Links for 2022-09-19
“It sounds like a sci-fi film plot: A lineage of dinosaurs survives the comet and evolves ultra-high intelligence. But that's exactly what actually happened. Birds are dinosaurs. And some birds – corvids among them – have primate-level cognitive abilities.” (via @SteveStuWill) http://cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/abstract/S1364-6613(16)00042-5
How did birds get so smart? Part of the answer is that they've got primate-like numbers of neurons squeezed into their tiny bird brains. Another part is that avian neurons consume three times less glucose than mammalian neurons. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.07.070
Flooded with AI-generated images, some art communities ban them completely https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/09/flooded-with-ai-generated-images-some-art-communities-ban-them-completely/
The green war on clean energy: “But what if nuclear research and plant construction had continued to advance at the pace seen in the 1970s? One Australian researcher concluded: ‘Had the early rates continued, nuclear power could now be around 10% of its current cost.’” [The Orange County Register] https://archive.ph/2q5M1
A standard dataset in artificial-intelligence research has ten percent of its images mislabeled (https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.11695). Yet state-of-the-art algorithms achieve better-than-90% classification on the same dataset (https://paperswithcode.com/sota/image-classification-on-imagenet). (via Daniel Lemire)
"Satellite images obtained by Yle indicate that Russia has been moving a large number of anti-aircraft missiles toward Ukraine, including from as far away as St. Petersburg, one of the most crucial areas for Russian air defence." https://yle.fi/news/3-12626182
The New York Times exposé of Hasidic schools: Hasidic boy's schools in NYC successfully educate 0% of their students to grade level. https://archive.ph/NYTzm
“Leicester: multiculturalism turns violent. Tensions between Hindu and Muslim communities have reached boiling point.” https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/09/13/leicester-multiculturalism-turns-violent/
Police call for calm after ‘serious disorder’ breaks out in Leicester https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/18/police-community-leaders-crowds-leicester
Stockholm police chief talks about 9-year-olds carrying Glock pistols. https://www-svt-se.translate.goog/nyheter/inrikes/tidigare-regionpolischefen-traffat-nioaringar-med-en-glock-i-vaskan?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
The deleterious effects Sweden's immigration policy has had. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1569252000730079236.html
Here is your frequent reminder that the political left is also engaged in the distortion and denial of science.
The difference is that, due to them being the dominant cultural and institutional power in many Western countries, their disinformation is spread by reputable newspapers and organizations rather than fringe crackpots.
Some facts that are frequently denied or distorted by people on the political left:
1. Sex differences are innate, strong, and pervasive.
2. Obesity is bad for your health.
3. IQ is highly predictive of the success of individuals and nations across many domains and gives hugely increasing benefits, all the way up the scale.
4. Nuclear power is safe and our best weapon in the fight against climate change.
5. GM crops are safe and a potent weapon against malnutrition and the detrimental effects of climate change-induced heat and drought.
6. Capitalism has lifted billions of people out of poverty and generated amounts of wealth and well-being so vast that it exceeds the wildest dreams of our ancestors.
The above is just a short selection of theories supported by overwhelming evidence. There is much more the left is wrong about such as denying the detrimental effects of ethnic diversity or their tendency to favor coercion and social engineering rather than technological solutions in order to solve problems.