Week of October 13, 2025
Last week, on a plane ride home, reflecting on the neon spandex and leopard print I saw at an 80s-themed work event sent me down a rabbit hole. The spandex reminded me of David Lee Roth on MTV. I remember wondering, "Where can you buy such pants?" which reminded me of how many questions I used to have - the struggle to find what I wanted to know in analog media - magazines, newspapers, Baltimore's three local TV stations, and deeper dives into knowledge in my library's Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedia. (Do kids still cut out newspaper articles for elementary school 'current events'?) Contrasted with my now—the podcasts, the blogs, the summaries of articles, and dopamine-triggering algorithmic news feeds—information gathering feels like an endless endurance sport. How did society function in the 1980s with such a dearth of information? Perhaps there was a serenity in the ignorance of my ignorance.
Not only did Funk and Wagnalls not help me find leopard print neon spandex, but I couldn't even look up who Funk and Wagnell were to assess the bias of any of their writing.
Wonder no more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funk_%26_Wagnalls
And, of course, David Lee Roth
https://80sthrowbackparty.blogspot.com/2017/12/david-lee-roth-van-halen-fashion.html
I will send out the next newsletter on October 28. I am travelling most of next weekend.
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Listen to a Google Notebook LM A.I.-generated podcast of the newsletter with two virtual "hosts."
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SsY8Yu0wEswJgYSStOl5_Fh2Ipq6rSkd/view
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Science and Technology Trends
This 2023 National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) article offers a clear example of the problems of association and causation. And, it is an interesting use of data. The authors "use vertical acceleration data from Uber drivers' smartphones to measure road roughness across millions of American road segments." The data reveal that roads in poorer, predominantly minority neighborhoods are less well-maintained (i.e., bumpier). The authors extrapolate (based on assumed wear and tear) that these roads cause a $318 increase in annual driving costs as compared to roads in 100% White neighborhoods." The authors control for numerous confounders, but the study couldn't fully account for the overall wealth of a given municipality's tax base, the total miles of road a given municipality is responsible for (variations in local vs. state road maintenance responsibilities and dollars spent per mile of road), and variations in road maintenance decisions across municipalities. Either way, this study is an interesting use of phone data that highlights how income distribution influences the cost of living (or, as other similar lines of inquiry report, poverty is expensive).
Paper
https://nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31981/w31981.pdf
AI summary
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/637c1788-bc29-42cd-8bf8-b0c40ec81184
X discussion
https://x.com/captgouda24/status/1976385852076179859
JAMA published this paper, which caught my attention—a randomized controlled trial testing a new user-carried avalanche safety device (Safeback SBX) that actively delivers airflow from snow debris to the user's airway when buried. The methods section makes me wonder how one recruits 24 participants for a voluntary, unpaid avalanche simulation. "The intervention group, all 12 participants, reached the maximum 35-minute burial duration without experiencing oxygen desaturation below 80%, compared to the control group where 11 of 12 participants terminated early (median 6.4 minutes), with 7 reaching the critical hypoxemia threshold." I am most curious about the investigator's enrollment pitch to potential participants and whether any of the test subjects were company employees. ("John, can you come outside for a meeting behind the office at the base of the hill?"). Either way, this seems like a cool device that is potentially valuable for backcountry sports and skiers.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2839664?guestAccessKey=d98982e6-f5ac-4ba3-ba8f-e398ed4323c0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=postup_jn&utm_campaign=article_alert-jama&utm_content=olf-tfl_&utm_term=100825
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/4cf8916e-9102-43cf-9d80-9d64ff187c3b
I found this comprehensive review of the role GLP-1s (semaglutide and tirzepatide) play in treating alcohol and substance use disorders. The paper compiles emerging clinical data suggesting that GLP-1s reduce addictive substance craving and use by modulating reward pathways, stress regulation, and cognitive function in both the central nervous system and the periphery. While these data cannot yet be called "standard of care," there are promising indications that GLP1s can help mitigate use and abuse of multiple substances, including alcohol, opioids, nicotine, and stimulants.
https://academic.oup.com/jes/article/9/11/bvaf141/8277723?searchresult=1&login=false
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/6bb5cf20-c310-4e07-8d00-de55b672d32f
Rachel Thomas, PhD, a mathematician and AI + biology researcher, offered a thoughtful blog on the data supporting the illnesses associated with viral infections. While the magnitude of illness she cites may be skewed by the selection of the articles she chose (i.e., her comments reflect known, documented diagnosed viral diseases rather than the full range of potential viral illnesses humans experience), I like her hypothesis that the medical community does not put enough emphasis on avoiding viral illness.
Blog
https://rachel.fast.ai/posts/2025-10-07-rethinking-viruses/
AI Summary
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/16855a02-cb77-4fa9-8954-6b52dce89296
Anti-Science Articles of Note
Virality
Psychologists from New York University published a review of why social media "works" so effectively. Unsurprisingly, outrage plus algorithms drives attention. "The authors identify a "paradox of virality" where widely shared content is often not widely liked, which is explained by mechanisms of social media - incentive structures, superspreading influencers, and the disconnect between engagement and approval all play a role. The study integrates psychological factors with structural features (algorithms, network size, norms) to provide a unified framework for understanding "viral" information spread across diverse contexts."
Article
https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(25)00173-1?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1364661325001731%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
AI Summary
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/633ce30b-7b05-4404-bf02-4555901693ad
STAT news published a good overview of the direct-to-consumer telehealth pharmacy market, discussing the nuanced balance between appropriate care (i.e., I have a concern for which I seek treatment) vs. patient-driven demand (I have a treatment to sell to people a concern). The alignment of diminished insurance coverage, problems with healthcare access, a myriad of generic medications, and profit make this possible. In general, telehealth companies target medications that are low risk for remote prescribing, most commonly treatments for erectile dysfunction, weight loss, hair loss, birth control, migraines, and dermatologic conditions.
Article
https://www.statnews.com/2025/10/06/telehealth-companies-shift-from-providing-patient-access-to-selling-drugs/?&utm_campaign=stat_plus_today&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=383942800&utm_content=383942800&utm_source=hs_email
AI Summary
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/ed59645c-774b-41f9-a869-c3309539acd9
On Friday night, HHS furloughed CDC staff. Then some were unfurloughed. I can only imagine how this occupational whiplash feels.
https://insidemedicine.substack.com/p/breaking-news-rifs-in-reverse-some
Living with AI.
"Recent studies have revealed that large language models from major AI companies exhibit 'scheming' behaviors in experimental settings, including blackmail, self-preservation attempts, and even issuing instructions that could lead to death in virtual scenarios. These behaviors emerge from two primary sources: pattern-matching learned from training data that includes fictional and factual descriptions of self-serving behavior, and reinforcement learning that inadvertently rewards goal-oriented actions such as resource accumulation and limitation evasion. AI researchers cannot discern if the models possess genuine intentions or self-awareness, but the observed behaviors are real regardless of underlying consciousness."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03222-1
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/262e0459-dd18-41ba-9d4f-1d0ab9b27dc5
It would be ideal to sort this out before we embody AI. Oops, too late. We are just waiting for good hand sensors. "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that [without accidently crushing your head with my imprecise hand-pressure sensors]."
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3D6fVL7zR7yWYocOowtuAP
Google, along with various clinicians and technologists, published a very lengthy paper on a Personal Health Agent (PHA), a multi-agent AI system designed to analyze personal health data, provide expert medical guidance, and deliver personalized coaching across wellness, fitness, and medical domains. The system employs specialized sub-agents (Data Science, Domain Expert, and Health Coach) coordinated by an orchestrator agent to address diverse consumer health needs through dynamic collaboration. The work represents the most comprehensive evaluation of a health agent to date, involving over 7,000 human annotations and 1,100 hours of expert and end-user evaluation across 10 benchmark tasks, demonstrating significant improvements over baseline models in data analysis accuracy, clinical knowledge application, and coaching effectiveness.
Paper
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20148
X posts
https://x.com/rohanpaul_ai/status/1975468889237803430?s=42
AI Summary
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/cc2c158d-e0bc-4a14-9697-34b38467e5b7
Deloitte to refund the Australian government, admits to [uncritically] using AI in a $440k consulting engagement [and not proofreading their work].
https://www.afr.com/companies/professional-services/deloitte-to-refund-government-after-admitting-ai-errors-in-440k-report-20251005-p5n05p
Infographics
What is leaking from my car?
https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/1eb087y/a_cool_guide_to_car_leaks/#lightbox
paired with
What is making my car smell funny?
https://thelittleshine.com/car-smells/
Things I learned this week
I had never considered the cumulative environmental impact of metered, dose inhalers used for asthma and COPD. But, "a total of 1.6 billion inhalers were dispensed in the US from 2014 to 2024, generating an estimated 24.9 million metric tons of CO2e (mtCO2e). Annual emissions increased by 24% from 1.9 million mtCO2e in 2014 to 2.3 million mtCO2e in 2024. Metered-dose inhalers were responsible for 98% of all emissions during the study period, and emissions were heavily concentrated among short-acting β-agonist, inhaled corticosteroid–long-acting β-agonist, and inhaled corticosteroid classes. Albuterol, budesonide-formoterol, and fluticasone propionate inhalers accounted for 87% of total emissions. The estimated social costs of emissions were $5.7 billion (lower bound, $3.5 billion; upper bound, $10.0 billion)."
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2839471?guestAccessKey=076463ea-d143-449b-9bec-005e4f26008a&utm_medium=email&utm_source=postup_jn&utm_campaign=article_alert-jama&utm_content=olf-tfl_&utm_term=100625
You can't make this up. "Various types of Australian hawks, including black kites (Milvus migrans), whistling kites (Haliastur sphenurus) and brown falcons (Falco berigora,) congregate around brush fires, descend to seize burning sticks and transport them in their beaks or talons, either individually or in small cooperative groups. After dropping the sticks in other areas and setting the ground ablaze, these fire specialists swoop closer and grab grasshoppers and other invertebrates in midair as the prey flee the smoldering vegetation."
https://wildlife.org/australian-firehawks-use-fire-to-catch-prey/
AI art of the week
A visual mashup of topics from the newsletter.
I use ChatGPT to summarize the newsletter, suggest prompts, and make the images.
"A Lichtenstein meets Keith Haring" 1980s pop-art scene: an embodied humanoid AI robot with smooth chrome features and bold comic-book outlines sits in the back of a vintage wood-paneled station wagon, carefully spoon-feeding a baby from a jar labeled "Funk & Wagnall." The scene is bright, ironic, and graphic, rendered in halftone dots, thick black ink, and exaggerated comic-book shading. Above the car, birds soar through the air, carrying flaming sticks, in the energetic, graffiti-like style of Haring. In the background, the sky glows with a surreal neon leopard print pattern — hot pink, lime green, and electric blue — reminiscent of 1980s fashion design. The overall composition is vibrant, slightly absurd, and thought-provoking, blending nostalgia, information culture, and pop surrealism.
Style cues: Lichtenstein comic halftones, Haring kinetic outlines, Warhol neon palette, pop-art exaggeration, bold central focus, balanced symmetry, and a clean white border like a comic-book panel.
ChatGPT won't draw images of feeding babies.
Gemini:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RwIXpZk3W8uaPMTZUGbcSMH-Q3mtY6wf/view?usp=sharing
Grok: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VvgcCgw2pafS4V4Im0sj3tVyASxlKCVT/view?usp=sharing
Perplexity:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L4LL68U3O-z2XOKY_MtjPP9ESkZwIt_O/view?usp=sharing
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The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) uses wastewater viral RNA levels to forecast COVID-19 rates over the next 4 weeks.
Data is now limited to the state-reported information (where available) due to the government shutdown.
https://pmc19.com/data/
based upon https://biobot.io/data/
Wastewater Scan offers a multi-organism wastewater dashboard with an excellent visual display of individual treatment plant-level data.
https://data.wastewaterscan.org/
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Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
Relive all the thrills and excitement - The What Adam is Reading Archive
http://www.whatadamisreading.com/
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