"Lludd and Llefelys, one of the medieval Welsh tales collected in the Mabinogion, is a vision of the internet. In fact, it describes the internet twice. Here, a terrible plague has settled on Britain: the arrival of the Coraniaid, an invincible supernatural enemy. What makes the Coraniaid so dangerous is their incredibly sharp hearing. They can … Continue reading Lludd and Llefelys
Category: articles
The Good Guy/Bad Guy Myth
"Less discussed is the historic shift that altered the nature of so many of our modern retellings of folklore, to wit: the idea that people on opposite sides of conflicts have different moral qualities, and fight over their values. That shift lies in the good guy/bad guy dichotomy, where people no longer fight over who … Continue reading The Good Guy/Bad Guy Myth
Sleeping Together
"Results show that those who shared a bed with a partner most nights reported less severe insomnia, less fatigue, and more time asleep than those who said they never share a bed with a partner. Those sleeping with a partner also fell asleep faster, stayed asleep longer after falling asleep, and had less risk of … Continue reading Sleeping Together
Head Over Heels by Tears For Fears
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsHiG-43Fzg I'm not a big Tears for Fears fan, but this song is great.
Proton Is Trying to Become Google—Without Your Data
"These days, all Google and Apple and Big Tech talk about is privacy, so the best way to give our definition is to give the contrast. The way Google defines privacy is, “Nobody can exploit your data, except for us.” Our definition is cleaner, more simple, and more authentic: Nobody can exploit your data—period. We … Continue reading Proton Is Trying to Become Google—Without Your Data
Monkeypox
"Monkeypox causes a flu-like array of symptoms, but also comes with a distinctive rash; one telltale sign is the fact that lesions often appear on the palms of hands. So far it seems that the cases are being caused by viruses from the West African clade, which triggers milder disease than the other family of … Continue reading Monkeypox
The 2022 State of Crypto Report
"While it’s hard to know the exact number of web3 users, we can reason about the scale of the movement. We estimate there are somewhere between seven million and 50 million active Ethereum users today, based on various on-chain metrics. (See slide 54.) Analogizing to the early commercial internet, that puts us somewhere circa 1995 … Continue reading The 2022 State of Crypto Report
Art Is The Realm of the Problem
"I am troubled by how often people talk about likability when they talk about art.I am troubled by how often our protagonists are supposed to live impeccable, sin-free lives, extolling the right virtues in the right order – when we, the audience, do not and never have, no matter what we perform for those around … Continue reading Art Is The Realm of the Problem
Refuse That Final Word
"The more authoritarian a social regime is, the more insistently it will simplify the possible responses—always converging on thumbs up or thumbs down—and demand the correct one. I don’t think we live in a totalitarian, or even an authoritarian regime—not even close—but in any given culture there are always authoritarian subcultures, and we have more … Continue reading Refuse That Final Word
Nukes, NUBS And Coners
"Living in a machine with over 100 sailors requires a person to be flexible socially and sometimes physically. I spent two decades on United States Navy submarines performing sonar duties among eccentric personalities in incredibly stressful situations. When sailors report to their first submarine, they are joining a work culture unlike any other. Surrounded by … Continue reading Nukes, NUBS And Coners
Which Computational Universe Do We Live In?
"In 1995, Russell Impagliazzo of the University of California, San Diego broke down the question of hardness into a set of sub-questions that computer scientists could tackle one piece at a time. To summarize the state of knowledge in this area, he described five possible worlds — fancifully named Algorithmica, Heuristica, Pessiland, Minicrypt and Cryptomania — with ascending levels … Continue reading Which Computational Universe Do We Live In?
My Writing Advice
"Most of the rules that apply to writing long-form documents like Tech Narratives, Blog Posts or Papers hold up for writing short documents like E-Mails or issue tickets. Use this documents to practice your writing skills, by make them well structured, usable and polished.-Heinrich Hartmann, "Writing for Engineers." HeinrichHartmann.com. April 15, 2022. If I were … Continue reading My Writing Advice
Histotripsy: Solid Tumor Oblation With Ultrasound
"Early tests suggested that the sound waves successfully decimated up to 75 percent of liver tumor material in the rat bodies, which enabled the little critters' immune systems to jump into action and beat the leftover cancerous tissues out of existence, preventing reemergence......The new treatment is called "histotripsy," and it noninvasively directs ultrasound waves so that the … Continue reading Histotripsy: Solid Tumor Oblation With Ultrasound
Percentage of World Population Living in an Autocracy
"In the last decade alone, the share of the world population living in autocracies has shot up from 49 percent in 2011 to 70 percent in 2021."—Michael Hirsh, "The Month That Changed a Century." Foreign Policy. April 10, 2022.
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