Dr Keith Walker @SteelFolk@qoto.org

Today I want to look at the economy from two angles: how it’s objectively doing, and how it’s perceived to be doing. Are things still bad, or is this largely vibes? And importantly, how will economic sentiment affect the crucial election next year? https://open.substack.com/pub/statuskuo/p/election-factor-one-the-economy?r=1zr8b&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcome=true

During her youth Ada Lovelace was introduced to the Scot, Mary Somerville, who was known as the ‘Queen of 19th Century Science’ and was in fact the first woman to be accepted into the Royal Astronomical Society. Mary further encouraged Ada’s mathematical and technological development. It was actually through Mary Somerville that Ada first heard of Charles Babbage’s idea for a new calculating engine. 5/ via @historicuk

https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Ada-Lovelace/

#mathematics #computer #computerprogramming

While most people amongst its key western backers are busy with #Christmas celebrations, Israel's military escalates its crimes in #Gaza (and the #WestBank) yet further.

They are relying on us to not be paying attention.

Four of five people starving in the world right now are in Gaza, due to Israel's deliberate blocking of supplies and distribution for 80 days.

Flooding tunnels with sea water, as Israel is doing, will complete the poisoning of Gaza's aquifer, rendering the area uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.

The Israeli bombing campaign has exceeded the levels of destruction brought by the Allies upon Germany cities towards the end of WWII. And it has been done in a fraction of the time: more devastation in two and a half months than was caused in two and a half years.

In the opening weeks of the escalation, Israel's military was using its largest and most powerful explosives in the very places it was telling Gazans to flee to for refuge.

Beyond the bombs, there are many reports of summary executions and massacres, repeated testimony of extreme #torture, videos of degradation, humiliation and dehumanisation.

#Netanyahu says they are only getting started.

He is relying on you looking away, getting tired of the bad news, switching off for a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS1Tw-2cF2o

So I started a company and received funding to build the next generation of #AI / #agi

I know there are a lot of fears around AI, and I share in most of them. As such a top priority will be for me to address the ethical considerations. I am still branstorming how that should look but I want it to be an open forum where everyone can contribute to solve the ethical considerations.

For now I'd love to hear input from people on how one could build a community to address and solve ethical concerns in AI / AGI

English physicist and mathematician James Prescott Joule died #OTD in 1818.

Joule studied the nature of heat, & discovered its relationship to mechanical work. This led to the law of conservation of energy, which in turn led to the development of the 1st law of thermodynamics. The SI derived unit of energy, the joule, is named after him. He worked with Lord Kelvin to develop an absolute thermodynamic temperature scale, which came to be called the Kelvin scale.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40706

#physics

The transistor is first demonstrated by three physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley at Bell Laboratories #OTD in 1947.

They performed experiments and observed that when two gold point contacts were applied to a crystal of germanium, a signal was produced with the output power greater than the input. William Shockley saw the potential in this, and over the next few months worked to greatly expand the knowledge of semiconductors. via @wikipedia

#science #physics

"Better be without sense, than misapply it as you do."

The novel Emma by Jane Austen is first published OTD in 1815. Emma was submitted to the London publisher John Murray II. He offered Austen £450 for this plus the copyrights of Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility, which she refused. Austen published two thousand copies of the novel at her own expense, retaining the copyright and paying a 10% commission to Murray.

Emma is available at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/158

#books #literature

Asteroid 323 Brucia becomes the first asteroid discovered using photography #OTD in 1891.

Brucia was also the first of over 200 asteroids discovered by Max Wolf, a pioneer in that method of finding astronomical objects. He discovered it when he was 28 years old, it was named in honour of Catherine Wolfe Bruce. The asteroid is a member of the Phocaea family (701).  It was an outer Mars-crossing asteroid with perihelion less than 1.666 AU until July 2017. via @wikipedia

#science #astronomy

Me, too!

Happy Solstice, everyone!

#TheRealReasonForTheSeason

This is in fact what he did.

Ok, well done…

"Philosophy is the continuous search for meaning - broader, clearer, negotiated, articulated."

Susanne K. Langer American philosopher and educator was born #OTD in 1895. She was one of the earliest American women to achieve an academic career in philosophy. Langer is best remembered for her 1942 book Philosophy in a New Key which was followed by a sequel Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art in 1953. via @wikipedia

Books by Susanne K. Langer at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/51344

#books #philosophy

Like all sensible people, I have strong feelings about the correct place for the comma in 'God rest ye merry, gentlemen'.

And every year at the old place I used to tweet about this important topic.

But now such exertions are redundant, by reason of this fine video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxfxy-3dGz0

(Btw, the correct place for the comma is after 'merry' - and if you disagree, you are wrong.)

Gods rest ye merry, followers.