Just like it says, Popcorn Shorts is about the kind of things we think are really interesting, but don’t really need a large article to explain them. From the sublime to the ridiculous, check in here for crunchy bits of info you’ll love to munch. By the way, much (but not all) of our delicious Popcorn comes from articles we’ve posted on our Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook, please stop by and “Like” us and we’ll keep a fairly-constant-but-not-frequent-enough-to-be-annoying stream of these coming to your virtual door!
Disconnected Connections
When it comes to statistics you know that “Correlation does not equal causation”, but when you see two graphs that track each other precisely, bump for bump, it’s hard not to suspect a linkage. Tyler Vigen shows us why we should keep our suspicions in check. He’s trolled massive databases to find unrelated graphs that link up with scary precision. An example… Did you know the number of people who died by becoming tangled in their bedsheets correlates with the total revenue generated by US skiing facilities with over 96% accuracy? Kinda hard to explain, but check his site and it will be obvious. And surprising!
John Oliver Makes Net Neutrality Interesting
John Oliver’s new show, “Last Week Tonight”, is providing some stiff competition for Stewart and Colbert. In a recent show, he did the impossible… he made the critical issue of Net Neutrality clear, interesting, and funny. We’ve all gotten used to the incredible intellectual power of the Net, and The Man has gotten used to its incredible money-making power. Now The Man is trying to take it for himself, and guess who will suffer? It’s a hard issue to wrap your mind around, and even harder to get wound up about it, but few issues will affect your day-to-day life more. Sit back and listen to John and it will all make sense, and you’ll know why it’s to important NOT to stay neutral on Net Neutrality.
A Computer That Can Think? Maybe…
In 1950, mathematical superman Alan Turing proposed a test to determine if a computer was actually capable of thought. The test required the computer to interact in a natural language (but text-only) conversation with a judge. If the judge could not tell if he was dealing with a human or a computer then the computer passed the test. For 64 years no computer passed (though some have come arguably close), but this month in a Turing Test marking the 60th anniversary of Alan Turing’s death, Russian chatbot Eugene Goostman may have done it. Does 2014 mark the dawn of machine intelligence? Click to find out!
When NOT To Scrimp
Everyone likes to save a little money, but there’s a reason “Penny wise and pound foolish” is such an old saying. A failure in an inexpensive part can completely destroy an expensive system… just look at the $2 billion space shuttle Challenger, destroyed by an inexpensive O-ring. The folks over at AlterNet have a list of 5 less critical places where it’s a good idea to step up and spend a little more for peace of mind. (If you’re looking for some wise places to spend or save on auto-repair issues, just give us a call at 503-230-2300 and we’ll be glad to tell you our own suggestions to make your auto repair dollars go as far as they can… and not farther.)
