Category: Newsletters

From Kottke: “Giles Clement, also known as Polymatt, decided he was going to make a 3.5” floppy disk from scratch — and actually did. In a YouTube video where he breaks down the process, he says: “I’m not sure how many of you have actually cracked one of these things open and taken a look inside, but it’s actually a little bit more complex than I expected. Recreating a shell isn’t going to be the tough part. It’s actually this: recreating the media itself with some PET film and a bunch of chemicals. These disks are incredibly thin, and the magnetic film itself is measured in microns. It’s going to be quite the feat in order to figure out how to apply something that thin.” The same creator also made a fully functioning wristwatch from scratch, including making two milling machines and designing the typeface used for the numerals and printing on the watch.”

Some IMAX 70mm movies such as Oppenheimer are powered by a PalmPilot emulator

From Ars Technica: “As shown in IMAX’s TikTok video, the 70 mm print for Oppenheimer is so large that they had to extend their film platter. That’s fascinating and all, but so is the emulated 2002 PDA apparently running things. The m130 wasn’t even top of the line when it came out in 2002. It debuted at $279 with a 2-inch, 160×160 screen and a 33 Motorola Dragonball VZ processor. But that was just the magic needed for IMAX’s purposes, and so it hasn’t changed a thing. The only difference is that it’s using emulations in at least some cases. The video shows the PDA emulated on a 10.1-inch Windows tablet for businesses. The PDA emulation controls the theater’s Quick Turn Reel Units (where workers load the physical film reels). A company spokesperson said the original units operated on PalmPilots, so IMAX designed an emulator that mimics the look and feel of a PalmPilot to keep it familiar for IMAX film projectionists.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “He made a floppy disk from scratch in his basement”

Ever since artificial intelligence became a topic of popular conversation, the environmental cost of all these large-language models and the massive server farms that make them possible has been the subject of much concern. Every week or two, it seems, there is another article about the vast appetite these systems have for both power and water, the greenhouse-gas emissions, etc. and the impact on the environment. So I found it interesting to read Google’s assessment of these factors in a recently published study entitled “Measuring the environmental impact of delivering AI at Google Scale.” The company also wrote a blog post summarizing some of the numbers, in which it said that the average Gemini prompt “uses 0.24 watt-hours of energy, emits 0.03 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent, and consumes 0.26 milliliters – or about five drops – of water.” The overall per-prompt energy impact, according to Google’s scientists, is “equivalent to watching television for less than nine seconds.”

Since Google runs Gemini and obviously wants to understate how much power and water it uses, you might be skeptical of these results, as I (and others) were when the paper was released. The Verge, for example, wrote a piece quoting a number of experts who said that the Google study was misleading because it “omits some key data.” What key data? If you read the article, it says that Google only looked at the direct water and power use of its server farms and related AI equipment – that is, the amount of water and electricity that these systems consumed while running Gemini queries – as wellrather than looking at the indirect use. That would include water consumed by power companies that generate the electricity to power these data centers, whether it’s water to drive electrical turbines or to cool gas or nuclear power systems. From the Verge article:

“They’re just hiding the critical information,” says Shaolei Ren, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Riverside. “This really spreads the wrong message to the world.” Ren has studied the water consumption and air pollution associated with AI, and is one of the authors of a paper Google mentions in its study. A big issue experts flagged is that Google omits indirect water use in its estimates. Its study included water that data centers use in cooling systems to keep servers from overheating. As a result, with Google’s estimate, “You only see the tip of the iceberg,” says Alex de Vries-Gao, founder of the website Digiconomist and a PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Institute for Environmental Studies who has studied the energy demand of data centers.

Note: This is a version of my Torment Nexus newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “Does AI use a lot of energy and water? Yes and no”

From MIT Tech: “On a Friday evening last December, every tier of US law enforcement—federal, state, and local—was dispatched to the US Army Natick Soldier Systems Center, a military research installation outside Boston. A squadron of about 15 to 20 drones had been spotted violating the base’s restricted airspace. The culprits could not be found.One retired major with the Massachusetts State Police, who had been dispatched to help investigate that night, called these unidentified aircraft the strangest thing he’s ever seen, says Brian Lauzon, deputy chief of Natick’s municipal police department. When Lauzon arrived on base later that weekend, he says, he saw drones that were larger than consumer models (most of which are pre-programmed to respect US military airspace these days anyway). By the end of this weekend-long breach, base police not only had called in local law enforcement for backup but were coordinating with the FBI and US Army commanders as well.”

Stone Age settlement lost to rising seas 8,500 years ago found off Denmark coast

From CBS News: “Below the dark blue waters of the Bay of Aarhus in northern Denmark, archaeologists search for coastal settlements swallowed by rising sea levels more than 8,500 years ago. This summer, divers descended about 26 feet below the waves close to Aarhus, Denmark’s second-biggest city, and collected evidence of a Stone Age settlement from the seabed. It’s part of a $15.5 million six-year international project to map parts of the seabed in the Baltic and North Seas, funded by the European Union, that includes researchers in Aarhus as well as from the U.K.’s University of Bradford and the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research in Germany. The goal is to explore sunken Northern European landscapes and uncover lost Mesolithic settlements. Moe Astrup and colleagues have excavated an area of about 430 square feet at the small settlement they discovered just off today’s coast.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “Twin brothers who were UFO hunters are now tracking drones”

From MIT Tech: “On a Friday evening last December, every tier of US law enforcement—federal, state, and local—was dispatched to the US Army Natick Soldier Systems Center, a military research installation outside Boston. A squadron of about 15 to 20 drones had been spotted violating the base’s restricted airspace. The culprits could not be found.One retired major with the Massachusetts State Police, who had been dispatched to help investigate that night, called these unidentified aircraft the strangest thing he’s ever seen, says Brian Lauzon, deputy chief of Natick’s municipal police department. When Lauzon arrived on base later that weekend, he says, he saw drones that were larger than consumer models (most of which are pre-programmed to respect US military airspace these days anyway). By the end of this weekend-long breach, base police not only had called in local law enforcement for backup but were coordinating with the FBI and US Army commanders as well.”

Stone Age settlement lost to rising seas 8,500 years ago found off Denmark coast

From CBS News: “Below the dark blue waters of the Bay of Aarhus in northern Denmark, archaeologists search for coastal settlements swallowed by rising sea levels more than 8,500 years ago. This summer, divers descended about 26 feet below the waves close to Aarhus, Denmark’s second-biggest city, and collected evidence of a Stone Age settlement from the seabed. It’s part of a $15.5 million six-year international project to map parts of the seabed in the Baltic and North Seas, funded by the European Union, that includes researchers in Aarhus as well as from the U.K.’s University of Bradford and the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research in Germany. The goal is to explore sunken Northern European landscapes and uncover lost Mesolithic settlements. Moe Astrup and colleagues have excavated an area of about 430 square feet at the small settlement they discovered just off today’s coast.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “Twin brothers who were UFO hunters are now tracking drones”

Ever since artificial intelligence became a topic of popular conversation, the environmental cost of all these large-language models and the massive server farms that make them possible has been the subject of much concern. Every week or two, it seems, there is another article about the vast appetite these systems have for both power and water, the greenhouse-gas emissions, etc. and the impact on the environment. So I found it interesting to read Google’s assessment of these factors in a recently published study entitled “Measuring the environmental impact of delivering AI at Google Scale.” The company also wrote a blog post summarizing some of the numbers, in which it said that the average Gemini prompt “uses 0.24 watt-hours of energy, emits 0.03 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent, and consumes 0.26 milliliters – or about five drops – of water.” The overall per-prompt energy impact, according to Google’s scientists, is “equivalent to watching television for less than nine seconds.”

Since Google runs Gemini and obviously wants to understate how much power and water it uses, you might be skeptical of these results, as I (and others) were when the paper was released. The Verge, for example, wrote a piece quoting a number of experts who said that the Google study was misleading because it “omits some key data.” What key data? If you read the article, it says that Google only looked at the direct water and power use of its server farms and related AI equipment – that is, the amount of water and electricity that these systems consumed while running Gemini queries – as wellrather than looking at the indirect use. That would include water consumed by power companies that generate the electricity to power these data centers, whether it’s water to drive electrical turbines or to cool gas or nuclear power systems. From the Verge article:

“They’re just hiding the critical information,” says Shaolei Ren, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Riverside. “This really spreads the wrong message to the world.” Ren has studied the water consumption and air pollution associated with AI, and is one of the authors of a paper Google mentions in its study. A big issue experts flagged is that Google omits indirect water use in its estimates. Its study included water that data centers use in cooling systems to keep servers from overheating. As a result, with Google’s estimate, “You only see the tip of the iceberg,” says Alex de Vries-Gao, founder of the website Digiconomist and a PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Institute for Environmental Studies who has studied the energy demand of data centers.

Note: This is a version of my Torment Nexus newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “Does AI use a lot of energy and water? Yes and no”

From The Guardian: “More than 80 years after it was looted by the Nazis from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam, a portrait by an Italian master has been spotted on the website of an estate agent advertising a house for sale in Argentina. A photo shows the painting, Portrait of a Lady (Contessa Colleoni) by the late-baroque portraitist Giuseppe Ghislandi, also known as Fra’ Galgario, hanging above a sofa in the living room of the property, in a seaside town near Buenos Aires. The Dutch newspaper AD said it had traced the work, which features in a database of lost art and is listed by the Dutch culture ministry as “unreturned” after the second world war, after a long investigation – and with the unwitting help of the estate agent. Portrait of a Lady belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a leading Dutch art dealer who fled the Netherlands in mid-May 1940 to escape the invading Nazis but died after falling and breaking his neck.”

The name of this Mexican peninsula translates as “I don’t understand”

From Now I Know: “The Yucatán Peninsula, circled above, is a peninsula in Mexico, dividing the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea. In 1517, conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba launched the first notable expedition to the Yucatán, and asked the Mayans where they were. It’s unknown what they actually said, but transliterated, it’s likely one of the following words or phrases: “mathan cauyi athán“, “tectecán“, “ma’anaatik ka t’ann” or “ci u t’ann.” Say those aloud and you’ll kind of, sort of hear the word “Yucatán” in there. And that’s what de Córdoba probably heard, so he gave that name to the region.” That’s all fine and good — if the Mayans were answering de Córdoba’s question the way he thought they were, with the name of their country. But they almost certainly weren’t. Those phrases mean, roughly, “I don’t understand.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “A painting stolen by Nazis was spotted in a real estate listing”

From The Guardian: “More than 80 years after it was looted by the Nazis from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam, a portrait by an Italian master has been spotted on the website of an estate agent advertising a house for sale in Argentina. A photo shows the painting, Portrait of a Lady (Contessa Colleoni) by the late-baroque portraitist Giuseppe Ghislandi, also known as Fra’ Galgario, hanging above a sofa in the living room of the property, in a seaside town near Buenos Aires. The Dutch newspaper AD said it had traced the work, which features in a database of lost art and is listed by the Dutch culture ministry as “unreturned” after the second world war, after a long investigation – and with the unwitting help of the estate agent. Portrait of a Lady belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a leading Dutch art dealer who fled the Netherlands in mid-May 1940 to escape the invading Nazis but died after falling and breaking his neck.”

The name of this Mexican peninsula translates as “I don’t understand”

From Now I Know: “The Yucatán Peninsula, circled above, is a peninsula in Mexico, dividing the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea. In 1517, conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba launched the first notable expedition to the Yucatán, and asked the Mayans where they were. It’s unknown what they actually said, but transliterated, it’s likely one of the following words or phrases: “mathan cauyi athán“, “tectecán“, “ma’anaatik ka t’ann” or “ci u t’ann.” Say those aloud and you’ll kind of, sort of hear the word “Yucatán” in there. And that’s what de Córdoba probably heard, so he gave that name to the region.” That’s all fine and good — if the Mayans were answering de Córdoba’s question the way he thought they were, with the name of their country. But they almost certainly weren’t. Those phrases mean, roughly, “I don’t understand.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “A painting stolen by Nazis was spotted in a real estate listing”

From the Smithsonian: “During the late 19th century, in the years following the Civil War, Americans—mostly ailing veterans—were hooked on morphine. Syringes, which were sold at drugstores, allowed people to administer the opiate themselves. So with a morphine epidemic sweeping the country, Bayer offered a hot new solution: heroin. The drug, Bayer claimed, was not only stronger than morphine but also far less addictive—so much so that it was billed as the antidote to morphine dependency. Plus, it purportedly had the added benefit of healing the lungs, allowing patients suffering from breathing disorders—asthma or bronchitis or a chest infection—to finally find relief. According to the Atlantic, Sears sold two vials of heroin for $1.50 (some $50 today). The company even threw in a syringe, two needles and a heroin-kit carrying case.”

Why are knights in illustrated manuscripts shown fighting giant snails?

From Open Culture: “Why do illustrated manuscripts show knights doing battle with giant snails? Boars, lions, and bears we can understand, but … snails?Theories abound. In medievalist Lilian M. C. Randall’s 1962 essay “The Snail in Gothic Marginal Warfare,” she describes some 70 instances of man-on-snail combat in 29 manuscripts dating from the late 1200s to early 1300s. She believes that the tiny mollusks were stand ins for the Germanic Lombards who invaded Italy in the 8th century. After Charlemagne trounced the Lombards in 772, declaring himself King of Lombardy, the vanquished turned to usury and pawnbroking, earning the enmity of the rest of the populace, even those who required their services. Their profession conferred power of a sort, the kind that tends to get one labelled cowardly, greedy and malicious.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “You used to be able to buy heroin from the Sears catalog”

From the Smithsonian: “During the late 19th century, in the years following the Civil War, Americans—mostly ailing veterans—were hooked on morphine. Syringes, which were sold at drugstores, allowed people to administer the opiate themselves. So with a morphine epidemic sweeping the country, Bayer offered a hot new solution: heroin. The drug, Bayer claimed, was not only stronger than morphine but also far less addictive—so much so that it was billed as the antidote to morphine dependency. Plus, it purportedly had the added benefit of healing the lungs, allowing patients suffering from breathing disorders—asthma or bronchitis or a chest infection—to finally find relief. According to the Atlantic, Sears sold two vials of heroin for $1.50 (some $50 today). The company even threw in a syringe, two needles and a heroin-kit carrying case.”

Why are knights in illustrated manuscripts shown fighting giant snails?

From Open Culture: “Why do illustrated manuscripts show knights doing battle with giant snails? Boars, lions, and bears we can understand, but … snails?Theories abound. In medievalist Lilian M. C. Randall’s 1962 essay “The Snail in Gothic Marginal Warfare,” she describes some 70 instances of man-on-snail combat in 29 manuscripts dating from the late 1200s to early 1300s. She believes that the tiny mollusks were stand ins for the Germanic Lombards who invaded Italy in the 8th century. After Charlemagne trounced the Lombards in 772, declaring himself King of Lombardy, the vanquished turned to usury and pawnbroking, earning the enmity of the rest of the populace, even those who required their services. Their profession conferred power of a sort, the kind that tends to get one labelled cowardly, greedy and malicious.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “You used to be able to buy heroin from the Sears catalog”

From Toronto Life: “It was the middle of the night, a Wednesday in early April, when the first bag of A&W french fries was deposited on my neighbour’s porch. Nobody saw who put it there, but when my neighbour opened her door to get her mail the following morning, there it was — a fast food bag crumpled up at the foot of her white wooden bench. She hadn’t ordered any A&W french fries in the middle of the night, and she wasn’t the one who had eaten them either. The first bag was a mild curiosity. But the next morning my neighbour found another one on her porch, this time with a few fries still inside. Friday morning. Another mostly eaten bag of A&W french fries had appeared on her porch. The third night in a row. written in black Sharpie on both bags: Rodolphe. My neighbour, who recently turned 50, lives alone. By the time the fourth A&W bag materialized on her porch, she had gone from being curious about what she’d viewed as random littering to frustrated to shaken by the invasion of her privacy.”

South Park’s creators and the greatest TV contract clause ever written

From Trung Phan: “The legendary South Park guys have officially joined the Tres Comma Club, with Matt Stone and Trey Parker each worth $1.2B per Forbes. They hit this financial milestone after signing a development deal with Paramount (which recently merged with Skydance Media in an $8.4B deal) and a $1.5B exclusive streaming agreement with Paramount+ (which has mostly been a vehicle for Taylor Sheridan projects but did just add UFC rights for $7.7B over 7 years). While their bottomless supply of creativity is the foundation of their success, Stone and Parker also made a fortune because of fortuitous dealmaking. Some was luck. Some was ballsy. All of it was betting on themselves. Oh, they also may have signed the most valuable (and improbable) TV contract clause ever, which ultimately entitled them to 50% of South Park’s digital revenue.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “Why did bags of french fries start appearing on her porch?”

From Astral Codex Ten: “Ollantay is a three-act play written in Quechua, an indigenous language of the South American Andes. It was first performed in Peru around 1775. Since the mid-1800s it’s been performed more often, and nowadays it’s pretty easy to find some company in Peru doing it. If nothing else, it’s popular in Peruvian high schools as a way to get students to connect with Quechua history. It’s not a particularly long play; a full performance of Ollantay takes around an hour. Also, nobody knows where Ollantay was written, when it was written, or who wrote it. And its first documented performance led directly to upwards of a hundred thousand deaths. Macbeth has killed at most fifty people, and yet it routinely tops listicles of “deadliest plays”. I’m here to propose that Ollantay take its place. Also, the revolutionary who was inspired by the play has the same name as Tupac Shakur, the legendary rapper.”

When the Milwaukee Brewers win it can cost this burger chain a lot of money

From ESPN: “The Milwaukee Brewers’ franchise-record 14-game winning streak resulted in one heck of a tab for a local fast-food chain. George Webb promises to give away free hamburgers whenever the Brewers reel off at least 12 straight victories. The local chain delivered on its promise Wednesday, as fans lined up outside each of its 26 Milwaukee-area locations. A George Webb spokesman said the chain expects to give out about 180,000 burgers as part of this promotion. George Webb officials purchased 25,000 pounds of beef, 4,000 pounds of onions, 300,000 pickle slices and 200,000 buns in preparation. During the years when the Braves played in Milwaukee before moving to Atlanta, George Webb promised free burgers if they won as many as 13 straight games. When Milwaukee welcomed the Brewers in 1970, George Webb changed the promotion and promised to give away free burgers for every 12-game win streak. This marks the third time George Webb has had to deliver on its promise.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “A Peruvian play in the 1700’s caused thousands of deaths”

From NDTV: “Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bodyguards reportedly carried a “poop suitcase” to collect his faecal waste during the Friday Alaska summit with US President Donald Trump, as reported by The Express US. The unusual security measure was said to be aimed at preventing foreign powers from obtaining information about the Russian leader’s health. Citing investigative journalists Regis Gente and Mikhail Rubin in the French publication Paris Match, The Express US reported that members of the Russian President’s Federal Protection Service (FPS) collect his human waste, including his faeces, store it in special bags, and carry it in dedicated briefcases. The measure reportedly dates back several years, including Putin’s visit to France in May 2017, The Express US reported. It is suspected that the surprising security measure is undertaken to stop foreign powers from taking samples of Putin’s human waste.”

The number of members in the Shaker religious group has increased by 33 percent

From NPR: “Until a few months ago, there were only two living Shakers left in the United States. Now, a third person has joined the celibate Christian sect founded in 1747. Fifty-nine-year-old Sister April Baxter is unassuming in her colorful button-down and jeans but has brought a palpable energy to the space. Baxter is the newest Shaker. Before joining the Shakers, she lived in an episcopal convent for four years. But she says visiting the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community felt like coming home. Eighty-seven-year-old Sister June Carpenter and 68-year-old Brother Arnold Hadd were the last two Shakers before Baxter arrived. Hadd joined the community in 1978. He spends his days praying and working on the farm. Celibacy as a core tenet has limited the community’s ability to grow. But Hadd says people have been committed to supporting the Shakers for a long time, thanks to the official Friends of the Shakers organization.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “Putin staffers carry a “poop suitcase” for security reasons”

From Popular Mechanics: “After 500 years, researchers finally understand the anatomical function of a heart feature first described by Leonardo da Vinci. To find the answer, scientists used fractal theory, MRIs, and a lot of computational elbow grease to shed light on structures called trabeculae. They found this branching, snowflaky muscle layer plays a part in the risk of heart disease. “The inner surfaces of the human heart are covered by a complex network of muscular strands that is thought to be a remnant of embryonic development,” the researchers explain in a paper. “The function of these trabeculae and their architecture are unknown.” Leonardo drew pictures of the fine, lacy, snowflake-like trabeculae after examining a heart up close and dissecting it. The artist likely noticed the tree root-like branching structure, and he theorized that the trabeculae were like the systems we use now to keep sidewalks and roads from freezing: a network for blood that was kept warm by circulating in small vessels.”

This tiny snail may hold the secret to the regeneration of the human eye

From Science News: “Golden apple snails are freshwater snails from South America. Alice Accorsi became familiar with the species as a graduate student in Italy. Turns out, the snails are among the most invasive species in the world. And that got Accorsi thinking: Why are they so resilient and able to thrive in new environments? She began studying the snails’ immune systems and has now found they are not the only parts of the animals able to bounce back from adversity. These snails can completely regrow a functional eye within months of having one amputated. Scientists have known for centuries that some snails can regrow their heads, and research has revealed other animals can regenerate bodies, tails or limbs. But this finding is exciting because apple snails have camera-like eyes that are functionally similar to those of humans. Understanding how the snails re-create or repair their eyes might lead to therapies to heal people’s eye injuries or reverse diseases such as macular degeneration.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “Scientists solved a mystery 500 years after da Vinci painted it”

I know what many of you may be thinking now, as you read the headline of this post. You might be remembering the photo reproduced below, in which Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen (who, it must be said, has a large and rather egg-shaped head, no offense intended) is standing with Bill Maris, the head of Google Ventures, and veteran Silicon Valley investor John Doerr from Kleiner Perkins Caulfield Byers — and they are all smiling while wearing pairs of Google Glass, the thin frames with the tiny square camera on one corner (the three men were launching something called the Glass Collective, to invest in offshoots of the undoubtedly soon-to-be-ubiquitous smart glasses). Within minutes of this photo appearing, I would argue that it helped to symbolize a kind of socially inept techno-utopianism that often seems endemic to Silicon Valley (remember the Segway?), and in the process Google Glass almost instantly superseded the previous emblem of nerd-dom, the pocket protector.

Google put the full weight of its corporate branding behind the launch — in a demo presented by Brin at the Google I/O conference in June 2012, four skydivers wearing Google Glass jumped from a blimp and landed on the roof of the Moscone Center in San Francisco while livestreaming their descent. Google said the glasses would be available for pre-order for those in attendance for $1,500. Sales to the public started in 2013 and the product was discontinued in 2015, which is right up there with the shortest product runs in recent memory (the company pivoted to making an Enterprise Edition for use in factories). I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of those sold wound up on bookshelves somewhere or in personal museums — like the one I have that contains a working Palm Pilot, an original Motorola flip phone, a CueCat handheld bar-code reader, and an endless parade of the USB gadgets that get handed out at trade shows.

Note: This is a version of my Torment Nexus newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “Have smart glasses finally hit an inflection point?”

From The Smithsonian: “It’s arguably the most iconic photograph of the 20th century: the Earth rising above the Moon’s bleached and desolate horizon, a breathtaking jewel of color and life more than 230,000 miles away. In December 1968, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders returned from history’s first voyage around the Moon with this stunning image. But one question about the Earthrise photo has dogged historians for almost half a century: Who took it? I discovered the answer 30 years ago when I was researching my book about the Apollo astronauts, A Man on the Moon. I found myself challenging NASA’s official version of the event, and landing in the middle of a dispute between the astronauts themselves. Even after my book was published, the controversy continued for another two decades, until a NASA computer wizard confirmed my conclusion beyond all doubt.

The Burj al-Khalifa tower in Dubai is so tall that fasting during Ramadan lasts longer on the top

From the BBC: “During Ramadan, Muslims are supposed to not eat or drink between dawn and dusk. Burj Khalifa is almost one km (0.6 miles) high, which means people in higher floors can still see the sun after it has set on the ground, said Muslim cleric Ahmed Abdul Aziz al-Haddad. He said they should break their fast two minutes after those on the ground. Another Dubai cleric, Mohammed al-Qubaisi, has been quoted as saying that people living above the 80th floor should fast for an extra two minutes, while those on the 150th floor and higher should wait for three more minutes before eating or drinking. The 828m- (2,716ft-) high Burj Khalifa has 160 floors and was opened in 2010. The clerics say there are ancient precedents in Islamic law and that people living on mountains should also break their fast after those at ground level.”

Note: This is a version of my When The Going Gets Weird newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here.

Continue reading “Who actually took the famous Earthrise photo?”