Simon @spoltier@qoto.org

@0xabad1dea I love the fact that French novelist Jules Verne learned the traditional Russian units of distance so that he could make use of them in his novel Michael Strogoff.

Related: A verst is made up of 500 sazhen, each of which is made up of 3 arshin. A verst is also just a hair longer than a kilometer.

Aside: The biblical tale of the 'talents' given to the wise and foolish servants gains meaning when you consider that (according to some) a talent was equivalent to the volume of a large water-urn filled to the brim with denarius coins, each of which represented an entire day's wages. At current US minimum wage, that would mean each coin would be worth $58.

Reading about the history of the Darda-Bahn (including the bizarre lawsuits around it - Darda Inc. suing Majorette on patent infringement in 1984, Life-Like getting sued for blindly copying patent numbers onto their packaging in the 90s) it’s fascinating to realize that enshittification has been going on since the 1990s.

Really tempted to study the patent drawings and try to figure out why modern chinese Darda motors suck while the 1980s German ones are still going strong today.

anyway I have a couple of keynotes I am looking forward to giving that stick a sword right into the heart of this 😇

So, again today we get another crystal clear example of how #Bluesky is not decentralized. The company just blocked all users from an entire US state and those users are completely cut off. No other way to interact with the Bluesky network.

BECAUSE BLUESKY IS A CENTRALIZED PLATFORM.

Folks on Bluesky. There is a decentralized alternative. Just create an account on any decentralized Mastodon server. You will love it here. Promise.

https://joinmastodon.org/

I just had to explain to an older lady through a language that neither of us speak natively that her phone isn’t broken and unable to charge, but she set a screenshot with an almost-drained battery as her wallpaper. I doubt I got the finer points of this across…

According to this post – https://aus.social/@skribe/115036689028441919, these are the Top 7 SF/F books of this century. In your opinion, which ONE is the best?

#SF #Fantasy #Books #21Century

Hey heraldry folks. Look, I know it's called a "lion rampant" and very impressive, but show me a picture of a lion actually ever doing this pose.

Just saying - it's my cat when he wants a tummy tickle. That's where you got it. Admit it. You're crazy cat ladies. Your secret is safe with us.

A personal update -- I'm happy to share that I'll be joining Oxford this fall as an associate professor, as well as a fellow of Jesus College and affiliate with the Institute for Ethics in AI. I'll also be establishing my AI2050 Fellowship from Schmidt Sciences there. Looking forward to getting started!

In a first, Google has released data on how much energy an AI prompt … https://archive.is/jRHgD #AI #DataCenters #Google

Does anyone here use AI models as life companions? I'm working on a take for my blog and I need input. Send me a DM so I can ask some questions.

Databricks is now the highest valued GPT Wrapper after their Special K round www.databricks.com/company/news...

Databricks is raising a Series...

shamelessly stolen from deepfates (not even gonna tag them bc their handle is too long)

by Helga Stentze

#photograpy

A spectacular sight 1225m (4019 ft) beneath the waves off Baja California as E/V Nautilus encounters the amazing Halitrephes maasi jelly.

Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D0eyl7-XQA

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3321729/chinas-mega-dam-xiluodu-stops-using-western-industrial-chips-over-security-concerns

This might read as tit for that - and no question, it is. But the PRC has long prepared for a closed supply chain of their critical systems, especially within power.

I've already talked about EPA, the national standard for industrial Ethernet, which has been supported by power since the early 00s, largely through the fiat of the state and CAS.

Above protocols there are power systems, which folks like Emma Stewart have shown that are mostly based in the Mainland anyways.

And above that are the big control systems, which all evidence shows that the PRC has companies that are producing their own resilient distributed control systems for power plants, both on open and air gapped systems.

Some of these are systems I've talked about previously, but additional research has revealed this ecosystem to be expansive beyond SUPCON. Their success is indicated by some of these programs being marketed overseas as part of the BRI trade nexus.

Which is to say: it's easy to read this economic nationalism as purely reactive, but all evidence points to us being a disposable counterparty.