A harsh, but objective view on the new industry buzzword – the blockchain:

Nobody’s in charge, and you can’t change or delete anything, only view and input data.
The first, best-known – and practically only – use of blockchain technology is bitcoin, the digital currency that allows you to transfer money without the involvement of a bank.
There are now three mining pools which are responsible for more than half of all the new bitcoin (and also for checking payment requests). 
Blockchain generalises the bitcoin pitch: let’s not just get rid of banks, but also the land registry, voting machines, insurance companies, …
The only thing is that there’s a huge gap between promise and reality. It seems that blockchain sounds best in a PowerPoint slide. Most blockchain projects don’t make it past a press release

https://thecorrespondent.com/655/blockchain-the-amazing-solution-for-almost-nothing/84495599980-95473476?mc_cid=ac542d3dec&mc_eid=6ff15a57b7

Just like Sheldon Cooper, I love lists. If I would make a list of things that I love, lists would be one of the first items. So here’s an awesome list of Laws, Principles, Mental Models, Cognitive Biases. One example:

“The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, it’s to post the wrong answer.”

https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-concepts?mc_cid=5bdc7c6f5a&mc_eid=6ff15a57b7#cunninghams-law

Ronnie won his sixth World Snooker Championship. A week after, he sat together with Simon Hattenstone, the ghostwriter who helped him write his biography.

He was always regarded as the sport’s most naturally gifted player; now the consensus is that he’s the greatest.
Ronnie is called the Rocket for his speed and power. But there is also a sublime grace to his playing – the way he makes the cue ball dance, the delicacy with which he picks off balls and opens up the pack, his balance, the ability to swap from right to left hand depending on his shot or mood. In a sport not overly blessed with charismatic players, he has been the personality of snooker for a quarter of a century.
 In his 30s he became obsessed with middle-distance running. “A lot of the time I would think: ‘I don’t actually want to win this match because I’ve got a five-mile cross-country race I want to win back in Essex.’ Running became more important than snooker. 
Now, he is in a good place. He came off medication when he realised it was making him moody and he was taking it out on his son. He is sticking with natural serotonin – running. In lockdown he got himself a coach and has not looked back. “I can run for an hour, 7.45- to 8-minute miling. Running is my drug.” 
I ask him about the future, expecting him to talk about books, endorsements, punditry and a bit of snooker. “The one thing I thought I’d excel in was being in the care industry,” he says. Is he serious? He nods. “I can empathise with people in addiction”. 

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/aug/23/i-was-the-king-of-sabotage-ronnie-osullivan-on-controversy-comebacks-and-becoming-a-carer

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The only thing that truly matters in public speaking is not confidence, stage presence, or smooth talking. It’s having something worth saying.

The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking via

Every winner begins as a loser but not every failure leads to success.  It turns out that trying again and again only works if you learn from your previous failures. The idea is to work smart, not hard.

Failure Found to be an “Essential Prerequisite” For Success

Would you notice? Some students were presented with an onscreen calculator that was programmed to give the wrong answers. Researchers found most participants raised few or no suspicions when presented with wrong answers, until the answers were quite wrong. 

Would you notice if your calculator was lying to you?

Fingerprinting happens when sites force your browser to hand over innocent-looking but largely unchanging technical information about your computer, such as the resolution of your screen, your operating system or the fonts you have installed. Combined, those details create a picture of your device as unique as the skin on your thumb.

What is fingerprinting? The online tracking you can’t avoid

Imagine a world where the global space race never ended. This “what if” take on history from Ronald D. Moore spotlights the lives of NASA astronauts—the heroes and rock stars of their time—and their families.

For all mankind

Kano allows your kid to build their own computer and learn to code. It’s an amazing tool that will help your kids improve their digital skills.

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Trypophobia is an aversion to the sight of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes, or bumps. Didn’t know this is really a thing…

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Glass vs plastic when it comes to bottled water

When glass is recycled it gets turned in to more glass. It can be recycled over and over and never lose its integrity.
Plastic bottles, however, are not recycled into plastic bottles. The plastic loses its integrity and needs to be turned into something different such as plastic lumber or carpet padding. Because of this, some people say that plastic isn’t truly recycled; it’s downcycled.
Every time a product is packaged in a plastic bottle, jar, or other container, it’s new plastic. All new resources went into making it. Glass jars, on the other hand, can be made from recycled glass. 

https://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/blogs/glass-vs-plastic

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Protanomaly: a type of red-green color blindness in which the red cones do not detect enough red and are too sensitive to greens, yellows, and oranges.
As a result, greens, yellows, oranges, reds, and browns may appear similar, especially in low light. It can also be difficult to tell the difference between blues and purples, or pinks and grays. Red and black might be hard to tell apart, especially when red text is against a black background. Read more

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How to Build a Successful Career in Information Security / Cybersecurity
Some great advice from Daniel Miessler:

• learn to code
• build your lab
• build your portfolio of projects (make sure you own your data)
• practice with bounties
• get involved – contribute to open source projects
• be active, engage in conversations
• network with others
• participate to conferences
• find a mentor
• get certified:
  CISSP is the closest thing to a standard baseline that our industry has. It’s actually better than a computer science degree in a lot of organizations
• most importantly: have passion!