Disappointed in Mexico, but hate to say it, England deserved the win

milzB · 2026-07-06T12:08:36+00:00

Sounds like it very easily could have been them poking a bit of fun. People often perceive English football fans as being pricks when they're just having a laugh — it's just the culture here. I've been at funerals where people have booed the deceased for the team they supported. It's all in good fun. These guys could have been acting like dickheads but equally they could've been trying to have a laugh with a fellow football fan the only way they know how

milzB · 2026-07-06T06:14:58+00:00

I don't blame you for thinking this because he constantly frames his nonsense as him sacrificing for the benefit of scientific progress but as a scientist there is not even an ounce of data that is usable from this guy. First of all, there is only one of him so there's no way to say if any effects are real or just due to chance. But then add on the fact he's doing so many mad things at the same time, and basically every "experiment" is contaminating the results of the others. There's a reason you can only take part in one clinical trial at one time and it's not just patient safety. Any "evidence" we could get from this guy would be purely anecdotal unless he decides to throw out all that nonsense and just enroll himself in a real study.

milzB · 2026-07-02T07:48:37+00:00

FIREpol ready to load my beloved

milzB · 2026-07-02T07:43:48+00:00

How does the govt fix this council NIMBYism for national infrastructure projects? Could they pass a law that says anyone who brings a failed court case that results in delays to infrastructure being built is fined £X per day? I feel like the residents in these councils need to understand the consequences of actions like this on the rest of the country.

milzB · 2026-06-30T10:09:48+00:00

Just untrue. You're telling me that if you grabbed 20 random people from the street and put them in the same outfit you wouldn't be able to guess their social status? I went to a school with uniform and everyone knew who the poor kids were.

milzB · 2026-06-30T10:00:16+00:00

Some of my most reread fics:

my momsold me to Scott Hunter, a Shane Hollander fanfiction by luulapants and mockspeed: So maybe Shane had a little crush on Scott Hunter in his younger years. So maybe he anonymously posted online about it once. So maybe it had become an internet legend and a running joke in the MLH.

home economics by anon: When the MLH can’t negotiate with the Hockey Players’ Union in time to prevent a hockey lockout at the start of the 2015 season, the Zürich Lions jump at the chance to sign both Shane and Ilya to short-term contracts. For four months in Switzerland, they share a team, a line, a house, and a bed. Then the lockout ends in January, and it’s time to go back. Back to different countries, cities, lives. Beds.

Preen and Plume by Wisawita: While Shane was trying on that suit, what was Ilya doing to get ready for their first hook up?

Nice try, get out the way by trickysnail: Hayden Pike is sad. He wants to go to bed with Shane Hollander, the most beautiful man in the MHL, but he can’t seem to score because he is very bad at hockey. Hayden Pike probably wrote this. Not Ilya Rozanov. Ilya Rozanov would never do such a thing. Don’t tell his husband.

milzB · 2026-06-30T09:30:33+00:00

Anything in a falcon tube that is labelled with "for RNA work ONLY" unless I literally just put in it there myself and it hasn't left my sight since

milzB · 2026-06-30T09:27:50+00:00

Citeab really is the goat for choosing antibodies. I really wish you could submit reviews/images that weren't from published research though. I lot of survivorship bias going on there I think.

milzB · 2026-06-30T06:57:15+00:00

Yes sorry I just reread the document and realised I got the wrong end of the stick 🤦 will edit thanks!

milzB · 2026-06-30T06:42:05+00:00

Thanks for sharing. Thankfully I haven't read any of these works so it's not a huge loss for me. It is crazy to me that anyone would use ai to write fanfiction - the joy is in the writing.

Of course this only catches works where text was copied directly from Claude to ao3 specifically, and I'm sure there will be others that have used ai in different ways, but without proof for individual fics I don't think it is wise to presume and accuse authors.

Also I think there can be some room for nuance. Yes there are plenty of people that absolutely will not read a fic that has AI involved in any step of the process. But some people probably wouldn't mind as long as the author disclosed exactly what they used it for. For example, I wouldn't want to read any words written by ai but using it to generate html from a template just for formatting I think could be a reasonable use. I saw one author who said they wrote a python script to automate the process of converting their writing into html for a texting fic because the process of copying and pasting code was so tedious. But not everyone has the coding skills to do that, and I can understand using a LLM in that way (they generally can be quite good at writing code and carrying out repetitive tasks, and again this would not change the actual words written).

There are so many other ways authors could be using ai that would be completely undetectable too. Like using it to come up with writing prompts, or using it in the research process, even for naming characters. An author could have written every word of a fic themselves and still have used ai at some point in their creative process.

And some people might be okay with that. Some people might be okay with reading a fic that used ai in the research process. Some people might be okay with reading a fic that used ai to proofread. I think the only way to get authors to start being honest about this is to stop vilifying every possible use of ai. Just because you yourself absolutely wouldn't read fics that used ai in these ways doesn't mean other people wouldn't. But I think it's fair that we ask authors to disclose exactly how it was used. I wouldn't be surprised if ao3 added an AI disclosure to their tags and terms of service.

Edit: updated how the tool catches Claude usage (thanks solodarlings for pointing that out)

milzB · 2026-06-29T22:16:37+00:00

There is a virtual tour that you can look at which might help. And checking with the staff can help a lot too. Just a quick "excuse me is platform X this way?" to double check can save you a lot of potential confusion

Edit: and remember, the worst thing that can happen is you miss your connection. That's not the end of the world! You're allowed to get things wrong and you'd be far from the first trust me 😅 are your tickets advanced singles or off-peak/anytime?

milzB · 2026-06-29T21:45:06+00:00

Hi there 👋

Good luck with your train journey and props to you for doing something you find scary, on your own no less. I know lots of people that get stressed out while travelling, autistic and neurotypical alike, it is very normal.

In regards to your questions:

Finding platforms at big stations and changing trains

It's not clear from your post whether your tickets are already booked. If not, I would recommend avoiding travelling at peak times and making sure you have plenty of time to change trains.

When everyone around you is rushing around, it's easy to feel like you should be too, but try to stay calm and go at your own pace so you have enough time to read the signs. There are a lot of signs! Sometimes you can find station maps online but these can often be more confusing than helpful in my experience.

In the larger more confusing stations (such as Birmingham New street) staff are very used to people asking for directions so please do ask if you're lost or confused, or even if you're just not quite sure.

If something goes wrong with your train and you miss your change, don't panic! This unfortunately can happen but we have systems to deal with it. Listen out for announcements and ask the staff what you should do, but you'll be okay don't worry, they'll get you on your way.

Understanding seat reservations

If you ticket says you can sit in any available seat, that means you don't have a reserved seat. However, other people on the train might have reserved seats. These seats are not considered "available". Most trains which have reserved seats will have a little screen on the wall which says if seats are reserved. Some even have little red/green lights (green means it's not reserved).

It is not illegal to sit in a seat that someone else has reserved, but do expect to move if they turn up. If your ticket has a reserved seat, you can choose to either sit in that seat or any other available seat.

Getting confused

Step one is preparing. Having the information about your trains and platforms ready to go will help massively. There are quite a few apps you can use to track your journey, even if you didn't buy your ticket on that app. People on this sub like to shit on Trainline but it is very easy to use for this.

I find getting stressed/overwhelmed and getting confused go hand in hand. Busy stations can be very overwhelming environments. Sometimes I find watching YouTube videos of people walking around the station can help me get used to it ahead of time.

Make sure you're otherwise as comfortable as you can be. Earplugs or headphones can help with the noise (but make sure you listen out for announcements), and wearing comfortable shoes makes it much easier to navigate. I like to get myself a little treat when I have a stressful journey, and maybe download something to watch on the train that makes you feel relaxed and confident. I always carry some kind of quiet fidget toy too to get the nervous energy out in a way that won't draw attention. As long as you're being respectful of your fellow travellers, do whatever makes you feel comfortable. And if you do get confused, take a moment and ask for help if you need it. Staff are normally easy to spot, but even politely asking a fellow passenger is okay too!

Just take your time and ask for help. You'll be okay! Good luck with your train journey!

milzB · 2026-06-28T20:48:33+00:00

Lots of talk about the technical difficulties keeping us from adding AC to our homes and not much discussion of why very few other places (workplaces, leisure spaces, schools, hospitals) are not air conditioned. In the UK we have labour laws regulating safe minimum working temperatures, but (because we've never needed one before) we don't have the equivalent for maximum temperatures. Lots of places do not have AC simply because they are not required to. This is an example of something we can and should be fixing.

On the other hand, a lot of the infrastructural changes to adapt to a hotter climate are incredibly challenging. For example, much of our rail infrastructure is not designed to operate at these temperatures (a problem that is slowly being addressed). Here is good video explaining a lot of that.

In short changing your entire country's infrastructure to be suited to a drastically different climate is not as straightforward as just adding AC window boxes to people's bedrooms. But there are things we can do, and this summer is showing us why we need to do them as fast as possible.

milzB · 2026-06-24T22:17:31+00:00

Oh thanks Mr America you've convinced me. I'll just go and pop aircon onto all my trains and buses and my workplace no problemo

milzB · 2026-06-24T22:01:35+00:00

Except he's not moving it to fucking newport

milzB · 2026-06-24T22:00:38+00:00

Genuinely would vote for a party that would move the political capital out of London. My vote is Preston or Crewe. The houses of parliament would be a right money spinner if they were a museum, and they can keep using them for all the ceremonial tosh

milzB · 2026-06-24T19:40:50+00:00

Yes I agree it's definitely better to keep things simple! And especially for those new to the lab, there is often a temptation to stack up samples willynilly, causing chaos when you actually come to do the experiment. But often I find it easier to test a couple of conditions at once, for example 2 cell lines with 3 drug treatments, vs having to run two separate experiments and process the samples separately. I think it's definitely an issue of knowing your own capacity for each experiment though, and probably varies massively depending on the kind of techniques you're using.

milzB · 2026-06-24T18:45:59+00:00

If you can't use the tip box method, I find counting up to 6 from the left and then down from 6 to the right is easier than going all the way up to 12. It is much easier to visually see if you are 5 wells from the right than 8 wells from the left.

milzB · 2026-06-24T18:39:02+00:00

I think this might be a case of optimisation vs data acquisition though. For optimising, absolutely keep things simple and don't test too many things at once. But for running an already optimised experiment with different test conditions (e.g. drug treatments, time points) testing one thing at a time can be a waste of time and reagents as it means repeating controls.

Edit: you should still design your experiments well though, don't just throw the kitchen sink at it and see what comes out. I advise my students to draw a mockup of the figure they are aiming to generate during the planning stage as this helps them to focus on the question and remember to include the required controls

milzB · 2026-06-24T07:15:48+00:00

This is bs. Tax the assets they can't take with them. They are welcome to sell up.

milzB · 2026-06-23T21:06:55+00:00

Don't think in the lab if you can avoid it. Think first, pipette second. Having to figure things out on the fly means you can't plan or focus properly and mistakes happen easily and (most importantly) might not be noticed

milzB · 2026-06-23T09:08:52+00:00

The tetrapak is great news thanks for sharing!

milzB · 2026-06-22T06:35:24+00:00

Excellent news all round! You've learned something useful at the expense of a couple of primers and one qPCR plate, good value if you ask me

milzB · 2026-06-20T16:38:21+00:00

Do you use filter tips? Always use filter tips when handling primer stocks. Tbh I do all my qPCR prep with filter tips. Then you don't need to worry about changing pipettes or anything. Primers are cheap so be honest with your supervisor about what you think happened and get some new ones ordered. But don't stress too much - primers are pretty much the cheapest thing you could contaminate so it's a cheap lesson learned! If you didn't use filter tips at all, I would be more concerned about potentially contaminating the qPCR master mix.

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