TIL. Has been the case for 140+ years. Had first learnt of Lake Titicaca via Childcraft. It had these mesmerizing photos of its reed islands. Have wanted to go to the lake since. Turns out that's where most of the Bolivian navy is based.

Absolutely legendary stuff being seen by the minute. [Not my screenshot, I would never use dark mode unless on a flight with people sleeping.].

Tinker is a good and easy to use tool. But imagine if every academic release was done this way. 4 years ago we decided to help humanity. Today, as part of our helpful mission, we release new PAC Bayesian bounds. These bounds "will make the born and the made walk together" [sic.]

Haven't read this article, but the Benzene story is so amazing. Kekule gave the correct _form_, but couldn't explain the properties, so folk kept coming up with creative structures for decades, each capturing some ideas that only made sense later with Hund & Mulliken, Pauling, Hückel.

#Science

The Baht sale is much less known that the Pound one, but it was also very simple and obvious. He made more on the Ringgit. But the whole thing had the lasting effect that in the ASEAN countries people mostly still think he bought down their economies by shorting their currencies.

Gemini is really good with this, keeps speaking and writing even if you use your phone for other things. Today it is teaching me about the shayari of Bahadur Shah Zafar. Example: उम्र दराज़ मांग कर लाए थे चार दिन, दो आरज़ू में कट गए, दो इंतज़ार में। عمرِ دراز مانگ کر لائے تھے چار دن، دو آرزو میں کٹ گئے، دو انتظار میں۔

I first read this almost at random in 2013 or 2014 (when NYRB came out with a print). A recent conversation brought it back to mind, so I read it again. Very few books elevate hatred, contempt, and vitriol to an art form quite like this one.

It seems to understand the nuances much better (the transcription at the bottom is automatic from audio, not typed), both of the language and of the sounds, it also doesn't speak over you.

But it does this a lot. It forgets that I asked it to only reply (by audio and in text) in Urdu, and in text it loses track. Turns out Gemini is much better (like 10x) at this (hadn't started using it on an app, but now had to buy a subscription only for this).

Here is a great piece of engineering, right from the SpaceX S1 filing www.fidelity.com/bin-public/6... Twitter (X) and xAI needed cash, so they took around 20B of debt (obviously not serviceable). SpaceX bought this debt, with the only terms being that'd pay within six months of IPO.

Things to ponder about early morning.

Yavlinsky had captured the picture well as it happened in many articles. Now people consider him as part of the establishment, like a managed figure. But he was pretty good, and remained clean in a period very few had managed to. Krastev added a comment saying the future always happens in Russia.

Might be regularizing too much or projecting, but I tend to classify folk who do these type of consciousness debates as complete idiots. The whole topic is stupid. This is not the case with things such as mould, or even Chemoton-like models, where I think the question is interesting.

The paper in general is worth reading, it's focused on areas where the lean ecosystem is more mature. The Erdős problems are these:

Great, just when I thought I was getting close. Now no chance of finishing the final step.

It also reminded me of another of Erdos distance problems. This one is a sibling problem of the one solved, which was covered in this nice little book (photo from 2019). It asks almost the opposite question on the same object. The book made it accessible for experts and dilettantes alike.

I know this is a fraught topic (i.e. real job and non-real job), and people used to have major meltdowns about it a few years ago (like for asking "where are you from?"), but this is in fact a very serious problem. It's causing a lot of discourse pollution, and really affecting people at large.

But anyway, I was not sitting next to them, or might have been tempted. I was re-reading this in another café. I feel like portions of this should be required reading in schools.

Zachary obviously (in a good way) revers Bush the engineer and visionary, and happens to be his only biographer. Only one of Bush's books is still in print. My only complaint with Bush is not using his influence to get science funding in the US tied to a sovereign wealth fund.

This throwaway phrase re: unstable but totalizing fashions (how many can you name in the past 15 years?), which now have a far more fractal nature and a more rapid ascendance-decline-and-fall cycle than before 2008-10, reminded me of this Canetti. Only read this in 2022 (photo is also from '22).

In hindsight, easily the best assignment I got selling puts. I put up whatever I could muster and got assigned at 150.

These are not systematic writings, mostly fragments, but very typical of late Bakhtin.

Why does Bakhtin seem like he has some odd grudge against French?

I specifically ref ticks because he says he admires Gibbon, but that if anyone wrote like that now they'd be "dismissed as a pompous fart." While a spare style is wonderful, I think Gibbon was great. Both deserves and goes beyond the reputation that has come through SM pictures of the Decline by pom

Was posting about some books, and forgot to include the last volume. So will post about it here without context.

Ahhh I can also see these guys

I had shared this just when I removed bets to the downside. Said 10 % was good, but that 10 % more would be healthy. However, as I said it was way too risky. It kept going down for a few more days (no FOMO came), and then you suddenly have the allocations flow in like a rocket -- the most aggressive