John Young @jsy1001@qoto.org

I have started working on an #emacs transient menu for the UV #python package manager.
https://github.com/pizzatorque/uv-menu
I am wondering what might be core features that are a must have and with which built in emacs modes I may integrate it with (e.g. project.el).

Well, this sounds brilliant and it's coming tomorrow (Thursday 7th): a new podcast series called Sixteen Sunsets. It's all about the history of the space shuttle, and it's made by the fabulous team who made 13 Minutes to the Moon (f you haven't listened to that, do!).

https://sixteensunsets.com/

For the #emacs nerds out there, I don't know if your workflow is anything like mine, but I typically have half a dozen buffers I am switching between, but when I type "C-x b" I blank out on the name of the buffer, meanwhile, opening the buffer list offers a wall of text with a lot of visual clutter.

Enter: "shortcuts-mode". This is a minor mode that adds a sticky top bar that gives you 1-keystroke access to the last 10 buffers you used. I can't live without it. Now on MELPA!

Earlier this week, the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences published a report, "Quantifying the UK economic contribution of the mathematical sciences in 2023.” The report demonstrates the huge contributions that maths makes to the economy & wider society, including:
- £495 billion to the UK economy in 2023
- About 20% of the total UK gross value added
- Around 13% of the UK workforce (4.2 million people) are working in jobs that use math.

I was very pleased to see the publication of this report because, whilst I study maths for the love of curiosity driven research, it is important that the substantial contribution that we make to the economy and wider society are recognised and celebrated.

https://www.acadmathsci.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/AcadMathSci-22Oct2024-Economic-Contribution-MathSci.pdf

Baby bison! Back in January on Rare Earth, we covered a herd of bison in Kent who were brought in to help the forest, and their herd has just grown by two. They might be the first wild bison born in the UK for centuries

https://news.sky.com/story/two-bison-calves-born-in-kent-to-rangers-absolute-astonishment-13234950

Our Rare Earth on rewilding: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001vbsp

"20 years later, real-time #Linux makes it to the kernel"

😎 💪

https://www.zdnet.com/article/20-years-later-real-time-linux-makes-it-to-the-kernel-really/

Pretty incredible to be in a place where "golden hour" lasts for a couple weeks...

Just finished Everything is Predictable by Tom Chivers, and it's great. If you've heard of Bayes theorem or p-hacking but couldn't really say why they matter, this is the book for you. Also I just noticed it's shortlisted for the Royal Society book prize - very well deserved

Chrome #emacs looks neat. Anyone using it? https://github.com/KarimAziev/chrome-emacs

Another sunny day in #Manchester. #cricket #ENGvsSL

Eggs used to have a round end and a pointy end. I have been noticing, over the past few months, that increasingly I have to really look hard to see which is which. Is someone doing something weird to chickens that increases the symmetry?

MIT dropped its contract with Elsevier, the huge scientific journal company. Their library instead arranged alternate access to journals and tools for researchers to get them. They’re saving $2 million/year:

https://sparcopen.org/our-work/big-deal-knowledge-base/unbundling-profiles/mit-libraries/

#academicpublishing #OpenAccess #science #scientificpublishing

Some lovely news to share this morning: Blue Machine has been shortlisted for the #WainwrightPrize24 for Conservation :)

Hooray for the ocean! We need more people thinking about what the blue of our blue planet really is, rather than seeing it as a mysterious void, or just where the fish live. We are all citizens of an ocean planet and it's time to learn what that really means.

More here: https://wainwrightprize.com/

CSVs Are Kinda Bad. DSVs Are Kinda Good

https://matthodges.com/posts/2024-08-12-csv-bad-dsv-good/

Discussions: https://discu.eu/q/https://matthodges.com/posts/2024-08-12-csv-bad-dsv-good/

#programming #python

Announcing Zotero 7, the biggest update in Zotero’s 18-year history

https://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-7/

CrowdStrike broke Debian and Rocky Linux months ago, but no one noticed

https://www.neowin.net/news/crowdstrike-broke-debian-and-rocky-linux-months-ago-but-no-one-noticed/

Discussions: https://discu.eu/q/https://www.neowin.net/news/crowdstrike-broke-debian-and-rocky-linux-months-ago-but-no-one-noticed/

#linux #technology #unix

"Privacy-Preserving" Attribution: Mozilla Disappoints Us Yet Again

https://blog.privacyguides.org/2024/07/14/mozilla-disappoints-us-yet-again-2/

Discussions: https://discu.eu/q/https://blog.privacyguides.org/2024/07/14/mozilla-disappoints-us-yet-again-2/

#firefox #linux #privacy #technology #unix

I nominate Gus Atkinson for God Emperor. Any objections? #cricket

Prepping for the next Rare Earth (on cultivated meat), & remembered the Mock Turtle in Alice in Wonderland so looked up Mock Turtle Soup. And now I wish I hadn't:

"Mock turtle soup is an English soup that was created in the mid-18th century as an imitation of green turtle soup. It often uses brains and organ meats such as calf's head to duplicate the texture and flavour of the original's turtle meat after the green turtles used to make the original dish were hunted nearly to extinction. "

Ugh

Soon the telescope platform at ESO's Paranal Observatory in #Chile will look very different at night: all four of the 8.2 m telescopes of the VLT will be equipped with lasers! This is one of the ongoing upgrades of the GRAVITY+ instrument, which will allow us to study black holes, stars and planets like never before.

Find out more in this great article by current and former ESO communication interns Elena Reiriz Martinez and Tom Howarth: https://www.eso.org/public/blog/gravity-leap-vlti/

#astrodon #astronomy #technology