Ben Taylor @VoxDei@qoto.org
Software Engineer, Trade Unionist, Gamer, Geek, Dad. Lives in Devon
Joined Nov 2022
@freemo I suspect it's just coincidence. We're genetically programmed to find at least human babies cute (um, once they've stopped looking like gremlins, I guess), and I wouldn't be surprised if as an evolutionary hold-over from when we were all the things before humans that evolution finds it much easier to specify "find anything that looks young cute" over being species-specific for humanity.
Ben Taylor
boosted
Fact of the day:
ISO3103 is the International Standard covering the serving of tea. It's there to ensure consistency in taste testing.
Key points:
- Pot should be porcelain or earthenware
- Milk should be added AFTER hot water
Ireland were the only country to object on its submission, noting there was no provision for pot-warming in the specification.
This was overruled.
@garius I think I've developed a sudden love for the ISO. And I don't even drink tea, it's just that any organisation that can decide to develop international standards for it and the only objection is that the proposed standard doesn't do it right is all right by me.
@guardeddon @freemo @olives I bow to superior knowledge! I know little about the subject other than Google. 🙂
@freemo @guardeddon @olives Way beyond my personal knowledge, I was just going off that website (which says the most common is the MP5SF, which may be the same thing as you're talking about, and the G36C)
@freemo @guardeddon @olives Yeah, the ARUs are like that - you don't get them just hanging around the place, they turn up when they're needed.
All this said, on Googling, @guardeddon is correct about the model of weapon, but it's a single-fire variant in use. See https://www.eliteukforces.info/police/uk-armed-police/ under "Police Weapons". So similar in idea to the US, I guess.
@freemo @guardeddon @olives Well, depends a bit how you look at it. For your regular beat cop, not so much - ours don't carry firearms.
Comparing like with like would probably mean only specialist firearms officers (I guess the closest US equivalent is SWAT?). I don't know what they'd tend to carry in the US, but I suspect it's heavier than that?
@guardeddon @freemo @olives Is that the same weapon as you see the armed police at airports with?
@freemo @olives I don't claim to know a lot about the distinction, so it's entirely possible I'm wrong, but my belief was always that armed police in the UK had carbines. I'm reasonably sure they do not fire on full auto regardless. It's possible specialist counter-terrorism police have different armaments.
Police in the UK are not routinely armed with more than tasers, mind. It's only specialist armed response officers who have guns. Where I live in Devon I seem to remember hearing that there are only three armed response units to cover the entire county overnight, which is about 70 miles N-S, about 55 E-W, largely rural but with at least three population centres in excess of 50,000 people. Though again I may be misinformed.
Ben Taylor
boosted
Five years ago, New York magazine reported less than 60% of web traffic was human while bots masquerade as people.
On days that the Internet seems particularly unpleasant, it’s helpful to remember that many of the individuals we encounter online aren’t real.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/how-much-of-the-internet-is-fake.html #AI
@Glastomichelle @cstross Here's an illustration for the next Laundry book...
Ben Taylor
boosted
Ben Taylor
boosted
RT by @CopernicusEU: 71 out of 162 ice shelves have reduced in volume around Antarctica.
This led to a release of almost 67 trillion tonnes of meltwater into the oceans.
But this ice loss was uneven.
Researchers found that the western part of Antarctica experience more ice loss than the eastern part - where some areas even gained ice!
🔗 http://esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1/Antarctic_ice_shelf_demise
🐦🔗: https://nitter.cz/ESA_EO/status/1715365927305334809#m
[2023-10-20 13:54 UTC]
Ben Taylor
boosted
How Canadians are hatched:
Eggs are laid in early fall and hatch mid-winter. The pucklings then make their way into the forest to forage for syrup amongst the moose.
Ben Taylor
boosted
If you love data visualization, particularly geospatial, I recommend you check the 30-Day Map Challenge, which occurs during Nov for the 4th year.
https://30daymapchallenge.com/
#30daymapchallenge #dataviz #datavisualization #DataScience #rstats #js #python
Ben Taylor
boosted
Today we got what must be the most alarming first line in a newly file sec issue to #curl:
"To replicate the issue, I have searched in the Bard about this vulnerability"
... followed by a complete AI hallucination where Bard has dreamed up a new issue by combining snippets from several past flaws. Creative, but hardly productive.
Closed as bogus.
Ben Taylor
boosted
@Lazarou
Holding a blank sheet of paper is an offence.
Throwing glitter is an offence.
Strange how we didn’t hear a single word from her when people were waving actual swastikas at vaccination centres, at pride events… nor did we hear a word about an actual gallows being erected in London.
Sick.
@drandrewv2 There is no possibility that the general election will be more than a week before it absolutely has to be. Because Sunak knows he's going to get hammered, and there's nothing that can possibly happen that'll avoid that short of Keir Starmer being charged with some horrendous sex abuse crime.
So I'm sad to say there will be one more Labour conference before the next election.
@freemo If you've got any time for sci-fi, try reading Blindsight by Peter Watts. Some very interesting exploration of the questions of consciousness, though I think he's more or less come to the opposite conclusion to you!
The arbitrary vandalism of the current government aside, some of this Labour is capable of preventing now simply by announcing it will undo it.
For instance if housebuilders are saving £8k at build time by not having to meet low-carbon standards, at a later cost of £33k to the taxpayer or homeowners to upgrade, Labour could announce that when they win the next election, they will pass legislation requiring housebuilders to pay to retrofit all properties built since now that don't meet low carbon standards. So they can pay £8k now, or £33k later, their choice.
Housebuilders can read polling as well as anyone, they're not going to pay more later.
Software Engineer, Trade Unionist, Gamer, Geek, Dad. Lives in Devon
Joined Nov 2022
