fun facts
Swedish royal family’s crown jewels stolen in speedboat heist.
“Two thieves escaped a cathedral in Sweden with priceless historical ornaments, taking off in a speedboat moored nearby.” | learn more
fun facts
How air conditioning created the modern city.
How could I not take this opportunity to share a cool article about air conditioning? | learn more
thoughts of food
Wheat gene map could boost food security and lower allergies.
“Scientists announced today they have mapped out more than 94% of the genome of Chinese Spring bread wheat — adding that by manipulating its genetic code, people could eventually improve global food security and possibly alleviate some immune disorders like […]
thoughts of food
14,000-year-old bread rewrites history of baking.
“Breadcrumbs found at an excavation in Jordan reveal that humans were baking thousands of years earlier than previously believed. It may have even prompted them to settle down and plant cereals.” | learn more
under the microscope
AI reads eye scans as well as humans.
“Doctors at a U.K. eye hospital are getting algorithmic help interpreting the results of 3D eye scans, using a system developed at Google’s DeepMind that can identify more than 50 eye problems and recommend a course of action with human […]
better doing
Netflix culture deck.
I mentioned this deck a few weeks ago when linking to a video by Netflix former Chief Talent Officer Patty McCord. I decided to dig it up and take another run through it. Now that I have, I’m reminded of just how […]
retail therapy
E-tailers using empty mall spaces to test products.
Not much of a surprise, but it bears repeating: there’s a lot of empty mall space already, and a lot more to come. Digiday discusses some of the plans already in motion to repurpose it for the benefit of innovators. | learn […]
on the blockchain
Methodologies for measuring project health.
Nadia Eghbal discusses the different approaches to measuring the health of open-source projects. She goes well beyond the basics of # of commits and pull requests. |learn more
on the blockchain
Zero knowledge proofs: an illustrated primer.
This is not an easy topic to grasp, but I think it’ll be an important one in the future. Cryptographer Matthew Green does a nice job of simplifying the concepts involved and stepping through them slowly. Still, maybe don’t read […]