Tom Standage

Author of “A Brief History of Motion” (2021) and six other history books, @TheEconomist deputy editor, @SebastopolBand drummer, wine nerd, gamer. Views = mine

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

Here's “Animals”, the first track from the second album by @SebastopolBand, in which I play drums https://t.co/7UmW3nmeyU

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

@alexpotato @dwarkesh_sp Ha ha! Actually this is my AI book, from 2002. “Can a machine think?” but in 1770. The UK title was “The Mechanical Turk”, which is where Amazon got the name for its crowdwork platform

https://t.co/ynKxsUzM2N

My job now is predicting the future at The Economist

[Chon Tang @chontang]

Here is an interesting view of the operational aspects of the Beijing robotic half marathon:

- battery swap (obvious),
- liquid cooled, with dry ice used as the cooling source,
- and looks like liberal use of coolant on hip and knee joints as well.

I didn't realize how much cooling was an issue - is it the Jetson / sensors? Or is it the actuators? Makes me thinking investing in cooling is worthwhile outside the data center.

Looks a little unsteady... reminds me of my half marathon runs when I get to a rest stop. Video from 铁卫士 on XHS.

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

@davidjrainey It is pretty cool, isn’t it?

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

@davidjrainey What should Force Touch do? Losing-place bug being fixed. Single column here to stay, I'm afraid, because vast majority of users on phones

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

@vinography @bonkowskimw Yes, this is quite similar to clairet (clairette is a grape). But clairet uses only red grapes. Blouge uses white grapes too (like Spanish clarete). And now France has recognised a new kind of light Bordeaux red called "claret". It's a recipe for confusion https://t.co/EDEtbLns24

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

@DGHetherington @TfL Thanks. I've sent them the digital V5, photos of my car, etc today. (I'm also being asked to prove what kind of vehicle it is, for Blackwall/Silvertown tunnel tolls.) Again, DVLA has already provided TfL with this information!

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

@DaffydColes @TfL I have the same problem -- @TfL think my Volvo EV is not ULEZ compliant, even though their ULEZ checker says it is. How did you fix this? Did you have to send them your V5C etc?

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

Um, those are all elements, not minerals, and none of them is a rare-earth element
https://t.co/mqiB6fD5cC

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

@MrT_on_Fleek A-maize-ing! etc etc

[Frog and Toad Bot @FrogandToadbot]

Toad sat on the edge of his bed. ’Blah,’ said Toad. ‘I feel down in the dumps.’

[Pessimists Archive @PessimistsArc]

Things blamed on radio (From 1920s to 1940s)

- Bad economy
- Poor grades
- Robbery
- Dead birds
- Dirigible explosions
- Broken windows
- Fights
- Rain
- Snow
- Drought
- Gun deaths
- Bad skin
- Jail breaks
- Unemployment of blind
- Blue, green and pink water

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

@DuchessThompson @ROMtoronto Ha ha! I always do this too! Whatever kind of museum it is, there’s usually a link. At the coin museum in Athens, for example, there are amphorae on the coins of Chios…

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

@CJHandmer @DrStarson Real nerds go to see Platform 0 at King's Cross, a rare station with zero-based numbering. Perhaps Dijkstra had fans at British Rail back in the day?

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

@CJHandmer Using synthetic fuel, of course

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

@CJHandmer @SciGuySpace At @TheEconomist we’ve been saying SLS should be cancelled for years. But are we “space” journalists?

[Greg Nemet @GregNemet]

New paper:
“Lessons for scaling direct air capture from the history of ammonia synthesis.”
Led by Cameron Roberts.

TLDR:
If high temperature DAC can grow like ammonia it can meet 2050 targets, but…

1/x

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

@bradtem It has mirrors, but no steering wheel?

[Tom Standage @tomstandage]

@lilbytelil @patrickc Might I ask how you obtain the full text of each edition? Do you use an ePub/Kindle edition or PDF, or did you write a scraper? (I too have been experimenting with summaries or entire editions, using Gemini, but we have access to PDFs internally)