PJH Studios

Author: Patrick

  • How to colonize space according to archeologists

    Humanity traveled the world throughout its history, creating colonies and cities–for better or worse. If we are to travel through space to other planets, we might need to consider lessons from our past.

    Their paper, which is published in Acta Astronautica, uses island archaeology to outline eight different lessons that can impact the success of ongoing space colonization efforts. Considerations for space colonization go beyond just the technical abilities to live on the surface of another world—they have to consider resource availability, genetics, and cultural ties as well.

    The authors split the eight lessons into two main categories—physiological factors and biocultural factors. Their first lesson is that distance is important—no surprise there really. Colonization of other islands is most successful when they are close to their source population. This allows help to arrive faster if needed, but also allows the colony‘s population to be part of a “metapopulation” with the source population.

  • Raccoons Are Showing Early Signs of Domestication

    Raccoons Are Showing Early Signs of Domestication

    With dexterous childlike hands and cheeky “masks,” raccoons are North America’s ubiquitous backyard bandits. The critters are so comfortable in human environments, in fact, that a new study finds that raccoons living in urban areas are physically changing in response to life around humans—an early step in domestication.

    The study lays out the case that the domestication process is often wrongly thought of as initiated by humans—with people capturing and selectively breeding wild animals. But the study authors claim that the process begins much earlier, when animals become habituated to human environments.

  • Dataguessr

    Dataguessr is a clever, little web game where are you need to put a set of facts in the correct order. Mostly, the topics tend to relate to populations in certain countries. What makes it challenging is the margins between items are slim, like splitting hairs

  • The value of AI art

    Josh Collinsworth delves into the value of AI art.

    The public reaction to AI-generated art, of every kind, might have been awe or joy at first. But the longer time goes on, and the more of this newly cheap material floods the figurative market, the more the reaction becomes decidedly negative.

    The output of generative AI is novel, to be sure, and it can even be enjoyable at times. But what it isn’t any longer is: valuable.

  • Activists simulate ICE raids in FortNite

    Activists simulate ICE raids in FortNite.

    The “special event” held on November 20, where players took on different roles that reflect real-life ICE raids, was the first initiative by New Save Collective, a baker’s dozen of gamers with backgrounds in activism and organizing, whose goal is to educate gamers and teach people about their rights when dealing with ICE in real-world situations. On November 21, at 7:30 pm ET, gamers will gather in Epic’s massively popular battle royale, Fortnite, to hold a closed scavenger hunt that will serve as a more casual educational opportunity. The group is working with several immigration advocacy groups, as well as collaborating with content creators, to spread their message online.

  • What it’s like being a popstar

    Charli XCX candidly writes about what it’s like being a popstar.

    Sometimes being a pop star can be really embarrassing, especially when you’re around old friends of family members who have known you since before you could talk. The discrepancy in lifestyles becomes more and more drastic the more successful and paranoid you become. As a British person the longer you stay in LA the more you lose touch with the realities of certain things, but that’s why being a pop star can also be seriously humbling too, especially when your old friends mock and ridicule you for caring about something absolutely pointless. In ways being a pop star makes me think about the person I used to be compared to the person I am now. How is that person different? Or is she still the same?

  • AI Agents and the DoorDash problem

    If you are a business owner, what happens when your customer tells the robot to buy something for you based on only set parameters, and ignores everything else such as discounts, loyalty, rewards, or upsells? That’s the possible future with AI agents performing tasks such as ordering a sandwich, or the DoorDash problem.

    But if people stop using the apps and websites and start sending agents instead, that business really starts to break down. Because DoorDash and all the other service providers make their money by having a direct relationship with customers they can monetize in lots of different ways. It’s basic stuff like promotions, deals and discounts, ads for other stuff, their own subscriptions like DashPass and Uber One, and whatever other ideas they might have to make money in the future.

    But AI doesn’t care about any of that stuff — if you ask for a car to the airport, an AI might just open Uber and Lyft and always pick the cheapest ride. These big App Store era services might just become commodity databases of information competing on price alone, which might not actually be sustainable, even if it might be the future.

  • Would you high five a whale?

    Absolutely amazing under water video in Bora Bora of a an encounter with a whale traveling a pod of dolphins.

  • Worldwide music dashboard

    If you like music and dashboards, charts, and numbers, here is a very detailed dashboard of the music throughout the world.

  • Shepard Fairey retroperspective

    In Los Angeles, there is a retrospective of Shephard Fairey’s 30 year career as a poster and street artist.