Contrary to the popular belief that medieval people drank beer to avoid unsafe water, historical evidence suggests they were more than willing to drink water when it was clear and odorless. I admit that I’ve believed this claim uncritically in the past, though in my defense I thought it was true only in limited times/places. Not only does this debunk the idea of ubiquitous alcohol consumption for safety, but it…
A blaze at South Korea’s National Information Resources Service destroyed the government’s G-Drive cloud system. “Due to the system’s large-capacity, low-performance storage structure, no external backups were maintained — meaning all data has been permanently lost.” ~ learn more
“In our first interview in Fayetteville, Gaydos seemed to perfectly parody tech bro hubris. He insisted that the Enron nuclear reactor was real “in theory” and that “we have a team of people that are developing nuclear reactors to help the president solve the energy crisis.” He encouraged me to speak with the Egg’s purported inventor, Daniel Wong, who refused to disclose the makeup of the research team, his past…
The news is they raised some venture money, not not super newsy, but I look at it as the continued growth in the landscape of crypto products. “Founded in Bermuda, Meanwhile offers life insurance and annuity products denominated in BTC, allowing policyholders to save and transfer wealth in an asset with a fixed supply.” ~ learn more
“Someone asked me about electricity rates increasing in areas that are serving new AI datacenters. It’s a fascinating story because it reveals multiple levels of coordination failure.” ~ learn more
A Finnish-UK study shakes up our understanding, suggesting heart attacks could stem from infections. Researchers found dormant bacteria in biofilms within artery plaques, which, when activated by a trigger like a viral infection, can provoke inflammation and cause heart attacks. ~ learn more
“Simply selectively following advice, going along with fads, believing what’s popular and acting on it, and so on, can lead to correlations that ‘make sense’ from some research reference frame, but are not actually true.” ~ learn more
The debate on using financial incentives to promote healthy behaviors is ongoing. As noted in the article, “outcomes depend heavily on design,” with some programs effectively motivating desired actions by carefully structuring the incentives. The nuances of successful programs, however, often involve more than just throwing money at people. ~ learn more
I like this message even though it turns into a sales pitch at the end. “There’s a story that occurs constantly in the biographies of many creative and brilliant people. It goes something like this: As a kid they had a question—maybe it was about how car engines work, or what Antarctica is like. It doesn’t matter if the question is about history or science or animals, because their dads…
“[S]ometimes the stakes are much higher than usual. In these instances, a goal requires even more focus, execution, and clarity. All of these can be achieved through a framework that I have come to call SuperGoals, which I’ve relied on heavily throughout my career. Below, I’ll share my framework for SuperGoals, along with real life examples of how I’ve used them.” ~ learn more