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#meritocracy #inequality #socioeconomics Our Lot in Life Not recognizing your blessings feeds into the dark side of capitalism and meritocracy: success is a choice, and that those who haven’t achieved success are not unlucky, but unworthy. I’m relatively lucky. I don’t know how much of the techie hubris that I bear. I have unresolved feelings about meritocracy and fairness. Race is usually used as a proxy for bridging the gap, e....

Brainless Slime That Can Learn by Fusing. Ed Yong. www.theatlantic.com . old.reddit.com . Dec 21, 2016. Building Transit Networks Can a cell learn? When a part of the plasmodium touches something attractive, e.g. food, it pulses more quickly and widens. If a part meets something repulsive, like light, it pulses more slowly and shrinks. The article regards this as flowing in the best possible direction without conscious thought....

Is Dentistry a Science? Ferris Jabr. www.theatlantic.com . May 1, 2019. Cochrane Oral Health reviews dental procedures in a systematic manner. Unfortunately, most of the reviews don’t find substantive support for dental interventions. There is currently no substantive evidence for: binannual cleanings, fluoridation reducing tooth decay in adults; regular flossing combating plaque (gum disease? probably); preventative wisdom teeth removal; tooth-colored resin instead of metal amalgam fillings; crown vs....

Contact Tracing “Apps” in this context means contact tracing apps released by public health authorities to do contact tracing. The APIs are limited to them. Big Picture Release APIs to enable apps to interoperate between Android and iOS devices. Bluetooth-based contact tracing baked into Android and iOS, such that no app is needed for broadcasting/listening. This ensures broad adoption, but will be on an opt-in basis....

From my vantage point, it seems there are two camps. But reality is often a shade of grey. Interested in various arguments that frequently arise in this area. I have my opinions/biases, but nothing that I can defend rigorously. Some (most?) of these claims are supported by anecdotal evidence, which is an avenue for belief fixation, and therefore makes it hard to come to a resolution . I don’t know if it’s because anti-PC material is more viral, but most of the prominent publications are either anti-PC, or anti-anti-PC....