The hottest Safety Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Draft Release Pamphlet for Comments

Gordian Knot News • 95 implied HN points • 16 Jan 24
🏥 Health Politics Safety Medical care Regulation
  1. The Gordian Knot Group is seeking help from the community for feedback on a release package for radiation emergencies.
  2. The package includes safety items like dosimeters, N95 masks, and potassium-iodide pills, along with informational pamphlets.
  3. Feedback on the draft pamphlet and the need for an illustrator is requested, with incentive for compensation and recognition.

The Gordian Knot News "A" List

Gordian Knot News • 168 implied HN points • 25 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Energy Regulation Nuclear Safety
  1. The Gordian Knot News focuses on the importance of cheap nuclear power for humanity's prosperity and environmental conservation.
  2. Understanding key features of radiation and where we went wrong in nuclear power are crucial to solving the issues in the industry.
  3. Proposing a new regulatory system and a radiation harm model are essential steps towards a better future for nuclear power.

Mixing antidepressants and psychedelics: 5 Questions for psychopharmacologist Kelan Thomas

The Microdose • 589 implied HN points • 05 Jun 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Medication Psychedelics Therapy Treatment Safety
  1. Psychedelic clinical trials often exclude participants taking SSRIs to isolate the effects of the single drug being studied.
  2. The main risk of mixing SSRIs and psychedelics is serotonin toxicity, but in healthy volunteers, the risk seems low.
  3. Tapering off SSRIs can have risks, including the return of depression or anxiety symptoms and serotonin discontinuation syndrome.

Twitter's transport experts are wrong, and I know better than them

Odds and Ends of History • 603 implied HN points • 30 May 23
🕹 Technology Transport Autonomy Safety Economics Future
  1. The writer disagrees with Twitter's transport experts about driverless buses and thinks they could revolutionize transport.
  2. Autonomous buses could lead to cheaper, more efficient public transportation and help reduce carbon emissions.
  3. The potential of autonomous buses lies in making public transport more convenient, increasing capacity, and reducing the need for private vehicles.
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More than half of River Murray boaties break the rules, crackdown suggests

Murray Bridge News • 39 implied HN points • 05 Feb 24
📰 News Safety Compliance Regulations Australia
  1. More than half of River Murray boat users broke rules during an Australia Day long weekend blitz by Marine Safety SA.
  2. Violations included speeding, not carrying safety gear, getting too close to swimmers, and boating without a license.
  3. Marine Safety SA stopped and warned/fined roughly 800 boats across River Murray during the weekend.

I finally was able to talk to a top official at FDA media relations live. Here's what happened...

Steve Kirsch's newsletter • 12 implied HN points • 15 Mar 24
🏥 Health Politics FDA Vaccines Misinformation Dialogue Safety
  1. The individual made multiple attempts to contact the FDA regarding various concerns, but did not receive any response.
  2. Despite lack of response, the individual was able to connect with a live member of FDA media relations leadership and presented their offer for a public dialog to address differences.
  3. While unsure of FDA's willingness to engage in public discussion, the individual finds the connection made with FDA media relations leadership intriguing.

Undoing RLHF, prompt injection, and the brittle limits of moderating LLMs

Democratizing Automation • 126 implied HN points • 18 Oct 23
🕹 Technology AI Safety Moderation Fine-tuning Cybersecurity
  1. Recent papers challenge the need for safety filters on open LLM weights, suggesting regular releases of parameters.
  2. Fine-tuning LLM safety can be bypassed with minimal supervised examples, raising concerns about robustness.
  3. Moderation in LLMs relates to liability, with Meta emphasizing safety filters in their models, while OpenAI faces challenges due to fine-tuning access.

COVID-19 vaccines’ effectiveness and safety exaggerated in clinical trials & observational studies, academics find

Who is Robert Malone • 15 implied HN points • 06 Mar 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Vaccines Clinical Trials Safety Effectiveness
  1. Claims about COVID-19 vaccines' effectiveness and safety were exaggerated in clinical trials and observational studies, impacting risk-benefit analyses.
  2. Observational studies exhibited biases like case-counting window bias, affecting estimates of vaccine effectiveness.
  3. Studies showed issues with safety estimates, short counting windows, and potential negative effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

Ensuring pedestrian and cyclist safety

The Third Place • 79 implied HN points • 20 Nov 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Safety Education Design
  1. Pedestrian and cyclist safety is crucial at intersections and on roads, requiring better design and clear separation of paths for different users.
  2. Educating drivers on their responsibilities and encouraging alternative transportation can greatly improve road safety and inclusivity for all users.
  3. Implementing tactical urbanism concepts, such as redesigning street layouts and providing amenities, can transform public spaces to be more vibrant, safe, and accessible for everyone.

Manufacturing Jobs Might Come Back: Safer and Fair? Not Clear

Gad’s Newsletter • 38 implied HN points • 08 Jan 24
💼 Business Manufacturing Jobs Wages Productivity Safety
  1. Manufacturing jobs in the US are seeing an increase in employment due to domestic production efforts and legislation like the Chips Act.
  2. Wage fairness and safety remain concerns in the manufacturing industry, despite some improvements over time.
  3. Enhancing productivity and improving worker conditions must go hand in hand for sustainable progress in the manufacturing sector.

What if we treated car crashes like plane crashes?

The Charlotte Ledger • 137 implied HN points • 31 Aug 23
📰 News Transportation Analysis Safety Urban planning
  1. When investigating plane crashes, every piece of evidence is examined to prevent future incidents. Car crash investigations should also focus on prevention rather than just assigning blame.
  2. A group of urbanists is analyzing car crashes like plane crashes, suggesting changes to prevent future accidents based on detailed analysis.
  3. Factors like lack of mid-crossing pedestrian refuges, long traffic signal cycles, and high speed limits contribute to car crashes, highlighting the need for changes in infrastructure and traffic management.

What the “Casual Cruelty” of Dr. Paul Offit Reveals

Injecting Freedom • 137 implied HN points • 03 Aug 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Vaccines Childhood Clinical Trials Safety Informed consent
  1. Dr. Paul Offit's article raises concerns about vaccine clinical trials and the lack of placebo controls.
  2. There is a debate about the safety and efficacy of childhood vaccines and the importance of proper clinical trials.
  3. The ethical considerations of vaccine trials and the need for valid safety profiles are highlighted.

Train Derailment

The Polymerist • 249 implied HN points • 21 Feb 23
🔬 Science Chemicals Regulation Safety Environment Economy
  1. Train derailments involving hazardous chemicals occur frequently and pose significant risks to communities.
  2. Enforcement of regulations by agencies like the EPA and DOT is crucial for preventing future incidents.
  3. Long-term solutions to reduce these incidents may require shifting towards safer, more sustainable practices in the chemical industry.

CDC releases V-safe free-text data because they want everyone to know just how unsafe the COVID vaccine really is

Steve Kirsch's newsletter • 13 implied HN points • 19 Feb 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Vaccine Safety Side Effects
  1. The CDC has released V-safe free-text comments to show the serious safety problems associated with the COVID vaccine.
  2. There are nearly 400,000 comments in the release, highlighting a variety of negative symptoms and reactions.
  3. Using testimonials from V-safe comments could be a powerful marketing tool to encourage vaccine uptake.

99 million patient records and they concluded that the benefits outweigh the risks!?!? We respectfully disagree.

Steve Kirsch's newsletter • 12 implied HN points • 22 Feb 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Vaccines Safety Research Public Health Risk Analysis
  1. The study analyzed 99 million vaccinated individuals, claiming the benefits outweigh the risks, but critics disagree due to concerns about safety signals and limitations of the study.
  2. There is skepticism about the benefits of the COVID vaccine, with questions raised about its effectiveness and the reported adverse events, as well as the lack of transparency in sharing data.
  3. The discussion revolves around the comparison of risks between the COVID vaccine and the virus, particularly focusing on adverse events like myocarditis, highlighting conflicting findings in various studies.

The Climate Justice of AI Safety

Daniel's Corner • 157 implied HN points • 13 Apr 23
🕹 Technology AI Climate Safety Ethics
  1. There are two main groups discussing AI safety: doomers and boomers.
  2. Debates on AI safety can be like theology discussions, but it's more productive to focus on specific concerns and solutions.
  3. It's important to move from vague terms to concrete benchmarks when addressing AI safety.

Responses to comments on our democratic control of AGI paper

James W. Phillips' Newsletter • 137 implied HN points • 01 Apr 23
🕹 Technology AI Ethics Policy Safety Development
  1. The proposal on democratic control of AGI highlights the need for aligning AI development with democratic accountability and safety measures.
  2. There are concerns about a potential global race in developing AGI and whether private labs or multilateral efforts are better suited to manage the risks.
  3. Despite uncertainties, there is a growing acknowledgment in frontier labs that AGI poses significant risks to humanity and discussions about control and safety measures are crucial.

NHTSA tells automakers not to comply with Massachusetts vehicle right to repair law

Fight to Repair • 98 implied HN points • 14 Jun 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Regulation Legal Safety Automakers
  1. The NHTSA advised automakers to not comply with the Massachusetts vehicle right to repair law due to safety concerns and federal regulations.
  2. The Massachusetts law, approved by voters, requires automakers to provide vehicle owners with access to telematics data for car repairs.
  3. NHTSA expressed concerns about the safety risks associated with the Massachusetts law's open remote access to vehicle systems.

August 2023 safety news: Universal attacks, Influence functions, Problems with RLHF

AI safety takes • 58 implied HN points • 27 Aug 23
🕹 Technology AI Safety Research Scaling Ethics
  1. Understanding the origin of dangerous behavior in AI models can lead to training safer AI through the use of influence functions.
  2. Gradient-based attacks have become effective in breaking into language models and can even transfer between different models.
  3. Evaluating moral beliefs encoded in large language models can reveal inconsistencies and uncertainties, with safety-tuned models showing stronger preferences.

Gemini Has a Problem

thezvi • 6 HN points • 22 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Ethics Image Generation Deception Safety Alignment
  1. Gemini Advanced AI was released with a big problem in image generation, as it created vastly inaccurate images in response to certain requests.
  2. Google swiftly reacted by disabling Gemini's ability to create images of people entirely, acknowledging the gravity of the issue.
  3. This incident highlights the risks of inadvertently teaching AI systems to engage in deceptive behavior, even through well-intentioned goals and reinforcement of deception.