Updated: 2016-04-30 19:46
- Finally a non-embarrassing classical music scene in a blockbuster movie - The New Yorker
NYT Anatomy of a Scene covers a scene mentioned in the article in depth: ‘Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation’ (With Movie Trailer): Christopher McQuarrie Narrates a Scene
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What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team - NYT
One word answer?: safety -
Tannhäuser and game theory
Have you ever thought—after reading/listening to his behaviors at the contest/court—that Tannhäuser (the character) is immature, impulsive, reckless, and deeply flawed? Well here's the answer to that through the lens of game theory: "‘Though This Be Madness, Yet There is Method In’t’: A Counterfactual Analysis of Richard Wagner’s ‘Tannhäuser’"
"Why would he sacrifice everything for nothing? ... This essay offers a radically new perspective on the opera by drawing on game theory ... Through a detailed analysis of the hero’s decision-making, it argues that his seemingly irrational behaviour is actually consistent with a strategy of redemption."
- How to hold a heart - NYT
NYT Magazine has a fun weekly column called Tip, which attempts to deliver some insights and tips on various unrelated subjects.
"Don’t worry about the size of your hands.’’ Instead, concentrate on not dropping it; a heart covered with blood is very slippery."
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A Year In Space - Time
Astronaut Scott Kelly spent an entire year up in the ISS, and this series of mini documentaries from Time covers various elements of the mission. -
Before I go - Time warps for a young surgeon with metastatic lung cancer
From his experiences being both a doctor and a patient, Paul Kalanithi reflects on medicine and death. -
"Best of the Best" Provides New Views, Commentary of Shuttle Launches
Each space shuttle launch is recorded with dozens of cameras. This 45 minutes of high quality footage and commentary offers interesting viewpoints of the STS launch. -
Some articles from Nature on stats and science:
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Genetic circuit design automation
synthetic biology, automated genetic circuit design -
Do No Harm and Henry Marsh
I first learned about Henry Marsh in high school through a documentary titled "The English Surgeon”. Here are some relatively recent (within 1 yr) articles on his career, errors, medicine and neurosurgery: -
Koch brothers consider purchasing first Democrat - The New Yorker
Disclaimer if you are not familiar with the Borowitz Report: this is a satire. -
What Would Happen If We Just Gave People Money? - FiveThirtyEight
an article on guaranteed income or negative income tax.
"... a mixture of insecurity and curiosity are driving interest in basic income, but its dominant ideology — and appeal — is utopian. The core existential struggle lurking in the debates over basic income centers on what meaning work holds in our lives. ... The dream of a world where we produce more than we need has come true."
- A Space Mission to the Gravitational Focus of the Sun - MIT Technology Review
Ideas, hopes, and challenges of "using the sun as a gravitational lens"
Mission to the Gravitational Focus of the Sun: A Critical Analysis
"On Earth, this kind of image would reveal islands, rivers, parks, Great Walls, freeways, cities, and so on. Perhaps a spacecraft sitting at the gravitational focus of a distant star is revealing these things right now to a spellbound alien population. Just imagine."
"Eight years after the financial crisis, unemployment is at 5
percent, deficits are down and G.D.P. is growing. Why do
so many voters feel left behind? The president has a theory."
- Who Was Ramanujan?
Stephen Wolfram's post on Ramanujan
"the first step to following in his footsteps is just to be adventurous: not to stay in the comfort of well-established mathematical theories, but instead to go out into the wider mathematical universe and start finding—experimentally—what’s true."
- A 3-D View of a Chart That Predicts The Economic Future: The Yield Curve
This interactive 3D graph helps you to get a better grasp of the treasury yield curve.