I LOVE when science is applied to "toddler questions" like "Why is the sky blue?" or "Why is ice slippery?"
Because the answers can be so SUPRISING.
Let's dig into recent revelations about how ice skates work & why tires skid across black ice.
First, we'll dismiss 3 VERY GOOD hypotheses as wrong.
I've been in SF for four days and on each day I've had multiple conversations where people (self included) express deep feelings, fear, wonder and worry about their skills being replaced or (this is less named explicitly but an assumed driver I think) no longer valued by others. Big threats to feel
Always has been meme. βWait, domain knowledge is the most valuable thing a data scientist can have?β
The better LLMs get, the more data scientists are going to find out the truth.
This is a really nice example of a tool being repurposed! Windows had a print screen option in like 1993 (and DOS before that), but the move from βcapturing the state of my computerβ to βcapturing the state of the worldβ made it so much more valuable post internet & social media.
Must read.
Iβve spent much of the past year visiting Big Locals, and have never been more certain that its model would deliver significant results if backed at scale (as the government is doing with Pride in Place)
It is remarkable what some places have done given just a little money and time.
Arthur Gansonβs βMachine with Concreteβ
The magic of gears: the input shaft is driven at 200 rpm, but the output shaft will take over two trillion years to make one turn.
So the final gear is embedded in a block of solid concrete.
Via @kottke.org
makezine.com/article/craf...
"Synthetic Panels" make no sense. The LLM is trained on data from a particular point in time. This is the same as querying the distribution of responses from an LLM with built-in assumptions about what the distribution can look like.
Well done surveys are designed for the opposite.
Itβs why theyβre able to fly, Hugh!
four radiolaria sculptures sitting on a black surface
Radiolaria are microscopic unicellular sea creatures that create skeletons from silica. Their skeletons are among the most beautiful and complex natural microstructures, resembling elaborate filigree. blog post: n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/blog/?p=9861
It's nearly that time again! Join us on Tue 4 Nov for the 101st PyData London meetup.
Using Hugging Face's smolagents framework to create a Fantasy Premier League AI Agent - @geirfreysson.bsky.social
No More Boilerplate: Data-Driven Testing Made Easy - @feregri.no
www.meetup.com/pydata-londo...
Close up of pink aster flowers leaning out of a vertical garden plant box. The flowers are new: some have emerged but many are still buds.
Another close up of pink aster flowers a few days later, now bathed in late afternoon sunlight. More flowers have emerged giving a beautiful crowded display of daisy-like pink flowers with yellow centres.
Seeing flowers from my new aster for the first time is a real autumn treat!
I recommend this post from @simonwillison.net: simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/7/v...
He lists the engineering skills required to use AI-generation most effectively to build quality software, based on his experience using AI on his projects. In short, we can't replace software engineers with vibe coding
Liberalismβs answer would probably be the harm principle: community moderation strives for that at least.
Also reflecting that we tend to give states a monopoly on violence for a reasonβ¦
Itβs nearly time for our 100th Meetup! π₯³
Looking forward to a full roster of lightning talks, reflections from organisers past and present (including many of the OG crew!) and of course well-deserved celebrations--maybe even with cake! π
*deep breath* the fact that these models produce plausible output and also hallucinate (e.g. produce completely novel but reasonable output) has always been why they're so exciting for computational social scientists
Incidentally, my personal favorite interpretation of advancements in computer science is that most of the progress we've made has been in defining the problems themselves. Many successes correlate to clearer definitions of what "good" means or abstracting the task away from weak definitions.
Great to hear Customs House will be redeveloped!
Such a grand building in an amazing location by the Thames, but today you have to follow a rickety walkway and peer at it through railings. Big improvement for the Thames Path there.
customhouse2024.co.uk
www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/his...
Python: The Documentary | An origin story
What began as a side project in the 1990s now powers AI, data science and some of the world's biggest companies. But Python almost disappeared at one point.
Featuring Guido van Rossum, Travis Oliphant, Barry Warsaw, and many more!
youtu.be/GfH4QL4VqJ0?...
I was particularly pleased to hear Ruby Waller tell us about apprenticeships in data. I had no idea this was a possible route into DS until she told me at the conference this year. So glad she agreed to share her journey!
Had a great PyData London tonight! Was a real treat to hear from @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social on @skrub-data.bsky.social and the real world data pains its solving. (Try it if you havenβt already; super easy to get going!)
PyData London 2025 keynote: Tony Mears -- Innovation is Dead
Innovation gets stifled in the public sector by risk aversion and punishment for failure.
But there is hope: Tony shares a way forward, drawing on his experience directing operations in the NHS and UK Space Agency.
youtu.be/XMLbJYM46xo
on.ft.com/4oVBaBe My day trip to medieval England
Jousting is back in vogue after a 500 year absence. Fantastic pictures too!
Fascinating interview from Odd Lots on what happens when a startup dies. Not often formal bankruptcy.
Finding buyers for some company assets can be challengingβlike human skulls!
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/o...
Excited about this one!
Today at #EuroScipy2025, @glemaitre58.bsky.social and I presented a tutorial on pitfalls of machine learning for imbalanced classification problems.
We discussed what (not) to do when fitting a classifier and obtaining degenerate precision or recall values.
probabl-ai.github.io/calibration-...
Google's Gemini AI tells a Redditor it's 'cautiously optimistic' about fixing a coding bug, fails repeatedly, calls itself an embarrassment to 'all possible and impossible universes' before repeating 'I am a disgrace' 86 times in succession
I'll admit, I was skeptical when they said Gemini was just like a bunch of PhDs. But I gotta admit they nailed it.
Fusion energy start-up claims to have cracked alchemy
This is really cool: modifying the fusion process could produce gold from mercury almost as a side effect, worth almost as much as the electricity produced each year.
on.ft.com/3IXXlWD
It's a good reminder that these models are great for problems that have already been solved and well documented many times, but much riskier for those that haven't.
And that matters because a huge advantage LLMs have over traditional search is solving the "I don't know what I don't know" problem.
Whisper bug report: 'Complete silence is always hallucinated as "ΨͺΨ±Ψ¬Ω
Ψ© ΩΨ§ΩΨ³Ω ΩΩΩΨ±" in Arabic which translates as "Translation by Nancy Qunqar"'
social.coop/@brainwane/1...
It's fun, but as the thread points out not a new problem, e.g. fanfare -> "subscribe"βand would be fixed in English already.
Looping Loop by Andrew Sabin Looping Loop was made in an evolving mould made entirely of pastry margarine. The sculptureβs material is stone aggregate, put into the mould dry and then bonded with a liquid plastic (bonded stone).
Roots: Palace by Ai Weiwei Iron sculpture modelling elements of endangered Brazilian tree roots and branches.
Visited a few Sculpture in the City exhibits on my afternoon cycle today. Will see if I can find the rest over the next few weeks!
www.sculptureinthecity.org.uk
