Covid-19: alternate origin stories
Pre-Wuhan Covid-19 in Italy, bioweapons research in Russia and China, and curious coincidences. There’s a lot of credible information that casts doubt on the official story of Covid-19’s origins. Starting with a big... READ MORE
Penisocratic method #2
Exciting year ahead for human space exploration For reasons beyond my understanding, there are people who aren’t closely watching how we’re progressing to the stars. Of course, it’s only the most important thing... READ MORE
Penisocratic Method #1
Today, let me introduce you to a new post format. Here’s the thing: the click-through “tile” design of the website encourages long-form writing. This was a deliberate decision to keep the quality of... READ MORE
Why Scotland is Pakistan
I have a huge discovery to share with you: Scotland is Pakistan. Consider: A mountaineous hinterland full of angry bearded men wearing women’s clothing, who seem to be suspiciously close to their livestock.... READ MORE
The Asian powderkeg
Right now, Asia is a powderkeg with several simultaneously lit fuses. There are at least four conflicts in Asia from which neither side can afford to back down, as the stakes are too... READ MORE
The vibranium shield of willful ignorance
Nobody is more imaginative than a person who doesn’t want to concede an obvious point. As the internet brought 24/7 global debates, it also brought rapid innovation in the field of being a... READ MORE
La dolce vita
How sweet something tastes is clearly a matter of acclimation. When you cut sugar from your diet, your sense of sweetness gets “downregulated” in a few weeks. Afterwards, sweet things often taste too... READ MORE
Technology and magic
People are wrong in many curious ways. A new one I noticed is assuming that a goal is silly, because people in the past tried to achieve it in silly ways. The thinking,... READ MORE
Latest Posts
What is Survivorship Bias
One of the R.A.F.’s top priorities during WW2 was improving the odds that its notoriously expensive and strategically crucial bombers will make it back from bombing runs over Germany. The returning airplanes were rigorously scrutinised, and military experts were busy … Continued
Show me how you drive and I’ll tell you who you are
Everything you need to know about a nation, you can learn from how it does two things: 1. Queuing, and 2. Driving. Both measure the people’s ability (and willingness) to function in a reasonable system without breaking it. In fact, … Continued
The most important thing you’re probably ignoring? Sleep.
You know what’s important? Sleep. More accurately, the stuff known as sleep hygiene. When it comes to well-being, sleep is the one area where the tiniest (and easiest) change can make the most difference. It’s role in psychological health is … Continued
The Science of Douchebaggery
There is a profound and often underestimated source of the phenomenon colloquially known as “douchebaggery”: People are not very good at realistically estimating fairness, particularly when it comes to our own rights, contributions, claims and interests in general. Imagine, if you will, a … Continued
How to actually lose weight
Wanna lose weight? Odds are, you do. So…how? The worst offenders are well known – sugar, fried stuff, soda, triplemocchaventimacchiatos, eating late at night and lack of exercise. We now also know that a major and historically underestimated factor are simple carbohydrates from … Continued
Artificial Intelligence will not kill us all
Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking are worried the human race might be replaced by robots. A couple of problems with that:
QE in EU is uh oh
The European Central Bank launched a programme of quantitative easing to the tune of 60 billion euros every month. The logic appears solid at first – it seems to have worked in America, so why not in Europe? Because America’s problem was … Continued
Schrödinger’s farts
Thanks to quantum physics, we’re now able to name a phenomenon literally older than mankind. I’ve just invented Schrödinger’s farts – farts that exist in several states of matter simultaneously, until measured.
Screw motivation, what you need is discipline.
If you want to get anything done, there are two basic ways to get yourself to do it. The first, more popular and devastatingly wrong option is to try to motivate yourself. The second, somewhat unpopular and entirely correct choice is to … Continued
Plot twist
I want to direct a movie where the trailer shows only zombies, and the first five minutes are indeed the standard prelude to apocalypse. But then, five minutes in, patient zero is shot and the rest of the movie is … Continued
4th of July message to Americans, from a former filthy commie
Dear Americans,
Democratic tradition and “barbarians”
An old schoolmate of mine, an Arabist, now teaches in Egypt. We had a fascinating talk about the situation there and it was extremely interesting to hear some first-hand accounts. He made a point that I believe is worth typing out for the … Continued
Fixing finance for the future
TLDR: Financial institutions spend untold billions every year on arbitrary opulence, trivially automatable administration and lush compensation for managers whose contributions are statistically insignificant. Monumental savings are readily achievable to get everybody a far better deal.
Turn signals dictionary: Italy vs. civilised world (sorry, Italians)
Click image for giant full size.
Economic growth: the reason South Sudan can grow 40% in a year and the USA can’t
There is an awful lot of nonsense floating about the interwebs and even “expert” debates when it comes to economic growth, so let me put it straight for those interested:
The definition of an “Economy”
An “Economy” is what emerges when somebody has enough food to be willing to exchange part of it for frivolous crap.
Crapware addenda
Following the Crapware article, a discussion started both here and on reddit and a number of interesting points were brought forward that I feel are important to add.