[Off Topic] Hsieh Forbes Column: No, The Government Should Not Provide Health Insurance For All Americans

[Off topic] My last Forbes piece for 2016 came out yesterday, "No, The Government Should Not Provide Health Insurance For All Americans".

I discuss a proposal from conservative health policy analyst James Capretta in which he argues, "The GOP Should Provide Health Insurance for All Americans". And I propose some alternative free-market approaches that we can start implementing in 2017.

Holiday Hiatus

Admin note: Again, GeekPress will take a holiday hiatus until after the New Year. See you all in 2017!

Furiosa’s Cat Feeder

Human barely outwits cat: "Furiosa's Cat Feeder"

AirPod Review

Ars Techncia Review: "The AirPods are fine wireless headphones for a certain type of person". (Via H.R.)

'Toilet Paper' For Smartphones

Not-an-Onion headline: "Swipe right? 'Toilet paper' for smartphones trialled in Japanese airport bathrooms"

Ransomware Twist

"Ransomware Gives Free Decryption Keys to Victims Who Infect Others".  This is both brilliant and evil:

Infected victims of the ransomware known as Popcorn Time, have the option to either pay up, or they can opt to infect two others using a referral link. If the two new ransomware targets pay the ransom, the original target receives a free key to unlock files on their PC...

(Via S.L. and A.B.)

Legal Perils Of Pointing A Laser At A Helicopter

Ars Technica: "A three-second laser strike cost Barry Bowser everything"

Following A Stolen Phone

"Dutch Filmmaker Intentionally Lets His Phone Get Stolen In Order to Follow Its Path Through Spyware".

Here's the video (21 minutes):

Greatest Spirographs

"Behold the greatest spirographs in the world". (Via H.R.)

One nice example:

French Mail Drones

"France is going to let drones start delivering the mail". (Via MR.)

SC Porn Law

South Carolina is considering a bill to require all computers sold in the state to come with porn filters. Users could pay a $20 fee to disable the filter.

Holiday Hiatus

Admin note: GeekPress will take a break until December 27, 2016. Merry Christmas!

Letters To Santa

"23 Funny Historical Letters to Santa"

2016 Media Corrections

"Best of media corrections, 2016 edition".

Two of my favorites are both from the New York Times:

NYT, 5/10/2016: "Because of an editing error, an article on Monday about a theological battle being fought by Muslim imams and scholars in the West against the Islamic State misstated the Snapchat handle used by Suhaib Webb, one of Muslim leaders speaking out. It is imamsuhaibwebb, not Pimpin4Paradise786."

NYT, 4/10/2016:  "An article on March 20 about wave piloting in the Marshall Islands misstated the number of possible paths that could be navigated without instruments among the 34 islands and atolls of the Marshall Islands. It is 561, not a trillion trillion."

Fake Movie Snow

"How Early Filmmakers Faked Snow"

Morgan Freeman AI Voice

"Morgan Freeman Will Be The Voice Of Jarvis, Mark Zuckerberg's Home AI Assistant"

Digital Headlights

"Mercedes' next headlights will behave like projectors". (Via H.R.)

Ikea On Acid

"People Try To Build IKEA Furniture While On Acid"

When Do You Outgrow IKEA?

"When Do You Outgrow IKEA?".

Short answer: Age 34.

OLED Update

"Deep blacks, bright future -- where OLED screens go from here". (Via H.R.)

Cats Stealing Money

Video: "Sneaky Cats Stealing Money Compilation"

Make your own Enigma Replica

"Make your own Enigma Replica"

CIA Maps

The CIA is making decades of once-secret maps now freely available online.

Inside The Maple Syrup Heist

"Inside Quebec's Great, Multi-million-dollar Maple Syrup Heist". (Via Marginal Revolution.)

Predictions That Came True

"The Most Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2016". (Via H.R.)

Garlic And Feet

"You can taste garlic with your feet"

Darth Vader Yule Log

Brilliant: "Your goofy 'Five Hours of Yule Log DVD' has been swapped with five hours of Darth Vader burning in a funeral pyre."

Ho ho ho.

Visualizing Riemann Zeta Function

Video: "Visualizing the Riemann zeta function and analytic continuation"

Skype Real-Time Translator

"Skype's real-time language translator: Can it really connect the world?"

SMBC: The Talk

SMBC: "The Talk"

Humans And Cats

"Humans and Cats Have a Strange, Complicated History"

Fake Meat Update

"The Revolution Has Begun: Beyond Meat".

I still enjoy meat, but vegetarian friends might find this interesting.

Economics Of Kidnapping

"Kidnapping for ransom works like a market. How it is organized is surprising." (Via Tyler Cowen.)

Emoji Translator Job

"A company in London has advertised for an emoji translator in what is thought to be the first such job worldwide":

The role will involve explaining cross-cultural misunderstandings in the use of the mini pictures, and compiling a monthly trends report. Agency boss Jurga Zilinskiene said emojis were a "potential growth area" as "inconsistencies" had developed in their use.

 One example of a potential misunderstanding included:

Waving hand - You might think this emoji is waving hello or goodbye. Well in China, it has a very specific meaning, along the lines of "bye, you're not my friend any more". Like a middle finger in Europe.

North America’s Lost Medieval City

"Cahokia was North America's biggest city -- then it was completely abandoned". (Via H.R.)

How Casinos Enable Gambling Addicts

"How Casinos Enable Gambling Addicts"

The Japanese Museum of Rocks That Look Like Faces

"The Japanese Museum of Rocks That Look Like Faces".

Here's their "Elvis Presley" rock:

New Pictures of Saturn

"Check Out New Pictures of Saturn From Cassini’s Latest Orbit"

Space Tether

"Japan Testing 'Space Tether' to Knock Junk Out of Orbit"

Austria’s Word of the Year

"Austria's Word of the Year Has 52 Letters":

Bundespraesidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung. To an English speaker, it may seem like a meaningless, even endless assortment of letters, but it turns out that it’s an award-winning German word. As the Associated Press reports, a survey of 10,000 Austrians has chosen the lengthy noun as its word of the year.

Roughly translated, the word means “postponement of the repeat runoff of the presidential election.” The super-long word was coined this year in response to a similarly drawn-out presidential election in Austria.

Fake News And The Law

Eugene Volokh: "Fake news and the law, from 1798 to now"

Evolution In Action

"A giant Petri dish chock-full of superbugs shows evolution as it happens"

Caesareans And Evolution

BBC: "Caesarean births 'affecting human evolution'"

Sex Vs. Cybersecurity

"Although the question of whether you would give up sex for a year in return for total cybersecurity seems like an odd question, it is one that was posed to 2,000 adults in a poll recently taken by Harris. The response to the question was startling. According to the poll, 39% of Americans are so fearful of their cybersecurity that they said yes."

The 2016 Hater’s Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog

A Holiday Tradition!: "The 2016 Hater’s Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog"

The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think

Jakob Nielsen: "Across 33 rich countries, only 5% of the population has high computer-related abilities, and only a third of people can complete medium-complexity tasks."

Radiation Protection

"Scientists Figured Out How Tardigrades Became Immune to Radiation". (Via H.R.)

Sagan Explains Fourth Dimension

A video classic: "Carl Sagan explains the fourth dimension"

False Positive Breathalyzer

"Hand Sanitizer Can Cause a False Positive Breathalyzer Test".

I foresee a gold mine for defense lawyers arguing against DUI charges...

Remote Justice

"BMW Remotely Locks Stolen Car With Alleged Thief Still Inside"

Reconstructing Destroyed Map

"Watch a Destroyed 17th Century Map Get Painstakingly Restored". (Via H.R.)

Life As A Bee

"You're a Bee. This Is What It Feels Like."

Tesla Gun

"This Handmade Tesla Gun Is Shockingly Cool". (Via H.R.)

Finding Tech Props

"How Hollywood Gets Its Old-School Tech". (Via H.R.)

Fahrenheit >> Celsius

"In Defense of Fahrenheit: A lot of scientific thought went into developing the United States' stubbornly-held temperature system"

AI Medicine Update

 "Google is using its deep learning tech to diagnose disease":

If you give a computer enough photos and the right algorithm, it can learn to see. And if the photos show damaged eyes, the computer can learn to diagnose eye disease even better than humans can.

Here's the JAMA article: "Development and Validation of a Deep Learning Algorithm for Detection of Diabetic Retinopathy in Retinal Fundus Photographs".

A lot of what human physicians do now will likely be performed by machines in the future. In particular, pattern-recognition diagnoses will be ripe for machine learning. As a radiologist, I don't expect my job will exist in its current form in 20 years. (Maybe not in 10!)

What Happened To The Only Person Ever Hit By A Meteorite

"For the Only Person Ever Hit by a Meteorite, the Real Trouble Began Later".

Update: Link was broken earlier; now fixed!

Short Hiatus

Admin note: Due to external obligations, I will take a short hiatus for the rest of the week.

Allied Accuracy

"How Accurate Is the Movie 'Allied'?"

Short answer: It's fiction.