They are probably going out earlier in the day than usual to get back before it's too hot, not used to meeting a large vehicle along there, and, as a general observation, people's driving standards drop in hot weather. Drive safely, people, because, if you have a collision with a bus, the bus will probably still be driveable. (The electric single decker I drive is nearly 12500 kgs - even a diesel single decker is 7-10 thousand kgs)
I drive the same school bus every day (and have done so for about 5 years). Part of the route is through some narrow winding country roads. There are several places where, if someone else is coming the other way, both parties have to slow and move over to pass safely. Today, on that section, I met about three times as many cars as usual, and the majority were moving towards me too fast, didn't slow enough, and were near the centre of the road. I think that this is because of the heat 1/2
#music #free #festival #honestfun (and not just folk music - the festival has outgrown the nomenclature, and covers all sorts of music including Rock, Pop, and other genres.) Funded by raffle tickets (and a few other places fundraising through the year). Food and drink profits in the Rugby Club bar go to them, who provide the site for free. Accessible by public transport (bus from Mansfield bus/railway station, then 4-5 minutes' walk). Nearby chippy (10 minutes' walk). Anyone interested?
TFW someone at a (very very well-known) Dutch art/design academy invites you for a talk but can't/won't cover travel expenses (as you're expected to pay them out of your fee, which would have been extremely meager, even for arts standards). The resulting pay, after paying for travel expenses, would have been less than you received when you gave talks as a grad student over 15 years ago.
I politely declined.
Overheard quite an astute observation: "the point of elite education is to mix up together the very rich kids and the very smart kids, so at the end of it you can't tell which is which. The average rich kids come out looking smarter, and the middle class smart kids get a taste of how the very rich live."
Maybe some of my intelligent friends on here can help: If I try to entice some crows to eat, how many do I have to persuade before it becomes a tempted murder?
Artists and creative types (of all sorts) - please don't hesitate to post what you're doing, even if you aren't that happy with it. Compared to the slop that passes for 'good enough', it's bound to be brilliant, and I, like many others, want proper creativity, not rehashed rubbish. #art #Artist #Music #MusicProduction #crocheting #knitting #creativity #Photography #cinema #theatre #amateurDramatics #drama #Writing
Yesterday there was an all hands meeting at my company to say that we're going "AI first".
The aim is to get everybody really leaning in on LLM tools, and a working group set up to start researching new workflows and sharing them for everybody to use....
So the end of April will be my last day.
I'm planning to start actually selling some of the hardware synthesisers I've designed, as well as picking up bits and pieces of freelance work.
Hit me up if you want noises made or circuits soldered.
The day before the anniversary of my natality (and a significant one), I joined my uke group at an old peoples' home, entertaining the really-oldies:
Arrived at a hotel in Amiens where we shall be spending the next 6 nights. Having turned the heater down massively and opened the window (it was set to 27C!), found where the ensuite light switch was, and settled in, I switched the telly on. For some reason, all the programmes are in French! 😉
I turn 60 in November, so I am hoping to celebrate with some (mainly uke- playing) friends at the end of October in Paris. Hope to have people from France, Germany and the UK, common language English. Any other musicians are welcome to come and jam too. Provisional date is Sat Oct 25th. Anyone else who is a musician, or wants to come and sing, is welcome. It will be in a public space, so personal safety will be in your control. #ukelele #ukulele #Music #busking #acousticmusic #jam #Paris
But the most serious concern is that I NEVER travel with ALL my personal belongings anyway, on any one trip, most of them are at home! I know that's taking it literally, but WHY else would you include both the words 'all' and 'personal' in it otherwise? 2/2
Did you know that you can just pay attention to whatever little animals you see outside wherever you happen to live? It’s free and fun. You can find out their names or make up your own (but note that you might later learn that two “different animals” you named are the males and females of the same species).
This works for plants and mushrooms too!
OpenAI Furious DeepSeek Might Have Stolen All the Data OpenAI Stole From Us
«Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahhahahahahahahahahahahaha. It is, as many have already pointed out, incredibly ironic that OpenAI, a company that has been obtaining large amounts of data from all of humankind largely in an “unauthorized manner,” and, in some cases, in violation of the terms of service of those from whom they have been taking from, is now complaining about the very practices by which it has built its company.»
https://www.404media.co/openai-furious-deepseek-might-have-stolen-all-the-data-openai-stole-from-us/
That was clearly to be expected, but it's nonetheless such comedy gold. :1000:
thanks @404mediaco 🙃
In light of US tech oligarchy setting its sights on Wikimedia Foundation, a historical detail I did not know before: #Wikipedia became the non-profit it is today partly as the result of a labour strike of Spanish Wikipedia editors who disagreed with the proposed inclusion of advertisements. Initially, it was not clear what revenue model Wikipedia would get, and Wales moved towards a for-profit model already a year after launch. However, rather than working for free, so Jimmy Wales could profit from their labour via advertising, Spanish contributors forked Spanish Wikipedia as the Encyclopedia Libre Universal. Under the threat of losing the editorial community of such a large language, Wales conceded and set up the non-profit.
That is to say, however imperfect they are, all the digital commons we have are the result of ongoing struggle and hard work to keep them as commons.
Via Las Redes Son Nuestras (https://www.consonni.org/es/publicaciones/las-redes-son-nuestras) by @teclista
Update with more info:
https://post.lurk.org/@rra/113873611500414068
I've been thinking a lot about what a friend pointed out - that mixed gendered spaces often quickly become male-exclusive because men tend to have much higher tolerance for arsehole behaviour than women, so it only takes one dodgy person to destroy a community as all the women basically leave. Once such a community has heavy male bias it can hardly recover, and its lack of representation means it can hardly succeed in any social, cultural or technical aims. Rings true for the extraordinarily bad gender balance in free/open source software in the context of the Stallman report.