Tootfinder

Long-range magnetic order in CePdAl$_3$ enabled by orthorhombic deformation
M. Stekiel, P. \v{C}erm\'ak, C. Franz, M. Meven, D. Legut, W. Simeth, U. B. Hansen, B. F{\aa}k, S. Weber, R. Sch\"onmann, V. Kumar, K. Nemkovski, H. Deng, A. Bauer, C. Pfleiderer, A. Schneidewind
https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.04318

Long-range magnetic order in CePdAl$_3$ enabled by orthorhombic deformation
We investigate the effect of structural deformation on the magnetic properties of orthorhombic CePdAl$_3$ in relation to its tetragonal polymorph. Utilizing x-ray and neutron diffraction we establish that the crystal structure has the $Cmcm$ space group symmetry and exhibits pseudo-tetragonal twinning. According to density-functional calculations the tetragonal-orthorhombic deformation mechanism has its grounds in relatively small free enthalpy difference between the polymorphs, allowing either…

Once again, the headline is "<government> to ban driving". Then you look at the details, and it's "oh wait actually cars/driving *will* be allowed, it's just certain type of cars/driving will be restricted. but there will still be cars/driving"
And that's why we say #BanCars, because media editors are so fucking ridiculous; they've been huffin…

Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian@mastodon.online)
Attached: 1 image NEW: This year, Dublin will become the latest European capital to bar thru-traffic from its city centre. Private cars & commercial trucks will be allowed access only if their final destination is downtown. The goal is a 60% traffic reduction in the centre. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-17/dublin-takes-aim-at-traffic-congestion-with-a-car-ban-on-certain-trips

Buenos días pasados por agua en la capital imperial, mastodontes. Ahora luce el sol, y menos mal, porque tenemos un fin de semana lleno de interacciones sociales.

A Fine-tuning Enhanced RAG System with Quantized Influence Measure as AI Judge
Keshav Rangan, Yiqiao Yin
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.17081 https://

A Fine-tuning Enhanced RAG System with Quantized Influence Measure as AI Judge
This study presents an innovative enhancement to retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems by seamlessly integrating fine-tuned large language models (LLMs) with vector databases. This integration capitalizes on the combined strengths of structured data retrieval and the nuanced comprehension provided by advanced LLMs. Central to our approach are the LoRA and QLoRA methodologies, which stand at the forefront of model refinement through parameter-efficient fine-tuning and memory optimization.…

Great news for #Dublin, whose attractive city centre is blighted by traffic. https://apple.news/Ai_UoqGU6RjeDSQYSmk0dNg

Go #Ireland @… loving what is going on in Dublin at the moment. I am staying in #Paris today and the impact on the city is so impressive, all the doom -mongering from the

Dublin Takes Aim at Traffic Congestion With a Car Ban on Certain Trips
The Irish capital’s playbook for taming traffic in the downtown core follows a wave of similar efforts to restrict private cars in other EU cities.

I'm rereading Wilkie Collins chronologically and these days I'm on The Moonstone. A great deal of the plot hinges on various members of the gentry being deeply in debt. Despite the fact that all the laws, all their violent enforcement, are in their favor, after all, they write the laws, they absolutely can't escape their debts without finding some way to pay them.
Their laws provide them with all their wealth through the violence of enclosure and slavery. They provide them with endless serfs,* servants, and employees by (a) making it illegal to be unemployed and (b) taking away every possibility of employment other than wage labor, and yet, even with their frictionless ability to legislate whatever they want they've given themselves no escape from debt other than payment or imprisonment. Why?
I can't think of any reason besides the stability of the capitalism they all rely on for their obscene wealth. Yes, they take everything from their slaves, their colonies, and their working class, but to be able to repudiate debts would take everything from the finance industry on which their wealth also depends. There'd be no one to sell to them. They'd have nothing to do with their money without the vast luxury economy which supplies everything that makes their wealth worthwhile.
So as a class from time to time they'd sacrifice some of their peers to the violence of law enforcement because it was necessary to save the whole system from collapse. But none of this adds up to a respect for the rule of law or a system of equality under the law, either of which would also cause collapse.
Capital's control over the social narrative was relatively primitive in the mid 19th century, and it's easy for us to spot the contradictions, but nothing's changed at its core. Even now the law applies to the ruling class as necessary to stabilize capitalism and to the working class, slaves, and colonial subjects as necessary to control and continue their violent exploitation. Things look a lot better now on the surface because they've had to evolve that way to preserve stability, not because anything is different in essence.
And for all that it's a really banging novel, highly recommended! This, along with The Woman In White and (my personal fave) No Name are just pure Victorian fun (bracketing the ocean of bloodthirsty imperialist capitalism on which their entire society floats, as does ours).
#WilkieCollins #VictorianLiterature #TheMoonstone #Capitalism
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* Speaking metaphorically.