"The latest estimates of the cost of Sizewell C, conducted by University of Greenwich Business School and seen by the Guardian, forecast that it would cost £38.4bn and be complete in 2039." That's $US13 bn/GW. For reference, solar modules cost ~$1/watt=$1bn/GW and can be installed inside a year
The use of the term "Judaeo-Christian" is a reliable indicator of intellectual dishonesty. It's only ever used by Christianists who want to dodge the charge of anti-semitism.
At what point does Biden work out that the Israeli state is an abusive partner, not an ally? It should be obvious with Netanyahu, but he isn't an outlier.
@cstross Shorter version "predatory journal set up to publish human-generated nonsense also publishes AI nonsense".
Optimistic view: the ease with which AI can fool this kind of journal will lower its status even further, to the point where even the most desperate will avoid submitting there.
@cstross I think there are two opposing problems. In the "respectable" academic world, too much focus on publishing a few articles the most exclusive journals ("Top 5" in economics, similarly small group in philosophy). In low-status institutions, push to publish anywhere, producing "predatory" journals (actually, it's more symbiosis than predation, most of the time, though I've occasionally been preyed upon).
@johannes_lehmann@cstross MDPI skirts the edge of predatory, often by what @pluralistic calls ensh*ttification. A journal starts out OK, then is run down. I have a piece in one journal where that happened - it was something in econometrics that I knew wouldn't appeal to the profession, so I took a chance on it. A month or so a go I learned that the editorial board had resigned.
"Estonia could destroy Russia's entire Baltic Fleet". Taiwan is bigger, relative to Estonia, than is China relative to Russia, and has more missiles per person. Inference is obvious
This from @pluralistic is great regarding MLM scams and "passive income". I remember when some uni friends of my son who had been conned into an MLM gave me the pitch. They explained the difference between active income (you work for it) and passive income (it just rolls in).
They asked which I preferred and I said "active income, of course, I'm a worker." That was the end of the pitch. We bought some rubbish goods to help them, and they got out fairly quickly IIRC. https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/15/passive-income-brainworms/
Went to my first big meeting in 6 months yesterday. I was the only person masked. When I arrived for Day 2, half the attendees were masked. I thought I had set a good example, but of course it turned out someone there on Day 1 had #Covid. Not happy.
Hard to make any sense of US attacks on Houthis. Too limited to have any prospect of success, but enough to eliminate any prospect of quick settlement.
Houthis have been fighting against enemies with air power for years. They have lots of missile infrastructure, mostly small and mobile. A dozen air strikes is like arresting a dozen drug dealers and claiming to have solved the drug problem
I've just come across the idea that the phenomenon of passing (as a member of a different race) is a problem for notions of race as a social construction.
Haven't got far but the crucial fact about passing is the need to break all contact with your (original race) family and in most cases with all your friends as well. How is that not social construction?
The Economist offers lame defence of Israel against genocide charges. Doesn't even mention the evidence (on the ground and from Israeli government ministers) that the aim of the war is to terrorise Palestinians into leaving en masse, at which point they will (it is hoped) cease to exist as a separate people.
That's not an open-and-shut case, but it will require more of a response than "self-defence against Hamas"
I have a hard time taking seriously people who warn me that the next US presidential election will decide between democracy and fascism and then spend most of their time yelling at anonymous strangers online about not voting.
Why are you not desperately trying to get out the vote in swing states? Or stockpiling ammo and batteries for your insurrectionary cell?
Of course, the capital class sought common cause with the Nazis, as they are now doing with Trump. The question is, was it a good idea for the Stalinists to help them on the theory of "After Hitler, us". You should ask yourself the same question
I'd say those unwilling to condemn Thaelmann for not supporting an SPD government in 1932, which he did on the basis of those very words, (with an inconsequential substitution). What do you think?
