‘US intelligence officer David Charles Grusch recently made headlines as a whistleblower after making public claims that the Pentagon has been hiding known evidence of non-human technology. Grusch expanded on these claims in a recent interview with NewsNation, in which he suggested — among other things — that the Vatican may also be in on this whole conspiracy regarding intelligent technology from non-sources. In fact, the Pope’s involvement even pre-dates the Roswell incident!…’ (Boing Boing)

‘Now, a new study in the journal Science Advances from researchers at the University of Melbourne and the University of Cambridge — Elizabeth Bowman, David Coghill, Carsten Murawski, and Peter Bossaerts — finds that far from making users smarter, smart drugs seem to actually undermine cognitive performance.

The authors tested the effects of three drugs — methylphenidate (more commonly known through one of its brand names, Ritalin), modafinil, and dextroamphetamine* (brand name Dexedrine, among others) — on a cognitive task designed to more closely mimic the complexities of real-world problems than past stimulant studies.

Far from simply concluding that smart drugs offer little benefit, the researchers found that the drugs actually seemed to leave users worse off. While study subjects worked harder while on the drugs compared to placebo, the “quality of effort,” or productivity, actually declined. The upshot is that smart drugs led users to spend more effort working while being less productive — not exactly a picture of cognitive enhancement….’ (Vox)

* one of the two active components of popular ADHD stimulant Adderall -ed.

‘The earth has about 36 billion acres of dry land. Who owns those acres? Madison Trust Company put together a list of who owns the most land of anyone on earth. You may have your own little acre, or part of one, but that’s nothing compared to what the British royal family owns- 6,600,000,000 acres! That puts them at the top of the biggest landowners on earth. And we thought the British Empire was a thing of the past.

What’s really impressive is that, of the top 19 landowners, only one is an individual person. That is Gina Rinehart of Australia, who personally owns 23,969,000 acres, putting her at #4 on the list. The next individual landowner is at #20. The rest are families, corporations, or communities. An awful lot of them are in Australia, which is a big country with a small population concentrated in the eastern cities.

Did you guess the #2 landowner in the world? It is the Catholic Church. You might feel better about #3, which is the Inuit People of Nunavut, who own 87,500,000 acres in Northern Canada. You can see the list in both infographic and text form, plus more information about what they are using their land for, in this post….’ (Neatorama)

‘Watch video from the legendary singer-songwriter’s historic conert at the scenic Washington state venue….’ (JamBase)

‘Newly announced modifications to the autocorrect feature used on iPhones will better understand a word’s context in a text message, saving users some blushes….’ (The New York Times)

‘Today, for the first time in history, thanks to artificial intelligence, it is possible for anybody to make counterfeit people who can pass for real in many of the new digital environments we have created. These counterfeit people are the most dangerous artifacts in human history, capable of destroying not just economies but human freedom itself. Before it’s too late (it may well be too late already) we must outlaw both the creation of counterfeit people and the ‘passing along’ of counterfeit people. The penalties for either offense should be extremely severe, given that civilization itself is at risk….’ (3 Quarks Daily)

‘Chris Christie attacked rival Donald Trump last night in a 90-minute town hall on CNN, branding the twice-convicted former game show host as a loser. And a loser. And a loser. And it might be the only time the former New Jersey governor has ever told the honest-to-goodness truth.

“He hasn’t won a damn thing since 2016. Three-time loser,” the former 2016 loser said in front of a live audience.

“2018 we lost the House. 2020 we lost the White House. We lost the United State Senate a couple of weeks later in 2021,” he reminded his voters. “And in 2022 we lost two more governorships, another Senate seat, and barely took the House of Representatives when Joe Biden had the most incompetent first two years I’ve ever seen in my life.”…’ (Boing Boing)

The video is here.