Lunch at the Labs

Various web links I found to be of interest recently.

• The UFO craze was created by government nepotism and incompetent journalism

  Why do these repetitive UFO stories keep coming up? The answer is Harry Reid-that's right, the Senate majority leader-who was a UFO enthusiast and reportedly good friends with Robert Bigelow, the owner of "Skinwalker Ranch" where all sorts of goblins, shades, aliens, and "dino-beavers" (I'm serious) are seen. When people talk about a secret military program to study UFOs, they are likely mainly referring to how Bigelow's company received a grant for 22 million to study wacky stuff at Skinwalker Ranch, including UFOs.
  ...
  To sum up the story as far as I understand its convoluted depths: diehard paranormal believers scored 22 million in Defense spending via what looks like nepotism from Harry Reid by submitting a grant to do bland general "aerospace research" and being the "sole bidder" for the contract. They then reportedly used that grant, according to Lacatski himself, the head of the program, to study a myriad of paranormal phenomenon at Skinwalker Ranch including-you may have guessed it by now-dino-beavers. Viola! That's how there was a "government-funded program to study UFOs."

• Facts don't change minds: a case for the virtues of propaganda

  A better understanding of propaganda and how to use it as an educational tool could advance the world in a positive way.

  Numerous studies have shown that, due to a myriad of cognitive biases such as belief perseverance and confirmation bias, facts unfortunately do not change people's minds. Propaganda, on the other hand, works very well on this front, something we see clearly from how people and groups have used it over the past century.

• Ranked-choice voting (RCV)

  A ranked-choice voting system (RCV) is an electoral system in which voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots. If a candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, he or she is declared the winner. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated. First-preference votes cast for the failed candidate are eliminated, and second-preference choices on these ballots are then elevated to first-preference. A new tally is conducted to determine whether any candidate has won a majority of the adjusted votes. The process is repeated until a candidate wins an outright majority.

• This Is Why You're Still Single

  You're Single Because You're Not Even Trying
  It is reasonable for a quarter of singles to not want a relationship for whatever reason. What is not so reasonable is for the vast majority of those who do want one to not be making any attempt at finding one.
  

  Other reasons given with long explanations are:

  • You're Single Because Dating Apps Suck
  • You’re Single Because You Are The Fourth Child and Do Not Know How to Ask
  • You’re Single Because Dating Apps Suck
  • You’re Single Because You Didn’t Make a Date Me Doc
  • You’re Single Because the Dating Market Is Not In Equilibrium
  • You’re Single Because You’re Asking the Wrong Questions
  • You’re Single Because You Suck at Relationships
  • You’re Single Because You Decided You Were Poly
  • You’re Single Because You Didn’t Take Their Good Advice

• What Happens to All the Stuff We Return?

  Online merchants changed the way we shop-and made "reverse logistics" into a booming new industry.

  Most online shoppers assume that items they return go back into regular inventory, to be sold again at full price. That rarely happens.
  ...
  A century ago, the average return rate at Penney's was probably something like two per cent; before Internet shopping truly took hold, retail returns had risen to more like eight or ten per cent. Returns to online retailers now average close to twenty per cent, and returns of apparel are often double that.

• Artificial Intelligence and Aesthetic Judgment

  Generative AIs produce creative outputs in the style of human expression. We argue that encounters with the outputs of modern generative AI models are mediated by the same kinds of aesthetic judgments that organize our interactions with artwork. The interpretation procedure we use on art we find in museums is not an innate human faculty, but one developed over history by disciplines such as art history and art criticism to fulfill certain social functions. This gives us pause when considering our reactions to generative AI, how we should approach this new medium, and why generative AI seems to incite so much fear about the future. We naturally inherit a conundrum of causal inference from the history of art: a work can be read as a symptom of the cultural conditions that influenced its creation while simultaneously being framed as a timeless, seemingly acausal distillation of an eternal human condition. In this essay, we focus on an unresolved tension when we bring this dilemma to bear in the context of generative AI: are we looking for proof that generated media reflects something about the conditions that created it or some eternal human essence? Are current modes of interpretation sufficient for this task? Historically, new forms of art have changed how art is interpreted, with such influence used as evidence that a work of art has touched some essential human truth. As generative AI influences contemporary aesthetic judgment we outline some of the pitfalls and traps in attempting to scrutinize what AI generated media means.

• Will AI be an economic blessing or curse? History offers clues

  If medieval advances in the plough didn't lift Europe's peasants out of poverty, it was largely because their rulers took the wealth generated by the new gains in output and used it to build cathedrals instead.

  Economists say something similar could happen with artificial intelligence (AI) if it enters our lives in such a way that the touted benefits are enjoyed by the few rather than the many.

• What the heck happened in 2012?

  In comparison, 2012 appears to be more like 1968 in that it marked changes primarily cultural and psychological, not economic. Of course, we should expect it to be harder to measure cultural tipping-point years rather than economic ones, since what makes for healthy psychologies and cultures is often immeasurable. Still, if you look at charts about people's psychology, or culture in general, like how people use language, you often consistently see a major shift around 2012 or shortly thereafter.

• How Modernity Made Us Allergic

  Our very old immune systems can't keep up with modern lifestyles and diets, leading to increases in all sorts of chronic health problems like allergies and obesity.

  "Although allergy researchers may disagree on definitions, symptoms and methodology, all agree on one thing: Allergies have grown worse over the last few decades and the staggering numbers of allergy sufferers worldwide is likely to continue growing."
  ...
  "When we go from eating foods with lots of fiber to highly processed foods loaded with sugar and fat, we end up starving beneficial bacteria in our gut."
  ...
  "Changes in the gut microbiome in infants and children can lead to a greater risk of developing allergic responses as children age. And our children's earliest environments are likely the most crucial."
  ...
  "As the baby moves through the vaginal canal, it is exposed to its mother's friendly bacteria. Breastfeeding introduces more helpful bacteria into the infant's gut."
  ...
  "The most compelling evidence that our 21st-century lifestyles and manmade environmental changes have spurred our allergies is this: Our companion species of thousands of years - dogs, cats, birds and horses - all get allergies regularly. Other species - those that do not live in our homes or alongside us - do not."
  ...
  "Outdoor play and recreation were likely more protective against allergies than spending hours playing Minecraft or Fortnite."
  ...
  "All our tinctures and dyes, our synthetic fabrics and new plastics, our lotions and eyeliner and lipsticks and shampoos - wreak havoc on our immune systems."

• Should You Eat Oatmeal to Sleep Better?

  Oatmeal is high in melatonin and vitamin D
  ...
  Oatmeal contains avenine and trigonelline. These are two types of prolamines (vegetable proteins). They help reduce anxiety, nervousness, and the mental and physical agitation that tends to build up over the day and keep you from falling into a deep, healthy sleep.