Archive 2026
Archive 2026
- Building
Fazua Ride 50 speed unlock from a Mac, no box
How my agent and I raised the speed limit of a Fazua Ride 50 Evation from 25 to 55 km/h over USB from a MacBook, with firmware 2.04 and an open source tool.
- Culture
A tree does not burn alone
A pine forest portrait read closely. Real Olympus E-M5 II EXIF, a likely Voigtländer 25mm f/0.95, low sun, 1/8000 s mechanical shutter, measured tones, and one fix with annotated crops.
- Building
Badass Box 4 on a Fazua Ride 50, the yellow light
My Badass Box 4 on a Fazua Ride 50 kept blinking yellow. What the light means, where the magnet goes, what the black ring is for, and what Badass said.
- Culture
It is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot
A garden path portrait read closely. Real Olympus E-M5 II EXIF, a likely Voigtländer 25mm f/0.95, low warm sun, shallow focus, measured shadows and one fix, with annotated crops.
- Culture
One man cannot launch a vessel
A close reading of a black-and-white dawn photo of a crowded wooden boat in shallow surf, with its real settings, four dust spots and a Swahili proverb.
- Science
Can sound do what quantum particles do?
Sound bends, spreads and interferes like electrons in the double slit. So is sound quantum? Where the comparison works and where it breaks.
- Culture
Mountains never meet, but people do
A centred portrait under a hazy mountain, read closely. Low sun, open shade, aerial perspective, the real Olympus EXIF at 1/8000 s, and a 20 minute exercise.
- Culture
The sun cannot be covered with mud
A close reading of a harbour photo shot straight into a low sun: the flare, the haze, the two skies, an exposure read from guy wires, Monet, the Bechers, Sandburg's fog and one fix.
- Culture
A thousand friends are few, one enemy is too many
A close reading of a black-and-white Istanbul photo. Two head sizes, a ferry's name and its smoke give away distance, aperture and shutter, with Ara Güler and Orhan Veli alongside.
- Culture
The eyes say as much as the mouth
A close reading of an over-the-shoulder portrait in soft daylight. The turn, the catchlights, lens distance, shutter and aperture trade-offs, and one fix, with annotated crops.
- Culture
The player is lost, the onlooker sees clearly
A close reading of a black-and-white photo of men crowded round an outdoor card game: the ring of bodies, dappled light, lens, exposure guesses, one mistake and a drill.
- Culture
The darkest place is under the candlestick
A close reading of a black-and-white mirror selfie in a clothing boutique: the hidden face, the seam of the mirror, soft shop light, focus through glass, settings guesses, one mistake and a drill.
- Culture
What you give away is yours, what you keep is lost
A close reading of Emin Mahrt's photo of a purple Soviet Pobeda under three EXCHANGE signs in Georgia, with light, lens, LED shutter clues and Rustaveli.
- Culture
If you wait, the sea road will have fair weather
A close reading of a hazy harbour photo with a red ship throwing water. Colour, haze, light, lens, shutter and aperture estimates, one mistake and a 20 minute exercise.
- Culture
Bread is in the lion's mouth
A close reading of Emin Mahrt's black-and-white street photo of boys at a simit cart, with long lens, soft light, three whites, shutter guesses, Güler and Pamuk.
- Culture
Whoever loves the rose bears its thorns
A close reading of a film portrait on an old stairwell. The look, the high angle, flash or window, the grain, a guess at the settings and how to try it.
- Culture
Looking at flowers from horseback
A close reading of a tilted look up past railway wires at two green domes: layers, hard light, a 23 degree roll, the smeared girder, are-bure-boke, one mistake and a drill.
- Culture
Walls have ears, paper screens have eyes
A close reading of a warm, film-like photo shot through an old window. The double grid, the low sun, the ghost bricks, likely lens and settings, Baudelaire's shut window and one fix.
- Culture
A white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall
A close reading of a wood pigeon frozen beside a paint-splattered wall: field marks, grey light, distance and lens, shutter estimates, one mistake and a 20-minute drill.
- Building
Riverside 500E faster, bike tuning
A complete how-to for the Riverside 500E: the free magnet hack, the Badass Box, and a KT controller swap, with drawings, part links and test steps.
- Nuri
The agent has no hands: Why Nuri wallet can win the machine economy
An AI agent can write code and book things, but it can't pay. Why we think Nuri and its MCP can give agents a way to pay in the real world.
- Agents and AI
What agent ready actually means
Four public scanners now grade whether AI agents can read your site. Here is what each one measures, which checks a static host can never pass, and the exact files and headers that move the score.
- Culture
My father Nurettin Sezer and the workers who made cinema in Stockholm
My father, Nurettin “Nuri” Sezer, never fitted neatly into one role. Hasan Gül remembers him and the workers who made cinema in Stockholm.
- Culture
Theory vs. Reality: Manipulation through Media and Technology (January 2005, Emin Mahrt)
At 17 I wrote a school thesis on manipulation through media and technology. What I wrote back then, and what really happened since.
- Nuri
Nuri Passkey Wallet, Bitcoin, IBAN and Visa Without an Account
How Nuri turns one passkey into a self-custodial wallet for people, businesses and AI agents, with no account in between.
- Science
Cracked lips, neon urine, and two people who took the same pill
Same B vitamin pill, two people, opposite results. I slept better and my partner couldn't sleep at all. What the studies say and what we test next.
- Building
Sometimes the more things you add the smaller it gets
Twenty-one quotes from a talk about making things, and what each one means when you build a product
- Science
Could the shape of randomness help explain why matter won?
An idea to talk about with physicists. Maybe the Boltzmann peak is where a tiny matter advantage got big enough to win
- Culture
AF Fine Adjustment, or how to fix a camera that lies about focus
The green focus dot says sharp, the photo says no. How AF Fine Adjustment works and how to set it on a Pentax K-50 with old manual fifties.
- Agents and AI
I asked my Mac how much AI I burned. It found 45 billion token events
I scanned every AI tool on my Mac for usage logs. About 45 billion token-events and roughly $9.3k at API rates, almost all of it from Codex.
- Nuri
Nuri, new reality finance Vision
A short FAQ about the vision and goal of Nuri.com. What self-custody means, how passkeys protect your money, and how Nuri makes money.
- Agents and AI
From Domesticated Dogs to AI Companions
Capitalism as dog breeding, a robot for everyone, and the short time left where we still understand AI. What we can do with that time now.
- Nuri
Not your keys, not your coins: The passkey edition
Logging in with a passkey is not owning your key. Why passkey PRF is different from passkey auth, and why Nuri uses it for real self-custody.
- Nuri
Nuri is back
The Bitcoin neobank is back, but this time without the bank. Self-custody with a passkey, a free Visa card and a free IBAN.
- Culture
In Perpetual Motion, proud moves to Move D
The 2010 proud magazine Berlin interview with Move D. Records since 1983, a stepfather with Pink Floyd records, Sven Väth and falling asleep to music.
- Building
How the FATE VM fixes the basic flaws of the EVM
Erik Stenman built FATE, a typed VM without flat memory or raw jumps. Contracts get about 10 times smaller and run 3 times faster than on the EVM.
- Building
Re-architecting the Blockchain Execution Layer, How the FATE VM Solves EVM’s Fundamental Flaws
How Erik Stenman built FATE, a typed VM that makes contracts about ten times smaller and three times faster than on the EVM.
- Culture
The Echoes of Cold War Diplomacy in Romania, Tanzania and Zanzibar and the Legacy of the 1972 Visa Abolition Agreement
Why Romanians still walk into Zanzibar without a visa, and how a 1972 deal, a Romanian jeep and oil engineers got them there
- Nuri
Open Banking for the Bitcoin and Stablecoin Cash Wallet Nuri
Nuri.com is a self-custodial Bitcoin and stablecoin cash wallet. Open banking would let you top up and pay by bank with one button, no IBAN copying.
- Bitcoin
Cash with wings. Charlie Shrem and Anthony Di Iorio on Bitcoin, freedom and building the browser for value
Our interview with Charlie Shrem and Anthony Di Iorio for PROUD Magazine Berlin, about Bitcoin, freedom and Jaxx.
- Science
How I Used AI to Navigate a Complex Orthodontic Case in East Africa: CBCT Analysis, Provider Vetting, and Getting a Second Opinion Before Braces
How we used Claude to read a CBCT scan, find an orthodontist in Nairobi and check a diagnosis before my partner got braces.
- Science
Computational and Functionalist Views of Mind
A plain guide across the computational and functionalist models of consciousness, from Putnam and Dennett to Grossberg, and where each one breaks
- Science
Dualisms: A Comparative Map
Dualism says the mind can't be fully reduced to physical stuff. A plain map of the main versions, the people behind them and where each one struggles
- Science
Electromagnetic field theories of consciousness
Is consciousness the brain's electric field and not just what neurons compute? A plain guide to field and brainwave theories, from McFadden to Llinás
- Science
Eliminative illusionism, a friendly guide
Maybe raw inner feel is not what we think it is. A plain guide to eliminative illusionism and the people behind it.
- Science
Embodied and Enactive Consciousness
A simple guide to the embodied and enactive column of my consciousness map, from Husserl and Varela to Noë and Gibson, and how to read these ideas side by side.
- Science
First-Order Theories of Consciousness
One column from my map of consciousness theories, the first-order lens, with the names on it and how to read them.
- Science
Higher-Order Theories of Consciousness
in simple words, and the ten names on my map, from Rosenthal and Lau to Metzinger and Deacon.
- Science
Homeostatic and Affective Consciousness
One column from my map of consciousness theories, the body and feelings lens, with the names on it and how to read them.
- Science
Idealism: A comparative map across traditions
Idealism says consciousness comes first and matter second. A map of that idea across Indian, Buddhist and Daoist thought and thinkers of today.
- Science
Information Theories of Consciousness and Their Critics
Tononi's Integrated Information Theory says consciousness is integrated causal structure. A plain guide to IIT, the people around it and its critics
- Science
Language, Meaning, and Consciousness
A simple guide to language, meaning and consciousness, from Chomsky and Searle to Jaynes, written so people new to the topic can follow
- Science
Monisms: A comparative map across science and philosophy
Monism says reality is one kind of thing. But which one? Twelve positions, from Russell and Davidson to Tegmark and QRI, and what each takes as the one.
- Science
Neurobiological Theories of Consciousness: A Practical Map
If consciousness happens in nature, what is the brain doing when experience shows up? Searle, Block, Baars, Dehaene, Northoff and more, in plain words.
- Science
Non-reductive physicalism: A comparative map
Everything is physical, but not everything reduces to physics. How Ellis, Murphy, Sperry, Montero, Northoff and others try to hold both at once.
- Science
Panpsychisms: A Comparative Map
What if experience is built into reality from the start? A plain map of the kinds of panpsychism and the people who argue about them.
- Science
Philosophical Theories of Consciousness: A Comparative Map
We know experience is real, but how does it fit with science? A plain map of the big theories of consciousness and the people behind them.
- Science
Phylogenetic and Evolutionary Theories of Consciousness
A simple guide to the thinkers on the map of evolutionary theories of consciousness, and how to read them side by side.
- Science
Quantum & Dimensions: Consciousness at the Frontier
Can normal neuroscience explain experience, or does consciousness need deeper physics? A plain map of the quantum theories and the people behind them.
- Science
Relational Theories of Consciousness
A simple guide to the relational column of my consciousness map, from Andy Clark and Chalmers to Whitehead, and how to read these ideas side by side.
- Science
From starry sketches to superzoom pixels, Galileo's telescope vs. the Nikon Coolpix P1000
Galileo's handmade telescope from 1609 next to a 2018 superzoom camera. What each one can really show you of the Moon and the planets.
- Agents and AI
microgpt.py by Karpathy, the code in plain English, line by line
Andrej Karpathy's microgpt.py trains a tiny GPT in pure Python. Here is his code and what every part does, in plain English.
- Culture
The Crazy Picasso
A summary of a video on Paul Johnson's essay about Picasso, his cruelty to women and his family, and his huge output and wealth.
- Nuri
Agentic wallets and passkey PRF, the security setup behind nuri.com
How we use the passkey PRF extension at nuri.com to derive keys from the device, add a decaying multisig, and let agents prepare but never spend.
- Building
The 2020 investment protocol, a crisis management case study
My plan from day 12 of the 2020 lockdown, to buy companies for ten years and not panic in the crash
- Building
History of the ThreeFold Network and Tokens
ThreeFold from Zero-OS in 2016 to the v4 marketplace in 2026, and how the tokens went from TFT to SPORE and the gold backed AUR.
- Payments
Transaction Analysis of 34yCReBo...jtVM
A look at one NEAR transaction on Paras, what mt_transfer_call does, what NEP-245 is and why the fee was almost nothing.
- Bitcoin
Lightning Network deep dive, architecture and implementation
A summary of a talk by Laolu "Roasbeef" Osuntokun on how Lightning channels, HTLCs and LND really work, and how Flare could scale routing.
- Payments
CeFi vs. DeFi: Why the Future is Hybrid
A summary of a post by someone at BSDEX on why centralized and decentralized finance grow together and why the future is hybrid
- Science
Jim Simons: My life in Mathematics, finance, and Philanthropy
A summary of Jim Simons' talk at MoMath about math, code breaking, Renaissance Technologies, his five rules and the Flatiron Institute.
- Science
The mystery of the Simons Cone: The day geometry broke
Jim Simons tells how he found a shape in eight dimensions that uses the least area but isn't smooth, the Simons Cone
- Culture
Divine Principle: Theology and Controversies of the Unification Church
A summary of sources on Shinzo Abe's life and political legacy and on the history of the Unification Church, with two audio pieces.
- Culture
Radical Georgism
A talk led by a member of the Amoveo project about land value tax on a blockchain and why crypto might finally make Georgism work
- Science
A Darwin-like quantum thought experiment on entanglement, competing states and quantum Darwinism
I asked if quantum physics can behave like Darwin. What entanglement can and can't do, why decoherence looks like selection and how to test it.
- Science
Correlations, Copying, and “Darwinism” in Quantum Physics
I started with what lives on and in us and ended up at information, entanglement and Quantum Darwinism, and why it looks like Darwin but isn't the same.
- Science
From human colonizers to cosmic stomachs, microbial life, the spark toward humans and Darwin-like selection in Quantum physics
I asked a chain of questions about the microbes living on us, the spark that led to humans and if quantum physics has something like Darwinian selection.
- Bitcoin
The Medium of exchange era: Key takeaways from Lightning++ Berlin 2025
Day one of Lightning++ Berlin 2025. Bitcoin as money you spend, AI agents paying in sats, lighter watchtowers and BitVMX.
- Nuri
What we built, Nostr DM in Nuri
We built a small encrypted 1:1 chat into Nuri. It runs over Nostr relays and gets its identity from the wallet key you already have.
- Bitcoin
Michael Saylor: The Bitcoin treasury debate and the future of digital credit
Michael Saylor on What Bitcoin Did, about the fight over Bitcoin treasury companies and why he wants Bitcoin to be the base of digital credit.
- Culture
From Berlin to Zanzibar: Emin Mahrt on nightlife, community, and why not club
I grew up in Berlin's underground scene, then a trip to Zanzibar made me co-founder of the Why Not club there. And how that all ties to Nuri.
- Science
If I had to pick one age when kids become liars, it's four
Kids lie before 4, and they get better at it after. But around 4 lying turns into a real, deliberate tool. Here is the research behind that.
- Culture
Dar es Salaam needs a world‑class safe dance space
Dar es Salaam is already arriving, and fast. The question is if the cultural infrastructure will arrive with it. An open call to build a safe dance space.
- Building
Spark wallet UX and the Lightning flow, a build log
I wanted the Spark wallet to look exactly like the existing Bitcoin screen, with minimal code and no duplicate or legacy code. I also set…
- Culture
The Trump Doctrine and the fall of Maduro, a new era of gunboat diplomacy?
A summary of PLO Lumumba's take on Maduro's removal on January 3, 2026, which he calls the death of international law and the birth of a Trump Doctrine.
- Culture
The song that burned down a republic, the story of Fela Kuti's Zombie
In 1976 Fela Kuti released Zombie and laughed at the Nigerian army. The army answered with 1,000 soldiers. The story, the lyrics and the facts.
- Culture
The $40 Billion Secret, 9 Lessons from the Chocolate King Who Built an Empire in the Shadows
Michele Ferrero built a debt-free $40 billion empire with Nutella, Kinder and Tic Tac and never gave interviews. Nine lessons from his story, summarized
- Agents and AI
The AI Playbook: 9 Mental Models for Building in the Age of Intelligence
A summary of Andrej Karpathy's 3.5 hour talk on large language models, and 9 things founders can take from it.
