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(1 comments) SHARE 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 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)
(15 comments) SHARE 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)
(12 comments) SHARE 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)
(14 comments) SHARE 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)
(35 comments) SHARE 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)
(27 comments) SHARE 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)
(47 comments) SHARE 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)
(23 comments) SHARE 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.
(1 comments) SHARE 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.
(2 comments) SHARE 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)
(10 comments) SHARE 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.
(51 comments) SHARE 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.
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(14 comments) SHARE 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)
(51 comments) SHARE 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)
(81 comments) SHARE 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.
(94 comments) SHARE 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)
(20 comments) SHARE 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)
(1 comments) SHARE 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)
(6 comments) SHARE 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)
(21 comments) SHARE 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)
(12 comments) SHARE 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)
(22 comments) SHARE 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)
(14 comments) SHARE 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)
(1 comments) SHARE 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)
(4 comments) SHARE 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)
(9 comments) SHARE 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)
(17 comments) SHARE 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 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)
(3 comments) SHARE 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)