“If you think about the practical accessibility of open source, it goes beyond the license, right?” Peter Zaitsev, founder of open source database services company Percona, said in the panel discussion. “Governance is very important, because if it’s a single corporation, they can change a license like ‘that.’”
These sentiments were echoed in a separate talk by Dotan Horovits, open source evangelist at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), where he mused about open source “turning to the dark side.” He noted that in most cases, issues arise when a single-vendor project decides to make changes based on its own business needs among other pressures. “Which begs the question, is vendor-owned open source an oxymoron?” Horovits said. “I’ve been asking this question for a good few years, and in 2025 this question is more relevant than ever.”
These debates won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, as open source has emerged as a major focal point in the AI realm.
China’s DeepSeek arrived with a bang off the back of open source hype, and while the models’ MIT licenses are very much recognized as open source, there remains black holes around training data among other components. Which is why researchers at Hugging Face are trying to create an even “more open” version of DeepSeek’s reasoning model.
The label Axial Age was first described by the philosopher Karl Jaspers who wrote about the evolution of human thought during the first millennium B.C. Jaspers introduced the concept in a book called The Origin and Goal of History, published in 1968. He considered the Axial Age as unique and one which ushered in the age of human thought. The term Axial is a translation of the German word for pivot, referring to a change in human direction.
Like any new idea the Axial Age has its proponents and detractors. Let’s delve into that a little further.
In the previous post, I discussed the book Why the West Rules, by Ian Morris. Morris is supporter of the Axial Period as a change in the direction of human history, although with reservations. I quote from his book: “Karl Jaspers, a German philosopher struggling to make sense of the moral crisis of his day, called the centuries around 500 B.C. the Axial Age…Jaspers portentously declared, ‘Man as we know him today, came into being’”
Stefano Maffulli, executive director at the OSI, said that while some organizations and foundations do lean into ideas around “open design, community, and development,” these are all fundamentally philosophical concepts.
“The point of having definitions is to have criteria that can be scored, and focusing on licensing is how that is accomplished,” Maffulli said in a statement issued to TechCrunch. “The global community and industry have come to rely on the Open Source Definition and now the Open Source AI Definition as objective measures that they can rely on.”
Under this approach, hydrogen is used as fuel, and the engine accelerates charged particles – electrons and protons – to a speed of 100 km/s (62 miles/s).
“In traditional power units, the maximum velocity of matter flow is about 4.5 km/s, which is due to the conditions of fuel combustion. In contrast, in our engine, the working body is charged particles that are accelerated by an electromagnetic field,” said Alexei Voronov, first deputy general director for science at the Troitsk Institute, as reported by Izvestia.
A faster journey to Mars would not only increase efficiency but also minimize the risks associated with prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation for astronauts.
A laboratory prototype of the engine has already been developed at Rosatom’s Troitsk Institute.
To facilitate testing, a specialized experimental stand has been built to simulate the conditions of space. This 4-meter diameter, 14-meter long chamber is equipped with advanced sensors, vacuum pumping systems, and heat removal mechanisms.
While the initial launch into orbit will rely on traditional chemical rockets, the plasma engine will be activated once the spacecraft reaches its designated orbit. This technology could also be incorporated into space tugs used for transporting cargo between planets.
The engine’s design involves two electrodes with a high voltage applied across them. As charged particles pass between the electrodes, a magnetic field is created, propelling the particles out of the engine and generating thrust.
Morris doubts whether the philosophical geniuses of the first millennium B.C. guided societies through some type of intellectual barrier. He gives three reasons for this opinion: 1) the Axial Period covered many centuries and is not a sudden event, 2) the most important Axial thinkers came from small communities and were not well known, and 3) since Axial thinking was a reaction against kings and their bureaucrats, its real contribution was in the area of social development, not societal behavior.
Morris believes that the real engine for the advancement of man was the character of man himself: lazy, greedy, and frightened. Morris believes these are the true characteristics that propel the human race forward and uses the Romans to prove his point.
Future of space propulsion
The arena of space propulsion technology has been witnessing several advances.
Recently, an Italy-based research team revealed that they are working on developing a space propulsion system that will use water as fuel.
Scientists are also testing the concept of lightsails that use the pressure from lasers or starlight to propel spacecraft.
However, it must be noted that these technologies are still in their nascent stages, and it may take years before they can be used in real-world missions.
A rational view would dictate that power be based on merit instead of birth and that the rich should care for the poor and this intellectualizing of human behavior eventually led to a deepening relationship among members of a society who shared a common belief.
I find Jaspers' theory quite interesting. The fact that the tendency to complex human thought sprang up at approximately the same time in human history indicated a common human desire to create philosophical systems which would light the way for man to achieve wisdom. Whether it was a driving force or an incidental attribute of forces already at work, is a matter for future debate.
World War II began on Sept. 1, 1939, with Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland. The war involved many of the world's nations, with the Allies led by the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and China; and the Axis led by Germany, Italy and Japan. The war lasted until Sept. 2, 1945, when Japan formally surrendered aboard the USS Missouri, marking the official end of the conflict. The war had various theaters of operation, including Europe, the Pacific, Africa and Asia, and resulted in significant geopolitical changes and the formation of the United Nations in an effort to prevent future global conflicts.
The study of antiquity becomes more interesting when we realize that people have always acted the same. We see these behaviors repeat in cycles and can compare them to what’s happening in the world today. Even though we have developed a brain capable of taking us beyond what mere “animalness” can accomplish, we’re still animals. Yes, we developed civilization quickly – the pottery wheel, agriculture, trade, cities, metallurgy, armies, political systems – all between 4000 B.C. and 500 B.C, but we remain jealous, hateful, militant, distrustful, power hungry, and greedy.
I recently came across a paper by Ian Morris, professor of Antiquity at Stanford. The paper, “The Collapse and Regeneration of Complex Society in Greece, 1500-500 B.C”, was written in 2005. I plan to discuss this paper in a future post but for now I would like to discuss Professor Morris himself. Not being familiar with his work, I looked him up and discovered his recent book, “Why the West Rules for Now.” I read a review where it was mentioned that Morris was summoned to CIA headquarters to talk about his book.
Spooks into antiquity? Go figure! Reminds me of the FBI interrogation of Indiana Jones when they were trying to understand Hitler’s interest in the occult.
Last year, General Dynamics won a US Navy contract worth an estimated $15.9 million to develop its planned Mining Expendable Delivery Unmanned Submarine Asset (MEDUSA) System. The system is intended for use by the Navy’s submarine fleet.
Experts and analysts viewed the contract as part of a larger strategy to create a hybrid fleet of both crewed and uncrewed vessels, aimed at significantly enhancing the Navy’s operational effectiveness and agility across various maritime environments. This is also where the ‘Ghost’ fits in.
In their accompanying paper published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the researchers showed that the new leaf is a marked improvement over more conventional rigid systems.
For example, they found that at a 45-degree angle of incidence to light, the device maintains 47% higher water-splitting efficiency than fixed alternatives. If light strikes the leaf at 90 degrees, the tracking system produces 866% more hydrogen and oxygen fuel.
The leaf was developed using a new fabrication technique to deposit photoactive materials on lightweight plastic instead of glass. They also created an artificial replica of plant cell cytoplasm using hydrogel coatings.
This coating is also permeable, allowing water to enter and “waste” gases to escape the system. During operation, the leaf’s photoanode (a device that splits water) retained 73% of its activity after 65 hours of continuous operation.
Inspired by nature, the artificial leaf also works exceptionally well underwater, an environment where traditional solar panels and other artificial leaves often struggle.
According to the researchers, their new leaf also demonstrated stable hydrogen and oxygen production through complete water splitting, with products concentrating on each of the electrodes.
As impressive as this all sounds, the team notes that significant challenges remain before the technology can be scaled. For example, the nanotube structural elements were shown to degrade in performance over multiple tracking cycles.
This degradation also dramatically impacted the light tracking response time. The team also points out that wind and water currents would likely significantly impact real-world applications, substantially reducing their motion and efficiency.
That being said, the core innovation demonstrates how mimicking nature’s solutions can overcome persistent technical barriers. This interesting development helps advance artificial photosynthesis by addressing the fundamental problem of angular dependence in solar energy capture.
That being said, the core innovation demonstrates how mimicking nature’s solutions can overcome persistent technical barriers. This interesting development helps advance artificial photosynthesis by addressing the fundamental problem of angular dependence in solar energy capture.
If technology like this could be scaled up and made more robust, it could usher in an era of new solar energy and solar fuel production systems that can operate autonomously without mechanical tracking systems. This would enable industries to produce energy and biofuels more efficiently and cheaper.
The reviewer plays this game – “Look history is relevant again. It’s useful”, as if he had a clue about the subject. And then we have the following:
“Why the West Rules won praise in publications like The Economist and the Financial Times, which called it "the first history of the world that really makes use of what modern technology can offer to the interpretation of the historical process."
Which brings me to my second problem. I don’t buy the notion that history has to create some way to be relevant in order to impart value. It doesn’t need a technological methodology at all, because it’s one of the subjects of the Humanities, not the computer science department.
On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese launched an attack on Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. After the devastating attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan and its allies, Germany and Italy. Five months later, after discovering Japan’s plan to invade the Solomon Islands, the U.S. intercepted the Japanese Navy. The Battle of the Coral Sea (May 4-8, 1942) was the first modern naval engagement in history. The Japanese succeeded in this four-day battle between aircraft carriers, but the cost of this victory stopped Japan from occupying other areas of the South Pacific.
The rule for election of Consuls of Rome required that a man be 43 years of age unless he was of the patrician class and then he would get two years credit and be eligible at 41. Election during the first year of eligibility was on Caesar’s mind as he waited for the end of 60 B.C. and the voting. During his term as provincial governor of Spain, Caesar had acquired enough capital to pay off many of his debts. Moreover, his experience leading men in battle had energized him for more efforts in the arena of war. But first it had to be Rome and the Consulship.
Caesar’s competitors in the election were Bibulus and Lucceius. Bibulus had served with Caesar as Aedile, but disliked him immensely. Nonetheless he offered bribes to Caesar for his support. Caesar refused and short on cash himself, borrowed money from Lucceius. He did not approach Crassus, as he was accustomed to because he didn’t want to offend Pompey who was still at odds with the wealthiest man in Rome. When the votes were tallied, Caesar was elected along with Bibulus who had benefitted from a campaign of bribery undertaken by Cato.
The force bringing the triumvirs together was now set in motion. Caesar was snubbed by the Senate when it assigned the “forests and cattle runs” of southeastern Italy as the province to be administered by the new Consuls.
Pompey was snubbed when the land bill he proposed to accommodate his veterans was defeated. The Senate looked down on Pompey as beneath their class – a plebian by heritage and only now elevated because of his father. They distrusted him fearing he would try to use his army to overthrow the government.
Finally, Crassus was snubbed when he supported the re-write of a tax collection contract favored by the knights. He got Cicero over to his position, but Cato killed the bill.
Peter Zeihan breaks down China's looming economic disaster, exposing the hidden cracks behind its so-called recovery. With a collapsing property sector, deflation fears, and a shrinking workforce, Beijing's official numbers don’t tell the full story. As Western sanctions mount and TikTok faces a U.S. ban, China’s global position is at risk. Is this the beginning of the end for the world’s second-largest economy?
The allies decided to add a fourth man to the group – make a quatumvirate, no less. The man they chose was Cicero, because of his oratorical skills. The invitation to join was delivered to him by Balbus, a confidant of Caesar. Cicero was certainly angry at the conservatives who were in the process of wrecking the Republic, but he could not abide the triumvirs either. He felt Pompey and Crassus were not supportive enough of his handling of the conspiracy of Cataline, while his antipathy toward Caesar was visceral. In the end, he refused to join the others and would suffer later because of it.
Even more important were Caesar’s efforts to secure a province for himself after his term of Consulship ended. Working through a trusted Tribune, Vatinius, he moved a bill through the assembly to allocate to himself Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum for a period of five years instead of the normal two. The Senate was not even consulted. Bibulus declared the law invalid because the omens were not favorable, but, once again, he was ignored. During a subsequent shouting match in the Senate, Caesar declared that he had gotten what he wanted despite the moanings of the Senate and that from now on he would “mount on top of the heads of the Senators”.
With German and Italian troops surrendering in North Africa, the Allies turned their attention to Italy. The British launched Operation Mincemeat, creating a diversion that allowed Gen. George Patton and the Allies to move into Sicily. As the Allies moved to the Italian mainland, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini’s government collapsed in July 1943, and the new government under Pietro Badoglio began negotiations for an armistice. On Sept. 3, the Italian government surrendered to the Allies. Despite this, the Allies' advances through Italy were very slow due to Britain and the U.S. moving their focus to Normandy, France.
The first triumvirate of the Roman Republic was a classic study in power and politics. Three men, each with their own unique personality, battled for control of Rome, but it took a titan of titans to defeat the other two, and that man removed the final brick from the Republic and used it to establish the foundation for an empire.
“If you think about the practical accessibility of open source, it goes beyond the license, right?” Peter Zaitsev, founder of open source database services company Percona, said in the panel discussion. “Governance is very important, because if it’s a single corporation, they can change a license like ‘that.’”
These sentiments were echoed in a separate talk by Dotan Horovits, open source evangelist at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), where he mused about open source “turning to the dark side.” He noted that in most cases, issues arise when a single-vendor project decides to make changes based on its own business needs among other pressures. “Which begs the question, is vendor-owned open source an oxymoron?” Horovits said. “I’ve been asking this question for a good few years, and in 2025 this question is more relevant than ever.”
!summarize #selfdriving #cnbc #fraud #safety
!summarize #nyknicks #boston #Celtics #nba
These debates won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, as open source has emerged as a major focal point in the AI realm.
China’s DeepSeek arrived with a bang off the back of open source hype, and while the models’ MIT licenses are very much recognized as open source, there remains black holes around training data among other components. Which is why researchers at Hugging Face are trying to create an even “more open” version of DeepSeek’s reasoning model.
The label Axial Age was first described by the philosopher Karl Jaspers who wrote about the evolution of human thought during the first millennium B.C. Jaspers introduced the concept in a book called The Origin and Goal of History, published in 1968. He considered the Axial Age as unique and one which ushered in the age of human thought. The term Axial is a translation of the German word for pivot, referring to a change in human direction.
Like any new idea the Axial Age has its proponents and detractors. Let’s delve into that a little further.
In the previous post, I discussed the book Why the West Rules, by Ian Morris. Morris is supporter of the Axial Period as a change in the direction of human history, although with reservations. I quote from his book: “Karl Jaspers, a German philosopher struggling to make sense of the moral crisis of his day, called the centuries around 500 B.C. the Axial Age…Jaspers portentously declared, ‘Man as we know him today, came into being’”
!summarize #ev #winter #driving
Stefano Maffulli, executive director at the OSI, said that while some organizations and foundations do lean into ideas around “open design, community, and development,” these are all fundamentally philosophical concepts.
“The point of having definitions is to have criteria that can be scored, and focusing on licensing is how that is accomplished,” Maffulli said in a statement issued to TechCrunch. “The global community and industry have come to rely on the Open Source Definition and now the Open Source AI Definition as objective measures that they can rely on.”
Under this approach, hydrogen is used as fuel, and the engine accelerates charged particles – electrons and protons – to a speed of 100 km/s (62 miles/s).
“In traditional power units, the maximum velocity of matter flow is about 4.5 km/s, which is due to the conditions of fuel combustion. In contrast, in our engine, the working body is charged particles that are accelerated by an electromagnetic field,” said Alexei Voronov, first deputy general director for science at the Troitsk Institute, as reported by Izvestia.
A faster journey to Mars would not only increase efficiency but also minimize the risks associated with prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation for astronauts.
A laboratory prototype of the engine has already been developed at Rosatom’s Troitsk Institute.
!summarize #scientists #bigbang #cosmology #space #history
To facilitate testing, a specialized experimental stand has been built to simulate the conditions of space. This 4-meter diameter, 14-meter long chamber is equipped with advanced sensors, vacuum pumping systems, and heat removal mechanisms.
While the initial launch into orbit will rely on traditional chemical rockets, the plasma engine will be activated once the spacecraft reaches its designated orbit. This technology could also be incorporated into space tugs used for transporting cargo between planets.
The engine’s design involves two electrodes with a high voltage applied across them. As charged particles pass between the electrodes, a magnetic field is created, propelling the particles out of the engine and generating thrust.
Morris doubts whether the philosophical geniuses of the first millennium B.C. guided societies through some type of intellectual barrier. He gives three reasons for this opinion: 1) the Axial Period covered many centuries and is not a sudden event, 2) the most important Axial thinkers came from small communities and were not well known, and 3) since Axial thinking was a reaction against kings and their bureaucrats, its real contribution was in the area of social development, not societal behavior.
Morris believes that the real engine for the advancement of man was the character of man himself: lazy, greedy, and frightened. Morris believes these are the true characteristics that propel the human race forward and uses the Romans to prove his point.
Future of space propulsion
The arena of space propulsion technology has been witnessing several advances.
Recently, an Italy-based research team revealed that they are working on developing a space propulsion system that will use water as fuel.
Scientists are also testing the concept of lightsails that use the pressure from lasers or starlight to propel spacecraft.
However, it must be noted that these technologies are still in their nascent stages, and it may take years before they can be used in real-world missions.
A rational view would dictate that power be based on merit instead of birth and that the rich should care for the poor and this intellectualizing of human behavior eventually led to a deepening relationship among members of a society who shared a common belief.
I find Jaspers' theory quite interesting. The fact that the tendency to complex human thought sprang up at approximately the same time in human history indicated a common human desire to create philosophical systems which would light the way for man to achieve wisdom. Whether it was a driving force or an incidental attribute of forces already at work, is a matter for future debate.
World War II began on Sept. 1, 1939, with Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland. The war involved many of the world's nations, with the Allies led by the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and China; and the Axis led by Germany, Italy and Japan. The war lasted until Sept. 2, 1945, when Japan formally surrendered aboard the USS Missouri, marking the official end of the conflict. The war had various theaters of operation, including Europe, the Pacific, Africa and Asia, and resulted in significant geopolitical changes and the formation of the United Nations in an effort to prevent future global conflicts.
!summarize #nfl #conspiracy #taylorswift #kansascity #chiefs
!summarize #china #mexico #madeinmexico #manufacturing
The study of antiquity becomes more interesting when we realize that people have always acted the same. We see these behaviors repeat in cycles and can compare them to what’s happening in the world today. Even though we have developed a brain capable of taking us beyond what mere “animalness” can accomplish, we’re still animals. Yes, we developed civilization quickly – the pottery wheel, agriculture, trade, cities, metallurgy, armies, political systems – all between 4000 B.C. and 500 B.C, but we remain jealous, hateful, militant, distrustful, power hungry, and greedy.
!summarize #tesla #model3 #ev #automotive
I recently came across a paper by Ian Morris, professor of Antiquity at Stanford. The paper, “The Collapse and Regeneration of Complex Society in Greece, 1500-500 B.C”, was written in 2005. I plan to discuss this paper in a future post but for now I would like to discuss Professor Morris himself. Not being familiar with his work, I looked him up and discovered his recent book, “Why the West Rules for Now.” I read a review where it was mentioned that Morris was summoned to CIA headquarters to talk about his book.
Spooks into antiquity? Go figure! Reminds me of the FBI interrogation of Indiana Jones when they were trying to understand Hitler’s interest in the occult.
Last year, General Dynamics won a US Navy contract worth an estimated $15.9 million to develop its planned Mining Expendable Delivery Unmanned Submarine Asset (MEDUSA) System. The system is intended for use by the Navy’s submarine fleet.
Experts and analysts viewed the contract as part of a larger strategy to create a hybrid fleet of both crewed and uncrewed vessels, aimed at significantly enhancing the Navy’s operational effectiveness and agility across various maritime environments. This is also where the ‘Ghost’ fits in.
In their accompanying paper published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the researchers showed that the new leaf is a marked improvement over more conventional rigid systems.
For example, they found that at a 45-degree angle of incidence to light, the device maintains 47% higher water-splitting efficiency than fixed alternatives. If light strikes the leaf at 90 degrees, the tracking system produces 866% more hydrogen and oxygen fuel.
The leaf was developed using a new fabrication technique to deposit photoactive materials on lightweight plastic instead of glass. They also created an artificial replica of plant cell cytoplasm using hydrogel coatings.
This coating is also permeable, allowing water to enter and “waste” gases to escape the system. During operation, the leaf’s photoanode (a device that splits water) retained 73% of its activity after 65 hours of continuous operation.
Inspired by nature, the artificial leaf also works exceptionally well underwater, an environment where traditional solar panels and other artificial leaves often struggle.
According to the researchers, their new leaf also demonstrated stable hydrogen and oxygen production through complete water splitting, with products concentrating on each of the electrodes.
!summarize #sap
As impressive as this all sounds, the team notes that significant challenges remain before the technology can be scaled. For example, the nanotube structural elements were shown to degrade in performance over multiple tracking cycles.
This degradation also dramatically impacted the light tracking response time. The team also points out that wind and water currents would likely significantly impact real-world applications, substantially reducing their motion and efficiency.
That being said, the core innovation demonstrates how mimicking nature’s solutions can overcome persistent technical barriers. This interesting development helps advance artificial photosynthesis by addressing the fundamental problem of angular dependence in solar energy capture.
That being said, the core innovation demonstrates how mimicking nature’s solutions can overcome persistent technical barriers. This interesting development helps advance artificial photosynthesis by addressing the fundamental problem of angular dependence in solar energy capture.
If technology like this could be scaled up and made more robust, it could usher in an era of new solar energy and solar fuel production systems that can operate autonomously without mechanical tracking systems. This would enable industries to produce energy and biofuels more efficiently and cheaper.
!summarize #depression #Economics #2030 #forecast
!summarize #u2 #music #rock #bono
The reviewer plays this game – “Look history is relevant again. It’s useful”, as if he had a clue about the subject. And then we have the following:
“Why the West Rules won praise in publications like The Economist and the Financial Times, which called it "the first history of the world that really makes use of what modern technology can offer to the interpretation of the historical process."
Which brings me to my second problem. I don’t buy the notion that history has to create some way to be relevant in order to impart value. It doesn’t need a technological methodology at all, because it’s one of the subjects of the Humanities, not the computer science department.
On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese launched an attack on Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. After the devastating attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan and its allies, Germany and Italy. Five months later, after discovering Japan’s plan to invade the Solomon Islands, the U.S. intercepted the Japanese Navy. The Battle of the Coral Sea (May 4-8, 1942) was the first modern naval engagement in history. The Japanese succeeded in this four-day battle between aircraft carriers, but the cost of this victory stopped Japan from occupying other areas of the South Pacific.
The rule for election of Consuls of Rome required that a man be 43 years of age unless he was of the patrician class and then he would get two years credit and be eligible at 41. Election during the first year of eligibility was on Caesar’s mind as he waited for the end of 60 B.C. and the voting. During his term as provincial governor of Spain, Caesar had acquired enough capital to pay off many of his debts. Moreover, his experience leading men in battle had energized him for more efforts in the arena of war. But first it had to be Rome and the Consulship.
!summarize #nyknicks #boston #celtics #nba
Caesar’s competitors in the election were Bibulus and Lucceius. Bibulus had served with Caesar as Aedile, but disliked him immensely. Nonetheless he offered bribes to Caesar for his support. Caesar refused and short on cash himself, borrowed money from Lucceius. He did not approach Crassus, as he was accustomed to because he didn’t want to offend Pompey who was still at odds with the wealthiest man in Rome. When the votes were tallied, Caesar was elected along with Bibulus who had benefitted from a campaign of bribery undertaken by Cato.
The force bringing the triumvirs together was now set in motion. Caesar was snubbed by the Senate when it assigned the “forests and cattle runs” of southeastern Italy as the province to be administered by the new Consuls.
Pompey was snubbed when the land bill he proposed to accommodate his veterans was defeated. The Senate looked down on Pompey as beneath their class – a plebian by heritage and only now elevated because of his father. They distrusted him fearing he would try to use his army to overthrow the government.
Finally, Crassus was snubbed when he supported the re-write of a tax collection contract favored by the knights. He got Cicero over to his position, but Cato killed the bill.
!summarize #china #demographics #economy #consumption
Peter Zeihan breaks down China's looming economic disaster, exposing the hidden cracks behind its so-called recovery. With a collapsing property sector, deflation fears, and a shrinking workforce, Beijing's official numbers don’t tell the full story. As Western sanctions mount and TikTok faces a U.S. ban, China’s global position is at risk. Is this the beginning of the end for the world’s second-largest economy?
!summarize #elonmusk #startup #technology #entrepreneur #history
The allies decided to add a fourth man to the group – make a quatumvirate, no less. The man they chose was Cicero, because of his oratorical skills. The invitation to join was delivered to him by Balbus, a confidant of Caesar. Cicero was certainly angry at the conservatives who were in the process of wrecking the Republic, but he could not abide the triumvirs either. He felt Pompey and Crassus were not supportive enough of his handling of the conspiracy of Cataline, while his antipathy toward Caesar was visceral. In the end, he refused to join the others and would suffer later because of it.
!summarize #fengshui #china #science #pseudoscience #myth
!summarize #unemployment #unitedstates #economy
!summarize #dallas #mavericks #nba
!summarize #retirement #debt #finance
Even more important were Caesar’s efforts to secure a province for himself after his term of Consulship ended. Working through a trusted Tribune, Vatinius, he moved a bill through the assembly to allocate to himself Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum for a period of five years instead of the normal two. The Senate was not even consulted. Bibulus declared the law invalid because the omens were not favorable, but, once again, he was ignored. During a subsequent shouting match in the Senate, Caesar declared that he had gotten what he wanted despite the moanings of the Senate and that from now on he would “mount on top of the heads of the Senators”.
!summarize #Jobs #skills #technology #ai #Robotics
!summarize #philosopyy #death #life #meaning
!summarize #china #xiamen #wealth #beijing #housing #realestate
With German and Italian troops surrendering in North Africa, the Allies turned their attention to Italy. The British launched Operation Mincemeat, creating a diversion that allowed Gen. George Patton and the Allies to move into Sicily. As the Allies moved to the Italian mainland, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini’s government collapsed in July 1943, and the new government under Pietro Badoglio began negotiations for an armistice. On Sept. 3, the Italian government surrendered to the Allies. Despite this, the Allies' advances through Italy were very slow due to Britain and the U.S. moving their focus to Normandy, France.
The first triumvirate of the Roman Republic was a classic study in power and politics. Three men, each with their own unique personality, battled for control of Rome, but it took a titan of titans to defeat the other two, and that man removed the final brick from the Republic and used it to establish the foundation for an empire.
!summarize #school #education #obedience #job
!summarize #physics #terencetao #cosmos #science #space