Knuth: Knight's Tours in Olin Hall
Knuth is a national treasure — Knight's tours are one of humankind's earliest known combinatorial patterns. They originated in Kashmir and Persia, about 1200 years ago, and they've had a substantial, continuous history ever since then — first in Asia, then eventually in Europe, and finally in the Americas, Africa, and Australia. I've often seen appealing examples of knight's tours in books. But never before had I seen one at “real life size”, with tiles that are 2.5 inches square, as they are in this exhibit. Large enough to trace the path easily with your fingers. (But please be careful not to damage it, of course.)
How uv got so fast | Andrew Nesbitt
uv’s speed comes from engineering decisions, not just Rust. Static metadata, dropping legacy formats, and standards that didn’t exist five years ago.
In character : actors acting : Schatz, Howard, 1940- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Howard Schatz captures actors who are doing what they do best: acting. Schatz takes portraiture of actors into another realm altogether, by directing them in the development of specific characters. Schatz has put himself in the director’s chair to invent the scenarios that project the emotions and display the talents of 100 of our finest stage, screen and television performers. His subjects reveled in the idea of being given “something to play” (i.e., F. Murray Abraham: “You are a teenage girl chosen to go backstage at a Justin Timberlake concert”) instead of simply posing to look attractive, provocative or distinguished. Schatz recorded interviews with the actors during his session and the book contains their fresh insights about the creative processes of acting and character development, as well as anecdotes from working in different entertainment forms.
The British Empire's Resilient Subsea Telegraph Network
The British empire had largely completed its Red Line cable network by 1902. This network allowed news and messages to be delivered in a few minutes or several hours at most depending on the message queue's length. It spanned the globe and formed a network ring so traffic could be routed in the opposite direction in case of disruption.
ADHD drugs don’t work the way we thought | ScienceDaily
ADHD stimulants appear to work less by sharpening focus and more by waking up the brain. Brain scans revealed that these medications activate reward and alertness systems, helping children stay interested in tasks they would normally avoid. The drugs even reversed brain patterns linked to sleep deprivation. Researchers say this could complicate ADHD diagnoses if poor sleep is the real underlying problem.
Ancient wolves could only have reached this island by boat | ScienceDaily
Scientists have uncovered ancient wolf remains on a small Baltic island where wolves could only have been brought by humans. These animals weren’t dogs, but true wolves that ate the same marine food as the people living there and showed signs of isolation and possible care. One even survived with an injured limb that would have made hunting difficult. The findings suggest humans once kept and managed wolves in ways far more complex than previously imagined.
Humans May Be Able to Grow New Teeth Within Just 4 Years
While bones can regrow themselves when they break, teeth aren’t so lucky, and that leads to millions of people worldwide suffering from some form of edentulism, a.k.a. toothlessness. Now, Japanese researchers are moving a promising, tooth-regrowing medicine into human trials. If the trial is successful, the researchers hope the drug will become available for all forms of toothlessness sometime around 2030.
NETFLIX OPEN CONTENT
At Netflix, we are always exploring ways to make our content look and sound even better. To provide a common reference for prototyping bleeding-edge technologies within entertainment, technology and academic circles without compromising the security of our original and licensed programming, we've developed test titles oriented around documentary, live action, and animation.
Tatiana Schlossberg on Being Diagnosed with Leukemia After Giving Birth | The New Yorker
The daughter of Caroline Kennedy writes about receiving a terminal diagnosis following the birth of her daughter, and watching Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., cut funding for the health-care system she relies on.
2025: The year in LLMs
This is the third in my annual series reviewing everything that happened in the LLM space over the past 12 months. For previous years see Stuff we figured out about AI in 2023 and Things we learned about LLMs in 2024.