & forecast sturgeon movements. The project could prevent unwanted human interactions w/sturgeon. https://t.co/mAjj0lVh3U

[ORB Lab @orblab]

@CapeVikingsFB Update?

[Jonathan Haidt @JonHaidt]

How to reduce antisemitism on campus:

In 2018, Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) warned that "we all live on campus now." He described the identitarianism that had captured elite schools, and he correctly predicted that it would soon spread beyond campus and change society in ways that make liberal democracy more difficult:

"When elite universities shift their entire worldview away from liberal education as we have long known it toward the imperatives of an identity-based “social justice” movement, the broader culture is in danger of drifting away from liberal democracy as well. If elites believe that the core truth of our society is a system of interlocking and oppressive power structures based around immutable characteristics like race or sex or sexual orientation, then sooner rather than later, this will be reflected in our culture at large. What matters most of all in these colleges — your membership in a group that is embedded in a hierarchy of oppression — will soon enough be what matters in the society as a whole."

In Sullivan's most recent post, he shows the direct causal path between campus identitarianism and the new wave of campus antisemitism:

"Freedom of speech in the Ivy League extends exclusively to the voices of the oppressed; they are also permitted to disrupt classes, deplatform or shout down controversial speakers, hurl obscenities, force members of oppressor groups — i.e. Jewish students and teachers in the latest case — into locked libraries and offices during protests, and blocked from classrooms. Jewish students have even been assaulted — at Harvard, at Columbia, at UMass Amherst, at Tulane. Assaults by woke students used to be rare, such as the 2017 mob at Middlebury that put Allison Stanger in a neck brace — but since 10/7, they’re intensifying. If a member of an oppressor class says something edgy, it is a form of violence. If a member of an oppressed class commits actual violence, it’s speech. That’s why many Harvard students instantly supported a fundamentalist terror cult that killed, tortured, systematically raped and kidnapped Jews just for being Jews in their own country. Because they have been taught it’s the only moral position to take. They’ve diligently read their Fanon, and must be puzzled over what the problem is. Palestinians are victims of a “colonial,” “white,” “settler-state” and any violence they commit is thereby justified."

https://t.co/McUKeVm8B2

In other words: The only way to end antisemitism on campus is to end the identitarianism. Don't be satisfied by a university president who promises a new center or commission on antisemitism. It won't have much effect on campus culture as long as a critical mass of students (5-10%?) are taught to see everything through oppressor/victim glasses, in which "punching up" is virtuous, even when the punching is not metaphorical.

And if these new centers try to incorporate Jews as a new victim class, as some of them will, it will just make things worse, and it will harm Jewish students. Young people who embrace identitarianism become disempowered, depressed, and difficult to work with.

Sullivan's prescription is much more challenging than just endowing another center:

"End DEI in its entirety. Fire all the administrators whose only job is to enforce its toxic orthodoxy. Admit students on academic merit alone. Save standardized testing — which in fact helps minorities, and it’s “the best way to distinguish smart poor kids from stupid rich kids,” as Steven Pinker said this week. Restore grading so that it actually means something again. Expel students who shut or shout down speech or deplatform speakers. Pay no attention to the race or sex or orientation or gender identity of your students, and see them as free human beings with open minds. Treat them equally as individuals seeking to learn, if you can remember such a concept."

Whether or not you agree with all of these measures, I think Sullivan's insight is the key to getting this right: Antisemitism will sprout wherever the soil supports it. It always has, it always will. The spores are everywhere, especially in the age of TikTok. The cure is to change the properties of the soil, not just to plant a new center for the study of antisemitism in soil that is fertile ground for antisemitism.

I expect that the Ivies will implement only superficial measures, to placate donors. But please don't give up on the entire higher ed sector. The cultural revolution that swept across the academy in 2015-2016 may have met its Waterloo last Tuesday, in that congressional hearing room. Now is the time to support schools that break from the pack, under bold leadership. Now is the time to support organizations that are supporting reforms and reformers.

The outlook for higher ed is dark right now, and trust in the sector continues to fall. But I am excited by the new possibilities for major change that have opened up in the last week.

[Jonathan Haidt @JonHaidt]

As a professor who favors free speech on campus, I can sympathize with the "nuanced" answers given by U. presidents yesterday, about whether calls to attack or wipe out Israel violate campus speech policies.

What offends me is that since 2015, universities have been so quick to punish "microaggressions," including statements intended to be kind, if even one person from a favored group took offense. The presidents are now saying: "Jews are not a favored group, so offending or threatening Jews is not so bad. For Jews, it all depends on context." We might call this double standard "institutional anti-semitism."

University presidents: If you're not going to punish students for calling for the elimination of Israel and Israelis, it's OK with me, but ONLY if you also immediately dismantle the speech policing apparatus and norms you created in 2015-2016. Please read The Coddling of the American Mind. @glukianoff and I laid out exactly where the oppressor/victim frame came from (ch. 3), how it spread out of a few departments to gain power over administrators and campus culture (chapters 4 and 5), and how it drove the creation of the bureaucratic structures and processes that now have us all teaching and learning on eggshells (ch. 10). In chapter 13 we offer advice to leaders on how to to return universities to their academic mission and regain public trust.

[UD Library, Museums and Press @UDLibrary]

Do you work with a lot of data in your research? Learn how to use a tool that helps researchers with data manipulation, analysis and visualization during the workshop “Intro to R: Free, Open and Powerful Statistical Software” on September 19. To register: https://t.co/nmrT8pOUWH

[The Ocean Cleanup @TheOceanCleanup]

Another flood in Guatemala and another 140 tons of trash (37 truckloads!) intercepted and extracted from the Rio Las Vacas - all prevented from reaching the Caribbean Sea.

[NWS Los Angeles @NWSLosAngeles]

Graphic of the past 48 hour precipitation amounts 🌧️ #LArain #CAwx #HurricaneHilary #tropicalstormhillary

[Colin McCarthy @US_Stormwatch]

We are watching a disaster unfold in real-time as near Category 5 Cyclone Mocha approaches landfall in Bangladesh/Mynamar, one of the most vulnerable places in the world to storm surge where hundreds of thousands of refugees are currently living in low-lying camps near the coast.

[Prof. Katharine Hayhoe @KHayhoe]

It’s time to face the facts: climate change is happening, and we’re the cause. The impacts are far reaching and out our civilization at risk. But there’s still hope, if we act now. We CAN make a difference!

[ORB Lab @orblab]

@sciencegal_al Totally normal

[ORB Lab @orblab]

Currently looking for 1-2 PhD students that are excited about the interface of oceanography, ecology, and biology. Our interests are diverse, but are articulated in the publications produced by our students.
https://t.co/osJnYIGwX4

[ORB Lab @orblab]

How much data do you need before you can detect environmental selection by a marine organism?
https://t.co/rCQ1iJ9BIw

[ORB Lab @orblab]

Model shows that a subsurface ocean eddy can trap krill, deliver it to penguin colonies. It's like living next to an ocean WaWa or 7-11. Way to go @klgallagherphd !
https://t.co/5FEs9RGZVq

[ORB Lab @orblab]

Currently looking for 1-2 PhD students that are excited about the interface of oceanography, ecology, and biology. Our interests are diverse, but are articulated in the publications produced by our students.
https://t.co/osJnYIGwX4