The Axial Age or Axial Period, as its sometimes called, was the period of antiquity circa 800 B.C. to 200 B.C. characterized by human thought directed toward understanding man’s place in the world. That inquiry sought a moral structure which would explain how man should live his life to achieve happiness and be in balance with the wishes of the gods. The Axial Age was not confined only to the West, but spanned the globe from the Middle East, though India, and included China. It featured individuals such as Plato, Confucius, Buddha, and Jeremiah, whose ideas had a profound influence on the future of religion and philosophy. The fact that these thinkers lived across the globe and emerged at nearly the same period in history suggests that human moral evolution had reached the same point simultaneously, perhaps under the influence of common factors.
Musk’s comments on TikTok came nearly 20 minutes into the interview, which initially focused on his plans for his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration. Musk and his allies have subsequently taken control of federal agencies and gained access to large troves of sensitive data.
“With respect to government, really the challenge is overcoming bureaucracy,” he said. “I think bureaucracy is perhaps the penultimate boss battle. The ultimate boss battle is defeating entropy … The second hardest battle is defeating bureaucracy. That’s how difficult it is to improve government.”
We’ve discussed the stages of Greek history many times. Greek philosophy began when its founders sought to explain the universe. Once the universe was placed in a philosophical framework, the Greeks began to think about his place in it. He wondered about the purpose of life, how the universe came into being, and how he could live in harmony with the wishes of the gods. Greek philosophy was built upon the foundation of Plato and Aristotle who represented the idealistic and practical approaches to an understanding of the world.
Nearly simultaneous with Greek philosophical development was the advent of philosophical systems under Buddha, Confucius, and the Hindu priests who had adapted the ancient Vedic religion to their time. In the middle east, the Jewish religion developed out of the monotheism of Zoroastrianism. In each case, religion was fused with philosophy. The gods were assumed to exist and what remained was for man to decipher their wishes.
“Open access to AI models and computational tools is crucial for progress,” she said. “Limiting it will create barriers and slow innovation, particularly for academic institutions and researchers who have fewer resources than their private-sector counterparts.”
Android, by just about any definition, is about as open source as it gets. And Google has used this fact in its defense against anti-competition criticism, noting that Amazon has reappropriated Android for its own lineup of Fire-branded devices. But all this ignores separate “anti-fragmentation agreements” Google signed with hardware makers that restrict them from using forked versions of Android. And unlike something like Kubernetes that sits under an independent foundation with a diverse range of corporate and community contributors, Android sits under the direct control of Google without a great deal of transparency over roadmap or community input.
“Android, in a license sense, is perhaps the most well-documented, perfectly open ‘thing’ that there is,” Luis Villa, co-founder and general counsel at Tidelift, said in a panel discussion at the State of Open Con25 in London this week. “All the licenses are exactly as you want them — but good luck getting a patch into that, and good luck figuring out when the next release even is.”
This gets to the crux of the debate: Open source can be something of an illusion. A lack of real independence can mean a lack of agency for those who would like to properly get involved in a project. It can also raise questions about a project’s long-term viability, evidenced by the countless open source companies that have switched licenses to protect their commercial interests.
Meta, meanwhile, has long tooted its open source horn with regards to its Llama-branded large language models (LLMs), even though Llama isn’t open source by most estimations — the models, while perhaps more “open” than others, have commercial restrictions.
“I have my quibbles and concerns about the open source AI definition, but it’s really clear that what Llama is doing isn’t open source,” Villa said.
Emily Omier, a consultant for open source businesses and host of the Business of Open Source podcast, added that such attempts to “corrupt” the meaning behind “open source” is testament to its inherent power.
“It goes to show how strong the brand of open source is — the fact that people are trying to corrupt it, means that people care,” Omier said during the panel discussion.
Much of this may be for regulatory reasons, however. The EU AI Act has a special carve-out for “free and open source” AI systems (aside from those deemed to pose an “unacceptable risk”). And Villa says this goes some way toward explaining why a company might want to rewrite the rulebook on what “open source” actually means.
“There are plenty of actors right now who, because of the brand equity [of open source] and the regulatory implications, want to change the definition, and that’s terrible,” Villa said.
Clear parameters
While there are clear arguments for applying additional criteria that incorporates the “spirit” of what open source is intended to be all about, having clear parameters — as defined by a license — keeps things simple and less subject to nuanced subjectivity.
How much community engagement would be necessary for something to be truly “open source”? On a practical and legal level, keeping the definition limited to the license makes sense.
Morris has some interesting thoughts on the Greeks and Romans.
He states:
“Greece’s real contribution to Axial thought came not from Democrats, but from the critics of Democracy, led by Socrates. Greece, he argued, didn’t need democracies, which merely pooled the ignorance of men who judged everything by appearances; what it needed was men like himself, who knew when it came to the one thing that mattered – the nature of the good – they knew nothing. Only such men could hope to understand the good… through reason, honed in philosophical debate.”
Of course the beliefs of Socrates were carried forward by his pupil Plato in The Republic and Laws, and Plato’s successor Aristotle in Ethics and Politics.
This prototype will be subjected to extensive ground testing to refine its operational modes and pave the way for the creation of a flight model, expected to be ready by 2030.
“The engine operates in pulse-periodic mode. Its power is about 300 kW. Earlier, the engine resource of more than 2400 h was justified, which is enough for a transportation operation to Mars,” Konstantin Gutorov, the project’s scientific adviser, told the Russian newspaper.
“Another positive feature of the new installation – in the proposed mechanism, the plasma does not need to be strongly heated. As a result, parts and components of the engine do not experience temperature overloads, and the electrical energy used for its operation is almost completely converted into motion,” concluded Biriulin.
With a calculated thrust of approximately 6N, the highest among comparable projects, the engine is expected to enable smooth acceleration and deceleration phases during interplanetary travel.
“It was a spectacular example of the advantages of backwardness, combining organizational methods pioneered in an older core with military methods honed on a violent frontier. It slaughtered, enslaved, and dispossessed millions; and drove social development forward at an accelerated pace.”
Another, more adamant, critic of the Axial Period was Antony Black, writing in the Review of Politics, 2008.
Black disputes any notion of an Axial “Period” because the change was not rapid enough and did not involve a greater number of cultures. He agrees that this period saw an advancement in complex human but wonders if it were merely due to the state of societies of that time - that turmoil was causing a rejection of the status quo and the desire to “invent” a new path forward.
The seacraft can be operated remotely or with a crew of two. It can carry up to ten passengers in standard seating or 16 with maximum seating, which makes it ideal for amphibious landings, whether crewed or not.
The vessel can transport passengers to safety or serve as a vehicle for deploying Navy SEAL teams to shorelines, and operate at its top speed for up to 6.4 hours, with a total endurance range of 20.4 hours.
Long time readers have heard me mention that studying history helps us understand the future and under my blog title it says “The future has already happened”. I believe that human behavior repeats itself generation after generation, as we can easily see if we go back and look.
The philosopher Santayana put it differently when he said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I disagree. History repeats itself because of the character of man, not his neglect of history, and no matter how diligent we might be at studying the past, we still can’t escape from ourselves.
The ‘Ghost’ modular design supports various missions, such as carrying missiles, ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance), anti-submarine warfare, command and control, and special warfare load-out. The prototype is powered by two T53-L13B turboshaft engines, delivering a total of 2,380 shp.
These compact vessels displace between 22.4 and 30.2 tons of seawater and can carry over two tons of payload. They range from 25 to 40 feet in width, depending on the strut angle, and are 65 feet long overall.
The timeline for the ‘Ghost’ to move from the prototype stage to full-scale production remains uncertain, and it’s possible the project could be reconsidered before reaching completion. However, taking into account the vessel’s projected utility and capabilities, the Navy may show interest in procurement, Slashgear noted.
Why the West Rules tells the history of the world and then reduces the accomplishments of societies to an equation. Morris believes that history moves forward as a giant amorphous mass and is only minimally influenced by individuals or ideas. To him, there are three main forces acting on society: geography, climate, and the paradox of development. The latter refers to the fact that societal development is accompanied by forces which tend to undermine its progress.
And people are the problem. “Change is caused by lazy, greedy, frightened people looking for easier, more profitable, and safer ways to do things. And they rarely know what they’re doing.”
Morris has developed a theorem which claims that by mathematics one can determine which is the dominant culture on earth at any one time, and further, the formula can be used to predict the future. An index derived from the theorem is calculated using four characteristics of a society: energy capture per capita, social organization, the capacity to wage war, and the level of information technology. Each of these factors is assigned a value up to 250 so when we add them together we get a maximum index value of 1000.
The book compares the score of the Eastern world against the Western world throughout history and concludes that the East will regain superiority in 2103.
I have two large problems with Morris’ book and the reception to it. Let’s start with the latter. To quote one of the reviews of the book,
“Morris's success at finding an audience for that big story comes at a time of anxiety about the waning influence of historians, whose work is often hyper-specialized. Kenneth Pomeranz, president of the American Historical Association, recently lamented that "our space in the public sphere has been diminished to the benefit of fields like economics."
Morris reminds me of what’s wrong with the progressive movement. Its adherents have substituted science for God, and worse, they believe their science. Remember that FDR intended to appoint a board of economists who were going to dictate policy to all American corporations as part of an industrial plan. Funny to think anyone thought something as complicated as our economy could be reduced to a set of equations.
But here we have Morris trying to do the same with history. Who said there are four factors that influence the accomplishments of a society? Who says they should be equally weighted? Why go through the exercise when the assumptions are faulty? Now I’m not ready to condemn the factors and trends Morris cites. He is a well-respected historian. But when you quantify something, people assume the numbers are useful for comparison purposes, and they parse them up way beyond their relevance.
The U.S. Navy and Japanese Navy would have another major engagement at the Battle of Midway one month later. U.S. Navy codebreakers deciphered Japanese communications about planning an attack on Midway. With information about the attack, Adm. Chester Nimitz developed a plan to stop the Japanese invasion. The three-day battle ended with the U.S. losing two ships, 145 aircraft and roughly 360 service members, and Japan losing nearly 3,000 men and five ships. The U.S. victory was a turning point for the Allies and stopped further expansion into the Pacific for Japan.
The Senate of this period was made up of three factions, each amounting to one third of the voting power: conservatives who supported the Republic as it had always been, moderates including Cicero and Cato who allowed some adaptation of the political system, and the liberals who supported Pompey and Caesar. The conservatives were so strict in their point of view, they tried to block all efforts of the triumvirs, unable to perceive the harm they would eventually bring to themselves.
Pompey and Crassus decided to bury the hatchet and go in with Caesar. The latter was still the least influential of the triumvirs but he had two important assets: he was by far the best negotiator and he had previously been a supporter of Marius, the man of the people, whereas the other two were seen as allies of dictator Sulla.
Michael Grant, in his biography of Caesar described what followed:
“During the next ten years the triumvirate remained the controlling factor in Roman politics. This is not, as it is sometimes called, a defeat for democracy. The dispute was not between senatorial government and democracy, which never existed in Rome and never would, but between a haughty, reactionary, corrupt oligarchy and an equally ruthless tyranny conducted by three individuals.”
When the newly elected Caesar introduced the land bill to the Senate, they filibustered until he withdrew the measure and took it to the assembly. It was vetoed by three tribunes but Pompey and Crassus spoke in favor, making it plain they were allied with Caesar. When Bibulus, the other Consul, tried to block the bill, Caesar had Pompey’s troops burst into the assembly and intimidate the opposition into surrender.
Frustrated, Bibulus and his allies tried the alternative tactic of using auspices to block all assembly meetings. Whenever an Assembly meeting was scheduled, he would take auspices and declare that the date was unsuitable. Caesar ignored this blocking attempt and used the Assembly to pass legislation beneficial to the Triumvirs.
In April, Pompey, who was 43, married Caesar’s daughter Julia, 17. It has been suggested that Pompey needed the link to be able to count on Caesar’s political skills. Caesar also married for political advantage -- Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Piso, who Caesar sought as a puppet Consul for the next year. These matrimonial maneuverings prompted Cato to remark that the Roman political system had become a marriage bureau.
According to Dr Jonathan Hoffman, Program Manager at DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office, quantum sensors could revolutionize the way critical information is gathered in defense scenarios. These advanced sensors offer unprecedented precision, but their deployment in real-world conditions remains a challenge owing to their fragility.
“With RoQS, we’re taking a bold step toward creating sensors that are not only extremely precise but also resilient in the face of real-world challenges,” Hoffman explained.
Now Caesar decided it was time to improve his financial position and sought to use Egypt as the golden nugget. The king of Egypt had died and left a dubious will declaring his country would be bequeathed to Rome. Caesar then bribed the Senate and the Assembly with borrowed money to recognize Ptolemy XII as the rightful king so that he could gain a fortune through his relationship with the new monarch.
The RoQS program aims to make quantum sensors more resilient by addressing their fragility head-on. Instead of using bulky shielding or isolation methods, RoQS will focus on new sensor designs strategies and architectures.
One approach is engineering sensor architectures that can naturally resist environmental disturbances, ensuring stable performance without the need for bulky shielding.
Another focus is developing compact sensor arrays capable of distinguishing useful signals from background noise, improving accuracy in complex environments. Additionally, RoQS will investigate advanced atomic systems that offer greater stability, allowing quantum sensors to function reliably even under dynamic and unpredictable conditions.
Last year, DARPA launched the ‘Theory of Mind’ initiative, focusing on improving national security decision-making. The program aims to develop technologies that help decision-makers better understand and engage with potential adversaries, improving strategies for deterrence and incentive-based actions.
According to DARPA, the program will combine advanced algorithms with human expertise to support these efforts. This integration will occur within a modeling and simulation environment to explore national security scenarios, giving decision-makers more options and improving their ability to assess potential actions.
I took a 20k salary cut to STAY employed by the small business that employs me. It requires me to travel a lot. I used to be able to stay in motels or crash at friends place's. Most of my friends have moved back in with parents so that is not an option anymore. Nor can I afford 125. A night for a motel in a questionable area...so i sleep in my car during the week. This is the new reality for many people.
Caesar was allocated three legions for his new dominion and as he prepared for the new assignment, fortune smiled down on him and changed history. Narbonese Gaul (also referred to as Transalpine Gaul) had previously been assigned with Cisalpine Gaul to a single Consul. This time the provinces were split with Metellus Celer receiving the former and Caesar receiving the latter. Before taken his post, however, Celer died, and Caesar used his father-in-law Piso and his son-in-law Pompey to argue that Narbonese Gaul should be added to his domain. The Senate gave in, possibly thinking that the more Caesar had on his plate away from Rome, the less he would meddle in its affairs.
But Caesar’s power remained a threat to the Senate. In July, an informer named Vettius accused Caesar or a plot to kill Pompey, but before the matter could be prosecuted, Vettius died mysteriously. An assassination attempt by a slave followed, but Caesar would survive to let history take its course.
He would spend eight years in Gaul conquering the tribes and write the Commentaries along the way. Julia, wife of Pompey and daughter or Caesar, would die in childbirth (54 B.C.) breaking the marital bond between husband and father. Crassus would be ambushed and killed in Pythia in 53 B.C. leaving no offset to any conflict Caesar and Pompey. Caesar would use Gaul to fortify his resume as a military leader while Pompey languished in Rome, a general out of place as a politician. By the time Caesar crossed the Rubicon in January 49 B.C, he knew he was the man who would change the Republic forever.
On June 6, 1944, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and the Allies launched Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. The beach landing at Normandy is one of the largest amphibious assaults in history. The invasion took place on five beaches with 156,000 troops. The landing on Omaha Beach resulted in 2,400 casualties. Along with the beach landings, 13,000 paratroopers were dropping behind enemy lines to break German supply lines and secure key areas for the Allies. With the Germans being driven out of northwestern France and Paris, the Allied forces claim victory in Normandy.
Mounting his last major offensive on Dec. 16, 1944, Adolf Hitler and the German troops attempted to split the Allied forces. The Battle of the Bulge lasted for six weeks, resulting in more than 100,000 casualties for the U.S. Army. On Christmas Day, Allied forces began airstrikes on German positions.
The Axial Age or Axial Period, as its sometimes called, was the period of antiquity circa 800 B.C. to 200 B.C. characterized by human thought directed toward understanding man’s place in the world. That inquiry sought a moral structure which would explain how man should live his life to achieve happiness and be in balance with the wishes of the gods. The Axial Age was not confined only to the West, but spanned the globe from the Middle East, though India, and included China. It featured individuals such as Plato, Confucius, Buddha, and Jeremiah, whose ideas had a profound influence on the future of religion and philosophy. The fact that these thinkers lived across the globe and emerged at nearly the same period in history suggests that human moral evolution had reached the same point simultaneously, perhaps under the influence of common factors.
Musk’s comments on TikTok came nearly 20 minutes into the interview, which initially focused on his plans for his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration. Musk and his allies have subsequently taken control of federal agencies and gained access to large troves of sensitive data.
“With respect to government, really the challenge is overcoming bureaucracy,” he said. “I think bureaucracy is perhaps the penultimate boss battle. The ultimate boss battle is defeating entropy … The second hardest battle is defeating bureaucracy. That’s how difficult it is to improve government.”
We’ve discussed the stages of Greek history many times. Greek philosophy began when its founders sought to explain the universe. Once the universe was placed in a philosophical framework, the Greeks began to think about his place in it. He wondered about the purpose of life, how the universe came into being, and how he could live in harmony with the wishes of the gods. Greek philosophy was built upon the foundation of Plato and Aristotle who represented the idealistic and practical approaches to an understanding of the world.
Nearly simultaneous with Greek philosophical development was the advent of philosophical systems under Buddha, Confucius, and the Hindu priests who had adapted the ancient Vedic religion to their time. In the middle east, the Jewish religion developed out of the monotheism of Zoroastrianism. In each case, religion was fused with philosophy. The gods were assumed to exist and what remained was for man to decipher their wishes.
!summarize #bigtech #stocks #markets
!summarize #finance #Business #learning
“Open access to AI models and computational tools is crucial for progress,” she said. “Limiting it will create barriers and slow innovation, particularly for academic institutions and researchers who have fewer resources than their private-sector counterparts.”
Android, by just about any definition, is about as open source as it gets. And Google has used this fact in its defense against anti-competition criticism, noting that Amazon has reappropriated Android for its own lineup of Fire-branded devices. But all this ignores separate “anti-fragmentation agreements” Google signed with hardware makers that restrict them from using forked versions of Android. And unlike something like Kubernetes that sits under an independent foundation with a diverse range of corporate and community contributors, Android sits under the direct control of Google without a great deal of transparency over roadmap or community input.
“Android, in a license sense, is perhaps the most well-documented, perfectly open ‘thing’ that there is,” Luis Villa, co-founder and general counsel at Tidelift, said in a panel discussion at the State of Open Con25 in London this week. “All the licenses are exactly as you want them — but good luck getting a patch into that, and good luck figuring out when the next release even is.”
This gets to the crux of the debate: Open source can be something of an illusion. A lack of real independence can mean a lack of agency for those who would like to properly get involved in a project. It can also raise questions about a project’s long-term viability, evidenced by the countless open source companies that have switched licenses to protect their commercial interests.
Meta, meanwhile, has long tooted its open source horn with regards to its Llama-branded large language models (LLMs), even though Llama isn’t open source by most estimations — the models, while perhaps more “open” than others, have commercial restrictions.
“I have my quibbles and concerns about the open source AI definition, but it’s really clear that what Llama is doing isn’t open source,” Villa said.
!summarize #ford #ev #automotive #vw #eu #china
Emily Omier, a consultant for open source businesses and host of the Business of Open Source podcast, added that such attempts to “corrupt” the meaning behind “open source” is testament to its inherent power.
“It goes to show how strong the brand of open source is — the fact that people are trying to corrupt it, means that people care,” Omier said during the panel discussion.
Much of this may be for regulatory reasons, however. The EU AI Act has a special carve-out for “free and open source” AI systems (aside from those deemed to pose an “unacceptable risk”). And Villa says this goes some way toward explaining why a company might want to rewrite the rulebook on what “open source” actually means.
“There are plenty of actors right now who, because of the brand equity [of open source] and the regulatory implications, want to change the definition, and that’s terrible,” Villa said.
Clear parameters
While there are clear arguments for applying additional criteria that incorporates the “spirit” of what open source is intended to be all about, having clear parameters — as defined by a license — keeps things simple and less subject to nuanced subjectivity.
How much community engagement would be necessary for something to be truly “open source”? On a practical and legal level, keeping the definition limited to the license makes sense.
Morris has some interesting thoughts on the Greeks and Romans.
He states:
“Greece’s real contribution to Axial thought came not from Democrats, but from the critics of Democracy, led by Socrates. Greece, he argued, didn’t need democracies, which merely pooled the ignorance of men who judged everything by appearances; what it needed was men like himself, who knew when it came to the one thing that mattered – the nature of the good – they knew nothing. Only such men could hope to understand the good… through reason, honed in philosophical debate.”
Of course the beliefs of Socrates were carried forward by his pupil Plato in The Republic and Laws, and Plato’s successor Aristotle in Ethics and Politics.
This prototype will be subjected to extensive ground testing to refine its operational modes and pave the way for the creation of a flight model, expected to be ready by 2030.
“The engine operates in pulse-periodic mode. Its power is about 300 kW. Earlier, the engine resource of more than 2400 h was justified, which is enough for a transportation operation to Mars,” Konstantin Gutorov, the project’s scientific adviser, told the Russian newspaper.
“Another positive feature of the new installation – in the proposed mechanism, the plasma does not need to be strongly heated. As a result, parts and components of the engine do not experience temperature overloads, and the electrical energy used for its operation is almost completely converted into motion,” concluded Biriulin.
With a calculated thrust of approximately 6N, the highest among comparable projects, the engine is expected to enable smooth acceleration and deceleration phases during interplanetary travel.
“It was a spectacular example of the advantages of backwardness, combining organizational methods pioneered in an older core with military methods honed on a violent frontier. It slaughtered, enslaved, and dispossessed millions; and drove social development forward at an accelerated pace.”
Another, more adamant, critic of the Axial Period was Antony Black, writing in the Review of Politics, 2008.
Black disputes any notion of an Axial “Period” because the change was not rapid enough and did not involve a greater number of cultures. He agrees that this period saw an advancement in complex human but wonders if it were merely due to the state of societies of that time - that turmoil was causing a rejection of the status quo and the desire to “invent” a new path forward.
!summarize #hanginggardens #babylon #ancient #history
The seacraft can be operated remotely or with a crew of two. It can carry up to ten passengers in standard seating or 16 with maximum seating, which makes it ideal for amphibious landings, whether crewed or not.
The vessel can transport passengers to safety or serve as a vehicle for deploying Navy SEAL teams to shorelines, and operate at its top speed for up to 6.4 hours, with a total endurance range of 20.4 hours.
Long time readers have heard me mention that studying history helps us understand the future and under my blog title it says “The future has already happened”. I believe that human behavior repeats itself generation after generation, as we can easily see if we go back and look.
The philosopher Santayana put it differently when he said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I disagree. History repeats itself because of the character of man, not his neglect of history, and no matter how diligent we might be at studying the past, we still can’t escape from ourselves.
The ‘Ghost’ modular design supports various missions, such as carrying missiles, ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance), anti-submarine warfare, command and control, and special warfare load-out. The prototype is powered by two T53-L13B turboshaft engines, delivering a total of 2,380 shp.
These compact vessels displace between 22.4 and 30.2 tons of seawater and can carry over two tons of payload. They range from 25 to 40 feet in width, depending on the strut angle, and are 65 feet long overall.
The timeline for the ‘Ghost’ to move from the prototype stage to full-scale production remains uncertain, and it’s possible the project could be reconsidered before reaching completion. However, taking into account the vessel’s projected utility and capabilities, the Navy may show interest in procurement, Slashgear noted.
So what is it this time?
Why the West Rules tells the history of the world and then reduces the accomplishments of societies to an equation. Morris believes that history moves forward as a giant amorphous mass and is only minimally influenced by individuals or ideas. To him, there are three main forces acting on society: geography, climate, and the paradox of development. The latter refers to the fact that societal development is accompanied by forces which tend to undermine its progress.
And people are the problem. “Change is caused by lazy, greedy, frightened people looking for easier, more profitable, and safer ways to do things. And they rarely know what they’re doing.”
Morris has developed a theorem which claims that by mathematics one can determine which is the dominant culture on earth at any one time, and further, the formula can be used to predict the future. An index derived from the theorem is calculated using four characteristics of a society: energy capture per capita, social organization, the capacity to wage war, and the level of information technology. Each of these factors is assigned a value up to 250 so when we add them together we get a maximum index value of 1000.
The book compares the score of the Eastern world against the Western world throughout history and concludes that the East will regain superiority in 2103.
I have two large problems with Morris’ book and the reception to it. Let’s start with the latter. To quote one of the reviews of the book,
“Morris's success at finding an audience for that big story comes at a time of anxiety about the waning influence of historians, whose work is often hyper-specialized. Kenneth Pomeranz, president of the American Historical Association, recently lamented that "our space in the public sphere has been diminished to the benefit of fields like economics."
!summarize #china #ev #tesla #automotive
Morris reminds me of what’s wrong with the progressive movement. Its adherents have substituted science for God, and worse, they believe their science. Remember that FDR intended to appoint a board of economists who were going to dictate policy to all American corporations as part of an industrial plan. Funny to think anyone thought something as complicated as our economy could be reduced to a set of equations.
But here we have Morris trying to do the same with history. Who said there are four factors that influence the accomplishments of a society? Who says they should be equally weighted? Why go through the exercise when the assumptions are faulty? Now I’m not ready to condemn the factors and trends Morris cites. He is a well-respected historian. But when you quantify something, people assume the numbers are useful for comparison purposes, and they parse them up way beyond their relevance.
!summarize #markwilliams #lalakers #nba #charlotte #hornets
The U.S. Navy and Japanese Navy would have another major engagement at the Battle of Midway one month later. U.S. Navy codebreakers deciphered Japanese communications about planning an attack on Midway. With information about the attack, Adm. Chester Nimitz developed a plan to stop the Japanese invasion. The three-day battle ended with the U.S. losing two ships, 145 aircraft and roughly 360 service members, and Japan losing nearly 3,000 men and five ships. The U.S. victory was a turning point for the Allies and stopped further expansion into the Pacific for Japan.
The Senate of this period was made up of three factions, each amounting to one third of the voting power: conservatives who supported the Republic as it had always been, moderates including Cicero and Cato who allowed some adaptation of the political system, and the liberals who supported Pompey and Caesar. The conservatives were so strict in their point of view, they tried to block all efforts of the triumvirs, unable to perceive the harm they would eventually bring to themselves.
Pompey and Crassus decided to bury the hatchet and go in with Caesar. The latter was still the least influential of the triumvirs but he had two important assets: he was by far the best negotiator and he had previously been a supporter of Marius, the man of the people, whereas the other two were seen as allies of dictator Sulla.
Michael Grant, in his biography of Caesar described what followed:
“During the next ten years the triumvirate remained the controlling factor in Roman politics. This is not, as it is sometimes called, a defeat for democracy. The dispute was not between senatorial government and democracy, which never existed in Rome and never would, but between a haughty, reactionary, corrupt oligarchy and an equally ruthless tyranny conducted by three individuals.”
Let me provide more detail for year one – 59 B.C.
When the newly elected Caesar introduced the land bill to the Senate, they filibustered until he withdrew the measure and took it to the assembly. It was vetoed by three tribunes but Pompey and Crassus spoke in favor, making it plain they were allied with Caesar. When Bibulus, the other Consul, tried to block the bill, Caesar had Pompey’s troops burst into the assembly and intimidate the opposition into surrender.
!summarize #trump #nih #media #payments
Frustrated, Bibulus and his allies tried the alternative tactic of using auspices to block all assembly meetings. Whenever an Assembly meeting was scheduled, he would take auspices and declare that the date was unsuitable. Caesar ignored this blocking attempt and used the Assembly to pass legislation beneficial to the Triumvirs.
In April, Pompey, who was 43, married Caesar’s daughter Julia, 17. It has been suggested that Pompey needed the link to be able to count on Caesar’s political skills. Caesar also married for political advantage -- Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Piso, who Caesar sought as a puppet Consul for the next year. These matrimonial maneuverings prompted Cato to remark that the Roman political system had become a marriage bureau.
According to Dr Jonathan Hoffman, Program Manager at DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office, quantum sensors could revolutionize the way critical information is gathered in defense scenarios. These advanced sensors offer unprecedented precision, but their deployment in real-world conditions remains a challenge owing to their fragility.
“With RoQS, we’re taking a bold step toward creating sensors that are not only extremely precise but also resilient in the face of real-world challenges,” Hoffman explained.
Now Caesar decided it was time to improve his financial position and sought to use Egypt as the golden nugget. The king of Egypt had died and left a dubious will declaring his country would be bequeathed to Rome. Caesar then bribed the Senate and the Assembly with borrowed money to recognize Ptolemy XII as the rightful king so that he could gain a fortune through his relationship with the new monarch.
The RoQS program aims to make quantum sensors more resilient by addressing their fragility head-on. Instead of using bulky shielding or isolation methods, RoQS will focus on new sensor designs strategies and architectures.
One approach is engineering sensor architectures that can naturally resist environmental disturbances, ensuring stable performance without the need for bulky shielding.
Another focus is developing compact sensor arrays capable of distinguishing useful signals from background noise, improving accuracy in complex environments. Additionally, RoQS will investigate advanced atomic systems that offer greater stability, allowing quantum sensors to function reliably even under dynamic and unpredictable conditions.
Last year, DARPA launched the ‘Theory of Mind’ initiative, focusing on improving national security decision-making. The program aims to develop technologies that help decision-makers better understand and engage with potential adversaries, improving strategies for deterrence and incentive-based actions.
According to DARPA, the program will combine advanced algorithms with human expertise to support these efforts. This integration will occur within a modeling and simulation environment to explore national security scenarios, giving decision-makers more options and improving their ability to assess potential actions.
I took a 20k salary cut to STAY employed by the small business that employs me. It requires me to travel a lot. I used to be able to stay in motels or crash at friends place's. Most of my friends have moved back in with parents so that is not an option anymore. Nor can I afford 125. A night for a motel in a questionable area...so i sleep in my car during the week. This is the new reality for many people.
Caesar was allocated three legions for his new dominion and as he prepared for the new assignment, fortune smiled down on him and changed history. Narbonese Gaul (also referred to as Transalpine Gaul) had previously been assigned with Cisalpine Gaul to a single Consul. This time the provinces were split with Metellus Celer receiving the former and Caesar receiving the latter. Before taken his post, however, Celer died, and Caesar used his father-in-law Piso and his son-in-law Pompey to argue that Narbonese Gaul should be added to his domain. The Senate gave in, possibly thinking that the more Caesar had on his plate away from Rome, the less he would meddle in its affairs.
But Caesar’s power remained a threat to the Senate. In July, an informer named Vettius accused Caesar or a plot to kill Pompey, but before the matter could be prosecuted, Vettius died mysteriously. An assassination attempt by a slave followed, but Caesar would survive to let history take its course.
He would spend eight years in Gaul conquering the tribes and write the Commentaries along the way. Julia, wife of Pompey and daughter or Caesar, would die in childbirth (54 B.C.) breaking the marital bond between husband and father. Crassus would be ambushed and killed in Pythia in 53 B.C. leaving no offset to any conflict Caesar and Pompey. Caesar would use Gaul to fortify his resume as a military leader while Pompey languished in Rome, a general out of place as a politician. By the time Caesar crossed the Rubicon in January 49 B.C, he knew he was the man who would change the Republic forever.
On June 6, 1944, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and the Allies launched Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. The beach landing at Normandy is one of the largest amphibious assaults in history. The invasion took place on five beaches with 156,000 troops. The landing on Omaha Beach resulted in 2,400 casualties. Along with the beach landings, 13,000 paratroopers were dropping behind enemy lines to break German supply lines and secure key areas for the Allies. With the Germans being driven out of northwestern France and Paris, the Allied forces claim victory in Normandy.
Mounting his last major offensive on Dec. 16, 1944, Adolf Hitler and the German troops attempted to split the Allied forces. The Battle of the Bulge lasted for six weeks, resulting in more than 100,000 casualties for the U.S. Army. On Christmas Day, Allied forces began airstrikes on German positions.