Satellite Constellations Are an Existential Threat for Astronomy

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Satellite Constellations Are an Existential Threat for Astronomy Astronomer Rachel Street remembers feeling frightened after a recent planning meeting for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. The new flagship telescope, under construction in Chile, will photograph the entire sky every three nights with enough observing power to see a golf ball at the distance of the moon. Its primary project, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, will map the galaxy, inventory objects in the solar system and explore mysterious flashes, bangs and blips throughout the universe. But the flagship telescope may never achieve its goals if the sky fills with bogus stars. New swarms of satellite constellations, such as SpaceX’s Starlink, threaten to outshine the real celestial objects that capture astronomers’ interest—and that humans have admired and pondered for all of history. “The more meetings I attend about this, where we explain the impact it is going to have, the more I get frightened about how astronomy is going to go forward,” says Street, a scientist at Las Cumbres Observatory. As one astronomer talked about moving up observations in the telescope’s schedule, a sense of foreboding fell over her. Her colleagues were suggesting making basic observations early, before it’s too late to do them at all. “That sent a chill down my spine,” Street recalls. Full story here ...

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WeChat users are handwriting apologies to get their banned accounts back In June, a Chinese student in California mentioned a taboo topic on WeChat: the government’s bloody 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters. Hours later, his account was banned from WeChat, cutting him off from family and friends back home. To regain access to his account, Eric, who spoke to Rest of World under a pseudonym so he could discuss sensitive issues freely, was forced to write a heartfelt apology to Tencent, the messaging app’s parent company. Eric told Rest of World he did not believe any of what he had written in the note. But he did it because WeChat had ordered him to handwrite a letter admitting his guilt, along with a photo of him holding his Chinese national ID card, before it would return the account to him. “I was making things up against my own conscience,” Eric said. “You need to do everything they ask for in order to reactivate the account.”  Full story here ...

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See How Much Climate Change Has Cost Different Countries The top five greenhouse gas–emitting nations—the U.S., China, Russia, Brazil and India—collectively caused $6 trillion in global economic losses between 1990 and 2014, according to a recent study of available data. And those losses haven’t been felt equally. Dartmouth College climate scientists Christopher W. Callahan and Justin S. Mankin used climate models to determine how much of the planet’s warming could be attributed to each country’s emissions and calculated what those emissions have cost every other country. The scientists linked global average temperature rise to the warming in each nation (because some parts of the world are warming faster than others) and then to the associated change in that country’s gross domestic product. “A striking feature of the results was the compounding inequalities,” Callahan says. Whereas wealthier countries burned more fossil fuels to drive economic growth, low-income countries—which are already less able to adapt to a changing climate—bore the brunt of the losses. Full story here ...

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In a First, U.N. Climate Summit Will Discuss Climate Reparations Finalizing the agenda is a regular procedural affair. But compensation for unavoidable climate harm—what’s known in U.N. parlance as loss and damage—emerged as a potential flashpoint following intersessional talks in June. Developing countries frustrated by a lack of attention to the issue began pushing for it to be part of the formal agenda, rather than a side dialogue with no defined outcome. The United States and Europe signaled a greater willingness to discuss loss and damage finance in recent weeks, but whether they would find common ground with climate-vulnerable countries remained an open question until the late hours of Saturday night. Negotiators ultimately agreed to an agenda item on “matters relating to funding arrangements” responding to loss and damage, including a focus on “addressing” the problem. Full story here ...

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Every Story Is a Science Story This claim bubbles up most often when we publish stories related to social justice or human rights—on the research supporting health care for transgender people, for instance, or abortion as basic medical care. A Twitter user replied to an opinion piece against forcing trans girls to play on boys’ sports teams by writing, “You should probably move everything back to science, facts and stats and leave the ‘wokness’ [SIC], narrative skewing and agenda setting behind. It’s not good for your credibility.” Using data-driven reasoning and analysis, science has solved problems and given us answers to major societal questions. For instance, after sequencing the human genome in 2001, the researchers who analyzed our strings of genetic code showed there were no significant differences among humans corresponding to racial categories. This helped change the narrative around the inherent meaning of race—that it is a social construct, not a biological one. Full story here ...

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The Viral Triple Threat and Why You Need a Booster: COVID, Quickly, Episode 41 Flu cases in the U.S. have already started spiking—especially in the South and New York City. And hospitals are reporting more positive tests. This is earlier than a typical flu season, which usually peaks between December and February. It’s important to get your flu shot now if you haven’t yet—you can get it at the same time as your COVID booster, or space it out by a few days if you normally get a strong reaction to either shot. Pfizer just reported that its maternal RSV vaccine, which is given during pregnancy, was more than 80 percent effective at preventing severe RSV in infants under three months. And both Pfizer and GSK have both announced positive results for a vaccine for adults 60 and older. At least one of these vaccines will likely be approved by the end of next year, according to Barney Graham, a former NIH scientist who has spent his career working on an RSV vaccine. Full story here ...

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Ramsey Theory Extracts Order from Chaos when Sorting through Confusing Arrangements of Numbers Imagine you are hosting a small party for six guests, and it isn’t understood who knows one another and who doesn’t. As it turns out, there’s bound to be at least three people who are complete strangers to one another—or three who are already friends. (We’re not assuming your friends don’t like one another.) So there will always be at least one group of three people who are all either known or completely unknown to one another. This may not sound too surprising at first, but the more you think about the problem, the more intriguing it becomes. Six people have 15 connections to one another. So, you might ask, how does person A relate to person B? How does A relate to person C? Does B know C? These connections can have one of two values: friends or strangers. This means that with just six guests, there are already 215 (32,768) different ways in which the partygoers can relate to one another. And the math makes the claim that in every possible grouping, there is always a trio in which all know one another or are otherwise complete strangers. Going through each individual case and looking for a trio seems rather cumbersome. Full story here ...

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World Edges Closer to Meeting Climate Targets but Not Fast Enough World leaders, scientists, activists and negotiators are gathering in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), this year’s annual global meeting aimed at implementing climate action, including the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement. Current emissions reduction pledges are far short of what is needed to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius, preferably 1.5 degrees C. Under existing pledges, global temperature rise by the end of the century would be about 2.4 to 2.6 degrees C above preindustrial levels, according to a recent United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report. Given that policies are not even in place yet to meet those pledges, that temperature rise is currently on track to be around 2.8 degrees C. Every fraction of a degree of warming avoided makes a difference in lessening the ever worsening impacts of the climate crisis. Such changes have already been seen across the globe this year, with heat waves, floods and droughts all exacerbated by rising global temperatures. The window to narrow the gap between what is needed to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement and what is currently being done is small—about a decade—and quickly closing. “We need to cut emissions as fast as possible. We need to transition to clean energy as fast as possible. We need to stop deforestation as fast as possible. And that’s the case whether you think we can still hit the 1.5-degree target or whether you think that 1.6 degrees or 1.8 degrees or two degrees is locked in,” says Taryn Fransen, a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute and an author of the UNEP report. Full story here ...

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Give More Women the Microphone At COP 27 In 2016, I (Catherine) was slated to give Canada’s statement as minister for environment and climate change at the COP 22 climate negotiations in Marrakesh. Instead, I decided to share that time with Maatalii Okalik, then the president of the National Inuit Youth Council of Canada. I knew this young Inuk woman would convey more compellingly than I how climate change was affecting her community—their land, the ice, culture, food, health, safety—and how it is threatening that community’s very existence. I wasn’t allowed to cede the stage to her, but I decided to break the rules. The delegates were inspired by Maatali’s story, and it really set the stage for negotiations and the stakes to get a successful outcome. As world leaders gather this week at COP 27, men and other allies should consider this example and cede podium time to women.* In addition, we need to break more conventions and rules to ensure that underrepresented women’s voices are heard throughout these negotiations. This is especially critical as attendees discuss how the countries of the Global North, responsible for most of the world’s carbon output, should help the Global South deal with the effects of that pollution. The perspectives of women, whose voices are underrepresented in climate discussions, are instrumental to solving the climate crisis in a more just and equitable fashion and can contribute powerfully to our understanding of climate action across the globe.  Full story here ...

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Local Efforts Can Achieve U.S. Climate Goals Even if Republicans Take Congress, Report Says While the report seeks to give assurance to the international community that the U.S. target remains within reach, the Biden administration has yet to submit its U.S. National Climate Strategy to the U.N. climate body. The formal report, which was alluded to in multiple submissions to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change last year, would provide a road map for how the U.S. will meet the 50-52 percent commitment. Full story here ...

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Jeremy Siegel: Why Stocks Will Remain Strong in the Long Run At the 2022 Frontiers in Quantitative Finance Conference in September, hosted by Wharton’s Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center, Siegel shared insights from the latest edition with Jeremy Schwartz, global chief investment officer at WisdomTree Asset Management. “The long-term real rate of return from investing in stocks is remarkably durable,” he said. He also talked about how and why the real rate of return from bonds is declining, the Fed’s missteps regarding inflation, as well as the decline in value investing and the near disappearance of factor investing. Jeremy Siegel: It’s interesting because the first edition, which came out in May 1994, used data through the end of 1992. The long-term real return (net of inflation, from investing in stocks) 1802 onward was 6.7% in real terms. I updated it till June of this year and it’s 6.7% real — exactly the same as the last 30 years, despite the financial crisis, COVID, and so forth. It’s remarkably durable. We also know returns from investing in stocks are remarkably volatile in the short run. But the durability of the equity premium (or the excess return from stocks over a risk-free rate like a Treasury bond) is quite remarkable. Full story here ...

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How Storytelling Can Offset Negative Effects of Discrimination Discrimination is a particularly destructive force. For those who experience it in the workplace, discrimination can rob them of self-worth and ultimately affect job performance as they feel increasingly marginalized. Wharton management professor Samir Nurmohamed has a new study that looks at an important tool employees can use to push back against the negative psychological consequences of discrimination: the self-narrative. The paper is titled “Against the Odds: Developing Underdog Versus Favorite Narratives to Offset Prior Experiences of Discrimination.” The co-authors are Timothy G. Kundro, organizational behavior professor at University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business, and Christopher G. Myers, management and organization and health professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School. Full story here ...

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Greenhushing: Why Some Firms Keep Quiet About ESG If a company specifically states its ESG goals and reports its progress in hitting those targets, it could face pushback from stakeholders who find the plans aren’t ambitious enough, he said. On the other hand, it could also face backlash from investors and politicians who believe ESG efforts undermine profits or run counter to prevailing values. For example, oil-rich Texas recently banned its municipalities from doing business with banks that have ESG policies against fossil fuels and firearms. He cited an October report by South Pole, a global carbon finance consultancy, that found one in four companies are “going green, then going dark” by not disclosing their sustainability work. “Doing so makes corporate climate targets harder to scrutinize and limits knowledge-sharing on decarbonization, potentially leading to less ambitious targets being set, and missed opportunities for industries to collaborate,” the report stated. Full story here ...

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Is There a Better Way to Staff Temporary Teams? In her latest paper, Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions Hummy Song investigates how this ad hoc assignment strategy affects the overall performance of temporary teams and why the role of each team member matters. Previous research has neatly established that when members are more familiar with each other, they perform better. But Song’s research examines performance under a different microscope: What happens when attending doctors, residents, and nurses — colleagues with differing skills and authority — are thrown together to accomplish a task? According to the study, attending doctors and residents perform better when they have prior experience working with many different nurses. But performance declines when nurses and residents have experience with many different attendings, and when attendings and nurses have experience with many different residents. The results suggest that prior interactions with employees in decision-executing roles (nurses) are a critical and perhaps overlooked aspect of successful team building, which sometimes focuses more on the employees in decision-making roles (doctors). In a hospital, for example, it’s the experienced nurses who often guide the newbie residents through the maze of patient care delivery, despite being outranked by the resident. Full story here ...

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Layoffs Are Painful. But You Can Communicate Them Compassionately. Executives and managers too often underestimate the importance of clear, consistent communications as part of a reduction in force (RIF). Without an effective communications plan that begins well in advance, an RIF can result in long-term damage to the company’s reputation and to the well-being of both dismissed and retained employees. The emergence of hybrid work has further complicated the already fraught process of planning and implementing an RIF, but executives and managers can take several steps to meet the added challenges. Full story here ...

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How Your Company Can Help Save Democracy Businesses need political stability to thrive, and so when democracy is jammed, companies can feel threatened. But few would see business as a solution to political system woes; to the contrary, business is most often depicted as a corrupting influence, attempting to tilt the scale towards particular candidates or parties. But businesses can also help to invigorate and strengthen our democratic systems and cultures. They can boost voter participation in various ways; support the administration of fair elections; create programs that encourage people to run for office. And they can create specific policies and practices to help foster constructive dialogue and engagement in the workplace. Full story here ...

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How Walmart Automated Supplier Negotiations It’s an age-old problem in procurement: Corporate buyers lack the time to negotiate fully with all suppliers. Historically this has left untapped value on the table for both buyers and suppliers. To address this challenge, Walmart deployed AI-powered negotiations software with a text-based interface (i.e., a chatbot) to connect with suppliers. So far, the chatbot is negotiating and closing agreements with 68% of suppliers approached, with each side gaining something it values. This article offers four lessons to deliver results from automated procurement negotiations: move quickly to a production pilot, start with indirect spend categories with pre-approved suppliers, decide on acceptable negotiation trade-offs, and scale by extending geographies, categories, and use cases. Full story here ...

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Grit Is Good. But Quitting Can Be, Too. From politics to sports to business, we tend to glorify those who persevere, show grit, never give up. But former professional poker player and consultant Annie Duke argues that there is also great value in quitting — whether it’s a project, job, career, or company. She walks us through the biases that keep us stuck in the status quo even when other paths would be more fruitful and explains how to make better decisions. Duke is the author of Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away. Full story here ...

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7 Ways to Practice Active Allyship Despite many companies’ recent efforts to develop DEI strategies and roadmaps, inequalities in our workplaces are still rampant. Every employee needs to see their role in inclusion, but not everybody is on board yet. Why? Fear. Those who are well-represented in any context are fearful of the change and loss of power that real inclusion will bring, fearful of getting uncomfortable, and fearful of saying and doing the wrong thing. On the other hand, people from marginalized, discriminated, and underrepresented groups are also fearful: fearful of being the lone voice and being perceived as the token, fearful of addressing biases and discrimination, and fearful of the impact on their careers. The author presents seven allyship behaviors that employees at any level can engage in to nurture inclusion in their workplaces. Full story here ...

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A Race to Bridge the Analog Divide in US Politics Just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, seven American flags dance in the wind on a bright and unseasonably warm day to “Macho Man.” There are no Village People here, just a hundred or so voters, some excited dogs, a few politicians, and a stage. Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin is the headliner, here to rev up the same GOP base that sent him into the governor’s mansion last year. His 2 percent margin of victory still smarts Democrats, even as it fills Republicans with macho-man bravado. “We learned how to win elections in Virginia. We understand how to do this. We understand how to come together and make our voices heard. We understand how to get the vote out,” Youngkin tells the cheering crowd. “We understand every head needs a hat, every bumper needs a sticker, every yard needs a sign. By the way, we need to make phone calls. We need to knock on doors. We need to get people out to vote on Tuesday.” That’s right. In this digitized era—where spending records are obliterated every two years despite pocketbook woes topping the chart of voter concerns—political campaigns still see traditional retail politics as their best way to connect with voters. Nothing beats attending local events and kissing babies. But attempts to digitize retail politics come in all different shapes and life rafts. Full story here ...

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How to Prepare for the End of Card Payments The proliferation of contactless payment options shifts how businesses interact with customers at the moment of purchase, from international retailers to local pop-up shops. But there’s no need to fret just yet if you enjoy buying stuff with cold, hard cash. Plastic cards are first on the chopping block. “I’d suggest that the time is ripe to plan for plastic (and metal) cards to be sent to Shady Pines Retirement Home for the Tragically Overstayed Welcome,” wrote Nick Holland, global head of insights and networks at Money 20/20. During the group’s 2022 conference in October in Las Vegas, financial technology companies touting efficiency and seamless experiences were front and center, as plastic cards faded into the background. Anyone who is on the fence about using their smartphone for contactless payments should check out Whitson Gordon’s case for adopting the technology. Convinced and need guidance setting up Apple Pay or Google Wallet? Apple and Google offer step-by-step instructions to guide you through that initial setup. After you link your cards to the mobile device and practice the necessary steps to complete purchases, here are a few tips to help you get the most out of smartphone wallets. You may be comfortable tapping your phone against a checkout terminal, but it might feel like a surprise the first time a business asks you to tap your phone to their phone. Smaller merchants, delivery companies, and take-out restaurants may continue to forgo traditional card terminals altogether as companies like Mastercard and Visa introduce features that use near-field communication chip technology to enable phone-to-phone payments. Similar to the lightning port on the iPhone, the era of credit card readers plugged into smartphones is likely to come to an end. Full story here ...

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A new approach to fighting fraud while enhancing customer experience Digital adoption leapfrogged a decade in days during the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerating the shift to digital and multichannel client service that began in the 2010s. The pandemic-driven boost to e-commerce is estimated to have exceeded $200 billion in 2020 and 2021. 1 1. April Berthene, “Coronavirus pandemic adds $219 billion to US ecommerce sales in 2020-2021,” Digital Commerce 360, March 15, 2022. This article is a collaborative effort by Richard Detura, Carla Ioshiura, Adrian Murphy, Bryan Richardson, Sebastian Scheurle, Eric Schweikert, and Max Vancauwenberghe, representing views from McKinsey’s Risk & Resilience Practice. Increased digital adoption has enabled new forms of fraudulent activity and amplified the importance of effective fraud management for promoting growth and meeting customers' increasing expectations for digital experiences. Although most companies have improved their digital user interface and experience, many have struggled to effectively enhance fraud controls without impairing the client experience. Many organizations report being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of fraud attempts. In financial services, for example, many banks are so inundated by fraudsters that they cannot meet online origination targets; they are unable to verify identities and authenticate customers while combating fraud. Full story here ...

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Strategic M&A in US banking: Creating value in uncertain times After a record-breaking year for US banking M&A by volume of deals, conditions changed in 2022. Although it has been a strong year relative to previous years, deal making slowed in response to economic headwinds, a potential downturn, and geopolitical uncertainty. Banking M&A deal volume was down 37 percent for the first nine months of 2022 compared with the first nine months of 2021. However, if history is any guide, the current environment may present an excellent opportunity. Deal makers with the conviction to act during uncertain times have been much more likely to deliver strong total shareholder returns (TSR) than those who confine their deal making to bullish periods. 1 1. For more, see Jens Giersberg, Jan Krause, Jeff Rudnicki, and Andy West, “The power of through-cycle M&A,” McKinsey, April 30, 2020. In addition, M&A professionals in US banking predict that the near future will be a good opportunity for banking deals. In a recent McKinsey survey of 20 corporate-development professionals at US banks of different sizes and with different strategic priorities, 60 percent said the next 18 to 24 months will offer banks value-creating M&A opportunities that are better than those of the last two years. For banks that pursue M&A, two broad themes are likely to dominate the agenda: we expect to see continuing consolidation and scaling of the banking business, along with fintech acquisitions to augment banks’ product propositions, access new customers, and expand technology capabilities. Based on our conversations with M&A experts, advisors, and banks, we have identified four actions banks can take to help them maximize the value they capture from M&A in the next 18 to 24 months. For most of the past 15 years, M&A activity in the US banking industry was minimal. Many banks were wrestling with challenging integrations and “shotgun” combinations from the financial crisis era. There were also regulatory constraints from Dodd-Frank. Starting in 2018, the pace of deals started to pick up in both value and number. By 2021, the value of deals was six times what it had been in 2017 (Exhibit 1). This uptick in deal activity occurred for several reasons: a partial relaxation of regulatory constraints for banking M&A, lower interest rates, strong balance sheets and income statements, and plenty of liquidity among potential acquirers after years of conservative lending and purposeful capital building. Full story here ...

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More for less: Five ways to lower cloud costs without destroying value Cost pressures are coming, and it’s not clear whether most companies’ cloud programs are ready. With the macroeconomic environment becoming increasingly challenging and company leaders looking for ways to achieve higher business resiliency, CIOs and CTOs can expect uncomfortable questions about the costs of their cloud programs. This article is a collaborative effort by Abhi Bhatnagar, Bailey Caldwell, Dany El Khoury, Wasim Lala, Deepa Mahajan, Abdallah Saleme, Mike Stefanelli, and Konstantin Tyrman, representing views from McKinsey Technology. While cloud is able to generate substantial value when done right, many companies we’ve observed have seen their cloud spend grow as much as 20 to 30 percent each year. Without being more sensitive to costs and responsive to the economic pressures that companies are feeling, CIOs may soon find their cloud programs on the chopping block. That would be an enormous pity and a huge setback for most companies’ competitive aspirations. Through a targeted set of practices, however, technology leaders can quickly cut as much as 15 to 25 percent of the costs of their cloud programs while preserving their value-generating capabilities. Full story here ...

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Fashion-forward in the metaverse Consumer behavior has shifted, and increasing numbers of people value their digital persona more than the physical persona, showcasing who they are digitally. But many brands have yet to provide a solution, and can open up to new revenue models to supply virtual assets and goods like clothing. We work with nonfungible-token (NFT) artists backed by Christie’s and Sotheby’s who are developing avatar projects and bringing them into our metaverse, so you naturally think about clothing and individual expression. How are people in the metaverse going to dress and express their individuality? How are we going to make the designs unique yet scalable? Can generative design enable mass customization for digital clothing? And then there’s the physical space. How can you make the journey of product discovery, try-on and purchase more connected? Then how can you make resale more accessible, profitable, and efficient? We work with luxury and premium brands that are looking to digitize their collections and offer digital brand experiences to unlock new revenue streams and provide digitally immersive access points to their brand and product stories. Once these brands have their virtual worlds, they often want to enable their community to build, customize and monetize with their branded environments, structures, art, clothing, and furniture, which opens doors to even more opportunities. I believe, as more and more platforms adopt blockchain technology, it will allow for token-gated experiences, where you can bring your digital persona inside a virtual space. So as more companies adopt it, people’s wallets can become containers for them to carry around all of their assets. Full story here ...

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When "Darwin's Bulldog" thought he discovered "primordial slime" In the years after the publication of Charles Darwin‘s On the Origin of Species, many in the scientific community were gripped with “evolution fever”. Excited by the revolutionary idea that life evolved through natural selection, brilliant minds were discussing it and searching for confirming evidence. It was in this environment that, in 1868, eminent biologist Thomas Henry Huxley — today known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his staunch support of evolution — spotted a peculiar slime when studying a sample of mud extracted from the seafloor during the laying of the transatlantic telegraph cable. The slime resembled the living part of cells (protoplasm) and appeared to be criss-crossed with veins. Moreover, it would swell when exposed to caustic soda. To Huxley, it was clearly alive, and an entirely new organism to boot. He dubbed it Bathybius haeckelii, after German biologist Ernst Haeckel, who, in the vein of Darwinism, had previously hypothesized that all life could have originated from a “primordial slime.” Was Bathybius the basic blob he’d been looking for? Haeckel was overjoyed when Huxley told him of the discovery, ecstatic at the thought that his idea would be proven correct. Haeckel pictured all organisms on a tree of life, with Monera — single-celled organisms — at the roots. This new slime might represent the most rudimentary of Monera. Huxley was similarly enamored with Bathybius. In a speech given to the Royal Geographic Society in 1870, he boldly proclaimed that the slime formed a continuous mat of living protoplasm that covered the whole ocean floor for thousands of square miles, perhaps in a continuous sheet around the Earth. Full story here ...

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Brain implant translates neural activity into letters, letting a paralyzed man "speak" Researchers at the University of California-San Francisco have developed a neuroprosthesis that decodes brain activity and translates it into single letters to spell out sentences. In a study published in the open access journal Nature Communications, they report that the device enabled a paralyzed individual who cannot speak to communicate by spelling out full sentences on a computer screen. The implant is the latest in a long line of brain-computer interfaces that can restore movement or communication in paralyzed patients by reading brain activity and translating it into commands that can control a computer, a wheelchair, or a robotic limb. It builds on recent advances in our understanding of how the brain controls the vocal tracts to produce speech.  Last year, the researchers reported that they had developed a prosthesis that decodes speech-related brain activity and translates it into words on a computer screen. They showed that the device enabled a paralyzed patient to communicate about 15 words per minute, but it was limited to a 50-word vocabulary and had an error rate of about 25%.  This latest device is slower, decoding 29 characters per minute, but is more accurate. It is based on a high-density multielectrode array that decoded motor cortex activity from the same patient as he silently attempted to spell out individual letters.  Full story here ...

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A brief history of the mortgage, from ancient Rome to the English "dead pledge" The average interest rate for a new U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgage topped 7% in late October 2022 for the first time in more than two decades. It’s a sharp increase from one year earlier, when lenders were charging homebuyers only 3.09% for the same kind of loan. Several factors, including inflation rates and the general economic outlook, influence mortgage rates. A primary driver of the ongoing upward spiral is the Federal Reserve’s series of interest rate hikes intended to tame inflation. Its decision to increase the benchmark rate by 0.75 percentage points on Nov. 2, 2022, to as much as 4% will propel the cost of mortgage borrowing even higher. Even if you have had mortgage debt for years, you might be unfamiliar with the history of these loans – a subject I cover in my mortgage financing course for undergraduate business students at Mississippi State University. The term dates back to medieval England. But the roots of these legal contracts, in which land is pledged for a debt and will become the property of the lender if the loan is not repaid, go back thousands of years. Full story here ...

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Why have late-night talk show ratings collapsed? Somewhere on the internet, there’s a YouTube video of Citizen Kane star Orson Welles delivering a monologue as Sir John Falstaff on The Dean Martin Show, a popular late-night variety show that ran from 1965 until 1974. While putting on makeup and dress, Welles — who began his career in entertainment as a stage actor — reflects on the genius of Shakespeare as well as the portly knight he was transforming into. To a 21st century viewer, the act that ensues is as spellbinding as it is jarring. “Imagine,” one person writes in the comments, “a [present-day] prime-time TV show devoting almost ten minutes to a lone man on a bare stage, putting on makeup and quietly reciting Shakespeare. Civility, culture, dignity, and a pace that requires calm focus. We won’t be seeing the likes of this any time soon.” Media analyst Bill Carter also senses some kind of a decline. “If late-night television had a true golden age,” he reported for CNN, “we probably passed it… After a period of what looked like unchecked expansion, with new late-night shows popping up like wildflowers (or sometimes weeds), the reaper seems to have arrived. Late night’s future is now looking much more limited, if not completely grim.” The downfall of late-night TV cannot be ignored. Several shows, from Full Frontal with Samantha Bee to Desus & Mero, have been cancelled this year alone. The ones that have stayed on aren’t faring much better: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon currently has an audience of roughly two million people, which is but a small fraction of the 11 million that tuned in for the show’s 2014 premier. Full story here ...

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A "psychological vaccine": Why prebunking is the best way to fight misinformation Misinformation is everywhere — and it always has been. Gossip, whethr true or false, has existed since humans could communicate. “Fake” politically motivated news has been a part of American journalism since the Founding Fathers created free speech protections. What’s different is that social media apps like Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter have exacerbated its spread. A recent review by the World Health Organization, for example, found that social media can spread myths worldwide more quickly than they can be debunked. Moreover, whether in the form of objectively false statements, cherry-picked facts, or manipulated narratives, many people believe this misinformation and share it. And it affects real-world behavior, ranging from policy preferences to health decisions to vigilantism. Perhaps the most common tactic is to fact-check and debunk false or misleading information. But a recent study by Dr. Jon Roozenbeek and colleagues in partnership with Google’s Jigsaw laboratory adds to a growing line of research suggesting that prebunking may be more effective. Specifically, the team set out to “inoculate” people against misinformation before it could even take hold. Given the prevalence and real-world impact of misinformation, media companies and governments have taken steps to actively monitor and regulate social media platforms. Several platforms actively police what is shared on their sites. Pinterest, for example, outright bans anti-vaccination posts. And other major media platforms like Google, Facebook, and YouTube use fact-checkers to flag and label questionable material or to promote more fact-based information. Full story here ...

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Even a single exercise session can help shift depression | Psyche Ideas Exercise has been described as a transformative experience for people affected by depression, one that can contribute to increased engagement with life and a joy of living that has been absent. People who have experienced depression and tried using exercise to help deal with it have recalled feeling invigorated, calmed or clearer headed after workouts – it’s like ‘blowing the cobwebs away’, as one woman who had taken up cycling told researchers. Indeed, research has shown that routinely exercising over multiple weeks or months can lead to a clinically meaningful reduction in depression symptoms. Additionally, prescribing exercise along with standard treatments such as psychotherapy or pharmacological interventions may enhance the effectiveness of those treatments. Although global guidelines suggest that adults engage in 150-300 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each week to gain health benefits, the benefits for depression can be experienced at lower doses and intensities than that. Integrating into one’s routine any of a wide range of exercises – such as cycling, swimming, brisk walking and jogging, strength or resistance exercise, or lower-intensity exercise such as yoga or Pilates – could be beneficial for treating or managing depression over time. Full story here ...

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Alcohol Caused One in Eight Deaths of Working-Age U.S. Adults CDC research shows excessive drinking is killing Americans in the “prime of their life” America has a drinking problem. Excessive alcohol consumption contributed to an estimated one in eight deaths—12.9 percent—of Americans ages 20 to 64, according to new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Drinking too much booze is also at fault for one in five deaths—20.3 percent—of Americans ages 20 to 49, per the study published last week in the journal JAMA Network Open. The findings, which examined data from 2015 to 2019, show that alcohol is killing Americans during their prime working years, suggesting the substance could be affecting the country’s economy. Experts say the numbers point to the need for more policies and programs to help reduce excessive alcohol consumption, such as higher alcohol taxes or limited times for sales. “Where the science needs to go is, what do we do about it?” says Katherine Keyes, an epidemiologist at Columbia University who was not involved in the study, to the New York Times’ Ted Alcorn. Full story here ...

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Archaeologists Unearth Trove of Viking Age Jewelry in Sweden The 1,000-year-old neck rings, finger rings, pearls and coins were in near-pristine condition Archaeologists in Sweden have unearthed a once-in-a-lifetime trove of jewelry dating back an estimated 1,000 years to the Viking Age. Despite their age, the pieces are in near-pristine condition and look like they’re “almost completely new,” says Maria Lingström, one of the archaeologists who made the find, in a statement. Researchers with the National Historical Museums in Sweden were digging at a Viking Age settlement in Viggbyholm, a neighborhood north of Stockholm, when they stumbled upon a small ceramic pot tucked beneath the remnants of a building’s wooden floors. Inside, they found eight torque-style neck rings, one finger ring, two pearls and two arm rings. They also found a linen pouch that contained 12 coin pendants (which are coins used as jewelry). Archaeologists sent the jewelry pieces to Acta Konserveringscentrum, a conservation company in Stockholm, for cleaning. Full story here ...

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Original 'E.T.' Mechatronic Model Could Fetch $3 Million at Auction The metallic skeleton, created by special effects pro Carlo Rambaldi in 1981, features 85 movement points Forty years have passed since movie-goers first laid eyes on the lovable alien known as E.T., who waddled alongside human co-stars Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore in the 1982 flick E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Now, fans of the iconic movie have a chance to own a key piece of the E.T. legacy—for a small fortune: The mechatronic model that brought E.T. to life is going up for auction. Auction organizers expect the special-effects artifact to fetch between $2 and $3 million at next month’s “Icons & Idols: Hollywood” sale, organized by Julien’s Auctions and Turner Classic Movies. Full story here ...

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What You Need to Know About the COP27 Climate Summit The United Nations Climate Change Conference, also called the Conference of the Parties (COP), kicked off on Sunday. Leaders from across the world flocked to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where they are discussing and negotiating action on topics surrounding climate change. Following a year of devastating climate impacts felt heavily in developing nations, this conference is expected to focus on how countries should distribute financial responsibility for the crisis. The climate summit brings together 197 nations that have signed the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international environmental treaty. Every year, leaders from these nations meet formally to negotiate, make decisions and come up with solutions for human-caused climate problems. The first of these conferences was held in Berlin, Germany, in March 1995. During the 21st summit, held in Paris in 2015, nations agreed to limit warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial temperatures. That was the first COP to result in a binding climate change agreement between countries. This year marks the conference's 27th session. “This is where we hear about the big climate agreements that countries are going to hopefully implement in the next few years,” Belinda Archibong, an environmental economist at Columbia University, tells Smithsonian magazine. “We're all keeping in mind this 1.5-degrees-Celsius benchmark.” Full story here ...

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How Supergenes Fuel Evolution Despite Harmful Mutations | Quanta Magazine Many butterflies that mimic the appearance of other species maintain their disguises with "supergenes" that combine several genes into a single inherited unit. Supergenes are more widespread in animals and plants than biologists once thought. Thousands of miles from home in the steamy Amazon rainforest in the mid-1800s, the British naturalist Henry Walter Bates had a problem. More than one, really; there were thumb-size biting insects, the ever-present threat of malaria, venomous snakes, and mold and mildew that threatened to overtake his precious specimens before they could be shipped back to England. But the nagging scientific problem that bothered him involved butterflies. Bates had noticed that some of the brightly colored Heliconius butterflies in the forest didn't flit about like the rest; they moved more slowly. When he captured them and examined them under his makeshift microscope, he discovered that they weren't really Heliconius at all, but astonishing look-alikes from unrelated families of butterflies. By the time Bates' discovery reached the scientific cognoscenti in England, Charles Darwin's then-new proposal of natural selection could explain why this brilliant mimicry occurred. Birds and other predators avoid Heliconius butterflies because they are toxic to eat, with a bitter taste. The mimics were not toxic, but because they looked so much like the foul-tasting Heliconius, they were less likely to be eaten. The closer the resemblance, the more potent the protection. Full story here ...

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The World Is Drowning in Plastic. Here's How It All Started The year was 1863, and famous billiard player Michael Phelan was worrying about the sustainability of the very billiard balls that made him a fortune. At the time, the spheres were hand-carved straight out of elephant tusks, ivory being about the toughest material the animal kingdom had to offer. But the things were expensive, and poorly-made balls still couldn't withstand repeated smashing without cracking. Also, what if there were suddenly no elephants? Whence would billiard balls come then? Phelan hadn't a clue. But he did have $10,000, which he offered as a prize for the inventor who could find a suitable replacement for ivory. Thus Phelan would save the game of billiards and, sure, maybe a few elephants too. Heeding the call was one John Wesley Hyatt, a 26-year-old journeyman printer. He fiddled with a few different recipes, including a core of wood fiber covered with a mixture of shellac (a resin derived from the excretions of the lac insect) and ivory dust, which was sort of cheating. That and the faux ivory ball didn't have the hardness of the real thing, so billiard players spurned it. Full story here ...

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Nobody’s perfect. Here’s how to be a good influence on your kids anyway. Here’s a secret: Parents make mistakes. Odds are, you’ve probably made a couple today. We all want the best for our kids, but parents are often still struggling to learn how to live life as their best selves. We hope our children can avoid the pitfalls we’ve tumbled into in the past — whether it be stints in rehab, arrests, a history of emotional issues or money problems, a general lack of direction until your late twenties, or the time you put a cigarette out on your arm to prove you were a tough guy (I know it can’t just be me!). As much as we try to shelter kids from going down the wrong path — paths we may have walked before — the past will always influence your parenting decisions. Eventually, the time will come where you might have to admit that you aren’t, or weren’t always, the great example you strive to be every day. Despite that, you can still be a role model for how to make changes and move forward in life. Taking accountability doesn’t equate to you pushing your child down the same slope. “You don’t have to feel like you’re giving your kid a hall pass to go out and use drugs,” says Allen Berger, a psychologist and the author of 12 Essential Insights for Emotional Sobriety. “What you’re doing is sharing your experience that no one’s going to be perfect.” You are modeling growth, and that is a worthwhile and brave thing to do. Full story here ...

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Why Egypt became one of the biggest chokepoints for Internet cables The Asia-Africa-Europe-1 Internet cable travels 15,500 miles along the seafloor, connecting Hong Kong to Marseille, France. As it snakes through the South China Sea and toward Europe, the cable helps provide Internet connections to more than a dozen countries, from India to Greece. When the cable was cut on June 7, millions of people were plunged offline and faced temporary Internet blackouts. The cable, also known as AAE-1, was severed where it briefly passes across land through Egypt. One other cable was also damaged in the incident, with the cause of the damage unknown. However, the impact was immediate. “It affected about seven countries and a number of over-the-top services,” says Rosalind Thomas, the managing director of SAEx International Management, which plans to create a new undersea cable connecting Africa, Asia, and the US. “The worst was Ethiopia, that lost 90 percent of its connectivity, and Somalia thereafter also 85 percent.” Cloud services belonging to Google, Amazon, and Microsoft were all also disrupted, subsequent analysis revealed. While connectivity was restored in a few hours, the disruption highlights the fragility of the world’s 550-plus subsea Internet cables, plus the outsize role Egypt and the nearby Red Sea have in the Internet’s infrastructure. The global network of underwater cables forms a large part of the Internet’s backbone, carrying the majority of data around the world and eventually linking up to the networks that power cell towers and Wi-Fi connections. Subsea cables connect New York to London and Australia to Los Angeles. Sixteen of these submarine cables—which are often no thicker than a hosepipe and are vulnerable to damage from ships’ anchors and earthquakes—pass 1,200 miles through the Red Sea before they hop over land in Egypt and get to the Mediterranean Sea, connecting Europe to Asia. The last two decades have seen the route emerge as one of the world’s largest Internet chokepoints and, arguably, the Internet’s most vulnerable place on Earth. (The region, which also includes the Suez Canal, is also a global choke point for shipping and the movement of goods. Chaos ensued when the container ship Ever Given got wedged in the canal in 2021.) Full story here ...