Russ Roberts and Adam Mastroianni have an excellent conversation about how being virtuous cuts against following one's incentives. (Omelas, Charles Sumner, academic social justice conferences in the Tenderloin... recommended!)

Alexey Guzey published this just before joining the staff of the OpenAI Foundation: I ran out of money a year ago, spent the last of my savings on a prostitute in Hong Kong, and became a commie.

"Hooters Air... operated from March 6, 2003, until it ceased commercial flights on April 17, 2006."

"Xuyun did not have sexual contact with his wives. Moreover, he extensively explained the dharma to them so that they too would practice Buddhism."

The first successful replantation of a severed limb was conducted at Mass General Hospital in 1962:

While attempting to hitch a ride on the back of a freight train, Everett Knowles (1950–2016), aged 12 at the time, hit an abutment when the train lurched, severing his arm completely at the shoulder. He and his arm were rushed to MGH... Some doctors prepared Everett for surgery, while others worked on the separated arm. First, they rejoined the "chaotically mangled blood vessels, then the bone and finally the skin". In the time since the accident, the arm had grown a "deathly gray", but grew steadily pink as the surgery progressed and blood vessels were reattached. The nerves would be reconnected in a later surgery.

"All we did," said the modest Dr. Malt, "was apply techniques we've known about for a long time and simply never had occasion to correlate before... The astonishing thing was not the newness of the operation but the teamwork – the way 12 doctors with expert skills, [as] distinguished a collection of authorities as you could find anywhere, were willing to stand by and feed the incomparable extent of their knowledge to me, for no gain other than to know they had contributed."

Palladium: Don’t Count Out the Country House

Elizabeth Van Nostrand: Dairy cows make their misery expensive, but their calves can’t

Let's taboo the V-word?

Imagine if climate activism were gatekept based on whether you, personally, restrict to only electric transit. In this world, common icebreaker questions are “how long have you been electric?” and “how many miles does your car get on a full charge?”

You might have taken a diesel train to get there but you definitely shouldn’t mention it. If you took an Uber and the car that picked you up was a hybrid, you’re expected to, at a minimum, request them to turn off the gas engine while driving you to your destination.

Kaczynski on the fall of mathematics (writing in 2004!)

Scott Aaronson reflects on the current state of AI:

My position on AI is merely the conservative, skeptical position of 2006, updated with intellectual honesty for the reality of late 2026. And that position, if you need me to spell it out, is as follows:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Scott Aaronson reflects on 9/11.

Tracing Woodgrains: We Will Never Have Normal Times Again

The Declaration of Effective Americanism.

"In Norse mythology, the Poetic Mead or Mead of Poetry... is a mythical beverage that whoever 'drinks becomes a skald or scholar' able to recite any information and solve any question." (I needs to get me some of that!)