Science ‘anus’ as easy as it seems

September 15, 2024

Science anus as easy as it seems: The Ig Nobel Prize (a play on the Nobel Prize) honors those doing quirkier work. Some of this year’s award-winning discoveries: Real plants can imitate the shapes of nearby fake plants, a coin is more likely to land on the side it started (heads or tails), and many mammals can breathe through their anuses. Yup, you read that right.

Tags: Easy, fake, plants, play, prize, Real, science, work

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Need some extra cash? 15 jobs you can do from home

Working remotely isn’t suitable for everybody. But in the wake of the pandemic, it has seen a considerable boon globally. Tap or click here for legit ways to find work-from-home jobs.

If you’re interested in earning a living from home, there is no better time to get involved with the right opportunity.

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Will we merge with AI by 2050?

ChatGPT launched in November 2022. I’ll never forget the thought that hit me after a few minutes of playing around with it: This is going to change every single thing.

Less than two years later, yep, it has. Website traffic is in the tank, Google is panicking and the web as we know it has changed already. Now imagine what’s coming in the next five, 10 or 20 years.

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C SEED N1 TV: The world's first unfolding 137-inch microLED TV

Have a spare $300,000 sitting around? Call me: … Or you could spend it on the C SEED N1, a 4K TV that unfolds like a Transformer in 90 seconds. When you’re done binging, it turns back into a funky metal sculpture.

$1,100 dog stroller

For sale in South Korea, where the human birth rate is 0.72. That’s the lowest in the world (paywall link) and one-third of what’s needed to maintain their population. Dog stroller sales just outpaced sales of baby strollers for the first time in the country, and the Airbuggy is a hot commodity. The government there is stork-raving mad.

SpaceX performs historic first spacewalk with Polaris Dawn crew

SpaceX pulled off its first spacewalk in the early hours of Thursday morning, Sept. 12. The marquee event of the private Polaris Dawn mission went smoothly, with two of the crew members stepping outside of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, “Resilience.” It’s the first time civilians, rather than government astronauts, have performed a spacewalk.

75% memory boost

For older folks who mixed up their mental exercises. Just like with food, a “diet” of only a couple of things is less effective than a diet with a variety of foods. This study used different exercises for working memory — aka our ability to remember information while performing other tasks.

17% worse

Test results for kids who used AI as a study assistant. Students were split into three groups: One working through practice problems on their own, one using ChatGPT and one in which ChatGPT worked like a tutor. The kids who used AI all scored worse on their exams, likely because they used the bot as a crutch instead of truly learning.

2 years

Time since becoming the Prince of Wales that Prince William began using the Duolingo app to learn Welsh. Makes me wonder why he didn’t learn it before that happened. Bore da! (That’s “Good morning” in Welsh.) Go ahead and try to pronounce this 58-letter Welsh town’s name: lanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch.

$700 PlayStation 5 Pro

Isn’t worth it for most gamers. It’s 75% more expensive than the PS5 was when it launched. What’s the big deal? A larger GPU, advanced ray tracing and AI-driven upscaling. Translation: Sharper images with more detail.

$200,000 machine

For creating diamonds, now listed for sale on Alibaba. The two main methods for making lab-grown diamonds are the HPHT process and chemical vapor deposition. Sadly, it’s not as easy as just shelling out for the machine. Making your own lab-grown diamonds requires a whole lot of money and expertise. Talk about a gem of a job!