It's been a busy first day here at Everything Electric NORTH in Harrogate - lots of discussions about heat pumps, micromobility, the accessiblity of an electrified world, EV charging, and LOADS of great ideas that could go in political manifestos (I've been asking everyone). I'll start tomorrow with a fireside chat with Robert.. and I have lots to say 🙂
#EverythingElectric #FullyChargedShow
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It occurred to me this evening that society’s atttitude to AI is like that thing about believing every story in a newspaper except the one on your area of expertise, which is full of flaws. Society seems to believe uncritically that AI can/will do all these difficult things (drive cars, select job candidates), but whenever we’re actually faced with it, it’s not nearly as convincing (drive cars, select job candidates).
In Blue Machine, I wrote about both the Heard Island experiment (an audacious attempt to take the temperature of the whole ocean using sound) and also haddock mating calls. It was therefore very pleasing to find posters at the huge Ocean Sciences meeting a few weeks ago on those completely unrelated topics (apart from both involving sound), sitting right next to each other.
#Books #ocean #science
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This sort of thing isn't unusual, but this was particularly brazon:
Request from a production company, wanting me to be an expert contributor to a documentary about the rocks/chemicals supplied by Saudi Arabia that might contribute to net zero "that will be aired on major platforms", and they refused to tell me the context or other content, show me the plan for the whole documentary, or tell me who is funding it.
Helping COP28 greenwashing? No thank you.
#climate #COP28 #KSA
I think I'm still in recovery from learning a few weeks ago that Canadian fossil fuel companies tell people that because it's "natural" gas that they produce, burning it can't hurt the environment. And people believe them. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, remember that and 🤯🤯🤯🤯
#climate #oil #gas #natural
@a0450fe8 I think that we're stuck with everything being really fragmented for years, or at least until someone bullies the tech giants into interoperability. I'm on everything, but focussed here and on BlueSky. I really miss the interactions too... but I don't think we're getting that back for a long time.
@96c84248 Authors don’t really get any say in who reads the audiobook. The publishers just arrange it, and if they ask us, we might say yes. Last time (Storm in a teacup) they never even asked me. There is a trend towards author reading, but not all writers are good readers.
@064ba839 US and Canadian versions are identical. The UK version is all SI units, but for the US version the horizontal distances are in miles and the rest is SI. That’s a huge step forward, though - last time they made me convert all distances.
Well, that's a new one. I'm on a train to Carlisle which has been stuck at Preston for a while (after a load of people got on here), and was already overcrowded because the train before it was cancelled. They’ve just announced that the train is overcrowded and they will not let the train move until some people leave the train. So now everyone is looking at everyone else, wondering who is going to move.
WHY are we underfunding railways to the point where this is even an option?
#trains
This is a horrendous decision: Rosebank, the largest untapped oilfield in UK waters, has been approved by the UK government. This comes via the regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority, which is in severe need of reform.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working on a podcast series about the structure and ownership of the UK oil sector, because this is essential understanding for dismantling it. It’s been eye-opening, but empowering. It’ll be out in 2-3 weeks.
#Rosebank #oil #climate
@599be288 Oh, it's huge. Far less noise overall, especially at the low frequencies. Less of a reduction at the high frequencies but they don't travel so far anyway.
Science/coastal hivemind, I need your help. We’re working on the underwater acoustics of small all-electric boats (almost certainly far less underwater noise pollution than engines). We would like to do some trials - just measuring the sound near an electric boat - but we’re struggling to find someone in (or very near) the UK who has an electric boat we could use/hire. Has anyone got any ideas or know anyone who owns an electric boat?
#boats #electric #sea
@b2d9fca2 But the cities that were "built around ancient footpaths" adapted to cars, and are now starting to transition back. Amsterdam was a deeply car-based city until they decided consciously to make a change 30 years ago. There's no reason why cities designed around cars can't adapt to a less car-based existence - just look at all the space the roads take up! That offers lots of flexibility. We just need to try harder and to think and experiment more.
The majestic, intricate and fascinating story of the ocean is coming to a town near you (or perhaps nearer than before). Here's the autumn's list of UK book talks for Blue Machine (US list coming soon). See you there?
""[Czerski’s] profound, sparkling global ocean voyage mingles history and culture, natural history, geography, animals and people."
― Andrew Robinson, Nature"
#books #ocean #talks #science
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As an experimentalist, I'm tired of being told that my role is to "validate models". No, it isn't. It's my job to find out what nature is actually up to, which is almost always more nuanced, surprising and intricate than the modellers thought, and for them to see if they can accurately simulate the consequences computationally.
The game here is to understand nature, not to be convenient.
#SmallRant #science
I just had a video call with a colleague who is on a ship at the North Pole. A VIDEO CALL. It was smooth and bug-free and he could have been just down the road.
And this is the end of an era, in a gigantic way. One of the most special things about these expeditions is that you’re isolated - recently you might get text-only e-mails once a day, but that was it. You had to actually be present all the time, because the people on board were all you had.
And that is now the past. I’m truly gutted.
The UK is to rejoin the EU’s Horizon research scheme AND Copernicus (the Earth observation satellite system). Very cheering news to start the day!
It doesn’t really make up for the stupidity of leaving in the first place, or the damage done to our research base when our contributions stopped, though.
https://www.ft.com/content/87093b77-5a94-41b1-b943-9a89ac71118b
#science #Copernicus #EU
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This weekend's homework is reading about birds of prey, and I am very much enjoying the very literal names of some owl species. Favourites so far: Powerful Owl Flammulated Owl ("flame coloured") Fearful Owl Spectaculed Owl 1/2 https://fediscience.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/454/732/590/976/375/original/b84f036c2da2e1b6.jpeg