Automation Update

"Lessons From a Slow-Motion Robot Takeover"

AI Medicine Update

"Google's new AI algorithm predicts heart disease by looking at your eyes"

Halmak Keyboard

Video: "Halmak, the AI designed keyboard layout"

Surveillance Update

"The Feds Can Now (Probably) Unlock Every iPhone Model In Existence"

Taxation Update

"Connecticut Hunting Down Online Shoppers Who Didn't Pay Sales Tax"

Robo-Texting

"Tired of texting? Google tests robot to chat with friends for you"

Math Of Turbulence

"What Makes the Hardest Equations in Physics So Difficult?":

Mathematicians classify partial differential equations like Navier-Stokes based on the extent to which they can go haywire at infinitesimally small scales. Navier-Stokes is on the extreme end of the spectrum. The difficulty of the mathematics of the equation is, in some sense, an exact reflection of the complexity of the turbulent flows they’re supposed to be able to describe.

Voting Machine Vulnerabilities

NYT: "The Myth of the Hacker-Proof Voting Machine"

GPS Art

"Pedaling pictures: The art and science of GPS doodling". (Via H.R.)

Hsieh Forbes Column: TV Medicine Vs. Reality

My latest Forbes column is now out: "How Badly Does Hollywood Distort Truth In Medical Dramas?"

I discuss some recent research on television representations of trauma and emergency medical care, and how differences between TV and reality can affect both patients and doctors.

I like a good medical drama as well as anyone, but sometimes the mistakes make me cringe.  Of course, anyone who has watched a medical TV drama with me and has had to "shush" me when I repeatedly complain about some Hollywood exaggeration already knows this.

(And don't even get me started about random x-rays being hung upside down or backwards on viewboxes in the background of an OR or ER scene.)

Marvel Movie Graph Updated

"The Marvel Movie Graph -- 5 Years Later"

Biohacker Regrets

"A Biohacker Regrets Publicly Injecting Himself With CRISPR"

What Color Is a Tennis Ball?

"What Color Is a Tennis Ball? An investigation into a surprisingly divisive question."

Brain Implant Update

NYT: "The First Step Toward a Personal Memory Maker?"

Home Bees

"Genius Company Installs Beehives In Your Living Room, And Here’s How It Works". (Via P.B.)

Conspiracy Theories

Tyler Cowen: "How to Test Your Favorite Conspiracy Theory"

Waterbed History

"The Weird True Story of the Rise and Fall of the Waterbed".

A housemate of mine in college had an awesome waterbed, and his was always the most popular room during parties.

Hollywood Vs. Reality In Medicine

Shocker: Hollywood portrayals of medicine sometimes diverge from the actual reality.

Academic article in the Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open journal compares medical outcomes in "Grey's Anatomy" to real life, "Grey’s Anatomy effect: television portrayal of patients with trauma may cultivate unrealistic patient and family expectations after injury".

Of course, anyone who watches a medical TV drama with me and has to "shush" me when I repeatedly complain about some Hollywood exaggeration already knows this.

(And don't even get me started about random x-rays being hung upside down or backwards on viewboxes in the background of an OR or ER scene.) 

Elevator Revolution

"Supertall Towers Are Driving an Elevator Revolution"

Butterfly Map

"New Comprehensive Map of How Butterflies Are Related to Each Other". (Via H.R.)

Lazy Dog

"Lazy Bulldog Enjoys A Half Body Massage From A Roomba"

Quantum Internet

Nature: "The quantum internet has arrived (and it hasn't)"

Unsolicited Amazon Toys

"Someone Is Sending Amazon Sex Toys to Strangers. Amazon Has No Idea How to Stop It."

New Form of Light

"Scientists Create a New Form of Light by Linking Photons"

Apple Success

"Apple now accounts for more revenue than the rest of the entire global smartphone industry combined"

Fecal Transplant Update

"Fecal transplants move into the mainstream to treat difficult infection"

Google Vs. Advertisers

"The world's biggest advertising company is about to embark on a new venture: blocking advertisements."

Hasselblad Factory Tour

"This is how the world's most covetable cameras get made". (Via H.R.)

Covert Cryptocurrency Miners

"More Than 4,000 Government Websites Infected With Covert Cryptocurrency Miner"

It's All In The Name

"Why Picky Eaters Are Partial to Calamari and Not Squid"

Air Gap Hacking

"Mind the Gap: This Researcher Steals Data With Noise, Light, and Magnets"

Guri and his fellow Ben-Gurion researchers have shown, for instance, that it's possible to trick a fully offline computer into leaking data to another nearby device via the noise its internal fan generates, by changing air temperatures in patterns that the receiving computer can detect with thermal sensors, or even by blinking out a stream of information from a computer hard drive LED to the camera on a quadcopter drone hovering outside a nearby window. In new research published today, the Ben-Gurion team has even shown that they can pull data off a computer protected by not only an air gap, but also a Faraday cage designed to block all radio signals.

Selling Snowballs In MN

"A Snowball Vending Machine In Minnesota"

New LL Bean Return Policy

"A Fond Farewell to LL Bean's No-Questions-Asked Return Policy"

Thin Materials

"Scientists identify hundreds of atomically thin materials". (Via H.R.)

New Language

"A previously unknown language has been found in the Malay Peninsula by linguists from Lund University in Sweden."

The language is an Aslian variety within the Austroasiatic language family and is spoken by 280 people who are settled hunter-gatherers in northern Peninsular Malaysia.

Chinese Police Tech

"Chinese police are wearing sunglasses that can recognize faces".

For better or worse, I imagine US law enforcement won't be far behind. The police won't have to ask for "your papers, please".

Fake Movie Computers

"How the Fake but Really Cool Computers in Movies Get Made"

Communicating Danger Over Time

"Beyond Biohazard: Why danger symbols can't last forever"

Super-Strong Wood

"Stronger Than Steel, Able to Stop a Speeding Bullet -- It's Super Wood!"

Evolution Of Dice

"How dice changed over 2,000 years to be more fair"

Too-Smart Home

"The House That Spied on Me"

Paper Jams

"Why Paper Jams Persist"

Genetic Testing Update

"Using just a swab of saliva from a newborn's cheek, a new DNA test will probe a baby's genes to search for 193 genetic diseases -- all of which have some kind of treatment already available."

Crayfish Clones

"A Pet Crayfish Can Clone Itself, and It's Spreading Around the World"

Antarctic Optical Effects

"How the Antarctic Sun Creates Breathtaking Optical Effects"

Intel Vaunt

"Intel made smart glasses that look normal"

Ignition! Book

"The funniest, most accessible book on rocket science is being reissued". (Via H.R.)

FFT Explained

Video: "But what is the Fourier Transform? A visual introduction". (Via G.F.)

Extreme Breath-Holding

"Pushing the Limits of Extreme Breath-Holding"

History Of Hashing

"Hans Peter Luhn and the Birth of the Hashing Algorithm". (Via H.R.)

Self-Checkout Thievery

"The Banana Trick and Other Acts of Self-Checkout Thievery"

Nuclear Reactor Update

"NuScale factory built modular 50 megawatt nuclear reactors have funding, customers and some NRC approval". (Via H.R.)

Strange Roadside Attractions

"Strangest Roadside Attraction in Every State". (Via H.R. and Gus Van Horn.)

Ebay Changes

"EBay is ditching PayPal for a younger, European partner"

Speeding Study

NYT: "We found a large increase in the average speed of drivers who received speeding tickets on the weekends after Fast and Furious releases. "

Space Archaeology

"Is space the next frontier for archaeology?" (Via H.R.)

DNA Sequencing Update

"Pocket-sized DNA reader used to scan entire human genome sequence"

Superconducting Synapse

"Superconducting Synapse Brings Us A Step Closer To An Artificial Brain"

Feynman Technique To Learn Anything

"The Feynman Technique: The Best Way to Learn Anything"

Voynich Progress

"Artificial Intelligence May Have Cracked Freaky 600-Year-Old Manuscript"