Month: September 2015

Vimeo is terrible

it is 2015, and you still can’t skip to a random point in a vimeo video. super primitive. i don’t get the appeal of that site at all.

Most Complicated Watch

no technology ever dies. this is perhaps the most complicated mechanical device ever.

To celebrate its 260 years of uninterrupted history, Vacheron Constantin has revealed the Vacheron Constantin Reference 57260 pocket watch is the most complicated watch ever made. Commissioned by one of the top collectors in the world and the result of 8 years of research, development, prototyping, manufacturing, and assembly all performed in Vacheron Constantin’s Atelier Cabinotiers haute horlogerie workshop, this unique piece was conceived to be the most complex mechanical timepiece ever created – taking the title from another pocket watch, the Patek Philippe Caliber 89 pocket watch and its 33 complications and 1728 components.

We should mention that there is not one definitive rule as to what can and cannot be called a complication. Theoretically, everything beyond the simple timekeeping functions (hours, minutes, seconds), all functions could be called that, but some argue that features such as retrograde date displays or even the tourbillon do not count as such. Nevertheless, we will refer to these functions cumulatively both as complications and features – and when you count all of them, you will find that the Vacheron Constantin Reference 57260 pocket watch has a record-setting 57 complications.

Synapse Engineering

we can now control the minds of creatures with up to 300 neurons

The Virome

the virome outnumbers the biome 10x: for every human cell, there are 10 bacterial cells, and 100 virii

The quantum OS

will this new experiment finally convince everyone that local realism is dead, and that quantum mechanics might indeed be the operating system of reality?

GTA True Detective

LIBOR scam

all bankers are fundamentally banksters. this scam did 10s of billions of damage.

Was Tom Hayes Running the Biggest Financial Conspiracy in History?

Transit strike upside

of the regular commuters affected by the strike, either because certain stations were closed or because travel times were considerably different, ~5% decided to stick with their new route once the strike was over.

Using DL to learn chess

Giraffe has taught itself to play chess by evaluating positions much more like humans and in an entirely different way to conventional chess engines. It is equivalent to FIDE International Master status, placing it within the top 2.2% of tournament chess players.

Paleo is BS

The idea that prehistoric people didn’t eat grain “is just wrong. It’s misinformed. People ate what they could get their hands on. Eating is surviving.”