News that is interesting to me, and possibly to you
Yup, what were you thinking? Don’t you know each goal cascades into multiple sub-goals, and pretty soon, you’re drowning? So what is the solution?
Photo of author’s son, from our visual travelogue as we hiked The Narrows in Zion Canyon a couple years ago.
https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-choose-better-habits-goals-psychology/
CMIO’s take? Set a goal (not multiple goals: ONE), and have the discipline to choose a daily habit to support it. Set it SMALL. No, smaller than that. And then stick to it. Yes, let’s both try it.
https://www.wired.com/story/acoustic-sound-waves-engineers-physics/
Borrowing from electron microscopy and laser physics, we can now use sound waves to move things and see things differently? See the New York Times article link above.
Another take on ‘AI is coming for you and your job’
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/09/29/1060472/meta-text-to-video-ai/
Well, you thought AI-generated static images were both cool and concerning. Now, META (formerly Facebook) introduces AI-generated VIDEO based on simple user inputs. If distinguishing fake from real was hard before, where is this going?
Turns out, there are ways that science, with focused effort, can do good work, and quickly. Also, we should pay volunteer reviewers for medical journals!
https://www.wired.com/story/covid-19-open-science-public-health-data/
This is a nice quick (3 minute read) of the ways Science can be done quickly and effectively, and points out some of the common friction points that we can eliminate in our journey. Thanks to the NYTimes for giving us perspective on what we’ve just lived through.
I take this critique very personally, as about 2/3 of the books I consume are via listening. How about you?
https://www.wired.com/story/is-listening-to-audiobooks-really-reading/
Readers: where do you fall on the reading-with-eyes vs listening-to-audiobooks spectrum? I’m not even going to tackle the eReader vs paper book divide.
Can’t book readers just get along?
TL;DR? Do what you like; reading a book can be about enjoyment, or learning something, or developing empathy. If it meets your goals, do it!
‘Luddite’ Teens Don’t Want Your Likes. When the only thing better than a flip phone is no phone at all.
From Scott Rossi for the NYTimes
Luddite Teens Don’t Want Your Likes
This is a fascinating throwback to the Luddite Movement where workers rebelled against the new machinery.
This is teens taking back their lives from the pressures of social media.
I think we could all learn something from these teens. Yes, I realize I’m a CMIO.
This is awesome in several ways (read the article, link above).
I will have to sit with this article for awhile. What are you taking away from it?
The tripledemic is here. Our Childrens’ hospitals are full. And the infections have yet to peak.
https://www.wired.com/story/everyone-is-sick-right-now/
Having succeeded at getting folks to social distance and mask for a couple years, the viruses are staging a comeback: lots of kids and adults with LESS immunity to flu and RSV (respiratory syncitial virus) and thus a sharp spike in infections this fall.
Be careful out there, peeps.
$3.5 million for a one-time dose? Are you kidding? But then … maybe it is reasonable?
Image from wired.com
https://www.wired.com/story/the-era-of-one-shot-multi-million-dollar-genetic-cures-is-here/
Hemgenix now produces a genetic cure. For those with hemophilia B, a disease that causes spontaneous bleeding due to a DNA mutation, there is now a treatment that injects a normal gene into the patient’s body to start manufacturing a corrected protein, with a 94% rate of no longer needing Factor IX infusions. Read it. Amazing.
And yes $3.4 million is a huge cost for a one-time treatment, but that is comparable and cheaper, than a lifetime of constant infusions and bleeding episodes and complications. And the cost WILL come down. Science fiction, here we come.
Sure! This is cool. And also. Not cool. Happy holidays.
