Andrew Rosenblum
@rosenblumandrew
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Read me @techreview, @newscientist @neodotlife @popsci @wired @lamag; FC @CapitalandMain & @ppfa; (he/his/him)
Oakland, CA
Joined January 2011
I have a new piece out on biotech companies brewing up alternatives to palm oil in the lab. Please check it out and let me know what you think!
ambrook.com
Though the $70 billion palm oil industry has made real progress in reducing deforestation, biotech companies are trying to brew up synthetic alternatives. Can they scale?
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Palm oil production got a lot of backlash for deforestation and human rights abuses. It's cleaned up its act, but not totally. Enter the startups, creating pricey synthetic palm oil alternatives in a lab. Do we need them? New from @rosenblumandrew: https://t.co/pioYi7K6qt
ambrook.com
Though the $70 billion palm oil industry has made real progress in reducing deforestation, biotech companies are trying to brew up synthetic alternatives. Can they scale?
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Unfortunately, some bozo showed up to her reading at a Virginia library to disrupt the event by cursing and he had to be handcuffed. I wish he would pipe down and just read the book!
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My grad school friend "LT" Rease Miles has put her wisdom, humor, & intellect into "Smart Girl: A First-Gen Origin Story." She's the 1st person in her family to go to college, & she then got a Ph.D. & now mentors other "first gen" students:
smartgirlbook.com
Smart Girl: A First-Gen Origin Story is a memoir redefining first-gen and Black student narratives, highlighting mass media, pop culture, and sports as key to shaping identity, resilience, and...
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61 kids, ages 12-18, talk about harvesting produce in California--adults are not protecting them from pesticide exposure, below minimum wage earnings, triple digit temperatures. Proud to serve as fact-checker on Robert J. Lopez's bravura investigation:
capitalandmain.com
State officials are failing to protect the health and safety of thousands of young field laborers, an investigation has found.
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Geneticists fear "designer babies" because of the risk of unintended cuts changes that enter the gene pool - also that failures will discredit the "somatic" genetic editing of non-heritable cells for conditions like sickle cell anemia:
technologyreview.com
Entrepreneurs say it’s time to safety-test designer baby technology.
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Paul Kingsworth compares Silicon Valley technoutopians to the bloody cult of reason during the French Revolution. It's the Burkean conservative question: what fills the power vacuum when you dispense with the world people know?
harpers.org
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Wind is the gift that keeps on giving...particularly to red states -keeping lights on & electricity prices low and using less footprint on the ground than any energy source. Even allowing farmers to earn more income with no crop loss. One would think everyone would support it.
New @EIAgov data 6 GOP states met 48.5-86.7% of their annual electricity demand from wind: SD 86.7% IA 74.9 KS 68.7 WY 59.6 ND 48.6 OK 48.5 https://t.co/nnjeXX6u8n and all had elec price 2.4-5.1 c/kWh below US avg https://t.co/Tpm8NCnpHF Wind supplied 10.9% of U.S. demand
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Naming your steel "cow" that is actually a bioreactor for making cheese "casein" proteins after Margaret Thatcher is a bold strategy. I can't tell if it is earnest or sardonic though:
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You start off parlaying your crypto fortune into a Kentucky mansion and plans for a Senate run -- then, before you know it, you're lighting a guy's clothes on fire and dangling him off a stairwell to get his passwords:
wsj.com
William Duplessie and John Woeltz hatched grandiose plans in business and politics but instead drew charges in an alleged kidnap scheme.
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Please check out my new piece! And let me know what you think.
How generative AI could help make construction sites safer
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How generative AI could help make construction sites safer
technologyreview.com
The technology could save lives—so long as it doesn’t fully replace humans that monitor safety.
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Can AI help prevent construction accidents that cost more than 1,000 American workers their lives each year? For @techreview, I delved into the problem:
technologyreview.com
The technology could save lives—so long as it doesn’t fully replace humans that monitor safety.
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I FC'd Kate Morrissey's piece about CBP head Rodney Scott, just confirmed today. He led the San Diego Sector when officers taught children to shoot at migrant effigies, & also allegedly covered up a Tasing death of a detainee https://t.co/AhLCLYUVLW
capitalandmain.com
Rodney Scott led the U.S. Border Patrol sector in San Diego when officials killed immigrant Anastasio Hernández Rojas.
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If you're tired of hype for mediocre tech, check out Bruce Crumley's feature on Zipline, which has completed over 1.4 million successful drone deliveries, mostly of sensitive medical supplies like blood or vaccines. (I helped with FC):
inc.com
The company took the long road to the domestic market by testing its drone and delivery systems in the developing world.
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I'm excited to have a story in The Verge today on award-winning painter Brett Amory and his work "breaking" generative AI in artistically-productive ways. Please check it out and let me know what you think:
theverge.com
Artists are collaborating with and “breaking” generative AI.
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I have been working hard for weeks on fact-checking Carrie Sun's powerful feature on the New York design/strategy agency Sylvain's resilience after the tragic death of their founder. Please check it out:
inc.com
When the design and strategy consultancy suffered the loss of its charismatic founder, the company grieved—and found a new sense of purpose.
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New piece is top 5 engineering feats of 2024 for @popsci. Grand award winner: Joule Hive, which heats firebricks w/ clean juice to temps > 3,000 degrees. Why it matters: 17% of our CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuel to provide heat for heavy industry
popsci.com
From firebricks to vegan cheese.
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Really interesting review of two new books about Silicon Valley's "disruption" of democracy, and why disruption is not always good. (For example, the meteor that disrupted the dinosaurs):
technologyreview.com
Two books explore the price we’ve paid in handing over unprecedented power to Big Tech—and explain why it’s imperative we start taking it back.
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Great essay about some of the downsides/unpredictability of selecting embryos for intelligence. (Higher educational attainment correlates with higher risk of biopolar disorder, for example). Also, I can't believe there's a company called Gattaca Genomics:
sfstandard.com
The latest fertility tech invites parents to select baby traits like shopping at Whole Foods.
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