Using IaC we have automated the entire loneliness lifecycle and are able to provide loneliness at scale by rapidly deploying one ec2 instance per user that is in its own VPC with no external communication, subscriptions start at 49.99€

I started reading up on the whole "loneliness pandemic" narrative because this seems like a literature where the age-period-cohort problem may be relevant (or maybe it isn't?).

Here's data from Australia (HILDA), average agreement with the statement "I often feel very lonely" (SD of ca. 1.8).>

NEW article by me!

We can now visualize pathogens down to atoms; design vaccines in weeks; manufacture them in microbial factories; engineer them more precise than ever before.

We're living through a golden age of vaccine development, but only if we continue to invest in them.

another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls

Great article about fertility in South Korea. That motherhood penalty 😳

worksinprogress.co/issue/two-is...

Haidt is "stunned" that ChatGPT asked how it would threaten youth reveals that its plan would be what Haidt has argued in his books. The secret plan!

There should be some way to rescind the doctorate of any commentator on digital media who interprets ChatGPT output like this. I am not joking.

Imagine you lived in the 18th century.

Smallpox kills 1 in 3 cases. Yet you can’t culture pathogens, don’t know germ theory, and have no idea what a virus is. How would you invent a vaccine?

In a new episode of HARD DRUGS, we trace the history of vaccines!

The recording is now available so that you can confirm that I indeed have a German accent and color-match my outfits with my Zoom background.

youtu.be/YL0co26ng-g?...

Can large language models stand in for human participants?
Many social scientists seem to think so, and are already using "silicon samples" in research.

One problem: depending on the analytic decisions made, you can basically get these samples to show any effect you want.

THREAD 🧵

This has now been published in PNAS!

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The original authors also posted a reply:

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Quick thread on some additional thoughts and then I'm probably done talking about this one 🧵

Turned out that he was right insofar simply not using GitHub Actions easily fixed the problem.

Just finished "The Collapse" about the precise events that led up to the opening of the Berlin Wall -- struggle within the Soviet Bloc and demonstrations in Saxony (most prominently Leipzig), bureaucratic miscommunication, and the chaotic and improbable events in the night itself.>

1. Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia diagnosed a baby with a life-threatening genetic disease within days of birth, and spent 6 months designing & testing a personalized gene therapy to fix his deficiency.

He could reduce medications, gain weight and move up on the growth chart

Why it's okay to use ChatGPT, in 4 graphs

It took more than a decade of arguing over p-values and replicability -- but it's inspiring to see that meta-science in psychology is finally tackling important questions.

Thrilled to announce that I’m starting 2025 with a new editorial role—excited to serve as a Senior Editor at Psychological Science!

New post on The 100% CI! We unravel a series of mysterious research misconduct cases that can be traced back to a single villain striking from the shadow: Rogue RA

www.the100.ci/2024/12/18/r...

Pandemics have killed millions of people throughout history.

How many deaths were caused by major pandemics, and how have researchers estimated their death tolls?

New article by me!
ourworldindata.org/historical-p...