Nomad

Non-conforming humanist. No endorsement here.

[𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 @Old_But_Gold50s]

Vivaldi's “Winter,” visualized in a fascinating way, so that the auditory experience is even more intense; one can literally “see” the music, so to speak

[Steve Rattner @SteveRattner]

SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI are worth more than every U.S. tech IPO of the past 45 years combined.

[SpaceNews @SpaceNews_Inc]

HawkEye 360 secures multiple Middle East contracts https://t.co/qE7lSfqJs8

[Rocket Lab @RocketLab]

Neutron operations are busy on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Our Hungry Hippo fairing has wrapped up pre-flight testing at our Assembly and Integration Complex while down the road at Launch Complex 3, we've completed installation of the ~10m test stand for Neutron's second stage. Neutron's thrust module will be directly tested on the launch mount itself, to verify rocket-to-launch mount interfaces ahead of full vehicle tests on the pad.

[SpaceNews @SpaceNews_Inc]

Rocket Lab wins NASA award for three Electron launches https://t.co/h0QFwEmRQ4

[Seth Rosenberg @SethGRosenberg]

Fintech is perhaps best positioned in this SaaS sell-off narrative

You can't vibe code:
1. Brand/trust
2. Distribution
3. Regulatory licenses
4. Capital markets relationships
5. Underwriting data
etc.

@Wealthsimple @Revolut https://t.co/YR1GViT6hv @get_aspora

[Archaeo - Histories @archeohistories]

The world’s largest intact mosaic opened to the public on 2019 in Antakya, Türkiye 🇹🇷, as part of the newly built Antakya Museum Hotel. The 1300 year-old, 9000-square-foot mosaic was discovered in 2010. Archaeologists have been collaborating with architects to preserve the ancient work during the construction of a surrounding museum-hotel. A platform connected to structural columns now hovers above the mosaic and specified viewing points were constructed as a way to let visitors view the masterwork below.

Archaeologists believe this vast mosaic with intricate geometries was the floor of a public building in the ancient city of Antioch. It was damaged during a series of major earthquakes in 526-528 AD, but some of that damage only enhances its spectacular visual qualities because the mosaic remained connected to the floor and mostly intact even as the foundation itself undulated wildly.

Ancient city was founded in 300 BC, by one of Alexander the Great’s successor generals Seleucus I Nicator, Antioch was capital of the Seleucid Empire until it was conquered by Rome in 63 BC and became the seat of the governor. Its location made it a hub of trade between Mediterranean and East. At its peak, Antioch had a population of half a million and was so important that it was considered a rival first to Alexandria and then to Constantinople as second most important city in the Empire.

Today, Antakya is internationally known for the great number and high quality of mosaics that have been found under its streets. Hatay Archaeological Museum has a collection of Roman mosaics that is without peer, most of them lifted from excavations and conserved indoors. So it was not unexpected when construction of a new hotel revealed a spectacular late Roman mosaic. The approach taken to its preservation, however, diverged from the well-trodden path of earlier discoveries.

The sheer enormity of the mosaic required a different plan of action. Instead of lifting the mosaic, or part of it, or covering it for its own protection and building over it, archaeologists and architects worked together to create a hybrid: a museum hotel. Antakya Museum Hotel, located near the Church of St. Peter, a crusader-era church built around a cave believed to be one of the earliest Christian churches in the world, would be built using the archaeology of the site as a lodestar.

EAA-Emre Arolat Architecture placed structural columns along the a former riverbed that crosses through the middle of the site and outside the perimeter of the mosaic. They built a platform on top of the columns to house the hotel’s amenities — ballroom, conference rooms, pool, gym — with passageways and viewing points for guests to view the incredible archaeology beneath them. The rooms are prefabricated units stacked on top of each other, which reduced the amount of on-site construction and the potential damage to the mosaic. The walkways and bridges that connect the rooms create an open space where the archaeology is in sight throughout the building.

© The Archaeologists

#archaeohistories

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

I’ve made a short film.

Look at the things around you: doors, bins, staircases, furniture, railings, doorhandles, windows.

Do you like how they look, or not?

Modern design has become boring, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

The word “beautiful” is overused. We don’t need “beautiful” lamps, bus stops, and water fountains – we just need lamps, bus stops, and water fountains that are interesting, that actually mean something.

Or, at the very least, not boring.

Because the aesthetics of architecture and urban design aren’t just a bonus; they totally change how we think, feel, and behave.

Boring environments make us more stressed and less productive; they erode our sense of community; they make us sadder, less trusting, and lonelier.

A boring world is one where we spend even more time online and where our addictions are even harder to battle.

The Problem

There is global, widespread dissatisfaction with how the world looks. In this film, and the series it will lead to, we want to investigate that feeling and give it a voice.

The point isn’t that we should return to the past or get rid of modernism. It’s about learning from the past in order to improve the present, and about giving the public what they very clearly want, which isn’t the eradication of modernism but the co-existence of modernism AND traditionalism.

Just look where tourists go, where they take their photos, and that tells you everything you need to know about what most people find interesting or beautiful.

And look at where people go on holiday. It’s always to cities filled with old architecture and design, with churches and mosques and palaces, with charming little alleyways and stone staircases and wrought-iron railings.

Of the world’s fifty most visited buildings, only four were made in the 20th century, and they’re all museums or memorials.

There’s a reason why posts about this go viral online all the time. Regardless of why the change happened, it is clearly the case that we no longer make things how we used to.

People are rightly confused by the fact that old lamp posts (to take the example we focus on in the film) are usually so pretty, while modern ones are usually so boring.

Some people say this is just an example of survivorship bias… and they’re mostly correct. But that’s the whole point!

Saying old buildings are usually prettier than modern buildings is not to say that architecture used to be better, or that the past was better.

It is simply to say that certain kinds of buildings, because they have been preserved, are good examples of what people like most.

In which case... shouldn't we try to design at least some buildings in a way that we know people like?

A Unifying Cause

Everybody, from all sides of the political spectrum and all backgrounds, stands to benefit from a world that is designed more thoughtfully and imaginatively. The world could be such a colourful, meaningful, and thrilling place!

So this isn’t about left versus right or conservatism versus progressivism; it’s about making our world a more interesting and meaningful place to live in. This should be a unifying cause, because everybody loses out when our homes and cities are badly designed.

I want this film to unite people who think they’re on opposite sides, and to create a consensus that we need to change our approach to how we design our buildings and the objects – benches, bus stops, bins, lamp posts, aircon units – that fill our cities.

The Importance of Details

We are incredibly rich and have a sprawling choice of shows to stream, phones to buy, or shoes to wear… but everything feels more and more generic all the time.

If you want to understand a society, don’t listen to what it says about itself – look at what it creates. You can learn everything about the Victorians – the good and the bad – just by looking at their lamp posts.

And what do the ordinary details of the modern world say about us?

That we are technologically advanced, very efficient… and care more about making money, about making things as quickly and cheaply as possible, than making our world an enjoyable place to actually live in.

It’s important to learn about why and how things have changed, but that’s for another time. The first step is establishing that the public aren’t happy with modern architecture and design, and that something needs to be done.

But what we need isn’t a total revival of so-called ‘traditionalism’; the truth is that traditionalism and modernism can (and should) co-exist.

The trouble right now is that we only have one, and that people are tired of it.

The Power of Noticing

But this film (and the series it will, all being well, lead to) is about more than the specific argument it presents. Above all it’s about a way of seeing the world around us, a way of noticing and thinking.

“How you do anything is how you do everything.” That is probably true, and it also applies to whole societies, not just individuals; a single doorbell implies everything else about the whole socio-economic and political system that gave rise to its creation.

And, beyond being merely “useful”, the ability to notice details makes the world a richer place to live in, and life a richer thing to lead. This is what the film is about, more than anything: the power and joy of noticing.

A Bigger Project

This short film is just the beginning. We want to make a full series about the history of art and architecture, both for their own sake and also to see what we can learn about life in the twenty-first century and how to improve it. To keep updated you can join our email list over at our website, linked in the reply below.

Final Words

You can watch the film here on X, or over on YouTube, also linked in the reply below.

So… this is where the dream begins, the dream of a new series and the dream of a more charming, more interesting, more meaningful modern world.

Spread the word.

[Austin Tunnell @AustinTunnell]

Help us build the world we all want to see – one beautiful, walkable block at a time.

We’re closing the final $1M for Townsend. DM me for the deck; introductions welcome.

Let’s set a higher bar for American neighborhoods!

[Leo Tolstoy Literature @LeoTollstoy]

Best.

Opening.

Ever.

[Physics In History @PhysInHistory]

What's the most fascinating example of mathematics you've seen in nature? ✍️

[Owen Roe @owen_roe]

a weird and unexpected side effect of recent AI progress is that we might be able to talk to animals soon

[Philipp Schmid @_philschmid]

Why do LLMs struggle with decision-making? LLMs often perform sub-optimally due to greediness, frequency bias, and a knownledge gaps. A new paper from @GoogleDeepMind shows how Reinforcement Learning Fine-Tuning (RLFT) on self-generated Chain-of-Thought (CoT) can improve exploration and decision-making.

RLFT Implementation:
1️⃣ Set up the LLM to interact with a decision environment (e.g., bandit, Tic-Tac-Toe).
2️⃣ Prompt the LLM to generate a thinking process (CoT) and an action.
3️⃣ Extract and execute the action in the environment to get a reward.
4️⃣ Use the reward to fine-tune the LLM (via RL) based on the generated CoT and action.
5️⃣ Repeat interactions and fine-tuning to improve the LLM's decision policy.

Insights:
💡LLMs act greedily, sticking to early successful actions and failing to explore potentially better options.
📉  Smaller LLMs tend to repeat actions common in the prompt history.
🤔 LLMs can often articulate or calculate the correct strategy, but fail to execute
✨ Simple Reward bonuses (e.g., +1 for exploring a new action) or penalties (e.g., -5 for an invalid action format) guide LLM towards desired behaviour.
⏳ Thinking Time Matters, allowing more tokens for generation improves performance
⛰️ Larger models suffer less frequency bias but are still prone to greediness

[Earth @earthcurated]

Full moon captured from space…

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

The popcorn cannon

In the pressure vessel, the temperature in the kernels is above 100°C. When the pressure is released suddenly, the moisture that has been created by the cooking, turns into steam, making the kernels puff up.

[📹 Mr Popcorn]

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

Any fool can know. The point is to understand.

-- A. Einstein (1879 - 1955)

[NASA Universe @NASAUniverse]

After launch, our SPHEREx telescope will map the whole sky and help us answer some big questions about the universe. Watch to learn how SPHEREx’s wide field of view and the ability to measure over 100 colors will give us a big-picture view of the cosmos like none before.

[Physics In History @PhysInHistory]

The real problem in speech is not precise language. The problem is clear language.

- R. Feynman

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Transcription is the process by which the information in DNA is copied into messenger nRNA (mRNA) for protein production.

This is a visualization of how it takes place.

[🎞️ dnalearningcenter]

[World of Engineering @engineers_feed]

Who used Winamp?!