2023-07-26
If Alexander Graham Bell had not secured the patent for inventing the telephone, Elisha Gray would have gotten it because they both applied for the telephone patent on the same day (Feb 14, 1876).
That is via Noahpinion in his interview with Kevin Kelley. Kelley's point is that invention is an emergent property of society (what he calls the technium), rather than an individual act.
2023-07-26
HIV transmission in Sydney has plunged more than 88% from the 2008-2012 average to just 11 cases per year.
It seems it will be possible to greatly reduce or even eliminate HIV transmission.
Via Tyler Cowen.
2023-07-24
From Wikipedia:
Square or cube watermelons are watermelons grown into the shape of a cube. Cube watermelons are commonly sold in Japan, where they are essentially ornamental and are often very expensive, with prices as high as US$200.
They are grown in boxes, which form them to their distinctive shape. I discovered these via the Kroger app, which has distinctly wonderful food facts as it's loading screen.
2023-07-21
I found this video to be a helpful distillation of concepts I'd heard before with a couple things that were new to me.
I'd known that trust is a combination of credibility, reliability, intimacy, and self interest, but I hadn't heard the sub components before:
Credibility
Reliability
Intimacy
Self interest (destroys trust)
2023-07-20
The numbers are really small, both in comparison to US boarder crossings and (especially) the population of China. Still the increase is an interesting in what it suggests about the situation in China.