timelets

Tue, 23 May 2023 06:43:15 GMT

1 --> T1  --> T2
        \     /\
         \    |
          \   |
          _\| ]
             P

In the beginning...

e: 1 -> T1 is an equalizer
f: T1 -> T2
g: T1 -> P
h: P -> T2

f = h g

T1 is a narrative
T2 is an enablement

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Thu, 30 Jun 2022 08:19:13 GMT

“The telos is responsible for what as matter and what as aspect are together co-responsible for the sacrificial vessel.”

Heidegger, quoted from Dusek, Val, Scharff, Robert C. “Philosophy of Technology.”

s: p -> e
t: p -> e

telos, i.e. c:

p -> c
e -> c

Within the scope of a given telos, elements (causes) can be modeled as a slice category. This probably means that an algebra on the telos would be a co-slice cat.

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TIL: Skíðblaðnir

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 04:45:43 GMT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sk%C3%AD%C3%B0bla%C3%B0nir

The Sons of Ivaldi, who High adds are dwarfs, crafted the ship and gave it to Freyr. High continues that the ship is big enough for all of the gods to travel aboard it with wargear and weapons in tow, and that, as soon as its sail is hoisted, the ship finds good wind, and goes wherever it need be. It is made up of so many parts and with such craftsmanship that, when it is not needed at sea, it may be folded up like cloth and placed into one's pocket.

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Mon, 26 Oct 2020 05:50:04 GMT

( Read more... )

We may easily proceed
               thus to infinity, 
                                  and conceive 
             
the whole of nature 
                     as one individual,

whose parts,
that is, 
            all bodies, 
                        vary in infinite ways, 
without any change 
                     in the individual 
                                      as a whole.

-- Spinoza, The Ethics, Part II, Lemma VII, Note.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3800/3800-h/3800-h.htm#chap02

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TIL

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 00:18:29 GMT

Given the huge size of the empire, factors of distance and time determined how closely central government could control the diplomatic activities of its governors on the frontiers.
..
Yet this was not the norm.
..
Sea travel was largely seasonal and often dangerous. Probably more important, it was highly unpredictable.42 A death sentence from Caligula in Rome for the governor of Syria was three months en route, arriving twenty-seven days after news of the emperor’s death.
..
The relative reliability of land communication was the preferred option. Augustus is said to have introduced a system of runners (Suet. Aug. 49), but if it was ever implemented it was soon abandoned. The Principate relied on the imperial post (cursus publicus), a system where those with official authorization (diplomata) could requisition horses and vehicles from either private sources or official posting stations (mansiones).43 It has been estimated that the average speed of this system was about 50 miles a day, although for urgent messages it could have managed up to 160 miles a day.
...
The sometimes leisurely nature of diplomacy can be accounted for by the nature of ancient warfare. It was both seasonal, rarely being conducted in the winter, and slow-moving, ancient armies usually only moving at a speed of about 15 miles a day.46 There was often no need for diplomacy to hurry

--- Sabin, et al. The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare, V2.

The ratio of communication speed vs the underlying events is what matters the most.

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TIL: Ractopamine

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 18:04:54 GMT

Major U.S.-based meat producers are ramping up for such an uptick. In a November earnings call, Tyson Foods Inc. Chief Executive Noel White told investors that the company expected to export a higher amount of pork to China in 2020 thanks to its new policy of only purchasing hogs free of ractopamine* —a feed additive used in U.S. hogs but banned in China.

JBS USA Holdings Inc., whose Brazil-based parent company is the world’s largest processor of beef and pork, also said it would start selling ractopamine-free pork this month, “in order to maximize export market opportunities.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-pork-producers-didnt-bring-home-the-bacon-in-2019-11578479401

Food in the US is a highly engineered product. Maybe that's why milk, cheese and meats taste different in Europe. Bread is also different because here it's engineered to be mass produced and sliceable.

* Ractopamine is a feed additive, banned in many countries, to promote leanness in animals raised for their meat.

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TIL: the movie industry in 2019

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 22:37:31 GMT

So far this year, more than 27% of the box-office grosses in the U.S. and Canada have been generated by the five-highest grossing movies, according to Box Office Mojo. Four of those movies were released by Walt Disney Co.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-to-terminate-longstanding-legal-rules-for-movie-distribution-11574110393

Disney seems to be the best in making modern fairy tales:

Highest-grossing films of 2019
Rank	Title	Distributor	Worldwide gross
1	Avengers: Endgame	Disney	$2,797,800,564
2	The Lion King	Disney	$1,655,168,910
3	Spider-Man: Far From Home	Sony	$1,131,845,802
4	Captain Marvel	Disney	$1,128,274,794
5	Toy Story 4		$1,073,173,585
6	Aladdin		$1,050,693,953
7	Joker	Warner Bros.	$1,016,599,593
8	Hobbs & Shaw	Universal	$758,910,100
9	Ne Zha	Beijing Enlight	$700,547,754
10	The Wandering Earth	China Film Group	$699,760,773

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A communication failure

Sun, 10 Nov 2019 05:22:30 GMT

Timoxeinos would write a letter to Artabazos, or Artabazos would write one to him, and they would wrap the message around an arrow beneath the point, tie it to the feathers, then shoot it to an agreed-upon place. But the plan of Timoxeinos to betray Poteidaia was detected, for on one occasion when Artabazos shot an arrow to the assigned location, he missed his aim and hit a man of Poteidaia in the shoulder instead. A crowd of people gathered around this wounded man, as tends to happen in war; they at once pulled out the arrow, and when they perceived the letter, they brought it to their generals. ”

Herodotus, Histories.

They haven't invented cyphers yet.

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Quote of the Day: Xi endorses crypto

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 07:58:34 GMT

Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged increased efforts to speed up development in this sector, underscoring the important role of blockchain technology in the new round of technological innovation and industrial transformation.
...
Li Wei, director of the Science and Technology Department of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, called for an in-depth study of blockchain technology during the Bund Summit in Shanghai on Monday.

Blockchain has great potential to boost digital innovation, he said. "We need to promote the deep integration of blockchain and the real economy to resolve problems like small businesses having difficulty in obtaining loans, banks having difficulty in risk control and government agencies having difficulty in supervision," he said.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1168159.shtml

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TIL: cripto regulations

Sat, 06 Jul 2019 21:08:10 GMT

Japan and Switzerland have developed legal frameworks that have attracted cryptocurrency projects and investment. Facebook chose to incorporate the group that will govern Libra in Switzerland.
...
Under U.S. tax law, bitcoin users have to track the exact price paid for every bitcoin purchase, keep each one recorded separately, calculate the difference when they sell it and apply capital-gains rules. Even the purchase of a cup of coffee using bitcoin could trigger a capital-gains bill.

The rule “is so absurd people just aren’t doing it,” said James Foust, a researcher at the nonprofit advocacy group Coin Center.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/lawmakers-push-for-new-bitcoin-rules-11562405401

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The invention of the movie

Mon, 14 Jan 2019 08:27:44 GMT

Communication of counterfactual situations through dynamic visual stories feels on par with the invention of language.

The shift in consciousness away from films as animated photographs to films as stories, or narratives, began to take place about the turn of the century and is most evident in the work of the
French filmmaker Georges Méliès. Méliès was a professional magician who had become interested in the illusionist possibilities of the cinématographe;

Initially Méliès used stop-motion photography (the camera and action are stopped while something is added to or removed from the scene; then filming and action are continued) to make one-shot “trick” films in which objects disappeared and reappeared or transformed themselves into other objects entirely.

Soon, however, Méliès began to experiment with brief multiscene films, such as L’Affaire Dreyfus (The Dreyfus Affair, 1899), his first, which followed the logic of linear temporality to establish causal sequences and tell simple stories. By 1902 he had produced the influential 30-scene narrative Le Voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon). Adapted from a novel by Jules Verne, it was nearly one reel in length (about 825 feet [251 metres], or 14 minutes).

https://www.britannica.com/art/history-of-the-motion-picture

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