Interesting Links for 11-12-2024

[andrewducker]

1. The Scottish government is to back a move to bar MSPs from also sitting as MPs or members of the House of Lords

(tags:scotland politics )

2. Next-generation datacenters consume zero water for cooling

(tags:water cool heat Technology )

3. Israel targets Syria: 480 strikes in 48 hours after Assad's ouster as they destroy weapons caches

(tags:Israel Syria weaponry )

4. "I'm a Syrian in the UK - here's what Britons don't understand about my country"

(tags:syria war civilwar asylum )

5. Google's new AI predicts weather and the risks of extreme conditions better than the existing state-of-the-art

(tags:ai weather )

6. Medical misogyny leaving women in pain for years without a diagnosis for common conditions including endometriosis, heavy periods and chronic UTI

(tags:women misogyny uk nhs epicfail healthcare )

7. "My boyfriend sent me a heartfelt message - then I learned he'd used ChatGPT"

(tags:relationships ai writing )

Comments

[juan_gandhi]

"While water is still used for administrative purposes like restrooms and kitchens"

Other news are good too. Thank you!

[andrewducker]

My pleasure!

[simont]

#7: this seems like an ideal moment to get ChatGPT to write you a breakup email, and make sure to instruct it not to even be subtle about it.

(E.g. perhaps it might start "As an AI assistant I am unable to write your breakup message for you …")

[andrewducker]

If you wanted to be a little less extreme you could get ChatGPT to explain what an apology is supposed to achieve, and why getting an AI to do it for you might not achieve those goals...

[channelpenguin]

I don't think LLMs are allowed to swear/curse? At least not as much as is required in this circumstance!

[andrewducker]

Hah!

6.

[channelpenguin]

FFS. well, yeah we know.

But I had 3 coils fitted and removed by 3 different docs and no pain at all. Plain copper ones, no hormones. I guess the hormone type are nastier to fit or maybe I was just lucky....

Re: 6.

[andrewducker]

I think it varies dramatically. Some people get a lot of pain, some people don't.

I don't think the type really affects it - because they're basically the same size.

Re: 6.

[wildeabandon]

I had pretty much the same experience with hormone coils - not quite no pain at all, but on the order of a couple of hours of moderate period pain for the first one, and virtually nothing for the changes.

Re: 6.

[mountainkiss]

I had a copper coil fitted and had searing pain for two years. I still don't regret it - it did what I wanted, which was hormone-free contraception - but I'm not sure that I could have gone through with it if I'd known what would happen.

[calimac]

1) As I presume you know, in the US you can't serve in different levels of government at once; in fact you can't serve in the executive and the legislative at once (thus the crisis in the Republican majority in the House as Trump appoints members to his Cabinet), which is the exact opposite of the UK.

2) I'd like to hear more than vague handwaving about the decrease in power consumption, an area that worries me more than the water consumption does.

3) If they have the capacity to do that, why didn't they do it before Assad was ousted?

4) So millions of Syrians don't want to be ruled by a hardline Islamic government. Millions of Iranians and Afghanis also, but what have they got?

7) What if the message had been written by Cyrano de Bergerac?

[andrewducker]

1) Yes - having an entirely separate executive from the legislative branch is an interesting approach. I'm not entirely convinced by it.

3) I assume they didn't fancy a shooting war with Assad, who didn't seem to have any interest in attacking Israel. Whereas, although the new rulers of Israel have distanced themselves from Al-Qaeda they were a spin-off from it, and it's understandable that Israel wouldn't want them well-armed on their border.

4) Agreed. If you don't have democracy then whoever grabs power and holds on to it ends up running the country.

7) Yup. This is definitely similar to that. Or having your PA buy presents for your wife. In both cases it rather undercuts the point of apologising in the first place.

[calimac]

1) The US system was actually inspired by the then British practice of, if an MP took an office of profit under the Crown, he (always he in those days, of course) lost his parliamentary seat. What the Americans apparently failed to notice was that it was OK to elect someone who already held such an office - I guess the idea was that a conflict of interest was OK if the voters already knew about it - leading to the quaint practice of newly-appointed ministers having to stand for what was usually (but not always) a nominal by-election, a rule not eliminated until the 1920s.

But having ministers with their busy jobs also having to be constituency MPs, which is also not the light job it used to be, is also difficult. My understanding of the Dutch system is that ministers, though appointed from parliament, vacate their seats on a temporary basis, reclaiming them if they leave ministerial office during the term of parliament. Their places are taken by the next people on the party list. But obviously that exact system can't work in a country without party lists.

[calimac]

1) And the question of, "If US Cabinet officers aren't members of Congress, how are they answerable to Congress?" is answered by, first, they have to be confirmed by the Senate; second, they are called to testify before Congressional committees. Frequently.

[andrewducker]

Can the subcommittees recommend or compel their removal?

[calimac]

Formally, they can recommend impeachment.

Informally, congressional committees can have an immense impact on public opinion.

UK parliaments can’t fire individual government ministers, can they? I thought they could just barrack them to death. Congress can do that too.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, similar situation. Although theoretically parliament can vote to change Prime Minister and change the whole executive. I'm not sure that's ever happened though!

[calimac]

Governments have fallen because of parliamentary votes, but the incumbents' usual response to that is to call an election. Which they frequently lose (Callaghan, 1979). There have been cases of governments resigning for reasons adjacent to, though not the same as, losing a parliamentary vote (1905, 1922, 1974).

[bens_dad]

7) What if the message had been written by Cyrano de Bergerac?

I hope she doesn't run off with ChatGPT.

[vivdunstan]

1. Good. Because logistically I don't see how someone serving in both Holyrood and Westminster can do either job properly.

6. Yup. I'm someone who finds smear tests extremely difficult. There are various reasons for it, but over time it's become so traumatic - last time left me bleeding for a week, and aching for 3 weeks - that I won't get them any more. If this wasn't readily dismissed as a "women's issue" there would be a better approach.

7. One of the most romantic messages I ever got from my future husband was written in Gaelic. Early 1990s, long before there were online translation tools. I wouldn't mind if he sent me something now translated using an online tool. I would not be happy if I knew it had been written by generative AI though. But back in the day he used a paper dictionary :)

[andrewducker]

1. I agree. You need to be in two places to vote, if nothing else.

6. It seems to vary dramatically. I'm sorry it's so hard for you.

7. Yes, people getting a bit of a hand from technology is fine. People letting technology do all of it, not so fine.