This.
How often do insurance companies write off a one off type claim where the cost to contest is greater than the cost to pay? Currently for trans people, that is what I would think the costs look like.
Okay, more on the Dan Ariely thing.
Here’s the original paper:
https://www.pnas.org/content/109/38/15197.short
They actually tried to replicate (and couldn’t), which was published in 2020:
https://www.pnas.org/content/117/13/7103
There were 5 authors on the first paper, and all 5 were on the second paper (plus 2 new authors), so if all those involved on the research side were noted, the fraudsters were not able to repeat the feat, I guess.
But… it could have been a grad student used on the research the first time who wasn’t around for the second time. Why they would fake data if they weren’t a listed author… hell if I know.
That Buzzfeed article you posted above indicates Ariely was the only person in contact with the insurance carrier and he received the data from the insurer. He can’t blame anyone else on the team. He blames the insurer.
The conflicting answers Ariely gave on the origins of the data in that article certainly have an odor to them.
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Earthquake in Mexico is accompanied by a light show:
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Well, here’s where it all ends. It’s been nice knowing you.
That’s the beginning of the grey goo, right?
I’ve seen this movie before, it does not generally end well.
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Dall-e 2 is out.
Here are two examples of “Teddy Bears Shopping for groceries in the style of in the style of ukiyo-e.”
Here’s a Subreddit if you want more examples or to make requests.
https://www.reddit.com/r/dalle2/
If you want to do it yourself, you need to request access, and they put you on a waiting list. Probably because there’s no real way to stop users from creating a vast trove of violent celebrity pornography.
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I don’t think the second one looks all that much like bears.
It’s more the kimonos I liked! I don’t want to turn this into a Dall-E pic thread, but I do think there is something special going on.
GPT-3 was starting to creep into the territory of human-creativity, and this is pushing it a little further. AI is getting a little bit more like God everyday.
Here is an example of “Steampunk DNA transcription within a cell”
It’s also able to be pretty accurate.
Here is: “the cutest little pikachu figurine made of polymer clay, photographed in real grass, bokeh, Nikon D5”
Scientists in Texas have created a protein that can break down plastic. Seems like there’s a lot of potential there.
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First few paragraphs:
A ‘Pac-Man’ protein that gobbles up plastic and breaks it down could open the door to eliminating billions of tons of landfill waste.
The enzyme destroys PET (polyethylene terephthalate), which is ubiquitous in food and drink packaging, textiles, and polyester carpet fibers.
It offers hope for solving global pollution by supercharging recycling on a large scale. Major industries would be able to recover and reuse products at the molecular level.
“The possibilities are endless across industries to leverage this leading-edge recycling process,” said Professor Hal Alper, of The University of Texas at Austin. “Through these more sustainable enzyme approaches, we can begin to envision a true circular plastics economy.”
PET makes up 12 percent of all global waste. Like all plastics, it’s made up of long string-like molecules.
The enzyme reduces them into smaller parts—chemicals which can then be reassembled.
In some cases, the plastics can be fully broken down in as little as 24 hours.
This sounds like what you might see at the beginning of a sci-fi disaster story…
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We’re already well into the middle of the disaster imo.
“And then the proteins became self-aware…”
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