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Pheasant Plucker

@pheasant.bsky.social

570 followers 790 following 1.9K posts

Blogging the slow rehabilitation of the abandoned allotment we just took on. Also, random likes and rebleets of politics, science, climate, computing, and history. Trying to be pleasant.

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Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · Apr 6

It's better to switch out of the US tech ecosystem. Here's how I've switched: mail -> TutaMail, maps -> HereWeGo, cloud storage -> Jottacloud, eBay -> OnBuy, taxi -> Freenow or Bolt. Then there's Instagram -> PixelFed plus the whole fediverse

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Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 5h

There could be both

Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 5h

That won't solve the productivity problem of fewer people working. The only solution to that is either immigration or invest money now to pay for future pensions.

Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 10h

I'm new to this allotment business but I'm trying green manure. Sowed it a bit late though

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Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 18h

Using chat GPT to help you clearly express what you want to say is a valid use, IMHO, and will help reduce barriers to scientists who don't have English as a first language

Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 19h

The fear is that AI will make the pollution problem worse, and that is one way to interpret these results

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Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 19h

Using publish or perish as a measure of scientific productivity good against current thinking on research assessment. The number of papers in high impact journals is not a good measure of scientific quality (sfdora.org) and in fact is responsible for the pollution of scientific literature.

Home | DORA

The Declaration on Research Assessment recognizes the need to improve the ways in which the outputs of scholarly research are evaluated.

sfdora.org

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Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 1d

Weird, but also funny, that several winners first heard of their win from an AP photographer knocking on their door.

Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 1d

They know what they are putting on other people is bullshit. That's the point. It's a loyalty test and a demonstration of their dominance.

Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 1d

They have a weird obsession with sexual anatomy

Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 1d

My goto alternative to amazon and Ebay is onbuy.com, based in the UK

OnBuy | Select your country

onbuy.com

Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 1d

I love stories of #retrocomputing from behind the iron curtain. At the time these places seemed incredibly remote and mysterious www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...

Cold war power play: how the Stasi got into computer games

A new exhibition in Berlin shows how the notoriously paranoid East German state greeted the dawn of video gaming with surprising enthusiasm

www.theguardian.com

Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting choice of skin colours. Modern British period dramas tend to include mixed race actors, but older ones don't.

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Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 2d

No he said we ignore media hype and clamour for differing definitions of peace, the portraits in the room are of people of courage and integrity, and we base our decisions solely on the work of Alfred Nobel.

Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 2d

You want to raise the stakes and bring culture wars to the rest of the world. But don't drag the Nobel Committee into that!

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Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 2d

It's making the Nobel Committee sound political. I guess it seems ok to people who are used to seeing things through the lens of the US media. But trying to make what he said fit a political agenda is just fueling the fire.

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Reposted by Pheasant Plucker

Batumelebi&Netgazeti @netgazeti.org · 2d

⭕️Georgian Dream held a special briefing devoted to journalist Mzia Amaglobeli receiving the 2025 IPI–IMS World Press Freedom Hero Award.
⭕️"A continuation of the unfair political attitude toward our country," - GD complained.
#FreeMzia
#JournalismIsNotACrime
batumelebi.netgazeti.ge/articles-in-...

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Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 2d

Except that's not what he said. This post tries to bring the Nobel committee into disrepute, just for clicks and giggles.

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Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 2d

Read the manufacture of consent, by Noam Chomsky. It was eye opening for me.

Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 2d

This is the kind of answer I came here for

Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 2d

All of our institutions are incredibly vulnerable. Mostly they rely on a mutual framework of basic ethics, rather than rules and regulations. A majority of 1 in parliament could pull everything down

Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 2d

Other e commerce platforms are available www.onbuy.com/gb/p/adult-i...

ADULT INFLATABLE FROG COSTUME INFLATABLE HALLOWEEN COSTUMES on OnBuy

The frog outfit is made of durable polyester, waterproof, breathable. Frog costume for adults with a height of 150-190 cm. Inflatable frog costume...

www.onbuy.com

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Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 2d

The won't. I don't know where this idea that he might win it came from. It's a kind of fever dream of the American media.

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Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 2d

Hmm, turns out I already was

Pheasant Plucker @pheasant.bsky.social · 3d

Weirdly, Antifa became a thing around the time that fascism was invented. Quite the coincidence.

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Reposted by Pheasant Plucker

ESA Space Science @science.esa.int · 3d

To properly reach the Jupiter system in July 2031, #ESAJuice relies on ephemerides - predicted positions of celestial objects at specific times.

Mid October, you have a chance to help improve those ephemerides.

@obs-paris-psl.bsky.social has details lte.observatoiredeparis.psl.eu/Une-occultat...

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