The Futurist is your daily tech, cosmic, and science (both weird or otherwise) newsletter with articles and content curated just for you. Is the Twinkie Egon described in the movie Ghostbusters accurate? Hint: That’s a big Twinkie. (Scroll to the bottom for the answer!) | | “Robert Sapolsky, a 66-year-old Stanford neurobiologist, has a controversial view on the nature of human existence: he doesn't think ‘free will’ exists. At all. … A MacArthur ‘genius’ grant recipient at the age of 30, Sapolsky has spent over four decades extensively studying human and primate behavior. His new book, Determined: Life Without Free Will, is an examination and brutal takedown of the major arguments in favor of human volition.” | Discover unbeatable savings when you join Sam’s Club — now only $20 for a whole year — and shop everyday low prices on a variety of goods. Groceries? Of course. Electronics? Yes. Household necessities and furniture? Yes and yes. Members also get to enjoy exclusive savings beyond the everyday essentials, including deals on travel, rentals, events, and attractions. Your shopping quality, convenience, and affordability await. [Ad] | “Researchers at Northwestern University have presented their new nano-electronic device in a paper published in the journal Nature Electronics. It's designed to perform the task of classification – that is, analyzing large amounts of data and attempting to label the significant bits – which is the backbone of many machine learning systems.” | “Future astronauts could pave roads, launchpads, and other infrastructure on the Moon by melting lunar dust with focused laser-like sunlight to manufacture solid tiles, according to a new study. Scientists have now road-tested this technique in the lab by zapping fake lunar soil, known as simulant, with a laser designed to imitate sunlight, resulting in a new class of interlocking triangular structures. This approach could help mitigate the dangers posed by hazardous lunar dust particles to astronauts and equipment, while also minimizing the amount of manufacturing supplies that would need to be hauled from Earth.” | Supercharge your virtual meetings and webinars by signing up for a Zoom account with WorkingLive. For only $12.99/month, host unlimited meetings and webinars with up to 500 participants and all the features of a premium Zoom plan. [Ad] | “In the year 2000, superhero movies were at the precipice of a mainstream revolution, and leading that charge were the X-Men. But this was a new millennium and a new format. The tight, stretchy outfits worn by the team in their comics and iconic ’90s cartoon wouldn’t do. Instead, these X-Men donned black leather bodysuits. And yet, even that wasn’t cool enough for the most badass X-Man of them all. … When Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine first joins the X-Men and sees those bodysuits for himself, he says, ‘You actually go outside in these things?’ Cyclops (James Marsden) replies, ‘Well, what would you prefer? Yellow spandex?” | Interested in having one of your social posts featured in The Futurist? | | The answer: No, it would have been about 50 tons | According to this fun Carl McTague (a math teacher at Boston College) blog page: “The dimensions of Egon’s hypothetical Twinkie seem inconsistent. A 600-pound Twinkie should only be about 6.4 feet long, while a 35-foot long Twinkie should weigh about 50 tons. [That’s a big Twinkie!] In general, an x-foot long Twinkie should weigh about 2.34 x3 pounds.” | | | | |
0 Comments