Dave Fernig @DaveFernig@qoto.org

My favorite pun at #ALAN2023 so far, by Matthew Hatfield from the University of Southampton.

"Very fishy" was also good.

New Covid variants being monitored amid 'uptick' in hospital admissions

Professor Linda Bauld warned Covid remains 'unpredictable' as scientists identify transmissible new strain EG.5.

https://news.stv.tv/scotland/covid-scotland-professor-linda-bauld-on-new-covid-variant-eg-5-and-why-infections-are-on-the-rise

This is a manual viral toot. Please boost it every time you see it.

Questo è un toot virale manuale. Per favore boostalo ogni volta che lo vedi.

Ceci est un toot viral manuel. Merci de le booster à chaque fois que vous le voyez.

Esto es un toot viral manual. Por favor boostalo cada vez que lo veas.

Ez egy manuális virális tülk. Kérlek boostold, ahányszor csak látod.

Dies ist ein manueller viraler Toot. Booste ihn bitte, wann immer du ihn siehst.

@codinghorror also works for "AI"

"OpenBullshit announced their new Bullshit engine, GPT-4. It is meant to enable new Bullshit-based workflows and boost Bullshit-driven decision-making."

Hydrogen for Home Heating is a Scam.

The solution to our home-heating problem is heat pumps: air source, ground source, air-to-air or air-to-water.

Using H2 for home-heating is a ruse to allow fossil fuel companies to keep producing their toxic products.

https://protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2023/04/20/hydrogen-for-home-heating-is-a-scam/

"Tech experts are starting to doubt that ChatGPT and A.I. ‘hallucinations’ will ever go away: ‘This isn’t fixable’"

whoa no shit sherlock it's a statistical model that composes answers that are statistically probable, not factual. it's almost like all it does is put a bunch of words that look like an answer next to each other and has zero grasp of what a fact even is conceptually

I moved to a walkable neighborhood and I see kids outside all of the time

i guess it wasn't video games or phones that were the problem after all

The second season of #Foundation, while still plenty of eye Candy 🍭, is less appealing than the first in my eyes. It’s become a lot more Star Wars, with more focus on supernatural abilities and action scenes than solving things with level-headed science.

I think it completely misses the point of the books.

Personally I'm tired of billionaires.

And another thing: there was no "cost of living crisis." Energy companies are rolling in dough. Little state sweeteners of a few hundred quid are a small price to pay for their politician pals to make it seem like an accident when in fact it's the new normal now. These prices are never coming down. They're not. Stop hoping. These capitalists intend to bleed people dry. They know nothing else. Recognise them for what they are: thieves and murderers. They can flick a pen to make policies all they like. Might as well be swords.

bike infrastructure in the Netherlands: we built a bike garage that look like an Apple Store!

bike infrastructure in California: enjoy the new suicide center lane on this highway overpass

Depressing and terrifying that no one from the Republican Party can mount a credible, principled challenge to Trump, who is clearly intent on dismantling the democratic institutions of the US.

"First, the Big 5 do not SELL ebooks to libraries. Not one.

Libraries do not own title one from the Big 5. We license them. And that makes all the difference in the world for cost, depth and breadth of collection, and preservation. Nobody should ever use the word 'sell' in a sentence combining 'Big 5' and 'library ebooks.' This is not nit-picking. It is the essence of the problem."

And they are suing to stop Controlled Digital Lending of the books we did buy.

https://www.readersfirst.org/news/2023/8/2/big-5-license-terms-as-of-july-2023

On the same day that Sunak blew 50 grand on a private jet to Aberdeen, it's reported that the FM spent £534 on a return flight between Edinburgh and London City.

Guess which one made the Scottish papers.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23691315.humza-yousaf-slated-eyewatering-hotel-bill-london-debut-fm

Crows and magpies using anti-bird spikes to build nests, researchers find

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jul/11/crows-and-magpies-show-their-metal-by-using-anti-bird-spikes-to-build-nests

‼️🇬🇧BBC: Dismantled remnants of British WW2 fighters found buried in Ukrainian forest (more) https://kyivindependent.com/dismantled-remnants-of-british-ww2-fighters-found-buried-in-ukrainian-forest/ #Ukraine #UK #NATO #Press #News #Russia #RussiaUkraineWar #9yearsOfWarInUkraine #WantedDeadOrAlive

Two important editorials on "one of the most important public health victories of the 21st century"
by
@j_g_allen
and
@washingtonpost
editorial board
https://washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/15/cdc-indoor-air-ventiliation-recommendation-ashrae/…
https://washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/15/cdc-guidance-indoor-air-quality-goal/

If you have $6 billion to buy a football team, and you do, you're an asshole.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/may/12/josh-harris-washington-commanders-sale-dan-snyder

Am I misunderstanding something?

This appears to be a stunningly irresponsible story in Science, claiming that up to 30% of the scientific literature is fake.

https://www.science.org/content/article/fake-scientific-papers-are-alarmingly-common

Below, the first two paragraphs of the story.

h/t @Hoch