12 foot ladder- https://archive.ph/iZqnd

12 foot ladder- https://archive.ph/XRppG

A somewhat shallow look at China’s HSR network that nevertheless provides some insights into how new lines are transforming some regions.

I don’t understand why western media is so reluctant to acknowledge the broader social, economic and political benefits these lines are intended to provide. Failing to consider such questions means they will never understand China.

I read an article about China’s HSR that stated that a line with a top speed of 350km/h was 90% more expensive to build than a line built for 250km/h. The trains don’t spend much time at top speed during short journeys either. https://www.economist.com/china/2017/01/13/china-has-built-the-worlds-largest-bullet-train-network

A cubic meter of air weighs 1kg according to a Big, Bigger, Biggest episode about France’s TGV. Japan’s new Maglev is significantly smaller than the Shinkansen and the tunnels it runs through are 20% bigger since standard HSR already has problems with tunnel boom that can be mitigated at the tunnel entrance and exit. I also wonder how trains traveling in opposite directions will handle passing each other at 1000km/h given China is already working on next gen trains with that speed as a goal.

Doubling the speed turns a 4 hour journey into a 2 hour journey saving you 2 hours. Double speed again and it drops to 1 hour so you only save 1 hour, double again and you save 30 minutes. So the time saving is cut in half each time.

Concorde only flew 2 routes; NYC to London and NYC to Paris so in exchange for training pilots and engineers and securing supply chains for the aircraft you got a tiny return on investment. BA also kept a spare aircraft permanently parked in New York that could step in if there were any problems with the primary craft, another significant expense.

Installing lie flat beds and suites in standard jumbo jets provided similar profits with way fewer headaches.

I feel that even if someone succeeds with Maglev it will at best be the Concorde of the railways due to the higher costs and inconvenience of using a niche technology with a limited supply chain and limited number of engineers available to build and maintain lines. Proprietary tech also limits your ability to shop around or negotiate better prices. Remember that Concode was profitable but was retired because it was uneconomical.

I also wanted to draw attention to the diminishing returns higher speeds deliver: 100km/h train = 4 hour journey 200km/h train = 2 hours 300km/h train = 1 hour 20 mins 400km/h train = 1 hour 500km/h train = 48 mins 600km/h train = 40 mins

This ignores acceleration and breaking times and the faster your train the sooner it has to start decelerating in order to avoid overshooting it’s destination. One overlooked time saving that HSR delivers is that the need to build straight tracks and skip stops to maintain speed means a more direct route to your destination delivered at the expense of the places in between. High speed service is actually a downgrade for many communities as the trains no longer serve local stations.

The notification says that the Office of Remigration “will also actively facilitate the voluntary return of migrants to their country of origin or legal status,” which is a key aim of remigration ideology.

European countries have been doing this for decades. Britain was buying one way bus tickets for Eastern Europeans 20 years ago. This article was heavy on opinion but light on facts.

I was expecting a much stronger argument based on the headline.

Personally I’d prefer regulation on how social media is structured and how algorithms operate. First thing I’d do is ban infinite scroll, which corporations like because it increases ‘engagement’ whilst harming the quality of the experience for their users.

They only want to ban social media and even then only the big ones with an exception for youtube.

These AI models require huge amounts of electricity. If governments wanted to they could destroy their ability to operate, like when China banned bitcoin mining.

The crash at Charles de Galle contributed along with 9/11, the sonic boom limiting flights and the inability to fly across the Pacific. Also the plane is super narrow making seating uncomfortable.

My favourite example is Concorde, which remained profitable throughout its service life but was cancelled because bigger profits can be made with slower planes.

Patents expire after 10 years so technology being locked away isn’t the biggest concern. The bigger problem is the dismantling of supply chains and loss of skills and experience when the workforce moves on.

Some of us live overseas and need to make official calls to government agencies and companies from time to time.

I like how the article presents this as some super secret conspiracy when Mitt Romney and others made public statements openly admitting to this.

There are cases progressing through the courts. If the courts rule that copyright has been violated by the AIs under current laws then we won’t need to create a new offense or expand IP laws currently on the books.

wtf are people actually buying

A unique work of art I guess since it’s unlikely anyone would be able to replicate the prompt in order to get the same results.

When someone makes use of a service and doesn’t pay afterwards that is considered to be theft even if the provider hasn’t been deprived on anything. For example, if I snuck into an art gallery without paying I won’t remove anything tangible since the gallery’s overheads and running costs were fixed long before I arrived.

A better word would be copyright infringement if the AI is making use of other works without a license or other permission. Based on my reading of the article it appears those involved only fed the AI works in the public domain or works that they had created themselves. The letter of complaint appears to be signed by artists who are unaware of these circumstances.

Yeah party politics should be decided by who ‘donates’ the most money not by voters or party members. Pay up or shut up plebs!

In politics we call those groups factions and ‘vocal minorities’ form the base of support.

If you want to change policy in the USA then you need to either mobilise large numbers of people or large amounts of money but I’m surprised that the top comment is someone complaining about a political party being subject to democratic forces.

This is from Q4 when ad spending doubles in the run up to Christmas. Q1 would probably earn half as much.

Plus it was an election year so loads of money from campaign ads, too.