@mike@sauropods.win
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

mike

@mike@sauropods.win

By day I am a computer programmer with Index Data, where I have been happily and gainfully employed for 20 years.

By night, I am a vertebrate palaeontologist with the University of Bristol, specialising in sauropods: the biggest and best of all dinosaurs.

I am an advocate for open access, open data and open source, and also for open peer-review though I'm beginning to think pre-publication peer-review might be a mistake. I support #LFC.

Email: dino@miketaylor.org.uk
ORCiD: 0000-0002-1003-5675

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mike, to random
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

I'm lisening to Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue". I'm sorry to say I can't really understand what all the fuss is about. (I do realise that's a fact about me, not about the album.)

mlawton, to random
@mlawton@mstdn.social avatar

I’ve been thinking about the argument that fatigue is one of the primary reasons for the recent struggles for

I think Klopp has rotated the squad far more than in recent years. But then it occurs to me that the reason he’s done so is because of injuries rather than the luxury of choice. While this is a deep squad, it has suffered from wildly different player combinations (particularly in defense) which are often prone to miscommunication and a lack of chemistry.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/13116357/liverpool-arsenal-and-manchester-city-injury-record-ranked-with-all-premier-league-clubs

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@mlawton That is true. But it's bizarre that the miscommunications seem to be at their worst right now, when we finally have out first-choice defence back.

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@mlawton Reacclimatization makes some sense; but it should be easier for Ali, Trent, Robbo and Konate to slip back into their positions than it was for Kelleher, Bradley, Tsimikas and Quansah to step into their shoes.

drmambobob, to random
@drmambobob@ecoevo.social avatar

Ads on Amazon Prime videos are incredibly frustrating. Just why???

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@drmambobob For the most obvious of all possible reasons. To make you give them more money.

Their business model is literally "impose pain until they give us money to make it stop".

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@TheDinosaurDave @drmambobob Yes, quite.

jonny, to random
@jonny@neuromatch.social avatar

One of the funniest sagas in discourse is Kent Anderson's unhinged "insurrection" series where he calls some usually unnamed cabal of OA advocates every kind of political movement he thinks is bad, no matter how diametrically opposed they are to one another. The "information wants to be expensive" part at the bottom is especially funny - "the market solves for truth" is like not on any political compass im aware of

https://www.the-geyser.com/summarizing-the-folly/

H/t @dan_rudmann for the link

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@neuralreckoning @jonny @dan_rudmann omg omg guys what if kent anderson is a prototype llm

mike, to random
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

First thing: that was an excellent Atalanta performance. Let's not forget that.

Second thing: this was poor from

BUT some of the responses I'm reading on here beggar belief. I see people saying Liverpool CAN'T win this tie, that the League is gone, that the whole team needs to be disbanded and a new one bought.

Astonishing short-termism. Come on, fans. We're better than this. Aren't we?

rmounce, to random
@rmounce@mastodon.social avatar

Another interesting idea... what is the coverage of the vanished journal 'Heterocycles' in Sci-Hub?

Apparently only 36.7% according to the Sci-Hub Stats Browser: https://greenelab.github.io/scihub/#/journal/25864

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@rmounce Presumably because Sci-Hub has stopped harvesting new content in the last couple of years.

davidallengreen, to random
@davidallengreen@mastodon.green avatar

Mild-mannered Everton being continuously shafted while brash Chelsea and Man City flaunt their extravagances is pretty much a metaphor for UK generally.

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@davidallengreen I couldn't agree more. Even as a Liverpool fan, I can't enjoy seeing what's being done to Everton while Man City just keep spending their way to trophy after trophy with absolutely no consequences.

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@shinybat @davidallengreen It feels as though the sheer scale of their wrongdoing has flummoxed the authorities — they won't prosecute a single charge until they have got all 115 of them lined up and ready to go.

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@davidallengreen @shinybat Maybe. Not being a lawyer myself, I've always wondered how much more effective your representation can really become by spending (say) £2M instead of £1M.

mike, to random
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

"Premier League has created the impression of a rigged game with PSR" says a Guardian headline today: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/apr/09/premier-league-psr-profitability-sustainability-rules

That's true, but not mostly for the reasons the article discusses.

It's because everyone knows Man City have been cheating their asses off for a solid decade, with absolutely no consequences; yet Everton and Notts Forest are getting hammered for much lesser transgressions.

So, yeah, it's rigged. In favour of the club with ghe most money.

WHAT a surprise.

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@mlawton Yes, quite. But it's so much easier to prove they're Big Men by fining Nottingham Forest.

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@mlawton Ah, Casablanca, the 20th Century Shakespeare. So replete with lines that have passed into the language that when you watch it now, it feels like a collection of clichés.

mike, to random
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

These "fifteen minute cities" certainly sound like a terrible plot! Just look at the awful things that have been done to Paris!
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2024/apr/06/why-has-15-minute-city-taken-off-paris-toxic-idea-uk-carlos-moreno

TheDinosaurDave, (edited ) to LEGO
@TheDinosaurDave@sauropods.win avatar

This week for we have another that .

This one I would rate as easy. The mammal is probably one of the most well known extinct animals of all time

Reminder: hide your answer behind a content warning. This will allow others to guess without a hint. I will post the answer tomorrow (and to anyone who guesses correctly).

This was designed by S7evinDE - https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-42669/S7evinDE/mammoth-saber-toothed-cat-alternative-build-for-21320-dinosaur-fossils/#details

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@TheDinosaurDave Off topic, but: please don't use URL shorteners! They are unnecessary here (all URLs count as the same length), they bring trackers in, and they introduce a potential point of failure.

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@TheDinosaurDave Ah, that does make sense!

vruz, to random
@vruz@mastodon.social avatar

All I have to say about the game is what a piece of business was Mac Allister.

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@vruz Indeed. People will understandably focus on the goal, but the miraculous thing about him is that he always somehow finds a way to have time on the ball to pick the right pass. He's almost impossible to dispossess.

mike, to random
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

The word "thunderbastard" was coined for such moments.

Hat off to Mac Allister!

mike, to random
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

Such a high proportion of the goals concede seem to be bullshit in one way or another. Own goals, defelctions, balls given away needlessly in midfield, goalkeepers and centre-backs colliding. We are a weird team.

zarfeblong, to random
@zarfeblong@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

I guess the takeaway from the xz backdoor situation is:

If you’re an open-source project maintainer, and somebody starts getting on your case for not doing enough free work for them, you reply “big Jia Tan energy there” and then block them forever.

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@zarfeblong Hard cases make bad law. I'd want to be careful about adopting such a rule.

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@beetle_b @zarfeblong I don't really disagree, but ...

If I spent ten days writing a beautiful patch only to have it rejected because of the tone of my communication, I don't the lesson I learned would be "I need to improve my tone". It would be "It's a waste of time trying to contribute".

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@zarfeblong @beetle_b That's true. But project maintainers are also perfectly capable of being jerks, and I find myself thinking the Selfish Rational thing to do it not put myself at the mercy of their capricious whims.

No-one comes out of this ahead.

dinotoyblog, to random
@dinotoyblog@dinotoyblog.com avatar

Upcoming release from PNSO (New for 2024)(Pt. 2)
Written by <a href="">Guest</a>

4.9 (30 votes)

It’s been awhile since the last PNSO reveal, but now check out Yiran the Lufengosaurus.

The light green coloration looks very sharp. And it’s always great to see a new basal sauropodomorph figure.

Support the Dinosaur Toy Blog by making dino-purchases through these links to Ebay and Amazon. Disclaimer: links […]

Read more... https://dinotoyblog.com/news/upcoming-release-from-pnso-new-for-2024pt-2/

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@gay_ornithischians @dinotoyblog I've not seen it.

ajsadauskas, (edited ) to tech
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

My real worry with Google's voyage into enshittification (thanks to Cory Doctorow @pluralistic the term) is YouTube.

Through YT, for the past 15 years, the world has basically entrusted Google to be the custodian of pretty much our entire global video archive.

There's countless hours of archived footage — news reports, political speeches, historical events, documentaries, indie films, academic lectures, conference presentations, rare recordings, concert footage, obscure music — where the best or only copy is now held by Google through YouTube.

So what happens if maintaining that archival footage becomes unprofitable?

@technology

mike,
@mike@sauropods.win avatar

@jeroen @ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology @fanf @brewsterkahle And THAT Is why commercial companies want to destroy archive.org

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