On Januray 25th, we will discuss different aspects of longtermism — a concept of effective altruism. To decide which ist the best action to take we usually consider the effects of our actions on the short-or medium-term future — whether we save someone’s life, or mitigate sexism or racism in the next generation. According to longtermism that is wildly mistaken. The value of our actions is determined almost exclusively by their effects on the future in the very long-run — the next millions and billions of years. Their effects on the next 100 or even 1000 years are just about irrelevant. Our everyday thinking is radically short-sighted, and common evaluations perhaps dramatically wrong. In this online meetup, we will look at a compelling justification for longtermism, at its historical roots, and some of its practical implications — e.g. concerning existential risks, or the idea that our time might be the most important in the history of humanity. Free discord session on 9:30 — 11:30 AM PST 11:30 — 13:30 AM DST.

What is the best action we can take? According to longtermism we should consider the effects on the future in the very long run — the next millions and billions of years — to answer this question.

These findings […] strongly suggest that high levels of iron in the blood reduces our healthy years of life, and keeping these levels in check could prevent age-related damage.

Genes linked to ageing that could help explain why some people age at different rates to others have been identified by scientists.

The international study using genetic data from more than a million people suggests that maintaining healthy levels of iron in the blood could be a key to ageing better and living longer.

The findings could accelerate the development of drugs to reduce age-related diseases, extend healthy years of life and increase the chances of living to old age free of disease, the researchers say.

The CERN in Geneva has become a sink for public money.

At the same time there’s a lack of funding in other research areas, that would be much more urgent!

In this video I explain why building a next larger particle collider will most likely not tell us anything about dark matter and why, therefore, claims by prominent particle physicists that dark matter would be a “guaranteed result” are misleading.

The piece that I quote in the beginning is this:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-020-01054-6

The other quotes (and more) with sources are collected here:

http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2018/12/how-lhc-may-spell-end-of-particle.html

You can help finance my videos by donating here:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_b…source=url

(next Monday, 23rd November)
Please pre-register at https://www.taufriends.ch/registration

Please pre-register at https://www.taufriends.ch/registration

“We are delighted to bring you access to two giants in the world of AI, 2020 Dan David laureates, Dr. Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, the world’s leading AI research company, and Prof. Amnon Shashua, CEO and co-founder of Mobileye, the largest ever Israeli acquisition whose technology powers more than 55 million cars around the world today. Dr. Hassabis and Prof. Shashua will enlighten us on the potential of AI at an exclusive event in conjunction with the Dan David Prize on Monday, November 23, 2020.”

Some animals, like mice and birds, are able to bring their body temperature and metabolism way down to conserve energy, going into a sleep-like state called torpor. Now researchers have identified the brain cells that trigger this state, showing they can activate it on demand. The team was even able to do it in rats, which don’t normally do it at all, suggesting that such a “suspended animation” state might eventually be possible in humans.

Torpor seems to have evolved as a survival strategy during times of food scarcity, allowing animals to snooze through cold nights or even entire winters without wasting too much energy keeping their body temperature up. That of course allows them to survive until things warm up again, and food becomes more plentiful.

Scientists have toyed with the idea of inducing this kind of hibernation state in humans to reduce the resources and room required for long treks into space. Now researchers at Harvard and the University of Tsukuba in Japan may have made progress towards doing just that.

This is probably the only time, that I’ll be sharing a netflix trailer in this group. The documentary is worth watching, especially the outlook at the end.

In this unique feature documentary, titled David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet, the celebrated naturalist reflects upon both the defining moments of his lifetime and the devastating changes he has seen. Coming to Netflix October 4 2020, the film addresses some of the biggest challenges facing life on our planet, providing a snapshot of global nature loss in a single lifetime. With it comes a powerful message of hope for future generations as Attenborough reveals the solutions to help save our planet from disaster.

SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/29qBUt7

About Netflix:
Netflix is the world’s leading streaming entertainment service with 193 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on any internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, all without commercials or commitments.

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet | Official Trailer | Netflix
https://youtube.com/Netflix

A broadcaster recounts his life, and the evolutionary history of life on Earth, to grieve the loss of wild places and offer a vision for the future.

The is a multi-sport event, an international competition in which people with physical disabilities compete against each other to complete everyday tasks using state-of-the-art technical assistance Systems (“pilots”). Besides the actual competition, the offers a platform to drive forward research on assistance systems for everyday use, and to promote dialogue with the public.

The first organised by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) took place in the Swiss Arena in Kloten north of Zurich in Switzerland on 8 October 2016 and was the first international competition of this kind.^[1][2][3] 66 pilots from 25 nations competed in front of a stadium with approximately 4600 spectators.

The next takes place on 13–14 November 2020 in a new format at the teams’ home base instead of in the Swiss Arena in Kloten, Zurich as it had been planned^[4]. This is due to the COVID-19 pandemic which requires measures such as social distancing to be adhered. Termed the “Global Edition”, teams will set up their infrastructure for the competition at their home base and capture their races on video instead of competing physically next to each other in Zurich. officials will supervise the pilots which will start individually ^[5].

US conservatives have a stronger desire to stay forever young than liberals according to this study.

In an era defined by an aging population, the desire to look younger is so great, that the anti-aging industry is expected to grow by hundreds of billions of dollars within only a few years’ time. This research aims to investigate how the increasing interest to look younger is related to political ideology. We propose that accepting the ideal beauty of youthful bodies and pursuing physical youthfulness would be more prevalent among conservatives. We build this upon previous research showing that political conservatism is related to the acceptance of norms and values, as well as having strict boundaries for social perceptions and sensitivity to threat and losses. We conducted a pilot study which revealed that the queries related to anti-aging were more popular in states where political conservatism was higher in the US. Moreover, a survey among American participants revealed that conservatives tended to show a greater interest in preserving their youthfulness, and that they had more resistant attitudes toward aging. Moreover, they exhibited higher preferences for anti-aging benefits, compared to liberals and moderates. These findings contribute to extant literature on political psychology, body ideal, and ageism by demonstrating the relationship between political ideology and the pursuit of youthfulness, which is a neglected but critical dimension of the beauty ideal.

#COVID19: There is overwhelming scientific evidence that a mid-range air humidity has significant benefits for human health. It is very possible for us to be managing the indoor air quality of our public buildings in line with this evidence. The time has come for regulations on indoor air quality to include a humidity level of 40-60u0025RH. This is the optimal level for our respiratory immune system, and will reduce the spread of seasonal respiratory illnesses and their burden on society.nn

There is now overwhelming scientific evidence that a mid-range air humidity has significant benefits for human health. It is very possible for us to be managing the indoor air quality of our public buildings in line with this evidence. The time has come for regulations on indoor air quality to include a humidity level of 40–60%RH. This is the optimal level for our respiratory immune system, and will reduce the spread of seasonal respiratory illnesses and their burden on society.

I am calling on the World Health Organization to review the scientific evidence on humidity and health, and recommend a minimum lower limit of indoor humidity in public buildings to reduce respiratory infections.