University presidents have been in the limelight in recent months, more than at any other time in living memory. The additional scrutiny is amply warranted. They occupy powerful positions at their respective institutions. They formulate and communicate a vision for the university. They handle budgetary priorities. They approve hiring requests and promotions. They oversee the… Continue reading It’s Time to Upend the Modern University
AI Audio Deepfakes Are Quickly Outpacing Detection
Experts have long warned of a future where artificial intelligence makes it impossible to tell digital fact from fiction. Now that future is here. A recent case of a recording that sounds like a high school principal making racist comments shows the risk that widely available generative AI tools can pose and the difficulty of… Continue reading AI Audio Deepfakes Are Quickly Outpacing Detection
Medicine Now Diagnoses the Non-White ‘Oppressed’ With an Oppressive Case of ‘Weathering’
By John Murawski, RealClearInvestigationsFebruary 13, 2024 In 1986, an upstart public health researcher named Arline Geronimus challenged the conventional wisdom that condemned the alarming rise of inner-city teen pregnancies. While activist minister Jesse Jackson and health care leaders were decrying the crisis of “babies having babies” as a ghetto pathology, Geronimus contended that teenage pregnancy… Continue reading Medicine Now Diagnoses the Non-White ‘Oppressed’ With an Oppressive Case of ‘Weathering’
Cleaning Water Naturally the Ancient Maya Way
Water is life. That’s why we need to take care of it. Even plentiful water supplies are moot if they are undrinkable. Climate change, pollution and growing populations only add to the urgency of maintaining adequate water supplies and water quality for humanity. After doing archaeology for 35 years in Belize, focusing on the ancestral… Continue reading Cleaning Water Naturally the Ancient Maya Way
AI Survey Exaggerates Apocalyptic Risks
The headlines in early January didn’t mince words, and all were variations on one theme: researchers think there’s a 5 percent chance artificial intelligence could wipe out humanity. That was the sobering finding of a paper posted on the preprint server arXiv.org. In it, the authors reported the results of a survey of 2,778 researchers… Continue reading AI Survey Exaggerates Apocalyptic Risks
Researchers Approach New Speed Limit for Seminal Problem
The traveling salesperson problem is one of the oldest known computational questions. It asks for the ideal route through a certain list of cities, minimizing mileage. Despite seeming simple, the problem is notoriously difficult. While you can use brute force to check all the possible routes until you find the shortest path, such a strategy… Continue reading Researchers Approach New Speed Limit for Seminal Problem
The Beast of Gevaudan (Cryptid)
Podcast: Download MYS297: France, 1764. A terrifying and unknown beast roams the countryside killing more than 100 men, women, and children, and injuring 200 more. A royal reward is even issued for its capture or death. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli ask what made the beast so ferocious, why it attacked so many people, and… Continue reading The Beast of Gevaudan (Cryptid)
Consciousness Is a Continuum, and Scientists Are Starting to Measure It
What does it mean to be conscious? People have been thinking and writing about this question for millennia. Yet many things about the conscious mind remain a mystery, including how to measure and assess it. What is a unit of consciousness? Are there different levels of consciousness? What happens to consciousness during sleep, coma and… Continue reading Consciousness Is a Continuum, and Scientists Are Starting to Measure It
Lawyers…Do Better | RealClearPolicy
“It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.” Those were Chief Justice John Roberts’ thoughts in a 2006 voting rights case alleging Texas legislators had redrawn voting districts illegally diluting the votes of racial minorities. That sentiment applies with even greater force when lawyers and judges are the ones doing the divvying up.… Continue reading Lawyers…Do Better | RealClearPolicy
Hospice Providers Must Be Better Regulated
February 1, 2024 4 min read Too many hospice providers in the U.S. are run by private equity and for-profit corporations. A lack of regulation allows them to provide abysmal end-of-life care By The Editors Everyone deserves a good death—a choice about how they spend their final days, a peaceful, pain-free exit. That is the… Continue reading Hospice Providers Must Be Better Regulated