Interesting Links for 29-03-2024

[andrewducker]

1. Seismologists were able to identify 43 of the 45 songs at a Taylor Swift concert by the earth movements they caused

(tags:music earthquake )

2. The NICE evidence reviews on trans affirming care look very very suspicious

(tags:healthcare research transgender NHS OhForFucksSake )

3. Edinburgh buses produce £3.2 million dividend for councils for first time since Covid (and back to 90% of pre-Covid passenger levels)

(tags:buses Edinburgh GoodNews transport )

4. New post-Brexit tariff to apply to UK cars sold to Canada

(tags:Canada tax UK trade doom )

5. It's 2029. How do you instruct an LLM to power the world?

(tags:scifi power ai )

6. Covid, lab leaks, and raccoon dogs. What does the evidence say, and how should we think about it?

(tags:pandemic statistics )

7. Russell T. Davies on Why Doctor Who's Disney Partnership Is So Important

(tags:drwho TV Disney RusselTDavies )

Comments

[armiphlage]

For #6 was the article partially written and illustrated by AI? When talking about "Lineage A" and "Lineage B" in the context of viruses, there is an illustration of "Linear A" "Linear B" script.

Body of text:
All of the cases at the wet market, including the first detected case, were Lineage B. Lineage A wasn’t discovered until about a week later, and none of the Lineage A patients had been to the wet market.

Captioned of illustration:
Lineage A (left) was used by the Minoan Cretans, but has never been deciphered. Lineage B (right) was used by the Mycaeneans for lists of palace goods.

[calimac]

1) That's impressive. I can't identify Taylor Swift songs from actually listening to the song.

[armiphlage]

With respect to #4, from a Canadian viewpoint, the attitude of the UK negotiators is odd. They are offended that Canada is applying the same tariffs to UK imports that it applies to any other country without a trade agreement, insisting that Canada should continue to give them the EU-negotiated rates indefinitely until a better rate is negotiated. And at the same time, the UK negotiators are refusing to actually negotiate with Canada to create a trade deal, insisting that Canada accept UK terms without any reciprocal benefit to Canada.

Bias note: I work in a factory that exports material worldwide; the post-Brexit paperwork that the UK forces Canadian factories to fill out is daunting.

[cmcmck]

2.

As you say, that looks worryingly dodgy.

I've said from the start that there was something untoward about all this!

[yalovetz]

Re: 2. I was "treated" by Dr Az Hakeem and can attest from personal experience that, whatever public claims he makes to the contrary, the way he deals with his own patients looks very much like conversion therapy.