Liberating Leak

Digitally Liberating Colonial Plunder

Alizeh Kohari | Noēma | 28th March 2024

Digital repatriation for museum artefacts, as opposed to more politically fraught physical relocation, is surging in popularity. A 3D scan of an object enables those who cannot physically access it to view, study and understand it. One such scan, of the famous Nefertiti Bust displayed at the Neues Museum in Berlin, was made covertly using "a modified Xbox Kinect hidden under a blue scarf" (3,600 words)

$100,000 Lab Leak Debate

Scott Alexander | Astral Codex Ten | 28th March 2024

Novel method for settling an intellectual dispute. On one side, millionaire investor and poker player Saar Wilf, who espouses the lab leak theory of Covid-19's origins. On the other, Peter Miller, a physics student who thinks the lab leak theory is false. Via Wilf's analysis platform Rootclaim, the pair made a $100,000 bet, appointed judges, and took part in a 15-hour video debate. Miller won (16,000 words)