Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Sunhawk

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 1d

Every single AI data center is a toxic investment, with most of its value tied up in GPUs that will be multiple generations behind by the time these things turn on - and then die in 3-5 years.

All to build for AI demand that doesn't exist.
edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo...

Actually, wait - how long do GPUs last, exactly? Four years for training? Three years? The A100 GPU started shipping in May 2020, and the H100 (and the Hopper GPU generation) entered full production in September 2022, meaning that we’re hurtling at speed toward the time in which we’re going to start seeing a remarkable amount of chips start wearing down, which should be a concern for companies like Microsoft, who bought 150,000 Hopper GPUs in 2023 and 485,000 of them in 2024.
Alright, let me just be blunt: the entire economy of debt around GPUs is insane.
Assuming these things don’t die within five years (their warranties generally end in three), their value absolutely will, as NVIDIA has committed to releasing a new AI chip every single year, likely with significant increases to power and power efficiency. At the end of the five year period, the Special Purpose Vehicle will be the proud owner of five-year-old chips that nobody is going to want to rent at the price that Elon Musk has been paying for the last five years. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the rental prices for H100 GPUs that went from $8-an-hour in 2023 to $2-an-hour in 2024, or the Silicon Data Indexes (aggregated realtime indexes of hourly prices) that show H100 rentals at around $2.14-an-hour and A100 rentals at a dollar-an-hour, with Vast.AI offering them at as little as $0.67 an hour.
This is, by the way, a problem that faces literally every data center being built in the world, and I feel insane talking about it. It feels like nobody is talking about how impossible and ridiculous all of this is - it’s one thing that OpenAI has promised one trillion dollars to people - it’s another that large swaths of that will be spent on hardware that will, by the end of these agreements, be half-obsolete and generating less revenue than ever.
Think about it - let’s assume we live in a fantasy land where OpenAI is somehow able to pay Oracle $300 billion over 5 years. Said money is paying for access to Blackwell…

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Reposted by Sunhawk

Emmy Scott @emmynawjoopinga.bsky.social · Jan 26

Cecelia Fire Thunder tried to get a Planned Parenthood on the Pine Ridge Reservation when South Dakota banned abortion. The tribal council felt pressure from off-reservation “interests” & within so removed her.

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Emmy Scott @emmynawjoopinga.bsky.social · Jan 26

Native women in the U.S. are more than twice as likely than white women to die from conditions caused or exacerbated by pregnancy. Since colonization, our bodily autonomy has been stolen from us though rape, sex trafficking, and forced sterilization. Abortion is body sovereignty.

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Emmy Scott @emmynawjoopinga.bsky.social · Jan 26

Native women are raped at a rate 2.5 times higher than white women. However, many Natives don’t have the resources to travel for abortions in red states. Donate to an abortion fund for Native people, that also covers travel: www.iwrising.org/abortion-fund

Rain Fund | iwrising

www.iwrising.org

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Emmy Scott @emmynawjoopinga.bsky.social · Jan 26

It’s great that people are thinking about tribal sovereignty, disappointing that people only think about it’s value in relation to how it might benefit white women. Cecilia Fire Thunder attempted this on Oglala Sioux Reservation in 2006 in SD. #RoeVWade

Valet Parker * Las Vegas @valetparker.bsky.social · Jan 25

Funny how history works—Native Americans, after centuries of persecution, might just be the ones to save women’s rights. Thanks to tribal sovereignty, they could legally open abortion clinics on their land even if the rest of the country goes full Handmaid’s Tale. Karma’s got a sense of humor.

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Palette Swap @paletteswap.site · 2d

It’s time we have a chat about bringing back public etiquette to movie theaters.
paletteswap.site/tru...

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Astrid (yeehaw) 🤠🌈 ✨ @ansitru.bsky.social · 1d

I'm just saying, we could settle this with swords, instead of 30+ emails. 🤺

#artWIP

A WIP embroidery piece, with a sword and mace chzrm, spikes and letter beads.

The beads read "this email could have been a duel | fight me"

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Sunhawk @sunhawk.bsky.social · 1d

Goodluck! 🍀

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Sunhawk @sunhawk.bsky.social · 1d

I really hope Affinity apps stay as stand-alone desktop apps that you only have to pay for once, without any AI garbage!! No subscription model!!

Baldur Bjarnason @baldurbjarnason.com · 1d

https://www.dpreview.com/news/2744582289/affinity-photo-apps-pulled-from-sale-big-changes-announced-canva-purchase

I only boot into Windows once a week to use CaptureOne, Affinity Photo, or Affinity Publisher. If this means what I think it means, then two of those are about to get discontinued

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Reposted by Sunhawk

Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 3d

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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Sunhawk @sunhawk.bsky.social · 1d

That fern, don't need no pot 😙👌

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Sunhawk @sunhawk.bsky.social · 1d

Calling card of the Business Idiot (as per Ed Zitron's definition)

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 1d

News: Bari Weiss just sent a memo to staffers at CBS News asking them to produce a memo explaining "how you spend your working hours—and ideally, what you've made (or are making) that you're most proud of."

One CBS News staffer puts it like this to me: "We just got Elon Musked."

Sunhawk @sunhawk.bsky.social · 1d

seems bad!!!

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Matthew Wasserbach, brokerage manager of Express Customs Clearance, said of the UPS backlog. “It’s totally unprecedented.”

@cnbc.com $UPS
www.nbcnews.com/business/bus...

UPS is 'disposing of' U.S.-bound packages over customs paperwork problems

Shifting Trump tariffs have created a nightmare for UPS, as thousands of packages from overseas pile up at its hubs while they await customs clearance.

www.nbcnews.com

Reposted by Sunhawk

meh 🎃 @mharvey816.bsky.social · 1d

They're destroying packages. On purpose this time. Wow.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Matthew Wasserbach, brokerage manager of Express Customs Clearance, said of the UPS backlog. “It’s totally unprecedented.”

@cnbc.com $UPS
www.nbcnews.com/business/bus...

UPS is 'disposing of' U.S.-bound packages over customs paperwork problems

Shifting Trump tariffs have created a nightmare for UPS, as thousands of packages from overseas pile up at its hubs while they await customs clearance.

www.nbcnews.com

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Sunhawk @sunhawk.bsky.social · 1d

Years ago I read a science mag article about how humans in general are super bad at accessing risk, and it really pains me to see how this stupid GenAI situation is providing perfect examples of this phenomenon

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 3d

BoE flags risk of ‘sudden correction’ in tech stocks inflated by AI on.ft.com/3WqHK5t

BoE flags risk of ‘sudden correction’ in tech stocks inflated by AI

Financial Policy Committee warns equity prices are at levels comparable with dotcom bubble

on.ft.com

Sunhawk @sunhawk.bsky.social · 1d

We don't have a reliable mechanism to either measure what kinds of mods an app/instance/etc has, we are forced to rely on their T&S/promo posts, assuming they aren't changed later at any time. There's no technical or social way to hold mods accountable in any space. I don't want to keep jumping ship

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Sunhawk @sunhawk.bsky.social · 1d

I think the Bluesky mod situation has revealed the biggest problem with social media apps these days: how do you participate in spaces with decent moderation? And I get frustrated with the suggestion to join Mastodon, they have better mods, etc! How do you know? What will keep them that way?

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Sunhawk @sunhawk.bsky.social · 1d

Not the point but that logo is superb 👌

DZG section Behavioural Biology @dzg-behaviour.bsky.social · 3d

We are almost there - we are looking forward to three exciting days of animal behaviour science and networking!

#gradmeet25

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Sunhawk @sunhawk.bsky.social · 1d

A lot of phone cameras struggle to focus on something small when you are physically too close to the object. If your phone has a zoom function, try using that even if it feels counterintuitive, it can be used to not have to get so close.

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Sunhawk @sunhawk.bsky.social · 1d

😂🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Lawrence Hurley @lawrencehurley.bsky.social · 2d

Alex Jones has asked the Supreme Court to immediately put his almost $1.5 billion defamation judgment on hold, citing the imminent threat of InfoWars being handed over to The Onion.

If there isn't a stay, "InfoWars will have been acquired by its ideological nemesis and destroyed," the filing says.

Reposted by Sunhawk

Iron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · 1d

lmao this is how you do it

No More Robots @nomorerobots.io · 2d

Here's how we handle manchildren on the Steam forums at No More Robots:

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Anfor @anforsorrow.bsky.social · 2d

You might not like it, but this is what beak performance looks like.

Comparison of bird bills, displaying different shapes adapted to different feeding methods (not to scale)
Edited from Wikimedia.

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Reposted by Sunhawk

Spider. @vaspider.gay · 1d

"AI" seems to speak to and appeal to people who want to have created without having to create. They want the plaudits and the social cachet that comes from "being an artist/writer" without the messy, revealing, difficult work.

And if you are actually an artist, the work is **the fucking point.**

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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 1d

any product that depends on the long term stability of its maker is inherently defective

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 1d

They brick you because they can.

Logitech will brick its $100 Pop smart home buttons on October 15

Logitech’s interest in the smart home has appeared to wane in recent years.

arstechnica.com

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eric shamow @botmatrix.myatproto.social · 1d

aside from the current meta-conversation this is entirely true within companies too.

I've seen teams with incredible tech get routed around by the rest of the company because they are so convinced of their own master plan that they stop listening to what users actually need.

Sage Divinorum 🏳️‍⚧️ @trans.bsky.social · 1d

tbh i can tell when someone has limited experience in the FOSS space because they often treat the userbase as an annoying burden instead of building out mechanisms to make sure they have a seat at the table.

the internet is riddled with graveyards of FOSS projects that egotrip lowtaxed themselves.

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