![See new Tweets Conversation John B. Holbein @JohnHolbein1 Can you guess what happens when you provide temporary financial assistance to those at risk of homelessness? ... ... You *massively* reduce the chances that those people experience homelessness. The benefits to homelessness prevention exceed costs. https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/doi/10.1162/rest_a_01344/116185/Do-Homelessness-Prevention-Programs-Prevent?redirectedFrom=fulltext See new Tweets Conversation John B. Holbein @JohnHolbein1 Can you guess what happens when you provide temporary financial assistance to those at risk of homelessness? ... ... You *massively* reduce the chances that those people experience homelessness. The benefits to homelessness prevention exceed costs. https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/doi/10.1162/rest_a_01344/116185/Do-Homelessness-Prevention-Programs-Prevent?redirectedFrom=fulltext](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0ec9c799-6dc9-4a1a-915d-3a2d57eee98c_1156x1380.png)
Cash benefits reduced the probability of someone in the treatment group becoming homeless from 4.1% to 0.3%. Giving people money is good.
I must admit, I had trouble chosing, but I think I would have gone with Canada. Smith says Japan, and I buy his argument. But the scary part is how many americans don't know!
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9c4e61a3-9248-4e0e-beec-651b4cc690fe_930x782.png)
Iβm a bit surprised so many said China?
![carnage4life 16h Layoff season seems to be behind us in big tech as the recession seems to have been a myth and quarterly earnings have shown growth for most that have reported. Apple is the one company that showed discipline during both the boom times by not overhiring and the slow times by not resorting to mass layoffs. Steve Jobs left the company in great hands. cnbc.com CEO Tim Cook says layoffs are a 'last resort' and not something Apple is considering right now carnage4life 16h Layoff season seems to be behind us in big tech as the recession seems to have been a myth and quarterly earnings have shown growth for most that have reported. Apple is the one company that showed discipline during both the boom times by not overhiring and the slow times by not resorting to mass layoffs. Steve Jobs left the company in great hands. cnbc.com CEO Tim Cook says layoffs are a 'last resort' and not something Apple is considering right now](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8d46fbc-3bbe-4a4b-b750-425d415ecfdf_1266x940.png)
I really think there's something to the idea that there was a meme going around among tech executives that they have tons of dead weight. Apple was the only big company to avoid this mistake.
![See new Tweets Conversation Kevin Roose @kevinroose Google has quietly rebuilt its robotics division around LLMs -- the same AIs that power Bard, ChatGPT and others. Now, if you tell a robot to "pick up the extinct animal," it knows you're talking about a dinosaur. My column from inside the lab: nytimes.com Aided by A.I. Language Models, Googleβs Robots Are Getting Smart Our sneak peek into Googleβs new robotics model, RT-2, which melds artificial intelligence technology with robots. 8:54 AM Β· Jul 28, 2023 Β· 553.5K Views See new Tweets Conversation Kevin Roose @kevinroose Google has quietly rebuilt its robotics division around LLMs -- the same AIs that power Bard, ChatGPT and others. Now, if you tell a robot to "pick up the extinct animal," it knows you're talking about a dinosaur. My column from inside the lab: nytimes.com Aided by A.I. Language Models, Googleβs Robots Are Getting Smart Our sneak peek into Googleβs new robotics model, RT-2, which melds artificial intelligence technology with robots. 8:54 AM Β· Jul 28, 2023 Β· 553.5K Views](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F220e8cfb-001a-4d8c-80b7-168a29467491_1148x1306.png)
It's wild that Large Language Models are useful for running full size robots. This definitely reminds me of the response I had to the stochastic parrot argument, although now that I think about it, this Ars Technica article from a few months demonstrates a similar ability, but theyβre clearly getting better.
![See new Tweets Conversation ian bremmer @ianbremmer insane map of the month: % of worldβs population that live in each indian state: See new Tweets Conversation ian bremmer @ianbremmer insane map of the month: % of worldβs population that live in each indian state:](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F63ae0582-9a7b-4ba6-860d-c98e7886909c_1154x1582.png)
That's one in 40 people on earth in that one state in India.
Threads
β’ Long thread analyzing Taiwan's defense preparations. The upshot is that they don't seem that serious, the US spends more on Taiwan's defense than they do.
β’ The only viable solutions to climate change require large scale state action to build massive amounts of electrical generation. Small scale stuff is not really that important.