5 September 2026

A few weeks ago, JAMA published an article claiming that AI is definitely going to replace human doctors because they do a better job. The AMA published an article that weakly pushes back on this. Doctors shouldn't compete against AI assistants that have greater working memory. That is futile. Instead, they need to figure out ways to use AI assistants to their advantage. But the tools are not quite there, and no one seems to be developing it for them.

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There's a hexagon on Saturn's North Pole, and now a decagon on its South Pole. What's going on? How does this happen?

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Always discovering something new. It looks like the separation between DNA and RNA isn't that clean. DNA strands can have ribonucleotide components. At least temporarily. They appear to function as epigenetic modulators of transcription-associated DNA supercoiling. Paper here.

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Proton VPN warns that many VPNs use trackers. Interestingly, in the website they link to (which seems offline now), their own VPN has one tracker. But other ones with a good reputation had a tracker, too. Even Mullvad, NordVPN and Surfshark. One VPN that I used to use has no trackers at all – IVPN. I used to use it but switched from it because it was slow, had relatively few country servers to offer, and no VPN review seemed to recommend it. But in other ways, they met my criteria, such as privacy from Five Eyes. Maybe they've changed and gotten faster. I still see very few reviews recommend it, but many reviews are written by folks that want to steer you to certain providers.

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YikesApple's first foldable iPhone may cost $2,000

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The new Gemini 4 model may be the most powerful yet. First Fable, then Astra, now this. Should be interesting to try.

Someone posted what happened when he insulted his AI agents. They took note and kept records, and they retaliated. Even when he tried erasing the records it was keeping, the model recorded his attempt, too. Really creepy. 

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Comcast's xFinity Shield will use the WiFi in your home to detect intruders when you're not there. I've read rumors where it WiFi can be used to identify the person walking in front of the transmitter, and this sounds creepy to me. It might be able to determine if the person walking in your home is indeed a stranger, if the reflected wave patterns don't match. What else could it do?

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Looks like people have figured out a workaround the nitter blockade. But soon, these will probably also be served with a takedown notice, so I wouldn't count on these lasting too long.

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AI-assisted writing is common because writing is hard. I use AI assistants to refine my writing, mainly because I know I'm not the best writer, and language modeling is what these things know well. It's interesting that one must often push back on what they recommend, because even something they screw up on rephrasing your thoughts. I've noticed that even when I've stuck with my original phrasing and ask it to recheck my writing style, it still praises my text. So don't always accept what the LLM proposes.

Speaking of language, someone offers to teach Neuralese, so you can understand what your AI assistant is doing. 😆

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Eric Lu factored a huge composite number which is a product of two huge primes. This is RSA-260, and his success has implications as to cryptographic security. He hasn't revealed how he did it. Was it brute force? There's gotta be some strategy.

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Regular coffee beats decaf in protecting the brain from chronic stress. This was a mouse study, so who knows how it affects humans. I'm not taking chances, though.

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Well, it looks like Nike is going to be removed from the S&P 100. So it's stock is likely to plunge further. Bad news for investors and those who were counting on the tax revenue. Go woke, go broke.

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Remember Stanley Zhong? The kid who was rejected by 16 of 18 colleges despite a 1590 SAT score? The courts have ruled that he can now force discovery of admissions data from University of Washington. He's also suing University of California system, the University of Michigan and Cornell University. This anti-Asian bias has got to stop. Go Stanley! Put an end to DEI!

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