Mike Taylor

By day I am a computer programmer with Index Data, where I have been happily and gainfully employed for 20 years.

By night, I am a vertebrate palaeontologist with the University of Bristol, specialising in sauropods: the biggest and best of all dinosaurs.

I am an advocate for open access, open data and open source, and also for open peer-review though I'm beginning to think pre-publication peer-review might be a mistake.

You can email me on [email protected]

Public Key

npub1pmq3hrjtd8xsnfdfvkwdc8zf6dtwnj2n5w4qjl9pxcwdfruzjl3s2dx8dk

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsqasgm3e9knngf5k5kt8xur3yax4hfe9f682sf0jsnv8x537pf0ccpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qpp59ez

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub1pmq3hrjtd8xsnfdfvkwdc8zf6dtwnj2n5w4qjl9pxcwdfruzjl3s2dx8dk

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Last Notes

2024-08-28 12:24:32

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@npub1kym…5l7c LibreOffice?

2024-08-08 20:03:45

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@npub134m…lka0 Welcome!

2024-07-23 16:27:50

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@npub15xs…gcmf Right, because indigenous people are the only one who have ever used, or enjoyed looking at feathers.

2024-07-19 13:56:17

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"We understand the transition away from using goo.gl short links may cause some inconvenience", says Google.
What they mean is, we understand that breaking every link ever made that trusted us as intermediaries may cause some inconvenience. But we don't give a shit.

2024-07-19 13:54:40

This is why you should NEVER use a link-shortener for anything that you need to be around for more than a few weeks: https://developers.googleblog.com/en/google-url-shortener-links-will-no-longer-be-available/

2024-07-14 15:49:11

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@npub1syz…mnn2 MOST of her critiques are of that form. Some are of the form "my strategy failed because mean bad people were nasty to me".

2024-07-14 10:23:33

The sheer level of delusional mania in Liz Truss's piece is something to behold. It'a completely unhinged. She really ought to be quietly taken to a nice home where she can't do any more damage to herself and others.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/13/tory-governments-failed-to-roll-back-blairs-leftist-agenda/

2024-07-02 18:22:15

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@npub145y…56a0 That lad looks tidy. Liverpool should be in for him.
🙂

2024-07-02 18:20:40

Gakpo!
#ROMNED

2024-07-02 17:46:54

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@npub1fsz…cvat Counterpoint: the immediacy of the punishment ties together the cause and effect in the mind of the child. The worst of all worlds is "wait till your father gets home".

2024-07-02 17:43:37

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@npub1fjv…x8tc And the exhibition ended and they gave it back? What a shame I never saw it in situ, it's my closest half-decent museum.

2024-07-02 13:42:22

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@npub1fjv…x8tc I *love* this! How have I never seen it before?!
Who was it done for?

2024-06-25 23:51:57

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@npub1kym…5l7c What a shame the BBC didn't get them, though! Adverts during election coverage feels like a desecration.

2024-06-25 23:06:00

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@npub12vs…kup4 It's very frustrating as an English football fan, to watch team made up of mostly stellar players routinely fail to impose itself on much better organised teams made up of inferior players.

2024-06-25 16:32:38

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@npub1wvw…4puk I don't think that's likely. But I would NOT be surprised if it turned out that the reason Sunak chose such a surprising date was so that his mates could make money better on it.

2024-06-25 13:19:45

"I am quite certain that people who want to see an extended sequence of dwarfs trying unsuccessfully to entomb a giant dragon in molten gold will find that desire fully satisfied by the latter parts of Desolation; and really, it could hardly have been done better, always assuming it was the kind of thing you wanted to see done in the first place."
https://reprog.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/two-film-reviews-the-desolation-of-smaug-and-the-desolation-of-smaug/

2024-06-24 11:10:24

"The ideas that tended to take priority on the TED stage were individualistic, future-oriented, and technophilic, more likely to celebrate the transformative power of innovation than to grapple with its unintended consequences."
Sadly true. No-one wants to pay thousands of dollars to hear talks about dealing with the complex consequences of simple ideas.
https://www.joanwestenberg.com/ted-talks-the-picotop-of-millennial-pop-intellectualism

2024-06-23 22:32:15

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@npub1kkd…llcy I think they did. They learned that nearly everyone gets away with consequences. (Johnson was very very much the exception.)

2024-06-23 14:28:04

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@npub1nk4…us2w I wouldn't. It would be Classic Musk to change his mind and deanonymize all those likes.

2024-06-22 22:33:04

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@npub18zz…rd6u I do believe you're right: for all the huge technological advances in the last 60 years, the real difference in the two projects is how they're being sold.

2024-06-22 21:22:27

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@npub18zz…rd6u Or it just means they have no idea how LLMs work. Just like the people who were fooled by ELIZA in the sixties.

2024-06-22 11:02:55

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@npub18zz…rd6u Right. It's on a par with saying the bubonic plague in the dark ages was no big deal because "humanity will be fine".

2024-06-21 22:50:13

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@npub13kk…r6ua To my mind, your task now is the smash that reply back with extreme prejudice, in the style of Rafa Nadal returning a weak serve.

2024-06-21 22:46:57

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@npub1nk4…us2w Sheesh. Fesshole is supposed to be for lighthearted "Yeah, I know the feeling" confessions. Not for blunt declaration that you are human vermin.

2024-06-21 19:36:06

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@npub1fsz…cvat Obviously written by someone who never listened to Different Class.

2024-06-21 11:45:08

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@npub1shf…etna 36 minus 20 is a lead of 16 points.

2024-06-21 00:37:53

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@npub19rn…sf9u I would not say I'm sure. But given how stupidly rich he it, it would be insane of him to do this for a few thousand more.

2024-06-20 17:48:42

Why isn't Starmer saying more in the run-up to the #GeneralElection?
Simple. He's following the rule "Never interrupt your enemy while he is making a mistake".
And the Tories simply Will. Not. Stop. Making. Mistakes.
Starmer can't get a word in.

2024-06-19 21:12:41

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@npub1shf…etna The bizarre part to me is that all those unemployed and poverty-stricken people think Farage is going to do something for them.

2024-06-19 12:17:24

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“Another colleague, who teaches the boy, described his publicly professed racist and neo-fascist views, and he cited a particular incident in which Farage was so offensive to a boy in his set, that he had to be removed from the lesson.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2024/jun/14/he-was-a-deeply-unembarrassed-racist-nigel-farage-by-those-who-have-known-him

2024-06-19 12:16:40

"Chloe Deakin, an English teacher at Dulwich college, wrote in 1981: “You will recall that at the recent, and lengthy, meeting about the selection of prefects, the remark by a colleague that Farage was ‘a fascist but that was no reason why he would not make a good prefect’ invoked considerable reaction from members of the common room."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2024/jun/14/he-was-a-deeply-unembarrassed-racist-nigel-farage-by-those-who-have-known-him

2024-06-18 19:20:40

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@npub1xhq…av22 I suppose what he meant was that it doesn't introduce any NEW biases. But he said it as though it removes existing biases.

2024-06-17 23:49:10

A useful reminder of what an absolutely sensational footballer Bobby Firmino was for #LFC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6miIqqUHTk
The closest analogy would be Dennis Bergkamp. They had strikingly similar stats for Liverpool and Arsenal, but more importantly, they both had the habit of doing things that left you asking "What even WAS that?"

2024-06-17 22:53:00

Three years on from Wandavision, I realise it's the MCU story I think about the most. It's MAYBE not quite as good all around as the first Avengers film, but oh boy, it goes deep. If you've not seen it, I highly highly recommend it. Go in knowing as little about it as you possibly can.

2024-06-17 22:17:27

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@npub18zz…rd6u Go back further, and the BNP was just the National Front with new branding. These people have been around forever. The good news is that they're ageing out.

2024-06-13 12:08:52

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@npub18zz…rd6u Hoo boy, that's my life.

2024-06-11 09:21:55

Optimization is intrinsically brittle, because it’s about closely matching the output to the conditions, which means it’s vulnerable if those conditions change.”
https://mastodon.social/@RuthMalan/112595800353936888

2024-06-09 17:22:28

New on The Reinvigorated Programmer:
Every dependency is a vulnerability
https://reprog.wordpress.com/2024/06/09/every-dependency-is-a-vulnerability/

2024-06-08 12:24:06

A colleague is having trouble accessing my personal website at https://svpow.com/papers-by-sv-powsketeers/taylor-2010-on-the-history-of-sauropod-research/
Could one or two people please check it out and let me know if it works for them? Thanks!

2024-06-06 14:30:54

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@npub13um…j6n7 Thanks, Ross. The conference came at a terrible time for me, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity not to be missed!

2024-06-05 13:56:40

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@npub139h…44p0 Yes!

2024-06-05 13:19:27

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@npub1f06…cz74 I'm not sure I know what those are — but I assume they do not limit copying.

2024-06-05 12:31:25

I was reminded again today how much my lack of knowledge of #statistics impedes my ability to do, or even understand, certain kinds of science. It's literally my biggest academic regret that I never took a course in stats as part of my Maths degree.
So my advice to any kids out there wanting to work in the sciences (including social sciences): LEARN STATISTICS!

2024-06-05 10:48:56

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@npub1fjv…x8tc Surprising there wasn't a Crystal Palace one in there!

2024-06-05 10:36:47

Disturbing post on the routine behaviour of British museums and galleries in falsely claiming copyright on digital reproductions of out-of-copyright works, when the law clearly says that no copyright exists.
https://douglasmccarthy.com/2024/06/schrodingers-copyright/

2024-06-04 21:02:27

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@npub18zz…rd6u It's called `:meat_on_bone:`

2024-06-04 20:51:05

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@npub18zz…rd6u Your toot is invalid, as it does not include a 🍖 ham icon.

2024-06-03 18:50:40

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@npub1e2e…0xnw You maaay be right, but I don't think Farage has a significant body of the establishment behind him the way BJ did. That said, I woudn't bet against him being the next Tory leader (or the one after that).

2024-06-03 17:26:42

I think this is actually GOOD news about that prize diarrhoea stain Nigel Farage standing as a Reform candidate in the General Election. If anything, the perceived legitimacy of Reform among the kind of people who buy it will split the remaining Tory vote between Far Right and Extreme Right, likely letting other parties into yet more constituencies.

2024-06-03 14:01:41

National Dinosaur Day, redux
Show your love!
http://svpow.com/2024/06/03/national-dinosaur-day-redux/

2024-06-02 00:45:35

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@npub1nkf…as7n OMG BEWARE THIS APP! Since my wife downloaded it, we can't go for a simple walk without her stopping even hundred yard, shushing me, and whipping her phone out when she hears a bird.

2024-06-02 00:22:55

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@npub1zdp…vqv8 We MIGHT one day have to worry about AIs intelligent enough to pose a threat to humanity by outsmarting it (though I doubt it).
But if it ever happens, it will most certainly not be by LLMs.

2024-06-01 23:59:26

Interesting, I think this is the first time I've ever seen DC used to encode more than simple author/title/date data. It's been a long time coming!
Is the
<meta property="x" refines="#y">
stuff standard now, or did they invent it?

2024-06-01 23:49:04

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@npub1all…xwqd You call the advice to wear factor 30 subscreen INDOORS mild?

2024-06-01 14:29:05

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@npub1jeq…jglm Their appeal is the same as that of eBook readers like Kindles: there's nothing you can do with them BUT their primary purpose. I really like to read without the siren call of Just Check You Email.

2024-06-01 02:48:16

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@npub1all…xwqd Yeah, I'm out of patience with that. It comes down to NEVER EVER GO OUTSIDE THE SUN WILL KILL YOU OMG JUST HIDE IN A HOLE. Life needs some sunshine.

2024-06-01 02:43:07

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@npub1men…pvx6 I thought that, just as (say) Kensington is in London, so Cambridge is in Boston. is it not so?

2024-06-01 02:12:43

I have a few hours spare in #Boston tomorrow (Saturday) and plan to spend that time in the #Harvard #NaturalHistoryMuseum. What should I not miss?
(Please boost for coverage.)

2024-05-31 17:58:40

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@npub1plg…m8zm Society for Scholarly Publishing. I'm here to participate in the debate this afternoon — see https://svpow.com/2024/05/29/westin-whats-coming-up-wednesday-wrangle-over-whether-oa-is-a-washout/

2024-05-31 17:39:17

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This is on me, for choosing this #SSP2024 session based only on its title, rather than navigating through the website maze to find the session description.

2024-05-31 17:35:48

Over all this #SSP2024 session is deeply disappointing. Its title suggests it's about building communities, but it turns out to be all about marketing magazines.
I made the wrong choice in this session: I should have gone to "The diminishing importance of the article: an overview of the emerging modular, multi-modal research landscape".

2024-05-31 17:14:04

Disppointing in this #SSP2024 session on "three paths to community" to hear the first speaker place so much emphasis on raising the impact factor of the journal he's involved in. It's as though Sick Of Impact Factors and the #SFDora never happened. http://occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2012/08/13/sick-of-impact-factors/

2024-05-31 17:12:39

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@npub1plg…m8zm Ah yes, that would make sense. But he didn't say anything about that, and nothing he's said since has alluded back to it.

2024-05-31 17:05:59

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@npub1plg…m8zm That is a reason to HAVE a CoC. It's not a reason to start a regular session by reading it all out loud.

2024-05-31 15:30:58

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@npub1wwu…fvc7 It's both!

2024-05-31 14:52:45

A poster from #SSP2024. The phrase "dynamic synergy of AI and XML" might be the worst thing I've ever heard.
(Though, to be fair, the application it describes might actually be useful.)
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/535/794/185/058/762/original/0d9c0f145e7c2606.jpg

2024-05-31 12:49:42

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@npub18zz…rd6u They do exist in many cases. For example, Marsh's (1896) The Dinosaurs of North America has DOI 10.5962/bhl.title.60562 — see https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/60562

2024-05-31 12:35:27

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@npub16mz…uzxf That and: "We plan to get around it by the loophole of not committing any crimes".

2024-05-30 21:00:19

Choosing from half a dozen afternoon sessions at #SSP2024 and it looks like four of them are about #AI. There really seems to be collective delusion taking hold in this community.

2024-05-30 15:59:15

If anyone at #SSP2024 is listening to this AI panel discussin and in danger of swallowing the kool-aid, I refer you to this case-study in which an LLM answered my question in a way that contained eight factual statements and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM was incorrect — but stated with impacable certainty.
https://svpow.com/2024/05/23/another-day-another-catastrophic-ai-failure/

2024-05-30 15:29:19

Panel discussion on #AI entited "Rise of the Machines" at #SSP2024. So far I'm hearing a lot of cheerleading from the three panelists. I'm hearing the analogy that LLMs will help us with scholarship just as calculators help with arithmetic. This analogy would work better if calculators gave wrong answers half the time.

2024-05-29 21:17:02

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This was OK. turns out that "vested" here primarily means that the service provider charges the publisher a share is revenue rather than charging per page or per paper, so it had an incentive to make the publisher successful. #SSP2024

2024-05-29 19:39:38

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By happy coincidence, that streaming solution is a product sold by the organisation that the speaker works for.
In other words, what could have been a fascinating session on the nature of the scholarly record feels more like an extended advert.

2024-05-29 19:36:38

Next #SSP2024 session is on the concept of online events as a scholarly content type. I am all good this: adding conferences to the formal scholarly record would be a big win. Session is disappointing so far, though. Not yet grappling with the conceptual issues, just talking about how good one particular vendor's streaming software is.

2024-05-24 16:33:15

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@npub1fjv…x8tc Here you go, I fixed it for you. (The first and only time I improve a piece of Bob Nicholls art!)
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/496/553/062/642/341/original/d46a731c45647b05.jpg

2024-05-24 16:29:42

Can someone help me identify this #insect that I saw crawling on a radiator in our home? The hind legs are noticeable longer than the front two pairs, sort of like a grasshopper (though it's obviously not one). You can get a sense of its size from the bit of AA battery at the top of the photo.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/496/537/830/760/538/original/d7febd2b4aa2685b.jpg

2024-05-24 15:01:44

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@npub1476…93hk Indeed.

2024-05-24 13:07:13

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Very quick response.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/495/742/072/494/016/original/537e6ba487bc9291.png

2024-05-24 13:03:07

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I filled in their "right to object" form.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/495/725/755/359/786/original/e967ce6da8e122a6.png

2024-05-24 12:59:45

I don't use Facebook, but I do find its Messenger useful for keeping in touch with family. I think this might be what kills it for me, though.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/112/495/712/313/680/473/original/09d92eca5e1be017.png

2024-05-24 12:23:39

"These companies are projecting their institutional understanding of what a human is, and we can see these projections clearly in ChatGPT […]. First and foremost, human beings are, to capitalist firms, employees. They exist to be told what to do, then politely and unquestioningly do it. […] For a certain kind of employer, the LLM is so tantalizingly close to being not just a full person, as these companies understand people, but a perfected one."
https://theluddite.org/#!post/ai-hype

2024-05-23 21:03:04

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@npub1ygf…fkqq It's true enough — we've all said Stupid Things On The Internet.

2024-05-23 15:04:28

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@npub1c63…6vp2 No, wait:
Is it because I lied all through the twenty-teens?
Scans better, but cuts out four years ago, so it doesn't really work.

2024-05-23 15:00:56

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@npub1c63…6vp2 Is it because I lied incessantly?

2024-05-23 11:25:45

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@npub1shf…etna Interesting that the Greens are the only party that people actually LIKE on aggregate. Yet no-one will vote for them. (And given our stupid FPTP system, they are right not to.)

2024-05-23 09:41:24

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@npub1v9h…d2ct A response of "I don't know" would have been perfectly acceptable.

2024-05-23 09:40:57

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@npub1v9h…d2ct Weird, I don't see the comment on SV-POW!, and it's not in the moderation queue or spam bin, either.

2024-05-23 09:26:21

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@npub1v9h…d2ct Thanks. Would it be OK for my to post that as a comment on the SV-POW! post? https://svpow.com/2024/05/23/another-day-another-catastrophic-ai-failure/
Better still, would you post it yourself?

2024-05-23 09:02:25

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@npub13um…j6n7 Read on downthread 🙂

2024-05-23 08:54:27

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* The remains were discovered near Hastings, East Sussex, not in the Ceará State of northeastern Brazil.
* … Some time shortly before 1893, not in 1998.
* … by P. Rufford, not by a team of Brazilian and British paleontologists.
* It consists of a single partial dorsal vertebra, not a nearly complete skull and several vertebrae.
[3/n]

2024-05-22 22:05:21

Every now and then when I read something horrible written by a woman about men, I amuse myself by imagining what the response would be if the genders were reversed. This kind of thing for example: https://sfba.social/@DeliaChristina/112485907058817756
Doesn't it sound like *exactly* the kind of thing an incel would say?

2024-05-22 21:38:58

Listening to the Miles Davis version of David Crosby's "Guinnevere".
It's not very good, is it?

2024-05-22 16:16:53

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@npub18zz…rd6u BUT please note that I am not an #infosec specialist; so if actual specialists give different advice you should listen to them and not me.

2024-05-22 16:16:06

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@npub18zz…rd6u Well, it's worked OK for me. I suppose every third-party password manager comes down to whether you trust the provider. And I have more faith in the Mozilla Foundation than in any security startup.

2024-05-22 15:57:03

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@npub18zz…rd6u The one built right into Firefox works pretty well. Otherwise I keep passwords in a local text-file encrypted using ccrypt.

2024-05-22 14:01:01

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@npub18zz…rd6u Here's another from the same book: "Don't take on board criticism from someone who you wouldn't take advice from."

2024-05-22 13:28:12

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@npub18zz…rd6u I read an excellent concise analysis of this recently. When you "help" someone, does that help make them better or does it make them worse? If the latter, stop.

2024-05-22 11:45:52

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@npub194m…7tfy I *love* Riverside, and really must make more of an effort to the get into their most recent album. (I felt Wasteland really suffered from the absence of Piotr Grudziński.)

2024-05-22 10:49:04

TODAY'S PET HATE: saying "methodology" when you just mean "method". Methodology is the study of methods.
Adding more syllabled doesn't make it more scientific.

2024-05-21 16:57:28

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@npub1wwu…fvc7 Gosh, yes! It's so useful to have a name for that phenomenon (but a shame that's it's such a clumsy name and has so little to do wirt the effect.)