On the last Friday of every month, I compile some observations and insights that I share on social media. I call these Friday’s Discovery.

“Capitalism happens when you believe that the glorious fishmonger should show the way for humanity.” —@aral

“I found this interesting 11 years ago: ‘How many Microsoft designers does it take to change a light bulb? None. They just defined darkness as the “industry standard.” But now I can’t ignore this: “How many big companies will it take to solve the climate problem?” There aren’t any. They just define global warming as the ‘industry standard’. —@HelenCzerski

“It’s easy to come up with a solution if you only understand 10% of the problem” —@tef

Death rate in first 8 months of 2024 2% higher than forecast [pay attention to the actuaries]

The first eight months of 2024, based on a baseline containing expected COVID-19 deaths:
— Overall mortality is 2% higher than expected;
— COVID-19 death rate 70% higher than expected;
— Non-COVID-19 respiratory disease mortality rates are 8% higher than forecast, with pneumonia deaths 14% higher; and
– These results are statistically significant.

For every flu death, there are five COVID-19 deaths.
Mortality rates from non-respiratory causes are approaching predictions.

Does the mind have an immune system? By @ShaunCoffey

We think cognitive immunology has a bright future. Imagine that our understanding of the brain’s immune system continues to expand until it is on par with our understanding of the body’s immune system. Imagine how much better our treatment of misinformation sensitivities could become. (Think of such treatment as a form of next-level critical thinking instruction for those who are willing, rather than a forced inoculation for those who are unwilling.) Imagine how rare outbursts of massive irrationality would become. What if we could reduce toxic polarization by 35%? Or make everyone 15% less susceptible to ideological fixation? What if we could make delusions of anger and hatred less common? Imagine taming the worst infodemics the same way we tamed the worst epidemics: by patiently building herd immunity against the worst infectious agents.

Helen Keller wrote a letter to Nazi students before they burned her books: “If you think you can kill ideas, history has taught you nothing” (1933)

To the German student body:

If you think you can kill ideas, history has taught you nothing. Tyrants have tried to do this many times before, and these ideas have risen with their power and destroyed them.

You can burn my books and those of Europe’s best thinkers, but the ideas in them have seeped into millions of channels and will continue to inspire the ideas of others. I donated all royalties from my book forever to the German soldiers who were blinded in the World War, with nothing in my heart but love and compassion for the German people.

I acknowledge the serious complications that led to your intolerance; I condemn even more the injustice and unwiseness of passing on the shame of your actions to unborn generations.

Do not think that your barbaric acts against the Jews are unknown here. God does not sleep and He will judge you. It is better to have a millstone hanging around your neck and sink into the sea than to be hated and despised by everyone. ——Helen Keller

Back to basics – riding helmet

To summarize, bicycle helmets do not provide any protection designed to prevent collisions involving any other vehicle. While it can provide some protection to your head against cuts from glass, that level of protection is almost inconsequential compared to the sheer force of impact from being hit by a car.

Bicycle helmets do absorb impact somewhat, but not enough to prevent concussions or even coma. Additionally, polystyrene, the material bicycle helmets are made of, is rated at 3.4 GPa, while the strength of the human skull exceeds 5 GPa. This is a huge difference and simply means your skull is much stiffer than a bike helmet.
…
However, whatever you decide to do, now that you know that a bicycle helmet really only prevents scrapes and scrapes and offers little other protection, please stop saying “My friend crashed his bike and smashed his helmet. Without his helmet, his skull would have been shattered” stories because they’re simply not true.

OpenAI o3 consumes five boxes of Gas per task

OpenAI recently launched o3, its most powerful artificial intelligence model to date. In addition to the cost of running the model, its impact on the environment is another area of ​​concern.

One study shows that each o3 task consumes approximately 1,785 kWh of energy, equivalent to two months of electricity usage by the average U.S. household.

Analysis of the benchmark results by Boris Gamazaychikov, Salesforce’s head of artificial intelligence sustainability, shows that this is roughly equivalent to 684 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions, equivalent to the carbon emissions of more than five full fills of gasoline.

The Landlord’s Game: Lizzie Maggie and the Anti-Capitalist Origins of Monopoly (1903)

There are few cases of creative and intellectual theft more egregious than the origins of Monopoly, which grossed billions at the box office. In a nutshell: A brilliant female economist invented an anti-capitalist board game, but it was stolen by a lying, opportunistic man and repackaged as capitalist family fun.