Curated Commons // Edition 116
Thank you for subscribing (if you haven’t, subscribe now!). Welcome to the 116th edition of Curated Commons. Happy reading, and do pass on the newsletter and share it on your social networks if you find it interesting! It’s free! Dollar-free, ad-free, and algorithm-free.
Let’s dive right in ($ indicates potential paywall).
In Germany, you can park your bicycle in car parking slots
#TIL
Tracking shrinkflation for decades
Interesting story on a consumer activist who has been tracking shrinkflation for years. - Read here ($)
Translation is already a machine-augmented job
Augmented, for now. Replaced, soon? Never? - Read here ($)
Permafrost, zombie viruses and a heating planet
The planet is heating up, and the permafrost is a source of millions of viruses that we haven’t seen yet, many which might be a significant threat to humanity. Scientists have now managed to revive a 50,000 years old frozen virus. - Read here
The Chinese space station is getting ready
With the ISS on its last legs, the Tiangong space station might be the only one up in a few years - Read here ($)
Will you talk to your ‘inner child’
This person trained an AI chatbot on their childhood journal entries
Can you use tiny robots to deliver drugs to the brain?
The team behind Apple’s Face ID is betting it can. -Read here ($)
How many millions have you made off social media?
Apparently, these kids make quite a bit. - Read here ($)
Where does all the cardboard in the world come from?
We just can’t get enough of cardboard. Good deep-dive - Read here ($)
Cardboard manufacturers broke production records in 2021, and they’ve been breaking them basically every quarter since. By 2025, according to one estimate, the size of the international market for corrugated packaging will reach $205 billion, commensurate with the gross domestic product of New Zealand or Greece.
Playing around with ChatGPT
The future has been all the rage the past few days on Twitter. Lots of interesting output from ChatGPT but this one’s at another level - running a whole virtual machine inside of ChatGPT - Read here
Stay safe, and happy reading! And if you liked the newsletter, thank you, and maybe consider sharing it? My DMs on Twitter are always open for any feedback.