#0173: 52+ Things I Learned in 2024
A list of links that I found interesting each week throughout 2024
10 min readDec 27, 2024
Over the year, I try to find something interesting to read and digest each week related to or at least adjacent to what I am currently working on. Sometimes, the links are helpful; sometimes, they are whimsical or amusing; other times, they are totally random. Initially inspired by this, I have managed to do this for the last few years (2023, 2022).
What follows is a list of things that I could say “This week I learned…” to for each week in 2024. Some weeks were busier than others, so they have a couple of extra links at no extra cost. Enjoy!
- Coca-Cola’s accidentally terrifying Christmas card AI image generator: Coca-Cola’s use of an AI-powered image generator for Christmas cards led to unexpected and often bizarre results.
#CocaColaAI#ChristmasCardChaos#AIBranding#HolidayMarketing#TechSurprises - Foundations by Greg Egan: Foundations is a series of articles initially published in “Eidolon” magazine, focusing on key twentieth-century physics theories that have significantly influenced science fiction. These articles, aimed at the lay reader, explain how the theories lead to precise predictions of physical effects.
#ScienceFictionPhysics#EidolonMagazine#ModernPhysics#LaymanScience#TheoreticalPhysicsExplained - Mouse secretly filmed tidying man’s shed every night: A Welsh wildlife photographer discovered a mouse tidying up his shed almost every night for two months.
#WelshTidyMouse#RodneyHolbrook#MouseHousekeeper#NightVisionDiscovery#AnimalAntics - All the types of science fiction: This article humorously categorises various tropes and themes found in science fiction literature.
#SciFiGenres#ScienceFictionSatire#LiteraryHumor#SciFiTropes#Humour - Brains Are Not Required When It Comes to Thinking and Solving Problems — Simple Cells Can Do It: This article discusses how simple cells, like slime moulds, exhibit cognitive abilities traditionally associated with more complex organisms.
#CognitiveCells#SlimeMoldIntelligence#ProblemSolving#BrainlessBrains#ScientificAmerican
Google Is 2 Billion Lines of Code — And It’s All in One Place: The article compares Google’s codebase complexity to other major software systems.#Google#Codebase#SoftwareEngineering#TechInnovation#Programming
A Parliament of Owls and a Murder of Crows: The article reveals the origins of collective nouns for birds, complemented by Brian Wildsmith’s illustrations.#Birds#CollectiveNouns#Language#Illustration#Wildlife - Ancient Herculaneum scroll piece revealed by AI: Artificial intelligence has unlocked the contents of a papyrus scroll from Herculaneum.
#AncientTexts#AI#HerculaneumScrolls#Philosophy#VesuviusChallenge - Air Canada’s chatbot gave a B.C. man the wrong information. Now, the airline has to pay for the mistake: Air Canada must compensate a B.C. man after its chatbot provided incorrect information about bereavement fares.
#AirCanada#CustomerServiceFail#ChatbotError#BereavementFare#TravelRights - GoPro Ride Through an Electron Beam Irradiator at Full Beam Power: A GoPro, shielded by lead, survives a trip through an electron beam irradiation.
#ElectronBeam#GoProAdventure#RadiationShielding#ScienceExperiment#TechSurvival
The Age of Average: The article explores the homogenisation of culture and creativity, leading to widespread uniformity.#AgeOfAverage#CreativityCrisis#CulturalHomogenisation#UniformityInDesign#LackOfOriginality#TyrannyOfTheBanal
BT Tower is to be turned into a hotel: The BT Tower, a London landmark, will be converted into a hotel while preserving its iconic status.#BTTower#LondonHotel#IconicLandmarks#HotelConversion#TravelUK - There is a Billionaire-Fueled Lobbying Group Behind the State Bills to Ban Basic Income Experiments: The “Foundation for Government Accountability” is pushing for laws to prohibit basic income experiments in the US, countering evidence of their positive outcomes.
#UBI#BasicIncome#Lobbying#EconomicEquality#PolicyChange - There is an Antarctica Accent: Scientists in Antarctica developed a unique accent after extended isolation, blending international accents into a new way of speaking.
#AntarcticAccent#Linguistics#IsolationPhenomenon#LanguageEvolution#SocialDynamics - The strange world of crocodile hairballs and the Queenslanders who collect them: A group of Queenslanders collect crocodile hairballs, also known as bezoars, for scientific and personal reasons.
#CrocodileBezoars#QueenslandCollectors#WildlifeCuriosities#NaturalOddities#BezoarCollection - Brighter Than a Cloud: The article explores the vivid and complex experiences of migraine sufferers, focusing on the visual phenomena known as scintillating scotoma and their impact on perception and creativity.
#MigraineAwareness#ScintillatingScotoma#ArtAndScience#HistoricalPerspectives#CreativeInspirationInsight 💡 I get these kinds of aura regularly. Luckily, they don’t go on to be actual migraines. Drs have referred to this phenomenon as “pre-migraine”. I’m glad that they don’t go on to full migraines, as other members of my family have experienced debilitating episodes over the years. I have tried to explain what I see to others but never had much luck. The best example I could come up with was this: imagine sitting in a cinema where the screen is what you see out of your eyes (an obviously bad metaphor). Then, imagine that someone behind the screen has stabbed through with a knife and slashed a portion of the screen so that there is a flap that no longer holds any image. That’s kinda what I see when I get one of these. - Autotab is a digital robot you can hire starting at $1/hour. It works 24/7/365 and does not need lunch breaks.: Autotab offers 24/7 automation solutions for repetitive tasks, trained through demonstration and priced at $1 per hour.
#AI#Automation#Productivity#AIAssistant#Robots - Parrots love playing tablet games. That’s helping researchers understand them: This article discusses how parrot interaction with tablet games aids researchers in understanding their cognitive abilities and designing technology for animal use.
#Parrots#AnimalCognition#PetTech#BehavioralResearch#CognitiveEnrichment - The expression “hermeneutic of suspicion”: This term underpins much of modern (post-Enlightenment) thinking, emphasising that words may not always mean what they seem to mean.
#Hermeneutics#CriticalThinking#TextualAnalysis#CulturalBias#Skepticism - The Death of the Big 4: AI-Enabled Services Are Opening a Whole New Market: AI-enabled services threaten traditional service models dominated by firms like the Big 4 by offering AI-powered solutions that present significant challenges to established players that rely on human labour and traditional business models.
#AIRevolution#ServiceDisruption#FutureOfWork#TechInnovation#StartupOpportunities - Baby Penguins Jump Off 50-Foot Cliff in First-of-Its-Kind Drone Footage: This footage captures emperor penguin chicks jumping from a 50-foot cliff into the ocean as part of their maturation process.
#EmperorPenguins#DroneFootage#Antarctica#WildlifePhotography#NatureDocumentary - Crows Are Self-Aware Just Like Humans, And They May Be as Smart as Gorillas: A study reveals that crows possess a type of self-awareness similar to humans, demonstrating advanced cognitive abilities.
#Crows#AnimalIntelligence#SelfAwareness#CognitiveScience#BirdBrains - Here are 10 mind hacks to use with Gen X: As a GenX-er myself, I started reading this tweet with faux outrage primed and ready to go. As it turns out, the list is surprisingly accurate and I simply can’t understand why everyone isn’t in 100% agreement. It outlines ten strategies for effectively engaging Generation X, emphasising autonomy, concise communication, mission-driven work, life balance, and straightforward feedback. Which is, obviously, the 100% correct answer.
#GenX#LeadershipTips#WorkCulture#GenerationalDifferences#CommunicationSkills#GetOffMyLawn - Why Are Men More Vulnerable to Depression in Fatherhood?: Fathers face an increased risk of depression during the perinatal period, influenced by economic stress, lack of paternal leave, and infant care challenges.
#Fatherhood#MentalHealth#PerinatalDepression#FamilyDynamics#PaternalLeave - AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd, by looking at them just once: Researchers at the University of Washington have developed AI-powered headphones that let users focus on a single speaker in a noisy environment by looking at them for a few seconds, enhancing auditory clarity significantly.
#AI#Headphones#NoiseCancelling#SpeechRecognition#TechInnovation - Dunbar’s number: Dunbar’s number, proposed by anthropologist Robin Dunbar, suggests that humans can maintain stable social relationships with approximately 150 individuals, a limit influenced by cognitive capacity and observed in various social organisations.
#DunbarsNumber#SocialNetworks#Anthropology#HumanRelationships#CognitiveLimit - Systemanitcs: The Underground Text of Systems Lore: “Systemantics: The Underground Text of Systems Lore” by John Gall explores how complex systems operate and often fail, offering insights into systemic behaviours and the pitfalls of large-scale organisational structures.
#Systemantics#JohnGall#SystemsTheory#ComplexSystems#OrganizationalBehavior - Borges on Chaos Theory: This article examines Borges’ “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote,” exploring its connections to chaos theory and the evolution of meanings over time.
#Borges#ChaosTheory#ShortStories#LiteraryCritique#DonQuixote - How Actors Remember Their Lines: The article explores how actors use elaborative rehearsal and deep understanding of context to memorise lines, a method applicable to anyone.
#Memory#Acting#Psychology#Cognition#Learning - Tricking AI Models into Harmful Responses: Research highlights vulnerabilities in LLMs that allow for exploitation, such as producing harmful responses through attacks like format mismatch.
#AI#LLM#CyberSecurity#Research#TechNews - Goldman Sachs thinks that there is too much being spent on generative AI with too little benefit to show for it: Goldman Sachs questions the economic returns on generative AI investments, contrasting sceptical and optimistic perspectives.
#GenerativeAI#Productivity#AIInvestment#TechEconomy#Innovation - A Few Notes on The Culture by Ian M Banks: Ian M Banks provides insights into the inspirations behind his Culture series, exploring its economic and cultural concepts.
#TheCulture#IanMBanks#SciFi#SpaceOpera#Novel - ‘New El Nino’ discovered south of equator: Researchers discovered a new climate pattern, the “Southern Hemisphere Circumpolar Wavenumber-4 Pattern,” significantly affecting global weather systems.
#ClimateChange#WeatherPatterns#ElNino#PacificOcean#ClimateResearch - AI achieves silver-medal standard solving International Mathematical Olympiad problems: DeepMind’s AI models, AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2, achieved silver medal-level performance in solving complex mathematical problems.
#AI#Mathematics#DeepMind#IMO#AlphaProof - The Infinity Machine: Simon Tatham speculates on a theoretical computer capable of infinite processing speed, examining its implications for computing and cryptography.
#InfinityMachine#Computing#TechSpeculation#Programming#Cryptography - The bizarre secrets I found investigating corrupt Winamp skins: Jordan Eldredge uncovered hidden files, encrypted archives, and personal messages while investigating corrupt Winamp skins, revealing unexpected digital curiosities.
#Winamp#DigitalForensics#HiddenFiles#TechExploration#CyberMysteries - The enemies within: How the pandemic radicalised Britain: This article explores how the pandemic intensified far-right radicalisation in Britain, fueled by lockdowns and vaccine opposition.
#Radicalization#FarRight#PandemicImpact#SocialUnrest#UKPolitics - Tech Leadership Maxims: Aviv Ben-Yosef shares strategic advice for tech leaders, focusing on innovation, growth mindsets, and avoiding managerial pitfalls.
#TechLeadership#Innovation#GrowthMindset#ManagementTips#LeadershipAdvice - In Leak, Facebook Partner Brags About Listening to Your Phone’s Microphone to Serve Ads for Stuff You Mention: The article raises concerns about claims of Facebook partners using smartphone microphones for ad targeting, despite denials from the company.
#PrivacyConcerns#DataSecurity#BigTech#Facebook#AdTargeting - Why do the British drive on the left?: This article explores the historical and cultural reasons behind the UK’s left-side driving tradition, tracing it back to Roman times.
#BritishHistory#DrivingOnTheLeft#Napoleon#HenryFord#Tradition - Solar will get too cheap to connect to the power grid: As solar power becomes cheaper, off-grid solutions and battery storage may replace reliance on traditional power grids.
#SolarEnergy#RenewableEnergy#Sustainability#CleanTech#FutureOfEnergy - The Hindenburg’s Interior: Vintage Photos Reveal What Luxury Air Travel Was Like in the 1930s: Vintage photos showcase the luxurious interior of the Hindenburg airship, a marvel of 1930s transatlantic travel before its tragic demise.
#Hindenburg#LuxuryTravel#AviationHistory#Zeppelin#1930s - Dropped Cheetos Could Have Triggered Ecosystem Chaos In Largest US Cave Chamber: A bag of Cheetos disrupted the delicate ecosystem of Carlsbad Caverns, highlighting the environmental impact of human actions.
#Ecosystem#Pollution#Conservation#CarlsbadCaverns#Environment - Can Space-Time Be Saved?: Physicist Latham Boyle explores the possibility of preserving space-time in physics by leveraging its underlying symmetries, offering solutions to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity.
#Physics#QuantumGravity#SpaceTime#Symmetry#TheoryOfEverything - Physicists Reveal a Quantum Geometry That Exists Outside of Space and Time: This article discusses a groundbreaking quantum geometry that could reshape our understanding of the universe beyond conventional space-time frameworks.
#QuantumPhysics#QuantumGeometry#SpaceTime#Physics#ScienceResearch - Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Joyful Life: The article explores the concept of ikigai, or “reason for being,” as a means to achieve a fulfilling and joyful life, with insights into its benefits for mental and physical health.
#Ikigai#Purpose#MentalHealth#JapaneseCulture#Wellbeing - Quit Social Media: Cal Newport advocates quitting social media to regain control over attention and focus on valuable, high-quality work.
#Focus#Productivity#SocialMedia#AttentionEconomy#CalNewport - Mitochondria Are Alive: This article explores the theory that mitochondria, often regarded as cellular organelles, may be considered living entities with independent biological roles.
#Mitochondria#Biology#Endosymbiosis#Evolution#LifeScience - Somebody moved UK’s oldest satellite, and no-one knows who or why: Skynet-1A, the UK’s oldest satellite, has mysteriously shifted to a new orbit, raising concerns about space sustainability.
#Skynet1A#SpaceJunk#Satellite#SpaceSustainability#UKSpace - Ticker-tape synesthesia: Ticker-tape synesthesia is a phenomenon where individuals see spoken words as subtitles or text, providing unique insights into perception and cognition.
#TickerTapeSynesthesia#Synesthesia#MentalImages#Perception#Cognition - How AI Could Break the Career Ladder: The rise of AI risks automating entry-level jobs, disrupting traditional pathways for career development and skill acquisition.
#AI#Automation#Jobs#CareerLadder#FutureOfWork - The Tech Utopia Fantasy is Over: This article critiques the idealised vision of technology solving global issues, exploring its unintended societal and environmental consequences.
#TechUtopia#TechCritique#SocialImpact#FutureOfTech#InnovationChallenge - The Fiat factory has a track on its roof: The Lingotto building in Turin, Italy, featured a rooftop test track for Fiat cars, now repurposed as a public space and hanging garden.
#Fiat#Lingotto#Turin#LaPista500#UrbanRenewal - AI Is the Black Mirror: Philosopher Shannon Vallor critiques the framing of AI as human-like intelligence, warning against undervaluing human agency and wisdom.
#AI#HumanCognition#ShannonVallor#TechnologyEthics#ArtificialIntelligence - Being human in the age of AI: Evgeny Shadchnev argues that humans should embrace other aspects of humanity beyond intelligence as AI becomes more ubiquitous.
#AI#HumanIdentity#Adaptation#Technology#Philosophy - The number Pi has an evil twin!: The article explores the “conjugate of Pi,” an intriguing mathematical constant with unique properties.
#Mathematics#Pi#NumberTheory#Conjugate#MathFacts
Regards,
M@
Originally posted on matthewsinclair.com and cross-posted on Medium.
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