Links for 2022-03-26
We can lose the Sun. Supervolcano, asteroid impact, nuclear winter - if we have to face 5 years of darkness, then alternative food sources that do not rely on sunlight can be the difference between losing 90% or <30% of the world's population. https://emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/FS-04-2018-0041/full/html
Ancient Ice Reveals Scores of Gigantic Volcanic Eruptions – Causing Tsunamis, Drought, Famine, and Death — "...we identify 1113 volcanic eruptions in Greenland and 737 eruptions in Antarctica within the 51 kyr period – for which the sulfate deposition of 85 eruptions is found at both poles (bipolar eruptions)." https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/18/485/2022/
Increasing hardware performance could lead to strong AI, and subsequently it will perfect itself into superintelligent AI. But what if software is not up to the task? It would cause an unpredictable 'Software-Limited' singularity. https://intelligence.org/files/SoftwareLimited.pdf
450,000 authors (born 1300-1940), have either religious names (saints, bible figures) or non-religious names. Religious names less likely to become doctor, teacher, engineer. https://broadstreet.blog/2022/02/25/did-religion-facilitate-modern-growth-or-was-it-a-stumbling-block/
A New Era: Intelligent Tutoring Systems Will Transform Online Learning for Millions https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.03724
FOXG1 dose tunes cell proliferation dynamics in human forebrain progenitor cells https://www.cell.com/stem-cell-reports/fulltext/S2213-6711(22)00054-6
A landmark identical twin study indicates how a child is raised (e.g. type & amount of food, lack of exercise) influences their rate of aging & how healthy they will be for the rest of their life. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(22)00111-6/fulltext
Neuron densities are lognormally distributed both within and across cortical areas. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.17.480842v1
“Braasch competed in a "Battle of the Sexes" contest against the Williams sisters (Venus and Serena) at the 1998 Australian Open when he was ranked 203. Braasch was described by one journalist as "a man whose training regime centred around a pack of cigarettes and more than a couple bottles of ice cold lager". He nonetheless defeated both sisters, playing a single set against each, beating Serena 6–1 and Venus 6–2. Braasch was thirty years old at the time, while Venus and Serena were seventeen and sixteen, respectively.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karsten_Braasch
Australian women's national team lose 7-0 to team of 15-year-old boys https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/australian-women-s-national-team-lose-70-to-team-of-15yearold-boys-a3257266.html
Ros Atkins (BBC) provides an overview of the Russian Nazi claims pertaining to Ukraine:
1. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish and has relatives who died in the Holocaust.
2. Zelenskyy won 73% of the vote in 2019.
3. The main far-right candidate reached 1.6%.
4. No far-right groups have any formal political power in Ukraine.
5. The Azov regiment was incorporated into the Ukrainian forces after Ukraine was attacked in 2014 when urgent military considerations trumped all others.
6. Today, Azov consists of approximately 1000 fighters, a tiny fraction of the roughly 300,000 fighters belonging to the Ukrainian military.
7. The contemporary Azov regiment is more mainstream and less extreme than it used to be.