Topics · life

Listening to the Hive

Mahsa Abdollahi and colleagues use microphones and machine learning to estimate honey bee colony strength without opening the hive—arguing that audio IoT plus edge-sized models could give beekeepers a detailed picture of colony health while we are only beginning to learn how to listen.

Inspired by arxiv.org · Mahsa Abdollahi

A Clubhouse Through SSH

late.sh by Mateusz Piorowski is a cozy SSH clubhouse—chat, music, arcade, news, challenges, and ASCII art—where your key is your identity, no passwords or OAuth, and connecting still feels a little like finding people on a BBS.

Inspired by late.sh · Mateusz Piorowski

An Expensive Box of Bricks

LEGO Ideas’ new X-Files set is about 13.5¢ per piece versus roughly 10.8¢ for Yellow Submarine a decade ago—inflation and licensing aside, adult sets at $200–$1,000 make a childhood hobby feel like a luxury collectible market.

Keep Making Things

Not everything needs to become a product or attract an audience. Make things carefully, share what you learn, help others build, and begin again when life interrupts the work.

Learn to Drive the Car

Todd C. Frankel reports on the near-disappearance of manual transmissions. I want my kids' first cars to be sticks — so they learn to actively drive a machine, not just operate it.

Inspired by washingtonpost.com · Todd C. Frankel