As a reminder, if you are a teacher, do not use AI detectors. This piece mirrors what I've heard from a LOT of students on social media (panicked students commenting on my AI videos, with no reason to lie). In my opinion, whatever utility you're getting out of a way to catch cheating is not worth the risk of even one false positive. Especially the potential for systematically biased false positives. https://www.thedailybeast.com/ai-written-homework-is-rising-so-are-false-accusations
Interesting conversation and article on the major downsides of AI detectors, especially the bias it has towards flagging neurodivergent and non-native writers that raise #DEI concerns.
"To trace the unfamiliar to the familiar... is to understand."
Incredible Adventures
Algernon Henry Blackwood British writer of tales of mystery and the supernatural died #OTD in 1951. His two best-known stories are probably "The Willows" and "The Wendigo". Though Blackwood wrote a number of horror stories, his most typical work seeks less to frighten than to induce a sense of awe. via @wikipedia
@cstross
I think the biggest difference is that spaceships in movies (like Star Trek) are built in a space dock, rather than on earth. (Although the last movies show the ship being made on earth)
Having the parts beamed to a space dock (or through an orbital lift) could allow for larger, more spacious and comfortable ships...
Overshooting 1.5°C is fast becoming inevitable. Minimising the magnitude and duration of overshoot is essential. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that, due to insufficient mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHGs), no pathway remains that avoids exceeding 1.5°C global warming for at least some decades, except for truly radical transformations. Minimising the magnitude and duration of the overshoot period is critical for reducing loss and damage and the risk of irreversible changes.
A rapid and managed fossil fuel phase-out is required to stay within the Paris Agreement target range. The fast-shrinking carbon budget means that governments and the private sector must stop enabling new fossil fuel projects, accelerate the early retirement of existing infrastructure, and rapidly increase the pace of renewable energy deployment. High-income countries must lead the transition and provide support for low-income countries. All countries should pursue an equitable and just transition, minimising socio-economic impacts on the most vulnerable segments of the population.
Robust policies are critical to attain the scale needed for effective carbon dioxide removal (CDR). While not a replacement for rapid and deep emissions reductions, CDR will be necessary to deal with hard-to-eliminate emissions and eventually to reduce the global temperature. Current CDR is predominantly forest-based, but rapid acceleration and deployment at scale of other CDR methods with permanent CO2 removal is required, supported by stronger governance and better monitoring.
Over-reliance on natural carbon sinks is a risky strategy: their future contribution is uncertain. Until now, land and ocean carbon sinks have grown in tandem with increasing CO2 emissions, but research is revealing uncertainty over how they will respond to additional climate change. Carbon sinks may well absorb less carbon in the future than has been presumed from existing assessments. Therefore, emission reduction efforts have immediate priority, with nature-based solutions serving to increase carbon sinks in a complementary role to offset hard-to-abate emissions.
Joint governance is necessary to address the interlinked climate and biodiversity emergencies. The international conventions on climate change and biodiversity (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, respectively) must find better alignment. Ensuring that the allocation of climate finance has nature-positive safeguards, and strengthening concrete cross-convention collaboration, are examples of key actions in the right direction.
Compound events amplify climate risks and increase their uncertainty. “Compound events” refer to a combination of multiple drivers and/or hazards (simultaneously or sequentially), and their impacts can be greater than the sum of individual events. Identifying and preparing for specific compound events is crucial for robust risk management and providing support in emergency situations.
Mountain glacier loss is accelerating. Deglaciation in response to climate change is even quicker in high mountain areas, including the Hindu Kush Himalayas and polar regions. This threatens populations downstream with water shortages in the longer term (including approximately 2 billion for the Himalayas), and exposes mountain dwellers to increased hazards, such as flash flooding.
Human immobility in areas exposed to climate risks is increasing. People facing climate risks may be unable or unwilling to relocate, and existing institutional frameworks do not account for immobility and are insufficient to anticipate or support the needs of these populations.
New tools to operationalise justice enable more effective climate adaptation. Monitoring the distinct dimensions of justice and incorporating them as part of strategic climate adaptation planning and evaluation can build resilience to climate change and decrease the risk of maladaptation.
Reforming food systems can contribute to just climate action. Food systems have a key role to play in climate action, with viable mitigation options spanning from production to consumption. However, interventions should be designed with and for equity and justice as linked outcomes, and implementation of mitigation measures should be done inclusively with diverse stakeholders across multiple scales.
Ich habe ganz vergessen, dass ich bei First Press Games Chained Echoes bestellt habe. Irgendwie ist es mir heute wieder eingefallen. Es sollte eigentlich im 4. Quartal fertig sein, ist aber schon seit einem halben Jahr unverändert im Releaseprozess 😑 Ein bisschen ärgert mich das, ich bin mir sicher, dass es dieses Jahr nichts mehr wird 😏
For your holiday wish list...my adaptations of classic @neilhimself short stories published by @darkhorsecomics ! Two Eisners, the Locus, Bram Stoker, Ringo Award - & Reuben, Excelsior, Tripwire, Rondo nominees. https://amzn.to/47Jiiwg
What are some of your favorite pieces of writing about #climatechange? Any genre, directly or indirectly related content, but a piece where the writing really stands out to you.
The End of Eden
Wild Nature in the Age of Climate Breakdown
An exquisitely written and deeply researched exploration of wild species reacting to climate breakdown, The End of Eden offers a radical new kind of environmental journalism that connects humans to nature in a more empathetic way than ever before and galvanizes us to act in defense of the natural world before it's too late.
Can anyone share a reference (any discipline) to a definition or use of 'politics' / 'political' in the non-technical/metaphorical sense (i.e., not about government) to refer to ideological (or other?) underpinnings?
@serenissimaj
In Spain (and not only in Spain), politicians use the word "political" a lot to refer to "ideological" decisions. Both words (politics and ideology) have ended up having a negative meaning: fantasy, falsehood, partisan interests, etc. And there is no doubt that this way of using these words is contributing to the deterioration of political life.
Obviously, any opinion or decision about how things should be is political and ideological. The definition I like best is that of Chantal Mouffe (On the political, 2005, p. 9):
"I distinguish between 'the political' and 'politics': by 'the political I mean the dimension of antagonism which I take to be constitutive of human societies, while by 'politics' I mean the sets of practices and institutions through which an order is created, organizing human coexistence in the context of conflictuality provided by the political".