🌸🌹2ck 🌱🐇 @2ck@qoto.org

Not long ago, the enormous Haast's eagle soared over New Zealand.

Weighing almost 40lbs (18kg) with a wingspan up to ~10ft (3m), they likely feasted on the gigantic moa birds I described in an earlier post. Maori oral tradition also suggests they may have attacked human children.

So what happened to this fierce apex predator? Once the moa disappeared due to excess hunting after the arrival of people, Haast’s eagle followed around 1400. https://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/haasts-eagle. #SharedPlanet #science #nature

Could we maybe stop shaming people for reading kids’ books? Adult books are full of sad people having affairs while kids’ books have magic wardrobes and worms driving around in apples; you tell me who’s winning.

@halcy I cut some turtles. Trickier than kites and darts, I am finding.

Tied up surprisingly well in the end. Will post a proper review later.

(comment on "Light From Uncommon Stars")

Mercury is at it's greatest elongation tonight, so it's a good time to try to look at it. It is setting with the sun so don't look at the sun, especially not with your eyes or anything.

Had a stupid idea. It worked. Thanks, ChatGPT!
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Here is a list of items of regalia belonging to the Crown Jewels, with descriptions as if they were magical items in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign:

A few days ago I discussed #chatgpt with @ChrisMayLA6. I said that it might do your GCSE homework, but it couldn't write an undergrad essay.

Turns out I was optimistic. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65167321

It can't write an entire essay, but it can act as an assistant drafting chunks for you, and you get better marks. Also one student found it explained things better than some of his lecturers. #ai

"We retired Elm"

https://kevinyank.com/posts/on-endings-why-how-we-retired-elm-at-culture-amp/

The universe is wild.

This streak on a Hubble photo, originally thought to be an imaging glitch, is actually a 200,000 light year trail of new stars formed by the wake of a black hole that was ejected from the galaxy at the top right.

For reference, that streak is about twice the diameter of the Milky Way!

More details: https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2023/010/01GWQ1F36Y4JK6Y4K8AWMZ86AF?news=true

@2ck https://www.pcgamer.com/after-a-secret-server-shocked-the-community-100000-fans-are-finally-playing-city-of-heroes-again/

it came back in 2019 after it turned out some fans had the source code and now there's a bunch of different fan servers with the "main" one being Homecoming

https://massivelyop.com/2020/05/13/working-as-intended-the-big-list-of-city-of-heroes-rogue-servers-2020-edition/

LMQL: Programming language for Large Language Models (LLM)

https://lmql.ai/

We’re at the American Atheists convention in Phoenix, AZ talking about the #humanism in #StarTrek 🖖🏼

@rlux Second ruling in WA state tonight seems to allow at least 12 states (Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Vermont) to continue to manufacture/provide mifepristone.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/texas-abortion-pill-mifepristone-ruling/h_113ec015d194c7a27192cee6a215f51c

📢 NOW OPEN: #DWebCamp2023 Call for Proposals

Do you have an idea for a talk or workshop at #DWebCamp2023? Starting today, we are accepting session proposals.

Submit yours at https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/oX6k-whWQM8Nzzma9MuoEc5+Hv11Y9e+oCD3hskKg78/

@Sunny The US Code is divided into "titles" (effectively volumes) and, as per tradition in legal citations, the number of the title comes before "US Code". The section mark (§) is used to distinguish section references from page references, in other legal references.

Title 5 is captioned "Government Organization And Employees" and is where the law you cite is codified in a standard place.

Much of the text was passed as public law 101-194 "Ethics Reform Act of 1989" 1989-11-30, which started as House Bill 3660.

Pages 103 Stat. 1746-1747 have the text of the brand-new section 7353 of title 5. The part you quote (section 7353(a)) remains nearly unchanged by amendments since 1989. What was "agency" then is "entity" now.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/101st-congress/house-bill/3660/text/pl?overview=closed

Title 9 of US Code is captioned Arbitration, not to be confused with Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 which has been codified in title 20 of the US Code "Education" (20 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.)

So The Correct Citation for your quoted text is 5 U.S. Code § 7353(a) or 5 U.S.C. § 7353(a)

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/7353

Is your 10x engineer really 10x more productive if they don’t boost team performance at all? Can we measure that?

The best engineers I’ve worked with are the ones who can simplify problems and guide the team through the simplified vision. These engineers didn’t look 10x productive by measures of line count, to git commits or hours in the office. But their team got a lot done and, more importantly, didn’t waste time on dumb shit and over engineering. Most orgs suck at measuring those folks.

Here in Britain, we regularly eat the leftovers of a sea that came and went 220 million years ago, when the first dinosaurs were just getting started. More than half of our salt (57%) is mined from Middlewich in Cheshire, which was sitting in the tropics (15 N) in the middle of an arid desert. The shallow basin flooded & dried up repeatedly, leaving a thick layer of salt that’s still there today. Edible rock is a bit weird, but enjoy putting it on your chips!  #ocean #salt