dwim | Member Posts

andrewducker

1. Earth's first mass extinction may have been far worse than believed: (tags:extinction prehistory paleontology )
2. People using AI to give law advice finally reaches Scotland.: (tags:ai law scotland )
3. Denmark was preparing for full-scale war with the US over Greenland in January, with military support from France, Germany, and Nordic nations.: (tags:war usa norway germany france denmark )
4. This perfectly encapsulates why I won't surf the web without an ad-blocker: (tags:advertising web newspapers )
5. How *did* a multi-storey car park get built in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle?: (tags:edinburgh cars history )
6. Waymo self driving cars are 13x safer than humans: (tags:safety automation driving cars )
7. Police Scotland announce they don't want trans people to report any crimes: (tags:transgender LGBT bigotry OhForFucksSake Scotland )
8. The change that made lighthouses work much better - and why it drove the keepers mad. (Lots and lots of mercury): (tags:mercury light history safety ships )
9. Gen Z is broke, stressed and exhausted - but boomers won't accept it: (tags:stress society doom )

andrewducker

Nice mist on Arthur's Seat this morning.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

andrewducker

1. "Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don't rewrite an Iran missile story": (tags:iran israel journalism gambling ohforfuckssake )
2. Subnautica 2 Publisher Followed ChatGPT's Advice On How To Break The Law: (tags:law ai games OhForFucksSake )
3. Nvidia's Next-Gen Photo-Realistic Lighting looks, frankly, amazing: (tags:games lighting nvidia video )
4. Regression, Not Progress: A Response to World Athletics' Return to Sex Testing: (tags:gender testing OhForFucksSake women LGBT transgender biology )
5. Have some simple but inspiring images about growth through making mistakes: (tags:inspiration visualisation )
6. Almost 25 years ago, a war game exercise had an Iran-stand in use asymmetric warfare to obliterate a US military force. So they re-ran it to force a US victory.: (tags:usa military ohforfuckssake iran games )

andrewducker

I do wish that polls wouldn't ask if people thought that the PM was handling something "Well" or "Badly". Because two people answering "Badly" might mean completely different things by it.

Also, me saying "Immigration is important to me" means the opposite of what a Reform voter would mean by it.

This because of reporting of how many people think that Starmer is handling the Iran situation well or badly. When I can guarantee that some of the "badly" think we should be bombing Iran right now, and some think that we shouldn't be involved even slightly.

andrewducker

This is from a post made here on Facebook. I'm copying it here, with the permission of the original author, so that people off Facebook can see it.

I had the pleasure of Terry’s company on a week-long Writer’s Retreat twice, in 1990, as part of a company of eight interesting people in Diss, Suffolk.

Terry later came to my wedding and gave me a proof copy of ‘Lords and Ladies’ as a wedding gift! I had never read his books before I met him, so I began with ‘Wyrd Sisters’ - and have carried on reading them ever since.

When he learned I was meeting up with Terry again, my local Librarian shouted ‘Oook!’ and collected up every book by Terry which he had in the Library, and asked him to sign them. This amused Terry - and shocked other participants! "You shouldn't write in Library Books" etc...

Terry and I were both reading Henry Mayhew’s ‘London labour and the London poor’ at the time.

I asked Terry to make a list of other books which he found inspirational. Here they are:

‘The Evolution Man’ by Roy Lewis.

‘The Specialist’ by Charles Sale.

‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Chaucer.

‘Fairy Tales’ by Charles Perrault.

Jacqueline Simpson’s folklore books.

Everything by J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis.

‘The Wind From the Sun’ by Arthur C. Clarke.

‘Cold Comfort Farm’ by Stella Gibbons (my favourite book).

‘Mistress Masham’s Repose’ and the Arthurian Trilogy by T H White.

I also add the new series of novels set in St Mary’s by Jodi Taylor, of whom I am a keen fan, and strongly recommend. Terry told Jodi how much he liked her writings. Start with ‘Just One Da*ned Thing After Another’ and carry on enjoying!

Edit - I forgot 'The Moomins' series!

andrewducker

1. 'Buffy' Reboot Dead at Hulu: (tags:Buffy TV )
2. The Life Cycle of Money: (tags:money )
3. A Guide to Terms of Address for British Nobility: (tags:monarchy language uk )

andrewducker

Following yesterday's illness, I was vaguely hoping that he would stay asleep through the night. Alas:

12:05
"I need a wee"
Took him to the toilet.
"Daddy, my tummy hurts"
Gave him some medicine
"Do you want to be in pyjamas or just straight back to bed?"
"Back to bed"
And then he closed his eyes.

12:20
Thundering footsteps "Daddy, I feel sick"
Told him to go to the toilet. Kept him company, got him a bucket.
He wasn't sick.
Persuaded him to take the bucket to bed.
Sat on the floor next to his bed until he closed his eyes.

12:35
More thundering steps
"Daddy, my arm and leg hurt"
By the time I'd found him medicine he was asleep again.
But woke up again and let me give him some Calpol.

03:30
"I'm hungry" (not surprising as he didn't eat yesterday)
We agreed on cream cheese crackers.
He ate ⅘ of the cracker and drank some juice and passed out again.

06:30
"I checked the light coming under the curtain and it's morning time"
I told him to go play games on the Switch downstairs.
Fifteen minutes later I could still hear him wandering about and I hadn't heard any game noises.
Went to check on him and he told him that he'd found various points around the house where the floor isn't flat.
Got him settled with the Switch, and then went back to bed and stared vacantly at my phone for an hour, before getting up to face the day.

andrewducker

The first time Gideon fell asleep in front of the toilet we moved him to a comfy chair. From where he woke up still feeling sick and Jane found him lying on the floor with a bucket he'd found and relocated him back to the toilet, where he then fell asleep again.

I missed all of this because I had passed out in bed feeling rubbish. I did wake up to various noises, but each time I did I tried to open my eyelids, failed, and fell back to sleep again. Thankfully Jane isn't feeling as bad as me, and Sophia was off having a play date at the other end of the street.

So far nobody has actually thrown up. Fingers crossed that continues.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

andrewducker

1. This 18-year-old Afghan girl had offers from York and Reading - thanks to Shabana Mahmood, she will now never escape the Taliban: (tags:Afghanistan women UK migration asylum education OhForFucksSake )
2. AI toys for children misread emotions and respond inappropriately: (tags:toys children ai )
3. PEGI to give 16 age rating to games with loot boxes (amongst several other changes): (tags:gambling children games )
4. Have two people being *ridiculously* good at a Dance Pad game: Streamed live at: https://www.twitch.tv/tomatoniumWorld 1st PG on Sarabande CoopP1: ElijahTSP2: Tomatonium

(tags:games dancing video viamybrothermike )
5. New NHS England Review Excluded 97% Of All Trans Studies To Say Care Doesn't Work: (tags:LGBT bigotry healthcare OhForFucksSake transgender )
6. Tracing the lobbying behind age verification laws: (tags:age surveillance USA law politics )

andrewducker

Poll #34358

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31

View Respondents

What's the soonest you can tell a new partner you love them?

View Answers

First date
2 (6.9%)

First few days
1 (3.4%)

First week
1 (3.4%)

First two weeks
2 (6.9%)

First month
4 (13.8%)

First two months
3 (10.3%)

First six months
5 (17.2%)

First year
2 (6.9%)

Longer than a year
0 (0.0%)

THEY MUST NEVER KNOW
1 (3.4%)

I don't do "Love"
1 (3.4%)

SEWIWEIC
7 (24.1%)

What's the longest you'd wait for a partner to declare love before giving up on them?

View Answers

First date
0 (0.0%)

First few days
0 (0.0%)

First week
0 (0.0%)

First two weeks
0 (0.0%)

First month
0 (0.0%)

First two months
4 (13.3%)

First six months
5 (16.7%)

First year
6 (20.0%)

Longer than a year
2 (6.7%)

I WILL WAIT FOREVER
3 (10.0%)

I don't do "Love"
1 (3.3%)

SEWIWEIC
9 (30.0%)

Triggered by a couple of things recently where people were shocked that people would tell them that they were in love within the first few months.

And my general view is that if you aren't incredibly excited to spend loads of time with me and wander around holding hands while grinning a lot within the first few weeks of dating then we are probably not compatible.

andrewducker

1. The neurons playing Doom are actually testing a theory of intelligence: (tags:doom games intelligence ai )
2. Stay Classy (a history of the awfulness of Prince Andrew): (tags:royalty UK OhForFucksSake corruption )
3. How good are you at spotting colour differences? (I scored 0.006 - see if you can get yours lower): What was particularly interesting was that on some of them I had to let my eyes "settle". They'd see a wall of colour, get overloaded, and then after about 10 seconds I'd easily see the line. Oh, and I'm much better with shades of green than with shades of blue.
(tags:colour viamybrothermike )

andrewducker

1. Persistent attenuation of lymphocyte subsets after mass SARS-CoV-2 infection: (tags:immune_system pandemic )
2. Huge fire shuts Scotland's busiest train station indefinitely: (tags:Glasgow Scotland fire trains )

andrewducker

I was chatting to a couple of friends last week, and realised that I really fancied having one of those "bar chart race" videos for my links, showing what had been the most popular links over the last 21 years that I've been saving links (to Delicious, and then Pinboard).

So I downloaded the JSON blob of my whole link history, used some PowerShell to slice and dice it into a CSV, and uploaded it to a site that converts a bunch of data with dates into a bar chart race. And voila:

Watch on YouTube

Unsurprising to see "Europe" break the top 20 in 2017. Followed a year later by "OhForFucksSake".

Both files available here, for the very curious.

selki

DC area folks may be interested in lovely Glen Echo Park pictures in several recent entries by

austin_dern . His way is to write journal entries (mostly about amusement park visits & history, hence the Glen Echo shots) and then include a batch of photos which may not be about that journal entry at all. But there are some very nice pictures of the Bumper Car Pavillion, the carousel, and more.

Books: I am really glad I read (listened to) Cat Sebastian's After Hours at Dooryard Books (thanks to

lcohen 's recommendation). Set in 1968 NYC*, a bookstore manager teaches his secretive new assistant about the business and then the bookstore manager's just-widowed sister and her baby move in. Aside from the slow burn love story (with the assistant), there's a fair bit about folk music, the music industry, anti-war protests of the time, walks through the city, and how to keep going when many things are terrible. Lots of resonance with our time, some love and hope, and a very good read.
* Incidentally, one of three books with garbage strikes I read in February, just happened that way.

Home life

This year my house is 100 years old and I am 60 years old, so maybe I should plan a big backyard party for us both for May or later. After a very cold and snow-laden February, suddenly it's getting very warm, so in theory I could throw a party sooner, but I have too much chores to put on a big party.
Mainly, I need to deal with my taxes (I know, I know), get my car fixed (a small crack on my windshield last weekend has this week meandered over a foot across so I got an appointment for next week), get a passport replacement (stymied b/c I accidentally threw the old one away in a folder of Germany maps, and the forms don't quite cover that and I don't want to lie), and do some de-cluttering.
My basement computer which is the more secure Ethernet-connected one where I like to do my financial stuff wouldn't display to its monitor for a while but it's better now (I took fresh backups as soon as I temporarily fixed it) so I really need to get going on organizing 2024 tax materials.
I have played a lot of Garden Joy and Polytopia this weekend.

Work

The worst federal lead has had us do a lot with metrics and road map for a big presentation he has next week. We finally got things into shape that pleases him Friday. Also, he attended some new-to-him meetings I was in last Thursday, finally realized I do a lot of work and have a lot of expertise he was ignoring, and spoke to me with a little more appreciation Thursday evening. We'll see if that lasts.
The work for the OTHER federal lead went by the wayside for a while and I need to pick it back up and jam on it before our meeting Wednesday afternoon.
Middle and upper management at both my employer and my client are jamming AI down our throats, the worst literally to the point of "But ChatGPT says" to contradict our recommendations.
I now have to drive in to the DC office 2x week. I love my old house but am sometimes a little overwhelmed by it (basement leak, etc.) and the yard, especially since my sister moved out. So I actually looked at 3 town/rowhouses a 20-minute walk from work, and I really like and could afford one of them, but I really shouldn't think about applying for a new mortgage until I file those taxes, plus this may not be the time to go back into debt. The commute is really tiring me out (I know others have it worse), but I am listening to more audiobooks.
I finally made back my hours from the negative leave I was in from the fall shutdown, so maybe I can take a day off later in March.

Profile

Dwim the Android client

December 2021

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Page Summary

andrewducker - Interesting Links for 20-03-2026
andrewducker - Photo cross-post
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 19-03-2026
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 18-03-2026
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 17-03-2026
andrewducker - Grumpy about overly-simplistic polling
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 16-03-2026
andrewducker - What books did Terry Pratchett find inspirational?
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 15-03-2026
andrewducker - Life with two children: Gideon updates
andrewducker - Photo cross-post
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 14-03-2026
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 13-03-2026
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 12-03-2026
andrewducker - I need to know when it's okay to tell your partner you love them
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 11-03-2026
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 10-03-2026
andrewducker - Interesting Links for 09-03-2026
andrewducker - Links Extra: More data than you ever wanted.
selki - Glen Echo Park pictures and my February and early March

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