Paul Hansel

Author: paul

  • The untapped potential of whale brains: FishBux(tm)

    —

    by

    paul
    in

    [The authors do not condone exploitation or abuse of wildlife.] Introduction Whales are an underappreciated part of the marine ecosystem. On the basis of their brain-to-body mass ratio, they have a similar capacity for learning as humans or elephants. Dolphins and killer whales, in particular, can collaborate via intentional acoustic communication to achieve tasks like…

  • GEO Group is named after George Zoley

    —

    by

    paul
    in

    From Wikipedia, the trustiest of sources: George Christopher Zoley (born February 7, 1950) is a Greek-born American businessman, the chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), and founder of the GEO Group, which manages prisons and jails in the US and internationally. Surprisingly, Wikipedia is out of date. The position of CEO is no longer held by…

  • The slaughterbots are here.

    —

    by

    paul
    in

    In Dune, a fiction novel released nearly sixty years ago, the brutally exploitative tech-enabled Harkonnen use remotely-piloted kamikaze drones, “Hunter-Seekers,” to conduct assassinations of their political enemies. More than a decade ago, the advent of ArduPilot brought quadcopters and drones in general from the cutting edge of technology to the hands of hobbyists and consumers.…

  • Four positives of California

    —

    by

    paul
    in

    If the images don’t display properly, try turning up your screen brightness.

  • Follow-up on Clear Skies, Clear Minds @ UChicago Library (Feb 13, 2025)

    —

    by

    paul
    in

    This is a summary of my notes from the Clear Skies, Clear Minds geoengineering talk at UChicago this past Thursday (February 13, 2025). This was an event open to the public. I covered my own travel and accommodations to attend. The event page is here: https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/conferences/clear-skies-clear-minds-harnessing-open-research-to-find-climate-solutions/. There were three 1-hour sections during the event. Professor…

  • In praise of open source hardware

    —

    by

    paul
    in

    This year, I plan to spend more time documenting the work I do that is accelerated by the use of open-source resources. To kick off that effort, I’ll describe a small project I finished this week. 3D-printing and open source hardware is eating the world. I don’t know who Sleighbells64 is, and given that their…