Simon Mudd

One of the "fun" things about AI code assistance the ease with which it lies.

"In our tests on synthetic quadratics and large rasters this yields stable, finite coefficient maps (no float‐limit blow‐ups) and still runs in O(N log N)."

Friends, I can guarantee it has run precisely 0 tests.

I am bizarrely tempted to keep it on to see how cringeworthy the suggestions are. A bit like the reason why anyone scrolls through their linkedin feed.

Click on settings to turn off AI slop

Top tip:

This is a really important read for people who have got excited about "vibe coding" and especially so for academics who think that LLMs solve the problem of how to teach students how to program.

An image of asinine AI slop questions being relentlessly flogged beneath my search bar.

For the love of God please stop

A walker climbing a path out of a forest with many trees in golden auitumn colours wiuth hills in the distance and a cloudy sky.

A Scottish glen with a river winding through it and mountains rising above lit by bright autumn sunlight.

A view from a hillside across a loch to distant mountains, all light by a low autumn sun and under a cloud-streaked blue sky.

Birch trees with golden autumn leaves in the foreground with green pines behind them then shadowed mountains in the background under a blue sky with white clouds.

Just back from a few days in the Glen Affric area with @tonyswilderness . Beautiful colours, beautiful light. #glenaffric #scottishhighlands

🚀 The OBS Zoom-to-Mouse Bug on Linux… FINALLY Solved! 🎉

👉 Watch the full breakdown and solution here: youtu.be/relTN31l0Zo

Hopefully this helps fellow OBS users and educators who’ve been struggling with the same problem.

#OBSStudio #Linux #OpenSource

Hillshade image of a stream floodplain with terraces on either side. There are multiple cross-cutting meandering channels on the floodplain. Along the terrace scarps there many irregular "steps" indicating recent slumping, There are also complex features with multiple rounded alcoves eroded into the terrace by spring sapping. A few dunes are visible.

A close-up of the left-hand image showing areas of slumping and spring sapping. Small gullies are visible in the alcoves produced by spring sapping.

Geomorphology in the Brandon Sandhills/Assiniboine River area of Manitoba: Crosscutting past and present meandering channels, gullied slumps on terrace scarps, and great examples of spring sapping (R image is closeup of L). HRDEM from Natural Resources Canada via @opentopography.org. More to follow.

It seems quite reasonable to insist on a few million for 50 metres of embankment and a bridge to maintain 3m width, when the alternative (Orchard Brae) is a route that is much, much, much worse for operation of the trams and £320M more expensive

The original plans ("tramline 1b") had the entire Roseburn section as double track, apart from under one bridge. @robbieainsworth.bsky.social seems to have saved the drawings.
The single track has removed pinch points under bridges. The two problematic (<3m) sections have engineering solutions (££)

Thanks for your email. Further to your query regarding active travel provision on the Roseburn Path as part the Tram North / South consultation, please note our responses in red: Confirm that Roseburn Bridge path width, and the path to it from the tram stop, will be 3m. The Roseburn Bridge path width and the path to it from the tram stop will be 3m. What will be the width of the path south of the Bridge? and why is it not 3m? If it is below 3m, can this be revisited in the next phase of planning? The width south of the bridge is 2m due to the embankments. However, as part of detailed design should the project progress to Outline Business Case, the possibility of making this wider would be explored. Are cyclists being encouraged (or even forced) to drop down to the A8 crossing rather than continuing on the path over the bridge. There will be nothing to stop cyclists continuing over the bridge and down to Russell Road. However alternatives connecting onto CCWEL at Roseburn Terrace is planned to be provided via Balbirnie Place and a new green space at the old Murrayfield station. Has the possibility of continuing the path over the mainline railway, to give an entire level route been investigated, or will this be done in the next phase? Obviously it would be costly, but probably not in relation to the entire project cost, and would be a fantastic improvement for active travel. This has not been considered as part of this project. We would suggest you include this as part of your response where we ask if there are any further improvements to active travel provision on the Roseburn Path that responders would like to see. I hope this is helpful, Many thanks, Vicki – Future Trams team https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/public-transport/trams-granton-bioquarter-beyond

#Tram-#Roseburn

From trams team

Hope it clarifies position now + possibilities

@edi.bike @edtiss.bsky.social @wingpig.bsky.social @robbieainsworth.bsky.social @edinreporter.bsky.social @edfoc.bsky.social @unseriously.bsky.social @harryjwilliams.bsky.social @sw20.info @stephenjenkinson.bsky.social

Yes, the way they have presented the documents is *very* frustrating. The most contentious bit is the Roseburn Path, the alternative route via Orchard Brae is £330m more expensive (almost double), and many people just want to know if the path will remain. I think yes, but why make us guess?

Design drawings for a new bridge at Roseburn Terrace with two tram tracks and an active travel path that is 4000 mm wide

On a different document in the consultation package they are proposing a path that is 3m wide across Roseburn Terrace Bridge.

www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/fi...

This is a masterpiece. Simply excellent
www.instagram.com/reel/DMVGMIC...

Here's what I get for the same 1966-2024 historical period, using 12-h motions from the best tracks. Erin's estimated 20-kt speed earlier today would rank 12th.

Map showing extent of data coverage, primarily over southern Canada

A hillshade colored by elevation of downtown Toronto draped on Google Earth imagery.

A three panel figure of a section of the Athabasca River in Alberta. Figure A is the Digital Surface Model which includes buildings, trees and other structures. Figure B is the Digital Terrain Model and is a bare-earth representation of the topography. Figure C is the Canopy Height Model (CHM) which is the difference between the DSM and the DTM.

OpenTopography is excited to announce a major expansion to its international data catalog with the addition of the High Resolution Digital Elevation Model from Natural Resources Canada. This 1-meter resolution dataset is ideal for a wide range of applications.

opentopography.org/news/opentop...

News Find out what's new at Ember

New bus service from Dundee to Aberdeen starting, via Braemar. I really hope this is successful as we get soooo many folk emerge from the Lairig Ghru at Linn o Dee, asking when the buses south are 😉 www.ember.to/news/#new-du...

The Blatten disaster could have been so much worse.
Anyone know what data the Swiss government is using to inform evacuation orders? Seismics? Radar? Pixel tracking? GPS? @geoluca.bsky.social @subfossilguy.bsky.social @davepetley.bsky.social

Helicopter view published by Pomona Media (🔗 below) shows the lake building up by the end of the day. 5 m3/s is a lot of water.
youtu.be/R0YlCNDW2l4?...

SPEECHLESS BEFORE / AFTER #BLATTEN

The magnitude of destruction after the 3:24 pm collapse of Birch Glacier is immense! 😱

All the forest has been razed and the ice/wood/debris dammed the Lonza river 🌊

Some buildings of Blatten are buried 🏠

📷 Pomona

You know you have been in a field a long time when you can tell who wrote the paper just from the colourmap in the figures.

Denudation rates and Holocene sediment storage dynamics inferred from in situ 14C concentrations in the Feshie basin, Scotland Inferred catchment-averaged denudation rates in post-glacial landscapes do not always reflect true ‘basin-wide’ denudation rates, and instead represent a mixture of sediment sourced from paraglacial ...

Our new paper as part of Anya Towers' PhD research is out in ESPL! We used in situ 14C to trace sediment storage dynamics in the River Feshie, Cairngorms - finding paraglacial terraces are an important sediment source: doi.org/10.1002/esp.... @simonmariusmudd.bsky.social

Dundee University insolvency 'a real possibility' Senior management give evidence over the university's £35m financial deficit to MSPs.

University management news:
"During the session, committee convener D Ross MSP revealed that the university's recovery plan document sent to trade unions included the number of job losses in its password.
Prof O'Neill replied: "I'm surprised at that, I didn't know that."
www.bbc.com/news/article...

A red and blue bit of abstract art. You can vaguely make out something that looks like a channel network in the blues.

It is fun when your code spits out something psychedelic

Hi Roeland, I think you were already in there? But you are definitely in the pack now.

A screengrab of Kier Starmer with the closed caption "there's a famous slogan in the United Kingdom"

We know this will be upsetting to many colleagues, if you are struggling please see our Staff Wellbeing Sharepoint

When I worked in UK academia I recall hearing of a Japanese man who was baffled at how Britain had decided to run its universities like firms. “Why? Your universities are excellent and your firms are terrible.”

I acknowledge your post but am reluctant to "like" it.
We received an email today saying we need to cut £140M from the university budget, a number which appears to have been conjured out of thin air.

Plot from the Financial Times (https://www.ft.com/content/87c321ab-e5ac-4a1d-a637-c1f7befcc1cb) showing performance of Local Government Pension schemes for the 12 months to March 2023. The worst performing scheme was a closed Environment Agency scheme that lost 18.3% The next worst lost 10%.

Image from the USS 2023 annual report (https://www.uss.co.uk/-/media/project/ussmainsite/files/about-us/report-and-accounts/uss-report-and-accounts-2023.pdf?rev=ad96ac2875264986bc7386ce1f82f108&hash=5A67B41B27A7B876F0BF0CF7A853FC0D). In the 12 months to March 31 2023, USS income builder (the defined benefit part of the scheme) lost 18%.

Hey British academics! While we await the latest job cut email, lets look at our pension (or those of us in USS). The Financial Times had a nice plot about Local Government Pension Schemes. The worst one (by far) lost 18.3% for a yr to March 2023. Awful!! Lets have a look at the performance of USS 😱

Don't worry, there is a link to the staff wellbeing hub.