JUMPSEAT, the United States’ first-generation, highly elliptical orbit (HEO) signals-collection satellite, has recently been declassified! Learn more about its history here: nro.gov/news-media-fea…

It would be an instructive exercise to explain with data, formulas, and examples almost every single paragraph of this classic (because it has not aged much) paper by Peter Muller. There is one that is more subjective (start with "in my opinion"), worth mulling over for everyone:

marketmayking I've updated in the direction of humans being stochastic parrots more than I thought. I still believe our sample efficiency implies we do something more than that. But as stated, I don't think a static dataset will get you there. You need interactivity. The space is too big.

Nope, it’s all gambling, just with varying expected values. It’s funny - most gamblers know they’re gambling, it’s investors who don’t realize they’re gambling that are the problem.

New video! Memorable for its delightfully absurd name, the Hairy Ball Theorem is extremely beautiful and has some surprising applications. Full video here: youtu.be/BHdbsHFs2P0

The still-broken Polymarket expiration system has produced another doozy. A written log of a crank caller talking about baby sacrifices and brains being turned into mush was determined to be "evidence of blackmail" uncovered in the Epstein files. Users trading the $2m market

storm Nope, there's no house rules. Doesn't exist. House rules would be great, and a major improvement. Instead of house rules, they just make stuff up randomly and oscillate wildly between interpretations, sometimes even opposite rulings on the same exact thing.

I keep coming back to this gem - a timeless and foundational book still having a deep impact.

Marty at Id did ask for a video from me, but there was a miscommunication about when he needed it, so I didn’t get it done by the actual anniversary…

The Mis-Anthropic World. A shocking discovery, but scientists now consider it likely: the prediction market Kalshi operates on - and originates from - a totally different planet than our own. In a new research paper published in February's issue of Nature, scientists have

More alternate dimension examples abound. I'll try and be brief! I recently discussed the Warner Bros rugpull, which featured Netflix mentioning Warner Bros but it nonetheless expired no because Sarandos didn't say it in the "Broes" pronunciation. No idea what the fine print

A surprising number of AI/ML opining on the future of capitalism and democracy. These people have no more cognitive edge (possibly less) than my doorman at work. Definitely less edge than academic economists.

Just this week, I have listened to a podcast where the author (CS prof at U Toronto) predicted the end of democracy. The Google X business manager predicting the end of capitalism. Uncountable people predicting the end of white collar jobs, blue collar jobs, extermination of the

Rugging Reality & A Potential Solution a very long post by a very annoyed idiot. For reasons that defy explanation, the latest trend in prediction markets is to have your markets expire to total lies & nonsense. Indeed, the hottest thing in the space is rugging your users who

Very interested in what the coming era of highly bespoke software might look like. Example from this morning - I've become a bit loosy goosy with my cardio recently so I decided to do a more srs, regimented experiment to try to lower my Resting Heart Rate from 50 -> 45, over

Oh yeah, it's all coming together! Roman is completely assembled at NASA Goddard and is undergoing final tests before being shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where it will be prepped for launch! Check out this video highlighting the different telescope components. Learn more about how

My meager education in biology and evolution gave me the mistaken impression that evolution optimized everything. But it didn't. One example is the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN). It goes from behind your ear, loops down below your aorta, and then back up to the voice-box 1/3

As our fish-like ancestors evolved & developed necks, the nerve got stuck in its way. Evolution couldn't re-route a wire without unplugging it It's sub-optimal design. It developed in tiny gradient steps, leading to a local optimum - just good enough, not perfect 2/3

Extreme e.g.: The distance between a giraffe's brain and its voice box is only a few inches. Yet, its recurrent laryngeal nerve detour makes the nerve about 15 feet long. In some dinosaurs it may have been >90ft long This decidedly un-intelligent design is evolution. 3/3

Screenshot from 20 years ago. Our first corporate BBS system (PCBoard). This was in 1993, before the web.