I will settle for a company who's demonstrated long term strategy is mostly in line with my interests. It's not perfect, but I'll take "morale because it's profitable" over "enshitifcation for a quick profit"
It sounds like they have found a chemical pathway to counter some of the disruptions that ultimately cause autism. Particularly things like sensory processing. Autism is likely a cluster condition, with multiple causes leading to similar symptoms. This only focuses on 1 sub path.
As an aspie myself, I am cautiously optimistic. I wouldn't use it myself. Too much of who I am is built on my alternative brain wiring. However, if it can turn some low functioning autistics into high functioning, I would call that a MASSIVE win.
It is only a mouse model however. It's interesting and promising, but VERY far from a usable treatment.
Very true. It unfortunately doesn't include the delays from bureaucracies throwing excessive red tape at the project, with the goal of, if not killing it, kicking the decision down the road till it's someone else's problem. The UK government has been problematic on that front.
Fusion has been 10 years away, with proper funding. It never got that funding. It struggled to maintain the break even funding to keep skilled people employed, and the lights on.
The difference is that over unity has been achieved, in a normally sustainable manner. The funding is such that it's 5-10 years at current funding. Most of that is building the actual test plants.
I fully agree that renewables are currently the best cost option. The catch is that they are not viable everywhere. They are also inherently low density, so can get expensive in certain areas.
Basically, we want a mix of options, to fit local requirements. Nuclear (and later fusion) should be part of the plan.
In practice, I'm of the take what we can get. We need to crash CO2 output, and we need to do it yesterday. Anything speeding that up is a win, as far as I'm concerned.
Fully agreed, though it's also something you really don't want done on too much of an accelerated timeline. Rushing the construction, when the fail-safes rely on it, and it will be an absolute bitch to fix later, is a poor plan.
Unfortunately the red tape has become far too risk adverse. E.g. the reactors china is now building were designed in the UK. The UK government killed 5 attempts to get them built through red tape and time killing. Eventually a Chinese scientist found out about the plans. (With permission) he contacted the Chinese government. Sufficient to say, those plans formed the basis for the newer Chinese reactors they are building out now. They are also exporting the expertise, since most western countries have had their skilled engineers reach retirement, before passing on their skills and knowledge.
In practice, you are looking at 5-10 years minimum, from site selection to power on.
It's relative harm. New nuclear is far cleaner than coal, and can slot into it's place in the grid. We should have done this decades ago, but the plans languished till china found out about them. (Much to the designers joy)
It's also not an either/or situation. As china is demonstrating, there is a limit to how quickly you can roll out renewables. Doing other, pollution reduction in parallel makes sense.
Taking nuclear off the table was the biggest win the oil barrons pulled off.
On a plus side, we will finally find out if fusion is viable in the next 5-10 years. The first over-unity test reactors, designed for sustained operation are being built.
Coal plants put out more radioactive material than even the bomb factories they call nuclear power plants. Newer plant designs are FAR more fail safe too, and some can actually 'eat' the waste from older plants.
New nuclear is right up there with renewables, with the added bonus of being great for baseloads. The only problem is we needed to be building it 20 years ago, since it takes a long time to design, permit and build them properly. If we try to rely on them now, it will be too late.
Karma is generally associated with some form of personal scoreboard. E.g. if you have bad luck it's either because you did something bad, or a "due" your share of good luck.
Karma is a lie, but it's a useful lie (like truth or mercy) I explicitly know that my good deeds won't get rewarded I do it because it can help make the world a better place. If I'm lucky, that will loop around to help me down the road, but I don't expect it.
It was more subtle and interesting than just a fad. It accidentally hijacked a number of our social instincts. In this case, it was disruptive and obvious. It's likely the effect is happening to everyone, just more subtly.
It becomes the mechanism through which a very old human phenomenon — the tendency of a stressed group to adopt a shared physical response to that stress
Basically, our stress responses are subconscious, but learnt. Think swearing when you hurt yourself. It's common, but it's not universal.
In this case, the girls, due to existing stress formed a pseudo social group. The group "leader" had an unusual 'stress' venting method (due to tourettes). The other girls synced to this without conscious involvement. It's the same mechanism that makes us pick up a local accent, or adopt local habits, when we move somewhere new.
In short, fads include this mechanism, but generally have a far more conscious aspect. This was an interesting short circuit, exposing some of the underlying mechanics of the human mind.
I refer to it as "sowing karma". I don't believe actual karma exists. However, a small positive act can create an avalanche of other, small positive acts.
Whenever I do someone a favour, particularly random people. If they try or offer to pay me back, I tell them to pay it forward. I've no idea how many do, but even if it's just 1 or 2, then the world is that bit better for all of us.
Turning a peaceful protest (march etc) violet is a big no no. If there is seen to be a risk of this, the popularist section will rapidly hemorrhage members. The radicals can use the events as cover/meeting new members, but not go hot on the march. The exception to this is if the government/police go violent. Defensive counter violence is then acceptable. The goal should be to get the "civilian" supporters (think families etc) clear. Then, it's down to them whether they bolt too, or play whack a mole with the police.
The other proviso is that the radical groups actions should be proportional. The IRA walked this line. When they set major bombs, they gave the authorities enough warning to clear the area of civilians. They were mostly aiming for property damage and disruption, not mass casualties. The times the IRA went past that line did severe damage to their reputation. They need to act to reinforce the position of the other 2 groups, not undermine it.
A popularist movement is core. This should be non-violent and as welcoming to new members as possible.
A political group then acts as a focus for the group. It translates the mob grievances into politically actionable demands.
A radical group acts as the teeth. It forces the government to take proper notice of the other 2 groups.
The Irish troubles would be a good example. The popular movement was ignored by the UK government. It bubbles over into riots etc at times, which actually hurt their message in many ways. The Sinn Féin party focused the discontent and gave the UK government someone to negotiate with. Finally the IRA provided the force on the UK government.
Take away any leg and the whole movement stutters. If the popularist wing gets violent, then it bleeds members fast. Without a political wing, the movement is unfocused and will achieve nothing. The violent wing can be dropped IF there is sufficient threat of its existence/creation to keep governments motivated. Unfortunately, most governments that let things escalate that far will just dig in their heels, rather than do the sensible thing.
I think it's more acceptable to talk about it, particularly for men. I suspect the actual number has gone down, due to awareness, but can't back that up with research.
The only reason I don't currently is that my phone's VPN connection doesn't handle network switching gracefully. Otherwise I try and tunnel all my traffic through my home network.
As a useful side effect, I need to expose far less of my IoT devices .
The worst bit is, it seems to work. At least if it blows up in trump's face, it's fairly unambiguous. I'm sure America's right wing media would spin it otherwise, but it at least makes that harder for them.
I changed provider after they tried to tell me 1/4 Mbps was more than enough. It didn't even have packet shaping. As soon as Google photos tried to back up, the packet returns required to lead webpages started falling over. It was painful.
AI can be a force multiplier for humans, but often can't replace them. The current usage is often idiotic at best.
E.g. excluding the issue of data misuse, an AI system could be extremely helpful to doctors. It could flag possible issues, complications and unusual conditions in a way that would otherwise require a deep dive by a specialist doctor. A doctor or nurse could then parse the results for useful points, while filtering out hallucinations.
Fair, fair.