GeekPress

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Washington Post: "Everyone you know will be able to rate you on the terrifying 'Yelp for people' -- whether you want them to or not"

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Laser Razor

"This futuristic razor shaves your hair with an actual laser"

Disney's "Envelope Of Protection"

"How Disney Ensures That Your Arms Won't Get Torn Off On Rides":

You may be told to keep your arms and legs in the vehicle at all times when you get on a roller coaster or ride, but it's unlikely that you'd actually lose a limb if you disobeyed thanks to something called the 'envelope of protection'...

Disney uses an "envelope of protection" when testing their rides to ensure that no one could possibly reach out and hit anything. This sounds like a spell you could cast in Dungeons & Dragons, but it's actually pretty simple. They test the ride using a special vehicle with a disk attached that has a number of spindles fixed all around it. These spindles act as a person's hypothetical limbs, and they're much longer than a human's reach could possibly be...

Interestingly, "selfie sticks" can extent beyond the "envelope of protection" and cause serious problems. Hence, Disney has banned them from the park.

"Casio released a calculator and Amazon released a tablet within 24 hours of each other this week. That alone is unremarkable. One costs $220, the other costs $50. That, too, wouldn’t raise many eyebrows, until you realize which is which..." (Via Gus Van Horn.)

Caption: "Left to right: Casio's S100 calculator, Amazon's 7-inch Fire tablet. WIRED"

Bicycling Against Traffic

Cecil Adams: "Wouldn't it be safer to ride your bicycle against traffic?".

Short answer, "Hell, no!"

Monday, September 28, 2015

Hsieh Forbes Column: Bad Science Reporting

My latest Forbes piece is now out: "How To Protect Yourself Against Bad Science Reporting".

I discuss some sources of error and bias that lead to bad science reporting, including:

1) Many publicly reported science results are still provisional
2) Beware of sloppy statistics
3) Beware of the bias towards positive dramatic results

This latest piece is relatively non-political. But it is uncompromisingly pro-bacon.

For more details, read the full text of "How To Protect Yourself Against Bad Science Reporting".