Curated Commons // Edition 97
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the 97th 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!
Let’s dive right in ($ indicates potential paywall).
High-tech odour sensors are soon coming
Fascinating development leveraging AI, bioengineering and synthetic biology. - Read here ($)
Earth has had enough with illegal mining
Illegal indiscriminate mining is a challenge globally. Now, one Ecuador town is being consumed by the miners’ sinkholes. Sobering story - Read here ($)
Why fake reviews are bad for us
They make us overpay, says the results of a new study. - Read here
Fake online product reviews cost shoppers 12 cents for every dollar they spend, and increase the likelihood they buy inferior products
“You’re astonishing!”
Beautiful essay on being astonished. - Read here
Life can be better appreciated when you remember how wonderfully and frighteningly unlikely it is that you exist at al
A museum dedicated to failures
Learnt about this museum and the interesting products that inhabit it thanks to this thread - https://museumoffailure.com/
Soft robotics is making rapid progress
Apparently, artificial ‘muscles’ can now be woven into smart textiles making clothing hyperfunctional. Basically, clothes that can shape-shift into 3D structures through stimuli. - Read here
GPT-3, but for aiding authors write fiction
When book authors are reduced to influencers creating content for a fan base with fleeting interest, can’t blame them for leaning on GPT-3 for some help. Even if the results are sometimes hilarious! - Read here
China’s SMIC is taking big leaps in semiconductor fabrication
SMIC is apparently shipping 7nm foundry ASICs. Only TSMC and Samsung do that so far. - Read here
To be abundantly clear, China’s SMIC is shipping a foundry process with commercially available chips in the open market which are more advanced than any American or European company. While the US has high hopes for Intel to be the savior, there are no Intel 7 class foundry chips commercially available for purchase currently and they still have to build out their foundry operations. The most advanced American or European foundry produced chips are based on GlobalFoundries 12nm.
Our future is human ingenuity against algorithmic rule engines
Spare no means! Chinese gamers are using a Steam wallpaper app to get porn past the censors - Read here
A scientist, a weed influencer, some puking stoners, and an online dispute
What a story! I learnt “scromiting” is a thing. That’s screaming and vomiting simultaneously! - Read here
Digital Presenteeism is the new in thing in remote work
The pressure to show to bosses that you are present and doing work - presenteeism - has now gone digital, says a new study. Don’t be that boss - Read here
Self-steering ships are now here
We kept waiting for autonomous cars, but autonomous ships are already here. - Read here
Tweet of the week!
‘nuff said of the times we live in!
May Linkedin posts bloom!
More Interesting Reads
Define irony - Carbon offset firm sets off wildfire. Second time in a month - Read here
The oil and gas industry has delivered $2.8bn (£2.3bn) a day in pure profit for the last 50 years - Read here
A metaverse for kids is in the making - Read here
Whether cryptocurrencies are securities or not, there’s always someone greedy enough to risk spending their life in prison for some additional money through insider trading. - Read here
How do our brains cope with speaking multiple languages? - Read here
Put your face in airplane mode - mask up, at the minimum, while boarding on and off, to reduce risk - Read here ($)
YouTube India is now apparently a $1 billion business - Read here ($)
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.