Links for 2021-09-11
A Recipe For Arbitrary Text Style Transfer with Large Language Models: Uses 137B LMs on zero-shot text style transfer and gets promising results with "augmented zero-shot learning". Even works on prompts like “make this melodramatic” or “insert a metaphor.” https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.03910
The $150 Million Machine Keeping Moore’s Law Alive: ASML’s next-generation extreme ultraviolet lithography machines achieve previously unattainable levels of precision, which means chips can keep shrinking for years to come. https://web.archive.org/web/20210904033741/https://www.wired.com/story/asml-extreme-ultraviolet-lithography-chips-moores-law/
These Super-Efficient, Artificial Neurons Do Not Use Electrons — “[Though] artificial intelligence has come a long way, these systems are still far from matching the brain’s energy efficiency. …’The human brain…needs only 20 watts [to function], essentially [as much as] a light bulb,’ says Paul Robin, one of the scientists on the study. ‘Computers need much more energy. Our idea is that maybe the reason why our brain is so much more efficient is that it uses ions and not electrons to function.’” https://spectrum.ieee.org/these-artificial-neurons-use-ions-rather-than-electrons
"India’s DNA COVID vaccine is a world first – more are coming: The ZyCoV-D vaccine heralds a wave of DNA vaccines for various diseases that are undergoing clinical trials around the world" https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02385-x
Neurocracy is future fiction in the form of Wikipedia: How Half-Life and Deus Ex laid the foundation for a Wikipedia-style murder mystery game https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/14/22577088/neurocracy-wikipedia-murder-mystery-game
Epstein-Barr Virus: More maladies than merely mono -- Part 4 of “The human herpesviruses: much more than you wanted to know” denovo.substack.com/p/epstein-barr-virus-more-maladies
New paper suggests that humans have 14 fundamental motivations, each of which evolved to solve a distinct adaptive problem. They are: lust, hunger, fear, disgust, attract, love, nurture, hoard, create, affiliate, status, justice, curiosity, and play. https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8358141/
Biotech Eugenics: Creating Future People youtube.com/watch?v=BQr9KtVRhRM
How stupidity is destroying a country. Sri Lankan leader banned fertilizer and pesticides. Now, massive crop failures across the country has led him to declare an economic emergency. https://theprint.in/world/how-sri-lankas-overnight-flip-to-total-organic-farming-has-led-to-an-economic-disaster/728414/?amp
9/11 anniversary
A 2016 survey showed that the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were a unifying event for modern Americans. Nothing else has come close to being as important or as memorable. It shows that 911 overshadows any other modern event in historical significance: https://www.people-press.org/2016/12/15/americans-name-the-10-most-significant-historic-events-of-their-lifetimes/
Now consider that 20 years after 911 the allies of the perpetrators are back in power and stronger than ever before. The European Union even wants to negotiate with them. Hard to believe.
If you were too young or want to remind yourself of what happened, this channel has the best 911 videos: youtube.com/c/WTCFOIAVideos/videos?view=0&sort=p&flow=grid
E.g. this video in which you can see and hear the second impact very clearly:
See also: N.J. Burkett reporting as Twin Towers begin to collapse on September 11, 2001:
Did you know? George Bush’s “Islam is peace” speech was delivered a few days after 911: https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010917-11.html
Here is a reminder that it didn’t end with 911. Indeed, as the rise of the Islamic State showed, it was just the beginning.
A few selected Islamist terror attacks since 911 (of hundreds of other attacks that I didn't list):
2001 Indian Parliament attack: 9 deaths
2002 Ghriba synagogue bombing: 20 deaths
2002 Los Angeles International Airport shooting: 3 deaths
2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis: 130 deaths
2004 Madrid train bombings: 193 deaths
2004 Beslan school siege: 334 deaths
2005 London bombings: 56 deaths
2008 Mumbai attacks: 166 deaths
2010 Aksu bombing: 7+ deaths
2012 Toulouse and Montauban shootings: 7 deaths
2013 Boston Marathon bombing: 3 deaths
2013 Westgate shopping mall attack: 71 deaths
2014 Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting: 4 deaths
2014 Sydney hostage crisis: 2 deaths
2014 Kunming attack: 35 deaths
2014 Ürümqi attack: 43 deaths
2015 Sousse attacks: 39 deaths
2015 Bardo National Museum attack: 24 deaths
2015 Tunis bombing: 14 deaths
2015 Île-de-France attacks: 17 deaths
2015 Paris attacks: 137 deaths
2015 downing of Metrojet Flight 9268: 224 deaths
2015 San Bernardino attack: 16 deaths
2015 Garissa University College attack: 152 deaths
2015 Chattanooga shootings: 6 deaths
2016 Orlando nightclub shooting: 50 deaths
2016 Istanbul bombing: 14 deaths
2016 Brussels bombings: 35 deaths
2016 Atatürk Airport attack: 45 deaths
2016 Nice truck attack: 87 deaths
2016 Berlin truck attack: 12 deaths
2017 Barcelona attacks: 16 deaths
2017 Minya Coptic Christian bus attack: 28+ deaths
2017 Palm Sunday church bombings: 30 deaths
2017 New York City truck attack: 8 deaths
2017 Istanbul nightclub shooting: 39 deaths
2017 Westminster attack: 5 deaths
2017 Saint Petersburg Metro bombing: 15 deaths
2017 Stockholm attack: 5 deaths
2017 Manchester Arena bombing: 22 deaths
2017 London Bridge attack: 8 deaths
2018 Carcassonne and Trèbes attack: 4 deaths
2018 Liège attack: 4 deaths
2018 Lamitan bombing: 18 deaths
2019 Nairobi DusitD2 complex attack: 21 deaths
2019 Jolo Cathedral bombings: 20 deaths
2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings: 269 deaths
2020 Vienna attack: 5 deaths
One only has to look at Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, a municipality in Belgium, to realize that these attacks will continue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint-Jans-Molenbeek
A police operation found 102 crime organisations and 52 organisations involved in terrorism.
The assassins who killed anti-Taliban commander Ahmed Shah Massoud both came from Molenbeek
One of the 2004 Madrid terror bombers came from Molenbeek.
The perpetrator of the Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting, Mehdi Nemmouche, lived in Molenbeek for a time.
Ayoub El Khazzani, the perpetrator of the 2015 Thalys train attack, stayed with his sister in Molenbeek.
The weapons used in the Porte de Vincennes siege two days after the Charlie Hebdo shooting were sourced from Molenbeek.
The bombers of the November 2015 Paris attacks were also traced to Molenbeek.
Oussama Zariouh, the bomber of Brussels Central Station in June 2017, lived in Molenbeek.