Zero Star Hotel

"Swiss 'zero star hotel' offers sleepless nights to ponder world's crises"

Domino Physics

"How fast a row of dominoes topples depends on friction".

Academic paper: "Effects of Friction and Spacing on the Collaborative Behavior of Domino Toppling"

 

Lotsa Galaxies

"There are more galaxies in the Universe than even Carl Sagan ever imagined"

Wright Doghouse

"A Doghouse Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Is Now on Display"

 

Old Math Problem

"Math's 'Oldest Problem Ever' Gets a New Answer"

Dad Texts

Meryl Cates: "Texts My Father Sent That Can Also Be Microfiction"

Smell And Friendship

Fascinating story on how people are more inclined to form friendships with others with similar body odor.

The methodology seems pretty sound. I'm intrigued that this could be yet another arena in which our ancient evolutionary/animal heritage can have a powerful subliminal effect on our "civilized" human life experience.

Popular press summary: "Scent of a Friend: Similarities in Body Odor May Contribute to Social Bonding".

Academic paper: "There is chemistry in social chemistry" (Science Advances, 24 Jun 2022, Vol 8, Issue 25).

Historical Sense

"Five Facts That Will Mess With Your Perception of Time".

I did not know any of these except for #5.

Porn-Reading Detector

"A device that can detect when a man is watching pornography by 'reading his mind' has been developed in China, according to the research team in Beijing behind the project. 

Related article: "Brain wave-scanning helmet developed by scientists to help Chinese censors better detect porn".

Wikimedia Business

"Google is paying the Wikimedia Foundation for better access to information"

Gaiman On Impostor Syndrome

This is an awesome anecdote from Neil Gaiman. 

 

Trademarking "THE"

"Ohio State University officially wins trademark for the word 'THE'".

As a graduate of University of Michigan (MD 1989), I submit this without comment.

Changing Country Names

"Why countries change names"

Smart Home Woes

"Controlling My Family's Smart Home Is Driving Us Mad"

Controls cause the most problems in my household. Take smart lighting, for example. For it to work, you have to remind everyone in your family to leave the old switches alone. Fail, and your meticulously arranged remote control, voice commands, and scheduling are gone. Smart switches can help, but they also may just add to the confusion. Even once you have everyone in your house coached, a visitor innocently flicking that switch renders your smart bulbs useless again.

Then there are the apps. So many apps. Every device has its own app. The more smart home gadgets you add, the more cluttered your phone becomes. Keeping track of which app controls which device is tricky enough. But you must also install them for everyone else and train them, or accept your role as the gatekeeper of settings for the household.

You can always ask Google Assistant, Alexa, or Siri, though. Right? Well, actually, the security cameras work with Google, but you have to use Siri for the doorbell. Google Assistant plays music on the dining room speaker, but Alexa does music in your bedroom. Oh, and when you ask, you can’t say, “Turn on my bedroom light." You must say, “Turn on Amy’s bedroom light."

Synchronous Fireflies

Video: "Billions of synchronous fireflies at the Anamalai Tiger Reserve"

Minmini(fireflies) - Billions of synchronous fireflies at the Anamalai Tiger Reserve from Sriram Murali on Vimeo.

QR Safety

"Think Twice Before You Scan That QR Code"

Big Magnet

"Behold the Magnetar, nature's ultimate superweapon". (Via H.R.)

A typical magnetar has a surface magnetic field strength of 10¹⁴ to 10¹⁵ Gauss, with interior strengths 10 times stronger.

That is not a typo. Magnetars have magnetic fields about a quadrillion times stronger than the Earth's and a billion times stronger than the best that humanity can achieve.

If you get within approximately 1,000 kilometers of a magnetar, you die. Instantly. Leaving aside the copious amount of X-ray radiation constantly pouring out of these objects (we'll get to that), the magnetic fields make life literally impossible. The problem is that atoms are made of positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons. In weak magnetic fields, this doesn't make a bit of difference. But in strong fields, the electrons and protons respond differently. Atoms lose their traditional shape, and the electron orbitals become elongated along the direction of the magnetic field lines.

If you somehow made it to the surface of a magnetar, your individual atoms would only be 1 percent as wide as they are long. With atoms turning into needles, atomic physics as we know it breaks down. As does all the bonds that atoms use to glue themselves together into complex molecules.

In other words, the static magnetic field of a magnetar is strong enough to simply... dissociate you. All the molecules that you're made of simply come apart into oddly shaped atoms.

 

Jumping Robot

"Record-Breaking Jumping Robot Can Leap a 10-Story Building"

Mundane Gaming

"Mundane chores are all the rage in gaming":

Mundane chores or professions are now the basis for a number of successful games, including “Best Forklift Operator”, “Espresso Tycoon” and “Gas Station Simulator”. “Job Simulator” (pictured below), a virtual-reality experience, was released in 2019 and has sold more than 1m copies to date. Players are placed in working environments and then given simple tasks to do, such as making a slice of toast or stamping pieces of paper.

Bye Bye IE

"Internet Explorer, the love-to-hate-it web browser, has died at 26".

However:

The ghost of Internet Explorer will live on for those who choose to believe: Edge offers a built-in Internet Explorer mode.