Something Amazing

In this very special (?) Something Amazing - because we only needed one email to veto doing this, and we never received that email - we are doing the POOISODE! All the facts, stories and tidbits in this episode are all about everyone's favourite excrement: POO! But, of course, they are still all something AMAZING.

In this episode of Something Amazing - Amberly introduces Matt about the sport of cup-stacking. Also, Matt and Amberly play a round of hangman where Amberly has found the hardest word to guess. Matt tells Amberly how computers see, and a trend called "dazzle" which is designed to blind computer vision. Finally, 2 robots were shutdown after their program to negotiate saw them invent their own language. You can see Dazzle here: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/makeup/374929/ and you can read more about Facebook's negotiating robots here:https://www.cnet.com/news/what-happens-when-ai-bots-invent-their-own-language/

This week Amberly tells Matt the origin of a bunch of different well-known sayings. Matt tells Amberly about "Shrinkflation" which explains why icecream and chocolate bars are getting smaller. It's not just your imagination! Also, Amazon AI designed to create phone cases goes nuts and fills the store with over 30,000 hilarious products. You can see the pictures here: http://www.boredpanda.com/funny-amazon-ai-designed-phone-cases-fail/

We're back after a short holiday! This week Amberly tells Matt about 3 places in the world that share a strange link and why carrots are orange. Matt tells Amberly about Dubai's plans to have 25% of its police force be robots by 2030. Also an Australian animal is completely confusing self-driving cars.

On this episode of Something Amazing - Amberly teaches Matt about "sin eaters" and a feature length movie that was basically just an ad for Maccas. Matt tells Amberly about a famous CEO whose alleged Netflix binge in retirement was proved false but replaced with an even better true story. Also Fake News existed back in World War II, and the government set up weird "rumour clinics" to try and stop them.

This week on Something Amazing - Amberly tells Matt about what happens when you cut a brain in half. Matt tells Amberly about a new solar paint that allows you to coat your house in clean energy.  Also, we open up the mailbag to get an update from you about how far away we are from robot surgeons and musicians. You can watch Shimon the music playing robot here: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/06/this-artificially-intelligent-robot-composes-and-performs-its-own-music/

In this episode Amberly tells Matt about how the colour mauve was invented and also how there is a weird pattern to humans discovering colours. Matt lets Amberly know that when a computer tried to learn and name colours it went hilariously wrong. Also, AI can now predict accurately when you're going to die. Would you want to know?

In this epsiode Amberly tells Matt a lot of facts about how evil crows are. Also, have you already experienced your one-billionth second? Matt tells Amberly about a migrating butterfly that remembers a mountain that hasn't existed for thousand of years. Also - AI experts predict when robots will be better than humans at everything. Finally, we open up our mailbag and hear Something Amazing from YOU. You can email us too: hellosomethingamazing@gmail.com.

On this episode of Something Amazing, Amberly tells Matt about a man who won a scrabble championship in an unusual way. Also a women inventor who had her invention stolen from her. Matt tells Amberly about the "library of babel" - where everything that can ever be said is written down. You can visit it here: https://libraryofbabel.info

On this episode of Something Amazing: Matt tells Amberly about a song that has enetred the UK charts in 2004 and has stayed there ever since. Also, how two big companies are working to help you link your brain up to a computer. Amberly tells Matt a surprising origin of a 1991 hit song! The video of Totale Finsternis from Tanz der Vampire is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY-dLnxg8SE

In the first ever episode of Something Amazing, Matt tells Amberly about a herpetologist who documented his own death in a diary. Also, there's an app being developed that can predict when you're about to have a fight. Amberly tells Matt about some dolphin facts!