Links for 2022-07-09
Race, Eugenics, and the Holocaust — Jonathan Anomaly on how the reaction against Nazism shaped taboos on race and eugenics, particularly through the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and 1950 Statement on Race. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-031-01987-6_9.pdf
Human brain anatomy reflects separable genetic and environmental components of socioeconomic status https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm2923
Mojo’s Smart Contact Lenses Begin In-Eye Testing https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/mojos-smart-contact-lenses-begin-in-eye-testing/
The Government Is Developing a Solar Geoengineering Research Plan [MIT Technology Review] https://archive.ph/ZOgGm
World’s Oldest Trees Reveal the Largest Solar Storm in History: “After a 10 year investigation, we’ve found that the Sun is even more violent—and more threatening—than we’d ever imagined.” https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/oldest-trees-solar-storm/
“Polyethylene fibres reinforced with 1% graphene oxide features an astounding strength-to-weight ratio of 3.56 GPa/(kg/m^3) That's 3.2 GPa tensile strength with 900 kg/m^3 density, with the potential to be easily manufactured.” (via @ToughSf) https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.8b04734
Quantum Error Correction: Time to Make It Work https://spectrum.ieee.org/quantum-error-correction
‘A seismic shift could be underway’: the mission to make steel green https://www.positive.news/environment/a-seismic-shift-could-be-underway-the-mission-to-make-steel-green/
Grandma’s trauma – a critical appraisal of the evidence for transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in humans http://www.wiringthebrain.com/2018/05/grandmas-trauma-critical-appraisal-of.html?spref=tw&m=1
Rein in the four horsemen of reproducibility https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01307-2
Given yet another threat of nuclear war from Russia, it could be helpful to take the Russian perspective.
Suppose the United States were threatening to start a nuclear war if Russia does not remove its troops from Ukraine. Should Russia comply?
Either the answer is yes, in which case threats of nuclear war would become a commonplace strategy to achieve foreign political goals or the answer is no, in which case the United States should just ignore Russian threats.
One might be tempted to argue that Russia wouldn't comply because they are not a rational player while the United States should alter its behavior in response to Russian threats. But that's not how rationality works. Rationality is about winning. If irrational behavior allows you to achieve strategic goals then it becomes rational.
In any case, it should be quite obvious that it would be crazy for Russia to comply. That would be tantamount to a capitulation because what would stop Washington from backing up further demands with nuclear annihilation? Symmetrically, the same is true for the United States.
People point at Japanese gun violence stats as if it's the lack of guns that stops them from shooting at rivaling gang members.