Anthropic update, keto for the win, and other projects

I’ve fallen into repeating a mantra that must have become a cliché by now: that weeks seem to pass like days, months like weeks, seasons like months, and years like seasons. I wonder where the time has gone, until a voice in my head lists everything that’s been happening. And things have been busy.

First, the most important news is that the judge in the Anthropic class action has approved the settlement (yay!). If your books were stolen by Library Genesis, then you will need to check if you are eligible for compensation. As I mentioned in March this year, visit the Authors Guild to keep updated. The list of stolen books is due to be published on Tuesday, and hopefully this case will presage more of those greedy tech-bros being obliged to pay creators for what they stole to train their AIs.

Elsewhere, since my fast in June, I’ve been on a keto diet. An acquaintance convinced me to try it when he lost a lot of weight. Three months later, and I can also highly recommend it as a way to shed a spare tyre, keep functioning, and still eat enough. For me, quitting all sugar (processed and natural) and all the starchy foods like potatoes, pasta and rice, came incredibly easily; so easily, in fact, that I find my lack of reaction itself to be a curiosity. Having had a sweet tooth my whole life, I expected that going without sugar would be a serious challenge. But nope. The good thing about keto is you can eat as much as of the permitted foods as you like and still lose weight. And it’s true: I stuff my face with platefuls of meat, fish, veg and salad and the pounds keep falling off. And to be sure I get enough vitamins, etc., I eat eggs and some fish every day. The best part is that my gammy knee, now obliged to carry 18 fewer kilos than three months ago, has stopped hurting. Phew! If you want/need to lose weight, give the keto diet a try.

Finally for this post, once I finished redecorating the office in July, I started a new project in the back garden: building a pond. I’ve never built a pond before. And now I can say with a fair degree certainty that I shan’t ever build one again. After more than two months, the thing is finally nearing completion, and I plan a long, image-packed post when it’s done. But for now, I’ll leave you with a few pictures of some of the things that building a pond involves… in addition to a quite outrageous amount of hard graft.

Thanks for reading and stay safe, peeps!

This is the inflow pipe that will sit at the bottom of the biofilter. The maths says it needs precisely 46 evenly spaced 7mm holes. So that’s what it’s jolly well got.

This is called a ball valve. It’s supposed to put you in control of the flow, oh yes!

This is called a Mauser. It’s a one-cubic-metre plastic tub that comes in a metal frame.

The Mauser will hold the media that constitutes the biofilter. It should be kept out of sight of the pond, ho, ho, ho.

Finally, here is a detail of the waterfall. Like everything about this project, it’s bigger and more time consuming than I’d anticipated… but still looks quite nice