18th Selected Links

Some links to things I've been reading or watching that you might also enjoy:

1. Restored images of the Earth taken against the inky black of space, courtesy of Australian-born Oxford philosopher Toby Ord.

2. 'When Feynman Met Dirac', an essay by Jørgen Veisdal on the simultaneously weak and strong interactions between two of the twentieth century's greatest physicists.

3. During the week, it was announced that Oxford scientists have developed a Malaria vaccine that showed an efficacy of 77% in a trial in Africa. Malaria is one of the leading causes of child mortality -- every twelfth child who died in 2017 died because of malaria. You can read the Lancet preprint of the Oxford trial here.

4. One of the more brilliant quotes in Nick Bostrom's book Superintelligence, encapsulating why humanity's survival matters more than most people think.

5. Here is the letter that Alexander Hamilton wrote as a 17-year-old after a hurricane levelled St. Croix. Published in The Royal Danish American Gazette on October 3, 1772, the letter prompted businessmen on the island to raise funds to send Hamilton to North America for his education. The rest, as they say, is history (and a song in a musical).

Have a nice weekend,


Joe