It should strike people that the stock market isn’t crashing despite the shutdown. Like sub-prime mortgages, it has yet again totally detached itself from economic reality while they speculate on how many workers they can fire to replace with AI. It is helping a failing economic strategy save face.

It’s a material reality that right now the AI tech bubble is holding up the empire. It increasingly powers all commerce, and is central to the most invasive surveillance apparatus the world has ever seen. Predictive analytics trained on our data have allowed billionaires to track us like wildlife.

One curious thing on this site about speaking out against the encroachment of LLMs is that inevitably you get accused of being anti-tech. I don’t hate technology. I’ve used machine learning in my own code before. But I also recognize that oligarchs are so hellbent on pushing this tech for a reason.

By the start of 2027 it will far exceed all of Utah and Virginia combined. Before the end of 2027 it will surpass the largest state in the country.

Global demand for AI data centers power consumption is expected to exceed the total capacity of California by 2027. www.rand.org/content/dam/...

They’ve waged entire wars just to drive down gas prices. Imagine what this administration will do when Oracle and Amazon say they need to double their energy expenditure tomorrow.

Short of a revolutionary new power source, in order for big tech to fulfill all the shareholder promises already made they have to choke us all to death with emissions. But even if cold fusion was a reality tomorrow, fossil fuel giants would still oppose it because global geopolitics run on oil.

Consider that most of the investment is not in current usage, but as of now theoretical products which will require exponentially more electricity once they have a user base. In order for the $1.2T of investment not to evaporate overnight, they have to build new data centers and for each of them.

Energy requirements for AI mean that the only way for the bubble not to burst would require companies to multiply their carbon footprint to an unimaginable degree. Right now, while AI is barely functional and mostly a novelty for the lazy, it requires so much energy that data centers rival cities.

I’d never really experienced it much before but holy shit now I know what people mean when they say NAMBLA has a vexatious litigation problem

I wrote about Chicago: "Is this city burning? There is a definite answer to the question. In all these cities, the answer is no. No American city is currently on fire, and if Chicago is a war zone, it’s because it’s being invaded by the president."

All this only happened because we let one guy control the military. True democracy would be every citizen having one soldier

New Yorkers know Attorney General James for who she is: a champion for justice who fights relentlessly for the people. Donald Trump knows her only as an obstacle to his corruption. My full statement:

You won’t believe what degrading practice the Pope just condemned

The government is arguing in court that Trump is a dictator.

He was distracted

New: Bari Weiss booked Hillary Clinton, Mike Pompeo, and Antony Blinken for a roundtable on Gaza, her first major move at CBS. Notably on a CBS call today in which the panel was floated, one producer also repeatedly emphasized the need to hear from Palestinians in Gaza (Weiss did not respond).

“Baby in her placenta” is pretty bad for a HHS secretary but it’s arguably worse for a guy with six kids. It’s impossible to not learn this stuff as a dad if you’re even remotely paying attention just once.

My career is listening to people who flee places that get increasingly unsafe. A few months of "wait & see" can make a world of difference for safety & prospects. I've lived under authoritarianism myself. Leticia James getting indicted, Mark Bray trying to flee & being stopped. This is not okay.

I'm just so proud of all of us who came together to start For The People Leftist Library. We punch so much above our weight. We have no money and yet we have done sooooo much by being creative and by relying on each other. I am grateful and also determined to keep pushing for the next 2 years.

Reminds me of

Incredibly alarming—after the whole ridiculous antifa roundtable at the White House, as Mark was moving with his family to Europe after threats…

Friends and comrades made a crowdfunding page for my family. It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support. Thank you for your consideration.

"The Supreme Court has made clear that it will allow Trump to violate every constitutional prohibition, removing any obstacle in his way, and crediting the most farcical legal argument."

A library director in Wyoming who was fired two years ago because she refused to remove books with sexual content and LGBTQ themes from a library’s children and young adult sections was awarded $700,000 in a settlement on Wednesday.

Harry Testes Father England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975

Insane that the Supreme Court didn't immediately stop the tariffs and let this drag on for 6 months. Even the most sacrosanct, load bearing pillar of this country-the interests of capital-must submit to the whims of one old doofus. And we love to see it

The number of times I've heard that what education is has to change because AI! When people say this to me now, I just say, "no." Usually they stop talking for ten seconds because no one is ever telling them no, and that's the whole problem

Tom Scot in the fastest car in the world.

Best comment I’ve ever heard on it “The World Series Building Code”

This fact, I think, makes this building utterly unique to the 2020s... Just think about it: 10 years ago this building would not have been built like this. And in 10 years time, this building could not be built like this.

As an embodied carbon geek, this is my favourite bit. France is blessed with having national regulation that mandates whole life carbon assessment and reduction, with strict limit values that will be lowered in 2028 then 2031. This building meets the 2028 limit, but not quite the 2031.

As a former architect I find the floor plans of the tower very satisfying. Dual aspect, generous balconies, efficient service areas and views outside from the front door. There are 16 floors to this building, one of the three tallest timber towers in France.

The buildings are all white, with facade materials ranging from white glazed terracotta to "ultra-high performance" fibre reinforced concrete. Note how all of the facade materials are non -combustible. Except for a few timber windows, and balcony soffits which are left exposed

It is one of four blocks built with mass timber, providing over 100 homes, offices and shops, in the Lyon Confluence area, a vast new development near Lyon city centre that will ultimately house 25000 people

This new residential tower in Lyon is made from wood. In many ways, this is quite an incredible building. Here's why:

“Just wait for the midterms”

Wes Streeting extended the puberty-blocker ban on 6 November 2024. Leia died by suicide on 11 November 2024.

At an academic conference and the most common conversations I've had is stuff like, "How many faculty is your school trying to fire? Do you still have professional development funds? Do you still have an English department?" Fun times!

The beautiful Eden Prairie Public Library. From a grocery store to a crown jewel of the Hennepin County library system. Minnesotans love their libraries.

How about Holes Hole and Crapstone, Devon, England.

"That's all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don't know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won't matter if we don't survive these times." Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)

Perry: Do you acknowledge that your depiction of what is happening at Broadview does not at all reflect what the Broadview Police and the Illinois State Police? Hamilton: You must give great deference to the president Perry: "What if he is relying on invalid evidence?"

Perry is pressing Hamilton what she says is a disconnect between what lawyers for the president say is behind the deployment of National Guard troops (protect federal property and agents) and what the president says (stop crimes which are usually state matters.) He has no direct response.

Perry: "Are you aware that a federal judge found that ICE violated the First and Fourth Amendments rights of peaceful protestors at Broadview?" She says that will inform her conclusion about the need for National Guard troops. Hamilton: You must defer to the president

"This indicates to me a certain lack of credibility" when you point to an arrest made for lawful conduct, referring to the married couple who was charged with bringing a gun to Broadview. "That undercuts the persuasive value" of your arguments," Perry said.