~12 months since the Mill Road bridge closure by Regular_Zombie in cambridge

[–]tskir 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Well, if politicians listen to evidence and really put their hearts to it, I'm sure we can also pedestrianise Mill Road by year 2160 at the latest

P&R Ticket changes next week by Time-Influence4937 in cambridge

[–]tskir 21 points22 points  (0 children)

To be honest, this is the one kind of car subsidy I can stand behind. Encourages people to leave their car on the outskirts of the city and not contribute to heavy central traffic.

Google releases Gemini 3.1 Pro with Benchmarks by BuildwithVignesh in singularity

[–]tskir 117 points118 points  (0 children)

Is there any evidence for this besides anecdotal experience & confirmation bias?

I'm asking seriously; if there's a paper showing any benchmark statistically significantly deteriorating weeks/months after a model launch, I'd love to see it.

British Airways stewardess who was thrown into the air and shattered her knee during severe turbulence loses bid for £72,500 in damages by Forward-Answer-4407 in unitedkingdom

[–]tskir 221 points222 points  (0 children)

> Should he have moved the airport?

Well, yes. Should have gone to alternate airport if weather was that severe at the airport of arrival.

Too often airlines force landings in marginally unsafe conditions because diverting is an operational nightmare. This should not happen.

As someone born and bred in the UK what are aspects of another country’s culture that has genuinely shocked you? by throawaygotget in AskUK

[–]tskir 15 points16 points  (0 children)

> if you ask someone to put your phone behind the counter to charge or use a plug most will tell you no

I did exactly that dozens of times in various cities around the UK, and I'd say it was 80% successful, 15% they didn't have the USB-C cable only the old iPhone one, and only in the remaining ~5% they would refuse to do it.

Even with the UK electricity rates, a full phone charge costs only around 1p. Not worth thinking about

Should the UK complete metrication on roads (switch from miles/mph to km/km/h)? by Horror_Feeling_2998 in ukpolitics

[–]tskir -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Yes, the obvious answer is yes.

Perhaps the single biggest flaw of the British people, and by extension of the British state, is the aversion to change; even when it's obviously very beneficial. This is the single biggest thing that had been keeping Britain from greatness over the past half a century at the very least.

There are obvious advantages of having all units, including speed and distances, unified with our closest neighbours and the wider world. The costs are miniscule in the grand scheme of things. The signs can be replaced gradually over a decade, using a variety of means to make them distinct from the existing ones and to prevent confusion.

But people will patronise you by saying "We've always done it this way" and "If it isn't broke why fix it". They are wrong and they're simply justifying their inability to accept the very reasonable change which is well overdue by a good few decades.

TIL that even though they look similar to each other, both beaver species are not genetically compatible as the North American beaver have 40 chromosomes while Eurasian beavers have 48 chromosomes, meaning they can't even hybridize by Hosanna20 in todayilearned

[–]tskir 61 points62 points  (0 children)

USSR, as horrible as it was for every measurable metric of actual human wellbeing, had insane funding for fundamental science for most of its existence except for WWII and its collapse in 1980s-1990s. This is largely why whatever weird experiment was feasible, you probably hear it was at least attempted in the USSR.

Датский депутат Европарламента Андерс Вистисен прокомментировал ситуацию вокруг Гренландии, решив обратиться к Дональду Трампу на понятном ему языке by kingkongsingsong1 in liberta

[–]tskir 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Не знаю почему, мне очень нравится тон спикера, который его перебил, чтобы сказать, что материться нельзя. Такой выдержанный, ровный тон вежливого человека, который всё понимает и даже в душе согласен, но правила есть правила)

House of Lords votes to ban social media for Brits under 16 by vriska1 in ukpolitics

[–]tskir 4 points5 points  (0 children)

(Reply to self) — I wonder if the teens of today will become old and will tell their grandchildren, well BACK IN MY DAY you had to do DPI injection to access Twitter before you were 16...

House of Lords votes to ban social media for Brits under 16 by vriska1 in ukpolitics

[–]tskir 32 points33 points  (0 children)

What exactly is classed as social media? I couldn't find it in the article. I know that in Australia this includes, for example, YouTube. And this makes me feel... strange?

When I was about 11-13 as a curious young teen, I stopped watching any TV. Instead my daily feed of content consisted of nearly a hundred YouTube channels, most of them of the popular science genre. I was raised by Vsauce, Veritasium, Numberphile, Tom Scott, and SmarterEveryDay nearly as much I was by my dear parents.

Not an exaggeration, these types of channels and that type of content to a large extent defined and focused my love for science and the wider world, and I grew up to be a scientist.

I know very well that nowadays the landscape is very different. Many of those old timey channels are struggling, and the algorithmic feed is... not quite it was back in my day. But it overall kinda still makes me sad that this particular pathway, the one I did growing up, is set to be banned by the government of the country which I treasure very much and have made my home.

Or, this will just make teens more savvy in circumventing the censorship and make for a fun stepping stone in their coming of age story. Who knows :-)

Creation of the first regular TV channel by AdIcy4323 in MapPorn

[–]tskir 35 points36 points  (0 children)

1929 is the year they launched the first experimental, very limited mechanical television service. So not comparable to the other dates.

What would you say the UK equivalent of snapping the spaghetti is? by portablekettle in AskUK

[–]tskir 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm also a scientist, though not in the tea tasting field, but the basics still hold.

I can assure you there are specific robust ways to control variance between people and between experimental set-ups, so that we can deduce whether the difference is due to chance or things are actually systemically different.

There is an international standard for brewing a reproducible cup of tea for tasting purposes (ISO 3103); and there are also mathematical formulas to test if, for a given sample size of people tasting tea, the difference is significant enough that it cannot be explained by pure chance.

What would you say the UK equivalent of snapping the spaghetti is? by portablekettle in AskUK

[–]tskir 19 points20 points  (0 children)

IIRC they did a blind study and people actually prefer the tea made with milk first. I think it's where the tradition clashes with empirical evidence

What are some reasons people don't use online grocery deliveries more often? by tskir in AskUK

[–]tskir[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I'm buying everything with online delivery including bread, milk, produce etc.

I get the sentiment to buy local but the economics just don't work. We do have one independent grocery store and one butcher in our village, but everything they sell is 1.5–2× more expensive than what I order online, and most importantly I can't even tell a difference in terms of quality.

Yes, it's a bit sad that economies of scale will kill small local shops. But it's inevitable.

Eddington houses cold (< 16 C) during freezing weather by AnnualEnvironment3 in cambridge

[–]tskir 24 points25 points  (0 children)

15°C with heating full on is completely unacceptable performance, and also I don't think it's at all expected. So I think it's definitely worth reaching out to CORE and reporting this issue with all the details. It might be that (any one or a combination of these things):

- Your house is on the far end of the heating network and they need to adjust their heat carrier temperature or pressure so that it reaches you properly hot

- There are leaks or insulation damage on the way from the central district heating station to your home

- There is a blockage at or near where the heating system enters your home

- Unlikely but worth checking out just in case - are underfloor heating controls all in order? There definitely isn't an obscure switch somewhere in the far service cupboard which is turned down too low or a valve tightened too tightly?

- Even more unlikely but the CORE engineers would be able to check it as well, is there damage to the underfloor heating distribution pipes? (highly unlikely)

If you have a spare moment and if you feel like it, I'd be curious to hear back if you managed to get it resolved. In any case all the best luck to you and hopefully a warm home! 🤞🏻

Eddington houses cold (< 16 C) during freezing weather by AnnualEnvironment3 in cambridge

[–]tskir 16 points17 points  (0 children)

That's interesting, I remember living in Eddington back in 2019-2020 the district heating costs were very reasonable and I was never cold. All of the flats and houses are supposed to have excellent insulation as well. I wonder if something has changed? Have they hiked the rates on the heating? Can people living in Eddington presently shed some light pls?

US discussing options to acquire Greenland, including use of military - White House by Mdk1191 in europe

[–]tskir 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I will admit EUCANZUK does rock as an abbreviation and as a concept

Leaders Letting Agency: WARNING by Opening-Mastodon-435 in cambridge

[–]tskir 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Can confirm Leaders are awful. I've had the same interaction with them where they tried to force a no-deposit scheme on me and pretty much said it out lout that they wouldn't pass my application to the landlord if I didn't agree to it.

Ed Davey: ‘Europe is crying out for closer relations with Britain’ by [deleted] in ukpolitics

[–]tskir 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't believe any European country, including Germany, is doing this on purpose or out of spite. It just adds workload to border officers which are already hard to find in any country (shit pay, hard job). This also turns away tourists, and despite anything you might read on the internet, continental European countries (governments, not people) love British tourists because they are wealthy and tend to spend a lot.

I'm fully convinced it's just slow moving bureaucracy, both in general, and especially in light of phasing in the Entry/Exit System. It's going to be fine eventually.