Global burned area lay at a historic high: more than 150 million hectares between January and April, 20% above the previous record and roughly 50% above the 2012-2025 average. https://www2.purpleair.com/blo...

In the US, nearly double the ten-year average area had burned by 11 May 2026 compared with the same period. https://morningoverview.com/wi...

In Canada, burned area stood at 61% of the ten-year average by early July, though with local outliers such as Newfoundland and Labrador at roughly 460% of normal. https://www.nifc.gov/nicc-file...

We're off to the Netherlands on Thursday.

You are not the only one. I have seen an uptick of Canadians lately in NL, Amsterdam. Or actually: I have _heard_ an uptick in Canadians lately.

Every time I hear someone in Amsterdam speak English with a North-American accent, but with civilised manners, they always turn out to come from Canada. They do not shout, they do not interrupt you and are generally calm and seem genuinely friendly.

And they all smile I ask them if they are from Canada, in light of the above. As if they are happy to not be mistaken for US-ians.

If Trump states there are aliens from another planet, then be prepared for discussions on whether or not they have souls and if so, whether or not Yaweh/Jehova had his son (/ himself) Jesus brutally tortured and killed to save these alien souls as well.

True. I think the false notion of 'LLM's know facts like humans' stems from the observation that there are lots of humans that are less coherent in their communication than LLM's.

There are loads of humans who cannot handle facts properly. LLM's also cannot handle facts, but they are in lots of cases outperforming lots of humans.

So humans know facts and LMM's don't know facts, but what lots of humans produce with those facts can be worse than what LLM's produce without knowing facts.

Indeed. Plus, he would have used that water anyway. We humans have our needs, whether we code or not.

Obvious link. How To Get Rid Of Citizens United: https://robertreich.substack.c...

I know little of US law, but what this former secretary of labour writes seems logical.

Then you are part of a fortunate minority.

The pardons given are not limited to cryptocrime. Other white collar crooks are set free as well.

Him being in prison does improve your life. Just imagine how your life would be if there was no deterrent whatsoever for committing financial crimes. You and your loved ones would be targeted by lots more con men.

Since Tripel Karmeliet is a favourite of mine, this comes as no surprise. When you pour the contents of a bottle of Karmeliet into a glass, you have to do so _very_ carefully, or you will end up with mostly foam.

Without the government subsidies Trump took away Tesla is not profitable.

I very much doubt that. In the past I have spent quite some time going over the financials of Tesla. My memory is bad, but I recall that the subsidies were way, way less than the actual net profit.

You probably made that comment as a joke, but if I had mod points I would certainly not mod this as 'Funny', but as 'Insightful'.

This.

And the actual damage of calling ppl communist or nazi when they are not, is that when an actual communist or nazi stands up, too few will be reacting to the real 'cry wolf' since they have been desensitized by all the false alarms.

As to a: probably. You will probably not fool most Bach-fans with generated Bach-like music. With the risk of being compared with someone who buys 1000$/meter speaker cable: AI 'Bach' just sounds ... weird. It 'feels wrong'. Bach seems too complex for AI. But for other types of music: I did hear some almost decent AI generated techno. Techno is a lot simpler than Bach, but even there the result sounded a bit far fetched for me.

I do think that most techno-heads could enjoy AI generated techno though. So for me the answer to your question would be a counter-question: is Bollywood music closer to Bach or to techno?

In this case I side with: ridiculed. Does a hijacking or another action of bad faith depend on a pair of scissors from a shop? I doubt it. There are far more useful tools than scissors. And there are ways to get them onto an airport.
So the whole cost of this risk mitigation, including this false positive, is far worse than the cost of what it is mitigating.

Reminds me of that case where a team wrote a piece of software in a couple of months. That software automated 4 hours of relatively simple and easily verifyable manual work at years-end.