Alberto Cottica

Ok, Fediverse experiment. I am currently walking the Camino de Santiago. Is anyone else? Would be fun to meet up if itineraries allow.

Edit: photo added

#caminodesantiago
#caminofrances

I had managed to miss this magnificent essay from @pluralistic@mamot.fr . His main point: what's obnoxious about #AI is not the technology, but the economics. For example, I can easily imagine a world in which LLMs are deployed benevolently by not-for-profit actors of the social and solidarity economy. But AI plus capitalism... ugh.

"AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/18/tech-ai-bubble-burst-reverse-centaur

#economics

Impressive: a new law in Italy introduced in 2026 a requirement that digital payments terminals (the machines you touch your cards or phones with) be directly connected to cash registers. This apparent technicality led to an additional 5.3 billion EUR of VAT-taxable revenue base in only four months. The expected extra revenue over 2026 is estimated in nearly 3 billion EUR. This is 100% emersion of previously evaded tax, not new taxation.

https://lavoce.info/archives/111749/quando-il-pos-parla-con-il-registratore-di-cassa/ (Italian)

#economics

Calling all you #rail and #CrossBorderRail experts in the Fediverse! I am walking the Camino de Santiago, and plan to leave it at or near Leon. How do I get to France and then to Brussels? Should I aim for the Euskotren from San Sebastian to Hendaye? RailEurope wants me to go through... Madrid, but that can't be right.

Won't you look at that. It seems we have liftoff for an *economic* transition away from fossil fuels.

The transition needs to be economic, because some poorer countries rely on fossil fuels to service their debt. So debt cancellation is part of the package.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/29/capitalism-colombia-climate-summit-gustavo-petro?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

#economics
#NewEconomicThinking

Come on, Hungary! Allez l'Hongrie! You can do it.

#hungary2026

Why #Ireland 's EU presidency is compromised.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/30/ireland-big-tech-lapdog-eu-presidency-digital-sovereignty?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

1. It is the fastest-ever ECI to reach the one million signatures goal (less than three months). Above-threshold member states by number of signatures are now 11 – Portugal made it too!.

2. It is promoted by the LEFT parliamentary group in the European Parliament, which is using this success to call for institutional action in the EU: https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/2077480/one-million-europeans-call-on-eu-to-suspend-israel-association-deal-tbtb

3. Spanish PM Sanchez has picked up on it, and is asking the Council to suspend the agreement in question. https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-pushes-to-end-eu-israel-association-agreement-pedro-sanchez/

2/2

"[Father of convolutional neural networks Yann] LeCun sees the LLM approach as essentially a dead end."

#AI

https://www.brown.edu/news/2026-04-01/yann-lecun-artificial-intelligence-pioneer

@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net

"Public replies to this toot will show up as comments under the blog post."

Hello Jan, may I ask what you use to achieve that?

La Belgique a bel et bien un gouvernement austéritaire. Sauf que les belges, ils n'ont pas l'habitude, et donc font l'austérité très mal. Réduire 65% les ressources pour les repas gratuits des élèves sortis de ménages modestes, tout en augmentant les salaires des top managers de 12%? La communication est elle aussi... maladroite.

Une directrice d'école wallonne écrit aux ministres: https://www.lesoir.be/740115/article/2026-04-10/ladministration-le-culot-dannoncer-que-si-mon-ecole-veut-continuer-organiser-les