Here are some links I enjoyed from the past week.

Table of Contents

Quote by Rumi a 13th century Persian poet.

1. The Universe Is Not Real

[ARTICLE] The Universe Is Not Locally Real, and the Physics Nobel Prize Winners Proved It

Link

This Reddit thread started me down a rabbit hole of quantum entanglement and pointed me to this article.

First, a warning: if you’re interested at all about this stuff and you’re not a physics professor you will probably spend a shit-ton of time trying to figure out what the hell everyone is talking about. Whenever I want to feel dumber, I just read about physics. But not to worry; it’s worth the time and effort.

Read these links and enjoy.

Additional References

  • [JOURNAL] ON THE EINSTEIN PODOLSKY ROSEN PARADOX - Link - DB
  • [JOURNAL] Bringing home the atomic world: Quantum mysteries for anybody - Link - DB
  • [Video] by PBS Spacetime - Bell Inequalities - Link
  • [Video] by Spooky Action at a Distance - Bell’s Inequalities - Link
  • [Video] by minute physics - Bell’s Theorem: The Quantum Venn Diagram Paradox - Link
  • [Video] by PBS Spacetime - What if We Live in a Superdeterministic Universe? - Link
  • [Book] Something Deeply Hidden by Sean Carroll - Link
  • [Book] QBism: The Future of Quantum Mechanics by Hans Christian von Bayer - Link

2. Hacking GMail Filters

[ARTICLE] Create rules to filter your emails

Link

[POST] 5 Alternatives to Unroll.me That Are Free and Safe to Use

Link - DB

I get too many emails. You get too many emails. We all get too many emails.

Some services claim to mass unsubscribe you, but they really just hold your emails in a separate space then aggregate all user data, sell it and feel heartbroken when exposed. What’s a homey to do if you want to manage your inbox without showing the world your ass?

Some alternatives with varying degrees of privacy do exist

  • Manually Go through each email and/or search for “Unsubscribe” links and manually click to unsubscribe.
  • Unsubscribe from Bulk Emails in Gmail - Link. Described as “an open source Google Script to help you easily unsubscribe your email address from unwanted newsletters and other bulk emails in Gmail and Google Inbox.” The Google Sheet the script uses for a dashboard is great, but you have to label emails with “Unsubscribe” to remove it from your inbox.
  • Clean Email - Link. A paid alternative. “Rather than working with emails one by one, our email cleaner app allows you to work with groups of emails based on things like sender, email address, subject, label, date, recipient, or size.” A tad pricey at $9.99 a month for 1 email account.
  • CleanFox - Link. A “free” alternative that sells your data. Avoid.
  • Unsubscriber - Link. Part of Polymail. Starts at $10 per month for 2 connected email accounts.
  • Leave Me Alone - Link. Wins the award for my favorite name. Offers a 7-day pass for $7 or starts at $9 per month.

An ideal DIY email “declutterer” would have the following features:

  • Bulk and One-off Runs Allow you to run it in bulk or as you go through your inbox each time
  • Labels Use a label like “Unsubscribe” to automatically unsubscribe to an email
  • Unsubscribe by Click or Email For mass emails, you can click a link to unsubscribe in GMail or use the email address listed in the List-Unsubscribe Field to send an email. The url to unsubscribe and the email address our usually found in the email header. Our tool would allow us to do both - click through the link to unsubscribe and automatically send an email.
  • Work for Non-Mass Email Most of the tools discussed above work great for bulk emails (think Newsletters and Mailing Lists) but don’t work as well for emails you don’t want to see in your inbox like recurring notices from your bank or reminders to bring chicken to the next potluck. Our ideal tool would work on all emails.
  • List Keeps a running list of which email senders you have and have not unsubscribed from or filtered to other parts of your inbox.
  • Uses Filters Gmail Filters are rules that you can create to automatically manage incoming mail. For instance, you can label, archive, delete, star or automatically forward email. Theoretically, you could handle all mail - bulk or not - solely with filters.

TLDR Be aware of security concerns with 3rd party email unsubscribe services; DIY alternatives exist

TODO look for an upcoming blogpost with DIY email declutterer code

3. Can Zillow Even Estimate

[POST] Are Zillow Zestimates Any Good? - by Andrew Syrios

Link - DB

[POST] How Accurate is Zestimate?

Link

Zestimates sound like a chicken shake-n-bake recipe from the 1990s. Instead, they are Zillow’s proprietary estimate of a residential home’s value in the US.

According to Zillow, “The nationwide median error rate for the Zestimate for on-market homes is 3.2%, while the Zestimate for off-market homes has a median error rate of 7.52%.” Link.

“99 percent of all homes in the top [25] metropolitan areas of the country were sold within 20 percent of the Zestimate price.” Link.

A really good analysis in R using multiple linear regression and auto.arima is “Zillow’s Home Value Prediction (Zestimate)” - Link - DB - RMD file.

Bottom line: be aware when solely using Zestimates to buy or sell a house. But you probably already knew that…

TODO check out the leaps package and check out “All subset regression with leaps, bestglm, glmulti, and meifly” - Link - DB

4. Richard Powers

[ARTICLE] Paris Review - Richard Powers, The Art of Fiction No. 175

Link - DB

I have read exactly one book by Richard Powers: Bewilderment. But it was such an incredibly moving experience, I can’t wait to read another. The Paris Review Article does a good job giving you a snapshot of him as a person and an author. Read his books. Do it.

Additional References

  • Richard Powers’ Novels - Link
  • Richard Powers on the Duplicity of Bewilderment - Link

5. Fish Aren’t Stressed

[POST] How to Draw a Fish: Fins and all – The Fisheries Blog

Link - DB

I like drawing fish, and you should too. “Drawing, painting, and other forms of creativity can be used as stress relievers for most people who try them.” Link. They key word being try. And fishing has been shown to reduce stress and even make you happier. Link. So drawing fish (possibly while outside) has got to make you doubly happier and less stressed out. A bad day fishing is better than your best day at the office unless you listen to what Daniel Tosh has to say about it. So draw that fish and see what happens.

Have a great week!