Can I Lick It?

"Can I Lick It?"

 

Tough Reservations

"Why You Can't Get a Restaurant Reservation"

Flame-Throwing Robot Dog

"You can now buy a flame-throwing robot dog for under $10,000"

If you've been wondering when you'll be able to order the flame-throwing robot that Ohio-based Throwflame first announced last summer, that day has finally arrived. The Thermonator, what Throwflame bills as "the first-ever flamethrower-wielding robot dog" is now available for purchase. The price? $9,420.

Young Chess Challenger

"Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju becomes youngest challenger for world chess title"

AI Dogfight

"US Air Force confirms first successful AI dogfight"

Voyager Update

"Voyager 1 is sending data back to Earth for the first time in 5 months"

Scam E-Books

"Amazon is filled with garbage ebooks. Here's how they get made."

Reflections On The Past Boom

I think the coming AI boom will benefit many people and will also many people very wealthy.

Q: What's the best strategy to take advantage of this? Carefully chosen individual stocks? Broad based tech funds? Other?

And some perspective from the prior boom, "If You Invested $1000 In Apple When Macintosh Was Introduced 40 Years Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Today"

Technological Resistance Is As Old As Technology

"How Isaac Asimov Predicted the OpenAI Drama"

I discovered, to my amazement, that all through history there had been resistance... and bitter, exaggerated, last-stitch resistance... to every significant technological change that had taken place on earth.

Some things never change.

No AI Bubble

"The AI craze is no dot-com bubble. Here's why"

Planet Nine Update

"Where Is Planet Nine? Its Hiding Places Are Running Out"

Paint Drying

Great Wikipedia article on the independent film, "Paint Drying".

 

MRI Headphones

"How do MRI Headphones work?" (Via Gus Van Horn.)

Too Many Authors

Jordan Smoller: "Letter to Science 1958 arguing that this trend of having 3 or more authors on a paper is ridiculous"

Letter to Science 1958 arguing that this trend of having 3 or more authors on a paper is ridiculous pic.twitter.com/d4rLSlMm7G

— Jordan Smoller (@jorsmo) April 13, 2024

26-Year Old Identifies 12 New Dinosaurs

"Young researcher leads identification of new sauropod dinosaurs in outback Queensland"

Artificial Vision Update

"The Next Frontier for Brain Implants Is Artificial Vision"

Clever Gold Smuggling Tactic

"$10 Million In Gold Disguised As Machine Parts Seized From Cargo Plane"

On March 27, [Hong Kong] customs officials x-rayed two air compressors and discovered that they contained gold that had been "concealed in the integral parts" of the compressors. Those gold parts had also been painted silver to match the other components in an attempt to throw customs off the trail.  

Acting Senior Superintendent Jason Lau Yuk-lung told the South China Morning Post that this was the first time customs officials had ever discovered gold disguised in this way. Authorities reportedly believe the smuggler went to the lengths he did in an effort to avoid Japan’s 10-percent import tariff. "Smugglers could have evaded about HK$8.4 million ($1 million) in taxes if the precious metal was successfully smuggled into the country," Lau told the SCMP.

 

Moral Panic On Beepers

"The Forgotten War on Beepers"