#Data-Driven-Hosting

[achieve25moreclientsdaily]

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[technologyequality]

From Chaos to Conversion: The Virtual Event Strategy You Didn’t Know You Needed

From Chaos to Conversion The Virtual Event Strategy You Didn’t Know You Needed Let’s talk about virtual events. You plan the whole thing, invite all the right people, maybe even grab a killer speaker or two and yet, it somehow still feels like you’re hosting a digital séance no one RSVPed for. If you’ve ever hit “end meeting” and wondered, “Was that even worth it?”…this one’s for you. In the…

[hanasatoblogs]

Data-as-an-Asset: Unlocking the True Value of Information

In today's digital economy, data is no longer just a byproduct of business operations—it has become a critical asset that drives innovation, efficiency, and competitive advantage. As organizations increasingly recognize the strategic value of data, they are adopting the concept of "Data-as-an-Asset" to leverage their information resources more effectively. This article explores the key components of Data-as-an-Asset, focusing on MDM Modernization, Data Governance, and Data Hosting/Warehousing.

1. MDM Modernization: Ensuring Data Accuracy and Consistency

Master Data Management (MDM) modernization is a crucial element in treating data as an asset. MDM involves the centralization and governance of critical business data, such as customer, product, and financial information, to ensure a single source of truth across the organization.

Key Aspects of MDM Modernization:

Cloud-Native MDM Platforms: The transition to cloud-native MDM solutions enables organizations to scale their data management practices seamlessly. Cloud-based MDM systems offer flexibility, real-time data integration, and improved accessibility, allowing businesses to respond quickly to changing data needs.

AI and Automation: Modern MDM systems are increasingly leveraging AI and machine learning to automate data quality checks, anomaly detection, and data matching processes. This reduces manual effort and enhances the accuracy and reliability of master data, ensuring that the information used for decision-making is up-to-date and trustworthy.

Real-Time Data Management: With the demand for real-time insights growing, modern MDM platforms are designed to handle dynamic data environments. This capability allows businesses to maintain consistent and accurate data even as it changes rapidly, supporting better and faster decision-making.

2. Data Governance: The Framework for Data Stewardship

Data governance is the backbone of treating data as an asset. It involves establishing policies, procedures, and standards that ensure data is managed effectively, securely, and in compliance with regulatory requirements. Strong data governance frameworks are essential for maintaining the quality, security, and usability of data across the organization.

Key Components of Data Governance:

Policy Development: Data governance policies define how data is to be managed, who has access to it, and how it should be protected. These policies help ensure that data is used ethically and in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

Data Stewardship: Appointing data stewards who are responsible for maintaining data quality and integrity is a critical aspect of data governance. Data stewards oversee the implementation of governance policies and ensure that data is consistently accurate and reliable.

Compliance and Risk Management: Effective data governance frameworks help organizations mitigate risks associated with data breaches, non-compliance, and inaccurate data. By ensuring that data is governed according to best practices, businesses can avoid costly legal penalties and reputational damage.

3. Data Hosting/Warehousing: The Foundation of Data-as-an-Asset

Data hosting and warehousing are fundamental to the concept of Data-as-an-Asset. These practices involve the storage, management, and retrieval of large volumes of data in a way that supports business intelligence, analytics, and operational efficiency.

Key Trends in Data Hosting/Warehousing:

Cloud Data Warehousing: The shift to cloud-based data warehousing solutions has transformed the way organizations store and manage data. Cloud platforms offer scalability, cost-efficiency, and the ability to handle large datasets without the limitations of on-premises infrastructure.

Data Lakes and Warehouses Integration: Modern data management strategies often involve the integration of data lakes and data warehouses to provide a comprehensive view of both structured and unstructured data. This approach enables businesses to leverage all available data for analytics and decision-making.

Real-Time Data Access: As businesses seek to harness the value of data more rapidly, real-time data access and processing capabilities have become critical. Advanced data warehousing solutions now support real-time data streams, enabling organizations to act on insights as soon as they are generated.

Conclusion: Building a Data-Driven Future

Treating data as an asset requires a holistic approach that encompasses MDM modernization, robust data governance, and efficient data hosting and warehousing practices. By adopting these strategies, organizations can unlock the full potential of their data, driving innovation, enhancing decision-making, and gaining a competitive edge in the marketplace.

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, businesses that prioritize data-as-an-asset will be better positioned to capitalize on new opportunities, mitigate risks, and achieve sustained growth.

[batboyblog]

Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #28

July 19-26 2024

The EPA announced the award of $4.3 billion in Climate Pollution Reduction Grants. The grants support community-driven solutions to fight climate change, and accelerate America’s clean energy transition. The grants will go to 25 projects across 30 states, and one tribal community. When combined the projects will reduce greenhouse gas pollution by as much as 971 million metric tons of CO2, roughly the output of 5 million American homes over 25 years. Major projects include $396 million for Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection as it tries to curb greenhouse gas emissions from industrial production, and $500 million for transportation and freight decarbonization at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced a plan to phase out the federal government's use of single use plastics. The plan calls for the federal government to stop using single use plastics in food service operations, events, and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035. The US government is the single largest employer in the country and the world’s largest purchaser of goods and services. Its move away from plastics will redefine the global market.

The White House hosted a summit on super pollutants with the goals of better measuring them and dramatically reducing them. Roughly half of today's climate change is caused by so called super pollutants, methane, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and nitrous oxide (N2O). Public-private partnerships between NOAA and United Airlines, The State Department and NASA, and the non-profit Carbon Mapper Coalition will all help collect important data on these pollutants. While private firms announced with the White House plans that by early next year will reduce overall U.S. industrial emissions of nitrous oxide by over 50% from 2020 numbers. The summit also highlighted the EPA's new rule to reduce methane from oil and gas by 80%.

The EPA announced $325 million in grants for climate justice. The Community Change Grants Program, powered by President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act will ultimately bring $2 billion dollars to disadvantaged communities and help them combat climate change. Some of the projects funded in this first round of grant were: $20 million for Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association, which will help weatherize and energy efficiency upgrade homes for 35 tribes in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, $14 million to install onsite wastewater treatment systems throughout 17 Black Belt counties in Alabama, and $14 million to urban forestry, expanding tree canopy in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The Department of Interior approved 3 new solar projects on public land. The 3 projects, two in Nevada and one in Arizona, once finished could generate enough to power 2 million homes. This comes on top of DoI already having beaten its goal of 25 gigawatts of clean energy projects by the end of 2025, in April 2024. This is all part of President Biden’s goal of creating a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035. 

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pledged $667 million to global Pandemic Fund. The fund set up in 2022 seeks to support Pandemic prevention, and readiness in low income nations who can't do it on their own. At the G20 meeting Yellen pushed other nations of the 20 largest economies to double their pledges to the $2 billion dollar fund. Yellen highlighted the importance of the fund by saying "President Biden and I believe that a fully-resourced Pandemic Fund will enable us to better prevent, prepare for, and respond to pandemics – protecting Americans and people around the world from the devastating human and economic costs of infectious disease threats,"

The Departments of the Interior and Commerce today announced a $240 million investment in tribal fisheries in the Pacific Northwest. This is in line with an Executive Order President Biden signed in 2023 during the White House Tribal Nations Summit to mpower Tribal sovereignty and self-determination. An initial $54 million for hatchery maintenance and modernization will be made available for 27 tribes in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The rest will be invested in longer term fishery projects in the coming years.

The IRS announced that thanks to funding from President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, it'll be able to digitize much of its operations. This means tax payers will be able to retrieve all their tax related information from one source, including Wage & Income, Account, Record of Account, and Return transcripts, using on-line Individual Online Account.

The IRS also announced that New Jersey will be joining the direct file program in 2025. The direct file program ran as a pilot in 12 states in 2024, allowing tax-payers in those states to file simple tax returns using a free online filing tool directly with the IRS. In 2024 140,000 Americans were able to file this way, they collectively saved $5.6 million in tax preparation fees, claiming $90 million in returns. The average American spends $270 and 13 hours filing their taxes. More than a million people in New Jersey alone will qualify for direct file next year. Oregon opted to join last month. Republicans in Congress lead by Congressmen Adrian Smith of Nebraska and Chuck Edwards of North Carolina have put forward legislation to do away with direct file.

Bonus: American law enforcement arrested co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada. El Mayo co-founded the cartel in the 1980s along side Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. Since El Chapo's incarceration in the United States in 2019, El Mayo has been sole head of the Sinaloa Cartel. Authorities also arrested El Chapo's son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez. The Sinaloa Cartel has been a major player in the cross border drug trade, and has often used extreme violence to further their aims.

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week - November 28, 2023

🐑 - Why did Fiona the sheep become a mountaineer? She was tired of the "baa-d" jokes at sea level!

1. Pope Francis dines with transgender women for Vatican luncheon

Pope Francis hosted a group of transgender women — many of whom are sex workers or migrants from Latin America — to a Vatican luncheon for the Catholic Church's "World Day of the Poor" last week.

The pontiff and the transgender women have formed a close relationship since the pope came to their aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they were unable to work. Now, they meet monthly for VIP visits with the pope and receive medicine, money and shampoo any day, according to The Associated Press.

2. New York just installed its first offshore wind turbine

The first wind turbine installation at South Fork Wind, New York State’s first offshore wind farm, is complete.

The 130-megawatt (MW) South Fork Wind will be the US’s first completed utility-scale wind farm in federal waters.

3. Anonymous businessman donates $800k to struggling food bank

But this Thanksgiving, a longtime prayer of food bank leaders was finally answered: an anonymous benefactor donated the full $800,000 they needed to move out of a facility they've long outgrown. That benefactor, however, preferred to stay anonymous.

"Very private company, really don't want attention," said Debbie Christian, executive director of the Auburn Food Bank. "It's a goodhearted person that just wants to see the work here continue, wants to see it expand."

4. Empowering woman saving hopes and mental health of suffering Ukrainian kids

Kenza Hadij-Brahim is at the forefront of promoting Circle of Toys

Hadj-Brahim is helping to launch the Circle of Toys initiative. A project that provides Ukrainian children in need of some normality with preloved toys. This new initiative connects people with old toys they might otherwise throw away, with Ukrainian families in need who want to provide some comfort to their children in this distressing time.

Find Refuge said : “The endeavour is driven by a sincere purpose: spark joy, foster play, and bring a hint of normalcy back to the young lives in Ukraine.”

5. TWO LOST CITIES HIDDEN FOR CENTURIES WERE JUST DISCOVERED IN BOLIVIA

Researchers have found these areas not only housed structures and pyramids but it has been uncovered that there were advanced irrigation systems, earthworks, large towns, causeways, and canals that cover miles.

Dr. Heiko Prümers from the German Archaeological Institute, who was also involved in the study comments that “this indicated a relatively dense settlement in pre-Hispanic times. Our goal was to conduct basic research and trace the settlements and life there. The research sheds light on the sheer magnitude and magnificence of the civic-ceremonial centers found buried in the forest”.

6. Sheep dubbed Fiona rescued from cliff in Scotland where she was stuck for more than 2 years

And at last, some positive climate news:

7. Three positive climate developments

Heating

When the Paris Agreement was adopted, the global reliance on fossil fuels placed the world on a path towards a 3.5C rise in temperature by 2100. Eight years on, country commitments to reduce their carbon footprints have pulled that down slightly, putting the world on a path for a 2.5C to 2.9C by the end of the century.

Peak emissions

Annual greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change have risen roughly nine percent since COP21, according to UN data. But the rate of the increase has slowed significantly. Recent estimates by the Climate Analytics institute find global emissions could peak by 2024

Rising renewables

Three technologies—solar, wind and electric vehicles—are largely behind the improved global warming estimates since 2015.

---

That's it for this week :)

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[bucket-of-f1]

Fernando Alonso

So this guy.

Fernando Alonso of Spain is currently the oldest driver on the Formula One grid. Born on July 29, 1981, he celebrated his 43rd birthday in the middle of last season.

He entered F1 in 2001 and raced until 2018, then joined back in 2021. So 2001-2018, 2021-2025 (and beyond). That's 22 seasons of F1 at 43 years old, so 51% of his life. And let's not forget, he didn't just take a little siesta while he wasn't in F1. This man is a true multi-disciplinary-athlete:

While in a full F1 season No full F1 season

2017: - One race with Mclaren-Honda-Andretti in Indycar

2018: - Full season of WEC (World Endurance Championship) with Toyota Gazoo Racing, together they earned 1st place in the Championship (due to a strange schedule shift, this championship straddled 2018-19, so I'm just going to mention it in the 2019 bullet) - 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota Gazoo Racing (which he WON) - One race with United Autosports in IMSA (American endurance racing)

2019: - WEC 2018-19 season - 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota Gazoo Racing (which he won AGAIN) - One race with Konica Minolta Cadillac in IMSA

2020: - Dakar Rally (even after 2 crashes he ran the second fastest time of the event) (he reportedly wishes to go back to Dakar after his F1 retirement) - One race with Arrow McLaren SP (Indycar)

So yeah. The guy can race. And he's been doing it for over half his life. With as long of an F1 run as he's in, you get some ups and downs.

And boy has he had them.

For instance:

In the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix, we were treated to this gem of a shot:

Yep, that is Alonso flipping off a Williams.

Man, that looks like a nasty crash. I wonder if the Williams hit him? I mean, a reaction like that would be warranted by a collision-

Oh.

He just.

Hit the wall.

In his defense, the Williams effectively attempted to defend by hugging the inside of the tunnel section, where Alonso's Renault was obviously faster, and the Williams, driven by Ralf Schumacher, was about to be lapped. This wasn't a fight for position. If passed, Ralf remained in 11th place, as Alonso was in second.

Alonso accused R. Schumacher of dangerous driving. Nothing much came of it, aside from the fantastic screenshot that is Alonso giving Ralf the bird.

<><><>

There was also the bit where he passed Michael Schumacher at 130r: because Michael had kids. Here's the clip, then I'll explain.

Alonso, a young driver, had the boldness that most young drivers tend to have. At 24 years old, Alonso wanted the win, and in his way was seven time world champion Michael Schumacher. Something to note is that Alonso had already won the championship. He didn't need the win so badly that a pass as dangerous as this would be considered necessary.

While badass, it should be known that this was incredibly dangerous. Had Schumacher understeered or not backed out, this would have been one of the fastest crashes in Formula One history, and considering the safety innovations that were missing back then, they both likely would have died.

When asked about the pass, Alonso dropped one of the hardest lines in the history of the sport: "I knew he'd brake; he has a wife and two kids at home."

<><><>

Mr. V (who I credit and will continue to credit a lot on this blog) made an ELO engine to rank F1 drivers. ELO engines are used to calculate a chess player's skill, and Mr. V coded one for F1 using data against other drivers in equal machinery (teammates). You should watch the video, but long story short:

Alonso is the highest ranking driver in the history of the sport (according to the program, which isn't exactly perfect but still is a cool measure and fact) (at the time of publication, he has updated the ELO engine, although admits it has a host of new issues he's attempting to fix).

<><><>

Alonso has also had some really nasty crashes over his career. At 2003 in interlagos, he and Mark Webber were involved in a post race incident leading their cars to look like this:

This crash was so high impact that Alonso wasn't on the podium despite finishing top 3, because the medics were still investigating and hadn't cleared him. Luckily, he and Webber survived (relatively) unscathed:

Start at 1:13 for the Webber/Alonso crash.

That bit left over, the "cockpit" Alonso and Webber sat in, is designed like that on purpose: it's known as the survival cell, and as seen in the crashes above, it's the part that stays together. The car spins apart at high impacts, dispersing the energy from the crash in every direction but the driver themselves.

<><><>

He also had a mysterious crash during testing with McLaren in 2015 that was largely… quieted? There’s not a lot of details about how the accident happened — what we do know is that that year’s McLaren was plagued with issues, technical and mechanical. There’s stories of a small explosion, an electrical current shock, memory loss, etc.

The explosion idea is largely chalked up to be a shadow on the side of the car that some people took to be a burn mark. The electrical shock I think has something to do with telemetry or the nature of the accident, not sure exactly where that came from. The memory loss is actually founded in truth: Alonso suffered a concussion from the accident resulting in temporary memory loss — he was reportedly confused to be in a Formula One car, and told doctors that the year was 1995, saying: “I'm Fernando, I'm in karts and want to become Formula 1 driver.”

Here’s some forums from around that time discussing the accident. And yes, you’ll see all kinds of theories on here — F1 has its own conspiracy theorist community and some of them are wild.

<><><>

In 2016, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Gutierrez came together down a fast stretch. Alonso mispredicted when Gutierrez would hit the brakes, and the resulting contact at 189 MPH (305 KPH) caused a 45 G rollover crash. Thankfully, though the crash looks terrible, the rollover-nature of the accident meant that the forces exerted upon Alonso were minimal, and he walked away from the accident with little assistance. He later said that he got out of the car as fast as he could so that his mother, who he knew watched his races, would know he was okay.

<><><>

And finally, some of my favorite pictures.

After the 8th round of the 2012 season, the European Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain, this is what the scoreboards looked like.

Alonso with 111 points, Ferrari with 122.

Alonso raced for Ferrari. 90.98% of their points were from HIM ALONE.

Going into this race, the season had seen a different winner every race for the first seven races. The race saw Alonso's 19th victory and second of the season, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton retirements, and Michael Schumacher's first podium since 2006 (six year gap, although he was on retirement during the 2007-2009 seasons).

The race has some good action, I recommend looking up the highlights.

[justforbooks]

‘I felt nothing but disgust’: Tesla owners vent their anger at Elon Musk

The tycoon’s links with Donald Trump and Germany’s far-right AfD have slammed the brakes on sales and put the car’s owners in a spin

When Mike Schwede first sat in a Tesla Roadster 15 years ago, he felt like it was a glimpse into the future. By 2016, he was the proud owner of a Tesla, revelling in the thumbs up he would get from other drivers as he whizzed along Europe’s highways in the electric vehicle.

But of late the sheen of owning a Tesla has begun to wear off. For years the brand has been synonymous with Elon Musk and his stance against the climate crisis. Recently, Schwede watched aghast as the Tesla CEO poured hundreds of millions into backing Donald Trump as he made promises to ramp up domestic oil and gas production.

“He was getting more and more weird,” said Schwede, an entrepreneur and digital strategist based in Switzerland. The final straw came when Musk made back-to-back fascist-style salutes during Trump’s inauguration in January. “I felt nothing but utter disgust,” said Schwede. “And I no longer enjoyed sitting in my Tesla.”

On Tuesday, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association showed sales of new Tesla cars almost halved in Europe last month. The figures left analysts scrambling to assess how big a factor customers turning their backs on the brand because of Musk’s foray into far-right politics may be.

The Texas-based carmaker sold 9,945 vehicles in Europe in January, down 45% from last year’s 18,161, the association said.

Now, there are signs existing Tesla owners who have become disgruntled with Musk’s views are making their anger heard.

Schwede contemplated selling his car, but after racking up more than 60,000 miles on it, there was little value left in it. So he came up with his own means of reclaiming his Tesla and the liberal ethos that had underpinned his purchase; he began donating 10 cents for every kilometre driven to a range of charities, countering Musk’s support of the far right with direct support to those who help LGBTQ+ youth or fight hate and extremism. “It was something Elon wouldn’t like,” he said. “That’s my personal revenge.”

It’s a hint of how some Tesla owners in Europe are fighting back, putting up their own ��� albeit small-scale – resistance as Musk wades into global politics, using his wealth to help secure Trump’s return to the White House and his sprawling influence to back far-right and anti-establishment parties across Europe.

For Germany’s Patrik Schneider, the turning point came as he was heckled by a stranger at a petrol station, who pointed to his Tesla and called him a Trump supporter. Saddled with a long-term lease on the vehicle, he scrambled to find a way to address his relationship with a brand that – in his mind – had soured.

“Of course, as a Tesla driver you were always the fool: the Green party voter, the world saviour, the CO2 guy,” Schneider told Germany’s Capital.de media. “But now you’re in a category that’s no longer funny.”

What he came up with was a line of “Anti-Elon stickers” for Tesla cars. In an echo of an American initiative, he began selling the stickers online six months ago, taking orders for messages that range from “I bought this before Elon went crazy” to “Elon sucks”.

As Musk waded more deeply into German politics, hosting the far-right AfD’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, in an interview on X and turning up at an AfD rally where he disparaged multiculturalism and lambasted the country’s focus on “past guilt”, demand for the stickers soared.

Demand has now climbed to as much as 2,000 stickers a day, with orders pouring in from across the German-speaking world but as far as Australia and South Korea. All of it was done without any advertising, said Schneider, adding wryly: “Elon Musk does that for us.”

Others have called for the actions to go further. In Poland – where the Nazi German occupation led to the deaths of 6 million Poles, including 3 million Jews – the country’s tourism minister called on citizens to boycott Tesla after Musk’s surprise appearance at the AfD rally. “All I can say is that probably no normal Pole should buy a Tesla any more,” Sławomir Nitras recently told Polish broadcaster Tok FM. “A serious and strong response is necessary, including a consumer boycott.”

In August, the German drugstore chain Rossmann said it would no longer buy Tesla cars for its corporate fleet, citing Musk’s support for Trump, while the German energy company LichtBlick said on social media that it would be “pulling the plug” on the Tesla vehicles in its fleet, citing Musk’s backing of “a rightwing populist and extremist party”.

The message was echoed recently by UK-based campaign group Led by Donkeys after they projected images of Musk’s salute on to the facade of the Tesla gigafactory near Berlin.

“The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is promoting the far right in Europe,” the campaign group wrote on social media after their collaboration with Germany’s Centre for Political Beauty. “Don’t buy a Tesla.”

In London, activists put up a parody “Tesla – The Swasticar” bus stop advert with the tagline “goes from 0 to 1939 in 3 seconds”, referencing the start of the second world war, and stickers with similar wording have been slapped on Tesla cars. In Tottenham, north London, a member of the activist group People vs Elon took a cardboard cutout of Musk’s salute into a Tesla dealership.

In Sweden, the EV maker Polestar has sought to capitalise on the discontent. “We get a lot of people writing that they don’t like all this,” the company’s CEO, Michael Lohscheller, told Bloomberg, adding that he had directed sales staff to target disgruntled Tesla owners.

After a Dutch poll suggested 31% of respondents who owned Teslas were considering selling them or had already done so, it remains to be seen what the impact will be on the company. Matthias Schmidt, a Germany-based automotive analyst, said “2025 will be one of the biggest tests for Tesla.”

“With all respect, consumers tend to be like goldfish; they tend to forget things very quickly,” Schmidt added. “But Germany is potentially slightly different because of its history … The shift to him backing the AfD was potentially far more damaging in Germany than his move to back Trump.”

Last year, Tesla saw sales in Germany plunge 41% – outpacing the overall 27% decline in EVs across the country – as rivals rolled out their own electric vehicles and governments rolled back subsidies.

Figures for early 2025 show that Tesla sales fell sharply across several European markets. Registrations were down 63% on a year earlier in France, 59% in Germany, 44% in Sweden, 38% in Norway and 12% in the UK.

While buyers could be reacting to Musk’s comments, other factors may also be at play as consumers await Tesla’s release of the updated Y model, said Schmidt.

When contacted by the Guardian, Tesla did not reply to a request for comment. But late last month, Musk appeared to be upbeat during a call with investors, hinting that 2025 may be a tough year but that 2026 would be “epic” for the company.

“Musk is kind of like a character that – like a cat – has nine lives,” said Schmidt. “And he’s almost used up those nine lives. And it will be interesting to see what happens now.”

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[mariacallous]

AI’s energy use already represents as much as 20 percent of global data-center power demand, research published Thursday in the journal Joule shows. That demand from AI, the research states, could double by the end of this year, comprising nearly half of all total data-center electricity consumption worldwide, excluding the electricity used for bitcoin mining.

The new research is published in a commentary by Alex de Vries-Gao, the founder of Digiconomist, a research company that evaluates the environmental impact of technology. De Vries-Gao started Digiconomist in the late 2010s to explore the impact of bitcoin mining, another extremely energy-intensive activity, would have on the environment. Looking at AI, he says, has grown more urgent over the past few years because of the widespread adoption of ChatGPT and other large language models that use massive amounts of energy. According to his research, worldwide AI energy demand is now set to surpass demand from bitcoin mining by the end of this year.

“The money that bitcoin miners had to get to where they are today is peanuts compared to the money that Google and Microsoft and all these big tech companies are pouring in [to AI],” he says. “This is just escalating a lot faster, and it’s a much bigger threat.”

The development of AI is already having an impact on Big Tech’s climate goals. Tech giants have acknowledged in recent sustainability reports that AI is largely responsible for driving up their energy use. Google’s greenhouse gas emissions, for instance, have increased 48 percent since 2019, complicating the company’s goals of reaching net zero by 2030.

“As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute,” Google’s 2024 sustainability report reads.

Last month, the International Energy Agency released a report finding that data centers made up 1.5 percent of global energy use in 2024—around 415 terrawatt-hours, a little less than the yearly energy demand of Saudi Arabia. This number is only set to get bigger: Data centers’ electricity consumption has grown four times faster than overall consumption in recent years, while the amount of investment in data centers has nearly doubled since 2022, driven largely by massive expansions to account for new AI capacity. Overall, the IEA predicted that data center electricity consumption will grow to more than 900 TWh by the end of the decade.

But there’s still a lot of unknowns about the share that AI, specifically, takes up in that current configuration of electricity use by data centers. Data centers power a variety of services—like hosting cloud services and providing online infrastructure—that aren’t necessarily linked to the energy-intensive activities of AI. Tech companies, meanwhile, largely keep the energy expenditure of their software and hardware private.

Some attempts to quantify AI’s energy consumption have started from the user side: calculating the amount of electricity that goes into a single ChatGPT search, for instance. De Vries-Gao decided to look, instead, at the supply chain, starting from the production side to get a more global picture.

The high computing demands of AI, De Vries-Gao says, creates a natural “bottleneck” in the current global supply chain around AI hardware, particularly around the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the undisputed leader in producing key hardware that can handle these needs. Companies like Nvidia outsource the production of their chips to TSMC, which also produces chips for other companies like Google and AMD. (Both TSMC and Nvidia declined to comment for this article.)

De Vries-Gao used analyst estimates, earnings call transcripts, and device details to put together an approximate estimate of TSMC’s production capacity. He then looked at publicly available electricity consumption profiles of AI hardware and estimates on utilization rates of that hardware—which can vary based on what it’s being used for—to arrive at a rough figure of just how much of global data-center demand is taken up by AI. De Vries-Gao calculates that without increased production, AI will consume up to 82 terrawatt-hours of electricity this year—roughly around the same as the annual electricity consumption of a country like Switzerland. If production capacity for AI hardware doubles this year, as analysts have projected it will, demand could increase at a similar rate, representing almost half of all data center demand by the end of the year.

Despite the amount of publicly available information used in the paper, a lot of what De Vries-Gao is doing is peering into a black box: We simply don’t know certain factors that affect AI’s energy consumption, like the utilization rates of every piece of AI hardware in the world or what machine learning activities they’re being used for, let alone how the industry might develop in the future.

Sasha Luccioni, an AI and energy researcher and the climate lead at open-source machine-learning platform Hugging Face, cautioned about leaning too hard on some of the conclusions of the new paper, given the amount of unknowns at play. Luccioni, who was not involved in this research, says that when it comes to truly calculating AI’s energy use, disclosure from tech giants is crucial.

“It’s because we don’t have the information that [researchers] have to do this,” she says. “That’s why the error bar is so huge.”

And tech companies do keep this information. In 2022, Google published a paper on machine learning and electricity use, noting that machine learning was “10%–15% of Google’s total energy use” from 2019 to 2021, and predicted that with best practices, “by 2030 total carbon emissions from training will reduce.” However, since that paper—which was released before Google Gemini’s debut in 2023—Google has not provided any more detailed information about how much electricity ML uses. (Google declined to comment for this story.)

“You really have to deep-dive into the semiconductor supply chain to be able to make any sensible statement about the energy demand of AI,” De Vries-Gao says. “If these big tech companies were just publishing the same information that Google was publishing three years ago, we would have a pretty good indicator” of AI’s energy use.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

By Julia Métraux

Voters are asking questions—and the Harris campaign needs a plan.

Three years ago, after developing Long Covid, 62-year-old Martha applied for Social Security Disability Insurance, which provides a modest monthly benefit to aging and disabled adults. Martha has no health insurance, which prevents her from getting the medical treatment she needs, and is homeless.

On Thursday, when she asked Vice President Kamala Harris about the issue at a town hall hosted by the Spanish-language news network Univision, she still hadn’t received a decision.

In the twelve-month stretch from October 2022 through September 2023, 30,000 people died while waiting for federal disability determinations, according to Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley. Martha asked Harris what she would do as president for people, like herself, who are waiting for disability decisions while in desperate need of health insurance.

Delays in those decisions, driven in part by understaffing and a Covid-related rise in disability rates, have driven the typical wait time from four months in 2019 to seven months today, often coupled with the need to appeal an initial rejection, which can take years. The processing times represent a mounting crisis for the more than 1 million Americans who apply for disability in a given year.

Harris, starting off on track, highlighted her recent push for Long Covid to be recognized under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But the vice president didn’t acknowledge the issue of wait times for federal disability benefit determinations, talking instead about how medical debt impacted credit scores.

Harris’ push to incorporate Long Covid into the ADA is welcome. Latino people are the likeliest of any racial group to report having Long Covid, according to Census data; many also participate in SSDI, and her Univision non-answer on wait times was eyebrow-raising.

But a Long Covid–friendly ADA doesn’t mean any change in Social Security practices, which are separate. Securing disability income is a much more complex, demanding process than securing ADA accommodations (which can be hard enough). Separate action is needed on both—and within Harris’ grasp, should she land in the White House.

That’s not to say that Democrats have made no moves to address challenges around Long Covid and Social Security disability delays. In August, a Senate group including Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Vir.), Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Sen Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Ver.) sent O’Malley a letter asking a similar question: what was the Social Security Administration doing to address the barriers that applicants with Long Covid face? They have yet to receive a response—at least publicly.

[reasonsforhope]

Determined to use her skills to fight inequality, South African computer scientist Raesetje Sefala set to work to build algorithms flagging poverty hotspots - developing datasets she hopes will help target aid, new housing, or clinics.

From crop analysis to medical diagnostics, artificial intelligence (AI) is already used in essential tasks worldwide, but Sefala and a growing number of fellow African developers are pioneering it to tackle their continent's particular challenges.

Local knowledge is vital for designing AI-driven solutions that work, Sefala said.

"If you don't have people with diverse experiences doing the research, it's easy to interpret the data in ways that will marginalise others," the 26-year old said from her home in Johannesburg.

Africa is the world's youngest and fastest-growing continent, and tech experts say young, home-grown AI developers have a vital role to play in designing applications to address local problems.

"For Africa to get out of poverty, it will take innovation and this can be revolutionary, because it's Africans doing things for Africa on their own," said Cina Lawson, Togo's minister of digital economy and transformation.

"We need to use cutting-edge solutions to our problems, because you don't solve problems in 2022 using methods of 20 years ago," Lawson told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a video interview from the West African country.

Digital rights groups warn about AI's use in surveillance and the risk of discrimination, but Sefala said it can also be used to "serve the people behind the data points". ...

'Delivering Health'

As COVID-19 spread around the world in early 2020, government officials in Togo realized urgent action was needed to support informal workers who account for about 80% of the country's workforce, Lawson said.

"If you decide that everybody stays home, it means that this particular person isn't going to eat that day, it's as simple as that," she said.

In 10 days, the government built a mobile payment platform - called Novissi - to distribute cash to the vulnerable.

The government paired up with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) think tank and the University of California, Berkeley, to build a poverty map of Togo using satellite imagery.

Using algorithms with the support of GiveDirectly, a nonprofit that uses AI to distribute cash transfers, the recipients earning less than $1.25 per day and living in the poorest districts were identified for a direct cash transfer.

"We texted them saying if you need financial help, please register," Lawson said, adding that beneficiaries' consent and data privacy had been prioritized.

The entire program reached 920,000 beneficiaries in need.

"Machine learning has the advantage of reaching so many people in a very short time and delivering help when people need it most," said Caroline Teti, a Kenya-based GiveDirectly director.

'Zero Representation'

Aiming to boost discussion about AI in Africa, computer scientists Benjamin Rosman and Ulrich Paquet co-founded the Deep Learning Indaba - a week-long gathering that started in South Africa - together with other colleagues in 2017.

"You used to get to the top AI conferences and there was zero representation from Africa, both in terms of papers and people, so we're all about finding cost effective ways to build a community," Paquet said in a video call.

In 2019, 27 smaller Indabas - called IndabaX - were rolled out across the continent, with some events hosting as many as 300 participants.

One of these offshoots was IndabaX Uganda, where founder Bruno Ssekiwere said participants shared information on using AI for social issues such as improving agriculture and treating malaria.

Another outcome from the South African Indaba was Masakhane - an organization that uses open-source, machine learning to translate African languages not typically found in online programs such as Google Translate.

On their site, the founders speak about the South African philosophy of "Ubuntu" - a term generally meaning "humanity" - as part of their organization's values.

"This philosophy calls for collaboration and participation and community," reads their site, a philosophy that Ssekiwere, Paquet, and Rosman said has now become the driving value for AI research in Africa.

Inclusion

Now that Sefala has built a dataset of South Africa's suburbs and townships, she plans to collaborate with domain experts and communities to refine it, deepen inequality research and improve the algorithms.

"Making datasets easily available opens the door for new mechanisms and techniques for policy-making around desegregation, housing, and access to economic opportunity," she said.

African AI leaders say building more complete datasets will also help tackle biases baked into algorithms.

"Imagine rolling out Novissi in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast ... then the algorithm will be trained with understanding poverty in West Africa," Lawson said.

"If there are ever ways to fight bias in tech, it's by increasing diverse datasets ... we need to contribute more," she said.

But contributing more will require increased funding for African projects and wider access to computer science education and technology in general, Sefala said.

Despite such obstacles, Lawson said "technology will be Africa's savior".

"Let's use what is cutting edge and apply it straight away or as a continent we will never get out of poverty," she said. "It's really as simple as that."

-via Good Good Good, February 16, 2022

[likeadevils]

okay it seems like we’re picking up new cult members tonight and i need to tell yall about a man named sir richard owen

so i first stumbled upon him when i was trying to find out what platypus milk tastes like. you would think this would be easily googlable. surely, swiftie tumblr is not the first person to wonder about this, and surely some youtuber, or at least a zookeeper, has tried it and told the tale

to this motherfucking day the only first hand account i could fine was from one sir richard owen in 1832. EIGHTEEN THIRTY TWO. “okay,” i think. “it’s not like platypus milk has dramatically changed taste sense the 1800s. this strange, but still relevant data.”

but no. no. this motherfucker did not sample milk from a wild platypus. he did not sample milk from a captured platypus. dear reader, he did not even sample milk from a living platypus. this motherfucker sampled milk from a taxidermied platypus shipped from australia to england in the 1830s, which means it had at best been dead for months. (for the record, he described it as “drops of a yellowish oil, which afforded neither perceptible taste nor smell, except such as was derived from the preserving liquor”)

after months of platypus milk cult nights, i finally crack and look at this guys wikipedia page. what follows are my favorite qoutes, fun facts, and other miscellaneous bullshit

richard owen coined the term dinosauria, now dinosaur.

he helped create the natural history museum in london, the first of its kind

he once hosted a dinner party inside a giant concrete dinosaur

“Owen was granted right of first refusal on any freshly dead animal at the London Zoo. His wife once arrived home to find the carcass of a newly deceased rhinoceros in her front hallway.”

there is a very large section of his wikipedia page dedicated to his personal beef with charles darwin. not included in that section, his statue in the natural history museum of london, a museum that he opened, was replaced by a statue of charles darwin

“Owen has been described by some as a malicious, dishonest and hateful individual. He has been described in one biography as being a "social experimenter with a penchant for sadism. Addicted to controversy and driven by arrogance and jealousy".”

“An Oxford University professor once described Owen as "a damned liar. He lied for God and for malice".”

“Richard Broke Freeman described him as "the most distinguished vertebrate zoologist and palaeontologist ... but a most deceitful and odious man"”

Charles Darwin called him "Spiteful, extremely malignant, clever; the Londoners say he is mad with envy because my book is so talked about"

He claimed that he was the discoverer of the iguanodaun, when really it was this other guy, gideon mandell. richard published an anonymous paper talking shit about gideon and used his sway in the field to ensure that none of gideon mandalls papers were published in the royal society.

“Owen also resorted to the same subterfuge he used against Mantell [against Charles Darwin], writing another anonymous article in the Edinburgh Review in April 1860. In the article, Owen was critical of Darwin for not offering many new observations, and heaped praise (in the third person) upon himself […] Owen did praise, however, the Origin's description of Darwin's work on insect behavior and pigeon breeding as "real gems".

this is what he looked like

[unsolicited-opinions]

Most postmortems of the 2024 election have been purely punditry, and almost none have been data-driven.

It's a pleasure to see an exception: Ezra Klein hosts political consultant David Shore.

This is peak political wonkery, if that's the sort of thing which interests you.

[nanamineedstherapy]

Zenin, Zameen, Zyada Garmi

Previous Chapter - [Tumblr/Ao3] A/N: If you’ve ever felt like the underdog in a glass tower, you’re exactly where you need to be. Naoya's ass is his own warning.

You didn’t want to be here.

Not in this glossy Connaught Place rooftop bar pretending to be a Founders Roundtable. Not sipping cucumber-infused water that tasted like regret. Not nodding along to a "panel discussion" about "emerging coffee economies" hosted by a VC firm where all the partners were named Rahul. And definitely not across from Zenin Naoya—who looked like someone that only wears linen, quotes Andrew Tate, and once said, “Feminism is fine, but not in hiring.”

Your team, God help you, was no better.

Gojo had shown up late, hair still wet like he was cast in a Fair & Lovely ad.

Nanami had a migraine before walking in. He was already muttering, “I should’ve stayed in audit.”

Suguru came for “vibe observation” and brought a french press he didn’t let anyone touch.

Sukuna had said the phrase “data-driven chakna strategy.”

And Toji... was already trying to flirt with the bartender.

Zenin leaned forward.

“I respect your hustle,” he said, in the same tone people use when they ask the maid to “just mop one more time na, it’s not clean.”

He grinned like the kind of man who thinks his chacha owning a warehouse counts as vertical integration.

“All I’m saying is—Delhi doesn’t need another caffeine-charged D2C story. It needs culture.”

You took a long sip of your deliberately burnt espresso. No milk. No sugar. Just vibes and vengeance.

“Zenin, the only culture you know is fungus on almond milk.”

Toji choked. Nanami didn’t blink. Suguru smiled like he was watching live theatre. Gojo kept looking at the floor—either embarrassed or hungover. Possibly both. Sukuna was too busy replying to a meme tweet. Ino was trying to hide behind his iPad.

Naoya leaned forward, loafers squeaking against the floor. “I respect your hustle,” he said, in that slick NCR realtor tone. “But your company’s what—bootstrapped? We’re backed by legacy.” It was in the same way people spoke when they ask the maid to “just mop one more time na, it’s not clean.”

Ah yes.

Legacy.

Translation: His bua’s son failed edtech so they gave him a backup coffee brand. His warehouse is on a government lease. His branding team is two cousins from Amity who think Helvetica is a font for "professional meets casual vibe."

You smiled, razor-sharp. “Legacy doesn’t mean shit when your beans are stale and your baristas can’t spell macchiato.”

He tried to play it cool. Chuckled. “Aggression won’t get you a term sheet.”

“No,” you replied. “But my margins will.”

Suguru clinked his spoon against his cup—once. Like a clap.

Even Toji looked impressed.

Then Naoya dropped the bomb. Smug. Like a builder revealing he’d bribed MCD clearance. “We’re launching a franchise in Delhi next month. Flagship store—right across from your South Ex café.”

You blinked.

The man was taking your most profitable zone.

Your vendor pipeline.

Your freaking parking space.

“And,” Naoya continued, “we’ll be rolling out a centralised supply chain. Unlike some ‘craft’ brands who still pay per kilo.”

Gojo sat up. “Wait—that’s Nanami’s Q1 suggestion. You shot that down at the last VC mixer.”

Naoya smiled. “Yeah. But we’re legacy. We get to change our minds.”

Then it got worse.

A pitch deck came up on the screen. Fonts too familiar. Color palette identical. Tagline?

“We don’t serve coffee. We serve clarity.”

The only difference was that it was narrated in English with a fake Gurgaon-accent voiceover and Bollywood Lofi BGM.

Suguru leaned in. “This bastard cloned our whole moodboard.”

Gojo blinked. “With Canva Premium?”

Ino gasped. “Do we sue him? Can we sue?”

Nanami stood. “I’m going to jail. I’m killing him.”

“Toji,” you muttered, eyes never leaving the screen. “Do not assault him inside the venue. I don’t want a repeat of Noida’s F.I.R.”

Toji put the chair down, slowly.

The post-panel networking was even worse.

Naoya swanned up, whiskey in hand, smile tighter than his tailored pants. “I hope the vendors don’t get confused,” he said. “Wouldn’t want them choosing vibe over volume.”

You smiled, deadpan. “They won’t. We pay them in full, not equity dreams.”

He flinched. Turned to Ino. “Loved your Ring Road hoarding. Very... loud.”

Ino blinked. His eye twitched.

“Thanks,” he said with a tight smile. “Your new ad was cool too. You really captured the 1975 Bharat Petroleum aesthetic.”

Naoya walked away.

Everyone stayed.

Everyone plotting.

You assembled the war council.

You: Boss mode. Rage simmering at 140°C.

Nanami: Threatening to call SEBI.

Gojo: Half-listening, still muttering, “He really copied our tagline...”

Suguru: Suggesting a poisoning (unclear if serious).

Ino: Trying to buy all the billboards right next to their ads just to slap condom ads over them.

Sukuna: Sukuna lit a cigarette indoors. “Just give me 4 influencers, 2 weeks, and a DJ.”

Toji: Looked up from his protein bar. “Want me to sleep with someone’s wife? That’s my strength. That’s how we broke Zostel’s marketing team.”

Your black coffee was cold. Your rage was not.

“Alright,” you said, setting your laptop down like a weapon. “Let’s burn this bitch down. In strategy format.”

Nanami opened Excel.

Sukuna opened Twitter.

Suguru opened a Notion.

Gojo opened a drawer and found... a stress ball.

Toji brought out a blueprint of South Delhi’s café locations.

No one asked why he had it.

Ino pulled out his iPad. “Do I have permission to unhinge ?”

You looked him dead in the eyes. “Unleash hell.”

The plan was born in five steps:

Audit his supply chain. Nanami already had receipts.

Hijack his brand relaunch via a “community coffee pop-up” on the same day. With free cold brew and bad attitude.

Send Gojo and Suguru to charm the PR team and leak Zenin’s “inspiration deck.”

Unleash Sukuna on Twitter with sarcasm and memes. “Beta Elon with filter coffee” energy.

Let Toji do... whatever he does. We don’t ask questions.

OPERATION: ZAMEEN SE ZENIN TAK

Phase 1: Meme Warfare (Sukuna + Ino)

Sukuna’s tweetstorm dropped at midnight:

“BREAKING: Delhi startup accused of stealing deck from Gurugram WhatsApp MBA group.”

“Imagine building your brand like a YouTube ad you can’t skip.”

“South Ex deserves better coffee and fewer men in linen.”

“Imagine launching a franchise with the emotional complexity of a Birla Cement ad.”

“We have the better Zenins on board.” With the Toji + Megumi combo plastered on the article.

Ino, meanwhile, dropped three Instagram reels.

One spoofing Naoya’s ad using Punjabi wedding footage.

One using your interns as actors in a parody: “South Delhi boys explaining coffee with zero taste buds.”

One that just said: “We invented clarity. You sell confusion.”

A reel parodying Naoya’s franchise launch. Kokichi’s voice narrated: “This is Naoya. Naoya thinks branding is beige fonts and discount coupons. Naoya also thinks women don’t belong in boardrooms. Don’t be Naoya.”

It went viral.

Even D2C Twitter joined the fight.

Startups across Noida posted memes with your logo and the caption: “Maa Maa hoti hai.”

Phase 2: Financial Warfare (Nanami + Toji)

Nanami quietly contacted three of Naoya’s distributors.

They didn’t switch sides.

They didn’t have to.

He just leaked Q2 burn reports and supplier invoices to Mint Lounge with footnotes titled:

“Legacy Funding ≠ Profit”

“Influencer Coffee ≠ Actual Coffee”

“Net Burn Rate = Screaming into a void”

“Angel funding is not a personality.”

“Net burn rate: ₹47 lakh/month. Net output: one reel with Badshah.”

Toji, meanwhile, “borrowed” a shipment log from a connected warehouse.

Turns out, Naoya’s new roast blend was being imported through a shell company that didn’t technically exist.

Toji forwarded the file with a note: “Not saying commit fraud. Just saying... oops.”

Phase 3: Street Domination (You + Gojo)

You launched pop-up espresso carts across Naoya’s key zones: GK2, SDA, Khan Market.

Free cold brew.

No branding.

Just one blackboard per cart that read:

We Don’t Sell Legacy. We Serve Clarity.

₹0 for idiots. ₹10 for Zenins.

Free shots of espresso at 7AM for gym-goers.

₹69 “F**k Legacy” cold brew popups.

A vending machine that only accepted memes as currency.

Gojo worked crowd control.

Wore tight T-shirts. Gave away tote bags. Took selfies.

Utterly useless.

But charming.

And every single influencer that Naoya paid?

Came to your stall. For the clout.

Yuji wore sunglasses and served filter coffee like it was vengeance.

Nobara punched a man for saying “chai > coffee.”

Megumi just printed QR codes to report Naoya’s LinkedIn posts.

Junpei managed vendor ops.

Kokichi wrote a bot that hijacked Naoya’s Yelp reviews.

In 48 hours, your Instagram reach went up 147%.

His went down.

At 11AM the next week, while Zenin launched his shiny South Ex flagship, you launched a van outside.

No menu.

No prices.

Just a chalkboard that read: “We don’t steal decks. We steal customers.”

Nobara wore sunglasses and handed out iced Americanos like a hitwoman.

Yuji and Junpei ran logistics like a mafia warehouse.

Megumi designed the popup banner. It just said: "Suck it, Zenin."

Kokichi just stood there, and college girls flocked to him.

Step 4: Public Humiliation

Zenin showed up. Naturally.

Wearing a bandh gala.

With a sandalwood diffuser in hand.

Your team parked a coffee cart 5 meters outside.

The board said: “Naali Zenin.”

Naoya’s voice wobbled. “I’ll sue you.”

Suguru handed him a cease-and-desist you’d drafted. It read: “Cease building mediocrity. Desist from wasting our oxygen.”

Sukuna tweeted a clip of it. Captioned: “Beta, tumse na ho payega.”

Within the hour, two of Naoya’s angels pulled out.

His vendors stalled shipments.

His ad agency resigned.

He tried to argue over Linkedin.

But Toji had already flirted with one of his biggest investors.

Suguru leaked chat screenshots.

Nanami posted the actual P&L that proved his margins were bullshit.

Sukuna called him “cappuccino Vinod Mehra” on Twitter. It trended.

Naoya filed a cease and desist.

You replied with:

“Cease what? You haven’t built anything.”

“Desist? That’s your vibe anyway.”

He posted a LinkedIn essay about “cancel culture and the toxicity of female-led disruption.”

Sukuna brought him down with:

“Get ratio’d by a CEO with real unit economics, you linen napkin.”

By Friday, Naoya’s franchise launch was postponed indefinitely.

His team’s baristas quit.

Your café foot traffic spiked 38%.

You sold out your new “clarity is caffeinated” merch.

And Nobara’s tweet—

“Imagine losing to a girl in chappals who didn’t even use a deck” —

went viral.

You came into office with a filter coffee in hand and zero apologies.

Gojo raised a brow. “No press release?”

You smiled. “I prefer performance art.”

Nanami updated the dashboard: “Enemy liquidation: 93% complete.”

Sukuna said nothing. Just posted: “We ball.”

You sat on the office terrace with a cigarette, knees tucked under your chin, watching the city drown in traffic and noise.

Ino flopped down beside you. “So... did we win?”

You shrugged.

He whistled low. “So what now?”

You sipped your coffee.

“Now we build something he can’t steal.”

---

A/N: Was this funny? Please share the moments that made you snort :)

Next Chapter - Kaapi Aur Kaand: South Delhi Gangs Edition - [Tumblr/Ao3]

All Works Masterlist

[thoughtlessarse]

The destruction of the world’s forests reached the highest level ever recorded in 2024, driven by a surge in fires caused by global heating, according to “frightening” new data. From the Brazilian Amazon to the Siberian taiga, Earth’s forests disappeared at a record rate last year, losing an area the size of Italy to agriculture, fires, logging and mining, according to analysis from the University of Maryland hosted on Global Forest Watch. In tropical regions, home to the most biodiverse and carbon-dense forests on the planet, fire became the leading driver of loss for the first time since global records began. However, fire is not a natural part of tropical ecosystems. Boreal forests in Canada and Siberia continued to burn last year. Prof Matt Hansen, co-director at the University of Maryland’s Glad Lab, who led the analysis, described the new figures as “frightening”, while Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch, said the update was “unlike anything we’ve seen in over 20 years of data”.

In 2024, forest loss in Brazil reached rates far above any level recorded under the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, fuelled by fire and the worst drought on record in the Amazon. The country accounted for 42% of all primary rainforest loss in the tropics, losing more than 25,000 sq km (10,000 sq miles). The data differs from Brazil’s official statistics, which uses a different definition of deforestation that does not include fire. In Bolivia, the loss of previously untouched forest continued to rise, ranking second behind Brazil in overall loss for the first time, driven by drought, fire and government policies promoting agricultural expansion for soya, cattle and sugar cane. The loss of Bolivia’s primary forest has increased nearly fivefold since 2020, reaching more than 14,000 sq km (1.4m hectares). In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Congo-Brazzaville, loss of pristine rainforests reached the highest levels recorded. The countries are home to the Congo basin rainforest, the world’s second largest after the Amazon.

continue reading

[tomorrowusa]

We've been seeing a flood of news stories that young males have been flocking to rightwing parties around the world in recent elections. But the opposite seems to be true in the recent election in Australia. Men under 30 have apparently swung towards the left of center Australian Labor Party (ALP) which won a landslide victory this month.

(Researcher Intifar) Chowdhury says the 2025 election results stop “any kind of insinuation” that young men in Australia are becoming more rightwing. “If you look at electorates with a higher share of both first-time voters and voters under the age of 30, the higher the percentage, the more likely they are to swing towards Labor,” she says. “I will be very surprised if we see a swing among young men towards the Coalition, because no matter what demographic you’re talking about, there is some swing against the Coalition.” If her hypothesis is correct, it’s bucking global trends. At the 2024 US election, men aged between 18 and 29 turned out in force for Trump, while women of the same age voted for Kamala Harris by an even wider margin. Similarly, men at the 2024 UK election were twice as likely to vote for Nigel Farage’s rightwing Reform UK, while young women were more likely to vote Green. In Germany, there are signs young men under 30 are moving towards the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). China, Tunisia and South Korea have also experienced a surge in support for rightwing candidates among young men. But data suggests young Australians have been repelled by Trump’s leadership style. A March study of voters aged 18-44 found just 23% surveyed said Australia would benefit from a leader like Trump; 58% said “absolutely not”. A sense of dread about social cohesion and the rise of the far right were consistently cited as major issues among a cohort of almost 1,000 young voters who reached out to Guardian Australia over the election campaign. Chowdury describes what occurred this election as the “Trump slump”. “I think Australia just became more moderate, to be honest,” she says.

It's not so much a swing to the left as it is to the moderate left.

All but one of the nation’s five youngest electorates were won by Labor in 2025 after previously being held by the Greens. (Ryan was too close to call at the time of writing.) “Australians in general tend to vote heavily based on their issues of importance,” Chowdhury says. “If you think about the generational grievance of the younger generations, it’s being locked out of the [housing] market, the erosion of the safety net, job precarity.”

This Australian phenomenon seems driven to a large degree by the media scene in the country.

Hannah Ferguson, 26, is head of independent news commentary page Cheek Media Co and co-host of the Big Small Talk podcast, both aimed at younger audiences. She says Australia’s election felt like a “battle of influence”. “Murdoch media were projecting the Coalition to win and endorsing them, and it felt like I was in this bubble where I had to prove myself and push my audience to believe they were the change-makers,” she says. Ferguson says she has often been asked why “all the influencers in Australia are progressive”. She says that, excluding Fox News, America’s mainstream media is perceived as leftwing, allowing influencers to position themselves against the “establishment”. While Australian influencers are also responding to “the establishment”, she notes it’s in a media “heavily dominated by Murdoch”. “The commentators who have risen up in this election are the ones challenging the far-right establishment of media in this country,” she says.

What we in the US can learn from this is that we need to talk more consistently and frequently about the rightwing establishment being responsible for the mess in the US. We should also promote influencers and podcasters who are effective at presenting common sense progressive viewpoints.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Justin Horowitz at MMFA:

Viral TikTok videos are falsely linking birth control to infertility and describing the medication as “absolutely poison,” while others make generalizations about side effects and suggest the pill tricks women’s brains into making them less attracted to “masculinity." A recent report from The Washington Post examined how online birth control misinformation, combined with a lack of transparency about rare side effects from contraception, is causing women to believe misconceptions about the medication. The article says the trend is driven by an “underlying conservative push” by right-wing influencers. [...]

Misinformation about birth control is going viral on TikTok

On TikTok, figures spreading misinformation are leveraging cherry-picked data and anecdotes about negative side effects of the pill to make blanket generalizations about its effects and scare women into believing that birth control — which is safe and effective — is dangerous. In a May 2023 TikTok video with 144,000 views, for example, former Daily Wire host Candace Owens falsely insinuated that birth control causes infertility problems. (Owens has gone on to repeatedly attack birth control and suggest on social media that it is dangerous.)

[...] Making blanket statements about how birth control affects women is misleading — experts say that while there may be an “association” between hormones and some elements of physical attraction, “suggesting that birth control can alter mate preference,” it is difficult to be certain there is a “cause and effect” relationship. Additionally, as The Washington Post noted, many of the studies that influencers point to “have small sample sizes or are otherwise flawed … which can show correlation but not necessarily causation." No medication is perfect, and doctors need to be clear about potential side effects with their patients — the lived experiences of people on birth control are valid, and side effects from these medications vary from person to person. However, influencers on TikTok are leveraging cherry-picked data points and anecdotes about negative side effects from birth control to make blanket generalizations about its effects that are misleading and potentially dangerous. [...]

The Post’s reporting spurred TikTok to delete videos “linking birth control to mental health issues,” among other misleading claims. A TikTok spokesperson confirmed to the Post that some videos the outlet identified violated TikTok’s company policies against “inaccurate, misleading or false content that may cause significant harm to individuals or society." By design, TikTok’s “For You Page” algorithm feeds content to users based on “interests” or “connections” that can make it easier to be pulled into a world of radical content, even if they are not seeking it out. This could lead TikTok users — many of them children — to view and possibly believe medical misinformation from influencers that right-wing figures are exploiting to vilify and fearmonger about birth control.

Birth control misinformation and conspiracy theories are gaining lots of views on TikTok to push right-wing narratives to gin up anti-birth control sentiments.