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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · 1d

"Jeopardy!" Sabermetrics | Data Science Blog share.google/SpSKItd7DaCH...

It doesn't quite answer your question, but it's using the right metrics to start the process. My favorite part is the 50% final jeopardy success rate

"Jeopardy!" Sabermetrics

America's Favorite Trivia Game“Jeopardy!” is America's longest-running quiz show. Originally airing 1964-1975, its Alex-Trebek-hosted 1984 reboot has become a staple of syndicated TV, airing over sev...

share.google

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · 4d

The funny part is back in 1910 they probably thought the hyrax was similar to these other animals. But they're actually more related to manatees and elephants than they are to other rodents!
youtu.be/ASOyzh27VbY?...

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · 9d

However. It's the perfect "but wait, there's more!" way to connect one idea to another and keep the reader engaged. However, it backfires when every sentence demands a revaluation. Regardless, it is all too easy to get stuck in this cadence and have to revise the last few paragraphs.

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · 11d

I think this is my favorite thread in all of Bluesky.

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Reposted by George Ordiway

annechurchland.bsky.social @annechurchland.bsky.social · 19d

Wanna better understand what society has gained from research? This website crowd-sources societal benefits that stem from US government-funded research publicusaresearchbenefits.com

Searchable database of tangible benefits that federally-funded research gave us.

A crowd-sourced site. Health and Well-being. National Security. Prosperity.

publicusaresearchbenefits.com

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · 20d

Maybe which came first, the pencil or the eraser?
The roof or the ceiling?

George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · 20d

Does anyone have a good alternative for the "chicken and egg" problem? We know the egg came first, dinosaurs and amniotes were laying eggs millions of years before good ol' Gallus gallus came along. We need a better way to phrase "which came first".

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · 22d

Shrikes are pretty awesome birds
youtu.be/D-KVv4n9wZM?...

Reposted by George Ordiway

Biodiversity Pics @biodiversitypix.bsky.social · 23d

🦅 Birds in flight
London, Gay & Hancock Limited, 1922.

[Source]

Historical illustration titled "Birds in flight," published London, 1922, depicting ten different bird species in mid-flight on a beige background. Each bird is numbered and includes a Partridge, Gannet, Whitethroat, Red-Backed Shrike, Magpie, Goldfinch, Great Crested Grebe, Buzzard, Puffin, and Grey Wagtail. The buzzard (number 8) is shown with broad wings, brown and cream plumage with detailed feathers, highlighting its flight posture. The illustration is detailed and naturalistic, emphasizing wing shapes, colors, and flight dynamics of each bird for educational purposes.

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · 25d

xkcd.com/1383/ relevant xkcd because there's always a relevant xkcd.

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · 25d

I can see how people spend decades studying Emily Dickinson. "Repose to typify" is incredible. It sounds linguistically soothing to say.

Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 25d

Some Emily Dickinson for a fraught Friday night. #poetry

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Reposted by George Ordiway

Stacy Farina @stacyfarina.bsky.social · Sep 8

Good to know that AI image generation hasn't (yet) conquered my "draw a vertebrate phylogeny" assignment.

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · Sep 7

youtu.be/_BrFKp-U8GI?... @3blue1brown.com always makes great videos, but this one is a masterpiece. From beautiful animations to going through the step by step creative process rooted in art or rooted in mathematics. Trial and error, labelling and symmetry. Bravo

Exploration & Epiphany

YouTube video by 3Blue1Brown

youtu.be

Reposted by George Ordiway

Biodiversity Pics @biodiversitypix.bsky.social · Aug 29

🦤 A monograph of the genus Casuarius
London: Zoological Society of London, 1900

[Source]

Illustration of the head and upper neck of a cassowary (Casuarius casuarius intensus) from a 1900 zoological monograph. The bird features a prominent brown casque on top of its head, bright blue skin on its neck with scales and textured patterns, a striking orange wattle on the side, and glossy black feathers on its lower neck. The cassowary's sharp, curved beak and large, expressive brown eye are clearly detailed in this scientific depiction.

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · Aug 12

Who knows if that pithy comment will survive peer review. I, for one, would prefer units of football fields. Perhaps elephants.

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · Aug 8

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39730206/
Found one example, there are likely more!

A Complex Acoustical Environment During Development Enhances Auditory Perception and Coding Efficiency in the Zebra Finch - PubMed

Sensory experience during development has lasting effects on perception and neural processing. Exposing juvenile animals to artificial stimuli influences the tuning and functional organization of the ...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · Aug 8

Love this part from the conclusion "broad auditory tuning may allow for greater awareness of diverse sound sources in their environments."
There's a good chance that enriched, diverse environments lead to better auditory processing and sensitivity.

Matías I. Muñoz @matiasimunoz.bsky.social · Aug 2

Do birds tune their songs to their hearing?

Is there tight coevolution between avian vocal signals and hearing-or do signallers and perceivers evolve more loosely?

It turns out perfect tuning is not required...

Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#bioacoustics
#prattle 💬
#ornithology 🪶

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · Jul 22

6/🧵 I could go on but I'll leave it there. Huge thanks to my PhD advisor Jason and co-first-author Kristine. Also, it may be shocking, but we had really good peer reviewers. Great suggestions that really improved the paper's organization. Thanks for reading! journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10....

A comprehensive review of HCN channel expression and Ih in the auditory system: then, now, and future perspectives | Journal of Neurophysiology | American Physiological Society

The hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) ion channel is highly specialized, mediating the flow of potassium and sodium ions when a cell is hyperpolarized. Since it was discovered ...

journals.physiology.org

George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · Jul 22

5/🧵 If you don't have HCN channels, it's not the end of the world. BUT when a mutant mouse lacks HCN channels, they get worse at localizing sound. And guess what, naked mole rats have way fewer HCN channels! Why? They don't need good sound localization because they live in tunnels!

a picture of a naked mole rat wearing sunglasses and the words deal with it below it

ALT: a picture of a naked mole rat wearing sunglasses and the words deal with it below it

media.tenor.com

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · Jul 22

4/🧵 HCN channels are in the heart, the cerebellum, the hippocampus, all over. They help cells fire quickly, they help cells fire in bursts, they help cells fire spontaneously. In the auditory system, these channels are everywhere! And lots of papers have studied it, we found 165 of them!

a red heart with a heartbeat line coming out of it

ALT: a red heart with a heartbeat line coming out of it

media.tenor.com

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · Jul 22

3/🧵 In short, HCN channels open when the neuron's voltage goes DOWN (more negative), and their function is affected by the presence of small molecules called nucleotides. Both of those things are pretty unique. but what does the channel actually do? It depends on where you look!

a computer generated image of a nerve cell with red lights

ALT: a computer generated image of a nerve cell with red lights

media.tenor.com

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · Jul 22

2/🧵 What is an HCN channel? You may be familiar with ion channels, the special proteins that allow sodium and potassium ions to change the electricity within a neuron. "HCN" stands for hyperpolarization-activated, cyclic nucleotide-gated channels, which is a mouthful!

a salt shaker with the words sodium city on the bottom

ALT: a salt shaker with the words sodium city on the bottom

media.tenor.com

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · Jul 22

Excited to share our review of HCN channels in the auditory system! This is a great summary of my PhD work at Northwestern, and I'm really proud of how much we've improved it over the past year. 1 /🧵 🧪
journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10....

A comprehensive review of HCN channel expression and Ih in the auditory system: then, now, and future perspectives | Journal of Neurophysiology | American Physiological Society

The hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) ion channel is highly specialized, mediating the flow of potassium and sodium ions when a cell is hyperpolarized. Since it was discovered ...

journals.physiology.org

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George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · Jun 26

I'm always a fan of avian research using a variety of bird species. Also there's something hilarious about a hornbill looking at different configurations of string, and scientists waiting with bated breath to record reaction time.

bioRxiv Animal Behavior and Cognition @biorxiv-behav.bsky.social · Jun 25

Hornbills Adjust Response Speed According to Solvability of Patterned-Strings Problems https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.25.661464v1

George Ordiway @georgeordiway.bsky.social · Jun 24

Well this made me think about the danger of a large portion of my career, creativity, and relaxation using the exact same device as the addiction. "You should smoke" is a lot harder to resist if your job is cigarette inspector and you go home to read a cigarette box.

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