BUSINESS
An overview of all the personal data Facebook and Google collect.
How does the HQ trivia app monetize? The first paid promotion for the app was an ad deal with Warner Bros., reportedly worth $3 million, to promote three films within the game. The first of these, Ready Player One, was energetically pitched throughout a $250,000-value game where the movie was referenced 21 times.
Facebook makes about $82 dollars a year per North American user from ad revenue and about $20 per user worldwide.
Of large businesses that publicly boast about performance — ie. characterize their annual performance with extreme positive language — only 18% increase shareholder value, while nearly 75% have insignificant performance, and the remaining 7% actually destroy shareholder value. In other words, bragging about performance is rarely associated with value creation for shareholders.
On the eve of tax day 2018, the IRS says fewer than 100 people have reported bitcoin holdings so far.
US
A list of scenic quiet roads in every state.
For those who have watched Netflix’s documentary miniseries, Wild Wild Country, about the followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the original 20-part investigative series on the Rajneeshees is available on The Oregonian‘s website.
LIVING
Are the Amish happy or are they unhappy? Studies aimed at this question often serve as a proxy for the discussion, ‘does money, civilization, technology, etc. make people happy or unhappy.’ Spoiler alert: the data is squirrely and we don’t really know.
SPORTS
Musings on the game theory regarding NBA players ‘taking plays off.’
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
A comparison of various microorganisms by size.
The scientific paper — formal, austere, one-dimensional — is the dominant medium for documentation of cutting-edge science. Visual aids, software, data sets, notebooks, etc. are integral to modern science, but have not yet become trusted, or legitimized, as an essential part of submitting scientific work.
A program using Google’s AutoML Vision is able to determine which store — out of 41 Ramen Jiro franchise locations — bowls of seemingly identical ramen came from. The software uses a training set of 48,000 photos of ramen to make the determination with 95% accuracy.
At about five times the size of the Titanic, Royal Caribbean’s The Symphony of the Seas is the largest passenger ship ever built. It cost $1B to construct, can carry 9,000 people, and contains more than 40 restaurants and bars; 23 pools, jacuzzis and water slides; two West End-sized theatres; an ice rink; a surf simulator; two climbing walls; a zip line; a fairground carousel; a mini-golf course; a ten-storey fun slide; laser tag; a spa; a gym; a casino; and more.
Research from Stanford posits ocean mammals grow large not because they are freed from the limitations gravity, as previously thought by many, but rather than heat loss requires a larger-than-land optimal size for most oceanic mammals.
Humans see colors that are a mix of red, blue and green light while birds have a fourth color in the mix — a property called tetrachromatic vision. Many amphibians, reptiles, insects, some mammals (and possibly even early species of human) also have the necessary 4 types of cone cells in the eye to extend vision into the ultraviolet range.
Dots don’t matter in Gmail addresses. For example, johnsmith@gmail.com, john.smith@gmail.com, j.ohnsmith@gmail.com, j.o.h.n.s.m.i.t.h@gmail.com, etc. all go to the same account. Gmail purportedly has reasons for doing this. However, ignoring dots can result in potential account security flaws for people using Gmail addresses as 3rd party application logins.
HEALTH
PhD and master’s students worldwide report rates of depression and anxiety that are six times higher than those in the general public.
This post Old News: Quiet Scenic Roads originally appeared on williamwickey.com.