SEEKING ANONYMITY IN A CROWD PART 2
JOHN SEABROOK’s MOST informative “Dressing for the Surveillance Age” in yesterday’s SimanaitisSays got us into the latest of deep-learning facial recognition. Today in Part 2, we learn about our cars’ … Continue reading
SEEKING ANONYMITY IN A CROWD PART 1
IT’S LIKE LIVING IN a small town, where everyone knows everything about everyone else. Or, at least, they think they do. Modern surveillance technology recognizes the face in the crowd. … Continue reading
I’VE GOT A SONG IN MY HEAD—BUT WHERE?
DIFFERENT REGIONS OF the human brain are occupied with different processes. Its right hemisphere controls the left side of the body, and is the more artistic and creative hemisphere; the … Continue reading
THE SILVER LINING OF A GREEN CLOUD
DESPITE EARLY FEARS, it turns out computer technology’s electrical surge is not going to dim the world’s lights. Science magazine, February 28, 2020, publishes details of “Recalibrating Global Data Center … Continue reading
FROM WASTE TO WONDER MATERIAL
SHEETS OF GRAPHENE, a super-strength material, can be zapped from just about any carbon-containing waste. All that’s required is electricity generating immense heat. Here are tidbits on the material, the … Continue reading
SLEEP LIKE A….
PEOPLE HAVE BEEN “sleeping like a log” since the 16th century, or at least they’ve been using this phase to describe it. We and other animals tend to combine sleep … Continue reading
MY MUMMY’S CURSE—BY VOICE MAIL YET
WHAT WITH my recent tidbits here on Akhnaten and his kin, you’d think the spirits of ancient Egypt would look kindly on SimanaitisSays. Then why have I just encountered a … Continue reading
THE HYPERSONIC ARMS RACE
IT ALL BEGAN with bigger sticks, then chemical firepower, then atomic fission, then intercontinental ballistic delivery. The new arms race, with China, Russia, and the U.S. already major players, depends … Continue reading
CELEBRATING VERA RUBIN—HERALDER OF DARK MATTER
THERE ARE PEOPLE who confuse cosmologist with cosmetologist. True, cosmology has to do with stars, but not of the Paltrow or Kardashian variety. According to Merriam-Webster, both terms trace back … Continue reading
THE EYES HAVE IT—0R D0 THℇY?
ARE THESE characters above alphabetical Os or numerical zeroes? Is that a backwards 3 or a stylized alphabetical E, or is it the Greek letter Epsilon or Euler’s constant? Here … Continue reading
