When Kids Trade Halloween Candy

Classic column by Jeffrey Tucker: "Halloween and Its Candy Economy"

Radiation Detecting Chip

"World's first nuclear radiation-detecting chip can fit on phones and drones". (Via H.R.)

Inaccurate Medical AI Transcription

"Researchers say an AI-powered transcription tool used in hospitals invents things no one ever said"

But Whisper has a major flaw: It is prone to making up chunks of text or even entire sentences, according to interviews with more than a dozen software engineers, developers and academic researchers. Those experts said some of the invented text — known in the industry as hallucinations — can include racial commentary, violent rhetoric and even imagined medical treatments.

Malpractice lawyers will have a field day with this.

AI And Blue-Collar Jobs

"Think Blue-Collar Jobs Are Safe from AI? Think Again: Automation Is Here Now"

New Proofs

"2 US teens solve impossible 2,000-year-old Pythagorean Theorem with trigonometry". (Via H.R.)

Infinite Money Glitch

"JPMorgan begins suing customers who allegedly stole thousands of dollars in 'infinite money glitch'" 

JPMorgan Chase has begun suing customers who allegedly stole thousands of dollars from ATMs by taking advantage of a technical glitch that allowed them to withdraw funds before a check bounced...

The infinite money glitch episode highlights the risk that social media can amplify vulnerabilities discovered at a financial institution. Videos began circulating in late August showing people celebrating the withdrawal of wads of cash from Chase ATMs shortly after bad checks were deposited.

European Luxury Trains

"Inside the most luxurious train lines in Europe"

More Markets

"U.S. stocks could soon trade for almost 24 hours a day"

Manufacturing An Airbus A350

"Giant Aircraft: Manufacturing an Airbus A350". (Via H.R.)

Conflict In Literature

"Conflict in Literature (Or: How I Became a Meme)"

I like the original cartoon. But I think the spinoffs are pretty good, including the Daffy Duck version!

AI Blamed For Teen Suicide

NYT: "Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide?"

Wikipedia Vs. AI

"The Editors Protecting Wikipedia from AI Hoaxes"

The Move

Short film: "The Move". Includes cool science-fiction plot elements! 

(Length 9 minutes 6 seconds)

Color Kindle

"Amazon finally has a color Kindle, and it looks pretty good"

A Syllabus For Generalists

"A Syllabus for Generalists"

Investing Knowing The Future Headlines

WSJ: "Would a Time Machine Make You a Great Investor?  According to some experiments, the answer is "no":

The latest is the “Crystal Ball Trading Game.” Players are given $1 million in play money and are shown 15 Journal front pages following big economic news randomly selected over the past 15 years. With up to 50 times leverage, multiplying that pot of money sounds like shooting fish in a barrel. Yet it wasn’t, and many players instead shot themselves in the foot. Through Thursday, more than 8,000 mostly financially savvy players had taken a crack at the game. Their median ending wealth after 15 rounds was just $687,986 according to data provided by Elm. Many lost everything.

Here is a non-paywall link.

Stealth Fighter Blunder

"Warplanes: Billion Dollar Stealth Fighter Blunder"

Wimbledon Robot Judges

"Wimbledon: All England club to replace all 300 line judges after 147 years with electronic system next year"

Apple Password Formats

"Apple Passwords' Generated Strong Password Format"

Your Resume On A Pizza Box

"Pizza Hut Will Deliver Your Resume Printed on a Pizza Box to Prospective Employers"

Waffle House Storm Center

"Waffle House has its own hurricane index and storm center". (From last week.)

The chain also developed the Waffle House Storm Index, which was started after former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said, “If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? That's really bad. That's where you go to work.”

Waffle House has labeled Milton, a Category 4 storm, as a "Code Red," which means the company has closed its locations in the path of the storm. A "Yellow" rating means that the location will have a limited menu and that the area might not have power. A "Green" index means the store is operating as normal.

Flawed LLM "Reasoning"

"Apple study exposes deep cracks in LLMs' 'reasoning' capabilities". (Via H.R.)

AI Stand-In For Congressman

"Congressman Refuses to Debate, so His Opponent Is Using an AI Stand-In"

Moon Photo

"An Enormous Photo of the Moon Zooms in on the Cratered Lunar Topography in Incredible Detail"

Treating Autoimmune Disease

"World-first therapy using donor cells sends autoimmune diseases into remission"

Musk Promises

Ars Technica: "Elon Musk makes bold claims about Tesla robotaxi in Hollywood backlot"

COVID Risks

CNN: "Covid-19 may increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths for three years after an infection, study suggests"

Idiot's Apostrophe

"Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets official approval". (Via A.D.)

Not Dyson Spheres

"Those Aren't Dyson Spheres, They're HotDOGs". (Via W.R.)

More Military AI

"US military to deploy 500 AI-guided UAV jets that rapidly hunt drones and return home"

Forming Water

"For the first time ever, researchers have witnessed -- in real time and at the molecular-scale -- hydrogen and oxygen atoms merge to form tiny, nano-sized bubbles of water."

2024 Physics Nobel

"Nobel physics prize 2024 won by AI pioneers John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton"

Calling Costs

Tim Urban: "Little graph to remind you how unbelievable it is that you can instantly contact someone anywhere on the planet for free"

Little graph to remind you how unbelievable it is that you can instantly contact someone anywhere on the planet for free

[graph from The Rise and Fall of American Growth] pic.twitter.com/yvCsUVFavP

— Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy) October 7, 2024

Cleveland Clinic And AI

"How Cleveland Clinic Is Innovating In Healthcare With Data, Analytics, And AI"

Crystal Palace

"How London's Crystal Palace was built so quickly". (Via H.R.)

Flag Comparison

Flag comparison.

AI Beats CAPTCHAs

"AI bots now beat 100% of those traffic-image CAPTCHAs". (Via H.R.)

Cassette Comeback

"As Cassettes Come Back, the Dilemma Is Finding a Tape Deck"

Fruit Fly Brain Map

"Why a map of a fruit fly's brain has neuroscientists 'blown away'"

A Vascular Radiology Innovation Told From Within

Video: "The Ellipsys Story w/ Dr. Jeff Hull"

Hsieh Forbes Column: "Why You Shouldn’t Bring A Police Rifle Into An MRI Machine"

My latest Forbes column is out: "Why You Shouldn't Bring A Police Rifle Into An MRI Machine"

Telescope For Space-Time

"Meet LISA: The $1.6 Billion Space Telescope That Will Redefine Astronomy". (Via H.R.)