Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 8

My Gameboy Color with a new tempered glass screen

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Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 1

and some more Hard Off finds…

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Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 1

some toys - some working and some not - I picked up while in Japan

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Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Nov 18

Do whatever you need to do to get to Japan. They have donuts that look like a Diglett

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Reposted by Andrew Blance

Lauren Beukes @laurenbeukes.com · Sep 24

For more AI stuff, you want to catch the Brains on the Outside podcast when it drops next week where the guys come up with some ingenious and genuinely doable solutions to my question on how to poison the well and stop LLMs training on my (and other people's) novels

Alex Waterston @moggy.bsky.social · Sep 16

Two weeks today you'll be able to listen to the first episodes of SEASON 2 of Brains on the Outside. It has taken an entire year to record but it's all new and shiny and good. We've got QUESTIONS this year from businesses like AllBirds, AutoTrader and the amazing author @laurenbeukes.bsky.social.

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Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Feb 10

behold, my new favourite Quest 3 app.

Today I started learning how to make AR experiences on the quest 3 and created this cube

Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Feb 3

bless the maker and his water xo

Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Jan 14

before/after optimisations

(I promise the dip in image two came from me opening the quest menu to take a screen grab, not my app!)

Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Jan 10

Holy crap the scrip to David Lynch’s version of Dune Messiah has been found

I Found David Lynch’s Lost 'Dune II' Script

It was only about halfway done, but the script David Lynch wrote for the sequel to his 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel, "Dune," was still better than "Dune Messiah."

www.wired.com

Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Jan 9

Ok maybe it is worth $3,500

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Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Jan 9

Does it feel like the web is getting worse?

This incredible (and very aesthetic) article from The Verge explains how Google have incentivised the creation of a homogeneous internet.

It includes a great demonstration of taking a website and changing (ruining) it to make it perfect in Google’s eyes

How Google perfected the web

The web is filled with content designed for Google, not humans.

www.theverge.com

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Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Jan 5

Daybreak has some of the most beautiful art I’ve seen used in a board game (it’s also very fun to play)

Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Jan 3

One thing I didn’t expect about turning 30 was how much I would begin to deeply care about dehumidifiers

Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Jan 1

Pokémon concierge is ludicrously charming. The stop motion is amazing. It all just makes me want to live in a world with Pokemon in it.

Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 31

Something interesting from the evidence NYT provided for their lawsuit against Microsoft: you can get ChatGPT to reproduce articles even originally behind a paywall if you ask for them one paragraph at a time

Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 31

When NYT said that Microsoft/ OpenAI can entirely reproduce their articles, they really meant it

Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 30

Yesterday I ate my more cheese than I care to admit, and then this morning attempted the park run.

I live in regret also

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Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 27

Makes me want to hop in a bunker and enter some numbers into a computer every 108 minutes

Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 27

This is glorious and it’s all I’ve been listening to the last two days 🎶

Alex Lahey covering Make Your Own Kind of Music:
youtu.be/Ynb3_VB7j2s?...

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Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 27

Very interesting research field. A lot of potential here for future work

What are the quarks that form a Mario and Luigi? Is it Baby Mario’s and Baby Luigi’s?

Quarks are coloured red (like Mario), green (like Luigi) and blue (???). Coincidence??

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Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 26

In the metaverse you can experience strange and perculiar things. Wonders you cannot possibly imagine, and terrors to freeze your soul.

Today I learned to make a button to create infinite quantities of meat, and how I could eat it as well. Is this how folks who aren’t vegetarian live their lives?

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Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 26

The Old World core boxes for Bretonnia and Khemri look beautiful. Don’t know if my wallet can handle it though given all the 40K Kroot rumours around…

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Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 25

New Doctor Who was excellent - can’t believe we have to wait till May for more

Lots of fun bits - “mavity”, goblin rope science, Davina McCall, “Never seen a TARDIS before?”

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Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 25

hwfg

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Andrew Blance @andrewblance.bsky.social · Dec 24

The rise of scammers and “special issues” have meant 10,000 research paper were retracted this year!

Last year it was <6000, and before that <4000. In 2017 it was <2000. An enormous rise!

More than 10,000 research papers were retracted in 2023 — a new record

The number of articles being retracted rose sharply this year. Integrity experts say that this is only the tip of the iceberg. The number of articles being retracted rose sharply this year. Integrity ...

www.nature.com

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