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Did we produce too many frustrated college grads in the early 2000’s? It’s a really interesting question. Noah Smith plots the changes in college major enrollments and finds some interesting patterns – and some even more interesting potential fallout that include patterns with socialist revolutions. Something we’re seeing here in Portland. When people are promised entry into the top 20% of culture via a degree, the disappointment of unmet expectations alone can lead to serious violent outcomes.

The Atlantic also did similar analysis, but argues that just because grads are seeking degrees in fields they think will bring them better financial outcomes doesn’t mean it will.

I wrote about the use of Save the Cat as a way to use form and style to communicate any message you want via film/tv.

It appears Paul E.T. has noticed many kinds of emotional and intellectual manipulation in just about all modern documentaries you’ll find in this comedy skit. He shows how just about anyone can make a documentary about anything – and how easy it is to manipulate you into believing as the host does.

If you want to see how far we’ve fallen away from objective reporting, compare your average modern news reporting to something from even 20-30 years ago below. Sure, that era had it’s own problems, but note a few things:
There were no talking heads editorializing and telling you what you should think, they use professional and educated language that isn’t charged with bias/emotional appeal, doesn’t inject race, sex, or other assumed political bias into the report, features much more footage of direct interviews with people involved and not summarizing it with their own opinions.

This is probably one of the best videos covering the work that was done by scientists after Chernobyl was first sealed up – but the details of what happened were still unknown. Nova was by far my favorite tv show when I was a kid.

Notice how different reporting was done just 30 years ago. It was just fact reporting from the people who were there – without dozens of talking head experts editorializing and telling you how to fell about it. Just compare this to 99.9% of ‘documentaries’ today that can be made by anyone and are basically thinly veiled propaganda pieces where the creators opinions aren’t even veiled.

When looking up facts and information about Chernobyl, it’s surprising how soft details are to find on the internet these days. I remember lots of much more graphic and revealing stories, videos, and facts in 90’s era web articles.

A good example is this NOVA documentary about the scientists that went in to find out what happened. Now you’re hard pressed to find information like this. Most of the time details about radiation rates and actual events are glossed over without the details that used to exist.

Another great site is Elena from Angelfire. She did some of the very first civilian infiltrations and documentations of the Chernobyl zone and still has a Youtube channel.

Google Japan has a history of fun keyboard concepts to question common methods of computer input. The latest concept, the Gboard Stick Version, places every key into one giant row.

Google Japan actually prototyped the 5.25 foot long keyboard but many of the detailed use cases for the one-row keyboard are clearly jokes: from using it to measure your kid’s height and get items dropped behind the couch, to using it as a walking stick.

Google will not mass-produce or be selling it but they did release GitHub files with open source firmware, circuit diagrams, and design drawings to build the keyboard yourself.

The GitHub page is careful to note that “this is not an officially supported Google product.” Too bad, I think it would be pretty fun.

Links:

• https://blog.google/intl/ja-jp/products/android-chrome-play/2022_10_gboard-2022/
• https://archive.google/________________/
• https://landing.google.co.jp/____/
• https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/10/google-shows-us-how-to-make-a-5-foot-long-keyboard/

The LSST Camera is roughly the size of a small car and weighs three tons. It features a five-foot wide front lens and a 3,200-megapixel sensor that will be cooled to -100 degrees Celsius to reduce noise.

The camera will eventually live atop the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Simonyi Survey Telescope in Chile where it will be tasked with observing the night sky for a decade.

Light will be reflected through a set of mirrors, the largest of which is 27 feet wide. When operational, the 3.2 gigapixel detector will capture 15 terabytes of data per night over its 10-year survey as it investigates 37 billion stars and galaxies.

The large aperture, wide-field optical camera is capable of viewing light from the near ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths and is made up of 189 charge-coupled device (CCD) sensors arranged in a total of 21, three-by-three square arrays mounted on platforms called rafts.

Not only is the sensor the world’s largest, but the lens fits that description too at 1.57-meters (five feet) across, it’s already been recognized as the biggest optic in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records.

For some reason, it reminds me of the famous Wonkavision camera.

Links:

• https://petapixel.com/2022/10/04/3200-megapixels-the-worlds-largest-camera-is-almost-complete/