RATINGS INFLATION ON UBER AND ELSEWHERE
Uber asks riders to give their drivers a rating of one to five stars at the end of each trip. But very few people make use of this full scale. That’s because it’s common knowledge among Uber’s users that drivers need to maintain a certain minimum rating to work, and that leaving anything less than five stars could jeopardize their status. Source: qz.com
HOW FAMINE UNDER THE NAZIS REVEALED THE CAUSE OF CELIAC DISEASE
In the winter of 1944, the city of the Hague was going hungry. In fact, all the cities of the western Netherlands were hungry. Railway workers and the country’s government in exile had defied German occupiers with a strike. In response, the Nazis significantly cut off the country’s most populated region from food supplies. The canals also froze, making transportation and escape impossible. What resulted was the “hunger winter,” a famine of unprecedented scale.
Read moreTHE LUCID DREAMING PLAYBOOK: HOW TO TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR DREAMS
In Tibetan Buddhism, the group of tantric techniques known as milam aim to reveal the illusory nature of waking life by having practitioners perform yoga in their dreams. It’s a ritualised version of one of the most mysterious faculties of the human mind: to know that we’re dreaming even while asleep, a state known as lucid dreaming. Source: aeon.co
WHY AND HOW GITLAB ABANDONED MICROSOFT AZURE FOR GOOGLE CLOUD
GitLab chose to move because it’s adopting Kubernetes, an open source project initially released by Google that’s designed to help companies manage applications composed of multiple software containers. It’s a move CEO Sid Sijbrandij said the company’s engineers welcomed with open arms. In his view, Google offers superior performance at a better price than other cloud providers. Source: venturebeat.com
MORE POWER, LESS TOWER: AI MAY MAKE AIRCRAFT CONTROL TOWERS OBSOLETE
It believes AI-powered video systems can better watch runways, taxiways and gate areas. By “seeing” airport operations through as many as 200 cameras, there’s no need for the sightline towers give air traffic controllers. Source: nvidia.com
BEWARE THE TECH THE OLIGARCHS’ “GUARANTEED BASIC INCOME” SCAM
A number of the reigning oligarchs—among them Mark Zuckerberg (net worth $64.1 billion), Elon Musk (net worth $20.8 billion), Richard Branson (net worth $5.1 billion) and Stewart Butterfield (net worth $1.6 billion)—are calling for a guaranteed basic income. It looks progressive. They couch their proposals in the moral language of caring for the destitute and the less fortunate. But behind this is the stark awareness, especially in Silicon Valley, that the world these oligarchs have helped create is so lopsided that future consumers, plagued by job insecurity, substandard wages, automation and crippling debt peonage, will be unable to pay for the products and services offered by the big corporations.
Read moreWHY WHALES GOT SO BIG
The first time I came face to face with a sea lion, I nearly screamed. I was snorkeling, and after a long time spent staring down at colorful corals, I looked up to see a gigantic bull, a couple of feet in front of my mask. Its eyes were opalescent. Its long canines hinted at its close evolutionary ties to land-based predators like bears and dogs. And most unnervingly of all, it was huge.
Read moreTESLA HAS A PROBLEM AND IT’S NOT THE MODEL 3
But 16 months after Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk kicked up controversy by acquiring the solar-panel installer founded by two of his cousins, its obligations are a strain on Tesla’s finances. The $2 billion purchase came with a $2.9 billion debt load, and a chunk of that is soon coming due. That’s bad timing for a company churning through about $6,500 a minute and trying to stave off the need for another capital raise.
Read moreOLDER AMERICANS ARE HOOKED ON VITAMINS DESPITE SCARCE EVIDENCE THEY WORK
More than half of Americans take vitamin supplements, including 68 percent of those age 65 and older, according to a 2013 Gallup poll. Among older adults, 29 percent take four or more supplements of any kind, according to a Journal of Nutrition study published in 2017. Source: californiahealthline.org
PHOTONIC COMMUNICATION COMES TO COMPUTER CHIPS
Startup’s optoelectronic chips could reduce energy usage by up to 50 percent in data centers while increasing computing speeds. Source: mit.edu