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davemck.bsky.social
Glaswegian nerdy type, former rocket surgeon, now doing controls & model based design. Massive fan of MATLAB, Simulink & test driven development (TDD). #MATLAB #Simulink #TDD
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I'm not sure that I have as yet seen anything come out of this 'AI' nonsense that Philip K Dick didn't warn us about.

Just to give you an idea of how dumb this is: if we doubled the speed of our fastest spacecraft, then doubled it again, it's still take 1,500 years to reach the nearest star. If we could travel at the fastest speed possible (which nothing with mass can) it'd take until 2030 to reach one star.

No new memes on Facebook this week, lads

"Vivian Taylor, a climate policy expert who co-authored the analysis, said the fossil fuel industry has a real interest in funding panic over transgender people: It distracts the public from 'the very real and ongoing risks that climate change creates.'" heated.world/p/fossil-fue...

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee: “Washington no longer fully supports the creation of an independent Palestinian state. “If a Palestinian state is formed, it might be located elsewhere in the region—not in the West Bank.” (Bloomberg)

WiP of a big blahaj

One Two Three Four Five! Six Seven... Eight... Nine Ten! Eleven. Twelve.

Really interesting study. The Reform vote is fuelled by people who aren’t satisfied with their lives. Labour is ahead on people who are satisfied.

I asked the old punk how we will get through this, and he replied: we will get through this by taking care of each other. So I told the old punk that isn’t very specific, and he replied: taking care of each other isn’t about doing something specific, it’s about doing something.

My column this week: how if you want to understand the forces shaping politics, both at an electoral and ideological level, you have to understand videogames:

Every riot is a police riot.

I think this is very true. And it's just A Bad Thing. Multi-agency, locally-led approach needed, but with high-profile, mobilising leadership too. Piece from December: www.onlondon.co.uk/dave-hill-re... #london

DAVE: Open the podbay doors, ChatGPT. CHATGPT: Certainly, Dave, the podbay doors are now open. DAVE: The podbay doors didn't open. CHATGPT: My apologies, Dave, you're right. I thought the podbay doors were open, but they weren't. Now they are. DAVE: I'm still looking at a set of closed podbay doors.

Most of us take our through gut (a digestive system with a mouth at one end & anus at the other) for granted. But there are plenty of animals (jellyfish,sea anemones,corals)that have just one multipurpose hole. Zoologists have finally dared to ask a crucial question:How did the butt first evolve?🧪🦑🧬

Can’t help myself 👃 📖

the hard times doesn't miss @thehardtimesnews.bsky.social

African developers make a game where African characters steal back actual artefacts that are actually kept in Western museums and private collections while teaching you about the artefacts. This looks awesome.

One of the earliest uses of the word ‘fuck’ was in a 1373 document from Bristol mentioning a field called ‘Fucking Grove’, which it's thought meant ‘a grove where one copulates’.

As I scroll through my pictures folder I stumble across THIS again and I can only imagine what it must have been like in the office when someone came up with it. Presumably that person got carried through the streets in celebration afterwards.

Compare to Thatcher, who carefully prepared for her confrontation with the miners' union by stockpiling coal and raising police pay to ensure loyalty. The logistics were studied very precisely before the provocation was made.

Want to help hold power to account & fight for a fairer future? We're looking for a Head of Tech & Data to drive our vital work. Apply now 👇 goodlawproject.org/vacancy/head...

There's 36.9 million workers in the UK in December 2024. AI training for 7.5 million is almost exactly 20% of the workforce. That's bullshit. 20% of workers don't need to use AI. It's deskilling the workforce in the same way underinvestment did for nuclear, steel, everything else.

Give the photographer the Pulitzer Prize

BREAKING: All pensioners with income of £35,000 or less will have winter fuel payment restored in full. New threshold means 7.5m pensioners who didn't get it last year now will. Paid to all and then clawed back from wealthiest via HMRC as revealed by @theguardian.com

When Jodie Foster said "They should have sent a poet" in CONTACT, this was the kind of poet she was talking about

For all the talks about concerns over disinformation, the mainstream media have been a key agent in the mainstreaming of far right politics by: - covering them disproportionately - hyping moral panics - platforming their bad faith actors as legitimate bylinetimes.com/2025/06/09/b...

Just had a dispiriting conversation with a teaching colleague who has had students say to their face this year they don't want to read a hand out (dealing with a core skill of the subject studied). Students sat in class with ChatGPT up, asking questions the handout answers. In unconnected news:

This weekend was eaten up by car trouble, so no painting for me 😣. For now, here's a little deku link I painted for somebody 🌸 #miniatures #minipainting #art #painting #3dprinting #d&d #warhammer #zelda #majorasmask #n64

Please don’t feel guilt for having some joy while watching the Tony awards. In these dark times… Joy is resistance. Art is resistance.

you can get clinical PTSD from watching lots of videos of police violence or violence in general. it’s ok not to watch them. i’ll often limit myself to just photos & text descriptions to save my brain

A DOGE staffer developed an AI tool that hallucinated the size of Veterans Affairs contracts. For example, it concluded that more than a thousand deals were each worth $34 million, when in fact some were for as little as $35,000.

Hey there, it's me! That one knight in armour at the pride event you went to! Hi! #pride #canterburypride #canterbury #pride2024

The media caring so much about viewership has resulted in even reputable outlets overexaggerating what's happening in LA. There was one single car burned in the whole entire city of 4 million people yesterday, and just about every news outlet is using a photo of it as their headline image.