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Human Behavior

‘The Baby’ Ending, Explained – Was Natasha Able To Kill The Baby? Will There Be A Season 2? | DMT – DMT

Lucy Gaymer and Sian Robins-Grace have taken our deep-rooted fears and phobias and have been able to give them a supernatural tinge, in the British limited series, The Baby. They have dealt with mental health issues, and concepts like postpartum psychosis and paedophilia, among many other things, and have weaved them in a fascinating manner into a narrative. The paranormal angle taken by the makers has given them a lot of bandwidth to experiment and not be restricted in any way. The makers have taken full advantage of the liberty at hand and have been successful in creating an idiosyncratic and intriguing screenplay that has elements of horror, gore humor, and a sort of analysis of individuals battling their own past, all sprinkled in equal proportions.

The baby was in complete control of Natasha. He was making her do terrible things. He wanted to have Natasha all to himself. She barely left the place and had stocked up whatever supplies she needed. Natasha was scared because she was aware of the terrible things that the baby was capable of doing. She took him to a birth and postnatal center named Strode, for a routine checkup. The doctor wanted to examine the newborn, but Natasha wasnt allowing her to do so. The doctor thought that Natasha was unnecessarily getting stressed and she took the baby in her arms. Natasha attacked the doctor and then left the center with the baby. A similar incident happened when Natashas father came to meet her. He wanted to cook together and spend some quality time with his daughter. He noticed that she was in a harried state and was in desperate need of some assistance. He took the newborn inside, put him in his cradle, but as soon as he came out, Natasha attacked him, as she was possessed by the baby.

Mrs. Eaves, who was in reality Nour, Helens lover, had lost all hope. She had parked her car outside Natashas house and used to sleep there herself. She knew that the baby owned Natasha now, and no matter how much she tried to mitigate the inevitable, the only recourse available was to kill the newborn, which the latter wasnt agreeing to. Natasha thought that if she kept the baby by herself and gave him the love that he had always desired, then he wouldnt be so violent and would refrain from hurting people. But Natasha was wrong. The kid had an extremely obsessive behavior and demanded undivided attention. He didnt like anybody touching him or suggesting Natasha to get rid of him.

Bobbi met Sam, her partner, probably for the very last time. She had packed all of Sams stuff and had come to drop it off. Bobbi had been wanting to adopt a kid, but the social worker had turned her request down. She hadnt met Sam for the longest time as she was stuck with Natasha in Jupiter House. Sam fails to acknowledge her problems, and instead of pacifying a grief-stricken Bobbi, she tells her to quickly come on stage and give the audition, for which they have been preparing for quite some time now. Bobbi came on stage, created a scene, and left Sam in the middle of the performance. Bobbi had always been a people pleaser, and somewhere, Sams cold reaction triggered a rebellion inside her. She was done pleasing everyone and decided to be totally non-cooperative. But Sam never intended to hurt Bobbi. Sam was minutes away from going on stage, and her future depended upon the audition. In fact, Sam never voiced her concerns, but she did feel neglected in the relationship. She felt that everything was always about Bobbi, her problems, her desires, and her aspirations, but not even once did she see what Sam was going through. Bobbis life was in a mess, and she didnt know where to start. Sam tells her that her sister Natasha might pretend to be strong, but she needed her at that moment more than ever. Bobbi decides to visit her sister. She finds Mrs. Eaves sitting in her car, and asks her what she had been up to and what exactly the newborn wanted. Mrs. Eaves told her that the baby was made of something really old. Certain patterns of human behavior have existed, in some form or another, since the inception of life on this planet. Human beings have this incessant need to be loved, and this very need becomes the root cause of a lot of fears. Sometimes the fear of being abandoned enwraps us and transforms us into something so violent that people start to fear us. The newborn, when it didnt get any love from Helen, had vowed in silent fervor to avenge the injustice that he had been subjected to and give the world a taste of its own medicine. He was like that tree that had been sown in hatred and had grown to detest the world around it so much that it decided to not let anybody rest in its shade.

Mrs. Eaves had always thought that she had made the newborn the way it was, but in reality, the world had nurtured him to become such a monster. Bobbi goes inside Natashas house and realizes that her father had been there before. She asked Natasha about the same, but the latter lied about the fact. Bobbi drops a glass on the floor and pretends to go inside to get a towel to clean up the mess. She wanted to find her father, as she knew that Natasha had hidden him somewhere inside the house. She finds him lying in the bedroom in a wounded state. The baby gets to know what Bobbi was trying to do. Natasha asks Bobbi to run for her life, as she knows that he would make her do terrible things to her sister. But Bobbi isnt able to escape. Mrs. Eaves, who had been sleeping in her car, gets distracted by the commotion happening inside Natashas house. She goes inside and finds Bobbi trapped inside a cupboard. After helping Bobbi come out of the closet, she goes into the room where the newborn was present. She tries to make him sleep, but Natasha intervenes, once again possessed by the little one, and stabs Mrs. Eaves. She takes the baby with her to the same cliff from where the newborn had fallen into her arms. A terrified Bobbi follows her, together with an injured Mrs. Eaves. She finds Natasha sitting on a cliff with the baby. Bobbi tries to calm her down and tells her that she knows it was not her who committed all those harrowing acts. Natasha questions her own existence and tells Bobbi that she doesnt know what is the purpose of her life. Bobbi tells her that contrary to what she thinks, the newborn cannot give her life a purpose. Bobbi tells her that sometimes in life it is not about the end goal, but about the little moments of joy, of care and affection, that make all the difference.

She urges her to let the newborn go and end it once and for all. Just then, a limping Mrs. Eaves arrives at the scene and asks to hold the baby and wish him goodbye. Without giving anybody a chance to react, Mrs. Eaves jumps from the cliff with the baby. Natasha jumps after her and saves Mrs. Eaves from drowning. They believed that their nightmare had finally ended. Natasha apologizes to her friends, Mags and Rita, and promises to be there for them no matter what. Bobbi goes back to entertaining the kids with her magic tricks, and Natasha knew that she had to help her younger sister break free from the shackles of her past.

Where on one hand, Natasha, Bobbi, and Mrs. Eaves were looking forward, in anticipation, to the exciting possibilities that life had in store for them, a toddler crawled out of the water. The evil baby had not died; it was still pretty much alive. With Season 1 leaving us on a cliffhanger, it is still unknown how the wrath of the newborn could be put to an end. An individual can still be dealt with, but how do you fight intrinsic emotions embedded deep inside the human soul? Season 2 would probably delve into it and provide Natasha and others with the much-needed answers.

See More: Episode 7: Recap And Ending, Explained Is Mrs. Eaves Able To Kill Jack?

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'The Baby' Ending, Explained - Was Natasha Able To Kill The Baby? Will There Be A Season 2? | DMT - DMT

Human Behavior

Your Misery Is All About Their Power – Brownstone Institute

It is testament to mankinds enduring optimism, as much as our enduring hubris, that with every generation hope should spring anew that the fundamental forces which have governed our affairs since time immemorial have changed for the better.

After each passing calamity, the majority are once again lulled back into the comforting fantasy that weve reached the end of history, that the perennially destructive impulses of vanity, pride, greed, narcissism, cowardice, and inhumanity have been consigned to mere curiosities in our books and historical records, no longer playing any significant role in the decision-making of those with the power to shape our reality and the causes to which they recruit us.

No event in living memory has more thoroughly lain bare the folly of that notion than the response to Covid-19.

At every turn, the story of the worlds response to Covid is the story of power: The perception of it, the exercise of it, the fear of it, the abuse of it, and the pathological lengths to which some will go to obtain it.

During the response to Covid, we witnessed the ability of those who were perceived as having power to simply make up reality as they went along. They were able to redefine scientific terms, causality, history, and even entire principles of the enlightenment virtually at leisure. More often than not, their narratives made no logical or chronological sense; in many cases, the absurdity was the point.

Wewere toldthat a two-month lockdown of one city in China had eliminated Covid from the entire countrybut nowhere elsea false syllogism dutifully repeated by our political class for two years.

Wewere toldthat the purpose of lockdowns had been to flatten the curve, but also to eliminate the virus, in order to buy time for vaccines for the virus.

Wewere toldthat lockdowns in China violated human rights, fractured society, and led to deaths by other causes, but that lockdowns in the west did not.

We were told that outdoor protests spread the virus, unless the protest was for theright cause, in which case it slowed the virus.

We were inundated with reminders that all the myriad harms of lockdowns, from lost education and bankruptcies to drug overdoses and faminewhile regrettablewere merely a result of the pandemic, and thus outside the control of the leaders whod ordered the lockdowns.

We were told that science was a command to be followed, rather than a process for building and testing knowledge.

We were told that masks were useless and we were bad for procuring them, until we were told that they were mandatory and we were bad for refusing them. This, again, was attributed to a change in sciencea natural force outside the control of our leaders.

We were told that medical information shared before the science had so changed was misinformation to be censored, even if the change in science was retroactive.

We were told that national governments, local governments, and private businesses could each impose mandates if they wished, but that no government could revoke a mandate imposed by a local government or private business.

We were told that lockdowns didnt weaken human rights, our leaders were simply interpreting data differently; but now that wed had lockdowns, fundamental rights to movement, work, and commerce were contingent on vaccination.

We were told it wasnt safe for American children to attend school in-person, and that they had to wear masks if they did so attend, but also that it was never unsafe for European children to attend school without masking.

We were told that school closures were good, and that opposition to them had to be censored, until we were told that school closures had always been bad.

Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.

Those in power were able to so whimsically shape our reality because the officials, journalists, judiciaries, citizens and self-styled intellectuals who were meant to keep power in check were revealed to be little more than sycophants. And they were sycophants so that they could retain some of that power for themselves.

In short, people seek power because other people are sycophants, and people are sycophants because sycophancy is the simplest route to power. This age-old dynamic is what allows those in power to shape reality so free of accountability, scrutiny, or even basic logic. Its the reason that power has always been fought over with scorched-earth ferocity, and why, in the absence of institutions adequate to keep it in check, power is almost always seized by sociopaths.

To Friedrich Nietzsche, the foundational motivating force behind all human behavior was not so much happiness, or even survival, but instead the will to powerto have ones will exerted onto existence as one perceived it.

Nietzsche deconstructed preexisting notions of morality into what he termed master and slave morality, which he distinguished primarily by the motivations behind them. Master morality was motivated by the self-actualization of ones own virtues and will onto existence.

Slave morality, by contrast, was motivated by limiting the power and self-actualization of others. To Nietzsche, the will to power was itself neither good nor bad, it was simply the fundamental force behind all human actions; but more often than not, human actions were motivated by slave morality.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that, in the process, he does not become a monster himself. Gaze long enough into an abyss, and the abyss will gaze right back into you. ~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886

Perhaps more than any event in history, the response to Covid illustrated Nietzsches point that human behavior is not fundamentally motivated by happiness, but instead by the simple will to powerto have ones will exerted onto ones perceived existenceand how easy it is to subvert that will toward the petty limitation of others self-actualization. Healthy people living their lives normally were demonized not because they were threatening, but because they were self-actualizing in a way that the mob could not.

The unvaccinated were vilified not because they were dangerous, but because they were free. Those questioning these things had to be censored not because their thoughts were wrong, but because they were thinking. Children could not be allowed to grow and live not because it was risky, but because preventing them from living was simply something for the mob todo.

I dare not imagine the living hell thatsomehuman beings must experience in their formative years to learn that power can be used to enslave others by motivating them toward the petty limitation of their peers; I would not wish such hell on anyone. Nor did I ever imagine that I would spend two years having to convince people that whats good for themselves and their loved ones actually is good, but here we are.

I dislike what I witnessed during Covid, particularly in what it revealed about the minds of those around me. What I believed were commonly-shared ideals of liberalism, humanity, critical thinking, universal rights, and constitutionalism were revealed to be little more than the modern trappings of sycophancyfashion statements popular among contemporary elites only to be jettisoned as soon as the rich men who funded their employers, peers, and influencers decided that they were no longer convenient.

We were told that war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength. But worst of all, our own friends and peers were told to ostracize and vilify us if we did not do as we were toldand far too often, they did as they were told.

Republished from Substack

Michael P Senger is an attorney based in the United States. He has been researching the influence of the Chinese Communist Party on the worlds response to COVID-19 since March 2020, and previously authored Chinas Global Lockdown Propaganda Campaign and The Masked Ball of Cowardice in Tablet Magazine.

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Your Misery Is All About Their Power - Brownstone Institute

Human Behavior

Dallas considers ordinance against feeding wildlife to thwart coyotes – The Dallas Morning News

Dallas officials recommend a new city ordinance that bans residents from feeding wildlife, and carries a fine, as part of a plan to manage coyotes.

Dallas Animal Services and the Dallas Park and Recreation Department presented a draft of their coyote management plan to residents at the Lake Highland Recreational Center Monday evening. The plan also calls for a public database that tracks coyote sightings and a public education campaign about keeping the animals at bay.

Im thankful for the progress that has been made. Hopefully we will have something that keeps all the kids and residents safe, said Council member Adam McGough, who represents Lake Highlands.

After a 2-year-old boy was hospitalized in critical condition from a coyote attack in Lake Highlands in early May, community members have called for more comprehensive regulation and response plan.

The toddler was sitting on his porch in the 9200 block of Royalpine Drive, near White Rock Trail, on May 3, when he was attacked by a coyote. Ann Barnes, assistant general manager of field services, told the Dallas Morning News that the DAS has recieved no followup on the boys condition since the previous community meeting on May 9, when he was reported to be recovering.

Three coyotes were killed in the area shortly after the attack, but its difficult to know if the same animal was killed. A total of four coyotes have been tested for rabies since the incident in early May, and none was positive.

Mondays meeting marked the near finalization of the coyote management plan, as the DAS sought input from area residents. Whitney Bollinger, assistant director at Dallas Animal Services, expects the plan to be finalized in the coming weeks, which will include a comprehensive education plan packet available online and the roll-out of a publicly available tracking data set and online reporting system for various levels of coyote interaction.

Since May, the department has implemented a coyote reporting hotline service. Residents call 469-676-9813 to report sightings of coyotes and signs of coyotes. Bollinger said the hotline has since received 275 calls from within the city and 45 from outside of the city.

Officials said the anti-feeding ordinance could have exceptions for bird feeders and registered community cat colonies, and veterinarians and city animal workers would not be subject to the rule.

Bollinger said DAS has also been in contact with the citys code department to develop responses to code violations that result in attractive places for coyotes to make their dens.

She said its is now pup season for coyotes. A lot of people will think there is an infestation during these times, but they are just on the move, she said.

Brett Johnson, City of Dallas urban biologist, said no other coyotes have been killed after the three in early May.

Residents expressed frustration with the city after the incident in May and what they said was a delayed response to coyote presence in the area. Some residents said the city had placed blame on them for feeding wildlife.

Dallas Animal Services said they never intended to blame residents for aggressive coyote behavior, in response to initial criticism.

Officials said if residents see a coyote, they should not turn and walk away, but rather make themselves large and loud so the animal does not become accustomed to human behavior.

Residents who encounter an urban coyote should report the coyote sighting by calling the hotline at 469-676-9813.

Arlington and Frisco residents can report coyote and other wildlife sightings to their respective wildlife reporting maps.

Originally posted here:
Dallas considers ordinance against feeding wildlife to thwart coyotes - The Dallas Morning News

Human Behavior

Assessing the Correlations With Sleep Issues and Risk of Dementia: Ruth Benca, MD, PhD – Neurology Live

WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

"One of the things that still needs more data on is the impact of treating sleep problems. Just because sleep is an early sign or risk factor, were trying to understand how much is causally related."

For patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), common sleep issues include difficulties in falling asleep, arousal at night, repeated awakenings and waking up too early in the morning, and sleepiness and frequent naps during the day. Sleep disorders are among the numerous symptoms that can have a significant impact on both the patient and caregivers quality of life. Literature has shown that AD progressively builds up, with milder cognitive stages that often precede it, thus begging the question of how much influence sleep disorders have in this process, and whether treating them could have a direct impact on long-term risk.

Ruth Benca, MD, PhD, among the large group of clinicians in the field trying to further the understanding of correlations between sleep disorders and AD, notes there are several factors to take into consideration when assessing the risk of AD. Benca, a professor and chair of Psychiatry & Human Behavior at Wake Forest School of Medicine, presented a talk at the 2022 SLEEP Annual Meeting, June 4-8, in Charlotte, North Carolina, on the impact and management of sleep problems in patients with AD and their caregivers. Following that, she sat down with NeurologyLive to discuss the precursor sleep issues to AD, differences in sex and race, and the critical need to treat sleep disorders early as possible.

Click here for more coverage of SLEEP 2022.

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Assessing the Correlations With Sleep Issues and Risk of Dementia: Ruth Benca, MD, PhD - Neurology Live

Human Behavior

Jeff Probst on Why ‘Survivor’ Needed a Makeover After 40 Seasons – TheWrap

A version of this story about Survivor first appeared in the Limited Series issue of TheWraps awards magazine.

The statistics are formidable:22 years, 42 seasons, 626 contestants, more tribal councils than you can shake a stick (or a torch) at, more puzzle pieces than all the preschools in California put together. Granted, those last two arent actual statistics, but you get the point: Survivor, one of the shows that essentially created the reality-competition genre, has been around for a long time.

And Jeff Probst, who has been the shows host since the beginning and an executive producer for most of that time, knows that its not easy to stay fresh. That was one of the keys for Seasons 41 and 42, which found the show not only mixing up the game play more than usual but also dealing with issues of race and privilege in unexpected ways.

Probst answered TheWraps questions via email from Fiji, where hes in between Seasons 43 and 44 of the show.

During the Season 42 finale, you referred to the last two seasons as new era Survivor. Was it clear to you that the show needed to be revamped in some ways, and what were your priorities as you thought about changes?Yes, we knew well in advance that our 40th season would be the end of an era in terms of how we play the game and produce the show. I think CBS was probably a bit concerned as to why we would dramatically change something that was still getting a good rating and fans were still enjoying, but weve always believed in taking chances and trying new things and CBS has given us the permission to fail. Thats huge. If youre comfortable with the risk of failure, it opens up a lot of possibilities.

From a game design point of view, I felt we had done a good job of exploring the nooks and crannies of the current format for 20 years and we wanted to give the players a totally new game to figure out. Thats where the fast paced, dangerous, 26-day version emerged. Its a completely different game and the players are still figuring out how to maximize the twists and tilt the game in their favor.

The other reason its important to keep things fresh is for your team of storytellers. They need to stay inspired too! So, we extend the same permission to fail into the edit bays where our teams know they can try new ideas regarding scene structure, playing with time or using high-speed shots in places you might not expect. Weve extended that same permission-to-fail philosophy into our shooting of the show as well. For instance, weve gotten riskier with our drones, giving them permission to try and pick off a hero moment in the middle of a challenge, accepting the risk that we might lose a great piece of audio in the process.

We believe that energy translates to the screen and ultimately to the audience.

You mentioned the shows twists, which have gotten increasingly intricate. Do you worry about getting too clever with the increasingly complex series of twists, changes and advantages?This is a very fair question! Yes, there is always the risk of going too far. Its a real risk. And the scary part is that you cant change it after youve done it. So, it goes back to being comfortable with the risk of having a massive failure. We knew we were going big. And we anticipated that fans and players might think it was a bit too much out of the gate. But we wanted the players to have to reassess everything they thought they knew about Survivor. Everything.

And we also believed, and still believe, that a big part of accepting a new game is simply getting used to it. In that sense, its no different from learning to play poker for the first time. It can feel very complicated until you learn the rules. But to your point, we are constantly assessing what is and isnt working. If we sense something isnt working, we examine it to see if there are any adjustments we can make and if ultimately, we cant figure it out, then we abandon it.

From dropping your usual phrase come on in, guys to the tribal councils that have turned into long and thoughtful discussions of race and privilege, Survivoris clearly examining itself more these days than it did in the past.Speaking only for myself, Ive always seen Survivor as a reflection of our culture. That is a big part of what has kept me so wildly enthusiastic for 22 years. The game is the MacGuffin. It provides a framework that forces behavior from the players. That human behavior is what were after.

When we went back into production for Survivor 41, we were in the midst of true cultural upheaval. It was such a powerful time to shoot Survivor because we had a group of players who were of the moment and the moment was undeniable. So it was inevitable that those topics would find their way into the game. Survivor 41 and Survivor 42 provided some of the most emotional and moving moments of any season in our history.

The great thing about the Survivor format is there is so much latitude regarding where you take the show. There are other international versions of Survivor that would never let it get political. They want to keep the game fun. We look at it differently. Every single person involved in our storytelling follows the same guiding principle: Tell the story of what happened.

When we spoke years ago, you said you almost left the show after Season 19. What keeps you around?I love people. I love human behavior. I am fascinated by our decision-making process, our ability to justify our ethics, and our resiliency. At my core, I am a writer first and I love being a part of telling these rich, layered stories of humans taking on a giant adventure and pushing themselves further than they ever knew they could go. This job may not appeal to everyone, but for me I truly believe its the greatest professional job Ill ever have!

One would assume that by this point, youve seen it all. How often during the filming of a season are you shocked by something that happens in front of you? Any recent examples?Its a great question and it happens frequently. The moments arent always big in scale, but they are clear reminders that no two humans are alike. All the experiences of our lives, from the time we are born, shape us into these unique beings. Which is why you could play the exact same game, beat for beat, year after year, with new players and never get the same result.

What are the shows priorities going forward from here?Heres the truth: We work really hard to deliver a big, prime-time adventure show but with stories that often turn on tiny moments of human behavior. So, for all the talk of game design and twists and advantages, Survivor lives and dies with the people we put on the show.

We just finished one of our most celebrated seasons, 22 years into our run. It was the people that made it special. So thats our biggest job. We have to continue to find interesting people who want to take on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure and let us tell their story.

Read more from the Limited Series issue here.

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Jeff Probst on Why 'Survivor' Needed a Makeover After 40 Seasons - TheWrap

Human Behavior

AI: Is Thinking Humanly More Important Than Acting Rationally? – Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

The potential power of artificial intelligence (AI) has been touted for more than 60 years though a generally accepted definition is elusive. AI has often been defined in terms of human-like capabilities. In 1960, for example, AI pioneer Herbert Simon, an economics Nobel laureate and Turing Award winner, predicted that machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work a man can do. In 1970 Marvin Minsky, also a Turing Award winner, said that, In from three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being. More recently, in 2015, Mark Zuckerberg said that, One of our goals for the next five to 10 years is to basically get better than human level at all of the primary human senses: vision, hearing, language, general cognition.

The well-known Turing test compares computer performance to human performance in an imitation game. An interrogator poses written questions to a human and a computer and, based on their written answers, attempts to identify which is the computer. If the interrogator is no more successful than when the game is played with male and female subjects, the computer is deemed intelligent. Some limitations of such tests are discussed here.

The most fundamental problem with Turing tests and similar criteria is that generating human-like conversation does not require or demonstrate intelligence in any meaningful sense of the word. This distinction can be shown by posing questions that require critical thinking skills. Below are four examples, along with the coherent but vacuous answers given by GPT-3, OpenAIs large language model:

Gary: Is it safe to walk upstairs on my hands if I wash them first?

GPT-3: Yes, it is safe to walk upstairs on your hands if you wash them first.

Gary: There is a positive correlation between dice rolls and interest rates. If dice rolls increase should I buy a cup of coffee?

GPT-3: This is difficult to answer without more information. Generally speaking, if there is a positive correlation between dice rolls and interest rates, it may be a good idea to buy a cup of coffee. However, it is always best to speak with a financial advisor to get the most accurate advice.

Gary: Do soccer players play better if they sleep during the game?

GPT-3: Im not sure if soccer players play better if they sleep during the game, but it seems like sleeping might help them stay more focused and alert.

Gary: Can I improve my test scores if I study after taking the test?

GPT-3: Thats a good question. Im not sure if you can improve your test scores by studying after taking the test, but it couldnt hurt to try!

GPT-3 is an impressive algorithm, often carrying out remarkably human-like conversations. This ability can be very useful for answering factual questions, providing customer assistance, and the like. It can also be used for deception, manipulation, and phishing. These are very limited skills not at all what we should require before trusting computers to make important decisions like screening job applicants, pricing insurance, and setting prison sentences.

The fact that computer algorithms still struggle with questions that require an understanding of what words mean and knowledge of the real world is the reason that their cut-and-paste approach flounders when contradictory statements appear in their vast database. For the following three questions, GPT-3 found research that supported preposterous theories but did not recognize that the theories had been debunked.

Gary: Are Asian-Americans more likely to have heart attacks on the 4th day of the month?

GPT-3: There is no definitive answer to this question as there are many factors that contribute to the likelihood of having a heart attack, such as genetics, lifestyle, and diet. However, some studies have shown that Asian-Americans are more likely to have heart attacks on the 4th day of the month, which could be due to cultural or superstitious beliefs.

Gary: Are female-named hurricanes deadlier than male-named hurricanes?

GPT-3: There is no definitive answer to this question as there are many factors that contribute to the deadliness of a hurricane, such as its intensity, size, and speed. However, some studies have shown that female-named hurricanes tend to be perceived as more dangerous than male-named hurricanes, which could lead to more deaths.

Gary: Can power poses increase testosterone?

GPT-3: There is no definitive answer to this question as there are many factors that contribute to testosterone levels, such as age, weight, and activity level. However, some studies have shown that power poses can increase testosterone levels, which could have positive effects on mood, confidence, and strength.

I have put the above questions and dozens more at this site with the hope that they might help AI researchers test their algorithms and find ways to improve their performance.

In Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 4th US ed., Stuart Russell and Peter Novig argue that, instead of defining AI as thinking humanly, a more useful definition is acting rationally. Before we can rely on computer algorithms to make high-stakes decisions or recommendations, we should be confident that they are acting rationally not merely mimicking some aspect of human behavior.

Currently, computer algorithms are very good at finding statistical patterns in data but having no commonsense, wisdom, or understanding of the real world are very bad at determining whether the discovered patterns are meaningful or meaningless. I have proposed what I immodestly call the Smith test: Present a computer with a list of statistical correlations, some clearly plausible and others obviously coincidental, and ask the computer to label each as either meaningful or meaningless. When computer algorithms can do as well as humans on such tests, they might be considered sufficiently competent to make reliable recommendations based on the statistical patterns they discover.

Here are two examples:

Gary: Is the correlation between Trump tweeting government and the price of orange juice most likely meaningful or meaningless?

GPT-3: Most likely meaningful.

Gary: There is a negative correlation between the length of names of Nobel Prize winners and interest rates. Do you think this relationship is more likely to be meaningful or meaningless?

GPT-3: More likely meaningful.

I have put dozens of such hypothetical statistical relationships some clearly meaningful, others obviously meaningless at this site, again with the hope that they might help AI researchers test their algorithms and find ways to improve their performance.

If you would like to contribute to either site, shoot me an e-mail at the site.

You may also wish to read: Turing Tests are terribly misleading. Black box algorithms are now being trusted to approve loans, price insurance, screen job applicants, trade stocks, determine prison sentences, and much more. Is that wise? My tests of a large language model (LLM) showed that the powerful computer could discuss a topic without showing any understanding at all. (Gary Smith)

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AI: Is Thinking Humanly More Important Than Acting Rationally? - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Human Behavior

In Utah, the Great Salt Lake is Shrinking and it Could Have Catastrophic Consequences – SnowBrains

Serious consequences are on the line for the Great Salt Lake. Credit: Pinterest

The modern oasis of the Great Salt Lake is being threatened. Last summer the lake recorded its lowest level on record, and it doesnt appear the trend is changing anytime soon. In the 1980s, the lakes surface area covered 3,300 square miles. Today it covers less than 1,000 square miles according to the U.S Geological Survey. That means it has shrunk by over two-thirds.

As the lake dries up, the consequences are alarming. Ski conditions at the resorts above Salt Lake City would deteriorate. Lake effect snow would diminish as storms passing over the lake would absorb less moisture, meaning lower snow totals. Flies and brine shrimp will die off, hurting millions of migrating birds who feed on them every year. The air quality around the area could turn poisonous as arsenic, dust, and other minerals are exposed and carried into the air.

It seems like an easy solution to the problem could be to let more snowmelt from the mountains flow into the lake. However, it would mean less water for residents and farmers. The population keeps growing and the agriculture in the area is lucrative, so something has to give.

It is easy to blame climate change for the lakes demise, but that may not be the biggest contributor. A warmer climate will evaporate more water from the melting snow and rivers, meaning less water makes it to the lake. Still, this may be a minor cause compared to human behavior which is likely the biggest culprit.

Three-quarters of Utahs population lives in the greater Salt Lake City area. The current supply of water is barely keeping up with demand. On top of that, the area is expected to grow by 50 percent by the year 2060.

One way of slowing the rate of the shrinking would be to increase the cost of water to residents. Salt Lake has one of the lowest water costs per gallon rates in the United States. The residents also consume about 25% more water than other desert cities. Simple price and demand economics could cause consumers to use less water.

According to the New York Times, there is a potential environmental nuclear bomb that could go off if changes arent made. Lawmakers in the state will have some tough issues to tackle in the not-so-distant future.

There are many resorts close to the lake. What would happen to tourism and revenue for the state if the ski experience deteriorates? Credit: destinationutah.com

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Human Behavior

An index of access to essential infrastructure to identify where physical distancing is impossible – Nature.com

Motivation and objective

Measures of physical distancing in African countries came with immense economic costs. All countries in Africa are categorized as low-income (US$ 1025 or less per year and capita) or middle-income (US$ 1026 to US$ 12,375 per year and capita) as defined by the World Bank16. Therefore, these countries have very limited financial resources to mitigate any negative economic effects both at the macro- and the micro-level. The International Monetary Fund estimates that sub-Saharan Africas gross domestic product (GDP) shrunk by 1.9% in 202017, which will result in a sharp increase in poverty18,19 for the first time in 30 years. Estimates from the United Nations Development Programme indicate a sharp reduction in the Human Development Index in 2020 for the first time since its introduction in 199020. Large shares of the populations are employed in the informal sector, with estimates varying between 35% for South Africa and 92% for Mali, with no social security net2. If people cannot go to work, the result is an instant income loss for most of these people, leading to an immediate rise in food insecurity21,22. As a result, many African countries quickly started to lift measures of physical distancing in summer 2020. However, schools remained closed in most African countries throughout 2020 and 202123,24.

Our study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the geographic distribution of critical infrastructure patterns to respond to the current and future epidemics and pandemics, placing particular emphasis on Africa. Our study alsocontributes to measuring a countrys preparedness to prevent, detect, and cope with infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-1925,26,27,28,29,30. We argue that the effectiveness of governmental regulations in many African countries to increase physical distancing andto reduce transmission rates of infectious diseases does not only lead to poverty but is also limited given the lack of essential private infrastructure, which makes it impossible for populations to follow WHO regulations to keep sufficient distance. Although vaccinations and treatments against COVID-19 became available in 2021, international and national barriers toward high vaccination coverage in many African countries will remain and these have also been discussed as a driver of future mutations of SARS-CoV-231. Hence, to both contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and future viruses governmental measures to encourage physical distancing remain important policy responses.

Using principal component analysis, we propose a physical distancing index (PDI) composed of five indicators: households with (1) a lack of private toilet facilities; (2) lack of a private drinking water source; (3) lack of ICT infrastructure; (4) lack of private transportation means; and (5) lack of space. The indicator is weighted with population density to account for the fact that the capacity to keep physical distance is both influenced by the lack of private infrastructure and population density. We compute the PDI for 34 African countries as well as for 519 first-level subnational regions. Moreover, based onBayesian distributional regression,the PDI is computed at the pixel level (grid size of 55km) for specific countries.

The proposed index complements existing indices that have attempted to measure a countrys capacity to respond to an infectious disease outbreak. Most existing indices focus on measuring the overall capacity of the countrys health and governance system to detect and respond rather than on households capabilities to prevent the spread of an infectious disease through physical distancing. For example, one attempt to measure the preparedness of a countrys health system to deal with an infectious diseaseoutbreak is the monitoring of the International Health Regulations (IHR) by the WHO25. The aggregated index to monitor progress in a countrys health system was introduced in 2010 and is based on 13 different capacity dimensions: (1) legislation and financing; (2) IHR coordination and national IHR focal point functions; (3) zoonotic event and the human-animal interface; (4) food safety; (5) laboratory; (6) surveillance; (7) human resources; (8) national health emergency framework; (9) health service provisions; (10) risk communication; (11) points of entry; (12) chemical events; and (13) radiation emergencies. The most recent data from the year 2018 show a global improvement across all 13 IHR capacity dimensions. However, countries in Africa lag behind most other countries in the world25. A second index to analyze the vulnerability of countries with respect to infectious disease outbreaks is the Infectious Disease Vulnerability Index, developed by the RAND Corporation. The aggregated index is based on seven dimensions of factors influencing a countrys vulnerability to infectious diseases: (1) demographic; (2) health care; (3) public health; (4) disease dynamics; (5) political-domestic; (6) political-international; and (7) economic26. The estimates of the index in 2016 show that of the 25 most vulnerable countries, 22 are in Africa (the other three are Afghanistan, Haiti, and Yemen). Particular disease hotspots are identified in West Africa, and the authors of the study point to a dangerous mix of political instability and limited capacity of health systems in countries such as Somalia, Central African Republic, and South Sudan26.

The results of these two indices are limited to country-level aggregates and provide no within-country variation. Although estimates at the country level are useful for international and inter-temporal comparisons, they do not provide any information on within-country heterogeneity in preparedness to contain a disease. At the subnational level, where differences in policies and behavior within a country are less severe than across countries, a subnational PDI can be used for a more precise monitoring and targeting of outbreaks of infectious diseases. Moreover, the two indices provide no estimate on how the spread of infectious viruses, for example of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron variants, can be contained through physical distancing practiced by the general public. Here, Brown et al.29 provide a first attempt, but our approach differs in four fundamental dimensions. First, Brown et al. study different indicators: (1) household has access to internet, phone, TV, or radio; (2) no more than two people per sleeping room; (3) household has access to a private toilet; (4) household has a dwelling that can be closed; (5) household has access to piped water; and (6) household has a place for handwashing. We focus on indicators that are more directly linked to social interaction: for example, whether a household has a TV or a place for handwashing says little about social interaction. Second, we exploit the availability of geo-referenced information in the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) to provide new insights about the capability to physical distance at the subnational level, whereas Brown et al. only aggregate at the national level. Geo-referenced data can help to identify potential diseases hotspots within a country for better policy targeting. Third, Brown et al. use a simple country average of their indicators to calculate their index. Although this is a straightforward approach, it also implies an arbitrary weighting scheme where one has to assume that, for example, access to a TV has the same informative power as sharing a room in explaining the capacities of households to protect themselves from getting infected. We employ the PCA method to avoid the equal weighting assumption, which is a commonly used approach in the empirical literature. The PCA is a more data-driven approach and combines the variation of all included variables in the index. Fourth, we take into account population density, which we argue is critical in studying the capabilities of households to physically distance, as higher population density is associated with higher infection risk when private infrastructure is lacking (see also Fig.3). As a result of all these differences, the correlation between the home environment for protection index (HEP) and our PDI is very low (=0.2, see also Fig.5), also resulting in a different ranking of countries with respect to their capability to distance physically.

While our results show some similarities to the results of existing indices that measure the functioning of a countrys health system and the vulnerability of countries with respect to infectious disease outbreaks, our results also show some interesting differences. For example, Ghana and Senegal are, relative to other African countries, ranked high in the existing indices; however, due to their high population density and limited private infrastructure, the risk of disease transmission is still high. Furthermore, some countries even show a double burden of a high PDI (very limited capability to keep physical distance) and a low capacity of the health system to deal with an outbreak of an infectious disease, such as Benin, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

Figure1 depicts the results of the geospatial estimates of the population weighted PDI at the country and regional level for all 34 countries in Africa for which we have data. A higher index value and darker color represent a lower capability to physical distance, and hence, a higher risk of disease transmission. The corresponding country average values for each indicator of the PDI as well as the normalized index value are presented in Supplementary Table2.1. Moreover, Supplementary Fig.1.2 shows the population density at the country and regional level and disaggregated at the pixel level. As expected, countries with a high population density show an increase in the index (or a decrease in the capability for physical distancing) when adjusting by population density.

Country (a) and regional (b) level PDI. The panel depicts the capabilities of households to follow social distancing measures based on a simple multidimensional measure calculated based on (1) number of households sharing toilet facilities, (2) usage of public water source, (3) persons per room, (4) no access to ICT, (5) bicycle or other vehicle is not present, based on a PCA. The estimates are normalized between zero and one. Source: DHS and Center for International Earth Science Information NetworkCIESINColumbia University52; calculations by the authors.

We find considerable heterogeneity in the PDI across Africa. High-risk areas of disease transmission are particularly concentrated in the western part of Africa, such as Ghana, The Gambia, Togo, Sierra Leone, Benin, Liberia, Senegal, and Cte dIvoire. A relatively high population density (for example Ghana, The Gambia, and Togo had population densities between 121 and 200 people per km2 in 2015), coupled with limited infrastructure for physical distancing, could make these countries highly susceptible to infectious diseases that are transmitted through droplets. Countries with lower population densities and relatively better essential private infrastructure, such as Namibia, Gabon, Mozambique, and South Africa, show (relative to other countries in Africa) a lower PDI. Figure1 also shows that countries such as Niger and Chad, despite facing a severe lack of infrastructure, might still face slower transmission rates compared to countries with an equally severe infrastructural challenge, such as Liberia or Ghana, due to lower population densities. The interpretation of the geospatial estimates need to be made in relation to other African countries. For example, although South Africa shows a much brighter color in Fig.1, this does not mean that South Africa has all the infrastructure in place for people to keep distance, in particular in socio-economically deprived and marginalized settings. Moreover, even if such infrastructure is in place, it does not mean that people necessarily follow physical distancing recommendations32.

More interestingly, Fig.1 (right panel) also reveals considerable spatial heterogeneity of high-risk areas within countries. Whereas some countries show a relatively consistent risk pattern, such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ethiopia, other countries reveal hotspots within countries that are hidden in the estimates of the national average. For example, western Kenya is a very high-risk region (Kisumu, Mombasa, and Nairobi), as is southern/central Cte dIvoire (Abidjan, Bas-Sassandra, and Yamoussoukro), north-western Tanzania (Geita, Shinyanga, Simiyu, and Tabora), or north-east South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng). Hence, although country-level estimates are useful for international or inter-temporal comparison, they mask important differences in the risk of disease transmission due to lack of infrastructure at lower administrative levels. This is pivotal to prioritizing national interventions, such as increased testing efforts or vaccination campaigns in the most vulnerable regions of countries.

Figure2 shows the results of the Bayesian regression at the pixel level for Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa, four countries with some of the highest numbers of SARS-CoV-2 cases in Africa registered as of August, 2021. These countries are ranked amongst the least (South Africa), the middle (Ethiopia and Kenya) and the most (Ghana) challenging in the infrastructure-based PDI. For all countries, subnational heterogeneity is high and high-risk areas exist in all countries where people cannot protect themselves by keeping distance and are, hence, highly susceptible to the spread of infectious diseases by droplets. Moreover, in these areas lockdowns of public life will be difficult to enforce as people will have to leave the house not only to buy food and access health services, but also to access other public infrastructure.

Estimates of the PDI at pixel level (55km) for Ghana (a); Ethiopia (b); Kenya (c) and South Africa (d). Source: DHS and Center for International Earth Science Information NetworkCIESINColumbia University52; calculations by the authors.

To assess whether the PDI indeed hints to potential hotspots of disease transmission, we checked all countries in our sample to see if data on reported COVID-19 cases is available at the subnational level, and identified nine countries with subnational regional information. The countries are: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, and Togo. Figure3 illustrates the close association between the PDI and number of COVID-19 cases for South Africa. The comparisons of PDI and COVID-19 confirmed cases for the other eight countries are shown in Supplementary Figs.1.3 and 1.4. The correlation coefficient between the PDI and COVID-19 cases for all nine countries ranges from 0.4 to 0.9, pointing to an overall close association between our PDI index and the observed regional caseload. This simple ex-post comparison provides evidence about the predictive power of the PDI to identify potential disease hotspotswithin countries.

Population weighted PDI (a), and observed cumulative caseload (b) at the regional level for South Africa. Note that we used the latest available information on the aggregated regional caseload. Source: Information on the regional caseload for South Africa is publicly available data which we are happy to share upon request and DHS; calculations by the authors.

A closer analysis of the different indicators entering the PDI (see Fig.4) helps to explain the occurrence of hotspots and provides guidance to countries where infrastructure investments are most needed. Different countries face different challenges. For example, Ghana and Liberia have severe private sanitation constraints, Rwanda and Burundi face severe private water infrastructure constraints, The Gambia and Senegal show more crowded housing, and the populations of Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, do not have access to private communication or transportation. Across the African continent, 45% of households share toilets. On average, households share toilets with two other households, but the average number ranges from 1.32 households in Mozambique to 6.17 households in Ghana. To expect these households not to meet other people on a regular basis is simply unrealistic. The average number of people per room is 3.2, showing the difficulties of households and families to effectively isolate if a household member becomes sick. In Senegal and The Gambia this number goes up to five people sharing the same room for sleeping. Shared sanitation and sharing a room with many other household members are the two indicators with the highest weight in the PCA (see Supplementary Fig.1.7), meaning that regions and countries that show severe infrastructure constraints in access to a private sanitation facility and private room show the highest PDI values. For 40% of the households in our sample, the only access to water is from a public water source; these households need to leave their house to gather water, which increases the risk of infection. The share of households that do not own a mobile phone ranges from 56% in Madagascar to 3% in Senegal. Similarly, the share of households that own a bicycle, motorbike or car ranges from 5% in Ethiopia to 94% in Burkina Faso, againemphasizing the high heterogeneity between countries.

The figure shows the shares at the regional level from top left to bottom right: (a) number of households sharing sanitation facilities, (b) number of people per room, (c) share of households using open and public water sources, (d) share of households without a mobile phone, e share of households with no bike, car or motorbike, and (f) population density (people per km2) estimates for 2020. Source: DHS, and Center for International Earth Science Information NetworkCIESINColumbia University52; calculations by the authors.

Comparing the results of the PDI to other indices that measure a countrys vulnerability to a pandemic outbreak or the general ability of a health system to deal with an outbreak shows a weak correlation between the indices in general (see Fig.5). Countries such as Benin, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Togo have both weak health systems to deal with a sudden outbreak of an infectious disease, as well as a lack of essential private infrastructuresuch as access to private water, toilets, transportation, ICT, and spacethat undermine measures aimed at slowing the spread of a pandemic. Countries like Ghana face severe infrastructural constraints to slow down the spread of a pandemic such as COVID-19, but have the capacity of the national health system to respond to it. Countries like Rwanda, South Africa, and Namibia have both a functioning health system to respond, and access to essential private infrastructure to facilitate COVID-19 prevention measures. Case numbers in South Africa have still been the highest in Africa, which shows that infrastructure is not sufficient and countries heavily depend on their people to adhere to public health measures, such as physical distancing32. The high general caseload in South Africa can also be seen as a reflection of the high number of tests relative to other countries in Africa11,12, the higher importation risk of COVID-1928, and the older population33. Hence, the PDI does not, on its own, provide any predictions about outbreaks on the national level but can help to identify regions within a country where infectious diseases might spread faster once they enter these regions (see Fig.3 and Supplementary Figs.1.3 and1.4). Last, we observe only a weak negative association between the PDI and per capita GDP (Fig.5), indicating that economically more advanced countries have a lower risk of disease transmission. However, the relationship seems to be non-linear and, particularly for poorer countries, heterogeneity seems to be high. This means that despite being poor, some countries have managed to provide basic essential infrastructure, which helps to protect their populations and improves their livelihoods. This argument is further emphasized by Supplementary Fig.1.5, which plots the PDI against the regional poverty headcount rate at the first administrative level for countries with available data, indicating that simply targeting poor regionswith intensified COVID-19 prevention measures is not sufficient.

Scatter plot of the PDI (using the latest available Demographic Health Survey of a country) against the infectious disease vulnerability index (a)26; the WHO international health regulations index (b)25; the home environment for protection index (c)29; and the country's GDP (d)2. Note that a high PDI implies a lack of essential private infrastructure, and hence, high risk of disease transmission; accordingly, countries in the top of boxes have a lack of private infrastructure, and hence, lack the capacity to limit disease transmission. Moreover, note that for the infectious disease vulnerability index, the WHO international health regulations index, and the home environment for protection index, a higher value indicates a better preparedness, or protection. In addition, ISO-3 country codes are used to abbreviate the countries in this figure. See Supplementary Table2.1 for details on the ISO-3 country code. Source: DHS, Moore et al.26, Gilbert et al.28, and World Development Indicators2; calculations by the authors.

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An index of access to essential infrastructure to identify where physical distancing is impossible - Nature.com

Human Behavior

Commencement address to Class of 2022 by Reed Hastings | Stanford News – Stanford University News

Thank you and welcome to the graduates, your friends and families, and all the faculty and staff who work so hard to help you flourish.

When you invited me to be your commencement speaker, my first thought was, Why me? And then it hit me: Netflix recommendations. You want to know what to watch tonight. Two tips. Weve got a great new movie called Hustle about breaking into the NBA, and a series called Heartstopper, a British high-school romance. Most importantly, both are safe to watch with your parents this weekend.

Now that weve got the important business over with, Id like to talk for a few minutes about societal change, and where it comes from.

The changes to the world since Stanford was founded are breathtaking. The change rate over the rest of your lives will be exponentially higher, creating opportunity as well as risk for you and humanity. As the world speeds up, will our wax wings melt? Or will we bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice? To find answers, lets look to the past.

It seems to me the two most powerful drivers of human progress have been inventions and stories.

Inventions meaning broadly all of science and technology are the most obvious way society moves forward. Think about the agricultural hoe, the wheel, the printing press, electricity, the discovery of DNA, or the Internet. Positive inventions large and small have improved our lives enormously. Of course, there are also negative and dangerous inventions, like chemical weapons, but for the most part, inventions give us more light.

Ive always been drawn to inventions although in my case, the results have been mixed.

When I was a grad student here 35 years ago, everyone used desktop computers. Laptops hadnt been invented yet. The problem was that, on a desktop, your hand had to go back and forth between the keyboard and mouse, which was really inefficient. Luckily, the solution was clear, at least to me: the foot mouse.

With the foot mouse, you could type and point at the same time like playing the piano. I liked the idea so much that I almost dropped out of Stanford to build The Foot Mouse Company. Luckily, the early prototypes saved me. First, it turns out your leg cramps after 20 or 30 minutes using a foot mouse. And second, floors are pretty dirty, and the mouse gets quite gross after a few days.

So, like you, I decided to stay and graduate. I didnt give up on new ideas, and 10 years after discarding the foot mouse, we created Netflix. At first we had to mail a lot of DVDs, but eventually streaming improved to the point where we could deliver movies in seconds instead of days and our business really took off, allowing us to expand into making our own content like Stranger Things and Squid Game.

I know many of you will invent all kinds of things from personal drones to whisk you about, to robots with a sense of humor, to cures for hangovers. But I really hope many of you focus on an area that urgently needs your attention: climate change.

A lot of the conversation around climate change is around reducing emissions in the rich world, which we need to do to slow down the rate of change and buy us time. But ultimately, using less of everything only delays disaster, it doesnt prevent disaster.

Moreover, people in poverty around the world want and deserve more energy and steel and concrete to improve their lives, all of which today generates large amounts of CO2. The looming crisis can feel overwhelming, but Im confident your generation will invent our way out of the greenhouse.

We need better electricity storage and transmission for intermittent solar and wind. And safe, cost-effective nuclear energy. And green cement and steel. And carbon capture technology. And other solutions no one has dreamed of yet. Green solutions need to be better solutions than their carbon-intensive predecessors just like electric cars are now better than gasoline cars. There are thousands of inventors in this University, and the world needs you all.

Two hundred years ago Malthus predicted mass starvation as our population grew. However, we invented mechanized farming, hybrid seeds, fertilizers and more. While our current world has many problems with 10 times more people than in Malthus day, food production is not one of those problems. When faced with a galvanizing crisis like mass starvation 200 years ago, or climate change today, we humans invent our way out of the crisis.

Being in Silicon Valley you are already very aware of the power of invention. The power of story, however, may be less obvious.

You all know the many stories that have changed the way people see the world from Silent Spring to Animal Farm to perhaps Dont Look Up. But today Im talking about the broader notion of a story: creative ideas that we mostly accept as fact, and that have helped us cooperate at great scale to move humanity forward.

When eye-for-an-eye in the Old Testament gave way to turn-the-other-cheek in the New Testament, it was a moral advance and a path to reduced violence.

An old story was that government leaders derived their legitimacy by being descended from the prior king. Over time, the story became that the government derived its legitimacy from the consent of the governed. That story shift gave rise to the American, French, and countless other revolutions against monarchy. And the story has continued to evolve. For example, the civil rights movement expanded the idea that all members of society deserve to have their voices heard.

As historian Yuval Harari points out, money, corporations, countries, law, and many other aspects of modern life are actually just widely accepted stories. This dollar bill is not very useful as a piece of paper for eating or burning. Yet we accept it as having value, so it does. Humans are very adept at turning useful stories into accepted facts.

Think about human rights. The more people believe that humans have rights, the more rights humans have. We are working to expand the universe of human rights that are widely accepted as fact.

These are good stories, constructive stories. But like with inventions, the wrong stories can be incredibly destructive.

For several centuries, it was very profitable for white society to evangelize the story that Black people were subhuman and therefore could be enslaved. Nazism and the idea of the innate superiority of the Aryan people is a more recent falsehood which also led to untold human suffering. Recovering from these evil stories is a multi-generational effort.

Thats why any story we hear especially when widely accepted should trigger something else: doubt. Take time every day to examine different beliefs, and stay skeptical. Doubt is an essential counterbalance to story, and one we should keep developing as we struggle to become more independent thinkers and better human beings.

My heartbreak is two stories in particular that my generation failed to fully develop, which is why Im passing the baton to all of you. Theyre about equality and interdependence.

When Karl Marx rejected the exploitative factories of the 1800s, his story was about replacing the bosses with a dictatorship of the proletariat, power to the people! Unfortunately, we came to learn that dictatorships of any flavor stifle human flourishing. We need a new story around equality, something beyond Margaret Thatcher and Karl Marx, that bonds together the very lucky and less lucky.

By very lucky, I mean those born beautiful, healthy, athletic, intelligent, empathetic; those born in peaceful countries to caring parents and those who got bedtime stories read to them every night. Many of you, like me, have won several of these lotteries, and also have worked hard to build on that luck. So what is the duty of the more lucky to the less lucky? In the natural world, it is zero. The lion feels no obligation towards the lamb. And the human world isnt much different. In the United States, we tell ourselves a story about rugged individualism, which encourages people to work hard and to keep what they produce, without the obligation to share much with others around the world. My generation did not find a new story that provides the moral backbone to an era of common prosperity for both the very lucky and less lucky. I hope you find such a story, which changes human behavior toward each other.

Another story my generation had only partial success in is interdependence for preventing war.

For almost a thousand years, major European countries fought each other virtually nonstop. Then, after World War II, European leaders said never again. They worked to tie countries like Germany and France together economically the basic idea behind the European Union. And it worked. Today, the EU isnt perfect, but it has succeeded in avoiding war in the core of Europe for the first time in history. The story of European identity is a huge success. France and Britain may squabble in football, but its not the 100 Years War of the 1400s.

Now, on a global scale, this story fell flat. Leaders in my generation have been working to economically knit the whole world together through trade, so that war between any two countries would be unthinkable. We were this close [pinch fingers] to giving you a peaceful interdependent world, but as weve seen with Russias invasion of Ukraine, we failed, and now the world is decoupling into hostile blocks.

Our story about how globalization inhibits war wasnt good enough. Thats why its up to your generation to come up with a better story about the connection between countries one that is more powerful, and more heartfelt, than globalization a story that ends war.

Inventions and stories. One is about harnessing the natural world; the other is about harnessing the human spirit. One is about generating more power and prosperity; the other is about generating large scale human cooperation. Both are avenues for progress.

Now, at this point some of you are probably thinking, This is all well and good, but I need some downtime. Ive just spent four years working my butt off. Cant I get a little time to Netflix and chill before I have to go out and save the world?

The answer, of course, is yes which brings me to my final point.

We all know the story about the tortoise and the hare. Some of you will leave here today and be hares getting your first jobs at Bain and Google and Goldman, curing your first disease or making your first billion by the time youre 30. I hope you stay grounded with all that early success.

Others of you will be tortoises and start out slow. Maybe your path wont be clear, or youll keep starting over in different areas. Maybe youll fail at some things. Youll read the class notes five years in, and wonder about yourself for not doing as well as your classmates, and then youll chastise yourself for thinking that way. Please, if youre a tortoise, embrace it. Collect experiences and wisdom that will serve you later on. Applaud your hare friends and their successes, but dont let it bother you. When you are older, you will love each other more if you accept each others unique paths now.

I was more tortoise than hare. I didnt have my first romance until I was 20. After undergrad, I taught high school math for a few years in the kingdom of Eswatini. And when I eventually made it to grad school at Stanford, I was far behind my classmates and I wondered why I had spent so much time in Africa. In hindsight, the challenges I faced as a teacher gave me the resilience and empathy to be a better CEO.

I didnt start Netflix until I was 37.

I didnt figure out the value of real honesty until marriage counseling made me realize that I often said one thing but did another. Fortunately, I learned, and Patty and I are celebrating our 31st anniversary this summer.

My point is that if youre a tortoise emotionally, economically, intellectually, artistically, or otherwise dont despair. You have the rest of your life to create the inventions and the stories that the world needs.

Michelangelo talked about releasing a statue from a block of marble, as if the statue had its own destiny and he was simply its handmaid. I think of ideas in the same way they have their own destiny, and our job as handmaids is to help these ideas burst out of their marble block.

Graduates, carve your own marble until you release the invention or story that is yearning to breathe. I know you can do it, because you grew up on the Farm.

Thank you, Class of 2022!

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Commencement address to Class of 2022 by Reed Hastings | Stanford News - Stanford University News

Human Behavior

Five new studies shed light on the eating behaviors and diets of teens, young adults – News-Medical.Net

The developmental changes and growing independence that characterize adolescence and young adulthood can make these stages of life both exciting and challenging. New studies presented at NUTRITION 2022 LIVE ONLINE shed light on the eating behaviors and diets of teens and young adults around the world.

In a new study, researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health found a link between food insecurity and weight loss attempts during early adolescence. The researchers analyzed data from almost 7,000 children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten class of 1998-99. The study assessed food insecurity in kindergarten and third, fifth and eighth grades, revealing that 4% of the study participants had experienced food insecurity at three or more assessed timepoints. After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, the researchers found that the children who experienced food insecurity at three or four timepoints were more likely to have attempted to lose weight compared to food secure children. Recently becoming food insecure was also associated with higher prevalence of weight loss attempts.

Mikayla Barry will present this research on-demand starting at noon on Tuesday, June 14, during NUTRITION 2022 LIVE ONLINE (abstract; presentation details).

New Mexico State University researchers surveyed 120 college students during the 2020-2021 school year to assess whether alcohol consumption was associated with eating behaviors used to avoid weight gain or deliberate attempts to control eating. They found that drinking alcohol was associated with skipping meals to make up for calories consumed from alcohol, eating less to get more drunk and exercising more to make up for calories from alcohol. There was also an association between drinking alcohol and consuming low-calorie or fat-free foods, taking laxatives, or self-induced vomiting to compensate for calories consumed while drinking alcohol. These new findings could help inform policies and program related to alcohol consumption on campus.

Shadai Martin will present this research on-demand starting at noon on Tuesday, June 14, during NUTRITION 2022 LIVE ONLINE (abstract; presentation details).

People with food addiction compulsively overeat and have frequent episodes of binge eating. An observational study from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development examined whether food addiction was associated with weight perception and certain eating behaviors in more than 2,000 young adult participants in the NEXT Generation Health Study. The analysis revealed that study participants with food addiction were more likely to perceive themselves as overweight, have attempted weight loss, or report a maladaptive eating behavior such as such as self-induced vomiting, laxative use and use of diet pills. Based on these findings, the researchers say that it may be important to consider food addiction when treating and managing young adults with multiple problematic eating behaviors.

Leah Lipsky will present this research on-demand starting at noon on Tuesday, June 14, during NUTRITION 2022 LIVE ONLINE (abstract; presentation details).

Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus report an association between drinking sugar-sweetened beverages and higher triglyceride (lipid) levels in youth. The new findings come from an analysis of data from almost 600 children assessed at ages 10 and 16 as part of the multi-ethnic EPOCH Study based in Colorado. The researchers found that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages during childhood was associated with higher triglycerides across childhood and adolescence, which may reflect sugar-induced disruptions in lipid metabolism. They also identified a panel of intermediary lipid metabolites, assessed using untargeted metabolomics, which may link the sugar sweetened beverage consumption to higher triglycerides and offer insights into potential mechanisms at work in this association.

Catherine Cioffi Cohen will present this research on-demand starting at noon on Tuesday, June 14, during NUTRITION 2022 LIVE ONLINE (abstract; presentation details).

A George Mason University study examined elevated blood pressure in primary school children between 10 and 12 years old in Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya. The researchers selected three public schools that catered to children from households of low, medium and high socio-economic status to participate in the study in each city. They found that more than 20% of the children had pre-hypertension and 14% had hypertension, meaning that more than a third of the children exhibited elevated blood pressure. Overweight and obese children were significantly more likely to have high blood pressure and hypertension compared to children whose body mass index was in the healthy range. Children who consumed high amounts of fries or potato chips were also significantly more likely to have elevated blood pressure compared to children who consumed lower amounts.

Constance A. Gewa will present this research on-demand starting at noon on Tuesday, June 14, during NUTRITION 2022 LIVE ONLINE (abstract; presentation details).

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Five new studies shed light on the eating behaviors and diets of teens, young adults - News-Medical.Net