Για θέματα γενικού ενδιαφέροντος, εκτός μηχανοκίνητων...
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By kovathe
#70384 Ξεκινωντας απο εδω
http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificia ... ion-1.html

και συνεχιζοντας με τις πηγες του παραπανω αρθρου και ειδικα τη συνεντευξη του Nick Bostrom εδω:
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2014/1 ... om_on.html

ανακαλυψα ενα απειρως ενδιαφερον και σημαντικο θεμα που απασχολει μερικα απο τα δυνατοτερα μυαλα της εποχης.

Οπως γραφει και ο Tim Urban στο παραπανω σαιτ ισως μακραν ΤΟ σημαντικοτερο ζητημα του μελλοντος.

Αξιζει να ασχοληθειτε, εγω το εχω καψει τις τελευταιες μερες (διαβαζω ακομη και στη δουλεια, ακομη και στη τουαλετα με μανια οτι βρω, obsession φαση :lol: ).
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By Red Garland
#77771 Για όσους γνωρίζουν Γερμανικά:
Το Max-Plank της Γερμανίας έχει φτιάξει μια σελίδα με μικρά βιντεάκια πάνω στις Θετικές επιστήμες και τη δουλειά που κάνουν στα ινστιτούτα Max-Plank.
Κώδικας: Επιλογή όλωνhttp://maxplanckcinema.tumblr.com/


Επίσης υπάρχει μια εκδήλωση στις 26-2-2015 στο Goethe Αθήνας (Ομήρου 14) με την προβολή παρόμοιων video (στα Αγγλικά με ελληνικούς υπότιτλους ) πάνω στη Βιολογία.
Σε συνεργασία με την Εταιρεία Max Planck για την Προώθηση των Επιστημών και το Κέντρο Κοινωνίας, Επιστήμης και Τέχνης - caid, Αθήνα

Σας ενδιαφέρει η επιστήμη; Η σειρά ταινιών «Max Planck Cinema» σας παρουσιάζει προγράμματα από την πρώτη γραμμή της βασικής έρευνας - εδώ κατά το μεγαλύτερο μέρος της Βιολογίας – παραστατικά και κατανοητά για τον καθένα! Έτσι, τα εννέα φιλμάκια που θα παρουσιαστούν τώρα στην Αθήνα, απευθύνονται σε όλους – μαθητές, σπουδαστές, εκπαιδευτικούς, σημερινούς κι αυριανούς ερευνητές, σε όσους είναι περίεργοι και θέλουν να ρίξουν μια ματιά στο μέλλον
http://www.goethe.de/ins/gr/el/ath/ver. ... d=20475972
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By Χρήστος Λάππας
#85718 Εξαιρετικά ενδιαφέρον αρθράκι:

Why People "Fly from Facts"
Research shows the appeal of untestable beliefs, and how it leads to a polarized society

March 3, 2015 |By Troy Campbell and Justin Friesen


“There was a scientific study that showed vaccines cause autism.”

“Actually, the researcher in that study lost his medical license, and overwhelming research since then has shown no link between vaccines and autism.”

“Well, regardless, it’s still my personal right as a parent to make decisions for my child.”

Does that exchange sound familiar: a debate that starts with testable factual statements, but then, when the truth becomes inconvenient, the person takes a flight from facts.

As public debate rages about issues like immunization, Obamacare, and same-sex marriage, many people try to use science to bolster their arguments. And since it’s becoming easier to test and establish facts—whether in physics, psychology, or policy—many have wondered why bias and polarization have not been defeated. When people are confronted with facts, such as the well-established safety of immunization, why do these facts seem to have so little effect?

Our new research, recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, examined a slippery way by which people get away from facts that contradict their beliefs. Of course, sometimes people just dispute the validity of specific facts. But we find that people sometimes go one step further and, as in the opening example, they reframe an issue in untestable ways. This makes potential important facts and science ultimately irrelevant to the issue.

Let’s consider the issue of same-sex marriage. Facts could be relevant to whether it should be legal—for example, if data showed that children raised by same-sex parents are worse off—or just as well-off—as children raised by opposite-sex parents. But what if those facts contradict one’s views?

We presented 174 American participants who supported or opposed same-sex marriage with (supposed) scientific facts that supported or disputed their position. When the facts opposed their views, our participants—on both sides of the issue—were more likely to state that same-sex marriage isn’t actually about facts, it’s more a question of moral opinion. But, when the facts were on their side, they more often stated that their opinions were fact-based and much less about morals. In other words, we observed something beyond the denial of particular facts: We observed a denial of the relevance of facts.

In a similar study using 117 religious participants, we had some read an article critical of religion. Believers who were especially high (but not low) in religiosity were more likely to turn to more untestable “blind faith” arguments as reasons for their beliefs, than arguments based in factual evidence, compared to those who read a neutral article.

These experiments show that when people’s beliefs are threatened, they often take flight to a land where facts do not matter. In scientific terms, their beliefs become less “falsifiable” because they can no longer be tested scientifically for verification or refutation.

For instance, sometimes people dispute government policies based on the argument that they don’t work. Yet, if facts suggest that the policies do work, the same person might stay resolvedly against the argument based on principle. We can see this on both sides of the political spectrum, whether it’s conservatives and Obamacare or liberals and the Iraqi surge of 2007.

One would hope that objective facts could allow people to reach consensus more easily, but American politics are more polarized than ever. Could this polarization be a consequence of feeling free of facts?

While it is difficult to objectively test that idea, we can experimentally assess a fundamental question: When people are made to see their important beliefs as relatively less rather than more testable, does it increase polarization and commitment to desired beliefs? Two experiments we conducted suggest so.

In an experiment with 179 Americans, we reminded roughly half of participants that much of President Obama’s policy performance was empirically testable and did not remind the other half. Then participants rated President Obama’s performance on five domains (e.g., job creation). Comparing opponents and supports of Obama, we found that the reminder of testability reduced the average polarized assessments of President Obama’s performance by about 40%.

To test this further test the hypothesis that people strengthen their desired beliefs, when the beliefs are free of facts, we looked at sample 103 participants that varied from highly to moderate religious. We found that when highly (but not more moderately) religious participants were told that God’s existence will always be untestable, they reported stronger desirable religious beliefs afterwards (e.g. the belief God was looking out for them), relative to when they were told that one day science might be able to investigate God’s existence.

Together these findings show, at least in some cases, when testable facts are less a part of the discussion, people dig deeper into the beliefs they wish to have— such as viewing a politician in a certain way or believing God is constantly there to provide support. These results bear similarities to the many studies that find when facts are fuzzier people tend to exaggerate desired beliefs.

So after examining the power of untestable beliefs, what have we learned about dealing with human psychology? We’ve learned that bias is a disease and to fight it we need a healthy treatment of facts and education. We find that when facts are injected into the conversation, the symptoms of bias become less severe. But, unfortunately, we’ve also learned that facts can only do so much. To avoid coming to undesirable conclusions, people can fly from the facts and use other tools in their deep belief protecting toolbox.

With the disease of bias, then, societal immunity is better achieved when we encourage people to accept ambiguity, engage in critical thinking, and reject strict ideology. This society is something the new common core education system and at times The Daily Show are at least in theory attempting to help create. We will never eradicate bias—not from others, not from ourselves, and not from society. But we can become a people more free of ideology and less free of facts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Troy Campbell is a Ph.D candidate in the Fuqua School of Business and Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University, Durham, NC. He studies how our beliefs and identities centrally affect everyday experiences and thought. Justin Friesen is a postdoctoral researcher in the department of psychology at York University, Toronto, Canada. He studies the psychological and motivational factors that perpetuate social and economic inequality.


Πηγή: http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... rom-facts/
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By pipinos1976
#85925 Γι' αυτό, λοιπόν, την επόμενη φορά που θα εκφέρεις γνώμη και θα κάνεις cross correlation με άλλες καταστάσεις, σκέψου της εξής παράγραφο:

So after examining the power of untestable beliefs, what have we learned about dealing with human psychology? We’ve learned that bias is a disease and to fight it we need a healthy treatment of facts and education. We find that when facts are injected into the conversation, the symptoms of bias become less severe. But, unfortunately, we’ve also learned that facts can only do so much. To avoid coming to undesirable conclusions, people can fly from the facts and use other tools in their deep belief protecting toolbox.


Ίσως, τελικά, την λανθασμένη αντίληψη, κρίση ή, απλά, οπτική γωνία, να την έχεις εσύ.

Ευχαριστώ.
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By markvag
#86228
pipinos1976 έγραψε:Γι' αυτό, λοιπόν, την επόμενη φορά που θα εκφέρεις γνώμη και θα κάνεις cross correlation με άλλες καταστάσεις, σκέψου της εξής παράγραφο:

So after examining the power of untestable beliefs, what have we learned about dealing with human psychology? We’ve learned that bias is a disease and to fight it we need a healthy treatment of facts and education. We find that when facts are injected into the conversation, the symptoms of bias become less severe. But, unfortunately, we’ve also learned that facts can only do so much. To avoid coming to undesirable conclusions, people can fly from the facts and use other tools in their deep belief protecting toolbox.


Ίσως, τελικά, την λανθασμένη αντίληψη, κρίση ή, απλά, οπτική γωνία, να την έχεις εσύ.

Ευχαριστώ.


Εσύ αυτό κατάλαβες από την πρόταση που λέει ότι οι άνθρωποι απλά αγνοούν συχνά τα γεγονότα αν αποδεικνύουν ότι η άποψή τους είναι λανθασμένη;;;;; :yahoo:
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By Χρήστος Λάππας
#92626 Εικόνα

No more physics and maths, Finland to stop teaching individual subjects

The future is all about learning by topic, not subject.
FIONA MACDONALD24 MAR 2015

Finland, one of the leading educational hotspots in the world, is embarking on one of the most radical overhauls in modern education. By 2020, the country plans to phase out teaching individual subjects such as maths, chemistry and physics, and instead teach students by 'topics' or broad phenomena, so that there's no more question about "what's the point of learning this?"

What does that mean exactly? Basically, instead of having an hour of geography followed by an hour of history, students will now spend, say, two hours learning about the European Union, which covers languages, economics, history and geography. Or students who are taking a vocational course might study 'cafeteria services', which would involve learning maths, languages and communication skills, as Richard Garner reports for The Independent. So although students will still learn all the important scientific theories, they'll be finding out about them in a more applied way, which actually sounds pretty awesome.

"What we need now is a different kind of education to prepare people for working life," Pasi Silander, the Helsinki's development manager, told Garner. "Young people use quite advanced computers. In the past the banks had lots of bank clerks totting up figures but now that has totally changed. We therefore have to make the changes in education that are necessary for industry and modern society."

The new system also encourages different types of learning, such as interactive problem solving and collaborating among smaller groups, to help develop career-ready skills. "We really need a rethinking of education and a redesigning of our system, so it prepares our children for the future with the skills that are needed for today and tomorrow," Marjo Kyllonen, Helsinki’s education manager, who is leading the change, told Garner.

"There are schools that are teaching in the old fashioned way which was of benefit in the beginnings of the 1900s - but the needs are not the same and we need something fit for the 21st century," she added.

Individual subjects started being phased out for 16-year-olds in the country's capital of Helsinki two years ago, and 70 percent of the city's high school teachers are now trained in the new approach. Early data shows that students are already benefitting, with The Independent reporting that measurable pupil outcomes have improved since the new system was introduced. And Kyllonen's blueprint, which will be published later this month, will propose that the new system is rolled out across Finland by 2020.

Of course, there is some backlash from teachers who've spent their entire career specialising in certain subjects. But the new blueprint suggests that teachers from different backgrounds work together to come up with the new 'topic' curriculums, and will receive a pay incentive for doing so.

Finland already has one of the best education systems in the world, consistently falling near the top of the prestigious PISA rankings in maths, science and reading, and this change could very well help them stay there.

Source: The Independent

Αναδημοσιευμένο από εδώ: http://www.sciencealert.com/no-more-phy ... l-subjects
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By ripper
#92679 Οι άνθρωποι είναι πολύ μπροστά και παρά το ότι είναι ήδη πρώτοι δεν σταματούν να εξελίσσονται.
Στην θεωρία ακούγεται τέλειο, με αρκετά περίπλοκη εφαρμογή όμως.

Chris έγραψε:Journey to the centre of the Earth


Πολύ καλό όντως :s_thumbsup
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By Χρήστος Λάππας
#92700 Φαντάσου να ειχε βγει η κυβέρνηση στην Ελλάδα να πει
"What we need now is a different kind of education to prepare people for working life,"

:twisted:
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By Χρήστος Λάππας
#93260 Common Science Myths That Most People Believe

July 12, 2014 | by Lisa Winter

Εικόνα
photo credit: Jens Maus via Wikimedia Commons


There are a number of old wives’ tales out there regarding some basic scientific principles. Though most of them were refuted years ago, these rumors just won’t go away. Here are some of the top myths floating around out there that just aren’t true:

We only use 10% of our brains.

It's true that there’s a great deal we don’t know about the brain, but we certainly do know that we use our entire brain. Even if we didn’t have a wealth of data from brain scans to show this 10% figure is completely false (we do), it doesn’t even make sense using basic logic. Though the brain only weighs a couple of pounds, it is incredibly energetically demanding, requiring about 20% of all of the oxygen and glucose brought into the body. It is extremely unlikely that the brain would have evolved as it did if it were mostly useless.

Additionally, there is no evidence that someone was ever diagnosed with a brain tumor but was told: “Great news! The tumor is in a part that you don’t use!” Trauma to the brain would also rarely have devastating results if it were mostly unused, but very few survive gunshot wounds to the head, and it isn’t without some serious side effects.

While you might not be using every bit of your brain at all times, but you do use the entire brain over the course of the day. Feeling like someone isn’t living up to his or her full potential is a different matter, but that still doesn’t mean they aren’t using their entire brain each day.

There is a dark side of the moon.

Oh, Pink Floyd, how you have led us all astray.

From our perspective on Earth, we are able to view about 59% of the moon’s surface (though not all at the same time). The remaining 41% is completely hidden from this vantage point. That 41% must be shrouded in freezing darkness, never to feel the Sun’s warmth, right? No.

This confusion is due to tidal locking, which makes it seem as if the moon isn’t rotating. The moon actually is spinning quite slowly, completing a rotation in about the amount of time it takes it to make a revolution around Earth. While one side (more or less) is forever shielded from Earth, that has nothing to do with the amount of sunlight it receives. After all, we do have different phases of the moon.

Except in the case of a lunar eclipse, sunlight falls on half of the moon (exactly how half of Earth receives daylight at once) all of the time. While the Sun fully illuminates the side of the moon we can see, we appropriately call it the full moon. When parts or all of the moon appear to be missing, some or all of the sunlight is falling on the side of the moon we can’t see. While there is most definitely a region we could refer to as “the far side of the moon” it is no more or less dark than the side we can see.

The full moon affects behavior.

It has been a longstanding myth, particularly among individuals working with the elderly or those with mental disabilities, that the full moon draws out strange behavior in people. This myth has a wide variety of supposed causes, including that the water in the brain is affected by tidal forces of the moon. Many people claim that violent crime increases during this time, and even police stations in the UK once increased staffing for a full moon to prepare for the influx of crime and accidents.

The topic has been studied many times over, and there is very limited correlation between the full moon and increased erratic behavior and certainly no causation discovered. While a few studies have indeed shown a spike in crime and the full moon, it was typically explained by falling on a holiday or weekend. Once that was taken into account, the connection crumbled. There is nothing to fear about erratic behavior and the full moon, unless, of course, you are a werewolf.

Sugar makes children hyperactive.

Attending any child’s birthday party where cake, ice cream, and sugary drinks about would make just about anyone a believer that sugar influences hyperactivity. There has not been much evidence to suggest that the so-called “sugar buzz” is actually real for children (aside from a small subset with an insulin disorder coupled with certain psychiatric disorders). The ramped-up energy seen following birthday parties or Halloween could be excitement over getting a treat or being around other kids. It is also possible that other ingredients, such as caffeine, are to blame.

That’s not to say that sugar intake shouldn’t be limited. The average American consumes 156 pounds of sugar every year. As a comparison, Americans 200 years ago consumed about 3-5 pounds per year. Too much sugar is associated with weight gain, insulin resistance, hypertension, and even an increased risk for certain cancers.

Lightning never strikes the same place twice.

“Lightning never strikes the same place twice” is a common idiom used say that something bad happened once, but it can’t happen again. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with actual lightning strikes.

Lightning is a huge electrostatic discharge searching for a way down, and it isn’t particularly interested in whether or not it has been hit before. Taller objects, such as trees and skyscrapers, are usually choice targets because there is a shorter distance between that and the origin of the lightning. The tallest tree in a forest can get struck several times until the storm passes. In fact, lightning strikes the Empire State Building around 100 times per year.

NASA released a study in 2003 involving 386 cloud-to-ground strikes and found that over a third of the strikes branched and hit multiple locations at once. Not only does lightning strike twice, but it can also strike two places at the same time!

Dropping a penny from a tall building will kill someone.

If you were to head to the top of the Empire State Building (hopefully after it’s done being bombarded with lightning) and fling a penny down to the sidewalk below, it won’t kill anyone. Pennies are fairly lightweight at around one gram and being a flat circle doesn’t bode well in terms of aerodynamics. Because it would tumble and flip the entire way down, its low mass and relatively low terminal velocity (105 km/h) wouldn’t do much damage to the bystander on the sidewalk. It would feel similar to getting flicked in the head. Annoying, yes; but not lethal.

However, throwing items down to the ground that are more massive or more aerodynamic would increase the object’s terminal velocity and could do quite a bit of damage. Construction zones require hardhats in order to protect workers from stray rocks or bolts that are accidentally dropped from great heights.

Hair and fingernails continue growing after death.

In order for fingernails and hair to grow after someone is dead, the person would need to still be eating and digesting nutrients and performing cellular processes. Of course, that would interfere with the whole “being dead” thing. So there’s no way the body is producing more keratin in order to make hair and fingernails.

However, skin and hair can appear to grow post-mortem. As the dead skin begins to dry out, they retract and pull away from the hair shafts and nail beds. The hair and fingernails are not affected by the lack of moisture and do not shrink, which can make it seem as if they had grown. This also makes clean-shaven men appear to have grown stubble. Many funeral homes will apply moisturizer after the corpse has been washed in order to reduce the amount of drying prior to the memorial service.

Cracking your knuckles gives you arthritis.

While it makes sense on the surface that repeatedly pushing and stretching joints to make them crack would eventually lead to osteoarthritis, which is the painful deterioration of the joints, studies that have been performed on the topic have not been able to show a connection. In 1998, Donald Unger published a paper that revealed he had been cracking the knuckles in his left hand every day for 60 years, but not at all on his right hand. There was no difference in the joint health between the two hands, and Unger received the 2009 Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work.

Synovial fluid is a substance that acts as a cushion and reduce friction in synovial joints, such as knuckles, elbows, knees, and hips. When the joints are stretched and the joint capsule separates, the decreased pressure within the capsule releases gas, forming a bubble to make up for the dead space. Pressing on the joint can create a loud, audible pop as the bubble breaks and the joint capsule returns to its normal size. If cracking knuckles is associated with pain, it may indicate damaged joints that need to be addressed. The cracking sound can also come from tendons, which can reduce their strength over time.

It takes seven years to digest swallowed chewing gum.

Chewing gum does not take seven years to digest. In fact, you don’t even digest it at all. Aside from a small amount of sweeteners and flavorings, there’s really not a lot inside the gum that the human body can actually break down and use. The bulk of gum is made out of rubbery polymers known as elastomers along with glycerin and vegetable oil-based ingredients to keep the gum soft and moist. Once the body has extracted what little it can from the gum, the rest is passed along as waste, just like anything else.

However, that doesn’t mean swallowing gum is a great idea. Swallowing large amounts of gum can cause constipation and gastrointestinal blockage that needs to be removed by a physician. Gum can also fuse with other non-digestible items in the digestive tract such as coins, small toys, and sharp sunflower seed shells, which could contribute to gastrointestinal blockage or injury. While gum won’t stick around in your gut for seven years, it’s probably still safer to spit it out in a garbage can and wait to give it to children until they are old enough to know not to swallow it.

Antibiotics kill viruses.

This one pops up every cold and flu season. Antibiotics, by their very definition, kill bacteria. The common cold and influenza are viruses and are not affected by antibiotic use. While some might think that taking antibiotics could be helpful on some level and want them for viral disease, that is dead wrong and could actually bring on more problems. Taking antibiotics in a manner contrary to their intended purpose or dosage instruction could cause other common bacteria within the body to become drug-resistant, which has become critically important. This could create “superbugs” that cause illness much worse than the primary

The CDC has reported that physicians write tens of millions of antibiotic prescriptions each year for illnesses that are viral. This is partly due to uncertainty of the cause and badgering from the patients (or the parents of children). Some doctors are slightly more justified in prescribing antibiotics for a condition that can be bacterial or viral without making the patient wait days for lab results to return determining the cause. However, it is important for patients to understand why antibiotics don’t kill virus and to not demand drugs that will likely do more harm than good.

Πηγή: http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-me ... le-believe
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By mousatos
#94161 http://www.nasa.gov/content/a-year-in-s ... #backtoTop
Two humans are getting ready to say farewell to Earth for nearly 12 months.

τα παιδιά, τα παιδιά τα φιλαράκια τα καλά