@leighms@mastodonapp.uk cover
@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar

leighms

@[email protected]

Note, I don't follow accounts with no bio detail and no post history because bots and scammers.

#scientist #allotmenter #fundraiser #fedi22
Former forensic scientist with the Home Office.
Living near Nottingham in the UK.

Research profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leigh-Silvester

Former data curator for Sutton Bonington weather station UK
Server manager

Currently involved with planning and fundraising to build a new community building/scout group HQ
Pronouns are he/him/old

Born at 317.64 ppm

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

tooooooonnnnn!

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

heavy metal answer to Showadywady

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

one of his better hits.

@sarah@phpc.social avatar sarah , to random

More drama from the client. Now that he’s canceled he wants me to move his site for him. Because that makes sense.

leighms ,
@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar

@sarah
Just send a quote for the time on the job.
Does he have a server to transfer it to?
Flat pages? WordPress or some other CMS?
Make sure he is aware of the expiry time.

All the sites I've ever had hosted have had automated processes which I assume will dump the content if I don't pay up in time, although you could be soft and keep a backup/export.

leighms ,
@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar

@sarah

A lot of people seem to think that just because they can visit most websites for free there are no costs associated with having a website. Presumably he resents having to pay for a domain name, hosting and website design and setup.

Won't harm to have a backup of his site for him should he get a suitable hosting of his own.

Obviously charge for DNS changes.

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


Clowne
We are deadly serious

There is a town called Clowne in Derbyshire. Was in the area and spotted a sign for Clowne School so went to take a look for a photo, but it had been closed and there was no sign on the building saying 'Clowne School'.

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

Which app are you using?
Please boost
2/2

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

Jonathan Ross referred to him as Charlie Drake and his second rate soul band.

Bit harsh.

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

The 1980s apologizes for the contribution to global warming caused by all the dry ice

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


Play Big Country you bastards!

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


Rockabilly meets glam punk.

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


Definitely a happy bongo player!

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


Yay!
Band I was in used to do a cover of this.

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


Looking forward to tonights edition of dead or alive. Works best with episodes from the 70s and 80s

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


His last album came out in 2022.

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

The walrus of love!!!

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


Random 1976 news...

7 January – Third Cod War: British and Icelandic ships clash at sea.

12 January – The best-selling author of crime fiction Agatha Christie dies aged 85.

21 January – The first commercial Concorde flight takes off from Heathrow Airport for Bahrain.

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


Looks like they got their outfits from Play Away.

And what's through the round window?

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


No closet Bay City Roller fans out there?

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


She's got quite a range!

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


Bye pop pickers.

Apparently we are watching gardener's world now

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

And they still can't make Tony Banks appear interesting.

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

Worth it for the animation

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


Iggy really mellowed when he started getting too of the pops exposure.

Remember seeing him on #,OGWT wrapping himself in sellotape while singing - or did I hallucinate that ?

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


Play The Bangles you bastards!

Pretenders will do

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


How many synthesisers do you want Mr Vangelis?

ALL OF THEM !!!

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

What do you call a snowman with a six-pack?

An abdominal snowman.

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

ooh , video effects like the old days

@gildilinie@beige.party avatar gildilinie , to random

So last night I came across a podcast which had a philosopher talking about consciousness. Things were okay for about 15 or so minutes until... yep. He got one-shot by LLMs. Imagine confessing that you're concerned about whether LLMs are conscious during a discussion of P-Zombies.

leighms ,
@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar

@gildilinie

The real test of consciousness would be if a system decided that a suitable response would be to produce a poem, song, painting or a sculpture.

It is NOT artificial intelligence and nowhere near consciousness. Disappointing that a philosopher cannot tell the difference. Of course the philosopher in question might just be producing content to satisfy a brief.
BTW, is it really a philosopher and not just an 'AI' fabrication?

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

Don't think I have ever bought tickets this far in advance of a show.

Just purchased tickets for the stage show in - May 2027!

The tickets seem to be selling quite quickly..

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random
@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

Spotted some nonsense about on Facebook earlier. I composed a reply but decided it was a waste of time posting it there. Decided to dump it here instead

Gas extraction companies have been doing carbon capture for decades to remove CO2 from extracted gas.

They already know its limitations and likely that it will never be a successful solution, but they are happy to wave it about as a useful distraction.

Efficiency of capture can be low with current systems...

https://carbonherald.com/new-stanford-study-challenges-viability-of-carbon-capture/

There are lots of issues around the storage aspect...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666759225000629

The Orca CCS project in Iceland uses a carbon free power supply and can only remove 36,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Would need a LOT of these to have even minimal impact.

https://cen.acs.org/environment/greenhouse-gases/Sucking-carbon-dioxide-air-Iceland/102/i17

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

Today could be the first day I get to eat since Wednesday.

Have had a small intestine hernia.

Of course fantastic service from the - although I don't have high expectations for the soup...

@TheBreadmonkey@beige.party avatar TheBreadmonkey , to random

Losing my mind on the internet, one post at a time

leighms ,
@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar

@TheBreadmonkey
Ancient tribes believed that each post took away a part of a person's soul.

leighms ,
@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar

@TheBreadmonkey

Some other ancient tribes also say that souls are highly overrated and that the more emojis that people post the closer they get to nirvana.

Just need to pick which one suits you.

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

I'm normally reluctant to post pictures of . Ours is black so doesn't normally make a good photo subject, however...

Our cat ( Kato) has found the warmest place in the house....

Black cat asleep on top of a laptop and keyboard.
ALT
@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

I listen to a lot. Often just on in the background.

Every now and then somebody comes out with the biggest pile of bollocks.

On one of the contributors came out with 'writing a thesis is fun'.

It certainly wasn't for me and not for the fifty plus students I've known over the years.

Either the passage of time dulled her memory.or she was talking bullshit.

Now for .

Is it wrong to fancy Prof Hannah Fry?

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

The miracle of interpretative dance by .......

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

A very young Steve Harley

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


Play The Wurzels you bastards

@FediTips@social.growyourown.services avatar FediTips , to random

Can I ask a favour?

If you see someone who is asking for help using this place, and if no one else is helping them, could you tag me into the conversation and/or link to my website https://fedi.tips?

I'm trying to provide unofficial tech support for people using Mastodon and the wider Fediverse. I'm especially keen to help new people who want easy-to-understand advice, but they won't see me and I won't see them unless someone tags me.

Thanks 🙏

leighms ,
@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar

@FediTips @Ciclop

Do you have a recommended platform system for tips?
Wiki?
WordPress?
Joomla?
BB board?

I might be able to host a translation mirror as a sub-domain of an existing site. Although, if you have the option, you might have sub-domains for the languages as sub-domains of your site.
They could be managed independently.

francais.fedi.tips
espanol.fedi.tips

Edit.

I've just probed your site and can see that you are using Wordpress. Only issue might be that you will need an MySQL database per subdomain site.

@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar ChrisMayLA6 , to random

Neil Ward suggests there are three key measures that Britain needs to take if it is to make its food system more resilient & less vulnerable to developments abroad & the continuing change(s) in the climate:

We need expand horticulture & reduce the extent of livestock farming;

We need to shift patterns of land use, most importantly by (re)planting woodland(s);

And we need to shift the national diet towards more healthy eating (more fruit & vegetables).


https://theconversation.com/three-ways-to-make-the-uks-food-system-more-resilient-according-to-new-report-by-150-experts-265603

leighms ,
@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar

@ChrisMayLA6

Food prices are killing agriculture. The area of agricultural land under cultivation is declining. The major factor is not development or solar farms. Farmers are being forced to leave fields unplanted as many cannot make a profit.
Sugar beet growers are being offered less than last year for their produce by sugar processors. There are farmers in East Anglia with grade 1 agricultural land who have tried various crops but can barely make enough to justify the costs.
Many have large loans to cover investments in equipment which is tailored to those crops that have usually been viable. Pivoting to a new crop is often not easy.
There is a lot of land that is lower grade and not ideal for arable use. Running sheep on this type of land is often the only way to extract any financial value. Many farms are getting involved with using some of this land for biodiversity/off-setting schemes. These are often a gamble as the goalposts keep moving and cannot predict income.

@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar ChrisMayLA6 , to random

Hmmmm.... two regional banks in the USA have seen their share price decline on the news that they are both carrying substantial numbers of loans on their books that were gained via fraud... and so will unlikely to be paid back.

And before you say, 'Oh its just a couple of regional US banks", remind yourself how the sub-prime mortgage crisis started in exactly the same way & where that ended up (in 2008)!

Another leading indicator of a crisis about to hit?

h/t FT

leighms ,
@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar

@ChrisMayLA6

Yes , things like affordability tests restrict the volume of money lending, but it does have its upside. I believe these were relaxed in the UK. Similarly buffer funds were a requirement following the 2008 crash. Lost track of whether that requirement has been relaxed.

Will tax payers be expected to bail out banks again? There really shouldn't be any need as surely they have learnt valuable lessons....

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


This is a reasonable song with a crap video.

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random


Whistle miming. Was that a first?

@daweaver@mas.to avatar daweaver , to random

thoughts while eating dinner:

  • Five only fell out of the top twenty today, because it's full of Taylor Swift choons.

  • The Supernaturals, blimey. My homework for the weekend.

  • Were Jamiroquai always that dull?

  • Charli Baltimore shouting about pullovers: an ancestor of Cardi B?

  • Cerys from Catatonia for Celeb Traitors 2, please.

leighms ,
@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar

@daweaver

McHammer.

Is that the Scottish rapper with the baggy troos?

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

@tiggy
You mention that you are looking out for new science fiction to read.

In case you haven't come across her, I have just read The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz ( @annaleen ) and found it to be excellent. Cunningly weaves alternative history with real history.
Will definitely read some more of her books.

@leighms@mastodonapp.uk avatar leighms , to random

I am no economist but I like to think I am curious and observant and welcome the insights of more expert minds such as @ChrisMayLA6
Currently am in again and in my two visits have enjoyed many of the amenities inc botanic garden, Kelvingrove museum and gallery and many others.
It's obvious from the grand buildings that used to be banks, merchants, insurance etc that a massive amount of money used to flow through Glasgow. While many have found other uses presumably the volume of money coming through the city is much lower. A Starbucks or Wetherspoons will not generate the same amount of money as a merchant bank trading internationally.
The loss of shipbuilding and other manufacturing to cheaper foreign competitors is an obvious driver of this decline.
The same pattern is repeated to a greater or lesser extent in most UK cities.
Most UK cities are by-products of mercantile and manufacturing needs of a previous economic era. Some, like Glasgow struggle to find a new purpose.