Photo: Justin Casterline (Getty Images)

For most people, predicting the results of the NCAA March Madness tournament with some degree of accuracy is a breeze. The singles elimination tournament, made up of 64 teams, one of which must win six games in a row to be crowned champion, is notoriously unpredictable. Unknown Davids disturb the ancient Goliaths almost every year.

Enter the machines. Given the popularity of prediction algorithms and data models influencing elections over the past few years, it’s no surprise that March Madness has gone mad with a barrage of AIs trying to predict the big dance. Knowing this, perhaps while staring at a daunting bracket, the question arises: should you consult an AI before filling out your bracket?

The answer, which depends on who you are and how you understand the intricacies of college basketball, may be clear.

Can AIs predict the tournament better?

According to Matt Osborne, mathematician and postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State University, an AI-generated model can help better inform your parenthesis in three ways.

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As he explains to Lifehacker, a predictive model can give you a good idea of ​​where things are likely to go in the tournament, but it certainly can’t predict the tournament directly. He explains that there are certain criteria that can increase your chances of accuracy when using an AI: overcoming your personal biases (which are widespread in sports), measuring historical results, and making a general estimate of likelihood (which he did with the traditional Las Vegas compares) betting odds).

In an email, he elaborates on the following:

You may have personal biases that are not present in the data. For example, you think Team A is good because you’ve heard of them before, but it turns out they aren’t that great this year.

Using historical results can help you guess better than random. Choosing teams at random is basically like flipping a quarter, but the chances of Team A beating Team B are usually not 50-50. For example, a 16-seed only upset a 1-seed once in tournament history (UMBC v Virginia in 2018) so you’re pretty much sure to tag the top dogs in each region.

[Algorithms] can give you an estimate of the likelihood of something going to happen (similar to Vegas odds) which can help you determine for yourself how likely it is that you are contemplating an angry choice.

According to Osborne, AI tools are generally useful for amateur fans and well-trained experts alike. However, he adds that die-hard fans “are likely to be better equipped (based on their existing knowledge) to understand the input and output of the tool and see if what the machine is suggesting actually sounds feasible.”

How accurate are the AI ​​brackets usually?

Asking an AI to predict a college basketball tournament is a little thornier than asking one to predict a presidential election. Although the latter – as in 2016 – may be subject to irregularities, the models are fed a steady stream of surveys based on the more reliable act of voting. Basketball is more volatile, especially in an environment like March Madness.

In Osborne’s experience, “Only the best brackets are ever covered. Since the tournament is pretty random, the absolute best brackets are usually not created with a data science tool.” As an example, he refers to the case of 12-year-old Sam Holtz, who filled in a perfect bracket at the ESPN March Madness Challenge 2015 and defeated over 11 million other participants. Crazy enough, Holtz didn’t even watch basketball regularly and operated on simple premonitions when choosing his winners. And then he kind of made history, filling in a perfect bracket that defied the gigantic odds that an economics professor calculated, “somewhere in one of a few trillion.”

No predictive model has ever done this, and it is unlikely that it will. But that doesn’t mean that an AI-generated bracket isn’t useful if you decide to enter a competition. Osborne recommends for signposts The model from Five Thirty Eight (which is free) and The model from Sportsline (which comes with a fee).

Even with a model available, it should also make you feel instinctive and biased. After all, we’re talking about sports.

Image: Kotaku

First choice: Tokaido | $ 50 | Amazon

It’s been a while since board game nights were safe in your home. But we’re finally reaching a point where you and some of them might soon be fine your most vaccinated friends have a little gathering inside. If your group of friends is one of the lucky ones to already have a vaccine – or you’re just busy preparing for the day you’re in – these are some of the best games a small group of people can play together.

Tokaido

Graphic: Eric Ravenscraft

Most games are competitive and pit players against each other. Tokaido is different. Instead, every player is a traveler on vacation on the Japanese Baltic Sea Road (the gives the game its name). The goal is to experience things like see beautiful views, spend time in hot springs, and visit temples. While players can easily sabotage each other, for the most part, it’s a cool experience that evokes the feeling of traveling at a time when it might otherwise not be possible.

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Boss monster

Graphic: Eric Ravenscraft

For fans of old school 8-bit dungeon crawlers, Boss Monster and its expansions Bring the side scrolling experience to the tabletop, but there’s a twist. In this game, YOU are the boss of the dungeon and defeat misguided heroes as they venture into your domain.

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Trogdor

Graphic: Eric Ravenscraft

Starring one of the worst breakout characters in the early 2000s Flash cartoon Homestar Runner, Trogdor is a board game with the Burninator Trogdor. In this game, all players take turns working together as trogdors to burn down tiles, huts and peasants and to avoid knights and archers. Players win when they have burned the landscape, the farmers and the thatched huts.

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secret

Graphic: Eric Ravenscraft

If the hint is a bit too easy for you, you might prefer a more abstract crime thriller. in the secretA gamer is the ghost of a murdered character and must use surreal, dreamlike graphics cards to convey who killed them, where it happened and what weapon they used. The game can be very open to interpretation at times, which makes it all the more interesting to see how your friends’ minds work.

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Ticket

Graphic: Eric Ravenscraft

Another game on the theme of travel, Ticket Up to five players compete against each other to claim railways on a map and connect cities with one another. Longer routes can score higher scores. However, if a route is incomplete, players lose points. The game requires strategy and long-term thinking to be successful, which makes it a great mental exercise for your more tactical friends.

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Pandemic legacy

Graphic: Eric Ravenscraft

I know!

Let me finish

After over a year of experiencing a real pandemic, a fictional one might be the last one you’re interested in. And although that’s fair Pandemic legacy might still be worth a visit. The Original Pandemic is a short game in which players work together to stop a deadly virus from spreading. Pandemic Legacy builds on this by telling a long story in many chapters. The experiences of each game will affect your characters, and these changes will also affect subsequent sessions.

It is this dynamic of an ongoing story that makes Pandemic Legacy worth a look. Not only because your group will have a unique experience with the game, but also because it gives you and your friends a reason to get used to hanging out together again week after week as soon as you finally can. It is only fitting that a pandemic should bring you back together after a pandemic keeps everyone apart.

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Image: Sam Woolley (Shutterstock, Getty)

When you think of St. Patrick’s Day you might think of green beer, shot glass necklaces that read “Kiss me I’m Irish” and everyone is suddenly talking about how Irish they are. That’s all well and good, but you may not know much about the origins of the holiday or the saint it celebrates. Well, take off that stupid hat, let’s educate.

Who Was Saint Patrick?

St. Patrick, thinks about it the patron saint of Ireland, was actually born in Banna Venta Berniae, a city in Roman Great Britain, sometime in the late 300s AD. That’s right, Patrick wasn’t Irish – and neither was his name Patrick. It was Maewyn Succat, but he didn’t care, so he decided to later become known as Patricius. He actually had many monikers in his life: he was referred to by many as Magonus, by others as Succetus, and by some as Cothirthiacus. But we just call him Patrick since everyone else does.

His father, Calpurnius, was a deacon in the early Christian church, but Patrick himself was not a great believer. It was not until he was captured by Irish pirates at the age of 16 and enslaved as a shepherd for six years that he decided to convert to Christianity. While in North East IrelandPatrick learned the Irish language and culture before attempting to return to the UK. But Patrick apparently wasn’t very good at escaping because he was captured again. This time from the French.

He was detained in France, where he learned all about it Monasticism before he was released and sent to Britain, where he studied Christianity well into his twenties. Eventually Patrick claimed he had a vision that told him to bring Christianity to the Irish people, who at the time were predominantly pagan and druid. So he made his way back to Ireland and brought a big old bag of Christianity with him.

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However, when Patrick returned to Ireland, he and his preaching paths were not welcomed, so he had to leave and land a few small islands off the coast. There he began to gain followers and eventually moved to the mainland to spread Christian ideologies throughout Ireland for many years. During this time, Patrick baptized thousands (some say 100,000) of people, ordained new priests, led women to nunnery, converted the sons of kings in the area, and helped form over 300 churches.

Separate fact from fiction

Folklore also tells of Patrick who banned all snakes from Ireland, but as bad as that sounds, there were actually never any snakes on the island. But Patrick might be the one in charge of popularizing the Shamrockor that three-leaved plant you’ll see plastered everywhere on days like St. Patrick’s Day.

According to legend, Patrick used it to teach the Irish the concept of the Christian Holy Trinity. They already had triple deities and valued the number three highly, so Patrick’s use of the shamrock may have helped him gain great favor with the Irish.

Why the vacation and when did it start?

These days, Patricius is known to most as Saint Patrick. Even though He is technically not a canonized saint of the Catholic ChurchHe is very popular all over the Christian world. But why the vacation? Why always on March 17th? What about the green? And why do we think of a non-Irish charmer without a snake as a symbol of Ireland?

St. Paddy’s Day started as a religious festival in the 17th century commemorating the life of Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland. This “feast day” always occurred on the anniversary of Patrick’s death, which was believed to be March 17, 461 AD. In the early 18th century, Irish immigrants brought the tradition to the American colonies, and it is there that Saint Patrick became the symbol of Irish heritage and culture that he is today. As more Irish came across the Atlantic, the celebration of the holiday slowly grew in popularity. So much so, in fact, the first St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in Boston in 1737.

The mid-19th century saw a massive influx of Irish immigrants into the United States hoping to escape the country Great famine. This turned the relatively small holiday celebration into a full blown celebration that people wanted to attend, whether they were Irish or not. In 1903 the feast day became a national holiday in Ireland and over time transformed into what is called today St. Patrick’s Day.

The holiday has since been celebrated around the world in countries like the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Russia, and even across Asia. St. Paddy’s Day is so popular that it is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival. What was once a pretty cool day, going to mass, watching a parade and having a hearty meal with the family has grown into the biggest party in the world.

Why is everyone wearing green?

If you’re wondering why people wear green, there’s more to it than just protecting against finger pinches. It goes back to that Irish rebellionwhen Irish soldiers wore green when they fought the British in their trademark red. Until then, the color associated with St. Patrick and Feast Day was actually blue. The Song soldiers sang during the 1798 war, “Wearing the green, “Changed all of that and made green, the color of shamrocks, Ireland’s main color.

From then on, people wore green on St. Patrick’s Day out of solidarity. And when Chicago first colored their river green in 1962The practice of wearing and decorating in green became a part of pop culture. It is now customary to get the best greens out in mid-March.

Why all that drinking?

Okay then why all that drinking? It’s partly historical subtext, partly we succumb to advertising and partly stereotyping. Originally St. Patrick’s Day or feast day, saw the lifting of Lent restrictions on the dayand gave the Christians a breather as they set off for Easter. Basically, it was a day to eat and drink as much as you’d like to celebrate. hence the traditional Irish food made from bacon and cabbage. But drinking whiskey and beer wasn’t part of the equation. In fact, pubs in Ireland were legally forced to close for public holidays until the end of the 20th century, and drinking alcohol on St. Patrick’s Day was heavily frowned upon until the late 1970s.

Then a big marketing push from Budweiser in the 1980s convinced thirsty night owls that drinking beer and St. Patrick’s Day were one and the same. The rest is drunken history that few seem to remember as everything in our minds has been replaced with quotes from Boondock Saints. Similar to Cinco de MayoMany people now use the vacation as an excuse to have a drink promotes negative stereotypes by mistakenly associating the act of waste with Irish culture. But at least now you can proudly have a sip of your Guinness because you know the real story. health!

Update: This article originally linked the birthplace of Bannaventa in St. Patrick to Banna Venta Berniae in the Northamptonshire region of England. It is believed that this is inaccurateand the exact whereabouts of his birthplace are uncertain. This story was originally published and updated in March 2017 to be in line with Lifehacker style guidelines.

Chrome OS 89 is now being introduced and has tons of features for Chromebooks and tablets that run on the Google operating system. You’ll likely notice the cute new app icons first, but there are a lot more new things hiding beneath the surface.

To get the most out of the updated operating system, here is a list of all the new features or apps that Google has added to Chrome 89 and how to use them.

Phone hub

The first of the major updates in Chrome OS 89 is the new one Phone hub App that allows Android users to pair their phone and Chrome OS devices via Bluetooth. Phone Hub monitors and controls many of your phone’s functions from your Chrome OS desktop. So you can:

• Read and reply to messages
• show notifications
• Turn off your phone remotely
• Find the location of your phone
• Sync recent Chrome browser tabs
• Save and share WiFi passwords between your devices using WiFi Sync
• View your phone’s network signal and the remaining battery life.

Image: Google

Phone Hub is available on all Android phones running the latest version of Google Play Services (available at Google play) and all Chromebooks with Bluetooth support.

How to use Phone Hub:

1. Turn on Bluetooth on your Android phone and Chromebook.
2. On your Chromebook, click the phone icon in the lower right corner, then click “Getting started.”
3. Follow the instructions.
4. After pairing the devices, click the phone icon again to open Phone Hub.

Updated virtual desks

Image: Google

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Chrome OS 89 introduces several changes to the virtual desktop feature. Desksincluding:

• Support for up to 8 desks at the same time.
• The desks will stay active even after you restart your Chromebook.
• Right click an app window and send it to a specific desk.
• Swipe your mouse pad with four fingers to switch between desks.

To use desks, open Browse mode (either swipe up on the screen or press the Browse button), and select “New desk.”

Dead file manager

Image: Google

The new carry bag App makes it easier to keep track of important files in Chrome OS. The bag will appear on your app shelf when you download a file, take a screenshot video, or take a screenshot. You can also drag and drop files into and out of the tote window, or Right click> Pin a document to add to Tote’s Pinned files Section.

Other updates

In addition to the new “Phone Hub”, “Tote” and “Desks” functions, there are numerous smaller functions in Chrome 89:

• Comment on pictures: You can now write and draw images in the Chrome OS Stock Media app. Just open an image and select the new one “Leave a Comment” Tool next to the Edit button.
• Clipboard Manager: Chrome OS’s new clipboard manager stores the five most recently copied text strings or images. Press the “Everything” key + V. to see your clipboard items.
• Easier media playback control: Media controls are now accessible from the quick menu, and you can pin the controls to your app shelf for even faster access.
• Fast responses from the Google Assistant: While browsing the internet, right-click a word to bring up a Google Assistant powered card. The card contains definitions, translations, and other helpful information about the word you selected.
• New options for family accounts: Family settings are optimized, making it easy to add a child’s school account to your device. The new settings will appear the first time you run Chrome OS after installing version 89, or you can switch to Settings> People> Username and select “Add a school account.”
• Personalized lock screen: You can now use a Google Photos album as your lock screen wallpaper or choose from hundreds of pre-loaded images Settings> Screensaver.
• Scan app: A new scan app is available in the app launcher. You can use an attached scanner device to upload physical files as images or PDFs.
• Screen capture via quick access: The Chrome OS screen capture tool is now accessible from the Quick Settings menu.

This includes the major new changes to Chrome OS 89, but as you can see, this was a major update. There are likely to be other improvements and features in the new version of Chrome OS. If you discover something we missed, please leave a comment below!

[Google 1, 2]

Photos by Claire Lower. Photo: Claire Lower

St. Patrick’s Day just doesn’t feel like St. Patrick’s Day without corned beef, cabbage, and lots of beer and / or whiskey. I didn’t feel like seeing Souskey –we had done that before– but the super moist, low and slow cooking method seemed perfect for the hardened, salty meat platter.

As you probably already know, the “corned” in corn beef has nothing to do with yellow kernels – it’s just another word for hardening or pickling. “Pickled beef” doesn’t quite sound the same, though, so let’s stick with the corn.

“Tenderized with papain” <——— FORESHADOWINGPhoto: Claire Lower

To get an idea of ​​how strong my Anova would work on our pickled brisket, I bought three pieces of cow: two that were prepackaged and already cured, and one untreated brisket (the flat-cut part) to harden at home.

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Using Meathead Goldwyn’s healing recipeI whipped a mixture of salt Prague powder Pickle (sodium nitrate), brown sugar, spices and garlic. Then I realized that the only container I had big enough to hold such a situation was my product drawer, and so I presented my very impressive collection of fruits and vegetables (three clementines and a sad head Romaine) on a shelf. Then I scrubbed the drawer thoroughly with the hottest and soapy water, rinsed it well, and filled it with meat and salty-sweet water.

Photo: Claire Lower

Then I covered the drawer with plastic wrap, closed it, and let it live there rent free for a week. After seven days, I removed the meat, patted it dry, and rubbed it with a mixture of herbs and spices.

Photo: Claire Lower

To make the mix I followed ChefStep’s friction recipe from (mostly) this piece, but I didn’t have any coriander (I used caraway seeds) and not enough black pepper that “85 grams” became “as much as I have in this little jar”. “Dill Seed” also became “Straight Up Dill” because I had Straight Up Dill and wanted to use it up.

Photo: Claire Lower

Whatever. I rubbed my unique spice blend all over the beef and then sealed it in a vacuum bag. Then I grabbed one of the cattle I had bought in the store, sprinkled it in the spice pack, and sealed it in its own vacuum bag. As I did so, I noticed that the store-bought copy had a slimy, gelatinous feel that somehow startled me. (It just didn’t feel like meat.) This was likely due to the fact that it was treated with Papain, a tenderizing enzyme that has all kinds of uses. Both cattle went into a 145-degree bath, where they stayed for a total of 48 hours.

Photo: Claire Lower

About seven hours before the sous vide cattle came out, I grabbed the other store-bought corned beef and tossed it into the slow cooker along with half a cup of water and the condiment packet as instructed. (Did I trust these instructions? No, but this corned beef was more of a control than anything.) After everyone was in their cooking vessels for the appropriate amount of time, we were ready to try.

The slow cooker is a cruel mistress. Photo: Claire Lower

I started by comparing the two prepackaged parts. As you can see in the photo above, the beef cooked in the slow cooker has shrunk into a claw-like shape. It was also pretty dry and not super fragrant.

Photo: Claire Lower

However, the texture of the sous vide sample was so delicate that it practically self-shredded and began to fall apart as it was moved from the bag to the cutting board.

Photo: Claire Lower

The meat was super pliable – almost too pliable – and it had the store-bought corned beef flavor, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It was as good as a cheap grocery corned beef could hope for, I say, although you could cut the time to 36 hours if you want slices that hold their shape a little better.

It wouldn’t even stay in slices. Photo: Claire Lower

I had weighed each piece of meat before and after it was cooked and was surprised that they had lost fairly comparable amounts of weight (roughly two pounds).

Photo: Claire Lower

Then I turned to the beef that I had cured myself.

Here is the beef. My beef. Photo: Claire Lower

While this didn’t fall apart like the papain treated brisket, it was still tender and juicy, and tasted better, slightly sweeter, and meatier thanks to Meathead and ChefStep’s respective recipes. Instead of falling apart with a look in his direction, this beef ate more like a super tender steak if that steak had been pickled. The only shortcoming were small gray strips of not fully hardened beef that had nothing to do with the sous vide circulator and could be fixed in just a few days in the salt bath.

Whether you buy a pre-hardened brisket plate or corn yourself, the submerged circulator is your friend. For store-bought beef that has been tenderized (like papain), cook it at 145 ° C for 36 hours. If you cure the beef yourself, increase the cook time to 48 hours. Don’t you have that long Don’t fret: using a store-bought corned beef, you can raise the temperature to 180 ° C and cut the time to 10 hours. (I haven’t tested this cooking time and temperature with homemade corned beef, but you can always try 10 and go longer if needed.) The beef has a slightly different, “braised” texture but is still tender, juicy, and most importantly Corned.

This story was originally published in March 2017. It was updated on March 16, 2021 to reflect Lifehacker’s current style guidelines.