Favorites January 1st 2022

Matt Duss @mattduss

Neocons blaming Biden for the disastrous consequences of Trump's Iran policy (which they helped write) just as they blamed Obama for the disastrous consequences of Bush's Iraq policy (which they helped write). Does anyone notice a pattern here.

Foreign Policy @ForeignPolicy

The Biden administration has incentivized Tehran’s march toward the bomb by refusing to impose consequences, Anthony Ruggiero writes. https://t.co/FphsZQNIFM

Although I am a bit surprised that the US hasn't been working to negotiate returning to the deal in some way.

NPR @NPR

For more than a year, Victoria Gray's life had been transformed: no more horrible attacks of pain or devastating fatigue from her sickle cell disease. Researchers say the same is true for nearly half of those who've had the CRISPR procedure so far.

n.prFirst sickle cell patient treated with CRISPR gene-editing still thrivingA young Mississippi woman is thriving two years after getting treated for sickle cell disease with the revolutionary gene-editing technique known as CRISPR.

To be clear, they've rewritten the dna of her blood, this is so cool!

The Seattle Times @seattletimes

King County home prices are astronomically high. How do residents want to address that? A new survey says a majority are open to building more homes on underdeveloped land and allowing more apartments in neighborhoods zoned for single-family homes. st.news/3EEoVAA

Not enough homes? People know the answer: build more!

Joshua March @joshuamarch

I always feel smarter after reading @benedictevans annual presentation on the major trends in tech ben-evans.com/presentations

A lot of cool graphs in there, I was surprised that the UK is actually ahead of the US in terms of online purchases.

WIRED @WIRED

Researchers have developed a brain-controlled robotic arm that can give its user touch feedback—even if they're paralyzed

wired.trib.alThis Brain-Controlled Robotic Arm Can Twist, Grasp—and FeelNathan Copeland learned to move a robotic arm with his mind, but it was kind of slow. Then researchers gave him touch feedback.

This is super cool, I wonder how they trained it, since there's no way to build a training feedback loop like there would be with the control aspect. (Where you can ask the patient to think about moving it up, record what the sensor sees, then watch for that in the future). Also interesting that they focus on the speed aspect, adding the ability to touch "doubled his speed completing mobility tasks".

April 2019