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Explanations for the Havana Syndrome
Science News, Physics, Science, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 2,038 posts.
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An Introduction to Lagrange Multipliers
Lagrange multipliers are used in multivariable calculus to find maxima and minima of a function subject to constraints (like "find the highest elevation along the given path" or "minimize the cost of materials for a box enclosing a given volume"). It's a useful technique, but all too often it is poorly taught and…
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The Greedy Doctor Problem
TL;DR: How to reason about people who are smarter than you. A few proposals, interspersed with reinforcement learning and humorous fiction. Ending on a surprising connection to logical inductors.
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How to grow sodium chloride crystals at home
After trying for 3 years, I found a way to grow transparent, high quality sodium chloride crystals at home. Here's my procedure.
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What really happened at the Millennium Tower?
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] The Millennium Tower is the tallest residential building in San Francisco, with 58 stories above the ground and 419 luxury condominium units. The tower opened to residents in 2009, but even before construction was finished, engi
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When did computer science theory get so hard?
I posted on When did Math get so hard? a commenter pointed out that one can also ask When did Computer Science Theory Get so Hard? For t...
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How to make a CPU – a simple picture-based explanation
The purpose of this article is to explain how to make a CPU out of rocks and sand as fast as possible without using too many words. As the world of proprietary hardware and software crushes in around us, we risk losing the ability to make things for ourselves as individuals. It is for this reason that I felt compelled…
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Ancient secrets of computer vision
This class is a general introduction to computer vision. It covers standard techniques in image processing like filtering, edge detection, stereo, flow, etc. (old-school vision), as well as newer, machine-learning based computer vision. It was originally offered in the spring of 2018 at the University of Washington .
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Helion
I’m delighted to be investing more in Helion. Helion is by far the most promising approach to fusion I’ve seen. David and Chris are two of the most impressive founders and builders (in the sense...
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Organ transplant patients may not get dementia
When I was in college, I applied for an internship at the Huffington Post, that venerable bastion of journalism. Before my interview, I was given a spreadsheet of articles and associated view counts. I was asked to formulate and present a hypothesis about which types of articles generate the most views.
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Curves and Surfaces
Interactive article explaining how curves and surfaces are modeled.
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SoME1 results
Reflections on the Summer of Math Exposition
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Unusual Locomotives
The Douglas Self Site, steam locomotive, Shay, Climax, Mallet, Garratt, Turbomotive, Reid-Ramsey
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The main thing about Phenylacetone meth is that there's so much of it
Since around 2009, methamphetamines have been made with phenylacetone (P2P). Is there a chemical different causing schizophrenia?
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Starship is still not understood
Another entry into my blog series on countering misconceptions in space journalism. I discussed this post on The Space Show on November 5 2021. It has been exactly two years since my initial posts …
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Grand mosaic of the Milky Way is now larger than ever
This blog is all about astrophotography and it works mainly as an imaging diary. J-P Metsavainio is a Finnish astrophotographer,
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Two conspiracy theories about cola
Does cola contain a drug to prevent you from throwing up from the sugar? And is Mexican Coke somehow better than American Coke?
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A Meta-Scientific Perspective on Thinking: Fast and Slow (2020)
2011 was an important year in the history of psychology, especially social psychology. First, it became apparent that one social psychologist had faked results for dozens of publications (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diederik_Stapel). Second, a highly respected journal published an article with the incredible claim…
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The Overview Effect – William Shatner's Words After Returning from Space
William Shatner's profound words about his experience in space after returning on Blue Origin NS-18:
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A lesser known mechanism for alcohol tolerance
People who drink a lot of alcohol have a high alcohol tolerance. By this, I mean two things:
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Conterintuitive facts in mathematics, CS, and physics
It is possible to compute over encrypted data without access to the secret key: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomorphic_encryption
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The big alcohol study that didn't happen
Why did a huge alcohol RCT get cancelled? A strange story of science, academia, bureaucratic maneuvering, ambition, politics, capitalism, the deep state, secret emails, and slippery ethical slopes.
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The Martians of Budapest
The Martians of Budapest”, sometimes referred to as simply “The Martians” is a colloquial term used to describe a group of prominent Hungarian physicists and mathematicians who emigrated to the United States following the Great Purge of 1933. The term refers to—what appeared, from the perspective of Americans—to be a…