Neatorama

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• Our Heart Affects Our Perception and Emotions
• Computers Aren’t Random
• How To Help Save Bees and Other Insect Pollinators In Little Ways
• AI Helps Drone Swarms Cooperate And Navigate Through Unfamiliar Spaces
• The Annoying Boxes Puzzle
• Self-Portrait Gets Out of Hand
• John McClane Shop Light
• Optical Illusion Body Paintings
• Israeli Archaeologists Tie Down Invention of String to More Than 120,000 Years Ago
• How To Always Get A Cat’s Attention
• What May Perhaps Be The Most Human Game of All
• Lost in Motions
• How the Maraschino Cherry Became a Comfortingly Trashy American Icon
• This Market Is Using AI To Combat The Pandemic
• Prison TikToks Are A Thing

Our Heart Affects Our Perception and Emotions Posted: 19 Jul 2020 11:30 PM PDT It is known that the brain is the central command of the body. It is the part of the body responsible for controlling every move that we make, and the one responsible for processing the thoughts that we have. But just as the other parts of the body depend on the brain, the brain also depends on the body. The connection goes both ways. If certain internal receptors indicate hunger, for instance, we're driven to eat; if they indicate cold, we dress more warmly. However, decades of research have also shown that those sensations do much more than alert the brain to the body's immediate concerns and needs. As the heart, lungs, gut and other organs transmit information to the brain, they affect how we perceive and interact with our environment in surprisingly profound ways. Recent studies of the heart in particular have given scientists new insights into the role that the body's most basic processes play in defining our experience of the world. More about this over at Nautilus. (Image Credit: Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator/ Wikimedia Commons)

Computers Aren’t Random Posted: 19 Jul 2020 11:29 PM PDT That's right. Computers aren't really random. What you get from Google's random number generator (RNG) is not pure randomness.  Computers aren't supposed to generate randomness. The reason for this is software and hardware, both of which run on Boolean logic, and not probability, and this makes deterministic, and not random, outcomes. However, some computer systems have tricks up their sleeves in order to "use and manipulate randomness." In other words, there may be ways with which we can make deterministic machines generate randomness. One of the most recent efforts comes from Mansinghka's group at MIT, which will present an algorithm called Fast Loaded Dice Roller, or FLDR, at the online International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics this August. More details about this over at Quanta Magazine. (Image Credit: Pixabay)

How To Help Save Bees and Other Insect Pollinators In Little Ways Posted: 19 Jul 2020 11:28 PM PDT Bees and other insect pollinators such as moths and butterflies are important to our environment because of their major role in plant reproduction. Unfortunately, many of these insects are now endangered because of many factors such as climate change, pathogens, and pesticides. But they don't have to go extinct, and we can help in our own little ways to prevent that from happening. Discover Magazine lists six citizen science projects that you can join to help protect these pollinators. See them all over at the site. For now, here are some of them. Spot-A-Bee Project Bumble Bee Watch (Image Credit: PollyDot/ Pixabay)

AI Helps Drone Swarms Cooperate And Navigate Through Unfamiliar Spaces Posted: 19 Jul 2020 11:26 PM PDT Researchers from Caltech have developed a machine-learning algorithm which allows drone swarms to navigate in tight spaces without bumping or hitting into each other. This algorithm, called Global-to-Local Safe Autonomy Synthesis (GLAS) could be useful in fancy drone light shows, as well as vital operations, such as search and rescue operations. Instead of relying on existing maps or the routes of every other drone in the swarm, GLAS has each machine learning how to navigate a given space on its own even as it coordinates with others. This decentralized model both helps the drones improvise and makes scaling the swarm easier, as the computing is spread across many robots. An additional tracking controller, Neural-Swarm, helps the drones compensate for aerodynamic interactions, such as the downwash from a robot flying overhead. Wow! (Image Credit: Aerospace Robotics and Control at Caltech/ YouTube)

The Annoying Boxes Puzzle Posted: 19 Jul 2020 11:24 PM PDT A puzzle recently posted at 3 Quarks Daily will make you think. Or at least it should make you think. There are two boxes on a table, one red and one green. One contains a treasure. The red box is labelled "exactly one of the labels is true". The green box is labelled "the treasure is in this box." Can you figure out which box contains the treasure? Now, before you decide that you know, pay attention to how the question is asked. The answer and an explanation is at The Universe of Discourse. The author also addresses the many ways you could ague that you are right, even if you aren't. -via Nag on the Lake

Self-Portrait Gets Out of Hand Posted: 19 Jul 2020 11:23 PM PDT Early in 2019, reddit artists got hooked on a painting and made a spontaneous recursive project of painting the previous artist holding the painting. One of those artists was seamuswray. This past weekend, he's found himself stuck in another recursion loop, this one of his own making. First he did the self-portrait above, and submitted a photo of himself painting it. That was Friday. Saturday, he posted another, of himself painting the top photo. Sunday, he couldn't help but post another photo, this one again showing himself drawing the previous photo. I guess he was in too much of a hurry for paint. Will he have another picture ready for Monday, or will he have to stop and sleep or maybe even change clothes? You can check seamuswray's profile to find out. Or Instagram.

John McClane Shop Light Posted: 19 Jul 2020 08:34 PM PDT If you're going to install a light in your workshop, you may as well make it interesting. Storyboard artist Mark Simon did so with a tribute to Bruce Willis' Die Hard character climbing through a vent. While many DIY videos are way too long, this one gets right to the point, and it's tres cool. -via Digg

Optical Illusion Body Paintings Posted: 19 Jul 2020 08:34 PM PDT   View this post on Instagram And here's my biggest project of this year so far published! Body painting illusions for @apetitruoka commercial! 😎 . Can you see them? 😉 . My input shows in design and, of course, in the body paintings, it was great to be involved in cooperation with the client right from the beginning. This project was a test for my skills and thus it feels so great that I was able to stretch and exceed the client's expectations. Thank you Apetit for this opportunity and trusting me! Body painting artist: Riina Laine @riinabodyart Assistant: @minjakonttori @marikristinaaa Production & concept: @hasanmotion @hasanpartners Director: @aleksikoskinen #Repost @apetitruoka (@get_repost) ・・・ Innostaako filmimme lisäämään kasvisten käyttöäsi? Katso filmi, lue sen tekijöistä, kuvauspäivästä ja poimi DIY body painting -vinkit! Linkki biossa! #52kasviksiapäivään #52kasvispäivä #apetitruoka #ainavoisyodahyvin #bodypainting #bodypaint #bodyart #illusionpainting #illusion #adcampaign #ads #greatconcept #commercial #branding #brandvisuals #vegetables #apetit #eatveggies #broccoli #illusionart #mainostuotanto #creative #artinadvertising #amazingmakeupart #happyartist #worldchampion #riinabodyart #riinalainebyduroy A post shared by Body Paint Artist Riina Laine (@riinabodyart) on Apr 8, 2018 at 8:05am PDT By concealing her models in blackout paint and arranging them precisely, artist Riina Laine (content warning: artistic nudity) turns them into living vegetables. She made three as advertisements for the Finnish food company Apertit.   View this post on Instagram 2nd illusion from my biggest project this year so far! Body paintings for @apetitruoka commercial! 😎 . Can you see them? 😉 . My input shows in design and, of course, in the body paintings, it was great to be involved in cooperation with the client right from the beginning. This project was a test for my skills and thus it feels so great that I was able to stretch and exceed the client's expectations. Thank you Apetit for this opportunity and trusting me! Body painting artist: Riina Laine @riinabodyart Assistant: @minjakonttori @marikristinaaa Production & concept: @hasanmotion @hasanpartners Director & photo: @aleksikoskinen A post shared by Body Paint Artist Riina Laine (@riinabodyart) on Apr 9, 2018 at 4:02am PDT   View this post on Instagram 3rd illusion from my biggest project this year so far! Body paintings for @apetitruoka commercial! 😎 . . My input shows in design and, of course, in the body paintings, it was great to be involved in cooperation with the client right from the beginning. This project was a test for my skills and thus it feels so great that I was able to stretch and exceed the client's expectations. Thank you Apetit for this opportunity and trusting me! Body painting artist: Riina Laine @riinabodyart Assistant: @minjakonttori @marikristinaaa Production & concept: @hasanmotion @hasanpartners Director & photo: @aleksikoskinen A post shared by Body Paint Artist Riina Laine (@riinabodyart) on Apr 10, 2018 at 4:13am PDT

Israeli Archaeologists Tie Down Invention of String to More Than 120,000 Years Ago Posted: 19 Jul 2020 04:41 PM PDT When humans learned to twist natural fibers together to make string or rope, it opened up a new world of useful inventions, from animal traps to clothing to sailboats. But natural fibers tend to decompose, and the oldest rope found, in a French Neanderthal cave, dates back only to around 50,000 years ago. But while we cannot yet pinpoint who invented rope, archaeologists in Israel have found evidence that manmade string existed more than 120,000 years ago. It comes from seashells found in Qafzeh Cave near Nazareth that had been populated by humans that long ago. The shells, some of which had been painted with red ochre, belonged to the species Glycymeris nummaria, a bivalve mollusk common throughout the Mediterranean and the northeastern Atlantic. What was particularly interesting was that the people of Qafzeh, which is 40 kilometers from the sea, had purposely brought back to the cave only naturally perforated clams – that is, shells that had developed a hole due to erosion from the sand and sea. The researchers also compared the finds to shells unearthed at Misliya Cave, a site on Israel's northern coast that was inhabited much earlier than Qafzeh, between 240,000 and 160,000 years ago. There archaeologists had also found a small cache of Glycymeris – but in this case the shells were whole. The study notes that if you take a walk on a beach, about 40 percent of the Glycymeris you come across will be naturally perforated, meaning that both the Misliya and Qafzeh shells were selected deliberately, not randomly. But why? The difference only made sense if the shells at Qafzeh were intended to be strung up, Bar-Yosef Mayer suspected, but the evidence just wasn't there. Without the string, it was difficult to say that the shells were tied, but a team led by archaeologist Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer of Tel Aviv University conducted an experiment to find more clues. Read what they did to determine whether the shells were actually jewelry at Haaretz. -via Strange Company (Image credit: Iris Groman-Yaroslavski)

How To Always Get A Cat’s Attention Posted: 19 Jul 2020 10:51 AM PDT If you want to always get a cat's attention, whenever and wherever you are, then consider learning the German language, and the cat is sure to stop in its tracks and have its attention on you, just like what this guy did. Just kidding! What he just said wasn't really German. It was just gibberish. But hey, it still works, so why not try it? (Image Credit: Nennieinszweidrei/ Pixabay) (Video Credit: g.catt.eng via Surya Pratama/ YouTube)

What May Perhaps Be The Most Human Game of All Posted: 19 Jul 2020 10:51 AM PDT Starcraft II. Chess. Go. These are just some of the games that got taken over by AI. Professional gamers and players have been mercilessly beaten by a machine in these games. But there's still a game that the AI hasn't mastered yet, and that game could be considered as the most human game of all games in the face of the earth: poker. While it is true that AI has advanced over the years and is capable of beating professional players in poker, the AI still has lots of room for improvement. …there's still much it can't do: play more opponents, play live, or win every time. Aside from these things, the AI should also factor in the facial expressions of a player, and then try to identify if he is bluffing or not… and, unfortunately, the AI is not great at doing these things. At least, not yet. To summarize, "there's more humanity in poker than [AI] has yet conquered". Know more about the story over at Undark. What are your thoughts about this one? (Image Credit: flipchip/ LasVegasVegas.com/ Wikimedia Commons)

Lost in Motions Posted: 19 Jul 2020 10:50 AM PDT Here's a really cool but very short video of a gold man dancing. It's actually Fernando Livschitz of Black Sheep Films, and it's not computer generated. After the stop-motion dance sequence, he quickly shows us how he did it, which is just as interesting. -via Colossal

How the Maraschino Cherry Became a Comfortingly Trashy American Icon Posted: 19 Jul 2020 10:50 AM PDT You know maraschino cherries as a bright red garnish for cocktails, ice cream sundaes, and pineapple upside-down cake. There's probably a jar that's been in your refrigerator for years. Maraschinos don't resemble fresh cherries much, in either appearance or taste. So where did they come from, and how did they become a thing? In the early 1800s, the cherry-producing Luxardo family in Italy began to preserve cherries in alcohol. They were the original maraschino cherries, and they became quite popular with the rise of cocktail culture in the latter years of the 19th century. And with popularity, they spread to other manufacturers and evolved with the times.   Yet it's also notable that the maraschino cherry's turn-of-the-century ascendancy also coincided with the wider vogue for lab-made dyes, flavorings and additives that flourished in the pre-FDA era. (Relevant: This was also a time when, at the behest of nervous dairy farmers, margarine had to literally be dyed pink in some states to broadcast the fact it wasn't butter.) "For many years, I've asked audiences at tasting events what maraschino cherries, grenadine and sloe gin have in common," says Brown. "And the answer, of course, is nothing. Nothing! And yet, go back to my childhood and they were all the same color and flavor because they came from the same lab." With Prohibition, the recipe had to change again, which meant maraschino cherries veered even further from nature. Read a history of maraschino cherries, and learn what's in them, at Mel magazine. (Image credit: Véronique PAGNIER)

This Market Is Using AI To Combat The Pandemic Posted: 19 Jul 2020 10:50 AM PDT Plaza Minorista is a market that sits in the heart of Medellín, Colombia. Fifteen thousand people flock to the market where three thousand vendors sell their goods. Since a crowded area like Minorista is a possible hotspot where the virus can spread, director Edison Palacio decided to use artificial intelligence to aid in their fight against the pandemic:  Mr Palacio explains how they use facial recognition software connected to cameras at the entrances and to security cameras around the building to collect data on the vendors and market-dwellers. Among the data they collect is their age range, gender, and if the person is wearing their mask correctly in order to assess risks and more vulnerable demographics. Thermal cameras can take the temperature of 200 people per minute, he says. If someone has a high temperature or wears their mask incorrectly, an alarm will go off and alert market security. image via BBC

Prison TikToks Are A Thing Posted: 19 Jul 2020 10:50 AM PDT The question is: how do people in jail get to post videos of themselves dancing to the latest TikTok craze when no cellphones are allowed? It's all thanks to contraband phones. Prison TikTok is an actual hashtag that lets TikTok users view videos shared on the app by people who are incarcerated, as Vox detailed:  The content depicted on prison TikTok varies; some videos show terrible living conditions inside US prisons, like overcrowding and flooding, whereas others depict people in prison uniforms doing renditions of trending TikTok dances. But what's surprising about prison TikTok isn't that people who are incarcerated appreciate great choreography, just like anyone else. Rather, it's that folks in prison have access to smartphones at all. Cellphones are not allowed in American prisons. And people who are found with contraband in their possession can get hit with serious penalties. "You can get charged with a misdemeanor or a felony depending on what jurisdiction you're in," said Nazgol Ghandnoosh, a senior research analyst at the Sentencing Project. "And at the very least, you're going to lose good time credits or harm your chances of parole." So why would anyone run the risk of posting on TikTok or calling a family member using a contraband cellphone? For Khan, having a cellphone while in prison, even for a short time, was a way to mend his relationship with his mother. It allowed him to have real emotional conversations with his family without being monitored by corrections officers and without having to deal with a 15-minute time limit or the large fees that typically come with using a prison landline. image via Vox

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