Born to Win, Schooled to Lose
By: Georgetown University March 28, 2017 The American Dream promises that individual talent will be rewarded, regardless of where one comes from or who one’s parents are. But the reality of what transpires along America’s K-12-to-career pipeline reveals a sorting of America’s most talented youth by affluence—not merit. Among the affluent, a kindergartner with test […]
The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition
By: Jonathan Tepper December, 2018 The Myth of Capitalism tells the story of how America has gone from an open, competitive marketplace to an economy where a few very powerful companies dominate key industries that affect our daily lives. Digital monopolies like Google, Facebook and Amazon act as gatekeepers to the digital world. Amazon is capturing […]
Why exercise alone won’t save us
By: The Guardian January 3, 2019 This is the time of year when trainers are mined from under beds and gym kits are disinterred from the bottom drawer. Google searches relating to physical fitness peak in January. Many people even trawl the web to find out about “desk exercises” and “workouts on the go” in […]
Uber’s quiet ride option is a warning: we are falling victims to convenience
By: The Guardian May 29, 2019 Uber has launched a quiet ride service in the US, which means that passengers can request that a driver refrain from talking to them during their trip. The quiet ride feature is available in Uber’s premium Black service. If you’re reading this thinking, “Great, now rich people have even […]
To Make Sense of the Present, Brains May Predict the Future
By: Quanta Magazine July 10, 2018 A controversial theory suggests that perception, motor control, memory and other brain functions all depend on comparisons between ongoing actual experiences and the brain’s modeled expectations. ast month, the artificial intelligence company DeepMind introduced new software that can take a single image of a few objects in a virtual room and, […]
This AI generates ultra-realistic fashion models from head to toe
By: MSN January 5, 2019 You’ve already seen how AI can be used to generate eerily realistic images of human faces, food, and even Airbnb homestays. Kyoto-based firm DataGrid is taking things a step further to creep you out with complete human bodies conjured afresh from images it’s gleaned. That’s right – according to the company, the models you’re looking […]
The New Military-Industrial Complex of Big Data Psy-Ops
By: NY Books March 21, 2018 Apparently, the age of the old-fashioned spook is in decline. What is emerging instead is an obscure world of mysterious boutique companies specializing in data analysis and online influence that contract with government agencies. As they say about hedge funds, if the general public has heard their names that’s […]
The money, job, marriage myth: are you happy yet?
By: The Guardian January 6, 2019 The ‘success’ narrative is at the heart of our idea of wellbeing, but the evidence tells a different tale, argues behavioural scientist Paul Dolan in this extract from his new book There are countless stories about how we ought to live our lives. We are expected to be ambitious; to want […]
The furore over the fish-eating vegan influencer is a warning to us all
By: The Guardian March 26, 2019 Nobody was supposed to see Yovana Mendoza eating the fish. The 28-year-old influencer, also known as Rawvana, has amassed more than 3 million followers across YouTube and Instagram by extolling the life-changing properties of a raw vegan diet. She has built a lucrative brand around veganism. But a couple […]