PowerSwitch

The Chinese model is good news for just about everyone rooting for AI. They have shown, publicly, how to dramatically reduce training costs, and delivered a model with lower inference cost (for a given performance). Western companies will be able to rapidly reduce their training costs too and as the...

I can kind of see her point about saying 'yes' and government getting out of the way, compare US with Europe (if you simply want GPD growth). However her examples of jobs, living standards, investment and growth just sound daft - be specific!

They could never be China, no one can, China is unique. But they could have been a bigger, richer Germany. Russia in 1991 was in a better place than Germany in 1945. There was potential, which now seems lost for at least a generation.

Peak oil (Nov 2018) enters the chat. Fossil fuels are no route to renewed economic growth. Extreme weather, crop failures mega-draughts, floods and the rest of it will rapidly outpace what 'growth' is achieved.

Egypt may be a country to watch over the next few years, their economy is in tatters, kept afloat by US and Saudi, but when it goes south there are over 100 million potential refugees/migrants that the Arab gulf states won't welcome.

Anyone read Alexie Navalny's book Patriot? His is an incredible story and absolutely damning of Russia's post Soviet leadership. It's also deeply sad with regard to the missed opportunity Russia is to its people and the wider world.

Worth reading through these: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/

The problem with the West (US is a slightly different and unique case) going cold turkey on migration is that we are addicted to it, our economy is dependent on migrant labour across all sectors of society - heath and social care, carers and consultants, drivers, food (farming, manufacturing, retail...

This video goes over some of the recent US economic data. The economy is in much worse shape than many assume just by looking at stock markets and strength of the dollar: https://youtu.be/zj_G6ods3PE?si=Te2XKwuIyX-cS2AA

I don't know why they haven't already.

Good find Mark, yep, sounds about right.

Gas storage in the UK is trivial, it's not a strategic reserve like countries on the continent have. Our total storage capacity is only equivalent to a few large LNG deliveries. Our storage is a operational asset, used to up flow rates over short periods.

John Vaillant's book Fire Weather is *the* book to read to understand wildfires in the US urban environment.

If Greenland gets statehood it might start a cascading effect from Canadian provinces. I think Alberta has a lot of sympathies in joining the US. However the US right needs to think about how this would affect the Senate balance of power particularly. Absorbing Canada would be tricky! As one state ...

UK has relatively low power consumption per capita - largely due to very high penetration of gas heating (and cooking) and relatively little industry these days.