
@KCL / independent researcher // geographies, internet infrastructure, ecology, data 🍉🕊️🍉🕊️🍉🕊️
London
Joined June 2010
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🌱🌿 we published this personal reflection piece last week on the tensions when we introduce data and technology to the natural world medium.com/odi-research/wire…
Ben Snaith retweeted
Police crack down on "cockroach" youth protest in Delhi with reports that group leaders have been detained - follow live bbc.in/4hPW3uS
Ben Snaith retweeted
👉 New — Palestine activist jailed as ‘terrorist’ speaks out
By @jmcevoy_2
Exclusive: We spoke to Ellie Kamio, one of the first people in British history to be sentenced as a terrorist for property damage
declassifieduk.org/palestine…
Ben Snaith retweeted
"We must, then, avoid the 'Babel syndrome,' namely the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, a uniformity that neutralizes differences, and the pretense that a single language — even a digital one — can translate everything, including the mystery of the person, into data and performance."
Ben Snaith retweeted
Data center overload may be *intended* to break the grid. A subsequent emergency order could permit unregulated private ownership. This would allow direct control of electrical distribution by tech billionaires. They'll decide who gets power, and how much. businessinsider.com/nerc-iss…
Ben Snaith retweeted
ai data centers skyrocketing fiber prices leading to Ukraine/russia being priced out of using drones to do liveleak atrocities is a scale of marketplace solution that sounds skizophrenic on the outset
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It’s okay for hard things to be hard. On the subject of AI and writing, I like the way George Saunders puts it:
Ben Snaith retweeted
That massive knock-off Harry Potter shop on Oxford Street? It's owned by the sanctioned Libyan sovereign wealth fund.
For years, it's been impossible to ascertain who was actually behind the off-shore shell companies that owned much of London's real estate.
Now, we've found out.
the-londoner.co.uk/we-reveal…
Ben Snaith retweeted
The FT now reporting that, even without the energy shocks, there's a pretty good chance that the closure of Hormuz will pop the AI bubble and lead to a stock market crash
about as clear sighted analysis as you could possible get
Wrote this on the collapse of the liberal belligerati: "They may once, two decades ago, have been useful ... but no more. The right no longer caters to, nor needs, its liberal outriders. They hang on out of habit."
newleftreview.org/sidecar/po…
Ben Snaith retweeted
There’s an office in London that contains something critical to the security of the global internet — a bunch of swinging pendulums.
ianvisits.co.uk/articles/ins…
Ben Snaith retweeted
Just got this from Planet Labs, they are delaying posting imagery from specific areas in the Middle East 96 hours due to operational security concerns:
Reads in part:
As part of Planet’s commitment to responsible data practices and the safety of personnel on the ground, we are implementing temporary adjustments to imagery access for a Designated Area of Interest (AOI) across the Middle East.
All new imagery collected over the Gulf States, Iraq, Kuwait, and adjacent conflict zones will be subject to a mandatory 96-hour delay before it is made available in our archive. This change applies to both high (SkySat and Pelican) and medium (PlanetScope) resolution data sets.
This measure is intended to prevent adversarial actors from using recent data for immediate Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) and is rooted in our commitment to ensuring the safety of allied and NATO-partner personnel and civilians on the ground. As the conflict evolves, the area impacted may change.
What this means for your workflow:
Effective immediately, customers will experience a 96-hour delay on all data in the Planet Archive over the Gulf States, Iraq, Kuwait, and adjacent conflict zones. This delay applies to customer-tasked data as well. Tasking and Archive data access over Iran will remain unchanged and continue to publish immediately, for the time being.
We recognize that timely data is critical to your operations. We are actively monitoring the situation and intend to resume standard service cadences as soon as safety conditions permit.
...
Thank you for your partnership and understanding.
Best regards,
Ben Snaith retweeted
Iran hits Amazon data centres in jolt to Gulf AI drive ft.trib.al/1BLuiop
Ben Snaith retweeted
Fascinating graphic in my latest piece for @_TheLondoner
It shows how London's telecommunication cables and the construction of the Elizabeth Line has formed a belt of data centres across the city - interactive graphic in the piece below!
Ben Snaith retweeted
The UK government actively participated in the genocide. It is now trying to impose a McCarthyite climate of fear and censorship to stop the solidarity movement from becoming a force for societal change. Presided by a morally bankrupt, intellectually mediocre Prime Minister.
Ben Snaith retweeted
"only my brand of snake oil will save your beloved institution"
🤖 Euan Blair, Tony Blair's son, has warned that the NHS risks falling into a “productivity doom loop” unless hundreds of thousands of its workers start using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to deliver a better service for patients
Read more ⬇️
telegraph.co.uk/business/202…
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The first library to be rescued during the genocide.
My dream is for it to become a big library.
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pop pop pop
Deutsche Bank is exploring ways to hedge its exposure to data centers. It's looking at options including shorting a basket of AI-related stocks and buying default protection via synthetic risk transfers. ft.com/content/c0428010-1373…
































