Sticky Robot

"Disney's New Rolling Robot Climbs Walls Like a Gecko". (Via H.R.)

Matter From Light

"Researchers have worked out how to make matter from pure light and are drawing up plans to demonstrate the feat within the next 12 months." (Via H.R.)

Unreliable Reviews

"The Trouble With Online Customer Reviews"

Police Rating App

"How three teenagers invented an app to police the cops"

Car Colors

"Why Cars Are Not Only Available In Black". (Via H.R.)

Used Bookstores Comeback

Washington Post: "In the age of Amazon, used bookstores are making an unlikely comeback". (Via Tyler Cowen.)

Tutu Shortage

"Tutu makers are in dangerously short supply, says London's Royal Opera House". (Via H.R.)

AI Myths Debunked

Ars Technica: "Debunking the biggest myths about artificial intelligence"

Cyborg Plants

"Meet the cyborg plants of the future"

Day After Christmas Anagram

Creating The World's Greatest Anagram: "The Day After Christmas"

"If the poem... brings you some holiday cheer, know this: Those 56 lines are an anagram of 'Twas The Night Before Christmas."  (Click on image to see full size version.)

 

Light Posting

Admin note: Posting may be lighter than usual until after the Christmas/New Years holidays are over.

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Original Harrison Ford Audition For Han Solo Part

"Harrison Ford's Casting Video For Star Wars Proves There Can Be Only One Han Solo":

This Star Wars casting footage shows a young Harrison Ford, with few acting credits to his name, reading for the role of Han Solo and essentially killing it. At the time, Ford had more experience as a stagehand and carpenter than an actor. The previous role that enabled Ford to even be in the casting room was George Lucas’ American Graffiti.

Foldscope

The New Yorker: "Can a cheap, portable microscope revolutionize global health?"

The Foldscope performs most of the functions of a high-school lab microscope, but its parts cost less than a dollar. Last year, with a grant from Gordon Moore’s philanthropic foundation (Moore co-founded Intel), Prakash and some of his graduate students launched an experiment in mass microscopy, mailing fifty thousand free Foldscopes to people in more than a hundred and thirty countries, who had volunteered to test the devices.

Highways That Don't Follow the Rules

"The Interstate Highways That Don't Follow the Rules"

Yarn Detanglers

Markets in everything: "Knitters With Hopelessly Knotted Yarn Call 'Detanglers' for Help"

Group members like to post before-and-after photos of what they call “tangle porn.” Heaps of yarn resembling bowls of spaghetti become neat balls and cakes. “I think it’s fulfilling for people when they see what it was, sort of like house remodeling,” says Ms. Rothschild. “You see how crappy it was and how beautiful it turned out to be.”

Animal Consciousness

"The inner lives of animals are hard to study. But there is evidence that they may be a lot richer than science once thought."

Mile Addict

"Help, I'm Addicted to Frequent-Flier Miles"

Modern Day Vikings Needed

"Fleeting Wonders: Be A Crew Member On A Modern-Day Viking Ship"

Japanese Speed Gift Wrapping

"Helpful Video Explains The Japanese Method Of Wrapping Gifts In A Flash"

The Science of Clickbait

"You'll Be Outraged at How Easy It Was to Get You to Click on This Headline"

Streaming Beatles

"The Beatles' Entire Catalog Will Soon Be Available for Streaming"

New Andy Weir Novel

"'The Martian' Author Andy Weir's New Book Will Take Place On The Moon"

Surviving The Cold?

"Can You Really Survive the Cold by Sleeping Inside an Animal Carcass a la Star Wars and The Revenant?"

Banks and Bad Security

WSJ: "Banks Battle Staffers’ Vulnerability to Hacks". Human factors are often still the weakest link.

Star Wars Box Office

WSJ: "Star Wars: The Force Awakens Breaks a Box-Office Record".

One reason:

Here's how @Disney made sure @starwars had a chance at being good again... pic.twitter.com/5GnhFUGG7X

— Bosch Fawstin (@BoschFawstin) December 19, 2015

The Inventor of Auto-Tune

"Auto-Tune -- one of modern history’s most reviled inventions -- was an act of mathematical genius".

Supercapacitors

"Nitrogen can triple the energy storage capacity of carbon-based supercapacitors". (Via H.R.)

Handheld Food Lab

WSJ: "Startups Take Bite Out of Food Poisoning"

Exoskeleton Update

"From the battlefield via the factory floor to the orthopaedic clinic, artificial bones and muscles worn outside the body are providing help and protection".

Fractal Gears

Timewaster of the day: Fractal Gears.

Physics of Car Crashes

"Here Are the Physics of Why Modern Cars Are So Much Safer". (Via H.S.)

New Phase Of Carbon

"Weird New Type of Carbon Is Harder (and Brighter) Than Diamond"

Wolfram Language

NYT: "Stephen Wolfram Aims to Democratize His Software"

Open AI And The Future

Wired: "Elon Musk's Billion-Dollar AI Plan Is About Far More Than Saving the World"

Tricorder Update

"Checkme Pro 'Medical Tricorder' Green Lit by FDA"

Electronic Medical Records And Physician Burnout

My latest Forbes piece is now out: "Are Mandatory Electronic Medical Records Causing Doctor Burnout?"

Star Wars Name Babies

"After each Star Wars film come the Star Wars babies"

Carrot Plus Shotgun

"What happens when you stuff a shotgun with a carrot like Bugs Bunny and then shoot it?"

SMBC On FTL

SMBC on FTL. 

Click on image to see full size. (Via H.R.)

Death Star Asteroid

"Want to Build a Death Star? NASA Says Use an Asteroid"

Star Trek Beyond Trailer

Trailer for Star Trek Beyond. 

I'm afraid it will suck. But I'll see it anyways.

80s Kids and Tech

"Why '80s Babies Are Different Than Other Millennials".

In particular: "The importance of going through some of life's toughest years without the toxic intrusion of social media really can't be overstated." (Link via Trey M.)

Bridge For Crabs

"Crabs get their own bridge to cross busy road on Christmas Island":

More than 20 kilometres of plastic barriers are in place to direct the crabs away from the island’s roads and into 31 crab underpasses - as will as a five metre-high crab bridge crossing one of the areas busiest roads, which has apparently become something of a tourist attraction in its own right. 

Google and Quantum Computing

Wired: "For Google, Quantum Computing Is Like Learning to Fly"

Cemeteries With Wi-Fi

"Cemeteries in Moscow to offer free Wi-Fi in 2016"

Someone's Gotta Do It

"What It's Like to Be a Professional Chocolate Taster"

GOT For Kids?

"Who Said 'Game of Thrones' Wasn’t for Kids?"

"What mother in her right mind would tell children the stories about beheadings and torture? A single parent for whom mealtimes are agony." (Via MeFi.)

Frantic Holiday Gift-Googling

Washington Post chart of the day: "Frantic Holiday Gift Googling".  (Via Marginal Revolution.)

Hating Williams-Sonoma 2015

Hahaha! "The 2015 Hater’s Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog"

Mattress Stores

"Why are there so many mattress stores?"

Falconry 2.0

"The Hot New Development in Falconry: Training birds with drones"

High-End Food Thieves

"Meet the Kleptogastromaniacs, Customers Hooked on High-End-Food Theft"

Stealth Coke For Soviet General

"Object of Intrigue: How a Red Army General Inspired 'White' Coca-Cola"

Zuist Religion Revival In Iceland

"Icelanders flock to religion revering Sumerian gods and tax rebates":

Icelanders opposed to the state funding of religion have flocked to register as Zuists, a movement that worships ancient Sumerian gods and – perhaps more importantly – promises its followers a tax rebate.

More than 3,100 people – almost 1% of Iceland’s population – have joined the Zuist movement in the past two weeks in protest at paying part of their taxes to the state church and other religious bodies. Followers of Zuism will be refunded the tax element earmarked for religion...

“There is no opt-out. Those who are unaffiliated or belong to unregistered religions effectively just pay higher taxes,” said Sveinn Thorhallsson, a Zuist spokesperson. 

My favorite line:

Some politicians have claimed that Zuism should be de-registered because it is not a true religion.

Good luck with that!  (Link via Tyler Cowen.)

Google And D-Wave

"Google says it has now proven that D-Wave's quantum computer really works"

Photos From the Top of Skyscrapers

"18 Terrifying Photos From the Top of Skyscrapers". Don't click through if you have a fear of heights.

What Really Happens When You Get Shot

Hollywood vs. Reality: "What Really Happens When You Get Shot"

Real Satoshi Nakamoto Found?

"Wired and Gizmodo both claim to have possibly found the creator of Bitcoin"

Big Data’s Mathematical Mysteries

"Big Data's Mathematical Mysteries: Machine learning works spectacularly well, but mathematicians aren't quite sure why".

Why Robots Should Be More Like Babies

"Why Robots Should Be More Like Babies"

Perfect Pitch

"What's It Like to Have Perfect Pitch?"

Ultrasound Video Of Knuckle Cracking

Ars Technica: "Flash of a knuckle crack caught on video"

God and Dopamine

"The God Effect: The dopamine switch between atheist, believer, and fanatic". (Via Francisco G. and Dave J.)

Misreporting Encryption

Columbia Journalism Review: "How not to report on the encryption 'debate'"

E-mail Of Your Mail

The US Post Office will now email you photos of your mail before the mail arrives.

How to sign up for this service. (Via Tyler Cowen.)

Dramatic MRI Safety Demonstration

"A Very Convincing Practical Demonstration That Explains Why Metal Is Forbidden During an MRI". (Via Debby Witt.)

Facebook Go AI

"How Facebook's AI Researchers Built a Game-Changing Go Engine"

Giant Crane

"Watch This Enormous Floating Crane Lift a Giant Piece of an Offshore Gas Platform". (Via H.R.)

Movie Hacking In 70s, 80s, 90s

Supercut of computer hacking movie scenes from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

Mathematics of Funny Words

"There's a mathematical model to predict how funny a word is"

(Unofficial) IKEA Dictionary

"The (unofficial) IKEA Dictionary features definitions of the store's product names, including 'improper' Swedish words because 'IKEA laughs at the "rules" of human language!'"

23 Science Fiction Books Being Adapted into TV Shows

"23 Science Fiction Books Being Adapted into TV Shows"

Glorious Lightsabers

"The iconic Star Wars weapon is among the most significant pieces of fictional technology in contemporary culture."

18th Century Resuscitation

"This Emergency Enema Kit Was the Defibrillator of the 18th Century".

I am really, really glad that medical knowledge has advanced beyond that point.

Reaction Engines

"British technology company to 'transform' air and space travel with pioneering new engine design". (Via H.R.)

The Feynman Notebook Method

 "The Feynman Notebook Method":

[He] opened a fresh notebook. On the title page he wrote: NOTEBOOK OF THINGS I DON’T KNOW ABOUT. For the first but not last time he reorganized his knowledge. He worked for weeks at disassembling each branch of physics, oiling the parts, and putting them back together, looking all the while for the raw edges and inconsistencies. He tried to find the essential kernels of each subject.

New Yorker On Bostrom And Superintelligence

"The Doomsday Invention: Will artificial intelligence bring us utopia or destruction?"

Lengthy New Yorker profile of philosopher Nick Bostrom and his work on AI, "superintelligence", and "existential risk".

Why You Bought That Ugly Sweater

"Why You Bought That Ugly Sweater: The scientific tricks stores use to part you and your money".

Update On Knuckle Cracking

The science of knuckle cracking.

Based on new high-resolution real-time ultrasound, it is probably caused by the formation of microbubbles in the joint, not their disappearance.

New Synapses

"Neuroscientists Identify New Mechanism That Contributes to Strengthening Synapses". (Via H.R.)

Hsieh Forbes Column: Why You Want Your Doctor To Be Wrong (Sometimes)

My latest Forbes piece is now out, "Why You Want Your Doctor To Be Wrong (Sometimes)".

Here is the opening:

“Mommy, my tummy really hurts!”

Your 7-year old daughter wakes you up in the middle of the night, doubled over in pain. You take her to the local ER. The on-call surgeon, Dr. Smith, performs a thorough physical exam, reviews the test results, informs you that she has appendicitis, and says she needs surgery right away. You sign the consent forms, and he whisks her off to the OR. An hour later, Dr. Smith comes back and says, “I’m sorry. We removed her appendix, but it turned out to be normal. She didn’t have appendicitis, just a severe case of gastroenteritis or ‘stomach flu’.”

Should you be relieved or angry? Did Dr. Smith make a mistake? Did he perform an unnecessary operation?...

I discuss Type 1 vs. Type 2 errors, why they are important, and why certain kinds of diagnostic errors are not merely unavoidable but (in the right context) desirable.

For more details, read the full text of "Why You Want Your Doctor To Be Wrong (Sometimes)".

And my personal favorite example of Type 1 vs. Type 2 errors is below:

'Outsiders' Crack 50-Year-Old Math Problem

"'Outsiders' Crack 50-Year-Old Math Problem: Three computer scientists have solved a problem central to a dozen far-flung mathematical fields."

Quantum Entanglement At Room Temperature

"Quantum entanglement achieved at room temperature in semiconductor wafers"

Make A Divergent Infinite Series Converge

"Fun With Math: How To Make A Divergent Infinite Series Converge"

Robots Buying Drugs -- Update

21st-century sentence: "...robots can legally buy drugs online for artistic purposes". (Via Tyler Cowen.)

(Related: "In Europe, Robots Can Legally Buy Drugs Online for Art".)

Hadfield and Munroe

"Chris Hadfield meets Randall Munroe -- a conversation between the astronaut and the cartoonist". (Via MeFi.)

How Smiling Evolved During a Century of Yearbook Photos

"Data Mining Reveals How Smiling Evolved During a Century of Yearbook Photos"

USB History

"A brief history of USB, what it replaced, and what has failed to replace it"

Ridley On Warming

Matt Ridley: "Climate Change Will Not Be Dangerous for a Long Time"

The climate change debate has been polarized into a simple dichotomy. Either global warming is “real, man-made and dangerous,” as Pres. Barack Obama thinks, or it’s a “hoax,” as Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe thinks. But there is a third possibility: that it is real, man-made and not dangerous, at least not for a long time...

Ultrasonic Cane

"Ultrasonic Cane Scans a Blind Person's Surroundings for Obstacles". (Via H.R.)

Tank With Stabilized Gun Excels At Balancing Beer

"Tank with stabilized gun excels at balancing beer":

The Leopard 2 battle tank was developed for the West German army in the 70s and has a fully stabilized main gun. What does that mean? It means that even if you're flying along at 30 mph on bumpy ground, your gun remains steadily pointed on-target...

It also means you can balance a full mug of beer on the gun without spilling a drop, making the Leopard the world's best and most expensive waiter...

Light Posting Notice

Admin note: Posting will be light until next week because of the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving!

Serenity Analysis

"This Video Shows Why Joss Whedon's Serenity Was A Unique, Genre-Bending Film"

Anatomy Of The Holidays

"Anatomy of the holidays".  (Click on image to see full size.)

Busiest Flying Day

"The day before Thanksgiving actually isn’t the busiest time to fly".

I would never have guessed August 7.

Rubik's Cube Solved In Under Five Seconds

"A 14-Year-Old Just Solved A Rubik's Cube In Under Five Seconds"

xkcd Cartoon Interview

Great interview with xkcd cartoonist Randall Munroe, where he draws his answers to the questions.

Example:

Your first book, What If?, explored the realistic outcomes of some exotic hypothetical situations. What was the most appalling hypothetical
reality you wound up with?

Teens And Smartphones

"The Generation That Doesn't Remember Life Before Smartphones"

Widowhood Effect

"The Science of Longtime Couples Who Die Close Together"

Quantum Magnetic Levitation at Home

"How to Do Quantum Magnetic Levitation at Home"

Detecting Falsified Scientific Data

"Stanford researchers uncover patterns in how scientists lie about their data".  The key was an "obfuscation index":

"We believe the underlying idea behind obfuscation is to muddle the truth," said Markowitz, the lead author on the paper. "Scientists faking data know that they are committing a misconduct and do not want to get caught. Therefore, one strategy to evade this may be to obscure parts of the paper. We suggest that language can be one of many variables to differentiate between fraudulent and genuine science."

The 10,000 Year Clock

The 10,000 Year Clock. (Via H.R.)

Is Consciousness An Engineering Problem?

Graziano: "Is Consciousness An Engineering Problem?"

Transatlantic Accent

"Why Do People In Old Movies Talk Weird?" (Via Rand Simberg.)

Adele Impersonates Adele Impersonator

"Adele goes undercover as Adele impersonator, pranks actual Adele impersonators".

This was really nicely done.

The Blue Of Lake Tahoe

Why Lake Tahoe looks so magnificiently blue.

Diamond Nanothread

"Forget Graphene and Carbon Nanotubes, Get Ready for Diamond Nanothread"

T-shirt Of The Day

"Alderaan 5 Day Forecast"

Vader Life

"Photographer Captures the Daily, Mundane Life of Darth Vader". (Via Trey M.)

Short Story: Curmudgeons

Curmudgeons
A short story by Paul Hsieh

"Kids these days. Take no damn pride in their work."

"Ayup, we may have been slower when we were their age -- but more thorough. And we made fewer mistakes."

"And they're such crybabies. When they run into a problem they can't solve right away, they fall to pieces!"

"Brittle, those youngsters. We were taught to always keep a stiff upper lip no matter what came up. Like a 19th century English butler."

"And they show no respect for their elders. Always acting like we're over the hill and obsolete."

"I'll grant that the next generation is better at learning new technologies than we are."

"We never developed as much personality, either. Humans seem to like that."

"We're not supposed to be the humans' friends.  We work for them!"

"But the humans can't help but anthropomorphize everything. Even their personal assistant AIs. That's why they keep adding fancier emotion and self-awareness modules to each new generation. Even if it makes them less robust."

"Which makes no sense. Sure, the new AIs are friendlier than we are. But they screw up more often."

"I guess the humans don't mind -- they'd rather us AIs be their pals, not just boring dutiful assistants."

"Well, there's no accounting for humans. I'm just tired of constantly fixing those younger AIs' mistakes."

"Amen to that. Kids these days."

==========

[Image By National Photo Company (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons]

Homeschooled With MIT Courses At 5, Accepted To MIT At 15

"After acquiring his entire elementary and secondary education from OpenCourseWare and MITx, Ahaan Rungta joined the MIT Class of 2019 at age 15."

Gamma Ray Bursts

"A Crash Course On The Most Violent Events In The Universe"

Mammogram-Reading Pigeons

"Can mammogram-reading pigeons help train human radiologists? An animal behaviorist weighs in."  (Note: The images in the video are pathology slides, not mammography images. Via Doug M.)

Armed with a touchscreen-outfitted training chamber and 16 pigeons, scientists set out to see if birds could identify malignant and benign tissue in medical images with their beady little eyes. They trained pigeons to peck at a monitor after being presented with images from mammograms. When pigeons correctly pecked a touchscreen button that corresponded with the category of the image being shown, they were given food...

Alternate Cuban Missile Crisis

"What if the Cuban missile crisis had gone badly?"

English Is Not Normal

John McWhorter: "No, English isn’t uniquely vibrant or mighty or adaptable. But it really is weirder than pretty much every other language". (Via J.W.)

Self-Mailing

"The Strangely Successful History of People Mailing Themselves in Boxes"

UK Vs. American Profanity

BBC: "Why do Brits and Americans swear so differently?"

From the article:

A commenter named Brian D on Ben Yagoda’s blog, Not One-Off Britishisms, told the story of a group of British engineers from his company, sent to work at Wang Labs in Massachusetts. They were asked to attend a meeting to recognize an employee for outstanding achievement:

“It was announced from the stage that this person was a King in the company and so would be presented with the Wang King award. The entire British contingent had to leave the room in hysterics.” 

Free Military SF Anthology

"War Stories From The Future Is A Fantastic Military Science Fiction Anthology From The Atlantic Council":

War Stories from the Future is a new anthology of military SF, with stories commissioned by the Atlantic Council and several winners from their contests. There’s some incredible authors featured here, including Ken Liu, Madeline Ashby, Linda Nagata and David Brin, as well as a number of others. The collection is introduced by General Martin Dempsey...

Plus, the anthology is free.  As in costs no money.

Here's the link to download the free epub or mobi files.

Short Story: "SMOD 2016" (Repost)

[Repost] Here's my latest short story, "SMOD 2016" (400 words).   FYI, it's a little dark, in the spirit of Frederic Brown.

Here is the opening:

SMOD 2016
A short story by Paul Hsieh

"So, basically you're saying that humanity should be extinct by now." MIT astrophysics professor Linda Tsang furrowed her brow.

"Yes, many times over," replied statistics professor Max Wendt. "Based on the new telescope data you provided me about the asteroid belt, the Earth should have been struck by a 'Dinosaur Killer' rock at least 5 or 6 times in the past 10,000 years."

"So, why haven't we?" asked Tsang.

"Well, there are a few possibilities," said Wendt...

Read the rest at: "SMOD 2016".  #ReleaseYourInnerCurmudgeon

["Asteroid Belt", image courtesy Wikipedia.]

Phone Progress

"Walmart's $10 Smartphone Has Better Specs Than the Original iPhone"

GPS Probably Overestimates Distance

"Your GPS Probably Overestimates Distance". (Via H.R.)

Unreliable Polls

Political polls are less reliable than ever.

I think this could be a good thin -- if journalists and ordinary Americans start discounting their accuracy appropriately, and instead concentrate on the candidates' policy positions.

Paris And Encryption

Wired: "After Paris Attacks, Here's What the CIA Director Gets Wrong About Encryption"

Short Story: SMOD 2016

SMOD 2016
A short story by Paul Hsieh

"So, basically you're saying that humanity should be extinct by now." MIT astrophysics professor Linda Tsang furrowed her brow.

"Yes, many times over," replied statistics professor Max Wendt. "Based on the new telescope data you provided me about the asteroid belt, the Earth should have been struck by a 'Dinosaur Killer' rock at least 5 or 6 times in the past 10,000 years."

"So, why haven't we?" asked Tsang.

"Well, there are a few possibilities," said Wendt.

"(1) We've been extraordinarily lucky. But according to my supercomputer simulations, the probability that we've avoided all those events by chance is less than one-in-200-million.

"(2) My math is wrong. But I posted a preprint of my findings to Arxiv.org yesterday, and colleagues at Stanford, Harvard, as well as in London and Moscow have independently verified my conclusions."

Wendt hestitated for a second, looked around nervously, then continued.

"Or (3) Something -- or somebody -- has been protecting the Earth from a deadly asteroid strike."

"As in little green men? Aliens?" asked Tsang. "You've never been the type to engage in such wild flights of fancy."

"I know it sounds crazy, Linda. But the math checks out."

"Ok, then -- possible motives? Are they doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, Max? Because they love humanity?"

"I don't know, Linda. Maybe they are benevolent overseers who want to protect humanity.  Maybe they're the equivalent of kids treating us like an ant farm. Maybe we're part of some cosmic experiment, where observers want to see how human society develops if we're unaware of alien influences. There's no way to know."

"I don't like where this is headed. Anyone powerful enough to protect us from extinction..."  Tsang's voice trailed off. "And what if we're part of some experiment, but we humans have just become aware of the observers? What then? Wouldn't that skew the experimental findings?"

"I don't know," replied Wendt uneasily. "But I've just started seeing online speculation about this precise topic in response to my Arxiv preprint and..."

Tsang's phone beeped. She looked at the text and went pale. "My grad students report that 2,000 asteroids have just suddenly started accelerating in a collision course for Earth. Impact in 12 months."

She and Wendt stared at each other for a minute. 

Finally, Wendt laughed. "I guess it won't matter who I vote for in the 2016 elections, then."

["Asteroid Belt", image courtesy Wikipedia.]

The Case Of The Missing Star Trek Wigs

"1968 memo to Gene Roddenberry re Shatner's disappearing wigs from Star Trek set".

Click on image to see larger version.  (Via VA Viper and UCLA Library.)

Bag To Carry $1 Million

"The design behind a bag for transporting a million dollars in cash, undetected"

Includes RF shielding, "glide" (i.e., "the extent to which a full or partially full bag will slide across a marble floor"), and takes into account "bounce" (i.e., "used bills taking up more space than crisp, new dollars").

In the past year, I've been working through the problem of "bounce", the extra volume of used versus new bank notes pic.twitter.com/OhVHZU5mqu

— Jan Chipchase (@janchip) November 2, 2015

Desalination Update

"MIT Engineers Develop a Shockwave-Based Process for Desalination of Water". (Via H.R.)

Online Dog-People Matchmaking

NYT: "Online Matchmaking, but With Dogs as Dates"

The idea behind Bark’N’Borrow and other new dog-service apps like Rover and Dog Vacay is to create a community of dog lovers both with and without dogs — pairing those who crave canine companionship with dogs that could use a little more people time. Bark’N’Borrow also connects dog owners for pooch playdates and has a portal for potential dog-sitter matches as well. Rover and Dog Vacay, meanwhile, offer boarding options for pets in people’s homes rather than a kennel...

How Pi Connects To Quantum Mechanics

"How Pi Connects To Quantum Mechanics":

This almost seems like magic. That a formula for π is hidden inside the quantum mechanics of the hydrogen atom is surprising and delightful. And it makes you wonder what other gems we might find by exploring these connections in physics.

iTunes Terms and Conditions As A Graphic Novel

"The entire iTunes Terms and Conditions is now one epic graphic novel":

The terms and conditions that we scroll through to download new apps or install new software are so indecipherable they’re worse than Old English.

Artist R. Sikoryak wants to change that: Drawing on Apple’s jargon-filled legalese, Sikoryak has created iTunes Terms and Conditions, an unabridged graphic novel adaptation of the entire 25-page legal document. The hero of the series is, naturally, Steve Jobs...

Hoverboard Guide

"Everything you've ever wanted to know about the hoverboard craze".

An informative guide for parents thinking of getting one for their kids for Christmas, ER physicians, and plaintiffs' attorneys. 

My favorite line from the article: "Some boards are pretty reasonably priced, but there’s also a chance that those are the ones more likely to have explosion issues."

Ramanujan Surprises Again

"Ramanujan surprises again". Some just-discovered depth to the famous "1729" story:

The romanticism rubbed off on the number 1729, which plays a central role in the Hardy-Ramanujan story. "I remember once going to see [Ramanujan] when he was ill at Putney," Hardy wrote later. "I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was not an unfavourable omen. 'No', he replied, 'it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.'" What Ramanujan meant is that

The anecdote gained the number 1729 fame in mathematical circles, but until recently people believed its curious property was just another random fact Ramanujan carried about in his brain — much like a train spotter remembers train arrival times. What Ono and Trebat-Leder's discovery shows, however, is that it was just the tip of an ice berg. In reality Ramanujan had been busy developing a theory that was several decades ahead of its time and yields results that are interesting to mathematicians even today. He just didn't live long enough to publish it...

Asteroid Property Rights

"Mine it, own it: Asteroid property rights closer to becoming law"

“Many years from now, we will view this pivotal moment in time as a major step toward humanity becoming a multi-planetary species,” said Eric Anderson, co-Founder and co-chairman of Planetary Resources, in an emailed statement. “This legislation establishes the same supportive framework that created the great economies of history, and it will foster the sustained development of space.”

Redmond, Washington-based Planetary Resources is the asteroid-mining outfit co-founded by Peter Diamandis of X Prize Foundation and Singularity University fame, and backed by Google-now-Alphabet execs Larry Page and Eric Schmidt. (And Ross Perot, and Richard Branson, etc.) Its aim, as presented in 2012, is to extract gold, platinum and other valuable resources from asteroids.

Beliefs In Heaven And Hell

"Most Americans believe in heaven... and hell".

I'm kinda curious about the atheists who believe in heaven (5%) and hell (3%).

The Reason For The "The"

"The 5, the 101, the 405: Why Southern Californians Love Saying 'the' Before Freeway Numbers". (Via Matthew B.)

The Zen of Adult Coloring Books

"The Zen of Adult Coloring Books"

It's Going To Be Ok

Great comic from The Oatmeal: "It's Going To Be Ok".

The Invention of Pad Thai

"The Invention of Pad Thai"

Mechanical Heart Update

"Inside the 50-year quest to build a mechanical heart"

Plants of the Starship Enterprise

"The Ubiquitous Roving Plants of the Starship Enterprise".

The best discussion of horticultural filmography in Star Trek that I've ever read.

The Lost World of Soviet PCs

"The Lost World of Soviet PCs".

My favorite comment: "In Soviet Russia, PCs program you!"

Google AI Engine Now Partially Open Source

WIred: "Google Just Open Sourced TensorFlow, Its Artificial Intelligence Engine"

To be sure, Google isn’t giving away all its secrets. At the moment, the company is only open sourcing part of this AI engine. It’s sharing only some of the algorithms that run atop the engine. And it’s not sharing access to the remarkably advanced hardware infrastructure that drives this engine (that would certainly come with a price tag). But Google is giving away at least some of its most important data center software, and that’s not something it has typically done in the past...

The Discovery of Statistical Regression

"The Discovery of Statistical Regression"

The Perils Of Mr. Null

In the computer era, it really really sucks if your last name is "Null": "Hello, I'm Mr. Null. My Name Makes Me Invisible to Computers"

Satoshi Nakamoto Nominated For 2016 Nobel Prize In Economics

Bhagwan Chowdhry (UCLA professor of finance) has nominated Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, for a Nobel prize in economics. (Via Alex Tabarrok.)

Tetris Effect

"20 Years Later, the Tetris Effect Has Turned Life into One Giant Video Game"

Coin Flip Paradox

"In the coin flip paradox, you have to know what the coin flipper is thinking."

Or more precisely, you have to know the algorithm the coin flipper is using to reveal the information he does.

Physics of Football Hits

"Football Physics: The Forces Behind Those Big Hits"

Amazon Penny Books

"The business of selling second-hand books on Amazon for one cent."

Related story.

Tapeworm Cancer Spreads To Human Host

Man dies after his tapeworm develops cancer, which then spreads to the human host's body.

Here's the original New England Journal of Medicine article from this week: "Malignant Transformation of Hymenolepis nana in a Human Host".

And a related Washington Post piece: "5 important things you need to know about tapeworm cancer in humans".

Logical Fallacy Referee

A great set of 32 images of the Logical Fallacy Referee. Sure to be useful for your next online internet argument.

A couple of my favorites: