My Deutsche Bahn train is now so delayed that the Swiss won’t let it in (the Swiss railways nowadays only let German trains in if they are on time. Yes that’s a thing. The passengers then get dumped at the Swiss border and take local (so on time) transport https://www.iamexpat.ch/expat-info/swiss-expat-news/10-most-delayed-trains-switzerland-2022-revealed
Some Lissajous animations for Pi Day. You can find the (not very good) code at https://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2024/03/14/pi-day-circles/
@Mabande Spännande avsnitt att lyssna på i feberyran: https://pca.st/episode/8bc0a200-ed03-45aa-956c-6c2fe4dae0c1
A few months ago I made a network map showing the high speed rail connections in #France. Unfortunately, the official #SNCF #TGV map only shows the stops and whether there is a connection or not. However, I wanted to better understand which cities and regions are directly connected.
Voilà the 2024 update of my 🇫🇷 high speed rail map! Feel free to explore and boost!
https://larstransportmaps.com/2024/03/11/high-speed-rail-in-france-2024/
Update on the status in Haiti from
Renata Segura of #crisisgroup:
"CARICOM had requested Haitian political forces to send a proposal for creating a transitional government. They received 7 instead.
The meeting in Jamaica ended with white smoke of sorts: [the current president] oledged to resign, and a 7 member presidential council was created with representation from multiples parties (including Henry's). The council will chose a new prime minister.
This is a huge deal, as negotiations to form a new gvt has stalled for years. However, the immediate emergency is the security situation. Gang leader Chérizier said yesterday (before CARICOM's announcement) that Vin Ansanm would NOT recognise a new gvt resulting from [the meeting in] Jamaica.
The question is how to respond now to the security crisis. The Mission led by Kenya is preparing to deploy, but the biggest ? is if it will be able to arrive fast enough to prevent gangs from taking control of the entire capital."
“In a drastic attempt to protect their beachfront homes, residents in Salisbury, Massachusetts, invested $500,000 in a sand dune to defend against encroaching tides. After being completed last week, the barrier made from 14,000 tons of sand lasted just 72 hours before it was completely washed away”
Floristic homogenization of South Pacific islands commenced with human arrival.
Strandberg+
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02306-3
"using fossil pollen records from 15 sites on 13 islands within the biogeographical realm of Oceania ...
show that floristic homogenization has increased over the past 5,000 years ...when two islands were settled by people in a given time interval, their floristic similarity is greater than when one or neither of the islands were settled."
UK, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Denmark have failed to align #oil & #gas🛢️ policies with 1.5C #ParisAgreement climate pledge, finds Oil Change International https://buff.ly/43cL5HY
The myths of automation obscure the truth: AI relies on human labor, undervalued and precarious. Rather than replacing workers, tech shifts jobs to lower-income countries, deterring unionization. Time to rethink Silicon Valley ethics—and rhetoric. https://www.casilli.fr/2024/03/09/how-robot-drive-thrus-scare-and-exploit-fast-food-workers/
🚨🥳🇪🇺Great news: after over two years of negotiations, in a last-minute twist worthy of a movie, EU adopts platform work directive.
The milestone was achieved at the March 11, 2024 meeting of the labour ministers, where Estonia & Greece moved past their previous abstentions to vote in favor. Done in "a spirit of compromise", this showcases EU's commitment to progressive labor policies.
RNC purge reportedly underway. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/11/bloodbath-at-rnc-trump-team-slashes-staff-at-committee-00146368
#Biden's State of the Union address in context #unionaddress
https://www.duckofminerva.com/2024/03/driving-while-looking-in-the-rearview-mirror.html?utm_source=pocket_mylist
Some interesting results showed that urban agriculture in Sant Feliu de Llobregat may produce ~3.500 jobs and the 50% of the fresh food consumed in the city. It may reduce 1.26ºC the urban heat island and run-off by 20 mm.
"The Musk Foundation, for instance, gave $5 million to a United Nations program that helps countries identify rural schools that need internet access. In at least two cases, those countries then became Mr. Musk’s customers, connecting their schools with his Starlink satellite service."
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/us/elon-musk-charity.html
The #oil🛢️ industry has fought against government support for clean technologies for more than half a century, the Guardian can reveal, even as vast subsidies have propped up its polluting business model https://buff.ly/3IszECq #lobbying
I took a class on precision questioning which I found to be extremely valuable in understanding a topic.
I learned over time it also makes you cone across as an asshole who interrogates people especially if you’re in a leadership position.
Overall I’ve found showing signs of empathy and positive reinforcement while asking the questions you need answered helps them land better. Also explaining why you’re asking helps.
Most importantly avoid precision questioning in writing as much as possible.
"It turns out that generative AI companies don’t like it when you steal, sorry, scrape, images from them. Cue the world’s smallest violin."
In Moment of Unbelievable Irony, Midjourney Accuses Stability AI of Image Theft
https://www.themarysue.com/midjourney-accuses-stability-ai-of-image-theft/
Not sure what this account will be about, mostly boosting things I find interesting.