Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 12h

This policy might* be worth mulling if the UK were known as a country with a history of capitalizing on IT advances and was weak in cultural exports.

* nah, probably not even in that case.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 17h

Also less time at gas stations. I always just plug in at home, so maybe once every few months there's a 25 min charge on a road trip. As opposed to a ten minute gas station visit every other week with gas. Also always full at home, so never hop in the car to go and realize I need to get gas first.

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 18h

The odds are pretty low that this thing ever makes any money. No reason for branded to use outside distribution if they want to cut out middlemen, insurers have PBMs and out of pocket generic is (generally) small size, low price, low margin. www.wsj.com/health/pharm...

Trump Wants to Overhaul Drug Sales. A Company Tied to His Son Stands to Benefit.

The family members of President Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are poised to benefit from efforts to remake the pharmaceutical industry.

www.wsj.com

Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 18h

The two Ps are a joke that’s also correct. If you can hit multiple points low on Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs you succeed (and yes, I know Maslow’s idea isn’t actually scientifically valid but it’s an illuminating fiction).

Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 18h

You don’t have to like how a tech is used (I will force my kids to get a job with heavy customer interaction if I find out they are using AI this way) but it is important to objectively observe how people use tech

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 18h

Crypto/blockchain etc, by contrast, is less than useful for pizza delivery (the famous bitcoin pizza payment) and has an anti-sexy image.

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 18h

This is fascinating and shows how AI is hitting at least one of the “two P”s needed for any real technology (porn and pizza delivery).

Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 22h

More people have AI girlfriends (or boyfriends) than use BlueSky, via @alphaville.ft.com open.substack.com/pub/chinatal...

Why America Builds AI Girlfriends and China Makes AI Boyfriends

and what it all means

open.substack.com

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 1d

This is the first time I can recall a lawmaker stating this plainly.

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 1d

Ruben Gallego on whether Trump is talking to Democrats:

“Look, the President clearly has some kind of dementia, so I think there's a he's probably talking to himself, or think he's talking to a Democrat, but I sincerely doubt that that's actually he's actually physically talking to a Democrat.“

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 1d

Another big reason - in any other developed country you don't spend days of your life on the phone with your insurer, trying to iron out how much you owe after receiving care.

Also, you never, ever receive -this statement looks like a bill, but is not a bill.

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Reposted by Rob Cyran

EM_Credit_Fund @emcreditfund.bsky.social · 1d

***BREAKING: NVDIA DECIDES TO SELL CHIPS FOR 10% STAKE IN THE OTHER 499 S&P COMPANIES... SPX up 26% on the news

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 2d

It's a novel way to destroy the effectiveness of an agency which underlies the US ability to finance its spending and debt. The 10yr UST yields 4.16%.....

Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 2d

So we are up to our eighth head of the IRS this year, only this time it's a made-up position.
home.treasury.gov/news/press-r...

The US is on a run rate of having 38 acting IRS heads by the end of Trump's term.

Treasury Department Announces Frank Bisignano as Chief Executive Officer of the IRS

WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service Scott Bessent announced that Commissioner of the Social Security Administration Frank Bisigna...

home.treasury.gov

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Reposted by Rob Cyran

Patrick Reynolds for a greater Auckland @patrickreynolds.bsky.social · 3d

Not nearly enough is made of the incredibly impressive feat Indian Railways has made to electrify almost 100% of its 135,000km of track, while also growing renewable sourcing. Huge:

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/ind...

Indian Railways to achieve net zero targets in 2025 itself - 5 years ahead of 2030 goal - Times of India

India Business News: Indian Railways is set to achieve net-zero targets by year-end, surpassing its 2030 goal through extensive electrification. Aiming for 95% electric tr

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 3d

The article suggests something slightly different. Not being able to attach words to something vs not even visually “knowing” something is there. Which seems like two forms of knowing.

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 3d

There’s also blindsight, where patients who appear to be unconscious of something (eg stroke makes half visual field blank) but can grab or guess what things are. Way beyond my pay grade but maybe we overestimate the importance of consciousness and how cohesive it is because it matters to us and N=1

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 4d

I know they have definitions but I think they are more vibes based definitions in fiction
Aquiline nose - aristocratic and sorta sexy, but a nose?
Olive skinned - Edward Said wants to speak to you after class
Carbolic soap - the poors of yesteryear.

Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 4d

Words I suspect authors use, but neither they nor their readers can really define:
aquiline nose; olive skin; carbolic soap

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Reposted by Rob Cyran

Hideinplainsight @profusional.bsky.social · 4d

That is truly one helluva quote. Pitch perfect.

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 4d

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

Defend Democracy @defenddemocracy.bsky.social · 4d

President Macron: “Europeans, let's wake up!

We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks.”

defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 4d

My favorite policy ever was EU butter subsidies. Price was high so farmers overproduced, and put in stockpiles. The piles grew so big that policymakers then subsidized consumption - and farmers fed the butter to cows. The resulting milk had higher fat content so increased butter output

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 4d

I am literally in awe of this one - US tariffs causing other nations to retaliate, hitting soybean exports. Meanwhile US providing bailout package to Argentina which has record soybean exports to China. So the US is considering using tariff money to bail out US farmers.

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 4d

The incoherence of US policy is something. World’s biggest oil supplier but the marginal high cost producer in a world where demand is pretty inelastic over short run and demand destruction over long term. So you encourage higher Saudi low cost production today? www.wsj.com/business/ene...

Saudi Arabia Takes a Risk in Boosting Oil Production—and Gives Trump a Win

Crude prices have fallen this year as Riyadh has raised output, but risks abound for the oil-producing kingdom.

www.wsj.com

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Reposted by Rob Cyran

James Vizzard @jwvizzard.bsky.social · 5d

This is art.

Eladio Bobadilla @eladiobobadilla.com · 5d

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 5d

All of these supposed future sources of oil demand are drying up rather quickly (six month pay back means growth will go bonkers)

Commercial Solar Guy @commercialsolarguy.com · 5d

‘For Nigerians, the cost savings from ditching diesel mean that a solar panel pays for itself within six months…with imports of Chinese solar panels growing by two-thirds between June 2024 and June 2025…high fuel prices, a byproduct of the Ukraine war and the loss of a fuel subsidy’

Nigeria, a Major Oil Producer, Sees Beginnings of a Solar Boom

e360.yale.edu

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 5d

I remember in around 1999 John Chambers saying Cisco could grow its top line 30% to 50% indefinitely (and it grew in the mid single digits over the following decade).

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Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · 6d

More alarming anecdotes: futurism.com/chatgpt-marr...

ChatGPT Is Blowing Up Marriages as Spouses Use AI to Attack Their Partners

Across the world, marriages are being destroyed as spouses use AI like OpenAI's ChatGPT to attack their partners.

futurism.com

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