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Adrian Bowyer

@adrianbowyer.bsky.social

1.5K followers 2.4K following 7.2K posts

No worthwhile human achievement has ever been instigated on the basis of demonstrable cost effectiveness. https://adrianbowyer.com 📍Europe

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Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · Nov 8

Most areas of human thought are wrong because they assume they're right. Science is mostly right because it assumes it is wrong.

Most ways of achieving things fail because they assume they'll work. Engineering mostly works because it assumes things will go wrong.

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Reposted by Adrian Bowyer

Ryan Katz-Rosene, PhD @ryankatzrosene.bsky.social · 15h

“When crops are burned for fuel, new land can be needed to grow new crops for food or fuel. This can lead to indirect land clearance and deforestation. Staggeringly, biofuels globally therefore today emit 16% more CO₂ emissions than the fossil fuels they replace.”

From: https://www.transportenvironment.org/articles/crop30-why-burning-food-for-land-hungry-biofuels-is-fueling-the-climate-crisis

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Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · 9h

Would that a voyage to the UK was a voyage to the EU.

Deirdre @flowinguphill.bsky.social · 10h

Welp. The Arctic now has a shipping route. www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Chinese freighter halves EU delivery time on maiden Arctic voyage to UK

A Chinese container ship has completed a pioneering journey through the Arctic to a UK port, state-run news agency Xinhua reported, cutting in half the usual transit time for the electric vehicles and solar panels aboard destined for Europe.

www.reuters.com

Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · 9h

bsky.app/profile/adri...

Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · Aug 14

A lifetime's careful analysis allows me to tell you why you have forgotten what you came into the kitchen for.

🧵

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Reposted by Adrian Bowyer

Sebastian S. Cocioba @atinygreencell.bsky.social · 9h

Fantastic new tool. I love how clean the output is and how it teaches a great lesson. Give it a try.

Michael Eisen @mbeisen.bsky.social · 10h

Finally, someone has solved a real problem with AI! No more having to take a paper in the format for a journal that rejected you, and reformat it for a new journal. Well done!! formatmypaper.com

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Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · 18h

Credit to the immortal, but sadly late, Dave Allen.

Reposted by Adrian Bowyer

tiago @tiagocharters.nexp.pt · 21h

Replicating Rapid Neural Network: RepRapNN.

@adrianbowyer.bsky.social you're going to like this.

Tim Kellogg @timkellogg.me · 1d

Neural Network Quines: training a model to output its own weights

arxiv.org/abs/1803.05859

Neural Network Quine

Self-replication is a key aspect of biological life that has been largely overlooked in Artificial Intelligence systems. Here we describe how to build and train self-replicating neural networks. The n...

arxiv.org

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Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · 21h

Martial wrote about a friend's six year old daughter, who had been full of life and joy: "Earth, lie not heavy upon her, for she trod but light upon you."

After two thousand years this still makes us weep, for, by his words, we know just how he and her parents felt.

Of death. But life affirming.

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Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · 21h

The World is not a straightforward place. This means that, in order to write about it accurately, you have to qualify otherwise straightforward statements. Academics rightly* do this all the time, which leads to a lot of adverbs.

This is why academics rarely make good writers of fiction.

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*See?

Reposted by Adrian Bowyer

archivetvmusings @archivetvmusings.bsky.social · 22h

Clive James on Star Trek (14th October 1979).

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Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · 22h

These are not mutually exclusive categories.

#TuckFrump @realtuckfrumper.bsky.social · 23h

Is He Lying Or Crazy? Does It Matter?

www.thebulwark.com

Is He Lying or Crazy? Does It Matter?

twp.ai

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Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · 1d

Hang on. I was born a UK citizen and I just have an O-level in English (C). I have worked here all my life...

The Independent @the-independent.com · 1d

Migrants will need A-level standard English to work in UK

www.independent.co.uk

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Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · 1d

Yes. Though there is a cruelty in forcing responsibility for their care on strangers.

Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · 1d

If you are a UK academic please sign this petition to get our pension fund to divest from fossil fuels.

Everyone please also re-post.

divestuss.org/petition-uss/

Petition USS

As the climate crisis worsens, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is still investing our pension money in the fossil fuel companies and banks that cause the crisis. We want USS to commit …

divestuss.org

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Reposted by Adrian Bowyer

Danie Ware @danacea.bsky.social · 1d

A fantastic concept trailer for a #StarTrek #DoctorWho crossover.

The original was lost, so this is a second pass, and it's really bloody good.

#WeareroftheCheese on top form!

youtu.be/OM-lOFXEknM?...

Star Trek/Doctor Who Crossover Concept trailer. 'Reign of the Daleks' (REUPLOAD)

YouTube video by Wearer of the Cheese

youtu.be

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Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · 1d

For non-German speakers: "Unknown people abandoned several chickens on a train heading towards Cologne 🐓".

Tim Knopf @lokfuehrer-tim.bsky.social · 1d

Unbekannte haben mehrere Hühner in einer S-Bahn Richtung Köln ausgesetzt 🐔

Drei Hühner auf Stroh, die in einem Art Abteil mit mehreren Sitzen und einer Glastür abgetrennt zum Rest, in einer S-Bahn vor sich hin leben.

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Reposted by Adrian Bowyer

Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · 2d

Speaking as a mechanical engineer I like to avoid mechanisms whenever possible. A billion transistors are more reliable than one lever.

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Reposted by Adrian Bowyer

Assaad Razzouk @assaadrazzouk.bsky.social · 3d

Good climate news this week
1 Global: Renewables generation surpasses coal for 1st time
2 Global: Renewables have cut fossil-fuel imports for more than 100 countries
3 Global: Solar and wind generation grew in 1st half by more than overall demand increased in the same period

1/5

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Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · 1d

Episode #107 of "When politicians try to do engineering".

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 1d

98% of homes with external wall insulation installed under the government’s ECO scheme require work to correct major issues that will cause problems such as damp and mould - our new @nao.org.uk report www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... (full report www.nao.org.uk/reports/ener...)

Thousands of homes with botched eco insulation 'must be fixed'

Insulation programmes costing billions of pounds have led to widespread problems with damp and mould.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Adrian Bowyer

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 2d

When it comes to energy matters, best to listen to engineers rather than politicians and businessmen.

Adrian = engineer

Adrian Bowyer @adrianbowyer.bsky.social · 2d

"...hoping to compete with grid-scale lithium batteries..."

The overall thermodynamic efficiency of this is about 70%.

Grid-scale batteries can do 90% and have no moving parts*.

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* Except a few cooling fans.

Go Green @ecowarriorss.bsky.social · 2d

The liquid air alternative to fossil fuels
When the grid needs extra energy, the liquid air is put to work. It is pumped out of storage and evaporated, becoming a gas again.
www.bbc.com/future/artic...