@swart@mastodon.cloud
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

swart

@swart@mastodon.cloud

Retired software engineer, formerly enthusiastic about all things computer, but now less so. Climate alarmist. Friend of old dogs, lifelong learner of new tricks.

North Vancouver 🇨🇦

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RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

It still gets me the Bible Jesus is a homeless socialist with brown skin, hangs out with 12 dudes and a Prostitute, tells rich people to pay their taxes and give their wealth to the poor, tells the religious leaders that they need to love everyone equally, gets a whip and goes hog on people using religion to sell stuff, and then straight up gets murdered for these beliefs. Yet somehow churches act like he's some kind of Conservative Haircut in khakis and a button up, who would support cutting welfare programs, and would preach Prosperity Gospel.

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@paninid @AlexanderVI I have Umberto Eco to thank for turning me on to Hypatia

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@paninid @AlexanderVI this bit from her Wikipedia page is pretty amazing

mimsical, to random
@mimsical@mastodon.social avatar

Most of history is people living nasty, brutish and short lives and modernity is a paradise by comparison, example 9,328:

Before the introduction in the 1920s of iodized salt, iodine deficiency was so widespread in the northeastern U.S. that it was known as the “goiter belt,” for the painfully enlarged thyroid glands that millions had as a result of this deficiency.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/05/01/iodized-salt-100-years-deficiency/

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@mimsical @futurebird I had no idea it was endemic in the US but it was also a devastating condition in Switzerland (sorry if this is repetitive — I quit the Washington Post a few years ago and was not able to read the whole thing)

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n23/jonah-goodman/a-national-evil

ai6yr, to Canada
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

PBS: A wildfire forces out hundreds of residents in Canada’s oil sands hub of Fort McMurray https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/a-wildfire-forces-out-hundreds-of-residents-in-canadas-oil-sands-hub-of-fort-mcmurray #canada #wildfires #oilsands #climate #climateemergency

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@ai6yr John Vaillant’s Fire Weather is an absolute must read. It’s about a lot more than the 2016 fire in Fort McMurray — it’s about the reality of the climate most of us will be living in for the rest of our lives

https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/vancouver-authors-fire-weather-pulitzer-prize-finalist

swart, to random
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

This short opinion piece in Scientific American is better than the (somewhat painful) Munk Debate on the existential risks of Artificial Intelligence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=144uOfr4SYA

From: @emilymbender
https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender@dair-community.social/110871604982224575

swart, to random
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

This week in incredibly bad AI — field guides to wild mushrooms

I am not sure about tools like ZeroGPT but there’s no reason to buy books from Amazon anymore. Buy from local sellers or order directly from the publisher.

Also don’t eat wild mushrooms unless you’ve got a lot of experience with wild mushrooms.

https://www.404media.co/ai-generated-mushroom-foraging-books-amazon/

swart, to random
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

Before "2007, people in the US never purchased more than 7M guns in a single year. By the time Barack Obama left office, the US was purchasing almost 17M guns a year."

In 2020 US consumers "bought almost 23M guns in a single year."

https://www.propublica.org/article/ryan-busse-explains-roots-of-us-gun-violence

swart, to random
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

The toll of the heat wave in South America is horrendous

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/lake-titicaca-drying-up-heat-wave-turns-winter-upside-down-2023-08-04/

swart, to random
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

Wow TIL Clare Torrey only received £30 for Sunday studio work for her timeless performance of Great Gig in the Sky in Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album. In 2004, she sued Pink Floyd and EMI for songwriting royalties on the basis that her contribution to "The Great Gig in the Sky" constituted co-authorship with keyboardist Richard Wright.

In 2005, an out-of-court settlement was reached in Torry's favour, and releases after 2005 credit her vocal composition.

ai6yr, to H5N1
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

UNMC: "There’s no question H5N1 bird flu has ‘pandemic potential.’ How likely is that worst-case scenario?" https://www.unmc.edu/healthsecurity/transmission/2024/05/07/theres-no-question-h5n1-bird-flu-has-pandemic-potential-how-likely-is-that-worst-case-scenario/

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@ai6yr the die offs reported with penguins in Antarctica and flamingos in Africa have been extremely alarming. Fortunately it can’t be transmitted to us because we don’t want to think about it.

swart, to random
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

Boomers: Slacker kids should not be glued to their smartphones
Gen-Z: We don't want smartphones anymore
Boomers: Nooo you have to use smartphones to participate in society

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/27/the-boring-phone-stressed-out-gen-z-ditch-smartphones-for-dumbphones

swart, to random
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

Some absolutely staggering numbers in this report on China’s investments in clean energy in 2023:

  • $890bn investment in clean-energy is almost as large as total global investments in fossil fuel supply in 2023 – similar to the GDP of Switzerland or Turkey

  • The manufacturing boom has pushed down the cost of solar panels 42% year-on-year – a dramatic drop even compared to the historical average of around 17% per year, and battery by an even steeper 50%.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-clean-energy-was-top-driver-of-chinas-economic-growth-in-2023/

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Do you like parasites? Or dislike them but can't stop learning about them? The worst ones are in the sea. Makes all of the parasitoid wasp stuff seem tame! There are worse fates than being paralyzed and fed to a hungry larvae who eats your organs selectively so you live longer.

Here is a great video. It is very gross. But it's cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qZQ2wcQY3o

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@futurebird parasitoidism is not the same as parasitism. In this essay I will ….

ai6yr, to Netflix
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

The Verge: Netflix will stop working on older Apple TVs https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/4/24171111/netflix-stop-support-old-apple-tv-2nd-3rd-generation #netflix

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@sysop408 yes it seems random to me whether it will work or not, but nobody likes it when you pay cash anymore :)

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@ai6yr also I still hold the remote upside down 50% of the time

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@ai6yr I’ve been working in tech for 35 years, developed for Apple for almost 20 years, and I have no idea what version of Apple TV I own

paninid, to mastodon
@paninid@mastodon.world avatar

screenshots are showing up in news feeds, y’all 🥲

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@paninid sorry this is where I steal all my memes now

swart, to random
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar
swart, to random
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

Freedom of Information request shows BC gas utility removed sections from government report stating electrification and heat pumps are a more efficient path to decarbonize the province.

https://www.nsnews.com/highlights/redacted-bc-gas-report-sparks-claims-of-misinformation-7335878

ai6yr, to gardening
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

I appear to have a volunteer monkeyflower (mimulus) growing out of a crack in the patio. #gardening

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@ai6yr your dealer in your contact list? 😂

paninid, to ai
@paninid@mastodon.world avatar

“The humanities majors are the ones who think critically about words, and since the machines can now generate words, who really needs the #humanities majors?”

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@paninid 1946

ai6yr, to random
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

Yes, yes, we've reached the dumbularity, where the intelligence of technology has advanced to such a great level, people don't know their own phone number.
https://mashable.com/article/what-is-my-phone-number

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@ai6yr ah but do you know your ip address 😂

VeroniqueB99, to random
@VeroniqueB99@mastodon.social avatar

‘Caiman Crunch’ by Ian Ford, winner of Sony World Photography Awards 2024

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@VeroniqueB99

video/mp4

h_thoreson, to random
@h_thoreson@mastodon.world avatar

I can't believe this is real

swart,
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

@h_thoreson at least they’ve got someone to bring them food and stuff. Those poor guys in Suez were miserable. They legally can’t leave the ship, and were stuck there for 7 years https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Fleet

swart, to random
@swart@mastodon.cloud avatar

TIL the default Emacs calendar can
display the names of the months as they were used in Revolutionary France.

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