Featured Links - June 19, 2023

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

• Typefaces based on the London Underground's dot matrix train signs. I'm surprised that TFL hasn't been selling their own version of the typeface. 
• Is Generative AI Bad for the Environment? "A computer scientist explains the carbon footprint of ChatGPT and its cousins."
• The Fires Here Are Unstoppable. "The first foreign firefighters to reach Quebec amid Canada’s worst wildfire season on record said that some of the blazes were 100 times bigger than any they had ever seen." (Gifted article-no paywall)
• The dark side of Amazon returns: Boxes getting sent back has metastasized to an $816 billion yearly problem. 
• Rethinking the Universe: Astronomers Disturbed by the Unexpected Scale of James Webb’s Galaxies. "The first results from the James Webb Space Telescope have hinted at galaxies so early and so massive that they are in tension with our understanding of the formation of structure in the Universe. Various explanations have been proposed that may alleviate this tension. But now a new study from the Cosmic Dawn Center suggests an effect that has never before been studied at such early epochs, indicating that the galaxies may be even more massive."
• Study finds that COVID-19 could cause brain cells to fuse, leading to permanent damage. "The real-world implications of this study and many others done on the neurological impacts of COVID-19 are staggering. The damage to brain cells shown in the study is irreversible. Repeated bouts of COVID-19 are likely to compound the effect, leading to progressive neurological decline in individuals who are repeatedly reinfected, not to mention effects on other organ systems."
• Why is the North Atlantic breaking heat records? "Some spots are nearly 4 degrees Celsius above normal for this time of year."
• How a Grad Student Uncovered the Largest Known Slave Auction in the U.S. "Lauren Davila made a stunning discovery as a graduate student at the College of Charleston: an ad for a slave auction larger than any historian had yet identified. The find yields a new understanding of the enormous harm of such a transaction."