Week 52

"@anon_opin@mastodon.social

Everything went to shit once the soviet union collapsed. The ruling elite used to be terrified of communism doing well and turning heads so they'd throw the plebs a few bones (health care, public services, etc) to keep us sweet."

The General (al-Haddad) who died was the army chief of Libyan west. The more powerful Haftar is in the east. He nearly took all of Libya in 2020 but the al-Haddad group resisted w/ the help of Asia Minor. Then recently TR started to pivot to Haftar. Anyone who backed Haftar (and there are many) could've seen an opportunity to pounce now, weaken the West and make Asia Minor look like a jackass in tbe process, they look like they cannot even protect a guest in their own airspace.

No need to use Komoot. Wikiloc is fine, their trail data is free to download. You get a file in GPX format, most apps can handle it... I have my own Web utility that can display POIs, paths from Wikiloc or elsewhere, uses Leaflet for maps - 200 lines of code.

I've met some of the Komoot team some time ago.. The company never came across tech-savy to me, now we see they were biz types too eager to screw anyone for money.

"Imagine going for a ride on your favorite loop through your local woods and stumbling upon a notice of an impending clear-cut. That’s the shock many of us in the European cycling community felt when the news broke that our trusted route platform, Komoot, was sold to the notorious private equity group Bending Spoons on March 20th of this year. Breaking their promise of long-term commitment to the company, Komoot’s six founders sold out the around 150 employees, millions of active users, and the beloved service, making off with the lion’s share of the 300-million-euro deal...

The employees were the first to get the axe. They signed in one morning to learn that the company many had dedicated up to 15 years of their life to was no more. Eighty percent were fired immediately. I spoke with a few longtime employees in the aftermath, who described it as a rough and cruel betrayal."

#Reshare

"How to Lose $19.5 Billion: The Ford EV Disaster!"

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This is not a general, all-encompassing dig at Qatar. They wanted good PR, they got good PR. Does it suck they rigged the WC? Yes.

His prediction was correct. The reasoning makes sense. That Argentina - Netherlands game always seemed sketchy to me.

"[Ibrahimovic Before the 2022 Worldcup] I think it's already written who will win.. Messi will lift the trophy"

"[Ibrahimovic After the 2022 Worldcup] I said that Argentina will for sure win the World Cup. Because if you want to remember a Qatar World Cup for the rest of history, who must win? Messi."

IC: "What World was Jesus born into? A Historian describes the turbulent Times of the real Nativity.. far from being a sleepy village, Bethlehem was so significant as a town that a major aqueduct construction brought water to its centre. Fearing Herod, Jesus’ family fled from their home there, but they were on the wrong side of Rome from the start.. The events that unfolded, as told by the first-century historian Josephus, show a nation in open revolt against Rome shortly after Jesus was born."

#Rigged #Tyson

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The Lever: "A network of arms industry-funded think tanks and media operatives helped manufacture consent before a record-breaking $1 trillion defense budget... Last week, the U.S. Senate joined the House of Representatives and voted to pass a record-breaking 901 billion defense budget, in addition to the 156 billion in military spending allocated by the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act in July. This comes after the editorial board of The New York Times — the (generally liberal) paper of record — recently published seven military-focused op-eds in a single week, some of which explicitly called for more military spending. Parroting potentially exaggerated claims of China’s military threat, the Times board contended that, to 'prevent wars from starting and winning them if they do,' the U.S. must expand its military budget and '[keep] pace in these 21st-century arms races.'"

Language does not define culture but in the modern world, for practical reasons, it helps if there is one language everyone can use to communicate.

TR language today is morphed beyond recognition. It is unintelligable to the (real) Turkics in Central Asia. Homie cannot understand an Uygur in Xinjang.

The use of language is an administrative matter, if the military / palace speak it, it can spread easier, esp. once the Republic made the use of language official. Not as relevant culturally. Brits and Americans speak the same language but their culture is different. Georgians and Armenians speak different languages but they have similar culture.

Language doesn't matter all that much. The French dote over their language, right..? But before it (the dialect of Paris) became the national norm, Gaul was a mish mash of distinct languages. The standardization of French was not a natural inevitability, it was mostly a result of politics and royal decrees. Some alternatives were equally likely to become dominant, there was Occitan, Norman, Franco-Provençal, Celtic..

Reddit: "Anatolia since being Byzantium's heartland was always densely populated which estimated 5-6 million around that time, while Turkics were always minority such as 250k to 500k, on the other hand, turkics become power holder after 1071 despite being less numbered, eventually up to early Ottoman age Turkic population estimated almost a million while Roman/byzantine population down to around 4 million, and during ottoman era most of Byzantines embraced islam.. so today most Turks in Turkey have mostly anatolian by genetic[s].. while [official] identification is related to Turkish and Islam rather than anything else despite bigger genetic ties with Romans"

Firstpost: "Russia sees slow but steady progress in peace talks with the United States on Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday."

NYT: "The first draft [of the U.S.-Ukrainian Peace Plan] essentially called for Ukraine’s surrender. The revised version includes the security guarantees Kyiv wants to prevent future Russian aggression.. But a Kremlin emboldened by Moscow’s advances on the battlefield and restrained by the difficulty of selling the new plan to the Russian public as a victory is unlikely to accept it."

"UK, Canada, Germany and others condemn Israel's West Bank settlement plan"

NASA: "[Jupiter's moon] Europa has a salty ocean beneath its icy crust with about twice as much water than all of Earth's oceans combined.. Models also suggest that Europa's icy shell gets stretched and released by the tug of Jupiter's gravity as Europa orbits the giant planet. This squeezing in and out is called tidal flexing, and it creates heat inside Europa. In fact, the tidal flexing is likely creating enough heat inside Europa to maintain the liquid ocean beneath the surface...

Europa's surface is blasted by radiation from Jupiter. That's a bad thing for life on the surface – it couldn't survive. But the radiation may create fuel for life in an ocean below the surface... The radiation splits apart water molecules (H2O, made of oxygen and hydrogen) in Europa's extremely tenuous atmosphere. The hydrogen floats away and much of the oxygen stays behind and may bind to other elements. Oxygen is a very reactive element, which means it could potentially be used in chemical reactions that release energy. If the oxygen somehow makes its way to the ocean, it could react with other chemicals to possibly provide chemical energy for microbial life."

"@statsguy@mas.to

So according to the UK government, Greta Thunberg is now a dangerous terrorist."

"Greta Thunberg arrested at a protest supporting Palestine Action hunger strikers"

TR gets the occasional "message" and the warning ritual like this. Khasoggi's killing was another. He was somewhat of a dissident for the Saudi gov but him being close to Asia Minor could have been his true misfortune - we note he died at the Istanbul Saudi embassy.

The Guardian: "The crash occurred a day after Turkey’s parliament passed a decision to extend the mandate of Turkish soldiers’ deployment in Libya by two more years... Turkey has militarily and politically supported Libya’s Tripoli-based, internationally recognised government. In 2020, it sent military personnel there to train and support its government and later reached a maritime demarcation accord, which has been disputed by Egypt and Greece. In 2022, Ankara and Tripoli also signed a preliminary accord on energy exploration, which Egypt and Greece also oppose."

"The Libyan army's Chief of Staff.. al-Haddad, has been killed in a plane crash in Turkiye while returning from an official visit to Ankara"

"@aral@mastodon.ar.al

That feeling when you unintentionally make the case for Scottish independence."

"@ieeespectrum@mastodon.social

The UK has a power transmission problem. Wind farms in Scotland are producing huge amounts of energy, but getting it flowing to London in the south is costly. New grid-enhancing technologies allow more #power to be transferred across the grid, without building new power lines."

Fusion on the news again..

"Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, announced a merger on Wednesday with a company developing fusion energy technology.

TAE Technologies, an energy company founded in 1998, will join with Trump Media via a $6bn merger that it promises will propel it to build 'the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant' next year"

#Singularity #SH

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WaPo: "They survived a Cybertruck crash. An inferno led to a race against time...[we] found at least a dozen cases since 2019 in which Tesla drivers, passengers or first responders were unable to immediately access or exit the vehicles in life-threatening situations [bcz of its 'hi-tech' doors]"

Los Angeles Times: "California DMV threatens to shut down Tesla sales over false advertising"

Ars Technica: "Power outage paralyzes Waymo robotaxis when traffic lights go out"

Gaetz: "Anti-semitism used to mean someone who didn't like Jews. Now it means someone Jews don't like"

#Gaetz #Congress

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"@petebrown@social.lol

The argument that driverless cars will be safer than human-driven cars would be more convincing were it not being made by companies that have incentives—growth and profit—that are at best not aligned with safety and at worst in direct conflict with safety."

"The IMEC Peace Triangle creates the needed connectivity between wealthy European, Israel, and Gulf states with the struggling non-fossil Arab economies"

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Gaza is somehow included.. intentionally, and somewhat artificially, but fine.. they are made part of the economy.

It looks like there is more to IMEC... Added the new sub routes to it, below. There are connections to France, Italy. The main transport is UAE gas. TR is bypassed on this one.

import json

corr = json.loads(open("corridors2.json").read())

colors = {"BRI1": "red", "BRI2": "red", "Zenzagur": "red", "imec":
          "blue", "imec2": "blue", "imec3": "blue", "IDR": "purple",
          "INTSC": "orange", "Traditional Route": "black"}

u.map_coords([25,46], {}, lines=corr, zoom=3, colors=colors, outfile="map18.html")

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Aircraft carrier eh? 🤨 Announced while in UAE?

South China Morning Post: "Macron, on UAE visit, announces new French aircraft carrier"

#CMB #SH

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#Thorium #SH

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Gemini crashed on a movie recommendation task 🤣 I uploaded my ratings asked for a recommendation, Gem imploded.

IC: "Climate Breakdown: Even 'Weak' Cyclones cause Fatal Flooding as Oceans Heat Up"

"How to Lose $19.5 Billion: The Ford EV Disaster!"

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Interesting claim..

The New Arab: "[2024] Russian state news agency Tass is boosting claims.. that [Assad] struck a deal with Tel Aviv to allow him to safely flee Syria.. [he] handed the Israelis the details of a number of Syrian military targets in return for allowing his plane to fly out of the country unharmed."

#Limits #GPT #Wooldridge

Part 1, Part 2

Politico: "Epstein files put Bill Clinton under scrutiny.. Clinton appears in photos posing with Epstein in coordinating shirts, interacting with a dancer, sitting with a redacted woman on his lap on what looks like an airplane.. Clinton and Epstein have been linked since the early 1990s, having run in the same social circles. They have been photographed together several times. Clinton flew on Epstein’s plane in the early 2000s, taking trips to Europe, Asia and Africa. Ureña said those trips included stops for work connected to the Clinton Foundation."

#ChristmasReading

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#Chapelle

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HTW: "Vance backs H-1B visa curbs, slams firms for bypassing American labour for ‘cheaper third world options’"

They are getting pulverized by Tucker, Candace Owens, Bannon

Jewish Beavis, that bland Tootsie looking bitch.. Is this the best they have? The Zio have a big problem..

IC: "Israel: Polling suggests Extreme-Right Netanyahu Coalition in Trouble, as Tens of Thousands Protest"

The Lever: "The AI Boom Just Jacked The Price Of Your Electronics.. Prominent computer chip part maker Micron is abandoning its consumer-side business in favor of artificial intelligence, enabling its competitors to raise prices."

The Lever: "Good things are happening! One of the most restrictive labor laws in the country is overturned, a predatory rideshare billing scheme could be nixed, lawmakers take on personalized pricing, and a state gets serious about bottled water."

Firstpost: "Brazil's Lula warns armed intervention in Venezuela would be 'humanitarian catastrophe'"

Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, Palmyra all seem to be outside known ISIS areas in Syria... But I guess it is a message to someone, somewhere.

"U.S. launches strikes in Syria targeting Islamic State.. A U.S. official described it as "a large-scale" strike that hit 70 targets in areas across central Syria that had IS infrastructure and weapons... Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces and in the Jabal al-Amour area near the historic city of Palmyra"

Why does GPU restrictions effect Chinese LLM ("AI") efforts? A lot of training approaches in machine learning divide the training data into batches and multiple CPUs and GPUs work on them. Many ML algos are said to be "embarassingly parallel", ie they can be parallelized at ease.

Then one could think if China has access to chips half as good due to export restrictions, can't they double the number of chips and get equal performance? It seems one major hurdle is in the sync phase of said LLM training algos. To synch they need to communicate, and with increasing chips that communication bottleneck grows non-linearly for LLM training. NVidia has an optimized interconnect tech for its GPUs, Google developed its own for its TPUs, China is behind in that regard (5-10 yrs depending on who you ask). That means China not only needs to develop faster chips but also faster interconnect methods.

Is this a big loss? I don't think so. I don't see LLMs as a major strategic advantage in any field. If you need focused neural net applications you can train those stupid black boxen with less hardware, no need for thousands of GPUs and their interconnect.

BTW the SOTA for recommendation algorithms are not neural net based. Let that sink in. The machinery that powers "intelligent" LLMs is not the top choice for a major area in machine learning.

"@brohrer@recsys.social

Apple TV just recommended me an M Night Shamalan and I'm trying not to feel insulted"

#MS #LLM

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Except Hinton probably, but he's gone senile... Sutskever is his student, we can defer to him.

He argues research needs to focus on new AI approaches that learn how to learn. Current LLMs are too finished, too polished in certain tasks, and they still suck at many tasks human learn easily (like learning chess, learning how to drive). A lot of AI heavyweights are advocating going back to the drawing board these days.

#Sutskever

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"The future of intelligence | Demis Hassabis (Co-founder and CEO of DeepMind)"

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"@andrewdessler@mastodon.world

Zeke Hausfather makes his predictions for 2026 and 2027 temperatures. I don’t need any fancy science to tell you that both years gonna be en fuego"

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Chapelle: "Don’t forget what I just went through... Two years ago, I almost got canceled right here in the United States for transgender jokes. But I gotta tell you something: Transgender jokes went over very well in Saudi Arabia"

Fucka me, fucka you. UA attacks RU ships, they pay back in kind. UA has probably more to lose in this exchange than Russia.

"A Russian drone hit the civilian vessel VIVA, which was transporting sunflower oil through the Black Sea grain corridor"

"With Attacks on Oil Tankers, Ukraine Takes Aim at Russia’s War Financing"

This is good.. The government needs make businesses its bitch. For too long government has been private sector's bitch. That needs to change.

NPR: "President Trump said the administration has reached agreements with nine more drugmakers to bring their U.S. drug prices more in line with what other wealthy countries pay. Fourteen companies in total have now reached what the administration calls most-favored-nation pricing deals. The companies that took part in Friday's announcement were: Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck, Novartis and Sanofi.

Top federal health officials, President Trump and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla meet in the Oval Office to announce an initiative on drug prices. They agreed to charge the U.S. government no more for new drugs than the prices paid by other well-off countries. The agreements will allow state Medicaid programs to access lower prices from the nine companies"