Lunch at the Labs

Various web links I found to be of interest recently.

• Watch as NBC News Tells Four Blatant Lies in a Two-Minute Clip

  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.

• Ameca Humanoid Robot AI Platform

  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.

• What Makes Quantum Computing So Hard to Explain?

  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.

• The Hardware Lottery

  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.

• Why bitcoin is worse than a Madoff-style Ponzi scheme

  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.

• Islamic State using China to vilify Taliban

  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.

• Defiant in war and isolation, Hamas plays long game in Gaza

  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.

• Are Zionists more antisemitic than anti-Zionists?

  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.

• How millions of jobless Americans can afford to ditch work

  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."

• The Supply Chain's Inconvenient Truth

  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.

Some recent items related to health issues.

• Exercise plasma boosts memory and dampens brain inflammation via clusterin

  Intravenously injected CLU binds to brain endothelial cells and reduces neuroinflammatory gene expression in a mouse model of acute brain inflammation and a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Patients with cognitive impairment who participated in structured exercise for 6 months had higher plasma levels of CLU. These findings demonstrate the existence of anti-inflammatory exercise factors that are transferrable, target the cerebrovasculature and benefit the brain, and are present in humans who engage in exercise.

• Giant Study Finds Viagra Is Linked to Almost 70% Lower Risk of Alzheimer's

  It's important to note that observed associations like this - even on a huge scale - are not the same as proof of a causative effect. For example, it's possible that the people in the cohort who took sildenafil might have something else to thank for their improved chances of not developing Alzheimer's.

• The NIH director on why Americans aren't getting healthier, despite medical advances

  Particularly with obesity and diabetes, those risk factors have been getting worse instead of better. We haven't, apparently, come up with strategies to turn that around.

  On top of that, the other main reason for seeing a drop in life expectancy - other than obesity and COVID - is the opioid crisis.

• Study can't confirm lab results for many cancer experiments

  Eight years ago, a team of researchers launched a project to carefully repeat early but influential lab experiments in cancer research.

  They recreated 50 experiments, the type of preliminary research with mice and test tubes that sets the stage for new cancer drugs. The results reported Tuesday: About half the scientific claims didn't hold up.

• Social Distance Zapper $11.

  Watch with wonder as the Social Distance Zapper extends from one foot folded to five feet extended! Keep the anti-maskers at bay with just three LR44 batteries to power this 4.5 v zapper.