cyd
@chongyidong.bsky.social
I mostly post on Mastodon: https://kopiti.am/@cyd
Tyler Cowen hack fraud watch. In this one, Tyler enumerates US coups in Latin America and finds they're a net good. The US-Mexico War, the "most unjust war" In Grant's words, is a utilitarian success as the US made better use of the territory it annexed.
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...
U.S. interventions in the New World, with leader removal - Marginal REVOLUTION
I can think of a few. I am not thinking of ongoing struggles, such as the funding of opposition to the Sandinistas, rather I wish to focus on cases where the key leaders actually were removed. After...
marginalrevolution.com
January 5, 2026 at 12:01 PM
Tyler Cowen hack fraud watch. In this one, Tyler enumerates US coups in Latin America and finds they're a net good. The US-Mexico War, the "most unjust war" In Grant's words, is a utilitarian success as the US made better use of the territory it annexed.
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...
Attended the Albatross File exhibition at the National Library, about Singapore's negotiated secession from Malaysia. Here's my summary:
December 10, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Attended the Albatross File exhibition at the National Library, about Singapore's negotiated secession from Malaysia. Here's my summary:
Reposted by cyd
Between the “unitary executive” and Donald Trump extraordinary command of the Republican Party, he’s obtained unprecedented ability to govern the country according to his personal whims — extremely bad news for the long term.
www.slowboring.com/p/a-warning-...
www.slowboring.com/p/a-warning-...
A warning sign for America about Trump’s personalist rule
Why and when do autocracies underperform on growth?
www.slowboring.com
August 21, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Between the “unitary executive” and Donald Trump extraordinary command of the Republican Party, he’s obtained unprecedented ability to govern the country according to his personal whims — extremely bad news for the long term.
www.slowboring.com/p/a-warning-...
www.slowboring.com/p/a-warning-...
Reposted by cyd
Singapore Paints Billionaire Goh Cheng Liang Dies At 98
Singapore Paints Billionaire Goh Cheng Liang Dies At 98
Singapore Paints Billionaire Goh Cheng Liang Dies At 98
www.forbes.com
August 12, 2025 at 4:20 AM
Singapore Paints Billionaire Goh Cheng Liang Dies At 98
One of the minor perks of being a professional physicist, to me, is receiving occasional crackpot papers. I used to try to read them, but nowadays seldom have enough time.
Aside from the entertainment value, there's also a lottery aspect of maybe, just maybe, discovering the next Satyendra Bose...
Aside from the entertainment value, there's also a lottery aspect of maybe, just maybe, discovering the next Satyendra Bose...
Heisenberg on Bohr's occasionally excesssively generous nature. One of the first lessons learnt as a Nature editor about the "fringe" submissions is that this is exactly what will happen if you let it.
August 11, 2025 at 11:29 AM
One of the minor perks of being a professional physicist, to me, is receiving occasional crackpot papers. I used to try to read them, but nowadays seldom have enough time.
Aside from the entertainment value, there's also a lottery aspect of maybe, just maybe, discovering the next Satyendra Bose...
Aside from the entertainment value, there's also a lottery aspect of maybe, just maybe, discovering the next Satyendra Bose...
Reposted by cyd
In the face of the most blatant trade coercion since at least 1945, the EU has failed to even activate its anti-coercion instrument, designed, as the name indicates, precisely for this purpose. It has let down trading partners less able to stand up to Trump's bullying and weakened multilateralism.
8
8
July 28, 2025 at 5:35 AM
In the face of the most blatant trade coercion since at least 1945, the EU has failed to even activate its anti-coercion instrument, designed, as the name indicates, precisely for this purpose. It has let down trading partners less able to stand up to Trump's bullying and weakened multilateralism.
8
8
Reposted by cyd
‘There is nothing to buy’: Gaza’s descent into mass starvation www.ft.com/content/e5d7...
‘There is nothing to buy’: Gaza’s descent into mass starvation
Israel’s offensive and aid curbs tip enclave of 2.1mn Palestinians into famine
www.ft.com
July 26, 2025 at 9:28 AM
‘There is nothing to buy’: Gaza’s descent into mass starvation www.ft.com/content/e5d7...
Reposted by cyd
‘On the days he and his brother cannot find food, the children eat a tablespoon of salt and fill their bellies with water.’
‘There is nothing to buy’: Gaza’s descent into mass starvation www.ft.com/content/e5d7...
‘There is nothing to buy’: Gaza’s descent into mass starvation
Israel’s offensive and aid curbs tip enclave of 2.1mn Palestinians into famine
www.ft.com
July 26, 2025 at 11:08 AM
‘On the days he and his brother cannot find food, the children eat a tablespoon of salt and fill their bellies with water.’
Reposted by cyd
🚨BREAKING: The last journalists working for AFP in Gaza have said they can no longer work for the news agency.
They are out of energy and they are starving to death.
I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.
🧵
They are out of energy and they are starving to death.
I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.
🧵
July 21, 2025 at 8:55 PM
🚨BREAKING: The last journalists working for AFP in Gaza have said they can no longer work for the news agency.
They are out of energy and they are starving to death.
I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.
🧵
They are out of energy and they are starving to death.
I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.
🧵
This is a common framing, but what actually strikes me about Singapore's tutoring scene is... how relatively mild it is. I'm sure there are some students who are stressed and over-tutored, but it is not a major social ill.
In Singapore, the pressure to pass exams has turned private tutoring into a $1.4 billion industry. But the high premium placed on academic success can also impact students’ mental health
Singapore’s Private Tutoring Boom Reveals the Hidden Cost of Success
The pressure to pass exams has turned private tutoring into a $1.4 billion industry in Singapore, but the same pressure risks impacting students’ mental health.
bloom.bg
June 14, 2025 at 1:54 AM
This is a common framing, but what actually strikes me about Singapore's tutoring scene is... how relatively mild it is. I'm sure there are some students who are stressed and over-tutored, but it is not a major social ill.
More progress on cross-border clean energy trading within Southeast Asia. Could be faster...
Indonesia, Singapore sign deals on power trade, carbon capture reut.rs/3HyiExB
Indonesia, Singapore sign deals on power trade, carbon capture
Indonesia and Singapore signed initial deals on Friday to develop cross-border trade in low carbon electricity and collaborate on carbon capture and storage, ministers from both countries said in Jakarta.
reut.rs
June 14, 2025 at 1:42 AM
More progress on cross-border clean energy trading within Southeast Asia. Could be faster...
Reposted by cyd
Fuck The Atlantic as a staff, record label and as a motherfuckin' crew
And if you want to be down with The Atlantic, then fuck you too.
And if you want to be down with The Atlantic, then fuck you too.
June 8, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Fuck The Atlantic as a staff, record label and as a motherfuckin' crew
And if you want to be down with The Atlantic, then fuck you too.
And if you want to be down with The Atlantic, then fuck you too.
Reposted by cyd
Visiting the US right now is at that weird skydiving risk level where the odds are clearly overwhelmingly in favor of nothing bad happening, but if something did happen even your friends would be thinking "well that wasn't a super necessary risk"
June 7, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Visiting the US right now is at that weird skydiving risk level where the odds are clearly overwhelmingly in favor of nothing bad happening, but if something did happen even your friends would be thinking "well that wasn't a super necessary risk"
Reposted by cyd
Reposted by cyd
Republic of Singapore Navy Formidable-class frigate RSS Formidable (68) in London, England - May 4, 2025
SRC: TW-@GeoffreyWatson2
SRC: TW-@GeoffreyWatson2
May 5, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Republic of Singapore Navy Formidable-class frigate RSS Formidable (68) in London, England - May 4, 2025
SRC: TW-@GeoffreyWatson2
SRC: TW-@GeoffreyWatson2
Reposted by cyd
Volley fire of longbow arrows looks cool in movies, but its bollocks as an actual battlefield tactic. It never happened.
@bretdevereaux.bsky.social takes us through it
acoup.blog/2025/05/02/c...
(aLso @michaellivingston.com 's book on Agincourt gets a mention too)
@bretdevereaux.bsky.social takes us through it
acoup.blog/2025/05/02/c...
(aLso @michaellivingston.com 's book on Agincourt gets a mention too)
Collections: Why Archers Didn’t Volley Fire
This week we’re looking at a specific visual motif common in TV and film: the arrow volley. You know the scene: the general readies his archers, he orders them to ‘draw!’ and then…
acoup.blog
May 3, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Volley fire of longbow arrows looks cool in movies, but its bollocks as an actual battlefield tactic. It never happened.
@bretdevereaux.bsky.social takes us through it
acoup.blog/2025/05/02/c...
(aLso @michaellivingston.com 's book on Agincourt gets a mention too)
@bretdevereaux.bsky.social takes us through it
acoup.blog/2025/05/02/c...
(aLso @michaellivingston.com 's book on Agincourt gets a mention too)
Reposted by cyd
7 habits that make you look like a professor.
May 2, 2025 at 11:18 PM
7 habits that make you look like a professor.
Reposted by cyd
Please do not use a multinational energy crisis to hawk your quantum computing wares.
April 29, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Please do not use a multinational energy crisis to hawk your quantum computing wares.
Reposted by cyd
Alright, @sarahebond.bsky.social in her cruelty has made me aware of this remarkably incompetent talk Malcolm Gladwell gave and so I am going to inflict it on all of you by going through all of the mistakes he makes here in the hope that none of you will ever take him seriously again. 1/
April 28, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Alright, @sarahebond.bsky.social in her cruelty has made me aware of this remarkably incompetent talk Malcolm Gladwell gave and so I am going to inflict it on all of you by going through all of the mistakes he makes here in the hope that none of you will ever take him seriously again. 1/
#qwen AI has an app, but weirdly it's very hard to find on the Google Play store. Even if you search for "Qwen", the top results are a bunch of useless unrelated apps.
play.google.com/store/apps/d...
play.google.com/store/apps/d...
Qwen - Ask Qwen, Know More - Apps on Google Play
Qwen is your ultimate personal AI assistant.
play.google.com
April 29, 2025 at 3:55 AM
#qwen AI has an app, but weirdly it's very hard to find on the Google Play store. Even if you search for "Qwen", the top results are a bunch of useless unrelated apps.
play.google.com/store/apps/d...
play.google.com/store/apps/d...
Reposted by cyd
Columbia University now has what we'd call a Party secretary in China, a person whose only job is to enforce the "correct" political line
Columbia Yields to Trump in Battle Over Federal Funding
Columbia’s agreement is a significant moment in the intensifying battle between Trump and elite universities.
www.wsj.com
March 24, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Columbia University now has what we'd call a Party secretary in China, a person whose only job is to enforce the "correct" political line
Reposted by cyd
Microsoft want you to believe this data shows the X measurement of a topological qubit.
As an expert in this field here is my scientific take on what I see in this data: 💩💩💩💩💩
As an expert in this field here is my scientific take on what I see in this data: 💩💩💩💩💩
March 18, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Microsoft want you to believe this data shows the X measurement of a topological qubit.
As an expert in this field here is my scientific take on what I see in this data: 💩💩💩💩💩
As an expert in this field here is my scientific take on what I see in this data: 💩💩💩💩💩
Reposted by cyd
March 6, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Reposted by cyd
CBP is detaining german tourist for over 1 mo because they accused her of intending to tattoo for $$ while in US. In jailing her to deport, they held her in solitary for 9 days, also kept her from her return flight Feb 15. She's still jailed.
CoreCivic+CBP ⬆️ 💵
www.kpbs.org/news/border-...
CoreCivic+CBP ⬆️ 💵
www.kpbs.org/news/border-...
German tourist held indefinitely in San Diego area immigrant detention facility
The young woman had planned to spend a month with a friend in Los Angeles and then fly home to Berlin. But she’s been in federal custody since late January.
www.kpbs.org
March 1, 2025 at 4:07 PM
CBP is detaining german tourist for over 1 mo because they accused her of intending to tattoo for $$ while in US. In jailing her to deport, they held her in solitary for 9 days, also kept her from her return flight Feb 15. She's still jailed.
CoreCivic+CBP ⬆️ 💵
www.kpbs.org/news/border-...
CoreCivic+CBP ⬆️ 💵
www.kpbs.org/news/border-...
Reposted by cyd
These Jackie Chan movies with Sammo Hung & Yuen Biao are so great. Sammo night be funnier and Yuen might be a better fighter, but Jackie is great at both and endlessly creative. It’s like if Buster Keaton made some movies with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd.
February 28, 2025 at 6:35 AM
These Jackie Chan movies with Sammo Hung & Yuen Biao are so great. Sammo night be funnier and Yuen might be a better fighter, but Jackie is great at both and endlessly creative. It’s like if Buster Keaton made some movies with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd.