David Fravor, Nerdiness, Open Bionics | Feeding Frenzy 44
Feeding Frenzy is a weekly post that is a collection of knowledge to absorb. Every week you can expect something worth listening to, reading, watching, and pondering. Think of this as a boost of the signal above the noise!
In this edition of the Feeding Frenzy, we have a podcast with David Fravor, a primary witness to the most credible UFO sighting in history. The WHOOP podcast looks at how daylights savings affects us. Worth reading, we have a look inside Portland from Douglas Murray and Science of Nerdiness. Worth watching; we have a video on advanced prosthetic from Open Bionics and always a few more pieces worth your time!
Tag us in your favorite content in the week!
Worth Listening
#122 – David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman
David Fravor is a navy pilot of 18 years and a primary witness in one of the most credible UFO sightings in history, a video released by the Pentagon and reported on by the NY Times.
What I found interesting was Lex's viewpoint on contending with the credibility of UFO's. In many cases, once you engage with it, you can be labeled as unscientific in this conversation. However, David Fravor is one example of being impartial and stating the facts of an experience. I think there is room to approach the edges of our understanding with open-mindedness.
How Daylight Savings Affects Your Body | WHOOP Podcast
VP of Performance Kristen Holmes and VP of Data Science and Research Emily Capodilupo returns to the WHOOP Podcast for an in-depth look at how the end of Daylight Saving Time messes with your circadian rhythm.
"To sum this up: The best thing we can do is to establish really clear routines and behaviors associated with sleep-wake timing, light exposure, fueling, and exercise. Those are the big core anchors that the body is going to respond to. Establishing those routines is really going to help our body understand what to expect next."
For more on wearables check out this blog!
Worth Reading
My week with the baying Antifa mob | The Spectator
"America is not being brought low by one beast, but by a whole pack of them. These predators include, though are not limited to: ignorance, educational failure, radical indoctrination, pandemic, poverty, narcissism, boredom, the disappearance of the adults, a belief that law enforcement is the enemy and much more."
This article was written by Douglas Murray, author of Madness of Crowds. If you haven't been exposed to him yet, I highly recommend you spend some time getting to know his work more. This article shares his experiences while joining Antifa-BLM activists for a few nights. As someone who lives in the suburban Midwest, it is relatively stable here but reading this account is eye-opening to the reality of chaos still happening around the country.
Life's Work: An Interview with Sugar Ray Leonard | Harvard Business Review
"Sugar" Ray Leonard is an American former professional boxer, motivational speaker, and occasional actor. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed from 1977 to 1997, winning world titles in five weight divisions; the lineal championship in three weight divisions; and the undisputed welterweight title.
"Boxing is a poor man's sport. It's a sport that demands your outright respect. Most people look at boxing or any contact sport and say, "Wow, I couldn't do that," because they don't possess the thing inside of us that makes us go through pain. It takes something to activate that. That's what separates fighters from other people."
The Science of Nerdiness | Scientific American
"However, in recent years, other dopamine pathways in the brain have been proposed that are strongly linked to the reward value of information. People who score high in the general tendency toward exploration are not only driven to engage in behavioral forms of exploration, but also tend to get energized through the possibility of discovering new information and extracting meaning and growth from their experiences."
Worth Watching
Augmented Future - Open Bionics × Deus Ex × Razer
Open Bionics, Eidos-Montréal, and Razer are working together to bring Deus Ex inspired augmentations to life. The three companies will help bridge the gap between fiction and reality, working together to design, 3D print, scan, power, and create affordable bionic hands. This "Augmented Future" initiative will combine each company's expertise, with the ultimate goal being to make fashionable robotic prosthesis accessible to a larger audience.
At 17, Joel Gibbard began tinkering with robotic hands. There was something about the movement of a disembodied humanoid hand that captured his imagination. Hundreds of prototypes and many crates of failures later, in 2014, Joel co-founded Open Bionics with Samantha Payne. The Open Bionics co-founders were recently named the 2018 Hottest Startup Founders in Europe at The Europa Awards. They're pioneering a new bionic age inspired by science fiction.
Worth Pondering
"The Master said, 'In ancient times, men learned with a view to their own improvement. Now-a-days men learn with a view to the approbation of others.'" - Confucius
This week is a wrap and plenty to chew over for this week! Feel free to let us know any thoughts and suggestions that may contribute to these posts. It may pop-up on Feeding Frenzy or develop into a full-fledged article of its own.
Stay curious, and have a great week!
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Today on the podcast, we are joined by Joe Jackowski. Joe is a Marine Corps veteran and current graduate student at Vanderbilt University in the Cognitive Psychology in Context program. His primary interest is meaning in life, which broadly extends to problems in ethics, A.I., and culture.
In this episode, we sit down to discuss his first long-form article on his new sub stack, Apotheosis: A Philosophy for Influencers