Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

William Russell

@robotowilliam.bsky.social

420 followers 300 following 2.5K posts

He/him | 38 | Lifelong explorer and learner | 🦋Reylo | ⏹️Stop AI MSc Animal Behaviour (Queen's University Belfast) interested in animal cognition and social behaviours https://linktr.ee/robotowilliam

linktr.ee

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · Nov 17

淀川の北側から

Reposted by William Russell

Jean-François Cudennec @jfcudennec.bsky.social · 3h

Just sayin

Chart comparing the number of camera, the number of giant squid footages and the number of bigfoot footages.

Number of giant squids rises as the number of camera increase, but not the number of bigfoot.

7 30 170

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 1h

😆

Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 3h

All my comics have happy endings!

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 3h

The results of my study were not definitive, so unfortunately I can't tell you if crabs are sentient. This method might require a larger sample size, or perhaps there are too many other variables. It was worth a try though! I learned a lot about behavioural experimentation and data collection.

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 3h

A shell contest I recorded during the study. A natural behaviour they engage in regularly in the wild. It's highly ritualised as both crabs want to avoid getting hurt by really fighting each other.

1 2

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 3h

My method: see if winning or losing a shell contest changes their mood. Tested that using the cognitive bias method from the rat study, watching to see if the crabs would react after the contest to a new empty shell optimistically or pessimistically

1 2

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 3h

Some background to my method, a study seeing if rats would react optimistically or pessimistically to an ambiguous stimulus, depending on what mood they were in

1 1

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 3h

The big question: do animals have feelings?

A slide showing an image of a reversible soft toy octopus with a happy and grump face, with various questions relating to animal feelings and suffering

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 3h

Some slides

Presentation title slide showing a clipart image of a hermit crab and the title "Conscious Crabs? Investigating affective state following shell contests in hermit crabs 'Pagurus berhardus'"

1 1

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 4h

Presented my Master's thesis at a conference this morning. My first scientific conference talk! Many more to come hopefully 😊

Thanks to the German Zoological Society for organising the conference and the University of Leipzig for hosting! Wish I could have made it over there in person.

DZG section Behavioural Biology @dzg-behaviour.bsky.social · 5h

Kicking off day 3 of #GradMeet25 with more talks on sociality — linking it to dispersal, cognition, and endocrinology! From social dispersal in burying beetles to hormonal changes in cheetahs 🐘🐅🦀🪲

@paulhuber.bsky.social @carolin-schlarb.bsky.social @robotowilliam.bsky.social

1 6

Reposted by William Russell

Bryan Young @swankmotron.com · 14h

I need @rianjohnson.bsky.social’s next Star Wars trilogy in my veins.

Yennefer 🦋 @lyricalriot.bsky.social · 14h

I GOT IT! I needed the Big Internet for it. Anywhere, here is the full 9 minutes. The sound is not good, their mics were muddy sounding, but hopefully you can still understand enough of it!

(Also I missed the first 30 seconds but basically he was asked how he got handed TLJ)

youtu.be/Pm7gR8MQxKA

Rian Johnson Introducing TLJ for Picturehouse Central London

YouTube video by Yen Mz

youtu.be

2 5 34

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 15h

6/6!

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 15h

5/6

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 15h

4/6

1 1

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 15h

3/6

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 15h

Rian Johnson Intro here:

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 15h

Part 1 of 6

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 15h

2/6

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 15h

Part 1 of 6

1 5 10

Reposted by William Russell

Yennefer 🦋 @lyricalriot.bsky.social · 16h

He said TLJ was created in a “fearless bubble” of “pure love for Star Wars”

He still regularly gets people coming up to him and gushing about how much TLJ means to them and how it made them feel like a kid watching SW again. (This was super nice to hear!)

1 13 74

Reposted by William Russell

Yennefer 🦋 @lyricalriot.bsky.social · 16h

While I figure this out, my initial thoughts are that:
A) Rian is humble and constantly deflects praise to himself to praise for the franchise

B) He super loves SW and tried always to make something true to what he loved as a kid

C) He’s very much focused on the positive reception of fans

2 8 62

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 16h

Awesome, such a great Star Wars movie!

1 6

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 18h

Quick pee break, no time for updates, he said some beautiful things about making the movie though!

1 5

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 19h

Rian Johnson! 😍

1 3 13

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 19h

Screen is full, lots of Last Jedi fans!

1 1 13

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 19h

Here we go!

A cinema display showing:

A RIAN JOHNSON RETROSPECTIVE

06-10 OCT

PERSON FOR

IOIN RIAN IN

THE LAST JEDI & INTRO

KNIVES OUT DOUBLE BILL & Q&A

PLUS A SELECTION OF HIS

GREATEST BIG SCREEN MYSTERIES

A cinema screen advertising the Rian Johnson Retrospective event

1 5 26

William Russell @robotowilliam.bsky.social · 22h

Honestly, I was just thinking about it and it feels the same as when I returned to Japan. A foreign country I'm fond of, where I lived for a while and has a feeling of familiarity, of 'home', that I miss when I'm away, and yet I'm never not aware of the fact that I'm not native.