There has been a lot of talk about AI in recent times as new developments continue to push the limits of what it can do, worrying some and getting some backlash from others. But as many have pointed out, despite the processing and predictive power of AI, it's not a perfect system. It cannot replace humans in one of the most critical aspects: creativity and innovation. And a new study proves just that, by pitting young children against the AI.

The children and the AI tools, specifically large language model (LLM) programs, were instructed to do some basic problem-solving tasks such as drawing a circle using one of three tools. The goal was to figure out which of the tools would be the best way to draw a circle. All of the human children were able to correctly choose the appropriate instrument, meanwhile, the AI only scored correctly 76% of the time.

Of course, there are limitations to the study, and it doesn't negate the fact that AI is very useful in performing many other tasks that are difficult, tedious, and time-consuming for humans to do. After all, humans built the machines in order to make our lives more convenient and efficient.

Perhaps what this study shows is that the threat of AI to upend human society is non-existent, if not merely insignificant. It's all about how people are using AI, and for what purpose, as many routine or menial jobs get relegated to algorithms and machines, thus displacing people. The challenge, then, is how we can keep up with the developments happening around us.

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Hayao Miyazaki is a titan in Japanese cinema. For over six decades, Miyazaki has been working as an animator, and has established himself as one of the legends in Japanese animation. He's such a commanding presence that he was even able to convince Takeshi Honda, a veteran animator, to set aside his role as one of the animators of the new Evangelion film in order to work on Miyazaki's latest and supposedly, his last film, The Boy and The Heron.

Honda recounts Miyazaki's appeal saying that this would most likely be his last film because no one in the Miyazaki family ever lived beyond 80. And so Honda acquiesced and agreed to work with him on the film. By the way, Miyazaki is now 82 years old and appears to have more left in him as there are further rumors that he has ideas for another film in the future.

As for Honda's experience working with Miyazaki, one would think that everything would be smooth and cooperative between two industry veterans, but to Honda's surprise, Miyazaki was very meticulous when it came to how the film was to be animated.

During the first few years working with him, Honda found Miyazaki commenting about the style of animation, which is distinctive of Ghibli films, and how he wanted certain features drawn in a particular way. However, Honda remarked that, after a while, he reverted to his own style, to which Miyazaki simply relinquished his persistence.

It took approximately seven years for The Boy and The Heron to be completed, and much of that time was spent trying to get the details just right, as one would expect from any Ghibli film. This is Miyazaki's eleventh feature, and purportedly based on his own life. The Boy and The Heron is scheduled to be released in North America next month.

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When the US president goes anywhere, the security involved is a logistics nightmare involving hundreds of people. You deal with that when there's a diplomatic reason for travel, but when the Commander in Chief needs a weekend to relax and refresh or a summer vacation, it's a lot easier to have a spot already in place with permanent security. Security is important, but that spot also has to be nice enough so that the president will want to stay there. That's how Camp David was born in the 1930s. The facility is also perfect for hosting meetings with other heads of state for the same reasons, especially for extended meetings like peace talks. Half as Interesting explains the history of Camp David, plus the measures taken to keep it feeling like a luxury resort to its guests while maintaining security that makes a supermax prison look weak. It's a delicate balancing act, but someone has to do it.  

Parents lose sight of their child at the airport pic.twitter.com/1phO6vwbma

— Crazy Clips (@crazyclipsonly) November 23, 2023

Airport security requirements can be rather strict. There are some items that you may keep as carry-on luggage and take with you into the cabin. Other items must be checked and travel in a plane's baggage compartment.

But a child is not one of them. You may (and should) keep your toddler with you in the cabin, even though other passengers may wish otherwise.

Business Insider reports that a little boy climbed onto the baggage conveyor belt system at an airport in Santiago, Chile. He appears to have enjoyed the experience, but baggage handlers nonetheless shut down his ride and returned him to his parents.

Does your family have turkey for Thanksgiving? Some families do. I mean, to each his own, I guess. But I agree with Kimberly Darling of Chicago who prefers to serve her family alligator.

She's one of many Thanksgiving celebrants described in an article published in The Wall Street Journal (sorry, it's paywalled) who serve exotic meats to their families on Thanksgiving. S. Ottomanelli & Sons, a butcher shop in New York City, reports that about 25% of its orders for the feast are for exotic meats, which include alligator, kangaroo, python, and rattlesnake.

Other alligator meat producers inform the Journal that they see similar upticks in orders during the holiday seasons. It's a time to eat hearty and impress guests, so alligator suits them.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: S. Ottomanelli & Sons

The Krave It Pizza and Sandwich Joint has several locations in New York City, which is helpful for New Yorkers who are looking for a Thanksgiving Day feast to eat without cooking it themselves. Krave It has become famous for its specialty pizzas, which include a cheeseburger pizza, a fried Oreo pizza, a pickle pizza, and Korean corn pizza.

But since it's Thanksgiving, we should eat a traditional Thanksgiving meal on a pizza crust, which Krave It helpfully provides. The Thanksgiving pizza has turkey, sweet potatoes with roasted marshmallows, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and gravy. There's a complete meal in every slice.

-via First We Feast

Once upon a time, one requirement for an FCC broadcast license was a certain amount of airtime dedicated to serving the public. TV networks fulfilled this requirement by bringing us the news, 15 minutes of it, at 6 PM. When that was expanded to 30 minutes in September of 1963, all the ad slots were sold immediately. But the networks maintained that TV news was a loss, as it was expensive to run a journalism department that did nothing else. Then on November 22, 1963, 60 years ago today, President John F.Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

All the networks ran coverage of the assassination, the aftermath, and the funeral non-stop for days, with no ad breaks. That cost the networks millions of dollars in lost ad revenue, but it garnered them the goodwill of the public, and even more important, got everyone to tune into the nightly news and other news shows that were gradually added. TV networks still let us think that the news was a public service and a financial loss for years afterward, even as each new news show became more profitable. Read how the business of news broadcasting was a moneymaker long before we knew at the Conversation.  -via Damn Interesting  

(Image credit: Walt Cisco, Dallas Morning News)

If the Disney+ series Kenobi had been produced in the 1980s, it would have been on network TV and be squeezed between The Incredible Hulk and MacGyver. Ewan McGregor (born in 1971) would have been too young for the role, but Sir Alec Guinness was still around in the 1980s. Considering how he felt about Star Wars, they would have had a hard time getting him for the role. Oh yeah, in case you haven't seen Kenobi, this video contains spoilers. I haven't seen it either, but when you live on the internet, spoilers just come with the territory.

What really makes this retro TV intro perfect is the original theme song, called "Be the One" by Auralnauts, with guitar and vocals by Scott Beetley. The feedback to the TV intro made that clear, so Auralnauts went ahead and made a full music video for the song, by mixing in video clips from the very 1980s music video for "The Unforgiven" by Robert Tepper.  



Considering the audio and video are from completely different musicians, this is a masterpiece of editing. But that's what you would expect from Auralnauts.

How did this happen? Redditor hbmomo's mother was making a pie for Thanksgiving when the law of gravity took a temporary break and the stand mixer saw its opportunity for escape. It didn't make a clean getaway (see the counter), but the incident resulted in a priceless photograph. If you think hard enough, you can figure it out, but I'll go ahead and explain. The windows have blinds, and since they were pulled up, the cord was pretty long, and got caught in the beaters. It became an instant pulley! The wonder is that the blinds were attached strongly enough that it pulled the heavy mixer up instead of pulling the blinds off the window. But there are other Thanksgiving disasters that also cry out for explanation.

Last year, a friend of redditor alwaysangrythrowaway cooked this turkey. Was it marinated in Pepto-Bismol? Benadryl, maybe? Or is it just a food coloring prank? The poster said it had been rubbed in "neon pink salt" which others decided must have been pink curing salt, or Prague Powder. It contains sodium nitrate and is not safe to be eaten in this concentration. But we also learned that the friend burnt that turkey badly and it was not eaten.

These are only two images from a gallery of 50 pictures illustrating Thanksgiving disasters collected by Bored Panda. If your Thanksgiving is not proceeding in the manner you expected, they will make you feel downright thankful. 

Tomorrow will be Thanksgiving Day in the US. It has been celebrated for the past 400 years, but it wasn't always on the fourth Thursday of November. Sources say that it started in 1621 though that isn't confirmed. Also, Farmer's Almanac says it was celebrated on November 25th from 1668, but then it changed after that.

When George Washington became president, Congress requested that he declare November 26, 1789 to be Thanksgiving Day. But since then, other presidents have also moved the date around several times. During Abraham Lincoln's presidency, the last Thursday of November became the regular annual day that Thanksgiving was celebrated. However, things would change again in 1939.

Since the last Thursday of November was too close to December, former President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to move it to the second-to-last Thursday so that people would have an allowance for their Christmas shopping. Still, not all states followed suit.

The House of Representatives also intervened. They drafted and passed a resolution which stated that Thanksgiving Day will be on the last Thursday of November. However, the Senate later amended this to the fourth Thursday in November which has been the date Thanksgiving is celebrated since.

(Image credit: Jed Owen/Unsplash)

Many artists over the centuries have depicted hell in various ways, although most of them often involved fire, brimstone, people wailing, and what looked like demons or ghouls. Japanese artists have also been very creative in the way they illustrated hell or "jigoku". In fact, from the 12th to the 19th century, there have been many depictions of hell from Japanese artists. And a book has been published collating all of them in 600 pages.

There's the classic one shown above from the Jigoku-Zoshi, or hell scroll, showing flames coming out like tendrils from the ground with people trapped inside and big ogres with clubs making sure they don't get out.

Another picture shows a large monster with a horse's head and a human body holding a spear, apparently directing a toppling group of people from the inner gate of hell toward a deeper region.

Perhaps the weirdest one shows a demon flattening a human with a stick to make them into soba noodles.

For more concepts of hell, check them out at Spoon and Tamago. The book is called Hell in Japanese Art which features art by Yoshitoshi Tsukioka, Kyosai Kawanabe, Kazunobu Kano, and more, available on Amazon.

(Image credit: Tokyo National Museum)

DALL-E is ChatGPT's text-to-image model that uses prompts to create new images. Nick Gillespie tested it out by instructing DALL-E to make Pokemon versions based on Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The results are uncanny.

With the prompts, DALL-E created a water/psychic type humanoid Pokemon named Democraflux for Biden, with white hair, a suit robe, and a signature move called "Unity Aura" that does exactly what the name suggests: it unites people. For Trump, DALL-E aptly made a fire/normal type Pokemon named Trumpertantrum, that looks like a chicken, and features his signature fiery locks and a trumpet for a beak. Finally, RFK got Justicarion, a fighting/flying type Pokemon, that looks like an eagle with green and brown feathers.

There are characteristics that DALL-E was spot on when creating the Pokemon, particularly how it designed Trump's Pokemon which was a playful and clever way of incorporating various personality traits of Trump. But Gillespie disagrees with other aspects such as those for Biden and RFK's Pokemon.

Although it's a great feat, ChatGPT and other AI bots are still far from being a perfect system. Just look at Margaret Atwood's review of a story created by an AI prompted to write something in the voice of Margaret Atwood.

(Image credit: Nick Gillespie, ChatGPT/DALL-E)

Brutalist architecture is a minimalist style that emphasizes the bare building materials and structural elements over artistic flourishes or decorative designs. Many college campuses in the US were constructed using this style resulting in buildings that look drab and nondescript.

In this video from Vox, they look at Evans Hall in the University of California Berkley, which has been rumored to be slated for demolition. Despite denials from the administration saying no such plans are under way, there have been subtle hints that point toward an eventual demolition of the building. The reason: because of poor seismic ratings.

That reason, however, is unconvincing as there are more buildings within campus that have similar seismic ratings. So, the real reason: because it obstructs views of San Francisco and beyond, which might be a roundabout way of saying that it looks ugly.

Still, many proponents of brutalist architecture are trying to raise awareness about the good sides of brutalism. It may not be like the postmodern architectural style featuring asymmetrical geometry, colorful facades, and playful designs, but they contend that brutalist buildings are expressive and bold. Truly, many brutalist buildings are imposing and very striking in their appearance.

So, before we start hating on these brutalist buildings, maybe we can try to see the good in them.

(Video credit: Vox/Youtube)

Rewards programs are good business models to keep consumers loyal to a brand. Airlines use frequent flyer programs to deliver additional value to customers without having to incur additional costs. However, many passengers might be wondering why frequent flyer programs frequently change the rules of their benefits. A couple of business professors gives us the down and dirty about frequent flyer programs.

Essentially, airlines don't make much profit from ticket sales, they say. Instead, they get the most value from baggage fees, ticket change fees, and frequent flyer programs. You may wonder, how do airlines make profit from frequent flyer programs?

For one, the annual fees in maintaining a rewards credit card gives them extra revenues for a very low cost. Another is the interest that accumulates from unpaid balances when using the rewards card. So, the best way to maximize profit is to induce people to keep using these rewards programs.

However, they keep changing the rules depending on economic conditions. Airlines companies need to find the right balance on when to apply stricter rules for their frequent flyer programs and when to relax them. That's why during the pandemic era, they changed the rules to reward people based on the miles they've traveled versus dollars spent, since there were fewer people traveling anyway.

But now, since the world has returned to a more normal state, they have tightened the rules again. So, the business professors suggest that if you plan on getting a rewards card, get one that gives cash back, instead of airplane miles. At least you can use the cash for something else.

(Image credit: JESHOOTS.COM/Unsplash)

Getting a headache when inebriated is par for the course. Anybody who has experienced hangovers would know the aftermath of a wild night of partying and drinking a lot of alcohol. But that's not what red wine headache (RWH) is exactly.

Usually, one might experience getting a headache after waking up from a hangover, but red wine headache is reported to occur even when individuals have only consumed small to moderate amounts of red wine. So it's not about the drunkenness of an individual. But what exactly causes it?

The fact that RWH sparsely occurs and only in very specific individuals might give us a hint that there is a substance in red wine to which somebody reacts negatively. Some have pointed to sulfites as the source of RWH, but the fact that white wine has more sulfites in it, and yet seldom do people report having migraine-like headaches from drinking white wine, which eliminates sulfites as the cause.

Another possible suspect was histamine. There are people allergic to histamine and what it does is that it makes the blood vessels dilate which causes a headache. However, studies have shown no correlation between histamine and RWH.

The latest study on RWH from a team of California scientists suggests that a flavonol called quercetin might be the culprit everyone's looking for, though they still need to test it. What made them suspicious of quercetin was that it inhibited the ALDH2 enzyme, which is responsible for metabolizing acetaldehyde in the bloodstream. When this happens, people can become flushed or get headaches.

We have yet to confirm their hypothesis but the researchers are confident that quercetin may finally explain RWH.

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