Curated Commons // Edition 79
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the 79th edition of Curated Commons. Happy reading, and do pass on the newsletter and share it on your social networks if you find it interesting!
Let’s dive right in ($ indicates potential paywall).
Coding a game…without knowing coding
A developer put the latest release of OpenAI’s code generating model through its paces to develop a few games and apps. Without changing a single line of code, and with plain text instructions. Low-code, no-code, and now AI-code? - Read here
/* Matrix rain
1. Create canvas
Create a canvas and at it to the document
2. Rain
Create a Matrix rain effect with letters.
*/
Can we fight-back aging?
Not just for the rich, but for everybody? Is that desirable? Ethical? Interesting short podcast episode on the Economist on progress in the space - Listen here
Meet Apple, the legal bully
Either Apple marketers really take deep interest in their brand (extremely likely), or Apple has an over-zealous law firm on retention that’s billing them hand over fist. Some crazy stats on how Apple goes to great lengths defending itself against random blogs featuring variations of an apple. - Read here
Between 2019 and last year, Apple, the world’s most valuable public company, worth $2.6 trillion, filed 215 trademark oppositions to defend its logo, name or product titles, according to the Tech Transparency Project, a nonprofit watchdog. That’s more than the estimated 136 trademark oppositions that Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Google collectively filed in the same period, the group said.
AI for bioweapon discovery?
Researchers focused on using AI for drug discovery discover how easy it is to create toxic molecules just by setting up different reward goals for the AI system. We ain’t all that far from thought experiments turning to something more sinister in someone’s garage! - Read here
What if our phones can smell cancer?
Dogs can smell a variety of diseases, including COVID-19. Can we take this ability and create a robotic nose, and then integrate it into smartphones for early detection of cancer? Apparently not as wild as it sounds. Fascinating story - Read here
Off to the moon
Nasa’s moon rocket is now at the launch pad. 300 feet tall, 5-million pound rocket! - Read here
Cities as warehouse hubs
Growing popularity of ecommerce coupled with ever-short delivery times = an explosion of warehouses around cities. - Read here ($)
Just 1.6 percent of all warehouses in New York City and only 1.3 percent in New Jersey are available for lease, according to the real estate firm JLL; only the Los Angeles area has fewer warehouse vacancies in the United States. Some companies are converting buildings never intended to be warehouses. Amazon turned a shuttered supermarket in Queens into a makeshift package hub
Highway against climate change
The Amazon is one of our big bulwarks against global warming. But a new highway’s construction might change that. Solid, worrying story. - Read here ($)
Retailers in China are looking past influencers
Apparently they want to build their own following so they are not at the mercy of influencers. With some early success. - Read here
Are you getting fewer chips in a bag?
Shrinkflation is here - where a product is subtly reduced in quantity/value while keeping the same price. Happening in the US already, but am sure we all have examples of it happening everywhere. - Read here ($)
Algorithmic smarts meets human smarts
Chinese workers are tired of their algorithmic bosses. And they are pushing back in multiple ways. Our future is algorithmic efficiency fighting with human ingenuity. - Read here
Getting subscriptions right, learning from FT
Good interview with the FT’s Chief Commercial Officer on what they got right in their run-up to a million paid subscribers. - Read here
Science is amazing
The full expanded James Webb telescope is apparently beating expectations! - Read here
“When lawmakers focus on children’s online safety to get bills passed, they leave everyone else out.”
Interesting view that’s worth mulling over. - Read here
Citizen science + Raspberry Pi FTW
Raspberry Shakes and citizen seismology powered by Raspberry Pi coming into action in Haiti in the absence of a functional national seismic network. - Read here
More Interesting reads:
If you thought 10-minute grocery delivery was overkill, wait till you hear Zomato’s plans. 10-minute restaurant food delivery. - Read here
Putin’s oligarchs have bought London. This is how - Read here ($)
Wild, wild story on Steve Bannon/Miles Guo and misinformation - Read here
A mission to find life on Mars has been suspended thanks to the Russian invasion - Read here
MGM is now officially a part of Amazon - Read here
Clubhouse is probably past its peak curiosity phase. That means it slipped through the cracks in the social media crackdown in Russia. So Russians against the war are using it to get their message out - Read here
The 2022 AI Index report from Stanford is out - Read here
Deepfake video of Zelensky surrendering is out. These videos are only going to get better. Trust. Nothing. - Read here
A small asteroid harmlessly collided with Earth on 11 March, creating an explosion in the atmosphere over the Arctic, just hours after astronomers spotted it for the first time. No big deal. - Read here
Couple who believed they had dug up the world’s largest potato in the garden of their small farm near Hamilton have had their dreams turned to mash - Read here
At a Ford manufacturing facility, Carbon 3D Printers and KUKA robots can autonomously work with one another. The intelligent factories of the future are coming fast! - Read here
Amitabh Bachchan is apparently super active on Tumblr. Err, what! - Read here
EV charging is a big emerging opportunity, and Starbucks wants in - Read here
Have asset managers upended capitalism? - Read here
Massive holes are forming in the submerged permafrost on the Arctic seafloor! - Read here
There’s a category of TikTok which I haven’t heard of before - prison wife TikTok. And apparently it has a lot of drama! - Read here
Genetic databases are too white - Read here
PSA on getting a free WSJ subscription for an year if you are in India - Read here
And finally, this is me!
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.