Ukraine scored another major victory this month when it retook the southern city of Kherson from Russian forces. It was the biggest city captured by Russia since the start of the war, and the last Russian toehold north and west of the Dnieper River.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-kherson-retreat-complete-ukrainian-forces-advance-rcna56717
Russia is so low on artillery shells that it is illegally buying them from North Korea.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/02/north-korea-is-secretly-supplying-russia-with-ammunition-kirby-says-00064611
North Korea’s boast about being able to use artillery to turn Seoul into a “sea of fire” is an exaggeration thanks to dud shells, misses, guns breaking down, and rapid South Korean counterfire.
https://keia.org/the-peninsula/north-koreas-conventional-weapons-threat/
The U.S. has again successfully tested its “Rapid Dragon” cruise missile system. Basically, the crewmen onboard a cargo plane open its back door during flight, shove a missile out, and its rocket engine turns on and it flies to its target.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/special-ops-c-130-tests-pallet-dropped-cruise-missiles-in-the-arctic
The AR-15 has proven itself to be the most versatile assault rifle in the world time and again. Now, Pakistan has designed a variant of the weapon that marries it with the “delayed blowback” operating system of the famous German G3 rifles and MP5 submachine guns.
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2022/11/22/ideas-2022-cw56-roller-delayed-blowback-rifle-pakistan-ordnance-factories/
This is the future: a quadcopter drone that is only 12 inches in diameter and 6 inches high that can fly into tight spaces, zip at you at up to 40 mph, and detonate itself with the force of a small grenade once it gets right up to your face.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/these-israeli-urban-battlefield-assassin-drones-are-nightmare-fuel
On the rise of “Reform AI Alignment” in opposition to “Orthodox AI Alignment.”
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=6821
Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant may be a marvel of technology, but it is also a massive money-loser for the company.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/11/amazon-alexa-is-a-colossal-failure-on-pace-to-lose-10-billion-this-year/
On the heels of my thought experiment last month about machines being better at choosing careers for people than we are, here’s a finding that college students commonly choose majors based on unrealistic expectations about what careers they will lead to.
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/10/do-students-choose-majors-rationally.html
Cladding old buildings in new exteriors could be the most eco-friendly way to improve the energy efficiency of the housing stock.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/29/business/ecoworks-germany-cladding-climate-spc-intl/index.html
After years of delays, NASA launched its first SLS rocket into space, propelling an unmanned Orion capsule to the Moon. This could be the first step to a human Moon landing this decade.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/24/world/nasa-orion-capsule-selfie-moon-scn/index.html
“The fatigue limit or endurance limit is the stress level below which an infinite number of loading cycles can be applied to a material without causing fatigue failure. Some metals such as ferrous alloys and titanium alloys have a distinct limit, whereas others such as aluminum and copper do not and will eventually fail even from small stress amplitudes.”
In theory, a wrench made of steel could last forever if you never applied enough force to it to exceed its fatigue limit.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_limit
Has theoretical particle physics gotten too theoretical?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/26/physics-particles-physicists
The FDA has authorized the first lab grown chicken meat to be sold in the U.S.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63660488
The FDA has also approved a new drug that delays the onset of Type 1 diabetes in children by around two years.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-63663338
Lamps that generate “far UV” light have been shown to kill airborne pathogens, but without harming the skin and eyes of humans, as regular UV lamps do.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-08462-z
“Superagers” are people over 80 whose memories are as good as people 20 years younger. Studies show that their brain anatomy is slightly different, probably accounting for their superior traits. Imagine if genetic engineering turned all humans into superagers.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/26/health/superager-secrets-good-memory-wellness/index.html
The Bank of America prediction from April 2022 was right. At the time it was released, the S&P 500 was 4,488. The analysis said the index would drop by 11% before the end of the year, which equates to a value of 3,990. It reached an actual low of 3,491 in October, and remains below 4,000 today.
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-outlook-recession-inflation-sp500-federal-reserve-interest-rates-2022-4