Chartres, Stargate, Operator, r1, declassification, two-headed worms
Agnes Callard has written a new book making the case for the philosophical life.
Dwarkesh and Gavin Leech have compiled an oral history of AI research in the frontier labs.
Your decisions matter, WWII edition:
On August 16, 1944, [Chartres] cathedral was saved from destruction thanks to the American colonel Welborn Barton Griffith Jr. (1901–1944), who questioned the order he was given to target the cathedral. The Americans believed that the steeples and towers were being used as an observation post for German artillery.
Griffith, accompanied by a volunteer soldier, instead decided to go and verify whether or not the Germans were using the cathedral. Griffith could see that the cathedral was empty, so he had the cathedral bells ring as a signal for the Americans not to shoot. Upon hearing the bells, the American command rescinded the order to fire.
Colonel Griffith died in combat action that same day, in the town of Lèves, near Chartres.
Cody Rhodes "is the reigning Undisputed WWE Champion, recognized as both the WWE Champion and WWE Universal Champion in his first reign with each, as well as the inaugural WWE Crown Jewel Champion."
Visions of bitcoin in 2025 (not quite).
Trump's executive order on crypto: Strengthening American leadership In digital financial technology
Trump's executive order on AI (repealing Biden's executive order on AI safety): Removing barriers to American leadership in artificial intelligence
Trump's executive order declassifying files about the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK: Declassification of records concerning the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Matthew Johnson on that EO and MKUltra.
Is Donald Trump the 44th-great-grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)?
The Human Chemical Corporation. What an evocative video!
People have continued to spend much more time at home after the pandemic...
OpenAI announces Stargate. Hopefully there is no nominative determinism at play...
Nick Cammarata live-tweeting as Operator tries to buy a gym bench for him on facebook marketplace is one of the most enjoyable things I've read in a while. Especially delightful when it gets sidetracked by some cool-looking Japanese bowls!
DeepSeek releases r1, which you can play with here. Here's Zvi's coverage.
Michael Levin's group changes the bioelectric field of a worm to induce it to regenerate two heads rather than one. And then the offspring of that worm also have two heads...
2025 looking like a hard sci-fi novel.
The folks at Sentinel are doing excellent work monitoring the situation.
Speaking of monitoring the situation... Jeff Bezos of 1995, meet Jeff Bezos of 2025.