Here and There #12
Hiccups to artificial intelligence, with Mexico and fraud in the health-cost sharing industry
Hiccups. How does one get rid of them? Why do they happen? Here’s an article that discusses pretty much every cure (none are perfect) and what we know and don’t know about this unhappy phenomenon. And there’s some good advice, although I’ve not had opportunity to follow it yet, since I’ve not had the hiccups lately!
Drinking might help you deal with hiccups. But humans have long enjoyed beverages of the alcoholic variety, and the oldest is probably beer. Here’s a lovely story about the oldest tavern yet discovered, from Mesopotamia about 4,700 years ago.
What do we do with the growing amount of carbon (dioxide) in our air? Some people are working on recapturing and “sequestering” the carbon, back underground (generally). Can this be done efficiently and economically? It’s not clear. But here's an attempt to do so using an energy-efficient source: the earth’s own heat.
Christians have long been involved in health-care matters, going back to the time when in the Roman Empire they were persecuted severely: they still nonetheless took care of the sick during plagues, often at their own physical and financial success. In recent times, some have searched for alternatives to health insurance: expense cost-sharing. Sometimes, at least, these attempts have been full of fraud, as in this case, reported on here by the excellent investigative group ProPublica. I found the story very disturbing.
Florida is the state with the highest teacher vacancy rate, and it’s getting worse. Why would teachers not want to work in Florida?
Autocracy comes in many flavors, both right wing and left wing. Does it ever come in middle-of-the-road flavor? I don’t know. Here’s a very good bit of reporting on what is happening in Mexico right now.
Regulation of the internet is a hot topic right now, especially on the right. Here’s the best short article on the meaning of “Section 230” of the Communications Decency Act and why it’s actually not all that bad. (There’s a lot of misunderstanding of the law and of private companies and the First Amendment.)
Finally, about ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence: Peter Greene, one of my favorite bloggers, points out that computers are dumb and basically can’t be “smart” or “intelligent.” For fun, be sure to watch the John Oliver take on all this, which is very well researched and funny and, as usual, “in your face.” Ah, well, if you don’t want to read Greene, just click here for the 30 minutes of Oliver explaining things in his inimitable style.