On the final Friday of every month I curate a number of the observations and insights that had been shared on social media. I name these Friday’s Finds.
“Capitalism is what occurs whenever you imagine glorified fishmongers ought to chart the course for humanity.” —@aral
“11 yrs in the past I discovered this humorous: ‘What number of Microsoft designers does it take to alter a light-weight bulb? None. They simply outline darkness as ‘trade normal’. However now I can’t unsee this: ‘What number of enormous corporations does it take to repair the local weather? None. They simply outline world warming as ‘trade normal’.” —@HelenCzerski
“it’s simple to suggest an answer in the event you solely perceive 10% of the issue” —@tef
Mortality in First Eight Months of 2024 2% Greater Than Predicted [pay attention to the actuaries]
For the primary eight months of 2024, towards a baseline that features anticipated COVID-19 deaths:
— whole mortality was 2% greater than predicted;
— COVID-19 mortality was 70% greater than predicted;
— Non-COVID respiratory mortality was 8% greater than predicted, with pneumonia deaths 14% greater; and
— these outcomes are all statistically important.There have been 5 deaths from COVID-19 for each dying from influenza.
Mortality from non-respiratory causes has been near predicted.
Do Minds Have Immune Programs? by way of @ShaunCoffey
We predict cognitive immunology has a brilliant future. Think about our understanding of the thoughts’s immune system increasing till it rivals our understanding of the physique’s immune system. Think about how significantly better our therapies for misinformation susceptibility might turn into. (Consider such therapies as taking the type of next-level important pondering instruction for the keen, not pressured inoculation of the unwilling.) Think about how a lot rarer outbreaks of mass irrationality might turn into. What if we might cut back poisonous polarization by 35%? Or make everybody 15% much less prone to ideological fixation? What if we might make indignant, hateful delusions unusual? Think about taming the worst infodemics the way in which we tamed the worst epidemics: by patiently constructing herd immunity to the nastiest infectious brokers.
To the scholar physique of Germany:
Historical past has taught you nothing in the event you suppose you’ll be able to kill concepts. Tyrants have tried to do this typically earlier than, and the concepts have risen up of their would possibly and destroyed them.
You’ll be able to burn my books and the books of the perfect minds in Europe, however the concepts in them have seeped by means of one million channels and can proceed to quicken different minds. I gave all of the royalties of my books all the time to the German troopers blinded within the World Warfare with no thought in my coronary heart however love and compassion for the German individuals.
I acknowledge the grievous issues which have led to your intolerance; all of the extra do I deplore the injustice and unwisdom of passing on to unborn generations the stigma of your deeds.
Don’t think about that your barbarities to the Jews are unknown right here. God sleepeth not, and He’ll go to His judgment upon you. Higher had been it so that you can have a mill-stone hung round your neck and sink into the ocean than to be hated and despised of all males. —Helen Keller
Again to Fundamentals – Cycle Helmets
To assessment all of this, cycle helmets don’t provide any designed safety towards crashes involving every other car. Whereas it could provide your head some safety towards being minimize by glass, that diploma of safety can be nearly irrelevant in comparison with the huge affect drive attributable to being hit by a automobile.
Cycle helmets do provide a slight absorption of affect, however not sufficient to forestall concussion, nor certainly coma. Additionally, polystyrene – what cycle helmets are comprised of – is rated at 3.4 Gpa power, whereas the human cranium exceeds 5 GPa. That’s an enormous distinction, and easily means your cranium is much more durable than your cycle helmet.
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Nonetheless, no matter you resolve to do, now that you already know that cycle helmets actually solely defend towards grazes and scrapes, and valuable little else, please will you cease with the “My mate crashed his bike and smashed up his helmet. If it wasn’t for his helmet, his cranium would’ve been smashed” tales, as they merely usually are not true.
OpenAI o3 Consumes 5 Tanks of Gasoline Per Job
OpenAI just lately unveiled o3, its strongest AI mannequin up to now. Moreover the fee to run the fashions, its environmental affect is one other side that’s garnering consideration.
A examine reveals that every o3 job consumes roughly 1,785 kWh of vitality, equal to the electrical energy utilized by a mean US family over two months.
The evaluation of benchmark outcomes finished by Boris Gamazaychikov, AI sustainability lead at Salesforce, says that it roughly interprets to 684 kilograms of CO₂ equal (CO₂e) emissions, which is corresponding to the carbon emissions from greater than 5 full tanks of petrol.
The Landlord’s Sport: Lizzie Magie and Monopoly’s Anti-Capitalist Origins (1903)
There are few instances of artistic and mental theft extra egregious than the origins of the billion-dollar grossing Monopoly. The brief model: an excellent girl economist invented an anti-capitalist board recreation that was stolen by a mendacity, opportunistic man and repackaged as capitalist household enjoyable.
