An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg on how a data storage and distribution device brought down Tokyo's $6 trillion stock market: At 7:04 a.m. on an autumn Thursday in Tokyo, the stewards of the world's third-largest equity market realized they had a problem. A data device critical to the Tokyo Stock Exchange's trading system had malfunctioned, and the automatic backup had failed to kick in. It was less than an hour before the system, called Arrowhead, was due to start processing orders in the $6 trillion equity market. Exchange officials could see no solution. The full-day shutdown that ensued was the longest since the exchange switched to a fully electronic trading system in 1999. It drew criticism from market participants and authorities and shone a spotlight on a lesser-discussed vulnerability in the world's financial plumbing -- not software or security risks but the danger when one of hundreds of pieces of hardware that make up a trading system decides to give up the ghost.

The TSE's Arrowhead system launched to much fanfare in 2010, billed as a modern-day solution after a series of outages on an older system embarrassed the exchange in the 2000s. The "arrow" symbolizes speed of order processing, while the "head" suggests robustness and reliability, according to the exchange. The system of roughly 350 servers that process buy and sell orders had had a few hiccups but no major outages in its first decade. That all changed on Thursday, when a piece of hardware called the No. 1 shared disk device, one of two square-shaped data-storage boxes, detected a memory error. These devices store management data used across the servers, and distribute information such as commands and ID and password combinations for terminals that monitor trades. When the error happened, the system should have carried out what's called a failover -- an automatic switching to the No. 2 device. But for reasons the exchange's executives couldn't explain, that process also failed. That had a knock-on effect on servers called information distribution gateways that are meant to send market information to traders.

At 8 a.m., traders preparing at their desks for the market open an hour later should have been seeing indicative prices on their terminals as orders were processed. But many saw nothing, while others reported seeing data appearing and disappearing. They had no idea if the information was accurate. At 8:36 a.m., the bourse finally informed securities firms that trading would be halted. Three minutes later, it issued a press release on its public website -- although only in Japanese. A confusingly translated English release wouldn't follow for more than 90 minutes. It was the first time in almost fifteen years that the exchange had suffered a complete trading outage. The Tokyo bourse has a policy of not shutting even during natural disasters, so for many on trading floors in the capital, this experience was a first. After trading was called off for the day, four TSE executives held a press conference, "discussing areas such as systems architecture in highly technical terms," reports Bloomberg. "They also squarely accepted responsibility for the incident, rather than trying to deflect blame onto the system vendor Fujitsu Ltd."

One of the biggest questions that remained unanswered is whether the same kind of hardware-driven failure could happen in other stock markets. "There's nothing uniquely Japanese about this," said Nicholas Smith of CLSA Ltd. in Tokyo. "I think we've just got to put that in the box of 'stuff happens.' These things happen. They shouldn't, but they do."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Facebook announced on Thursday that it has taken down three "coordinated inauthentic behavior" networks promoting disinformation that included nearly 300 Facebook and Instagram accounts along with dozens of Facebook Pages and Groups. While the efforts were seemingly run independently, and focused primarily outside of the US, each has ties to Russian intelligence -- and they collectively provide a sobering echo of the social media assault that roiled the 2016 election. The networks Facebook tackled dated back at least three years, but most had few followers at the time they were caught. They primarily promoted non-Facebook websites in an apparent effort to get around the platform's detection mechanisms, focusing on news and current events, particularly geopolitics. They targeted users in a number of countries, including Syria, Ukraine, Turkey, Japan, the UK, and Belarus, as well as the United States to a lesser extent.

Facebook attributed one of the disinformation distribution networks to "actors associated with election interference in the US in the past, including those involved in 'DC leaks' in 2016." In other words, the actors were likely tied to Fancy Bear, also known as APT 28, the group also responsible for hacks of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Facebook attributes the second network to "individuals associated with past activity by the Russian Internet Research Agency," the so-called troll farm that wreaked havoc on Facebook in 2016. The company noted that it is unclear whether the IRA is still an active entity or what form it takes at this point. The third network had "links to individuals in Russia, including those associated with Russian intelligence services." None of the networks focused solely on the US. Instead, they engaged with a broad array of topics connected to Russian interests, including the war in Ukraine, the Syrian civil war, the election and protests in Belarus, Russia's relationship with NATO, and politics in Turkey.

A giant Gundam in Japan's Port of Yokohama is now able to "pick up its legs to walk, bend its knees, turn its head, and contort its fingers to mime hand signals," reports Popular Mechanics. The 60-foot robot is the largest in the world. From the report: Inspired by the fictional Japanese robot of the same name -- which has appeared in over 50 TV series and movies since 1979, as well as many manga comics and video games -- this Gundam features a staggering 24 degrees of freedom. People in Japan have caught and shared a few glimpses of the engineering marvel. Considering the Gundam weighs about 25 tons, it's pretty insane to watch it raise both arms in the air and pick itself back up after kneeling.

Those efficiencies are thanks to precise engineering and design work, as outlined in a series of YouTube videos from Gundam Factory Yokohama. In one installment, the engineers give a tour of where they designed, built, and assembled the Gundam. The videos are a great way to really contextualize the size of this monster; from the metal fingertip to where the wrist will connect, for example, the hand is about 6.5 feet wide.

Plastic face shields are almost totally ineffective at trapping respiratory aerosols, according to modelling in Japan, casting doubt on their effectiveness in preventing the spread of coronavirus. From a report: A simulation using Fugaku, the world's fastest supercomputer, found that almost 100% of airborne droplets of less than 5 micrometres in size escaped through plastic visors of the kind often used by people working in service industries. One micrometre is one millionth of a metre. In addition, about half of larger droplets measuring 50 micrometres found their way into the air, according to Riken, a government-backed research institute in the western city of Kobe.

This week, senior scientists in Britain criticised the government for stressing the importance of hand-washing while placing insufficient emphasis on aerosol transmission and ventilation, factors that Japanese authorities have outlined in public health advice throughout the pandemic. As some countries have attempted to open up their economies, face shields are becoming a common sight in sectors that emphasise contact with the public, such as shops and beauty salons. Makoto Tsubokura, team leader at Riken's centre for computational science, said the simulation combined air flow with the reproduction of tens of thousand of droplets of different sizes, from under 1 micrometre to several hundred micrometres.

An anonymous reader shared this skeptical opinion piece from Computerworld: Let's start with the name itself. There is no single "5G." There are, in fact, three different varieties, with very different kinds of performance... But, what most people want, what most people lust for is 1Gbps speeds with less than 10 milliseconds of latency... [T]o get that kind of speed you must have mmWave 5G — and it comes with a lot of caveats.

First, it has a range, at best, of 150 meters. If you're driving, that means, until 5G base stations are everywhere, you're going to be losing your high-speed signal a lot. Practically speaking, for the next few years, if you're on the move, you're not going to be seeing high-speed 5G. And, even if you are in range of a 5G base station, anything — and I mean anything — can block its high-frequency signal. Window glass, for instance, can stop it dead. So, you could have a 5G transceiver literally on your street corner and not be able to get a good signal. How bad is this? NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile phone service provider, is working on a new kind of window glass, just so their mmWave 5G will work. I don't know about you, but I don't want to shell out a few grand to replace my windows just to get my phone to work.

Let's say, though, that you've got a 5G phone and you're sure you can get 5G service — what kind of performance can you really expect? According to Washington Post tech columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler, you can expect to see a "diddly squat" 5G performance... ["roughly the same as on 4G LTE," while some places "actually have been slower."] It wasn't just him, since he lives in that technology backwater known as the San Francisco bay area. He checked with several national firms tracking 5G performance. They found that all three major U.S. telecom networks' 5G isn't that much faster than 4G. Indeed, OpenSignal reports that U.S. 5G users saw an average speed of 33.4Mbps. Better than 4G, yes, but not "Wow! This is great!" speeds most people seem to be dreaming of. It's also, I might add, much worse than any other country using 5G, with the exception of the United Kingdom.

Daimler, which has worked on hydrogen technology for decades, is developing a fuel-cell semi with range of up to 600 miles per fueling and next-generation battery trucks amid intensifying competition to curb diesel and carbon exhaust from heavy-duty vehicles. Forbes reports: The German auto giant's truck unit showed off the Mercedes-Benz GenH2, a concept truck designed for long haul runs that will be tested by customers in 2023, at an event in Berlin Tuesday outlining steps it's taking to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. Volume production of GenH2s starts in the second half of the 2020s. The company also debuted its Mercedes-Benz eActros LongHaul, a battery-powered truck for short- and medium-range routes goes about 300 miles (500 kilometers) between charges. eActros production starts in 2024.

Both trucks share Daimler's new ePowetrain modular platform to help hold costs down. They'll be available initially in Europe, though versions for North America and Japan will arrive around the same time, the company said. [...] A unique twist with Daimler's GenH2 truck is that the system relies on liquid hydrogen, rather than highly compressed hydrogen gas, the current standard. The benefit is that liquid hydrogen is more energy dense and uses tanks that are much lighter than those required for gaseous fuel, Daimler said. "This gives the trucks a larger cargo space and higher payload weight," while also improving range, it said. The combination of hydrogen and battery vehicles "enables us to offer our customers the best vehicle options, depending on the application," Daimler Chairman Martin Daum said at the event. "Battery power will be rather used for lower cargo weights and for shorter distances. Fuel-cell power will tend to be the preferred option for heavier loads and longer distances."

Google is planning to launch its Pixel 5 smartphone, a new Chromecast, and a new smart speaker later this month. From a report: Google has started inviting members of the media to a special event on September 30th, promising new hardware. "We invite you to learn all about our new Chromecast, our latest smart speaker, and our new Pixel phones," reads the invite. Google already confirmed its plans to launch a Pixel 5 later this year, complete with 5G connectivity. The Pixel maker revealed its launch plans alongside the introduction of the Pixel 4A last month, promising 5G versions of the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4A in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia.

Long-time Slashdot reader PuceBaboon tipped us off to a story in Japan Times: About 18 million yen ($169,563) has been stolen from bank accounts linked to NTT Docomo Inc.'s e-money service, the company said Thursday, prompting police to begin an investigation into a suspected scam. As of Thursday, 66 cases of improper withdrawals from bank accounts linked to the mobile carrier's e-money service had been confirmed, NTT Docomo Vice President Seiji Maruyama told a news conference in Tokyo.

"We apologize to the victims" of the improper withdrawals, Maruyama said at the news conference, which was also attended by other company executives.

Maruyama acknowledged that checks on user identification had been "insufficient." NTT Docomo, which has stopped allowing customers to create new links between its e-money service and accounts at 35 partner banks, has said it will try to compensate victims for the full amounts stolen through negotiations with the banks.... In May last year, there were similar cases of improper withdrawals from Resona Bank accounts linked to NTT Docomo's e-money service. Docomo acknowledged it had failed to boost user identity checks to prevent a recurrence...

In the recent cases, third parties are believed to have obtained the victims' bank account numbers and passwords, and used them to register with the e-money service to transfer funds.

Slashdot reader damitr shared IEEE Spectrum's look at Japan's push for flying taxi services: Last year, Spectrum reported on Japan's public-private initiative to create a new industry around electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles and flying cars. Last Friday [August 28th], start-up company SkyDrive Inc. demonstrated the progress made since then when it held a press conference to spotlight its prototype vehicle and show reporters a video taken three days earlier of the craft undergoing a piloted test flight in front of staff and investors...

In May, SkyDrive unveiled a drone for commercial use that is based on the same drive and power systems as the SD-03. Named the Cargo Drone, it's able to transport payloads of up to 30 kg and can be preprogrammed to fly autonomously or be piloted manually. It will be operated as a service by SkyDrive, starting at a minimum monthly rental charge of 380,000 yen ($3,600) that rises according to the purpose and frequency of use....

Tomohiro Fukuzawa, SkyDrive's CEO, established SkyDrive in 2018 after leaving Toyota Motor and working with Cartivator, a group of volunteer engineers interested in developing flying cars. SkyDrive now has a staff of fifty. Also in 2018, the Japanese government formed the Public-Private Conference for Air Mobility made up of private companies, universities, and government ministries. The stated aim was to make flying vehicles a reality by 2023... Fukuzawa is also targeting 2023 to begin taxi services (single passenger and pilot) in the Osaka Bay area, flying between locations like Kansai and Kobe airports and tourist attractions such as Universal Studios Japan. These flights will take less than ten minutes — a practical nod to the limitations of the battery energy storage system.

"What SkyDrive is proposing is entirely do-able," says Steve Wright, Senior Research Fellow in Avionics and Aircraft Systems at the University of West England. "Almost all rotor-only electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles projects are limited to sub-30-minute endurance, which, with safety reserves, equate to about 10 to 20 minutes flying."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Japan's SoftBank was reportedly the "Nasdaq whale," that bought billions of dollars in individual stock options in big tech companies over the past month, driving up volumes and contributing to a trading frenzy. Softbank declined comment on a Financial Times story that quoted unnamed sources who said it was buying equity derivatives on a massive scale. Rumors had circulated in the market that there were large players behind the frenzied activity in the options market for big tech and internet stocks, and SoftBank was one named mentioned in connection with extreme volumes in some out-of-the-money calls.

According to the Wall Street Journal, SoftBank had made regulatory filings showing it bought nearly $4 billion in shares of Amazon, Microsoft, and Netflix, plus a stake in Tesla. The paper quoted a source saying that SoftBank spent roughly $4 billion buying call options tied to its stock holdings, but also in other names. It then could profit from the run up in stocks and subsequently unload its position to other parties. SoftBank was trading in names that are among the key drivers of the stock market. Apple, Amazon , Microsoft, Facebook and Google equal about a quarter of the S&P 500, and they have been drivers of a big chunk of its gains. One options trader explained that those names can be proxies for the market, and can be hedged against the S&P 500 and vice versa. The options market activity was credited by analysts for adding froth to the stock market itself. Some of that is now reversing.

Epic Games's decision to sue Apple over its mobile store practices has sparked new scrutiny in the massive Japanese gaming market, prompting complaints and questions about how to counter the tech giant's dominance. From a report: While Epic, publisher of the hit title Fortnite, focuses on the 30% revenue cut app stores typically take, Japanese game studios have broader concerns. They have long been unhappy with what they see as Apple's inconsistent enforcement of its own App Store guidelines, unpredictable content decisions and lapses in communication, according to more than a dozen people involved in the matter. Japan's antitrust regulator said it will step up attention to the iPhone maker's practices in the wake of the high-stakes legal clash. And in rare cases, prominent executives are beginning to speak out after staying silent out of fear of reprisal. "I want from the bottom of my heart Epic to win," Hironao Kunimitsu, founder and chairman of Tokyo-based mobile game maker Gumi, wrote on his Facebook page.

Nintendo is going back to the beginning with a modern version of its original Game & Watch handheld that's been revamped with a full-color LCD. It can play Super Mario Bros. in honor of the franchise's 35th anniversary. The new handled was announced during a surprise Nintendo Direct showcase. From a report: In addition to Super Mario Bros., the handheld can also play Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels (released in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2) and an updated version of Game & Watch: Ball that stars Mario (instead of Mr. Game & Watch). [...] The Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. handheld will be released on November 13th in "limited production" for $49.99.

The Trump administration said it will not join a global effort to develop, manufacture and equitably distribute a coronavirus vaccine, in part because the World Health Organization is involved, a decision that could shape the course of the pandemic and the country's role in health diplomacy. The Washington Post reports: More than 170 countries are in talks to participate in the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) Facility, which aims to speed vaccine development and secure doses for all countries and distribute them to the most high-risk segment of each population. The plan, which is co-led by the WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the vaccine alliance, was of interest to some members of the Trump administration and is backed by traditional U.S. allies, including Japan, Germany and the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union.

But the United States will not participate, in part because the White House does not want to work with the WHO, which President Trump has criticized over what he characterized as its "China-centric" response to the pandemic. "The United States will continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China," said Judd Deere, a spokesman for the White House. The Covax decision, which has not been previously reported, is effectively a doubling down by the administration on its bet that the United States will win the vaccine race. It eliminates the chance to secure doses from a pool of promising vaccine candidates -- a potentially risky strategy.

The Japanese company SkyDrive "has announced the successful test drive of a flying car," reports CNN: It was the first public demonstration for a flying car in Japanese history. The car, named SD-03, manned with a pilot, took off and circled the field for about four minutes... "We want to realize a society where flying cars are an accessible and convenient means of transportation in the skies and people are able to experience a safe, secure, and comfortable new way of life," CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa said in a statement.

The SD-03 is the world's smallest electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle and takes up the space of about two parked cars, according to the company. It has eight motors to ensure "safety in emergency situations..." The success of this flight means that it is likely the car will be tested outside of the Toyota Test field by the end of the year. The company will continue to develop technologies to safely and securely launch the flying car in 2023, the news release said.

No price has been announced.

Late last night, it was rumored that Japan's longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, would step down due to his struggle with ulcerative colitis. Abe confirmed the reports this morning, telling reporters that it was "gut wrenching" to leave many of his goals unfinished. He also apologized for stepping down during the pandemic. The Associated Press reports: Abe has had ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager and has said the condition was controlled with treatment. Concerns about his health began this summer and grew this month when he visited a Tokyo hospital two weeks in a row for unspecified health checkups. He is now on a new treatment that requires IV injections, he said. While there is some improvement, there is no guarantee that it will cure his condition and so he decided to step down after treatment Monday, he said.

"It is gut wrenching to have to leave my job before accomplishing my goals," Abe said Friday, mentioning his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia and a revision of Japan's war-renouncing constitution. He said his health problem was under control until earlier this year but was found to have worsened in June when he had an annual checkup. "Faced with the illness and treatment, as well as the pain of lacking physical strength ... I decided I should not stay on as prime minister when I'm no longer capable of living up to the people's expectations with confidence," Abe said at a news conference. Slashdot reader shanen writes: [...] In theory, [Shinzo Abe] was the supreme leader of one of the most important countries in the technological world. In practice, not so much?

At a minimum, the New Akiba is far different from the Akihabara of yore, but maybe it's just a chronological coincidence? They are making quite pretty COVID-19 sneeze pictures with the new Japanese supercomputer. I have to admit that either Abe hasn't accomplished that much or he's pretty bad at tooting his own horn. I would be surprised if anyone could articulate what Abe actually stood for even after all these years in the spotlight.

Perhaps the funny part is that Abe was apparently just clinging to power to set a new endurance record as Prime Minister. He passed the old number one just a few days ago. But looking forward, I'm actually more interested in trigger effects. My current speculation is that Kishida will snag the ring and he's liable to come out much stronger against China. Xi was already annoyed and I am still expecting stock market turmoil in October, but this may make it worse. Further reading: Japan's Longest-Serving PM, Shinzo Abe, Quits In Bid To 'Escape' Potential Prosecution

An upcoming feature in development at Spotify aims to help artists who have been struggling to make ends meet after the coronavirus pandemic restricted their ability to perform live performances and concerts. The new feature will connect artists with their fans through ticketed live "virtual events." TechCrunch reports: The feature was first discovered by reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong and isn't yet available in the public-facing version of the Spotify app. Wong's photos of the feature show the Spotify profile page for the artist BTS, where a new "Upcoming Virtual Events" section now appears. After tapping on the event, fans are informed that BTS will appear at a virtual concert on September 19. The event here is the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Festival, where BTS is scheduled to perform. In the example photos, Songkick is listed as the ticketing partner for this event.

A shift to include virtual event listings instead of live concerts wouldn't be difficult for Spotify to implement. The company already works with ticketing partners including Ticketmaster, Songkick, Resident Advisor, Eventbrite, AXS and eplus in Japan. These ticketing sites have embraced virtual events amid the pandemic as way to keep their businesses afloat while in-person events were delayed and shut down over health concerns -- or even became illegal under government lockdowns. [...] What's less clear is whether Spotify considers the addition of virtual events a temporary measure to help artists manage their income before things return to normal, or if it believes there's room to grow in the virtual events market in the long-term.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: A computer scientist who created an artificial intelligence system capable of generating original inventions is suing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) over its decision earlier this year to reject two patent applications which list the algorithmic system, known as DABUS, as the inventor. The lawsuit is the latest step in an effort by Stephen Thaler and an international group of lawyers and academics to win inventorship rights for non-human AI systems, a prospect that raises fundamental questions about what it means to be creative and also carries potentially paradigm-shifting implications for certain industries.

In July 2019, Thaler filed two patent applications in the U.S. -- one for an adjustable food container, the other for an emergency beacon -- and listed the inventor as DABUS. He describes DABUS as a "creativity engine" composed of neural networks trained on a broad swath of data, and not designed to solve any particular problem. The USPTO rejected the applications, citing court decisions ruling that corporations, as opposed to individuals within corporations, cannot be legal inventors, and asserting that "conception -- the touchstone of inventorship -- must be performed by a natural person." British, German, and European Union patent regulators have also rejected Thaler's applications, decisions he has appealed. Petitions for DABUS-invented patents are still pending in China, Japan, India, and several other countries.

In his suit, filed August 6 in the Eastern District of Virginia's federal court, Thaler argues (PDF) that the USPTO should instead adopt the principle laid out in a 1943 report from the National Patent Planning Commission, which helped reform the country's patent system into its modern form. The commission wrote, "patentability shall be determined objectively by the nature of the contribution to the advancement of the art, and not subjectively by the nature of the process by which the invention may have been accomplished." [...] "What we want is to have innovation. AI has been used to help generate innovation for decades and AI is getting better and better at doing these things, and people aren't." Ryan Abbott, a professor at the University of Surrey School of Law, who is representing Thaler in the suit, told Motherboard. "The law is not clear on whether you can have a patent if the AI does that sort of work, but if you can't protect inventions coming out of AI, you're going to under-produce them."

Facebook on Monday blocked access within Thailand to a group with 1 million members that discusses the country's king, after the Thai government threatened legal action over failure to take down content deemed defamatory to the monarchy. From a report: The move comes amid near daily youth-led protests against the government led by the former military junta chief and unprecedented calls for reforms of the monarchy. The "Royalist Marketplace" group was created in April by Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a self-exiled academic and critic of the monarchy. On Monday night, the group's page brought up a message: "Access to this group has been restricted within Thailand pursuant to a legal request from the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society." Pavin, who lives in Japan, said Facebook had bowed to the military-dominated government's pressure. "Our group is part of a democratisation process, it is a space for freedom of expression," Pavin told Reuters.

China is targeting top scientific and technological expertise in the U.S. and other advanced nations through an expanding network of 600 talent-recruitment stations world-wide, a new report partly funded by the U.S. State Department has found. From a report: U.S. officials have long warned that China uses recruitment programs to improperly obtain advanced technology. However, the research conducted by an Australian think tank details the little-known but elaborate infrastructure the Chinese Communist Party uses to recruit scientists from organizations such as Tesla and Harvard University through such programs. Beijing has denied attempting any systematic effort to steal U.S. scientific research, and Chinese state media have said the U.S. is using allegations of intellectual-property theft as a political tool. The Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The talent programs, such as the Thousand Talents Plan, are supported by 600 recruitment stations in countries around the world. They include Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan, according to the report published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank created by the Australian government. The U.S. has the most with at least 146 stations, the report said.

Tim Harford, writing for Financial Times (not paywalled): Last spring, I returned from the holiday of a lifetime in Japan, and reflected on the richness of the memories it had generated. Time flew by while I was there, but in hindsight 10 days somewhere vividly new had produced more memories than 10 weeks back home. I likened the effect to the compression of a film. Instead of storing each frame separately, video compression algorithms will start with the first frame of a scene and then store a series of "diffs" -- changes from one frame to the next. A slow, contemplative movie with long scenes and fixed cameras can be compressed more than a fast-moving action flick. Similarly, a week full of new experiences will seem longer in retrospect. A month of repeating the same routine might seem endless, but will be barely a blip in the memory: the "diffs" are not significant enough for the brain to bother with. After months of working from home, I now realise that there was something incomplete about this account. New experiences are indeed important for planting a rich crop of memories. But, by itself, that is not enough. A new physical space seems to be important if our brains are to pay attention.

The Covid-19 lockdown, after all, was full of new experiences. Some were grim: I lost a friend to the disease; I smashed my face up in an accident; we had to wear masks and avoid physical contact and worry about where the next roll of toilet paper was coming from. Some were more positive: the discovery of new pleasures, the honing of new skills, the overcoming of new challenges. But I doubt I am alone in finding that my memory of the lockdown months is rather thin. No matter how many new people or old friends you talk to on Zoom or Skype, they all start to smear together because the physical context is monotonous: the conversations take place while one sits in the same chair, in the same room, staring at the same computer screen.>