The fascinating world of nuclear physics reveals just how much atomic structure dictates the behaviour of radioactive elements. When comparing a sample of 0.6grams of uranium to a tiny fraction of radium, the difference in radioactive discharge are staggering.
Amazing project from ETH Zürich !
It combines wheels with tiltable propellers that generate force to press the robot against the wall while also pushing it upward, allowing it to continue moving vertically with agility.
🎥 mauricio.frizzarin
Who knows the most beautiful dairy shop in the world? 🥛
This is the Pfunds Molkerei in Dresden, opened in 1880 and covered in hand‑painted Villeroy & Boch tiles.
No wonder it made it into the Guinness Book. 🤍
I spoke with @LaulPatricia about Marxism:
One is: What’s remarkable is that Marxism has been tried. Now, of course, defenders of Marxism say it hasn’t really been tried anywhere, but certainly the people who implemented it claimed they were implementing Marxism.
And this is a massive experiment—a global experiment—with a very clear outcome. Namely, the Soviet Union was a disaster. The imposition of communism on Eastern Europe was a disaster. The imposition of communism in Venezuela was a disaster. The imposition of communism in Maoist China was a disaster. Disaster in terms of both poverty and oppression and genocide and stupid wars. So the world has told us what happens under communism, and it’s a sign of how out of touch intellectuals can be that there are still people who defend it despite the entire world giving a very clear-cut answer.
One more is: would you rather live in North Korea or South Korea? Would you rather live in the old East Germany or West Germany? We have an experimental group and a matched control group in terms of culture, language, and geography, and the answer is crystal clear. So this is a sign of, I think, the pathology of intellectual life—that Marxism can persist.
The other is, you did call attention to one of the appeals of Marxism, though, and more generally of heavy, strong influence of government guided by intellectuals, which is that there are certain kinds of reforms that you can state as principles. You can articulate them verbally as propositions—like equality, human rights, democracy—but there’s other kinds of progress that take place in massive distributed networks of millions of people, none of whom implements some policy. But collectively, there is an order, an organization that’s beneficial.
So that can happen organically through, for example, the development of a language. No one designed the English language. It’s just hundreds of millions of English speakers. They coin new words. They forget old words. They try to make themselves clear. And we get the English language and the other 5,000 languages spoken on earth.
Likewise, a market economy is something where knowledge is distributed. You don’t have a central planner deciding how many shoes of size 8 will be needed in a particular city, but rather information is conveyed by prices, which are adjusted according to supply and demand. And you’ve got a distributed network of exchange of information that can result in an emergent benefit.
Now, intellectuals tend to hate that. They like rules of language—of correct grammar. They like top-down economic planning. They like cultural change that satisfies particular ideals described by intellectuals. And so rival sources of organization, like commerce, like culture—traditional culture—tend to be downplayed by intellectuals.
And this can be magnified by the fact that many dictatorships give a privileged role to intellectuals, which may be why, over the course of the 20th century, and probably continuing to the present, there has not been a dictator that has not had fans among intellectuals—including the mullahs and ayatollahs of Iran, but also the communist dictators: Mao and Castro, even Stalin in his day. And every other dictator has had, actually, often fawning praise from Western intellectuals.
Be a child. Pay attention to small things. Don't be led by prejudice. Take nobody's word for anything. Observe and think. Ask simple questions. Seek simple answers."
- Brian Cox
A BIG STUDY in Nature Medicine:
Which food makes you age faster?
Scientists looked at 105,000 people in 30 years.
The statistics is impressive.
The study is open-access, so everyone can read it.
📍 Findings:
The diet that ROCKS: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, unsaturated fats, nuts, legumes, and some dairy products.
Adherence to this diet gives (on average):
- 86% higher odds of healthy aging at 70 years
- 224% greater odds for 75 years.
This was independent of other lifestyle factors, including physical activity level, smoking and BMI!
Basically, the diet should be LOWER in trans fats, sodium, and red and processed meats.
📍 Interesting points to note:
1. Olive / vegetable oil is best.
NOT Peanut oil. NOT processed Canola oil.
Look for extra virgin oil. It has less trans fat.
2. Wine is on the positive list. This is interesting, given all the controversy over its consumption.
3. Eggs make aging worse. I don’t know why.
One guess - maybe it’s due to BCAA (branched chain amino acids) that are assumed to accelerate aging? BCAA concentration in eggs is smaller than in salmon, chicken, or cheese. Yet, fish is better than eggs, but eggs are better than poultry. This is interesting.
4. Red meats are the worst. It’s even worse than sweets and desserts.
❗My point is simple:
Thinking of buying donuts? Skip it.
Thinking of going to McDonald's? Skip it.
Adding fries to your order? Go for a salad instead.
BUT for most people it’s hard.
Why? Because of survival instincts.
Our brain rewards sugar & fat with dopamine.
This is why we fancy junk food when we’re tired.
This is why big industry makes cheap unhealthy food.
This is why it’s so hard to break the addiction.
1. “Rewire” your brain by slowly changing habits. It takes time & money (healthy food is more expensive). DO invest into it. Break this dopamine loop.
2. Reduce your stress as much as possible. It plays a big role in unhealthy eating habits. There are many resources & podcasts that explain how to do it.
Age should be a number.
Not a disease.