Crypto History

Historical photographs of key events surrounding the blockchain revolution.

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

Harvard

[Geoffrey Miller @gmiller]

A little rant about American universities, in the light on the recent Congressional testimony debacle:

Today I learned that Harvard President Claudine Gay seems to have published only 11 peer-reviewed journal papers in her entire academic career.

'So what?', you might ask.

Well, that's about the number you'd normally need to get hired as a first-year tenure-track assistant professor at a decent state university.

It's the number I published in the 12 months before I got tenure.

It's about the number that my more workaholic colleagues publish every year, decade after decade, throughout their careers.

And it's less than 1% as many papers as get published by outstanding researchers like behavior geneticist Nick Martin (with over 1,500 journal papers).

The situation at Harvard is not unusual. The leaders of academia are not typically leading academics, in the sense of highly productive researchers or widely respected teachers.

One might say they are career bureaucrats - but that would misunderstand their crucial ideological function.

The American people need to understand that in modern universities, both public and private, administrators function more like party political officers in communist Russian or Chinese universities. They are selected, throughour their careers, largely for their political commitments, and their willingness to enforce them. Like Cold War commissars, their allegiance is to the party, not to academia where they happen to work.

I mean 'party' quite literally: the Democratic party. Most American university administrators are loyal Democrats, and can't really imagine why anyone wouldn't be. Very few are Republicans or Libertarians.

And an increasing proportion of them are fully woke identitarian Leftists: they often launched their careers with a short series of papers on woke topics, using woke ideological frameworks, published in woke journals - before turning to the administrative track that offers much more political power to propagandize, indoctrinate, and control.

'So what?', you're might ask.

I've seen many calls for university administrators to enforce the rules of classical liberalism and free speech more fairly. This is like asking a Soviet-era commissar to abandon their Communist party allegiance, and to develop an entirely new identity and ethos grounded in an ideology that they have spent their entire career fighting.

It will not happen. Political animals do not change their spots.

University presidents who have prioritized amassing ideological power over producing academic research will not suddenly rediscover the merits of open inquiry.

They need to be fired, and replaced with academic leaders who are actually leading academics - rather than party political officers.
https://t.co/Cc1GLVLoGs

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Musk naively still doesn't understand that if Russians HAD taken all of Ukraine there would be systematic torture, rape and massacres as have occurred in EVERY area Russians have managed to occupy.

The guy is a fucking idiot.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Apart from the fact there is already a war in Europe? The best way to avoid war expanding to "real" Europe, as he must see it, is to supply Ukraine with every weapon it needs to defeat Russia now. Why wait for war to come to Poland and Germany?

[Frode #Fella 🇺🇦🇳🇴🇨🇦 @FrodeHommedal]

Daily reminder. Elmo is a snowflake.

[Mark Nelson @energybants]

Siemens Energy stock is getting crushed today as the company asks the German government for a financial lifeline.

Things are turning ugly as higher interest rates raise the cost of new wind turbines, but the ones already built don't work well.

Shares down another 39% today after major drops earlier this year.

The German government is having to bet the farm on wind, as the solar industry has gone almost totally to China and nuclear was forcibly stopped.

But will Germany guarantee Siemens's dodgy turbines? We're about to find out.

Nuclear struggles hard to get built in the west these days, but after it does, reactors enjoy an extremely long lifetime of steady power production to recover construction expenditures.

Parent company Siemens AG wisely spun off Siemens Energy before the €4.5 billion (and counting) losses hit this year, but remains the top shareholder at 25.1%.

Hard decisions about the future of European clean energy are coming up.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Correct sentiments by Macron, this is a civilizational battle. But it's not just Hamas, but its military, financial, and spiritual patrons. Unless Putin and Iran are defeated and deterred, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other thugs will only multiply.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Failing to provide everything Ukraine needs for victory has encouraged aggression and terror elsewhere, and will continue to do so as resources and political will are stretched thin and instability spreads. Biden must change a failing strategy and America must lead.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Biden's speech must address that this is a global war, and America and Americans are part of it, like it or not. It's not just Israel, or Ukraine. The forces of dictatorship and terror always see America as their enemy, as a target. If they see weakness, attacks will spread.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

But the damage from Hamas propaganda was done, a PR victory for terror thanks to the NY Times and other credulous liberal media. This led to canceling Biden's other meetings and reducing US influence by tying it to Israel alone, which will lead to greater bloodshed in the region.

[Mark Nelson @energybants]

GERMANY SUBMITS TO FRANCE ON NUCLEAR DEMANDS

Germany has now said that France can fund its nuclear fleet life extensions with state support, reports the FT.

This decision opens up a new nuclear era in Europe.

Once France refurbishes its reactors, it will seal a permanent energy advantage over Germany.

No other energy source competes with existing nuclear in its ability to cleanly and cheaply power industry . Germany just closed its reactors and its industries are suffering the consequences.

But there's another crucial angle here. Germany should now be able to use its own state money to restore up to 8 of its own reactors to operation in the coming years!

And these German reactors consistently performed at a much higher level than French reactors, reportedly at around half the production cost. About €20-25 per MWh compared to around €40-50 for the French fleet.

Ironically, several of the German reactors need much less work to restart than most of the French reactors need to stay in operation! This speaks to the quality of German nuclear engineering and management.

So if Germany seizes the opportunity opened up by their own defeat, their restarted reactors by themselves can supply the entire cheap industrial electricity program that Economy Minister Robert Habeck has proposed.

And across Europe, this news clearly shows that the nuclear bloc led by France is truly in the driver's seat on energy matters.

[Pavel Slunkin @PavelSlunkin]

I am 34 y.o. Belarusian living in exile in Poland.
FIRST time in my life I will see a peaceful transition of power. To opposition. After democratic elections. With 73% turnout.
My message to you - value and protect your democracy. You can't even imagine what a miracle you have.

[WIRED @WIRED]

“Musk hasn't given the voiceless a voice, he's just dragged us all down into the swamp, and the only people who truly benefit are shameless grifters.” https://t.co/krYPIhtTZC

[Francis Fukuyama @FukuyamaFrancis]

Finally, some good news.

[Johan Christian Sollid @sollidnuclear]

🇩🇪 vs. 🇪🇺
Germany’s anti nuclear stance stalls Europe’s transistion away from fossil fuels.

It’s mind boggling that Germany still believe they’re being taking seriously, when promoting their anti scientific nuclear propaganda.

Get over it. You lost Germany.
1/5

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

This isn't an ivory tower exercise, not a diplomatic board game. It's a fucking war, with real people you are trying to sacrifice to sound oh so diplomatic & realistic in a journal. This garbage has already been proven wrong. Putin chose war, wants war, and will until he loses.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Is this a sick joke? Russia is murdering Ukrainian civilians, countless war crimes, and Foreign Affairs gives space to "a constructive approach" and concessions to Russia's mythical "security concerns"? Now? Not 2014, not 2021, but after 20 months of unprovoked, genocidal war?

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

"A place for Russia in Europe's security architecture"?! It's a parody of the appeasement intellectual who grovels before dictators. This Thomas Graham should go to Mariupol to see what Russia thinks of Europe's security architecture and Europe's physical architecture.

[Paul Shapoval @Frialum]

Excuse me?