Tuesday, March 31, 2015
[Off topic] Hsieh Forbes Column: Smoking Is Bad, But 18-Year-Olds Should Be Allowed to Smoke
Off topic: My latest Forbes column is now out, "Smoking Is Bad, But 18-Year-Olds Should Be Allowed to Smoke".
Monday, March 30, 2015
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Send Aliens The Entire Internet?
NYT: SETI scientist Seth Shostak proposes sending aliens the entire contents of the Internet.
Not sure aliens would think better of humanity afterwards.
Not sure aliens would think better of humanity afterwards.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Monday, March 23, 2015
Earl Tupper's Other Innovations
Earl Tupper invented Tupperware -- and a no-drip ice cream cone and a fish-powered boat. (Via S.H.)
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Patients Secretly Recording Doctors
JAMA: "Ethical Implications of Patients and Families Secretly Recording Conversations With Physicians".
I don't think patients should record their physicians without their consent. However, I do strongly favor such recordings when both sides agree, as discussed in my February 2015 Forbes column, "Why You Should Record Your Doctor Visits".
But I also recognize that many states allow such surreptitious recordings with only "one party" (patient) consent. Hence, I also agree with the JAMA piece that physicians should probably start communicating as if their words were being permanently recorded by the patient.
I don't think patients should record their physicians without their consent. However, I do strongly favor such recordings when both sides agree, as discussed in my February 2015 Forbes column, "Why You Should Record Your Doctor Visits".
But I also recognize that many states allow such surreptitious recordings with only "one party" (patient) consent. Hence, I also agree with the JAMA piece that physicians should probably start communicating as if their words were being permanently recorded by the patient.
Top 'Oddball' Job-Interview Questions
Top 'oddball' job-interview questions, according to Glassdoor.
Some of them include:
Some of them include:
Who would win in a fight between Spiderman and Batman?
If you woke up and had 2,000 unread emails and could only answer 300 of them, how would you choose which ones to answer?
Describe the color yellow to somebody who’s blind.
If you had a machine that produced $100 for life, what would you be willing to pay for it today?
Saturday, March 21, 2015
NFL Lineman Publishes Math Paper
"John Urschel, an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens, recently co-authored a paper in the Journal of Computational Mathematics. It is titled 'A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians'".
Here's an excerpt from his paper:
Here's an excerpt from his paper:
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Perpetual Motion Machines
Some interesting historical attempted perpetual motion machines. (Via Arthur Z.)
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Perpetual Motion Machines by veproject1
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Perpetual Motion Machines by veproject1
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Fridge Caught Sending Spam
"Fridge caught sending spam emails in botnet attack":
In the first documented attack of its kind, the Internet of Things has been used as part of an attack that sent out over 750,000 spam emails.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Monday, March 16, 2015
Apply Buying Back Android Devices
Apple will start buying back users' Android and Blackberry devices in order to get them to switch.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Funerals For Robotic Dogs
"Sony isn't repairing Aibos anymore, so now owners are holding funerals when their robot dogs 'die'".
Bad Apartment Reviews
"Apartment complex with 'no bad reviews' rule gets pummeled on review sites".
Includes this positive review from "Adolf H":
Includes this positive review from "Adolf H":
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
The Fate of the Ringwraiths
"What Happened to the Ringwraiths Once the Ruling Ring Was Destroyed in the Lord of the Rings books?"
The 100-Billion-Body Problem
The 100-Billion-Body Problem: "A full-scale computer simulation of the galaxy we call home must trace the motions of at least 10^11 stars and other objects over several billion years."
Subjective Time
"Why Time Slows Down When We're Afraid, Speeds Up as We Age, and Gets Warped on Vacation"
Monday, March 09, 2015
The Hardest Shot in Bowling
"What's the Hardest Shot in Bowling? It's not the 7-10 split. It's the 'Greek Church.'"
(Click through on image below to see full size version.)
(Click through on image below to see full size version.)
Sunday, March 08, 2015
A Radiologist's Day
As a radiologist, I really appreciated this comic "A Radiologist's Day". You can click on the image below to see the full-sized version.
(And I bought the shirt at CafePress.)
(And I bought the shirt at CafePress.)
Economic Progress Over The Past Century
Megan McArdle: on economic progress over the past century, "It's Complicated. But Hopeful."
A few passages from her piece:
A few passages from her piece:
We should never pooh-pooh economic progress. As P.J. O’Rourke once remarked, I have one word for people who think that we live in a degenerate era fallen from a blessed past full of bounty and ease, and that word is “dentistry”...And one of my favorites, on health care getting more "expensive":
If you do not think that we are living in miraculous times, I suggest you go read these old instructions for doing laundry. But I don’t suggest that you try them, as they involve hydrochloric acid and lye. Laundry is perhaps the worst job that has been automated, in the process changing from backbreaking labor into a slightly tedious chore. But of course we also have clean-burning stoves that don’t require constant tending of a fire, refrigerators that keep our food safe and refreshingly cold, vacuum cleaners that keep our carpets vastly cleaner without hours of beating, mixers that save our aching arms, drip coffee makers that make our favorite beverage better, faster, and with much less work … the list is potentially endless, but the general results are the same: our homes are cleaner, and our food requires a few hours a week to buy and prepare, instead of most of a housewife’s day....
Life is a lot better than it was in 1930 if you’re black. Or gay. Or a woman who wants to work outside the home. Or mentally ill. Or pregnant. Or cohabiting. Or accused of a crime. Many categories of people who previously suffered brutal punishment—legal or social—have had their lives immeasurably improved. Are we a perfectly equal and free society? No. But many groups of people have immensely more freedom and opportunity than they used to.
[L]et’s look at health care. In the 1950s, when the president of the United States had a heart attack, he got the absolute state of the art treatment from some of the top doctors in the country: blood thinners, painkillers, and bed rest.
Today, he would have had an array of scans and blood tests to diagnose his problem, and then his physicians would have been able to choose from an array of treatments—stents, coronary bypass, balloon angioplasty—to prevent future heart attacks. And thanks to epidemiology, public health campaigns, and an array of smoking cessation aids, he probably wouldn’t have had a four-pack-a-day cigarette habit, either.
1950s health care isn’t expensive; this same regimen would be a bargain at today’s prices. What’s expensive is things that didn’t exist in 1950. You can say that “health care” has gotten more expensive—or you can say that the declining cost of other things has allowed us to pour a lot more resources into exciting new health products that give us both longer and healthier lives.
Blackman On Net Neutrality
Justin Blackman on "net neutrality":
A damned good question.Imagine if hard drive providers had been so heavily regulated at the start of the tech boom that only a few, government-approved companies were able to bring their products to the marketplace. We would have never witnessed the same rapid expansion of storage capacity over cost, as there would have been far less incentive to innovate in such a stifling market. Software, however, would have continued to advance in its own relatively free domain, and would have very quickly run up against the limitations imposed by artificial controls on storage media.
In that environment, some software companies would start cutting deals with hardware and OS platform providers. They might, for example, contract that a certain amount of storage space always be dedicated to their product in order to guarantee a certain level of performance for their end users.
The government would then step in and tell these companies that hard drive access must be totally equal, and that no single company should be able to contract for any privileged access to storage.
What consumer would want this situation at all? The free hardware market is clearly far superior, because hard drive space is so plentiful and expanding so rapidly that storage limitations are, at worst, simply a matter of end user preference.
Now, imagine if the telecom industry had not been so heavily regulated by government that only a few, government-approved providers were able to bring telecommunications to the marketplace.
Would we even be having this debate about net neutrality?
Thursday, March 05, 2015
A Novel Solution to Public Urination
"A Novel Solution to Public Urination: Walls That Splash Pee Right Back at You":
The neighborhood’s residents aren’t literally going round to wild pee-ers homes and urinating on their doorsteps (though that would actually be kind of brilliant). They’re simply making sure offenders get a small taste of their own medicine by painting walls with splash-creating, urine retardant paint. In keeping with this harbor neighborhood’s nautical traditions, the paint St. Pauli is using normally coats ships’ hulls. It’s so liquid-resistant that anyone peeing on it is liable to end up soiling themselves all over.(Via GMSV.)
"Moon Is a Harsh Mistress'" Movie
"Bryan Singer Tackling Sci-Fi Classic 'The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress' for Fox". (Via H.R.)
170-Year-Old Beer
"What 170-Year-Old Beer Uncovered From a Shipwreck Really Tasted Like":
(Via N.P.)
Both beers were bright golden yellow, with little haze. Both beers smelt of autolyzed yeast, dimethyl sulfide, Bakelite, burnt rubber, over-ripe cheese, and goat, with phenolic and sulfury notes.
(Via N.P.)
Wednesday, March 04, 2015
Rules Of The Roadrunner
Rules Of The Roadrunner: Chuck Jones's rules for writing the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.
Click on image to see full size. (Via Rand Simberg.)
Click on image to see full size. (Via Rand Simberg.)
Classic Japanese Cat Images
"The best cat videos are over a century old".
(More accurately, derived from images over a century old.)
(More accurately, derived from images over a century old.)
Babies On Mars
"Birthing Babies On Mars Will Be No Small Feat".
Also, Rand Simberg's observations on this topic from a couple of years ago.
Also, Rand Simberg's observations on this topic from a couple of years ago.
Tuesday, March 03, 2015
ATMs Didn't Displace Bank Tellers?
Timothy Taylor: "ATMs and a Rising Number of Bank Tellers?" (Via Marginal Revolution.)
Interesting:
Interesting:
Why did the number of bank tellers rise even as ATMs became prevalent? Bessen highlights two changes. One major change wass the spread of opening more bank branches. Bessen points out that you could now open a branch with fewer bank tellers than before; in addition, I'd add that many states were relaxing their rules and allowing banks to open more branches both within and between states during the 1980s and 1990s in particular.
The other major change was that the job of a teller changed. Banks began to offer more services, and tellers evolved from being people who put checks in one drawer and handed out cash from another drawer to people who solved a variety of financial problems for customers.
"Nightmare Bacteria" Update
"'Nightmare Bacteria' Require Old and New Weapons". (Via Dr. Amesh Adalja, who is also quoted in the article.)
Curt Schilling Vs. Twitter Jerks
Curt Schilling names and shames the jerks who harassed his daughter online.
Schilling has a blog post explaining his actions. Related from Ars Technica, "Twitter trolls suffer real-world consequences for online actions".
Schilling has a blog post explaining his actions. Related from Ars Technica, "Twitter trolls suffer real-world consequences for online actions".
Monday, March 02, 2015
Standard Reference Peanut Butter
"The Weird World of Standard Reference Materials, From Peanut Butter to Whale Blubber"
Sunday, March 01, 2015
Awesome Response To Phone Scammer
Jay Smith posted his awesome response to a phone scammer.
Here's the text of his post mirrored below (may be mildly NSFW due to an f-bomb):
Here's the text of his post mirrored below (may be mildly NSFW due to an f-bomb):
I typically don't answer my cell phone if I don't know the number, but I was expecting a phone call from the area code displayed, so I answered. Sigh.
Me: Yes?
Dude: May I speak with Mr. Jason Smith, please?
Me: (immediately know where this is going) May I ask who is calling?
Dude: Is this Mr. Smith?
Me: I assume I may NOT ask who is calling. That's not very nice of you.
Dude: This is David with [redacted] about an important legal matter that has come across my desk and it is urgent that you resolve this issue immediately today because a process server is on his way to your place of business right now with a warrant for your arrest related to your property at [redacted, but I've never lived there]. Now, sir, you have one opportunity to stop the server from coming to your office...
Me: A process server? Oh. Dear. With an arrest warrant? Well, we can't have that.
Dude: It is important that you resolve this matter of $625.75 today. Are you willing to pay your obligation and avoid being arrested at your place of business?
Me: My place of business is the International Space Station. Are you sending the server up in a rocket?
Dude: Excuse me?
Me: I am currently in low Earth orbit, David. It might be easier if you contact my attorney and send him the paperwork and we'll work it out when I get back. That's if we can destroy this asteroid before it hits...oops, I wasn't supposed to say anything about that.
Dude: (pause) Mr. Smith? I am trying to assist you from being arrested today. Do you wish my help or not?
Me: Sure. What's the case number? Who is the plaintiff?
Dude: I do not have that information. You will need to call the 800 number I'm about to give you.
Me: Oh good. I'll forward that to my lawyer and the local sheriff's office and they can call for me. I'm a little busy saving the world.
Dude: You may not wish to do that. You may want better to settle this matter quietly.
Me: Really? I'm sure they'll both be interested to learn someone is acting on arrest warrants without them. What's your last name, Dave?
Dude: Sir, if you contact the police directly they will be forced to enforce the arrest warrant. You will not want that, I think.
Me: That's okay. There's no Space Sheriff in my jurisdiction anyway. And if things go "boom" it won't matter anyway. Your last name, Dave?
Dude: Will you take down this number, please?
Me: By the way, are you within a thousand miles of Mongolia?
Dude: Mr. Smith...
Me: Because if you are, I envy you. If this thing hits you won't even realize it. Me? I get to sit up here with five desperate assholes and watch the world burn.
Dude: [unintelligible]
Me: I mean, you'll see it coming. You'll look up and see this giant gray peanut rising in the east...just getting bigger and bigger until it's like the only thing in the sky and then... "Squish". The entire atmosphere will crush you with the asteroid still like ten miles up. Maybe the oxygen will ignite first...not sure how all that stuff works. I'm just the trigger man on the nukes. If I'm lucky, we'll be screaming over Asia when it hits and get obliterated when the planet's core reaches up and boils us alive. Otherwise we'll be orbiting the ruins of Earth until we run out of air or eat each other.
Dude: You are...
Me: ...probably eat each other after drinking all the scotch. Space scotch.
Dude: Why you lie to me, sir? You are in trouble and are making jokes.
Me: You have to have a sense of humor when you're sitting on 500 megatons of atomic death facing a rock the size of New Jersey. If we do survive this, the radical freons bleeding from the warheads will kill the five of us within a year. I'd almost prefer it if we can crack this rock open, come home and just take a bullet to the head. I mean do you know what happens to a person soaking up this many RADS? I might come home looking like Sloth from The Goonies. I'll be shitting bones. Commander Cornholder just wants to get naked, open the airlock and die jerking it fifty miles above the burning Earth.
Dude: … So you are not willing to settle this debt today?
Me: How about I settle it by saving the god-damned world, Dave? How about I drive these nuclear warheads into the heart of a mother-f*cking asteroid and keep you and your whole debt collection scam from becoming cosmic vapor? Call it even, there, slappy?
(end of call)
Dynamic Pricing At Ski Resorts
"Ski Resorts Experiment With Dynamic Pricing". (Via Marginal Revolution.)
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