Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

mastodon 4.5.9

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society

🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium

📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy

👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo

🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat)

🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

0 Followers

0 Following

Joined March 02, 2020

Personal:

https://charlespence.net

Lab:

https://pencelab.be

Publications:

https://products.pencelab.be/en/

Keyoxide (GPG):

https://keyoxide.org/6E810A6DB6DFB1E98057262F1A6417A51A895544

Posts

In reply to

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

@pence@scholar.social · Apr 09, 2026

(After a little reflection, I upped the hit count to 10/day before a ban, so that I can still inject a little poison into their datasets without burning too much of my electric bill to do it.)

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

@pence@scholar.social · Apr 06, 2026

Finally set up Iocaine + NSoE on my homelab today. Claude is scraping me at 750 hits/minute. Apparently I now need to set up ratelimiting and/or fail2ban, but that's for future Pence.

(Also worthy of note: this is a test deployment. I only deployed this on *parked domain endpoints without a real site.*)

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

@pence@scholar.social · Mar 29, 2026

Gent Marathon: 4:34:44. Slower by about 10 minutes than I was hoping for, but that's the race I had in me today. I maybe could have hit sub-4:30 if I had been a bit more conservative over the first 30k, but I was on an aggressive plan, and burned out my gears for the last 10k. Dropped to a Galloway-style run/walk from around 30k-39k, kicked at the end, and still got a clean finish with a time I'm very proud of.

And Gent is such a gorgeous town...! Next: push to sub-2h HM in June.

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

@pence@scholar.social · Mar 24, 2026

Oh my god, DNS can run DOOM. https://blog.rice.is/post/doom-over-dns/

blog.rice.is

Can it Resolve DOOM? Game Engine in 2,000 DNS Records – blog.rice.is

To a guy like me, Crazy Frog is just a frog.

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

@pence@scholar.social · Mar 17, 2026

Blues Traveler's "Hook" really is simultaneously a great send-up of pop songs and a freaking *bop*

In reply to

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

@pence@scholar.social · Mar 11, 2026

@TerryBTwo Well, the counterpoint here is that reading things isn't good for much if you can't remember any of it later...

In reply to

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

@pence@scholar.social · Mar 10, 2026

@SylviaFysica That's also part of it, though I sometimes feel like it's an independent axis. When they combine, it's *very* impressive. (One thing I've particularly liked about moving here is that Francophone academics still seem to *very* much prize that classic ability to deliver an *incredible* oration. The Sécrétaire perpetuel of the ARB will deliver *rhyme* at the plenary sessions of the Academy. RHYME)

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

@pence@scholar.social · Mar 10, 2026

It is very interesting, as I get older, to realize that what looked like "brilliance" from senior faculty members when I was young was just "hey this person has read *a lot* and is pretty good at remembering and connecting lots of interesting things about what they read"

You, too, can cultivate this brilliance if you read *a lot* and practice connecting dots

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Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

Charles Pence

@pence@scholar.social

🔬 philosopher & historian of biology • science and society 🏫 PI, Pence Lab • director, CEFISES • UCLouvain, Belgium • Collegium, Royal Academy of Belgium 📓 Exec. Editor, PTPBio • Assoc. Editor, Biology & Philosophy 👨‍🦲 he/him • 🇧🇪+🇺🇸 • en/fr/nl (in aanbouw) • partner of @juliapence • posts deleted after 3mo 🗳️ @ecolobe • CSC-CNE UCLouvain (syndicat) 🎈 music • sports (#rusg) • running • video games

scholar.social

@pence@scholar.social · Jan 21, 2026

It's early, still, and things could turn around (he said with entirely unjustifiable optimism), but a graph like this is a signal of generational damage and an utter abdication of global scientific leadership.

Let's get to work, Europe.

Charles Pence

Posts

Can it Resolve DOOM? Game Engine in 2,000 DNS Records – blog.rice.is

Media