Matt Levine, writing for Bloomberg: Is there a Harvard Business School case study of MoviePass yet? I feel like there are a lot of lessons to be learned from the MoviePass story, but maybe that’s wrong. Maybe all of the lessons are just “if you do the opposite of normal business things, it will work, but only for a while.” Maybe…
Tag: weird
The hardest thing about robots? Teaching them to cope with us
Humans are spectacularly weird and unpredictable. Computer scientist Anca Dragan is working on helpful robots that understand how we get things wrong Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24332421-900-the-hardest-thing-about-robots-teaching-them-to-cope-with-us/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
A closer look at Io’s weird volcanoes
Io’s volcanoes have fascinated scientists since the Voyager 1 spacecraft first discovered them nearly 40 years ago. Now a comprehensive new report – based on ground-based studies – unveils new mysteries about the most volcanically active world in our solar system. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/new-report-ios-enigmatic-volcanoes…
A new species of duck-billed dinosaur
Duck-billed dinosaurs – hadrosaurids – were common 80 million years ago. Now scientists have discovered a complete skull of a previously unknown species of hadrosaurid, which sported unusual skull and face features. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/new-species-duck-billed-dinosaur-texas…
Breakthrough Listen’s new search for alien lasers
For the last few decades, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has focused on detecting radio signals. But a new collaboration between Breakthrough Listen and VERITAS will focus on looking for laser-like flashes of light. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/breakthrough-listen-seti-optical-beacons-technosignatures…
Weird new type of magnetic liquid could be used to control soft robots
A strange liquid magnet full of iron nanoparticles can change its shape in a magnetic field, and it may eventually be used to make wireless, moving soft robots Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2210405-weird-new-type-of-magnetic-liquid-could-be-used-to-control-soft-robots/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
There aren’t enough space explosions to explain strange radio bursts
Weird flashes of radio waves from space could in theory be coming from huge explosions, but now we know the radio bursts occur too often for that idea to work Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2209850-there-arent-enough-space-explosions-to-explain-strange-radio-bursts/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Is the Random Transiter weirder than Tabby’s Star?
Move over, Tabby’s Star. The Random Transiter may now be the weirdest star in the galaxy. Kepler data revealed 28 transits in front of this star in 87 days. What caused them? Multiple planets? A disintegrating planet? Alien megastructures? Source: https://earthsky.org/space/random-transiter-hd-139139-kepler-tabbys-star…
Unidentified Sonic Phenomenon Causing ‘Hangover’ Symptoms in Brooklyn
I’m a sucker for unidentified sonic phenomena. The latest weird noise to pop up in the news comes by way of the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, where residents say a mysterious and unidentified noise has been causing painful side-effects and curious medical conditions for months. Oddly enough, some of the symptoms seem eerily… Read more » Source: https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2019/07/unidentified-sonic-phenomenon-causing-hangover-symptoms-in-brooklyn/…
7 bizarre objects from the festival’s worth of trash left on the moon
The Apollo 11 lunar lander and other moon missions left behind some weird stuff, including cannons, bags of poop, golf balls and the secrets to top magic tricks Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24332380-500-7-bizarre-objects-from-the-festivals-worth-of-trash-left-on-the-moon/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…