The way in which sudden exponential improvements in technology change our lives can be easy to miss, but I liked how this gave specific examples that made it easy to compare. here's the older Madona performance, and here's the newer one.
I think I've read that since this happened, the Republicans may be moving forward with a bill that just contains the aid for Ukraine/Taiwan/Israel. They got exactly what they wanted and realized that it was their only issue and they need to not get it.
In a follow up he points out something I didn't know: we actually discovered an 89% effective Strep A vaccine, but the FDA shut down research for decades. It has now resumed though, so that's hopeful.
Flotsam and Jetsam
– Houthi attacks are hitting Chinese container freight prices worse than anyone else. Maybe they shouldn't be encouraging it? (src)(cached)
– SF Fire Department is pointing to Waymo's driving as an example of good behavior (src)(cached)
– The Vatican put out a pretty good definition of AI (src)(cached)
– Someone is making a whole product out of an image diffusion model trained on logos (src)
– Long article about how to use a washing machine, but it boils down to: "Always use ‘Express’ mode, it's very good. Anything more is unnecessarily wear on your clothes" (src)
– TSMC's fab in Japan is already online! Would be nice if the Arizona plant moved along this fast (src)(cached)
– Technology Connections guy goes on for a while about why he switched away from gas. He didn't even go to induction! (src)
– Someone published a paper about how to use a neutrino beam to destroy nuclear weapons. Bad news, the particle accelerator would be 1000 km in diameter and would need approximately as much power as the entire UK. (src)(cached)
– Iran has become more secular, only 40% still identify as muslim (src)(cached)
– Russia is liquidating gold reserves to pay Iran for weapons. Almost a million dollars per drone. I think they're getting fleeced too. (src)(cached)
– This doofus claimed that the US no longer has any cultural power outside the english speaking world. This is obviously false, and many people dunked on him, but my favorite was this Cover of Uptown Funk by a nomadic tribe in Siberia. (src)(cached)
– A study identified the bad actors who haunt social media, people who spread hostile rumors not for purely partisan ends, but because they want to burn the system down, believing they'll benefit personally. (src)(cached)