It turns out that many of my otherwise intelligent friends have never had a credit cards. I don’t mean to be pushy, but you should probably get one… and here’s why. Many credit cards…

More and more weight loss researchers are recommending that Belviq and Qsymia become the second line anti-obesity treatments after diet and exercise fail people. As much as I dislike pharmaceuticals, I think this is probably the…

A recent study at Harvard University entirely debunks the popular notion that leggings are pants. Such a firm conclusion was slightly unexpected, according to the study’s authors. Shoddy research. Pretty sure these are pants…

For centuries, philosophers wondered how we could learn what causes what. Some argued it was impossible, or possible only via experiment. How progress gets made on problems like FAI. See on intelligence.org

“The things you own end up owning you.” I still remember reading this post back in 2008 and deciding to sell, give away, or throw out almost everything I owned. It turned out to…

It only takes 30 seconds to submit your number to the National “Do Not Call” registry, but will save you multiple interruptions per week. Sign up and protect your precious attention budget! In my…

Rent out your room, apartment, or vacation home. Protip: The economics of AirBNB are amazing for renters right now! I can currently rent out my 1 bedroom apartment in Berkeley for over 2x my…

Access cutting-edge diagnostic testing, the latest nutritional science, and medical practitioners committed to preventative health. IF YOU’RE SICK and can’t figure out why, check out WellnessFX. Their performance package + thyroid panel has all…

Learn programming with a multiplayer live coding strategy game. You’re a wizard, and your spells are JavaScript. Free HTML5 game! The clicky-addictive way to learn basic programming. See on codecombat.com

Or we could use non-Chaos Theory too. See on www.wired.com

Pomodoros are an awesome productivity technique. But does anyone know of a better tracker than MyTomatoes.com? Shouldn’t there be a public-facing “Pomodoro-ville” where I can compete with friends to smash more tomatoes than them? See on…

During his time as a MIRI research fellow, Carl Shulman co-authored (with Nick Bostrom) a paper that is now available as a preprint, titled “Embryo Selection for Cognitive Enhancement: Curiosity or Game-changer? Breeding humans…

Kestrel Institute hosts at least a few researchers like Dr. Kimmell who are working on applied formal methods that might one day be useful for proving the soundness of things like FAI bootstraping code….

Vicarious is apparently getting a 90%+ success rate at solving CAPCHAs with automated software. That’s somewhat impressive. See on vicariousinc.tumblr.com

Galois’ formal methods division has published some interesting research. “Coverset Induction with Partiality and Subsorts” helps establish how to prove mathematical statements about a more computationally realistic set of recursive functions than standard methods…

I recently funded my 200th microloan on Kiva and also became the captain for MIRI’s lending team. There are obviously higher impact charities than Kiva for the majority of our philanthropic dollars, like AMF,…

I’ve been telling people to try this for awhile. A new study this year confirms previous research showing that Metformin helps people lose weight. In fact, a 10 year follow-up study published in 2009…

For some reason, Charles Schwab has unreasonably good checking accounts right now. Unless you use one of the other two slightly reasonable online banks (Ally / Capital One 360), it’s very likely you could…

At the suggestion of my girlfriend, I recently picked up an app called “Clue” that tracks her monthly cycle. Similar apps have slogans like, “Saving relationships, one month at a time!” for a good…

Standard lithium-ion batteries, like the ones in everything from your cell phone to your plug-in electric vehicle, have electrodes that contain intercalation compounds. They are capable of charging and discharging without substantial change in…