Consumption 2023

Originally this was ~52 weekly posts , which is why this is now huge.

[My First Million] The Annual Milly Awards: The Winners, The Losers And Everything In Between With Andrew Wilkinson

• A good decision can have a bad result. A bad decision can have a good result. Good decisions win in the long run
• Book: Think on These Things: J. Krishnamurti
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/10kdiver

The 10 Best Ideas I Learned in 2022 [Gurwinder]

https://gurwinder.substack.com/p/the-10-best-ideas-i-learned-in-2022

1. Solomon’s Paradox
2. Cunningham’s Law
3. Bonhoeffer’s Theory of Stupidity
4. Anattā
5. Gibson’s Law
6. Surrogate Activities
7. Shirky Principle
8. Babble Hypothesis
9. Noble Cause Corruption
10. Noise Bottlenecks

[The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish] #155 Best of 2022: Conversations of the Year

https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/best-of-2022/

• In India, a country focussed on status, there is 3x margin on living room products (seen by visitors) vs bedroom products (unseen by visitors). A living room (partial) renovation product gets more traction than home (whole) renovation product. Extending this - what is the core driver? [Kunal Shah]
• Impulse control and go/no-go functions: Train no-go circuitry by stopping yourself doing unconscious behaviours/habits e.g. picking up phone without a purpose, changing a plan spontaneously, grabbing a snack. Trained through meditating (”no, I won’t explore this thought right now”). Relates to sitting and focussing on one thing for extended period without any distractions (deep work). [Huberman]

[Founders] #226 Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle

https://founderspodcast.substack.com/p/226-heroes-from-alexander-the-great

• Do the right thing - you know what it is.
• Dyson: Be obtuse, unconventional, determined
• Benevolent dictatorship is optimum. Almost impossible for a country, but possible for a company.

[Redefining Energy] 89. Our Predictions for 2023 - jan23

https://energycentral.com/c/cp/89-predictions-2023-redefining-energy-podcast

• Brookfield Canadian investment firm, owner of Westinghouse - one to watch?

[Blinkist] One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer

• Questions stimulate thinking. Even if you know you don’t know the answer, regularly ask yourself the question anyway.
• Start small and simple - “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.
• Fix small problems and the larger ones may fix themselves.
• Visualise what you want to achieve. If you find visualising hard, start small. For example, in an interview. What will I be wearing?

[Great Green Questions] Can we invest our cash today without threatening tomorrow?

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/can-we-invest-our-cash-today-without-threatening-tomorrow/id1557916383?i=1000523229668

• Where is my pension invested? Pressure my employer to offer a sustainable option as the default option.
• Useful sites:
  • https://www.switch-it.co.uk/ → seems to only suggest https://rebelenergy.com/
  • https://bank.green/ → “Is your money being used to fund climate chaos?”
    • Mostly building societies; also Triodos
    • Led to https://www.fossilbanks.org/fossil-banks
  • https://good-with-money.com/ → “Which are the best investment platforms, funds, pension funds, ISAs, lenders and insurers if you want your money to do good?”

[The Big Green Money Show] Best of The Big Green Money Show

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ftrm

• Green funerals exist e.g. woodland with a tree instead of gravestone.
• Intrigued to listen to back catalogue.

Visualized: Who Americans Spend Their Time With

• https://www.visualcapitalist.com/who-americans-spend-their-time-with
• Mostly alone, colleagues and partner similar until retirement.

Animated Chart: The Smartphone Effect on the Camera Market

• https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/charting-the-smartphone-effect-camera-market

• Standalone digital cameras had a tiny lifespan. What else could be this way?

  

Can Planting a Trillion New Trees Save the World?

• https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/13/magazine/planting-trees-climate-change.html
• Nearly half the land involved was slated to be turned into plantations of fast-growing commercial trees. The carbon these monocultures store is mostly released in a decade or so, when the trees are harvested, the researchers wrote.
• Grassland scientists argue that such areas are not degraded forests, but rather ancient, biodiverse and carbon-rich ecosystems, worthy of protection in their own right. By directing the attention of tree-planting campaigns toward those grasslands, he thought, the map could threaten the existence of countless species and ecosystems.
• Drastically overestimated the climate-mending effects of planting trees. “They did the carbon-accounting equivalent of you or me buying a house for $100K, fixing it up with $50K of improvements, selling it for $200K, then bragging about how we made $200K in profit,” he says.
• They are planting seeds or seedlings, which offer few benefits and are not tough at all. Every year, he recalls, the government provided seedlings for the class to plant, and all their planted seedlings always died. “We should be growing trees, not planting trees,”
• The movement’s success or failure in restoring the world’s forests will be judged not by the number of trees planted, but via satellite imagery, viewed over the long term, and discussed the old-fashioned way — in hectares.

Protecting Ourselves From Inflation [10-K Diver]

• https://twitter.com/10kdiver/status/1528374195201052674
• 3 economic characteristics that tend to make companies robust to inflation:
  • Pricing power
    • A company has pricing power if it can raise the price of its products and services – and still not see a reduction in demand for them. Usually, this happens when customers consider the company’s products/services essential – with NO adequate substitute.
    • Companies that have such pricing power tend to leave clues in their financial statements:
      • High gross margins and operating margins,
      • High returns on invested capital, and
      • High Free Cash Flow conversion (ie, owners can take out most of their earnings in cash)
  • Capital lightness, and
    • If capital heavy, much of their “earnings” may simply go towards increasing their own “capital” – which is required for these very earnings!
  • Judicious use of debt.
    • Inflation helps borrowers. That’s because they get to borrow money in today’s (more valuable) dollars – and pay it back using tomorrow’s (less valuable) dollars.

The Right Way To Calculate Inflation-Adjusted Returns [10-K Diver]

• https://twitter.com/10kdiver/status/1439281692989034504

Pixels make the picture: A guided tour through the granular world

• https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/Pixels-of-progress-chapter-1

• There is a lot of variety within a country

  

  

  

  

What’s next for batteries

• https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/01/04/1066141/whats-next-for-batteries/
• Solid-state batteries can use a wide range of chemistries, but a leading candidate for commercialization uses lithium metal.
• Sodium-ion batteries may not improve performance, but they could cut costs because they rely on cheaper, more widely available materials than lithium-ion chemistries do.
• Form Energy is developing an iron-air battery that uses a water-based electrolyte and basically stores energy using reversible rusting.
• This year could be a breakout year for one alternative: lithium iron phosphate (LFP), a low-cost cathode material
• Most anodes in lithium-ion batteries today, whatever their cathode makeup, use graphite to hold the lithium ions. But alternatives like silicon could help increase energy density and speed up charging.

This Is Why Global Warming Is Responsible For Freezing Temperatures Across The U.S.

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/01/30/this-is-why-global-warming-is-responsible-for-freezing-temperatures-across-the-usa/

• https://www.dw.com/en/cold-winter-global-warming-polar-vortex/a-56534450

• https://www.greenmatters.com/weather-and-global-warming/does-global-warming-make-winter-colder

• Global warming can cause harsh winter weather in other ways too. Warmer temperatures mean a warmer atmosphere. National Geographic explains that when an atmosphere is warmer, it can hold more moisture which causes an increase in precipitation — hence more snowfall when temperatures are below freezing. This can cause blizzards to be more intense.

• Perhaps paradoxically, it’s a strong, extremely cold polar vortex that results in stable, warm temperatures across the more populous mid-latitudes in winter.

  

  

[The Big Green Money Show] How to Recycle: With Biffa CEO

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001d7bx

• Closed loop - plastic bottle to plastic bottle (in about 2 weeks).
• Bottle is ~50% recycled but only because not enough recycled material available.
• Waste management is 8% of UK emissions.
• Single material packaging is key - even if all plastic.
• Business model: Paid to process by government, but some profits from end products sold go back to government.
• Tips: Rinse in cold water; don’t remove labels; keep plastic lids on (colour and type sorting machinery handles); leave plastic on cardboard box/envelope (machines separate).
• Listening made me positive about achieving something?

New EV entrants disrupt Europe’s automotive market

• https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/new-ev-entrants-disrupt-europes-automotive-market

• The new entrants, however, have chosen vastly different GTM strategies. These range from direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategies that feature their own outlets (such as NIO and Lynk & Co.), strategic partnerships with importers for wholesale distribution (for example, BYD), pure importer models (for instance, Skywell) and partnerships with non-automotive retailers (such as Aiways that has partnered with an electronics retailer in Germany).

  

  

World’s largest vertical farm is being built in the UK and it’s the size of 96 tennis courts

• https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/06/09/world-s-largest-vertical-farm-is-being-built-in-the-uk-and-it-s-the-size-of-96-tennis-cour
• Jones Food Company (JFC), Lincolnshire, 13,500m2

Grid capacity – the bottleneck on net zero?

• https://theenergyst.com/grid-capacity-the-bottleneck-on-net-zero
• DNOs like UK Power Networks and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks now publish ‘heat maps’ showing the areas in which their grids are constrained.

[Modern Wisdom] #571 - Life Hacks 210

https://modernwisdom.libsyn.com/571-life-hacks-210

• Year review: list of favourites/bests
• https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQ6makBNCA_sVlbZMr14GXUnkYI0fslBZQ1W2gb1H1RTPgfhUtBJIHQg0RnT4O1zsdkWHw31kCQQQTU/pub

[The Tim Ferriss Show] #647: Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

https://tim.blog/2022/12/30/mark-manson/

• Had no job, was pressured by his friends to start writing about his hobby (pickup), people offered to pay him to teach them.
  • Put yourself out there - you never know what will happen. Create.
• Also wrote a load of bullshitty scammy blogs through which he learnt the industry.

[The Art of Manliness] 7 Journaling Techniques That Can Change Your Life

https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/habits/7-journaling-techniques-that-can-change-your-life/

• Brain dumps: write or record
• Break mindset: I will <achieve goal/not experience negative> because [do daily]
• Lifestyle and habits auditing: Record all daily actions, were they done by the best you or the worst you? You become what you do.
• Daily reflection: What drained me? What did I learn? What am I grateful for? What excited me? How did I push the needle forward?
• To make a decision - Rather than pros and cons, imagine worst and best possibly outcomes/experiences
• To stop catastrophising - Which is the most likely outcome? Would I put money on it?

Proposal: A founder-focused climate tech taxonomy

https://david.blog/proposal-a-founder-focused-climate-tech-taxonomy-6ea32a07a495

[Brave New Earth] S1E6: Kieran White, Founder of Return

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WBjeRPvYIo

• Don’t fully get the concept. Reminds me of the Buffett quote below.
• A 22yo with $2.5m in funding, starting from a friend/business acquaintance… Impressive, but given the above, curious how it turns out.

[The Big Green Money Show] Going Nuclear with Rolls-Royce CEO

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00168pr

• Palm oil is mostly sustainable now, and consuming less could cause producers to shift to worse options. But it’s still not healthy.
• Community Clothing (https://communityclothing.co.uk/) for reasonably-priced British-made clothing with known suppliers.

[How to be a CEO] Lime’s Wayne Ting: Optimism in a crisis

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3se3MVQhvrrL3sXQjXcA8L

• How about rent-a-single-person-car, so you have rain cover and take some luggage? Still park 2~3 to a normal parking space.

[Founders] #81 Rolls-Royce: The First Forty Years

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5f5KQbg3Ze1tpcTUWxPnEs

• PSD: poor, smart, and determined.
• Find an existing market and improve it, e.g. make the best cars.
• Treat your life as an RPG - where do I need skill points?

[Founders] #50 Marc Andreessen’s Blog Archive

https://open.spotify.com/episode/72HthI9WyMQUwPyZAFpkNh

• Product market fit is most important. Also, a market needs to exist - trying to make one is very difficult.
• Actively keep an eye out for opportunities (helping someone, attending an event) - put yourself in the best situations to get ahead.
• Go to the best uni/company/location to be exposed to the best people.
• Learning how to sell/persuade is the most important skill.
• Life involves making tough decisions by yourself in the absence of good information and living with the consequences. This can be trained.

[Founders] #227 The Essays of Warren Buffett

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0NYR5b0RktTaxWi68kT1io

• If someone can’t explain their business/idea simply, they either don’t understand or are hiding something.
• Focus/attention is the most important quality of a successful entrepreneur. Focus what you can do well, and outsource or ignore everything else.
• Create something of value to those you want to get to know and they will find you.
• Human relationships are the most important.

[My First Million] Binge On Business Ideas For 2023

https://www.mfmpod.com/binge-on-business-ideas-for-2023/

• Use emotional language in sales - beautiful, delicious, etc.
• Become an expert and share advice - people will come to you and offer to pay for specific advice, or affiliate sales.

[World Changing Ideas] Best of WCI: Toilets, poop, and water conservation

https://podcasts.apple.com/lt/podcast/best-of-wci-waterbear-takes-on-climate-change-by/id1504787159?i=1000545756249

• The key is to separate liquids from solids.
• Toilets that process on-site into a usable fertiliser instead of sewers are the future. Ties in with local small-scale farming.

[The James Altucher Show] How to Build the Future | Peter Thiel

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-build-the-future-peter-thiel/id794030859?i=1000592012393

• Key predictor of turnover is lack of work friends.
• Start with monopolising a small market.

[Founders] #104 The Founder of IKEA: Ingvar Kamprad

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7Lz0wZIFHux6Tq0u7eHC5o

• Started by simply buying and selling.
• See an existing business and look for ways it could be done better.
• Many super successful entrepreneurs ignore their family - and then regret it.
• Happiest memories were early days - small team working together.

[Sliced Bread] Shampoo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001gx0z

• Generally all shampoos are equal, although they can improve the appearance of hair.
• Sulphate-free shampoos are probably better as they don’t remove too much natural oil.
• Shampoo bars are better and liquids.
• Most people use too much shampoo.
• Natural hair styles depend on the hair follicle shape (genetics).

[The Tim Ferriss Show] #648: James Clear, Atomic Habits

https://tim.blog/2023/01/06/james-clear-atomic-habits/

• The bad days matter more than the good days. Even if you only do 10% of what you hoped, that’s still more than 0.
• Content creation and marketing:
  • A blog post can lead to a podcast which can lead to a TV interview which can lead to huge sales. It all starts by putting something out there.
  • Be aware of letting other platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) own your content and audience and leads. You could easily lose control.
  • Create to help - be thoughtful and genuine.
  • Personalise marketing materials e.g. “you might like this part”
• Habits:
  • Build an identity by doing the actions that identity would do e.g. “I am the type of person who goes to the gym every day”
  • How you spend your time demonstrates your priorities.
  • Building a habit: Make it obvious, attractive, easy, satisfying. Find how by asking questions: “How can this be easy?” e.g. Meditation: a ॐ poster, a comfy chair, start with 60 seconds, eat chocolate after
  • Have pre-activity rituals to preprogramme action. e.g. Music when getting ready for the gym.

[Founders] #68 The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5uXddr9vHpSUbM12oeLReA

• He found his passion as a child and did it every waking hour.
• He took advantage of loopholes and questionable activities, and kept a low profile.
  • But how did it find them? That would be the really useful thing to know.

Other

No special notes for any of the below.

• [My First Million] Top 5 Interviews of 2022: https://www.mfmpod.com/top-5-interviews-of-2022/
• [Modern Wisdom] #574 – 600k Q&A – Masculinity Crisis, Overrated Thinkers & Lex Fridman: https://modernwisdom.libsyn.com/574-600k-qa
• [Conversations in Cleantech] Collaborating for Cleaner Energy with Will Rowe: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/collaborating-for-cleaner-energy-with-will-rowe/id1563032743?i=1000593439260
• [World Changing Ideas] The Fast Company podcast team looks back on 2022: https://open.spotify.com/episode/30CJO3h811hF56c3MGFLjv
• [Drum Tower] The new wave: https://podcasts.apple.com/lr/podcast/drum-tower-the-new-wave/id1651657142?i=1000593585725
• [Smashing Security] 304: Oxford’s dating disaster, cheap security robots, and faking a suicide: https://www.smashingsecurity.com/304-oxfords-dating-disaster-cheap-security-robots-and-faking-a-suicide/
• [Acquired] S10 E03: Sony: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sony

[Bloomberg Quicktake: Originals] Is CO2 Removal Ready for Its Big Moment?

https://youtu.be/NLHdCkcqnWE

• It’s really nice to see the end-product of the carbon capture process!
• The issue is still the economics, given releasing CO2 is cheap but capturing it is expensive, and there are no obvious re-use cases that I’m aware of at the current price point.

[Real Science] The Insane Biology of: Humans

https://youtu.be/cI6aFO8svqA

• Throwing - waist and shoulder adaptations.
• Mammalian dive reflex.
• High-altitude adaption - take more breaths, produce more nitric oxide.

Our Flag Means Death

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11000902/

• Bloody hilarious. 5/5

Dry Eyes Treatment

https://endmyopia.org/dry-eyes/

• Preservative-free (PF) artificial tears.
  • It seems the ones I use have a preservative, benzalkonium chloride. Perhaps I should change brand.
• Meibomian gland dysfunction: heated rice sock (or similar) resting on eyes for 5~10mins to melt oil in glands.
  • Potentially one reason people get benefits from Bates palming?
• Eyelid scrub: Hypochlorous acid 0.02% spray on a cotton ball and rub very gently back and forth on your lid margins where the eyelashes come out.

Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions (~100 Models Explained)

https://fs.blog/mental-models/

• Some are directly useful, some seem less so. Some are a bit vague and would benefit from more concrete examples - it’s easy to make something sound good, but harder to explain to a five-year-old.

Binaural Beats vs. Solfeggio Frequencies

https://www.bettersleep.com/blog/binaural-beats-vs.-solfeggio-frequencies/

• Binaurals seem more proven than solfeggio, but if I’m doing the former, might as well combine with the latter. Theta (4.32) + 432Hz for meditation?

This Family Has Been Living In The Middle Of A Roundabout For 40 Years

https://wonderfulengineering.com/this-family-has-been-living-in-the-middle-of-a-roundabout-for-40-years/

CES 2023 Robot Roundup: Bots to Make Our Lives Better, Easier, or Just More Fun

https://singularityhub.com/2023/01/08/ces-2023-robot-roundup-bots-to-make-our-lives-better-easier-or-just-more-fun/

• Japanese agritech startup Agrist’s simply-named “L” robot can identify and pick harvest-ready bell peppers with millimeter precision and through thickly-layered leaves.
• John Deere says its ExactShot robotic planter can reduce the amount of starter fertilizer farmers use by more than 60 percent.
• Aeo can be used for security, delivery, healthcare, and hospitality purposes. Aeo has two arms, one outfitted with grippers to pick up objects, open doors, or press buttons, and the other fitted with an L-shaped UV attachment to disinfect surfaces.
• Ottonomy can do autonomous deliveries—where a door opens and a box is deposited on the ground—or attended deliveries, customer gets a text telling them the robot is there and a QR code to open the compartment.
• Evar’s Parky robot provides 15kW DC charging per hour, juicing vehicles up with about 50 miles of range.
• Richtech Robotics’ Adam robot has two arms with grip handles that can be customized to make various drinks.

This Japanese bra automatically unhooks when you find true love

https://theweek.com/articles/452094/japanese-bra-automatically-unhooks-when-find-true-love

• Exercise not recommended?

Scientists prove link between perceived penis size and sports cars

https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/motoring-news/scientists-prove-link-between-perceived-penis-size-and-sports-cars/news-story/0cbbb93349c4d9d4a6406e610438cd46”

• “The team behind the survey told some participants that the average penis size was 18 centimetres (7 inches), while others were told it was 10 centimetres (4 inches). Men who were misled by the former claim were more likely to desire a sports car.”

[3MM] Ruthlessness, Babies & Girlboss Mode

• Proximate is the more immediate “reason to” do a behaviour - sex feels good and gives you pleasure and love.
• Ultimate is the “reason why” the behaviour was shaped that way by evolution - it creates offspring who continue your genetic line.

[CTVC] 🌎 $40B and 1,000+ deals in 2022 market downtick

https://www.ctvc.co/40b-and-1-000-deals-in-2022-market-downtick/

• Now’s an excellent time for climate tech!

[Brave New Earth] E7: How Vertical Farms are changing the food we eat… w. Alexander Olesen, Founder of Babylon Microfarms

• Alex predicts vertical farming to be a major contributor to low-calorie greens within 5 years.
• Main issue is financing - VCs are too used to getting huge returns on bullshit software products. Hardware and real change takes more time.
• May need to position at premium level (think Tesla) due to higher costs.

[My First Million] Announcing This Year’s Episode of the Year: Camp MFM Recap

• Mr Beast had a single-focussed obsessed ambition from 15. Hugely ambitious, “ignores” rules. But a bit naïve and high-risk.

[Modern Wisdom] #577 - David Goggins

• Everything is a chain of one-second decisions, single steps. Overcome each one.
• Pain is temporary, gain lasts forever.
• Don’t assume others are better than you - that they have their shit together, their opinions are all well considered, they love their life. You only see the outside.
• You need an organised mind to be disciplined. Achieve one by meditating and reducing input (consumption).
• Everyday résumé. Affirmations are outweighed by actions. Don’t tell yourself you’ll do something; prove it to yourself.

[Founders] #276 Paul Graham’s Essays part 2

• Conventional- vs independent-minded continuum. To increase the latter, spend time with independently-minded thinkers - those who ask why it can’t be done, not those who assume it can’t be.
• Follow your curiosity and interest. Curiosity gives energy. Work should feel fun.
• You have to work hard to be successful. There are no shortcuts. Working smart is not enough.

[The James Altucher Show] This Author’s Titles Are So Important, I Wrote an Entire Chapter About Them! | Nassim Nicholas Taleb

• In many situations, the outcome is more important than the mechanism. Focus on the action, not why it works.
  • You don’t need the perfect gym/diet plan. Simply exercise and eat real food.

[How to be a CEO] Universal Music’s Selina Webb: The Pressure of Success

• More about the music industry than business/how to be a CEO.
• Her route: Journalism → music journalism (+ networking) → music industry
  • Same industry for a long time, got to know people.

The Joe Rogan Experience - #1928 - Jimmy Corsetti & Ben van Kerkwyk

• The overall theory seems solid. Lost civilisations (including Atlantis) who had now-lost advanced technology, potentially killed by extra-terrestrial impact and/or climate and/or cataclysmic pole shift.
• Some of the convo is a bit too conspiratorial e.g. with Elon, COVID, anti-Leftism, etc., as Rogan often is now.

[Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford] LIVE: The Myth of the Million Dollar Tulip Bulb

• Mackay’s famous Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds book is bullshit. In reality, the Tulip Mania was tiny, mostly among rich people collecting them for bragging purposes (like NFTs are today), and it caused no real financial problems. On the other hand, he said the Railway Mania of the 1800s was not a bubble, and yet in reality it crashed the economy.
• Predicting a bubble is easy in hindsight, but difficult in the moment. High debt levels are one key factor that can cause a crash. But there needs to be a spark.

[Modern Wisdom] #578 - Dr Robert Waldinger - Lessons From The World’s Longest Study On Happiness

• Relationships are most important (platonic and otherwise). Married people live longer.
• Health and luck are also major factors.
• Book recommendation: Don’t Trust Your Gut.
• Waldinger says “I don’t know” when he doesn’t know. Admirable.

[Acquired] The Playbook: Lessons from 200+ Company Stories

• Tech is exponential, hence huge gains. What else can be?
• If you’re told not to do something “for your own good”, question if there is a hidden motive, e.g. Nvidia’s broken functions.
• It’s only recent where most founders are kids. Traditionally it was older experienced people. It’s not too late.
• Be a utility - something others need to run their business and make money.
  • AWS. Energy.
• Aim for mass appeal or go very niche - don’t sit in the middle. The internet enables niches, although it can take time to build an audience.

The Biggest Global Risks of 2023

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/global-risks-2023/

• Highest impact risks are the most obvious, immediate ones (energy and the cost of living).
• Least prepared for the slowly approaching end of existence (climate change).
• Same reason people are more afraid of sharks than cigarettes - fast/now vs slow/future.

A startup transforms abandoned wind turbines into useful concrete

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/company-transforms-wind-turbines-concrete

• REGEN Fiber transforms wind turbine blades into reinforcement fiber that increases the strength and overall durability of concrete and mortar applications such as pavement, slabs-on-grade, and precast products.

Circumcision leads to changes in penis microbiome, study finds

https://interestingengineering.com/health/circumcision-alter-penis-microbiome

• For the study, investigators examined changes to the microbiome and mycobiome in 11 toilet-trained children who had undergone circumcision. Results showed that certain types of bacteria, such as Clostridiales, Bacteroidales, and Campylobacterales, were found in lower quantities after circumcision.
• Or, you know, wash yourself.
• Is a sample-size of 11 babies really a good measure for 4,000,000,000 males?

A new study has discovered the best places to be during a nuclear attack

https://interestingengineering.com/science/best-places-to-be-during-a-nuclear-attack

• Concrete-reinforced buildings provide some protection. Try to be behind corners facing the blast. Avoid windows, doors, corridors.

How old batteries will help power tomorrow’s EVs

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/01/17/1065026/evs-recycling-batteries-10-breakthrough-technologies-2023/

• Of the four metals Redwood is most focused on, they can reach close to 100% recovery of cobalt, copper, and nickel. For lithium, the figure is about 80%.

What Not To Write On Your Security Clearance Form

https://milk.com/wall-o-shame/security_clearance.html

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34437937

• Never lie on official documents… But also, yes, lie on official documents.
• Comments also say the same with job interviews - you should interpret “ever” as “still”.

3D-printed hydraulic turbine ‘SETUR’ generates electricity without using blades

https://www.designboom.com/technology/3d-printed-bladeless-hydraulic-turbine-setur-01-10-2023/

• 0.5kW or 5kW options - but could they be scaled up?
• Could the water utility industry make use of them?

3MM: Cynicism, Childlessness & Self-Control

• Cynicism is a psychological protector. It’s more comfortable to get fatalistic and call it pragmatism.
• 80% of women who didn’t have kids, didn’t intend to not have kids - the most common reason being that they didn’t find the right partner early enough.
• What best predicts whether someone becomes a leader? The amount of time they spend talking.

[The Attributes] It’s not Complicated, it’s Complex

• Complicated systems function predictably according to specific parameters, even if they are incredibly numerous.
• Complex systems are never fully understood and are therefore impossible to predict with certainty.

[Undecided with Matt Ferrell] Why This 17-Year Old’s Electric Motor Is Important

https://youtu.be/35JuW3bcp04

• No rare-earth metals, reducing China from the supply chain.
• Synchronous reluctance motors (SynRMs)
  • Although according to comments it’s not a new concept and is already being used - it’s effectively an alternator in reverse.

[CaspianReport] The Middle Corridor to revolutionise global trade

https://youtu.be/mstolgDkzkQ

• The route through Kazakhstan/Azerbaijan/Turkey is taking trade from the northern route through Russia as China is losing trust in Putin.

[Tyre Reviews] What makes EV tires different, and why should you fit them! / [Engineering Explained] Everything You Need To Know About Electric Car Tires

https://youtu.be/gg5MdeC6qzI / https://youtu.be/8pM9o2Ifcro

• Quieter
  • EV tyres use multiple sound-deadening techniques because EV drivetrains are quieter meaning tyre noise is a higher % of overall noise.
• Handling
  • EV tyres are stiffer and harder to counteract distortion due to added weight when turning, braking, acceleration.
  • EV tyres need smaller grooves to disperse water as weight of EV counteracts.
• Efficiency
  • Reduced rolling resistance through manufacturing techniques to maximise EV range.

[Bright Insight] Lost Roman Map has ATLANTIS at Eye of Sahara Africa! (Richat Structure)

https://youtu.be/xo_fMcSLp7Q

• I believe it. Atlantis was in the Sahara before it was a desert, perhaps 5000~10000BCE. North Africa was incredibly rich and powerful thousands of years ago.

Bank of Dave

8/10

Along with the Gods

7/10

Now grouped by topic. Note not everything fits perfectly. Also noting my comments directly.

Exposed: The smear tactics against wind and solar

https://youtu.be/k_Wa7v76k-U

• So much dirty money trying to ruin the planet with lies. It’s sad. But we’ll win.

Disguising solar panels as ancient Roman tiles in Pompeii

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-12-disguising-solar-panels-ancient-roman.html

• The traditional PV tiles are made from a polymer compound, which allows the sun’s rays to filter through. The photovoltaic cells are then integrated into it by hand and covered with a layer of the polymer compound. “We can also give it the look of stone, wood, concrete, and brick. As a result, such a solution can be installed not only on roofs but also on walls and floors,”

Say Hello To The Floating Farm In Rotterdam

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/01/20/say-hello-to-the-floating-farm-in-rotterdam/

• Today, the couple’s Floating Farm bobs in the harbor at Rotterdam, where it is home to 40 Maas-Rijn-Ijssel cows, who collectively produce some 200 gallons (757 liters) of milk a day.
  • JG: I do feel a bit bad for the cows though - they need more space.
• Plans are in the works for a floating vegetable farm to move into the space next to the current Floating Farm. Permit applications are also out for similar structures in Dubai, Singapore, and the Dutch cities of Haarlem and Arnhem.
• Should a weather crisis arise, a waterborne farm isn’t necessarily stuck in place. An urban farm that serves city dwellers also reduces carbon emissions associated with food transportation. Furthermore, a farm that floats on water also helps to take a little pressure off the “global land squeeze,”

A new integrated cost-effective carbon capture and conversion system

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOi7Bfw9rrs

• The system takes flue gas from power plants, and strips out CO2 using a patented PNNL-developed solvent. The solvent then carries the captured CO2 to a reactor, where it is converted into methanol, one of the most widely produced industrial chemicals on Earth. This continuous process skips multiple expensive steps to release, compress, and purify the CO2. By eliminating the need for two separate plants, and shipping and piping the CO2, PNNL has significantly reduced the cost to make renewable methanol.
• Plant operators could sell the methanol to cover the cost of capturing and converting the CO2.

How A Brick & Rock Battery Is Changing Energy Storage

https://youtu.be/B3JlTVt0jLw

• Rondo: Heats bricks to 1500°C which can stay hot for hours/days and are used to create steam for industrial processes. Lifespan of 40 years. Claims of 50-90% reduced emissions and 30%+ reduced costs.
• Brenmiller: 100-500°C, crushed rocks instead of bricks.
• Not hot enough for steel (1600°C) or cement - yet.

[CleanTechies Podcast] #79 - Re-Engineering the World because the Future is Decarbonized w/ Matt Ward (4Ward.VC)

• Most technologies we will implement to get to Net Zero are already in existence, they’re just not being optimally utilised. You don’t have to be a genius engineer to help. It’s more important to apply existing technologies to new use cases, or find a new business model.
• Another way into CleanTech: learn business skills so the techy can co-found with you.

Innovating to net zero: An executive’s guide to climate technology

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/sustainability/our-insights/innovating-to-net-zero-an-executives-guide-to-climate-technology

thanks to a ‘crabwalk’ system, this hyundai IONIQ 5 can move sideways and rotate 180°

https://www.designboom.com/technology/hyundai-mobis-e-corner-system-crabwalk-ioniq-5-ev-prototype-01-12-2023/

carsized

https://www.carsized.com/en/

How My Views on Learning Have Changed Over Time

https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2023/01/17/revised-views-learning/

• Reading this literature has made me more supportive of Direct Instruction for learning. DI is a teaching philosophy that involves breaking down complex skills into simple concepts and actions, teaching with ample examples and practice.
• While practice is good, examples are too! Watching other people perform a skill, especially with explanations for their decisions, is central to learning well. Similarly, while effortful practice is often necessary, not all effort is worthwhile. I now believe a lot of student struggles are wasteful—failures of instructors to provide thorough examples and explanations rather than a sign that deeper learning is taking place.

Are you a baby? A litmus test

https://haleynahman.substack.com/p/95-are-you-baby-a-litmus-test

• Context 1: Your friends were late for the party, so you could wait for them, or go in alone.
• Context 2: You want to leave the dancefloor, your friends want to stay. Staying because you think your friends will be upset is treating them as babies, and staying is passive/avoidant.
• JG: Not every situation can have each of the four options (it’s not like MECE), but the overarching concept of active vs passive/avoidant and selfish vs agreeable is an interesting one. Agreeable and/or active also often includes the uncomfortable options - so being an adult is doing the “right” thing, however uncomfortable.

New Research Reveals 9 Secrets That Will Make You An Expert Negotiator

https://bakadesuyo.com/2022/11/negotiator/

• Leverage: Preparation is vital. Leverage comes from knowing what they need. The person that is more comfortable with “no deal” usually has more leverage.
• Goals: Make them specific and aim high. Use recognized third-party sources or the other side’s previous deals. This will give you confidence and reduce fear.
• Negotiate Process: Make sure they have the authority to say yes. Establish that information exchange is not binding. “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”
• Establish and Maintain Trust: If you tell me a drought is coming and my first instinct is to buy a canoe, I’m walking away. Lack of trust can kill even the best deals.
• Information Exchange: Listening = more leverage. You want them to tell you what they want and why they want it. Don’t go zero-sum; expand the pie and create value. What are low-cost ways to give the other side more things they want so you can justify more things you want? If you have any dealbreakers, you want to mention them early.
• Offers: If you don’t have good information, let them make the first offer. If you have good information, go first. Ask for the most you can justify (anchor high). Don’t be too reasonable at first — most people expect a back and forth.
• Concessions: Link them with “if…then.” Make sure they recognize you’re giving up something of value so they feel the need to reciprocate.
• When Things Break Down: Don’t make ultimatums if you don’t have to. Ignore their ultimatums. If it gets ugly, involve a third party. Say emotions, don’t show them.
• Closing And Commitment: You want them to feel happy. This creates follow through and better subsequent negotiations. Get it in writing/with a deposit to stop back-tracking.

[Huberman Lab] Jocko Willink: How to Become Resilient, Forge Your Identity & Lead Others

• You don’t need calories before exercise - adrenaline is more important. That’s why exercise creates energy.
• At first long cardio exercise is uncomfortable, but after a while the repetitive motion allows you to forget the motor movements (central pattern generators) and you can often feel as if you can go on forever. Stick out the first few minutes.
• How quick do you get back to emotional baseline and keep on focussed on the goal? Very important for leaders, and being able to help the team do the same. After a success, celebrate then move on. After a failure, commiserate then move on. Don’t let the future be too affected by the past.
  • Candle analogy: The flame can be big (after a success) or small (after a failure) and the amount of fuel needs to be adjusted to keep it level and stop it burning out of control or going out. A success adds fuel, but be careful not to let it burn up too fast.
• If nothing is moving forward, try and step back and look strategically at the big picture. Even if it’s not your responsibility - perhaps everyone is else also too focussed/narrow-sighted and you’re the only one who realises someone needs to look at the big picture. This can be done physically: widen your field of view, step back (physically), take a breath. This also applies in arguments/conflicts.

What Does Fiber Do, And Do You Need More?

https://www.marksdailyapple.com/what-does-fiber-do/

• Insoluble fiber is a bulking agent, increasing the mass of the stool, which moves the stool more quickly through the intestines. I’m unconvinced that insoluble fiber has much to offer in terms of health benefits.
• Soluble fiber enhances the thickness of the stomach’s contents. This slows stomach emptying, which can give the body more time to absorb nutrients. More importantly, most types of soluble fiber are fermentable by gut microbes, which supports a healthy and diverse microbiome.
• A recent meta-analysis concluded that while increasing insoluble dietary fiber does increase the frequency of bowel movements, it does nothing for stool consistency, treatment success, laxative use, and painful defecation.
• The better way to increase your consumption of soluble, fermentable fiber is to eat plenty of vegetables, the more variety the better. You can throw in some legumes if they’re part of your repertoire (watch your total carb intake), but it’s not necessary. Top it off with some fermented dairy like full-fat kefir or yogurt.

9 Mental Distortions That Are Sabotaging Your Social Life

https://www.artofmanliness.com/people/social-skills/9-mental-distortions-that-are-sabotaging-your-social-life/

1. You underestimate how much you’ll enjoy talking to a stranger.
2. You underestimate how much new acquaintances like you.
3. You underestimate how much people will care about intimate disclosures.
4. You underestimate how much someone else will be thinking about you after conversing.
5. You underestimate how willing people are to help you.
6. You underestimate how hesitant someone will feel to ask you for help.
7. You underestimate how much your appreciation will be appreciated.
8. You underestimate the positive impact of giving a compliment.
9. You underestimate how much someone will appreciate you checking in with them.

• JG: [Me] “Hi, stranger (1). I have a problem, and it’s a little sensitive (3); please can you help (5)? helps “Thank you so much (7)! You were really skillful (8)” later [Them] I really liked that guy (2)(3)(4)! I’d like to ask him a favour but I’m a little shy… (6). later [Me] “Thanks again for helping earlier (7)! How are you doing (9)? Can I help you with anything (6)?”

[What’s New With WIRED] Easily Distracted? You Need to Think Like a Medieval Monk

• Even medieval monks worried about being unable to focus well and being distracted - it’s not just a modern phenomenon.
• Sometimes life will get in your way. You don’t have total control, however hard you try. Don’t feel bad.

[Brave New Earth] E8: Ben Saunders, Polar Caps to Cap Tables: Record Breaking Polar Explorer turned Climate VC

• When you’re struggling/suffering, your thoughts are all “I”. Force yourself to support someone else - how can I help them? This reduces your own pain.

[My First Million] WHOOP Founder Will Ahmed: How I Built A $3.6 BILLION Company

• Aim for 50% deep/REM sleep (3+ hours)
• Shaan’s pinned tweet: “You don’t need to buy a sleep tracker. Great sleep is obvious.” He says (half-jokingly) “It’s not true, but it’s catchy and gets retweets and that’s what matters” → Don’t trust advice.

[Blinkist] Switchcraft by Elaine Fox

• Mental agility: practise positive reframing.
• Imagine viewing a problem/situation as if you were a different person to experience different emotions and ideas.

[Blinkist] The Power of Unwavering Focus by Dandapani

• Don’t multitask.
• Pick one daily task/ritual and practise focussing 100% on it to train controlling your attention/awareness. Similar to meditation.

A Two-Part Look at: 1. Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises, and 2. How They Apply to What’s Happening Now

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/two-part-look-1-principles-navigating-big-debt-crises-ray-dalio/

• Borrower-debtors ultimately require enough money and low enough interest rates for them to be able to borrow and service their debts.
• Lender-creditors require high enough interest rates and low enough default rates from the debtors in order for them to get adequate returns to lend and be creditors.
• This balancing act becomes progressively more difficult as the sizes of the debt assets and debt liabilities increase relative to the incomes.
• A “beautiful deleveraging” [1) restructure the debts so debt service payments are spread out over more time or disposed of (which is deflationary and depressing) and 2) have central banks print money and buy debt (which is inflationary and stimulating)] can be engineered by central governments and central banks to reduce debt burdens if the debt is in their own currencies.
• If you know where in the credit-debt cycle each country is and how the players are likely to behave, you should be able to navigate these cycles pretty well.

Why Is Denmark So Rich Despite Huge Taxes?

https://youtu.be/fE8flS-vXxE

• Low income taxes, high consumption taxes, low corporation tax, no wealth tax → Encourages investment (and hence job and value creation).
• Relaxed employment laws and other bureaucracy → Cheaper to hire.
• Low corruption and honourable, accountable citizens → Utilitarianism works better.

[How I Built This with Guy Raz] Complexly: Hank and John Green

• Create, and put it out there.
• Many starters never know how hard it will be, and if they did, they might not have started.
• Make it a habit - do it daily.

[Editor’s Picks from The Economist] Editor’s Picks: January 23rd 2023

• Teens/20s are the highest users of buy-now-pay-later.
• People will pay more (~9%) more for climate-friendly alternatives, but are also more wasteful (fast fashion, same-hour delivery).
• Millenials/Gen Z have less wealth than previous generations and most don’t see home ownership or retirement as possible, so are more likely to buy luxury goods.

TikTok May Be A Chinese Superweapon

https://gurwinder.substack.com/p/tiktok-may-be-a-chinese-bio-weapon

• TikTok’s capacity to stupefy people, both acutely by encouraging idiotic behavior, and chronically by atrophying the brain, should prompt consideration of its potential use as a new kind of weapon, one that seeks to neutralize enemies not by inflicting pain and terror, but by inflicting pleasure.
• The US is a paradox composed of contradictions: its two primary values—freedom and equality—are mutually exclusive. It has many different cultures, and therefore no overall culture. And its market-driven society has given it economic riches but spiritual poverty. As he writes in the book, “American institutions, culture and values oppose the United States itself.”
• Western capitalism can be compared to a “paperclip maximizer,” a hypothetical AI programmed by a paperclip business to produce as many paperclips as possible, which leads it to begin recycling everything on earth into paperclips (i.e. commodities). When the programmers panic and try to switch it off, the AI turns them into paperclips, since being switched off would stop it fulfilling its goal of creating as many paperclips as possible. Thus, the blind application of short term goals leads to long term ruin.
• “Human flesh, sex, knowledge, politics, power, and law can all become the target of commodification. Commodification devours meaning and purpose, and to plug the expanding spiritual hole that this leaves, Americans turn to momentary pleasures—drugs, fast food, and amusements—driving the nation further into decadence and decay.”
• For Xi and the CCP, eliminating “decadent” TikTok-style content from China is a matter of survival, because such content is considered a herald of nihilism, a regression of humans back to beasts, a symptom of the West’s terminal illness that must be prevented from metastasizing to China.
• And this is why TikTok could prove such a devastating geopolitical weapon. Slowly but steadily it could turn the West’s youth—its future—into perpetually distracted dopamine junkies ill-equipped to maintain the civilization built by their ancestors.
• In a survey asking American and Chinese children what job they most wanted, the top answer among Chinese kids was “astronaut,” and the top answer among American kids was “influencer.”

[a16z Podcast] 2023 Big Ideas in Technology (Part 1)

• Reinvigorating the “third location” i.e. not home or work. Potentially linked to online community.

[How I Built This with Guy Raz] Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly

• Passionate about the industry.
• $20k+ start-up costs from savings and credit cards
• Ask everyone until someone says yes (maybe lie a little).

The Biogeography of the Oceans

https://youtu.be/WE2ukQOWBIw

• Kelp exists further north where the water has more nutrients that are easily absorbed. Coral exists nearer the equator where the water is more barren (hence why it is beautifully clear). Coral is an animal that eats, plus can photosynthesise through its friends. Seagrass exists where the others don’t.

The Stickiest Non-Sticky Substance

https://youtu.be/vS0TuIPoeBs

• Gecko feet are basically magic. As is this directional adhesive.
• 17g robot can pull 20kg! 6 can tow a car!!

23 BEST Things I saw in Vegas at CES 2023!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAJ1LCO4cV4

• My favourites: Lenovo Yogabook 9i (dual-screen); BMW colour-changing car (much more impressive than last year); Bug bite burner (if it works)

[More or Less: Behind the Stats] Coffee with the Chancellor, inflation measures, GP numbers and toilet paper

• “15% of deforestation is due to toilet paper” - Total lie. The source they claimed didn’t even use that figure. 15% is greater than all deforestation from wood pulp (i.e. from all paper products and more). I will never use Sirius toilet paper now.

[Modern Wisdom] #581 - Neil deGrasse Tyson - Understanding The Wonders Of Science

• It’s not good enough to be right, you’ve also got to be effective.
• Asteroid mining would turn the terrestrial mining industry on its head - but if gold etc. was cheap, given how amazing a material it is, humans would be able to create a whole bunch of new technologies currently financially unviable.

Stats for Spotify

https://www.statsforspotify.com/

Temperature-sensing building material changes color to save energy

https://pme.uchicago.edu/news/temperature-sensing-building-material-changes-color-save-energy

• On hot days, the material can emit up to 92 percent of the infrared heat it contains, helping cool the inside of a building. On colder days, however, the material emits just 7 percent of its infrared, helping keep a building warm.
• Hsu and colleagues designed a non-flammable “electrochromic” building material that contains a layer that can take on two conformations: solid copper that retains most infrared heat, or a watery solution that emits infrared. At any chosen trigger temperature, the device can use a tiny amount of electricity to induce the chemical shift between the states by either depositing copper into a thin film, or stripping that copper off.

Novel adaptation for existing blast furnaces could reduce steelmaking emissions by 90%

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2023/novel-adaptation-for-existing-blast-furnaces-could-reduce-steelmaking-emissions-by-90

• This radical reduction is achieved through a ‘closed loop’ carbon recycling system, which could replace 90% of the coke typically used in current blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace systems.
• Under a high concentration of CO2, the perovskite splits CO2 into oxygen, which is absorbed into the lattice, and CO, which is fed back into the blast furnace.

10 Mental Models for Learning

https://youtu.be/r7gK6f1ZBRI

1. Problem-Solving is Search
2. Memory Strengthens by Retrieval [JG: Not revision]
3. Knowledge Grows Exponentially
4. Creativity is Mostly Copying [JG: Idea sex]
5. Skills Are Specific
6. Mental Bandwidth is Extremely Limited [JG: Don’t multitask; break things down]
7. Success is the Best Teacher [JG: Aim for 85% success]
8. We Reason Through Examples
9. Knowledge Becomes Invisible with Experience [JG: Unconscious competence → but need to be conscious to teach others or reassess based on new data]
10. Relearning is Relatively Fast

5 Habits of Highly Disciplined People - James Clear

https://youtu.be/7dz9Mcsvi8c

1. Change your environment (unplug the TV)
2. Start small (meditate for only 2mins)
3. Focus on the trigger action (the habit is putting on your gym clothes, not going to the gym)
4. Join a community (social pressure to not break the habit)
5. Variable rewards (jar of marbles with 10% rewards)

What the Longest Study on Human Happiness Found is the Key to a Good Life

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/harvard-happiness-study-relationships/672753/

• The average American in 2018 spent 11 hours every day on solitary activities such as watching television and listening to the radio. Spending 58 days over 29 years with a friend is infinitesimal compared with the 4,851 days that Americans will spend interacting with media during that same time period.
• Repeatedly, when the participants in our study reached old age, they would make a point to say that what they treasured most were their relationships.

The Secret to Making New Friends as an Adult | Marisa G. Franco | TED

https://youtu.be/-k0p-DYYZKU

• Friendship doesn’t happen organically in adulthood - you have to be proactive.
• We’re less likely to be rejected than we think (see this from last week) - so assume people like you (which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy).
• Intimate, relational (friends), and group/community friendships - you need all three.
• Built through repeated unplanned interactions and shared vulnerability.
  • The Like Switch by Jack Schafer: Proximity, frequency, duration, intensity.
• Have activities to be doing, and invite new people to them.
• Have a group you can regularly attend to join the community.

10 Reasons Your Beliefs Are Probably Bullshit

https://gurwinder.substack.com/p/10-reasons-your-beliefs-are-probably

1. Principle of Least Effort

2. Belief Bias

3. Dunning-Kruger Effect

4. Blind Men & An Elephant

5. Wishful Thinking

6. Causal Reductionism

7. Reactive Devaluation

8. Selective Laziness

9. Gurwinder’s Theory of Bespoke Bullshit

10. Belief Perseverance

[Huberman Lab] Dr. Sara Gottfried: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity

• Amazing content as always.
• Nutrients are key. 57 fruit/veg smoothie daily fixed all his issues.
• Cyclic sighing is the most powerful technique for stress-release.

[Huberman Lab] How to Optimize Fertility in Both Males & Females

• So much more incredible content; definitely saving this for when I’m trying.
• The odour of an unrelated fertile men in the absence of regular father smell causes earlier onset of puberty in females (at least in animals).
• Chances of pregnancy: female<30, 20% success in first month (so try for 6 months); older, 9 months; by 40, 5%.
• Chances of miscarriage: female >35, 25%; 40, 50%.
• Sitting damages male fertility.

Reduce Anxiety & Stress with the Physiological Sigh | Huberman Lab Quantal Clip

https://youtu.be/rBdhqBGqiMc

[Brave New Earth] E9: Is this the future of food? w. Leo Taylor, Founder of Yum Bug

• They don’t raise their own, they just buy/package/sell.
• People were afraid of full insects in market stalls.
  • JG: But I think this could be overcome.
• Success marketing them as sharing dish in restaurants (안주).

[Founders] #286 Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger speaking directly to you

• The most important skill is the ability to focus your attention on a single topic. Give yourself time to simply think. And don’t multitask.
• Start with what you don’t want, and find how to avoid it.
• Be interested, and like the people you work with.
• Low interest rates inversely correlate with asset prices (interest rates are like gravity to stock).
• Learning is not memorising information, it’s changing behaviour.
• All great companies obsess over customers.

2023 Trend Report Q4 Edition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UobHuEPD8_U

• Shift from “Influencers” to authentic experts as content delivery (e.g. podcasts) gets increasingly accessible - e.g. Huberman

[The Tim Ferriss Show] #653: Elan Lee, Co-Creator of Exploding Kittens

• After hitting their funding goal on Kickstarter, instead of asking for more money, they used it as mission control for fun challenges. This led to more sales anyway.
  • They used the platform for a non-intended use, building on their existing community.
• Beware of stretch goals reducing your ability to produce the final product - you’re not a t-shirt company.
• Don’t overthink, just try it.
• Social proof (a crowd) is most important for sales/success.

This one-page calendar will change how you view the year

https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/one-page-calendar/

• Another year? Except for the placement of the months (in blue) in the upper-right corner of the one-page calendar, everything else is always the same, year-after-year. Moreover, the way the months are placed shifts in an extremely predictable, repeating pattern. There are only 14 possible calendar configurations: one for each of the seven non-leap years where January 1st begins on each of the seven days of the week, and one for each of the seven leap years where January 1st begins on each possible day of the week. The same calendar that works in 2023 will also work again in 2034, 2045, 2051, 2062, 2073, 2079, 2090, 2102, 2113, and 2119.

Playback of flight 5Y747

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n863gt/#2f0b1162

• The delivery flight of the last 747 to be built.

Initial D AE86 wireless mouse

https://camshop.jp/?pid=171763044

• I want this so much.

energy-harvesting carbon nanotube yarn generates electricity when stretched or twisted

https://www.designboom.com/technology/new-energy-harvesting-carbon-nanotube-yarn-electricity-stretched-twisted-02-01-2023/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt2vGlC4uRc

• A study published on Jan. 26 in Nature Energy reported that these prior versions of yarns dubbed twistrons were highly elastic and could generate electricity by being repeatedly stretched and released or twisted and untwisted.

Researchers Create Hydrogen From Seawater Without Pre-Treatment

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/02/04/researchers-create-hydrogen-from-seawater-without-pre-treatment/

• Researchers at the University of Adelaide say they have a solution. According to a report published January 30 in the journal Nature Energy, the team has succeeded in making hydrogen directly from seawater in a process that uses cheap, plentiful catalysts like cobalt oxide with chromium oxide on its surface as the catalyst.
• “We have split natural seawater into oxygen and hydrogen with nearly 100 per cent efficiency, to produce green hydrogen by electrolysis, using a non-precious and cheap catalyst in a commercial electrolyser,”

Ultra-Thin Solar Panel Coatings

https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/solar-panel-2

• This allows it to be self-cleaning and repel dirt with the basis of a substance known as crystalline titanium oxide. It is placed on the glass through a roll-to-roll process to allow the solar panels to turn into a super-hydrophilic surface from hydrophobic after it is exposed to ultraviolet light.

Carbon Removal Startup InPlanet Raises €1.2m In Pre-Seed Funding To Scale Enhanced Rock Weathering Projects

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/02/08/carbon-removal-startup-inplanet-raises-e1-2m-in-pre-seed-funding-to-scale-enhanced-rock-weathering-projects/

• Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) is a promising new method of CDR, in which silicate rocks are pulverized and spread onto farmland soil. The rock particles react with water and CO2 in the soil to form dissolved bicarbonates, which eventually wash away through water systems and river streams into the ocean. Here, they are deposited as carbonates on the ocean floor to be sequestered in the form of sediments for millions of years.

Visualized: The EV Mineral Shortage

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/how-mineral-supply-will-change-ev-forecasts/

• Spoiler: China wins.

[Climate Vision 2050] Sustainability at 36 000 Feet

• I love this series, imaging the world in 2050 based on the advancement of coming to market of modern technologies. It’s like “how it works” from the future.
• This covers loads, including future airframes (e.g. blended wing) and fuels (e.g. SAFs).

Your Head is a Houseboat - Campbell Walker

• 5/5
• Can read it in an evening, and incredibly thought-provoking.

This Ingenious System Could Guarantee Public Pensions Worldwide

https://youtu.be/61TfTwBHYCw

• How to change from the defined benefit pension Ponzi scheme (as the UK is) to a personal contribution style one (similar to Australia), as you can’t change overnight without a generation of unfunded pensions - the Swedish model.

[Brave New Earth] E10: Joel Silverman, Founder of Kids Know Best

• At early stage investing, the entrepreneur is more important than the idea. It’s not bad to pivot if the original idea doesn’t work and you have a better one. Investors are more focussed on the return.

[The Art of Manliness] #226: The Success Equation

• Luck plays a larger role than most people expect or admit.
• The paradox of skill: the higher the skill level, the more parity between top performers, so the larger the influence of luck.

[How I Built This with Guy Raz] Zumiez: Tom Campion

• Had industry experience and interest before starting his company.
• SBA loan (UK: Start Up Loan) to get started.
• Followed trends to stay popular, focussed on keeping costs low.

[More or Less: Behind the Stats] The IMF and the UK economy, NHS staff shortages and British vs English

• For multiple choice questions, the order of options dramatically changes what is picked. The first option is most likely.

Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution - Uri Levine

• 3/5
• Massive Silicon Valley vibes. Build an app, don’t make profit, sell it.

[Sliced Bread] Painkillers

• Cheap ones are 90% as good as expensive ones.
• In general, ibuprofen > paracetamol> aspirin.
• Some painkillers don’t work for some people (e.g. only ~25% of people get good relief from aspirin).

A Danish wind turbine giant just discovered how to recycle all blades

https://electrek.co/2023/02/08/wind-turbine-recycle-blades/

• Vestas says it has discovered a solution that “renders epoxy-based turbine blades as circular, without the need for changing the design or composition of blade material.”
• Once this new technology is implemented at scale, legacy blade material currently sitting in landfill, as well as blade material in active wind farms, can be disassembled and reused.

Vertical solar panels could save farm land and transform agriculture

• Sunzuan’s ingenuity lies in the use of bifacial solar modules in its design which negates the need to install the panels in a south-facing configuration [JG: in the northern hemisphere].
• They can be used in existing fields and arable lands without sacrificing them and make it simpler to install the solar panels since no elevated platforms need to be built.

[Redefining Energy] 92. Who’s winning the battery arms race?

• China currently has the entire midstream. But shipping batteries is expensive because they’re big and bulky. Therefore midstream will have to move to where the EV industry is. So: a) growth of non-Chinese companies; b) Chinese companies expanding overseas; c) Chinese cars take over the world

[CleanTechies Podcast] Carbon Capture Paint, Gigaton Scale, & Landing ClimateTech Pilot Projects w/ Beth & Steve McDaniel

• Paint that incorporates algae. Cool idea.

[CleanTechies Podcast] From 30% to 90% Li Recovery, Founding a ClimateTech Co, & Talent Moat w/ Teague Egan (EnergyX)

• He learnt of huge lithium deposits in South America on holiday that were not being fully utilised efficiently/not known much to outsiders. Aware of a market trend (the need for lithium), he became curious, researched and learnt as much as he could, to find how he could improve the process. He asked a friend in a related industry. He contacted people in the industry, including uni professors doing research whose technology he licenced. He cold emailed lithium producers to see market size and find future customers.
• Initially self-funded, ~$100,000 ($60k travel, $40k licencing)
• “Why is it done this way?” “Because this it the way it’s always been done” → Opportunity.
  • Try applying existing technologies to new use cases after understanding the current process and it’s flaws
• According to LinkedIn, he studied business and then at Singularity Uni, started own business straight out of uni, presumably made decent money (hence self-funding): https://www.linkedin.com/in/teagueegan/

[My Climate Journey] Startup Series: Impossible Metals

• Similar to above: Discovered sea floor minerals exist and a potentially huge market but only option was an old, environmentally-damaging method (dredging). He developed a new method.
• Could potentially remove the need for land-based mining until more recycling.

Why Smart People Hold Stupid Beliefs

https://gurwinder.substack.com/p/why-smart-people-hold-stupid-beliefs

• While unintelligent people are more easily misled by other people, intelligent people are more easily misled by themselves. They’re better at convincing themselves of things they want to believe rather than things that are actually true. This is why intelligent people tend to have stronger ideological biases; being better at reasoning makes them better at rationalizing.
• For centuries, elite academic institutions like Oxford and Harvard have been training their students to win arguments but not to discern truth, and in so doing, they’ve created a class of people highly skilled at motivated reasoning. The master-debaters that emerge from these institutions go on to become tomorrow’s elites—politicians, entertainers, and intellectuals.
• If a wokeist wishes to use the overrepresentation of white men in STEM as evidence that women and minorities are being discriminated against, then the wokeist must either ignore or explain away the fact that Asian men are also overrepresented in STEM, or that women dominate the field of psychology, or that the biggest racial disparity of all is black men comprising less than 7% of the US population but holding over 70% of dream jobs playing in the NBA.
• Not only does intelligence in the service of wokeism lead to one-sided readings of reality, it also leads to the production of pure fiction. For instance, the common myth that black people are underrepresented in film (they’re overrepresented), the common myth that hate crimes are increasing (I [Gurwinder] debunked that here), the common myth that white people are particularly prejudiced (I [Gurwinder] debunked that here), and the common myth that rape is not about sex but power (I [Gurwinder] debunked that here).
• There is only one thing that can motivate us to put our intelligence into the service of objective truth, and that is curiosity. Enter the curiosity zone.

Part 2 of a Two-Part Look at: 1. Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises, and 2. How These Principles Apply to What’s Happening Now

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/part-2-two-part-look-1-principles-navigating-big-debt-ray-dalio/

• “Short-term debt cycle”: 1) recessions that lead to 2) central banks providing a lot of credit, which creates a lot of debt that initially leads to 3) market and economic booms that lead to 4) bubbles and inflations, which lead to 5) central bankers tightening credit that leads to 6) market and economic weakening. There have been 12.5 of these since 1945.
• “Long-term debt cycle,”: the cycle of building up debt assets and debt liabilities over long periods of time to amounts that eventually become unmanageable. This leads to a combination of big debt restructurings and big debt monetizations that produce a period of big market and economic turbulence. I believe that we are now roughly about 85% through the one that began in 1945.
• The world as a whole [is] in what I call Stage 5 of the Big Cycle—i.e., near the brinks of financial/economic crises and big internal conflicts/wars, and in the early part of an evolving, costly climate crisis—at the same time as the world is near the brink of having amazing technological breakthroughs that will affect our daily lives. Stage 5 is the last-chance stage before going into Stage 6 which is the financial crisis and war part of the cycle. It seems to me that that will make the environment very challenging for those who are following the traditional leveraged long approach to investing in traditional areas, while it will provide great opportunities in those geographic and subject areas that are benefiting from these changes [e.g. China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, UAE, Saudi Arabia]
• I now estimate the probability of a profoundly disruptive civil war to be about 35-40% and the probability of a profoundly disruptive international war also being about 35-40% over the next 10 years. I expect the United States and China to avoid an all-out military war.

Eliminating Cash: A Great or Terrible Idea?

https://youtu.be/MBnHRGsvA_4

• With cash, when interest rates reach negative, people can withdraw cash from the bank to save it. Without it, they must spend it to avoid losing it, stimulating the economy.

Investing STILL Won’t Make You Rich (Probably)

https://youtu.be/H5jPJQ5cVGU

• After tax/inflation, average S&P return is 5.4% (not ~10%), so $10,000 invested with +$3000 a year would take 52.8 years to reach $1,000,000 (based on my maths at 10% it would take just ~35 years).
• Most wealthy people, in reality: own a business (including social media scammy “get rich quick” schemes), very high salary, inheritance

Bullshit Jobs - David Graeber

• 4/5
• Trading time instead of output for money is a fairly modern concept, and is depressing. You can’t appear to not be working, so you have to pretend. Because of this you can’t deeply focus on something productive, such as studying something unrelated to the job you’re being paid for, or eading a book. Instead you’re limited to short, shallow consumption, such as social media, Reddit, etc. It often results in busywork or twiddling thumbs. Given we’re all going to die, wasting time in this way is an uncomfortable feeling.

[The Jordan Harbinger Show] 786: Mitch Lowe | Lessons in Disruption Part One

• Take opportunities, say yes - who knows where you’ll end up.
• Running a business can be really fun! Lots of problem solving.

Ray Dalio’s 2023 Country Power Index

https://economicprinciples.org/

https://economicprinciples.org/downloads/DalioRay_Power_Index_Appendix.pdf

Magenta: The colour that doesn’t exist

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0f00wp9/magenta-the-colour-that-doesn-t-exist

• Never thought about this before, but super interesting. Worth the 2mins at 2x.

Toyota Creates All-Electric Drift Car From Classic “Hachi-Roku”

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/02/16/toyota-creates-all-electric-drift-car-from-classic-hachi-roku/

[Tech and Science Daily | Evening Standard] The Science of Love | Valentine’s Day

• Love IS blind - the “mind reading” part of your brain that can tell what someone is going to do next (relating to trust and detecting cheating/lying etc), shuts down when you’re first in love.
• There are loads of sensory signals e.g. smell so get offline ASAP.

[The Tim Ferriss Show] #655: In Case You Missed It: January 2023 Recap of “The Tim Ferriss Show”

• Caffeine doesn’t wake you up, it blocks the tiredness receptor. It’s painkiller for tiredness. It also raises anxiety and reduces deep sleep.
• Coffee benefits come from the antioxidants in the coffee, not the caffeine. Decaf is “better” as it doesn’t have the negatives with no loss of antioxidants.
• Light/dark roast similar for antioxidants, finer grind has more, espresso or cold brew has more (also finer and espresso/cold brew also has more caffeine).

MIT team makes a case for direct carbon capture from seawater, not air

https://newatlas.com/environment/mit-carbon-capture-seawater/

• The ocean currently soaks up some 30-40% of all humanity’s annual carbon emissions, and maintains a constant free exchange with the air. Suck the carbon out of the seawater, and it’ll suck more out of the air to re-balance the concentrations. Best of all, the concentration of carbon dioxide in seawater is more than 100 times greater than in air.
• “Though our base energy consumption of 122 kJ/mol-CO2 is a record-low,” reads the study, “it may still be substantially decreased towards the thermodynamic limit of 32 kJ/mol-CO2.”
• The team projects an optimized cost around US$56 per ton of CO2 captured.

UK fights energy crisis with ‘world’s first’ shared rooftop panels

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/uk-energy-crisis-shared-rooftop-panels

• Residents of Cardiff’s Odet Court housing complex U.K. are benefiting from “world-first” technology that allows solar energy from a single rooftop system to be shared by multiple residences in the same building.
• The new solar system setup can supply up to 75 percent of each apartment’s power requirements, benefiting the residents, Euronews reported on Saturday.

Wind-Powered Cargo Ships Are the Future: Debunking 4 Myths That Stand in the Way of Cutting Emissions

https://singularityhub.com/2023/02/17/wind-powered-cargo-ships-are-the-future-debunking-4-myths-that-stand-in-the-way-of-cutting-emissions/

• Myth 1: Wind ships are a thing of the past, for good reason
• Myth 2: The wind is unreliable, so ships won’t arrive on time
• Myth 3: Sails cannot work on all types of ships
• Myth 4: If it makes so much sense, we’d already be doing it

This startup uses grass to build energy-efficient building panels

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/startup-engineered-building-materials-grass

• Plantd is building panels for roof decking, wall sheathing, and subflooring. They claim that their product outcompetes wood in every aspect: it’s lighter, cheaper, and captures more carbon.
• This rapid-growth plant can reach lengths of 20 - 30 feet in just one year, making it an ideal choice for building materials.

Mobilize Duo, an electric car to rent

https://www.mobilize.com/en/wearemobilizers/mobilize-duo-joy-on-wheels/

• Only 80kph and 140km range, but I still want one.

[The Art of Manliness] Throw a 2-Hour Cocktail Party That Can Change Your Life

• Timings
  • Frequency: 1 per 2 months (allows 3 weeks to prep)
  • Day: Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesdays (less competitive)
  • Duration: 2 hour hard time limit, ideally 7-9PM
    • Reduces late arrivals or late-nights
    • Enables ending on a high
    • How to: “It’s almost 9, we’ll be closing up soon, time for final drinks!” → “It’s 9 now, thanks for coming, I’ve met many interesting people, feel free to head off now” and start to tidy
• Who: 5+ core friends + 10 weak ties (1520 in total is best)
  • Invite more as some will turn you down
  • Invite couples to first events to get numbers up
  • Later invite “important” people e.g. clients, senior colleagues
    • Give multiple dates if possible
  • Invitations
    • Have RSVP page (not Facebook) to make more “official” and encourage commitment
    • Core group (friends): “If I did this, would you come?” -> get 5 yeses
    • Others: “I’m hosting a cocktail party, can I send you the info?” i.e. don’t invite directly - if they say yes, send RSVP page
    • Reminders: 1 week, 3 days, morning of
      • Share guest bios or interesting info
• Actions
  • Use name tags
  • Minimise chairs/sitting
  • Provide drinks
  • Take group photo at 2030sh
  • Icebreakers
    • Every ~30mins: 1910, 1940, 2010
    • Get everyone to stand in a circle
    • “So we can meet new people”
    • Breaks up existing conversations
    • Share personal info to make future conversations easier
    • First one low pressure: “what is one of your favourite breakfast foods?”
    • Last one add value (give a 5 minute warning, “question will be XXX”: “what is the best TV/film/podcast you’ve watched in the last week?” “what is the best purchase under £100 in the last month?” “what is your favourite London city hack?”
• “Thanks, it was great to meet you, I’m going to mingle and meet some other people.”

[Huberman Lab] How Meditation Works & Science-Based Effective Meditations | Episode 96

• Awareness continuum: interoception (inside: feeling heart beating, thoughts, etc) vs exteroception (outside: sounds, movement, etc)
  • Notice which way you’re biased in the moment and do an opposite meditation, even if only 3 minutes, to train (focus on third eye centre or tree in distance)
• Types: focus vs relax (NSDR); internal vs external; active vs passive breathing
• Examples
  • Interoception: focus on third-eye centre (TEC)
    • Location of prefrontal cortex - as the brain has no sensing mechanisms, focussing on this doesn’t arouse sensations, allowing thoughts/feelings to arise
  • Exteroception: watch a tree in the distance
• A wondering mind is an unhappy mind - the more focussed you are on the task at hand the happier you’ll be
• Breathing
  • Cyclic hyperventilation / Wim Hof breathing / tummo is not meditation but it’s own practise
  • Normal breathing: active inhale and passive exhale
  • An active exhale encourages interoception
  • Longer/more vigorous inhales = alert; exhales = relaxed
  • Any form of active breathing requires focus so is a type of meditation. More complex breathing patterns are more consuming so “more” meditative.
• Space-time bridging (STB) meditation
  1. Attention on breathing/TEC for 3 breathes
  2. 50:50 visual focus on hand held out in front and 3 breathes
  3. 50:50 visual focus on something 15m away and 3 breathes
  4. 50:50 visual focus on something very far away and 3 breathes
  5. Close eyes, focus on how small you are in the universe for 3 breathes
  6. Repeat

[Modern Wisdom] #592 - Richard Shotton - 8 Fascinating Psychological Biases

Activity: Try delabelling/blind taste testing wine etc

• Habit formation - align with natural event e.g. new year, start of week, birthday
• Random/variable rewards builds addiction because people are bad at statistics
• Reduce friction - e.g. default to donate organs, one-click buy
• Add friction - display of effort e.g. Skyscanner
• Add friction - e.g. IKEA effect (you build so you value), c_t is more memorable than cat (your brain has to put in more effort)
• Irregular numbers are more believable - e.g. £10,423 vs £10,000

[How I Built This with Guy Raz] Osprey Packs: Mike Pfotenhauer

• Much cheaper and easier to start a business back then - he doesn’t think it would be possible now how he did (small store doing it himself).
• Had to offshore later on as no local talent and too expensive, although (unlike other companies) he kept all design in the USA.

[How I Built This with Guy Raz] HIBT Lab! Boom Supersonic: Blake Scholl

• The founder is the visionary. Their partner/second in command is the pragmatist. When the former retires, the latter takes over. Innovation stops.
• Why isn’t this done? Check assumptions. Run the numbers. It’s possible technology has changed and something that wasn’t possible now is.

TH 101 Better & Faster

https://youtu.be/PAdqp4WD3PQ

• Traits
  • Farmer: Loyal (Protective), Consistent (Complacent), Disciplined (Repetitive)
  • Hunter: Willing to Destroy (Reckless), Insatiable (Dissatisfied), Curious (Distracted)
  • Insatiability
    • How often do you experiment with ideas that might not work?
    • How different would you act if you knew there was a team working 24/7 to eat your lunch?
  • Curiosity
    • How much time do you spending hunting for new opportunities?
    • How much time do you have to experiment with high-level ideas?
  • Willing to Destroy
    • How much simpler would your business be if you restarted from scratch?
    • How much freedom do yo have to stray from your past success?
• Patterns of Opportunity
  • Acceleration
    • Perfecting one thing; aspirational icon; exaggerated feature; re-imagined solutions
    • Specifically what is it that you are trying to achieve?
    • How might you redefine your most important feature?
  • Cyclicality
    • Retro; nostalgia; generational; economic; seasonality
    • Since your last reinvention, how much have styles, tech, and culture changed?
    • What do your next customers think about your relevance?
  • Convergence
    • Combining; adding value; physical + digital; aligning multiple forces; co-branding
    • What other services could be combined with your offering?
    • What companies could you collaborate with?
  • Reduction
    • Simplification; specialisation; fewer layers; fractional; subscription
    • What parts of your business do consumers actually care about?
    • If you split your work into 5 companies, which one would be the most valuable?
  • Redirection
    • Refocussing; reprioritisation; reversing; surprising; gamifying
    • What big trends or rituals could you rechannel?
    • Where could you overdeliver to delight?
  • Divergence
    • Rebellion; customisation; personalisation; status; fashionising
    • What do people hate about your industry?
    • How could you be more customised, more unique, or different from the mainstream?

Clarkson’s Farm

• 5/5
• Farming is bloody hard and farmers get mummified with red tape. Massive respect.

Aggretsuko

• 4/5
• Not as fun as the first seasons, but still entertaining. And only 15~20mins an episode.

Materials breakthrough: An anti-corrosive polymer that self-heals and is recyclable

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/anti-corrosive-polymer-self-heals-recyclable

• The material, PPM, can be sprayed onto a surface and becomes solid when mixed with paint and heat. “The polymer indicates holes and cracks in the protective layer by failing to fluoresce. What’s more, it repairs any damage itself without further external intervention,”
• The recycling rate which is rated at 95 percent, makes it more sustainable than previous corrosion protection materials. The team was able to reuse the material five times.

Recapturing excess heat could power most of Europe, say experts

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/23/recapturing-excess-heat-could-power-most-of-europe-say-experts

• Global engineering company Danfoss estimated that in the EU alone, excess heat was equal to 2,860 TWh a year, almost the same as the EU’s total energy demand for heat and hot water.
• Surplus heat is released into the air from a wide range of sources, including supermarkets, transport networks, data centres and commercial buildings. Much of this can be captured and used via existing heat recovery technologies, such as heat pumps, plus more efficient air conditioners and manufacturing machinery.

The race to decarbonize electric-vehicle batteries

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/the-race-to-decarbonize-electric-vehicle-batteries

NREL Scientists Find More Eureka Moments, Patent Activity Climbs In FY ’22

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/02/16/nrel-scientists-find-more-eureka-moments-patent-activity-climbs-in-fy-22/

• The NREL Technology Transfer Office counted 133 records of invention in FY 2022, filed for 176 patent applications both in the United States and internationally, and obtained Department of Energy (DOE) permission to assert copyright to 78 software packages, which included the release of 58 instances of open-source software.
• Energy management, sand batteries, floating wind turbines, graphite from bio-oil

Li-Cycle Scores $375 Million DOE Battery Recycling Development Loan

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/02/28/li-cycle-scores-375-million-doe-battery-recycling-development-loan/

• Li-Cycle uses an innovative vertically integrated two-step lithium-ion battery recycling and resource recovery process.
• The Spokes produce an intermediate product called black mass, which contains a number of critical metals and will be sent to the Rochester Hub for further processing into battery grade materials.
• The Rochester Hub is designed to have a processing capacity of up to 35,000 tons of black mass per year, which is equivalent to approximately 90,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery material or 18 gigawatt-hours of lithium-ion batteries. Once fully operational, the Rochester Hub is expected to deliver annual production of up to 8,500 tonnes of lithium carbonate, 48,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate, and 7,500 tonnes of cobalt sulphate.

Breakthrough study shows seabirds avoid turbines

https://renews.biz/84106/vattenfall-seabird-study-maps-detailed-flight-patterns/

• JG: Turns out animals aren’t stupid.
• The €3m study used radar and AI technologies to track flight patterns in 3D around the developer’s Aberdeen wind farm from the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWC) in Scotland.
• Vattenfall said no collisions or even narrow escapes were recorded in over 10,000 bird videos, while nearly all species of tracked seabirds avoided the zone of the turbine blades by adjusting their flight paths to fly between the turbines.

[Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps] “Predictions Of A Scientific Futurist” with Dr Catherine Ball

• JG: No specific notes, but she’ll be an interesting person to follow.

Trend Hunter’s Innovation Assessment

https://www.innovationassessment.com/

• JG: I don’t really like these quizzes as the answer is always it depends, and these questions never have context. But still, I’m (with low certainty) a “Daring Moderator”.

‘Keep your eyes open – and leap into the future’: 100 centenarians’ 100 tips for a life well lived

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/18/100-centenarians-100-tips-for-a-life-well-lived

• Having read through, the common themes seem to be:
  • curiosity (learning, reading, travelling, etc)
  • a purpose/staying busy (giving e.g. volunteering, or something you love e.g. art)
  • laughing a lot, not stressing, and rolling with the punches life throws at you
  • love and family
  • exercise (singing/dancing were particularly popular)

4 Hour Chef - Tim Ferriss (Audiobook)

https://tim.blog/the-4-hour-chef-audiobook-private/ (free download)

• JG: Misses most of the content from the book (including all the recipes). Best section is META. It has inspired me to open the book again though, especially for the extended detail about DiSSS and CaFE (i.e. how to learn).
• Taste is 90% smell - always smell food first

Creativity is Productivity

https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2023/02/28/creativity-is-productivity/

• The randomness of creative success favors those who are the most prolific. Price’s Law captures this relationship in scientific output, estimating that half of the research of a given discipline will be produced by the square root of the number of researchers. So in a field with 100 contributors, ten will produce half of the published output. If every paper in the field has a roughly equal probability of being cited [Dean Simonton has analyzed the creative output of individuals across many domains and suggests an “equal-odds” rule best describes it: once a creative individual starts publishing in a field, each piece of work they produce has roughly equal odds of world-breaking impact.], these ten highly prolific authors will capture approximately half of all citations in their field.
• We prefer to attach creative success to a combination of innate talent, acquired ability and passionate commitment. (Yet) Over a surprisingly wide range of pursuits, creativity is productivity, and we will have more hits if we take more swings.

[Huberman Lab] How to Breathe Correctly for Optimal Health, Mood, Learning & Performance

https://youtu.be/x4m_PdFbu-s

• Breathing is better than meditation for reducing stress, with cyclic sighing the best (box breathing is also good). Even 1 physiological sigh can reduce stress. Five minutes is great.
• Inhale:exhale ratio can control heart rate (and sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous system, and hence stress)
  • Inhaling: increased heart rate, faster reaction times, better memory
  • Exhaling: decreased heart rate
• Hyperventilation causes O2 to increase and CO2 to decrease. But CO2 is needed to absorb O2, so when you hyperventilate the brain gets 30-40% less O2, which is what causes you to get hyper excitable and feel alert - but actually you function worse.
• CO2 blow-off time test and box breathing
  • Take a deep breathe through your nose then breathe out through your mouth as slowly as possible and measure how long you can last: <20s, 20-40s, >40s.
  • Box breathing for 4s, 6s, 8s respectively.
• Breathing through your nose is harder (smaller passage so higher pressure), but because of this higher pressure you can take deeper breathes.
• Physiological sighing 2-3 times can remove right side stitch when running (not left, that’s about air/fluid in stomach).
• Stop hiccups: 3 inhales through nose then hold 15s
• JG: I’ve always naturally breathed slowly and paused after each exhale. Most “slow” breathes in guided meditations are actually fast for me. Seems I’m actually breathing very healthily, and that this isn’t the norm. I wonder why? I wonder if a rural upbringing is partially responsible?

[The Jordan Harbinger Show] 803: Martin Seligman | Flourishing in an Uncertain Future

• People with positive emotions live 6-8 years longer.
  • Being kind is the best way to improve your emotions.
• Pleasure comes from action - striving and succeeding.
• Optimists vs pessimists
  • Optimists: think it is temporary and act to change it, will try harder.
  • Pessimists: assume a bad situation will last forever.
• How to react
  • To good things: find permanent/pervasive/personal causes
  • To bad things: find temporary/local causes, and ones you can control
• Optimism vs positive emotions
  • Being jolly protects against infectious illness, but optimism doesn’t.
  • Optimism protects against cardiovascular illness, but being jolly doesn’t
• Meaning vs mattering
  • Hard to develop your meaning - the existential questions.
  • Easier to feel like your matter - receiving appreciation/thanks → how to be a good manager.
• How to give active constructive appreciation (not “well done”)
  • Demonstrate you understand the context
  • Get them to retell the story/emotions (relive it)
  • Get them to say why they deserved it
  • Get them to explain how it will help them

[Sliced Bread] Mattresses

• Medium-firm hybrid is best

Mapped: The Price of Starbucks Coffee, by Country

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/mapped-the-price-of-starbucks-in-every-country/

What’s the most positive or negative religion? — Sentiment and Data Analysis of Holy Books with R

https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/whats-the-most-positive-or-negative-religion-sentiment-and-data-analysis-of-holy-books-with-r-3fb881289f51

• Generally, religious texts are negative.
• Most popular positive vs negative phrase per text:
  • Bible: Praise vs wicked
  • Quran: Reward vs infidel
  • Dhammapada: Beloved vs sorrow

Applying Sentiment Analysis to the Bible

https://www.openbible.info/blog/2011/10/applying-sentiment-analysis-to-the-bible/

• I see why most quotes on Facebook/Instagram etc are from Psalms

Shifting Skills, Moving Targets, and Remaking the Workforce

https://www.bcg.com/publications/2022/shifting-skills-moving-targets-remaking-workforce

https://web-assets.bcg.com/c1/c0/649ce92247c48f4efdbf9e38797a/bcg-shifting-skills-moving-targets-and-remaking-the-workforce-may-2022.pdf

• We looked at the skills that employers requested in job postings each year and compared those skills with the ones requested for the same occupation in 2016. We broke down the change in two ways. First, we looked at the skills that were completely new to jobs—the ones that employers didn’t ask for at all in 2016. Then, we looked at whether skills became more or less important to a role. The Skill Disruption Index, which combines the two measures, allows us to compare how rapid and significant the changes are in specific roles.
• We see four big trends in skill change:
  • Digital skills, like technical fluency and abilities including data analysis, digital marketing, and networking, aren’t limited to jobs in IT.
  • Soft skills, like verbal communication, listening, and relationship building, are needed in digital occupations.
  • Visual communication has become increasingly important even outside of traditional data occupations. Experience with tools such as Tableau, MS Power BI, and Adobe Analytics is in high demand.
  • Social media skills, such as experience with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Adobe Photoshop, are in demand in the current media climate.
• JG: This is one of the reasons I chose not to go into software/data - within 5 years, your knowledge is outdated.

[Brave New Earth] E11: Amory Poulden, Founder of D2

• Most VCs only want a $1bn exit so want growth regardless of how good the underlying business is. Easier with software companies as expansion costs are lower/easier to scale.

Everybody Lies - Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

• The power of big data
  • Google searches > surveys (as people are more honest)
  • Satellite images of light vs stated GDP (light = money)
  • Text analysis for cultural shifts (the United States are vs the United States is)
• Interesting findings
  • Strong second date predictors: woman saying “I”; few questions
  • You’ll support the sports team you supported age 8 and the political party you supported age 18
  • Children born near large culturally-diverse cities with top universities are most likely to be successful (based on existence of Wikipedia page)
• But still need small data
  • Conclusions are only as good as the data
• And can have other consequences
  • Social media purposefully designing for addiction

Number of UK postcodes which only have one household

https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/numberofukpostcodeswhichonlyhaveonehousehold

• There are 55,540 full postcodes in England and Wales that contain only one household.

Ranked: Biotoxins in Nature, by Lethal Dose

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visually-ranking-biotoxins-in-nature/

How to Make Coffee Without the Beans

https://neo.life/2023/02/how-to-make-coffee-without-the-beans/

• It’s made by fermenting roots, pits, and seeds, about half of which are upcycled, or waste products. “We use grape seeds, date seeds, chicory, carob, lentils, and millet malt,” Saenz says. “Each one of these ingredients has a specific role, whether it’s to help with the mouth feel, the acidity, or the sweetness. We then grab some of those ingredients and put them through our proprietary fermentation process that allows us to develop some of the complexity around flavor and get some of the brightness and acidity notes that we’re looking for. And then we brew it with a process as close as possible to traditional coffee.”
• Caffeine, coffee’s irreplaceable stimulant, is added as an ingredient in both Minus and Atomo, in amounts comparable to traditional cold brews or energy drinks.
• Minus is meant to taste like a mocha java blend, with a medium roast, some chocolate and almond notes, and no acidity.

[The Jordan Harbinger Show] 801: Circumcision | Skeptical Sunday

• For males: statistically insignificant health benefits, risk of death from herpes or loss of dick.
• For females: evil, painful, dangerous form of patriarchal control; anyone who agrees with it should be put to death.

New membrane generates electricity while filtering wastewater

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/membrane-clean-water-generate-electricity

• “Scientists from Myongji University have developed an advanced multifunctional water purification membrane that not only purifies polluted water but also simultaneously generates electricity.”
• “The scientists claim that the membrane can reject over 90% of the pollutants less than 10 nm (one hundred-millionth of a meter) in size, like microplastics and highly toxic heavy metal particles like arsenic, lead, cobalt, zinc, etc., which are undetectable to the eye.”
• “Produced using a simple printing process, this is a cost-effective technology that has the potential to be commercialized at a greater scale.”

Generating electricity from air? Scientists discover energy enzyme

https://interestingengineering.com/science/enzyme-uses-air-generate-electricity

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05781-7

• “Researchers at Monash University in Australia have found a novel enzyme that can use minute amounts of hydrogen available in the air to generate energy. This could lead to the development of devices that could literally generate electricity from thin air.”

[Inside Octopus Energy] Ep 15: Zero Bills homes: Getting rid of energy bills for good

• New builds (retrofit in the future) with energy generation (solar), energy storage (batteries), energy efficiency (insulation, heatpumps), and smart energy (Krakenflex) allows Octopus to provide £0 bills for 5 years. Amazing.

Cooling Our Cities Without Air Conditioning

https://youtu.be/XCAVWXHHnqg

• Until we have infinite energy (and ability to capture wasted heat), ACs are not the answer.
• This video includes ancient technologies (e.g. building design) and future tech (e.g. nanotechnology). Cool

This New Material Absorbs Three Times More CO2 Than Current Carbon Capture Tech

https://singularityhub.com/2023/03/08/this-new-material-absorbs-three-times-more-co2-than-current-carbon-capture-tech/

• “The team reported that one kilogram of their material was able to absorb 5.1 mol of CO2; in comparison, most solid sorbents currently in use for DAC have absorption capacities of 1.0 to 1.5 mol per kilogram.”

This Interactive Chart Shows Changes in the World’s Top 10 Emitters

https://www.wri.org/insights/interactive-chart-shows-changes-worlds-top-10-emitters

Charted: Global Energy Consumption by Source, and Carbon Emissions (1900-2021)

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/charting-consumption-production-fossil-fuels/

[Lex Fridman Podcast] #364 – Chris Voss: FBI Hostage Negotiator

• Pick a point in the future where you’re both happy then work your way back.
• Be able to state the position/emotion of the other person so deeply and clearly that they agree.

[Modern Wisdom] #599 - Adam Lane Smith - 15 Harsh Psychology Truths

• Relationships
  • Couples usually go to therapy when it’s too late. Normally, women try changing for years, but the man doesn’t realise, so the situation doesn’t improve, and the woman gives up. When men do finally realise there is a problem and change is needed, they do try to change, but it’s too late - the woman is beyond the threshold. This is why most women initiate divorces.
• ADHD and mental conditions
  • Not everything is a pathology. Don’t make excuses. Don’t drug yourself up. Sometimes you just had to take responsibility.
  • In the literature, diagnoses can be undone when it’s no longer an issue. Modern medicine never does this - once you have e.g. ADHD, you have it for life.
  • Those with ADHD are often good entrepreneurs, but the school systems punish them for it.
• Therapy
  • Most modern therapy is focussed on female solutions - feeling heard and loved - not male ones - actionable solutions to lack of purpose - hence why most men don’t like therapy, but women do.

JG: I stopped listening about half way through as it got too too focussed on incel culture - which, in my opinion, mostly exists on the internet. Chris’s podcasts seem to spend a lot of time on this topic.

The Female Brain / The Male Brain by Louann Brizendine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D9qd7Vy2JE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZjF9EW81p4

• Fascinating explanations of why and how men and women are different, how different hormones during development result in different attitudes towards risk and emotional abilities.
• “In the adult and mated male brain testosterone has dampened their neural development around verbal communication and emotional memory, but their problem-solving circuits stay large and well connected. This can lead to the perception that male brains feel emotions less than female brains, but this isn’t true. When a bonded male brain realises his partner’s upset for instance, it immediately kicks into problem-solving mode. In male-female couples this difference in instinctual responses fuels many conflicts. While a female brain partner might crave communication and connection around her issue, their male brain counterparts aren’t built for that. Their neural networks are hardwired to respond by offering solutions. it’s well intentioned sure, but baffling to a partner who doesn’t understand why they can’t just listen.”

These are the 4 skills you’ll need in the workplace of the future

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/skills-jobs-future-workplace/

• “The report finds that “Business Consulting, Specialized Sales, Database Architecture and Administration, Network Protocols, Web Design and Development” are all seeing a big drop-off in demand. The role of web developer has been hit hard by low-code, no code platforms that allow people to build their own websites quickly and easily.”
• JG: Interesting when viewed alongside the BCG report from last week. New technologies earn more money, but are also potentially quickly outdated. Note how web developer was huge, and is now having the biggest decrease. Will we be saying the same about AI/cloud in 5 years? And social media is, I feel, on a downward trend already.

From Barbie to Airlines: The Business Method to Charge the Richest People More

https://youtu.be/YP1bx63fC5o

• More interesting than expected. About price discrimination.
• Examples: Student discount (80% of full price is still better than no sale); business class (10% higher cost, 100% higher price).
• Barbies: Doctors (who have more money) will buy their daughters doctor Barbies, so Mattel can sell them for more money.

[Brave New Earth] E14: Christian Samuel, Founder of Roots Allotments

• Allotments have an up to 40 year wait list - huge demand. Mostly owned my government who cannot make a profit, so many are closing down.
• Add community and education aspect - increased sales and retention.
• Best way to start a business: don’t overthink, create a landing page, drop £1000 or so in advertising, see if you get demand

‘Good luck’: Metal detectorists find 2,000-year-old statue with giant penis

https://interestingengineering.com/culture/2000-year-old-statue-with-giant-penis

For years, the Vatican referred to capybaras as “fish”

https://interestingengineering.com/culture/capybara-classified-fish-vatican

• “Following European immigrants’ colonization of the Americas, pastors in Venezuela contacted the Vatican to inquire about possibly classifying this new animal, which had webbed feet and a fishy flavor, as a fish so that they might continue to eat it throughout the Lenten season.”
• “Animals that spent their time in the water qualified as aquatic and could be eaten at Lent,”

Bikla

https://www.tasteatlas.com/bikla

• “Bikla is a Croatian drink mainly associated with Dalmatia, including the islands and the hinterland. It is an unusual combination of red wine (traditionally young wine) and milk. It is usually made with equal amounts of both ingredients.”

ChatGPT invented its own puzzle game.

https://puzzledpenguin.substack.com/p/chatgpt-invented-its-own-puzzle-game

• Except it didn’t

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35038804

• “It’s still incredible you can coerce a language model to produce this, but it’s not a new game, I’ve had it on my phone for a few years: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rohitpailw…”
• “And herein lies the issue with ChatGPT, it can generate functioning code, but can also lie through its none existent teeth about it. Using ChatGPT (or Co-Pilot) can feel like pair-programming with a very talented developer who loves to bullshit.”

Rare surgery: Unborn twin removed from brain of 1-year-old in China

https://interestingengineering.com/health/unborn-twin-removed-from-brain-1-year-old

• Nightmare time:

New vocal cords on a chip can let mute people speak

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/vocal-cords-chip-let-mute-speak

• “The new tool is a one-centimeter square that can easily be attached to the throat to transform barely audible sounds and whispers into speech heard at normal audible volumes.”
• “The new innovation has the capacity to detect and translate speech elements such as phonemes, tones, and words at an accuracy rate of 99 percent.”

I Drove EVERY Nissan GT-R

https://youtu.be/6zBJgjtC23U

• The dream.

BBC Global News Podcast The Happy Podcast

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0f6m7d3

• JG: Didn’t expect to hear my voice on the BBC!

This Farm Aims to Use Salmon Waste to Boost the Growth Of Kelp

https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/aquaculture-farm

• The benefit of this particular setup is that the feces and waste produced by salmon will be available to the kelp, with the resulting uptake in nutrients helping the seaweed to grow in a faster and healthier manner. Not only will the kelp be available for use to enhance the nutrients of livestock feed for cattle, but some of its byproducts can actually be of use in salmon feed, making for a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Charted: The Global Plastic Waste Trade

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/charting-the-movement-of-global-plastic-waste/

Germany, which is the world’s largest exporter of plastic scraps and waste at 854 million kilograms, relies primarily on the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Türkiye, and Malaysia to manage this plastic waste.

In pursuit of lunar oxygen, firm discovers recipe for net-zero steel

https://interestingengineering.com/science/lunar-oxygen-recipe-carbon-free-steel

• Producing iron, naturally present in the Earth as iron oxides, is the first step in manufacturing steel. Conventionally, coal and iron oxides are combined in scorching blast furnaces to bond oxygen molecules with carbon molecules. During this process, the bioproduct is carbon dioxide (CO2), which we all know to be a significant greenhouse gas.
• Helios has found that sodium, used to manufacture table salt, may be utilized in place of carbon-rich coal. They assert that sodium oxide is created when sodium molecules interact with the oxygen molecules in iron ore. The oxygen is then released into the atmosphere after being split again into sodium and oxygen. After that, the sodium can be reused.

Toilet Paper and Climate Change: NRDC’s Updated “Issue With Tissue” Ranks Brands on Sustainability

https://www.nrdc.org/press-releases/toilet-paper-and-climate-change-nrdcs-updated-issue-tissue-ranks-brands

• US companies, although I recently found out Trader Joe’s is owned by Aldi. Either way, something to consider.
• See also: One of the best South Park episodes in a while - https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Japanese_Toilet

That rocks: Study estimates novel rock crushing process could capture 0.5 per cent of global CO2

https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4080670/rocks-study-estimates-novel-rock-crushing-process-capture-cent-global-co2

• More than 50 billion tonnes of rock are crushed every year worldwide in sectors for use in the construction, mining, and infrastructure industries, which currently account for around 11 per cent of global carbon emissions.
• Using CO2 gas to crush rocks to make aggregate materials, which it explains holds the potential to trap some of the carbon dioxide within the rocks through the process.
• “If the technology was adopted worldwide in aggregate production, it could potentially capture 0.5 per cent of global CO2 emissions - 175 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually,”

Gardens vs Nature

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0ydcYN8MQKiNq5oGVGY8rJGFb5Hm1JLZvQxhYJFkFiGvF3QaFUBeK9HVUop2cFMrol&id=100064842364566

10 Types of Innovation: The Art of Discovering a Breakthrough Product

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/10-types-of-innovation-the-art-of-discovering-a-breakthrough-product/

• Based on the book “Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs”
• Link to a PDF summary of tactics for each type is broken, but thanks to the Internet Archive it still exists: https://web.archive.org/web/20200429223947/https://doblin.com/dist/images/uploads/TenTypesInnovation.pdf

How the Housing Market Screwed Young People

https://youtu.be/_p76-lX2byI

• House prices have risen faster than wages, and rents are higher than mortgages. So much is going to rent then it’s impossible to buy a house. Lack of housing is not the problem. Only option is inheritance.

Why Is the European Economy Sinking?

https://youtu.be/GDiKtEbsHNk

• Zombie companies: unproductive, inefficient, lacking innovation.
• Banks are scared of zombies defaulting on their loans, so lend them more.
• Governments are scared of zombies failing and increasing unemployment, so support them.

ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker

https://www.aspi.org.au/report/critical-technology-tracker

Solar Panels Floating on Reservoirs Could Provide a Third of the World’s Electricity

https://singularityhub.com/2023/03/20/solar-panels-floating-on-reservoirs-could-provide-a-third-of-global-energy/

• A new study in Nature Sustainability has now provided a comprehensive assessment of the global potential of floating solar power, finding that it could provide between a fifth and half of the world’s electricity needs while saving 26 trillion gallons of water from evaporating.
• The analysis showed that as many as 6,256 cities could theoretically meet all of their electricity demands with floating solar power. Most have a population below 50,000, but as many as 150 are cities with more than a million people.

More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809

• JG: And this was from back in 2017.

6 Ways To Remove Carbon Pollution From The Atmosphere

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/03/19/6-ways-to-remove-carbon-pollution-from-the-atmosphere/

• JG: Nice summary article, and as it states, all are needed.
• Trees and Forests; Farms and Soils; Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage; Direct Air Capture; Carbon Mineralization; Ocean-based Approaches

Foxconn Wants To Manufacture Half Of All Electric Cars

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/03/19/foxconn-wants-to-manufacture-half-of-all-electric-cars/

• Foxconn is counting on its Mobility in Harmony EV platform, which it calls its “Android system for EVs.” The thinking is that if it is able to standardize the primary systems needed to manufacture electric automobiles, it will be able to quickly and cheaply adapt them to build a wide range of models for a variety of customers. This is similar to the plan hatched by Canoo to make “skateboards” that contain all the components necessary for an electric vehicle and then plunk a completed body — which Canoo calls a “top hat” — on top of of it.
• “We want to create that kind of ecosystem so anyone — for example, like United Airlines — can say, ‘I want to make a car,’”
• Initially, it is targeting five percent of the global EV market and the equivalent of $33 billion in revenue from manufacturing EVs and components by 2025. It’s longer term goal is to make nearly half the world’s EVs. Five percent of the market, assuming an EV adoption rate of 20% by 2025, would be about 900,000 vehicles.

Newly Developed Automatic Charging Robot (ACR) For Electric Vehicles l Hyundai Motor Group

https://youtu.be/wjKbx0LFwow

Italian electric motorcycle maker to integrate its tech into aviation

https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/italian-motorcycle-maker-energica-aviaton

• Italian electric motorcycle manufacturer Energica is integrating its EV technology package into small airplanes and seaplanes (ULM) for training and recreational purposes.
• It’s part of the company’s “Energica Inside” program, which uses Energica’s current powertrain solutions to assist other manufacturers of light electric vehicles in accelerating their R&D.

‘Green-life technology’: Biodegradable, recyclable glass is finally here

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/biodegradable-recyclable-glass-is-here

• They were surprised to find that the biomolecular glass based on derivatives of amino acids or peptides showed a unique combination of functional properties and eco-friendly features, including excellent optical characteristics, good mechanical properties, and flexible processability, as well as the desired biodegradability and biorecyclability.

World’s first solar panel ‘carpet’ on railway tracks may generate electricity

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/solar-panel-carpet-on-railway-tracks

• The Swiss rail network has a total length of 5,317 kilometers, and theoretically, all of it could be covered with solar panels. The system could generate 1 Terawatt-hour (TWh) of solar energy annually, or around 2 percent of Switzerland’s total electricity needs.
• “There are over a million kilometers of railway lines in the world. We believe that 50 percent of the world’s railways could be equipped with our system.”

The vertical farming bubble is finally popping

https://www.fastcompany.com/90824702/vertical-farming-failing-profitable-appharvest-aerofarms-bowery

• “They know that Silicon Valley investors won’t invest in a farm, but they’ll invest in a tech company. These companies overspend on R&D by crazy amounts, and then say, ‘Oh, shit, that didn’t work.’”
• Its farm proved that automation could run its operations. But it also had to pay the high salaries of a team of robotics and software engineers.
• Even a small, 10,000-square-foot farm might have a lighting bill over $100,000 or even $200,000 a year.
• “Is it worth spending $20 million on a cutting-edge system when you’re producing objects that might get $1 or $2 in the marketplace? That’s the problem,”

40 Mind-Expanding Concepts (Spring 2023)

https://gurwinder.substack.com/p/40-mind-expanding-concepts-spring

• Dysrationalia, Opinion Shopping, Grice’s Razor (aka Principle of Charity), The Opinion Pageant, Godwin’s Law, Limbic Capitalism, Audience Capture, Ragebait, Deferred Happiness Syndrome, Path Dependence, Golden Mean, Danth’s Law, Idiocy Saturation, Weber–Fechner Law, Scoreboard Principle, Bandwidth Tax, Bullshit Jobs, Anna Karenina Principle, Shaker’s Law, Pretty Privilege, Purposeful Stupidity, Deep Time, Longevity Risk, Oppression Olympics, Tarzwell’s Razor, Dark Forest Theory, Presentism, Cylindrical Perspective, Teletransportation Paradox, Firehosing, The Fourth Turning (aka Strauss-Howe generational theory), Enthymeme, Purva Paksha, Arrival Fallacy, Law of Accelerating Returns, Russell’s Teapot, Gurwinder’s Defibrillator, Focusing Illusion, The Spyglass Self, Feynman’s Razor
• JG: Gurwinder obviously spends too much time on the internet, as a lot of these are focussed on anonymous online comments. You can’t judge humanity and human nature by the internet presence of a few, although he does try to. Although some of these concepts are still pretty interesting - my favourites are in bold.
• I wrote about The Fourth Turning a few weeks ago; Gurwinder has a related quote from G. Michael Hopf which I didn’t know at the time, but I like a lot:

“Hard times create strong men,

Strong men create good times,

Good times create weak men,

Weak men create hard times.”

Visualized: The Head of State of Each Country, by Age and Generation

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/visualized-heads-of-state-each-country-by-age/

Visualizing 90 Years of Stock and Bond Portfolio Performance

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/90-years-stock-and-bond-portfolio-performance/

• 100% bonds: best year +33%, worst year -8%, average year +5%.
• 100% stocks: best year +54%, worst year -43%, average year +10%.
• Fairly linear between the two extremes.

Visualizing the Link Between Unemployment and Recessions

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/unemployment-and-recessions/

• A low unemployment rate is a classic sign of a strong economy. However, as this visualization shows, unemployment often reaches a cyclical low point right before a recession materializes.
• A theory: Low unemployment → higher wages → inflation → rising interest rates → recession.

[Behind the Money] Martin Wolf on why banks fail and what to do about it

• Banks should be run like utilities, with small profits.
• Solutions to their continual economy-destroying actions:
  • Pure free market, no government support/bail outs
    • Not a good idea, too much damage potential
  • More regulations
    • Good idea
  • Banks forced to hold more capital/reduce leverage (currently 20:1, change to 3:1)
    • The obvious and best solution… makes you wonder why it’s not already enacted (greed/corruption?)
  • Something more radical
    • Explained in the podcast, a little over my head

The Business of Street Coffee

https://fltrmagazine.com/2022/12/29/the-business-of-street-coffee/

• Trading Period: 1 January to 31 December 2022 (trading 50 weeks, 5 days per week)
• Total Revenue: GBP £144,560
• Net Profit: 40% (versus a more typical net profit of 5-10% for brick & mortar cafés)
• Debt level: GBP £0

Largest GPS drawing by bicycle (team)

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/380709-largest-gps-drawing-by-cycle-team

Oxfam‘s bizarre’ language guide says sorry for using English and warns staff not to use words like ‘mother and people’

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/oxfam-bizarre-language-guide-sorry-for-using-english/

• The charity guide says that words like “headquarters”, “local” and even “people” have colonial implications and should be avoided.
• Staff were warned that “people who become pregnant” was preferable to “expectant mothers”, while “parent” is better than “mother” or “father”.
• “However, we recognise that the dominance of English is one of the key issues that must be addressed in order to decolonise our ways of working and shift power.”
• Meanwhile even the word “people” should be used cautious, as it “is often misunderstood as only referring to men”.

These Researchers Have Created A New Kind Of Paint Without Any Pigments

https://wonderfulengineering.com/these-researchers-have-created-a-new-kind-of-paint-without-any-pigments/

• Conventional paints contain pigments that rely on the light absorption properties of molecules to determine their colors. The light that is not absorbed is reflected back and seen by the observer, creating the object’s color. In contrast, the plasmonic paint created by Chanda’s team relies on both light absorption and reflection to create a full-color palette. The paint’s nanostructures scatter and reflect light in such a way that it creates a vibrant range of colors.
• Plasmonic paint reflects a significant amount of sunlight and reduces the amount of heat absorbed by the building’s surface.

Happy the calf set to live his life bringing smiles to faces after sale to Victorian field day event

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-24/happy-the-calf-to-live-life-as-a-mascot-after-being-sold/102129472

Quotes

Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary.

Sebastian Junger

Avoid boring people

Double meaning - don’t spend time with boring people, and don’t bore people yourself

I decided to scrap the categories, as there is a lot of overlap. They’re still roughly ordered by category though.

Britain Remade’s Powerbook: A Playbook for Energy Security by 2030

https://www.britainremade.co.uk/powerbook

https://assets.nationbuilder.com/themes/64129ab34764e88389de397e/attachments/original/1679821874/powerbook-brochure-webawk_rev2.pdf

• The price of solar, onshore wind, and offshore wind have fallen by 62%, 55%, and 75% in under a decade. The main obstacles to generating more energy from wind and solar now are a broken planning system and archaic regulation for grid connections. It is not inevitable that it should take 12 years to build a new wind farm, 4 years to build a new solar farm, or 8 years to build a new transmission line to take energy to where it is most needed.

The road to autonomous driving is winding

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/themes/the-road-to-autonomous-driving-is-winding

• JG: A number of articles on the future of mobility covering areas including regulation, technologies (including autonomy and robo-vehicles), customers, profit models, barriers (charging, geopolitics, supply shortages, etc). I’m a big fan of minimobility (1~2 seaters):

What is a 15-minute city and why is the idea so controversial?

https://www.itv.com/news/2023-02-20/what-is-a-15-minute-city-and-why-is-the-idea-so-controversial

• JG: Great idea, but people are stupid, and some politicians are taking advantage of it.
• The idea is that everything a person needs should be within a 15-minute walk or cycle from any point in the city. This includes work, shopping, education, healthcare, leisure and any other amenities a person may need in their regular life.
• Several of the proposed policies for Oxford fuelled conspiracy theories that the government wanted to confine people to their neighbourhoods. Nick Fletcher MP: “These will take away your personal freedoms.” Mark Dolan: “A surveillance culture that would make Pyongyang envious.” Nigel Farage tweeted an article by the Daily Mail which described plans by Canterbury Council to stop cars travelling between neighbourhoods saying “the climate change lockdowns are coming.”

‘Human composting,’ already legal in 6 states, could help the planet: ‘Young people are going to teach us to die better’

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/16/what-is-human-composting-eco-friendly-alternative-to-burial-cremation.html

• JG: It’s funny how the most obvious, natural idea is “new”. The only reason we’ve ever buried bodies in a preserved state (i.e. full of toxic chemicals) is religion. Once I’m dead just throw me in a hole. Or a burning ship burial.

Seaweed Is Having Its Moment in the Sun

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/15/climate/seaweed-plastic-climate-change.html

• In London, a start-up is making a plastic substitute out of seaweed. In Australia and Hawaii, others are racing to grow seaweed that, when fed to livestock, can cut methane from cow burps. Researchers are studying just how much carbon dioxide can be sequestered by seaweed farms, as investors eye them as a new source of carbon credits for polluters to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.
• In Korea, bordered by water on three sides, 20 different species of seaweed have been recorded. It is central to cuisine and culture.
• Since 1968, the waters where Mr. Shin farms have warmed by 1.4 degrees Celsius, slightly higher than the global average. That’s why South Korean scientists are racing to breed strains that can thrive in warmer waters.

All UK honey tested in EU fraud investigation fails authenticity test

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/mar/26/uk-honey-fails-authenticity-test

• Adulteration of honey with cheap sugar syrup has been exposed in a new investigation by the European Commission, which found 46% of sampled products were suspected to be fraudulent. Ten honey samples from the UK all failed the tests. They may have been blended or packaged in Britain, but the honey probably originated overseas.

Corporate Nonsense Continues To Harm Productivity And Corporate Culture

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danpontefract/2023/03/25/corporate-nonsense-continues-to-harm-productivity-and-corporate-culture/

• Martin worked with a financial institution where, on average, employees received 800 emails every day. “If you do the math and you spend just one minute per email, that’s your entire workday, and you haven’t even done your work yet,” he explained.
  • A month-long trial revealed that simply banning the CC button cut the total number of emails received by everyone in half.
• It could be removing the time-consuming but low-reward tasks like everyone’s favorite, “The meeting that was booked in order to prepare for the other meeting that will discuss what will happen in the real meeting.”
• The younger generations […] will never be engaged in their work if they continue to be stuck on the hamster wheel of responding to emails and getting dragged into meetings without any usefulness.

Stepping up: Becoming a high-potential CEO candidate

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/stepping-up-becoming-a-high-potential-ceo-candidate

• Stanford University economics professor Nicholas Bloom, who’s spent his career researching CEOs, describes the reality he’s observed: “It’s frankly a horrible job. I wouldn’t want it. Being a CEO of a big company is a hundred-hour-a-week job. It consumes your life. It consumes your weekend. It’s super stressful. Sure, there’re enormous perks, but it’s also all encompassing.”
• Don’t miss a step on the dance floor—deliver on your day job.
  • “Do the job you’re doing today like you’re going to do it for the rest of your life,”
• Climb onto a higher balcony to hone your view of the future, the company, and the company’s stakeholders.
  • “You have to have an absolutely first-class view of where the world is going.”
  • “I’ve seen too many candidates two years out make the mistake of moving to roles they don’t have time to succeed in,”
  • They need to have their pulse on employee, customer, and board sentiments and use them to help shape their company’s principles as issues emerge.
• Be bold, whether on the balcony or the dance floor.
• Objectively assess your capabilities versus what’s needed.
  • The first is your breadth of experience and record (for example, leading transformational change, delivering a profit-and-loss statement, and representing the company externally).
  • Second is your knowledge and expertise (for example, financial acumen, sales leadership, technology, target markets, and industry trends).
  • The third is your leadership skill (for example, strategic thinking, executive presence, team building, and self-awareness).
  • Finally, how strong are your relationships, and what is your reputation? How are you viewed by internal stakeholders, such as your boss, peers, direct reports, and influencers? How about by external stakeholders, such as investors, customers, suppliers, regulators, and community leaders? And how about by board members?
• Fill your skill gaps and gauge your progress on the way.
• Refuse to play politics in the process.
  • You’ll want to increase your visibility to ensure that those who need to know are aware that you want to make the final ascent without being seen as self-promoting or currying favor.
• You’ll be able to articulate why you want the role. You’ll have a bold vision for where the company should go next and how value will be created across the portfolio. You’ll also have translated that into a perspective on what the company needs from its next CEO and be able to make a fact-based argument that your experience, knowledge, leadership skills, and relationships make you the right horse for the course. You’ll be prepared to talk about how you’ve grown over the past three to five years yet also be clear-eyed and honest about your areas of weakness and how you’ll need to surround yourself with others who can help in those areas. You’ll also have built a following among your colleagues by leading authentically and helping others.

The age of average

https://www.alexmurrell.co.uk/articles/the-age-of-average

• JG: The basic premise of the article is “fashions and trends exist, and in the globalised world, they exist worldwide”. But the summary message is nice:
• This is your call to arms. Whether you’re in film or fashion, media or marketing, architecture, automotive or advertising, it doesn’t matter. Our visual culture is flatlining and the only cure is creativity. It’s time to cast aside conformity. It’s time to exorcise the expected. It’s time to decline the indistinguishable. Or as the ad agency BBH says: When the world zigs. Zag.

Essentialism - Greg McKeown (Blinkist)

• Only do the few essential things. Do less, but better. Have a single big goal.
• Give yourself time to be bored.
• Give yourself time to play, for creativity.
• Be minimalistic. Journal only essential events, not everything. Focus. Remove things that waste your time.
• Ignore sunk costs.
• Routines help.

[The James Altucher Show] Mastering the Magic of Language: Insights on Persuasion and Connection

• Explicitly use the word “you” for social (”it’s good for you”) but not help/support (comes across as blame/accusation)
• Identity: “be a helper” > “please help”
• Choice: “should” vs “could”

[Discovery] The Case of The Blind Man’s Eye

• JG: Turns out I’m hypophantastic. Not ideal.

[The High Performance Podcast] E185 - Keir Starmer: My learnings from life, loss and love

• JG: What’s more important, policies or a leader? According to ISideWith I’m more Tory than Labour, but Keir does come across like a decent bloke.

Edward Dando

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Dando

• Edward Dando (c.1803 – 28 August 1832) was a thief who came to public notice in Britain because of his unusual habit of overeating at food stalls and inns, and then revealing that he had no money to pay. Although the fare he consumed was varied, he was particularly fond of oysters, once having eaten 25 dozen (300) of them with a loaf and a half of bread with butter.

100 Tips for a Better Life

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7hFeMWC6Y5eaSixbD/100-tips-for-a-better-life

• JG: Many are generic or obvious (or simply don’t apply to me), but some I like:
• You can improve your communication skills with practice much more effectively than you can improve your intelligence with practice. If you’re not that smart but can communicate ideas clearly, you have a great advantage over everybody who can’t communicate clearly.
• You do not live in a video game. There are no pop-up warnings if you’re about to do something foolish, or if you’ve been going in the wrong direction for too long. You have to create your own warnings.
• If you listen to successful people talk about their methods, remember that all the people who used the same methods and failed did not make videos about it.
• When dating, de-emphasizing your quirks will lead to 90% of people thinking you’re kind of alright. Emphasizing your quirks will lead to 10% of people thinking you’re fascinating and fun. Those are the people interested in dating you. Aim for them.

Quotes

Success is an asynchronous and asymmetric outcome. It’s asynchronous because input/effort and outcome do not follow a linear timeline. You might struggle for years, only to succeed in a last random act. And it’s asymmetric, meaning there is no linear connection between the effort you put in and the success you get out.

Gennaro Cuofano, FourWeekMBA

I do regret the passing of what I regard as one of the great luxuries of civilisation, and that is solitude. I think those snatched moments, the 20 minutes when you’re waiting at the luggage carousel, you used to have to do nothing but go into your thoughts. Now we all take out our phone, we’ve been deprived of the signal for a couple of hours on an airplane, and maybe we don’t have quite as rich an inner life. If you get in the habit of solitude - which is an entirely different thing, by the way, to loneliness - treat your mind as a garden that you can walk around in, and I think generally leads to more happiness.

Ian McKeown, BBC Global News Podcast 31/3/23

80 UK Climate Tech Startups To Know

https://climate-hack.beehiiv.com/p/80-uk-climate-tech-startups

This hypersonic hydrogen jet takes 4 hours to fly from Europe to Australia

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/hydrogen-hypersonic-jet-eiger

• Destinus claims that its technology will make a flight from Frankfurt to Sydney last just 4 hours, 15 minutes, and a flight from Frankfurt to Shanghai would take 2 hours, 45 minutes.
• The company has tested its prototype Eiger for the past two years and announced successful test flights at the end of 2022.

New Company Promises To Speed Up Mini-EV Manufacturing

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/03/30/new-company-promises-to-speed-up-mini-ev-manufacturing/

https://www.helixx.tech/

• Helixx vehicles are locally manufactured within the company’s licensed Mobility Hubs and are available through a business-to-business fleet subscription pricing model starting at just $0.25 per hour, providing an accessible option for commercial users.

Putting an autonomous vehicle to the test in downtown London

https://youtu.be/ruKJCiAOmfg

• I recently had the opportunity to ride in a car made by the British company Wayve, which has a fairly novel approach to self-driving vehicles. While a lot of AVs can only navigate on streets that have been loaded into their system, the Wayve vehicle operates more like a person.

Scotland to launch the world’s first self-driving commuter bus fleet

https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/scotland-launch-worlds-first-self-driving-commuter-bus-fleet

• Stagecoach’s self-driving vehicles will begin service on a 14-mile (22.5 km) circuit that includes Edinburgh’s famous Forth Road suspension bridge on May 15.
• Five single-decker buses will be in service, carrying approximately 10,000 passengers weekly.

Less Cars, More Money: My Visit to the City of the Future

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2023/04/07/car-free-cities/

• The only reason we think we need cars to get around, is because we have wasted most of our space on accommodating cars, which spread everything out so far (and made everything so loud and dangerous) that nobody feels like walking or biking! [JG: Particularly in the US]

Research estimates EV drivers could earn billions of pounds selling power back to the grid

https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4088249/‘-potential-enormous-research-estimates-ev-drivers-earn-billions-pounds-selling-power-grid

• Electric cars could replace 20 gas power stations during peak winter electricity demand.
• ECIU said the potential of V2G technology in helping to balance the grid would rely on high adoption of battery-powered vehicles - potentially as many as 13.5 million on UK roads by 2030.
• [V2G] could enable drivers to sell enough power back to the grid to collectively generate EV owners almost £7.6bn by 2035.

NaaS offers a new smart charging solution for electric vehicles

https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/naas-smart-charging-solution-evs

• The company’s waterproof and shock-proof charging robot uses deep learning, 5G, V2X, and simultaneous localization and mapping technologies to create a smart and unmanned EV charging experience. The robot offers one-click ordering, active vehicle locating, precise self-parking, automatic docking, charging and undocking via mechanical arms, and automatic return and recharging functions.

Swedish renewables giant will use wooden wind turbines to lower emissions

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/swedish-wooden-wind-turbines

• Laminated wood is stronger than steel proportionate to its weight making for lighter more practical towers.

This new technique could cut cement GHG emissions by 30%

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/eco-efficient-cement-gamechanger

• The study showed that replacing 30 percent of the cement in concrete with clean coal fly ash made it 51 percent more robust and 28% more flexible. Moreover, it reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent and heavy metal emissions by 41 percent.
• The process involves mixing fly ash with carbon black, which makes the mixture conductive, placing it between two electrodes, and supplying a short current pulse. This raises the temperature to about 5,432 °F (3,000 °C), which makes the heavy metals evaporate and be caught. The removal efficiency for various heavy metals ranges between 70 percent and 90 percent in just one second.

These New Floating Homes Have Been Designed To Rest Weightlessly On Water

https://wonderfulengineering.com/these-new-floating-homes-have-been-designed-to-rest-weightlessly-on-water/

• Constructed from modular designs, The Float boasts a sleek and modern appearance. Wood was used throughout the home, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere. The outside of the home was clad in high-density dark cork, which is a sustainable and modern material that seamlessly blends with its surroundings while maintaining its unique personality.
• Inside, low-density cork was used as a natural insulator, providing excellent temperature regulation, noise reduction, and water resistance. The layers of high-density outer cork and low-density interior cork were connected with a cork-based mortar layer.

Consumer Products From Plastic Waste

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/03/27/consumer-products-from-plastic-waste/

• Nike’s Space Hippie shoes include everything from extra material to leftover packaging.
• Rothy’s are a brand of flats that are made entirely of recycled or sustainable materials.
• Green Toys makes 100% recycled plastic kids toys — recycled milk jugs and yogurt containers.
• Dakine backpacks are manufactured using recycled materials.
• All Birds makes recycled clothing products with tree fiber.
• Saalt Period Underwear makes its products out of recycled water bottles.
• Chilean startup Algramo offers an innovative refill-on-the-go distribution model. After a one-time container purchase, a customer may refill a range of liquid cleansers from dispensing machines at participating stores.

Why This May Be the Future of Plastic Recycling

https://youtu.be/w39WpuaNbRI

• JG: Plastics are incredible materials, but the environmental damage is horrific. Perfect recycling is the panacea. Fortunately, more and more enzymes are being discovered or created that can break down plastics for reuse!

Battery & Solar Recycling Marches On In March

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/03/27/battery-solar-recycling-marches-on-in-march/

• Black mass is the industry term used for the material that remains after expired lithium-ion batteries are shredded and all casing removed. It contains valuable elements such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper, and graphite that can be recycled in order to produce new lithium-ion batteries.
• According to data from McKinsey & Company, available battery material for recycling is projected to increase by 20% each year up until 2040, so there will be plenty of materials to process.
• Electra Battery Materials Corporation is ahead of the curve with its demonstration plant that has successfully extracted lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper, and graphite from black mass in batch mode.

Lithium recycling: Researchers find a pocket and eco-friendly way

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/inexpensive-eco-friendly-lithium-recycling

• The battery first needs to be ground where the material reacts with aluminum to form metallic composites. Lithium, which is water soluble, is recovered by mixing water with the ground mixture and then heating it separately to make the water evaporate.
• The researchers found that up to 70 percent lithium recovery can be achieved with this method, which does not require the use of corrosive chemicals or high temperatures.

The New Light Is Bad

https://nymag.com/strategist/article/led-light-bulbs-investigation.html

• Where an old-fashioned tungsten filament can generally be trusted to be either intact or broken, the drivers and diodes inside the new bulbs are subject to the kinds of glitches and compatibility errors you get from other electronics, especially once dimmers get involved. They can crash or hang, or audibly buzz from electromagnetic interference, or go haywire from being fed the wrong kind of power signal. LEDs, in other words, can be broken even when they appear to be working. “It’s still on. You still have light coming out,” Nelson said. “They don’t just fail or burn out like a halogen source does. Oftentimes, there’s light loss or there’s color shift.”
• It’s true that CRI numbers are kind of useless. All else being equal, if light on an object gets dimmer — if you start with an object outdoors, in full sunlight, then bring it indoors to that same daylight, but less of it, now coming through a window — the object will appear more gray. The way color rendering is defined, the diminished light is performing at the same level as it did outside. The color-rendering index scores it the same. But the object looks worse.
• Many [LEDs] cannot dim at all; those that are advertised as dimmable do not reduce their temperature or even reduce the intensity of the light they put out. Instead, a common method is to adjust how frequently they switch off and on, which is dozens of times per second. Extra-sensitive people can sometimes detect this flicker or find themselves with unexplained headaches and dizziness. For everyone, the light gets even duller looking than before.

New coconut, lemon material could be used to heat and cool our homes

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/coconut-lemon-material-heat-and-cool-homes

• The process begins with removing lignin from wood, which opens pores in the wood as well as strips the color—resulting in transparent wood. The wood gaps are then filled with citrus (limonene acrylate) and coconut-based molecules.
• When the sun shines, the wood becomes transparent and stores more energy, while at night it becomes cloudy and releases the heat stored during the day.

New rainbow films offer eco-friendly option for AC units, can cool your house and car

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/rainbow-films-eco-friendly-option-ac-units-cool-house-car

• When placed under sunlight, the films were an average of nearly 40°F cooler than the surrounding air and generated over 120 Watts of cooling power, rivaling many types of residential air conditioners.

Pulsing sound waves can help remove microplastics from ocean, study reveals

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/sound-waves-microplastics-ocean-study

• The team has created a prototype made of eight mm steel tubes and a transducer (a device that converts one form of energy into another). When the transducer was activated, it sent pulsating sound waves through the metal tube. As a result, the particles moved and vibrated, allowing small pieces of plastic to accumulate in flowing water as they passed through the system. For instance, consider a loudspeaker that vibrates the ground, thereby bouncing dust particles toward each other.
• The device was able to remove over 70 percent of the small plastics and 82 percent of the larger-size microplastics.
• The device would cost approximately seven cents to operate for an hour and a half to clean one liter of water.

The Algae Phoenix Rises: Biofuel Down, Concrete Up

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/03/27/the-algae-phoenix-rises-biofuel-down-concrete-up/

• To the surprise of no-one, ExxonMobil finally canceled its long-running algae biofuel research program earlier this year.
• “In contrast to traditional portland cement, Prometheus Materials’ microalgae-based bio-cement emits little-to-no CO2 and recycles 95% of the water used during its production. Following production, the bio-concrete has the ability to sequester embodied carbon throughout its lifespan,”

Research Confirms Risks Of Deep Sea Mining Are Greater Than The Rewards

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/03/28/research-confirms-risks-of-deep-sea-mining-are-greater-than-the-rewards/

[The Big Green Money Show] Medicines and Healthcare, with GSK

• Billions of single-use gloves are used by the NHS and in most cases they’re not needed (the majority are not sterile). They’re mostly used for signalling hygiene, when washing hands is more effective.
• It can be cheaper to buy reusable and sterilise between uses, but the habit has become to buy single-use and dispose - especially operating gowns.
• Inhalers for asthma are 40% of GSK emissions - but alternatives are coming/available.
• Mangroves are amazing.

This Gadget Helps Keep Honeybee Colonies Warm During Cold Snaps

https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/robotic-beehive

• A group of biologists and robotics experts over at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanna (EPFL) in Switzerland and the University of Graz in Austria have designed an innovative robotic beehive that is designed to provide thermal support to bees during events of cold weather, ensuring that the bees don’t experience coma and death.

This New Device Can Cheaply Detect Cancer In Blood Samples

https://wonderfulengineering.com/this-new-device-can-cheaply-detect-cancer-in-blood-samples/

• The device called Static Droplet Microfluidic (SDM) device, which is a “3-D-nanopatterned microfluidic chip,” could successfully detect cancer markers in the tiniest drop of blood or in a component of the blood called plasma. It can quickly detect circulating tumor cells (CTC) that have split from the cancer source to enter the bloodstream.

Scientists find promising antibiotic-resistant bacteria treatment — gold

https://interestingengineering.com/health/scientists-find-promising-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria-treatment-gold

• Taking that as a starting point, researchers in Spain concocted a number of new compounds with a gold ion as its foundation, and have found that all 19 of the ones they tested were effective against at least one bacteria of concern that has proven resistant to modern antibiotics.

[Sliced Bread] Sourdough

• Fibre:sugar ratio affects how much blood glucose spikes. This means rye bread is best (high fibre, low sugar)
• Sourdough is great, but most supermarket sourdoughs are fake - so buy from a bakery or make your own.
• Baked sourdough kills the microbes so little benefit as a probiotic.

Terrifying Footage Shows A Car Getting Launched Into The Air By A Loose Tire On A Highway

https://wonderfulengineering.com/terrifying-footage-shows-a-car-getting-launched-into-the-air-by-a-loose-tire-on-a-highway/

• As the Kia Soul pulled up next to the Silverado, everything seemed normal until the truck’s driver side front wheel suddenly spun itself off and rolled in front of the Kia. The Kia ran over the upright wheel at highway speed, causing it to roll onto the tire and launch into the air. The vehicle soared to almost double the height of the Silverado before crashing back down on its roof.
• While it’s unclear what caused the wheel to fall off the Silverado, it’s possible that it was due to a wheel spacer or lug nut failure.
• Despite the dramatic nature of the crash, the driver of the Kia Soul was able to walk away unharmed.

Newly discovered ’einstein’ tile is a 13-sided shape that solves a decades-old math problem

https://www.livescience.com/newly-discovered-einstein-tile-is-a-13-sided-shape-that-solves-a-decades-old-math-problem

• A new 13-sided shape is the first example of an elusive “einstein” — a single shape that can be tiled infinitely without repeating a pattern.
• The answer was just discovered by David Smith, a retired printing technician from East Yorkshire, England.

How The Benner Cycle Predicts 100+ Years of Market Movement

https://www.therationalinvestor.com/blog/how-the-benner-cycle-predicts-100-years-of-market-movement

• But even though it was 1875 math, I’d say it was pretty close.

Companies by SIC section and turnover size

https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/adhocs/009945companiesbysicsectionandturnoversize

• JG: Data from 2018. Very interesting. Most companies are “Professional, scientific and technical”, but highest revenue is from “Finance and insurance”. “Finance and insurance” also dominates revenue per company, but is followed by “Mining, quarrying and utilities” and “Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply” - they have very low counts but high revenue per company. However, for small companies, “Finance and insurance” has much lower per-company revenue. “Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles” is consistently pretty good.
• For reference, SIC codes: https://resources.companieshouse.gov.uk/sic/

[a16z Podcast] Turning Nothing Into Something: Breaking Into Hardware

• Start with design as it’s easiest to differentiate with. Take risks. Be unique. Large companies have to satisfy large audiences so end up needing to compromise. Apple is a good example.
• Marketing - find the next way. TV and Facebook ROI are similar now. What’s next?
• Fun. Community. Innovation through collaboration.

Everything is a Remix (Complete Updated 2023 Edition)

https://youtu.be/X9RYuvPCQUA

• JG: Showing how music, movies, and games - all media - is a remix (copy) of something that came before it. AI is simply the next step. Really interesting.
• “More of the same, but different.”
• “AI is derivative by design and inventive by chance.”

How Daft Punk Got The Sample For ‘One More Time’

https://youtu.be/pX6mbIw0OOI

• JG: This came from the video above. This is only 40s. Never realised how it was completely stolen.

Free Guy

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6264654/

• JG: Surprisingly entertaining, if the whole tech/coding side was nonsense. 8/10.

World Car Awards - 2023 Voting Results

https://www.worldcarawards.com/web/2023_results.asp

• A good year for Hyundai-Kia!

Genesis unveils innovative and hassle-free Plug & Charge program for electric vehicle (EV) customers

https://electricdrives.tv/ev-biz/genesis-unveils-innovative-and-hassle-free-plug-charge-program-for-electric-vehicle-ev-customers/

• Genesis now offers its customers Plug & Charge. Drivers simply pull up, plug in and charge - no need for a mobile app or a payment card.
• JG: This is undoubtably the future - ideally with cross-compatibility/interoperability, so it works with a range of chargers (currently it only works with Shell ones).

NIO battery swap: faster than any EV rapid charger! – DrivingElectric

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5BPL4Nm1q0

• Excellent idea! It’s existed for scooters/mopeds in Asia for ages - glad it’s finally an option for cars too.

How Corporations Use Carbon Offsets to Pollute More - Distilled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjuBTwlSAGw

• Shell’s “carbon offsets” they take from customers goes to protecting a forest… That was already protected.

UK regulator slams Etihad Airways for ‘exaggerating’ eco-credentials in ads

https://www.energylivenews.com/2023/04/13/uk-regulator-slams-etihad-airways-for-exaggerating-eco-credentials-in-ads/

• The initiatives mentioned by Etihad, such as reducing single-use plastics and using more efficient aircraft, were also deemed insufficient to evidence a “sustainable aviation” claim.

Climate change to increase lifetime of space pollution

https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/climate-change-to-increase-lifetime-of-space-pollution/

• Increasing levels of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere will result in a long-term decline in air density at high altitudes, according to new research from British Antarctic Survey. Such decreased density will reduce drag on objects orbiting in the upper atmosphere, between 90 and 500 km altitude, extending the lifetime of space debris and elevating the risk of collisions between debris and satellites.

A new tiny bio-battery could provide power for a century or more

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/tiny-bio-battery-power-century

• They found that their “bio-battery,” which is indigestible, could potentially provide a charge for up to 100 years if configured correctly.
• The fuel cell is about the size of a U.S. dime and is sealed with a strip of Kapton tape, which can endure temperatures between -500 and 750 degrees Fahrenheit. The cell is activated when the tape is removed, and moisture is allowed to enter it. When this happens, the bacteria combined with a chemical germinant are encthe battery can store 6,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity for six hours.er to power an LED, a digital thermometer, or a small clock.

China: ‘World’s largest’ iron-chromium flow battery set for commercial use

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/worlds-largest-iron-chromium-flow-battery

• The battery can store 6,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity for six hours.

Japanese Rail Workers Build Adorable Track Underpasses For Turtles

https://wonderfulengineering.com/japanese-rail-workers-build-adorable-track-underpasses-for-turtles/

2023 Levelized Cost Of Energy+

https://www.lazard.com/research-insights/2023-levelized-cost-of-energyplus/

Solarge Debuts Lightweight Fully Recyclable Solar Panels

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/04/19/solarge-debuts-lightweight-fully-recyclable-solar-panels/

• Weigh 50% less, have 80% fewer carbon emissions during the manufacturing process, contain no PFAS materials, and are 100% recyclable.
• There is no information available from the company about cost or efficiency.

A new microwave technology can ease solar cell recycling

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/a-new-microwave-technology-can-ease-solar-cell-recycling

• The silicon found in solar panels goes through annealing in a furnace with a temperature ranging between 900 and 1100 °C.
• The researchers explain that microwave radiation selectively heats silicon and leaves the laminated panel of glass, aluminum, and plastic largely unaffected.
• Under treatment, the plastic coating, which protects the silicon plate from contamination and moisture, gets softened and hence can be peeled off mechanically. The scale can be then easily delaminated, and its components can be reused without harsh chemicals.

Pedro Pascal as IPCC assessment reports and iconic figures: a thread

https://twitter.com/HMcJeon3y4/status/1644884567583604737

Scientists Isolate Microbes That Eat Carbon Dioxide

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/04/20/scientists-isolate-microbes-that-eat-carbon-dioxide/

• The new microbe, called a cyanobacteria, turns carbon dioxide into biomass faster than any other known bacteria.

This eco-friendly concrete uses biochar to suck out carbon dioxide

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/eco-friendly-concrete-biochar-carbon-dioxide

• The biochar was able to suck up to 23 percent of its weight in carbon dioxide from the air while still achieving a strength comparable to ordinary cement.

‘Smart Plastic’ Material is Step Forward Toward Soft, Flexible Robotics and Electronics

https://news.utexas.edu/2022/10/13/smart-plastic-material-is-step-forward-toward-soft-flexible-robotics-and-electronics/

• A harder and more rigid material was formed in the areas the light touched, while the unlit areas retained their soft, stretchy properties.

Our understanding of reverse osmosis has just been proven wrong

https://interestingengineering.com/science/reverse-osmosis-desalination-clean-water-ro-diffusion

• The computer simulations revealed that a pressure gradient was driving the water transport within the membranes, not a water concentration gradient.

Insects As Food – Europe Approves Three Types

https://happyeconews.com/insects-as-food-europe-approves-three-types/

• After yellow mealworms were authorized by the European Food Safety Authority in June, two more types of insects have been given the green light for human consumption: the house cricket and the migratory locust.

[People Fixing the World] The hidden powers of bacteria

• Recycle metal
• Recycle plastic
• High-protein food additive
• Fertiliser (nitrogen) replacement

Novel wound dressing changes colour when it detects an infection

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/novel-wound-dressing-changes-colour-when-it-detects-an-infection

• If the wound becomes infected, the color of the dressing will change. This color change property is determined by the wound’s pH. Normal wounds (non-infected) have a pH of about 5.5, but when an infection develops, the pH rises to 8, or even higher.

Where We Are in the Big Cycle: On the Brink of a Period of Great Disorder

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/where-we-big-cycle-brink-period-great-disorder-ray-dalio/

• Each force, and most importantly, the combination of them, is now occurring at the largest magnitude since the 1930-45 period and at levels of magnitude similar to those that existed just before prior breakdowns and seismic shifts in domestic and world orders.

1. Enormous amounts of debt
2. Big conflicts within countries (now most importantly the US)
3. Big conflicts between countries arising from the rise of countries (now most importantly China)
4. Acts of nature—i.e., climate change.
5. Technology changes—e.g. AI.

• Because populists are so committed to winning at all costs and are unwilling to compromise, more-intense-than-expected battles are more likely. Each one of these forces is a part of the system. For example, the debt ceiling increase will not go as smoothly as most people expect and will likely become a big election issue that will split the country because both sides will fight for victories and will be less willing to compromise. Also, in this election year, aggressiveness with China will intensify because most everyone is anti-China, so those running will want to outdo each other with their China-bashing. Continuing engagement between US and Taiwanese leaders will likely still happen, which, together with the Gallagher House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party hearings, will push the US-China conflict closer to the brink (or over the brink).

The Most Bizarre Economics Research Ever? - Economics Explained Essentials

https://youtu.be/lJ0U4p2A14Y

Why Kangaroos are Scarier Than You Think - Real Science

https://youtu.be/RwwgbVHE8Dk

• JG: Having been chased by a Kangaroo, I can confirm they’re bloody terrifying. Apparently they even drown other creatures.

What’s our Problem - Tim Urban

https://waitbutwhy.com/audio

• Scientist, sports fan, lawyer, zealot
  • What’s the goal, to get to the truth, or to win no matter what?
• Idea lab (idea≠person, can disagree and change) vs echo chamber (idea=person identity, cannot disagree, cannot change)
• Mass collaboration: genies (humans working together for good, sum is greater than the parts) vs golems (humans working together for bad, us vs them)

Classical Trancelations in Concert 2018

https://youtu.be/gRt8rXFoPVs

• JG: Beautiful.

Hyundai Mobis’ e-Corner system technology has hit the streets

https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/hyundai-mobis-e-corner-system-technology-has-hit-the-streets

How NASA Reinvented The Wheel

https://youtu.be/vSNtifE0Z2Q

• JG: Super cool. A metal with memory: set a shape when it’s hot, deform it when it’s cold, but when it’s re-heated, it returns to its original shape. It’s also super stretchy.
• Summarize.tech summary: NASA has developed a metal alloy that can stretch up to 30 times its original size without deforming and can spring back to its initial size with no damage, allowing the creation of airless tires suitable for low-pressure conditions on other planets. Nitinol, the nickel and titanium alloy, has great elasticity, can endure more stress than steel and maintains its shape when heated, making it an excellent material for making wheels. Nitinol tires can stretch up to 8% of its length without causing permanent damage, and the unique properties of nitinol make it useful for creating complete suspension systems without adding weight. Nitinol is also used in medical stents and actuators that generate significant force. Furthermore, Henson Shaving produced a lifetime razor that is modeled after aerospace technology.

Big Oil Profits Reached Record High Levels in 2022

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/big-oil-profits-reached-record-high-levels-in-2022/

Shell admits 1.5C climate goal means immediate end to fossil fuel growth

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-04-24/shell-admits-1-5c-climate-goal-means-immediate-end-to-fossil-fuel-growth/

• Shell had previously claimed that oil and gas production could rise for another decade, even as warming was limited to 1.5C.
• If the world followed Shell’s pathway, it would “overshoot” the 1.5C limit for decades, before returning below that level by using largely unproven, energy-intensive machines to suck large volumes of carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere towards the end of the century.

Airlines want you to buy carbon offsets. Experts say they’re a ‘scam.’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2023/04/17/carbon-offsets-flights-airlines/

• “Unlike how they’re presented to travelers, offsets are not really quantified, verified tons of emissions reductions,” Instead, they’re programs that might do some environmental good but ultimately lead to “hard-to-estimate emissions reductions.” Haya said, “In today’s offset market, those reductions are dramatically overestimated.”
• The most common type of offsets purchased by the aviation industry are forestry and nature-based offsets, which numerous studies have found are mostly worthless. In January, an investigation by the Guardian into the biggest certifier of rainforest carbon offsets found that more than 90 percent didn’t represent any carbon reductions.

Glass or plastic: which is better for the environment?

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230427-glass-or-plastic-which-is-better-for-the-environment

• Glass bottles have a higher environmental footprint than plastic and other bottled container materials including drinks cartons and aluminum cans.
  • Deforestation/biodiversity loss due to mining; health impacts for miners; sand shortages; processing temperatures.
• A key problem with glass recycling is that it does not eradicate the remelting process, which is the most energy intensive part of glass production. It accounts for 75% of the energy consumption during production. Even though glass containers can be reused an average of 12-20 times, glass is often treated as single-use. Single-use glass disposed of at landfills can take up to one million years to decompose. Glass recycling rates vary significantly across the globe. The EU and the UK have an average recycling rate of 74% and 76%, while the US figure was 31.3% in 2018.
  • So reuse instead of recycle.

What does the EU’s new deforestation law mean for climate and biodiversity?

https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-what-does-the-eus-new-deforestation-law-mean-for-climate-and-biodiversity/

Jellyfish-inspired robot can gently remove ocean waste without harming marine life

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/jellyfish-inspired-robot

• This hand-sized robot moves using electrohydraulic actuators that act as artificial muscles. “We achieved grasping objects by making four arms function as a propeller, and the other two as a gripper. Or we actuated only a subset of the arms, in order to steer the robot in different directions,”

Visualizing the Biomass of All the World’s Mammals

Context-Based Market Entry Strategies For Startups - FourWeekMBA

https://fourweekmba.com/market-entry-strategies/

Marketing vs Sales and the Death/Dead Zone - FourWeekMBA

[The Documentary Podcast] Murder in Mayfair

• JG: Four-part series about the possible rape and murder of a 20-year-old woman in London and the journalist trying to track down the only “suspect” (spoiler: he’s almost certainly guilty), the son of a Yemeni billionaire.
• At first it seems it may have been an “accident” - not an accidental death, but a drunken crime of passion. However, the more you hear from him, his selfish attitude starts to appear - what he says about the woman’s dad in particular made be lose any “sympathy” (I use that word loosely) for him.

Right Here, Right Now Sample Source

https://twitter.com/I_Dont_Know_Her/status/1649398468832555008

• I never knew the “right here, right now” vocal from the Fatboy Slim song was Angela Bassett saying it in the film Strange Days. I’m shook.

Why is this Propeller Getting So Much Attention?

• Toroidal propellers are more efficient and quieter, can be used for aircraft and watercraft. Currently more expensive so not commonplace… yet.

https://youtu.be/UzYHO4tksTc

The Cure to Misinformation is More Misinformation

https://gurwinder.substack.com/p/the-cure-to-misinformation-is-more

• The authors of the studies concluded that exposing a group of people to weak conspiracy theories could fortify their psychological immune systems against stronger ones, just like a vaccine. A recent systematic review of all the known methods used to reduce beliefs in conspiracy theories found that this “vaccination” approach was the most effective.
• If people were always unsure whether what they were seeing was art or advertisement, sincere or satire, they would become more vigilant.

Which Jobs Will Be Most Impacted by ChatGPT?

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/which-jobs-artificial-intelligence-gpt-impact/

These Skills and Jobs Will Be Most in Demand as AI Churns the Market

https://singularityhub.com/2023/05/03/a-quarter-of-jobs-will-change-in-the-next-5-years/

What I Think Is Going On 1) with China-US Relations, 2) with Their Relations with Other Countries, and 3) in China

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-i-think-going-1-china-us-relations-2-other-countries-ray-dalio/

• The United States and China are on the brink of war and are beyond the ability to talk.
• There is a general belief that the Americans are more strongly pushing their values and approaches (e.g., democracy, capitalism, and to some extent Christianity) than the Chinese are pushing theirs. It is often said by leaders in other countries that the Americans are trying to control them and draw them into war in a more heavy-handed way than the Chinese are doing. The Chinese point out that this way of dealing with other countries is consistent with their thousands of years old tradition of following a tribute system type of international relations (i.e., a symbiotic relationship between a stronger and a weaker power that benefits both and doesn’t seek to ideologically or politically control the lesser power). They find this more practical than what one leader called a “Mediterranean-based control approach” that is typical in the Western countries.

Why the Brain’s Connections to the Body Are Crisscrossed

https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-the-brains-connections-to-the-body-are-crisscrossed-20230419/

• Neural cross wiring is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom — even the neural connections in lowly nematode worms are wired with left-right reversal across the animal’s midline.
• Mapping 3D space onto a 2D plane in the brain seems to explain why our nervous system is cross-wired: Counterintuitive as it may seem, directing nerve fibers across the midline is the topologically simplest way to avoid errors.
• Since left and right depend on a frame of reference, people frequently confuse the letters “d” and “b,” and “p” and “q,” but they rarely confuse “q” and “d.” In the first two cases, the identical shapes are flipped along the vertical axis (swapping left and right), and in the second, they are flipped along the horizontal axis (swapping up and down). As bilaterally symmetrical creatures we never mistake up and down, because those directions are always the same, regardless of viewpoint, but left and right are relative to an object.

The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain

https://www.wired.com/story/aging-brain-volume/

• Tsimane brains lose about 2.3 percent of their volume per decade, compared with around 2.8 percent for the Moseten and about 3.5 percent for industrialized populations. For septuagenarians and older, the difference nearly doubled.
• In industrialized populations, brain volume usually drops with increasing body mass index and non-HDL (so-called “bad”) cholesterol. But Tsimane and Moseten brain volumes largely increased with rising BMI and cholesterol.

AI-generated beer commercial contains joyful monstrosities, goes viral

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/05/ai-generated-beer-commercial-contains-joyful-monstrosities-goes-viral/

• JG: So weird. Worth the 30s watch.

This Genius Shape-Shifting Wing is the Future of Flight

https://youtu.be/OKWurIhfkhQ

• No need for flaps when the entire wing can move and morph!
• And this can be applied to wind turbines for greater efficiency there also.

NIO: 10 Billion Kilometers, 20 Million Battery Swaps

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/05/12/nio-10-billion-kilometers-driven-20-million-battery-swaps/

• The speed and scale of China is incredible.

None of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use

https://grist.org/business-technology/none-of-the-worlds-top-industries-would-be-profitable-if-they-paid-for-the-natural-capital-they-use/`

• The majority of unpriced natural capital costs are from greenhouse gas emissions (38%), followed by water use (25%), land use (24%), air pollution (7%), land and water pollution (5%), and waste (1%).
• The total unpriced natural capital consumed by the more than 1,000 “global primary production and primary processing region-sectors” amounts to $7.3 trillion a year.
• Of the top 20 region-sectors ranked by environmental impacts, none would be profitable if environmental costs were fully integrated.

An A to Z Of Fossil Fuel Industry Deception

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/05/10/an-a-to-z-of-fossil-fuel-industry-deception/

• A is for American Petroleum Institute
• B is for Beyond Petroleum
• C is for Customer Emissions
• D is for Divestment of Dirty Assets
• E is for (Anti)-ESG
• F is for Front Groups
• G is for Greenwashing
• H is for Hydrogen
• I is for Intensity Targets
• J is for Just Transition
• K is for Kafkaesque
• L is for Lies
• M is for Methane
• N is for No-Action
• O is for Offsets
• P is for Paltering
• Q is for Quest
• R is for Redacted
• S is for Social License
• T is for Time for Energy
• U is for US Chamber of Commerce
• V is for Victory Memo
• W is for Windfall profits
• X is for eXXchange
• Y is for You
• Z is for (Net) Zero

Yet Another Problem With Recycling: It Spews Microplastics

https://www.wired.com/story/yet-another-problem-with-recycling-it-spews-microplastics/

• Even with filtering, they calculate that the total discharge from the different washes could produce up to 75 billion particles per cubic meter of wastewater. Depending on the recycling facility, that liquid would ultimately get flushed into city water systems or the environment.
• The good news here is that filtration makes a difference: Without it, the researchers calculated that this single recycling facility could emit up to 6.5 million pounds of microplastic per year. Filtration got it down to an estimated 3 million pounds. “So it definitely was making a big impact when they installed the filtration,” says Brown. “We found particularly high removal efficiency of particles over 40 microns.”

Newly discovered Arctic microbes may make recycling plastics carbon-neutral

https://interestingengineering.com/science/arctic-microbes-may-make-recycling-plastics-carbon-neutral

• Currently available models only work at temperatures above 30°C, requiring a heating process that is not carbon-neutral.
• “Here we show that novel microbial taxa obtained from the ‘plastisphere’ of alpine and arctic soils were able to break down biodegradable plastics at 15°C,”

Captura facility could remove gigatons of carbon dioxide from the ocean

https://newatlas.com/technology/captura-carbon-dioxide-ocean/

• The process begins by bringing a filtered stream of ocean water into the facility, where the electrodialysis technology is used to create acid. This acid is then added to the ocean water, triggering a chemical reaction that extracts CO2 from the water. The process is accelerated using a gas-liquid contactor and vacuum pump, resulting in a purified stream of carbon dioxide that can be reused or sequestered.

Reusable sponge can remove heavy-metal pollutants from water, resulting in safe, drinkable water

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/reusable-sponge-remove-heavy-metal-pollutants-from-water

• Northwestern University engineers have produced a new sponge that can remove toxic heavy metals, like lead, and critical metals, like cobalt, from contaminated water. The end result is safe, drinkable water.

Whole. to bolster WINX technology with $1.5m raise

https://futurealternative.com.au/whole-to-bolster-winx-technology-with-1-5m-seed-raise/

• The WINX (Whole Ingredient Nutrient Extraction) technology uses ultra-high pressure to ‘explode’ the cells of the input ingredient, which according to Whole., significantly enhances its nutritional value and makes it more bioavailable in the body.

Why Lightbulbs Might Be The Best Invention Ever

https://youtu.be/FU_YFpfDqqA

• The history of how lightbulbs became computers. Pretty incredible.

[Modern Wisdom] #626 - Richard Shotton - 8 Psychology Hacks Behind The World’s Biggest Businesses

• If >£100, state £ discount; if <£100, state % discount.
• Default is to go for the middle option, so have at least three (with the middle being the one you want to sell most). Show high to low (anchoring).

Why kids don’t get as cold as adults

https://youtu.be/zpcI_g_zrpk

• More brown fat = more cold tolerance
• More brown fat = less heart disease, diabetes
• More cold tolerance = more brown fat

The Insane Biology of: Slime Mold

https://youtu.be/nPOQQp8CCls

• A single-celled brainless organism designed the Tokyo subway system, one of the most complex on the planet.

The Tokay Lizard (fuck you lizard)

https://youtu.be/X2c23-1rVQs?t=9

Why Kiribati Is Always In The Future

https://youtu.be/SC-k2zDfREQ

• The video itself was average, but the comment from Kim Jong-un (yes really) was fascinating:

We used to have our own time zone called Pyongyang Standard Time (UTC+08:30). Everyone likes to think we started that thing in 2015 and ended it in 2018 to return to UTC+09:00 as a step in unifying the peninsula, but the history behind it is much older!

Before modern clocks were introduced into Korea, Koreans kept time with the help of a sundial during the daytime and a water clock at night. In 1434, Jang Yeong-sil, a Joseon scientist and astronomer with other scientists, developed Korea’s first sundial, Angbu Ilgu and was put into service as standard time-keeper of the kingdom and began the standard time at Hanyang (Seoul) which was calculated to be UTC+08:27:52. The Korean Empire adopted a standard time of 8½ hours ahead of UTC around the beginning of the 20th century. This changed in 1912 to UTC+09:00 during Japanese control so Korea could align with Japan Standard Time.

Farmland practices are driving bird population decline across Europe

https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2216573120

• We find that agricultural intensification, in particular pesticides and fertiliser use, is the main pressure for most bird population declines, especially for invertebrate feeders. Responses to changes in forest cover, urbanisation and temperature are more species-specific.

LobbyFacts - exposing lobbying in the European institutions

https://www.lobbyfacts.eu/

• Shell (2022: >5,500,000€), ExxonMobil (2022: >3,500,000€), BP (2022: >2,250,000€)
• Also FAANG, chemicals, pharmaceuticals… The usual suspects.

The 2023 crony-capitalism index

https://www.economist.com/international/2023/05/02/the-2023-crony-capitalism-index

• Wiki: Crony capitalism, sometimes called cronyism, is an economic system in which businesses thrive not as a result of free enterprise, but rather as a return on money amassed through collusion between a business class and the political class.
• This year the publication details 2,640 billionaires worth $12trn or 12% of gdp. Most of those listed do not operate in rent-seeking (an economic rent is the surplus remaining once capital and labour have been paid which, with perfect competition, tends towards zero) sectors.

BT to axe up to 55,000 jobs by 2030 as it pushes into AI

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/18/bt-cut-jobs-telecoms-group-workforce

• BT has said it will become a “leaner business” as it announced plans to reduce its workforce by as much as 55,000 by 2030, more than 40% of its global employee base, including about 10,000 jobs replaced by artificial intelligence.

Why is Inflation Worse in the UK than the EU?

https://youtu.be/5g4Xyn2fsf0

• A broken energy market is a key factor, including profiteering and blackmail.

China overtakes Japan as world’s top car exporter

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65643064

• Officials figures released in the last week show China exported 1.07 million vehicles in the period, up 58% compared to the first quarter of 2022.
• First quarter exports of new energy vehicles (NEVs), which includes electric cars, rose by more than 90%, compared to a year earlier.

So… What’s up with Damon Motorcycles?

https://youtu.be/5cPp3GwGC88

• Some very cool tech, from safety to speed. Although I won’t count any chickens until they’re on the road.

UCLA Says We Can Hack The Ocean To Store Carbon Dioxide

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/05/15/ucla-says-we-can-hack-the-ocean-to-store-carbon-dioxide/

• The seawater would flow through a mesh that allows an electrical charge to pass into the water, rendering it alkaline. This kicks off a set of chemical reactions that ultimately combine dissolved carbon dioxide with calcium and magnesium native to seawater, producing limestone and magnesite by a process similar to how seashells form. The seawater that flows out would then be depleted of dissolved carbon dioxide and ready to take up more. A co-product of the reaction, besides minerals, is hydrogen, which is a clean fuel.

What Drives This Madness On Hydrogen?

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/05/16/what-drives-this-madness-on-hydrogen/

• Oil and gas firms. They have two motivations. Delaying the transition is one of them, of course. But if they can’t convince everyone that hydrogen is required for energy, they won’t be able to turn their hydrocarbon reservoirs into money via blue hydrogen, and they will be worthless. As firms like Shell and bp have 4–10 billion barrels of proven reserves, those assets will become almost worthless. And these firms treat these reserves as a fiscal tool for debt financing. Worthless reserves = financial institutions calling in their debts, the collapse of their stock prices, and the bankruptcy of those firms.

The Freaky Chemistry of Landfills

https://gizmodo.com/how-do-landfills-work-chemistry-trash-pollution-1849703063

• Leachate, or the water that infiltrated a landfill and then leached chemicals and pollutants from the decomposing garbage. The chemicals that got into leachate can include heavy metals from electronic waste, bits of plastic that are breaking down, and decomposed organic matter. The trouble is that, even though landfills are engineered to collect as much leachate as possible, some is bound to escape, permeating through soil and aquifers into drinking water and natural water reservoirs.
• The EPA estimates that 14.5% of methane emissions in 2020 were from landfills, making them the third largest emitter of the gas.
  • If we can harness the methane that’s emitted from a landfill, Cadillo-Quiroz says, it could be used to power generators, meaning that this waste gas could be repurposed into a source of energy—but only if we design landfills more intentionally and with better management systems.

Sun-Mimicking Smart Fridges

https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/naturelight

• ‘NatureLight’ technology is an innovative feature that uses three colors of light (blue, green and red) to mimic the natural 24-hour sun cycle inside the fridge’s crisper drawer. This technology aims to preserve the vitamins and nutrients found in fruits and vegetables for longer, by stimulating the natural photosynthesis process.

[The Art of Manliness] The Art and Science of Getting Unstuck

• The creative cliff
  • Assumption: first ideas are best
  • Reality: latter ideas are best (first are the obvious ones)

Map of GitHub

https://anvaka.github.io/map-of-github/

• GitHub Map Each dot is a GitHub project. Two dots within the same cluster are usually close to each other if multiple users frequently gave stars to both projects. The size of the dot indicates the number of stars the project has received.
• Super cool. I found a few new projects using this.

Prieto Introduces Battery That Charges In 3 Minutes

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/05/23/prieto-introduces-battery-that-charges-in-3-minutes/

• Prieto’s battery is designed to deliver five times the power density (20C discharge rate) and up to three times the energy density of conventional 2D batteries.

Scientists Working to Generate Electricity From Thin Air Make Breakthrough

https://www.vice.com/en/article/93kade/scientists-working-to-generate-electricity-from-thin-air-make-breakthrough

• The novel “air generator,” or Air-gen, is made from materials with holes that are under 100 nanometers in length. This design can pull electricity from water droplets in the air.

Open Net Zero

https://opennetzero.org/

• Find, access and securely share net-zero data across industry, environment and finance.

Offsetting | Climate Change Comedy

https://youtu.be/pm_n0Vi6pHQ

• What other destructive actions could be “offset”?

Scar Tissues Make Relationships Wear Out

https://gist.github.com/gtallen1187/27a585fcf36d6e657db2

• “Oh, it’s not a big deal, it’s just one little thing, not worth having a big argument about it. I’ll just give in.” Well, that seems generous, but it’s a really bad idea. You have to ask yourself, “Are you really, completely, 100% over this? You’re giving in? No animosity? You’re not secretly hoping that maybe they’ll do something for you in return or a little behavior change here or there?” Because if there’s anything at all when you’re giving in that you can feel bad about later, you’re nuking the relationship - you’re creating scar tissue with yourself.

10 Thoughts From the Fourth Trimester

https://waitbutwhy.com/2023/05/baby.html

• Very funny, yet interesting.

The Math behind QR code, what happens inside there?

https://youtu.be/Rc3ul6RRANU

• I’d always wondered. Now I know. Kinda.

BS22 8EW

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/search?q=BS22+8EW

• ~20,000 companies registered to a Chinese takeaway

[The Leader | Evening Standard daily] The sour truth of Oxford Street’s candy shop curse

• Money laundering and dangerous products sold in the heart of London.

How bankruptcy helps the coal industry avoid environmental liability

https://grist.org/accountability/how-bankruptcy-helps-the-coal-industry-avoid-environmental-liability/

• The purpose of bankruptcy is to give desperate people and companies time and relief from creditors so they can get back on their feet. But not all creditors are treated equally. Bankruptcy law gives secured creditors such as banks, law firms, the Internal Revenue Service and equipment suppliers — but not environmental costs or fines — priority for payment.
• Knowing that they won’t end up on the hook for reclamation, other coal companies buy mines out of bankruptcy — and then often go bankrupt themselves. The ProPublica analysis identified 2,030 mines in Kentucky and West Virginia that have been through bankruptcy since 2012 — more than a third of all coal mines in those states. Of the bankrupt mines, 491, or 24 percent, have gone through more than one bankruptcy.

Tags: Environment, Coal, Bankruptcy, Scams, Unethical

[Behind the Money] Best Of: Inside Johnson & Johnson’s bankruptcy two-step

https://www.ft.com/content/08388420-cf6d-47e1-bd22-7a2b1504aa89

• Don’t want to pay damages for poisoning people? Split your company into two - one bankrupt one to take the blame (but be unable to pay), one for BAU. Fortunately, the law is fighting back.

Tags: Bankruptcy, Scams, Unethical

Charted: The Number of Democracies Globally

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/number-democracies-globally

Tags: Democracy, Politics

Airships, AI and Alan Cumming: Tim Answers Your Questions | Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

https://youtu.be/JDpzoJzDyL0?t=216

• Wizz Air ruined UK immigration statistics

Tags: Immigration

Charted: The World’s Aging Population from 1950 to 2100

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/charted-the-worlds-aging-population-1950-to-2100/

• [People aged 65+ years] is expected to hit 16% in 2050, and eventually 24% by 2100.

Tags: Demographics, Aging

Comparing Population Pyramids Around the World

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/population-pyramids-compared/

Tags: Demographics

Wikipedia had the wrong Vatican City flag for years. Now incorrect flags are everywhere

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254032/wikipedia-had-the-wrong-vatican-city-flag-for-years-now-incorrect-flags-are-everywhere

• The anonymous Wikipedia editor who changed the look of the flag in 2017 wrote that he or she did so for “color correction” purposes, noting that the Vatican’s coat of arms includes the red at the bottom of the tiara. The only problem? The Vatican’s official flag design renders the coat of arms differently, with the circular bottom of the tiara in white.

Tags: Flags, Misinformation

The Flying Train… yes this was a real idea

https://youtu.be/ZRtIRTQdKEo

• Fun idea, shame physics got in the way.

Tags: Air Travel, Innovation

I Learned 167 Skills in 3 Years, Can I Still Do Them?

https://youtu.be/DWjAeulMer0

• Impressive stuff. Some skills are pointless, sure, but still impressive. The key? Not giving up.

Tags: Skills

Geography Now! UNITED KINGDOM

https://youtu.be/_uL3a3aMdMQ

• Almost 50 minutes on our rainy rock. As usual, a good video from GN. Although I didn’t know I’m a Janner.

Tags: Geography, Geopolitics, UK

[Sliced Bread] Reusable Nappies

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001md4l

• Reusables are cheaper and greener.

Tags: Parentings

Study: Solar farms can be ‘wildlife havens’

https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4117332/study-solar-farms-wildlife-havens

• The UK’s solar farms are home to species that have found a haven living in and around ground-mounted photovoltaic panels, new research has shown.
• About half of solar farms are managed with conservation specifically in mind, such as limiting grazing to only certain times of the year and reducing herbicide use. It’s on these where wildlife can really thrive and benefit from the habitats created.
• Birds, bees, butterflies, hares - including animals on the UK’s red list of conservation concern.

Tags: Solar, Nature, Wildlife

How a floating hydrogen farm has moved China closer to clean renewable energy

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3223032/how-floating-hydrogen-farm-has-moved-china-closer-clean-renewable-energy

• Hydrogen from seawater without desalination.
• After 10 days of operating in seawater, the scientists said the system still maintained an impressive ion rejection rate of more than 99.99 per cent, producing hydrogen that was at least 99.9 pure.
• The technology costs as little as 11.2 yuan (US$1.57) per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of hydrogen – much less than the current mainstream cost of hydrogen production from natural gas, which ranges from 20 to 24 yuan per kilogram.

Tags: Hydrogen, Solar

Why Arnold Schwarzenegger Wants Us To Focus On “Pollution” Rather Than “Climate Change”

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/06/06/why-arnold-schwarzenegger-wants-us-to-focus-on-pollution-rather-than-climate-change/

• Climate change sounds subtle, warm, welcoming, whereas pollution comes with a directly and fully negative connotation — a personal one. Pollution still scares people, including people far from the battle, because we know it means early death, cancer, asthma, heart disease, and more.

Tags: Climate Change, Pollution, Branding

Hydrogen Can Make Global Heating Worse, CICERO Study Shows

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/06/11/hydrogen-can-make-global-heating-worse-cicero-study-shows/

• Hydrogen is not a greenhouse gas, but its chemical reactions in the atmosphere affect greenhouse gases like methane, ozone, and stratospheric water vapor. Therefore, emissions of hydrogen can lead to increased global warming despite its lack of direct radiative properties.
• Four main climate impacts are associated with increased hydrogen levels: (1) a longer methane lifetime and hence increased methane abundances, (2) an enhanced production of tropospheric ozone and changes in stratospheric ozone, (3) an increased stratospheric water vapor production, and (4) changes in the production of certain aerosols. The most important reaction driving these impacts is the destruction of hydrogen by OH: H2+OH→H2O+H

Tags: Hydrogen, Climate

Newly developed photocatalytic concrete could help roads clean up air pollution

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/photocatalytic-concrete-roads-air-pollution

• The team engineered concrete coated with titanium dioxide which produces molecules called reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the presence of sunlight. These are unstable molecules with one or more unpaired electrons, making them highly reactive and capable of breaking down air pollutants, especially volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and ammonia, rendering them harmless.
• The team observed levels of nitrogen oxides to drop by 18% over 24 hours. Salts formed in the concrete as a result of the reactions were washed away by rain.

Tags: Pollution, Transport, Concrete, Materials

MarinaTex - a home compostable alternative to plastic film

https://www.marinatex.co.uk/

• The material is made using 100% organic materials. The main components are sourced from the sea. This includes agar from red algae and fish processing waste. In the UK alone, 172,702 tonnes of fish waste is produced annually from land based processing.
• Initial testing with prototype material has shown MarinaTex to be as strong as, if not stronger than LDPE at a similar thickness.

Tags: Plastic, Materials, Innovation

Coca-Cola and plastic waste | DW Documentary

https://youtu.be/NVH1Wi-Wv_Y

• Maximising shareholder value nearly always ignores negative externalities.
  • Rather than sticking with glass bottles, where they paid for collection and cleaning, Coca-Cola switched to single-use plastic, so the costs can be dumped on society. They also did a study that showed plastic was far worse for the environment, but ignored it.
• Pledges are worthless.
  • Always read the small print - recyclable “where infrastructure exists”.
  • Cola Cola have pledged three times to use recycled plastic in their packaging. Every time they’ve failed - with zero consequences.
• A simple solution to recycling collection? Deposit systems. Who is lobbying against them? Cola-Cola!

Tags: Plastic, Materials, Recycling, Greenwashing

UK watchdog bans Shell, Repsol and Petronas greenwashing ads

https://www.ft.com/content/fec9e504-7006-495a-964a-ba2ded4df5ad

• The banned ads included a television promotion for Petronas, an online ad for Repsol and poster, TV and YouTube ads for Shell. These ads had “omitted material information” by promoting their “green” offers and plans, such as renewable energy and net zero goals, without any mention of their larger polluting operations, and as such were “misleading”, the ASA said.

Tags: Greenwashing, Advertising

The Fastest Rising Asset Classes in 2023

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/fastest-rising-asset-classes-in-2023/

Tags: Investing, Stocks, Stock Market

Mapped: The Growth in House Prices by Country

Tags: Housing

[The Innovation Show] Sven Smit - Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick

• If a team (is realistic and) doesn’t predict big growth after a small investment (the hockey stick) it doesn’t get funding (or, worse, gets punished for being not optimistic enough). But most predictions fail, resulting in the hairy back - no growth (flat back), only failed projections sticking up (hairs).
• Big moves/risks usually pay off, so have stretch plans/goals, and fund them well.
• Don’t only reward the successes, otherwise teams with sandbag or be demotivated.

Tags: Business, Project Management, Growth Strategy

[Founders] #117 The most inspiring autobiography I’ve read: Chung Ju-yung the Founder of Hyundai

• A real rags to riches story. He faced an insane amount of obstacles, from natural disasters to war to occupation to nationalisation.
• Believe anything is possible, be positive.
• There is plenty of time, but that doesn’t mean you can waste it. Take action.

Tags: Business, Biographies, Inspirational

[Founders] #141 Arnold Schwarzenegger: My Unbelievably True Life Story

• With enough time and effort you can learn anything.
• Everything is sales and promotion.
• Life (and work) should be fun.
• Keep the big picture in mind - don’t fight for the small things at the risk of the large.
• Don’t see only problems.
• There’s plenty of time - everyone has 24 hours a day. It’s all about using the time.

Tags: Biographies, Inspirational, Success

Mapped: The State of Economic Freedom in 2023

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/economic-freedom-map-2023/

Tags: Regulation, Entrepreneurship, Business, Politics

Wall Street has a new favourite phrase and it’s utterly nauseating

https://www.ft.com/content/f9696b26-e322-40b9-ba5c-af726a55879c?mc_cid=0f29d6a665&mc_eid=32e5251567

• “Satya, in your prepared remarks, you spoke about an increase in verticalisation of Azure. Can we double-click on that a bit more?” Gregg Moskowitz, Mizuho, on the Microsoft April 2023 call

Tags: Language

[The Art of Manliness] Magician’s Secrets for Becoming More Commanding, Convincing, And Charismatic

• Layered commands: “do A and then B” → more effective than either individually.
• Eliciting “no” - “do you mind if I xxx or…” → their brain automatically says “no(t)”.
• Not I’m “just” a blah - be/act proud of what you do.
• Take little control - e.g. rearrange table.

Tags: Psychology, Persuasion

Most EVIL Experiments in the History of Mankind

https://youtu.be/LCOmn61d8ZQ

• We all know about the Japanese Unit 731, but it seems the US isn’t much better - whilst the Japanese and Nazis did experiments during wartime on PoWs, the US did it on their own citizens during peacetime.

Tags: Medicine, Research, Unethical

Superbugs will struggle to evolve resistance to unusual new antibiotic

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2376666-superbugs-will-struggle-to-evolve-resistance-to-unusual-new-antibiotic/

• The team found it kills a range of disease-causing bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, better known as the MRSA superbug, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes TB.
• Existing antibiotics typically target the protein enzymes that assemble the cell wall, and bacteria can alter the shape of these enzymes to evade attack. Clovibactin instead targets a chemical group called a pyrophosphate that is found on not just one, but three different building blocks of cell walls. So, to survive, a bacterium would have to alter all three building blocks.

Tags: Medicine

[Sliced Bread] Outdoor Clothing

• Some very clever material science about wicking, waterproofing, breathability, and odour-control. It does seem that, in general, more expensive gear is better - especially with coats.

Tags: Materials, Clothing

The Fastest train ever built | The complete physics of it

https://youtu.be/XjwF-STGtfE

• Insanely clever. It’s basically magic.

Tags: Transport, Air Travel, Innovation

The Most Useful Numbers You’ve Never Heard Of

https://youtu.be/tRaq4aYPzCc

• Infinity is insane.
• 10-adic numbers (base 10): …857142857143 * 7 = 1, …9999999999 = -1, and n^2 = n
• p(rime)-adic numbers (base of a prime number) avoids n^2 = n

Tags: Maths

Glastonbury’s ‘biggest fan’: UK festival gets an eye-catching 28 metre wind turbine

https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/06/14/glastonburys-biggest-fan-uk-festival-gets-an-eye-catching-28-metre-wind-turbine

• “It took just two weeks to build the parts and a single day to get the turbine up and spinning. That’s how fast green energy can get done when people work together.”
• Spinning its eight-metre long blades, the turbine will generate up to 300kWh of power a day.

Tags: Wind, Renewable Energy, Festivals

How the myth of food miles hurts the planet

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/mar/23/food.ethicalliving

• The counter-intuitive discovery that air-transported green beans from Kenya could actually account for the emission of less carbon dioxide than British beans.

Tags: Food, Emissions, Logistics, Trade

Microplastics are now in the air we breathe – can we stop them?

https://interestingengineering.com/science/microplastics-in-airways

• According to the researchers, an average human might inhale 16.2 bits of microplastic every hour. So, the amount of microplastics we inhale in a week would be enough to make a plastic credit or debit card.

Tags: Microplastics, Plastic, Disease

This wafer-thin intelligent heating system warms your house in seconds

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/thin-intelligent-heating-system-warms-house-in-seconds

• A Finish-based firm has developed a novel concept of an intelligent warming wall, a digital warming surface product. You can use Halia to warm only the regions you require when you require it.

Tags: Heating, Energy Efficiency

10-Year Annualized Forecasts for Major Asset Classes

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/10-year-annualized-forecasts-for-major-asset-classes/

Tags: Investing, Stocks

[The Innovation Show] Charles Conn - The Imperfectionists

• During turbulent times, don’t aim for stability, focus on innovation. Experiment and disrupt yourself. Avoid the Risk-Aversion Tax (cost of not acting) - especially if a decision is reversible. Focus on taking small steps, not large risky jumps. Show and tell, not presentations and statistics.

Tags: Business, Innovation, Risk

[Founders] #32 Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built

• Luck - growing up in a rapidly developing country which has lots to learn/copy from more developed ones; meeting the right people (through putting himself in the right place)
• Hard working - tried and failed and tried again, put in the time.

Tags: Business, Entrepreneurship

Always the Same Warning Signs

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/always-same-warning-signs

• Another (smaller) Theranos: Laronde.
• Warning signs: Only one person can get this great stuff to work; Legitimate questions are met with stonewalling; Important data are missing or kept secret.

Tags: Scams, Business, Entrepreneurship

Why There Aren’t Diesel Motorcycles

https://youtu.be/OIQtC3gkWhc

• Bigger, heavier, more vibration, and lower revs

Tags: Motorbikes, Engines, Engineering

Why America Is Terribly Designed (Part 2)

https://youtu.be/PQfeVRjYggk

• 8 parking spaces for each car.
• 14% of the bridges are ‘functionally obsolete’.

Tags: Transport, Infrastructure

Why is @ on your computer keyboard?

https://youtu.be/MjE03a8PGko

• It started with the church!

Tags: Computing

Cursed Units

https://youtu.be/kkfIXUjkYqE

$\frac{1 litre}{100km}=\frac{10^{-3}m^{3}}{10^{5}m}=10^{-8}m^{2}=0.01mm^{2}$

$28mpg=\frac{28 miles}{1 gallon}=\frac{1 gallon}{28 miles}\approx\frac{4.5l}{45km}=\frac{4.5\times10^{-3}m^{3}}{45\times10^{5}m}=0.01mm^2$

Tags: Maths

Lotus Elise reimagined as a sporty EV that can fully charge in 6 minutes

https://electrek.co/2023/06/14/lotus-elise-reimagined-sporty-ev-6-minute-quick-charge/

• To overcome this, the company is introducing new smaller, lightweight battery tech. Nybolt claims with the EV weighing “closer to one tonne than two,” the Lotus Elise-inspired electric car will have a range of up to 155 miles (250 km).

Tags: EVs, Batteries

Life Cycle Emissions: EVs vs. Combustion Engine Vehicles

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/life-cycle-emissions-evs-vs-combustion-engine-vehicles/

• And the potential to reduce far further when the electricity production becomes sustainable.

Tags: EVs, Emissions, Carbon

Interactive: Comparing Carmaker Revenue vs. Country GDP

Tags: EVs, Economies

Cool Roof Technology Could Eliminate Billions Of Tons Of Carbon Dioxide

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/06/23/cool-roof-technology-could-eliminate-billions-of-tons-of-carbon-dioxide/

• “If all eligible urban flat roofs in the tropics and temperate regions were gradually converted to white (and sloped roofs to cool colors), they would offset the heating effect of the emission of roughly 24 gigatons of CO2, but one-time only,”

Tags: Heating, Cooling, Buildings

Can British seaweed farms bloom?

https://www.economist.com/britain/2023/06/01/can-british-seaweed-farms-bloom

• The square-kilometre site may one day yield as much as 2,000 tonnes of seaweed per year. Algapelago’s target market is agriculture; one recent study found that feeding cows seaweed reduced their methane emissions by over 80%.

Tags: Seaweed, Methane, Agriculture

What REALLY happens to ‘Recycled’ Glass?! - (you might be surprised)

https://youtu.be/LR9FtWVjk2c

• Clever technology and processes - now I know why it doesn’t matter about bottle caps and labels

Tags: Recycling, Glass

How South Korea Puts Its Food Scraps to Good Use

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/world/asia/south-korea-food-waste.html

• South Korea banned food scraps from its landfills almost 20 years ago. Here, the vast majority of it gets turned into animal feed, fertilizer and fuel for heating homes.
• Debris — bones, seeds, shells — is picked out by hand. (Dobong’s plant is one of the last in the nation where this step isn’t automated.) A conveyor belt carries the waste into a grinder, which reduces it to small pieces. Anything that isn’t easily shredded, like plastic bags, is filtered out and incinerated. Then the waste is baked and dehydrated. The moisture goes into pipes leading to a water treatment plant, where some of it is used to produce biogas. The rest is purified and discharged into a nearby stream. What’s left of the waste at the processing plant is ground into the final product: a dry, brown powder that smells like dirt. It’s a feed supplement for chickens and ducks, rich in protein and fiber, and given away to any farm that wants it.

Tags: Recycling, Food Waste

[The Innovation Show] David Cutler - The GAME of Innovation

• Problem-solving personalities: Decision-demander, researcher, negative, positive, all the ideas
• How to problem solve:

1. Green: gather
2. Purple: propose
3. Blue: boost (positive feedback)
4. Red: rip (constructive critique)
5. Orange: own (decide)

Tags: Problem Solving, Decision Making, Consulting

[Thinkers & Ideas] Magic Words with Jonah Berger

• Identity > action - be a helper > help, don’t be a cheater > don’t cheat
• Concrete vs abstract: concrete for satisfaction (money>refund, tomorrow>soon); abstract for dreams/inspiration/funding (a “solution”)

Tags: Persuasion, Communication, Language

40 Mind-Expanding Concepts (Summer 2023)

https://gurwinder.substack.com/p/40-mind-expanding-concepts-summer

• If a talent comes naturally to someone, they assume it’s nothing special, and instead try to improve at what seems difficult to them. Therefore, people often specialize in things they’re bad at.
• Kleck (1980) told his research subjects they’d engage in a study to test discrimination. He painted scars on some of their faces, and then had them attend job interviews. The participants with scars painted on their faces reported feeling discriminated against for their looks. However, unknown to them, their scars had been removed before they entered the interviews. It would seem we can be victimized by the mere belief that we’re a victim.
• How do “kind” falsehoods like “sex is a spectrum” and “obesity is healthy” go mainstream? Activists with PhDs use academic journals & scientific jargon to disguise ideology as knowledge, which is then cited as fact by the media & Wikipedia.

Tags: Mental Models, Talent, Skill, Mindset, Happiness

[The Documentary Podcast] South Korea: A room with a view

• 반지하 (half underground rooms) don’t seem nice, but you can live in Seoul for only US$250/month.

Tags: Cost of Living, Housing, Korea

[More or Less: Behind the Stats] Mortgages, birth rates and does space contribute 18% to UK GDP?

• Mortgage rates were higher in the 70s/80s, but on a lower amount (both earnings multiple and monetary value). If salary = £25,000: 12% of £50,000 (2x) = 6% of £100,000 (4x).
• South Korea birth rate = 0.78. 100 parents -> 39 children -> 15 grandchildren -> 6 great-grandchildren. Terrifyingly fast drop.

Tags: Cost of Living, Housing, Mortgages, Birth Rates, Korea, Depopulation

Countries That Changed Their Location

https://youtu.be/f4LPpvxr2FU

• Some people moved, some named after previous unrelated peoples

Tags: Geography, Ethnicity, Demographics, Travel, History, Migration

Arnold

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81317673

• I didn’t really know much about him before, but he is a truly incredible person. His mind was stronger than his body, even at his peak. I need to emulate his positivity.

Tags: Documentary, Mindset, Success

Black Mirror

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/70264888

• New season. Episodes 1 was excellent and 2 and 3 were both very good. I’ve heard Episode 4 is terrible so I’m yet to watch it.

Tags: TV, Future, Sci-Fi

The world’s most liveable cities in 2023

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/06/21/the-worlds-most-liveable-cities-in-2023

Tags: Liveability, Education, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Stability, Culture, Cost of Living, Politics, Travel

Ranked: The World’s Most Competitive Countries (2019-2023)

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/competitive-countries-rankings/

Tags: Entrepreneurship, Economy, Government, Business, Infrastructure

UK Green Business Awards: And the winner is…

https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4119130/uk-green-business-awards-winners-announced

• Behaviour Change Campaign, Circular Economy Project, Green Building Project, Green Heat Project, Recycling Project, Supply Chain and Logistics Project, Mobility Project, Marketing/Advertising Campaign, Nature-based Project, Renewable Energy Project, Communications Agency, Consultancy, Manufacturer, ESG Investor, Early-Stage Investor, Small Business, Fast Track Company, Innovation, Net Zero Strategy, Rising Star, Sustainability Leader, Politician, Leader, Company, Lifetime Achievement Award

Tags: Climate Change, Circular Economy, Heating, Recycling, Supply Chain, Logistics, Mobility, Renewable Energy, Manufacturing, Sustainability, Awards

Four non-transmission solutions for clean energy with new power lines in the permitting ‘Valley of Death’

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/transmission-clean-energy-storage-grid-enhancing-technology-dlr-distributed-resources/651567/

• Storage-as-transmission: Batteries strategically placed at congested nodes where load profiles of limited capacity lines allow energy to be stored when loads ease to offset later demand spikes.
• Grid-enhancing technologies: Dynamic Line Ratings, or DLR, can expand a transmission line’s carrying capacity in real time based on readings from sensors throughout the system. Advanced Power Flow Control moves electricity away from overloaded lines to streamline energy delivery. Topology Optimization uses multi-factor awareness to maximize a system’s carrying capacity.
• Economic overbuilding: “If transmission bottlenecks remain formidable, and if the costs of renewables and storage keep falling, overbuilding might be more economic than dealing with queue and permitting obstacles,”
• Engaging customers: Flattening customers’ peak demand during the 5% to 10% of system hours that cause reliability threats.

Tags: Energy Networks, Electricity, Transmission

Land squeeze

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/sustainable-inclusive-growth/chart-of-the-day/land-squeeze

Tags: Renewable Energy, Wind, Regulation

China is installing the world’s largest wind turbine enough to power 25,000 households

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/china-largest-wind-turbine-power-homes

• In a single revolution, the turbine can generate a whopping 34.2 kWh of electricity and 66GWh in a calendar year, enough to power 25,000 households.

Tags: Wind, Renewable Energy

Why plastic-eating enzymes are in fashion with Lululemon, Patagonia, Stella McCartney and Puma

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/why-plastic-eating-enzymes-are-fashion-lululemon-patagonia-stella-mccartney-and-puma

• “Our process can handle hard-to-recycle plastics, contaminated plastics, mixed plastics and plastics containing additives (like colors) again and again, and now textiles in a low-heat environment that is carbon neutral.”

Tags: Plastic, Recycling, Biotechnology

As plastics pile up, can ‘advanced’ recycling cut the waste?

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/plastics-pile-can-advanced-recycling-cut-waste

• Using an “advanced plastics recycling” technique called pyrolysis, post-consumer plastics delivered to the Brightmark plant are subjected to intense heat in an oxygen-starved environment until their molecules shake apart, yielding a type of oil similar to plastic’s petroleum feedstock, along with some waste byproducts.
• There’s a real lack of transparency about how much plastic they’re recycling and what their end product — pyrolysis oil — will actually be used for.
• Powell says his aim is 100 percent circularity, plastic to plastic, “and we’re going to be relentless in that pursuit.” But while the market matures and prices for recycled plastic drop, he admits that as “an interim step” some pyrolysis oil could be sold as fuel (to power airplanes, trucks and other heavy transportation).

Tags: Plastic, Recycling

Europe’s Inflation Outlook Depends on How Corporate Profits Absorb Wage Gains

https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2023/06/26/europes-inflation-outlook-depends-on-how-corporate-profits-absorb-wage-gains

• Profits (adjusted for inflation) were about 1 percent above their pre-pandemic level in the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, compensation of employees (also adjusted) was about 2 percent below trend.

Tags: Business, Economics, Profits, Wages, Inflation

Ranking Industries by Their Potential for AI Automation

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/ranking-industries-by-their-potential-for-ai-automation/

Tags: AI, Jobs, Future

xkcd: Alphabet Notes

https://xkcd.com/2794/

Tags: Language, Comic

Yorkshire grandad breaks world land speed record using his water powered motorbike invention that took 10 years to build in his shed

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/people/yorkshire-grandad-breaks-world-land-speed-record-using-his-water-powered-motorbike-invention-that-took-10-years-to-build-in-his-shed-4195154

https://youtu.be/Z4HhfdT-Uko?t=30

• ““It’s just a big bomb really, and it all started in my shed,” Mr Sykes said.”
• “The bike then turns this water to steam which thrusts it forwards
• the invention is eco-friendly and reached the speed of 163mph in 3.87 seconds over ⅛ mile.”

Tags: Motorbikes, Transport, Innovation, Invention

1,546 miles: Guinness World Record for distance traveled by a hydrogen car on a single tank

https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/guinness-world-record-hydrogen-car-distance-traveled

Tags: EVs, Hydrogen

Revealed: London’s red-hot property postcodes, and where to look for discounts

https://www.standard.co.uk/homesandproperty/property-news/london-s-property-market-heatmap-postcodes-biggest-discounts-b1090904.html

Tags: Housing, London, Cost of Living

How Luxury Cars Rip You Off

https://youtu.be/k8k5jumljRE

• Lambos have Rover and Nissan parts, Maseratis have Chrysler parts, and every hypercar uses OEM Hella lights.

Tags: Cars, Corporate Greed

[More or Less: Behind the Stats] Halving inflation, Scottish tidal power and have 1 in 3 women had an abortion?

• Remove VAT and the companies simply make more profit e.g. 5% tampon tax removed, prices dropped <1%.

Tags: Business, Corporate Greed, Tax

[Gadget Lab: Weekly Tech News from WIRED] Our Clothes Are Making Us Sick

• Nearly all clothes are bad, as are nearly all laundry detergents (in the USA). Toxins everywhere. Polys are bad. Dyes are bad. Performance/anti-X are bad. Basically, be naked all the time.
• But if you don’t experience any skin issues it may not be too bad.

Tags: Clothing, Health, Corporate Greed

[Founders] #269 Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel The Autobiography of Sam Zell

• Business is not a battle to be waged — it’s a puzzle to be solved.

Tags: Business, Autobiography, Entrepreneurship

[The Tim Ferriss Show] #680: Richard Koch — Revisiting the 80/20 Principle, The Power of Optimistic Journaling, Studying History to Improve Investing, and The Grand Beliefs of Winners

• Entertaining listen. Fun, positive guy. Founder of LEK.
• BCG had factions, Bain had a team.
• Meet the right people and be a likable person.

Tags: Business, Optimism, Consulting, Success

Every Noise at Once

https://everynoise.com/

• I never knew so many genres existed! One of the best tools I’ve discovered for finding new music. The Scan feature is particularly fun.

Tags: Music

Discover Quickly

https://discoverquickly.com/

• By the same creator as the above! Connect to your Spotify and, based on your likes and playlists, or other playlists, or even random artists/genres, discover similar music incredibly quickly. You can hover over any song to get a quick preview, so you can easily listen to dozens of tracks in a few minutes. Amazing!

Tags: Music

Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story - Arnold Schwarzenegger

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14546626-total-recall

1. Never let pride get in your way
2. Don’t overthink
3. Forget plan B
4. You can use outrageous humor to settle a score
5. The day has twenty-four hours
6. Reps, reps, reps
7. Don’t blame your parents
8. Change takes big balls
9. Take care of your body and your mind
10. Stay hungry

Tags: Biography, Autobiography, Success, Inspiration

[People Fixing the World] The power of a backstory

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fym29n

• Beautiful idea. People are not numbers, but individuals with histories, hopes, fears, and futures. Reminds me of sonder - n. the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own (https://lnkd.in/ezPZ57_Y).
• It makes sense from a business perspective too. A one-page biography improves patient care through humanisation, which both reduces costs and increases customer satisfaction. Win-win.

Tags: Wellbeing, Psychology, Healthcare, Mental Health, Aging

[The Art of Manliness] Master Microtransitions to Improve the Happiness, Success, and Flow of Your Life

• Microtransitions: The change between two tasks e.g. work and home, two dissimilar meetings. The “third space” is the physical and/or mental gap between the two.

1. Reflect - previous task: focus on positives more than negatives - what went well? - although can be a vent
2. Rest - breath, meditate, motorbike
3. Reset - next task: what do I want to happen, who do I want to be

Tags: Mindset, Attitude, Happiness

[Huberman Lab] Dr. Jeffery Goldberg: How to Improve Your Eye Health & Offset Vision Loss

• Not sure if I agree with all (e.g. they think UV is terrible and LASIK is amazing) but a load of useful information about eye care.

Tags: Eyesight, Health

[Huberman Lab] Science-Supported Tools to Accelerate Your Fitness Goals

https://hubermanlab.com/science-supported-tools-to-accelerate-your-fitness-goals/

• Zone 2 Cardio & Daily Activities
• Low Repetition Strength Training, 3 x 5 Protocol, Warm-Up Sets
• “Sugarcane” Endurance Protocol
• Exercise “Snacks”
• Cardiovascular & Muscular Endurance
• Rest Period & Physiological Sighs
• Down-Regulation Breathing & Recovery
• “The Line”
• Smartphone Use & Training
• Omega-3 Fatty Acids
• Creatine
• Rhodiola Rosea
• Training Fasted or Fed, Caffeine

Tags: Health, Exercise, Diet, Meditation

The Perfect Road for a Square Wheel and How to Design It

https://youtu.be/xGxSTzaID3k

• The maths went way over my head, but it’s pretty cool.

Tags: Maths, Science, Engineering

The rich are different: Unravelling the perceived and self-reported personality profiles of high-net-worth individuals

https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjop.12360

• Our empirical results confirm these predictions as millionaires (i.e., individuals who hold high status societal and occupational contexts) were more extraverted, open, conscientious, narcissistic, and emotionally stable (less neurotic) and had a more internal locus of control.
• High-net-worth individuals also differed in Disagreeableness and narcissistic rivalry, but these differences disappeared after controlling for demographic differences between the samples.
• The ‘entrepreneurial personality profile’ has been described by a combination of high Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness as well as lower Agreeableness and Neuroticism.
• More than 60% of our millionaire sample indicated that one of their main sources of wealth came from running their own company.

Tags: Wealth, Success, Personalities

The 50 Best One-Year Returns on the S&P 500 (1980-2022)

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/top-sp-500-stocks-by-annual-returns/

Tags: Investing, Profits

New battery-cooling technology means EV charging in under four minutes for student racing team

https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/new-battery-cooling-technology-means-four-minute-ev-charge-inmotion-racing

• The technology has enabled the student team’s InMotion racing car called Revolution with a 29.9kWh battery and a range of approximately 155 miles (250 kilometers) to be completely charged at a maximum charging power of 322 kW, topping it up in just 3 minutes and 56 seconds.
• The team developed a method to enable cooling at cell level, with coolant flowing between each cell.

Tags: EVs, Batteries

INNengine’s e-REX motor offers highly-efficient, 1-stroke engine technology

https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/innengines-e-rex-motor-1-stroke-engine-technology

• An e-REX equivalent to a traditional 2000cc engine weighs just 77 lbs (35 kg).

Tags: Engines, Engineering, Innovation

How Many Things Must One Analyst Get Wrong In Order To Proclaim A Convenient Decarbonization Minerals Shortage?

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/07/04/how-many-things-must-one-analyst-get-wrong-in-order-to-proclaim-a-convenient-decarbonization-minerals-shortage/

• Michaux first commits the primary energy fallacy, multiplying the future requirement for energy by a large percentage. As I noted recently, with heat pumps, electrified ground transportation and some more efficient industrial electric heat, the USA’s primary energy demand drops by 50%, even accounting for continued inefficiencies. Fossil fuels are deeply wasteful forms of energy.
• Broadening the grid with HVDC fundamentally drops grid storage requirements by allowing electrons to flow from where they are generated to where they are needed, and from low demand areas to high demand areas. But not in Michaux’ world.
• Michaux then assumes that the only form of energy storage is lithium ion batteries brimming with cobalt and nickel.

Tags: Climate Change, Batteries, Minerals, False Information

[The High Performance Podcast] E203 - Tessa Clarke: What YOU can do to save the world

• I’ve redownloaded the app now I’m in London and loads of people are using it!
• Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. In 2023, Earth Overshoot Day lands on August 2. In the early 1970s, it was the end of December (i.e. mostly sustainable).
• Half of food waste is in home. Food waste is responsible for 6% of global GHG emissions.

Tags: Food, Waste, Recycling, Emissions, Climate Change

This energy efficient technology turns fallen leaves into paper

https://www.releaf-paper.com/news/this-energy-efficient-technology-turns-fallen-leaves-into-paper/

• Releaf’s patented technology extracts cellulose fibres from leaves collected from urban areas rather than forests, which forms the basis of its recyclable and decomposable paper products. The specific properties of leaf fibres also enable Releaf to produce paper with a lower carbon footprint and water consumption than mainstream processes.

Tags: Paper, Recycling, Waste

Penn State’s New LionGlass Is 10X Tougher & Has Half The Carbon Emissions

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/07/05/penn-states-new-lionglass-is-10x-tougher-has-half-the-carbon-emissions/

• With LionGlass, the melting temperatures are lowered by about 300 to 400 degrees Celsius. That in turn leads to about a 30% reduction in energy consumption compared to conventional soda lime glass.

Tags: Glass, Materials, Emissions

7 cool sustainable packages to try: Edible cups, bamboo lip balm tubes and more

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/7-cool-sustainable-packages-try-edible-cups-bamboo-lip-balm-tubes-and-more

Tags: Circular Economy, Waste, Recycling, Seaweed

The sticker that helps cut food waste | World Economic Forum

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/03/sticker-helps-cut-food-waste/

• The stickers, which are the size of a 50 cent piece, use 100% natural ingredients which replicate the antimicrobial compounds that plants use to protect themselves against post-harvest diseases. Once the sticker is attached to the fruit, the chemicals spread out to create a protective layer covering the surface of the fruit and slowing the ripening process.

Tags: Food, Waste, Innovation

Mapped: Meat Consumption By Country and Type

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/mapped-meat-consumption-by-country-and-type/

Tags: Food, Meat

Water cremation will be available for the first time in the UK

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/water-cremation-will-be-available-for-the-first-time-in-the-uk

• The system is scientifically known as Alkaline Hydrolysis, which uses pressurized water and a small amount of potassium hydroxide to break down the human body gently. The deceased is enclosed in a biodegradable pouch and placed in a container. The process of breaking down the body happens inside the vessel. It takes approximately four hours, and soft bones are left as residue at the end. These are dried and then reduced to a white powder, similar to ash. The remains are then returned to relatives in a sustainable urn. There is no smoke or emissions emitted in the mechanism.

Tags: Death, Cremation, Sustainability

The Broken Economics of the Oceans

https://youtu.be/73ygHs4Kwcs

• Overfishing due to limited ability to stop - both technologically and financially.
• Deep-sea mining has few regulations - and the USA specifically chose to not join the global protection alliance (because money).

Tags: Environment, Oceans, Nature, Fishing, Food, Mining, Resources

The Insane Biology of: The Sunfish

https://youtu.be/lEj8bnx0TB0

• Swim more like penguins than fish. And unlike other fish, no swim bladder, they’re simply neutrally buoyant at all depths.
• Ectothermic, so need to keep coming to the shallows for heat (hence the name) - but they also go >1000m down for food, and drop from 20°C to 12°C. They go up and down over a dozen times a day!
• Each sunfish can have >1,000,000,000 eggs, far more than any other vertibrate. Their babies are 0.25cm, adults are 300cm.

Tags: Oceans, Nature, Fish, Evolution

Almost two-thirds of Tinder’s users are already in a relationship - and half don’t even want a date

https://news.sky.com/story/almost-two-thirds-of-tinders-users-are-already-in-a-relationship-and-half-dont-even-want-a-date-12920718?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter

• The platforms have become sources of entertainment and social connection, while providing them with the confidence boost that comes with collecting likes and matches.

Tags: Dating, Relationships, Society, Social Media, Attention Economy

Why is North up?

https://youtu.be/B14Gtm2Z_70

• Orient(ataion) comes from the word for East
• In many old societies the most important direction (often associated with “up”/the top) was East, because it’s where the sun rises.
• Ancient Egypt (and then the Arab world in general) has the South at the top because the Nile flows South to North.
• The Chinese invented the compass and said it pointed towards South. Others traditionally used the North star, so flipped it - and European global domination cemented this.
• Grid cities often have North off-up to make the maps look better (e.g. Manhattan)..

Tags: History, Geography

Can Chess, with Hexagons?

https://youtu.be/bgR3yESAEVE

• This version seems more fun than normal Chess - I’d give it a go.

Tags: Chess, Games

BMW Motorrad ConnectedRide Sunglasses

https://www.bmw-motorrad.co.uk/en/Equipment/apparel/connectedride-smartglasses.html

• They project relevant riding information, such as speed or navigation, into your field of view. Due to their slim shape, the glasses can be worn comfortably under a helmet. They come with interchangeable tinted and clear lenses and are available in two sizes.

Tags: Motorbike, Technology, Innovation

Why Dark Mode Reduces Your Productivity

https://youtu.be/9HcjlZrroAs

• Can reduce power consumption by almost 50% if OLED screen at high brightness
• Can help eyesight/eye strain if in a dark area but damage eyesight if in a bright area
• Reduces reading speed and cognitive performance

Tags: Technology, Health

How Trees Bend the Laws of Physics

https://youtu.be/BickMFHAZR0

• Negative pressure at the top of the trees sucks it up, but because there are no air bubbles, it’s not boiling.

Tags: Nature, Physics

[Sliced Bread] Mosquito Repellents

• Tested on the podcast with real mossies
• DEET, PMD (natural), Icaridin, and IR3535 are best; citronella and tea tree oil are pretty useless
• Oral antihistamines and paracetamol might help post-bite

Tags: Health, Medicine, Travel

6-Year Retrospective On Chinese Electric Cars. How Did I Do?

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/07/18/6-year-retrospective-on-chinese-electric-cars-how-did-i-do/

• Calling winners correctly: BYD, SAIC, Geely, Dongfeng, Tesla, VW
• Calling winners wrong: FAW, BAIC, Nissan, GM
• Calling losers wrong: Ford, Mercedes
• Calling losers right: Toyota, BMW, Dyson, Stellantis (then Fiat-Chrysler), BMW
• Missed them completely: Hyundai and Kia

Tags: EVs, China

Ushering in the Next Generation of Climate Technology

https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/next-generation-climate-mitigation-technologies

Tags: Sustainability, Climate Change, Opportunity, EVs, Funding

Dragonfly wings used to design lighter, stronger and ‘greener’ Boeing 777 wings

https://interestingengineering.com/science/dragonfly-wings-boeing-777-wings

• The team utilized their discoveries in practical situations by integrating designs inspired by dragonflies into a 2D extruded airframe of a Boeing 777 wing at a 1:120 scale. The team observed a remarkable increase in the structural efficiency of the wings. The dragonfly design improved the out-of-plane stiffness by 25%, indicating the possibility of developing lighter and more efficient wing designs.

Tags: Aircraft, Innovation, Nature, Materials

SpoGomi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA3qOiXxsNg

• Sport Gomihiroi (スポGOMIHIROI), lit. ‘sport picking up trash’, abbreviated to SpoGomi, is a sport invented in Japan in which teams collect garbage and litter with in a time limit and specified area. Invented in 2008, the first SpoGomi World Cup will be held in Japan in November 2023.

Tags: Waste, Recycling, Sport

2024 Trend Report

https://go.trendhunter.com/2024-trend-report

• Highest scores include Compact Gaming (9.4), Modular Grilling (9.3), AI Advertisement (9.1), Portable Appliance (9.1), AI Movie (8.8), Outdoor Fryer (8.8), Circular Pivot (8.7), and Menstrual Sanitation (8.7)

Tags: Innovation, Trends, Products

Why Men Get So Few Matches on Dating Apps

https://youtu.be/x3lypVnJ0HM

• Crunching some numbers based on the data. The median man will get 1 like and 0 matches a day; the median woman, 89 and 6. There’s no real solution except be in the top 10% of males.

Tags: Dating, Relationships, Social Media

How top performers outpace peers in sales productivity

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/how-top-performers-outpace-peers-in-sales-productivity

• Non-selling activities still consume two-thirds of the average sales team’s time. Shared services structures and automation have helped top-quartile companies shave significant costs and improve sales productivity by as much as 30 percent.
• Underperforming B2B sales teams spend a disproportionate amount of their time—more than 50 percent in some cases—serving customers that contribute 20 percent or less to the company’s revenues.

Tags: Sales

7 Japanese Concepts That Can Improve Your Life

https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/advice/7-japanese-concepts-that-can-improve-your-life/

1. Kaizen: Seeking Continuous Improvement
2. Ikigai: Finding Your Purpose
3. Oubaitori: Avoiding Comparison to Others
4. Wabi-Sabi: Embracing Imperfection
5. Hara Hachi Bu: Eating Until You’re 80% Full
6. Shikata Ga Nai: Accepting What You Cannot Change
7. Shinrin-Yoku: Forest Bathing

Tags: Life, Japan

Gen Z Are Freezing Their Eggs. Why?

https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvj7nz/why-gen-z-are-freezing-eggs

• Patients are required to inject themselves with a hormonal medication of gonadotropins twice a day, with the aim of encouraging follicle growth to stimulate as many eggs as possible. This can lead to overstimulation of the ovaries, otherwise known as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), which occurs in five percent of IVF and egg freezing cycles.
• The procedure also carries mental health risks as a by-product of the influx of hormones it requires.
• Prices range from £2,720 to £3,920 for an egg freezing cycle.
• A 2018 study from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in the U.K. found that the use of a patients’ own frozen eggs resulted in a live birth only 18 percent of the time per cycle.

Tags: Reproduction, Fertility, Relationships, Family

A few things to know before stealing my 914

https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/a-few-things-to-know-before-you-steal-my-914/

• Depress the clutch as you would in any car, and pull the knob from its secure location out of first gear. Now you will become adrift in the zone known to early Porsche owners as “Neverland” and your quest will be to find second gear. Prepare yourself for a ten-second-or-so adventure. Do not go straight forward with the shift knob, as you will only find Reverse waiting there to mock you with a shriek of high-speed gear teeth machining themselves into round cylinders. Should you hear this noise, retreat immediately to the only easy spot to find in this transmission: neutral. This is a safe place, no real damage can occur here, but alas, no forward motion will happen either. From this harbor of peace, you can re-attempt to find second, but you may just want to go for any “port in a storm”, given that the traffic behind you is now cheering you on in your quest with vigorous horn-honks of support and encouragement.

Tags: Cars, Security

Making Renewable, Infinitely Recyclable Plastics Using Bacteria

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/07/27/making-renewable-infinitely-recyclable-plastics-using-bacteria/

• Researchers engineered E. coli to turn sugar from plants into the raw materials for biorenewable plastics. Those biorenewable plastics are called PDKs, a new type of plastic that can be efficiently recycled over and over again.

Tags: Plastic, Recycling, Biotechnology, Bacteria

Butterfly flight inspires researchers to explore new ways to create force and electricity

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/butterfly-flight-new-ways-to-create-force-and-electricity

• “We’ve demonstrated that even after being extracted from natural sources, chitinous polymers retain their natural ability to link different forces, molecular organization, and water content to generate mechanical movement and produce electricity without the need for an external power source or control system,”

Tags: Bioengineering, Nature, Electricity

How ancient ‘skywells’ are keeping Chinese homes cool

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230712-how-ancient-skywells-are-keeping-chinese-homes-cool

• A skywell, or “tian jing” (天井) in Mandarin, is a typical feature of a traditional home in southern and eastern China. Different from a northern Chinese courtyard, or “yuan zi” (院子), a skywell is smaller and less exposed to the outdoor environment.
• Studies have found that the temperatures inside some of the skywells in southern China are significantly lower than the outside – by up to 4.3C.
• When wind blows above a skywell house, it can enter the indoor space through the opening. Because outdoor air is often cooler than indoor air, the incoming breeze travels down the walls to the lower stories and create airflows by replacing warmer indoor air, which rises and leaves through the opening.
• Even when there is no natural wind, air circulation still takes place inside a skywell home due to the “chimney effect”. The temperature difference between the top and bottom of the skywell means warm air inside the skywell rises, drawing cooler air from the rooms to the bottom of the skywell.
• Some skyscrapers use the ventilation principle of skywells to improve airflows without building a courtyard out of concerns of practicality. The 68-storey Dongguan TBA Tower in Guandong province, for example, brings natural airflows to every floor with internal “windpipes” that function in a similar way to skywells.

Tags: Cooling, Heating, Climate Adaption

ClientEarth Impact in 2023

https://youtu.be/1hPWWpzC3DE

• This year we have launched 24 new cases and have a total of 120 legal actions under way.

Tags: Climate, Law

Ranked: The Top Economies in the World (1980‒2075)

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/top-economies-in-the-world-1980-2075/

Tags: Economies, Geopolitics, Future, Predictions

Ranked: The Top 100 Brands by Value in 2023

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/top-100-brand-value-2023/

Tags: Business, Companies

[Acquired] Nike

• They guessed the market size was $1bn, which helped them get investment. In reality it was $100m. But they made it >$10bn.
• If you believe in something it’s easy to sell

Tags: Business, Entrepreneurship, Market Sizing, Sales

How to do great work

http://paulgraham.com/greatwork.html

• Four steps: choose a field, learn enough to get to the frontier, notice gaps, explore promising ones.
• The work you choose needs to have three qualities: it has to be something you have a natural aptitude for, that you have a deep interest in, and that offers scope to do great work.
• The three most powerful motives are curiosity, delight, and the desire to do something impressive.
• Curiosity is the key to all four steps in doing great work: it will choose the field for you, get you to the frontier, cause you to notice the gaps in it, and drive you to explore them.
• The key: consistency. People who do great things don’t get a lot done every day. They get something done, rather than nothing.
• The factors in doing great work are factors in the literal, mathematical sense, and they are: ability, interest, effort, and luck. Luck by definition you can’t do anything about, so we can ignore that. And we can assume effort, if you do in fact want to do great work. So the problem boils down to ability and interest. Can you find a kind of work where your ability and interest will combine to yield an explosion of new ideas?
• When in doubt, optimize for interestingness.
• When you read biographies of people who’ve done great work, it’s remarkable how much luck is involved. They discover what to work on as a result of a chance meeting, or by reading a book they happen to pick up. So you need to make yourself a big target for luck, and the way to do that is to be curious. Try lots of things, meet lots of people, read lots of books, ask lots of questions.
• Take as much risk as you can afford. In an efficient market, risk is proportionate to reward, so don’t look for certainty, but for a bet with high expected value. If you’re not failing occasionally, you’re probably being too conservative.
• The right strategy is not to plan too much. At each stage do whatever seems most interesting and gives you the best options for the future.
• By letting your mind wander a little, you’ll often solve problems you were unable to solve by frontal attack.
• When you let your mind wander, it wanders to whatever you care about most at that moment. So avoid the kind of distraction that pushes your work out of the top spot, or you’ll waste this valuable type of thinking on the distraction instead.
• It will probably be harder to start working than to keep working. You’ll often have to trick yourself to get over that initial threshold. It’s ok to lie to yourself about how much work a project will entail, for example. Lots of great things began with someone saying “How hard could it be?”
• You have to be comfortable enough with the world being full of puzzles that you’re willing to see them, but not so comfortable that you don’t want to solve them.
• People new to a field will often copy existing work. There’s nothing inherently bad about that.
• The features that are easiest to imitate are the most likely to be the flaws.
• One of the most powerful kinds of copying is to copy something from one field into another.

Tags: Life, Career, Success

[The James Altucher Show] The Ultimate Guide to Making Good Decisions

• To feed a discussion, ask a question, don’t give an opinion.
• When negotiating, always have more things (e.g. money, benefits, location) so you have more to offer/”sacrifice” to the other
• Happiness = expectations divided by reality → set realistic goals
• Creativity
  • Idea sex - Harry Potter x Friends
  • Substitutions - Harry Potter but mutant not wizard

Tags: Decision Making, Negotiation, Happiness, Creativity

Could You Be in One of These 8 Psychological Traps?

https://www.clearerthinking.org/post/could-you-be-in-one-of-these-8-psychological-traps

• Belief Traps: pits of belief
  • (1) Truman Show → you’re normalised to the negative experience so you don’t see it for what it is
  • (2) Mirage → you think you’re inadequate and so trying to succeed will result in failure
  • (3) Inevitability → you think even if you succeed you’ll fail again and be back to square one, so there’s no point trying
• Social Traps: pits caused by social dynamics
  • (4) Prison of Solidarity → you hold yourself back by “caring” for others
  • (5) Coerced Confinement → someone else holds you back through guilt, threats, etc
• Avoidance & Desire Traps: pits of fear, pain and pleasure
  • (6) Toothless Tiger → you’re afraid of failing and looking stupid
  • (7) Barbed Wire Barrier → success will require a temporary pain you don’t want to deal with
  • (8) Addiction → the negative experience has some positive side-effects that overcome your willpower to succeed

Tags: Psychology, Mindset, Attitude, Cognitive Biases, Logical Fallacies, Success, Meditations, Reflections

8 Life-Changing Questions To Ask Yourself

https://www.clearerthinking.org/post/8-life-changing-questions-to-ask-yourself

1. What in life gets you excited?
2. What would you say is the greatest accomplishment of your life so far?
3. What was the most significant turning point in your life, and how did that experience change you?
4. What’s one of the best days you’ve had in your entire life?
5. In your opinion, what is the purpose or meaning of life?
6. What has kept you hopeful in life’s most challenging moments?
7. Imagine receiving a message from a version of yourself five years later. What warnings would these give you, and what advice would they offer about how best to achieve your goals?
8. What valuable things have you learned, or what practical takeaways have you gotten from answering these questions?

Tags: Meditations, Reflections, Life

The Pathologization Pandemic

https://gurwinder.substack.com/p/the-pathologization-pandemic

• Women are almost twice as likely as men to report having long Covid, while transgender people are significantly more likely to do so than everyone else.

• A study of nearly two million people published in Nature found that people who reported three or more symptoms of long Covid included 4% of people with no evidence of having had Covid.

• One study found that people prone to anxiety and depression before Covid infection were 45% more likely to develop long Covid after infection, and the Nature study found that having anxiety and depression before Covid infection almost doubled the chance of reporting long Covid after infection.

• A much likelier explanation is that, since the symptoms of mood disorders overlap with those of long Covid, people are mistaking distress for the side-effects of viral infection.

• The group that’s disproportionately reporting gender dysphoria — adolescent girls — is the same demographic as the group deemed in the German study to be disproportionately at risk of long Covid.

• Increases have occurred for major depressive disorder, attention-deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and various eating disorders. It seems young people and their doctors are increasingly viewing personal issues as medical disorders — we are facing a “pathologization pandemic.”

• Most people, however, are happy to have their personal failings blamed on medical issues, because it absolves them of responsibility. It’s not your fault you violently lashed out, you have trauma. It’s not your fault you lack energy, you have long Covid. It’s not your fault you hate the way you look, you have gender dysphoria.

• The number of pregnancies deemed to require caesarean sections has gradually increased because this method of delivering babies is more profitable. Likewise, if you’re simply sad then medical companies can’t monetize you, but if your distress is reclassified as, say, gender dysphoria, those companies can sell you puberty blockers or surgical procedures.

• Research shows conservatives tend to have an internal locus of control, which means they believe that their decisions, as opposed to external forces, control their destiny. Liberals, meanwhile, tend to have an external locus, which means they believe their lives are determined by forces beyond their control.

  

• The polar opposite of pathologization is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Although referred to as therapy, it’s closer to a form of mental training. Based on the Ancient Greek philosophy of Stoicism, it teaches a lesson the West has all but forgotten: that our feelings are not always valid, but often deluded and self-destructive. It trains people to overcome harmful emotions by reframing harmful thoughts into alternatives that are more agentic and soluble. So, “That made me angry” becomes “I reacted to that by getting angry.” And “Life sucks” becomes “I feel like life sucks right now.” Where pathologization places problems outside your control, CBT places them within your control. Where pathologization bundles many small issues into one giant insurmountable problem, CBT breaks down giant problems into small manageable pieces.

Tags: Disease, COVID, Mental Health, Depression, Anxiety

Burning Sun - BBC Sounds

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p04sj2pt

• The incredibly messed-up story of how k-pop idols drugged and raped dozens of (or more) women and shared videos of their “conquests”.

Tags: Crime, Korea

South Korean POWs abandoned for decades in North Korea

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-66312530?utm_source=pocket_saves

• Digging for coal, day after day, for more than 50 years was excruciating work, but it was the spectre of injury and death that Mr Lee says was the hardest to bear. One day his hand got caught in a coal processing machine, but the loss of his fingers seemed minor, as he witnessed various friends be killed in a series of methane gas explosions. “We gave our entire youths to that coal mine, waiting for and fearing a meaningless death at any moment,” he says. “I missed home so much, especially my family. Even animals, when they are nearing death, go back to their caves.”
• The North, after releasing just 8,000 prisoners, has refused to acknowledge that any more exist. Three days after his only son was killed in a mine accident, with his wife long dead, Mr Lee embarked on his journey. Now aged 77, he secretly waded across the river into China, the water up to his neck. He is one of 80 prisoners to have escaped and made it home to South Korea, with only 13 of the escapees still alive. The remaining tens of thousands of prisoners were left to perish in the mines. Few, if any, are still alive - though their children remain.
• [In South Korea] The prisoners of war (POWs) who never made it home are marked as missing, assumed dead, and are not honoured as war heroes. “The children of the POWs in North Korea suffered from the pain of guilt by association, and yet here in South Korea we are not acknowledged. We want to be given the same respect that the families of other fallen veterans receive,” she said.

Tags: War, Korea, North Korea

xkcd: Bad Map Projection: ABS(Longitude)

https://xkcd.com/2807/

Tags: Maps, Geography, Comics

Crinkle Crankle Calculus

https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2019/11/19/crinkle-crankle-calculus/

• A crinkle crankle wall, also called a serpentine wall, is a wavy wall that may seem to sacrifice some efficiency for aesthetics. The curves add visual interest, but they use more material than a straight wall. Except they don’t! They use more bricks than a straight wall of the same thickness but they don’t have to be as thick.

Tags: Design, Maths, Construction

Trend Compendium 2050: Six megatrends will shape the next decades

https://www.rolandberger.com/en/Insights/Global-Topics/Trend-Compendium/

1. People & Society → Population – Migration – Education & Labor – Values
2. Politics & Governance → Global Risks – Geopolitics – Future of Democracy
3. Environment & Resources → Climate Change & Pollution – Biodiversity – Resources & Raw Materials
4. Economics & Business → Global Trade & Value Chains – Power Shifts – Energy Transformation – Debt Challenge
5. Technology & Innovation → Value of Innovation – Frontier Technologies – Humans & Machines
6. Health & Care → Global Health Challenges – Healthcare of the Future – Caregiving

Tags: Trends, Future

National Risk Register 2023

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-risk-register-2023

Tags: Risks, Future, Geopolitics, Threats

[My First Million] My 6-Step Process To Find +$1,000,000 Business Ideas

• Business Ideation
  • Process
    1. Find problems
    2. Size of demand
    3. Current leaders
    4. Leader weaknesses
    5. Business models
    6. Problems to solve
  • Links
    • ideationbootcamp.co
    • similarweb.com (for traffic/demand levels/patterns)
    • annualreports.com (for insights/trends, weakness)
    • gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house
    • trends.co
• Be interesting and build community
  • Consume as if you were to write a report and remember one interesting fact (a hook) from each piece of media etc you consume - something you can retell
  • Have a passion to talk about (even if obscure)
  • “Why do you think that?”
  • Strong opinions loosely held - but be able to clearly explain why you have that opinion and research to have supporting evidence
  • Host events to invite people to - e.g. business book club, hustle convention

Tags: Business, Entrepreneurship, Market Research, Personal Development, Social, Networking, Consumption, Relationships

The Top Performing S&P 500 Sectors Over the Business Cycle

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-top-performing-sp-500-sectors-over-the-business-cycle/

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S%26P_500_companies

See also: https://wikitable2csv.ggor.de/ (Wikipedia table to CSV for analysis)

Tags: Business, Investing, Economic Cycles

Top 5 Crazy Innovations for Reusing Waste

https://youtu.be/895ixEFT3X8

• Fertiliser from NUFs (night soil), batteries from beer or wastewater, glue from bark, and plastic from food waste

Tags: Reuse, Innovation, Sustainability, Batteries, Agriculture, Plastic, Waste

Why E-Bikes, EVs and Laptops Are Catching Fire

https://www.wsj.com/articles/lithium-ion-batteries-fire-explained-1e5cbe9c

• A wonderful little animation.

Tags: Batteries, Safety, EVs

MIT engineers developed a new type of concrete that can store energy

https://www.fastcompany.com/90930786/mit-engineers-developed-a-new-type-of-concrete-that-can-store-energy

• MIT engineers developed the new energy storage technology—a new type of concrete—based on two ancient materials: cement, which has been used for thousands of years, and carbon black, a black powder used as ink for the Dead Sea Scrolls around 2,000 years ago.

Tags: Batteries, Energy Storage, Concrete

These moisture-sucking materials could transform air conditioning

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/07/26/1076731/materials-air-conditioning/

• A stream of air passes through a channel and over a thin layer of desiccant, which pulls moisture out of the air. Next, the now-dry air goes through an evaporative cooling step, which lowers the temperature of the air (basically the same way sweat cools your skin). In the evaporative cooling step, the air is split into two streams. One runs past a thin layer of water, which absorbs energy and drops the air’s temperature. That cooler, humid air is used to cool a metal surface, which in turn sucks heat out of the other stream of still-dry air. The humid air gets funneled outside, and the cool, dry air is blown into the building. The company’s approach should be able to cut annual electricity use by a total of between 50% and 80% compared with a conventional air conditioning system, depending on the environment.
• A desiccant cooling system needs a section that can regenerate the desiccant, releasing the water into another stream of air that in turn is released outside. Blue Frontier instead uses a heat pump to regenerate its desiccant. The heat pump adds energy demand, but while the cooling system can run continuously during a hot summer day, the regeneration system can run in the evening or overnight, when there’s less stress on the grid and electricity prices are lower. Offsetting the regeneration will mean that Blue Frontier’s system could help reduce peak power demand by between 80% and 90%.

Tags: Cooling

What is the best clothing to keep you cool?

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230802-what-is-the-best-clothing-to-keep-you-cool

• The Bedouin’s secret is wearing loose-fitting black clothing, especially if it’s windy. The loose black clothes heat up the space between the fabric and the skin, promoting an upward air current – like a chimney – and providing cooling relief. The amount of heat gained by a Bedouin exposed to the hot desert is the same whether he wears a black or a white robe.
• If you are going to be wearing tight-fitting clothing, then stick with white.
• Fabrics with texture – such as seersucker or pique, a fabric often used in sports polo shirts – also help to lift clothing off your skin, rather than staying snug and tight-fitting.
• In dry heat, wicking alone may be enough because the sweat will be absorbed from your body and evaporate in the heat. When it’s humid and hot, the air around you is already saturated with water vapour, meaning the sweat your clothes just soaked up doesn’t have anywhere to go.
• Cotton and polyester absorb and reflect the majority of the infrared that hits them – nearly 99% – meaning they often appaer white in infrared images. But these materials also allow 30-40% of visible light through. This combination can cause the body to warm up faster than it otherwise would.
• Cotton absorbs moisture but it doesn’t dry quickly. Linen has excellent breathability, but like cotton it is slow to dry.
• Merino wool is breathable and wicks moisture without retaining odour.
• Nylon and polyester wick moisture and dry quickly – but they retain odour. Nylon has a higher moisture absorption and better wicking capabilities than polyester, but is slower to dry.
• Bamboo, which is a low conductor of heat, and doesn’t compromise on comfort.
• The key is a material that’s opaque to visible light – reflects and doesn’t absorb sunlight – but transparent in the infrared – allowing heat to leave the body rather than trapping between the material and the skin
• Perhaps, the best way to stay cool in the heat when it comes to clothing is actually just wearing wet clothes. Water needs heat energy to evaporate, and as it makes this transition from a liquid to a gas, it uses the heat coming from your body, cooling your skin and lowering your body temperature.

Tags: Clothing, Cooling

The Plan to Build an Island Using Only Electricity

https://youtu.be/6ZsNdf8s6nY

• Pretty cool concept. Using an electric current generated by solar PV to cause minerals within seawater to amass on a metal rod (similar to a how a battery works), from which corals will grow and build a structure upon which (eventually) a city could be built and humans could live.

Tags: Electricity, Oceans, Future, Innovation, Science Fiction

Greenhushing, explained: Why companies have stopped talking about their climate pledges

https://grist.org/language/greenhushing-climate-pledges-greenwashing-lawsuits/

• Nearly a quarter of large companies from around the globe have decided not to publicize their milestones on climate action, according to a report from South Pole last fall.
• Keeping quiet makes it hard to scrutinize what companies are doing, and also makes it more difficult for them to learn from one another’s mistakes.
• Companies may be unsure about how to comply with this legislation and are afraid of being sued: they therefore give up talking about their targets altogether.

Tags: Greenwashing, Climate, Advertising, PR, Propaganda

Revealed: Fossil Fuel Giants Are Using British Influencers to go Viral

https://www.desmog.com/2023/07/27/fossil-fuel-oil-gas-giants-shell-bp-using-british-influencers-to-go-viral/

• DeSmog analysed examples of more than 100 influencers being paid to promote fossil fuel firms worldwide since 2017, from the US to Malaysia, in campaigns that have reached billions of people.
• Our analysis uncovered promotional material from two PR firms representing Shell, boasting of the success of their online advertising. One of the PR companies claimed that content fronted by UK inventor Colin Furze reached nearly a billion people, while another claimed that a campaign with explorer Robert Swan OBE made Shell’s audience “31 percent more likely to believe” that the oil company is “committed to cleaner fuels”.
• In 2022, a Harvard University paper found that a “green innovation” narrative was one of the key social media tactics deployed by fossil fuel companies. Analysing 2,325 social media posts from 22 major European polluters, the report found that 72 percent of posts from oil and gas firms tried to emphasise their spending on green technology. As the study also pointed out, however, these firms invested just 1.7 percent of their annual capital expenditures in low carbon technologies between 2010 and 2018.

Tags: Greenwashing, Climate, Advertising, PR, Propaganda, Social Media

Charted: America’s Import Reliance of Key Minerals

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-americas-import-reliance-of-key-minerals/

Tags: Resources, Trade, Geopolitics, Supply Chain

Visualizing the World’s Space Debris by Country Responsible

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/space-debris-by-country/

Tags: Space, Waste

[The Jordan Harbinger Show] 871: Julian Walker | How Conspiracy Theories Make Society Sick

• Conspiracies are like religions - they can give disenfranchised, scared people purpose, reason, community, feelings of power and superiority, and rituals.
• Often the conspiracy targets those you already dislike, e.g. natural health advocates blame pharma companies, anarchists blame the government, luddites blame technology.
• Sometimes it’s just profiteering - create a community and it’s easier to sell. This is especially true when your other income stream has been shut down (e.g. COVID shutting down yoga studios).

Tags: Conspiracies

The 17 Secrets to a Successful Relationship

https://youtu.be/ak4j5pVHDGg

1. Pick someone you feel profoundly grateful ever decided to look your way. Start from a sense that you are the lucky one - and that they are superior (the truth is irrelevant).
2. Make sure you fancy them. Check out that you have compatible areas of perversion - and little interest being normal in bed.
3. Allow yourselves both to admit, from an early stage, that you are ‘mad’; heavily distorted by your pasts, unable to understand yourselves, prone to irrational assumptions - and unsteady in your assessments of reality.
4. Make apology the most regular of occurrences. Say sorry about everything all the time and reduce the price of an admission to almost zero.
5. Remove all pride from your character. You were an idiot then, you are an idiot now, you will be an idiot tomorrow. There’s no other option for a human being. Make jokes.
6. Regularly explore how you have disappointed one another. Let them sometimes hate you and you them. Don’t be frightened by anger moderately expressed. The enemy of love is stifled emotion, not maturely explored authenticity. Listen very carefully when they tell you how they feel.
7. Never describe them categorically as this or that (insulting trait). Only ever say: I feel you are this or that… Observe the difference.
8. Get good at sensing the fear beneath your angry moods, then express the fear gently rather than acting out the anger.
9. Reduce expectations of perfection. It’s going to get horrible at times. Allow for major frustrations. You will want to kill them and they you. Don’t.
10. Accept you will have crushes on others. Let them wash over you - and, if the mood is right, share them with the partner.
11. If there are children, recognise that love will suffer hugely. Look forward to properly picking up the baton again in 15 years.
12. Become the sort of person who has no embarrassment about being ‘needy.’ Accept the child in you and look after their needs in the relationship.
13. Read up about attachment theory - and keep the concepts close at hand.
14. Stop being defensive; stop needing to maintain a proud hold on your own dignity. Laugh continually at your foolishness - and apologise for it.
15. Accept that they can’t save you from your own disturbances. Try to be happy in yourself and if you are not, don’t redirect the blame. Observe how often your rocky patches are projected versions of your own life crises. Get a therapist.
16. Don’t expect everything from love.
17. Be very prepared (though reluctant) to leave. Remain out of choice, never desperation.

Tags: Relationships, Dating, Love

[The Art of Manliness] The Most Insightful Personality Test

• Motive, not personality
• Red (power), blue (intimacy), white (peace), yellow (fun)
• Seems similar to the 4 animals personality test
• I also skim-read the book - I think it’s a lot more useful to go through all the different strengths/weaknesses/traits etc (of which I found ~200 for each colour) and reflect on which you are and which you want to work on.

Tags: Personalities, Personal Development, Reflection

TU/e students develop zero emissions car that actually captures CO₂ from the air as it drives

https://www.tue.nl/en/news-and-events/news-overview/21-07-2022-tue-students-develop-zero-emissions-car-that-actually-captures-co2-from-the-air-as-it-drives

• The car can capture 2 kilograms of CO₂ through a special filter at 20,000 travel miles per year. This means that ten cars can store as much carbon dioxide as an average tree. There are more than a billion passenger cars driving around the world

Tags: EVs, CCUS, Sustainability

U.S. Department of Energy Releases 2023 Critical Materials Assessment to Evaluate Supply Chain Security for Clean Energy Technologies

https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/us-department-energy-releases-2023-critical-materials-assessment-evaluate-supply

Tags: Materials, Minerals, Sustainability, Supply Chain, Scarcity

New photoreactor technology could pave the way to a carbon-neutral future, researchers say

https://www.utoronto.ca/news/new-photoreactor-technology-could-pave-way-carbon-neutral-future-researchers-say

• The innovative design allows the photoreactor to capture photons at high efficiency under varying sun directions, eliminating the need for sun-tracking. The panels are also manufacturable via extrusion of polymers, making them inexpensive and easily manufacturable at scale – all of which could help make a sustainable future more affordable and practical.

Tags: Solar, Renewable Energy, Innovation

Enabling renewable energy with battery energy storage systems

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/enabling-renewable-energy-with-battery-energy-storage-systems

Tags: Batteries, Energy Storage, Value Chain

Creating food out of thin air

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/creating-food-out-thin-air

• “Our process is very similar to growing plants,” said Lisa Dyson, founder of Air Protein. “But instead of a multicellular organism, like a plant, [it creates] a single celled organism in a matter of hours. We’re essentially feeding the elements that make up that protein molecule to the organism, and the organism reshuffles everything to make that protein.”

Tags: Food, Agriculture, CO2

The Era of Ultracheap Stuff Is Under Threat

https://www.wsj.com/articles/asia-factories-consumer-goods-labor-prices-7140ab98

• Asia, the world’s factory floor and the source of much of the stuff Americans buy, is running into a big problem: Its young people, by and large, don’t want to work in factories.
• “Everybody wants to be an Instagrammer or a photographer or a stylist or work at a coffee shop,” he said.
• In 2001, Nike reported that more than 80% of its factory workers were in Asia, and that the typical one was 22, single and raised on a farm. Today, Nike’s average worker in China is 40, and in Vietnam, 31, in part because Asian countries are aging rapidly.

Tags: Trade, Prices, Outsourcing, Supply Chain, Manufacturing

Visualizing the Global Population by Water Security Levels

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/global-water-security/

• A barrier to Chinese/Indian growth/domination?

Tags: Water, Scarcity, Resources, India, China

Are you a growth leader? The seven beliefs and behaviors that growth leaders share

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/are-you-a-growth-leader-the-seven-beliefs-and-behaviors-that-growth-leaders-share

1. I am all in: 50% more likely to treat growth as the first or second item on the agenda when speaking to the board
2. I am willing to fail: 70% more likely to make multiple long-term growth bets rather than just a few
3. I know my customer as a person, not as a data point: 70% more likely to build an understanding of customers’ needs through formal and informal methods (ethnography, surveys, in-store visits, etc)
4. I favor action over perfection:
5. I fight for growth: 60% more likely to have a clear multiyear mandate to pursue growth initiatives
6. I have a growth story I tell all the time: 70% more likely to ensure that every employee understands the growth strategy and what it means for them
7. I give control to others: 40% more likely to have explicit incentives to reward risk taking in their teams

Tags: Business, Leadership, Growth

Auditory illusions with examples from Daft Punk

https://www.ugu.rs/blog/auditory-illusions-with-samples-from-daft-punk/

• How does the guitar in Robot Rock speak? Because it definitely does.

Tags: Music, Sound, Perception, Psychology, Acoustics

The Darkest Truths About Life

https://youtu.be/JWMKDzABGuA

1. There is something deeply wrong with you
2. You will never be understood by anyone
3. You will never fully know yourself
4. Nothing is what it seems
5. So much of life is chance
6. Happiness will never come
7. You will be replaced
8. You will be forgotten
9. No real story ends well
10. In all likelihood, when your story ends, it is the end

Tags: Mental Health, Psychology

Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2023

https://www.weforum.org/reports/top-10-emerging-technologies-of-2023/

1. Flexible batteries
2. Generative artificial intelligence
3. Sustainable aviation fuel
4. Designer phages
5. Metaverse for mental health
6. Wearable plant sensors
7. Spatial omics
8. Flexible neural electronics
9. Sustainable computing
10. AI-facilitated healthcare

Tags: Innovation, Future, Technology, Batteries, AI, Air Travel, Medicine, Healthcare, Agriculture

How Do We Inventory the Materials Needed To Build Wind and Solar Farms?

https://www.nrel.gov/news/program/2023/how-do-we-inventory-the-materials-needed-to-build-wind-and-solar-farms.html

Tags: Renewable Energy, Wind, Solar, Resources, Materials

Australian company secures $700,000 deal for carbon capture and storage machine

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/02/australian-company-secures-700000-deal-for-carbon-capture-and-storage-machine

https://www.aspiradac.com/

• A sponge-like material developed at the University of Sydney holds on to CO2 molecules as air passes through it. Fans draw air into canisters containing the sponges, and then heat is used to extract the pure CO2 that can be pumped and stored underground. All power comes from the solar panels that cover the units like an A-frame tent.

Tags: CCUS, Solar

The farmers boosting crops with electricity

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230816-the-farmers-boosting-crops-with-electricity

• In his experiments, Volkov saw increases in harvest of 20-75%, depending on the plant. Treating seeds in plasma for less than a minute led to a 40% increase in potato harvests. “One cabbage farm let us experiment, to get statistics,” says Volkov. “We increased cabbage production by 75%. It also tasted better.” The flavour, he said, was sweeter.

Tags: Farming, Food, Agriculture

[The Jordan Harbinger Show] 875: Jonathan Kennedy | How Pathogens Have Shaped Our World

• Viral DNA possibly gave us the ability the remember (by changing our brains) and give birth to live young (by changing our autoimmune response)
• The Plague of Cyprian possibly caused the popularity of Christianity through the ideas of suffering (disease) and good deeds (helping those who are sick) in this life being rewarded in afterlife.
• The Black Death caused capitalism by reducing labour supply and increasing land supply, therefore increasing peasant power versus the nobility.
• Smallpox (and others) conquered Latin America, not the Spanish. Given how deadly the diseases was, the natives believed it was due to the enemy’s god, which is why Christianity is so pervasive to this day in LatAm.

Tags: Disease, Evolution, Religion

F1 Animated! The 2023 Season So Far

https://youtu.be/Uh-3nInCTVE

Tags: Sports, Motorsport, F1, Funny

Biggest Little Farm

• Take a step back and watch the process, see the connections and cycles. Don’t try to control everything; see unexpected positive externalities.
  • Cow poop breeds flies → chicken food
  • Trees encourage snails → duck food
• Regenerative farming handles droughts better

Tags: Agriculture, Farming, Sustainability

If you’ve noticed the quantity of these links are reducing, it’s in part because, since a few weeks ago, I attempt to share one link publicly on in LinkedIn profile, and I don’t usually double-up here. These links can be seen here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamgib/recent-activity/all/. I’m also trying to reduce my consumption in general.

A Sustainable Solution: Compostable Wind Turbine Blades

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/08/24/a-sustainable-solution-compostable-wind-turbine-blades/

• La Saponara envisions a compostable wind turbine blade built with woven bamboo, mycelium and biomass from the agricultural waste from California’s Central Valley in place of fiberglass and balsa wood.

Tags: Wind, Materials, Composting, Mycelium

How To Be Successful

https://blog.samaltman.com/how-to-be-successful

1. Compound yourself
2. Have almost too much self-belief
3. Learn to think independently → “I will fail many times, and I will be really right once”
4. Get good at “sales”
5. Make it easy to take risks
6. Focus
7. Work hard
8. Be bold
9. Be willful
10. Be hard to compete with
11. Build a network
12. You get rich by owning things
13. Be internally driven

Tags: Success, Mindset, Entrepreneurship

Musk’s Razor Explained: “The most entertaining outcome is the most likely.”

https://blockbuster.thoughtleader.school/p/musks-razor-explained-the-most-entertaining

• Social institutions start out more or less as games that only later become serious and even deadly. Science began as a series of riddling contests, religion as joyful collective celebrations, military institutions as ceremonial combat, economic systems as festive reciprocal exchanges. Originally, Huizinga believes, people came together to have a good time, and only later developed rules to make the game more lasting and interesting. Eventually the rules became binding, and people were forced to obey them.
• “What the smartest people do on the weekend is what everyone else will do during the week in ten years.” “The next big thing will start out looking like a toy.”

Tags: Fun, Entertainment

How to sabotage your salary negotiations efforts before you even start

https://interviewing.io/blog/sabotage-salary-negotiation-before-even-start

• Third party recruiters are incentivized to get the deal done, not to risk the deal by negotiating hard for you.
• [Internal recruiters are] incentivized, first and foremost, to follow the rules their head of department sets for them. This is true for how they evaluate candidates, who they let through, and how they read resumes. And it’s definitely true for how they negotiate.
• Specifically, do not share with recruiters anything about your salary history, your salary expectations, where else you’re interviewing, and how far along in the process you are with other companies. In short, don’t share any information about money or other interviews. Do not say a number first — ever.
• One exception to revealing information is this: Sometimes it can be useful to give your recruiter a rough estimate for when you’ll be collecting offers, e.g., “I’ve just started interviewing. I expect to get through all my interviews and onsites in the next 6 weeks and start collecting offers 2 months from now. Does that timeline work for you?”
• If the recruiter is making an offer, do not react to what you’re being told beyond expressing enthusiasm. Say that you need some time to process and/or talk to your {family, partner, spouse}.
• For questions about comp expectations at the beginning of the process: At this point, I don’t feel equipped to throw out a number because I’d like to find out more about the opportunity first – right now, I simply don’t have the data to be able to say something concrete. If you end up making me an offer, I would be more than happy to iterate on it if needed and figure out something that works. I promise not to accept other offers until I have a chance to discuss them with you.
• For questions about comp expectations at the end of the process: It sounds like there’s an offer coming, and I’m really excited about it. I’m not sure exactly what number I’m looking for, but if you’d be able to share what an offer package might look like, then I will gladly iterate on it with you if needed and figure out something that works. I promise not to accept other offers until I have a chance to discuss them with you.
• For questions about where else you’re interviewing at the beginning of the process: I’m currently speaking with a few other companies and am at various stages with them. I’ll let you know if I get to the point where I have an exploding offer, and I promise not to accept other offers until I have a chance to discuss them with you.
• For questions about where else you’re interviewing at the end of the process: I’m wrapping things up with a few companies and in process with a few more. I promise to keep you in the loop, and I promise not to accept other offers until I have a chance to discuss them with you.

Tags: Jobs, Interviews, Negotiation

Visualizing the Future Global Economy by GDP in 2050

Tags: Future, Economies, Geopolitics, Predictions

Visualizing All of China’s Trade Partners

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/china-trade-partners/

Tags: China, Trade, Geopolitics

The Power of the Third Space: How to Set Yourself up for Success for the Next Thing in Life

https://www.artofmanliness.com/career-wealth/career/the-power-of-the-third-space-how-to-set-yourself-up-for-success-for-the-next-thing-in-life/

Reflect

• One of the main goals is to make sure whatever negative experiences or emotions you experienced in your First Space don’t carry over into your Second Space.
• What went well in my previous task or role?
• What did I achieve during that time?
• How did I improve or learn from that experience?

Rest

• Deep breathing
• Mindfulness meditation
• Physical exercise

Reset

• Define intent
• Visualise success
• Adapt to the situation

Tags: Mindset

How London’s West End Streets Got Their Names

https://londonist.substack.com/p/how-londons-west-end-streets-got

• St Martin-in-the-Fields: St Martin’s is London’s most central church, mere metres from the official centre of Charing Cross. Yet it was not always thus. Braun and Hogenberg’s map of London shows the church to be on the very edge of the then-village of Charing, with open fields immediately north, where today you’d find the London Coliseum, the Chandos, and, um, Pret.
• Tottenham Court Road: Curiously, the names of Tottenham in north London and Tottenham Court Road are not thought to be related.

Tags: London, Travel

SA’s liver-born baby is a ‘medical miracle’

https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/sas-liver-born-baby-is-a-medical-miracle-106819

• Usually, the egg is fertilised in the Fallopian tube and then moves down into the uterus. But sometimes the fertilised egg travels the wrong way, falls out of the fallopian tube and disappears.
• In Nhlahla’s case, the fertilised egg had nestled on the surface of the liver, a rich source of blood, then grew into the liver, complete with placenta, amniotic sac and amniotic fluid to keep the baby safe.

Tags: Medicine, Amazing, Babies

[Modern Wisdom] #674 - Adam Lane Smith - 17 Ugly Psychology Truths No One Wants To Admit

https://youtu.be/wOvSVmx_F-c

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1676925337194704897.html

• Should Women Have Sex on the First Date?
• People Who Are Obsessed with Politics are Messy & Unhappy
• The Danger of Avoiding Uncomfortable Conversations
• How Our Relationships Are Being Systematically Destroyed
• Both Men & Women Hate the Dating Scene
• The Key to Protecting Your Marriage from Divorce
• Why Men Are Demonised in Marriage Therapy
• The Disadvantages of Sending Your Baby to Daycare
• Most Men Don’t Understand Female Communication
• The Difference in Perspectives of Past Romantic History
• Do Men Want Respect More Than Love?
• The World Doesn’t Want Men to Have Any Power
• If You Love Your Children, You’d Let them See Your Separated Partner
• Why Nice Guys Finish Last

Tags: Relationships, Dating, Mental Health, Therapy, Psychology

[Founders] #318 Alistair Urquhart

• This guy must have lived one of the hardest human existences of the last 100 years, if not the last 1000. Incredible.

Tags: Mental Fortitude, War

Why You Are Probably An NPC

https://gurwinder.substack.com/p/why-you-are-probably-an-npc

1. The Conformist → but common wisdom can be wrong, and experts can have vested interests
2. The Contrarian → mindset: the mainstream is wrong, therefore the anti-mainstream must be right
3. The Disciple → a Contrarian, overwhelmed by the quantity of fringe theories, follows a leader, to reduce cognitive load
4. The Tribalist → believe everything on their side, disbelieve and blame the other side
5. The Averager → hedging beliefs and intelligence-signalling

• The solution is to divide issues into tertiary, secondary, and primary.
  • Tertiary issues are those you don’t need to care about: the overwhelming majority of things.
  • Secondary issues are things that interest you, but which you don’t need to get exactly right.
  • Primary issues are the ones you care about most, the ones you’re determined to get right.

Tags: Mindset, Tribalism, Politics

China’s blueprint for an alternative world order

https://www.ft.com/content/8ac52fe7-e9db-48a8-b2f0-7305ab53f4c3

• In the case of Cambodia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe — all of which owe hefty debts to China — their voting alignment with China in the assembly registered at 80 per cent or above, according to the research. “On average, a 10 per cent increase in voting alignment with China in the UN General Assembly yields a 276 per cent increase in aid and credit from Beijing,”
• In October last year, the UN Human Rights Council voted down a western-led motion to hold a debate on China’s human rights abuses after a cohort of developing countries backed Beijing. The council has 47 members, of whom 19 voted against the motion, 17 for and 11 abstained. It was only the second time in the council’s 16-year history that a motion had been rejected. It came just weeks after a finding by the UN Office of the High Commission for Human Rights that “serious human rights violations” had been committed by Beijing against Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, a region in north-west China. Following that victory, China then enlisted 66 countries — most of them recipients of Chinese lending under the BRI — to support a statement at the UN praising its human rights record. Its signatories outnumbered the 50 mostly western countries that endorsed a rival statement which condemned China.

Tags: China, Geopolitics

Did People Used To Look Older?

https://youtu.be/vjqt8T3tJIE

• Yes! Due to worse healthcare, nutrition, etc. But also no! It’s just old fashions.
• Also: people change their appearance to match their names, and certain facial features are correlated with names

Tags: Anthropology, People, History, Aging

3D-Printed “Living Material” Could Clean Up Contaminated Water

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/09/06/3d-printed-living-material-could-clean-up-contaminated-water/

• Dubbed an “engineered living material,” it is a 3D-printed structure made of a seaweed-based polymer combined with bacteria that have been genetically engineered to produce an enzyme that transforms various organic pollutants into benign molecules. The bacteria were also engineered to self-destruct in the presence of a molecule called theophylline, which is often found in tea and chocolate. This offers a way to eliminate them after they have done their job.

Tags: Innovation, Pollution, Seaweed, Bacterial

‘Swikini’ and self-cleaning path among UK inventions in 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/03/swikini-and-self-cleaning-path-among-uk-inventions-in-2022

• These included a cricket training aid in the shape of a batsman, a pair of tongs for perfectly piercing shisha foil, a bed covering with less insulation over the genital area to encourage male fertility, an oven with an automatic tray, a urine collection system for fighter pilots, and a wearable device that helps monitor and manage Parkinson’s tremors.
• The figures also give an insight into the UK’s most innovative companies. Dyson led the list, with 234 patents registered, including several for its Dyson Zone air purification headphones. It was followed by IBM (174), Jaguar Land Rover (158) and Imagination Technologies Ltd (94).

Tags: Innovation, Invention, Startups, Entrepreneurship, Business

Bees that are trained to detect bombs

https://interestingengineering.com/ie-originals/ie-explainer/season-4/ep-11-bees-that-are-trained-to-detect-bombs

• [The bees] are introduced to the scent of explosive vapors, accompanied by a reward of sugary water. Over time, the bees form a remarkable association between the explosive scent and this sweet reward, showcasing their remarkable Proboscis Extension Reflex (PER), which becomes the primary indicator of their detection capabilities. To harness this unique ability, researchers employ two distinct methods, one involving cameras and computer algorithms and the other utilizing an infrared LED system to gauge proboscis extension.

Tags:

Visualized: How Much Metal is Used in Clean Energy Technology?

Tags: Renewable Energy, Resources, Metals

[The James Altucher Show] How to Pivot Your Life Multiple Times | Bruce Feiler

• Go to a book store, which areas interest you most?
• What did you love when you were 12? Why?

Tags: Career, Passion

Why the electric vehicle battery race needs a recycling revolution

https://www.ft.com/content/73138e84-701a-4e75-9ca8-7725d0867eb5

• One model is to have the battery manufacturer, carmaker or a third party own the battery throughout its life. A battery manufacturer could lease the battery to a carmaker, then a consumer, and then reuse or recycle it after it can no longer power a vehicle.
• A battery no longer suitable for use in a vehicle still has the potential to be used for other purposes, ranging from lighting streets and homes to powering appliances or offering energy storage.

Tags: EVs, Batteries, Recycling, Circular Economy

Why the UK’s tax system is broken

https://youtu.be/hjpXjV5WHjQ

• The UK’s tax system is broken due to its lack of progressivity, neutrality, and effectiveness. It focuses on income rather than wealth, resulting in poorer people paying more taxes. Wealth taxes are not implemented effectively, and the council tax is not truly progressive. The system discourages productive work and encourages non-productive wealth accumulation. The income tax system is complicated, with numerous exemptions and complications. The value-added tax (VAT) regime is overly complex. Overall, the UK’s tax system fails to address wealth inequality and is not conducive to economic growth. A potential for change lies with an incoming Labour government.

Tags: Tax, UK

Math Magic

https://youtu.be/ObiqJzfyACM

• Most of the video is (as the title suggests) magic tricks that work through simple maths. But the Shakespeare in the Bible coincidence was the bit that was most shocking.

Tags: Maths

[The Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey] Your Home Is Making You Sick: Biohack Your Living Space with Toxin Testing - Ryan Blaser : 1082

• Key things to be aware of: Mould, EMFs (WiFi, induction), air fresheners, lighting (LED flickering, colour temperature), sound
• Airtight is energy efficient but encourages mould growth. Air filters can help.
• Clean doesn’t have a smell. Fragrances are often toxic. Musty often means mouldy.
• https://www.happyhome5.com/

Tags: Health, Home, Cleaning, Mould, EMFs, Lighting, LEDs, Energy Efficiency

30 days on how mushrooms can save the planet

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nathanpaumier_bees-are-disappearing-at-a-concerning-rate-activity-7099359535181508608-AbHu

Tags: Mushrooms, Fungi, Mycelium, Sustainability

True-zero emissions cement gets ASTM approval

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/true-zero-emissions-cement-gets-astm-approval

• Roughly half of this pollution comes from burning fossil fuels to heat an oven, known as a kiln, to extremely high temperatures. The other half is generated by a chemical reaction that occurs within the limestone, a core ingredient in traditional cement, inside this hot kiln. Sublime’s technology eliminates both of these sources of pollution. The company employs a specialized electrical process capable of creating cement from certain types of rocks and industrial waste without releasing any harmful emissions or requiring the use of fossil fuels.

Tags: Concrete, Emissions

Insane Benefits of Ocean Farming

https://youtu.be/G4kbsM4vmFc

• 3D ocean farming: high yield, little freshwater consumption, positive environmental impact, low cost

Tags: Oceans, Agriculture, Seafood, Food, Environment, Sustainability, Carbon Storage

The GENIUS Rule-Bending of the Volvo 850 Estate Touring Car!

https://youtu.be/0BfEs5fSxWM

• Race the rulebook, not the competition. Changing valve and port angles, using larger camshafts and valves, and optimizing airflow.

Tags: Cars, Motorsport, Innovation, Creativity

[Modern Wisdom] #683 - Shaan Puri - 7 Semi-Controversial Rules For Success

• Always have a “Honey, I’m home!” attitude, for everything
• Enthusiasm → belief → action → results
• Good stories: intention, obstacle, stakes
• Is something stupid/wasteful/unethical, or are you just jealous? e.g. personal chef

Tags: Attitude, Mindset, Success, Storytelling, Communication

Tiny Baby Stoat Has The Best Reaction When She Meets Someone Like Her | The Dodo Little But Fierce

https://youtu.be/2HFSaxIsJCE

• Adorable

Tags: Animals

The Barbi-Ken Line? The Ickeypoo Line? What If All Tubes Were Named Like Bakerloo?

https://londonist.com/london/transport/bakerloo-other-tube-lines

• Tags: London, Transport, Fun, Etymology

The City Street With FOUR Names

https://londonist.com/london/secret/sermon-lane-peters-hill

• Tags: London, Etymology

Mapped: Most Searched-For Electric Vehicles by Country

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/most-searched-electric-vehicles-by-country/

Tags: EVs

Material Would Allow Users to ‘Tune’ Windows to Block Targeted Wavelengths of Light

https://news.ncsu.edu/2023/09/new-material-for-dynamic-windows/

• Researchers have demonstrated a material for windows which would allow building occupants to switch their windows between three modes: transparent, or “normal” windows; windows that block infrared light, helping to keep a building cool; and tinted windows that control glare while maintaining the view.
• To this point, most dynamic windows were either clear or dark.

Tags: Heating, Cooling, Housing

A new coating cools your house and warms it up when needed

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/coating-that-works-in-winters-summers

Tags: Heating, Cooling, Housing

Spider silk is spun by silkworms for the first time, offering a green alternative to synthetic fibers

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1001587

• Spider silk [has] exceptionally high mechanical performance. This type of fiber can be utilized as surgical sutures, addressing a global demand exceeding 300 million procedures annually. The [..] fibers could also be used to create more comfortable garments and innovative types of bulletproof vests, and they may have applications in smart materials, the military, aerospace technology, and biomedical engineering.
• Mi and his team introduced spider silk protein genes into the DNA of silkworms so that it would be expressed in their glands using a combination of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology and hundreds of thousands of microinjections into fertilized silkworm eggs.

Tags: Materials, Nature

How Medellin is beating the heat with green corridors

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230922-how-medellin-is-beating-the-heat-with-green-corridors

• The idea was to connect green spaces in the city together through avenues and streets surrounded by trees and shade.
• Initially the project involved planting some 120,000 individual plants and 12,500 trees on roads and in parks, with 2.5 million new smaller plants and 880,000 trees planted across the city by 2021.
• The initial investment to establish the project cost a total of $16.3m (£13.2m) and annual maintenance cost $625,000 (£504,000) in 2022, according to the local government.
• A 2021 study co-authored by Correa identified Mangifera indica as the best among six plant species found in Medellin at both absorbing PM2.5 and surviving in polluted regions, due to its “biochemical and biological mechanisms”.
• No overall study or review has looked at how much the green corridors project has reduced air pollution yet.
• “The reduction in temperature, in some zones by more than 3C (5.4F), was bigger than we were expecting,”
• “We also saw the return of animals that had not been seen here for many years.”

Tags: Climate Change, Cooling, Urban Design, Cities

Noise-canceling robots to ‘mute’ loud conversations in cafe

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/noise-canceling-robots-to-mute-loud-conversations-in-cafe

• The seven robotic microphones, each about an inch in diameter, will be linked to a central charging station. The robots can autonomously place themselves at various tables.
• If I have one microphone a foot away from me and another two feet away, my voice will arrive at the microphone that’s a foot away first. If someone else is closer to the microphone that’s two feet away, their voice will arrive there first. We developed neural networks that use these time-delayed signals to separate what each person is saying and track their positions in a space. So you can have four people having two conversations and isolate any of the four voices and locate each of the voices in a room.
• [The] microphones strategically placed near loud individuals can emit sound waves with an opposite phase (referred to as “anti-noise”) to effectively neutralize or cancel out the noise.

Tags: Innovation, Noise, Sound

The drawing advice that changed my life

https://youtu.be/M6NsEDwHHiE

• Don’t be scattered. Do the same thing every day. Repetition. If nothing else, it gets the ball rolling, removes the friction to starting.

Tags: Learning, Art, Skills, Drawing

In Search of Greatness

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8236398/

• Don’t specialise too early - explore first
• Unstructured play (i.e. not following the rules)
• Learn implicitly - it shouldn’t feel like learning/studying (e.g. kids and languages)
• Repetition and drilling - but it should be done for fun
• Successful people question the rules and don’t follow ones they disagree with - coaches and teachers dislike them
• Rage to master + ability to learn quickly

Tags: Success, Learning, Mastery, Skills

Ranked: The World’s Top 10 Automotive Exporters (2000-2022)

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-worlds-top-10-automotive-exporters-2000-2022/

Tags: Cars, EVs, Trade

How Did Gogoro Go From Stealth Startup To Global Battery-Swapping Leader in Just Over A Decade?

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/09/29/how-did-gogoro-go-from-stealth-startup-to-global-battery-swapping-leader-in-just-over-a-decade/

• One factor that no doubt played a role in shaping Gogoro’s approach to strategy is the fact that the company’s CEO, Horace Luke, spent a formative decade of his career as a creative director at Microsoft. Helping to launch new products including Xbox and Windows XP, he learned how to build an ecosystem of manufacturers, distributors, and retailers centered around a shared platform, rather than a proprietary product.
• First, Gogoro developed a standard specification for swappable batteries that could be used in its own vehicles and in those produced by other manufacturers.
• Second, Gogoro implemented new business models aligned to the systems transformation it aimed to deliver. One of these was a customer-facing battery-as-a-service business model for vehicle owners that provides convenient access to Gogoro’s network of battery-swapping stations. A second was the GoShare model, offering instant access to shareable electric two-wheelers.
• The third component of Gogoro’s approach is its physical battery-swapping platform, which uses big data, AI, and machine learning to connect an entire ecosystem of smart vehicles, energy, and services for its users.

Tags: EVs, Motorbikes, Growth, Strategy

Tire Dust Makes Up the Majority of Ocean Microplastics, Study Finds

https://www.thedrive.com/news/tire-dust-makes-up-the-majority-of-ocean-microplastics-study-finds

• A report from the Pew Charitable Trust found that 78 percent of ocean microplastics are from synthetic tire rubber.
• Emissions Analytics found that a single car’s four tires collectively release 1 trillion “ultrafine” particles for every single kilometer (0.6 miles) driven. These particles, under 100 nanometers in size, are so tiny that they can pass directly through the lungs and into the blood. They can even cross the body’s blood-brain barrier.

Tags: Cars, Motorbikes, EVs, Tyres, Pollution

Are plastic-eating worms the solution to plastic waste?

https://interestingengineering.com/ie-originals/ie-explainer/season-4/ep-22-are-plastic-eating-worms-the-solution-to-plastic-waste

• Styrofoam, one of the most notorious pollutants, undergoes a remarkable transformation in the presence of these tiny creatures. After just one week of digestion, what was once considered non-degradable waste is reduced to a fraction of its former self.

Tags: Plastic, Nature, Mealworms, Insects

A Revelation About Trees Is Messing With Climate Calculations

https://www.wired.com/story/a-revelation-about-trees-is-messing-with-climate-calculations/

• Trees emit natural volatiles like isoprene and monoterpenes, which can spark cloud-forming chemical reactions.

Tags: Trees, Nature, Clouds, Rain, Climate

[Huberman Lab] Chris Voss: How to Succeed at Hard Conversations

• Give bad news quickly and directly without padding, and start with a warning.
• Do go to sleep angry. Discuss in the morning when you’re calm.
• Try and arouse positive feelings in every small interaction:
  • What do you love about?
  • It seems like you’re having a tough time today (label emotions)
• Repeat last words instead of “I don’t understand” or “what do you mean?” or “tell me more”.

Tags: Persuasion, Communication, Empathy

[Modern Wisdom] #688 - Steven Bartlett - 17 Raw Lessons About Human Nature

• Where can I get paid more for the same work? Work for people/companies with more money - you are worth a percentage of the value you create for them.

Tags: Business, Sales

[The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett] E235: The Man That Makes Millionaires: How To Turn $1,000 Into $100 Million!: Alex Hormozi

• Fear and insecurity is the most forceful motivator.
• Repetition. Do more practise sets than anyone else. Attempt more sales than anyone else.
• Happiness comes after expertise is obtained.

Tags: Business, Entrepreneurship, Happiness, Expertise, Learning, Motivation

Overchoice and How to Avoid it

https://gurwinder.substack.com/p/overchoice-and-how-to-avoid-it

1. Uphill Decisions: “If you can’t decide between two equally difficult choices, take the path that’s more difficult/painful in the short term.”
2. The Two-Minute Rule: “If a task will take less than two minutes, it should be done at the moment it’s defined.”
3. Solomon’s Paradox: “If you can’t decide, pretend you’re deciding for a friend.”
4. The Hesitation Heuristic: “If you can’t decide, the answer is no.”
5. Regret Minimization: “The opinion you should care about most is your future self’s.”

Tags: Decision Making

A boy saw 17 doctors over 3 years for chronic pain. ChatGPT found the diagnosis

https://www.today.com/health/mom-chatgpt-diagnosis-pain-rcna101843

• No matter how many doctors the family saw, the specialists would only address their individual areas of expertise.

Tags: Medicine, Health, AI

I’ve been away for the last few weeks, hence this is a combined post

[The Tim Ferriss Show] #698: Dr. Mark Plotkin on Coffee, The World’s Favorite Stimulant

• Fascinating history of coffee

Tags: Coffee, History

[Business Daily] Meets: Andre Schwammlein

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct4mpp

• Didn’t know what he wanted to do when he started, just looked for an opportunity

Tags: Business, Entrepreneurship, Travel

[My First Million] Scott Galloway Tells All - $100M Net Worth, $4 Trillion Business Opp & Career Advice

https://www.mfmpod.com/scott-galloway-tells-all-100m-net-worth-4-trillion-business-opp-career-advice/

• Get rich with no credentials: Seller-financed boomer businesses
• Get rich with credentials: Go work for a big company

Tags: Business, Entrepreneurship

[HARDtalk] Aiden Aslin: Captured, tortured and swapped by Russia

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct4p3m

Tags: War

3MM: Body Positivity, Birth Control & Beliefs - Chris Williamson

• TLDR: Female support for body positivity is at least in-part fuelled deep down by female intrasexual competition, which pushes other women out of the dating pool by discouraging them from losing weight.
• A recent study published in Personality and Individual Differences found that women who are high in intrasexual competitiveness are more likely to advise women who they perceive as a potential mating threat to cut off more hair, potentially in an attempt to sabotage their attractiveness.

Tags: Feminism, Gender, Competition

there’dn’t’ve

https://youtu.be/CkZyZFa5qO0

Tags: English, Language

The Funniest Things You’ve Heard Tube Drivers Say - Vol. 4

https://londonist.com/london/transport/tube-drivers-say-funny-things

• “This train is terminating here because… it’s scared of the dark”
• “The next station is London City Airport. Change here for…[bored sigh]… basically everywhere”

Tags: London, Funny

Medicines Made From Plants

https://sciencenotes.org/medicines-made-from-plants/

• Over 100 drugs/chemicals and their plant source.

Tags: Medicine, Nature

Food Matching: the Right Food for Different Constitutions

https://kmedi.ddm.go.kr/qr/eng/matching.php

https://kmedi.ddm.go.kr/qr/eng/taeyang.php

Tags: Korean Medicine, Food

Liebreich: ‘Oil sector is lobbying for inefficient hydrogen cars because it wants to delay electrification’

https://www.rechargenews.com/energy-transition/liebreich-oil-sector-is-lobbying-for-inefficient-hydrogen-cars-because-it-wants-to-delay-electrification-/2-1-1033226

• “If you’re an oil and gas company, in a way, talking about hydrogen is kind of a two-way bet because if it works, then you’re embedded in the hydrogen industry — but if it doesn’t work, you’ve delayed the transition to the thing you don’t make, which is electricity,”
• Liebreich gives an example of Shell being happy to spend $12bn on a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) platform, the Prelude, which has seen a host of problems, “but they won’t spend $12bn just producing blue, green, pink, or any other sort of clean hydrogen for those [existing] uses where we currently are driving 3-4% of global emissions”.
• “Okay, so you’ve saved 45 minutes [refilling a hydrogen car at a fuelling station vs recharging an electric car]. The rest of the year, you’re back at home and back to your boring commute, and you’re driving your 20 miles a day. Well, every time you do 300 miles, you have to go to a hydrogen filling station [unlike a BEV that you can charge at home]. So 40 times a year, you have to waste 10 minutes and maybe more driving to a hydrogen filling station. That’s 400 minutes and you’ve saved yourself 45 minutes on the, maybe, two to five times that you actually drive to your cottage or to the Alps, or wherever. So even on the time spent, on an annual basis, it’s not a win, it’s a big loss for most people.”

Tags: Sustainability, Hydrogen, Oil and Gas, Lobbying, Corruption

BRB w/ Nathan P – Microbial Suncreens

https://nathanpaumier.substack.com/p/brb-w-nathan-p-microbial-suncreens

• Oxybenzone is harmful to humans and deadly to corals and phytoplankton. It is still found in 2/3 of sunscreens tested by the EWG in 2019.
• Many microorganisms, fungi, algae, and corals protect themselves from the sun using highly effective molecules called mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs). Commercial sunscreens featuring MAAs are already in market, like MiBelle’s Helioguard 365.

Tags: Health, Environment, Chemicals

How interdependent are two economies?

https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/global-trade-explorer-how-interdependent-are-two-economies

Tags: Trade, China

Ranked: The World’s Most Sustainable Economies in 2023

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/ranked-the-worlds-most-sustainable-economies-in-2023/

Tags: Economics, Societies, Environment

A brave seabird’s 11 hour, 712-mile-long journey through a typhoon

https://interestingengineering.com/science/a-brave-seabirds-11-hour-712-mile-long-journey-through-a-typhoon

• The bird usually flies at a speed of 6.2- 37 mph (10-60 kph), but around the typhoon, the movement speed captured by the GPS was between 55-105 mph (90 to 170 kph). This probably means that the bird’s speed was affected as it may have been caught in the eye of the storm.
• The bird was found to be soaring at an altitude of 2.9 miles (4,700 meters) versus its usual altitude between 0.3 and 1.8 miles (600 and 3,000 meters).
• The bird returned to the sea around the same time as the typhoon, covering a circle of 712 miles (1,146 km) over 11 hours.

Tags: Weather, Nature, Birds

Sunblocks provide a false sense of security leading to more cancers

https://interestingengineering.com/science/sunblocks-provide-a-false-sense-of-security-leading-to-more-cancers

• [An] investigation of the UK Biobank revealed that sunscreen use was linked to a more than twofold increase in the chance of acquiring skin cancer.

Tags: Chemicals, Health

Cutting Plastic Lids - The Good Cup

https://time.com/collection/best-inventions-2023/6324097/choose-planet-as-the-good-cup/

https://thegoodcup.world/

• Choose Planet A’s the Good Cup is glued together with a water-based coating, called aqueous, that makes it leak-proof, recyclable (up to seven times), and even biodegradable. “If you throw it in the water or the forest,” Choose Planet A’s co-founder and managing director Cyril Drouet says, “it will biodegrade and disappear.” The cup also has a foldable paper lid, cutting the need for a plastic top.

Tags: Recycling, Paper, Plastic, Coffee

Niron Magnetics Clean Earth Magnet

https://time.com/collection/best-inventions-2023/6326957/niron-magnetics-clean-earth-magnet/

https://www.nironmagnetics.com/

• Demand for the rare-earth magnets that help power EVs and wind turbines is skyrocketing. But rare-earth mining decimates ecosystems. Minnesota-based Niron Magnetics’ Clean Earth Magnet is made from iron and nitrogen, both abundant and affordable materials, eliminating the need for rare-earth mining. Niron’s magnets are also stronger than their rare-earth counterparts.

Tags: Sustainability, Materials, Mining

BHOUT

https://www.bhout.com/

Tags: Fitness, Health, Sport, Boxing

A Primer on Circadian Rhythms

https://biolayne.com/articles/research/primer-circadian-rhythms/

1. Sleep 7-9-hours a night.
2. Light
   1. Mornings: Aim to get 30mins outdoor natural light exposure. If you live in a region of the world with dark winter mornings, use a blue-light box or sunrise lamp for 15-30mins within an hour of waking
   2. Evenings: The key is minimizing light intensity and blue-light exposure. The lowest hanging fruit is as follows:
      1. Use soft side lighting and keep rooms lowly lit.
      2. Use F.lux on your laptop.
      3. Make your bedroom a tech-free zone, and keep it blacked out during sleep.
      4. Turn off intense blue-lighting – like TV’s – around an hour before bed.
      5. Wear blue-light blocking glasses.
3. Food
   1. Be consistent with regular meal timing: don’t have erratic eating patterns.
   2. Breakfast (high fat low carb) like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper for fat loss. Consume your largest daily calorie meal earlier in the day, i.e. before 3pm.
   3. Provide your body with distinct feed/fast cycles (TRF/IF) that align with your daily wake/sleep and active/inactive cycles.

Tags: Health, Diet, Sleep

I made an F1 ELO Engine. Who’s highest rated?

https://youtu.be/U16a8tdrbII

• Alonso, Fangio, Button, Max Verstappen, Ascari

Tags: Sport, Motorsport, F1

Gore-Tex is a Marketing Gimmick

https://youtu.be/GGEzJJYiROk

• Waterproof OR breathable, not both at the same time

Tags: Motorbikes, Clothing, Marketing

I Trapped 200 Scammers in an Impossible Maze

https://youtu.be/dWzz3NeDz3E

• Hilarious. >1400 hours of scammer time wasted.

Tags: Scams, Revenge

Wind Farms Have a DARK Secret - Here’s How we FIX It

https://youtu.be/Udf8ZJFvPeQ`

• Time-insensitive compute tasks when renewable energy supply is higher than general energy demand to avoid curtailment.

Tags: Energy, Computing, AI, Energy Storage

1 YEAR (in 30 minutes) RENOVATING an OLD LONDON VICTORIAN TERRACED HOUSE into DREAM HOME

https://youtu.be/mklfkLlV6ec

• £1,000,000 for a delipidated terrace house in London. But the renovation is incredible!

Tags: London, Housing, Construction, Renovation

[My First Million] How I’ve Sold $1 Billion In Products Online (A Marketing Masterclass)

https://youtu.be/5N9rNShYI_g

1. Make it about them - focus on benefits
2. Make it an event - nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd
3. Powerful demonstration - USE PHYSICS!
4. Show unquestionable proof - use experts like doctors or influencers
5. Change a daily behaviour - like adding MCT oil to your coffee (bulletproof coffee)
6. Sell the dream - Nike makes you believe you can jump like Michael Jordan
7. Help them rebel - stick it to “the man”

Tags: Sales, Business

[My First Million] My $0 to $1 Million Guide - How I Would Start Over in 2024

1. Learn (10 years)
   1. Prioritise learning and networking over money
   2. Change jobs/careers every ~18 months to maximise learning
   3. Find your edge
      1. Shared: young and eager, small and helpless; lots of free time; nothing to lose
      2. Personal: unique combination (2-3) of skills/interests - find, or decide and create
   4. Surround yourself with similar people (motivation, dreams)
      1. Share learnings and support
      2. You can see others not much different from you succeeding
      3. Can be a start-up or a company
      4. Often involves physically moving cities
   5. Work on the A+ problem
      1. Whatever role you’re in, investigate to find the real A+ problem (or a way to make a big difference), come up with potential solutions, then pitch management (even CEO) to work on it full time (also good for networking/becoming known)
   6. Create luck
      1. Do more - create (good) content (which forces you to think and learn) and share it
   7. Start a service agency company
      1. Aim for 10 customers paying £10k/mo (B2B) (or 25x4 → £100k) → take a cut of their new profits
      2. Look on Upwork/Fiverr etc for existing ones that you could do myself or you could cheaply hire people to do e.g. web dev, marketing
2. Earn
   1. Invest in yourself, not stocks etc
      1. Buy back time (e.g. housekeeper, chef)
      2. Knowledge (books, groups, members clubs)
      3. Leave money on table (e.g. say no to bad clients)
3. Legacy

• Earn money and develop skills before trying to make impact

Tags: Business, Entrepreneurship, Wealth

Animation: Stock Market vs. GDP Share, by Country (1900-2022)

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/stock-market-and-gdp-shares/

• Japan’s share of the global stock market grew from less than 1% in 1950 to 40% by 1988.

Tags: Stock Markets, Economics, Globalisation, Investing

Charted: The Number of North Korean Defectors (1998-2023)

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/north-korean-defectors-escape-routes/

Tags: North Korea

How to Buy a Business for $0 in a Week

https://youtu.be/3Gy33tFXmJE

• Which small businesses do you spend money at where you can meet the owner?
• How could I add value (i.e. help them)? → “What’s your biggest challenge?”
  • Sales and marketing
  • Financing and accounting
  • Operations and IT
  • Distribution and logistics
  • Customer service
  • Product
• Sweat equity deal: Take cut of increased profits

Tags: Business, Entrepreneurship

Why did a dog in Newmarket end up nursing a litter of kittens?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-67331308

Tags: Nature, Animals, Cats, Dogs, Love, Parenting

[Think Fast, Talk Smart: Communication Techniques] Communication Means Paying Attention: The Four Pillars of Active Listening

• RACA
  • Receive: maintain eye contact, angle body towards speaker
  • Appreciate: mhm, nods
  • Summarise: “so what I understood is…”, “so what we’ve agreed is…”
  • Ask: open questions
• Read the room/audience and adjust your tone, vocab, attitude, etc

Tags: Communication

From £2m to £200m: how to scale a people business

https://www.netincome.co/p/from-2m-to-200m-how-to-scale-a-people

• In 2022 Baringa had 114 partners, sharing profit of £185m. That’s an average of £1.6m per partner.
• Like clockwork, this consulting business generates around 40% operating margins, every year. Profit per employee is steady, between £85k and £109k per year.
• This isn’t one business: it’s a federation. A franchise model. Each partner is running their own small business, under the Baringa brand.
• Each time, they’ve followed the same playbook: find who has built their expertise, relationships and reputation at another firm, and wants to do something entrepreneurial — and poach them.
• Baringa built their climate change model to help them better serve clients. Over time, that model became a significant asset in itself — so much so they could sell it, to the tune of $100m.

Tags: Consulting, Business

Marches show UK multiculturalism has failed

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/marches-show-uk-multiculturalism-has-failed-sh90vqfkv

• Nonetheless, the melting pot model that evolved in the northern states and then on the West Coast became, by the mid-20th century, the dominant ethos. Irish-Americans could keep their identity. So too Italian-Americans. Jewish-Americans could retain their traditions. As long as their allegiance was to America, its flag, and institutions. Disagree about everything else, but respect the elementary building blocks of nationhood.
• Few occasions are sacred to the British but Remembrance weekend comes close. So when several hundred thousand Britons decide that the time we set aside for respecting our war dead is a good time to descend on the capital with genocidal chants, it is clear Britain has lost its way.
• “The saddest thing my generation of veterans ever say to me is that they struggle to recognise the country they wore the uniform for. This is not it. We mustn’t allow it to become like this.”
• Decades of immersion in the relativist mantras of multiculturalism (prioritise group differences over integration — and don’t dare offend anyone) and an insistence on the inviolable right to protest mean that the poor police officers on the ground are being left, by their confused bosses and terrified politicians, to deal with agitators who hate this country.

Tags: Multiculturalism, Religion, Hate, London

[My First Million] Business Brainstorm: AG1 For Dogs, Sexy Sweaty Startups & Luxury Newsletters

• Curating content is easier than creating

Tags: Business, Entrepreneurship, Content

Scientists found hundreds of toxic chemicals in recycled plastics

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1007501

• In total, 491 organic compounds were detected and quantified in the pellets, with an additional 170 compounds tentatively annotated. These compounds span various classes, including pesticides, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, plastic additives.

Tags: Plastic, Recycling, Circular Economy, Toxins, Chemicals

Tired of ‘hacks?’ Here are 20 of the best life tips sourced from 21.9 million real people.

https://www.upworthy.com/20-of-the-best-life-tips-rp3

• 6. “When a friend is upset, ask them one simple question before saying anything else: ‘Do you want to talk about it or do you want to be distracted from it?’”
• 9. “If you need to cancel a hotel reservation but are unable to because of a 24-hour policy, call the company and move your reservation to a later date. Call back within a few days and cancel for no charge.”
• 13. “When cooking things on aluminium foil, first scrunch the foil up, then lay it loosely flat again out on your baking tray. The juices will stay put—and the food will not stick to the foil half as much, if at all.”

Tags: Life, Attitude

Charted: The Average Cost of Insulin By Country

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cost-of-insulin-by-country/

Tags: Pricing, Price Gouging, Corporate Greed

The Feynman Learning Technique

https://fs.blog/feynman-learning-technique/

1. Pretend to teach a concept you want to learn about to a student in the sixth grade.
2. Identify gaps in your explanation. Go back to the source material to better understand it.
3. Organize and simplify.
4. Transmit (optional).

Tags: Learning

The 15 People Who Most Influenced My Thinking About Learning (Part I)

https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2023/11/14/influences-1/

1. Anders Ericsson: deliberate practice

   

2. John Sweller: cognitive load, examples can be better than problem-solving

   

3. Robert Bjork: desirable difficulties (spacing, retrieval, variability)

   

4. Michelene Chi: concepts over superficial understanding

5. Herbert Simon: reducing the problem space

   

6. John Anderson: declarative (facts) and procedural memory

   

7. Walter Kintsch: battle conflicting ideas to see which wins

   

Tags: Learning

Charted: Hours Worked vs. Salaries in OECD Countries

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/hours-worked-vs-salaries-in-oecd-countries/

Tags: Work, Work-Life Balance

Children’s brains shaped by their time on tech devices, research to-date shows

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1008150

• The research finds screen time leads to changes in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, which is the base of executive functions such as working memory and the ability to plan or to respond flexibly to situations. It also finds impacts on the parietal lobe, which helps us to process touch, pressure, heat, cold, and pain; the temporal lobe, which is important for memory, hearing and language; and the occipital lobe, which helps us to interpret visual information.
• This was deemed as both potentially positive and negative, but mainly more negative.

Tags: Children, Neuroscience, Technology

Nanoplastics Promote Conditions for Parkinson’s Across Various Lab Models

https://corporate.dukehealth.org/news/nanoplastics-promote-conditions-parkinsons-across-various-lab-models

• “Our study suggests that the emergence of micro and nanoplastics in the environment might represent a new toxin challenge with respect to Parkinson’s disease risk and progression. This is especially concerning given the predicted increase in concentrations of these contaminants in our water and food supplies.”

Tags: Health, Disease, Plastic

6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person

https://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person

• The World Only Cares About What It Can Get from You → have a useful skill
• The Hippies Were Wrong → you are your usefulness (see above)
• What You Produce Does Not Have to Make Money, But It Does Have to Benefit People
• People will like you for what you can do for them. Be useful. Develop skills (through practise, which often isn’t fun). It’s doesn’t matter if you’re a “nice person”. Actions speak louder than words.

Tags: Attitude

15 Years of Money Lessons in 5 Minutes

https://contrarianthinking.co/15-years-of-money-lessons-in-5-minutes/

https://youtu.be/TDsEJGTdj54

1. Passive income is a myth
2. Speak the language of money
3. People before profit
4. Don’t wear your money (live poor to be wealthy)
5. Leverage + expertise + time
6. Sell the pain
7. You want to be free, not rich
8. Your job isn’t safe
9. Have grit
10. Time + focus + consistency
11. Pay attention to $$$
12. Get in rooms you don’t fit
13. Master negotiation

Tags: Wealth

Coffee grounds may hold key to preventing neurodegenerative diseases

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1008697

• A team found that caffeic-acid based Carbon Quantum Dots (CACQDs), which can be derived from spent coffee grounds, have the potential to protect brain cells from the damage caused by several neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s)

Tags: Coffee, Health, Brains, Disease

Speech is really SBEECH!

https://youtu.be/U37hX8NPgjQ?t=225

• Speech = s-beach, store = s-door, screen = s-green, discussed = disgust

Tags: Language

If Americans Can Find North Korea on a Map, They’re More Likely to Prefer Diplomacy

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/14/upshot/if-americans-can-find-north-korea-on-a-map-theyre-more-likely-to-prefer-diplomacy.html

Tags: USA, North Korea, Ignorance, Geography, Geopolitics, Democracy

How Much Horsepower is a Horse?

https://youtu.be/7qxTKtlvaVE

• Great idea and surprisingly entertaining! And 1 horse is more than 1 horsepower.

Tags: Cars, Engineering

[The Jordan Harbinger Show] 924: Chris DeArmitt | Rethinking Plastic’s Environmental Impact

https://www.jordanharbinger.com/chris-dearmitt-rethinking-plastics-environmental-impact/

• Plastic appears to be, if you consider the entire lifecycle, “greener” than most other materials. We shouldn’t reduce usage, we should dramatically increase recycling.

Tags: Plastic, Environment, Sustainability

The world’s first drive system concept | Universal Wheel Drive System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd6C0y8xc20

Tags: Cars, Innovation

Visualizing the Global Coffee Trade by Country

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/global-coffee-trade/

Tags: Coffee, Trade

Visualizing the Top Energy Priorities of Major Countries

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-top-energy-priorities-of-major-countries/

Tags: Energy, Cost of Living, Carbon Emissions, Deforestation

Lid-Free Biodegradable Cups

https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/sofi-1

https://www.sofiproducts.com/products/sofi-hot-cup

• What sets the SOFi Hot Cup apart is its unique design featuring three flaps that fold to form a spill-proof spout, eliminating the need for a separate plastic lid. This not only offers cost savings for businesses in terms of money, storage space, and freight, but also significantly reduces plastic waste. The cup’s patent-pending locking mechanism offers unparalleled spill protection, while a proprietary water-based coating prevents the unpleasant experience of soggy sips.

Tags: Innovation, Coffee, Plastics, Waste

Charted: Average Years Left to Live by Age

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-american-life-expectancy-trends-2023/

Tags: Life, Death, Statistics, Health

Recession Risk: Which Sectors are Least Vulnerable?

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/recession-risk-sectors-least-vulnerable/

Tags: Economy, Recession, Inflation, Interest Rates

Who Makes the Most Reliable New Cars?

https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/who-makes-the-most-reliable-cars-a7824554938/

Tags: Cars, Quality, Reliability, Consumer Rights

The SAT Question Everyone Got Wrong

https://youtu.be/FUHkTs-Ipfg

• Maths is weird and confusing but pretty call. A circle of circumference X is not 1/3 the length of one that has a circumference of 3X (kind of).

Tags: Maths

Be lucky - it’s an easy skill to learn

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3304496/Be-lucky-its-an-easy-skill-to-learn.html

Tags: Luck, Attitude, Success, Opportunities

The boardroom drama behind Gymshark, one of the UK’s fastest-growing companies

https://www.netincome.co/p/the-boardroom-drama-behind-one-of

https://www.netincome.co/p/gymshark-part-2-co-founder-exits

• [In 2012] Gymshark started with a very simple structure: Ben and Lewis each owned one share. || For four days, between 17th and 21st September 2016, Lewis Morgan appeared to have no stake in Gymshark at all. Or at the very least, it looks like Ben Francis, Steve Hewitt and Paul Richardson were forming a separate holding company without him. || Maybe they used this restructure to somehow threaten Lewis to force him to sell his shares to them at a deep discount?
• Now, [Ben] even gets to do fun rich people stuff, like take £10m of his own money that’s been distributed out of Gymshark to his family office co, and lend it back to them at a 3% premium to the SONIA rate, which means he’s making the best part of £1m a year just in interest! Isn’t being rich fun?
• The pair then meet experienced businessmen Paul Richardson and Steve Hewitt, who tell them words to the effect of: “What the fuck are you doing? Gymshark’s the golden goose, just don’t get distracted or fuck it up and you’ll both be rich — and we can help you.” And maybe Ben takes that message to heart — and Lewis doesn’t. Ben goes all-in on Gymshark, wholeheartedly, and swears to spend the next decade building an amazing company. Lewis wants to keep building other businesses too, and investing in property, and generally being a big swinging dick.
• Ben Francis has excellent tax advisors. Francis Family Office Ltd isn’t a mere holding company, it’s a family investment company. Assuming Francis survives for seven years after donating those shares, they become exempt from inheritance tax. To top it off, [he bought] a farm in the Cotswolds for his family. Buying a farm means you benefit from Agricultural Property Relief. Which again, means that when Francis dies and passes on the family farm to his kids, they won’t pay inheritance tax.
• Its cash conversion cycle is getting longer and longer. If they’re not funding their growth through a negative cash conversion cycle, and they only recently took outside money, how did they fund their growth? Debt. Sales are slowing, inventory is accumulating, and Gymshark is having to discount to get rid of that inventory, possibly in order to meet debt covenants or solve cash flow issues. Revenue hasn’t grown at all this financial year.

Tags: Business, Organisational Structure, Corporate Politics, Profits, Cash Flow, Debt

How Your Birth Month Impacts Your Success

https://youtu.be/eYRgTj9MRLg

• The Matthew effect: it’s best to be born at start of the (school) year, so you’re the oldest in the class.

Tags: Children, Education, Success

South Korean archers banned for pulling out of training

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/south-korean-archers-banned-for-pulling-out-of-training-1.262663

• South Korea’s world-class archers were ordered to clean up city sewage, stay up all night, stare at dead bodies in a crematory and climb a mountain with a rubber dinghy on their back
• Since 1988, South Korean archers have trained by handling snakes, meditating at a Buddhist temple and walking through a haunted house full of actors in ghoulish outfits. They have also physical endurance tests at military camps.

Tags: Sports, Training, Mental Fortitude

From Unicorns to Zombies: Tech Start-Ups Run Out of Time and Money

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/technology/tech-startups-collapse.html

• In September, Bird, a scooter company that raised $776 million, was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because of its low stock price. Its $7 million market capitalization is less than the value of the $22 million Miami mansion that its founder, Travis VanderZanden, bought in 2021.
• SimpleClosure, a start-up that helps other start-ups wind down their operations, has barely been able to keep up with demand since it opened in September, said Dori Yona, the founder. Its offerings include helping prepare legal paperwork and settling obligations to investors, vendors, customers and employees.

Tags: Startups, Funding, Venture Capital, Bankruptcy

Why the USA Couldn’t Invade North Korea

https://youtu.be/SyQTLoJeg7c

• By land, by sea, by air, by assassination - none would go smoothly (in big part due to the mountainous geography of NK).

Tags: Korea, North Korea, War, Strategy

[Sliced Bread] Bedding

• Linen is probably best for the environment (from Europe, recyclable) and health (breathable)
• Best is to try several
• Higher thread count may not be better
• Regardless of what the viscose is made from (bamboo, eucalyptus etc) it’s all the same at the end

Tags: Materials, Bedding, Household, Environment

Why scientists are making transparent wood

https://knowablemagazine.org/article/technology/2023/why-scientists-are-making-transparent-wood

• Transparent wood could soon find uses in super-strong screens for smartphones; in soft, glowing light fixtures; and even as structural features, such as color-changing windows.
• The slim profile and strength of the material means it could be a great alternative to products made from thin, easily shattered cuts of plastic or glass, such as display screens.
• By incorporating polyethylene glycol, the scientists found that their wood could store heat when it was warm and release heat as it cooled.
• Since thicker wood is strong, it could be a partially load-bearing light source, potentially acting as a ceiling that provides soft, ambient light to a room.
• Transparent wood is a far better insulator than glass, so it could help buildings retain heat or keep it out.

Tags: Materials, Wood

MASTERY: Outperform 99% of people and become the best//Robert Greene (book summary)

https://youtu.be/S03quLhnlfY

1. Life’s task → What “work” doesn’t feel like work? What is your passion? What can you talk incessantly about?
2. Apprenticeship → learn from others (e.g. mentor, company) instead of self-studying
   1. Deep observation → passive
   2. Skill acquisition → practise
   3. Experimentation → active
3. Develop social intelligence
4. Dimensional mindset → original/creativity + conventional/skill

Tags: Success, Happiness, Purpose, Life, Work, Skills, Mastery, Book Summary

[The James Altucher Show] The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life | Hal Elrod

• Affirmations: “I am committed to” + speak aloud with conviction to truly change your mindset.

Tags: Success, Habits

[Modern Wisdom] #719 - Ali Abdaal - How To Stop Procrastinating For Good

• Motivation/energy/fun (often with other people) underpins productivity. How can it be play?
• Half-arsing a job is more tiring.
• Have a low number of high-priority activities. Have a daily top thing.

Tags: Productivity, Success, Motivation

Visual Anagrams: Generating Multi-View Optical Illusions with Diffusion Models

https://dangeng.github.io/visual_anagrams/

Tags: Illusions, Anagrams, AI

Hyundai Motor and Kia Unveil Snow Chain-Integrated Tire Technology Using Shape Memory Alloy

https://youtu.be/kIxJobVCRTI

• More innovation from Hyundai-Kia.

Tags: Innovation, Cars

Cop28: highlights and lowlights so far

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/07/cop28-first-half-un-climate-conference-dubai

• The $700m (£557m) so far pledged by wealthy nations [for the loss and damage fund] most responsible for the climate emergency covers less than 0.2% of what is needed every year. Estimates for the annual cost of the damage have varied from $100bn-$580bn.
• [COP President] Sultan Al Jaber had said in a video call last month that there was “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels was needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C (2.7F).
• More than 2,400 [fossil fuel lobbyists] – four times more than were registered the previous year.

Tags: Climate, Corruption

Honest Government Ad | Visit the UK! 🇬🇧 (2024 election)

https://youtu.be/8sRoYvFTE3c

• thejuicemedia comes for the UK election!

Tags: Politics

I removed most of the syllables from english and it’s 30% faster now

https://youtu.be/sRbcw2sGkJw

• Using the sonority sequencing principle and sonority hierarchy to simplify English.

Tags: Language, English, Optimisation

How couples meet in the US

https://twitter.com/ichthys30/status/1734953685451460712

Tags: Dating, Relationships

As a Therapist, I Know What’s Breaking Couples Up

https://thewalrus.ca/what-breaks-up-couples/

• We’ve normalized [smartphones] being intrusive and taking precedence when people are lying in bed, playing Wordle or scrolling through TikTok rather than talking to each other.

Tags: Relationships, Technology

The Cause of Depression Is Probably Not What You Think

https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-cause-of-depression-is-probably-not-what-you-think-20230126/

• An international team of scientists led by Joanna Moncrieff of University College London screened 361 papers from six areas of research and carefully evaluated 17 of them. They found no convincing evidence that lower levels of serotonin caused or were even associated with depression. People with depression didn’t reliably seem to have less serotonin activity than people without the disorder. Experiments in which researchers artificially lowered the serotonin levels of volunteers didn’t consistently cause depression. Genetic studies also seemed to rule out any connection between genes affecting serotonin levels and depression, even when the researchers tried to consider stress as a possible cofactor.
• “Just because aspirin relieves a headache, [it] doesn’t mean that aspirin deficits in the body are causing headaches,”

Tags: Health, Mental Health, Disease, Science

[The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway] Conversation with Dr. Peter Attia — The Pillars of Healthspan and Longevity

• Exercise: 150mins zone 2, 30mins zone 3-4 + 3-4x 45-60mins strength
• Habits: Additive - start small (e.g. 5mins run/day); subtractive - environmental controls (e.g. don’t have snacks in house)
• Biggest life advice: have a child

Tags: Life, Health, Exercise, Habits, Happiness

[The James Altucher Show] How to Make It in the NBA | Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

• Example of monetising data: Collect car info (reg, vin, purchase date, owner) to predict when someone will change cars and to what car, and then sell the data to car selling organisations.

Tags: Business, Entrepreneurship, Data, Data Analysis

How some people get away with doing nothing at work

https://www.vox.com/money/23733244/bullshit-jobs-work-employment-lazy-jobless-employed-nothing-to-do

• “I feel like I’m falling behind,” he says. “I definitely want to move to a different company, and I’m hopeful that when I do that, my work and my mindset will change.”
• “It’s like being on vacation all the time, with occasional scrambling to do a thing, then doing the thing for a couple of hours, then going back to the rest of my life,” he says. “Even though I feel guilty about it sometimes … it’s not really my job to tell a multinational company how to run a business or manage their employees.”
• He’s not concerned someone will notice what he’s up to because he can just close his office door. Plus, he’s got a mouse jiggler. “What’s ironic is that I’m seen as the high performer on the team, and I’m also confused,” he says. “I think it’s because they’re also just making up stuff to do as well.”
• “If you go in and say, ‘Hey, I’m underutilized right now,’ you’re basically putting a target on your back,” Creely says. “It sounds good on paper — you get paid to do nothing — but especially if you’re not well-connected, eventually that’s going to come to an end.”
• “You get managers who are either so disengaged that they truly are oblivious to the situation, they’re so disconnected from the work that they don’t have any sense of what the person is or isn’t doing or results they should be getting that they’re not getting,” Green says, “or you get a manager who does have a general sense of it that is so passive and nonconfrontational that they can’t bring themselves to do anything about it.”

Tags: Work

Your stuff is actually worse now

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/23529587/consumer-goods-quality-fast-fashion-technology

• “People don’t exactly want to pay more for all that stuff,” Harrington says. “So what has to happen if everything is more expensive and the customers still want to pay the same price, something has to be cut and that’s often going to be the quality of the garment.”
• “In the design of objects, they’re trying to reduce the amount of labor, and that changes what the object is,” Bird says. “That produces cheaper goods, but it doesn’t necessarily produce better goods.”
• Even if you do want to hop off the treadmill of constantly buying and keep what you already have, companies have made that harder too. Your goods probably have a shorter life span than they did years ago, and if you want to repair them — especially tech — you’ll come up against major barriers.

UCKG: Church pastor tells boy ’evil spirit’ hides in him

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67592961

• “When they found out I was gay, they started telling me that it was a demon causing it, that I needed to attend the Friday services where they would perform exorcisms,” he says. Mark says the prayers were performed every week for more than four years and that he tried to convince himself he was attracted to women. “I would cry myself to sleep,” he says. “And it was a really hard time because the amount of self-hate was huge.”
• “They say, ‘Do you remember that assistant who was sitting here? Well, they left the church and now they are getting a divorce. Now they have cancer.’”
• Sharon says she was shown a graphic video about a former member who was in a motorcycle incident that showed “all their organs out”. She adds: “They said this is what happens when you leave the church, the devil will come and take your soul.”

Tags: Cults, Religion

The Vaginal Microbiome May Affect Health More than We Thought

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-vaginal-microbiome-may-affect-health-more-than-we-thought1/

• Of the 28 bacterial species common to the vagina, scientists identified 135 unique combinations of strains of those species, each of which has different functions and cohabits with other strains.
• Early research suggests that probiotics designed to promote growth of good bacteria may also influence the protective abilities of the vaginal microbiome—Ravel’s lab is currently involved in developing probiotic therapeutics for urinary tract infection and bacterial vaginosis.

Tags: Health

How I rewired my brain in six weeks

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230912-how-i-hacked-my-brain

• Over six weeks, Barnhofer modified a mindfulness research course for me to try out. For 30 minutes a day, either as one single session or two 15-minute sessions, I practiced a guided mindfulness meditation by listening to a recording. In addition, I had one weekly meditation session with Barnhofer, who guided me over Zoom. I didn’t increase my normal levels of exercise, but I did to push myself to run faster.
• One half of my amygdala – an almond-shaped structure important for emotional processing – had reduced in volume on the right side. When we experience increased stress, the amygdala grows.
• The other change was to my cingulate cortex, part of the limbic system that is involved in our behavioural and emotional responses. It is also important for the default mode network, a region that becomes active when the mind wanders and ruminates. In my brain, it had slightly increased in size over the six weeks, indicating increased control of that area.

Tags: Meditation, Stress, Brain, Plasticity

What colour do you see?

https://aeon.co/essays/the-moral-imperative-to-learn-from-diverse-phenomenal-experiences

• More light entering the pupil causes it to constrict. But simply imagining something bright like the Sun also causes (a smaller, but still measurable) constriction. Aphantasics show perfectly typical pupillary responses to actual changes in light. However, their pupils do not change to imagined light.
• When asked to lie in the scanner and stare at a cross on a screen, the brain responses of the hyperphantasic group had greater connectivity between prefrontal cortex and the occipital visual network, compared with the aphantasic group.

Tags: Reality, Aphantasia

Hanako (fish)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanako_(fish)

• Imagine being a fish for 226 years.

Tags: Life, Lifespan, Longevity, Animals, Nature, Fish

Jogging gingerbread man surprises Calne drivers

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-67626070

• “I lost my daughter to suicide nearly four years ago and this is my way of getting people to have that moment of happiness.”

Tags: Fun, Funny, British

12 thoughts on incentives

https://twitter.com/george__mack/status/1738533937343803439

1. Don’t ask your barber if you need a haircut.
2. “I can fix the $32 trillion US debt problem in 5 minutes. You pass a law that when there’s a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members congress are ineligible for re-election” - Warren Buffett
3. 33% of British criminals were dying en route to Australia in the 1700s. Britain switched from paying sea captains for every passenger who walked on the ship to paying them for every passenger who walked off. Immediately, the survival rate shot up to 99%.
4. How to waste your time: Try to defy the laws of physics – or try to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.
5. “Never attribute to conspiracy what is more easily explained by incentives and incompetence.” - Naval
6. During the 1980’s, the government of Athens came up with an idea to limit pollution: Odd-numbered and even-numbered license plates. On dates with an odd number, the odd plates could drive. And vice versa. The rich people just bought another car – with even worse emissions. The streets got more jammed and the pollution got worse.
7. “If you reward profits alone, it’s the dumbest thing you could do. Employees will quit advertising and start shrinking the business” - Buffett
8. If video games teach us one thing: If you want to motivate humans, frequent rewards are more addicting than one-off rewards.
9. In Hungary, every woman who gives birth to 4 children or more never has to pay income tax. Prediction for the next 2 decades: As populations decline, every government will be focused on child-bearing incentives.
10. “I think I’ve been in the top 5% of my age cohort all my life in understanding the power of incentives, and all my life I’ve underestimated it. And never a year passes but I get some surprise that pushes my limit a little farther.” - Munger
11. If a person tells you why their thing is great (city, relationship, or job) - take it with a pinch of salt. If they tell you why it’s terrible - take it like a handful of gold. If someone swims upstream against their identity and incentives, it probably holds some deep truth.
12. Skinner’s Law: If procrastinating, 2 ways to solve it: Option 1 - Make the pain of inaction > Pain of action; Option 2 - Make the pleasure of action > Pleasure of inaction. The person with a gun to their head and crack cocaine at the finish line doesn’t need motivation.

Tags: Psychology, Motivation, Incentives

The 24 Universal Character Strengths, in One Graphic

Tags: Personalities, Traits, Strengths, Attitudes

A chemical signal in human female tears lowers aggression in males

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002442

• Rodent tears contain social chemosignals with diverse effects, including blocking male aggression. Human tears also contain a chemosignal that lowers male testosterone, but its behavioral significance was unclear. Because reduced testosterone is associated with reduced aggression, we tested the hypothesis that human tears act like rodent tears to block male aggression. Using a standard behavioral paradigm, we found that sniffing emotional tears with no odor percept reduced human male aggression by 43.7%. To probe the peripheral brain substrates of this effect, we applied tears to 62 human olfactory receptors in vitro. We identified 4 receptors that responded in a dose-dependent manner to this stimulus. Finally, to probe the central brain substrates of this effect, we repeated the experiment concurrent with functional brain imaging. We found that sniffing tears increased functional connectivity between the neural substrates of olfaction and aggression, reducing overall levels of neural activity in the latter. Taken together, our results imply that like in rodents, a human tear–bound chemosignal lowers male aggression, a mechanism that likely relies on the structural and functional overlap in the brain substrates of olfaction and aggression. We suggest that tears are a mammalian-wide mechanism that provides a chemical blanket protecting against aggression.

Tags: Behaviour, Aggression, Male-Female Dynamics, Dating, Relationships

Visualizing 60 Years of Stock Market Cycles

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/60-years-of-stock-market-cycles/

Tags: Investing, Stock Markets

Ranking the Top S&P 500 Stocks by 5-Year Returns

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/top-sp-500-stocks-return/

Tags: Investing, Renewable Energy, Solar, AI

The Woman China Couldn’t Control

https://youtu.be/M5c2VemfZVY

• The story of Jang Ching, also known as Madame Mao, the woman whose ambitions and relentless pursuit of power occurred during China’s turbulent Civil War era and the Cultural Revolution.

Tags: China, History, Politics, PR, Propaganda

This piece of paper could revolutionize human waste

https://youtu.be/BxVGLdMR_8A

• Flat to 3D paper-based packing peanut replacement using kirigami!

Tags: Innovation, Packaging, Recycling, Plastic, Waste, Logistics

Big Ideas in Tech for 2024 | Andreessen Horowitz

https://a16z.com/big-ideas-in-tech-2024/

• American Dynamism
  • 21st Century Public Safety
  • Smart Grids Will Power an Increasingly Electrified World
  • Cost-Effective Swarming for Defense
  • Software Eats Atoms via Tech-First Buyouts
  • New Applications for Computer Vision and Video Intelligence
  • A New Age of Maritime Exploration
• Bio + Health
  • Democratizing “Miracle Drugs”
  • Programming Medicine’s Final Frontier
  • Enabling Our Healthcare Workforce to Do More
  • AI Will Supercharge the Future of Health
• Consumer Tech
  • Voice-First Apps Will Become Integral to Our Lives
  • Narrowly Tailored, Purpose-Built AI
  • AI Tools Will Teach Kids
  • Code-Free AI Generators Spark New Behaviors
  • Creativity Gets Supercharged
• Crypto
  • Entering a New Era of Decentralization
  • Resetting the UX of the Future
  • The Rise of the Modular Tech Stack
  • AI + Blockchains Come Together
  • Play to Earn Becomes Play and Earn
  • When AI Becomes the Gamemaker, Crypto Offers Guarantees
  • Formal Verification Becomes Less, Well, Formal
  • NFTs Become Ubiquitous Brand Assets
  • SNARKs Go Mainstream
• Fintech
  • The Rise of the Developer as Buyer in Financial Services
  • Tech Helps Community and Regional Banks Compete
  • Financial Professional Services Get Supercharged by Software
  • LLMs Capture New “Foundational Customer Units”
  • New Tools for Banking and Trading
  • AI Will Push Latin American SMBs to Go Digital
  • AI Will Be the Key to Higher ROE
• Games
  • Gaming: Where Alpha Geek Technologies Get Their Initial Product Market Fit
  • AI-First Games That Never End
  • Games Become “Everything Simulators”
  • From Chatbots to Avatars: AI Companions Go 3D
  • The Next Disney is a Game Company
  • Anime Games Go Mainstream
  • A New Generation of UGC Game Developers Emerges
  • The Minecraft Generation Ignites the Survival-Crafting Genre
• Growth-Stage Tech
  • New Modes of Storytelling, Beyond Text-Based Chat
  • CRM Will Be Powered by AI Data Collection
  • The Consumer AI Battleground Moves from Model to UX
• Infra + Enterprise
  • AI Interpretability
  • Creativity Reimagined
  • B2B AI Products Embedded in Your Workflow
  • The New “Division of Labor”
  • LLMs Advance Robotic Process Automation Systems

Tags: Innovation, Predictions, Technology, AI, Crypto, Healthcare

Hangover Whopper - DM9 client

https://youtu.be/NLTibA8scCg

• Thinking about the end of year festivities, Burger King Brasil and the DM9 agency innovated with another campaign: now anyone who wants help to combat their hangover the next day will be able to receive exclusive discounts on famous sandwiches of brand: the Whopper Jr. Double, Whopper and Whopper Double.

Tags: Marketing, Promotion

Love Songs

https://xkcd.com/2870/

Tags: Love, Relationships, Songs, Music

Pornhub 2023 Year in Review

https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2023-year-in-review

Tags: Porn, Data Analysis

11 Great Christopher Hitchens Quotes

• “I’ll try anything once except incest and folk dancing.”
• “To whom do you award the right to decide which speech is harmful or who is the harmful speaker? To whom would you delegate the task of deciding for you what you could read?”
• “I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.”
• “Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realise that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.”
• “If someone tells me that I’ve hurt their feelings, I say, ‘I’m still waiting to hear what your point is.’
• I’m very depressed how in this country you can be told, ‘That’s offensive!’ as if those two words constitute an argument.”
• “Those who are determined to be ‘offended’ will discover a provocation somewhere. We cannot possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics, and it is degrading to make the attempt.”
• “I have one consistency, which is being against the totalitarian – on the left and on the right. The totalitarian, to me, is the enemy; the one that’s absolute, the one that wants control over the inside of your head, not just your actions and your taxes.”
• “When you hear people demanding that the Ten Commandments be displayed in courtrooms and schoolrooms, always be sure to ask which set. It works every time.”
• “The four most overrated things in the world are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics.”
• “Everybody does have a book in them, but in most cases that’s where it should stay.”

Tags: Quotes, Attitude, Offense, Debate, Cats, Dogs

The Best Ideas of 2023

https://www.sahilbloom.com/newsletter/the-best-ideas-of-2023

• Starting on a Monday, at the end of each weekday, color code the events from that day according to this key: Management (Red), Creation (Green), Consumption (Blue), Ideation (Yellow).

Tags: Time Management, Consumption, Creation

What The Prisoner’s Dilemma Reveals About Life, The Universe, and Everything

https://youtu.be/mScpHTIi-kM

• Typically the best is tit-for-tat: start nice, and retaliate once
• Keys: nice (don’t attack first), forgiving, retaliatory, clear

Tags: Game Theory, Argument, Persuasion, Negotiation

Wireless Millirobots Navigate Blood Vessels with Precision

https://www.azorobotics.com/News.aspx?newsID=14528

• Wireless millirobots have achieved a groundbreaking feat by navigating through a narrow blood vessel in both directions, against and along the arterial flow.
• Globally, one in four individuals succumbs to conditions stemming from blood clots annually. These clots obstruct blood vessels, impeding the delivery of oxygen to specific parts of the body. Millirobots present a promising solution [for] effectively eliminating blood clots from hard-to-reach blood vessels.

Tags: Medicine, Robotics

NTU Singapore spin-off EtaVolt develops new technology that rejuvenates solar panels and protects them from degradation

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1029523

• When intense light and controlled temperature are applied precisely to solar cells, they excite and cause the material molecules to move quickly, thereby changing their arrangement and patching up the ‘holes’ caused by light and heat damage.

Tags: Solar, Sustainability, Innovation

The Self Balancing Monorail

https://youtu.be/kUYzuAJeg3M

• Very cool tech - from the 1800s!

Tags: Trains, Transport, Innovation, Balance, Engineering

Traffic flow measured on 30 different 4-way junctions

https://youtu.be/yITr127KZtQ

• 1000!

Tags: Roads, Transport, Cars, Infrastructure

The Boxes DO NOT Move: The Wildest Optical Illusion I’ve Ever Seen

https://youtu.be/lW27YO6lCD8

Tags: Illusions

The Strange, Broken Economics of Ireland

https://youtu.be/J5wrYwFObiI

• Apple made Ireland into the tax haven it is today by inventing the Dutch Sandwich. It’s all moving falsely-valued IP boosting Ireland’s artificial GDP figures.

Tags: Tax, Corporate Greed, Business

What would authoritarian America look like?

https://www.forkingpaths.co/p/what-would-authoritarian-america

• Donald Trump has pledged to become a dictator “on day one.” He proudly boasted that voters most anticipate that a second Trump term will bring “revenge” and “dictatorship.” Trump recently vowed to shoot shoplifters, give the death penalty to drug dealers, and called to execute America’s top general. He’s planning to search for, round up, and deport millions of undocumented migrants—and again echoed the worst dictators in history when told his baying supporters that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”

Tags: USA, Democracy, Dictatorships, Authoritarianism, Politics

All 272 Tube Stations On The London Underground Bitchily Reviewed

https://londonist.com/london/transport/review-of-every-single-tube-station-on-the-london-underground

Tags: London, Funny

Visualized: The Top S&P 500 Stocks Over 20 Years

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/top-sp-500-stocks-over-20-years/

Tags: Stocks, Stock Market, Investing

The Events that Defined 2023: Visualized

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-events-that-defined-2023-visualized/