diplomacy

June 8, 2008 by yorksranter 1 comment

The Switzerland of the Middle East (for some periods of Swiss history)

There is a fascinating post at Pat Lang’s about a study trip to Lebanon which involved meeting some interesting and alarming people (Samir Geagea, described here as “a bit Lyndon LaRouche” – well, whatever hard things have been said, quite understandably, about the latter, he never commanded a militia that cut huge crosses in the…

March 15, 2008 by yorksranter 1 comment

Even More Viktor Bout Arrest Blogging

Douglas Farah reckons the Russians are trying to press the US State Department to press for Viktor Bout’s release, or rather his extradition to Russia, which would amount to the same thing. It’s an interesting suggestion, although usual caveats apply to a story sourced to Bill “WMD to Syria!!” Gertz. I can imagine them pitching…

October 21, 2007 by yorksranter 0 comments

Let’s lay this one to rest

Says Iranian foreign minister Manoucher Mottaki: “America, today, in the international system is facing a serious challenge … Americans are in a very, very difficult situation. “The people of Afghanistan would not allow America to use Afghanistan against any country. This is our … belief,” he said. Mottaki said Tehran’s findings from three rounds of…

November 5, 2006 by yorksranter 0 comments

Talking to Iran, part 3

Right, I’ve already given reasons why it’s urgently necessary to start staff talks with Iran about how we can get out of Iraq. Someone asked what incentive the Iranians had to participate. I suggested, essentially, that they would rather not have us shoot our way out with AC-130s down Highway 8. Well, here’s a better…

June 21, 2006 by yorksranter 1 comment

Missile Defence and Deterrence

The North Koreans are attention-seeking again, flaunting the possible launch of some sort of rocket that possibly might be the putative Taepodong-2 ICBM. And, apparently, the US government is thinking of shooting it down with their ballistic missile defence system. Well, system. Experimental test rig would be more accurate. This is incredibly stupid. Fortunately for…

High-NA EUV: Intel zu Chancen und Risiken der neuen Technik - Hardwareluxx
Die ersten Meteor-Lake-Prozessoren wurden noch in Oregon per Foveros auf ein entsprechendes Packaging gebracht, die Chips selbst kamen ebenfalls aus Oregon und Irland sowie Taiwan. Inzwischen dürften die Chips in der neuen Fab in New Mexico als Foveros-Package verarbeitet werden. Das finale Packaging findet dann in Malaysia statt...Das Rectile-Limit, also die maximale Größe der Chips, […]
From low-level drug dealer to human trafficker: are modern slavery laws catching the wrong people? | UK criminal justice | The Guardian
When it went to court in 2018, the trial collapsed after the defence claimed the prosecution had failed to prove that the alleged victims had in fact been recruited. The judge dismissed the trafficking charge, in part because she was not convinced the teenagers had been coerced. This was successfully challenged at the court of […]
NRL news 2024 | Sad decline of ex Balmain, South Sydney, Western Suburbs star John Bilbija | The Mole exclusive
He grew up in Sydney's west and ironically, his parents banned him from league, believing the game to be too rough.
Agent Truss
Truss can’t not say this stuff, because she believes it and she means it. She wants to continue to play a role in public life and get her ideas across. She thinks they’re good ideas, she thinks she was right and she thinks her downfall was mostly not her fault. A more astute politician might […]
Rishi Sunak Hit by Fresh Poll Blows as Working Age Voters Desert Tories - Bloomberg
JL Partners found that over-70s are now the only age group more likely to vote Tory than Labour — leaving the government ever more reliant on pensioners for support. Labour leads the Tories by 29 points among all voters under 65-years-old, the poll found. Among voters between the ages of 50 and 65, who the […]
Forbes 2024 AI 50 List - Top Artificial Intelligence Startups
Notion is a stretch and even HuggingFace and OpenAI have been around for a while. Good list though
First batch of system manufacturers for Nvidia's next-gen AI GPU emerges
Foxconn and Wiwynn, which did not manufacture H100-based systems, now join the ranks of Supermicro, Quanta, Wistron, and ZT Systems in assembling the next generation of Nvidia's AI servers.
US border states grow enticing as EV cluster forms in Southwest
telling how these things slam right into the purple.
Despite terrible initial reviews for Ai Pin, IC design sector still optimistic about prospects of HMI innovation
there isn't significant room for innovation in smartphone controls at the moment. Gesture controls on smartphones won't be more intuitive or convenient than touch controls. In contrast, with PCs currently still relying on keyboards, mice, and touchpads as the primary control methods, it leaves more room for imagination in new HMI controls.
China's two ways of building AI GPU ecosystems to compete with Nvidia
Even if "partially compatible" with CUDA, there will be a greater "performance loss," resulting in the product price/performance ratio lagging behind Nvidia, and at the same time, because CUDA contains many of the proprietary features of Nvidia's high-end AI GPU hardware, which is difficult to be reflected in the other Chinese AI chips.