Zach

[Andrew D. Huberman, Ph.D. @hubermanlab]

New Huberman Lab podcast:
LIFE, LOSS & RENEWAL: HOW TO OVERCOME PHYSICAL & EMOTIONAL CHALLENGES w/Coleman Ruiz
•Ambition vs Personal Growth
•Real Vulnerability
•Building Grit Through Small Actions
•The Path to Acceptance
•Self Renewal
•Family
https://t.co/DiZ17N4shH

[Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger]

BRAZIL IS ON THE BRINK

I’m reporting to you from Brazil, where a dramatic series of events are underway.

At 5:52 pm Eastern Time, today, April 6, 2024, X corporation, formerly known as Twitter, announced that a Brazilian court had forced it to “block certain popular accounts in Brazil.”

Then, less than one hour later, the owner of X, @ElonMusk announced that X would defy the court’s order, and lift all restrictions.

“As a result,” said Musk, “we will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there. But principles matter more than profit.”

At any moment, Brazil’s Supreme Court could shut off all access to X/Twitter for the people of Brazil.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Brazil is on the brink of dictatorship at the hands of a totalitarian Supreme Court Justice named Alexandre de Moraes.

President Lula da Silva is participating in the push toward totalitarianism. Since taking office, Lula has massively increased government funding of the mainstream news media, most of which are encouraging increased censorship.

What Lula and de Moraes are doing is an outrageous violation of Brazil’s constitution and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

At this moment, Brazil is not yet a dictatorship. It still has elections and the Brazilian people have other means at their disposal to confront authoritarianism.

But the Federal Supreme Court and the Superior Electoral Court are directly interfere in those elections through censorship.

Three days ago I published the Twitter Files for Brazil. They show that Moraes has violated the Brazilian Constitution. Moraes illegally demanded that Twitter reveal private information about Twitter users who used hashtags he considered inappropriate. He demanded access to Twitter's internal data, violating the platform's policy. He censored, on his own initiative and without any respect for due process, posts on Twitter by parliamentarians from the Brazilian Congress. And Moraes tried to turn Twitter's content moderation policies into a weapon against supporters of then-president Jair Bolsonaro.

I say this as an independent and non-partisan journalist. I'm not a fan of either Bolsonaro or Trump. My political views are very moderate. But I know censorship when I see it.

The Twitter Files also revealed that Google, Facebook, Uber, WhatsApp and Instagram betrayed the people of Brazil. If such evidence is proven, the executives of these companies behaved like cowards: they provided the Brazilian government with personal registration data and telephone numbers without a court order and, therefore, violating the law.
When Twitter refused to provide Brazilian authorities with private user information, including direct messages, the government attempted to sue Twitter's top Brazilian lawyer.

When I lived in Brazil in 1992, I was very left-wing. At the time, Lula and the PT's slogans were “Without fear of being happy”.

In recent days, I have spoken to dozens of Brazilians, including professors, journalists and respected lawyers. Everyone tells me they are shocked by what is happening. They told me that they are afraid to speak their mind and that the Lula government is complicit in creating this climate of fear.

Brazil belongs to the Brazilians. It is not my country. As such, there are limits to what I am capable of doing.

But I can say things that many Brazilians do not feel safe saying: Alexandre de Moraes is a tyrant. And the only way to deal with tyrants is to confront them. It is up to Brazil’s senators to confront the tyrant. And it is up to the people of Brazil to demand that their senators do so.

[Dan @KettlebellDan]

some of you use this app as a digital newspaper and read and discard it

others use it as a place to push information to the world

IMO the best way to use it is a live, 2-way conversation with the world

[Andrew Lokenauth @FluentInFinance]

Spend your money on:

• traveling
• self-care
• learning
• health
• books

Stop neglecting your self-care.

You are your greatest investment.

[Zach @PapaFrito55]

@EdwardsSZN_ My favorite fighter @CharlesDoBronxs

[Palmer Luckey @PalmerLuckey]

America needs to turn this around as quickly as possible. I am trying to do my small part at Anduril, but graphs like this are by far the most important backdrop for conversations about slowing down automation.

China doesn't care, they want to win.

[🇦🇪 HGS @Sajwani]

SpaceX Starlink got activated in UAE’s Field Hospital in Gaza… and it connected UAE’s medical teams to international consultants. We were able to provide medical assistance to multiple patients, especially children !!

Thank you UAE 🇦🇪 & thank you @elonmusk @Starlink @SpaceX

[Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger]

TWITTER FILES - BRAZIL

Brazil is engaged in a sweeping crackdown on free speech led by a Supreme Court justice named Alexandre de Moraes.

De Moraes has thrown people in jail without trial for things they posted on social media. He has demanded the removal of users from social media platforms. And he has required the censorship of specific posts, without giving users any right of appeal or even the right to see the evidence presented against them.

Now, Twitter Files, released here for the first time, reveal that de Moraes and the Superior Electoral Court he controls engaged in a clear attempt to undermine democracy in Brazil. They:

— illegally demanded that Twitter reveal personal details about Twitter users who used hashtags he did not like;

— demanded access to Twitter’s internal data, in violation of Twitter policy;

— sought to censor, unilaterally, Twitter posts by sitting members of Brazil’s Congress;

— sought to weaponize Twitter’s content moderation policies against supporters of then-president @jairbolsonaro

The Files show: the origins of the Brazilian judiciary’s demand for sweeping censorship powers; the court’s use of censorship for anti-democratic election interference; and the birth of the Censorship Industrial Complex in Brazil.

TWITTER FILES - BRAZIL was written by @david_agape_ @elivieira & @shellenberger

We presented these findings to de Moraes, to the Supreme Court (STF), and to the High Electoral Court (TSE). None responded.

Let’s get into it...

[Global Government Affairs @GlobalAffairs]

X Corp. has been forced by court decisions to block certain popular accounts in Brazil. We have informed those accounts that we have taken this action. 

We do not know the reasons these blocking orders have been issued. 

We do not know which posts are alleged to violate the law. 

We are prohibited from saying which court or judge issued the order, or on what grounds. 

We are prohibited from saying which accounts are impacted. 

We are threatened with daily fines if we fail to comply. 

We believe that such orders are not in accordance with the Marco Civil da Internet or the Brazilian Federal Constitution, and we challenge the orders legally where possible.

The people of Brazil, regardless of their political beliefs, are entitled to freedom of speech, due process, and transparency from their own authorities. 

—--

A X Corp. foi forçada por decisões judiciais a bloquear determinadas contas populares no Brasil. Informamos a essas contas que tomamos tais medidas. 

Não sabemos os motivos pelos quais essas ordens de bloqueio foram emitidas. 

Não sabemos quais postagens supostamente violaram a lei. 

Estamos proibidos de informar qual tribunal ou juiz emitiu a ordem, ou em qual contexto. 

Estamos proibidos de informar quais contas foram afetadas. 

Somos ameaçados com multas diárias se não cumprirmos a ordem. 

Não acreditamos que tais ordens estejam de acordo com o Marco Civil da Internet ou com a Constituição Federal do Brasil e contestaremos legalmente as ordens no que for possível. 

O povo brasileiro, independentemente de suas crenças políticas, têm direito à liberdade de expressão, ao devido processo legal e à transparência por parte de suas próprias autoridades.

[Naval @naval]

“Electric” is just an enabling technology for cars, as transistors were to tubes (for computers).

Tesla won’t be remembered for electric cars as much as it’ll be remembered for autonomy.

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

Jamie Foxx is incredibly confident. As one of his close friends described to me: “Even when things go a little south, he ALWAYS makes you feel like he has everything under control. I see a lot of people in his circle gravitate toward him for that confidence, myself included.”

In my interview with him, I asked Jamie how he teaches confidence to his children, and he said that he asks his daughters to explore their fears with the question, “What’s on the other side of fear?”

His answer is always, “Nothing.”

He elaborates: “People are nervous for no reason, because no one’s gonna come out and slap you or beat you up. . . . When we talk about fear or a lack of being aggressive [holding someone back], it’s in your head. Not everybody is going to be super aggressive, but the one thing that you can deal with is a person’s fears. If you start early, if they are a shy person, they won’t be as shy if you keep instilling those things.”

Look at whatever you’re afraid of and ask, “What is on the other side of fear, if I push through this?” The answer is generally nothing. There are few or no negative consequences, or they’re temporary.

[Vala Afshar @ValaAfshar]

Be nice and polite to people. This may be the most important life hack.

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

What we’re building today will enable sending around a million people and several million tonnes to the Martian surface in the years to come → https://t.co/F8OOgqMFfh

[Chamath Palihapitiya @chamath]

I would focus on the inflection happening in this chart.

Not only is it clearly valuable in the short term for consumers (otherwise they wouldn’t use it) but it’s a very big deal for autonomous AI systems in the medium and long term for Tesla and society.

[Mark Manson @Markmanson]

Discipline is conditioning your brain to not give a shit if it’s hard or it hurts or it sucks.

If it needs to get done, it gets done.

[Carol Roth @caroljsroth]

*sent from the private jet

[Michael Oxford - AKA The Santa Cruz Mountain Goat @SCMountainGoat]

This is Aptos High School in Aptos California.

The teacher singles out her white students to remind them how privilege they are.

“You privilege white boys always want to push it”.

This is a normal thing in California schools.

Even though she’s white, this is still racism.

[Zach @PapaFrito55]

@ptraughber 4k video coming soon?

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

SpaceX has released a hype video of Starship’s third launch

[Andrej Karpathy @karpathy]

Returning from an experimental ~2 week detox from the internet. Main takeaway is that I didn't realize how unsettled the mind can get when over-stimulating on problems/information (like a stirred liquid), and ~2 weeks is enough to settle into a lot more zen state.

I'm struck by how an over-stimulated brain automatically keeps bubbling up problems into consciousness, creating a state of persistent anxiety and nervousness. After some time, in the settled state, this activity just... stops. You can sit down and your brain doesn't immediately go into some kind of problem solving overdrive, it just stays silent. Nothing happens.

I'm sure this could read a bit duh to many, but I haven't been to this subset of "brain dynamics" state space in I think a very long time and it is comforting to know that 1) it exists, and 2) you can visit, if you like, but the journey there takes a few weeks.

Anyway, where were we :D