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Alex Knapp

@thealexknapp.bsky.social

Senior Editor covering science and healthcare at Forbes. (he/him) Got a tip? Hit me up on Signal: thealexknapp.79 "Eppur si muove"

4,566 Followers  |  966 Following  |  3,129 Posts  |  Joined: 12.04.2023
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Posts by Alex Knapp (@thealexknapp.bsky.social)

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Explore Financial Disclosures From President Trump and 1,500 of His Appointees - ProPublica Use this database to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team. The documents disclose positions officials have held outside government, their assets and their de...

Financial documents compiled by ProPublica reveal a myriad of relationships among Trump and his team that could create conflicts of interest β€” including ties between appointees and industries their agencies frequently interact with.

Explore our database πŸ‘‡

09.03.2026 03:00 β€” πŸ‘ 1078    πŸ” 508    πŸ’¬ 68    πŸ“Œ 44
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Oil Surges, Asian Equities Slump Amid Growing Middle East Conflict Oil jumped above $100 a barrel, while Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average slid 6.7%, amid intensified concerns over petroleum supply disruptions.

Oil jumped above $100 a barrel, while Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average slid 6.7%, amid intensified concerns over petroleum supply disruptions. on.wsj.com/4cBVROJ

09.03.2026 01:59 β€” πŸ‘ 18    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
Oil Futures Surge Above $100/bbl Amid Growing Middle East Conflict Oil futures surged above $100/bbl as the Middle East conflict leads to supply disruptions in the region.

Oil futures surged above $100/bbl as the Middle East conflict leads to supply disruptions in the region. on.wsj.com/4cBPR8S

08.03.2026 23:42 β€” πŸ‘ 37    πŸ” 12    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 1
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Startup Loft Orbital Is Launching AI-Powered Satellites This Fall Building space-based AI. Designing new molecules with quantum computers. Why pink noise is bad for your sleep. All that and more in this week’s edition of The Prototype.

Building space-based AI. Designing new molecules with quantum computers. Why pink noise is bad for your sleep. All that and more in this week’s edition of my newsletter, The Prototype.

www.forbes.com/sites/the-pr...

08.03.2026 19:13 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Time to sit in a theater and watch Tommy Shelby do his thing.

08.03.2026 01:20 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

TIL they had dice towers in ancient Rome.

05.03.2026 17:12 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
The image shows a rectangular Roman dice tower (turricula) made of four copper alloy (bronze) plates with punched cut-out Latin letters and cut-out decorative patterns. At the bottom front is a stepped exit chute with small bronze bells attached to the opening. The tower is a Roman anti-cheating device. It has an open top and is hollow inside except for three staggered, downward-sloping plates, designed to randomize dice as they fall, ensuring unpredictable dice rolls. When the dice rolled out of the exit chute they rang the bells!  There is a decorative dolphin either side of the stepped exit chute. The top of the front plate has two decorative pine cone finials. Height 25 cm. There is a single die shown next to the stepped base to illustrate how it was used. 

The front  inscription reads:
PICTOS VICTOS
HOSTIS DELETA
LVDITE SECVRI

Translated as: β€˜The Picts defeated, the enemy has been destroyed, play in safety’.

Around the top of the three remaining sides, a second inscription made with cut out letters reads:

β€˜UTERI/FELIX/VIVAS’ translated as β€˜Use happily; may you live well’.

Found at a Roman villa at Froitzheim in Germany in 1985.

The image shows a rectangular Roman dice tower (turricula) made of four copper alloy (bronze) plates with punched cut-out Latin letters and cut-out decorative patterns. At the bottom front is a stepped exit chute with small bronze bells attached to the opening. The tower is a Roman anti-cheating device. It has an open top and is hollow inside except for three staggered, downward-sloping plates, designed to randomize dice as they fall, ensuring unpredictable dice rolls. When the dice rolled out of the exit chute they rang the bells! There is a decorative dolphin either side of the stepped exit chute. The top of the front plate has two decorative pine cone finials. Height 25 cm. There is a single die shown next to the stepped base to illustrate how it was used. The front inscription reads: PICTOS VICTOS HOSTIS DELETA LVDITE SECVRI Translated as: β€˜The Picts defeated, the enemy has been destroyed, play in safety’. Around the top of the three remaining sides, a second inscription made with cut out letters reads: β€˜UTERI/FELIX/VIVAS’ translated as β€˜Use happily; may you live well’. Found at a Roman villa at Froitzheim in Germany in 1985.

Roman anti-cheating gaming accessory!

This Roman β€˜turricula’ (dice tower) was used to ensure a fair roll of the dice! 🎲🎲🎲

Dice dropped into the top, tumbled over sloping internal levels, and appeared randomly below.

From Froitzheim, Germany, AD 300-400

πŸ“· LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn

#Archaeology

05.03.2026 13:39 β€” πŸ‘ 965    πŸ” 294    πŸ’¬ 30    πŸ“Œ 53

I'm not annoying, I just like to talk about Mogo and Rot Lop Fan and why...

ah yes, yes I see. I'll show myself out.

05.03.2026 06:01 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
an image promoting a substack article titled β€˜25 medieva manuscripts you can look at online right now’

an image promoting a substack article titled β€˜25 medieva manuscripts you can look at online right now’

i made a starter back of beautiful and unique manuscripts you can browse online! (with links) for anyone that wants a good way to spend an afternoon :)

open.substack.com/pub/weirdmed...

05.03.2026 03:52 β€” πŸ‘ 3177    πŸ” 1242    πŸ’¬ 28    πŸ“Œ 18

I would read that comic though

05.03.2026 04:57 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I read that twice before I realized you didn't mean you'd written comics with all three at the same time.

05.03.2026 04:54 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

My wife says I like The Pitt because "where else do you see competent people in positions of authority trying to help?"

04.03.2026 22:09 β€” πŸ‘ 1816    πŸ” 196    πŸ’¬ 54    πŸ“Œ 0

I have mineral structures in my oral cavity that I use to help process nourishment.

05.03.2026 02:26 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

My humanities thesis was a defense of Pelagianism...

05.03.2026 01:24 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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How Anthropic’s Kerfuffle With The Pentagon Became A Optics Headache For OpenAI Plus: Popular Chinese open source models are helping mint billionaires.

AI behemoth Anthropic has come into the U.S. government’s line of fire. But thanks to wild turn of events over the last few days, the Anthropic-Pentagon kerfuffle has become a optics headache for OpenAI.

A full recap in the latest edition of The Prompt:
www.forbes.com/sites/the-pr...

04.03.2026 18:23 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Dario Amodei says Anthropic has a higher retention than OpenAI, emphasizing its "mission" as a way to reinforce staff loyalty and fend off competitors' offers (The Information)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

04.03.2026 03:41 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1
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LLMs show bias in opioid prescribing Testing large language models on acute-pain vignettes reveals biases in opioid recommendations that particularly affect marginalized groups.

It’s unsettling to see LLMs scaling bias, not solving it.

A study of 3.4M outputs found models recommend more aggressive opioids to Black and LGBTQIA+ patients while simultaneously flagging them as high risk.

Clinical guardrails are needed to ensure these tools don't worsen disparities.

27.02.2026 15:53 β€” πŸ‘ 66    πŸ” 31    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 4
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Greek Mogul On Why Iran Attacks, Elimination Of Gray Fleet Is Boosting Tanker Fortunes The U.S.’ latest attacks may raise gas prices at the pumps, but Trump’s military operations have already helped boost shipping billionaire fortunes by $45 billion and counting.

1/ The U.S. ouster of Maduro in Venezuela and the attacks on Iran have been a boon for oil tanker billionaires. Tanker rates are up to record highs, tanker stocks are up by 60%+ so far this year and tanker resale prices are up to decade highs as well.

www.forbes.com/sites/giacom...

03.03.2026 14:39 β€” πŸ‘ 12    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
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Startup MMI Wants To Use Mini Robots To Treat Alzheimer's MMI is starting FDA-approved human trials for its tiny robot to use needles the size of eyelashes to help clear waste from the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.

*NEW* In my latest @forbes.com feature, I wrote about the startup that’s starting early clinical trials to use a miniature robot to treat Alzheimer’s based on experimental operations done in China and elsewhere in Asia.

www.forbes.com/sites/amyfel...

03.03.2026 14:07 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

After seeing so many things about it online, I finally started watching Traitors. It is akin to watching a high-stakes chess tournament between a bunch of people who only learned how to play chess yesterday but are convinced their three-hour class made them experts at it. (Complimentary)

03.03.2026 00:25 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Iranian Hackers Use Elon Musk’s Starlink To Stay Online As the attacks continue, Iranians have turned to Space X’s satellite internet technology β€” including one of the country’s most notorious hacker crews, which is claiming retaliatory cyberattacks agains...

🚨NEW🚨 One of Iran's most notorious hacker crews, linked by Israelis to Tehran's intelligence apparatus, is using Elon Musk's Starlink to stay online.

It also has a blue tick account on Elon Musk's X, where it's been advertising its unverified retaliatory hacks.

www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

02.03.2026 20:40 β€” πŸ‘ 11    πŸ” 12    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 2
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White House stalls release of approved US science budgets The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.

The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡

27.02.2026 16:06 β€” πŸ‘ 1055    πŸ” 711    πŸ’¬ 20    πŸ“Œ 75
Post image

It appears a hospital in Teheran has now been hit.

www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...

01.03.2026 21:17 β€” πŸ‘ 650    πŸ” 335    πŸ’¬ 78    πŸ“Œ 91
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U.S. Half Marathon Championships Ends in Controversy as Top 3 Women Are Led Off Course The lead pack was running the wrong way for a quarter mile before having to make an abrupt U-turn.

Ugh, this is awful.

www.runnersworld.com/races-places...

01.03.2026 21:01 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

I think a part of this is the arbiters of cool in Gen X were always trying to find the next big thing before anyone else did. Discovering new sounds was part of the culture.

01.03.2026 20:02 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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U.S. Strikes in Middle East Use Anthropic, Hours After Trump Ban Within hours of declaring that the federal government will end its use of artificial-intelligence tools made by tech company Anthropic, President Trump launched a major air attack in Iran with the hel...

Despite the ban, the Pentagon is still using Anthropic.

www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

01.03.2026 19:57 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

You need to read the spiritual successor - Operation Bounce House. Takes this idea and runs with it for the streaming influencer era.

28.02.2026 21:56 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

The King is mad

28.02.2026 21:42 β€” πŸ‘ 5349    πŸ” 1103    πŸ’¬ 77    πŸ“Œ 28
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VA Secretary Collins Is Wrong About Veteran Suicide Prevention Funding - The American Prospect These programs save lives, every day.

Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins harps on one point: The VA spends too much money on its suicide prevention operations. But these initiatives keep the veteran suicide rate much lower than it would be otherwise.

28.02.2026 17:01 β€” πŸ‘ 74    πŸ” 40    πŸ’¬ 6    πŸ“Œ 11
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Exclusive: Prior to Iran attacks, CIA assessed Khamenei would be replaced by hardline IRGC elements if killed, sources say In the run-up to the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Saturday, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency assessed that even if Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the operation, he would likely be replaced by hardline figures from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), two sources briefed on the intelligence said.

Exclusive: Prior to Iran attacks, CIA assessed Khamenei would be replaced by hardline IRGC elements if killed, sources say reut.rs/4l9SCAs

28.02.2026 16:05 β€” πŸ‘ 1638    πŸ” 881    πŸ’¬ 68    πŸ“Œ 268