Robert Froese

🇺🇸🇨🇦Forester/Professor/Consultant. I prefer being outside. My tweets are mine alone. Nothing I post necessarily endorsed by anyone, including me.

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

@Aella_Girl That said, there’s a lot here to agree with!

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

Not true - our civilization does teach rationality. What it does not do is demand consistent rationality across domains. A top-tier physicist can still believe in angels. A world renowned molecular biologist can still oppose nuclear power when it’s clearly the safest and cleanest energy. The list goes on.

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

@cinemage At that moment it was closer to south 😉

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

Heading to the “office”, earlier this week.

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

@robkhenderson Can we have the GRE back, too?

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

@moebius_strip What kindness or empathy is a system that invites a 9 year test?

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

“the idea that any community—Indigenous or otherwise—would spend five years blithely doing paperwork while the bodies of 215 murdered children were decomposing a few feet from the earth’s surface at precisely identified locations a stone’s throw away is fantastically absurd.”

OUCH

[Jonathan Kay @jonkay]

In @quillette, I closely analyzed the @globeandmail’s muddled five-year-anniversary unmarked-graves feature…in which the newspaper finally admits there might be no graves, but still refuses to acknowledge its role in spreading the original social panic
https://t.co/9GJHz9nS7C

[Sean Speer @Sean_Speer]

As bad as C-11, the CRTC’s implementation is somehow worse. Yesterday’s policy announcement will provoke a debate about the Online Streaming Act and the broader CanCon regime. But it really should lead to a bigger movement to disband the CRTC altogether. Spectrum licensing and other ongoing functions can be carried out by goverment departments. At this point the CRTC exists to finance its own expansion and growth and impose itself on the market preferences on Canadian consumers.

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

An important reminder via @nspector4

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

@estysoccer @Hebro_Steele @GadSaad Yes, you’re right and you put it well. It’s individual empathy scaled into rest-world consequences at the society level.

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

No good deed goes unpunished. In this case, it seems sincerity and commitment to principles ran into a brick wall.

[Jamie Sarkonak @sarkonakj]

B.C. universities are free to penalize academics who oppose DEI because anti-DEI views aren't political enough to warrant protection, says the province's human rights tribunal. The architect of this ruling, of course, was staunchly progressive.

My column:
https://t.co/a4lXeTitfc

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

Graduate study is also facing huge challenges. The key output from a thesis MSc is a written piece with a long timeline. The opportunity to use AI to refine if not generate original content is overwhelming. There’s more time and focus usually on assessment but every supervisory committee is busy. Fortunately, there is always an oral exam at the end.

[Dr. Guy McHendry @acaguy]

This captures the worst of how AI is harming higher education. I do think the asymmetry of the impact is important. Online, large, and traditional essay dependent classes face the steepest immediate impacts. Skill/competency based and small classes can better respond.

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

Postmodern deconstruction is Ellsworth Toohey, and vice versa. Fundamentally misanthropic at the core.

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

@CanuckCute @RobynUrback Sadly, probably true.

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

@sarkonakj Distinguish between Canada Strong and Canoo (formerly Cultural Access Pass) folks. @sarkonakj is talking about the latter, which is a year long benefit.

To me Canada Strong has its own flaws. Why are we giving free admission to Americans?

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

@elie_mcn Wonder what discussion was like in the process that ended here.

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

Nothing quite undermines confidence in the judiciary like scolding journalists.

[Jamie Sarkonak @sarkonakj]

The CBA is scolding an unnamed journalist for criticizing a judge, calling it a "crude effort at undermining public confidence in the judiciary."

Since this is clearly about me: I will not apologize for my column about Justice Faisal Mirza two weeks ago.

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

Pascual et al. report 70% more carbon sequesterd in primary forests than secondary forests, which is dramatic. But how much is due to management?

The authors note that fire suppression likely caused primary forests to sequester more carbon than they would have in the absence of human activity. So what is a primary forest, if the fire cycle is modified by people?

The authors make passing reference to substitution effects. The literature is contentious on this point, but some estimates suggest this could close more than half of the gap estimated in this work. This would substantially change the policy interpretation, and to me, it's a very notable omission.

https://t.co/T913QZfipo

[Robert Froese @robfroese]

@OstideBonVivant @ExnerPirot I think it would be more accurate to say "kudos to Trump for diversifying Canadian trade away from the US"

[𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙷𝙸𝚃𝙴 𝚁𝙰𝙱𝙱𝙸𝚃 @White_Rabbit_OG]

Finally 👏👏👏