A recent meta-analysis that “proved” antidepressants work was grossly overhyped by the media.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2018/02/24/about-antidepressant-study/#.WphBmPnwaUm
The media has also be grossly misrepresenting medical progress towards treating Alzheimer’s disease.
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2018/02/15/more-rough-alzheimers-news
Sometimes, the hype-ready headlines are made up by the scientists BEFORE being passed on to the media.
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2018/02/05/where-does-the-news-hype-come-from
An Ivy-league scientist deliberately dressed up shoddy scientific papers about dietetics to attract publicity.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemlee/brian-wansink-cornell-p-hacking
“These observations suggest that despite the overall ability of reviewers to discriminate between extremely strong grant applications and the remainder, they have limited ability to accurately predict future productivity of meritorious applications in the range relevant to current paylines.”
https://elifesciences.org/articles/13323v1
Fake Science Paper About ‘Star Trek’ and Warp 10 Was Accepted by ‘Predatory Journals’
https://www.space.com/39672-fake-star-trek-science-paper-published.html
Fake professors working at a fake college where they run a fake scientific journal:
http://groverlab.org/hnbfpr/2017-12-10-csu.html
Generally speaking, the scientific literature about the health effects of specific foods is so self-contradictory and poorly done that it might as well be ignored.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2018/02/26/coffee-causes-cancer-coffee-prevents-cancer-wait-what/#113d9f7915ee
What IS known for sure is that 1) being overweight damages one’s health, 2) eating too many calories contributes more to obesity than lack of exercise, and 3) Americans are getting fatter over time.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2018/02/22/peds.2017-3459#T2
Simple, absolute changes to one’s diet (e.g. “I will never drink sodas, never go to all you can eat buffets, and will only eat whole grain breads”) are the most effective for weight loss.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/well/eat/counting-calories-weight-loss-diet-dieting-low-carb-low-fat.html
The (short) list of nutritional supplements that doctors actually recommend people take and have scientifically proven benefits.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/supplements-are-a-30-billion-racket-heres-what-experts-actually-recommend/
“Biohacking” is bunk.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/02/biohacking-stunts-crispr/553511/
More on that.
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2016/01/20/the-state-of-biohacking
A brain implant improved memory in lab tests. All the test subjects were epileptics. It’s possible the implants could boost the memories of people with normal brains.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/health/brain-implant-memory.html
Superhuman abilities aren’t always beneficial: Having a hyper-acute sense of smell is hellish.
https://gutsybeautifulcomplicated.com/2017/06/07/hyperosmia-when-odors-rule-your-life/
But the benefits of superior intellect are clear: Long-term studies of people in the top 1% of math ability suggest that there is no known “ceiling” to IQ, and that the benefits of IQ never plateau: All other things being equal, a person with an IQ of 200 should be able to do more complex cognitive tasks, and is likelier to have a better job and more money, than someone with an IQ of 180.
https://my.vanderbilt.edu/smpy/files/2013/01/DoingPsychScience2006.pdf
Human IQ is heritable, but also tends to regress towards the population mean of 100 across generations (see the “Your Kids and Regression” slide). This means two parents with IQs of 80 are likely to have children that are smarter, and two parents with IQs of 120 are likely to have children that are dumber.
http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/seminars/data/media/2012/feb/hsu.pdf
‘According to the political scientist Charles Murray, meritocracy inevitably leads to a genetically-based caste system. Why? Because the traits selected for by the meritocratic sorting principle are genetically-based and, as such, likely to be passed on from parents to their children. Genetic variation means some highly able children will be born to people of average and below average intelligence, but the children of the meritocratic elite will, in aggregate, always have a competitive advantage and over several generations that leads to social ossification.’
https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-rise-and-fall-of-meritocracy-bbc.html
Among females, educational achievement and fertility are negatively correlated, but the long-term effects on the human genepool could be minimal, and the correlation’s directionality could change in the future.
https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/02/lets-not-panic-over-women-with-more-education-having-fewer-kids/273070/
Agreeableness is a heritable personality trait, and it influences one’s odds of divorce (which in turn partly determines income, since couples share money).
https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21736124-according-study-adopted-children-genes-play-role-likelihood
DNA-based scores are getting better at predicting intelligence, risks for common diseases, and more.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610251/forecasts-of-genetic-fate-just-got-a-lot-more-accurate/
An evolutionary “top 1%er.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43123658
An evolutionary “top 0.001er.” (It makes clones of itself instead of diluting its genome by reproducing with the other sex.)
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/02/attack-of-the-crayfish-clones/552236/
Two of Barbra Streisand’s dogs are clones of one of her dogs that died last year.
http://variety.com/2018/film/news/barbra-streisand-oscars-sexism-in-hollywood-clone-dogs-1202710585/
I saw this episode of Black Mirror last night. It’s completely right that killer robots will probably be small (though not necessarily dog-like), expendable, and able to function in spite of massive damage. The only inconsistencies in the depiction are:
1) The robot would have called for backup early on.
2) There would have been flying robots that could have zapped the woman out of the tree. Modern militaries don’t do it all with one type of weapon, and neither will future militaries made of robots.
https://youtu.be/OQFoyeCiMBE
It’s useful to think of future aerial drones as slow-flying, self-guided missiles.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42904204
The McKinsey Group predicts the U.S. economy will soon return to the high productivity growth rates it last experienced in the 1990s, thanks to the rollout/growth of several new technologies we keep hearing about, including autonomous vehicles.
https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Global%20Themes/Meeting%20societys%20expectations/Solving%20the%20productivity%20puzzle/MGI-Solving-the-Productivity-Puzzle-Executive-summary-February2018.ashx
‘The robotaxis will be cars that last for 2 million miles and have lower operating costs. The interior seats will occasionally be swapped out or reupholstered. There will be no performance competition.’
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/02/the-robotaxi-future-will-not-care-about-car-brands-or-luxury.html
Quantum computers could vastly accelerate research in chemistry and materials science.
https://www.barrons.com/articles/microsoft-we-have-the-qubits-you-want-1519434417
A reminder that every exponential growth curve eventually flattens out.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/02/02/weve-reached-peak-smartphone-what-are-apple-and-samsung-going-to-do-now/
The first iSlave has already been born.
‘The wristbands also feature an ultrasonic unit that’s used to track where the worker is in relation to any particular inventory bin. If their hands are moving to the wrong item, the bracelet will buzz.’
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/1/16958918/amazon-patents-trackable-wristband-warehouse-employees
Amazon should combine the wristwatches with the “Jennifer Unit.” And then they should start calling their workers “Borg drones.” (And come to think of it, Amazon warehouses are giant cubes)
https://youtu.be/oC-ReBX0icU
Hitler’s mistakes led directly to defeat at the Battle of Kursk.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/why-the-battle-kursk-might-just-be-the-most-misunderstood-22931
It’s said that WWII played a major role in strengthening our sense of shared national identity because millions of Americans went through the homogenizing institution that was the U.S. military. But look at what happened to Yugoslavia when when it conscripted its citizens into regional militias dominated by different ethic groups.
http://warisboring.com/yugoslav-military-doctrine-hastened-the-countrys-collapse/
While America has largely come to grips over its acts of brutality during the Vietnam War, Vietnam’s communists still cover up their much worse record of wartime atrocities. None of them were brought to justice after the War.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/15/vietnam-war-government-accounts-1968-216973
Armored vehicles can only fit on cargo planes if the vehicles are small and light. To be small and light, armor must be sacrificed. Thin armor means the vehicles are easy to blow up in combat. The U.S. Army will never wish away this basic, physical reality.
http://www.dote.osd.mil/pub/reports/FY2009/pdf/army/2009strykermgs.pdf
Diplomatic “end user agreements” partly (or wholly) explain why Turkey and Iraq both have tank fleets consisting of high-tech and low-tech vehicles.
http://warisboring.com/the-west-sold-tanks-to-the-middle-east-and-now-its-frustrated/
On the night of February 7-8, about 500 Russian mercenaries ignored repeated warnings from the U.S. military, and attacked an oil refinery in Syria that was held by American forces and American-friendly Syrian rebels. At least 100 and perhaps over 200 Russians died in the one-sided battle, in which they were torn apart by highly accurate U.S. artillery and ground attack aircraft and then ran away. The Kremlin has comically downplayed the scope of the defeat.
https://www.polygraph.info/a/us-wagner-russia-syria-scores-killed/29044339.html
…and in totally unrelated news, Russia dispatched two of its stealth fighters to Syria two weeks later.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/18773/satellite-imagery-confirms-russia-deployed-stealthy-su-57-fighters-to-syria
The U.S. military’s plans to arm ships with nuclear cruise missiles is so potentially destablizing to international security that it might just be a bluff meant to pressure Russia into abandoning its own nuclear weapon improvement efforts.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/18804/us-eyes-adding-nuclear-cruise-missiles-to-zumwalt-stealth-destroyers-as-well-as-submarines
The scientific evidence for the “nuclear winter” theory is surprisingly weak, and may have been clandestinely encouraged by the USSR in the 1980s to strengthen anti-nuclear activists in the West.
http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/nuclear-winter/
‘This major upgrade is part of a series of upgrades—which include a new digital countermeasures suite, infrared search and track system, new cockpit, among other enhancements—that are slated to allow the F-15C/D fleet to soldier on till 2040 AND POSSIBLY BEYOND. The aircraft that receive these upgrades are called “Golden Eagles.”‘
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/18259/its-back-to-the-future-for-u-s-f-15c-eagles-and-conformal-fuel-tanks
Here’s an interesting argument that America’s costly aircraft carriers would be useless in a war with an advanced enemy (China or Russia), and are just expensive tools for beating up weak countries.
http://cimsec.org/age-strike-carrier/30906
China’s fearsome island bases in the South China Sea could all be destroyed on the first day of fighting with the U.S.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/are-chinas-south-china-sea-bases-pointless-24546
The U.S. Army is developing truck-mounted multiple launch missiles that can be used against enemy ships and ground targets. The Marine Corps might also buy them. They could be used against Russia in the Baltic or against China in the South China Sea.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/18427/the-army-eyes-getting-into-the-ship-killing-business-with-this-cruise-missile
Here’s a fascinating trove of declassified U.S. intelligence analyses of captured Soviet weapons. The recurring theme is that the Soviet scientists and engineers were about as smart as ours, but they had to make weapons that were less advanced and more conventional thanks to the inefficiencies and lagging technology of their factories. This philosophy led the Soviets to favor proven weapon designs and incremental upgrades to them. They preferred having an older, less efficient weapon they knew would work to having a higher-tech, more efficient weapon that hadn’t been put through its paces yet. The artificially low cost of factory labor in the USSR also manifested itself in some of their weapon components, which were obviously made by hand and to standards of precision that would be cost-prohibitive in the U.S.
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2018-01-31/scavenging-intelligence-us-governments-secret-search-foreign
The differences in design philosophies carry over to the present day: ‘A sociological truth has emerged from the international effort: American engineers are more likely to try to finesse a structure, to make it as lightweight and as efficient as possible, while Russians build things stout.’
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/us-weighing-future-of-international-space-station/
The laws of optics establish inescapable tradeoffs between the size of a spy satellite and its photographic resolution. The size of a spy satellite, in turn, is capped by the sizes of our space rockets. Theoretically, a spy satellite that could read car license plates and discern human facial features from orbit could be built, but it would be massively expensive and an order of magnitude bigger than today’s biggest satellites.
http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/09/future-spy-satellites-just-got-exponentially-smaller/140700/
https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/3868/is-photography-from-a-satellite-good-enough-to-make-out-a-person-on-the-ground
BLAST FROM THE PAST! “China plans moon landing around 2017”
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-11/04/content_491424.htm
The reality: “CHINESE SPACE STATION WILL CRASH TO EARTH IN MARCH CARRYING A ‘HIGHLY TOXIC’ CHEMICAL”
http://www.newsweek.com/tiangong-1-chinese-space-station-will-crash-earth-march-carrying-highly-toxic-770625
Our closest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, had a massive solar flare last year, which might have fried its planet, Proxima-b.
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-proxima-centauri-good-bad-day.html
He makes a great point at the end: A particular star system might be completely unsuited for the rise of organic life, but could still be riddled with non-indigenous aliens that used technology to get there. This weakens the case for focusing SETI’s surveillance efforts on stars that seem to have the “right” conditions for organic life.
https://youtu.be/j2AfvkQi7qI
‘In short, I can see no reason why an iPhone in 2-3 years time couldn’t match the performance of today’s DSLRs for 99% of occasions.’
https://9to5mac.com/2017/04/27/opinion-iphone-replace-dslr/
“Aesthetically, these [AI- taken] pictures aren’t masterworks. Emotionally, they’re on a higher plane.”
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/technology/future-cameras-ai-brains.html
There’s no reason why biometric recognition software couldn’t be applied to many species of animals just as it is with humans. Pairing that software with a global surveillance network would yield highly accurate, real-time monitoring of wild species populations.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/02/ai-used-to-track-pigs-and-facial-recognize-cows.html
Fish are unevenly distributed across the world’s oceans.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/02/22/588034042/new-maps-reveal-global-fishings-vast-scope-of-exploitation-of-the-ocean
“In 1942…the average dairy cow produced less than 5,000 pounds of milk in its lifetime. Now, the average cow produces over 21,000 pounds of milk.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/05/the-perfect-milk-machine-how-big-data-transformed-the-dairy-industry/256423/
“As a result of high costs, Gordon-Smith said, several vertical farms in North America have failed in recent years.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/02/vertical-farming-houston/552665/
“For the most sensitive pieces of equipment, work could only be done within a clean-room nested inside another, larger clean-room.”
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/02/22/assembly-of-the-worlds-most-powerful-x-ray-laser-has-begun-at-slac/
It’s interesting that they’re able to film scenes indoors but make them look naturally lit. Exactly how far are we from 100% CGI films that look completely real? When will the characters be 100% CGI?
https://io9.gizmodo.com/even-tv-dramas-without-dragons-in-them-are-packed-full-1822660136