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 🐇
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David Popovici on breaking the WR, Stoicism, 400 Free, being Knighted
New stuff from Apple. iPhone 14 Pro, emergency SOS via satellite, new Apple watch and much more.
Watch real people read their stories about how Apple Watch has impacted their lives.A New Hampshire man is rescued after falling into a frozen river while ice skating. A high school senior escapes a visit from a bear. A doctor saves his friend’s life — all with the help of Apple Watch.
I also got to experiment with this myself by falling off my bike a couple of times.
Look-alike humans identified by facial recognition algorithms show genetic similarities
The brain chemistry underlying mental exhaustion
The analog house
An AI-generated artwork’s state fair victory fuels arguments over ‘what art is’
In How AlphaZero Completely CRUSHED Stockfish, GothamChess says that AlphaZero really loves sacrificing pieces for speed & initiative. "AZ loves suppressing movement." Web-based stockfish thinks AZ does dumb moves. Why? Because SF evaluates piece adv. If you zoom out, "dumb moves" are actually smart.
Noam Chomsky: Putin, Ukraine, China, and Nuclear War
The apparent rate of biomedical progress has never been greater: A Future History of Biomedical Progress
Samples from asteroid Ryugu contains bits that came from outside our solar system
Photovoltaic-driven microbial protein production can use land and sunlight more efficiently than conventional crops
The most beautiful archer in Japan
This company is about to grow new organs in a person for the first time
Better detection will make the oceans transparent—and perhaps doom mutually assured destruction
Scientists grow "synthetic" embryo with brain and beating heart without eggs or sperm
Growing evidence supports what physicists have long suspected: In some way or other, space-time itself seems to fall apart at a black hole, implying that space-time is not the root level of reality, but an emergent structure from something deeper.
These identical twins married identical twins. Now they have sons.
(Autistic) visionaries are not natural-born leaders
Climate Change & Longtermism: new book-length report
Q&A with my high school self: helping 14-16 year old Alexey to deal with his emotions, to ask for help, to talk to people (and his dad), to learn, to get things done.
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.
Prominent pro Russian war bloggers saying Russia has abandoned both Izyum and Liman (and reporting Ukrainian progress down in Kherson too). A collapse I doubt even Ukraine’s generals expected.
My tankies always complain when West arms Ukraine but they never say anything when Russia arms Ukraine...
Russians start shopping abroad
Watch this roundup of clips, featuring panicked Kremlin propagandists on several state TV programs, discussing impressive gains by Ukraine's Armed Forces in reclaiming control over Ukrainian territory.
This is Igor Strelkov-Girkin, Rusky Mir (Russian World) most famous conquistador some time before intelligence service officers caught him, shaved off his moustache (he’s growing it back) and published the scan of his passport to reveal his real identity (he’s neither Strelkov nor Girkin) in order to silence him. On social networks and YouTube, Girkin has been critical of how the Special Military Operation has been proceeding. His mood has darkened as his pleas for national mobilisation of one million recruits remain unanswered. Recently he called out to have Vladimir Putin hanged as a traitor.
Some say Russians support Putin because of fear, apathy and lack of options. Some say they truly support him because they subscribe to his values and goals. What is the truth? And how can it be found out as objectively as possible?
Ukrainian counteroffensive destroys Russian’s will to fight - Decimated
intercepted phone calls
“I think Ukrainians Figured My Location Through My Phone!” - Russian Soldier After Shelling
Russian Soldier Is Upset With Putin - Uncle Vova Doesn’t Want To Pay What He Promised
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.