We have proposed that this function [of sleep] is to renormalize synaptic weights after learning has led to a net increase in synaptic strength in many brain circuits. Without this renormalization, synaptic activity would become energetically too expensive and saturation would prevent new learning. There is converging evidence from molecular, electrophysiological, and ultrastructural experiments showing a net increase in synaptic strength after the major wake phase, and a net decline after sleep.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1084952121000318

I hadn’t realized the situation was this bad. I’m not going to completely stop using single-use plastic — it’s pretty hard to avoid — but it definitely shifts my tradeoff. Going forward I’ll assume all plastic ends up as landfill.

The Department of Energy also released a research paper this week, which analyzed data from 2019, and came to the same number: only 5% of plastics are being recycled. The researchers on that report wrote that landfilled plastic waste in the United States has been on the rise for many reasons, including “low recycling rates, population growth, consumer preference for single-use plastics, and low disposal fees in certain parts of the country”, according to a press release.

Per NPR, the idea of plastic recycling was never realistic; it was primarily an ad campaign from the oil industry to make people feel better about plastic.

US is recycling just 5% of its plastic waste, studies show | The Guardian

How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled | NPR

This is a really fascinating idea. One place where it maybe breaks down: you could argue that the innovation and competition in a capitalist economy from the parts that aren’t index funds, both on the company side (in companies that aren’t big enough to be part of the indexes) and on the funding side (from wealthy early-stage VCs looking for outsized returns). But then maybe you could rescue this idea by leaving those parts in place, but saying that above a certain size companies ‘graduate’ into these widely shared index funds?

https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2017/08/17/index-funds-are-a-proof-of-concept-for-market-socialism/

Excellent list, with links:

Breakthroughs of 2023

— gavin leech (@g_leech_) December 3, 2023

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the issue of free speech on college campuses has received a new wave of scrutiny. Palestinian student groups have faced threats of censorship for their statements, donors have warned about pulling funding, and employers have blacklisted students who blamed Israel for Hamas’s attack.

But as far as free speech is concerned, 2023 has been a relatively normal year for colleges and universities. Just don’t confuse “normal” with “good.”

…

Protecting free speech requires defending the rights of both sides of any conflict. That will only get harder if we ignore just how long colleges have been falling short. Today’s headlines can distract from the fact that campuses have been in crisis for the better part of a decade.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/pro-palestine-speech-college-campuses/676155/

I’ve certainly posted about Iris van Herpen’s work on this blog before, though probably not in the past few years. It’s great to see her remarkable, sculptural fashion get a retrospective in paris.

“Dynamic tension, fluidity, delicacy, and complexity, as well as poetry and philosophy: these are the main elements of the dialogues she establishes between body and clothing, which allow her to convey a new, rich, enthusiastic perspective on the world to come,” writes curator Cloé Pitiot.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/12/iris-van-herpen-sculpting-the-senses/

Interesting economic point, but mostly I just love the idea of claistered monks using advanced technology to build gothic cathedrals. Click through to the original post to see (extremely brief) video of what they’re working on.

One way to overcome the Baumol effect is to replace labor with capital. AI and robots are making that possible. Here’s a clip of the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming who are building a monastery in the Gothic style using CNC machines:

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/12/overcoming-baumol.html

I haven’t quite given up yet, but it may very well happen at some point. Like the author, I’ve done everything you’re supposed to do, and a non-trivial percentage of emails from my domain still get rejected or go to spam. I’ve started sending from a gmail address when something really has to go through. I planned to make my own domain’s email address my permanent one, and it’s sad to think of that becoming impossible.

(to be clear, I’m facing a slightly easier problem than the author; my emails are being sent out from a bluehost email server, not a truly self-hosted one — and it’s still an absolute nightmare trying to keep emails going through.)

Many companies have been trying to disrupt email by making it proprietary. So far, they have failed. Email keeps being an open protocol. Hurray?

No hurray. Email is not distributed anymore. You just cannot create another first-class node of this network.

Email is now an oligopoly, a service gatekept by a few big companies which does not follow the principles of net neutrality.

I have been self-hosting my email since I got my first broadband connection at home in 1999. I absolutely loved having a personal web+email server at home, paid extra for a static IP and a real router so people could connect from the outside. I felt like a first-class citizen of the Internet and I learned so much.

Over time I realized that residential IP blocks were banned on most servers. I moved my email server to a VPS. No luck. I quickly understood that self-hosting email was a lost cause. Nevertheless, I have been fighting back out of pure spite, obstinacy, and activism. In other words, because it was the right thing to do.

But my emails are just not delivered anymore. I might as well not have an email server.

So, starting today, the MX records of my personal domain no longer point to the IP of my personal server. They now point to one of the Big Email Providers.

I lost. We lost. One cannot reliably deploy independent email servers.

https://cfenollosa.com/blog/after-self-hosting-my-email-for-twenty-three-years-i-have-thrown-in-the-towel-the-oligopoly-has-won.html