Darvinho

[Justin Hill - Author @JHillAuthor]

I can finally talk about this!

I've been spending a suspicious amount of time in fourteenth-century England recently, and this is why.

I'm writing a story for A Century of Swords, a new historical fiction anthology with a frankly ridiculous line-up of writers from across Europe.

More about what I'm writing soon. For now, you can see what we've all got ourselves into here:

https://t.co/ziLfmknLIA

With a stella collection of authors, including: Conn Iggulden, @BenKaneAuthor @GilesKristian @MatthewHarffy @angus_donald @AuthorGibbons @TimHodkinson @manofmercia @AdamPLofthouse @SA_McKay @MichaelJecks @HoskerGriff @tonyriches @GordonDoherty

#ACoS #ACenturyofSwords

[Brendan May @bmay]

This programme was pure joy. It hasn’t dated badly either.

[Gerald Posner @geraldposner]

I order a lot of secondhand and vintage books online. This year the prices jumped and I chalked it up to inflation. I was wrong.

The reason behind the spike in prices is what AI companies euphemistically dub "destructive scanning." That is when they buy millions of second-hand books in bulk and send them to enormous warehouses across America. There, automated assembly lines cut the pages from the spines and then feed the pages into huge industrial scanners.

Those books are being harvested for their text to expand the database for the LLM models. The physical pages? Later discarded. Some of these are the last remaining editions of historical and collectible works — once they're cut and scanned, they're gone.

Booksellers across the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and the U.S. are reporting the same thing: bulk, random, non-fiction orders. Orders have ranged from 1,000 books to as many as a million in a single purchase. Just one vendor contract called for scanning 500,000 to 2 million books.

Anthropic ran this under an internal name, Project Panama, and tried to keep it quiet. Some booksellers noticed something was odd. A Devon bookseller, for instance, got an odd order this summer for books on subjects as disparate as Cornish pioneers in South Africa, cheeses of the world, and Hong Kong jewelry — from a "shipping company" near Heathrow. Her suspicions grew fast. It turned out to an AI run office.

I should have seen this coming. I'm one of the author-plaintiffs in the Bartz et al. v. Anthropic class action — a different kind of theft. Anthropic had trained Claude on more than seven million digitized books, sourced from pirate websites, without paying a penny to authors or publishers. Mine included, seven of my thirteen. There are 120,000 individual authors and rightsholders (representing 447,576 eligible works out of 482,460 total listed books).

A federal judge approved the $1.5 billion settlement this summer. It was the court documents from that litigation that exposed Project Panama. I missed it until the story recently hit the Washington Post and Daily Mail and other outlets.

Having learned an expensive lesson from its class action payout, Anthropic is now going after physical books a different way — and legally, this time. Under the first-sale doctrine, established by the Supreme Court in 1908, once someone buys a physical book, they can do whatever they want with it, including destroying it.

So Anthropic attorneys have determined that buying and scanning a physical copy sidesteps the piracy problem. And once that book is shredded, any future Claude user can draw on its contents for free — the original gone forever.

Some call this a modern-day book burning. The Nazis destroyed books to erase what was in them — these companies destroy books to steal the information and then essentially sell it back to you. I am still angry this is somehow legal.

[Alan Shearer @alanshearer]

Thanks Eddie. You gave us this day 🖤🤍

[Darvinho @Darvinho10]

@NUFC OSULAAA!!!!

[Saganism @Saganismm]

On Valentine’s Day 36 years ago, at the request of Carl Sagan, NASA turned Voyager 1's camera back toward home for one last look.

From 3.7 billion miles away, it captured this: a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

Here is how Carl Sagan beautifully described it:

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor, and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

[NASA HQ PHOTO @nasahqphoto]

SLS and Orion are on their way to Pad 39B! Check out photos as they were rolled out atop the mobile launcher! 📷 https://t.co/xHhp44Qzr4

[Sky Sports F1 @SkySportsF1]

A heartfelt message from Lewis Hamilton to his fans ❤️

[NASA History Office @NASAhistory]

"Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you—all of you on the good Earth"

Astronauts orbited the Moon for the first time in history on Christmas Eve, 1968. On their fourth orbit, they captured the sight of the Earth rising over the Moon's horizon, a photo dubbed "Earthrise."

[Newcastle United @NUFC]

A MASSIVE WIN AT ST. JAMES' PARK!! 😍😍😍

[Justin Hill - Author @JHillAuthor]

‘the latest Minka Lesk book, Hell’s Last by Justin D. Hill, is also up for preorder. While the amazing miniatures set is no longer available on https://t.co/ED6K0nkXcS, it’s a terrific box that I’ve paired with my Hell’s Last Limited Edition in the Museum.’

#minkalesk #cadiastands

https://t.co/8n4de08HeK

[The Medieval Scholar @MedievalScholar]

The skulls of soldiers still in their chainmail from the 1361 Battle of Visby.

At Visby in Gotland, Sweden, the forces of Danish king Valdemar IV invaded and faced the defending Gotlandic farmers.

The Danish were victorious, and the farmers were slaughtered.

[ArchaeoHistories @histories_arch]

The Great Colonnade of Apamea in Syria, is one of most remarkable remnants of Roman architecture in the Middle East.

Stretching over 2km, this grand avenue once served as the main thoroughfare of Apamea, a prominent city founded in 3rd Century BC. Its colonnades, adorned with intricate Corinthian capitals and decorative reliefs, reflect the city’s wealth and importance during Roman and Byzantine eras.

The avenue was lined with shops, public buildings, and statues, making it a bustling hub of activity. Despite damage from earthquakes and time, the site remains a stunning example of ancient urban design.

#archaeohistories

[NASA @NASA]

We are saddened by the passing of Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13 and a four-time spaceflight veteran.

Lovell's life and work inspired millions. His courage under pressure helped forge our path to the Moon and beyond—a journey that continues today. https://t.co/AjT8qmxsZI

[Scuderia Ferrari HP @ScuderiaFerrari]

.@LewisHamilton drives from the pit lane to the points in P7, amazing work! 👏

[Tolkien Proverbs @TolkienProverbs]

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. GIMLI. #Tolkien #LOTR

[Newcastle United @NUFC]

We are deeply saddened to learn the heartbreaking news of Diogo Jota's passing.

Our heartfelt condolences are with Diogo’s young family, friends and everyone at Liverpool Football Club during this incredibly difficult time.

Rest in peace, Diogo. ❤️

[Alan Shearer @alanshearer]

Toon Toon 🖤🤍arrrmyyyyyyyyy. Ah man. Did the Geordies deserve that or what 🖤🤍🖤🤍 That was fucking amazing 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[Newcastle United @NUFC]

The moment our dreams became a reality 🫶

#wedontdoquiet

[Newcastle United @NUFC]

YOUR 2024/25 CARABAO CUP WINNERS 😍