Andrew Yool

@dryool

Novel reader, 🐈 lover, amateur 📸, gamer 🎮, slow 🚲, coattail-rider, rare blogger & ocean 🌊 biogeochemistry modeller (in that order). Views=own, RTs≠endorsement.

207 Folgt580 Follower798 Posts

Bluesky

amateur gamer

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir dryool.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Andrew Yool@dryool· 10d

Why @yougov.co.uk, when questioning on a factual matter for which the answer is known, do you then not inform your respondents of the correct answer afterwards? It's useful to understand how many are ignorant, but not telling them point-blank borders on disinformation. And skips a teachable moment.

One of today's daily questions from YouGov, including the breakdown of the response from polled citizens

Andrew Yool@dryool· 14d

I think we've a lead contender for "Climate Asshat of the Year, 2026" ... Who, except for the most mendacious, rabble-rousing shill, would think that now - while Europe, and even the UK, is on fire - is a good time to downplay the #ClimateEmergency? (All screengrabs from today's @telegraph.co.uk)

Andrew Yool@dryool· 14d

*Clearly* the missing plot here is the consumption of ice creams (and possibly ice lollies) across this period, which would transparently indicate a relationship between environmental drivers, the resulting poor dietary choices, and excess deaths. The rolling #ClimateEmergency need not be invoked. 🤫

Plot of daily deaths and mean temperature taken from the Interim heat mortality monitoring report, England: May and June 2026 ... https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/interim-heat-mortality-monitoring-report-england-may-and-june-2026/interim-heat-mortality-monitoring-report-england-may-and-june-2026

Andrew Yool@dryool· 20d

This flow chart looks very familiar. Could it be that there's a deep symmetry between posting to social media and adding a process to a marine biogeochemistry model? 🌊

A flow chart from Martin et al. (2024; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2024.110870) outlining whether one should include a process in a marine biogeochemical model. Or not. It's mostly *not*.

Andrew Yool@dryool· 20d

Greens for the win ...

Results of the poll, filtered through UK politics

Andrew Yool@dryool· 20d

It's not like they haven't taken science wildly out of context to pretend they're the good guys before ...

An image from a "CO2 is Life" disinformation campaign misusing basic scientific information about plant growth and CO2 concentrations to justify their core business activity as beneficial to the Earth

Andrew Yool@dryool· 21d

Today in stupid daily questions from @yougov.co.uk ... I'm skeptical about e-scooters being legal on roads (largely because they're often ridden by underage children or irresponsible morons), but if they're made illegal all that'll happen is they'll ride on the pavements and hit pedestrians.

Andrew Yool@dryool· 22d

Forgot to add that we (thanks to Alexandra) have an ace infographic to explain the work ...

Andrew Yool@dryool· Jul 10

But *where* @microsoft.com Word?!? I know it's my own goddamn fault but a little help, please!

A screengrab of MS Word's "Another comment is in progress" message

Andrew Yool@dryool· Jul 7

Alternative headline: "Scam artist forces unwilling electorate to pay AGAIN for his grand-standing"

Link to article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn0v9l9x0g8t

Andrew Yool@dryool· Jul 6

I shouldn't use Grok, but I'm too angry.

Andrew Yool@dryool· Jun 24

@apod.shinyakato.dev - this better not be about to arrive here! We've had enough in the UK and can't take any more! 🥵 🥵 🥵 apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap26062...

Still from today's Astronomy Picture of the Day: "SDO Observes a Coronal Mass Ejection"

Andrew Yool@dryool· Jun 17

Gratuitous BORIS-2 photo (IYKYK)

Andrew Yool@dryool· Jun 10

Not even to get paid by us to clean-up our mess? Our 2024 coastal #OAE study specifically flagged that the best locations were in the #GlobalSouth and that they *might* be able to cash-in. What we wrote to qualify this is weak given traditional exploitation, but there *could* be a revenue stream. 🌊

A plot showing a colour-coded ranking of coastal sites for OAE mCDR potential. Red coloured regions are the best 50% of locations, while blue coloured regions the worse 50% of locations. (There are some subtleties in this plot that the paper explains better.)

Text: As an aside, it is noticeable that much of the OAE capacity simulated here lies within marine areas associated with “Global South” nations. This potentially opens up a new revenue stream for such countries, but also raises the spectre of exploitation by developed nations (cf. fisheries; Belhabib & Le Billon, 2022), so any such use of OAE should require proper engagement with local communities and authorities (e.g., Gurney et al., 2021).

Andrew Yool@dryool· Jun 10

@microsoft.com - Does this screen serve any purpose whatsoever? I've yet to notice any change despite years of making different choices. I tick the box and say "Yes" purely as a Pavlovian reflex to Windows dialogues, but without any conscious expectation that, this time, things will be different.

Andrew Yool@dryool· Jun 8

Translated: Uninhibited moron who needlessly started the latest round in decades-long fight between implacable foes begs for them to knock it off as realisation dawns that a painful "forever war" is annihilating his polling.

Andrew Yool@dryool· Jun 3

Two can play at that game ...

A Reform campaign image altered using Gemini AI to impose an appropriate new background. In this case, to a Hieronymus Bosch hellscape.

Andrew Yool@dryool· Jun 2

Is there maybe, like, a made-up symbol that you can use to make this easier? I know that didn't work out all that well for Prince, but maybe second-time lucky? (Here's what Copilot suggested ...)

Andrew Yool@dryool· May 31

*Exactly* like the A-Team!

Andrew Yool@dryool· May 29

Humans really are the worst.

Andrew Yool@dryool· May 28

For reference, I think this is a before and after for last night's Moon. Now, is this my phone just applying context independent AI filtering, or is it using context dependent "reimagining" based on its training data?

Andrew Yool@dryool· May 25

I took a snap of the Moon last night using my Pixel 10 Pro's 100x zoom capability (10x optical + digital). Looking on the screen, the image was extremely messy and noisy, but the result was pretty impressive. After the AI post-processing, all I've done is crop to a square for Instagram.

A picture of the Moon taken from my back garden using my mobile phone

Andrew Yool@dryool· May 25

I suspect I'm not the only person to do this today ... #RoboPope

ChatGPT prompt and response. Prompt: "Beyond administrative tasks, what sort of sector-specific roles could AI play for religious organisations such as the Catholic Church?"

Summary response from ChatGPT on specific tasks AI would be well-suited for in the church ...

1. Theological and Doctrinal Analysis
AI could rapidly analyse and cross-reference centuries of Church teaching to support theological research and doctrinal clarification.

2. Canon Law Support
AI could assist with interpreting canon law, locating precedents, and helping process legal and tribunal cases more efficiently.

3. Pastoral Guidance Triage
AI could answer routine faith questions, recommend spiritual resources, and direct people to clergy when human care is needed.

4. Liturgical Preparation Support
AI could help clergy prepare homilies and liturgical materials by supplying relevant scripture links, commentary, and seasonal context.

5. Historical Archive Preservation
AI could digitise, restore, translate, and analyse historical Church documents to improve access and scholarship.

6. Global Language Mediation
AI could enable accurate translation and communication across the Church’s many languages and cultural contexts.

7. Ethical and Social Policy Modelling
AI could simulate likely social outcomes of emerging technologies or policies to inform Church ethical teaching.

8. Vocational Discernment Assistance
AI could provide reflective guidance tools for people discerning religious, marital, or lay vocations.

9. Institutional Risk and Integrity Monitoring
AI could detect patterns indicating safeguarding, governance, or financial problems before they escalate.

ChatGPT response on what AI probably shouldn't do for the church ...

What AI probably shouldn’t do

Theologically, there are roles the Church would likely resist delegating:

- Hearing confession
- Giving sacramental absolution
- Issuing doctrinal rulings
- Acting as spiritual director without human oversight
- Replacing homiletic discernment entirely

Catholic theology places strong weight on embodied human mediation, sacramentality, and personal conscience formation. Those don’t map cleanly onto machine systems.

So the likely future is:

AI as an extraordinarily capable ecclesial instrument, but not a spiritual authority.

That distinction is probably where the Church would draw its line.

Andrew Yool@dryool· May 17

It's not immediately clear to me how a duck 🦆 will help with the old station roof at Woking Station ...

Sign reads: "Fragile roof covering: use duck or roof ladders ..."

Andrew Yool@dryool· May 13

I want to know who this "Comrade Ogilvy" was who was rather skilfully inserted into this photograph. While I missed him on my first glance, once you spot the joins and note the shadow on his face that only he has ... Does anyone know who this mystery man is, and - more importantly - who he replaced?

Andrew Yool@dryool· May 13

I was particularly intrigued by this accompanying photograph showing a rather dapper James not long after he joined NIO. Partly because it shows a very male oceanography very different to the one my career has mostly taken place in, but mostly because the photo has a substituted face in it!