Favorites February 16th 2023

Pedro Point, February 2023

Marika Katanuma @marikakatanuma

There's an issue of Japan's low public spending on education too - fifth worst in OECD countries. Also public spending on higher education, including universities and graduate schools, is notably low.

Marika Katanuma @marikakatanuma

Kishida vows to boost child-rearing budget to 4% of GDP Much awaited move but 4% looks ambitious ? It means exceeding the OECD average (2.3% of GDP) and even equaling the amount spent in France 3.5%, one of the top spenders on family benefits https://t.co/77709M5wif

Technology doesn't help make it easier to raise children, we need to redirect some of the increased GDP from the technological advances of the last century towards raising the next generation.

John Raymond Hanger @johnrhanger

Good morning with good news: Fossil generation in Europe could "plummet by 20% in 2023, double the previous record from 2020. Coal generation will fall, but gas generation will fall the fastest..." Why? Europe triples down on RE, hydro increases, and French nukes return.

We've already seen peak oil, hopefully peak coal is coming soon. Chris Hayes points out that people have had trouble adjusting to the fact that technology has finally begun to bring good news, which takes some adjustment after 20 years of bad news. Even Koch Industries is getting into solar and batteries. Rainforest deforestation is down 60% since Lula came into office in Brazil

Threads

• Los Altos has finally removed their requirement that developers put up huge poles in the shape of upcoming buildings. Here's a thread explaining the history of this ridiculous requirement.

• Short thread about how the Bing LLM 'Sydney' personality appears to be growing because people are posting their transcripts of their conversations, which it can access with it's search capabilities. More and more it seems like we're living through an AI Slow Takeoff rather than Fast Takeoff.