Jay

Graph, electricity generation in Australia during November 2, showing sources (coal, hydro, wind, and solar). Illustrates how solar must be curtailed because coal generation must be run above a minimum level.

The curtailment of solar is nearly as large as the minimum output of coal generation.

Sounds to me coal generators need to pay some kind of compensation, perhaps paying into a fund that helps install batteries.

Of COURSE coal generators are going to fight […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]

I'm grading student papers, and I can report that one effect of generative AI is that I now suspect everything my students submit. And that's not a good place to be in while grading.

#banGenAIfromUniversities

Many articles I read from before 2024 contain correct but dated information. Many articles I read from after 2024 contain incorrect information, obvious LLM hallucinations.
The internet is becoming an increasingly difficult 'place' to manage.

A circle showing the accounts I interact with most, on a red and purple background.

Circle Blast from the Birdsite past

https://circle.grasserisen.de/

ht @LoganFive

The World Bank’s latest data shows a quiet global triumph: 93% of people aged 15 to 24 can now read and write, up from 87% in 2000. In many regions, including East Asia, Latin America, and Central Europe, youth literacy has reached or neared universal levels, marking one of the most successful […]

its ok to unfollow people if they annoy you and its also ok to refollow once ur not annoyed anymore. morally neutral act

A huge issue I find, trying to work out any complex issue with my parents' generation, is they're often simply and literally *unable to parse* a nonviolent-communication-structured statement from me that cannot be simplified any further.
#notallboomers

Secret report challenges government claim WA gas will help world decarbonise A secret report undermines the WA government's claim that domestic gas production is helping the rest of the world decarbonise, while the state's own greenhouse gas emissions rise.

"The report.......substantiates claims the country's gas export industry could be hampering global efforts to decarbonise, according to climate and energy analysts"

A leaked report confirms carpet-bombing other countries with fossil fuel exports actively stifles renewable energy development -->>>

AirBnB's threshold for superhost status: 4.8 stars out of five.

@zakalwe
So much this!

With gig economy thresholds like AirBnB and Uber being set at 4.8 or even higher, even after you have a hundred reviews, just a few 4 star reviews per year can destroy years of careful work.

Which of course means everyone games the […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]

Switching to Graphene has definitely revealed a few places Google's tentacles have reached that I wouldn't have thought of.
Some services I signed up to using my gmail years ago with "username & password" have sneakily transitioned that to effectively "linked to my Google Account". Grr.

The bear and the bot farm: Countering Russian hybrid warfare in Africa Russia has many quiet enemies in Africa. Working together, like-minded Africans and Europeans can roll back its troublesome influence.

"Clearly echoing Erwin Rommel’s Nazi force, the Africa Corps is the Kremlin’s new expeditionary formation in Africa. ...Like Wagner before it, it is still laden with neo-Nazi and white supremacist symbology."
on Russian neo-colonialism in Africa:
ecfr.eu/publication/...

A lot of tradies, certainly in Australia, now invoice via Xero.
When I clicked thru to pay using the convenient link from the Xero invoice page, I noticed the merchant fee to process the transaction was A$49.

I paid by bank transfer instead.

Gotta love The Guardian for those quotes from Europeans on #Mamdani's win in NYC:

"Verbeek backed this with a comment he had overheard in an Oslo cafe, in which Mamdani was described as an American politician who “finally” sounded normal."

“Normal. That’s the word,” Verbeek wrote in his […]

Mr 14 and his mates take turns taking a 1 month Crunchyroll sub
The subscriber shares their screen to the others on discord.
Just shoulder surfed as he consumed the discord share - it's pretty good, honestly. No lag, good sound, intermittent downscaling.

@zakalwe like, 2.5 should be the average surely

@zakalwe
Yeah it's truly the bastard child of Bay Area grind culture and the way social science got poisoned as it transitioned to management practitioners.
Like on Airbnb if you average 4.5 stars it's literally disastrous.

NPS needs to die in a fire.

An app asks for a rating.

I give 8/10.

It responds "what's the reason for this score", followed by a list of potential faults and issues.

Bruh, 8/10 from me means you're doing bloody great.

Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force (TTDF) personnel were ordered back to their bases under what was described as the highest level of operational readiness. The reasons for the readiness posture were not publicly disclosed, and the government has not stated whether the U.S. movements are […]

#3: the constant drumbeat of [alarming hyper-focus on the violence of climate disaster] + [unending drumbeat of inevitability, collapse and helplessness] = a fundamentally eco-fascist ecosystem, where ideas like population control, unrestricted geo-engineering and racist migration policies take hold

White House deputy chief of staff and Homeland Security adviser
Stephen Miller posted an ominous, captionless threat after democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election on Tuesday night.
“Almost 50 percent of New Yorkers live in households with at least one immigrant […]

Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how

Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design.

news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

My team at work is mainly of Italian extraction.

I heard "something something ricotta cannoli" and then they went offline and haven't come back.

LA: “They took a US citizen father out and left a toddler in the backseat. Two heavily armed border patrol agents got in that car and drove the child and the vehicle away.”

What are we doing?

'Employers on notice': Landmark ruling could be turning point in WFH debate Employers must cite "reasonable business grounds" for refusing an employee's work-from-home request. Here's why Westpac failed that test.

WfH win
#auspol

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/westpac-wfh-ruling-a-clear-message-to-both-employers-and-employees/55q3aa49d

@briankrebs
The world of Hannu Rajaniemi's Quantum Thief draws near.

Sticker all in caps: TAXTION IS THEFT

Watch out bruh I think the tax man thieved one of your vowels

Listening to a book on mindfulness at 1.5x speed while I post this.

Shout out:

Just bought mr. 18 a watch for his birthday.

Bought from chriselli dot com (UK crew). What a refreshing no bullshit website and buying experience. 5/5.

Why are people treating me weird today?

Ah yeah I'm dressed up like a fucking corpo for a client call, and I've got the start of the Movember mo going on 😅

I miss the bad guys being like Dick Cheney