# zen: all things have a bit of soul

<< The robot dogs lined up in their dozens Thursday in Japan were no tech fair display. They were the dearly departed being honoured with their own traditional "funeral." >>

<< Bungen Oi, the priest at the 450-year-old Kofukuji temple in Isumi, east of Tokyo, dismisses the idea that holding memorials for machines is absurd. "All things have a bit of soul" he told AFP (Agence France-Presse) after the service >>

Miwa Suzuki. Fido funeral: In Japan, a send-off for robot dogs. Apr 26, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-04-fido-funeral-japan-send-off-robot.html

https://www.afp.com/en/news/2265/fido-funeral-japan-send-robot-dogs-doc-14c3vl1

# gst: the vacuum may not be empty, it may be full of bubbles.

<< In modern quantum mechanical theories, the vacuum is not empty. It is full of bubbles of so-called virtual particles, appearing and disappearing very quickly. Interactions between these virtual particles and a real particle, like the muon, can change how the real particle interacts with the magnetic field, affecting its g-factor >>

Savannah Mitchem, Argonne National Laboratory. Muons spin tales of undiscovered particles. Apr 19, 2018.

https://www.anl.gov/articles/muons-spin-tales-undiscovered-particles

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-04-muons-tales-undiscovered-particles.html

# life: smart cities

<< Even something as simple as a garbage bin can now be connected to the internet, meaning that it forms part of what is called the internet of things (IoT) >>

<< Through sensors embedded into our cities, and the smartphones in our pockets, smart cities will have the power to constantly identify where people are, who they are meeting and even perhaps what they are doing >>

Sara Degli-Esposti, Siraj Ahmed Shaikh. With smart cities, your every step will be recorded. Apr 17, 2018.

https://theconversation.com/with-smart-cities-your-every-step-will-be-recorded-94527  

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-04-smart-cities.html   

FonT

"and even perhaps what they are doing" . Non solo. Una ipotetica AI, oltre a collezionare dati, potrebbe verosimilmente generare (su media digitali audio- video ad es.) situazioni assolutamente inventate, di fantasia, percio' mai avvenute nel reale tuttavia difficili se non impossibili da discriminare/ confutare anche in sedi tecniche/  legali/ penali (l'ipotetico Mr. John dormiva inconsapevole nel suo letto e contemporaneamente 500 cam della sua citta' lo riprendevano in strada a passeggio ...). In tali scenari, le attuali violazioni della privacy e i supposti condizionamenti di Facebook etc sull'individuo si  potrebbero riconsiderare attivita' da  fantolini ...

# life: Sea Nomads freediving skills (they free dive up to 70 meters deep)

<< Understanding the physiology and genetics of human hypoxia tolerance  has important medical implications, but this phenomenon has thus far only been investigated in high-altitude human populations. Another system, yet to be explored, is humans who engage in breath-hold diving. The indigenous Bajau people (“Sea Nomads”) of Southeast Asia live a subsistence lifestyle based on breath-hold diving and are renowned for their extraordinary breath-holding abilities >>

<< the Bajau, and possibly other diving populations, provide a new opportunity to study human adaptation to hypoxia tolerance >>

Melissa A. Ilardo, Ida Moltke, et al. Physiological and Genetic Adaptations to Diving in Sea Nomads.
Cell. 2018; 173 (3): 569 - 80.e15. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.03.054. Apr 19, 2018.

http://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(18)30386-6

<< Members of the Bajau can dive up to 70 meters with nothing more than a set of weights and a pair of wooden goggles >>

<< As they never dive competitively it is uncertain exactly how long the Bajau can remain underwater, but one of them told researcher Melissa Ilardo that he had once dived for 13 minutes consecutively >>

University of Cambridge. Genetic adaptations to diving discovered in humans for the first time. Apr 19, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-04-genetic-humans.html

# gst: true randomness exists

<< On a good day, the machine produces 1,024 bits of data every 10 minutes, equivalent to typing 13 letters per minute. But it promises what even monkeys on typewriters can’t: completely random text >>

<< It's exciting to be able to say that randomness exists in the universe >> Peter Bierhorst.

Sophia Chen. Quantum Mechanics Could Solve Cryptography’s Random Number Problem. Apr 11, 2018.

https://www.wired.com/story/quantum-mechanics-could-solve-cryptographys-random-number-problem/

Peter Bierhorst, Emanuel Knill, et al. Experimentally generated randomness certified by the impossibility of superluminal signals. Nature. 2018; 556: 223–6. doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0019-0. Apr 11, 2018.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0019-0

# gst: rotating particles self-organise (also in a form of active soft matter)

<< Biological organisms and artificial active particles self-organize into swarms and patterns >>

AA << study a mixture of minimalistic clockwise and counter-clockwise rotating robots, called rotors >>

<< experiments show that rotors move collectively and exhibit super-diffusive interfacial motion and phase separate via spinodal decomposition. On long time scales, confinement favors symmetric demixing patterns >>

This << macroscopic system is a form of active soft matter >>

Christian Scholz, Michael Engel,  Thorsten Poschel. Rotating robots move collectively and self-organize.
Nature Communications. 2018; 9 (931). doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-03154-7. Apr 11, 2018.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03154-7

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Physicists demonstrate demixing behavior of rotating particles. Apr 4, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-04-physicists-demixing-behavior-rotating-particles.html

# psych: sometimes chickens remain optimistic despite exposure to stress

<< Chickens that grow up in an environment that they perceive as more diverse and manageable, retain an optimistic view of life and cope with stress better than individuals that grow up in more sterile surroundings >>

Linkoping University. Chickens remain optimistic in enriched environments despite exposure to stress. Apr 6, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-04-chickens-optimistic-enriched-environments-exposure.html

Josefina Zidar, Irene Campderrich, et al.  Environmental complexity buffers against stress-induced negative judgement bias in female chickens.  Scientific Reports. 2018; 8 (5404). doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-23545-6
Mar 29, 2018.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-23545-6