Guess who actually managed to put this together two weeks in a row!
As always, all links on this newsletter can be found here.
History, Culture, and Religion
The Paris Review - What Would W.E.B. Du Bois Make of ‘Black Panther’?
Du Bois wrestled with the question of black art’s political and social responsibility. ‘Black Panther’ might be an answer.
An interesting take on what the founder of the NAACP and one of the greatest civil rights activists to have lived would've thought of Black Panther, the core of it being the struggle with identity that a displaced people have.
The sinister return of eugenics - New Statesman
Eugenicist thinking was rejected after the Holocaust, but in the era of Big Tech, the idea that humans can be “engineered” has resurfaced in a new guise.
A slightly worrying trend with mistakes in the past we should learn from
A Song of Shapes and Words - roon’s Newsletter
what a bad time
Theory-cel, shape-rotator, word-cel - these words are now a part of our culture, get used to it.
Tech, Science, and Math
A list of worthwhile posts about cryptocurrency.
Dan Romero updated his crypto reading list, always worth going through this.
As the physicist Richard Feynman famously observed in 1982: “Nature isn’t classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, you’d better make it quantum mechanical.”
How can the promise of Quantum Computing help in drug development?
Richard Feynman is one of the coolest physicists to ever exist. He’s had several contributions to the science, and scientific community particularly to the science of quantum mechanics. The physicist…
I came across this last week and absolutely loved it, finally understand to a conversation level what Feynman diagrams are.
Recycled Lithium-Ion Batteries Can Perform Better Than New Ones - Scientific American
Lithium-ion batteries are at the heart of nearly every electric vehicle, laptop and smartphone, and they are essential to storing renewable energy in the face of the climate emergency.
What will we do when we run out of Lithium?
Maruti Suzuki Ltd - by Bhavik Mehta - Watchlist
If not Tesla, this could be our Maruti Moment.
A good friend wrote this piece about the state of EV in India and some thoughts on who the winner might be.
North Korea Hacked Him. So He Took Down Its Internet | WIRED
Disappointed with the lack of US response to the Hermit Kingdom’s attacks against US security researchers, one hacker took matters into his own hands.
Taking an entire country's internet down is among the top tier power moves.
How Einstein Arrived at His Theory of General Relativity ‹ Literary Hub
In 1905, physicists understood something of the laws governing two types of forces: those of electricity and magnetism and of gravity. We’ve seen that the laws of electricity and magnetism, encoded…
In a previous issue I included one story around Einstein's theory of relativity, this one is a good explainer.
Everything else
Taking leisure seriously - 3 Quarks Daily
by Emrys Westacott The philosopher Theodore Adorno, probably with activities such as reading serious literature and listening to classical music in mind, famously said about himself: I have no hobby. Not that I am the kind of workaholic who is incapable of doing anything with his free time but applying himself industriously to the required…
Another favorite theme of mine that seems to irk a few people this time with a Matrix, love it.
Can We Prove the World Isn’t a Simulation? - Nautilus | Science Connected
You might think we have definitive evidence we’re not in a simulation. That’s impossible.
Fun little thought experiment, fun way to mess around with friends who are convinced because someone says so and a nice reminder that a theory is an explanation, not a fact.
Travel Is No Cure for the Mind - More To That
When we feel the automation of life, we often look to travel as the key to happiness. Here’s a reminder of why it’s not.
Great comic, a message that I echo wholeheartedly
Sainath on Twitter: “My main hobby is going on trips and coming back an unchanged person”
“My main hobby is going on trips and coming back an unchanged person”
The NYT article on MMT is really bad - by Noah Smith
The fringe ideology’s star is falling, and puff pieces will not resuscitate it
I finally got around to reading another piece by Noah, excellent as usual.
A UPI MOMENT FOR E-COMMERCE - by Anil Padmanabhan
India is poised to launch another open source protocol like UPI which will disrupt digital commerce by democratising it. EPISODE #57
A fantastic deep dive into ONDC's which are to be launched soon and why its important for the new Indian consumer.
Solving Wordle using information theory
An excuse to teach a lesson on information theory and entropy.Special thanks to these supporters: https://3b1b.co/lessons/wordle#thanksHelp fund future proje…
And finally, 3blue1brown made a video about Wordle!
Book
Being Peace (Being Peace, #1) by Thich Nhat Hanh
Being Peace book. Read 569 reviews from the world’s largest community for readers. Since its publication in 1987, Being Peace has become a classic of c…
Thich Nhat Hanh passed away recently and this is one of the simplest and yet most beautiful contributions he made to the world in his time here.
Thank you for reading
That’s all I have for this week.
Do subscribe if interested and do reply with interesting stuff
Sainath