Santa Shortage

Tight labor market for heavy-set older men, results in a "Santa Shortage".

Year Of Meals For $150

"Meet the Guy Who Spends Just $150 a Year to Eat All His Meals at Six Flags". (Via Gus Van Horn.)

Employee Monitoring

"Is your company secretly monitoring your work at home?"

Phishing Multi-Factor Authentication

"Why Is the Majority of Our MFA So Phishable?"

Light Posting

Admin note: Posting will be light or non-existent the rest of the week because of the US Thanksgiving holiday.

Bionic Hand Update

"Bionic Hand Gives Amputees Sense of Touch". (Via H.R.)

Plants Vs. Prey

"Time Lapse of Carnivorous Plants and Their Prey Preparing for Battle".

Also: "[N]ever fear, a tender disclaimer in the video’s description: 'All insects captured by the plants have been released.'"

New Mineral

"New Mineral Discovered in Deep-Earth Diamond":

A diamond that formed deep in the earth’s mantle contains a mineral never seen before in nature. The discovery is a rare glimpse into the deep mantle and may help reveal new information about the structure of the planet at depths of more than 660 kilometers...

The mineral, calcium silicate perovskite, only forms under the incredibly high pressures that occur deep in the earth...

 

Physics And Counterfeiting

"A physicist studied Ben Franklin's clever tricks to foil currency counterfeiters". (Via H.R.)

Chatting With Whales?

"Are We on the Verge of Chatting with Whales?"

More Metaverse

"Don't mock the metaverse"

Communicating Via Thoughts

"Brain Implant Translates Paralyzed Man's Thoughts Into Text With 94% Accuracy". (Via H.R.)

Drone Attack

Unsuccessful attempted assassination using explosive-laden drones.

Singularity And Metaverse

"Singularity Is Fast Approaching, and It Will Happen First in the Metaverse"

Controlling Super-Intelligent AIs

"Calculations Suggest It'll Be Impossible to Control a Super-Intelligent AI".

Not quite sure how much to be worried about this.

Link to original paper in Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research: "Superintelligence Cannot be Contained: Lessons from Computability Theory"

Alzheimer's Vaccine Update

I really hope this pans out: "Alzheimer's Disease Nasal Vaccine To Be Tested At Brigham And Women's Hospital". (Via R.T.)

Cold Case Bank Robbery Solved

"US bank robber identified after decades-long hunt":

According to the Marshal Service, Conrad had allegedly told friends of his plans to rob the bank and boasted about how easy it would be to do. He was reportedly obsessed with the 1968 Steve McQueen heist film, The Thomas Crown Affair, and watched it more than a dozen times during his preparation for the robbery. 

Crypto Tax Rules

"The infrastructure bill makes crypto tax-reporting failures a felony"

Teleportation

"Why Can't People Teleport?"

Linking Robots

"Ant-inspired quadruped robots link together to overcome obstacles"

Relativity And Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Nature: "Experimental relativistic zero-knowledge proofs". (Via G.F.)

In this work, we report the experimental realization of such a zero-knowledge protocol involving two separated verifier–prover pairs. Security is enforced via the physical principle of special relativity, and no computational assumption (such as the existence of one-way functions) is required. Our implementation exclusively relies on off-the-shelf equipment and works at both short (60 m) and long distances (≥400 m) in about one second. 

Kinetic Launch

"SpinLaunch's rocket-free kinetic launch system conducts first test flight". (Via A.A.)

Teapot Effect Solved

"Physicists say they've finally solved the teapot effect -- for real this time". (Via H.R.)

Legality Of Submerged Nation?

"Tuvalu looking at legal ways to be a state if it is submerged"

Culture Shock

America, as viewed by a newly-arrived Indian graduate student. Fascinating observations. Via A.A.

Mandatory Anti-Drunk Driving Tech

In the new "infrastructure bill" car manufacturers will be required to install technology in new vehicles to keep drunk people from driving. 

Also from the article: "The voluminous bill also requires automakers to install rear-seat reminders to alert parents if a child is left inadvertently in the back seat" and "automatic emergency braking and lane departure warnings in all passenger vehicles".

VPN Alternatives

NYT: "It's Time to Stop Paying for a VPN"

Smart Kid Uses Hand Signals As Distress Sign

"Missing N.C. teen found after using TikTok hand sign alerting she was in danger"

Battery Challenge

"Cars Are Going Electric. What Happens to the Used Batteries?"

Old Machine, New OS

"Flouting Microsoft's rules, man gets Windows 11 to work on a 15-year-old PC"

Robotic Laser Weedkiller

"Self-Driving Farm Robot Uses Lasers To Kill 100,000 Weeds An Hour, Saving Land And Farmers From Toxic Herbicides". (Via H.R.)

Space Toilet Leak

"Leaky SpaceX toilet problem will force astronauts to use backup 'undergarments'"

Petersen On Infrastructure

"Beyond the Meme: Ever Given, Supply Chains, and the Physical World". (Via G.F.)

James Bond Health Risks

Tongue-in-cheek analysis of James Bond's health risks including poor hand-washing skills and "above-average sexual activity".

Direct link: "No time to die: An in-depth analysis of James Bond's exposure to infectious agents", Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, Volume 44, November–December 2021.

Window Washing Robots

"Skyscraper Window Washing Robots Are Here to Take Over One of Our Most Terrifying Jobs". (Via H.R.)

Hoverbike Update

"Japan startup targets supercar users with $700,000 hoverbike"

 

Bombing A Volcano

"When the U.S. dropped bombs on a volcano to save a town"