#seeds of yesterday 2015

[yeahthatsinteresting]

Sammi Hanratty in 'Seeds of Yesterday' (2015)

[springbudeyes]

Please enjoy the first installment of a new series I'd like to call Gamemode 0!

If you're waiting for Mianite Season Four (ha), this will hopefully tide you over. Gamemode 0 is a highly produced mini-series that tells a story through text, dramatic audio narration, a musical score, and images. It stars a villain who was an edgy Grim Reaper in 2015 and it poses the question—how much has Kikoku Botan really changed since 2015?

That question will be answered over the course of – I'm guessing – seven-ish chapters? The first chapter, which you're about to read and hear, is based on a Minecraft RP session held in a single night. Those present for the session include World Historian's original writer (me) and a group of talented role-players. More info under the cut!

Here's the cast:

Moth @robotmothpie as Ginkgo Belshem

CloudF11 @silent-moons-camp as Cloud Endernatus

Metal @mx-metal as Omu Vulcan

Honor @cult-of-athar as Fateshaper (the Big Bad)

Matthew (me) as World Historian

(All characters are voiced by me.)

Background:

The project was Mianite Etherealis. We played on a private 1.12 server for two years, ending in early 2023. The chapter you're about to read (titled Session One) covers the RP session that brought World Historian into the narrative.

I would almost go so far as to say that you're about to experience a canon World Historian mini-series with implications for all World Historian content in existence.

Is it actually canon? I don't know. It's as authentic as you'll ever get for WH, that's for sure. I've spent the last nine years developing the cosmology being used here. I planted the seeds for it when I created World Historian in 2015.

But no, Gamemode 0 isn't Dec-and-Tom-approved canon. And my astounding co-writers aren't offical Mianite writers. And Etherealis isn't a piece of lost Mianite media, though you can think of it that way if you'd like.

Vision:

Gamemode 0 will follow the plot of Mianite Etherealis for one more session, then embark on its own original plot centered on World Historian.

That being said, my aim with Gamemode 0 is to dig up a piece of the past and link it to the future. This series is one of many projects that could result from that effort. If it sees enough support, it could grow beyond text, images, and audio. We have endless headroom here.

If you're looking for Botan's history in Ruxomar, you'll find it. If you're hoping for a glimpse into Akemi and Mina's lives, you'll get it. If you seek all manner of strange World Historian lore, consider it yours. If you just wanna sink your teeth into a juicy hunk of Mianite meat, go get a napkin, you menace.

We have plenty of chapters to take us from the past, to the future, and back again. I could just list the plain facts about World Historian in a lore post, but I could never be satisfied with that. I'm a storyteller.

Disclaimer:

The players own their characters. Most of the dialogue and actions in Session One come straight from the corresponding RP session. I'm just putting it all to a narrative and making readability tweaks for first-timers.

Shout-outs:

Happy birthday yesterday, Honor! We love you!! I guess this is one of your presents. Thanks for letting World Historian take over as the big scary dude for a session. And sorry for writing out our best boy, Oleander. We should co-write something someday.

Cloud, thanks for going back to our defunct Minecraft world to set everything up and take the awesome shadered screenshots for Session One. Also thanks for making c!Cloud such a great POV character. He carries Gamemode 0.

Thank you, Moth, for the un-shadered screenies, for being my PR person, and for supporting me generally all the time. PDA PDA aaaaa!

And thanks, Metal, for being the cool one. B)

Calls to action:

Mianitees, shower love upon my friends. I know Moth and Cloud would jump at the opportunity to answer asks about their passionately crafted OCs. And so would Honor and Metal, I suspect. With the right motivation, who knows what they could create?

The link will send you to my Substack blog, where you'll be able to read, listen, like, and subscribe to my newsletter. The paid subscription has no advantage over the free one; most of you will pick free, but if anyone would like to support me financially, that would be super appreciated. (If we get some traction with subs, I'll set up sub goals and a budget for upgrades to my production.) I plan to release Gamemode 0 chapters as frequently as I can, but I will post something to my Substack every month—Mianite related or not.

Also please like and reblog this Tumblr post if you dig it and want to see more.

Now go and enjoy your food.

[louisisalarrie]

Hi! I am bbg anon from yesterday (the fairly new one). I had read on one of the other blogs that ppl in the fandom are assuming that harry's next stunt might be with a man. It may be possible because he had been through a lot of queerbaiting allegations and HS4's response (any more might dampen his reputation) might have to do with how they want to navigate it further. I never thought that H and L would come out separately. But I had read that a lot of veteran larries thought they were seedings of a CO of H in 2015. Ending bbg is an indication of Louis being gay and Larry being real (indirectly within the fandom and outside as well if anyone has their suspicion). I think what they can do when bbg ends is to show that Harry and Louis aren't together anymore (that's the least they can do) because there's no way in hell bbg ending won't create a Larry buzz. And Harry has already been accused of queerbaiting. I think if Harry is to stunt with a man, it's a good time to end babygate. Because Harry is dating someone else now. In the present moment. And Louis had a kid for almost nine years. He must be het. And then Louis must dip for another year and come back with LT3. Maybe stunt with another woman while Harry is out with a man? I think showcasing that they have broken up is a good barter for ending babygate. It will also help Harry in his queerbaiting allegations? What do you think?Harries might be supportive if it's not Louis he's in a relationship with. Solo louies will also be sympathetic towards Louis and accept the fact that he had been cheated on with the fact that he's a father and that Louis isn't with Harry at least. Us, Larries, on the other hand will know as we always do 🤪

Hey anon! Lovely to hear from you.

Yep, I think you’re on the right track here. And again, I can’t shut my damn mouth/stop my damn brain ever so this is now an official welcome to the show!

In short, bbg was the perfect stunt so Harry could come out and Louis 100% couldn’t be tied to him, because he was a dad. It separated their relationship from the public and when you think about the time this was all happening and their team, this was the best way to solidify the end of larry, while allowing Harry to be free. How could Louis be gay if he has a kid and is fucking every little blonde thing at a club? He can’t possibly be gay, and could never possibly be with Harry, so that was the plan. It was pretty foolproof, to the public and antis at least, until it all fell apart.

Now, we’re looking at a switch in stunts. Harry comes out, and yes, if he has to stunt with a man, so be it. It’s no different than stunting with a woman, but it is an acknowledgment of his sexuality and that’s an important step forward. As I’ve said before, this is a shitty long process and it’s not gonna be easy, but if we survived bbg, we can survive anything.

So, Harry comes out with a boyfriend in the ramp up of HS4. Explains some of the love songs, right? Removes queerbaiting allegations, which you’re right, is now tarnishing his brand, and solidifies an undisclosed sexuality that’s certainly not straight. If he is seen as bisexual/not straight but still likes the gals, he still has huge market appeal and it’s not gonna lose the amount of followers he’d lose if he came out as gay. What is his sexuality? I couldn’t tell ya. But he’s not straight, that’s for sure.

Anyway, maybe this will be the best way to visualise it and theorise:

1. Louis finishes tour, has a couple of festivals, and stays far away from Harry before taking a break/writing. Opposite sides of the world.

2. Harry comes out with a boyfriend in some pap pics in the lead up to HS4, just holding hands or something. No snogging or anything, just small caresses that pick up the public’s interest. It can be a very lowkey coming out to begin with, and still while he’s flapping about kinda quietly like right now and not 100% in the public eye yet. Think of it as… a soft launch to test it with the fans.

3. After some more little soft launches of his new relationship (Insta story perhaps), Harry and boy start ramping up the PR by making more appearances and hanging out with some other super high profile celebs (this boy will not be high profile, and perhaps an influencer or something instead. They won’t be getting another proper fandom involved. That would be bad news bears).

4. Harry makes some “thank you for accepting me” style tweet, and posts an image that’s just plain colour or something, that will allude to HS4.

5. Harry drops HS4, and is active on social media more so than usual. Connecting with fans, listening parties, etc.

6. After the initial HS4 hype drops a bit, seeding starts that Louis and baby mama are having fights over F, and the timing is VERY important here between larry btw. But a possible good reason would be that now louis is done with tour, he wants to spend more time with F, B is like “nooooo u left him for so long you can’t have more custody than what you have rn” and then that ends up in court and paternity test etc. bc she’s being super shady. Also keeps his name relevant while being off tour.

7. Harry carries on with fan interaction and projects, some more pap walks with boy and perhaps something more intimate.

8. It’s further seeded by “insiders” and then confirmed by Louis’ team that he’s not the dad/he’s having personal issues right now/pls respect his privacy bc he going through some SHIT

9. H and boy are going well, he’s booked in a tour, and Louis disappears completely from public eye/social media.

10. Louis reappears months later, on the other side of the world to Harry bc he’s on tour, and says that he’s not the dad, he’s gonna still love F like he’s his own kid, and that he’s gonna just focus on writing and spend some time with his family.

Boom. 10 steps to happiness. Now, granted that the above all goes well, it seems like the perfect plan. It ends bbg, allows Harry to come out, makes the public sympathise with Louis and gives him the “good guy” award while also upholding his hettiness, and keeps larry rumours super far away.

After that happens (which could probaaaaaably take about… 6 months? If it’s done correctly? Lol) the next step is larry reconciliation, which would probably take another 4-6 months to get them fully comfy, and then it’s a decision on whether they get to come out before, during, or after a 1d reunion. Which is a whole other bucket of fish.

Alas, 10 steps, which if done right, minimise harm to both Harry and Louis immensely. This is a foolproof plan that yes, willl lose them some followers, but can be handled correctly by the right team.

So, fingers crossed that the game will begin soon!

[moonsandstar-s]

i’m sorry guys i can’t contain myself bumbleby has me in tears not even 48 hours later and i just have to gush about all this

Anyways… looking back on this has me awestruck, honestly. This is a story we’ve been patiently and impatiently attending to for years, a mesh of writing and art and voices and storytelling and animation cobbled together from the hands of many and the initial vision of just one. That seems pretty incredible to me. 

My first girlfriend introduced me to this show when I was 14. Just barely a high school freshman. It was 2015, and Volume 3 hadn’t aired yet. Monty had just passed away and a lot of you, in the FNDM, didn’t know what lay ahead for RWBY. I joined after the uncertainty, before everything that followed. What we had was Burning the Candle, a couple cast jokes, and a few teasing hints that were eventually dismissed by the doubtful. I contented myself with how unlikely a lesbian couple was to ever occur onscreen, and made do with my own imagination. I loved the rich imagery of Blake and Yang’s partnership, the allusions of it, everything it could be. I mourned that it would likely never come to pass and vowed to explore it in my own time, with my own plan.

In the years that followed, I wrote over a million words (I did tally this from my Ao3 account!) and grew enormously along the way. It was this that made me decide to major in English & creative writing at a time I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go to college (I will be graduating next month with a magna cum laude in my field, which I can’t even fathom!) I made friends whom I still talk to, to this day. I devoured absolutely gorgeous pieces of fiction that tended and grew the love from the seed we had seen in the canon show into a garden of extraordinary variety (special shoutout @lightsaroundyourvanity, @thirteenyasmin, @thecousinsdangereux and @pugoata)! I pored over breathtaking works of fan art (looking at you @frankielucky, @corvophobia and @frishbi). I saw some damn good analysis from so many people (hey @almea, @canonbumbleby, & @bumblebyaf!) I watched Blake and Yang throughout the FNDM’s shock at the end of V3, the infighting throughout V4 as it seemed our high hopes would culminate in nothing, our bated breath at their reunion as V5 ended, to our euphoria in V6, and now. We watched, doubting and wondering and celebrating, as incrementally, Blake and Yang found their way back together first in presence, then in spirit. All the while, wondering, will-they-or-won’t-they? 

I hoped so much, and doubted just as often, as many of you did, too. Prior to ever watching RWBY, I’d realized I was gay, but hadn’t ever expected to see someone like me represented in something I loved - at least not in a way where it wasn’t their whole identity rather than just another part, like loving the color blue or preferring coffee to tea. When we watched Lexa get shot, when we saw show after show with lesbian couples result in cancellation, when we became merely a moment in a finale or a passing scene, easily dismissed, it became so easy to let discouragement be the loudest voice of all. 

But sometimes persistence pays off. Sometimes you do get to see the things you’ve loved for so long become more than wishful thinking. Sometimes you get days like yesterday. Where some of us cried, most of us laughed, and we all collectively lost our fucking minds in a way that felt like being a little kid again where everything just feels right.

I guess what I want to say is this: eight years passed. I am not the same person I was when I fell in love with the love that hadn’t even grown enough to be named as such between Blake and Yang. But that girl does live inside of me still, and yesterday, I got to celebrate with her just as freely as she did with me. Over the moon for all of this. Thank you CRWBY, thank you Eddy, Kerry, Arryn, Barbara, Yssa, Miles, and every other animator, concept artist, scriptwriter, every person who had even the slightest hand in making this possible. What a time to be alive! 

[kaitlinj16]

V.C. Andrew's Seeds of Yesterday

2015

🖤🖤🖤

[stateofsport211]

RG JBS F: Kaylan Bigun [5] def. Tomasz Berkieta 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 Match Stats

📸 Eurosport GB

Berkieta dominated the first set as he still managed to bring Kaylan off-balance through his serves, but it was not the case as his intensity lowered as a result of yesterday's marathon, which saw him rushing more of his points while Kaylan stayed in his range from the baseline, trying to pass the unseeded Pole when chances allowed. This way, Kaylan generated 8 break points compared to Berkieta's 5, converting 3 of them as he got more aggressive after dialing in from the second set onwards as Berkieta was unable to capitalize on his chances earlier in the second set.

Besides, Kaylan appeared more consistent on serve as the match progressed. Even though Berkieta fired 9 aces than Kaylan's 2, the American fifth seed stood out from his first serves by winning 79% of his first serve points, 2% more than Berkieta to get himself out of most troubles, particularly in the last 2 sets. Somehow, both players turned out to have an equal second serve percentage (43%), which might have confirmed how they handled the pressure points on serve as they followed things up.

This marked Kaylan's first Grand Slam junior title, as he steadily made his mark through the ATP's Junior Accelerator Program as he also partook in several Challenger events from here, followed by winning J500 Milan right before the event. This could propel his rank to beyond his career-high of 6 before he attends the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the upcoming semester, following the footsteps of Tommy Paul (2015) in the list of Americans winning the Boys' Singles title of this tournament. On the other hand, Berkieta could also continue utilizing his accelerator spots to partake in the ITF/Challengers, with the only way being up for both players.

[jcmarchi]

Professor Edward Roberts, management scholar, champion of entrepreneurship, and “MIT icon,” dies at 88

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/professor-edward-roberts-management-scholar-champion-of-entrepreneurship-and-mit-icon-dies-at-88/

Professor Edward Roberts, management scholar, champion of entrepreneurship, and “MIT icon,” dies at 88

Edward B. Roberts ’58, SM ’58, SM ’60, PhD ’62, a visionary management professor who studied entrepreneurship while building a flourishing innovation ecosystem at MIT, died on Tuesday. He was 88 years old.

Over a remarkable seven-decade career at the Institute, Roberts was a prolific scholar and mentor who founded what is now the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, a unique resource that has guided thousands of innovators as they have brought inventions and ideas to the market.

Roberts, the David Sarnoff Professor of Management of Technology at the MIT Sloan School of Management, was an energetic and encouraging presence who espoused the value of founding companies organized around a clear core idea, and of having significant new technology to apply to that idea. Generations of MIT students as well as faculty found a path forward for their startups as a result, benefitting from the structure of the Martin Trust Center and influenced by Roberts’ work.

“It is not too much to say that MIT’s flourishing entrepreneurial culture and global reputation as a source of influential start-ups grew from seeds Ed planted here 50 years ago,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth wrote in a letter to the MIT community yesterday.

Kornbluth called Roberts an “MIT icon” who was “always doing things no one had done before,” including “pioneering the very idea that entrepreneurship is a craft that can be systematically studied and successfully taught.”

In 2015 Roberts co-authored a report estimating that, as of 2014, MIT alumni had launched 30,200 active companies employing roughly 4.6 million people and generating roughly $1.9 trillion in annual revenues, a figure that would have ranked among the top 10 countries in the world in GDP.

“I have helped MIT to become a much more entrepreneurial place,” Roberts said — in something of an understatement — during a 2011 interview for an MIT Sloan oral history series.

Wide-ranging intellect, entrepreneurial spirit

Born in 1935, Roberts grew up in nearby Chelsea, Massachusetts, commuting to MIT as an undergraduate. Through his intellectual life as a student, as well as his later career as a scholar, Roberts personified the interdisciplinary possibilities of MIT.

Even while earning his undergraduate degree and a master’s degree in electrical engineering, Roberts was often taking two additional courses in economics and at MIT Sloan — despite, as he once recalled, the vocal concerns of his faculty advisor.

As a graduate student, by the late 1950s, Roberts had begun working with MIT faculty member Jay Forrester, a computing pioneer who had started developing many core ideas now integral to the study of system dynamics. Roberts became increasingly interested in the application of those ideas to management, also helping to create a framework for the field then known as industrial dynamics.

Assisted by the extra courses he had already been taking, Roberts earned his master’s in management from MIT Sloan, and then his PhD in economics, with his doctoral work focused on applying system dynamics to the management of research and development. It was MIT’s first doctoral dissertation in system dynamics.

Having joined MIT as a student, Roberts never left. He took a position as a faculty member at MIT Sloan and began working on wide-ranging and important studies of organizational practices in areas that included health care management, among other things.

Along the way, Roberts practiced what he advocated: In the 1960s, while still a junior faculty member, he co-founded his own firm, Pugh-Roberts Associates, which took the ideas of system dynamics to partners in the private sector and government. The firm still exists today, as the Sage Analysis Group.

The books Roberts co-authored early in his career include “The Persistent Poppy” (1975), examining the social and economic impact of heroin use, and “The Dynamics of Human Service Delivery” (1976), applying system dynamics analysis to the service sector.

Over time, Roberts’ work became increasingly focused on the components of successful entrepreneurship. His high-profile 1991 book, “Entrepreneurs in High-Technology: Lessons from MIT and Beyond,” was based on a thorough examination of 113 companies founded by entrepreneurs, moving the field forward through its extensive empirical work.

That overlapped with Roberts’ work building a framework for encouraging entrepreneurship at MIT. The MIT Center for Entrepreneurship opened in 1990, providing an essential resource for potential firm founders at the Institute. As the center grew, Roberts himself became a vital figure to many budding entrepreneurs, a vigorous presence offering input based on expert analysis.

“Ed will always be remembered at MIT Sloan as a campus pillar,” wrote Georgia Perakis, interim John C. Head III Dean of MIT Sloan, along with Deputy Dean Michael Cusumano, in a letter to the MIT Sloan community on Tuesday. “He could be found walking the halls, visiting faculty, staff, students, and alumni at the school, and sharing with them parts of the history of MIT Sloan. He remained connected to generations of MIT entrepreneurs, offering advice and guidance as companies were launched. Those of us who knew Ed count ourselves lucky to have had his counsel and will miss him dearly.”

“Virtually everything today in the MIT entrepreneurial ecosystem, from classes to extracurricular activities, has some level of Ed’s DNA at it core,” says Bill Aulet, professor of the practice at MIT Sloan and the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. “But his impact also went well beyond MIT, where Ed Roberts was a generational figure in entrepreneurship as a field of research and instruction.”

MIT faculty who studied with Roberts also recall the impact his teaching had on their own careers.

“I, and many others in the system dynamics group here, took Ed’s course as a doctoral student and learned a great deal about how to work with policymakers and other leaders to increase the chances that the results of modeling would be implemented and have sustained beneficial impact in organizations,” recalls John Sterman, the Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management at MIT Sloan and a professor in the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society.

A celebration of MIT pioneers

In all, Roberts published 12 books and over 160 articles on entrepreneurship and management, with an audience both inside academia and in technology-driven growth industries.

Among his recent works, Roberts’ 2020 book, “Celebrating Entrepreneurs: How MIT Nurtured Pioneering Entrepreneurs Who Built Great Companies,” examined how the Institute developed its formal framework and culture of entrepreneurship across a variety of industries.

In addition to founding the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, Roberts at one point chaired the MIT Management of Technology (MOT) program. He also co-created the MIT Sloan Entrepreneurship and Innovation Certificate program.

Roberts was also an active presence as a co-founder, board member, and investor in startups, including the health care information firm Medical Information Technology, Inc. In addition, Roberts co-founded a group of Zero Stage Capital equity funds, which provided early-stage capital for promising tech startups. All told, Roberts was a board member for more than 40 firms and a co-founder of 14 companies.

Roberts is survived by his wife, Nancy; his children, Valerie and her husband, Mark Friedman, Mitchell and his wife, Jill, and Andrea and her husband, Marc Foster; and nine grandchildren. Donations can be made to the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston in his memory.

[glorioustimeswithdrew]

Apple Falls Far

Originally published February 27th, 2015

"What a beautiful day!  I think I'll do something evil!" *bonk* "Yeowch!"

You'd better watch your back if this apple was in town.  This was an apple that didn't have an appetite for crime stuff.  Don't be bad, or this apple'll be not so good to you.

"Hello there, apple, I have feelings in my heart that are somewhat ill-intentioned." *bonk* "Yowzah!"

This apple is red with the color of blood and vengeance.  Any hour, and daytime, it'll be possible that it can be there, and it'll be an apple that will let you know what's what.

"I'm going to get foul all up in this place!" *bonk* "Ay carumba!"

This apple got brusies and not because the farmer didn't pick it right.  It came from the tree that is good of good apples, but it is put itself into the bad because apple is a good apple for the good.

"Hey, fellahs, have you noticed this apple goin' around town?" "Yeah!  This apple is just bonkers, on account of all its bonking!" "I don't like being told I'm naughty, especially by magenta fruit!" "Who put that apple in charge anyway?  The apple isn't the king of nice stuff." "I say we turn that apple into an apple split!"

The apple sat alone in the woods, looking at its reflection from a puddle of rainwater.  The remnants of yesterday's storm, soon to be forgotten by the warmth of today.  No, the apple says in its body language of justice.  This puddle reflects apple, and this puddle is a sign of the nuh-uh finger-wagging yuckies of the universe plane.  So if apple is reflect in puddle then that makes for the apple to always see itself as stop bad because it superimposed.

"It's nighttime, now we can take down that apple!" "Somebody say something super uh-oh." "I don't like stuff."

The apple emerges, hungry, distant, ready.  The no-good-doers are armed with the finest weapons.  They attack, but this apple is hard to the core.  The apple core.  They weren't ready for the seeds of retribution.  The apple seeds.  Of retr

*bonk*

All around there's just bonking and the people are all feeling not so great.  They stare outward and at once, into themselves, their spirits fragmented into pieces of an unsolvable puzzle.  They will roam in stillness unaided by time, a nightmare festering within them, waiting for them to peel off their skins for unfathomable answers.  These were people.  They are merely masks to a dead performer.

It rains.  The apple notices the rain.  The apple cannot stop the rain.  It can never stop the rain.

A small girl wears her raincoat and boots.  She splashes about in the puddle, giggling.

The apple won't let itself live through the night.  It has one last thing to do.  It goes to the girl.  The girl looks to it.  The apple acts.

*nudge*

[eggcount]

Pictures!

January 18, 2024

As promised, chickens in the snow.  btw, I will have to do more practice squats and crouching if I am going to perfect this art.  I did get down to almost eye level with the girls, but I'm lucky I didn't immediately face-plant in the snow. 

Because hot oatmeal is appropriate for everyone in this type of weather, I brought them a nice breakfast of oatmeal with raisins and scratch.  The old girls were quite interested, but the Brahmas wanted to have a little explore first.

So, I moved a dish of warm food outside the run, in case they changed their minds or got hungry. I'm not sure which, but they stopped and ate.

btw, yesterday, I commented on how they wouldn't eat the sunflower seeds in favor of the mealy worms.  Today, they pretty much rejected the warm oatmeal for the scratch sprinkled on top.  Food fusser chickens! 

Now that I've let them out, my greatest hope is that they will all go back to bed tonight.  My biggest fear is that they won't, and I will have to crawl under the porch to get them out.  We had to do that with Betty once.  It's a little awkward.  The things we do for our pets.

xoxoxo

Sarah

And here are bonus pictures from memory lane!

This is from 2015, chickens in the snow.  That's Ethel leading the flock.

and where are they going?

and final destination! I think they all went back to the coop at night though. Or maybe this was the time that I had to carry them.

[shivamthakrejr]

last night, Motier Ventures held a tech meetup focused on AI startups featuring some of the most hyped tech startups in the French tech ecosystem: Dust, Finegrain, Gladia, Mistral AI and Scenario — all of them are portfolio companies of Motier Ventures. And you could feel a sense of excitement both onstage and in the audience.

Artificial intelligence, just like in the U.S., has quickly become a buzzy vertical within the French tech industry. But this time, France seems particularly well positioned to become one of the main AI hubs of the world.

And it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Tech giants have historically set up AI research labs in Paris, as there’s a large talent pool of PhD students in math, computer science and engineering. They usually graduate from Polytechnique, ENS or Inria. They sometimes move to the U.S. for postdoctoral research and then move back to France to join a research lab.

For instance, Facebook (now Meta) created its Paris research lab back in 2015 with Yann LeCun at the helm of the AI initiative — this research group is called FAIR, for Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research. Google followed suit with its own AI research center dedicated to AI in Paris.

“The FAIR team is extremely impressive. Just look at what they’ve done with Llama,” an entrepreneur told me yesterday. He recently had a private meeting with some of the engineers and scientists working on AI projects.

And if you look at the founders of Mistral AI, the French AI startup working on open source large language models that raised a €105 million seed round ($112 million at today’s exchange rate), all three co-founders (Arthur Mensch, Timothée Lacroix and Guillaume Lample) previously worked at Google’s DeepMind or FAIR.

Last night, Mistral’s co-founders put together a demo of Mistral AI in a ChatGPT-like interface called Mistral AI Chat. The demo was based on a new model called “mistral-70b-instruct-alpha01,” indicating that the team is actively working on a new model with more parameters so that it can be more competitive with sophisticated LLMs. According to a recent report from The Information, Mistral AI plans to raise as much as $300 million in the coming weeks.

Mistral isn’t the only high-profile AI company in France. Poolside, a company that recently raised a $126 million seed round, plans to use AI to make it drastically easier to write code. Co-founded by Jason Warner, the former CTO of GitHub, and Eiso Kant, a serial entrepreneur who worked on Athenian and source{d}, the company has picked Paris as its home base.

Dust, a company that is working on integrating large language models with internal corporate data from GitHub, Notion or Slack, also took the stage for a demo last night. At Dust’s office warming party, I realized that Dust shares its beautiful office building with Nabla, another French AI startup focused on helping doctors leverage large language models and co-founded by former FAIR engineers. This proves once again that an AI ecosystem is emerging.

The founders of Mistral AI and Dust had to leave the meetup quickly after their demos as they were both invited for dinner at the Elysée Palace, the residence of Emmanuel Macron. So there’s also some public support for AI startups in France. An entrepreneur recently told me that multiple AI startups are working together on public tenders for government grants worth millions of euros as part of France 2030.

One thing that might differentiate European AI startups from AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic is that they’re thinking about regulation and compliance from day one. An interesting French AI startup in this field is Giskard, which is developing an open source testing framework, or “the best LLM antivirus in the market,” as Giskard co-founder and CEO Alex Combessie told me. I’ll have more to write about Giskard in the coming days. And another wave of stealth AI startups

Earlier this week, The Information reported that Adaptive, an AI startup based in Amsterdam and co-founded by French AI researcher Julien Launay, was about to raise a seed around at a $100 million valuation. Adaptive helps companies iterate on their AI applications without relying on external data or annotations.

A source confirmed that Index Ventures is leading the Adaptive round, with Iconiq and Motier Ventures participating.

Another source told me that Wiem Gharbi is also raising a seed round with Index Ventures for an AI startup with a team split between Paris and London.

[ladyamanda123]

Some thoughts on this…..

- Name wrapped around her shoulders….Cruel Summer bracelet is wrapped around Taylor’s shoulder in the Jane Perkins portrait

- while packing apples 🍎…..first thought that comes to mind is the Blank Space MV

(EDIT- Another thought on this one, more simple…NYC is the Big Apple and yesterday we got the articles about how she was seen arriving home with lots of luggage. So maybe simply a call out to that little seed dropped…)

However…I did some googling and found a couple interesting things to note…

First, Karlie has an apple crisp recipe video that was posted on Oct 13, 2015

And then I searched “big apples” and hit on this…

Goldrush guys! I’m dead! 🍏

- Liking Nothings, oh so Sweet….obvious call out to her liking the Paul McCartney post

- Planting seeds, hints at deceit…..all the little hints happening recently like the Paul McCartney like and the YLM date confirmed by Jack. Little seeds rocking Hetlors world. Maybe it isn’t as it seems

- TIMElines skewed…..what she said about Traylors start timeline in the TIME article

- Etched boots, counting down days….the word Reputation is right by the boots in the Jane Perkins portrait

Name wrapped around her shoulders,

While packing apples, big as boulders.

Liking Nothings, oh so Sweet,

Planting seeds, hints at deceit.

TIMElines skewed, questions raised,

Etched via boots, counting down days.

🫚

🤔

[rosaliehale]

Seeds of Yesterday + Outfits → Cindy Sheffield

365 days of the dollanganger saga: day 193

[everymovie2020]

Seeds of Yesterday (2015)

Date watched: 31 October 2020

10/10

I mean, obviously there are problems, and I’m pretty sure Christopher actually drove off a cliff rather than being hit by a car McDreamy style on the side of the road, but that’s okay.

Honestly, I love this book. I know it’s fucking ridiculous but it appeals to my undying love of DRAMA, of which there is so much.

I mean say what you will about VC Andrews but the bitch could write some fuckin’ family drama is all I’m saying

Cindy though

Like contain yourself girl

He is MENTALLY ILL

I love that he’s fucking Jory’s pregnant wife the whole time, it’s great. And then he ditches her ass the first chance he gets.

Such a psychopath

Not sure why they didn’t just FUCKING LEAVE?

this gif is relevant to my interests

DO NOT FUCK WITH CATHY DOLLANGANGER

[pseud0surge0n]

Tagged by @blaacknoir Favorite Color: Red, but I like soooo many more, and so many combinations! I`m a big sucker for red-and-white combo. Currently Reading: I feel very awkward every time I confess this, but I haven`t picked up a book in years................. Last thing I`ve read was ASoIaF in my Uni years..... Last Song: Savior`s Seed (mmmyesss relistening to it and thinking of CultAU with my OCs) Last Movie: Rewatched Jurassic World 2015 with a friend yesterday. If rewatches don`t count - then Shawshank Redemption a day before (yes I saw it for the first time at this age..................................) Last Series: Currently rewatching Breaking Bad with one friend group and when I don`t do that - rewatching Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous with another. If rewatches don`t count - then The Good Place Sweet, Savory, or Spicy: Savory, sometimes sweet Craving: Going back to personal art :< Tea or Coffee: Depends. Love both Currently Working On: Absolutely SFW commissions. I swear. Very wholesome. Totally family-friendly Tagging: @trace-owo @fuckerofevilmen whoever wants

I was tagged by @deliciouskeys!

Favorite Color: Right now I'm kind of liking the classic orange-and-blue combo, but I'm also into purple.

Currently Reading: Choosing a Jewish Life by Anita Diamant and Judaism for Dummies. I've got some Stephen King books that are untouched that I should start making a dent in too. Oh, and I'm doing Dracula Daily!

Last Song: The Rant Song

Last Movie: Despicable Me 3. My kid's gotten back into that and wanted me to watch it. 😭

Last Series: Digimon Adventure (dubs), but I'm working through the dubs too, because apparently they changed quite a bit about the characters.

Sweet, Savory, or Spicy: Sweet or savory.

Craving: A nap tbh.

Tea or Coffee: Coffee. I don't like tea and I have made so may southerners mad with that fact. 😭

Currently Working On: Oh please don't call me out like this 😭 I want to do another Avatar Concepts post, and another Vought Archives story. Actively though, I'm working on a statement based on one of my OCs.

Tagging: @an-aura-about-you @xieyaohuan @pseud0surge0n and @lightning-flight

[movie-shelf]

5/6

[stateofsport211]

Columbus Ch R1: Ryan Peniston def. Bernard Tomic [Q] 3-1 ret. Match Notes

📸 🎥 ATP Challenger Livestream (via website)

Qualifier Bernard Tomic defeated alternate Callum Puttergill 6-1, 7-6(4) and ninth qualifying seed Toby Samuel 6-0, 6-4 in his qualifying campaign before facing Ryan Peniston in the main draw. Interestingly, this marked both players' second meeting after Tomic had to retire down 6-7(2), 0-1 in the second round of the Nottingham Challenger back in 2019. Knowing both players, this could be intriguing to see the direction of the match.

Somehow, Tomic had an erratic start from the baseline, ended up erring his forehand before his backhand went stuck in the net, which not only foiled his game point, but also secured Ryan's early break to 1-0. Tomic almost turned the tide when he had a brilliant volley touch to start the second game, but Ryan stood firm from his service game and held to 2-0.

Subsequently, Tomic had a smooth service game hold, followed by another hold by Ryan. However, Tomic kept finding himself in trouble, ended up foiling his own game points until the situation became a forever deuce situation. The double fault right to create Ryan's break point did not help, but his condition was uncertain that he ended up retiring right on the spot, securing Ryan's second-round spot.

In the second round, Ryan will then face fifth seed Tennys Sandgren, who defeated alternate Illya Marchenko 6-2, 6-1 in a straightforward showdown yesterday (local time). T. Sandgren won their latest meeting all the way in an ITF 10K Tampa in 2015 6-3, 6-4, which paved his way to the final by then. On both players' peaks, this would be an intriguing match in itself, with their offensive capabilities in general being tested in the encounter. Could be a fun one!