Elsewhere, I was in a discussion about the power requirements for an AGI that can handle all the things a humanoid robot will be asked to do. Current estimates are the human brain is roughly the equivalent of an exaflop processor. Germany recently fired up their new exaflop supercomputer, which is the most power efficient in the world. It draws 18.2 megaWatts (and the hardware takes up ~120 racks). I anticipate that a humanoid robot that can properly execute an order like "Go through the house, collect all the dirty dishes, load them into the dishwasher, and run it" will be a fancy peripheral for a closet full of computer gear drawing more power than the entire rest of the house.
On Wednesday this week, Trump signed an executive order that requires the Dept of Defense -- excuse me, Dept of War -- to sign long-term power purchase agreements with coal-fired power plants to provide power for military bases to keep those plants running. Separately, that the Dept of Energy will provide at least $175M for maintaining and upgrading coal-fired power plants in Appalachia. The EO includes a provision that the PPAs cannot infringe on the authority of other executive branch agencies. I have SO many questions about how they're going to make this work within the constraints set by FERC.
My in-laws in Colorado on the other side of the divide are freaking out about the lack of water and snowpack, too.
The problems west of the Divide make the ones to the east look fairly moderate. Snow timing has changed just in the almost 40 years I've lived here now. Having April snow bail us out has become a fairly regular occurrence. Not so much on the west side.
...will have to decide whether and on what terms they want to work with an economically dominant China on the climate problem.
Here's the fuel mix for my pissant little non-profit local power authority for the last 24 hours. 20 years ago it was, except for the same amount of hydro, all fossil fuels. The wind is from turbines built somewhere in the US. The solar is from panels built in Georgia. Another 100MW of solar comes online late this year, along with a 100MW 400MWh battery system. The batteries are from a Korean company's US plant. For coal, 100MW is the minimum plant output that still allows for a warm start. The wholly-owned coal plant's power is as cheap as the wind or solar because local circumstances, so gets dispatched by the balancing authority.
Despite Trump's efforts, there are still things going on in the US, even if we aren't leading.
On editing... To add slightly to @wj's comment, you generally have to be logged in to WordPress and have sufficient privileges to edit comments. I have enough privileges to be really dangerous, so if I want to edit, I log in, do the edit, then log out immediately.
It's always a crap shoot when you upload images with unusual sizes. Not just in WordPress, but in many social network applications. Click on the image of the overpass above to get a version that's not scrunched-up horizontally.
Yesterday it was 65 °F with high clouds here at the north end of the Colorado Front Range urban corridor. I took a ride to see the city’s new gift to the bicycle cult. The city seems to finish about one major construction project on the trail system every couple of years. The next one broke ground this month — it will close a half-mile gap in the trail system, including going under the six lanes of the second busiest street in town.
I’ve written here before about the one day while working an inventory job across CO, NE, SD, WY, MT...
Did you go through Casper? Was the wind blowing? (That's a trick question, for those who have not spent time in Casper.) The utilization factor at 80 meters for wind turbines near Casper is 49%. That is very likely the best in world for onshore turbines. Even the old school fossil fuel members of the Wyoming legislature are figuring out the state can derive far more revenue selling wind power to out-of-state customers than they can make burning coal.
it’s pretty simple to add color to visited links in wordpress:
I visited the site cleek pointed to. Just for the record, the CSS it recommends uses both pseudo elements and the !important modifier. I oppose both of those on general principle because they exist outside the JavaScript document model so cannot be modified by the user. As I've said in other places, "If there's some aspect of your page's styling that is so critical the user must not be allowed to change it you ought to be using PDF."
Speaking of high-definition scans of old art, has anyone else looked at the varnish crackle in the scan of Rembrandt's Night Watch? Literally, you can look down into the cracks. The resolution is 200 dots per millimeter, or about 5100 dpi. They used a $48,000 Hasselblad 100MP camera and a $6,000 macro lens. The museum doesn't talk about how much the positioning framework cost to build, or how long to write the software that checked the focus on every one of the ~8,500 individual photos that were pieced together to make the final image.
@GftNC, your long comment went into the spam folder. I'll leave it up to the real editors to fish it out.
The initial "awaiting approval" is because there are more than two links. Why WordPress classifies something as spam is a mystery, they don't reveal how it works.
On “Open Thread”
The robots are coming.
Elsewhere, I was in a discussion about the power requirements for an AGI that can handle all the things a humanoid robot will be asked to do. Current estimates are the human brain is roughly the equivalent of an exaflop processor. Germany recently fired up their new exaflop supercomputer, which is the most power efficient in the world. It draws 18.2 megaWatts (and the hardware takes up ~120 racks). I anticipate that a humanoid robot that can properly execute an order like "Go through the house, collect all the dirty dishes, load them into the dishwasher, and run it" will be a fancy peripheral for a closet full of computer gear drawing more power than the entire rest of the house.
"
On Wednesday this week, Trump signed an executive order that requires the Dept of Defense -- excuse me, Dept of War -- to sign long-term power purchase agreements with coal-fired power plants to provide power for military bases to keep those plants running. Separately, that the Dept of Energy will provide at least $175M for maintaining and upgrading coal-fired power plants in Appalachia. The EO includes a provision that the PPAs cannot infringe on the authority of other executive branch agencies. I have SO many questions about how they're going to make this work within the constraints set by FERC.
"
My in-laws in Colorado on the other side of the divide are freaking out about the lack of water and snowpack, too.
The problems west of the Divide make the ones to the east look fairly moderate. Snow timing has changed just in the almost 40 years I've lived here now. Having April snow bail us out has become a fairly regular occurrence. Not so much on the west side.
On “Adam Tooze”
...will have to decide whether and on what terms they want to work with an economically dominant China on the climate problem.
Here's the fuel mix for my pissant little non-profit local power authority for the last 24 hours. 20 years ago it was, except for the same amount of hydro, all fossil fuels. The wind is from turbines built somewhere in the US. The solar is from panels built in Georgia. Another 100MW of solar comes online late this year, along with a 100MW 400MWh battery system. The batteries are from a Korean company's US plant. For coal, 100MW is the minimum plant output that still allows for a warm start. The wholly-owned coal plant's power is as cheap as the wind or solar because local circumstances, so gets dispatched by the balancing authority.
Despite Trump's efforts, there are still things going on in the US, even if we aren't leading.
On “2026, as f**ked up as 2025”
On editing... To add slightly to @wj's comment, you generally have to be logged in to WordPress and have sufficient privileges to edit comments. I have enough privileges to be really dangerous, so if I want to edit, I log in, do the edit, then log out immediately.
On “An inscrutable Merry Christmas”
It's always a crap shoot when you upload images with unusual sizes. Not just in WordPress, but in many social network applications. Click on the image of the overpass above to get a version that's not scrunched-up horizontally.
"
Yesterday it was 65 °F with high clouds here at the north end of the Colorado Front Range urban corridor. I took a ride to see the city’s new gift to the bicycle cult. The city seems to finish about one major construction project on the trail system every couple of years. The next one broke ground this month — it will close a half-mile gap in the trail system, including going under the six lanes of the second busiest street in town.
On “Open Thread”
I’ve written here before about the one day while working an inventory job across CO, NE, SD, WY, MT...
Did you go through Casper? Was the wind blowing? (That's a trick question, for those who have not spent time in Casper.) The utilization factor at 80 meters for wind turbines near Casper is 49%. That is very likely the best in world for onshore turbines. Even the old school fossil fuel members of the Wyoming legislature are figuring out the state can derive far more revenue selling wind power to out-of-state customers than they can make burning coal.
"
it’s pretty simple to add color to visited links in wordpress:
I visited the site cleek pointed to. Just for the record, the CSS it recommends uses both pseudo elements and the !important modifier. I oppose both of those on general principle because they exist outside the JavaScript document model so cannot be modified by the user. As I've said in other places, "If there's some aspect of your page's styling that is so critical the user must not be allowed to change it you ought to be using PDF."
On “Something Different”
Speaking of high-definition scans of old art, has anyone else looked at the varnish crackle in the scan of Rembrandt's Night Watch? Literally, you can look down into the cracks. The resolution is 200 dots per millimeter, or about 5100 dpi. They used a $48,000 Hasselblad 100MP camera and a $6,000 macro lens. The museum doesn't talk about how much the positioning framework cost to build, or how long to write the software that checked the focus on every one of the ~8,500 individual photos that were pieced together to make the final image.
"
Yes, the base iPhone 17.
On “Let’s start calling a thug a thug”
@GftNC, your long comment went into the spam folder. I'll leave it up to the real editors to fish it out.
The initial "awaiting approval" is because there are more than two links. Why WordPress classifies something as spam is a mystery, they don't reveal how it works.
On “Notes about commenting”
The last one did. Testing to see if this comment goes to moderation while I'm logged in.