aldous (u/aldous) - Readit News

aldous commented on UK government advises deleting emails to save water gov.uk/government/news/na... · Posted by u/bifftastic

mytailorisrich · 7 months ago

Not a single mention of the lack of reservoir capacity, with the last major reservoir built in 1992. Population has grown by 12 million / 21% since.

So turn the tap off while brushing your teeth and delete your old emails, and all will be fine.

aldous · 7 months ago

Nine new reservoirs are planned by 2050 apparently. But as general point reservoirs are...

a) only part of the solution (water reuse schemes can be much cheaper and more effective) b) really difficult to build! Finding an appropriate location (google the Tryweryn reservoir in Wales for an example of the consequences of building one in a problematic location), planning constraints, environmental impact and subsequent pushback from locals and environment groups etc etc.

I don't disagree the UK needs more of reservoirs but they ain't trivial things to build. A good overview in this news article here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2k147dkgx8o

aldous commented on AI Horseless Carriages koomen.dev/essays/horsele... · Posted by u/petekoomen

bluGill · a year ago

What is the point? The effort to write the email is equal to the effort to ask the AI to write the email for you. Only when the AI turns your unprofessional style into something professional is any effort saved - but the "professional" sounding style is most of the time wrong and should get dumped into junk.

aldous · a year ago

Yeah, I'm with you on this one. Surely in most instances it is easier to just bash out the email plus you get the added bonus of exercising your own mind: vocabulary, typing skills, articulating concepts, defining appropriate etiquette. As the years role by I aiming to be more conscious and diligent with my own writing and communication, not less. If one extrapolates on the use of AI for such basic communication, is there a risk some of us lose our ability to meaningfully think for ourselves? The information space of the present day already feels like it is devolving; shorter and shorter content, lack of nuance, reductive messaging. Sling AI in as a mediator for one to one communication too and it feels perilous for social cohesion.

aldous commented on Yi Peng 3 crossed both cables C-Lion 1 and BSC at times matching when they broke bsky.app/profile/auonsson... · Posted by u/perihelions

Arnt · a year ago

[flagged]

aldous · a year ago

Yes, good points. It's not a wild stretch of the imagination that Mr P and gang are actively trying to drag China into the Ukraine conflict and I'd imagine Beijing is pretty pissed off today about being (ostensibly) implicated in this sabotage. So the usual underhand scheming from the Kremlin imho, don't fall for it. China and Russia's relationship is very complicated of course and there's many a convincingly analysis out there that predicts conflict between them in the near future (an example flashpoint being Siberia).

aldous commented on The broligarchs are trying to have their way theatlantic.com/ideas/arc... · Posted by u/imartin2k

oceanplexian · 2 years ago

> Eight years ago, the PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel was an outlier in liberal Silicon Valley for publicly supporting Donald Trump.

Is the opening sentence supposed to imply that Thiel (and Elon) are no longer outliers?

I thought 99% of the SV elite were still donating vast sums of money to the other party. Since, all of a sudden, everyone is concerned with billionaires why the obsession with Elon? It’s OK when big money donates to one side but not the other?

aldous · 2 years ago

The article explicitly references donations to the Democrats too btw, the authors overarching point appears to be this idea that the vastly wealthy consider themselves above the state and the rule of law. This is not a new phenomena, history is resplendent with examples of the abundantly rich desiring, obtaining and then exercising absolute power. Spoiler alert: it usually doesn't end well for the populace at large or ultimately themselves. I'd agree with the authors point about the ostensibly short sightedness of Elon et al's seeming desire for a rich absolutism: they are barking up the wrong, unsustainable tree. A well functioning and financially supported democracy is very very good for the economy and good for them! A better provision of public goods, infrastructure and a healthy populace is very very good for business isn't it? Democratic decline also brings with it instability, anti competitive kleptocracy, stagnation, and consumers strapped for cash; not the ideal conditions within which to sell their services. Which makes me wonder: is Elon's current political posturing not really based on any canny reasoning, but just plane old reactive emotional impulse. I really wouldn't be surprised if, as the author suggests, Elon's perceived Biden snub is really a big part of this or at least behind its genesis. Which is a good final point on unchecked power and its pitfalls, who wants to be at the mercy of an individual's emotional petulant whims, compulsions and outbursts? Surely none of us right?

aldous commented on What I Learned as the U.S. Government's UFO Hunter scientificamerican.com/ar... · Posted by u/rntn

aldous · 2 years ago

Checking my news feed it is intriguing to see how little exposure Kirkpatrick's statement is getting verses the media frenzy that followed David Grusch and his cohorts outlandish congressional hearing. I guess this is a great example of Kirkpartick's point about the modern media cycle driving stories faster than sound research. Farcical. Surely such time, money and effort could be better spent fixing real tangible problems as opposed to investigating fanciful stories, conjecture and sensationalist nonsense? I can't see any chat here too on HN compared to the debate previously about alien remains etc. This quote from the article stood out for me:

"Members have a responsibility to exhibit critical thinking skills instead of seeking the spotlight. As of the time of my departure, none, let me repeat, none of the conspiracy-minded “whistleblowers” in the public eye had elected to come to AARO to provide their “evidence” and statement for the record despite numerous invitations. Anyone that would rather be sensationalist in the public eye than bring their evidence to the one organization established in law with all of the legal process and security framework established to protect them, their privacy, and the information and to investigate and report out findings is suspect"

aldous commented on Meta fined $1.3B over data transfers to U.S. wsj.com/articles/meta-fin... · Posted by u/jaredwiener

samwillis · 3 years ago

There may be some truth to that, and they did get the Conservatives to run a referendum on changing the electoral system from "First Past The Post" to "Alternative Vote". In some ways, getting that referendum should have been an incredible win worth sacrificing some short term policies. Unfortunately the campaign for the change was a disaster, and the misinformation and fear mongering about the change pushed the country to vote it down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Kingdom_Alternativ...

aldous · 3 years ago

Good points. I guess a counter is if seemingly 'cast-iron' pledges are put out there for the electorate (such as the scrapping of tuition fees) and people subsequently turn out in big numbers to vote for them (this was the year people were turned away due to large queues forming at the polling stations - obvs not all students voting for Lib Dems but you see my point) it's understandable that people will expect said pledges to be delivered on. The Lib Dem’s flagship political broadcast was titled “Say goodbye to broken promises” for example. The ire is understandable, whether one agrees or not.

aldous commented on Meta fined $1.3B over data transfers to U.S. wsj.com/articles/meta-fin... · Posted by u/jaredwiener

Veen · 3 years ago

Curious how Nick Clegg has changed his tune on data collection since he went to work for Facebook. When he was leader of the Liberal Democrats and UK Deputy PM, he was strongly in favour of a data "Bill of Rights" that would limit and control data collection and sharing. I wonder what changed his mind?

aldous · 3 years ago

Clegg's credibility in the UK is pretty poor due to some well publicised policy u-turns during his tenure in political power, most notable being tuition fees. He went from hero to zero very quickly over there, becoming almost an archetype of the slimey, untrustworthy politician.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/12/nick-clegg-...

aldous commented on Someone stole my car and now I own hundreds of vinyl records mkaic.substack.com/p/some... · Posted by u/mkaic

dclowd9901 · 3 years ago

Lol $1-$5. Even hunting through record stores, I never find stuff that cheap. That might have been 2 decades ago, but not anymore.

aldous · 3 years ago

I like to collect music and have been building a library of certain genres. I had been buying a lot of vinyl over the last few years but recently I’ve been getting back into CD’s in a big way because of how cheap they are second hand. Like you say, a couple of decades ago one could pick up a stack of second hand vinyl for next to nothing and the current market for second hand CD’s really reminds me of those days. For example, I picked up a recent album I’d been after on CD, second hand, for less than 10% of its price on vinyl (again, a second hand copy). The disc arrived in excellent condition with detailed sleeve notes and photos, plus it was a remaster so probably sounded better than the vinyl copy anyhow and is potentially more durable. I get the aesthetic appeal of vinyl of course, but gazing at that disc as I slotted it carefully into the player, made me think what a fascinating artefact a compact disc is too.