Notices by Martin Rundkvist (mrundkvist@archaeo.social)

#Climate demo! #stockholm #denstoraklimatdemonstrationen #environment

The Ents are with us!

#climate #denstoraklimatdemonstrationen #tolkien

Annoying #news site behaviour: interesting headline leads to a fucking film clip or podcast. No, I *read* my news. I use YouTube only to learn boardgames and tie my neck tie.

The rent per sqm for a single-room apartment in Hallstahammar is 45% of that in Stockholm's peripheral suburb Barkarby.

Sångerskan Fröken Snusks öppna solidarisering med SD tydliggör något ganska viktigt. Partiets väljare är inte *främst* rasister. De är lantlig arbetarklass som är fientlig till storstadsetablissemanget, den akademiska medelklassen och finborgerligheten.

Det som gav SD flest röster 2022, och som de nu framhåller i sin pågående valkampanj, är inte rasismen. Det är bensinbilsstödet.

Och visst, de har ju rätt. Jag vill förstås inte att raggarna skall ha något politiskt inflytande.

#svpol

It's 2026. I still have to tell mainstream spreadsheet software NOT TO FUCKING TREAT COLUMN HEADERS AS DATA WHEN SORTING OH YOU ***FUCKING MUPPETS*** THERE ARE 2000 POWER USER FEATURES IN THIS SHIT BUT YOU CAN'T GET THE BASIC THING I USE EVERY DAY RIGHT.

Also I'm bilingual and ***exceptionally tired*** of the endless list of languages I have to select from in LibreOffice's spell checker. It should have four slots for me to fill.

A lot of people seem to believe that if you ask an LLM to look through a database and calculate something, or extract data according to some criteria, then it will do exactly what you ask for.

It won't. It will calculate an output that looks normal. And you won't discover this unless you do the same operation manually and compare.

#llm #ai #aibubble

Here’s a reminder about one of the most important results of the past fourteen years of ancient DNA research. Northern Europe was overrun by plague-spreading steppe nomads less than 5000 years ago, causing an almost complete population replacement.

It’s a 1492 event. Everybody knows that us Northern Europeans aren’t the original inhabitants of North America. But we aren’t even the original inhabitants of Northern Europe.

#archaeology #dna #migration

I don't watch the video clips you post. Give me an article to read.

And we're digging! Already found the foundation of an 1800s barn and a lot of modern scrap metal.

What do you want to know today about Swedish contract #archaeology?

They told us in school in the mid-80s that we were heading towards trouble with the "greenhouse effect". This turned out to be correct and nobody should act surprised.

#climate #heat

Hey private enterprise enthusiasts. You believe that the public sector can save money by handing over utilities to companies, which are inherently more efficient.

Here's why this doesn't work.

You have to pay someone to monitor the private companies. Because they have no incentive to deliver what they promised. They always cut corners in the name of profit. And that monitoring eats the savings you hoped for. While you have no control over your utilities.

#capitalism

If you think I'm exaggerating, think about it.

What is the incentive for a private company to fulfil every detail of the contract?

Only your monitoring. If nobody can tell whether they have done what you paid them to do, then it is economically rational not to do it. Avoiding that expense goes straight to the company's annual profit.

#capitalism

I once read something astonishing about the Perstorp Ltd. chemical industries that has stayed with me.

For many decades, this business didn't make any profit worth mentioning. It didn't lose money either. But it wasn't publicly traded, and the owners made no demands for better profitability.

So for at least two generations, all this organisation did was make quality chemical products and provide jobs. Many would say that it was a spectacularly unsuccessful company.

#capitalism

I miss the Hartwell & Cramer "Year's Best SF" anthologies. They were on the techie "hard" side of the genre without going too far. The eighteenth and last one came out 13 years ago now. I'd be happy to buy something similar in 2026.

Whatcha think, @cstross ?

#scifi #books

Dance. Never learn to march!

#dance #peace

My wife took a three-day course where everyone embroidered family photographs onto heirloom textiles. She's been working on her piece for two years and now there's an exhibition. About 40 pieces. ❤️

#art #textile #embroidery #craft

@afewbugs @aral @dibi58
I'm interested in actual young people today, not in utopianism. Citizens don't pay university tuition in Sweden. Everybody gets student loans. My advice is to study something that will reliably get you an interesting job. Our higher education system won't tell you which programmes do that, and which will have you driving a bus or taking on more debt for re-training afterwards.

#Humanities

@JimmyB
I'm talking to the poor kids. Be smart. Get a marketable education.

You assume that it is valuable to the individual to study Latvian poetry. It is not. A degree in Latvian poetry is a self-inflicted handicap.

Sweden has a senseless proliferation of archaeology departments. There's one for every 1.3 million inhabitants here. In Denmark, that number is 1 per 3.0 million. In Poland, it's 1 per 4.1 million.

My firm belief is that a person without inherited wealth should only study courses that fit into a degree that will lead to a steady job. Otherwise you just go into debt and lose time needlessly. It's better to drive a bus without study debt than with study debt.

#academia #humanities #archaeology