Placebo Update

Placebos can still work even when you know you're getting a placebo.

Remote Drone Takedown

"There’s a new way to take down drones, and it doesn’t involve shotguns"

Brain Training

"Want to 'train your brain'? Forget apps, learn a musical instrument". (Via C.B.)

Fast Internet

"This Guy Has the Fastest Home Internet in the United States".

Halloween Candy Mythbusting

"Has Anyone Ever Actually Poisoned Or Put Razor Blades or Needles in Halloween Candy?" (Via H.R.)

Destroying Tumors

"Two-Pronged Immune Response Destroys Tumors"

Google Insecurity

"Adding a phone number to your Google account can make it LESS secure".

Or if you do so, at least employ 2-factor security. (Via Gus Van Horn.)

Entertainment Pills?

"A Matrix-like hallucinogenic pill may be the future of entertainment, says Netflix’s CEO"

Rotisserie Chicken Economics

"Are Rotisserie Chickens a Bargain?"

Mercedes Self-Driving Car Ethics

"Mercedes says its self-driving cars will kill pedestrians instead of drivers":

When they crash, self-driving Mercedes will be programmed to save the driver, and not the person or people they hit. That's the design decision behind the Mercedes Benz's future Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous cars, according to the company's manager of driverless car safety, Christoph von Hugo. Instead of worrying about troublesome details like ethics, Mercedes will just program its cars to save the driver and the car's occupants, in every situation.

One of the biggest debates about driverless cars concerns the moral choices made when programming a car's algorithms. Say the car is spinning out of control, and on course to hit a crowd queuing at a bus stop. It can correct its course, but in doing so, it'll kill a cyclist for sure. What does it do? Mercedes's answer to this take on the classic Trolley Problem is to hit whichever one is least likely to hurt the people inside its cars. If that means taking out a crowd of kids waiting for the bus, then so be it...

Modern Cars Are Freaking Out In Car Washes

"Modern Cars Are Freaking Out In Car Washes". (Via H.R.)

The issue is that the sensory safety systems that help to prevent crashes on the road also often prevent cars from thinking the enclosure full of spraying water and spinning brushes is a good place to be, causing the systems to overload and essentially disable the vehicle. 

The Science Of Holding Your Breath

"What’s the Longest You Can Hold Your Breath?"

Facial Expressions Not Universal?

"Facial expressions -- including fear -- may not be as universal as we thought"

[Off Topic] Hsieh Forbes Column: How Your Doctor's Politics Affects Your Health Care

[Off topic] My latest Forbes piece is now out, "How Your Doctor's Politics Affects Your Health Care -- And What You Can Do About It".

I discuss the latest research indicating the doctors' own personal political biases can affect the advice they give patients in three areas -- abortion, gun ownership, and marijuana use. And strategies that patients and doctors can adopt to minimize inappropriate physician bias in the exam room.

New Internet Attacks

"The Mirai botnet’s internet takedown opens up a new market for attackers and defenders"

Sensor Threads

"The next frontier in medical sensing: Threads coated in nanomaterials". (Via H.R.)

Driverless Beer Truck

"'Driverless' beer run; Bud makes shipment with self-driving truck":

Anheuser-Busch hauled a trailer loaded with beer 120 miles in an autonomous-drive truck, completing what's believed to be the first commercial shipment by a self-driving vehicle.

The trip happened last week in Colorado as Anheuser-Busch, collaborated with Otto, a subsidiary of Uber that is developing self-driving truck technology. The semi drove autonomously on the highway between Fort Collins, Colorado and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Plus: Self-driving beer truck! In Colorado!
Minus: Bud ?!?

Boaty McBoatface Update

"Boaty McBoatface Is Training for an Historic Arctic Journey"

Political Handshakes

"The Strange World of Political Handshakes"

Human Google

"The Public Librarians Who Serve as Human Google"

Secret Nazi Base

"Secret Nazi military base discovered by Russian scientists in the Arctic".

The only thing missing is the frozen clone of Adolf Hitler ready to be re-animated and take over the world!

Inside Witness Protection

"What Happens When You Enter the Witness Protection Program?"

New Internet Attacks

Krebs: "Hacked Cameras, DVRs Powered Today’s Massive Internet Outage".

Related warning from Bruce Schneier from before the attacks: "Someone Is Learning How to Take Down the Internet" (9/13/2016).

Dogs vs. Leaf Blowers

Video: "Dogs vs. Leaf Blowers Compilation"

Hot. Dog.

"Watch this crazy Finnish guy prepare a hot dog using only an 8.5 ton excavator".

 Really:

History Of The Pencil

"Trace The Remarkable History Of The Humble Pencil"

Ghost Boat

"The Feds Won’t Buy This $19 Million Stealth Boat -- or Let It Be Sold Abroad". (Via H.R.)

Beren And Luthien

"JRR Tolkien's Beren and Lúthien to be published in 2017"

Changing Foods

"Not Your Father’s McNuggets: How Famous Foods Have Changed"

Time's Arrow

Forbes: "Where Does Our Arrow Of Time Come From?"

Video Games And Soccer

NYT: Video games affecting real life soccer.

Pongfinity!

"Sometimes, you need to open a bottle of Coke from across the room, and all you have is a table tennis paddle and a ball."

Cash Is Good

"The Cashless Society Is a Creepy Fantasy"

Fish out of Water

"Fish out of Water Are Actually Pretty Common"

70-Year-Olds Play D&D for the First Time

"70-Year-Olds Play D&D for the First Time (and Love it)"

Neuromorphic Computing Update

"IBM's Brain-Inspired Chip Tested for Deep Learning"

Pho Burrito

"The Pho Burrito Is The Apex Of Asian-Mexican Fusion Cuisine".

Depending on how you look at it, this is either "cultural appropriation" or total awesomeness!

Australia Is Moving

"Australia Is Not as Down Under as Everyone Thinks It Is"

Federal Fingerprint Overreach?

Forbes: "Feds Walk Into A Building. Demand Everyone's Fingerprints To Open Phones"

Magnus Carlsen Playing Chess Hustlers in Washington Square Park

"Magnus Carlsen Playing Chess Hustlers in Washington Square Park".

"Norwegian grandmaster and world champion Magnus Carlsen was in New York and went to watch the old guys playing chess in the park. One of them beat his manager pretty badly, so Carlsen sat down and proceeded to checkmate in ten moves. The old guys play so many people they don’t look too closely at them, so it was a surprise..."

Brain Implant Update

NPR: "Brain Implant Restores Sense Of Touch To Paralyzed Man"

Assault With a Deadly Tweet?

When does a tweet constitute assault?

Winning The Oreo Twistoff Game

"Aerospace engineers found a way to predict with 100% accuracy where the cream ends up when you twist an Oreo".

Great way to win a bar bet.

Airline Food Critic

"What’s the deal with airline food? An in-flight dining critic explains."

Driverless Cars In UK

"Public trial for driverless cars beginning in Milton Keynes"

Smartphone Microscope

"This Smartphone Microscope Lets You Play Games With Microbes"

How Blind People Dream

"What Dreams Are Like When You're Blind"

Weird Combat

Weird combat.

Radiation-Resistant Space Fungus

"What radiation-resistant space fungus can do for drug discovery"

John Urschel Update

Great update on John Urschel -- who is both an NFL lineman as well as a PhD student at MIT in math.

Economics Nobel Prizes Explained

Tyler Cowen explains the significance of the Economic Nobel Prize winners' work.

Crypto Update

Ars Technica: "NSA could put undetectable “trapdoors” in millions of crypto keys"

Faking Your Own Death Is Hard

"So you think you can fake your own death?"  (Via Gus Van Horn.)

Includes a handy flowchart:

Google And Strategy

"Google and the Limits of Strategy"

Submarine Life

"Life On A Submarine: Raunchy, Cramped, And Occasionally Smells Like Sh*t"

The Economics of Dining as a Couple

"The Economics of Dining as a Couple"

Goodwill Donations

"Here’s What Goodwill Actually Does With Your Donated Clothes"

What Can Dogs And Cats Taste?

"What can dogs and cats taste?"

Tinder For Sperm

The London Sperm Bank "just released a Tinder-esque mobile app that lets women filter potential sperm donors based on traits like ethnicity, occupation, personality type, eye color, and more."

Informative Photon

"Single Photon Carries 10 Bits of Information"

World's Largest Dinosaur Footprint

"World's Largest Dinosaur Footprint Found In Mongolian Desert"

Bubbles And Beer

"This Technology Is About to Revolutionize Beer-Making":

The secret sauce in their new method is cavitation, the formation of small bubbles of vapor within a liquid and their subsequent collapse. This is usually done by reducing the pressure within a liquid so that it boils and then increasing it again so that the vapor condenses.

Stripper Economics

"How Strippers Get Paid". (Via Tyler Cowen.)

Weir On Musk

"The Martian's Andy Weir talks to Ars about the science of Musk's Mars vision". (Via H.R.)

World's Strongest Coffee

"The 'Strongest Coffee in the World' Has the Same Amount of Caffeine as 80 Regular Cups of Joe"

Auto-Tune Math

"The Mathematical Genius of Auto-Tune"

58 Waters

"A Guide to the 58 Crazy Different Terms for 'Water'"

Hawking And Space

Stephen Hawking: "I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go to space".

Krebs Attacked

"Digital attack on journalist raises specter of online censorship".

(Minor quibble: I would reserve the use of the term "censorship" for government actions to restrict speech, not criminals seeking to limit speech.)