7 July 2024

It may now be possible to recycle close to 100% of solar panel materials. That would be very nice. Paper here.

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There's a Change.org petition to blow up the Nehalem whale.  Some people value spectacle more than anything else.

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Oregon made a $2.9 billion mistake in 2023. We're just finding out about it now. And no one will get fired.

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This is a problem with academic publishing. Reviewing other scientist's manuscripts is an unpaid job.  So who gets to do it? And how well is the job done?

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Firefox Privacy checklist. Things you can do to tighten down security.

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A new generation of kids are growing up thinking that ChatGPT is the fountain of truth. Nope. It's the fountain of what looks like it could be truth.

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In early 2023, the government introduced Bürgergeld (citizens’ benefit), which works like an unconditional basic income. With the state paying rent and other benefits, transfer payments for a family with two children in a city such as Munich, where housing costs are particularly high, can be as much as 3,400 euros per month.

At the same time, illegal work increased sharply in Germany. That’s because the combination of citizens’ benefit, for which no work is required, plus a few hours of undeclared work often means people have more money in their pockets than they would after 40 hours of hard work.

The paradox: while there are 2.7 million unemployed people in Germany, for companies it is extremely difficult to find employees. Many restaurants, for example, can no longer find enough workers and the number of insolvent restaurants increased by 27 percent last year.
Sounds like what's happening in the U.S.  And it will get worse if we have universal basic income.

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Yes, you should be worried about AI taking your job - but not in the way you might think. The real threat isn’t AI itself, but rather your colleagues who can use it effectively.
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