Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Elon Musk Flamethrowers

"Elon Musk is now selling flamethrowers -- and he sold $2 million worth of them in 24 hours"

Fast Construction

"1,500 Chinese construction workers built this train station in just nine hours."

Self-Parking Slippers

Self-parking slippers for Japanese guesthouse.

Monday, January 29, 2018

[Off Topic] Hsieh Forbes Column: You Might Not Like The President, But That Doesn't Mean He's Crazy

[Off Topic] My latest Forbes column is out: "You Might Not Like The President, But That Doesn't Mean He's Crazy".

I discuss the latest push by some psychiatrists to declare the President unfit to hold office on mental health grounds. And the response of the White House physician who examined the President, including a cognitive evaluation.

As Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, wrote in the New England Journal Of Medicine:
Psychiatry has made too many past missteps to engage in political partisanship disguised as patriotism — witness its collusion in Nazi eugenics policies, Soviet political repression, and involuntary confinement in mental hospitals of dissidents and religious groups in the People’s Republic of China. More than any other medical specialty, psychiatry is vulnerable to being exploited for partisan political purposes and for bypassing due process for establishing guilt, fault, and fact.

Bad Sneeze

Man tries to hold in a sneeze, and instead tears his throat and requires 7 days in the hospital.

Link includes some impressive x-ray and CT images.

Foldscope

"Foldscope is a real microscope that’s made of paper"

Friday, January 26, 2018

Thursday, January 25, 2018

From Telegraph To Internet

"In the 1960s, Telegraph Poles Were Equipped With Nuclear Bomb Alarms":
...And concerns about the robustness of military communications in a nuclear attack inspired RAND researcher Paul Baran to propose a network of distributed communication—an idea that evolved into the military’s revolutionary ARPANET and matured to become the internet.

Stone Age Facial Reconstruction

"Face of 9,000-Year-Old Teenager Reconstructed". (Via H.R.)

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Facial Recognition In Retail

"The List of Places That Scan Your Face Is Growing".

One interesting tidbit:
[H]alf of all American adults have their photos in the FBI’s facial recognition database, which the bureau has been using since 2011 to track and identify suspects. Yet, the software had a 15 percent rate of inaccuracy—higher than Facebook’s—and incorrectly identified black people more often than white people.

Color Perception

"The Reality of Color Is Perception: An argument for a new definition of color"

Monday, January 22, 2018

Light Posting

Admin note: Posting may be lighter than usual this week due to external obligations

Small Nuclear Reactors

"Nuclear reactors the size of wastebaskets could power our Martian settlements". (Via H.R.)

AGI Timeline Prediction

"Moore's Law and AGI Timelines"

Friday, January 19, 2018

Tiny Dishwasher

"The Dishwasher Gets A Redesign For Tiny Apartments"

Amazon HQ2 Finalists

"Amazon Whittles Down List of HQ2 Contenders to 20 Finalists".

Denver is one of the finalists.

ELT MIrror

"First Mirror Segment for Extremely Large Telescope Successfully Cast". (Via H.R.)

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Monday, January 15, 2018

Harry’s Razors Review

"Harry’s Razors review"

Toll-Free Numbers

"Why Do Toll-Free Numbers Start With 800?"

Pencil Factory

"Inside One of America’s Last Pencil Factories". (Via H.R.)

Friday, January 12, 2018

Remote Driving

"I Rode in a Car in Las Vegas. Its Driver Was in Silicon Valley"

Dolphin Intelligence

"Why dolphins are deep thinkers":
Kelly the dolphin has built up quite a reputation. All the dolphins at the institute are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. In this way, the dolphins help to keep their pools clean.

Kelly has taken this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on.

…Her cunning has not stopped there. One day, when a gull flew into her pool, she grabbed it, waited for the trainers and then gave it to them. It was a large bird and so the trainers gave her lots of fish. This seemed to give Kelly a new idea. The next time she was fed, instead of eating the last fish, she took it to the bottom of the pool and hid it under the rock where she had been hiding the paper. When no trainers were present, she brought the fish to the surface and used it to lure the gulls, which she would catch to get even more fish. After mastering this lucrative strategy, she taught her calf, who taught other calves, and so gull-baiting has become a hot game among the dolphins.
(Via A.B. and Marginal Revolution.)

Ikea Marketing First

"Ikea’s New Ad Is A Pregnancy Test You Pee On. Really." (Via J.A.)

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

New Rules For Border Inspection Of Electronic Devices

"New Rules Announced for Border Inspection of Electronic Devices":
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol announced new restrictions on when agents can copy data from digital devices at border crossing points.

Agents now need “reasonable suspicion” in advance of searches of phones, computers, tablets, cameras or any other digital device belonging to people entering or leaving the United States. Border agents will also be restricted from accessing data stored remotely in the cloud.

The new guidance published (PDF) on Friday update existing rules introduced in 2009 regarding “advanced” searches that can be conducted at random and without warrant.

Under the new rules, border agents would still be able to conduct “basic” searches “with or without suspicion,” which entails physical examination of digital devices, such as sorting through photos and examining messages. “Advanced” searches based on “reasonable suspicion” will still be permitted and agents can still review, copy, and analyze a digital device’s contents.

The directive states travelers may be asked to provide passcodes to unlock a device. If the border agent is unable to inspect the device because it is passcode or encryption-protected, the agent may detain the device for up to five days.

Crown Casting

Side-by-side photos of The Crown's cast with their real-life counterparts. Excellent casting!

Taiko Drummers

"The arcane world of Japan's taiko drummers"

Tuesday, January 09, 2018

Friday, January 05, 2018

Microchip Implants

"A practical guide to microchip implants". (Via H.R.)

Thursday, January 04, 2018