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The importance of algorithms in our lives today cannot be overstated. They are used virtually everywhere, from financial institutions to dating sites. But some algorithms shape and control our world more than others - and these ten are the most significant. Just a quick refresher before we get started. Though there's no formal definition, computer scientists describe algorithms as a set of rules that define a sequence of operations. They're a series of instructions that tell a computer how it's supposed to solve a problem or achieve a certain goal. A good way to think of algorithms is by visualizing a flowchart.

http://io9.com/the-10-algorithms-that-dominate-our-world-1580110464

New York Times publishes Islamophobic ad by anti-Islam group.
Visit The New York Times' homepage today, and before the page loads you may be shown a 15-second full-screen advertisement warning that unnamed "Islamist groups" are "undermining America's security, liberty, and free speech," with a photo of the World Trade Center towers. The ad's implicitly Islamophobic message, suggesting that Muslim-Americans may be enemies within, and its timing during the opening of the September 11 Memorial Museum, raise questions about why the Times decided to allow it such prominent display on its homepage. The advertising unit, called an interstitial, is typically one of the most expensive because it required users to view the ad or click away before they can see the New York Times homepage.

http://www.vox.com/2014/5/22/5742248/new-york-times-publishes-islamophobic-ad-by-anti-islam-group

Hof is one of the world's most recognized extremophiles. In 2007 he made headlines around the world when he attempted to summit Mount Everest wearing nothing but spandex shorts and hiking boots. He has run barefoot marathons in the arctic circle and submerged his entire body beneath the ice for almost two hours. Every feat defies the boundaries of what medical science says is possible. Hof believes he is much more than a stuntman performing tricks; he thinks he has stumbled on hidden evolutionary potential locked inside every human body.

http://www.playboy.com/playground/view/wim-hoff-endurance-mind-control

Regular readers of Genotopia will be familiar with Dick Dorkins, a genomicist, faculty member of Kashkow University, and founding President of the Society for the Prevention of Intelligent design, Theology, Or Other Nonsense (SPITOON).

A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History, by Nicholas Wade (New York: Penguin) 2014, 288 pp.
It really is a bloody shame that India just had yet another free and fair election, because Nicholas Wade's new book is so bally good it makes me want to dig out the old pith helmet and mustache wax and jolly well troop off and colonize her again. Since I can't conquer India, I itch to conquer Mrs. Dorkins and spread my genes, via more little Dorkinses. Alas, Wendy says she has a headache (again!), so the next best thing is to dab my favorite plume into grandfather Dorkins's inkpot and, in my best public-school hand, pen this little squib on behalf of Wade's latest. Perhaps I can prompt the some of you lot to do your Darwinian duty and either have or not have more children, depending on your race.

http://genotopia.scienceblog.com/441/hail-britannia-review-of-wades-a-troublesome-inheritance/

Admitting our faults: When does self-acceptance trump self-destruction ?

When face-to-face with our failures, it's hard not to deny the consequences of our shortcomings- and sometimes we make problems worse by engaging in the behaviors we have been trying so hard to avoid. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, practicing self-acceptance may be the best way to boost our self-worth and avoid self-deprecating behaviors and consequences. "Consider the person who has just realized that they are poorly prepared financially for retirement," write authors Soo Kim and David Gal (both Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University). "They might either go out and buy something expensive or start binge eating or drinking as a way to avoid dealing with their problems. We introduce the idea that practicing self-acceptance is a more effective alternative to this type of self-destructive behavior."

http://healthmedicinet.com/news/admitting-our-faults-when-does-self-acceptance-trump-self-destruction/

http://www.jcr-admin.org/files/pressreleases/052114082603_May2014Release5.pdf

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/journals/journal/jcr.html

It's hard to explain to regular people how much technology barely works, how much the infrastructure of our lives is held together by the IT equivalent of baling wire. Computers, and computing, are broken. Software is so bad because it's so complex, and because it's trying to talk to other programs on the same computer, or over connections to other computers. Even your computer is kind of more than one computer, boxes within boxes, and each one of those computers is full of little programs trying to coordinate their actions and talk to each other. Computers have gotten incredibly complex, while people have remained the same gray mud with pretensions of godhood. Your average piece-of-shit Windows desktop is so complex that no one person on Earth really knows what all of it is doing, or how.

https://medium.com/message/81e5f33a24e1

Environmentally friendly solar cell pushes forward the "next big thing in photovoltaics"

Northwestern University researchers are the first to develop a new solar cell with good efficiency that uses tin instead of lead perovskite as the harvester of light. The low-cost, environmentally friendly solar cell can be made easily using "bench" chemistry -- no fancy equipment or hazardous materials. "This is a breakthrough in taking the lead out of a very promising type of solar cell, called a perovskite," said Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, an inorganic chemist with expertise in dealing with tin. "Tin is a very viable material, and we have shown the material does work as an efficient solar cell."

http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2014/05/taking-the-lead-out-of-a-promising-solar-cell.html

A Vision of the Future From Those Likely to Invent It.

From employment to leisure and transportation to education, tech is changing the world at a faster pace than ever before. Already, people wear computers on their faces, robots scurry through factories and battlefields and driverless cars dot the highway that cuts through Silicon Valley. Almost two-thirds of Americans think technological change will lead to a better future, while about one-third think people's lives will be worse as a result, according to a new survey from Pew Research Center. Regardless, expect more change. In a series of interviews, which have been condensed and edited, seven people who are driving this transformation provided a glimpse into the not-too-distant future.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/05/02/upshot/FUTURE.html?_r=0

So what was the secret? "Yeast!"
"Active yeast. Like you get at the grocery store."
Koch told me that for years he has swallowed your standard Fleischmann's dry yeast before he drinks, stirring the white powdery substance in with some yogurt to make it more palatable. "One teaspoon per beer, right before you start drinking."

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/food-for-men/how-not-to-get-drunk

FROM LIABILITY TO VIABILITY: GENES ON THE Y CHROMOSOME PROVE ESSENTIAL FOR MALE SURVIVAL

According to new research published by Whitehead Director David Page, the Y chromosome is not just important in the reproductive tract. Instead, approximately a dozen genes conserved on the Y are expressed in cells and tissue types throughout the body and are involved in decoding and interpreting the entirety of the genome.

http://wi.mit.edu/news/archive/2014/liability-viability-genes-y-chromosome-prove-essential-male-survival