🌴 Post-vacation weekly links
Why social networks work, connecting brains to a computer and the day the sky turned orange in San Francisco
September has arrived after a different summer, to say the least (we are still in a pandemic, remember?). Even if we tried to maintain the newsletter during August, both Joan and I really disconnected and didn't feel inspired to write or even to read some of the awesome content we discovered during the previous weeks.
Anyway, now we are back, and we are preparing some pieces on productivity and other nerdy content that we hope to publish soon! In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this selection of the most interesting articles and videos we found during August. Enjoy!
— Joan / Mario
Mario's section
Proof of X, by Julian.digital: For me, this is the post of the summer and it has numerous valuable insights on how and why social networks work and some interesting ideas of social networks that may appear in the future.
Neuralink Progress Update, Summer 2020: I always recommend seeing all Elon Musk presentations, it is like seeing a science fiction movie, but in the real world. The Summer 2020 Neuralink update is not as mind blowing as last year, but it seems that Neuralink is steady progressing and the device is now much smaller than previous prototypes. Also, they implanted it in pigs! (for the moment, with limited functionalities).
Why is there only one Elon Musk? Why is there so much low-hanging fruit? by @guzey: Alexey Guzey is for me one of the top online writers right now and you can expend hours in his site. In this case he explains why it is so hard to find extraordinary people like Elon Musk.
This Twitter thread explains how an unkown bitcoiner lost 1.400 bitcoins (~$16M). Totally worth reading if you are into bitcoin and you are minimally worried about how to protect your bitcoins (if you are not worried, you should). Remember to always verify the signature of such critical downloads!
A recap of the issue 👇 1/ Electrum is a light client, which means it must connect to the blockchain through a server, which by default is chosen from a list of public Electrum servers. Anyone can operate such a public server and some users will be randomly connected to it.Ouch. https://t.co/Dryl3d3Otz https://t.co/iuSEr5so1YBen Verret⚡ @verretorHow did the Casio F91W become a terrorist icon? A light read for September covering the story of the famous Casio digital watch that all of you probably had. Funny note, the Casio F-91W is the only branded accesory that Bin Laden wore in the open.Neuralink Progress Update, Summer 2020
The day the sky turned orange in San Francisco
You probably already know that California and most of the West Coast is being severely affected by wildfires. It has sadly become a yearly occurrence. This time around, though, chance and a combination of factors created a spectacular yet eerie event: the sun never rose in San Francisco on Wednesday 09/09/2020. Instead, a thick layer of smoke at high altitude prevented most of the sunlight from reaching the ground, casting a dim ochre “this-is-the-end-of-the-world” twilight throughout the day.
To make it even weirder and dramatic, it was a foggy day as usual in San Francisco, and the air was strangely non-toxic at the surface level, creating one of the strangest atmospheres I’ve ever found myself in. I will always remember this day, and I am glad I was here to experience it and to take some pictures of it.
The picture heading this post, as well as the ones below, do not have any kind of special filter or processing. The light was really, actually like in the pictures. All the shots were taken around noon. You can find some more shots of that day in this lightroom album. If you like them, please drop by my Instagram and say hi.