Lunch at the Labs

Various web links I found to be of interest recently.

• Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid

  Jonathan Haidt

  It's been clear for quite a while now that red America and blue America are becoming like two different countries claiming the same territory, with two different versions of the Constitution, economics, and American history. But Babel is not a story about tribalism; it's a story about the fragmentation of everything. It's about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community. It's a metaphor for what is happening not only between red and blue, but within the left and within the right, as well as within universities, companies, professional associations, museums, and even families.
  ...
  By 2013, social media had become a new game, with dynamics unlike those in 2008. If you were skillful or lucky, you might create a post that would "go viral" and make you "internet famous" for a few days. If you blundered, you could find yourself buried in hateful comments. Your posts rode to fame or ignominy based on the clicks of thousands of strangers, and you in turn contributed thousands of clicks to the game.

  For criticism of Haidt's article see: Let Me Challenge Your Thinking.

  There are many problems with social media, but just as many, or more, benefits as well. Social media's huge scope and success make it a convenient and conventional scapegoat to go after. Haidt's article is just one more exaggerated and tiresome attack.

  My free advice is to be very careful about using the phrase "uniquely stupid." It's a very high bar to prove. And a barely resistible target for a critic.

• AllSides | Balanced news via media bias ratings for an unbiased news perspective

  Don't be fooled by media bias & misinformation.

  AllSides Media Bias Ratings™ make the political leanings of hundreds of media sources transparent so that you can get the full picture and think for yourself.

• Fixing stock buybacks

  There's a better path than regulation to fix stock buybacks.

  The incentive compensation of senior corporate executives should consist primarily of restricted equity (i.e., restricted stock and restricted stock options). That is, restricted in the sense that the individual cannot sell the shares or exercise the options for six to 12 months after their last day in office.

  Under this plan, most incentive compensation would be driven by total shareholder returns instead of short-term accounting-based measures of performance such as return on capital, or earnings per share.

• Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Tools & Resources

  Open source intelligence (OSINT) is the act of gathering and analyzing publicly available data for intelligence purposes.
  Open source data is any information that is readily available to the public or can be made available by request.
  

• The Bayesian Brain: An Introduction to Predictive Processing

  During every moment of your life, your brain gathers statistics to adapt its model of the world, and this mode's only job is to generate predictions. Your brain is a prediction machine. Just as the heart's main function is to pump blood through the body, so the brain's main function is to make predictions about the body. For example, your brain predicts incoming sensory data: what you're about to perceive from within (interoception) as from without (exteroception).
  ...
  In particular, your brain updates its statistical model of the world by integrating prediction errors in accordance with Bayes’ theorem; hence the name Bayesian brain.
  ...
  Predictive processing provides a framework for understanding all areas of neuroscience and cognitive science at a computational level. Although the Bayesian brain theory is still in its fledgling stage, confirmatory evidence is flowing in on a weekly basis from a vast range of different fields.

• Artificial intelligence beats eight world champions at bridge

  Victory marks milestone for AI as bridge requires more human skills than other strategy games.

  Rather than learning by playing billions of rounds of a game, it first learns the game's rules and then improves its play through practice. It is a hybrid of rules-based and deep learning systems. "The NooK approach learns in a way that is much closer to human beings," Muggleton said.

• Dunbar's number and how speaking is 2.8x better than picking fleas

  Humans, says Dunbar, must have a method of social grooming that is 2.8x more effective than the method used by the nonhuman primates. But what is it?
  What is our ultra efficient bonding mechanism, better than caring, grooming, and picking fleas? It is LANGUAGE.
  

• Atheism is not as rare or as rational as you think

  Many atheists think of themselves as intellectually gifted individuals, guiding humanity on the path of reason. Scientific data shows otherwise.

  There is little scientific reason to believe that rationality and science are key causal contributors to atheism in the aggregate. This makes it all the more ironic that public-facing atheists who speak so reverently of science tend to be the most vocal advocates of the faulty notion that rationality is a prime driver of atheism. They've got the science wrong.

Some recent items related to health issues.

• 7,000 steps can save your life

  Mortality risk was reduced by 50% for older adults who increased their daily steps from around 3,000 to around 7,000, according to new medical research.
  ...
  Walking strengthens your heart, improves bone density, relaxes your mind, and helps with muscle-building and pain management.

• 'Good' cholesterol may protect brain from Alzheimer's disease

  One indicator is better performance on tests of memory and thinking (or "cognitive") skills. Of 141 participants who completed a series of these cognitive tests, those with higher levels of small HDL particles in their cerebrospinal fluid had better scores. And that was independent of age, sex, education or whether they carried the APOE4 gene, which boosts Alzheimer's risk.

• Can Robots Save Nursing Homes?

  Arshia Khan asked a group of older adults in Minnesota what they would like in a nursing home, and their answer surprised her. They wanted standup comedy, but not just any comedy: They wanted off-color jokes.
  ...
  There followed a risqué joke about the robot's relationship with its charging plug, and another about an unhappy date with a Tesla (too conceited). After each, the robot giggled. "I went on a date with a Roomba last week," the robot said, gesticulating with its arms. Pause. "It totally sucked."

  Later this year, pending approval from the university's institutional review board, 16 of Dr. Khan's robots will go to eight nursing homes around the state - though without the off-color jokes.

• The "Paxlovid Rebound" Problem is Real

  A puzzling phenomenon: Patients report a rebound of COVID-19 symptoms after taking the antiviral Paxlovid.

  Through the magic of Twitter, the truth actually became obvious in real time — no puzzle-solving needed. The FDA was well aware of this rebound in viral loads in a substantial proportion of people treated with Paxlovid, around days 10-14 after starting treatment. For some reason, though, they didn’t think to tell us doctors about it. It’s not in the Fact Sheet for Health Care Providers, and there is only one line even vaguely referencing this possibility in the Fact Sheet for Patients:
      Talk to your healthcare provider if you do not feel better or if you feel worse after 5 days.
  

• Why the WHO took two years to say COVID is airborne

  Early in the pandemic, the World Health Organization stated that SARS-CoV-2 was not transmitted through the air. That mistake and the prolonged process of correcting it sowed confusion and raises questions about what will happen in the next pandemic.