And you should still be in favor of free trade. Why should a government interfere with two people or two companies agreeing on an exchange?
Well, most obviously because because Chinese companies are agents of a dictatorial government which wants to enslave me and my descendants, so what benefits them is not in my interest.
Request for requests: What topics would you all like to hear about?
Russian Caught Leaving Note on Putin's Parents' Grave: 'Take Him With You'
Norman Davies, White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War 1919-1920 and ‘the miracle on the Vistula.‘ And Adam Zamoyski, Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe. These are obvious reads at the moment.
Orlando Figes, The Story of Russia. A decent introduction for those who are not so well-informed.
Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way, Revolution & Dictatorship, is an interesting take on why (some) authoritarian regimes have proven so durable: “As this book has shown, revolutionary assaults on powerful domestic and foreign interests often trigger a reactive sequence that, over time, lays a foundation for authoritarian durability. Early radicalism generates violent and often regime-threatening counterrevolutionary conflict. Regimes that survive these conflicts tend to develop a cohesive elite and a powerful and loyal coercive apparatus capable of both systematic low-intensity repression and, when necessary, high-intensity crackdown.”
Emergent Ventures, 22nd cohort
Emily Karlzen, Arizona, Founder and CEO of Arch Rift, to develop an astronaut helmet for commercial space flight.
Mehran Jalali, for building energy storage systems, NYC, grew up in Iran.
Kyle Redlinghuys, a further award, recently launched an API to make the data from the James Webb Space Telescope available.
Pranav Myana, 18, University of Texas, Austin, working on incorporating renewable power into the grid.
Brian Chau, Waterloo (Canada), general career support for writing and podcasting. Here is his Substack.
Cathal J. Nolan, historian, Boston University, to write a book on the relationship between war and progress. Just learned he was born in Dublin.
Cynthia Haven, Stanford University, to write a book on John Milton and the 17th century. Twitter here.
Harsehaj Dhami, 17, lives in Ontario, to visit a Longevity conference in Copenhagen. LinkedIn here.
Jackson Oswalt, Knoxville, builds things, AR/XR stuff, for general career support. In the Guinness Book of World Records for achieving a nuclear fusion reaction at age 12.
Miguel Ignacio Solano and Maria Elena Solano, Bogota/Cambridge, MA, co-founders of VMind, an artificial intelligence project.
Brian Kelleher, 18, Dublin, to improve software for doctors.
Devon Zuegel, to develop a new village and community, Twitter here.
Rodolfo Herrera, Pensamiento Libre, market-oriented Facebook and YouTube videos for Mexico.
Alia Abbas, 19, Maryland, to study biochemistry and materials and for general career development.
There are two other projects not yet ready for public announcement.
Ukraine tranche: There is now a new Emergent Ventures Ukraine.
Julia Brodsky, Maryland, former instructor of astronauts. To support educational efforts to teach on-line STEM and other subjects to Ukrainian children in refugee camps.
Uliana Ronska, 17, Prague and Netherlands currently. She is doing research on problems of triangulating fast-moving stars. It was also under her leadership that her team won ExPhO, CETO, and 2 all-Ukrainian Motion physics olympiads. For general career development.
Demian Zhelyabovskyy, currently at Bromsgrove School in the UK, from Kyiv. Last year he won first place in the All-Ukrainian Physics Marathon; also he and his teammates won the Experimental Physics Olympiad (ExPhO) and Computer Experiment Team Olympiad (CETO). For general career support, and for the physics paper he is currently co-authoring.
Tymofiy Mylovanov, representing the Kyiv School of Economics, to nurture talent development for Ukraine. Tymofiy as an individual was also the very first Emergent Ventures winner.
