Favorites September 26th 2022

January 2022

Armand Domalewski 𓊍 @ArmandDoma

I really don’t get why it isn’t bigger news that we now have an extremely effective weight loss medication

gq-magazine.co.ukIs the world ready for extremely effective weight-loss drugs?A new class of medicines has the potential to permanently change the way America tackles its obesity problem

The drug is Tirzepatide, marketed as “Mounjaro”. Patients average 20% weight loss, which is about the same as bariatric surgery. It's currently only approved for diabetes, but doctors can (and do) prescribe it off label for weight loss. Also, you have to take it indefinitely, and weight loss drugs are not currently covered by medicare.

Carl Bildt @carlbildt

Difficult with reliability of figures, but it looks as if more than a quarter of a million people have left 🇷🇺 in just a couple of days.

Meduza in English @meduza_en

The FSB reports that 261,000 men have fled Russia between Wednesday, when the “partial” mobilization was announced, and Saturday night. https://t.co/QSz4yZBdMo

That's about 1 in every 500 Russian men in a couple days. They've now tried to close the border with Georgia with tanks to stop people from *leaving*. Russian stock market down 18% in the last 5 days. (S&P down 6% over the same period)

Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal

So he can be drafted now, right?

darlene superville @dsupervilleap

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin grants Russian citizenship to former US security contractor Edward Snowden.

Probably not, at least so far, but also, his association with Russia definitely looks worse as time goes on.

NASA @NASA

IMPACT SUCCESS! Watch from #DARTMIssion’s DRACO Camera, as the vending machine-sized spacecraft successfully collides with asteroid Dimorphos, which is the size of a football stadium and poses no threat to Earth.

I believe the idea here is to test our capability to deflect an asteroid if we ever discover one that threatens earth. But you can't just hit rocks at random, it's all about timing.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

👍 Human challenge trials 👍 Attempting to develop a malaria vaccine that actually works npr.org/sections/goats…

npr.orgA box of 200 mosquitoes did the vaccinating in this malaria trial. That’s not a joke!Volunteers for the trial put an arm over a box with hundreds of mosquitoes carrying a genetically modified malaria parasite. Here’s why they did it that way — and why the trial holds promise.

The existing malaria vaccine is only like 30% effective, it compares poorly to distributing nets, so it'll be good if we figure out something better. And yea, they're delivering it via mosquito, although that's only because it's easier in the testing phase, if they distribute it for real they won't do it via mosquito bites.

Threads

• I previously shared a thread arguing that the Iranian loitering munitions are making a lot of US air power irrelevant. Here's a thread making some counter arguments, one I found convincing is that Israel is still investing in F15s and F35s despite being at the forefront of drone warfare. TL;DR: these new loitering munitions are basically just very slow missiles, and are pretty easy to hit with countermeasures if you invest in them.

• Cool thread about the Tripitaka Koreana, the "most successful large data transfer over time yet achieved by humankind." Depending on how you measure it, about 2GB over 800 years.

• Short thread about Starlink in Iran. Starlink says that their terminals will absolutely work in Iran if you can get your hands on one, but there’s no good way to get them into the country yet. They’re expensive and not super easy to conceal on a plane.