A weekly collection of links to interesting things curated by Colin Wright.
The Most Mario Colors
The Mario franchise has two distinct logo styles. The first began with the Mario Bros. arcade game and is mostly used for side-scrolling Super Mario Bros. games, though not all of those games use that style. The second is a multicolor polygonal style, and though it’s primarily used for 3D Mario adventures now, it was introduced with Super Mario World.
Why Is Alcohol Measured by Proof?
The word proof is used in the sense of showing that something is true or correct. The English government would test the amount of alcohol content in a liquor by soaking a gun pellet with it and attempting to light the wet pellet on fire. If the wet gunpowder could be lit, the alcohol was said to be a proof spirit and would therefore be taxed higher. This proofing method had a problem: the flammability of the liquor was dependent on its temperature. Since the temperature wasn’t kept consistent, this method for determining a proof spirit wasn’t accurate.
Scenes from the ‘Super Bowl for Excel Nerds’
Like soccer players taking the field in a giant stadium, the 12 finalists ran through a glowing “hype tunnel,” some wearing jerseys with sponsorship logos. As an announcer bellowed introductions and cameras captured their every move, they approached a neon-lit stage to raucous cheers.
Then the men sat down at desktop computers, opened their Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and began to type.
Canon’s New Chip-Making System Competes on Cost, Energy, and Precision
In September, Canon shipped the first commercial version of a technology that could one day upend the making of the most advanced silicon chips. Called nanoimprint lithography (NIL), it’s capable of patterning circuit features as small as 14 nanometers—enabling logic chips on par with Intel, AMD, and Nvidia processors now in mass production.
The NIL system offers advantages that may challenge the US $150 million machines that dominate today’s advanced chipmaking, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography scanners. If Canon is correct, its machines will eventually deliver EUV-quality chips at a fraction of the cost.
Olympians Are Turning to OnlyFans to Fund Dreams as They Face a 'Broken' Finance System
Dire financial straits are leading droves of Olympic athletes to sell images of their bodies to subscribers on OnlyFans — known for sexually explicit content — to sustain their dreams of gold at the Games. As they struggle to make ends meet, a spotlight is being cast on an Olympics funding system that watchdog groups condemn as "broken," claiming most athletes "can barely pay their rent."
The Olympics, the world's biggest sporting stage, bring in billions of dollars in TV rights, ticket sales and sponsorship, but most athletes must fend for themselves financially.
Microsoft Announces Quantum Computing Breakthrough With New Majorana 1 Chip
Majorana 1 can potentially fit a million qubits onto a single chip that’s not much bigger than the CPUs inside desktop PCs and servers. Microsoft isn’t using electrons for the compute in this new chip; it’s using the Majorana particle that theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana described in 1937. Microsoft has reached this milestone by creating what it calls the “world’s first topoconductor,” a new type of material that can not only observe but also control Majorana particles to create more reliable qubits.
Slashing the State
Milei’s popularity was premised on his reputation as a staunch market radical and his apparent position against Argentina’s political elite. In presidential debates, he warned against “the damned caste” that, he claimed, “in fifty years would turn Argentina into the biggest slum in the world.” Corrupt politicians were keeping the public hooked on state handouts so as to keep themselves elected. In turn, the system produced budgetary deficits that led to rising debt or excessive money printing, driving inflation and economic collapse.
The solution he proposed was a radical deregulation of the economy, focusing on a reduction in public spending and taxes. Corrupt politicians and their cronies would pay the consequences and honest, working people, Milei said, should not be concerned. At the same time, Milei proposed a series of entirely unrealistic measures that would “make Argentina great again.” These included dollarizing the economy, closing the Central Bank, severing diplomatic relations with China and implementing a voucher-based education system.
