Shooting things to space. Longshot Space has an audacious plan: build a 6-mile-long space cannon to shoot objects into low Earth orbit. “If you want to send a 1,000 lb object into space at Mach 23, put 3,000 lb of […]
The scale of China’s renewables. “The 22m tonnes of steel used to build new wind turbines and solar panels in 2024 would have been enough to build a Golden Gate Bridge on every working day of every week that year.” […]
Electrifying railways significantly reduces pollution. A study found a switch from diesel to electric trains reduced black carbon exposure by 89% on San Francisco’s Caltrain. “The transition from diesel to electric trains occurred over just a few weeks, and yet […]
Hello Thermo World. I’ve shared about this company before, and I may someday truly grasp what they’re doing. It sure seems cool! “Extropic’s computers feature new types of computational primitive that sample from simple probability distributions. And it turns out […]
Argentina’s economic turning point. “Milei now has a clear path to finish what he started.” With October’s legislative elections behind him, Argentine President Javier Milei’s radical reforms could attract tens of billions in foreign direct investment. ~ learn more
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? “How will we feed the 100s of GWs of extra energy demand that AI will create over the next decade? On this episode, Casey Handmer (Caltech PhD, […]
Why is Argentina poor? “Around 1900, Argentina was 2x richer than Japan, and over 4x richer than Taiwan, South Korea, and China. But all these countries are now richer than Argentina.” Factors like land concentration and poor economic policies have […]
How well does anti-money laundering work? Not that well, it seems. Despite international efforts, “most claims of ‘success’…are unsupported by relevant empirical evidence.” Recent scandals, such as a major U.S. bank failing to monitor $18.3 trillion, cast doubt on the […]
This 1993 Atlantic article stood against laissez-faire economics. I don’t endorse this view, yet it isn’t completely baseless. “Today’s Anglo-American world view rests on the shoulders of three men: Isaac Newton, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Adam Smith.” This perspective treats their […]
Solar energy hits new low cost. “In the sunniest countries, it costs as little as £0.02 to produce one unit of power, making it cheaper than electricity generated from coal, gas or wind.” Researchers from the University of Surrey argue […]