subj
Nero stylin'
A masterpiece of old engineering
Imagine dining in a room that literally rotates beneath your feet. Emperor Nero didn't just dream it, he built it. This wasn't some simple party trick. This was ancient Rome's most extravagant flex, a rotating dining hall powered entirely by water that spun day and night. For centuries, historians thought it was just legend. Then in 2009, archaeologists proved the impossible was real.
More: https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/curiosities/neros-dining-room-revolved-day-and-night/
Imagine dining in a room that literally rotates beneath your feet. Emperor Nero didn't just dream it, he built it. This wasn't some simple party trick. This was ancient Rome's most extravagant flex, a rotating dining hall powered entirely by water that spun day and night. For centuries, historians thought it was just legend. Then in 2009, archaeologists proved the impossible was real.
More: https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/curiosities/neros-dining-room-revolved-day-and-night/
subj
The *symmetry between Earth’s hemispheres is breaking*
For decades, Earth's Northern and Southern Hemispheres maintained a surprising balance—despite stark contrasts in land, pollution, and city density, both sides reflected nearly equal amounts of sunlight into space.
But that planetary symmetry is now breaking.
A new NASA-led study analyzing 24 years of satellite data has revealed that the Northern Hemisphere is absorbing significantly more solar energy than the Southern Hemisphere—about 0.34 watt per square meter per decade. While that may sound minor, it represents an immense and growing energy imbalance that could reshape global climate patterns by influencing rainfall, wind, and ocean currents.
The causes of this tipping point are both natural and human-made. Melting snow and ice are exposing darker surfaces that absorb more sunlight. Efforts to reduce air pollution have also lowered the amount of light-reflecting aerosols, especially in heavily industrialized northern regions. Meanwhile, a warming north holds more water vapor, which traps additional heat. What’s troubling scientists is that cloud cover—once a key equalizer in balancing hemispheric sunlight—hasn’t adjusted to offset these changes. The result: a slow, planetary tilt toward imbalance, the consequences of which remain uncertain.
Source: "Emerging hemispheric asymmetry of Earth’s radiation." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 29 September 2025.
But that planetary symmetry is now breaking.
A new NASA-led study analyzing 24 years of satellite data has revealed that the Northern Hemisphere is absorbing significantly more solar energy than the Southern Hemisphere—about 0.34 watt per square meter per decade. While that may sound minor, it represents an immense and growing energy imbalance that could reshape global climate patterns by influencing rainfall, wind, and ocean currents.
The causes of this tipping point are both natural and human-made. Melting snow and ice are exposing darker surfaces that absorb more sunlight. Efforts to reduce air pollution have also lowered the amount of light-reflecting aerosols, especially in heavily industrialized northern regions. Meanwhile, a warming north holds more water vapor, which traps additional heat. What’s troubling scientists is that cloud cover—once a key equalizer in balancing hemispheric sunlight—hasn’t adjusted to offset these changes. The result: a slow, planetary tilt toward imbalance, the consequences of which remain uncertain.
Source: "Emerging hemispheric asymmetry of Earth’s radiation." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 29 September 2025.
subj
The #1 ChatGPT hack nobody's talking about
It has /commands like Slack.
75 of them and 20 are must-knows.
The other 55 are the ones that feel like cheating.
(Only really for advanced users)
Commands that make ChatGPT question its own logic.
Commands that build entire systems in minutes.
Commands most people stumble on by accident— if they find them at all.
But let's start with the 20 essentials.
They turn ChatGPT from a search engine into a collaborative thinking partner.
No more:
→ 10-message back-and-forth
→ "Not quite what I meant" responses
→ Rewriting the same prompt 5 times
The difference: Hours saved every week.
Here they are:
→ QUICK WINS (use these today)
✅ /ELI5 — Explain like I'm five (no jargon, simple analogies)
✅ /BRIEFLY — Forces a 1-2 sentence answer (no fluff)
✅ /STEP-BY-STEP — Numbers each step (no hand-waving)
✅ /CHECKLIST — Converts any response to checkboxes
✅ /EXEC SUMMARY — C-suite brief: headline + 3 bullets
→ WORK SMARTER
✅ /SCOPE-FIRST — Asks clarifying questions before solving
✅ /PARETO-PLAN — Gives you the 80/20 actions ranked by impact
✅ /MVP-FIRST — Smallest working version + upgrade path
✅ /SANITY-CHECK — Flags obvious errors and missing steps
✅ /EVIDENCE-PLAN — Shows what to measure and how to validate
→ THINK BETTER
✅ /RED-TEAM — Stress-tests your plan with failure modes
✅ /DEVIL'S-ADVOCATE — Argues the opposing case, then reconciles
✅ /FIRST PRINCIPLES — Rebuilds from fundamentals
✅ /ASSUMPTIONS-LIST — Surfaces all assumptions so you can edit them
✅ /DECISION-MATRIX — Builds a weighted scorecard with tie-breakers
→ WRITE BETTER
✅ /TEACH-BACK — Explains, then quizzes you to confirm understanding
✅ /REWRITE AS — Rephrases in any style you want
✅ /TONE — Changes the tone (formal, playful, urgent, etc.)
✅ /HOOKS-NOW — Generates high-conversion openers
✅ /CITATIONS-REQUIRED — Includes sources and confidence levels
These commands turn every ChatGPT session into a power tool.
Not just answers— actual thinking acceleration.
Screenshot of all 75 commands attached
Each one includes:
• Workflow stage (when to use it)
• What it saves you from
• Real examples
• The exact command syntax
75 of them and 20 are must-knows.
The other 55 are the ones that feel like cheating.
(Only really for advanced users)
Commands that make ChatGPT question its own logic.
Commands that build entire systems in minutes.
Commands most people stumble on by accident— if they find them at all.
But let's start with the 20 essentials.
They turn ChatGPT from a search engine into a collaborative thinking partner.
No more:
→ 10-message back-and-forth
→ "Not quite what I meant" responses
→ Rewriting the same prompt 5 times
The difference: Hours saved every week.
Here they are:
→ QUICK WINS (use these today)
✅ /ELI5 — Explain like I'm five (no jargon, simple analogies)
✅ /BRIEFLY — Forces a 1-2 sentence answer (no fluff)
✅ /STEP-BY-STEP — Numbers each step (no hand-waving)
✅ /CHECKLIST — Converts any response to checkboxes
✅ /EXEC SUMMARY — C-suite brief: headline + 3 bullets
→ WORK SMARTER
✅ /SCOPE-FIRST — Asks clarifying questions before solving
✅ /PARETO-PLAN — Gives you the 80/20 actions ranked by impact
✅ /MVP-FIRST — Smallest working version + upgrade path
✅ /SANITY-CHECK — Flags obvious errors and missing steps
✅ /EVIDENCE-PLAN — Shows what to measure and how to validate
→ THINK BETTER
✅ /RED-TEAM — Stress-tests your plan with failure modes
✅ /DEVIL'S-ADVOCATE — Argues the opposing case, then reconciles
✅ /FIRST PRINCIPLES — Rebuilds from fundamentals
✅ /ASSUMPTIONS-LIST — Surfaces all assumptions so you can edit them
✅ /DECISION-MATRIX — Builds a weighted scorecard with tie-breakers
→ WRITE BETTER
✅ /TEACH-BACK — Explains, then quizzes you to confirm understanding
✅ /REWRITE AS — Rephrases in any style you want
✅ /TONE — Changes the tone (formal, playful, urgent, etc.)
✅ /HOOKS-NOW — Generates high-conversion openers
✅ /CITATIONS-REQUIRED — Includes sources and confidence levels
These commands turn every ChatGPT session into a power tool.
Not just answers— actual thinking acceleration.
Screenshot of all 75 commands attached
Each one includes:
• Workflow stage (when to use it)
• What it saves you from
• Real examples
• The exact command syntax
subj
schoolboy studying afar, from the past
Across nearly two millennia, a boy’s voice still carries a very familiar frustration. On a scrap of papyrus from 3rd-century CE Egypt, a schoolboy named Thonis wrote to his father:
“Look, this is my 5th letter to you and you’ve only written to me once—not even a word about your welfare, nor come to see me.”
The letter, Papyrus 1575, survives in the British Library, and it offers a deeply human glimpse into everyday life of the Roman Empire. Thonis was studying away from home, and like any child separated from family, he longed for care, attention, and a simple reply. His words echo the universal cry of neglected children everywhere: “Write back!”
What makes this papyrus so extraordinary isn’t just its age, but its tone. Amid grand histories of emperors and wars, here is a boy’s impatience and hurt preserved for 1,700 years. It collapses the distance between then and now: the Roman world, often imagined as marble and legions, is suddenly filled with the ordinary rhythms of family, education, and neglect.
We may never know if Thonis’s father answered him, or if his son’s irritation softened into forgiveness. But the papyrus survives as proof that ancient lives were not so different from ours. Even across centuries, the bonds—and silences—between parent and child remain strikingly familiar.
Would you hear this letter as a complaint, a plea for love—or just the timeless sigh of a boy missing home?
https://papyri.info/ddbdp/sb;3;6262
“Look, this is my 5th letter to you and you’ve only written to me once—not even a word about your welfare, nor come to see me.”
The letter, Papyrus 1575, survives in the British Library, and it offers a deeply human glimpse into everyday life of the Roman Empire. Thonis was studying away from home, and like any child separated from family, he longed for care, attention, and a simple reply. His words echo the universal cry of neglected children everywhere: “Write back!”
What makes this papyrus so extraordinary isn’t just its age, but its tone. Amid grand histories of emperors and wars, here is a boy’s impatience and hurt preserved for 1,700 years. It collapses the distance between then and now: the Roman world, often imagined as marble and legions, is suddenly filled with the ordinary rhythms of family, education, and neglect.
We may never know if Thonis’s father answered him, or if his son’s irritation softened into forgiveness. But the papyrus survives as proof that ancient lives were not so different from ours. Even across centuries, the bonds—and silences—between parent and child remain strikingly familiar.
Would you hear this letter as a complaint, a plea for love—or just the timeless sigh of a boy missing home?
https://papyri.info/ddbdp/sb;3;6262
express, not stress