Jaques Tits, the mathematician behind Tits buildings, the Tits alternative, the Tits group, and the Tits metric, has died at 91

Belgian-born mathematician Jaques Tits passed away on Sunday, December 5th, leaving behind a legacy of research in group theory and geometry. His tendency to name his contributions after himself suggests that he knew his power. He won the Abel Prize in 2008, an award created in...

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Almost 90 minutes of Fantasy/RPG bards and tavern music from video games

If only the USA had this compilation during Operation Nifty Package. Wikipedia: Operation Nifty Package was a United States Delta and Navy SEAL-operated plan conducted in 1989 designed to capture Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. When Noriega took...

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Distressing new, high-end cameras to look decades old

The post is a couple of years old, but I can't stop looking at Ritchie Roesch's hand-distressed but otherwise brand-new Fujifilm camera. Other photographers he talked to think he's bonkers, but Roesch explains himself very well, I think. He did a good job of it and if we're being...

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This YouTube channel investigates weird, bogus, and creepy food videos

Food scientist Ann Reardon debunks viral food videos, including content farm click-bait food videos that have misleading thumbnail images, impossible-to-recreate recipes, and narration about murder and child abuse. She starts the latest episode by trying to replicate a method...

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Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes hands over creepy to-do list better suited for a robot

When Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes took the stand last week (on trial "for 11 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud"), she submitted four hand-written pages of notes that included a breathless to-do list more suitable for robots than humans. — Read the re...

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Exit Mundi, classic website collection of possible end-of-the-world scenarios, had "mass insanity" down for 2020

It's been a while since I visited Exit Mundi, Maarten Keulemans' collection of darkly amusing apocalypses that might befall humankind, from nuclear war to meteorite impacts. The site is turning 20 years old this year, and many of its scenarios center on millennial-era concerns:...

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Homelessness has killed five times as many Angelenos as murder

Over the last two decades, the city of Los Angeles has averaged about 300 homicides per year, out of population that currently sits just under 4 million. But according to a new study from UCLA, more than five times as many Angelenos died on the city streets during this pandemic...

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