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Robert Adler
At: /robert_adler

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I'm a retired psychologist, author and freelance writer focusing on science, technology and fact-based political and social commentary.

www.zerospinzone.blogspot.com

OpEd News Member for 563 week(s) and 3 day(s)

48 Articles, 7 Quick Links, 878 Comments, 0 Diaries, 12 Series, 0 Polls

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A face for faceless ChatGPT?, From Uploaded
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 4, 2023
ChatGPT - Smart? Dumb? Benign? Dangerous? ChatGPT is the current face of AI, an explosively powerful and disruptive technology. This article presents an introduction to what it is, how it works, and what it can and can't do.
Series: Artificial Intelligence (3 Articles, 7301 views)
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 25, 2023
A breath of fresh air A six-year study in California shows a clear link between more zero-emission vehicles, reduced air pollution and better health.
Series: Health and Disease (6 Articles, 12683 views), Climate change (6 Articles, 18405 views)
Open Carry -- Can it still be regulated?, From Uploaded
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Guns kill people. People kill people. Laws save lives. New research confirms that gun-control laws save thousands of American lives every year. Unfortunately, a hyper-conservative Supreme Court puts many of those life-saving laws at risk.
Series: Health and Disease (6 Articles, 12683 views), Guns, violence, gun control (3 Articles, 5233 views)
A section of Long Island National Cemetery, From Uploaded
(15 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 15, 2022
How many people has COVID killed? The actual global death toll from COVID may be far higher than officially reported, according to a new study from the World Health Organization.
Series: Health and Disease (6 Articles, 12683 views), Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
Trump: Let's
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 10, 2022
Crossing the Rubicon With his call to "terminate" the US Constitution, Trump has gone a step too far. He has now declared himself to be an enemy of the Constitution, the rule of law and our way of life.
Series: Politics (2 Articles, 2727 views)
Those hours spent sleeping are not wasted, From Uploaded
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 3, 2022
Better health, brought to you by the letter Z New research shows a link between short sleep duration in middle age and later illness.
Ivermectin vs Covid -- Does it work?, From Uploaded
(62 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 26, 2022
A large, randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind US study of Ivermectin vs Covid The results of a large, double-blind, placebo-controlled US study of the efficacy of Ivermectin vs Covid.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
Human sperm --  an endangered species?, From Uploaded
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 21, 2022
Where have all the sperm cells gone? New research reveals an accelerating reduction in human sperm counts worldwide, with major implications for fertility and health.
Series: What are we doing to our kids and ourselves? (3 Articles, 7679 views), Health and Disease (6 Articles, 12683 views)
Can Alzheimer's be slowed or stopped?, From Uploaded
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 21, 2022
How healthy is your brain? A neurologist with 25 years of experience treating Alzheimer's and other brain disorders wants to shift the field's focus from brain disease to brain health.
Series: Health and Disease (6 Articles, 12683 views)
Masks in schools save lives, From Uploaded
(35 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Those unpopular public health measures actually work Public health measures such as border and school closings, lockdowns and masking are costly and unpopular. The inconvenient truth is that they actually work.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
What makes nations happy?, From Uploaded
(17 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 30, 2022
What makes nations happy or sad? New research provides a key insight into what makes nations happy or sad.
Series: The Happiness of Nations (2 Articles, 4748 views)
Unprecedented flooding in Pakistan, From Uploaded
(24 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 8, 2022
New research more than triples the value to society of cutting CO2 New peer-reviewed research published in the prestigious journal Nature more than triples the future value of cutting greenhouse gas emissions today.
Series: Economics (2 Articles, 6034 views), Climate change (6 Articles, 18405 views)
This card (filled in) could save your life, From Uploaded
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 27, 2022
New study finds Covid vaccines saved 2 million American lives in first year of use A new study corroborates earlier research showing that the Covid vaccines have saved more than two million lives in the US and more than 20 million worldwide.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
Projected Covid deaths without vaccination, From Uploaded
(48 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Covid vaccines may have saved 2 million American lives Two new studies address the issue of how many American lives the Covid vaccines have saved.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
Earth from space, From Uploaded
(27 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Astronomers warn "there's no Planet B" Nearly 3000 astronomers joined together to warn us that urgent climate action is necessary. We have no choice since "There's no Planet B."
Series: Climate change (6 Articles, 18405 views)
A doctor getting a lifesaving COVID vaccination, From Uploaded
(47 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 25, 2022
How many lives have the COVID vaccines saved? Hard data on the number of lives that have been saved by the COVID vaccines in the US and worldwide.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
Switzerland--Covid death rates by vaccination status, From Uploaded
(23 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 13, 2022
Worldwide data on covid vaccine effectiveness This post presents data from 11 countries detailing the effectiveness of covid vaccines--specifically death rates per 100,000 people for unvaccinated compared to vaccinated or vaccinated and boosted populations.
Two previously paralyzed patients walk again, From Uploaded
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Extremely promising spinal-injury treatment Newly designed spinal implants have allowed several paralyzed patients to stand and walk again. The researchers hope to make this promising biomedical technology more widely available within years.
Happiness doesn't depend on the GDP, From Uploaded
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 31, 2022
The Happiness of Nations What makes one nation happier than another? This post examines that question and finds that while we can't find our way there by blindly following the GDP, there are some helpful road signs.
Series: Economics (2 Articles, 6034 views), The Happiness of Nations (2 Articles, 4748 views)
Blue Whale--Balaenoptera musculus, From Uploaded
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 22, 2022
Where are you on the Blue Whale scale? The ten richest Americans now control $1 trillion in wealth. What does that actually mean? This post puts that wealth and the power it provides into perspective by putting the ultra-rich and the rest of us on the same scale.
Drinking the Kool-Aid, From Uploaded
(51 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 2, 2022
A recipe for Kool-Aid This post fact-checks three frequent claims about the Covid vaccines and describes what seems to be the recipe for the anti-vaccine Kool-Aid. .
COVID vaccines--life savers or killers?, From Uploaded
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 1, 2021
New data on the actual risks of the COVID vaccines New data from 11 million Americans show that the COVID vaccines not only protect against COVID, they are also associated with strikingly lower death risks from non-COVID-related causes. Those who think these are "killer vaccines" are dead wrong. .
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
Balancing covid vaccine risks and benefits, From Uploaded
(51 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 21, 2021
Who doesn't need to get vaccinated? The informed part of informed consent. Informed consent starts with information. This post provides accurate, up-to-date risk-vs.- benefit data that readers can use to decide about covid vaccination for themselves and their children.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
An anti-vax protester and his fearful sign, From Uploaded
(81 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 9, 2021
What are the actual risks of the Pfizer vaccine? This post summarizes the largest controlled peer-reviewed study to date of the actual risks of the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine.
County-by-County Covid vaccination vs. hospitalization,, From Uploaded
(94 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 1, 2021
What country do you live in? US-vaccinated or US-unvaccinated? There's a huge difference in Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths between US counties with high vs. low vaccination rates. This post reports on the results of a nationwide county-by-county study.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
Please follow the sign and get vaccinated!, From Uploaded
(193 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 13, 2021
How rare is rare? Some actual data about breakthrough Covid infections We keep hearing that breakthrough Covid infections are rare or very rare. Here are some actual numbers that nail down what that actually means.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
. . . Delta is for danger . . ., From Uploaded
(20 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 24, 2021
. . . Delta is for Danger . . . Three experts present a Covid-19 update focusing on the surging delta variant and what can and should be done to contain it. .
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
Coxcatlan Cave and its location, From Uploaded
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 5, 2021
New evidence of humans in the Americas 30,000 years ago New evidence from a cave in Mexico suggests that humans were in the Americas 30,000 years ago, before the last glacial maximum. If further studies of the artefacts confirm that they were made or used by humans, it will re-write the prehistory of the Americas. .
Series: Human evolution (2 Articles, 3423 views)
Which image wins?, From Uploaded
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 18, 2021
Whose Reality Wins? The insurrection at our nation's capitol marked a declaration of war not just between Trump supporters and opponents nor between right and left, but between two incompatable realities. It's time to choose.
Series: Hate speech, hate crimes (2 Articles, 2256 views)
Every face mask worn saves society $3000-$6000, From Uploaded
(21 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 3, 2020
How much is a face mask worth? Try $3000 A team of economists and public health experts at Yale University calculate that every face mask worn during the Covid-19 pandemic saves society at least $3000 because of lives saved. Flip that over and you realize that every person choosing not to wear a mask in public is costing the rest of us that much or more.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
Face masks save lives, From Uploaded
(67 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 24, 2020
Universal mask use in public could save 130,000 lives in the next 4 months New research predicts that if most Americans wear face masks in public, it could save 130,000 lives this fall and winter.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
Trump at CPAC, 2013, From Uploaded
(18 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 18, 2020
From hateful words to hate crimes--new research shows a clear link New research strengthens the link between hate speech--especially on social media--and violent hate crimes.
Series: Hate speech, hate crimes (2 Articles, 2256 views)
Ulysses mythic image, From WikimediaPhotos
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 6, 2020
The coronavirus as a reality check There's a lesson to be learned from the coronavirus. In this postmodern world, where highly politicized narratives trap us and memes are our marching orders, the virus can remind us that there's a bedrock reality that commands our attention.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
Smilodon populator--one of North America's Pliocene saber-toothed cats, From InText
(22 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 1, 2020
Climate--we're turning the clock back 3.3 million years Two new studies add urgency to the climate-change crisis. One shows that there will soon be more CO2 in Earth's atmosphere than at any time in the last 3.3 million years. The second details the human and economic impacts of predicted sea-level rise and coastal flooding.
Series: Climate change (6 Articles, 18405 views)
Just a few tiny droplets . . ., From Uploaded
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 3, 2020
Going Coronaviral--Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to exponential growth We humans are great at dealing with slow, linear change, but terrible at understanding and coping with exponential change. This post presents the two key things we need to know.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
Reconstruction of Neanderthal woman, From Uploaded
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 20, 2020
A 38,000-year-old whodunit: What really happened to our Neanderthal cousins? Who or what did in our Neanderthal cousins 38,000 years ago? New research using a sophisticated supercomputer model fingers the likely culprits.
Series: Human evolution (2 Articles, 3423 views)
People wearing masks (and saving lives), From Uploaded
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 13, 2020
To mask or not to mask, that is the question New research from teams in the US and the UK identify wearing face masks in public as the most effective and least disruptive way to control the COVID-19 pandemic.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
Like Macavity, Trump's not there, From Uploaded
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 14, 2020
What didn't he know and when didn't he know it? In trying to understand Trump's dangerous and deadly mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, his torrent of lies and inevitable blame-shifting lead to the question, "What didn't he know and when didn't he know it?"
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 27, 2020
What if we had a sociopathic narcissist as President in a time of crisis? This brief article explores what might happen if we somehow got a sociopathic narcissist as President of the United States, especially in a time of crisis.
Series: Pandemic (20 Articles, 34371 views)
The Whanganui River on New Zealand's North Island, From Uploaded
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 17, 2019
New Zealand's answer to Citizens United--Grant Personhood to a River New Zealand was the first country to grant personhood rights to nature--in this case the Whanganui River. This bold step may be an important way to bring the law to bear on our present ecological and climatological crisis.
Series: Climate change (6 Articles, 18405 views)
Meandering polar jet stream, From InText
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 6, 2019
Something new to worry about -- Quasi-resonant Amplification People around the world have been experiencing extended periods of extreme weather--heat waves, drenching rains and floods, Arctic deep-freezes. These are caused or made worse by "quasi-resonant amplification"--huge, slow-moving meanders of the jet stream.
Series: Climate change (6 Articles, 18405 views)
Pollutants have a variety of health impacts, From InText
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 5, 2019
Ten percent of us have high concentrations of ten or more toxins in our blood This post reports on the work of epidemiologist Miguel Porta, demonstrating that ten percent of the population have high loads of ten or more toxins in their blood. The health implications are huge.
Series: What are we doing to our kids and ourselves? (3 Articles, 7679 views)
Factory smokestacks--one of many sources of pollutants, From InText
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Impacts of pollutant "cocktails" on seemingly healthy people New research shows that the load of persistent organic pollutants that we all carry in our bodies--toxic cocktails--impact the metabolic health of even seemingly healthy people.
Series: What are we doing to our kids and ourselves? (3 Articles, 7679 views)
Robot arm with developing self image overlay, From InText
(34 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Self-aware artificial intelligence? Coming soon to a robot near you The field of artificial intelligence is advancing explosively. AIs now outperform humans in many areas. What happens when an AI emerges that combines superhuman skills with self awareness?
Series: Artificial Intelligence (3 Articles, 7301 views)
Confiscated firearms, California, 2011, From Uploaded
(17 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 31, 2019
Three kinds of gun laws save lives New research finds that universal background checks and other state laws identifying violent offenders and keeping them from buying or owning firearms are the most effective way to reduce the number of homicide victims.
Series: Guns, violence, gun control (3 Articles, 5233 views)
(22 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 9, 2017
Google's AlphaZero is now scary smart Google's DeepMind subsidiary has created a computer system, AlphaZero, that uses deep neural networks to train itself at superhuman speed. It recently taught itself to play chess, Shogi and Go at beyond-world-champion levels in less than one day. The implications of artificial intelligences that are far smarter than we are worrisome, and given how fast AI is developing and how fast its creations can learn new skills, urgent.
Series: Artificial Intelligence (3 Articles, 7301 views)
David Koch--worth $39.6 billion--the first to pitch in?, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 6, 2017
How to pay for Trump's $54 billion defense spending increase--a modest proposal A painless way to pay for Trump's $54 billion safety and security budget boost.
Street Justice, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 7, 2017
Due process vs street "justice" in the US Police in the US kill citizens far more frequently than police in other developed countries. This represents a kind of under-the-radar infliction of capital punishment without any semblance of due process. Police training, culture and the laws and procedures that govern police use of lethal force urgently need revision.
Series: Guns, violence, gun control (3 Articles, 5233 views)

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