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Recommended Reading / Watching 

Here’s every electric vehicle on sale in the US for 2020 and its range

• The Tesla S P100D has the longest range of them all (370 miles per charge)

The entire coal industry employs fewer people than Arby’s 

• This article came out a while ago, but still contains some great information. It does a fantastic job putting the true size of America’s coal industry into perspective.

Japanese scientists find a way to sort sperm by sex

• The sex of a child is determined by the chromosome contained within the sperm that first reaches the egg. If this sperm carries an X chromosome, the baby will be a girl, if it carries a Y chromosome, the baby will be a boy. (Eggs only contain X chromosomes.)
• In a recent study, scientists from Japan exposed sperm to a chemical that made the sperm carrying an X chromosome swim more slowly, which allowed it to be sorted from the faster swimming Y chromosome-containing sperm.
• Excerpt: “To determine if this motility change actually meant anything for female/male fertilization rates, they treated mouse sperm with resiquimod to separate the slow and fast swimmers. Using only the faster swimmers, artificially inseminated litters were 90 percent male. Using only the slower swimmers, they were 81 percent female.”
• If this technology were made publicly available, it would allow parents to choose the gender of their child. This could lead to another wave of generations with a disproportionate number of males to females. While the opposite is theoretically possible, it seems unlikely, given large number of cultures in which male children are preferred to females.
• A imbalance of this nature was created after China implemented a one child policy. If you want to read about that, click on the link in the previous bullet point.

 

Update on the progress of Deepfake

• A few months ago, I wrote a little piece about the implications of deepfake technology. Although I was fairly impressed by the examples of it I found back then, they pale in comparison to deepfake showcased in this video.
• For those of you who didn’t read the previous post, deepfake is a technology which allows a person’s face to be simulated. Although it was once very easy to spot deepfakes, they are quickly becoming indistinguishable from unedited clips.

 

A few charities I recently donated to

I’m just made donations to a few charities that are doing some really amazing work. I wanted to share a little information about them, especially in the event that you are currently considering donating money but haven’t yet decided where to direct it.

1. Charity: Water

• I first learned about this organization by listening to an interview with its creator; Scott Harrison. Scott has gone on a pretty classic hero’s journey (Call to adventure, descent into the underworld, rebirth), which he describes in the video I’m attaching below. After telling this story, he also outlines the formation and operation of Charity: Water. I cried a lot while watching this.

 

2. The Chaikuni Institute 

• These guys are doing wonderful things to promote sustainable agriculture and preserve South America’s tropical rainforests. I had the opportunity to visit their permaculture operation while spending time in Peru last year and was very impressed with the work they do.

 

3. The Himalayan Cataract Project

• The Himalayan Cataract Project specializes in surgeries that restore vision to blind patients in underdeveloped countries. These surgeries are simple and cheap, meaning you get a massive bang for your buck from donations to this charity.
• Their description video is another tear jerker:

 

Questions

There is something very magical about questions. When I have time to kill, I often try to think up questions to which I’d like to know the answer. It’s a nice thing to do in lieu of obsessively checking one’s phone and it’s also a good way of building one’s curiosity muscle.

At this point, my list of these time-killing questions has grown pretty long. Below, you’ll find a few of my favorites, all of which can be directed towards pretty much anyone.

• If you have a response to one of these you’d like to share with me, please do so. If you would like me to post your response in the next edition of the newsletter, say the word. I can credit you with the response, or post it anonymously.

What are some subtle truths about life and reality that you feel many people have not noticed?

What was the most harrowing experience of your life?

What are you favorite books? Why?

What are your favorite movies? Why?

What have you learned from the pain you’ve experienced in life?

What is one concept, idea, etc, that you wish more people knew about?

Is there anything you believe that most people think is crazy? What is it? Why do you believe it?

If someone gave you 100,000 dollars to donate, what cause / causes would you donate it to?

What is one short thought or idea that you’d like to share?

 

Announcement

I recently added a page with some videos containing information of nutrition. You can find it by looking though the pages that drop down when you hover your cursor over the “Misc” button in the top menu, or by clicking here. I’ll probably add to this page as time goes on and I find more interesting content on the topic.

 

Deep Dream Image