A proposed AI assistant would track what you’re looking at and then comment on it - using your own voice - into your ear

researchers at Meta’s Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) lab were able to accurately decode unspoken sentences from brain signals recorded outside the skull — no surgery required.

Thieves used a stolen card to buy a $523,000 lottery ticket. The victim wants to share the winnings

A 30-year old woman who travelled to three popular destinations became a medical mystery after doctors found an infestation of parasitic worms in her brain. […] the woman ate street food in Bangkok and raw sushi in Tokyo, and enjoyed more sushi and salad as well as a swim in the ocean in Hawaii

Anthocyanins in nuts, fruits and vegetables seem to lessen harmful effects of microplastics on reproductive systems, study

South Korea is the most glaring example. It has the lowest fertility rate in the world: just 0.72 in 2023. It’s also a country where women do nearly three hours more of household chores each day than men do. […] In Japan and Italy, women spend three hours more than men per day on household and care tasks. In Sweden, it’s less than an hour difference. Sweden’s fertility rate is notably higher. [Washington Post]

IQ numbers for historical figures are made up … the studies correlating IQ to genius are mostly bad science … the standard error of measurement of IQ tests is around seven points, meaning you should regularly expect things like 10-20 point spreads … The situation is even worse for IQs of 140 plus

sample of 8,553 Americans […] we find intelligence, as measured with Wordsum, to have the largest effect size, negatively predicting belief in astrology […] Education also predicts disbelief, supporting the “superficial knowledge” hypothesis. Measures of religiosity and spirituality had null effects, in contradiction of the “metaphysical uncertainty” hypothesis that a need for metaphysical beliefs causes one to believe in astrology. We find that right-wing individuals are less likely to believe in astrology, in contradiction to Theodore W. Adorno’s “authoritarian” of astrology.

How (much) do people revise their goals after goal success and failure? A meta-analysis and research agenda on goal revision

Breaking into dozens of apartment buildings in five minutes on my phone

AI cracks superbug problem in two days that took scientists years

Social media posts and websites claim that the way in which people perceive ambiguous images (Duck-Rabbit, Younger-Older Woman, Rubin’s Vase and Horse-Seal) reveals insights into their personality and thinking style. […] Many of the claims received no empirical support and so constitute a new type of psychological myth

Searching for Rimbaud’s Lost Manuscript

We present an extremely simple sorting algorithm. It may look like it is obviously wrong, but we prove that it is in fact correct.

Frequent flyers have spent years staying loyal to airlines. Now airlines are giving them ‘the middle finger’

Fly simulator

every day the same again | February 24th, 2025