Tootfinder

Japan's Nikkei index crossed the 40,000 threshold for the first time early Monday on robust technology issues following the advance of their U.S. counterparts late last week.
The Nikkei benchmark quickly topped the 40,000 line after the market opening. In the first 15 minutes of trading, the 225-issue #Nikkei #Stock

Nikkei tops 40,000 for 1st time after upbeat Wall St.
Japan's Nikkei index crosses the 40,000-point threshold for the first time on robust technology issues following the advance of their U.S. counterparts late last week.

Hierarchical Indexing for Retrieval-Augmented Opinion Summarization
Tom Hosking, Hao Tang, Mirella Lapata
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.00435 https://<…

Hierarchical Indexing for Retrieval-Augmented Opinion Summarization
We propose a method for unsupervised abstractive opinion summarization, that combines the attributability and scalability of extractive approaches with the coherence and fluency of Large Language Models (LLMs). Our method, HIRO, learns an index structure that maps sentences to a path through a semantically organized discrete hierarchy. At inference time, we populate the index and use it to identify and retrieve clusters of sentences containing popular opinions from input reviews. Then, we use a…

Insights of South-Asian journalists after their trip to Ukraine. Ukraine in Flames #580: https://benborges.xyz/2024/03/02/insights-of-southasian.html

"... the flames of the #McConnell Fire jumped from place to place, fanned by the gale-force winds of autocracy and intolerance. In almost every soul-crushing story, I could practically smell the senator’s presence amid the rubble and ashes."
#mitchmcconnell

Mitch McConnell is the arsonist who set America on fire and ran away
A corrupt Supreme Court, looming dictatorship and a "Handmaid's Tale" society is the America Mitch McConnell created and runs away from.

Our guest from @… Ep. 209 on the past, present and future of nuclear power, veteran nuclear industry journalist Stephanie Cooke, has an excellent op-ed in NYT:

Opinion | The Fantasy of Reviving Nuclear Energy
The nuclear industry has a long history of failing to deliver on its promises.

Excerpts from Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Infrastructure’
Should I be scared? the boy asked. To go on the roads? And to go on planes?

Just some planes, the man said. You can still go on planes mostly.

I’m glad, the boy said. Otherwise, how would they feed toddlers.

What, said the man.

The boy flew a piece of food toward his mouth. He made an airplane sound.

Oh, the man said.

It was a joke, the boy said.

Of course, the man said. Jokes. Yes.
As…

Excerpts from Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Infrastructure’
Roads crumbling into the sea and ash falling from the sky. Lots of ash.

Opinion | While Immigrants Die to Repair Bridges, US Politicians Risk Lives by Building Walls | Common Dreams
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/immigrants-bridges-politicians-walls

While Immigrants Die to Repair Bridges, US Politicians Risk Lives by Building Walls
The lives of Miguel and the five other workers filling potholes on Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge have been cut short, but the hatred of immigrants, sadly, is alive, well and growing this election year.

Opinion: Russia's nuclear giant is falling through the sanctions cracks: https://benborges.xyz/2024/04/29/opinion-russias-nuclear.html

April Fool's Day? I always thought it was April Foot's Day.

Is [[Putin]] a cryptofascist or something else? Just a garden variety [[totalitarian]]?
All takes welcome! Please be civil in comments -- I am asking earnestly and I hope we can use the internet to have an honest conversation about facts and opinions with global relevance without violent interactions. If you like Putin, please also feel free to engage and voice your opinions!