.brian @brianpm@qoto.org
Climate scientist with extracurricular interest in wine, whisk(e)y, hifi audio, action figures, Apple, and other nerdery.
I never joined Twitter, and don't regret that decision.
Joined Nov 2022
Generating songs with tiny prompts… 🤯
I was trying to help colleagues figure out how to make their middle mouse button paste on their Macs (like they used to do on Linux), and I ran into a challenge. I connected a random USB mouse that I had laying around, and when I clicked the middle button it activated the Application Switcher (like cmd+tab). I scoured the System Settings, but could not find any way to change what that button was doing. Some searching eventually led me to believe that this was a vestigial setting from a long time ago when I used the Apple Mighty Mouse. I happen to still have that mouse, and once I found it and connected it, System Settings recognized it and provided me with a "Might Mouse Settings..." button in the Mouse settings. In there I was able to change the scroll wheel press to be "Button 3", and then the other USB mouse behaved as expected (i.e., middle button didn't do anything). If I hadn't had that mouse from like 15 years ago, I'd probably still be searching for some plist file deep down in MacOS. Once the mouse behaved as expected, I was able to make a Keyboard Maestro macro to paste when Button 3 is pressed, solving the original problem.
Google pauses Gemini’s ability to generate AI images of people after diversity errors - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/22/24079876/google-gemini-ai-photos-people-pause This is a no-win situation for Google. These LLMs aren’t capable of differentiating between prompts asking for historically accurate depictions and generic modern “stock” images. This is one reason why I would not expect Apple to introduce LLM-based tools that are just plain prompt interfaces.
.brian
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Irritating the uber morons on Twitter with this plot that shows GLOBAL COOLING!
https://x.com/andrewdessler/status/1735388517625393432?s=46&t=Wvu1RXU7n40FTWiXhqBydw
.brian
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What a difference corrective optics make!
Two images taken by the Faint Object Camera (FOC), before and after COSTAR.
In the before image, the broad halo around the star is caused by scattered unfocused starlight.
In the after image, most of the starlight is concentrated into a 0.1 arc second circle, and the blurry "skirt" of light is completely gone.
https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/1994/08/141-Image.html
#Hubble
16/n
.brian
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NEW: Sonos set to sell $400-$500 headphones next year and a TV set-top-box to rival Apple and Roku. It’s also planning a Roam 2, new high-end sound bar, an Era 100 for businesses, new amps, subs, updated voice control and more:
Good article in Eos about the Pattern Effect: https://eos.org/features/patterns-of-surface-warming-matter-for-climate-sensitivity
.brian
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Complex systems friends: wikipedia needs your help!
Most individuals I know who work in this area (from ecology to brain research)would not feel well represented by this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_Dynamic_Systems_Theory
Minimally, some cross referencing is in order here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_system
Learning a lot at the LEAP team meeting- an NSF Science & Technology Center bringing together climate science and machine learning. https://leap.columbia.edu
Discussion of "climate repair" or "climate intervention" or "geoengineering" is increasing, and becoming ever more serious. There are big risks with implementing such ideas, but as this talk states, there are also big risks in *not* doing something along these lines because we're already so far along the climate warming trajectory. I am skeptical that society can responsibly apply climate interventions, and I'm worried that some actor is going to go ahead and do it anyway.
A good seasonal summary of #sea-ice at both poles. It will be really interesting to see if Antarctic ice rebounds from this year’s extreme low. Seem like odds are against much larger ice extent in the next few years. https://www.carbonbrief.org/exceptional-antarctic-melt-drives-months-of-record-low-global-sea-ice-cover/
.brian
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We are hiring!
We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to investigate the dynamical mechanisms for the formation of tropical Pacific climate change pattern.
You will study tropical Pacific climate change patterns, addressing model-observation discrepancies, reconciling past and projected changes, and determining the importance of local and remote drivers.
https://jobs.mpimet.mpg.de/jobposting/71e31eb762952c526536951771ad56298214ae520
.brian
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Incredibly sad to hear of Anchor Brewing shutting down after 127 years: https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/anchor-steam-18192913.php
A huge loss. Though, the writing was on the wall when some absolute dingbat in charge got rid of their amazing historic label design and made it look like generic Trader Joe’s crap.
Cultured Chicken Is a Step Closer as a Second US Company Gets FDA-Approved https://singularityhub.com/2023/03/27/cultured-chicken-is-a-step-closer-as-a-second-us-company-gets-fda-approved/
I empathize with the frustration here: I don’t want to log in to your website https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/28/23618804/google-facebook-login-ads-web-design-hell
.brian
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What generation has the strongest argument that they are typically ignored?
.brian
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My almost 13 year old daughter had a good idea. We’ve been talking about doing a podcast together - mostly for us to have.
Her idea was reviewing books that are being taken out of school libraries - discussing the content, reviewing the actual literature but also the reasons it was banned and our thoughts there as well.
This is something I think that we will do, soon.
Nice, short piece that provides an overview of some of the ongoing challenges of modeling #ENSO.
Unravelling ENSO complexity | Nature Geoscience
New paper: this is software development aimed to reduce the overhead involved with converting climate model output to CMIP-like format (which is what ESMValTool is expecting as input). GMD - Evaluation of native Earth system model output with ESMValTool v2.6.0
Minimal Saltern Study Wallpapers — Basic Apple Guy
Climate scientist with extracurricular interest in wine, whisk(e)y, hifi audio, action figures, Apple, and other nerdery.
I never joined Twitter, and don't regret that decision.
Joined Nov 2022
