Ran Prieur http://ranprieur.com/#9a417fe513f58988c3b5b1e84cfc57397194a79b 2021-08-04T16:20:33Z Ran Prieur http://ranprieur.com/ ranprieur@gmail.com August 4. http://ranprieur.com/#0584635a011bad78d8d33b4c67bca9e993480f15 2021-08-04T16:20:33Z August 4. I'm mentally sluggish this week, so more links. Continuing on the subject of internet disinformation, Deepfakes are one click away. It's an interview with my blogging friend from the old days, Tim Boucher. While I've been dipping my toes in the breakdown of reality, Tim has been swimming in it, working as a moderator for a large social media site, inventing a lost civilization called Quatria, and writing about hyperreality, "a condition in which what is real and what is fiction are seamlessly blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins."

New subject, sort of. Alex recommends this video series, Awakening from the Meaning Crisis. If you don't want to watch fifty hours of videos, there are transcripts.

Ugo Bardi has been one of the smartest doomers for a long time. I haven't kept up on his stuff, but he has at least two good blogs now, The Proud Holobionts and The Seneca Effect.

]]> August 2. http://ranprieur.com/#18dec610ac172720d764cd258f00c639cfe439a6 2021-08-02T14:00:27Z August 2. Some good news links. One Lost Methyl Group = Huge Amounts of Food Production. An enzyme called FTO was engineered into rice and potatoes, and crop yields went up 50%.

The plants' root systems were deeper and more extensive, and photosynthetic efficiency went up by a startling 36%. Transpiration from the leaves was up 78%, but at the same time, the plants of both species showed significantly higher drought tolerance.

My objection to GMO crops is political. If a modification doesn't breed true, and if farmers can't do it themselves, then we are dependent for our survival on big systems that have been designed to increase their power over us through profit.

The best case is, with better design of public institutions, biotech could be used to permanently upgrade the non-human world. If we can make the planet better than we found it, humans will have finally justified our existence.

Related: How organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies.

Instant water cleaning method 'millions of times' better than commercial approach.

New 'mirror' fabric can cool wearers by nearly 5°C.

Flying Only with the Heat of the Sun, with black hot air balloons that use sunlight to heat the air inside them.

How to Unlearn a Disease. Some diseases are just bad patterns in our neural pathways, and "electroceuticals" might straighten them out.

And some DIY health, 5-minute breathing exercise lowers blood pressure better than working out, medication. Supposedly you need a special device, but it seems like you could just cover your mouth and suck really hard.

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