Epistemic status: I wrote this up hoping people can poke holes in it because I am quite worried. Here's what we've heard so far: Local media is reporting that an employee of a BSL-3 lab in Irkutsk, Russia, died of pneumonic plague on Oct 1st. The initial quarantine covered 200 people who were in contact with the employee before she died. The FSB (Russian FBI) was seen assisting in the quarantine, which means it was not voluntary. Soviet-era whistleblowers like Ken Alibek claim Irkutsk was a major

Epistemic status: I've been an academic, climate activist and research lead in Extinction Rebellion UK's Data Analysis and Insights Circle. I co-authored most of the studies below. I am writing in a personal capacity, drawing on extensive research into climate activism. Summary People often decide whether a protest worked from a next-day poll or a hostile headline. I believe this is the wrong evidence. I see four common mistakes: polling the public when the targets are elites, measuring too soon,

Cross-posted from my substack. Today, I’m launching the Wildlife Technology Fund at Renaissance Philanthropy. The purpose of the fund is to scope, design, and manage coordinated research programs (CRPs), focused on making wild animal welfare interventions a reality. To do this, we’re prioritizing work that benefits both people and animals, often by working to solve some kind of wildlife conflict. While I believe we should work to solve all kinds of wild animal welfare issues, things that

Debt is as much an emotional challenge as a financial one. Follow this therapist’s advice to create a plan that works.Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself and others through expert guides, provocative ideas and personal life stories. We address psychological questions and puzzles from a range of perspectives including philosophy, history, anthropology and more. You will discover practical knowledge and insights to help you navigate everyday challenges, overcome

Note: This post was crossposted from the Coefficient Giving Farm Animal Welfare Research Newsletter by the Forum team, with the author's permission. The author may not see or respond to comments on this post. Subtitle: On vegan advocacy, effective altruism, and FIFA I turn 40 today. Here are some hot takes. On factory farming 1. Our biggest challenge is salience. If factory farming led the evening news, it wouldn’t last long. This low salience is self-reinforcing: even people who care deeply about

I was cooking the other day when I thought about a lieutenant I haven’t seen in years. I don’t know why. That happens to me sometimes. A memory will just show up. Nothing in particular brings it to mind. I’ll be driving, or walking, or standing in the kitchen cutting onions, and suddenly I’m back in some room I haven’t thought about in years.This one has come back to me a couple of times recently.It was sometime around 2018 or 2019. I was a squadron commander in the Air Force, and one of my flight

In this lesson, we delve into the crucial guidance documents from the International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF) concerning Software as a Medical Device (SaMD). We explore the definition of SaMD, its role as independent software running on general-purpose hardware, and the significant impact it has on the medical device landscape. The discussion also covers the IMDRF's risk-based classification system for SaMD, examining how devices are categorized from Class 1 to Class 4 based on their

Code: https://github.com/atagade/sgtr-em Model checkpoints: https://github.com/atagade/sgtr-em/blob/main/MODEL_README.md Full paper (v2 coming soon): https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.23700 TL;DR A model's self-model is its representation of itself. We operationalize it two ways: self-recognition (distinguishing its own outputs from others') and self-report (what it says about itself when directly asked). Interventions on either modulate Emergent Misalignment (EM).Datasets that cause EM differ in how they

We are unnecessarily scared of being on our own because we fail to keep in mind the distinction between solitude (a fine condition) and loneliness (a pain). We need to recover a sense of the good sides of being by ourselves - in order to be able to make the right choices around friendship and love.Uploaded 13-05-20FURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2A9k7HI“In the privacy of our minds, one thought – highly shameful by nature – may haunt us as we evaluate

Send us Fan Mail In the first episode of our Montaigne series, Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson ask why Michel de Montaigne made himself the subject of his Essays. We explore his classical education, friendship and public life, his retreat to the tower library, and how writing became a way to examine a mind that keeps changing. Is his apparent candour straightforward honesty, literary performance, or a way of teaching readers to exercise judgement? Beyond the Text brings historical texts into...

Anything in life can be richer and sweeter if you slow down and pay attention, but some things reward attention more than others. The different amount of rewardingness per attention is sometimes socially constructed and thus arbitrary to some degree. But it's genuinely nice, to have others who have also paid attention to the thing tell you about the interesting parts that you might have missed, and this can enrich your own experience. But relying on others to tell you what to pay attention to, and

A conflict of interest to flag: I'm the founder of Settled, a relationship and matchmaking company with free and paid tiers. That may create bias in what I notice and what I recommend, so weigh these recommendations accordingly. I’d love for some of you to sign up to Settled, but my aim here is to share something useful whether or not you ever do. What this post is and isn’t We’re writing this because we hope it provide helpful insights - people have also asked, so here it is! This post is based

There has been much discussion recently around whether a large portion of alignment research is net negative. Without endorsing or refuting them, the basic arguments here are: Prosaic alignment of models is becoming a bottleneck for capabilities.Therefore improving the prosaic alignment of models enables faster capabilities advances, which bring us closer to RSI.It is unlikely these prosaic alignment methods remain sufficient during the RSI loop, and so this work brings us closer to doom.F...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit reflectorsreflections.substack.comOver the last months, I have been asking myself a rather uncomfortable question:What does it actually take to bring this work into the world?I’ve spent years engaged with Human Design, meditation, embodiment, conditioning, child development and therapeutic processes. I’ve written a book about it. I’ve recorded an entire course. I’ve made many videos exploring different aspects of the work.The material

Listen to the full episodeLast week, MAHA Action once again blurred the lines between activist organization and government entity, with RFK Jr, JD Vance, Dr Oz and other officials sharing the stage with dozens of corporate sponsors and private healthcare executives—and Russell Brand. Derek tunes in to this nine-hour fiasco. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New motherhood is hard – and a mother’s ability to cope depends on multiple kinds of strength, both internal and external.Psyche audio helps you to better understand yourself and others through expert guides, provocative ideas and personal life stories. We address psychological questions and puzzles from a range of perspectives including philosophy, history, anthropology and more. You will discover practical knowledge and insights to help you navigate everyday challenges, overcome

This episode examines what it truly means to lead when everything around you is breaking down. Crisis leadership is not about charisma, titles, or loud commands—it’s about stability, clarity, and the ability to make decisions when fear is the dominant force in the room. In moments of chaos, people don’t look for perfection; they look for someone who isn’t shaking.Listeners will learn how to regulate their own internal state before attempting to guide others, how to communicate with precision when

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Very high house prices aren’t an act of God or a fact of nature. They’re the result of all sorts of policy and design mistakes – which we should try to understand and correct. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/gt4GR Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices