Wolfram And Thermodynamics

Stephen Wolfram: "A 50-Year Quest: My Personal Journey with the Second Law of Thermodynamics"

Game Theory Of The Ballons

Tyler Cowen: "The game theory of the balloons"

Calculator Emulators

"Count on old-school fun with these new calculator emulations"

Return Of The Dodo?

"'De-Extinction' Company Will Try to Bring Back the Dodo"

Wearable Cardiac Ultrasound Imager

Nature: "A wearable cardiac ultrasound imager"

 

Moon Time

"What time is it on the Moon?"

The Moon doesn't currently have an independent time. Each lunar mission uses its own timescale that is linked, through its handlers on Earth, to coordinated universal time, or utc -- the standard against which the planet's clocks are set. But this method is relatively imprecise and spacecraft exploring the Moon don't synchronize the time with each other. The approach works when the Moon hosts a handful of independent missions, but it will be a problem when there are multiple craft working together. Space agencies will also want to track them using satellite navigation, which relies on precise timing signals.

It's not obvious what form a universal lunar time would take. Clocks on Earth and the Moon naturally tick at different speeds, because of the differing gravitational fields of the two bodies. Official lunar time could be based on a clock system designed to synchronize with utc, or it could be independent of Earth time.

 

Boston Dynamics Robot Update

"The latest Boston Dynamics robot video is amazing and a bit scary". (Via H.R.)

Skipping Stone Physics

"Study shows heavy stones may give big leaps in water -- plus real-world implications"

Surveillance Technology Update

"Scientists Are Getting Eerily Good at Using WiFi to 'See' People Through Walls in Detail"

Fooling DARPA Robot

"US Marines Defeat DARPA Robot by Hiding Under a Cardboard Box". (Via G.V.H.)

Text-To-4D Dynamic Scene Generation

Text-To-4D Dynamic Scene Generation: "We present MAV3D (Make-A-Video3D), a method for generating three-dimensional dynamic scenes from text descriptions." (Via G.F.)

Fielder Photos In Public Domain

"Colorado's most famous nature photographer donates life work to public domain".

John Fielder's work is excellent, and I'm glad to know people will be able to enjoy and share it with his blessing.

Hsieh Forbes Column: The Power Of Ordinary English To Improve Healthcare

My latest Forbes column is now up: "The Power Of Ordinary English To Improve Healthcare"

Fish Spending Money

"In Japan, pet fish playing Nintendo Switch run up bill on owner's credit card"

Mutekimaru had previously installed sophisticated motion detection tracking software in fish tanks, enabling the fish to remotely control a Nintendo Switch console...

During the next seven hours, the fish reportedly managed to change the name of their owner’s Switch account before twice logging into the Nintendo store, where users can purchase games and other downloadable content.

They also managed to “check” legal terms and conditions, downloaded a new avatar and even set up a PayPal account from the Switch – sending an email out to their owner in the process, video from the livestream appeared to show.

But things didn’t end there. The fish were also seen adding 500 yen ($4) to Mutekimaru’s Switch account from his credit card during the livestream -- exposing his credit card details in the process...

Liquid Metal Robot

"Scientists Made a Liquid Metal Robot That Can Escape a Cage Like a Terminator". (Via D.J.)

Light Posting Notice

Admin note: Posting may be light-to-nonexistent this week due to external obligations.

Splines Explained

Video: "The Continuity of Splines". (I haven't watched the full 1 hour 13 minute video yet, but it comes highly recommended.)