The Mind Killer

Wes, Eneasz, and David keep the rationalist community informed about what’s going on outside of the rationalist community

Support us on Substack!

News discussed:

The Hugo Committee itself was responsible for the censorship, doing it voluntarily and preemptively!

Intuitive Machines is now the first commercial outfit to put a spacecraft on the Moon.

Phil Metzger describes: Imagine you built an experimental payload and it is going on a test ride to the Moon. Then the spacecraft engineers ask if they can use your *payload* to *navigate* for *lunar landing*, something never planned for, and they write a software patch in lunar orbit, and it WORKS 

Sweden’s bid to join NATO has been officially ratified. The Baltic is officially Lake NATO

Navalny killed in prison

Also  Russia is going to nuke us from spaaaaaace!

2 yr anniversary of invasion

Trump business fraud verdict: $355 million!

Trump: “it’s a form of Navalny”

Netanyahu’s proposed Gaza plan allows Israeli military freedom of action in Gaza, and establishes a buffer zone.

Egypt is building a border wall w Gaza. no word on if they’ll make the Gazans pay for it

Israel launched strikes in Lebanon in response to rocket attacks by Hezbollah 

Alabama made IVF illegal in its borders.(e)

Clinics are closing

Air Canada must honor refund policy invented by airline’s chatbot

Nikki Haley got 40% of the vote in South Carolina

Google’s new AI “Gemini” had its image-generation turned off due to unexpected results. Yishan argues this is AI misalignment, but Days argues this is intentional and the only “unexpected” part was the backlash

Happy News!

Greece legalises same-sex marriage

Guatemala did a reverse Jan 6th!

World's largest supply of lithium found beneath California's Salton Sea. Could meet America's demand for decades to come (at current rates?).  AND discovery of 2.34 billion metric tons of rare-earth elements near Wheatland, Wyo., is estimated to be the richest in the world

UPSIDE Foods, the first lab to get FDA approval for commercial production of lab-grown meat, has announced construction of their first laboratory, starting with a focus on chicken production.

Chris Anderson describes it as “DELICIOUS. Succulent, moist, the right texture. Chicken as it should be.”

program launching this month allocated 250,000 Swiss francs, or roughly $285,000 US, to pay reviewers to find mistakes in influential scientific papers 

Scott Alexander gives Bet On Love team permission to do Unsong Musical

Eneasz -  Luck is Other People's Work

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Intro/outro music: On Sale by Golden Duck Orchestra

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Wes, Eneasz, and David keep the rationalist community informed about what’s going on outside of the rationalist community

Support us on Substack!

News discussed:

Natural Gas Ban doesn’t apply to countries that we have Free Trade Agreements with 

They’ve now read several pages of the Pompeii scrolls

Gwern saw this coming.

DC Circuit says Trump isn’t immune from prosecution

Hamas data center found under UNRWA headquarters

Republicans failed to impeach DHS Secretary Mayorkas 

FAA practiced racial discrimination in hiring for ~10 years

NIkki Haley lost to “None of the Above” in Nevada primary

Biden absolutely crushed it in South Carolina. Poor Dean Phillips 😢Poor America

Special counsel declined to prosecute Joe Biden for mishandling classified documents

Finance worker pays out $25 million after video call with deepfake ‘chief financial officer’

Sam Altman wants to overhaul semiconductor supply chain

Remember that all journalists lie

Happy News!

ACX grants announced!

Hereditary angioedema is a single-mutation genetic disease that has been cured in human subjects using CRISPR

Biden admin offering $1.5bil loan to keep Michigan nuclear plant open

James Webb Space Telescope finds what may be bright galaxies waaaaaay too early in time

First Neuralink implanted in a human!

14 yr old into insects discovers a new one, helps write a paper on it and name it.

Aella finds true love at last

Coast Guard doing routine inspection rescue dog trapped in a shipping container for 8 days

Troop Deployments

Eneasz - Any Community That Tolerates Trauma Junkies Is Unsafe For Everyone Else

Wes - Prenups Should be Mandatory

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Intro/outro music: On Sale by Golden Duck Orchestra

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindkiller.substack.com

Wes, Eneasz, and David keep the rationalist community informed about what’s going on outside of the rationalist community

Support us on Substack!

News discussed:

SCOTUS voted 5-4 to say Texas needs to let in the feds

Texas is… not complying?

Canadian highest court held that invoking of Emergency Act during trucker protest was unlawful

Apple to have 3rd-party app stores!

Hong Kong court orders liquidation of Evergrande (only HK parts tho)

Iran-backed drone strike in Jordan injures 40 US soldiers, kills 3

International Criminal Court ruled mostly in favor of Israel?

Funding pulled for UNRWA after allegations that 12 of their employees participated in 10/7 attacks

US plus 8 other countries

Leaked Israeli dossier accuses 190 employees being operatives of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad

Trump ordered to pay $83 million for defaming E. Jean Carroll

Mitch McConnell outright said they don’t want to solve any border issues before the election

Biden says he would shut down the border ’“right now”

Biden “pauses” LNG exports.

Fani Willis is sleeping with her special prosecutor?

Georgia is trying to empower its oversight board

Articles of impeachment introduced

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute - a top cancer research institute, affiliate of Harvard Medical School, retracts 6 studies and investigating 31 more for copy-pasted graphs fraud.

Ohio law requires mental health providers to get permission from at least one parent before diagnosing a minor with gender-issues, and disallows blockers, hormones, and surgery even with parental consent

Hugo Awards for SF lit, held in China this year, censored by CCCP to no one’s surprise 

(they started the fuckery in 2018)

Happy News!

NASA’s Mars helicopter flew 14x further than planned, lasted 3 years

Japan is on the moon!

Astrobotic lunar lander didn’t quite make it, but they learned a lot. Intuitive Machines is trying next month

Experimental gene therapy gave a deaf 11 yr old hearing for the first time

The nation’s largest solar energy and storage project came online in California last week, offering 875 megawatt-hours of solar capacity, and 3 gigawatt-hours of storage.

CAR T cells - genetically engineered T cells - have been used to fight blood cancers for a while. In mice they are slowing aging when altered to eliminate senescent cells

Husky digs up gas leak, potentially saves the block

two teen girls in canada rescue british couple pulled out by riptide

Got something to say? Come chat with us on the Bayesian Conspiracy Discord or email us at [email protected]. Say something smart and we’ll mention you on the next show!

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Apple:

Intro/outro music: On Sale by Golden Duck Orchestra

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindkiller.substack.com

Wes, Eneasz, and David keep the rationalist community informed about what’s going on outside of the rationalist community

Support us on Substack!

News discussed:

Claudine Gay resigned

The IRS will waive penalty fees for people who failed to pay back taxes 

Texas seized control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, prevent Border Patrol agents from entering the area

Milei repeals housing regulation “Rental Law.” 1 month later Buenos Aires apartments double, rents down 20%

US and UK launched strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, in response to their attacks on shipping

The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq stock indices closed up 14%, 24%, and 43%, respectively, for 2023

Congress agreed on a budget deal that’s basically what they agreed to during the debt ceiling negotiations

Trump promised to pardon Jan. 6 rioters

Trump makes fun of Nikky Halley for not saying the Civil War was about slavery 

Trump will not be allowed to make his own closing argument 

Wayne LaPierre resigned as head of NRA

ISIS suicide bombers responsible for two explosions in IranISIS condems Hamas for sacraficing the people of Gaza for Iran’s “regional project” (and bombs Hamas)The Islamic Fatwah Council found Hamas to be a Human Rights violator, issued a fatwah

900 Post Office managers wrongly convicted of theft/fraud over 14 year span due to faulty computer system

Two Chinese labs working on replicating LK-99 appear to have found a room-temperature superconductor.

Bill Ackman’s wife is accused of plagiarism. In retaliation Ackman will investigate all current MIT faculty members, President, other officers of the Corporation, and its board members for plagiarism.

“the plagiarism issue seems more like busting Al Capone for tax evasion.

Does Chris Rufo have a Harvard degree?

"corruption inside China’s Rocket Force and throughout the nation’s defense industrial base is so extensive that US officials now believe Xi is less likely to contemplate major military action in the coming years than would otherwise have been the case..."

Fired Comedian Ordered to Get Day Job Back After Jokes Ruled 'Simply Funny'

Mexican Cartels use drones to kill 30 people, first hit of its kind

Regulators ordered U.S. airlines to temporarily stop using some Boeing 737 Max 9 planes

Most High-Cost Borrowers (payday loans) don’t understand basic financial concepts

Medicare capped Insulin at $35/month. Some plans are choosing not to cover insulins with higher manufacturing cost

U.S. is experiencing a police hiring crisis 

NCAA is seemingly embracing Name Image and Likeness Collectives

William Penn’s statue remains on his home

We can make dishwasher that work well again! 

SEC approved Bitcoin ETF

Happy News!

Swedish scientists found yields could be increased by running an electrical current through plants’ roots

UT botonists found that exposure to etheline gas increases yields and stress tolerance in crops.

NASA exploratory research grant funds a project to investigate ways to keep hydrogen at liquid temperatures in cislunar space.

On Dec 21 a 13 yr old finally beat Tetris, a world first 

Same project funding a way to use swarms of laser-propelled one-gram probes to get to Proxima Centauri (and back(? But also !) in 8 years.

In-womb surgery allows girl to walk

Cops charge up 5 floors of fire to carry out ninety-year olds from burning building

Hero dad saves woman and baby from car swept up in flood

Eneasz has a new story coming soon

Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan in winter, accidentally discovered a lost city along the way, 

Got something to say? Come chat with us on the Bayesian Conspiracy Discord or email us at [email protected]. Say something smart and we’ll mention you on the next show!

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Apple:

Intro/outro music: On Sale by Golden Duck Orchestra

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindkiller.substack.com

Wes, Eneasz, and David keep the rationalist community informed about what’s going on outside of the rationalist community

Support us on Substack!

News discussed:

Claudine Gay resigned

Trump kicked off the Maine ballot

 NYT sued OpenAI

Congress only passed 27 bills last year 

Israel uncovered a major Hamas command center in the heart of Gaza City

They are also withdrawing troops 

Saleh Arouri, the deputy political head of Hamas and a founder of the group’s military wing, killed in a drone strike in Beirut 

Israel Supreme Court struck down the judicial reform law

Denmark has a woke king after old queen abdicates

Link for a general update to the Red Sea situation

US Navy sunk three of four small boats from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels 

 A trade group for social media companies sued Utah over laws prohibiting minors from using social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. unless authorized by a parent

Chinese professor used AI to write a science fiction “novel” that won a national competition.

66-year-old dude stabs South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung in the neck

The IRS will waive penalty fees for people who failed to pay back taxes 

Eneasz’s story about AI and fanfic

Happy News!

“Steamboat Willie” is out of copyright after 96 MFin’ years.  

AI was trained on experimental data and used to identify chemical substructures that underlie selective antibiotic activity. This led to the discovery of a new structural class of antibiotics

a protein antibody that reduces the number of inflammation-causing immune cells has been developed, treats asthma

Feng Zhou at NYU created tiny DNA robots. It can reproduce itself

Microsoft is training a custom, narrow-focus LLM specifically on the regulatory process for small nuclear plants

Uber Driver Returns $8,000 to Teen Who Left the Christmas Cash in His Car

Army veteran Juan Serrano in Virginia jumped 50 feet off a bridge to save a suicidal teen

Troop Deployment

David - Scott Alexander’s dadpost

Eneasz -  Societies will collapse under war and bloodshed/ school makes kids suicidal

Wes - Against Commitment

Got something to say? Come chat with us on the Bayesian Conspiracy Discord or email us at [email protected]. Say something smart and we’ll mention you on the next show!

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Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-mind-killer 

Apple:

Intro/outro music: On Sale by Golden Duck Orchestra

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindkiller.substack.com

Wes, Eneasz, and David keep the rationalist community informed about what’s going on outside of the rationalist community

Support us on Substack!

News discussed:

Guyana & Venezuela both pledged not to use force

The likely first longevity drug is based on sketchy science.

Colorado Supreme Court banned Trump’s name from the ballot

More trouble in the Suez

Ivy league presidents are terrible at PR

Beff Jezos doxxed by Forbes

Epic Games v. Google found that Google turned its Google Play app store and Google Play Billing service into an illegal monopoly.

Texas makes illegally crossing the border a state crime, enabling state police to arrest suspects

Texas Supreme Court ruled that “good faith belief” of doctor is not enough for exception to abortion ban

Giuliani ordered to pay $148M for spreading lies about Georgia election workers

Biden Administration announced it is setting new policy that will allow it to seize patents for medicines developed with government funding if it believes their prices are too high.

House formally approves Biden impeachment inquiry

Happy News!

a specially trained LLM asked to write short computer programs that can generate solutions to a particular mathematical problem outdoes human mathematicians

Tesla drops a demo video of Optimus Gen2

The FDA approved two sickle cell disease treatments, including its first-ever approval of a therapy that uses the groundbreaking gene-editing tool CRISPR

Troop Deployments

Spirituality Takes Time

TracingWoodgrains’ post about Nonlinear and Lightcone 

Got something to say? Come chat with us on the Bayesian Conspiracy Discord or email us at [email protected]. Say something smart and we’ll mention you on the next show!

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Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-mind-killer 

Apple:

Intro/outro music: On Sale by Golden Duck Orchestra

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindkiller.substack.com

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mindkiller.substack.com

Wes, Eneasz, and David keep the rationalist community informed about what’s going on outside of the rationalist community

Support us on Substack!

Sam Altman is back at OpenAI!

Not fake news - future news! George Santos actually expelled this time

Scientists got a whole-ass Earth-plant to grow in lunar regolith

Gaza pause didn’t last long, but the original 4 days were extended to 6

3 commercial ships hit by missiles in Houthi attack in Red Sea, US warship downs 3 drones

New war just dropped!? Red Venezuela v. Guyana (v. Brazil?)

The Hague ruled that this is b******t

Guyana Analysis Thread!

Binance CEO "CZ" steps down, pleads guilty to U.S. money laundering violations

Bad news: abortion bans work

Two senators introduce “The Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion Act” which would ban gas-operated firearms… and also non-gas-operated semi-auto firearms. Expert on guns: “Now you’re just lying”

More Ukraine funding probably not coming

John Cornyn: “I think there’s a misunderstanding on the part of Senator Schumer and some of our Democratic friends,” Cornyn said. “This is not a traditional negotiation, where we expect to come up with a bipartisan compromise on the border. This is a price that has to be paid in order to get the supplemental.”

The House has already passed an immigration bill that make asylum much less generous

Happy News!

Life-extension drug approved for phase 2 trials (but drug is for dogs)

University of Washington researchers developed deep-learning algorithms for noise canceling headphones such that wearers can pick which sounds they want to hear, and which to block

Video demo

Doritos Silent

Eleos Health, a company developing a “tool that can run in the background of mental health sessions and uses voice AI capabilities to analyze it and give insights and information about the patient”

All 41 Workers Rescued From Collapsed Tunnel in India Himalayas After 17 Days Trapped

Japan has a new island!

Badass footage

A team of YouTubers, engineers, and ranchers found how much horsepower a horse can pull

Got something to say? Come chat with us on the Bayesian Conspiracy Discord or email us at [email protected]. Say something smart and we’ll mention you on the next show!

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Apple:

Intro/outro music: On Sale by Golden Duck Orchestra

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindkiller.substack.com

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mindkiller.substack.com

Wes, David, and Eneasz invite Yassine Meskhout onto the podcast to discuss his recent Substack post about the Israel-Palestine situation

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mindkiller.substack.com

Wes, Eneasz, and David keep the rationalist community informed about what’s going on outside of the rationalist community

Support us on Substack!

News discussed:

George Santos wasn’t actually expelled, they just tried

And they’re trying again

SpaceX gets FAA approval for second Starship test launch

SAG Strike is over! The AI provisions of the deal

Sama kicked …