Daily Tech News 17 December 2023

Top Story

Small is the new Large: Microsoft has announced Phi-2, which it terms a "small language model". (VentureBeat)

With 2.7 billion parameters it generally outperforms Llama-2 and Mistral with 7 billion parameters, while being small enough to run happily on graphics cards with just 4GB of RAM.

It's comparable to Mistral on language tests, but significantly better on mathematics and programming.

If that's too big for you, Microsoft recently released Phi-1 and Phi-1.5 which will run on any reasonably specced potato.

I'm happy to see this progress in making improvements to small models you can run yourself, that have potential to do some limited set of things well. The push to ever larger models at astronomical expense is going to fail unless fundamental changes are made to the designs - and to the culture of the companies building them.
Mistral also announced what they call Mixtral last week. (Mistral)

This a similar idea. Rather than building one huge model that tries to handle everything, Mixtral uses eight small (7 billion term) models, each able to fit on a commodity graphics card, and each tuned to a specific kind of task.

It outperforms the largest version of Llama-2 (70 billion terms) while being 30% smaller overall (for all eight models combined) and working on hardware at one twentieth the price.

Tech News

Speaking of commodity graphics cards Nvidia is expected to launch "new" models in January. (Tom's Hardware)

The models we're looking at are the 4070 Super, 4070 Ti Super, and 4080 Ti.

The only one of interest is the 4070 Ti Super, which is a cut-down 4080 and lowers the price point for a good 16GB Nvidia card. I mean, there is the 4060 Ti, but it's kind of crap.
MongoDB got hacked. (MongoDB)

They believe this is limited to the corporate systems and does not extend to their cloud offerings. If it turns out it does extend to their cloud offerings, that would be catastrophic.

I run MongoDB at my day job - just finished migrating a huge cluster from one cloud to another - but that's using regular cloud servers rather than cloud databases.
All these worlds are yours, except Europa. And Enceladus. (NASA)

In fact, all these worlds are ours. Piss off back where you came from.
Intel, Samsung, and TSMC have now all shown off working CFETs - CMOS transistors with the n-type and p-type transistors stacked on top of each other, rather than adjacent. (IEEE Spectrum)

This is not as profound a change as stacked flash cells, which changed the entire storage industry, but is equivalent to a free process node advance.

Given that process nodes are going to run out of room for improvement in ten years, that's a good thing.
Hasbro is continuing layoffs at Wizards of the Coast, makers of Magic the Gathering and owners of the Dungeons and Dragons franchise. (Geekwire)

Despite Wizards of the Coast repeatedly fucking over its own customers with woke bullshit, those two product lines are major money earners for Hasbro. It makes little sense for the company to fire core staff working on both products, and yet the announcements from those affected are all over Twitter.

Okay, maybe it does make some sense. (Twitter)

If your team's major accomplishment after a year of work is agreeing not to use AI-generated art, you should expect to be fired. At a minimum.
Apple's M3 Max is faster than an RTX 4090 in AI-based transcription tasks if you use an utterly broken benchmark. (WCCFTech)

If you use the correct benchmark, the 4090 is twelve times faster.
If you need to run AI models on the go, here's a laptop with a 64-core CPU and a desktop RTX 4080. (Tom's Hardware)

You may need a bigger lap though. This beast is not small.

VTuber News

Congratulations to Fishman and all the Sad Girls at Sad Girls, Inc for winning the rising star category at the 2023 VTuber awards. (Twitter)

It's amusing to see people complaining that Sad Girls should be competing with the titans like Hololive and Nijisanji. The entire reason they won this award is because they've grown so much this year that people compare them to the titans.
And congratulations too to Vedal and Neuro-sama on the Best Tech VTuber award.

Neuro-sama is a home-made AI VTuber who loves nothing more than roasting her poor creator. As the creation of a single person - even building off open-source tools - she's truly impressive.

Secure Your Damn Basements, People Videos of the Day

First it was Hololive.

And now Phase Connect - the aforementioned Sad Girls, Inc.

>

Who knows what Nijisanji or VShojo could have chained up down there?

Disclaimer: Well, probably Pomu and Kson respectively, but they're not talking. I mean they're talking a lot, but not about this. Yet. Actually, they're mostly talking about frogs. I don't know why.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 BOING!

Out for my morning walk. l8r.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at December 17, 2023 04:00 AM (zvEEc)

2 Morning all.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at December 17, 2023 04:03 AM (BLOW1)

3 G'day BDS and Pixy. The desert cold penetrates when you live at 4000 feet when the temps dip into the low to mid 30s . Worse when you are 5000 feet which how high Albuquerque.

Posted by: Lost in Space at December 17, 2023 04:11 AM (/kQwb)

4
Enceladus is the new Europa.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 04:18 AM (Mzdiz)

5 Techtime!

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 04:19 AM (T7nlx)

6 4 Enceladus is the new Europa.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 04:18 AM (Mzdiz)

... or a rolled tortilla with a filling typically of meat and served with a chili sauce?

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 04:20 AM (T7nlx)

7 I have summoned them from the deadthread.

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 04:22 AM (T7nlx)

8
And in other spacey things, I've been reading about superionic water(ice). An exotic solid phase of H2O that exists at temps in the thousands of K, and pressures of about 15 million psi.

This stuff likely explains the anomalous magnetic field of Uranus (and Neptune).

Uranus has a strange magnetic field.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 04:23 AM (Mzdiz)

9 Morning Pixy.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2023 04:25 AM (di6C2)

10 from the music thread (which I'm just catching up on):
Was this a vic sighting?

18 I gave up on all of the radio stations around here long ago.
Posted by: vic at December 16, 2023 07:42 PM (A5THL)

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 04:31 AM (T7nlx)

11 Reposted from dead thread:

Yet another Aw Crap Moment …

Per The Other McCain, John Hoge of Hogewash suffered a heart attack while driving, and passed away, thereafter.

His blog had many links to space pictures coming from the different telescopes and researchers, as well as finely honed wit and sarcasm.

Apologies if this was announced earlier.

Posted by: Adriane the Cynical Critic . . . at December 17, 2023 04:32 AM (4Winp)

12 hiya

Posted by: JT at December 17, 2023 04:32 AM (T4tVD)

13 10 from the music thread (which I'm just catching up on):
Was this a vic sighting?

18 I gave up on all of the radio stations around here long ago.
Posted by: vic at December 16, 2023 07:42 PM (A5THL)
Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 04:31 AM (T7nlx)

I saw something else from him last night as well.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2023 04:33 AM (di6C2)

14 Apologies if this was announced earlier.
Posted by: Adriane the Cynical Critic . . . at December 17, 2023 04:32 AM (4Winp)

RIP.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2023 04:33 AM (di6C2)

15 another maybe-vic from the music thread:

40 I had that John Prine song on my computer bot lost id due to a computer crash. too bad I can not copy it to a use able format from here.
Posted by: vic at December 16, 2023 08:00 PM (A5THL)

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 04:35 AM (T7nlx)

16 13 10 from the music thread (which I'm just catching up on):
Was this a vic sighting?

18 I gave up on all of the radio stations around here long ago.
Posted by: vic at December 16, 2023 07:42 PM (A5THL)
Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 04:31 AM (T7nlx)

I saw something else from him last night as well.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2023 04:33 AM (di6C2)

Oh, nice!

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 04:36 AM (T7nlx)

17 11 Reposted from dead thread:

Yet another Aw Crap Moment …

Per The Other McCain, John Hoge of Hogewash suffered a heart attack while driving, and passed away, thereafter.

He will be missed. I read him regularly back when the Kimberlin lawsuits were still going on.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at December 17, 2023 04:40 AM (BLOW1)

18 Oh, nice!
Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 04:36 AM (T7nlx)

I think the reports of his demise may have been premature. Or we are getting fucked with.

I tend to think it is vic considering the death announcement at the time seemed to be coming from someone who had an axe to grind. People are very odd.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2023 04:41 AM (di6C2)

19
No vic is very much alive, I gave him a test question and he knew the answer. Something about nukes and the distance to live from a major city.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 04:45 AM (enJYY)

20 19 No vic is very much alive, I gave him a test question and he knew the answer. Something about nukes and the distance to live from a major city.
Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 04:45 AM (enJYY)

Thank you, Divide by Zero.

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 04:46 AM (T7nlx)

21 19 No vic is very much alive, I gave him a test question and he knew the answer. Something about nukes and the distance to live from a major city.

If you can get an Amazon delivery in under a week, you're too close.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at December 17, 2023 04:46 AM (BLOW1)

22 18 People are very odd.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2023 04:41 AM (di6C2)

Indeed.

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 04:47 AM (T7nlx)

23 22 18 People are very odd.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2023 04:41 AM (di6C2)

Indeed.
Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 04:47 AM (T7nlx)

They can't even.

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 04:47 AM (T7nlx)

24
Vic also said he had been in the hospital for 2.5 months, had a computer issue, but has cancer.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 04:50 AM (enJYY)

25
Okay, I've got a mad cat. Young Purry Mason. This is the time he wants to go outside to hunt and kill. And I mean eviscerate.

But, it's raining. He thinks I'm god, near as I can figure. I mean, I make the light come on, provide food and water for him and all that.

So, he thinks I'm responsible for the rain. That somehow, I'm making it rain outside, and preventing him from going out and hunting. He lets me know he's not pleased.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 04:52 AM (Mzdiz)

26
I read that Australia is the place to be post nuke exchange. For a while anyway. Something, something, on the beach.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 04:54 AM (enJYY)

27 I read that Australia is the place to be post nuke exchange.

Only if you have old football gear. American football gear …

Just sayin’

Posted by: Adriane the Foreign Film Critic . . . at December 17, 2023 04:57 AM (4Winp)

28 I read that Australia is the place to be post nuke exchange. For a while anyway. Something, something, on the beach.
Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 04:54 AM (enJYY)

They tawk funny there.

Posted by: JT at December 17, 2023 04:58 AM (T4tVD)

29
Protip: Don't salt your h-bombs with cobalt.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 05:01 AM (enJYY)

30 25 Okay, I've got a mad cat. Young Purry Mason. This is the time he wants to go outside to hunt and kill. And I mean eviscerate.

But, it's raining. He thinks I'm god, near as I can figure. I mean, I make the light come on, provide food and water for him and all that.

So, he thinks I'm responsible for the rain. That somehow, I'm making it rain outside, and preventing him from going out and hunting. He lets me know he's not pleased.

He just wants you to open The Door into Summer. Is that too much to ask?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at December 17, 2023 05:02 AM (BLOW1)

31 I read that Australia is the place to be post nuke exchange. For a while anyway. Something, something, on the beach.
Posted by: Divide by Zero

NO AIDANS

Posted by: University of Wollamalloo at December 17, 2023 05:05 AM (wAZ5s)

32 Protip: Don't salt your h-bombs with cobalt.
Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 05:01 AM (enJYY)

Is that a fart joke ?

Posted by: JT at December 17, 2023 05:06 AM (T4tVD)

33 I liked this, on the pet thread yesterday:

72 They think there is something special about human food because you are eating it.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 16, 2023 05:01 PM (di6C2)

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 05:08 AM (T7nlx)

34
Young Purry has now said screw it, and headed off in the rain. He'll be back in a few minutes. Wet, and mad as a wet hen.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 05:12 AM (Mzdiz)

35 30 He just wants you to open The Door into Summer. Is that too much to ask?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at December 17, 2023 05:02 AM (BLOW1)

LOL

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 05:16 AM (T7nlx)

36 Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 05:08 AM (T7nlx)

It's true. Dogs assume a hierarchy. So if you are keeping this food to yourself, it must be really good.

I also figure that due to their far stronger sense of smell, the seasoning in human food is far stronger than in dog food. So it will taste dramatically different to them.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2023 05:18 AM (di6C2)

37 Do dry hens ever get mad ?

Posted by: JT at December 17, 2023 05:18 AM (T4tVD)

38 Firefighters rescue elf on a shelf and give. Good lesson about fire prevention. Sunny Skyz Story:

https://tinyurl.com/mse5mnex

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at December 17, 2023 05:18 AM (7Q51k)

39
Is that a fart joke ?

Posted by: JT at December 17, 2023 05:06 AM

No, that was sort of the premise of the book "On the Beach" - that a nuke exchange had occurred in the northern hemisphere and the bombs had been salted with cobalt for enhanced radiological effect. Unfortunately as the fallout drifted around in the sky it slowly was working its way toward Australia where it would kill everyone.

Much debate as to whether to open the trout fishing season early that year or not.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 05:19 AM (enJYY)

40 That NASA link. They are using computer models, you know, like global warming pseudo-scientists. GIGO. How good is this model? More GIGO.
If God did not decide to put Life there, no amount of HCN is going to do it.

Posted by: Ciampino - Too many variables for spontaneous Life at December 17, 2023 05:22 AM (qfLjt)

41 Christmas dilemma-Seeking wisdom from God. A missionary reflects on a passage from the Book of Proverbs:

https://tinyurl.com/mr23jwev

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at December 17, 2023 05:22 AM (7Q51k)

42 Unfortunately as the fallout drifted around in the sky it slowly was working its way toward Australia where it would kill everyone.

Much debate as to whether to open the trout fishing season early that year or not.
Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 05:19 AM (enJYY)

I wonder how many of our assumptions on nuclear war are false. A lot of this stuff goes into that nexus of 'what is real? are people making statements on what would happen based on valid data and speculation or because it fits their particular narrative?'

Look at how much of the stuff on climate is out and out fabrication. How long has that kind of shit been going on?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2023 05:23 AM (di6C2)

43 Two data points that make me wonder: Hiroshima/Nagasaki and the Chernobyl Exclusion zone. It's not exactly Fallout.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2023 05:24 AM (di6C2)

44 8
Uranus has a strange magnetic field.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 04:23 AM (Mzdiz)
----
Mine's alright!

Posted by: Ciampino - Don't eat neodynium magnets at December 17, 2023 05:24 AM (qfLjt)

45 Uranus has a strange magnetic field.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 04:23 AM (Mzdiz)

I wash it every morning. Maybe I should get a bidet.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2023 05:25 AM (di6C2)

46 So, he thinks I'm responsible for the rain. That somehow, I'm making it rain outside, and preventing him from going out and hunting. He lets me know he's not pleased.
Posted by: publius
----------

LOL, I know *That Look* from a pet...

As if their hooman has somehow betrayed them-- for not making the rain stop, or the sun shine, or the snow disappear.

Posted by: JQ at December 17, 2023 05:26 AM (njWTi)

47
Well, Purry is still out in the rain. I guess he's showing me. When he comes back in, he's gonna be fussing up a storm.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 05:28 AM (Mzdiz)

48 When what was it five (5) nuclear reactors melted down in Japan, after the tsunami, I figured it would be lots of dead people right away. They were storing decades of golly knows what spent fuel rods on site as well. It all burned up. Or down.

Posted by: Common Tater at December 17, 2023 05:29 AM (dSuqw)

49 26
I read that Australia is the place to be post nuke exchange. For a while anyway. Something, something, on the beach.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 04:54 AM (enJYY)
----
Neville Shute
I read all his books. The other Oz book is "Beyond The Black Stump".

Posted by: Ciampino - Put your car on blocks for the Space Aliens to find at December 17, 2023 05:29 AM (qfLjt)

50
Two data points that make me wonder: Hiroshima/Nagasaki and the Chernobyl Exclusion zone. It's not exactly Fallout.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2023 05:24 AM

There was some interesting research done on life expectancy (LE) in the Hiroshima area iirc. Three overlapping circles, each a standard deviation larger. The smallest circle, reduced LE, next circle enhanced LE, largest circle average LE.

Vic always used to downplay the effects of low level radiation and say the safe levels were set way too low.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 05:30 AM (enJYY)

51 AI is too much of an oxymoron for me to deal with. It can only be as smart as it's creator is, or maybe I should say it's compilers. Not to ignore the cognitive dissonance present.

Posted by: irongrampa at December 17, 2023 05:30 AM (KATBx)

52 Cat went out for his 'all-night' hunt but came back in after 15 minutes. It's froggy out! (frosty and foggy)

Posted by: JQ at December 17, 2023 05:31 AM (njWTi)

53 Phi became self aware at 2:14 a.m., EDT, on August 29, 1997.

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2023 05:35 AM (lwOKI)

54
Young Purry, has in one early morning killing run, brought as many as three (3) critters on the back porch. Usually field mice (voles).

It's like Hannibal Lecter's workshop, sometimes. He takes them apart, eats some parts, and leaves the others.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 05:35 AM (Mzdiz)

55
Neville Shute
I read all his books. The other Oz book is "Beyond The Black Stump".

Posted by: Ciampino - Put your car on blocks

I only read 'On the Beach' when I was a young teenager. After that I had no desire to read another word he wrote. Maybe I picked up a leftist vib I guess.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 05:36 AM (enJYY)

56
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at December 17, 2023 05:39 AM (xDK93)

57 Third Sunday of Advent- The gift of Joy:

https://tinyurl.com/y83se9k7

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at December 17, 2023 05:39 AM (oiyLU)

58 When Cat is hungry, he eats all of the mouse* or birdy. *except for the green part

When just snacking, only the front half of mouse or the birdy breast.

Eeeeeww

Posted by: JQ at December 17, 2023 05:40 AM (njWTi)

59 I read 'On The Beach' twenty-some years ago.

Ugh! Felt so empty, forlorn, hopeless afterward. Took a while to snap out of it.

Posted by: JQ at December 17, 2023 05:43 AM (njWTi)

60
I guess the part of 'On the Beach' that pissed me off the most is they knew approximately when they were all gonna die and they were actually *debating* whether to officially open trout season early.

I saw a cartoon recently that sorta touched on that. Way in the background a huge mushroom cloud. In the foreground two guys with fishing poles. One says to the other, "Looks like there's no size or catch limit today."

Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 05:46 AM (enJYY)

61 I read 'On The Beach' twenty-some years ago.

Ugh! Felt so empty, forlorn, hopeless afterward. Took a while to snap out of it.
Posted by: JQ

Try this one instead-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tKRUFybfas

Posted by: Musical Miklos at December 17, 2023 05:46 AM (wAZ5s)

62 GROSS, finger-sucker and waiting for Miss Lindsey in Senate

https://is.gd/lrMDic

Posted by: Ciampino - Apply directly to the forehead! at December 17, 2023 05:46 AM (qfLjt)

63
Well, Purry just returned. Wet as hell, but he's not too mad. I gave him some treats, which seemed to sastisfy him, and he seems ready to take a nap.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 05:47 AM (Mzdiz)

64 63
Well, Purry just returned. Wet as hell, but he's not too mad. I gave him some treats, which seemed to sastisfy him, and he seems ready to take a nap.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 05:47 AM (Mzdiz)
----
Does he let you dry him?

Posted by: Ciampino - Apply directly to wet fur at December 17, 2023 05:49 AM (qfLjt)

65 Donald Trump paraphrases ADOLF HITLER by telling rally that migrants are 'poisoning the blood of our country': Phrase first appeared in führer book Mein Kampf

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2023 05:50 AM (lwOKI)

66 >> Does he let you dry him?

He'll let Miley dry him sometimes.

Well, here he is my lap, now. He's not too wet. He's now moved into one of his favorite spots, next to the computer case. He's gonna sleep there for a few hours, looks like.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 05:52 AM (Mzdiz)

67 As Paramount+ struggles to turn a profit, changes could affect Star Trek spinoffs.

https://is.gd/7qk6S6

Posted by: Ciampino - I added spinoffs otherwise deceptive at December 17, 2023 05:53 AM (qfLjt)

68 RIP

AC/DC's drummer Colin Burgess dies aged 77 as the band pay tribute to the 'very respected musician'

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2023 05:55 AM (lwOKI)

69
Purry's sister, Della has good sense. When it gets rainy, she just stays in the house, no fuss. (Get ot, Purry Mason and Della? That's from Greg Gutfeld joke about his lawyer cat, Purry Mason).

Della is curled up next to Miley, both sound asleep now.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 05:56 AM (Mzdiz)

70 51 AI is too much of an oxymoron for me to deal with.
Posted by: irongrampa at December 17, 2023 05:30 AM (KATBx)

Jumbo shrimp!

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 05:56 AM (T7nlx)

71 Chicago says there are no more migrants camped outside of police stations

https://is.gd/o0w5vi

Posted by: Ciampino - Good location Camp-To-Jail at December 17, 2023 05:56 AM (qfLjt)

72 70 51 AI is too much of an oxymoron for me to deal with.
Posted by: irongrampa at December 17, 2023 05:30 AM (KATBx)

Jumbo shrimp!

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 05:56 AM (T7nlx)
----
My favorite is Military Intelligence.
The Military has no smarts. To make matters worse it uses Intelligence for the word Data. Sounds better but is lame.

Posted by: Ciampino - Intelligence say Tonto no go to town at December 17, 2023 05:59 AM (qfLjt)

73 66 Well, here he is my lap, now. He's not too wet. He's now moved into one of his favorite spots, next to the computer case. He's gonna sleep there for a few hours, looks like.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley at December 17, 2023 05:52 AM (Mzdiz)

... and then he's gonna slash your tires.

Posted by: m at December 17, 2023 05:59 AM (T7nlx)

74 An Advent hymn- Hail to The Lord's Anointed:

https://tinyurl.com/ye2ym2ef

The author of this hymn, James Montgomery ( 1771-1854) is third only to Issac Watts and Charles Wesley in his output of poems for hymns. One commentary of this hymn says
"Montgomery was is able to put with fervor, simplicity and beauty of the emotions and aspirations of ordinary Christians ." His parents were missionaries to the West Indies and he was left at. Boarding school in England at age six which must have been hard. However it was run by a religious school and Montgomery notes "whatever we did was done in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ whom we are taught to regard in the amiable light of a friend and brother." Montgomery became the editor of a paper and was active in advocating for workers rights and advocating for the abolishment of slavery.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at December 17, 2023 06:00 AM (dTvTf)

75 An independent commission recommended that the memorial be taken down in 2022 as part of its final report to Congress on renaming military bases and other buildings or items celebrating the Confederacy.

Following the report, a congressional mandate called for the removal of all Confederate memorials by Jan. 1, 2024.

The statue was erected in 1914 and features a bronze woman wearing a crown of olive leaves atop a 32-foot pedestal.

"Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered.

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2023 06:05 AM (lwOKI)

76 A few days ago I mentioned my LaCrosse weather-clock was showing about 70 seconds fast. I reset the time manually and now it has gone back to 70 seconds fast. Is it possessed? Is Boulder possessed or is Microsoft possessed?
The Time server for my PC is time.windows.com.
My phones are IP phones with my ISP and they show a time that matches my PCs.

Posted by: Ciampino - I'm in a time warp, help! at December 17, 2023 06:05 AM (qfLjt)

77 Nood

Posted by: Jamaica NYC at December 17, 2023 06:06 AM (Eeb9P)

78
Phrase first appeared in führer book Mein Kampf

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2023 05:50 AM

In reference to the Jews. It could be a classic Trump troll.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at December 17, 2023 06:09 AM (enJYY)

79 A fair reading of the passages they’ve presented suggests that while some of their claims are bogus, others do show problematic issues in a few of Gay’s writings. But they amount to academic misdemeanors—real, but evidence of occasional sloppiness rather than malicious theft.

Sloppiness is the new black.

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2023 06:29 AM (lwOKI)

80 Birdbath status?

Posted by: Just Wondering at December 17, 2023 07:50 AM (NBVIP)

81 Regarding WOTC - they started the year with a major blunder, trying to change the terms & conditions of the Open Game License (OGL) so that third party publishers have to give them a chunk of their revenue. They backtracked after the backlash, but the layoffs don't surprise me.

Posted by: Matt harris at December 17, 2023 03:58 PM (x0RtA)

82 > It makes little sense for (WotC) to fire core staff working on both products

A couple of salient points: one, you really don't need very many people to produce a tabletop RPG. Single-creators do it all the time on Kickstarter with freelancer art; there are TTRPG publishing "studios" that handle all the production stuff for single authors and employ five full-time employees. Two, D&D has been recycling the same material for decades now. WotC could literally replace the entire D&D unit with six freelancers and have them do nothing but update old material to the current edition and no one would notice.
Last, the D&D unit has become thoroughly riddled with degenerates, activists and faux-autistic nerds who have no idea how to produce saleable product. Wiping the slate is the best thing that can happen to the franchise.

Posted by: Daniel Ream at December 17, 2023 07:44 PM (/0tPK)

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