The AIs used to detect whether a piece of writing is AI generated or not think that the US Constitution and the Bible are AI generated. That’s objectively funny. But is it a problem? The easy answer is that, yes, it is a problem. The AI detectors don’t do what they are designed to do….
For years, people have talked about the danger of an AI apocalypse. It’s been a staple of science fiction for decades. More recently, big names like Elon Musk have been talking about it as a live possibility, something we should be actively working to avoid. With the advent of AIs like ChatGPT and Dall-E, the…
I read an article called “Digitalization is increasing the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide“. Is it really, though? Now, fair warning, this isn’t really a post about anxiety, depression, and digitalization. It’s more about science communication and journalism. The scientists looked at Google Ngram Data, which covers about 6% of published books, to find…
For a long time now, I’ve been a staunch opponent of daylight savings time. It’s awful and I hate it. My opposition probably started in high school. It was the first time I had to be up early. In next to no time, I realized it sucks trying to get up when it’s still dark….
Light pollution is a problem that doesn’t get enough attention, and it’s getting worse. Two astronomers, Chris Impey and Connie Walker, say that on average, it’s getting 9.6% brighter every year, or at least every year from 2011 to 2021 when they did the study. There is, of course, no reason to think that anything…
I read an article the other day called “Why taxing cow burps isn’t the best climate solution“. In the article, Kevin Trenberth explains why methane released from cattle, which has been brought to the fore and vilified recently, isn’t nearly as bad as people claim. The reason for this is the carbon cycle. Unlike fossil fuels,…
Yesterday, I wrote about how depression puts people at higher risk for severe covid. Today I want to talk about another problem with covid. Apparently, covid can cause depression. “[O]ver half of a U.S. COVID-19 survivor sample reported symptoms of depression months after recovery, those with more severe COVID symptoms being more likely to have depression.” They…
I recently heard that depression is a risk factor for covid. It was actually in a commercial. In the commercial, a bunch of celebrities with various risk factors were telling people with those risk factors to be extra careful. It surprised me. I have depression, but never thought it put me at higher risk for…
I’ve been hearing it my whole life, television rots your brain. Video games are worse. And now that we have screens, we’re doomed. Thanks to these technologies, people no longer have attention spans. People are lazy. The ability to memorize is gone. Actually, all learning and thinking is in danger. At least that’s what they…
Why is there a speed of light? Why is there a speed of sound? These have never made sense to me. From what I can find (and remember from Physics class), light travels at 186,000 miles per second and sound at 761.2 miles per hour. The speed of sound is more variable than the speed…
