dwim | Member Posts

1. Persistent attenuation of lymphocyte subsets after mass SARS-CoV-2 infection: (tags:immune_system pandemic )
2. Huge fire shuts Scotland's busiest train station indefinitely: (tags:Glasgow Scotland fire trains )

I was chatting to a couple of friends last week, and realised that I really fancied having one of those "bar chart race" videos for my links, showing what had been the most popular links over the last 21 years that I've been saving links (to Delicious, and then Pinboard).

So I downloaded the JSON blob of my whole link history, used some PowerShell to slice and dice it into a CSV, and uploaded it to a site that converts a bunch of data with dates into a bar chart race. And voila:

Watch on YouTube

Unsurprising to see "Europe" break the top 20 in 2017. Followed a year later by "OhForFucksSake".

Both files available here, for the very curious.

selki

DC area folks may be interested in lovely Glen Echo Park pictures in several recent entries by

austin_dern . His way is to write journal entries (mostly about amusement park visits & history, hence the Glen Echo shots) and then include a batch of photos which may not be about that journal entry at all. But there are some very nice pictures of the Bumper Car Pavillion, the carousel, and more.

Books: I am really glad I read (listened to) Cat Sebastian's After Hours at Dooryard Books (thanks to

lcohen 's recommendation). Set in 1968 NYC*, a bookstore manager teaches his secretive new assistant about the business and then the bookstore manager's just-widowed sister and her baby move in. Aside from the slow burn love story (with the assistant), there's a fair bit about folk music, the music industry, anti-war protests of the time, walks through the city, and how to keep going when many things are terrible. Lots of resonance with our time, some love and hope, and a very good read.
* Incidentally, one of three books with garbage strikes I read in February, just happened that way.

Home life

This year my house is 100 years old and I am 60 years old, so maybe I should plan a big backyard party for us both for May or later. After a very cold and snow-laden February, suddenly it's getting very warm, so in theory I could throw a party sooner, but I have too much chores to put on a big party.
Mainly, I need to deal with my taxes (I know, I know), get my car fixed (a small crack on my windshield last weekend has this week meandered over a foot across so I got an appointment for next week), get a passport replacement (stymied b/c I accidentally threw the old one away in a folder of Germany maps, and the forms don't quite cover that and I don't want to lie), and do some de-cluttering.
My basement computer which is the more secure Ethernet-connected one where I like to do my financial stuff wouldn't display to its monitor for a while but it's better now (I took fresh backups as soon as I temporarily fixed it) so I really need to get going on organizing 2024 tax materials.
I have played a lot of Garden Joy and Polytopia this weekend.

Work

The worst federal lead has had us do a lot with metrics and road map for a big presentation he has next week. We finally got things into shape that pleases him Friday. Also, he attended some new-to-him meetings I was in last Thursday, finally realized I do a lot of work and have a lot of expertise he was ignoring, and spoke to me with a little more appreciation Thursday evening. We'll see if that lasts.
The work for the OTHER federal lead went by the wayside for a while and I need to pick it back up and jam on it before our meeting Wednesday afternoon.
Middle and upper management at both my employer and my client are jamming AI down our throats, the worst literally to the point of "But ChatGPT says" to contradict our recommendations.
I now have to drive in to the DC office 2x week. I love my old house but am sometimes a little overwhelmed by it (basement leak, etc.) and the yard, especially since my sister moved out. So I actually looked at 3 town/rowhouses a 20-minute walk from work, and I really like and could afford one of them, but I really shouldn't think about applying for a new mortgage until I file those taxes, plus this may not be the time to go back into debt. The commute is really tiring me out (I know others have it worse), but I am listening to more audiobooks.
I finally made back my hours from the negative leave I was in from the fall shutdown, so maybe I can take a day off later in March.

andrewducker

1. Fans of weird/spooky 70s movies might be interested in "Rose of Nevada": (tags:movies trailer video )

andrewducker

About two months ago Gideon discovered Mario Odyssey. He played ¾ of it with me, and then restarted and played the whole game by himself.

And then followed that up by playing all of Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

And then, this afternoon, discovered that we have a PS4. So now we're playing The Last Guardian. He is delighted by his pet dog-dragon.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

andrewducker

Last Sunday Sophia threw up.

She spent Monday and Tuesday with a fever, and then Wednesday clearly feeling better but not well enough to go to school.

She was mostly either asleep or watching videos. I worked at home on the Monday, when she mostly slept.

On Tuesday I had to work from the office, which is when Jane had to deal with a lot of...demands.

And then I worked at home on Wednesday, although I did drop-off and pick-up. She continued to have demands, and we split them as best we could, depending on who had meetings when.

And then by Thursday she was feeling much better, and made it in to school for World Book Day, where she was Sophie from the BFG (pyjamas and drawn-on glasses). And since then she's thankfully been fine.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

vass

Anyone know why Private Mode might be failing to clear cookies when I close the browser?

(Saving this draft then closing the app to see whether I can reproduce it on Dreamwidth. Yup.)

That's the bug.

andrewducker

1. AI ruins inviting authors to book clubs: (tags:ai writing OhForFucksSake )
2. Are AI-generated summaries suitable for studying and research?: (tags:ai knowledge writing )

andrewducker

1. Reminder that unless there is something that you can actively do to make things better, there is no point inflicting the horrors on yourself: (tags:news comic horror )
2. Mondrian Entered the Public Domain. The Estate Disagrees.: (tags:copyright art usa law OhForFucksSake )
3. Endometriosis in the UK - diagnosis takes a decade and dozens of visits: (tags:endometriosis NHS healthcare UK OhForFucksSake )
4. Why Britain is Quietly Spending £725 Billion to Rebuild the Country: (tags:UK investment labour )
5. Women's Institute vows to keep welcoming trans women: (tags:women transgender LGBT UK GoodNews viaPatrickHadfield )
6. The Greens are nearly first with YouGov (and 5% ahead of Labour): (tags:polls GreenParty uk )
7. U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for "Armageddon," Return of Jesus: (tags:religion military USA OhForFucksSake armageddon Iran christianity )

andrewducker

1 photo every year
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

andrewducker

A bit of context - A safe Labour seat switched to a seat where Labour came third (Greens 40%, Reform 28%, Labour 25%).

1) That wasn't as close as polls made it out to be. The polls had Green 7% above or tied with Labour, who were either 3% ahead of or tied with Reform. Instead, Greens walked it by 12%. If we're going to be stuck with making decisions about tactical voting based on the polls then we need polls that are more accurate than that!

2) This is the worst possible result for Labour. If people are going to vote tactically against Reform (which they really want to do), then you *really* want to be able to place yourself as the best alternative to beat them. And now we've had two by-elections where that wasn't the case. One in Wales, which Plaid Cymru won and one in *Manchester*, a Labour heartland, which the Greens won. This makes it look like even where Labour are historically strong they aren't going to beat Reform.

3) What does this do for the Greens in the council elections? Well, presumably it sets them up to claim that they're a strong contender to beat Reform, everywhere where Labour is currently the lead. They might be! They might not be! But it really doesn't look good for Labour any way around.

4) What does it do for the Lib Dems in the council elections? It probably locks them out from any of the Labour heartlands - they'll focus on the Conservative areas of the country. Which, frankly, appears to be their strategy anyway.

5) I have no idea who a bunch of people actually wanted to vote for. It seems likely that at least 28% wanted to vote for each of Labour, Greens, and Reform, but if the polls had shown that Labout was on 30% and Greens were on 28%, who would that extra 12% who voted for the Greens have turned out for?

6) This is a bloody stupid way to run an election system. "I'll vote for whoever has the best chance of beating the party I don't like" is such a fragile way of voting for anything. It "works" in a 2 (or 2.5) party system, as England has been stuck in for decades. It completely fails in a 5 party system (6 in Wales and Scotland).

7) What does this mean for Keir Starmer? Well, I reckon nobody else wants to be PM for the council elections. So I'm not expecting him to resign until the 8th of May.

8) What does this mean for Labour's "Tack rightward to gain votes from fascists" strategy? Your guess is as good as mine, but I really hope it's dead now.

andrewducker

Nice sunset.

(And lovely that the sun is up when I wake the kids at 7am and the sky still looks like this when I get home at 6pm)
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

andrewducker

1. Probably Hans Zimmer's finest work: (tags:music movies Disney video funny )

andrewducker

A critical question came up at lunch today, for which I do not have a satisfactory answer. So, throwing it open to the floor:

Are there *any* movies which would not be improved by the addition of Godzilla?