China rolls out a Large Language Model "based on Xi Jinping thought." The mind boggles. Short summary on Twitter/X.
Review of a new book about "cunning folk" in late medieval and early modern Europe.
Sabine Hossenfelder on the closest thing we have to a universal equation, 13-minute video.
Eastern Europe is Not Real: 22-minute video from Austrian YouTuber Kraut arguing that "Eastern Europe" is a nonsensical concept, invented by the Germans to justify their conquests and then taken over by the Soviets to justify their own regional hegemony. Nobody who lives there thinks of himself as an "Eastern European."
Adele Renault, large murals of plants, quite striking.
Wooden door from Dover Castle in Britain covered with carved graffiti from the Napoleonic Wars.
Ron DeSantis' school voucher program in Florida is very popular, with so many parents opting for charter schools that some traditional schools may be closed. Which is only what you would expect in a nation where a majority of people consider themselves (and their children) special.
Major lithium lode found under Pennsylvania by analyzing the wastewater from fracking.
Adulatory review of The Gulag Archipelago, useful if you don't know much about the book. But note that recent research has revised the death numbers down quite a bit, because more people survived Stalin's Gulags than we thought.
Vox piece on the State Department's in-house intelligence agency, INR, which despite its modest budget keeps getting things right that the CIA and military intelligence get wrong. Most recently, they said Russia would not conquer Ukraine easily when some US forecasters thought Kyiv would fall in three days.
Ninety-Five Theses on AI from Samuel Hammond, seems intelligent.
Via Alex Tabarrok, a call to "Build Monaco on the Marin Headlands." If people tried I think they might find that building on a cliff over the Pacific Ocean is a little different than building on a cliff over the Mediterranean.
How animals get their patterns: how has Alan Turing's theory held up?
How Iran will choose a new Supreme Leader.
The stegosaurus skeleton known as Apex is being auctioned by Sotheby's, expected price $4 million to $6 million. Some paleontologists hate this, but on the other hand the chance for such a sale is motivating a lot of professional digging. (Sotheby's, NY Times, Guardian)
Vox explainer on Dopamine, from which you can learn about the many extreme claims being made for its importance.
"Pushing the Boundaries of Hummus Flavor Innovation."
We hear all the time about new materials being developed, with extraordinary claims about how they will change the world, but then nothing happens. Benjamin Reinhardt explains why.
A claim for a new method of making concrete without CO2 emissions, using recycled concrete. And a quite nice new studio built using hempcrete.
The "serial slingshot shooter" who has been harassing a California neighborhood for years turns out to be an 81-year-old man. (NY Times, police press release)
Remarkable short video on Twitter/X showing a modern Russian air defense missile battery getting destroyed by ATACMS missiles, which spray the area with small projectiles.
I must say I am rather not amused when we are called 'Eastern Europeans'. It lumps us together with Russians. Most Poles prefer 'Central Europe' term.
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