here’s your weekly dose of treats 💌
a weekly list of goodies, ideas, pieces of research, principles, models, and other random stuff curated by Robert
Follow the white rabbit 🐇
.
.
.
The long-awaited #1863 - Mark Zuckerberg - The Joe Rogan Experience
Why globalisation is coming to an end even though we're more connected than ever
When globalization really got going in the 50s we started moving off the farms and into the cities to take manufacturing jobs. When you live on a farm kids are free labor, you have a whole scat of them. But when you move into a condo, kids are just really loud expensive mobile pieces of furniture and adults aren't idiots, so we had fewer. You play that forward for 70 years and it's not that we're running out of children - that happened 40 years ago - it's that we're running out of mature adults. The economic model of globalization is consumption based and it just doesn't work without people. so we've always known we were going to get here in the end.
Low-temperature mineralization of perfluorocarboxylic acids:
Breakthrough over potentially harmful chemicals found in most homesThere are around 4,500 of these fluorine-based compounds and they are found in almost every dwelling on Earth in products including food packaging, non-stick cookware, rain gear, adhesives, paper and paints. Chemists have identified how to destroy these"forever chemicals" in a low-cost way for the first time, new research says.
Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason::: Slaves to Superstition /// The Irrational Health Service
How a TV works in slow motion
Compressing over 100TB of visual information of humanity into 4.2GB
The Japanese Meiji period was an amazing story of development. They went from a dystopian future ruled by foreigners to a nation that could stand toe to toe in about 50 years. Scholars should intensely study what they did.
The animals that can live forever
Radical Listening: A Manifesto
People listened instead of just waiting for their turn to speak. And when they spoke, they weren't telling you a story. When the two of you talked, you were building something, and afterward you were both different than before.
— Chuck Palahniuk, Fight ClubJames Parkin - living life, DMD style
I’ve been watching James’s channel for the past week. He has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a rare genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness due to the alterations of a protein called dystrophin that helps keep muscle cells intact.
Watching his videos is not only helpful for people suffering from incapacitating diseases but also inspirational. A few videos on how he relaxes, about his wheelchair and room setup, tech that’s helping him through his day-to-day life and much more.Liv Boeree: Poker, Game Theory, AI, Simulation, Aliens & Existential Risk
The New York Times posted a technical blog on the ways that it uses machine learning to optimise the paywall funnel & steer people into subscribing - these are exactly the ‘dark patterns’ and ‘manipulation’ that they themselves use regularly declares should be illegal.
Podcast guests are paying up to $50,000 to appear on popular shows
A jacked-up motorcycle in the middle of the night can easily wake up 10,000 Parisians. Paris joins other cities in France in installing "Méduse" radars, which automatically ticket drivers whose vehicles exceed a certain number of decibels.
This paper tested the Dilemma on students, ordinary prisoners & imprisoned members of the Camorristi (Neapolitan Mafia). The Camorra are significantly more likely to solve the dilemma by cooperating, and also punish defectors more.
Scoop: Oracle begins auditing TikTok's algorithms - mostly looking at how it recommends news
House of chickens - the first completed building in the master plan that will eventually host barns, greenhouses, feedlots, semi-open kitchens, goose coop etc; all commissioned to renowned architects and designers.
Harvard professor debunks the biggest exercise myths
We hold many misconceptions about exercise. For example, we believe our ancestors were incredibly strong, or that there is a tradeoff between speed and strength. The worst myth is that it’s normal to be less physically active as you get older. But modern hunter-gatherers remain physically active as they age. Humans need about 150 minutes of exercise per week to be healthy, but 80% of us aren’t getting even that. A good solution is simply walking more.
war materials 🇺🇦
Where once the main sources of wealth were material assets such as gold mines, wheat fields and oil wells, today the main source of wealth is knowledge. And whereas you can seize oil fields by force, you cannot acquire knowledge that way. The profitability of conquest has declined as a result.
Vladimir Solovyov’s juggles propaganda: “I’ve spoken to a number of people directly involved in production of military equipment and they throw up their hands. There’s no money here, there’s no money there. Everybody is shifting responsibility to someone else. […] Do what you are told. If you can’t — shoot yourself.
Elite Russian Spetsnaz gained a huge military goal in Kherson by occupying a civilian apartment! A big bottle of sunflower oil was taken as a military trophy! Look at those cheerful, courageous faces of the proud Russian warriors, what dignity!
Russian mercenary Igor Mangushev proudly showed the skull of a killed Ukrainian soldier. He explained the real goal of the Kremlin in this war: the complete destruction of Ukraine, not tales about denazification and demilitarization. Russian TV calls for genocide and destruction of Ukraine.
After six months of the war, what has Russia achieved?
Many argue that only few Russians travel to Europe. Fair enough.
But those in power not only travel, they're relocating.
The family breadwinner must stay, but he'll send kids abroad. Zolotov commands the Russian National Guard. His grandson Artem studies in Cranleigh School, UK. Zheleznyak is one of the United Russia party leaders. His daughter Anastasia McClymont. She studied in London, worked at the BBC, married her Scottish co-worker and changed her surname from Zheleznyak to McClymont. Dmitry Peskov is the Putin's spokesman. His daughter Yelizaveta has long lived in France. She had an internship in the European Parliament, then worked in Louis Vuitton.
There is no such thing as unbiased news. You can call it “less biased news”. There are numerous other biases that can influence news reporting too.
Overt political bias is probably the least concerning aspect of democracy because it is simple to identify and weigh.
The more concerning biases in news reporting today are those that are more subtle, such as financial incentives and self-censorship of topics. Many topics are simply not covered, and the mainstream media does not question why.
Feel free to send me counter-propaganda too.
Other places
(͡ ͡° ͜ つ ͡͡°) Telegram group for me to save & share random stuff that might be useful.
👾 some YouTube video essays
— Robert
Thank you for reading!
How’re you and yours doing this week? Any major changes to your status quo, or are things fairly locked-in and predictable at the moment? I respond to every email I get—consider sending me a message.