NYTimes: “Selling products on livestream video is a big business in China. Apps like Douyin, the Chinese sibling of TikTok, mix social media with e-commerce to keep people glued to their phones while purchasing everything from soap to spices to suitcases. The latest e-commerce trend adds a game of chance to the mix. Known as “blind box livestreaming,” it has become an entertaining and, some users and experts said, addictive pastime. With Chinese consumers slogging through a period of low expectations, blind box livestreams offer the thrill of potentially winning more prizes for a low cost. Viewers pay small sums of money to buy trinkets that are hidden in small bags — the “blind box.” The seller unpacks the blind boxes on a livestream while the buyer and audience watch. Based on what is inside, players may receive another bag and another chance to win. The seller coos when the player gets a lucky draw, and viewers cheer in the comments.”
ET: “While quick commerce becomes the preferred medium for immediate needs and impulse purchases, e-commerce is favoured for more planned purchases like home, beauty and personal care. But now quick commerce firms are diversifying beyond groceries, small-value items, etc. and invading the home turf of e-commerce players. Quick commerce is already conquering kirana, the neighbourhood small retail business, as well as hitting modern retail. As consumer preferences shift towards the convenience of last-minute grocery deliveries, quick commerce companies are outpacing traditional retailers, with 46 per cent of consumers surveyed reporting a cut in purchases from Kirana shops, a recent report has said. The quick commerce market size is expected to reach $40 billion by 2030, a jump from $6.1 billion in 2024, according to the report by Datum Intelligence.”
NYTimes: “Peptides have long been especially tantalizing for drug discovery. These molecules are composed of short chains of between two and 50 amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. They are smaller and simpler than proteins are. Yet they are larger and more complex than the molecules — consisting of a single atom, or atoms bonded together — that are used in most drugs; such drug formulations can slip unnoticed through the membranes of cells and influence how they function. Peptides, by contrast, must engage with particular receptors on cells’ surfaces. Because these surface receptors differ considerably, depending on what role the cells play, any peptide that manages to interact with them tends to have a highly specific impact.”
WSJ: “Some doctors and intermittent fasters themselves say skipping meals makes it difficult to eat enough protein or maintain their muscle mass. Time-restricted eaters lost roughly twice as much lean mass—the body’s nonfat weight—as fat mass compared with a control group, according to ancillary findings in a study a few years ago. Other research hasn’t reached the same conclusion. Health experts say intermittent fasting can be a helpful weight-loss tool for some, but for others, the hunger during fasting periods will lead to extra snacking during their eating periods. And when it comes to overall health, what people eat is still more important than when they eat, they say.”
Neal Stephenson: “The real purpose of art and the reason we like art is because it exposes us to a very dense package of micro decisions that have been made by the artist. As such, we’re engaged in a communion with that artist. What makes it interesting is that connection. It may be to a living writer, or it may be to a sculptor who died 2,500 years ago, but in either case, we’re making a human-to-human connection. If we know that we’re reading something or experiencing a work of art that was just generated by an algorithm, then that element of human connection isn’t there anymore. Furthermore, we know that for every one such book or image or whatever, a million more could be generated just by launching a Python script, basically. Familiarity, the law of supply and demand takes over at that point. If there’s an infinite supply of this stuff, then its value drops to zero. Even if such a book reads pretty well as a novel, I don’t think people are going to be interested in it.”
