fMRI Errors?

"fMRI Signals Often Misread Neural Activity"

AI Fake KIdnapping Scams

FBI: "Criminals Using Altered Proof-of-Life Media to Extort Victims in Virtual Kidnapping for Ransom Scams"

Ice Tree

"Physicists 3D-printed a Christmas tree of ice". (Via H.R.)

Updated US Space Policy

New executive order issued by the White House on US space policy goals includes:

1) Return Americans to the Moon by 2028 

2) Begin working on permanent lunar outpost by 2030. 

3) Develop next-gen space-based missile defense prototype by 2028. 

4) Nuclear reactors in space and on the moon (lunar reactor ready to launch by 2030).

Faulty AI Detection Tools

"Teachers are using software to see if students used AI. What happens when it's wrong?"

Anti-VPN Proposals

"Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs -- And They Have No Idea What They're Doing". The faulty rationale is to "protect the children", as always.

Finding Good Books

How to find good books to read. (Via Marginal Revolution.)

Volcano And Plague

"A Volcanic Eruption in 1345 May Have Triggered a Chain of Events That Brought the Black Death to Europe"

Football Fan Lawsuit

"What happens when an NFL ball goes into the stands? In this case, a lawsuit"

NFL game balls going into the crowd aren’t as common as in baseball, where home run balls and foul balls regularly make their way into the stands. But still, it happens, whether on an errant throw or in celebration by a player. And, per the NFL, no policy requires a game ball to be returned.

If the NFL team and/or stadium personnel wrongly told the fan that he couldn't keep the ball (and instead roughed him up and threatened him with arrest), then they deserve to lose a big lawsuit 

Robotic Surgery Update

"Robot performs first realistic surgery without human help"

The gallbladder removal procedure is much more complex, a minutes-long string of 17 tasks. The robot had to identify certain ducts and arteries and grab them precisely, strategically place clips, and sever parts with scissors. 

SRT-H learned how to do the gallbladder work by watching videos of Johns Hopkins surgeons doing it on pig cadavers. The team reinforced the visual training with captions describing the tasks. After watching the videos, the robot performed the surgery with 100% accuracy.

(Note: The surgery was performed on a realistic model, not an actual human patient. 

Airplane Meals

"What In-Flight Meals Were Like 50 Years Ago"

Mastermind Cover

McSweeney's: "The Mastermind Box Cover: What the Hell Were They Thinking?"

3-D Printed Cello

"US student reinvents 300-year-old cello with 3D printing, lands deal on Shark Tank". (Via H.R.)

Apple iPhone Vs. Apple Stock

Garcia: Buying an early iPhone vs. buying Apple stock. 

Imagine buying the first generation iPhone 3G in 2008 for $599, keeping it sealed for 17 years, and finally selling for a whopping $24,000

A gain of 3,906%

You STILL would have outrperformed by simply buying $AAPL for $5.18/share

A gain of 5,258%—not including dividends!🔥 pic.twitter.com/ZxlrEYubZo

— Garcia (@GarciaCap) December 10, 2025

Checkbooks Obsolete?

"Checkbooks could go the way of the penny"

Car Trouble

"Hundreds of Porsches across Russia went dark due to factory security systems going offline, leading to speculation whether the failure was intentional."

Radiologist's AI Nightmares

"Why Everyone is Having the Wrong Nightmares About AI"

Local AI On Laptop

IEEE: "Your Laptop Isn't Ready for LLMs. That's About to Change"

Hurricanes And AI

"As the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season ends, the future of forecasting is AI"

Tokenization And Finance

"Larry Fink and Rob Goldstein on how tokenisation could transform finance". Non-paywall link.

Neurosurgeon On Benefits Of Self-Driving Cars

NYT: "The Data on Self-Driving Cars Is Clear. We Have to Change Course."

Fusaka Is Coming

"What Is the Fusaka Upgrade: Ethereum's Next Hard Fork"

Bifurcated Economy

Amit Kukreja: "We Are Living In A Bifurcated Economy".  

Key take-home point, especially if you think traditional wage labor won't last much longer in the coming AI-driven economy:

In the midst of all these concerns, the one core truth behind wealth is that it comes from owning, not consuming. 

The timing of that ownership may be different based on an individual investor’s preference on when to buy an asset or not, but if you don't own assets, you will get left behind. Quite frankly, after looking through all this data, it only further motivates me to get every single extra dollar I have invested. The people that have benefited over the past 5 years are those that owned assets. Even if they didn't own the best one or their timing was off, they benefited. The mentality of owning assets itself has likely led to more happiness and autonomy (along with stress) as those who participated in Google's success or Palantir's success have felt what it means to be along side a company on its journey.

Police Robodogs

"A $100,000 Robot Dog Is Becoming Standard in Policing -- and Raising Ethical Alarms". (Non-paywall link.)

Five years after its commercial debut, the 75-pound, German Shepherd-sized robot is increasingly being deployed by local law enforcement to handle armed standoffs, hostage rescues and hazardous materials incidents -- situations where sending in a human or a real dog could be life-threatening.

Hidden Figures In Swiss Maps

"For Decades, Cartographers Have Been Hiding Covert Illustrations Inside of Switzerland's Official Maps"

No cartographer has been fired over these drawings, but then again, most were only discovered once their author had already left. (Many mapmakers timed the publication of their drawing to coincide with their retirement.) Over half of the known illustrations have been removed.