When odds become absurd. “You’d need to play Powerball for roughly 5.6 million years to have a 50% chance of winning once.” This website shows two lotteries being played every second, making the astronomical odds of a jackpot win visible […]
Google Maps as market maker. The app is not just reflecting, but actively organizing urban demand, transforming restaurant survival “into a cumulative-advantage dynamic that looks remarkably similar to the way capital compounds in financial markets.” ~ learn more
Overuse of noise-cancelling headphones? “You have almost created this false environment by wearing those headphones of only listening to what you want to listen to.” Some audiologists are concerned that this could impact the brain’s ability to process complex sounds. […]
The world needs a better measure of manufacturing output than GDP. “the fundamental problem is that economics treats manufacturing as a flow (inputs, outputs, productivity per hour) when the strategic question is actually about stock. what capabilities exist? who holds […]
The Frontier in 2025. This is great! “How did the world change this year? Which results are speculative? Which are biggest, if true? We collected and scored 202 results. Filter by field, our best guess of the probability that they […]
Top UK comedy club bans audience members with botox. “In a drastic move, those with botox will be unable to see similar stars live at the London venues after stand-up acts shared concerns that audience members with frozen faces aren’t […]
British Prison leaders worried about drone escapes. Inmates might be lifted out of prisons using drones capable of carrying the average British man, warns the president of the Prison Governors Association. “Logistically, the threat is all there now,” he cautions, […]
Growing up in China’s “404 Not Found”. This secret Chinese nuclear city called 404 wasn’t on any map. Built in the Gobi Desert in 1958, it housed elite scientists and workers focused on atomic bomb production. Life there was harsh […]
What an unprocessed photo looks like. “Far from being an ‘unedited’ photo: there’s a huge amount of math that’s gone into making an image that nicely represents what the subject looks like in person.” This deep dive into camera sensor […]
Marginal returns to public universities. “This paper studies the returns to enrolling in American public universities by comparing the long-term outcomes of barely admitted versus barely rejected applicants. … The typical marginally admitted student gains an additional year of education […]