tobychev @tobychev@qoto.org

Interesting paper on effect of distance to refugee accommodations on attitudes towards refugees in Germany. "we report a solid null effect and conclude that the placement of reception facilities does not influence locals’ attitudes toward refugees" https://academic.oup.com/esr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/esr/jcad028/7187857 #refugees #racism #SOEP

To co-sign, boost.

One of the decisive moments in my understanding of #LLMs and their limitations was when, last autumn, @emilymbender walked me through her Thai Library thought experiment.

She's now written it up as a Medium post, and you can read it here. The value comes from really pondering the question she poses, so take the time to think about it. What would YOU do in the situation she outlines?

https://medium.com/@emilymenonbender/thought-experiment-in-the-national-library-of-thailand-f2bf761a8a83

Lessons, living with parents with dementia: when an app on their phone spontaneously changes it's icon, it's a fucking disaster.

Some Google engineer launched a feature that got them a promotion and now my mom can't use her phone anymore. Silicon Valley is incapable of imagining a user who isn't a 27 year old white man.

I had a look at the political programme of Robert F Kennedy Jr. It's an amazing mix of environmentalism, anti-plutocracy populism and vaccine denialism and science denial.

This is a toxic blend - but unfortunately I also think it's a vision of what a future mass environmental movement will probably actually look like - one that will be a mass movement motivated by rage and despair and hence messy and confused.

Finally, I want to stress that it is no defense whatsoever to say that the algorithm could be used simply as a preliminary screen to red-flag papers for additional scrutiny.

If one is going to propose machine-learning classifier to make instrumental decisions that affect careers and reputations, one must carefully and thoroughly consider issues of fairness and risks algorithmic harm that might arise.

The authors of this preprint don't even mention such issues.

This is devastating.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/17/us/texas-transgender-care-ban-children.html #transrightsarehumanrights

To paraphrase Sherlock Holmes

"Once you eliminate that which exceeds planetary boundaries, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the future."

The flash floods & landslides in Democratic Republic of Congo have killed almost 400 people. We sent a team to South Kivu’s Kalehe territory—the worst-affected area.

Some villages have been completely swept away by the floods, incl. houses & livestock.

Learn More 👉 https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/flash-floods-and-landslides-hit-eastern-democratic-republic-congo

I guess my conclusion here is that the good news is the British government isn't as dangerous as an actual fascist movement would be.

That what they represent is just two technocrats and one transphobe in a trenchcoat.

And that's why they are so weak they need to resort to heavy repression.

Companies responsible for just under half of global oil & gas production have individually announced plans or targets to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions, “only a fraction” of which were sufficiently ambitious, according to the International Energy Agency.

“It’s hard to see much decarbonisation in the Global Decarbonization Alliance,” said Thomas Hale, director of the independent research group Net Zero Tracker, adding that any “credible” oil and gas COP initiative must address scope 3 emissions.

#COP28 team marshals #oilandgas industry alliance ahead of #climate summit

Goals outlined in initiating letter do not address most damaging #emissions

A new alliance of the oil and gas sector is being marshalled by the #COP28UAE team behind the UN climate summit in the #UnitedArabEmirates, but early outlines of its goals aimed at tackling #globalwarming do not include the bulk of emissions that arise from the use of #fossilfuels. https://www.ft.com/content/0d8b8b3e-7f5c-4e0b-8766-834cf01ca876

"Their concerns aren't as existentially serious as the idea of these things getting more intelligent than us and taking over." --Hinton in this clip. Their = @timnitGebru & co.

Algorithmic border wall & other surveillance is existentially serious to its targets.

Synthetic media creating non-consensual porn is existentially serious to its targets.

Automated decision systems denying social benefits are existentially serious to those left without necessary supports.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2023/05/02/the-lead-geoffrey-hinton.cnn

>>

Yes, #Overleaf, that happens when you change "pc" to "parsec".

#astronomy

Some nice work by colleagues at MPIA showing that a pupported z~7.4 quasar is, it seems, just an asteroid.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/accb5b

#Astrodon #Astronomy #Astrophysics #EpochOfReionization #EoRQSO