Author Archives: alan

This article is complete nonsense! What the evidence shows is just that more modern humans descend from Neanderthal Dad and Human Mom (NDHM) than vice versa. This says NOTHING about the frequency of actual pairings. All it says is that … Continue reading →

I don’t know why paedophilia (as an urge) should be treated differently from any other tendency towards intolerable behaviour. According to our current standards, if the threat of imprisonment or other punishment is enough to deter the behaviour, then it … Continue reading →

Elon Musk’s incredibly stupid claim that “Those without children lack a stake in the future” overlooks the fact that, even on a purely biological level, evolution favours an organism that cares, at least to some extent, for relatives that are … Continue reading →

Should we be concerned that (according to Gloria Mark, Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at the University of California Irvine) in 2004 people averaged two and a half minutes on any screen before switching tasks, but by 2016 that had fallen to 47 seconds? So far … Continue reading →

Small modular nuclear fission reactors seem well suited to serve isolated communities in Canada’s far North that are hard to service by grid connection to larger generating stations (and which are now dependent on expensive polluting diesel fuel whose delivery … Continue reading →

A fish becoming (or even giving birth to) an elephant would be evidence against evolution not to prove it. Evolution is based on the idea (and observed fact) that organisms (even ones that undergo metamorphosis like butterflies and frogs) never … Continue reading →

It is not the total amount of inherited wealth that is a problem (indeed that is just a measure of the total wealth available for intergenerational transfer – which is basically all privately held wealth). And I think at various … Continue reading →

Current attempts to create an Artificial Illusion of Intelligence are clearly not actually Intelligent. For example Google’s AI mode response to the prompt “analemma” includes the following: Formation of the Analemma The analemma’s shape is a visual representation of the … Continue reading →

I would say yes, although I think of the word “conscious” as an adjective corresponding to having some threshold level of a continuously ranged property called “consciousness”, and so as not being well defined until that threshold level is specified. … Continue reading →

Ironically, my skepticism about the thesis of this Aeon article prompted me to take a bit of a tour through the history of timelines – which confirmed my suspicion that the idea of representing time graphically by a linear dimension … Continue reading →

Well, now It’s Perfectly Obvious that the USA is totally fucked in the head! Half of the commenters see video of the recent killing of Renee Good by Jonathan Ross as obviously a cold blooded murder, and half as obviously … Continue reading →

The AP reference to “Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro” and TorStar’s to “Venezuela’s ousted leader Maduro” are both incorrect. There is as yet no indication that the acting president (who is currently assuming his role while he is constrained from … Continue reading →

One thing that clicked for me in this is the fact that UNWRA has an interest in identifying people as refugees, presumably a temporary status which includes a right to either re-settle or to return to where they came from … Continue reading →

Aeon has just re-sent this essay from last spring in which Jim Baggot discusses, and thereby contributes to, the ongoing public fixation about Schrödinger’s un(?)dead cat. But while Baggot’s professed emphasis is more on the history of the meme than … Continue reading →

As we approach the winter solstice here in the Northern hemisphere, it may surprise you to note that the evenings have already been getting longer for over a week now – with the Vancouver sunset having been as early as … Continue reading →

I can think of no good reason why it should be possible for the default setting of a phone to allow the incurrance of extra charges merely by dialling a phone number. It should require a conscious act of a … Continue reading →

Source: (1000) Alan Cooper’s answer to How can you believe that CO2 at 280ppm was good for the planet when the northern hemisphere was cooling to a return of 100,000 years of ice sheet? – Quora

  It is only when mass killings break new records, seem directed at particular groups, or involve large numbers of children, that they persist for long in the collective consciousness. But when they do there is (almost) unanimous empathy for … Continue reading →

Google AI Studio did a pretty good job when asked to “colorize this photo”   I then asked it to “place the little girl from the previous photo in a class full of others of a similar age” And it … Continue reading →

This picture of smarmy old smug lizard people explains it all for me   Source: (39) Why does everyone still hate the Democrats? – by Noah Smith