Free Online Math Textbooks

Free online/downloadable math textbooks from the American Institute of Mathematics.

Ocean Photography Awards

"Winners of the Ocean Photography Awards for 2021"

Hsieh Forbes Column: How Defying One's Boss Led To A New Medical Discovery

My latest Forbes column is now out: "How Defying One's Boss Led To A New Medical Discovery" 

Sometimes innovation comes from unusual sources!

Cautionary Car Tale

"Driver Killed By His Own Car Door While Waiting In Line At Fast-Food Drive-Thru, Providing Cautionary Insights For AI Self-Driving Cars"

Insane CIA Kidnapping Plot

If this story is true, this is insane: "Kidnapping, assassination and a London shoot-out: Inside the CIA's secret war plans against WikiLeaks". (Via Z.W.)

Hamster Trader

"A hamster has been trading cryptocurrencies in a cage rigged to automatically buy and sell tokens since June - and it's currently outperforming the S&P 500"

B5 Reboot

"Warner Bros. has ordered a reboot of Babylon 5, produced and written by Straczynski as part of a deal between Warner Bros. TV and Straczynski’s Studio JMS. The series is not a continuation of the show, but a 'from the ground up' reboot of the cult classic 1993 series..."

TikTok Teen Effect

"A teenager on TikTok disrupted thousands of scientific studies with a single video"

Knee Surgery

Personal update: Left knee medial meniscal surgery, patient is doing well!

 

Daily Steps

"How Much Exercise Do We Need to Live Longer?"

Two studies suggest the sweet spot for longevity lies around 7,000 to 8,000 daily steps or about 30 to 45 minutes of exercise most days. 

Light Posting Notice

Admin note: Posting may be lighter than usual the rest of this week due to external obligations.

Perils Of Contingent Job Offers

"My Job Offer Was Rescinded -- After I'd Given Notice".

I'm not an expert on employment law. However, this article offers some useful tips to avoid being stuck in this position.

COVID Baby Bust

"The Pandemic Caused a Baby Bust, Not a Boom"

Download The Universe

"Now You Can Download the Entire Universe... All 3000 TB of It". (Via J.P.)

The Texas Switch

"The Texas Switch is a filmmaking technique in which an actor and stunt person are switched seamlessly during a single shot".

Surveillance Ruling

"Police violated Colorado Springs man's constitutional rights with 24/7 surveillance, court rules". (Via T.K.)

Tesla On Tribal Land

Most states do not allow car manufacturers to sell directly to consumers, but instead force them to user local dealers. Tesla has found away around the "dealer rule" in New Mexico, by opening a store on tribal land.

Taco Subscription

CNN: "Taco Bell wants to sell you a 30-day taco subscription".

Um, that's a big "no" for me. But points for trying a creative new business model.

Nikon Microphotography Contest Winners

"Nikon Small World microscopy contest 2021: A few of our favorite images". (Via H.R.)

Toilet Training Cows

Not-an-Onion story: Toilet-training cows to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

I foresee a future IgNobel Prize!

Woolly Mammoth Update

"Lab-grown woolly mammoths could walk the Earth in six years if geneticist’s new start-up succeeds".

I wonder if woolly mammoth meat tastes good.  

Roomba Poop-Detecting AI

"New Roomba promises 'poopocalypse' horror stories are a thing of the past: The Roomba j7+ has a front camera and poop-detecting artificial intelligence."

Apple Issues Emergency Security Patch for Mac OS and iOS

"Go Update Your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch Right Now"

2021 Ig Nobels

"Sex can relieve nasal congestion, and other work honored by 2021 Ig Nobels". (Via H.R.)

Update: Year was wrong in title, fixed now!

Longevity Update

"Meet Altos Labs, Silicon Valley's latest wild bet on living forever"

Scanwiches

Scanwiches: Cross sectional images of sandwiches.

My radiologist heart is beating just a little bit faster...

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Atom Limbs Mind-Controlled Prosthetics

"This startup is bringing the first mind-controlled prosthetic arm to market"

American Aerospace

"America's Aerospace Industry is Regenerating". (Via G.F.)

Lithium Mine Versus Wildflower

Nevada lithium deposit "could power millions of clean-energy car batteries. There's just one roadblock: a rare, fragile species of buckwheat, for which a mine might mean extinction."

Wave-Particle Duality Update

"Experimental Confirmation of the Fundamental Principle of Wave-Particle Duality"

Figure 1. Double-path single-photon interferometer with controllable source purity used in our ENBS model. Two SPDC crystals, PPLN1 and PPLN2, are pumped and seeded simultaneously by the same pump and seed coherent lasers, respectively, resulting in the emission of two signal photons s1 or s2 for quantum interference detection at PD. Then, conjugate idler photons i1 and i2 provide the which-path (or which-source) information, where the controllable source purity is determined by the overlap between the SPACS of one of the idler modes and the unchanged coherent state of another idler mode. Two idler fields can be detected independently by detectors DA and DB. Credit: Institute for Basic Science

 

Bad Science Due To Autocorrect

"Excel autocorrect errors still plague genetic research, raising concerns over scientific rigour". (Via N.L.)

Our research shows autocorrect errors, particularly in Excel spreadsheets, can also make a mess of gene names in genetic research. We surveyed more than 10,000 papers with Excel gene lists published between 2014 and 2020 and found more than 30% contained at least one gene name mangled by autocorrect...

Light Posting Notice

Admin note: Posting may be lighter than usual the next week due to external obligations.

Room-Temperature Superconductor

"Room-Temperature Superconductivity Achieved for the First Time".

However, it requires enormously high pressures.

Panic Sellers

"When Do Investors Freak Out?" (Via Tyler Cowen.)

We show that panic selling and freakouts are predictable and fundamentally different from other well-known behavioral patterns such as overtradingor the disposition effect. Investors who are male, or above the age of 45, or married, orhave more dependents, or who self-identify as having excellent investment experience orknowledge tend to freak out with greater frequency.

Book Index

"The radical power of the book index"