Jonas Verhellen @jverhell@qoto.org

Chomsky, Bender, and Marcus keep writing op-eds saying that the human brain is a flexible instrument that doesn't have to see 10,000 examples of something but can quickly draw inferences from a few examples & revise its priors. Which is true! but man you wouldn't know it by watching Chomsky Bender and Marcus. #LLM https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/noam-chomsky-chatgpt-ai.html

It's interesting how tech companies use language to obscure or minimize the fact that #LargeLanguageModels generate bullshit, plain and simple.

Here's Amazon's Lex, instructing me to "proofread" it's output because it makes stuff up.

We're not talking about typos here; it's fact-checking, not proofreading, that is required.

Beautiful 10-day sequence of Venus and Jupiter drawing together in the western sky. The variety of twilight colors is a sweet bonus.
Photos: Soumyadeep Mukherjee
https://earthsky.org/earthsky-community-photos/entry/56315/ #astronomy #conjunction

Europe has been on an unbelievable clean energy trajectory the last year, necessitated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Rooftop solar is now on an "unstoppable" path.

https://www.vox.com/climate/2023/2/21/23594544/europe-electricity-natural-gas-renewable-energy-russia #climate #energy #news #politics

A hint of what I'm about to demo Wednesday on @adafruit #ShowAndTell. A floppy disk with a working file display?! And, yes, there will be a tutorial on making your own. Interested? #Floppy #CircuitPython #PyPortal #restomodding

Food waste is responsible for at least *6%* of global greenhouse gas emissions.

We can change that. Right now.
https://ourworldindata.org/food-waste-emissions #ClimateChange #food

Unloading Christmas memes today
Enjoy or mute, the choice is yours

10 Image #CaptionTips from a transcriptionist:

1. Any words are better than nothing.
2. You don't need to say it's "a picture of…" screen readers will already say it's an image.
3. Start with the framing or format (i.e. close up, landscape, meme, text).
4. Think about the reason you're posting the pic and describe that first, add background details if you have time.
5. Pretend you're talking to someone on the phone and want to tell them about this cool thing you're looking at.
6. Transcribe any and all text in the image, even if it's the only thing you do.
7. If you've described the image in your post, you don't need to copy and paste it again in the caption. But again, don't leave it blank, just put something like "as described."
8. You can add small subjective notes, but don't give too much interpretation of the image in your own opinion.
9. Caption jokes are fun, as long as they still describe the image objectively.
10. Use punctuation, and capitalize words properly. A lot of us have interacted with this tech when calling customer service or talking to Siri, so keep in mind that you're writing for a computer to read, and it needs all the help it can get.

A reminder of why we are trying to make a new and improved science community here on Mastodon.

Understanding #Mastodon gets easier once you get the basic idea that federation between servers can be understood as homeomorphisms across hyperplanes between the Riemannian manifolds of toots, whereas the servers represent countable finite sets of discrete entities.

Hey #ChemiVerse

Nature Chemistry is recruiting for a full-time editor!

The ideal candidate will have expertise in chemical biology or biological chemistry.

Closing date for applications: 12th December

Locations: London, Berlin, New York, Shanghai

#Editorial #Publishing #Chemistry #Jobs #ScienceJobs #ChemJobs

Boosts appreciated!

https://careers.springernature.com/job/London-Associate-or-Senior-Editor%2C-Nature-Chemistry/871414101/

Nature Chemistry (not yet on mastodon) is looking for an Associate/Senior Editor, ideally with expertise in chemical biology/biological chemistry.

Closing date for applications: 12th December

Locations: London, Berlin, New York, Shanghai

https://careers.springernature.com/job/London-Associate-or-Senior-Editor%2C-Nature-Chemistry/871414101/

A few folks have asked for tips on #Mastodon so here goes:

- Use hashtags. It helps to connect with interesting people who have similar interests. (ex. I found fellow #science themed bakers!)

- Mastodon isn’t #Twitter & there’s more to social media than outrage & doomscrolling. Cross posts from the birdsite & RTs look odd.

- Don’t worry about follower counts. Tailor the experience to what you want to see.

- Share what you’re passionate about! That’s why so many of us are enjoying it here.