Dr Keith Walker @SteelFolk@social.cleverlibre.org

German physicist and Nobel laureate in physics (1943) Otto Stern was born #OTD in 1888.

His contributions to physics included the Stern-Gerlach experiment , the measurement of atomic magnetic moments, the development of the molecular-beam technique, the discovery of the anomalous magnetic moment of the proton, and the demonstration of the wave nature of atoms and molecules. He was the second most nominated person for a Nobel Prize, with 82 nominations in the years 1925–1945.

#science #physics

RIP Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, assassinated by Vladimir Putin.

May his memory be a blessing, and hasten the end of Putin.

#Navalny #Putin

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/16/russian-activist-and-putin-critic-alexei-navalny-dies-in-prison

We’ve started laying a cone down when the #cat is under the rug so we don’t step on him 😂 🚧🐈

How the ‘will of the people’ is warping our politics

The phrase is used by ministers to evade proper scrutiny. Just look at their rhetoric on Rwanda.

By me, at Prospect

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/64874/how-the-will-of-the-people-is-still-warping-our-politics

"Will you free my Palestine"
Sticker spotted in Brunswick, Victoria

Scottish physicist C.T.R. Wilson was born #OTD in 1869. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the cloud chamber. The inspiration for his prize-winning work came in the mountains of Scotland, where he served as a meteorological observer. He decided to try to reproduce cloud formation in the laboratory. In 1895 he produced his 1st cloud chamber, which supersaturates the air by expanding and cooling it. He realized that the device’s potential went far beyond understanding weather.

Israel claims there is not a policy to forcibly expel Palestinians in Gaza, but direct testimonies from people arriving in Rafah reveal there is a ethnic cleansing campaign taking place around Gaza City.

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/testimonies-describe-forced-displacement-campaign-in-northern-gaza/?utm_content=buffer179f8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=buffer

#Palestine #Israel #Gaza
@palestine @israel

Big recommendations for a sustainable circular economy of plastics in this new Nature article:
*50% reduction in plastic demand
*complete phase out of fossil fuel based plastics
*95% recycling rate of plastics
*use of renewable energy

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06939-z

As the sun rises we're getting a clearer image of what Israel bombed last night in Rafah.

Tents. Tents full of people and crops.

Airliners filled with flowers zip around the globe every day. Chrysanthemums from Colombia dash to Japan; roses from Kenya end up in Britain; carnations from Ecuador jet to Russia. Nearly all imported cut flowers go through the same emissions-intensive journey — climate-controlled greenhouses, refrigerated trucks and a long, chilled flight. Fresh flowers are a $34 billion global industry with a massive carbon footprint

https://archive.ph/wip/accV8

#pollution #ecology #environment #climate

"Human reason has this peculiar fate that in one species of its knowledge it is burdened by questions which, as prescribed by the very nature of reason itself, it is not able to ignore, but which, as transcending all its powers, it is also not able to answer."

Critique of Pure Reason (1781; 1787), Preface, A vii

~Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804)

#books #literature #philosophy

Untold History of AI: Invisible Women Programmed America's First Electronic Computer The “human computers” who operated ENIAC have received little credit.

By OSCAR SCHWARTZ via @ieeespectrum

https://spectrum.ieee.org/untold-history-of-ai-invisible-woman-programmed-americas-first-electronic-computer

There is an interesting series of 6 articles on "Untold History of AI":

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/AI-history

#science #computer #womeninscience

"Any AI system is defined by its reliance on the use of data from the past to make decisions about the future.

"But the government signaled it is concerned that the technology’s use by insurers is allowing them to bend the future to their own benefit."

via @STAT
https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/07/government-warns-medicare-advantage-insurers-not-to-deny-care-based-on-ai/

#AI #health #healthcare #medicine #MA #Medicare #insurance #healthinsurance

Hey uh. So I'm kinda stuck in a place where I've closed myself off some, don't have a support group or family as such.

How do you ... make something like that? Like, I don't even have someone I trust to call if I need a ride home.

I'd... especially like some advice from people who've tried to make it in cultures that aren't theirs. I don't have a culture, I got brought up between three different countries and none of them are "mine" and none really accept me as "theirs". Some times that's fine, other times, especially when it combines with other aspects of identity that are also deemed a problem (ADHD, trauma, gender identity, sexuality), it's the worst thing in the world and so, so isolating.

Boosts are appreciated. I'm not good at reaching out, so every bit helps.