> In other words: only <20% of pur neuron budget goes to higher cognition (thinking, language, seeing, hearing). 80% is spent on motor skills.

Probably why robotics is harder than making a language model.

“He is President” works when it’s clear which position you’re referring to.

“He is doctor” sounds wrong because there’s rarely just one doctor.

There are dozens of lakes in England, and a few in other english speaking countries with the word mere in their name.

Hence I said "pretty uncommon'. Windermere is the most prominent example but is often called Lake Windermere. There is also Fowlmere nature reserve.

Definitely not the most common name for inland bodies of water by a country mile though. "Pond", "pool", and "lake" are more common.

I read your post, and it got me thinking because, round here in Cheshire,v'mere' is a very common name for a bigger stretch of water ('pool' is generally reserved for smaller stretches of water).

So I did a quick search to check, both from memory and by looking at the map – not because I doubted you being right in general across the UK, but because locally 'mere' is so common.

Anyway, towns or bodies of water with 'Mere' in Cheshire: Mere, Mere Heath, Ellesmere Port, Blakemere, Delamere, Oakmere, Tatton Mere, Comber Mere, Pickmere, Manley Mere, Shakerly Mere, Marbury (means 'Fortified town by the lake'), Marbury Big Mere, the Quoisley Meres, Flaxmere, Hatchmere, Radnor Mere, Astbury Mere, Rossmere, Rostherne Mere, Nunsmere, The Mere, Little Mere… and then I got bored, so I may have missed a couple. Anyway, that's at least 23, and Cheshire is not a noticeably watery place, compared to some other counties.

In contrast, there are very few lakes: I could find Oulton Park Lake (man-made in the late 18th Century), and Acre Nook Lake, Lapwing Hall Lake, and another unnamed one – a series of quarry pits turned into a watersports centre in the 2010s.

So it looks like that in Cheshire at least, the normal name for a 'larger than a pond' body of water or nearby town is 'mere'.

Thanks for sending me down this interesting (well, to me, anyway) rabbit hole…

I don't know of a single "mere" in Scotland or Ireland. I doubt there are any in Wales... Maybe in the eastern bits that are less Welsh speaking. I'm surprised about Cheshire. Maybe it is more widespread than I thought it was! But it isn't a word I hear used in spoken in English outside of place names.

Some of it is regional. "Tarn" turns up in the Danelaw. "Lough" turns up in the far north of England for about twenty place names, which is a variant of "loch", but is pronounced "luff". You can find some "loughs" near Hadrian's Wall.

You wouldn’t really expect many in Wales itself, because ‘mere’ is from the Old English. There are a few in Shropshire (including Ellesmere – the other end of the never-built Ellesmere canal on its way to Ellesmere Port) and there are some in the Fens and elsewhere. Apparently, there are a couple in Wales – near Wrexham and in Pembrokeshire. (I got this from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere_(lake)…).

I suspect there’s a Mercian link here somewhere…

In my experience with databases the answer is never never, and never always, and it’s almost always sometimes and maybe.

That’s mostly occasionally accurate.

That would have been right around the time that airlines were transitioning to jet aircraft. Back before jet travel it could take a whole week to reach the far east.

> They've never said that

You know that humans can lie, right?

We also spent a lot of money fixing non-critical systems that would have had next to zero impact if they’d failed. A middle manager not getting their sales report on time is not critical.

But at least with Y2K some effort was made in identifying actual problems. We didn’t just stop using computers because we were too scared of them. This latest round of AI panic is horribly vague and the problems are very poorly articulated.

There are many technologies that have killed and hurt a lot more people than nuclear weapons that are not monopolised by governments.

Cars and guns are two examples where ‘wanton usage’ can (and has) killed millions of people. Obviously they need regulation, but total control, even if it were possible doesn’t strike me as ideal.

Much much bigger. Visiting it now is quite sad.

If you go to England, you're better off going to the New Forest in Hampshire. Despite the name, it was established during the Norman period and at least feels like a substantial tract of older woodland. (Tiny by North American standards of course.)

Forest was more of a legal term, and tended to be focused on deer than trees.

Things with 'new' in the name tend to age quite rapidly. See also Oxford's New College.

Or the Pont-neuf ("new bridge") in Paris being the oldest one in the city.

> The waymo vehicle called the cops

Waymo called the cops. It’s not clear if it was the vehicle, or a human in the company. I suspect the latter.