"At a time when the American system of government is already being sorely tested by a demagogue and would-be autocrat in the White House, it would be disastrous to grant more power to the Justice Department and the nation’s security services."—James Risen, " To Fight White Supremacist Violence, Let’s Not Repeat the Mistakes of the … Continue reading Domestic War on Terror Is Not the Answer to White Supremacy
Category: articles
Wearable Robots | Science
"...it is realistic to think that we will witness, in the next several years, the development of robust human-robot interfaces to command wearable robotics based on the decoding of a representative part of the neural code of movement in humans. The need for wearable technologies that minimally alter human biomechanics will result in a transition … Continue reading Wearable Robots | Science
Bad Exercise Advice, Exhibit B
"Despite the apparent complexity of modern exercise programs, you really have only two options if you want to get fitter: you can train harder than you’re currently training, or you can train more. Those two variables, intensity and volume, are the basic levers that all training plans fiddle with in various ways. But let’s be … Continue reading Bad Exercise Advice, Exhibit B
The Population Bust: Demographic Decline and the End of Capitalism as We Know It
"The mismatch between expectations of a rapidly growing global population (and all the attendant effects on climate, capitalism, and geopolitics) and the reality of both slowing growth rates and absolute contraction is so great that it will pose a considerable threat in the decades ahead. Governments worldwide have evolved to meet the challenge of managing … Continue reading The Population Bust: Demographic Decline and the End of Capitalism as We Know It
The Green Gang — The California Sunday Magazine
"'You need to call the Green Gang.' The Green Gang. It was a strange, frightening phrase. Rajput had never heard of the group before. When she began asking about it in local villages, the details seemed too fantastical to be true. It was a gang of hundreds — no, thousands — of women, almost all of them poor and … Continue reading The Green Gang — The California Sunday Magazine
Solein Because Soylent Was Already Taken | World Economic Forum
"...a new protein powder, Solein, made out of CO₂, water and electricity. It's a high-protein, flour-like ingredient that contains 50 percent protein content, 5–10 percent fat, and 20–25 percent carbs. It reportedly looks and tastes like wheat flour, and could become an ingredient in a wide variety of food products after its initial launch in … Continue reading Solein Because Soylent Was Already Taken | World Economic Forum
Exceptional Access to Encrypted Communications
Bob Barr has recently added his voice to the ongoing call of law enforcement to provide exceptional access to encrypted communications. Here's why that's not going to work. "Exceptional access — as governments propose — is the problem of making a system selectively secure. I can tell you, it’s hard enough to make a secure … Continue reading Exceptional Access to Encrypted Communications
Nintendo’s Philosophy: Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology
"...'withered' technology usually means mature technology. It is much easier for companies to create best-selling products by using mature technology as this kind of technologies are abundant, well-understood and cheap. Mature technologies are often studied extensively by people, and it is easy to experiment with or make further innovations. Even if the technology might be … Continue reading Nintendo’s Philosophy: Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology
The Mutable Web
...After a little research, I found two solutions to this problem [of changing a website's code locally and having those changes persist across browser sessions.] The first is to use a browser extension. You could make one yourself, but that's a little too involved for what I'm trying to do, so I turned to an … Continue reading The Mutable Web
Taking Control of Content and Breaking Algorithms With RSS
"Engagement isn’t a form of serendipity through algorithmically personalized feeds; it’s the repeated satisfaction of Present You with your myopically current loves and interests, at the expense of Future You, who will want new curiosities, hobbies, and experiences."—Dan Cohen. "Engagement Is the Enemy of Serendipity." DanCohen.org. July 23, 2019. In the post above, Dan Cohen … Continue reading Taking Control of Content and Breaking Algorithms With RSS
The Plastic Industry’s Fight to Keep Polluting the World
"A Bag’s Life is just one small part of a massive, industry-led effort now underway to suppress meaningful efforts to reduce plastic waste while keeping the idea of recycling alive. The reality of plastics recycling? It’s pretty much already dead. In 2015, the U.S. recycled about 9 percent of its plastic waste, and since then … Continue reading The Plastic Industry’s Fight to Keep Polluting the World
Commodified Emotions as Entertainment
"As with Fear Factor nearly two decades ago, it's worth asking what exactly what is being watched and why? It seemed to me then, and still does, that we are watching human beings whose emotions are extracted and commodified for our entertainment. I would still argue, as I did then, that this is dehumanizing, both … Continue reading Commodified Emotions as Entertainment
The Crane Wife
"'The Crane Wife' is a story from Japanese folklore. I found a copy in the reserve’s gift shop among the baseball caps and bumper stickers that said GIVE A WHOOP. In the story, there is a crane who tricks a man into thinking she is a woman so she can marry him. She loves him, … Continue reading The Crane Wife
Mind-Bending “Quantum Darwinism” Theory Passes Experimental Tests
"The main idea of quantum Darwinism is that we almost never do any direct measurement on anything," Zurek told The Foundational Questions Institute in 2008. "[The environment] is like a big advertising billboard, which floats multiple copies of the information about our universe all over the place."—Kristen Houser, "Mind-Bending 'Quantum Darwinism' Theory Passes Experimental Tests." … Continue reading Mind-Bending “Quantum Darwinism” Theory Passes Experimental Tests
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