Links for 2022-09-18
Katja Grace Contra Scott Alexander On Slowing Down AI https://theinsideview.ai/katja
Artificial photosynthesis can produce food without sunshine https://phys.org/news/2022-06-artificial-photosynthesis-food-sunshine.html
Scientists Have Made a Human Microbiome From Scratch [The New York Times] https://archive.ph/nnM9f
The EU’s AI Act Could Have a Chilling Effect on Open Source Efforts, Experts Warn https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/06/the-eus-ai-act-could-have-a-chilling-effect-on-open-source-efforts-experts-warn/
“The puzzles of population ethics, infinite ethics, and decision theory are not problems specifically for utilitarianism. These are puzzles for everyone.” https://rychappell.substack.com/p/puzzles-for-everyone
“For nearly 200 years we knew that spiders could move through the air & "fly" but we never understood exactly how. Only a recent series of studies found that spider's ballooning relies on the Earth's electric field or Global atmospheric electrical circuit.” [Published in 2018] https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/07/the-electric-flight-of-spiders/564437/
We can remove a handle of a double torus from a rod without cutting or pinching the surface. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDZx9B4TAXo
Is Russia ready to test its nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile? https://planesandstuff.wordpress.com/2022/09/17/burevestnik-actually-could-be-ready-to-test/
Shahed-136 drones supplied to Russia carried out several devastating strikes in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region over past week, Ukrainian commanders say [Wall Street Journal] https://archive.ph/pdjlG
Torture, killings, abductions: Russian retreat from Izyum reveals horrors [Washington Post] https://archive.ph/HvzRc
Haiti is on the verge of complete state failure and the president of the Dominican Republic wants to BUILD A WALL. [The New York Times] https://archive.ph/3cCy7
U.S. per capita carbon emissions are back down to the level of the 1910s and it is not due to manufacturing overseas (via @Noahpinion):
The amount of equipment the Russian forces left behind when fleeing is stunning. A German General said it is possibly enough to equip a full Ukrainian brigade. NATO says it is the biggest donation to the Ukrainian armed forces since the beginning of the war.
Examples:
1. Laser-guided anti-tank missiles that can be fired from Ukrainian-operated T-80 tanks: https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1570899707446300674
2. Soviet standard 152mm shells for Ukrainian artillery units: https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1571078831196508160
They didn't bother destroying any of it and just ran away. Tanks, drones, ammunition, and other special equipment. In hindsight, Ukraine should have destroyed fewer Russian depots.