News

Hurricane forecasts have gotten insanely better over the last 20 years

The Results of a 100,000-Person Quantum Experiment Seem To Violate Einstein’s Theory of Local Realism

What Astronomers Are Learning from Gaia’s New Milky Way Map

Artificial Neural Nets Grow Brainlike Navigation Cells

Having the sense to take a shortcut, the most direct route from point A to point B, doesn’t sound like a very impressive test of intelligence. Yet according to a new report appearing today in Nature, in which researchers describe the performance of their new navigational artificial intelligence, the system’s ability to explore complex simulated environments and find the shortest route to a goal put it in a class previously reserved for humans and other living things. The surprising key to the system’s performance was that while learning how to navigate, the neural net spontaneously developed the equivalent of “grid cells,” sets of brain cells that enable at least some mammals to track their location in space.

Shortwave Trading: The West Chicago Tower Mystery

Since 2014 this blog has extensively covered the wireless networks built by high-frequency trading (HFT) firms or network providers to reduce latencies between the different exchanges around the world (market makers need fast connectivity to manage risk, news traders also need to be fast, etc.). This epic investigation on microwave, which started with HFT in my backyard, will be fully reported in a book I’m currently writing (in French for now). As I’m quite busy with this writing (and other/more interesting matters about market structure), I didn’t really have the time to check out what I have been hearing about “shortwave” or “high frequency” radio.

Smartphones Are Killing the Planet Faster Than Anyone Expected

A new study from researchers at McMaster University published in the Journal of Cleaner Production analyzed the carbon impact of the whole Information and Communication Industry (ICT) from around 2010-2020, including PCs, laptops, monitors, smartphones, and servers. They found remarkably bad news. Even as the world shifts away from giant tower PCs toward tiny, energy-sipping phones, the overall environmental impact of technology is only getting worse.

Early thoughts on Uber’s flying car from an aviation engineer

Spying on a Storm’s Infrasonic Signals to Improve Tornado Warnings

Google launches the third version of its A.I. chips, an alternative to Nvidia’s

Google Duplex will call salons, restaurants, and pretend to be human for you [Updated]