The Robot Uprising

This article in the New York Times today is an excellent read.

How much of the internet is fake? Studies generally suggest that, year after year, less than 60 percent of web traffic is human; some years, according to some researchers, a healthy majority of it is bot. For a period of time in 2013, the Times reported this year, a full half of YouTube traffic was “bots masquerading as people,” a portion so high that employees feared an inflection point after which YouTube’s systems for detecting fraudulent traffic would begin to regard bot traffic as real and human traffic as fake. They called this hypothetical event “the Inversion.”

It’s a well-written, if sobering, reality-check on the internet and web-content.

What’s gone from the internet, after all, isn’t “truth,” but trust .

Monumental Coastal Douglas Fir

I just climbed this for a birthday treat, having checked it out last week on a beautiful sunny day when my gear was an hour’s drive away at home…. It is the largest Douglas Fir in Britain, described here as

“…believed to have been planted by the Earl of Portsmouth in the pinetum of Eggesford House from the first seeds sent to Britain by David Douglas. It was already the biggest known in Britain by 1867. Heavy low limbs suggest the site was quite exposed when the tree was young, but it is now deeply sheltered by Forestry Commission plantings now up to 51m tall all around it. It is just possible to thread the tape between the low limbs and to obtain a fairly meaningful girth.

The girth of the tree, measured at a height of 1.20 m, is 7.80 m (May 2013, TheTreeRegisterOwenJohnson). Its height is exactly 41 m (May 2013, Laser with Two-point measurement (e.g. Nikon Forestry 550/Pro) - sine method, TheTreeRegisterOwenJohnson).”

The top of the rope in this image shows where I was when I reached the end of my 42m rope coming down…

I’m proud of myself for climbing it very respectfully - using a tube cambium saver all the way up and all the way down again, and not breaking a single branch or twig.

There are a number of secondary growths from near the base that are each the size of mature firs, so you can climb them each individually or switch around in the canopy. It’s like an antique playground.

See the rest of the pics in the gallery below.

Mancave

Dean Town

Look at this. Look at this because, a) Mandolin funk. Isn’t that enough…?! But over and above anything else, b) Joe Dart ladies and gentlemen. Joe Dart. Bass player with the world’s funkiest neck.

Gaelynn Lea

Christ this is beautiful.

Gaelynn Lea, the winner of NPR's second annual Tiny Desk Contest, makes music like nobody else. Her sounds are steeped in the deep melodies of great Irish fiddle tunes, but her performance and singing style aren't traditional.

A House Full of Women

Dad's penis would like it noted that it seems his family has taken again to leaving balled-up urine-soaked toilet paper stuck to the upper front surface of the toilet bowl, where said penis, being pendulous and dignified, mushes it's unsuspecting face when its owner sits on the toilet in the dark.

This is an unfavorable state of affairs.

Dad's penis would like it further noted that its owner NEVER leaves the seat up, and is thus in considerable lavatory credit, and therefore deserves empathy and respect.

So flush please. Or make sure the tissue goes into the bottom of the bowl.

We thank you.

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Update:

Meridianum Ensemble

I saw this lot at St Michael’s Church in Chagford at the weekend, while a storm raged outside (and while a tree fell across my route home…) They were absolutely brilliant, and when Katy sang on one of Steve’s pieces (Wendigo) I nearly exploded.

Facebook hates you

Important Facebook-is-Evil news neatly summarised at BoingBoing. 

Summary of key issues from the Six4Three files

1. White Lists

Facebook have clearly entered into whitelisting agreements with certain companies, which meant that after the platform changes in 2014/15 they maintained full access to friends data. It is not clear that there was any user consent for this, nor how Facebook decided which companies should be whitelisted or not.

2. Value of friends data

It is clear that increasing revenues from major app developers was one of the key drivers behind the Platform 3.0 changes at Facebook. The idea of linking access to friends data to the financial value of the developers relationship with Facebook is a recurring feature of the documents.

3. Reciprocity

Data reciprocity between Facebook and app developers was a central feature in the discussions about the launch of Platform 3.0.

4. Android

Facebook knew that the changes to its policies on the Android mobile phone system, which enabled the Facebook app to collect a record of calls and texts sent by the user would be controversial. To mitigate any bad PR, Facebook planned to make it as hard of possible for users to know that this was one of th e underlying features of the upgrade of their app.

5. Onavo

Facebook used Onavo to conduct global surveys of the usage of mobile apps by customers, and apparently without their knowledge. They used this data to assess not just how many people had download ed apps, but how often they used them. This knowledge helped them to decide which companies to acquire, and which to treat as a threat.

6. Targeting competitor Apps

The files show evidence of Facebook taking aggressive positions against apps, with the consequence that denying them access to data led to the failure of that business.

Sprydon BigShot*

I got hold of a Stein Tekichu (not-a-bigshot) and was finally able to get up the biggest redwood in Ashclyst. After an hour of trying (!) I isolated a limb 22m up (my doubled rope didn’t reach the floor when I clipped in), and then I climbed, I reckon, another 8 or 10 metres to the top.

From which you can see the sea.

Thanks to Mike Gozna for the gear.

Furtive Five | TUSC Open Mic | December 2018

As much as I forgot large bits, I think this went ok!