Daniel Lawler

Quite the intro

'We're already living in science fiction': The neurotech revolution.

From translating thoughts into words to allowing paralysed people to walk, the field of neurotechnology has been quietly surging ahead, raising hopes of medical breakthroughs -- and profound ethical concerns

u.afp.com/SnNs

Here we go. Just an entirely pointless thing to investigate, literally meaningless, and will only be used by bad-faith actors to attack the COP process and climate action in general www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…

This piece is as good as people say it is. Read it to appreciate that writing isn't just about content, but style. AI can't do this.

That’s before I reckon with the ethics of using a thing for ghost efficiency that is pretty societally devastating.

And on a final personal note, I don’t want to become stupid before my time. I really don’t. I will keep mucking about so that I can keep mucking about, for as long as possible.

Countries around the world have agreed to phase out the use of mercury-based dental amalgams in tooth fillings by 2034, a move that will change the practice of dentistry. The World Health Organization considers mercury one of the top 10 chemicals of major public health concern u.afp.com/Sn4Z

The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

Wonderful

The Nonprofit Feeding the Entire Internet to AI Companies Common Crawl claims to provide a public benefit, but it lies to publishers about its activities.

NEW: Common Crawl, the massive archiver of the web, has gotten cozy with AI companies and is providing paywalled articles for training data. They’re also lying to publishers who have asked for material to be removed. “The robots are people too,” CC’s exec director told us when we asked about this.

“The robots are people too." - what a grim quote about our times

This is quite a story: the US employed every strongarm tactic available, including personal threats against delegates and their families, to derail an agreement on reducing shipping emissions that was almost finalized. on.ft.com/47lq3dZ

arXiv will no longer accept review articles and position papers unless they have been accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review.

This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.

Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.

@obrianp.bsky.social this is intense man

An Air Canada flight right now

Apple Cider Vinegar For Weight Loss - A Study That May Never Have Happened At All Some fascinating insights into the world of scientific integrity.

Can apple cider vinegar make you lose weight?

Probably not. My piece this week takes a look at a fascinating example of unreliable science, forensic metascience, and seriously problematic data.

gidmk.substack.com/p/apple-cide...

I Went to Watch the Tiny Operation That’s Making ICE Lose Its Mind. A Lot Can Happen in 24 Hours. At the headquarters for Donald Trump’s darkest work, a few people are getting under the administration’s skin.

An incredible missive from our dystopian present

slate.com/business/202...

If the problem is scooter collisions, surely you regulator scooters, not pedestrians

Lab Monkeys Escape Overturned Truck Near Heidelberg, Mississippi Lab monkeys from Tulane University have escaped an overturned truck around mile marker 117 on Interstate 59, north of the town of Heidelberg, Mississippi, marshalling a response from numerous law…

Lab monkeys from Tulane University have escaped an overturned truck north of the town of Heidelberg, Mississippi.

Despite initial claims by local law enforcement, the monkeys are not carrying COVID-19, herpes or hepatitis C.

buff.ly/16gTRJa

If you're killing dozens of people with your saber, I think that is more than just rattling it

Imagine what the stats for X users must be?

The AP photographer also suspects this guy isn't French

Inspector Clouseau? The mystery man in an AP photo after the Louvre jewel heist creates a buzz A photo taken by an Associated Press photographer after the brazen daylight robbery at Paris' Louvre Museum is generating an online buzz.

This is not actually how French people dress, but how Americans think they do (a view 70 years out of date).
I bet this guy is actually an American tourist
apnews.com/article/louv...

Dodger Stadium's parking lot is so big that it could fit an additional 10 Dodger Stadiums.

People think that families were displaced out of Chavez Ravine in the 50s in order to build the stadium, but it's technically more accurate to say that they were displaced to build the stadium's parking lots.

"This magic ring is the secret to everything" "Why" "It binds the other rings" "What do they do" "Grant power" "What sort of power" "Power to rule" "Be more specific" "...." "If I'm in a fight, can I use them" "Well, they make some short people invisible" "Just invisible?" "No! also hurt and sad"

Analysis: Denver Study Shows Removing Parking Requirements Results in More Affordable Housing Being Built "We find that eliminating parking minimums creates more options for developers and renters."

Like UBI and providing long-term contraception to teenagers, this will be repeated a billion times and never believed, but yes, reducing parking requirements encourages affordable housing.

Sea Otters Are Stealing Surfboards in California. Again.

Gift link if you need to stop doom scrolling.

Exclusive | Treasury Tells Employees Not to Share Photos of White House Ballroom Construction Images of the demolition of parts of the East Wing went viral on Monday, and Treasury’s headquarters next door to the White House has a front-row seat.

The Treasury Department instructed employees not to share to share photos of the demolition of parts of the White House’s East Wing

Second "No Kings Day" protests likely the largest single-day political demonstration since 1970, with 4.2-7.6 million participants Here are the initial results from our crowdsourced crowd-counting estimates

Good evening. We estimate that between 4.2 and 7.6 million people turned out for the No Kings Day demonstrations held around the country on Saturday. This makes Oct 18 very likely the biggest single-day U.S. protest event since 1970. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/second-no-...

🌎 Nearly 80 percent of the world's poorest, or about 900 million people, are directly exposed to climate hazards exacerbated by global warming, bearing a "double and deeply unequal burden," the United Nations warned.
➡️ u.afp.com/Ssqv