The AI Bubble is now an economic bomb waiting to go off. A financial WMD. Many people in the business know this and have either convinced themselves they can get out before it detonates or think they have a plan to leave other investors holding the bag. The rest are “true believers”, God help them.

Ed Zitron@edzitron.com · 3d ago

Analysts estimate that 70%+ of Microsoft, Google and Amazon's present and future AI revenues are from Anthropic and OpenAI's compute spend and model sales. Outside of two unsustainable AI labs, demand barely exists, and they've massively overbuilt capacity. www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-deman...

Little smidgen of good news tomorrow on the film front… my lord making indie films takes some outrageous patience! 😅❤️

$SPCX

You can/should read Emily Wilson's latest take on the Odyssey, but I'm logging on to convey my hairdresser's reaction. She was AGHAST that Nolan, with his million $ budget, gave Matt Damon ONLY 6 hair extensions. As a result, his hair did not blow around properly, & that ruined the film for her.

This is excellent. A clear, coherent explanation of why the current AI bubble will collapse, why many of those involved know it’s going to collapse, and how they’re going to try to leave other people holding the bag when it happens. I don’t always agree with Doctorow, but on this one he’s spot on.

Smart Cookies podcast@smartcookies.bsky.social · 3d ago

What's gonna happen when the #AI bubble bursts? "Nothing good" would an understatement says @doctorow.pluralistic.net 👇🏻 youtu.be/rRRmUuxJolY

What's gonna happen when the #AI bubble bursts? "Nothing good" would an understatement says @doctorow.pluralistic.net 👇🏻 youtu.be/rRRmUuxJolY

Rhine falls to record low levels as drought strains Europe's rivers. 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Rhine falls to record low levels as drought strains Europe's rivers

Low water levels in the Rhine, Danube and Po have curtailed the transport of goods and reduced electricity output.

bbc.co.uk

"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob." —FDR, 1936

No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...

Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation

PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...

theonion.com

I was not informed by the BBC that they would have a right wing political figure or lobbyist on after me to rebut what I said. The individual in question went on to spout lies about China, etc. to distract attention from the Trump administration's assault on climate action. This is unacceptable.

Michael E. Mann@michaelemann.bsky.social · last wk.

I'll be on BBC News television TODAY ~3:40pm ET (8:40pm London local time) to discuss--what else---the climate change-fueled weather extremes we're seeing around the world this summer. Please join me: www.bbc.com/live

Wall Street is caught in an AI-spending death spiral, with no rescue in sight. Analysis from today by Eva Roytburg:

Running out of body bags, using forklifts to transfer corpses into makeshift morgues, a mortician conducting 200 funerals in a month when he usually does 30, crematories running at double capacity… And these senators just want to memory-hole it all www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/n...

‘We Ran Out of Space’: Bodies Pile Up as N.Y. Struggles to Bury Its Dead (Gift Article)

The coronavirus crisis is overwhelming New York’s system for burying the dead.

nytimes.com

Morning Bluesky This is correct, by Paul Krugman: “1.2 million Americans died from Covid — a number that would have been much lower if MAGA misinformation hadn’t caused so many people to refuse vaccination” See: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... 1/2 paulkrugman.substack.com/p/reality-is...

Reality is a Communist Plot

Of MAGA and the totalitarian mindset

paulkrugman.substack.com

Reminder that on his last day of his first term, Trump awarded a commendation to Dr Fauci "in recognition of his exceptional effort on Operation Warp Speed"

No longer content with pillaging intellectual work and dismembering our environment (already critically weakened), AI companies are now hellbent on destroying books galore including rare editions. Shut down these nefarious enterprises already.

AI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare books

If you have retreated to physical books because the internet is too full of AI slop, bad news — now they’re shredding the books to feed their AI slop machines.

news.com.au

I'm not qualified to judge whether such people are psychopaths. All I can say is that they behave as if they are. From today's Telegraph.

An incredibly important and timely reflection on the state of the Jewish people from the scholar Shaul Magid. I hope you will read. open.substack.com/pub/shaulmag...

The practice of AI companies secretly buying millions of old books (some vanishingly rare), scanning them for AI training, then destroying them, epitomises everything that is wrong with today's exploitative AI industry. 🧵 1/2

Lucy isn't even bothering to hold a football anymore. Charlie Brown just keeps charging forward in the blind hope she'll eventually produce one.

FinTwitter@fintwitter.bsky.social · 2w ago

*WTI OIL EXTENDS DROP TO $81.68 AS TRADERS LOOK TO US-IRAN TALKS

the problem with conspiracies is they require a LOT of people to stay quiet about incredibly juicy things. always a tough sell. and in the attention economy? impossible.

Gavin@knucklehedd.bsky.social · 2w ago

You'd only need like 1 or 2 million world class ninjas who are also voting machine hackers to pull this off. Of course they'd all need to not brag about it at a hacker con, but that's why you're hiring WORLD CLASS ninjas, because they're professionals.

@jonesycartoons3.bsky.social

RIP Bill Oddie. Legend.

Our first visitor today said "My husband has some books here." Us: Great, what the name? Her: Joe Haldeman Us: Oh, not the books, we meant your husband's name. Gay Haldeman: It's Joe Haldeman. Such a lovely surprise visit! Related: we now have a few signed @joehaldeman.bsky.social titles.

Never seen him described so accurately

Everything old is new again…

H I Sutton@covertshores.bsky.social · 2w ago

New article on Covert Shores -> www.hisutton.com/Russian-Dazz... Russian Navy Reverts To Dazzle Camouflage To Hide From Drones Nod @mrfrantarelli.bsky.social who follows this closely #OSINT

Facing federal science budget cuts, biologist Daniel Blumstein resorted to uploading marmot videos to OnlyFans to raise funds for his marmot research. However, when he uploaded his driver’s license for verification, OnlyFans informed him that his appearance didn’t match the marmots in the videos.

‘OnlyMarms’: Marmots Are on OnlyFans to Raise Money for Research (Gift Article)

A team of scientists uploaded videos of the squirrel-like rodents in the wild on the adult-content site OnlyFans to raise money amid government budget cuts.

nytimes.com

Joined the Times Tech Report to talk about Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle's $1.65bn in hidden off-balance sheet debt, and how I fear a subprime data center crisis is brewing thanks to private credit funding the AI buildout with pension and insurance funds. youtu.be/bTwnn-5TpmQ?...

AI companies are hiding more debt than you think | Ed Zitron

YouTube video by The Tech Report

youtu.be

I'm enraged I have to give a shit what the scummiest grifters on the planet are pushing this week because they might have outsized influence on actual policy. Like if the Facebook posts of the loudest douche you went to high school with were being projected on the main screen in the Situation Room.

Euan MacDonald@euanmacdonald.bsky.social · 2w ago

This really shows the value of propaganda: As soon as the Kremlin’s “Russia’s victory is inevitable” narrative was broken, minds started to change.

I’m sorry what

Is it possible that market are finally getting wise to the Nazi grifter’s bullshit? Wouldn’t be too optimistic - lots of idiots out there - but just maybe. BTW, going by P/E, Tesla is still about 10 times overpriced, and arguably more like 15 times.