Links for November 21, 2021

😷 Reading the mind with a mask? Improvement in reading the mind in the eyes during the COVID-19 pandemic — PubMed

Spending more time relying on reading people's eyes to gauge their emotions enhances your ability to do so. Our brains are extremely adaptable:

These results suggest that in addition to individual's interest and motivation in understanding other's mental state, continuous everyday experiences can result in an improved capacity for reading mental and emotional states by looking into individuals' eyes.

Via @AdamMGrant

☢️ Can Nuclear Fusion Put the Brakes on Climate Change? — New Yorker

Speaking of not committing fully enough to an initiative, nuclear fusion has been stuck with limited funding for decades, despite its promises. The U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration estimated that the low end of funding for nuclear fusion (about $1 billion per year) would lead to fusion never being a viable technology. That's roughly what's been spent, so for years, cheap and relatively safe energy has seemed just around the corner.

Fission is when an atom—most commonly uranium or plutonium—breaks in two. Fission generates waste that remains radioactive for tens of thousands of years; in contrast, the little bit of waste that fusion generates remains radioactive for only a few decades. Fission is pretty powerful, as evidenced by atomic bombs; fusion is much, much more powerful.

[...]

The process of fusion sounds dangerous to a layperson—a sun in a magnetic bottle?—but it is easier to extinguish than a match.

🐦 A Useful Tweet

A great reminder on the importance of compounding:

Keep going.

— @visualizevalue