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VoxDei, to climate
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

Oof. An extra 0.2W/m^2 doesn't sound like a lot if you don't know what these numbers look like, but if you consider that the total amount of energy hitting the top of the atmosphere from the sun is only about 1,360W/m^2, just this heat source is equivalent to about an extra seventieth of a percent of the total solar input being retained.

Most of the original input doesn't reach the ground anyway. If you take it as a percentage of the amount that reaches the ground (342W/m^2) it's about a seventeenth of one percent.

That's... um... quite a lot of extra heat.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/30/termination-shock-cut-in-ship-pollution-sparked-global-heating-spurt

VoxDei, to random
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@drandrewv2 I feel like this thread will be of interest to you... https://twitter.com/jimrobottom/status/1793727207732613549

VoxDei, to statistics
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

Particularly egregious misuse of stats from the Guardian: "Although more than a third of the women in the study had been sexually inactive during the past month, fewer than half expressed dissatisfaction with their sex lives."

Sooo... 1/3 inactive, >1/3 dissatisfied. And yet the article is trying to suggest it's at the other end of the scale by framing it as "fewer than half" and behaving as if it's surprising?

#stats #statistics #guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/may/13/i-often-say-the-journey-time-is-longer-how-to-make-sex-after-50-work-for-you

VoxDei, to spiders
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

Ooof. Never argue with an ant colony. Cleaning out a storage box in the garden. One corner has an ant colony in it, partially destroyed by my clearing. Also present: Two 3cm-ish false widow spiders, shiny black. Can't escape the box now the contents have been removed, sides are too smooth.

Left the job and went to have lunch, expecting to need to re-home the spiders. Figured they had plenty of ants to eat. On return, no sign of the smaller spider. The larger has had a disagreement with the ants. It has not ended at all well for the spider.

VoxDei, to uk
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar
VoxDei, to ai
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

What we have at the moment isn't AGI and therefore its capacity for genuine harm is (I believe) limited. However, the idea that we seem to be teaching these things to deceive by accident is concerning.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/may/10/is-ai-lying-to-me-scientists-warn-of-growing-capacity-for-deception?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

VoxDei, to ai
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

Argh... reviewing a colleague's python code, and he's used ChatGPT or Copilot or some other AI "helper" to write a bunch of the code. And it's just got a load of "Why the hell have you done this?" bits. Especially in the unit tests - it really doesn't know how to write pytest tests.

If you don't know what you're doing it looks halfway reasonable, and it kind-of-sort-of works, but... you'd never write that code if you were doing it yourself.

VoxDei, to uk
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

I find this utterly baffling. You're a non-dom and you're complaining that removing that status will mean you have to pay so much tax that you'll leave. Right, well...

  1. From what I've seen, the evidence that the super-rich actually do leave when taxes go up isn't there. So you might leave, but most of your fellows will pay more.

  2. If you aren't paying your tax at the moment, then your argument that you have value to the country is essentially trickle-down economics. You have money, therefore you will spend it or give it to others. Trickle down has been shown to be bullshit.

So. You will leave and take your very small contribution with you. Fine. Most of your friends won't, they will compensate for the loss of your (to you) pittance. If you don't want to pay your share like everyone else, then you are not a loss to this country when you leave. Piss off and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/may/02/i-am-moving-tycoon-bassim-haidar-non-dom-tax-status-super-rich-exodus

VoxDei, to windows
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

My PC has just told me that it can't run Windows 11, but that Windows 10 will be out of support from October 2025. I have news for you Microsoft, I don't have a spare £1k (or even half that) for a new gaming rig just because you don't like mine. It'll be Linux for me if you force me.

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@theron29 Well, it's quite a long way away, maybe they'll change it if they realise they're forcing a lot of customers to try the competition. I'd be on Linux anyway if it was better for gaming, so it could well be time to try it again.

RezzaBuh,
@RezzaBuh@mastodon.social avatar

@VoxDei @theron29 Proton makes a huge difference on Linux for gaming. It's not yet perfect but close to perfect.

VoxDei, to hongkong
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

"Yet, for all that, Hong Kong flourished... under the aegis of empire. ... Though denied full democratic rights, its people eventually prospered."

Simon Tisdall in the Guardian decrying China's destruction of Hong Kong's democracy by, er... harking back to the British Empire's undemocratic treatment of Hong Kong. China's treatment of Hong Kong is a disgrace, but I'm not sure this is the killer argument Tisdall seems to think.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/23/xi-jinping-seals-hong-kong-fate-as-failed-state?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

VoxDei, to random
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

Sooo, the child benefit taper thing. Benefits anyone with children who earns between £50k (old lower threshold) and £80k (new upper threshold).

Explain to me again how this helps the worst off in this country?

VoxDei, to random
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

I see the Guardian is going for the could-have-been-published-by-the-Nazis look this morning.

(Going by the associated headline I think it's supposed to represent Iran. Separated from the headline, it's awful.)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/feb/04/ella-baron-us-british-airstrikes-iranian-backed-militias-cartoon?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

VoxDei, to random
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

"“We don’t put planes in the air that we don’t have 100% confidence in,” Calhoun told reporters."

Well, no. The wheels falling off is a safety feature. If the plane detects it's in an unsafe condition then the wheels fall off, and then it can't take off. Right?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/24/boeing-ceo-plane-safety?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

VoxDei, to boardgames
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

One of the cards in one of my (9yo) son's board games. Need to guess as many as you can. This has made my inner grammar pedant twitch badly, along with my monarch list pedant. 😂

VoxDei, to random
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

Wait, so if you turn up at a polling station as a young person on polling day with photo ID (like a young person's railcard) but it's not the right ID, you're a fraud risk and can't vote, say the Tories.

But anyone else who may or may not be British or indeed exist can register to vote and can vote by proxy, four proxies to one UK resident, "on the word of an eligible British resident" that they're eligible, in their choice of marginal constituency. WTAF?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/jan/22/tories-hire-coordinator-to-get-expat-supporters-to-vote-in-general-election?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

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