Benjamin Breen of Res Obscura has been researching the different uses of AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude (from Anthropic), and as an enthusiast of demonology manuals, he decided to challenge the LLMs to translate a page out of the 16th century book titled Disquisitionum Magicarum Libri Sex (lit. "Book Six of the Discourse on Magic") by Jesuit theologian Martin Delrio.

He made the endeavor much easier on himself by simply feeding the AI with an OCR-rendered image to extract the text and copied that onto the prompt. What follows is a rough translation of the passage, but intelligible to a certain extent. It may not be accurate but it can aid researchers, for example, in getting a quick idea of the essence of materials which they cannot translate on their own.

Claude apparently does a better job at translating than ChatGPT. However, he still concludes the same thing many others have said before, AI tools are merely tools and not replacements. What they can do is simply make the process faster and more efficient for us who would rather put our time and effort into more critical aspects of our work.

(Image credit: Bavarian State Library/Google Books)

Since Spotify has this annual tradition of curating the top songs that users have played throughout the year, and presenting it in a "Best Of" collection format, they have transformed the data they have collected into an interactive map which shows you which songs are the most played songs in different cities around the world. They call it Wrapped Mapped.

Each year, Spotify summarizes users' listening activity which they can share with other people. Users can also check to see if their favorite songs and artists have made it onto the most streamed list on Spotify.

With Wrapped Mapped, the idea is that the music we listen to can sometimes be shaped by the communities where we belong. This map enables users to check what music trends are happening in places outside of their local communities. Perhaps, they might find other people who share the same music interests in the other side of the world. Thus, allowing them to become connected through their love of a particular song or artist.

Not all cities are included on the map. Spotify lists the top five songs in most of the largest cities in the US, and for other parts of the world, they simply collate data for whole countries.

For example, in Los Angeles, Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma's Ella Baila Sola tops the list with SZA's Kill Bill closely following. On the other hand, the UK has Dave and Central Cee's Sprinter at the number one spot, while Miley Cyrus' Flowers comes in second. It may not be an exhaustive list, but it's a good start if Spotify is planning to make it an annual thing as well. It's also a fun way to browse new music or to see which songs and artists were the most streamed in various parts of the world. -via Google Maps Mania

(Image credit: Spotify)

Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks are rife with illustrations of anatomy, physiology, inventions, and engineering sketches that show his observations and preoccupations on the subjects. But apart from those, he also wrote lists of things he needed to do, just like everyone else.

These to-do lists however, are not mere ordinary daily tasks life we often do. Many of them are larger in scope such as measuring the duke's palace and its courtyard, as well as measuring and drawing the city of Milan and its suburbs. Some of the notes he wrote actually showed the inquisitive mind of the artist.

In the note translated by NPR, da Vinci writes about asking certain professors and masters about their craft such as squaring a triangle, measuring the sun, and repairing a lock.

Even his more mundane to-do lists were quirky in their own way. He reminded himself to bring a bone saw, a scalpel, and some chalk on one occasion when he was going to dissect corpses. In that same note, he wrote that he must get a hold of a skull and nutmeg, as well as measuring the corpse using its finger as a unit. This and others on Flashbak.

(Image credit: Flashbak)

There are so many astounding feats that the 26th President of the United States is often cited for. Some of those include The Square Deal, the building of the Panama Canal, trust busting, railroad rate regulation, and the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in mediating between the two parties during the Russo-Japanese War. However, he also holds the record as the youngest ever to become president, at the age of 42.

Of course, he wasn't elected president. The youngest elected president record is still held by JFK, who was elected at 43. The story behind Roosevelt's presidency was also quite fascinating, as many of his party members didn't want him to become president. So, they had arranged for him to become vice president instead. What they didn't expect was the assassination of William McKinley, which ironically propelled Teddy Roosevelt to the presidency.

Not only this, but Roosevelt also holds the record as the youngest person to become a former president, at 50 years old. Despite his promise not to run for a third term, he did try again in 1912. That was also when somebody attempted to assassinate him, but his eyeglass case and speech papers had prevented the shot from being fatal.

(Image credit: American Press Association, Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)

A global collaboration of scientists from different countries including the US, the UK, Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Italy, have found paleontological hints that point to the major role of volcanic eruptions and climate change to the demise of the dinosaurs. To be clear, they're not saying that the mass extinction event brought about by an asteroid that struck the earth did not happen. Rather, it was the last nail on the coffin, which sealed the dinosaurs' fate.

The scientists have been studying a region in India called the Deccan Traps to piece together the events that led to the dinosaurs' extinction. Their studies have indicated that prior to the asteroid crashing into earth, volcanic eruptions around the Deccan Traps region triggered fluctuating global temperatures which placed incredible stress on the earth's ecosystems, beginning the impending doom of the dinosaurs.

These findings can also help in our understanding of the current climate crisis that the earth is in and how these phenomena are interconnected with the earth's geological and biological systems, according to the scientists.

(Image credit: Jon Butterworth/Unsplash)

Most of our computers and other devices use digital processors to transmit data. Throughout the decades, we have leaned toward digital because it's more flexible and much easier to program. However, the company Aspinity says that it has finally broken the code for programming analog processors.

But what exactly is the difference between digital and analog? Analog data can be thought of as a wave, smooth and continuous, while digital are like steps on a ladder, discrete and binary, filled with ones and zeros. Most of the data we have in the real world are analog, and so, those data are converted into digital signals which can be processed by our devices and computers.

If we have analog processors transmitting analog data, then it will be a lot faster. Moreover, Aspinity says that creating analog processors that can accurately transmit and convert data might be a breakthrough in the future of computing as these will consume far less energy, about one-thousandth of the digital ones we have today.

The company says that they do not expect analog processors to replace digital ones, but they can complement them, being the processors that will always be turned on, doing all the "behind-the-scenes" work in the background, while digital processors will be on an "as-needed" basis, which should theoretically save on energy.

They have developed the first few processors, but it would take time for these analog processors to be manufactured at scale, so if all goes according to plan, they expect that these analog processors will be able to power about 30 billion devices by 2040.

(Video credit: Freethink/Youtube)

I first watched the film The Blind Side while I was in university several years back. I had wondered why it was nominated for an Academy Award, and at the time, I was doing marathons of Oscar films, but this film caught my attention somehow. It was nominated for Best Picture and Best Actress, winning the Oscar for Sandra Bullock. It lost to The Hurt Locker.

After I watched it, I felt moved and inspired by it. It was definitely a heart-warming film that can restore our faith in humanity. It depicted the true-to-life story of Michael Oher and his foster family, the Tuohys, who had adopted him during his final year in high school. He later received a scholarship, graduated with a degree in criminal justice, and eventually, was drafted into the NFL.

What the film didn't show us however, were the events prior to his meeting with the Tuohys. Although it had been mentioned that Oher's mother had drug addiction, and that he bounced from one foster care to another, the movie never showed how Oher lived despite his circumstances.

We only see how he became a beneficiary of the goodwill shown to him by the Tuohys, but in the video above, he explains how he struggled and fought to escape the environment wherein he grew up. He shares how he was inspired by Michael Jordan to have aspirations and ambitions in life, and to work toward achieving those dreams. This is the untold story of Michael Oher.

(Video credit: Big Think/Youtube)

It started around 1839 in the small village of Efailwen in Pembrokeshire, when a local farmer had dressed up as a woman, called himself Rebecca or Beca, and demolished a tollgate. Thus began the Rebecca Riots.

Nobody knows exactly why the men dressed themselves up as women or why they called themselves 'Merched Beca' or Rebecca's daughters. Some have speculated that the name was a reference to the biblical Rebecca whose offspring were said to "possess the gates of their enemies". It's quite a convincing reason, but no confirmation about the origins of the name has been recorded. Perhaps, the most plausible one was to conceal the protesters' identities.

Although the Rebecca Riots, which was what the movement was later called, began with local farmers who protested and attacked tollgates, it wasn't just against taxes that they were battling. Rather, it was the dire situation in which Wales, specifically the western agricultural communities at the time, had found itself.

Many of these communities were in dire poverty because of poor harvests and the fluctuating prices of agricultural products, forcing farmers to use up what little capital they had just to feed their families and cattle. Later on, even non-agricultural laborers joined the protests.

In the end, due to a government inquiry into the matter as well as the emergence of criminal groups posing as Rebeccaites, the riots ceased. It didn't have an immediate effect on farmers, but it did lead to a reduction on rent levels and an improvement on the toll gates as well as an act that amended turnpike trust laws in Wales.

(Image credit: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)

After working our whole lives, we hope to retire somewhere nice and comfortable until the end of our days, but cost of living these days, especially in some of the most affluent cities in the world are unbearably high. Still, where exactly are the best places to retire? And how much would you need to have to live out your years in retirement there?

To make things easier for the rest of us, the team at Net Credit has done the grunt work of tallying up the different retirement costs all around the world as well as for each state in the US. They have also created several charts that summarize all that information for us. The one above shows costs of retirement for different countries.

Their research highlights the most expensive country to retire requires you to have at least $1 million over 15 years. If you think that place may be somewhere in Europe or one of the states, then you're wrong. It's actually found in Asia, and the second smallest country in Asia to boot.

The cheapest place to retire in is also in Asia, although I doubt you would want to retire there as it might be quite risky. On average, the cost of retirement in the US was around $700,000. Now, looking at the data for the US states, you can guess which one is the most expensive to retire in, and it's not on the East Coast or the West Coast. Meanwhile, the cheapest state is Mississippi. -via Digg

(Image credit: Net Credit)

On average, dogs live between 10 to 13 years, but it is said that smaller dogs can live longer than larger breeds, with some living for up to 20 years. For many people who own dogs, that's certainly a shorter span of time than what we'd hope, but that's just how nature runs its course.

Now, there might be a glimmer of hope as a biotech company has been working on a drug that extends the lives of dogs, and the FDA has found it to have a reasonable expectation of effectiveness, and is close to approving it. It might be the first anti-aging drug for dogs.

The biotech company Loyal produced LOY-001, which is a drug that targets IGF-1, a growth hormone in dogs, which they believe is responsible for the shorter lifespans of larger dogs. Not only does it lengthen the dogs' lives but the drug is also designed to increase their healthspan, the number of healthy years that a dog lives.

Although this drug is designed for dogs, Loyal hopes that the insights they gain from their studies into lifespan extension for dogs can carry over to humans as well. Currently, they have other drugs under development which could target human lifespans. For now, we can be satisfied with longer lives for dogs, once the drug gets approved.

(Image credit: FLOUFFY/Unsplash)

Apparently, an average annual income of $230,000, based on a survey conducted by researchers from Princeton University and the University of Barcelona. What the researchers wanted to find out was whether citizens from three countries - the US, France, and Brazil - would be willing to give up free elections for a price. To do so, they presented pairs of hypothetical societies and let the participants choose which society they preferred.

Apart from the fact that one society in each pair will have no free elections, they also differed in other factors such as personal monthly income, collective wealth, income inequality, and the presence of public health insurance.

They found that majority of the participants highly valued democracy, however, if they were to become part of an authoritarian society, they wanted a very high price in exchange. It should be noted that the distribution of personal incomes was randomized, so that not all authoritarian or democratic societies would have very high incomes.

The right to choose who will lead a country is fundamental to any democratic nation. No matter how much one earns, the policies and laws in a country will affect the way people live their lives, so it is understandable why it is so steep a price.

(Image credit: Element5 Digital/Unsplash)

Depending on a country's estate laws, a person who dies intestate will usually have their properties inherited by the closest of kin. So, someone who dies without children will have their property given to the spouse, parents, or the nearest relative. However, the intestacy rules in England and Wales are different due to the rules set out in the Administration of Estates Act 1925 and the legal principle of bona vacantia.

Bona vacantia simply means "ownerless goods", which is what happens to a person's estate if they die without a will, and without any close kin. Relatives who are further away than first cousins cannot be considered heirs. So, in England and Wales, the law states that the bona vacantia part of an intestate person's estate will go to the crown.

Now, here's where things are a bit more interesting with King Charles III. Usually, the Treasury solicitor handles the collection of these estates. However, there is a stipulation under the Administration of Estates Act 1925 that states that the estates of residents of County Palatine in Lancaster, which includes part of northern England, shall be inherited by the Duke of Lancaster, who is currently King Charles III.

The same thing is true for the county of Cornwall, the estates of which pass on to the Duke of Cornwall, who is coincidentally also the Prince of Wales, Prince William.

Generally, the heirless estates of Lancashire and Cornwall would go to charity, but some are questioning whether this rule is fair in the first place. While the majority of England's heirless estates goes to the state, those in the two duchies above go directly to King Charles and Prince William. So, in the public's best interest, it would be best to write a will while they're ahead.

(Image credit: Dan/Unsplash)

We are often amazed when we watch people achieve extraordinary feats on television, particularly those who win large prizes on game shows by exhibiting unbelievable breadth of knowledge or skill. However, it is equally heartbreaking to find out that some of those shows are actually rigged.

In the back of our minds, we sometimes wonder whether reality shows are candid or scripted. Oftentimes, we exercise a healthy dose of skepticism toward these shows as we know how studios and networks need good ratings to get sponsorships and advertising revenues.

But for brief moments, there's a suspension of disbelief that occurs as we watch these reality shows, and we think maybe these are real. There has been a history of cheating or rigging in game shows, starting with the scandals around Charles van Doren and the game show Twenty One.

This prompted an intervention by the FCC and the passing of a law by Congress that prohibited networks from fixing outcomes on game shows. That resulted in ratings plummeting and the general public distrust of game shows, until a renaissance brought about by shows like Survivor in the 2000s. But even then, game shows seemed to have reverted to their old rigging ways.

Now, although allegations had surfaced about how Survivor producers had interfered in the first season of the show, and that they approached contestants about whom to vote, no investigations had been made by the FCC as the charges were dropped and the two parties involved reached a private settlement.

Meanwhile, another show, Our Little Genius, has been alleged of rigging as well, but producers seem to be preempting any investigation from being done by simply not airing episodes. Will the FCC once again intervene?

(Video credit: Vox)

At some point in human history, clothes began to become layered, with undergarments as the base covering and other types of clothes on top of them. Depending on the era, societies and cultures had their own conventions and fashion trends when it came to the style and design of their underwear.

The earliest evidence that people had worn underwear seem to be that of the Badarian culture who had lived from around 5000 to 4000 BC. They had used linen and leather as materials, with linen being typically used in daily life, and leather being used by women during their period.

Ancient Romans also used underwear, and what type of underwear they wore seemed to indicate their social status. Loincloths were either made of wool or silk, depending on a person's class. Romans would wear what is called a subligaculum, like a pair of shorts, underneath their togas, while women would also wear a strophium, the ancient Roman equivalent of a bra.

In the Middle Ages, those loincloths evolved into a pair of pants called braies, which had a flap called a codpiece, which is like a zipper during those days. Apart from that, they would wear a chemise, an undershirt worn by both men and women, and tucked either into the men's braies or the women's petticoats.

From the 19th century on, underwear designs had begun to veer toward what we have today, as the availability of cotton made mass production much easier. In 1913, the first modern bra was invented by Mary Phelps Jacob and in 1935, the first jockey briefs were sold by Coopers Inc.

For more details on how underwear evolved throughout history, check it out on The Collector.

(Image credit: Esteban Bernal/Unsplash)

The former secretary of state Henry Kissinger has recently passed away at the age of 100. Vilified by many but also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize which was jointly offered to him and Lê Đức Thọ for the Paris Peace Accords. However, Lê Đức Thọ declined the award, while Kissinger donated the prize money to charity, and later returned the medal.

Despite the Nobel Peace Prize, many people criticized him and Nixon for protracting the Vietnam War, causing the unnecessary deaths of thousands of Americans. He was also criticized for the bombing of Cambodia which some have attributed as an impetus for the Khmer Rouge's rise to power. He also had a hand in US relations with China, the Soviet Union, Israel, and its neighboring Arab nations.

He has been known as a notorious "ladies' man" being seen with different actresses during his younger days. However, these rumors were later dispelled by people who knew him and were close to him. Later in his life, he managed a global consulting business.

Many still want him to be called to account for actions and decisions during his time as Secretary of State, and he had to be careful about traveling to certain countries so as not to be summoned by judges and asked questions about those policies.

(Image credit: Marsha Miller/Wikimedia Commons)