A New Project, CRISPR's Next Move, Stop Google Bard from Storing Your Data, & More
Edition 55
Here’s what you’re getting in this edition:
A note from me
10 news articles worth reading
A CRYPTO TALK: Building Up Blockchains for Mass Adoption
A STUDY: Blockchain Privacy and Regulatory Compliance
That embarrassing court doc Google wanted to hide
A COURSE: The Design of Coffee
How to Stop Google Bard from Storing Your Data and Location
A TED TALK: CRISPR's Next Advance
Free will: Can neuroscience reveal if your choices are yours to make?
20 Minute Guided Meditation
A note from me
I have been working on a new project. It involves podcasting, IRL (in real life) events, new courses, and more.
The goal is to reach more people, create real value and impact, and help build a better future for ordinary people.
You can expect changes to this newsletter and everything I publish on social media.
Look out for the new stuff in the coming days and weeks.
I hope you love it!
~ Misha
10 articles from this week that are worth reading
NFTs may be ice cold but Paris museum sticks with them for Van Gogh exhibit – DL News
Ark anticipates win in US crypto ETF battle with ‘deepest’ suite, COO says - Blockworks
AI girlfriends are ruining an entire generation of men | The Hill
Meta AI assistant, dozens of AI characters, come to WhatsApp, Instagram - The Verge
FTC Sues Amazon, Accusing Company of Illegal Online Retail Monopoly - The New York Times
A Silicon Valley Supergroup Is Coming Together to Create an A.I. Device - The New York Times
A CRYPTO TALK: Building Up Blockchains for Mass Adoption
As the crypto ecosystem gains more traction from developers, traditional institutions and big brands, it needs mainstream adoption to grow as well.
In order to do that, blockchains need to be able to support greater — and faster — transactions per second, while keeping fees low.
But what will it take to get to that next level?
And what are major blockchains and crypto projects alike doing to help accelerate that mission?
Mo Shaikh: Co-founder & CEO Aptos Labs
Grace Torrellas: VP Product Polygon zkEVM / Product Lead Polygon Labs
Anatoly Yakovenko: CEO, Solana Labs
A STUDY: Blockchain Privacy and Regulatory Compliance
In this paper we study Privacy Pools, a novel smart contract-based privacy-enhancing protocol. We discuss the pros and cons of this protocol, and show how it could be employed to create a separating equilibrium between honest and dishonest users. The core idea of the proposal is to allow users to publish a zero-knowledge proof, demonstrating that their funds (do not) originate from known (un-)lawful sources, without publicly revealing their entire transaction graph. This is achieved by proving membership in custom association sets that satisfy certain properties, required by regulation or social consensus. The proposal may be a first step towards a future where people could prove regulatory compliance without having to reveal their entire transaction history. LINK
That “embarrassing” court doc Google wanted to hide
The US Department of Justice has finally posted what judge Amit Mehta described at the Google search antitrust trial as an "embarrassing" exhibit that Google tried to hide from the public.
The document in question contains meeting notes that Google’s vice president for finance, Michael Roszak, "created for a course on communications," Bloomberg reported. In his notes, Roszak wrote that Google's search advertising "is one of the world's greatest business models ever created" with economics that only certain "illicit businesses" selling "cigarettes or drugs" "could rival." LINK
The Design of Coffee: An Introduction to Chemical Engineering
Coffee plays a huge role in culture, diet and the U.S. and global economy. But historically, relatively little academic work has focused on coffee. There are entire academic programs on wine and beer at many major universities, but almost none on coffee.
The Design of Coffee helps fill a huge unmet demand because students are eager to learn about the beverage that they already enjoy. Perhaps most surprisingly, many of our students enter the course professing to hate coffee, but by the end of the course they are roasting and brewing their own coffee beans at home. LINK
Get the FREE webinar: Teaching Chemical Engineering with Coffee
How to Stop Google Bard from Storing Your Data and Location
WITH ITS MOST recent update, Google Bard can now sort through your trove of Google Docs, rediscover ancient Gmail messages, and search through every video on YouTube. Before experimenting too much with the new extensions available for Google’s chatbot, it's worth going over the steps you can take to protect your privacy (and the ones you can't). LINK
A TED TALK: CRISPR's Next Advance Is Bigger Than You Think | Jennifer Doudna
You've probably heard of CRISPR, the revolutionary technology that allows us to edit the DNA in living organisms. Biochemist and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Jennifer Doudna earned the Nobel Prize for her groundbreaking work in this field -- and now she's here to tell us about its next world-changing advancement. She explains how her team at the Innovative Genomics Institute is pioneering a brand-new field of science -- precision microbiome editing -- that uses CRISPR in an effort to solve seemingly insurmountable problems like asthma, Alzheimer's and climate change.
Free will: Can neuroscience reveal if your choices are yours to make?
SUPPOSE you approach a fruit bowl overflowing with apples, oranges and bananas, all perfectly ripe. On this occasion, you choose an orange. Or do you? Because although it may feel like you were free to pick an apple or a banana instead, many of those who contemplate such things insist that you aren’t at liberty to choose at all.
The same goes for all sorts of decisions we fret over, from the trivial to the consequential. If we could somehow rewind the universe, they say, you would behave in exactly the same way – because that is how your brain is made. Your sense of having free will is just an illusion. LINK
20 Minute Guided Meditation
Listen to this 20 minute guided meditation each day and explore the love and compassion within our hearts to find a state of relaxation and inner peace.
By letting go of any negative, stagnant energy and focusing on the light and love within us, we will find protection from any external disturbances. Using our breath as an anchor in this present moment. We will hold space for any emotions that have been holding us back, observing them with compassion and kindness and letting them go, allowing space for positivity and grounding. Finding deep clarity and sense of connection, and remembering that we are the light.
Mantra: Through love, I return home to my heart. I am loved, supported and guided. Enjoy this moment of mindfulness.
Instructor: Juliana Spicoluk
super excited for all the new stuff
thank you for working tirelessly on our behalf