Rob C

NEW RECORD: British solar generation just surpassed its 2024 total. This milestone shows the potential of renewables, but also highlights the need for a smarter grid.

To maximise benefits of solar, we must tackle grid bottlenecks, streamline planning and prioritise system-friendly operation.

#Hurricaneerin is hungry. It will feast on hot water up to 88 degrees. After using this heat to power its engine, it will dissipate said heat. Leaving a cool ocean wake in its path, ~10 degrees lower than it found it. #erin

A book store with full shelves and stacked high right down to the floor on both sides of the aisle

Walking through a second hand book store should feel like you’re flying through the trench run on the Death Star.

The "oh you won't compromise and abandon [marginalized group]? enjoy the nazi takeover!" argument rings pretty fucking false when you consider that the horrors of a nazi takeover begin with the abandonment of marginalized groups.

Article on BBC news. Title: AI designs antibiotics for gonorrhoea and MRSA superbugs Description: Two new potential drugs have been designed by AI to kill drug-resistant bacteria, in a major Massachusetts Institute of Technology study.

I really dislike how science has started calling almost any fancy computational technique AI. 🧪

The framing of this entire article makes it sound like a benevolent AI independently made these drugs.

That is *pure fantasy*.

Instead: a team of scientists made a machine learning model for a study.

The Polari first prize Longlist with books by Curtis Garner, Jason Okundaye, Sacha Coward, Sanah Ahsan, Amy Twigg, Mae Diansangu, Eleanor Medhurst, Ciara Maguire, June Thomas crossed out to show they've withdrawn

The Polari Prize Longlist with books by Olumide Popoola, Robert Hamberger, Andrew McMillan, Rhian Elizabeth, Jane Traies crossed out to show they've withdrawn

14 of 24 authors have now withdrawn.

First Book:
Curtis Garner, Jason Okundaye, Sacha Coward, Sanah Ahsan, Amy Twigg, Mae Diansangu, Eleanor Medhurst, Ciara Maguire, June Thomas

Main:
Olumide Popoola, Robert Hamberger, Andrew McMillan, Rhian Elizabeth, Jane Traies

Judges:
Nicola Dinan, Bob Hughes

Welcome to your 50s.
Your body isn’t tired, it’s just settling decades of unpaid sleep debt.

Nick Tenconi. Leader of UKIP, last Friday. I have intentionally slowed the clip to demonstrate exactly what he is doing, to avoid any confusion. This sort of thing has become more normalised in so-called Western democracies. Whilst demonstrating against genocide, can get you arrested.

Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features Amendment to law will strengthen protection against digital imitations of people’s identities, government says

Denmark is giving its citizens copyright on their own face and voice in an effort to resist AI. They’re the first country in the world to do so. Go Denmark!

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Anyone who belongs to any minority group needs to be aware that what is being done to trans people can and will be done to them. In a decade we have been stripped of our rights to exist in public spaces by a press campaign and a well funded lobby.

The whole US economy is currently a bunch of financial institutions in paragliders riding the updrafts from the massive bonfire of the last stack of VC cash

I am very much looking forward to the part where we value kindness again.

The results are significant: between 2020 and 2024, Long COVID and ME/CFS cost Germany more than €250 billion. In 2024 alone, Long COVID and ME/CFS cost Germany €63.1 billion, equating to 1.5% of the nation's GDP

Aren't you glad governments choose re-opening the economy over saving lives?

(Source: mecfs-research.org/wp-content/u...)

to my former google friends: omg, they finally made the gShoe from the classic mandatory training "Don't Make The gShoe"

Helsinki goes a full year without a traffic death A city traffic engineer credits the success to lower speed limits and smarter design.

"Helsinki has not recorded a single traffic fatality in the past 12 months, city and police officials confirmed this week."

This is the direct and predictable result of policy decisions, not random happenstance.

#visionzero #publichealth

yle.fi/a/74-20174831

The reason they get "free" food is because our stupid system doesn't allow asylum seekers to work. So what are they supposed to do, starve?

Starmer defends Online Safety Act as `child protection´ Rules introduced under the Act on July 25 require online platforms to take steps to prevent children accessing harmful content.

The introduction of age-verification in the UK this weekend appears to be an unmitigated disaster. Anyone accessing socials now has to upload ID, scan their face or otherwise verify. The outrage is widespread and everyone is just finding workarounds.

The government has gone into defense.

What the @% Is a ‘Grawlix'? You’ll be amazed by the answer, we swear.

TIL that the replacement of swear words with $#%@ing punctuation is called "grawlix"

www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/gra...

I spent a happy week working in a mobile library in my youth. (Just 17 year old me, and the driver)

In theory, every "social" platform accessible from the UK, on pain of criminal prosecution:-/

The UK did have one standout product that was considered globally valuable- universities- and unilaterally decided to stop providing the product because it was more important to be xenophobic than successful

This is the end result of anti-trans bigotry: more harassment of girls and women, more policing of gender roles, more gender McCarthyism.

Labour now to the right of Reform on immigration. Well done, centrists.

If people don't like AC they should be going after the makers of LLMs who are using a lot more of it than ordinary people just trying to stay cool

Mask indoors. Get updated vaccines. Test when you feel sick.

It's actually a sacrifice, but it's important to people who're in danger from an endemic virus that can kill the immunocompromised.

Barrier-free city of Chur | Chur ||As a city with one of the largest traffic-free zones in Switzerland, the Old Town is of course particularly suitable for wheelchair users - including its offers for shopping, eating, strolling, cult...

Status report, "Oh, is THIS why I didn't recognize Chur center city when I rolled in at midnight last night?!": Since 2016, they've completely pedestrianised/made wheelchair-friendly the core of town. AND GOOD FOR THEM! www.chur.graubuenden.ch/en/service/i...

Screenshot of a social media post by LynnDee the Librarian (@lynndeeslibrary). Profile shows a smiling woman. Post text reads: 'A patron came in this week needing to borrow a laptop bc they had a virtual job interview. We were able to provide a laptop & internet, + the space 2 do the interview. & they got the job. THAT is the power of public libraries. #librarylife

Because everyone deserves a shot 🎯

Babbling in sign language to her deaf grandparents: #AGoodPlace

Source: www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/s...

I've a fan blowing hot air from the top of the room out through the slot at the top, so air coming into the room from outside has to squeeze through/around the wet towels.