Link post
Free virtual course for people in tech who want to work on biology (via @kulesatony)
A background of gravitational waves pervades the cosmos (via @QuantaMagazine)
The Terraformer makes cheap natural gas from sunlight & air (via @TerraformIndies)
Henry Petroski, “America’s poet laureate of technology,” author of To Engineer is Human, The Evolution of Useful Things, and other books
John Goodenough, age 100 (!) “His discovery led to the wireless revolution and put electronic devices in the hands of people worldwide”
Great SpaceX video about iterating towards reusable rockets (via @pronounced_kyle)
Scott Alexander on the “illusion of moral decline” (but see Matt Clancy’s pushback)
Three auto maintenance philosophies, from @stewartbrand’s book in progress
As the opportunity cost of time increases, so does our concern about wasting time
How to do great work (by @paulg)
The “undercurrent of tacit knowledge” in any scientific literature (by Tyler Cowen)
GLP-1 drugs are amazing for weight loss, says Derek Lowe (via @curiouswavefn)
Why you can ignore the “aspartame causes cancer” headlines (by @StuartJRitchie). Related, the IARC puts bacon in the same category as plutonium
What use cases is hydrogen best for? And what are the front-runners for long-term energy storage?
What are the best films about capitalism, business, and market economics?
Why does DNA use base 4 rather than base 2 for encoding information?
How to roll back as much bad regulation as possible in one tweet?
Any indicators of misuse threat of adversarially fine-tune-able 10^25 LLMs?
What intellectuals refocused New Left types towards remaking the physical world?
Real history is not politics but the story of those who make a better life
Academics and nonprofits act as if someone else will translate their papers into policy
The saga of Israeli water management
A biodefense roadmap from Kevin Esvelt. Excellent work
Chicago went all in on railroads and Cincinnati went all in on canals
A path to prosperity for small cities within one hour of a major city/airport
Update from prediction market Kalshi on regulated election markets
I push back against Dustin Moskowitz’s list of AI safety “strawmen”
Many good ideas are killed for reasons unrelated to their promise
As we make progress on social problems, we broaden the definition of the problem. A case of the Shirky Principle
In 1844, the Secretary of the Navy was killed during a military demonstration
Most attempts to disrupt education do project-based learning, which is overrated
SF can’t even find actual collisions to cite against self-driving cars
As Bezos says: “Let me assure you, this is the best planet”
“We can’t answer every question.” “No, but I think we can answer any question.”
The US electrical grid has been getting less reliable for decades
How many ships Bethlehem Steel built during WWII
Jason’s links and tweets, 2023-07-06: Terraformer Mark One, Israeli water management, & more
Link post
Opportunities
Free virtual course for people in tech who want to work on biology (via @kulesatony)
News
A background of gravitational waves pervades the cosmos (via @QuantaMagazine)
The Terraformer makes cheap natural gas from sunlight & air (via @TerraformIndies)
Obituaries
Henry Petroski, “America’s poet laureate of technology,” author of To Engineer is Human, The Evolution of Useful Things, and other books
John Goodenough, age 100 (!) “His discovery led to the wireless revolution and put electronic devices in the hands of people worldwide”
Links
Great SpaceX video about iterating towards reusable rockets (via @pronounced_kyle)
Scott Alexander on the “illusion of moral decline” (but see Matt Clancy’s pushback)
Three auto maintenance philosophies, from @stewartbrand’s book in progress
As the opportunity cost of time increases, so does our concern about wasting time
How to do great work (by @paulg)
The “undercurrent of tacit knowledge” in any scientific literature (by Tyler Cowen)
GLP-1 drugs are amazing for weight loss, says Derek Lowe (via @curiouswavefn)
Why you can ignore the “aspartame causes cancer” headlines (by @StuartJRitchie). Related, the IARC puts bacon in the same category as plutonium
Queries
What use cases is hydrogen best for? And what are the front-runners for long-term energy storage?
What are the best films about capitalism, business, and market economics?
Why does DNA use base 4 rather than base 2 for encoding information?
How to roll back as much bad regulation as possible in one tweet?
Any indicators of misuse threat of adversarially fine-tune-able 10^25 LLMs?
What intellectuals refocused New Left types towards remaking the physical world?
Quotes
Real history is not politics but the story of those who make a better life
Academics and nonprofits act as if someone else will translate their papers into policy
Tweets & threads
The saga of Israeli water management
A biodefense roadmap from Kevin Esvelt. Excellent work
Chicago went all in on railroads and Cincinnati went all in on canals
A path to prosperity for small cities within one hour of a major city/airport
Update from prediction market Kalshi on regulated election markets
I push back against Dustin Moskowitz’s list of AI safety “strawmen”
Many good ideas are killed for reasons unrelated to their promise
As we make progress on social problems, we broaden the definition of the problem. A case of the Shirky Principle
In 1844, the Secretary of the Navy was killed during a military demonstration
Most attempts to disrupt education do project-based learning, which is overrated
SF can’t even find actual collisions to cite against self-driving cars
As Bezos says: “Let me assure you, this is the best planet”
“We can’t answer every question.” “No, but I think we can answer any question.”
Charts
The US electrical grid has been getting less reliable for decades
How many ships Bethlehem Steel built during WWII