» 2021 » March Epicene Cyborg

Why Computers Won’t Make Themselves Smarter. We fear and yearn for “the singularity.” But it will probably never come. In the near term, 0-500 years, this is probably true.

Android sends 20x more data to Google than iOS sends to Apple, study says.

Huge uptick in lightning over the Arctic in past decade, research shows.

The beauty of the ampersand and other keyboard symbols. Claire Cock-Starkey’s guide to glyphs and punctuation marks is, by turns, scholarly, poetic, philosophical and funny.

How U.S. media lost the trust of the public.

Direct observations confirm that humans are throwing Earth’s energy budget off balance.

The Pandemic Has Transformed The English Language.

Extreme poverty isn’t natural, it’s created.

Everyone should have the retirement plan federal employees enjoy.

‘Real world’ study by CDC shows Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were 90% effective.

Sleeping Octopuses May Have Dreams, But They’re Probably Brief.

Genome Sequencing and Covid-19: How Scientists Are Tracking the Virus.

The Coronavirus Variants Don’t Seem to Be Highly Variable So Far. SARS-CoV-2 may be settling into a limited set of mutations.

The hidden fingerprint inside your photos. Common knowledge to photographers, but most people have no idea.

Amazon’s PR Flacks Are Starting to Sweat.

What’s Behind the Stunning Spike in Used Vehicle Auction Prices? That Consumers Aren’t on Buyers Strike Shows Something Big about Inflation Has Changed.

“Big government” and other lies we live by: How one Orwellian concoction consumed America.

Biden’s Chance to Save the Everglades. Reviving the South Florida ecosystem enjoys bipartisan support and deserves federal funding.

Valentina Tereshkova.

The Class-Inflected Nature of Gay Identity.

America Is Now in the Hands of the Vaccine-Hesitant. A subset of Americans haven’t yet made up their mind about getting a COVID-19 shot. Whether they turn out in the coming weeks will determine the future of the pandemic.

Physics as we know it is elegant and exquisitely accurate. It tells almost nothing about the deepest riddles of the Universe.

We’ve Spent Over a Decade Researching Guns in America. This Is What We Learned.

Extreme weather events of 535–536.

The Joy of Condensed Matter.

Only Google is really allowed to crawl the web.

When you drive a boat, you are always in drift.

After a Remote Year, Tech’s Shadow Workforce Barely Hangs On. As tech campuses became ghost towns, the people who kept them running—cooks, custodians, drivers—faced an existential threat to their livelihoods.

Something Huge and Invisible Is Making Nearby Stars Vanish, Scientists Propose.

U.S. rent has increased 175% faster than household income over past 20 years.

Offshoring Critical Industries Is So Harmful It Should Be Treason (Covid Edition).

An Evolutionary Perspective on Why Food Overconsumption Impairs Cognition.

Exercising leads to unexpected benefits deep in your bones. Movement stimulates bone regeneration and strengthens the immune system.

loop-de-loop.

New Suez crisis: a global economy creaking under the strain.

Middle Management. Design thinking is not apolitical, it’s centrism in disguise.

Pfizer Covid vaccine produces ‘robust’ antibody response after first dose, new study shows.

America’s gun madness: How guns went from tools to ideology to identity. I was taught to handle and shoot guns as a boy. But the insane, murderous gun culture of today is something new.

Capitalism won’t save us from Covid, no matter what Boris Johnson might think.

Most TV completely ignores women’s sports, a 30-year study finds.

Trypanophobia or How to Alleviate Vaccine Hesitancy.

68% of Japan is covered in forests, and of this 49% is officially protected and can not be logged or cut. All protected forests belong to one or more of 17 nationally recognized classes, each with a different purpose, management strategy, and use. This thread will list them all.

A rant about lawns in America.

Atomic clocks compared with astounding accuracy.

Phones and Apps Reduce Your Ability to Focus Even When They Don’t Distract You.

Misogyny Fuels Violence Against Women. Should It Be a Hate Crime? Experts say the everyday harassment women have learned to put up with — the catcalling and lewd gestures — connects directly with more serious abuses.

Understanding sweet-liking phenotypes and their implications for obesity: narrative review and future directions.

This Wooden Sculpture Is Twice as Old as Stonehenge and the Pyramids. New findings about the 12,500-year-old Shigir Idol have major implications for the study of prehistory.

Who do we spend time with across our lifetime?

The COVID-19 pandemic in Norway and Sweden – threats, trust, and impact on daily life: a comparative survey.

The High Cost of Not Forgiving Student-Loan Debt.

Call centre staff to be monitored via webcam for home-working ‘infractions’.

Just how severe will America’s minority rule become?

Georgia Lawmakers Warn Stricter Gun Regulation Could Cause Mass Shooters To Move To Other States.

Sweden saw lower 2020 death spike than much of Europe – data.

Where are all the containers? The global shortage explained.

HR Warns Employees Against Taking Unsanctioned 8-Hour Naps Every Night While Working From Home.

The Decline and Fall of the Latin Neuter.

What a Songbird Lost at Sea Taught Me About Survival.

Covid won’t be the last pandemic. Will we be better prepared for the next one?

You Probably Don’t Remember the Internet. How do we memorialize life online when it’s constantly disappearing?

What It’s Been Like to Have the Entire Country Dedicated to Protecting You.

Facebook has been autogenerating pages for white supremacists.

Higher airborne pollen concentrations correlated with increased SARS-CoV-2 infection rates, as evidenced from 31 countries across the globe.

Riders Are Abandoning Buses and Trains. That’s a Problem for Climate Change.

Ford’s long-lost turbine semi truck ‘Big Red’ found, in good shape.

The End of Industrial Society.

A Chaotic Taxonomy of the Nancy Meyers Cinematic Universe.

Seven in 10 UK Covid patients still affected months after leaving hospital. Not the flu.

Multiple Destroyers Were Swarmed By Mysterious ‘Drones’ Off California Over Numerous Nights.

Unpaid environmental damages from fossil fuels are a $600B annual subsidy.

Tin cry.

The Former Netflix DVD Library Is a Lost Treasure We’ll Never See Again.

The positive effects of war on mental health were first noticed by the great sociologist Emile Durkheim, who found that when European countries went to war, suicide rates dropped.

Copper foam as a highly efficient, durable filter for reusable masks and air cleaners.

Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future.

Pandemic Theater, The Anniversary Edition.

The Medical System Should Have Been Prepared for Long COVID.

What Data Can’t Do. When it comes to people—and policy—numbers are both powerful and perilous.

The stories we tell ourselves through psychology fulfil many of the same functions served in the traditional belief practices of mythology.

On One Day Last Year, the Fed Had $495.7 Billion in Loans Outstanding to Unnamed Wall Street Trading Houses.

Archaeologists Solve Mystery of 5,600-Year-Old Skull Found in Italian Cave. Natural forces moved a Stone Age woman’s bones through the cavern over time.

Rents for the rich are plummeting. Rents for the poor are rising. Why?

In 2020, Two Thirds of Google Searches Ended Without a Click.

Why the Wuhan lab-leak theory shouldn’t be dismissed.

In January, there were more real-estate agents than homes for sale in the U.S.

Inside a Titan missile guidance computer.

Everyone Knows the Housing Market Craziness Can’t Last, then the First Dip Turns into a Big Drop.

Study confirms that some people age more slowly.

Let’s Get Rid of Daylight Savings and Time Zones – Bloomberg.

Covid’s Partisan Errors. Republicans tend to underestimate Covid risks — and Democrats tend to exaggerate them.

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