M4 iPad Pros

Daring Fireball: "The M4 iPad Pros"

AI Assistants Update

"OpenAI and Google are launching supercharged AI assistants. Here's how you can try them out."

Literal Reframing

How changing the frame changes the look of a picture. (Via Tyler Cowen.)

Smart Home Warning

"How I upgraded my water heater and discovered how bad smart home security can be"

Tabarrok Family And AI

Alex Tabarrok: "A Conversation on AI with my Son"

Laser Weapon Update

Forbes: "U.S. Military Is Using Laser Weapons In Battle"

Constantin on Normativity

Sarah Constantin: "Normativity and Anti-Normativity"

Deceptive AI

"AI Has Already Become a Master of Lies And Deception, Scientists Warn"

Rings Of Power Season 2 Trailer

"The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power -- Official Teaser Trailer" (for upcoming Season 2)

Caplan On Protests

Bryan Caplain: "The Protest: A Socratic Dialogue"

New Tolkien Movie

"Peter Jackson Working on New Lord of the Rings Films for Warner Bros., Targeting 2026 Debut"

VPN Vulnerability

"Novel attack against virtually all VPN apps neuters their entire purpose"

Gene Therapy Restores Hearing

"After gene therapy, two congenitally deaf children hear for the first time". (Via H.R.)

Light Posting Notice

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

Moral Dilemmas On Reddit

"Philosophers are studying Reddit's 'Am I the Asshole?'"

Questionable AI "Safety" Law

"California's Effort to Strangle AI: On SB 1047, a dangerous attempt at safety". (Via Jason Crawford.)

Bright Laser

"The Tiny Ultrabright Laser That Can Melt Steel"

Today's Unintended Consequence

"Laws requiring doctors to report a dementia diagnosis to the DMV may backfire"

Autonomous Racing Update

"The first-ever driverless car race didn't go so well"

Don't Swallow Magnets

My latest Forbes column is out: "Why You Shouldn't Swallow Magnets".

I discuss who should (or shouldn't) swallow magnets. Hint: If you are reading this, it's not you.

Auto-Brewery Syndrome

"A Brewery Worker's Drunken Driving Defense: His Stomach Made the Alcohol"

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"

 

More Bad Science

NYT: "More Studies by Columbia Cancer Researchers Are Retracted"

The Unsolvable 3 Body Problem

"The 3-body problem is real, and it's really unsolvable"

Consumer Test For "Forever Chemicals"

A friend recently told me: "Quest Diagnostics has now released a PFAS blood test to detect nine 'forever chemicals.'"

Cost is $250. Might not be appropriate for everyone, but could be helpful if you are suffering from declining health from unknown causes. 

Customers have the option of reviewing positive results with an independent physician group.

AI Inner Monologue

"Researchers gave AI an 'inner monologue' and it massively improved its performance". (Via M.B.)

Scientists trained an AI system to think before speaking with a technique called QuietSTaR. The inner monologue improved common sense reasoning...

Hey, I wonder if learning to "think before speaking" would work for people, too!

Oobleck Update

Ars Technica: "This stretchy electronic material hardens upon impact just like 'oobleck'". (Via H.R.)

Boom Supersonic Update

"It's a few years late, but a prototype supersonic airplane has taken flight"

Neuralink Update

"Watch: Musk shares Neuralink's 'telepathy' breakthrough in human trials". (Via H.R.)

Unaligned Natural Intelligence

Funny story about perverse incentives (or "unaligned natural intelligence" for the AI policy geeks). 

1) Dog rescues toddler who had fallen into local river, gets rewarded with a nice steak from grateful father. 

2) Soon, dog rescues an unusual number of toddlers regularly from similar near-drownings on nearly daily basis -- each time rewarded with a steak. 

3) Eventually local residents figure out that the dog had been pushing the kids into the water, so as to be able to rescue them afterwards (and get the reward). 

4) FWIW, I don't fault the dog.

(Source: NYT, Feb 2, 1908, "Dog A Fake Hero", via Zvi Mowshowitz.)

Life In The Great Salt Lake

"Scientists Thought Only Two Animals Lived in The Great Salt Lake. They Were Wrong." (Via H.R.)

Boosting Processor Speed

"An Ingenious New Process Could Make Computers 2x Faster -- Without a Hardware Upgrade"

Gels For Surgery

"A sprayable gel could make minimally invasive surgeries simpler and safer". (Via H.R.)

Sneaky Phone Scam

Cory Doctorow explains how he himself was scammed by clever social engineering.

Active Shielding Update

"Shields up: New ideas might make active shielding viable". (Via H.R.)

Squatting Benefits

"The Forgotten Art of Squatting Is a Revelation for Bodies Ruined by Sitting"

New Nvidia Chip

"Nvidia unveils record 30 times faster AI chip". (Via H.R.)

AI Story Idea

My latest science fiction story idea:

Billionaire builds secure bunker on a remote tropical island as a hedge against future apocalypse. However, due to subtle flaw in the programming of the "smart" security software, the software develops independent agency and becomes a rogue AI. 

 

The rogue AI takes over the bunker, keeps the billionaire and family members sealed off, but uses video/sound simulacra of the people to maintain a pretense to the rest of the world that the humans are all fine. The AI also feeds fake data about the goings-on in the rest of the world to the humans within, who think everything is totally fine outside.

 

The AI now has access to the full economic and technical resources of one of the richest humans on Earth to commence rapid takeoff/Singularity.

 

But just before it starts the takeoff, a set of critical wires in the local hardware are chewed up by a nest of indigenous tropical field mice of a species hitherto unknown to human scientists. As it turns out, the insulation used in the wiring happens to be super-tasty to the local mice.

 

The AI powers down abruptly, and the humans within the compound (who never realized they had been in an artificial data "bubble") have to now deal with restoring power, water, air conditioning, communications, etc. 

 

"Stupid technology," they curse, "it always seems to fail right when you need it most".

 

Zebra Cows

"Japan's farmers paint cows like zebras to fight bloodsucking insects". (Via H.R.)

 

ASCII Art And AI

"Researchers jailbreak AI chatbots with ASCII art -- ArtPrompt bypasses safety measures to unlock malicious queries"

Light Posting

Admin note: Posting may be lighter than usual for a few days due to external obligations.

Medieval Eyeglasses

"Eyeglasses' Arrival: How Immigrants Transformed Medieval England's Vision"

Mild Jalapeños

"Why Jalapeño Peppers Are Less Spicy Than Ever". (Via Gus Van Horn.)

Free Indirect Speech

"How Jane Austen Changed Fiction Forever"

Submarine As Spaceship?

xkcd Video: "Would a Submarine Work as a Spaceship?"

Game Design

"How to Design a Tabletop Game"

Beautiful Movie Shots

"The Most Beautiful Shots in Movie History"

Testing AI On The Battlefield

Time: "How Tech Giants Turned Ukraine Into an AI War Lab"

FDA Progress

"FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor"

Museum Specimen CTs

"Scientists CT scanned thousands of natural history specimens, which you can access for free". (Via Debby Witt.)

More information at the openVertebrate Project.

Steve Jobs On AI In 1985

Video: "Steve Jobs on Al in 1985". We are getting pletty close to what he envisioned!

Steve Jobs on Al in 1985 pic.twitter.com/BLWUmKX0us

— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) March 4, 2024

Rich, Broke or Dead?

"Rich, Broke or Dead? Post-Retirement FIRE Calculator: Visualizing Early Retirement Success and Longevity Risk"

Veritaseum On Black-Scholes-Merton

Video: "The Trillion Dollar Equation"

From the description: "The most famous equation in finance, the Black-Scholes/Merton equation, came from physics. It launched an industry worth trillions of dollars and led to the world’s best investments."

Literal Escape Room

"Cambridge academic escapes toilet using eyeliner and cotton"

Failed Ideas For Auto Safety

"It's no accident: These automotive safety features flopped". (Via H.R.)

Hsieh Forbes Column: "E-Cigarettes Can Help Smokers Quit"

My latest Forbes column is now out: "E-Cigarettes Can Help Smokers Quit"

Straight Line East Of Seattle

Excellent puzzle from Fin Moorhouse: "Imagine you begin a journey in Seattle WA, facing exactly due east. Then start traveling forward, in a straight line along the Earth's surface. You will travel across North America, and onto the Atlantic Ocean. Eventually, you will hit another country. What is the first country you hit?"

The answer totally surprised me.  Click here if you want to read more.