under the microscope
The brain science of obesity.
A TED talk given by researcher (and Novo Nordisk employee?) Mads Tang-Christensen in September 2021, before most of us had ever heard of GLP-1. ~ learn more
under the microscope
A new efficiency frontier in thermal power cells.
“A new heat-to-energy converter has reached a record efficiency of 44% – the average steam turbine manages about 35%, for comparison. This thermophotovoltaic cell is a major step on the way to sustainable, grid-scale renewable energy storage.” ~ learn more
retail therapy
The 30-year mortgage is an intrinsically toxic product.
Byrne Hobart spent a lot more time thinking about this than the rest of us: “The thirty-year fixed-rate prepayment-option mortgage is an economic disaster. It encourages mass malinvestment. Policies designed to help low-income people build wealth actually trap them at […]
retail therapy
Home is where the cartel is.
“My view is that the “market urbanist” diagnosis of the problem is more persuasive than its prescription for addressing it. As a positive matter, they just won’t win the political fights they propose. On normative grounds, I’m not sure that […]
to your health
Monoclonal antibodies and its production.
This is a youtube video with great animation and explanation, but poor sound quality. ~ learn more
to your health
A critical view on the war against prediabetes.
Science reporter Charles Piller questions the pharmaceutical industry incentives in the fight against prediabetes. “A third of Americans are considered prediabetic—but many may be better off without treatment.” My take: I think he makes a good point about incentives but […]
better doing
Ergodicity economics — a history.
I first heard the term ergodicity in Nassim Taleb’s writing. I first learned of ergodicity economics from this article about its history. Definition from wikipedia: “Ergodicity economics is a school of thought that questions whether expected value is a reliable […]
better doing
How philosophers think.
“Like intellectual boxers; they come to understand ideas by making them fight with each other. Their style of analysis is effective because it’s so bloody. One friend calls his style “violent thinking.” He talks about thinking like a soldier talks […]
tech, startups, internet
Multimodal LLM innovation continues.
From a team at Meta: “Called Chameleon, the new system is built on an early fusion architecture, and because of that it is able to comingle multiple inputs in ways not possible with most other systems.” ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet
The complete history & strategy of Microsoft.
“The company that put a computer on every desk and in every home. The company that invented the software business model. The company that so thoroughly and completely dominated every conceivable competitor that the United States government intervened and kneecapped […]