If you take a picture of the Eiffel Tower at night, you can't sell it without permission because the lights are copyrighted.
The Eiffel Tower’s lighting and sparkling lights are protected by copyright, so professional use of images of the Eiffel Tower at night require prior authorization and may be subject to a fee. Professionals should therefore contact the Eiffel Tower's management company to learn about conditions for using the images depending on the case.
The March 2011 9.0 earthquake in Japan was so strong that it altered the earth's axis and shortened the length of a day. From my friend Graham, more information available in Earth Sky
I borrowed this concept from Tom Whitwell as a way of cultivating a habit of curiosity. You can read his 2023 version here.
My 2023 highlights: I joined Macro Oceans full time, launched a low carbon cosmetics ingredient (if you want to see it in a consumer product, check this out) and built Recap Roswell, an AI-based summarizer of our local city council meetings.
Here are 52 things I learned along the way:
Koala fingerprints are so near identical to human fingerprints that they can interfere with criminal investigations. Live Science
Mortality from heart attacks goes up 15-20% on the days of marathons. Anupam Jena
The US military uses dolphins and seals to help protect the nuclear stockpile. Palmer Lucky
The first revolution of 1848, the Sicilian Revolution, began with a single person putting up flyers for a revolutionary committee that didn’t exist. Christopher Clark
63% of American 25 year olds were married in 1980. Pew Research
The natural rate of background radiation at the US capitol is above the acceptable threshold for a nuclear power plant. Jack Devanney
Only 1 of the 270 jobs in the 1950 census has been eliminated: the elevator operator. Ethan Mollick
Labelling sesame as an allergen has increased rather than decreased its usage. Alex Stapp
The second leading market for Guinness beer is Nigeria. The UK is first. Ireland comes in third. CNN
More than half of US military enlistees have a family member with military service. Atlantic Council
Every thoroughbred horse alive today descended from one of three stallions. 3 Quarks Daily
The amount of time an average college educated mother spends with her children has doubled since 1965. The Economist via Sarah Constantin
The most common noun in the English language is time. Dr. Dean Buonomano
The cinnamon you use is a cheap substitute. USA Today
As a share of the occupation, there are twice as many female fighter pilots as there are male kindergarten teachers. Richard Reeves
More than 5 million children were homeschooled in the US in 2021, up from 13,000 in 1973. George Mack
Randomly buying Lego sets provides better returns than most VC firms. Will Manidis
The current mortality rate for the opioid crisis in the US and Canada is worse than the peak of the HIV/AIDs epidemic. The ConversationBonus: Overdoses are the leading cause of death for people under 45 in the US. George Mack
Squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and watermelons are all from the same plant family. Matthew Perkins
How Cocomelon gets made: A child sits in front of a TV watching an episode; an adult stands nearby doing household tasks; if the child’s’ attention drifts from the at any point, they go back and amp up the interestingness. Maryanne Wolf
American cheese was invented in Switzerland. Discovered via the Kroger online grocery app and confirmed via Thrillist.Aside: The food facts from the Kroger App are the most surprising thing about the 2023 list. They’re great! If the Kroger App team is out there, well done!
Most of the placebo effect is just reversion to the mean. Jonatan Pallesen
Charles III is the largest landowner in the world, followed by the Catholic Church and the Inuit People of Nunavut. Madison Trust
A square watermelon. Putting this on my shopping list for when I visit Japan.
Square (or cube) watermelons are a thing. The Kroger App confirmed via Wikipedia
Since 2012, 130,000 Indians gained access to electricity every single day. Hannah Ritchie
Obesity rates in the United States haven’t gone down 2 years in a row in the past 50 years. James van GeelenBonus: If the average passenger weight falls by 10 pounds, United Airlines would save $80 million per year. Sheila Kahyaoglu.
If you think we’d have an interesting conversation about these topics or something else all together, reach out (jdilla.xyz@gmail.com) or book a meeting.
Have you ever been deep in a ChatGPT conversation and wanted to email a piece of it to yourself to remember later? Or wanted to share part of a conversation with a friend?
Now with CustomGPTs, you can configure your GPT to send emails on your behalf using SendGrid for free. Here’s how you can do it.
First, some things to be aware of
It is possible to spam people with this. Don’t do that! Also, SendGrid has spam prevention systems in place and pretty soon your email will end up in people’s spam folders never to be seen again. Also, life is too short. Put that energy into something productive.
If after setting this up, you make your CustomGPT public, people will be able to send emails using your email address paid for by you. This is probably not what you want!
To do this you’ll need:
* A free SendGrid account (you can sign up here).
* An email address you want to use
* Access to CustomGPTs
Get set up with SendGrid
You’ll need to verify your email address with SendGrid, which you can do here: https://app.sendgrid.com/settings/sender_auth. It’s pretty self explanatory and they have good docs.
Create a SendGrid API key and hold onto it, you’ll need it in a second. You can do that here: https://app.sendgrid.com/settings/api_keys
Note: SendGrid is free for up to 100 emails a month, beyond that you’ll need to pay.
Create a CustomGPT
Go to create a CustomGPT(https://chat.openai.com/gpts/editor)
Go to the configure tab
Go to add actions
Import the json file: You can place this link in the import schema field or copy and paste from this github file into the OpenAI action schema.
Add your API key to the authentication field with auth type Bearer. Save your action.
In the Instructions field for your CustomGPT, instruct your CustomGPT on how to use the email action. It’s super important that you tell it to only use your verified email address, otherwise you’ll get errors from the SendGrid API, but I also give it a sender name to make things appear a little nicer in my inbox. When you’re done, save the CustomGPT.
My instructions
When using the api.sendgrid.com action to send emails, always use the email address <TheEmailAddressYouVerifiedAbove@example.com> no matter what. The best sender name to use is Name you Prefer to be called.
Send an email
Start using ChatGPT as you normally would. When you want to email something, prompt it to do so.
You’ll get a dialog making sure you’re okay with CustomGPT taking this action. Make sure to press “Allow”. You should see a confirmation message and your email will get sent. In practice, it is a little bulky, but it will get smoother with time.
Things to try next
I haven’t tried this yet, but I suspect I’ll be able to configure the bot with multiple accounts. So I’ll be able to say email so and so from my work email or email my wife from my personal email.
If you get a chance to use this, I’d love to hear how you’re doing it. Drop me an email at jdilla.xyz@gmail.com from your next CustomGPT chat!