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Bump for stealing my own stuff.   

Next bad science project Dave and I have been handed is data infrastructure collapse.  At what point does miniaturization of electronics - combined with traffic - overload the error-correcting firmware that prevents random bit-flipping (by background radiation, etc)?

We are of course not expected to answer this myself.  We're supposed to nominate a team of experts that will answer it.

So I told them to get one electronic engineer and a couple of epidemiologists.  This was questioned, but it's a propagation problem, and epidemiologists are the correct type of mathematician for this, I think.

Dave is panicking because he's an environmental engineer and this isn't about water.  But I'm starting to believe that problem solving isn't based on any one discipline, but instead on finding the right discipline for the job and then, unreasonably, letting them do their work.  What he isn't seeing is that this isn't about he and I answering problems, but instead getting the answers and then distributing them.

Plus maybe we help some grad students with their advanced degrees and also with the whole starving to death thing.

I think this was the greatest learning moment of my career.

8 years later.   

Bump to listen to this later tonight

Mouse #126 bleeds out.  At -20 C, the blood freezes almost instantly, preserving the colour.  It leaves a bright red stain on the concrete.

The mice of winter have long, thick fur.  This one has frozen solid, and snaps in two as I work it free from the trap.  I try not to look at the remains.  I toss the pieces into the back alley, an offering to the neighbourhood corvids...or whatever else might happen along.

Mice aren't people and don't have rights.

On that note, have you ever read Catch 22?  Now there's an author that knew how to deal with rodents.

So, this thread has gone from the U.S. of A. no longer invading Greenland, to the U.S. of A. possibly invading Canada. And, this thread isn't even located on the High Weirdness Sub-board.

Well ... pardon the interruption. I'm off to the supermarket for more popcorn. Carry on.

Back in the day on PD, we had a saying about thread drift.

Did that saying end with "Mission Accomplished."?

No, it ended with "happens".

Because by that point, any continuing conversation was better than the usual alternative.

So, this thread has gone from the U.S. of A. no longer invading Greenland, to the U.S. of A. possibly invading Canada. And, this thread isn't even located on the High Weirdness Sub-board.

Well ... pardon the interruption. I'm off to the supermarket for more popcorn. Carry on.

Back in the day on PD, we had a saying about thread drift.

In terms of investment the EU has realised it has to stop having infrastructure tied in with American companies, that will be permanent but its going to take about 5-10 years

Allow me to suggest moving faster than that.

Weapons and defence already started and will increase every year, what i mean is:
All energy, water, electrical, medical etc have quietly been told no more azure, google cloud or AWS. We got a consultation and it was "when can you have extracted non eu services"

I suspect the more innertia or pushback businesses provide, the more aggressive the eu level legislation on this stuff will be.

They dont just want defence independence, they want everything down to Mastercard out of Europe within a decade

Wise.

In terms of investment the EU has realised it has to stop having infrastructure tied in with American companies, that will be permanent but its going to take about 5-10 years

Allow me to suggest moving faster than that.

An RFP for a Made-in-Canada drone communications system has crossed my desk, and although there's no NDA, it's obviously intended as a proof-of-concept for military use.  Somebody in the chain of procurement has been spooked by something.

Movement away from the American sphere is in progress everywhere, both overt and otherwise.  How tangled up we still are when the Anschluss commences, remains to be seen.

I don't yet believe an Anschluss is inevitable, but I'm a hopelessly naive optimist.

An Anschluss implies at least the appearance of a referendum.  That's not going to happen.

Also, and trust me on this, you can't build weapons fast enough.

But it is also worth mentioning that frontage equations require 81 infantry divisions to MINIMALLY garrison Canada.  We have 12.

In terms of investment the EU has realised it has to stop having infrastructure tied in with American companies, that will be permanent but its going to take about 5-10 years

Allow me to suggest moving faster than that.

That all sounds like you are assuming Bill wasn't availing of the services on pedo island

If anyone was, he was.

Things that got said at work today:

Billy:  "Maybe he wasn't walking on water.  Maybe he was just standing on a whale."

Lauren:  "I'm not judging you, boss.  I am just asking HOW you headbang to Taylor Swift's Ophelia.*

Hamish:  "I have 99 problems.  And each of those problems has 99 sub-problems.  And all of THOSE have 99 sub-problems."  It's sub-problems all the way down."



* She was in fact judging me.  I could see it in her eyes.

Yeah its grim that american politics is playing out in tweets.

Not as grim as foreign policy playing out on Truth Social.   

[if]

It has permanently damaged the US reputation worldwide, you are not seen as an ally or partner any more  just a vague threat and the EU is making active moves to remove all US IT infrastructure from businesses and utilities

BEST case, this damage lasts a generation or two.  And that's if we start flying right and STAY flying right consistently.

We get another MAGA in office and I will agree that the damage will be permanent.

However, accelerationists who can not bring themselves to vote for someone who is clearly the lesser of two evils lack the pragmatism required to make right, but unpleasant choices. I believe it's misplaced optimism to count on them to save anyone, including themselves, from anything.

This.

This is what I was just saying.