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Taking the well-established Community Atmosphere-Biosphere Land Exchange model (CABLE), the team accounted for three physiological factors: How efficiently CO2 moves within a leaf, how plants adjust to changes in environmental temperature, and how they distribute nutrients most economically. Using recent data and studies to build the model, the researchers then threw in the mix the variable of…
The basic lesson is that Brooks, like other “anti-wokists” such as Mounck, attack implausibly strong versions of “wokery” in order to avoid having to take seriously the embarassing insights that they wish to deny. The other point to make about them is that, while trumpeting the claims of “universalism” against particular divisive identities, they fail…
The project of developing a mechanical theory of meaning is beginning to take shape. In the past, scientists couldn’t readily observe a nervous system feeling deep meaning. People aren’t generally hooked up to neuroscience gizmos when the noetic experience strikes. But the return of clinical research into psychedelics is making it easier to provoke these elusive states…
At one point in his career, Musk was the heir apparent to the late Steve Jobs. He ran multiple tech corporations at once and seemingly did so with élan, and with genuine interest in improving the lives of his customers. He launched the first reusable space rockets. He had nascent plans to reinvent modern public…
Naomi Oreskes is a historian of science at Harvard University. Erik M. Conway works as a historian at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Together they have just published “The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market.” We’ve talked a lot on this program about the failures of neoclassical…
“Yes, we should send humans to Venus,” Dr. Paul Byrne, who is an Associate Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, tells Universe Today. “But first, let’s talk about what ‘sending humans to Venus’ actually means. The surface of Venus is hellish, so nobody would last long there nor volunteer…
“Known as “nomophobia,” an incredible portmanteau of the words “no mobile phone phobia,” the fear of being without one’s smartphone has become a common experience as we become more and more reliant upon — or addicted to — those tiny computers in our pockets.” https://futurism.com/neoscope/smartphones-narcissism-nomophobia
“I’ve been arguing now for a year and a half that the enactment of bold new climate policies—bold enough to quickly drive US greenhouse-gas emissions down to zero—can succeed only if we defeat the looming threat of far-right authoritarianism. And today, the nation’s anti-democracy, fossil-fuel-loving political minority appears more determined than ever to gain enough power to…
“Sir James Dyson yesterday lost his libel claim against The Daily Mirror, which had published an opinion article mocking the billionaire inventor as a hypocrite for supporting Brexit in the name of bringing economic opportunity home then moving offices to Singapore: “talk the talk but then screw your country and if anyone complains, tell them to suck it…
“From a report: Q is “experiencing severe hallucinations and leaking confidential data,” including the location of AWS data centers, internal discount programs, and unreleased features, according to leaked documents obtained by Platformer. “
“… as The Wall Street Journal reports, there have been instances of Instagram and Facebook actually promoting pedophile accounts, making what sounds like an already dangerous situation even worse.” https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-pedophilia-problem
If the new government and its supporters think winning an election is enough, they haven’t watched politics for the last few decades. Winning an election is the price one pays to play. Maintaining the electorate’s trust, confidence, and support is entirely different and discomforting. Complexity and inexplicability increase, and intractability and paradox play into every…
According to the World Health Organisation, loneliness is now a “global public health concern”. It says a quarter of older people are socially isolated and between 5 and 15 percent of adolescents, “leading to health risks comparable to smoking daily, excessive drinking and obesity”. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/503798/swedish-say-hi-campaign-aims-to-connect-people-reduce-loneliness
“While there is zero evidence for ‘cycles,’ history does show some basic ‘attractor states’… above all a tendency for human males to do many of the same tiresome things that almost ALL other males do, in nature…” https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-obsession-with-historical-cycles.html
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