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Reposted by Simon Christmas

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 20h

Is there anything Aristotle *didn't* already think about?

Danny Robb @inverting-vision.bsky.social · 6d

Aristotle noticed that when bees returned to the hive, they shook or "danced" in front of a group. Millennia later, scientists debated whether it was a form of "language" amid shifts in scientific methods and philosophies in the 20th century.

#histsci 🗃️ #bees

daily.jstor.org/the-bee-danc...

The Bee Dance Debate - JSTOR Daily

Can insects communicate? In the middle of the twentieth century, scientists disagreed on whether bees could possess a “language” expressed through motion.

daily.jstor.org

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Reposted by Simon Christmas

Alice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 1d

Andy Street is spot on. Birmingham is a brilliant city. Vibrant, diverse, wonderful.

BBC Newsnight @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social · 1d

“I’ll put it bluntly, Robert is wrong… it’s actually a very integrated place... Not the definition of a slum.”

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands 2017-24, responds to Robert Jenrick's comments on Handsworth.

#Newsnight

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 1d

I can think of plenty of places in the UK where Robert Jenrick could go and see *only* white faces; but I doubt he’d complain about a “lack of integration” if he went to them, or worry that that they were “not the kind of country he wants to live in”.

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Reposted by Simon Christmas

Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 12d

In discussion with a computer scientist from the University of Cambridge last night:

Me: "you've described some of the things that AI is good at. How would you describe the category of things it's not good at?

**pause**

Him: "Anything where it has to be right".

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 12d

This and this again. Just astonishing to watch parties on all sides of this debate blather on as if no one else in the world had even thought of ID.

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 12d

Another example of how insular the British debate is as well. Most other European countries have a version of this, to a greater or lesser extent. It works well.

Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 12d

Colleague tried out using AI to summarise summaries she herself had written of relevant papers (which she had identified and read). Even in that limited use the result was disappointing and in a few cases misleading, and we went back to doing our own “summary summary”.

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 13d

Ooh. I’ll read later. Thanks. (FWIW, my standard line I trot out is that the problem with the phrase “behaviour change” is that it dodges the question of who is the subject of the verb “change”.)

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 13d

Similar. And if “hahaha” is satisfactory, “LOLZ” is… 🤮

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 13d

Always feel a bit self-conscious using emoticons, but 😂

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 13d

He would probably have liked one of these Visigothic iPads.

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 13d

I’d suggest this isn’t that creative or a “could”. I think it’s already happening, at least in areas I’ve worked in. Needs more promotion, though, definitely - and I don’t anticipate that coming from the Nudge Unit!

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 13d

One observation on: “More creatively, it could involve raising awareness of ubiquitous attempts to shape decision-making, and equipping citizens with the psychological and deliberative toolkit to define and implement – individually and collectively – their own behaviour change agenda.” [1/2]

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 16d

Unless they’re revolting peasants

Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 16d

Enough already. Those people Reform are gunning for - they’re not the abstract, faceless creatures of fever dreams. They’re your neighbours, your friends, the people who cure and care and carry for you.

Reposted by Simon Christmas

Brake, the road safety charity @brakecharity.bsky.social · 27d

We're delighted to announce that this year's #RoadSafetyWeek takes place 16-22 Nov with the theme Safe Vehicles Save Lives.

We'll provide everything you need to take part. Sign up now at www.brake.org.uk/road-safety-week

Sponsored by Autoglass, Hastings Direct, Motive and Samsara.

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 19d

As a rule of thumb, I suspect they can be useful for use cases which require Large Language Models (what it says on the tin) and not Large Knowledge Models.

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 20d

I was prompted by this to read the comments section too, and now wish I hadn’t.

Reposted by Simon Christmas

Tim Harford @timharford.ft.com · 20d

Alexander von Humboldt taught us to try to understand the world both by looking at the data, and by going out, looking carefully and trusting our own senses.
With this in mind, I wonder what he'd have made of our debate about immigration?
on.ft.com/4pkDIJ8

The UK’s problems aren’t caused by immigration

[FREE TO READ] It’s not hard to see how so many came to worry about the issue. But the data isn’t there

on.ft.com

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Reposted by Simon Christmas

Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 20d

Ahead of the paperback publication of Helen Castor’s fabulous The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, I’ve reposted my interview with her from the top of the year.

Interview: Helen Castor

The tragic reigns of Richard II and Henry IV and the challenges of medieval history

open.substack.com

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 26d

Bernardino had a thing for sweaty gym locker smells maybe? (Deodorant is such a turn off.)

Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · 29d

My limited experience of working with a composer led me to the conclusion that words for music have to be incomplete: a very odd (and scary) experience as a writer used to trying to make things self-sufficient.

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · Sep 8

“It’s not ‘free speech’ to platform people who are talking nonsense.” 👏

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · Sep 7

Asked Reform about whether it can possibly be appropriate to have a doctor spreading misinformation about vaccines and the Royal Family speaking from their conference stage. Their representative didn’t resile from it. A bit of our exchange below.

LBC @lbc.co.uk · Sep 7

"It got the debate going and that's why we put him on."

Reform’s Laila Cunningham explains why her party allowed a 'quack' to falsely claim that the Covid vaccines gave the King cancer.

Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · Sep 8

Priming

Reposted by Simon Christmas

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · Sep 2

Today is publication day for this beautiful thing. I hope that it will tell a broad audience what historians of science have now long recognized: that alchemy was not a superstitious aberration but rather, an important phase in the history of ideas and of manufacturing.

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Simon Christmas @simonxmas.bsky.social · Sep 2

Oooh. Fantastic. Looks great. Congratulations.

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