Sunday, December 7

Tag: already

With Months Still To Go – School Shootings Are Already At A Record In 2022
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IN OTHER NEWS

With Months Still To Go – School Shootings Are Already At A Record In 2022

As a Michigan teen pleaded guilty on Oct. 24, 2022, to killing four students in a December 2021 attack, America was learning of yet another school shooting. This time, it was a performance arts high school in St. Louis, where a former student opened fire, killing two and injuring at least seven others before dying in a shootout with police. The fact that yet another school shooting took place within hours of a gunman in a separate case appearing in court underscores how often these events take place in the U.S. As criminologists who have built a comprehensive database to log all school shootings in the U.S., we know that deadly school gun violence in America in now a regular occurrence – with incidents only becoming more frequent and deadlier. Our records show that seven more people died...
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The Metaverse Already Has A Long History But It Isn’t Here Yet
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IN OTHER NEWS

The Metaverse Already Has A Long History But It Isn’t Here Yet

Nattie’s metaverse romance began with anonymous texting. At first “C” would admit only to living in a nearby town. Nattie eventually learned “Clem” was a man with a solitary office job like hers. For Nattie “lived, as it were, in two worlds” – the world of office tedium and an online world where “she did not lack social intercourse.” Texting drew them closer: “annoyances became lighter because she told him, and he sympathized.” Nattie soon realized “she had woven a sort of romance about him who was a friend ‘so near and yet so far’.” Their blossoming relationship almost failed when Clem’s co-worker visited Nattie’s office pretending to be Clem, but the deceit was exposed in time for their “romance of dots and dashes” to succeed. With that last sentence I gave away the ending to “Wired Lo...
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The Red Pill Or The Blue Pill? The Matrix Is Already Here
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

The Red Pill Or The Blue Pill? The Matrix Is Already Here

About a year ago I began to follow my interest in health and fitness on Instagram. Soon I began to see more and more fitness-related accounts, groups, posts and ads. I kept clicking and following, and eventually my Instagram became all about fit people, fitness and motivational material, and advertisements. Does this sound familiar? While the algorithms and my brain kept me scrolling on the endless feeds, I was reminded of what digital marketers like to say: “Money is in the list.” That is, the more customized your group, people and page follows, the less time and money is needed to sell you related ideas. Instead, brand ambassadors will do the work, spreading products, ideas and ideologies with passion and free of charge. I’m a psychiatrist who studies anxiety and stress, and I often wr...
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If They Know Many Others Are Already Doing It People Become Less Likely To Contribute To A Virtual Public Good Like Wikipedia Or Waze
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BUSINESS

If They Know Many Others Are Already Doing It People Become Less Likely To Contribute To A Virtual Public Good Like Wikipedia Or Waze

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea While people tend to contribute more to a virtual public good if they see others doing the same, this effect reverses if they become aware too many people are participating, according to research that I conducted over the summer. Public goods are things that many people share. They can be physical, such as highways, clean air and blood banks, or virtual, like a free online encyclopedia or mobile traffic app. Combining methods from geography, urban planning and big-data analysis, my co-authors and I studied millions of postings by users of a mobile navigation app called Waze, in which users voluntarily post traffic-related updates and road conditions in real time. All users of the app benefit as more of them f...
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