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The Pleasure Vice Principle (he/him/his) @hannibaltabu.bsky.social · 1d

I saw the dot coms crash from a front row seat. AI is running out of money way faster.

The evangelism is insecurity from people who made the wrong bet. I’ve seen it before. futurism.com/future-socie...

AI Data Centers Are an Even Bigger Disaster Than Previously Thought

An investment manager realized he made a crucial mistake — and that his grim prediction about AI investments may not have been cynical enough.

futurism.com

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Mike W @gekido.bsky.social · 2d

so Google just added a bunch (more) AI bullshit to Chrome

Go through these steps to disable it:

opus.ing/posts/how-to...

#chrome #aibullshit

How to Remove AI From Your Google Chrome Experience - Opus

Follow these steps to resist the AI-pocalypse in your everyday web browsing.

opus.ing

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Margaret Schotte @schottemargaret.bsky.social · 3d

Daniella, amazing milestone! Thanks for all your efforts!

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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 3d

Tomorrow: The AI Bubble is built on impossible promises. GPUs die in 5 years, nobody has built a 1GW data center, and they have the power to do so. Stargate Abilene won't have enough power before 2028.

Here's a link for $10 off premium.

edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo...

Everybody is very casual with how they talk about Sam Altman’s theoretical promises of trillions of dollars of data center infrastructure, and I'm not sure anybody realizes how difficult even the very basics of this plan will be.
Nevertheless, everybody is happily publishing stories about how “Stargate Abilene Texas - OpenAI’s massive data center with Oracle - is open,” by which they mean two buildings, and I’m not even confident both of them are providing compute to OpenAI yet. There are six more of them that need to get built for this thing to start rocking at 1.2GW - even though it’s only 1.1GW according to my sources in Abilene.
But, hey, sorry - one minute - while we’re on that subject, did anybody visiting Abilene in the last week or so ever ask whether they’ll have enough power there?
Don’t worry, you don’t need to look - I’m sure you were just about to, and had simply been busy! - but I did the hard work for you and read up on it, and it turns out that Stargate Abilene only has 200 megawatts of power - a 200 megawatt substation that, according to my sources, has only been built within the last couple of months, with 350 Megawatt of gas turbine generators that connect to a natural gas power plant that might get built by the end of the year in the event that one of the multiple construction firms involved . Said turbine is extremely expensive, featuring volatile pricing (for context, volatility fell in Q2 2025…to 69% annualized, meaning that if you had these prices across the entirety of a year you’d see swings of 69% up or down) and even more volatile environmental consequences, and is, while permitted for it (this will download the PDF of the permit), impractical and expensive to use long-term.
Analyst James van Geelen, founder of Citrini Research recently said on Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast that these are “not the really good natural gas turbines” because the really good ones would take seven years to deliver due to a natural gas turbine shortage.
But th…

$Stargate Abilene does not have sufficient power to run at even half of its supposed IT load of 1.2GW, and at its present capacity - assuming that the gas turbines function at full power - can only hope to run 370MW to 460MW of IT load. I’ve seen article after article about the gas turbines and their use of fracked gas - a disgusting and wasteful act typical of OpenAI - but nobody appears to have asked “how much power does a 1.2GW data center require?” and then chased it with “how much power does Stargate Abilene have?” The answer is not enough, and the significance of said “not enough” is remarkable. Today, I’m going to tell you, at length, how impossible the future of generative AI is. Gigawatt data centers are a ridiculous pipe dream, one that runs face-first into the walls of reality. The world’s governments and media have been far too cavalier with the term “gigawatt,” casually breezing by the fact that Altman’s plans require 17 or more nuclear reactors’ worth of power, as if building power is quick and easy and cheap and just happens. I believe that many of you think that this is an issue of permitting - of simply throwing enough money at the problem - when we are in the midst of a shortage in the electrical grade steel and transformers required to expand America (and the world’s) power grid. I realize it’s easy to get blinded by the constant drumbeat of “gargoyle-like tycoon cabal builds 1 gigawatt data center” and feel that they will simply overwhelm the problem with money, but no, I’m afraid that isn’t the case at all, and all of this is so silly, so ridiculous, so cartoonishly bad that it threatens even the seemingly-infinite wealth of Elon Musk, with xAI burning over a billion dollars a month and planning to spend tens of billions of dollars building the Colossus 2 data center, dragging two billion dollars from SpaceX in his desperate quest to burn as much money as possible for no reason. This is the age of hubris - a time in which we are going to watc…$

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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 4d

Canadians: The federal government is seeking public input on how AI should be developed and used in business, research, and the military.

If this scares the shit out of you, please let them know:

Help define the next chapter of Canada's AI leadership

Current status: Open from October 1 to October 31, 2025 Canada helped invent modern AI. To stay a leader—and protect our digital sovereignty—we're running a 30-day national sprint to shape a renewed...

ised-isde.canada.ca

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FrenchHistTO @frenchhistto.bsky.social · 4d

Our 2nd talk of the fall term will take place on Oct. 24. We very much look forward to welcoming @andreloez.bsky.social for his talk, "Unsettled voters. Invalid ballots in the first elections by universal male suffrage in France"

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Annika Bärwald @annikabaerwald.bsky.social · 5d

Wonderful opportunity for scholars, activists, and artists engaging with early Black presences in Europe🗃️

H-Soz-Kult @hsozkult.bsky.social · 5d

CFP: Black Presence and Influence in Europe Before the Atlantic Slavery

https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-157868

Lüneburg, 21.01.2026-22.01.2026, Leuphana Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS) in Culture and Society, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Bewerbungsschluss: 30.10.2025

www.hsozkult.de

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Brett Rushforth @brettrushforth.bsky.social · 5d

Loved this book - congrats to Jack (and @yalepress.bsky.social)!

Henry Snow @henrysnow.bsky.social · 5d

My colleague Jack Bouchard's book Terra Nova is out today! It's about early 16th-century mariners and the seasonal fishery around present-day Newfoundland, and its place within the Atlantic World. I cannot wait to read it

yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Terra Nova

A bottom-up story of the fishworkers, whalers, First Nations, merchantwomen, oceans, and animals who together made a new colonial world in the early Atlantic...

yalebooks.yale.edu

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French Colonial Historical Society @frenchcolonial.bsky.social · 21d

Share widely!

We are now accepting paper and panel proposals for our 2026 Annual Conference in Ireland at Maynooth University taking place 25-27 June 2026!

The submission deadline is 14 November 2025, and you can read more information on our website!

frenchcolonial.org/annual-meeti...

Annual Meeting – French Colonial Historical Society

frenchcolonial.org

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Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 7d

If you are a supporter and reader of @contingent-mag.bsky.social one of the biggest things you can do to help us at the moment is get this CFP to the NTT folks in your life. The fracturing of social media has made it very difficult to get the word out esp. to adjuncts and VAPs.

CFP: A Time of Monsters

The monster has been here all along. It is a historical constant that manifests in wildly different ways across time, place, and culture. Whatever form it takes, the monster claws at categories; it un...

contingentmagazine.org

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Cindy Ermus @cindyermus.bsky.social · 8d

Here's the TOC! Feb. 2026.

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Bryan Banks @bryanbanksphd.bsky.social · 9d

And we have our cover! @cindyermus.bsky.social

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Europe & the World at the IHR @ihreurope1500.bsky.social · 9d

FIRST SESSION THIS MONDAY! Join us for "At the Cusp of the Modern? Tipu Sultan, the Family & East India Company Rule", a paper by @eicathomefinn.bsky.social with comment by @jhowesuk.bsky.social

All welcome in person @ihr.bsky.social & on zoom (register for link: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...)

Europe and the world, 1500-1800, IHR seminar, Mondays, 17:30.
6 October: Margot Finn: At the Cusp of the Modern? Tipu Sultan, the Family & East India Company Rule
10 November: Sari Nauman: Between Categories: Migration, War, and Refuge in the Early Modern Baltic Sea
17 November Roger Lee Jesus: Colonialism and Land: Rethinking Imperial and Local Agency in the Portuguese Empire in Asia
1 December: Ana Lucia Araujo: Dahomey: A West African Kingdom in the Centre of the World During the Eighteenth Century

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Reetta Sippola @reettasippola.bsky.social · 9d

Fascinating work of Dr. Sara Caputo will be discussed online next Weds evening (6:30pm London time)! My #posthumanistic research has been quite inspired by her views on the #tracks on the water and on #seacharts. www.rgs.org/events/upcom...
#HakluytSociety #maritimehistory

Lightning at sea in the 18th and 19th centuries

Dr Sara Caputo's EGR Taylor lecture 2025 will discuss how lightning shaped the maritime world drawing on sources from Britain and western Europe.

www.rgs.org

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Catherine Fletcher @cathfletcher.bsky.social · 10d

The Anthropic settlement list is up. Authors, check here to see if your books are included: www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

ANT Homepage | ANT

www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 11d

An old military maxim often attributed to Napoleon is “an army marches on its stomach” and I feel the same way that a university thinks via its library. The slow and steady financial diminution of research libraries and the librarians who staff them is, to me, a slow-rolling higher Ed catastrophe.

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Karen Racine @klracine.bsky.social · 15d

They didn't tell us they were going to slash the post office because they knew we wouldnt vote for that. Ergo, they shouldnt be doing it.

The Breach @breachmedia.ca · 16d

Carney’s attack on the public postal service isn’t just brutal austerity—it’s a missed opportunity.

Dru Oja Jay argues the government could harness the unparalleled infrastructure of the postal network to offer public banking, elder check-ins, and more. breachmedia.ca/government-i...

Government is suppressing postal workers. It should be learning from their innovative ideas ⋆ The Breach

If the government listened to postal workers, they could be implementing win-win measures that create secure meaningful jobs as well as address the crises of affordability, isolation, and climate brea...

breachmedia.ca

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Margaret Schotte @schottemargaret.bsky.social · 16d

#maritimehistory

Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 16d

It's Friday! Let's end the week with a map & some eels!

Here is John Speed's 1611 map, "The Kingdome of Great Britaine and Ireland." There are Dutch eel ships on this map. Can you find them? (the answer is at the end of the thread)

Wait, you ask...WTF is an eel ship? 1/5
🗃️🧪

A map of of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. It is quite busy with roads, and towns, and counties. There are monsters in the sea, and several ships. There are 2 large insets, one showing the a view of the city of London and one showing the city of Edinburgh. There is a smaller inset above the Edinburgh one showing the northern tip of Scotland and the Orkneys. Above the inset for London is the coat of arms for the Order of the Garter, with a lion and unicorn. The arms have the order's motto around them: "honi soit qui mal y pense" (shame on him that thinks ill of it), and below it the popular Puritan phrase, "Semper Idem" (always the same). It is a very detailed and pretty map.

"Always the same" and "shame on him that thinks ill of it" is strident rejection of the Growth Mindset ideology, and I am here for it.

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FrenchHistTO @frenchhistto.bsky.social · 16d

Please join us (in person) this afternoon!

FrenchHistTO @frenchhistto.bsky.social · Sep 8

We are thrilled to kick off our fall series of talks with Dr. Jean-Olivier Richard, "In search of Père Castel's Philosophy of Princes: Jesuit physico-politics & climate change in e18th-c. France": Fri. Sept. 26, 4pm Munk Ctr. rm 108N @uoft (Rescheduled from last winter) #Frenchhistory

Announcement for an academic lecture, hosted by French History Seminar/Seminaire d'histoire de France. Image of a delicate tea set on a red-silk covered table.
Talk entitled: "In search of Père Castel's Philosophy of Princes: Jesuit Physico-Politics and Climate Change in Early Eighteenth-Century France"
September 26, 2025 04:00 PM - 6:00 PM EDT
108N, 1 Devonshire Place,
Toronto, ON, M5S 3K7

Speaker: Jean-Olivier Richard
St. Michael's College, University of Toronto

List of sponsors: YorkU, UofT, Munk School, etc.

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Margaret Schotte @schottemargaret.bsky.social · Sep 8

🇫🇷 #18C 🗃️

FrenchHistTO @frenchhistto.bsky.social · Sep 8

We are thrilled to kick off our fall series of talks with Dr. Jean-Olivier Richard, "In search of Père Castel's Philosophy of Princes: Jesuit physico-politics & climate change in e18th-c. France": Fri. Sept. 26, 4pm Munk Ctr. rm 108N @uoft (Rescheduled from last winter) #Frenchhistory

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Kathleen Commons @kabcommons.bsky.social · 18d

Call for Papers! @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social x @ihr.bsky.social Migration and Mobility Seminar special edition - we want papers on all types of migration and mobility history from ECRs and PGRs. Abstracts to kabcommons [@] gmail.com by 15th November. Pls spread the word & DM with any questions

Call for papers for a seminar for ECRs and PGRs on migration and mobility history

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Jeremy Ghost Shipp @jeremycshipp.bsky.social · 18d

As always, today's a great day to support artists, writers, creators. If you have the means, buy a book, commission an art piece, play an indie game, go to a live theater show. You can also leave a nice comment, post a review, signal boost someone's work. Everything helps.

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PEN America @penamerica.bsky.social · 20d

“Kimmel's return is a vindication for free speech... When people speak out to hold the powerful to account—it matters. We must all channel the same energy to fight the many assaults on free speech underway, including against those with less reach & resources"—Summer Lopez, PEN America interim Co-CEO

PEN America @penamerica.bsky.social · 24d

An “Extraordinary Assault” on Free Speech: FCC Threats Mark a “Dark New Level of Capitulation” and Escalation of Government-Instigated Censorship Over Jimmy Kimmel, PEN America Warns
pen.org/press-releas... #FreeSpeech #FirstAmendment

FCC Threats Mark a “Dark New Level of Capitulation” and Escalation of Government-Instigated Censorship Over Jimmy Kimmel, PEN America Warns

PEN America warned today of a significant escalation of threats to free speech after Disney-owned ABC indefinitely pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from the air.

pen.org

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James Harland @jmharland.bsky.social · 24d

I've deleted my academia.edu. The new ToCs were totally unacceptable.

Academia.edu - Find Research Papers, Topics, Researchers

Academia.edu is the platform to share, find, and explore 50 Million research papers. Join us to accelerate your research needs & academic interests.

academia.edu

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Lisa Fagin Davis @lisafdavis.bsky.social · 20d

Don't forget to register for my hybrid #Voynich lecture on Friday, Sept. 26, at 2:30 PM Eastern at the University of Toronto! After a year of work, Colin Layfield & I have important data- and material-results about the original structure of the manuscript!

www.medieval.utoronto.ca/events/lisa-...

Lisa Fagin Davis, The Materiality of the Voynich Manuscript | Centre for Medieval Studies

The Centre for Medieval Studies welcomes Lisa Fagin Davis (Executive Director, Medieval Academy of America) to present "The Materiality of the Voynich Manuscript", a talk on her recent work using fore...

www.medieval.utoronto.ca

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