Zombie Moore’s Law, Kidney Stones on Rollercoasters, and Cursing: Lux Recommends #51
Welcome to Lux Recommends #51, the newest edition of what we at Lux are reading and thinking about (and want to receive this by email? Sign up here).
Articles
Zombie Moore’s Law shows hardware is eating software: “The cheap and easy gains of the last fifty years of Moore’s Law gave birth to a global technology industry. The next little while — somewhere between twenty and fifty years out — will be dominated by a transition from software into hardware, a confusion of the two so complete it will literally become impossible to know where the boundary between the two lies.” — Zavain
The Strange Victorian Computer That Generated Latin Verse: “Called the Eureka, it may have influenced Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace.” — Sam
Isaac Asimov Asks, “How Do People Get New Ideas?” “Consequently, the person who is most likely to get new ideas is a person of good background in the field of interest and one who is unconventional in his habits. (To be a crackpot is not, however, enough in itself.)” — Shahin
Riding rollercoasters makes it easier to pass kidney stones: “Two scientists carried a urine-filled, 3D-printed kidney onto Disney World rides in the name of science. Sixty rides later, they confirmed that getting jostled in a roller coaster makes it easier to pass kidney stones.” — Adam K
The Green Universe: A Vision: A grand vision for humanity spreading out in the cosmos, from Freeman Dyson, in the context of reviewing three books on space. — Sam
Brain coprocessors: “The need for operating systems to help brains and machines work together.” — Shahin
Scientist reviews most painful insect stings he’s ever received: ‘Tarantula hawk (4): “Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair dryer has just been dropped into your bubble bath.”’— Adam K
Why Do We Love to Curse So Much? Two new books about cursing. And don’t forget this great essay from some years back by Steven Pinker that’s a great companion piece. — Adam K
Earth Temperature Timeline: xkcd on Global Warming and the argument that “temperature has changed before.” — Zavain
The Periodic Table of Elements Scaled to Show The Elements’ Actual Abundance on Earth — Sam
And finally, Red Sox field staffers used new machine, new technology, to cut image of David Ortiz into Fenway field — Alex Furst, friend of Lux
Books
PopCo by Scarlett Thomas: Codes, buried treasure, pop culture and commercialism, toy design , network science, and more. What’s not to love? — Sam
Videos
Watch these skydivers try the longest swing ever —Adam G
Swarm of bees follows car for 2 days to rescue queen trapped in back.— Adam K
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