Vanilla Vs. Silver

"Vanilla is worth more than silver"

Male Contraceptive Update

Male contraceptive update.

How Tolkien Created Middle-earth

"How Tolkien created Middle-earth"

More Private Spaceflight

"With a simple and cheap rocket, Virgin Orbit aims for the extraordinary". (Via H.R.)

Future Avis

"As Rental Cars Fade Away, Avis Will Try Anything to Survive"

Sterile Neutrino?

"Evidence Found for a New Fundamental Particle":

The MiniBooNE experiment has detected far more neutrinos of a particular type than expected, a finding that is most easily explained by the existence of a new elementary particle: a “sterile” neutrino that’s even stranger and more reclusive than the three known neutrino types. The result appears to confirm the anomalous results of a decades-old experiment that MiniBooNE was built specifically to double-check.

What Is Li-Fi?

"What Is Li-Fi? The New Alternative To Wi-Fi"

Secret Government Phone Tracker

"How a Hacker Proved Cops Used a Secret Government Phone Tracker to Find Him, And how it might change what cops can do with our smartphones"

Regenerating Dental Enamel

"New material regenerates dental enamel". (Via H.R.)

Coldest Place

"NASA's Atomic Fridge Will Make the ISS the Coldest Known Place in the Universe"

Longer Nanotubules

"Forget carbon fiber -- we can now make carbon nanotube fibers". (Via H.R.)

Light Posting Notice

Admin note: Posting may be lighter than usual for the next 2 weeks due to external oblgations.

Choking Treatment

"What to do if you find yourself choking -- and no one's around"

[Off Topic] Hsieh Forbes Column: "Pelvic Exams On Anesthetized Women Without Consent: A Troubling And Outdated Practice"

[Off topic] My latest Forbes column is now out -- "Pelvic Exams On Anesthetized Women Without Consent: A Troubling And Outdated Practice".

Many doctors think this is "no big deal" and "good for society", whereas many patients consider this a violation.

Ultimately, the patients' wishes should prevail.

PGP Vulnerability

"People Are Freaking Out That PGP Is 'Broken' -- But You Shouldn’t Be Using It Anyway"

Mars Helicopter

"NASA is Sending a Helicopter to Mars on Next Red Planet Rover Mission". (Via H.R.)

RoboFly

"The world's lightest wireless flying machine lifts off"

Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

"Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning"

Tour of an SR-71

Tour of an SR-71. (Via H.R.)

Road To Rome

"An Interactive Map Shows Just How Many Roads Actually Lead to Rome"

The Long Way Round

"The Long Way Round: The Plane that Accidentally Circumnavigated the World". (Via H.R.)

IEEE Medal of Honor

"'Father of GPS' awarded IEEE Medal of Honor"

Alchemist's Guide to Alcoholic Beverages

"Alchemist's Guide to Alcoholic Beverages". (Via H.R.)

Searching Devices At Borders

"Fourth Circuit Rules That Suspicionless Forensic Searches of Electronic Devices at the Border Are Unconstitutional"

Police Cams And Facial Recognition

"Facial recognition may be coming to a police body camera near you":

Axon, the maker of Taser electroshock weapons and the wearable body cameras now used by most major American city police departments, has voiced interest in pursuing face recognition for its body-worn cameras. The technology could allow officers to scan and recognize the faces of potentially everyone they see while on patrol. A growing number of surveillance firms and tech start-ups are racing to integrate face recognition and other AI capabilities into real-time video.

The board’s first meeting will likely presage an imminent showdown over the rapidly developing technology. Shortly after the board was announced, a group of 42 civil rights, technology and privacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP, sent members a letter voicing “serious concerns with the current direction of Axon’s product development.”

Old School Navigation

"Figure Out Where You Are With Nothing But a Watch and Protractor":

In a recent episode of MacGyver, Angus (yes, that's his first name) finds his location in the desert using only a string, a protractor, and a watch. Is this actually possible? Basically, yes...

Hacking Hotel Locks

"Two hackers have found how to break into hotel-room locks"

Worsening Robocalls

NYT: "Yes, It’s Bad. Robocalls, and Their Scams, Are Surging."

Art Forensics

"Digital Forensics Reconstructs Seven Lost Masterpieces"

The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant

CGP Grey: "The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant"

No Secret Tut Chambers

"Sorry, There Are No Secret Chambers in King Tut’s Tomb":

After two contradictory radar scans, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities commissioned a third comprehensive survey that revealed no voids beyond the tomb walls.

Amazon Reviews From Scientists

"'Fits neatly inside a lizard's cloaca': Scientists are leaving Amazon reviews, and it's amazing". (Via H.R.)

Drones Vs. FBI

"A Criminal Gang Used a Drone Swarm To Obstruct an FBI Hostage Raid"

Turing Desalination

"Alan Turing's chemistry hypothesis turned into a desalination filter". (Via M.O.)

Fission Space Power

NASA: "Demonstration Proves Nuclear Fission System Can Provide Space Exploration Power"

More Lottery Hacking

NYT: "The Man Who Cracked the Lottery"

Communicating Bacteria

"Study reveals how bacteria communicate in groups to avoid antibiotics"

iPhone Sales

"Why everyone was so wrong about iPhone X sales".

Right Arrow

Optical illusion of the day: "Right pointing arrow". (Via H.R.)

Right Pointing Arrow: spin this arrow 180 degrees and it still points to the right- only in a mirror will it point left (and only to the left). Another incredible ambiguous object illusion by mathematician Kokichi Sugihara of Meiji University in Japan, the inventor of this illusion and art form. A clever combination of reflection, perspective, and viewing angle produce this striking illusion. ➡️ Follow the link in my profile for info about where to get this illusion arrow and other amazing items featured here on @physicsfun #illusion #ambiguouscylinderillusion #ambiguouscylinder #geometry #mirrorreflection #physics #ambiguousobject #kokichisugihara #physicstoy #math #mathtoy #mathstoy #optics #opticalillusion #3dprinting #perspective #science #scienceisawesome

A post shared by physicsfun (@physicsfun) on Apr 30, 2018 at 8:43am PDT

Boarding Pass Data

"The not-so-secret life of boarding passes"

The Last Man Who Knew Everything

"The last man who knew everything".

Poetry and Math

"How Poetry and Math Intersect"

Fermi Paradox Explained

 "Why We Haven’t Met Any Aliens":

I suggest a different, even darker solution to the Paradox. Basically, I think the aliens don’t blow themselves up; they just get addicted to computer games. They forget to send radio signals or colonize space because they’re too busy with runaway consumerism and virtual-reality narcissism. They don’t need Sentinels to enslave them in a Matrix; they do it to themselves, just as we are doing today. Once they turn inwards to chase their shiny pennies of pleasure, they lose the cosmic plot. They become like a self-stimulating rat, pressing a bar to deliver electricity to its brain’s ventral tegmental area, which stimulates its nucleus accumbens to release dopamine, which feels…ever so good.

[Off Topic] Hsieh Forbes Column: That Time The CDC Asked About Defensive Gun Uses

[Off topic] My latest Forbes piece is now out: "That Time The CDC Asked About Defensive Gun Uses".

I discuss some recent work by criminologist Gary Kleck on unpublished CDC data on defensive gun use, and how that may support the case of gun rights advocates.

Some of the statistical evidence is still in question, however, and Kleck has withdrawn the original version of his paper pending further analysis.

Ultimately, individual rights are not validated (or refuted) by statistics. But real-world evidence can help affirm the underlying principles.

For more details, see the full text of "That Time The CDC Asked About Defensive Gun Uses".

Related articles:

"Any Study Of ‘Gun Violence’ Should Include How Guns Save Lives" (Paul Hsieh, 3/20/2018)
"Criminologist Gary Kleck on Guns, Crime, and Their Study" (Ari Armstrong, 11/7/2015)

Wrong Kind Of Self-Driving Car

"A man in England was caught driving his Tesla on Autopilot... from the passenger seat."

Fancy Ice Cubes

NYT: "She Makes Fancy Ice Cubes for a Living". (Via Tyler Cowen.)

New Gender Rules For Sports

"Track’s New Gender Rules Could Exclude Some Female Athletes":

In an effort to address questions about fair play, track and field’s world governing body will publish regulations on Thursday that could force some elite female athletes with naturally elevated testosterone levels to lower the hormone with medication, compete against men in certain Olympic events or effectively give up their international careers.

No Analogue Clocks

Telegraph: "Schools are removing analogue clocks from exam halls as teenagers 'cannot tell the time'".

Dark Chocolate Update

USA Today: "Dark chocolate can improve stress, mood, memory and immunity, studies claim".

AI Optimism

Bill LaPlante and Katharyn White: "Five myths about artificial intelligence"

Getting Bit By Both A Bear And A Shark?

Pretty high on my list of things I don't aspire to: To be bitten by a shark in Hawaii and by a bear in Colorado.

The Battle of New York

"The Battle of New York: An 'Avengers' Oral History"

Beneath The Great Red Spot

NYT: "What Lies Beneath Jupiter’s Great Red Spot?"

AI And Nuclear War

Rand Corporation: "How Artificial Intelligence Could Increase the Risk of Nuclear War"

Kindle Design

"Building a better Kindle (or, Why Buttons Matter)"

Difficult Statistics Of Rare Events

Alex Tabarrok: "Defensive Gun Use and the Difficult Statistics of Rare Events". (Via A.B.)

AI Discovery

"AI is discovering new alloys faster than humans ever could":

Using artificial intelligence, the scientists at Northwestern University have already been able to discover three new blends of ingredients that form metallic glass–and AI does it 200 times faster than the scientists themselves could have done. The results mean that new alloys could reach the market decades before they normally would thanks to AI. This, in turn, could have a massive impact on the industrial and structural design of objects large and small, from smartphones to skyscrapers.

Transcribing Silent Speech

"Computer system transcribes words users 'speak silently'"

How DNA Can Lead To Wrongful Convictions

"Framed for Murder By His Own DNA"

Robot Assembles Ikea Chair

"Robot successfully assembles an Ikea chair"

BBC Sound Effects

BBC Sound Effects. (Via H.R.)

Diamonds From Space

"These diamonds are tiny, flawed, and may come from a long-lost planet". (Via H.R.)

Pre-Human Civilization

"Was There a Civilization On Earth Before Humans?"

The Lebowski Theorem Of Machine Superintelligence

"The Lebowski Theorem of machine superintelligence":

Harvard cognitive scientist Joscha Bach, in a tongue-in-cheek tweet, has countered this sort of idea with what he calls “The Lebowski Theorem”:

No superintelligent AI is going to bother with a task that is harder than hacking its reward function.

In other words, Bach imagines that Bostrom’s hypothetical paperclip-making AI would foresee the fantastically difficult and time-consuming task of turning everything in the universe into paperclips and opt to self-medicate itself into no longer wanting or caring about making paperclips, instead doing whatever the AI equivalent is of sitting around on the beach all day sipping piña coladas, a la The Big Lebowski’s The Dude.

Ikea-Style Programming Algorithms

"Ikea-style instructions for programming algorithms".

One example:

Light Posting Notice

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

The Secret Language of Ships

"The Secret Language of Ships"

More Gmail Update

"Gmail.com redesign includes self-destructing emails". (Via H.R.)

Surveillance Tech Update

"Facial recognition tech catches fugitive in huge crowd at Jacky Cheung Cantopop concert in China"

Artificial Heart Update

"A simple artificial heart could permanently replace a failing human one":

[R]esearchers have been trying for decades to make an artificial heart that can be permanently implanted. But building one that imitates a real heart over a long period of time without breaking or causing infections or blood clots is incredibly difficult. One problem is that the more parts there are, the more things could go wrong.

To solve the problem, Sanjiv Kaul and his team at Oregon Health and Science University are developing an artificial heart with an extremely simple design -- it contains a single moving piece with no valves. They believe it could be the first such device that could last the rest of a person’s life...

Medical AI Update

"FDA approves AI-powered diagnostic that doesn't need a doctor's help":

What it does: The software is designed to detect greater than a mild level of diabetic retinopathy, which causes vision loss and affects 30 million people in the US. It occurs when high blood sugar damages blood vessels in the retina.

How it works: The program uses an AI algorithm to analyze images of the adult eye taken with a special retinal camera. A doctor uploads the images to a cloud server, and the software then delivers a positive or negative result.

No specialist required: The FDA recently cleared AI-based software to help detect stroke, too. But the agency says this is the first device authorized to provide a screening decision without the need for a specialized doctor to interpret the image or results.

New Gmail?

"Gmail will be updated soon and I’m worried"

Space War

"Space Wars Will Look Nothing Like Star Wars"

WW2 Typo

"How a Typo Helped End World War II".

Direct link to Florence Schechter's Twitter thread explanation.

Super-Accurate GPS

"This app features super-accurate GPS, and I can’t figure out how it works". (Via H.R.)

History Of Machine Translation

"A history of machine translation from the Cold War to deep learning"

AI Journalism Update

"A New AI 'Journalist' Is Rewriting the News to Remove Bias".

Of course, what counts as "biased" or "unbiased" is itself in the eye of the beholder.

Phone Fiddling Clues

"Mood disorders could be diagnosed by the way you fiddle with your phone"

How CRISPR Work

"How CRISPR works, explained in two minutes"

Amazon's Tolkien TV Deal

"Inside Amazon's $250M Lord of the Rings Deal: "It's Very Much a Creature of the Times""

3D Printed Bridge

"3D printed bridge looks like alien technology". (Via H.R.)

Four-Eyed Lizard

"A four-eyed lizard walked the earth nearly 50 million years ago"

Robot Rights Debate

21st century debate: Whether sex robots need "rights". #NotAnOnionStory

Angled Satellite Images

"Satellite images taken at an angle".

Injectable Bandage

"Quick-acting 'injectable bandage' developed from seaweed". (Via H.R.)

Robotic Truck Update

Alex Knapp: "This Startup's Robotic Truck Drove On The Highway With No Human On Board"

Free Microsoft AI Course

Microsoft has made its internal training courses for AI available to the public.

Self-Proclaimed Time Travelers

"The Rise in Self-Proclaimed Time Travelers".

I'd find them a lot more believable if they correctly predicted the next 5 Super Bowl winners.

Dead Man Fingerprints

"Yes, Cops Are Now Opening iPhones With Dead People's Fingerprints".

As the article notes, dead people's faces are the next logical step with FaceID.

DNA Surprise

"Woman takes Ancestry.com DNA test, learns her real dad is her mom's doctor". 

Lawsuit has been filed.

Eyeball Sunburn

"Yes, even your eyeballs can get sunburned"

Criminal Mastermind

Shoplifter uses Play-Doh to cover up security camera lens, leaves perfectly pressed fingerprint behind.

Good High School

"A single high school in India has produced the CEOs of Microsoft, Adobe, and Mastercard"

Immigrant Social Media

"U.S. to Seek Social Media Details From All Visa Applicants"

What Google Knows

"How to download a copy of everything Google knows about you"

Unmixable Nanoparticles

"Scientists mix the unmixable to create 'shocking' nanoparticles". (Via H.R.)

Detecting Account Breaches

"11 Tell-Tale Signs Your Accounts and Devices Have Been Hacked"

The Science of Knuckle Cracking

"Scientists have spent 60 years agonizing over how our knuckles crack"

UBI Update

Wired: "The Paradox of Universal Basic Income"

Police Using Google Data

"To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google":

In at least four investigations last year – cases of murder, sexual battery and even possible arson at the massive downtown fire in March 2017 – Raleigh police used search warrants to demand Google accounts not of specific suspects, but from any mobile devices that veered too close to the scene of a crime, according to a WRAL News review of court records. 

I'm guessing this isn't confined to Raleigh, NC. (Via Debby Witt.)