@drdirtbag@mountains.social
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

drdirtbag

@drdirtbag@mountains.social

Alpinism done fast, light, and cheap.

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drdirtbag, to random
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

Moody views of the Tetons

image/jpeg

drdirtbag, to random
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

Nathan Dahlberg’s bike mountaineering deserves more recognition: https://www.nathandahlberg.com/blog/2017/10/23/peaks-and-passs-the-alps-of-kyrgistain

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

At some point, my purse became a walking pharmacy. Stomach upset, got a headache? I have you covered. Need bug spray or sunscreen, what about some lotion or hand sanitizer? I've got a snack, and something to freshen your breath.

When I had surgery a few years ago, I had a weight limit of 10 pounds for 3 months! Hubs said he needed to weigh my purse to make sure I could safely carry it. I thought he was joking, turns out it weighed 17 pounds!

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@RickiTarr @fmhilton Make sure it stays small! ;-) I've found backpacking that, whatever size pack you bring, the stuff you "need" will expand to fill it. It seems the same applies to purses.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

"Visionaries at NASA identified a futuristic new energy source (space billionaire egos) and found a way to tap it on a fixed-cost basis"— ouch!

The Lunacy of Artemis (Idle Words), or why the Artemis moon program is incoherent, badly designed bollocks that will probably kill astronauts.
https://idlewords.com/2024/5/the_lunacy_of_artemis.htm

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@cstross LOL! Maciej's writing is always long, and always worth reading. I haven't been paying much attention rockets beyond noting that LEO has gotten much cheaper, but now I suppose I'll catch up a bit.

drdirtbag, to random
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

timbray, (edited ) to random
@timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

In which I argue that the AI/ML/LLM bubble is gonna pop, and worry that its explosion will wreak havoc on the whole financial system: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2024/02/25/Money-AI-Bubble

[Ugh. My server seems damaged… fixed now]

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@timbray Amen! What I’m wondering is what beneficial thing smart people do with all the GPUs lying around like Aeron chairs after the dot-com boom. What needs a lot of fast linear algebra? Drug design? Some other kind of physical simulation?

drdirtbag, to random
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

A good explainer on the factors affecting regional sea level rise from @Ruth_Mottram : https://sternaparadisaea.net/2024/02/28/local-sea-level-rise-a-question-of-gravity/

Ruth_Mottram, to random

Absolutely agree with this @organicmaps are amazing

https://mstdn.social/
Have I my mentioned how totally awesome @organicmaps's new "Outdoors map style" is - a mode that highlights tracks and trails?! It's absolutely splendid, and amazingly accurate even for small paths (built on OSM).

By the way: is fully offline, requires no registration, has no ads, no tracking - and works very well. So it depends on donations, like the fediverse does! Use and support them if you value it

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@Ruth_Mottram @organicmaps Another satisfied Organic Maps user here. Open Street Map has shockingly detailed and current data on even the most obscure places, and OM makes it very usable. Offline OSM navigation with OM has proven indispensable for bike touring and international travel in general.

drdirtbag, to random
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

A study confirming my suspicion that the best fora are ones where people develop and care about reputations, regardless of whether or not they use their real names. That's probably not a surprise to most people here. (via @pluralistic) "What matters, it seems, is not so much whether you are commenting anonymously, but whether you are invested in your persona and accountable for its behaviour in that particular forum." -- https://theconversation.com/online-anonymity-study-found-stable-pseudonyms-created-a-more-civil-environment-than-real-user-names-171374

arstechnica, to random
@arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

AI-created “virtual influencers” are stealing business from humans

Brands are turning to hyper-realistic, AI-generated influencers for promotions.

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2023/12/ai-created-virtual-influencers-are-stealing-business-from-humans/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@arstechnica Who knew that the fakest people would be the easiest to fake? It's a Turing Convergence: the robots get more "human," the humans get more robotic, and they meet in the middle.

drdirtbag, to random
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

Finally enough snow to tour near Tahoe. Happy Solstice - it’s all brighter from here!

Wind-sculpted snow and rime
Spotlight on Mount Rose

daringfireball, to random
@daringfireball@mastodon.social avatar

‘The Beauty of Finished Software’
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/10/31/finished-software

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@daringfireball When I think "finished software" I think TeX and LaTeX. Programming languages used to be this way, too: Fortran, C, C++, and Perl would go to great lengths not to break your code. That made them a stable foundation on which to build the things you actually cared about.

The modern fashion of version churn ("upgrades" is the wrong word, since it implies improvement) is exhausting and depressing. I can't think of the last time a new version of software I regularly use brought a significant improvement, but there have been plenty of minor annoyances and breakages.

ZachWeinersmith, to random
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

Hey exercise geeks-- OK, so I normally jog on fairly good gravel roads that are fairly hilly. Today I went off-road a bit running around in some low grass hills. Well, it just obliterated me. What gives? Does it just take more leg power to keep balance and form on grass? Or is it that you get less sproing off a step when it's not hard ground? Is this good for you or just dangerous?

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@ZachWeinersmith It's generally good for you to run on uneven surfaces, because it engages your stabilizing muscles, and makes your stride less repetitive, because each foot-strike is slightly different.

ZachWeinersmith, to random
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

Something I've been thinking on lately re: pedagogy. I feel like the best learning I do in my life happens when there are real stakes. Like, I know space settlement literature quite well, in part because I had to write a book a lot of people would read and judge. Topics where I just read for fun? I do not retain them well.

Part of why kids don't remember shit is, I suspect, that there are few meaningful stakes for them.

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@ZachWeinersmith Stakes definitely matter. A friend of mine was a middling math and science student, but when he turned pro as a bike racer, exercise physiology was crucial to his job, and he absolutely soaked it up.

But there's also weird obsession, which seems different than stakes. That same friend can also tell you the exact elevation of almost any mountain, and the climate in most parts of the world. Somehow that stuff sticks to his brain, even though he'll never use it.

ScienceDesk, (edited ) to science
@ScienceDesk@flipboard.social avatar

It's well-documented that the snowpack around the Northern Hemisphere is expected to decline due to rising temperatures later this century. But, there might be a silver lining. Could less pollution reduce the amount of snowmelt? Here’s more from phys.org: https://flip.it/pBUuya

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@ScienceDesk I'm kind of surprised that soot from wildfires isn't leading to dirtier snow, especially in places like the Canadian Rockies, which are downwind from a ton of flammable forest and hold snowpack well into summer. But that's just a guess, and they did some actual work. Plus, I don't mind a bit of good news.

molly0xfff, to random
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

nothing makes me feel quite as unhinged as writing web scraping code

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@molly0xfff I remember when you could learn useful tricks from "view source." Now it's more like "when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you." It's almost easier to load it in a browser, take a screenshot, and OCR that.

emilymbender, to random
@emilymbender@dair-community.social avatar

I use Mastodon for public scholarship, because that is one of the main benefits I see to public/open social media. It's how I used Twitter and I've definitely benefited from other people using social media this way.

But in my experience, Mastodon is 'splainy AF, which is exhausting. Just this morning, a gentleman decided I would benefit from an explanation of GIGO, FFS.

So, while I never insist on titles, I'm going to include mine in my display name for a while, to see if that helps.

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@emilymbender Maybe that's why I haven't been 'splained to on here... ;-) Kinda weird that someone would follow/comment without knowing who you are, but I hope the "Prof" does the trick.

timbray, to random
@timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

News Corp had a really bad financial year - bottom line down 75% - https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/aug/11/profits-dive-at-news-corp-as-media-group-hints-at-ai-future-plans-rupert-murdoch

But they’re gonna be OK because of generative AI.

Looks like they’re gonna reduce costs by AI-generating journalism without having to pay those pesky humans, while simultaneously licensing their high-value content for use in building AI models.

Seems legit.

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@timbray To be fair, the 3000 articles a week are about "weather, fuel prices and traffic conditions." I'm not sure why that requires a large language model, or how it relates to their "unique content sets" (I think that means reporting), but I'm just some dude in the peanut gallery.

ZachWeinersmith, to random
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

Who do you think is the best author who nevertheless didn't produce any "classic" books. In the sense of being so good they'll be read for many years.

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@ZachWeinersmith Thomas Nagel. In a world of dense, dry analytical philosophy, "Mortal Questions" is a collection of clear, lively, and thoughtful essays.

Sheril, to mastodon
@Sheril@mastodon.social avatar

I’ve now been enjoying #Mastodon for 10 months & am delighted by the thoughtful engagement here. I’m also increasingly interested to learn more about who I’m connecting with in the fediverse.

Where are you from?

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@Sheril New Mexico originally, though these days it's hard to say.

drdirtbag, to random
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

Mount Andromeda from the Icefields Visitor Center in the . As recently as 2014, the right-hand side (in the sun) was a moderate Fall ice climb called Skyladder. As you can see from the photo taken July 17, it no longer exists, and is now a bare dirt slope.

ZachWeinersmith, to random
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

So, based on the success of the new kickstarter Abridged book, I'm thinking of spinning up an Abridged website and doing regularish (maybe 1 or 2 a year) releases. What new books would you like ruined? Ideas:

  1. Bible apocrypha
  2. Life
  3. Economics
  4. Social Science in general
  5. Western Philosophy
  6. Gilgamesh
  7. Beowulf
  8. Homer (in 2 volumes?)
  9. Shakespeare (multi-volume, probably)
  10. History of the World
  11. US founding documents
  12. Cognitive science
  13. Book of Mormon
drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@ZachWeinersmith Another vote for economics.

That, or the history of the Gilded age (Civil War to WWI), which always got glossed over in High School. "Dave Barry Slept Here" makes me think it deserves a more thorough treatment.

drdirtbag, to Canada
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

Edith Cavell

With over 6000 feet of prominence, Edith Cavell stands by itself about fifteen miles south of Jasper, its mile-high north face and long east ridge making it a striking landmark. The ridge is a classic moderate alpine route, with class 3 through 5.3 climbing leading from a low col through two steeper sections separated by a flat bench to the three-pointed and often snow-covered summit. The summit was first re

https://www.drdirtbag.com/2023/07/11/edith-cavell/

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@simonvarwell @bergmeister It is the same Edith (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell#Memorials). Lots of peaks in Canada are named for WW I British generals and such, but Edith Cavell is the only one I can think of named for a woman.

gruber, to random
@gruber@mastodon.social avatar

Listening to the DeSantis announcement/interview on Twitter. The whole thing -- both his prepared remarks and the subsequent interview -- is pretending that DeSantis is already in the general election running against Biden.

The question should be: “We know your message against Biden. What’s your message to Republican primary voters who today overwhelmingly support Trump?” That's the only question.

drdirtbag,
@drdirtbag@mountains.social avatar

@gruber Plus the followup: "What's your plan to motivate Trump loyalists to vote in the general?" Even with Clinton pulling as hard as she could for unity in 2008, the long primary fight drove a substantial number of her loyalists (the so-called PUMAs) to stay home or vote McCain. If he lost the primary, Trump wouldn't lift a finger for the winner, and might run as a third-party candidate.

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