Links

Why is the world losing colour?

Colour is disappearing from our world, with over 80% of new cars being grayscale and consumer goods becoming increasingly neutral since 1800.

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Black Mirror's pessimism won't lead us to a better future

Black Mirror’s focus on dystopian narratives overlooks the dual nature of technology, ignoring its potential benefits and fuelling irrational fears.

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Are we misunderstanding ADHD?

A study led by Swanson found that while Ritalin initially reduced A.D.H.D. symptoms in children more effectively than behavioural training, this advantage faded by 36 months, with all groups displaying similar symptom levels.

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How deactivating Facebook and Instagram affects users' emotions

Two large randomised experiments examined the impact of social media deactivation on users’ emotional state before the 2020 U.S. election.

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The story behind the Blue Willow china pattern

Blue Willow china is a classic tableware pattern featuring a transfer-printed design inspired by Chinese art, depicting a serene outdoor setting with consistent elements across various porcelain items.

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Is American pop culture worse than ever?

Critics argue that the 2020s are the worst decade in a century for American pop culture, with stagnation in music, movies, fashion, TV, and sports.

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Savitri Devi

Savitri Devi Mukherji (1905–1982) was a French-born Greek-Italian writer, Nazi sympathiser, and spy who worked for the Axis powers in India during World War II.

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Painted protest

Over the past eight years, major biennials have focused on identity, rejecting Western perspectives, and reclaiming precolonial knowledge such as indigenous thought and magic.

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Quoting Sam Altman

The intelligence of AI models scales logarithmically with the resources invested in training and operation, such as compute power and data, with scaling laws accurately predicting continuous gains over many orders of magnitude.

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Marisa Adesman's Lynchian surrealism

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Bretton Woods system

The Bretton Woods system established fixed exchange rates by pegging currencies to the US dollar, which was convertible to gold at $35 per ounce.

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Roman rule explains regional well-being divides in Germany

The study finds that present-day German regions formerly under Roman rule exhibit more adaptive personality traits (higher extraversion, lower neuroticism) and better health and well-being outcomes than regions not occupied by the Romans.

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US economic warfare provoked Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Japan rapidly industrialised and built a strong military, relying heavily on imported raw materials due to scarce natural resources.

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Samuel B. Griffith

Samuel B. Griffith II (1906–1983) was a brigadier general in the US Marine Corps who served in the Pacific during World War II, earning the Navy Cross and Distinguished Service Cross for heroism at Guadalcanal and New Georgia.

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Trumpian policy as cultural policy

Cowen suggests that the Trump administration’s primary aim is to elevate cultural policy above all else, using it to reshape American culture.

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New left eschatology

The left-leaning, online subculture that emerged around 2012, characterised by extreme negativity, exaggeration, and off-putting behaviours aimed at increasing social media engagement.

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DeepSeek

DeepSeek did not bypass export restrictions; instead, they optimised their chips for maximum memory efficiency, and their well-optimised low-level code was not limited by chip capacity.

· Link post  #ai #china
Should Trump issue an order on AI watermarks?

President Trump repealed Joe Biden’s executive order regulating the AI industry as part of over 200 executive orders he signed.

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Are free speech, colour-blindness, and meritocracy right-wing issues?

The author views inauguration speeches as self-congratulatory events where the new president boasts about future plans and subtly taunts opponents.

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The case for democracy

Reading about Franco and Salazar revealed that right-wing authoritarian rule in 1930s Iberia, with conservative dictators suppressing liberals, eventually led to national stagnation.

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Waiting on red

Danes strictly adhere to societal norms, like waiting at traffic signals, even when the streets are empty.

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Transition to IPv6

The transition to IPv6 has been ongoing for 25 years, yet as of 2024, only slightly more than one third of Internet users can access IPv6-only services; the majority still rely solely on IPv4.

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Obelisks, new class of life found in human digestive system

Researchers led by Ivan Zheludev have discovered a new class of virus-like entities called Obelisks, comprising diverse RNAs that have colonised human and global microbiomes unnoticed.

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HN on Obelisks

Obelisks are RNA elements similar to viruses or viroids, lacking a DNA counterpart, and they likely use host RNA transcription machinery to replicate.

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Quoting Balaji

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