ProfT @ProfT@social.cleverlibre.org

The brilliant Molly White (@molly0xfff) has given us the best coverage of the scam-ridden cryptocurrency "marketplace" -- a public service in a time when tech journalism resembles fanzines.

In a new piece, she turns her attention to deeply unattractive but central tenets of Silicon Valley's current mania, AI.

https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/effective-obfuscation

Savor every word.

(About everyday driving): "There’s absolutely nothing fun about that. My e-bike changes that completely. It’s all the fun of riding your bike that you remember as a kid, except you can actually go places and do things." -Collin Woodward in Jalopnik
https://jalopnik.com/i-bought-an-e-bike-and-its-now-my-entire-personality-1851039791
#BikeTooter #EBikes #cycling #CollinWoodward #Jalopnik #driving

As I put it last year in my blunt advice to Irish cities, “Your goal SHOULDN’T be to replace a million fossil fuel vehicles with a million electric vehicles. It should be to replace a million fossil fuel vehicles with 250K electric vehicles. The main answer HAS to be FEWER cars."

The use the term "artificial intelligence" for stuff like chatGPT and LLMs is like how people use the name "hoverboards" for things that ride on the ground and do not in fact hover.

On The Climate Brink, I explain the scariest climate plot in the world.

https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-scariest-climate-plot-in-the

Morning.

Here it is, several thousand years in the making: the protostellar jet HH212 as seen in the infrared by #JWST.

We discovered this jet in 1993, glowing in the light of shocked molecular hydrogen at 2.12 microns, as gas emerges symmetrically at about 100 km/s from the two poles of a young protostar not far from the Horsehead Nebula in Orion.

Our new JWST image spans six wavelengths & is ten times sharper than any previous infrared image.

#Astronomy #SpaceScience #Astrodon

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I had this essay by @karawynn saved in my bookmarks and I just re-read it.

It’s very, very, very good and covers so much of my thinking on this subject. Going to make it compulsory reading for my ethics course next year.

https://karawynn.substack.com/p/language-is-a-poor-heuristic-for

Wednesday's Most Read #1 - Why Norway is rethinking its reliance on electric cars https://bit.ly/3sh5fCB Vox @davidzipper

The difference between Wikipedia and Twitter is that Wikipedia is intentionally a non-profit.

Earth's rotation visualized in a stunning timelapse that follows a fixed point in the sky.

Video credit: Martin Giraud
Watch the full 4K original on Martin's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZH1vS45oW4

Hello #Mastodon! I am making the jump from X to here. Too many of my #science and #medicine buddies left X. If you switched from X, how do you like it here?

Pedestrians, it should be our right to be distracted. It should be our right to walk and listen to music / look at the sky / cute dogs / snowflakes and not worry about getting killed. Nothing about that is dangerous except for CARS. Don't let them make you believe you are the problem.

Remember, when it comes to the actual likelihood that a vehicle crash will occur at all, AND whether the consequences of a crash are serious, or even deadly, or not, speed is ALWAYS a factor. Including when the legal speed limits are currently too high. #SpeedKills #VisionZero

We're in trouble, people

This video camera study showed that less than 5% of people on bikes break traffic laws while riding, yet 66% of people do so when driving. And if you REALLY want even MORE bike-riders to obey laws, build more protected bike infrastructure. Via @CarltonReid
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2019/05/10/cyclists-break-far-fewer-road-rules-than-motorists-finds-new-video-study/

We need the EU and its member states to step to the challenge and recognise cycling as a phenomenal tool with immense transformative power, writes Line Barfod, Copenhagen Mayor for Technical & Environmental Affairs

#dktrp #cykelpolitik

https://www.euronews.com/2023/09/29/cities-are-leading-the-way-toward-a-cycling-revolution-will-the-eu-follow-suit