Carsten Franke

@carstenfranke
627 Followers
1,058 Following
173 Posts
German Chemist living in the USA. American since 2024. Former 3M engineer and inventor, working on plastic films and adhesives for LCD displays, now running my own temperature measurement business. Democrat, fighter for democracy. Too many hobbies.. gardening, house plants, high power rockets, 3D printing. (He/Him)
Profile picture is the skinny Alien from Wes Anderson's movie "Asteroid City". It holds said asteroid and stares with wide googly eyes into the camera.
Posts now delete after 2 weeks
Born at326 ppm

WAITRESS: Hi, I'm Irene. What'll you have today?

MAN: *Lights the table on fire.*

WAITRESS: What the fuck.

MAN: BRING ME A COFFEE OR ILL BURN THE ENTIRE PLACE TO THE GROUND.

WAITRESS: Okay sir? You need to leave.

MAN: YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.

WAITRESS: No. You need to go. Now.

MAN: OPEN THIS PLACE OR I'LL BURN IT. I'LL BURN ALL OF YOU.

WAITRESS: Absolutely not. You're leaving.

MAN: OPEN YOUR DOORS AND BRING ME COFFEE OR I'LL KILL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU.

WAITRESS: Not going to happen. Out. Now.

MAN: OPEN UP YOU CRAZY BITCH AND BRING COFFEE PRAISE ALLAH

WAITRESS: No. Here's what's going to happen instead. 1. You're going to promise to stop setting fires. 2. We get control over our coffee. 3. You leave immediately and don't come back. 4. You're going to give back that silverware I saw you steal on the way out. 5. You're going to sit there and wait to talk to the cops.

MAN: DEAL. I MADE THEM OPEN UP. I AM THE BEST NEGOTIATOR.

This is a post about Donald Trump.

Do you own/run a café or a bike shop?
Did you know that 1000s of people rely on the Open Street Map to find facilities like yours?
If YOUR shop isn't on www.openstreetmap.org then I GUARANTEE you're losing out on potential customers!
Go add your business now!
And please boost this?

If you or someone you know has an account on mastodon.cloud, I would highly recommend migrating to a new server. Lots of instances are in the process of completely blocking mastodon.cloud which will sever all connections for people on mastodon.cloud. Mastodon.cloud is effectively abandoned, running very old and out of date software with minimal moderation resulting in a good deal of moderation work for those of us running other instances.

I am posting this in hopes that some people on mastodon.cloud see it and decide to take action.

PSA:

If you are in the UK then you have elections coming up on Thursday May 7th.

Register by 23:59h on Monday 20st April 2026 to vote in the following elections:

Local government elections
Scottish Parliament elections
Senedd Cymru elections
Mayoral elections in England

Those of you in #Wales, please check you are registered and your details are correct. Let's not let the fascists in due to inaction!

If you want to have a Postal Vote then request one by 17:00h on Tuesday 21st April.

In short, don't wait. Check and register now, before it's to late! 🙂🖖

https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote?step-by-step-nav=ff81c31c-3282-49df-85a4-013887130110

#UK #Wales #Scotland #Elections #Registration

Register to vote

Register to vote to take part in elections in the UK. Includes how to get on the electoral register and how to update your address on the register.

GOV.UK
Two Japanese aquariums have released their 2026 flowcharts of their penguins’ relationships. “Penguin drama can include serious crushes and heartbreaks but also adultery and egg-stealing.” https://spoon-tamago.com/japanese-aquarium-penguin-relationship-flowchart/
Japanese Aquarium Drops 2026 Version of Flowchart Illustrating Their Penguin Relationships. This Year There's an English Version.

Penguins, the way they waddle around and protect their eggs, are often thought of as cute, cuddly and romantic. But those who observe them for extended periods know they have a dark side. Two aquariums in Japan, Kyoto Aquarium and Sumida Aquarium, have been keeping obsessive tabs on their penguins,

Spoon & Tamago

Has anybody seen an estimate of the actual cost of running LLMs, Chatbots or these Agents? Or what it costs when a kid "learns" by talking so an LLM? What does a generated email really cost?

All I find is what different models charge. Not what the actual cost is to provide these.

My suspicion is that if we see the real cost, many of the applications will be cost prohibitive (in addition to delivering bad answers or outcomes).

#llm #cost

At least 5 dead in Burundi from a mystery illness: Africa CDC

Lab tests are negative for more than 200 pathogens, but testing continues.

It might be time to pay attention to Burundi

#burundi

“Iran closes Strait of Hormuz, leaving access to key shipping route unclear
Iran’s military said the critical Strait of Hormuz was back under the control of the armed forces, claiming the U.S. had breached Tehran’s trust by maintaining its blockade in the region.”

-WaPo

Hey Minnesota!
The April high power rocket launch has been moved to Sunday, April 19, due to high winds on Saturday.
Join us in North Branch to have fun with some large and some fast rockets. Or join us to launch your smaller Estes rockets.
Details on
https://tripolimn.org/

#rocket #rocketry #highpowerrocketry #minnesota #geeks #science

Home - Tripoli Minnesota Inc

High Power Rocketry Club