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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 1d

twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross

photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 19h

It's still used in British English! You could say "that was a real ding-dong" when describing an argument. (Typing it out is making me realise how stupid this sounds. WE HAVE A NORMAL LANGUAGE.)

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 19h

I just watched an episode of 30 Rock which revealed that Tracy Jordan is allergic to allergy medicine.

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svenning🌲 @svenning.io · 1d

We are already seeing some fantastic (but horrible) contributions to the Bad UX World Cup! 😃

This year's challenge: Create a horrible date picker!

See all the contributions (so far) here: badux.lol

#baduxworldcup

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

I think because the world is terrible.

Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

"In fact, he had pointed out, if the CCTV footage stretched back to the dawn of humanity it would probably have only taken an hour to find the moment of theft. This argument didn’t go down well."

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

"You don’t watch the whole thing, he said. You use a binary search. You fast forward to halfway, see if the bike is there and, if it is, zoom to three quarters of the way through. But if it wasn’t there at the halfway mark, you rewind to a quarter of the way through. It’s very quick."

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

"Afterwards I found a chatroom thread among Cambridge computer scientists, one of whom had also been told that unless he could pin down the moment of theft no one would look at the footage. He said he had tried to explain sorting algorithms to police — he was a computer scientist, after all."

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

From the original Times article: "Triumphantly I went to the police. “Look!” I said. “You will be able to see them.” They refused to look at the footage unless I could narrow it down to a window shorter than a few hours. This is, I discovered, a common response."

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

Allegedly, it's been tried. www.iflscience.com/computer-sci...

Computer Scientist Attempts To Get The Police To Find His Stolen Bike Using Math

The binary chop did not go down well with the police.

www.iflscience.com

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

It is a foolish hope; some people will still misread the timetable or go to the wrong place or wander around lost or decide to go to a session that's not the one they're timetabled for, however much I insist on putting text in red and giving painstaking written instructions to the student helpers.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

I know that thinking "this would work if people would just X" is pointless (people will never just X; that is the nature of people), but I still feel like if I plan things properly and make the written instructions really really clear our library inductions for new students will run smoothly.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

(I should note that her point wasn't "so we shouldn't care about the people sleeping on the streets"; I think she just wanted to share knowledge about freezing to death, which is honestly quite relatable.)

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

It was a particularly cold winter and people at work were expressing concern for the local homeless people, and then she said that freezing to death is a comparatively peaceful way to go, citing her brother-in-law's last phone call to her sister, while dying on Everest. 😬

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

At least they apparently treat car thefts the same way. We're all getting screwed over, instead of just cyclists. (Cold comfort.)

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

This makes me so angry. Just resign yourself to the fact that if you commute by bike + train and your bike gets stolen from the station, BTP don't care!

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

I just read a memoir about climbing in the early 20th century (Mountain Days by Dorothy Pilley), and the puzzle aspect does sound fun!

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

I have, consequently, read a lot about mountain disasters, and intend to never go near the death zone if I can help it.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 1d

I'm sure I have told you that my manager at my first proper job was the sister-in-law of one of the guides from the 1996 Everest disaster (it came up when she was talking about what it's like to freeze to death!). And my current workplace has the papers of Sandy Irvine, died on Everest in 1923.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 2d

Maggie Smith appeared in a picture round in tonight's University Challenge! (It was an image from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, with the question being "what film is this?".)

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 2d

I'm sorry to hear this; I hope you're able to rest now.

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 2d

(The "Did you know?" section on the front page has been full of Jilly Cooper stuff in recent months.)

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Verity @veritysp.bsky.social · 2d

My brain, after learning that Jilly Cooper died: I hope the person who's been adding lots of Jilly Cooper content to Wikipedia recently is okay when they hear this.

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Kaveh Taherian @ NYCC D-33 @kavehtaherian.bsky.social · 7d

When it finally came time for her to speak, she calmly walked up to the mic and in the gentlest voice possible introduced herself. Then she said, “if I was a chimpanzee, this is how I would introduce myself” and then started SCREAMING like a monkey.

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Kaveh Taherian @ NYCC D-33 @kavehtaherian.bsky.social · 7d

Jane Goodall came to our school when I was a kid. That whole week beforehand, all the teachers and faculty were freaking out and repeatedly telling us we had to be on our BEST behavior. This wasn’t some assembly about the importance of recycling, this was THE JANE GOODALL, who none of us knew.

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