Various web links I found to be of interest recently.
Glenn Greenwald: The same corporate outlets that most vocally profess concern over disinformation are the ones spreading it most casually. NBC's Assange report is the perfect case study.
Within the span of two minutes, these NBC personalities told four blatant lies about the Assange case. I do not mean that they asserted dubious opinions or questionable narratives or even misleading claims. I mean that they outright lied about four separate matters that are crucial to understanding the Biden administration's attempted extradition and prosecution of Assange. These lies were not just misleading but pernicious, as they were designed not merely to mislead the public but to provoke them to believe that one of the gravest attacks on press freedom in years - the imprisonment of a journalist for the crime of reporting true and accurate information about the crimes of power centers - is something viewers should applaud rather than denounce.
Video of robot with amazing human facial expressions
U.K.-based company Engineered Arts has unveiled a remarkably human-like android with a promotional video released on social media of it "waking up." In the video, the robot known as "Ameca" can be seen expressing what appears to be surprise as it opens its eyes and looks around.
Scott Aaronson
Yes, they might someday solve a few specific problems in minutes that
(we think) would take longer than the age of the universe on classical
computers. But there are many other important problems for which most
experts think quantum computers will help only modestly, if at all.
...
The goal in devising an algorithm for a quantum computer is to
choreograph a pattern of constructive and destructive interference
so that for each wrong answer the contributions to its amplitude
cancel each other out, whereas for the right answer the contributions
reinforce each other. If, and only if, you can arrange that, you'll
see the right answer with a large probability when you look. The
tricky part is to do this without knowing the answer in advance,
and faster than you could do it with a classical computer.
...
Over the past few decades, conjectured quantum speedups have repeatedly
gone away when classical algorithms were found with similar performance.
History tells us that scientific progress is imperfect. Intellectual traditions and available tooling can prejudice scientists away from some ideas and towards others. This adds noise to the marketplace of ideas and often means there is inertia in recognizing promising directions of research. In the field of artificial intelligence (AI) research, this article posits that it is tooling which has played a disproportionately large role in deciding which ideas succeed and which fail.
A Ponzi scheme is a zero-sum enterprise. But bitcoin is a negative-sum phenomenon that you can't even pursue a claim against, argues Robert McCauley.
Since the Taliban took Kabul, Islamic State sympathizers across South Asia have increased attacks on the movement over its ties to China.
Since its founding in 2014, the Islamic State has always been hostile to China. China's well-documented repression of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang features often in IS propaganda, especially in South Asia.
Seeking international legitimacy and finance, the Taliban is carefully cultivating China. Beijing has reciprocated, inviting Taliban officials to visit several times since 2014.
Now Afghan Uyghurs say they are being harassed by the new Taliban government, apparently at Beijing's behest.
After surviving four wars and a nearly 15-year blockade, Hamas has only become more resilient, and Israel has been forced to accept that its sworn enemy is here to stay.
It has largely accepted Hamas' rule in Gaza because a prolonged invasion is seen as too costly. At the same time, Hamas furnishes Israeli leaders with a convenient boogeyman -- how can the Palestinians be allowed statehood if they are divided between two governments, one of which steadfastly opposes Israel's very existence?
Meanwhile, Hamas' willingness to use violence - in the form of rockets, protests along the border or incendiary balloons - has helped it to wrest concessions from Israel.
Peter Beinart
Probably. The evidence suggests not only that anti-Zionism doesn't
equal antisemitism but that while some anti-Zionists are indeed
antisemites, Jew-hatred in the United States and Europe is more
prevalent among supporters of the Jewish state.
...
But the very xenophobia that leads some Europeans-especially
Eastern Europeans-to dislike Jews can also make them admire
Israel. Israel, after all, has exactly the kind of immigration
policy that many European xenophobes want for their own countries:
an immigration policy that welcomes members of the dominant group
and keeps out pretty much everyone else. Moreover, if you're a
xenophobe who dislikes the Jews in your country because they dilute
ethnic and religious purity, Israel offers them a place to go and
be with their own kind.
People have left the workforce for myriad reasons in the past two years - layoffs, health insecurity, child care needs, and any number of personal issues that arose from the disruption caused by the pandemic. But among those who have left and are not able to - or don't want to - return, the vast majority are older Americans who accelerated their retirement.
Earlier this month, ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said the strong stock market along with soaring home prices "has given some higher income people options. We already saw a large portion of the Boomer workforce retiring. And they're in a better position now."
When retailers realized that consumers were buying more goods than
ever, they placed more orders than ever with wholesalers. When
wholesalers received more orders than ever from retailers, they
placed even more orders than ever with manufacturers. And when
manufacturers received more orders than ever, they did the same
thing and ordered even more from the suppliers.
...
Unfortunately, the only way the Supply Chain will normalize is
when demand finally tapers off. Until then, we as an industry will
continue to play catch up. The system itself is overstressed. It is
being asked to perform beyond its capacity with extreme constraints
on space, equipment, and labor.