A New Type of 3D Printing May Bring It Into the Mainstream: “With the equivalent of 2.4m pixels projected in each square, the machine can print parts with layers just 25 microns (millionths of a meter) thick at a rate of 3kg an hour. This is ten times faster than a typical L-PBF machine at such a fine resolution, says Mr. DeMuth. Production versions of the area printer are now being built, and future generations of the machine should end up being 100 times faster. All that, says Mr. DeMuth, means area printing will be competitive with mass-production factory processes, such as machining, stamping and casting.” [The Economist] https://archive.is/zyaxd
"When Pigs Cry: Tool Decodes the Emotional Lives of Swine" (Project SoundWel: NN predicts happy/unhappy audio with 90% accuracy) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/science/pigs-oinks-grunts.html
"In New Math Proofs, Artificial Intelligence Plays to Win" (finding counterexamples in combinatorics; Wagner 2021) https://www.quantamagazine.org/in-new-math-proofs-artificial-intelligence-plays-to-win-20220307/
ML training compute has grown by a factor of 10 Billion (10'000'000'000) over the last 12 years. Whereas high-performance computing performance only by a factor of ≈200 https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.05924
The Future is Vast: Longtermism’s perspective on humanity’s past, present, and future https://ourworldindata.org/longtermism
Molecular Engineers Show How To Make “Computer” Out of Liquid Crystals https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abg9060
Female astronomers disproportionately serve on the DEI committees. “I’m trying to think of a woman who is not an activist.” https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1504468998112522244.html
“The most effective long term strategy for smashing the patriarchy is for women to select low ranking mates to sleep with.” ― Jordan Peterson, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9wzSpz7gKE
„Slut-shaming is a way of enforcing a more restrained sexual norm on other women so that not all women have to become more promiscuous than any of them would like.” – Geoffrey Miller, https://youtu.be/j9BQQYsMqIw
“The evolutionary explanation for the peacock's tail has an interesting implication, namely that the mind of one sex can help shape the body of the other.”
― Steve Stewart-Williams, The Ape that Understood the Universe
War links:
“The cumulative effects of all these factors leads to horrendous levels of Russian Army Truck fleet operational attrition. Short form: 6-to-8 weeks more fighting will deadline the entire Russian Army military truck fleet.” https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1505370275273183239.html
Not Out of the Woods Yet: Assessing the Operational Situation in Ukraine https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/not-out-woods-yet-assessing-operational-situation-ukraine
“Russian generals are running out of time, ammunition, and manpower. That’s not based on any inside intelligence — it’s clear from open source information and my own experience. I could be way off, but I am confident of this assessment.” https://cepa.org/the-next-10-days-will-decide-this-war/
Ukrainian forces have defeated the initial Russian campaign of this war. Its culmination is creating conditions of stalemate throughout most of Ukraine. https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-19
Rheinmetall Air Defence: Skynex truck-mounted engaging drone swarm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb5_F4_Eod8
“Our suspicions were correct. This 'missile warehouse' in Western Ukraine was actually a farm in far Eastern Ukraine. The target was destroyed at least a week ago. Entire area has been shelled. We have satellite imagery to prove it” https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44840/we-have-questions-about-russias-claimed-kinzhal-hypersonic-missile-use-in-ukraine
In Belarusian Morgues And Hospitals, Clues To Russian Military Losses In Ukraine https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-morgues-russian-soldiers/31760144.html
Seeing Westerners defend countries such as Russia, China, or Iran does not make me angry. On the contrary, it makes me happy! That they can do this without being arrested is a hallmark of our freedom and individualism. It is what differentiates us from those authoritarian and collectivist societies.
Many people on the political left and right admire how those countries deal with "misinformation" and "hate speech". And it is true, there are downsides to liberties such as freedom of speech just as there are downsides to capitalism. But a top-down approach to the truth will fail for many of the same reasons that centrally planned economies fail. As the examples of Lysenkoism and the Four Pests campaign show, an authoritarian approach to truth can have disastrous consequences.
Similarly, many people admire the collectivism of those countries. And it is again true, there are downsides to our individualistic societies. But collectivism bears the systemic risk that pathological beliefs and desires are not challenged. National Socialism was first and foremost a collectivist delusion that was both epistemically and instrumentally irrational.
What some see as the weakness of Western countries is actually their greatest strength. Allowing despicable people to challenge truth and societal norms is a hedge against the pathologies of authoritarianism and collectivism.
You might argue that those people are considered despicable because they challenge those very norms. It's true, some of those who we consider despicable are probably hurting our societies. But most people are not like you. Most people cannot tell apart groups who are objectively bad from groups that they were just told are bad.
Take the worst group you can think of right now. How you feel about them is similar to how people felt about Jews, Tutsi, or Bosnian Muslims just before the killings started. And this is why we in the West grant all groups certain inalienable rights and individualistic liberties such as freedom of speech: we don't trust most people with granting those rights on a case-by-case basis.
“The evolutionary explanation for the peacock's tail has an interesting implication, namely that the mind of one sex can help shape the body of the other.”
...and conversely, which is all too easy to overlook. This is coevolved.