A new AI model called Jev launched last week and went viral. It's not an LLM. It doesn't generate text or pictures, but could be very useful for a number of use cases. The creators call it “the first System One model”, tout its performance (193x faster, 444x cheaper) and promise it can't hallucinate. So, what is it? How it (probably) works Behind the impressive marketing is a very interesting model. Jev is a close relative of LLMs like GPT, Claude, or DeepSeek, but is actually more similar to…

It’d been a year since I put any film through my Nikon 35Ti, so I loaded some of that expired Fujifilm Neopan 400 I’ve been shooting a lot of lately and took her out. My particular 35Ti works only in Program mode, and the dials up top don’t all work properly. (I knew that when I bought it, and the price reflected it.) But so what? Program mode will take you a long way with this camera. Honestly, if the camera’s other modes and features worked properly, I’d probably still shoot it in Program…

Gaining momentum again on the Wheel of the Year, we approach autumn and its opposite: the moment of genuine balance, called Mabon in modern pagan practice, but which is only very recently named as such — this is in fact a twentieth-century innovation. I will try to consider what makes this point on the cycle special and why it is invested with meaning. A moment of genuine, measurable balanceUnlike all the other points on the Wheel, the equinoxes are the only ones marking a genuine moment of…

dose of fresh things to read

aka the Mystery of Memory I know every word to “Boom Shake the Room” by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, a song that was on high rotation in the pub/club we frequented in … checks notes … 1993! God, I’m old. Yo back up now and give a brother room The fuse is lit and I’m about to go boom! Mercy mercy, mercy me My life is a cage but on stage I’m free The lyrics aren’t noteworthy and certainly aren’t the type of thing that could, by any measure, be considered useful information, and the fact that…

I’m not entirely sure when it happened exactly, but at some point a few years ago Social Media stopped being social media. The logic of person-to-person, one-to-one connection was replaced by a one-to-many model. Social became parasocial. That was the first change. A parasocial relationship describes a one-sided, psychological connection where a person feels a deep sense of intimacy or familiarity with someone they do not know in real life. The other person, the creator, most likely isn’t even…

Daily Drawing 996

📚🗨️ “Myths are not crossword puzzles or allegories with single meanings and answers.” Stephen Fry, Heroes

Since January 2025, the United States has deported at least 25,447 people to countries that are not their own. According to The Guardian those deported 'include those who spent most of their lives in the US, parents detained on the school run, (and) the adult children of elderly relatives who depend on them for care.'The Deportation Project Map lets you explore the Trump administration's global network of deportations. Click on a country on the map and you can see the number of people who have…

Reading Ed Sheeran’s speech when he opened his Philadelphia concert gave me a bit of a pause, that immediately followed by, “huh. Anywayyyy…” This part, particularly: I don’t want to disappoint fans, and I’ve never wanted to be an activist musician, but this has put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet. There has always been that voice: “But I just want to make music/play music/draw/create!” Hell yea,…

After strugges with grief and self-denial, Edward Vandermeersch of Oudenaarde's Rolling Hills built a brewery that brought him back to life. The post “Hands On” — The Rolling Hills Brewery of Oudenaarde appeared first on Belgian Smaak.

When a “house of ill fame” collapses, secrets spill out. The sort of secrets that embarrass the unclothed clientele, the city’s building inspectors and the wealthy landlord.Such was the case at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, 3 September 1877 when a very narrow building at 74 Longworth Street collapsed, killing four unfortunate souls. Longworth, a long-vanished Cincinnati street, once ran westward from Vine between Fifth and Sixth streets.In the autumn of 1877, workmen were engaged in demolishing a…

2006 fantasy, second of its series. Princess Andromeda (she prefers "Andie") has her mother Cassiopeia's brains, but not her beauty, and is determined to be useful rather than just locked away until a marriage alliance is needed. But that brings its own hazards.

I ran five different coding agents at the same local model, on the same task, with the same frozen test suite — and then I counted why they failed. The answer wasn’t subtle. About 90% of the failures were harness problems. Only about 10% were the model. And here’s the part that should change how you spend your next dollar: throwing a bigger, less-quantized model at it fixed none of them.

Duncan Rawlinson created this image using artificial intelligence and digital art techniques. Two open palms rise into view, fingers cupped to hold a glowing stream of light that shifts from coral pink at the edges to bright white at the center. Small points of color—orange, teal, and rose—drift upward like sparks or distant stars against a gradient field of deep blue and violet. The figure’s torso appears as a smooth dark form, anchoring the composition while the hands and their glowing…

GARINDAN (Kenner Flavor) The Retro Collection Target Exclusive 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure Set Item No.: No. G2554 Manufacturer: Hasbro Number: n/a Includes: Blaster, communicator, soft goods shawl Action Feature: n/a Retail: $64.99 Availability: July 2026 Appearances: Star Wars Bio: Rediscover the classics with The Star Wars Retro Collection - inspired by the Kenner originals! (Stolen from the marketing copy. Packaging has no bio.) Image: Adam's photo lab. Availability: Click here to buy it at…

As you are almost certainly aware, the government is having to pay much more in interest on its debt than it used to do. Here is a chart based on the last OBR forecast, and the likelihood is that their next forecast will revise these numbers upwards. An increase worth 2% of GDP may not sound big, but it is nearly as much as the current defence budget. Should this additional spending on debt interest be matched by higher taxes or reduced spending elsewhere? It has to be one or the other to meet…

Experiments into predicting GPT2 completions via Qwen models Next token prediction is a magical objective. To predict the correct token in such a vast variety of texts present in the pretraining corpus, the model must infer a tremendous amount of hidden and latent causes that generate that text. Only if you know that the ball comes down when someone throws it up can achieve low loss at texts related to balls. Of course, the pretraining corpus doesn’t just contain texts related to balls. It has…

Kartfahren auf Eis, mit dem Schneemobil über einen zugefrorenen See, eine Hundeschlittenfahrt durch die blaue Stunde und ein Besuch im Eishotel: Rund um Levi kannst Du Lappland im Winter auf sehr unterschiedliche Weise erleben. Ich habe alle vier Aktivitäten selbst ausprobiert – mit viel Begeisterung, einer Panikattacke im Tiefschnee und am Ende sogar mit einem gebrochenen Zeh. Mein Favorit? Ganz klar das Ice Karting. Wenn Du die verschneite Landschaft möglichst intensiv wahrnehmen möchtest,…

If you’ve been around the mechanical keyboard scene for a while, NuPhy’s name has probably come up at some point, most likely attached to one of their Air series low-profile boards. Over the past few years they’ve put out keyboards that look better than they have any right to at their price point, with a sound and feel that punches above their weight class and without the pretentiousness that usually comes with enthusiast hardware. The Kick75 is one of their more interesting releases so far,…

I spent three weeks in Laos and I loved it as much as I could without having the luxury of sleeping on my pillow back at home. But there was one thing that really bothered me about my stay, and … Continue reading →

Slightly late shiny links gathered from around the web. For more, try last weeks set found here or the weekly r/OSR blogroll or check the RPG Blog Carnival. Bloggie-nominated. Originally inspired by weaver.skepti.ch, delinked by request. Thriftomancer shares Hexcrawloween 2 The Nothic's Eye writes Inadvisable Decisions (GLΔG) Bat in the Attic shares Why is the Ogre there? Blog of Forlorn Encystment shares Developing the Sandbox: The Campaign Calendar Games Workshop posts Necromunda RPG Rise Up…

The Visitor Center for Saratoga National Historic ParkLast month we wandered over to New York state to visit Fort Ticonderoga and the Saratoga National Historic Park. I had ancestors fight in both locations in the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars. In preparation of the trip I had already researched these ancestors, and I had placed queries with the historians at both parks. See below for how to contact the historican at Saratoga.During the American Revolution, in 1777, the British…

In Nilay Patel’s Decoder conversation with Mark Gurman about John Ternus and Apple’s next big thing, Gurman describes something camera-equipped AirPods might eventually do: look at an email on your computer screen and help add an event to your calendar. And that was when he lost me. The email is already on a computer, and by all accounts of how computers have worked for the past decade, the software running on it ought to be able to add an event to a calendar. Introducing a camera seems like a…

We went to a comedy show this weekend. The comedian was Reece Kidd, and he was hallrous, however, there were three people in the front row with NO intention of interacting. A lot of comedy these days is crowd-work, and this was no exception. So, why sit in the front row if you don’t contribute.

The Full Moon is Sunday September 27. Saturn is rising before astronomical twilight. The Full Moon is close to Saturn on the 27th. Mars forms a line with the bright stars Castor and Pollux. Jupiter is low in the morning sky. In the evening, Venus is slowly sinking and Mercury is close to the bright star Spica in the twilight on the 26th. The Full Moon is Sunday September 27. North-Eastern horizon on the morning of Saturday, September 26 as seen from Adelaide at 4:35 ACST (90 minutes before…

I know that you all love Pins From the Bag, and anxiously await the next installment. Your anxiety and waiting have come to an end!Did you know that 1961 was the year of Kansas' centennial? I sure didn't. I wasn't born yet, so I didn't get the memo. I also didn't know that Olney, England and Liberal, Kansas were rivals in Pancake Day Races (this would be the 12th International event), a sport that would soon eclipse the World Cup. I'm not a big fan of store-bought orange juice (though the…

Listen to this episode here. Further reading Our Lives in the Wood episode 5 This Game Takes Place in Your Home Town Socials Kendo on Bluesky and the web Sam on Bluesky and itch The Dice Exploder blog is at diceexploder.com Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is Lilypads by Travis Tessmer, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey. Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show! Dice Exploder on Patreon Credits Our logo was designed by sporgory, our ad music is…

Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)

Dignity in a Digital age is Ro Khanna's attempt to address the economic inequality brought on by tech companies. He wants to see tech empower everyone, instead of disrupting most people while a very few gain crazy amounts of wealth. He breaks the book up into two parts. First he addresses expanding the tech opportunities around the United States. Second he attemps to address the reforms that are needed to ensure that tech doesn't harm the standing of citizens in the United States, and that it…