@BenjaminKlein@mastodon.nu avatar

BenjaminKlein

@[email protected]

#SouthAfrican living in #Sweden, love #cricket, #Linux, #FreeSoftware, #Nature, #bicycles, #trains, #boardgames, #books, #poetry, #math. He/him. Posts set to delete after six months.

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@BenjaminKlein@mastodon.nu avatar BenjaminKlein , to random

With having lost 9% over the last 24hrs it's worth reposting this interesting interview with Eugene F. Fama, skip to 14 minutes if you want to skip the intro.

https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/capitalisnt-why-this-nobel-economist-thinks-bitcoin-is-going-zero

@BenjaminKlein@mastodon.nu avatar BenjaminKlein , to random

So thousands of programmers have been laid off recently, they can almost all work remotely and we all need to get off US tech as quickly as possible. Seems like the perfect opportunity to fund an open source collaborative suite of products to replace meta, alphabet, microsoft apple and amazon.

@BenjaminKlein@mastodon.nu avatar BenjaminKlein , to random

The question is not, why is South Africa not screening Melania, it is why is anyone screening this?

@BenjaminKlein@mastodon.nu avatar BenjaminKlein , to random

It's good to remember the on the media's Breaking News Handbook advice while we wait for the full story to come out.

https://www.wnyc.org/i/raw/1/HANDBOOK.JPG

Breaking news consumer's handbook 1. In the immediate aftermath, news outlets will get it wrong. 2. Don't trust anonymous sources. 3. Don't trust stories that cite another news outlet as the source of the information. 4. There's almost never a second shooter. 5. Pay attention to the language the media uses. • “We are getting reports”… could mean anything. • “We are seeking confirmation”… means they don’t have it. • “[News outlet] has learned”… means it has a scoop or is going out on limb. 6. Look for news outlets close to the incident. 7. Compare multiple sources. 8. Big news brings out the fakers. And photoshoppers. 9. Beware reflexive retweeting. Some of this is on you. On the Media
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@BenjaminKlein@mastodon.nu avatar BenjaminKlein , to random

I can't see how this turns out well.

"Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF,) Abu Dhabi's L'imad Holding Company, and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) have agreed to back the deal, Paramount
(PSKY.O).

Paramount also has backing from Affinity Partners, started by Jared Kushner, which has investments from funds in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates."

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/hollywood-hungry-gulf-states-bankroll-paramounts-warner-bros-bid-2025-12-09/

@BigG@mastodon.africa avatar BigG , to random

So I am reading about the guy in the US who was arrested for wiping his phone before the cops could look at it. Anyone know of a lockscreen type app where if you put in a special code it will wipe all contents without further prompting ? So my normal pin will work, but a special one will wipe the phone ? Possible ?

BenjaminKlein ,
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@BigG I think Julian Assange worked on something like that before wikileaks, you unlock a fake profile.

@BenjaminKlein@mastodon.nu avatar BenjaminKlein , to random

Michael Burry, of big short fame, no longer runs as investment fund and now is writing a sub stack Cassandra Unchained. His latest story is about the ridiculous stock price of Tesla.

Employee compensation is diluting the stock and as competition emerges, electric cars, self driving tech, they just pivot and the market keeps buying the hype. Be interesting to see the reaction

https://www.timeslive.co.za/motoring/2025-12-01-big-short-investor-michael-burry-targets-tesla-after-slamming-ai-valuations/

@malwaretech@infosec.exchange avatar malwaretech , to random

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    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @malwaretech I do like the hashtag MSignite.

    @malwaretech@infosec.exchange avatar malwaretech , to random

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    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @malwaretech 1tn dollars feels very made up.

    https://youtu.be/EJR1H5tf5wE

    @BenjaminKlein@mastodon.nu avatar BenjaminKlein , to random

    The latest report that CO2 jumped last year, indicating that natural land and ocean carbon sinks might be weakening should be the front page story of every major newspaper, should be dominating newscasts the way 911 did. We are losing control of the little control we have over the biosphere that sustains us and we are barely mentioning it.

    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar molly0xfff , to random

    can't wait to read Elon's new bio on Grokipedia

    Tweet by Elon Musk: We are building Grokipedia @xAI . Will be a massive improvement over Wikipedia. Frankly, it is a necessary step towards the xAI goal of understanding the Universe.

    Tweet by Elon Musk: We are building Grokipedia @xAI . Will be a massive improvement over Wikipedia. Frankly, it is a necessary step towards the xAI goal of understanding the Universe.
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    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @molly0xfff there is already conservapedia, he could start there.

    @evacide@hachyderm.io avatar evacide , to random

    I'm not going to get into online arguments about why the Online Safety Act is bad and online age verification laws are bad in general. I'm sure you think you have some kind of novel and convincing argument because you thought about this for five minutes, but I have been thinking about this for the better part of two decades and I'm very tired.

    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @evacide to rephrase George Carlin slightly: They ought to have two new requirements for being a politician, intelligence and decency! You never can tell, it might just work; it certainly hasn’t been tried yet. When are we getting those verification laws?

    @dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar dangillmor , to random

    Trump is no longer even pretending that tariffs are about economics. His attack on Brazil's legitimate government is nothing more than says-it-out-loud extortion to protect the fascist former head of state -- part of his global pro-fascist campaign.

    https://www.npr.org/2025/07/10/nx-s1-5463508/brazil-lula-trump-tariffs

    1/2

    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @dangillmor clearly they are being used as a weapon and governments should form unite to avoid being played off each other.

    vkc , to random

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    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @vkc the whole smart home IOT dream never worked, in some ways the robot vacuum is the most successful product. It's still around and isn't bad for some specific use cases, eg. flat floored apartments with pets. The rest not so much, fridges that order your groceries, ovens that know how to cook, toilets that log your health etc. gimmicky, annoying, privacy nightmares that no one needed and very few people bought.

    @lowqualityfacts@mstdn.social avatar lowqualityfacts , to random

    Ketamine.
    Rockets that keep exploding.
    An AI model we're training to be more racist.
    Just a party owned by the most unhinged billionaire known to man.
    The 'America Party' 🇺🇸

    ! AMERICAPARTY America Party @AmericaPartyX . Mod 18h ... Commentary account No donors. No puppets. No strings. Just a party built on common sense, not consultants. The Aeeica Party'
    ALT
    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar dangillmor , to random

    Musk's rolling dumpsters (aka CyberTrucks) are a complete flop, which is a rare bit of good news in these discouraging times. https://futurism.com/cybertruck-sales-bad

    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @dangillmor and they can't stop making them because it's meme stock and they need to keep the bubble inflated. At some point they'll have to, no doubt blaming the boycott and not the fact that is just a terrible car.
    It's so funny that this car is genuinely all elon, he didn't buy it from someone else and take credit, it's all his vision. An embarrassing boondoggle of ignorant engineering and arrogant, obtuse design.

    @BenjaminKlein@mastodon.nu avatar BenjaminKlein , to random

    I've never read any Richard K. Morgan, but watching the brilliant Netflix show Alerted Carbon and reading about him and the books definitely want to read the series.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_K._Morgan

    There is a central conceit that I keep — not consciously, I swear! — returning to in my work. It takes different metaphorical guises, but at root it's always the same sense of something grand and worthwhile being abandoned by vicious and stupid men in favour of short-term profit and tribal hegemony. You see it in the regressive politics of the Protectorate in the Kovacs novels, the way both the Yhelteth Empire and the — so-called — Free Cities fail their duty as civilisations in A Land Fit for Heroes. So also with Thin Air — the landscape is littered with the markers of a retreat from the grand scheme of terraforming and building a home for humanity on Mars, in favour of an ultraprofitable corporate stasis and an ongoing lie of highly emotive intangibles sold to the general populace in lieu of actual progress.
    ALT
    @arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar arstechnica , to random

    You’re not going to Mars and you won’t live forever—exploding Silicon Valley’s ideology
    Ars chats with physicist and science journalist Adam Becker about his new book, More Everything Forever .
    https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/04/youre-not-going-to-mars-and-you-wont-live-forever-exploding-silicon-valleys-ideology/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @arstechnica definitely going to read the book, loved this line:

    "I love Star Trek. I don't believe that we can build warp drive just because I like Star Trek. I also think that Star Trek isn't really about warp drive. It's about people and how we relate to each other in the same way that all great art is."

    @evacide@hachyderm.io avatar evacide , to random

    Let it be known that I too will accept $2 billion in funding on the promise that I will not release anything until I have created God.

    https://pivot-to-ai.com/2025/03/06/ilya-sutskever-ex-openai-gets-2b-funding-not-to-release-anything-until-he-has-super-intelligence/

    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @evacide the quest for super intelligence funded by colossal stupidity.

    @nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar nixCraft , to random

    Oh joy, it's 2025 and some websites (mostly financial websites and apps) still don't let you paste passwords. Guess I'll just type m9!HfX7*pL^z2$BvK by hand then. So convenient! So secure😏

    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @nixCraft 100% hate this too. I've found that sometimes the scroll wheel click works on these.

    @jensorensen@mastodon.social avatar jensorensen , (edited ) to random

    I recently participated in this Fast Company roundtable interview about political cartooning in a broken media landscape. I have to say, the sample art that they chose from my comic for the feature image is perfectly timed.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/91262247/i-won-the-pulitzer-prize-and-im-busking-on-a-corner-3-top-artists-on-the-uncertain-future-of-political-cartooning

    Screenshot of Fast Company article "'I won the Pulitzer Prize and I'm busking on a corner:' 3 top artists on the uncertain future of political cartooning"
    ALT
    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @jensorensen good political cartoons are so powerful at breaking the demanded respect and obedience to the absurd. In a visual culture they are a major threat to these humourless thugs.

    @kevinrothrock@infosec.exchange avatar kevinrothrock , to random

    👀

    video/mp4

    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @kevinrothrock please add a to this

    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar molly0xfff , to random

    remember when mainstream news outlets published a bunch of incredibly irresponsible articles about how rich people were getting off crypto, and then people bought in and got wrecked over the two years of "crypto winter" that followed?

    anyway here's a WSJ headline i just saw: "Young Men Are Making Risky Bets on Crypto and Politics—and Raking It In Right Now"

    https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/young-men-investing-bitcoin-stocks-sports-betting-1d44cf8c?st=jxsVqM

    A Fortune article by Grady McGregor titled "How a risky bet on the Shiba Inu coin made this warehouse manager a millionaire", published November 4, 2021.
    Screenshot of the bitcoin price chart between January 2021 and January 2023, showing that the all-time high in that period was around November 9, 2021.

    Screenshot of the bitcoin price chart between January 2021 and January 2023, showing that the all-time high in that period was around November 9, 2021.
    ALT
    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @molly0xfff wish they would spend time interviewing the people who where scammed out their money, the poor and homeless. Where exactly do they think this money came from? Crypto is value negative, so for every millionaire they profile there are lots of bankrupt broken people out there, but I guess their stories are a real downer.

    vkc , to random

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    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @vkc they are so terrible now. Open question though do any of these services make sense economically without adverts+|data mining? Either governments take them over as public utilities or we all subscribe to search for a monthly fee?

    @gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green avatar gerrymcgovern , to random

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    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @gerrymcgovern really good article, it's the "Really fast." bit that worries me the most. Imagine the level of global action of Covid19 every year compounding until 2030. Looking around at the current political situation and that is unimaginable, and then the alternative is system collapse.

    vkc , to random

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    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @vkc at some point the venture capital that's financing this money and planet burning party runs out, and this tool that you where forced to learn becomes unaffordable. It's monstrously inefficient and the future promises are all obvious scams, dad dressed in a Santa suit obvious. Yet companies are betting big on this stuff sigh

    @georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar georgetakei , to random

    The approval rating of The Supreme Court has plummeted to historic lows. Between the Court's radical rulings and blatant displays of corruption and partisanship, the American people have lost faith in this Court. What can Congress do now to implement real reform and accountability? https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/supreme-court-recusal-reform-alito

    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @georgetakei congress is around 18%, the supreme court 22% and the presidency 38%. Reform required all around.

    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar molly0xfff , to random

    "[The moderator crackdown is] just a reminder that anything you post on any of these platforms can and will be used for profit. It's just a matter of time until all your messages on Discord, Twitter etc. are scraped, fed into a model and sold back to you." – @ben

    https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/stack-overflow-bans-users-en-masse-for-rebelling-against-openai-partnership-users-banned-for-deleting-answers-to-prevent-them-being-used-to-train-chatgpt

    h/t @dangillmor

    BenjaminKlein ,
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    @molly0xfff @ben @dangillmor this is doing great damage to current web forums and any that get built in the future. It's going to make people less inclined to take time and help, or even post incorrect answers to mess with the AI.