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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦

@shastingssimon.bsky.social

17K followers 1.1K following 3.6K posts

Currently on partial medical leave and Associate professor, Dept of Earth, Energy, and Environment, University of Calgary; co-director http://NZERI.ca; energy/carbon/innovation policy + bikes.

NZERI.ca;

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · Nov 8

Hi from Alberta where I’m a professor at University of Calgary in the dept of earth energy and environment. I’m a physicist turned mgmt consultant turned think tanker now researching the energy transition. I love e-bikes and etrikes. And I’m currently on med leave fighting breast cancer.

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 4m

I was thinking about this.
Also the fact that it was a minivan with a relatively low hood height rather than an suv or truck

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 12h

The really funny part is, I swear you were the one who told me to do this in the first place like 5 years ago.

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 12h

This post brought to you by me being pleasantly surprised to discover I wrote an oped in the Globe and Mail with @molszyns.bsky.social I had completely forgotten about.

Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 12h

My number one tip for researchers that do a significant amount of non peer reviewed paper publication/outreach:

Create an excel table, every time you give an interview, talk, write an oped or white paper, etc. take 5 seconds to immediately note it in the excel.

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 12h

You will be surprised by how many things you dont remember when its time to put them into your CV or your annual report of what you have done, and it isnt easily findable in your google scholar.

The key is making the excel doc easy to open and forcing yourself to do it each time.

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 12h

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 14h

This kind of thing makes me sad I don’t really do archival research (I’m sure there is a lot of downsides to it too)

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 17h

It’s interesting to see the data on my “regular “ ebike commuting from an exercise perspective.
And this is with the assist turned way up on my bike (thanks cancer) - you can still get a workout just fine if you try

Screenshot from Apple workout app

Outdoor Cycle
9:18 AM-9:26 AM
Workout Details >
Workout Time
0:07:32
Active Calories
39cAL
Avg. Speed
14.7км/н
Effort +
6
Distance
1.85KM
Total Calories
48CAL
Avg. Heart Rate
140BPM
Moderate

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 17h

In case anyone local recognizes this van/person

(Terrible!)

Robson Fletcher @robsonfletcher.com · 18h

Police in Airdrie, Alberta (just north of Calgary) say this driver hit a 17-year-old girl in a marked crosswalk, got out of the vehicle, and appeared to get upset at the teenager before driving away.

They released this video and are now trying to identify the driver.

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 19h

Quantum physics when it was emerging in German was also called Knabenphysik— which basically translates to “boys’ physics”. This attitude pervaded for decades.

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 19h

I am not a "man hater" for any reason good or bad.

There is lots of evidence of the bias and exclusion of women in science . In this specific case I am referring to the fact that on average the early generation of quantum physics researchers were particularly unlikely to take female students.

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Reposted by Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦

P.J. Partington 🇨🇦 @pjpartington.bsky.social · 23h

I feel like @shastingssimon.bsky.social would enjoy this piece on reviving a vintage neighbourhood atom smasher. www.wsj.com/lifestyle/we...

One Town’s Quest to Find a Loving Home for Its Atom Smasher

A decade after a landowner pledged to preserve the Westinghouse device, it still hasn’t moved. Now he says he has a buyer and a plan.

www.wsj.com

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 22h

OMG I indeed love this for so many reasons. The combination of big old infrastructure, physics, the era of "better living through chemistry". If I was a property developer I would 100% build a neighbourhood around this.

Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 22h

This is my shocked face that yet another quantum Nobel prize was awarded to 3 men.

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 3d

Not sure which has the biggest GHG impact

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 3d

Oh fun question!
I think one way to think about this question is that B and C replaced human power whereas the rest replaced other fuels.
Between B and C I think cargo bikes is “greater” in terms of enabling new uses

Between the rest lighting has probably the broadest impact on function.

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Reposted by Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦

Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · Sep 6

I found this history fascinating, especially how the US under Bush I a) pushed to create the IPCC to center government representatives, not scientists, in UN climate action; b) used the IPCC to block binding emission targets and carbon taxes on rich countries, which seemed imminent in 1988.

In tech we trust: A history of technophilia in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) climate mitigation expertise

This article examines the technocentric bias that characterizes climate mitigation literature, focusing on the reports of the IPCC's Working Group III…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 4d

You never get away from looking at the dirty dishes 🤣

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 4d

I have the opposite - we remodeled our home to be a better fit for how we use it so we just have one big table in the middle of our kitchen, kind of farmhouse style?

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 4d

I wonder if one could design a really fancy stove that has part gas and part induction and then it would function like a hybrid to introduce ppl to electric cooking.

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 4d

Ha that would be hilarious if that is what it is.
I think it’s just you have one kitchen that is for show that you don’t get dirty and a second you actually cook in? Idk it’s definitely above my pay grade whatever it is

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 4d

It’s varied by province. www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/t...

Dwelling characteristics and household equipment as of December 31, three territories and selected metropolitan areas

Survey of Household Spending (SHS), dwelling characteristics and household equipment, percentage of households reporting and estimated number of households reporting, 2012.

www150.statcan.gc.ca

Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 4d

Scanning real estate ads in our neighbourhood is a hobby but I can’t get over how the redevelopment homes keep getting bigger and bigger.
The newest trend seems to be the evolution from a pantry with maybe a sink to a full on second kitchen that is as big as our kitchen.
Not just 1 but 2 gas stove

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Reposted by Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦

Julie MacArthur 🍁 @jlmacarthur.bsky.social · 4d

Check out this new open access book - #Feminist #Climate #Policy in #Industrialized States - with policymaker interviews, chapters on degrowth, construction, photovoce and participatory methods + much more. Three cheers for the editors :) www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edi...

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 4d

Me scanning past the fruits and vegetables on the Alberta Health list of foods high in potassium and finding French fries on the list

Hungry Yummy GIF

Alt: Homer stuffing his face with fries

media.tenor.com

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Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 4d

good point, there will be a solar bonanza for a bit there