“Just beat my record for most consecutive days without dying.” — Bill Murray.

  • 56 Posts
  • 29 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: March 4th, 2025
  • RegularJoe@lemmy.worldOPtoTexas@lemmy.world•Climate change: Persistent drought, uneven rainfall, and early-season planting data paint a challenging outlook for Texas agriculture heading into April.English
    2·
    8 days ago

    Drought conditions in Texas have worsened, with severe impacts on crops such as winter wheat and livestock feed availability.

    “Things are looking bad for far south Texas, where climate outlooks suggest higher than normal probabilities of dry conditions over much of the state,” said William Baule, regional climatologist at the Southern Regional Climate Center and research assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University.

    U.S. Drought Monitor data, published April 2, showed drought conditions intensified from March 24 –31. There was no change in abnormally dry conditions (D0), while drought categories (D1–D4) worsened overall.

    Moderate drought increased 4.48 points to 88.98% (D1). Severe drought worsened sharply by 7.27 points to 62.81% (D2). Extreme drought was up 6.74 points to 29.34% (D3). Exceptional drought weakened by 0.86 points to 4.96% (D4).

    The drought has made it difficult to take soil samples, according to Dwayne Peirce, Texas A&M AgriLife agriculture and natural resources agent, who has pulled samples since the 1990s.

    “I’ve never had the difficulty that I’ve had this spring, pulling soil samples for our spring and summer crops,” he said. “It’s taken me, on an average, at least twice as long, if not three times as long, to sample the field. Just trying to find a location that’s soft enough to get the probe in the ground has been difficult.”

  • RegularJoe@lemmy.worldOPtoTexas@lemmy.world•Texas officials propose adding Bible to school readingEnglish
    3·
    10 days ago

    The Texas State Board of Education met this month to discuss potential changes to how social studies is taught under the state’s Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for K-12 social studies curriculum.

    The Texas Education Agency has also published a recommended reading list of literary works developed with input from more than 5,000 Texas English teachers, according to a previous report by The Center Square.

    Teachers and historians have raised concerns about elements of the proposed standards.

  • RegularJoe@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.world•LibreOffice Drama: The Document Foundation Removes Collabora Developers in One SweepEnglish
    79·
    16 days ago

    The Document Foundation’s official reply came from Italo Vignoli, a founder Collabora lists as having already exited TDF membership.

    He has kept it short, confirming that the removals happened, pointing to TDF’s recently adopted Community Bylaws as the basis. Those bylaws include a clause requiring anyone affiliated with a company in an active legal dispute with TDF to step down from membership.

    Link to those bylaws from Jan 15

    https://community.documentfoundation.org/t/vote-adopt-version-1-of-community-bylaws/13472

    Quote from that link [bylaws] above

    Members involved in legal claims for endangering the Foundation, eg. by means of putting the charitable status at risk, or misusing TDF’s funds, or by damaging any of TDF’s assets, or by attempting to do any of these must relinquish their membership by means of notification to the MC. If the legal claim, in relation to the mentioned matters, involves a company/organisation then also their affiliated members must relinquish their membership.

    Back to the original linked article:

    The stated rationale is that past situations saw people put their employer’s interests ahead of the foundation’s, and the clause exists to stop that happening again. The specifics of the legal dispute between TDF and Collabora are not mentioned by either party.

    TDF also makes clear that a membership revocation is not a ban from contributing, with the project remaining open to anyone, and expects Collabora to keep contributing “when the time comes.”

    So without details, all the article really details is that this happened. The why is murky. It seems the TDF is trying to protect itself, but there’s no description of Collabra or TDFs legal dispute.

  • RegularJoe@lemmy.worldtoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world•Moving - Go big?English
    10·
    28 days ago

    If you’re young and your parents aren’t old, it’s doable.

    It’s also doable when you have siblings to take care of older parents. I know you say “Most of our families will be gone in a few years.” But what if in less than that time they need care?

    Relocating back to where your elderly parents are, especially if you’re older can be a hassle. For example, if you are 50 years old and your parents are 75 years old, and they need a caretaker, you would need to relocate, and get a new job later in life (often at a pay decrease).

  • RegularJoe@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.world•“ChatGPT said this” Is LazyEnglish
    263·
    1 month ago

    ChatGPT isn’t on the team.

    Except that when someone pastes “ChatGPT thinks that {wall of AI-generated text}”

    That person put ChatGPT on the team. And if there was no human input, the competition is free to use that and mock it word for word. Use fear, uncertainty, and doubt to convince your team that anyone can use that, including your competition, if it is published.

    The U.S. Copyright Office’s January 2025 report on AI and copyrightability reaffirms the longstanding principle that copyright protection is reserved for works of human authorship. Outputs created entirely by generative artificial intelligence (AI), with no human creative input, are not eligible for copyright protection.

    https://natlawreview.com/article/copyright-offices-latest-guidance-ai-and-copyrightability