A weekly collection of links to interesting things curated by Colin Wright.
Vibrant Paintings of Artist Studios
Elwes began experimenting with painting other artists’ studios nearly four decades ago while living in Paris and spending time in contemporary art spaces. He studied the architecture, materials, layout, and habits of each individual, meticulously documenting every detail and idiosyncrasy. With the advent of the internet and growing online archives, Elwes began sourcing photographs of workspaces belonging to the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat or Henri Matisse.
It’s Getting Harder to Die
Taking a step back, it’s helpful to think about how people typically die in the West. The bioethicist Joanne Lynn observes that Americans usually die in one of three ways: they are relatively healthy until a previously treated disease such as cancer comes roaring back; or they have a chronic disease such as heart failure that relapses and remits, with successive relapses becoming more and more frequent until the person dies of the disease; or they live a long life and die of the accumulated assaults and annoyances of old age. (A small minority dies by accident or violence, but such deaths can’t usually be anticipated.)
Six Months Ago, I Left the Bullshit Industrial Complex
One morning, I sat down at my desk to craft yet another press release touting yet another "game-changing" startup that had raised - yet another - $25 million. And I realized I couldn't remember the last time I'd written something I believed in. The words that used to flow felt like trying to squeeze ancient toothpaste from an empty tube.
That was the day I cracked.
TDK Claims Insane Energy Density in Solid-State Battery Breakthrough
The new material provides an energy density—the amount that can be squeezed into a given space—of 1,000 watt-hours per liter, which is about 100 times greater than TDK’s current battery in mass production. Since TDK introduced it in 2020, competitors have moved forward, developing small solid-state batteries that offer 50 Wh/l, while rechargeable coin batteries using traditional liquid electrolytes offer about 400 Wh/l, according to the group.
Massive Australia-to-Singapore Clean Energy Cable Gets Green Light
A converter facility will convert electricity from high-voltage direct current to high-voltage alternating current to supply Darwin – with the setup expected to supply "up to 4GW of 24/7 green electricity to green industrial customers." This will be rolled out over two stages, the first delivering 900 megawatts, and then second adding a further 3 gigawatts.
It’s 2024 and Drought is Optional
Still, as impossible as it would have seemed to the workers who built the Colorado River Aqueduct, the California Aqueduct, and the Los Angeles Aqueduct, our record growth and wealth has now exhausted the water supply they tapped. By the 1970s, the Bureau of Reclamation — a federal agency responsible for managing water and power supply in the West — was forced to concede that there just weren’t any more large rivers short of Alaska that could supply more fresh water to western states. Indeed, the intervening decades have seen a steady increase in temperature and decline in flows, such that full usage of water rights now puts our rivers and aquifers under extreme stress.
The Underground Network Sneaking Nvidia Chips Into China
More than 70 distributors are openly advertising online what they purport to be Nvidia’s restricted chips, and the Journal got in direct contact with 25 of them. Many of the verified sellers said they have supplies amounting to dozens of the high-end Nvidia chips each month.
The flow of Nvidia chips is so steady that most of those sellers take preorders and promise delivery in weeks, the Journal found. Some also sold entire servers—costing upward of roughly $300,000—with each containing eight high-end Nvidia chips.