How the 5x camera works on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The wind blew away my metro ticket and threw it onto the tracks. To avoid paying at the exit, I took two photos from one spot: a regular one and a 5x. On the zoomed-in one, the number and date are readable.
I’m currently in Atlanta, where this week a large group of us planned work for the next three months. And to wake people up in the morning for fun, we organized a hall to play rock-paper-scissors to find the absolute winner of the hall. Where I realized, I cannot play the American version of rock-paper-scissors. In the USA, they play it like this: they beat their fist on the palm on “rock”, then beat on “scissors”, then beat on “paper”, and then they say “shoot” and show their hand. Generally, we also have four counts (“rock, scissors, onion, mage”), but it’s not quickly apparent because there are exactly three words and no “shoot”. (Also, we have a longer version “rock, scissors, onion, mage, tsu, ye, fa”; however, in the USA, a version without “shoot” is also common)
Obviously, against a random number generator any strategy you take, the probability is 30%. But there are interesting studies on how to play against real people. Here are its findings:
1) winners repeat: people tend to repeat what helped them win last time. If you showed rock and won against scissors, you are more likely (than 1/3) to show rock again.
2) losers change: when losing, people tend to change strategy (showed rock, lost, why show it again)
From this, some hints on how to win:
1) if you lost, in the next round show what was not shown this time (if rock and scissors were shown, show paper)
2) if you won, then in the next round show what your opponent lost with the previous time
3) if it’s a tie, choose randomly
By the way, there’s a robot that wins at “Rock-Paper-Scissors” 100% of the time. But it cheats – it watches the micro-movements of your hand and anticipates by showing the opposite. Google “Janken Robot”
A bit of cuteness on a Friday morning
Dall-E 3 is now in ChatGPT!
An interesting article caught my eye. It turns out that according to statistics, 90% of Chinese teenagers suffer from myopia, with the world average at 22%. Moreover, if you consider other regions, only 1.2% of inhabitants of Nepalese villages, 4% of South African children, and 12% of American teenagers suffer from myopia. Imagine, according to the data in the article, in Seoul 96.5% of 19-year-olds are myopic. That is, almost everyone. The question is why myopia among teenagers in China and Korea is so prevalent.
Previously, this was attributed to genetics, but just 60 years ago, the percentage of myopic teenagers in China was only 10-20%. Clearly, it’s not just genetics.
At first, they blamed reading. It was suggested that focusing on letters gradually changes vision. But with the advent of computers being ubiquitous, enough data has accumulated that doesn’t quite align with the conclusions about reading, and ultimately, this hypothesis has become much fainter.
It turned out that a lack of natural light significantly affects this condition. Scientists have discovered that children who spend more time outdoors are less likely to develop myopia.
Of course, correlation does not imply causation, and science needs a mechanism. There are several hypotheses that attempt to explain how this happens.
The most compelling seems to be the hypothesis called the light and dopamine hypothesis, which suggests that light stimulates the release of dopamine in the retina, thereby maintaining the correct shape of the retina. Research on chickens seems to have confirmed this idea. Retinal dopamine is produced depending on the circadian cycle, instructing the eye to switch from night vision, based on rod cells, to daylight vision, based on cone cells. Thus, spending less time outdoors and more time indoors (under the influence of artificial light) disrupts this cycle and normal eye function.
Typing
Interesting article. It turns out that according to statistics, 90% of Chinese teenagers suffer from myopia, with the global average being 22%. Meanwhile, only 1.2% of residents in Nepalese villages, 4% of South African children, and 12% of American teenagers suffer from myopia. The question is why.
Previously, this was attributed to genetics, but just 60 years ago, the percentage of myopic teenagers in China itself was between 10-20%. Clearly, it’s not just genetics.
Imagine, according to the data from the article, 96.5% of 19-year-olds in Seoul are myopic. Basically, almost everyone.
Initially, they blamed reading. Supposedly focusing on the letters gradually alters vision. But with the advent of computers everywhere, enough data has been gathered that didn’t quite agree with the conclusions about reading, and eventually, this hypothesis faded significantly.
It turned out that a lack of natural light significantly influences the condition. Scientists discovered that children who spend more time outdoors are less likely to become myopic.
Of course, correlation does not imply causation, and science needs a mechanism. There are several hypotheses that try to explain how this happens. The most promising seems to be the light and dopamine hypothesis, which states that light stimulates the release of dopamine in the retina, thereby maintaining the correct shape of the retina. Research in chickens seems to have confirmed this idea. Retinal dopamine is produced depending on the diurnal cycle, signaling the eye to switch from nocturnal vision, based on rod cells, to daytime vision, based on cone cells. Thus, spending less time outdoors and more time indoors (under artificial light) disrupts this cycle and the normal functioning of the eye.
It turns out that fortepiano is not at all what we think of as a piano today. The fortepiano is an early version of the piano, known since the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1698 until the beginning of the 19th century. In fact, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven wrote for the fortepiano.
Literally, ‘fortepiano’ means loud-soft. The French equivalent, pianoforte, means soft-loud.
Interestingly, unlike violins, for example, grand pianos with each passing year (well, decade) only deteriorate in sound quality, and repairing them is quite expensive. Moreover, more modern designs significantly outperform less modern ones by a considerable margin.
I still consider the purchase of an electronic Kawaii one of the best ideas to spend money in recent years. Well, okay, after buying a house.
On a flight from Dubai, I decided to watch a movie. Despite the magnificence of Emirates, their movie selection is so-so, and you can’t watch from your own devices, only with these silly headphones. Well okay, after much thought I chose to watch Bezos. About the path of the main Amazon guy.
Biographical films really need to be done well. The director Hoa Le (who is that anyway?) didn’t quite pull it off. It turned out to be boring, sluggish, chaotic, and superficial, and I turned it off halfway through. Everything was bad there. The acting, the script, the cinematography. The husband comes home and says, “I’ve come up with some nonsense, and it seems like it might work. Quit your good job, and let’s sell the house, and I’ll spend all the money on a startup that’s supposed to take off.” The wife is upset, then a minute later, all is well, like, “okay, let’s do it.” They both quit their jobs and then go to their parents to ask for a lot of money because it turns out they don’t have enough for the startup. Wasn’t that clear before? The parents are upset, a minute later, all is well, here’s the check. Couldn’t it have been the other way around? First to the parents, then sell? And that’s how everything goes there. It’s even unclear how Amazon (or Bezos) eventually agreed to the release of such junk.
The Marriott in Atlanta practices something interesting. You book a hotel with breakfast. Just the standard American fare – scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausages. Everything is buffet style, except for the drinks: they bring as many as you need, but they do bring them. In the end, you receive a bill where the cost of breakfast ($19) is itemized, there’s an optional line for tipping, and a place for your signature, which is required. In the USA, it is customary to leave a 20% tip unless there are serious reasons not to. As a result, the hotel earns tips on top of what is already quite an expensive breakfast.
By the way, I barely found the hotel. Here in Atlanta, PRIDE WEEK was happening, and everything was scooped up. What wasn’t scooped up was beyond the local beltway, and it seems they charge an extra markup on those.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 