The YT Algorithm surfaced this just now.

Even though I don't understand a word of what was said, the intent was pretty clear. Nice job! 👍

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geZh_TZlPzw

This just happened. I promised myself I’d make it to this milestone before I close the account. Off to close it now, too much AI slop for my liking.

It's a relief to see major UK media calling out the US role in Israel's ongoing Gaza genocide. In the Guardian, Mehdi Hasan points the finger firmly at both Biden and Trump and the various US warmongers driving this humanitarian tragedy. The people who could make it stop at any time.

“This is an American genocide as much as it is an Israeli one.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/02/the-us-complicit-genocide-israel-gaza

#Gaza #Genocide

Forget the Big Bang: Gravitational waves may have really created the Universe
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/07/250730030404.htm

A team of scientists has proposed a groundbreaking new theory on the Universe's origins, offering a fresh, radical take on the Big Bang's early moments. Unlike the widely accepted inflationary model, which involves speculative assumptions, the new model starts with the established concept of De Sitter space, aligning with dark energy obser...

I mean, I probably have enough leave - just - to make it there again this year if I really really wanted to... but travelling to Vancouver again for the 2nd time in 3 months is a bit much 😅

Let's hope the stars align the next time it's held there.

Weather forecast for Canterbury this morning:
"All eyes on late next week, with growing indications of a prolonged period of bitterly cold weather"

What?! Please let it not be next weekend on my birthday!

(Note to self: One of these years, I really should just take the week off to visit Siggraph - as it usually starts on or around that date. It's just ironic that I never did it while still working in that industry, but nevertheless, I have always wanted to attend the proper North American one at least once)

I have the blood of too many default cubes on my hands #blender3d #b3d

Stand Off

Drone bane staring competition on chimney

Lens: Tamron 18-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD on a Fujifilm X-T30

#photography #landscapephotography #thelakedistrict #landscape #fujifilm #chimney #tamron #reflections #photographer #bird #birdphotography #seagull #gull #monochrome #blackandwhitephotography

I popped out to the airport this afternoon to see if there was anything interesting about. Not really.

But as I arrived at one of the popular photography spots, I was walking past another photographer when he very politely said hello.

Long story short, he was a young man from Beijing. We ended up chatting for a while, even though he had some trouble with English at times.

A very interesting man with some stories to tell, as well as some really impressive photos. For my part I shared some local knowledge with him and we compared cameras as I was ever so slightly jealous of his.

Amazing who you can meet through shared interests.

Hah! And just like when I was still an active researcher, I did a first-pass literature-search to check if anyone has tried doing this very thing I've been thinking of.

AKA: "Real-Time Detection + Forecasting of Turbulence Regions from ADS-B Data"

The good / bad news:
* Hah! As is usual for research-y projects I think of working on, this is actually something that has been tried... and/but

* Yay! In this instance actually, they actually managed to get something working along these lines [1] - though with a few additional parameters I hadn't thought of using, but very much trying to do what I was thinking of...

* The bit that makes me feel less like an outdated/hopeless dinosaur though are:
a) It sounds like they are apparently only still in the "trial" / "validation" stage currently, from the press releases I saw.
b) It's "still" in that stage, as they only really announced that they got it working late last year / early this year! (For context: Usually, I end up rehashing things from several decades ago instead! So to only be almost a year off the pace in this instance is really not too bad, all things considered 😜)

[1] https://aireon.com/using-ads-b-data-to-detect-turbulence/

Yikes! Much like banning gang patches has just made it slightly harder to identify gang members (due to the most obvious markings no longer being present), it seems that VFF Cookers have re-organised + re-strategised to sound almost pedestrian-ly "sane" / not-rabid.

Sneaky.... very sneaky... 😒

https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360770037/quiet-campaign-inside-freedom-movements-bid-council-influence

Video Title: "Boeing KC-46 Boom Detaches During Refueling"

Internet Comments: "Boom went boom"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEbpL5vxWIU

While I do have a bunch of other projects on the go already, I may just have to have a play with this tonight for the hell of it 🤓

Even better is that this is all a bunch of Python code! And there are some easily available datasets out there to tinker with...

And of course, there's been an idea I'm very keen to see if we can try to detect and forecast from such data for a while! I only wonder if we have sufficient data resolution to pull it off (which I suspect we don't)!

Worst case, I can just play with some more dataviz stuff again 😅

Ooh... Just stumbled across another fascinating area of research that I may just have to have a play with! 🤓

1) Blog title: Weather Model Based on ADS-B Data
https://obrhubr.org/adsb-weather-model

2) Github Repo of Paper from TU Delft about the core tech: Inferring weather data from ADS-B data

https://github.com/junzis/meteo-particle-model

For the uninitiated: ADS-B is the 2-3 Hz publicly available tracking data coming off *all* (*) legally operating aircraft (that most folks are interested in). Most of the world uses this over traditional "radar" nowadays.

(*) Correction: At least here in NZ AFAIK. Other parts of the world may be patchy (e.g. South Korea apparently can't use it due to NK jamming IIRC)

Best description of current Trump madness on tariffs:
"What an idiot! He's pushed away all his friendly allies so he can spend all his time haggling with intransigent enemies to try to win some crumbs..." 🤣

That's it! Have applied a liberal dousing of ant sand outside my window 🤬

Came home to find a hoard of ants running towards the kitchen paper I'd kept my shaver foil on after cleaning it this morning. Dunno if they were attracted by the soap fragrance, the brush, or the few specs of facial hair specs I couldn't get off.

Nevertheless, I'm fed up with all this ant activity!

Worse, the normalisation of malware, by Goggle;

https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-google.en.html

... Adobe;

https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-adobe.en.html

... And grApple;

https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-apple.en.html

I'd love to find someone here who disagrees with the claim that proprietary development inevitably leads to enshittification, and can explain why. Without getting shouty when their apologetics are deconstructed and fact-checked, by someone who's been at this for a while (about ... 25 years).

Anyone agree with Curtis Yarvin on this?

(6/6)

Tōrea

It is interesting how one's regular 'stomping ground' may affect which birds you commonly see. The Tōrea Pango is classified as Uncommon Endemic, yet I see them often. It is counterintuitive, to me, that the Tōrea (South Island Pied Oystercatcher, Haematopus finschi) pictured here is classified as Abundant Endemic, yet I captured my first photos in winter 2025! I encountered a small flock — a dozen or so — around the Pāuatahanui Inlet, over two days in mid-June.

https://justbirds.photo/2025/torea/

But It's Not Early

Shirley Șerban - You're In My Chair ( Grumpy Cats Singing Covid Song parody during our time at home! )

https://youtu.be/UFBEami1qIg

#JukeboxFridayNight
#SongsToMakeUsSmile