Obit: The Amazing Randi

 The New York Times has the obituary of James Randi, stage magician and debunker of the paranormal.

The Cost and Logistics of Climbing Mount Everest

Boing Boing has a post with a video (14 minutes) about the costs and logistics of organized expeditions to climb the world's highest mountain.

DIY Bamboo Furniture

Boing Boing has a video (7 min) of a woman making a set of bamboo furniture using only hand tools.

US Land Use

Bloomberg has an article with an animated map that shows how much land in the continental USA is used for various purposes.

via Tim O'Reilly on Twitter

Alto 80

We make another appearance in the Alto 80 blog.  We first encountered Jim and Dale on our first outing with the trailer though we had been following Jim's blog since before we ordered our Alto.

Video: Selfish Altruism

Kottke.org has a post with a video explaining why it is better for you if everyone's living standard improves.  It makes an interesting comparison between the situations in pre-industrial times and today.

Sculpture in a notepad

A very cool post about some Japanese notepads that, as you remove the sheets, slowly reveal a laser-cut sculpture.

via Boing Boing

Making a stack of Chinese bowls

British woodworker Robin Wood has a blog post with a very well made short video showing a Chinese craftsman making a stack of wooden bowls using a foot-powered lathe.  I've never seen a lathe quite like that one - most of the Western ones I've seen use some sort of spring to counter-rotate the lathe - nor have I seen anyone make a stack of bowls all at once.

Singaporeans worry as temperature drops to low twenties

I lived in Singapore in the late nineties and I still sometimes look at the Singaporean news.  The Straights Times has an article cautioning residents that the temperature has fallen into the low twenties Celsius.

According to NEA's website, the lowest temperature recorded in Singapore was 19.4 deg C on two days in 1934. Both days were in the month of January.

Millennials' Financial Problems

The Huffington Post has an article about why Millennials are in such a bad financial position.  (And no it's not because of avocado toast.)

What is different about us as individuals compared to previous generations is minor. What is different about the world around us is profound. Salaries have stagnated and entire sectors have cratered. At the same time, the cost of every prerequisite of a secure existence—education, housing and health care—has inflated into the stratosphere. From job security to the social safety net, all the structures that insulate us from ruin are eroding. And the opportunities leading to a middle-class life—the ones that boomers lucked into—are being lifted out of our reach. Add it all up and it’s no surprise that we’re the first generation in modern history to end up poorer than our parents.

Finding Serial Killers Algorithmically

The New Yorker has an article about Thomas Hargrove who has been mining crime data to find groups of related murders that haven't been linked before.

Each year, about five thousand people kill someone and don’t get caught, and a percentage of these men and women have undoubtedly killed more than once. Hargrove intends to find them with his code, which he sometimes calls a serial-killer detector.

via FlowingData

Torture doesn't work

The Guardian has a long piece about a pair of scientists who have proved what everyone knew but many didn't want to admit - that torture doesn't work for extracting information.  The article also covers how you should go about an interrogation.

The Alisons, husband and wife, have done something no scholars of interrogation have been able to do before. Working in close cooperation with the police, who allowed them access to more than 1,000 hours of tapes, they have observed and analysed hundreds of real-world interviews with terrorists suspected of serious crimes. No researcher in the world has ever laid hands on such a haul of data before. Based on this research, they have constructed the world's first empirically grounded and comprehensive model of interrogation tactics.

via Schneier on Security

Sleeping Sperm Whales

Kottke.org has a post with a picture of a pod of sleeping sperm whales.

The Swindon Magic Roundabout

While I am generally in favour of roundabouts as opposed to stoplights, Boing Boing has a post with a GIF of a giant roundabout in Swindon, UK that may be taking things too far.

A Day in the Average American Life

Flowing Data has a post with an animation that shows how Americans spend their time during the day.  The individual dots move around the image as the survey respondents changed activities.

via Reddit

Solar System in a Bottle

If you've always wanted your own solar system, this may be the way to go.

via Flowing Data

The Shrinking Reach of Malaria

The Economist has a post with a set of map showing how the area affected by malaria has been shrinking over time.  Interestingly, malaria was endemic in North America and Europe until the mid-20th century.

Martial Status by Age

Flowing data has a post with a chart showing marital status by age (of Americans).  It is interesting that most men die married while most women do not.

Obit: Hugh Montgomery

The Washington Post has the obituary of Dr Hugh Montgomery an American soldier and spy.  He started his career parachuting into Normandy in 1941 and retired from the CIA in 2014 at the age of 90.

via Twitter

Japan to Standardise Symbols on Toilets

The Guardian has an article about the Japanese sanitary equipment industry association's efforts to standardise the symbols used on the button for high-tech toilets.  The goal is to reduce surprises for foreign visitors.

via slashdot