Open Thread 440

This is the weekly visible open thread. Post about anything you want, ask random questions, whatever. ACX has an unofficial subreddit, Discord, and bulletin board, and in-person meetups around the world. Most content is free, some is subscriber only; you can subscribe here. Also:

1: Update on the Lumina dental probiotic: their postmarket testing found that the original bacterium couldn't maintain its colonization of the mouth over the long term. They’ve suspended sales while they experiment to see if they can fix this. If they can, they plan to send a free vial of v 2.0 to everyone who bought the original strain, then repeat postmarket tests. They also announce that the government of Singapore has expressed interest in their product if it can pass an FDA trial, so if they succeed at fixing the colonization problem to their own satisfaction, they'll start raising money for a formal study.

2: Thanks to everyone who entered the book review contest or voted in the first round. The following entries are finalists:

• The Book Of Abraham

• Great And Desperate Cures

• Breakdown In Pakistan

• The Epic Of Gilgamesh

• The Escape Artist

• A Residence Of 21 Years In The Sandwich Islands

• Thomas Urquhart’s Translation Of Rabelais

• The Tale Of Genji

• This Is Going To Hurt

• Lee Kuan Yew’s Memoirs

• We Present Television

• Storm Of Steel

• The Ghost In My Brain

• The History And Adventures Of An Atom

• Orality And Literacy

Honorable mentions are Aesopian Language, That Hideous Strength, The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up, The Pillow Book, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned, The Disciplinary Revolution, Cultural Evolution, The Sovereign Child, and Sowing The Mustard Seed. I may add more honorable mentions later as I read more reviews.

Congratulations to all finalists and HMs. I plan to post the first review this Friday.