FT writes about Silicon Valley Bank:

“It turned out that one of the biggest risks to our business model was catering to a very tightly knit group of investors who exhibit herd-like mentalities,” said a senior executive at the bank. “I mean, doesn’t that sound like a bank run waiting to happen?”

Not really. By the end of the article we realize the senior executive and his colleagues were just plain incompetent, and that “the herd” was rightly concerned.

Ultimately, [SVB] committed a cardinal sin in finance. It absorbed enormous risks with only a modest potential pay-off in order to bolster short-term profits.

Give them the Ig Nobel Prize for economics!

For your weekend reading enjoyment, FT’s Janan Ganesh on (un)healthy eating:

• It is easier to fast than to eat healthily.
• You must be willing to upset people.
• Beware pasta.
• Don’t expect to “burn it off”.
• Know thy weight.

Sound advice. I may have also posted a few excerpts.

As far as discoveries go, 2023 is shaping up nicely. Yesterday we had electricity from air, today there is some movement on superconductors.

Sure, none of these will be immediately life-changing. But I vaguely remember reading about some new super-slick materials years ago, and today I don’t have to worry about how to get leftover ketchup out from the bottom of the bottle.

Progress!

From Phys.org:

In this Nature paper, the researchers extracted the enzyme responsible for using atmospheric hydrogen from a bacterium called Mycobacterium smegmatis. They showed that this enzyme, called Huc, turns hydrogen gas into an electrical current. Dr. Grinter notes, “Huc is extraordinarily efficient. Unlike all other known enzymes and chemical catalysts, it even consumes hydrogen below atmospheric levels—as little as 0.00005% of the air we breathe.”

1. Biotech for the win (?)
2. Or does this pave the way for a dystopian post-biology future in which insatiable human appetites deplete all hydrogen from the atmosphere?
3. Mycobacterium smegmatis becoming the savior of humanity and a household name would provide fodder for middle school humor for generations to come.

He gets my vote.

Here is a short blog post in an enthusiastic style about “My browser is now able to write blog posts for me”:

You read that right! I have discovered a new feature in my browser that allows me to write blog posts with just a few clicks. It’s amazing!

How does it work? Well, it’s simple. I just type in the topic of my blog post and the style I want it to be written in. Then, I press a button and voila! My browser generates a blog post for me in seconds.

The best part is that the blog posts are original, engaging and informative. They are not copied from anywhere else on the web. They are written by an intelligent system that learns from millions of sources and adapts to my preferences.

I can edit, tweak and customize the blog posts as much as I want. I can also add images, links and other elements to make them more attractive. The possibilities are endless!

This feature has saved me so much time and effort. I no longer have to worry about writer’s block or deadlines. I can create as many blog posts as I want without breaking a sweat.

If you want to try this feature for yourself, you can find it here: www.bing.com/blog-writ…

Trust me, you won’t regret it. It’s the best thing that ever happened to blogging!

A few things:

• This was supposed to be a “short” draft. Bing and I clearly have a different understanding of how short should a “short” blog post be.
• Bing interprets enthusiasm as “exclamation points”! It should add a subtlety slider.
• The options for tone are “Professional”, “Casual”, “Enthusiastic”, “Informational”, and “Funny”. Can it trully be called a blog writing tool without “Cynical”, “Snarky, “Caustic”, and “Blowhard”?
• The URL just redirects to its namesake search engine. Poor product placement.
• There is also an “Add to site” button at the bottom that as of yet does nothing. Good.
• It can also do paragraphs, emails, and ideas and, full disclosure, I have already used it once today to generate the first draft for a paragraph I needed for work, and it’s only 8am!

It is far from being the best thing to have happened to blogging(!) per se, but I’d call it a contender ⊕ [Note: To be clear, against meager competition. ] for the best work tool the 21st century has so far produced.

Yes, there is dire inequality in clinical trial enrollment, but this is the precisely wrong way to address the lack of diversity.

Legislating behavior leads to made-up plans that are at best a waste of an intern’s time and at worst a six-figure donation to “providers” selling their “solutions”. If you will ultimately grade on the outcome — and you should! — well, what do you care how it was achieved, provided that all the other laws and guidances were followed?

Silly, silly games.

📺 Not one but two new AppleTV shows feature middle-aged men whose lives — and own selves — disintegrate after their spouse dies. Adam Scott gets a brain implant. Jason Segel spends nights partying with prostitutes. What happened to Nora Durst’s family may have been more outlandish, but her reaction was that much more believable.

Which is to say: Severance and Shrinking are overrated; The Leftovers remains grossly underrated.