# life: if your next interviewer will be a bot named Vera

<< You have a telephone interview for your dream job, and you're feeling nervous. You make yourself a cup of tea as you wait for the phone to ring, and you count to three before picking up. Now imagine that your interviewer is a robot named Vera. >>

Julie Jammot. Interview with a robot: AI revolution hits human resources. Apr 27, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-04-robot-ai-revolution-human-resources.html

FonT

Intrigante un ipotetico AI bot in grado di modulare le interviste allo scopo di  calcolare "in tempo reale" parametri psicologici, di validita' e affidabilita' delle informazioni raccolte da ogni singolo intervistato, anche nell'ambito di sondaggi politici ...

# gst: deep, super-resolution vistas through tiny tornadoes of magnetized plasma

<< To get the extremely high-resolution images vital to study new materials, microbes, and more, scientists often build microscopes based on optical vortices. >>

AA << devised a way to make optical vortices with 1000 times more power than previous methods. Their design uses strong, nonuniform magnetic fields to control plasmas, or ionized gases, to create the vortices. >>

US Department of Energy. Magnetized plasmas that twist light can produce powerful microscopes and more. May 7, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-05-magnetized-plasmas-powerful-microscopes.html

Kenan Qu, Qing Jia, Nathaniel J. Fisch. Plasma q-plate for generation and manipulation of intense optical vortices. Phys. Rev. E 96, 053207.  doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.96.053207. Nov 28, 2017.

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.96.053207

# gst: Brownian motion from trading

<< The kinetic theory of molecules, involving many collisions between particles, leads to the emergence of physical Brownian motion. By generalizing the kinetic framework, the study showed the emergence of financial Brownian motion from decisions made by individual traders. >>

Tokyo Institute of Technology. The physics of finance helps solve a century-old mystery. Mar 29, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-03-physics-century-old-mystery.html

AA << model is the first microscopic model that has been directly validated through data analysis of the microscopic dynamics, exhibiting quantitative agreements with mesoscopic and macroscopic empirical results. >>

Kiyoshi Kanazawa, Takumi Sueshige, et al.  Derivation of the Boltzmann Equation for Financial Brownian Motion: Direct Observation of the Collective Motion of High-Frequency Traders.   Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 13830. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.138301. Mar 27, 2018.

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.138301

# trade: cryptocoin; No hoax. The "McAfee Redemption Unit" is real ...

<< Late last night, John McAfee, the official mouthpiece of the 'We love making outlandish statements' club dropped a pretty big bomb on the unsuspecting crypto community.
It all started when a little known cryptocurrency exchange  SmartPayMINT posted a photo of fiat currency with McAfee’s face on it. As far as we know it was an artist’s representation of what a probable currency would look like if it had McAfee’s face on it. >>

Aheli Raychaudhuri. McAfee Coin: Elaborate Hoax or A Stroke of ‘Don Quixote’ Genius? May 29, 2018.

https://www.crypto-news.in/opinions/mcafee-coin-elaborate-hoax-stroke-don-quixote-genius/

<< No hoax. The "McAfee Redemption Unit" is real (..) Printed on currency paper, holographs on both sides, serialized, linked to the blockchain, redeemable, convertible, collectible. >>

John McAfee (@officialmcafee). May 29, 2018 02:46

https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/1001444693618589696

# astro: virtual trips to strange new worlds ...

<< Are you looking for an exotic destination to visit this summer? Why not take a virtual trip to an Earth-size planet beyond our solar system with NASA's interactive Exoplanet Travel Bureau? >>

<< Kepler-186f is an Earth-size planet orbiting a small red star, which may or may not have an atmosphere >>

Tony Greicius. Take a Virtual Trip to a Strange New World with NASA. NASA-TV. May 24, 2018.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/take-a-virtual-trip-to-a-strange-new-world-with-nasa

NASA Marshall. May 27, 2018 05:00

https://twitter.com/NASA_Marshall/status/1000753521325731840

# phys: where a drum can vibrate and stand still at the same time ...

<< Mechanical vibrations, such as those that create the sound from a drum, are an important part of our everyday experience. Hitting a drum with a drumstick causes it to rapidly move up and down, producing the sound we hear. In the quantum world, a drum can vibrate and stand still at the same time >>

Hayley Dunning. Can a quantum drum vibrate and stand still at the same time? Imperial College London. May 18, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-05-quantum-vibrate.html

<< to control  the motion of  macroscopic mechanical resonators (..) to explore and exploit quantum phenomena at a macroscopic scale >>

Ringbauer M, Weinhold TJ, et al. Generation of mechanical interference fringes by multi-photon counting. New Journal of Physics. 2018; 20. May 18, 2018.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/aabb8d/meta

FonT

ecco una sfida per un percussionista  indiano ...(Dha, Dhin, Ta, Tin, Ti, ...)

# acad: the matthew effect vs perpetual novelties

<< Why do scientists with similar backgrounds and abilities often end up achieving very different degrees of success? A classic explanation is that academic achievement exhibits a “Matthew effect”: Early successes increase future success chances.>>

AA << results show that winners just above the funding threshold accumulate more than twice as much funding during the subsequent eight years as nonwinners with near-identical review scores that fall just below the threshold. >>

Thijs Bol, Mathijs de Vaan, and Arnout van de Rijt. The Matthew effect in science funding. PNAS May 8, 2018. 115 (19) 4887-90. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1719557115.

http://www.pnas.org/content/115/19/4887

Sam Zuckerman. How success breeds success in the sciences. University of California, Berkeley. Apr 27, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-04-success-sciences.html

FonT

the "Matthew effect" esteso nel qualsivoglia contesto (vale a dire: rendita di posizione stabile, carriera professionale certa, esercizio del potere di cooptazione, accesso privilegiato a risorse pubbliche e private) vs (ipotetiche entita' AI.qu.cpu autonome, costo base 10-100 usd, emivita 10y) ... come si auto giustifichera' lo status di una futura classe dirigente? Sara' sufficiente il conforto, l'appoggio sottotraccia della "famiglia",  la disponibilita' alla sottomissione/ compromesso "a prescindere", l'eventuali abilita' di chiacchera e visibilita' sui media per stabilizzarne il potere?