This week brought to you by this CNBC headline: Japan's Butter Shortage: Tired Cows to Blame?

• Joke of the week: What do dipoles say in passing?

  "Have you got a moment?" - I, for one, welcome our new googlebot AI overlords:

  • http://www.technologyreview.com/news/532876/googles-intelligence-designer/
  • and
  • http://www.technologyreview.com/view/533496/why-neural-networks-look-set-to-thrash-the-best-human-go-players-for-the-first-time/

• Living in a cyberpunk universe sure is 'fun':

  • http://securelist.com/files/2014/11/Kaspersky_Lab_whitepaper_Regin_platform_eng.pdf
  • https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/12/13/belgacom-hack-gchq-inside-story/

• but at least it has an upside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NOncx2jU0Q

• How do you make a typewriter for a language with thousands of characters? http://blog.gatunka.com/2009/09/30/japanese-typewriters/
• From the SQUEEE department: http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/space-flight/nasa-study-proposes-airships-cloud-cities-for-venus-exploration (and some real wonkery at http://selenianboondocks.com/2013/11/venus-isru-introduction/ )
• Dear Seattle, thanks for making the MTA look good by comparison. Sincerely, NYC http://grist.org/cities/seattles-unbelievable-transportation-megaproject-fustercluck/
• Should you see the new Alan Turing movie? http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2096
• Let me tell you about New York City: http://the-toast.net/2014/12/16/let-tell-new-york-city-poem/
• 1 New York Plaza has (according to Google anyway) an alternate name: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Helicoidal+Skyscraper,+New+York,+NY+10004&output=classic&dg=ntvo

Short but exceptionally weird.

• I really think this is the weirdest thing I have ever read. Broadly, "psychotic disorders" are about 32 cases per 100,000 people (UK figures). Congenital blindness is about the same rate, 3 per 10,000 live births (Canadian figures). You're all good at statistics, how common would you expect the combination (i.e. congenitally blind people with psychotic disorders) to be? Seriously, think of a number. Ok, now read this: http://mindhacks.com/2014/11/15/more-on-the-enigma-of-blindness-and-psychosis/
• Symbolic analysis is fun / LLVM is awesome: https://feliam.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/the-symbolic-maze/
• "Explore, remove hierarchies, and remember what you did wrong and tell someone" : http://qz.com/301402/what-yellow-slime-yes-slime-can-teach-your-organization/
• NYC is #1! Wait... http://www.businessweek.com/interactive/2014-best-worst-airports/#overall
• Robot escapes confinement! Rampages through surroundings! http://hackaday.com/2014/11/26/telepresence-robot-demo-unit-breaks-free-of-its-confinement/
• Fusion has been 25-30 years away for 50 years. Massive progress, it's now only been 10-15 years away for the last 5!: http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/inside-the-dynomak-a-fusion-technology-cheaper-than-coal
• You can now sell services on amazon: http://services.amazon.com/selling-services/pricing.htm?ld=EL-www.amazon.comAS
• A somewhat more in-depth look at that new network layout at Facebook: http://firstclassfunc.com/facebook-fabric-networking

Short one this week, everything seems much less weird with this hat on.

• In today's lesson: don't browse from the box that has admin r/w on all your big servers: http://mobile.techworld.com/news/security/3582363/disaster-as-cryptowall-encrypts-us-firms-entire-server-installation/
• A nice page to do the always-annoying octal permissions math for you: http://file-permissions.ninja/#0000
• It's hard to take this too seriously (what kind of super-secure air gap network has windows?) but http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/29551/hacking/hacking-air-gapped-networks.html