I read somewhere that Estonia (and maybe Finland) are adding drone flying to their school curiculum so that all kids graduating from high school will know how to fly drones.

>> stupid smart people

I know a few of those! 

Takeaways from the March 2026 60 minutes piece on Drone warfare:

-Ukraine drone innovation cycle is 1 week
-Drone efficiency is key for Ukraine. Cost to kill each Russian soldier is now less than $1000.
-The US Military is learning from Ukraine. It now has dozens of drone labs around the world. Any service member with an idea or any interest can request to spend time in one of the labs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHLgNencz3o

My God! It really is 4D chess and they are always six moves ahead of the humans.

The first time I tried to sign up for something and "ergophobe" was already taken I was outraged.

I think it might have been Twitter. I just looked and ergophobe got taken in 2008.

I went to sign up when it started to grow legs. Someone already had my nick and had caused it to be banned.  I already had too many feeds and wasn't too interested anyway.

>fat

We're being fed semaglutide by the container ship load.  They've thought of everything.

The last headline like this discussed how many battery changes there were.

I wonder if there were battery changes here. If so, then it may not be AI per se that threatens humanity, but solid state batteries.

I think we may still have a good edge. The energy density of fat is very very high.

Quote from: Rupert on April 13, 2026, 08:08:47 PMNever been on X.  I signed in, and never understood the point of it.

A friend got me to sign up when it was new. It was amusing, but I also didn't see the point. Now I use it somewhat regularly (was on a bit of a binge in February when I was down sick).

I would never suggest someone *should* check it out. Quite the opposite. But just to give two versions of why someone might see the point of it.

The friend who got me on is an early adopter of everything. He is in his mid-80s, PhD in physics, 1960s radical, author, long-time interest in technology and its social implications. First person I knew on Twitter. First I knew with an iPhone (before he could even get service in his area so it was actually a fancy iPod). First I knew on Bluesky (he heard Trump didn't like it, so that was enough for him).

Anyway, his use case for Twitter was to find graduate students working on dissertations that he found interesting and follow them. That gave him insight into where fields he was interested were headed. And also, since most research results in failure and most publication covers only the successes, it gave him an insight into the fields in real time, including the failures. As an outsider, that was traditionally opaque.

After a long absence, I started using it again when I started reading more exercise physiology. A lot of top researchers and coaches have a really good presence on there.

For example, two of the maybe top five active researchers in muscle protein synthesis are Stu Philips and Luc Van Loon. Don Layman is a bit older and is the godfather of MPS research. Both Layman and Philips are on X and Van Loon's lab regularly posts, though he doesn't post personally. Also, a couple of Don Layman's students are on there, including Layne Norton who did his thesis on leucine, which has gotten a lot of attention lately for its importance in MPS signalling.

I have been able to ask questions directly to Stu Philips, Don Layman and Layne Norton. It's kind of crazy as a non-scientist to have that sort of access to the top people in the field.

Similarly, I think the top two people researching lactate are George Brooks who, like Don Layman is in his 70s now, and Inigo San Millan. Inigo is also a former pro bike racer and was coaching Tadei Pogacar. Inigo is on X and quite friendly and willing to answer questions. And Inigo has collaborated a lot with Brooks, so you kind of get that perspective.

Again, to me it is interesting stuff.

I also follow a couple of authors whose books I have enjoyed (Stewart Brand and Charles C. Mann) and a couple of journalists.

The key for me is to follow a small number of people who post good stuff and not venture into areas with dragons.  For example, there are some top people whose opinions I really value, but they get bound up in responding to the grifters and BS artists. As much as I respect their research, I unfollow those people because I'm not really interested in some carnivore or vegan or keto activist or some grifter who claims that morning coffee is super bad for you.

Quote from: Rupert on April 15, 2026, 08:16:14 AMI'm looking to get closer to the local community I was expecting that in America too but apparently not.

Likewise. We are close to our neighbors both physically and socially. I have 3 good friends within 100m. Another few if you go out to 500m. Unfortunately, we have no services at all nearby, so someday we will have to move.