links 1/24/25: https://roamresearch.com/#/app/srcpublic/page/01-24-2025

• https://traditionsofconflict.substack.com/p/traditional-methods-of-black-magic  maybe "black magic" beliefs persist because the "cursed" person gets scared, contacts a shaman/magician/etc for help, and "recovers"
• https://tori.gg/ AI productivity browser extension?
• https://www.biospace.com/isomorphic-labs-announces-strategic-multi-target-research-collaboration-with-novartis  only a year ago, Isomorphic Labs announced this partnership, for developing small molecules with AI (via in silico screens or ab initio)
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-21/deepmind-expects-clinical-trials-for-ai-designed-drugs-this-year  now they're announcing they're going to hit the clinic this year?! that is fast. and it's a bit surprising that it's small molecules rather than antibodies, when the literature really seems to point to protein structure/affinity prediction being stronger than small molecule binding prediction
• https://www.isomorphiclabs.com/ they don't want to tell us anything. no disease indication. bupkis.
• https://www.complexsystemspodcast.com/episodes/banking-crisis-two-years-later/  Patrick McKenzie says the things he couldn't say in 2023 about the banking crisis
  • if he, making inferences from public information, said that he believed specific banks were insolvent when that was not yet public knowledge, he'd be accused by the press of deliberately causing a financial crisis or destroying banks.
  • the government lied about banks being fine, which were not fine, in the interests of preventing the crisis from getting worse.
    • i dunno whether this is outrageous because the culture that is finance is so unfamiliar to me; afaik saying true negative things about banks will make them fail faster and maybe spread the "contagion" more broadly in the economy? maybe it is in the public's best interest for the government to lie in such cases?
    • but at any rate, this implies you should not necessarily believe announcements that a bank is fine.
• https://minors.mit.edu/policies-guidelines/dos-and-donts-of-working-with-minors/#overlay-context=institute-programs/training
  • "Don’t spend time alone with one minor away from the group or conduct private interactions with minors in enclosed spaces or behind closed doors", "Don’t relate to minors as if they were peers, conduct private correspondence, or take on the role of "confidant" (outside of a professional counseling relationship)" and "Don’t privately email, text, or engage with minors through social media. Group messages and posts are acceptable and must be viewable by all participants" are the objectionable rules here.
  • obviously the motive was to avoid child sexual abuse, which is important, and I'm even on board with erring on the side of avoiding the appearance of impropriety. indeed, don't sext the minors or offer them alcohol/drugs.
  • but a normal, appropriate mentorship relationship will involve one-on-one meetings and emails. teachers talk to students. how can you ban this???
  • it's especially outrageous because this is MIT. child prodigies need opportunities to do real things in the world; this will generally involve working with adults. rules like this mean "no more Terence Taos."
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/44162589 

  • only relevant Google result I could find for a James Joyce quote I remembered part of:

    • Joyce made a specific comparative observation in his notes: “Europe is weary even of the Scandinavian women (Hedda Gabler, Rebecca Rosmer, Asta Allmers) whom the poetic genius of Ibsen created when the Slav heroines of Dostoievsky and Turgenev were growing stale. On what woman will the light of the poet’s mind now shine? Perhaps at last on the Celt. Vain question. Curl the hair how you will and undo it again as you will” (E 125).
    • this is from the notes/stage directions of Exiles. The play has "full text" versions online but they don't include the notes.