The thing where news media takes portrait video and adds blurry edges to make it landscape. Stop it. It sucks.

I’ve been testing a theory: many people who are high on #ai and #LLMs are just new to automation and don’t realize you can automate processes with simple programming, if/then conditions, and API calls with zero AI involved. So far it’s been working! Whenever I’ve been asked to make an AI flow […]

Today is happy house-iversary day. What is the traditional gift for 8 years? Paint brush?

Today I learned that all those pointless collective nouns (a murder of crows, a parliament of owls, a pride of lions) which are only ever used in pub quizzes, were made up by one woman 500 years ago. https://www.themarginalian.org/2024/01/04/brian-wildsmith-birds-company-terms/ #til #todayilearned

"Ask ScienceDirect AI, What is your research question? Ask complex questions your way and instantly find what you need ..." How do I disable Ask ScienceDirect AI?

ARC RMS, I just turned my back for a second and you have already logged me out. Arrgh, and again. Come on, that couldn't have been more than 2 minutes. I think by the end of today I will have used up all the possible TFA one time password codes.

Yes, I'm probably a bit late to the hot takes on the new updated BOM. It just makes me sad and I'm happy that reg.bom still seems to work. It seems to be the overall web design trend to take perfectly fine information dense pages and add gigantic pictures and […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

Urban density and equity of access to social services Our spatial mapping of Australian capital cities highlights the challenge we face in delivering equitable access to services such as bulk billing GPs. In this article we highlight the opportunities greater density in our cities can deliver […]

In which estimates of future mortality due to wildfire smoke due to climate change are made. Estimates are modelled using future CMIP6 projections, land use change, increased fires with increased PM2.5 and projected smoke mortality. Wildfire projected to increase in all regions, greatest in […]

Jon Spencer at the Night Cat (Star/Time opening)

In which estimates of cigarette smuggling/tax evasion in NYC are made. They collect littered packs of cigarettes to find tax stamps (or missing stamps). All should have a NYC tax stamp, but NYC taxes are higher than neighboring states and especially southern states. Findings are that only 16% […]

In which using LLMs for peer-review reveals strong in-built biases. Using GPT-4o-mini, they simulate a review process of manuscripts. Manuscripts are reviewed many times varying author gender, ethnicity, institutions, research fields, and unique names. Biases are identified where lower-prestige […]

In which it is urged that universities counter AI marketing hype and safeguard higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. Refute harmful tropes (lazy students) and false framing (efficiency and inevitably). AI hype cycles go back to at least the […]

New @3crmelbourne.bsky.social podcast: Talking about St George's Road in Northcote: actions you can take, incl. @criticalmassmelb.bsky.social ride with @darebinstreets.bsky.social this Thur 25 Sep, local news: Wellington St north consultation open to 13 Oct and more! www.3cr.org.au/yarrabug/epi...

In which Swedish preparation for climate adaptation in spatial planning is analysed. Climate adaptation key area for spatial planning. But practical climate proofing encounters conflicting values, interests and positions as well as limited and fragmented responses when local authorities need […]

Our project to look at how to add more greenery to existing streetscapes in Brimbank (outer suburb of Melbourne) has been featured in their local newspaper https://brimbanknorthwest.starweekly.com.au/news/greening-alfrieda-street/

In which urban planning document in Victoria are examined for potential to address climate change mitigation and adaptation. Study develops criteria for evaluating policy documents coverage of mitigation, adaptation, and integration. Applies across local and state Victoria, disciplines of […]

In which whether mainstream parties accommodating radical right parties (RRP) core positions will reduce electoral success of RRP are examined. As RRPs are increasingly successful, what are the causes and consequences? Does accommodation co-opt their success? Or legitimise their policies? Do […]

Wish I could cancel some streaming services but I'd need to sign up first. 😔 🏴‍☠️

Ahh, that would explain why the wisteria is barren at the beginning of spring

Crazy Melbourne weather.

In which the ill advisory of five geoengineering concepts for the polar regions are discussed. Climate change impacts are especially pronounced in the polar regions. Instead of reducing carbon emissions, concepts have been devised to geoengineer instead: 1) stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) […]

In which (in 2003), the case for banning car alarms in NYC is made. High impacts of noise (health, psychological, amenity). No evidence that car alarms work (95% false alarms, 1% notify the police, insurance claims show no reductions of theft, and professional car thieves undeterred). Better […]

In which, the authors reply to a study which advocates for considering selection bias in scaling interventions and possible backfire effects for climate change deniers. Currently, 73 and 86% of US and globally believe climate change is happening. Mobilising them more effective than convincing […]

In which the declines in vaccinations in the US is a looming health disaster. Vaccination rates have been declining, further accelerating declines since COVID-19. Increasing outbreaks of diseases that have been previously prevented. US government revising (ending?) childhood vaccinations […]

In which shifting perceptions of urban trees are examined post-COVID-19. Online panel around urban trees summer 2020 in Melbourne (before lockdowns). Cognitive model describes values, beliefs, and attitudes. Values and beliefs develop over time, less changeable while attitudes more variable […]

In which an analysis into how hits on the Billboard 100 have changed over the past 65 years. Is it harder to have a hit in the present? Two competing drivers: long tail, increased and long lasting access to more niche products, and winner takes all, concentration on a few superstars. Both […]

In which the ratio of UVA/UVB in sunlight is measured. The ratio of different wavelengths of radiation in sunlight is influenced by cloud cover, altitude, and particles (air pollution). At sea level, dominant factor is the sun zenith angle. Findings are that UVA/UVB ratio is mostly constant at […]

In which cradle-to-grave GHG emission assessments on light-duty vehicles are performed. Will electrification reduce emissions? Most assessments on sedans, but SUVs/trucks more popular in the US. Assess vehicle production, 211k lifetime miles for SUVs (244k for trucks). Accounting for regional […]

In which an analysis is performed on how the business press covers price hikes. Looking across publications such as the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, etc. In looking at how they report responsibility for rising prices, they make two hypothesises, 1) the coverage is unbiased and exogenous demand […]

In which the role of anti-immigrant rhetoric by mainstream (MS) politicians, compared to radical right (RR) in eroding social norms is examined. Most recent research only looks at RR politicians. Mainstream politicians might introduce rhetoric to 1) prevent rise of RR or 2) just go ahead and […]

In which qualitative research is being exploited by scammers using AI. Recruiting research participants is hard and has increasingly moved online since COVID. Researchers are increasingly detecting that participants are fraudulent. In this study, working relationship between pharmacists and […]

In which transport poverty (TP) differences between genders are explored in Canada (Montreal and Hamilton). Are there gender differences? Are there clustered areas of TP, inaccessibility (IA), and marginalisation (MA). Index weights IA and MA 50%. MA includes household conditions, resources, age […]

In which links between car-based school travel and school enrollment are analysed. Australian children in public schools are expected to enroll in local schools with rare exceptions for out of area placements. But Australia has about 37% enrollment in private schools (generally not near to home) […]

In which the carbon footprint of Antarctic tourism is assessed. Tourism to Antarctic increased from 6500 people in 1991 to 120k in 2023. Most commonly visited via ship departing from S. America with flights from Northern hemisphere. Average flights 2.25 tons carbon. Sea vessels could be 1) […]

In which links between traits of social dominance orientation (SDO), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), psychopathic propensities (PPs), and other malevolent dispositions (MD), and reduced empathy are predictive of favorable views of Trump and conservative political ideology (CI) in general. RWA […]

In which the impact on online political participation from psychopathy (P), narcissism (N), and FoMO (fear of missing out) are investigated in the US and 7 Asian countries. Hypothesis: N and P positive association with online political participation. FoMO also positive association. And cognitive […]

In which "fraud" narratives (linking race and criminality), used by White Americans to reject democratic outcomes, driven by racial resentment and racism. Question of was fraud rhetoric following 2020 election shaped by a racist undercurrent? Focusing fraud accusations on Black individuals (and […]

In which it is demonstrated that LLMs rely on pattern matching instead of reasoning. Many LLMs (DeepSeek-R1, o3-mini, Claude-3.5 Sonnet, Gemini-2.0-Flash, GPT-4o, and Llama-3.3-70B) can achieve about 80% accuracy when attempting MedQA (multiple choice medical benchmark). Study replaced the […]

In which a thesis looks at the possible barriers of sensory hyperreactivity (SHR) present to scent marketing. Promise of scent in marketing underestimated? Enhance sales linking scents with emotions/associations/memory. But 6% of Sweden has SHR, hyper sensitive to smells/fragrances. (I guess the […]

In which the migration of the science community from Twitter (TW) to Bluesky (BL) is examined. Surveys of about 800 scientists (in 2024?). 92% reported they followed new developments in their field using TW. Other uses: networking, public outreach. 76% reported TW became less useful. 50% still […]

In which AI has become a solution in search of a problem. Driven by the need to recoup massive investments, AI is increasingly imposed in (all?) digital products through deceptive patterns. Categories of manipulating visual architecture and emotional and sensory manipulation. Resulting in […]

In which the present day and future projections of power demand for AI are calculated. Power demands have been increasing 4-5x/year since 2018. Model training time increases 26%/year since 2010, with top 10 models 50%/year since 2018. Present day power to train a single model 100-150MW, increase […]

In which a series of actions that can be taken to promote urban biodiversity are outlined. Correcting some myths: small habitat patches can still be useful, should preserve indigenous plants (as opposed to anything green is good), green infrastructure alone won't solve biodiversity, nature still […]

In which the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement is discussed. A 27 item checklist and flowchart, updated for 2020. Notable items. Introduction: rationale for and what question review addresses. Methods: selection criteria, sources, search […]

In which guidelines for writing a systematic review are outlined. A systematic review differs from a literature review by setting out a pre-set inclusion criteria. Might be based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) or others. Could be meta-analysis […]

In which (really can't see any contemporary relevance) an analysis is performed of how Stalin used purges of the security services to maintain power. How do authoritarians reduce the chances of being overthrown by those under them (the agents of domestic coercion)? Study uses documents on 36k […]

In which increased danger to pedestrians and cyclists hit by SUVs are examined. Traffic crash data 2004-23 in Great Britain, and crashes that involved a single car and pedestrian/cyclists casualties. 359k casualties in total. Over period, those crashes with a SUV increased 4 to 26%, along with […]

In which the 'safety in numbers' (SIN) phenomenon for pedestrians is tested. Six years of data from 21 intersections in Melbourne's CBD. Proposes 'numbers in safety' (NIS), more pedestrians when perceptions of safety increase (and avoid areas that feel unsafe). Finds higher pedestrian numbers […]

In which the connection between walkability and physical activity is tested. 2 million users of the Azumio Argus application (records physical activity) who moved to a different cities (1600 US cities) at least once over the 3 year study period, did moving to more (less) walkable cities change […]