@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

swaldman

@swaldman@mendeddrum.org

Follow https://fediscience.org/@simon_on_energy for energy, environment & academia. Stay here for anything else. All tweets in personal capacity.

If I don't know you, or if I know you by a different name, maybe get in touch before following or I will probably reject your request.

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jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Welcome to today's thread - South East Europe Day 02 31 May 2024 - Tallinn - Lelle - Pärnu - Häädemeeste

Crossing these borders:
None – only crossing Estonia, getting close to Latvia

These borders on the borders map:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-all-the-borders_935041#8/58.744/24.192

Today's routes on the routes map:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-all-the-borders_935041#8/58.744/24.192

swaldman,
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

@quixoticgeek it doesn't seem sooo different to some of the HS2 station placement either? 😉
@jon

swaldman, to random
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

One of the ways in which many of the costs of LLMs are externalities, forced onto other companies.

Web hosts generally welcome search engine crawlers, as (at least historically) they will help people find the site.
But LLM crawlers are pulling information from the site in order to use it for the LLM owner's profit, to the site owner's detriment.

https://fosstodon.org/@kate/112524141250923512

swaldman, to random
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

Here is Google's AI search recommending actions that will generate a significant quantity of hot chlorine gas in people's homes.

Mozilla have a petition: https://foundation.mozilla.org/.../google-ai-overviews/

swaldman, to random
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

Oh, dear.

Launching a comms campaign asking everybody to have bottled water, food, etc., for national resilience: Sensible.

Doing it on the same day that you call a general election? Maybe not the best look 😂

swaldman, to random
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

This sequence of news updates (bottom to top) is bringing me joy.

luca, to stackoverflow German
@luca@social.luca.run avatar

As an EU citizen, I'm using my right to deletion to get to remove my data for me.

Here is the link to the form: https://policies.stackoverflow.co/data-request/

I requested a copy of my data for my personal backup and to confirm if they fulfilled my request.

swaldman,
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

@amyworrall @luca @konstantin I believe there is precedent that mods can, on request, remove a post's association with a user. So the contents stays up, but it's no longer attributed to its original author.

swaldman, to random
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

Pluralistic: Boeing’s deliberately defective fleet of flying sky-wreckage

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/01/boeing-boeing/#mrsa

"Boeing is, effectively, a government agency that is run for the benefit of its investors. It performs its own safety inspections. It investigates its own criminal violations of safety rules. It loots its own coffers and then refills them at public expense."

swaldman, to OpenAI
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

Somebody has filed a complaint about , because they are unable to correct false personal data that is produced by .
This should be interesting to watch.

https://noyb.eu/en/chatgpt-provides-false-information-about-people-and-openai-cant-correct-it

swaldman,
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

@kellogh @ErikJonker As a non-expert European: the law applies to "personal information" stored in pretty much any way. Doesn't have to be a database. Could be in a notebook in a filing cabinet.

People have the right to request the information that a company holds on them, and to have any inaccuracies corrected. OpenAI is not able to fulfill either of those requirements, hence appears to me - a non-expert - to be in breach.

ChrisMayLA6, to random
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Here's a good overview of long-term health in the UK, showing the BBC can still do good journalism

With research from Health Foundation & others, its clear that the country's long term crisis is centred on three health issues:

chronic pain;
type 2 diabetes; and
mental health problems

As the HF summarise:
'Access to health care has become more difficult, while those fundamental building blocks of health - such as good housing and adequate incomes - are under strain'!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68849843

swaldman,
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 now if one completes the loop by remembering the weight of evidence that stress, trauma, etc, cause obesity...

swaldman, to random
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

What the hell is this colander thing? Do Americans think that looking at the sun through one is a safe substitute for a dark filter? 🫠

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

If railways assumed every item of luggage that is abandoned on board was done with malevolent intent, the system would grind to a halt.

About an over-reaction this week in Le Creusot, France, and some lessons and international comparisons in a blog post 👇
https://jonworth.eu/abandoned-luggage-on-trains-and-the-presumption-of-innocence/

swaldman,
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

@jon a lot seems to depend (irrationally) on the bag. Most long distance trains have luggage racks packed with suitcases and no way to associate them with owners.
But when I got on a tube train with an aluminium briefcase (actually a toolbox) and out it down between my legs, there were immediately people eyeing it nervously even though I was standing right there....

swaldman,
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

@jon slightly relatedly : am I right in thinking there is no point at all in the security screening for Eurostar? Given that one can drive a car or van onto Le Shuttle with merely a small chance of spot checks? Or have I missed something...

I always assumed some civil servant in the 80s thought "going abroad is like an airport, right..." and it went from there...

swaldman, to random
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

Israel-Gaza live: UN security council passes resolution calling for immediate ceasefire, as US abstains

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/mar/25/israel-gaza-live-unrwa-aid-north-gaza-un-security-council-vote-ceasefire-middle-east-latest?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

This is momentous.

Now, what is going to happen when Israel ignores it?

swaldman, to random
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

Boeing whistleblower found dead in US - BBC News

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68534703

> Prior to his death, whistleblower John Barnett was testifying against Boeing over concerns about standards.

swaldman, to random
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

So Alabama's new method of executing people is to deprive them of oxygen? And they claim that this is "not cruel"?

The UN does not agree...

swaldman, to random
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

Another , another controversy.

This one is different in nature to previous ones, and perhaps more predictable, but not a good look.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Huh, a new design feature of the 737 MAX that isn't brain dead: in event of a decompression (as on Alaska flight 1282 last week), the cockpit door automatically opens. Presumably to prevent another crash like Helios Airways flight 522 in 2005. (Aircraft depressurized, crew lost consciousness, cockpit door was locked, FA's couldn't gain access to the flight deck before it ran out of fuel and crashed into a mountainside killing all on board.)

https://avherald.com/h?article=51354f78&opt=0

swaldman,
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

@cstross
@marymessall while hijacks do have a variety of motives, I think most of them tend to require the environment on the plane being survivable (by them and others) for more than a short time...

Incidentally that article doesn't give the reason that the cockpit door is designed to unlock. Is it definitely because of the 2005 incident? Or perhaps about avoiding force on internal bulkheads from different pressures in main cabin vs cockpit?

swaldman,
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

@cstross (hmm, I'm now wondering what the protocol is depressurisation hours away from landing (eg over ocean). Perhaps just "lots of blankets"...?)
@marymessall

swaldman,
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

@cstross @marymessall I was thinking more about the likely temperature on board after a while at 10,000 feet. Most passengers aren't exactly dressed for mountaintop conditions! And under ETOPS rules some aircraft are certified for being up to 330 minutes away from a diversion field nowadays.
(I imagine they'd get as low as they could rather than stay at 10k, but still...)

swaldman, to random
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

Somebody found a cellphone that had fallen out of that 737 Max with the hole in the side. It had fallen 16,000 feet and was still working.

(Yet if I drop mine on the floor....)

Whoever made that case should be winding up their marketing department 😂

https://twitter.com/SeanSafyre/status/1744138937239822685

swaldman, to rainbow
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

Today I had a spectacular view of a 180 degree rainbow over Maeshowe, and also something I've never seen before: A reflection , where light has bounced off water (over the hill) before refracting in the atmosphere. Spent some time going "huh?" before finding a website that explained it.

I was also inside the tomb close enough to midwinter to see the sun shine along the entrance passage into the core - but while special, that was less exciting than the unusual rainbows!

Reflection rainbow: At the root of the main rainbow, another rainbow seems to fork off it at a different angle.

quixoticgeek, to random
@quixoticgeek@v.st avatar

Middle of the day on a Saturday, and this four car virm is packed. People sat on the stairs.

Why don't they run longer trains ?

swaldman,
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

@quixoticgeek I have wondered this about Dutch railways sometimes. Moving to double decker trains -> massively increased capacity! Unless you make them shorter at the same time.....

swaldman,
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

@quixoticgeek I guess that's something! Do they have enough stock?

Impossible_PhD, (edited ) to random
@Impossible_PhD@hachyderm.io avatar

If you call yourself an ally, no you fucking aren't.

As a member of a priveleged group who wishes to do the work of allyship on behalf of an oppressed group, you need to understand that it is a thankless job, and you will suffer for it. The only reward you will ever have is the satisfaction at seeing oppression being pushed back.

If you claim "ally" for yourself, it's stolen valor, and a real ally is evident in their work. Nobody who is an ally describes themselves as such.

swaldman,
@swaldman@mendeddrum.org avatar

@Impossible_PhD that's fair, and is something I worried about before I started describing myself as such. But also... I'm a cishet university lecturer who would like to signal to students that I'm a safe person to be out to. I realise that is something that can only really be demonstrated rather than claimed, but... I'd be interested in any recommendations on how to signal this better.

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