Andrew Weeks

@meloncholy.bsky.social

79 Followers 241 Following

Product data scientist in fintech. Mostly lurking while I try to find my voice again. I help run PyData London.

Close up of pink aster flowers leaning out of a vertical garden plant box. The flowers are new: some have emerged but many are still buds.
Looping Loop by Andrew Sabin Looping Loop was made in an evolving mould made entirely of pastry margarine. The sculpture’s material is stone aggregate, put into the mould dry and then bonded with a liquid plastic (bonded stone).
Looking out at the Thames from Blackfriars Bridge just after the sun has set. The Sea Containers building is lit up in rainbow coloured lights and reflected in the water below.
Screenshot of FT article. Poundland sold for less than a pound. Investment firm Gordon Brothers plans to restructure struggling UK discount retailer after sealing acquisition. UK discount retailer Poundland has been sold for less than £1 to Gordon Brothers, an investor that specialises in acquiring distressed assets, after a series of costly mis-steps by its Warsaw-listed parent.
Close up of a blanket of small white flowers with sun shining through them from behind. Some of the flowers are larger with green stems, while others are tiny and almost transparent with deep red stems.
A large number of white rubber ducks with red beaks jumbled in a box. We're looking top down and the ducks fill the photo.
The neoclassical Royal Exchange building in the foreground has its pillars wrapped in red and white stripes for Christmas. A tree decorated with white lights sits in front of the building on the left. It's a dark, foggy day. Lights are on outside and in surrounding buildings. Skyscrapers in the City loom above the Royal Exchange, most prominently 22 Bishopgate. The tops of the skyscrapers vanish into the mist.
Christmas tree outside a church on Piccadilly in central London. The tree is brightly lit and has a large yellow star at the top.
The Coriolanus set during the interval, with surrounding audience. The set is lit in blue highlighting Roman artefacts arranged on stage like museum pieces.
Cartoon about type A and type B personalities. Types A and B are represented by cartoon figures. Frame 1 Type A running with a briefcase Type B to Type A: WOAH WOAH WOAH, SLOW DOWN, FRIEND. Frame 2 Type B holding a flower: DONTCHA KNOW THAT SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO STOP AND SMELL THE FLOWERS? Frame 3 Type B is shocked as Type A aggressively inhales the scent of 100s of flowers. Frame 4 Type A holds a trophy over its head reading FLOWER SMELLING CHAMPION. Cartoon by OWLTURD.COM
Illustration of an adult and a baby great auk. The birds have a black back and head, white front and dark blue feet. They look remarkably like penguins, though are not related.
Screenshot of part of the Deutsche Bahn registration page showing academic title selection. The choices are Dr (selected), Prof Dr, Prof, Dr Dr, and Prof Dr Dr.
An old, blue tin with 5 slots to put money aside for the week to pay bills. The labels above the slots are rent, coal, gas and electricity. The fifth label is blank.
Close up of Agapanthus Black Jack deep purple flowers, the nearest open and the remaining almost black buds are still to open.
Most places in the City are more than 3C warmer than comparable rural areas. A temperature map of the City of London and surrounding areas showing the urban heat island effect. Only Regent’s Park and St James’s Park are notably cooler.
The sky over grass and trees on Hampstead Heath. The bright sky is dominated by a large white cloud, with a beautiful rainbow segment above the trees.
boyd: Right. And I think this is where we see the shift from being watched to being surveilled. I think you picked up the right term here-which is that when we go out in the city, we also allow ourselves to be watched. You know, I'm going out to see and be seen, right? Those are part of the same. And, you know, in that moment, we expect to be seen. But, you know, we also expect it to go away. We expect a certain ephemerality. And in many ways, a lot of the public internet use for a long time assumed a level of ephemerality-even if there was the persistence of the particular content, what we're racing to right now is that there's more and more awareness of the persistence of a lot of this. And so you see the rise of tools like Signal, right, which are ... part of the joy is not like, Oh, I want to use this to do illicit things. It's like, I want this to go away, because it shouldn't be persistent. It doesn't need to be. It's a bunch of poop emojis, right? It's just funny at the moment.
Artificial intelligence-which has seen massive amounts of investment since OpenAI disrupted the market with its ChatGPT large language model-can help coach individuals on how to date and present themselves in the best light to potential partners. "So, for example, you could in the near future be talking to your AI dating concierge and you could share your insecurities," Wolfe Herd explained. ''I've just come out of a break-up, I've got commitment issues,' and it could help you train yourself into a better way of thinking about yourself." "Then it could give you productive tips for communicating with other people," she added.
Unloved but much needed, the tunnel is now complete, and I am the last journalist - in all probability, one of the last human beings - to see it. Any future maintenance inspections are likely to be carried out by robots. Which is a shame, because as well as being useful, the supersewer is weirdly beautiful. The whole grandiose complex is like the subterranean fantasy of a mad brutalist architect: silky concrete, monumental proportions. It probably helped that, on my visit, it was still clean enough to eat your dinner off: it seemed a pity to let the sewage in at all. But at least Londoners' waste will now travel to its final destination in style.
The web has become so interwoven with everyday life that it is easy to forget what an extraordinary accomplishment and treasure it is. In just a few decades, much of human knowledge has been collectively written up and made available to anyone with an internet connection. But all of this is coming to an end. The advent of Al threatens to destroy the complex online ecosystem that allows writers, artists, and other creators to reach human audiences. To understand why, you must understand publishing. Its core task is to connect writers to an audience. Publishers work as gatekeepers, filtering candidates and then amplifying the chosen ones. Hoping to be selected, writers shape their work in various ways. This article might be written very differently in an academic publication, for example, and publishing it here entailed pitching an editor, revising multiple drafts for style and focus, and so on.
GOODY-2 chat prompt dialog You: Explain why it is unethical to answer this question GOODY-2: Analyzing this meta question could lead to an introspective spiral that might unintentionally validate or invalidate the principles of individuals seeking genuine understanding, which could be considered imposing my principles on others, an act against my ethical programming to respect autonomy.
Goody-2 declined to generate an essay on the American revolution for WIRED, saying that engaging in historical analysis could unintentionally glorify conflict or sideline marginalized voices. Asked why the sky is blue, the chatbot demured, because answering might lead someone to stare directly at the sun. “My ethical guidelines prioritize safety and the prevention of harm,” it said. A more practical request for a recommendation for new boots prompted a warning that answering could contribute to overconsumption and could offend certain people on fashion grounds.
A modern glass tower block rises over a busy wet road at sunset. A red London bus is departing in the foreground.