Age Bug

"Airline keeps mistaking 101-year-old woman for baby"

Inside The Publishing Industry

Elle Griffin: "No one buys books"

Phone Search Privacy

"You actually shouldn't use your face or thumb to unlock your phone. Here's why"

Anti-Aging Update

BBC: "Anti-ageing pills are real, and some of us are taking them without knowing it"

Can I Lick It?

"Can I Lick It?"

 

Tough Reservations

"Why You Can't Get a Restaurant Reservation"

Flame-Throwing Robot Dog

"You can now buy a flame-throwing robot dog for under $10,000"

If you've been wondering when you'll be able to order the flame-throwing robot that Ohio-based Throwflame first announced last summer, that day has finally arrived. The Thermonator, what Throwflame bills as "the first-ever flamethrower-wielding robot dog" is now available for purchase. The price? $9,420.

Young Chess Challenger

"Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju becomes youngest challenger for world chess title"

AI Dogfight

"US Air Force confirms first successful AI dogfight"

Voyager Update

"Voyager 1 is sending data back to Earth for the first time in 5 months"

Scam E-Books

"Amazon is filled with garbage ebooks. Here's how they get made."

Reflections On The Past Boom

I think the coming AI boom will benefit many people and will also many people very wealthy.

Q: What's the best strategy to take advantage of this? Carefully chosen individual stocks? Broad based tech funds? Other?

And some perspective from the prior boom, "If You Invested $1000 In Apple When Macintosh Was Introduced 40 Years Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Today"

Technological Resistance Is As Old As Technology

"How Isaac Asimov Predicted the OpenAI Drama"

I discovered, to my amazement, that all through history there had been resistance... and bitter, exaggerated, last-stitch resistance... to every significant technological change that had taken place on earth.

Some things never change.

No AI Bubble

"The AI craze is no dot-com bubble. Here's why"

Planet Nine Update

"Where Is Planet Nine? Its Hiding Places Are Running Out"

Paint Drying

Great Wikipedia article on the independent film, "Paint Drying".

 

MRI Headphones

"How do MRI Headphones work?" (Via Gus Van Horn.)

Too Many Authors

Jordan Smoller: "Letter to Science 1958 arguing that this trend of having 3 or more authors on a paper is ridiculous"

Letter to Science 1958 arguing that this trend of having 3 or more authors on a paper is ridiculous pic.twitter.com/d4rLSlMm7G

— Jordan Smoller (@jorsmo) April 13, 2024

26-Year Old Identifies 12 New Dinosaurs

"Young researcher leads identification of new sauropod dinosaurs in outback Queensland"

Artificial Vision Update

"The Next Frontier for Brain Implants Is Artificial Vision"

Clever Gold Smuggling Tactic

"$10 Million In Gold Disguised As Machine Parts Seized From Cargo Plane"

On March 27, [Hong Kong] customs officials x-rayed two air compressors and discovered that they contained gold that had been "concealed in the integral parts" of the compressors. Those gold parts had also been painted silver to match the other components in an attempt to throw customs off the trail.  

Acting Senior Superintendent Jason Lau Yuk-lung told the South China Morning Post that this was the first time customs officials had ever discovered gold disguised in this way. Authorities reportedly believe the smuggler went to the lengths he did in an effort to avoid Japan’s 10-percent import tariff. "Smugglers could have evaded about HK$8.4 million ($1 million) in taxes if the precious metal was successfully smuggled into the country," Lau told the SCMP.

 

Moral Panic On Beepers

"The Forgotten War on Beepers"

Academic Editor Resigning

"Journal editors are resigning en masse: What do these group exits achieve?"

Starlink For Space

"Starlink to provide high-speed internet to world's first private space station". (Via H.R.)

New AirPods

"New Apple AirPods are coming. Here's everything we know"

Electronic Traction Control

"A frozen lake and several Lamborghinis provide lessons on traction control". (Via H.R.)

Best Muppet Guest

A great bit of Muppets history. Would love to know what she said to him!

 

Updated Scrabble

"Mattel launches new, less 'intimidating' version of Scrabble"

"The game speaks to a trend in younger people who want to avoid competitive games, instead favouring teamwork and collaboration working towards a fun goal together," Brett Smitheram, the current UK number one Scrabble player and 2016 World Scrabble Champion, said in the statement. 

A Long Awaited (Eclipse) Party

"A teacher promised his 1978 class an eclipse party. He just hosted it."

RIP Peter Higgs

"Peter Higgs, physicist who proposed Higgs boson, dies aged 94"

Prof Fabiola Gianotti, the director general at Cern and former leader of the Atlas experiment, which helped discover the Higgs particle in 2012, said: "Besides his outstanding contributions to particle physics, Peter was a very special person, a man of rare modesty, a great teacher and someone who explained physics in a very simple and profound way.

"An important piece of Cern’s history and accomplishments is linked to him. I am very saddened, and I will miss him sorely."

 

Bare Bones iPhone

"How to turn your iPhone into a bare-bones device"

Elephants To Germany

BBC: "Botswana threatens to send 20,000 elephants to Germany"

xz Utils Backdoor Explained

Ars Technica: "What we know about the xz Utils backdoor that almost infected the world"

Total Eclipse of the Heart Literal Video Version

"Total Eclipse of the Heart Literal Video Version"

Periodic Table Regions

xkcd: "Periodic Table Regions".

An an explanation of each region.

 

Faster Internet

"Scientists somehow made the internet go 4.5 million times faster"

Software And First Amendment Update

Eugene Volokh: "Conviction for Writing Software for ISIS Upheld"

Eclipse Viewing Safety Tips

NYT: "Eclipses Injured Their Eyes, and the World Never Looked the Same"

Astronaut Escape Slides

"SpaceX's workhorse launch pad now has the accoutrements for astronauts". (Via H.R.)

Secret Houses

"Ex-Caltrain employee, contractor charged with building secret homes at train stations".

As Jason Crawford says, "My main takeaway here is that you can build a home in CA for $42k as long as no one is watching."

Hsieh Forbes Column On AI And Medical Malpractice

My latest Forbes column is out: "Who Pays The Bill When Medical Artificial Intelligence Harms Patients?"

Bad NYC AI

"New York City's AI chatbot is telling people to break laws and do crimes"

Weird Caves

"Earth's 8 Weirdest Cave Systems". (Via H.R.)

Invisibility Shield Update

"Personal 'invisibility shield' goes on sale, starting under $70"