"Good for you!!" Shopper shares astonishing value of unassuming ring picked up at thrift shop: 'I likely would have walked right past it' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
William H. Janeway at Project Syndicate: Whether mobilizing for war or (re)constructing advanced manufacturing capabilities in peacetime, success turns on the functioning of complex supply chains. But this truth was long forgotten – or at least under-appreciated. Not until recent … | Continue reading
Eric B. Schnurer in The Hedgehog Review: For thousands of years, humankind has fancied itself the apex of creation and the dominant force in the world. Yet humans are now gripped by the fear that yet another species of our own creation—artificially intelligent machines—will prese … | Continue reading
Raymond Offenheiser in The Conversation: I spent 20 years as the president of Oxfam America, an international humanitarian organization, and have overseen humanitarian responses to some of the biggest crises of the past three decades, from the war in Kosovo to the conflicts in Ir … | Continue reading
Michael Erard in the European Review of Books: Language as self, language learning as magic, the mortifications of the flesh: these themes run through The Centre, a debut novel by British-Pakistani writer and translator Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi. Its narrator, Anisa, is a Pakistani … | Continue reading
Fast groq-hosted LLMs vs browser jank Groq is now serving LLMs such as Llama 3 so quickly that JavaScript which attempts to render Markdown strings on every new token can cause performance issues in browsers. Taras Glek's solution was to move the rendering to a requestAnimationFr … | Continue reading
Jeep does not want to sacrifice speed when going electric. Jeep to release its first all-electric model this fall with promising all-terrain feature — here's what we know first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Dean Eckles writes: I thought this NPR report was an interesting example of how demand for life advice seems closely connected to low standards of evidence. Like if this didn’t supposedly tell how to live longer, lose weight etc., would … Continue reading → | Continue reading
It’s so beautiful! READ MORE... | Continue reading
The weekend Bonus Drop covers various AI-centric tools like llamafile, whisperfile, and Firecrawl. llamafile simplifies the deployment of LLM/GPT models for local use, while whisperfile focuses on converting audio files. Firecrawl is a tool for crawling web content and converting … | Continue reading
The oil and gas industry has reaped profits without ensuring there will be money to plug and clean up their wells. In Oklahoma, that work could cost more than $7 billion if it falls to the state. | Continue reading
My friend Aimee has been celebrating "Tiara Tuesdays" for about a month now - by wearing a tiara around the house every Tuesday. Which is pretty fabulous. So when I read that Friday is International Tiara Day, I realized the one thing Tiara Tuesday is missing: Sunday Sweets! ( Th … | Continue reading
Artificial intelligence is everywhere these days, but the fundamentals of how this influential new technology works can be confusing. Two of the most important fields in AI development are “machine learning” and its sub-field, “deep learning.” Here’s a quick explanation of what t … | Continue reading
BRB, immediately adding to cart. READ MORE... | Continue reading
Acadian Lane Indigo against ocher, Atlantic Blue abutting shore cliffs, bluffs, and sand, All of the earth on Prince Edward Island The red of dry blood, of weather-worn brick, Of the rutted, twisting road leading down Through the fishing village to the harbor Where lobster boats … | Continue reading
I got on a plane for the first time in about 6 years this week, and about 11 years since my first solo trip. Not a huge amount has changed; the local airport is slightly nicer, and its security is less burdensome, but it’s still akin to cramming into an aluminium tube and taking … | Continue reading
The perfect summer snack! READ MORE... | Continue reading
Where it all began, for some of us... | Continue reading
"The resulting home is proof that families do not need to compromise on style, space, or comfort." Family's home produces more energy than it uses and offers flexible lifestyle — here's how they do it first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Ryugu's parent body appears to have had a fair amount of water present, too. | Continue reading
After a short break, I’m happy to resume my weekly creative summaries! This one is about a trip, a new iPad and processing images and my job. | Continue reading
I've got about another 10 months left at my current job and after that... I don't know what I'll do. I've already moved down to 4 days a week in an effort to glide down to FIRE. Do I really want to go back up to 5 days? Could I find somewhere that would be […] | Continue reading
California is considering a law that would require warning labels on gas stoves. | Continue reading
Into the 20th century, fog became a popular compositional device. Examples from Monet, Pissarro, Vallotton, Hodler and others. | Continue reading
When I first started keeping a diary, I did it mostly out of imitation. Isaac Asimov kept one, and I liked the idea. As he [...] | Continue reading
Overcast and cool. A pair of love-struck squirrels appear to have designs on my house, climbing the red cedar, peering in the windows. | Continue reading
In my Sunday Musings today, I mentioned that there was no photo of the Coconut and Jam cakes that Julie baked yesterday. It turns out that there was a photo after all. Pastry cases lined with jam, and coconut sponge filling. Really delicious! | Continue reading
There are times when we find ourselveson colder than usual morningsand the summer is supposedly on its way. But where’s the sun? And there are times when we findourselves in front of the windowand watching the rain as it drizzles,because plans changedwhen the sky became gray,and … | Continue reading
I started this one with a grid of squares. I imagined an invisible circle growing from the centre of the grid, and the squares changing size depending on their closeness to the circle. First I drew the grid, and also the circle just so I could visualise its placement. See the Pen … | Continue reading
Read to the end for an important statement about X… or Twitter? | Continue reading
The situation with Fluent Models and Sendable warnings | Continue reading
A new theory of quantum gravity, which attempts to unite quantum physics with Einstein's relativity, could help solve the puzzle of the universe's expansion, a theoretical paper suggests. | Continue reading
"Our main goal is to convert ground trips involving four- to eight-hour drives [into sub-regional flights]." Aerospace startup makes major strides toward producing all-electric aircraft with eye-catching features — here's a closer look first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Challengers was definitely a movie. I enjoyed watching it; it was fun. I enjoyed the slow-motion scenes, especially while the characters stood in serve positions, accompanied by the thumping club music. It made those scenes seem more exciting? That got me a message from my wife d … | Continue reading
Cluvens' 2024 model J20 Gatling Workstation has broken cover and it is both bigger and stronger than the first model. Most importantly, it offers a fully adjustable three-screen computer workstation (with attitude) for just USD $4200. Continue Reading Category: Computers, Technol … | Continue reading
This is the final part of a fiction serial, in 850 words. After two years in the cottage, Hettie used a little of her savings to have a bathroom built on the back. Other people in the street had done the same, and losing most of the outside space was compensated by being able to … | Continue reading
Over a hundred years ago, J.M. Barrie told the graduating class of St. Andrews never to lose heart—even in the face of death. | Continue reading
Die Agentur fischerAppelt, live marketing mit Hauptsitz in Köln und mehreren Niederlassungen im In- und Ausland hat bei der 14. Ausgabe der Eventex Awards zweimal Platin, elfmal Gold und dreimal Silber erreichen können. | Continue reading
The spring birding/nesting season outings have not gone as planned, other than the adorable sandhill crane, and after discovering there has been an alligator sighting at our favorite park, I’m beginning to think between all the bird and wildlife drama you may only be seeing food … | Continue reading
"You have to deadhead regularly, but they are easy to grow." Garden expert shares common store-bought plant perfect for deterring pests from garden: 'I've done this for years' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
The Hubble Space Telescope's stunning image of the dusty 'train-wreck' galaxy NGC 4753 reveals what may be one of the greatest optical illusions in the nearby universe. | Continue reading
I wrote a 3000 word blog post in response to a Tweet about how having kids changed my career (which in retrospect probably doesn't even answer the question). So I decided to pull this section out into its own post. It became a 2000 word blog post about planning, sigh. This is why … | Continue reading
2024 May 16: CIDRAP [news bulletin from academic source, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at U of Minnesota]: "USDA experiments suggest H5N1 not viable in properly cooked ground beef" by Lisa Schnirring: Researchers inoculated the ground beef patties with high le … | Continue reading
If you were to think of practical places to locate a water park, the Saudi Arabian desert probably wouldn't be high on the list. However, Saudi authorities don't seem too worried about practicalities lately so Aquarabia is currently under construction, and is set to create waters … | Continue reading
(h/t u/genesurf on Reddit's r/H5N1_AvianFlu) Note! While clade 2.3.4.4b of H5N1 is (I am informed by the video linked below) the clade from which the present circulating panzootic HPAI is, the particular variant studied in this paper is not the same as the one presently predomina … | Continue reading
The next big fusion headline could come anytime. Researchers achieve major breakthrough toward realizing fusion energy: 'It is a pivotal moment' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
On a clear day, sometimes a green flash appears with the sun on the horizon just after sunset or before sunrise. But why does this happen? | Continue reading
Obviously the weather is going to feature. The weather lady on TV told me that temperatures had been ‘above average’ for May. Well I think she was having a laugh, as earlier this week I was wearing three layers of clothing in the house and seriously considering turning on the cen … | Continue reading