Favorites March 3rd 2024
You can try it here. SDXL-Lightning, uses something called "progressive adversarial diffusion distillation technology". I have not had time to find out what that is.
I've pointed to this stuff many times before, but one commenter put it simply: "Being anti-permitting reform is pretty clearly pro fossil fuels."
Longer Reads
• Thread details how Biden admin involvement in 2022 helped ensure a peaceful transfer of power in Brazil (src)(cached)
Flotsam and Jetsam
– A study seemed to show that Exercise is a very effective treatment for depression, but also that specifically dance outperformed all other types of exercise. Unfortunately, after looking into it a bit, someone pointed out that the studies in the meta-analysis were underpowered, and it's probably not actually that meaningful a result. (src)(cached)
– American defense contracting has been a mess since the revolutionary war. (src)(cached)
– A bit out of date, but if you want to see the gemini images folks where surprised about, here are some examples from Tim Lee. (src)(cached)
– Pedro Pascal says his big break was Game of Thrones, sorta wild since he's a relatively minor character. Any other that it has really boosted that much? Maybe Jason Momoa? (src)
– Article in the atlantic about how ChatGPT has already changed english classes, the author, an english teacher, argues that it has been an improvement, the students must focus on actually reading. (src)(cached)
– Alabama's IVF/Abortion ruling would have other ramifications if it weren't so transparently just Christian Theology (src)(cached)
– US national debt as a % of gdp is down from the peak during the Trump presidency. Economic growth is good. (src)(cached)
– Nuro continues their work on delivery robots, I'm excited that the recent tech downturn hasn't completely crushed them. I was not aware they'd driven a million miles autonomously. (src)
– Both parties most engaged voters are shielded by media bubbles from the knowledge that most people disagree with them on a ton of issues, but on the Republican side, it seems that at least most leaders know where the disagreements are. (src)(cached)
– I've pointed out in the past that Police in SF seem to have almost entirely stopped doing traffic enforcement, looks like the city is also directing them to do even less, seems bad! (src)(cached)
– Americans continue to support giving aid to Ukraine. 74% Support Ukraine / 24% Don't know / 4% Support Russia. (src)(cached)
– Japanese stock market finally recovered back to it's 1989 peak, "Abenomics" seems to have been key. (src)(cached)
– Anecdotes coming in: IRS direct file is really easy to use (src)(cached)
– Incredible amount of Upzoning happening in Austin (src)(cached)
– The US actually spends quite a lot to combat social problems, not dissimilar from Canada or Australia. Also, did you know almost 40% of Americans are on Medicare or Medicaid? (src)(cached)
– Musk in control of Twitter will let us find out if hearing crazy rightists yell their insane policy beliefs will negatively polarize normal people. (src)(cached)
– Take another look at Spielberg's 2021 West Side Story, it was beautiful, and check out the equivalent part from the original (src)(cached)
– On the way out after being laid off from Gizmodo, one guy changed his name on Slack to S1ackbot, took them months to find him. (src)
– "Biden, 81, says the key to his marriage is 'good sex'" (src)(cached)
– A lot of GOP politicians voted for IVF bans in the past when they thought it wouldn't do anything. (src)(cached)