John Martellaro

Whether it’s changing the rules to benefit big business or exerting control over content, governments more and more are seeking to control the internet. It’s all on page 2 of Particle Debris.

Looking for movies on Netflix just about baseball? Deep sea horror movies? Martial arts movies? Mashable has posted a nifty article about how to access the master list of several hundred specific categories that may be more to your liking than the default ones displayed. Check it out.

Okay, it’s part of the Asian culture to copy popular products. This has been happening in the car industry for decades. But this Moto P30 just about duplicates the iPhone X design. But come on. Really? Seriously? This is over the top. (Image credit: BBC News.)

The article’s opening paragraph puts it bluntly. “The world’s largest lifeguard organization claims there’s a direct link between child drownings and the smartphones parents hold in their hands.” Parents know that kids under 4 must be watched like a hawk, especially around water. Or do they?

This article demonstrates many things. 1) Teenagers spend too much time on Facebook. 2) They are subject to psychological manipulation. 3) Those who create channels into teenage minds will do anything to make money. 4) Few realize this is happening. And 5) If Facebook can do this to youngsters, so can others with more unpleasant motives.

The terms artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and deep learning are often confused or interchanged. Friday’s Particle Debris links to an article by a researcher who explains the differences. With that background in hand, PD looks at some intriguing research in the field, including research robots that beg for their lives.

A recent study, described at Big Think, reveals that students who multi-task with smartphones in class are less able to retain information they’ll need for future exams. From the article. “This finding demonstrates for the first time that the main effect of divided attention in the classroom is not an immediate effect of selection or switching on comprehension but a long-term effect of divided attention on retention,” the researchers wrote.

Here are the coolest space images of the week collected by  digg.com. Highlighted: Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, photographed by the Cassini spacecraft.

New payment systems abound. Artificial Intelligence mania continues. AIs interrogating other AIs and probing their minds. AIs doing cancer diagnosis. And mostly right but sometimes wrong. Facial recognition bites back. Can we keep up?  It’s all in Particle Debris page 2.

Indeed, the nanobots in this MIT research are primitive, but the present and future prospects look to be amazing. “The first [component of the aerosol] is a colloid, an extremely tiny insoluble particle or molecule…. The second part of the sensor is a complex circuit containing a chemical detector built from a two-dimensional material, such as graphene. When this detector encounters a certain chemical in its environment, its ability to conduct electricity improves. The circuit also contains a photodiode, a device that can convert ambient light into electric current. This provides all the electricity needed to power the circuit’s data collection and memory.” This is fascinating research, well explained in the link. It will open new doors.