There has been a lot of good studies done on the skeletons, like DNA and isotope analysis:

The tests revealed that most of the York Romans had genomes similar to the pre-Roman iron-age woman, found in Melton in east Yorkshire, suggesting that they were from the region. Isotope variations, however, indicated that some had spent time outside Britain. Many of the men had suffered poor health in childhood. Comparison with modern samples showed that the nearest descendants of the Roman Britons were no longer in Yorkshire but in Wales.

More detailed discussion of the DNA and it is a fascinating snapshot of the Iron Age population. I’ve spoken to someone who closely matches the U152 gladiator (I’m also U152), which is quite the result.

That’s… a lot and is going to be tough going for the jury.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acknowledged the existence of generative AI yesterday in new rule changes for its annual Oscars awards ceremony. Rather than dictate its use or require disclosures, the Academy simply says using AI doesn’t, on its own, hurt a movie’s chances — but that how it’s used could.

That seems fair.

The Brutalist used AI to improve Hungarian accents, which seems a reasonable use for it. They also used it to generate photographs of fictional buildings, which has done someone out of a job. However, someone else has to come up with the prompts and sift through the results, it just feels a bit… Cheap? Low effort?

Address the comments or address the defederation?

I was the Admin who was contacted by Ada and that is a mischaracterisation of what I said. Our rules still stand that we won’t allow transphobia.

Unfortunately, as the ruling on the interpretation of the law has recently changed, we are going to have to figure out how we approach this and that is going to require a consensus amongst the Admins, and an agreement on our wording going forward.

This is going to take a bit for us to work out (although not too long, we’re getting there, I have been active on Lemmy but I don’t call the shots, and we need input from all Admins) and if, in the meantime, LBZ feel we aren’t moving fast enough and they need to defederate from us then that is obviously their right.

To what extent? Like what about an AI generated humour/satire image in a comment section? I have a funny one of Vladimir Putin sitting on a naughty step

That’s a no for that. It’s ultimately based on someone else’s stolen work.

We would, I suspect, allow AI imagery in discussion about AI and what it us capable of but the days of posting it to laugh at the shitty results seems long gone. In recent examples, I couldn’t tell by eye but I ran it through an AI checker which was pretty definitive.

Anyway, I changed casualuk icon as it was an old 2023 AI generated image previously. I think we should work towards revamping other communities

Yeah, there’s the odd community avatar we need to swap and we definitely need to give some of the communities a bit of a revamp as they were bodged together over a year ago, often in haste.

Uh oh.

I watched the film Y2K the other week and this is going to get messy.

We don’t get a lot of it on here. We’d just been asked for clarification on our AI policy after a meme or two popped up. This now means there isn’t any ambiguity and the Mods can shut it down when they find it. AI checkers are quite and pretty definitive.

I’d not factored in the robot overlords. I may have just Roko’s basilisked myself. 🤦‍♂️

Because you couldn’t eat a whole Saint David in one sitting?

You are mistaking him for Saint David.

I live in hope that this will kickstart a solar panel industry here, rather than us just finding a developing country with cheap labour and lax laws.

Following the ruling, J.K. Rowling, the world’s richest author and perhaps its most prominent transphobe, tweeted a photo of herself enjoying a cigar and a bourbon on her $15 million superyacht, toasting what she called “TERF VE Day,” in reference to the acronym “trans-exclusionary radical feminism” and the surrender of German military operations that heralded “Victory in Europe” 80 years ago. “I love it when a plan comes together,” Rowling added.

She’s become a Bond villain.

Astonishingly, the ruling specifies that what it calls “women living in the male gender”—i.e., trans men, and cis women whose appearance is deemed masculine—“could also be excluded” alongside cis men, from women’s spaces. “Not being allowed into the mens by rule does not mean you have the right to go into the ladies,” clarified the leading anti-trans campaigner Maya Forstater; “That may seem unfair, but these are life choices people make. If you make extreme efforts to look like a man don’t be surprised if you are denied entrance to ladies.” Forstater’s comments underscore the ultimate goal of TERFs and other transphobes: to expunge trans people from public life.

The mask slips there. Even amongst TERFs that has to be a minority opinion (right? Right?) as everyone has the right to go to the toilet, but it does demonstrate that some don’t see this ruling as an end point but just a foot in the door. One of my arguments against the ruling (or the misinterpretation of it) was that trans men will be forced into women’s toilets, changing rooms, etc and this would underline the absurdity of all of this and lead to push back against it, but it seems like some TERFs are already planning for that eventuality.

And, again, who do they expect to police this? I spoke to the landlord of my local and he is pretty clear that everyone should use the toilet that best corresponds to the gender you look like, not necessarily from some high moral ground but because it causes the least fuss and bother.

Over the last six months, one new public charger has been installed every 13 minutes, according to the report. The fastest rollout of chargers has been that of rapid and ultra-rapid chargers, which are powerful enough to recharge EVs in as little as 20 minutes. These chargers now make up nearly a quarter (24 percent) of all public charge points in the UK and stand in stark contrast to the declining number of petrol stations (around 8,300) across the country.

The report has been released just days after the government confirmed the ban on new petrol and diesel car sales by 2030. The government is now targeting 300,000 public chargers to be installed in the same year.

That seems pretty good. I wonder about how widely spread they are and what the optimum amount will be.

Sheep and syphilis… 🤔

Yeah, that is a key indicator of TLE.

It’s both!

This will be a welcome move if it let’s people get better control of their energy. I think someone has posted on here about their smart home setup that allows them to monitor their green energy production and usage.

My previous house was a Victorian semi that had cavity walls. I phoned up about a green grant to get it done (as people two doors down had) and they wouldn’t believe me until they checked Google Earth. Had it surveyed and it would have needed a lot of preparation work to get into a condition that it could have been insulated. Ended moving and I am unsure what the new owners have done on that front - not flash enough to make their Instagram account about renovating the house which I have been advised not to read as they are horrible people with bad taste. Although I get the gist as it often gets commented on at parties, especially as a friend’s brother-in-law did the bathrooms.

That sounds like a real rollercoaster ride of a weekend!

Glad I locked in a 18 month energy deal but I am wondering if I should have gone for 2 years.