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umbran.bsky.social

@umbran.bsky.social
71 followers 597 following 278 posts
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 19h
The struggles around knowledge are not the knowledge itself.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 21h
Knowledge doesn't come with guardrails. Guardrails can only be installed by governmental action.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I am sure that's the desired effect. However, the dumb bit is that there probably not enough domestic applicants going spare, and positions will go unfilled. But then, those people hate knowledge, so slots going unfilled is probably something they want.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Yeah. No system of government works if the government refuses to apply its own rules. We are the ones who have to force the government to do that.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I am surprised I didn't see this one...
Marketing image for the Rankin/Bass stop motion animated movie, "Santa Clause is Comin' to Town" including young Kris Kringle in his red suit.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
That's "Friend Computer" Citizen.
An old style computer monitor, displaying the one eye staring at you.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
And, the nearest star is so big and hot that, even when it takes light eight minutes to get here, it will still burn you!
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Yeah, but doesn't that mean you have to kiss the lizards, not lick them? Ew.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Pretty much all large deals like this are financed. The real question is then: Why is traditional financing not available for this acquisition?
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The image generators can be referred to as Large Image Models. Music generators would be Large Music Models, and so on.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
They think their base loves it when they stop poor people from committing fraud, so they made up that story. The real goal is probably to make Obamacare tank, so they can say it is broken and remove it.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The claim seems to be that these people do not exist, and the accounts are thus scamming the government. The real thing is that if you kick well people off health insurance, the system collapses, and they can then claim that they should dismantle it.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Yeah, I got that. Thanks for your time.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Right. So, the word "if". It is important. I said, "IF they want it". The answer "No, they don't," is fine. I have completely failed to push after that. So, I am unsure what the problem is.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Also, I am not indignant. I am confused as to why offering to be open to the will of a people is seen as a bad thing.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
No, this started with my listing a bunch of stuff that could back the US government away from its current nonsense. I was not pushing for anything, just noting that, if they wanted it, this might help. I can see you care a lot about this, but I think you've read more in my intent than was there.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I am "participating" in every wrong done by every human, ever. The past hands me a world, and I have to deal with it. There are more wrongs in the world that need attention than I have life to live. So, I am forced to pick and choose. If PR wants independence, I will have no onjection.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
As a kid of immigrants myself, I am not a great target for the guilt trip you are laying down. I am looking to deal with different problem. If you aren't interested in that, that's fine. Good luck to you.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Did you miss where I started this with, "...if they want it"? I am not depending on PR statehood. It isn't a silver bullet, or required.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
1) the new Congress may not be led by them. 2) I can understand not making impeachment a platform plank. It would change the dynamic of every local race, leaving individual candidates no real room to talk about anything else.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The New Progressive Party, which is actually kind of center-right, as i understand it. Though their platform is mostly about getting coverage by the US social safety net. Put that party matters less than the voting habits of the island. They went for Harris by a 40+ point margin.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Well, maybe six years. If the Democrats get both House and Senate, they can impeach Trump and Vance. Next in line for the Presidency is the Speaker of the House, who would be a Democrat.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
More than will fit on social media, but I am not an expert.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
If there's a good wave in the midterms, there are ways to fix some of the structural issues - lift the cap on the House, for example. Statehood for DC and Puerto Rico (if they want it). Campaign finance rules getting corporate money out of the picture....
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Well, the SCOTUS sides with the President a lot, but lower courts have been blocking him at most every turn. How to fix it? Impeach some of the egregious justices, then impose ethics rules on the SCOTUS. Possibly impose term limits, possibly put rules on the Senate sitting on appointments.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I don't know that that has much to do with the public voting the way they do.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
With respect, this is an issue not just the US, but with any democracy - it can slide downhill quickly if the voters go that way.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Recreating the past - sekanjabin has been refreshing people in the heat since the Middle Ages. They didn't do it with hops, though. That sounds nasty.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Veterinarians could use the same protection.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I mean, shouldn't we guess that this talk of guadrails and slowdown is because AI companies need a reason to push back expectations of profits for the near future, so the bubble doesn't pop on them?
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The problem is that the AI is not using those words on its own - it is providing a simulation/emulation of the real thing, so it uses those terms because they appear in the real thing often enough to be characteristic of the form.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Or, Mr Singh is *the vehicle* being driven. Optimus is mad because his cousin is being crashed into mailboxes, or something....
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
One long staircase just going up, and another, even longer, coming down?
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
What I was doing was... nothing, meaningless, compared to the import of the event. I recall some of the key moments of the next day or two dealing with the tumult of emotions around it, but what I was doing at the moment? Danged if I can remember.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Torches and pitchforks are also traditional.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Yeah, the real Space Force uniforms rip off design elements from Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, not Star Wars!
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I mean, if they *want* Disney to sue them for copyright infringement...
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
And, "The Founding Fathers made political compromises that had some unfortunate results," is a similar recognition of them being imperfect humans.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The problem is that you speak as if there is a general case, and there isn't. Each development is a specific case, in which exception from normal studies and reviews are granted. So, they all become exceptional cases, each in its individual way. The general case is lack of appropriate oversight.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Well, no. The location choice was more complicated than that. The location is part of a compromise - in return for moving the Capitol south, the federal government assumed state debts from the Revolutionary War, which massively favored the North. So, that location is a compromise, not an ideal.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
When you build that much, that fast, pretty much every single project will contain errors in judgement, and will cause harm due to lack of due consideration. That the tech sector has bet the farm too fast is not a reason for the populace to accept those errors and failures.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
You cannot expand and industry with hundreds of billions of dollars of industrial capacity in the space of a handful of years and not hurt people.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
It isn't that all data centers take too much water, but that some have been planned in places without a suitable extant water budget. It isn't that they all massively pollute, but that some have done so.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Data centers use water comparable to other industrial buildouts. However, in the rush, that use is not being planned like it is for other industrial development. The question isn't about use, bit about unmanaged, ill-considered impacts.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
*looks at the rare earth elements in chips* They don't involve *local* resource extraction. *looks at dirty gas turbines being stood up to power data centers* Um, about that supposed lack of environmental destruction...
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
What consenting adults do in the privacy of their own homes is their own business. The IAU isn't going to send the Nomenclature Police to knock on your door.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
English grammar is like the famed Pirate's Code - more a guideline than an actual rule.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Whining that others are doing it wrong do not constitute a demand.
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umbran.bsky.social @umbran.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I see the general point, though I can't say that commuting on a bike on Boston's roads in our traffic would be good for anyone's mental health.
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