TechScribbler

02/12/2025

We are increasingly fu**ed. Hopefully it won't be too late to turn things around once the current clown show in the US is over. I wouldn't bet on it right now.

02/12/2025

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2025/vulture-extinction-rabies-dogs/?itid=sf_climate-environment_article-list_1_1

"The decimated vultures competing for dead cattle, the dogs that have become their rivals and the boy fighting for his life all form links in an ecological chain reaction, according to scientists. The sequence, triggered by human action that took a decade to identify, carries a warning as we drive Earth deeper into what many scientists consider to be a sixth mass extinction........When we endanger other species, we endanger ourselves.'

It's an old story since, ever since the development of farming and settled groups of humans, for one reason or another we've seen other species either as a competitor for resources, or a sickness threat. And then there's always greed. Think of the North American bison.

As this story about the vulture in India, which we are taught to think of as a dirty and dispensable creature, shows, we think that way at our own peril.

The near-extinction of vultures in India has had severe consequences.

31/08/2025

"Mr. Trump himself insists that, overall, he wants to save science. His defenders argue that he is cutting bloated budgets to restore public trust in science and spark a golden age of discovery.......Defenders of the postwar order concede that federal science management can be improved. But the Trumpian cure is, they add, far worse than any disease. They dismiss his recent moves and pronouncements as little more than pretexts for what they see as repressive tactics inspired by contemporary autocrats."

Hmmm...Trump "wants to save science"......The technical term for this is BULLSH*T.....if I wasn't already crying, I would be laughing.

Authoritarians have long feared and suppressed science as a rival for social influence. Experts see President Trump as borrowing some of their tactics.

31/08/2025

Authoritarians have long feared and suppressed science as a rival for social influence. Experts see President Trump as borrowing some of their tactics.

26/08/2025

“The social media giant has already donated to various down-ballet candidates from both parties. This new PAC signals an intent to influence statewide elections, including the next governor’s race in 2026.”

26/08/2025

Students down the decades -- centuries -- have looked for ways to dodge actual learning, while still looking to get that good exam result that will help them stand out in that ruthless competition called life. Now AI is here, it's just another -- though far easier to manage -- way of doing that.

Personally, I don't understand the mentality behind this. In my expertise -- writing -- I'd truly wonder why students were in a class just to hand over that writing exam to some piece of software. Aren't they studying writing because they want the pleasure and frustration and mind-bending angst (sometimes) of trying to wrestle words onto paper or screen, so they reflect their true feelings and intentions? Why give that experience over to an unfeeling machine (apologies to all the AIs out there)?

Also, if the broader intention of education is to turn out people who can think for themselves, organize those thoughts and rationally argue their take on various issues etc., what's the point in letting an AI do all that for you?

I'm trying not to be too naive about this. I know learning, particularly at college, is a way to a lucrative career (hint: Good luck with that if you marry an AI) for many. I also know that, when pressed for time on an assignment, ChatGPT or other bot is a tempting way of solving that mini crisis. Still, I wonder if the other side of using AI in education is not finding a way to cheat with it, but questioning what education is for in this day and age, and whether AI should, eventually, be spearheading so much of it?

19/08/2025

Connecting tubes between bacteria and a kind of microbe called archaea may reflect a symbiotic relationship that led to complex cells more than 2 billion years ago

19/08/2025

Powerful Hurricane Erin to bring high seas, big waves, rip currents and rough surf as it moves between the United States and Bermuda.

19/08/2025

Test-run shows how a team of three autonomous robots could search for extraterrestrial environments suitable for sheltering humans.

17/08/2025

Podcast Episode · Asimov Press · 08/14/2025 · 24m

16/08/2025

"Few content creators have the money for lawsuits, so some are adopting more radical methods of fighting back. They are using online tools that make it harder for AI bots to find their content – or that manipulate it in a way that tricks bots into misreading it, so that the AI begins to confuse images of cars with images of cows, for example. But while this “AI poisoning” can help content creators protect their work, it might also inadvertently make the web a more dangerous place."

The web is awash with bots that scrape data without permission. Now content creators are poisoning the well of artificial intelligence – but similar technology can also be used to spread misinformation