Kit Cyr
LightNews LightNews
banner
poppersghost.bsky.social
Kit Cyr
@poppersghost.bsky.social
330 followers 800 following 590 posts
Imperfect Daoist.
Posts Replies Media Videos
poppersghost.bsky.social
Looking like it is going to be an amusing book. Unknown Soldiers by Väinö Linna.
hell could a normal human being be born in the sea? Just being underwater half a minute's enough to finish you off. And there ain't a speck of carbon in my body. Muscles and bones, that's what people are made out of. Anybody can tell you that. I don't know anything about capitalists. If my old man dies before I do, I get twenty-three and a half acres of real shitty land. I'm that much of a capitalist. Don't think I'm particularly submissive, though - let whatever capitalist you want come up to the edge of our field. I'll just walk right over with my hands in my pockets and give him a good, long spit. That's what I'd do. Lahtinen spoke again quietly, carnest as ever, which suited him really - he who never took anything lightly. Assessing the loneliness of his position all too well, he was a little uncomfortable. He certainly didn't want to get into a fight, but he couldn't just drop the issue, so he said in his defense, 'You can be underwa-ter, if you have gills. Man began as a fish. Even the capitalist scientist has recognized that. Now Hietanen wasn't laughing any-more. He sat up and looked straight at Lahtinen, his eyes wide, blazing with astonishment. 'Hey guys, listen to this! Listen to what our boy Yrjö has to say! Well_1211 he damned. Now
June 11, 2025 at 1:53 PM
poppersghost.bsky.social
More Everything Forever strikes me as a terrible book. You can’t open with an appeal to Yudkowsky’s expertise. Pivot to his claim we should be willing to nuke data centers, and then say the dude might someday win the Nobel Peace Prize for his “work” on AI.
as are Yudkowsky's concerns and desires. Ever since a new generation of Al caught the public imagination with the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, some AI researchers and tech executives have been warning journalists and government officials about the "existential threat" that out-of-control AGI could pose to humanity. Without careful regulation and industry agreements, they say, Yudkowsky's worst fears could be realized. Yudkowsky himself goes further: He wants all advanced AI research shut down immediately, via international agreement, until there is a method to ensure any future AGI is unlikely to wipe out humanity. And he wants that shutdown enforced with a nuclear threat. "Make it explicit in international diplomacy that preventing AI extinction scenarios is considered a priority above preventing a full nuclear exchange, and that allied nuclear countries are willing to run some risk of nuclear exchange," he wrote in Time magazine in , 3 2023. Not everyone in Al agrees with Yud-kowsky about these purported dangers, and fewer agree that a total shutdown of Al research is a good idea. It's unlikely that Yudkowsky could broker an international agreement anyhow--he doesn't have enough political influence to do that. But his ideas do carry weight with some of the politically connected leaders of the tech industry. One of them is Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAl, the company behind ChatGPT; he's suggested that Yudkowsky may eventually "deserve the Nobel Peace Prize" for his work on AI.4 Altman shut down Al
May 23, 2025 at 12:37 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
This is sort of an interesting snap shot of how these guys view government and where they think the power really is.

Luckey is interesting. DoD is the biggest department, but he’s the only dude to put someone in there.
May 20, 2025 at 1:33 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
An amusing line.
May 16, 2025 at 6:44 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Drop something blue
Ship somewhere between Guam and Singapore if memory serves.
February 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Coffee Crisp was just a shadow on the wall compared to this.
February 16, 2025 at 2:22 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Yosemite out my window. Made it out to Zion. If I don’t post anything in next week it’s because the VPN is useless.
Yosemite from above.
February 12, 2025 at 9:04 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Always nice to stumble across the sound of running water in the desert. Almost a decade since I was last home.
February 7, 2025 at 5:41 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Reliving my high school days.

Happy we were able to make Yosemite Conrad’s first memory of the US. Hopefully we can bookend it all with a trip out to Zion.
Picture of the gate for camp Curry at night. View of Yosemite Valley from the tunnel overlook. Yosemite Falls after a night of snow.
January 28, 2025 at 2:58 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Spreading. They have a pop up store in the mall on the other side.
December 31, 2024 at 7:21 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Seeing all this stuff this morning about the Druze wanting to be annexed. Yesterday I was reading Turkish newspapers gloating about their proxies hunting down Kurdish terrorists.

Starts to make you a bit pessimistic. The photo made me laugh. Three stooges shit.
Syrian National Army (SNA) members check one of many underground tunnels where PKK/PG members hide, Manbij, Syria, Dec. 10, 2024.
December 14, 2024 at 4:04 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
A lighter story I stumbled across today.
In a remarkable find, a rare portrait of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last emperor of Byz-antium, has been uncovered at the Monastery of Taxiarches in Aigialeia, 15 kilometers south of Aigion, western Greece. Described as a mature man with a serene and dignified face, the image is believed to be the only surviving portrait of the emperor created during his lifetime. Discovered beneath later frescoes during restoration work, the portrait reveals the emperor dressed in imperial regalia - his purple cloak embroidered with golden medallions featuring the double-headed eagle, the emblem of the Palaiologos family. Constantine XI, born in 1404, perished during the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and his death became the stuff of legend. Known as the 'Marble Emperor' in popular folklore, his final moments and the mystery of his unmarked grave have captivated imaginations for centuries. The recently discovered portrait offers a direct and rare glimpse of the man behind the myth. Painted not from a formal impe rial portrait but from life, it represents a personal and intimate depiction of the emperor, linking his legacy to the historical and cultural significance of the Byzantine Empire's last
December 13, 2024 at 12:04 PM
poppersghost.bsky.social
This is an interesting little piece on Syria—an interview with someone working for the Polish Medical Mission based in Kurdistan.

A little description of how people are returning and also the brain drain they’re going to have to deal with.
Does this mean that there will be a mass return migration in the region in a short time? - The return will be rather extended for a long time. No one who has a family with several children will decide to immediatelv go into the unknown. The phenomenon that I observed on the Turkish border will in-crease: families will send one or two people, usually men, for diagnosis. In this way, generations of families living in exile will find out what is left of the houses abandoned years ago and whether the local situation allows for a safe return. Only later, if the precarious political situation on the ground stabilizes, will we be able to talk about mass returns of entire multi-genera-tional families. The movement of the huge population of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) is expected to be the most dynamic. The armed Let's assume an optimistic scenario of political stability: will Syrian society be able to rebuild after years of devastating fighting? "The social groups that have the greatest intellectual resources needed to rebuild Syrian society have largely fled the country from the regime's repression. The largest the problem is the lack of a well-educated middle class. I am talking about doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers and scientists who are simply lacking in Syria. Many of the best educated, and I am also talking about my friends from hospitals, have been grant - ed citizenship of the host countries. Countries that have become a refuge for Syrian refugees, began to suck in arriving specialists. The process of draining Syria's elite has been affected by the effects of years of armed conflict. In the parts of Syria that broke away from Assad's rule, not only hospitals, but also schools were not functioning - Assad did not finance the education of his enemies, and local structures lacked personnel or resources. The children who were exposed to the war at school, and
December 13, 2024 at 2:31 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Do you degenerate capitalists have access to this sort of Apple juice?

You are missing out.
December 12, 2024 at 1:13 PM
poppersghost.bsky.social
This is a mean tweet. Look a ProPublica reporter bragging about all the stories they kill.

They sure as hell didn’t reach out to anyone to double check that super secret Chinese party talk piece that proved it was a lab leak.
QT reads: I love this thread. This is how we do what we do, and why we kill the stories we kill. The ProPublica story graveyard is well populated because we care about, ya know, facts.
December 12, 2024 at 12:40 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Second story is on Israeli air operations. They’re bombing a lot of stuff. Multiple air bases, air defense systems, weapons depots, chemical weapon research facilities.

And since the morning paper they’ve target naval vessels.

Clipping this because it gives a nice overview of what has been hit.
December 10, 2024 at 2:18 PM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Soon as I read the phrase “good cosmic citizen” I knew I was in for a treat.

Throw all known sentient beings under the bus because cosmic ghost wants it.
December 10, 2024 at 5:06 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Today’s reading reminded me of this post.

The tech bros are crazy, but I think a few of them genuinely want to make The Culture or something like it a reality. There’s this voluntarist element or something in there thought that just seems to be lacking here post Mao.
奇的测算，了凡的母亲最终同意了他读书做官的想法。在表兄的帮助下，了凡先生终于正式开始了求学之路。 值得一提的是，《了几四训》讨论的一个重要问题就是： 人的命远是能政变的吗？而对此进行探究的前提是：人生是有既定命远的。只有存在命远，才能讨论是否能政变。对此，不同的人有着不同的答策。乐观自信的年轻人，多相信“我命由我不由天”，认为命运拿握在自己的手中；而饱经世故的老人，则更倾向于“到老始知非力取，三分人事七分天”
December 9, 2024 at 6:44 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
I doubt it. There have been freak snowstorms up in Guangzhou, but I don’t think there has been anything that could have left snow on the hills in HK like that since the 17th century. In 1618 they reported major snow as far south as Yangchun.
138 Tigers, Rice, Silk, and Silt all occurring in agrarian regimes incapable of dealing with financial stress (Goldstone's thesis), climatic change was a worldwide phenomenon that did contribute to the general crisis of the seventeenth century. As I mentioned in the preceding chapter, the Ming dynasty occurred at the onset of the global climatic event known as the "Little Ice Age." Defined as the period from the late-fourteenth to the mid-nineteenth century,"* the term "Little Ice Age" should not be read to mean uniformly colder temperatures, nor should it be interpreted to mean that each year during this period was colder than those preceding or following. Indeed, even during the Little Ice Age, some years and even decades were rather warm. But on balance, though, global temperatures cooled enough for glaciers to keep growing, rather than receding. For Lingnan, the characterization of the Little Ice Age as being generally cooler than the preceding period, but with definite warm periods, is confirmed by the documentary evidence. Combing through all of the extant gazetteers for Guangdong province, in 1961 a research team from the Guangdong Provincial Historical Documents Research Group compiled and listed chronologically by kind all citations regarding climatological events, from the fourth to the twentieth century. Quantifying and graphing the citations for cold or freezing weather for the two centuries from the 14gos to the 168os provides a rough measure of the climatic changes (see Figure 4.1).
December 8, 2024 at 4:02 PM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Anyways, maybe not what you’re looking for exactly; it is just interesting to me that kernel of the idea is right there from the beginning—if I understand LLMs correctly. The heart of it is just predictive text.
2.6 English Language Shannon studied texts in English. In his book, he gives several examples of strings using the standard 26 letters along with a space. He considered various randomly generated approximations to English in which the probability of each letter corresponds to the frequency with which the letter occurs. In the first-order approxima-tion, the letters are independent--the prior letter has no effect on the subsequent one. He generated: OCRO HLI RGWR NMIELWIS EU LL NBNESEBYA TH EEI ALHEN-HTTPA OOBTTVA NAH BRL. In the second-order approximation, the probabilities are no longer independent. The probability of the next letter depends on the last letter received, but not on prior letters. Pairs of letters now occur with the frequencies they occur in English. Shannon describes a practical method of generation: " ..one opens a book at random and selects a letter at random on that page. The letter is recorded. Then the book is opened at another page, and one reads until this letter is encountered. The succeeding letter is then recorded. Turning to another page, this second letter is searched for, and the succeeding letter recorded, etc." Using this method, he generated: ON IE ANTSOUTINYS ARE TING-TORE ST BE S DEAMY ACHIN D ILONASIVE TUCOOWE AT TEA-SONARE FUSO TIZIN ANDY TOBE SEACE CTISBE. In the third-order approximation, the probability of a letter depends on the previous two let-ters. Triples of letters occur with correct in me amara-order approamazon, bility of a letter depends on the previous two let-ters. Triples of letters occur with correct frequencies. Shannon obtained: IN NO IST LAT WHEY CRATICT FROURE BIRS GROCID PONDE-NOME OF DEMONSTURES OF THE REPTAGIN IS REGOAC-TIONA OF CRE. We are still a long way from recognizable English, but at each stage, the approximations become noticeably better. Nowadays, Shannon's approach has been extended into software that is often embedded in text editors. After typing a few characters, the software calculates the probabilities of what we are going to type next and suggests options for the completion of the word we are typing, sometimes even suggesting the next few words in the phrase. Clearly, a sentence written in English is far from a random string of symbols. Indeed, once certain symbols have been typed, we can be fairly certain what the next few will be. Entropy calculations involving strings of symbols where the probability of receiving a symbol depends on what someone has sent beforehand can become rather messy. We will stick to strings where the probability of receiving a symbol is independent of what has happened before, what Shannon calls first-order approximations. We do this for two reasons. First, the mathematics is much simpler, but it still illustrates the important concepts. Second, these types of first-order approximations convey the surprising nature of information in a much clearer way. It is not too surprising that we can replace a string written in English with a shorter string and not lose any information. It is far more surprising, as we shall see in the next chapter. that a summer wwere me retters are gen-
December 7, 2024 at 12:35 PM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Reminds me a bit of Arms Plot.
as equipment became more sophisticated after the Second World War. Eventually, the infantry split between armoured units, with tracked vehicles like the Warrior, mechanised, with wheeled Saxons, and light role, largely on foot. To grant individuals career variation - and to ensure that no single battalion was stuck forever in a particularly grim garrison that would wither its numbers - the army used a mechanism called the 'Arms Plot'. Roughly every three years, like an enormous game of military musical chairs, battalions in the British infantry upped sticks and re-roled, often changing from one form of equipment to another. With all their attendant train of wives and children, battalions rotated from German garrisons to Tidworth and Warminster in the UK, or horrid stations like Ballykinler in Northern Ireland. With all the associated training courses and other administrative necessi-ties, this re-rolling process could take a full year. While it was staggered, the demands of the Arms Plot still meant that a large portion of the infantry (estimates vary between 20 per cent and a third) was effectively out of commission at any one time. From the 1950s onwards, a potential solution to these issues became clear: large regiments, with three or even more constituent battalions, spread out across the different roles and garrisoned in different places. That way individuals could be 'trickle-posted' between regiments, without the huge disruption of whole-battalion moves Some units took un the offey 29
December 7, 2024 at 3:17 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Not my Friday night dinner, but I want Mark’s feed to have some food in it. #food
Plate of rice, char siu, greens, peanuts, and pickled veg.
December 6, 2024 at 12:44 PM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Interesting little game. But big money.
2.6 English Language Shannon studied texts in English. In his book, he gives several examples of strings using the standard 26 letters along with a space. He considered various randomly generated approximations to English in which the probability of each letter corresponds to the frequency with which the let- ter occurs. In the first-order approximation, the letters are independent -the prior letter has no effect on the subsequent one. He generated: OCRO HLI RGWR NMIELWIS EU LL NBNESEBYA TH EEI ALHENHTTPA OOBTTVA NAH BRL. In the second-order approximation, the probabilities are no longer independent. The probability of the next letter depends on the last letter received, but not on prior letters. Pairs of letters now occur with the frequencies they occur in English. Shannon describes a practical method of gener-ation: one opens a book at random and selects a letter at random on that page. The letter is recorded. Then the book is opened at another page, and one reads until this letter is encountered. The succeeding letter is then recorded. Turning to another page, this second letter is searched for, and the succeeding letter recorded, etc." Using this method, he generated: this method, he generated: ON IE ANTSOUTINYS ARE T INCTORE ST BE S DEAMY ACHIN D ILONASIVE TUCOOWE AT TEASONARE FUSO TIZIN ANDY TOBE SEACE CTISBE. In the third-order approximation, the probability of a letter depends on the previous two letters. Triples of letters occur with correct frequencies. Shannon obtained: IN NO IST LAT WHEY CRAT-ICT FROURE BIRS GROCID PONDENOME OF DEMONS-TURES OF THE REPTAGIN IS REGOACTIONA OF CRE. We are still a long way from recognizable English, but at each stage, the approximations become noticeably better. Nowadays, Shannon's approach has been extended into software that is often embedded in text editors. After typing a few characters, the software calculates the probabilities of what we are going to type next and suggests options for the completion of the word we are typing, sometimes even suggesting the next few words in the phrase. Clearly, a sentence written in English is far from a random string of sym-bols. Indeed, once certain symbols have been typed, we can be fairly certain what the next few will be.
December 4, 2024 at 12:02 PM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Thing about Tillerson is he was an upstream dude. So discovery. Finding new oil.

I think we’d probably be better off with a downstream.

But he would have fir I. With some of the culture for sure. Dude made his own challenge coins.
Increasingly, Tillerson gave over much of his extracurricular charity work to the Boy Scouts of America. He served on the boards of the Dallas chapter and the national organization. Tillerson had never lived outside the United States-even when working closely on the Russian operations, he had been based in Houston--and he had never served on the board of a global corporation besides ExxonMobil, as Raymond had done at J.P. Morgan. If his emphasis on scouting seemed parochial to some within ExxonMobil, Tillerson seemed to regard it as a construc-tive, universal moral and management system. Within ExxonMobil, he implemented a program of medals or coins for outstanding performance that employces understood to be modeled on the Boy Scouts' merit badge program. Employees with exceptional ability or motivation could meet certain criteria and obtain a full collection of Exxon-Mobil medals, which were minted in the style of the coins handed out to troops by military commanders. There was a medal available for team leadership, another for teamwork, one for safety performance, and one for technical excel-lence, which was particularly difficult to obtain. Even managers who laughed and scoffed ironically at Tillerson's merit badge-inspired regime competed to complete their collection, either because they were naturally competitive and couldn't help themselves or because they thought it would enhance their career prospects."
December 4, 2024 at 5:32 AM
poppersghost.bsky.social
Guy retweeting this ran for Legislative Assembly in BC. They’re all eating it up so far by the look of things.

anyways enough of that
December 3, 2024 at 11:21 PM