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Ctcctcggcgggcacgtag is unique to both SARS-CoV-2 and Moderna's 2015/2016 patents
Using BLAST is easy. I'm going to show you how easy and how to prove that SARS-Cov-2 is man-made
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How to commit murder inside a locked room
Few genres are more preposterous than the locked room mystery. The premises are absurd and plot solutions ridiculous—but still I keep on reading.
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Luxury Media
I was cruising through the supermarket when a shopping-cart traffic jam stalled me in front of the “newsstand”. That word is in quotes because most things on offer aren’t news and in fact aren’t magazines in the traditional sense, but single-issue glossies about Princess Diana or Bruce Springsteen or Michelle Obama or…
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How I would sell OpenBSD as a salesperson
Let's have fun, I'm now a salesperson and I have to convince customers to buy OpenBSD, here is how I would proceed.
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Sufficient Decentralization for Social Networks
A design pattern to reduce centralized control and change incentives in social networks.
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Twitter blocked my account for a tweet I did not make
Now this is pretty weird: I just got blocked by Twitter for a tweet that I did not make:
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If you’re so smart, why aren’t you happy?
“Happiness is for stupid people.” That’s a common complaint I hear from smart overachievers. They think only dumb or lazy people can be happy. Entrepreneurs will say, “I don’t want to be happy because I want to be successful.” They worry that if they get too happy they’ll lose their desire and won’t work hard anymore…
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The user experience problems of quadratic voting
In their seminal book, "Radical Markets," Eric Posner and Glen Weyl introduce quadratic voting to improve (or radicalize) democratic preference voting. They argue that by allowing voters to
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Making Quieter Technology
I spent the last years making technology calm and pleasant to use. This is roughly how I did it.
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Is Europe just not good at innovating?
This article is part of a series on (European) innovation and capabilities. Feedback is very welcome on bert@hubertnet.nl. I’d also like to thank the many proofreaders, but all mistakes remain mine! In the world of (high) technology, Europe is exceptionally weak at innovating. There are many ways to explain how this…
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The candy stores of Oxford Street
» email me » follow me on twitter » follow the blog on twitter » follow the blog on Bluesky » follow the blog on RSS
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What would open sourcing the Twitter algorithm actually look like?
What would “open sourcing the Twitter algorithm” actually look like? In Part 1 of this series, we focus on understanding how Twitter’s algorithmic feed works under the hood.
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The anti-inflation pivot of 2022
In response to the surge in prices that began in earnest in the summer of 2021 central banks all around the world are hiking interest rates.
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The state of South Africa, 28ish years post-apartheid
A blog containing essays, of varying cogency, about various things that my mind have wandered to.
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Air Marshals Will Refuse Orders to Go to the Border, Prefer First Class Cabins
Armed federal officers publicly threatening to defy orders from the President seems like it’s getting insufficient attention. The Biden administration largely continuing Trump’s border policies (he’s building the wall!) seems under-covered as well. The claim about vulnerable flights as a result is absurd.
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The next century of computing
80 Brief Predictions for the Future
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Hispaniola's great divergence
Why are Haiti and the DR so different?
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Interview: Vitalik Buterin
In which we talk about the big shifts in crypto.
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Galileo Project now fully funded for expedition to study an interstellar meteor
Wonderful news! We just received full funding for the Galileo Project expedition to scoop the fragments of the first interstellar meteor…
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Prices and wages in Medieval England (2014)
Data-driven approach to history
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ChatGPT vs. a Cryptic Crossword
The first Times crossword Having seen several mind-blowing articles about ChatGPT’s ability (most notably this one), I wondered how ChatGPT would fare solving a cryptic crossword. I decided to try with an easy one: a Quick Cryptic from The Times. I had a search through the Times for the Times archives to try and find…