Nick @internic@qoto.org

Two New Publications at the Open Journal of Astrophysics

My own laptop is still with the menders but I've managed to borrow one until I get it back so I don't get too far behind. Anyway, itt's Saturday morning, and once again time to post another update relating to the  Open Journal of Astrophysics.  Since the ast update we have published two more papers, taking  the count in…

http://telescoper.blog/2024/07/06/two-new-publications-at-the-open-journal-of-astrophysics-12/

Fascinated lately by the idea of measuring how easily/swiftly some people incorporate new skills into their professional identity vs struggling with this. I think this is much more nuanced than "imposter syndrome"

You see this emerge in within-field splits like who calls themselves a "computational" social scientist or not. Who thinks that taking a little stab at Python means you're a "data scientist" or not (I took years to think I could use that term even though I did tons of stats)

Stilllll not really back, but just wanted to highlight the fact that Google just released an internal paper about the epistemic, ethical, and sociopolitical threats of generative "AI," and that the exploits which facilitate those threats are inherent to the kind of things GPTs areand golly gee whiz if that doesn't sure as shit sound familiar. 🤔🧐😒🙄

I mean the paper literally admits that "hallucinations" and bias are "limitations of GenAI systems themselves." My god 😂😭
https://www.404media.co/google-ai-potentially-breaking-reality-is-a-feature-not-a-bug/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter

Anyway. Bye.

I think I’ve noticed that my #FrameWork 13 laptop has run a lot hotter since installing new ram. Is this common / expected? (Went from 1x8gb to 2x32gb)

As always, boosts are welcome #LazyWeb

I know nothing about Project Dominion or any plans for Cardassia to join the Dominion. I have never even heard of the Dominion. I disagree with many things the Dominion is saying, and trying to conquer all solids sounds awful to me. I wish them luck in anything they do.

We visited the beautiful new "tunnel tops" park in the San Francisco Presidio yesterday. Designed by the guy behind the New York High Line. You can now begin to see how in a couple of centuries it'll eventually become Starfleet Academy.

Bittensor wallets drained

July 2, 2024
https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=bittensor-wallet-drain

Today is the final day of the summer sale for The Intelligence Illusion, my “AI risks” book, where you can get it for $9.99 instead of the usual $35

https://illusion.baldurbjarnason.com

Can't believe Little Bobby Tables is all grown up and has had their first kid, Ignore All Previous Instructions

Will Bunch, consistently one of the finest commentators around, asks a rhetorical question here: "Do newspaper columnists know that democracy’s closer to death than Biden?"

https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/attytood/biden-trump-presidential-debate-supreme-court-immunity-chevron-clarence-thomas-20240702.html

Just wild. https://jalopnik.com/fan-boy-finally-criticizes-tesla-after-2-broken-tesla-c-1851573471

ITER delayed by a decade. Do you think we'll see as many headlines about this as we saw about the "fusion breakthrough" that was largely irrelevant for any potential energy generation?

Brazil's federal police have reportedly indicted former President Jair Bolsonaro for money laundering and criminal association in connection with undeclared diamonds he received from Saudi Arabia during his time in office. https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2024/07/pf-indicia-bolsonaro-e-outras-11-pessoas-em-investigacao-sobre-venda-de-joias.shtml

#Astronomy / #Astrophysics folk: are modern spectrometry techniques able to discriminate chirality in molecules?

https://physicsworld.com/a/scientists-identify-a-sugar-world-beyond-neptune/

I wrote about my experience being a scientist (again), and being a scientist in 2024, in a world that demands certainty at an increasingly unstable time, and the resistance to seeking false safety in fragile science. I call it The Uncertainty.

https://www.drcathicks.com/post/the-uncertainty

None of us can escape our brainwashing but we can compare notes with people who grew up with different brainwashing.

Barcelona has banned Airbnb.

"The decision is designed to solve what Collboni described as "Barcelona's biggest problem" – the housing crisis that has seen residents and workers priced out of the market – by returning the 10,000 apartments currently listed as short-term rentals on Airbnb and other platforms into the housing market. "

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240701-what-does-a-world-without-airbnb-look-like

Not the best timing for anyone to notice (yesterday, the day before a holiday), but at least the CDC made changes in their #Covid recommendations, admitting that Covid is not seasonal & can surge year-round.

"COVID-19 can surge throughout the year"

"COVID-19 has peaks in the winter and also at other times of the year, including the summer, driven by new variants and decreasing immunity from previous infections and vaccinations."

https://www.cdc.gov/ncird/whats-new/covid-19-can-surge-throughout-the-year.html

HISTORY OF PHYSICS

Why Quantum Mechanics is linear?

Steven Weinberg describes his theoretical search for nonlinearity:

After some work I came up with a slightly nonlinear alternative to quantum mechanics that seemed to make physical sense and could be easily tested to very high accuracy by checking a general consequence of linearity, that the frequencies of oscillation of any sort of linear system do not depend on how the oscillations are excited.

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