Dr Keith Walker @SteelFolk@qoto.org

Airliners filled with flowers zip around the globe every day. Chrysanthemums from Colombia dash to Japan; roses from Kenya end up in Britain; carnations from Ecuador jet to Russia. Nearly all imported cut flowers go through the same emissions-intensive journey — climate-controlled greenhouses, refrigerated trucks and a long, chilled flight. Fresh flowers are a $34 billion global industry with a massive carbon footprint

https://archive.ph/wip/accV8

#pollution #ecology #environment #climate

"Human reason has this peculiar fate that in one species of its knowledge it is burdened by questions which, as prescribed by the very nature of reason itself, it is not able to ignore, but which, as transcending all its powers, it is also not able to answer."

Critique of Pure Reason (1781; 1787), Preface, A vii

~Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804)

#books #literature #philosophy

Untold History of AI: Invisible Women Programmed America's First Electronic Computer The “human computers” who operated ENIAC have received little credit.

By OSCAR SCHWARTZ via @ieeespectrum

https://spectrum.ieee.org/untold-history-of-ai-invisible-woman-programmed-americas-first-electronic-computer

There is an interesting series of 6 articles on "Untold History of AI":

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/AI-history

#science #computer #womeninscience

"Any AI system is defined by its reliance on the use of data from the past to make decisions about the future.

"But the government signaled it is concerned that the technology’s use by insurers is allowing them to bend the future to their own benefit."

via @STAT
https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/07/government-warns-medicare-advantage-insurers-not-to-deny-care-based-on-ai/

#AI #health #healthcare #medicine #MA #Medicare #insurance #healthinsurance

Hey uh. So I'm kinda stuck in a place where I've closed myself off some, don't have a support group or family as such.

How do you ... make something like that? Like, I don't even have someone I trust to call if I need a ride home.

I'd... especially like some advice from people who've tried to make it in cultures that aren't theirs. I don't have a culture, I got brought up between three different countries and none of them are "mine" and none really accept me as "theirs". Some times that's fine, other times, especially when it combines with other aspects of identity that are also deemed a problem (ADHD, trauma, gender identity, sexuality), it's the worst thing in the world and so, so isolating.

Boosts are appreciated. I'm not good at reaching out, so every bit helps.

American writer Kate Chopin, best known for her stories about the inner lives of sensitive, daring women was born #OTD in 1850. Her short stories were well received in the 1890s and were published by some of America’s most prestigious magazines—Vogue, the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s Young People, the Youth’s Companion, and the Century. Her early novel At Fault was not much noticed, but The Awakening was widely condemned.

https://www.katechopin.org/

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/100

#books #literature

Following the latest on the new eruption on Rekyjanes that started this morning in Iceland.

The lava flow crossed Grindavíkurvegur Road, and primary north-south corridor, and has severed the hot water pipeline that runs from the geothermal plant and provides service to the rest of peninsula.

Areas without hot water include Keflavik International Airport and nearby communities.

#Iceland #Volcano

https://www.ruv.is/english/2024-02-08-eruption-started-on-reykjanes-peninsula-404272

RAPID records 20 years of AMOC observations!
But how the Atlantic got its observation system is a mystery to many 🧐. In his latest paper, #MPIM_scientist Jochem Marotzke narrates the history and reveals the ideas that led to the foundation of the observing system. He explains the achievements of RAPID so far and shares his proposal for the future to understand AMOC variability.

Check out this article on the interesting paper: https://mpimet.mpg.de/en/communication/news/wie-die-atlantische-umwaelzzirkulation-zu-ihrem-beobachtungssystem-kam

My new Coppola Comment post, on Gaza's tunnel economy. How a network of tunnels enabled Gaza to withstand a siege and brought about a remarkable, if short-lived, economic recovery.

https://coppolacomment.substack.com/p/tunnel-economy

Margaret Bryan (1759-1836(?)) was an English natural philosopher and educator, and the author of standard scientific textbooks.

Her first known work was Compendious System of Astronomy (1797), collecting her lectures on astronomy. She later published Lectures on Natural Philosophy (1806), a textbook on the fundamentals of physics and astronomy, and an Astronomical and Geographical Class Book for Schools, a thin octavo, in 1815. via @wikipedia

#science #astronomy #womeninscience

The death toll from a russian missile strike on Kharkiv has risen to eight, as rescuers retrieved the body of a child from beneath the rubble of a house, as reported by the Kharkiv Mayor. Additionally, 62 civilians were injured.

📷place_kharkiv

Deadly russian missile strikes on Kharkiv this morning claimed the lives of six civilians and injured 57, including eight children. The blood of innocent Ukrainians will forever stain the hands of all russians.

"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons."
Douglas Adams

American physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff died #OTD in 1967.

His research interests included electrostatic generators and nuclear research. He invented the Van de Graaff generator, an apparatus designed to supply high voltage to accelerate subatomic particles to very high velocities for the bombardment and study of atomic nuclei.

#science #physics
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This is a very well-written piece, but nestled in here is a humbling fact: Israeli military action has killed more hostages than it has saved. Most of the hostages who have been saved were through negotiation, ceasefire, and prisoner transfers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/12/opinion/israel-icj-genocide-south-africa.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NU0.3yfi.VkCcLHsw5kdK&smid=url-share

Excellent explainer by @davidallengreen How the legal system made it so easy for the Post Office to destroy the lives of the sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses - and how the legal system then made it so hard for them to obtain justice https://emptycity.substack.com/p/how-the-legal-system-made-it-so-easy?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=474138&post_id=140614319&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=8zwbz&utm_medium=email

⚠️ Confirmed: Live metrics show that the #Gaza Strip is again in the midst of a near-total internet blackout; telecom services including landline, cellular and wifi are likely to be unavailable to most residents at the present time 📉

French mathematician Pierre de Fermat died #OTD in 1665.

He is recognized for his discovery of an original method of finding the greatest and the smallest ordinates of curved lines, which is analogous to that of differential calculus, then unknown, and his research into number theory. He made notable contributions to analytic geometry, probability, and optics. via @wikipedia

#mathematics
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