Interesting Links for 31-12-2015

[andrewducker]

• The human migration out of Africa left its mark in mutations
  • migration genetics
• US military shelves Google robot plan over noise concerns
  • USA military robots noise Google
• Why 2015 Was a Breakthrough Year in Artificial Intelligence
  • ai
• Rebrickable: LEGO inspiration from the kits you already own
  • Lego
• Irish DNA originated in Middle East and eastern Europe
  • Ireland genetics
• What if Harry Potter had been a squib? (I could not put this down)
  • harrypotter fanfic
• Freak storm pushes North Pole 50 degrees (Farenheit) above normal to melting point
  • arctic temperature storm

Comments

[birguslatro]

The fun of childhood appears to be pretty short for AIs...

"and where a startup named DeepMind showed off an AI that could learn to play computer games before it was acquired by Google."

[andrewducker]

Surely the only reason to have children is so that you can sell them off to Google as soon as they're productive?

[birguslatro]

A good point!

Interestingly, it seems there's been a shift in the approach China's tech giants take towards startups - who used to be more prone to copying than buying...

https://www.techinasia.com/china-tech-titans-startups-partnerships

[marahmarie]

Huh. A couple of years ago they had the Irish descending from Basque Spaniards - Brits and Scots as well (long story short: genetically, we're all closely related; it's like a huge genetic mud puddle). I kid you not. http://www.sott.net/article/263587-DNA-shows-Irish-people-have-more-complex-origins-than-previously-thought

My, how quickly things change - now we're Middle Eastern, too, oh boy. :)

ETA: I just read beyond the title of your link (and re-read the article I linked you to as well, to refresh my memory) and isn't it sort of a stretch to call the Russian Steppes "Middle Eastern"? I'm having a little difficulty with that.

Also, how can neither genetic study overlap the other in terms of their results? ie., the one that concludes the Irish/Scots/Brits are Basque Spaniard does not conclude we're Middle Eastern; the one that concludes we're Middle Eastern says nothing about Basque Spanish ancestry (the closest it gets to that is "Eastern European", which is like throwing a snowball in Europe's general direction and not really giving a flying leap where it lands).

How does one reconcile these two reports? I'm Irish, whatever the heck that means, so it does sort of matter to me that this so-called genetic evidence can be played so fast, so loose, and so inaccurately (or, at the very least, so incompletely).

[melchar]

Harry as a squib? IMO likely as good as Harry being a wizard - especially since it seems like he'd have had to apply himself and learn more!

[andrewducker]

That would be rather the point of the story...