Tyler Cowen (via Marginal REVOLUTION) posts observations on changes in Paris since the last time he visited. After a brief foray into the trends in traffic and public transportation, the comments thread settles on reacting to his observation that Parisian women display a lot more tattoos these days. Fascinating and very opinionated (and dare I say at some point quite misogynistic) discussion of their effect on body perception, sexual signaling, relationship to conformity, etc. Maybe it will stimulate readers’ reflections on the meaning and perception of their own tattoos, if they have any, as well as those of the people around them.
‘Young people have always felt misunderstood by their parents, but new research shows that Gen Alpha might also be misunderstood by AI. A research paper, written by Manisha Mehta, a soon-to-be 9th grader, and presented today at the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in Athens, shows that Gen Alpha’s distinct mix of meme- and gaming-influenced language might be challenging automated moderation used by popular large language models. …’ _Rosie Thomas via 404 Media
It seems to me that youth used to lament the fact that their parents didn’t understand them but it now may be celebrated and cultivated. Language has always served not just to convey meaning, but also to signal group identity and belonging. One of the psychological tasks of the maturation process is individuation and separation, and social media has made it so much easier for language to be an important tool in that process. So it’s understandable that Gen Alpha uses expressions that feel natural to them, even if — or because — older generations don’t understand them. But what happens when the pace of change leaves even members of the same group struggling to keep up? We often talk about how social media is eroding attention spans—but could it also be undermining the sophisticated communication abilities we evolved over millennia? If conveying meaning depends on transient and rapidly changing cultural associations, it may fragment the abilities of even members of a generation or social stratum to understand one another, further eroding our march away from community.
We are in the era of DIY public health, since the government will no longer do it. Jen Christiansen, Meghan Bartels via Scientific American. However, it’s not that easy to simply do what’s best with smart advice in this sphere.
Medicare, Medicaid and other third-party payers use the braindead official vaccine recommendations coming from Tr*mp’s clown RFK as a basis for deciding which vaccinations will be paid for, so people may skip immunizations that they cannot afford out-of-pocket.
And, if a vaccine is no longer recommended or approved, manufacturers may simply cut back production and it may not be available no matter how much scientific sense it makes, whether you can afford it or not.
Even if a vaccine supply is still available, it may not be up-to-date or effective against rapidly evolving viruses like influenza or COVID-19. Being vaccinated with an outmoded version will probably not produce effective immunity and may be as bad as no vaccination at all. Synonym for all the above: preventable death, blood on the hands of Humpty Trumpty and RFK.
