Lunch at the Labs

Items of Interest

Various web links I found to be of interest recently.

• The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Failed To Deliver Promised Benefits

  Benefits of the business tax changes in Trump's 2017 tax bill were costly and did not trickle down to workers and families.

  An important body of evidence shows that the corporate tax changes in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act failed to produce promised investment or wage increases for the vast majority of U.S. workers. The law did, however, significantly reduce corporate tax collections, diverting resources from public investment to the pockets of wealthy shareholders, executives, and high-paid workers.

• For most people, politics is about fitting in

  Nate Silver

  I think political beliefs are primarily formulated by two major forces:

  • Politics as self-interest. Some issues have legible, material stakes. Rich people have an interest in lower taxes. Sexually active women (and men!) who don't want to bear children have an interest in easier access to abortion. Members of historically disadvantaged groups have an interest in laws that protect their rights
  • Politics as personal identity - whose team are you on. But other issues have primarily symbolic stakes. These serve as vehicles for individual and group expression - not so much "identity politics" but politics as identity. People are trying to figure out where they fit in - who's on their side and who isn't. And this works in both directions: people can be attracted to a group or negatively polarized by it. People have different reasons for arguing about politics, and can derive value from a sense of social belonging and receiving reinforcement that their choices are honorable and righteous.
• Half grain-sized brain tissue with 1400 TB data mapped by Harvard, Google

  Harvard and Google collaborate to create the most detailed 3D reconstruction of human brain tissue, shedding light on neural complexity in humans.

  Imagine exploring the intricate world within a single cubic millimeter of human brain tissue. It might seem insignificant, but within that tiny space lies a universe of complexity - 57,000 individual cells, 230 millimeters of blood vessels, and a staggering 150 million synapses, the junctions where neurons communicate.

  All this information translates to a mind-boggling 1,400 terabytes of data.

• Exploring the mysterious alphabet of sperm whales

  MIT CSAIL and Project CETI researchers reveal complex communication patterns in sperm whales, deepening our understanding of animal language systems.

• Revolutionary Genetics Research Shows RNA May Rule Our Genome

  Scientists have recently discovered thousands of active RNA molecules that can control the human body

• Humans now share the web equally with bots, report warns amid fears of the 'dead internet'

  Sites such as Twitter/X have been overrun by automated accounts

  In recent months, the so-called "dead internet theory" has gained new popularity. It suggests that much of the content online is in fact automatically generated, and that the number of humans on the web is dwindling in comparison with bot accounts.