Weekly Links #5
Welcome one and all to the fifth edition of weekly links.
This will perhaps will be the last edition of weekly links as I have sought to accomplish a few things by creating these kind of posts (of which I will explain at the end of this edition). I am trying to find a way to better use of my time, trying to use them intentionally and also finding a way that the things I read does not become a waste. Anyways, let’s get into this week’s edition.
some news
- Last year, a record-breaking 71 million people around the world had to leave their homes due to conflicts and climate-related disasters, a 20% increase from the previous year. Most of these displaced individuals are living in 10 countries that experienced significant upheaval in 2022. Of these, the conflict in Ukraine led to around 17 million people being displaced. Conflict and violence caused around 28 million displacements, three times the average annual rate of the last decade. Natural disasters, such as floods, droughts, and landslides, caused a majority of the displacements, affecting around 33 million people. The conflict in Ukraine has also worsened global food security, negatively affecting those who have been displaced the most and undermining previous progress in reducing worldwide hunger and malnutrition.
- As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance, experts predict that it will transform the nature of work in five key ways. Despite the potential benefits of AI in the workplace, there are concerns about the impact of AI on workers, particularly those in low-skilled jobs or in countries with weaker labor protections. Experts argue that governments and employers must take steps to ensure that AI is deployed in a way that benefits all workers and society as a whole.
- Anthropic, an AI research startup founded by former members of OpenAI, has made a significant breakthrough in text-generating AI. They’ve revolutionized Claude, their AI model, by expanding its context window from a mere 9,000 tokens to a whopping 100,000 tokens. It’s a game-changing leap forward, leaving OpenAI’s GPT-4 and its 32k context window (that’s currently in beta) in the dust.
- The World Health Organisation declared that covid-19 is no longer a “public health emergency of international concern”, three years after the disease broke out. Although 7m deaths from covid have been reported, the WHO thinks the true toll is at least 20m. The Committee recommended that the WHO Director-General extend the temporary recommendations issued under the IHR regarding COVID-19, and urged member states to strengthen their national capacities to detect, respond to, and prevent the spread of the virus.
things I did
Some interesting videos I’ve watched this week:
I watched three movies this week:
- I Care a Lot (2020)
- American Beauty (1999)
- Sicario (2015)
I have watched Gone Girl, which also starred Rosamund Pike; I Care a Lot has so much in common with it.
The movie follows Marla Grayson, a ruthless and cunning professional guardian who exploits the legal system to take control of the assets of elderly people and place them under her care. When Marla sets her sights on Jennifer Peterson, a wealthy retiree with no living relatives, she thinks she’s hit the jackpot. However, Jennifer turns out to have connections to a dangerous and powerful criminal, and Marla finds herself embroiled in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Overall I would rate it 9/10, it’s short fun and fast paced to watch.
I watched American Beauty because it was in a recommendation by a blogger that I happened to be reading his about page. I don’t know how I feel about this movie.
I like that Kevin Spacey is in it though. The movie tells the story of Lester Burnham (played by Kevin Spacey), a middle-aged man who becomes disillusioned with his mundane life and embarks on a journey of self-discovery. He develops an infatuation with his daughter’s best friend, Angela, and begins to make radical changes in his life, including quitting his job and buying a sports car. Meanwhile, Lester’s wife, Carolyn, is struggling to maintain her perfect image and is having an affair with a business rival. This movie is 8/10 since I don’t understand exactly what’s going on and the wikipedia page on this movie has a lot of interpretation of what the movie was actually about. It’s definitely food for thought though, since so many of the scenes talks about the american ideal, greed, and what exactly is meaningful in life. For me, the ending is of course unexpected but welcomed.
There are two reasons why I watched Sicario: first it starred Emily Blunt which I’m a huge fan of, and two because it was directed by Denis Villeneuve. Denis is so talented all of his films are GOOD. Dune, Arrival, Bladerunner. So I expected this to be good and it delivers. The story is very harsh, about drug cartels in Mexico. A covert operation by the CIA, Josh Brolin (who played the role of Thanos in MCU) and Alejandro (played by Benicio del Toro) had to recruit an FBI that is played by Emily Blunt (cause CIA needs to work with domestic law enforcement) to extradite a member of a cartel outside of Mexico into the US. The soundtrack of this movie, the scenes were good. Solid 9/10 for me. You have to watch this scene on the border: absolutely fantastic.
a personal anecdote
When I first created this kind of newsletter-y themed posts I was trying to find a way to build a habit of writing. Or perhaps it wasn’t the writing part per se, it was the act of doing something consistently over a period of time. I felt like I have never done anything like that, on anything meaningful extent, during the last couple of months.
For starters, I got into uni by the latter half of last year. And the last one and a half year was a complete mess. Whatever the absolute mindfuckery that happened in my academic life (of which I have no idea whether I should be worried, sad, or be happy) notwithstanding, I’m confronted with two things: the things I want to do in life, and the absolute brutality of “real life”. It leaves me hanging on a very thin thread and I had to resort to very practical actions. Whether I like it or not, I need a passing grade, I don’t have any skills that can help me make some bucks IF I graduate, I have very superficial social ability, I got no friends, I was not willing to embrace any change and essentially I am still the same person that brought me to where I am right now.
I do not like getting into too personal matters but those background is necessary to provide an accurate picture of why I’m doing this right now. And I guess I’m writing this more to myself since I hope he would read it in the future. I still am the this kind of person as of I’m writing this.
I am still going to try creating this kind of posts since it’s fun. But probably I’ll experiment and try to produce in different format with different interval since honestly I don’t know why I’m making this and I don’t know what to put here.
Videos has always been my goal, I don’t know if I can do it yet though; what I need is the ability to produce and communicate ideas in written and video form. That would also imply that I need to be able to edit a video. These are not trivial matters. I am living very dangerously right now and drifting myself into a world where I might not even get minimum wage on my job, IF I graduate. This sounds like a plea for help lol.
In summary, I kind of don’t know what I’m doing. I lack skills to be an adult. And I’m trying my best to fix all of that, hence this weekly links. But I feel like it’s a good time to try other kind of writing and form of media. I will definitely post them here. Please wish me luck, o kind stranger on the internet.