Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 3m

I suspect some budget constrained university would be eager to pick up lots of gpus on sale but they move slow so who knows if that happens

Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 6m

The "wind down" of contracts is very interesting. I also have no idea if the big science buyers would buy a second hand GPUs, I don't think the weather guys would... they are very particular about validation.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 22m

A lot of the sciences that need heavy use of simulations are in a similar situation, life sciences especially.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 22m

Some jobs could consume as much compute as you throw at them. Weather simulation is a good example. Its time bound. You have to have an answer in time for the news or before the hurricane hits, with more compute those jobs get can get done more accurately but not sooner.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 28m

Yes thats the one. I bumped into an old friend there I didn't know was in town and had a great time.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 32m

Specifically there was a food market thing that looked awesome at night and seeing where it was in relation to where I was staying did make me curious to go find it on foot. And I did. And I hurt my tummy.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 34m

The rail coming from the airport in Vancouver is a great example. It was so neat flying in and seeing everything then getting on a train and seeing it even closer.

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Reposted by Sysfin

Shoshana 🏳️‍⚧️ @shoshana.bsky.social · 1h

One of the reasons I don't love subways is that they rob riders of views and stimulation, putting them in a dark tunnel

Elevated trains allow you to look out and see the world

Subways sometimes feel like the world saying, "The surface world is drivers! Now get out of the sunlight you non-driver!"

Brian Doucet @briandoucet.bsky.social · 1h

One of the cool things about the Vancouver Skytrain is the ability to photograph from the front window! It takes a bit of luck, patience and a clear windshield. But the results give a great impression of how transit has shaped the region. Pictures from April 2025.

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Reposted by Sysfin

Zoomer Antimillenarian ♨️ @surcomplicated.bsky.social · 16h

It's absolutely fucked how it took approximately five seconds from ppl inventing a slur for AIs they don't like to turn it into a general purpose slur against disabled people with prosthetics.

ellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contact · 16h

“bionic limb users are pretty uncommon so it’s okay to use slurs against them” oh ok got it, so we just live in deus fucking ex now

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 2h

I agree. What I am trying to say is that its pretty obvious on how someone could take it to be transphobic but then a lot of the recent discourse argues about how "its not real so it doesn't count" when a character in a show is also obviously not real.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 2h

Oh now I am recalling like ten million youtube video essays that argued that in fact Silence of the Lambs was transphobic, because by calling a character "not really trans" was actually an attack used on actual trans people.

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Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · 4h

“The cruelty is the point”, taken to its most logical extreme, is that these people are willingly blowing their hold on power for the brief opportunity to be a dick to someone

a wicked and unusual boy @myrrlyn.net · 4h

the selfish case for charity is that if you are nice to somebody in a cruel world they will become loyal to you and do what you want. bonkers that rethuglicans decided that is actually stupid

ghost malone ergo propter malone @proptermalone.bsky.social · 4h

not even asking for Republicans to not be evil here. just asking for them to be competent, rational evil actors.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 2h

They way elites constantly rot out partly because of politeness to not kick monsters from their clubs is a true black pill, and that happens in almost every society so reliably from here and now to the USSR to an anarchist reading clubs...

And on the right, they celebrates it like a virtue.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 2h

People really read Solomon suggesting cutting the baby in half and came away with "be the most clever boy in the room with tricky counter intuitive shit" rather then "take a whole look at a situations and understand peoples true emotions."

Just so many Freakonomics/Nudge neocon shits brained idiots

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 2h

As a society we have wasted a utopias amount of effort trying to be the smartest boy in the room with the cleverest takes by trying cut the baby in the most morally neutral "both sides" framing possible.

Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 3h

The obsession with being clever has lead people to see brilliance where there is only stupidity and malice.

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 5h

We’re not dealing with brilliant strategists cleverly laying traps, we’re dealing with impulsive whiners whose advantage is contempt for laws, norms, and morality.

They’re not pulling some elaborate trick, they’re just willing—even eager—to do things regular, principled people consider off limits.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 3h

The obsession with being clever has lead people to see brilliance where there is only stupidity and malice.

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 5h

We’re not dealing with brilliant strategists cleverly laying traps, we’re dealing with impulsive whiners whose advantage is contempt for laws, norms, and morality.

They’re not pulling some elaborate trick, they’re just willing—even eager—to do things regular, principled people consider off limits.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 3h

I have moved way way left on the idea of children's rights over the last few years. Treating kids as property drives a vast amount of direct harm and the habit of treating people as things that must obey excuses even more abuse and terror.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 4h

You can't convince me that using "clanker" makes you some hero when it gets yelled at small children, even you pretend its "ironic"

bsky.app/profile/slot...

Nick (derogatory) ✨ @slothropsmap.bsky.social · 3d

What’s lost in this conversation is that language must always escape containment, so your playful little “clanker” slur is now being directed at people with bionic limbs.

Harmless fun, right? www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8AjSabH/

Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 4h

I don't think its a coincidence that the moment a machine got human like enough to fool some significant amount of people was the same moment people started using "slurs" for it.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 5h

I read it as people like doing bigotry too much and invent excuses for it, which is plainly true. But now I am confused on if there specific context that I didn't see.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 5h

I thought it was accepted understanding on the left that:

Practicing racism, even ironically, makes people more racist.
Bigotry finds new things to hate.

Therefore putting large amounts of your time in pretending to be racist is bad.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 5h

If you know someone who spent all day yelling at rocks and inventing slurs for them you would think them deranged not moral.
If one of their buddies started screaming one of those slurs at a child you would be appalled.

Actually reactionaries wouldn't care, they would think its cool.

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Sysfin @sysfin.bsky.social · 1d

I already know that Cory Doctorow will do like 900 tours and he is gonna claim that actually he called it in Down and Out...

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Reposted by Sysfin

ellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contact · 1d

how you imagine the AI bubble collapse: server farms catch fire. people are partying in the street with bespoke art purchased from real human artists. AI models vanish from the internet
what it actually will look like: computers just understand vibes now, but nobody is making money from it

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Reposted by Sysfin

Hemry, Local Bartender @bartenderhemry.bsky.social · 1d

Needs to be a day in the future where instead of making a mockery of congress with these petulant outbursts these fascist clowns are tearfully claiming they were just following orders

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

BONDI: The National Guard is on the way right now as we speak. You're sitting here grilling me and they're on their way to Chicago to keep your state safe.

DURBIN: It's my job to grill you

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